Commentary on Isaiah 4.2.6–4.2.13

“… you have known,” he says, “that there is no God besides me.”

“And those who formed and carved did not hear at that time; all who make what they please are vain, which will not profit them; but they [were dried up], and deaf from among men.”

By these words he shows the charges against the apostates to be terrible and very grievous: having such full assurance that there is no other God by nature and truly besides him, and having been, as it were, persuaded by his very achievements that he alone is God, they slipped into such folly that, though the law itself expressly called out to them and said, “You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve; and you shall not make for yourself an idol, nor the likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or on the earth below, or in the waters beneath the earth,” “you counted obedience to him as nothing, and turned rather, with no love for God, to forming and shaping gods of wood and stone.” Such men, then, are vain, and very fittingly so, going to this for nothing necessary but rather doing what pleases themselves; for they have become lovers of vanity. For what benefit comes from stone or wood? The making of an idol, then, would plainly be understood as the fruit of a foolish counsel and the work of frigid thoughts. But that the thing is not without penalty, he declared beforehand, saying: “All who form a god and carve useless things will be ashamed, and all whence they came were dried up, and deaf from among men.” If what is said is taken of the hand-cut things themselves, we say that “were dried up” must be understood as “perished.” But if it is taken of those accustomed to do such things, it may well be understood in this way too; for it is said as of plants that are accustomed to bear no fruit, if they somehow wither and are then cut down for the flame and the burning. And “deaf from among men” means: no longer counted among men, but rather deaf and wholly insensible, so as in no way to differ from the things made by them. For the blessed Psalmist sings somewhere and says: “The idols of the nations are silver and gold, the works of men's hands. They have a mouth and will not speak; eyes, and will not see; ears, and do not hear.” And he adds to this: “May those who make them become like them, and all who trust in them.” For such evils would be understood as fruits of the utmost insensibility. For though they knew by experience itself the one who is God by nature and truly, yet send up to stones and wood the glory most fitting him alone, how would they not be understood as fools and senseless, having a heart filled to the very limit with stupefaction, and differing little from the things made by themselves?

“Let them all be gathered and stand together, and let them be put to shame and ashamed together; for … with a borer he bored it. He worked it with the arm of his strength, and he will hunger and be weak, and will not drink water.”

Not one by one, but rather all together, if they choose, the servants of idols, with their own ill counsels, [let them try] to resolve what is proposed. And what this is he at once adds, saying: “The smith,” he says, “sharpened iron.” He also mentions the tools by which the making is done, so as to show that they worship the craft of the stoneworker, and not the wood itself. For if it were a god, it would have needed no craft or anyone's skill; it would have been God even so. But if you do not worship wood that has not been worked, nor say that it is a god, the craft has become a god to you, and that the craft of a weak man subject to corruption. For needing food and drink is a proof of corruption. We say that “and will not drink water” is not said as a statement; rather it is to be read as a question, with a slight pause. For the sense will follow that he will certainly drink. How then

will the corruptible be the maker of incorruptible gods, or how will the mortal make the immortal? For incorruptibility and indestructibility must certainly belong to the one who is truly God, or rather being alive and being able to give life to whatever he wishes to impart life. The worship of those who go astray is, then, a display of axe and borer and of a carpenter's strength and skill; if indeed it is true, as I said, that they would not choose to worship wood or stone unshaped, but once a form has been carved in it, everything that is seen among them is gods.

“The carpenter, having chosen wood, set it up by measure, and shaped it with glue, and made it as the form of a man and as the beauty of a man, to set it in a house. He cut wood from the forest, which the Lord planted, a pine, and the rain made it grow, so that it might be for men for burning; they baked bread on it, and the rest they made into gods, and they worship them. Half of it they burned in fire, and having burned it they baked bread on it; and on it he roasted meat and ate and was filled, and being warmed he said: ‘Pleasant to me, for I am warmed and have seen fire.’ The rest he made into a carved god, and he worships it and prays, saying: ‘Deliver me, for you are my god.’ They did not know how to understand, for they were blinded so as not to see with their eyes and not to perceive with their heart. And he did not reckon in his heart, nor consider in his soul, nor know in his understanding, that he burned half of it in fire, and baked bread on its coals, and roasted meat and ate, and made the rest of it into an abomination; and they worship it. Know that their heart is ashes, and they go astray, and no one can deliver his soul. See, will you not say that there is a lie in my right hand?”

