Commentary on Isaiah 4.2.14–4.2.21

If anyone should wish to go into still deeper contemplations, we say that [he signifies] the truer Judea, clearly the church, whose inhabitants and citizens would be understood to be those who bear the circumcision in the spirit. Once a desert, it was shown populous by the one who commanded this to happen, clearly God in Christ, and its desert places sprang up. For it was found covered with spiritual trees and, as it were, richly wooded, having lofty heads of saints. For it is the custom of the inspired Scripture sometimes to liken the choir of the saints to plants and trees. The God of all, at any rate, said through the voice of the saints: “I will set in the waterless land … and poplar.” It is also said through the voice of the Psalmist about the saints to God, at one time: “The trees of the plain will be satisfied, the cedars of Lebanon which you planted”; at another again: “Then all the trees of the forest will rejoice before the face of the Lord, for he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness, and the peoples in his truth.” We do not say that rejoicing belongs to insensible trees; the thing would rather fit the saints, who, he says, rejoiced when Christ shone on the world. For thus he judged the world in righteousness, justifying in faith those who had once gone astray, and condemning to destruction the [devil] and his angels.

“… I will dry up your rivers. Who says to Cyrus to be wise, and he will do all my wishes. Who says to Jerusalem: You will be built, and [I will found] my holy house.”

Israel was carried off captive, as I said, at one time; for the [Babylonians] took the land of the Jews. … the [seventieth] year was already completed, and the time had come for gentleness toward them, from God clearly, he roused against the Chaldeans Cyrus son of Cambyses, who ruled over the Persians and Medes; he took them and released the Jews, having learned that the God whom they worshipped had foretold about him that, strengthened by his help, he would be superior to his enemies and very formidable to those who wished to oppose him, and that he would raise up the divine temple. That Babylon, though very populous, was going to be wholly desolate, he signifies by saying: “I am the one who says to the abyss: You will be desolate.” For here he called “abyss” the multitude of the Babylonians, too great to number, and “its rivers” the nations flowing into it, those around it and holding the neighbouring lands, which were called on by them for help. It is again the custom of the divine Scripture always somehow to liken the many nations to rivers and seas and waters. The divine Melodist said, at any rate, about Christ the Saviour of us all and about the multitude of the nations, which has been gathered in the net of his words: “The voice of the Lord is upon the waters; the God of glory thundered, the Lord.” For the voice of the Lord, that is, the gospel and saving proclamation, was carried over all the nations, when it all but thundered upon them. For the sacred and saving proclamation resounded as through all the earth under heaven. It is written again: “The rivers lifted up their voices.” For here we say that the holy apostles are named rivers, whose voices, that is, whose teachings, became known to all everywhere. It is also said somewhere about Babylon itself, and Nineveh: “Like a pool of water are its waters.” It was, then, God who says to the abyss, “You will be desolate, and I will dry up your rivers.” And likewise he was the one who says to Cyrus to be wise, instead of: to do all things with understanding and to fulfil all that pleases him.

These things were: that the Babylonians should pay the penalty for what they had cruelly done in ravaging Judea and burning the sacred and divine temple, and moreover that Israel should be released and should build the house, or rather lay its foundations; for this is the truer way to say it. For Cyrus commanded it, and, supplying means of money for the temple to be raised, he did lay the foundations. But since he ended his human life in the meantime, the progress of the works was hindered by his successor through the envy of some. It was nevertheless brought to completion after this, God again assenting. We have the exact account of the history in the inspired Scripture, and to choose to spend long words on it here is, I think, superfluous. And let no one say that the divine word has been proved false, because Cyrus, being an idolater, did not do everything that pleases God. For “he will do all my wishes” is set down surely with reference to those things that God was likely to want to signify: I mean the capture of Babylon, Israel's release from bonds and slavery, the raising of the temple, and the building of the cities of Judea.

