Commentary on Isaiah 1.1.15–1.1.22

“And if you are willing and listen to me, you shall eat the good things of the land; but if you are not willing and do not listen to me, the sword shall devour you; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken these things.”

The God of all said somewhere to those of Israel through the all-wise Moses: “Behold, I have set before your face the way of life and the way of death.” For the [choice] between the two has been placed in us …, and the fruit of each one’s inclinations, that is, of each one’s will, would be to live brilliantly and lawfully, or else in a blameworthy way. No one would doubt that those who live the good and chosen life most dear to God will by all means come to harbour in life; while those overcome by pleasures that lead to evil have their end in ruin and destruction. The fruit of obedience, then, will be to eat the good things of the land prepared for the saints, which our Lord Jesus Christ himself mentions, saying, “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.” But the fruit of perversity and of a sin-loving life is useless regret, and what comes from the divine wrath, the sword and ruin, as I said; and which of such evils is lacking? The prophet shows his word to be trustworthy by adding at once, “For the mouth of the Lord has spoken these things.” And since it is impossible for God to lie (for he always remains what he is, that is, truth), how must we not understand that it will by all means come to fulfilment? The prophetic word richly benefits both the souls of the simpler and also those of people already genuine and established in faith. For since the God of all has set in the inclinations of those being instructed the choosing of the good and the turning away from evil, he has made it fully plain that he has given to each person on earth the reins of what to do or not to do, and that each will drive with authority toward whatever he chooses. Since this is true, it is idle and frigid, a mere tale, to insist and say that evil is natural in man; or that chance and fate and nativity steer human affairs, and, as each of them pleases, bind whomever they choose and make them workers of wickedness or virtue, people who go to it not by willing inclinations but yoked as it were by inescapable nods, and who find the compulsion of their rulers hard to bear. For if evil exists by nature and has a substance of its own, as those people foolishly say, how is it strengthened and weakened by each one’s will? For if I choose to be good, nothing is seen to prevent it; and if I choose to be wicked, nothing would keep me from slipping into that either. Where, then, is the power of chance and fate? Or what nativity lays the yoke of necessity on anyone, if [the outcome] follows each one’s will: that those who choose to fulfil obedience eat the good things of the land, and that they become the sword’s work if they set themselves against the divine [commands]?

“How has the faithful city Zion become a harlot, she that was full of judgment, in which righteousness lodged …”

He marvels, in a way, at the change of the synagogue of the Jews, so rotten and so without good cause, I mean its change for the worse and its passing from the better to the more shameful. For it was being instructed by the law through Moses in the knowledge of what is profitable, and, having the word of God as its guide to each thing to be done, it was brilliant and most highly esteemed and admirable, distinguished by very many men in whom the fruit of righteousness blossomed richly, and it was acceptable to God. For there were in it prophets and priests, men who cared for the works of righteousness, leaders of the people who kept judgment, who had the law on their tongue and were adorned with every kind and good way of life. Then, deprived of all such men, and rather disregarding that ancient goodness

