[The Second Book]
in her; and the Most High himself established her?" [Ps 87:5]. And in the Gospel: "And you, child, will be called prophet of the Most High" [Luke 1:76]. And to keep from pulling the rope too tight—for in the exposition of the Holy Scriptures we ought to follow truth, not contention
—in this passage the Hebrew does not use bama, "high one," but "high thing," that is, the very height and loftiness, as if we were to say about someone, he is not divine but divinity; he is not a brook but a spring; he is not a man but humanity itself.
Origen interpreted this passage as possibly referring to the Lord and Savior, since it is expressed properly of one man; for the prophet commands that they take rest from him who was reckoned as someone great, although at present it does seem that the man also has a passage for breath in his nostrils in the same way that other men breathe.
[THE SECOND BOOK]
1. I have finished the first book on Isaiah, as I was able, not as I wanted, dictating it rapidly and searching carefully for the meaning of the Scriptures rather than for the words of an elegantly composed oration. Now I will move on to the second book, and whatever lies within my abilities and the Lord's favorable will, I will offer to him who said through the prophet, "I have multiplied visions; and I have been represented in the hands of the prophets" [Hos 12:10]. This is why I beg you, virgin of Christ, Eustochium, that you, with Moses, lift up your hands to the Lord on my behalf as I struggle to explain the Scriptures, so that those who have come out of Egypt and passed through the Red Sea may conquer Amalek [cf. Exod 17:8–13], which means, "one who devours and licks up," and we could say with you, "Blessed is the Lord my God, who trains my hands for battle and my fingers for war" [Ps 144:1].
2. (3:1) For behold, the sovereign God will take away from Jerusalem and from Judah the mighty and the strong, the whole strength of bread and the whole strength of water.
They think that up to this point he is speaking about judgment,11 and what follows concerns the coming captivity that some refer to the Babylonians, others to the Romans. But it is preferable, as we have said above, to refer all these things to the Lord's passion.22 For after he was killed, all favors and gifts were taken away from the Jews according to what is written in the Gospel: "The law and the prophets [were] until John the Baptist" [Matt 11:13]. And there is a progression: Since you were unwilling to take rest from the man whose breath is in his nostrils, who was reputed as high [cf. Isa 2:22]; but instead you shed the blood of the just one and you planned a wicked counsel, saying, "Let us tie up the just one because he is useless to us" [Wis
2:12]; therefore, you will eat the fruit of your devices [cf. Isa 3:8]. After the Lord's passion, there is nothing strong among the Jews, nothing mighty, but everything is weak and feeble, and no 1 Cf. Eus Is 29 (21, 19–8).
2 Cf. 1.35.
one among them can say, "I can do all things in him who strengthens me" [Phil 4:13], in Christ
Jesus our Lord.33
And since according to the Septuagint we read, "Mighty man and mighty woman," we can apply the following to the "mighty man": "Until we all attain to the perfect man, in the measure of age" [Eph 4:13]. Furthermore, he says to the "mighty woman," "I want all of you to present yourselves as a chaste virgin to Christ" [2 Cor 11:2]. Now strength of bread and strength of water are understood for all food and drink. We read that Moses was on Mount Sinai and for forty days did not eat bread or drink water [cf. Exod 34:28]. That too that is said to Adam should be received in a similar fashion: "By the sweat of your face you will eat your bread, until you return to the earth from which you were taken" [Gen 3:19]. And besides, there are the Savior's words: "Not by bread alone does man live, but by every word that proceeds through the mouth of God" [Matt 4:4]. Therefore, the strength of bread will be taken away from them—that one who says, "I am the living bread, I who came down from heaven" [John 6:51]—and the strength of water of which the same Lord was speaking: "Everyone who drinks from this water will thirst again; but he who drinks from the water which I will give him will not thirst forever, but the water that I will give him will become in him a fountain of water welling up to eternal life" [John
4:13–14].44 We read about this kind of bread in Proverbs as well: "Open your eyes and fill with bread" [Prov 20:13].
The Jews have bread, but without strength; they have water, but without power. For they read the Scriptures, but they do not understand them; they hold on to the parchments, but they have lost Christ, who was written into the parchments. For like infants they feed on milk, not solid food [cf. 1 Cor 3:2; Heb 5:12–14]. And because they have lost [their] strength and are weak, therefore they eat vegetables [cf. Rom 14:1–2]. But solid food is for athletes. It both sustains human life and supplies strength to the living. Another prophet testifies as well concerning bread and water of this sort, which is taken away from the Jews, saying, "Behold days are coming, says the Lord, and I will send out a famine on the earth; not a famine for bread or a thirst for water, but a famine for hearing the words of the Lord" [Amos 8:11].55
3. (3:2) The strong [man] and the man of war, the judge and the prophet, and the soothsayer and the old man. For strong, which is found by itself in the Hebrew, the Septuagint translated with two words linked together: the "giant and the strong [man]," meaning that the giant is the same [man] as the strong.
We have spoken above about the strong [cf. Isa 3:1]. Now in the eighteenth Psalm we read of giant in a good sense, that is, in connection with the Lord and Savior: "He rejoiced like a giant running down a road; his going forth is from the top of heaven, and his circuit is unto the end of it" [Ps 19:5–6].66 But if, on the other hand, we read of Nimrod (Nebroth) the giant, who was a hunter before the Lord [cf. Gen 10:8–9], and of the giants on whose account the flood came on the earth [cf. Gen 6:4–7], these should be understood in the opposite sense.
Thus too do we understand man of war in accordance with history, because they were
3 Cf. Bas Is 99 (280AB).
4 Cf. ibid., 100 (281A–).
5 Cf. Eus Is 29 (22, 1–).
6 Cf. Bas Is 101 (281C).
captured and until the present day they are slaves, and they have not laid down the yoke of their slavery. But to prevent them even from having their own judges, they are subject to Roman judges, so much so that Roman rulers judge concerning their rulers, who seem to exist among the people. Moreover, the following should be said: there is no warrior among them in the law, who has the knowledge to judge; but all things are vain and fallen and full of folly.
Now concerning prophet, no one doubts that he ceased to exist among them. We ask how we should translate soothsayer according to the Hebrew word, which everyone translated
"diviner," except for the Septuagint, which translated it "counselor" (conjector). And one should say that often the future is told even by foreigners, just as we read in the case of the diviner
Balaam [cf. Num 22–24], and among the diviners of the five cities of the Palestinians, Gaza,
Ashkelon, Gath, Ekron, and Ashdod, which give counsel how the ark of the Lord may be sent back [cf. 1 Sam 6:2–9, 17].77 And the meaning is that both true and false things will equally be taken away from the Jews.
He who knows that priests (presbyteros) in the holy Scriptures are chosen according to merit and wisdom, not age, understands that the old man too,88 which the Septuagint translated "elder" (presbyterum), has been taken away from the Jews. For old men have not ceased to exist among the Jews, whom we see often reaching decrepit old age. And we read at the beginning of Daniel, according to Theodotion, of two inveterate "elders" of wicked days [cf.
Dan 13:28, 52]. For it is even commanded to Moses that he should choose "elders" whom he knows are elders [cf. Exod 18:13–26; Num 11:16]. And the Apostle Paul writes in great detail to Timothy what sort of "elder" ought to be chosen [cf. 1 Tim 3:2–7; 5:17–20; Titus 1:5–9]. This is also why it is said in the Proverbs, "Grey hair is the glory of old men" [cf. Prov 20:29]. What is this grey hair? There is hardly any doubt that it refers to wisdom, of which it is written,
"Prudence is the grey hair of men" [Wis 4:9 (8)]. And since we have read that from Adam till
Abraham men lived nine hundred years and more than that [cf. Gen 5], no other was previously called "elder," that is, old man, except for Abraham, who is clearly shown to have lived for fewer years by far [cf. Gen 18:11–12; 24:1]. This is why even John, after speaking to the boys and young men, speaks also to the old men, saying, "I have written to you, fathers, because you have known him who is from the beginning" [1 John 2:13]. And the reason Rehoboam, son of Solomon, lost the kingdom was because he was unwilling to listen to the elders [cf. 1 Kgs 12:1–
16].
4. (3:3a) The leader over fifty.
This is synecdoche, the whole from a part.99 For just as those who are in charge of a hundred soldiers are called centurions, and they are called chiliarchs who are in charge of a thousand, whom we call tribunes from the fact they are in charge of a tribe, so in the Israelite army, they were called captains over fifty who were at the head of fifty soldiers [cf. Exod 18:21, 25]. This is also why we speak of decems who preside over ten men. It is not surprising if every office of warriors was lost among the Jews, since they do not have the authority to serve as swordbearing soldiers and to carry weapons.
7 Cf. Origen,
Homily 16.7 on Numbers
8 Cf. Bas Is 103–04 (285A–88B).
9 Cf. ibid., 105 (288C).
In fact, because the number fifty always refers to penitence, and because the leader of penitence and the head of those who are being saved by penitence is Christ, let us briefly unfold the mysteries of this number. In Genesis we read that when Abraham was speaking to the Lord, he said that the city deserved to be saved, first, if up to fifty just men should be found in the city
[cf. Gen 18:22–26]. And there are seven sevens in Numbers, that is, Pentecost is a very famous festival [cf. Num 28:26–31; Lev 23:15–16]. The Jubilee too, that is, the year of remission, which is woven in every seven sevens of years, that is, every forty-nine years, in which the trumpets sound [cf. Lev 25:8–10] and ancient possessions are returned to all [cf. Lev 25:10–13]. This contains a mystery. For this reason as well David writes a psalm of penitence at the fiftieth number [cf. Ps
]. We read too in the same Book of Numbers that the priests should receive the fiftieth head from the booty and the spoils, both of men and beasts, and the Levites should receive a fiftieth, who guard the doors of the tabernacle [cf. Num 31:28–30]. Also that parable of the Gospel refers to this meaning, in which two debtors are spoken of, one who owed five hundred denarii and the other fifty [cf. Luke 7:41]. This is also why the Apostle wants to remain among the Ephesians until Pentecost. He had solved certain mystical things for them [cf. Eph
5:32], until they are perfectly converted to the Lord [cf. 1 Cor 16:8]. He says, "For a door has been opened for me, great and evident, but there are many adversaries" [1 Cor 16:9].
However, even the devil imitates the Israelite army, concerning whom Jethro had given counsel to Moses, his son-in-law, to appoint over the people tribunes and centurions 110 and captains of fifty [cf. Exod 18:21]. This is why an impious king sends two captains of fifty with soldiers who are subject to him to show Elijah, who were consumed by divine fire [cf. 2 Kgs 1:9–
12]. But the third of them is saved, who turned to prayer and recognized the mysteries of penitence [cf. 2 Kgs 1:13–15]. This is also why the Jews, being unwilling that the Lord be the perfect and chief captain of fifty, say to him, "You are not yet fifty years old, and you have seen
Abraham?" [John 8:57]. And he, knowing that he is not only the chief of the penitent ones, but also of the just, responded, "Before Abraham was, I am" [John 8:58]. Now we can understand that the Lord is the chief captain of fifty from a single festival, of which he says, "The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath" [Matt 12:8]; but if of the Sabbath, also of the calends;111 if of the calends, also of the Passover, that is, unleavened bread [cf. Exod 12:11, 17]; if of the Passover, also of the Jubilee [cf. Lev 25:10–54]; if of the Jubilee, also of Tabernacles [cf. 2 Chr 8:13; John
7:2]; if of Tabernacles, also of Pentecost, which is related to the fiftieth number [cf. Exod 34:22;
Tob 2:1; 2 Macc 12:32; Acts 2:1; 20:16].
5. (3:3a) And the honorable in countenance and the counselor. Instead of two men, that is, the honorable in countenance and the counselor, the Septuagint has translated this as one:
"The admirable counselor."
Among the other favors the Lord will remove from Judea, there is this one too, that they would have no counselor but would do everything without counsel. And there is also that admirable sentence of the worthy Greek poet: "First, he is fortunate who reasons for himself; second, he who listens to a reasonable man."112 Now the one who lacks both is useless both to himself and to everyone else. And this is why we read the following in our literature: "Let your
110 Notice the use of anachronistic terms from Roman times.
111 I.e., the first day of the month; cf. Lev 23:24.
friends be many, but counselors one in a thousand" [Sir 6:6].113 And again: "Do everything with counsel" [Prov 13:10]. And wisdom will give you an "admirable counselor." Also the decrees of the senate are spoken of with this term, and the Roman rulers were once called consuls, either from counseling the citizens or from conducting everything by counsel. And we ourselves have our senate in the church, the assembly of priests (presbyterorum). So then, when among other things Judea lost the old men as well, how could it have counsel, since that belongs uniquely to elders?
