以賽亞書註釋 第 1 章 第 10/65 段

'Whom then,' He says, 'shall I send? And who will go to this people?'—who, having disobeyed those already sent before, are hard and unapproachable, and by their very deeds have shown that it would not be for any ordinary man to encounter them, but perhaps only for one who had despised even his own life.

That Israel had become inflexible and utterly incorrigible, one may learn also from what God said to the blessed Ezekiel:

'Son of man, go, enter into the house of Israel, and speak my words to it, for you are not sent to a people of deep speech and slow tongue—to the house of Israel—nor to many peoples of foreign speech or foreign tongue, nor to those of a heavy tongue, whose words you would not understand.

And if I had sent you to such as these, they would have hearkened to you;

but the house of Israel will not be willing to hear you, because they are not willing to hearken to me, for the whole house of Israel are contentious and hard-hearted.' Reasonably, then, all but perplexed—or rather, as I said, presently arraigning the men of Israel for their exceeding cruelty—He says:

'Whom then shall I send?' The prophet, having in no way hesitated, says:

'Here am I,' he says, 'send me.' Therefore, whenever the divine coal touches us also, we shall be cleansed of our transgressions, and eager and vigorous for the mission—which indeed the wondrous disciples also did.

For although they were of the Jews, and before their love for Christ had lips that were somehow unclean along with the rest, yet when they received the faith and made the good confession, and the coal touched them also, then they too were called to the apostolate, and they followed without delay, even though the all-wise Moses had said:

And a clear type of this matter would be the blessed prophet Isaiah, who after the touch of the coal cried aloud and said:

'Here am I, send me.' And He said:

'Go, and say to this people:

You will hear indeed, but not understand;

and seeing you will see, but not perceive.'

'For the heart of this people has grown dull, and with their ears they have heard heavily, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and turn back, and I heal them.' That a hardening in part has come upon Israel, the wondrous Paul writes:

and interpreting, as it were, in what manner it befell them to suffer the hardening,

'For until this day,' he says, 'whenever Moses is read, a veil lies upon their heart.' For indeed it was consistent for those who had slipped into such a manner of savagery henceforth to be greatly diseased in their unruliness, and to be willing to yield neither to the writings of Moses nor to the holy prophets;

and I would add, not even to Christ Himself, being seized by the darkness of the spiritual gloom, and differing but little from senseless stones.

This foretelling, then, the God of all makes, and He charges the prophet to announce it to them beforehand:

that 'You will hear indeed, but not understand;

and seeing you will see, but not perceive.' For they became hearers with their own ears of the Savior's voice;

He taught in the synagogues, He addressed them many times in Jerusalem, but they were on a par with those who had not heard at all.

They became spectators of the things marvelously accomplished.

For they beheld lepers delivered from their affliction, the lame leaping up, the blind receiving sight, the dead rising from the tombs;

yet they were in no way benefited, but as though deprived even of eyes themselves, the wretched ones continued.

For this reason they are also reproached through the voice of the saints, as having been ever stiff-necked, and disobedient in heart, and having killed holy men.

And this too, indeed, was most clearly what Christ said to those who had chosen to be disobedient:

'Do not murmur among yourselves;

no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.' And again:

'Everyone who has heard from the Father comes to me.' Therefore they were not called to the knowledge of the Son through the revelation of God the Father, because they were not worthy of the salvation and life that come through Him.

But if anyone should wish to approach the meanings of what has been said in another way, he will understand thus.

For the God of all foretells, as knowing the hidden things and the things to come, and says that in every way and altogether they will indeed see and hear, yet they will remain as though they had neither heard nor consented; and they suffer this from their own depraved judgment.

And He adds to these things, that in doing this they plot against their own heads;

unto destruction, neither lending a keen ear to the things spoken by Christ, nor widening the eye of their own understanding.

For if they had done this, they would have turned back, and having obtained the fitting cure, would have preserved their own mind whole and sound.

'How long, O Lord?' And He said:

'Until cities are laid waste for lack of inhabitants, and houses for lack of men, and the land is left desolate.'

For this reason too he deems it right to learn thoroughly the time in which this shall be for them, and how long He prolongs the sickness.

And to these things God foretells the devastation both of Jerusalem itself and of the whole land of the Jews, and says:

'Until cities are laid waste for lack of inhabitants, and houses for lack of men.' Which indeed also came to pass, when Vespasian and Titus laid waste Judea after the cross of the Savior and His ascension into the heavens.

