以賽亞書註釋 第 1 章 第 26/65 段

For just as they used to mock those from Israel who took refuge among them, so, He says, shall they be laughed at, suffering the very same things as those men, and being overpowered by the hand of the Babylonians.

'Keep watch upon the battlements: I will keep watch morning and night.' The word is indeed addressed to the Idumaeans, God all but reproaching them for the vainness of their labours—those labours expended on the need to ward off their enemies, while in no way longing for the salvation and help that come from Him.

For since the assault of the Assyrians was about to come, they kept watch upon the battlements, blocking up the entrances to their cities.

But the thing was of no profit to them.

For their cities were taken, and there was none at all who was saved.

In the manner of a taunt, then, has the word from God come to them:

'Yes indeed,' He says, 'you are planning things upright and reasonable: keep watch upon the battlements.'

Then, as though from their own lips: 'I keep watch morning and night.'

In vain has the watchman kept awake. For they ought rather to have sought the help that comes from on high and from God, and not rather to have put their confidence in stones.

For they say that the walls of their cities were so shaken to pieces that not one stone was to be seen lying upon another.

'If you seek, seek, and dwell with me: in the thicket you shall lie down at evening.' For if indeed, He says, you wish to seek help, seek it from me who am mighty to save, and dwell with me—that is, be mine and be minded as I am minded, withdrawing yourself from the worship of the falsely-named gods.

Something of this kind the Saviour also says:

'He who loves me, let him follow me, and where I am, there let my servant also be.' So then, He says, when the phalanx of the enemy overruns the whole land of the Judaeans, outside both dwellings and cities, 'in the thicket you shall lie down at evening'—that is, you shall lodge together with the wild beasts;

and you shall encamp also in the marshes, and thus at last you shall pay the penalty for your cruelty toward your brethren.

For although they ought to have grieved together with those of Israel who had fallen into irremediable calamities and to have come to their aid, this they did not do;

but rather they showed themselves unaffectionate and harsh, and more savage than the cruelty of the Assyrians, cruelly slaughtering even those who had wholly succeeded in escaping the hands of those men.

So that what they ought to have done to gain a good name, this they did not do.

They ought, then, to have met the fugitives kindly.

For they turned to flight, taking no account of dwellings or cities, because of the multitude of the sword and of the dread arrows;

and because many had fallen, and the dead among them had become too many to be numbered.

'For thus said the Lord to me:

Yet a year, as the year of a hireling, and the glory of Kedar shall fail, and the remnant of the arrows of the mighty sons shall be few;

Kedar shall be small, for the Lord, the God of Israel, has spoken.' That the destruction of Idumaea has drawn near, and, as it were, has already come within the doors, and that they shall in every way and altogether be settled unto ruin, the Babylonians burning down their cities and utterly ravaging the whole land—this He clearly foretells:

'For there shall be,' He says, 'one year in between, and the archers of Kedar—and yet,' He says, 'they had held no small reputation on this very account—shall fail and perish;

and the prediction is true.

For the Lord, the God of Israel, has spoken;

and the Truth shall in no way lie.'

By 'the year of a hireling' He means the one that is precisely measured out.

For he who has entered upon the sweat of hired labour, and has let himself out for hire to another, always somehow reckons finely and precisely the measure of the time of his hire.

And let these things now be said as regards the letter and indeed the historical sense.

But carrying over the force of the word to the holy Church and her nurslings, and moreover to the flocks of the heterodox, we say this:

Then, subjecting them to bitter persecutions, they at times encompass them with unbearable sufferings.

And likewise those who hold in mind and heart the venom of the unholy heresies, though they steal the name of Christians and feign brotherhood toward us, at times outdo the savagery of our enemies, being both unaffectionate and merciless.

And indeed, being such, in what respect are they not convicted by their very deeds? But God will not bear with them forever, nor will He in any way endure those who are exceedingly devoid of affection, but will rather bring upon them the things that come from wrath and justice.

THE VISION OF THE VALLEY OF ZION. Having foretold the capture of the Egyptians, the Assyrians, and the Idumaeans, the prophet comes now to the holy city itself, that is, to Jerusalem;

and he profitably relates beforehand the things that shall befall her in due seasons through the divine wrath;

in order that they might know that the God of all, being the president of righteousness—or rather the very thing itself, righteousness—

does not honour and receive and count worthy of His care simply the one who has become His own merely through being trained by the Law;

but rather He tests the things lived out by each one, and to those whose habit is good He apportions good things;

but He considers as a stranger, and as in no way made His own, the lover of baseness, even though he chance to be beloved on account of his fathers.