6. (3:3b) And the wise architect. Aquila translated this "wisest craftsman," to show that they once had many craftsmen. Such was that man Bezalel son of Uri, son of Hur, from the tribe of Judah, whom the Lord filled with the spirit of wisdom, understanding, and skill, so that he was a most perfect craftsman in every work, not only in gold and silver, but also in bronze and other things that Moses lists. He built the tabernacle of God [cf. Exod 31:1–11].114
Since they lost their architects, then, the whole grace of building was transferred to the church. This is why Paul says, "As a wise architect, I laid the foundation" [1 Cor 3:10].115 And Jeremiah was an architect, who not only uprooted and undermined and destroyed [cf. Jer 1:10], but also built up [cf. Jer 18:7–9]. This is why the Apostle likewise says, "We are God's field, God's building" [1 Cor 3:9]. Our Lord too is called a builder of stone walls [cf. Eph 2:14, 21], and in the Gospel the one who created all things is affronted as "son of a carpenter" [cf. Isa 58:12; Matt
13:55]. We also read in the first Book of Kings that King Solomon sent and brought Hyram of Tyre, the son of a widow who116 was from the tribe of Naphtali, and he had a father from Tyre, a craftsman in bronze [cf. 1 Kgs 7:13–14]. And he came before the king and made all the works for King Solomon; in him there is a type of building the church, which was generated not only from the tribe of Judah, but from Naphtali too and from a Tyrian father, who had a widow mother, because she had lost her first husband [cf. Rom 7:2–3]. And there are more sons by far of the desolate woman than of her who has the husband [cf. Isa 54:1; Gal 4:27]. Moreover, in the Book of Chronicles, we read of a valley of craftsmen, "Now Seraiah was the father of Joab, the father of a valley of craftsmen; for craftsmen were there" [1 Chr 4:14]. They are said to live in the valley, because knowledge was not filling them with conceit [cf. 1 Cor 8:1], but they followed the humble and meek Jesus [cf. Matt 11:29] and were able to say with the Apostle, "For I am the least of the apostles, who am not worthy to be called an apostle" [1 Cor 15:9]. And elsewhere, "We know in part and we prophesy in part, and now we see through a mirror obscurely" [1 Cor 13:9, 12].
7. (3:3b) And the wise in mystical speech. The Septuagint translated this "wise hearer";
Theodotion, "wise enchanter"; Aquila, "wise whisperer"; Symmachus, "the wise in mystical
112 Hesiod,
Works and Days
293–7
. P. Courcelle, Late Latin Writers and Their Greek Sources (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1969), 61, thinks that Jerome may have borrowed this quotation from Clement of Alexandria,
Paedagogus
3.8
(PG 8:614 B; ANF 2.282), who also applied it to the Scriptures.
113 Notice how Jerome describes Sirach as being in "ur literature."
114 Cf. Bas Is 107 (292A).
115 Cf. ibid. (289D).
116 I.e., the widow.
speech," whom we too have followed in this passage.
One should say first in accordance with the Septuagint that among the other spiritual graces, even a "wise hearer" is necessary in the church. "For to one prophecy is given, to another discerning of spirits" [1 Cor 12:10]. This is also why priestly ranks had been appointed among the Jewish people, which distinguished prophets from false prophets; that is, they understood who spoke from the Spirit of God, who from an adverse spirit. Let us read Jeremiah
[cf. Jer 6:13; 14:14–16].
Now the one who is wise in mystical speech, or a "whisperer" and, as Theodotion wanted to render it, "enchanter," seems to me to be an educated man and one trained both in the law and the prophets as well as in the gospel and the apostles. He can heal individual disorders of the soul by his teaching and lead it back to a sound state of mind, as for example when a fornicator accepts chastity, a glutton temperance, as when a formerly greedy man gives alms. Winnow all the synagogues of the Jews and you would find no teacher who instructs holy things and teaches that wealth is to be despised and poverty to be pursued. In the psalm David was speaking about "enchanters" of this sort in opposition to serpents and asps, that is sinners, who have forsaken the justice of God: "Sinners are alienated from the womb; they have gone astray from birth, they have spoken what is false. Their fury is like that of the serpent; like that of a deaf asp and the one that stops its ears, which will not hear the voice of the enchanters and of the wisely curing poison" [Ps 58:3–5]. All the words of the apostle against serpents and asps are an incantation that sinners and heretics do not hear, because they close their ears so as not to hear the truth.
8. (3:4) And I will give boys [to be] their rulers.
If under the persona of the prophet it is said, "For behold, the sovereign God of hosts will take away from Jerusalem and from Judah the mighty man and mighty woman, the whole strength of bread and the whole strength of water," and so on [cf. Isa 3:1]; how does the same prophet now say, I will give boys [to be] their rulers and the effeminate will lord over them?
Since then the prophet is speaking according to prophetic usage, God suddenly speaks through the prophet under his own persona and says, I will give boys [to be] their rulers. For when those things that I had previously given have been removed, and when in my wrath I took away the good things, as it were, now instead I will give evils.117 I removed the "old man and the captain of fifty and the admirable counselor and the wise architect and the prudent hearer," and so on [cf. Isa 3:2–3]. In place of these, I will give boys as rulers.
For those ones rightly receive youth as rulers who have destroyed the kind of elder the words higher up have indicated, the kind of elder that Abraham was the first to be called [cf.
Gen 18:11–12; 24:1]. We read about them in Ecclesiastes as well: "Woe to you, city, whose king is a youth and your rulers dine in the morning. Blessed is the land whose king is a son of freeborn men" [Eccl 10:16–17].118 This is the kind of young king that Rehoboam the son of Solomon was. He followed the counsels of the youths [cf. 1 Kgs 12:6–16]. This is not to say that he was a youth in his age, but in respect to wisdom. In any case the narrative relates that he received the kingdom at more than forty years of age [cf. 1 Kgs 14:21]. And on the other hand,
117 Cf. Bas Is 108 (292C).
118 Cf. ibid. (293A).
Solomon was twelve years old when he obtained power [cf. 1 Kgs 2:12], and the reason he was not called a youth was because he had wisdom. For in him there was a breadth of heart and a depth of wisdom as great as the sand on the seashore [cf. 1 Kgs 4:29].
This is also why the Apostle writes to Timothy, "Let no one despise your youth" [1 Tim 4:12].
For he who is a youth in age is an old man in maturity. And Daniel, according to Theodotion, before he acted as judge, is called a boy [cf. Dan 13:45]. But after God roused the spirit in him and he judged the old men, he received the office of elder [cf. Dan 13:47–64]. To Jeremiah too, who had said to the Lord who was sending him, "Sovereign Lord, you who are, behold I do not know how to speak, because I am a youth" [Jer 1:6], the Lord answered, "Do not say, 'I am a youth'; for before you were formed in the womb, I knew you and before you came forth from your mother's womb, I sanctified you [cf. Jer 1:7] and appointed you a prophet among the nations" [Jer 1:5].
And it is for this reason, I imagine, the Apostle commands young widows to take husbands and become mothers of households and to educate their children, because many had gone after Satan [cf. 1 Tim 5:15]. And when they have grown luxuriant in Christ, they want to marry, bringing condemnation, because they have nullified their first pledge [cf. 1 Tim 5:14]. A widow is not supported on church doles unless she is sixty years old and has maturity both of character and age [cf. 1 Tim 5:9]. Someone may think that even the Apostle's prohibition on a bishop being a neophyte pertains to this, because he is an infant in faith, lest having become puffed up in arrogance he may fall into the judgment of the devil [cf. 1 Tim 3:6]. Now there is no other
"judgment of the devil" except the judgment of pride, on account of which he fell from heaven
[cf. Isa 14:12–14]. And this is why the Savior says, "I saw Satan falling like lightning from heaven"
[Luke 10:18].
9. (3:4) And the effeminate will lord over them. Here the Hebrew reads thalulim, which the Septuagint and Theodotion translated as "mockers," Aquila as εναλλακτας, those who change themselves and mutually practice morally base acts. In the Book of Judges we read about this sort of thing in connection with the Levite's concubine in Gibeah [cf. Judg 19:14, 22–
25].
Let us consider the patriarchs of the Jews,119 both young men, or boys, and those who are effeminate and abounding in luxury, and we will see that the prophecy has been fulfilled. We can also call the teachers of the people of Israel "mockers," who devour the people of God like a dish of bread, and they interpret the Holy Scriptures perversely and they make a mockery of the foolishness of their disciples.
10. (3:5) And the people will fall, man upon man, each upon his neighbor; a boy will make a tumult against an old man, and the ignoble against the noble.
When the youth become rulers and mockers of the Lord of the kind the prophetic discourse is describing [cf. Isa 3:4], then no order of rank or age or knowledge will be preserved, but boys will rebel against old men and the ignoble against the nobles [cf. 2 Pet 2:13], and they will mutually fall [cf. Ps 14:3]. And the apostolic words will be fulfilled: "Biting one another, you have been consumed by one another" [Gal 5:15]. Josephus writes that these things happened to the 119 Cf. Eus Is 29 (23, 15–8).
Jewish people under Titus, son of Vespasian,220 and that when they were attacked by the Romans, there was in Jerusalem a sedition divided into three factions; some held the citadel and the temple, others the lower part of the city, and others the upper part.
11. (3:6) For a man will take hold of his own brother, one of the house of his father. "You have clothing, be our ruler; but [let] this ruin [be] under your hand." For ruin, Symmachus and Theodotion translated "infirmity"; the Septuagint, "food."
But it signifies the scarcity of men and especially the lack of all things, because the one who has "food" and clothing is believed to be powerful, rich and illustrious. Now what he says in accordance with the Hebrew word, Let this ruin be under your hand, has this meaning: Let our misery and calamity be supported and protected by your assistance. And this should be considered: that each one is choosing individual rulers for himself and in the selection of rulers there is sedition, since some think that others deserve to rule. They do not say to them, Your possessions and wealth and revenue can sustain us, but that "infirmity" will be healed, or my
"food" will depend on your decision.
12. (3:7) And he will answer on that day, saying, "I am not a doctor, and there is no bread or clothing in my house; do not appoint me ruler of the people." For doctor, Symmachus and the Septuagint translated "ruler"; Theodotion, επιδεσμευοντα, one who bandages wounds and provides healing. He will answer is not found in the Hebrew, but it was added from the Septuagint. For the Hebrew adds to these things that were written above, On that day, he will say, I am not a doctor, and so on. But he will say, who was chosen ruler. And just as the people who desire to have him as ruler whom it understands to be wealthier by comparison with themselves, so he who is chosen, when he considers his own poverty and weakness, testifies that he is unworthy of the honor conferred; he is unable to heal their vices, that is, to cure the listless, to give food to the hungry, to clothe the naked, he who himself is scarcely strong enough to support himself.
Therefore let us not immediately give in to the judgment of the multitude, but when we are chosen to be put in charge, let us recognize our own measure, and let us be humble under the mighty hand of God [cf. 1 Pet 5:6], because God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble
[cf. 1 Pet 5:5]. At what price do those who do not have bread and clothing promise both nourishment and clothes to others,221 when they themselves are hungry and naked and do not have spiritual food and do not keep the tunic of Christ intact [cf. John 19:23–24]? And being full of wounds, they boast that they are doctors! They do not keep the word of Moses: "Provide another whom you may send" [Exod 4:13]; and another command: "Do not seek to become a judge, lest you be unable to remove iniquities" [Sir 7:6]. Jesus alone heals all illnesses and infirmities, of whom it is written, "He who heals the contrite of heart and binds their sorrows"
[Ps 147:3].
13. (3:8–9a–b) For Jerusalem is collapsing and Judah is falling, because their tongue and their devices are against the Lord, so that they have provoked the eyes of his majesty. (9) The knowledge of their face has answered for them, and they have proclaimed their sin like Sodom, they have not concealed it.
220 Cf. Josephus,
De Bello Iud
. 5.1–0
; Bas Is 110 (296B).
221 Cf. Bas Is 112 (300BC).
It is the prophet who says this, not, as the majority think, the one who had been chosen as ruler. And he says that the reason no one wants to preside over a sinful people is because both
Judah and Jerusalem, both the city and the Judean province, or the tribe of Judah, have fallen together. And he reports the grounds of their impiety, that they have blasphemed against the Lord and said, "Take him away, take him away, crucify him; we have no ruler but Caesar" [John
19:15–16].222 And by the raging of their tongue they have provoked to bitterness the most clement God, and the knowledge of their face will respond for them, that is, they have received back for their own sins, or as the Septuagint translated, "The confusion of their face has withstood them," that is, before their own eyes they have always had unique transgressions. 223
And just as the Sodomites sinned with all freedom and were not even ashamed of their wickedness, saying to Lot, "Bring the men outside that we may lie with them" [Gen 19:5]; so also these people proclaim publicly and have declared their sin. They had no modesty in their blasphemy. For after a shipwreck there is a second plank;224 there is a consolation of miseries: to hide one's wickedness.225 This is also why they are called "rulers of Sodom": they had Sodomlike sins [cf. Isa 1:10].
