以賽亞書註釋 第 1 章 第 11/24 段

'For there are in Tanis his rulers, and his messengers are wicked;'

'in vain shall they labor toward a people that will not profit them for help nor for benefit, but for shame and reproach.'

He foretold also the unprofitableness of their taking refuge, or rather its shamefulness.

For the Babylonian, marching against those people too, conquered both them and the Hebrews who had fled thither, and having enslaved them, led them away.

'It is good to trust in the Lord rather than to trust in man;'

'it is good to hope in the Lord rather than to hope in rulers.' For fortified by this hope, even if we be encircled by countless evils, we shall prove stronger than our afflictions;

'For all the nations,' he says, 'compassed me about, but in the name of the Lord I warded them off.' To whom belongs all glory, honor, and majesty, now and ever and unto the ages of ages.

VOLUME IX. 'The vision of the four-footed beasts in the wilderness.'

These words too hold to the same meaning;

for it accuses those who had fled to Egypt and had despised the divine help.

By 'wilderness' he calls Jerusalem;

for it was a wilderness at that time, having been laid desolate by Nebuchadnezzar.

And he calls 'four-footed beasts' those who were sick with irrationality and did not recognize their Benefactor and Maker.

'For man, being in honor, did not understand; he was compared to the senseless beasts and became like them.' 'In their affliction and in their distress, a lion and a lion's cub, from thence also asps and the offspring of flying asps, who carried their treasures on donkeys and their wealth on camels to a nation that shall not profit them.'

And teaching what kind of nation it is, he added:

'The Egyptians shall help you with things vain and empty.'

The prophetic word, hinting at their great wickedness, likens them not to beasts of burden but to venomous wild creatures;

for by the lion and the lion's cub it has shown their audacity, and by the asps their maliciousness and bitterness.

And he foretells that no benefit shall come to them from thence.

'Declare to them that this consolation of his is vain.'

The prophet is commanded to testify solemnly that what is being done is profitless and affords them neither comfort nor benefit.

'Now then, sit down and write these things upon tablets, and inscribe them in a book, that these things may be for days as a testimony in due time and manifest forever.'

Some have supposed that those here accused fled to Egypt for refuge from the Assyrians; but neither does the history teach this, nor does the prophecy set before us.

For the history plainly speaks of the events in the days of the prophet Jeremiah, while the prophecy teaches that the God of all things commanded the prediction to be set down in writing;

for it says that these things shall be for days as a testimony, that is, these things shall be brought to pass after a time.

And the prediction received its fulfilment after a hundred and forty years;

for so many years will be found from the first year of the reign of Hezekiah until the flight into Egypt, which took place after the capture of Jerusalem.

For it is a disobedient people, lying sons who were unwilling to hear the law of God.

Plainly and expressly the divine Jeremiah forbade them to flee, and God through the prophet enjoined them to remain, promising salvation to those who obeyed, but punishment to those who disobeyed;

yet they persisted in contradicting.

These are they who say to the prophets:

Do not proclaim to us; and to those who see visions:

Do not speak to us rightly, but speak to us smooth talk, and proclaim to us another delusion, and turn us away from this road, and take from us this path, and remove from us the oracle of the Holy One of Israel.

"Speak to us talk": for "talk" Symmachus rendered "smooth things," Aquila "slippery things," and Theodotion "stumblings."

The saying hints that they wished to travel the broad road that leads to destruction, and not the narrow one that leads to life.

And the interpretation of the Seventy signifies this very same thing;

for "talk" (lalia) denotes love of money, when the penultimate syllable carries the accent.

Such was Ahab, when he said concerning Micaiah:

I hate him, because he does not speak good concerning me, but only evil. And such things did these men also say concerning those matters about which the word came to the prophet Jeremiah:

We were rulers in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, and we were filled with bread and became prosperous and saw no evil. And Azariah and Johanan and those like them cried out openly against the same prophet:

You speak falsely; the Lord our God has not sent you to us saying:

Do not enter Egypt to dwell there.

But Baruch the son of Neriah is inciting you against us, so as to deliver us into the hands of the Chaldeans, to put us to death and to carry us away captive to Babylon. This their disobedience and impious resolve the prophet before us describes:

Turn us away from this road, and remove from us the oracle of the Holy One of Israel.

So clearly does the prediction resemble the outcome.

Because you disobeyed these words and hoped in falsehood, and because you murmured and became confident in this word, therefore this sin shall be to you as a wall falling suddenly, of a strong city that has been taken, whose fall is at hand suddenly;

and its fall shall be like the shattering of an earthen vessel from potter's clay so small that among the pieces not a shard is to be found in which you might carry fire from a hearth, or in which you might draw up a little water.

He likened their hope in the Egyptians to a wall being demolished and a city being captured, and to the one parable he added another parable;

for he said that the city suffering these things resembles an earthen vessel that is shattered and undergoes such a crushing that even the very potsherds of the vessel remain wholly useless because of their smallness.

But the Master, being loving toward mankind, after the threat offers an exhortation to repentance:

For thus says the Lord, the God, the Holy One of Israel:

When you turn back and groan, then you shall be saved and shall know where you were, when you trusted in vain things.

The definition of repentance is not merely to groan over one's sins, but also to flee from them, to turn away from their road, and to travel the opposite way.

For this the divine word also made clear:

When you turn back and groan.

Not when you simply groan, but when, having forsaken the road of lawlessness, you lament over what you have done—then you shall obtain salvation and come to a perception of your former impiety.

Your strength has become vain.

And you were unwilling to hear, but you said:

We shall be upon swift steeds;

therefore those who pursue you shall be swift.

The opposite of what you hope for shall come to pass.

Then he foretells that, being countless, they will not withstand the onset even of a few enemies, and, indicating the great destruction of them, he added:

until you are left like a mast upon a mountain, and like one bearing a signal upon a hill.

The word "signal" Symmachus interpreted as "sail," while Aquila and Theodotion rendered it "ensign."

And what he means is this:

The many trees on the mountains are not so conspicuous;

but if somewhere on a mountain peak a single pine or cypress should be left standing, it is exceedingly conspicuous to those who pass by.

So too, he says, you also, though few, shall be left out of your many myriads, and your calamities shall become conspicuous.

And again: God will wait to have compassion on you, and for this reason he will be exalted to show mercy on you.

But nonetheless, even after these things, he will deem you worthy of forbearance and will teach those who are ignorant of their own strength.

Blessed are all who wait for him, because a holy people shall dwell in Zion.

And these things the prophet spoke, urging them to remain and not to flee for refuge into Egypt.

And he foreshowed also the return from Babylon;

for he called those people a holy people.

Such was Jeshua the son of Jozadak, such was Zerubbabel, such was Ezra, such was Nehemiah, and those with them who brought all diligence to the rebuilding both of the temple and of the city.

The word is also referred to the believers who came after the incarnation of our Saviour, who, when the unbelievers had been driven out of Jerusalem, inhabited the city with a splendid manner of life, propitiating God with unceasing hymns.

And Jerusalem wept with weeping;

again the prophet employed this, himself offering the supplication on her behalf.

And he brought forward also the answer:

In showing mercy he will have mercy on you at the voice of your cry;

These things resemble the evangelic word which the Lord spoke:

With what measure you measure, it shall be measured back to you. For here too he measured mercy by the eagerness of repentance;

for by "voice" he named the eagerness.

According to your zeal, according to your turning back, you shall receive mercy.

And the Lord will give you bread of affliction and scanty water.

For since you did not bear satiety, but from it received harm and disease, the physician will use the contrary remedies.

And no longer shall those who deceive you draw near to you, for your eyes shall see those who deceive you, and your ears shall hear the words of those who led you astray behind them, of those who say:

This is the way, let us walk in it, whether to the right or to the left.

By these words he has indicated the false prophets and the impious rulers.

And you shall defile the idols overlaid with silver and overlaid with gold, and you shall make them small and shall winnow them, and shall make them like the water of a menstruous woman, and shall thrust them out like dung.

These things came to pass more exactly after the incarnation of our Saviour, when not only those from among the Jews who had believed, but also the nations throughout the inhabited world, shattered the idols they had formerly deified and abhorred them more than the most foul dung.

And it came to pass, as in a kind of type, under both Hezekiah and Josiah the pious kings, and after the return from Babylon, in things closely resembling what has been said.

Then shall there be rain for the seed of thy land; it shall be plentiful and fat.

And thy cattle shall feed in that day in a place rich and spacious; your bulls and your oxen that till the ground shall eat chaff mixed with winnowed barley.

He promises them a good season, an abundance of crops, and the enjoyment of bodily goods; for it is upon these things that they gape all the more eagerly.

For it is toward these things that they crave the more.

For, He says, do not be anxious about what you shall eat or what you shall drink, or about what you shall put on your body;

for after all these things the nations seek.

But seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these other things shall be added to you over and above. And so, to these who have an earthbound mind, He promises the fruits of the earth.

And there shall be upon every high mountain and upon every lofty hill water flowing in that day, when many shall perish and when towers shall fall.

And the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of the seven days, in the day when the Lord shall heal the brokenness of His people, and shall heal the pain of his wound.

Those who suddenly receive what is agreeable in place of what is grievous behold the day as more radiant and the sun as far brighter than usual;

just as, on the other hand, those who mourn suppose even the light to be darkness.

He has therefore foreshown the gladness that shall be theirs on account of their return;

for it was not that the elements had many times more light, but that those who were in despondency beheld these things as more radiant.

And these things, he says, shall come to pass after the overthrow of the Babylonians.

For he named them both 'many' on account of their multitude, and 'towers' on account of their dominion.

But that waters should gush forth upon every mountain and hill we do not find to have been fulfilled according to the letter; yet we nevertheless know that the promise of God is without falsehood.

For which reason it is necessary—even if the Jews are unwilling—to understand the prophecy figuratively and to find its fulfillment after the incarnation of the Master Christ;

for then the thirsting nature of mankind received the divine apostles as though they were waters.

Having thus foretold these things, he transfers his discourse to the Assyrian:

Behold, the name of the Lord comes after a long time.

...had come to pass; and long was the interval of time between the events under the great Moses and those under king Hezekiah, so that he fittingly said:

Behold, my name comes after a long time.

By 'name' he called the glory and the renown that comes from the miracle.

And this he made plain also through what follows:

His wrath is burning with glory.

For He will punish the Assyrian, and all men will praise Him on account of this.

The utterance of His lips is an utterance full of wrath, the utterance of His tongue.

Then he shows the strength of the divine command:

And His breath, like water sweeping through a ravine, shall come up to the neck.

Here he signifies the peril of the city;

for it was like a man who has received the onrush of the water up to his neck and expected to be wholly submerged, and then, contrary to all hope, was delivered.

For thus also Jerusalem, after despairing of salvation, obtained salvation.

And it shall be divided so as to trouble the nations with a vain deceiving; and a wandering error shall pursue them and take them face to face.

This, he says, is the water that rushed against you: it shall be divided and shall be turned into confusion against itself.

By 'water' he means the army of the Assyrians;

for he says that these had gone astray, expecting to prevail over the God of all.

Must you rejoice continually and enter into my holy places continually, as though keeping festival and as though making merry, entering with pipes into the mountain of the Lord, to the God of Israel? Since you prevailed over the ten tribes—I permitting it because of their impiety—you also expected to sack the city consecrated to me, and you have testified to such weakness in me but such power in yourselves, that you would carry out the siege with pipes and dances.

But the vanity of your hope is exposed;

for the Lord will make heard the glory of His voice and will display the wrath of His arm, with fury and anger and a devouring flame; He will smite with a violent thunderbolt, and as with stones and as with hail borne down by force.

He showed the ease of the punishment.

For it is easy for me, He says, both to deliver over to the flame and to bring down thunderbolts and whirlwinds and to hurl down stones of hail; but, displaying the surpassing greatness of my power, I work destruction by word alone;

the word alone suffices me for punishment, and the deed will bear witness to the word.

And it shall be for him round about, whence came to him the hope of help, on which he himself had relied;

these, with timbrels and harp and in battles of separation, shall also make war upon him by turns.

For the subject cities, having learned of the utter destruction of the Assyrians, held public festivals, and, meeting those who fled, destroyed the greater part of them.

For you shall be deceived before those days;

has it also been prepared for you to reign over a deep ravine? For the Topheth thereof has been prepared before those days, and it too has been prepared for the king.

These words Symmachus rendered thus:

For its Topheth has been prepared from yesterday, and it too has been prepared for the king;

and so also Theodotion. But 'Topheth' or 'Thophthe' I found interpreted by the Syrian thus:

that from yesterday its food has been prepared—that is, the food of the Assyrian army;

and in the Interpretation of the Hebrew Names I found this rendered as 'an enclosing.'

For the prophetic word says to the Assyrian:

Since you despised Jerusalem as though it were a ravine and hoped to master it, know that there your destruction has been made ready against you;

for there you shall be enclosed and devoured.

He has deepened, He has widened its pyre.

That is, the punishment prepared for you.

Wood is laid there, fire and much wood; the wrath of the Lord is like a ravine burning with brimstone.

For which reason the Syrian, interpreting 'Topheth,' called the punishment 'food.'

Having thus brought these things to a conclusion, he again laments those who had fled down into Egypt:

...for help, those who trusted in horses and chariots;

for there shall be many chariots and horsemen in exceeding great multitude;

and they did not trust in the Holy One of Israel, and they did not seek the Lord.

They supposed, he says, that the cavalry was mightier than the help that comes from God, since they had learned that among the Egyptians many made use of horses and chariots.

And He, being wise, brought evils upon them, and His word shall by no means be set aside.

He threatened them, he says, with punishment, and the prediction shall assuredly come to pass;

for the verdict of the truth is without falsehood.

And He shall rise up against the houses of wicked men, and against their vain hope.

For He will punish not only them, but also the Egyptians in whom they had trusted.

The Egyptian is a man and not God; the horses are flesh and not a help.

But the Lord shall bring his sword against them, and those who give aid shall grow weary, and those who are aided shall fall, and all together shall perish.

For these men, when they marched against the Egyptians, destroyed both them and the Jews who had fled to them for refuge.

Then, by means of a certain parable, he displays the power that belongs to them.

For just as, when a lion roars among the mountains, the beasts beneath it cower in fear (he says), so, when my power appears, the multitude of the enemy shall be brought to nothing.

For thus (he says) shall the Lord of Sabaoth come down to make war upon Mount Zion and upon its mountains.

Then he adds yet another parable.

For just as birds fight in defense of their own nestlings, so shall I take thought for this city.

Yet this image he took not with reference to power, but with reference to tender affection.

For winged creatures wish indeed to defend their nestlings, but are not able; whereas God both wishes and is able.

For this too the words that follow teach.

So shall the Lord of Sabaoth shield her; over Jerusalem too shall he shield her, and shall be propitious, and shall preserve, and shall pass over, and shall save her.

By the word 'shall shield' he showed his fatherly affection; by 'shall be propitious,' his great love for mankind; by 'shall preserve,' his providential care; by 'shall pass over,' his victory over the enemy; and by 'shall save,' his ineffable power.

Turn back, you who take deep and lawless counsel, O sons of Israel.

Knowing these things, therefore, depart from your lawless reasonings.

For in that day men shall put away their handmade things of silver and of gold, which their hands made unto sin.

He foretells the piety that is to come, thereby rousing them also to imitate their descendants.

And Assyria shall fall, not by the sword of a man, nor shall the sword of a man devour him; and he shall flee, yet not from before the sword.

And his young men shall be put to defeat.

For I will use against him neither men nor helping weapons, but I will bring upon him an invisible blow.

For he shall be encompassed by a rock as by a rampart, and he that flees shall be taken.

By 'rock' he means the faith of Hezekiah.

For it was that faith which encompassed him with inescapable evils.

And his rulers shall be worsted in flight, says the Lord who has fire in Zion and a furnace for himself in Jerusalem; and he that flees shall be taken.

This sentence upon him the God of all pronounced, who, being in Zion as well, from there also kindles against him, as it were a furnace, his retribution, since it was there that he had hoped to prevail.

From here he transfers his discourse to another concrete prophecy, and foretells the appearing of our Savior in the flesh.

Blessed is he who has seed in Zion and kinsfolk in Jerusalem.

For behold, a righteous king shall reign, and rulers shall rule with judgment.

He counts blessed those who dwell in Zion and there beget children, but he makes an accusation against those who have fled into Egypt.

the righteous judgment of the rulers.

But if anyone says that these things were spoken concerning Hezekiah, or concerning Josiah, or concerning Zerubbabel, he utterly misses the truth.

For Hezekiah had already reigned; and Zerubbabel was not even a king, but a popular leader and a general; and Josiah, though indeed a king and a pious king, falls short of the achievements of the one here prophesied.

One must therefore understand by 'king' the Master Christ, and by 'rulers' the holy apostles and those who after them received the governance of the churches.

In place of your fathers, sons have been born to you; you shall appoint them rulers over all the earth.

you shall appoint them rulers over all the earth.

And a man shall be one who hides his words, and he shall be hidden as from rushing waters of a great flood.

To these things the record of the holy Gospels bears witness.

For he spoke to the crowds in parables, but at home he interpreted the parables to the apostles.

And he shall appear in Zion as a glorious river borne along in a thirsty land.

And of these things too I find the testimony in the divine Gospels; for the Savior himself said:

He that believes in me, as the Scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water springing up unto life eternal. This water irrigates the whole thirsty world, and Zion in particular, which is the Church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the Church.

And no longer shall they be trusting in men, but they shall give their ears to hear, and the heart of the weak shall attend so as to understand, and the tongues that stammer shall quickly learn to speak peace.

The word has made clear the change in circumstances.

For Ahaz, being besieged by the Syrians, summoned the Assyrians into alliance.

But those after him, fleeing from the Assyrians, took refuge with the Egyptians.

Yet those who have believed in the Savior await his inclining favor and lend their ears to his teachings.

And the tongues that once stammered speak clearly and utter the things that make for divine peace, for they no longer hymn gods but God.

And no longer shall they at all bid the fool to rule, and no longer shall your attendants at all say:

But Symmachus rendered this as follows:

The senseless man shall no more be called a ruler, nor shall the deceitful be called a savior. According to the Seventy, however, the prediction makes plain the cessation of the foolish teaching of the Pharisees and scribes, and the arrogance of those who serve them.

For one of them struck the Lord on the cheek, and others said to the most divine Paul:

You revile the high priest of God! For the fool shall speak folly, and his heart shall devise vain things, so as to accomplish lawless deeds and to speak error against the Lord, so as to scatter hungry souls and to make empty the souls that thirst.

It is characteristic of foolish teachers to lead their disciples astray and to waste with famine those who are in need of divine nourishment.

For the counsel of the wicked shall devise lawless things, to destroy the lowly with unjust words and to scatter the words of the poor in judgment.

Here he reproves the injustice of those who judge.

But the godly have counseled wise things, and this counsel abides.

For the fruits of godliness are lasting, but those of impiety are like the chaff which the wind drives away from the face of the earth.

Rise up, you wealthy women, and hear my voice; O daughters in hope, give ear to my words.

O daughters, in hope hearken to my words.

By 'women' he means the cities.

These he also named 'daughters,' not as being such already, but as being about to become such through faith.

For it was on this very account that he added:

Make remembrance of the days of the year in pain, together with hope.

the turnings of the seasons, the changes of the airs, the coming of the rains, the various winds, and the fruits that spring from the earth through these.

And he enjoins them at one and the same time both to feel pain and to hope: to feel pain over their sins, but to hope and to wait upon the God of all.

to feel pain over their sins, but to hope and to wait upon the God of all.

The vintage is consumed, it has ceased and shall no more come.

By 'vintage' he means the abundance of good things.

You shall no longer be (he says) in your former prosperity.

You who are prosperous, be beside yourselves; grieve, you who are confident in wealth; strip yourselves, become naked, gird your loins with sackcloth, and beat upon your breasts for the desirable field and for the fruitful vine.

Since you do not lament over your transgression, mourn for the punishments that are brought upon you on account of it.

'In the land of my people thorns and grass shall spring up, and out of every house gladness shall be taken away.'

These words too are indicative of desolation.

'They shall abandon the wealth of the city, houses of desire.'

For when they behold the enemy, they will value flight above all things.

'And the villages shall become caves for ever, a delight for wild asses, pastures for shepherds.'

These villages have remained desolate even down to the present day.

Of some of them we find the names in Scripture, but of others only their traces are to be seen.

'Until a spirit come upon you from on high, and the wilderness shall become as Chermel, and Chermel shall be reckoned for a forest.'

The passage has made plain the grace that visited us from heaven after the ascension of our God and Saviour;

for after that gift, the wilderness of old — that is, the Gentiles — which had not received the prophetic plough, received the fruitfulness of Carmel.

By 'Carmel' he named figuratively the grace that of old had flourished among the Jews.

For the Jews of old flourished in prophets and righteous men and priests, but now they have imitated the barrenness of the forests.

This change he has also made plain in what has been interpreted before.

'And judgement shall rest in the wilderness' — that is to say —

'and righteousness shall dwell in Carmel';

for the wilderness he has named Carmel.

'And the works of righteousness shall be peace.'

For he who follows the divine commandments is at peace with God.

'And righteousness shall hold fast rest.'

For the fruit of righteousness and of peace with God is deliverance from present evils, and a life free from grief and released from cares.

'And let them be confident for ever.'

For the disposition of those who have believed in God is steadfast.

'And my people shall dwell in a city of peace, and in cities of security, and in houses of confidence, and they shall rest with wealth.'

By 'city of peace' he means the one in the heavens;

for 'the Jerusalem that is above is free, which is the mother of us all.' And by 'cities of security' he means also the diverse mansions;

for he says, 'In my Father's house are many mansions.' They also possess the inviolable wealth;

for he says, 'Lay up treasures where neither moth nor rust doth destroy, nor do thieves break through and steal.' 'And if the hail come down, it shall not come upon you.'

'And even in the present life you shall become, through my aid, stronger than those who war against you.'

'And those who dwell in the forests shall be as confident as in the plain.'

He foretells, then, that the heralds of the truth shall live their lives fearlessly even in the midst of the nations.

But if one wishes also to understand the passage according to its literal sense, let him behold the ascetics on the summits of the mountains, dwelling alone on the peaks, yet more confident than those who inhabit the greatest cities with their multitude of dwellers.

'Blessed is he who sows upon every water, where the ox and the ass tread.'

By this the passage intimated the one Church gathered together out of Gentiles and Jews.

For the ass is unclean according to the Law, and such also were the Gentiles before the manifestation of the Saviour;

and the ox is clean according to the Law, wherefore it was offered on behalf of the high priest and on behalf of the people.