But that the punishment shall not be measured out to the disobedient only up to the point of suffering these things, nor indeed shall Israel utterly, that is, root and branch, perish, He declares, saying:

'And after these things God will remove the men far off, and those who are left behind will be multiplied upon the earth.' For they were removed far from God, having killed holy men, and added to them the Author of life.

But those who are left behind—that is, those who were preserved and who believed in Christ, who are indeed the remnant of Israel—shall be, He says, in great multitude.

For no small part of Israel has believed, and this too the blessed prophet Isaiah himself has declared at the beginning of the book, saying:

'Until the cities are laid waste for lack of inhabitants, and houses for lack of men, and after these things God will remove the men far off'—so that through this we may understand the time of the consummation;

after which the men are henceforth removed far off, that is, evidently after the time of the resurrection, living a holy and long-lasting life, when corruption is utterly done away, and death is abolished, and all sin is removed.

But that Israel has been hardened, yet shall be called in the last times of the age—since the God-inspired Scripture says this clearly and plainly—I think it superfluous to contend and to seek things that bring full assurance;

for what is signified will be thus clear.

When, therefore, Vespasian and Titus made war upon the land of the Jews, as I have already said, the land of the Jews was consumed, together with its cities and its very houses set ablaze—a terrible sight, and full of all pity to those who beheld it—so that this nation had come to such scarcity of men that one who said that scarcely a tenth of the whole populace was left in it would not stray from the truth.

Then they continued for some times, nourished indeed in peace, yet not free from fears of suffering the devastation yet again—which indeed also came to pass;

when the surviving remnants were laid waste, and those who were captured were sent into captivity, at which time also the sufferings of the Maccabees came to pass.

Of such narratives the God of all makes mention to us again in a foretelling, and says:

'Still there is in it the tenth part, and again it shall be for plunder.' For it shall not lie outside of care, He says, even though it should come to be among the remnants, and those but small, the populace of the Jews;

but it shall again be for plunder.

And the land shall then again become for them as a terebinth, and they themselves as an acorn, when it falls out of its husk.

For the terebinth is indeed a plant, but if there be a shedding of its leaves, it has an exceedingly unpleasant appearance, having its branches most dry.

In this manner, I think, a land also, having suffered the desolation of its inhabitants, will be altogether on a par with dry plants that have no bloom upon them, but have even suffered the shedding of their very foliage.

Likewise the acorn is a fruit of the oak;

but when it falls out of its husk, then it lies exposed to those animals that are accustomed to devour it.

Therefore the land of the Jews has imitated the terebinth that has shed its leaves.

And those who have fallen away from it by running into captivity shall lie like acorns, all but fallen out of their own husk that bore them.

Something like this Solomon also says:

'As a bird when it falls out of its own nest, so also is a man when he is torn away from his own places.' For what could be more pitiable than those in captivity? And what is so wretched and trampled underfoot as men falling under the hand of those who have overpowered them? And it came to pass in the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, that Rezin king of Syria and Pekah son of Remaliah king of Israel went up against Jerusalem to make war upon it, and they were not able to besiege it. Those who reject the history contained in the God-inspired Scriptures as stale flee, as is likely, from being able to understand, in the fitting manner, the things written therein.

For spiritual contemplation is indeed noble and profitable, and, illuminating well the eye of the understanding, renders men most sensible.

But whenever something of what has been historically enacted is brought in to us through the sacred Scriptures, then indeed it is fitting to hunt after the usefulness that comes from the history, so that from every side the God-inspired Scripture may appear to us as saving and profiting.

The prophetic word, then, narrates to us in these passages the things that befell, in the times of Uzziah's reign, those of Judah and Benjamin, and the ten tribes in Samaria, which were also named Ephraim, and indeed also Israel.

And since the whole word of the prophecy came to pass in the times of four kings, the prophet sets down the things that came about in the times of each, and necessarily marks them, imposing upon his visions, or rather upon his own words, the most excellent order.

When therefore Azariah, that is Uzziah, had died, Jotham succeeded to the kingdom, and he followed the aim and the pursuits of his own father.

For it is said of him too that he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, just as Uzziah had done; only he did not remove the high places, but the people still burned incense on the high places.

Now Uzziah had sought, contrary to what was lawful, to exercise the priesthood before God and to offer incense, and for this reason he was struck with leprosy.

And when he too had died, Ahaz succeeded to the kingdom, while Pekah son of Remaliah was reigning over Israel, that is, over the twelve tribes.

