Commentary on Isaiah 1 part 1/2

Chapter 1. The vision which Isaiah saw.

He calls the prophecy a vision, either because he beheld with his sight many of the things that were to come to pass in it;

as Micah saw the people scattered;

and Ezekiel saw the captivity and the lawlessness of those who worshipped the sun and Thammuz;

or because the hearing granted to the prophets from God was in no way inferior to sight, but gave equal certainty—something not possible in the affairs of everyday life.

For that they heard in a manner different from the rest of men, he says:

He has added to me an ear to hear.

And he makes his word worthy of credence by saying 'vision,' and rouses the hearer, and refers him to the One who showed the realities.

For it was the custom of all those who conveyed God's messages to establish this before all else: that they speak nothing of their own, but that the things spoken are certain divine oracles and letters that have come down from heaven.

My tongue is the pen of a ready writer.

Do not, then, suppose that the letters belong to the pen, but to the right hand that holds it—that is, not to the tongue of David, but to the grace that moves it.

And another prophet, showing this same thing, said: I was a herdsman, he says, a dresser of sycamore-figs;

so that no one might reckon the things spoken to be of human wisdom.

And he was not content with this alone, but added yet something further, saying:

But truly I am filled with strength by the Spirit of the Lord, and with judgment and might.

For grace made them not only wise but also strong—not in the frame of the body, but in resolve.

For since they had to deal with a people bold and shameless, thirsting for the blood of prophets and practised in the slaughter of the saints, they needed with good reason great power, so as not to be dismayed by their unspeakable violence.

For this very reason he says to Jeremiah:

I have set you as an iron pillar and as a wall of bronze;

You dwell in the midst of scorpions; do not be afraid at their presence, neither be dismayed.

And Moses too, when he was being sent, seems to me to have drawn back not only out of fear of Pharaoh, but most of all out of fear of the very people of the Jews.

At any rate, conversing with God and leaving the barbarian aside, he sought with much eagerness to learn what he must say to them when they should disbelieve that he had indeed come from God;

and he received the signs for the sake of their conviction.

For if a single man so frightened him, and that after he had been shown kindness, what was he likely to feel when he considered that disorderly people? For this reason he received a Spirit not only of wisdom but also of power, and said:

I am filled with strength by the Spirit of the Lord, and with judgment and might.

The word of God came to Jeremiah the son of Chelkias.

The book of the vision of Nahum the Elkeshite.

For this very prophet too indicates by another expression the same thing as the former ones, calling the seizure by the Spirit a 'burden' (oracle).

For since, being taken hold of by the Spirit, they thus spoke whatever they spoke, he named the working of grace in this way.

For this reason Paul too everywhere sets at the head of his epistles the title of apostleship—which the prophets did

by saying 'vision' and 'word' and 'burden' and 'utterance'; this he accomplishes by means of the title of apostleship.

For just as he who says 'a vision' and 'the word of God' does not utter his own things, so too he who calls himself an apostle does not teach the things that come from himself, but the very things which the One who sent him commanded.

For it is the dignity of an apostle to introduce nothing of his own.

'Call no one teacher upon the earth;'

'for One is your Teacher, He who is in the heavens.'

showing that the whole origin of the doctrines among us took its root from above, from the Master of the heavens, even though it is men who minister to what is spoken.

As to how the prophets see these things which they see, it is not for us to say.

For it is not possible to explain in words the manner of the vision;

but that man alone knows it clearly, who has learned it by experience.

For if no one could ever set forth in words the works and affections of nature, how much less the manner of the Spirit's working.

But if, making use of faint images, one must venture to speak—not so as to set forth the matter clearly, but so as to convey it in a riddle—it seems to me that the same thing happens also in the case of the prophets: just as, if the nature of pure waters, receiving the sun's rays, should be lit up with brightness, so too the souls of the prophets, being first cleansed by their own virtue, receive the gift of the Spirit, and, made bright by that radiance, thus obtain the knowledge of things to come.

