Commentary on Isaiah

Why the Vision against Babylon Was Given§1

1Tomos 2. “The vision which Isaiah son of Amoz saw against Babylon” (Isaiah 13:1).

The vision against Babylon, and the visions that follow it in order, against the Edomites and the Moabites, and against the Egyptians too, and besides these against the other nations, were composed to comfort Israel. They set out what they mean in a rather historical way. Yet the more discerning may, here as well, skilfully recast the things that befell the ancients, as from a coarse image, into a spiritual contemplation that is very clear. As the discourse goes on, it will set this out for those who read it, interpreting each thing written as far as it can.

But I think it necessary here too to go back to the beginning of the matter and first to relate the causes of the vision. Israel had been called through the all-wise Moses to the knowledge and worship of Him who is truly God, and had the Law to guide him straight toward everything worthy of admiration. Yet he neglected the commandment given to him and turned to teachings that are the commandments of men (Isaiah 29:13); or rather, giving himself over to things still worse, he slipped into the pits of idolatry.

So the God of all, through every prophet, accused those who chose to do such things, and raised a loud outcry against Israel for his impiety. He said, for example: “This people draws near to Me; with their lips they honour Me, but their heart is far from Me. In vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men” (Isaiah 29:13; Matthew 15:8-9). And again: “Why has the beloved done an abomination in My house?” (Jeremiah 11:15). By “abomination” he means the idol.

So when they had turned terribly aside into outlandish corruptions, pulling their neck out from service under God and raising up against Him a mind of their own, as if in pride, He handed them over from time to time. Sometimes He gave them to those who held the neighbouring land, I mean the Edomites, and the Moabites as well, the Egyptians and the Philistines. At other times He brought a heavier blow on them and let loose against them the cruellest of all who are on earth, I mean the Babylonians, who laid waste the whole land of the Jews without effort and carried off a multitude past counting as captives to their own land.

The blessed prophets foretold time after time that these things would happen to them as they provoked the God of all. Yet they, even though what had been foretold had already come to pass upon them, none the less…

The Promise of Return and the Fall of Babylon§2

2…remained hard and disobedient, and lived a loathsome and utterly lawless life. So the God of all, in His wise ordering, after the blow and the scourges and the things that had befallen them at the hands of their enemies from time to time, foretells also things most pleasant and able to gladden them. He promises that He will bring back home even those already taken captive, will release them from the bonds of their misery, and will hand over to their enemies those very people who had once conquered them.

For it was surely very likely that, even if they had stayed uncorrected by the earlier things, they would at least now be delighted by the later ones, take wing toward the hope of what they longed for, and choose from then on to honour the worship dearest to God and keep their mind unshaken toward Him.

Many had sacked the land of the Jews at various times, but the harshest and fiercest of all were above all the Chaldeans and those who reigned over Babylon in their turn. So the word of prophecy leaps on them first, as it were, and says: “Raise a signal on a mountain of the plain” (Isaiah 13:2).

Since we have chosen to give an exact account in interpreting the passage before us, I think we must first relate some of the most necessary facts. Cyrus, then, son of Cambyses by his father and of Mandane by his mother, who reigned over the Persians and the Medes, marched against Babylon and against the whole land of the Chaldeans, which was wide and very large, and he conquered it.

He did not take it by his own forces, nor because he could use a stronger hand, for the Chaldean nation was unbeatable and without rival because of its numbers and its thorough training in warfare. Rather, God put his opponents under him and shook down the ungodly power of the Babylonians. He did this because sorcery abounded among them beyond measure and the swarm of their idols was past counting. Indeed, it has been called “the land of carved images” (Jeremiah 50:38), either because of the multitude of idols or because each of those who lived there was found to differ in no way from an idol, I mean in turning aside to error without check or restraint.

Besides this, He did it because they laid waste the holy land allotted to God, that is, Judaea, burned Jerusalem and the divine temple itself, carried off the sacred vessels to their own land, and in unrestrained fury killed Israel, though it was called a holy people, the portion and lot of God. That God handed Israel over into the hands of enemies when it worshipped idols is not unclear to those who know the sacred writings; but they punished him beyond measure…

Beasts and Echoes in Ruined Babylon§3

3…of those in it, because it has been laid utterly waste. It should be known that he calls “Arabs” the Saracen tribes, which reach as far as the land of the Assyrians itself and occupy the innermost desert; for they have the land of the Arabs as their neighbour. And it is likely that the Saracens from Arabia themselves also roam, mingled together, through the deserts of the Assyrians.

“And wild beasts will rest there, and the houses will be filled with echo. And sirens will rest there, and demons will dance there. And donkey-centaurs will dwell there, and hedgehogs will make their nests in their houses. It comes quickly and will not delay” (Isaiah 13:21-22).

Wild animals somehow always like to make deserted places their home, and a city falling into ruin gives them a great many hiding places, wide ones too, roofed over by themselves and makeshift, found, as it were, by chance and of their own accord. In deserts and silent places a faint echo, I do not know how, rises as if out of the very depth of the silence and steals into the ears of those who keep still.

So wild beasts, he says, will rest there, and the houses will be filled with echo; that is, having no one at all living in them, they will come to hold the echo that belongs to desolate places. And demons too, he says, will dance there. For they say that these also especially like to linger in quiet places and to make them a kind of leisurely lodging.

By “sirens” he means, I think, the birds that know how to sing sweetly, or, according to the Hebrew edition, the owl. The wild donkeys he has called “donkey-centaurs”; and by “hedgehogs” he means those mice that bristle, as it were, with sharp spines. All these would fittingly suit cities or houses that are wholly deserted.

To these he adds that “it comes quickly and will not delay” (Isaiah 13:22). He does this either to put a sharper anxiety into the Assyrians, or else to make it no small comfort to those of Israel's blood. For since they were in captivity and were expecting to be set free when Cyrus marched against the land of the Babylonians with the Persians and the Medes, he promises them a swift release from their troubles: what they prayed for would not be put off for long, but would follow, as it were, close on the heels of the word.

“And the Lord will have mercy on Jacob and will yet choose Israel, and they will rest on their own land, and the sojourner will be joined to them and will be joined to the house of Jacob. And nations will take them and bring them into their place; and they will take possession of them, and they will be multiplied on the land of God as male and female slaves. And those who took them captive will be captives, and those who ruled over them will be ruled. And it will be on that day…” (Isaiah 14:1-3).

Why Babylon Was Punished§4

4…the Lord's portion is His people Jacob, Israel the measured lot of His inheritance” (Deuteronomy 32:9). It is therefore a most terrible thing to rise up against the land of the Lord, that is, the Church, and to carry out murderous outrages against the people allotted to Christ. For whoever is caught in such monstrous crimes will in no way be held guiltless.

But someone, I think, who has considered the calamities that befell Judaea and Jerusalem itself might say: “Did the tyrant of the Babylonians come of his own accord, march against the land of the Jews and take the holy city, without God letting him do it, or rather without God giving it to him? Yet the prophet Isaiah himself tells us: ‘The Lord will whistle for the fly that rules part of the river of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of the Assyrians, and they will all come and rest in the ravines of the land, and in the holes of the rocks, and in the caves, and in every cleft, and on every tree’ (Isaiah 7:18-19). How then can the Babylonian, who served God's command, bear a charge he cannot escape, and be punished so terribly that nothing can be seen beyond the wrath brought upon him?”

Yes, and with very good reason. For the God of all willed to rebuke Israel when he had turned aside to apostasy, and by measured chastisements to persuade him to run back to the worship he was used to, I mean the worship of the Law. But the Babylonian, though brought in for this purpose, was merciless like a wild beast and gave free rein to his fury. So he is accused, as God says plainly: “I have been jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with great jealousy, and with great anger I am angry with the nations that join in the attack; for I was angry only a little, but they joined in the attack for evil” (Zechariah 1:14-15).

God raised up Pharaoh, who was a vessel of anger and wrath (Romans 9:22) and was already liable to punishment for his own offences, so that, as He Himself says, He might show in him His own power and the exactness of His just judgment (Romans 9:17; Exodus 9:16). In the same way you should understand the case of the Babylonians. They were vessels of wrath who justly deserved punishment, and they were brought against Jerusalem so that, after disciplining Israel, they too might afterward be given up to the punishment that most befitted and best suited them.

“Wicked seed, prepare your children to be slaughtered for the sins of your father, so that they may not rise up and fill the earth with wars. And I will rise up against them, says the Lord of Hosts, and I will destroy their name and remnant and seed” (Isaiah 14:20-22).

Nebuchadnezzar did most terrible things against every nation; and those who came after him and were descended from him, down to Belshazzar, followed their father's perversity and outdid his deeds, cruel and harsh and…

The Oracle against Moab: Balak and Balaam§5

5Tomos 3. “The oracle against Moab” (Isaiah 15:1).

Having fully finished his discourse on the Babylonians and the Philistines, he now turns his prophecy to Moab, that is, against the capital city of the Moabites, the whole country, and the kingdom itself. They too were a barbarous nation, hateful to God, because they were wholly given over to the worship of idols, trusted above all in the art of magic, exalted themselves against the glory of God, and were among the bitterest enemies of the people of Israel.

Indeed, when the Israelites had been freed from the greed of the Egyptians and were going to the land of promise, they very nearly all perished, as far as the scheme of Balak, then king of the Moabites, could bring it about. It is written thus in Numbers: “And all the sons of Israel encamped on the west of Moab, by the Jordan opposite Jericho. And Balak son of Zippor saw all that Israel had done to the Amorite; and Moab was greatly afraid of the people, because they were many; and Moab was filled with dread before the sons of Israel” (Numbers 22:1-3).

Then what was his wicked scheme? He hired Balaam from Mesopotamia, a false prophet and an augur, and then appealed to him, saying: “Curse Israel for me. For I know,” he says, “that those whom you bless are blessed, and those whom you curse are cursed” (Numbers 22:6). So Balaam went through his ways of sorcery, with altars set up and sacrifices offered (Numbers 23:1-2). But Balak was cheated of his hope and missed his aim, for the man brought in to curse them unexpectedly blessed Israel (Numbers 24:10).

When his attempt had turned out contrary to his hopes, he pursued his malice against them again by another way. For he caught the Israelites as in a net, carried away by the beauty of the women, so that they forsook their love for God and chose to worship Baal of Peor, an idol of the Moabites. It is written thus again in Numbers: “And Israel lodged at Shittim, and the people were defiled by committing fornication with the daughters of Moab; and they invited them to the sacrifices of their idols, and the people ate of their sacrifices and bowed down to their idols. And Israel was initiated into the rites of Baal of Peor, and the Lord was angry with Israel in His wrath” (Numbers 25:1-3).

For since, with God defending them, …

Moab's Downfall§6

6…Israel was formidable and hard to face. So, with great bitterness and a love of mischief, they set about stripping him of his help and persuaded him to offend the God who is over all.

They kept this attitude to the very end. Whenever Israel had offended God and happened to fall into misfortune, they boasted over him and jeered, charging God with being utterly powerless, the God who promises to save those who worship him.

The blessed Jeremiah is witness to this in his vision against them, where he says: “The horn of Moab is broken, and his arm is shattered. Make him drunk, for he magnified himself against the Lord” (Jeremiah 48:25–26). And again: “For thus says the Lord: Arioth is taken, and the strongholds are seized. And Moab will perish as a people, for he magnified himself against the Lord” (Jeremiah 48:40–42).

For in time the tyrant of the Assyrians and Babylonians came to lay Judea waste, and he took the cities of Samaria. The Moabites, for their part, smiled at those who had perished, mocked them beyond measure, and went on heaping insult on the glory of God.

For this reason they too have been given over to desolation and have utterly perished, cities, people, and every household together, so that now it seems almost as if they had never existed.

The vision before us, then, recalls what befell them, plainly by wrath from above, and says: “By night the Moabite will perish; for by night the wall of the land of Moab will perish” (Isaiah 15:1).

Some who have studied these matters closely have handed down that, when the Babylonians were about to make war on them, an earthquake struck and shook the chief city of the Moabites so violently that its whole wall fell of itself in the night and the dark. When this happened, before the enemy attacked, their hope of safety all but perished. That is why he says that the land of Moab will perish by night.

“But grieve,” he says, “over yourselves” (Isaiah 15:2). It is as if he said: Many times you raised your brows high and gloated over the misfortunes of others; but now the war is running against you yourselves, and the harm that comes of it hangs over your unholy heads. Grieve, then, not over any others, but over yourselves.

“For Lebedon will perish, where your altar is” (Isaiah 15:2). I said that the Moabites had become fierce and arrogant, trusting in the deceits of demons and supposing that by the magician's art they would prevail over the power of all, even of Israel himself, though God should defend him. So in the place called Lebedon they had an altar and a sacred precinct of no ordinary construction. There they performed their divinations and prided themselves greatly, and they held the place more sacred than any other. But, he says, even the workshop of your divination will perish.

“There you will go up…” (Isaiah 15:2)

The Futility of Moab's Idols§7

7…For I proclaim your sufferings and make widely known the calamity brought upon you. Like a well-tuned lyre I will cry out; I will strike the strings so, and make the song heard far and wide, as with the wall which you renewed.

At the beginning of the vision the blessed prophet said: “By night the land of Moab will perish; for by night the wall of the land of Moab will perish” (Isaiah 15:1). In explaining the force of these words, we said that when an earthquake struck, the wall of the land of Moab burst apart, and before the enemy's invasion it was all but levered up from its foundations and came crashing down over the land of the Moabites. They renewed it, but spent their labour on it entirely in vain, for the Assyrians and Babylonians took the whole land without effort.

“My inward parts,” he says, “will sound like a harp” over your misfortunes (Isaiah 16:11), and so I will make your suffering known far and wide, just as your wall came down, the wall you renewed, but to no good purpose. For when the wall fell of itself, what had happened escaped no one in the whole land of the Moabites, nor those living in other cities and countries.

“And it will be, when you are put to shame, that Moab has wearied herself at the altars; and she will go into her handmade things to pray, and she will not be able to deliver him” (Isaiah 16:12).

Something more, he says, will happen to you besides, which will bring you shame and disgrace: you will endure labours in vain, filling your altars with blood, making your sacrifices unceasing, and offering prayers to things made by hands. You will obtain nothing that brings help or safety, for they will not be able to free you from the evils hanging over you.

What strength is there in lifeless idols, which are inventions of human skill and have for their makers the very people who worship them? So, as the blessed David says: “Let those who make them become like them, and all who trust in them” (Psalm 115:8).

It should be known that the Moabites were extremely superstitious: readers of bird omens, false prophets, and tellers of wonders, who put very great confidence in the evils of sorcery. For they perhaps supposed that they could prevail over the enemy's power, not so much, I think, by skill in tactics as by the help of their own gods. But they were disappointed in their hope, since they called lifeless matter to their aid with sacrifices and prayer.

“This is the word which the Lord spoke against Moab, when he spoke” (Isaiah 16:13). This, he says, is the vision spoken by God against the land of the Moabites; “when he spoke,” that is, even before the words came through me, he had spoken a great many things about her, and on countless…

God Scatters the Plunderers§8

8…plainly, calling them a multitude of nations. They came upon the lands, that is, the cities of Judea, like a great flood of water rushing down with violence and raising a roar, all but sweeping over those who resisted like the waves of the sea.

Here he calls them “the back of many nations” (Isaiah 17:12), because many nations were pursued by them; and pursuers always and everywhere run at the backs of those who flee.

Then what follows? “He will drive him off,” he says, that is, he will send him back, “and pursue him far away, like the fine chaff of winnowers before the wind, and like the dust of a wheel which a storm carries” (Isaiah 17:13). For what is so easily scattered as dust from a wheel and a threshing floor when a fierce wind sweeps down on it?

That Sennacherib went off a fugitive, the God of all will confirm when he says to him through the voice of Isaiah: “I will put a muzzle in your nose and a bridle in your lips, and I will turn you back by the way by which you came” (Isaiah 37:29).

“Toward evening there will be mourning; before morning it will be no more. This is the portion of those who plundered you, and the inheritance of those who inherited you” (Isaiah 17:14).

I said earlier that Rabshakeh surrounded Jerusalem with his fighting force and threatened to take it before long, but perished with his whole army before dawn and daylight. So there will be mourning toward evening, he says, since those in Jerusalem no doubt expected the assault of the war to come in the morning; but it ended before dawn.

That is why he says: There will be mourning toward evening, but before morning it will be no more. That is, the weeping will stop and come to an end, and it will vanish together with the fear of suffering, since God comes to their help, destroys the enemy's ranks beyond all expectation, and drives their leader out of the land of the Jews besides.

The blessed David also explains this when he says: “At evening weeping will stay the night, and at morning there will be gladness” (Psalm 30:5).

But this, he says, is the lot, this the portion of those who plundered you and seized you as their own inheritance. By these words he reproaches the people of Israel: they themselves had done the things for which the nation might well have perished utterly, yet he takes pity on them once more and punishes with death those who plunder the people allotted to him.

For, it says, “when the Most High divided the nations, when he scattered the sons of Adam, he set the boundaries of the nations according to the number of the angels of God; and his people Jacob became the Lord's portion, Israel the measured lot of his inheritance” (Deuteronomy 32:8–9).

But besides this, consider this point carefully with me, and pass, as it were, from the events of history to the inmost meanings. When the wicked and hostile powers, pouring over the soul like violent water, either by trials from without…

The Lord on a Light Cloud§9

9Tomos 4. The vision concerning Egypt.

“Behold, the Lord is seated on a light cloud, and he will come to Egypt, and the handmade things of Egypt will be shaken before his face, and their heart will be overcome within them” (Isaiah 19:1).

In these words the prophet sets out to teach how the land of the Egyptians was saved and drawn as in a net into true religion, plainly through faith in Christ, although it worshipped many gods and was sick with error beyond measure.

For they were, as it were, in deep darkness. They knew nothing at all of him who is God by nature and truly the Maker and Lord of all, and they fastened their worship on the creation. What was still more absurd, they made themselves the craftsmen of their own gods and kept a swarm of idols of every shape in their temples, so that they even moulded likenesses of irrational animals, set up altars, and sacrificed to them.

Since sin had multiplied among them, grace had to abound all the more (Romans 5:20); the Physician had to shine upon those so grievously sick, and the divine and heavenly light had to flash upon those darkened in heart.

“Behold, then,” he says, “the Lord is seated on a light cloud, and he will come to Egypt.” But what might it mean that the Lord is seen on a light cloud? Come, let us say what we can.

Some interpreters have said that the light cloud is the holy flesh of the Lord, that is, the temple taken from the Virgin. They liken it to a cloud because it is free, perhaps, of the more earthly impulses and desires, and is, as it were, above and on high. For the holy body of Christ, the Saviour of us all, is truly all-pure and free of every earthly impurity. Others again have taken the holy Virgin to be what is called a light cloud.

For my part, I think that saying he sits on a light cloud may also hint to us at a breadth of other meanings. For the blessed prophets, when they beheld the glory of God, wrote down their visions in many ways. Isaiah says that he saw the Lord of hosts on a throne, high and lifted up, with the highest rational powers standing in a circle around him, singing his praise and saying that heaven and earth are full of his glory (Isaiah 6:1–3).

The all-wise Daniel seats the Ancient of Days on a throne; he insists that a thousand thousands serve him, and says that ten thousand times ten thousand stand around him (Daniel 7:9–10); and that he also saw one like a Son of Man…

The Cloud as a Type of Baptism§10

10…coming with the clouds (Daniel 7:13), and he set down what follows. Ezekiel likewise says that he saw a firmament with the seraphim beneath it, and on the throne he saw a man, or rather the likeness of a man, whose upper parts, he says, resembled amber, while from the loins to the feet he was like the appearance of fire (Ezekiel 1:22–27).

In each of these visions he subtly hints to us at an image of the glory that befits God and of the mystery of Christ. Nothing, then, prevents us from understanding that here too the Lord was seen on a light cloud for a most useful and necessary purpose. For the cloud fills out for us a type of spiritual rain and dew, and of saving baptism itself.

Indeed, the blessed Paul says that those of Israel's blood were baptized in the cloud and in the sea (1 Corinthians 10:2). As they crossed that deep desert, the cloud hung over them by day, and by night a pillar of fire went before them (Exodus 13:21). Through both of these Christ was being portrayed, that is, the mystery concerning him: justification and sanctification in faith and holy baptism.

So the Lord, coming to cleanse and transform the Egyptians, in a manner fitting God and spiritually, of course, had to be seen on a light cloud. For there was no other way to scrub from the soul of those in error the stain ingrained in it except through holy baptism; and we hold that the cloud is a type of that baptism.

And the cloud is very fittingly called light. For we are baptized for the putting away of sin; and as we turn away from ungodliness as from a burden truly hard to carry, we become, in a way, winged by this, and learn to set our minds on things above (Colossians 3:2) and to keep our hearts on high.

As for the Lord's sitting upon the cloud, I think it shows this: sitting hints to us at either rest or authority. So Christ rests, not in any way in worship according to the law, but rather in the perfection that comes through holy baptism; and in this way he has come to reign over those on earth.

He says that the handmade things of Egypt will be shaken before his face (Isaiah 19:1). For once holy baptism had been revealed and Christ had shone forth, it was wholly necessary that the playthings of the ancient deceit should vanish and the snares of the devil be seen broken to pieces.

For the devil had caught in his net, for ruin and destruction, practically every nation and race, but the Egyptians more than the rest. They were the most superstitious of all, perhaps outdoing even the Persians and Assyrians in error, although the God-inspired Scripture says of those peoples' land that it is a land of carved images (Jeremiah 50:38).

He says that the heart of the Egyptians will be overcome, yielding, as I think…

Five Cities That Swear by the Lord§11

11…we say that the first is what is now the city of the Rhinocorurans. They do indeed speak the Canaanite tongue (Isaiah 19:18), for the people in these cities have taken pains to adopt not so much the speech of the Egyptians as that of the Syrians.

Some say that Josephus clearly records in his own writings that a certain Ionias, who was of the blood of Levi and honoured with the priesthood under the law, left the land of the Jews, either after quarrelling with some of his own people or perhaps after suffering persecution, and occupied these five cities, since they bordered on the Canaanites. This man, he says, gathered a multitude of Jews past easy counting and settled in one of these five cities, which was also named the city of Asedek, that is, of righteousness (Isaiah 19:18). From that time, they say, those living at the borders of Egypt grew accustomed to speaking the language of the Canaanites and came to love it.

And they will learn, he says, to swear by the name of the Lord (Isaiah 19:18). This too is remarkable. For worshippers of vain things are accustomed to swear by whichever element of the world each of them fancies. Some name heaven, others the sun, others even the handmade things in their shrines; but they make no mention at all of the true God, for they have not known him. But to swear by his name belongs to those who have already come to know him and believe.

So too the all-wise Moses, when Israel had come away from the worship of Egypt, led them to the knowledge of the true God, saying: “You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve”; and he added to this: “And by his name you shall swear” (Deuteronomy 6:13). That these five cities swear by no vain thing, but rather take up the name of the Lord for their oaths, is therefore clear proof that they received the faith.

“On that day there will be an altar to the Lord in the land of Egypt, and a pillar to the Lord at its border; and it will be a sign to the Lord for ever in the land of Egypt” (Isaiah 19:19–20).

For the whole land of the Egyptians was crowded with temples and full of altars, and there were libations and sacrifices everywhere, offered by them partly to the elements of the world and partly, as I said, to the statues set up in shrines, and indeed to the pillars of demons. And why do I say this, when they even set up the shapes of irrational animals and bestowed on them the glory that befits God?

See, then, from what to what the state of the Egyptians has changed. For those who were once more superstitious than all others, and had plunged without bridle into lawless excess, will on that day, he says, that is, at that time when the saving preaching shines among them, accept the worship of him who by nature…

The Assyrian Laments Before the Battle§12

12…and they will march on and pass through the desert. “As if a storm of winds should pass through the desert” (Isaiah 21:1), raising the dust and all but throwing everything into confusion.

He adds: “For the vision is fearful, and a harsh one was announced to me” (Isaiah 21:1–2). For the mere sight of the enemy alone, and a most valiant host of fighting men equipped for war, is quite enough to strike harsh fear into those who see it. Yet he does not say only that he saw it, but also, “It was announced to me”; for together with the sight he was taught the outcome of events, plainly by God.

