Commentary on Isaiah 2.4.22–2.5.6

“If you seek, seek, and dwell with me; in the thicket at evening you will sleep.”

For if you wish, he says, to seek help, seek it from me, who am able to save, and dwell with me, that is, be mine and think my thoughts, removing yourself from the worship of the falsely named gods. The Saviour says something of this kind: “Whoever loves me, let him follow me, and where I am, there let my servant be also.” When, then, he says, the phalanx of the enemy overruns the whole land of the Jews, [you will be] outside houses and cities, and in the thicket at evening you will sleep, that is, you will lodge with the wild beasts, and you will camp in the marshes, and so at last you will pay the penalty for your cruelty to your brothers.

“On the road of Dedan, bring water to meet the thirsty, you who dwell in the land of Teman; meet those who flee with bread, because of the multitude of the slain, [because of the multitude of the sword, and because of the multitude of the bent bows, and because of the multitude of those fallen in war].”

… he said again through the voice of Obadiah: “For [the day of the Lord] is near … [your recompense will be returned upon your] head.” This, then, briefly, is the subject [of the vision]. And indeed we must go to each point, as far as possible … and because of the multitude of the sword, and because of the multitude of the bent bows, and because of the multitude of those fallen in war … as I said before, also through the voice of the prophet Obadiah. For although they ought to have helped those of Israel who had fallen into incurable calamities, and to have grieved with them, they did not do this; but, without natural affection and hard-hearted, they showed themselves more savage than the cruelty of the Assyrians, cruelly slaughtering those who had managed to escape their hands at all. What, then, they ought to have done to win good repute, they did not do … saying: “On the road of Dedan, bring water to meet the thirsty, you who dwell in the land of Teman; meet those who flee with bread.” For you ought, you ought, he says, you who have the southern country (for Teman is interpreted “south”), to have brought bread and water to those fleeing and wandering on the road of Dedan, and to have hastened rather to do the works of love fitting toward brothers, and not … in a way, and to load further the yoke of those already pressed by such bitter and savage calamities. They ought, then, to have met the fugitives kindly. For they turned to flight, disregarding houses and cities, because of the multitude of the sword and of the terrible arrows; and when they fell in great numbers, and the dead among them became beyond count.

“For thus the Lord said to me: Yet a year, like the year of a hired worker, the glory of [the sons of] Kedar will fail, and the remnant of the strong bows of the sons of Kedar will be few; for the Lord, the God [of Israel], has spoken.”

That the destruction of Idumea has come near, and has as it were stepped inside the doors, and that they will go wholly and entirely to ruin, the Babylonians burning their cities and ravaging the whole country, he foretells clearly. For there will be one year between, he says, and the archers of Kedar, though they had no small reputation for this very thing, will fail and perish; and the prediction is true: the Lord is the truth. By the year of a hired worker he means one exactly measured. For one who has entered into the sweat of hired service and hired himself out to another always somehow reckons the measure of his time of hire finely and exactly. Let this be said now as far as the letter and the history go. But turning the force of the word to the holy Church and her nurslings, and also to the flocks of the heterodox, we say this: that the throngs of the Greeks have very often attacked those who are accustomed to think rightly and have chosen to worship the one who is by nature and truly the Creator and Lord of all; then … with persecutions and toils. And likewise those who have the venom of unholy heresies in mind and heart, though they steal the name of Christians and pretend to brotherhood with us, sometimes surpass the savagery of enemies, without natural affection and cruel. And what of such things are they not shown by the facts themselves to be? But God will not endure them for ever, nor at all tolerate those who are utterly without affection, but will rather bring upon them the effects of wrath and justice.

Having foretold the capture of the Egyptians, the Assyrians and the Idumaeans, the prophet comes to the holy city itself, that is, Jerusalem, and usefully relates beforehand what would befall it in due time from the divine wrath, so that they might know that the God of all, being the ruler of righteousness, or rather righteousness itself, does not simply honour and welcome and count worthy of his care the one who has become his own, merely because he was trained under the law; rather he examines the life each has led, and to the good he apportions good things according to their habit, while he counts the lover of wickedness a stranger, in no way joined to himself, even if perhaps he is beloved for the fathers' sake. The peoples of the Jews, then, out of very great ignorance, thought that they would be altogether impossible for their enemies to capture, and, … paying no regard at all to anything, … had fallen into very great impiety. For they worshipped idols, and setting up shrines and altars under oak and poplar they offered sacrifices to vain things and poured libations, wholly neglecting the glory owed to the all-holy God. Indeed 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 mend your ways and your practices, I will make this house like Shiloh.” And again he accused them through Micah the prophet, saying: “Her rulers judged for gifts, 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 shall come upon us.’ Therefore because of you Zion shall be ploughed as a field, and Jerusalem shall be as a garden-watchman's hut, and the mountain of the house as a grove of the forest.” And the inspired John too made it plain to them that the judgment of God comes swiftly against everyone accustomed to offend, saying: “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. Already the axe is laid at the root of the trees; … that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” Since Israel, then, had an unbridled inclination to offend, and was devoted, as I said just now, to the false worship of idols, God through the prophet reveals beforehand the capture of Jerusalem that would come in time, and says:

