以賽亞書註釋 第 1 章 第 2/24 段

or whether we call the churches throughout all the earth and sea the house of God — being persuaded by the divine Paul:

For we, he says, are His house — and thus it is possible to see the truth of the prophecy;

for the church of God is conspicuous, and the nations, forsaking the impiety that of old prevailed, come to it and are enlightened by it.

For out of Zion shall go forth a law, and the word of the Lord out of Jerusalem.

And He shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke a great people.

I marvel at those who endure to understand this passage otherwise, supposing that the return from Babylon is foretold through these words.

For what nations, after the second building of the temple, ran thither? And what law was given there? For the old law God gave not on Zion but on Mount Sinai.

It is plain, then, that he hints at the new covenant, given there first to the apostles, and through them bestowed on all the nations.

He foretells that not only a law but also a word shall go forth from there;

and thus he named the gospel proclamation.

as those who were from the beginning eyewitnesses and ministers of the word delivered them to us.

For by 'word' here he does not call God the Word, but the teaching of the divine word;

for God the Word did not go forth out of Zion, but in Zion He instructed men in the truth.

And they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into sickles; and nation shall not take up sword against nation, nor shall they learn war any more.

Neither do we find these things having come to pass after the return from Babylon;

for wars were continual throughout all the inhabited world, the kingdom being divided into many parts, and those who reigned nation by nation rising up against one another.

But at the manifestation of our God and Saviour the empire of the Romans reached its height; and this, having dissolved the many kingdoms, girded itself with dominion over all; and the nations that came under it no longer employ the instruments of war against one another, but all enjoy the good things that come from agriculture.

So great of old was the dissension, that even Israel was divided in two and consumed itself; and in one corner of the inhabited world, or rather in one province — I mean Palestine — the Philistines and Moabites and Ammonites and Idumeans and Amalekites waged war against one another.

But all these things the incarnation of our Saviour extinguished.

For at that very saving birth from the Virgin, Augustus, it says, sent forth a decree that all the inhabited world should be registered.

Thence took its beginning the change of wars into peace, and the proclamation ran unhindered, the wars nation by nation having been extinguished; and, all the nations being brought under one authority, the heralds of the truth passed through fearlessly, conveying the saving doctrines.

Having thus been commanded to foretell these things, the prophet exhorts the people called Jacob to receive the light of the truth, and he speaks thus:

And now, O house of Jacob, come and let us walk in the light of the Lord;

for He let go His people, the house of Israel.

By 'house of Jacob' he names those descended from Jacob.

Of these, those who were willing to believe were received, but those who disbelieved were cast off.

The prophetic word then urges them no longer to attend upon the lamp-like light of the Law, but to illumine their souls with the true light;

for those who gainsay shall no longer enjoy the former care.

Then he shows that, living not lawfully but even exceedingly unlawfully, they made a pretended show of zeal on behalf of the Law and did not receive the new covenant; and he teaches the things they dared to do:

That their land was filled, as from the beginning, with soothsayings like those of the Philistines, and many foreign children were born to them.

Both these things the Law clearly forbade: both to mingle with foreigners and to make marriage alliances with them, and to practise soothsayings;

but both of these they transgressed.

Their land was filled with silver and gold, and there was no number to their treasures;

and their land was filled with horses, and there was no number to their chariots.

The divine law forbade trusting both in horses and in the power of wealth.

For it says, 'You shall not make for yourself chariots, nor multiply horses.' These things it forbade, so that they might not trust in their own power but await the divine inclination of favour.

'He takes no pleasure in the strength of the horse, nor is He well-pleased with the legs of a man'; and again:

'For they did not inherit the land by their own sword, and their own arm did not save them; but Your right hand and Your arm and the light of Your countenance, because You were well-pleased with them'; and yet again:

'For I will not hope in my bow, nor will my sword save me.' 'And the land was filled with the abominations of the works of their hands, and they worshipped the things which their own fingers had made.'

He satirized their folly sufficiently, accusing them of impiety.

For the things which they fashioned with their hands and fingers, these they named gods and offered to them divine worship.

Then again He laments the change in their dignity:

'And man was brought low, and a man was humbled, and I will by no means forgive them.'

For he who was made according to the divine image, and who had received authority over all things on earth, fell from his kingship through ill counsel.

And though he ought to have held the honour, he himself assigns the reverence to hand-made things, bowing down and worshipping and running to the mastery of demons.

