以賽亞書註釋 第 1 章 第 8/24 段

'And the Egyptians shall serve the Assyrians.'

The Assyrians in ancient times were also called Syrians.

[He foretells] the intermingling that afterward came about between Syrians and Egyptians, in accordance with the subjection of the Egyptians.

For indeed in the time of our fathers the rule was entrusted to the Syrian province;

and this man, seated in Antioch, the metropolis of the Syrians, [ruled over] the Egyptians.

By these words, then, the prophecy has made plain the great transformation of the Egyptians.

But if anyone does not accept this interpretation, he must recognize that the prophets foretell things that will come to pass at various times.

For indeed, this same prophet, having above foretold to the Jews the saving birth of Emmanuel, immediately joined to it the events concerning Pekah and Rezin; for he said:

'And the land which you fear shall be forsaken from before the two kings.' Now this came to pass at that very time in which the prophet uttered it, whereas the events concerning Emmanuel reached their fulfillment more than six hundred years later;

yet the prophecies are nonetheless joined together, and there is nothing that distinguishes them.

In this way, then, we shall understand also the prediction concerning Egypt: that those things foretelling its piety came to pass long ages afterward, while the things concerning the Assyrians reached their fulfillment at that time, as a confirmation of the more distant prediction.

And that the Egyptians came up against the Assyrians—for it was Pharaoh Necho who did this—both the Second Book of Chronicles and the Fourth Book of Kingdoms teach.

And the Assyrians came up against them, and the Egyptians became slaves to the Assyrians; and this occurred under Nebuchadnezzar.

In that day Israel shall be third among the Assyrians and among the Egyptians, blessed in the land which the Lord of Sabaoth has blessed, saying:

'Blessed be my people that are in Egypt, and the work of my hands in Assyria, and my inheritance Israel.'

By these words he has indicated the recall of the Jews.

For, he says, just as I set them free from the bondage of the Egyptians, so too I shall bring them back from Babylon, and shall make them objects of admiration, and shall prepare them to dwell in the blessed land.

For this my people, who in Egypt obtained my succor, shall display my strength in Assyria, being delivered through me from their bondage, and shall again be my inheritance.

To these things the prophet still joins the following: that, when a certain Assyrian general named Tanathan had seized Azotus and laid waste both the city itself and its territory, the prophet was commanded by the God of all to strip off the tunic made of hair, and to walk with bare feet, and to join to his words this outward appearance, and to demonstrate by his deeds the truth of the prophecy of his words.

And when I had done these things, he says, the Lord himself spoke thus, using my tongue as an instrument:

'As my servant Isaiah has walked naked and unshod three years, they shall be signs and wonders to the Egyptians and Ethiopians;

for thus shall the king of the Assyrians lead away the captivity of Egypt and of the Ethiopians, young men and old men, naked and unshod, with the shame of Egypt uncovered.'

He has limited to three years the time of the signs which forewarned of the coming destruction, and he teaches that, in accordance with that outward appearance of the prophet, the Assyrians, having stripped bare every age of the Ethiopians and Egyptians, shall lead them away as prisoners of war.

And they shall be ashamed, being defeated, on account of the Ethiopians, in whom the Egyptians had put their trust, who were to them a glory.

When the Assyrians came against them, they summoned the Ethiopians to their alliance.

And these indeed lent their aid, but in common they suffered the defeat.

And those who dwell on this island shall say in that day:

'Behold, we were putting our trust in fleeing to them for help;

and they themselves could not be saved from the king of the Assyrians, and how shall we be saved?' He calls Egypt an island, since it is made sea-like by the river and surrounded by canals.

These, he says, after their defeat, shall say that in vain did we take courage in the Ethiopians, for they were not able to succor even themselves.

This is the end of the prediction concerning the Egyptians.

And since he had made mention of the Assyrians, he foretells the destruction of Babylon:

The word of the desert of the sea.

He calls Babylon 'a desert sea'—a sea because of its former prosperity and the multitude of its inhabitants, who imitated the waves; a desert because of the calamity that was later brought upon it.

As a tempest might pass through the desert, coming from the wilderness, from a fearsome land.

