[The First Book of the Commentary on Isaiah by St. Jerome, Priest]
[THE FIRST BOOK OF THE COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH BY ST. JEROME,
PRIEST] 1. In a relatively short time I have finished a twenty-book commentary on the Twelve
Prophets11 and a commentary on Daniel.22 Now you are compelling me, Eustochium,33 virgin of Christ, to move on to Isaiah and to give you what I promised to your saintly mother Paula44 while she was alive. In fact I recall that I had also promised this to that very learned man, your brother55 Pammachius.66 And although in affection you are equal, still, because you are present, you carry off the prize. And so, both to you, and through you to him, I am paying what I owe, complying with the commands of Christ, who says, "Search the Scriptures" [John 5:39] and "Seek and you will find" [Matt 7:7] lest
I should hear with the Jews, "You are in error knowing neither the Scriptures nor the power of God" [Matt 22:29]. For if, according to the Apostle Paul, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God [cf. 1 Cor 1:24], and the one who does not know the Scriptures does not know the power of God and his wisdom, [then] ignorance of the 1 Jerome, Comm in prophetas minores.
2 Jerome, Comm in Danielem.
3 St. Eustochium (370?–18) was the third daughter of Paula, who accompanied her mother to Palestine and presided over the hospice and convent in Bethlehem after Paula' death. She had taken a vow of perpetual virginity, and Jerome wrote his famous Ep.
to confirm her in this resolution.
4 St. Paula (347–04) was a noble and wealthy Roman lady, the mother of four daughters and one son. In 382, during the synod held at Rome that followed on the council of Constantinople, she hosted in her house the bishops Epiphanius of Salamis and Paulinus of Antioch. Through them Jerome became intimately acquainted with her. After her husband' death in 384, she accompanied Jerome to Palestine in 385 and lived the rest of her life in Bethlehem. The chief facts of her life were given by Jerome in Ep.
to Eustochium.
5 He means brother-in-law.
6 St. Pammachius was a senator of the family of Furii, fellow student and friend of Jerome.
Jerome dedicated some works to him and wrote him many letters (Epp.
, 49, 57, 66, 83, 84, 97). He married Paulina, daughter of the Roman matron Paula and, widowed in 397, entered monastic life. When Jerome wrote his books against Jovinian in 392, Pammachius rebuked
Jerome for his excessively violent language. He intrigued on Jerome' side during the Origenist controversies. Jerome dedicated to him his commentaries on the Minor Prophets and Daniel.
Pammachius spent his fortune to assist the poor and built a hospice for pilgrims at Porto. He died in 410 during the invasion of the Goths.
Scriptures is ignorance of Christ. Therefore, propped up by the help of your prayers [cf.
Exod 17:12]—you who day and night meditate on the law of God [cf. Ps 1:2] and are a temple of the Holy Spirit [cf. 1 Cor 6:19], I shall imitate the householder who brings forth from his treasury new things and old [cf. Matt 13:52], and the bride who says in the Song of Songs, "I have saved new and old things for you, my kinsman" [Song 7:13]. I shall expound Isaiah in such a way that I will show him not only as a prophet, but as an evangelist and apostle.77 For he himself says of himself and of other evangelists, "How beautiful are the feet of those who evangelize, [announcing] good things, who preach peace" [Isa 52:7; cf. Rom 10:15], and God speaks to him as if to an apostle: "Whom shall
I send88 and who will go to this people," and he replied, "Here I am, send me" [Isa 6:8].
And let no one think that I desire to summarize the subject99 of this book in a few words, when the Scripture at hand contains all the Lord's mysteries and proclaims Emmanuel, the one who was both born of a virgin and performed illustrious works and signs, was dead and buried, and by rising from the lower world is the Savior of all nations. What should I say of natural science, ethics, and theological studies?110 Within this volume is contained all the Holy
Scriptures, everything human language can bring forth and the understanding of mortals can receive. Of his mysteries he himself testifies who wrote,
And the vision of all things will be for you, as the words of a sealed book, of which, when they give to one who is literate,111 they will say: Read this, and he will answer: "I cannot, for it is sealed"; and the book will be given to one who is not literate, and it will be said to him: "Read," and he will reply: "I am not literate." [Isa 29:11–12]
Therefore, if you give this book to the nonliterate people of the nations, they will respond, "I cannot read this, for I have not learned the literature of the Scriptures"; if you give it to the scribes and Pharisees, who boast that they are literate, they will respond, "We cannot read it; for the book is sealed." Why, then, was it sealed to them? Because they have not received him
[cf. John 1:11] whom the Father sealed [cf. John 6:27], who "holds the key of David, who opens and no one shuts, who shuts and no one opens" [Rev 3:7].
But it is not as Montanus112 dreams up with his crazy females, that the prophets spoke while in a state of ecstasy, so that they did not know what they were speaking; and when they
7 Cf. Eus Is 2 (3.26–.4).
8 The Greek word apostello means " send."
9 Argumentum.
110 Theologica. A textual variant reads logica.
111 Lit., "nows letters."
112 Montanus, a native of Ardabau, a village in Phrygia, in the late second century (155–60) originated a schism that took its name from him (Montanism) and spread far and wide. It even won Tertullian for an adherent in 207. Montanus claimed to be a prophet and a mouthpiece of the Holy Spirit. Prisca and Maximilla were two of his female disciples who outdid him in prophesying. Both had been previously married and left their husbands. Cf. Eusebius,
HE 5.14
; Jerome
Vir Ill
, 40; Bas Is 5 (125BC).
instructed others, they themselves did not know what they were saying—of whom the Apostle says, "Not knowing what they are uttering, and the things about which they are making claims"
[1 Tim 1:7];—but according to Solomon, who says in the Proverbs, "A wise man understands what comes forth from his mouth and he will carry knowledge on his lips" [Prov 16:23], likewise
[the prophets] indeed knew what they were saying. For if the prophets were wise, which we cannot deny, and Moses, who was instructed in all wisdom [cf. Acts 7:22], spoke to the Lord and the Lord replied to him [cf. Exod 19:19], and it is said to the prince of Tyre concerning Daniel,
"Are you wiser than Daniel?" [Ezek 28:3] and David was wise, who boasted in the psalm, "You have revealed to me the uncertain and hidden things of your wisdom" [Ps 51:6]; [then] how were these wise prophets ignorant of what they were saying, in the manner of brute beasts?
We also read in another passage of the Apostle, "The spirits of prophets are subject to prophets" [1 Cor 14:32], so that when to speak, [and] when to be silent is in their power. But if anyone finds this inconclusive, let him hear the words of the same Apostle: "Let two or three prophets speak and let the others discern; but if it is revealed to another who is sitting there, let the first be silent" [1 Cor 14:29–30]. How can they refrain from speaking when either to be silent or to speak is in the power of the Spirit, who speaks through the prophets? If, then, they understood what they were saying, all things are filled with wisdom and reason. It was not air struck by the voice that reached their ears, but God was speaking in the mind of the prophets according to the words of another prophet, "The angel who was speaking in me" [Zech 1:9]; and "Crying out in our hearts: 'Abba, Father' " [Gal 4:6]. And "Let me hear what the Lord God speaks in me" [Ps 85:8].
This is why, after the truth of history, everything should be understood spiritually; and thus should Judea and Jerusalem [cf. Isa 1:1; 2:1] be interpreted, Babylon [cf. Isa 13:1] and Philistia
[cf. Isa 14:29], Moab [cf. Isa 15:1] and Damascus [cf. Isa 17:1], Egypt [cf. Isa 19:1] and the uninhabited sea [cf. Isa 21:1], Idumea [cf. Isa 21:11], Arabia [cf. Isa 21:13], and the valley of Zion
[cf. Isa 22:1], and finally Tyre [cf. Isa 23:1] and the vision of the four-footed beasts [cf. Isa 30:6].
Let us seek everything with understanding, and in all these things, [let us act] as if the Apostle
Paul, the wise builder, is laying the foundation, which is no other foundation than Christ Jesus
[cf. 1 Cor 3:10–11].
It is a matter of great labor and effort to intend to discuss the entire Book of Isaiah, to which our forefathers (I mean the Greeks) have applied their talents with exhausting labors. Among the Latins, however, there is a profound silence apart from Victorinus,113 the martyr of sacred memory who was able to say with the Apostle, "Even if I am unskilled in speech, I am not in 113 We owe mainly to St. Jerome what little we know of St. Victorinus bishop of Petau (Vir Ill
He lived in the second half of the third century and was a martyr in the first years of Diocletian' persecution, probably in 304. He was a forerunner of Latin biblical exegesis. Jerome attributes to him interpretations of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Habakkuk, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, and the sole surviving work, the Apocalypse, in which he offers a literal interpretation of Rev 20– and manifests millennialist views. While recognizing his countryman' good will and erudition, Jerome reproaches him repeatedly with not having full command of Latin, or at least not knowing it as well as Greek.
knowledge" [2 Cor 11:6]. For Origen wrote thirty books on this prophet114 in accordance with the four versions,115 up to the vision of the four-footed creature in the desert [cf. Isa 30:6], of which the twenty-sixth book is lost. Two other books to Grata concerning the vision of the τετραπόδων [four-footed beasts] are published under his name; these are considered pseudepigraphs. There are, in addition, twenty-five homilies116 and Σημειωσεις, which we can call Excerpts.117 Also Pamphilus's Eusebius118 published fifteen books that keep to historical explanation; and Didymus,119 whose intimate friendship we recently enjoyed, published eighteen books, beginning from the place where it is written, "Comfort, comfort my people, you priests; speak to the heart of Jerusalem" [Isa 40:1], and continuing to the end of the book. Now
Apollinaris220 expounds everything in his own manner by a system of intervals bounded by short stopping points—or rather, abridgments, and flies across the distances of a long road. In consequence, we believe that we are reading not so much a commentary as a table of contents.
You notice from this how difficult it will be for our Latin people to forgive me if I speak at some length. For their ears are fastidious and become squeamish when the Holy Scriptures are to be understood, and they delight only in the applause that accompanies eloquence. For in terms of 114 Cf. Eusebius,
HE 6.32.1
115 The four versions would be those found in Origen' Hexapla: Aquila (3rd column), Symmachus
(4th column), the Septuagint (5th column), Theodotion (6th column). Cf. Jerome,
Vir Ill
116 This is our only source for the knowledge that Origen delivered twenty-five homilies on Isaiah. (The number thirty-two reported by Jerome in Ep.
33.4
is not reliable.) Nine of them are preserved in Jerome' own Latin translation without a preface. Cf. W. A. Baehrens, Origenes
Werke 8 (GCS 33). I have appended a translation of them in an appendix to the present volume.
117 The Excerpts or Scholia are Origen' more detailed commentary notes.
118 This is the church historian and bishop of Caesarea, who adopted the name Pamphilus'
Eusebius after the martyrdom of his close friend and colleague, Pamphilus. Pamphilus of Caesarea was a disciple of Pierius, called "he younger Origen,"who moved to Palestine to reanimate the school founded by Origen. He was ordained by Agapius. Arrested in 307, he spent two years in prison and was beheaded on 16 Feb. 310 under Maximinus Daia. In prison he wrote his sole surviving work, the Apology for Origen, with the assistance of Eusebius. See my new translation in the FOTC series, St. Pamphilus, Apology for Origen, With the Letter of Rufinus on the Falsification of the Books of Origen, trans. Thomas P. Scheck, FOTC 120 (Washington, DC:
Catholic University Press, 2010).
119 Didymus the Blind (313–98) was a celebrated exegete who taught in Alexandria and depended closely on Origen, both in exegesis and in doctrine. Jerome studied with him briefly in 386. Rufinus of Aquileia spent about eight years with him. Jerome translated Didymus' work On the Holy Spirit and attributes to him commentaries on the Psalms, Gospels of Matthew and John, Isaiah, Hosea, Zechariah, Job, and works on the Arians. See Jerome,
Vir Ill
220 Apollinaris (d. 390), bishop of Laodicea, had been one of Jerome' teachers during his sojourn in Antioch in 378. See Ep.
84.3
; Vir Ill
. His faulty understanding of the incarnation, according to which Christ' human and divine natures were integrated into one, was later condemned by the Council of Ephesus (431) and the Council of Chalcedon (451). The work in question here does not survive.
the number of lines, Isaiah is either equal to or longer than the Twelve Prophets. Because the readings of the Septuagint and the Hebrew are either the same or similar, along with anything else the languages entail, and since my purpose was to publish an edition with the text of the languages cited, I did not want to extend the books of the commentary, which with an exposition even of language exceeds the limits of brevity. But let us now pursue our aims.
2. (1:1) The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz (Amos), which he saw concerning (super) Judah and Jerusalem, in the days of Uzziah, Joatham Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. Instead of Judah, which signifies two tribes, the Septuagint and Theodotion have recorded Judea, which points to the entire land of the twelve tribes. And in place of what we have translated from the Hebrew as concerning Judah and Jerusalem, they translated as "against Judea and Jerusalem."
