以賽亞書註釋 第 1 章 第 15/23 段

"But if a man finds a betrothed girl in the field, and forces her and lies with her, you shall kill only the man, and you shall do nothing to the young woman, for the young woman has committed no sin worthy of death;"

"for as when a man rises up against his neighbor and murders him, so is this matter;"

"the young woman cried out, and there was no one to help her."

The one, then, who cried out was, before the violation, clearly a virgin.

It is therefore equivalent to say, 'the virgin cried out,' and to say, 'the young woman cried out.'

For (he says) they found Abishag and brought her to the king;

and the young woman was exceedingly beautiful, and she ministered to the king, but the king did not know her.

Emmanuel, then, is from a Holy Virgin, who said:

'How shall this be to me, since I do not know a man?' To whom the angel said, 'The Spirit of the Lord will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.'

She is not subject to the law concerning purification.

For since she became the mother of Emmanuel without being impregnated by seed, she is pure and holy and undefiled, and even after becoming a mother, she remains still a virgin.

For since the first Adam did not come into being through the union of man and woman, but was formed from the earth, so the last Adam, renewing that one's corruption, took a body formed in the virginal womb, that through flesh he might come to be in the likeness of sin.

But so that this paradoxical birth should not be entirely incredible to those disposed to receive the divine economy with difficulty, the Creator made some animals capable of bringing forth offspring from the female alone, without the mating of males.

For such things those who have written treatises on animals report concerning vultures.

He shall eat butter and honey;

before he knows or chooses evil, he shall choose the good.

Emmanuel partakes of childlike nourishment, butter and honey, on account of the flesh.

And yet, though existing in the condition of an infant, on account of the power of goodness dwelling in him, before the completion proper to his age, he will disobey wickedness and will choose the good.

But the Lord was not so:

rather, his affinity for the good was manifest immediately from his very first origin.

For what is written? That before he knows or chooses evil, he shall choose the good.

But if you go back to what is written in Genesis concerning the knowledge of good and evil, you will find there that the condition of Adam before sin was similar to what is now recorded;

that he was in ignorance of evil by experience,

and by rejecting wickedness, he corrected the transgression that came from disobedience.

But (he says) God will bring upon you and upon your people and upon your father's house the king of the Assyrians — days that have not come since the day Ephraim was removed from Judah.

The word seems to allude to the last days, after the Passion of the Lord, namely the siege by the Romans that came upon Jerusalem.

and his people and his father's house — days that have not come since he was separated from Judah, having been led away captive by the king of the Assyrians.

Now Ephraim departed from Judah in the days of Jeroboam son of Nebat, who caused Israel to sin, who was the first to begin the apostasy, saying:

And it shall come to pass in that day:

the Lord will hiss for the fly, which rules over part of the river of Egypt;

and for the bee, which is in the land of the Assyrians.

And they shall come and all rest in the ravines of the land, and in the holes of the rocks, and in the caves, and in every cleft, and on every tree.

(He says) my people went down into Egypt, to sojourn there;

and they were led by force into Assyria.

He says, however, that flies rule over part of the river of Egypt, and that bees are in the land of the Assyrians, thereby indicating the worthlessness of the opposing powers.

For the fly is a creature having its origin from dung, a race troublesome and loathsome to men, whose life is vexatious and whose death is abominable.

At that time they rule over a part of the river of Egypt.

For the Nile, beginning far above from the Ethiopians, has only a small part of itself — that near the outlets into the sea — inhabited by Egypt.

In which place all the four-footed creatures and wild beasts and reptiles and birds, being made into gods, are worshipped.

These flies, then — the weakness of the opposing power — the Lord will make vanish by his own hissing, that is, he will make them vanish by the breath of his mouth.

And in the land of the Assyrians, for the bee.

Now the bee too is a small and weak creature, dying by the very act with which it defends itself.

For as soon as it inserts its sting, it dies together with the blow;

and it does but little harm to the one it has stung, while it deprives itself of life.

Such is the nature of bitter men who fight against the Spirit: they do themselves greater harm through their wickedness than do those who happen to encounter their wrath.

And in that day the Lord shall shave with the razor that is hired beyond the river — the king of the Assyrians — the head, and he shall take away the hair of the feet and the beard.

After the birth of Christ, when every opposing power, like the fly and the bee, has been scattered by the breath of the mouth of the Lord, the sons of Israel will be gathered together and will rest in natural shelters — in ravines, in regions, in clefts, and the like.

