'The Lord,' he says, 'shall whistle for flies, which shall rule over a part of the river of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of the Assyrians; and they shall come and rest in the ravines of the country, and in the clefts of the rocks, and in the caves, and in every fissure, and on every tree. In that day the Lord shall shave with the great razor, the hired one from beyond the river — the king of the Assyrians — the head, and he shall take away the hairs of the feet and the beard.'
'And it shall be in that day, a man shall rear a heifer of the herd and two sheep; and it shall be, from the abundance of making milk, he shall eat butter; for butter and honey shall every one eat who is left upon the land.'
'And it shall be in that day, every place where there were a thousand vines worth a thousand shekels, shall be for waste land and for thorn; with arrow and bow they shall enter there, because all the land shall be waste land and thorn, and every mountain that is ploughed shall be ploughed. Fear shall not come upon it there; for it shall be, from waste land and thorn, for pasture of sheep and trampling-ground of oxen.'
The present prophecy contains so many things that shall come to pass in the day of Emmanuel. It is time to go through what sort of contemplation these things involve, cutting short the discussion. 'The Lord,' he says, 'shall whistle for flies in that day, which shall rule over a part of the river of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of the Assyrians.'
By the term he means, I think, the former souls of idolatrous men — or even powers — unclean and disgusting, called 'flies', that is 'Egyptian flies', which delight in the sacrifices and blood of idols; and by 'the bee' he means a creature that is aggressive, and knows how to rule and be ruled and to make war, and knows how to defend itself and to wound those who oppose it.
These creatures, then, coming together — some from the land of the idolaters, some from the land of the 'directors' (for 'Assyrians' is interpreted as 'those who direct') — will, at the command and as it were the whistle of the Lord and God of all, prevail over the whole of Judaea, on account of their unbelief toward Christ, in the day of Emmanuel, he says; and by these he signifies that foreign and military nations will inhabit Jerusalem and the land of Judaea.
This is exactly what our Savior also declared in plainer terms, saying, 'And Jerusalem shall be trodden down by the nations.' And this indeed came to pass: not long after the words of our Savior, the Romans took the city, settled foreign men there, and established them in the place.
Again, the same Lord is said to shave with the razor of the king of the Assyrians — that is, with the chastising power of the ruler of this age — the head and the feet and the beard, of none other than the Jewish nation once more; that is, to remove their adornment and their glory, through the rule of those who prevail over all.
He hints that these are the Romans. For I hold that by the name 'Assyrians' is signified whatever kingdom of the nations prevails at each particular time, because 'Assyrians', from the Hebrew tongue, is interpreted as 'those who direct' — so that the ones now directing are the Romans.
Since indeed, in truth, with the razor of the Romans — that is, with their civil and military power — the God of all took away the whole glory of the Jewish nation, in which they formerly flourished, and all their manliness signified by the beard and the hairs of the feet.
Never before at any other time from eternity, it seems, than after the birth of our Savior, that is Emmanuel himself, did God take away all their adornment through the rule of the Romans. Now instead of 'of the king of the Assyrians', Aquila rendered 'of the Assyrians', Theodotion 'in the king of the Assyrians', and likewise Symmachus, making clear that the word does not threaten to shave the head of the king of the Assyrians, but that God will do to the Jewish nation the things prophesied by means of his razor and by means of the king of the Assyrians himself.
To these words, then, the outcome bears witness. And one who has leisure and pays close attention might find very many other things said in the prophecies, as it were, 'in the person of the Assyrians', which by no means can be applied to the Assyrians themselves, but can be applied to whatever kingdom of the nations generally prevails at each period of time.
Indeed, we have already found that the Persians too are called 'Assyrians' among the Hebrews; wherefore now also we have supposed that the word hints at the rule of the Romans. For we see it directing and being directed by God after the coming of our Savior.
But let no one suppose that we say that all the things concerning the Assyrians found in the divine Scriptures are to be referred to the Romans — for this would be foolish and shameless — but that there are certain prophetic utterances interwoven with the testimonies concerning Christ, which we say hint at the Romans by means of the designation 'Assyrians', since the interpretation of the name always establishes whatever kingdom of the nations prevails at any given time, as we shall show at the appropriate occasion.
And I myself, examining within myself the reasoning of this same interpretation, think that the prophetic oracles failed to mention the Romans by name for no other reason than that, under the reign of the Romans, the teaching of our Savior Jesus Christ was destined to shine forth to all men, and the prophetic Scriptures were destined to be published both in the very city of the Romans and among all the nations subject to the Romans.
In order, then, that no displeasure might arise against those who hold the rule from an open record concerning them, the word concealed itself by means of riddles, both in many other places, and indeed also in the visions of Daniel, just as also in the prophecy now in hand, in which it names them 'those who direct' by calling them 'Assyrians'.
Furthermore, in the day indicated — clearly that of Emmanuel, that is, of the manifestation of Christ — 'a man', it says, 'shall rear a heifer of the herd and two sheep, and it shall be, from the abundance of making milk, that every one who is left upon the land shall eat butter and honey.'
By these words one might say that either famine and excessive poverty of the people of the circumcision is hinted at — the people not having abundance of the natural nourishment from grain, neither ploughing nor sowing nor reaping the land, nor possessing flocks of sheep or herds of oxen, but keeping only two sheep and one heifer, procuring their milk from these; or else, interpreting it otherwise, one might say that by 'the one left upon the land' is hinted the company of apostles and evangelists from the circumcision who believed in our Savior and Lord, each of whom, having become a remnant according to the election of grace, and for this reason called 'the one left upon the land', is said to rear 'a heifer of the herd and two sheep' — signifying three orders in each church: one of those who lead, and two of those who are subordinate, the people of the church of Christ being divided into two orders, that of the faithful and that of those not yet counted worthy of the regeneration through the bath of baptism, to whom also the divine apostle says, 'I gave you milk to drink, not solid food'; while those already established in a more perfect condition he fittingly calls 'a heifer of the herd', being the offspring of more perfect oxen, such as the apostle himself was, who, speaking about himself and those who labored similarly to him, says, 'Does God care for oxen? Or does he say it entirely for our sake?'
And it might also be that the whole order of those who preside over the church, entrusted with ploughing and cultivating the souls of men, is what is called 'a heifer of the herd', being offspring of the apostolic manners and teachings — presiders who are said to have advanced so far in virtue that from their great fruitfulness they put forth so much fertile and rational milk for introductory teachings, that countless others are nourished from them.
And concerning these things that were to happen to 'the ones left upon the land', it foretells that something else will also occur in that day, clearly meaning in the time of the coming of Emmanuel: and what is this? 'Every place', it says, 'of the people of the circumcision, on which there were a thousand vines of a thousand shekels, shall become waste land and thorn; for with arrow and bow they shall enter there' — clearly meaning the enemies — 'because all the land shall be waste land and thorn.'
And observe how many things the word declares will happen concerning the Jewish nation in the day of Emmanuel — I mean in the time of the rising of the rational light that shone forth upon all men through our Savior: that unclean and warlike powers, formerly active among the nations, both in Egypt and in the land of the Assyrians, when the Lord whistled and, as it were, incited and urged them on, would come upon their land — he says — because that land had become worthy of such visitations.
And it says that the aforesaid powers will rest in the ravines and in the holes of the rocks, and in the caves and in every fissure of their land — according to the sense, in their souls and in the perceptions of the body, in their reasonings and in their fractured minds; but according to the plain sense of the letter, throughout their whole land — which who would not marvel at exceedingly, seeing with his own eyes their enemies having occupied every place of Judaea, and foreign and idolatrous men resting in all their cities and lands? But the word says it will not deal with them in these ways alone, but that with the razor of the king of the Assyrians whom we have discussed, it will shave their head and the hairs of the feet and the beard — clearly meaning all the adornment that formerly surrounded them.
And in this same day, and at this same time, it threatens that they will be reduced to the utmost poverty of the wealth according to God, so as not to have abundance of rational bread, nor of solid and spiritual food, but to be content to be nourished with milk — that is, with infantile and introductory teaching. Still further, in addition to these things, their vines will become waste land.
For since, as the same prophet says, the farmer and master together waited for the vineyard to produce grapes, but it produced thorns — and not righteousness, but a cry — therefore he testifies that, taking away its fence and pulling down its wall, he will render the vineyard waste land, and will hand it over to enemies, who, he says, will enter there with arrow and bow — those who have received authority from God, who handed it over to them not without judgment, but very justly, because indeed all their land had become waste land and thorn for them.
Therefore, since they themselves reduced themselves to waste land and thorn, 'they shall enter there with arrow and bow' — those who have received authority against them. And do not be surprised if these things too have been delivered in a shadowed manner and by means of riddles.
For the reason for such an economy of the word has already been stated earlier: namely that it wished to conceal the final destruction of the Jewish nation, so that the Scripture might be preserved among them for the improvement and benefit of us who are of the nations.
For if the prophecies had openly proclaimed beforehand destruction for them and good things for the nations, none of those of the circumcision would have taken any pains over them, but, as being contrary and hostile to themselves, they would have destroyed them, and it would no longer have been possible for us who are of the nations to make use of the testimonies of the prophets concerning our Savior and concerning ourselves.
But since so many things were to happen concerning the Jewish nation in the day of Emmanuel, according to the other interpretation, it is said that the one left of them will be a rare thing indeed — concerning whom the apostle says, 'a remnant has come to be according to the election of grace.' He indeed shall rear a heifer of the herd and two sheep, and from the abundance of making milk shall eat butter and honey. Such, according to the second interpretation, has been shown to us to be the whole apostolic company of the disciples of our Savior Jesus Christ.
Just as this one who is left is prophesied to be of such a kind, so also, while the whole land of the Jewish nation and their vineyard has been changed into waste land and thorn, and for this reason handed over to the enemies, on the contrary, on the other side, it is prophesied that every mountain that is ploughed will be ploughed. I hold that by this is hinted the church of our Savior Jesus Christ, concerning which he himself also says, 'A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.' For I hold that by these words is proclaimed the lofty, exalted, and high-soaring mountain of the commonwealth of the church.
'This mountain, then,' it says, 'that is ploughed shall be ploughed,' so that fear shall not come upon it there, but it shall be changed to such a degree from its former desolation and waste land and thorn, that it shall become fit for the pasture of sheep and the trampling-ground of oxen.
And it is possible to reckon up how the church of Christ, being formerly waste land and thorn, through his grace advanced to such a degree of change that grass and herbage suitable for rational fruitfulness sprouted so abundantly, that even the sheep-like and simpler ones could enjoy it, while those who had advanced to a more perfect condition — called 'oxen' — could plough and cultivate it; just as we have shown the divine apostle teaching when he says, 'Does God care for oxen? Or does he say it entirely for your sake? For it was written for your sake, that the ploughman ought to plough in hope, and the thresher in hope of partaking.'
Thus the formerly desert and waste land has changed after the coming of Christ, so as to be well-suited for suitable husbandry even for the oxen understood in this way. Now consider in what manner, under one and the same sense, the birth from the virgin is prophesied, and in the same passage the word says that the formerly fruitful land, which was previously worth a thousand shekels, will become waste land and thorn, and that their whole land, because it has become thorn and waste land, will be handed over to those who shall enter with arrow and bow; but that, on the contrary, every mountain will experience the opposite: from its former waste land and thorn it will be changed into pasture and trampling-ground of oxen, so that it, being ploughed, will be ploughed, and fear will not come upon it there.
By these things I hold that clearly is signified the birth of our Savior from the virgin, and the things that happened together and all at once to the Jews and to the rest of the nations after it; for the prophecy sets forth the change of each of the two orders into its opposite — that of the Jewish nation, from better to worse, and that of the church from the nations, from its former desolation to fruitfulness according to God — which things, having been prophesied to be accomplished at one and the same time, namely the manifestation of Emmanuel, are shown, in accordance with the predictions, to have received their fulfillment at no other time than after the coming of our Savior — both through the events plainly stated concerning the Jews, and through the church from the nations.
For if, after the coming of our Savior, that is Jesus Christ himself, the rule of the Damascenes and of the Jews had not ceased to be a kingdom, and if the land were not now seen with our own eyes to have been abandoned by them, and given over to foreign and idolatrous nations; if all the formerly most august splendor of their sacred sanctuary itself had not become waste land and thorn, and if unclean idolatrous men, their enemies, coming upon them with arrow and bow, had not come from a foreign land, urged on by the Lord himself, and had not rested throughout their lands, making all places and all their cities their own; and again, if all the nations that believed in him had not, from waste land and thorn of former lack of cultivation, through the teaching of our Savior, received the pious and rational fruitfulness according to God; and besides these things, if the Jews, having seen Christ with their own eyes, had not disbelieved, and, having heard him teaching, had not disobeyed, and if the rest of the prophecy had not been shown most plainly to have received its fulfillment from the times of Jesus our Savior — then he would not be the very one who is prophesied.
But if, as they say, the outcomes of the words are plain even to a blind man, having been fulfilled at no other time than from the time of his manifestation, what need is there any longer to be doubtful even concerning his birth from a virgin, and not rather, by a sensible reasoning, to have confidence, from the things still seen even now, also in the very beginning of these matters? And what would the things still seen even now be, other than the unbelief of the Jews toward him, plainly fulfilled according to the oracle that says, 'You shall hear with hearing, and shall not understand; and seeing you shall see, and shall not perceive'?
'For the heart of this people has grown fat' — and there was also the siege of Jerusalem, and the utter desolation of their former sanctuary, and the dwelling of foreign nations in their land, enslaving them with goads — that is, with harsh commands (for this is what the images of the flies and the bees signified) — and, on top of all this, the change of the nations from their former desolation to husbandry according to God.
Who, then, seeing these things with his own eyes, would not be struck with wonder? And who would not truly confess the prediction to be divine, hearing that these things were laid up in books and pondered from of old, a full thousand years before, and yet were brought to no fulfillment at any other time than after the coming of our Savior? If, then, the prediction is wonderful, and the outcome of the prediction is even more wonderful, and beyond all reckoning, why should one disbelieve, even if the first advent of the one prophesied received a paradoxical mode of birth surpassing all human nature — since indeed the plain sight of his other miracles, being no less remarkable, compels one, on the basis of his birth, to accept also the testimony of the other things done concerning him? But next after these things, following upon 'for the pasture of sheep and the trampling-ground of oxen', there is joined a second prediction, akin to the one already set forth, beginning from 'And the Lord said to me, Take for yourself a scroll' — which let us also set forth and examine. From the same prophet.
'And the Lord said to me, Take for yourself a large, new scroll, and write on it with a man's pen concerning the swift plundering of spoils; for it is at hand. And make me faithful witnesses, Urias the priest and Zacharias the son of Barachias. And I went in to the prophetess, and she conceived and bore a son. And the Lord said to me, Call his name “Quickly plunder, swiftly spoil”, because before the child knows how to call father or mother, he shall take the power of Damascus and the spoils of Samaria before the king of the Assyrians.'
The present prophecy is connected to the one set forth before it. For the virgin there, who is said to bear the God with us, is here named 'the prophetess'. And since the question is raised as to how, then, she who is without experience of marriage should conceive, the word now teaches this, in saying, 'And I went in to the prophetess, and she conceived in the womb and bore a son.'
But these things must be understood as coming from the Holy Spirit, by whom the prophet, being God-borne, was uttering prophecy. It is, then, the Holy Spirit itself that he confesses to have gone in to the prophetess; and this indeed was plainly fulfilled at the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ, when the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee, named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house and lineage of David. And he said to her, 'Hail, favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women.'
And again, 'Do not be afraid; for you have found favor with God. And behold, you shall conceive in the womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus.' And when Mary said, 'How shall this be, since I do not know a man?' he answered, 'The Holy Spirit shall come upon you, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow you; therefore also the holy thing that is born shall be called the Son of God.'
In the prophecy before this one, at the birth of Emmanuel, before the child knew good or evil, it was said that the land would be abandoned by the two kings who were besieging it — one of Samaria, the other of Damascus; but in the present prophecy, it is said that before the child knows how to call father or mother, he shall take the power of Damascus and the spoils of Samaria — of whom it had earlier proclaimed that the kings would be overthrown at the birth of Emmanuel.
Now, in the literal historical sense, in the days of Ahaz king of Judah, and in his time, Isaiah the prophet being active, two kings, by agreement, were besieging those ruled by the successors of David, as has already been shown before: the one, the king over Damascus of the idolatrous nations, the other, over the multitude of the Jews, in the city called Samaria of Palestine, which those of our own time call Sebaste — concerning whom God, through the prophet, said to Ahaz, 'Do not fear, nor let your soul be faint, because of these two firebrands of smoking wood.'
And having said that the destruction of these men would be very swift, and not far off, he next prophesies that, at the birth of him who is to be 'God with us', the kingdom of both of them shall be utterly quenched and abolished.
We show from history that the kingdom both of the Jews and of the Damascenes persisted right up to the time of the coming of our Savior Jesus Christ, but after his manifestation to all men, in accordance with the prediction, they ceased, since the monarchy of the Romans prevailed together with the proclamation of our Savior.
And having declared these things literally, the word passed on to the sense and to the general, more spiritual interpretation in figurative contemplations, positing two hosts of invisible enemies and hostile evil demons, warring in different ways against the whole race of men — one, of those who always and continually work in men idolatry and the false doctrines in dogmas, the other, of those who work corruption of souls in their character; and having shown that the one, the ruler of Damascus, bears the image of idolatrous error, while the other, the ruler of Samaria, is the type of those fallen from a sound and healthy life, he says that the land (thus calling the men who dwell upon the earth) will not be freed from these before God Emmanuel appears upon the earth; and that once he has shone forth and reigns over the soul of man, none of those who formerly held it in their power will any longer remain.
Thus, then, here too you should understand the phrase 'he shall take the power of Damascus and the spoils of Samaria' to be said concerning the same things, the power of our Savior Jesus Christ suddenly bringing down all our invisible enemies, who formerly besieged all men with the aforesaid godless and harmful activities.
And again, according to the letter, you may see that, together with the birth and manifestation of our Savior, the power of Damascus was brought down, and the spoils of Samaria were taken away — that is, their kingdoms, which endured up to the times indicated, and from then until now have ceased, in accordance with the divine predictions.
Some say, moreover, in a different way, that the magi who came from the east and worshipped Christ when he was a child are 'the power of Damascus'; but one might say more generally that all who turned away from godless and polytheistic idolatry, and were enslaved to the word of Christ — especially if they happen to be powerful in the eloquence and wisdom of this age — these are the ones called 'the power of Damascus'.
In the same way, you should also understand 'the spoils of Samaria' to be the disciples and apostles of our Savior from the Jewish nation, whom, taking them under himself as spoils, as it were, from the enemies of the circumcision who had made war against him, he armed against the king of the Assyrians — thus again figuratively signifying the ruler of this age.
But since Aquila rendered the opposite of 'of the king of the Assyrians' more clearly, saying, 'in the presence of the king of the Assyrians,' consider whether perhaps here too it indicates the rule of the Romans, if indeed 'Assyrians' is interpreted as 'those who direct' or 'those who are directed', according to what was rendered a little earlier. Since, then, the king of the Assyrians is here too interwoven with the prediction concerning our Savior, we have reasonably taken the rule of the Romans to be meant here as well, because it is directed by God toward the subjection of the nations.
It is prophesied, then, that the child being born will take the power of Damascus and the spoils of Samaria, and will hand them over before the face of the Assyrians and in the sight of those directed by God, and that he will do these things at once with his birth, by an ineffable and divine power, accomplishing so great a dispensation among men while his body was still an infant.
And the prophet is instructed to deliver all these things in writing on a new and large scroll — this also signifying the manner of the New Covenant. And he takes as additional witnesses of the things spoken a priest and a prophet, the word thereby teaching that in the demonstrations concerning Christ, it will be necessary to take up testimonies from the priestly ministry in the Law and from the prophets who came after; but he also wishes, in another way, that faithful witnesses be those who are about to witness the birth of the child indicated, so that they might be able to understand the things prophesied.
'For if you do not believe, neither shall you understand,' it was said above; and Urias has 'the light of God' — for this is what 'Urias' is interpreted as meaning — while the son who is named 'of blessing' bears in himself the 'remembrance of God' — for this too is what 'Zacharias son of Barachias' signifies. These things, then, are what we ourselves have applied to these passages.
But if any of those of the circumcision is unwilling for these things to be so, it is time for him to demonstrate to us who among them was ever an Emmanuel, and how the prophet went in to the prophetess, and who this prophetess was, and how she conceived immediately, and who the son born from the prophetess was, to whom the Lord himself gave the name 'Quickly plunder, swiftly spoil', and what the reason was for such a name given to the one born.
Let them also show him who, before the child knew how to call father or mother, had taken the power of Damascus and the spoils of Samaria in the presence of the king of the Assyrians. For we, having understood these things both according to the letter and figuratively, show that they have been fulfilled at the birth of our Savior, demonstrating that one must apply oneself to the prophecies sometimes literally, according to the plain sense, and sometimes figuratively.