“The one who deals faithlessly deals faithlessly, and the lawless one acts lawlessly” (Isaiah 21:2). The boldness of the attackers, he says, cannot be checked. For no human reasoning kindles them to gentleness; no one among them gives thought to what is right, but each acts lawlessly without restraint and deals faithlessly as he pleases, with no mercy in him. For they do not look to mercy; rather, he says, their whole eager work will be to act lawlessly and faithlessly.

He said something similar through the voice of the same prophet to the inhabitants of the Assyrians' land: “Behold, I am bringing the Medes against you, who do not value silver and have no need of gold. They will shatter the arrows of young men” (Isaiah 13:17–18). For when God brings wrath on those who sin, nothing will be able to help. Rather, a mind like a wild beast's takes up its dwelling in those who are bent on ravaging whomever they rush against.

“The Elamites are upon me, and the envoys of the Persians are coming against me. Now I will groan and comfort myself. Therefore my loins are filled with faintness, and pangs have seized me like a woman in labour. I did wrong so as not to hear; I hastened so as not to see. My heart wanders, and lawlessness plunges me under; my soul is set in fear” (Isaiah 21:2–4).

The words here have the force of a speech put in a character's mouth. For the Assyrian is brought on stage, fearing the assault, well aware of the enemy's ranks and of whom their war is aimed at. “Not against any others,” he says, “but against me the Elamites and the very best of the Persians have set out. So I will groan and comfort myself.”

For those who have fallen into the worst misfortune seem to find some kind of comfort in lamenting and wailing, since pain squeezes out tears. Yet it is a strange thing if the Assyrians lament, since they had always been harsh and arrogant, carried their brows very high against all the nations, and thought themselves hard to stand against.

But those who were so bold, swollen with thoughts beyond what is human, give way to womanish tears and compose a lament over themselves, broken down to weakness before they have even tasted battle. “For my loins are filled with faintness, and pangs have seized…” (Isaiah 21:3)

God's Justice Comes to Jerusalem§13

13Tomos 5. The vision of the valley of Zion.

Having foretold the capture of the Egyptians, the Assyrians, and the Idumeans, the prophet comes to the holy city itself, that is, Jerusalem, and usefully foretells what would befall it from time to time through divine wrath. He does this so that they might know that the God of all is the ruler of justice, or rather is justice itself. He does not honour, welcome, and care for someone simply because that person has become his own by being schooled under the law; rather, he tests what each has lived, and grants good things to those whose way of life is good, but counts the lover of wickedness a stranger and in no way his own, even if such a person should happen to be beloved for the sake of the fathers (Romans 11:28).

Out of very great ignorance, the Jewish people thought that they would be wholly beyond the reach of their enemies, and that, with no one at all attacking them, they would live out a quiet life in great prosperity, even though they were offending God and had sunk into very great ungodliness. For they worshipped idols, and setting up images and altars under oak and poplar (Hosea 4:13), they offered sacrifices and poured libations to vain things, utterly disregarding the glory owed to the all-holy God.

So through the voice of Jeremiah he says to them about Jerusalem: “And do not say, ‘It is the temple of the Lord’; for unless you thoroughly amend your ways and your practices, I will make this house like Shiloh” (Jeremiah 7:4–5; 26:6).

Again he accused them through the prophet Micah, saying: “Her rulers judged for bribes, and her priests answered for hire, and her prophets divined for silver; and they leaned on the Lord, saying, ‘Is not the Lord among us? No evil will come upon us.’ Therefore, because of you, Zion will be ploughed like a field, and Jerusalem will be like a hut for guarding fruit, and the mountain of the house like a grove in a thicket” (Micah 3:11–12).

And the inspired John also made it plain to them that God's judgment comes swiftly upon everyone who makes a habit of wrongdoing, when he said: “Brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruits, then, worthy of repentance, and do not presume to say within yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father’; for I tell you that God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham” (Matthew 3:7–9). “Even now…” (Matthew 3:10)

Wailing on the Housetops§14

14… “the axe lies at the root of the trees; every tree, then, that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire” (Matthew 3:10).

Since Israel, then, gave free rein to its advance in sin, and was devoted, as I said just now, to the false worship of idols, God through the prophet foretells the capture of Jerusalem that would come in its time, and says: “What has happened to you now, that you have all gone up to useless housetops? The city is filled with people shouting. Your wounded are not wounded by the sword, nor are your dead the dead of war” (Isaiah 22:1–2).

It seems to point here to the devastation in the days of Jeconiah, and to accuse those of Israel severely, because even amid these very evils, in misfortunes at their very height, they did not know how to do what leads to their good and what would win them favor from above. For they ought to have gone up to the house of God weeping and lamenting, to promise repentance, to ask pardon for the outrages they had committed, and to seek the helping hand from him, and from him alone.

And he himself taught this, saying through one of the holy prophets: “Gird yourselves and beat your breasts, you priests; wail, you who minister at the altar. Go in, sleep in sackcloth, you who minister to God, for sacrifice and drink offering are withheld from your house. Sanctify a fast, proclaim a solemn service, gather the elders, all who dwell in the land, into the house of your God, and cry out earnestly to the Lord: Alas, alas, for the day” (Joel 1:13–15).

These are the things they ought to have done to appease the one who has power to save, since he had been provoked. But it seems that they did not even let it enter their minds that they ought to do these things. Instead they went up to the highest parts of their houses, and everywhere there were laments, and the wailing of children, wasting away, it may be, from hunger and thirst. For such things must happen to cities under siege.

That is why he says: “What has happened to you now, that you have all gone up to useless housetops?” Why, he says, even amid terrors so unbearable, when your peril had reached its last extremity and everything was at stake, did you not cry out to God, but instead leapt up to the housetops, though that did you no good at all? That is why he calls them useless housetops.

And why was the city filled with people shouting? Not, surely, people crying to God, but people crying out at random, and all but beside themselves at the evils that had come within their doors. The lament ought to have been for repentance; the tears ought to have been shed before God. See, he says: before you joined battle, before you took up the sword, before you planned any resistance, the city became full of dead. It is useful, then, …

How Tyre Fell§15

15… to wall them in, to keep them beyond the reach of any attack, and to show them stronger than the Babylonians.

In another way, too, they themselves joined in plundering the nation of the Jews: on the one hand by falling on them when they were worn down and seizing those who were left; on the other by dedicating sacred vessels to their falsely named gods, and by driving those who had come under the yoke of slavery to them away, by force as it were, from the worship the law prescribes. And so God said through one of the holy prophets: “And what are you to me, Tyre and Sidon and all Galilee of the foreigners? Are you paying me back, or do you bear a grudge against me? Swiftly and speedily I will return your payment on your own heads, because you took my silver and my gold, and carried my choice and fine things into your temples, and you sold the sons of Judah and the sons of Israel to the sons of the Greeks, to drive them out of their own borders” (Joel 3:4–6).

So Tyre too was captured through the wrath of God, in this way. It was an island, with a strait still running between, which separated it from the mainland by no great distance. When the Babylonian came and sought to take it along with the other cities, he ordered the armies under his command to fill in the sea between, to join it to the mainland, and to let it remain an island no longer. When this had been done, or was expected to be done before long, most of those in Tyre, since trade was their occupation and they were used to sailing, sailed away from the island with their children and wives and went off to other cities and villages.

The Babylonians then marched in, killed those who remained, took many captive, and did what victors usually do. Yet they were grieved not a little to learn that a great many, among them the most prominent in the city, had put their goods on ships and fled.

The prophecy of Ezekiel also records this history. For the God of all spoke to him thus: “Son of man, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon made his army serve a great service against Tyre; every head was made bald, and every shoulder rubbed bare, yet neither he nor his army received any wages for the hard service he served against Tyre. In return for this I have given him the land of Egypt” (Ezekiel 29:18–20). For after the capture of the Tyrians the Babylonian turned the war against the nation of the Egyptians.

This is the history the blessed prophet Isaiah now recalls, when he commands the ships of Carthage to wail. They are to wail, clearly, over Tyre, because it has perished, and they no longer come from the land of the Kittim (Isaiah 23:1). They say …

Why the Earth Is Cursed§16

16… of the glory of the children of God (compare Romans 8:21).

“Because they transgressed the law and changed the ordinances, an everlasting covenant, therefore a curse will devour the earth, because those who dwell in it have sinned” (Isaiah 24:5–6).

The discourse returns again to the exact sense of the prophecy. So that no one may think that the God of all brings punishments on anyone without cause, the prophets join the causes to the stirrings of wrath and plainly announce the charges against those who are punished. The earth will mourn, then; for what cause? “Because they transgressed the law and broke the everlasting covenant.” That is why he says: “And the earth will be accursed, for those who dwell in it have done wrong.”

Since the land of the Jews too, together with the other cities or countries, was made to pay the penalty (for it was laid waste, as I said), the prophet again seems to bring into the open the offenses of those under the law. “For they transgressed the law,” he says. Those of Israel held it of no account, and turned as it were onto another path, giving heed to teachings that are commandments of men (compare Isaiah 29:13).

Taking the words in their universal sense and giving their meaning, we say that in the beginning the God of all fashioned man and engraved on him a natural law, training him toward the knowledge of evil and good. And this, I think, is what was said through the voice of John about the only-begotten Son of God: “He was the true light, which enlightens every man coming into the world” (John 1:9). We understand that this also came about in the last times, I mean the times of his coming. For it is written: “In those days, says the Lord, putting my laws into their mind, I will also write them on their hearts” (Jeremiah 31:33; Hebrews 8:10).

This law, then, which steers us from within toward the knowledge of good and evil, those on the earth transgressed, and they changed the ordinances. For though they were created for good works (compare Ephesians 2:10), they turned to love of the flesh and to an earthly mind. That is why the earth has become accursed: those who dwell in it have offended the Creator by a great many wrongs.

“Therefore those who dwell in the earth will be poor, and few people will be left” (Isaiah 24:6). For since, he says, the earth has become accursed because so very much lawlessness arose in it, they will therefore be weighed down by unexpected poverty and will barely be saved; for those left will be few and easily counted.

So much for the letter and the plain surface of the history. Toward the innermost sense we say again that those who will be condemned before the divine judgment seat for a great many wrongs will in every way be poor, and in want of the …

The Assyrian Overthrown§17

17Book II, in five tomes. Tome 1.

“Behold, the Master, the Lord of Hosts, will throw the glorious into confusion with strength; the lofty will be crushed in their insolence and brought low; the lofty will fall by the sword, and Lebanon will fall with its lofty ones” (Isaiah 10:33–34).

In the book just completed, our discussion concerned the Assyrians and the one who ruled the realms of the Persians, who marched against Judea and Jerusalem but unexpectedly suffered what came from divine wrath. For Israel was saved beyond all expectation: not by stretching a bow, not by snatching up a shield, not by leading out horsemen or skillfully setting forces against his phalanxes, not by overpowering the enemy’s hand by the law of war, but by the power and grace of God. For “the angel of the Lord went out,” it says, “and killed in one night one hundred and eighty-five thousand from the camp of the Assyrians” (Isaiah 37:36).

When this had plainly happened, those who had expected to perish danced for joy and offered songs of thanksgiving to the God who had saved them, saying: “Weeping will lodge for the evening, and gladness comes in the morning” (Psalm 30:5). And besides this: “You have turned my mourning into joy for me; you have torn off my sackcloth and girded me with gladness” (Psalm 30:11).

But the bold and arrogant one, who shouted that great and empty boast, “I will seize the whole world in my hand like a nest, and like eggs left behind I will take it up, and there is no one who will escape me or speak against me” (compare Isaiah 10:14), was shown to have thought great things of himself in vain. For he barely escaped, and leaving Judea he withdrew home a fugitive. That is why the God of all said: “Do not be afraid of the Assyrians, my people who dwell in Zion” (Isaiah 10:24). The manner of his flight was also described, as he all but shook cities and villages as he passed. And again: “Fear will seize Ramah, the city of Saul” (compare Isaiah 10:29).

In interpreting such passages, we made our account rather historical, yet not outside the truth. For it is in every way necessary to fit the language of interpretation to the character and force of what lies before us. But since it is the custom of the divinely inspired Scripture sometimes to make the mysteries plain through things that were done swiftly and as history, and to shape images of hidden meanings, we say that the inventor of sin held tyranny over us, and upon the …

Christ Casts Out the Tyrant§18

18… peoples of the Savior, those sanctified (through the Spirit, that is) and cleansed through faith, he leapt upon terribly and bitterly. He made war on the Church of God, shaking at her the most unholy phalanx of the spirits under his hand. Perhaps he even thought he could overturn her with very little effort, the truly venerable and holy city of God, the spiritual Jerusalem. But he was caught, for none of his plans was possible. He could not besiege and take the holy city, or overpower a right hand so very strong. For who will stand against God, who can do all things?

So he perished together with his own shield-bearers, and was driven away from the flock of the godly, though he sprang on it like a savage beast; and he has been cast out of his tyranny over us. The Savior taught us this when he said: “Now is the judgment of this age; now the ruler of this age will be cast out. And I, if I am lifted up on the earth, will draw all to myself” (John 12:31–32). For the passion of Christ became the overthrow of death, the pulling down of the devil, and the destruction of sin: he was lifted up on the cross, and he brought down the devil’s boast and threw it to the ground.

In due time, then, after those events, the God of all now brings in the account of the Only-Begotten’s birth according to the flesh, and reveals the mystery beforehand through the voice of prophets, so that when the events came to fulfillment, it might be believed by all without dispute. What, then, does he say? “Behold, the Master, the Lord of Hosts, will throw the glorious into confusion with strength” (Isaiah 10:33).

The mystery of Christ refashions those on earth into the newness of gospel life (compare Romans 6:4), since the older customs are plainly overturned, and what was in shadows and types no longer has power to prevail. This was the purpose of his coming into this world. He came to proclaim, to the people of Israel before all others, that what was imposed until the time of reformation (compare Hebrews 9:10), that is, the law in letters, now at last comes to its end, as the mind of believers is remolded, as I said, into what is better and into a spiritual way of life. For all things in Christ are new (compare 2 Corinthians 5:17).

Yet though they ought to have been persuaded by him, the leaders of the synagogue of the Jews above all, who boasted not a little of the glories of the priesthood, opposed him headlong, worked against him impiously, and, though always talking of the law given through the most wise Moses, wanted to make of no effect, as far as it lay with them, the mystery of the Only-Begotten’s economy in the flesh …

Uzziah, Ahaz, and the Philistines§19

19… strength. At any rate, he besieged, took, and sacked many cities of the Philistines (the “foreigners,” that is, the people of Palestine), and some of those of what is called Coele-Syria. It is written of him thus in the Second Book of Chronicles: “He went out and fought against the foreigners, and overpowered the walls of Gath and the walls of Azotus, and built cities of Azotus and among the foreigners. And the Lord strengthened him against the foreigners and against the Arabs who dwelt on the Rock, and against the Minaeans. And the Minaeans gave gifts to Uzziah, and his name spread as far as the entrance of Egypt, for he grew exceedingly strong” (2 Chronicles 26:6–8).

When he died, Jotham, his son, succeeded to his kingdom. Then after him came Ahaz, a wicked and apostate man who had sunk into the swamps of deceit. For he worshiped wood and stones and all the host of heaven, and he made his son pass through fire, for he sacrificed him to the demons.

It is written of him thus in the Second Book of Kings: “He did not do what was right in the eyes of the Lord his God faithfully, as David his father had done. He walked in the way of the kings of Israel, and even made his son pass through fire, according to the abominations of the nations whom the Lord drove out before the sons of Israel. He burned incense on the high places, and on the hills, and under every leafy tree. Then Rezin king of Syria and Pekah son of Remaliah, king of Israel, came up against Jerusalem to war, and they besieged Ahaz, but could not prevail” (2 Kings 16:2–5). And after other things: “Ahaz sent messengers to Tiglath-pileser king of the Assyrians, saying, ‘I am your servant and your son. Come up and save me from the hand of the king of Syria and from the hand of the king of Israel, who are rising up against me.’ And Ahaz took the silver and gold found in the treasuries of the house of the Lord and of the king’s house, and sent gifts to the king. And the king of the Assyrians listened to him, and came to Damascus, and took it, and carried its people into exile, and put Rezin to death” (2 Kings 16:7–9).

So first Uzziah, also called Azariah, ravaged the foreigners, laid waste all their land, and collected tribute and taxes from them. Second, after him, Ahaz hired the Assyrian and let him loose on them. He uprooted the whole country of the Palestinians (for these, he says, are the foreigners) and carried off to his own land as captives those who were left from the war. When Ahaz died, the cities of the foreigners leapt for joy at it, as though the one who struck them had been taken out of the way, and as if unbearable …

A Man Sent to Save Egypt§20

20… since they had not come to know the Master of all, would they have cried out to him at all? But just as the blood of Abel is said to have cried out to God (Genesis 4:10), not, surely, as though it had a voice of its own, but because God abhorred the very outrage of the deed, in the same way, I think, one might understand it also of those who used to worship the unclean demons. For even if they do not know the God of all, yet because they have been wronged by Satan, through the deed itself, in a manner, they have cried aloud, surely asking for help for themselves.

In this sense we say that the Egyptians too cried out to God because of those who oppressed them, that is, those who had brought them under their own hand and crushed them as with a most bitter slavery: plainly, the unclean demons. “But the Lord will send them a man who will save them” (Isaiah 19:20). And who is the man, if not, plainly, Christ, that is, the only-begotten Word of God who appeared in human form? He saved not only the Egyptians but the whole earth.

And he saved by judging. What does “by judging” mean? It means that he brought a just judgment in their case. For Satan, who had wronged them, and with him the unclean demons, he subjected to holy verdicts, cast them into Tartarus with chains of gloom, and handed them over to be kept for punishment at the judgment of the great day (compare 2 Peter 2:4; Jude 6). But those who had endured so unbearable a wrong he saved and rescued, and made them his own worshipers, flashing on them the light of truth and clothing them with the glories of freedom.

So the Savior himself says somewhere: “Now is the judgment of this world. Now the ruler of this world will be cast out. And I, if I am lifted up, will draw all to myself” (John 12:31–32). You see that he has given judgment for the world, cast out Satan, who long ago tyrannized over it, and drawn all to himself. For the Egyptians too have come to know him. And indeed, having come to know him, they offer sacrifices, they make vows, and they carry out what they promised (compare Isaiah 19:21). This is what is sung through the voice of David: “Make vows and pay them to the Lord our God” (Psalm 76:11).

See, then, the newness of things. Those who formerly used to sacrifice to demons, who brought their worship to Satan and dedicated thank offerings to him, and who eagerly fulfilled vows, that is, promises, will be enlightened in mind through Christ and made bright by the doctrines of truth. They will run from their ancient error, and having once come to know the Maker and Lord of all, they bring him worship in spirit, fulfilling most pure vows and offering sacrifices no longer through blood and the slaughter of irrational animals …

Praise for an Ancient Counsel§21

21Tome 1.

“O Lord my God, I will glorify you; I will sing hymns to your name, for you have done wonderful things, an ancient and true counsel. So be it, O Lord” (Isaiah 25:1).

In the book just completed, the prophet spoke at length, and through hidden meanings, about the devil’s perversity, the punishment and judgment that will come upon him, and also the overthrow of the wicked and hostile powers. To these he added the proclamation of Christ’s kingdom. For he said that the Lord will reign in Zion and in Jerusalem, and will be glorified before the elders (Isaiah 24:23). For all these reasons, then, the prophet is filled with great joy and honors with praises the one who accomplished things so marvelous. That is why he says: “O Lord my God, I will glorify you and sing hymns to your name, an ancient and true counsel, and you have done marvelous things.”

Since he says “you have done” about things that had not yet happened at that time, he indicates by adding “So be it, O Lord” that, though it has not yet happened, it will surely happen in every way. For with the eyes of the mind they gazed on the time of his coming as though it were present, yet they were by no means unaware that it was not yet present. He calls the mystery of the Only-Begotten’s becoming man an ancient counsel, and calls what it has accomplished for those throughout all the earth marvelous things.

For we have been saved in Christ, who was foreknown before the foundation of the world but made manifest in the last times of the age (compare 1 Peter 1:20). As the most wise Paul says, the mystery of Christ is not new or lately come to light; it was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but has been made manifest in its own times (compare Titus 1:3).

“For you have made cities a heap, strong cities, so that their foundations might fall; the city of the ungodly will never be built, forever” (Isaiah 25:2). This too belongs to the true counsel and the blameless purposes of God, who is able to do all things: that strong cities should be shaken down and become a heap, be as it were heaved up from their foundations, and be past hope, so that they will never be able to recover. For it will never, he says, be built, forever.

But we say that the cities shaken down are not, surely, in every case the cities of sense, that is, the people in them; rather we think it is each of the wicked and hostile powers, and before the …

The Strong City Falls and the Poor Give Thanks§22

22… of others, that Satan has been called a city, and a strong one at that. For it is the custom of the God-inspired Scripture at times to liken the very mightiest to towers and walls, or even to cities. So, as we said earlier, even the blessed prophet Jeremiah was set by God as a fortified city and as a strong bronze wall (Jeremiah 1:18). But when Emmanuel was revealed and shone upon the world, the unholy throng of the opposing powers was destroyed, and Satan was shaken from his very foundations. He has fallen so as to sink into endless weakness, and he has no hope of ever rising again or lifting up his head.

“Therefore the poor people will bless you, and cities of men who are wronged will bless you. For you have become a helper to every lowly city, and a shelter to those who lost heart through want; you will rescue them from wicked men. A shelter for the thirsty, and the breath of men who are wronged. They will bless you as faint-hearted men who thirst in Zion, from ungodly men to whom you handed us over” (Isaiah 25:3–5).

Israel was called to the knowledge of God through the tutoring of the Law, and was made rich in the things that come from God; for it was saved, and inherited the land of the promise. But the countless multitude of the other nations, I mean those throughout the whole earth under heaven, had been utter strangers to the spiritual goods from above. They had no taste of the gifts that come from God. They were, in a way, naked and unclothed, having neither the divine shelter nor the covering from on high, neither the wealth of mind that comes from virtue nor anything else of all that is full of praise and counted worthy of every wonder. But when Christ himself appeared, he took them out of the devil’s grasping and brought them to God the Father. They have been made rich with the light of the truth, with a share in the glory that comes from him, and with the greatness of the gospel way of life; and for these things they send up songs of thanksgiving to God the Father.

So then, he says, O Master, since you have carried out an ancient and true counsel (Isaiah 25:1), summing up all things in Christ (Ephesians 1:10), enlightening those in darkness and casting down the world-rulers of this age (Ephesians 6:12), strong as cities though they were, the poor people will bless you, and whole cities will glorify you. For you have become a helper to every one of them, and a shelter to those unbearably grieved by their poverty in the goods of their fathers; and you rescued them from wicked men. For in Zion too there were some who had lost heart in this way, just like men who are thirsty. And perhaps by these words the prophet shows us this: there were, yes, there were in Israel too those who thirsted for the Savior’s coming, and the Savior of all …

Prayer for Peace with God§23

23… we name your name” (Isaiah 26:13).

It is the custom of the holy prophets to make supplications on behalf of Israel. For they were lovers of God and richly crowned with the glories of piety. And since they had sprung from the root of Abraham and from the blood of the holy fathers, they are of necessity downcast when they see those of Israel, as their own kin, perishing because of their impiety toward Christ. For this reason the blessed prophet Isaiah now comes forward and says: “Lord our God, give us peace; for you have rendered all things to us” (Isaiah 26:12). For if you grant us peace, he says, we shall be full of every good thing, and we shall have received in full the most perfect share in your gifts.

We must consider what kind of peace they ask for. Either they ask for Christ himself, for he is our peace, according to the Scriptures (Ephesians 2:14), and through him we have been joined to the Father, by kinship, that is, spiritual kinship. Or at least they mean this: those who have not yet believed, and whose stain of sin has not been cast off, stand apart from God and are rightly reckoned in the rank of enemies; they hold their necks high and fight against the laws of the Master. But those who are obedient and easily led, and ready for anything at all that those laws approve, are very dear to him and have peace with him. Yet this thing is truly given by God and comes through the generosity from above. Grant us, then, O Master, to be at peace with you, and, once profane and loathsome sin has been taken out of the way, to be united to you spiritually through Christ the Mediator.

