Jerome

In his own words on Isaiah

• Isaiah 1:1

  No one, when he will have seen the Prophets to be written in verses, would think them to be bound in meter among the Hebrews, and to have anything in common with the Psalms or the works of Solomon. But what is customary to be used in Demosthenes and Cicero, as they are written in words with divisions, who certainly wrote prose and not in verses, we also, providing ease of reading, have divided a new translation with a new kind of writing. And first, knowing of Isaiah what is presented in his speech, certainly as a man noble and of urbane elegance he does not have anything of rusticity mixed into (his) speech. For this reason it happens that in comparison with others the translation was not able to preserve the flower of his speech. And then adding this, that it is being spoken not only by a prophet, but by an evangelist. For thus all the mysteries of Christ and the Church are pursued to clarity, so that you would not think them to be prophesied of the future, but they covered the history of things past. For this reason I suppose the Seventy interpreters to have been unwilling at that that time to set forth clearly for the gentiles the sacraments of their faith, not throwing holy things to dogs or pearls to swine, which things, when you will have read this edition, you will note were hidden by them. Nor am I unaware of how much work it is to understand the Prophets, or for anyone not to be easily able to judge from the translation, unless he will have before understood those things which he will have read, and we to suffer from the bites of many, who, being goaded by jealousy, what they are not able to follow, they despise. Therefore, knowing and being wise, I place my hand in the fire, and nevertheless I pray this for the scornful readers: that just as the Greeks after the Seventy translators read Aquila and Symmachus and Theodotion, either for study of their doctrines or so that they better understand the Seventy through their collation, that these are deemed worthy to have at least one translator after the earlier ones. Reading first and afterward despising, they are seen not to condemn by judgment, but rather by the ignorant presumption of hatred. And Isaiah prophesied in Jerusalem and Judea when the ten tribes had not yet been led into captivity, and the oracle covered both kingdoms, now together, now separately. And while he sometimes looks at present history, and indicated the return of the people to Judea after the Babylonian captivity, yet is all his concern for the calling of the nations and for the coming of Christ. Who, how much the more you love, O Paula and Eustochium, the more strive for him, so that for the present disparagement, by which the envious incessantly tear me into pieces, the same One may restore a reward to me in the future, Who knows me to have exerted myself in the learning of foreign languages: the Jews might not jump all day on the errors of the Scriptures in His Church.

  Prologue to Isaiah

• Isaiah 1:1

  (Chapter 1, Verse 1) The vision of Isaiah, the son of Amos, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. For Judah, in which two tribes are signified, the Seventy and Theodotion have translated 'Judah,' which signifies the entire land of the twelve tribes. And because we translate from Hebrew, 'concerning Judah and Jerusalem,' they have interpreted it as 'against Judah and Jerusalem.' Symmachus, in his own way, more clearly, 'concerning Judah and Jerusalem,' so that he does not want to indicate either prosperity or adversity by the title, but what the prophetic discourse has foretold about Judah and Jerusalem in both respects. Therefore, Isaiah primarily speaks about two tribes, Judah and Benjamin, excluding the ten tribes that were in Samaria and were called Ephraim and Israel; and those that under the reign of King Uzziah of Judah, and Jerusalem, the king of Assyria, Tiglath-Pileser, had already begun to devastate. Finally, in the fifty-second year of his reign, when Pekah, the son of Remaliah, was reigning in Samaria, Tiglath-Pileser, the king of Assyria, came and captured Aijon and Abel, the house of Maacah, and Janoah and Kedesh and Hazor and Gilead and Galilee, all the land of Naphtali, and he resettled them in Assyria (2 Kings 15:18-19). From this it is shown that all these things are narrated as a warning by the neighboring destruction of Samaria to the two tribes. But Ozias himself is the same person who is also called Azarias with a double name. And indeed, at the same time we know that Isaiah, Hosea, Joel, and Amos prophesied, from the kings who are mentioned in the title. But the beginning of the word of the Lord was with Hosea, son of Beeri. However, Amos is the father of Isaiah, not as most people think, he is the third of the twelve Prophets, but another; they are written in different letters among the Hebrews. This one has the first and last letters Aleph and Sade (); that one has Ainet Samech (): and this one is interpreted by some as strength or robust; that one as a hard or heavy people: about which we have spoken more fully in Amos. Not only this prophet, but also others with the title 'Vision seen by Isaiah or Obadiah' do not reveal what they saw. For example: 'I saw the Lord of hosts sitting on a high and lofty throne, and the two seraphim were around Him.' But what was said, they tell, that is, 'Hear, heaven, and listen, earth' (Isa. 6:1-2). And: 'This is what the Lord God says to Edom. I have heard an announcement from the Lord, and a messenger has been sent to the nations' (Obad. 1:1). For the prophets were previously called seers, who were able to say: Our eyes are always towards the Lord (Psalm 14:15). And: To you, I lift up my eyes, you who are enthroned in heaven (Psalm 123:1). Therefore, the Savior commanded the Apostles: Lift up your eyes and see the fields, for they are already white for harvest (John 4:35). The bride in the Song of Songs also had these eyes of the heart, to whom the bridegroom says: You have ravished my heart, my sister, my bride, with one glance of your eyes (Song of Songs 4:9). And in the Gospel we read: The light of your body is your eye (Matt. VI, 22). It is also said in the old Scriptures that the people saw the voice of God (Exod. XX, 18). From this, the delusions of the Montanists are silenced, who in their ecstasy thought that the prophets spoke of future events from a deranged mind, for they could not see what they were ignorant of. I know that some interpret Judah and Jerusalem to mean heavenly things, and Isaiah to represent the Lord Savior: that it foreshadows the captivity of that province in our land, and later the return and ascent to the holy mountain in the last days. We despise everything that is contrary to the Christian faith, judging it, and following the truth of history, we interpret it spiritually so that whatever they dream about the heavenly Jerusalem, we refer it to the Church of Christ, and to those who either leave it because of sin or return to the original seat because of repentance, and also because we consider that this is said in the same Prophet: 'Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. For darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the Lord will arise upon you, and his glory will appear over you. Nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn. Lift up your eyes and look around; they all gather together, they come to you; your sons shall come from far away, and your daughters shall be carried on their nurses' arms. Then you shall see and be radiant; your heart shall thrill and rejoice, because the abundance of the sea shall be brought to you, the wealth of the nations shall come to you. A multitude of camels shall cover you, the young camels of Midian and Ephah; all those from Sheba shall come. They shall bring gold and frankincense, and shall proclaim the praise of the Lord. All the flocks of Kedar shall be gathered to you, the rams of Nebaioth shall minister to you; they shall be acceptable on my altar, and I will glorify my glorious house.' And it is stated in the title that he prophesied during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. This is not to be understood in a confused manner like in other prophets, so that we do not know what was said under which specific king. Rather, it is referred to the end of the book to indicate what was separately revealed to him by the Lord under Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. Let us also know that Hezekiah began to reign in Jerusalem in the 12th year of Romulus, who founded a city in Italy bearing his name, so that it is clear how much older our histories are than those of other nations. Isaiah is interpreted as the Savior of the Lord; Judah, the confession; Jerusalem, the vision of peace; Uzziah, the strength of the Lord; Jotham, the perfection of the Lord; Ahaz, the one who holds or is strong; Hezekiah, the rule of the Lord. Therefore, whoever is saved with the Lord presiding is the son of Amos, that is, strong and mighty; he spiritually perceives the vision of confession while lamenting the ancient sins, and the peace while moving from repentance to light, and he rests in eternal peace. And all his times pass under the strength, perfection, and power of the Lord. And when he has done all things, he will say that evangelical saying: We are useless servants: for what we ought to have done, we have done (Luke 17:10).

  Commentary on Isaiah

• Isaiah 1:2

  (Version 2.) Listen, O heavens, and hear, O earth: for the Lord has spoken. Above, it is shown by the title, who the prophet is, whose son, what is against Judah and Jerusalem, or concerning Judah and Jerusalem, and at what time he saw. Now he calls to hear the heavens and the earth. In heaven, representing the heavenly and angelic powers; on earth, the mortal race, metaphorically signifying both those which contain and those which are contained. Whether it be because, through Moses, the Lord had summoned the witnesses of heaven and earth, giving his law to the people of Israel, and had said: 'Listen, heaven, and I will speak; let the earth hear the words of my mouth' (Deuteronomy 31:1): after the transgression of the people, he summons them again as witnesses, so that all the elements may know that God, justly provoked to anger by the violation of his commandments, punishes. In Hebrew, 'heaven' is called 'Samaim', in the plural form. Especially when it says 'listen', that is, 'Semu', which is pronounced in the plural form, not the singular. But some want to be called heavens in the plural, but understood in the singular, according to that which we call individual cities, Thebes and Athens. And there is the Hebrew language, in which all words ending in Im are masculine and plural, like Cherubim and Seraphim. And words ending in Oth are feminine and plural, like Sabaoth. And it should be noted that heavens is used, hear, earth, perceive with your ears; for those things that are exalted have a greater understanding, while those that are more humble are wrapped in earthly senses. And the Savior in the Gospel says: He who has ears to hear, let him hear (Matt. XI, 15). Therefore, if anyone is heavenly and has citizenship in the heavens, let him hear mystically what is being said. If anyone is earthly, let him follow the simple history. Also, it should be noted that he did not say: Hear, heaven, and perceive with your ears, earth, what the Lord has spoken to you; but what he has spoken to me, so that I may recount to you what I have heard in the spirit, since you do not deserve to hear him speaking. Some (Origenists) think that the heavens and the earth are, as it were, animated beings capable of hearing, according to what is said elsewhere about the earth: Who looks on the earth, and makes it tremble (Ps. CIII, 32): whereas this is the power of God, not of earthly intelligence. I have begotten and exalted sons: but they have despised me. For which Symmachus and Theodotion rendered it thus: I have nourished and exalted sons (Exod. IV, 22). From this place the Prophet relates what the Lord has spoken, that he has turned the people of Israel, whom he had established as servants by a common law, into sons, and has said: My firstborn son is Israel. Finally, the Lord in the Gospel promises the Apostles that if they do his will, he will no longer call them servants, but friends (John XV, 15). But if Israel becomes proud, let him understand that he is called the firstborn, because it signifies that he is followed by second sons from the nations. For he is not called the only begotten who excludes other brothers, but the firstborn, to show that others will follow: and yet according to the mysteries of the Scriptures, it is not the firstborn who receive the inheritance, but the second. Cain was the firstborn, but Abel's offerings pleased God. The firstborn was Ishmael, but Isaac received the inheritance. The firstborn was Esau, but he was cheated out of the father's blessing by Jacob the supplanter. The firstborn was Reuben, but nevertheless the blessing of the seed of Christ was transferred to Judah. Therefore, according to the order of their calling, they were the first, and were called the head: we who were second were called the tail, but now we have been turned into the head, and are called the sons of God. For as many as received him, he gave them power to become the sons of God (John 1:12). We have not received the spirit of bondage in fear, but the spirit of adoption, in which we cry out: Abba, Father (Rom. VIII, 15): because perfect love casts out fear (I John IV, 18). But it is better to read according to the Hebrew, 'I have nourished sons', than 'I have begotten', lest it seem contrary to that saying which we read in the Epistle of John: Whoever is born of God does not sin (I John III, 9). Therefore, if these are born from God, how could they have sinned: since everyone who is born from God cannot sin?

  Commentary on Isaiah

• Isaiah 1:3

  His mother laid him in a manger. Joseph did not dare to touch him, for he knew he had not been begotten of him. In awe, he rejoiced at a son, but he did not dare to touch the Son.… Why in a manger? That the prophecy of Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled.

  HOMILY 88 (ON THE NATIVITY)

• Isaiah 1:3

  (Verse 3.) The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master's crib. But Israel does not know; my people do not understand. Woe to the sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, offspring of evildoers, children who deal corruptly! They have forsaken the Lord, they have despised the Holy One of Israel, they are utterly estranged. Why will you still be struck down? Why will you continue to rebel? The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even to the head, there is no soundness in it, but bruises and sores and raw wounds; they are not pressed out or bound up or softened with oil. Your country lies desolate; your cities are burned with fire; in your very presence foreigners devour your land; it is desolate, as overthrown by foreigners. And the daughter of Zion is left like a booth in a vineyard, like a lodge in a cucumber field, like a besieged city. If the Lord of hosts had not left us a few survivors, we should have been like Sodom, and become like Gomorrah. Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom! Give ear to the teaching of our God, you people of Gomorrah! What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? says the Lord; I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed beasts; I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of goats. When you come to appear before me, who has required of you this trampling of my courts? Bring no more vain offerings; incense is an abomination to me. New moon and Sabbath and the calling of convocations— I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hates; they have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them. When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not listen; your hands are full of blood. Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow's cause. Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool. If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land; but if you refuse and rebel, you shall be eaten by the sword; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken. And he did not compare them to dogs, which are the most keen-witted species of animals, and they protect their owners' homes for little food: but rather to dumber animals like oxen and donkeys, one of which pulls carts and turns over the toughest clumps of earth with a plow, and the other carries heavy loads and moderates the labor of men while walking: hence they are called 'beasts of burden' from it, because they aid men. This place can be understood to refer to God the Father: but it is more often related to the Son, because the people of Israel did not know him, nor did they receive him: whose day Abraham saw and rejoiced, and for whose coming the hopes of all the prophets depended. And in the Gospel, he speaks to Jerusalem: How often would I have gathered your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing (Matt. XXIII, 37)! We ask, where shall we read about the ox and the donkey together? In Deuteronomy it is written: You shall not plow with an ox and a donkey together (Deut. XXII, 10). And in the same Isaiah: Blessed is he who sows beside all waters, where the ox and the donkey tread (Isai. XXXII, 20). Ebion, who plows with the ox and the donkey together, is worthy of humble understanding, poverty in his name; he receives the Gospel in such a way that he does not abandon the ceremonies of Jewish superstitions, which preceded in shadow and image. Blessed is he who sows in the words of Scripture, both of the Old and New Testament: and he treads upon the waters of the letters of the setting sun, in order to reap the fruit of the life-giving Spirit. The ox is metaphorically related to Israel, who carried the yoke of the Law, and is a clean animal. The donkey burdened with the weight of sinners represents the people of the Gentiles, to whom the Lord spoke: Come to me all you who labor and are burdened, and I will refresh you (Matt. 11:28). Therefore, the Pharisees and Scribes, who did not believe, but had the key and knowledge of the Law, and were truly called Israel, that is, a people seeing God, a part of the Jewish people believed, so that on one day three thousand would believe together, and on another day five thousand. Even the wise of the world, who did not accept the cross of Christ, were received by the unlearned crowd of the nations. Hence the Apostle said: Consider your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many powerful, not many noble, but what is foolish in the world, God has chosen, to confound the wise; and what is weak in the world, God has chosen, to confound the strong (1 Corinthians 1:26-27). But this is forced, the previous interpretation is true.

