Commentary on Isaiah 5.5.14–5.5.20

He speaks as to a splendid and well-peopled city. And the more distinguished cities are always guarded by a great many sober watchmen, lest any of the enemy should attack unexpectedly. So too the Saviour and Lord of all, having fortified the church with ineffable power and with the help of the angels, has appointed for her wise and wakeful watchmen, whose care for her never sleeps, plainly the holy initiators, who in no way cease to call to mind his glory and his wonders, as it is written. For we are accustomed in the church … the mighty works of the Saviour and the display of his divine pre-eminence, so that from this they may have a secure and unshakeable faith about him. Or perhaps he says that the watchmen will remember the Lord by crying out and saying: “There is none like you.” For he is not like us; but as far as he rises above human things in the pre-eminence of his renown and in the glory of the Godhead, so far does he surpass them in being kind and loving toward humankind. For as the psalmist says: “He has not dealt with us according to our iniquities, nor repaid us according to our sins.” For he saved us though we were sinners, and in his love for humankind brought to himself those who were not worthy to be saved. He said something like this through another prophet too: “What shall I do with you, Ephraim? What shall I do with you, Judah? I will make you like adamant, and like Zeboiim; my heart is turned within me; I will not act according to the wrath of my anger; I will not abandon Ephraim to be blotted out; for I am God, and not man, the Holy One among you.” For since I am not a man, he says, but rather God, holy among you, for this reason I will not abandon Ephraim to be blotted out.

“… a boast on the earth. The Lord has sworn by his glory and by the strength of his arm: I will no longer give your grain and your food to your enemies, and foreigners shall no longer drink your wine, for which you laboured; but those who gather them shall eat them and praise the Lord, and those who gather shall drink it in my holy courts.”

As from the likeness of the events, that is, of the calamities that very often came upon those of Israel … For they sinned in many ways, forsaking the God who is God by nature and in truth, and devoting themselves to the worship of idols; for they worshipped the works of … the law … of life, and were carried off to what seemed good to them. For this reason they were struck by God, sometimes with failures of crops, with diseases of the body, with invasions of wars, whose armies laid waste their whole country and plundered even what was in the fields. For it was said to them: “You shall sow, but not reap; you shall press olives, but not anoint yourself with oil; and you shall not drink wine.” So “if you set it right, O Jerusalem”, he says, that is, if you change to the spiritual worship, if you run away from the types and recognize that Moses wrote about me, if you accept the grace that comes through faith, “and make for yourself a boast on the earth”, that is, a splendid boast, plainly the one that is in Christ, “the Lord has sworn by his glory” (for he has no one greater by whom to swear) “and by … his arm”, that none of the things brought on you of old for your great disobedience will happen to you any more. For you will not have the sweat of your farming without reward (you will understand this spiritually), but, as the divine David says: “You shall eat the fruits of your labours.” And as Paul says: “Whatever a man sows, that he will also reap; and the one who sows to the Spirit will reap eternal life from the Spirit.” And that she will heap up for herself richly the fruits of

spiritual fruitfulness, he indicates by the words before us: “And those who obtain these”, he says, “will glorify the Lord, and those who gather shall drink them in the holy courts.” For those who have gathered in the boasts of the exceptional life will delight in the mansions above, and … of the right and …

“Go through my gates, and make a way for my people, and the stones that are out of the … For behold, the Lord has made it heard to the end of the earth.”

He now calls out to the watchmen themselves, that is, the teachers; for he has commanded that the entrances of the holy city be opened, and that the approach be made clear and easy to travel; for by the stones he indicates the stumbling blocks. For if someone happens to have been called from the flock of the Jews, he often stumbles over the commandments of the law; for he lingers fondly over the types and, as it were, settling down among the shadows, makes the truth unacceptable. And if someone is from the multitude of the Greeks, he too stumbles at the strangeness of the teaching, and the customary worship troubles him greatly, or perhaps he remembers the words that their learned men compose about their own gods. For they have written old and worn-out myths, deceiving and being deceived, and filling the earth with the devil's mist. But the sober watchmen and initiators … the stumbling blocks …, what seems to oppose the tradition of the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. And they do this rightly, “destroying arguments and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and taking every thought captive to obedience” to him. And we will find the most holy Paul rebuking those from the gentiles who suffered something of this kind. For to those of the blood of Israel he said: “Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but keeping the commandments of God.” And again: “For I tell you that if you are circumcised, Christ will be of no benefit to you. You are severed from Christ, you who are justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace.” And to those from the multitude of the Greeks: “You observe days and months and seasons and years; I fear for you, that I may have laboured over you in vain.” You see them everywhere throwing away the stones and removing the stumbling blocks of both. And we say that the stones are also, in another way, the things at which some may stumble at times: the profane and loathsome twitterings of the unholy heretics. They talk emptiness, and carry off some of the easily led from the doctrines of the truth; but the watchmen throw these too out from within the walls of the church. And we say that her walls are the firmness of the doctrines of the truth, against which the gates of Hades will not prevail. “For lift up a signal”, he says, “to the nations. For behold, the Lord has made it heard to the end of the earth.” And what is this signal that is heard, which he said must be raised to the nations and to the end of the earth? That is, the word of faith which we proclaim must be lifted up and become very well known; or perhaps it is the symbol of the saving passion. And this too is the confession of faith: for one must say that Jesus is Lord, and believe that God raised him from the dead. And this saves both from death and from sin. So it is not of the Jews only, but of the gentiles too. For the signal is raised not only for those who have believed from the blood of Israel, but for those in every part of the earth; for the world under heaven has been gathered in the net by the proclamations of the gospel.