Why does he make mention of the father? Either because of the sameness of names, or that we may learn that no lowliness of a father overshadows the virtue of a son;

nor is nobility this—to be born of great men—but rather that they themselves should become great.

And this man, though of an undistinguished father, became more illustrious than all, shining forth by the surpassing greatness of his own virtue.

Which he saw against Judaea and against Jerusalem.

Why did he mention each of the places separately? Because the punishments too came separately and at different times, since God wisely ordered this also—not to destroy all at once, but gently and little by little, so that by the punishment of those carried off the survivors might become more temperate.

But if they did not use the remedy as they ought, the blame lies not with the physician but with the sick.

And He does this continually and in every generation, not chastising all together who commit the same sins at the same time;

for otherwise our whole race would long ago have been swept away beforehand;

but from some He exacts the penalty here, thereby both preparing for those very persons a lighter punishment there, and laying up beforehand for their contemporaries a most powerful motive for change to the better;

while those who are willing to gain nothing either from themselves or from such an ordering, He reserves for the inexorable and terrible day of judgment.

In the reign of Uzziah and Jotham, and Ahaz and Hezekiah, who reigned over Judaea.

And he sets down the time of necessity, referring the diligent hearer to the history of what had come to pass.

For thus the prophecy will be both more easily understood and clearer, if we learn in what state affairs stood, and in what condition the wounds of the Jews were, when these men prepared their remedies.

Hear, O heaven, and give ear, O earth, for the Lord has spoken.

The prelude is full of much wrath.

For unless the anger had been vehement and unspeakable, He would not, leaving aside men, have turned His word to the elements.

And He does this not only to display His anger, but also to shame with great excess those who were about to hear, showing that those honoured with reason are in worse case than the elements which are by nature without perception.

And this is a custom which other prophets also practise.

For this reason too the one sent to Jeroboam, leaving aside the king to whom he was sent, addresses the altar.

And Jeremiah too called upon the earth, saying:

O earth, earth, earth, write down this man, a man proscribed.

Hear, O ravines, foundations of the earth.

He does not set before them the benefit common to all men, which was their coming into being, but the special one, which was to be [chosen].

For everywhere God takes the lead in His benefactions, and just as when fashioning man He honoured him at the very beginning, though he had not yet come into being, saying:

Let us make man according to our image and according to our likeness;

and under the New Covenant yet more greatly;

for He honoured not only those who had wrought nothing, but even those who had wrought countless evils, through the regeneration of the washing;

so here too one may see that by adoption He honoured those who had not only achieved nothing, but had even fallen into sin.

Yet it is not that, because He honours before the labours, He deprives them after the labours; but even then He gives the greater rewards.

The things in Egypt, the things in the wilderness, the things in Palestine, He passed over in a single word.

For this is a custom with God, on account of the abundance of His benefactions, not to dwell little by little upon the recounting of what has been done.

They transgressed my law, He says; they forsook my commandments.

The ox knows its owner, and the ass its master's crib.

Comparisons magnify the accusation, and especially when they are drawn from unequal things;

The men of Nineveh shall rise up in the judgment with this generation and shall condemn it;

and again: The queen of the south shall be raised up in the judgment and shall condemn this generation, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon.

And Jeremiah again says:

Go to the isles of Chittim and see;

and send to Kedar, and consider diligently, whether the nations change their gods;

but my people has changed its glory, from which it will gain no profit.

He shows the unburdensomeness of the legislation, and how small a measure it requires of men—one which is easy even for irrational creatures to fulfil, and for the most senseless of irrational creatures at that.

But someone will say that those creatures have the faculty of recognition in their nature.

Yet it is possible for the things they accomplish by nature to be done by us out of deliberate choice.

The ox knows its owner;

he does not merely set before them the special character of the gift, but by the excess of their wickedness he also increases the accusation.

For just as He calls upon the elements to shame them, so again He compares them not with men but with irrational creatures, and with the most senseless of these, and shows them to be worse even than those.