and counting as nothing its reverence and love toward God, before the coming of our Saviour it bowed down to those who are not gods by nature, [abandoning] the one and true Master through its fornications in this matter … like a woman, it was impious in many ways, attached now to one teacher and now to another, men who knew how to lead to anything at all that God hates. The God of all accuses it through the voice of Jeremiah, saying: “Have you seen what the house of Israel has done to me? She went up on every high mountain and under every leafy tree, and played the harlot there.” And again, as to her: “If a man sends away his wife, and she goes from him and becomes another man’s, will she return to him again? Will not that woman be utterly defiled? And you have played the harlot with many shepherds; and yet you returned to me, says the Lord. Lift up your eyes straight and see where you have not been defiled. You sat for them by the roads like a lonely crow in the desert, and you defiled the land with your harlotries and your wickedness, and you had many shepherds for a stumbling block to yourself. You had the face of a harlot; you were shameless toward all.” For despising, as I said, its service under God, it turned to apostasy and used the unclean spirits and the servants of idols as shepherds and teachers. These, as I said, are the charges against the synagogue of the Jews before the coming of our Saviour. But when Christ shone upon those on earth (for “God is the Lord, and he has appeared to us,” as it is written), it did not rather take him as its teacher, but honoured as teachings the commandments of men, and leaving the good shepherd … it clung to the chief priests and scribes and Pharisees. In this way it played the harlot, even though the law and the prophets had cried out to it beforehand the mystery of Christ and had foretold that he would come in due time. “How, then,” he says, “has the faithful city Zion, full of judgment, become a harlot?” As if he said: taking what occasions for its sickness, or rather how did she slide into apostasy, she who of old was faithful and a doer of righteousness, in whom righteousness lodged, that is, the law rested? For the multitude of those being instructed had become like its house; but now murderers lodge there. You hear that [they called down] upon their own head the precious blood of Christ, saying to Pilate, “His blood be on us and on our children.” And they killed the holy prophets too; and the blessed Stephen reproached them with this, saying: “Stiff-necked and disobedient in heart, you always resist the Holy Spirit. Which of the prophets did your fathers not kill? As your fathers did, so do you.”

“Your silver is counterfeit; your merchants mix the wine with water; your rulers are disobedient, companions of thieves, loving gifts, pursuing rewards, not judging for orphans, and not heeding the widow’s cause.”

He clearly enumerates the causes of the change for the worse. And as one of the most skilful physicians tells the sick the occasions of their illness, so he too, who wishes all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth, makes plain to those who are sick through ignorance of what is fitting the causes of the passions and offences within them. “For your silver is counterfeit,” he says. By counterfeit silver he means the word of their teachers, which was not sound, but rather full of every abomination and able to harm the hearers rather than help them. The divinely inspired Scripture is somehow accustomed to call silver the words of instruction that some give to the people under their hand. Thus [the Saviour likens] the kingdom of heaven to a householder who, when he was about to go abroad, called his own servants, and to one he gave five talents and to another one, and went abroad; and [on his return], giving praise to those who had laboured, he says, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” But to the one who hid the talent and gained nothing at all he says, “Wicked and lazy servant, you ought to have put my silver with the bankers, and on my return I would have received what was mine with interest.” [And elsewhere: “The words] of the Lord are pure words, silver refined by fire, tested for the earth.” Base and wholly counterfeit, then, is the silver among the Jews, that is, the word of the scribes and Pharisees, who, like merchants, wanted to mix the wine with water: that is, they made the interpretation of the law adulterated and not free of trickery, weaving into it something of their own wishes and slipping in frigid and watery notions, not unmixed with what is worse; nor, as one might say, did they render the lawgiver’s intention undiluted. And so the scribes and the Pharisees once came to the Saviour saying: “Why do your disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat bread.” And he said to them: “Why do you also transgress the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? For God said, Honour your father and mother, and, Whoever speaks evil of father or mother, let him surely die. But you say, Whoever says to his father or mother, Whatever you would have gained from me is a gift, he need not honour his father or his mother. And you have made void the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition.” Do you see in this the clear charges against the Jewish trickery? For, wanting to follow their own traditions, they made the laws of God void, pretending to interpret them, but bringing in stale and frigid traditions. And he accuses the rulers as being very sick with unruliness, raising their neck high as it were in pride, and choosing to disobey.

For they would not accept faith, that is, in Christ, although the law cried out to them up and down the mystery concerning him and showed it in countless ways. And so our Lord Jesus Christ said to them: “Do you think that I will accuse you to the Father? There is one who accuses you, Moses, on whom you have set your hope. For if you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me.” Disobedient, then: neither willing to interpret for others the intention of the law undiluted and unadulterated, nor honouring the faith proclaimed beforehand through Moses and the prophets and the saints. For they would not obey Christ when he said: “Come to me, all you who labour and are heavy laden, [and I will give you rest; take] my [yoke] upon you.” And besides being hard and disobedient, they became companions of thieves; for [they bought from Judas] our Lord Jesus Christ, [Judas] who was at once a wicked and a most thievish disciple. And the leaders of the Jews were lovers of money in another way too, tithing cumin and dill and every herb, and neglecting the weightier matters of the law, judgment and mercy and faith. For they did not judge for orphans and widows; but rather, seeking a reward from those who came to them, they at times impiously condemned the wronged, bringing against them a most lawless vote. And from judging unjustly and being shamefully overcome by gain, they behaved outrageously even toward Christ himself. For in order to keep the gifts brought by the people, they would not accept the master of the vineyard, making their own the inheritance that befitted and was owed to him alone. For they killed one who was innocent and righteous, although the law says, “The innocent and righteous you shall not kill.”