“Say to the daughter of Zion: Behold, your Saviour has come, having his own reward, and his work before his face. And he shall call them a holy people, redeemed by the Lord; and you …”

He foretells the coming of the Saviour, and all that we have gained through it, and the wealth that will be given to those who believe in him. He names Zion a daughter. If one wishes, let him understand the old Zion, as having now received mercy and been justified in faith. But if the new, that is, the church, it too might not unreasonably be called the daughter of Zion. For those of the blood of Israel believed first, and the church from the gentiles is named as a kind of daughter of the church that was formed from them in the beginning. And whom does he command to bring the good news to Zion? Surely the holy initiators who have been allotted the leadership of churches, whom he also very rightly commanded to open the gates and to throw the stones out of the way. And what is the thing proclaimed? “Behold, your Saviour has come, having his own reward, and his work before his face.” He sets down together two things that are exceptional and befit God, through which the glory of the Saviour might become plain. For the divine prophets exhorted her to piety, and to a lawful and seemly way of life; then they called to mind the rewards which those who distinguish themselves in word will receive from God in due time; but they themselves were not givers of spiritual gifts. They proclaimed beforehand, as I said, promises … of God. But the Saviour of all, since he is God, has the power to give rewards, and besides this to look upon the way of life, that is, the work, of each person; for this too befits God. For it is written: “The ways of a man are before the eyes of God, and he watches all his paths.” So “he will come”, he says, “having his own reward”, that is, himself giving the rewards to those to whom it is fitting to receive them. And so to the divine Peter, who had confessed the faith rightly, he says: “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” And to all the holy apostles together he granted authority over unclean spirits, and the power to heal every disease and every infirmity among the people. Yes, and to the thief hanged with him he showed that faith is not without reward, saying: “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.” So, having come, he says, he “will call” those who believe in him “a holy people, and redeemed by the Lord”. For no envoy, no angel, but the Lord himself saved us, as it is written. “And you, Zion”, that is, church, “shall be called sought after”; for what is sought is remembered; “and not forsaken”, as the first was, that is, the multitude of those who disbelieved. For Christ said through the voice of Jeremiah: “I have forsaken my house, I have abandoned my inheritance”, and through the voice of Christ himself, the Saviour of us all: “Behold, your house is left to you.”

“Who is this who comes from Edom, with crimson garments from Bosor? This one so beautiful in his robe, with force and strength? I speak righteousness and the judgment of salvation. Why are your garments red, and your clothes as from a trodden winepress, full of what is trampled? And of the nations there is no man with me. And I trampled them in wrath, and crushed them like earth, and brought down their blood to the earth, and stained all my clothes. For a day of recompense has come upon them, and a year of redemption is at hand. And I looked, and there was no helper; and I considered, and no one supported; and my arm delivered them, and my wrath stood by.”

“And I trampled them in my anger, and made them drunk in my wrath, and brought down their blood to the earth.”