So too Jeremiah does, bringing forward into the midst the turtledove and the swallow; and Solomon too, now sending the sluggard who lives an idle life to the ant, now to the bee.

It is an intensification of wickedness, when those who have been made His own, and after so many honours, and all at once, have gone over as deserters to wickedness.

He did not say Jacob, but Israel, so that by the virtue of the ancestor he might show the greater the ingratitude of the descendants.

For the one, by the virtue of his soul, drew to himself the blessing of that appellation, while they, through their transgression of the law, betrayed it.

And my people has not understood me;

Me, He says, who am more manifest than the sun.

And this too is a custom with the prophets, to lament those who are sick with incurable maladies.

So too Jeremiah in many places;

so too Christ, saying:

Woe to you, Chorazin; woe to you, Bethsaida.

Since this too is a form of teaching.

For him whom the word did not recover, lamentation has often set right.

Another addition to the accusation is the phrase 'and all,' and with emphasis.

He does not slander their birth, but shows that they were evil from their earliest age.

For just as John, saying:

Serpents, offspring of vipers—does not dishonour their nature itself;

Make therefore fruits worthy of repentance—if they were such by nature and from birth [he would not have said this];

Evil seed—he does not slander their birth.

He did not say 'Transgressors of the law,' but 'Lawless ones,' as being in no better state than those who have in no way received a law.

But he makes plain the difference of their deliberate choice.

You have forsaken the Lord and provoked Him to anger.

For the very name of God was enough to be an accusation against them;

which is the very charge Jeremiah brings against them when he says:

That they departed even from Him, and were nailed fast to demons.

And this heightens the accusation, that though He was the common

Master of all, He was at that time made known to them alone.

They were estranged and turned backward.

Why should you be stricken any more, adding to your iniquities? It is the greatest condemnation, when men become no better even through their punishments.

And this too is a kind of benefaction—to chastise.

For neither could they say that He merely honored and did good to them, but let them go on sinning;

but rather He both drew them on by honors and brought them to their senses by the fear of chastisements, and in both cases they remained sick with an incurable disease.

He displayed every form of healing—cutting, cauterizing;

yet not even so did the disease yield, which is the surest sign that a sickness is incurable—that it cannot even receive treatment.

Every head is turned to pain, and every heart to grief.

From the feet to the head there is no soundness in it—neither wound, nor bruise, nor festering sore.

Then he tells of the chastisements and the punishments;

for this too is no less a kind of benefaction and of the honor that was shown toward them.

For I afflicted them all, He says, and cast them into grief.

If every head is turned to pain, how is there neither wound nor bruise? A wound appears as a wound when the rest of the body is healthy;

but if the whole should chance to be one sore, the ulcer would no longer be visible.

This, then, is what he wishes to show: that the whole body was ulcerated, and it was not that one part was healthy while another was swollen, but all was inflammation, all was one single bruise.

There is no way to apply an emollient.

This is heavier than the former.

For to be sick is not so grievous as, being sick, to be unable even to be cured—and especially when the physician is such a one as He.

Neither oil, nor bandages.

So as to make the language emphatic, he continued in the metaphor;

for this is its special excellence.

These things he announces not as having already happened, but foretells as things to come.

And the prophets employ this custom, at once striking fear into the hearer and displaying the power of their own truth.

For just as things past cannot but have happened, so things future, when spoken by the prophets, cannot but come to pass—unless perchance those who are about to be chastised should repent.

Your cities are burned with fire.

For He did not utterly destroy them, but left standing the remnants of the barbarian conflagration, which were the more able to touch the sight of those who beheld them.

Your land, strangers devour it before your eyes, and it is made desolate, overthrown by alien peoples.

It is an intensification of calamity, when men become spectators of their own disasters and do not learn of them merely by report.

The daughter of Zion shall be left as a tent in a vineyard, and as a lodge in a cucumber field.