“Thus says the Lord God to my anointed, Cyrus, whose right hand I have grasped, that nations should obey before him, and I will break the strength of kings; I will open doors before him, and cities will not be shut. I will go before him and level mountains; I will break bronze doors and shatter iron bars. And I will give you dark treasures, hidden, unseen; I will open them to you, so that you may know that I am the Lord God who calls your name, the God of Israel. For the sake of Jacob my servant and Israel my chosen, I will call you by my name and receive you. But you did not know me, that I am the Lord God, and there is no God besides me, and you did not know me; so that those from the rising of the sun and those from the west may know that there is none besides me. I am the Lord God, and there is no other; I who prepared light and made darkness, who make peace and create evils; I am the Lord God who does all these things.”

We say that the most valiant Cyrus came upon this prophecy, was greatly pleased at what had been foretold by God about him, and came to such a resolve as to proclaim publicly the glory of God in the cities and lands under his hand, confessing plainly that he alone is God and Lord of all, the one worshipped by the Jews. The force of the prophecy, or of the prophetic predictions, is very plain, I think. But running through each of the things said, we will make clear, as far as we can, what seems obscure and sometimes steep. He calls Cyrus Christ, that is, anointed, not as one of the saints to whom the name might apply, but loosely, as taken from being anointed; but because it was the custom to anoint with oil those called to kingship. For we shall find the holy prophets saying to some of those brought to this: “The Lord anointed you king over Israel.” Cyrus, then, is an anointed one as a king; but by naming him anointed, that is, called to kingship by anointing and decree from God, he gives to understand that he prevailed through God and was raised to extraordinary glory. Therefore he says that he has grasped his right hand. This would be a clear sign of support, as in what is said by the saints in the book: “You held my hand, my right hand; in your counsel you guided me.” He says that he has grasped his right hand so that nations should obey before him, that is, be subjected and yield to him, and the strength of kings be broken.

For they say that there were seven kings among the Babylonians under the one who was chief. That the cities were to open of themselves, and that nothing at all would hinder Cyrus as he overran the strength of the enemy, he shows by saying: “Cities will not be shut. I will go before you and level mountains,” that is, I will make everything bare and easy to ride over for you, so that there is nothing to resist. And even if anyone should attack and meet your forces like a mountain, this too I will level, that is, make powerless. “I will break bronze doors and shatter iron bars, and I will give you hidden treasures, unseen; I will open them to you.” They say that the Babylonians, after the city was taken, buried themselves in dark caves, especially the more prominent among them, who, fearing death, sank down like snakes into every cave and cleft of rock and hid, yet could not escape notice. For some pointed them out to Cyrus; and he commanded torches to be lit, drew them out, and so subjected them to bitter punishments. Others say that he emptied the treasures of the Babylonians that were underground and hidden. “You will be illustrious, then, and celebrated, so that you may know that I am the Lord God who calls your name, the God of Israel, for the sake of Jacob my servant and Israel my chosen.” “For I have called you to this,” he says, “I who alone am God, and have honoured you with such splendid renown, so that Israel, being my servant, might be well treated by you.” “I have called you,” he says, “and crowned you with renown. But you did not know me, that I am the Lord, and there is no God besides me, and you did not know me”; as if he were saying plainly: “You did not receive such glory from me as repayment for splendid deeds of valour directed toward godliness; I honoured you though you did not know my divinity and supremacy, and were not even counted among my worshippers, but so that those from the rising of the sun and those from the west may know that there is none besides me. For if I choose,” he says, “to rescue my own, I will bring the thing to completion for my glory even through those who are not mine, so that those throughout all the earth may know clearly that there is no God besides me. For I am the Lord of hosts and Master of every nation and race, and I turn the hearts of those on earth wherever I will, so that even those who are not mine are shown to be ministers of my wishes. I, then, am the Lord God, who prepared light and made darkness,” that is, day and night; or rather light for the redeemed and darkness for the ravaged. For the one rejoiced, being freed from bonds; the others were in inescapable calamities. “I am he who makes peace and creates evils.”

