Commentary on Isaiah 4.3.3–4.3.10

“Then it was declared to you: I am God, and there is no other besides me; a righteous one and a saviour there is none apart from me. Turn to me, and you will be saved, you who are at the end of the earth.”

Setting terrible snares of many kinds for men, the accursed demons, impiously plundering the glory of the Godhead and fastening it on their own heads, the all-daring ones strove to put together the workshops of their own deceit. Pretending to know the future and to be able to announce it to those who wished to learn, they went on for a time snatching people away. There were oracles in countries and cities, false divinations everywhere, and omens, and a crowd of cheats “speaking from their own hearts,” as it is written; oracle-chanters and necromancers and …; in short, the world under the sun was filled with liars and cheats. Among them, then, there was no true knowledge of things to come, but false speech, ribaldry, deceit, guile, and nothing else. That is why the God of all says: “If they will declare, let them draw near, that they may know together.” “If they are able,” he says, “to declare, let them come, that they may know together,” so that, face to face, all gathered into one (for they were, as I said, scattered piecemeal), if they can truly declare, he says, all coming together in the same place, let them know something of what is to come: “who made these things heard from the beginning.” For which of the superstitious, or of the prophets among them, or of those who sat at the oracles, ever knew and announced that in due time Christ would shine on the world, that the cloud of deceit would depart, and the darkness of knowledge falsely so called would be scattered, and that Christ would shine out on those on the earth like a spiritual morning star, like dawn and day, like the sun of righteousness? But neither, he says, did the demons who pretend to have knowledge of the future announce these things from the beginning, nor did the servants of their false speech. For none of the poets or prose writers among the Greeks made mention of such splendid events. Who, then, made these things heard from the beginning? “Then it was also declared to you,” that is, from the beginning. And it was declared not by anyone else, but rather by me, who know all things and foretold them before they happened. For I have spoken to you … carried across to you words from me. “So I am God,” he says, “and there is no other besides me. And I am righteous and a saviour.” For the accursed demons are unrighteous, as destroyers and lovers of blood who thrust those on the earth down to ruin. Righteous and a saviour is the God of all, defending those … and bound tight with cords of sins, enlightening those in darkness, strengthening what is weak, raising up what has fallen, and turning back what wanders. That is why he says: “Turn to me, and you will be saved, you who are at the end of the earth.” In these words one may well see the greatness of the grace through Christ reaching to all who are on the earth. … the salvation that went to one nation, Israel; but long, as it were, and running to the ends of the earth is the salvation through Christ. For the whole earth has been caught in the net, through faith in him, for salvation and life.

“I am God, and there is no other. By myself I swear: righteousness shall surely go out of my mouth; my words shall not be turned back; for to me every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall swear by God, saying: Righteousness and glory shall come to him.”

Once the falsely named worship had been destroyed, the truth had to come forward into the open, and, the darkness as it were driven off, the light had to shine all around. That is why, quite fittingly, after this beneficial and profitable exhortation, he makes his own glory manifest. “For I am God,” he says, “and there is no other.” Then he foretells the power of what was expected to come through Christ, confirming it with an oath: that in every way and without fail the righteousness spoken through him (that is, the righteousness in Christ through faith, freely given to those throughout the whole earth under heaven) and his words (plainly the saving proclamation of the gospel) will in every way and without fail shine out in due time. For this, I think, is what “shall not be turned back” makes clear. For when God promises, and says that something will be in every way and without fail, who can hinder it? He swears, then, by himself. For men swear by the greater, and for them the oath is an end of every dispute, for confirmation; but God, who is above all, swears by himself. For he could not swear by another, since he is himself, as I said, the highest of all and what stands at the very summit, both in nature and in glory. What, then, was promised? The salvation and turning of every nation on the earth. “For to me,” he says, “every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall swear by God.” That every knee should bow to God, and that his name should be sworn by among all: what else could this be understood to mean than the turning of all, their knowledge of him, and the declaration of their close fellowship with him? For those who come to God at all by turning give up entirely both bowing the knee to unclean spirits and holding them as gods with their tongue (for they will not swear by anyone as by God); but, knowing the one who is God by nature and in truth, they put their neck under his yoke and bend the knee as they make their supplications; and if they choose to swear rightly, they will name him and him alone, saying that “all righteousness and all glory shall come to him,” that is, belong to him alone. For the best of all works, and everything in words that tends to the glory of God, must be ascribed by us to him alone.