The meaning of what lies before us is very plain, and there is nothing steep in it. For it describes the worshipper of idols as senseless, … wholly deprived of what is fitting, and the craftsman as well. It dwells at length on the account of him: at once shaming them as men gone astray, opening the eye of those caught in the evil, and persuading them to look at the truth itself; if they take it into their mind, they will be out of the snare and will free their own heads from the wounds of folly. But we say this: the word seems here to build for us something pointed and wise, and not insufficient to be able to persuade many to depart from polytheistic error and to choose rather to come under the one who is God by nature and truly.

“For the carpenter,” he says, “having chosen wood, set it up by measure, and shaped it with glue; he made it as the form of a man and as the beauty of a man, to set it in a house.” The craft of those accustomed to make gods, he says, would be thought worthy of all wonder above all when it works into the wood the form and beauty of a man. But what is fashioned by someone in imitation of something surely falls short of the real, or comes after it. Those, then, who worship wood or stones fashioned into the form of a man would be caught worshipping their own form; and though they are far better than the imitations, they insult their own nature by assigning the better glory to those. The indictment, then, is one of the utmost insensibility, and the charges are of extreme folly. For he sets up in a house, that is, in a temple, the wood that he cut from the forest. He shows here that those accustomed to make gods are not ignorant of the material from which these came, so that none may say, according to the custom of the Greeks, that the things dedicated in shrines fell from Zeus and were self-born, or self-delivered. That they misread the aim of God's creation he proves by saying that the wood grew in the forest and was nourished by supplies of rain so as to be for men for burning; but making gods of what came into being for burning, they themselves will be food for fire together with them. He is all but astounded, saying that he burned half of it in fire and spent it on his own needs; on this he cooks, using the parts of his gods for baking bread. Then he has fallen into such folly as to worship the remnant of his use, and to pray and say: “Deliver me, for you are my god.” Their heart, then, is ashes and nothing else, and they have gone astray, and no one could deliver the souls of those who have fallen into this, except God alone, if he chose, who does all things and changes what has gone astray. But uselessness and vanity belong to the hand-cut gods, for they are deaf and insensible matter. “See,” that is, consider, “and you will not say that there is a lie in my right hand.” “For everything about them,” he says, “is false, both names and glory. But in my right hand,” that is, in the Son, for the Son is everywhere named the right hand of the Father in the inspired Scripture, “nothing false would be found.” Rather, if he is named God, he is true God; if Lord, he does not hold the title as something counterfeit, but is rather by nature Master of all; whether he is called king, or light, or life and power, or Creator, he is all these things not falsely. For he is not originated, but would be understood as by nature beyond everything brought into being, being God from God and true light from true light.

“… my servant; I formed you as my servant; and you, do not forget me. For behold, I have blotted out your iniquities like a cloud, and your sins like darkness. Return to me, and I will redeem you.”

