以賽亞書註釋 第 1 章 第 21/23 段

So that there might not even be a remnant — that is, that the last seed of evil teaching might not remain for those who come afterward through imitation of those who went before — thus says the Lord:

"And I will make Babylonia desolate, so that hedgehogs shall dwell there, and it shall come to nothing;"

"and I will make it a pit of mire unto destruction."

The desolation of an evil dwelling and the destruction of a confused life is a good eagerly sought by those who perceive rightly.

And he threatens the desolation of Babylonia to such an extent that no Babylonian man shall dwell there any longer, but hedgehogs shall be brought in instead.

This animal is fenced round with hard and very sharp spines, and draws in its head and feet whenever it wishes, shaping itself into the exact form of a sphere, so that it is hard to catch, since its head and feet are coiled up within, while its surface is thorny on every side.

For this animal alone, while remaining still, defends itself against those who plot against it.

For whoever lays hands on it is terribly lacerated, and the more he wishes to squeeze it tightly, the more painfully he is pierced by its spines.

Perhaps, then, it hints at the dispositions of men who dwelt in the city in place of the Babylonians — unsociable, ungenerous, delighting in a harsher way of life.

That the various kinds of animals are transferred [as figures] for the characters of men we have been taught from the vision of Peter, when in the vessel let down from heaven there was every kind of creature — animals, reptiles, birds, and four-footed beasts.

For the word hinted that those who were about to be brought to the faith out of various sins were the ones likened either to four-footed beasts because of their brutishness, or to reptiles because of their venomousness, or to birds because of their fickleness and instability.

So the hedgehog too is, perhaps, figuratively applied in Scripture to certain men, just as serpents are applied to the Sadducees and Pharisees;

and the fox is applied to Herod;

and lust-maddened horses are applied to those who love pleasure;

sheep are applied to the more guileless among men;

kids are applied to those who are unsociable and ungenerous.

Thus it is reasonable to compare hedgehogs — a creature that places its hope of not being harmed in its own spines — to the rich of this age, of whom the Lord has said that the word is choked by their own thorns and rendered unfruitful.

And Babylon will become nothing, and like a pit of mud.

As to the literal sense, the text indicates that the river Euphrates, cutting through the middle of the city, no longer finding an outlet through its channels but stagnating within it, will utterly obliterate it and render it a pit — not of clear water, but of mire.

For such is the end of the destruction of those who provoked the Lord.

Thus says the Lord Sabaoth:

As I have said, so it shall be;

and as I have purposed, so it shall stand;

to destroy the Assyrians upon my land and upon my mountains.

And they shall become a trampling-ground, and their yoke shall be removed from them, and their glory from their shoulders.

Israel according to the flesh takes the prophet's word to concern the land which they hold to be God's, and these earthly mountains in visible Judea, and understands that Assyria led Israel away captive, having laid upon them a yoke of slavery.

But we, who have been raised together with Christ and pray to seek the things above, call the good heart 'land,' according to what we have been taught by the Lord himself, who says:

But he who was sown on the good ground, this is he who hears the word and understands it, and bears fruit, yielding, one a hundredfold, another sixty, another thirty.

So too, one who has grown in good works, and in word and knowledge has risen above others, may rightly be called a mountain of God, upon which the Assyrians shall become a trampling-ground;

in him the enemies shall become a trampling-ground.

And every yoke of the Assyrians shall be removed by God.

For they thought great things of themselves, as treading upon the shoulders of the men who belong to God's portion, and bringing under their own yoke those who, through sins, had been torn away from the service of God.

As they exult — ruling over us, as it were, and mounted upon us — let us do everything so that they may be crushed, that we may utterly shake off their dominion.

For if we become mountains of God, his foundations will be in us, the word of truth having been laid down in our hearts and good works being built up upon our faith.

For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness? This is the plan that the Lord has purposed against the whole world, and this is the uplifted hand against all the nations of the world.

For what the holy God has purposed, who shall annul? And his uplifted hand, who shall turn back? He plainly shows that these things are said concerning those in the whole world and among all the nations, since no one is able to annul what the holy God has purposed, and no one is able to turn back the hand of God that fights on behalf of his land and his mountains.

At the same time, notice that this expression is not used, as we have often shown, only to signify rarity — as in 'Who is wise, that he may understand these things?' and 'Who is the faithful and prudent steward?' For here, 'Who shall annul it?' is equivalent to 'no one.'

For it is not even lawful to conceive that there could be someone able to annul the counsel of the Lord.

