Commentary on Isaiah 2.3.5–2.3.12

… are handed over to an unapproved mind, and become easy prey to monstrous desires; and nothing saves them, but they are under the feet of their enemies, cast down without courage. For if the God of all shuts against men, he says, who will open? And the … Let us remain, then, in the divine fear. For thus we shall gain the grace of the favour from above; and we shall act with spiritual vigour, caring very little for sin and the passions and the greed of the devil, and we shall come to the prize of the upward calling, carrying through a glorious and most approved life.

“Is the mountain of Zion a desert rock? For you will be …”

Salmanasar the Assyrian at one time made an expedition against Samaria and took its cities; and besides this he did great harm to many of the [cities] of Judaea, and carried off a multitude of captives to his own land. And for this reason the nations of the Moabites mocked Zion, that is, Jerusalem, and called it a desert rock, the wretches perhaps laughing not at it but at the God over all; and indeed they said that the hand that saves them had grown weak, and that for this reason they had come under the feet of their enemies. O daughter of Moab, then, he says (the word surely implies this), is the mountain of Zion a desert rock? Has Zion alone, he says, grown weary? Has she alone fallen under the feet of her enemies, and suffered the desolation of her inhabitants? Or have you fallen into things still worse than hers? For you will be taken by enemies, and as a fledgling from a nest … you will dwell in another land, and you will serve … enemies, and you will be a pitiable captive among them, cast down and under the yokes of slavery. Useful, then, and necessary is the precept: “If your enemy falls, do not rejoice over him, because the Lord will see, and it will not please him, and he will turn his wrath away from him.” For it is not fitting to exult in the calamities of others, nor to make what has befallen one's neighbour a pretext for delight, even if he should happen to be one of those who usually grieve us; rather we should sorrow with him, and, turning our eye to our own faults, fear greatly lest perhaps the wrath of him who strikes come upon us too.

“Then, Arnon, take further counsel, and make for her a shelter of mourning for ever; at midday … from the face of the pursuer, when your alliance was taken away, and the ruler who trampled on the earth perished.”

The sense of the words before us is very hard to interpret, because of the shifts from one person to another and the roughness of the construction, which is not easy going for every mind. But I will try to explain it as best I can.

When, then, the whole land of the Moabites had been sacked, its cities thrown down and its houses burned, and …, those who were able to escape moved to Arnon. This is one of the most strongly fortified cities, perhaps bordering on Moabitis. The word, then, is addressed to it. And you, he says, after this, O Arnon, take further counsel: consider, he says, in what way you will be able to save those who are left and were able to escape the savagery of those who sacked them. And make for her a shelter of mourning for ever. Yes, he says, think of something humane; become a shelter for those gripped by unbearable mourning. For they flee in a midday darkness: that is, while it is day and the sun is at midday, they have darkness in their mind. For the fear of death is very able to muddy the soul, and the onset of extreme despondency to pour something like night over the mind. For this reason he says: “And they were beside themselves.” For they have all but gone out of their minds with fear, terrified by the terrors of the war. But even if you receive, he says, those from Moabitis, yet know very clearly that you have saved not all, but a small remnant, easily counted, of those who perished. This, I think, he wishes to show by saying … Did you not receive the fugitives when the war was only beginning? Were not those who were able to escape very easily counted and altogether few? So what God said against the Moabites has been brought to fulfilment. For [Moab] has perished, though a small remnant has barely been saved. But, O Arnon, he says, you received those from … at some time they will be a shelter to you from the face of the pursuer. But this will not be. Why? “For your alliance has been taken away, and the ruler who trampled on the earth has perished.” For he who always shielded you, he says, the leader of the Moabites, the terrible and haughty one, accustomed to trample his opponents like dust, is gone and has perished. For he has been taken away and removed from the midst. He teaches by this that the Moabites' hope of ever being able to prevail again has also been taken away. For the ungodly, he says, will perish root and all from the earth. And when divine wrath leaps upon them altogether, what remnant of those who have suffered will there be? Or who is able to raise up [those whom] God has cast down …

“And a throne will be set right with mercy, and one will sit on it with truth in the tent of David, judging and seeking judgement and hastening righteousness.”

In these words he clearly promises that Israel will in due time be freed from its unbearable misery and from the evils of captivity. For when Cyrus took the land of the Babylonians, Israel was set free, and was brought back, through God's pity, into the holy city, led by Zerubbabel son of Salathiel, who was of the tribe of Judah and of David, and also by Jesus son of Josedek, the great priest. The throne, then, he says, that is, the kingdom among the Jews, will be set right with mercy, that is, it will return to its proper order through God's pity. And again one will sit on it with truth in the tent of David, judging and seeking judgement. And he seems to call the palace a “tent”, in which those who lawfully held the seats of the kingdom spent their time and gave judgement. And as far as what seemed good to God was concerned, they were careful of righteousness, even if some failed of virtue and turned aside to worse things.

It should be known that after the return from Babylon those of Israel no longer lived divided, with the ten tribes and the half-tribe of Ephraim in Samaria and someone reigning over them, and the tribe of Judah and the half-tribe of Manasseh in Jerusalem, with again another reigning separately over them; but having been brought together into one, they anointed [one] king from then on. And this, then, was what had been said about them through the voice of the prophet: “And they will go up from the land, and will cease for a little from anointing a king and rulers.” However, God promises the restoration of the throne among the Jews, … only that the mountain of Zion is a desert rock. But to you, he says, this and that will happen, you who laughed broadly at the [misfortunes] of those of Israel. Them, however, God will in every way and altogether have pity on, and will release from what has befallen them, and will restore their … to what it was at the beginning. Having proclaimed beforehand very well the … from captivity … to the ancient state of their rule, that is, their kingdom, he returns again to Moab and turns the word against them.

“We have heard …”

“We have heard” is said as from the person of the holy prophets … of these, as of God punishing justly and bringing on them the penalty that was due and fitting. They say that they have heard of the insolence of Moab, not being ignorant, first, of that most ancient history which the divine Moses relates. For, as we said before, Balak hired Balaam, saying: “Come, curse Israel for me.” And very many things were done for this purpose at various times by the arrogance of the Moabites, fighting against the glory of God. When the holy prophets had said most clearly that they had heard of the insolence of Moab and knew that he was exceedingly insolent, God answers and says: “I have removed the arrogance”; that is, I have arranged that Moab, not merely arrogant but become as it were arrogance itself, should be removed from the midst. For I make war on the arrogant, and fight against those who have chosen to think immoderately, but rather swell up vainly and raise their brow on high, and do not know the weakness of their own nature. And it is written: “The Lord opposes the arrogant.” Teaching that he punishes justly and not … Moab, as suffering unbearably from the disease of arrogance. “Not so your divination, not so.” Did I not remove your arrogance, he says, that is, cut down Moab? But your … did not foretell these things to you. For the diviners promised falsely that you would be stronger than the onset of war, and would conquer your opponents, and would be uncapturable by your enemies, and would mock them when they were defeated. But it is not so; far from it. Rather the end of events turned out the opposite, and not as you hoped. It is very hard, then, and truly harmful to heed the words of those who mock, and to be carried away by the voices of sorcerers into hopes that will not come to pass. That the divination did not turn out as they had expected, but otherwise and wholly contrary to the divination, that is, to their having used the art of the magi …, but [they expected] to raise the war-cry over enemies who had perished and to dance over them as they lay. Therefore all, he says, who dwell in Deseth (this too is a city of Moab), … perhaps having practised against themselves a wailing and a lament well measured and tuneful, are signified by this.

