以賽亞書註釋 第 2 章 第 2/2 段

For since they were not only unable to set others right, but were not even able to ward off the harm coming from others, He walled them in with the law and separated them from mingling with the rest, and shaped and disciplined them apart by themselves;

for it was to be desired that, being thus led, they might be able to preserve the polity given to them by God.

But just as they transgressed the other commandments, so too, disregarding this one, they went over to alliances with their neighbors and took brides from there — from the Moabites, from the Ammonites, from other impious nations — and, embracing other kinships, they received teachers of wickedness and corrupted the purity of their noble descent.

This, then, the prophet charges them with, along with the rest.

'For their land was filled,' he says, 'with silver and gold, and there was no number of their treasures.'

'And their land was filled with horses, and there was no number of their chariots.'

And what sort of accusation is this — someone might perhaps say — to have money and to possess horses, especially in that generation, when there was not much exactness of philosophy? What then shall we say? That he was not disparaging the use of them, but the disposition which employed them not as it ought.

'Woe to the mighty' — he does not blame their power, but those who use their power wickedly;

so indeed also here: not that they possessed money, but that with much abundance and beyond need they were amassing it.

'There was,' he says, 'no number of their treasures.'

And not this only, but that, puffed up with wealth and with the power of their horses, they were little by little dragged away from their hope in God — which the prophet also said to them elsewhere:

'Woe to those who trust in their power and boast in the multitude of their wealth.'

'A king is not saved by great power, and a giant shall not be saved by the multitude of his strength.'

And again in another psalm he says:

He shall not delight in the strength of the horse, neither shall He take pleasure in the legs of a man.

The Lord takes pleasure in those who fear Him.

And the land was filled with the abominations of the works of their hands, and they worshipped the things which their own fingers had made.

Like a wise physician, the prophet declares the cause of the disease and the fountain of the malady before the disease itself.

For being about to denounce their impiety, he first set forth the origins of their sickness—covetousness, arrogance, and unlawful mixings—showing that from these they were little by little tripped up into the pit of destruction and came to worship idols.

Of the works of their hands.

For what could be more ridiculous than when a man becomes the maker of a god? And Scripture is accustomed to call idols an abomination;

hence also the statue that stood upon the temple is called 'the abomination of desolation.'

'For when you see,' He says, 'the abomination of desolation standing in the holy place'—

For since He had led them away from being stirred up toward things perceived by the senses, He forbade them to make any graven image;

and He called this an abomination, restraining them from afar from impiety;

for to abominate is to hate exceedingly, as something unclean, as something accursed.

Therefore that which is hateful and worthy of aversion is in Scripture called an abomination.

And they worshipped the things which their own fingers had made.

And the man bowed down, and the man of rank was humbled.

For just as the worship of God lifts one up to a height, so the worship of those idols debases and casts down.

For what is more lowly than a man who has fallen from salvation, and has the God of all things as his enemy, and stoops beneath lifeless objects and pays service to stones? For God has raised us to such great honour as to make us higher even than the heavens;

but the devil strove to drag down to such worthlessness those who obeyed him, as to make them more senseless than senseless things.

And the man bowed down, and the man of rank was humbled.

This accusation alone would have sufficed to lead the man of sense away from the malady.

But since many of mankind dread not sins so much as punishments, he added also the chastisement, saying:

'I will not condone it,' He says, 'I will not let it go, I will not overlook it, but I will demand penalties and a reckoning for the offences committed.'

And now enter into the rocks and hide yourselves in the earth from before the face of the fear of the Lord.

Having sufficiently ridiculed the folly of those who worship idols, and having shown from the manner of their fabrication both the madness of those men and the weakness of the idols, he strives again in his discourse, committing the examination of what has been said to the actual experience of events, and he says:

This very fact alone—that they came into being at the hands of men—would have sufficed to show the folly of those who are deceived;

but since, as though stupefied by some drunkenness of impiety, they are blinded to things manifest and plain, such evils shall overtake the city as to teach even the exceedingly senseless how great is the weakness of those idols and how great the power of God.

For this very reason, before speaking of the war, he tells of the things that will result from it, bidding them enter into the rocks and sink down beneath the earth itself—not that they should do this, but that from these words they might learn how unbearable is the wrath then borne down from God.

'For hide yourselves,' He says, 'in the earth from before the face of the fear of the Lord and from the glory of His might, when He rises up to shatter the earth.'

He did not say simply 'from His might,' but:

From the glory of His might.

For such are His achievements, such His trophies, possessing great splendour and brilliance.

Here it seems to me that he signifies the victory in the time of Hezekiah, calling the multitude of men 'earth,' and their downfall 'a shattering,' and God's 'rising up' His going forth to their aid.

Since David also speaks thus:

Let God arise, and let His enemies be scattered;

Arise, O God, judge the earth;

characterizing the workings of God from human figures of speech.