You will take this too in the same sense, as I said just now: peace for the redeemed, and evils, that is, things that inflict harm, productive of every affliction, for the cruel and savage men who had attacked Israel. That the thing grieved God would become clear when he says through the voice of an angel to the prophet Zechariah: “I have been jealous for Jerusalem and Zion with great jealousy, and I am angry with great wrath against the nations that joined in attacking; because I was angry a little, but they joined in for evil.” And also as to the Babylonians themselves: “I gave them into your hands, but you showed them no mercy.” That it was by God's will that [Cyrus came upon] the Babylonians … and all-powerful, and using the cruelty fitting for those who were suffering, we shall know when he says through the voice of Jeremiah, as if to Cyrus: “Go up bitterly against her and against those who dwell in her, and avenge with the sword and destroy, says the Lord, and do according to all that I command you.” And besides this: “The Lord has opened his treasury and brought out the vessels of his wrath, for it is a work for the Lord in the land of the Chaldeans, for her times have come. Open her storehouses, search her like a cave, and destroy her utterly. Let there be no remnant of her; dry up all … her fruits; let them go down to slaughter. Woe to them, for their day has come, and the time of their punishment.” And the prophet Isaiah himself said somewhere, as from the person of God to the sons of Babylon: “Behold, I will stir up against you the Medes, who do not reckon silver nor have need of gold. They will shatter the bows of young men, and they will not pity your children, nor will their eyes spare your children,” the eyes of the Medes, clearly.

“[Let the heaven rejoice from above, and let the clouds] rain righteousness; let the earth spring up and … together.”

It is the custom and practice of the inspired Scripture in very many places to carry the discourse over from particular things that happened in part to certain people to the universal and to all, and, as from a vivid image of historical events, to raise the mind of those being taught gracefully to more mystical contemplations. This can be seen in the verses at hand too. For a long discourse has been spent in what precedes on Cyrus, as having ravaged the land of the Babylonians and taken it by force, released Israel from servitude there and from the bonds of captivity, and founded the temple in Jerusalem; and that [he was roused] against the Chaldeans … Emmanuel, who was shown forth by God the Father … to proclaim release to captives, [recovery of sight] to the blind …, and, making them free of the devil's tyranny, to prepare those on earth to run back to him, and so to bring them through himself to God the Father. For he became mediator between God and men, and through him [we have] reconciliation in one Spirit to the Father, and he is our peace, according to the Scriptures; he built the divine temple, that is, his own temple, the church. For he presented it to himself as a pure virgin, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but rather holy and blameless. As in an image, then, one could see in Cyrus and in what was done by him

very well the achievements befitting God that were given by God to those throughout all the earth. The heaven, then, is … those who dwell in the city above, both the splendid archangels and those beyond them, thrones and authorities and rational powers, and those who stand beside the highest seats. We say that the return to God of those who had gone astray on earth, through Christ the Saviour of us all, I mean, the recovery of sight of the blind, and in a word the salvation of the lost, became an occasion of delight for the fathers in heaven too. For if they rejoice over one sinner who repents, how can it be right to doubt that they are pleased and greatly gladdened when they see the earth under heaven saved? “Let the heaven rejoice from above, then,” he says, “and let the clouds rain righteousness.” By clouds we mean, spiritually, the powers above, through which the consolations of the Spirit are sent down like rain and drop into the hearts of believers, according to what is plainly said somewhere else about those of Israel, as of a vine: “And I will command the clouds not to rain rain upon it”; or else the holy initiators into the mysteries themselves, those on earth, of whom the divine disciples were the first and the firstfruits. They went around the whole earth and scattered the divine and sacred word, and, as on a thirsty and fruitless land, gladdening all everywhere and, as it were, watering them spiritually, they became for them the occasion of spiritual fruitfulness. To the Jews, then, both as being such and as having become Lord-slayers and behaved drunkenly against Christ himself, the giver of the spiritual streams, God commanded the clouds not to give rains; but for those who believe in him they are commanded to send them down and to water abundantly the hearts of those who come to him. “When the rains are sent down, let the earth spring up,” he says, “and let it sprout mercy, and let it make righteousness spring up together.” For it was necessary, when the spiritual clouds, as I said, watered the earth under heaven with lessons in righteousness, that good fruits should come, as from seeds. For as when the inventor of sin ruled on earth and through the wise men of the world scattered loathsome and profane seeds everywhere, there was no one who did kindness, not even one, but all had turned aside, together they had become worthless, and the whole earth was barren of the fruits of goodness, since the lessons of righteousness had not yet been sent down like rains on all everywhere; so thereafter it followed that there would be the fruits of godliness toward God. By mercy we mean love, which is the fulfilment of the law, with righteousness accompanying it, and surely the righteousness of the gospel, of which Christ himself has become for us arbiter and teacher. But one might say that the mercy and righteousness springing up from the earth is also Christ himself. For he has become for us from God the Father mercy and righteousness, if indeed it is true that we received mercy in him and were justified, receiving forgiveness of our ancient offences; or that we received from him the righteousness that can bring us to the possession of every good, through which also we have been saved. If the earth has been commanded to make righteousness spring up, let no one be vexed, considering that the Psalmist too says somewhere about God the Father, and about Emmanuel himself: “He worked righteousness in the midst of the earth.” For Christ did not bring down to us his own flesh from above and from heaven, but rather was born according to the flesh from a woman, who was also one of those on earth. When, then, it is said that he became the fruit and sprout of the earth, you will understand, as I said, that he was born according to the flesh from a woman taken for this service, although she was one of those from the earth.