  Commentary on Isaiah

• Isaiah 1:4

  (Verse 4) Woe to the sinful nation, a people burdened with iniquity, a wicked offspring, wicked children: they have forsaken the Lord, they have blasphemed the Holy One of Israel, they have turned away backwards. The phrase I placed last, 'they have turned away backwards,' is not found in the Septuagint and instead of 'they have blasphemed,' it is written in them, 'they have provoked to anger.' And instead of 'wicked offspring,' it is translated in the Hebrew as 'wicked ones,' so that the vice of the offspring is not so much a defect of their nature (lest good and evil be thought to have different natures) as it is a result of their wickedness, those who have forsaken the Lord by their own will. In the beginning of the book, the title mentions the characters, the cause, and the time: in the second part, it captivates the listeners; in the third part, it narrates what the Lord said; in the fourth part, it reproaches the sinful nation, and a people full of or weighed down by injustice. Not that there is another nation and another people, as some think, but it is Israel itself, which is called both nation and people, and is referred to as wicked or unjust sons: those who were first called sons of the Lord through his kindness, but afterwards were called sons of iniquity because of their own fault; or as others have said in agreement, corrupting sons, that is, those who have lost the good of their nature through their own fault. And the text continues: 'They blasphemed the holy Israel, it is said specifically of the Jews, shouting: We have no king but Caesar' (John 19:15); and: 'Is this not the son of the carpenter?' (Matthew 13:55); and, 'He has a demon, and is a Samaritan' (John 8:48). Therefore, because they abandoned Christ and blasphemed the Holy Israel, they were estranged backwards, so that those who were called part and children of God would later be called: 'Alien children have lied to me' (Psalm 18:46). The Savior commanded that, with the plow seized, we do not look back (Luke 9:62), so as not to imitate Lot's wife. Hence the Apostle, stretching out towards the things before, forgets the things that are behind (Philippians 3:13). And what he said according to the Septuagint, to a people full of sins (Zechariah 5:7), shows that there was no kind of sins that the people of Israel did not have. But if we read it as in Hebrew, to a people heavy with iniquity, let us remember the testimony of that, that iniquity sits upon a talent of lead, and it is said from the person of a sinner in the thirty-seventh psalm: My iniquities have been lifted up above my head: As a heavy burden, they have been burdened upon me (Psalm 37:5). We pass through things that are manifest, so that we may linger in those that are more obscure and require explanation.

  Commentary on Isaiah

• Isaiah 1:5

  (Verse 5). In which way shall I strike you any longer, adding transgression? By this testimony we learn that the Lord strikes sinners in order to correct them, and that the punishment is not so much for retribution as for correction. The meaning is this: I cannot find any medicine that I can apply to your wounds; all your limbs are full of sores; I find no part of your body that has not been struck before. Or certainly in this way: I find no wounds by which I can break your stubbornness. For the greater the tortures are, the more impiety and injustice grows, or as Theodotion translated, the deviation, so that you may depart and deviate from the Lord. Such is that of Jeremiah: I have struck your children without cause: you have not received discipline (Jeremiah II, 30). Hence, he speaks angrily through Hosea: I will not visit your daughters when they commit fornication; and your daughters-in-law when they commit adultery (Hosea IV, 14). And in Ezekiel: My jealousy will depart from you, and I will no longer be angry with you (Ezek. 16:42). Of whom we also read in the Psalms: There is no firmament in their hands, and they are not laboring with men, nor will they be scourged with men (Ps. 73:4, 5). Every head is weary, and every heart mournful. The joy of the soul sometimes alleviates the pain of the body: but if mental distress accompanies physical illness, the weakness is doubled. Among the senses themselves, and all the members of the body, the head occupies the chief place, in which there is sight and smell, hearing and taste. Therefore, when the head aches, all the members are weak. And by metaphor, it teaches that from the leaders to the lowest of the people, from the learned to the ignorant masses, there is no health in anyone: but all unanimously consent in impiety with equal ardor. From the sole of the foot to the crown of the head, there is no soundness in it: wounds, bruises, and oozing sores. The translation has been maintained: from the feet to the head, that is, from the lowest to the highest, from the outermost to the innermost, they are pierced through the whole body. 'Wounds,' he says, 'and bruises, and oozing sores': for either bodies turn blue from beatings, or swell from blows, or gape with wounds. We ask, to what time should these things be adapted? After the Babylonian captivity, under Zerubbabel, Ezra, and Nehemiah, Israel returned to Judaea and restored its ancient state. Under various rulers and kings, the temple was rebuilt to be more magnificent, to the extent that even foreign nations, such as the Spartans, Athenians, and Romans, formed alliances. Therefore, when it says, 'There is no soundness in it,' it refers to the ultimate captivity, since from Titus and Vespasian to the final destruction of Jerusalem, under Aelius Hadrianus and up to the present time, there is no remedy. And what is written is fulfilled: 'All have turned away; they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one' (Rom. 3:12). And what is also inferred: there is no health in it, either in the people, or in the body, or in the head.

  Commentary on Isaiah

• Isaiah 1:6

  You see now how the rebuilding of Jerusalem takes place: the broken heart is mended.… You wound your heart, and the Lord binds your wounds.… It refers to those who are penitent, but of the unrepentant, Scripture says, their wounds "are not drained or bandaged or eased with salve."

  HOMILIES ON THE PSALMS 56 (PSALM 146)

• Isaiah 1:6

  (Verse 6) It is not wrapped, nor treated with medicine, nor anointed with oil. For which the LXX translated: It is not to apply a plaster, nor oil, nor bandages. Even today, the wound and swelling of the people of Israel are not wrapped with strips, nor treated with medicine. Which Aquila interpreted as μότωσιν, namely, the little linen cloths that are applied to wounds to dry up pus and extract impurities. Nor was oil applied, so that the hardness of their wounds might be softened by tears of repentance. For the boils, with which the wounds of the Israelites were not at all bound up, the 70 doses were transferred. Therefore, Israel lies wounded and slaughtered because they killed the doctor who had come to heal the house of Israel. Hence, in Jeremiah, the Angels speak tropically under the person of Babylon: We have healed Babylon, and she is not healed (Jeremiah 51:9), namely the city of confusion and vices. And in the Gospel (Luke 10) we read that a man, who was descending from Jerusalem to Jericho, was attacked by robbers and was cared for by a Samaritan. And after the severity of the wine, the softness of the oil poured on his wounds. Therefore, from that place where it was said above: In which I will strike you, and: every weak head, until it is brought to the suffering: There is no healing remedy or soothing oil, the likeness of the translation is preserved, and the description of incurable wounds expresses the eternal captivity of the Jews.

  Commentary on Isaiah

• Isaiah 1:7-8

  (Verse 7) Your land is deserted; your cities are burned with fire. Foreigners devour your land before your eyes, and it is desolate like a hostile wasteland. These things were partially fulfilled under the Babylonians, with the temple being burned and Jerusalem being destroyed, when the Samaritans possessed the region of the ten tribes, and the promised land was so desolate that it was ravaged by lions. But a more complete and perfect description of what would happen under Roman captivity is given: when the Roman army devastated all of Judea, and the cities were burned, and their land is currently being devoured by foreigners, and the desolation of the Jews will continue until the end of the world. However, we can interpret these things tropologically about sinners who have fallen from their former holiness, after they have been handed over to contrary powers: that all their goods come to a desert: and God does not remember the former righteousness: and they are consumed by the fire of the devil; and they become food for beasts, of whom it is also written in another place: Do not give the soul confessing to you to beasts (Ps. 73, 19). (Verse 8) The daughter of Zion will be abandoned like a shelter in a vineyard, like a hut in a cucumber field. The vineyard, which is called the whole of Israel, is testified to by the Prophet in the following, saying: 'The vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel; and the man of Judah, a new plant and beloved' (below chapter 5, verse 7); and in the Psalm: 'You brought a vine out of Egypt; you drove out the nations and planted it' (Psalm 80:9). This vine, as long as it brought forth abundant fruits, had God as its guardian, of whom it is written: 'He does not slumber or sleep, who keeps Israel' (Psalm 121:4). But after they had harvested it, everyone passing by the road trampled it down, and a wild boar from the forest ravaged it. The Lord abandoned his temple and, rising up in anger, said, 'Arise, let us leave this place; and let your house be left desolate to you.' (Matt. XXIII, 38). And through Jeremiah: 'I have forsaken my house; I have abandoned my inheritance. My inheritance has become to me like a lion in the forest; it has roared against me, therefore I hate it.' (Jerem. XII, 7). However, the likeness of the devastation of the Temple and Jerusalem is taken from the farmers, who, as long as the vineyard is full of grapes, place guards in the shade. In the Cucumber House, which they call the guardian of seventy fruits, small huts are built to shield against the heat of the sun and to deflect its rays; and from there, they drive away either the men or the little animals that are accustomed to lurking in the newly grown crops. But when these types of produce have been harvested, only the withered coverings of the bushes and the huts remain, as the guard withdraws because he no longer has anything to protect. So the almighty God abandoned the Temple and made the city deserted: which does not need to be proven by words, especially to us, who see Zion deserted and Jerusalem destroyed, and the Temple completely demolished to the ground. But what he calls the daughter of Zion shows the affection of a most merciful parent. It is not surprising if Zion is called daughter, since even Babylon is often called daughter. For we are all by nature children of God, but by our own fault we become estranged. According to the anagoge, our soul can be called the vineyard of God and the paradise of apples: if our mind, that is, νοῦς, is in charge, it has God as the guardian of the mind; but if our vices have preyed upon us like certain beasts, we are abandoned by the guardian God, and all our things are reduced to solitude.

  Commentary on Isaiah

• Isaiah 1:7

  (Verse 7) Your land is deserted; your cities are burned with fire. Foreigners devour your land before your eyes, and it is desolate like a hostile wasteland. These things were partially fulfilled under the Babylonians, with the temple being burned and Jerusalem being destroyed, when the Samaritans possessed the region of the ten tribes, and the promised land was so desolate that it was ravaged by lions. But a more complete and perfect description of what would happen under Roman captivity is given: when the Roman army devastated all of Judea, and the cities were burned, and their land is currently being devoured by foreigners, and the desolation of the Jews will continue until the end of the world. However, we can interpret these things tropologically about sinners who have fallen from their former holiness, after they have been handed over to contrary powers: that all their goods come to a desert: and God does not remember the former righteousness: and they are consumed by the fire of the devil; and they become food for beasts, of whom it is also written in another place: Do not give the soul confessing to you to beasts (Ps. 73, 19).