Christ said somewhere: “The one who knew his master's will and did not do it will be beaten with many blows; but the one who did not know, and did not do it, will be beaten with few.” The verdict in each case is surely just. For those who did not know the master's will and then failed, one might pardon for not having known, … as a pretext for mercy. But those who chose to be negligent while they had knowledge would justly incur the necessity of punishment. For the charges are of plain carelessness. So that Israel, then, might become better than himself, caught as he was in very many charges yet honoured with amnesty from God, he has been commanded to remember … gentleness. “For remember these things,” he says, “Jacob.” And what things? Both what was said before, and that “you are my servant. And I formed you as my servant.” He shows here very clearly that Israel had not remained untrained, but was under law and yokes and had very many who knew how to admonish him; he was a servant, then, in this respect, and formed for this. In what way, we will say as far as we can. A man is formed simply, as indeed was the forefather Adam, from earth. “For God,” it says, “took dust from the earth and formed man.” And our own state proceeds to this day according to the manner of that creation. For each one is formed in his mother's womb, and this is the road that brings those on earth into being. One is also formed into a servant of God, shaped spiritually by the knowledge of the divine laws into an excellent form, which arises in men's souls from the good order of the virtues. This would be understood as spiritual beauty. And they are formed also, as it were, in Christ, through participation in the Holy Spirit, into conformity with him. The divine Paul writes, at any rate, to the Galatians: “My little children, with whom I am again in travail until Christ is formed in you.” Christ is formed in us when the Holy Spirit implants in us a kind of divine form through sanctification and righteousness. For thus, thus the stamp of the hypostasis of God the Father shines in our souls, the Holy Spirit, as I said, re-forming us through sanctification to him. The most holy Paul too said again: “Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, so that you may test what is the will of God, the good,” and pleasing and perfect. And he says that a veil has been placed on the hearts of the Jews, but that 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. We are formed, then, into a pais of God. But since the word pais is in a way common, for it is used both of servants and of sons, we say that to be formed into servants would rather fit those formed under the law. For there was a spirit of slavery upon Israel, and negligence was not without penalty for them; for the law punished them as servants. But if anyone is formed in Christ, he is formed into a son of God, in the ways just described. We must, then, remember the love for humankind of the one who justifies, and that we have been formed for sonship and glory, and must, as it were, repay to God the Father the return for what has come to us from him. And how this might happen he teaches well, saying: “And you, Israel, do not forget me.” One would forget God by neglecting godliness toward him, or by worshipping the gods that are not; and some do this to this day, going backward after the faith, whose condemnation is just, as it is written. …

… [how they] ran away from godliness toward him we shall know when he says to those of Israel's blood: “You who forget me, and prepare a table for the demon, and fill a mixed cup for Fortune, and forsake my holy mountain: I will deliver you to the sword; you shall all fall by slaughter.” And at this very thing he cried out against those of Israel through the voice of Jeremiah, saying: “Will a bride forget her ornament, or a virgin her breast-band? But my people has forgotten me days without number.” Forgetfulness, then, would often hint at apostasy, but remembrance at steadfastness in faith, and … strong in its seeming. “Do not, then, forget me,” he says, “but rather remember. For behold, I have blotted out your iniquities like a cloud.” He says “I have blotted out” here for “I will blot out,” and “I will dissolve them and make them vanish like a darkness and a cloud.” That he says “I have blotted out” for “I will blot out,” what follows will show very well. “For return to me,” he says, “and I will redeem you.” For how has the one who calls them to return already blotted them out? As to those who have not yet returned, but who will come to this in due time, when Christ shines on the world, through whom comes all forgiveness of offences, and return and calling to God, through faith in him, the gospel way of life, and the best deeds of virtue.

“… Israel. Sound the trumpet, foundations of the earth; shout gladness, mountains, the hills and all the trees in them, for God has redeemed Jacob,”

One could see without toil from this too that the forgiveness of sins, and indeed the return and redemption of all, is proclaimed beforehand in due times through holy prophets as something that would come through Christ. For when the Lord, being God, appeared to us and lived among those on earth as a man, the true Lamb who takes away the sin of the world, the all-pure sacrifice, then indeed the thing became an occasion of festival for the rational powers above and in heaven, that is, for the ranks of the holy angels. For they sang, they sang at his birth, his birth according to the flesh, I mean: “… on earth peace, good will among men.” And if it is true, as it surely is true, that, according to the Saviour's voice, there is joy in heaven before the holy angels over one sinner who repents, how could anyone doubt that, when Christ was bringing the whole earth under the sun to the knowledge of the truth, calling it to return, justifying it in faith, and making it resplendent through sanctification, there was joy and festival among the spirits above?