This is a personification, spoken in the character of Babylon.

She calls the army of the Persians and Medes a tempest, which she prays may pass through and not advance against her.

Then he lays bare her dread:

'A fearful vision, and a hard thing, was announced to me.'

'Grievous things,' she says, 'and harsh things do I foresee.'

'He that despises, despises; and he that transgresses, transgresses.'

'Against me come the Elamites, and the ambassadors of the Persians come against me.'

These things Symmachus has rendered thus:

'He that despises is despised, and he that inflicts misery suffers misery.'

'Go up, O Elam; besiege, O Medes.' 'Of old,' she says, 'I despised, but now I am despised;

of old I made others wretched, but now I suffer the very things that I did.'

'Go up, then, O Elam'—and this is a Persian nation—'besiege, O Medes.'

'Now therefore will I groan and comfort myself.'

The groaning consoles one who is in anguish.

For like some smoke sent forth from within, from the heart, out of the fire of despondency, she fittingly said:

'For I who was of old well-girded and noble, who marched against all the nations, now am I deprived of strength and have anguish that imitates the pangs of childbirth.'

'And what is the cause of the change? I did wrong so as not to hear, I strove so as not to see.'

'My heart wanders astray, and lawlessness overwhelms me; my soul has sunk into fear.'

'O king, let my counsel be pleasing to you, and by acts of mercy wash away your sins, and your iniquities by compassion toward the poor'—'I saw the greatest wonders and would not perceive what was needful: that furnace which did not consume the noble athletes.'

'I did wrong so as not to hearken, I strove so as not to see.'

Having set down these things in the character of Babylon, the prophet shows God commanding the enemies to take courage against Babylon:

'Rise up, O rulers, prepare your shields.'

Then he teaches that he was commanded to set watchmen in some lookout place and to report what was seen.

And having done this, he saw two horsemen, the one riding upon an ass, the other upon a camel.

By the horses he signifies the cavalry army; by the ass and the camel, the beasts of burden.

'Hearken with much hearkening, and call Uriah to the watchtower.'

'Keep silence,' he says, 'and let the tongue be stilled, but let the ear give heed.'

'And have Uriah as your companion;'

'for at the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established.' Then he stood at the watchtower as one waiting all day and all night for that which was to be announced, and he saw someone riding upon a pair of horses and crying out: 'Babylon has fallen, and all her images and her handmade idols are shattered to the ground.'

Having heard these words, the prophet cannot bear to conceal them, but makes them known to his kinsmen:

'Hear, you who are left and are in anguish; hear the things I have heard from the Lord of Sabaoth, which the God of Israel has announced to us.'

And these things were sufficient to instill consolation in those who believe.

Having thus foretold the things concerning Babylon and joined them to the prophecy concerning the Egyptians, he foretells the salvation of Idumea.

Here by Idumea he means the race of Esau;

for this Edom was named from his ruddy appearance.

Now Esau and Jacob were brothers;

yet nonetheless, although the Israelites and the Idumeans traced their descent from Abraham, they were most hostilely disposed toward one another.

...thus they preserved the ancestral hatred.

we have made plain in the prophecies of the other prophets.

'To me one calls from Seir.'

Seir is the name given to the mountain of the Idumeans;

and it too received its appellation from Esau;

for since he was hairy, he was named Seir, that is, 'the shaggy one.'

'Why do you wail? To the one keeping watch I spoke from the night;' and keeping watch he came in the morning and in the night.

'Keeping watch he came in the morning and the night.'

For since, dreading their enemies, they kept vigil and stationed themselves along the wall, keeping watch by night and by day, and as they watched they cried out, supposing that thereby they frightened their adversaries, fittingly the prophetic word mockingly says to them:

'Guard the battlements,' meaning:

'You do well to take forethought for your safety; but why do you wail while keeping watch, and not only by night but also by day?'

'Nevertheless, if you seek, seek;

turn back, come and dwell with me in the wood.'

'If you seek salvation, come to me; do not rely upon yourselves.'