The peoples of the Judaeans, then, out of exceedingly great ignorance, supposed that they would be altogether uncapturable by their enemies, and, with none at all assailing them, that they would live out a quiet life amid very great prosperity—and this though they were offending God and had turned aside into very great impiety.

For they had worshipped idols, and having set up seats and altars beneath oak and white poplar, they offered sacrifices to the vain things and performed libations, having utterly disregarded the glory owed to the all-holy God.

And so indeed, through the voice of Jeremiah, He says to them concerning Jerusalem:

'And do not say that it is the temple of the Lord, for unless by amending you amend your ways and your doings, I will make this house as Shiloh.' And again He accused them through Micah the prophet, saying:

'Her leaders judged with gifts, and her priests answered for hire, and her prophets divined for silver, and they leaned upon the Lord, saying:

Is not the Lord in our midst? No evils shall come upon us.'

'Offspring of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance, and do not presume to say within yourselves that we have Abraham for a father;

for I say to you that God is able of these stones to raise up children to Abraham.

And already the axe lies at the root of the trees;

every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and cast into the fire.' Since, then, Israel had an unbridled inclination toward the need to transgress, and was devoted, as I said just now, to the false worships of the idols, God foreshows through the prophet the capture of Jerusalem that would come in due seasons, and says:

'What has happened to you now, that you have all gone up to the vain housetops? The city was filled with those crying out;

your wounded are not wounded by the sword, nor are your dead the dead of war.' It seems, then, to indicate here the devastation in the times of Jeconiah;

knowing how to set right through the most acute calamities that which tends to their benefit, and which was to become for them the procurer of the favour that comes from on high.

For they ought, weeping and lamenting, to have gone up into the house of God, and to have promised repentance, and to have asked for a remembrance in regard to the things in which they had acted insolently, and to have sought the helping hand of Him alone.

And this He Himself taught, speaking through one of the holy prophets:

'Gird yourselves and lament, O priests; wail, you who minister at the altar; enter in, sleep in sackcloth, you who minister to God, for sacrifice and libation are withheld from your house;

sanctify a fast, proclaim a solemn service, gather together all the elders who dwell in the land into the house of your God, and cry earnestly to the Lord: Alas, alas, for the day!' These things, then, they ought to have done, propitiating Him who is mighty to save when He was provoked.

But they, not even taking to heart, perhaps, that it was fitting to do these things, would by no means fulfil them, but went up to the topmost parts of their houses, and everywhere there were wailings, and lamentations of children, being consumed perhaps by famine and thirst.

For these things must needs come to pass in cities that are being besieged.

The lamentation ought to have been directed toward repentance; the tear ought to have been poured out toward God.

'Behold,' He says, 'before joining battle, before laying hold of the sword, before rehearsing the resistance, the city has become full of the dead.'

It is therefore useful and necessary unto salvation to know how to set right the things through which one might have God as saviour, even if one should come to be in bitter calamities.

'O Lord, God of hosts, blessed is the man who hopes in you.' And it is to be known that by 'valleys of Zion' he names Jerusalem.

For Zion is a mountain, or rather is upon a mountain;

It lies beneath the mountain-slopes of Jerusalem, whence he also calls her the ravine of Zion.

'All thy princes have fled, and they that are taken are cruelly bound, and the mighty men in thee have fled far off.' For the people of the Jews, having forsaken, as I said, God the Saviour of all, and having placed their confidence in the aid that comes from men, expected to be saved.

But when the enemy came, and the dread of suffering was at its height, and they beheld the ranks of the Assyrians now surrounding the country—that is, the holy city—those in office and in the highest honours leapt away;

as from a sinking ship they swam away, saving themselves, and to those who had hoped in them all but bade farewell.

'They have all fled, then,' he says, 'who of old promised to save thee, and who were supposed to have a hand hard to withstand;'

'and those indeed who were captured are cruelly bound.'

For Zedekiah was taken together with his sons;

and the Babylonians slaughtered the sons, but him, with his eyes put out, they carried off into their own land.

Vain, therefore, is the salvation of men, according to that which is written.

'I will not trust in my bow, neither shall my sword save me.' For the Lord of hosts alone saves those who love him, and delivers them from every evil, so that they may even say rejoicing:

the voice of the prophet all but weeping and lamenting over the calamities of his race.

but rather brought upon them unbearably, its onslaught being bitter and heedless of admonition.

