Commentary on Isaiah 1.1.7–1.1.14

He had cried this out beforehand through the voice of a prophet too, saying: “I have forsaken my house, I have left my inheritance; I have given my beloved soul into the hands of her enemies. My inheritance has become to me like a lion in a forest; she has given her voice against me; therefore I have hated her.” Josephus, who recounted in tragic style the sufferings of the land of the Jews, records somewhere that when Jerusalem was about to be taken, the priests heard a voice in the temple, as of angels crying out in it, “Let us depart from here.” And that when a city is besieged a means of escape is sought by all who are in it, how can anyone doubt? From this one may infer the sufferings of the land of the Jews. For to the besieged it seemed a thing thrice longed for to be able to save one’s life alone; for house and property, or for the city itself, they had no thought at all. One must know, too, that the soul of a man is often abandoned by God if it does not choose to set right what has been ordained, bowing its neck to the Master’s decrees … a son or daughter of God, even if it has become Zion, which means “watchtower,” that is, [living] in lofty understanding and in a most pure mind that knows how to see mysteries, if it is seen doing what is not lawful, provoking the Holy One of Israel, it will be abandoned by him, and like an unguarded vineyard it will be given over to Satan and to the passions of the flesh, and it will be shown desolate of all virtue, bare of the honours that come from a good way of life, and full of every evil.

[“And if the Lord Sabaoth had not left us] seed, we would have become like Sodom and been made like Gomorrah.”

… for its impiety, the remnant of Israel has been saved even so, God having pity and granting this too as a gift, as it were, among others, to the memory of the fathers. For it did not perish utterly, nor was it shaken from its foundations, but it remained in a remnant. For the divinely inspired disciples were of them, and so also were all who have believed in our Lord Jesus Christ. And in the last times of the age those too who have not yet believed will be saved. The prophetic word will assure us of this. It says: “The sons of Israel will remain many days with no king and no ruler, with no sacrifice and no altar, neither priesthood nor manifestations. And after this the sons of Israel will return and seek the Lord their God and David their king, and they will be amazed at the Lord and at his good things at the end of the days.” And elsewhere the God of all says: “What shall I do with you, Ephraim? Shall I shield you, Israel? What shall I do with you? Shall I make you like Admah and like Zeboiim? My heart is turned within me; my repentance is stirred up together. I will not act according to the anger of my wrath; I will not abandon Ephraim to be blotted out, for I am God and not a man, the Holy One in you.” You hear how he promised not to act against them according to the greatness of his wrath, but rather promised beforehand … For those of Israel disobeyed in the desert as well, when they had come to the very streams of the Jordan and were about to inherit the land of the promise. Hence God said, “As I swore in my wrath, they shall not enter into my rest.” For their bodies fell in the desert, and all were consumed except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun. These went in together with the new people, crossed the Jordan, and received their inheritance from God. They would be a type of the remnant of Israel, saved through the obedience of faith in Christ, which has crossed the holy Jordan with us and is to inherit the kingdom of heaven.

The prophet therefore gives thanks, saying: “If the Lord Sabaoth had not left us seed, we would have become like Sodom and been made like Gomorrah.” For since Israel had served idols, had killed the prophets, had denied Christ, or rather had killed the Author of life, the God of all ought to have condemned the whole race to utter destruction. But since he is good beyond words, he preserved the remnant, and they did not become equal to Sodom, which [perished] with all its kin and households and … and to have a sin hard to wash away. And very rightly will it be said to us: “Or do you despise the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads 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.” “For we must all appear before Christ, so that each may receive what was done through the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.”

“Hear the word of the Lord, rulers of Sodom; give heed to the law of God, people of Gomorrah. What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? says the Lord. I am full of whole burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of lambs and the blood of bulls and goats I do not want. Not even if you come to appear before me; for who has required these from your hands? You shall not continue to tread my court. If you bring fine flour, it is vain; incense is an abomination to me. Your new moons and sabbaths and the great day I cannot endure; fasting and idleness, and your feasts my soul hates.”