  Commentary on Isaiah

• Isaiah 1:8

  (Verse 8) The daughter of Zion will be abandoned like a shelter in a vineyard, like a hut in a cucumber field. The vineyard, which is called the whole of Israel, is testified to by the Prophet in the following, saying: 'The vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel; and the man of Judah, a new plant and beloved' (below chapter 5, verse 7); and in the Psalm: 'You brought a vine out of Egypt; you drove out the nations and planted it' (Psalm 80:9). This vine, as long as it brought forth abundant fruits, had God as its guardian, of whom it is written: 'He does not slumber or sleep, who keeps Israel' (Psalm 121:4). But after they had harvested it, everyone passing by the road trampled it down, and a wild boar from the forest ravaged it. The Lord abandoned his temple and, rising up in anger, said, 'Arise, let us leave this place; and let your house be left desolate to you.' (Matt. XXIII, 38). And through Jeremiah: 'I have forsaken my house; I have abandoned my inheritance. My inheritance has become to me like a lion in the forest; it has roared against me, therefore I hate it.' (Jerem. XII, 7). However, the likeness of the devastation of the Temple and Jerusalem is taken from the farmers, who, as long as the vineyard is full of grapes, place guards in the shade. In the Cucumber House, which they call the guardian of seventy fruits, small huts are built to shield against the heat of the sun and to deflect its rays; and from there, they drive away either the men or the little animals that are accustomed to lurking in the newly grown crops. But when these types of produce have been harvested, only the withered coverings of the bushes and the huts remain, as the guard withdraws because he no longer has anything to protect. So the almighty God abandoned the Temple and made the city deserted: which does not need to be proven by words, especially to us, who see Zion deserted and Jerusalem destroyed, and the Temple completely demolished to the ground. But what he calls the daughter of Zion shows the affection of a most merciful parent. It is not surprising if Zion is called daughter, since even Babylon is often called daughter. For we are all by nature children of God, but by our own fault we become estranged. According to the anagoge, our soul can be called the vineyard of God and the paradise of apples: if our mind, that is, νοῦς, is in charge, it has God as the guardian of the mind; but if our vices have preyed upon us like certain beasts, we are abandoned by the guardian God, and all our things are reduced to solitude. If the Lord of hosts had not left us seed, we would have been as Sodom, and we would have been like Gomorrah. This place Paul the Apostle explains more fully to the Romans, writing: I say therefore, has God rejected his people? By no means: For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew (Romans 11:1-2). And a little later: Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace (Romans 11:5). From this it is shown that the earlier prophetic discourse against Jerusalem and Judah is not referring to the time of the Babylonian captivity, but to the final period of the Romans, when the remnants of the Jewish people were saved in the Apostles; and on one day three thousand believed, and on another five thousand, and the Gospel was spread throughout the whole world. In the Lord of hosts, which we, following Aquila, translate into Latin, it is read in Hebrew as Lord Sabaoth, which the Septuagint interpreters, depending on the context, translate in two ways: either Lord of hosts, or Lord Almighty. And let it be sought whether it is said of the Father or of the Son. There is no doubt that what is read in the twenty-third (or fourth) psalm: Lift up your gates, O princes, and be lifted up, eternal gates, and the king of glory will enter. Who is this king of glory? The Lord of hosts (Psalm 23:7-8), that is, the Lord of powers, he is the king of glory, to be referred to Christ, who after the triumph of his passion ascended to the heavens as the victor. And in another place it is said about the Lord, that he is the king of glory: For if they had known, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory (I Cor. II, 8). Therefore, not only according to the Apocalypse of John and the Apostle Paul, but also in the Old Testament, the Lord of hosts, that is, the Almighty, is called Christ. For if all things are the Father's, and as he himself says in the Gospel: All power is given to me in heaven and on earth (Matth. XXVIII, 18); and: All mine are yours, and I am glorified in them; why should not the name of the Almighty also be referred to Christ: so that as God of God, and Lord of Lords, so may the Almighty Son be?

  Commentary on Isaiah

• Isaiah 1:9

  If the Lord of hosts had not left us seed, we would have been as Sodom, and we would have been like Gomorrah. This place Paul the Apostle explains more fully to the Romans, writing: I say therefore, has God rejected his people? By no means: For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew (Romans 11:1-2). And a little later: Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace (Romans 11:5). From this it is shown that the earlier prophetic discourse against Jerusalem and Judah is not referring to the time of the Babylonian captivity, but to the final period of the Romans, when the remnants of the Jewish people were saved in the Apostles; and on one day three thousand believed, and on another five thousand, and the Gospel was spread throughout the whole world. In the Lord of hosts, which we, following Aquila, translate into Latin, it is read in Hebrew as Lord Sabaoth, which the Septuagint interpreters, depending on the context, translate in two ways: either Lord of hosts, or Lord Almighty. And let it be sought whether it is said of the Father or of the Son. There is no doubt that what is read in the twenty-third (or fourth) psalm: Lift up your gates, O princes, and be lifted up, eternal gates, and the king of glory will enter. Who is this king of glory? The Lord of hosts (Psalm 23:7-8), that is, the Lord of powers, he is the king of glory, to be referred to Christ, who after the triumph of his passion ascended to the heavens as the victor. And in another place it is said about the Lord, that he is the king of glory: For if they had known, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory (I Cor. II, 8). Therefore, not only according to the Apocalypse of John and the Apostle Paul, but also in the Old Testament, the Lord of hosts, that is, the Almighty, is called Christ. For if all things are the Father's, and as he himself says in the Gospel: All power is given to me in heaven and on earth (Matth. XXVIII, 18); and: All mine are yours, and I am glorified in them; why should not the name of the Almighty also be referred to Christ: so that as God of God, and Lord of Lords, so may the Almighty Son be?

  Commentary on Isaiah

• Isaiah 1:10

  (Verse 10) Hear the word of the Lord, rulers of Sodom: listen with your ears to the law of our God, people of Gomorrah. After preserving the remnants of the people of Israel through the Apostles, the Scribes and Pharisees, and the people who cried out: Crucify, crucify him (John 19, 6), the prophetic word turns; and it calls them rulers of Sodom and people of Gomorrah, according to what we read in the following: They have declared and shown their iniquity like Sodom. Woe to their souls: for they have devised an evil counsel against themselves, saying: Let us bind the just, because he is unprofitable to us (Isaiah 3). Therefore, the rulers are called of Sodom, and the people of Gomorrah, because they have devised an evil counsel, and have bound the just, and have said: We have no king but Caesar (John 19:15). And again: We know that God spoke to Moses: but as for this man, we know not from whence he is (John 9:29). At the same time boasting in the Gospel: We are the seed of Abraham and have never served anyone (John 8:53); they hear from the Lord and Savior: If you were children of Abraham, you would do the works of Abraham; and again: You were born of the devil as your father, and you want to do the works of your father (ibid., 39). Such a thing Ezekiel also speaks to Jerusalem: Your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite (Ezekiel 16:45). The Hebrews say that Isaiah was killed for two reasons: because he called the princes of Sodom and the people of Gomorrah, and because while the Lord was saying to Moses, You cannot see my face (Exodus 33:20), he dared to say, I saw the Lord sitting on a high and lofty throne (Isaiah 6:1); without considering that the seraphim cover the face and feet of God, or their own, because it is ambiguously read in Hebrew, and Isaiah writes that he only saw the middle part of Him. Therefore, a human being cannot see the face of God. However, angels in the Church always see the face of God, even the faces of the least. And now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. When we progress from being human to being angels, we will be able to say with the Apostle: But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord. Although no creature can see the face of God according to its own nature, it is seen in the mind when it is believed to be invisible.

  Commentary on Isaiah

• Isaiah 1:11

  (Verse 11) What use to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? says the Lord. I am full. I do not desire burnt sacrifices of rams, or the fat of fattened cattle, or the blood of bulls, or lambs, or goats. Because they exist, I did not desire them. The Septuagint translates 'I do not desire' as 'I will not desire', using the present tense instead of the past tense. Furthermore, according to the Hebrew, it demonstrates that God never desired the sacrifices of the Jews, as we read in the forty-ninth psalm: I will not accept a bull from your house, or goats from your flocks. For every beast of the forest is mine, the cattle on a thousand hills. I have known all the flying creatures of the sky, and the beauty of the field is with me. If I were hungry, I would not say to you: for the world is mine and all its fullness. Shall I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats? (Psalm 49, seq.) And when he rejected the ceremonies of the old Law, he passed on to the purity of the Gospel and showed what he desires for these things: Sacrifice to God the sacrifice of praise, and pay your vows to the Most High. Call upon me in the day of trouble, and I will deliver you, and you will honor me. Therefore, the content of this chapter, up to the point where it says: Judge the orphan, defend the widow, and come, let us reason together: it rejects sacrifices of victims and teaches that obedience to the Gospel is a superior sacrifice. And what he brings is to be understood in this sense: I am full, I need nothing: the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof (Psalm 24:1). Therefore, we have all received from his fullness. This can also be understood about those who, not obeying God's precepts, believe they can redeem themselves with gifts and offerings to God: or those who offer stolen goods and ill-gotten gains on the altar and to the poor.

  Commentary on Isaiah

• Isaiah 1:12

  (Verse 12.) For who indeed sought these things from your hands? Let the Ebionites hear, who after the passion of Christ think that the Law has been abolished and should be observed. Let the associates of the Ebionites hear, who decree that these things should be observed only by Jews and those of Israelite descent. Therefore, the offering and sacrifice of victims were not primarily sought by God, but so that they would not be made to idols; and so that we might pass from carnal victims, as it were by a type and image, to spiritual sacrifices. But by saying that he did not desire sacrifices, he showed that the law is spiritual: and that all the things that the Jews do in a carnal way are fulfilled spiritually by us.

  Commentary on Isaiah

• Isaiah 1:13

  (Ver. 13.) You will not trample on my courtyard. Note that after the devastation of Babylon, the Temple was built again by Zerubbabel: and for many years sacrifices have been offered in the Temple (1 Esdras, 5). Therefore, it indicates the final destruction of the Temple under Vespasian and Titus, which will persist until the end of the world.

  Commentary on Isaiah

• Isaiah 1:14

  (Verse 14.) I will not bear your new moons, and sabbaths, and other feasts: your assemblies are wicked. Every gathering that does not offer spiritual sacrifices, and does not listen to what is sung in the fiftieth psalm: A sacrifice to God is a contrite spirit: a broken and humbled heart God does not despise, is abominable to God. And therefore it connects and says: Your new moons and solemnities. So that it does not call them their own feasts: but those who misuse them. And as the Seventy translated, fasting and idleness: we can say that fasting is accepted by God, because it does not have the idleness of good works. My soul hates it. Anthropomorphically, not that God has a soul; but it speaks with our affection.

  Commentary on Isaiah

• Isaiah 1:15

  (Verse 15) You have become wearisome to me; I will by no means forgive your sins. Regarding this, Aquila interpreted, 'I labored and endured.' Symmachus, feeling sorry, said, 'I have failed in seeking mercy,' in order to show that he will no longer have compassion, because it is one thing for a servant sent to him to be killed, and another for a Son. We read this same meaning in the prophet Hosea: 'Your destruction, Israel; only in me is your help' (Hosea 13:9). This is understood thus: Perish, Israel, not by your merit, but only by my help are you saved. Your hands are full of blood. The reason is clear why God turns His eyes away from you and does not listen to your multiplied prayer: because you have shed the blood of the righteous, and the wicked farmers have killed the heir sent to them. Therefore, the Savior speaks to them: And you, fill up the measure of your fathers (Matth. XXIII, 31). For they have killed the messengers sent to them: you kill the Son of the Master of the house. This testimony should be used against those who, while having their hands full of blood with their daily works, join in prayer day and night.

  Commentary on Isaiah

• Isaiah 1:16

  (Verse 16.) Wash yourselves, be clean. For the previous sacrifices, and burnt offerings, and the fat of the rich, and the blood of bulls and goats: and for the incense and new moons, sabbaths, feast days and fasts, calends and other solemnities, the religion of the Gospel is pleasing to me: that you may be baptized in my blood through the washing of regeneration, which alone can forgive sins. For unless one is born again of water and the Spirit, they will not enter the kingdom of heaven (John 3:5) . The Lord himself, ascending to the Father, said: Go, teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19). Remove the evil of your thoughts from my sight. As John the Baptist said: 'Brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit worthy of repentance.' (Matt. III, 7; Luke III, 7) So, whoever has received Christ's baptism, let them remove evil from their heart and cease to do evil, and afterwards learn to do good, according to what is commanded elsewhere: 'Turn away from evil and do good.' (Ps. XXXVI, 27) Learn to do good. Therefore virtue must be learned, and the good of nature alone is not sufficient for justice, unless someone is educated in appropriate disciplines (I Pet. II, 11). Jesus also son of Sirach speaks as follows: You have desired wisdom, keep the commandments, and the Lord will give it to you. And in the following, the same Isaiah mentions: Everyone who has not learned justice on earth will not do truth (Ch. XXVI, 10, sec. LXX). Therefore, justice must be learned, and the thresholds of wise teachers must be worn away.

  Commentary on Isaiah

• Isaiah 1:18

  (Verse 18) Seek justice, come to the aid of the oppressed, judge the orphan, defend the widow; and come, argue with me," says the Lord. The sacrificial laws of the Jews are replaced by the commands of the Gospel, and therefore provision is made for orphans and widows, so that the spouses and children can proceed to war without concern for their protection. But when you do these things, argue with me if I do not give the rewards that I have promised. However, when he says, "Seek justice," he shows that not everyone judges correctly, but only those who are prudent. Finally, Solomon, in a vision through a dream, asked this of the Lord: that having received wisdom, he would justly judge the people. If your sins are scarlet, they shall be made white as snow; and if they are red like crimson, they shall be white as wool. The primary order is this: for it is not enough to say 'be washed', unless it is joined with 'be made clean': so that after the washing of the heart they may have the purity of life. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God (Matthew 5:8). And when they have the purity of heart, they must remove evil from their minds, not in the sight of men, but in the sight of God, who can conceal nothing. And that joins: Rest from acting perversely, that Evangelical saying sounds: Behold, you have been made whole: now do not sin, lest something worse happen to you (John 5, 14). Therefore, departing from vices, let him learn what is good, seek judgment, assist the oppressed, support the orphan and the widow: and if he does this, then the sins, which were previously as scarlet, will be forgiven: and the works of blood and flesh will be changed by the garment of the Lord, which is made from the fleece of the Lamb, whom they follow in the Apocalypse (Chapter 5), those who shine with the whiteness of virginity.

  Commentary on Isaiah

• Isaiah 1:19-20

  (Verse 19, 26.) If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the good of the land; but if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured by the sword; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken. Free will is preserved, so that on either side, not by the prejudice of God, but by the merits of each individual, there may be either punishment or reward. By the good of the land, I believe those things are meant that we read of in the psalm: I believe that I shall see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living (Psalm 27:13); and: Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth (Matthew 5:3). Certainly, because he spoke to the Jews, who were not yet able to understand spiritual things, he promises them the goods of the present age, so that they may at least be enticed by the present things and do what is commanded. And because they did not want to listen, but on the contrary provoked the Holy One of Israel to anger, therefore the sword devoured them, that is, the Roman army destroyed them. And he says that all these things will happen because the mouth of the Lord has spoken. His judgment, with the sins of men remaining, cannot be changed.