'For a day of trouble and of destruction and of trampling has been brought by the Lord of Sabaoth.'

For who shall turn back the uplifted hand? For if the actions of the Assyrian assault had been carried out apart from wrath from above, there would have been very great hope for the afflicted, that they might sometimes even be able to prevail over those who came against them, since God who rules over all was stretching out to them the hand that ever saves.

But since it is he himself who smites, and the trampling is from the Lord, who shall overturn it? 'For if he shut against a man, who shall open?' he says.

'They wander from small to great, they wander upon the mountains.' Marvel at the sobriety of the Spirit-bearer.

For since he had said that from the Lord of Sabaoth would be brought the trouble and the destruction and the day of trampling, lest anyone should think that the divine wrath had leapt upon them in vain, he at once cuts off the suspicion of those who, out of levity, were sometimes expected to fall into such folly regarding this;

and he joins to it the defence, that the Maker of all things may appear as a righteous judge.

'For they wander,' he says, 'from small to great, they wander upon the mountains.' And what this means you will learn from the very words of God.

For he said somewhere to the blessed prophet Jeremiah:

'Hast thou seen what the habitation of Israel has done to me? She went upon every high mountain, and under every shady tree, and there they committed fornication.'

For seizing the high places of the mountains, they set up hills and sacred precincts.

Then, having fashioned some idol that seemed good to them, they offered sacrifices to it, and having utterly abandoned all reverence toward God, they said to the wood, 'Thou art my father,' and to the stone, 'Thou didst beget me.'

Did but few, then, suffer this? By no means, he says;

for the whole race and whole household went astray, small and great.

And indeed he said again to the blessed prophet Jeremiah:

'And thou, pray not for this people, and ask not for them in supplication and prayer, for I will not hearken.'

'Dost thou not see what these do in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem? Their sons gather wood, and their fathers kindle fire;

and their wives knead dough to make cakes to the host of heaven;

and they poured out drink-offerings to strange gods, that they might provoke me to anger.' By a holy verdict, then, have they been punished.

For having ascribed worship to the creation and having served the works of their own hands, they themselves drew down upon their own heads the things that come from the divine wrath.

For not unjustly are nets spread for the winged creatures, according to that which is written;

and God subjects to penalties the one who dishonours his glory, and who by a wandering mind has turned aside to any and every one of the outlandish things.

'And the Elamites took quivers, men mounted upon horses, and a gathering of battle-array.'

'And thy choice valleys shall be filled with chariots, and the horsemen shall block up thy gates, and shall uncover the gates of Judah;'

so then, as though already beholding the throngs present and having come within the gates, he says such things.

And the Elamites are, as it were, from a Persian city, from which they are named.

But some say they are horsemen, Saracens, and these are mounted archers and among the most exceedingly accurate marksmen, hard and unbending, and knowing not how to show mercy.

And that they are also superior in number he teaches, saying:

'thy gates,' so that those wishing to drive through are exceedingly cramped;

And let these things again be said with regard to the historical sense.

But if, after the manner of enemies, there should drive into the human mind either throngs of senseless reasonings, or of fleshly pleasures;

they gain the mastery as of a captured city;

and they make away with all its spiritual wealth, driving out all godliness, and stripping it of the splendid deeds of valour that come from virtue.

For this reason the God-inspired Scripture says:

'If the spirit of the ruler rise up against thee, leave not thy place, for healing will make to cease great sins.' For such passions, when checked, come to be less, and sobriety profits those who make use of it.

But when they creep ever toward the worse with unrestrained and unrebuked impulses, they shake from their foundations those who are spiritually drowsy.

'And they saw that they were many, and that they had turned back the water of the ancient pool into the city, and that they had pulled down the houses of Jerusalem for a fortification of the wall to the city.'

'And ye made for yourselves water between the two walls, within the ancient pool, and ye looked not to him who made it from the beginning, and ye saw not him who created it.' Again he brings accusation against the people of the Jews—that is, those set in authority and adorned with the highest honours—as having sinned against prudent reasoning, and having acted senselessly, doing not what was likely to be able to preserve Jerusalem in her peril, but such things as rendered the wrath that had fallen upon them more savage, since in a manner God who rules over all was being provoked and sharpened still more greatly to indignation against them, inasmuch as he was despised, and no one any longer trusted in him;

but rather, those of Israel supposed by exertions and human endeavours that they would be able to prevail over the hand of the enemy.