“… From the Lord they shall be justified, and in God all the seed of the sons of Israel shall be glorified.”

What is said is true on both counts, and the divine word will not lie. For it will surely follow for those who … spiritual …, that they must be put to shame; but to those who love him from a pure heart it will be added that they are glorified in him and are distinguished in righteousness. These would by no means be Israel according to the flesh, but rather the seed of the sons of Israel.

To make the sense of what lies before us clearer, we say this. The only-begotten Word of God shone on those on the earth in a form like ours, that is, having become flesh, according to the Scriptures; and he came preaching release to captives and sight to the blind, sending away the crushed in release, healing the broken-hearted, and proclaiming the acceptable year of the Lord. But although the Jews above all ought to have received faith in him, since they had been given the law as a tutor and the holy prophets as guides into the mysteries, they did not do this; they leapt away from him, as it were, and came to have a sin that cannot be cast off. True, then, is the saying: “All who separate themselves from the Lord shall be ashamed.” For they heard him saying: “Truly, truly I say to you, unless you believe that I am, you will die in your sins.” But those who recognized his appearing have been justified through faith and have gained a long and unending glory, shown to be partakers of the Holy Spirit and enriched with the splendid dignity of adoption. For he gave them power to become children of God; and besides this they have a hope worth grasping and beyond reproach, for they will inherit the kingdom of heaven. These may be understood as “the seed of the sons of Israel.” By “sons of Israel” here we say the holy apostles and evangelists are named, for according to the flesh they were of the Jews; and by their “sons,” those who were called through them to the knowledge of Christ. At any rate the divine Paul addressed those who believed through him: “For though you have ten thousand tutors in the Lord, yet you do not have many fathers; for in Christ Jesus I begot you through the gospel.” And we very often find other holy apostles too calling “little children” those whom they had caught in the net for the salvation that is in Christ.

“Bel has fallen, Dagon has been crushed; their carved images have become like wild beasts and cattle.”

Always, somehow, the predictions made through the holy prophets about Christ, the Saviour of us all, are followed by necessary foretellings of what came to pass through him, that is, of what was accomplished for the world. And the most excellent accomplishment of all was that Satan was removed from the midst, and with him the profane and man-slaying multitude. When, then, Christ shone on the world, the old, thick, and accursed mist of sin was dispersed, which Satan had poured into the minds of all so that they might not see the light of the truth; and the tyranny of the demons and the farces of idolatry came to an end. Necessarily, then, as I said, he says that Bel has fallen. This was above all an idol of the Babylonians, though it was honoured in other cities too. And they say that Bel is the Kronos of whom the godless Greeks tell fables, whom they also say is cruel and bloodthirsty and a lover of the slaughter of men. At any rate it is recorded in Greek histories that on a single day some slaughtered three hundred strangers to him, performing a festival abominable and hateful to God and men. And indeed the God of all, indignant at such terrible impieties, says somewhere through one of the holy prophets to those accustomed to do such things: “Sacrifice men, for calves have run out.” For he says that the unclean demons had come to such a pitch of hatred for mankind and of savagery that they thirsted insatiably for human blood and gloated over the destruction of those they caught. For to them the calf sizzling on the altar, frankincense, and sheep do not seem equal; they crave rather the slaughter of men.