In the year in which King Ahaz died, this oracle came:

Do not rejoice, all you Philistines, for the yoke of him who struck you is broken;

for out of the seed of serpents shall come forth offspring of vipers, and their offspring shall come forth as flying serpents.

And the poor shall be fed by him;

and poor men shall rest in peace;

but he shall destroy your seed with famine, and shall destroy your remnant.

Since everything written by the Prophets was spoken by the Holy Spirit, it is clear that the notation of the time of the prophecy has not been inserted in vain.

For what benefit is there in learning that this oracle against the Philistines came in the year in which Ahaz, king of Judea, died? We consider, then, that just as it is written in Exodus, that the king of Egypt died, and the sons of Israel groaned because of their labors, and their cry went up, and God heard their groanings.

For while the wicked king was still alive, they were not able to groan to God;

for he compelled them with harsh labors, not allowing them to look up toward God.

But when the wicked one was removed from the way, then it was fitting to applaud and rejoice over the fall of the enemy.

But, contrary to expectation, they are recorded as groaning, the text indicating that — so long as the body-loving mind held sway — they did not even know, on account of their insensibility, how to lament the evil that comes from sin;

but when they gained respite from their sufferings, they begin their healing with groaning, being burdened by their material and bodily labors.

Something similar to this narrative is also shown in the earlier part of Isaiah.

For it came to pass (he says) in the year in which King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up.

Uzziah is handed down by the history as a wicked king, because 'his heart was lifted up to his own destruction, and he transgressed against the Lord his God, and entered the temple of the Lord to burn incense upon the altar,' and he became leprous.

So then, at that time, when the wicked ruler had been overthrown, and the worship according to the law had been freed from defilements, the mysteries of theology were revealed to the Prophet.

So here too, the text records the death of Ahaz — no worthy ruler — in order to show that it is at the withdrawal of the worse that the oracle concerning the Philistines comes from God the benefactor.

and indeed he made his son pass through the fire, according to the abominations of the nations, and he sacrificed and burned incense on the high places.

This man also sent gold and silver from the treasures of the house of the Lord to the king of the Assyrians, in which acts his impiety concerning the sacred treasures is charged against him not slightly.

So then, when the wicked power had fallen, the oracle against the Philistines came about.

The Philistines are properly called 'foreigners,' whom the Greeks call Palestinians.

It should be known, moreover, that also in the life of each one of us, when the sin that reigns in our mortal body dies, then the word of the Lord comes to be in us.

For perhaps each sin bears some analogy to each of the kings censured in the Scriptures and altogether blameworthy, whose names are indicated in many places throughout the whole of Scripture;

as, indeed, 'Ahaz' is now interpreted 'possession,' being a symbol of the wicked doctrine that has forestalled and taken hold of our soul;

and when it has died, our soul, having been freed from what held it fast, becomes able to behold the oracle against the Philistines.

The plain sense, then, is this:

Do not rejoice, all you Philistines, for the yoke of him who struck you is broken.

Do not suppose, O Philistines, that with the death of Ahaz you will be freed from the fear of Israel that presses upon you;

therefore do not rejoice over the fall of the king.

For even though the yoke — that is, the servitude imposed on you by those who trampled and scourged you through their power — has indeed been broken, nevertheless out of the seed of serpents shall come forth offspring of vipers.

(This signifies the succession of Ahaz;)

that is, if this one had the bitterness of a serpent, and for this reason you rejoice over his death, there shall arise against you, from the seed of this serpent, offspring of vipers;

and again, their offspring shall come forth.

From this the text sets forth the bitterness of the succession of the kings who reigned thereafter.

For there shall be (he says) flying vipers, having both the venomousness of reptiles and the swiftness of birds.

Then (since the sequence of the genealogy leads on to the Lord), having broken off the continuity, the text passes over to a good promise.

For 'the poor,' he says, 'shall be fed by him.'

Who is the one who feeds the poor, but the shepherd of the sheep? By 'the poor' he does not mean those who are lacking in money, but those who are diminished in understanding.

These poor, who are blessed by him (for the Lord says, "Blessed are the poor in spirit"), shall rest in peace, but he shall destroy your seed by famine.

The seed of the Philistines shall be destroyed by famine, and their remnant shall be slain.

Those who are nourished by wicked words are given over to famine, for the benefit of their souls.

For the lack of the teacher who supplies them toward evil becomes an occasion for the good health of their souls and for salvation.