14. (3:9c–11) Woe to their soul, for the evils have been rendered to them. (10) Say to the just man, that it is well, since they have eaten the fruit of their own devices. (11) Woe to the one who is wicked in respect to evil, for the retribution of his hands will become his.
According to the Hebrew word and the other translators, it has this meaning: woe to them because they have received back for their own crimes. Therefore, you who hear or who read the book of the prophet, praise the justice of God, because he has done good, because the wicked have eaten the works of their hands [cf. Ps 128:2]. And woe to the people who are wicked in respect to evil, for they have received back what they earned. And those who handed over their own ruler to the Roman authority [cf. John 19:15–16] are themselves subject to Roman servitude.
Now according to the Septuagint translators, it says, "Woe to their soul, because they have devised an evil counsel against themselves, saying, 'Let us bind the just one, because he is useless to us; and so, they will eat the fruit of their works' " [Isa 3:10; cf. Wis 2:12]. This is clearly spoken concerning the suffering of Christ, since they entered into a wicked counsel, not so much against the "Just One" as against themselves and against their own soul, and now they are "eating the fruit of their works." "For what a man sows, that also shall he reap" [Gal 6:8], and "each one will carry his own load" [Gal 6:5].
15. (3:12a) Their own exactors have despoiled my people, and women have lorded over them. For women, which Symmachus alone has translated as it is expressed in Hebrew, as nasim, Aquila and the Septuagint translated απαιτουντας, which signifies "exactors";
Theodotion δανειστας, that is "money lenders" (feneratores).
Now the prophetic words are spoken against the scribes and Pharisees, who denied the Son of God for the sake of dishonest gain, that they might receive tithes and first-fruits [cf. 1 Pet
222 Cf. Eus Is 29 (23, 6–0).
223 Cf. Bas Is 113 (301AB).
224 Cf. Jerome
Ep.
117, 3, 2
225 Cf. Tertullian,
De Paenit
4.2
; 7.10.
5:2].226 And he does not call the scribes and doctors teachers, but exactors, who think that religion is profit [cf. 1 Tim 6:5]; and according to the Apostle they devour not only the homes of widows, but the entire people [cf. Mark 12:40; Ps 14:4]. And he accuses their luxury and dishonest way of life, calling them not merely exactors, so that they apparently exact money from the unwilling, but women, because everything they do is on account of lust, and they are devoted to pleasure. Let us too beware, then, and let us not be exactors among the people; let not our senate be comprised of matrons and women, in accordance with the irreligious
Porphyry,227 [women] who lord over the churches. And let not the favor of females make judgments concerning the priestly office.
16. (3:12b) O my people, they who call you blessed, they themselves deceive and destroy, or disturb, the way of your steps.
He had called the scribes and Pharisees "exactors," not teachers [cf. Isa 3:12a], and above
[he called them] "mockers" [cf. Isa 3:4], who for the sake of gifts that blind the eyes even of the wise [cf. Deut 16:19], not only were failing to rebuke the sinners among the people,228 but for the sake of wealth and profits were extolling [them] with praises, calling [them] blessed and pillars of the house of God, and the other things that flatterers are accustomed to say.
He is a teacher of the church, then, who provokes tears, not laughter, who rebukes sinners, who calls no one happy, no one blessed. He does not anticipate the verdict of his judge, since
Holy Scripture says, "Do not call any man blessed before death" [Sir 11:30].229 Moreover, in another passage we read, "He who blesses his friend with a loud voice in the morning is no different from one who curses" [Prov 27:14].
This is why we should spurn the judgments of men and not be puffed up by their praises, nor made sorrowful by their detractions. Instead, let us walk down the right way and the paths trodden by the holy prophets. And let us listen to Jeremiah, who says, "Stand on the ways and see; and ask for the eternal paths of the Lord, which is the good way, and walk on it" [Jer 6:16].
But if, when we have gone astray and as human beings have continued down a crooked road, we should await the promises of the Lord through Ezekiel. The Lord says, "I will give them another way and another heart" [Ezek 36:26].
But the exactors have perverted and disturbed the Lord's way, so that, though they have the key of knowledge, they have not entered themselves nor have they allowed the people to enter
[cf. Luke 11:52; Matt 23:14], but they have caused them to lose the way of truth, which says in the Gospel, "I am the way and the life and the truth" [John 14:6].
17. (3:13–14a) The Lord stands to judge, and he stands to judge the people. (14) The Lord will come for judgment with the elders (senibus) of his people and with their rulers.
226 Cf. Eus Is 30 (24, 15–8).
227 Porphyry (232–05), a disciple of Plotinus, was a prestigious Neoplatonic philosopher and historical critic, who in 268 wrote in fifteen books a ferocious attack, entitled Against the Christians, in which he tried to point out the contradictions in the Christian Scriptures. He was refuted by Eusebius, Methodius, and Apollinaris, whose works were known to Jerome. Cf.
Porph., Chr. 97.
228 Cf. Eus Is 30 (24, 20–2).
229 Notice how Jerome calls this "euterocanonical"book "oly Scripture."
The people who were deceived because of simplicity and inexperience are still called the people of God, and the reason they are judged is in order that they may be saved. The Lord does not sit in the state of one judging, as we read in Daniel: "Thrones were set in place and the books were opened" [Dan 7:9–10]; but he stands to judge, and he stands in order to judge the people, wanting them to stand, whose way had been destroyed. Against the rulers, however, and the elders (presbyteros) of his people he comes for judgment, so that he does not judge but is equally judged. He gives them an opportunity for defense, in case they may have anything to say in response, in accordance with what is said in the fiftieth Psalm: "That you may be judged in your words and conquer when you are judged" [Ps 51:4]. In the prophet Micah too, we read something like this, which we have translated in its own passage [cf. Mic 6:1–2].330 Therefore, the present passage is interpreted as being against the Pharisees and the δευτερωτας.331 I think that the [difference] that now exists between the priests (presbyteros) and bishops existed between the elders (senes) and rulers in the ancient people.
18. (3:14b–15) For you have devoured my vineyard; the plunder of the poor is in your house.
(15) Why do you wear down my people and soften, or crush, the faces of the poor? And as the Septuagint translated, "confound."
He preserves prophetic usage in that he suddenly changes the personas; for above the Lord himself had said, "O my people, they who call you blessed, themselves deceive you" [Isa 3:12]; afterward the prophet had added, "The Lord stands to judge; the Lord will come for judgment"
[Isa 3:13–14]. Therefore, after the prophet, the Lord himself, who had come for judgment with the elders of his people and with its rulers [cf. Isa 3:13–14a], speaks to them and rebukes the transgressors: Why do you consume my vineyard, of which it is written, "You have transferred the vineyard from Egypt" [Ps 80:8]? And in this same prophet, "The vineyard of the Lord
Sabaoth is the house of Israel" [Isa 5:7]. And in the Gospel the Lord leased this vineyard to wicked farmers who killed the householder's son who had been sent to them [cf. Matt 21:33–
39].
The plunder of the poor, he says, is in your houses. Understand poor either literally, he who is in need of alms, or possibly the "poor in spirit" [cf. Matt 5:3], of whom it is written, "Blessed is he who thinks about the needy and the poor" [Ps 41:1]. And the Apostle Paul says, "Only that we should remember the poor" [Gal 2:10].
And what follows is clearly addressed to the rulers of the Jews: Why do you wear down my people and soften, or "confound," the faces of the poor? But it can also refer to our rulers, if they wear down the people subject to them and publicly rebuke and "confound" the poor who 330 Cf. Jerome, In Michaeam 2.
331 The Greek word deuterotes means "epeater"(deuterosis = "epetition" and refers to scholars who memorized texts of the Mishna and recited them in the colleges before the Rabbis. Cf.
Braverman, Jerome' Commentary on Daniel: A Study of Comparative Jewish and Christian
Interpretation of the Hebrew Bible (Washington, DC: Catholic Biblical Association, 1978), 7;
Jerome, Commentary on Habakkuk 2:15–7; Ep.
; Eusebius,
PE 11.5
(513C; M21.825B); M. J.
Hollerich, Eusebius of Caesarea'
Commentary on Isaiah:
Christian Exegesis in the Age of
Constantine (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1999), 145–3.
transgress, but do not dare even to make a sound332 against those who commit worse sins. And the plunder of the poor is in their houses, when they replenish their treasures and use333 the wealth of the church for pleasures, and they either keep for themselves public donations, which were given to support the poor, or they distribute them to their neighbors and turn someone else's poverty into their own wealth and that of their family.
19. (3:16) And the Lord said, Because the daughters of Zion have been lifted up and have walked with outstretched necks and were going along with wanton glances of their eyes and were clapping and walking and moving their feet with a composed gait.
Above both the prophet and the Lord had chastised the people and the rulers [cf. Isa 3:13–
14a]. Now the prophetic discourse turns to the women of whom he had previously said, "And women have lorded over them" [Isa 3:12]. This is to prevent them from thinking that they are free from fault, on account of whose pleasures and excess the exactors have devoured the Lord's vineyard; and the plunder of the poor is in their houses, and they have worn down his people and confounded the faces of the poor [cf. Isa 3:14–15].
Some think these truly are Jewish women, others think that it is said metaphorically about the cities of Judea, that is to say, smaller cities, towns, and villages, which are called daughters of Zion. This is also why in the Book of Joshua the names of cities are recorded according to individual tribes, and later on villas and strongholds are described, and they are named daughters [cf. Josh 15:20–63].
Others think that the women refer tropologically to souls, which, if they walk with an outstretched neck and raise themselves up in pride, and if they have not pursued masculine toughness, but the dissoluteness that is associated with females, they are chastised by the prophetic words and lose all the adornments of the virtues. These are described under the terms "little crescent moons, necklaces, chains and bracelets, headbands and head dresses" and other things of this sort [cf. Isa 3:18–20].
One should also make use of this testimony against women of the church who walk with an outstretched neck, who speak with wanton glances of the eyes, who clap both hands and feet, and who do not follow the lead of nature, but hire actors as their trainers in order to be able to walk with a composed gait.
20. (3:17) The Lord will make bald the crown of the head of the daughters of Zion and he will expose their hair, and in place of adornment there will be shame.
This will also happen to us whose sins are concealed, when what is written is fulfilled:
"There is nothing hidden that will not be revealed" [Luke 8:17]. For as long as we are covered with the hair and garment of ignorance, and people think that we are whitewashed tombs, we who on the inside are full of the bones of dead men [cf. Matt 23:27], we seem to have some cleanness. But when what is hidden is laid bare, all long hair will be removed and a hideous baldness will be apparent to everyone.
332 Muttum, var. mu. "e does not even dare say mu"(μηδὲγρὺφθέγγεται) is an ancient adage referring to those who are too frightened to utter a sound. According to Erasmus of Rotterdam, it originated because mutes can make no sound except mu. Cf. Desiderius Erasmus, Adages I, viii, 2.
333 Abutuntur, which also means "isuse."
21. (3:18a) On that day the Lord will take away the apparel of shoes.
On which day? The Jews think of the Babylonian captivity. We are convinced that it more truly refers to the time when they were captured by the Romans and they lost all the adornments of clothing and jewels, gold and necklaces, and various outfits; or using the metaphor of "women," he is narrating that all the apparel of the cities has been destroyed.
Understand the adornments of the cities as referring to streets and colonnades, the forum and the gymnasia, and the city walls.
If we refer these things to the condition of souls, let us recall that we have read that the one who is about to consume the flesh of the lamb and celebrate the Passover has shoes on his feet
[cf. Exod 12:11], and neither the clothing nor the shoes of those who passed through the desert wore out [cf. Deut 29:5].334 Which shoes does this refer to? The same ones of which the Apostle writes to the Ephesians, "Have your feet shod in the readiness of the gospel of peace" [Eph
6:15]. These shoes of the soul will perish when they have walked with an outstretched neck [cf.
Isa 3:16] and have dragged garments under their feet, so that in place of the cleanliness of a matron, they sweep the filth of the ground.
22. (3:18b–20) And little crescent moons (19) and chains and necklaces and bracelets and headbands, (20) headdresses and anklets and little fish necklaces and little scent bottles and earrings and rings and jewels hanging on the forehead.
He is describing women's necklaces, and by this means the adornment of cities, or, anagogically, the jewelry of various virtues. Women have little round amulets hanging down that resemble the moon, which we transfer to the adornment of the church, which is illuminated by the sun of justice [cf. Mal 4:2]. They have chains that hang down to the chest.