'I am mindful of my kinship with Abraham;

therefore those who take refuge I will hide as in some wood, and I will make them stronger than their enemies.'

After the Idumeans, he foretells to the Ishmaelites the things that are to come;

for he names them Arabs.

'To meet the thirsty bring water, you who dwell in the land of Teman; meet the fugitives with loaves.'

He says there is a great multitude of swordsmen, and also a great host of archers.

For which cause the greater part have fallen.

'Yet a year, as the year of a hired laborer, and the glory of the sons of Kedar shall fail, and the remnant of the bows of the number of the mighty men of Kedar shall be few, for the Lord, the God of Israel, has thus spoken.'

He showed the truth of what was said, disclosing who it was that spoke;

for this One is God and Lord.

Kedar, however, we have found in the lineage of Ishmael.

He therefore says, not that such a race will be utterly destroyed, but that its glory will be extinguished and few will remain instead of many.

And this indeed came to pass in the assault of the Assyrians, but in the course of time they again increased.

For He who promised to Abraham the multitude of Ishmael's descendants is not false.

After these he directs his words to Jerusalem.

He calls her the valley of Zion because of the desolation brought upon them by the Romans;

for this is what he here foretells.

'What has now happened to you, that you have all gone up to the housetops in vain? The city is filled with those who cry out, the exulting city.'

'What is this strange thing,' he says, 'what is this astonishing thing, that the city which was insolent against all is now filled with turmoil and confusion, so that they even take to the very housetops and from above survey the multitude of the enemy? Your slain are not slain by the sword, nor are your dead the dead of war.'

'It is not the enemy,' he says, 'who have grown strong against you, but I have given you up because of their madness against me.'

'And not only the rulers, but even those of the soldiers accustomed to excel in valor—some fled, while others, being captured, were bound.'

Having prophesied these things, the prophet adds:

'Let me be; I will weep bitterly;

do not prevail upon me to comfort me over the ruin of the daughter of my people.'

He says the evils that have befallen the city are beyond consolation.

He calls her the daughter of his people since he himself also traces his lineage from her.

'For it is a day of turmoil and destruction and trampling and wandering from the Lord of Sabaoth;

in the valley of Zion they wander, from small to great they wander upon the mountains.'

He says the time of calamities came upon them, and for that reason those who were utterly beyond contempt became an easy prey to all.

'And the Elamites took quivers.'

He calls the Samaritans Elamites;

for they were resettled from the Persian land.

And being hostilely disposed toward the Jews, they of necessity fought as allies of the Romans against them.

'Mount up, O men, upon horses, and an assembly of battle-array.'

'And the valleys shall be filled with chariots, and the horsemen shall block up the gates and shall uncover the gates of Judah,' that is, shall open them.

'To block up' is the opposite of 'to open.'

Yet they did both;

for they prevented those under siege from fleeing, while to the enemy they flung the doors open.

And by 'city' he means Zion.

'And they saw that they were many, and they turned back the water of the ancient pool into the city, and they numbered the houses of Jerusalem, and they pulled down the houses to make a fortification for the wall of the city.'

Most of these things Josephus too records, he who composed the history of the Jews.

For when they saw the city being destroyed, the ringleaders of the sedition tore down many of the houses and built up the Antonia and the temple more securely.

'And you made for yourselves water between the two walls, within the ancient pool; but you did not look to Him who from the beginning created it, nor did you see Him who fashioned it from afar off.'

'You would have needed none of these things, had you called upon my aid;

for in an instant I would have scattered the enemy.'

Besides this he charges them that, when they ought to have mourned and lamented and to have propitiated God because of the magnitude of their calamities, they gave themselves to public banquets and passed their time in feasting, saying:

'Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.'

And all these things He both saw and heard, He who dwells in the heights and looks upon the lowly.

'For these things are laid open in the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth,' He says, 'and this sin shall not be forgiven you until you die, said the Lord, the God of hosts.'

And truly it is an utterly grievous thing, admitting no pardon, that while the Master is displeased, His servants should revel and by their laughter display their contempt.

