Commentary on Isaiah 5.5.21–5.6.4

For two things were done at the same time. Not only was Israel saved and redeemed from the hand of its oppressors, but the outcome of the marvellous deeds also won for God, who rules all things, the glory that befits him.

“Turn back from heaven, and look from your holy and glorious house. Where is your zeal and your strength? Where is the abundance of your mercy and of your compassions, that you bore with us? For you are our Father; for Abraham did not know us, and Israel did not acknowledge us. From the beginning your name has been upon us. Why have you made us stray, Lord, from your way, and hardened our hearts so as not to fear you?”

Here at last the prophet makes supplications for the whole nation, and raises the plea in the person of those of Israel; for he begs God to cease from his wrath against them, to stop his turning away, and as it were to return to them, he who had departed from them, since he is not one of those on earth, but rather the true God, who has heaven as his house of glory. And if God is said somewhere to dwell in heaven, let nothing bodily be understood of him. For we do not say that the divine is in a place and circumscribed, since it is simple and bodiless, and fills all things. But since he rests upon the spirits above as holy, for this reason we say that heaven is his throne and house. So “turn back”, they say; “for where is your zeal and your strength?” And no one, I think, would say that the God of all was in want of such things; they say this as no longer having a share in them. For it was always by using zeal and the strength befitting God that he saved Israel. To give an example: they were enslaved to the Egyptians, who made their life bitter with clay and brickmaking and wore them down by the cruelty of the taskmasters; but the God of all was zealous. So he said: “I have been zealous for Jerusalem and Zion with great zeal, and with great wrath I am angry with all the nations that join in attacking her; because I was angry a little, but they joined in to do harm.” Then again he worked marvels. For although the power of the Babylonians was unbreakable and used an irresistible might, he gave it over to desolation; for he let loose on them Cyrus son of Cambyses. Longing to enjoy such sparing they say: “Where is your zeal and your wrath? Where is the abundance of your mercy and of your compassions, that you bore with us?” They thirst again for the mercy, and for the gentleness and love for humankind given them in many trespasses. For he bore with them even when they provoked him at times beyond bearing: they spoke against him in the wilderness, and tested him in their hearts, saying: “Can God prepare a table in the wilderness? Because he struck a rock, and waters gushed out and torrents overflowed; can he also give bread?” And besides this they made the calf while Moses was away; yet they received mercy when he interceded. So you bore with us, they say, although we often offended.

“For you are our Father; for Abraham did not know us, and Israel did not acknowledge us.” They do not deny their fathers; for that would be of no use to them for … but rather [they grant] to God, who loves the good, the pre-eminence in tender love even over their fathers according to the flesh; for he is the Father of fathers. For we came from them, they say, but they have not seen us. You, however, have not ceased to keep for us the sparing and love that befit a Father who loves his children. So deliver us; for your name has been called upon us, for we are called your lot and people. But since through great disobedience and perversity of manners they behaved like drunkards toward Christ, they have fallen from their kinship with him (plainly the spiritual kinship), have no share in his gifts, and have not known the road of the gospel way of life; for this reason, very fittingly, they lament and say: “Why have you made us stray from your way, and hardened our heart so as not to fear you?” For they hardened their own hearts. So it was said to them through the voice of the prophet: “Rend your hearts and not your garments.” Yet the God of all, though he could have softened them, allowed them to keep a harsh and unbreakable mind. And for this reason, because he did not make them tender, he himself is said to harden them; and those who have suffered this must, in a way, also meet the other thing, I mean, coming to be outside the fear of God. And this looks toward destruction, and … into the pit of Hades.

“Turn back for the sake of your servants, for the sake of the tribes of your inheritance, that we may inherit a little of your holy mountain. We have become as at the beginning, when you did not rule over us, nor was your name called upon us.”

They ask again for his turning to them, through his gentleness and love for humankind. And they say that they are servants and a lot, not as having done anything to [bow] the neck, nor as belonging to the lot allotted to him because they had practised docility; but since they were once called his and were enriched with kinship with him in the beginning, for this reason they ask only to be saved. “For turn back”, he says, “that we may inherit a little of the holy mountain.” Now the sacred Writing very often calls the church the holy mountain, of which those of Israel have become a small part. For if they had accepted the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the body of the church would have been gathered from them in great part, with the multitude of the nations added to them. But since through great disobedience they have come after the nations, and the multitude of the latter is past numbering, while they are very few (for the remnant has been saved), for this reason they have inherited a small part in the holy mountain, that is, the church. And if someone should say that they name the city above, the church in heaven, the mother and nurse of the saints, the holy mountain, and that they wish to obtain a portion of the lot in it, you will understand rightly in this way too. And he says that they have become as at the beginning, when he did not rule them, nor was his name called upon them; and the saying is very fitting; for having once fallen from his sparing and shelter, they have gone back to what was in the beginning. And what are these things? They were enslaved to the Egyptians in clay and brickmaking, and continued to be tormented with the labours of it; and now too they have fallen under the devil's feet, and are defiled by the passions of the flesh and worldly desires; for this might fittingly be understood as the hidden brickmaking. In Egypt they served evil spirits, and now too the unclean spirit is in them. And the Saviour himself taught us this, saying about them: “When the unclean spirit goes out of a man, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, and does not find it. Then it says

‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when it comes, it finds it unoccupied and swept. Then”, he says, “it takes along seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and dwell there; and … than the first. So it will be”, he says, “with this generation.”

“If you open the heaven, trembling from you will seize the mountains, and they will melt, as wax melts before the fire; and fire will burn up the adversaries, and the name of the Lord will be manifest among the adversaries. Before your face nations will be troubled, when you do glorious things. Trembling from you will seize the mountains.”

It is the custom of the holy prophets to make supplications for Israel when at times it offended and was about to pay the penalties for its offences; and, as it were, warding off the things of wrath, they begged that it be sent against others and turned upon the heads of the foreigners. So the divine singer, in the seventy-eighth psalm, lamented Jerusalem laid waste, and said: “O God, the nations have come into your inheritance; they have defiled your holy temple.” And adding other things besides these, he says in the middle: “Pour out your wrath on the nations that do not know you, and on the kingdoms that have not called on your name.” The prophet now says something like this: “For if you open the heaven”, plainly by the descent of wrath, just as at the time of the flood (for the floodgates of heaven were opened), then trembling from you will seize the mountains, and they will melt, “as wax melts before the fire”. Here he calls mountains not, surely, the visible ones, but rather the evil powers, very well likened to the highest mountains because of their exceeding arrogance. So trembling will seize these powers, the nurslings of boastfulness. “For they will melt as by fire.” And wrath, falling on them like fire, would burn them up, since they are adversaries, plainly of your decrees. “And the name of the Lord will be manifest among the adversaries.” And what is this? The God of all very often works wonders, making plain the greatness of the power and pre-eminence that is in him. Through this he also punished, sometimes sinners too, making himself plain through his wrath against them, as happened when fire was rained on the Sodomites, or when … with plagues. So, O Master, they say, do not make your glory, that is, your name, manifest through wrath against us, but bring it rather upon the evil powers …

“… our eyes have seen a God besides you, and your works which you will do for those who wait for mercy; for it will meet those who do what is right, and they will remember your ways.”

The divine is invisible by nature; for “no one has ever seen God”, as it is written; yet he is beheld with the eyes of the understanding from what he works wonderfully and beyond reason. “For his invisible things”, it says, “from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood through the things that are made, both his eternal power and divinity.” And he is very often recognized also through his benefits, and displays the calm that is in him, saving unexpectedly those who have slipped from all hope, and extending a saving hand to those who lie, as it were, on the ground. Those who offer the present supplication say something of this kind. For since the foundation of the world we have neither heard of nor seen any such God, except you alone; for to those who wait for you, that is, who have placed their hope in you, he lavishes mercy; for it will surely follow the workers of righteousness, and it is fitting that those receive it who are mindful of your ways; for we say that the ways of the Lord are his commandments. And so … that is, among those who openly fight against your glory and have been carried into this by exceeding arrogance. For in this way too you will be manifest. For when you do glorious things, trembling from you will seize the mountains; and again he means those mountains which we mentioned just now. “From of old we have not heard, nor have …” … the divine David sings, at one time: “In your way I will live”, and at another: “I ran the way of your commandments, when you enlarged my heart.”

“Behold, you were angry, and we sinned; therefore we went astray, and we all became as unclean, and all our righteousness as the rag of a menstruous woman; and we fell away like leaves because of our iniquities; so the wind will carry us off like dust. And there is no one who calls upon your name, or who remembers to take hold of you; for you have turned your face away from us, and handed us over because of our sins.”