“And they will not be ashamed before the plains of Esebon; the vine of Sebama will mourn. You who swallow the nations, trample her vines as far as …”

The word is perhaps addressed to those who took Moab, I mean the Assyrians and Babylonians, whom he commanded no longer to respect the plains of Esebon, and to burn Esebon itself, and to deal so with Sanama that even the vines in it would mourn. And to them he also says: “You who swallow the nations.” For I command you, he says, O destroyers of the nations, insatiable and most savage beasts, you who swallow nations: trample her vines as far as Iazer. This too is a city of the Moabites. Here again he calls the inhabitants of the Moabites vines. For it is the custom of the divinely inspired Scripture to compare those in each city and country to thickets and trees and also to vines. Indeed about Israel it says: “For the vineyard of the Lord Sabaoth is the man of Judah, a beloved new planting.” By saying “Trample her vines”, he shows again that conquering Moab was not the work of the hand of the Assyrians, but it was the all-powerful God who put the opponents under their feet and gave them the power to prevail over their hand.

“Do not join them; wander through the desert, you who are sent; they were left behind, they crossed the desert.”

They say that when the Assyrians invaded, very many of the Moabites fled into the desert that bordered on them and lay near, and tried hard to escape notice, and barely [escaped], very few in number. And perhaps it would not have been hard for the Babylonians to find them too, had God let them loose and stretched his wrath even to them. But since he punishes in measure, being the lover of humankind, he all but commands those who sacked Moab not to add the fugitives to those who had perished, but rather to let the desert go its way, as it were, that is, to give over to forgetfulness and to pass by the search for those who had fled together into it. For this reason he says: “Wander through the desert.” You who are sent, he says, you who have been sent by my wrath to take Moab by force, wander through the desert, give it over to forgetfulness, and pass the desert by; for they have crossed it. Then “they were left behind” is thrown in between, teaching again that the land of the Moabites would not have come to this pass if it had not offended greatly against the all-powerful God.

“Therefore I will weep as with the weeping of …, and spoke: Upon your harvest and upon your vintage I will trample, and all will fall. … of your vines; and in your vineyards they will not rejoice; and they will not tread wine into the vats, for it has ceased.”

The prophetic word shapes for us a person shedding tears over the calamities of the Moabites; and since perhaps Iazer had been sacked more than the others, he says that he laments the others too as would befit Iazer. He calls the inhabitants of the cities vines and trees. He also lists the sacked [places] of the city, Sabama and Esebon. And the people of the enemy spoke upon your harvest and upon your vintage, he says. And what did it speak? “I will trample,” plainly, “and all will fall.” And besides this: “Gladness and exultation will be taken away from your vines.” For the festival-loving Moabite, who dedicated very many rites to the demons, who spent his nights at altars and always had sacrifice as a pretext for gladness, will wail and weep, and will be far from all delight. “For they will not rejoice, nor will they tread wine into the vats, for it has ceased.” There will be no fruit on the vines, he says; for what is born of them will be gone together with them. And if one should take it of the vines in the full sense, this word is true. But if we should take it as by way of examples, the word teaches again, with respect to human things, that offspring will be gone together with their parents, so that not even those who are pregnant will be given any mercy by the enemy. We say that this was suffered

by Jerusalem, in the war against the Romans … by armies; and the woe will befall especially those who are giving birth and those who are with child in those days.

“Therefore my belly will sound like a lyre over Moab, and my inward parts like a wall which you renewed.”

Since gladness and exultation have been taken away from your vines, he says, and nothing in them …, my inward parts [will sound], a lyre and a song and a melody over you. For I proclaim your sufferings, and make the calamity brought upon you widely known. And like some well-tuned lyre I will cry out, and I will strike the strings so, and make the song heard, like the wall which you renewed. For the blessed prophet said at the beginning of the vision: “By night Moabitis will perish; for by night the wall of Moabitis will perish.” And we, remembering the force of what was said, said that … the wall broke, and before the attack of the enemy, all but levered up from its foundations, … of the Moabites, which they had indeed renewed, having spent entirely useless labour on it. For the Assyrians and Babylonians took the whole land without effort. My inward parts, then, he says, will sound over your calamities like a lyre, and I will make your suffering widely known, just as your wall was brought down, which you renewed, but to no useful end. For when the wall fell of itself, none of those in all the land of the Moabites, even those in other cities and districts, failed to notice the …

“And it will be, when you are put to shame, that Moab has wearied himself at the altars, and he will go into his handmade things to pray, and he will not be able to deliver himself.”