Bel, then, “has fallen,” he says, that is, the strength of the demon was brought down and fell, so that from then on, having cast off the yoke of their perversity, those who were once … might run to God with a free and unforced will. … Dagon. This too was an object of worship of those who live on the coast, which also borders Judaea, I mean the people of Ascalon and Gaza, whom the divine Scripture very often calls Philistines, that is, foreigners. Very aptly he says “has been crushed,” the prophet framing his account of it now from what happened to it at one time. For we have read in the books of Kingdoms that the foreigners once took the divine ark and brought it into the house of Dagon; then the servants of the demon came in and saw the idol fallen before the ark, and so crushed that it had lost its hands and feet and head. Very gracefully, then, he says “has been crushed,” from what happened at that time. And we say that the prophetic word indicates to us the destruction of idolatry, naming Bel and Dagon as a part of the whole. For it was not possible to mention all the idols on the earth; instead he again proceeds from the part to the whole.

“… to one weary and hungry, faint, not strong together, who will not be able to be saved from war; but they themselves were put to shame as captives.”

Here again the word shows us the uselessness and vanity of things carved by hand, and from the farces performed over them it shows the worship of those who have gone astray to be full of shame. For they would at times hold cold and ridiculous festivals for the demons; then some of the priests of these things would go about in the streets carrying them …, and wherever …, pretending to bear the burden with difficulty. And the senseless and vulgar populace, and silly women, applauded with acclamations, seeing the lifeless matter shaped perhaps into a man or a woman; and they thought that the one carried really laid an unbearable weight on those who had put him on their shoulders. Therefore the divine word here laughs to scorn the magnitude of Greek senselessness, and says of the statues carried in procession, which they were senselessly accustomed to worship: “… and to one hungry, faint, not strong together.” For, as I said, some of the priests used to pretend these things as they carried the handmade objects about. How, then, will the powerlessness of the things worshipped be known? One could see it from many other things; for wood or stone or some other material is the origin of such things. But since it was necessary to show it from what would be most useful, he brings them to the remembrance of the captivity that was to come upon them, I mean the one under the Babylonians, which they did in fact suffer, since, letting go of the duty to fulfil the law and to serve the one who is God by nature, they went off into everything most repulsive and worshipped the works of their own hands; and besides this they sacrificed to the host of heaven, as it is written. From where, then, will the powerlessness of the supposed gods be seen? “They will not be able,” he says, “to be saved from war; but they themselves were led captive.”

For when a city or a country is taken, if they have any gods overlaid with gold and silver, these are the first of all to be … by the captors, though it would be natural, if they were gods at all, for them to defend their own worshippers and make them stronger than the hand of the enemy. What, then, does a carved image profit, that they carved it, in the prophet's words? “He fashioned it, a molten image, a false phantasy”: gods who are able to help neither themselves nor others. For how could any such thing come from wood and stone?

“Hear me, house of Jacob, and all the remnant of Israel, you who are carried from the womb and taught from childhood to old age. I am; until you grow old, I am. I bear with you. I made, and I will release; I will take you up and save you.”

… with due order and with wise design. For since he had mentioned war, in which it came about that a countless multitude of men and women died and the land of the Jews was left very empty of men, for that reason he speaks as to a single house, as to a remnant and what was left over from barbarian cruelty: “Hear me, house of Jacob, and even the remnant of Israel.” The word would have benefited the hearers not a little, if any of them had been quick-witted and … what has been foretold one might easily …, but when it leaps on one, as it were, how could one beat it off? He calls them, then, “the remnant,” all but crying aloud that they will be consumed by the war; and that … is hard to teach in the souls of the Jews, and that the study of the law has become a profitless thing for them, he shows by saying: “You who are carried from the womb and taught from childhood to old age.” For from infancy to old age they studied the sacred and divine Writings and gained nothing from them; but, as though they had never been granted any admonition at all, they went off into apostasy from God. “But even if a long time,” he says, “was spent by you in profitless studies, and, seeing you most ignorant, I … make myself manifest to you thus, saying: I am,” that is, I live and exist, not as having a beginning of coming to be or knowing that I shall come to an end, but always the same and in the same state; and “until you grow old” I will again be the same. For old age does not come upon me as it does on you; I am living and all-powerful. “And I made” the misfortunes of war that were brought upon you, calling to justice by a just verdict those who insulted my glory. “But I will release,” that is, I will let go …. “I will take you up and save you.” For I who gave you into the hands of enemies will make you my own again and set you free from the bonds of captivity. So, as with a remedy of many kinds, he heals the hearts of those who behaved outrageously toward him and, out of very great ignorance, slipped into what is unlawful, now by threats, now by good promises. For his aim is to save what was lost and … from the hands of the devil.

