以賽亞書註釋 第 1 章 第 41/65 段

What have they seen in your house? And Hezekiah said:

They have seen all that is in my house, and there is nothing in my house which they have not seen; and they have also seen the things that are in my treasures.

Hear the word of the Lord of hosts:

Behold, days are coming, and they shall take away all that is in your house, and whatever your fathers have gathered until this day; it shall go to Babylon, and they shall leave nothing at all;

for they shall also take of your sons whom you have begotten, and they shall make them eunuchs in the house of the king of the Babylonians.' Now the prophet has been sent by God, yet at first, having met with Hezekiah, he feigns to speak as though he had come of his own accord.

'What do these men say?' The word was spoken by him with much tact.

For the Babylonians had come, doubtless eager, as I said, to learn the cause of the backward return of the sun, and on account of what so celebrated a sign had come about.

But he, although rather, as I said, he ought to have recounted to them the divine supremacy, and that creation yields to His nods, showed instead the house of the spices and of the treasury.

And to this the king said nothing at all; but that they had come from Babylon and from a far country — just this and this only did he say.

So then, when the prophet asked what indeed they had beheld, and the king said that nothing had been left unseen by them, he declares that days will come in which all the things in his treasures, gathered by the diligence and care of those before him, shall be transferred to the Babylonians; and he added to these things that also from the sons who should in time be his — in the more distant successions of his line — they, the artificers of these deeds, would make eunuchs, that is, castrated men, in the house of the king of the Babylonians.

'And Hezekiah said to Isaiah:

Good is the word of the Lord which He has spoken;

but let there be peace and righteousness in my days.' He was at a loss for a defence, and having no word to come to the aid of his own faults, he says that the word of God is good — even though it had foretold beforehand things at which it was fitting that an uncontrollable flood of tears should pour from the eyes.

Then he seeks the peace spoken of as concerning his own days [variant reading:

peace], all but even declaring that those who should come after him might fare well, while sparing utterly no thought for his own land together with his own city and race.

But it would have been better for him to lament over what had been foretold, and to entreat mercy from God even for those who should come after him — not to ask for a temporary and restricted prosperity.

Yet indeed the mind of man is exceedingly weak, and we stumble in many things, according to what is written; and no one among us at all could become quick-witted and wise, but often even a God-loving heart and an admired mind fall away into that which is not right.

'Comfort, comfort My people, says God;

priests, speak to the heart of Jerusalem, comfort her, for her humiliation is fulfilled;

her sin is loosed, for she has received from the Lord's hand double for her sins.' The discourse has passed over to the things in Christ, and it now makes plain proclamation of the grace that is through Him;

yet it is seen to have advanced not outside of what is fitting, nor indeed introduced at a season not proper.

For perhaps some of those not very exact concerning the things in the divine Scripture might say:

In what manner, then, does the prophet here make the proclamation concerning Christ a neighbour to the words of Hezekiah? And we shall answer this by saying the following:

that, having made mention of the final capture of the land of the Jews, and of Jerusalem itself, the discourse has of necessity, as being now in due season and need, introduced the comfort that came from God thereafter.

But I will state briefly the exact clarification of the things just now spoken by us.

For very many assaults have come against Jerusalem, and the land of the Jews has often been laid waste;

on the one hand by the hand of the Assyrians;

on the other by the neighbouring barbarians, and indeed by certain others who ravaged it.

Then came the final capture, that by Nebuchadnezzar in the times of the reign of Jeconiah, when Israel too was carried away captive into the land of those who had taken them.

And in the times of the reign of Cyrus he was released from the captivity and returned to Judea, and rebuilt the temple, and they dwelt undivided until the coming of our Saviour.

Therefore it has made mention of the last captivity, when the Babylonians, having come and taken [variant reading:

having taken] all the things in the treasures of the kings of Judea, returned to their own land; and of necessity it makes the proclamation of the comfort that came about thereafter — clearly the comfort that is through Christ — to those who minister the divine Gospel, commanding and saying:

'Comfort, comfort My people, says God.' For the coming of Christ became a comfort unto salvation, especially first to those of Israel, as He who was foretold through it plainly declares:

'I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.' 'O then,' He says, 'you priests, O ministers of the new oracles and of those through Christ, speak to the heart of Jerusalem' — that is, make the word of comfort readily acceptable to those who hear.

For the Law was burdensome to all, teaching shadows and types;

it did not instil into the mind and heart the instruction concerning necessary things for those who heard, but scarcely implanted a kind of external knowledge, such as consists in mere letters.

But the saving and evangelical proclamation is spoken as the Holy Spirit reveals the depth of each one's understanding, and sends in spiritual contemplations, and fixes fast the words of the saints, and, as it were, burns them into the innermost recesses of the mind.

'In my heart I have hidden Your oracles, that I might not sin against You.' But the Saviour also addressed the holy apostles, saying: 'Lay you up in your hearts a word' — clearly the word that is from Him, and saving.

And that the evangelical proclamation is spoken into the mind and heart by the holy initiators into the mysteries, the Holy Spirit working together toward this — or rather, accomplishing the whole — faith in this would follow from the sacred Scriptures.

For God said somewhere through one of the holy prophets:

'Behold, days are coming, says the Lord, and I will accomplish over the house of Israel and over the house of Judah a new covenant.'

'not according to the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day when I took hold of their hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; for they did not continue in my covenant.'

'And I disregarded them, says the Lord. For this is the covenant which I will make with them in those days, says the Lord:'

'putting my laws into their mind, and I will inscribe them upon their hearts.' And the blessed Paul too writes to certain persons:

to whom it would be most fitting to be able to speak also of that which is written in hearts.

'Comfort her, therefore.'

And saying what, pray? That the God of all has ceased from the wrath that came upon them.

'Her humiliation is fulfilled.' For she has been sufficiently humbled, he says, and her sin has been loosed.

'For she has received of the Lord's hand double for her sins.' Was God then punishing beyond what was due, and imposing penalties not equal to the offences, but far exceeding them, and as it were double? Then how is the matter not incredible?

And then, how is the matter not implausible? And how shall he speak truly when he says:

'The Lord will not take vengeance twice for the same thing in affliction'? How then must one understand what has been said? For it is as when some father who loves his child and has the greatest tenderness of heart, when one of his sons who has offended has grieved him but a little, thinks perhaps that even the movement made against him has gone beyond due measure;

and the cause of this is affection, and the disposition which is owed by a father toward his children;

and it was not chastised in equal measure with what proceeded from him.

'For truly the Lord is compassionate and merciful, long-suffering and abounding in mercy, and true, and he has not dealt with us according to our iniquities, nor requited us according to our sins. A voice of one crying in the wilderness:'

'Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths.'

'Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low;'

'and all the crooked places shall become straight, and the rough way a plain; and the glory of the Lord shall be seen, and all flesh shall see the salvation of God, for the Lord has spoken.' By saying that Israel has been redeemed, and that Jerusalem has been delivered also from her own transgressions, and by commanding that she be comforted, he all but shows the time of comfort as one that comes and hastens close upon the heels of what has been said;

and this is the time of the coming of our Saviour, whose forerunner, the inspired Baptist, entered upon the wilderness of Judea, crying aloud and saying:

'Prepare the way of the Lord;'

'make straight the paths of our God.' Foreknowing this in the Spirit, the blessed Zechariah too, who became the father of that same John, prophesied, saying:

'And you, child, shall be called a prophet of the Most High;'

'for you shall go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways.' And concerning him the Saviour said to them:

'He was the lamp that burned and shone. But you were willing for an hour to rejoice in his light.' For the Sun of righteousness and the true Light is Christ.

But sacred Scripture likens the blessed Baptist to a lamp.

For as compared with the divine and ineffable Light, with the unutterable and surpassingly great splendour, the measure of the human mind might reasonably be likened to a small lamp, even if it should become full of light and wisdom.

What then is the meaning of 'Prepare the way of the Lord,' and of the requirement that his paths be made straight? He makes it plain by adding:

'Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low, and all the crooked places shall become straight, and the rough way a plain.' For there are certain highways, or paths, by no means passable, but rough and hard to traverse, so that in one place they rise up toward mountains and hills, and in another are carried down and hang over deep precipices.

But if somehow it should come about that the high and steep places subside, and the hollow and deep places are filled up, then indeed, then in every way and altogether the crooked places shall become straight, and turn into bare plains, and the rough and ravine-like places shall have their road as it were level.

When did this happen? This came to pass in a spiritual sense through the might of our Saviour.

For of old, so to speak, for all men the excellent life was hard to travel, and the path of the evangelical way of life was untrodden, because the mind of all was held fast by worldly and earthly desires, and was borne down by the disordered impulses of the flesh.

But when, having become man, that is, flesh, according to the Scriptures, he abolished sin in the flesh, and cast down principalities and powers and the world-rulers of this world, he made the way to godliness smooth and most easy to run, having nothing steep in it, nor lifted up on high, nor anything hollow below, but rather levelled into plains.

All the crooked places have become straight.

As man he showed himself, by dispensation, equal in power, equal in work, and equal in glory to God the Father, upholding all things by the word of his power, and easily accomplishing divine signs, rebuking creation, raising the dead, and effecting the rest of his miracles without toil.

Therefore the glory of the Lord was seen;

and all flesh beheld the salvation of God, that is, plainly, of the Father.

For he sent us the Son from heaven as Saviour and Redeemer.

For since the law perfected nothing, and the sacrifices which were in types had not the power to wipe away sins, in Christ we are perfected, and being freed from every stain, we are honoured with the Spirit of adoption.

And the grace bestowed upon this, so far as it concerns the purpose of the one who saves, would extend to all flesh, that is, to all men.

For 'flesh' in these words must be understood to mean man.

But if some should appear to have missed salvation, the word of the prophet would nonetheless be free of falsehood, even so.

For it is the purpose of him who has honoured

and who willed to save that is examined, and not the sloth of those who are called.

And he necessarily adds that 'the Lord has spoken,' lest anyone think that he speaks falsely, or utters something merely from his own heart, or perchance blurts out what seems good to him.

But because it was that which seemed good to God, and that which shall in every way and altogether come to pass, that he foretold.

'What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of the grass.'

'The grass has withered, and the flower has fallen;'

'the word of God abides forever.' Because it is not otherwise possible for those who truly love him and yearn to attain him to see the salvation of God, save only by choosing to think and to do the things that seem good and dear to him: this he establishes as plain.

For he dwells in our hearts through faith, and having been enriched with his divine Spirit, we have him in ourselves.

For it is a possession worthy to be gained, and the procurer of life unto the age.

But if someone should wish to understand 'the word of God' as his commandment,

we say that this too is profitable in no small measure,

according to what was said by the Saviour himself:

'Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he shall never see death forever.'

'Go up onto a high mountain, you who bring good tidings to Zion; lift up your voice with strength, you who bring good tidings to Jerusalem;'

'say to the cities of Judah:'

'Behold your God, behold the Lord comes with strength, and his arm with dominion.'

'Behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him.'

'As a shepherd he shall tend his flock, and with his arm he shall gather the lambs, and comfort those that are with young.' To those who minister the divine and saving proclamation, I mean the holy apostles and evangelists, or, quite simply, those who from time to time have been set over the reasonable flocks and have the mystagogic office, he shows in these words in what manner they may be lovers of God, and renowned, and full of the highest glory.

For it is not fitting, he says, that one who brings good tidings to those everywhere of the glory and salvation of God should do so fearfully, and in a shrinking manner, and striving to escape notice;

but rather, having become as it were exalted on high, and visible to all, and with much boldness, as though leaping upon a mountain, they should use, so to speak, a far-carrying voice, one free from all dread.

'And now, Lord, look upon their threats,' plainly those of the Jews, 'and grant to your servants to speak your word with boldness.'

'Lift up your voice, then, do not be afraid,' he says.

'Proclaim to the cities of Judah, Your God! Behold, the Lord comes with strength, and his arm with dominion.'

By adding the word 'Behold,' he does not allow the hope of the coming to be stretched out to a length, but shows the Redeemer as one who is all but present already, and after a little while to be at hand, or rather as one who has already somehow come to the very door.

For he has commanded them, as it were, to stretch out the hand, and to point out with the finger the one who has been foretold.

And that he will be present to the suppliants not as one of the holy prophets, nor indeed in a measured way, but in lordly authority, and in power and dominion most befitting God, he made clear by saying, 'He comes with strength, and his arm with dominion.' For the inspired prophets besought that certain things might come to be from God, and indeed might belong to the peoples under their hand.

But the Saviour and Lord of all, not lifting up prayer, nor indeed receiving anything by request and then giving it, but as truly Son, distributed the good things from the Father to those who believed in him with the dignity befitting one who is free; and he wrought all things using his own power, and moreover his own authority.

And that the mystery of the dispensation shall not be fruitless for him who became as we are, and endured the cross and the death upon it, he shows by saying:

'Behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him,' and he names as 'reward' the fruit that comes from dying according to the flesh.

For he said, 'Truly I say to you, unless the grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone by itself;'

'but if it dies, it produces much fruit.' And again:

'If I be lifted up from the earth, I shall draw all men unto Myself.' For as Paul says:

'He endured the cross, despising the shame,'

'that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things on earth, and things under the earth.'

'All nations whom Thou hast made shall come and worship before Thee, O Lord.' Therefore the divine dispensation is neither without reward nor without fruit.

And it came to pass, and it was, as it were, in His sight as of one shepherding His own flocks, and with His arm—that is, with His might—gathering the lambs.

For those who believed on Him, being like newborn and recently-born sheep, were created anew unto newness of life, having plainly obtained the regeneration that is from above and through the Spirit.

Therefore they long for the reasonable milk, being nourished in an infantlike manner at the beginning, but afterward ascending even to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.

So then the lambs were shepherded, but certain ones were also comforted who are pregnant, that is, who have in the womb.

For those from among the Gentiles might rightly be understood as lambs, as it were newly appearing and newly born.

But one might say that those who have in the womb are they who are already in travail with the word concerning Him, drawn as they are from the teachings of the Law and the proclamations of the prophets.

For Christ has saved not only those from among the Gentiles, but also those from the blood of Israel, to whom indeed He says He was especially sent; and these too have been comforted, confirming by faith the accurate knowledge of the mystery that had come running to them.

For the mystery of Christ has been marvelled at, and in unspeakable words the word of the dispensation is beheld.

And it seems to me fitting, using the words of Paul at the proper occasion, to say:

'O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!'

'How unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out!'

'For who hath known the mind of the Lord?' Would not one very reasonably say that these things are kindred to what has been set before us? For a deep and incomprehensible depth shines forth in the divine contemplations.

And just as it is altogether beyond contrivance and impossible for the whole of the water to be measured by a human hand, and the heaven by a span, and all the earth in the hollow of the hand, and for the weight of the mountains, however great it may be, to be made manifest by scale and balance, in this same manner no one could comprehend the mind of the Lord.

And He confirms this, Himself saying through one of the holy prophets:

'For My ways are not as your ways, but as the heaven is distant from the earth, so are My ways distant from your ways, and your thoughts from My understanding.' 'For of what counsellor,' He says, 'did I ever have need, who should advise or instruct, or show Him judgment'—that is, righteousness, or righteous judgment—'or the way of understanding?'

For if He is very wisdom itself, and He it is who makes every mind wise, and is the supplier of the light of understanding to the rational creation—

how could He have need of another, or in what manner could anyone find fault with whatever He might purpose? Now that the prophet effects a great benefit hereby for his hearers—

For already certain of the unbelieving dare still to say:

'For why was it necessary that the Word of God should become as we are, and endure the flesh, and the defilement that comes from it, when He willed to save those on earth—and this though He says that as God it is nothing hard to consent to, and to accomplish whatever He pleases?'

'Then how has He not become man in vain?' And beset by strange notions, impiously reducing the dispensation to something unseemly, they war against the glory of the mystery.

The prophet therefore checks their senseless and empty counsels in these words:

and he says that the wisdom in God is incomprehensible, and the mind in Him, even though He is very wisdom and mind itself, the most supreme and most pure; so that thereafter the argument of the unbelievers would be inadmissible—nay rather they would justly be laughed at, who have dared, I know not how, to rebuke the dispensation of the Only-begotten with flesh as though it had not come to pass rightly.

'Who has measured the water in his hand, and the heaven with a span,' and so forth—these fit the God who rules over all, as being able to measure out the water, and heaven and earth, mountains and valleys, and having, quite simply, knowledge of all things, even of things unattainable; who grasps the whole of what has come into being, and to whom the things that are of such greatness and mass among the creatures, and those conceived in immeasurable multitude, are as nothing.

But if anyone should choose to understand it thus, he would perhaps do no wrong.

{TOME 5.} 'If all the nations are reckoned as a drop from a bucket, and as the turning of a balance, and shall be reckoned as spittle? But Lebanon is not sufficient for burning, and all the four-footed beasts are not sufficient for a whole burnt offering, and all the nations are as nothing, and were reckoned as nothing.'

'To whom have ye likened the Lord, and with what likeness have ye likened Him? Has a craftsman made an image, or a goldsmith, having melted gold, overlaid Him with it? For a craftsman chooses wood that does not rot, and wisely seeks how he shall set up its image, that it may not be shaken.'

for He laid down His life for His own sheep.

reasoning with those who still worship the creature rather than the Creator, and drawing them away from their ancient, ancestral, and inherited error, and transferring them to what is better, and bringing them up to a knowledge befitting man.