  Commentary on Isaiah

• Isaiah 1:21

  (Verse 21) How has the faithful city become a harlot, full of judgment: justice dwelled in it but now murderers. The Hebrew word Jalin (), which the LXX translated, means slept; and it rested, and it will rest, that is, it signifies the past and future tense. Hence, both Aquila and Theodotio say it as if in the future. But the Prophet marvels in a prophetic spirit that the city which was once faithful, or a refuge for the faithful, has suddenly become a harlot. Which indeed can be understood even in the time of Isaiah: but it is more fully referred to the passion of Christ, when all turned away, together became useless (Ps. XIII, 3). And although in Hebrew there is no Zion: yet the Seventy, in order to make the meaning more evident, added it. But Zion is a mountain on which the city of Jerusalem was founded: which, after being captured by David, was called the city of David. Nor do I doubt that there were holy men in it when it had the tabernacle of God, and afterwards the Temple was built: when Nathan and Gad prophesied: and over the choirs (which are more fully described in the book of Chronicles) Asaph, and Idithun, and Eman, and the sons of Kore were appointed, so that religion might gradually transition from the sacrifices of victims to the praises of the Lord (I Chr. XXV). Therefore, the city of the faithful, which was once full of judgment and justice, now is full of murderers: those who killed the prophets and the Lord Himself, the Savior. But Jerusalem's fornication, how she spread her legs to everyone passing by, is depicted by the name Oolibah in the book of Ezekiel, which means 'my tent is in her,' which is now expressed in different words as 'justice has rested in her.' For 'justice' in Hebrew is written as Sedec (), which sounds more like 'just' than 'justice,' so that we may understand that the Lord dwelled in her first, as it is said elsewhere: 'But what has the just one done?' The Lord is in his holy temple: the Lord's throne is in heaven. (Psalm 11:4) We can interpret all these things allegorically in reference to the soul of a once holy man, in which God's righteousness resided before he sinned, and in which demonic murderers dwelled as guests of God.

  Commentary on Isaiah

• Isaiah 1:22

  (Verse 22.) Your silver has turned into dross. The city of Zion speaks, in which righteousness once rested: that silver, namely the doctrine of the Scriptures, about which we read in the Psalms: The words of the Lord are pure words: silver tried by fire, purified seven times (Psalm 12:6), has turned into dross, which in Hebrew is called Sigim: namely, the rust of metals, or impurities and dirt, which are refined by fire, so that it may keep the metaphor because he mentioned silver. However, it can also be said that the righteous and holy men who previously lived in the city later fell into the filth of sins. Your innkeepers mix wine with water. For Symmachus translated, Your wine is mixed with water. And the meaning is: The law of God, pure and sincere, and (so to speak) supported by pure truth (Matth. XV), was violated by the traditions of the Pharisees: which the Lord more fully teaches in the Gospel, that they have neglected the law of God and followed the commandments of men. And every teacher who, as much as he can, corrects those who listen to the severity of the Scriptures, turns them towards grace: and he speaks in such a way that he does not correct but pleases his listeners; he violates the wine of the holy Scriptures and corrupts it with his own interpretation. Heretics also corrupt the evangelical truth with wicked intelligence, and they are the worst merchants, making water out of wine, when on the contrary our Lord turned water into wine (John 2), and such wine that the master of the feast marveled at; just as the queen of Sheba marveled at the attendants and wine stewards at the banquet of Solomon, praising them with her voice (2 Chronicles 9). But even Ecclesiastes describes the ministries of wine and his own banquet in mystical language (Ecclesiastes 2). Aquila, συμπόσιον, that is, convivium, is interpreted as a drinking party, which among the Greeks is rightly called ἀπὸ τοῦ πότου, but among us it is more accurately referred to as a feast.

  Commentary on Isaiah

• Isaiah 1:23

  (Verse 23.) Your leaders were disobedient, partners of thieves. Aquila, departing from the disobedient, interpreted for Symmachus, who turned aside. But the leaders called the scribes and the Pharisees, who departed from the Lord, indeed, abandoning the path of truth, they walked in a crooked way, and became accomplices of the traitor and the thieves of Judah. Indeed, we must be careful not to be called thieves ourselves, but rather partners of thieves, by accepting gifts from the people of the world who accumulate riches through the tears of the poor and through robberies. And it is said to us, You saw a thief, and you ran with him, and with adulterers you set your portion (Ps. 49:18). Everyone loves gifts, they pursue rewards. Even those who love gifts are counted among the vices. It is not said about those who receive: for this often happens out of necessity; but about those who do not consider friends unless they have received gifts from them: they do not consider their friends' faces, but their hands; and they judge as holy those whose purse they empty; about whom Ecclesiastes also speaks: Whoever loves money will not be satisfied with money (Eccles. V, 9). Such are the following retaliations, that they praise those from whom they have received something, or certainly they give nothing unless they think they will receive it from whom. As for retaliations, Symmachus interpreted them as vicissitudes or vengeance, so that those who repay evil for evil and tooth for tooth, eye for eye (Exod. XXI) are also at fault; and they do not imitate that of David: If I have repaid those who repay me with evil (Psal. VII, 5); and of Jeremiah saying of the just man: He will give his cheek to the striker, he will be filled with reproaches (Lam. III, 30): to fulfill the Evangelical man, about whom it is said: If someone strikes you on the cheek, offer him the other cheek also (Matth. V, 39).

  Commentary on Isaiah

• Isaiah 1:24

  (Verse 24) For this reason, says the Lord of hosts, the strong one of Israel: For the strong one of Israel, because they all similarly changed, only the seventy, desiring something unknown, set down: Woe to the strong ones of Israel; which we can explain in this way, saying, even the princes and the robust ones will be rebuked, of whom it is written: The powerful ones will bear torments powerfully (Wisdom 6:7); and: To whom much is given, much will be required from him (Luke 12:48). We will use this testimony, if ever there is a need to oppose the leaders of the Church, who undermine their own dignity with their actions. Alas, I will find comfort in my enemies, and I will avenge my adversaries. Furthermore, in this, which is not found in Hebrew, they place the Seventy, 'For my wrath has not ceased against my enemies.' However, the Scribe and the Pharisees are rebuked, of whom also it speaks in the Gospel: Woe to you, Scribes and Pharisees! (Matthew 23:13ff). And in another place: An adulterous and perverse generation seeks a sign, and a sign will not be given to it except the sign of Jonah the prophet (Matthew 12:39). But the most merciful Father laments over the guilty princes and calls them his enemies, and he calls his enemies, because they perish, because they do not want to repent, because they did not receive him when he came. As he approached Jerusalem, he wept and said: Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the Prophets and stones those who were sent to you, how often I wanted to gather your children, as a hen gathers her chicks, and you did not want to! Therefore, the consolation of God towards his enemies and adversaries is that those who have not perceived his kindness may be corrected by punishments.

  Commentary on Isaiah

• Isaiah 1:25

  (Verse 25) And I will turn my hand against you; and I will thoroughly purge away your dross and take away all your alloy. Regarding the dross, which Symmachus interpreted as 'στέμφυλα' (clusters of grapes), Aquila as 'γιγαρτῶδες' (bunch of grapes), and Theodotion as 'acinum uvae' (grape kernel), the Septuagint alone, translating more the sense than the words, understood it as 'unbelievers' or 'disobedient ones'. For after he had said, 'Your silver has become dross,' he now uses a metaphor, that he may stretch out his hand over it, that is, extend his hand for punishment and cleansing, and purge away all the filth and vices of sins, so that, the alloy being separated, pure silver may remain, which cannot be made without fire, through which he signifies that they will suffer torments. We also read in Malachi about the Lord: He will come forth like a flame of a smelting furnace, and like the herb of the fullers, and He will sit refining and purifying like silver and gold; and He will purify the sons of Levi (Malachi 3:2-3), so that after they have been cleansed, it may be said of them: And they shall be the Lord's offering in righteousness. Ezekiel also says that the whole house of Israel is mixed with brass, iron, lead, and tin, and needs to be purified; so that after it has been purified, it may recognize that He is the Lord (Ezekiel 22:18). But also in the Gospel under another metaphor the same meaning is shown: Whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly cleanse his floor and gather his wheat into the barn; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire. (Matthew 3:12).

  Commentary on Isaiah

• Isaiah 1:25-26

  (Verse 25) And I will turn my hand against you; and I will thoroughly purge away your dross and take away all your alloy. Regarding the dross, which Symmachus interpreted as 'στέμφυλα' (clusters of grapes), Aquila as 'γιγαρτῶδες' (bunch of grapes), and Theodotion as 'acinum uvae' (grape kernel), the Septuagint alone, translating more the sense than the words, understood it as 'unbelievers' or 'disobedient ones'. For after he had said, 'Your silver has become dross,' he now uses a metaphor, that he may stretch out his hand over it, that is, extend his hand for punishment and cleansing, and purge away all the filth and vices of sins, so that, the alloy being separated, pure silver may remain, which cannot be made without fire, through which he signifies that they will suffer torments. We also read in Malachi about the Lord: He will come forth like a flame of a smelting furnace, and like the herb of the fullers, and He will sit refining and purifying like silver and gold; and He will purify the sons of Levi (Malachi 3:2-3), so that after they have been cleansed, it may be said of them: And they shall be the Lord's offering in righteousness. Ezekiel also says that the whole house of Israel is mixed with brass, iron, lead, and tin, and needs to be purified; so that after it has been purified, it may recognize that He is the Lord (Ezekiel 22:18). But also in the Gospel under another metaphor the same meaning is shown: Whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly cleanse his floor and gather his wheat into the barn; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire. (Matthew 3:12). (Verse 26.) And I will restore your judges as at the first, and your counselors as at the beginning. Afterward you shall be called the city of righteousness, the faithful city. Zion shall be redeemed with justice, and her penitents with righteousness. But rebels and sinners shall be broken together, and those who forsake the Lord shall be consumed. For they shall be ashamed of the oaks that you desired, and you shall blush for the gardens that you have chosen. For you shall be like an oak whose leaf withers, and like a garden without water. And the strong shall become tinder, and his work a spark, and both of them shall burn together, with none to quench them. Your chosen trees shall become fuel for the fire, and the people shall labor in vain, and the nations shall weary themselves for nothing. The Lord's hand shall be raised against Mount Zion, and he will lay it waste; its fields shall become a desolation, and its cities a ruin. Then will the Lord cause his majestic voice to be heard and the descending blow of his arm to be seen, in furious anger and a flame of devouring fire, with a cloudburst and storm and hailstones. The Assyrians will be terror-stricken at the voice of the Lord, when he strikes with his rod. And every stroke of the appointed staff that the Lord lays on them will be to the sound of tambourines and lyres. Battling with brandished arm, he will fight with them. For a burning place has long been prepared; indeed, for the king it is made ready, its pyre made deep and wide, with fire and wood in abundance; the breath of the Lord, like a stream of sulfur, kindles it. Therefore, it will restore the likeness of the Judges: either after the Babylonian captivity, as the Jews desire, Zerubbabel, Ezra, Nehemiah, and the other leaders who governed the people until Hircanus, whom Herod succeeded in the kingdom; or certainly, more truly and rightly, the Apostles, and those who believed through the Apostles, and were established as leaders of the Church, as we have said at the beginning of this vision, that both the warning and the promise pertain to the time of the Lord's passion, and to the faith which he founded the Church after his passion. After this you shall be called the city of the just, the faithful city. These things clearly pertain to the Church, which will believe in the Lord, both concerning the Jews and the Gentiles, as the prophetic word includes. However, the city of the just, that is, of the Lord Savior, shall also be called just, of which it is said: A city set on a mountain cannot be hidden (Matt. 5:14). Calling it faithful, he also indicates that it should be called a metropolis according to the Septuagint, by those who will believe in the Lord.

  Commentary on Isaiah

• Isaiah 1:26

  (Verse 26.) And I will restore your judges as at the first, and your counselors as at the beginning. Afterward you shall be called the city of righteousness, the faithful city. Zion shall be redeemed with justice, and her penitents with righteousness. But rebels and sinners shall be broken together, and those who forsake the Lord shall be consumed. For they shall be ashamed of the oaks that you desired, and you shall blush for the gardens that you have chosen. For you shall be like an oak whose leaf withers, and like a garden without water. And the strong shall become tinder, and his work a spark, and both of them shall burn together, with none to quench them. Your chosen trees shall become fuel for the fire, and the people shall labor in vain, and the nations shall weary themselves for nothing. The Lord's hand shall be raised against Mount Zion, and he will lay it waste; its fields shall become a desolation, and its cities a ruin. Then will the Lord cause his majestic voice to be heard and the descending blow of his arm to be seen, in furious anger and a flame of devouring fire, with a cloudburst and storm and hailstones. The Assyrians will be terror-stricken at the voice of the Lord, when he strikes with his rod. And every stroke of the appointed staff that the Lord lays on them will be to the sound of tambourines and lyres. Battling with brandished arm, he will fight with them. For a burning place has long been prepared; indeed, for the king it is made ready, its pyre made deep and wide, with fire and wood in abundance; the breath of the Lord, like a stream of sulfur, kindles it. Therefore, it will restore the likeness of the Judges: either after the Babylonian captivity, as the Jews desire, Zerubbabel, Ezra, Nehemiah, and the other leaders who governed the people until Hircanus, whom Herod succeeded in the kingdom; or certainly, more truly and rightly, the Apostles, and those who believed through the Apostles, and were established as leaders of the Church, as we have said at the beginning of this vision, that both the warning and the promise pertain to the time of the Lord's passion, and to the faith which he founded the Church after his passion. After this you shall be called the city of the just, the faithful city. These things clearly pertain to the Church, which will believe in the Lord, both concerning the Jews and the Gentiles, as the prophetic word includes. However, the city of the just, that is, of the Lord Savior, shall also be called just, of which it is said: A city set on a mountain cannot be hidden (Matt. 5:14). Calling it faithful, he also indicates that it should be called a metropolis according to the Septuagint, by those who will believe in the Lord.

