Commentary on Isaiah 2.5.7–2.5.14

Since he too was carried off into captivity, the crown of his high priesthood was taken away, and he was cast like a useless vessel into a measureless land, there to die without any pity, no longer … but rather thrust out wholly from the stewardship entrusted to him and from his post, that is, from standing before God and ministering to him.

“And it shall be on that day that I will call my servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, and I will clothe him with your robe, and I will give him your crown, and I will give the power and the stewardship into his hands; and he shall be as a father to those who dwell in Jerusalem and to those who dwell in Judah. And I will give him the glory of David, and he shall rule, and there shall be none to speak against him; and I will set him as ruler in a sure place, and he shall be for a throne of glory to his father's house; and every glorious one in his father's house shall trust in him, from small to great; and they shall hang upon him on that day.”

The narrative does not yet depart from the history, for it is still directed against Somnas the steward, who had obtained the glory of the priesthood but had so misused it, and gone against everything bound up with it, as to be unbearably greedy, and, in a word, to keep nothing of it; that is, he was carried away into a far and measureless land. “I will call,” he says, “at that time my servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah.” By calling him his own servant he has borne witness to his docility; and that he will grant him the glory of the priesthood he makes plain by promising to crown him and saying that he will give him the robe as well, and the stewardship and the power, that is, the ability to rule the peoples under his hand. He has testified besides that he will be kind, not supercilious like Somnas, but like a father, faithful and good. For this reason he will also be firmly established in a sure place, that is, kept safe and abiding securely, so that every glorious and distinguished person will choose, as it were, to place his hope in him, not as in God (far from it), but as in a kind father. For he will stand at the head of small and great and shield them, he says; and he will be so loved that the peoples under his hand will seem to hang upon him. These things, as I said, the account of the history brings before us. But again, by a more inward contemplation, it seems to hint to us at the mystery of Christ. For the scribes and Pharisees, crowned with the priesthood according to the law, were not docile, but harsh, lovers of luxuries, practising everything that is hateful to God. Indeed the prophet Isaiah himself says at the beginning of the book: “How has the faithful city Zion become a harlot! She was full of judgment, in which righteousness lodged, but now murderers. Your silver is base; your merchants mix the wine with water; your rulers are disobedient, partners of thieves, loving bribes, pursuing rewards, not judging for orphans, and not attending to the judgment of widows.” And the Saviour himself accuses them, speaking thus: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you tithe the dill and mint and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: judgment, mercy, and faith.” And for this cause they were thrust out of the privileges of the priesthood, removed from ruling the peoples, and cast out of the stewardship entrusted to them under the law; they have come to be without the sacred crowns and the robe fitting the priesthood. And after them our Lord Jesus Christ, our great high priest, has been called. For as the blessed Paul writes: “No one seizes the honour for himself, but is called by God; so also Christ did not glorify himself to become high priest, but he who spoke to him: You are a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek.” For, being God by nature and Lord of all, and receiving worship from all, when he became

man, he has also been called our high priest. He is said also to receive the glory of David, that is, rule and kingship over Israel; and by Israel we mean not at all the one according to the flesh, but the one in the Spirit and spiritual. For “not all who are from Israel,” he says, “are Israel, nor because they are the seed of Abraham are they all children”; but as many as have been justified through faith, following in the footsteps of father Abraham, these are his children, and are called sons of the promise and Israel. So when Christ, the high priest of us all, has been revealed, “there shall be none,” he says, “to speak against him.” For “the enemy shall gain nothing against him, and the son of lawlessness shall not again afflict him.” And in another way too: Israel spoke against him, but the nations were glad to be ruled by him. Indeed he is found saying through the voice of David, about Israel: “Deliver me from the gainsaying of the people”; and about the nations: “You will set me as head of the nations; a people whom I did not know served me; at the hearing of the ear they obeyed me. Foreign sons lied to me; foreign sons grew old, and limped away from their paths.” For they have grown old and come near to vanishing, and have, as it were, a crippled mind, having become foreign sons, that is, those of Israel. For of old Israel was the firstborn; but since they lied against Christ, they have become foreign. From then on they are called children of perdition, sons of Gehenna. But when, he says, I reveal Eliakim (which is interpreted “resurrection of God”; for he has been raised up for the help … “Because of the misery of the poor and because of the groaning of the needy, now I will arise, says the Lord”), then, he says, every glorious one in his father's house will trust in him. And what else could the house of Christ's Father be but the church? But if anyone is glorious in it, he will trust in Christ; and not only the glorious one, but even one who is small, I mean in the world's eyes. For the God of all is just and shows no partiality, but rather [judges] according to the measure of spiritual stature, for some are fathers, others still children, young men and youths in the spiritual sense.

“… for the Lord has spoken. Thus says the Lord of hosts: The man who is fixed in a sure place shall be moved, and shall fall, and the glory that is upon him shall be taken away, for the Lord has spoken.”

After so long an account, a short and brief word is brought in, showing the severity of the divine judgments, as of a king decreeing with fitting authority what is to happen. And the force of the sentence looks again, if one wishes, to Somnas the steward; but if more broadly to those who served as priests under the law, one will so understand it, as we explained just now. For those who seemed to be set in the security of prosperity (for this is what it means to seem fixed in a sure place) have fallen and been deprived of the glory they had, with no one to defend them or able to raise up those already thrown down, “for the Lord has spoken.” “For if he shuts against a man, who will open?” he says.

“… and they no longer come from the land of the Kitians; she has been led captive.”

Come, then, eager again to make things as clear as we can, let us first relate the history concerning what God has declared in oracles about Tyre, and make plain in what way it was captured and destroyed and led captive, as it is written. When the Babylonians, having ravaged Judaea and burned the holy city itself, were carrying Israel off captive, the surrounding and neighbouring nations of the foreigners, opening a bold and unguarded mouth, set about mocking the glory of God. … and even the God who had helped them against the hand of the Assyrians; and they thought that their own gods were mightier than the God of the Hebrews, and that they protected them and walled them about, kept them beyond every attack, and made them superior to the Babylonians. And in another way too: they themselves joined in plundering the nation of the Jews, on the one hand falling upon them in their distress and seizing those who were left, and on the other dedicating to their falsely named gods the sacred vessels and those of the worship under the law, and, as though under compulsion, sending off into slavery to themselves those who had come under the yoke. Indeed God said through one of the holy prophets: “And what are you to me, Tyre and Sidon, and all Galilee of the foreigners? Are you paying me back a recompense, or do you bear a grudge against me? Swiftly and speedily I will return your recompense on your heads, because you took my silver and my gold, and carried my choice and fine things into your temples, and sold the sons of Judah and the sons of Israel to the sons of the Greeks, so as to drive them from their own borders.” Tyre too, then, was captured by the wrath of God, in some such way as this. It was an island, a strait lying between, separating it from the mainland by no great distance. When the Babylonian came and sought to take it together with the other cities, he ordered the armies under his hand to fill up the sea between, to join it to the mainland, and not to let it remain an island any longer. When this had been done, or was expected to be done before long, most of those in Tyre, since their occupation was trade, [embarked in] ships, together with their children and wives, and went off to other cities and villages. The Babylonians then drove in and did what is customary for conquerors, but they were not a little grieved to learn that a great many, and those the most prominent in the city, had put their possessions on ships and fled. The word of the prophecy of Ezekiel also records this history. For the God of all said to him: “Son of man, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon made his army serve a great service against Tyre; every head was bald and every shoulder bare, and there was no wage for him or for his army for the hard service he served against Tyre.

Therefore I have given him the land of Egypt.” For after the capture of the Tyrians the Babylonian shifted the war to the nation of the Egyptians. This history the blessed prophet now recalls: “[Wail,] ships …” And plainly it is Tyre that wails, because it perished, and they no longer come from the land of the Kitians. Some say that the Kitians are the Greek islands, others Cyprus, named so after one of the cities in it. Wail, he says, and for what cause? For she has been led captive. But perhaps someone will say: why does he bid Carthage, or the ships from there, lament for Tyre? For what cause? Because the Carthaginians were colonists of the Tyrians. And they were very proud to have Tyre as their mother, the most famous and at the same time the mightiest among the islands, I mean those of the east. They say also that those from the land of the Kitians took pride in her and revelled in the profits of trade. Wail, then, he says, you merchants of Carthage, or you ships; for she has perished. And let Tyre also wail, for they no longer come from the land of the Kitians; for she has been led captive.

“To whom have those who dwell in the island become like, the traders of Phoenicia, crossing the sea in many waters, a seed of traders, …”

To which of the nations, he says, shall we liken those who inhabit this island? Who have suffered such things, or been so sacked, as the traders of Phoenicia? For trade was the occupation of the Tyrians, and crossing the sea eagerly for the sake of profits and gains. By adding “a seed of traders,” he showed that their low character was inherited, that they sprang from an evil root, and that their forefathers too were slaves to love of gain from of old. And those who practise among them so shameful a life are past numbering, he teaches, saying: “As when a harvest is brought in, so are the traders of the nations.” For when the grain, that is, the ears in the field, has been reaped, the sheaves are brought in in great quantity from every side and gathered to the threshing floor.

“Be ashamed, Sidon, said the sea; and the strength of the sea said: I have not been in labour nor given birth, nor [reared young men, nor raised up virgins].”

The Carthaginians were colonists of the Tyrians; but the Tyrians had Sidon as their mother, for Tyre was from Sidon. Sidon, then, was very proud of Tyre, as of a splendid and renowned daughter. But when she was captured and led captive, then, he says, the sea, that is, all the islands in the sea, will at last say: “Be ashamed, Sidon,” for the finest of your boasts has perished, and she who was most conspicuous for her great wealth is gone. So the sea will say this; and the strength of the sea itself, that is, the one that prevails over the islands, namely Tyre, lamenting her own calamities, when she sees herself already stripped of her inhabitants and bereft of children, will then surely say, “I have not been in labour nor given birth, nor reared young men, nor raised up virgins.” For I have become, she says, like women who have never borne at all, nor reared either young men or virgins, because all were utterly brought to destruction first, and none at all was left.

“And when it becomes heard in Egypt, … them pain over Tyre.”

For, as I said before, after the capture of the Tyrians the Assyrian was to pass on to the land of the Egyptians. When, then, he says, these things become heard among the Egyptians, then they too will be pained in every way and altogether, not because Tyre perhaps has been sacked, but because the evils of war have passed on to them.

“Go away to Carthage; wail, you who dwell in this island.”

The word of the prophecy is spoken with much irony. For he does not properly and truly bid them depart from the land of the Tyrians and move rather to Carthage, nor simply to wail, but as it were to reproach them. He says that they must lament for themselves and for the calamities brought upon them. Both these things are womanish, and more fitting for boys and for those already past their prime. For when war has been announced and is expected to come against a land or a city, all that is in its prime makes ready for battle, practises its drills, and rages with eagerness against the enemies' ranks, even if they are not yet present; but women and boys plan flight and wail and weep. For a boy and a woman are always somehow ready for fear and lamentation. The God of all, then, smiles at the unmanliness of the Tyrians; for those who once prevailed, formidable in battle, flee and wail.

“Was not this your insolence from the beginning, before she was handed over? Who planned these things against Tyre? Is he weaker, and has he no strength?”

