Commentary on Isaiah 3.2.16–3.2.23

When the God of all decrees a penalty and punishment on any, he at once adds the causes of the matter and sets out clearly the charges against those who suffered, so that he may be seen to be just, punishing everything with justice. He said, then, that the peoples of the Jews would be wholly without understanding, the law being sealed, and that, all the understanding in them having been taken away, they would remain blind, plainly spiritually. What, then, are the charges, and on what account …? For all the designs they made against Christ … were also at odds with God. For this, I think, is what “not through the Lord” means. And indeed they thought that among themselves they were taking counsel secretly, and … of bitter undertakings, so that perhaps they even said, “Who has seen us? Or who will know what we do?” But they did not know that no counsel or bitter design of man, and no force of undertakings, could escape the divine and pure mind, even if one should do whatever it may be in darkness and in secret. For they hired the traitor Judas, all but saying, “Let us bind the righteous man, for he is troublesome to us.” And indeed they handed him over to the cross, and, as far as lay with them, killed the author of life; and when he had risen again from the dead they fastened on him fiercely, and secretly did what came from an unholy and envious mind. For knowing that he had been raised, they gave the soldiers who guarded the tomb a large sum of money, so that they should say that his disciples, escaping notice by night, had stolen him. … they were accustomed, not rather through the Lord, but as in ….

“[Shall you not be reckoned] as the potter's clay? Shall the thing formed say to him who formed it, Did you not form me? Or the thing made to him who made it, You did not make me with understanding?”

Having said, “I will remove this people,” he shows in these words that he will certainly accomplish the thing, and very easily, saying that they will be refashioned into whatever their Creator may wish, just like things fashioned by the hands of a potter. The prophet Jeremiah too was taught something of this sort: “Arise,” he says, “and go down to the potter's house, and there you shall hear my words. And I went down to the potter's house, and behold, he was making a work on the stones; and the vessel which he was making fell from his hands; and again he made it into another vessel, as it pleased him to make it. And the Lord said to me: Shall I not be able to make you as this potter does, O house of Israel? Behold, as the potter's clay, so are you in my hands.” For the craftsman and Creator of all easily refashions what he has made into whatever he may choose.

“Is it not yet a little while, and Lebanon shall be changed like Mount Carmel, and Mount Carmel shall be reckoned a forest?”

Having said that they will be like the potter's clay, and will be refashioned toward what is more shameful because of the very great sin in them, he shows clearly in what way the thing will come about, and in a way makes bright what seems to have been said obscurely. Lebanon is a mountain of Phoenicia, and all the people who lived on it and around it were among the most superstitious; and likewise Mount Carmel was in the land of the Jews, very great, on which Elijah the Tishbite is said to have lived. So from the mountains, or rather from the lands in which the mountains are, he wishes to signify those who live in them, and he says that Lebanon will be changed and will be like Mount Carmel. And those who once served idols will come to know the God worshipped in Judaea, and will be counted in the rank of Israel the firstborn; while those of the seed of Israel will become like those who live on Lebanon and were once in error. For Israel has been cast out of kinship with God because of its impiety toward Christ; but the nations have been taken in, and, sanctified through the Spirit, have become partakers of the divine nature. Lebanon, then, he says, will be changed like Mount Carmel, and Mount Carmel will be reckoned a forest, that is, as a wood of wild trees, whose end is burning. Or in another way too: for those who ravaged Israel became as it were woodcutters to them; and this, I think, the prophet Zechariah indicates when he says: “Open your doors, O Lebanon, and let fire devour your cedars. Let the pine wail, for the cedar has fallen. Wail, oaks of Bashan, for the thick forest has been torn down.” See, then, that he too likens Judaea to Lebanon, as in no way differing from those once in it, that is, those in error. And he calls those who fell in it pine and cedar and oak. For being lofty and raised up on high, they were consumed as by fire by the divine wrath.

“And on that day the deaf shall hear the words of a book, and those in darkness and those in the [mist, the eyes of the blind shall see; and] the poor shall [rejoice] through the Lord in gladness, and those of the nations who had despaired shall be filled with [gladness].”