And what besides this, he says, will happen again, which will be to your shame and disgrace? You will endure vain labours, filling your altars with blood, making sacrifices without ceasing, and bringing prayers to handmade things; and you will obtain nothing for your benefit and salvation. For they will not be able to free you from the evils that hang over you. … For what strength is there in soulless idols, which are the inventions of human art, and have as their makers those who worship them? So, as the blessed David says: “May those who make them become like them, and all who trust in them.” It should be known that they were superstitious, false seers and tellers of marvels, and trusted very much in the evils of sorcery. For they thought they could somehow prevail over the hand of the enemy, not so much, as I think, by the experience of tacticians as by the help of their own gods. But they failed of their hope, having called soulless matter to their help by sacrifices and prayer.

“This is the word which the Lord spoke against Moab, when also he spoke.”

This, he says, is the vision against the land of the Moabites, spoken by God; “when also he spoke”, that is, even before my words came, he spoke very many things about it and accused it of countless evils. For, as I said before, the divine Moses too records the … of the nation, and commanded that it be held among the most abhorred. He said, at any rate: “An Ammonite and a Moabite shall not enter the assembly of the Lord, even to the tenth generation.” It once carried Israel away from the love of God, and persuaded him to worship Beelphegor, whetted by pleasures to shamefulness and netted into destruction by the beauty of women. So the God of all spoke about it; and now too this has come about against it through me.

“And now I say: in three years, years of a hireling, the glory of Moab will be dishonoured, with all his great wealth, and he will be left few and without honour.”

Now too the prophetic word brings us to the remembrance of a history. The ten tribes of Israel and the half-tribe of Ephraim, [having departed] from Jerusalem, dwelt in Samaria and worshipped the golden [heifers], [Jeroboam son] of Nabat leading them into this. Then they devised there other falsely named … The Lord of all, then, was indignant at this, since his glory had been insulted and the ancestral ordinances trampled underfoot, and he all but hired the Assyrian Salmanasar and let him loose on them; and he subdued the whole land of the Samaritans, having sat down against it for three whole years; and at this same time the land of the Moabites was taken by force. So, even if God spoke long ago, he says, yet now too I say that in the three years of the years of the hireling, that is, of the king of the Assyrians, the glory of Moab will be dishonoured. And by this he means either their kingdom, or the size of their cities and the multitude of their inhabitants, or perhaps their [army] experienced in war … “And he will be left few and without honour”: that is, all that is honourable among them will be consumed by the war, and those left will be altogether few, most dishonoured, unmanly, and worthy of no account. It is a fearful thing, then, to fall into the hands of the living God; and to dare to offend against the all-powerful, how will it not bring on every calamity? But it is saving to love being subject to him, to know him alone, to depart from the snares of error, and to say to him with a good disposition: “Lord, apart from you we know no other; we name your name.”

… of the Damascenes, ungodly and fighting against God, and among the most abhorred by the all-holy God; it was idolatrous, and in no way gave place to the Assyrians in abominations and arrogance. And it offended against the all-powerful God in another way too. For those of the blood of Israel, that is, the ten tribes and the half-tribe of Ephraim, having departed from Jerusalem, and [worshipping] in … the golden heifers (Jeroboam son of Nabat having led them down to this and impiously pushed them into it), having wholly broken away and leapt altogether away from the love of God, and having brought into forgetfulness the law given them through the all-wise Moses, when the time sometimes called for it and war was about to come upon them, did not set their hope rather on God who saves, but rather begged those who at the time reigned over Damascus and the whole land of the Syrians to help them and to deliver them from the hand of their enemies. The God of all, then, was indignant especially for this reason, and was embittered against them. For forgetting wholly that they had been redeemed from Egypt and had shaken off the unbearable yoke of slavery, and had been led through the midst of the sea, then had eaten the manna and [drunk] water …, [had been delivered] from every enemy, and had become heirs of the good things promised to the fathers, the wretches called on help from men, all but condemning God as unable to save them. For this reason they were handed over to the king of the Assyrians, who, having taken all Samaria, also sacked Damascus itself and laid waste the whole land of the Syrians. That our words about these things are true, the prophet Isaiah himself will confirm, saying: “And it came to pass in the days of Ahaz son of Jotham son of Uzziah, king … son of Romelias, king of Israel, [went up] against Jerusalem to make war on it, and they were not able to besiege it. And it was told to the house of David, saying: Aram has conspired with Ephraim,” that is, the Syrian with those in Samaria. For Aram is interpreted “Syrian”; and Ephraim, as from the tribe of Ephraim, signifies all of Israel that dwelt in Samaria. For since Jeroboam, the first who reigned over them, was of the tribe of Ephraim, and after him those who followed, the whole of Israel in Samaria is signified as from the reigning tribe, I mean that of Ephraim. And we will find in the fourth book of Kingdoms that, while Phakee reigned in Samaria, the Syrians, with Raasson who reigned over Damascus, pressed hard on those of Israel. Then Ahaz persuaded the tyrant of the Assyrians with money, and begged him to come at a run and help him and lay waste Damascus; which indeed came to pass. In what way, then, the most warlike, all-powerful and insolent city perished, the prophet proclaims to us beforehand in these words, and says:

“… it will be for a fall, left for ever, for a lair of flocks and a resting place, and there will be no one to pursue.”

He says that it will come not simply into the experience of wars and of the evils that come from them, but rather that it will be taken away, that is, will perish utterly and fall away entirely from being even a city. For it will be, he says, for a fall, left for ever. Left by whom? Surely by its inhabitants, not as having moved elsewhere, but as having been consumed by the swords of the enemy. By saying that it will be a lair of flocks, he has shown its total desolation; for shepherds would not have rested there, and herds of cattle would not have lain down in it, if there were any people in its houses. For this reason he very fittingly adds: “And there will be no one to pursue.” For no one, he says, will rebuke the shepherds for having made so brilliant and famous a city their lodging.

“And it will no longer be a stronghold for Ephraim to flee to, and there will no longer be a kingdom in Damascus, nor the rest of the Syrians. For you are not better than the sons of Israel and their glory.”

For the exact clarity of what lies before us, I think it necessary to recall again a history that lies in the books of Kingdoms. For while Ahaz reigned over … [Phakee son of Romelias], reigning in Samaria over ten tribes, made an expedition against Jerusalem. And since he feared that he might perhaps be too weak to take it, he made Raasson, the king of the Syrians and of Damascus, his ally in arms. The blessed prophet Isaiah himself spoke thus: “And it came to pass in the days of Ahaz son of Jotham son of Uzziah, king of Judah, Raasson king of Aram (this is interpreted “of the Syrians”, or “of Syria”) and Phakee son of Romelias king of Israel went up to Jerusalem to make war on it. And it was told to the house of David, saying: Aram has conspired with Ephraim,” that is, the Syrian with the one from the tribe of Ephraim who reigned over those in Samaria. “And his soul was amazed, and the soul of his people, as when trees in a wood are shaken by the wind.” So Ephraim, having forsaken God, the Saviour of all, and having thought his hand and help worth very little account, made the leader of Damascus and of the Syrians his shield-bearer. And for this reason, very fittingly, he gave offence to God. Damascus, then, he says, having been laid waste and made desolate, and having endured the calamities of war, will no longer be a stronghold for Ephraim to flee to. Nor will there be a kingdom in it. And yet someone might say: Even after the sack some were found reigning over Damascus; Paul at any rate mentions it, saying: “In Damascus the ethnarch of King Aretas sought to seize him.” The prophetic word, then, carries much emphasis. For he says there will no longer be a strong and notable kingdom in Damascus, even if afterwards there were some toparchs, or rather phylarchs, not clothed in the splendour of true kingship. There will not, then, be a kingdom in Damascus, he says; and with it the rest of the Syrians will grow weak too, that is, the whole nation under it. For Damascus is the metropolis of Syria. Then he says to it: “For you are not better than the sons of Israel and their glory.” For if I did not spare the lot allotted to me, he says, that is, those of Israel who sinned against me, how will you not in every way and altogether endure the harms of war yourself, being in no way better than Israel?