Images too have great force, and especially those in Scripture, for the vivid extension of what is said.

And he calls Jerusalem the daughter of Zion also because it lies beneath the mountain.

As a tent in a vineyard, and as a lodge in a cucumber field.

For when the fruit has been taken away and the husbandmen carried off, the building of the city is thenceforth superfluous.

This is a riddle of their weakness and of their being forsaken.

For when there is no one to help, then of necessity they are shut up, awaiting only the security afforded by the walls.

And unless the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, we should have become as Sodom, and been made like unto Gomorrah.

It is ever the custom of the prophets not only to foretell those dreadful things which the offenders are about to suffer, but also those which they deserved to suffer, so that even at the very moment of punishment they may know they owe many thanks to God, paying a penalty far less than, and not equal to, their offenses.

This, then, is what he says here also: that their sins did not merely call for the things mentioned, but demanded utter ruin and the complete annihilation of the entire race;

which indeed also befell the people of Sodom.

But the loving-kindness of God did not permit this to come to pass, bringing upon them a punishment far less than their sin.

And since there is much kinship between the Old and the New, fittingly Paul too made use of this passage;

and he spoke it more aptly than the prophet.

For just as at that time, had not the great

mercy of God intervened, all would have been swept away, so also at the time of Christ's coming, had not the things of grace appeared, all would have suffered things more grievous than these.

And He left us a seed;

he means those who were saved from the captivity.

Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom; give heed to the law of our God, you people of Gomorrah.

Since he had said that they deserved to suffer the things of Sodom, he shows that they also dared to commit the deeds of Sodom.

Therefore he names them also by the common appellation.

For if this were not so, his words would have had no fit occasion.

That it is not against the Sodomites that he now directs his speech, but against the Jews, calling them by the fellowship of that appellation, the things said afterward make clear.

For he makes mention of sacrifices and offerings and the rest of the legal worship, of which there was not even a trace among the Sodomites.

'To the law of our God'—that is, to the rebuke, he says.

To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to Me? says the Lord.

I am full of the whole burnt offerings of rams, and I desire not the fat of lambs, nor the blood of bulls and of goats.

The forty-ninth psalm throughout closely resembles this passage, woven of the same thoughts though in other words.

'He shall call to the heaven above, and to the earth, that He may judge His people'—this is equivalent to 'Hear, O heaven, and give ear, O earth, for the Lord has spoken';

'Not for your sacrifices will I reprove you, for your whole burnt offerings are continually before Me';

'To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices? says the Lord.'

And again David says:

'I will not accept calves out of your house, nor he-goats out of your flocks';

'Whole burnt offerings of rams and the fat of lambs and the blood of bulls and of goats I do not desire.'

For since, being continually accused of being destitute of all other virtue, they would put forward their sacrifices as though it were the greatest defense, on the ground that they offered them continually, fittingly each prophet—or rather all the others as well—casts them out of this defense.

Whence it is clear that these sacrifices were not given as an end in themselves, but so as to become for them a means of training toward the rest of their way of life.

But since they neglected the pressing necessities and busied themselves with these things instead, God declares that henceforth He will no longer accept even these.

'Nor though you come to appear before Me.'

'Even if you present yourselves,' He says, 'at the Temple.'

'For who has required these things at your hands?' And indeed a whole book, called Leviticus, is composed, laying down laws concerning the exactness of the sacrifices.

And in Deuteronomy too, and in many other places, many laws concerning these matters are scattered about.

'Who has required these things at your hands?' — that you may learn that it was not God's primary will to legislate such things, but rather the legislation concerning them took its beginning from their own weakness.

For just as He did not wish a wife once joined to her husband to be cast out, yet, cutting off a greater evil — lest men, being not forbidden to divorce, should be driven to slay the women they kept within and hated — He conceded the lesser;

so too here, forbidding sacrifice to demons, He accepted what He did not will, in order that He might accomplish what He did will.