In these verses he shows us most clearly the calling of the nations. And one may see the nature of things turning out as by a reversal. For he said that the book of the law, or rather of all the inspired Scripture, would be sealed, and that the knowledge of the divine oracles would be hidden from the mind of the Jews, so that the one who knows letters would say, “I cannot read it, for it is sealed,” and the one who does not would say, “I do not know letters”; but that the nations would be called to the knowledge of God and the

light of the gospel preaching would enter their mind and heart, and that they would understand the very law given through Moses, though they were once deaf and unhearing, and spent their time as in mist and darkness, that is, in ignorance and error; this he makes clear. And he says that they will rejoice, not in any other things of this life, but in the Lord, that is, Christ. For being poor, and having nothing good in their mind, but being in want of every virtue and having no hope (for they were without God in the world, as it is written), they will be filled with gladness. For they will be both free from sin and full of sanctification, stronger than death and full of the hopes that come from God, sharing in unending gladness.

“The lawless one has failed, and the arrogant one has perished, and those who act lawlessly in wickedness have been utterly destroyed, and those who make men sin by a word; and all who reprove in the gates [they will make a stumbling block, and they turned aside the] righteous [in unjust things].”

As those of Israel have been removed and cast out of kinship with God, though not altogether (for the remnant has been saved, according to the prophet's voice), he says that the lawless and arrogant one has failed: lawless, as not having kept even the law itself, but having turned rather to the teachings and commandments of men; and very arrogant and terribly puffed up, as having dishonoured Christ. For at one time they said: “Is not this the carpenter's son, whose father and mother we know? How then does he say that he has come down from heaven?” And at another time again: “Abraham died, and the prophets died, and you say, If anyone hears my word he will never see death. Whom do you make yourself?” And indeed elsewhere one might see the scribes and Pharisees saying most unholy things: “He has a demon and is mad; why do you listen to him?” So those who always acted lawlessly were utterly destroyed, because of their great wickedness and the greatness of their perversity. And these were the ones who made men sin by a word; for, leading the peoples under their hand away, as I said, from reverence for the law, they made them sin by their own word, persuading them to keep their own commandments, and contriving that these be counted as law. And what was still more unholy than these things, they made a stumbling block of those who reproved in the gates. For the holy prophets, ferrying across the words from above and from God, sometimes reproved those of Israel, and this openly and not in secret, but as it were in the gates. But those who were allotted to lead the flocks under their hand, and who ought to have trained them toward everything useful, made a stumbling block of the profitable reproofs of those who run outside the straight and blameless way, perhaps calling them deceivers and liars. For their aim was always to twist the force of the just in unjust matters. For this, I think, is what “they turned aside the righteous in unjust things” means: as when the law says, “Honour your father and your mother,” and, “He who speaks evil of father or mother, let him die the death,” they taught those born of parents to say to them, “Whatever you would have gained from me is a gift.” And if they said this, he shall not honour his father or his mother. Let it be allowed, he says, not to honour father or mother. For this Christ reproached them with, saying: “You have made void the commandment of God because of your tradition.”

“Therefore thus says the Lord concerning the house of Jacob, which he set apart from Abraham: Jacob shall not now be ashamed, nor shall Israel now change his face; but when their children see my works, for my sake they shall sanctify my name, and they shall sanctify the Holy One of Jacob, and [shall fear] the God [of Israel].”

The word of the prophecy everywhere returns to soberness, and …. For he said, “The lawless one has failed, the arrogant one has perished; those who act lawlessly in wickedness have been utterly destroyed.” But since it was likely that some, out of very great ignorance, would think that God had spoken falsely, Israel not having perished altogether, but the remnant, as I said, having been saved, for this reason he very usefully makes mention of the hope kept for Israel in the last times of the age. They too will be called

