Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
This chapter is the swan song of Moses now about to die. For Moses, foreseeing by divine inspiration that the Hebrews after his death would fall away from God and therefore would have to be severely punished by Him: First, he calls heaven and earth as witnesses and commends God's clemency, justice, and perfection. Second, at verse 6, he rebukes their future perverse generation, reminding them of so many benefits of God toward them, because after these, dissolved in luxury, they turned from God to idols. Third, at verse 28, he sings that on account of their sins they were delivered by an angry God, who withdrew His protection from them, to various evils and plagues. Fourth, at verse 35, he promises God's mercy and vengeance upon their enemies, once they have come to their senses, admonished by their afflictions.
Wherefore the Hebrews call this canticle a summary or compendium of the entire law. For it makes mention of the magnificence of God, the creation of heaven and earth, the worship of the one God, the flood, the division of languages and lands, the election of the people of Israel, the benefits bestowed on them by God in the desert, the resurrection of the dead, etc.
Vulgate Text: Deuteronomy 32:1-52
1. Hear, O heavens, what I speak; let the earth hear the words of my mouth. 2. Let my teaching grow as the rain, let my speech flow as the dew, as a shower upon the grass, and as drops upon the herbs. 3. For I will invoke the name of the Lord: give magnificence to our God. 4. The works of God are perfect, and all His ways are judgments: God is faithful and without any iniquity, He is just and upright. 5. They have sinned against Him, and are not His children in their filthiness: a depraved and perverse generation. 6. Is this what you render to the Lord, O foolish and senseless people? Is He not your father, who possessed you, and made you, and created you? 7. Remember the days of old, think upon every generation: ask your father, and he will declare to you; your elders, and they will tell you. 8. When the Most High divided the nations, when He separated the sons of Adam, He established the boundaries of peoples according to the number of the children of Israel. 9. But the portion of the Lord is His people: Jacob is the lot of His inheritance. 10. He found him in a desert land, in a place of horror and vast wilderness: He led him about, and taught him, and guarded him as the pupil of His eye. 11. As an eagle provoking its young to fly, and hovering over them, He spread His wings, and took him, and bore him on His shoulders. 12. The Lord alone was his leader, and there was no foreign god with him. 13. He set him upon a high land, that he might eat the fruits of the fields, that he might suck honey from the rock, and oil from the hardest stone; 14. butter from the herd, and milk from the flock, with the fat of lambs, and of rams of the sons of Bashan: and goats with the marrow of wheat, and might drink the purest blood of the grape. 15. The beloved grew fat, and kicked: grown fat, thick, and gross, he forsook God his Maker, and departed from God his Savior. 16. They provoked Him with foreign gods, and stirred Him to anger with abominations. 17. They sacrificed to demons, and not to God: to gods whom they did not know: new and recent ones came, whom their fathers did not worship. 18. You have forsaken God who begot you, and have forgotten the Lord your Creator. 19. The Lord saw, and was moved to anger: because His own sons and daughters provoked Him. 20. And He said: I will hide My face from them, and I will consider their end: for it is a perverse generation, and unfaithful children. 21. They have provoked Me by that which was no god, and have angered Me with their vanities: and I will provoke them by that which is no people, and by a foolish nation I will irritate them. 22. A fire is kindled in My fury, and shall burn even to the lowest hell; and shall devour the earth with its increase, and shall burn the foundations of the mountains. 23. I will heap evils upon them, and will spend My arrows among them. 24. They shall be consumed with famine, and birds shall devour them with a most bitter bite: I will send upon them the teeth of beasts, with the fury of creatures that trail upon the ground and of serpents. 25. Without, the sword shall ravage them, and within, terror; the young man and the virgin alike, the suckling with the aged man. 26. I said: Where are they? I will make the memory of them cease from among men. 27. But on account of the wrath of the enemies I deferred it, lest perhaps their enemies should be proud and say: Our hand is exalted, and the Lord did not do all these things. 28. They are a nation without counsel and without prudence. 29. O that they were wise, and would understand, and would provide for their last end! 30. How should one pursue a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight? Is it not because their God has sold them, and the Lord has shut them up? 31. For our God is not as their gods, and our enemies themselves are judges. 32. Their vine is of the vineyard of Sodom, and of the suburbs of Gomorrah; their grape is a grape of gall, and their clusters most bitter. 33. Their wine is the gall of dragons, and the incurable venom of asps. 34. Are not these things stored up with Me, and sealed in My treasures? 35. Vengeance is Mine, and I will repay in due time, that their foot may slip: the day of destruction is at hand, and the times make haste to come. 36. The Lord will judge His people, and will have mercy on His servants: He shall see that their hand is weakened, and that they who were shut up have also failed, and the remnant are consumed. 