This very thing, then, the prophet Micah again pointed out when he said:

'Did you offer to Me slain beasts and sacrifices for forty years? says the Lord.'

'These are not the things which I commanded your fathers.'

For since the demons also were served in this manner, He too, that no occasion of ruin might thence arise for the weaker sort, continually declares these things through all the prophets.

For those demons, even when nothing was given, were indignant, and continually pressed upon men, demanding the savour and the smoke, and saying:

'For this was the portion we obtained.'

But He neither asked from the beginning, and when He did command, He showed that it was not from His own will that He permitted this;

and not only in this way, but also by quickly abolishing them, and by not accepting them even while they were being performed;

and through all things He plainly showed, once for all, that this manner of worship was far beneath His majesty.

This, then, is what He now says: that it was for your sakes I endured this, not that I Myself had need of these things.

'You shall not continue to tread My court.'

Either He foretells the captivity, or He forbids this also to them, since they entered not with a right disposition.

'If you bring Me fine flour, it is vain.'

For of the commandments, some were ordained to be done for their own sake, and others for the sake of something else;

as, for instance, to know God, not to kill, not to commit adultery, and all such things, were legislated for the benefit inherent in them;

but to sacrifice, and to offer incense, and to keep the sabbath, and all such things, again, were commanded not that these very things might simply be done, but that through the practice of them men might be led away from the service of demons.

Since, then, these people performed these things, yet reaped from them no gain, but were still nailed fast to the demons, with good reason these things too are cast out;

since one might with reason cut down even a tree that has leaves and branches but is barren of fruit.

For the husbandman bestows all his care upon the plant, not for the sake of the bark and the stem, but that he may enjoy the fruits.

'Incense is an abomination to Me.'

Do you see that He rejoiced not in the nature of the things offered, but examined the disposition of those who brought them? For this reason He called the smoke and the savour from Noah's sacrifice 'an odour of a sweet smell,' but the incense here 'an abomination.'

For, as I said, it is not the substance of the gifts, but the disposition of those who offer them, that He seeks.

'Your new moons and your sabbaths.'

It is to be observed that He casts out none of the necessary things, but these very things which Christ, when He came, also abolished.

Wherefore Paul too, using more vigorous language when he contended against the Jews, set down not only these things but many others besides, and declared that those who show forth nothing of their own gain nothing thence, speaking thus:

'But if you are called a Jew, and rest upon the law, and boast in God, and know His will, and approve the things that are excellent, being instructed out of the law.'

'For circumcision indeed profits, if you keep the law;'

'but if you are a transgressor of the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision.'

And he said that not even from having been entrusted with the law did those to whom it was entrusted reap any profit, since they disbelieved;

the very thing which David also, hinting at it in another way, said:

'But to the sinner God said:'

'Why do you declare My statutes?' For since they gloried greatly, up and down, in the hearing of the law, while being destitute of its practice, Paul too cast them out of their boasting, saying:

'You then who teach another, do you not teach yourself? You who preach that a man should not steal, do you steal?' And David likewise, saying:

'When you saw a thief, you consented with him, and with adulterers you set your portion.'

'And the great day I cannot bear.'

He means Pentecost, the Feast of Tabernacles, the Passover, and the rest of the feasts.

'My soul hates fasting, and idleness, and your feasts.'

He converses with them in a more human manner.

'You have become to Me a surfeit;'

For this shows His unspeakable long-suffering, and that He bore with them though they sinned many times, and did not proceed against them until they who had transgressed by the excess of their wickedness themselves provoked Him.

'I will no longer pass over your sins.'

This is the same as that which was said by David:

'These things you did, and I kept silence.'

'When you stretch out your hands to Me, I will turn away My eyes from you;'

'and though you multiply your supplication, I will not hearken.'

Whence it is plain that there is no benefit in prayer, even when it is long, when he who prays persists in his sins.

For nothing is equal to virtue and to the voice that comes from works.