Symmachus in his customary manner is clearer: "Concerning Judah and Jerusalem." Thus the heading indicates neither prosperous nor adverse things, but things that the prophetic discourse has predicted in both respects about Judah and Jerusalem.
Therefore, Isaiah is speaking chiefly about two tribes, Judah and Benjamin; the ten, who were in Samaria and were called Ephraim and Israel, have been left out. These tribes Pul, the king of the Assyrians, had already begun to destroy when Uzziah was king of Judah and Jerusalem [2 Kgs 15:18–19, 27]. Finally, in the fifty-second year of his [i.e. Uzziah's] command, while Pekah the son of Remaliah was ruling in Samaria, "Tiglath-Pileser king of the Assyrians came and captured Ijon and Abel, the house of Maacah, and Janoah, Kedesh, Hazor, Gilead, and Galilee, all the land of Naphtali. And he transferred them to the Assyrians" [2 Kgs 15:29]. From this it is evident that, with the overthrow of neighboring Samaria, the entire narrative here is directed to the two tribes as an earnest warning. Now Uzziah is the same person as Azariah. He had two names [cf. 2 Kgs 15:1].221 And we know from the kings named in the heading that Isaiah, Hosea, Joel, and Amos prophesied simultaneously; but the beginning of the word of the Lord was with Hosea, son of Beeri [cf. Hos 1:2]. Now Amoz, father of Isaiah, is not, as the majority assert, the third of the twelve prophets, but another man, and the names are written with different letters in Hebrew. Amoz has aleph and sade as its first and last letters; Amos has ain and samech. The former is interpreted by some as "courage" or "strength"; the latter as "hardened" or "burdensome people." We have spoken more fully about this in [our commentary on] Amos.222
But even when the heading runs, "The vision that Isaiah—or Obadiah—saw," not only this prophet, but others also do not relate what they saw, for instance, "I saw the Lord Sabaoth sitting on a throne high and lifted up, and there were two seraphim around him" [Isa 6:1–2].223
Rather, they narrate the things that are said, that is, "Hear, O heaven and give ear, O earth" [Isa
1:2]; and, "Thus says the Lord God to Idumea: 'I have heard a report from the Lord and he has sent an ambassador to the nations' " [Obad 1:1]. For prophets were first called seers [cf. 1 Sam
9:9; Isa 30:10; 32:3; 33:7],224 who were able to say, "Our eyes are always to the Lord" [Ps 123:2; cf. Ps 25:15] and, "To you who dwell in heaven, I have lifted up my eyes" [Ps 123:1]. This is also
221 Cf. Jerome,
Com in Mt
1.8–
; Bas Is 10 (136BC).
222 Jerome, Am.
223 Cf. Bas Is 9 (132C–33B).
224 Cf. ibid., 8 (132AB).
why the Savior bids the apostles, "Lift up your eyes and see the fields (regiones), that they are already white for harvesting" [John 4:35]. Also the bride in the Song of Songs had these eyes of the heart [cf. Eph 1:18]; the bridegroom says to her, "You have wounded my heart, my sisterbride, with one of your eyes" [Song 4:9]. Also, in the Gospel we read, "Your eye is the lamp of your body" [Matt 6:22]. In the Old Testament (instrumento)225 also it is said that the people
"saw" the voice of God [cf. Exod 20:18].226 Therefore, let the delusions of Montanus be silent.
He thinks that the prophets spoke of things to come in a state of ecstasy and insanity of heart, for they were not able to see what they did not know.
I am aware that some interpret Judah and Jerusalem of heavenly things and Isaiah as speaking under the persona of the Lord and Savior, because he predicts the captivity of that province into our land, and the subsequent return and ascent to the holy mountain in the last days. Such interpretations we judge to be opposed to the Christian faith.227 We reject them all, and, following the truth of history, we interpret spiritually in such a way that whatever they dream up about the heavenly Jerusalem, we refer to the church of Christ and to those who either depart [from Jerusalem] on account of sins or return to their former position through penance. We also think that it is to this that the words of the same prophet apply: "Shine, shine,
O Jerusalem: for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you" [Isa 60:1–2]; and, In you the Lord will appear and his glory will be shown over you, and kings will walk in your light, and nations in your splendor, when all his sons will come from afar, and his daughters will be carried on [men's] shoulders, and the camels of Midian and Gepha will cover her, bearing gold and frankincense; and the flocks of Cedar will be gathered in Jerusalem and the rams of Nabaioth will hasten and there will be pleasing sacrifices on the altar of the Lord. [Isa 60:4, 6, 7] And what is recorded in the heading, that he prophesied under Uzziah, Joatham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, must not be understood jumbled together, as in the case of other prophets, so that we do not know what was said in particular under each king. But until the end of the book, he reports and writes down what the Lord revealed to him separately under Uzziah, Joatham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. We should know too that Hezekiah began to reign in Jerusalem in the twelfth year of Romulus, who founded the city in Italy that bears his name. 228
Hence it is shown clearly how much older our histories are than those of the other nations.
Now Isaiah means "saved of the Lord"; Judea means "confession"; Jerusalem means "vision
225 Instrumentum, as opposed to testamentum, seems to be Jerome' preferred word to describe the Old and New "estaments."Instrumentum is found frequently in the Latin Origen and in Tertullian. The basic meaning of the term is instrument, implement, or tool; but in legal language it can mean document, deed, record, and instrument. The term so impressed Erasmus of Rotterdam that under Jerome' influence, he entitled his first published edition of the Greek
New Testament Novum Instrumentum (Basel, 1516).
226 Cf. Bas Is 9 (132C).
227 This passage is directed against chiliasm or millennialism.
228 I.e., Rome in 753 BC.
of peace"; Uzziah means "courage of the Lord"; Joatham means "perfection of the Lord"; Ahaz means "the one who holds fast," or "robust"; Hezekiah means "command of the Lord."
Therefore, the one who is "saved" (Isaiah) under the "Lord's command" (Hezekiah) and is a son of Amoz, that is, "strong" and "robust" (Ahaz), perceives the "vision" of "confession" (Judea) spiritually, while he mourns over his sins of old, and [he perceives the vision] of "peace"
(Jerusalem), when after repentance he moves toward the light, and rests in eternal peace
(Jerusalem). His time passes entirely under the "courage of the Lord" (Uzziah) and under his
"perfection" (Joatham) and "strength" (Ahaz). And when he has done all things, he will speak those words recorded in the Gospel:229 "We are useless slaves; for we have done what we were obligated to do" [Luke 17:10].
3. (1:2a) Hear, O heaven, and give ear, O earth, for the Lord has spoken.
Above in the heading it was shown who the prophet is, whose son he is, what he saw and when against Judah and Jerusalem, or concerning Judah and Jerusalem. Now he summons heaven and earth to hear. By heaven he is signifying the higher and angelic powers; by earth the race of mortals.330 He does this by means of metonymy,331 that is, from the things that contain
[are understood] the things that are contained. Or, since through Moses the Lord had called heaven and earth as witnesses,332 when he gave his law to the people of Israel and had said,
"Attend, O heaven, and I will speak; let the earth hear the words of my mouth" [Deut 32:1]; therefore, after the people transgressed, he once again calls those very same things to testify, in order that all the elements would recognize that God has been justly incited to wrath in taking vengeance for his own commandments.
For heaven, the Hebrew word samaim expresses "heavens" in the plural number; especially since the verb hear, that is, semu, is plural, not singular. But some want heavens to be said in the plural, but understood in the singular in accordance with the way we call individual cities
Thebes and Athens.333 And it is a characteristic of Hebrew idiom that all words that end in the syllable –im are masculine plural, such as cherubim and seraphim, and those that end in –oth are feminine plural, such as Sabaoth.
And this should be noted, that to the heavens it is said: Hear; to the earth, Give ear. For the things that are on high have a greater understanding; those that are lower are entangled in earthly meanings. This is also why the Savior says in the Gospel, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear" [Matt 11:15]. Therefore, if someone is heaven and has citizenship in the heavens [cf.
Phil 3:20], let him hear the things that are said mystically. If someone is earthly, let him follow the simple history.
The following too should be noticed,334 that he did not say, Hear, O heaven, and give ear, O
229 Evangelicum. Cf. Tertullian, Adv Marc 39; Prudentius,
Apoth
330 Cf. Eus Is 5 (4, 32–3); Bas Is 12 (137C).
331 Metonymy is a figure of speech consisting of the use of the name of one thing for that of another of which it is an attribute, or with which it is associated (as in "ands belonging to the crown".
332 Cf. Bas Is 11 (137A).
333 These two city names are plural in form.
334 Cf. Eus Is 5 (4, 38–0).
earth, to what the Lord will say to you, but to what he has said to me. Consequently, what I have heard in the Spirit, I will relate to you, who do not deserve to hear the very one who speaks.
Certain ones335 think that the heaven and earth are being summoned to hear as if they are animate beings (animantia), in accordance with what is said in another passage about the earth:
"He who looks upon the earth and makes it tremble" [Ps 104:32]. Though this may be within God's power, it does not belong to earthly understanding.
4. (1:2b) I have begotten and raised up sons, but they have despised me. In place of this
Symmachus and Theodotion rendered it thus: "I have nourished and raised up sons."
Beginning with this passage, the prophet describes what the Lord has said, because he turned the people of Israel into sons, whom he had created as slaves by common law, and he said, "Israel is my firstborn son" [Exod 4:22]. After all, even the Lord in the Gospel promises to the apostles that if they do his will, he will no longer call them slaves, but friends [cf. John
15:14–15]. But if Israel becomes haughty upon hearing that they are the firstborn, they should understand that the reason they are called first born is because the second [born] sons are signified by the Gentiles. For Israel is not called an "only begotten" [son], which would exclude other brothers, but a firstborn to show that others will follow.
And yet, according to the mysteries of the Scriptures, the firstborn do not receive the inheritance, but the second. Cain was a firstborn [cf. Gen 4:1], but Abel's gifts pleased God [cf.
Gen 4:4]. Ishmael was a firstborn [cf. Gen 16:15], but Isaac received the inheritance [cf. Gen
17:21; 21:10–12]. Esau was a firstborn, but Jacob the supplanter snatched the father's blessing
[cf. Gen 27].336 Reuben was a firstborn [cf. Gen 29:32], and yet the blessing of Christ's seed is transferred to Judah [cf. Gen 49:10]. And so, they were first according to the rank of their calling and were called the head; but we, the second, who were called the tail [cf. Deut 28:44], were turned into the head and are called sons of God [cf. Deut 28:13]. For "as many as received him, he gave them the power to become sons of God" [John 1:12]. We have not received "a spirit of slavery unto fear, but the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry, 'Abba, Father' " [Rom 8:15]; for "perfect love casts out fear" [1 John 4:18].
But it is better to read with the Hebrew, "I have nourished sons" rather than "I have begotten." Otherwise it may appear to be contrary to that statement that we read in the Epistle of John: "Everyone who is born of God does not sin" [1 John 3:9]. How, then, if they have been born of God, were they able to sin, when no one who has been born of God can sin?
5. (1:3) The ox knows his owner and the donkey his master's stall. Israel does not know, my people have not understood. In place of this, the Septuagint alone has translated, "But Israel does not know me and the people have not understood me." Thus according to the other
[versions] and the Hebrew, Israel does not know its owner and the people have not understood its master's stall.
And the meaning is clear: I adopted them as sons and made them a peculiar people [cf. Deut
7:6; Exod 19:5–6] and my portion and the line of my inheritance [cf. Deut 32:8–9], and I called them firstborn [cf. Exod 4:22]. But they have not even done what wild animals do when they are
335 Cf. ibid., 5 (4, 33–5).
336 Cf. Jerome,
Ep.
69.6
tamed by the favors of their masters and understand the one who shepherds and feeds them.
He did not compare them to dogs, which are a most clever kind of animal and for a little food defend their masters' dwelling; but to an ox and donkey of duller understanding. The former drags a wagon and turns very hard clumps of earth with a plow; the latter carries loads and lightens the labor of men by walking. Hence they are called beasts of burden, because they help men.
This passage can be understood of God the Father, but it refers more to the Son, because the people of Israel neither recognized nor received him [cf. John 1:11] whose day Abraham saw and rejoiced over [cf. John 8:56]; and on whose advent the prayers of all the prophets depended
[cf. Matt 13:17]. And in the Gospel he says to Jerusalem, "How often have I wanted to gather your sons, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling!" [Matt 23:37].
We ask: Where have we read of both ox (bovem) and donkey together?337 It is written in Deuteronomy, "You will not plow with an ox (vitulo)338 and a donkey together" [Deut 22:10]; and in this same Book of Isaiah, "Blessed is the one who sows upon all the water where the ox and donkey tread" [Isa 32:20]. Ebion339 plows with an ox and donkey together, which in view of the lowliness of his understanding is worthy of the poverty of his name. He receives the gospel in such a way that he does not leave behind the ceremonies of Jewish superstitions, which came before as a shadow and image [cf. Heb 8:5; 10:1; Col 2:17]. But blessed is the one who sows with the utterances of the Scriptures, both of the Old and New Testament (instrumenti), and treads upon the water of the letter that kills [cf. 2 Cor 3:6], that he may reap the fruit of the Spirit who gives life [cf. Gal 6:8; Ps 126:5–6].