These point to the intelligence and principal part of the mind in the heart. The necklaces signify all the jewelry with a single word, and the good works of bracelets are those of the sort that Rebecca received at her betrothal [cf. Gen 24:22, 30, 47]. They have headbands, jewelry for the head, and headdresses, so that it might have the ability to make judgments about particular things. They have περισκελιδας (anklets) with which our gait is adorned, and we hear, "Your foot will not stumble" [cf. Ps 17:5; 91:12; 116:8; Prov 3:6, 23]; and, "He will keep my feet from falling" [cf. Ps 56:13]; and the little fish-shaped ornaments that are woven from strands of gold and silver, that is to say, from the meaning and words of the Scriptures. They have little scent bottles, in order that we may be a good aroma of Christ [cf. 2 Cor 2:15; Isa 33:15]; and earrings, lest we should hear a judgment of blood, but the words of the Lord who says, "He who has ears to ear, let him hear" [cf. Matt 11:15; Luke 8:18]; and the rings with which we are sealed for the Lord's army, a ring that God the Father sealed [cf. John 6:27]. This is why it is said to the prince of Tyre, "You are a seal of resemblance" [cf. Ezek 28:12]. The prodigal son too received a ring along with a robe and shoes [cf. Luke 15:22]—and jewels hanging on his forehead with which our countenance is adorned, concerning whose head's adornment we also read in the psalm:
"As oil on the head, which comes down on the beard, the beard of Aaron" [Ps 133:2].
Although the Septuagint translators, as well as Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion translated all these things in different ways, we have expressed them as we were able, either from the Hebrew or from their translations. We do not want to delay any longer in the details,
334 Cf. Bas Is 125 (321A).
lest it become a frivolous exposition and tedious for the intelligent reader.
23. (3:22) And changes of apparel and short cloaks and linen cloths. For linen cloths the Septuagint translated, "transparent Spartan dresses." They wanted to signify the very thin clothes with which the bodies of Spartans were covered, who were always ready for war and were of a rather austere life, although neither the Hebrew nor any other of the translators has
"Spartan." But changes of apparel and short cloaks, which Symmachus translated quite meaningfully as αναζολαια, are adornments on women's clothing with which the shoulders and chest are covered.
Anagogically, changes of apparel are those things of which it is said, "They will go from strength to strength" [Ps 84:7]; and the linen cloths, so that when we have been washed we may enjoy delights in the Lord in accordance with what is written in the Psalms: "And you will give them to drink of the torrent of your pleasure" [Ps 36:8]. But the daughters of Zion lost all of these things, because they walked with an outstretched neck [cf. Isa 3:16] and harbored arrogance with wanton glances of their eyes, thinking that what they had was by their own power, and not by the Lord's grace.
24. (3:22–23) And hairpins (23) and mirrors and fine linen and headbands and summer garments.
Women have hairpins with which the framework of their ornate hair is held together, lest it flow too loosely and one or two stray hairs might escape. They also have mirrors in which they stare at their faces and, if they see anything missing, they add it to their adornment. They have fine linens, which are called scarves; and headbands with which their hair is bound, which they call ταινιας. And they have summer garments, which we can call skirts, in which even Rebekah was wrapped [cf. Gen 24:65],335 and even today the women of Arabia and Mesopotamia are covered. In Hebrew these are called ardidim, in Greek θεριστρα, from the fact that in the θερει, that is, in the summer and scorching heat, they cover the bodies of females.
The daughters of Zion, then, have lost their hairpins on account of pride, the pins with which the rule of all the precepts were being bound. They lost their mirrors, which in Exodus the women waiting at the door of the tabernacle offered for the construction of the Lord's laver [cf.
Exod 38:8]. Even the Apostle Paul spoke of these: "But we see now through a mirror obscurely"
[1 Cor 13:12]. They lost their fine linens and headbands with which they were covering their shoulders and binding their mind from flowing here and there, and their summer garments, a very protective shade-giving piece of clothing with which they were covered in the summertime. We are saying these things in order that we should not seem to be entirely avoiding the tropology of this passage. However that may be, it is a matter of very great effort to linger in the details and to look for an expansive explanation.
25. (3:24a–b) And instead of a sweet smell there will be a stench, and instead of a girdle, a cord.
The one who says, "My sores have become putrid and corrupt because of my foolishness"
[Ps 38:5], regrets the stench of his sins. The Apostle commanded the loins to be wrapped with a girdle, saying, "Stand firm, having girded your loins in the truth" [Eph 6:14]. And we read of the 335 He may have meant Tamar; cf. Gen 38:14. Cf. Bas Is 129 (328C).
sinner, "Each one is bound in the ropes of his own sins" [Prov 5:22].336 Therefore, instead of the good smell of the virtues, the daughters of Zion will have the stink of sins; and instead of the belt of truth, they will be bound with the cords of falsehood, which those had on their heads who were praying with sackcloth and filth for the life of the king of Syria [cf. 1 Kgs 20:31–32].
26. (3:24d) And in place of a chest wrap, haircloth. For chest wrap, which is Symmachus's translation, the Septuagint translated μεσοπορφυραν tunic, that is, a tunic furnished with a purple stripe, which Aquila expressed as "sash of exultation." Theodotion recorded the very
Hebrew word itself, phthigil, which is a kind of feminine adornment.
A wrap covers the chest and occupies that place in females that reason holds among chief priests [cf. Exod 28:29]. Jeremiah too spoke of this chest wrap in mystical words: "If a bride can forget her adornment or a virgin her chest wrap, I also will forget you, says the Lord" [Jer 2:32].
The Apostle desires that we present ourselves to Christ as a virgin of this sort [cf. 2 Cor 11:2], as long as she is not corrupted in Egypt and her breasts are not touched [cf. Ezek 23:3, 21], which were fastened with the chest wrap; and she is joined to the bridegroom; and although she daily bears the sons of the virtues, by no means does she cease being a virgin. But if she ever spreads her legs to every passerby [cf. Ezek 16:25] and follows her own lovers [cf. Hos 2:7], and, according to the prophecy of Hosea, the Lord has fenced in her ways and closed off her paths
[cf. Hos 2:6], she will return to her former husband and will hear, "Put off the garment of mourning and put on clothing of your glory" [Bar 5:1].
27. (3:25) The fairest of your men also will fall by the sword, and your strong ones in battle.
For fairest men, the Septuagint translated, "And your fairest son, whom you love, will fall by the sword."
But if we understand this concerning the condition of the soul that has committed sin after being virtuous, we may understand its "fairest son" as good works, which have fallen to an enemy's sword, and that the strong ones too have perished in battle, because "the justice of the just man will not deliver him on whichever day he goes astray" [Ezek 33:12]. But if we follow the historical narrative, we will be taught from these words that the words of the prophet are not about women whose husbands have fallen in battle, but about cities of Judea that he has called daughters of Zion and whose warriors have fallen in combat. After all, the little verse that follows speaks about the same Zion.
28. (3:26) And her gates will mourn and grieve and the city itself will sit desolate on the ground, which we perceive with our eyes up to the present day.
A tropological interpretation is easy, that whoever gives room to the devil [cf. Eph 4:27; Prov
4:23] and does not guard his heart with all watchfulness, his gates mourn, and while the bridegroom is absent, he is always in mourning [cf. Matt 9:15; Mark 2:20], and falling from the heights he sits in the dust of the ground.
29. (4:1) And on that day seven women will seize one man, saying, "We will eat our own bread, and be covered with our own clothes; only let us be called by your name. Take away our reproach."
Since the fairest [men] of the city of Jerusalem will have fallen by the sword [cf. Isa 3:25–26], and the strong will have perished in battle; and her gates will have mourned and fallen apart;
336 Cf. Bas Is 131 (329C).
and she will have become desolate on account of the extreme scarcity of men, with her warriors having been killed, seven women will seize one man, desiring to have offspring in Zion and family members in Jerusalem [cf. Isa 31:9]. They will claim to have their own clothing and food, only let them not seem to be without a husband and be subject to that curse which is written,
"Cursed is the barren woman and she who does not produce offspring in Israel" [cf. Exod 23:26;
Deut 7:14]. Zechariah too agrees with this sense: "In those days ten men from all the languages of the nations will seize the hem of a Jewish man, saying: 'We will go with you, for we have heard that God is with you' " [Zech 8:23]. The numbers seven and ten are familiar to the Jews on account of the Sabbath and the ten commandments of the law, and therefore they use them frequently, although according to the ambiguity of Hebrew speech, which translates the word saba sometimes "seven," sometimes "many," sometimes "oath," it is possible that in this passage it does not mean seven but "many." This is [said] according to the letter.
However that may be, at the coming of the Lord and Savior, seven women, that is, seven holy spirits of grace,337 will seize Jesus, whom they had desired for a very long time, because they were able to find no one else, in whom they could rest at an eternal stopping point. Of [these spirits], the same prophet will say in what follows, "There will come forth a shoot from the root of Jesse and a flower will rise up out of his root; and the Spirit of God will rest upon him, a spirit of wisdom and understanding, a spirit of counsel and fortitude, a spirit of knowledge and piety; and the spirit of the fear of God will fill him" [Isa 11:1–3]. This is also why
John the Baptist relates in the Gospel, "And he who sent me himself said to me: 'Upon whom you see the Holy Spirit descending and remaining in him, he is the one' " [John 1:33]. In Zechariah too we read that there were seven eyes upon one stone [cf. Zech 3:9] and in one golden candlestick there were seven lamps and seven pouring vessels [cf. Zech 4:2], and two olive trees founded with solid roots on each side of the lamp [cf. Zech 4:3, 12]. Now that the grace of the Holy Spirit possesses all things does not require an explanation. But because she always suffered reproach among men, since no one lived as the gifts of the Holy Spirit demanded, for this reason they desire that the name of Jesus be invoked upon them, so that what had been incomplete in the law might be fulfilled in the gospel.
30. (4:2–3) On that day the sprout of the Lord will be in magnificence and in glory, and the fruit of the earth lofty, and there will be exultation for those who will be saved from Israel. (3)
And it will be: all who will be left in Zion and remain in Jerusalem will be called holy, all who are written in life in Jerusalem.
When the daughters of Zion will have destroyed every adornment on account of pride [cf.
Isa 3:16, 18], and when her gates have mourned and wept [cf. Isa 3:26] and she herself has fallen desolate, and all her warriors have perished in battle [cf. Isa 3:25], to such an extent that a number of women will hardly be able to have one husband [cf. Isa 4:1]; at that time the sprout of the Christian name will arise, and the earth will give its fruit; and there will be exultation for those who will be saved from Israel. It was also spoken of them above, "If the Lord Sabaoth had not left us a seed, we would have been like Sodom and we would have become like Gomorrah"
[Isa 1:9].338 And note that not all Israel will be saved, but a remnant of the people of Zion and 337 Cf. Eus Is 31 (26, 7–1); Bas Is 134 (336B–); Jerome
Is Hom
3 .
338 Cf. Eus Is 32 (26, 25–9; 27, 4–).
those who remain in Jerusalem, everyone who is written in life in Jerusalem, to whom the Lord said, "Rejoice because your names are written in heaven" [Luke 10:20].339 Now this signifies the apostles and those who have believed through the apostles.
31. (4:4) When the Lord will cleanse the filth of the daughters of Zion and wash the blood of Jerusalem from its midst by a spirit of judgment and a spirit of burning, then a remnant from Israel will be saved, when their sins will be forgiven them in the baptism of the Savior,440 and that blood is washed away that the erring people invoked upon themselves: "May his blood be upon us and upon our sons" [Matt 27:25]. Hence we read above, "When you stretch out your hands, I will not hear you, for your hands are covered with blood" [Isa 1:15]. And later, summoning them to repentance, he adds, "Be washed, be clean" [Isa 1:16].
Observe also that he will wash the filth of the daughters of Zion by a spirit of judgment, but the blood of Jerusalem by a spirit of burning. For what is light is washed, but what is heavier is burned off. John the Baptist spoke about this spirit of judgment and spirit of burning in the Gospel:441 "I baptize you in water, but the one who comes after me will baptize you in the Holy
Spirit and fire" [Matt 3:11]. From this we learn that man provides only the water, but God supplies the Holy Spirit, by means of whom both the filth is washed away and the sins of blood are purged.
32. (4:5a–b) And the Lord will create upon every place of Mount Zion, and where he is called upon, a cloud by day and smoke and the brightness of a flaming fire at night.
For in Christ there is a new creation, of which we read elsewhere, "Old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new" [2 Cor 5:17].442 The Septuagint translated this, "And he will come, and there will be every place of Mount Zion, and by day a cloud will cover everything that is round about it, and the light of a flaming fire at night." But who will come, if not him of whom it is written, "He who delivers will come from Zion" [Isa 59:20; cf. Rom 11:26], and of whom another prophet records, "Still a little while, he who is coming will come and will not delay"? [cf. Heb 10:37; Isa 26:20; Hab 2:3].443 When he comes, their former happiness that they once had in the desert will be restored to the people, when the Lord went ahead of them by day in the pillar of cloud and by night in the pillar of fire, so that at no time were they disturbed, either in prosperity or in adversity [cf. Exod 13:21].444 For it is also said in the psalm,
"The sun will not burn you by day, nor the moon by night" [Ps 121:6].