  Commentary on Isaiah

• Isaiah 1:27-28

  (Verse 27-28.) Zion will be redeemed by justice, and they will bring her back to righteousness. And it will crush the wicked and sinners together; and those who have forsaken the Lord will be consumed. Not all will be redeemed, nor will all be saved, but only the remnant, as mentioned before. However, they will be brought back to righteousness once the wicked and sinners have been crushed, and those who have forsaken the Lord will be consumed.

  Commentary on Isaiah

• Isaiah 1:28

  Moreover, who can agree with the thesis that you [the Pelagians] set down as your next heading: "In the day of judgment, no leniency shall be shown to the ungodly and to sinners, but they shall be consumed in eternal fires," for you prevent God from showing mercy, and you pass judgment on the sentence of the judge before judgment day, so that if he wanted to spare the unjust and the sinner, he could not, in view of your prescription? For, you say, it is written in Psalm 103, "Let sinners be consumed out of the earth, and the unjust, so that they be no more." And in Isaiah: "The unjust and the sinners shall burn together, and they who abandon God shall be consumed." And do you not know that a threat on the part of God at times hints at clemency? For he does not say that they shall be consumed in everlasting fires, but rather that they shall be consumed out of the earth and shall cease to be unjust. For it is one thing for them to avoid sin and injustice and quite another matter for them to perish forever and be consumed in eternal fires. Moreover, Isaiah, from whom you quote your testimony, says, "The unjust and the sinners shall burn together" (without adding the phrase "forever"), "and those who abandon God shall be consumed." This judgment refers, specifically, to heretics who have abandoned the right way of faith and will be consumed, if they are unwilling to return to God whom they have abandoned.

  Against the Pelagians 1.28

• Isaiah 1:29

  (Verse 29.) For they will be confounded by the idols to which they sacrificed, and you will be ashamed of the gardens you have chosen. And when they are saved, they will be ashamed of those who previously sacrificed to idols, and they will blush in the gardens they had chosen. However, it signifies places of luxury, groves and forests.

  Commentary on Isaiah

• Isaiah 1:30

  (Verse 30) For they will be like a terebinth tree with falling leaves; and like a garden, or a paradise, without water. Until today, the Jews reading the holy Scriptures are like terebinth trees or oaks, as Symmachus interpreted. And according to the Gospel (Matthew 21), the withered fig tree, from which the Lord sought fruits and did not find any, he cursed with eternal dryness. But even the leaves and fruits of words have now ceased to be among them: the well-watered garden, that is, the knowledge of the Scriptures, or the paradise of various trees, which is without spiritual grace, does not even produce vegetables, about which the Apostle speaks: Let him that is weak eat vegetables (Romans 14:2). And with dried roots, all the freshness has turned into dryness and decay.

  Commentary on Isaiah

• Isaiah 1:31

  (Verse 31.) And your strength will be like the ash of the broom. For ash, ἀποτίναγμα is interpreted by Symmachus: when the broom is beaten, and whatever dirt it has is thrown away. So all the strength and pride of the sinners and evildoers of Israel, who have forsaken the Lord, and therefore have been consumed: and they have sacrificed to idols, and are ashamed in the gardens, which they have chosen; they will be reduced to the refuse of the broom, which is consumed by a light fire. For it follows: And her work, that is, your strength, or idolatry, in which you have erred, will be consumed by a small spark. And both will be kindled together: and there will be no one to extinguish it. And surely the knowledge of the Jews, and all the works they do, whether it be idolatry or Jerusalem, in which idolatry was found: and when the Lord kindles it, no one will be able to extinguish it. All these things we can understand about conflicting teachings: that both teachers and disciples will perish together, and all their works will be fuel for the fire.

  Commentary on Isaiah

• Isaiah 2:1

  (Chapter 2, Verse 1) The word that Isaiah, the son of Amos, saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. And in the previous Vision, which we have already explained, where the Septuagint translates it, it is written in Hebrew as 'Al Juda Ujerusalem' (); and in this second one, it is likewise contained in Hebrew. And I wonder why the Septuagint interpreters said 'concerning Judah and Jerusalem' in that one, and 'about Judah and Jerusalem' in this one; unless perhaps because there it is called a sinful nation, a people full of sins, an evil seed, sons of iniquity, and princes of Sodom, and people of Gomorrah, and a harlot city, and other such things, they translated more for the sense rather than the word: and here, because prosperity is immediately promised: In the last days, the mountain of the Lord shall be revealed, and the house of God on the top of the mountains, not against Judah and Jerusalem, but about Judah and Jerusalem they understood the prophecy: since we also read in that one, after the threat of prosperity: I will restore your judges as at the first, and your counselors as in the beginning: after this you shall be called the city of righteousness, the faithful city; and in this one, after prosperity, there shall be a fierce threat. Behold, the Lord, the ruler of hosts, will take away from Jerusalem and from Judah the mighty and strong, all the strength of bread and all the strength of water, and the rest. Therefore, according to the Hebrew and in that vision, and in that discourse which Isaiah, the son of Amos, saw, it is to be understood about Judah and Jerusalem: not against Judah and Jerusalem, or for Judah and Jerusalem, as Symmachus translated: but absolutely, about Judah and Jerusalem, in which both joyful and sad things can be contained. And this should be considered, that there he may see a vision; here the Word, which was in the beginning with God: and in that place threatening the Jews, he may come for the salvation of the Gentiles; in this place, starting from the salvation of the Gentiles, punishing Israel, he may gather those who believe in Christ's Church from both callings.

  Commentary on Isaiah

• Isaiah 2:2

  (Verse 2) And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be prepared on the top of the mountains. In the Book of Genesis, we read about the last days, where Jacob called his sons and said to them: Come, that I may tell you what shall befall you in the last days (Gen. XLIX, 1): later to Judah, from whose lineage Christ was born, he said: The prince shall not fail from Judah, nor the ruler from his thigh, until he comes to whom it is laid up: and he shall be the expectation of the nations. In his last days there will be the final hour, of which the Apostle John speaks: Little children, it is the last hour (2 John 1:18); in which a stone cut without hands grew into a great mountain and filled the whole earth: from which the prince of Tyre is said to be wounded in Ezekiel (Ezekiel 8:16, according to the Septuagint). This mountain is in the house of the Lord, which the Prophet longs for, saying: One thing I have asked of the Lord, this I will seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life (Psalm 27:4); and of which Paul writes to Timothy: But if I delay, I write so that you may know how it is necessary to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the Church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of truth (1 Timothy 3:15). This house has been built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, who themselves are also the mountains, as imitators of Christ (Ephesians 2). Of this house, the Psalmist proclaims: Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion, which will not be moved forever, those who dwell in Jerusalem. Mountains surround it, and the Lord surrounds his people (Psalm 125:1). Therefore, Christ builds the Church upon one of the mountains and says to him: You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it (Matthew 16:18). What does it matter to one who longs for his own soul, and eagerly desires to see the house of God, that the saint speaks: Why are you downcast, my soul, and why are you troubled? (Psalm 41:6) And again: I remembered this and poured out my soul within me, for I shall pass over to the place of the wonderful tabernacle, even to the house of God: in the voice of rejoicing and confession, the sound of those feasting. (Ibid., 5). They have moved, O Lord, your manifest mountain, and the house of God above the heads of the mountains. (Psalm 67:26). Which testimony Micah the prophet also gave in the same words, which I have explained in its place (Micah 1). And he shall be lifted up upon the hills. He who is shown and prepared on the heads of the mountains, he shall be lifted up upon the hills. Concerning those mountains and hills, in the Song of Songs the bride speaks: The voice of my brother: behold, he comes leaping upon the mountains, bounding over the hills: my brother is like a roe or a young hart on the mountains of Bethel (Song of Songs 2:8-9). And all nations shall flow unto him: all peoples shall come. For all nations shall serve him, to whom it was said: Ask of me, and I will give thee the nations for thy inheritance, and the ends of the earth for thy possession (Psalm 2:8); that they may serve him under one yoke, as the same prophet testifies: From beyond the rivers of Ethiopia my suppliants, the children of my dispersed, shall bring me an offering (Zephaniah 3:10). And in the seventy-first psalm we read: In his sight the Ethiopians shall fall down (Psalm 71:9). In the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, of those in heaven, on earth, and under the earth.

  Commentary on Isaiah

• Isaiah 2:3

  (Verse 3.) And they shall say: Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob: and he will teach us his ways, and we will walk in his paths. The nations and peoples, not content with their own salvation, will encourage one another and say: Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord and to the house of the God of Jacob. Concerning these, as we have said before, it is the mountain of the Lord that is prepared and the house of the Lord that is established upon the top of the mountains. But the house of the Lord is called the house of the God of Jacob, so that we may receive the Old Testament and not, like the Manicheans, seek another house outside the house of the God of Jacob. But when we are in the house of the God of Jacob, then he will teach us his ways, by which we will walk towards him, and we will walk in his paths, which others have also walked. Finally, Jesus, ascending the mountain, taught his disciples the eight beatitudes, and other things which are included in the Gospel discourse (Luke VI). First, the ways of the Lord must be descended; and afterwards, we must walk in his paths. For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. Many nations and peoples will come together and say: Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and so on. For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem, not from Sinai, or from the wilderness, or from Mount Horeb, but from Mount Zion, where Jerusalem is built, and from Jerusalem, where the Temple and the worship of God are. We read that often the Lord taught in the Temple (Matthew 13), and that it was not fitting for a prophet to die outside of Jerusalem, and that both the word and the law are named together. The rulers are commanded to hear the word, and the people to perceive the law with their ears. Whoever makes the law first, later comes to the word of God. But also in Jerusalem, the first Church founded scattered the churches of the whole world. And it is to be said that whoever is in the watchtower and in the vision of peace, in this is the law and the word of the Lord established. And beautifully he said: in Zion and in Jerusalem there will be, and the word and law of the Lord will remain; but it will go forth, so that from that fountain all nations may be signified to be irrigated by the teaching of God. And he shall judge the people, and shall reprove many nations. Therefore, judging must also take place among the nations: not all unbelievers are to be condemned with the same judgment, but they will suffer different things according to the diversity of their merits. But after the nations have been judged, then he shall reprove many peoples, or as the Septuagint translated it, a multitude of people. And note the order: the nations shall be judged, because they will believe. For he who does not believe has already been judged (John 3:18). But the multitude, which is understood as Israel, will by no means be judged, but will be reproved, because it did not receive the Son of God sent to them.

  Commentary on Isaiah

• Isaiah 2:4

  (Verse 4.) And they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks. All the eagerness for war will be turned to peace, and instead of discord there will be harmony throughout the world. Swords will be transformed into plowshares, and spears into pruning hooks, so that, having set aside the frenzy of warfare, they may serve agriculture, and with fruitful sickles they may reap abundant harvests. This can also be understood spiritually, when every hardness of our hearts is broken by the plowshare of Christ, and the thorns of vices are uprooted, so that the seed of God's word may grow into fruits: and afterwards we shall enjoy the fruits of our labors, when those who sow in tears shall come in joy, carrying their sheaves (Psalm 126:6). 34 The nations will not lift sword against nation, nor will they learn war anymore. Let us revisit the ancient histories, and we will find that until the twenty-eighth year of the reign of Caesar Augustus (in whose forty-first year Christ was born in Judaea), there was discord throughout the whole world, and each nation rose up against its neighboring peoples with a desire for battle, so that they would strike and be struck. But when the Lord and Savior arose, at the time when a census was first taken of the whole world under the governorship of Syria by Quirinius, and peace was prepared for the Evangelical doctrine by the Roman Empire, all wars ceased, and they were no longer exercised in battles through towns and villages, but were instead devoted to the cultivation of the land, with the duty of fighting against barbarian nations being entrusted solely to Roman soldiers and legions. This was when that song of the angels was fulfilled: Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to people of good will (Luke 2:14); and in his days justice and a multitude of peace arose.

  Commentary on Isaiah

• Isaiah 2:5-6

  (Vers. 5, 6.) Come, house of Jacob, and let us walk in the light of the Lord: for you have cast off your people, the house of Jacob. After the calling of the Gentiles, and the manifestation of the mountain of the Lord upon the top of the mountains, to His people, that is, the people of Judah, who is called the house of Jacob, the Prophet turns and exhorts them, so that those who are in the darkness of error may receive the light of truth and walk in the light of the Lord. And he sings in a certain way the words of David: Come to Him and be enlightened, and your faces shall not be confounded (Ps. 33:6). For everyone who does evil hates the light, and does not come to the light, so that their works may not be exposed. But you, O house of Jacob, the people of my nation, come with me, and let us walk together in the light of the Lord. Let us receive the Gospel of Christ, and let us be enlightened by him who says: 'I am the light of the world' (John 8:12). And when he had spoken this to the people of the Jews, seeing their unrepentant hearts and their souls hardened by disbelief, he makes an address to the Lord and says: Therefore, I urge them to come to you and partake of your light with me, because they have forsaken your people, the house of Jacob, due to the deservedness of their sins.