“Therefore thus says the Master, the Lord Sabaoth: Woe to the mighty of Israel! For my wrath will not cease against my adversaries, and I will execute judgment on my enemies.”

He lays the causes of the destruction of Jerusalem on those allotted to lead, and very rightly. For the subject people follow them in everything, just as the flocks under their hand follow the shepherds. If the shepherds lead them to rich and abundant pasture, they will be strong and well fed; but if to salty land, the mother of thorns, they will certainly destroy them with bad feeding. We shall find something of this kind true of ourselves too. For with teachings that lead to rightness and virtue and the knowledge of God … it slides down to the longing and eagerness for what is more shameful. Suffering something of this kind, the wretched people of Israel perished through the traditions and teachings of the scribes and Pharisees. For these did not let them go by the true and saving path, I mean the one through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. And so he healed the man blind from birth, and all throughout Jerusalem marvelled at the greatness of the divine sign; but to the man set free from his affliction, as he proclaimed his healer, those who ought to have led him to the truth said plainly: “Give glory to God; we know that this man is a sinner.” And one of the holy evangelists testifies that the scribes and Pharisees had already agreed that if anyone confessed him to be Christ, he should be put out of the synagogue. Therefore, most ill-advisedly preferring their regard for one another to their own salvation, they have remained wholly without share in the glory that comes from God. And the Saviour said this to them: “How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?” And elsewhere too: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you shut the kingdom of heaven.” They became, then, a stumbling block to the peoples, and they do not cease warring against the glory of Christ. Therefore he says of them: “Woe to the mighty! For my wrath will not cease against the adversaries, and I will execute judgment on my enemies.” Do you see how he calls them adversaries and even enemies?

And upon them above all [fall the effects of wrath; for they will be] punished [for their own wickedness] and give account to the Judge for the destruction of the others, whom they could reasonably have saved too, if they had been willing both to think rightly themselves and to [lead] all the others to this. … the divine John [said] to them as they came to the baptism of repentance: “Brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath that remains?” There was, then, vengeance from God against the mighty above all, that is, against the powerful among them, or their leaders, when their country was ravaged and handed over [to the enemy]. And the Saviour foretold this to them: “When you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then you will say to the mountains, Cover us, and to the hills, Fall on us.” “It is a fearful thing, then, to fall into the hands of the living God”: not because he is harsh and implacable, for rather he is kind and good, but because he is grieved when he is despised, when we above all deprive ourselves of his gifts, though it is possible to take them richly and to delight in them if we choose to yield to his laws and to shake off the wicked and unholy teachers of this life, who hasten to undo the rightness of the faith with their words, and, pouring the poison of their perversity into the souls of the simpler, turn them aside to choose what is evil.

“And I will bring my hand upon you, and I will refine you to purity; and the disobedient I will destroy, and all the proud I will humble; and I will set up your judges as at first, and your counsellors as at the beginning. And after this you shall be called the city of righteousness, the faithful mother city, Zion. For with judgment her captivity will be saved, and with mercy. And the lawless and the sinners will be crushed together, and those who forsake the Lord will be brought to an end.”

God brings his hand upon her as one who strikes; for such, somehow, is always the posture of those who strike. That the bringing of his hand, that is, the onset and experience of terrible things, will not be wholly without profit for them, nor will the effects of wrath fall on all indiscriminately, but that he will count those who have believed worthy of care and forbearance and will grant the genuine the grace of being saved, he teaches clearly. For of old the God-fighting Jerusalem played the harlot in many ways by serving other gods, and God brought his hand upon her and handed her over, as to a fire, to the calamities of war. But when the Father sent the Son from heaven as Saviour and Redeemer, she then behaved outrageously toward him and did the deeds of unmixed madness. Yet he did not cease [calling her, the one who justifies] the ungodly and frees from the old offences through faith. He brought his hand upon her again, and like a craftsman he sorted her in the fire; and all that was in her most approved and [genuine he kept] for himself, but what was base and counterfeit he handed over to ruin and destruction. As those [who refine] materials with fire do, so I too, he says, will refine you to purity. And it is written: “The Lord will wash away the filth of the sons and daughters of Zion, and will cleanse the blood from their midst by a spirit of judgment and a spirit of burning.” It was also said through the voice of one of the holy prophets: “Suddenly the Lord whom you seek will come to his temple, and the angel of the covenant in whom you delight. Behold, he is coming, says the Lord; and who will endure the day of his coming? Or who will stand at his appearing? For he comes in like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap, [and he will sit refining and purifying as] silver [and as] gold.” And the wise [Baptist] said this to us in another way: “I baptize you in water for repentance; but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry; he will baptize you in the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and

gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.” So the wheat is gathered into the barn, but all that is useless, that is, the chaff, he said would be food for fire. And how this is, if anyone wishes to learn, the force of the text will make clear. For he said at once: “And the disobedient I will destroy, and I will take away all the lawless.” For from those of Israel the former multitude [has been taken away], which was impious toward Christ and denied the Redeemer; and all the proud and those who lived lawlessly have been removed, that is, those allotted to rule the synagogue of the Jews, the chief priests and Pharisees. For how would they not be lawless and boasters, who had not the least regard for reverence toward the law, but lifted up their horn on high and spoke unrighteousness against God? For they said, “Away with him, away with him, crucify him.” And they were removed from leading the peoples when the holy apostles were appointed, of whom he says, “I will set up your judges as at first, and your counsellors as at the beginning.” The divine disciples became in no way inferior to the saints of old, and he calls them judges and names them counsellors. For they did both: [judging some, and] counselling the weak what was useful for their spiritual health. And so the most wise Paul handed over the man in Corinth who had committed sexual immorality to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that the spirit might be saved; and he gives good counsels and says: “If anyone who bears the name of brother is sexually immoral or greedy or an idolater or a reviler or a drunkard or a robber, [not even to eat] with such a one” … of judges or counsellors. And the blessed David, in the Holy Spirit, said to Jerusalem itself: “Instead of your fathers, your sons have been born”; that is, your children have come to stand to you in the rank of fathers. For the divine disciples were Jews and sons of the synagogue of that time. And that they became fathers of those who believed, hear Paul saying: “For in Christ Jesus I begot you through the gospel.” And again: “My little children, for whom I am again in labour until Christ is formed in you.” Another of the holy prophets also speaks to us of Christ, the Saviour of us all, and of the appointment of his holy disciples, and says: “Behold, a righteous king will reign, and rulers will rule with judgment.” For those who led the synagogue of the Jews held to a most lawless life and did not know how to rule with judgment, that is, with righteousness. But when Christ reigned over all under heaven, the divine disciples became righteous and good rulers, ruling with judgment; and when they were appointed, she was again called the city of righteousness and the faithful mother city Zion, that is, the Church.

And that the ratification, or testing, that came from God happened not indiscriminately, as I said, but with care and with reasoning joined to righteousness, the race approved through faith makes plain. He adds, saying: “For with judgment her captivity will be saved, and with mercy; and the lawless and the sinners will be crushed together, and those who forsake the [Lord will be brought to an end]” … of the races; and since the one that believed was approved, as I said, while the other stumbled not a little, the chosen part has been saved, but all in them that was abominable and hateful, the companion of madness, that lived impiously and took no thought for Christ, who knows how to save, forgives charges and justifies by grace, has been destroyed.

“[For they will be ashamed of their idols], which they themselves wanted, and they were ashamed of their gardens, which they desired. [For they will be like a terebinth that has shed its leaves], and like a garden that has no water.”

I said that in these words the prophet’s speech gives a twofold ground for the rejection of the Jews; for their charges are twofold. Of old, having abandoned God, the one who is God by nature, and their Redeemer, they served [the host] of heaven and [gave glory] to the works of their own hands. But when God the Lord appeared to us, according to the Scriptures, they denied him too and behaved outrageously, and not a little, toward the Author of life. So the charges are sisters, and the manner of the madness is not unlike the first, but rather it is in a cause of greater madness. And in the times before the coming they were punished by the attacks of enemies, [their] cities [burned and their land ravaged]. For Persians and Medes, Moabites and Idumeans and the surrounding nations did these things by God’s permission. But since, as I said, they were impious toward Christ himself, they fell into no lesser [calamities] than the ancient ones … [the Roman] armies, who utterly destroyed the whole of Judea, with no one helping, that is, no one able to rescue them, and to rescue them from so bitter a calamity. Therefore he says: “They will be ashamed of their idols, which they themselves wanted, and they were ashamed of their gardens, which they desired.” For setting up groves and idols around the trees and raising altars, they called upon the falsely named gods as saviours, and placed all their hope in the very works of their own hands, that they would be able to prevail over their enemies and easily defeat those who opposed them. But when the enemies came and did what enemies do, and Israel remained without help from its own gods, they were ashamed of their idols. For they saw them burned before the rest, together with the gardens, that is, the groves, and the very shrines and altars. So they were cheated of their hope when they saw their own gods suffering, and then they barely understood what was said by God through the voice of the prophet: “And where are your gods which you made for yourself? Will they rise and save you in the time of your affliction?” Having suffered shame, then, over their own gods, which they themselves desired, and over [the gardens, they will be like a terebinth that has shed] its leaves, and like a garden that has no water; that is, bare and utterly dishonoured, and very sick with [the lack of] good things. For the terebinth, or any other tree, keeps the glory proper to it as long as it is thick with its own blossoms; but when it has shed its leaves it will be dry and unlovely and as it were dishonoured. And a garden, again, if it has springs, will be thick with trees and [rich in the fruits of] its [plants]; but if it is without water, it will be wholly fruitless, or rather it will suffer the loss of the trees themselves. Dishonoured and fruitless, then, Israel has remained. For what fruit of virtue is there among the worshippers of idols?

Or how is he not full of all dishonour who abandoned God, the one who is God by nature, “and said to the wood, You are my father, and to the stone, You begot me”? [And they will be like a terebinth that has shed its] leaves. For before our Saviour’s coming, keeping the shadow of the law, they were like trees that have no fruit, yet are richly adorned with the shoots of their leaves. But since they stumbled against Christ, they have cast off even the keeping of the shadow. For they no longer keep the sacrifices of the law, nor do they pride themselves anywhere on the honours of the law; keeping very few of the ancient customs in their cities, they are fruitless and dishonoured, and very rightly. For they killed the Author of life, “whom God raised from the dead, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it.”

“And their strength will be like a stalk of tow, and their works like sparks of fire; and the lawless and the [sinners] will be burned together, and there will be no one to quench them.”

The wise Solomon said that each is bound fast with the cords of his own sins; and the saying is true. For to each of us our own offences bring about ruin and bring on the penalties of divine wrath. Something of this kind happened to those of Israel. They made the falsely named gods for themselves and placed their hope in them, that they would be able to prevail over their enemies. But this very thing became for them almost fire and wood. For because of this … that is, to terrible and unceasing calamities, with no one helping. And he makes this clear to us, saying: “And their strength will be like a stalk of tow, and their works like sparks of fire.” The power they expected to have, he says, will be like a stalk of tow, that is, food and kindling for fire; and the works of their hands will be like sparks of fire hurled against them. So the lawless and the sinners will be burned together. We must, then, beg to be spared from stumbling against God and from doing such things. … For our own works will be both fire to us and food for fire, just as the honours that come from good deeds produce life and glory for those who do what is right.