Having frightened them sufficiently with threats of what is to come, and having told them beforehand what would by all means happen in due time unless they chose both to think and to do what is better and [to submit] to the divine laws, he turns his speech, in season, and leads them to what is useful, so that, choosing to think better, they might be freed from the penalty hanging over them. … Israel; and we say that they fell into this because of the impiety of those allotted to lead them. For although they recognized that he was the heir, they killed him; for they wanted to make his vineyard their own portion. And that wretched Israel, following the perversity of its leaders, missed the hope in Christ, the God of all will assure us, speaking through the voice of the prophets: “Many shepherds have destroyed my vineyard, they have defiled my inheritance, they have made my desirable portion a trackless desert; it has been made a vanishing of destruction.” And again: “For the shepherds were foolish and did not seek the Lord; therefore the whole flock did not understand and was scattered.” For the shepherds were truly foolish and became for the peoples under their hand a cause of ruin.

Yet ought they not rather, since they had been well taught the mystery of Christ through the law and the prophets, to have become a way for others to believe in him? But, as the Saviour says, they received glory from men and did not seek the glory that comes from the only God. “For if they believed Moses, they would believe him, for he wrote about him.” They became, then, blind guides of the blind. Therefore they slipped and fell into the pits of destruction. What, then, does the prophet do? He tries to reshape them with good admonitions, so that they may choose to think better and obey the words of the Saviour. And he usefully mixes rebuke with his admonitions to this end, healing the wounds of their ill counsel as with a remedy variously compounded. Therefore he says: “Hear the word of the Lord, rulers of Sodom; give heed to the law of God, people of Gomorrah.” You hear how he brings upon peoples and rulers the rod that comes from love and from a God-loving mind, and strikes … he likens Jerusalem [to Sodom], as full of very much sin and as having no [righteous person] at all … [When] the God of all [was about to] burn the cities of the Sodomites, he shared the matter with Abraham; and Abraham said to him, “Will you destroy the righteous with the ungodly, and shall the righteous be as the ungodly?” And God promised, if ten righteous men were found in Sodom, to stop his wrath against them. But they were not found. Therefore they paid penalties equal to their impieties. Such was the Lord-slaying Jerusalem, having a great scarcity of the righteous. And so the prophet Jeremiah pleaded for it, and God said: “Run through the streets of Jerusalem, and see and know, and search in her squares, whether you find a man, whether there is one who does justice and seeks faithfulness, and I will be merciful to her, says the Lord.” Since, then, she is filthy and stained in many ways with the defilements of wickedness, and has a great scarcity of saints, he calls her Sodom and Gomorrah and lays upon people and leaders alike the reproach of the uncleanness of the Sodomites. And what does he say? “Hear the word of the Lord, rulers of Sodom; give heed to the law of God, people of Gomorrah.” Come to your senses a little, he says; and looking with the eye of your understanding into the words of the all-wise Moses, understand the mystery of Christ. For Moses said: “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your brothers; you shall listen to him in everything he says to you.” Hear, then, the word of the Lord; give heed to the law of God; that is, understand for yourselves the force of the gospel decrees. Moses enjoined this; for he leads as a tutor to Christ, and the end of the legal decrees is to believe in God, through being willing to fulfil what was in types and shadows. Listen to him who of old spoke the law to you too: “What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? says the Lord. I am full.” For if you offer them as to one in need, you have strayed from what is fitting and missed wise and true reasoning. For the nature that fills all things lacks nothing, since all things are its own and come from it to others. “What do you have that you did not receive?” would fit to be said to created nature. For I have enough now, he says, and am filled, and I would no longer choose the sacrifices that come from you.

… For how, tell me, does a ram offered as a whole burnt offering [please] the God of all? And what is the fat of lambs [to him]? And if the blood of goats and bulls is offered, how would God take pleasure in it? “For who has required these from your hands?” For even if Moses spoke of whole burnt offerings and sacrifices, yet even of old this manner of worship was not what God wished. But since it was necessary to lead toward the truth through type and shadow, the things in the law were laid down until the time of correction. So, as far as pleasing God in truth is concerned, he would not have spoken at all about the sacrifices of the law. But since the mind of those then being schooled was weak, they were led by the hand to the truth through type and through the shadow in the letter. Now that the time has come in which the beauty of the truth must at last shine out, the type is superfluous and the shadow is of no use. Therefore he says: “You shall not continue to tread my court. If you bring fine flour, it is vain; incense is an abomination to me.” For we who have been made radiant by faith in Christ fill his holy courts, that is, the churches, offering spiritual sacrifices to God. But the manner of Jewish worship is wholly unacceptable to Christ in the churches. Those who wish to offer fine flour mixed with oil and incense perceptible to the senses would by no means be received. For we remember God saying of it, “It is an abomination to me.” And we keep the holy feasts in Christ; but the Jews, not departing from what is in types, blow trumpets on the day of the new moon, regard the Sabbath as a day of idleness, and honour the day called great. This is the last day of the feast called Tabernacles; and if they fast …, let them hear him saying, “Your feasts my soul hates.” He says this to transfer them from types to the truth, and to persuade them to bow the neck of their understanding to the decrees given through Christ, so that they may live with us according to the gospel, gladdening God with spiritual fragrances, and offering him, as it were, a spiritual incense: gentleness of character, love, love of one another, endurance, self-control, and before all the rest, faith. With such sacrifices God is well pleased, and the force of the gospel decrees crowns believers with such honours.

“You have become a surfeit to me; I will no longer forgive your sins. When you stretch out your hands to me, I will turn my eyes away from you; and if you multiply your supplication, I will not hear you; for your hands are full of blood.”

Things that have come to surfeit or satiety tend to be despised and are thought worth very little account, or rather even come to be hated. And so the most wise Solomon says, “Set your foot seldom before your friend, lest having had his fill of you he hate you.” The God of all, then, said to the Jews: I am sated with the stale shadow, and I hold your sins [against you]. For of old those of Israel, having impiously turned to provoking the God of all against themselves by serving the creation and bowing down to the very works of [their hands and sacrificing] on the mountains, [were handed over to] the Persians and Medes [and endured] a bitter [captivity; but when] the seventieth year was completed, the God who is compassionate and loves pity had mercy again. And so, as is written in Zechariah, the blessed angel made supplications for them, saying, “Lord Almighty, how long will you not have mercy on Jerusalem and the cities of Judah?” … and God [said] these things: “I have been jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with great jealousy, and I am angry with great wrath [against the nations].” He forgave their sins then; but [since they would not be] redeemed [through] the Saviour’s cross, no longer

does he promise to forgive them their sins, because they have spent long ages by themselves, as they have remained subject to the movements of wrath. For that in the last times they will be shown mercy, by the grace that is in Christ, … the times of wrath have come upon them. Therefore he says: “I will no longer forgive your sins.”

And in another way, if you like, [one may take] the sense of the text. [Under] the old law those of Israel [offered sacrifices] for their own [sins, as types of] the mystery of Christ. But since Christ has appeared, [these are useless], as the truth is now present. That the shadow of the law will not suffice for their forgiveness if they do not accept the redemption through Christ, he teaches by saying, “I will no longer forgive your sins.” For now that the truth is present, he says, I have not allowed the types to be able to benefit those guilty of sins … and in doing this, … the shadow is of no use. So I will no longer forgive your sins, and when you lift up your hands I will turn away my eyes, even if you make very many [prayers] … that the Creator of all is kind; that is, I am indeed kind and good and compassionate, and only unwillingly do I turn away my eyes. “For your hands are full of blood.” Do you hear how he has brought the charge of murder against them, keeping silent about their other offences? And yet [he had charged them] with many: “Woe, sinful nation, people full of sins, evil seed, lawless sons.” But since they killed the prophets and laid their unholy hands on Christ himself, the Saviour of us all, very fittingly he brings against them the most grievous charge, the one sufficient for every condemnation, saying, “Your hands are full of blood.” And God the Father turns away his face, as not enduring to see the hands of the murderers still crimsoned with the blood of the Son. Having brought them back to the remembrance of their impieties, he does not let them despair. He usefully adds the grace that comes from his gentleness. And he does not shut out … the whole world under heaven. “For all have turned aside; together they have become worthless.” And the world became accountable to God, the nations having served the creation, and those of Israel having transgressed the law given them through Moses. But Christ shone upon the nations, and they were called to his marvellous light; and those who were once not a people became a people. The wretched Jews, however, behaved outrageously toward Christ and impiously killed him who is the Author of life, even though he came to life again as God. But since he is good, and “wants all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth,” he himself widens the road of salvation and bids them throw off their charges, being justified freely and not by works of the law. Therefore he says: “Wash yourselves, become clean.” This the old law too outlined for them as in shadows, proclaiming beforehand the grace given through holy baptism. For God said somewhere to Moses, the revealer of sacred things: “Take the Levites from among the sons of Israel and purify them; and thus you shall do to them for their purification: you shall sprinkle them with water of purification, and a razor shall pass over their whole body, and they shall wash their garments and be clean.” Then what the water of purification is, the most wise Paul will teach, saying: “For if the blood of goats and calves, and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ?” So the law made a fleshly cleansing through the water of purification; but Christ, through holy baptism, scours away all the filth of our soul.

For we have been baptized in the Holy Spirit and fire, which as it were melts away every form of wickedness in us and consumes it like so much useless refuse; for this is the work of fire. The blessed Paul too makes this plain, saying: “By faith Noah, being warned, prepared an ark for the saving of his household,” in which a few, that is, eight souls, were brought safely through water. “And baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves us also, not as a removal of dirt from the flesh, but as the appeal of a good conscience to God.” This, then, he counsels the Jewish peoples themselves to choose to do, saying, “Wash yourselves, become clean”; that is, … of the gentleness and love for mankind of the one whom you insulted. And we find the divine Peter too rebuking them as having killed the Author of life and having asked for a murderer to be granted to them, that is, [Barabbas, and yet calling them to repentance]; for he said: “And now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did your rulers also. Repent, then, and let each of you be baptized in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promises are for you and for your children.”

“Take away the wickedness from your souls before my eyes; cease from your wickedness.”

The saving and holy baptism suffices for the washing away of sin, and scours away the stain of offences already committed. But I say that those who have once been sanctified must keep their souls pure and blameless, as far as they are able, and remember him who says, “Keep your heart with all vigilance,” and again, “If the spirit of the ruler rises against you, do not leave your place, for healing will put an end to great sins.” Very many pleasures that look toward what is shameful shake the soul of man, and before all the others the law that is implanted and rages in the members of the flesh; and besides these, evil reasonings, which drag the mind within us with no small force toward every form of wickedness. Those who have been baptized must therefore keep away from all such evils and take away the wickedness from their own soul, and not only in the eyes of men but above all in the eyes of God, who knows and oversees all things. For some at times pretend to be good, stealing the appearance of fair dealing, “but inwardly they are ravenous wolves,” as it is written. And of every such person, I think, the God of all says through the voice of the prophet Jeremiah: “With his mouth he speaks peaceably, but within himself he holds enmity.” And through the voice of David too: “Their words were softer than oil, yet they are darts.” But even if they make every effort to escape notice, “he who dwells in the heavens will laugh at them, and the Lord will mock them.” For he knows, he knows the heart and the reins. But the one who is truly good will be so before God and men, as Paul says: “taking thought for what is good not only before the Lord but also before men.” It is a great thing, then, to remove wickedness from before the eyes of God. And perhaps Nathanael was such a man, of whom Christ says, “Behold, truly an Israelite in whom there is no guile.” “Cease,” he says, “from your wickedness”; that is, abandon the wickedness that is familiar and ingrained in you; change your ill [will] for the better

… behaving outrageously toward him, setting snares and digging pits; and, as far as it lay with them and within the power of their schemes, preparing every kind of malice against him. At one time they sent some of their own disciples with those called Herodians, asking and saying, “Is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar, or not?” At another time they came again saying, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?” so that they might accuse him. Let them hear him, then, saying: “Take away the wickedness from your souls before my eyes; cease from your wickedness.”

“Learn to do good; seek judgment; rescue the one who is wronged; judge for the orphan and vindicate the widow. And come, let us reason together, says the Lord. And if your sins are like crimson, I will make them white as snow; and if they are like scarlet, I will make them white as wool.”

Having marked out the weakness of the worship under the law, both by saying, “What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? says the Lord. I am full,” and by adding, “For who has required these from your hands?” he now in due season explains the excellence of the gospel way of life and shows the way of the truly holy life, which wins its approval no longer in types and shadows but in the realities themselves and in the honours understood as belonging to virtue. For what does he mean by “Learn to do good”? Does he then, someone might say, take us wholly away from the commandment of the law? Does he not allow us to look at all to what was decreed through Moses? How, then, did Christ say, “Do not think that I came to abolish the law or the prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfil”? And how did Paul say, “So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good”? To such objections we shall say again that the law is good if it is understood spiritually. Christ does not take us wholly away from the law, but rather leads us up to what is higher and better, having first laid down in us, like a kind of foundation, the schooling given through the law, which held the true worship as it were in shadows and types. Besides, the law teaches us to keep away from wickedness and sin, and it points out what is shameful. Paul at any rate says, “I would not have known sin except through the law.” But the gospel preaching makes us practitioners of every virtue. Therefore it may fittingly be called, properly and truly, the good itself. For “You shall not kill, you shall not commit adultery” removed those being instructed from sin, though it did not yet fully show what the good is; but the command not to be angry with one’s brother at all, nor even to desire, initiates us into the honours of virtue. For it is an excellent thing to overcome anger, and admirable besides to be able to rein in the desires for what is evil and not allow

the mind to go even to the beginnings of an outlandish and most abominable desire. So the good would truly be the gospel teaching and the power of the way of life in Christ. We must therefore cry out to the friends of the letter, “Learn to do good, seek judgment,” that is, judging rightly. For besides all their other absurdities, those allotted to lead the synagogue of the Jews suffered from this too: they did not make right judgments in each matter, but rather voted unjustly, were overcome by gifts and the pleasure of money, and sold the cleverness of their unholy counsel to those who wished to do wrong. For, as the prophet says, “Her leaders judged for gifts.” The commandment is therefore necessary, and for those who wish to live according to the gospel, judging rightly contributes not a little to righteousness, not only in outward matters but also in those of the mind and heart. I mean something like this. God condemns wickedness; Satan praises it. The Saviour’s law persuades us to make the good the object of our love; that one draws us the other way. Then, then indeed the mind within us is like a judge and arbiter. If it praises the good and grants it the right to prevail, it has sought judgment. But if it hands the victory to wickedness, it has gone outside right judgment and will justly hear: “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil; woe to those who call bitter sweet and sweet bitter; who put darkness for light and light for darkness.” It is, then, a glory of the gospel to judge rightly and to help those who are wronged. For this, I think, is “Rescue the one who is wronged.” And besides this one must practise compassion and impartiality. “Judge for the orphan,” he says, “and vindicate the widow; and come, and let us reason together, says the Lord.” Not as though we were judging the Master! “For he will be justified,” it says, “in his words, and will prevail when he is judged.” For no one will be clean from filth, nor will anyone boast of having a pure heart; but rather [let us reason together], examining as it were among ourselves whether the greatness of the divine generosity is not great and worth receiving. As the wise Paul writes to us: “The sufferings of the present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.” He therefore promises forgiveness of offences already committed to those who, through faith, pass over in a way from the conduct of the law to the excellence of the life according to Christ. For this is our entrance into hope, the first fruits of God’s gentleness toward us, like a door and a way. And that the grace given through faith will suffice for the cleansing even of those who have been very greatly defiled, and not only of those whose sickness was less, he persuades us by saying, “If your sins are like crimson, I will make them white as snow; and if they are like scarlet, I will make them white as wool.” For nothing is hard to wash out when God scours it. As Paul says, “Where sin increased, grace abounded all the more.” And again: “Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies; who is to condemn?”