Here, then, he brought this prophecy to a close;

but after these things he teaches that they were commanded to go into the chamber to Shebna the steward and to say to him:

'What have you here, and what have you here, that you have hewn out for yourself a tomb here, and made for yourself a tomb on high, and carved out for yourself a dwelling in the rock?' We have found that the 'chambers' (pastophoria) of the divine temple were the names given to the recesses, when interpreting Ezekiel.

For which reason he built for himself also a conspicuous tomb, expecting thereby to be renowned in memory.

And I suppose he is called 'steward' (tamias) because he was entrusted with the sacred vessels.

Then He threatens him with destruction:

'Behold now, the Lord of Sabaoth shall cast out the man and shall crush you, and shall take away your robe and your turban and your glorious crown.'

These made up the high-priestly array.

From this it is clear that he was of the chief priests.

'And he will hurl you into a great and measureless land, and there you shall die.'

Some say that he was captured while fleeing from the Assyrians and was led away as a prisoner of war.

'And he will make your fair chariot a thing of dishonour, and the house of your ruler an object of destruction.'

'And you shall be removed from your stewardship, and from your station he will cast you down.'

Then he makes clear the one who succeeded to that man's honour:

'And it shall come to pass in that day, I will call my servant Eliakim the son of Chelkias,'

The history concerning Hezekiah also mentions this man;

for this man, unable to bear the blasphemy of the Assyrian, rent his garment.

He promises to clothe this man with the robe, to adorn his head with the crown, and to give him the sovereignty and the stewardship.

He praises him as one imitating the tender affection of a gentle father, and as one who carefully provided for the inhabitants of Jerusalem and for those dwelling round about.

'to him, and he shall rule, and there shall be none to gainsay him;'

In this our own affairs are also prefigured.

'For whatsoever you shall bind upon the earth,' he says, 'shall be bound in the heavens;'

'and whatsoever you shall loose upon the earth shall be loosed in the heavens.' 'And I will establish him as a ruler in a faithful place, and he shall be for a throne of glory to the house of his father.'

In the same way he also gives him both priestly and princely authority.

'And everyone glorious in the house of his father shall trust in him, from the small to the great, every small vessel, from the vessels of the aganoth, and they shall be hanging upon him in that day.'

Both Symmachus and Aquila rendered 'aganoth' as 'mixing-bowls' (craters).

For figuratively he called both the great and the small 'vessels.'

For indeed of the vessels some were holy and others more holy, and some lay in the court while others in the sanctuary.

'A man fixed firmly in a faithful place shall be shaken, and he shall be removed and shall fall, and the glory that is upon him shall be utterly destroyed, for the Lord has spoken.'

He took up again the discourse concerning Somnas and showed that he received no benefit whatever from the priesthood, but reaped punishment from his negligence.

The history, and the prophecy fitted to it, are set before us for our benefit.

The Assyrians, having besieged Tyre also, sacked it.

This too, then, the prophet foresaw with his spiritual eyes and foretold.

'Wail, you ships of Carthage, for they have perished and no longer come from the land of the Kitians;'

'for it has perished'—that is, Tyre.

Carthage is the metropolis of Libya, now called Africa;

in the Hebrew, however, it is called Tharsis.

And the Kitians, or Chettiim—for so the name stands both in the Hebrew and among the other Translators—is called Cyprus;

for this island also has a town called Kition even to the present day.

To these, then—to some as islanders and to others as dwellers on the coast—he bids them lament, since Tyre, in which they had the resources of their commerce, has been laid waste.

'They were led away captive'—that is, the Tyrians.

'To whom have those become like who dwell in this island?' The situation of Tyre resembles an island;

for it is an isthmus lying in the sea, having a single entrance.

He calls them as those bringing one thing and receiving another in exchange.

'You who cross the sea in much water, a seed of merchants.' That is to say:

their forefathers too had this manner of life.

'As of a harvest being gathered in are the merchants of the nations.'

He says: the ships of the merchants putting in at the harbours seem to resemble those who, at the time of harvest, carry the sheaves from the fields to the threshing-floors.

'Be ashamed, O Sidon,' said the sea.

Sidon too had of old been subject to Tyre.