through faith in Christ, and will run after the nations. For when, he says, the fullness of the nations has come in, then all Israel will be saved. What then does he say? “Therefore thus says the Lord concerning the house of Jacob, which he set apart from Abraham.” For Israel had been chosen out of all the nations, and was as it were an exceptional portion for God, from Abraham and [Isaac]. They will [not now be ashamed], he says, nor will they now change their face; that is, not immediately, when they have acted impiously toward Christ, will they come to recognize their own sin and be ashamed, and as it were withdraw, so as not to be seen to be such. For this, I think, is what changing the face means. But as time goes on, when those who come from them see my works, that is, when they behold the earth under heaven called, and those throughout the whole earth believing in me; when they see the [overthrow], plainly, of that ancient and profane error, and the precincts of idols burned together, then they will sanctify my name, as if to say, they too will count me holy; and they will sanctify me as being in truth the Holy One of Jacob and the God of Israel. For so they will fear me; and the fear of God is always somehow a way to salvation. For it is written that “the fear of the Lord makes life.”

“And those who err in spirit shall know understanding, and those who murmur shall learn to obey, [and the stammering tongues shall learn to speak peace].”

For having sanctified the name of Christ, the Saviour of us all, and having firmly believed that he is the Holy One of Jacob and the God of Israel, they will know understanding, though they were once held by a spirit of error and had the law sealed …. [And those who murmur will learn] to obey. For the peoples of the Jews murmured against Christ, at one time saying: “You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?” and at another, besides these things, not refusing even to persecute him, and recording the truth against him as the substance of a charge. For the Saviour of all named himself Son of God the Father, and, showing that the shadow of the law was nothing, set forth the beauty of worship in the Spirit. But they persecuted him, “not only,” it says, “because he was breaking the Sabbath, but also because he called God his own Father, making himself equal with God.” … he says, and the stammering tongues will learn to speak peace. For the tongues of those accustomed not to speak rightly about Christ stammered; but they will learn, he says, to speak his things, and rather to utter what makes for peace, no longer departing to their former madness, but rather submitting the neck of their mind to him. And one speaks peace toward Jesus if he says: “O Lord our God, take possession of us; apart from you we know no other; we name your name.”

“Woe, apostate children, thus says the Lord: [you made a counsel not through me, and agreements not] through my Spirit, to add sin upon sins; who go to go down into Egypt, but did not ask me, to be helped by Pharaoh and sheltered by the Egyptians. For the shelter of Pharaoh shall be to you for shame, and a reproach to those who trust in Egypt; for there are in Tanis princes, evil messengers; in vain shall they labour for a people that will not profit them, neither for help nor for profit, but for shame and reproach.”

He again pronounces wretched those of Israel, as lovers of sin who have become apostates, very wicked and taking bitter counsels, not through God. For it is not right [for those taking counsel against God to take counsel] with God; but everyone who is godly and good and a lover of righteousness will go with God to what must be done. For it is written that “the thoughts of the righteous are judgments.” He accuses, then, rejected Israel of having brought a mind at odds with God against Christ. For they deliberated in council, and indeed said: “What are we doing? For this man performs many signs. If we let him go on thus, the Romans will come and take away both our city and our land.” And another of those set among the leaders said: “You know nothing at all, that it is expedient that one man should die and the whole nation not perish.” The Lord teaches this same thing more clearly in the gospel parables, that “the householder who planted the vineyard sent his servants to receive the fruits, and the husbandmen killed them.” And the charges of their impiety did not stop at this; but when they saw the son also sent by the father after the servants, they said, it says, among themselves: “This is the heir; come, let us kill him and take his inheritance for ourselves.” Apostates, then, are those who introduced such bitter and unholy designs, who added sin upon sins; for they killed, as I said, holy prophets, and then after them the heir himself, that is, the son. And that from long ago their mind looked toward apostasy from God, he tries to convince them, saying: “Who go to go down into Egypt, but did not ask me, to be helped by Pharaoh and sheltered by the Egyptians.” He has thrown in between the words, “but did not ask me.” The sequence of thoughts runs thus: Woe, he says, to those who go down into Egypt to be helped by Pharaoh and to find shelter from the Egyptians. For when war and battle were announced to them, and the king of Assyria had moved arms against the land of the Jews, they ran ahead to the Egyptians and called for help from them, though they ought to have appeased God and, by running toward better things, to have wiped away the things in which they had offended him ….