'For your hands are full of blood;'

yet He did not say 'murderous,' but:

'full of blood,' showing that they made a practice of sin, and everywhere with intensity.

And this too belongs to His gentleness — that while threatening, He makes His defence.

For He sets forth the causes for which He does not accept the prayer.

'Wash yourselves, become clean.'

Having said 'I will no longer pass over your sins,' and having shown them to be sick with an incurable sickness, He gives counsel;

does He bring in a means of correction? It is God's custom, even when He threatens, to deny salvation, so as to increase the fear, and yet not to end the discourse there, but to hold out kindly hopes, and thereby again to lead men back to repentance.

And one may see this happening everywhere.

In the case of the Ninevites, however, He did it not by words but by deeds.

For in words He promised nothing kindly, but let the punishment lie bare in the threat; yet when all those barbarians displayed what was their part, He quickly loosed His anger.

So too again in the psalm David says:

for I said before that throughout, entirely, this resembles the prologue;

'Wash yourselves, become clean,' after the threats;

so too that one, after having said:

'I will reprove you, and set your iniquities before your face,' and then he added:

'The sacrifice of praise shall glorify me, and there is the way wherein I will show them the salvation of my God.' By 'praise' he means the giving of glory through works, and the true knowledge that leads to Him.

By 'praise' he means the giving of glory through works, and the knowledge that leads to Him.

But lest, when they heard 'Wash yourselves, be clean,' they should suppose he meant the customary purifications, he added:

'Put away the wickednesses from your souls before my eyes, cease from your wickednesses.'

He showed how easy virtue is, and the freedom of the will, for it lay within their own power to change.

Thus, through their great wickedness, they had cast out even the knowledge of virtue.

So too the prophet David says:

'Come, children, hearken unto me.'

For this science is higher than all others and requires the greater diligence, inasmuch as it has more things that hinder it: the tyranny of nature, the sloth of the will, the plots of demons, and the tumult of affairs.

'None other shall be reckoned in comparison with him.'

'He found out all the way of knowledge.'

That is to say, to avenge those who are wronged, which requires much labour and a vigilant soul.

For many are the things that overshadow justice: bribery, ignorance, the abuse of power, human respect, fear, and the flattery of persons;

and there is need of much watchfulness.

This is more than the former;

for it demands not only the reckoning of what is just, but also the carrying of it to completion.

'Judge the fatherless, and do justice to the widow.'

God takes great account that no one should suffer wrong, and yet greater account when, besides suffering wrong, some are also clothed with another calamity.

For widowhood and orphanhood are of themselves unbearable;

but when they are also insulted by others, the shipwreck is doubled.

'And come, let us reason together, saith the Lord.'

It should be observed that everywhere in the prophets God seeks nothing so much as the defending of those who are wronged.

So also elsewhere, as in Micah, when the Jews say:

'Shall I give my firstborn for my ungodliness, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?' he added, saying:

'It has been told you, O man, what is good, and what the Lord requires of you: only to do justice, and to love mercy, and to be ready to walk after the Lord your God.'

And again the prophet David said:

'I will sing of mercy and judgment unto thee, O Lord.'

Having first armed them with acts of righteousness, He then draws them to the tribunal; and having taught them how they might strip off the charges, He then demands the reckoning, so that He might not condemn them stripped bare of any defence.

He that sits in judgment becomes both advocate and physician.

Then, showing that even if we accomplish great things, we still have need of His loving-kindness for the deliverance from our sins, he says:

'Though your sins be as scarlet, I will make them white as snow.'

He takes qualities diametrically opposed to each other, and promises Himself to transform them into their contrary.

'And though they be as crimson, I will make them white as wool.'

Great is the power of the protection of widows, if indeed it not only frees from vice a soul so defiled as to have taken on the very dye of wickedness, but even renders it thus radiant.

'if you hearken to me, you shall eat the good things of the land.'

'But if you will not, neither hearken to me, the sword shall devour you.'

'For the mouth of the Lord has spoken these things.'