Wisely and skilfully the word of the prophecy … of Christ, the Saviour of us all. For having brought to completion the power of his dispensation in the flesh, he went up to the Father and God in heaven. And he was seen by the powers above not only in our form, that is, as man, but also showing the marks of the passion. And we certainly do not say that after the return to life from the dead the piercings of the nails and the other marks were still in the holy flesh, but rather this: just as, when Thomas disbelieved the holy apostles, who said they had seen the Lord raised from the dead, he showed him the prints of the nails and his side, so we understand that, in order that the manifold wisdom of God, which he made in Christ, might now be made known through the church to the principalities and authorities in the heavenly places, he went up with the marks of the passion, and made a sight entirely strange and unaccustomed to the powers above. So they were astonished when they saw him going up, and said: “Who is this who comes from Edom?” In the Greek tongue Edom is interpreted “fiery” or “earthy”, and Bosor “of flesh” or “fleshly”. Who then, they say, is this one from the earth, that is, earthy, “with crimson garments from Bosor”, that is, with his robe reddened as from flesh, that is, from blood? “This one beautiful in his robe.” For as … flesh, yes, and full of invincible strength; for this, I think, hinted at the divine [nature]. Then, when the angels, or perhaps when they had said “Who is this?” to one another, he answers and says: “I speak righteousness and the judgment of salvation.” By righteousness he means either the gospel, the divine proclamation, or that every word of God is righteous; and by the judgment of salvation he perhaps names the judgment made on our behalf; for he has given judgment for the world under heaven, and … Satan, who had wronged it, … the apostate … of his rule over them. So he said: “Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out; and I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all to myself.” When Christ had said this, they ask again and say: “Why are your garments red, and your clothes as from a …” … remember the patriarch Jacob saying: “He will wash his robe in wine, and his garment in the blood of the grape.” For his clothes appeared reddened with blood, and as if drenched in wine to redness. Then again at once the Saviour holds to his word, “And of the nations there is no man with me”, and adds this after it: “For I”, he said, “speak righteousness and the judgment of salvation, and of the nations there is no man with me.” For no one stood by me in my suffering, he says; from no nation was there anyone who grieved with me; and … the cohort of soldiers and the savagery of the attendants, “who led him away to Caiaphas”, as the evangelist says; “then all the disciples deserted him and fled.” But Christ had foretold this too; for he said: “Behold, the hour is coming, and has come, when you will be scattered each to his own, and will leave me alone; and I am not alone, because the Father is with me.” And he said through the lyre of the psalmist too: “My soul expected reproach and misery, and I waited for one to grieve with me, and there was none, and for comforters, and I found none; and they gave gall for my food, and for …” … with me, he says, from all the nations. Were you then, since you were alone and had no one to share the contest,

overcome by the hand of those who fought against you? Have they prevailed, and, having boasted over your strength, do they now rejoice as victors? Not at all, he says. For although I had no one standing by me, I trampled them in wrath, and crushed them like earth, and brought down their blood to the earth. For after Christ's going up into heaven every kind of unbearable calamity was brought upon the peoples of the Jews by the divine wrath; “for a day of recompense”, he says, “has come upon them”. For they could have seized the faith and been enriched with the grace that comes through it; then, having become careless, or rather arrogant and insolent and fighters against God to the end, how could they not very rightly have come to be within every evil? Yet the time of that recompense was a time of redemption for those who had recognized his appearing. For at the same time the unruly was punished, and the obedient and humble was redeemed by Christ. “For I looked”, he says, “and there was no helper; I considered, and no one supported; and my arm delivered them, and my wrath stood by.” “And I trampled them in my anger.” In these words he seems to accuse the carelessness of the scribes and Pharisees, who had been appointed to lead the peoples, to direct them to righteousness, and to train them well in what pleases God. But they were so careless and slack as to help none of those under the yoke, and not to set them right by admonitions, … For they dared to say about Christ, the Saviour of us all: “We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from.” And again: “He has a demon and is mad; why do you listen to him?” So since there was no one, he says, to help or support, my arm, that is, my power, saved them; for very many of the Jews, as I said, have believed. But on those who were unwilling to help, my wrath stood by, and they became a thing trampled …

“… in all that the Lord repays us. The Lord is a good judge to the house of Israel; he brings upon us according to his mercy and according to the abundance of his righteousness.”

When God had said that wrath stood by the disobedient, that anger trampled them, and that their blood was brought down to the earth, the prophet stepped in between, and does not let those against whom the words were spoken despair, but takes the matter up, and very skilfully. For I remembered within myself, he says, that the judge of all is not harsh. For I know his mercy and his excellences, that is, his mighty acts, in all that he repays us. For even if he has turned away from Israel, which had behaved like a drunkard and chosen to disobey, and as it were repays us the things of wrath, yet not of unmixed wrath but of wrath tempered with gentleness, still I know well his excellences, that is, the mighty acts done from time to time for the redemption of Israel. “So the Lord will be”, he says, “a good judge to the house of Israel”, not strict but kind, that is, good. For it would be the work of a strict judge to demand from sinners penalties proportionate to their offences; but of a good one, to pity them as weak.

So since he is a good judge, he brings upon us according to his mercy, that is, he will measure out the things of wrath, and mix his indignation with mercy. For an abundance of righteousness is in him, that is, he has reached the limit of all righteousness. For this reason, very fittingly, he will not leave Israel entirely unpunished, but rather, as I said, will temper the things of wrath with gentleness. For the remnant has been saved.