For the eyes of the Lord are lofty, but man is lowly.

Then, so that none of those who heard at that time might disbelieve what was said (for what was about to happen was far beyond hope and higher than any expectation), he took refuge in the power of the One who acts and the worthlessness of those who suffer.

'For there is nothing,' he says, 'higher than God, nor anything more worthless than men.'

Do not therefore be perplexed if this great and mighty One shall be able thus suddenly to humble the worthless.

The eyes of the Lord are lofty.

'The eyes of the Lord'—as though His mere glance suffices to bring down all that opposes Him;

which David also said in another place:

He who looks upon the earth and makes it tremble;

and again another prophet:

I will look toward Him, and I shall prevail over him.

And the loftiness of men shall be brought low, and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day.

For when that marvellous victory had come to pass, and those splendid and wondrous trophies, the demons were refuted, and the idols were dishonoured, and the false prophets were silenced, and the tyranny of the barbarians was broken up, and every mouth that opposed God was stopped.

Henceforth there will be no one to contradict, nor anyone in doubt concerning the power of God, since the demonstration afforded by the events has become so utterly plain.

For the height of His nature is perpetual, never having had a beginning, but ever existing;

but He is said to be exalted in the understanding of men, when those who contradict and oppose, being persuaded by the very demonstration of events, bow down and offer the fitting praise.

For the day of the Lord of Hosts comes upon every insolent and proud one, and upon everyone that is lofty and lifted up, and they shall be brought low.

And upon every cedar of Lebanon of the lofty and lifted up, and upon every oak of Bashan.

And upon every high mountain, and upon every high wall.

And upon every lofty tower.

And upon every ship of the sea, and upon every fair sight of ships.

And the loftiness of men shall be brought low, and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day.

By 'wall' here, and 'cedar,' and 'hill,' and 'oak,' he means the men of power, indicating their dominion metaphorically by the height of these trees;

and by saying 'ship' and 'fair sight of ships,' he hints at the wealthier among them.

And what he means to say is this:

that every strong man, every man of power, every general, everyone clothed with wealth, indeed, so to speak, all the comeliness and strength of men shall then depart and be dissolved;

and nothing at all shall thus avail to escape the wrath of God—not strength of body, not experience in war, not abundance of riches, not the trappings of power, not a multitude of an army, nor anything else of the kind.

He speaks of 'cedars of Lebanon' for this reason, either because this tree grows there most abundantly, or because the events took place nearby;

and by 'fair sight of ships,' the comeliness of the generals adorned with wealth and weapons and bodyguards.

And it seems to me that he also hints at the long-distance expedition of the barbarians.

And all the handmade things they shall hide away, carrying them into the caves and into the clefts of the rocks and into the holes of the earth, from before the face of the fear of the Lord and from the glory of His might, when He rises up to shatter the earth.

For so far, he says, will their gods be from affording them any alliance, that they will even need help from men and the safety of places, so as not to be captured;

From before the face of the fear of the Lord and from the glory of His might, when He rises up to shatter the earth.

For lest anyone should reckon these things to the incursion of the barbarians, or suppose the fear to belong to the strength of those men, he raises the discourse up to the God of all, saying that He Himself is the commander of this war, and that from Him comes the power, in the midst of so great a peril arising from the offences already committed.

For in that day a man shall cast forth his abominations, the silver and the golden ones which they made for themselves that they might worship their vanities and the bats, so as to enter into the solid rocks and into the clefts of the rocks, from before the face of the fear of the Lord and from the glory of his strength, when he shall arise to shatter the earth.

He held them up to ridicule effectively, showing them hiding themselves together with their gods and burrowing into the earth, and showing that the costliness of the material could avail nothing against the calamity that pressed upon them.

He called the idols bats, either on account of their weakness, or because of the darkened nature of the error,

and because everything is done in secret by the demons.

For just as to bats the sun and the light are hostile, while the night and the darkness are dear,

so also to the demons and to those who are deceived by them, wickedness and all lawless deeds are familiar and dear, while virtue and the works of the light are hateful; and when these shine forth, they are straightway darkened, since he who lives in virtue has need of no labor or toil.

For it is enough merely to appear, and it destroys all those things.

Cease from the man in whose nostrils is breath; for wherein is he to be accounted of?

Here he seems to me to be hinting at Hezekiah, who from dread and much anguish was at his last gasp.

Since then the barbarians, having taken him as it were in their nets, thought they held their prey ready to hand and would not even need any toil for the capture of the city and the leading of him into captivity, the very opposite befell the barbarians.

Cease from the man in whose nostrils is breath;

for wherein is he to be accounted of? That is to say, he was accounted as nothing.

For indeed they hoped, as though in a swift raid, to destroy everything;

but the whole result turned out to be the opposite;

and he who was reckoned by you to be nothing, but contemptible and easy to overcome, this man shall appear more illustrious than all, enjoying the inclining favor from God.