“To whom have you likened me? Contrive, you who go astray, who contribute gold from a purse and silver by weight; they will set it in the balance, and … and bowing down they worshipped them. They carry it on their shoulders and go; and if they set it in its place, it will stay there; it will not move. And whoever cries to it, it will not hear; it will not save him from evils.”

He convicts the worshippers of idols of being insolent and thoughtless, and of offending against the divine and supreme nature itself. For, as far as lies in them, they bring down the transcendent height of the glory that is in it to things that do not befit it, assigning it to lifeless matter; and then they show their own heads to be justly bound under the utmost penalties. “To whom, then, have you likened me,” he says, “me who by nature stand apart from all things, raised on high by incomparable pre-eminence and beyond everything created, the Maker of all, at once King and Lord?” It is likely too that God wishes to show something else when he says to those who have gone astray: “To whom have you likened me? See, contrive, you who have gone astray.” “For contributing gold and silver,” he says, “and then hiring a goldsmith, they fashion the form of a man or a woman, or of a wild beast, say, or of a beast of burden, and a name …” “Consider, then,” he says, “to whom you have likened me”: to a man or a woman, or even to wild beasts or irrational animals. How, then, is the thing not beyond all impiety? Contrive something in your defence; clear yourselves of the sins. But you would not find an argument to help you in this. For when you bring the nature that is above all down to wild beasts and cattle, what arguments will you use that could suffice to escape the charges?

And since the making of idols tries to teach nothing else than vulgarity of thought, for that reason he speaks very plainly. “For they collect silver and gold from a purse,” he says, “and they will set it in the balance,” in an equal measure, each one perhaps contributing, so that presumably the god being crafted would be more attached to the one who contributes more. One might say, I think, that if they had been short of money they would have had no god at all, and if the world under heaven had not abounded in craftsmen, there would be none at all for them to worship. They have come to such ignorance and senseless thinking that, though they themselves existed before their own gods, they honour gods who were born later; those whom they ought surely to regard as makers they themselves make; and, though masters of the matter, which they took for necessary use, they ask it to save them. They carry their gods like porters, lifting them on their shoulders; they see them immovable and carried off wherever anyone pleases, and they bring their supplications to them. So when you see … sick with the same things, you do not perceive it; for you have fallen into the utmost senselessness.

“… you who have gone astray. Turn in your heart, and remember the former things from of old, that I am God, and there is none besides me, declaring beforehand the last things before they come to pass, and at once they were accomplished. And I said: All my counsel shall stand, and all that I have planned I will do, calling a bird from the east, and from a land far off, for the things I have planned. I have spoken and I have brought him; I have created and I have made; I have brought him, and I have prospered his way.”