“And the Lord said: Are they not my people? My children will surely not deal faithlessly. And he became to them salvation out of all their affliction; no envoy, no angel, but the Lord himself saved them, because he loved them and spared them; he himself redeemed them, and took them up, and lifted them up all the days of old. But they disobeyed, and provoked his Holy Spirit; and he turned to them in …”

See again, I pray, the person of God brought in at once, all but crying out against the disobedience of Israel. For the Lord said, he says, that is, the God of all himself: Did I not count the people in the rank of children? And since this is true (for he said, “Israel is my firstborn son”), no one would have doubted that it would not be hard and disobedient, but would rather receive the Son when he was sent. But this did not come to pass, and yet he who knows all things was not disappointed in his hope; for he knew what would be, and nothing at all escapes him. The form of the speech is shaped in human fashion. While God says this, the prophet takes it up and charges Israel with both insensibility and ingratitude, and shows them to have received good things. “For he became to them”, he says, “salvation out of all their affliction”; and no one else besides him saved them, no envoy, no angel, but the Lord himself, by himself. For he worked wonders in Egypt, with Moses as mediator, yet he himself worked the marvels. And so, when Israel had made the calf and God was grieved at this, and promised to send an angel with them, Moses was distressed and said: “If you yourself do not go with me, do not bring me up from here.” So he himself saved them by himself, having received nothing at all from them, but only because he loved them and cared for them. And this is a clear proof of his incomparable love for humankind and of a calm befitting God. So he redeemed them from the house of slavery, took them up, lifted them up; and this, I think, is what he said at the beginning: “I have begotten sons and lifted them up”, that is, I have reared them, or made them distinguished, “but they have rejected me.” And “all the days of old” would signify “unceasingly and continually”. But though the God of all was so good to them, they became disobedient and did not stop provoking his Holy Spirit. And the [psalmist] will teach this, saying: “… in the wilderness, they provoked him to anger in a waterless land.” Or perhaps they provoked the Spirit of Christ; for they were hard, and did not obey him when he called them to salvation. “He turned”, then, “to them in enmity, and fought against them”; for it was necessary, it was necessary, that those who forgot the wonders, and were in no way profited by the things through which they might well have advanced to every kind of noble deed, should slip away from the sparing and love of the …

“… he remembered the days of old. Where is he who brought up from the earth the shepherd of the sheep? Where is he who put the Holy Spirit in them? Who led Moses by the right hand? The arm of his glory prevailed over the water before his face …”

“… to make for himself an everlasting name. He led them through the deep, like a horse through the wilderness, and they did not grow weary; and like cattle through a plain. The Spirit came down from the Lord and guided them. So you led your people, to make for yourself a glorious name.”

Saying that he who before had gladdened them with sparing and love was changed into enmity toward them, he usefully explains the causes of the matter. For he remembered, he says, that is, called to mind the days of old, that is, the ever-memorable days, because very many exceptional wonders took place in them. And who is it that is remembered? “He who brought up from the earth the shepherd of the sheep.” In these words he seems to make mention of the resurrection of Christ, the Saviour of us all; for “he who brought up”, he says, stands for “he who raised up from the earth the chief shepherd of all”; raised up, not necessarily from the dead, but as it were showing him forth from among men; for the only-begotten Word of the Father became as one of us, undergoing birth according to the flesh from a woman. But since, as I said, he beheld Israel, the prophet is all but astonished, and laments them for having fallen into such insensibility, saying: “Where is he who put the Holy Spirit in them?”, that is, who set his divine and saving Spirit over them. For “the Spirit came down from the Lord and guided them”, he says. And the divine David too said: “He sent out his Word and healed them.” And “the Lord is the Spirit”; for he works through the consubstantial Spirit. “Where then is he?” stands for: they forgot, and did not seek him, plainly by remembering and loving him. “Where is he who led Moses by the right hand?” Great was Moses, renowned and lofty, since the right hand of God was at work through him. “The arm of his glory prevailed”, that is, contended against and conquered the nature of the waters by congealing them. For he brings on the waters like a wall, he says, that is, he overpowered the waters themselves, so that they even became solid, although they have a liquid nature. And he fulfilled this too, he says, … of the sea, wishing to save, so that even in the rank of an enemy at last … “that he might make for himself an everlasting name”; for whatever happened, that is, was worked through the all-wise Moses, was done for the glory of God. And having congealed the waters, he says, he guided them through the sea as a horse, or as cattle, through a plain. The psalmist too teaches this, saying: “And he led up his people like sheep, and guided them like a flock in the wilderness.” And, as I said, the Spirit of the Lord guided them. “So you led your people, to make for him a glorious name.”