According to anagogy the ox refers to Israel, who bore the yoke of the law and is a clean animal. The donkey, weighed down with the burden of sins, is understood as the people of the Gentiles to whom the Lord said, "Come to me all you who labor and are burdened, and I will refresh you" [Matt 11:28].440 Therefore, although the Pharisees and scribes were not believers, who had the key of the law and knowledge [cf. Luke 11:52] and were truly called Israel [cf. Rom
9:4], that is, "mind seeing God," a part of the Jewish people did believe. Thus in one day three thousand believed at once [cf. Acts 2:41] and on another day five thousand [cf. Acts 4:4]. While the wise men of the age also did not accept the cross of Christ [cf. 1 Cor 1:18–20], an ignorant
337 Cf. Bas Is 14 (141BC).
338 Calf, young bull.
339 Jerome appears to be following the mistaken late tradition of a historical Ebion. According to Irenaeus,
Adv Haer
1.26.2
, the Ebionites were a Judaizing heresy that used only Matthew'
Gospel, repudiated Paul as an apostate from the Law, rejected the virgin birth of Christ, and insisted that the Law of Moses (including circumcision) had to be kept in order to achieve salvation. See also Eusebius,
HE 3.27
. They probably were named from the Hebrew word for "oor"(ebion), because of their physical poverty or their attachment to the Beatitude, "lessed are the poor"(though Eusebius says that their name arose "ecause of the poor and mean opinions they held about Christ" cf. HE 3.27.6
). Later heresiologists (Tertullian,
De praescriptione
; Epiphanius, Haer. 30.17; Rufinus' Origen,
ComRom
3.11.2
; Princ 4.3.8) adopted the apparently mistaken view that the sect was founded by a heretic named Ebion.
440 Cf. Origen,
Hom
13.7 on Luke
throng of nations received it. This is why the Apostle said, "Consider your calling, brethren; that not many [were] wise according to the flesh, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth; but God chose what is foolish in the world to confound the wise; and God chose what is weak in the world to confound the strong" [1 Cor 1:26–27]. But this is a forced interpretation; the interpretation given higher up is true.
6. (1:4) Woe to the sinful nation, a people weighed down with iniquity, bad seed, sons of wickedness; they have forsaken the Lord, they have blasphemed the Holy One of Israel, they have been estranged backward. The Septuagint translators do not have what I have recorded at the end: They have been estranged backward; and in place of, They have blasphemed, it is written in the Septuagint, "They have provoked to anger"; and for bad seed it has "wicked seed." The others followed the Hebrew word merehim and translated "of the wicked," so that it would not so much be the fault of the seed as the fault of the evil of those who of their own will have forsaken the Lord. Otherwise it might be thought that the nature of good and evil is diverse.
At the beginning of the book there is a heading that mentions the person, occasion, and time [cf. Isa 1:1]. In the second place he makes the hearers attentive [cf. Isa 1:2–3]; third, he explains what the Lord said; fourth, it is as if he is rebuking the sinful nation for going astray and the people who are "full of," or weighed down with, iniquity. It is not that there is one "nation" and another "people," as some think,441 but Israel itself is called both nation and people, and sons of wickedness, or "iniquitous," as those who were first called sons of the Lord through kindness, but afterward, through their own fault, were called sons of iniquity. Or, as the rest [of the translators] said with one voice, "corrupt sons," that is διαφθειροντες, who by their own fault ruined the good of nature.
And what is added, They have blasphemed the Holy One of Israel, is said properly concerning the Jews who shout out, "We have no king but Caesar" [John 19:15]; and, "Is this not the son of the carpenter?" [Matt 13:55] and, "He has a demon and is a Samaritan" [John
8:48]. Since then they forsook Christ and blasphemed the Holy One of Israel, therefore they have been estranged backward, so that those who were called the portion [cf. Deut 32:9] and sons of God [cf. Exod
4:22
] were later told, "Estranged sons have deceived me" [Ps 18:45]. The Savior gave the command that when we have taken hold of the plow, we should not look behind our backs, lest we become like the wife of Lot [cf. Gen 19:26; Luke 9:62; 17:32]. This is why the Apostle stretches himself forth to what is ahead, forgetting the things behind [cf. Phil 3:13].
Now what the Septuagint has said, "A people full of sins," shows that there was no form of sins that did not exist in the people of Israel. But if we read it according to the Hebrew, A people weighed down by iniquity, we should recall the following testimony, that iniquity sits upon a talent of lead [cf. Zech 5:7–8], and under the persona of a sinner it is said in the psalm, "My iniquities have risen above my head. Like a heavy burden they have weighed down upon me"
[Ps 38:4]. We pass over what is clear in order to spend time in the more obscure things and in those things that require an explanation.
7. (1:5a) For what shall I strike you anymore, you who increase transgression?
441 Cf. Bas Is 16 (141CD).
From this testimony we learn that the reason the Lord strikes those who transgress442 is in order to chastise those who have been struck, and it is not so much a punishment as a correction. And the meaning is, I am not finding the medicine that I can apply to your blows; all your members are full of wounds; I detect no part of the body that has not been struck before.
Or possibly, as follows: I find no blows by which I will break your hardness. For however great are your pains, so much the more does your impiety and injustice grow; or, as Theodotion has rendered it, "turning away," so that you withdraw and turn away from the Lord. This is the sort of thing Jeremiah speaks of: "Without reason have I struck your sons; you did not receive discipline" [Jer 2:30]. This is why he speaks in anger through Hosea: "And I will not visit upon your daughters when they commit fornication; nor upon your young women when they commit adultery" [Hos 4:14]. And through Ezekiel: "My jealousy will withdraw from you; and I will be angry with you no more" [Ezek 16:42]. We also read of this in the Psalms: "And there is no firmness in their affliction; and they are not in the troubles of men, nor will they be scourged with men" [Ps 73:5].
8. (1:5b) The whole head is sick, and the whole heart is sad. Sometimes joy of spirit mitigates physical suffering; but if sickness of spirit is added to sickness of body, the infirmity is doubled. And among the senses and among all the members of the body, the head takes precedence, in which are sight, smell, hearing, and taste.443 When the head is in pain, then all the members are sick. And metaphorically he shows that from the leaders down to the last common person,444 from the teachers down to the ignorant crowd, there is soundness in no one, but all consent to impiety with equal passion.
9. (1:6a–b) From the sole of the foot unto the top of the head, there is no soundness therein: wound and bruise and swelling sore.
He preserves the metaphor he had begun: from the feet to the top of the head, that is, from top to bottom, inside and out, they are pierced throughout their whole body. He says, wound and bruise and swelling sore. For either the bodies are black and blue from welts, or they are swollen from blows, or they have gaping wounds.
We ask: To what period of time should these things be applied?445 After the Babylonian captivity under Zerubbabel, Ezra, and Nehemiah, Israel returned to Judea and received back its ancient condition. And under different rulers and kings the temple was constructed quite splendidly to such an extent that Israel earned the friendship even of foreign nations, of the Spartans [cf. 1 Macc 12–15; 2 Macc 5:9], Athenians [cf. 2 Macc 9:15], and Romans [cf. 1 Macc
8:1; 14:24]. Therefore, what he says, There is no soundness therein, refers to the last captivity when there is no remedy up to the present time, after Titus,446 Vespasian,447 and the final
442 Cf. ibid., 18 (145BC) 443 Cf. Eus Is 11 (6, 19).
444 Cf. ibid. (6, 20).
445 Cf. ibid. (6, 11–8).
446 Titus (Roman emperor, 79–1) was the eldest son of Emperor Vespasian, who was active in the military before his accession. His service culminated in the capture of Jerusalem in 70. This is commemorated in the Arch of Titus in the forum at Rome.
overthrow of Jerusalem under Aelius Hadrian.448 And what is written is fulfilled: "All have turned aside; together they have become worthless. There is no one who does good, not even one" [Ps
53:3; Rom 3:12]. And concerning what is added, There is no soundness therein, understand either "in the people," or "in the body," or "in the head."
10. (1:6c) They are not bound up, nor treated with medicine, nor soothed with oil. The Septuagint translated this as, "It is not possible to apply a plaster, nor oil nor bandages."
Until the present day the "wound and bruise and swelling sore" of the people of Israel is not bound up with small bandages, nor treated with medicine. Aquila has translated this μοτωσιν, that is, "linen strips," which are applied to wounds in order to dry the blood and extract the pus.
Nor soothed with oil, to soften their hardness with the tears of repentance. For "bandages," by which wounds were never bound in Israel, the Septuagint translated "plaster."
Therefore Israel lies there pierced through and cut to pieces,449 because they killed the physician who had come to treat the house of Israel. This is also why in Jeremiah, angels say tropologically under the persona of Babylon, "We have treated Babylon and she was not healed" [Jer 51:9], namely, the city of confusion and vices. And in the Gospel, we read of one going down from Jerusalem to Jericho who was wounded by thieves and treated by a Samaritan, and after the severity that was poured into his wounds in the wine, there came the soothing oil [cf. Luke 10:30–34]. From that passage, then, where he had said above, "For what shall I strike you"; and "the whole head is sick" [Isa 1:5] up to what is added, "They are not treated with medicine, nor soothed with oil"; the metaphorical comparison is preserved whereby the description of incurable wounds expresses the eternal captivity of the Jews.
11. (1:7) Your land is desolate, your cities are burnt with fire, strangers devour your country before your face, and it will be desolate as when wasted by enemies.
These things were partially fulfilled under the Babylonians,550 when the temple was burned,
Jerusalem was overthrown, the Samaritans possessed the area of the ten tribes, and the promised land was so reduced to desolation that it was laid waste by lions [cf. 2 Kgs 17:26]. But it describes more fully and perfectly what would happen during the Roman captivity, when the Roman army devastated all of Judea, the cities were burned and strangers now devour their region, and the devastation of the Jews will continue until the end of the world.551
But we can also understand these things tropologically about sinners who have fallen away from their former sanctity, after they are handed over to the opposing powers, because all their
447 Vespasian (Roman emperor, 69–9) was the first of the Flavian emperors. He had been sent by Nero to put down the Jewish revolt, but left his son Titus to carry on in Judea. After Nero' murder, he was hailed as emperor by the armies he commanded.
448 Publius Aelius Hadrianus (Roman emperor 117–8) came from a distinguished Roman family in Spain. Under his rule, the Bar Kochba revolt (132–36) was suppressed, resulting in the destruction of the city of Jerusalem.
449 Cf. Eus Is 11 (6, 21–5).
550 Cf. Bas Is 19 (149A–).
551 It is worth noting that Jerome' anti-Israel prophecy is contradicted not only by St. Paul (cf.
Rom 11:26) but by history itself, now that Israel, since 1948, has been officially reinstated in the land of Palestine.
goods go to the desert, and the Lord does not remember their former justice [cf. Ezek 3:20], and everything is burned by the fire of the devil, and they become food for wild beasts. It is also written of this in another passage, "Do not hand over to wild beasts the soul that gives praise to you" [Ps 74:19].
12. (1:8) The daughter of Zion will be left as a shade-giving shelter in a vineyard, and as a hut in a cucumber patch.
That all Israel is called a vineyard,552 the prophet attests in what follows when he says, "For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel; and the man of Judah, his new and beloved plant" [Isa 5:7]. And in the psalm, "You have transferred the vineyard from Egypt; you have expelled the nations and planted it" [Ps 80:8]. As long as this vineyard produced a very abundant harvest, it had God as its guardian, of whom it is written, "He who guards Israel will neither slumber nor sleep" [Ps 121:4]. But after all those passing along the way gathered its grapes, and a wild boar from the forest devastated it [cf. Ps 80:12–13], the Lord abandoned his own temple and, rising up in anger, says, "Arise, let us go from here" [John 14:31]; and, "Your house will be left to you desolate" [Matt 23:38]; and through Jeremiah, "I have left my house; I have sent away my inheritance. My inheritance has become to me like a lion in the forest. It has uttered its voice concerning me, therefore I hated it" [Jer 12:7–8]. Now the comparison of the devastation of the temple and of Jerusalem has been taken from farmers who, as long as the vineyard is full of grapes, station guards at the shade-giving shelters. In the cucumber patch too, which the Septuagint calls a "guard of fruit trees," small huts are made on account of the sun's heat in order to deflect the rays. And from there they drive away from the growing crop the men or little beasts that are accustomed to lie in wait for it. But when crops of that sort have been removed, since the guardian has departed, because he has nothing more to guard, the dry shade-giving shelters of shrubs and the huts remain. Therefore, the omnipotent God has also abandoned the temple and caused the city to be deserted. There is no need to prove this with words, especially for us who see Zion deserted and Jerusalem overthrown, and the temple torn down to the ground.
