以賽亞書註釋 第 1 章 第 51/65 段

rather, they craved the slaughter of human beings.

'Bel has fallen,' therefore it says—that is, it has been brought down, and the strength of the demon has fallen;

so that henceforth, having cast off the yoke of their perversity, those once bound by his crookedness might run to God with a free and unconstrained will.

This too was an object of worship for those who dwell along the seacoast, or who border upon Judaea—I mean the Ascalonites and the Gazites, whom the divine Scripture in many places calls Philistines, that is, foreigners.

And the prophet has put it very well: 'It was shattered,' he says, as from what befell it at various times; and now the prophet, carrying through his discourse concerning it, says this.

Then, when the ministers of the demon entered, they beheld the idol fallen before the ark, and having undergone such shattering that it had lost both its hands and its feet and its head.

Very aptly, then, as from what happened at those times, he says, 'It was shattered.'

For it was not possible to make mention of all the idols upon the earth; but, as from a part, he again arranges his discourse with reference to the whole.

'Take them up bound, as a burden for one who is weary and hungry and faint, having no strength at the same time;

these shall not be able to be saved from war;

but they themselves as captives were put to shame.' The discourse again shows us in these words the uselessness and vanity of things fashioned by hand, and, as from the follies performed upon them, it declares the worship of those who go astray to be full of shame.

For they used to perform for the demons festivals that were sometimes cold and ridiculous;

…exceedingly, and wherever the thing they wished to carry weighed heavily, there somehow crowding together, and pretending that they were unable to bear the burden.

But the senseless and herd-like populace, and womenfolk devoid of wits, applauded with acclamations, seeing the lifeless material shaped into the likeness of a man, say, or a woman, and supposed in truth that the one being carried put an unbearable weight upon those who had lifted him onto their shoulders.

'Take them up bound, as a burden for one who is weary and hungry and faint, having no strength at the same time.'

For these things, as I have said, certain of the priests would counterfeit while carrying about the handmade images.

How, then, shall the impotence of the objects of worship be recognized? One might discern it from many other things as well.

For wood or stone or some other such material is the origin of these things.

But since it was necessary to demonstrate this from what is most useful of all, he brings them to remembrance of their coming captivity—the one, I mean, under the Babylonians, which indeed they suffered—since, having abandoned the duty of fulfilling the Law and of serving the one and true God by nature, they went off to every kind of the most abominable thing, and worshipped the works of their own hands;

and besides this they sacrificed also to the host of heaven, as it is written.

Whence, then, shall the impotence of the supposed gods be shown? 'They shall not be able,' it says, 'to be saved from war, but they themselves were led away as captives.'

For when a city or country is captured, if there be among them any gods overlaid with gold and silver, these are the first of all to be seized by those who have taken the place—gods for whom it would have been fitting, if indeed they were any kind of gods, both to defend their own worshippers and to render them superior to the hand of the enemy.

'What profit, then, is a graven image, that they carved it,' according to the word of the prophet, 'they fashioned it a molten thing, a false imagination,' which are able to defend neither themselves nor others? For how could any such thing come from wood and stone? 'Hear me, O house of Jacob, and the remnant of Israel, who are borne from the womb, and instructed from childhood until old age.'

'I am He, until you grow old.'

'I made, and I will bear;

I will take up and will save you.' Again the discourse is most skilfully composed, and proceeds in due order and with wise economy.

For since he had made mention of war, in which it came to pass that an immense multitude of men and women perished, and the country of the Jews became greatly depopulated of men, on this account he speaks as to a single house, as to a remnant, and a survival of barbaric cruelty:

'Hear me, O house of Jacob, and all the remnant of Israel.'

The discourse would have profited its hearers not a little, if any of them were shrewd and examiners of what is useful.

For gloomy and hard-to-bear things, when announced beforehand, one might easily even escape, having fled the causes of the assault;

but when they have arrived and, as it were, leapt upon one, how could one ward them off? He therefore all but cries aloud, calling them 'the remnant,' that they shall be consumed by the war, and shall become the prey of barbaric cruelty, unless they cease from such outlandish pursuits.

And that dullness of understanding dwelt in the souls of the Jews, and that the study of the Law had become for them a profitless thing, he shows by saying:

'Who are borne from the womb, and instructed from childhood until old age.'

For from infancy and up to the age of old men, though they occupied themselves with the sacred and divine Scriptures, they were profited nothing;

but as though deemed worthy of no admonition at all, they went off into apostasy from God.