As for 'The Lord shall shave with the hired razor the head of the king of the Assyrians, and shall take away the hair of his feet and his beard,' the word seems to hint, by the hired razor, at a certain mercenary power destined to make the kingdom of the Assyrians bare; it will strip away its glorious things, that is, the hairs of its head, and it will make to vanish the great and vulgar populace, which the word figuratively rendered as the hair of the feet.

Then furthermore, it threatens that even the most honored things, the symbols of manliness — which it called 'the beard' — will be taken away by the hired razor.

And perhaps those who attend to history will find that these things happened to the Assyrians at the hands of the Roman power, at the time of the birth of Emmanuel.

And it shall be in that day, a man shall rear a heifer of the herd and two sheep; and it shall be, from the abundance of the making of milk, that everyone left on the earth shall eat butter and honey.

(He says) such abundance will come upon the land, that one heifer and two sheep will supply their owner with milk in plenty;

so that he will have a surplus of butter, because all who dwell upon the land will be nourished with butter and honey.

But perhaps it is more fitting to receive these teachings concerning the animals in loftier senses.

For instead of saying that each one will rear the industrious and laboring part of the soul, he said 'heifer' — the animal that tills the ground and labors alongside us;

and instead of a gentle, mild, and generous disposition, he figuratively named 'sheep.'

Since, then, he is nourished spiritually and is adorned, for this reason he 'will rear a heifer and two sheep.'

By 'butter and honey' he means the introductory teachings into divine instruction;

because butter and honey were devised as the first food of man.

But when he has been sufficiently nourished by these, after having been instructed in the elementary principles, then, going beyond the things of the earth, he will partake of more solid and greater food, fitting for men, devoting himself to spiritual lessons.

And it shall be in that day, every place where there were a thousand vines worth a thousand shekels shall become waste land and thorns.

With arrow and bow shall they enter there, because all the land shall be waste land and thorn, and every mountain that is ploughed shall be ploughed.

For from the waste land and the thorn it shall be pasture for sheep and a trampling-place for oxen.

Indeed, as in places difficult to discern, we consider that we have found an account not altogether inconsonant.

See, then, whether you can take up such an understanding concerning these sayings: that those of the circumcision were the thousand vines worth a thousand shekels.

For he transplanted a vine out of Egypt and, having cast out the nations, planted it;

which, having flourished at first, was later neglected because it turned to bitterness;

and its fence was torn down, and it became a plunder for those passing by.

Those fruitful vines, then, became waste land and thorn-thickets, when with countless arrows and bows the enemy army came upon them, bringing desolation.

But the mountains that are ploughed are the souls that have believed in Christ;

formerly desolate and untilled, and for this reason they lay waste and bore thorns before the coming of Christ;

but since he came for the fall and rising of many, and called the things that are not, that he might bring to nothing the things that are, for this reason those who were of the circumcision, having lost their flourishing and fruitfulness, turned into waste land;

But the assembly from the Gentiles, which was named the mountain that is ploughed, is being ploughed, having been freed from all cowardice and fear of enemies.

The mountain, then, is the soul that has been exalted by the teaching of Christ.

Since therefore the Lord came, Israel was broken off, but the nations were planted in, so that by their trespass salvation might be dispensed to all, and so that, grazing fearlessly on these mountains, both sheep and oxen might provide abundant benefit from themselves.

CHAPTER 8. And the Lord said to me:

Take for yourself a great new scroll, and write on it with a man's pen, concerning making a swift plunder of spoils.

And take for yourself faithful men as witnesses, Uriah and Zechariah, the son of Berechiah.

And I went in to the prophetess, and she conceived and bore a son.

Call his name, Swiftly spoil, Quickly plunder.

For what does "Take for yourself a great new scroll" have in common with what follows, that "And I went in to the prophetess, and she conceived"? One might say, then, that what follows is not the fulfillment of what precedes, but is delivered from its own separate beginning, that former statement having been brought to a close.

For even if it is not explicitly stated that he took the new and great scroll, it is nevertheless implied that he did what was commanded.

But "And I went in to the prophetess, and she conceived" is to be understood as beginning from a different starting point.

For if the prophet had objected to the command, the objection would have been recorded, as in the case of Ezekiel, who declined to eat bread baked over human dung. For there he refuses, saying:

By no means, Lord, God of heaven; my soul has not been defiled with uncleanness, nor has any profane flesh ever entered my mouth.

Here, however, since there is no refusal, the silence clearly indicates consent.

But if it is not attested that he did what was commanded—

"Go," (he says), "take for yourself a wife of harlotry and children of harlotry";

then the word, bearing witness to him as one who has done what was commanded, adds:

But elsewhere we shall find commands uttered while the deed is not attested as having taken place, yet is understood by us on account of the obedience of those commanded, as in the case of Ezekiel:

And you shall lie on your left side;

You shall lie on your right side.

For it is not added that he lay on the right side, or on the left, but it is passed over in silence;

yet the obedience of the prophet is understood by us.

So then, here too it is possible to give an account concerning the difficulty raised by us, namely that he, having been commanded one thing, did not do something else;

but having accomplished that command, from a different beginning he now speaks to us concerning the prophetess.

In this it is written, "to make speedy plunder of spoils," because the teaching of the Gospel came swiftly, swifter than any lightning, reaching to the ends of the inhabited world, and plundering the ruler of this age, and transferring back to the obedience of Christ those who had been taken captive.

And the plundering is the distribution of the spoils, which God gave over to the angels who are guardians of the human race, for their protection and salvation.

For the Gospel is at hand:

it proclaims to us as present the one who was long expected from heaven.

"Let Uriah and Zechariah," (he says), "be faithful witnesses of the things written in the Gospel."

Uriah is a priest, symbolically representing the law delivered through Moses;

and the Gospel is established as being witnessed to by the law and the prophets.

Uriah is interpreted as "the illumination of God";

and Zechariah, "the remembrance of God";

and "son of Berechiah" means [son] of the blessing of God.

Who then ought to be the faithful witnesses? Whoever is illumined by God and has continual remembrance of God.

What then is the meaning of "And I went in to the prophetess"? It is this:

I drew near, in spirit and by foreknowledge of the things to come, to the prophetess.

For I apprehended and, as it were, drew near by prophetic understanding, and I saw her conception from afar, having gazed ahead by the gift of prophecy, that she bore a son, concerning whom the Lord said, "You shall call his name Swiftly spoil, Quickly plunder."

"Possessions" [means] those who had been sold under sin and were held fast in the bonds of death.

He plundered him, and seized the spoils by his own powers, distributing the faithful to the holy angels for guard and protection, concerning whom he himself also says, "Your angels always behold the face of my Father who is in heaven."

For this is he who swiftly plundered, concerning whom it is written:

Having ascended on high, he led captivity captive, he received gifts among men.

That Mary is the prophetess, whom Isaiah approached by the drawing-near that comes through knowledge, no one will dispute who remembers her words, which she uttered prophetically.

For what does she say? "My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior, because he has looked upon the lowliness of his handmaid."

"For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed."

And indeed, attending closely to all her words, you will not hesitate to call her also a prophetess.

What, then, he was commanded to write in this scroll, having drawn near to the prophetess, he beheld as having come to pass.

"Write with a man's pen, concerning making a swift plunder of spoils";

but here, after saying that "she conceived and bore a son," it is written, "And the Lord said":

Call his name, Swiftly spoil, Quickly plunder.

So that the same thing is said in different words and conceptions:

in "Take for yourself a scroll," and in "I went in to the prophetess."

And the sequel contains nothing unsuited to what precedes it.

And the spoils of Samaria are those from the circumcision who have believed.

Yet the commands and the manly deeds of him who was born of the prophetess are set upon him by the Lord in place of names, just as also the name Jesus, on account of the salvation given to us by God, was fitted to the Lord;

"For you shall call," (he says), "his name Jesus";

"for he will save his people from their sins."

And the Lord spoke to me yet again:

and it will rise over every ravine of yours and walk over every wall of yours, and it will remove from Judea the man who is able to lift up his head, or one able to accomplish anything.

And his army will be such as to fill the breadth of your land.

What sense does it make for the God of all, on account of the water in Siloam, to threaten the people with such things? And how is it that the people are said not to want the water of Siloam, which is recorded to cause no disease, nor to bring any other harm to those who use it? Then again, what logical connection is there, that one who does not want the water of Siloam should want Rezin and the son of Remaliah? For what fellowship has soulless water with a king, one who holds power and rules over subjects? Rather, Siloam must be understood figuratively, being interpreted, according to the teaching of the Gospel, as "Sent."

For thus it is interpreted in the Gospel according to John:

"Go, wash in Siloam," which is interpreted "Sent."

Who then is the one sent, flowing without noise, but he concerning whom it is said:

"The Lord has sent me, and his Spirit"? And again:

"He will not strive, nor cry out, nor will his voice be heard in the streets."