But the fact that he calls Zion a daughter displays the tender feeling of a most compassionate parent. It is not surprising if Zion is called a daughter, since even Babylon is very frequently called daughter [cf. Isa 47:1, 5]. For we are all sons of God by nature [cf. Eph 2:3], though we become foreigners by our vice.
Anagogically, our soul can be called God's vineyard and a paradise of fruits. If the mind, that is, the νους, is in charge, it has God as the guardian of the mind; but if vices prey upon us like certain wild beasts, we will be forsaken by God our guardian and our whole being will be reduced to desolation.
13 (1:9) Unless the Lord of hosts had left us seed, we would have become as Sodom, and we would have been like Gomorrah.
The Apostle Paul discusses this passage quite fully in Romans, writing, "I say then: Has God rejected his own people? By no means; for even I am an Israelite, from the seed of Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin. God did not reject his people whom he foreknew" [Rom 11:1–2].
And after a little bit, "So then, even at this time a remnant has been saved according to the 552 Cf. Eus Is 12 (6, 35–7), 13 (7, 5–); Bas Is 20–1 (152C–53C).
election of grace" [Rom 11:5]. From this it is shown that the things higher up that the prophetic word threatened against Jerusalem and Judah are not to be referred to the time of the captivity of Babylon, but to the final [captivity] of the Romans, when a remnant of the Jewish people were saved in the apostles, and in one day three thousand [cf. Acts 2:41] and five thousand [cf.
Acts 4:4] believed, and the gospel was sown throughout the entire world.
For the Lord of hosts, which is our Latin translation, following Aquila, the Hebrew reads,
"Lord Sabaoth," which the Septuagint translators render in two ways, depending on the nature of the passages: either "the Lord of powers,"553 or "the Lord omnipotent." And one should ask whether it is being said about the Father or the Son. There is no doubt that in the twenty-third
Psalm it reads, "Lift up your gates, O rulers, and you are lifted up, O eternal gates, and the king of glory will enter! Who is this king of glory? The Lord Sabaoth," that is, the Lord of powers, "he is the king of glory" [Ps 24:7–8, 10]. This should be referred to Christ, who ascended to heaven as a victor after the triumph of the passion. And in another place it says about the Lord that he is the king of glory: "For if they had known, they never would have crucified the Lord of glory"
[1 Cor 2:8]. Therefore, not only according to the Apocalypse of John [cf. Rev 1:8; 4:8] and the Apostle Paul, but also in the Old Testament Christ is named as Lord Sabaoth, that is, omnipotent. For if all things of the Father are the Son's, and he himself says in the Gospel, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me" [Matt 28:18] and "All that is yours is mine, and I am glorified in them" [John 17:10]; why should the title of omnipotence not also belong to Christ, so that just as he is God of God and Lord of Lords [cf. Rev 17:14; 19:16], he would also be the omnipotent Son of the omnipotent One?
14. (1:10) Hear the word of the Lord, rulers of Sodom; give ear to the law of our God, people of Gomorrah.
Since a remnant of the people of Israel has been saved through the apostles [cf. Rom 11:5], the prophetic discourse turns to the scribes and Pharisees and to the people who cry out in response, "Crucify him, crucify him" [John 19:6].554 And it calls them rulers of Sodom and people of Gomorrah in accordance with what we read in what follows: "They have proclaimed and shown their iniquity like Sodom. Woe to their souls, for they have devised an evil counsel against themselves, saying: 'Let us tie up the just man, since he is useless to us' " [Isa 3:9 10].555
For this reason, then, they are called rulers of Sodom and people of Gomorrah, because they have devised an evil counsel and tied up the just man and said, "We have no king but Caesar"
[John 19:15]. And again, "We know that God spoke to Moses; but this man, we do not know who he is" [John 9:29]. And likewise they boast in the Gospel, "We are Abraham's seed; and we have never been enslaved to anyone" [John 8:33].556 They hear from the Lord and Savior, "If you were sons of Abraham, surely you would do the works of Abraham" [John 8:39]; and again, "You were born of your father the devil, and you want to do the works of your father" [John 8:44].
Ezekiel too says something like this to Jerusalem: "Your father was an Amorite and your mother was a Hittite" [Ezek 16:3, 45].
553 Or "irtues."
554 Bas Is 23 (161C).
555 Cf. Eus Is 15 (8, 2–).
556 Cf. ibid. (8, 6–).
The Hebrews say557 that Isaiah was killed for two reasons, because he called them rulers of Sodom and people of Gomorrah, and because he dared to say, "I saw the Lord Sabaoth sitting on a throne, high and lifted up" [Isa 6:1], though the Lord had said to Moses, "You cannot see my face" [Exod 33:20]. They fail to consider that the seraphim covered the face and feet of God
[cf. Isa 6:2], or his own [feet], since the Hebrew is ambiguous, and Isaiah writes that he saw only the middle part of him. Therefore, a human being is not able to see God's face. Angels, however, even those of the least ones in the church, always see the face of God [cf. Matt 18:10]. And,
"Now we see in a mirror enigmatically, but then face to face" [1 Cor 13:12]. This refers to the time when we will have advanced from [being] human to angels and are able to say with the Apostle, "But we all with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, as if by the Spirit of the Lord" [2 Cor 3:18]. I grant that no creature may see God's face according to the unique quality of its own nature, and at that time it will be perceived with the mind, when the invisible is believed.558
15. (1:11) To what purpose [do you offer] me the multitude of your victims? says the Lord. I am full. I have not willed burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fatlings and blood of calves and lambs and goats. In place of I have not willed, the Septuagint translated, "I do not will": the present tense instead of the past. Moreover, according to the Hebrew, God shows that he never willed the sacrifices of the Jews, for we read in the forty-ninth Psalm as well,
I will not take calves out of your house, nor goats out of your flocks, for all the beasts of the forests are mine: the cattle on the mountains, and the oxen. I know all the fowls of the sky and with me is the beauty of the field. If I should be hungry, I would not tell you; for the world is mine, and its fullness. Shall I eat the flesh of bulls, or shall I drink the blood of goats? [Ps 50:9–13] And when he had repudiated the ceremonies of the old law, he passes over to the purity of the gospel, and he shows what he desires in place of those things: "Offer to God a sacrifice of praise and pay your vows to the Most High. And call upon me on the day of affliction; and I will rescue you and you will honor me" [Ps 50:14–15]. Therefore, the entire content of this chapter, up to that place where he says, "Judge for the fatherless, defend the widow, and come and let us dispute, says the Lord" [Isa 1:17–18] repudiates the sacrifices of victims [cf. 1 Sam 15:22] and 557 The allusion is to Martyrium Esaiae (Ascensio Esaiae, 5), which Jerome has probably derived from Origen (CommMt 13:57 [GCS 40, 24]; EpAfr
9 [PL 11:65]). See The Martydom and Ascension of Isaiah, in The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, ed. J. Charlesworth (Garden City:
Doubleday, 1983–5), 2:143–6 (149). Cf. Jerome,
Ep.
18.13
, and Jerome' translation of Origen, Hom 1.5 in Esaiam (English translation appended to this volume).
558 Apparently, Augustine interpreted this passage in Jerome to mean that Jerome opposes the view that the vision of God is a matter of the bodily eyes. Cf. Augustine,
Ep.
148.2.7–
(PL 33:625). J. P. O'onnell, The Eschatology of St. Jerome, Dissertationes ad Lauream 16, Pontificia
Facultas Theologica Seminarii Sanctae Mariae ad Lacum (Mundelein, IL, 1948), 105–, counters that Jerome is not speaking of the heavenly vision in this context. His words, "hen the invisible is believed,"do not apply to the vision of God in heaven, since there is no "elieving"when we are in heaven.
teaches that the obedience of the gospel [cf. Rom 1:5] is beyond sacrifice [cf. Rom 12:1].
And what he added, I am full, should be understood in this sense: I am in need of nothing;
"The earth is the Lord's and its fullness" [Ps 24:1]. This is also why "we have all received from his fullness" [John 1:16].559 This can also be understood about those who do not practice God's commands and believe that they can buy God off by means of gifts and services [cf. Exod 28:38], or who offer on the altar and to the poor things that have been acquired through theft and avarice [cf. Mal 1:13].
16. (1:12) For who sought these things from your hands? Let the Ebionites listen, who think that after the passion of Christ the abolished law needs to be kept. Let the colleagues of the Ebionites listen, who decree that these things must be retained by the Jews only and [by those] from the stock of the Israelite race.660 Sacrifices, therefore, and the immolation of victims have not been requested by God as a matter of principle, but in order that they not be made to idols, and in order for us to make a transition from fleshly victims to spiritual sacrifices [cf. Rom 12:1–
2; 1 Pet 2:5], as it were through a type and image. Now by saying that he did not ask for sacrifices, he shows that "the law is spiritual" [Rom 7:14], and everything that the Jews do carnally is fulfilled by us spiritually.
17. (1:12–13a) You shall not appoint to trample my court.
Observe that after the Babylonian devastation, the temple would be rebuilt by Zerubbabel
[cf. Ezra 5:2], and sacrifices would be offered in the temple over a long series of years. Therefore he is pointing to the final destruction of the temple under Vespasian and Titus, which will continue until the consummation of the world.661
18. (1:13c) I will not endure your new moons and the Sabbaths and other festivals; your assemblies are wicked.
Every meeting is an abomination to God that does not offer spiritual sacrifices [cf. 1 Pet 2:5] and that does not listen to what is sung in the fiftieth Psalm: "A sacrifice to God is an afflicted spirit; a contrite and humbled heart, God does not despise" [Ps 51:17]. And this is why he goes on to say, "your calends"662 and "your solemnities" [cf. Isa 1:13b], so that he would not name them his own festivals, but theirs who use them badly. And because the Septuagint translators have rendered, "fasting and rest," we can say that that fasting is received by God that does not rest from good works. "My soul hates" [cf. Isa 1:14a]. This is said ανθρωποπαθως
(anthropopathically).663 It is not that God has a soul, but he is speaking with our passions.
19. (1:14b) You have become loathsome (in satietatem) to me; by no means will I forgive your sins. In place of what Aquila has translated as: "I have labored to endure," Symmachus has εκοπωθην ιλασκομενος, which is, "I have failed to show mercy," so as to show that he shows mercy no longer, since it is one thing to kill the servants sent to them, something else to kill the Son [cf. Matt 21:34–39]. We also read this meaning in the prophet Hosea: "Destruction is
559 Cf. Bas Is 25 (168AB, 165C).
660 Cf. Eusebius,
HE 3.27.2
661 Jerome also denies that the Temple of Jerusalem will ever be rebuilt at 9.9 (Isa 29:1) and In Ezek 7.8.
662 Calends are the first day of the month in the Roman calendar.
663 The term refers to the ascription of human feelings to something not human.
your own, O Israel; your help is only in me" [Hos 13:9]. This is understood as follows: you may perish, O Israel, because it is not by your merit, but only by my help that you are saved.
20. (1:15c) Your hands are full of blood.
He shows the reason why God turns away his eyes from them and does not listen to their lengthy prayers [cf. Isa 1:15a–b]: because they shed the blood of the just one, and wicked tenants have killed the heir sent to them [cf. Matt 21:38]. This is why the Savior says to them,
"And you, fill up the measure of your fathers" [Matt 23:32]. For they killed the prophets who had been sent to them; you slaughter the son of the householder. One should use this testimony also against those who, though they have hands full of blood in their daily works, come together day and night to pray.
21. (1:16a) Wash yourselves; be clean.
Instead of the sacrifices named above [cf. Isa 1:11, 13, 14] and burnt offerings and the fat of fatlings and the blood of bulls and goats [cf. Heb 10:4]; instead of incense and new moons, the Sabbath, the feast day and fasts, calends and other solemnities, the religion of the gospel pleases me: that you should be baptized in my blood through the bath of regeneration [cf. Titus
3:5], which alone is able to forgive sins. For unless someone is reborn from water and the spirit, he will not enter into the kingdom of heaven [cf. John 3:5].664 The Lord himself too, when ascending to the Father, says, "Go and teach all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" [Matt 28:19].
22. (1:16a) Take away the evil of your plans from my eyes.
This is what John the Baptist was also saying: "Brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit therefore worthy of repentance" [Matt 3:7–8; Luke 3:7–8].
Consequently, let the one who has attained to the baptism of Christ remove the evil from his own heart and take a rest from perverse behavior [cf. Isa 1:16b], and afterward let him learn to do good [cf. Isa 1:17] in accordance with what is commanded elsewhere: "Turn aside from evil and do good" [Ps 37:27; 1 Pet 3:11].
23. (1:17) Learn to do good.
