Commentary on Isaiah 4.5.22

But when the cup has been taken from her, it will be given to the swarm of those who wronged her. And in what way did they wrong her? By not allowing her to walk straight, nor, achieving a life well pleasing to God and clothed with the brightness of the gospel way of life, to reach together with those who believed in Christ the city above. Who, then, might be understood as those who wronged her? So far as it is ready to hand and evident to say, first those who obtained the leadership of the synagogue, who above all had … a greater cheerfulness than the others, … being thrust out from honour and glory, wealth and luxury, and life itself. But if one must say something of what is hidden too (and I think this also necessary), we say that the synagogue of the Jews was wronged not only by those who obtained the leadership, but also by the devil’s malice, which did not let them receive the divine light into their mind so as to understand him who calls them to salvation, who justifies the ungodly, frees from punishment, and draws out of the bonds of death, I mean Christ. And witness of this is [Paul, who says: “But if] our gospel is veiled, it is veiled among those who are perishing, in whom the god of this age has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, so that the enlightenment of the gospel of the glory of Christ should not dawn.” Indeed the Son himself said to the Jewish crowds that something of this kind had befallen them, and convicted them plainly of having become hard and disobedient from an unclean spirit, and carried away to every kind of evil. For he said: “When the unclean spirit goes out of a man, it passes through waterless places seeking rest; and when it does not find it, it returns,” he says, “saying: I will return to my house from which I came out. Then it takes along seven other evil spirits more wicked than itself, and they enter and dwell there; and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first. So it will be with this evil generation.” For in Egypt they worshipped the gods there, and the unclean spirit was in them. But when they were redeemed through Moses and received the law that defines what is to be done (they heard it say plainly: “You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve”), the unclean spirit too was driven out of their heart. But since they did not have the fear of God within themselves, nor receive Jesus to dwell in them through faith (“for he dwells in our hearts through faith,” as it is written), that ancient and unclean spirit [found] the place empty in them, and their last state became worse than the first. That the inventor of impiety also made the traitor among the disciples to be such is not unclear; for it is written that after the morsel Satan entered into him. So the synagogue of the Jews has been punished, Satan darkening it and not letting it see with the eyes of the mind the light of the world, that is, Christ. But since they have been called to conversion, and the cup of wrath and the bowl of falling have been given into the hands of those who wronged her, the evil and opposing powers have been punished, Christ the Saviour of all sending them down into Hades; and, consigning them to Tartarus in chains of gloom, he handed them over to judgment … who said: “Jerusalem, bow down, that we may pass over.” And she put her middle to the ground for those passing over her, that is, she spread herself beneath and submitted herself to those who wished to trample on her. This the evil powers do when they see a soul slack and throwing away its own mind, so as to be willing to submit easily to their unholy and God-hated counsels.