Now according to the opinion of some, smoke in this passage does not signify error and ignorance, but glory, in accordance with what we will read in this same prophet: "And the house was filled with smoke" [Isa 6:4]. And in Joel it is said concerning the grace of the Holy Spirit that came down upon the apostles, "I will pour out from my Spirit and they will prophesy, and I will give prodigies in the sky above and signs in the earth below, blood and fire and the fume of smoke" [Joel 2:29–30; cf. Acts 2:18–19]. I think that the following words in the Psalms signify
339 Cf. Bas Is 136 (340B).
440 Cf. Eus Is 32 (27, 3–9, 26–2; 28, 1–).
441 Cf. Bas Is 137 (340D–41A) 442 Cf. Eus Is 32 (28, 9–1).
443 Cf. ibid. (28, 5–).
444 Cf. ibid. 32 (28, 15–5).
this same thing: "He who touches the mountains and they will smoke" [Ps 104:32].
33. (4:5c–6) But [there will be] protection over all the glory. (6) And there will be a tabernacle for shade in the daytime from the heat and for a security, and cover from the storm and from rain.
The Jews refer this passage to the antichrist, whom they think is signified by storm and tempest, when the Lord will defend them from their most powerful adversary. But we should refer everything to the first coming of Christ, of which we read in the Psalms, "He covered me in the hidden part of the tabernacle; he lifted me to the rock" [Ps 27:4–5]. The church [is] founded upon this rock and is struck by no tempest; it is undermined by no storm and winds [cf. Matt
7:24–27; 16:18].445 Most of the Jews interpret both these things and everything with which these things are associated with reference to the Babylonian captivity and the return to Jerusalem under Zerubbabel, Ezra, and Nehemiah.
34. (5:1a) I will sing to my beloved a song of my cousin, of his vineyard.
The prophet sings a sorrowful song to the people of Israel, which that one composed of whom it is written in the Gospel, "But when he saw it," doubtless referring to Jerusalem, "he wept over it and said, 'If only you knew what things are for your peace; for they will come upon you and your enemies will put fortifications around you and will heap up an embankment about you, and they will level you and your sons' " [Luke 19:41–44]. And again, "How often have I desired to gather your sons like a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling! Behold, your house will be left deserted" [Matt 23:37–38]. This is similar to what is now being said in this song: "I will leave my vineyard" [cf. Isa 5:5–6].
But the heading of the forty-fourth Psalm teaches us that Christ may be called beloved and most dear, which Aquila translated πατραδελφον, "father's brother" or "cousin": "A song for the beloved" [Ps 45:1]. Moreover there is the voice of God the Father in the Gospel: "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased" [Matt 3:17]. We also read in the sixty-seventh
Psalm, "The Lord will give the word to those who preach the good news with great virtue. The king of the virtues of the beloved" [Ps 68:11–12]. This beloved, therefore, made a mournful song for his vineyard, one that I will sing to my beloved and to my miserable people. Or possibly it should be understood as follows: "I will sing to almighty God the Father a song of Christ, who is my cousin," that is, begotten with me from the same race.
But that the people of Israel is called the vineyard of God,446 we read even at the end of this song: "The vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel and the man of Judah his pleasant sprout" [Isa 5:7]. And in the seventy-ninth Psalm: "You have transferred a vineyard from Egypt, you have expelled nations and planted it" [Ps 80:8]. In the Gospel too, the Lord devises a parable in nearly the same words with which the prophet is now speaking: "There was a certain householder who planted a vineyard and put a wall around it and dug a wine press in it and built a tower and leased it to farmers" [Matt 21:33], and so on. And in Jeremiah we read, "I planted you as a fruitful vineyard, completely true; how did you turn to bitterness, a foreign vineyard?" [Jer 2:21].
And so, Jerusalem mourns, as we have said, and her collapse is being sung by the words of 445 Cf. ibid. 32 (28, 11–3).
446 Cf. Bas Is 140 (345D–48A).
the prophet. On the other hand, for the church and for the former people of the nations, another song has been published, of which we read in the Psalms: "Sing to the Lord, all the earth, declare his salvation day by day. Announce his glory among the nations and his marvelous works among all peoples" [Ps 96:2–3]. And again: "Sing to the Lord a new song, because he has done marvelous works. The Lord has shown his salvation, in the sight of the nations he has revealed his justice" [Ps 98:1–2].
35. (5:1b) My beloved had a vineyard on a horn by a son of oil. Theodotion and Aquila translated it this way in accordance with the Hebrew. Symmachus rendered it more clearly, however, as is his custom: "My beloved had a vineyard on a horn in the midst of olive trees."
Moreover, the Septuagint translated the sense rather than the word: "My beloved had a vineyard on a horn in a fertile," or abundant, "place," for πιων signifies both.
And indeed there is nothing more fertile than the promised land, if you consider not each individual mountain and desert, but its entire breadth, from the stream of Egypt to the great river Euphrates toward the east, and to the northern region up to the Taurus mountain and the area west of Cilicia, which overlooks the sea. Now we read that horn often signifies kingdom and power, as for example the following passage in the Gospel: "He has raised up a horn of our salvation in the house of David his son" [Luke 1:69]. And: "In you we will agitate our enemies with a horn" [Ps 44:5]. And in Zechariah four horns point to four very powerful kingdoms [cf.
Zech 1:18–21].447
The Hebrews explain this passage in the following way: the Messiah's vineyard is planted on a horn, that is, in a strong and lofty location, which is called "son of oil," either because he needs God's mercy and is sustained by his aid, or because he will offer the clear light of the knowledge of God to all the nations.448
36. (5:2a–b) And he fenced it in, and picked the stones out of it, and planted the vineyard of Sorec, and he built a tower in the middle of it and he constructed a winepress in it.
As we have said previously, he is describing the Jewish people using the metaphor of a vineyard,449 whom he fenced in with the help of angels [cf. Deut 32:8]. And he picked the stones out of them, either idols or anything that could have hindered the worship of God. And he planted this vineyard of Sorec, which Symmachus alone translated "chosen," expressing it not word-for-word, as it seems to me, but the meaning that is contained in the word. For the Hebrews say that sorec is a kind of excellent vine, which produces an abundant and perpetual harvest. After all, sorec is translated by some καλλικαρπος, which we can render into "most lovely harvest."550 He also built a tower in its midst, namely the temple in the middle of the city, and he constructed a winepress in it, which some think signifies the altar. For just as all grapes are carried to a winepress and crushed, so that wine may be pressed out of them, so the altar receives the harvest of all the people and consumes the sacrifices that are offered. It is in accordance with this fact that we read about Benjamin, in whose tribe the temple and altar were located, "Benjamin is a ravenous wolf; he will devour in the morning and will give food
447 Cf. Jerome, In Zachariam 1.
448 Oil was used in lamps, making it a symbol of light.
449 Cf. Eus Is 33 (29, 18–9).
550 Cf. ibid., 33 (29, 31–0, 2).
toward the evening" [Gen 49:27].
Everything that is said of the vineyard can be applied to the condition of the human soul, which though planted by God in the good has not brought forth grapes, but wild grapes, and afterward it is handed over to beasts to be trampled [cf. Isa 5:4–6]. It did not receive the divine rain of doctrines, because it despised the gifts that it silently neglected.
37. (5:2c) And I waited for it to produce grapes and it produced wild grapes. For wild grapes, as we have translated, busim is written in Hebrew, which Aquila translated σαπριας, that is,
"rotten harvest." Symmachus rendered it ατελη, that is, "not complete." The Septuagint and Theodotion translated it "thorns," with which the Jews crowned the Lord.551 For while he was waiting to bring grapes to the winepress at the time of vintage, from which the eighth, eightieth and eighty-third Psalms receive their titles [cf. Ps 9:1; 81:1; 84:1], they immersed themselves in the cares and vices of the age, which are translated "thorns" in the Gospel [cf. Matt 13:7, 22;
Mark 4:7]. They offered him the pointy pricks of their blasphemies [cf. Matt 27:39–41]. Now I think that busim is better understood as "wild grapes" than "thorns," so that the similarity of the comparison that was begun may be preserved. This is also why the Savior says in the Gospel, "Do they gather grapes from thorns, or figs from thistles?" [Matt 7:16].552
38. (5:3–4) Now, therefore, inhabitant of Jerusalem and man of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard; (4) what more should I have done for my vineyard that I have not done for it?
Or what have I waited for, that it should produce grapes and it produced wild grapes?
He says, I have done everything that I was obligated [to do], I planted the vineyard in a very fertile location, I surrounded it with a wall, I picked out the stones and I set up threshing flails for it by means of spears and rods [cf. Isa 5:2]. The very vine too was not one of many, but chosen and καλλικαρπος. I built a very strong tower in which I stored up the crop and from which I could observe beasts lying in ambush for the crops. I built a winepress chiefly so that in the same location grapes could be pressed and pour out their wine. Since, then, I did what I was obligated to do, let the inhabitants of Jerusalem and Judah answer me; nay rather, let them judge between me and my vineyard: What is there that I should have done that I did not do?
And when they are silent, he will answer for himself, Perhaps I erred in this: I expected for my effort that it would produce grapes, not wild grapes, which an uncultivated vine of the desert was accustomed to produce.
Even Nathan the prophet who was sent to David says something like this when he questions him by means of a parable. This was done in order that while David is judging the case of another, he might pronounce his own verdict [cf. 2 Sam 12:1–6].553 So then, here too the people are questioned as though about a vineyard, in order that they may respond against themselves.
The Savior pursues this passage in more detail in the Gospel, and what is here passed over in silence, he asks of the scribes and Pharisees. For in Isaiah nothing is said about farmers, nor is it indicated what they will suffer, but the words are only about a vineyard; but in the Gospel passage, he speaks in such a way about the people and teacher, as though they are another vineyard and other farmers, so that he may destroy the bad badly and lease the vineyard to 551 Actually, it was the Roman soldiers who did this; cf. Matt 27:29.
552 Cf. Bas Is 142 (352A).
553 Cf. ibid., 143 (352A).
other farmers [cf. Matt 21:33–41]. The latter signifies the apostles and those who will succeed the apostles.
But in fact there is no tautology, as many think, in what he says: Or what have I waited for, that it should produce grapes and it produced wild grapes? For above he is speaking quietly to himself, but here he is asking others what he had thought.
39. (5:5–6a–b) And now I will show you what I will do to my vineyard: I will take away its hedge, and it will be laid waste. I will break down its wall, and it will be trodden down. (6) And I will appoint it for desolation. It will not be drunk, and it will not be dug, and briers and thorns will come up over it.
Above, he says, I have provoked you, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of the tribe of Judah [cf. Isa 5:3–4], to judge between me and my vineyard; and I asked that you say what I should have done that I did not do [cf. Isa 5:4]. And since, according to the parable in the Gospel
[cf. Mark 12:9; Luke 20:15], you are unwilling to respond to what I am asking, I will answer for you on my own behalf and reveal what I will do: Since I have done everything for my vineyard that I was obligated to do [cf. Isa 5:4], and instead of grapes it bore wild grapes, I will remove everything that I had given it. I will take away the help of angels, of which it is written in the Psalms, "The angel of the Lord surrounds those who fear him and will deliver them" [Ps 34:7],554 and it will be laid waste by adversaries. I will destroy the walls, and it will be subject to hostile nations and will be deserted and will not be drunk for ever; it will not be dug, so that it is reduced to briers, and thorns will come up in it.
Now these things are being said using the metaphor of a vineyard about the abandonment of Jerusalem and Judea. Most Jews think this happened under the Babylonians, and even we cannot deny that it has been accomplished in part. But because it follows, "And I will command the clouds not to rain upon it" [Isa 5:6c], this cannot be understood in connection with that captivity.555 For indeed, both Jeremiah prophesied among the people when the city was already captured, and Ezekiel and Daniel along with the three youths are said to have either prophesied or to have done marvelous signs even during the captivity. And later Haggai and Zechariah spoke of the future as a consolation to the enslaved people.
But God's help is taken away from those who are unworthy in order that, since they had not perceived God through his benefits, they may perceive him through his punishments. Or, the reason he threatens certain terrible and bitter things is in order that, when they have converted to penitence, they may escape the impending torments.
Everyone univocally translated the Hebrew word saith as thorns. If, therefore, saith is expressed as thorns in the present passage, according to Aquila, Theodotion, and the Septuagint, let them tell us why they [the Septuagint] translated busim above not wild grapes, but "thorns."
40. (5:6c) And I will command the clouds not to rain upon it.