'But I,' He says, 'will not overlook these things, but will exact from them the penalties for their impiety.'

And what these penalties are, He teaches through what follows:

'And now enter into the rocks and hide yourselves in the earth from the presence of the fear of the Lord and from the glory of His might, when He rises up to shatter the earth.'

For when that army came upon them, most of them hid themselves in the mountains and in the caverns within them.

'For the eyes of the Lord are lofty, but man is lowly';

'and the loftiness of men shall be brought low, and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day.'

For those who mocked the Saviour at His coming and spoke to Him arrogantly shall learn by experience the difference of nature—that He indeed is Most High as God, while they are earth and ashes according to the divine Scripture.

'For the day of the Lord of Sabaoth,' it says, 'comes upon every insolent and haughty one, and upon everyone lofty and lifted up, and they shall be brought low; and upon every cedar of Lebanon of the high and lifted up, and upon every tree of the acorn of Bashan, and upon every high mountain and upon every high hill, and upon every high wall and upon every high tower, and upon every ship of the sea and upon every beautiful sight of ships';

'And every man shall be brought low, and the loftiness of men shall fall.'

'And the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day.'

When enemies come upon a people and prevail, they not only slay the men but also ravage the land and cut down the trees and bring engines of war against the walls, and becoming masters of the sea they cut off commerce.

And all these things befell the Jews at the same time when the Roman army came upon them.

But if anyone wishes to understand it figuratively—the oaks as those who pride themselves on bodily strength, the cedars as those who flourish in power, the ships as those keen in mind, and the rest similarly to these—he will thus also find the truth of the prophecy.

For nothing profited the Jews in the time of the war—neither an excellent general nor a wise counsellor, nor those who prided themselves on wealth, nor those who exulted in power;

but everything at once was proven vain, and the might of the God of all alone was shown forth.

For when He cared for them, they easily prevailed over all;

but when He stripped them of His own providence, they became easy prey to all.

'And they shall hide all the hand-made things, carrying them into the caves and into the clefts of the rocks and into the holes of the earth, from the presence of the fear of the Lord and from the glory of His might, when He rises up to shatter the earth.'

And of this prophecy too we have beheld the truth;

for many who were enslaved to error, beholding the might of true religion, hid in certain caves and grottoes the gods they had worshipped; but they were detected and reaped their shame, and the nurslings of true religion consigned the idols of those men to the fire.

'For in that day a man shall cast away his abominations of silver and of gold, which they made for themselves to worship the vain things and the bats, so as to enter into the holes of the solid rock and into the clefts of the rocks, from the presence of the fear of the Lord and from the glory of His might, when He rises up to shatter the earth.' He has said the same things in different ways.

These things came to their fulfilment after the manifestation of our God and Saviour, and we ourselves have become eyewitnesses and witnesses of them.

It is fitting to lament the excess of the error, that men, having fashioned images even of paltry bats, called those images gods.

For those creatures, fleeing the light, take refuge in darkness; and these men likewise, not wishing to behold the intelligible light, embraced the gloom of ignorance.

'Cease from the man, in whose nostrils is but a breath; for in what is he to be reckoned?' These things we found added with asterisks.

for in what has he been accounted? These things we found added with asterisks.

The prophetic word exhorts not only to flee the worship of idols but also to recognize the very nature of men and not to trust in their protection.

'For they have their life in their breathing';

'and if you stop up these, you will deprive them of life.'

'Do not trust in man, in the sons of men, in whom there is no salvation;

'his spirit shall go forth, and he shall return to his dust.'

'In that day all his devisings shall perish. Behold now, the Master, the Lord of Sabaoth, will take away from Judah and from Jerusalem the strong man and the strong woman, the strength of bread and the strength of water, the giant and the strong, and the ruler and the warrior and the judge and the prophet and the diviner and the elder and the captain of fifty and the wonderful counsellor and the wise master-builder and the intelligent hearer';

'and I will set up youths as their rulers, and mockers shall lord it over them.'

And these things befell them at the Roman siege.

For when Sennacherib made war upon them, they had Hezekiah as a pious king and Isaiah as a most distinguished prophet and rulers adorned with piety;

for they did not endure the words of blasphemy unmoved, but rent their garments.