“What has happened to you now, that you have all gone up to the housetops, in vain? The city is filled with people shouting; your wounded are not wounded by the sword, nor are your …”

He seems here to point to the ravaging in the times of Jeconiah, and to blame those of Israel severely, because not even in the very midst of their troubles and such extreme calamities did they know how to do what leads to profit and would win them the favour from above. For they ought to have gone up to the house of God weeping and lamenting, to have promised a change of mind, to have asked that what they had done in their drunken folly be forgotten, and to have sought the helping hand from him and him alone. And this

he himself taught, saying through one of the holy prophets: “Gird yourselves and beat your breasts, you priests; lament, you who minister at the altar; go in, sleep in sackcloth, you who minister to God, for sacrifice and libation are withheld from the house of your God. Sanctify a fast, proclaim a 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, alas for the day!” By doing these things they ought to have appeased the one who had been provoked, who was able to save. But that it was fitting to do these things perhaps never even entered their minds; instead they went up to the highest parts of their houses, and there was beating of breasts everywhere, and wailing of children, wasting away, as is likely, from hunger and thirst, as must happen in cities under siege. This is why he says: “What has happened to you now, that you have all gone up to the housetops, in vain?” Why, he says, even amid terrors so unbearable, when the matter concerns your very last extremity and the whole struggle is for that, have you not cried out to God, but rather leapt up onto the housetops, though the thing profits you nothing? That is why he calls them vain housetops. And why “is the city filled with people shouting”? Not, rather, shouting to God, but crying out to no purpose, and all but grieving immoderately at the evils that have come upon those within the gates. The lament ought to have been for a change of mind; the tears ought to have been poured out before God. See, he says: before joining battle, before taking up the sword, before planning resistance, the city has become full of dead. It is useful, then, and necessary for salvation, to know how to do what may make God one's saviour, even if one should fall into bitter calamities. The blessed David at any rate sings and says: “O Lord God of hosts, blessed is the man who hopes in you.” It should be known that he calls Jerusalem the valley of Zion. For Zion is a mountain, or rather on a mountain; … that is why he also calls it the valley of Zion.

“All your rulers have fled, and … those in you have fled far away.”

The peoples of the Jews, as I said, having abandoned the God who saves all, and trusting in help from men, expected to be saved. But when the enemies came, and the fear of being captured was at its height, and they saw the Assyrian … already surrounding the land, that is, the holy city, those in authority and holding the highest offices leapt away to safety, all but bidding farewell to those who had placed their hopes in them. All, then, he says, have fled who once promised to save you and were thought to have a hand hard to overcome; and those who were captured are harshly bound. For Zedekiah was taken together with his sons; and the Babylonians slaughtered them, and carried him off to their own land with his eyes put out. “Vain, then, is the salvation of men,” as it is written. One must devote oneself to God alone, holding fast to that wise saying: “I will not hope in my bow, and my sword will not save me.” For the Lord of hosts alone saves those who love him and rescues them from every evil, so that they say rejoicing: “For you saved us from those who afflict us, and those who hate us …”

“Therefore I said: Let me alone, I will weep bitterly; do not labour to comfort me over the ruin of the daughter of my people; for it is a day of tumult and destruction and trampling from the Lord of hosts in the valley of Zion.”

This is the voice of the prophet, all but weeping and lamenting over the calamities of his race. By refusing those able to comfort him, he shows the greatness of the blow, as one that has no cure, but has been brought upon them unbearably, bitter and relentless in its onset. For a day of tumult and destruction and trampling has been brought on from the Lord of hosts. “For the uplifted hand, who will turn it back?” If the attack of the Assyrians had been carried out without wrath from above, there would have been great hope for the sufferers that they might sometimes prevail over those who came against them, since the God who rules all would be stretching out his ever-saving hand to them. But since he himself is the one who strikes, and the trampling comes from the Lord, who will overturn it? “For if he shuts against a man, who will open?” he says.