It seemed good to some of the interpreters to take the rendering of the words, that is, the force of the thoughts, in another sense, so that what is said is this: “Behold, we sinned, and you were angry.” For the divine wrath, they say, did not become the cause of their offending; but since they behaved like drunkards, God was angry; for they feared, probably, lest the divine anger be thought to be what brings about sin. But I think one must say this: it is no charge against the divine wrath that those who have come under it are unable to escape the onset of sin. For as long as the Saviour rejoices over us, we prevail over sin and … the filth that comes from wickedness; but when … the giver of strength and the master of manliness, we fall into weakness, and we will find our own mind feeble and slack. For God is the Lord of the powers. So Christ said: “Apart from me you can do nothing.” And the divine David too somewhere said to him about every saint: “You are the boast of their strength.” And elsewhere, ascribing the ability to accomplish good things not to himself but to the powers of God, he sings and says: “I will not hope in my bow, and my sword will not save me; for you saved us from those who afflict us.” So just as the gentleness from above … braces us to resist evil, in the same way, when we fall under divine wrath, it is then in every way necessary that we be carried off slavishly by pleasures toward what is base. You were angry, then, at the things in which we behaved like drunkards, and we became sinners and profane, so that all our …, he says, …, that is, loathsome and unclean. For righteousness is not to be seen among those of the blood of Israel, especially now, after … against Christ; for since they have a heart bare and empty of the divine and spiritual light, how could they know the road that leads straight to the sacred laws? Or how could they be truly righteous, having no share in the gospel proclamations, through which one can learn the road of the admirable way of life? They are unclean, then, even if some of them seem to be good and reasonable. And they have fallen like leaves from a tree; and it is no wonder that, having suffered this, the wretches expect to be scattered everywhere; for they have a heart easily carried off and, as it were, borne about by every wind; and there is no one among them who knows how to call upon God genuinely, that is, who keeps in memory that he must … of this misery, he says, “that you turned your face away from us, and handed us over because of our sins”. For those who had suffered God's turning away could not fare well; but it was in every way necessary that those who [were held] by so many sins should be pierced through by every evil.

“And now, Lord, you are our Father; and we are clay, all of us the works of your hands.”

“Do not be very angry with us, and do not remember our sins in due time. And now look, for we are all your people, the city of your Holy One.”

They earnestly beg not to slip away altogether from their kinship with him. But since, because of much sin, … the supplications; for not having … from their works and from …, they proceed …. For they beg him, as the Creator of his own works, to take some account of them, and to grant sparing to those whom he brought into being and life. “For you have been called our Father”, he says, “and we are the works of your hands. So do not be very angry with us.” They are not unaware that they have offended; rather they confess that they have shown themselves worthy of punishment too, having behaved like drunkards toward the Son. For this reason they all but cut short their supplication, and do not make their approach with full freedom; but, drawing in their boldness a little, they do not ask that he not be angry with them at all, but … the anger. For those who have been caught in such terrible evils are admittedly worthy of wrath, he says; but it would be worthy of your gentleness to cut short, in our case, even the effects of just wrath. “In the time”, then, of affliction, he says, “do not remember our sins, considering that we are all your people, and the city of your Holy One”, that is, in which your sanctuary is. By this they mean the temple.

“Zion has become a wilderness; as a wilderness Jerusalem has become; our house, the holy place, has become a curse; the glory which our fathers blessed has been burned with fire, and all our glorious things have fallen. And at all these things you held back, Lord, and kept silent, and humbled us very greatly.”

Having declared beforehand the losses in the soul, and having said that they became easy prey to sins, easily carried off and scattered here and there like leaves by every wind, they now turn also to the calamities brought on them from outside. They seem to lament the sack of Jerusalem and the burning of the temple; for after the Saviour's cross all these things were accomplished. “Zion then has become a wilderness”, he says, she that was once so distinguished, renowned and populous. “And our holy place has become a curse”; they say “a curse” in place of “an object of reviling and abuse” to those who do not know God; for the worshippers of demons, when holy things suffer, that is, things dedicated to God in any way, laugh broadly and exult, and mock the glory of the one who saves them. For perhaps they suppose that his hand has suffered from being unable to save them, and do not consider that they have fallen under punishment for having done things displeasing to him. “Our house, the holy place”, then, “has become a curse.” For the temple was holy among them, and it has been burned with fire, he says, the temple … through the voice of the holy fathers, so famous and renowned in its glorious things; for those who plundered and burned the sacred vessels lying in the divine temple had no reverence at all for any of them. “And you held back”, he says, “at all these things, and kept silent, and brought us down to the ground.” For since, though he could have scared away the attack of the enemies, he allowed them to prevail and to overrun even his temple itself, they conclude at last that they have been disregarded because of wrath, and that they have received his silence in these things as the wages of their sins. For he who could easily have put an end to the outrage, and then let it go and allowed the terrors to run their course, would plainly have let bitter wrath fall on them, so as even to overlook his own glory and endure the laughter of enemies, when it is right that those who deserve to be punished for much sin should pay the penalty.