But when the kings of the Romans warred them down, they had neither kings nor generals to marshal the army well and rightly, nor counsellors adorned with sagacity, but the ringleaders of the sedition, impious and murderous men;

and these things Josephus clearly relates.

These he calls youths and names mockers, as those who delight in revolutions and make sport of their subjects.

And the phrase 'I will set up' is put according to the idiom of Scripture;

for it is customary for the divine Scripture to name God's permission as an act;

and it is clear that He did not Himself appoint these men, but being able to prevent them, He permitted them to stir up sedition.

Now the 'giant,' Symmachus and Aquila rendered as 'valiant man,' while Theodotion rendered it as 'strong';

and the 'diviner' the Three rendered in agreement as 'soothsayer.'

Then He explains the sedition more clearly:

'And the people shall fall together, man against man and man against his neighbour;

'the child shall assail the elder, and the dishonoured against the honoured.'

For neither was grey hair reverend to those men, nor did distinction of birth or wealth seem worthy of any honour; but even the base rose up against the powerful, and the young laughed at the elders.

'For a man shall lay hold of his brother or of his father's kinsman, saying:

'You have a garment, become our leader, and let my food be under your care.'

So great, he says, shall be the scarcity of rulers and so great the disorder that shall prevail among them, that they shall entrust the rule even to any chance person.

And all shall so regard the rule as a thing to be shunned, that he who is entreated to rule will say:

'I will not be a leader of this people;

'for there is neither bread nor garment in my house.'

And showing the cause of these things, he added:

'it has been forsaken and no longer enjoys the providence from on high.'

'And Judea has fallen together, being in sedition against herself.'

'And their tongues are with lawlessness, being disobedient to the Lord.'

'and they proclaimed and made manifest their sin as that of Sodom.'

Again he reminds them of the kinship of their ways.

For indeed in the opening words he named them rulers of Sodom and people of Gomorrah;

and here he sets their lawlessness alongside the iniquity of those men—not because they had committed the very same deeds, but because, just as the drama of the wantonness and the punishment of those men has been proclaimed everywhere on land and sea, so too the impiety of these has become manifest to all mankind.

Woe to their soul, for they have taken evil counsel against themselves, saying:

These things one may find in the holy Gospels, spoken by the Jews.

For Caiaphas said to those of like disposition:

You know nothing at all, nor do you consider that it is expedient that one man should die and not the whole nation perish. And the Pharisees again took counsel together, how they might destroy him. And many other such things one might find in reading the history of the divine Gospels.

Therefore they shall eat the fruits of their works.

For the fruits resemble the seeds;

and he who sows wheat reaps wheat, while he who sows these thorns will have them for his fruit.

Evil things shall befall him according to his works.

He has stated what was said more plainly, and has pronounced the verdict universally.

Having threatened them with so many terrors, he again shows his own goodness, and shows it also by the name of kinship:

My people, your exactors glean you, and your creditors lord it over you.

Here he seems to me to accuse the priests and teachers, and to instruct the people that it was not out of care for their souls that they turned them away from heeding the divine proclamation, but on account of the firstfruits and tithes brought to them, which they exacted by imposing them as an obligation.

My people, those who call you blessed lead you astray and trouble the path of your feet.

For by urging them to persist in the keeping of the Law, and by calling those who did so blessed, they did not allow them to run to the saving proclamation.

And in general, praise given out of season brings harm to those who receive it;

for taking confidence in the commendations and thinking they have accomplished everything, they do not run in like manner to the race-course of virtue.

But now the Lord will stand up for judgment, and will set his people in judgment;

the Lord himself will come into judgment with the elders of the people and with its rulers.

The Lord is Judge of all, and he will exact penalties from those who have been entrusted with rule and put in charge of the ministry of teaching, for their lawlessness against the people.

And through the inspired Ezekiel he taught this:

For I will judge, he says, between shepherd and sheep.

So here too he says to the rulers:

But you, why have you burned my vineyard, and the spoil of the poor is in your houses? Why do you wrong my people and put to shame the faces of the lowly? says the Lord, the Lord of hosts.

By 'burning' he means a zeal that is not according to knowledge.

For I bear them witness, says the divine Apostle, that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. Inflamed by this, they cried out:

Away with him, away with him, crucify him! These things the impious rulers—chief priests and Pharisees and scribes—taught them, not truly cleaving to the legal polity, but making it a pretext for unjust gain.