  Commentary on Isaiah

• Isaiah 2:7

  (Verse 7) Because they were once filled, and they had augurs, like the Philistines. For the Philistines always interpreted seventy foreign guests as their own, a common name for a particular people, which is today the nation of the Palestinians, as if they were Philistines, because the Hebrew language does not have the letter P; but instead uses the Greek letter Phi. Therefore, what is said in the Psalms, with the enumeration of other nations: "Foreigners have submitted to me" (Psalm 59:10), does not mean all foreign nations, but specifically the Palestinians. And the reasons why God expelled his people, the house of Jacob, from Reddit are as follows: because, as he says, they were full, just as they were in the beginning, of soothsayers, and omens, and all the filth of idolatry. We know, from Moses' writing, that we should not pay attention to omens or auguries, which the nations that the Lord expelled from the presence of Israel, the Canaanites, the Amorites, and the Hittites, practiced. The interpreters of the Church have interpreted this passage differently, one from another. What does this want to signify? That, after the population of the Jews was expelled, the Roman army entered the land once promised; and after the Jews were driven out, foreign peoples inhabited Judea, who were immigrants from different nations all over the world, brought by Titus, Vespasian, Hadrian, and other leaders. However, others think that this does not pertain to Roman times, but to earlier times, before they were devastated by the Babylonians, as they are said to have been under impious kings and were abandoned by the Lord. And they befriended foreign boys. For which reason, seventy were transferred: And many children of foreigners were born to them. Symmachus: And they applauded with foreign children. For which reason, it is written in Hebrew, 'they adhaeserunt', which the Hebrews interpret as ἐσφηνώθησαν, and we translate as 'they befriended', in order to display the shamefulness of vices in the Jewish nation. In fact, the Greeks and Romans were once afflicted by this vice, so much so that even the most renowned philosophers of Greece openly had lovers: and Adrian, skilled in the arts of philosophy, consecrated Antinous as a god, and established a temple for him, along with sacrifices and priests, and from him the city and region of Egypt received its name. Also, among the prostitutes in the brothels, boys stood exposed to public lust: until under the emperor Constantine, the shining Gospel of Christ, and the infidelity of all nations, and this wickedness was abolished. Moreover, the fact that their wives were violated by the Jews is indicated by the number seventy, which signifies the production of alien children. Symmachus, in a certain oration, with an honorable discourse, demonstrated the same abomination with boys.

  Commentary on Isaiah

• Isaiah 2:8

  (Verse 8) And the land was filled with silver and gold, and there was no end to its treasure. Among the other vices of the earth, the house of Jacob is also counted for its abundance of gold and silver. Among all the omens and divinations, the horses and chariots that God prohibited the kings of Israel from multiplying are condemned. Among the idols, which are the works of human hands, greed is condemned. Therefore, the Lord commanded in the Gospel not to store up treasures for ourselves on earth, and not to make treasures that can be stolen by thieves, ultimately stating: You cannot serve both God and money (Matthew 6:24). However, that little phrase is beautiful: The miser always lacks, as the Prophet indicates with these words: 'And there is no end to his treasures.' Not that treasures do not have an end, but that the mind of the possessor is not satisfied. Both the Jewish and Roman nations are stung by these words of greed. Indeed, both Greek and Latin histories recount that there is nothing more greedy than the Jewish and Roman peoples. The law on recovering misappropriated funds was established, and we see every day that Apostolic saying being fulfilled: You who forbid stealing, do you steal? (Rom. II, 21). The judge hears the thief and condemns the more thieving judge, while passing judgment on someone else. And his land is filled with horses and his innumerable chariots. For it is not worthy to be numbered what is possessed against the command of God. Hence it says in the Psalms: A deceitful horse for salvation (Psalm 32:17). And in Exodus: He threw the horse and the charioteer into the sea (Exodus 15:1). And in another psalm: Some trust in chariots, and some in horses; but we will invoke the name of the Lord our God (Psalm 20:8). However, both can be understood, that the people of Judah multiplied horses and chariots against God's command, and that the land of Judah is filled with the horses and chariots of the victors.

  Commentary on Isaiah

• Isaiah 2:9

  (Verse 9) And his land was filled with idols: they worshipped the work of their own hands, what their fingers have made. And man bowed down, and the man was humbled. Where once stood the Temple and the religion of God, there stood the statue of Hadrian and the idol of Jupiter. Many interpret this as a testimony, which we read in the Gospel: But when you see the abomination of desolation standing in the holy place (Mark 13:14). And they inclined the works of their hands: and man, a rational animal, adored copper and stone. However, there are those who interpret these things about the Jews, that before they were taken captive by the Babylonians, they did all these things, and therefore they were abandoned by God. Therefore, at the end of the chapter it is stated: Therefore, do not let them go. In accordance with the anagoge, we can also say this, that every doctrine contrary to truth adores the works of its own hands, and establishes idols in its own land, and man is bowed down, and the man is humbled, and he cannot raise himself up: because he is bound by the devil, unless the Lord raises him up, like that woman whom Satan had bound for eighteen years, so that she could never look up to heaven, but constantly looked at the earth (Luke 13). Therefore, do not let them go. For this is how the Seventy translated it: And I will not let them go. If God is speaking, it is to be understood thus: Because they have done so much, I will not spare them, nor will I forgive such countless sins. If it is the Prophet speaking, it is to be understood thus: Therefore, do not let them go, those who have committed such wickedness. But if we understand it of the Romans, the truer interpretation is: those who have overthrown the temple of God did not worship Him who granted victory, but instead worshipped idols made by their own hands. But if we speak about the Jewish people, the Prophets' words are harsh, as if they seem to pray against their own people, to whom he had said before: House of Jacob, come, and let us walk in the light of the Lord.

  Commentary on Isaiah

• Isaiah 2:10

  (Verse 10) Enter into the rock: Hide in the pit, covered by the ground, from the face of the fear of the Lord and from the glory of His majesty. Indeed, I have exhorted the people, saying: House of Jacob, come and let us walk in the light of the Lord. But because the Lord has cast away the people of Jacob; for He has cast away, either because He has done it, or He has allowed it, as we have explained above; therefore, I foretell to you the evils that are to come, and I exhort you to enter the rocks and hide in the caves from the face of the Babylonian or Roman army, when all things will be devastated, according to what we read in the Gospel: Then they will say to the mountains, "Fall on us"; and to the rocks, "Hide us" (Luke 23:30). According to the anagoge, it is commanded to us from the face of the Lord's majesty that we assume the strength of the rock, of which it is said: The rock is a refuge for the hares (Ps. 103:18). And, On the rock you have exalted me (Ps. 26:6). Moses is also placed in the hole of the rock, to see the later things of God (Exod. 33). And, The people drank from the spiritual rock that followed them (1 Cor. 10:4). And he who enters his chamber is hidden in the rock, and with the door closed he worships the Father, so that in his earthly body he does not feel the passing storms of the world.

  Commentary on Isaiah

• Isaiah 2:11

  (Verse 11) The lofty eyes of man will be humbled, and the pride of men will be brought low; the Lord alone will be exalted in that day. When the enemies come and the Babylonian or Roman sword devastates every province, and the armies of warriors surround Jerusalem, then neither wealth, nor noble birth, nor the power of dignitaries will be able to defend anyone; but there will be one captivity for all, and only God will be exalted, and no one will be able to escape his wrath. Many understand this about the day of judgment, that every creature is humbled and bowed down in comparison to the divine glory, and feels that it is nothing.

  Commentary on Isaiah

• Isaiah 2:12

  (Verse 12) For the day of the Lord of hosts shall come upon all that is proud and lofty, and upon all that is arrogant; and they shall be brought low. These things are connected to the preceding ones. On that day, he says, the Lord alone shall be exalted, that is, on the day of the Lord's vengeance, the lofty and arrogant, and the high and mighty, shall be subjected to captivity and the sword. However, metaphorically speaking, the discourse pertains to the great and the princes: the more they exalt themselves, the more they shall be humbled. For the Lord resists the proud, and gives grace to the humble (1 Pet. 5). Those who understand the day of judgment believe that the proud and lofty and exalted and arrogant are called the devil. Whoever speaks in pride says: I will set my throne above the stars of heaven; I will sit on the high mountain, above all the lofty mountains to the north; I will ascend above the clouds, I will be like the Highest (Isa. 14:13-14): when praise is perfected from the mouths of infants and nursing babies, so that the enemy and avenger may be destroyed (Ps. 8:3).

  Commentary on Isaiah

• Isaiah 2:13

  (Verse 13) And above all the tall and erect cedars of Lebanon, and above all the oaks of Bashan. And in the twenty-eighth psalm it is sung: The voice of the Lord breaking the cedars; the Lord will break the cedars of Lebanon and crush them like the calf of Lebanon (Psalm 28:5). And in the thirty-sixth psalm: I saw the wicked exalted and raised up like the cedars of Lebanon, and I passed by, and he was no more, and I searched for him, and his place was not found (Psalm 6:34). Basan also signifies the oak trees, which Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotio have interpreted as δρύας, as well as the acorns. We know that they bear fruit, but they are food for pigs, not for humans. Basan is a region in Arabia, over which Og ruled, who is called the king of Basan, and it is interpreted as αἰσχύνη, that is, ignominy. If we wanted to translate it into confusion, it would mean σύγχυσιν, that is, Babylon, more than Basan. Therefore, the vengeance of the Lord will rise against all those who rise up in arrogance, engage in ignominious acts, and revel in the filth of lust. But if a discerning reader should ask why cedar wood is placed in the temple of the Lord, and why we read in Psalm 103 according to the Hebrew truth, 'The trees of the Lord shall be satisfied, the cedars of Lebanon, which thou hast planted: there the sparrows shall make their nests' (Psalm 103:18); and among the other trees even the cedars are called to praise the Lord; and in the coming of the Savior, when all the trees and the trees of the field shall clap their hands with their branches, it is written, 'I will set in the dry land a cedar and box tree, and a cypress, and a pine' (Isaiah 41:19, LXX): and now does the prophetic word threaten the day of the Lord upon the cedars of Lebanon? This must be said, that from the same kind of men, some are exalted to the kingdom, others are brought down to punishment, and the cedars of Lebanon, which are crushed because of their pride, are chosen when they have a good fragrance, and when they have said with the Apostle: We are the sweet odor of Christ (I Cor. II, 15).

  Commentary on Isaiah

• Isaiah 2:14

  (Verse 14.) And above all high mountains, and above all elevated hills. Just as for the variety of virtues, mountains and hills are called good things: so among the impious for the diversity of vices, and especially pride, some are mountains, some are hills, over which the day of the Lord will come, of which it is written in Ezekiel: Thus says the Lord God to the mountains and hills: behold, I will bring a sword upon you, and your high places shall be destroyed, and your altars shall be broken down, and the rest (Ezech. VI, 3).

  Commentary on Isaiah

• Isaiah 2:15

  (Verse 15) And over every high tower, and over every fortified wall. Those who refer these times to Vespasian and Adrian, say that the things written have been fulfilled in bodily form, that neither a high tower, nor a strongest wall, nor any multitude of ships and the industry of commerce, were able to prevail against the power of the Roman army; but such fear had come upon the inhabitants of Judea, that they themselves, along with their wives and children, thinking that gold and silver would be of help to them, were submerged in the pits of the earth, and sought the deepest caves. For if the belly of the voracious and luxurious is God, why should gold and silver not be called God? Others refer these things to the times of Babylon. Therefore, according to the laws of tropology, let us go through each individual thing. A tower is built either for the defense of the city or for a lookout, so that the approaching enemy can be seen from afar. Therefore, each one of us must build a tower, after calculating the expenses, lest, according to the Gospel parable (Luke 14), when he cannot complete the work, he be laughed at. This well-constructed tower will persist. But if it is built in pride and does not have a strong foundation, it will fall on the one from whom it was built, just like that tower in Siloam, which killed eighteen men. Therefore, the Lord speaks to those who hear: 'And unless you repent, you will all likewise perish' (Luke 13:3). We will also read in the following that the Lord built a tower in his vineyard and made a winepress, and surrounded it with a wall, but all of these were destroyed and laid waste because they swelled with the empty pride of their arrogance (Isaiah 5). They also build high walls so that the city is not quickly destroyed, so that it is not open to enemies who surround it, fortified by men of great wisdom and by every means, so that no false doctrine prevails over the truth. God speaks about these walls to Jerusalem: 'Behold, I have depicted your walls on my hands, and they are always before me.' (Jeremiah XLV, 16, trans. LXX). But if those who had previously attacked the Church, upon discovering the truth, turn to faith and fight for it, which they had previously attacked, then this will be fulfilled: 'You will quickly be rebuilt by those by whom you were destroyed.' (Ibid., 17). In Leviticus, we also read that a house, which is in walled cities, if it has not been redeemed within a year, shall be confirmed to the buyer as a permanent possession, but if it is in villages and towns that do not have walls, it can always be redeemed, and the price of the buyer may fluctuate (Lev. XXV).