Such is the word rightly spoken through the voice of Paul: “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1). When this has come about, we shall be God’s possession and his inheritance. That is why it is wisely added: “Lord, take possession of us; apart from you we know no other; we name your name” (Isaiah 26:13). For those who are at peace with him must be single-minded and yoked to God alone, so as to know him only and not even to carry on their tongue the name of any other, falsely named god at all. For we must name him alone, because he alone is God over us by nature and in truth. The law of the all-wise Moses proclaimed something of this kind to us: “You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve, and by his name” (Deuteronomy 6:13; compare Matthew 4:10). Amen.

“But the dead will not see life, nor will physicians raise them up. Therefore you brought it upon them and destroyed them, and took away every male of theirs. Add evils to them, Lord; add evils to all the glorious of the earth” (Isaiah 26:14–15).

Those who know only him who is God by nature and in truth, and who name his name, and reckon to him …

The Lawlessness of Jacob Taken Away§24

24“… stones of the altars broken to pieces like fine dust; and their trees will not remain, and their idols cut down like a forest far off” (Isaiah 27:9).

Having set in between his reproof of those who had acted impiously toward the holy prophets, the blessed prophet again holds to the sequence of his thoughts, and says, as from the person of God: “Therefore the lawlessness of Jacob will be taken away” (Isaiah 27:9). “Therefore”: for what reason? Because he will not be slain as he himself slew, nor struck as he himself struck (Isaiah 27:7). For the gentleness that is in God always overcomes human pettiness; he does not in every way and in every case bring penalties equal to the offenses committed on earth, but rather tempers his wrath with mildness.

This is why he says: “The lawlessness of Jacob will be taken away”; that is, he will receive loving-kindness, and God will in due time remit his charges and free him even from the accusations themselves. “And this is his blessing.” For God promised Abraham, saying: “Surely I will bless you, and I will greatly multiply your seed” (Genesis 22:17). But the godlike Abraham would not truly have been blessed, nor would his seed have been multiplied, if those of his blood had been required to pay penalties in proportion to their sins. But since they too, though they had done nothing good, and had rather been carried down into the utmost impiety, were enriched with forgiveness, the ground of the blessing has been kept and has passed on to them. “When, therefore, I take away his sin,” he says, “this will be the manner of his blessing.”

He also makes plain the time at which Jacob too will be free of his offenses. For when, he says, those called through faith to the knowledge of him who is truly God take the field against the ancient error; when altars and sacred precincts and the swarm of idols are taken out of the way; when they consume with fire the temples built with toil for lifeless idols; when they cut down their trees, and besides these the things made with hands, like a forest: then, then indeed God will remit their stumblings to those of Israel as well. And this, I think, is what the godlike Paul declared: “But when the fullness of the Gentiles has come in, then all Israel will be saved” (Romans 11:25–26).

For to burn the temples down completely, to shear off the groves planted beside them, and to add as well the overthrow of the statues themselves, would signify nothing else, surely, than this: that those who long wandered in error and worshipped the works of their own hands will be changed and come to the knowledge of the truth, and will reach such love of God as even to lay hands on the things they once worshipped, and those of …

Weaned from the Milk of the Law§25

25Tomos 2.

“Those weaned from milk, those drawn away from the breast: expect affliction upon affliction, hope upon hope, yet a little while, yet a little while, because of the contempt of lips, through another tongue” (Isaiah 28:9–11).

Our first discourse ended for us with the words: “To whom have we announced evils? And to whom have we announced a message?” (Isaiah 28:9). In explaining the force of what was said before, we say that the person of the holy prophets was brought in, rebuking in a way those of the blood of Israel, because they had met the prophets’ words to no purpose and had gained no benefit at all, even though both evils and a message had been foretold to them. By “evils” we firmly hold that the punishments prepared for those used to sinning are meant, and by “message” the honors that rest on good hopes. So, since those of the blood of Israel had gained nothing whatever, even though the prophets had announced to them the things that come from God, I mean threats and promises of the good things to come, he says: “To whom have we announced evils? And to whom have we announced a message?”

But now that the holy prophets have, as it were, fallen silent and brought their own speech to a stop at this point, the God of all himself calls out to the saints, saying: “Those weaned from milk, those drawn away from the breast: expect affliction upon affliction, hope upon hope.” For the undisciplined, he says, who are badly sick with unruliness, have rightly been thrust out; they have no share in the salvation that is in Christ, and they will go on to destruction. But you, from now on, who through faith have been called to the knowledge of the truth; who have been drawn away from the tutoring of the Law as from a breast and from milk; who once received food fit for infants and had a less instructed mind, but have now advanced “to a mature man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (Ephesians 4:13), and have moved on to the food that suits the mature, and have not remained “unskilled in the word of righteousness” (Hebrews 5:13–14): direct your hearts to receive the new proclamation of the gospel way of life, of the decrees given through Christ. Take courage to endure. Even if affliction comes upon you, again and again, one blow after another, as trials rise up and the cruelty of your persecutors grows against you, hold out a little while, and for a little while expect afflictions, so that you may also be rich in hope, I mean the hope that is beyond human understanding.

Other Tongues and a Famine of the Word§26

26“For eye,” it says, “has not known, nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man, what God has prepared for those who love Him” (1 Corinthians 2:9). Then he shows what kind of affliction will come upon them first: “through contempt of lips,” he says, “and through another tongue” (Isaiah 28:11).

This is the meaning of the prophecy. In the Acts of the holy apostles it is written that “on the day of Pentecost they were all gathered together in one place, and behold, there came from heaven a sound as of a mighty wind rushing” (Acts 2:1-2). Then it says: “There appeared to them tongues dividing, as of fire, and it sat upon each one of them, and they began to speak in other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance” (Acts 2:3-4).

For Christ had commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, until they should be clothed with power from on high (Acts 1:4; Luke 24:49). Then they went down and spoke to those of Israel, and to all who had come from other countries, in the tongues given them by God; “and those who heard were amazed, and indeed said: Look, are not all these who are speaking Jews? And how do we each hear them speaking in our own tongue? But others said,” it says, “They are full of new wine” (Acts 2:7-8, 13), that is, they are drunk.

This, I think, is the “through contempt of lips, through another tongue.” For they spoke in other tongues, and the God who can do all things had foretold this too: “In other tongues,” he says, “and with the lips of others I will speak to this people, and not even so will they believe” (1 Corinthians 14:21). They ought to have accepted the sign as full proof, bearing in mind the prediction God had made about it. This they did not do; instead they mocked the apostles as drunk and remained in disobedience.

“For they will speak to this people, saying to it: This is the rest for the one who drinks, and this is the ruin; and they would not hear” (Isaiah 28:12).

God once said, angered at the madness of the Jews: “Behold, I am bringing a famine upon the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the words of the Lord. And from the east to the west they will run about seeking the word of the Lord, and they will not find it” (Amos 8:11-12).

So a spiritual famine has been brought upon those of Israel. Since they did not receive through faith the bread of life that came down from heaven and gives life to the world (John 6:33), they have quite fittingly come to lack the food that God gives: “For man shall not live by bread alone,” it says, “but by every word that comes out of the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4; Deuteronomy 8:3).

They behaved outrageously toward the Savior and Redeemer of all; yet because He is good, He called Israel to repentance, though it had been impious beyond bearing…

Vain Comfort, and Ariel Besieged§27

27…“Take counsel; exalt a vain comfort” (Isaiah 28:29).

Having promised them amnesty for their drunken outrages, and having said very plainly that He will not be too harsh with them, He bids them lay hold of good counsel. But He rebukes them because they thought a vain comfort to be something great and lofty, and so were carried beyond what is reasonable. And what was this comfort which they held to be great, though it brought no profit? Surely that one. For they said: “We have made a covenant with Hades and agreements with death; if a rushing storm passes through, it will not come upon us; we have made a lie our hope, and by the lie we shall be sheltered” (Isaiah 28:15).

But those who pondered these things and held an empty hope, supposing that they would die before the calamities came, heard plainly: “If a rushing storm comes upon you, you will be trampled down by it. Whenever it passes by, it will take you” (Isaiah 28:18-19).

“Woe, city of Ariel, which David besieged! Gather produce year upon year, for you will eat with Moab. For I will afflict Ariel, and her strength and her wealth will be Mine. And I will encircle you like David, and set a palisade around you, and set towers around you; and your words will be brought low to the earth, and your words will sink into the earth. And your voice will be like those who speak from the earth, and your voice will grow faint toward the ground” (Isaiah 29:1-4).

He takes up something that happened in history in the time of the reign of blessed David, and he does this as if to bring to light what the synagogue of the Jews dared to do against Christ. For the things that befell the people of old as in shadows are types of the true things.

Now the present Jerusalem was once called Jebus. Blessed David besieged it, and for what cause we shall learn from the holy Scriptures themselves. For it runs thus in the Second Book of Samuel: “And David and all his men went to Jerusalem, to the Jebusite who inhabited the land; and it was said to David, David shall not come in here; for the blind and the lame rose up, saying, He shall not come in here. And David took the stronghold of Zion; this is the city of David. And David said on that day: Let everyone who strikes a Jebusite attack with the dagger the blind and the lame, who fight against the life of David” (2 Samuel 5:6-8).

So the blind and the lame from Jerusalem, or Jebus, opposed blessed David, and for doing this they perished miserably; for he took the city. And at the time of His coming, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, lame and blind, opposed Christ, the Savior of all; for they did not know how to walk uprightly. Nor did they receive the divine light into their mind, those who…

Woe to Those Who Go Down to Egypt§28

28…“to a people who will not profit them, neither for help nor for profit, but for shame and reproach” (Isaiah 30:5).

Again he laments over those from Israel as lovers of sin who have become apostates, exceedingly wicked and planning bitter things, not through God (Isaiah 30:1). For it is not right for those who wish to agree together on some evil thing to take counsel with God. But everyone who is pious and good and a lover of righteousness will take counsel with God and will go on to do what must be done. For it is written: “The thoughts of the righteous are judgments” (Proverbs 12:5).

He therefore accuses chosen Israel of bringing in, concerning Christ, a mind out of tune with God. For they deliberated, sitting in council, and indeed said: “What are we doing? For this man performs many signs. If we let him go on like this, the Romans will come and take away both your city and your country.” And another, one of those set among the leaders, says: “You know nothing at all; it is better that one man should die, and not that the whole nation should perish” (John 11:47-50).

The Lord teaches this very thing more clearly in the parables of the Gospel: “The master of the house who planted the vineyard sent his own servants to receive the fruits, but the tenants killed them” (Matthew 21:33-35). And the charges of their impiety did not stop there; for when they saw the son, sent by the father after the servants, they said among themselves, it says: “This is the heir; come, let us kill him and have his inheritance for ourselves” (Matthew 21:38).

So the authors of such bitter and unholy schemes are apostates, who add sin upon sin (Isaiah 30:1). For they killed, as I said, the holy prophets, and after them the heir himself, that is, the Son. And he tries to show that their mind had long been turned toward apostasy from God, saying: “Those who set out to go down into Egypt, but they did not ask Me, to be helped by Pharaoh and to be sheltered by the Egyptians” (Isaiah 30:2). He threw in the words “but they did not ask Me” in between.

The train of thought runs like this: Woe, he says, to those who go down into Egypt to be helped by Pharaoh and to find shelter from the Egyptians. For when war and battle had been announced to them, and the king of Assyria had taken up arms against the land of the Jews, they ran ahead to the Egyptians and called for their help. Yet they ought to have appeased God and, by turning to better ways, to have wiped away the offences by which they had struck against Him. For had they been rich in His favor, they would not have fallen under the feet of those making war…

The Name of the Lord Comes after a Long Time§29

29Tomos 3. “Behold, the name of the Lord comes after a long time, wrath burning with glory; the oracle of His lips is an oracle full of wrath, and the wrath of His anger will devour like fire. And His breath, like water rushing in a ravine, will reach as far as the neck and be divided, to trouble the nations for vain error; and vain error will pursue them and seize them before their face” (Isaiah 30:27-28).

Having said very well that the light of the sun will be sevenfold for those who believe in Christ, at that time when He heals the bruise of His people (Isaiah 30:26), he usefully adds that the divine wrath will also be against Satan, who did the bruising, and against the demons with him. For their tyranny over us was not going to last without end, nor their strength to remain unshaken, above all once Christ, the Savior of all, had shone upon the human race.

The word of the prophecy is not bare and unclothed, as it were, but rather shadowed and deep. For it is framed as though about the Assyrians, who sacked Jerusalem and took all Judea, and, holding beloved Israel captive by the spear, went back to their own land, all but dancing in mockery over the divine glory and supposing that they had overpowered His worshippers even though God did not will it. Indeed Rabshakeh called out to those on the wall, saying: “Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, saying that God will deliver Israel out of my hand. Have the gods of the nations each delivered his own land out of my hand?” (Isaiah 36:14-18).

So those of whom the word speaks, having boasted greatly and babbled much against the ineffable glory, would be brought to judgment. And when Israel had spent seventy years in captivity and in slavery among them, the God of all rescued and saved him again. For He brought them back to Judea, under the leadership at that time of Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, who was of the tribe of Judah, and of Joshua the high priest as well.

So the force of the prophecy seems, as far as what lies on the surface, to recall what befell the Chaldeans and Babylon. But the true meanings of what is said are directed against the spiritual Assyrian, that is, Satan, to whom God has said: “As a garment soaked in blood will not be clean, so neither will you be clean, because…” (Isaiah 14:19-20).

Wrath on the Spiritual Assyrian§30

30“…you have destroyed My land and killed My people; you will not remain for ever, evil seed. Prepare your children to be slaughtered for the sins of your father, so that they may not rise up and inherit the land and fill the land with war. And I will rise up against them, says the Lord of hosts, and I will destroy their name and remnant and seed” (Isaiah 14:20-22).

So the name of the Lord, he says, will come after a long time (Isaiah 30:27). If someone chooses to understand this historically, God took pity on Israel after seventy years. But if he follows the inner and hidden path of the meanings, he will grasp that the inventor of sin went on for a very long time laying the yoke of his own perversity on all who are on the earth, so as to make them his own worshippers and to bind them fast in the snares of sin. But after a long time the only-begotten Word of God appeared to us, and then came “wrath burning with glory,” and “the oracle of His lips, an oracle full of wrath” (Isaiah 30:27).

For Cyrus son of Cambyses, with God urging him on and rousing him to battle, marched against the land of the Chaldeans and took the land of the Babylonians by force. He became to them like wrath and fire, for he all but devoured them all; and since his assault could not be withstood, he appeared to those there like water rushing in a ravine, and filled all the nations of the Chaldeans with uproar and confusion, for they were justly condemned for vain error. For they supposed, as I said, that they had overpowered Judea even against God's will. So vain error seized them. For the effects of unmixed wrath were brought upon them by God, and they perished through their own impieties.

One may see the dragon, the author of evil, suffering this very thing. For the oracle of the Lord became for him an oracle full of wrath. He and the wicked powers with him were commanded to depart into the abyss (Luke 8:31). They were consumed as by fire, and, as though swept away by much water, they were carried by the power of the Spirit into the lowest depths. For these too were thrown into confusion for vain error.

For he said: “I will seize the whole inhabited earth in my hand like a nest, and I will take it up like eggs that have been left, and there is no one who will escape me or speak against me” (Isaiah 10:14). He supposed that he was truly God; and transferring to himself the glory that befits the Creator of all alone, he thought he could rule for ever over those on the earth. So they were thrown into confusion, condemned for vain error, and they were seized by it. For judgment, wrath and punishment were brought upon them, and for this reason.

“Must you always rejoice, and always enter My holy places as though keeping festival…” (Isaiah 30:29).

Until the Spirit Comes from on High§31

31…the flocks of shepherds, that is, of the unclean spirits. So too the blessed David, framing his words as about Israel as a vineyard, says to God the Savior of all: “You brought a vine out of Egypt; You drove out nations and planted it” (Psalm 80:8). Then he adds: “Why have You broken down its hedge, so that all who pass along the way pluck its fruit? The boar out of the forest has ravaged it, and the solitary wild beast has fed on it” (Psalm 80:12-13).

For just as owners neglect the parts of their lands that have gone barren, and take no thought for them even if every kind of damage comes upon them, so too our God, who loves virtue, lets a soul go and leaves it stripped of all His sparing care, if it becomes empty of the fruits that make for good works.

“Until a Spirit from on high comes upon you. And Chermel will be a wilderness, and Chermel will be counted as a forest. And judgment will rest in the wilderness, and righteousness will dwell in Carmel. And the works of righteousness will be peace, and righteousness will hold rest, and they will be confident for ever. And His people will dwell in a city of peace, and will dwell there in confidence, and will rest with wealth” (Isaiah 32:15-18).

He makes clear also the time at which the disobedient race from Israel will be empty of spiritual fruitfulness. For he turns the discourse, I mean, toward those who have honored our Lord Jesus Christ by their ready obedience, who have been cleansed through faith in Him and have come to share in the Holy Spirit. For what was foretold will come to pass, he says, and Israel will be laid waste for its unruliness, until a Spirit from on high comes upon you.

For as we read in the Acts of the holy apostles: “They were all gathered together in one place about the days of holy Pentecost. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound as of a mighty wind rushing, and it filled the house where they were gathered; and there appeared to them tongues dividing, as of fire, and they sat on each one of them, and they began to speak in other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance” (Acts 2:1-4).

So when, he says, the Spirit of God from above and from on high comes upon you who believe, then Chermel too will be a wilderness. Chermel, or Carmel, is a very large mountain in Judea, thickly covered with dense woodland. So he likens to Chermel both Jerusalem itself and all the country around it, since it too had a countless multitude of inhabitants.

But it will be, he says, a wilderness, and will be counted as a forest. By forest he means wild woodland, which is of use for burning. For the untamed trees are cut down, and flame…

Zion, the City of Our Salvation§32

32…through the lyre of the psalmist, saying: “I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things hidden from the foundation of the world” (Psalm 78:2; Matthew 13:35). And He spoke to the Jews too in parables.

So they did not give counsel to the people, he says, nor did the people know Him whose speech is deep. Nor did they give the counsel that would have kept the people from being called a despised people. For if they had given counsel, the people would not have been called despised; they would rather have been called blessed, as those who had recognized the Redeemer. But there was, he says, no understanding in the one who heard (Isaiah 33:19). For the Jews, being without understanding, did not test the voices of their leaders, nor discern whether they were giving good counsel or doing the opposite.

“Behold Zion, the city, our salvation! Your eyes will see Jerusalem, a rich city, tents that will not be shaken; the pegs of its tent stand for ever, nor will its cords be broken, because the name of the Lord is great to you. You will have a place, rivers and canals, broad and spacious” (Isaiah 33:20-21).

Between these come the words which God addressed to the senseless scribes of the Jews and to those who gave unholy counsel. Now the voice of the lovers of truth is brought in again, of those who have recognized the appearing of Christ and who say “Behold Zion,” meaning either the Church on earth or the fair city above in the heavens, the nurse of the saints. So whether one names the Church on earth or has that other city in mind, the thing shown by both will be one. For those who have been in the Church below will in due time be also in that city above, in the heavens.

Since, then, they all but leap for great joy at having recognized Zion, in which is our salvation, that is, Christ, and point it out to one another, at once the divine word takes up their words and says: “Your eyes will see Jerusalem, a rich city.” He speaks as if by likeness to the ancient tent in the wilderness. He calls Zion rich and says that the tent will be unshaken; for he declares that it has cords that cannot be broken and pegs fixed for ever. For the Church has been firmly set, and its continuance in well-being cannot be moved: “for the gates of Hades,” he says, “will not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18).

And He gives the reason why it will be such, saying to those who have believed in Christ: “because the name of the Lord is great to you.” For to those who have not accepted the faith the name of Christ is not great and glorified; but with us who have believed it is great and exalted. For we worship Him as God, as truly the Son of the Father, as the Word made man for the salvation of all. This then, he says, the tent that abides for ever, is a place…

Why Sennacherib Came against Jerusalem§33

33Tomos 4. “And it came to pass in the fourteenth year of the reign of Hezekiah that Sennacherib king of the Assyrians came up against the fortified cities of Judea and took them. And the king of the Assyrians sent Rabshakeh from Lachish to Jerusalem, to King Hezekiah, with a great army; and he stood by the aqueduct of the upper pool, on the road of the fuller's field” (Isaiah 36:1-2).

The account is plain to all who love to learn history; yet I will tell it, as briefly as I can. While Ahaz was reigning in Jerusalem, Pekah son of Remaliah and Rezin king of Syria were besieging Judea and planning to lay their hands on Jerusalem itself. Ahaz, too weak to resist, sent an embassy and called to his aid Tiglath-pileser king of the Assyrians, and with many gifts persuaded him to help him and to check the greed of the kings who had banded together against him, I mean the king of Samaria and the king of Syria (2 Kings 16:5-9).

When this was done, those who were making war on him perished. For the Assyrian took Damascus and Syria; and Ahaz came under his hand, and from then on under tribute and taxes. He was one of the very worst. He was an idolater and hateful to God, and perhaps surpassed all the others in his perversity toward God.

When Ahaz ended his human life, Hezekiah reigned in his place. He was his son, but a man dear to God, who had won the glories of the highest righteousness and piety. He, it says, “rebelled against the king of the Assyrians” (2 Kings 18:7); for he would not let his kingdom be brought under tribute, as Ahaz of course had done.

For this reason Sennacherib king of the Assyrians, as though he had the right to hold all Judea, and its very kingdom, under tribute, was inflamed with anger. He laid waste Samaria and sent his army against the cities of Judea, and when he had taken many of them, he then sent Rabshakeh against Jerusalem itself, not to take up arms for the time being by the law of war, but rather to lure the common people with threats and with promises of gentle treatment.

“And there went out to him Eliakim son of Hilkiah, the steward, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah son of Asaph, the recorder” (Isaiah 36:3).

Rabshakeh Mocks Hezekiah's Trust§34

34… “And Rabshakeh said to them: Say to Hezekiah, Thus says the king, the great king of the Assyrians: Is a battle line drawn up by counsel, or by words of the lips? And now, in whom have you put your trust, that you disobey me? Behold, you have put your trust in this staff of reed, this broken staff, in Egypt; whoever leans on it, it will go into his hand. Such is Pharaoh king of Egypt, and all who trust in him” (Isaiah 36:4-6).

The gates, clearly, had been shut, and the people, no doubt the most warlike of them, stood on the walls; and to carry out the business of the embassy, the king's chosen men and the foremost among the priests went out to Rabshakeh. But he, a man of Persian savagery, with “a mouth speaking great things,” as it is written (Daniel 7:8), grew insolent against the glory of God. He calls Hezekiah by his bare name, without adding “king” or any other of the titles that best befit men in such high stations. But the king of the Assyrians he does not simply call by that title; he calls him great as well.

And he says: “Is a battle line drawn up by counsel, or by words of the lips?” For the Jews, who had the Law given through Moses, were thought wiser than the other nations; indeed, they used to say, “Blessed are we, Israel, because what is pleasing to the Lord is known to us” (Baruch 4:4). So Rabshakeh brings their boast in this to nothing, saying that when war and battle are upon them, all this will be wholly useless to help them: their knowledge of the laws, their shrewdness in counsels alone, and even their practised skill, as it were, in words.

And since some of those who had reigned over Judea had called on the hand of the Egyptians for help, though in doing so they acted most wrongly, the Assyrian supposed that now too Hezekiah was trusting not in God but in others, or rather in those who held the land of the Egyptians. That is why he calls it a staff of reed. For the hope placed in them, he says, is rotten and always easily broken, and it harms those who rely on it rather than being able to help them, just like a staff of reed: if anyone leans his weight on it, he will surely break it, and it will hurt the man who trusted in it.

“But if you say, We have put our trust in the Lord our God, now engage my lord the king of the Assyrians, and I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able to provide riders for them. And how can you turn back the face of a single governor?” (Isaiah 36:7-9).