And since the women were sick with the same arrogance and disobedience as the men, he threatens these too with dearth of husbands, utmost poverty, and the loss of their former prosperity:

at once trailing their tunics with their feet and playing wantonly with their feet; and God will humble the ruling daughters of Zion, and the Lord will uncover their form on that day.

He revealed their pride by the neck, and their wanton disposition by the eyes and the feet.

He especially accuses the wealthy, for he calls them 'ruling women,' and threatens them with the stripping away of their lavish attire.

Then he goes through the particulars of this in detail, speaking of embroidered raiment and gold ornaments of every kind and the plaiting [of the hair];

for I think it superfluous to dwell on things that need no interpretation.

The 'fringes' Aquila renders as 'bands,' and he alludes to the head-coverings.

Then he foretells the change into the opposite:

And instead of a sweet odor there shall be dust, and instead of a girdle you shall gird yourself with a rope.

No longer will you enjoy perfumes of every kind, but you will receive the dust that will come from the throng of war;

for such are the sufferings of captives.

And instead of the adornment of your head you shall have baldness because of your works, and instead of your tunic bordered with purple you shall gird yourself with sackcloth.

Ill-treatment brings on diseases, and diseases often take away the hair;

for no longer receiving the nourishment supplied by food, they fall out.

And the sackcloth signifies mourning.

These things for you instead of adornment.

Since, while enjoying so many good things, you did not know your Benefactor, receive misfortune in place of your former well-being.

To these he has added also the slaying of the beloved sons, and the destruction of the men, and utmost poverty.

For your storehouses of adornment, he says, shall lament;

they will remain empty, since the enemies will appropriate what is in them.

Then he turns his discourse to the city itself:

And you shall be left alone and shall be levelled to the ground.

For when these things come to pass, and the men are slain while the women are led away as slaves, you will remain bereft of inhabitants, neither adorned with splendid houses nor having the security afforded by the surrounding walls;

for all these things the enemies will pull down.

And seven women shall take hold of one man on that day, saying:

We will eat our own bread and wear our own garments; only let your name be called upon us, take away our reproach.

So great will be the dearth of men, that a multitude of women will choose the protection of a single man, and entreat to live under his guardianship.

And on that day God will shine forth in counsel with glory upon the earth, to exalt and glorify the remnant of Israel;

and the remnant of Israel in Zion and the remnant in Jerusalem shall be called holy, all who are written for life in Jerusalem.

Though the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, the remnant shall be saved. And by 'remnant' he designates those adorned with piety.

To these the prophetic word promises distinction and the appellation of saints.

For all, having come to know for what reason the Jews endured that siege and enslavement, deemed the ministers of the saving proclamation worthy of all honor and service.

Of these the glory is ever-memorable even after death, and their memory is honored by all mankind; these also were enrolled in the Jerusalem above, concerning which the blessed Paul says:

You have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven. For the Lord will wash away the filth of the sons and daughters of Zion, and will purge the blood of Jerusalem from their midst by the spirit of judgment and the spirit of burning.

Again he makes mention of blood and cleansing, calling 'blood' that which they poured out against themselves and their children when they cried out:

His blood be upon us and upon our children; and by 'cleansing' he foretells that which comes through the washing of regeneration.

And he says this is accomplished by burning, since, just as gold melted in fire is shown to be tested and approved, so those who are baptized put off the rust of their sins.

This also the blessed John the Baptist said:

He himself will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. And the Lord will come, and every place of Mount Zion and all that is round about it a cloud will overshadow by day, and as of smoke and as of the light of blazing fire by night;

and it shall be covered with all the glory, and it shall be for a shade by day from the heat, and for a shelter and hiding-place from harshness and rain.

When God freed Israel from the bondage of the Egyptians, he led them with a cloud resting over them, which by night bore torch-light and supplied the need of light, and by day imitated a tent and a roof and warded off the vexation of the sun's ray.

The prophecy foretells that those who have believed in Him will enjoy these things in a spiritual sense after the appearing of our Saviour, and that through this cloud they will be delivered both from the harshness of the rain and from the scorching heat, and will be sheltered in a hidden place, that is, an invisible one.

For those who enjoy the spiritual grace both honour good order in peace and repel the assaults of the ungodly, according to the Master's exhortation which says:

'Do not fear those who kill the body but are not able to kill the soul,' and:

'Do not be anxious how or what you shall speak,'

'for it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking in you,' and:

'Upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.' Having thus foretold these things to those who have believed in Him, He again laments the barrenness of the vineyard:

'I will sing now to the beloved a song of my beloved concerning my vineyard.'