This man stirred up war against Ahaz and against Judah, and in a single day he slew a hundred and twenty thousand.

For the God of all was provoked by the impieties of Ahaz, concerning whom it is also written in the fourth book of Kingdoms, that he walked in the way of the king of Israel.

For he became an impious man, and served idols, and made his children pass through the fire, burning incense to the unclean demons.

...Pekah son of Remaliah, and Rezin king of Aram, that is, of Syria.

And they came to lay it waste, only they did not take the city.

And when Pekah son of Remaliah, who had reigned over Israel at Samaria, had also died, Hoshea son of Elah succeeded to the sceptre; and while he was reigning, Shalmaneser the Assyrian came against Samaria, and took it all, and carried Israel away captive, and settled them in the mountains of the Persians and the Medes.

Then he commanded certain of those under his rule to dwell in Samaria, both the man from Cuthah and the Sepharvite.

For it is written thus in the books of Kingdoms; and the account of each of the things mentioned is a long one in the God-inspired Scripture, yet I have made my narration by keeping it as brief as possible.

But we will speak of each point in turn, following the meanings of the passages before us.

Now in the days, he says, of Ahaz son of Jotham the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, Rezin king of Aram, that is, of Syria, and Pekah son of Remaliah king of Israel, came to an agreement against Jerusalem, and they came to lay it waste, only they were not able to besiege it.

These things have been stated meanwhile by way of a preface, and as it were in a narration of what had come to pass.

For they were not able, he says, to besiege it.

By Aram he means the Syrian, and likewise by Ephraim the ten tribes in Samaria.

His soul and the soul of his people were shaken, as when in a forest a tree is shaken by the wind.

The phrase 'was shaken' he sets down in a general sense, meaning 'was struck with dismay,' and had nearly gone out of his very mind.

For terrors that are dreadful are somehow able to shake the mind and to agitate the soul, and to make one seem to suffer some such thing as even a tree in a forest would suffer, tossed this way and that by the assaults of wild winds.

But the chief occasion of his cowardice, or rather of his consternation, was what had befallen him.

For I have already said that while he was reigning, Pekah had made war against Judah, and had slain of the people in a single day a hundred and twenty thousand.

Since therefore Pekah alone had become so mighty as easily to prevail over those in Jerusalem;

how could it be but that both Ahaz himself and the people with him should show the utmost fear, now that the Syrian had come to an agreement and was arming himself together with Ephraim against Jerusalem? And the Lord said to Isaiah, Go forth to meet Ahaz, you and the remnant, Jashub your son, to the pool of the upper road of the fuller's field.

And you shall say to him, Take heed to be quiet, and fear not, neither let your heart be faint because of these two smoking firebrands of wood.

For when the wrath of my anger comes, I will heal again. Truly the Lord is compassionate and merciful, and wills that all men should be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth;

smoothing out for each one the way of salvation.

And this we can see to be so from the very facts of the matter.

For Ahaz became a man who was an idolater, abominable and profane.

But since he was already in inescapable evils, and the Compassionate One saw him all but drunk with his calamities, He at once adds that it is possible for him to partake of the salvation that is from Him, and He promises His aid, that He might put an end to his idol-mad frenzy, and prepare him to abstain from his former transgressions, and to receive the light of the true knowledge of God.

The prophet is therefore commanded to go to meet him, having Jashub with him, whose name is interpreted 'a remnant' and 'one left behind';

the figure all but signifying, as in a symbol, to Ahaz, that the remnant of Judah which abides with God shall be saved.

For the prophet is taken as a figure of God, and very fittingly indeed does He make the promise of His aid at the pool of the upper road of the fuller's field.

And again the pool is a figure of the saving fountain of holy baptism, which also carries us up onto the upper road, and to the spiritual fuller, that is, to Him who scours away all our filth and delivers us from defilements.

The promise therefore is sure; and as in a figure of the partial salvation, the universal salvation that is through Christ, a wise riddle has been given to the prophet.

And he says the words, Take heed to be quiet, and fear not, neither let your soul be faint because of these two smoking firebrands of wood. Now to command him to be still and to continue without anxiety, and moreover to be freed from grievous terrors,

was surely the act of One who was calling him, and that most wisely, unto ready obedience, and as it were referring him to first principles, namely that one must honour the words concerning God, and readily assent to whatever things He might declare to be true.

For just as a piece of wood, or rather a firebrand, when it is taken out of the fire, smokes indeed, yet comes to an end of still having the fire within itself;

in the same way, I think, a man about to come to the end of either his life or of an affair might reasonably be called a firebrand or a piece of wood still smoking.