“They wander from small to great; they wander upon the mountains.”

Admire the soberness of the Spirit-bearer. Since he had said that the tumult and the destruction and the day of trampling would be brought on from the Lord of hosts, so that no one might think that the divine … in vain upon them, … of those who are expected out of levity sometimes to descend to such folly, he adds the defence, that the Creator of all may appear a just judge. “For they wander,” he says, “from small to great; they wander upon the mountains.” And what this means you will learn from God's own words. For he said somewhere to the blessed prophet Jeremiah: “Have you seen what the dwelling of Israel has done to me? She went up on every high mountain and under every leafy tree, and they played the harlot there.” For occupying the heights of the mountains, they built hill-shrines and sacred precincts. Then, fashioning whatever idol they pleased, they brought sacrifices to it, and, wholly neglecting reverence toward God, “they said to the wood, ‘You are my father,’ and to the stone, ‘You gave me birth.’” Was it, then, a few who suffered this? Not at all, he says; for small and great have gone astray, with every family and every household. Indeed he said again to the blessed prophet Jeremiah: “And you, do not pray for this people, and do not entreat for them in petition and prayer, for I will not listen. Or do you not see what they are doing in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? Their sons gather wood, and their fathers kindle fire, and their wives knead dough to make cakes for the host of heaven; and they poured libations to foreign gods, to provoke me.” By a just verdict, then, they were punished. For having given their reverence to the creation and served the works of their own hands, they themselves drew down upon their own heads what comes from the divine wrath. “For not unjustly are nets spread for birds,” as it is written; and God … with punishments the one who dishonours his glory and with a mind gone astray has fallen into every kind of absurdity.

“… men on horses, and a gathering of battle array. … shall be filled with chariots, and the horsemen shall block up your gates, and they shall uncover the gates of Judah; and on that day they shall look into the choice houses of the city, and they shall uncover the hidden things of the houses of the citadel of David.”

He raises the narrative to a lofty pitch, all but paints the onset of the war, and terrifies his hearers with fears, skilfully driving them toward the necessity of choosing to repent. So, as though already beholding the troops present and inside the gates, he says these things. The Elamites are named as from a Persian city from which they take their name. Some say that they are horsemen, Saracens; these are mounted archers and most accurate in aim, harsh and unbending, and not knowing how to pity. That they are more than can be numbered …, with chariots, and that the horsemen will block up your gates, so that those who wish to drive in are greatly hemmed in; and that, bursting in, they will search every house … of the houses of the citadel of David, that is, the wealth of the kings. For those of the tribe of Judah reigned, from which the blessed David also came. Let this much be said again with regard to the history. But if, like enemies, … should drive into the human mind, or … of thoughts, … as of a captured city, … sending out all of it, and stripping it of the splendid deeds of virtue. This is why the inspired Scripture says: “If the spirit of the ruler rises against you, do not leave your place, for healing will put an end to great sins.” For such passions, when they are checked, diminish, and soberness benefits those who practise it; but when they always creep on toward the worse with slackened and unrebuked impulses, they shake from their foundations those who spiritually …

“And they saw that they are many, and that they turned the water of the old pool into the city, and that they pulled down the houses for a fortification of the wall for the city. And you made for yourselves water between the two walls, inside the old pool; and you did not look to him who made it from the beginning, and you did not see him who formed it.”

Again he accuses the peoples of the Jews, or rather those who presided over them and were adorned with the highest honours, as having missed sound reasoning and having acted foolishly, doing not what was fitting to be able to save Jerusalem in its danger, but what made the wrath that had fallen on them fiercer, the God who rules all being in a way whetted still more to indignation against them, since he was disregarded, and no one trusted in him any longer, but those of Israel thought rather that by their own efforts and human undertakings they could prevail over the hand of the enemies. For they say that, having counted the houses of the city and then estimated the stored water by guesswork, they realized that they were many, and they channelled the water of the old pool into the city, so that they might have, as they thought, what would suffice for themselves even if the time of the siege should somehow grow longer. And besides this they made fortifications of the walls, he says, by pulling down the houses of the city. “And you did not look to him who made it from the beginning, and you did not see him who formed it.” For you ought, you ought, he says, not to [trust] in your own …, but to lift the eye of the mind to him who always walled the holy city. For “mountains are round about her, and the Lord is round about his people,” which he also promised her through the voice of the prophet, saying: “And I will be to her, says the Lord, a wall of fire round about.” … they will [search] … splendid, and will uncover the hidden things of the … You counted the thing worthy of no consideration, he says; you disregarded what comes from God, and, as though in no way needing help from above, … in stones …, rather than calling on the invincible hand and seeking to obtain the gifts of God's gentleness and love for humankind, and naming him Saviour and Redeemer, and, being so disposed, shedding the tear that belongs to a change of mind.