It is possible to understand the meaning of the saying in this way:

Let no one who breaks the yoke laid upon him — the yoke placed by the one who strikes him — rejoice;

for often, to one already called to the salvation that is in Christ, the blow that comes from the word, and the reproof that follows from it — scourging and chastising the conscience of the one who has stumbled for his sins — becomes an occasion for breaking the yoke of Christ.

For one who cannot bear the pain of reproof and rebuke, becoming unruly like a horse and a mule, and freeing himself from God while enslaving himself to sin, is unworthy of the joy that is in God.

It is therefore much better to endure a word of correction than, being impatient, to break the yoke of the one who strikes him.

Those, however, who have not broken it, but have endured the corrective visitation — who because of humility of heart are also styled poor — shall be shepherded by him.

For the end of good discipline is the promised pasture, concerning which the Savior says, "He shall go in and go out, and shall find pasture."

So the poor shall rest in peace, provided they do not disdain the discipline of the Lord, nor grow faint when rebuked by him.

But the seed of the Philistines shall be destroyed by famine, suffering the lack of food as a penalty for the breaking of the yoke.

"and let the troubled cities cry out, all you Philistines;"

"for smoke comes from the north, and it has no real being."

"And what shall the kings of the nations answer? That the Lord has founded Zion, and through him the lowly of the people shall be saved."

"Gates of the cities," it says, "wail."

The threat is still directed against the Philistines.

"And let the troubled cities cry out."

"Let them be filled with crying," it says, on account of the disturbance arising among the inhabitants because of fear.

Let the gates wail because of the siege being brought against them,

and let the cities cry out — that is, those who dwell in the cities.

Nor, indeed, let even the Philistines throughout the countryside remain silent.

For the smoke from the north shall touch all alike, both cities and country-dwellers.

"For smoke comes from the north."

This shows the powerlessness of the Philistines, that they cannot bear even the assault of smoke;

so far are they from being able to endure the fire that is kindled from among the Philistines themselves.

"Smoke comes from the north, and it has no real being."

"It does not exist," he says, "in its own hypostasis," nor is the nature of smoke substantial and embodied;

for it is a pungent vapor, sent up by the exhalation of fire from things that are smoldering.

When the Philistines are troubled by the smoke — which is a nature without real existence — what will the kings of the nations say, seeing the land of Israel in peace? What else, indeed, but that the Lord has founded Zion, and through him the lowly of the people shall be saved? He himself has fixed the unshakable foundations of Zion;

for God himself is the artificer and builder of the city above.

But those who shall be saved in it are not the powerful in wealth, nor the strong in body, nor those who have practiced the arts of war, but, as he says, "the lowly of the people";

because God has chosen the weak things of the world, that in them he might establish the surpassing greatness of his own power.

Nevertheless, so that we may not be entirely left without a contemplative examination of the saying, come, let us try, if it is possible, to derive some guidance from the interpretation of the names toward understanding what is being said.

We find that the name "Philistine," translated into the Greek language, means "falling by drink."

See, then, whether by way of tropology you can name, as "those who fall by drink" — that is, by the excess of drinking — the drunkards and fornicators, who give over their own soul to bowls and cups, and afterward walk about more naked than a pestle (as the proverb says).

These fall by drink because they are unable to ascend to the height of the kingdom of God, since Paul has expressly said:

"Drunkards shall not inherit the kingdom of God."

For many are the falls, and various are the causes that bring us down from the height and keep us from attaining the prize of the upward call;

and one — and not the least — is the desire and zeal for drinking.

The gates, therefore, of these drunkards have been commanded to wail;

gates through which unmixed wine enters and drags along with it a swarm of evils.

The word therefore commands that these ways, through which sin is accomplished, be turned to wailing, so that the one who has committed the sin of drunkenness through the mouth may groan through the mouth.

The cities of these gates are the very senses of the soul, in which the systems of evil reasonings, and the multitude of desires, and revelries, and drunkenness have their dwelling;

these, being troubled and thrown into confusion by the fantasy that wine produces in them, do not have the peace that surpasses all understanding;

but they are always in tossing and turmoil.

He who has stiffened his neck before the Almighty and hardened his own heart — this one brings them smoke, a cause for tears;

which some also call "skillful."

And who are these, but those who have a corrupted judgment of mind, and who declare their opinions about things in reversed fashion — those who say that the bitter is sweet and the sweet bitter, who set light as darkness and darkness as light? These, being deceived by the one who transforms himself into an angel of light, call "skillful" the one who is really clumsy and cast away.

That the north is appointed to signify the opposing power is clear from the saying, "From the presence of the north evils shall be kindled";

which is spoken in the vision of the cauldron being set to boil.