“I am the Lord God who created you. What [better have I prepared, as clay of the potter? …”]

He gives here, as it were, the reason why the Son, being God by nature, emptied himself and chose to suffer for us, and counted those on earth worthy of such great forbearance as to give up his own life as a ransom, or rather to endure taking the form of a servant and to exchange the highest glory for the lowliness of human nature. Therefore he says: “I am.” “I am” must now be taken in the sense of “I exist and live,” … and who brought all things into being, and did not make death, but rather created all things for incorruption. Then, honouring the nature of man, and [showing] that nothing at all among all the living things on earth could equal it, he says: “What better have I prepared, as clay of the potter?” For we were formed by him when he took dust from the earth and shaped us very well, like a potter. But the dignity of human nature does not stop there; there is something greater in us, a gift and present of God's skilful art. For we were made according to his image and likeness, and we have been enriched with the stamp of his glory shining spiritually in our souls, even if according to the flesh we are earth and from earth. Man, then, is not contemptible, but rather an admirable living being on earth, and so God takes pride in him. He said, at any rate, to the most long-suffering Job, making his great works evident: “Or did you take clay of earth and form a living being, and set it speaking upon the earth?” And the divine David sings somewhere: “Lord, what is man, that you remember him, or the son of man, that you visit him?” Then he explains the distinction of human nature, saying: “You made him a little lower than the angels; with glory and honour you crowned him, and set him over the works of your hands. You put all things under his feet.” The all-wise Paul applied some of these verses to Christ. But they might be said, not unfittingly, of every man among us too; for nothing in them is false.

“… day? Will the clay say to the potter, ‘What are you doing, that you do not work, nor have hands?’ Who says to his father, ‘What will you beget?’ and to his mother, ‘What will you bring forth?’”

The passage is deep and shadowed with much obscurity, yet you will go straight to what is useful and true; but I think it necessary first to unfold briefly the aim of its thoughts. For so it will be easy to grasp and welcome to the hearers. The God of all redeemed Israel from Egypt and rescued him from polytheistic error and the deceit of demons, bringing him by the law through Moses to the light of the true knowledge of God. For he taught him to serve one God and to worship one Lord; then, through types and shadow, to raise him to things still greater and more perfect, that is, the things in Christ. For the law was a tutor, and it was laid down until the time of correction; and this was the time of the coming of our Saviour Jesus Christ, when, removing the shadow of the legal commands and the types in letters, he brought in to those on earth the beauty of the worship in spirit and truth, bare and unveiled. But at this very thing the Jews were displeased, and, still pleading for the types, they acted against Christ and charged him with dissolving the Mosaic ordinances, at one time saying, “If this man were from God, he would not break the Sabbath,” at another hurling still worse words. Since, then, they rejected the benefit of the gospel proclamations, which were raising them from the useless shadow to spiritual fruitfulness, therefore he says: “Will the ploughman plough the earth all the day?” “O fools,” he says. “The farmer cuts the field with ploughs,