These are the clouds that the Lord brought from the ends of the earth [cf. Ps 135:7], of which we also read in the Psalter, "Your truth extends to the clouds" [Ps 36:5]. These clouds did not rain upon the land of Israel for three years and six months, since all were idolaters during 554 Cf. ibid., 145 (356A).
555 Cf. Eus Is 33 (30, 34–1, 1).
the time of Elijah [cf. 1 Kgs 17:7; Luke 4:25; Jas 5:17]. We can indeed understand this not only about the prophets but about the apostles, because, after the passion of the Lord, the Jews had neither prophets nor apostles, lest they should have produced thorns for grapes [cf. Isa 5:2, 4].
But in view of their sterility and dryness they pleaded with him who is able to supply the rain of the virtues. This is even why in Leviticus he says to them, "I will make the sky iron for you and the earth bronze" [Lev 26:19]. And in Deuteronomy, "The sky over your head will be bronze and the earth below you iron" [Deut 28:23]. And again, "The Lord will give rain to your land" [Deut
28:24]. And, "Ash will come down from the sky upon you until it obliterates you and blots you out" [Deut 28:24].556 For land that "frequently receives the rain coming upon it" and does not produce a crop, but thorns and thistles, "is rejected and near to being cursed; its end is to be burned" [Heb 6:7–8].
41. (5:7a–b) Now the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are his delightful sprout, that is, "God's"; or, as the Septuagint translated, "very beloved plant."
Here is the difference between Israel and Judah. At first the entire people were called
Israel.557 Later, when David reigned over the tribe of Judah, and Rehoboam, son of Solomon, reigned over two tribes, Judah and Benjamin, those who were in Samaria, that is, the ten tribes, were called Israel; and those over whom they reigned from the family of David were called
Judah. And since Israel worshiped calves in Dan and in Bethel, for that reason Samaria was captured by the Assyrians first [cf. 2 Kgs 10:29; 17:6]; and after a long time Judah was led to Babylon by the Chaldeans, because they had committed lesser sins. And this is why in Ezekiel, for the cleansing of the sins of both peoples, Israel is placed on the left side, according to the Septuagint, for 190 days, or, as it is more truly contained in the Hebrew, 390 [cf. Ezek 4:5, 9]; but Judah for forty days [cf. Ezek 4:6].
I say this to show Judah lovable and beloved by comparison with Israel, in other words, with the ten tribes. In Judah there were priests and Levites, and the religion of God was practiced at that time when the prophet Isaiah was speaking to the people. And he says beautifully that Israel, that is the whole people, is the house. But Judah, who sprouted up later from separated tribes, is called a delightful sprout. Moreover, it should be noted that it is typical of prophetic usage later on to explain more clearly things that were first spoken metaphorically or in a parable. Thus he says that the vineyard and the young plant is Israel and Judah.
42. (5:7c) And I waited for it to produce judgment, and behold iniquity; and justice, and behold a cry. Or, as the Septuagint has translated, "I waited for it to produce judgment, and it produced iniquity, and not justice but a cry."
We want to introduce Latin ears to what we have learned from the Hebrews. Among them judgment is expressed as mesphat; iniquity, or "dissipation," as Aquila translated it, is mesphaa.
Moreover, justice is called sadaca; but cry is named saaca. Consequently by changing or adding one letter he has fittingly created a similarity between the words. Thus corresponding to mesphat he said mesphaa, and for sadaca he recorded saaca. Indeed in the Hebrew language he has produced an elegant construction and sound of the words.
556 Cf. Bas Is 148 (361B).
557 Cf. ibid., 149 (361C).
Now God waited for the Jewish people to produce judgment, that is, "grapes," and it produced iniquity, that is, "wild grapes" [cf. Isa 5:2, 4]; and he waited for justice, that they would receive the one sent from the Father to give them such great gifts, and they produced a cry (clamorem), whereby they shouted against the Lord and cried out, saying, "Take him away, take him away, crucify him" [John 19:15]. This is also why Paul the Apostle writes, "Let all wrath and crying (clamor) and slander be removed from you, together with all malice" [Eph 4:31].558
Or at any rate, since they had shed the blood of the just one, the blood of the Lord's passion was crying out to God, therefore they gave back a cry in place of justice, in accordance with what we read in Genesis: "The voice of the blood of Abel your brother cries out to me" [Gen
4:10].559
43. (5:8) Woe to you who join house to house and link field to field up to the end of the place. Will you alone dwell upon the earth? In place of what we have said, up to the end of the place, the Septuagint translated, "So that you may take it away from your neighbor."
Symmachus and Theodotion have, "until it fails," or "there is no place." Thus, even though the land runs out, their avarice is never sated.
I think that this statement is indeed spoken generally against everyone for whom nothing is enough. And in particular it is directed against the Lord's vineyard [cf. Isa 5:2, 4, 7], which produced "wild grapes" instead of "grapes"; that is, instead of "judgment," "iniquity," and instead of "justice," a "cry." For what sort of madness is it, when homes and fields ought to be had in order to ward off the rain and to sow crops, to desire to have all those in which you cannot dwell, and which you are not able to cultivate? To make another's necessity your pleasure?
In accordance with tropology, some think that this is spoken against the heretics, who when they moved their feet from the east, come to the field of Shinar [cf. Gen 11:2], which means
"knocking out the teeth," and they build a city of confusion and a tower of pride [cf. Gen 11:4]; and they hear in response (using the words of another), "Listen to these things, leaders of the house of Jacob and remnant of the house of Israel, you who abhor judgment and pervert everything that is straight, you who build Zion with blood and Jerusalem with iniquity" [Mic
3:9–10].660 They join houses to houses, that is, doctrines to doctrines. Micah says to them, "Do not build derision into a house" [Mic 1:10]. Otherwise, upon the foundation of Christ, which Paul the Apostle laid and on which they should have built gold, silver, and precious stones, they build instead wood, hay, and straw [cf. 1 Cor 3:10–12], whose end is for burning [cf. Heb 6:8].
Concerning houses of this sort the Savior says in the Gospel, "Everyone who hears my words and does not do them will be compared with a foolish man, who built his house upon sand. The rain came down, the rivers came, the winds blew and struck against that house, and it fell; and the collapse of that house was great" [Matt 7:26–27]. But the heretics seek to join new things to old and to change the old by means of more recent things, for as long a time as both the human meaning and words run out.
44. (5:9) These things of the Lord of hosts are in my ears, unless many great and fair houses
558 Cf. ibid. (364B).
559 Cf. Eus Is 33 (30, 25–7).
660 Cf. Bas Is 152 (368BC).
will become desolate, without an inhabitant. Instead of this, which we have rendered in accordance with the Hebrew as, These things of the Lord of hosts are in my ears, that is, the words that the Lord spoke still resound in my ears, the Septuagint translated, "These things have been heard in the ears of the Lord Sabaoth." Thus it is not that the prophet has heard the words of the Lord, but the things that the prophet will say were heard in the ears of the Lord, though it is more coherent to understand that the prophet heard what the Lord has spoken; but the Lord has said that after the captivity the great and very beautiful houses will be deserted, having no inhabitant.
45. (5:10) For ten acres of vineyards will yield one jar full, and thirty pecks of seed will yield three pecks. For jar full, which the Septuagint alone translated, all the others have translated
"bath," which is said in Hebrew as beth; and instead of thirty pecks, which we have recorded in place of "core," which is said in Hebrew as omer, the Septuagint rendered it, "six artabas," which is an Egyptian measure and amounts to twenty pecks.
In the extreme barrenness that follows the captivity, then, ten acres of vineyards will yield a "bath," that is, three jars full; and thirty bushels, that is, "cores," of seed will yield an ephah, which the Septuagint translated "three measures," that is, three pecks. Now a "bath" is said for liquids, and oephi, or ephah is the same measure for dry goods, just as in Ezekiel we read according to the Hebrew, "You will have a just oephi and a just bath. The oephi and the bath will be equal and of one measure, so that the bath contains the tenth part of a core, and the oephi the tenth part of a core; their weight will be equal according to the measure of a core" [Ezek
45:10–11] Anagogically, we ask how the houses of the heretics are great and fair, which will have no occupant when the time of judgment comes. For all the pomp and arrangement of words and dialectical arguments will be reduced to nothing. And since, according to the Apostle Paul, not only are we God's building, but also his field [cf. 1 Cor 3:9],661 which the heretics imitate and which are dug up and uprooted by Jeremiah [cf. Jer 1:10; 31:28], therefore, when ten acres of vineyards, or when ten yokes of oxen are working, they will yield one bath, and thirty pecks of seed will make an oephi, so that from the number of the denarius, which is mystical and perfect in the Holy Scriptures, and from the number "thirty" at which Ezekiel prophesied [cf. Ezek 1:1] and the Lord was baptized [cf. Luke 3:21, 23], they may be reduced to an oephi, which in comparison with multiples of the number, is constrained by a union.
Now in another passage as well, the Apostle Paul shows that the building and field should be referred to the spiritual understanding, when he testifies that believers have been rooted and founded in love [cf. Eph 3:17]. This is also why Ecclesiastes says that he not only built houses for himself, but planted vineyards and made gardens and orchards and established all fruit-bearing trees and created fishing ponds to irrigate the wooded areas [cf. Eccl 2:4–6]. On the other hand, heretics have only the likeness and shadow of the virtues, not the reality itself.
They promise the foliage of words without the fruit of works. The Lord says of their trees, "Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted" [Matt 15:13]. "For their vineyard is from the vineyard of Sodom, and their offspring is from Gomorrah. Their grape is the grape of gall, and their cluster one of bitterness, their wine is the rage of serpents and the 661 Cf. ibid., 153 (369BC).
incurable rage of asps" [cf. Deut 32:32–33].
46. (5:11–12) Woe to you who rise in the morning to follow drunkenness and to drink until evening, to be inflamed with wine. (12) The harp and the lyre, the drum and the flute, and wine in your feasts; and you do not regard the work of the Lord, nor do you consider the works of his hands. Instead of drunkenness, which Aquila and Symmachus translated, the Septuagint recorded the Hebrew word itself, sicera ("strong drink"), which signifies every drink that is capable of causing drunkenness and of disturbing one's state of mind.662
But in a way that is coherent with the comparison that was begun [cf. Isa 5:5–6], he rebukes the farmers of the vineyard who devoted themselves to excess and pleasures, when barrenness was threatening and when the burning was nearby, in which the briers and the thorns were to be burned. They did this not merely by their eating and drinking, but by their being attracted to gold too, and to various kinds of musical arts. When they do these things, they do not regard the work of the Lord nor do they consider what things are coming.
We may use this testimony against the rulers of the church who rise in the morning to pursue strong drink and drink till evening. In another passage it is said of them, "Woe to you, O city, whose king is young and your rulers feast in the morning" [Eccl 10:16]. While occupied with pleasures [cf. Eccl 5:19], they do not understand the Creator from the creatures [cf. Wis 13:5;
Rom 1:20] and they do not consider the works of his hands, of which we read, "By the word of the Lord were the heavens established and all their power by the breath663 of his mouth" [Ps
33:6].
According to a deeper understanding, every disturbance of the soul can be called drunkenness, which is conceived from the wine of the rage of serpents and from the incurable venom of asps [cf. Deut 32:32–33], which some drink from youth to old age, that is, from morning till evening. But others are roused from their feasting at the third hour, sixth or ninth, and eleventh [cf. Matt 20:3, 5, 6],664 and it is said to them, "Wake up, you who are drunk with wine" [Joel 1:5]. The Lord rained "sulfur and fire from the Lord" on this wine and on grapes and vineyards of this sort [cf. Gen 19:24], and whoever drinks of their665 wine [cf. Joel 1:5] is inflamed and burned.
He looks for a harp and a psaltery, whose inventor is Jubal [cf. Gen 4:21], who was born from the stock of Cain [cf. Gen 4:17–21]. He does not listen to the Lord who says to Aaron, "You and your sons will not drink wine and strong drink, when you enter into the tabernacle of testimony, or approach the altar" [Lev 10:9]. The king of Babylon had these harps and lyres, drum and flutes. When they played in unison the people of all nations were prostrated on the ground and worshiped the golden statue [cf. Dan 3:5].666
Now multiple testimonies could have taught us that the first period of human wisdom, when we leave childhood behind and come to the age of reason, is understood in the Scriptures as 662 Cf. ibid., 154 (372A).
663 Or "pirit."
664 Cf. Bas Is 160 (381A–).
665 Feminine, referring either to the grapes or the vineyards.
666 Cf. Bas Is 161 (381C).
morning.667 A few of these should be recorded as examples: "In the morning I sent the prophets" [Jer 25:4]; and: "In the morning you will hear my prayer. In the morning I will stand near you and see" [Ps 5:3–4]; and: "My spirit rises from the night" [Isa 26:9]; and: "God, my
God, I watch for you from the light" [Ps 63:1]; and: "In the morning I killed all sinners of the land, that I might destroy from the city of the Lord all who work iniquity" [Ps 101:8]; and in another passage: "Weeping will linger toward evening and gladness in the morning" [Ps 30:5]; and other things similar to these.