… they would not have been brought under the feet of those who made war on them; the experience of those who had gone before will confirm it. For whom did they not conquer? Whom did they not master through God? But counting it nothing to be saved by him, or rather deciding that the almighty right hand was unable to save anyone, they sought help from men. But the thing will be to them, he says, for shame and reproach. For there are in Tanis, he says, princes, evil messengers. For those of Israel went down into Egypt, and thought, as I said just now, that the help of the leaders, or rather kings, in Tanis would suffice them. But some came there too, announcing to the rulers of the land evil and grievous things; for [the king of Babylon] had moved war against the Egyptians. In vain, then, he says, will those of Israel toil, running to a people that will in no way be able to profit them. For it will be to them neither sufficient for help nor able to free them from the evils hanging over them, but for shame and reproach. For it always follows for those who have turned their heart away from hope in God that they fall in every way and altogether into every evil. And the blessed David speaks truly when he says: “It is good to hope in the Lord rather than to trust in man.” For he rescues and frees from every evil those who love him and are eager to devote themselves to him. As one who has beheld something of what would come in time upon the land of the Jews, the prophet now gives us the account. And I say that we must recall again the history to which his word refers; for so the force of the passage will be easy to see for those who read it. When Jeconiah son of Eliakim was reigning over the land of the Jews, and then Israel had turned far toward apostasy from God and was devoted to the worship of idols, and was greatly provoking the God of all against itself, very many words came to them through the voice of Jeremiah, calling them to [repentance], to wipe off the blame of their error, or rather to [shake off] the charges of their utmost impiety, moving to the better and running back to the truth. But they were hard and would not be admonished, shaking off the words of the holy prophets; and … them by events, God who can do all things raised up Nebuchadnezzar, who took Judaea, burned its cities and villages, and set Zedekiah over it. And when he too revolted, the Assyrian, vexed, marched again against Jerusalem; and having taken it, and burned the divine temple itself, he returned to his own land. … and those able to escape the sword of the Babylonians went down with their whole households into Egypt, though God did not permit them to do this, but said most clearly through the voice of Jeremiah: “Do not go down into Egypt.” And since they remained no less disobedient, they perished in Egypt. For Nebuchadnezzar took that too, and slew the Egyptians together with those of Israel. This, then, is the cause and occasion of the vision, and as it were its whole setting. And I think we must explain each part, as far as we can.

“[The vision of the four-footed beasts in the desert.] In affliction and distress, the lion and the lion's whelp from there, and asps and the offspring of flying asps, who carried their wealth on asses and camels to a nation that will not [profit them …; the Egyptians] will profit you [in vain and emptily]. Tell them: This comfort of yours is vain.”

The inspired Joshua, plainly the son of Nun, allotted the land of the promise to those of the blood of Israel. And they say that the tribe of Judah especially received the parts of the land of the Jews toward the east and south, … [on the road] leading those who wished into the land of the Egyptians. In the time, then, of affliction and distress, that is, when Nebuchadnezzar was besieging and pressing hard and crushing the cities of Judaea, “the lion and the lion's whelp from there.” By lions perhaps he means those allotted to lead, the most powerful, who were in [positions of power] over the others; … and by asp and the offspring of asps again others, bitter and venomous, brought up in unmixed wickedness. And when he says “flying”, you will understand those who readily and swiftly go to every outrage. And all are wicked and very bitter, admittedly, who have departed from love toward God, and say to the wood, “You are my father,” and to the stone, “You gave me birth,” and give reverence to the works of their own hands. These, then, carried off on asses and camels the wealth that was left to them to a nation that will not profit them for help, but for shame and reproach. For the thing was altogether useless to them, and the comfort became vain, that is, what they thought to be a consolation for them. For they perished, as I said, together with those who inhabited the land of the Egyptians, when Nebuchadnezzar destroyed that too by force. It is a most terrible thing, then, to offend God, if he brings wrath upon any. For every design of theirs is idle, and nothing at all will save those against whom it comes. “For the uplifted hand, who will turn it back?” as it is written.