He runs loose at the mouth again, lifts his horn on high, and speaks injustice against God (Psalm 75:5). For if indeed, he says, you have put your trust in Him, engage my lord, that is, arm yourselves and stand ready for battle. And I will add two thousand horses for you, and this will be enough …

The Axe and the Hand That Wields It§35

35…? But you, who lift your brows in vain over nothing, “have you not heard long ago these things which I have done?” (Isaiah 37:26). For if only you were willing, He says, to look closely into the words of My prophets, I said beforehand that these things would come to pass. For “I arranged them from ancient days” (Isaiah 37:26), that is, I decreed them and gave My assent; and now, when the time called for it, I have brought what was foretold to its end, so as “to lay waste nations in strong cities” (Isaiah 37:26), that is, cities that were not weak or easily taken.

“I let go My hands, and they were dried up” (Isaiah 37:27). For I, who long held them together through My forbearance so that they might exist and stand, withdrew the hand that defended them; and they withered like grass, faded like hay, and, like dry couch grass, were given as food to the fire.

This is what He says to him in another place too. For when the ungodly man had carried out what God had decreed should happen and thought great things of himself, he heard God saying again: “Shall the axe be glorified without the one who cuts with it? Or shall the saw be exalted without the one who draws it?” (Isaiah 10:15). For just as such tools do not, of course, move themselves to their work, but rather wait for the hand that moves them, so you too, He says, have become an instrument of the divine wrath. You did not do these things by your own powers; rather, you were like an axe and a saw, appointed to serve the will of the one who moves you.

“But now I know your rest and your going out; and your wrath with which you raged, and your bitterness, has come up to Me” (Isaiah 37:28-29).

So you boast, He says, though you were only the servant of the divine judgments, and perhaps you think that by yourself and alone you prevailed over so many nations and lands, so as to burn them and take them. But I know your rest, your going out and your coming in. By rest, as I think, He means death; and by going out and coming in, the path into anything whatever that is to be done. For nothing at all escapes the Mind that knows all things.

And when He adds, “Your wrath with which you raged, and your bitterness, has come up to Me,” He all but says: You will not have blasphemed without punishment. For I will by no means overlook the malice and bitterness of your unholy thoughts; but, as one provoked to grief, I will lay on your rages the penalty that befits them.

“And I will put a muzzle in your nose and a bridle in your lips, and I will turn you back by the way by which you were coming” (Isaiah 37:29).

Since the Assyrian, in a senselessness most like a beast's, mocked God, and, as though he had bolted into unbridled wildness, let loose words of blasphemy against the glory of God, for this reason He says, and very fittingly, as of a beast: “I will put a muzzle in your nose and a bridle in your lips,” all but saying that by the blows He would bring upon him …

Hezekiah Shows the Envoys His Treasures§36

36… of God, the one, I mean, shown in Hezekiah's case. And we say that Merodach marvelled in another way too, at what had happened, beyond all expectation, to those who besieged Jerusalem with Rabshakeh: the hand of an angel fell upon them and destroyed them in one night, so that in the morning all the bodies were found dead (Isaiah 37:36). So the envoys came, Merodach having marvelled at Hezekiah's righteousness because of these very signs from God, which pass all telling.

Hezekiah ought to have given those who had come from Babylon a splendid account of the help that God, who can do all things, had given at each time of need, and of the greatness of His wonders, so that, marvelling even more at the divine pre-eminence and at the invincible authority of the Master of all through the words in which he had instructed them, they might return to their own land enriched with the knowledge of God. For in this way they could also have helped others by proclaiming what they had learned.

This he did not do. Instead he was carried away into human boastfulness. He did not order his own glory by the things for which God had honoured him, but by the wealth of his kingdom, and he made these the limit of all the glory he possessed. For he showed them, it says, the house of Nechotha (Nechotha means “of the spices”), and of the oil of myrrh, and of the perfume, and of the silver and of the gold, and all the houses of the vessels of his gaza, that is, of his wealth (Isaiah 39:2). For gaza is said to be a Persian word, and it means riches or wealth.

“And Isaiah the prophet came to King Hezekiah and said to him: What do these men say, and from where have they come to you? And Hezekiah said: They have come to me from a land far off, from Babylon. And Isaiah said: What did they see in your house? And Hezekiah said: They saw everything in my house, and there is nothing in my house that they did not see; they even saw what is in my treasuries. And Isaiah said to him: Hear the word of the Lord of hosts: Behold, days are coming, and they will take everything in your house, and all that your fathers have gathered up to this day will go to Babylon, and they will leave nothing behind. And God said: They will also take some of your children whom you have begotten, and they will make them eunuchs in the house of the king of the Babylonians” (Isaiah 39:3-7).

The prophet had been sent by God; yet at first, when he met Hezekiah, he made as if he were speaking on his own account, as though he had come of his own accord. That is why he says, “What do these men say?” And his words are framed with great art. For the Babylonians had come, perhaps eager, as I said, to learn the cause of the sun's turning back, and for what …

The Nations as a Drop before God§37

37Tomos 5.

“All the nations are counted as a drop from a jar and as the tipping of a scale, and they will be counted as spittle. Lebanon is not enough for burning, and all the four-footed beasts are not enough for a whole burnt offering, and all the nations are nothing and have been counted as nothing. To whom have you likened the Lord, and with what likeness have you likened Him? Did a carpenter make an image, or did a goldsmith melt gold and gild it over? For the carpenter chooses wood that does not rot, and wisely seeks how he will set up his image so that it may not totter. Will you not know? Do you not hear? Has it not been told to you from the beginning? Have you not known the foundations of the earth?” (Isaiah 40:15-21).

The prophetic word has recalled for us the dispensation of the Only-begotten in the flesh, and has marvelled fittingly at the ineffable wisdom through which we have been saved and, having come to know Him who is Master by nature and in truth, have been counted worthy of His grace: gathered like lambs by His arm (Isaiah 40:11), and placed under Him as under a Shepherd exceedingly good, for He laid down His life for His own sheep (John 10:11). It has also shown that the Mind is beyond our reach, whether to see or even perhaps to measure (Isaiah 40:13), and has confessed Him to be the highest Wisdom, beyond all things. So it has of necessity brought in one who addresses those from the nations, that is, those who still worship the creation rather than the Creator (Romans 1:25); he takes them away from their ancient error, the error of their forebears handed down from their fathers, moves them to better things, and brings them back to the knowledge that befits human beings.

He therefore shows the measureless pre-eminence of God, who rules all things, and the surpassing dignity of the majesty that is in Him, and that all things are small to Him and would be reckoned as equal to nothing when set beside, I mean, the exceeding greatness of His power and glory. That is why he says: “All the nations are counted as a drop from a jar and as the tipping of a scale, and they will be counted as spittle.” These things are small and worth nothing at all. For what is one drop falling from a jar? And what would the tipping of a scale be, which brings the side that seems lighter up to an even balance? And what is spittle, that is, the spit of a man?

But Lebanon, he says, would not be enough for Him for burning, nor all the four-footed beasts for a whole burnt offering. Such things are wholly contemptible; even if all of them were brought to Him for a whole burnt offering …

Gods Made by the Carpenter§38

38… and let these too be cast down behind the glory of God. And if all the nations, he says, are as nothing and have been counted as nothing, “with what likeness have you likened Him?” (Isaiah 40:17-18). For what will be like Him and of equal weight with Him, whether in nature, or in weight, or even in the measure of glory? Is it by the arts of a carpenter and the skill of a woodworker? Is it by goldsmiths? Or has He been shaped, as in an image, to resemble any creature at all? That is, he says, has a statue in the form of a man been made? Not at all. For nothing could be equal to Him. Since He is God by nature, and there is no other beside Him, He will surely be above all things in every way.

Having shown, then, that He is beyond everything that has been made and called into being, he next laughs to scorn the making of idols, and says: “The carpenter chooses wood that does not rot, and wisely seeks how he will set up his image so that it may not totter” (Isaiah 40:20). So it would be the work of the carpenter's skill, by the measure of the intelligence he has, to construct a god for those in error as they see fit, and to secure it with the greatest care so that it may not totter and fall and be shattered. So the worshippers of idols would be short of gods if there were no carpenter's skill on earth! Nor would the handmade things, once made, have been kept safe, unless the craftsman had wisely sought the means by which they could stand and keep an unshaken seat.

One might say, I think, and very fittingly, what was spoken through the voice of David: “The idols of the nations are silver and gold, the works of men's hands” (Psalm 135:15). And to this he adds: “May all who make them become like them, and all who trust in them” (Psalm 135:18).

Having laughed to scorn, then, the fashioning of idols, he turns his discourse to shame and correct those who have gone astray, and shows that their offence in this is without excuse, saying: “Will you not know? Will you not hear?” (Isaiah 40:21), instead of “Did you not know? Did you not hear?” “Has it not been told to you from the beginning? Have you not known the foundations of the earth?” By the foundations of the earth he means its farthest parts and its ends. So you have known, he says, you who live from one end of it to the other. You have heard, and it has been told to you from the beginning.

And what has been told? That God, who is God by nature and in truth, is one and alone; but the things men craft into gods for us are wood and stones and nothing else. For the God-inspired Scripture has not kept silent; rather, the knowledge of the truth has been proclaimed from of old, through patriarchs, through the Law and the Prophets. For it was not when the only-begotten Word of God, having become like us, shone forth as man on those upon the earth, that they first fell under the gravest charge of going astray. No, as I said, the charge of idolatry was ancient. For He did not cease …

Righteousness Raised from the East§39

39All will say the same thing to those being taught the mysteries. For since they speak from one Spirit, they will not fight against each other's words; rather, they will make their proclamation about the divine doctrines in harmony, and will announce, in a hidden way, the mystery of Christ. For this, I think, is the meaning of “Then let them declare judgment” (Isaiah 41:1). For since those of Israel called the Law given through Moses “judgment,” he very fittingly sets against it the saving proclamation of the Gospel, and by these words calls that “judgment.”

For true righteous judgment, and the force of a lawgiving that pleases God, does not shine out in the shadow of the Law, but rather in the proclamation of the holy teachers of the mysteries, the new rulers. They learned the judgment, that is, the will of God the Father, from Christ, and they have announced it to us as well, all saying the same thing.

“Who raised up righteousness from the east, and called it to follow at His heels, and it will go?” (Isaiah 41:2).

God, who holds authority over all things, should not be marvelled at only for the bare greatness of His works in creation; for He also gives proof of the gentleness that is in Him through the benefits He confers. For He has saved those upon the earth, and has rescued the human race, which had wholly perished, from death and corruption, and from the greed of the devil. For He has brought the devil to nothing, together with the powers that are with him, and He has justified us through faith, driving away the sin that had tyrannised over us.

But all these things were accomplished through Christ; for “He has become for us, from God the Father, righteousness and redemption and sanctification” (1 Corinthians 1:30). And we have been enlightened through Him, and have shared in mercy and love, and, in a word, in everything that has power to save. And this He foretold to us through one of the holy prophets, saying: “And for you who fear My name the sun of righteousness will rise, with healing in its wings” (Malachi 4:2).

Who, then, he says, caused righteousness to rise like the sun from the east, that is, Christ? Who called it, that is, caused it to come, and to appear in such a way that it walked at the heels of the One who called it, which is as much as to say that it followed in the very footsteps of God the Father? For so the Lord lived on earth, fulfilling the works of the Father and showing Him to us in His own nature. For He was and is equal to Him in power, and through the deeds themselves He has fully assured those on earth that He is in every respect equal in measure to the One who begot Him. Indeed, He said plainly: “If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me. But if I do them, even though you do not believe Me, believe My works” (John 10:37-38). Following everywhere the will of the Father, or rather being itself …

Only God Knows What Is to Come§40

40… God; “your counsels have drawn near,” says the King of Jacob (Isaiah 41:21).

He has declared very clearly how the calling of the nations will come about in its due time; He has promised to turn the desert into marshes and the thirsty land into watercourses, and to make it thick with cedars and box trees and other plants (Isaiah 41:18-19); and He has said that His own hand will be marvelled at as the Maker of such great things (Isaiah 41:20). Now He speaks again to the makers of idols and to the craftsmen of such things, and says that their judgment has come near. By judgment He means the punishment owed to them, that is, their shame and disgrace. For by the holy sentence of God and by a just judgment they would be punished, as men who have deceived the whole world under heaven and brought in counsels that are not true. For they taught those on earth to say to the wood, “You are my father,” and to the stone, “You begot me” (Jeremiah 2:27).

That is why He says that their counsels have drawn near, that is, have come to their end, since God is shaking down the error and scattering the mist of ignorance: not one of the gods they have, those falsely so called, we mean, but the Lord, God in truth, and the King of Jacob, that is, of those of the blood of Israel. By these words He brings to remembrance the signs that took place at the redemption of those of Israel, through which the power of the authority befitting God that is in Him, or of His incomparable pre-eminence, is very clearly recognised.

“Let them draw near and declare to you what will happen; or what the former things were, tell us, and we will set our mind on it, and we will know what the last things are and the things to come. Tell us, declare the things that are coming at the last, and we will know that you are gods. Do good, and do harm, and we will marvel and see together; for where are you from, and where is your work from? From the earth they chose you, an abomination” (Isaiah 41:22-24).

It is the proper and singular mark of the divine and ineffable glory to know all things and to be wholly ignorant of nothing, whether of what has happened before, or of what is present, or of what will be. Indeed, through the all-wise Moses He makes plain to those on earth the things before the framing of this world and the things at the beginning, saying: “In the beginning God made the heaven and the earth. And the earth was invisible and unformed, and darkness was over the abyss” (Genesis 1:1-2); and He goes through the making of the whole world most exactly.

But our Lord Jesus Christ too, who spoke those things of old through Moses, has declared to us the things at the end; for, as His disciple says, “We look for new heavens and a new earth, and His promises” (2 Peter 3:13). And one may hear Him saying plainly: “Will anything be hidden from Me?” (Jeremiah 32:27); and: “For the word of God is truly living, and clear, and …” (Hebrews 4:12).

Christ, Covenant and Light of the Nations§41

41Logos 1.

He who is God and Lord has appeared among us, according to the Scriptures (Psalm 118:27), and through Him the flock of those who were wandering has been gathered in, as in a net, to the grace that comes through faith. For He was the expectation of the nations (Genesis 49:10), and through Him God the Father called those in mist and darkness to the light of the truth. And He made this plain to us a little earlier, saying: “I, the Lord God, have called You in righteousness, and I will hold Your hand and strengthen You; and I have given You as a covenant of the race, as a light of the nations, to open the eyes of the blind, to bring out of bonds those who are bound, and out of the prison house those who sit in deep darkness” (Isaiah 42:6-7).

For our Lord Jesus Christ has been appointed by God the Father as a covenant for the race according to the flesh, I mean those of Israel, to whom God promised long ago through one of the prophets, saying: “Behold, days are coming, says the Lord, and I will accomplish for the house of Israel and for the house of Judah a new covenant, not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers” (Jeremiah 31:31-32). For the divine Moses was a minister of shadow and type, standing in the rank of a suppliant; but Christ, as Son and Lord, became the arbiter of a new covenant. I call it new because it reshapes man into the newness of a holy life, and through the Gospel way of life shows him to be an approved and true worshipper; for “God is Spirit,” it says, “and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth” (John 4:24).

So He has been appointed as a covenant of the race and as a light of the nations, to open the eyes of the blind and to bring out of bonds those who are bound. For Satan, the author of evil, darkened the hearts of the nations; for “they became futile in their reasonings, and claiming to be wise they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for the likeness of an image of corruptible man, and of birds, and of four-footed beasts, and of creeping things” (Romans 1:21-23).

But the true light (John 1:9), that is, Christ, rose for us as a spiritual morning star and as the sun of righteousness (Malachi 4:2); spreading the ray of the true knowledge of God, He scattered the darkness that the devil's deceit had brought down on those upon the earth, and He set free from their bonds those who were held fast, beyond escape, by the chains of their own sins. So, since those who of old served the creation rather than the Creator (Romans 1:25), who had darkness in their minds, who … the works of their own hands …

The New Song of the New Creation§42

42… persuaded to worship, those who are far from God will be called through faith in Christ and will come to know the King and Lord of all: the word of the prophecy shows this very clearly.

For he commands those who have received mercy from God to glorify him, and he speaks thus: 'Sing to the Lord a new song, you his dominion; glorify his name from the end of the earth, you who go down to the sea and sail on it, you islands and those who dwell in them' (Isaiah 42:10).

The song is new, and fitting for the newness of what has taken place. For 'if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation,' as it is written, 'the old things have passed away, and all things have become new' (2 Corinthians 5:17).

Those of the blood of Israel were indeed redeemed from the greed of the Egyptians, with the all-wise Moses acting as mediator at that time. They were rescued from brick-making, from the empty sweat spent on earthly tasks, from the savagery of the taskmasters, and from the inhumanity of the ruler. They were brought across through the midst of the sea, they ate the manna in the wilderness, they drank water from the rock, they crossed the Jordan with dry feet, and they were brought into the land of promise.

In our case all these things are new, and beyond comparison better than the old. For we have been rescued not from a slavery of the flesh but rather from a spiritual one, and in place of earthly tasks we have been set free from the defilements that come from love of the flesh. We did not flee Egyptian taskmasters, nor a tyrant who was godless and savage, yet a man like us, but rather the wicked and unclean demons who drive us into sin, and the one who stands over their herds, that is, Satan.

We crossed, as though it were a sea, the surge of this present life, with its turmoil and its truly pointless distractions. We ate the spiritual manna, the bread from heaven that gives life to the world (John 6:33). We drank water from the rock, delighting in the streams of Christ, spiritual streams, of course (compare 1 Corinthians 10:4). We crossed the Jordan when we were counted worthy of holy baptism, and we entered the land promised to the saints and fitting for them, which the Savior himself also mentions when he says: 'Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the land' (Matthew 5:5).

So for new achievements the song had to be new, coming from 'his dominion,' that is, from those who have come to be under him and are ruled by him. And this song, that is, the praise fitting for him, had to arise not only in the land of the Jews but from one end of the earth to the other, that is, through all that is under heaven. For of old God was known in Judea, and his name was great in Israel alone (Psalm 76:1). But since we have been called through Christ to the knowledge of the truth, … has become full …

Mercy for the Ignorant, and Heedful Listening§43

43… the people of Israel from their close bond with God. This has been said plainly, so that God may be seen in every case to have given a just verdict.

For it was necessary, truly necessary, that those who had held ungodliness toward God in honor should be put outside his sparing mercy and love; but that those who through ignorance had been caught in the pits of sin and had fallen under the devil's hand should be pitied by the Creator of all, and called to the knowledge of him and to the light of the truth.

This, I think, is found in the words of the all-wise Moses too, where he says: 'They provoked me to jealousy with what is no god; they angered me with their carved images. And I will provoke them to jealousy with what is no nation; with a senseless nation I will anger them' (Deuteronomy 32:21). And the divine Psalmist said somewhere: 'They embittered him with their carved images, and with their practices they provoked him to jealousy; and the Lord God saw and disregarded them, and utterly rejected Israel' (Psalm 78:58–59; compare Psalm 106:29).

If we should also add some spiritual contemplation to what has been said, let us guard against having the devil's snare in mind and heart, and the wicked idols that arise in the imaginings of our thoughts and call us to licentiousness and to monstrous pleasures, so that we may not fall to Satan and become the plunder of demons. For it is written: 'If the spirit of the ruler rises up against you, do not leave your place, for healing will put an end to great sins' (Ecclesiastes 10:4).

'Who among you will give ear to these things? Listen to what is coming' (Isaiah 42:23).

It is the custom of the divinely inspired Scripture to say 'give ear' when someone receives a word about necessary matters not carelessly or negligently, but soberly, so as to keep what has been told stored up in mind and heart. Such is what is said through the voice of the Psalmist: 'In my heart I have hidden your sayings, so that I may not sin against you' (Psalm 119:11). And in the forty-eighth psalm it is written: 'Hear these things, all you nations; give ear, all who dwell in the world' (Psalm 49:1).

To hear is common to all who have once taken a voice, or some other sound, into the ear; but to give ear is, as I said, to lodge in the mind something of what God has declared.

So the prophetic word here seems to be looking for those who listen more fairly, that is, more wisely, since it tells what befell the people of old for the safety of those to come. As Paul says: 'These things happened to them as types, and they were written for our warning, on whom the ends of the ages have come' (1 Corinthians 10:11). For we must not read the accounts about Israel to no purpose, but receive them for the good of the soul, and firmly refuse to be caught in the same faults, so that we may not fall into the same misfortunes as they did.

'Who …' (Isaiah 42:24).

None Can Snatch Them from His Hand§44

44… from his hands the one he has once taken hold of. 'For there is no one,' he says, 'who can deliver out of my hands. I will act, and who will turn it back?' (Isaiah 43:13). For I have brought about the calling of the nations, he says, that is, I have saved those who were going astray. And who will change this, or rather alter it so that it is not so?

That no one will snatch from the hand of God those whom he has saved, the Savior himself assures us when he says: 'My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me; and I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one can snatch them out of my Father's hand' (John 10:27–29). This is plainly what is written: 'There is no one who can deliver out of my hands.'

'Thus says the Lord God who redeems you, the Holy One of Israel: For your sake I will send to Babylon, and I will rouse up all who flee, and the Chaldeans will be bound in ships' (Isaiah 43:14).

In the words we have just read he has woven no mean exhortation for those called from the nations to the knowledge of him. He has shown that he alone has knowledge of the things at the beginning, in the middle, and at the end, and indeed that apart from him there is no one at all who can save. Having set faith firmly in them by these words, he now turns his words to those of the blood of Israel, and tries to assure them that he is all-powerful and a worker of wonders, and that the natures of things yield to his nod. The very elements of the world serve him, and whatever he wills is brought to pass without fail, with nothing standing in its way.

For it was necessary, truly necessary, that those of Israel should have the fullest enlightenment, and the exhortations and reminders that would settle them in firmness of mind, since they had slipped into what is unlawful, and, inclining to other gods, had sacrificed to idols and to the host of heaven, as it is written (compare Acts 7:41–42; Jeremiah 19:13). So he foretells to them what will be, and very skillfully reveals beforehand the misfortunes of the Babylonians. He shows in advance that they themselves will be taken captive by the Babylonians, but he also proclaims in advance, as I said, that the Babylonians will suffer the most shameful things of all because of them.

Since the word addressed to them concerned the greatest matters, he must show the incomparable glory of his power and the surpassing greatness of his strength, saying: 'Thus says the Lord God who redeems you, the Holy One of Israel' (Isaiah 43:14). For to bring them to remember the things of old, I mean those connected with the redemption from Egypt, when a great multitude of wonders bore witness to his …

The God Who Formed Israel Will Yet Help§45

45Logos 2. 'Thus says the Lord God who made you and formed you from the womb: You will yet be helped' (Isaiah 44:2).

He had charged those of Israel with their apostasy, with drifting away from their love for him and giving themselves over to gods that do not exist; for he had said: 'Your fathers and your rulers have acted lawlessly against me, and the rulers have defiled my holy things' (Isaiah 43:27–28). Now, with great wisdom in his dealings with them, he adds these words as well. For he does not let them be carried off into apostasy, or rather into despair, nor slip away altogether from their hope in him. He promises them gentleness again, wins them back by his usual love for humankind, and brings them round to repentance.

He gives them to understand that he has not wholly turned away from those who have sinned, and that Israel will not perish root and branch, since he has pity on them and makes the way of salvation quite smooth for those who believe in him. In calling himself Lord and God, who made and formed Israel from the womb, he seems to hint that Israel has also gone astray by putting the name of divinity on others and thoughtlessly attaching the glory of lordship to gods that do not exist.

He hints again that Israel did not know his Maker, the one who brought the human being on earth into existence when he once did not exist; for he firmly declares that he himself is Former and Maker, and as it were charges with ingratitude those who have leapt away from their love for him. For it is absurd that we should offer the highest honors to our parents according to the flesh, the divine law also awarding them this (Exodus 20:12), and yet that the Creator of the universe should not, far more than they, be extolled by us with the praises fitting for him and honored by our complete submission.

He says something of this kind through one of the holy prophets too: 'A son honors his father, and a servant his lord. If then I am a father, where is my glory? And if I am Lord, where is the fear of me? says the Lord Almighty' (Malachi 1:6).