While the heavens, then, rejoice because God has had mercy on Israel, and not only on Israel according to the flesh, … the foundations of the earth, that is, those [who ministered] the gospel [proclamations], [whose voice] was carried everywhere, and who sounded forth like sacred trumpets, announcing the Saviour's glory to all everywhere and calling to the knowledge of Christ both those of the circumcision and those who of old served the creation rather than the Creator. For what cause do we say they were named foundations of the earth? Christ is the foundation of all and the unshakable base, who upholds all things and keeps what is founded on him in well-being; for on him we are all built, a spiritual house joined together through the Spirit into a holy temple, into his dwelling-place. For he dwells in our hearts through faith. But nearer foundations, closer to us, would be understood as the apostles and evangelists, who became eyewitnesses and ministers of the word, and became a support of faith. For knowing that we must follow their traditions, we shall keep our faith in Christ straight and undistorted. For he said somewhere to the divine Peter, when Peter wisely and blamelessly confessed his faith in him, saying, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God”: “You are Peter, and on this rock I will found my church,” calling “rock,” I think, the disciple's unshaken faith. It is also said through the voice of the Psalmist: “His foundations are on the holy mountains.” Very well are the holy apostles and evangelists to be likened to holy mountains, whose knowledge is set firm like a foundation for those after them, not allowing those [taught] through them to fall away into what is unapproved in faith. … [“Sound the trumpet, foundations] of the earth.” But see the careful observance. Moses was weak of voice and slow of tongue; for the law was not heard far off, except by those in Judea alone. “But sound the trumpet,” you who are ambassadors for Christ. “For their sound went out into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world.” He commanded the mountains to shout gladness, calling the foundations of the earth mountains again here; for the divine disciples are conspicuous and illustrious, distinguished in deed and word and very well known to all everywhere, and to them the prophetic word also called out: “Go up on a high mountain, you who bring good news to Zion; lift up your voice with strength, you who bring good news to Jerusalem.” These spiritual mountains, then, he commanded to shout gladness. Here too one can see the power of the law and the superiority of the gospel proclamations. For the law, which entangled those it caught in inescapable penalties, shouted not gladness but rather dejection; but the ministers of the gospel gifts proclaim gladness to the world. For where there is forgiveness of sins, and justification in faith, and participation in the Holy Spirit, and the splendour of adoption, and the kingdom of heaven, and a hope not deceived of good things beyond the mind, there surely are gladness and joy. The hills and the trees in them, again, we say are those inferior to the mountains and set a little below them in the measure of their good life, the holy apostles and evangelists clearly standing above. The hills, then, would be those who fall a little short of their renown and are inferior in greatness of virtue, yet who themselves rise high, are beyond earthly things, mind the things above, and have been allotted to be thought lofty in virtue. The trees in them, those nourished by them, would be understood as those who believed through them, who have as it were grown up to a perfect man and advanced to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. These would be teachers of peoples and leaders of flocks, [watering them] with their spiritual [streams]. So the hills and the trees

and the trees in them have shouted together with the foundations of the earth the gladness that is understood in Christ, and they rejoice because God has redeemed Jacob, and Israel will be glorified. For he was not only redeemed, having rubbed off the stains of sin and been rescued from fire and penalty, but he was also glorified, having become God's own, designated his son, and having obtained brotherhood with the one who is by nature and truly Son, that is, Christ.

“Thus says the Lord who redeems you, and who formed you from the womb: I am the Lord who accomplishes all things. I alone stretched out the heaven and made the earth firm. Who else will scatter the signs of ventriloquists, and divinations from the heart? Turning the wise backward and making their counsel foolish, and establishing the words of his servant, and the counsel of his messengers.”