but he does not do this forever, nor [spend] all [his time] on the field with ploughs, not so that it may only be seen to have suffered this, but so that it may be receptive to the seeds cast into it and be seen to bear fruit. “The hearts of all of you, then, once overgrown and as it were turned to waste, … I prepared beforehand, using as a plough the law through Moses, and like a farmer [made them ready] for good seeds. But the sower of every good thing is my Son. Receive, then, what comes from him, and do not wish perpetually to cherish and love the law that ploughs. For it ploughed, as I said, not so that you might keep having this, for what benefit is there in that? but so that you might bring forth the fruits of truth.” Since we have been spiritually re-formed in Christ, or rather transformed: we from Greek error to the knowledge of the truth and to the holy life through Christ, the Saviour of us all; those of the circumcision to the reception of the gospel teachings and to a newness of worship that no longer has the unpleasantness of the types, but rather shines with the most fitting beauty of spiritual worship; and it belonged both to us and to them to be enriched with regeneration in Christ through water and Spirit; but likewise this very grace was rejected and unacceptable to the peoples of the Jews, for they opposed, as I said, the things of Christ; therefore he says: “Will the clay say to the potter, ‘What are you doing, that you do not work, nor have hands?’ Who says to his father, ‘What will you beget?’ and to his mother, ‘What will you bring forth?’” “For I,” he says, “wish to re-form you to what is better, and as it were to re-shape you for the better through a spiritual birth, surely the one through water and Spirit. But to my plans … [would the clay ever say] to the potter, as if he did not have a craftsman's hand, or did not know how he must shape what is in his hands? Or,” he says, “the one who is to be born does not put the question to his own father, ‘Will you beget?’ How then do you, who are as clay in the hands of a potter and do not know at all in what way your spiritual regeneration will take place, not fear to quarrel? And have you not rather resolved to leave to the craftsman and father how these things will come about?” For that the Jews quarrelled with the Saviour's words, those he spoke to them about these things, is not hard to see. For he said to Nicodemus: “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless …

“… see the kingdom of God.” But he, foolishly springing upon things beyond the mind, objected, saying: “Can a man who is old enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?” And to this he added another question about the mystery: “How can these things be?” What, then, did Christ say to this? “If I told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?” It is necessary, then, to yield to whatever God says. He himself knows the way of his own works; what he fashions must not be pried into, and things beyond the mind are fitting for us to honour with undoubting faith. It should be known that the prophet Jeremiah too [went down] into the potter's house; and when the clay fell apart and was re-formed into another vessel, God said to him: “Can I not, like this potter, [do with] you, house of Israel? Behold, like the clay of the potter you are in my hands.” That we are also spiritually re-formed into a holy and all-beautiful life, Paul will make clear, saying: “But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, as from the Lord, the Spirit,” through whom we are also regenerated, having a seed no longer perishable, but the one that comes through the word of God, living and abiding.

“For thus says the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, who made the things to come: Ask me concerning my daughters and my sons, and concerning the works of my hands command me. I made the earth and man upon it. I with my hand made firm the heaven. I [commanded] all the [stars].”

The answer to the thought expressed above is seen given here. The sense of the verses is this: “If the clay ever rebuked the potter,” he says, “and indicted the hand of the one who shaped it as unskilled or rather sluggish; if anyone among those not yet existing or born, but expected to be born, pried into what kind of children his father would beget; then you too ask me, you who will in due time be my sons and daughters, how it would happen, and in what way you will become sons and daughters to me. Command me also concerning the works of my hands.” “Command,” he says, for “give orders,” as to one who did not know the [way] of what must be done. [Very fittingly], then, and with good reason, the all-wise Paul wrote thus: “O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and how inscrutable his ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counsellor?” For the wisdom that is the craftsman of all needs nothing at all in what concerns itself. Nor would anything of ours be beyond its means or impossible for it. For it can do all things, having all-mightiness; or rather it is itself all power. For the God of all is the Lord of hosts, and he alone knows the way of his own works.