  Commentary on Isaiah

• Isaiah 2:16

  (Verse 16.) And over all the ships of Tarshish, and over everything that is beautiful to see. Regarding Tarshish, which all similarly transferred, only seventy interpreted the sea. The Hebrews believe that the sea of Tarshish is properly called () in their language, but when it is said Iam (), it is not called in the Hebrew language, but in the Syriac language. Josaphat also had ships that he would send to Tarshish (3 Kings 22:49), but they were broken in Asiongaber. Solomon also had ships that went to Tharsis (III Kings X, 22), and they would return after three years, bringing the king silver and gold, ivory and apes. But because both kings had sinned, one being devoted to pleasure and loving foreign women, and the other forming alliances with the king of Samaria, both of these actions are referred to the Gentiles and heretics, in whom there is nothing more than the appearance of eloquence, a sense constructed by the diabolical art, and a dead language that is interpreted in the teeth, and a likeness of human reason that is perceived in the apes. Therefore, in the Psalms, we read, "With a violent spirit, you will shatter the ships of Tharsis" (Psalm XLVII, 8). And concerning these ships, Isaiah also speaks; Woe to the wings of the ships, which are beyond Ethiopia (Below, chapter XVIII, 1, section LXX). But on the other hand, there are also good ships, of which it is said in the same psalms: Those who go down to the sea in ships, and do business in many waters. They have seen the works of the Lord, and his wonders in the deep (Ps. CVI, 23). For those who are not idle in the waves of this world, but work and carry the Lord's goods, and hasten to come to the harbor of rest, they see the works of the Lord, and his wonders in the deep, when they have reached profound knowledge, and have searched out everything, that is, when they have also beheld the deep things of God and his wonders. Josephus believes that Tharsis is the city of Tarsus in Cilicia, while others think it is a region of India, and they also say that the gemstone called Chrysolithus, which we call Chrysolite, is named after this region because of its similar color to the sea. However, it is better to understand Tharsis as either the sea or the ocean. For Jonah, sailing from Joppa, could not reach India, which cannot be reached by the sea he sailed on; but he simply went out to sea and traveled to any islands. And what follows: And above all that is beautiful to see: or as the LXX translated, And above every aspect of the beauty of ships, to be understood in the same sense, that whatever is beautiful in words and constructed by human reason may be destroyed from the day of the Lord if it rises up against the knowledge of God.

  Commentary on Isaiah

• Isaiah 2:18

  (Verse 18) And the pride of men shall be humbled, and the lofty heights of men shall be brought low, and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day, and all idols shall be utterly crushed. Human discourse seems to have reason as long as it is not compared to divine knowledge. But when falsehood approaches truth like straw to fire, it is quickly consumed and perishes, and all the doctrines of falsity, which are now called idols, because they are feigned and fabricated, shall be utterly crushed.

  Commentary on Isaiah

• Isaiah 2:19

  (Verse 19) On that day, a man will cast away his silver idols and his gold images that he made for himself to worship moles and bats. He will enter the clefts of the rocks and the crevices of the cliffs, from the terror of the Lord and the splendor of His majesty, when He arises to shake the earth. We have often spoken of silver and gold in a figurative sense, expressing their capacity to speak or feel God, and praise their Creator, since they were given by God to humans for this purpose. However, they misuse this gift by using it to simulate idols, as it is written: I gave them silver and gold, but they used it to make Baal idols (Hosea 2:8). Therefore, when someone, terrified by the fear of the Lord, first places idols in the cave of their heart and hides them in the depths of the earth, not daring to bring forth what they have wrongly conceived, they make progress by throwing away what has been carved and refusing to allow it to exist within themselves. Concerning the moles, which we have interpreted as seventy, the Aquila put stones, Symmachus put unfruitful things, and Theodotion put the Hebrew word Pharpharoth(). Now, the animal is blind, always digging into the earth, excavating the soil, and feeding on roots, harmful to crops: the Greeks call it aspalax. The bat, however, is a nocturnal bird, which received its fitting name νυκτερὶς because it flies at night. It is a small animal, similar to a mouse, not resonating so much with voice and song, as with a shrill sound. Since it appears to be flying, it shuns the light and does not tolerate seeing the sun. Idols have been compared to creatures of this kind, which dwell in blind and dark worship: and all doctrines contrary to truth. When they have been abandoned on the day of the Lord, those who have rejected them will enter into the cracks of rocks and caverns of stones, so that they may not engage in the dust of the earth and cheap mud, but be involved in sound reasoning, and find various openings of virtues through which they may be able to reach the truth. I have briefly described in this anagoge, as best I could, the times and destruction of Jerusalem that the Hebrews refer to in Babylon, when the Lord rose to strike the land of the Jews.

  Commentary on Isaiah

• Isaiah 2:20

  (Verse 20.) Therefore cease from man, whose breath is in his nostrils; for he is considered high. This was omitted by the LXX, and in the Greek copies it was added under asterisks by Origen from the edition of Aquila, which reads in Hebrew: Hedalu LachemMen Aadam Aser Nasama Baaphpho Chi Bama Nesab Hu. Where we said, he is considered high: Aquila interpreted it as, in whom he is considered high. The Hebrew word Bama (), or ὕψωμα in Greek, means 'high place' or 'exalted', which we read in both the Books of Kings and in Ezekiel. It is also written with the same letters as the Hebrew word Beth, Mem, He, and depending on the context, it can be read as Bamma, meaning 'high place', or Bama, meaning 'exalted'. Therefore, the Jews, understanding that it was a prophecy about Christ, interpreted the ambiguous word in a negative way, so that they would not appear to be praising Christ, but rather disregarding Him. For what is the consequence of words, and what is the order of reason and meaning, so that we may say: Since these things are so, and the day of the Lord is coming, when the whole Judaean state will be destroyed, and everything will be demolished: I warn and command you to refrain from a man who breathes and lives like this, for he is considered nothing. Let no one praise any man in such a way as to say: Beware lest he offend him, who is indeed nothing at all. Therefore, on the contrary, understand it in this way: Since all these things are about to happen to you and are being proclaimed by the prophetic spirit, I warn and command you to abstain from him who, according to the flesh, is indeed a man, and has a soul, and breathes in this way, and draws breath through his nostrils, just as we humans breathe and live. But according to the divine majesty, he is both exalted, esteemed, and believed. Considering silently in my mind, I cannot find a reason why they did not want to translate such a clear prophecy about Christ into Greek. For the others, indeed, who translated [the text], brought forth an ambiguous meaning towards impiety, it is not surprising why they were interpreted badly, nor did they want to say something glorious about Christ, in whom they did not believe: namely, the Jews or Semijews, that is, the Ebionites. But that Christ is exalted and highest, who is called in another language among the Hebrews, Elion (), we read in the 86th Psalm: Shall Zion say, 'This man was born in it', and the Highest himself hath founded it (Psalm 86:5)? And in the Gospel: And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High (Luke 1:76). And so that I don't go on a long rope (for in the interpretation of sacred Scriptures we should follow the truth, not contention), in this place 'Bama' among the Hebrews is not said to be lofty, but high, that is, the very height and sublimity: as if we were to say of someone, they are not divine, but divination: they are not a stream, but a fountain: they are not a man, but humanity itself. Origen interpreted this passage as follows: Because it is said singularly of one man, it can also be referred to the Lord Savior: as the Prophet commands, that they may rest from him who is esteemed in something great; although for the time being he appears as a man, and has the breath in his nostrils, just as other human beings breathe.

  Commentary on Isaiah

• Isaiah 3:1

  (Chapter 3, Verse 1) For behold, the Lord God of hosts will take away from Jerusalem and from Judah the mighty and strong: all the strength of bread and all the strength of water. Thus far, they think it speaks of judgment. What follows speaks of the coming captivity; some interpret it as referring to the Babylonians, others to the Romans. But it is better, as we have said before, to refer all things to the Lord's passion. For after his death, all grace and gifts were taken away from the Jews, according to what is written in the Gospel: The law and the prophets were until John the Baptist (Matthew 11:13). And there is an order: Because you refused to stop from the man, whose spirit is in his nostrils, who is considered high: but on the contrary, you shed the blood of the righteous, and you devised the worst plan, saying: Let us bind the just, for he is useless to us (Wisdom II, 12); therefore you shall eat the fruit of your inventions. There is nothing strong among the Jews after the Passion of the Lord, nothing powerful: but everything is weak and feeble. And no one can say among them: I can do all things in him who strengthens me (Philippians IV, 13), Christ Jesus our Lord. And because we read 'strong' and 'strong woman' according to the Septuagint; we can apply it to the strong man: Until we all meet the perfect man, in the measure of the age of the fullness of Christ (Ephesians 4:13). Furthermore, strong women: I want, he says, all of you to present yourself as a chaste virgin to Christ (2 Corinthians 11:2). But strength is also found in bread, and strength in water, as food and drink are received. We read that Moses was on Mount Sinai for forty days, and did not eat bread or drink water (Exodus 34). Also to be heard is what is said to Adam: In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread until you return to the ground from which you were taken (Gen. III, 19). Likewise, what is said by the Savior: Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God (Matth. IV, 4). Therefore, the strength of bread will be taken away from them: he who says: I am the living bread, which came down from heaven (John VI, 51). And the power of water, of which the same Lord spoke: Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again. But whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never thirst again. But the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life (John 4:13). We read about such bread in Proverbs: Open your eyes and be filled with bread (Proverbs 20:13). The Jews have bread, but without strength; they have water, but without power. For they read the Scriptures, but do not understand. They hold on to the pages, and they have lost Christ, who is written in the pages (1 Corinthians 3). They are nourished with milk, like infants, and not with solid food. And because they have lost strength and are weak, they eat vegetables. But the solid food of athletes sustains human life and provides strength to the living (Romans 14). Concerning this bread and water, which are taken away from the Jews, another Prophet also testifies, saying: 'Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will send a famine on the land: not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord' (Amos 8:11).

  Commentary on Isaiah

• Isaiah 3:2

  (Verse 2.) A strong and warrior man, judge and Prophet, and sorcerer, and elder. For the strong, which is only in Hebrew, both the Seventy translated as giant and strong, wanting the same person to be both giant and strong. About the strong it has been said above. But about the giant in a good sense, that is, about the Lord Savior, we read in the eighteenth psalm: He rejoiced as a giant to run his way: his going out is from the highest heaven, and his circuit reaches to the highest of it (Psalm XVIII, 8). But if we read, (Gen. X), we understand that Nimrod, who was a hunter before the Lord, was a giant and the giants (Gen. VI), for whom the flood came upon the earth, are to be understood in the opposite sense. Likewise, we understand the warrior man in the following story, that they were captured and continue to serve until this day, and have not thrown off the yoke of servitude. But they do not even have their own judges, and are subject to Roman judges, so much so that Roman princes judge their own princes who seem to be among the people. But we must also say this, that there is no warrior among them in the law, having the knowledge of judging: but all things are vain and fleeting, and full of foolishness. But concerning the Prophet, that he has ceased to exist among them, there is no doubt. We seek according to the Hebrew, how we should interpret the soothsayer, whom all have interpreted as divine: except for the seventy, who translated it as conjecture. And it must be said that often even through soothsayers future events are predicted, as we read in Balaam's divine oracle, and in the oracles of the five cities of Palestine, Gaza and Ascalon, Gath, and Ekron, and Ashdod, who give advice on how the ark of the Lord should be returned (1 Sam. 6). And the sense is: Both the true and the false will be taken away by the Jews. The elder, also known as the Seventy, understands that he was taken away by the Jews, who knew that elders are chosen based on merit and wisdom, not age, in the holy scriptures. For among the Jews, the elderly have not ceased to exist, as we often see them reaching advanced old age. And according to Theodotion, we read about two elderly presbyters in the beginning of Daniel (Dan. XIII), who endured the hardships of many days. For even Moses is commanded to choose elders whom he knows to be elders (Exod. XVIII). And the apostle Paul, in writing to Timothy, fully explains what kind of elder should be chosen (I Tim. V). Hence it is said in Proverbs: The glory of elders is their gray hair (Prov. XX, 29). What is this gray hair? Without a doubt, it is wisdom, of which it is written: The gray hair of men is their understanding (Sap. IV, 8). And while we read that men lived for nine hundred years and even more, from Adam to Abraham (Genes. XXIV), no one else is called an elder, that is, an old man, before Abraham, who is shown to have lived for far fewer years. And John also writes to children and young men, and even to the elderly, saying, I have written to you, fathers, because you have known him who is from the beginning (1 John 2:13). And Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, lost his kingdom because he did not want to listen to the elders (1 Kings 12).