Very providently the God of all speaks to us here too, and tries to assure those who behaved drunkenly against his glory, transferring it to others, clearly to the gods that are not, that he himself is the originator and steward of all things, Creator and maker of the very people being instructed. Since he was making promises about very many and marvellous things, which some were likely to disbelieve, he usefully, as I said, shows them beforehand his own power and supremacy, so that they might know that whatever he chooses to accomplish will by every means and certainly come to its end. For to what would he be insufficient, or how would he not be able to redeem some, he who formed from the womb, that is, who called them into being itself and brought into existence those who once were not, who accomplishes all things, that is, the steward of all, administering and directing each thing as he pleases? And this is entirely good. For God would not fall short of what is most fitting to his own glory. Or how would he not be all-powerful and beyond everything, mind and speech, he who stretched out this vast heaven and made the earth firm, as the [Psalmist says …] of it? He who has risen to such power, or rather is all power, will surely bring to its end whatever he wishes to do, with nothing to prevent him. He says that he alone stretched out the heaven, not excluding the only-begotten God the Word, who is from his essence, through whom are all things and in whom are all things, but because none at all of the falsely named gods worked anything together with the God who is over all. For those who do not exist at all, how could they be admitted as workers, or rather as co-workers of God as he creates? We say, then, that the distinction here is not made with respect to the Son born by nature from him, but [means] that the stretching out of the heaven was not the accomplishment of another god … the incomparable supremacy and the greatness of his power: what he will accomplish in due times he shows and clearly narrates in what follows. “For who else,” he says, “will scatter the signs of ventriloquists, and divinations from the heart?” For before Christ, the Saviour of us all, had shone on us from heaven, the greed of the devil's tyranny stretched over all, and a deep darkness fed upon all those on earth. For there were, there were in every country and city, altars and precincts, swarms of statues, and an uncounted multitude of falsely named gods, sorceries and false divinations everywhere, and deceptions of demons, who pretended to know and to be able to foretell things to come, yet said or knew nothing at all. But when the true light, that is, the only-begotten Word of God, shone over the whole earth under heaven with the gospel oracles, the mist of sin was driven away and that deep darkness ceased, and those who had gone astray were called to the knowledge of the truth; then indeed the signs of the ventriloquists were scattered.

By ventriloquists he means the false prophets, that is, those with a Pythian spirit, who belch out from their own heart whatever they please and know nothing of what is true. About such men the prophet Ezekiel too says: “Woe to those who prophesy from their own heart, and see nothing at all.” The [signs] of the false divination of such men were scattered, then, …: for the Greek oracles everywhere [fell silent], and those of the gods among the Greeks who used to speak falsely became silent. “And the wise were turned backward, and their counsels made foolish.” Here he seems to call “wise” either the magi among the Greeks, for they were named wise among them, or perhaps those who had the reputation of wise men among them, sharp in understanding, possessed of forceful speech, excellent in eloquence, and yet not able by their fine words to beautify falsehood. Such men, we say, have been turned backward … of the wisdom in them, which is unspiritual and earthly …, of the world, by God, clearly, as the all-wise Paul too [says]. When the wise were turned back, he says, and all their counsel was shown to be wholly foolish and senseless, the God and Father established the words of his own Servant, that is, the gospel and saving oracle that Christ himself spoke to us. And he also showed true the counsel of his messengers. For the messengers would be understood as those who are ambassadors for Christ and proclaim him to the world. Their counsel was good, an exhortation to all everywhere to be roused to good works, to hold to the better things, to know the one who is God by nature and truly, to bow the neck to his laws, and so to run to salvation and life. Their words, then, are full of all truth; but the things of the Greeks have been made foolish, not having the beauty of truth; for everything among them is false, prophecy and understanding alike, and the multitude of the reputed gods, unknown even to those who go astray.

“Who says to Jerusalem: You will be inhabited; and to the cities of Judah: You will be built, and its desert places will spring up.”

The words “I am” will follow here too, that is: “Jerusalem, I am the one who redeems you, who accomplishes all things and stretched out the heaven. I am, then,” he says, “the one who says to Jerusalem: You will be inhabited.” For the Babylonians took it by force, [and laid waste] the whole [land] of the Jews … God, and they put off the yoke of captivity, since the one who [took] Babylon allowed them to do this, Cyrus son of Cambyses, I mean; and having returned to Judea they rebuilt the cities and the temple and dwelt in peace. Very aptly, then, the prophetic word, by saying that Jerusalem will be built, gives the hearers to understand that it will be captured in due time and overthrown. And it does not make the prediction of what will befall them from the grievous things, but rather from those at which they would likely greatly rejoice, while also, as I said, bringing them to think of the gloomier things. Since, then, God commands that Jerusalem be built, the word of the prophecy surely signifies that it was first captured.