'But even if a long time has been spent by you,' he says, 'in profitless studies, and though I see that you are utterly ignorant, I will not cease from My innate serenity;

and I thus present Myself to you plainly, saying:

I am—that is, I live and I exist;

not knowing to come to any end, but ever being the same and in the same manner, and until you grow old I shall again be the same.

For old age does not come upon Me as upon you, but I am living and all-powerful.'

'And I indeed wrought the calamities of war brought upon you, by a holy verdict summoning to judgement those who had outraged My glory.

Nevertheless, I will bear—that is, I will let go, and by acts of forgiveness I will restore you who have been afflicted.'

'I will take up and will save you.'

For He who gave you into the hands of enemies will again make you His own, and will loose you from the bonds of captivity.

Thus, as with a manifold medicine, He heals the hearts of those who had reviled Him and, out of exceedingly great ignorance, had slipped into what is not lawful—partly by threats, and partly by good promises.

For His aim is to save that which was lost, and to snatch the straying one from the hands of the devil.

'To whom have you likened Me? Contrive it, you who go astray, you who put together gold from a purse and silver in a balance;

they shall set it in the scale, and having hired a goldsmith they made handmade things, and bowing down they worshipped it.'

'They lift it upon their shoulders, and they shall go.'

'But if they set it in its place, it remains; it shall not be moved;

and whoever cries out to it, it shall not hear, it shall not save him from evils.' He reproves as insolent and small-minded the worshippers of the idols, and as sinning against the very divine and supreme Nature.

For, so far as depends on themselves, they bring down the transcendent excellence of the glory that is in it to things not fitting, and they bring it down into lifeless material, assigning it to their own handiworks; and then, by holy justice, they render their own heads liable to the uttermost penalties.

'To whom, then, have you likened Me,' He says—Me who am set apart by nature from all things, and lifted on high by incomparable pre-eminences, and beyond every created being, the Maker of all, King together and Lord? And it is likely, I suppose, that God, in speaking to those who have gone astray, wishes to make plain also something else:

'To whom have you likened Me? See, contrive it, you who have gone astray.'

'For, bringing together gold,' He says, 'and silver, and then hiring a goldsmith, they mould the form either of a man, or of a woman, or indeed of a wild beast, let us say, or of a beast of burden; and to the thing thus moulded the name "God" is straightway given by them.'

'Consider then,' He says, 'to whom have you likened Me? For it is either to a man or to a woman, or even to wild beasts or to irrational animals.'

How then is the matter not beyond all impiety? 'Contrive something by way of defence;

but you will not find any word to help you in this.'

For, bringing down the Nature that is above all things into wild beasts and beasts of burden, what sort of arguments will you employ that could suffice for being able to escape the accusations? And that it attempts to teach nothing else than that the making of idols is a matter of the vulgarity of their notions—

on this account also in very spare and simple language.

'For they gather silver and gold from a purse,' He says, 'and shall set it in a balance, in an equal weight'—each perhaps contributing his share, so that, as is reasonable, to the one who brings in more, the thing being fashioned should the more be reckoned as belonging.

One might say, I suppose, that if the gods were in need of possessions, they would not have had a God at all; and that if the world beneath heaven had not been well supplied with craftsmen, there would have been no one whatsoever worshipped by them.

They have come to such a degree of ignorance and of senseless notions that, though they themselves exist prior to their own gods, they honour beings that came into being later than themselves; and those who ought rather to be seen as the makers, they themselves make.

And though they are the masters of the material, and have taken it up for their own necessary use, they beg from it their own salvation.

Bearing burdens, they lift their gods upon their shoulders and carry them.

They see them to be immovable, and to be carried off wherever anyone may choose; and yet to these they offer up their supplications.

Therefore, when you see them receiving the supplication, then look for help to come.

But if you see them to be at once without sensation and without motion, then what benefit do you expect to receive from them?

For you have fallen into the uttermost insensibility.

Repent, you who have gone astray.

Turn back with your heart, and remember the former things from of old, that I am God, and there is none besides me;

declaring beforehand the last things before they come to pass, and at once they were accomplished.

All my counsel shall stand, and all things whatsoever I have purposed I will do, calling a bird from the east, and from a land far off.

Concerning the things I have purposed, I have spoken, and I have brought them; I have created, and I have made.

I have brought him, and have made his way prosperous. Seeing them held fast by deception, by darkness, and by grievous ignorance, God again takes pity on them, and bids them go back, as it were, applying the exact eye of the mind to these matters, so that, having learned into what evil they had come, they might change their course toward what is better; and holding unfailing remembrance of the words that had been addressed to them, they might choose to repent, and to do this not merely from the tongue, but out of the very heart.

For most praiseworthy and true would be such a manner of repentance.

That the making of idols is therefore a laughable thing, he bids them understand from what he has already said before.

But that he himself is the God of all, he persuades them to conceive from the attributes most befitting God that belong to him by nature.

For I am, he says, the one who has the knowledge of all things, and who declares a thing before it comes to be, and brings to fulfilment what has been promised.

And this too is a very great thing toward the demonstration of an invincible and God-befitting power.

For men, even though they have obtained the highest honours and hold sovereign powers of the utmost degree, set before themselves some aim, and take counsel to accomplish something; yet not in every way and by all means do their deliberations come to them according to their wish.

For very many things fall in between, and the cutting away of them is hard to encounter.

But as for God, the God of all, if he should wish to do anything, what could there be that would resist and set itself in opposition against it? For the things which God the Holy One wills, who shall scatter them? And his uplifted hand, who shall turn it back? Therefore, toward the demonstration that he is God by nature and in truth, this might fittingly be said by him: All my counsel shall stand, and all things whatsoever I have purposed I will do.

Then in addition to this he says: Calling a bird from the east, and from a land far off, concerning the things I have purposed;

and to this too will follow the words: I am.

As for the bird that is called from the east and from a land far off, we say that it is the Babylonian, who, having burned up the whole land of the Jews, took Jerusalem and shook down the temple that was in it;

then, having driven out very many both of the common people and of the notable ones, he carried them away from the land that had borne them, and settled them in the country and land of the Persians, laying upon them the yoke of captivity harshly and unbearably.

And this too will be clear to you from what God said to the blessed prophet Ezekiel.

And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

Son of man, tell a tale, and speak a parable to the house of Israel, and you shall say:

Thus says Adonai the Lord:

The great eagle, long in its spread, full of talons, which has the tale to enter into Lebanon, and it took the choicest of the cedar, it nipped off the tips of its tenderness, and brought them into the land of Canaan; in a walled city it set them, and it took of the seed of the land, and gave it into the plain as a plant, in much water; it appointed it a thing to be looked upon, and it became a weak vine, and small in its size so that its branches might appear upon it, and its roots were beneath its own earth.

And it became a vine, and put forth shoots, and stretched out its trailing branches. These things, then, God said to the blessed prophet Ezekiel.

But since the saying was hard to reach, and the force of its meanings not very clear to the hearers, he himself again makes it plain, saying:

And I said to the house of Israel that provokes to bitterness:

Do you not know what these things are which I have said?

of Babylon against Jerusalem, and he shall take its king and its rulers, and shall bring them to himself into Babylon.

And he shall take of the seed of the kingdom, and shall make a covenant with him, and shall bring him in under an oath; and the leaders of the land he shall take, so that it may become a feeble kingdom, and that it may not lift itself up at all, but keep his covenant and establish it.

For, as we read in the book of Kings, after the holy city was captured, the Babylonian carried Zedekiah away as a prisoner, together with certain of the notable men bound with him, into the land of the Chaldeans;

and these are the choicest of the cedar.

I am, therefore, he says, the one calling a bird from the east.

Concerning the things I have purposed, I have spoken and I have brought them; I have not proved false, he says.

For I proclaimed beforehand that it would come at its due seasons, and the thing foretold was brought to fulfilment.

I have created, that is, I have prepared evils—that is to say, the things that work harm, and the calamities of war—for those who dishonoured my glory and inclined toward lifeless idols.

And I have made; I have brought him, and have made his way prosperous.

For it was not the work of that one's hand to prevail over Israel, if God had been his helper.

But I myself, saving and presiding over him, made his way prosperous, so that he might subject to judgements those who had cared little for godliness toward him—or rather had utterly leapt away—so as to attribute even to wood and to stones the honour and glory most fitting to him and him alone.

Hear me, you who have lost your heart, who are far from righteousness.

I have brought near my righteousness, and the salvation that is from me I will not delay.

Heartless, then, are those who go astray, and true is the word spoken against them.

For with what mind do they themselves fashion the objects of their worship, ascribing reverence to wood and to stones, and beg from them their own salvation? Yet even so God bears with them, and rather takes pity on them as deceived, and shows mercy to them as fallen, and by good promises brings them back to understanding, and bids them return to sobriety; and though they are far off and fenced away from righteousness—that is, from God—he bids them come to him.

And it seems that, with the promises of the partial salvation, he interweaves also the declaration of the universal and most general one.

For he saved out of the land of the Chaldeans those who had been carried off into it in the rank of captives of war; and this, I suppose, one would call a partial succour, whereas the most universal is that which comes through Christ, which also he promised of old that he would reveal before long.

For I have brought near, he says, my righteousness, and the salvation that is from me I will not delay.

And we say that this resembles the saying: Yet a little while, and he that comes will come, and will not tarry.

And in these words he names the spiritual Zion, that is, the Church of Christ, in which we all who belong to the spiritual Israel receive his salvation in glory.

For just as a Jew is not only he who is such according to the flesh, but rather anyone who has also been counted worthy of the circumcision that is in spirit;

so also Israel is not only those who have come of the blood of Israel, but rather all who have possessed a mind that sees God, who also have been appointed as children, and according to the promise of Abraham; and these too we declare to be the truer Israel.

Come down, sit upon the ground, O virgin daughter of Babylon;

sit upon the ground [there is no throne;

enter into the darkness], daughter of the Chaldeans, for you shall no more be called tender and delicate.

Take a millstone, grind meal, uncover your covering, lay bare your grey hairs, strip off your leg-coverings, cross over the rivers.

Your shame shall be uncovered;

your reproaches shall appear.

Having promised them deliverance from captivity, he goes on to make mention and to relate clearly in what manner it was taken and laid waste, and as it were in a picture he portrays the appearance of the captured.

For just as to the land of the Jews he foretold the uprooting that would come from the war of the Babylonians, going through each thing in detail, and saying:

Because the daughters of Zion were lifted up, and walked with an uplifted neck, and with beckonings of the eyes, and in the trailing of the feet, at once dragging their tunics, and at once sporting with their feet; therefore God will bring low the ruling daughters of Zion;

and the Lord will uncover their form in that day, and the Lord will take away the glory of their raiment, and their ornaments, and their braids, and their fringes, and the things that follow after these;

and it shall be that instead of a sweet fragrance there shall be dust, and instead of a girdle you shall gird yourself with a rope, and instead of the golden ornament of the head you shall have baldness because of your deeds;

and instead of the tunic bordered with purple you shall gird on sackcloth: so also now he shows plainly what things the daughters of the Babylonians—that is, their women dwellers—shall suffer, when the Persians and Medes drag them away, saying:

Come down, sit upon the ground—this would intimate: Be brought low, though of old you were grievously sick with haughtiness.

Come down, therefore, from the mountain and from lofty thoughts to humiliation, from glory to dishonour, from luxury to wretchedness, from immeasurable wealth to utter poverty, from freedom to slavery, and, in a word, from all that is most delightful to what is worse and most miserable.

Sit down in the darkness, that is, the darkness which springs from irremediable calamity.

For a bitter grief poured out upon the soul enslaves the mind, as does the sudden onset of unexpected sufferings, and fear falling upon one like a heavy burden.

And that the season of her ancient prosperity has passed away from her, he shows by saying:

You shall no longer be called tender and delicate.

For it is nothing unlikely that the women of the Chaldeans had a luxurious manner of living, were fond of adornment, and made no small account of the art of beautifying themselves.

For they say that even those skilled in military tactics prided themselves on gold and precious stones, and were eager to be conspicuous with no ordinary adornment, even in the very battles themselves.

You shall therefore no longer be called delicate, he says, but rather you shall endure, and that against your will, the wretchedness of servitude.

You shall grind meal, you shall be seen bare of the coverings of your head;

your hair, that is, flowing loose everywhere in neglect, though of old it was intricately bound up.

Uncover your grey hairs—and this too would be a clear sign that those who took her captive had come to such savagery that they would not spare even an aged woman.

Strip bare your legs, cross the rivers.

Your shame shall be uncovered, your reproaches shall appear.

For those once fallen into captivity, carried away from the land that bore them into the land of the conquerors, must cross on foot the rivers that lie between, stripping themselves bare of course, and no longer keeping before men's eyes the modesty befitting women;

but as of necessity laying bare before many even the secret parts of the body.

But one might also say that her shame is seen and her reproaches appear in another sense: as of one once taken captive and fallen into abominable straits, though of old she lived in luxury and gloried in a prosperity destined to end.

Then he says, I will take justice from you—that is, what you deserve to suffer, this I will take from you.

And what this is, he has already declared beforehand through another of the holy prophets, saying:

As she has done, so has she done, so will I do to her. And again:

As you have done, so shall it be to you;

your recompense shall be repaid upon your own head. And it is said elsewhere too concerning everyone accustomed to transgress:

Woe to the lawless one, evil things shall befall him according to his works. I will no longer deliver you up to men, said the Lord of Hosts who redeemed you;

to fall into the hand of enemies—for he pities them as having paid penalties equal in weight to their offences against him, or rather, as having been chastised even beyond this.

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 for her sins. Therefore, He who redeemed you, he says, the Lord of Hosts, whose name is also the Holy One of Israel, said: You shall no longer be delivered up to wicked and unpitying men—clearly to those who of old conquered her, since indeed God was angry, and left Israel bereft of sparing and of love, seeing them turned to apostasy and going headlong into doing the very things that are condemned by his divine laws.

Sit down, pierced with compunction, enter into the darkness, daughter of the Chaldeans;

you shall no longer be called the Strength of the kingdom.

I was provoked against my people, you defiled my inheritance.

I gave them into your hands, but you showed them no mercy; you made the yoke of the aged exceedingly heavy, and you said:

I shall be ruler forever.

For very many were the accusations against the Babylonians, and Scripture records that they were guilty of exceedingly great savagery and inhumanity; it also portrays her as arrogant, and as trusting foolishly in her own powers, so that she even supposed that a change for the worse would in no way ever befall her.

Therefore when, he says, you undergo the capture, then sit down pierced with compunction.

And the phrase pierced with compunction, he says, stands in place of having come to understanding, even if late, and especially within yourself;

for he said that irremediable evils pour a kind of darkness over the mind, and fall upon souls like dust.

You shall therefore no longer, he says, be called the Strength of the kingdom.

For Babylon was so named, inasmuch as she had a multitude beyond number, and a most warlike host, sufficient for resistance, if anywhere there were any who withstood and marched out against those who held dominion among them.

Then what the occasion was for the divine wrath being brought down upon the Babylonians he makes plain, saying:

I was provoked against my people, you defiled my inheritance.

I gave them into your hands, but you showed them no mercy.

Something of this sort he also appears to say through the voice of Zechariah:

I have been jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with a great jealousy, and with great fury I am angry against the nations that join in the attack, because whereas I was angry but a little, they joined in bringing evils. For God at times chastises out of love, and those who have become uncorrectable and have stiffened their necks proudly against him, he brings over through sufferings to a docile disposition—either by leading the hands of enemies against them, or by casting them into other griefs.

For just as wounds hard to heal are often cured by fire or iron, since they will not yield to the measured application of remedies, in the same way, I think, our virtue-loving God, whenever he sees a soul rushing with unrestrained impulses over the cliffs and clinging stubbornly to the ways of wickedness, cures it by bitter sufferings.

But there are some who, having been assigned to the rank of chastisers, employ terrible and unmixed fury, and are carried beyond what is fitting, unbearably weighing down those who have come under them.

This, then, is a most grievous thing, and God is provoked against those who are accustomed to do it.

We must therefore abstain from evil, and if anywhere some are subjected to penalties, God chastising them, let us look to gentleness, knowing well that the Chastiser is greatly provoked if the penalties are inflicted upon them by us beyond measure.

You did not, then, he says, pity the aged, and you took them captive not by your own strength, but rather because I gave them.

to be of unshaken dominions.

Then, when these things were happening to you, he says, you did not even deign to take them to mind, nor did you receive into memory the last things.

And what were these things? Clearly those of the captivity, and of the wretchedness brought upon her by God.

But now hear these things, you delicate one, you who sit at ease, you who are confident, you who say in your heart:

I am, and there is no other;

I shall not sit as a widow, nor shall I know bereavement of children.

But now these two things shall come upon you suddenly in one day:

widowhood and childlessness shall come upon you suddenly, in your sorcery, in the great strength of your enchanters, in the hope of your wickedness.

I am, and there is no other.

Very many were the magi among the Chaldeans, whom indeed they called wise men, by whose counsels and lying divinations the Babylonians did everything.

For pretending to have exact knowledge of things to come, they prophesied to the rulers of the earth nothing gloomy, but rather those things at which it was likely their hearers would rejoice.

One must therefore consider that, when Cyrus was threatening them with his onset and already bringing on the assaults of the enemy, these men were surely present in the midst, telling lies and saying that they would forthwith overpower him and prevail with great ease, and would reconcile them from their enemies, and would dance in triumph over the fallen.

But now hear, you delicate one.

For they were dainty, anointing themselves with the most fragrant perfumes, using varied robes, and honouring the splendour that comes from adornment, so that among them the art of beautifying was held in esteem, and there was even a rivalry over beauty.

For this reason, then, she was named delicate.

And he calls her also one who sits, in place of one who reigns—clearly over the neighbouring peoples, or rather even over the nations still far off.

And she was also confident, that is, taking courage in the immeasurable multitude of her warriors, so as even to say:

I am, and there is no other.

For she thought that there would be no other at all comparable to her.

But she was disappointed of her hope, and missed the truth.