For he is both at once. He is Lord, as holding the whole creation under the yoke and in service; for the divine Psalmist said to him somewhere, 'All things are yours' (Psalm 119:91). And again he is Father, as Former and Maker, who brought it into being. So, as though paying a debt, we must render to God both the submission fitting for sons and the fear proper to household servants. So whenever he calls himself Former and Maker …

Water Promised to the Thirsty§46

46…God says that He Himself is, and He leads them to consider that they ought to honor Him, as the one who has become the giver of their very being and the cause of existence to those who once were not. And by saying to those who have sinned, “You will still be helped” (Isaiah 44:2), He gives them courage: although they are caught in many charges they cannot escape, a remnant of gentleness and love for humankind has been kept for them. Nothing would keep them, too, from being saved, if they chose to pass over to what is better and more fitting and in keeping with the laws He gave.

“Fear not, my servant Jacob, and beloved Israel, whom I have chosen. For I will give water in thirst to those who walk in a waterless land. I will put My Spirit upon your seed, and My blessings upon your children. And they will spring up like grass among the waters, and like a willow beside flowing water. This one will say, ‘I am God’s,’ and that one will cry out in the name of Jacob; and another will write, ‘I am God’s,’ in the name of Israel” (Isaiah 44:2-5).

Here he seems to call the company of the holy apostles Israel and Jacob, understood as a single person; for all are one in Christ (Galatians 3:28). See how he says that this Israel is beloved and chosen; and surely it is plain to all that He would never have called those who had rejected faith in Him beloved and chosen. But since, being of the blood of Jacob, who is also Israel, they became precious and chosen vessels and were called to the sacred service of the gospel preaching, He thought it right to crown them with words so splendid, since they were to be like lights in the world, holding fast the word of life (Philippians 2:15-16), and guides into the mystery for all that lies under the sun.

“Fear not,” then, he says; that is: be of good courage and be strong, keep a mind that endures hardship and is full of vigor, laugh at the assaults of those who persecute you, and hold your faith in God firm. For a great many fight against the sacred preaching, and an unholy multitude will rise up against you, working against the words you speak. But be stronger than fear, he says, than hesitation and faint-heartedness. For “I will give water to those who walk in a waterless land” (Isaiah 44:3).

For those who walk through a thirsty land it is sweet and life-saving to come upon springs of water. And for those who labor for the sake of godliness, we say, it is still more longed for to be watered by divine and spiritual streams, that is, by the comforts given through the Spirit, by which the human mind, when it has somehow grown faint, may soon be strengthened again for courage. The water here, which God promises to supply to those who walk in a waterless land, we say is the Holy Spirit. Indeed the Savior Himself said: “As the Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from his belly” (John 7:38). And making plain the force of these words, the all-wise …

The Foundations of the Earth Sound the Trumpet§47

47…the whole earth to the knowledge of the truth, as Christ was bringing it back, calling it to conversion, justifying it by faith, and making it glorious through sanctification, there was joy and festival among the spirits above. So while the heavens rejoiced because God had mercy on Israel (Isaiah 44:23), and not only on Israel according to the flesh but also on the Israel understood according to the spirit, the foundations of the earth sounded the trumpet, that is, those who perform the sacred service of the gospel oracles. Their piercing sound was carried everywhere, and like sacred trumpets they cried aloud, proclaiming the Savior’s glory to people everywhere and calling to the knowledge of Christ both those of the circumcision and those who once worshiped the creation rather than the Creator (Romans 1:25).

For what reason do we say they are called the foundations of the earth? Christ is indeed the foundation of all and the unshakable base, who upholds all things and holds firm in well-being whatever has been set upon Him. For on Him we are all built up, a spiritual house (1 Peter 2:5), fitted together through the Spirit into a holy temple, into His dwelling place (Ephesians 2:20-22). For He dwells in our hearts through faith (Ephesians 3:17). But the apostles and evangelists may be understood as foundations nearer to Him and closer than we are, since they became eyewitnesses and ministers of the word (Luke 1:2), and became also a firm support for the faith. For when we recognize that we must follow their traditions, we shall keep our faith in Christ straight and undistorted.

For somewhere He said to the godly Peter, when Peter was wisely and blamelessly confessing his faith in Him and saying, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16): “You are Peter, and on this rock I will found My Church” (Matthew 16:18). By the rock, I think, He means the disciple’s unshakable firmness in faith. It is also said somewhere through the voice of the Psalmist: “His foundations are in the holy mountains” (Psalm 87:1). The holy apostles and evangelists may very fitly be compared to holy mountains; their knowledge has been laid like a foundation for those who came after them, and it does not let those whom they gathered in their net fall away into what is counterfeit in faith.

So the foundations of the earth sound the trumpet. But notice the exactness of the words. Moses was weak of voice and slow of tongue (Exodus 4:10), for the Law could be heard only by those in Judea. But sound the trumpet, you who are ambassadors for Christ (2 Corinthians 5:20)! “For their sound has gone out into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world” (Psalm 19:4; Romans 10:18). He has commanded the mountains to shout for joy (Isaiah 44:23), here again calling the foundations of the earth mountains. For the godly disciples are admired and conspicuous, distinguished in deed and word, and to people everywhere …

Mercy from the Earth and Man Formed from Clay§48

48…and arbiter and teacher, Christ Himself has become for us. One might also say that the mercy and righteousness that rises from the earth, or springs up from it (Isaiah 45:8), is our Lord Jesus Christ Himself. For He has become for us, from God the Father, mercy and righteousness (compare 1 Corinthians 1:30), since it is true that in Him we received mercy and were justified, receiving forgiveness of our old offenses; that is, from Him we have received the righteousness that can bring us to our share in every good, the righteousness by which we have also been saved.

If the earth is commanded to make righteousness spring up, let no one be annoyed, when he considers that the Psalmist too says somewhere, of God the Father and of Emmanuel Himself: “He worked righteousness in the midst of the earth” (Psalm 74:12). For Christ did not bring His own flesh down to us from above, out of heaven; rather, He was born according to the flesh of a woman (Galatians 4:4), who was herself one of those on the earth. So when He is said to have become the fruit and shoot of the earth, you will understand, as I said, that He was born according to the flesh of a woman taken for this service, though she was one of those from the earth.

“I am the Lord God, who created you. What better thing have I made, like a potter’s clay?” (Isaiah 45:8-9).

Here He gives, as it were, the reason why the Son, though He is God by nature, emptied Himself, chose even to suffer for us, and counted those on the earth worthy of so great a care that He gave up His own life in exchange for them; or rather, why He consented to take the form of a servant (Philippians 2:7) and to exchange the supreme glory for the lowliness of human nature. That is why He says, “I am”; this is to be taken here in place of “I subsist and live,” since He is true God and Lord of hosts, who brought all things into being, who did not make death but rather created all things for incorruption (Wisdom of Solomon 1:13-14; 2:23).

Then, honoring human nature, and showing that of all living creatures on earth none at all could match it, He says, “What better thing have I made, like a potter’s clay?” For we were formed by Him when He took dust from the earth (Genesis 2:7) and shaped it very well, as a potter does. Yet the dignity of human nature does not stop there; there is in us something greater still, a guest-gift and a present from God’s fine craftsmanship. For we have been made according to His image and likeness (Genesis 1:26), and we have been enriched with the stamp of His glory, shining spiritually in our souls, even though according to the flesh we are earth and from the earth.

So man is no contemptible creature, but rather a living being on earth worthy of admiration; and God takes such pride in him. Indeed He said to Job, who endured so much, when He was setting out His mighty works plainly: “Did you take clay of the earth and form a living creature, and set it on the earth able to speak?” (Job 38:14) …

The Lord Who Made Heaven and Earth§49

49Logos 3. “Thus says the Lord who made the heaven; He it is who showed forth the earth and made it; He it is who marked it out. He did not make it for nothing, but to be inhabited. I am the Lord, and there is no other. I have not spoken in secret, nor in a dark place of the earth. I did not say to the offspring of Jacob, ‘Seek what is vain.’ I am the Lord, who speaks righteousness and declares truth” (Isaiah 45:18-19).

Having proclaimed beforehand the coming of Christ, the Savior of us all, and having marked out the time of salvation, when all will leave the darkness of their old ignorance and pass over to the light of the true knowledge of God, he here gives a needful exhortation to Jews and Greeks alike. He adds clear proofs by which they will know very plainly that He is the God and Maker of all, and that there is no other besides Him.

That is why he says, “Thus says the Lord”; and not simply “Lord,” for there are very many in heaven and on earth who have received that name by a loose use of it (compare 1 Corinthians 8:5), but He Himself who by nature and in truth is what He is also called, and who, from the very things He has accomplished, has a glory that is not false. For this, he says, is the Lord who made the heaven. To have made the heaven, and to have shown forth the earth and set it firm, is a very great proof of supreme glory and almighty pre-eminence.

For He marked it out; that is, when of old it lay hidden in the deeps, invisible and unformed (Genesis 1:2), He made it visible and finished. He marked it out, for, as the books of Moses attest, He said: “Let the water be gathered into one gathering, and let the dry land appear” (Genesis 1:9). So it appeared out of the waters; and though it was under water and wholly unworked, He set it apart by itself, placing bars and gates on the deeps (compare Job 38:10) and separating it thoroughly from the waters.

That He brought it forth usefully and of necessity to this end, not only so that it might be seen but so that it might have inhabitants, namely those formed from it, just as heaven has the holy angels, he made clear beforehand by saying, “He did not make it for nothing, but to be inhabited.” So it was shown to be a support and, as it were, a house for those who tread on it, that is, for us. And if we were brought into existence by Him, how is it not true to say that we were surely made for this very reason, that we might worship Him and Him alone, and acknowledge Him who is the Author of all things …

The One God Who Spoke Openly§50

50…should we offer up songs of thanksgiving? “I am, then, and there is no other” (Isaiah 45:18). For if He it is who made the heaven, who showed forth the earth and did not make it for nothing but to be inhabited, who else could be thought to be God besides Him? Or who could equal Him in strength and glory? Or who could come near Him at all, even by a little? And how is the whole nature of created things not surpassed by a glory, strength and wisdom so great and so far above all things? There is no one. He alone, then, and no other at all besides Him, could be thought to be God by nature and in truth.

Yes, but someone might perhaps say: “Who has known His purpose in this? Or who can tell whether He wishes some others also to be crowned with the glory and the name of God, or Himself alone?” So He answers this and says: “I have not spoken in secret, nor in a dark place of the earth; I did not say to the offspring of Jacob, ‘Seek vain things’” (Isaiah 45:19). I laid down laws for them about these things, He says, not speaking in a corner or trying to escape notice, but clearly and openly.

For the Lord came down on Mount Sinai in the form of fire; there was darkness and storm and smoke, and the piercing sound of trumpets (Exodus 19:16-19; Hebrews 12:18-19). The whole people stood by, with Moses acting as mediator, and laws were proclaimed from God. He did not charge Israel to seek anything vain, that is, an idol or a falsely named object of worship; on the contrary, the commandments kept them from such things. For it was said to him: “You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him alone shall you serve (Matthew 4:10; Deuteronomy 6:13); and you shall have no other gods besides Me. And you shall not make for yourself an idol, nor the likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or on the earth below, or in the waters under the earth” (Exodus 20:3-4).

So it was said to him. And the words “I am the Lord” are as if He were saying, not once but many times over, “I alone am God and Lord of all, speaking righteousness and declaring truth” (Isaiah 45:19). By righteousness, I think, He means the Law, for the Law is the arbiter of righteousness; and by truth, the teachings of Christ. Yet the outline of the truth is present in the Law (Romans 2:20), and the mystery of Christ lies hidden in its shadows; for Moses wrote about Him (John 5:46). So in speaking righteousness, the power of the truth is also declared along with it, since it is true that the Law was a shadow (Hebrews 10:1), and that in it now lies the outline of the truth.

“Gather together and come, take counsel together, you who are being saved from the nations. Those who carry the wood, their carved image, did not know, and they pray as to gods that do not save” (Isaiah 45:20).

The apostate dragon lured those on earth away from their close bond with God, and …

The Bird from the East§51

51But if the God of all wishes to do anything, what could there be to stand against it and oppose it? For “what the holy God wills, who will scatter? And His high hand, who will turn it back?” (Isaiah 14:27). So, as proof that He is God by nature and in truth, He may fittingly say: “All My counsel will stand, and all that I have planned I will do” (Isaiah 46:10). Then He adds to this: “calling a bird from the east, and from a land far off, for the things I have planned” (Isaiah 46:11); and to this also the words “I am” will be joined.

The bird called from the east and from a land far off we say is the Babylonian, who set fire to the whole country of the Jews, took Jerusalem and shook down the temple in it. Then, uprooting very many of both the common people and the notable, he carried them away from their native land and settled them in the country and land of the Persians, laying on them the hard and unbearable yoke of captivity. This too will be clear to you from what God said to the blessed prophet Ezekiel. It runs thus:

“And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, tell a tale and speak a parable to the house of Israel, and say: Thus says Adonai, the Lord: The great eagle, of great span, full of talons, whose purpose is to enter Lebanon, took the choice parts of the cedar; he nipped off the tops of its tender shoots and brought them into the land of Canaan; he set them in a walled city. And he took some of the seed of the land and put it in the plain as a plant beside much water; he set it where it could be watched over. And it became a weak vine, small in size, so that its branches showed toward him, and its roots were beneath it in its ground. And it became a vine, and put out shoots, and stretched out its climbing branches” (Ezekiel 17:1-6).

These things God said to the blessed prophet Ezekiel. But since the saying was hard to grasp and the force of its meaning not very clear to the hearers, He Himself explains it again, saying: “Say to the rebellious house of Israel: Do you not know what these things are that I have said? When the king of Babylon comes against Jerusalem, he will take its king and its rulers and lead them to himself into Babylon. And he will take one of the royal seed, and make a covenant with him, and bring him under a curse; and he will take the leaders of the land, so that the kingdom may become weak and never lift itself up, but keep his covenant and uphold it” (Ezekiel 17:12-14).

For as we have read in the Books of Kings, after the capture …

God’s Forbearance toward a Hard People§52

52…temple, when the ministering priests sang of Jerusalem: “Glorious things have been spoken of you, O city of God” (Psalm 87:3). The Lord Himself also recalls this, when He says that no one should swear by his own head, because he cannot make one hair white or black, nor by Jerusalem, because it is the city of the great King (Matthew 5:35-36). For they used to swear by Jerusalem, calling it, as I said, the city of God. And they leaned on Him too, saying that the Lord of hosts was their strength (compare Isaiah 48:2).

But those who then held this belief ought not to have profaned the city of God with altars and sacrifices, entangled as they were in the deceits of demons, nor to have provoked against themselves the One in whom they trusted; rather they should have gladdened Him with good pursuits, bringing Him, like a sacrifice, a steadfast devotion.

Yet “hear these things,” He says (Isaiah 48:1). And what are they? “The former things I declared long ago; they went out of my mouth and were made known. Suddenly I did them, and they came to pass” (Isaiah 48:3). For, as I said, in the beginning Manasseh, hateful to God, gathered from everywhere the so-called diviners and augurs (compare 2 Kings 21:6) and was always prying into the future; carried away by their charlatan tricks, he perhaps thought that he knew it clearly. That is why the God of all says: It was I who declared to you the first things too; these were not spoken to you by any other of the falsely named gods, but went out of My mouth; it was made known to you, and suddenly I did it, and it came. That is, even if you did not expect these things to come to fulfillment, still you learned through the events themselves and by actual experience that I both did it and it came.

He seems to call “former” the misery brought on them by the war, when they were carried off from their native land, took up the yoke of bitter slavery, and were taken away into the country of the Persians and Medes. For it was second, after those events, that the things brought on the Babylonians by divine wrath befell them, which we have already described at great length.

“I know that you are hard, and your neck is an iron sinew, and your forehead bronze. And I declared to you of old, before it came upon you; I made it known to you” (Isaiah 48:4-5).

Here he shows the incomparable gentleness of the supreme nature, and how great the mercy it shows to human beings, even to those who are used to grieving Him deeply. For its calm forbearance matches its own glory. And just as by boundless excellence it rises far above the measure of created things, so too it is beyond comparison in its love for humankind. See how, though He knew Israel to be hard, with a proud and unbreakable neck, so that even …

The Islands Called to Listen§53

53Logos 4. “Listen to me, you islands, and pay attention, you nations. After a long time it will stand, says the Lord. From my mother’s womb He called my name, and He made my mouth like a sharp sword, and He hid me under the shelter of His hand. He made me like a chosen arrow, and He sheltered me in His quiver, and He said to me, ‘You are My servant, Israel, and in you I will be glorified’” (Isaiah 49:1-3).

Having helped Israel by a great many exhortations and counsels, he moves his teaching of the mystery over to the flocks of the nations, and again makes the mystery of Christ clear to them. Through it they were to leave their brutish and accursed life, be brought back to the way of life dearest to Him, and receive the true light into their minds, so as to know clearly who is God by nature and in truth, the nature that rules over all things.

He addresses the islands, which we say are the Churches of Christ. They lie as if in a sea, that is, in the surge of the present life, and are surrounded by the unbearable onset of waves, that is, by persecutions and troubles, which the enemies of the truth, who fight against God’s calling, bring upon them. Of such islands the God-inspired Scripture speaks in very many places. Blessed David too sings somewhere and says: “The Lord has become King; let the earth rejoice; let the many islands be glad” (Psalm 97:1). For when Christ became King over the whole world under heaven, taking it all into His hand and wrenching it from the tyranny of the demons, then the Churches throughout the whole earth rejoiced, that is, were filled with gladness.

That the prophet, in calling them islands here, means the Churches drawn from the nations will become clear from what follows. For right after “Listen to me, you islands,” he added, “Pay attention, you nations.” Then he says: “After a long time it will stand, says the Lord.” As I said, he promises the manifestation of Jesus Christ, the Savior of us all, and that the Word, though He is God, lives among those on earth in a form like ours (compare Baruch 3:38). Yet he shows that the time then was a time of prophecy, not yet of the events themselves coming to light, by saying that after a long time it will stand, namely what was promised, that is, what was being prophesied.

What, then, is this? The Savior Himself is brought in as the speaker, saying: “From my mother’s womb He called my name.” It came about …

The Names of the Word§54

54… at once in these words the mystery, deep and great, which needs to be taught from above. For it was revealed in this way to the divine Peter (compare Matthew 16:16–17). For the Word was and is God, equal in glory with God the Father and sharing His throne, existing with Him and coeternal with Him. His names before the incarnation, those that are in some way proper to His nature, are God, Wisdom, Light, Life and Power, and besides these, others that are found in the sacred Scriptures.

But since He lowered Himself into self-emptying, being made in the likeness of man and found in form as a man (Philippians 2:7), He receives the common name, that is, Christ and Jesus, or else “God with us”; for “with us” means being in our condition. For it is written: “Behold, the virgin shall conceive in her womb and bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel” (Matthew 1:23; Isaiah 7:14). And the blessed Gabriel, revealing the mystery to the holy virgin, the Mother of God, says: “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will call his name Jesus” (Luke 1:30–31). “For he will save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21).

Have the blessed angel and the prophet, then, spoken words that cannot be reconciled with each other? Not at all. For the divine prophet, speaking mysteries in the Spirit, announced beforehand God made to be with us, giving Him this name from His nature and from His dispensation in the flesh. The blessed angel, for his part, gave Him the name from what He does; for He has saved His own people. That is why He has been called Savior. Indeed, when He underwent birth according to the flesh for our sake, the hosts of angels brought the shepherds the good news of the birth, saying: “Do not be afraid; for behold, we bring you good news today of a great joy, which is for all the people: today a Savior has been born, who is Christ the Lord, in the city of David” (Luke 2:10–11).

So He is Emmanuel because, being God by nature, He came to be with us, that is, became man; and Jesus because, being God and having become man, He was to save the world under heaven. When, then, He came forth from His own mother’s womb (for He was born of her according to the flesh), then His name was also called (Isaiah 49:1). So I say that the name Christ does not suit God the Word before His birth according to the flesh. For if He had not yet been anointed, how could He be called Christ? When He came forth as man from His mother’s womb, then He receives the name, together with His birth according to the flesh.

He says that His mouth was made like a sharp sword (Isaiah 49:2). This too is true. For it is written somewhere about Him, or rather the prophet Isaiah himself says: “And He shall be girded about the waist with righteousness, and wrapped in truth about the …” (Isaiah 11:5).

The Acceptable Time and the Prayer in Gethsemane§55

55… like us, and entered the measure of self-emptying. He addresses the chosen and says: “In an acceptable time I have listened to you, and on a day of salvation I have helped you” (Isaiah 49:8). Christ and His mystery were foreknown before the foundation of the world (1 Peter 1:20), but they shone forth at the times the Sovereign willed, the times at which He has helped us; and the time of the incarnation he calls a day of salvation. So too, somewhere, the divine Paul says: “Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:2). And the prophet David sings and says: “This is the day that the Lord has made; let us exult and be glad in it” (Psalm 118:24).

“And I have given you as a covenant to the nations, to establish the earth and to inherit the inheritance of the desert, saying to those in bonds, ‘Come out,’ and to those in darkness, ‘Show yourselves.’ And in all their ways they will be fed, and in all the paths will be their pasture. They will not hunger or thirst, nor will the burning heat or the sun strike them; but He who has mercy on them will comfort them, and will lead them by springs of water. And I will make every mountain a road, and every path a pasture for them. Behold, these come from afar, these from the north, and these from the sea, and others from the land of the Persians” (Isaiah 49:8–12).

Some of the earlier interpreters decided to make the beginning of the present chapter the words: “Thus says the Lord: In an acceptable time I have listened to you, and on a day of salvation I have helped you” (Isaiah 49:8). And they say that these words were spoken by God the Father to Christ, the Savior of us all. They weave in besides a meaning of this kind. He prayed, they say, before the precious cross, saying: “Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me” (Matthew 26:39); and He was not heard, for He drank it. But since He trampled on death with the Father’s help, the words “In an acceptable time I have listened to you, and on a day of salvation I have helped you” were of necessity said to Him.

But this account seems to me to be sorely lacking in plausibility. For He knew that He had to drink the cup, and that the world under heaven could not come to be saved except through the death of His flesh and the resurrection from the dead. Even so, He went through the form of the prayer as a carefully chosen step in the divine plan, so that His begging to be spared the Passion might accuse the bloodguilt of the Jews. For how would Israel have become liable to the charges of impiety against Him, if suffering had not been against His will because of its shame? Yet even so it became His will, both to take away sin from the world and to remake our state into the newness of a holy life (compare Romans 6:4). For in this way one will understand also His saying: “I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will …” (John 6:38).

The Church's Growth Through Faith§56

56… shows the multitude of those who will be called, how great and countless it will be. “For your sons,” he says, “whom you have lost, will say in your ears: Make room for me” (Isaiah 49:20). It is said somewhere to the spiritual Zion as well: “Enlarge the place of your tent and of your curtains; fix them firm. Do not hold back; spread out still further to the right and to the left” (Isaiah 54:2–3). We have read also in the books of Moses that around the tabernacle in the wilderness, the one made, I mean, of skins, wide and long courts were laid out, some facing the dawn and the sunrise, some to the west behind the tabernacle, and to the north and the south as well (compare Exodus 27:9–18). The figure hinted at the breadth and length that the sacred courts, that is, the churches, would have in time to come.

Yet even so, since the grace from Christ keeps on overflowing, the places everywhere are too narrow for those who have believed, so that the Church, which is the spiritual Zion, in her joy reflects and cries out within herself: “Who has begotten these for me?” (Isaiah 49:21). And I would say: faith in Christ. For through it you, who were childless and a widow, have become great in children. It has reared your peoples for you; and you who were once left alone have grown rich beyond all expectation, and have been seen with many children, you who were once bare and alone.

“Thus says the Lord: Behold, I lift up my hand to the nations, and to the islands I will raise up my signal, and they will bring your sons in their bosom, and carry your daughters on their shoulders. And kings will be your foster fathers, and princesses your nurses, on the face of the earth; and they will bow down to you and lick the dust of your feet. And you will know that I am the Lord, and you will not be ashamed or put to confusion” (Isaiah 49:22–23).

He has promised Zion that she will have many children, and fine ones, and that her children will come to such a multitude that she will need wider places than before and will be urged to enlarge her tent. Now he at once shows that the multitude of the children promised to her appears not so much from Israel as from the flock of the nations. And the thing is true, and one can see it from the events themselves. For the remnant of those from Israel has been saved, but it is small and easily counted (compare Romans 11:5); while the world under heaven has been caught in the net through faith in Christ, and the power of the apostolic and gospel preaching has brought to Him those throughout all the earth.

That this will happen, then, he makes plain by saying: “Behold, I lift up my hand to the nations” (Isaiah 49:22). “Lift up” means “raise high” and “exalt”; and the hand would suggest strength, that is, power. For when Christ was made known to the nations through the gospel preaching, He became exalted and renowned through the miracles He worked, and through the resurrection …

The Servant Who Did Not Disobey§57

57Logos 5.

“But I do not disobey, nor do I speak against it. I have given my back to scourges, and my cheeks to blows, and I did not turn my face away from the shame of spitting; and the Lord became my helper. Therefore I was not put to confusion, but I set my face like a solid rock, and I knew that I would never be put to shame; for He who justified me draws near” (Isaiah 50:5–8).

In the passages already read, or rather already examined, he has raised a very great outcry against the disobedience of the Jews. For he said: “I came, and there was no man; I called, and there was none to answer” (Isaiah 50:2). He then brought in between them the person of those who accepted the faith, saying: “The Lord gives me the tongue of instruction, to know when I must speak a word” (Isaiah 50:4), with what follows these words, and they raised their voices in thanksgiving. Now the person of Christ Himself enters again, as He is eager to set His own obedience against the madness of the Jews, so as to expose them completely as hateful to God, since they lift a proud and harsh neck against Him who calls them to salvation.

“For I have called,” He says, “and there was none to answer.” They have grown sluggish toward obedience, slow and wholly without understanding when it came to grasping what would bring them profit, and the means by which they might well have escaped, and very easily, both the tyranny of sin and the plots of the devil’s malice. “But while they disobeyed, I do not disobey. For when God the Father willed to sum up all things in me, things in heaven and things on earth (Ephesians 1:10), I lowered myself to self-emptying and came down into the limits of human poverty, appearing as a man, that I might become obedient even to death, and death on a cross (Philippians 2:7–8). So I have given my back to scourges, and my cheeks to blows; and I did not turn my face away from the shame of spitting” (Isaiah 50:6).

For these are the very things He came to suffer, when the boorishness of the Jews raged against Him like drunken men: Pilate tore Him with scourges (John 19:1), one of the unholy attendants insulted and struck Him (John 18:22), and others spat on Him (Matthew 26:67). But the One who suffered had a single aim: to carry the good will of the Father through to the end. Indeed, Christ said somewhere: “I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of the Father who sent me” (John 6:38). And this will …

The Father Vindicates the Suffering Son§58

58… is the will of him who sent me, “that of all that he has given me I should lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day” (John 6:39). So, to win life for those who believe in him, he did not refuse insults, or whips, or the trial of being spat upon, though he is God by nature and true Lord.

Then he says, as a man: “And the Lord became my helper; therefore I was not put to shame, but I set my face like a solid rock, and I knew that I would not be ashamed, because he who justifies me draws near” (Isaiah 50:7-8). So he speaks in a human way, as I said, and in no way out of keeping with the measures of his self-emptying.

Yet through these words he seems to hint at the judgment that came down on them for their impiety toward him. For he says, “The Lord became my helper.” It is as if he said: When I had given my back to whips and my cheeks to blows (Isaiah 50:6), and had suffered the sufferings on the cross as well, the Father became my helper. For he came to his defense, and did not allow his own Son to be utterly disgraced, nor indeed to be put to shame. For those who dared to fight against God have been punished, and have paid the penalty for their offenses against me.

By adding, “He who justifies me draws near,” he again deftly made plain that the judgment on those who had outraged him would not be far off or put off, but would come near, as it were, and follow close on the heels of their deeds.

We say that the Son was justified in this way. Since they dared to kill him, though he was righteous and in no way guilty of any fault, they have been punished, as I said; and the punishment of those who suffered it has borne witness that he whom they so impiously outraged was wholly blameless. God the Father said something of this kind: “And I will give the wicked in return for his burial, and the rich in return for his death” (Isaiah 53:9).

By the rich and wicked he means the leaders of the Jews. For they were sick with an extreme love of money, and through it they were carried away into their wickedness against him. Indeed, although they had recognized him, they kept saying, “This is the heir; come, let us kill him and have his inheritance for ourselves” (Matthew 21:38).

“Who is the one who contends with me? Let him stand up against me together. Who is the one who contends with me? Let him come near to me” (Isaiah 50:8).

That he was righteous and wholly innocent (for he committed no sin; 1 Peter 2:22), and yet endured the drunken outrages of the Jews, the divine prophet himself will confirm when he says of him, “See how the righteous one has perished, and no one takes it to heart” (Isaiah 57:1); and again, as in the person of the Jews, speaking of him: “Let us bind the righteous one, for he is troublesome to us” (Isaiah 3:10). The fact itself would proclaim it aloud. For the divine and pure nature of the Word …

The New Law Written on the Heart§59

59… concerning his own coming, which took place in this world with flesh: “In that time, says the Lord, I will put my laws into their mind, and I will write them on their hearts” (Jeremiah 31:33; Hebrews 8:10). The all-wise Paul rightly understood this too, and writes, saying to those who had received it, “You are our letter, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God” (2 Corinthians 3:2-3).

So, “Hear me,” he says, that is, receive my words, and do not become unruly as Israel did, clinging to the oldness of the letter of the Law and seeing nothing beyond the types. The commandment given through Moses was laid down “until the time of reformation,” he says (Hebrews 9:10). But since the time of the incarnation is no longer awaited, but is already here, let the shadow give way to the truth.

“Hear me, then, my people” (Isaiah 51:4). In saying “my people,” he holds out to them the spiritual kinship granted to them in due time. By this too, I think, he puts them to shame, and makes them more eager to accept the word that comes from him.

He calls not only those who belong among the peoples, but kings along with them, so that you may understand the rulers, that is, the leaders of the peoples. For many were brought to this rank from the multitude of believers, and the divine disciples were their firstfruits. Then those who followed after them in their footsteps were given the name of kingship, since they were rich in the name of kingship and were also appointed to lead the peoples.

And so, as if from very great joy, they lift up songs of thanksgiving to God, saying, “He subjected peoples to us, and nations under our feet” (Psalm 47:3). The divine Psalmist also sings of them: “The rulers of the peoples were gathered together with the God of Abraham” (Psalm 47:9).

“O peoples and kings,” he says, “hear me and give ear,” and learn what is promised for the time to come. “A law will go out from me, and my judgment for a light of the nations” (Isaiah 51:4).

Here he calls the divine Gospel proclamation a law. For the new and saving decree is of another kind, as it were; yet it is, as it were, a change of the old law for the better, and a passing over of the types, which have run their course, into the truth. So Christ said, “Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill. For I tell you, not one iota or one stroke will pass from the Law until all things take place” (Matthew 5:17-18).

But the law in letters was given through Moses, while the saving proclamation, that is, the Gospel, went out through Christ (compare John 1:17). For it was fitting that Moses should become the minister of the shadow and the type, as it seems, of knowledge and of true worship …

I Am He Who Comforts You§60

60… washing away of sin, that is, the washing that comes through faith in Christ. Where there is the supply and grace of the Holy Spirit, the honor of adoption, the enjoyment of unending good things, and the hope of the kingdom of heaven, there surely we must rejoice, and pain, grief, and groaning have fled away (Isaiah 51:11). For what place will pain have, and over what could there be groaning, where there is no cause at all for groaning and pain, but rather hope prevails, hope of exultation and gladness, of delight that cannot be lost, and of joy?

“I am, I am he who comforts you. Know who you are, that you were afraid of a mortal man and of a son of man, who have withered like grass. And you forgot God who made you, who made heaven and founded the earth, and you were always afraid, all the days, of the face of him who afflicts you. For just as he planned to take you away, so now where is the fury of him who afflicts you? For in your being saved he will not stop, nor will he delay” (Isaiah 51:12-14).

Here “I am” means “I live and exist”; for he himself is He Who Is (Exodus 3:14). This is a title fitting for God and surpassing all others. For being and living belong only to the nature that is beyond all things, which did not receive them from another by participation, nor holds them as a gift, but rather is itself life.

So he says, “I am he who comforts you,” that is, he who gives every spiritual comfort, and holds you up with his help so that you stand firmly fixed, ready to go with courage straight toward every virtue. Or perhaps you will understand the comfort here in another way too. For through the Gospel proclamations the Savior was calling people to the washing away of sin through faith in him, I mean, to a share in the Holy Spirit, and to the boast and glory of adoption.

But you, O Israel, he says, did not stand in awe of me, who am, but looked down on me and despised him who calls you to life; yet you were afraid of a perishable man and of a son of man, who have withered like grass. Then you forgot God who made you, who fashioned heaven and established the earth, and you feared the face of him who afflicts you.

Here God accuses the leaders of the Jews, who persisted to the end in opposing the Savior's glory, and, as far as it lay with them, declared it to be nothing at all. He worked wonders in many ways, but they poured out astonishingly bitter words on his divine signs; for they said that he cast out demons by Beelzebul, the ruler of the demons (Matthew 12:24). With his teaching that went beyond the Law he often charmed those who heard him; but they slid into such impiety that on those who praised him they …

Zion Called to Awake§61

61Book V, in six tomes. Tomos 1.

“Awake, awake, Zion; put on your strength, Zion, and put on your glory, Jerusalem, the holy city. The uncircumcised and unclean will no longer pass through you again” (Isaiah 52:1).

When you hear of Zion and Jerusalem here, do not think that only cities built of stone are meant. Rather, the word of the prophecy signifies the assembly of those called through faith, that is, the Church, drawn both from the ranks of the Jews and from the nations.

In saying “Awake,” and that quite often, he grants them the most abundant comfort. For just as, in the words of the all-wise Paul, “where sin increased, grace abounded all the more” (Romans 5:20), so where the bitterness of judgment is great, there the comfort matches the calamities, or rather far outweighs the gloom.

He has commanded her to put on her strength, and besides this her glory. Strength may fittingly be understood as the practical strength that works in action, by which each person's soul presses on with youthful spirit toward whatever must be done. And what else could glory be but the Lord of glory, who is Christ? To him the divine Psalmist speaks, at one time saying, “Awake, my glory” (Psalm 57:8), and at another, of everyone who believes in him, “You are the boast of their strength” (Psalm 89:17).

The all-wise Paul has made clear to us how we shall put on both the glory and the strength itself. For he said again, “Put on our Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires” (Romans 13:14); and besides this, “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ” (Galatians 3:27).

Indeed, the prophet Isaiah too brings in the person of the Church as a woman adorned in many ways, saying, “Let my soul rejoice in the Lord, for he has clothed me with a garment of salvation and a tunic of gladness” (Isaiah 61:10). So Christ is a robe most fitting for every saint, and a tunic of spiritual gladness, who gains for us strength and glory.

He calls the Church a holy city. For she was made holy, not through worship under the Law (for the Law made no one perfect; Hebrews 7:19), but by being conformed to Christ and becoming a partaker of his divine nature (2 Peter 1:4), that is, by sharing in the Holy Spirit, in whom we were also sealed for the day of redemption (Ephesians 4:30), when we washed away every stain and all …

Shaking Off the Dust§62

62… set free from every stain. For we have been justified through faith in him, and we have been enriched with the security he gives against anything at all. We are walled about, as it were, by his grace, since he drives away from us every assault of the devil and the savage uprisings of the opposing powers.

He teaches this when he speaks to Zion, that is, to Jerusalem, which is “the Church of the living God” (1 Timothy 3:15): “The uncircumcised and unclean will no longer pass through you again” (Isaiah 52:1).

Taken historically, you will understand the saying in this way. The nations living around Jerusalem may be taken as the uncircumcised and unclean, since they neither knew the One who is God by nature and in truth nor had received the training that comes through the Law. They fought very often against those of Israel’s blood, so that in most places they were seen to be stronger than the strength Israel had, and they all but walked through Jerusalem, holding her thrown down under their feet.

Come, then, let us shape the spiritual meaning from what at times happened in history. The troops of demons, that is, “the world rulers of this darkness” (Ephesians 6:12), and with them the profane Satan, hold under their feet the souls that have not yet come under God. They pass through them, as it were, with no one to stop them, that is, no one to come to their defense. But when those souls have been made God’s own and have him as their glory and strength, then, yes then, the greed of those powers will come to an end. For it is written: “The angel of the Lord will encamp around those who fear him, and will rescue them” (Psalm 34:7).

So the uncircumcised and unclean may be understood as the loathsome and profane powers that produce every kind of filth, the wicked and opposing powers.

“Shake off the dust, and rise up, and sit down, Jerusalem. Loose the bond from your neck, captive daughter of Zion” (Isaiah 52:2).

He now shows her to be skilled in boasts fit for saints, and he teaches plainly how she will put on the strength of her arm and her glory as well (compare Isaiah 51:9; 52:1). First he commands her to shake off the dust, and so to rise and sit, and to take off the bond from her neck. Here, I think, the dust should be understood as the earthly mind and the uncleanness of fleshly desires.

For just as those who lie on the ground cannot help being covered with dust and dirt, so in the same way, I think, the thoughts of fleshly uncleanness settle on those whose mind is thrown to the ground and whose outlook is earthly. So we who have been called into spiritual kinship with our Lord Jesus Christ, and who are about to put him on as strength and glory (compare Romans 13:14), must first shake off the dusty, earthly mind and first cleanse the mind, and …

He Suffered for Us All§63

63… so that, as Paul says, he might sanctify the people through his own blood (Hebrews 13:12). For he suffered not for himself (far from it) but for the whole world under heaven.

The all-wise Paul will bear witness, writing of God the Father: “He did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all, so that with him he might also give us all things” (Romans 8:32). And the Son himself says somewhere, through the lyre of the Psalmist, to his Father and God in heaven: “Sacrifice and offering you did not want, but a body you prepared for me. In whole burnt offerings and sin offerings you took no pleasure. Then I said, ‘Here I am, I have come; in the scroll of the book it is written of me.’ To do your will, O God, I have desired” (Psalm 40:6–8; compare Hebrews 10:5–7).

The worship under the Law was of no use to those on earth for taking away sin, since the sacrifices of oxen and the slaughter of sheep were not what God wanted. So the true Lamb, “who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29), offered himself for us “as a fragrant aroma” (Ephesians 5:2). Then, having endured death in the flesh, he set the whole world under heaven free from both death and sin. For One who outweighs all in worth suffered for all, so that he might rule and reign over all.

Paul will confirm this again when he writes: “For this reason Christ died and lived, so that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living” (Romans 14:9). And again: “One died for all, so that those who live might no longer live for themselves, but for him who died and was raised for them” (2 Corinthians 5:14–15).

Rightly, then, the prophet says: “This man, who was under the blow, who knew how to bear sickness, whose face was turned away, who was dishonored and not esteemed, bears our sins and suffers pain for us; and we reckoned him to be in toil, under a blow, and in affliction” (Isaiah 53:3–4).

Look again, I ask you, with what skill the prophetic word moves forward here. It takes on the part of those who did not know the mystery of Christ, and who thought that he came to suffer as one paying for his own sins. “For we reckoned him to be in toil, under a blow, and in affliction,” he says; that is, we supposed that the suffering had come upon him from God, as if for some sins, and that he was in toil, under a blow, and in affliction because of that sin.

But it is not so at all; rather, “he was wounded because of our sins, and made weak because of our lawless deeds” (Isaiah 53:5). Then he gives further reasons, through which one can see that he “who knew no sin” (2 Corinthians 5:21) came to suffer for the sake of our salvation and life.

For long ago we stood apart from God in enmity, fighting against his holy laws, not bearing the yoke of obedience, and refusing to serve him. But it was necessary …

Idols Under the Leafy Trees§64

64… the One who would set you in order for godliness through the commands of the Gospel.

“You who urge others on to the idols under leafy trees, slaughtering their children in the ravines among the rocks: that is your portion, this is your lot. To them you poured out drink offerings, and to them you offered up sacrifices. Shall I not be angry at these things? On a high and lofty mountain, there is your bed, and there you brought up sacrifices; and behind the posts of your door you set your memorial” (Isaiah 57:5–8).

Having shown them to be killers of the Lord, he shows that their God-hating sickness and their readiness for bloodshed were nothing new in them, but had been in them for a long time, from of old. “For you are the ones,” he says, “who in the times of old urged others on to the idols under leafy trees.”

The Law given through Moses awarded them what was good for them and said plainly, “You shall worship the Lord your God, and him alone shall you serve” (Matthew 4:10; compare Deuteronomy 6:13). Yet they slid into such madness, or rather into a godlessness unrestrained and beyond all measure, that they became makers of idols, offered sacrifice to them, and urged others, that is, taught them, to worship under leafy trees and to crown the idols with honors fit only for God.

The God of all makes this plain through the voice of Jeremiah, saying: “Have you seen what the house of Israel has done to me? They went up on every high mountain and under every leafy tree, and there they prostituted themselves” (Jeremiah 3:6). For they took over the mountain peaks and the most flowering parts of the groves, built altars and sacred precincts, and brought sacrifices and drink offerings there to the unclean demons. And there were some who did not spare even their own children. Jechonias, indeed, slaughtered his own son to gods that do not exist.

God himself said this somewhere through one of the holy prophets, exposing the cruelty of those who were used to doing such things: “Sacrifice human beings, for the calves have run out” (Hosea 13:2).

“You, then,” he says, “are the ones who urge others on to the idols, slaughtering their children under leafy trees in the ravines among the rocks.” What then follows? “That is your portion, this is your lot.” “You have worshiped empty things,” he says, “and you will have a portion like them, and your lot will be empty.”

Or perhaps he means this: “You slaughtered their children in the ravines,” he says. “So that is your portion, this is your lot”; that is, you will be caught in the same evils, and slaughter will become your portion and lot. For what reason? First, because you became a killer of children; then, because you poured out drink offerings to unclean demons and lifeless idols, and offered up sacrifices to them. So then, at these things shall I not be angry …

Light That Breaks Forth Early§65

65Tomos 4. “Then your light will break forth early, and your healing will spring up quickly; your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of God will wrap around you. Then you will cry out, and God will hear you; while you are still speaking he will say, ‘Here I am’” (Isaiah 58:8–9).

If you fast purely, he says, and show God hands washed clean and a mind set free from every stain; that is, when you scrub yourself clean of striking the lowly with your fists, of goading those under your hand into lawsuits and quarrels, and of following your own wishes and pleasures (Isaiah 58:3–4); when you break your bread for the hungry, clothe the naked, and bring the homeless poor into your house (Isaiah 58:7): then your light will break forth early.

The word carries very great force. For he did not simply say, “The light will be given to you by God,” but rather “it will break forth,” like a flash of lightning sent down from God with rush and speed. This clearly shows the eagerness of the Giver. And by saying “early” he teaches that it will come down even before its time.

For God, the steward of our affairs and the giver of spiritual gifts, knows, yes he knows, the time that suits his generous gifts to each person. But if someone proves good and upright, and compassionate and easy to guide besides, to him the rewards from God will be given early, so that they spring up in him like ears of grain. So too will his healing, that is, the casting off of every sickness and the entry of better things in its place.

For when someone is freed from the sicknesses of the soul, he will surely bear the fruit of longing and eagerness for every good thing whatever. So when the divine and spiritual light has dawned in us, healing surely rises with it in every way, as God dresses our wounds, saps the strength of our passions, and puts in their place within us the will to do good and to excel in righteousness.

That is why he says, “Your righteousness will go before you.” It will go before us, plainly, by making the road to godliness easy in advance, turning what is rough into what is smooth and passable, bringing down what is steep, and, as it were, setting straight our course toward all that is best.

He adds something else as well: “For the glory of God,” he says, “will wrap around you,” that is, it will surround you, make you someone all eyes turn to, and make you a benefit shared by many. For the brightness of the saints …

God Answers the Righteous at Once§66

66… brightness benefits in no small measure those who look on them. Indeed, Christ said to the holy apostles: “Let your light shine before people, so that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:16). So we shall be radiant, with the glory from God moving all around us and, as it were, clothing us, the glory he would grant to those who devote themselves to righteousness.

When these things are yours, he says, then you will cry out, and God will hear you; while you are still speaking he will say, “Here I am” (Isaiah 58:9). For “he listens to the prayers of the righteous” (Proverbs 15:29), as it is written. And as the Psalmist says: “The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayer” (Psalm 34:15).

Because he is good, he will grant the requests of those who ask, but not to all at once. To those who have excelled in righteousness, however, he holds out what they ask without any delay and lends them a most ready ear, so that over each of their requests they say with joy: “He heard my voice from his holy temple, and my cry before him will come into his ears” (Psalm 18:6). So the cry “Here I am,” while the righteous man is still speaking and lifting up his prayers, shows plainly the generosity that will not delay and the great readiness of God who gives.

“If you take away from yourself the bond, and the stretching out of the hand, and the word of grumbling, and give your bread to the hungry, and satisfy the humbled soul, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your darkness will be as noon, and your God will be with you always” (Isaiah 58:9–11).

The choicest lessons, even if people hear them many times, still bring benefit. So the all-wise Paul writes to those who believed through him: “To say the same things to you is no trouble to me, and for you it is safe” (Philippians 3:1). So in many ways he comes to us saying the same things, making plain the roads to good standing and describing the splendor of the rewards to be given to the saints. He does this to make them still more eager to choose to do the things by which they would become worthy of honor and would find the generosity that comes from above, from him.

So he says, “If you take away from yourself the bond, and the stretching out of the hand” (Isaiah 58:9). By “bond,” I think, he means wickedness of character, perversity and love of quarrels, and, as it were, tying knots of trouble against people and searching out crooked schemes, so as at times to bind people fast and throw them into snares of hardship from which there is no escape.

For a person must be straightforward and easy to approach, if he aims to be watched over by God and longs for the gifts that come from him. And by “the stretching out of the hand” he perhaps means taking bribes and reaching after shameful gain; for we sometimes say …

Christ the Everlasting Light§67

67… but we await new heavens and a new earth, and his promises, as it is written (2 Peter 3:13). The Savior himself said something of the same kind: “In those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light” (Mark 13:24; compare Matthew 24:29). For the glory of the Savior itself will be enough to give the saints their light.

But so that the present words may seem in some way to follow the sense of the verses before them, we approve this interpretation and say that the present lines also signify something else. The light of the sun, and that of the moon as well, is useful and necessary to the eyes of the body. Yet at night the sun’s light is withdrawn, and by day the moon’s, for they take turns yielding the work of shining to each other.

But the divine and spiritual light, he says, which the Savior of all puts into the hearts of believers through the Holy Spirit and through those who know well how to lead others into the mysteries, will be unquenchable, unceasing, and always shining. So the mind of each person stands in need neither of sun nor of moon to be enlightened or to see. For the mind is not lit by light that the senses perceive. It is content instead with the guiding light that comes through the Holy Spirit, and with a brightness that lets it behold the glory of Christ and how great a likeness he bears to the One who begot him, a likeness of essence, of course, and also lets it know without straying the way of the best life.

The Savior, then, has become everlasting light for us, and he makes this plain to us when he says, “I am the light of the world” (John 8:12), and again, “As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world” (John 9:5), and, “Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (John 8:12).

“And the days of your mourning will be fulfilled, and your people will all be righteous, and they will inherit the land forever, guarding the planting, the works of his hands, for glory. The fewest will become thousands, and the least a great nation. I, the Lord, will gather them in due season” (Isaiah 60:20–22).

Those who say that the time of the consummation is indicated by the light of the sun or the moon no longer working, but rather being withdrawn so that our Lord may become everlasting light, say that for those who mourn now, whom the Savior also says will be comforted (Matthew 5:4), there will be an end of mourning …

God’s Anger and Our Sin§68

68… shows his gentleness, unexpectedly saving those who have slipped away from every hope, and holding out a saving hand to those who are down low and lying, as it were, on the ground. Those who offer up the prayer before us say something like this: “From the foundation of the world we have neither heard of nor seen any such God, except you, and you alone” (compare Isaiah 64:4).

For to those who wait for you, that is, to those who have set their hope on you, he lavishes his mercy. For it will surely follow those who work righteousness, and it will be fitting for those to receive it who keep your ways in memory, that is, who carry out your will (compare Isaiah 64:4–5). For we say that the ways of the Lord are his commandments. So the inspired David sings at one time, “In your way I shall live” (compare Psalm 119:37), and at another, “I ran the way of your commandments, when you enlarged my heart” (Psalm 119:32).

Tomos 6. “See, you were angry, and we sinned. Therefore we went astray, and we all became like the unclean, and all our righteousness like the rag of a woman in her impurity. We fell away like leaves because of our lawless deeds; so the wind will carry us off like dust. There is no one who calls on your name, or who remembers to take hold of you; for you turned your face away from us and handed us over because of our sins” (Isaiah 64:5–7).

Some of the interpreters decided to approach these words with a different sense. They reverse the order of the words, or rather the force of the thoughts, so that the saying becomes: “See, we sinned, and you were angry.” For the divine anger, they say, did not become the cause of their offending; rather, because they had behaved outrageously, God was angry. They fear, naturally enough, that the divine wrath might somehow be thought to bring about sin.

But I think this must be said: it is no charge against the divine wrath that those who have come under it are unable to escape the assault of sin. For as long as the One who saves us takes delight in us, we rise far above sin, and, keeping firmly away from the filth that comes from wickedness, we are crowned with the glories of spiritual courage. But when we embitter the Giver of our strength and the Lord of our courage, we fall into weakness and help…

The Prophet's Vision and the Lord's Words§69

69Logos 1. “The vision which Isaiah son of Amoz saw, which he saw against Judah and against Jerusalem in the reign of Uzziah and Jotham and Ahaz and Hezekiah, who reigned over Judah” (Isaiah 1:1).

I do not think anyone would be speaking falsely if he said this about the holy prophets: they received not only the knowledge of things to come, as the Holy Spirit made the matter shine clear to them and sounded it into their minds, but at times they also became eyewitnesses of the events themselves. So the blessed prophet Isaiah seems to have seen with the eyes of the mind the sufferings that would come upon Judah in due time: here the ranks of the enemy ravaging the land, there the cities laid waste, houses set on fire, and all that enemies do by the laws of war. That is why this stands written at the head of the prophecy: “The vision which Isaiah son of Amoz saw against Judah and against Jerusalem” (Isaiah 1:1).

He usefully marks the times of the kings, so that God may be seen to speak through the prophet what suited the ways of each.

“Hear, O heaven, and give ear, O earth, for the Lord has spoken: Sons I have begotten and raised up, but they have rejected Me. The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master's manger; but Israel does not know Me, and My people have not understood Me” (Isaiah 1:2–3).

What the matter is, what the reasoning is, and what it means to show, we must look into closely. The blessed prophet solemnly calls, as it were, both heaven and earth to witness, and in doing so he does not act without God; rather, he says that the words are not his own but God's. By this he signifies that they will come to pass in every way and without fail, and he dismays his hearers with dread of suffering, for it is impossible for God to speak falsely.

At the same time, as I think, he is also securing something else. He was about to make his predictions against Judah and Jerusalem, and to announce beforehand sufferings beyond all words and incurable calamities, and he knew well that those to whom the message was addressed would in every way be sharpened to anger. So he says that the Lord spoke these things to them, and so most skilfully turns aside the fury of the ungodly and, as it were, shames their unjust anger into silence. For if he was taken on as a mediator and servant, and was carrying across words from above and from God, how could anyone justly be angry with him? Or rather, how would whatever they did in anger not be aimed against God who had spoken…

The Witness of Creation§70

70…and become impious acts of daring?

He has very good reason, then, to call heaven and earth to witness. He was about to bring charges against Israel, and he wants the angels in heaven, and the whole earth itself, to know the ways of that people's impiety, so that no one would think that God had been moved without cause, or had rushed, over small and quite trivial faults, to cast off the beloved, the people set apart as His own portion, whom long ago He had rescued with very great strength from the greed of the Egyptians.

For He had mercy on them as a people wronged beyond all reason, weighed down by an unwilling servitude, contrary to the nobility that befitted their fathers and was native to them. And when their oppressors resisted, they were bitterly punished, as God hurled every kind of torment upon them. So, just as Israel's being taken up as His own was most conspicuous, He wants the manner of their casting off not to go unknown either.

If some would rather take it that the elements themselves are being called by the prophet's voice, the force of the thought would not miss the fitting sense, for those who have considered the following. Israel, as I said, was being redeemed through Moses from the ungodliness of the Egyptians. But when Pharaoh, impiously rising up against the commands of God, said, “I do not know the Lord, and I will not let Israel go” (Exodus 5:2), creation armed itself with its own Master against those who were hostile. From above, from heaven, came a great many striking signs, and likewise a great many wonders on the earth itself. Heaven sent down hail (Exodus 9:23), and the earth threw up frogs, as it is written (Exodus 8:6); the water was changed into blood (Exodus 7:20); and when furnace soot was scattered and clouded the air, sores and blisters broke out on the bodies of everyone (Exodus 9:8–10). So, since the very elements had all but laboured in vain over those who had been redeemed, he says: “Hear, O heaven, and give ear, O earth, for the Lord has spoken” (Isaiah 1:2).

But let us approach the sense of the passage in another way as well. Those of Israel dishonoured the training given through the Law and neglected the saving teachings; they forsook the one God, who is God by nature, and brought their worship to unclean demons on mountains and hills, and in the most thickly wooded ravines they burned incense to the works of their own hands and bowed down to them. The God of all was angered at this, and with very good reason, and He said to one of the holy prophets: “Arise, plead your case before the mountains, and let the hills hear your voice. Hear, O hills, the judgment of the Lord, and you ravines, foundations of the earth, for the Lord has a judgment against His p…” (Micah 6:1–2).

The Shepherds' Folly and the Reproach of Jerusalem§71

71…“My portion into a trackless wilderness. It has been made a ruin of destruction” (Jeremiah 12:10–11). And again: “For the shepherds have acted foolishly and have not sought the Lord; therefore the whole flock has not understood, and they have been scattered” (Jeremiah 10:21). The shepherds truly acted foolishly, and became a cause of ruin for the peoples under their hand.

And yet should they not rather, as men thoroughly instructed in the mystery of Christ through the Law and the Prophets, have become a road for the others toward believing in Him? But, as the Savior says, they received glory from man and did not seek the glory that comes from the only God (John 5:44). “For if they had believed Moses, they would have believed Him, for he wrote about Him” (John 5:46). So they have become blind, and guides of the blind (Matthew 15:14). In this way, too, they have slipped and fallen into the pits of destruction.

What then? The prophet tries to reshape them with good admonitions, so that they would choose to think better things and make trial of the Savior's words. For this purpose he usefully mixes rebuke into his admonitions, healing the wounds of their bad counsel with what is almost a remedy of many ingredients. That is why he says: “Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom; give heed to the law of God, you people of Gomorrah” (Isaiah 1:10). You hear how he brings down on peoples and rulers alike the rod that comes from love and from a godly mind, and strikes those gravely sick with disobedience.

He likens Jerusalem to the most impious cities, as one filled with a very great deal of sin and as having in herself no one at all [The text is damaged here.]. For the God of all was planning to burn the cities of the Sodomites, and He shared the matter with Abraham. Abraham said to Him: “Will You destroy the righteous with the ungodly? And shall the righteous be as the ungodly?” (Genesis 18:23). God promised that if ten righteous men were found in Sodom, He would hold back His wrath against them (Genesis 18:32). But they were not found. Therefore they paid penalties equal in measure to their own impieties. Such was Jerusalem, the slayer of the Lord, with her great scarcity of the righteous.

Indeed, the prophet Jeremiah pleaded earnestly for her, and God said: “Run through the streets of Jerusalem, and see, and know, and search in her squares, if you can find a man, if there is anyone who does justice and seeks faithfulness, and I will be merciful to her, says the Lord” (Jeremiah 5:1). Since, then, she is filthy, stained in many ways with the defilements of wickedness, and has a great scarcity of saints, he calls her Sodom and Gomorrah, and lays on peoples and leaders alike the reproach of the Sodomites' uncleanness. And what does he say? “Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom; give heed to the law of God, you people of Go…” (Isaiah 1:10).

How the Faithful City Became a Harlot§72

72…disobedient and hard of hearing?

“How has Zion, the faithful city full of justice, become a harlot? Righteousness once lodged in her, but now murderers” (Isaiah 1:21).

He is in a way astonished at the change in the synagogue of the Jews, so unsound and so without excuse: a change to the worse, I mean, and a passing from better things to more shameful ones. For by the Law given through Moses she was taught the knowledge of what is profitable, and since she had the word of God to guide her in each thing she was to do, she was splendid and highly esteemed and admirable, renowned for a great many men in whom the fruit of righteousness richly flowered, and she was worthy to be accepted by God. There were in her prophets and priests, and guardians of the works of righteousness, and leaders of the peoples who kept judgment, who had the Law on their tongue and were adorned with every good and excellent way of life.

Then she was bereft of all such men; or rather, she chose to take no account of that ancient goodness of hers and set at naught her reverence and love toward God. Before the coming of our Savior she bowed down to those who are not gods by nature, monstrously outraging the one and true Master by harlotries of this kind. Like some promiscuous and frenzied woman, she was impious in many ways, attaching herself now to some guides and now to others, men who knew how to lead her into anything at all that God hates. So the God of all accuses her through the voice of Jeremiah, saying: “See what the house of Israel has done to Me: she has gone up on every high mountain and under every leafy tree, and there she has played the harlot” (Jeremiah 3:6).

And again, as if to her: “If a man sends away his wife, and she goes from him and becomes another man's, will she ever return to him again? Will not that woman be utterly defiled? And you have played the harlot with many shepherds, and yet you kept returning to Me, says the Lord. Lift up your eyes and look straight ahead, and see where you have not been defiled. By the roads you sat for them like a lonely crow in the desert, and you have polluted the land with your harlotries and your wickedness, and you have had many shepherds as a stumbling block for yourself. You had the face of a harlot; you grew shameless toward all” (Jeremiah 3:1–3).

For, as I said, she despised service under God, turned to apostasy, and took unclean spirits and the worshippers of idols as her shepherds and teachers. These, as I said, were the charges against the synagogue of the Jews before the coming of our Savior. But when Christ shone upon those on earth — for, as it is written, “God is the Lord, and He has appeared to us” (Psalm 118:27) — she did not take Him as her teacher instead, but honoured teachings, commandments…

The Visible and the Spiritual Jerusalem§73

73Logos 2. “The word that came from the Lord to Isaiah son of Amoz concerning Judah and concerning Jerusalem” (Isaiah 2:1).

What lies before us is akin to what came before, and anyone who fixes a careful mind on the insights of its meaning would see that it moves through the same ideas. For the words came long ago from God to the inspired prophet concerning Judah and concerning Jerusalem. Yet the vision seems somehow to be expressed in a middle way, and not very clearly, when it says “concerning Judah and concerning Jerusalem.” Still, we will make plain the force of the vision as far as we can, gathering it briefly, as it were, into view.

He is trying to speak of the laying waste of the visible Judah and Jerusalem, but also of the showing forth of the spiritual one in Christ and of her appearing in this world. For this reason he says that he saw the vision not on behalf of Judah, nor yet against Jerusalem, but concerning Judah and concerning Jerusalem.

By the visible Judah, and Jerusalem too, we mean the land itself in which Israel dwelt, and the very body of the synagogue of the Jews. The spiritual Jerusalem, or Judah, we hold to be the Church, that is, the circumcision in the Spirit: those who have the circumcision made without hands in Christ (Colossians 2:11) in mind and heart. So one of the holy prophets cried out to the Jews: “Be circumcised to God, and circumcise your hardness of heart, men of Judah and you who dwell in Jerusalem” (Jeremiah 4:4). And the divine Paul knows another Jew, not the one according to the flesh but the one in the spirit, for he writes: “For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh; but he is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is of the heart, in the spirit, not in the letter; his praise is not from men but from God” (Romans 2:28–29).

So we must watch soberly for when the prophet speaks against Jerusalem, that is, Judah, and when he speaks concerning the spiritual one in Christ, which is truly perfect and blameless. What then does he say? “For in the last days the mountain of the Lord shall be manifest, and the house of God on the tops of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills, and all the nations shall come to it. And many nations shall go and say: Come, let us go up to the mountain of the…” (Isaiah 2:2–3).

Zion, the Mountain of the Church§74

74… of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob, and He will declare to us His way, and we will walk in it. For out of Zion will go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem” (Isaiah 2:3).

For his vision had come to its end, and the close of the prophecy that went before was this: “For they will be ashamed of their idols, which they themselves wanted, and they were ashamed of their gardens, which they desired” (Isaiah 1:29). In what way those of Israel were put to shame over their idols, we have said sufficiently.

But since mention has been made of the prophecy concerning them, the prophet, beginning the second vision that follows close upon it, marks out the time in which the power of the devil will fall, not in some one part of the earth, nor in a single country and city, while the worship of idols and its profane apparatus are torn down altogether; rather, such a disease will be taken away from the whole world under heaven, and with it the tyranny of the unclean demons.

This too has been accomplished for those on earth “in the last days,” that is, in the final times of the present age, in which the only-begotten Word of God shone forth, born of a woman (Galatians 4:4). It was then that He presented to Himself the spiritual Judea, or Jerusalem, that is, the Church, a pure virgin (2 Corinthians 11:2), “having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing,” as it is written, but rather “holy and without blemish” (Ephesians 5:27).

Of her he says that “in the last days the mountain of the Lord will be manifest, and the house of the God of Jacob on the tops of the mountains” (Isaiah 2:2). The Zion in Judea, we are told, lies on a mountain and is built there. But in these words the Church would be understood not in a bodily sense but rather spiritually; and she is likened to a mountain. For she is truly high and seen from every side, and very well known to people everywhere.

She is high in another way too. For she minds nothing earthly, but stands above earthly things; as far as she can, she gazes on the glory of God with the eyes of the mind, and she glories in the very lofty doctrines about Him. The chosen men of the Greeks, though they raise their brows high over their wisdom, make gods of the creation and fasten their reverence on the elements of the world. For their mind is low, their speculations are cast to the ground, and their heart is darkened (Romans 1:21): “claiming to be wise, they became fools,” as it is written (Romans 1:22).

But the spiritual Zion, that is, the Church, soars above all creation, visible and invisible, and reaches the very nature that is beyond all things. For she is filled with the divine light; and recognising that nature as the Maker and Craftsman of all things, she ascribes to it, and to it alone, the power over all. And with such glory, crowning …

A Land Full of Horses and Idols§75

75… and very fittingly our God, who loves virtue, censures them as men whose mind is never sated in its love of gain, as men who ride on horses, and as men caught in the snares of vainglory. He says that their land was filled with horses (Isaiah 2:7), because not one or two had fallen sick with arrogance; rather, their whole land, as it were, had been seized by the passion, and the evil was spreading over them all.

Yet by this too He convicts them of having offended against the Law and of having chosen to disobey God, who had said plainly: “If you enter the land which the Lord your God gives you as an inheritance, and you inherit it and dwell in it, and you say, ‘I will set a ruler over myself, like the other nations around me,’ you shall surely set over yourself a ruler whom the Lord your God chooses” (Deuteronomy 17:14-15). Then He says of the one appointed: “For he shall not multiply horses for himself, nor turn the people back to Egypt, so that he may not multiply horses for himself” (Deuteronomy 17:16). And besides this: “Nor shall he greatly multiply silver and gold for himself” (Deuteronomy 17:17).

So He blames them for heaping up wealth, and doing so insatiably, and for multiplying horses for themselves as well. The blame for this, it seems, falls most of all on those whose lot it was to lead, as men who transgressed the commandment; for it was fitting that they, before all others, should be seen to honour what had been decreed and to rebuke those who transgressed it.

“And the land was filled with the abominations, the works of their hands, and they worshipped what their fingers had made. And man bowed down, and a man was brought low, and I will not forgive them” (Isaiah 2:8-9).

Again He charges them with spiritual fornication, and with having chosen to worship many of the falsely named gods. He shows that they had come to such a measure of impiety as to drive every evil to its limit, and to practise the most complete apostasy from God, who knows all things, upholds them by His nod, and brought them into being.

He seems in some way also to grieve deeply for human nature, so utterly dishonoured. For the God of all honoured man by making him with His own hand. Man was not simply produced by a word along with the other creatures, as was, for example, “Let there be a firmament; and it was so” (Genesis 1:6). Rather, “He took dust from the earth and made man” (Genesis 2:7), according to the words of the all-wise Moses. He was made after the image and likeness of God (Genesis 1:26), and was appointed a kind of ruler over the things on earth. Besides this, he was honoured with the spirit of life as well; for “He breathed into his face the breath of life” (Genesis 2:7).

So “man, being in honour, did not understand,” as it is written (Psalm 49:12); for he served carved images, and, as the prophetic word said, “they worshipped what their fingers had made” (Isaiah 2:8).

The Strength of Bread and Water§76

76… For he did not say simply that bread and water would be taken from the Jews, but “strength of bread and strength of water” (Isaiah 3:1). We should take it that he means to teach something like this. When we come upon the sacred words and read the divine Scriptures, and then understand them, we receive the strength of spiritual bread. “For man shall not live,” He says, “by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds through the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4; compare Deuteronomy 8:3). You will understand spiritual waters in the same way.

The Jews, for their part, still have the bread and the water; for they busy themselves with the writings of Moses and read the Law. But since they understand nothing, they have neither the strength of the bread nor the strength of the water. For only the bare letter has been given them, which looks like bread and water but in no way nourishes them to spiritual health. Paul will bear witness to this when he writes: “For to this day, whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their heart, not lifted, because it is done away in Christ” (2 Corinthians 3:14-15).

In another way too we say that the strength of bread and the strength of water have been taken from the synagogue of the Jews; and this account is a mystical one. For we who have been called through faith to sanctification have the bread from heaven, that is, Christ, or His body (John 6:32-33). And if anyone should ask what kind of strength it has, we say that it is life-giving; for it gives life to the world (John 6:33).

In the same way we also come to the grace given through holy baptism, which sanctifies us; and we say that the strength of the water is the putting away of sins and spiritual rebirth into conformity with Christ Himself, and besides these, an entrance with boldness into the kingdom of heaven. “For unless one,” He says, “is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God” (John 3:5).

So the Jews have been deprived of such good things. They do not have the strength of bread, that is, the life given in Christ. They do not have the strength of the water; for their sin has remained with them unwashed. They will not enter the kingdom of heaven, since they dishonoured Christ, who leads the way in; for they did not believe Him when He said: “I am the way” (John 14:6), and “I am the door” (John 10:9).

Likewise He will take away “the giant and the strong man” (Isaiah 3:2). Who, then, is the giant, and who is the other? For my part, I think he calls “giant” the one who has reached the height of spiritual strength, and “strong man” the one who stands a little below him and falls short of the pre-eminence seen in the first. For to each of us a measure of grace has been given by God (compare Ephesians 4:7). The most wise Paul makes this clear to us when he says: “I wish that all men were even as I myself am; but each …” (1 Corinthians 7:7).

Testing the Teachers We Follow§77

77Logos 3. “My people, your collectors glean you bare, and those who demand payment rule over you” (Isaiah 3:12).

Having declared beforehand, very plainly and quite clearly, that the land of the Jews would suffer the loss of every good thing, and having set out what will happen to those who behaved outrageously toward Christ, he again tries to persuade them in advance to keep away from their offences. With gentle words he all but charms them, to their profit, moving them toward what is better and teaching them to reject those who had become the cause of all their evils.

For I do not think one ought to be fond of submitting to those whose lot is to lead, if they attempt to teach nothing of what serves for profit; nor indeed … worthy of censure what may justly be believed to belong among wicked things. For the excellence of a teacher lies in being able to bring those in his charge to an exact knowledge of what is profitable, to expose as counterfeit whatever by nature does harm, and to bid them refuse what usually does wrong.

And those who are counted among disciples would deserve every praise if they looked not simply at the reputations of their teachers but at the nature of the matters themselves; if they admired their teachers, provided these are upright and knowledgeable and guides to what is best, and found fault with those whose aim is not of this kind.

Some men pasture flocks of sheep on mountains and in glens. But if a pit lies beside the flock, or a mountain precipice, the sheep walk around it and do not throw themselves down to their death; for they are taught, as by an inborn law, that they must spare their own life. Is it not absurd, then, that this should plainly prevail among irrational animals, while in us, though we are rational, there is no knowledge of what is useful and necessary for life?

So even if some of those appointed as our teachers and guides should choose to lead us toward what is not fitting, we must not simply be content to bear with it, nor follow without examination wherever they please; rather, we must test each thing that is to be done … to go toward whatever most often does good.

Now the leaders of the Jews, that is, the scribes and the Pharisees, were clever at collecting gains of money and gathering in the people’s offerings: first fruits, tithes, and all that the Law, as a portion for those whose lot was to serve as priests …

Exactors Who Glean the People§78

78… gave.

Their aim, pursued with all their zeal, was to persuade people that the law had to be kept in these matters above all; of the other commandments they took little account. That is why the Savior himself said to them: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe dill and mint and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith” (Matthew 23:23).

So they were greedy for gain and lovers of money. At times they brought harsh penalties on those who slipped, so that by terrifying anyone accused of anything at all they might induce them to bring offerings, sometimes even beyond their means. That is why he says to those they wronged: “My people, your exactors glean you, and those who demand payment rule over you” (Isaiah 3:12).

By saying “people” he still gives Israel to understand that if they chose to turn to what pleases him, they would meet with his gentleness and love for humankind, and would not fall away altogether from their close bond with him.

By saying that the exactors glean, he shows how great their insatiable greed for gain was. In the cornfields some cut the ears with iron, while others gather the stalks that fall from the reaper’s hand and leave nothing in the fields. Those who harvest vines usually do the same. “So your exactors glean you,” he says. It is as if he said: They have harvested your wealth, and their greed does not stop there. They are already gleaning as well, that is, laying their hands even on what is still left.

Very well and fittingly he does not call them guides or teachers or anything of the kind; he names them exactors and collectors. He teaches that they lord it over the people, not dealing gently with them as teachers with disciples, but like harsh and savage masters, forcing them to think as they see fit and driving them to anything at all, at times even against their own judgment.

But the aim of those in Christ was not of this kind. The inspired Peter writes to those called to oversight, whose lot it is to lead the rational flocks: “not as lording it over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock” (1 Peter 5:3).

The mystical sense also knows of other exactors, whom those who wish to live rightly must refuse. For the wicked and hostile powers all but demand of everyone on earth eagerness for what is base, and collect from us a kind of tribute: the mind’s leaning toward the passions. And indeed the holy … calls blessed …

Seven Women and One Man§79

79… us in the spiritual strength of God who is over all, we keep safe in ourselves the bright beauty of our own nature. But when he withdraws his help, we shall be utterly stripped of every good; having lost the beauty of the glories that come from virtue, we shall be subject to dishonorable passions (Romans 1:26) and shall be slaves to enemies.

“And seven women will take hold of one man, saying: We will eat our own bread and wear our own clothing; only let your name be called over us; take away our reproach” (Isaiah 4:1).

Having fully completed his account of the Jewish women who would go from luxury and wealth into captivity, he tries to show that the cities of Judea will be left empty of men, and will have a great scarcity of those who were once the finest fighters. For he had said, “All your strong men will fall by the sword” (Isaiah 3:25).

What, then, is the proof of what I have said? It is framed with great skill and elegance. The law given through Moses says to the sons of Israel, “There shall be no one childless or barren among you” (Deuteronomy 7:14). So among the Jews it was counted one of the worst reproaches for a woman not to bear children, or for any man to be childless; for at once the stigma of the childless and the barren was fastened on them.

The law was indeed spiritual (Romans 7:14). For the God of all was promising that the spiritual Israel, that is, the mind that sees God, would not be fruitless or made barren, but fruitful instead, like a good and choice land. But the Jews understood it in a fleshly way, for they were natural men, not having the Spirit (Jude 19).