Now we rise from the morning when we abandon vices in childhood and are able to say,
"Remember not the sins of my youth and of ignorance" [Ps 25:7]. When the sun of justice has risen for us [cf. Mal 4:2], darkness is put to flight and at once we put to death all the thoughts that provoke us to sin [cf. Rom 8:13; Col 3:5]; and from the city of our mind we destroy those sinners [cf. Ps 101:8]668 of whom the Savior speaks: "From the heart proceed evil thoughts, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false testimony, blasphemy" [Matt 15:19], and so on. Now they are very wretched who from morning till evening are occupied with drunkenness, gluttony, and various pleasures, and who do not understand the works of the Lord within themselves and do not consider why they have been created.
47. (5:13) Therefore my people have been led captive, because they did not have knowledge, and their nobles perished with hunger and their multitude withered with thirst.
Both Greek and Latin history narrates that these things happened literally to the Jewish people under the Roman rulers Vespasian and Titus.669 And indeed they suffer these things spiritually today too, enduring a famine not of bread and a thirst not for water, but a famine for hearing the word of God [cf. Amos 8:11]. For they have not "regarded the work of the Lord," nor have they "considered the works of his hands" [Isa 5:12], nor have they had knowledge of him who always spoke through the prophets [cf. Heb 1:1]. This is also why in the Psalms it is said of them, "They will turn back toward evening and will suffer famine, so that even dogs will encircle the city" [Ps 59:14]. Now the following words of the Gospel show that the entire word of doctrine may be called bread and water: "Not by bread alone does man live, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God" [Matt 4:4; Luke 4:4]. And: "Whoever will drink of the water that I will give him, will not thirst forever" [John 4:13]. And in the Psalm it is said, "He has raised me on the waters of refreshment" [Ps 23:2]. This is also why the Lord does not want to leave the people hungry in the desert, lest they faint and collapse and die of famine [cf. Matt
15:32]. And it is said of the just man, "I was young and have become old, and I have not seen the just forsaken, nor his seed begging bread" [Ps 37:25].
Some maintain that the words My people have been led captive, because they did not have knowledge; and their nobles perished by famine and their multitude withered from thirst are to be interpreted in general of hell and Gehenna, in which all who do not have the knowledge of God will be punished.
48. (5:14–15) Therefore hell (infernus) has enlarged its soul and opened its mouth without any limit, and its strong ones and its people and its lofty and glorious ones will descend to it.
667 Cf. ibid. (384AB).
668 Cf. ibid., 163 (388AB).
669 Cf. Eus Is 35 (32, 1–); Bas Is 165 (389B–92A).
(15) And the human will be curved and man will be humbled, and the eyes of the lofty ones will be brought low.
Those who "rose in the morning to follow strong drink" [cf. Isa 5:11] and continued in drunkenness until evening, and being occupied with pleasure and delights were unwilling to have regard for the work of the Lord, and did not consider the works of his hands [cf. Isa 5:12], have been led into captivity for this reason, because they did not "have the knowledge" [cf. Isa
5:13] of the Son of God, when he says to them, "You know neither me nor him who sent me"
[John 8:19]. And in that very captivity they perished from famine and withered from thirst. This is why hell and death has enlarged its soul and opened its mouth, and it devoured without any number and satiety those deserving to be punished forever. Thus the rulers and people and lofty and glorious ones of the land of Judah descended to it and all pride was humbled and the eyes of the lofty ones were laid low, since they were mortals in their understanding; and everything is fulfilled in reality that the Lord announced through the prophets as things that were to come.
Now hell is said to have a soul, not because it is living, as some erroneously claim; but because we may express the state of insensible realities by means of words taken from human usage. The meaning is that it is insatiable and is never filled up by the multitude of the dead. It is similar to the way death is said [to be] under the command of the tongue [cf. Prov 18:21; Jas
3:5–9], and the way Almighty God says that his soul hates the Sabbaths and new moons of the Jews [cf. Isa 1:13–14].
Whatever we have said about the Jewish people can be referred by tropology to those who, while occupied with the delights of the age, do not have regard for the works of God and are led captive to sin and do not have the knowledge of God [cf. Isa 5:12–13]. And on that account they perish by the famine and thirst for good works and virtues, and they are dragged down to Gehenna. And there, destined for eternal tortures, they will perceive that their power and arrogance has been changed into misery and humiliation.
49. (5:16) And the Lord of hosts will be exalted in judgment, and the holy God will be sanctified in justice.
When the people are led captive, because they did not have knowledge, and perish by famine and wither from thirst, and when hell has enlarged its soul and the strong and lofty and glorious ones have descended into the depths, and the human will has been curved and man humbled [cf. Isa 5:13–15], and everyone has received in accordance with his merits; at that time the Lord will be exalted in judgment, whose judgment previously seemed to be unjust, and the Holy God will be sanctified by all in justice. Hence what is said in the Gospel is fulfilled: "Our
Father, who art in heaven, sanctified be thy name" [Matt 6:9], and: "Just Father, the world has not known you" [John 17:25].
This is why we ought to be careful not to anticipate God's judgment [cf. Wis 17:1], whose judgments are great and inexpressible, and of which the Apostle says, "His judgments are inscrutable and his ways beyond tracking down" [Rom 11:33], until that one illumines the secrets of darkness and reveals the thoughts of hearts [cf. 1 Cor 4:5], who says in the Gospel,
"Do not judge, so that you are not judged" [Matt 7:1]. With this thought the Apostle Paul is in agreement when he commands, "Who are you to judge another's servant? To his own master
he stands or falls. But he will stand; for God is able to make him stand" [Rom 14:4].
50. (5:17) And the lambs will feed according to their order, and strangers will eat the deserts turned into fruitfulness. In place of lambs feeding according to their order, which is understood in a good sense, the Septuagint, intending something or other, translated, "And they that were plundered will feed as bulls." They understood "bulls" in place of lambs, and again translated
"lambs" for strangers.
But when the Lord has been exalted in judgment [cf. Isa 5:16; John 12:31–32] and the Holy
One has been sanctified in his own justice, so that the wretched farmers perish wretchedly [cf.
Matt 21:41], and the exalted cedar is cut down by the Lord's axe [cf. Ps 37:35–36; Sir 24:17;
Matt 3:10], then those who have been in the number of the lambs, not of the goats [cf. Matt
25:32–33], will feed (pascentur) in the meadows of the church, and they will say, "The Lord is my shepherd (pascit), there is nothing I shall want" [Ps 23:1]. And the people of the Gentiles will eat those things that were deserted by the Jews and turned into fruitfulness. This is in accordance with tropology.
However that may be, in order to fill in the progression of history, the same thing is said in different words, of which we read above: "Strangers devour your region in your presence and it is deserted and overthrown by outside peoples" [Isa 1:7].770 For a multitude gathered from the whole world of nations lives in Judea, and when the former people were ejected, therefore a blindness in part has occurred to the house of Israel, resulting in the fullness of the nations stealthily entering in [cf. Rom 11:25]. And it is nicely said, in accordance with the Septuagint, that for the lambs to occupy the place of the bulls, they were "plundered" and laid waste and led into captivity as "bulls," of whom the Lord had said, "Fat bulls have beset me" [Ps 22:12].
51. (5:18–19) Woe to you who draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as the chain of a cart. (19) You who say, "Let him make haste and let his work come quickly, that we say see, and let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw near (appropiet) and come, and we will know it."
For chain of a cart, the Septuagint translated "thong of a heifer's" or cow's "yoke."
Now we quite frequently read that sins are called chains. For example, there is the following: "Each one is bound by the cords of his sins" [Prov 5:22]. And the Lord, when he rebukes the transgressing people, who were joining sins to sins, made a whip from cords [cf.
John 2:15] and shows them how they had made the house of God into a den of thieves [cf. Matt
21:13], and how they had turned the seat of prayer into a house of business [cf. John 2:16].
Also, the guest of the Lord's supper who does not have a wedding garment is bound by his hands and feet and thrown into the outer darkness [cf. Matt 22:11–13].771 And the Lord came in order to tell "those who were in chains, 'Come forth'; and those who were living in darkness,
'Be revealed' " [Isa 49:9; cf. John 11:43]. For he himself releases those in shackles and gives light to the blind [Ps 146:7–8], whom Jeremiah calls "those chained to the land" [cf. Lam 3:34]. He is not lamenting those who start to sin and immediately stop—for "there is no one just on earth, who does good and never sins" [Eccl 7:21]—rather, he is lamenting those who have dragged out their sins with a long cord.
This is why we even read in Numbers that a red cow, whose ashes are an expiation for the 770 Cf. Eus Is 35 (32, 12–7).
771 Cf. Bas Is 170 (400B–).
people, is not sacrificed and offered at the altar of the Lord unless it is one that has not done earthly tasks and has not drawn a yoke [cf. Num 19:2–10]. It has not been bound by the chains of the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar [cf. Jer 28:11]. And in this same prophet in place of a belt of truth [cf. Eph 6:14], the daughters of Zion are girded with a rope [cf. Isa 3:24]. Ahithophel too, and Judas, one of whom betrayed David [cf. 1 Chr 27:33; 2 Sam 15:12–17:4], the other the Lord
[cf. Matt 26:16; John 13:2], when dragging out their sins with a very long cord, perished by hanging [cf. 2 Sam 17:23; Matt 27:5]. They thought that the evil of conscience is finished by death in the present and that there is nothing after death.
Now what are called cords of vanity, in accordance with the Hebrew and all the other translators, signifies that it is easily woven together by those who commit sin, and it is as insubstantial and light as the weaving of a spider's web, but when we want to come forth from there, we are fettered by absolutely unbreakable chains.
Now those who recall what is written in Zechariah, that impiety sits upon a talent of lead [cf.
Zech 5:7–8], understand quite easily the cart that is full and loaded down with sins; and the Egyptians, who were pressed down by the heavy gear of sins, were drowned like lead in the Red
Sea [cf. Exod 15:10]. And in another passage a sinner says, "My iniquities have gone over my head; they have weighed me down like a heavy weight" [Ps 38:4].
But these things are said to the rulers of the Jews who up above were rebuked for avarice and luxury because, though they have been summoned by the Lord to penitence, and afterward by his apostles, they have persevered until today in their blasphemies. Moreover, in all their synagogues three times a day they anathematize [cf. Gal 1:8] the Christian name under the term of "the Nazarenes."772 But the sense is this: Woe to you who think that there will be no day of judgment, or that the captivity is not coming, which the prophetic discourse predicts, who say to the prophet, "How long do you threaten us with the wrath of God? We want to know it, let it come already." But they are saying this ironically, since they do not think that it will come, but that it is being made up by the prophet.
52. (5:20) Woe to you who call evil good and good evil; putting darkness for light and light for darkness; putting bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.
To call good light and sweet using opposite designations is the same crime as applying the names of the virtues to evil, darkness and bitter. This is directed against those who do not think it a sin to withdraw from the good, and do not consider it an offense to praise evil. Now the Jews put good for evil, and light for darkness, and sweet for bitter, when they received
Barabbas, the instigator of theft and sedition [cf. Matt 27:15–26],773 and crucified Jesus, who had come only for the lost sheep of the house of Israel [cf. Matt 15:24], to save what had perished [cf. Matt 18:11; Luke 19:10]. In Barabbas we may understand the devil, who, though he is night and darkness, is transfigured into an angel of light [cf. 2 Cor 11:14].774 This is also why
772 Justin,
Dialogue with Trypho
(ANF 1.202) reports that the Jews curse in their synagogues those who believe in Christ. Epiphanius, Pan 29.9.2, says that it was thrice a day that they cursed the Nazoraei. Cf. A. F. J. Klijn, "Jerome' Quotations from a Nazoraean Interpretation of Esaiah,"Recherches de Science Religieuse 60 (1972): 241–5.
773 Cf. Eus Is 37 (33, 4–).
774 Cf. Bas Is 175 (413A).
the Apostle says, "What fellowship does justice have with iniquity? What association does light have with darkness? What agreement does Christ have with Belial?" [2 Cor 6:14–15]. For a lamp must not be taken and placed under a basket or under a bed, but upon a lampstand, that it might give light to everyone [cf. Matt 5:15]. Nor should a tree that bears evil fruit be called by the designation of good tree [cf. Matt 7:16–20; 12:33–35]. This is why in Genesis it is said with mystical language that God separated the light from the darkness, which was being manifested
(ferebantur) over the abyss in the beginning [cf. Gen 1:4, 2]. But the Savior himself says in the Gospel that he is called good: "The good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep" [John 10:11].