Those, therefore, who do not receive the One sent from heaven, disdaining his gentleness, but drawing to themselves the son of Remaliah, that is, a teaching containing false opinion yet professing to be demonstrated according to the divine Scriptures—

a teaching that lifts the hearer up beyond the faith according to the divine Scriptures, and puffs him up, and leads him away from the foundation of the faith.

For Aram is interpreted as "the lofty one."

Those, then, who hold the steadfast word in contempt, and do not accept what is firm and calm and fair, but instead intertwine what comes from outside the faith with the mishearings taken from the Scriptures—against these the word threatens to bring the great and mighty water, the king of the Assyrians, that is, the ruler of this age.

For that Scripture often takes the Assyrian to represent the adversary is shown in what follows in this same prophet:

"For it will be," (he says), "when the Lord has finished doing all things on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, that he will bring [judgment] upon the great mind, the ruler of the Assyrians, and upon the haughty height of the glory of his eyes."

By strength I will act, and by the wisdom of understanding I will remove the boundaries of nations, and I will plunder their strength, and I will shake inhabited cities, and I will seize the whole world with my hand, as a nest; and as eggs that have been left, I will take it up.

And there is none who shall escape me, or gainsay me.

So it seems that now too he is saying something of this sort concerning the ruler of the Assyrians, who is much water, in the manner of a torrent, violently and rapidly sweeping away those it encounters;

of whom those who have been deemed worthy to pass through the trials unharmed say:

Our soul has passed through a torrent, the water that could not be withstood.

And the Gospel too makes mention of this same water, in the parable, when it likens the one who hears the words and does not do them to a man who built his own house without a foundation;

and when the flood came (it says), it could not withstand, but the house fell, and the fall of that house was great.

And this abundant water (it says) shall rise up over every ravine of yours.

Now ravines are the hollows of the earth.

How then is it said that the water does not descend, but ascends? Because every degradation among men that comes through sin is higher than the chief fountainheads and, as it were, than the principalities of wickedness.

But when they are handed over to the opposing powers, they will walk upon every wall of the apostates, that is, upon all their fortified doctrines and upon all things that seem to be their safeguards.

For inasmuch as they did not see fit to have God in full knowledge, God gave them up to a debased mind, to do the things that are not fitting.

Know, O nations, and be defeated;

hearken, even to the end of the earth.

The phrase "God is with us," then, is referred to the Savior;

for thus, in what went before, the one born of the Virgin was named, in the Hebrew tongue Emmanuel, which, being interpreted, is "God is with us."

It seems to me that this utterance is raised out of the great joy of those who have come to know the coming of Christ, and who have understood the power of the cross to be a fearful thing to the nations.

How then are the nations defeated? If they come to know God.

For darkness is defeated by the presence of light, and disease is conquered by the visitation of health.

So then, know the truth, O nations, and at once you will be defeated with the defeat that brings you salvation.

Hearken, even to the end of the earth.

Hearken to whom? To those who proclaim the Gospel to you;

For (it says) their sound has gone out into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world.

You who had grown strong, be defeated; lay aside the strength of the body, take up the weakness of the flesh, so that the power of God may be made perfect in weakness.

For if you grow strong again, you will be defeated again.

If at any time the mindset of the flesh rises up against you, be diligent to enslave it, to wrestle it down, and to subject it to the spirit.

And whatever counsel you take, the Lord will scatter it;

and the word that you speak shall by no means stand among you, because God is with us.

Human counsel, then, is nullified by the Angel of Great Counsel, and human speech is set at naught by God the Word.

None of these things (it says) shall by any means stand for you;

And it is useful, in a time of persecution, to say boldly to the nations, "For if you grow strong again, you will be defeated again."

For many times, having risen up against the Church of Christ, they have many times fallen down.

For just as those who, by adding fuel to what is burning, raise the flame higher, so also those who have always been eager to overthrow the Church have, through their persecutions, advanced it to greater glory and power.

They disobey the strong hand, in the going of the way of this people, saying:

For whatever this people say is hard.

But do not fear their fear, nor be troubled.

Sanctify the Lord himself, and he shall be your fear;

and if you have put your trust in him, he shall become a sanctuary to you;

and you shall not meet him as a stumbling-stone, nor as a rock of falling.

After the message concerning the coming of Emmanuel had been proclaimed as good news, and, as it were, over the victory against the nations that voice had been uttered—"Know, O nations, and be defeated;

...God is with us"—the text then adds this, condemning the nations, that "they disobey the strong hand."