He therefore shows the immeasurable pre-eminence of the God who rules over all, and the transcendent dignity of the magnificence that is in Him, and that all things are small to Him, and would be reckoned equal to nothing—as compared, I say, to the surpassing height of the power and glory that is in Him.

'If all the nations are reckoned as a drop from a bucket, and as the turning of a balance, and shall be reckoned as spittle.'

But these are small things, and altogether worthy of nothing.

For what is a single drop falling down from a bucket? And what would the turning of a balance be, bringing to equality that which seems to have been overbalanced? And what is spittle, that is, the human spitting? 'But not even Lebanon,' He says, 'would suffice Him for burning, nor all the four-footed beasts for a whole burnt offering.'

And such things are altogether contemptible;

and even if all things should be brought to Him for a whole burnt offering, these too are to be cast behind the glory of God.

'And if all the nations,' He says, 'are as nothing, and were reckoned as nothing, with what likeness have ye likened Him?' For what shall be the thing resembling Him, and standing equal to Him, whether in nature, or in weight, or even in respect of renown? Is it then by the arts of a craftsman, and the skills of a woodworker? Is it by goldsmiths, or has He been shaped, as in an image, into some one of the creatures? Or has He been made, He says, a man-shaped statue? By no means.

For nothing could ever become equal to Him.

For being God by nature, and there being no other alongside Him, He assuredly transcends all things in every way.

Having declared Him therefore to be beyond all that has been made and called into being, He thereafter derides the making of idols, and says that a craftsman chooses wood that does not rot, and wisely seeks how he shall set up its image, that it may not be shaken;

so that it would belong to the craftsman's skill to fashion for those in error, according to the measure of the understanding that is in them, a god after their own opinion, secured with the utmost safety, that it may not be shaken and be broken to pieces by falling.

The worshippers of idols were then, it seems, in scarcity of gods, if there were no craftsman's skill upon the earth;

but neither would the things made with hands have been preserved, unless the artificer had wisely sought out the means by which they might stand, and have their base unshaken.

'The idols of the nations are silver and gold, the works of men's hands.' And He adds to these:

'Will ye not know? will ye not hear?'—that is, did ye not know? did ye not hear? was it not declared to you from the beginning? did ye not know the foundations of the earth? And by the foundations of the earth He means its uttermost and outermost parts.

'Ye then have known,' He says, 'ye who are from the ends to the ends.'

'Ye have heard, and it was declared to you from the beginning.'

And what was declared? That He who is God by nature and in truth is one and alone;

but wood and stones and nothing else are the things fashioned by men for us into gods.

For the God-inspired Scripture has not been silent;

but rather from of old the knowledge of the truth has been proclaimed, through the patriarchs, through the Law and the prophets.

For it was not when the Only-begotten Word of God, having become as we are, shone forth as man to those upon the earth,

that then and for the first time, in these last calumnies, the going-astray came to pass.

But the accusation of idolatry was ancient, as I said.

'He who holds the circle of the earth, and those who dwell in it are as locusts.'

The Maker of them is beheld in proportion to the beauty of the creatures, at least by those who are of a right mind.

For it belongs to the wise to be able to perceive, and that quite easily, who indeed and how great is the Maker and Artificer of this universe, judging from the pre-eminence and from the ineffable and God-befitting dispensation, according to which the creation, though it had no being, came into being, and having come into being is preserved, being held together by the strength of Him who made it unto its well-being and continuance.

'For to whom would He be likened?' says the Lord.

And how is He not above all mind, He who alone grasps the whole earth in His hand, and holds it together that it may be well established, and, having set up the heaven for it like a vault, and stretched it out in the manner of a tent, so that those for whose sake it plainly came into being might dwell in it? For as the prophet somewhere says:

'He created it not in vain, but to be inhabited.'

'Is then the multitude of those who dwell upon the earth much in the sight of God,' He says, 'although it is immeasurable?' By no means.

For in comparison to the majesty and pre-eminence of God they would be as locusts.

For He holds the circle of the earth, that is, its whole compass, and its inhabitants are nothing before Him, though after the manner of locusts they graze in herds upon it, and go beyond all number.

And this too is marvellous, and great toward the praise of the God who is mighty in all things.

'He who gives rulers to rule for nothing, and made the earth as nothing.'

'For they shall surely not sow, nor shall they plant, nor shall their root take root in the earth.'

'A wind blew upon them, and they were dried up, and a storm shall take them up like stubble.' It was a custom for those who had gone astray and did not know the God who is by nature and in truth, not only to worship the herds of the demons, and to say to the wood: