Commentary on Isaiah 3.1.14–3.1.21

“… which we conceived on the earth.”

Those who say that out of love for God they have become toward the beloved of the Father, plainly the Son, like a woman in labour, keeping sensibly to the figure of speech, say that they were in labour and also conceived in the womb and bore the spirit of salvation on the earth. Such a saying, as I said, would befit the prophets and the holy apostles and evangelists, who, rich in the supply of the initiation from above, [bore] as it were for those on the earth the spirit of salvation, that is, the teaching in the Spirit, which is also the bringer of life for ever. For the divine Scripture is accustomed very often to call people's writings “spirit”. Indeed, he says, “test the spirits, whether they are of God.” For the saving preaching is always spoken in the Holy Spirit, but everything that fights against the truth in a worldly spirit. The inspired Paul at any rate writes about himself and the other saints: “But we have not received the spirit of this world, but the Spirit that is from God, that we might know the things freely given to us by God.” They call the gospel preaching, then, the spirit of salvation; for it leads to boundless life and age-long existence. …

“… on the earth. The dead shall rise, and those in the tombs shall be raised, and those in the earth shall be glad. For the dew from you is healing to them. But the land of the ungodly …”

Truly admirable is the soberness of the saints. For they always [answer in advance] whatever seems to stand against the words they speak to us. So since they said that they bore a saving spirit for those on the earth, and yet they see death still prevailing over those on the earth even after this, as if someone were saying, “What is the benefit to us of the divine preaching? Where is the spirit of salvation? For those on the earth fall,” they necessarily bring in the defence in reply and say, “The dead shall rise …” [as the blessed] Paul [says]: our Lord Jesus Christ tasted death for everyone, yet came to life [on the third day], and became the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep and the root of those refashioned through him to life, and as it were the beginning of human nature putting off corruption; and we have been enriched with eternal life in unshaken hopes. It is fixed that the dead will in every way and certainly come to life again, and the might of death will be wholly abolished; but since the time of the resurrection is not yet present, human nature is meanwhile still subject to having to die. And meanwhile it undergoes at times the death that was made weak in Christ and will be weak in us too. Will that, then, he says, stand against our words, that is, our saving preaching, that those on the earth still fall? And what is that? Nothing at all. For the dead will come to life again, and the bodies in the earth and in the tombs will run back to life. And what would be the manner of this in turn? “The dew from you is healing to them.” And they have come to call “dew” here the life-giving energy and power of the Spirit, through which the blessed David said the dead will be raised. For he sings somewhere to God and says: “When you turn away your face, they will be troubled, and they will return to their dust. You will send forth your Spirit, and they will be created, and you will renew the face of the earth.” The life-giving dew, then, is the Spirit from the Father through [the Son] … the soul of man, the Word of God, and … [Of Cyril:] We have come to call “dew” here … of fleshly desires checks the motion. For the human mind is like a womb, which, if it receives from God the seeds of godliness, certainly bears good fruits. So those in Christ are fruitful; for they bear good fruits, as I said, as from a spiritual belly and womb. For the dew from you is healing to them.

the life-giving energy and power of the Spirit, through which the blessed David said the dead will be raised. For he sings somewhere to God and says: “When you turn away your face, they will be troubled, and they will return to their dust; and you will send forth your Spirit, and they will be created, and you will renew the face of the earth.” The life-giving dew, then, is the Spirit from … and putting incorruption into the very bodies made of earth. And again: I think he calls “dew” the life-giving power of the Holy Spirit and its energy that undoes death, as of God and Life. And again: by “dew” here he means nothing other than the Spirit, or the life-giving energy of the Spirit, which, poured through Christ even on bodies already corrupted, … the destructive … of the Son, and puts incorruption into the very bodies made of earth. But those fallen in the earth will come to life again, while the land of those who have been impious will fall; and this befell the land of the Jews, for they behaved with drunken insolence toward Christ and toward the holy teachers of the mysteries, though these had borne the spirit of salvation for those on the earth.

“Go, my people, enter into your chambers, shut your door, hide yourself for a very little while, until the wrath of the Lord passes. For behold, the Lord brings wrath from the holy place upon those who dwell on the earth. And the earth shall uncover its blood, and shall not …”

Here the person of God is brought before us, anointing the minds of the saints for the endurance of suffering. For since those who made the spirit of salvation both for those of the blood of Israel and for those throughout the whole earth under heaven, that is, who ministered the gospel preaching, were to fall into terrible and unbearable temptations, and even to undergo danger to soul and blood, for this reason he very fittingly persuades them to be wont to show youthful courage against such things, saying: “Go, my people, enter into your chambers.” And very aptly and with a very fair word he calls the tombs in the earth, perhaps, “chambers”; and indeed, like those truly hiding themselves, he shuts the doors, and escapes notice, enduring a little while until the wrath of the Lord passes. For it was said to the beginning of the race, that is, to Adam: “Earth you are, and to earth you shall depart”; and he was accursed with corruption because of the transgression. But what was brought by the divine wrath will be undone, and this wholly at the time of the consummation, when death is abolished, and the tyranny of the devil …. So hide yourself, he says, O my people, and endure a little, a very little while, until the death that comes from the Lord's wrath passes, and the [time] of the resurrection of all …; [the dew] drives out corruption and as it were prepares life in its stead. For as the dew, coming down quietly and gently on the earth, makes the seeds lying in it grow and increase, in the same way the dew from you will provide healing for your dead, whose bodies were sown in the earth in their time. And you would not be wrong in saying that the dew is the only-begotten Word of God himself, who will provide for the dead both healing of sins, if they had offended in anything as men, and resurrection and salvation together, and will bestow eternal life on them. But such is not the lot of the ungodly.

and life and salvation. … perhaps, through the perversity of those who hate them, and this to the holy teachers of the mysteries, yet the Master of all will bring punishment on those who killed saints. For the Lord brings wrath from the holy place upon those who dwell on the earth. This is like that saying: “For the Lord rained on Sodom fire and brimstone from the Lord.” So the Son will bring the wrath from the holy … Father … upon those who dwell on the earth. For as he himself says somewhere: “The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, so that all may honour the Son just as they honour the Father.” And when the time has come in which the wrath [falls] on those who [have done] unholy things, the earth will uncover its blood and will not cover the slain; that is, all the blood that has fallen to the earth will be manifest, and no one [of those who did wrong] will be hidden, or rather go off …; and there will be no one at all of those unjustly slain who will not be known and in God's remembrance.

“On that day God will bring the holy sword, the great and strong, upon the dragon, the fleeing serpent, upon the dragon, the crooked serpent, and he will slay the dragon.”

He said that the wrath will be brought upon those who have acted impiously, and … upon his own children, and upon the … himself …, those who resisted the preaching of the saints. For at that time, he says, when the earth uncovers its blood, the holy, keenest and great sword, the all-powerful and invincible, that is, the only-begotten Word, the Father will bring upon the dragon, the fleeing serpent, upon the dragon, the crooked serpent, and he will slay the dragon. He names Satan dragon and serpent. For he is bitter and venomous, and besides this cowardly; for it is always his custom to flee. And he is terrible and fond of evil-doing; for like the beast he runs crookedly; but he will be slain. For he will be idle from then on, or rather he will pay the account of his unholiness, suffering the final penalty, held fast by the gates of Hades, the prey of the eternal flame, enduring a long and unending punishment.

“On that day there shall be a fair vineyard, a desire to begin against it. I am a strong city, a city besieged; in vain shall I water it. For it shall be taken by night, and by day the wall shall fall.”

Having well completed the discourse about those netted through faith, and having said very clearly that they will anoint themselves with ointment and drink wine on the holy mountain of Christ, the Saviour of us all (and we say that the mountain is the church), and having added that there will also be vengeance for those slain for godliness, and that with the holy and great sword the apostate dragon will in every way and certainly be destroyed, he brings the discourse back to what befell those of the blood of Israel through ignorance. For at that time, he says, when they make faith in Christ unacceptable to themselves: I am the fair vineyard, whose very beginning one might call a thing desired; I am the strong city (for the word is spoken as from Jerusalem); I shall be a city besieged. Then the prophet brings before us the person of God, saying, “In vain shall I water it.” For even if Israel became a luxuriant vine, according to the word of Jeremiah, yet it produced thorns, and made the exhortation through the law profitless to itself.

So he watered it in vain through the old law; and even if he should water it still through the gospel preaching, it will remain unprofitable even so. What, then, did it come to suffer as a result? “It shall be taken by night, and by day the wall shall fall.” For since he named it a strong city, and indeed a besieged one, in keeping with the sequence of thoughts he says that it will be taken, and affirms that the wall too will fall. And being taken by night and the wall falling by day seems to indicate something like this. It was taken, or sacked, as one that had come into mist and darkness, because it would not bear Christ saying: “While you have the light, walk in the light, so that darkness may not overtake you.” But since they [paid] little [heed] to his words, … as in darkness. For sin overpowered them. And this, then, was what was said to them through the voice of Christ: “Truly I say to you, unless you believe that I am, you will die in your sins.” It was taken, then, and remained in sins; and the wall fell as in daytime, that is, it was clearly and manifestly deprived of the enclosure from God. The blessed prophet Isaiah says something of this sort at the beginning too: “For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is … the man of Judah, a beloved young plant. I waited for it to make grapes, but it made thorns.” Then he adds: “Now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard: I will take away its hedge, and it shall be for plunder; and I will pull down its wall, and it shall be for trampling; and I will abandon my vineyard, and it shall not be pruned nor dug, and thorns shall come up on it as on waste ground; and I will command the clouds not to rain rain upon it.” You see how what I said is true, that is, “in vain shall I water it.” For he no longer gave the spiritual rain to those of Israel; and he pulled down its hedge, and besides that its wall. By the hedge perhaps he means the help from the angels, and by the wall the impregnable and firmly fixed enclosure of his own power. For “mountains,” he says, “are round about it, and the Lord is round about his people.” And when he says “has fallen”, he does not at all indicate that it was brought down, but rather that it was taken away. For Israel remained without help and wholly without share in the sparing and love from above.

“… There is none that has not laid hold of it. Who will set me to guard stubble in a field? Because of this hostile one I have rejected it.”

The land of the Jews was besieged after the Saviour's cross. And those gathered from every nation, that is, the all-powerful army of the Romans, rose up manfully against the nation of the Jews. And it was sacked in another way too, plainly spiritually and hiddenly; for it was given to be trampled by the unclean spirits. For if it was deprived of its hedge, and the wall that saved it was taken away, how could anyone doubt that it became a pasture for the spiritual beasts? And this, then, was what was said about it through the voice of David to Christ, the Saviour of all: “Why have you pulled down its hedge, so that all who pass along the way pluck its fruit? The boar out of the wood has ravaged it, and the wild ass has fed on it.” For by these he signifies the manifold passions by which the mind of the Jews has been mastered, the ass signifying extreme irrationality, and the boar pleasure. That it became easy prey for everyone who wished to ravage it, he teaches, saying: “There is none that has not laid hold of it”; for there is no hand, that is, power, either of men or of evil spirits, that has not laid hold of it. But, O Master, someone might perhaps say, did you not save it as being your people? Did you not guard it, and were you not its all-powerful wall? Yes, he says, I guarded it and surrounded it with my own grace and might …, when it had the [fruit] that comes from the law. But since it has at last come down to this, he says, to such wretchedness and spiritual idleness as to have no fruit of virtue, and is like bare and fruitless stubble, who will set me to guard it? For what is the benefit of the security if it has become empty of good fruits? Who then will persuade me? For this is what “will set” indicates: to guard stubble in a field. But how it came to this misery he explains in his defence, saying: “Because of this hostile one I have rejected it.” Here he all but points with his finger to Jerusalem. And since, he says, it has become most hostile to me, for this reason I have very reasonably rejected it. So he does not say that some other became hostile to him and that he rejected yet another, but rather Jerusalem itself, as hostile and … plainly from its spiritual kinship with him. For he said to it: “How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you would not. Behold, your house is left to you desolate.”

“Therefore, because of this, the Lord God has done all things … those who dwell in it.”

Since it has become hostile, he says, and resisted the one who saves it, and made war on the one who calls it to life as on an enemy, for this reason all that he ordained … to its end. And what are these things? Being rejected altogether, no longer having the spiritual rain, enduring the siege, being in want of the favour and protection from above,

for it was brought down to utter uselessness. “And I am burned up. They shall cry out,” he says, “all who dwell in it.” And if one wishes, more historically, … Jerusalem. But in another sense too, the burning here indicates utter uselessness, and the destruction cast in every way upon the Jews, the divine wrath all but burning them up and reducing them to dust and ashes. The inspired prophet Jeremiah says something of this sort as to Jerusalem: “A beautiful olive tree, well shaded in appearance, the Lord called your name; at the sound of its circumcision fire was kindled upon it; great is the affliction upon it; its branches became useless.” For departing from God and being wholly without share in his grace and help makes the soul of man useless in every way. “For it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God”; and, as Moses says, “Our God is a consuming fire.”

“Let us make peace with him, let us make peace, we who are coming, children of Jacob. Israel shall bud and blossom, and the world shall be filled with its fruit.”

Since the Jews had renounced love and faith toward Christ, the Saviour of all, and since Christ was netting the calling toward the nations and those from the ends of the earth under heaven through the holy apostles, the blessed prophet … to those from every side … to them: Israel has departed, the firstborn has kicked away, it denies the faith, it has acted impiously toward the Redeemer; but we who are coming, that is, who are to come in due time, and come certainly as from darkness to light, from Greek ignorance to the knowledge of him who is God in truth, from sins to justification, let us make peace with him; that is, having undone the ancient enmity, sin [having been removed] and Satan abolished, and there being no longer anything that hinders us, or that divides and separates us from Christ, let us assent to his decrees, let us follow whatever he wishes and says, let us bring our neck under the gospel preaching; for so we shall make peace with him. Something of this sort the all-wise Paul also says to those called from the nations: “Having been justified by faith, then, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Having exhorted those who are coming, about whom the blessed David also said, “The coming generation shall be told of the Lord,” he transfers the discourse to the holy apostles themselves …, that is, those of the blood of Israel. For the inspired Paul named them fruits and a crown; for those saved through them are truly the boast and glory of the saints' labours.

… having understood, or rather learned through the Holy Spirit, he leaps in a way, and says, out of very great …: “Israel shall blossom, and the world shall be filled with its fruit.” For the inspired disciples came from the blood of Jacob, who was renamed Israel. And since from east to west “their voice went out into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world,” the multitude of the nations has been called to knowledge; and, as the word of the prophecy says, the world was filled with its fruit. And whose fruit? Plainly that of Israel; for those who believed are [the fruit] of the apostles' sweat, and [their] joy ….

“Shall he be struck as he himself struck, and shall he be slain as he himself slew? Fighting and reproaching them.”

The sense of the passage follows very closely on what has been said; and in what way, we will say as far as we can. We said that the children of Jacob will bud and blossom, and the world will be filled with its fruit. But as though someone were rising up against this and saying: “Yet Israel acted with no small impiety; for it became harsh and hard to lead, and [killed] the saints, and leapt upon every righteous man and prophet, and has its hand filled with blood; how then will it blossom again, and how, as though nothing outrageous had happened, will the world be filled with its fruit?” … “Shall he be struck as he himself struck? Or shall he be slain as he himself slew?” For he used, he says, unmixed fury against the saints, and slew them with unbridled impulses, as one who knew not how to pity in any way. Will the fountain of gentleness, then, with equal measure, slay them as they themselves slew the saints? Or will he rather prevail as God, and not utterly cut off the one who was beloved and once chosen for the fathers' sake? Such is what was said by God through one of the holy prophets: “What shall I do to you, Ephraim? What shall I do to you, Judah? Shall I make you as Admah, and as Zeboiim? My heart was turned within me …; [I will not act according to] the wrath of my anger. I will not abandon Ephraim to be blotted out, because I am God and not man, the holy one among you.” For it was necessary, it was necessary, that he, being God and not a man like us, should excel in gentleness, and, just as he is by nature beyond everything created, so should surpass and excel those on the earth also, I mean, in love for humankind. So Israel will blossom, and the world will be filled with its fruit, according to the account already given. For he will not be slain, he says, as he himself slew, nor will he be struck in equal measure, even if he himself struck the saints, whetted with savage fury. What, then, is the measure of his action against them? “Fighting and reproaching, he will send them away,” understanding “he will send away” as “he will send away from kinship with himself.” This the Saviour did; for he made Israel cast off, fighting and reproaching; and let us take “fighting” as meaning “rebuking”; for he [rebuked] the Jews, and indeed reproaching them the Saviour said: “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kill [the prophets and stone those sent] to her, how often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you would not!”

“Behold, your house is left to you desolate.” For this was nothing else than his declaring that his departure from them would come before long. When this had happened, Israel perished, even though the remnant was saved; as Isaiah himself says: “Even if the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, the remnant shall be saved.”

“Was it not you who planned with a harsh spirit to slay them with a spirit of fury?”

See the prophet here using a boldness fitting a saint, and convicting Israel of having made war on the saints, and of having made it its practice to slay them, as it were using a harsh and savage spirit, and letting loose on them an untamed mind. If, then, I should say, he says, that it slew and struck, the thing will not appear a false tale at all, but rather what was said will prove true. For, O Israel, was it not you who planned, or rather were accustomed, with a spirit, as I said, [harsh, to slay those] sent by God? And if you deny it, he says, I will bring forward as witness against you the Judge of all. For Christ said to them somewhere: “Which of the prophets [did your fathers not persecute?]” and “[it cannot be that] a prophet should perish outside Jerusalem.”

“Therefore the lawlessness of Jacob shall be taken away, and this is his blessing, when I take away his sin, when they make all the [stones of the altars broken in pieces like] fine [dust], and their trees shall not remain, and their idols shall be cut down like a forest far away.”

Having by the way delivered his rebuke against those who acted impiously toward the holy prophets, the blessed prophet again keeps to the sequence of thoughts, and says as from the person of God: “Therefore the lawlessness of Jacob shall be taken away.” Therefore: why? Since he will not be slain as he slew, nor struck as he struck, because the calm in God always overcomes human pettiness, and he does not in every way and altogether bring penalties equal to the offences on earth, but rather tempers his wrath with gentleness. This is why he says, “The lawlessness of Jacob shall be taken away,” that is, he will obtain love for humankind, and his charges will in time be remitted to him. … And this is his blessing. For he promised Abraham, saying: “Surely I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your seed.” But the inspired Abraham would not truly have been blessed, nor would his seed have been multiplied, if penalties proportionate to their sins were exacted from those of his blood. But since, though they had done nothing good, but had rather been carried down to the utmost unholiness, they too have been enriched with forgiveness, the ground of the blessing has been kept and has passed on to them. When, then, he says, I take away his sin, this will be the manner of his blessing. And he makes plain the time at which he too will be free of his offences. For when, he says, those called through faith to the knowledge of him who is God in truth march against the ancient error, when altars and sacred precincts and the swarm of idols are removed, when they consume with fire the temples built for lifeless idols, when they cut down their trees, and besides these the things made by hands, like a forest, then at last God will remit their faults to those of Israel themselves. And this, I think, is what the inspired Paul said: “But when the fullness of the nations has come in, then all Israel will be saved.” For burning the temples entirely, cutting down the groves planted beside them, and adding the overthrow of the statues themselves, would signify nothing else than certainly this: that there will be a passing of those once in error, who worshipped the works of their own hands, to the knowledge of the truth, so that they come to such love of God as to lay their hands even on what they once worshipped, and [to cut down] the gods of wood like a forest …