Virtue, therefore, must be learned; the good of nature alone does not suffice for justice, unless someone is educated in the corresponding disciplines. Jesus son of Sirach also says something like this: "You have desired wisdom; keep the commandments and the Lord will give it to you" [Sir 1:26]. And in what follows Isaiah records the same thing: "No one who fails to learn justice on the earth will do the truth" [Isa 26:10]. Justice, therefore, must be learned, and the thresholds of teachers of wisdom must be worn down [cf. Sir 6:36].
24. (1:17–18a) Seek judgment. Come to the aid of the oppressed. Judge for the fatherless.
Defend the widow. (18) And come and accuse me, says the Lord.
The commands of the gospel succeed the sacrifices of the Jews, and therefore provision is made for orphans and widows. Thus when they are free from care for spouses and their own children, martyrs proceed to war. But when you have done this, he says, accuse me, if I do not pay back the rewards that I have promised. But when he says, Seek judgment, he shows that it is not for everyone to judge correctly, but for those who are prudent. After all, even Solomon in a vision during a dream asked this of the Lord, that he might receive wisdom and judge the 664 Cf. Eus Is 17 (9, 8–).
people justly [1 Kgs 3:5–9].
25. (1:18b–c) If your sins be as scarlet, they will be made as white as snow. And if they be red as crimson, they will be like white wool.
The progression is excellent; for it does not suffice to have said, "Wash yourselves" [Isa
1:16a], without adding, "Be clean" [cf. Isa 1:16a], so that after the bath in water, they have purity of heart. For "blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God" [Matt 5:8]. And when they have purity of heart, they ought to remove evil from their minds [cf. Isa 1:16a], not in the sight of men, but in the sight of God, which nothing can cover. And what he adds, Cease acting perversely [Isa 1:16b], harmonizes with the words of the Gospel: "Behold you have been healed; sin no more, lest something worse happen to you" [John 5:14]. Therefore, by withdrawing from vices, let him learn good, and let him seek judgment, let him come to the aid of the oppressed, let him sustain the orphan and the widow [cf. Isa 1:17]. And if he does this, then sins that at first had been blood-red like scarlet will be forgiven, and the works of gore and blood will be changed in the garment of the Lord, which has been made from the wool of a lamb, which in the Apocalypse those follow who are resplendent with the brightness of virginity
[Rev 14:4].
26. (1:19–20a–b) If you be willing and will listen, you will eat the good things of the land.
(20) But if you will not be willing and listen, or as the Hebrew has, And will provoke me to wrath, the sword will devour you.
He preserves free choice, so that in both directions there is either punishment or reward, not by the predetermined judgment of God, but by the merits of individuals. Now I think that those things are called the good things of the land concerning which we read in the Psalter, "I believe I will see the good things of the Lord in the land of the living" [Ps 27:13]; and, "Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the land" [Matt 5:4].665 Or, at any rate, because it was spoken to the Jews, who were not yet capable of receiving spiritual things [cf. 1 Cor 2:14],666 he promises them the good things of the present world, so that at least when summoned by things of the present, they may do what they have been commanded. And since they were unwilling to listen,667 but on the contrary they provoked the Holy One of Israel to wrath, therefore a sword devoured them, that is, the Roman army destroyed them. And all these things will happen, he says, because the mouth of the Lord has spoken [Isa 1:20c]. Since the sins of men continue, his verdict cannot be altered.
27. (1:21) How has the faithful city that was full of judgment become a harlot? Justice rested in it, but now murderers. The Hebrew word ialin, which the Septuagint translated "slept," means both "rested" and "will rest"; that is, it signifies both the past and the future tense. This is why both Aquila and Theodotion speak as if concerning the future.
But it is astonishing to say by means of the prophetic spirit that the city that was once faithful, or a place of refuge for the faithful, has suddenly become a harlot. This can indeed be understood even of the times of Isaiah; but it refers more fully to the suffering of Christ, when
"all have turned aside, together they have become useless" [cf. Ps 14:3; Rom 3:12]. And 665 Cf. ibid., 18 (10, 8–); Bas Is 45 (205A).
666 Cf. Eus Is 18 (9, 35–0, 1).
667 Cf. ibid. 18 (10, 15–8).
although the Hebrew does not have "Zion," nevertheless the Septuagint added it in order to make the meaning clearer.
Now "Zion" is the mountain on which the city of Jerusalem was founded; after it was captured by David, it was named "city of David" [cf. 2 Sam 5:7, 9].668 I do not doubt that holy men were in it when it had the tabernacle of God and after the temple was built, when Nathan and Gad prophesied; and over the choirs that are described more fully in the Book of Days [cf. 1
Chr 25:1; 26:1], Asaph and Idithun and Eman and the sons of Korah were appointed, in order that religion might gradually make a transition from the sacrifices of victims to the praises of the Lord.
Therefore, the city of the faithful, which was formerly full of judgment, and justice rested in it, now is full of murderers [cf. Acts 7:52], who killed the prophets and the Lord and Savior himself [cf. 1 Thess 2:15]. Now Ezekiel describes fornicating Jerusalem in detail under the name of Oholibah, how she spread her legs to every passerby [cf. Ezek 16:25; 23:11–12]. Oholibah is translated, "My tabernacle [is] in it," which is now being expressed in different words: justice rested in it. In Hebrew justice is written as sedec, which expresses "just one" more than
"justice." Thus we may understand first the Lord who dwelled in it, of whom it is said elsewhere,
"But what has the just one done? The Lord is in his holy temple. The Lord, his throne, is in heaven" [Ps 11:3–4]. Anagogically we can refer all of this to the soul of any holy man in which God's justice first dwelled, if he later commits sin, and instead of having God as the guest in his soul, homicidal demons have taken up residence in it.
28. (1:22a) Your silver has been turned to dross.
He says to the city of Zion, in which justice first rested [cf. Isa 1:21], that her silver, namely, the teaching of the Scriptures, of which we read in the Psalms, "The oracles of the Lord, pure oracles, silver examined by fire, tested on earth, purified seven times" [Ps 12:6], has been turned to dross.669 In Hebrew this is called sigim, that is, the rust of metals, or the offscouring and filth that is boiled off by fire. Thus, because he had named silver, he preserves the metaphor. But this can also be said: that the just and holy men who first lived in the city later turned to the filth of sins.
29. (1:22b) Your merchants mix wine with water. Symmachus translated this as, "Your wine is mixed with water."
And the meaning is that the law of God, pure and sincere, and, so to speak, supported by undiluted truth, has been violated by the traditions of the Pharisees [cf. Matt 15:3–9]. The Lord teaches this quite fully in the gospel, that they had neglected the law of God and are following the commands of men. And every teacher who turns the strictness of the Scriptures into agreeableness (gratiam),770 the strictness through which he is able to chastise his audience, and who speaks in such a way that he does not correct the hearers but delights them, he violates and corrupts the wine of the holy Scriptures by his own meaning. The heretics too corrupt the truth of the gospel by a perverse interpretation, and they are wicked merchants, making water from wine; whereas our Lord in contrary fashion turned water into wine, and a wine of such
668 Cf. ibid. 19 (10, 26–0).
669 Cf. Bas Is 47 (208C).
770 Cf. Eus Is 19 (11, 10–3); Bas Is 48 (209B).
quality that the headwaiter is amazed at it [cf. John 2:1–11]. In this fashion also does the queen of Sheba marvel at Solomon's banquet, praising with her own voice his cupbearers and ministers of wine [cf. 1 Kgs 10:4–8; 2 Chr 9:1–8.].771 Moreover, Ecclesiastes describes the services of wine and of his own banquet with mystical words [cf. Eccl 2:8]. This is why for wine
Aquila translated συμποσιον, that is, "banquet." Among the Greeks this term is named απο του ποτου [from drinking]; among us, more correctly, from socializing.
30. (1:23a) Your rulers are disobedient, companions of thieves. For disobedient, Aquila translated "withdrawing"; Symmachus, "turning aside."
Now he calls the scribes and Pharisees rulers who, by withdrawing from the Lord, or rather, by leaving the path of truth, have walked by a twisted road and have become companions of the betrayer and thief, Judas [cf. John 12:6].772 Indeed we too ought to beware of this, lest by receiving bribes (munera) from men of the world, who collect wealth by means of robbery and by the tears of wretched people, we should be called not so much thieves as companions of thieves; and it would be said to us, "You saw the thief and you ran with him, and you put your portion with adulterers" [Ps 50:18].
31. (1:23b) They all love bribes (munera), they pursue rewards.
In the καταλογω (catalogue) of vices are listed even those who love bribes. He did not say,
"Who receive," for this often happens by necessity,773 but who do not regard people as friends unless they have gotten hold of gifts from them. They do not consider the mouth of friends, but the hands; and they judge them as holy whose wallet they empty out. Ecclesiastes speaks of them, "He who loves money will not be filled by money" [Eccl 5:10].774
They pursue rewards of that sort, in order to praise those from whom they receive something; or at least so as not to give anything to anyone except to the one from whom they think they will receive back.
Symmachus translated rewards as "exchanges" or "acts of vengeance." Accordingly, they too are at fault who requite evil for evil [cf. Rom 12:17], tooth for tooth, eye for eye [cf. Exod 21:24]; and they do not imitate the words of David: "If I have requited with evil those who reward me"
[Ps 7:4],775 and the words of Jeremiah who says of the just man: "He will offer his cheek to the one who strikes him; he will be filled with reproaches" [Lam 3:30].776 Thus he would fulfill the words of the gospel regarding the man to whom it is said, "Whoever strikes you on the cheek, offer him the other as well" [Matt 5:39; Luke 6:29].777
771 H. de Lubac, Medieval Exegesis, trans. M. Sebanc and E. M. Macierowski, 3 vols. (Grand
Rapids: Eerdmans, 1998–009), 3:75 comments on this passage: "ere Saint Jerome applies to the situation created by the preaching of the Gospel what Saint Irenaeus [Adv Haer
1.1.22
] had said of the ancient situation, when the Jews mixed the water of their human traditions with the wine of the divine law."
772 Cf. Eus Is 20 (11, 15).
773 Cf. Bas Is 51 (212BC).
774 Cf. ibid. (213A).
775 Cf. ibid., 52 (213B).
776 Cf. ibid.
777 Cf. ibid.
32. (1:24a) Therefore says the Lord of hosts, the mighty one of Israel. In place of mighty one of Israel, which all have translated in the same way, the Septuagint alone, intending something or other, has recorded, "Woe to the mighty ones of Israel."
We can explain this as follows and say that each of the rulers are chastised, as are the strong, of whom it is written, "The powerful will suffer powerful torments" [Wis 6:6];778 and, "To one to whom more is given, they demand more from him" [Luke 12:48].779 And whenever there is need, let us make use of this testimony against the rulers of the church, who destroy the office by their works.880
33. (1:24b) Alas, I will be consoled over my enemies and I will be revenged of my adversaries. Again in this passage as well, which is not found in the Hebrew, the Septuagint records: "For my fury will not cease against my adversaries."
Now he chastises the scribes and Pharisees, of whom he also says in the Gospel, "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees" [cf. Matt 23:13–29].881 And in another passage, "An adulterous and perverse generation seeks a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet
Jonah" [Matt 12:39]. But the most clement Father bewails the transgressing rulers and he summons his own enemies and addresses his adversaries, that they are perishing because they are unwilling to do penance, because they will not receive the one coming [to] them. For when he was approaching Jerusalem, he wept and said, "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those who have been sent to you, how often I have wanted to gather your sons like a hen gathers her chicks, and you were unwilling!" [Matt 23:37]. Thus God's consolation is over his enemies and adversaries, in order that those who have not perceived his benefits may be corrected by his punishments.
34. (1:25) And I will turn my hand to you and I will boil you until you are pure dross, and I will remove all your alloy. For dross, which was Symmachus's translation, Aquila translated as στεμφυλα, that is "grape skins" (vinacia); Theodotion translated it γιγαρτωδες, that is,
"berry of a grape." The Septuagint alone translated it "unbelieving," or "disobedient," rendering the sense rather than the words.
For since he had said above, "Your silver has been turned to dross" [Isa 1:22], he now preserves the metaphor, that he might turn it upon her, that is, extend his own hand to punish and purge and boil away all the filth and vices of sins, so that, when the alloy has been removed, the pure silver might remain, which cannot happen without fire. In this way he indicates that they will suffer torments.