There is a song that is festive and nuptial, and there is one that is mournful and full of grief;

for people sing not only wedding-songs but also dirges.

So too the blessed Moses, having foretold to the Jews those dreadful things, called his solemn testimony a song.

Symmachus, however, rendered these words thus:

'I will sing now to my beloved a song of my beloved concerning his vineyard.' Now the only-begotten Word of God is called Beloved;

for thus it says: 'God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son, that everyone who believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.' And the Father Himself bore witness from heaven, saying:

'This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.' This is He who from the beginning planted the vineyard of Israel;

for it says, 'A vineyard came to the beloved on a horn, in a fertile place,'

'and I set a hedge about it and fenced it and planted a choice vine, Sorech, and built a tower in its midst and dug a wine-vat in it, and I waited for it to produce grapes, but it produced thorns.'

'You brought a vine out of Egypt; You cast out nations and planted it.' And through Jeremiah God Himself says:

'But I planted a fruitful vine, wholly true.' And the Lord in the Gospels says:

'A certain man planted a vineyard and let it out to husbandmen and went abroad.' And the tower is that which resembles a watch-hut for the fruit—for so he named it above—and the wine-vat is the altar.

For that was not a wine-press but a fore-vat;

for in it the Truth was foreshadowing Himself.

For now we have as wine-vats the divine altars, in which we press out the mystical wine of the true vine, and we utter the songs of the vintage.

The word Sorek Symmachus rendered 'choice.'

And the rendering holds the truth;

for having chosen the patriarch Abraham, the God of all planted the vineyard from his branches.

By 'horn' he figuratively names the kingdom;

for just as horned animals have their horns as a weapon, so the king fights on behalf of his subjects.

By 'fertile place' he calls Palestine;

yet nevertheless, though it enjoyed all care, the vineyard remained barren;

for it offered thorns instead of grapes to the vinedresser, and with such a crown it wreathed the Master's head, and again, as a useless vineyard, it presented Him with vinegar.

Having composed this indictment, He makes the very culprits the judges, and says:

'And now, O man of Judah and you who dwell in Jerusalem, judge between me and my vineyard.'

This same Master did also in the sacred Gospels;

for having set before the Jews the parable of the vineyard, He constituted them lords of the verdict.

'What then will the lord of the vineyard do to those husbandmen?' And not only do the questions resemble one another, but so also does the very sense of the sayings.

'What shall I do to my vineyard that I have not done to it?' And in the Gospels:

'How often would I have gathered your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you would not!'

'Behold, your house is left to you desolate.' Here too, then, He brought forth this same verdict against the Jews:

'Now then I will declare to you what I will do to my vineyard:'

'I will take away its hedge, and it shall be for plundering; and I will pull down its wall, and it shall be for trampling; and I will forsake my vineyard, and it shall neither be pruned nor dug, and thorns shall come up upon it as upon barren ground; and I will command the clouds not to rain rain upon it.'

'For since I exercised every kind of providence over it and saw it useless and unfruitful, I will henceforth strip it of all care, and it shall lie ready for those who wish to trample and devour it;'

'no longer will I apply to it the spiritual husbandry, but I will look on while it turns to barren waste and fills with thorns;'

'no longer shall it receive the streams of prophetic watering.'

For he calls the prophets 'clouds,' as those who draw the prophetic rain from the spiritual sea.

Then he interprets the things spoken figuratively:

'For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the man of Judah is a newly-planted beloved shoot.'

He subjected all the tribes to the accusation;

for by 'house of Jacob' he calls all who came from him.

But the tribe of Judah, as having also the blessing of the promise and being adorned with the temple, he named a newly-planted beloved shoot.

Then he makes plain the grapes and the thorns:

'I waited that it should produce justice, but it produced lawlessness, and not righteousness but a cry.'

From this it is possible to discern clearly that, having raged against the Saviour, they were stripped of the divine grace;

for by the 'cry' he indicated that madness.

'Away, away, crucify Him!' and at another time:

'His blood be upon us and upon our children!'

And the prophet laments their other injustice as well:

'Woe to those who join house to house and draw field near to field, that they may take something from their neighbour.'

This is characteristic of those sick with covetousness;