I said before that when Jerusalem had been sacked and the temple itself burned by the army of the Assyrians, the surrounding and bordering nations exulted over Israel as ruined, [shaking] their heads, and thought that they had fallen into the hands of their enemies, not because of their sins, but rather because he who saved them had grown weak, and the conquerors had proved stronger than the hand of God. What then, O Tyrians, he says? Did you not, before she was handed over, commit this insolence against me? Did you not say that my strength was weaker and less than that of your gods? Who then, he says, planned these things against Tyre? Plainly I, whom you dared to call weaker and powerless. Judge, then, from the events themselves whether he is weaker than your gods, or has no strength. I handed over to the enemies Israel, which was unruly and offended against me. But since you are rich in gods, and many are those honoured among you, which of them devised such a plan against Tyre? Who handed it over to the enemies? It is hard, then, to learn by experience itself what one deserves to suffer. The most sensible, I think, should see from afar, with the keen eyes of the mind, what leads to profit, and not exult over the saints when they are scourged, nor think that the ever-saving … sometimes, God permitting them to be tried even by temptations.

“Her merchants are glorious, rulers of the earth. … the insolence of the glorious, and to dishonour everything glorious on the earth.”

The word passes again to stripping them of the excess of their arrogance, and besides this of their insatiable love of gain. For though they were merchants, he says, with so shameful and base an occupation, they advanced so far in glory and pre-eminence that even the … But the Lord of hosts, he says, planned … [that the hand had failed] them, but rather to consider that …. When God decrees such a sentence against them and brings a severe judgment, who is able to help, or who could turn aside the divine wrath? Who will be stronger than the almighty authority? Or “the uplifted hand, who will turn it back?” as it is written. Let them not suppose, then, he says, that … from glory into dishonour, but let them rather know that it was the judgment of the Lord of hosts, against whom they dared to say that he is weaker and has no strength. Let us too, then, say to the lawless, “Do not act lawlessly,” and to sinners, “Do not lift up your horn,” nor lift it up impiously and speak injustice against God who rules all.

“… come from Carthage. And your hand will no longer be strong at sea, the hand that provokes kings.”

He transfers, he says, their efforts from the occupations of trade to farming. For … those who gathered your measureless wealth will [no longer come] from Carthage, running under your hand, that is, your power. For you will be able to do nothing at all any more, though you were very powerful at sea, that is, you became mightiest against every island and city lying by the sea, and even provoked very many kings. For Tyre, as I said, was formidable of old both to those far away and to her neighbours and to the rulers of nations.

“But the Lord of hosts gave command concerning Canaan” (that is, concerning the land of the foreigners) “to destroy its strength.”

For the evils of war were brought by the cruelty of the Assyrians not on Tyre alone, but also on others of the nations, Moabites and Idumaeans and some others. And all worshippers of idols, and those not of the blood of Israel, are together named Canaanites; indeed one who is reproached hears, “seed of Canaan and not of Judah.” When, then, he says, the harms of war come upon all the Canaanites alike, then some, understanding the causes of what befell them, will say:

“You shall no longer insult and wrong the daughter of Zion.”

For I said that they reproached Judaea and laughed at those of Israel as captured, and pronounced Jerusalem, that is, Zion, wretched, not as rather disregarded by God who saves, but as having fallen into capture and suffering because the God honoured among them, to whom they performed the worship of the law, had been conquered and grown weak.

“And if you go away to the Kitians, even there you will have no rest; and to the land of the Chaldeans, and it has been laid waste by the Assyrians; its wall has fallen.”

When God drives one into sweat and toil, who is able to help? When the almighty right hand makes war, who is so great as to rescue the sufferers from irremediable calamity? No one at all. For the nature of things follows his divine nods, and whatever he wishes to happen is accomplished in every way and altogether. Even if, then, he says, you go off on a long journey abroad, so as to reach the Kitians (for they say it is one of the cities in Cyprus; but others insist that the Kitians are Carthage itself), even there you will have no rest; that is, wars and the fear of death and the dangers of death will find you. But even if, having become a captive, you reach the land of the Chaldeans, not even so will you cease to be grieved. For you will have no rest. How, or in what way? For it too has been laid waste, the Persians and Assyrians ravaging it, plainly when Cyrus made war on it, when its wall also fell. By the wall of the land of the Chaldeans I think he means either the one who presided and reigned, or the wall itself, by which they expected to suffer nothing grievous, and the attack to be ineffective for those making war on them. For it was so built that a broad road was seen on it, with wagons passing one another. Indeed through the voice of Jeremiah the God of all says, shaking the Babylonians' hope in this very thing: “The wall of Babylon was broad; your stronghold is being dug down.” Therefore also the lament set at the beginning of the vision is placed again in the middle, the word of the prophecy in a way confirming that such cries were most fitting to be uttered by all over Tyre: the ships of Carthage are to wail, because their stronghold, that is, Tyre, has perished. And the occasion of the matter has been stated clearly in what has gone before.

“And it shall be on that day that Tyre shall be left seventy years, as the time of a king, as the time of a man.”

Tyre mocked Jerusalem itself as sacked, and attributed the causes of its suffering not rather to the slackness of the Jews, as having offended God by their drunken insolence toward the law and his will, but supposed that the one who presided over them, that is, the God of all, had not been able to save them. For this cause, then, she too was captured, and endured a desolation equal in time to the captivity of those of Israel. For they spent seventy years among the Chaldeans, bearing the heavy yoke of slavery. At that time, then, Tyre too will remain empty of men, and this will stretch to such a length of time that it seems to be the time of a man's life, or of a reign, that is, seventy years.

“… years; and if in strength, eighty years, and the most of them labour and toil.”

“And it shall be after seventy years that Tyre shall be as a harlot's song. Take a lyre, wander about, city, forgotten harlot; play well, sing many songs, that there may be some remembrance of you.”

The promiscuous and lewd woman who sells the bloom of her body to her lovers, so long as she is pleasing and young, nets many, and the flower of her body is a snare and, as it were, a charm to those who see it. But when she is past her prime, then at last, her bloom having withered, she has no more success in the hunt, and pursues in another way the means of contriving again her wretched gains. … For many delight in her when she plays the lyre. From this there will sometimes be some brief remembrance of her former life, and some will praise her beauty in its prime. Some such thing will befall the city of the Tyrians, he says. For it will be like the song of a forgotten harlot, who no longer has her original adornment. Hence she will also be a tune for many; for they will remember what once belonged to her. But you, Tyre, are as one grown old, become like a forgotten harlot. For when the bloom of such women has withered, as I said, even those once captivated, who became her lovers, forget her. Play well, then, and sing many songs, that there may at least be some remembrance of you.

“And it shall be after seventy years that God will make a visitation of Tyre, and she shall be restored to her former state, and shall be a market for all the kingdoms of the world; and her trade and her wage shall be holy to the Lord, and it shall not be gathered for them, but for those who dwell before the Lord; all her trade, to eat and drink and be filled, for a memorial before the Lord.”

By a just verdict God made the desolation of the Tyrians equal in time, as I said, to the captivity of those of Israel. And when Cyrus, with the Persians and Medes, had taken the land of the Babylonians by force and ravaged the whole land of the Chaldeans, Israel was released from captivity and returned again to its own land, and dwelt in the holy city. And the God of all, bearing no grudge, removed his wrath from the Tyrians too; and she was rebuilt and returned to her former state, and became a market and lodging, as of old, for all the kingdoms of the earth. But observe the difference. Of old the wage from trade was gathered only by those who practised it, … of the nations into the grace that comes through faith, she too came to know the Saviour and Redeemer of all, and a holy church was raised among them, and a divine altar was set up; and the wage from trade is no longer gathered for them alone, but will also be holy to the Lord, that is, for an offering and the bringing of fruits, so that they may eat and drink before the Lord. For of old, frequenting the shrines of idols and the precincts of demons, they brought sacrifices and held festivals in them, to the honour and glory of their own fabrications; for they were still in error. But since, as I said, they have come to know the true God, the wage of their trade has become holy to the Lord, and they eat and drink for a memorial before the Lord, offering to God, plainly, thank-offerings for whatever they prosper in.