Such people have fallen from being.

Since the One who truly Is, is not in them, for this reason it is said:

"And what shall the kings of the nations answer? That the Lord has founded Zion, and through him the lowly of the people shall be saved."

Since, then, there is none among the Philistines with whom being resides, but they have become as though not existing, because of their own wickedness (for it is said, "Let sinners and lawless ones fail from the earth, so that they exist no more";

not that they should pass into utter annihilation, but that they should be separated from the oversight of God, who is truly the One who Is) — what will their kings say, seeing so great a difference between the nations and Zion? Or is it not clear that they will come to an awareness that those who walk according to the nations are in turmoil because of their own wickedness, while those who have their mind purified are at peace? — which mind is called "Zion," since it is from there that the watchtower of all creation is.

For, as from some mountain peak of the loftiness of the mind, the world is beheld, and the good order that pertains to it, and through these, God is beheld.

And the affairs of life are beheld, and the paltriness that is in them.

As, then, the mind that is submerged in wine and in the other passions falls by drunkenness, so the pure mind has God as its founder.

"And through him the lowly of the people shall be saved;"

for blessed are the poor, and woe to those who are rich, for they have received their consolation.

CHAPTER 15. The word concerning Moab.

Gather together the things concerning Moab, so that you may be able to grasp the meaning of the whole prophecy concerning him.

From Genesis, the things concerning Lot, who begot Moab, the father of the Moabites, from his elder daughter;

and from Numbers, the events after the bronze serpent:

"For the sons of Israel set out, and camped in Oboth;"

"and setting out from Oboth, they camped in the wilderness that is opposite Moab."

Still further, the things concerning Balak, who was the son of Zippor, king of Moab:

Wishing to destroy Israel through a curse, he sent to Balaam, son of Beor of Pethor, the diviner, counselor of fornication and idolatry, on account of whom, it is said, "the people were profaned with the daughters of Moab, and they called them to the sacrifices of their idols."

And try by every means to find the meaning of the oracle concerning Moab, in which the discourse is framed partly as threats, partly as promises.

"By night Moab shall perish."

For by night the wall of Moab shall perish.

The punishment inflicted at night is more bitter.

For the one who suffers some adversity by day has the very light itself as a consolation for what is happening;

whereas night is in itself a somewhat gloomy thing;

but if it also receives added suffering and misfortunes, it produces a great increase of pain.

Consider, then, for me a nighttime assault of enemies, an unexpected raid, the enslavement of women and children, the plundering of possessions, the murder of those who fall into their hands, the destruction of the wall, the burning of the city.

"By night, then, the wall of Moab shall perish."

For once stripped of the encircling walls, of necessity those also who relied on the security they afforded perish together with them.

"Grieve, then, for yourselves" (he says).

Blessed indeed is he who, having his own soul pure, has no occasion of grief belonging to himself;

but because love does not seek its own, when one member suffers, he too suffers with it and grieves together and weeps with those who weep, according to the Apostle, mourning for the many who had sinned beforehand and had not repented.

"That I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart for my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh."

But if someone is not such a person, but is entangled in his own sins, let this one grieve for himself, being overcome by the enemy against whom the struggle is waged.

His grief brings joy to the one who leads him, through instructive words, to self-awareness.

For just as burning and painful medicines cleanse ulcers and the foul stench arising from pus, and make corrupted wounds and bodies more fit for scarring over in that place, so too seems to me the sense of "Grieve for yourselves," spoken to those who think highly of themselves on account of some wisdom—such as are the leaders of the heresies, who perish by night, because "everyone who does evil hates the light and does not come to the light."

And since they are in night, they shall perish by night, and by night their wall too falls;

that is, the sophistical fortifications in which, lurking beneath, they thought they had a sufficient defense set before them.

For dialectic preserves the heresies of falsely-named knowledge like a wall;

and when this has collapsed, those who are captured must necessarily wail.

"Grieve, then, for yourselves," since they have perished.

Just as, then, the word of truth is firm and steadfast, founded and immovable, so too the one rooted in faith is compared to a man who builds upon the rock.

The manna, too, is said to be like frost upon the ground, the divine word thereby indicating, through its congealed solidity, its coherence and firmness.

Thus the opposite doctrines and the plausibilities that champion them are fluid and unstable, unable to stand firm;

and the father of lies does not stand in the truth.

The instability of the lie, then, was called "flowing/flux."