“Now therefore sit and write these things on a tablet and in a book, for these things shall be for days of seasons, and even for ever. For it is a disobedient people, lying sons, who would not hear the law of God; who say to the prophets, Do not announce to us; and to those who see the visions, [Do not speak to us …; turn] us from this way; take away from us this path, and take away from us the …”

As the things would happen in due time, he commanded that they be written down, and bids them be recorded. For it will come about, he says, that in days of seasons they will be counted worthy even of everlasting remembrance. And the word is true; for the prophets' records will always be known, even to the consummation of the present age. They must be recorded, then, he says, for they are a disobedient people. And the thing will be for their profit; for if they disobey the holy prophets who will come at that time, they will be put to shame [by what was written] by you. He calls them lying, I think again, because they did not keep sincerity in godliness toward God, but belied the promise they made when God, who rules us all, was laying down for them through Moses the laws on Mount Sinai. For we shall find that they plainly said: “All that the Lord God has said we will do and we will hear.” So when the law enjoined and said, “You shall worship the Lord your God, and him alone you shall serve,” and “You shall not make for yourself an idol,” they counted the commandment as nothing; for they served idols. For this reason he very fittingly calls them lying sons. And David too sings somewhere and says: “The enemies of the Lord lied to him”; and indeed, as from the person of Christ, “foreign sons,” he says, “lied to me.” And the occasion of such a sickness was that they counted the law worthy of no respect, and dishonoured even the words of the holy prophets. And he teaches this, saying: “Who would not hear the law of God; who say to the prophets, Do not announce to us; and

to those who see the visions: Do not speak to us, but speak to us other things, and announce to us another deceit, and turn us from this way, and take away from us the oracle of the Holy One of Israel.”

For those of Israel often fell fiercely upon many holy prophets, shouting and saying these things. One may see it very clearly when Jeremiah urged them, “Do not go down into Egypt,” and they said to this: “It is false; the Lord did not send you; but the son of Neriah sets you against us,” and what follows.

“[Therefore thus says the Lord, the Holy One of Israel:] Because you disobeyed these words, and hoped in falsehood, and because you murmured and trusted in this word, therefore this sin shall be to you like a wall suddenly falling of a strong city that has been taken, whose fall came suddenly; and its fall shall be like the breaking of an earthen vessel, [small pieces] of pottery, so that no potsherd shall be found among them in which you may carry fire, or in which you may draw a little water.”

He tries to teach that choosing to disobey the [words] of the holy [prophets], and trying heedlessly to enforce whatever came into one's mind, will in every way and certainly come to a most grievous end for them. For since you rebuked the words of the prophets, calling them deceit, and saying unholily, “Take away from us the oracle of the Lord,” for this reason this sin will fall upon you like the wall of a captured city, and this suddenly, that is, not after long; a city, I mean, so shattered, as when an earthen vessel is broken into small pieces, so that each of the fragments is altogether useless, and no one can either carry fire anywhere in it or draw a small amount of water. By these words he hints that so great a penalty will fall on the disobedient, and so great a calamity leap upon them, as to bring them to the utmost misery, and that none at all will be found among them who has remained outside, not having come to the end of evils.

“Thus says the Lord, the Holy One of Israel: When you turn back and groan, then you shall be saved, and you shall know where you were, when you trusted in vain things.”

Having hung over them the most extreme of all penalties, and usefully frightened them with the fears of what is to come, he at once shows both the cause of the wrath against them and the way of salvation. For the Creator is kind and loves humankind, and, as he himself says somewhere through the voice of Ezekiel, “he does not will the death of the one who dies, so much as that he should turn from his evil way and live.” Israel, then, is punished as having run wholly away from love toward God, and [being devoted] to the worship of idols …, being carried outside …. For when, he says, you turn as from a base and foul way, I mean from worshipping the creation and offering reverence to wood and stone, then you will be saved, and besides this you will learn at last where you were in your mind, or rather in your ignorance, when you trusted in vain things. For if they are not able to suffice for themselves, how could they grant help to others? For what is more powerless than an idol? For the gods of those in error are lifeless matter and nothing else.