So, he says, there will be such a scarcity of males in the land, once the war has consumed the race, that seven women, that is, many, will take hold of one man and say: “We will eat our own bread and wear our own clothing; only let your name be called over us; take away our reproach.” Do you see how they dread the reproach of childlessness, and how strongly they refuse the name of childless and barren? For they come not seeking the usual things, what wives are accustomed to receive from their husbands; they say they will provide for themselves in this, and ask only, as I said, that their reproach be taken away.

Note the depth of the passage. If the man they appealed to had been rich, the women would not have said, “We will eat our own bread and wear our own clothing.” But since they know that those who were saved from the war and barely escaped have fallen into utter poverty and great misery, they ask nothing at all of them, and seek only to become mothers of children.

That is the sense of the history. But they carry the passage before us over …

The Hedge Removed and the True Vine§80

80… Israel has passed without holy prophets. At times they were taken captive and went off to the land of the Persians and Medes together with their wives and those dearest to them. Yet when the Babylonians had at one time taken the famous Jerusalem, they did not go down into Egypt without holy prophets: the prophet Jeremiah was with them, ministering the words that came from above and from God.

But since they raged against Christ, they have remained without a hedge, and all their security has fallen. This, I think, is what is meant by saying that its wall is pulled down (Isaiah 5:5). Every word of the holy prophets to them has ceased, held back in a way like rain (Isaiah 5:6), and the voices of the saints have failed.

And this, I think, is what God said to them through one of the prophets: “Behold, days are coming, says the Lord, when I will send a famine on the land, not a famine of bread or a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the word of the Lord. And from the east to the west they will run about seeking the word of the Lord, and they will not find it” (Amos 8:11–12).

These things, as I said, have befallen those of Israel, and with good reason. For they thrust away the Lord of hosts, who waters souls and hearts in a spiritual way and enriches them with spiritual dews; blessed David also recalled these, saying, “Like the dew of Hermon that comes down on the mountains of Zion” (Psalm 133:3).

In its place a new vineyard has been raised up, made up of those called through faith to holiness. Of them the Bridegroom from heaven, that is, Christ, says: “The vines are in blossom; they have given their fragrance” (Song of Songs 2:13). He himself is the first, all-holy, and true vine, and we hang from him like branches, filled with the life-giving richness that comes from him.

Indeed, he said plainly: “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that bears fruit he prunes, so that it may bear more fruit” (John 15:1–2).

Since we have grown onto him through kinship, clearly a spiritual kinship, we have been made fruitful. And he himself confirms us in this, saying: “Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever abides in me, and I in him, bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:4–5).

So I say that we must hold fast, through faith and love and readiness to obey in everything, to the true vine, that is, Christ. For he will make us fruitful; he himself will set a hedge around us, raise up the wall, and drive …

Woe to Those Who Drag Their Sins§81

81“Woe to those who drag their sins as with a long rope, and their lawless deeds as with the strap of a heifer’s yoke, who say: Let what he will do come near quickly, so that we may see; and let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel come, so that we may know” (Isaiah 5:18–19).

The Maker and Lord of all, overcoming the weakness of human nature by his gentleness, spoke to the people of old through the holy prophets the things by which they might be expected to leave the worse and turn to the better, to cease from wickedness and sin, to live in virtue instead, and to choose to do what is good. For this reason he sometimes set before them the rewards prepared for the saints, and at other times described the kinds of punishment that fit those who love sin, so as to drive them from every side toward what would profit them.

But no means could drive out the degeneracy of the Jews. For they had turned aside to the love of gain and to luxuries, and, already sick with the utmost madness against God, they set upon the holy prophets fiercely. Some, wholly disbelieving what was spoken through them, said: “Speak other things to us, and announce to us another deception” (Isaiah 30:10). Others, all but blaming the forbearance of the divine nature, and no doubt laughing at one another, said: “The days are far off; every vision has perished” (Ezekiel 12:22).

Indeed, God said somewhere to the blessed Ezekiel: “Son of man, behold, the house of Israel, the rebellious house, keeps saying: The vision that this man sees is for many days, and he prophesies for distant times. Therefore say to them: Thus says Adonai the Lord: None of my words that I speak will be delayed any longer; for I will speak a word and do it, says Adonai the Lord” (Ezekiel 12:27–28).

Others again, as though they had all but despaired of their own salvation and life, grew insolent toward his wrath and even said: “Let the time of war come quickly; those who wish to ravage us will not find us cowardly or timid. We too are skilled in war and know tactics well.”

Those who thought this way he rightly calls wretched, saying: “Woe to those who drag their sins as with a long rope, and their lawless deeds as with the strap of a heifer’s yoke.” By “sins” and “lawless deeds” here he means the penalties or punishments for sins, which were still far off and not yet near, because God still wished to bear with them …

Those Who Call Evil Good§82

82… and yet in a way those punishments were being dragged on by them, because they wished to fall even into the outbursts of divine wrath. I think that we can say to each such person, most fittingly and truly: “Or do you despise the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is leading you to repentance? But by your hardness and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath and of the revelation of the righteous judgment of God” (Romans 2:4–5).

For, as I said, they drag the time of punishment upon themselves, perhaps fretting that he was slow to punish them and was not laying penalties on them as they sinned without restraint. So they drag their sins as with a long rope, and their lawless deeds as with the strap of a heifer’s yoke. For just as those who bring heifers, that is, oxen, under the yoke sometimes drag them with great force and bind them to their labor, so in the same way, I think, these men too put themselves under what was about to befall them from divine wrath, and said: “Let what he will do come near quickly, so that we may see; and let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel come, so that we may know” (Isaiah 5:19).

Those who say this and think this way another of the holy prophets also calls wretched, saying: “Woe to those who long for the day of the Lord! It is darkness and not light, gloom that has no brightness” (Amos 5:18, 20).

So when we learn that God has been grieved, we must repent at once and soothe him instead with unceasing prayers, not provoke him further once he has been moved, nor despise him when he threatens. For he is patient and rich in mercy, taking away lawless deeds and passing over wrongs (compare Numbers 14:18; Micah 7:18), and sometimes, at the few tears of those who have sinned, he turns back to the calm that is dearest to him.

“Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight” (Isaiah 5:20–21).

By these words too he shows that those who drag their sins as with a long rope are utterly without understanding. When they ought to have counted the duty of repentance worthy of all praise, to free themselves by every kind of gentleness from the wrath hanging over them, and to make their defense with fasts before God, the ruler of all, whom they had grieved, they have become untrustworthy money-changers, valuing the baser things and debasing what is incomparably better and most profitable for their salvation.

So the “woe” fits those who think this way. For they have become unholy and senseless judges against themselves. By saying that evil is good, by counting darkness as light, and the bitter sweet and the sweet bitter …

Holy, Holy, Holy: One Godhead in Three§83

83… as we do, think on the things below; rather, the highest powers keep their minds in certain unspeakable heights of thought. Their mouths too are given to praise. They give glory, and do so in turn, not because they grow weary, I think, but rather yielding the honor to one another and exchanging their praises as gifts. For all things above are in good order.

Saying “Holy” three times, they close the doxology with “Lord of hosts” (Isaiah 6:3), placing the holy Trinity in one nature of Godhead. For we say, as all confess, that the Father truly subsists, and so too the Son and the Holy Spirit. Yet no reasoning divides each of those named into a difference of nature; one Godhead is understood in three hypostases.

This is attested to us by the holy Seraphim themselves, who also say that the whole earth is full of his glory (Isaiah 6:3), foretelling what was to come and announcing beforehand the mystery of the saving plan carried out through Christ. Before the Word became flesh, the destroying demon, the dragon, the apostate, held sway over all that is under heaven, and the creation was worshiped in place of the Creator and Maker (Romans 1:25). But since the only-begotten Word of God became man, the whole earth has been filled with his glory.

For every knee will bow to him, and every tribe and tongue will confess him and serve him, as it is written (Isaiah 45:23; Philippians 2:10–11; Daniel 7:14). Blessed David also cried this out beforehand in the Spirit, for he said: “All the nations you have made will come and worship before you, O Lord” (Psalm 86:9). This has been fulfilled now that the multitude from the nations has been called, and all worship him who for our sake became as we are, yet in himself remained above all.

“And the lintel was lifted up at the voice with which they cried, and the house was filled with smoke” (Isaiah 6:4).

The prophet had seen the Lord of hosts sitting on a throne high and lifted up, with the holy Seraphim standing in a circle around him and praising him with unceasing doxologies; and he affirmed that the house was full of his glory (Isaiah 6:1–3). But now he says that the lintel was lifted up and the house filled with smoke, and this at the voice with which the holy Seraphim cried out.

Shall we then say that the voice was the cause of what happened to the house? Yet surely it would be most unseemly to choose to think so. How, then, shall we approach the meaning of the passage before us? In the best and wisest way.

Before the incarnation and coming of our Savior, while Israel still carried on its life under the law without hindrance or rebuke, that famous temple in Jerusalem which Solomon built was full of the glory of God. For they performed …

Why the History Matters: Ahaz§84

84… they will lie like acorns, as if they had fallen from the very husk that bore them (Isaiah 6:13). Solomon too says something of the kind: “As a bird when it falls from its own nest, so is a man when he is torn away from his own places” (Proverbs 27:8). For what could be more pitiable than those in captivity? What is so wretched and downtrodden as for people to fall into the hands of their conquerors?

“And it came to pass in the days of Ahaz son of Jotham, son of Uzziah, king of Judah, that Rezin king of Syria and Pekah son of Remaliah king of Israel went up against Jerusalem to wage war on it, and they could not take it by siege” (Isaiah 7:1).

Those who reject the history in the divinely inspired Scriptures as stale are, it seems, running away from being able to understand what is written in them in the proper way. Spiritual contemplation is good and profitable, and by greatly brightening the eye of the mind it makes people most discerning. But whenever some event of history is set before us through the sacred Writings, then above all we should hunt for what is useful in the history, so that the divinely inspired Scripture may be seen to save and benefit us from every side.

Here, then, the prophetic word recounts for us what befell those of Judah and Benjamin in the times of Uzziah’s reign, and the ten tribes in Samaria, which were called Ephraim and also Israel. Since the whole word of the prophecy came in the times of four kings (Isaiah 1:1), the prophet sets down what happened in the times of each, and he necessarily marks them, giving the best order to his visions, that is, to his own words.

When Azariah, also called Uzziah, had died, Jotham succeeded to the kingdom and followed the aim and practices of his own father. He too is said to have done what was right in the eyes of the Lord, as Uzziah had, except that he did not remove the high places, but the people still burned incense on the high places (2 Kings 15:34–35). Uzziah had sought, against what was lawful, to serve God as a priest and to offer incense, and for this reason he was struck with leprosy (2 Chronicles 26:16–21). Jotham, however, did not do so (2 Chronicles 27:2).

When he too died, Ahaz succeeded to the kingdom, while Pekah son of Remaliah was reigning over Israel, that is, over the twelve tribes. He waged war against Ahaz and Judah, and killed a hundred and twenty thousand in one day (2 Chronicles 28:6). For the God of all was provoked by the impieties of Ahaz, of whom it is written in the Second Book of Kings that he walked in the way of the king of Israel (2 Kings 16:3). For he was an impious man; he served idols and made his children pass through fire, burning incense to the unclean demons.

Days Not Yet Come§85

85“But the Lord will bring upon you, and upon your people, and upon the house of your father, days that have not yet come, from the day that Ephraim took away from Judah: the king of the Assyrians” (Isaiah 7:17).

Ahaz was greatly alarmed at the alliance of the two kings, Rezin and Pekah, and the God of all promised him help. Since he wished to establish him further in faith, he told him to ask for a sign, “in the depth or in the height” (Isaiah 7:11). But Ahaz refused, and said most perversely, “I will not ask, nor will I put the Lord to the test” (Isaiah 7:12), for he was looking instead for the trickery of false prophets. So God in a way came forward of his own accord and himself gave a sign to the house of David. For he said: “Behold, the virgin will be with child and will bear a son, and you shall call his name Emmanuel” (Isaiah 7:14).

When the word about these things had been fully completed, he turns the prediction of what was to come back to the person of Ahaz himself. For it was necessary, truly necessary, that the announcement of the salvation through Christ be made to those of the house of David, that is, to those of the tribe of Judah, from which Christ himself arose according to the flesh (Hebrews 7:14). But the announcement of the terrible and dreaded things that would happen in due time he makes to those who had chosen to disobey, so that they might know that it is truly bitter, and not without cost, for those who dishonor the divine glory to weary the Lord (Isaiah 7:13), and to choose to worship, in place of him, others who are not gods.

So he subtly signals in advance that in time Jerusalem itself, and the whole land of the Jews, would fall into the worst miseries and come under the hand of their enemies. Since the arrangement of the words is rather obscure, I will try, as far as I am able, to make it clear before anything else.

“God will bring,” he says, “upon you, and upon your people, and upon the house of your father, days that have not yet come, from the day that Ephraim took away from Judah.” The sense of the lines is this: in the times of the reign of Rehoboam son of Solomon, Ephraim “took away,” that is, tore itself away (Ephraim meaning, again, the ten tribes) from the tribe of Judah. For they were separated: the ten tribes, parted from the tribe of Judah, settled in Samaria, while the tribe of Judah and the half-tribe of Manasseh remained in Jerusalem. But as time went on, many …

The Fly of Egypt and the Bee of Assyria§86

86…of the evils no one would pray for has befallen them. For Samaria has been sacked, and the neighboring nations, the Edomites, the Moabites, and the people of Philistia, have overrun Judea as well. So both these and those have suffered many terrible things and have known hard days. Therefore God, he says, will bring days whose like have not yet been, that is, have not yet come upon you, since the time when Ephraim “took away,” that is, tore himself away, from Judah (Isaiah 7:17). And what is this time for us, or what are these days? “The king of the Assyrians,” he says (Isaiah 7:17), that is, Nebuchadnezzar, who sacked Jerusalem, took all Judea by force, and burned the divine temple as well; and of all the savagery fit for a wild beast he left out nothing at all that he is not found to have done against the whole nation.

“And it shall be in that day that the Lord will whistle for the flies, which rule over a part of the river of Egypt, and for the bee, which is in the land of the Assyrians; and they will all come and settle in the ravines of the land, and in the holes of the rocks, and in the caves, and in every cleft, and on every tree” (Isaiah 7:18-19).

He widens the account and describes in detail the onset of the war, and how those who would come against them from time to time would overrun all their land, villages and cities alike. I think it necessary here to tell again what is written in the Second Book of Kings, to make clear exactly what was to come.

Ahaz, to whom the word is now addressed, had a son, Hezekiah; Hezekiah's son was Manasseh, and Manasseh's was Amon. His son was Josiah, a godly man, but he died in this way. Pharaoh Neco, king of Egypt, left his native land, marched out with his whole army, and pressed on against the land of the Assyrians. Josiah was afraid that he might come against Judea too, bring it under his own hand, and rule over it, and so he wanted to march out against him, although Pharaoh was trying to avoid a battle with him. But in resisting him Josiah died in the war, and the Egyptian took control of the land of the Jews. He grew so strong that he removed Jehoahaz, Josiah's son, from the throne after he had become king, carried him in chains into his own country, appointed Eliakim king, laid tribute on the nation, and demanded a great sum of money.

Then, after Eliakim had reigned over Judea for eleven full years, his son Jeconiah succeeded to the throne, and after him Zedekiah. While Zedekiah held the kingdom, Nebuchadnezzar made war on Judea. He burned all the cities, adding Jerusalem itself to the rest, and took Israel captive, together with the vessels…

Why Seek the Dead for the Living?§87

87“…who talk emptily, who speak from the belly. Should not a nation go to its God? Why do they seek the dead on behalf of the living? For He gave the Law as a help, so that they might say: Not like this word, for which there are no gifts to give” (Isaiah 8:19-20).

Emmanuel Himself weaves a discourse of instruction for those who have set their hope on Him, who were reckoned among the children and have been given to Him by God the Father (Isaiah 8:18), as to the Savior, Redeemer, and Life-giver, who is able to enlighten them and to free them from every evil. And He draws them wholly away from their ancient habits and their former madness. For it is the custom of idol worshipers to love the oracles of demons and to cling to certain empty-talking necromancers, who say nothing true but simply belch out whatever comes into their heads.

But you, He says, even if someone comes to you and says, “Seek those who speak from the earth,” that is, those who pretend to bring up the dead and to give divinations as if from Hades, or the ventriloquists, who pretend to have certain gods in their belly and so to tell those who come to them what those gods say, do not accept the advice. For they speak only from their own belly, and they are not an understanding nation, such as would seek God and learn something from Him. And say to those who give that advice, “Why do they seek the dead on behalf of the living?”

Do you see how He makes them most sensible? For He not only commands them to turn away from the perversity and madness of those people, but also directs them to become good counselors to those who have gone astray. For say, He tells them, “Why do they seek the dead on behalf of the living?” The reasoning is common sense and human. For what reason could there be in wanting to question those who lie in the earth, or souls that have perhaps come to be in Hades, about people who are still alive?

And in another way too it is utterly ignorant to give heed to necromancy and to the lies of sorcerers, who have a dead mind and, as it were, a heart grown cold. For they do not know the Creator of all; they do not have within them the life-giving Word of God. Besides this, they also busy themselves with dead works. How then can the living, that is, those who have within themselves the life-giving power from above and are rich in the living Word of God, ask the dead about themselves?

So say these things, He says, adding that “He gave the Law as a help,” that is, the Law of the Gospel, so that those who heed it may say: “Not like this word, for which there are no gifts to give.” For those who speak only from their own heart sell falsehood; but the saving and true Law of God, that is…

The Shadow Gives Way to the Truth§88

88…revealed, those things were held in high praise. So it is also written of Zechariah and Elizabeth: “In the days of Herod, king of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah, of the division of Abijah, and his wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. And they were both righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord” (Luke 1:5-6). In this way, I think, the holy prophets themselves also lived. And indeed the inspired Paul, though he says openly that he had been “blameless as to the righteousness in the Law” (Philippians 3:6), says: “But whatever was gain to me, these things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ” (Philippians 3:7).

So before the coming of Christ, the Savior of us all, some who were well esteemed for the glories of the Law were strong and in the vigor of youth. But after His appearing and the preaching of the Gospel, the things of the Law have ceased, the shadow has passed over into the truth, and the worship that is in spirit and in truth has been brought in (John 4:23). God therefore does not rejoice over the young men of the Jews (Isaiah 9:17), that is, over those who still show their strength by choosing to live according to the Law. The sacrifices offered through blood are not accepted, nor circumcision of the flesh, nor teachings about washings, nor the idleness of the Sabbaths. But we have been taught, as I said, the way of the life that pleases God.

So, quite rightly, once the shadow came to an end, the young men who live by it are cast off, and the orphans and widows are far from being pitied (Isaiah 9:17). By orphans he means those who, as it were, lack spiritual upbringing and the guidance that comes from teachers. Likewise we say that the widows are souls that have come to lack the power to bear fruit, because they do not have the one who sows and supplies for them all good teachings.

No one would praise the state in which we shall find the people of Israel: without any share in true instruction because of their drunken outrage against Christ. For “their eyes were darkened so that they could not see,” as the psalmist says, and “their backs were bent” (Psalm 69:23), and this “continually,” so that they cannot look at the things above but, as if stooped over, are fixed on earthly things.

They will suffer this, he says, not without cause, but because “all have become lawless and wicked, and every mouth speaks lawless things” (Isaiah 9:17). For how are they not lawless and full of every wickedness, who strove to bring death upon the One who calls them to life, the One who knew no sin (2 Corinthians 5:21), although the Law says plainly, “You shall not kill the innocent and the righteous” (Exodus 23:7)? How has not every tongue of the Jews spoken unjust things? For they cried out against Christ to Pilate, saying, “Away with him, away with him, crucify him!” (John 19:15). And, “Unless you kill this man…”

Interpreting Prophecy§89

89The word of the holy prophets is always obscure. It is full of hidden meanings, and it is in labor with the foretelling of the divine mysteries to us. For “Christ is the end of the Law” and the Prophets, as it is written (Romans 10:4).

So I say that those who wish to bring out clearly things so subtle and riddling must make haste to survey with the eye of the mind the full breadth of their meanings, and to do so with great good sense: on the one hand setting out the history exactly, on the other giving the spiritual contemplation its due, so that readers may gain from every side and the explanation of the meaning before us may appear to lack nothing.

Now I know that some have written on these things before us and have composed long discourses about them. And this, I think, is enough to give others no mean excuse for hesitation, and to persuade them to choose silence instead, since to what others have already said they would add nothing new, but would rather repeat the same things and go through the same lines of thought.

But even if this should happen to me, there would be nothing at all to grieve over, and the hearers are made firm in the truth by the agreement of many voices. So now too I persuade myself to rise above hesitation. I am convinced that sweat and toil spent on good pursuits are better than the idleness of a snoring sleeper, and I have not wholly given up hope that I may at times find something new and different, since God widens the path of insight. For it is written, “Your commandment is exceedingly broad” (Psalm 119:96).

The blessed Isaiah, then, prophesies in the times of the reigns of Ochozias, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah (Isaiah 1:1). Come, let us recall the times of each king and say briefly how each one lived. For from this we shall see that the word of the prophecy fits, and is most closely suited to, what was being done in each period.

Uzziah, who is also Ochozias, was a godly man. He advanced so far in glory and strength alike that he mastered the nations bordering on Judea, laid tribute on many of them, and made them bow, as by force, under his own scepter. He built cities, took others, and joined them to the borders of the land of the Jews.

Then something all too human befell him. For from excessive luxury, and overcome by the height of his fame, he grew in a way proud; and, mastered by the sickness of arrogance, he rose up against the divine Law itself. For he thought he ought to crown himself with the glories of the divine priesthood as well. He attempted to force his way into the divine temple, to burn incense to God himself, by his own hand, and so to perform unlawfully the rites the Law prescribes. For this reason he was struck with leprosy at once and was held in the deepest dishonor; for under the Law one gripped by the disease of leprosy is unclean (2 Chronicles 26:16-21).

Then Jotham, his son, succeeded to the kingdom of Uzziah. He was a man who loved God; yet “he did not remove the high places,” Scripture says (2 Kings 15:35), but the people of Israel still sacrificed to the works of their own hands, taking to the mountains and hills, “under oak and poplar and shady tree,” as Hosea says, “because shade is good” (Hosea 4:13).

When Jotham died, Ahaz succeeded to the scepter, a most loathsome man, hateful to God, and full of a wickedness that had reached its very height. He even shut the divine temple itself and would not allow the God of all to be honored with the sacrifices of the Law. He also stopped the customary feasts of the Jews, and, setting up altars in every place in Jerusalem, he ordered the people to worship things made by hand and to serve the host of heaven. He even “made his own children pass through the fire” (2 Chronicles 28:3), that is, burned them as a sacrifice to the unclean demons; and, in a word, there was no form of impiety he did not practice.

After him Hezekiah reigned, a godly man who loved God, a champion of righteousness, zealous for every good thing, and a doer of the divine will. He ordered every measure to be taken and enforced against the lawless deeds of Ahaz. He opened the doors of the temple, then ordered sacrifices and drink offerings to be brought to God, and God to be honored with the priestly services of the Law; and after a long lapse of time he is seen renewing the law of the Passover. He pulled down sacred precincts, altars, and things made by hand; he ordered the mediums, the false diviners, and the troops of enchanters to fall silent; and he was a good man in the eyes of God.

So, since in the times of the reigns we have just described the God of all was sometimes provoked to anger when Israel worshiped idols, and sometimes softened toward gentleness when Israel was being reshaped toward godliness through the goodness of its ruler, for this reason the word of the prophecy is mixed. At times it utters the heaviest threats, since Israel was acting impiously; yet it also brings in a word of promise of good things. Everywhere it keeps in mind the redemption through Christ, and it says that in due time Israel will be sent away from its close bond with God, while the multitude of the nations will be received, justified through faith in Christ.

So I think it right to crown the blessed prophet Isaiah handsomely, not only with the grace of prophecy but also with the glories of an apostle. For he is at once both prophet and apostle, and he does not lack a share in the brightness of the gospel preaching…