For they say that, having numbered the houses of the city, and then having measured out the reserve of water as if by estimation, they perceived that they were many, and they channelled the water of the ancient pool into the city, so that they might have, as they supposed among themselves, what could suffice, even if the time of the siege should somehow become rather long.

And in addition to this they made the fortifications of the walls, he says, pulling down the houses of the city.

'And ye looked not to him who made it from the beginning, and ye saw not him who created it.'

For it behoved—yea, it behoved, he says—that they should not rather take courage in their own powers, that is, in their good fortunes, but should raise up the eye of the mind to him who ever walls about the holy city.

'For the mountains,' he says, 'are round about her, and the Lord is round about his people,' which also through the voice of the prophet he promises to her, saying:

'And I will be to her, saith the Lord, a wall of fire round about, and I will be for glory in the midst of her;'

'but ye counted the matter of no account,' he says, 'and ye despised the things that come from God, and, as though in no way standing in need of the help from above, ye most senselessly took courage in devices of stones.'

'But it were far better that ye should call upon the invincible hand, and seek to receive the things that come from the gentleness and lovingkindness of God, and name him Saviour and Redeemer, and, being so disposed, let fall the tear over your repentance.'

'And the Lord of Sabaoth called in that day for weeping and mourning, and for shaving of the head, and for the girding on of sackcloth; but they made merriment and gladness, slaying calves and sacrificing sheep, so as to eat flesh and drink wine, saying:'

'Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.'

'And these things are revealed in the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth, that this sin shall not be forgiven you until ye die.' It is true that, according to that which is written,

one might behold those of Israel to have suffered.

For being in dread of every evil, and seeing the peril suspended over them from the cruelty of the Assyrians, then, when it was needful that, lamenting over their own slackness, they should propitiate God, and make beating of the breast and shaving of the head and girding on of sackcloth—the occasion calling them to this—they turned to everything contrary.

For as though giving up in despair, and as if utterly benumbed with grief, they pursued luxuries, and busied themselves fulfilling the works of merriment, slaughtering calves and sheep, getting drunk and revelling in pleasures beyond satiety, and moreover calling out to one another the words of desperation and of a savage and reckless mind:

'Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.' For they supposed, as was likely, that God too would be deaf to such things;

'But these things are revealed,' he says, 'in his ears;'

'and this sin would not be forgiven you until ye die'—that is, ye shall utterly perish into death and corruption, and that too because of this your sin.

It behoves us, therefore, in days of wrath—that is, when we are shattered by the terrors that come from trials—not to fall back into slackness, but rather to mourn and to draw near in tears to the good-loving God, and, chastising ourselves with the labours of fasting, to seek to be shown mercy, crying out that word through the voice of the Psalmist:

'Look upon my humiliation and my toil, and forgive all my sins.' And since the prophet says in these passages that 'the Lord of Sabaoth called in that day for weeping and mourning, and for shaving of the head, and for the girding on of sackcloth,' I thought it needful to weave into the discourse the words of Micah—or rather those that came from God through the prophet.

And now saith the Lord our God:

'Return to me with your whole heart, with fasting and with weeping and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments, and turn to the Lord your God, for he is merciful and compassionate, longsuffering and full of pity, and one who relents over evils.'

'Who knows whether he will turn and repent, and leave behind him a blessing, an offering and a drink-offering to the Lord our God? Sound the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast, proclaim a healing, gather the people, sanctify the Church, choose out elders, gather the infants that suck the breasts; let the bridegroom go forth from his chamber, and the bride from her nuptial bower.'

'Between the base and the altar let the priests who minister to the Lord weep, and let them say:'

'Spare, O Lord, your people, and give not your inheritance to reproach, that the nations should rule over them, lest they say among the nations, Where is their God?' Since God at that time was calling for weeping and mourning, for the shaving of the head and the girding on of sackcloth, they instead made merriment, whetting against themselves, and still more grievously provoking to unrestrained wrath the One who is able both to destroy and to save.

Thus says the Lord of Sabaoth:

'Go to the treasury-chamber, to Shebna the steward, and say to him:'

'What have you here, and what is yours here, that you have hewn out for yourself here a tomb, and made for yourself a sepulchre on a height, and carved for yourself a dwelling in the rock? Behold now, the Lord of Sabaoth shall cast out and grind down the man, and shall strip off your robe, and your glorious crown, and shall hurl you into a vast and measureless land, and there you shall die;'

'and he shall turn your fine chariot into dishonour, and the house of your prince into a thing trodden underfoot, and you shall be removed from your stewardship and from your standing.' Shebna was steward of moneys, though of what kind is not yet clear — whether of the sacred moneys apportioned to the temple, or of the royal ones; yet he seems rather to have been set over the collection of the sacred moneys, and over those which were necessarily and usefully expended at times for the repair of the sacred vessels.