“I became manifest to those who did not seek me; I was found by those who did not ask for me. I said: Here I am, to the nation that did not call on my name. I stretched out my hands all day to a disobedient and contradicting people, who did not walk in the way of truth, but after …”

These words are brought in necessarily after what was said before. For since they said: “Why have you made us stray, Lord, from your way? You hardened our hearts so as not to fear you”, and added: “Zion has become a wilderness; as a wilderness Jerusalem has become; our holy house has become a curse”, he now necessarily brings in the person of Christ himself, declaring, as it were, the causes for which they deservedly suffered these things; for they do not ascribe the causes to themselves, but bring charges, as it were, against him who brings on them a penalty of equal weight. “For I became manifest”, he says, “even to those who did not seek me; I was found by those who did not ask for me”; for the Saviour came of his own accord into the synagogues and taught them, proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every infirmity among the people, as it is written. For what was not done by him of the things beyond word and wonder? Lepers were set free by the touch of his hand and by a nod befitting God; the dead were raised from the tombs; the blind received the thrice-longed-for light; those lame in their feet leaped like deer. And so to those who had seen these things Christ said: “If I do not do the works of my Father, do not believe me; but if I do them, even if you do not believe me, believe my works.” “I said”, then, he says, “Here I am, to the nation that did not call on my name”; for he is found saying at one time, “I am the light of the world”, and again at another, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, as the Scripture has said, out of his belly will flow rivers of living water.” But they would not call on his name, although he said “I am” plainly in very many places. And that they became incorrigible, and perhaps like those who have no ears, hard and disobedient, he shows by saying: “I stretched out my hands to a disobedient and contradicting people”; for we are accustomed to spread out our hands when we make a very great rebuke against people. “But they did not walk”, he says, “in a true way.” For they in no way accepted the saving proclamation, “but rather followed their own sins”, that is, they were carried down by an unchecked impulse to a careless and most lawless life, which brought them punishment and destruction. Again the Saviour is found saying this to them: “Truly I tell you, unless you believe that I am, you will die in your sins.” For when admonished they resisted, and they gave orders to those under their hand, saying: “He has a demon and is mad; why do you listen to him?” Yes, and besides this they shouted that other thing too: “We are not stoning you for a good work, but for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself God.”

“This is the people that provokes me, before me … and they burn incense on the bricks to the demons, which do not exist. And in the tombs and in the caves they sleep for the sake of dreams, those who eat … their vessels; those who say: Keep far from me, for I am pure; do not come near me. This is the smoke of my wrath; fire burns in it all the days.”

He convicts those of Israel of being unholy, and not only at the time of the sojourn, but … having thrust aside his divine law, and having all but bidden farewell to the commandments given through Moses, they became worshippers of … and of unclean spirits. “This people has always been”, he says, “provoking me. For they have sacrificed unceasingly”, that is, over long periods, “before me.” Then how could they escape notice, since God oversees all things? For he said somewhere, through one of the holy prophets too: “I am a God near at hand, says the Lord, and not a God far off; will anything be hidden from me?” So if nothing is hidden from him, how could any have escaped notice while burning incense in gardens, that is, in groves, on mountains and in glens? … What then does “before me” mean? It stands for: even … into the very temple dedicated to me. For he said something like this through the voice of Jeremiah too, about Jerusalem: “Why has the beloved done an abomination in my house?” And it is the custom of the sacred Writings to call an idol an abomination. So before my eyes “they burn incense”, he says, “and in the gardens”, that is, on mountains, as I said, “under oak and poplar and shady tree”, as it is written. They sacrificed, probably, following the rites of the Greeks, to certain demons whom those call nymphs, hamadryads and oreads. But “they do not exist”, he says; not that the accursed demons do not exist, but rather that they are not gods, as those who sacrifice to them suppose. And they sacrificed in tombs too, deceived by certain dream-sending oracles and apparitions, and prying into the knowledge of the future. For such, in some way, are the inventions of the unholiness of the Greeks. And that they trampled on the commandment of the law too, he shows by saying: “Eating swine's flesh”; for such things were forbidden to those of Israel. And they gulped down the broths of sacrifices, filling themselves with every uncleanness and having a defilement hard to wipe off; and then they thought that they had reached the height of all purity, so as even to say to those who wished to be near them: “Keep far from me, do not come near me, for I am pure.” For the wicked and unclean demons persuade those who worship them to think that, though they do everything, even what is beyond the law and all decency, they are … pure, when a torch is lit over them and they run round in a circle of fire, or perhaps by a sprinkling of water and by an old wives' tale … to them. But all these things, he says, which were done by them impiously and unholily, “are the smoke of my wrath, and fire burns in it all the days.” And we know that … is about to be kindled by fire … of the Saviour's sojourn, while Israel was in the defilements we have just mentioned, certain smokes, as it were, and beginnings of the divine wrath appeared. But since