Seeing them held fast by deceit and darkness and terrible ignorance, God again takes pity on them and bids them go back, as it were, bringing the eye of the mind to bear closely on things, so that, learning what evil they are in, they may change course to better things, and, keeping an unending remembrance of the words spoken to those before them, may choose to repent, doing this not simply with the tongue but from the heart itself. For such a way of changing one's mind would be most praiseworthy and true. That the making of idols is a ridiculous thing, he bids them recognize from what he has already said; that he himself is God of all, he persuades them to understand from the most God-befitting prerogatives that belong to him by nature. “For I am,” he says, “the one who has knowledge of all things, and … revealing a thing before it comes to be, and bringing what was promised to its end. And I affirm besides that nothing at all of what I resolve could ever be shaken.” This too is a very great proof of invincible and God-befitting strength. For men, even when they have obtained the highest honours and hold power to the utmost, set some aim before themselves and plan to accomplish something, yet what they have devised does not in every way and without fail go smoothly for them; for very many things fall in between and bring a hindrance hard to overcome. But as for the God of all, if he should wish to do anything, what could resist and oppose it? “For what the holy God wills, who will scatter it? And his high hand, who will turn it back?” So, as a proof that he is God by nature and in truth, he might fittingly say: “All my counsel shall stand, and all that I have planned I will do.” Then he adds to this: “calling a bird from the east, and from a land far off, for the things I have planned”; and with this “I am” will follow. The bird called from the east and from a land far off we say is the Babylonian, who burned the whole land of the Jews, took Jerusalem, and shook down the temple in it; then, removing very many of both the common people and the notables, he took them from the land that bore them and deposited them in the country and land of the Persians, throwing the yoke of captivity on them harshly and unbearably. … the blessed prophet Ezekiel. It runs thus: “And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, tell a tale and speak a parable to the house of Israel, and you shall say: Thus says Adonai the Lord: The great eagle, long in the stretch of its wings, full of talons, which has the design to enter into Lebanon, took the choice parts of the cedar; it broke off the tips of its tender growth and carried them into the land of Canaan; it set them in a walled city. And it took of the seed of the land and gave it into the plain as a plant by much water; it set it to be looked upon, and it became a vine, weak and small in size, so that its branches appeared toward it and its roots were under it. And it became a vine, and made shoots, and stretched out its tendrils.” These things God said to the blessed prophet Ezekiel. But since the saying was hard to grasp, and the force of its meaning not very clear to the hearers, he himself explains it again, saying: “Say to the embittering house of Israel: Do you not know what these things are that I said? When the king of Babylon comes against Jerusalem, he will take its king and its rulers and bring them to himself to Babylon. And he will take of the seed of the

kingdom, and make a covenant with him, and bring him in under a curse; and he will take the leaders of the land, so that it may become a weak kingdom and not lift itself up at all, so as to keep his covenant and establish it.” For, as we read in the book of Kingdoms, after the holy city was taken, the Babylonian carried Zedekiah away captive into the land of the Chaldeans, and some of the notables bound with him; and these are “the choice parts of the cedar.” “I, then, am,” he says, “the one who calls a bird from the east. For the things I have planned, I have spoken and I have brought him,” in due time; but what was foretold was brought to its end. “I have created,” that is, I have prepared evils, plainly the hardships and the calamities of war, for those who had turned aside. “And I have made, I have brought him, and I have prospered his way.” For it was not the work of his own hand to overpower Israel, if God was its helper. But I myself, who save and protect, prospered his way, so that he might bring under punishment those who cared little for piety toward me, or rather had broken away altogether, so as to give to wood and stones the honour and glory most fitting to me alone. …

“Hear me, you who have lost your heart, who are far from righteousness. I have brought my righteousness near, and the salvation that is from me I will not delay. I have given salvation in Zion to Israel for glory.”

See, again he promises them salvation and does not let them despair, lest perhaps … beyond the hope that they will be saved, although they have chosen to repent. Heartless, then, are those who go astray, and the word is true of them. For with what sort of mind do they themselves fashion the objects of their worship, assigning reverence to wood and stones, and ask to be saved by them? Yet even so God bears with them; rather, he pities them as deceived, has mercy on them as fallen, brings them back to understanding with good promises, bids them become sober again, and bids those who are far off and cut off from righteousness, that is, from God, to come to him. He seems to weave the declaration of the universal and most general salvation together with the promises of a partial one. For he saved from the land of the Chaldeans those who were held as captives of the spear …; this, I think, one might call partial; but the most general is the salvation through Christ, which he will show not long after to those of old. “… my righteousness, and the salvation that is from me I will not delay.” We say that this resembles: “Yet a little while, and the coming one will come and will not delay.” And salvation is given in Zion to Israel for glory. Here he names the spiritual Zion, that is, the Church of Christ, in which all of us who belong to the spiritual Israel receive his salvation in glory. For just as a Jew is not only the one according to the flesh, but also anyone who has been granted the circumcision in the Spirit, so also Israel is not only those born of the blood of Israel, but also all who have had a mind that sees God, who have also been placed among the children, according to the promise to Abraham; and these too