He also claims to be light: "I am the light of the world" [John 8:12]; and every day when we have been filled with heavenly bread we say, "Taste and see how sweet is the Lord" [Ps 34:8]. On the other hand, when we say, "Deliver us from evil" [Matt 6:13]; and, "The world lies in the evil one" [1 John 5:19], we desire to be liberated from the devil's treachery. But we quite frequently read that he is signified by the terms of darkness and bitterness.
Moreover we can say that all doctrines that are contrary to the truth are bitter and the truth alone is sweet. This is why one must be on guard lest instead of truth we follow falsehood, lest instead of light we follow darkness. For there are many ways that seem right to men, and the worst of these reaches into the depths of hell [cf. Prov 14:12; 16:25].775 There is also the just man who perishes in his justice [cf. Eccl 7:16], to whom it is said, "Do not be overly just" [Eccl
7:17]. For these reasons Israel promises in return that she will walk on the royal way, not to turn aside to the left or to the right [cf. Num 20:17; Deut 5:32–33]. And to be honest, someone can be free from this curse only with difficulty, since we frequently kowtow to evils for the sake of power, and we despise what is good on account of the lack of resources. Hence Aquila has translated this quite meaningfully: "Woe to him who says to the evil [man]: You are good; and to good [man]: You are evil." And what Solomon says in the Proverbs agrees with this meaning:
"Whoever judges the just to be unjust, and the unjust man to be just, is abominable with the Lord" [Prov 17:15]. The scribes and the Pharisees too, by not receiving the words of the Savior, but the traditions of men [cf. Mark 7:8; Col 2:8] and old wives' tales [cf. 1 Tim 4:7], made good evil and evil good.
53. (5:21) Woe to you who are wise in your own eyes and prudent among your own selves.
He is saying, you who follow not God's but men's prudence seem to be wise to yourselves, and though you do not receive the power of God and the wisdom of God [cf. 1 Cor 1:18–25], you think that you are wise. According to the Stoics the difference between wisdom and prudence is this: that wisdom is the knowledge of human and divine things, whereas prudence is [the knowledge] only of mortal things.776 Now it is reasonable to see this as spoken against the scribes and Pharisees. Though they have the key of knowledge, they do not themselves enter to Christ nor do they permit others to enter [cf. Luke 11:52].
54. (5:22) Woe to you who are mighty at drinking wine and stout men at mixing strong drinks, that is, at drunkenness.
He is still speaking about those to whom he had said above, "Woe to you who rise up early in the morning to follow drunkenness and drink till the evening, so that you may be inflamed
775 Cf. ibid., 173 (408B).
776 Cf. Cicero,
De Offic
1.153
; Bas Is 176 (416A).
with wine" [Isa 5:11]. They are mighty at drinking wine and stout men at mixing strong drink.
Having been made drunk by the wine of the serpent and by the incurable venom of asps [cf.
Deut 32:33], they were faulted by the virtue of the Lord. And the drunks themselves were making the people drunk, so that while reveling (bacchantes) in the same frenzy, they shouted against the Lord.
We already said earlier that according to tropology the priests about to enter the tabernacle of God should not drink wine and strong drink [cf. Lev 10:9].777 To those things we now add that it is also commanded to the Nazarenes, who consecrate themselves to the Lord that they are not to drink or consume wine and strong drink and anything that comes from grapes, not even a dried grape and vinegar that comes from wine [cf. Num 6:1–4]. Moreover, in Proverbs it is commanded, "Let not the powerful who are subject to wrath drink wine, lest when they drink, they forget wisdom" [Prov 31:4–5]. According to anagogy I think that the difference between wine and strong drink is that wine is a single disturbance out of many, for instance, of lust, avarice, gluttony, and envy; but strong drink, that is, drunkenness, contains all the passions of the vices within itself, which we can express more correctly in Latin speech as disturbances. 778
For they upset the state of the mind and make those who are drunk not know what they are doing. Therefore, those who have the greatest influence ought to be free from vices and especially from anger, which approaches madness. Otherwise, they may harm those subject [to them] in proportion to their influence. He mixes strong drink who, when he is full of drunkenness, pretends that he has certain shadows and images of the virtues, thus deceiving men.
55. (5:23) You who justify the wicked for gifts and you take away the justice of the just from him.
And this portion of vices comes from the vineyard that produced wild vines for grapes, and practiced iniquity while the Lord was waiting to judge [cf. Isa 5:2, 4, 7]. They justify the wicked for gifts, and do not consider the causes but the gifts, which blind the eyes even of the wise [cf.
Deut 16:19]. This is why we must beware that we do not become drunk with wine, in which there is excess [cf. Eph 5:18]; and the thighs of our shame would be exposed [cf. Gen 9:21–23]; and we would flatter the wicked for the sake of gifts and despise the justice of the just man on account of the lack of resources. This is also commanded in the Epistle of James: "Lest by honoring the impious rich and despising the holy poor, we should become judges of iniquity"
[Jas 2:2–4].
56. (5:24) For this reason, just as the tongue of fire devours the stubble, and the heat of the flame burns it, so will their root be as ashes, and their bud will go up as dust. For they have cast away the law of the Lord of hosts and have blasphemed the words of the Holy One of Israel.
Their root of malice will be reduced to ashes for the more important reasons of pride, drunkenness and avarice, since in place of grapes they produced thorns and hay, wood, stubble and brambles for burning [cf. Isa 5:2, 4; 1 Cor 3:12].779 The whole flower and beauty of their wealth will be likened to physical ashes. For not only have they done those things, but by these
777 Cf. Bas Is 177 (416BC).
778 Cf. Cicero,
Tusc
3.7
; 4.10.
779 Cf. Eus Is 39 (33, 27–4, 8).
stages they reached the point of blasphemy. Consequently, they did not accept the law of the Lord and they blasphemed the words of the Holy One of Israel. We read above about this, "A law will go forth from Zion and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem" [Isa 2:3]. Root can be understood in respect to evil thoughts, but fruit and bud in respect to evil deeds and words, so that what lies hidden in the root will be shown in the bud. Both of these will be devoured by the fire of the Lord. This is also why the Apostle speaks of a "root of bitterness" of evils sprouting up
[cf. Heb 12:15].
57. (5:25) Therefore the fury of the Lord has been kindled against his people and he has stretched out his hand upon them and struck them, and the mountains were shaken and their corpses became as dung in the midst of the streets. In all this his fury has not been turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.
They have "rejected the law of the Lord of hosts" [Isa 5:24], which the Lord through Jeremiah promises that he will give, saying, "Behold the days are coming, says the Lord, and I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the agreement that I struck with your fathers on the day when I took their hand and led them from the land of Egypt" [Jer 31:31–32]. Moreover, they have "blasphemed the words of the Holy One of Israel" [cf. Isa 5:24], by saying, "He has a demon, he is a Samaritan" [John 8:48]; and, "Is this not the son of the carpenter?" [Matt 13:55]. Because of this the fury of the Lord is kindled against his own people, which was previously kindled against the rulers and the powerful who were wise in their own eyes [cf. Isa 5:21] and who "justified the wicked for gifts" [cf. Isa 5:23]; and the "tongue of fire devoured them like stubble and the heat of flame burned" [cf. Isa 5:24], so that "the powerful suffered powerful torments" [cf. Wis 6:5–6]. And he stretches out his hand against them, whom he calls his own people, since they were the portion of his inheritance and the line of his possession [cf. Deut 32:9].
But he stretches out his hand to strike and his fury is kindled. In another passage as well, we read, "Lord, do not rebuke me in your fury, nor chastise me in your anger" [Ps 6:1]. And Jeremiah says, "Chastise us, Lord, but in judgment and not in fury" [Jer 10:24]. Now when the Lord is said to be furious, it is not that he is subject to human disturbances, but because we who transgress do not fear the Lord unless we hear from one who is angry. This is also why the Apostle writes that the goodness and patience of God provokes us to penitence; but we, in accordance with our hardness and our impenitent heart, store up wrath for ourselves on the day of wrath and revelation of the just judgment of God [cf. Rom 2:4–5].
Now Job tells very clearly what is the hand that is stretched out or raised over the sinning people: "For the hand of the Lord touched me" [Job 19:21]. This is why the devil knows the powerful hand of the Lord [cf. 1 Pet 5:6] and the arm that has been revealed to all nations [cf.
Isa 53:1]. He says to the Lord, "Put forth your hand and touch everything that he has, if he will not bless you to [your] face" [Job 2:5].
Now he is following prophetic usage when he speaks of what is future as if it were past.
According to such usage, things that are coming are said to be so certain that they are thought of as having come to pass. This is sung even in the Psalms: "They gave gall as my food and they gave me vinegar to drink for my thirst" [Ps 69:21]. And again: "They divided my clothing among themselves and they cast lots for my clothes" [Ps 22:18].
As for what follows, And he struck them, that is, his own people, and the mountains were shaken, some think that the mountains refer to the opposing powers, or to those spirits who are in God's service and to which sinners are handed over for punishment. But we think that it is said hyperbolically, that in view of the extent of the imminent evils, even the mountains are moving, and all the streets of the cities are filled with the corpses of the dead. No one doubts that this happened to the Jews under Vespasian and Hadrian after the passion of the Lord. And since these things have happened, his fury is not in the opposite direction but his hand is still stretched out, or "raised," which shows the disposition of one who is angry and striking. And in all these things one should note that he reproaches them not for idolatry, or other sins on account of which they offended God, but because they have "rejected the law" of the Gospel and have "blasphemed the words" of the Lord [cf. Isa 5:24].
58. (5:26–30) And he will lift up a sign to the nations far off, and will whistle to it from the ends of the earth; and behold the hastening one will come swiftly. (27) There will not be one who faints nor labors in it; and he will not slumber or sleep, neither will the girdle of his loins be loosed, nor the latchet of his shoes broken. (28) His arrows [will be] sharp, and all his bows bent. The hoofs of his horses [will be] like the flint stone, and his wheels like the force of a storm. (29) His roaring [will be] like that of a lion, he will roar like young lions, and he will gnash his teeth and take hold of the plunder, and he will keep fast hold of it, and there will be none to deliver. (30) And he will make a noise over him on that day, like the roaring of the sea. We will look on the land, and behold darkness of tribulation, and the light is darkened with his mist.
The Hebrews understand this passage as a prophecy of the Babylonians and Nebuchadnezzar, because by the will of God he was led into Judea and Jerusalem and destroyed the temple. But we, by following the progression and by linking what follows to what precedes, say that the reason the sign was lifted up afar to the nations, and that the Lord whistled, or drew them [cf. John 12:32] from the ends of the earth, was because they "rejected the law" of the gospel and "blasphemed the holy words" [cf. Isa 5:24–25]. For if the words were about the Babylonians, then in accordance with prophetic usage [cf. Isa 41:25; Jer 1:15] he would have said, "I will call him who is from the north."880 For with respect to the location of Judea, the Assyrians and Chaldeans are in a northerly region, or surely he would have described the Babylonians and Assyrians more clearly. But now by saying, He will raise a sign to the nations far off and he will whistle to him from the ends of the earth, he means the nations that are located far off, and that dwell at the ends of the earth. Doubtless this refers to the Romans and all the people of Italy, Gaul, and Spain, who under Vespasian and Hadrian became subjects of the Roman Empire. This is also why Italy was once called Hesperia, from the fact that the evening star (Hesperus) sets there. And when this one comes, it is struck and all the mountains of Judea are "shaken," as Theodotion and Symmachus translated it, or "moved," as Aquila has recorded, or "embittered," as the Septuagint translated it. Thus by the violent force of the enemy all the streets are filled with the corpses of the dead.
Therefore the divine words are describing the speed of an approaching army, which comes not by its own will, but by the Lord's, or rather, it is drawn and summoned by his whistling. For it does not faint or labor at such a great journey, and out of the lust for plunder it does not allow
880 Cf. ibid., 40 (35, 5–0).
its eyes to sleep; its shoes too are not worn out, a multitude of archers, squadrons of cavalry, the raging of four-horse chariots, which come like a lion, not so much to fight as to plunder and devour, and the howling of a conquering army is likened to the waves of the sea. From this one should take note of what is being signified wherever the "roaring of the sea" is named in the Scriptures.881
Therefore, when the Roman army will come and take hold of the plunder and there will not be anyone to deliver, the prophet identifies himself with the people by the affection of a cosufferer and says, We will look on the land, and behold darkness of tribulation. For we will not dare to look at heaven, whose inhabitant we have offended, and our light that we always had in God is darkened by the mist of tribulations.
I have read in someone's commentary882 that the words, He will lift up a sign to the nations far off, and he will whistle to him from the ends of the earth, ought to be understood concerning the calling of the Gentiles, because when the sign of the cross was lifted up [cf. John
12:32] and the burdens of sin were laid down, they came swiftly and believed. But I do not know how what follows can agree with this meaning.
881 Cf. ibid. (35, 15–7).
882 Possibly, Basil, Is 182 (PG 30:425AB).