And since He knew that they had become exceedingly fearful and in great dejection, both because of having been defeated when they fought against Pekah, when, as I said, a hundred and twenty thousand of Judah fell in a single day;

He removes them from these terrors also, and says:

For when the wrath of my anger comes, I will heal again; that is, not even those would have fallen, had not my wrath given them into the hand of their enemies.

But if, He says, the effects of wrath should come upon any, I will again heal those who have suffered.

For He who delivered them over out of wrath will readily rescue them, by reason of His innate gentleness and love for mankind.

And the son of Aram, and the son of Remaliah, because they have devised an evil counsel concerning you, saying:

We will go up into Judea, and having conferred with them we will turn them to ourselves, and we will make the son of Tabeel king over them;

thus says the Lord of Sabaoth:

This counsel shall not stand, neither shall it come to pass. He neither permits the report of the schemes against him to be disbelieved, nor does He allow him to be excessively crushed by dread.

But rather confirming, and declaring to be true, the agreements or rather concurrences of the two kings against him, He promises His aid, transferring the emphasis to the point that they ought rather to rely on Him, and not to cleave to the services of idols and to the words of false prophets, who tell those who bring their inquiries countless things according to their fancy, yet speak nothing at all of the truth.

That therefore, he says, they took counsel to go up into Judea, and to confer with those under your rule, and to persuade them to follow their designs, is true and acknowledged.

For they wish to set up the son of Tabeel.

But this shall not be, He says.

And who is it that promises? The Lord of Sabaoth, that is, the Lord of the hosts, or of the armies;

if He wills that any should conquer, whomsoever He might perhaps choose, who is he that shall overturn what has been decreed? And to His divine judgements, who is he that is able to make resistance? He therefore confirms unto faith those who were still unbelieving.

For they that are whole have no need of a physician, but they that are sick, even as the Saviour Himself has said.

But it is to be known that by 'the son of Aram' He calls the Syrian, that is, Rezin, and by 'the son of Remaliah' Pekah, who reigned over Israel, that is, over the ten tribes in Samaria.

But yet within sixty and five years the kingdom of Ephraim shall cease from being a people, and the head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is the son of Remaliah.

And if you will not believe, neither shall you understand. For those who wish to make clear the things in the God-inspired Scripture, there is surely need also of a recounting of the histories, that from every side the truth may attend upon the divine words.

The prophet therefore expounds the things in the sacred Writings, through which especially it is possible best to lay hold of the meanings of the passages before us.

And when Pekah, who was the son of Remaliah, had died in Samaria, Hoshea son of Elah succeeded to the kingdom, a wicked man, and given over to the deceits of the demons.

And while he was administering the kingdom, Shalmaneser the Assyrian went up against all Samaria, and forthwith took Hoshea, and reduced him to the rank of a household servant;

and having laid waste the whole land, and rendered it empty of the sons of Israel, he establishes in their place certain of his own inhabitants, or rather of those under his rule, both the man of Cuthah and the Sepharvite;

and these nations, I think, were Persian.

For it is written thus in the books of Kingdoms.

This history the prophet recounts to us for our benefit, saying:

But yet within sixty and five years the kingdom of Ephraim shall cease from being a people. Now the construction of the words is obscure;

but one must approach it in this way:

for the head of both the land and the city is he who reigns over them.

And the kingdom of Ephraim shall cease from being a people;

within sixty and five years the kingdom of Ephraim shall cease, that is, the kingdom of Israel.

«And the head of Ephraim, Somoron, shall likewise fail.»

By «the head of Ephraim» he means Somora, that is, Samaria; for the capital of Samaria is Somora.

for the metropolis of Samaria is Somora.

And when he says «Ephraim,» he signifies Israel.

«And the head of Somoron is the son of Romelias,» that is, Phakee.

And again the word «shall fail» runs upon all of them.

«And if you will not believe, neither shall you understand.» And the saying carries a very great fittingness.

For in those who by their unbelief outrage the word of God, there could arise no understanding of the sort that comes from Him.

For thus shall the good understanding be in us, and the illumination of the wisdom that is from Him shall flash all about the mind.

«And the Lord went on to speak to Achaz, saying:»

«Ask for yourself a sign from the Lord your God, in the depth or in the height.»