“And the Lord of hosts called on that day for weeping and beating of breasts, and shaving, and girding with sackcloth; but they made merriment and rejoicing, slaughtering calves and sacrificing sheep, so as to eat meat and drink wine, saying: ‘Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.’ … in the ears of the Lord of hosts, that this sin shall not be forgiven you until you die.”

True it is, as it is written, that “when the ungodly comes into the depth of evils, he despises”; one might see that those of Israel suffered this. For when they were in fear of every evil, and saw the danger from the cruelty of the Assyrians hanging over them, then, when they ought to have [mourned] their own slackness and made shaving and girding with sackcloth, the occasion calling them to it, they turned to the very opposite. For as though they had given up, and had become altogether past feeling, they pursued luxuries and busied themselves with the works of merriment, sacrificing calves and sheep, getting drunk and wallowing in pleasures beyond surfeit, and moreover saying to one another the words of despair and of a savage and careless mind: “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.” For they supposed, as is likely, that God would not even hear such things. But these things are uncovered, he says, in his ears; and this sin will not be forgiven you until you die, that is, you will certainly go down to death and corruption, and because of this sin. We, then, in days of wrath, that is, … ought not to [turn] to slackness, but rather to mourn and approach the God who loves the good in tears, and, afflicting ourselves with the labours of fasting, to seek to obtain mercy, crying out in the words of the Psalmist: “See my humiliation and my toil, and forgive all my sins.” And since the prophet says here, “The Lord of hosts called on that day for weeping and beating of breasts, and shaving, and girding with sackcloth,” I thought it right to weave into my discourse the words of [Joel], or rather the words that came from God through the prophet. It is written thus: “And now says the Lord our God: Turn to me with your whole heart, with fasting and weeping and beating of breasts, and rend your hearts and not your garments, and turn to the Lord your God, for he is merciful and compassionate, long-suffering and abounding in mercy, and relenting over evils. Who knows whether he will turn and relent, and leave behind him a blessing, a sacrifice and a libation to the Lord our God? Blow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast, proclaim a service, gather the people, sanctify … [the bridegroom out] of his chamber, and the bride out of her bridal room.”

“Between the steps and the altar the priests who minister to the Lord shall weep, and shall say: Spare your people, O Lord, and do not give your inheritance to reproach, for the nations to rule over them, lest they say among the nations, ‘Where is their God?’” So when God at that time was calling for weeping and beating of breasts, and shaving and girding with sackcloth, they held merrymaking, whetting against themselves still more, to uncontrollable wrath, the one who is able both to destroy and to save.

“Thus says the Lord of hosts: Go into the chamber, to Somnas the steward, and say to him: What are you doing here, and what have you here, that you have hewn for yourself a tomb here, and made yourself a tomb on high, and inscribed for yourself a dwelling in the rock? Behold, the Lord of hosts … your [robe] and your glorious crown, and will cast you into a great and measureless land, and there you shall die; and he will bring your fine chariot to dishonour, and the house of your ruler to trampling, and you shall be removed from your stewardship and from your post.”

Somnas was steward of the funds, and of what kind … in the temple, or of the royal ones; but he seems rather to have been in charge of the collection of the sacred funds and of what was necessarily and usefully spent from time to time for the repair of the sacred vessels. They say also that he was of the blood of Levi and was seen to be distinguished by the dignities of the high priesthood. He was a haughty man and very supercilious, leaping upon gains and greed, a slave to shameful profits, a lover of ostentation, always hunting after honours from men. For this reason he was, very reasonably, hateful to God. So when Judaea was all but about to be ravaged, and Jerusalem itself to be captured, when the Babylonians, having conquered, carried Israel off captive to their own land, Somnas was building a conspicuous tomb for himself and putting most costly workmanship into it. The word from God to him, then, came with a reproach to his character. For what does he say to the prophet? “Go into the chamber” (this is a place in the temple) “to Somnas the steward, and say to him: What are you doing here, and what have you here?” That is: what portion do you have here? Or how do you remain here? “Why have you hewn for yourself a tomb and inscribed a dwelling in the rock?” … he says, will you keep company with evils? “Behold, the Lord of hosts will cast out and crush a man.” For, as I said, the most powerful men, who had a distinguished pre-eminence over the rest, went off captive along with the common crowd.