Let those, then, grieve who build such things, who hold their words about God unstable and unsupported.

not offering sacrifice, but repenting for what you once wrongly prayed for, because your prayer became sin for you.

For the one who worships the creation rather than the Creator, and does not worship the Son, nor the Father through the Son, but establishes his own doctrines and offers his own sacrifice of praise upon foreign altars—let such a one weep, for godly grief procures for him salvation not to be regretted.

These things are said not only to those who have received their opinion about God from heretical doctrines, but also to as many as, embracing fluid/unstable things, have set their hope upon them, disregarding him who says,

"If riches increase, set not your heart upon them";

but are struck with awe over the glory of the flesh, which is grass, and their glory as the flower of grass.

"the ill-minded woman thinks highly of herself, though she is to be compared to a ring in a swine's snout."

Let those, then, who once thought highly of it, go up weeping.

"Wail over Nebo of Moab."

"Upon every head, baldness; all arms gashed."

"In her streets gird yourselves with sackcloth, and beat your breasts upon her rooftops, and in her lanes wail all of you with weeping."

"For Heshbon has cried out, and Elealeh; unto Jahaz was her voice heard."

"the heart of Moab cries out within itself, unto Zoar."

"Weeping they shall go up to you by the way of Horonaim;"

"it cries out ruin and shattering."

"The water of Nimrim shall become desolate, for the green grass shall be no more."

Shall it not thus be saved after all? "For I will bring Arabs upon the valley, and they shall seize it."

"For the outcry has joined together the border of Moab, even Gallim, and her wailing."

He exhorts to godly grief those who have gone astray through the inventions of the human mind and have not given themselves to the benefit of the Spirit, that they may wail over the land of the pestilent teachers.

For it seems to me that the discourse is here hinting at these teachers by the name "Nebo," since "Nebo" is interpreted as "a lying in wait."

For there are some who lie in wait with deceitful sophistries, and by their evil companionship at times corrupt good character.

For this is "upon every head, baldness"—the rejecting of the teachers, and making oneself stripped of the adornment that comes from them, and through good conduct rendering their instructions of practical teaching contemptible, and as it were cutting them to pieces with sound reasoning, so that "all arms" may be "gashed," that is, the practical precepts, being brought under the sound word to refutation through division and the gradual examination of the evil teachings.

And since they were led by the wicked along the broad way, he bids those who have chosen this tormented life to beat their breasts in the streets, repenting over the enticement of those things that lead to pleasure, and being beaten in the broad place, yet seeking the narrow and afflicted way, so that, rightly repenting, they may gird themselves with sackcloth and, taking up the garb of mourning, as it were through the very things that are seen, make their loins cry out, leaving behind, in the very places where they went astray, the traces of their own repentance.

And upon every rooftop, and in all the lanes, they were commanded to wail with weeping.

For he called the lofty and hollow teachings "rooftops," and the divisions, as it were, of thoughts, "the lanes" of Moab.

Whether, then, someone was on the heights, exalted against the knowledge of God, or in some dialectical division of arguments and problems, seeming to give clear-cut treatment of each matter proposed, let him wail out of repentance, so that he may fulfill what is written—the discourse commanding [him] to cry out in the streets, and upon the rooftops, and in all the lanes.

For "Heshbon" is interpreted "reasoning/reckoning";

and "Elealeh," "the ascent of God";

and "Jahaz," "a commandment that has come to be."

"Heshbon," then, "cries out," that is, plainly bears witness, that the teachings of the Moabites are human reasonings, and not revelations of divine mysteries,

to those who give themselves over to those teachings.

For this is "the ascent of God"—the lifting up to the heights of pride.

Even if it seems to be "a commandment that has come to be," yet in truth it is not a commandment,

but a certain outward show of strictness concerning one's life, put forward for the sake of plausibility and acceptance of the wicked teachings suggested by an evil mind-set.

"All arms gashed"—so that if any wicked teacher, deceiving the souls of his followers with false opinions, but seeming to attend to a stricter life, those who have repented of having given themselves over to such a teacher may cut off their own arms, that is, the practical form of their conduct;

and they shear off, as it were, his hair, and estrange it from their own body, because in place of the head are those who preside over the body of the Churches.

And now, therefore, "Jahaz has cried out," that the strictness displayed in conduct is a bait toward the semblance of truth.

This, then, is the cause of wailing with weeping: that "Heshbon and Elealeh cried out unto Jahaz."

The "loins" are often taken to denote the generative organs.

"For he was still in the loins of his father" (namely Levi, in Abraham's loins) "when Melchizedek met him."