  Commentary on Isaiah

• Isaiah 3:3

  (Verse 3.) The leader is in charge of fifty. Συνεκδοχικῶς means 'comparatively-speaking' or 'in relation to the whole'. Just as centurions are called who are in charge of a hundred soldiers, and chiliarchs who are in charge of a thousand, whom we call tribunes because they preside over a tribe, so in the Israelite army there were quinquagenarii who were in charge of fifty soldiers. Hence we also call them decanos, who are in charge of ten men. It is not surprising if all the dignity of soldiers is lost among the Jews, since they do not have the power to fight with a sword and carry weapons. But because the number fifty always refers to penance: and the prince of penance, and the head of those who are saved by penance, is Christ: let us briefly explain the mysteries of this number. In Genesis we read, when Abraham spoke to the Lord, that if fifty righteous people are found in a city, the city will be saved. And in Numbers, there are seven weeks, that is, the most famous feast of Pentecost. The Jubilee, which is the year of remission, is woven in cycles of seven weeks, which is forty-nine years, during which trumpets sound and all ancient possessions are restored. This contains the sacrament. Therefore, David writes the fiftieth Psalm about repentance. We also read in the same book of Numbers that when it comes to the spoils and plunder, the fiftieth (or perhaps five hundredth) chapter states that both priests and Levites receive a portion of the spoils, both from the people and from the animals, and the fiftieth chapter states that the Levites, who guard the doors of the tabernacle, also receive a portion. The parable of the two debtors, one who owed five hundred denarii and the other fifty, is also related to this. And so the Apostle, among the Ephesians to whom he had explained all the mysteries, desires to remain until Pentecost, until they are completely converted to the Lord, saying: For there is a great and effective door opened to me, and there are many adversaries. However, the devil also imitates the Israelite army, of which Jethro gave his advice to Moses, to appoint leaders and officers over the people (Exodus 18). Hence, the wicked king (2 Kings 1) sent two officers with very obedient soldiers to capture Elijah, who were consumed by divine fire. But the third officer was saved, who, having turned to prayer, had come to know the sacraments of repentance. And the Jews, unwilling for Him to be the perfect Lord and the fifty-year-old prince, said to Him: You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham? (John 8:57) And He, knowing that He is not only the Prince of the repentant, but also of the righteous, answered: Before Abraham was, I am. (Ibid., 58). And that the Lord is the Fifty-Year-Old Prince, we can understand from one feast, about which He says: The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath. (Matthew 12:8). But if it is the Sabbath, and the Kalends. If the Kalends, and the Pascha, that is, the unleavened bread. If the Pascha, and the Jubilee. If the Jubilee, and the Tabernacles. If the Tabernacles, and the Pentecost, which is related to the fiftieth number. And with an honorable appearance, both as an advisor. They chose one admirable advisor for two reasons, that is, an honorable appearance and an advisor. Among other things, the Lord will also remove this from Judea, so that they have no advisor: but they do everything without advice. And the Greek poets have that praiseworthy and admirable saying: 'First, it is blessed to be able to reason for oneself; second, it is blessed to listen to the wise.' But whoever lacks both, he is useless, both to himself and to all. Hence we also read this in our books: Let there be many friends for you, but let there be only one counselor among a thousand (Eccl. VI, 6). And again: Do everything with counsel (Prov. XIII, 10): and it will give you admirable prudence, a counselor. Also, the decrees of the Senate are called, and the former Roman leaders were called consuls, either from advising the citizens or from governing everything with counsel. And we have in the Church our senate, the assembly of the elders. So if, among other things, Judaea has also lost its elders, how can it have the council, which belongs specifically to the elders? And a wise architect. For whom the Eagle transferred the most wise of craftsmen, to show that they had many craftsmen once: such as that one was Bezalel, son of Uri, son of Hur from the tribe of Judah, whom God filled with the spirit of wisdom, and understanding, and knowledge, so that he would be the most perfect craftsman in every work, not only in gold and silver, but also in bronze and other things that Moses enumerates, who built the Tabernacle of God (Exod. 31). Therefore, with those architects perishing, all desire for building was transferred to the Church. Hence the apostle Paul says: Like a wise architect, I laid the foundation (1 Corinthians 3:10). And Jeremiah was also an architect, who not only uprooted, dug out, and destroyed, but also built (Jeremiah 18). Therefore, the same apostle speaks: We are God's farming, God's building (1 Corinthians 3:9). Our Lord is also called the builder of walls (Ephesians 2). And in the Gospel the son of a carpenter is mentioned, who created all things (Matthew 13). In the book of Kings, we also read that King Solomon sent and brought Hiram of Tyre, the son of a widow, who was from the tribe of Naphtali and had a Tyrian father, a craftsman in bronze. And he went to the king and performed all the works for King Solomon: in which is a type of building the Church, which is not only generated from the tribe of Judah, but also from Naphtali, and has a Tyrian father, who had a widowed mother; because she had lost her previous husband (1 Kings 7). And many more are the sons of the desolate one, more than she who has a husband (Isaiah 54). But also in the book of Chronicles we read about the valley of craftsmen: Saraias begot Joab, the father of the valley of craftsmen; for there were craftsmen there (1 Chronicles 4:14). They are said to dwell in the valley because knowledge did not puff them up, but they followed Jesus in humility and meekness, being able to say with the Apostle: For I am the least of the Apostles, who am not worthy to be called an Apostle (1 Corinthians 15:9). And elsewhere: In part we know, and in part we prophesy, and now we see through a glass darkly (I Cor. XIII, 9). And the wise speaker of mystical speech. For which the Seventy have interpreted as a wise listener; Theodotion, a wise enchanter; Aquila, a wise whisperer; Symmachus, the wise speaker of mystical speech, whom we also followed in this place. It must be said first according to the Seventy; that among other spiritual gifts, a wise listener is also necessary in the Church. For to others is given prophecy: to others discernment of spirits (I Cor. XII, 10). And so, there were established among the people of the Jews certain priestly ranks to discern between prophets and false prophets: that is, to understand who spoke by the spirit of God and who spoke by the contrary spirit. Let us read Jeremiah. But this man, skilled in mystical language (Jeremiah 14), or as Theodotion preferred, an enchanter, seems to me to be learned and well-versed both in the Law and the Prophets, as well as in the Gospel and the Apostles, who can heal each disturbance of the soul with his teaching and restore it to a state of peace: so that the fornicator may receive chastity, the glutton may receive frugality, and the once greedy may give alms. He condemned all the synagogues of the Jews, and he will not be able to find a teacher who teaches sacredness, and who, having despised wealth, teaches that poverty must be followed. Concerning such sorcerers against serpents and asps, that is, against sinners who have forsaken the justice of God, David spoke in the Psalm: Sinners have been estranged from the womb: they have erred from their birth, they have spoken false things. Their fury is according to the likeness of a serpent: like the adder that stops her ears. Which will not hear the voice of the charmers; nor of the enchanter charming wisely (Psalm 67:4-5). Every word of the Apostle against serpents and asps is an incantation, which sinners and heretics do not hear, because they close their ears, so that they may not hear the truth.

  Commentary on Isaiah

• Isaiah 3:4

  (Verse 4.) And I will give their children as princes. If this is said in the person of the Prophet: Behold, for the Lord God of hosts will take away from Jerusalem and from Judah the strong and the mighty: all the strength of bread, and all the strength of water, and the rest: how does the same prophet now speak: I will give their children as princes, and the effeminate shall rule over them? Therefore, according to the prophetic custom, while the Prophet is speaking, suddenly God speaks through the Prophet in his own person, and says: I will give their children as princes: for by taking away those things which I had given before, and by taking away as it were good things in my anger, now on the contrary I will give evil things. He was a soldier, both admirable and wise, a skilled architect and a discerning listener, etc. For these reasons, I will give birth to princes. Those who have lost a priest, whom the previous sermon revealed, just like Abraham who was first called a priest, rightly receive young princes (Genesis VII). Concerning these, we also read in Ecclesiastes: Woe to you, city, whose king is young, and whose princes eat in the morning. Blessed is the land whose king is the son of ingenuous ones (Eccles. X, 16). Such was the young king Rehoboam, son of Solomon, who followed the advice of the young men (3 Kings XII). Not because he was young in age, but in wisdom. Otherwise, it is said that he received a kingdom of forty years or more. On the other hand, Solomon was twelve years old when he assumed power, and because he had wisdom, he was called young. For there was in him a breadth of heart, and a vastness of wisdom as great as the sand on the shores of the sea. Hence the Apostle writes to Timothy, Let no one despise your youth (I Tim. IV, 12). For whoever is young in age, is old in maturity. And Daniel, according to Theodotion, before he became a judge, was called a boy (Dan. XIII). But after God stirred his spirit and he judged the elders, he received the dignity of the presbytery. Jeremiah, who had said to the Lord, 'You are my master, O Lord,' the Lord replied, 'Do not say, "I am only a youth"; for to all whom I send you, you shall go, and whatever I command you, you shall speak. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you, says the Lord.' (Jeremiah 1:6-8) For this reason, I believe that young widows should marry, bear children, and manage their households, so as to give the opponent no occasion for slander. (1 Timothy 5) And when they have become self-indulgent in Christ, they want to marry, thus incurring condemnation, because they have set aside their first faith. And a widow is not supported by the Church's provisions unless she is sixty years old and has both the maturity of character and age. Someone may think that what the Apostle prohibits (1 Timothy 3), that a bishop should not be a neophyte, pertains to this, because he is a little one in faith, lest being lifted up with pride he fall into the judgment of the devil. But the judgment of the devil is nothing else but pride, because of which he fell from heavenly things. Hence the Savior speaks, 'I saw Satan, like lightning falling from heaven' (Luke 10:18). And they will be ruled by effeminate men. Concerning this, it is written in Hebrew, 'Thalulim' (which the Septuagint and Theodotion interpret as mockers), Aquila translates as those who change and practice sexual immorality. Such as we read in the Book of Judges about the Levite's concubine in Gibeah (Judges 19). Let us consider the Patriarchs of the Jews, and we will see that the prophecy is fulfilled with young men or boys who are effeminate and indulge in luxuries. We can call them deceivers and teachers of the people of Israel, who devour the people of God like bread, and interpret the holy Scriptures perversely, and they mock the foolishness of the disciples.

  Commentary on Isaiah

• Isaiah 3:5

  (Verse 5.) And the people will fall, man against man, each one against his neighbor: the young will rise up against the old, and the lowly against the noble. When the young become leaders and mockers of the Lord, as the prophetic word describes, then no order of dignity, age, or knowledge will be preserved; but the young will rebel against the elderly, and the lowly against the noble, and they will fall together. And that Apostolic saying will be fulfilled: biting each other, you have been consumed by each other (Galatians 5:15). Josephus writes in Book 5 of The Jewish War that these events happened to the people of Judaea under Titus, son of Vespasian: that when they were being besieged by the Romans, there was a division of the city into three parts due to the rebellion. Some held the citadel and the Temple, others held the lower part of the city, and others held the upper part.

  Commentary on Isaiah

• Isaiah 3:6

  (Verse 6) For a man shall seize his brother, the kinsman of his father. The garment is yours, be our prince; but this ruin is under your control. Regarding ruin, Symmachus and Theodotio transferred infirmity, 70 food items. But it signifies a scarcity of people, and the most serious shortage of all, so that whoever has food and clothing is considered powerful, wealthy, and famous. And when he says according to the Hebrew: But this ruin is under your control, it has this meaning: Our misery and calamity will be sustained and protected by your assistance. And it must be considered that individuals should choose their own leaders, and there may be conflict in the election of leaders, as some consider others worthy of leadership. And they do not say to them, your possessions, and wealth, and income will sustain us, but this weakness, or my food, will be healed by your support and will depend on your decision.

  Commentary on Isaiah

• Isaiah 3:7

  (Verse 7) And he shall answer in that day, saying, I am not a physician, and in my house there is no bread nor clothing; do not make me the ruler of the people. For physician, Symmachus and the Septuagint translated principem as Theodotio, ἐπιδεσμεύοντα, who binds wounds and provides for health. He shall answer, in Hebrew it is not found, but it is added from the Septuagint. In Hebrew, for it is joined with the things that are written above: In that day he shall say, I am not a physician, and so on. But he will say, who has been elected as leader. And just as the people who understand him, whom they consider wealthier than themselves, desire to have him as their ruler, so the one who is chosen, considering his poverty and weakness, declares himself unworthy of the bestowed honor, and unable to remedy the flaws, that is, to care for the sick, to provide food for the hungry, to clothe the naked, when he himself can barely sustain himself. Therefore, let us not immediately acquiesce to the judgement of the multitude, but let us know our own measure when elected to leadership, and let us humble ourselves under the powerful hand of God: because God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble (1 Peter 5). Those who have no bread and clothing, when they themselves are hungry and naked, and have no spiritual food, nor have preserved the complete tunic of Christ, promise others both food and clothing, and boast of being physicians when they are full of wounds; nor do they observe that commandment of Moses: Provide another whom you may send: and that other commandment: Seek not to be a judge, lest perhaps you may not be able to take away iniquities (Eccl. VII, 6). Only Jesus heals all weaknesses and infirmities, of whom it is written: Who heals the broken of heart, and binds up their bruises (Ps. CXLVI. 3).

  Commentary on Isaiah

• Isaiah 3:8-9

  (Verses 8, 9.) For Jerusalem has fallen, and Judah has collapsed: because their tongue and their inventions are against the Lord, to provoke the eyes of His majesty. The recognition of their faces testifies against them, and they declare their sin like Sodom, and do not hide it. The Prophet speaks of this, not as many suppose, that he who was the chosen leader spoke. And he says that for this reason no one wants to rule over a sinful people, because both Judah and Jerusalem, and the city, and the province of Judaea, or the tribe of Judah have fallen together. And they gave reasons for their impiety, because they blasphemed against the Lord and said: 'Take him away, take him away, crucify him, for we have no king but Caesar' (John 19:15, 16): and with the fury of their tongue, they provoked the most merciful Lord to bitterness. The recognition of their faces will answer to them: that is, they have received their sins, or as the Septuagint translated: the confusion of their faces opposed them: that is, they always had their own sins before their eyes. And just as the Sodomites, sinning with all freedom and not having any shame in their wickedness, said to Lot: 'Bring out the men so that we may have relations with them' (Gen. XIX, 5); so too these, proclaiming openly, have preached their own sin and have had no shame in blaspheming. For the second plank after shipwreck is consolation in miseries, to hide their own impiety. Hence they are called the rulers of the Sodomites, because they had Sodomite sins.

  Commentary on Isaiah