The word therefore introduces it speaking to Tyre—for this he called 'the sea'—:

'Cease from your insolence, know yourself.'

the sea said to Sidon:

'Be ashamed'—but rather it is Sidon speaking to that which is called 'the sea,' that is, to the outer sea, to which he likens Tyre because of the multitude of its inhabitants.

'The strength of the sea said:'

'I have not travailed nor given birth, nor reared up young men, nor exalted virgins.'

The prophetic word puts speeches into the mouths of the cities, and represents Sidon as saying:

'a power gave birth and reared up.'

The grace of the Spirit dramatizes these things, teaching us not to think highly of ourselves, but to know the Giver of good things.

'And when it becomes heard in Egypt, anguish concerning Tyre shall seize them.'

For from the calamities of Tyre the Egyptians will become anxious for themselves.

'Depart to Carthage, wail, you who dwell in this island.'

There was of old a friendship between the Carthaginians and the Tyrians, and the cities made commercial covenants with one another.

For this very reason he bids the Carthaginians also to wail.

'For insolence'—that is, lawlessness and arrogance—'led the way to the siege.'

'Her own feet shall carry her away afar off into exile.'

By 'her feet' he calls her way, that is, the practices of her life.

This the same prophet also says elsewhere:

'Woe to the lawless one, evil things according to the works of his hands shall befall him. Who devised these things against Tyre? Who brought forth this sentence against her? Is he inferior, or has he no strength?' That is to say:

'Is it a small city, having little power, insufficient to withstand its enemies?' Then he shows her prosperity:

'Her merchants are rulers of Canaan, and her traders the honoured ones of the earth.'

'And indeed it is a most royal city and a far-famed emporium of the whole world.'

What then is the cause of the calamities? 'The Lord of Sabaoth has purposed to break down all the insolence of the honoured, and to bring to dishonour every honoured thing upon the earth.'

By 'the honoured' here he calls the boastful and the proud.

For he does not strip of glory those who have the renown of virtue, but those who are ignorant of their own nature and think of themselves above it.

'Work your land, for ships no longer come from Carthage.'

'And your hand no longer has strength upon the sea, provoking kings.'

Cease from commerce and hold fast to husbandry, and instead of the sea, work the land.

For perhaps you will no longer enjoy the abundance from the sea, nor be an object of envy to the kings who border upon you.

The Lord of Sabaoth has given command concerning Canaan, to destroy her strength.

You shall no longer continue to insult and wrong the virgin daughter of Sidon.

By 'Canaan' he names not the nature but the manner of life.

And the very words make this plain;

for while accusing Tyre, he shows concern for Sidon, and Sidon was the firstborn of Canaan;

for it says, Canaan begot Sidon his firstborn. And it is worthy to marvel at and to praise the Master's love for mankind: that of the two cities, both Tyre and Sidon, which embraced impiety and lawlessness, he accuses the one but shows care for the other; since Tyre committed injustice, having her conspicuous eminence as an occasion for arrogance, while Sidon was wronged by her;

and the God who loves mankind did not look to her own impiety, but to the injustice which she endured.

And if you go away to the Kittim, neither there will there be rest for you;

and to the land of the Chaldeans—even this has been laid waste by the Assyrians—neither there will there be rest for you, for her wall has fallen, siim founded her, they set up her battlements, they raised up her towers.

As though the enemies were assailing her from every side and encircling her with evils of every kind, he brings a question to her;

Where, he says, have you planned to go away? To the Kittim, that is, to Cyprus? But not even there will you find any cessation of evils.

For it is easy for those who have a ship, employing its power, both to bring you thence and to lead you away as a captive of the spear.

But did you plan to seize Babylon, trusting in your ancient kinship?—for indeed Nimrod who built her traces his descent from Canaan—but this city too the impious and lawless manner of life rendered empty of inhabitants.

For this the word hints at, saying:

It has been laid waste by the Assyrians, that is to say

by her own impiety and lawlessness.

Her wall has fallen, instead of saying:

siim founded her—for Aquila rendered the siim as 'those going out'—instead of saying:

from on high she received this sentence, that she should become a captive of the spear.

And at the very time when she was receiving her battlements and enclosing walls and the houses within, she already bore this verdict.

But the Syrian translated the siim as 'demons.'

And the interpretation is true;

for I found the word siim occurring in this same prophet, where he says:

this siim the Seventy translated as 'demons.'

For indeed, when the Apostle says:

I, as a wise master builder, have laid a foundation, we understand not stones but words of piety.

The prophet, however, again having charged the seafaring folk of Carthage to wail, foretells also the time of the desolation of Tyre;

Immeasurable is the Master's love for mankind.

For they sinned throughout many generations, yet he circumscribes the punishment by the reign of a long-lived king, or by the lifetime of a single man.

And it shall come to pass after seventy years, that Tyre shall be as the song of a harlot.

The prophecy teaches her great licentiousness and incontinence;

for it bids her to employ the practices of prosperity even in her very misfortune.

And he does this ironically, teaching the harmfulness of such a life.

And it shall come to pass after seventy years, that God will make a visitation of Tyre, and she shall be restored again to her former state, and shall be a market for all the kingdoms of the world upon the face of all the earth.

And these things restrain the pride of the Jews;

for the same length of time which he appointed for the desolation of Jerusalem, he granted also to Tyre because of his great goodness, teaching that he is God not of the Jews only but also of the nations;

For the earth is his, and its fullness. And her merchandise and her wages shall be holy to the Lord;

it shall not be gathered for them nor stored up, but for those who dwell before the Lord shall all her merchandise be, to eat and to drink and to be filled, for a covenant, a memorial before the Lord.

'for a covenant': Symmachus and Theodotion rendered it as 'for clothing oneself,' while Aquila rendered it 'a garment.'

For he said that she who of old lived lawlessly and impiously would bring the gains of her merchandise to those who have devoted themselves to the service of God, so that from these they might have both the necessity of food and their raiment.

Some have said that these things came to pass after the return from Babylon, when the Tyrians brought these gifts to the priests in Jerusalem;

but some have said that Gog and Magog, having sacked Tyre, set out against Jerusalem, then there ended their life by a divinely-sent blow, and that the wealth amassed by them was dedicated to the God of all.

But I, beholding the fulfillment of the prophecy, have no need of many reasonings;

for the eyes are witnesses of the truth.

For the splendid and conspicuous and richly-costly precincts of demons, which the ancient kings of Tyre constructed—these

and out of these the priests of piety constructed sacred enclosures for God.

And we see even unto this day many gifts being offered to God by all men, and the properties too, from which the priests of God are both fed and clothed, some of which men still living, and others who have died, have dedicated to God.

The observation of these events, therefore, bears witness to the prophecy.

The prophetic word, however, here having concluded the prediction concerning Tyre, foretells the things that shall befall all men;

he will uncover her face and scatter those dwelling in her.

for it signifies both the things happening at various times in wars, and the things that shall be at the consummation of the present age.

And the people shall be as the priest, and the servant as the master, and the maidservant as the mistress, and the buyer shall be as the seller, and the lender as the borrower, and the debtor as the one to whom he owes.

These things, properly and truly, shall come to pass after the resurrection;

for then the fashion of the present life is changed, and the distinction of dignities ceases, while there is introduced instead the distinction of virtue and of vice; and often priests who have lived in lawlessness shall be delivered up to punishment, while some who are counted in the roll of the laity shall pass over into the rank of those; and household servants shall be numbered among the saved, but masters among the punished;

thus Lazarus was dwelling in the bosom of Abraham, while the rich man was being consumed by fire.

But nevertheless, even in wars one may see this same thing happening;

for the enemies do not recognize the distinction of slave and master, nor of nobly-born and low-born, but upon all alike they lay the yoke of slavery.

Then again, having foretold the destruction of the world that shall come from the divine sentence, and the lamentations of those who exult in wealth and power, he added:

But the earth has acted lawlessly because of those who dwell in her, because they transgressed the law and changed the ordinances, they broke the everlasting covenant.

For since the earth is without reason and without soul, he fittingly taught that its inhabitants filled it with lawlessness.