Now the strong hand is the creative power of all beings, from which the whole creation was constituted, both of things seen and of things beyond the things seen;

either from natural conceptions, ascending through visible things to the Maker, or from the teaching that has been given to us through the law.

But these people evidently disobey both the strong hand—that is, they are not led by created things to an understanding of the Maker—and the going, that is, the way.

Now the way is either the Lord himself, who said:

And the same one is also the hand of God and the right hand.

For your right hand, O Lord (it says), is glorified in strength;

and, "I with my hand established the heaven."

Therefore those who do not believe in the Lord stand accused.

Or else he now calls "the going" the way of this present life, ordained for us according to the law.

For that teaching is called a way is well known from many places, since the Lord calls the teachers of the law "blind guides."

And, "In the way of your testimonies I have delighted."

And, "In your way I shall live."

And, "Blessed are the blameless in the way."

And, simply put, Scripture is altogether full of instances that call progress through the law toward the perfecting of the soul a kind of journeying.

And he added the cause of their disobedience:

They do not accept (it says) the ordinances of the way, which the discourse has employed;

but they disobey them, not bearing the hardness of what has been ordained.

As also in the Gospel the Jews, not enduring the teachings of the Lord, said:

This is a hard saying;

who can hear it? It is hard for the fornicator to be self-controlled, hard for the drunkard to be temperate;

hard for the reviler to bless;

...those bound for the kingdom, not bearing the roughness and toil of a life lived according to virtue.

For vice entices by the smoothness of pleasure;

but virtue, through hard discipline and toils, roughens the life of those who practice it;

He calls "hard ways" the commandments given to us for the perfecting of our souls.

What is harder than, having received a blow on the cheek, to turn to him the other also? Than, being robbed of something, not to demand it back? Than, being dragged into court,

to strip off one's tunic as well? Being reviled, to bless? Being blasphemed, to console? To hate no one? To pray for those who persecute? But these hard things prepare for us, unto rest, the gentle bosom of our father Abraham.

For blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.

And nearly all the suffering endured here procures the eternal goods.

For the afflictions now arising on account of God's law shall be the seed of the goods to come.

"But coming, they shall come with rejoicing, bearing their sheaves."

The nations, then, disobey the way of this people, saying:

"For whatever this people says is harsh."

Examine, then, those who sit devoted to idols, to see for what reason they do not come to the teaching of the proclamation.

For the more honest among them confess that they cannot bear its severity.

"But do not fear their fear."

For indeed he says to the nations: do not fear the fear which they now fear without discipline, since they do not give themselves to the practice of better things —

do not fear temperance, do not fear courage;

do not fear piety, fear none of the virtues.

They are gentle, approachable, providers of good things, procurers of life.

Or else, turning the discourse, he directs it toward the people;

namely, that those nations have formed such suppositions about you because they will not accept union with you through the way of the law.

"But as for you, do not fear the plots of the nations against you; rather, having understood the Lord, sanctify him."

"And he himself shall be your fear."

It is a very great thing for perfection, to fear in a disciplined manner and not to cower before everything, nor to be timorous, dreading things that inspire no dread.

For the psalm condemns such people, saying:

"There they shall fear with fear, where there was no fear."

"And he himself shall be your fear."

Await his coming, fear his judgment-seat.

Fearful is he who renders to each according to his works;

fearful is he who is about to come down from the heavens amid the sound of a trumpet, together with the holy angels;

fearful is he whose sentence is eternal punishment.

If, then, you are trusting in the Lord, you will not meet him as a stumbling-stone, nor as a rock that causes falling.

Clearly the passage summons us to faith in our Lord Jesus.

For concerning him it has been said: "Behold, I lay in Zion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense."

The blind, and those unable to see what lies at their feet, stumble against stones;

and those who have not made their footing secure slip upon the rocks.

So then, one who has taken no care for the discerning faculty of the soul, nor come to know the Lord's coming through the teaching of the Scriptures, stumbles at the proclamation of the Gospel;

and he who is easily unsettled in faith is scandalized upon the rock, which is Christ.

"But you," (he says), "O people, if you are trusting and grounded upon the Lord with perfect faith, you will not meet the word concerning him as a stumbling-stone, nor will you be tripped up by it as by a falling rock."

Perhaps the folly of the proclamation is a stumbling-block to the Greeks, who seek wisdom;

and it is a rock of offense to the Jews, who demand signs.