They say that he too was of the blood of Levi, and was seen to be distinguished by the honours of the high priesthood.

He was exceedingly haughty, and hard to approach for those in distress, one who pounced upon opportunities for greed, and was overcome by shameful gains, a lover of vainglory, and one ever hunting after honours from men.

For this reason, and very fittingly, being abhorrent to God — since Judaea was now all but about to be laid waste, and Jerusalem herself about to be taken, when the victorious Babylonians carried off Israel captive into their own land — this Shebna was fashioning for himself a splendid tomb, and lavishing upon it a most costly construction.

So it was in due course that the word came to him from God.

For what does he say to the prophet? 'Go to the treasury-chamber' — this is a place in the temple — 'to Shebna the steward, and say to him:'

For, as I have said, the most powerful had gone away into captivity together with the common folk, though they had held a preeminence set apart above the rest.

But when he too was carried off into captivity, the crown of his high priesthood was taken away, and he was cast like a useless vessel into a measureless land, there to die utterly bereft of all mercy, no longer borne aloft in splendid chariots as before, but rather shaken and thrust out entirely from the stewardship committed to him and from his standing — that is, from standing before God and ministering to him.

'And it shall be in that day, I will call my servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, and I will clothe him with your robe, and I will give him your crown, and I will give the dominion and the stewardship into his hands;'

'and I will set him as a ruler in a sure place, and he shall be for a throne of glory to the house of his father, and every glorious one in the house of his father shall trust upon him, from small to great, and they shall hang upon him in that day.' The narrative of the history has not yet departed, for it is still borne on concerning Shebna the steward, who obtained the glory of the priesthood but so misused it, going against everyone whom he had brought under his yoke, that he coveted beyond all endurance and, quite simply, left no outrageous deed unpractised.

So when he had been cast out — that is, carried off into a far and measureless land — 'I will call,' he says, at that time, 'my servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah.'

By calling him his own servant, he bore witness to his obedience;

and that he would graciously bestow upon him the glory of the priesthood he makes plain;

promising to crown him, and saying that he would give him a robe, and the stewardship and the dominion — that is, the power to rule over the peoples under his hand.

And in addition to these things he bore witness that he would be kindly, not haughty like Shebna, but as a father, or as one faithful and good.

And on this account he shall also be established in a sure place — that is, being securely preserved and abiding, so that every glorious and eminent one all but places his hope even upon him, not as upon God (far from it!), but as upon a kindly father.

For he shall stand before and shield both small and great, he says.

And he shall be so beloved, that the peoples under his hand shall seem even to hang upon him.

And these things, as I have said, the account of the history brings to us.

But again, through the innermost contemplation, it seems to hint to us at the mystery of Christ.

For the scribes and Pharisees, crowned with the priesthood according to the law, proved to be not obedient, but hard and boastful, lovers of money and lovers of fat purses, practising every single thing that is abhorrent to God.

And indeed the prophet Isaiah himself says at the beginning of the book:

'...righteousness lodged in her, but now they are murderers. Your silver is base;'

'your tavern-keepers mix the wine with water;'

'your rulers are disobedient, companions of thieves, loving gifts, pursuing recompense, not giving judgement for the orphans, and not attending to the cause of the widow.'

And the Saviour himself likewise accuses them, saying thus:

'Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you tithe the dill and the mint and the cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law, judgement, mercy, and faith.' And, more unholy than even these things, they became slayers of the Lord.

For this cause they were thrust out from the privileges of the priesthood, removed from ruling over the peoples, and cast out from the stewardship committed to them according to the law; they were placed outside the sacred crowns and the priestly robe;

and after them our Lord Jesus Christ was called, our great high priest.

For as the blessed Paul writes:

'No one seizes the honour for himself, but he who is called by God, just as Christ did not glorify himself to become a high priest, but he who said to him, You are a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek.' For being God by nature and Lord of all, and receiving the worship of all, since he became man, he was designated our high priest also.

But by Israel we mean not the one that is altogether according to the flesh, but the one that is spiritual and understood in the mind.