We also read in Malachi about the Lord, "He will come forth like a refiner's fire and like a fullers' plant, and he will sit refining and cleansing, as silver and gold; and he will cleanse the sons of Levi" [Mal 3:2–3].882 And after they are cleansed, it may be said of them, "And they will offer victims to the Lord in justice" [Mal 3:3]. Ezekiel too says that the whole house of Israel was mingled with bronze, iron, lead, and alloy, and afterward it had to be purified, so that after it
778 Cf. ibid., 54 (216C).
779 Cf. ibid.
880 Cf. ibid. (217A).
881 Cf. Eus Is 21 (11, 28–9).
882 Cf. Bas Is 55 (217D).
was purged, it would know that he is the Lord [cf. Ezek 22:18–22]. Moreover, in the Gospel the same thought is shown by means of a different metaphor: "Whose winnowing shovel is in his hand, and he will purge his threshing floor and cleanse the wheat and will gather the harvest into barns; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire" [Matt 3:12].883
35. (1:26a–b) And I will restore your judges as they were before and your counselors as of old. [He means] in the faithful city of Zion, which later became a harlot [cf. Isa 1:21], and in place of the just one, or justice, murderers dwelled within her [cf. Isa 1:21]. The Lord, therefore, turns his hand and purges her unto purity and removes all her alloy [cf. Isa 1:25] and restores her judges, just as they were from the beginning, and her counselors, as of old. The former judges were Moses and Jesus [Joshua] the son of Nun, and the others from whom even a book of Sacred Scripture received its name. Later, there was David and other just kings. He will restore, therefore, the likeness of judges, either after the Babylonian captivity, as the Jews think it means, Zerubbabel, Ezra, Nehemiah and the other rulers, who presided over the people until
Hyrcanus, whom Herod succeeded in the kingdom;884 or, at any rate, it refers more truly and correctly to the apostles and those who believed through the apostles. They were established as rulers of the churches, just as we said at the beginning of this vision, namely that both the threat and the promise pertain to the time of the Lord's passion and to the faith that founded the church after his passion.
36. (1:26c) After these things you will be called the city of the just [one], a faithful city.
The prophetic discourse associates these things clearly with the church that would believe in the Lord, comprised both of Jews and Gentiles. Now the city of the just [one], that is, of the Lord and Savior, itself will be called just. It was said of it, "A city set on a mountain cannot be hidden" [Matt 5:14]. By calling it faithful too, or the "mother city" according to the Septuagint, it shows that those who would believe in the Lord must also be called by these terms.
37. (1:27) Zion will be redeemed in judgment and they will lead her back in justice.
Not all will be redeemed, nor will all be saved, but a remnant of which it was spoken above
[cf. Isa 1:9].885 But it will be led back in justice when the wicked and the sinners have been obliterated, and those who have abandoned the Lord have been consumed [cf. Isa 1:28]. And when they are saved, those who formerly sacrificed to idols will be confounded, and they will be ashamed in the gardens that they had chosen [cf. Isa 1:29]. But he is indicating places of luxury, sacred groves and clusters of trees.
38. (1:30) For they will be like the terebinth with its leaves falling off; and as a garden, or paradise, without water.
Up to the present day the Jews are a terebinth, or "oak," as Symmachus translated it, when they read the Holy Scriptures. And according to the Gospel, the Lord cursed with eternal withering the fig tree that was parched, on which he sought fruit, when he did not find any [cf.
Matt 21:19]. Moreover, the very leaves and pomp of words have now ceased to exist among them; the well-watered garden too, that is, the knowledge of the Scriptures, or the paradise of various trees, since it is without spiritual grace, does not even produce the vegetables of which 883 Cf. ibid. (220A).
884 Cf. Eus Is 21 (12, 25–8).
885 Cf. ibid., 22 (12, 29–3, 1).
the Apostle speaks: "Let the one who is weak eat vegetables" [Rom 14:2]. And with dried up roots, the entire greenness has been turned to dryness and squalor.
39. (1:31a) And your strength will be as the ashes of tow. Symmachus translated ashes as αποτιναγμα. When tow is combed and has anything dirty, it is cast out. Therefore all the strength and haughtiness of sinners and of the wicked of Israel, who abandoned the Lord and on that account were destroyed, and who sacrificed to idols, and will be ashamed in the gardens which they have chosen [cf. Isa 1:28–29], they will be reduced to the sweepings of tow, which are consumed by an insignificant fire. For it follows, and its work [Isa 1:31b], that is, a little spark will consume [the work] of your strength, or idolatry, in which you went astray.
40. (1:31b) And both will be burned together, that is, both the knowledge of the Jews and all the works that they do; or, both the idol and Jerusalem, where the idol was; and when the Lord burns, no one will be able to extinguish it [cf. Isa 1:31c]. We can understand all these things concerning contrary doctrines too, that both teachers and disciples equally perish and all their works become food for the fire.
41. (2:1) The word which Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.
Both in the first vision, which we have just explained, where the Septuagint translated, "that he saw against Judea and against Jerusalem" [Isa 1:1], it was written in the Hebrew, al Judah
Uhirusalem; and in this [vision], which is the second, it is contained in the Hebrew similarly. I wonder why the Septuagint translators said in the former passage, "Against Judea and Jerusalem," and in this passage, "Concerning Judea and concerning Jerusalem." Perhaps they translated the sense rather than the word, because there a sinful nation is named [cf. Isa 1:4], a people full of sins, a wicked seed, sons of iniquity and rulers of Sodom and people of Gomorrah
[cf. Isa 1:10], and a harlot city [cf. Isa 1:21] and other things of that sort; but here, because favorable things are promised immediately, "And in the last days the mountain of the Lord will be manifest and the house of God on the top of the mountains" [Isa 2:2], perhaps they understood the prophecy not as "against Judea and Jerusalem" but "concerning Judea and Jerusalem." Yet even in that place, after the threat we read of favorable things: "I will restore your judges as they were before and your counselors as of old; after these things you will be called city of the just [one], the faithful city" [Isa 1:26]. And here, after the favorable things, a fierce threat comes. "Behold the sovereign, the Lord of hosts is taking away from Jerusalem and from Judah the valiant and the strong, the whole strength of bread and the whole strength of water" [Isa 3:1], and so on. Therefore according to the Hebrew word, both in that vision [cf. Isa
1:1] and in these words that Isaiah son of Amoz saw, one should understand them "concerning
Judah and Jerusalem"; not "against Judea and Jerusalem," or "on behalf of Judah and Jerusalem," as Symmachus translated, but simply "concerning Judah and Jerusalem," a word that can cover both joyful and sad things.
And this ought to be considered, that in the former passage he sees a "vision"; here [he sees] the Word, which "was in the beginning with God" [cf. John 1:1–2].886 There, while threatening the Jews, he arrives at the salvation of the Gentiles; here, beginning with the salvation of the Gentiles, with Israel having been punished, by inviting both he gathers those who believe into the church of Christ.
886 Cf. ibid., 26 (15, 14–0).
42. (2:2a) And in the last days the mountain of the house of the Lord will be prepared on the top of the mountains.
We also read about the last days in Genesis, when Jacob calls his sons and says: "Come, that I may declare to you what will be in the last days" [Gen 49:1]. Later he will say to Judah, from whose seed Christ was born [cf. Heb 7:14], "A ruler will not fail from Judah, nor a leader from his loins887 until there comes what is stored up for him; and he will be the expectation of the nations" [Gen 49:10]. In these last days there will be a last hour of which the Apostle John speaks: "My little children, it is the last hour" [1 John 2:18], in which the stone cut from the mountain without hands increased into a great mountain and filled the whole earth [cf. Dan
2:35].888 And in Ezekiel, the ruler of Tyre is said to have been wounded by it [cf. Ezek 28:16]. This is the mountain in the house of the Lord for which the prophet sighs when he says, "One thing I asked from the Lord, this I will seek, that I might dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life" [Ps 27:4]. Moreover, Paul writes to Timothy about this [house]: "But if I am delayed, that you may know how you ought to behave in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth" [1 Tim 3:15].889 This house was built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets [cf. Eph 2:20],990 who are themselves mountains, being imitators of Christ [cf. 1 Cor 11:1]. About this house of Jerusalem the psalmist cries out, saying, "Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion, he who dwells in Jerusalem will not be moved forever. The mountains surround her and the Lord surrounds his people" [Ps 125:1]. This is also why Christ founds his church on one of the mountains and says to him, "You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld will not prevail against her" [Matt 16:18].991 The saint says something similar to his own soul that impatiently longs to see the house of God: "Why are you sad, O my soul, and why do you trouble me?" [Ps
42:5]. And again: "I remembered these things and I poured out my soul in me, for I will go to the place of the wondrous tabernacle, up to the house of God with the voice of exultation and the sound of praise of those keeping festival" [Ps 42:4].
The Septuagint translated this as "Conspicuous mountain of the Lord and house of God upon the heads of the mountains." This testimony was recorded also by Micah the prophet in the same words that I have explained in its own passage [cf. Mic 4:1].992
43. (2:2b) And he will be lifted up above the hills.
He who was pointed out and prepared on the heads of the mountains will be lifted up above the hills. The bride speaks of these mountains and hills also in the Song of Songs: "The voice of my kinsman,993 behold here he comes leaping over mountains, bounding over hills; my kinsman is like a gazelle or a young stag on the mountains of Bethel" [Song 2:8–9].
44. (2:2b–3a) And all nations will flow to him, (3) and many people will go.
887 Lit. "highs."
888 Cf. Eus Is 26 (16, 5–).
889 Cf. Bas Is 66 (233B).
990 Cf. ibid.
991 Cf. ibid.
992 Cf. Jerome, In Michaeam ad locum.
993 Fratruelis. Lit. "ather' brother' son."
For all the nations will serve him, to whom it is said, "Ask of me and I will give you the nations as your inheritance, and the ends of the earth as your possession" [Ps 2:8; 72:10–11], that they might "serve him under one yoke," according to Zephaniah, of whom the same prophet testifies, "From the boundaries of the rivers of Ethiopia they will bring sacrifices to you"
[Zeph 3:9–10].994 And in the seventy-first Psalm we read, "The Ethiopians will fall down in his presence" [Ps 72:9]. For "at the name of Jesus every knee will bend, of things in heaven, on earth, and under the earth" [Phil 2:10].
45. (2:3a–c) And they will 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 on his paths."
Nations and peoples, by no means satisfied with their own salvation, will encourage one another and say, Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord and the house of the God of Jacob. We have spoken of these things above, what is the prepared mountain of the Lord, and what is the house of the God of Jacob upon the top of the mountains [cf. Isa 2:2]. But the house of the Lord is called the house of the God of Jacob, so that we might receive the Old Testament
(instrumentum), and not, like Manicheus,995 look for another house apart from the house of the God of Jacob. But when we come into the house of the God of Jacob, then he will teach us his ways, by means of which we may go to him and we will walk on his paths, which others also have worn down. After all, even Jesus went up on a mountain and taught his disciples eight beatitudes [cf. Matt 5:1–12] and the other things that the words of the gospel embrace. First then, the ways of the Lord must be learned, and afterward one must walk on his paths.
46. (2:3d) For a law will go forth from Zion and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
On that account all nations and many people will mutually encourage one another and say,
Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and the other things that follow: For from Zion a law will go forth and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. By no means [will it go forth] from Sinai and from the solitude, and from Mount Horeb, but from Mount Zion, on which Jerusalem is built, and from Jerusalem, in which is the temple and the religion of God. We read that the Lord often taught in the temple [cf. Matt 26:55], and that it was not fitting for a prophet to die outside of Jerusalem [cf. Luke 13:33]; and above, the word and the law are named together. The rulers are commanded to hear the "word," the people to give ear to the "law" [cf. Isa 1:10]. For whoever first does the law, afterward comes to the word of God. Moreover, the church was
994 Cf. Bas Is 68 (237A) 995 Manicheus, or Mani/Manes (215–76) is the founder of the Manichaean heresy. He came from Persia and is reported to have died of torture in prison while chained up by the wrists. The sect he founded threatened the church for many centuries and even claimed the young
Augustine as one of its adherents. The founder desired to blend Christianity, Zoroastrianism, and elements of Buddhism together. He preached an extreme dualism of two independent and absolutely opposed eternal principles, that of good and evil. Like Marcion, he denied that Jesus was prophesied in the OT, and said that the good God was characterized by light, while the material world was inherently dark and corrupt. Manicheus believed that Jesus and other teachers came to release souls of light from prison in material bodies. The Old Testament was the product of the forces of darkness. Manicheus also denied the free choice of the will in salvation.
founded first in Jerusalem, and then churches were planted in the whole world [cf. Acts 8:4].
And the following should be said, that both the law and the word of the Lord are established
[cf. Rom 3:31] in the one who has been in the watchtower and in the vision of peace.996 And it is nice that he did not say that the word and law of the Lord "will be" and "will remain" in Zion and in Jerusalem, but will go forth. Consequently he indicates that from that source all nations have been watered by the teaching of God.
47. (2:4a) And he will judge the nations and will rebuke many peoples.
Therefore judgment is to be exacted even between nations and peoples; not all unbelievers are to be condemned by the same verdict, but in view of the diversity of merits, diverse things will be experienced. But after he will have judged the nations, then he will rebuke many peoples, or, as the Septuagint has translated, "many people." And note the sequence: the nations are judged, because they will become believers. "For he who does not believe has already been judged" [John 3:18]. But "many people," who are understood as Israel, will by no means be judged, but rebuked, because they did not receive the Son of God who was sent to them [cf. John 1:11].
48. (2:4b) And they will melt down their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks.
The whole pursuit of war will be turned to peace, and in place of discord there will be concord throughout the whole world. Swords will be changed into plowshares and lances into pruning hooks. Thus when their fury for waging war has been set aside, they may serve farming and cut very abundant harvests with pruning hooks. And indeed this can be understood even spiritually, when all the hardness of our heart is broken up by the plowshare of Christ and the thorns of the vices are eradicated, so that the sowing of the word of God may increase into a crop [cf. Matt 13:23]. And afterward we may eat the labors of our hands [cf. Ps 128:2] when
"those who come will come in exultation carrying their own sheaves" [Ps 126:6].
49. (2:4c–d) Nation will not raise a sword against nation, neither will they be exercised any more to war.
Let us turn the pages of the ancient histories997 and we will find that up to the twenty-eighth year of Caesar Augustus, in whose forty-first year Christ was born in Judea, there was discord in all the lands of the world. Every single nation burned with a zeal for waging war against neighboring nations, so that they killed and were killed. But when the Lord and Savior was born, the first enrollment (descriptio) was conducted in the lands of the world under the governorship of Quirinius in Syria [cf. Luke 2:1–2], and the peace of the Roman Empire was prepared for the teaching of the gospel. Then all wars ceased, and scarcely in towns and villages was there training for battles, but for the cultivation of fields. The zeal for waging war was delegated only to soldiers and Roman legions against foreign nations. This was when that harmonious music of angels was fulfilled: "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men of good will" [Luke
2:14] and in his days justice arose and a multitude of peace [cf. Ps 72:7].
50. (2:5–6a) House of Jacob, come and let us walk in the light of the Lord; (6) for you have
996 These are popular etymologies of Jerusalem. Cf. Origen,
CRm
3.5.2
; Clement,
Strom
1.5.29.4
; Philo,
On Dreams
2.38.250
997 Cf. Eusbius,
PE 1, 4, 3–
cast off your people, the house of Jacob.
After the calling of the nations and manifestation of the mountain of the Lord upon the top of the mountains [cf. Isa 2:2], the prophet turns to his own people, in other words, the Jewish people, which is called the house of Jacob, and he exhorts them, that those who live in the darkness of error should receive the light of truth and walk in the light of the Lord. And in a way the word of David sings this: "Come to him and be enlightened; and let not your faces be ashamed" [Ps 34:5].998 For everyone who does evil hates the light and does not come to the light lest his works be exposed [cf. John 3:20].999 But you, O house of Jacob, the house of my people, come with me and let us walk together in the light of the Lord. Let us receive the gospel of Christ; let us be illuminated by him who says, "I am the light of the world" [John 8:12]. And when this had been spoken to the Jewish people, perceiving their impenitent heart [cf. Rom 2:5] and their soul very hardened by unbelief, he makes an apostrophe1100 to the Lord and says, "The reason I exhort them to come to you and to enjoy your light with me is because, on account of the merit of their sins, you have abandoned your people, the former house of Jacob."
51. (2:6b–c) For they are filled as in times past, and have had soothsayers as the Philistines.
For Philistines the Septuagint always translated "foreigners," a general term in place of a proper name, which today is the nation of the Palestinians, of the Philistinians as it were, because the Hebrew language does not have the letter p but uses in its place the Greek phi. This also explains the significance of what is said in the Psalms, with the listing of other nations,
"Foreigners have been subjected to me" [Ps 60:8]. It refers not to all outer nations but properly to the Palestinians. And he offers reasons why God cast out his own people, the house of Jacob: because they were filled, he says, as they were in the beginning, with soothsayers and omens and with all the filthy defilements of idolatry. We know that dreams are not to be heeded, nor soothsaying, since Moses writes this [cf. Deut 18:10, 14].1101 The nations of the Canaanites,
Amorites, and Hittites, which the Lord expelled from the presence of Israel, had these things.
Those in the church who have treated this passage have explained this in different ways. For some think that it means that the Jewish people were cast forth when the Roman army entered what was once the promised land, and when the Jews were expelled, foreigners lived in Judea, who became near neighbors out of the entire world of different nations. They were brought there by Titus, Vespasian, Hadrian, and other rulers. But others think that this does not pertain to Roman times but to earlier times, before they were laid waste by the Babylonians, because the narrative says that they did this under impious kings and were abandoned by the Lord.
52. (2:6d) And they cleaved to foreign boys. The Septuagint translated this, "and many foreign sons were born to them." Symmachus has, "and they clapped with foreign sons." The Hebrew word for this is iesphicu, which the Hebrews translate as εσφηνωθησαν,1102 and we
998 Cf. Bas Is 76 (245B).
999 Cf. ibid.
1100 An apostrophe is a rhetorical figure, when the speaker turns from the judges or his hearers, and addresses some other person or thing. Cf. Quintilian, 9.2.38; 9.3.24.
1101 Cf. Bas Is 77 (248B).
1102 "hey were plugged" from σφηνόω, to plug up, close up (as with a wedge). Presumably the word refers to male homosexual acts.
rendered it they cleaved, in order to show the moral turpitude of the victors in the nation of Judea.
Now the Greeks and Romans were once afflicted with this vice to such an extent that even the most famous philosophers of Greece kept male concubines publicly. Even Hadrian, who was educated in the philosophical disciplines, consecrated Antinous1103 as a god and founded a temple to him and sacrifices and priests, and a city and region of Egypt was named after him.
Among the prostitutes too in the brothels of the public shows, boys stood exposed to public lust until, under emperor Constantine, as the gospel of Christ flashed forth, both the unbelief and moral turpitude of all the nations were blotted out.1104 Furthermore, the Septuagint indicates that their spouses were violated while they were bearing sons foreign to the Jews. Symmachus has pointed to the very same moral turpitude with boys in a certain roundabout way and by the respectable speech of those "clapping."
53. (2:7) And the land is filled with silver and gold, and there is no end of its treasures.
Among the other vices of the land of the house of Jacob, an abundance of gold and silver is likewise listed. Along with the omens and soothsayers, horses and chariots,1105 the multiplication of which God forbade to the kings of Israel [cf. Deut 17:16]; along with the idols, which are the works of men's hands [cf. Ps 115:4; 135:15], avarice is condemned. This is why the Lord has commanded in the Gospel that we should not treasure up for ourselves treasures on earth [cf. Matt 6:19],1106 and we should not make treasures from which a thief is able to steal, adding at the end: "You cannot serve God and mammon" [Matt 6:24]. Now with different words the prophet has nicely sealed that κομμα1107 of the brief verse, "The greedy man is always in need,"1108 when he says, And there is no end of its treasures. It is not that the treasures do not have an end, but that the soul of those who possess them is not filled. But by means of these words, each nation, both that of the Jews and of the Romans, is confronted for their avarice, which both Greek and Latin histories narrate too, that nothing is greedier than the nation of the Jews and Romans. This is also why the law against extortion was established and why daily we see that word of the apostle being fulfilled: "You who teach not to steal, steal" [Rom 2:21]. He is listening to a judge who is a thief, and a more thievish judge condemns in another while issuing a verdict about himself.
54. (2:8a) And its land is filled with horses and its chariots are innumerable.
For it does not deserve a number, because it possesses them contrary to the command of 1103 Antinous was the young favorite of the Roman emperor Hadrian, born in Bithynia c. AD 110 and drowned in the Nile in 130. He was deified by Hadrian, and the site of his death was marked by the founding of the city Antinoöpolis. His head was stamped on coins of Mantinea, where he had a temple, and many busts or statues of this beautiful soft-looking boy survive.
1104 Cf. Soz
HE 1, 8
1105 Lit., "eams of four."
1106 Cf. Bas Is 80 (252B).
1107 The Greek word means both "tamp or impression of a coin"and " short clause of a sentence."
1108 Horace,
Ep.
1.2.56
God [cf. Deut 17:16].1109 This is also why it is said in the Psalms, "A horse is deceptive in respect to safety" [Ps 33:17].1110 And in Exodus, "Horse and rider he cast into the sea" [Exod 15:1]. And in another psalm, "Some [call upon] chariots and some [call upon] horses, but we will call upon the name of the Lord our God" [Ps 20:7]. Both can be understood because both the Jewish people multiplied for themselves horses and chariots contrary to the command of God [cf. Deut
17:16], and the land of Judea was filled with the horses and chariots of the victors.
55. (2:8b–9a) And its land was filled with idols; they worshiped the work of their own hands, which their fingers have made. (9) And man has bowed himself down and man has been abased. In the place where once there was the temple and religion of God, there was set up a statue of Hadrian and an idol of Jupiter.1111 Many interpret this by referring to that testimony that we read in the Gospel: "But when you see the abomination of desolation standing in the holy place" [Matt 24:15; Mark 13:14]. And they have bent down to the work of their own hands, and man, the rational animal, has worshiped bronze and stone. But there are those who interpret these things of the Jews, because before they were captured by the Babylonians, they did all these things, and for that reason they were dismissed1112 by God. This is also why at the end of the section it is recorded, Therefore, do not forgive1113 them [Isa 2:9b].
We can also say the following as an anagogical interpretation: that every doctrine contrary to the truth worships the works of their own hands and sets up idols in their own land [terra], and man is bowed down, and man is abased. He cannot straighten himself up because he has been bound by the devil, unless the Lord sets him up straight as he did that woman whom Satan had bound for eighteen years. She had never seen heaven, but was always looking at the ground (terram) [cf. Luke 13:11–13, 16].
56. (2:9b) Therefore do not forgive them. The Septuagint translated this, "And I will not forgive them."
If God is the speaker, it should be understood thus: since they have committed such enormities, I will not spare them nor will I forgive such innumerable sins. If the prophet is the speaker, it should be understood as follows: Therefore do not forgive them, those who have perpetrated such enormous crimes. But the interpretation is truer when we understand it of the Romans. Having demolished the temple of God, they did not worship him who gave them the victory, but idols made by their own hands. But if we understand it of the Jews, the judgment of the prophet is grim, so that he seems to be praying against his own people to whom he had said above, "House of Jacob, come and let us walk in the light of the Lord" [Isa 2:5].
57. (2:10) Enter into the rock; hide in the trench in the ground from the face of the fear of the Lord and from the glory of his majesty.
I have indeed exhorted the people, saying, "House of Jacob, come and let us walk in the light of the Lord" [Isa 2:5]. But because the Lord cast forth the people of Jacob—now he cast them forth because he either caused or allowed what we have explained above—therefore, I 1109 Cf. Bas Is 81 (252C).
1110 Cf. ibid., 82 (253A).
1111 Cf. 1.9.
1112 Or "orgiven."
1113 Or "ismiss."
am announcing in advance what evils will come upon you, and I am exhorting you to enter rocks and be hidden in caves from the face of the Babylonian, or Roman, army, when all things will be laid waste in accordance with what we read in the Gospel: "Then they will say to the mountains: fall upon us, and to the rocks: hide us" [Luke 23:30].
In fact anagogically we are being instructed to acquire the strength of the rock from the face of the Lord's majesty, of which it is said, "The rock is a refuge for badgers" [Ps 104:18; 61:2].1114
And, "You have lifted me up on the rock" [Ps 27:5]. Moses too is set in the opening of a rock that he may see the back parts of God [cf. Exod 33:22–23]. And the people were drinking "from the spiritual rock that was following them" [1 Cor 10:4]. And he is hidden in the rock who enters his room, closes the door, and worships the Father [cf. Isa 26:20; Matt 6:6]. Thus while existing in an earthly body, he does not sense the passing storm of the world.
58. (2:11) The lofty eyes of man are humbled and the height of men will be made to stoop; but the Lord alone will be exalted on that day.
When the enemies came and the Babylonian or Roman sword laid waste the province, and columns of warriors encircled Jerusalem, then neither wealth nor nobility of descent nor power of offices was able to defend anyone. But there will be a single captivity for all and God alone will be exalted, whose wrath no one can turn back. Many understand these things about the day of judgment1115 because every creature will be humbled in comparison with the divine glory, and will be made to stoop and will perceive itself as nothing.
59. (2:12) For the day of the Lord of hosts [will be] upon all the proud and lofty and upon everyone that is arrogant, and so on.
And these things are linked to what precedes. On that day, he says, on which the Lord alone will be exalted [cf. Isa 2:11], that is, on the day of the Lord's vengeance, all who are lofty, arrogant, and proud will submit to captivity and sword. Metaphorically, however, the words are about the great ones and the rulers.1116 For to the extent that they are more proud, so much the more will they be put down. For "the Lord resists the proud and gives grace to the humble" [1
Pet 5:5; Jas 4:6]. Those who understand this about the day of judgment think that the devil is being called the proud, lofty, lifted up, and arrogant one, who arrogantly says, "Upon the stars of heaven I will put my throne; I will sit on a lofty mountain, upon all the lofty mountains toward the North; I will ascend above the clouds, I will be like the Most High" [Isa 14:13–14]. This will happen when out of the mouth of babes and infants praise will be perfected [cf. Ps 8:2; Matt
19:16], so that the last enemy and avenger may be destroyed [cf. 1 Cor 15:26].
60. (2:13) And over all the straight and lofty cedars of Libanus and over all the oaks of Bashan.
Both in the twenty-eighth Psalm it is sung, "The voice of the Lord who breaks cedars; the Lord will break the cedars of Libanus and will crush them as a calf of Libanus" [Ps 29:5–6];1117 and in the thirty-sixth, "I have seen the wicked exalted and lifted up like the cedars of Libanus, and I passed by and he was not, and I looked for him and his place was not found" [Ps 37:35–
1114 Cf. Bas Is 85 (257BC).
1115 Cf. Eus Is 28 (19, 22–5); Bas Is 87 (260B) 1116 Cf. Bas Is 88 (261BC).
1117 Cf. ibid. 90 (265C).
36]. We know that the oaks of Bashan too are acorn bearing.1118 Aquila translated this δρυας,
Symmachus and Theodotion βαλανους. Even if they produce fruit, they are the nourishment of pigs, not of men. Bashan is a region in Arabia that Og commanded, who was called king of Bashan [cf. Num 21:33],1119 and means αισχυνη, that is, "shame." If we want to translate it as "confusion," it signifies συγχυσιν, that is, Babylon, rather than Bashan. Therefore over all who are raised up in arrogance and do works of shame and wallow in the mire of lust, the Lord's vengeance will rise.
But suppose the intelligent reader asks, Why was cedar wood placed in the temple [cf. 1 Kgs
6:10]?1120 And why do we read in the 103rd Psalm, according to the Hebrew truth, "The trees of the Lord and the cedars of Libanus that you planted will be saturated; there sparrows will build nests" [Ps 104:16–17]? And why, among the other trees, are even cedars summoned to praise the Lord [cf. Ps 148:9]? And at the coming of the Savior, when all trees and the woods of the field applaud with their branches [cf. Isa 55:12], why is it written, "I will put in the dry land the cedar and box, the cypress and the pine" [Isa 41:19]? Yet now the prophetic word threatens the day of the Lord [cf. Isa 2:12] over the cedars of Libanus? One should say the following: from the same race of men, some are lifted up to the kingdom, others are dragged off to punishment; also the cedars of Libanus, which will be shattered because of arrogance, may be chosen, when they obtain a good fragrance and say with the Apostle, "We are the good fragrance of Christ" [2
Cor 2:15].
61. (2:14) And over all the lofty mountains and over all elevated hills.
Just as in view of the variety of virtues they are called mountains and hills in a good sense, so among the wicked, in view of the diversity of vices, and of arrogance above all, some are mountains, others are hills. The day of the Lord will be over them. In Ezekiel it is written of them, "Thus says the Lord Adonai to the mountains and hills: Behold, I will bring a sword over you and your high places will be demolished and your altars will be broken," and so on [Ezek
6:3–4].
62. (2:15) And over every high tower and over every fortified wall.
Those who refer these things to the times of Vespasian and Hadrian say that the things that were written were fulfilled physically, because no high tower, no very strong wall [cf. Isa 2:16], no multitude of ships and carefulness of effort, was able to prevail against the force of the Roman army. But the inhabitants of Judea were gripped by such great fear that even they themselves, together with their wives and children, gold and silver (which they were counting on to help them), were plunged into the pits of the land and sought the deepest caverns. For if the belly is the God of the gluttons and of the luxurious [cf. Phil 3:19], why should not gold and silver be called the God of the avaricious? Others refer these things to the Babylonian period. I will run through all the details according to the laws of tropology.
A tower is built either for the protection of the city or as a lookout, in order to see the enemy coming from afar.1121 Each of us, then, ought to build a tower, first counting the cost, lest
1118 Cf. ibid. 91 (268B–69A) 1119 Cf. Jerome, Am 2.
1120 Cf. Bas Is 90 (268AB).
1121 Cf. ibid. 92 (269BC).
in accordance with the parable of the Gospel, when he is unable to complete the task, he may be ridiculed [cf. Luke 14:28–29]. This well-constructed tower abides. But if it has been erected in arrogance and does not have solid foundations, it will fall upon the one who built it, like that tower in Siloam that killed eighteen people [cf. Luke 13:4]. This is also why the Lord says to those who are listening, "And you, if you do not do penance, you will likewise perish" [Luke
13:5]. In what follows too, we will read that God built a tower in his vineyard and made a winepress and surrounded it with a wall, but all these things were destroyed and laid waste, because they were puffed up by the vain arrogance of pride [cf. Isa 5:1–7].
High walls are also built to keep a city from being destroyed quickly, to keep it from being exposed to the enemies.1122 These walls of the church are surrounded by very wise men and they are strengthened in every way, lest some perverted doctrine should prevail against the truth. God speaks to Jerusalem concerning walls like this: "Behold I have painted your walls on my hands and they are always before me" [Isa 49:16]. But if those who had previously attacked the church recognize the truth and make a transition to the faith, and if they fight for that which they had previously attacked, then the following will be fulfilled: "You will be quickly built up by those by whom you had been destroyed" [Isa 49:17]. In Leviticus too, we read that the house that is in walled cities, if it is not redeemed within a year, is confirmed to the buyer as an eternal possession; but if it is in the country and villages that do not have walls, it can always be redeemed and the buyer's price can fluctuate [cf. Lev 25:29–31].
63. (2:16) And over all the ships of Tarshish and over everything that is fair to behold. They all translated this in the same way, as Tarshish; the Septuagint alone has rendered it "sea." The Hebrews think that in their own language Tarshish is the name of a sea, but when it is said now, it is not being named in Hebrew speech, but in Syriac.
Even Jehoshaphat had ships that he sent to Tarshish, but they were wrecked at Ezion-geber
[cf. 1 Kgs 22:48–49]. Solomon also had ships that went to Tarshish and returned after three years and brought to the king "silver and gold, ivory and apes" [cf. 1 Kgs 10:22]. But because both kings had sinned, the one having surrendered to pleasure, being a lover of women from foreign nations [cf. 1 Kgs 11:1–2], the other, by uniting himself with the king of Samaria [cf. 1 Kgs
22:44–45]—both of which refer to pagans and heretics, among whom there is nothing but the gleam1123 of eloquence, and a meaning constructed by diabolical skill, and the dead word that is translated in the teeth,1124 and the likeness of human reason that is perceived in apes—this is why we read in the Psalms, "With a violent spirit you will shatter the ships of Tarshish" [Ps 48:7]; and likewise Isaiah speaks of these ships, "Woe to the wings of ships that are beyond Ethiopia"
[Isa 18:1].
But, on the other hand, there are also good ships of which it is said in the same Psalms:
"Those who go down on the sea in ships and do work on the many waters, they have seen the works of the Lord and his marvels in the deep" [Ps 107:23–24].1125 For those who are not relaxing in the waves of this age, but are working and carrying the Lord's merchandise and 1122 Cf. ibid. (269CD).
1123 Referring allegorically to the silver and gold.
1124 Referring allegorically to the ivory.
1125 Cf. Bas Is 93 (272BC).
hastening to come to a port of rest, they see the works of the Lord and his marvels in the deep, when they attain deep knowledge and examine everything [cf. 1 Cor 2:10], that is, when they gaze upon even the depths of God and his marvels.
Josephus thinks Tarshish is the city in Cilicia, Tarsus.1126 Others think it is a region in India, and by this name likewise a stone of twelve jewels is named, which among us is called χρυσολιθος (chrysolite) on account of its resemblance to the color of the sea. But it is better to take Tarshish simply as the sea or the open sea. For when Jonah was sailing from Joppa [cf.
Jonah 1:3],1127 he could not have reached India, to which he was not able to sail by that sea; but he was able simply to go out on the open sea and to travel to some islands.
As for what follows: And over everything that is fair to behold; or as the Septuagint has translated it, "And over every display of the beauty of ships"; this should be understood in the same sense. For anything that seems beautiful in words and constructed by human reason is destroyed on the day of the Lord, if it sets itself up against the knowledge of God [cf. 2 Cor
10:4–5].
64. (2:17–18) And the loftiness of men will be bowed down and the strength of men will be humbled and the Lord alone will be exalted on that day; (18) and idols will be suddenly destroyed.
Human speech seems reasonable so long as it is not compared with divine knowledge. But when falsehood draws near to truth, as stubble to fire, it is quickly devoured and perishes and all the doctrines of falsity, which are now named idols, will be suddenly destroyed, because they are feigned and fabricated.
65. (2:20–21) On that day a man will cast away the idols of his own silver and the images of his own gold, which he had made for himself, to adore moles and bats. (21) And he will go into the clefts of rocks and into the caverns of stones from the face of the fear of the Lord and from the glory of his majesty, when he rises up to strike the earth.
We have often said that silver and gold are understood for speech and understanding.
Although God gave these to men that they might speak and understand God and praise his
Creator, they abused this gift for the pretense of idols, according to what is written: "I gave them silver and gold; but they worked for Baal from my silver and gold" [Hos 2:8]. Therefore, although someone who has been terrified by the fear of the Lord [cf. Isa 2:18, 19] has at first set up idols in the caves of his heart, and has hidden in the abysses of the earth, not daring to bring forth what he had fashioned badly, second, he has made progress to the point that he casts forth the previously concealed things, and he does not allow [them] to exist in himself.
The word that we have translated moles is recorded in the Septuagint as "vanities." Aquila rendered it ορυκτας, Symmachus "unfruitful things." Theodotion put down the Hebrew word itself, pharpharoth. But it is an animal without eyes, which constantly digs in the ground, and removes soil, and because it eats the roots underneath, it is harmful to crops. The Greeks call it ασφαλακα. Now the bat is a nocturnal bird that has received a fitting name from the Greeks, νυκτερις, from the fact that it flies at night. It is a small animal and similar to mice, giving off not so much a voice and song as a screech. Though it may be seen flying, it avoids light and does
1126 Cf. Josephus,
Ant
1.6.1.127
1127 Cf. Jerome, Jon 1, 3.
not endure the sight of the sun.
Idols and all doctrines that are contrary to truth are compared with living creatures of this sort, which being blind and darkened are worshiped by the blind. When these things are abandoned on the day of the Lord, those who have cast them forth into fissures of rocks and caverns of stones will enter, so as not to linger in the dust of the earth and in slimy mud, but in solid reason. And they discover for themselves different openings of the virtues, through which they may be able to reach the truth. With a few words I have touched upon these things anagogically to the best of my ability.1128 The Hebrews refer these things to the Babylonian period and the overthrow of Jerusalem, when the Lord rose up to strike the land of the Jews.
66. (2:22) Take rest therefore from the man whose breath is in his nostrils, for he himself is reputed high. The Septuagint omitted this and in the Greek copies from Origen it was marked by asterisks, having been added from the edition of Aquila. It reads as follows in Hebrew: Hedalu lachem men aadam aser nesama baaphpho chi bama nesab hu. Where we have said, He himself is reputed high, Aquila translated, "In whom is he himself reputed?"
The Hebrew word is expressed as bama, or υψωμα, that is "high thing," which we read both in the Books of Kingdoms and in Ezekiel [cf. 1 Sam 9:12; Ezek 6:6; 20:29]; or at least "in whom" is written even in the same letters, beth, mem, he, and in view of the nature of the passages, if we want to read, "in whom," we say bamma; but if we want to read "high thing," or "high one," we read bama. The Jews, therefore, understanding that it is a prophecy about Christ, translated the ambiguous word in a detrimental sense, so that they would not seem to be praising Christ, but valuing him as nothing. For what coherence in the words is there and what order of reason and understanding is there for us to say the following: Since these things are so, and the day of the Lord is coming, on which the whole state of Judea must be overthrown and everything must be destroyed, I warn you and I instruct you to take rest from the man who breathes in such a way and lives as we men; for he must be reckoned as nothing?
Would anyone praise someone in such a way as to say: Beware lest you offend the one who is absolutely nothing?
Therefore it should be understood instead in the following way: Though all these things will come upon you and are predicted by the prophetic spirit, I warn and instruct you to take rest from him who is indeed a man according to the flesh and has a soul and thus breathes and draws breath through his nostrils, as we men breath and live, but according to the divine majesty he is lifted up and is reputed and is believed in. Though I have privately examined this in detail with a quiet mind, I am not able to discover the reason why the Septuagint was unwilling to translate into Greek so clear a prophecy of Christ. As for the other translators, who translated to be sure, but who twisted the ambiguous words into an impious meaning, it is no wonder they translated badly, since they did not want to say anything glorious about Christ in whom they did not believe. That is to say, they translated it like Jews, or like half-Jews, that is, the Ebionites.1129
But we read in the eighty-sixth Psalm that Christ is exalted, or the Most High, who is called by another term among the Hebrews, helion: "Will a man of Zion not say that a man was born
1128 Cf. Eus Is 28 (21, 5–4).
1129 Jerome believed that Theodotion, one of the rival translators of the Hebrew Old Testament, was an Ebionite. Cf. Vir Ill