以賽亞書註釋 第 4 章

Chapter 4. And in that day seven women shall take hold of one man, saying:

We will eat our own bread and wear our own clothing;

only let your name be called upon us; take away our reproach.

He wishes to indicate the scarcity of men that resulted from the war, and how the population was reduced to the very least.

For they said that they did not even ask for the protection which is due to be provided to women by men, but that he should release them from this obligation and be content and satisfied, if only in any way at all they might be freed from the name of widowhood.

Take away our reproach;

since in ancient times this was reckoned to be a reproach.

But in that day God shall shine forth in counsel with glory upon the earth, to exalt and to glorify the remnant of Israel.

Since he greatly shook their minds by the threat of the grievous things, and vividly dramatized the calamity, and drew out a long discourse recounting the fearful things, he now changes over to the more comforting matters.

For this is the manner of the best healing—not merely to cut and to cauterize, but also to soothe the pains that arise therefrom with gentle remedies;

For he did not say that the whole would end in gloom, but that, the wicked being taken out of the midst, the more prosperous things would succeed;

and that there would be not only a deliverance from the unpleasant things, but also great renown and mighty splendour.

For he calls this the shining forth of God: the light that dissolves the darkness of despondency, makes the day radiant, and renders men illustrious.

'With counsel,' he says, that is, he will accomplish all things wisely and with the wisdom that befits him.

'And it shall come to pass that the remnant of Israel in Zion and the remnant in Jerusalem shall be called holy, even all who are written unto life in Jerusalem.'

That you may learn that the salvation of those who escaped the danger did not come about by some chance, but that, being fortified by the decree from on high and set in the midst of terrors, they were not taken captive—therefore he says:

'All who are written unto life in Jerusalem shall be called holy.'

'Those who were set apart,' he says, 'those who were tested, those who were marked out, to suffer nothing terrible.'

And fittingly he calls them holy, showing that it was not simply the setting-apart that delivered them, nor simply the decree of God;

but the virtue of their character too contributed something—both that which came before and that which came after.

For even if some of them were already good and equitable, nevertheless through what befell them they became better and more exact.

For just as gold, when committed to the fire, lays aside every stain, so too the zealous become more zealous amid trials, washing off all sloth.

'Because the Lord will wash away the filth of the sons and daughters of Zion, and will purge out the blood of Jerusalem from their midst, by the spirit of judgment and the spirit of burning.'

Here he seems to me to speak of a twofold cleansing: both the paying of the penalty for the sins they committed, and their becoming more diligent henceforth for the future.

By 'the blood of Jerusalem' he means the murders, the unjust slaughters.

Then, heightening the accusation, he says, 'from their midst.'

For they did not dare their murders in secret or in hiding, but worse than robbers and those who lie in wait along the highways.

For those men dare their customary deeds hidden by darkness and in desert places;

but these men committed the very same lawless deeds in the midst of the marketplaces, in the midst of the city, in the very courts of justice.

'But even the stain arising from that source,' he says, 'the war that comes upon them shall consume.'

For indeed, even in the season of good things he offers a defense concerning the former sufferings, showing that those very calamities befell them for this reason: that they might be washed, that they might be cleansed, that they might be tried by fire, that they might lay aside every stain, that they might wash off the reproach arising from their sins and slaughters.

'By the spirit of judgment and the spirit of burning'? He continued in the metaphor of substances being smelted.

For just as there the blast, falling into the furnace and fanning the flame and making the coals hotter, consumes all the dross;

so also here the God-sent wrath and the assault of the enemies, falling upon the city, became to it in place of fire—not a fire that destroys, but one that burns and purges, that chastises and sets right.

'By the spirit of judgment'—that is, of chastisement, of punishment, of vengeance.

By his 'presence' he means his operation.

'And it shall be that every place of Mount Zion'—

'and all that is round about her a cloud shall overshadow by day, and as of smoke and as of the light of burning fire by night; with all the glory shall she be covered.'

'And it shall be for a shade by day from the heat, and for a shelter and a covert from harshness and from rain.'

By the 'cloud' here he means the comfort that arises out of one's ills;

and by the 'fire,' the illustrious splendor that accompanies the consolation.

For what a cloud is in the heat, that a fire brightly kindled is in darkness and in deepest night.

For the one wards off the drought, while the other dispels the gloom.

He therefore compared the splendor to the brightness of the fire, and the relief to the shade of the cloud.

Then, showing that these things would come to pass not by a gradual loosening of the terrors, but that the change would take place all at once, at the very height of the sorrows—so that from this too they might learn that the turning toward the better did not come about by some cycle or chance, but that the whole was accomplished by the power from on high—

'As of a fire burning by night,' he says, 'so shall the change come to pass.'

'And it shall be for a shade by day.'

What shall it be? The help of God, he says, and his alliance—like a shade in the heat, and like a roof or the recess of some cave, when a violent downpour breaks forth, keeping in safety the one who has taken refuge there;

so indeed also the alliance of God will not permit them to suffer any harm—even amid so great a war breaking forth—whomsoever he has chosen from the beginning to preserve.