«I will not ask, neither will I tempt the Lord.» — Achaz, who occupied the thrones that governed the kingdom in Jerusalem, and who had greatly turned aside toward the wayward path, and toward clinging in affection to the false worship of demons, He tries by every means to bring over to what is better, and to persuade him that he must attain the doctrines of the truth and choose to think rightly concerning God.

Therefore, since it was of great account to the worshippers of idols, and it was their zealous concern that one ought to pry into the outcomes of affairs, and to seek oracles from shrines, and to be deceived by the words of false prophets—while dangers hung over them—He forestalls, in a manner, this thing that Achaz was about to do, and directs him toward the appointing of some sign, no longer from their customary sanctuaries, nor any longer from the false prophets, but rather from the Lord God.

And He allotted the manner of the asking to his own choice, saying:

«In the depth or in the height,» that is, either in heaven, or in earth, and in the things yet lower down.

And by this He gives full assurance, and gives us to understand that, being God and Lord of all things, He works what seems good to Him by His own authority, whether He should wish to look upon something of the things in heaven, or upon something of the things upon the earth.

Achaz, however, declines—not out of reverence for God, but rather the wretched man outrages Him, even though he cloaks himself in words of piety.

«For I will not ask,» he says, «neither will I tempt the Lord.»

For since, when God was commanding him to ask, to be unwilling to ask carried a manifest impiety, he feigns that he is unwilling to tempt, and puts forward, as it were, a legal argument:

«For you shall not tempt the Lord your God.» And yet, how shall not the argument cry down anyone whatsoever at the perversity of Achaz? For when God Himself was permitting him to ask, how was it not better to choose to do that which He had commanded, than to devise arguments in a crooked manner and to make a rotten pretext of obedience in the words «I will not tempt the Lord»? But his aim was not to admit the words that came from above and from God, but rather, crowning the diviner with the better ballot, to pry, perhaps, into the flights of birds by lying speeches, and to seek the assistances that come from the demons.

But with great forbearance, as God, He makes the prediction.

For having first laid to their charge that they reckoned it as nothing even to give offence to the God who is mighty in all things, and, as it were, to attempt—so far as it lay in them—to bring struggles and toils upon Him by refusing to walk uprightly,

then indeed, then, He makes the proclamation beforehand of the universal and most general succour.

«Even if you should choose to be sick, I bring the healing, since I am kind and a lover of mankind.»

And this has been accomplished through Christ, who has called Israel to knowledge, and has delivered him from all sin,

and from the wish to worship wood and stones.

«Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and shall bear a son, and you shall call his name Emmanuel.»

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

«And the land which you fear shall be forsaken, desolate, from before the face of the two kings.» — Now some of those who have interpreted the divine Scriptures have rendered the passage: «Behold, the young woman shall be with child.»

For they suppose that it is permissible for the power of the mystery to be rendered ineffective, if she be called a «young woman» and not rather a «virgin.»

But one might discern them to be ignorant in many ways.

For first of all, even if the virgin be called a «young woman,» she will not thereby lie outside of being a virgin.

Next, they say that the prophet spoke concerning the wife of Achaz the words «Behold, the young woman shall be with child, and shall bear a son,» so that we should understand Ezekias, who was born of him.

But not testing the words of the prophecy, they snatch at what seems so on a heedless glance, and then they suppose that they establish their own aim through this alone.

But, «O most excellent men,» one might say to them, «who called Ezekias Emmanuel? Or whence could they show that, before he knew good or evil, he refused, through wickedness, to choose the good?»

Therefore, bidding farewell to their trumpery, we shall accept what is right and true, believing that the holy Virgin is being designated by God through the prophecy set before us.

For thus the sign will be truly paradoxical and exceedingly great, having come to pass both in depth and in height alike, according to the divine promise.

For the Only-begotten Son, who is from above and begotten according to nature from God the Father, emptied Himself, and was brought forth from the virginal loins according to the flesh—His birth taking its origin not from a human casting of seed, but from the power and operation of the Holy Spirit.

For thus it was said to the holy Virgin through the voice of the blessed Gabriel:

«The Holy Spirit shall come upon you, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow you.» «She shall therefore bear,» he says, «a son.»

For when the Only-begotten Word of God appeared as one of us, then also He became «with us.»

For He who is above all creation became as we are.

But observe how, in order that He might show the same one to be truly God and man alike, he sets upon Him both the divine and the human things.

For that He has come to be in the flesh in truth, he tries to give full assurance, saying that there came to be for Him nourishment such as befits infants—butter and honey.

But that, although He had become flesh, He shall nonetheless be, as God, superior to sin, he teaches again by adding straightway: