Commentary on Isaiah 3.1.7–3.1.13

For he aims, as I said, not at the things in shadows but at those through Christ, who is the truth. And they keep peace too. How, or in what way? For one who has been wholly received by Christ, and has had that ancient enmity undone (for he stood apart from him in his error), will be an unshaken worshipper. And the blessed Paul urges us to fulfil this, writing: “Having been justified by faith, then, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” For we were at war with God, serving the creation and held fast by the passions of the flesh; but we are friends and at peace with him alone, saying, “O Lord, apart from you we know no other; we name your name”; and besides, having bound on as a crown the exceptional life and the gospel way of life, the boasts about such things might fittingly be spoken through the voice of the saints to God: “In you we hoped, O Lord, for ever.” For they will not cease from their hope in God, but rather will boast in him continually.

“… the great, the everlasting God, who humbled and brought down those who dwell on high; strong cities … And the feet of the meek and the steps of the humble shall trample them.”

Over things exceedingly wonderful it is the custom of the holy prophets to bring thank-offerings to God who rules all, and as it were to leap for great joy. And for them this would be a clear proof of the utmost sincerity. For they rejoice greatly to see the glory of God being widely extended, and those who envied it removed: I mean the unclean demons, and besides them Satan, whom he likens to strong cities and affirmed to dwell on high. For there is always somehow a lofty and swollen mind in them, so that they exalt themselves even against the hand of God, … nothing, but always to reign over those on the earth. But you, he says, alone are the great everlasting God; and you have shown this from the facts themselves; for you humbled and brought down those who dwell on high. That is, you shook the strength of the proud, who were lofty, and brought the boasters down to earth, and threw them down from their foundations as being strong cities; for this is what “to the ground” means. And to whom did you give them again to be trampled? Is it not to the true guardians of the Saviour's decrees, who are eager to imitate their own Master as he cries out and says: “Come to me, all you who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am meek and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls”? And we remember again that he said: “Behold, I have given you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy.” For the apostate dragon has been trampled; and those who wish to dwell in the help of the Most High, and have come under the shelter of the God of heaven, have trodden on the asp and the basilisk; plainly the shelter of Christ, for he is worshipped in heaven: “For when,” he says, “he brings the firstborn into the world, he says: And let all the angels of God worship him.”

“The way of the godly has become straight, and the way of the godly is prepared. For the way of the Lord is judgment. We have hoped in your name, and in the remembrance which our soul desired.”

The blessed prophet Jeremiah recalls the gospel way of life and the righteousness in Christ, saying to the lovers of truth: “Stand at the ways, and ask for the everlasting paths of the Lord, and see which is the good way, and walk in it, and you will find purification for your souls.” For the paths and ways of the Lord are the words of the holy prophets, and of the commandment through Moses, the foretelling as in a shadow and types of the mystery of Christ. [Searching], then, these paths, we learn the good way, that is, the way of life in Christ; and walking in it we shall find for our souls the true purification through the Spirit. He says, then, that the way of the godly has become straight; for how is it not straight and smooth, with nothing at all uphill, when by speaking the word of faith we are justified, and are enriched with the cleansing through holy baptism? And the way of the godly is straight in another sense too. For when the enemies have been destroyed, and the devil's greed brought down, and every difficulty removed, what still stands in the way and is able to loosen the lovers of godliness from it? And see how, the way of the godly having been made smooth, he says that there will in a way be an overthrow of the things in types and shadows. For he adds, not without purpose, “the way of the Lord is judgment”; that is, not offerings of calves, not slaughters of sheep, not cakes and frankincense, but rather judgment, that is, righteousness. For it is the custom of the inspired Scripture to indicate righteousness by the name of judgment; as indeed the blessed David says: “The honour of the king loves judgment,” that is, righteousness; for every kingdom that loves righteousness is in honour with God and men. So the way of the Lord is judgment. And again he brings in those who walk this straight way rejoicing greatly; for they say: “We have hoped in your name, and in the remembrance which our soul desired.” For all our hope is in Christ, whom we always remember, having this desire, because through it we have been saved.

“From the night my spirit rises early to you, O God, for your ordinances are a light on the earth.”

[He calls … the night the time before the Lord's incarnation; the dawn the prophetic foreknowledge; and the true light the gospel of Christ, the sun of righteousness, which he bids all the earth to learn. For he does not say that learning comes by nature, like seeing or walking, but by zeal and diligence. And he who does not learn will be taken away from among the living, and will not see the glory of Christ.]

Those who say, “We have hoped in your name, and in the remembrance which our soul desired,” necessarily add this too. For having brought the divine enlightenment to dwell in the mind, and having sent away the darkness of the ancient deceit, and made the mist of sin vanish, … they say that they rise early as from night and darkness, as though the spiritual day were dawning in their souls, and the morning star at last rising in their hearts, as it is written. To such the inspired Paul writes, and says: “Once you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.” And elsewhere: “For we are not of the night or of darkness, but sons of light and sons of day.” For the mind of believers is made bright by the gospel decrees. This is why the inspired David says, as to our Lord Jesus Christ: “Your law is a lamp to my feet and a light to my paths.” For the law through the all-wise Moses was thickened, as it were, by a mist and by the shadows that come, I mean, from the letter; but in the gospel preaching the beauty of the truth shines forth bare and clear, and brightens the mind, pouring like light into the thoughts of the godly.

“Learn righteousness, you who dwell on the earth. For the ungodly has ceased. Everyone who does not learn righteousness on the earth will not do truth. Let the ungodly be taken away, that he may not see the glory of the Lord.”

God said somewhere through the voice of a prophet: “And they shall all be taught by God.” See, then, how in these words the discourse brings Christ before us as having become, as it were, the teacher of the mysteries for those of the nations who believed. For it was necessary, it was necessary, that those who had once recognized that his ordinances are a light on the earth should have the knowledge of what is profitable instilled by him. “Learn righteousness, then,” he says, “you who dwell on the earth.” This is like the saying through the voice of David: “Hear these things, all you nations; give ear, all you who dwell in the world.” For the law in letters trained only Israel according to the flesh; but our Lord Jesus Christ … the [whole earth] under heaven. Reasonably, then, he counsels those throughout the whole earth, saying that they must learn the righteousness spoken through him, that is, that of the gospel. And that disobeying his words is not without penalty, he adds and says: “For the ungodly has ceased. Everyone who does not learn righteousness on the earth will not do truth.” For he will go off, he says, to destruction and perdition, and will as it were be extinguished; for this, I think, is what “has ceased” means. Everyone, if anyone does not receive the knowledge of the gospel righteousness, and whoever does not do the truth. And here again he calls the power of the way of life in Christ “truth”, and the worship and service in spirit and truth. For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come and not the very image of the realities, was not truth; but Christ and his decrees may reasonably be understood as righteousness and truth. I think it necessary to say this too: Christ has become for us righteousness from the Father, and besides he is also truth. Learn, then, righteousness and truth, he says; that is, recognize the true Son, the Creator and Lord of all. For every ungodly man will be taken away and removed, that he may not see the glory of the Lord. Such is what was said by Christ himself to the peoples of the Jews: “Truly, truly, I say to you, that unless you believe that I am, you will die in your sins.” And again: “He who believes in the Son is not judged; but he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only-begotten Son of God.” And he who has once been condemned and has died in his own sins, how could he see the glory of the Lord? For he will not be with Christ, and will not see the lot of the saints.

“O Lord, your arm is high, and they did not know; … [jealousy shall seize] an untaught people, and now fire shall devour the adversaries.”

God having threatened those who do not learn righteousness and do not do the truth, according to the words we explained just now, the prophet comes to recall the ignorance and disobedience of Israel. For God the Word, the Creator of all, the all-powerful arm of the Father, through whom all things were brought into being, being in the form of the Father and in equality with him, let himself down into a voluntary emptying, and humbled himself, as it is written, becoming man, that he might justify those on the earth, plainly through faith in himself. And he worked things beyond reason, and by the magnificence of his deeds asked to be recognized as being both God and from God by nature, saying: “If I do not do the works of my Father, do not believe me; but if I do them, even if you do not believe me, believe the works.” But even though they were spectators of such wonders and heard his words with their own ears, they kept a hard mouth. For they dared impiously to call him a Samaritan, and a drunkard, and a carpenter's son, and things still more grating than these. The prophet, then, knowing these things beforehand by the torch of the Spirit, addresses his words to the Father and God in heaven, and says: “O Lord, your arm is high, and they did not know.” For by the dignity of his own pre-eminence, and as in the glory that befits God, he is great and high; and indeed the arm of the Father is all-powerful, that is, God the Word, through whom all things came to be. But since he was seen with flesh, they did not know his glory. Yet they will be ashamed, he says, if they learn that he is, plainly, the life-giving Word of God. … having in no way shared in his glory, they killed the … of salvation, and denied the Holy One of Israel, as the inspired Peter says. But when Christ broke the bonds of death and came to life [on the third day], and the teachers of the Jews especially came to know this, then at last they were put to shame; and indeed, fearing that the mystery of the resurrection might somehow become known to all, they gave the soldiers a large sum of money, as it is written, so that they might say, “His disciples came by night and stole him.” And they will be ashamed in another way too. For when they see him coming at the consummation of the age in the glory of the Father with the angels, then they will also feel shame … Israel: “They provoked me to jealousy with what is no god; I will provoke them to jealousy with what is no nation; with a foolish nation I will anger them.”

… fathers, for theirs are the promises and the giving of the law and the covenant, but are sent into the outer darkness. Fittingly, then, he calls them an untaught people, and says that jealousy will seize them and that fire will devour the adversaries. For since they themselves have been sent away and cast out of the hope in Christ, and have been shown to be strangers to the promises, while the nations have been taken in, for this reason they are worn down by jealousy, and the wretches go on being consumed as by fire, plainly the fire of envy. Something of this sort is written in the Song too about those of the blood [of Israel: “They provoked me to jealousy with what is no god]; they angered me with their idols. And I will [provoke them to jealousy] …”

“O Lord our God, give us peace, for you have rendered us all things. O Lord our God, take possession of us. O Lord, apart from you we know no other; we name your name.”

It is the custom of the holy prophets to make supplications for Israel; for they loved God, and were well crowned with the glories of godliness. And since they had once sprung from the root of Abraham and from the blood of the holy fathers, they are necessarily saddened, as over their kinsmen, when they see those of Israel perishing because of their impiety toward Christ. This is why the blessed prophet Isaiah now approaches, saying: “O Lord our God, give us peace; for you have rendered us all things.” For if you grant us peace, he says, we shall be full of every good, and shall have received the most perfect share in your gifts. And it is necessary to see what peace they ask for. Either they ask for Christ himself, for he is our peace, according to the Scriptures, and through him we have been joined to the Father, plainly through spiritual kinship. Or else they mean this: those who have not yet believed, and have the stain of sin not yet put off, stand apart from God and are rightly reckoned in the rank of enemies; they hold their neck proudly and fight against the Master's laws. But the obedient and docile, ready for everything that pleases him, are his dearest friends and have peace with him. But the thing is truly given by God and comes through the bounty from above. Grant us, then, O Master, to be at peace with you, and, profane and loathsome sin being removed, to be united to you spiritually through Christ the mediator. Such is what was rightly said through the voice of Paul: “Having been justified by faith, then, we have peace with God through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.” And when this has come about, we shall be the possession and the portion of God. This is why “O Lord, take possession of us; apart from you we know no other; we name your name” has been wisely added. For those who are at peace with him must be single-minded and joined to God alone, so as to know him alone, and not even to carry on the tongue the name of any other falsely named god. For one must name him alone, since he alone is God over us by nature and in truth. Something of this sort the law of the all-wise Moses also proclaimed to us: “You shall worship the Lord your God, and him alone you shall serve, and by his name you shall swear.”

“But the dead shall not see life, nor shall physicians raise them up. Therefore you brought it on, and destroyed, and took away every male of theirs. Add evils to them, O Lord, add evils to all the glorious of the earth.”

Those who know only him who is God by nature and in truth, and name his name, and number absolutely no one with him, and therefore say, “O Lord, apart from you we know no other,” necessarily join to it that “the dead shall not see life”, again “apart from you”. For the Creator and Lord of all, being Life by nature, gives life to all things, and in him we move and are. Nor will physicians raise them up, he says, “apart from you” plainly following here too. For all things come to us from God, and he made medicines from the earth for them, as it is written. So far as concerns the letter, I mean, and the ready and obvious sense, the explanation of the thoughts would rightly stand thus and not otherwise. But since we must proceed according to the sense and lay bare the aim of the prophetic precision, we necessarily say this: some are dead, and not at all according to the flesh, but rather deadened by worldly love of pleasure, not having the holy life in Christ, the angelic life. But apart from you, he says, such people could not share in life, that is, in life-giving grace. And again, apart from you, those able to free from diseases of the soul those caught by them, who may reasonably be understood as spiritual physicians, could not raise up any of the sick. And we say that the spiritual physicians are the holy prophets, apostles and evangelists, who, rich through grace from above and the supply of the Spirit in the word that is able to heal, cure those wounded by sin and the perversity of the devil. And it is likely that the prophetic word hints at something else besides. For our Lord Jesus Christ raised the dead from the tombs and healed those in extreme sicknesses. But though he was the doer of such wonders, he was not honoured by those who saw them; and the leaders and teachers of the Jews especially persecuted him all the same. Since, then, he says, apart from you the dead could not see life, for you alone are able to give life, nor could a physician raise from the tombs those whom you yourself raised; and they disbelieved even after this, and raged uncontrollably, who might have been expected to be faithful before all others: therefore you brought it on, and destroyed, and took away every male of theirs. For you brought the wrath on them, though it necessarily did not cut off all Israel utterly, for the remnant has been saved …. For the male is the most commanding, compared with the female. Perhaps he calls “males” those of the Jews who were, as it were, more vigorous, not in bodily strength, but rather in knowledge of the commandments of the law. Such is what was said by God to one of the prophets: “I will go to the great men and speak to them”; “and behold, with one accord they broke the yoke, they burst the bonds.” And that what was pre-eminent and more sacred among the Jews is fittingly pronounced wretched, and drew down on itself a more violent wrath, Christ himself will make clear, saying: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you travel about sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he becomes one, you make him a son of Gehenna twice as much as yourselves.” And again: “And woe to you lawyers, for you have taken away the key of knowledge; you yourselves did not …” Fittingly, then, the male is punished, that is, what was pre-eminent and honoured, and as it were in spiritual manliness

had then come to knowledge of what is in the law, those to whom he wishes evils to be added. For not only did they fall away from kinship with God by their drunken insolence toward Christ, but they were also consumed by famine and fell into the calamities that followed, when their land was ravaged and wholly overturned. And those he called males he also calls glorious, as plainly distinguished, also by the glories of the priesthood. … By evils he means what does harm, that is, the God-sent wraths: famines, plagues, wars, and the like. And by the glorious he means those who are prominent … and renowned in positions of power.

“O Lord, in affliction we remembered you; in small affliction your chastening was upon us. And as a woman in labour draws near to giving birth and cries out in her pain, so have we become to your beloved.”

The blessed prophet, moved by very great love of God against the deeds the Jews dared, and having said, “Add evils to all the glorious of the earth,” so that no one might think him harsh and cruel …, but to come into affliction and evils, necessarily added what naturally happens to all: I mean that in affliction and distress one tends to remember God who can do all things. For abundance of good cheer sometimes slackens people into contempt, so that they do not even perceive their offences, having slipped into this frame of mind through very great slackness; but affliction, as it were, drives them toward God and brings them to the recognition of their faults. For this reason, then, he says, I said, “Add evils to the glorious of the earth,” since it is common to all to remember you most of all, and to consider and think of your will, when they share in calamities. For we are chastened in small affliction, God bringing the punishment not unmixed nor harsh to the point of ruin, but rather tempering his wrath with gentleness. So it was not as one who hates those who had sinned that he exhorts that affliction be brought on them, but rather as one who loves them and asks that they be chastened, so that, since of their own choice they did not bear godliness as their fruit, they might at least be turned to it as by necessity, called by the divine wrath to perception. Such, I think, is what was rightly said through the voice of David: “With bit and bridle bind the jaws of those who do not come near to you.” But they, having offended unbearably and behaved with drunken insolence toward Christ, will fall into affliction; while we, who are yours and think and speak your thoughts, have been disposed toward your beloved, that is, the Son, in no other way than as a woman in labour …, being greatly pained on this account, and making very much accusation against those who disobey him. And what they say is true; indeed the blessed Isaiah himself, rebuking the unbridled tongues of the Jews which they used against Christ, says: “But you, draw near here, lawless sons, seed of adulterers and of a harlot; in whom have you delighted? Against whom have you opened your mouth, and against whom have you let loose your tongue? Are you not children of perdition, a lawless seed?” And the blessed David too says somewhere about them: “Let their eyes be darkened so that they do not see, and bow down their back always.” And very many words were spoken by the holy prophets to this effect against the synagogue of the Jews, because of their impiety toward Christ.