37. And He shall say: Where are their gods in whom they trusted? 38. Of whose victims they ate the fat, and drank the wine of their libations: let them arise and help you, and protect you in your need. 39. See that I alone am, and there is no other God besides Me: I will kill and I will make to live; I will strike and I will heal, and there is none that can deliver from My hand. 40. I will lift up My hand to heaven, and I will say: I live forever. 41. If I shall sharpen My sword as the lightning, and My hand take hold on judgment: I will render vengeance to My enemies, and will repay those who hate Me. 42. I will make My arrows drunk with blood, and My sword shall devour flesh, with the blood of the slain and of the captives, of the bare head of the enemies. 43. Praise His people, O nations; for He will avenge the blood of His servants, and will render vengeance upon their enemies, and will be merciful to the land of His people. 44. So Moses came and spoke all the words of this canticle in the ears of the people, he and Joshua the son of Nun. 45. And he completed all these words, speaking to all Israel, 46. and said to them: Set your hearts upon all the words which I testify to you this day; that you command them to your children to keep and to do, and to fulfill all things that are written in this law: 47. for they were not commanded to you in vain, but that every one should live by them; and doing these things you may continue a long time in the land which, crossing the Jordan, you enter to possess. 48. And the Lord spoke to Moses on the same day, saying: 49. Go up into this mountain Abarim, that is, of passages, into mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab, over against Jericho: and see the land of Canaan which I will deliver to the children of Israel to possess, and die upon the mountain. 50. Which when you have gone up, you shall be gathered to your people, as Aaron your brother died in mount Hor and was gathered to his people: 51. because you trespassed against Me in the midst of the children of Israel at the Waters of Contradiction in Kadesh of the desert of Sin, and you did not sanctify Me among the children of Israel. 52. You shall see the land opposite you, and shall not enter into it, which I will give to the children of Israel.
Verses 1-2: Hear, O Heavens
1. HEAR, O HEAVENS, WHAT I SPEAK. In Hebrew, "because I speak," as if to say: You, heaven and earth, who live for God and always obey Him, be eternal witnesses of the things I am about to say and foretell to the Hebrews. See what was said at chapter 4, verse 26.
Tropologically, by "heavens" is signified the order of prelates, by "earth" the common people of subjects, says St. Gregory, book 2 of the Moralia, chapter 26, as if to say: Hear, O prelates, hear, O subjects, the law and threats of your God.
2. LET MY TEACHING GROW AS THE RAIN. In Hebrew, "let my teaching drop as the rain," namely into the hearts of the Hebrews; therefore the preposition "in" is used for "like": "as rain," that is, like rain. For thus the Hebrews often use the preposition beth (in) for kaph (like), as if to say: Would that my teaching be not vain, fruitless, and useless among you, but bear fruit and do what rain and dew do in fields and herbs when they make them fruitful! Whence the Septuagint translate it: let my teaching be awaited as the rain; and the Chaldean: let my teaching be sweet as the rain, let my word be received as the dew.
Note here: Moses says the same thing with many synonymous or near-synonymous words, both for emphasis and because of Hebrew idiom. For the Hebrews are accustomed, especially in song, to repeat in the second hemistich, with different words, the same or nearly the same thing they said in the first; this is most clear in the Psalms, as: "O God, attend to my aid;" for this is the same as what follows: "O Lord, make haste to help me;" likewise: "To you the poor man has been left," is nearly the same as what follows: "You will be a helper to the orphan;" likewise: "O Lord, hear my prayer," is the same as what follows: "And let my cry come to You;" and so in very many others. So here: "Let my teaching grow as the rain" is nearly the same as what follows: "Let my speech flow as the dew, as a shower upon the grass, and as drops upon the herbs."
Note second, that the word of God is aptly compared to drops and dew: because like dew it soothes, moistens, enriches, and makes fruitful the soul. Hence Abbot Pimenion responded to someone complaining that, although he was held by a great desire for the word of God, he nevertheless could not grasp it: "The nature of water is very soft, but the hardness of stones is immense; yet when it falls drop by drop upon a hard flint, it finally pierces through it: so also the word of God is soft and sweet, but our hearts are hard and less capable of receiving it. But the heart of one who frequently and diligently hears the word of God is finally softened so that he may fully perceive its sweetness and fruit."
Furthermore, Horapollo, book 1 of the Hieroglyphics, chapter 35, says: The Egyptians, when depicting learning, would paint the sky pouring forth dew, because just as dew softens and makes fruitful herbs but not stones, so learning softens and fills the teachable, not the stupid, hard, and unteachable.
Verse 3: I Will Invoke the Name of the Lord
3. For I will invoke the name of the Lord, as if to say: I will worship, praise, and celebrate the majesty of the Lord; whence you also, O Hebrews, give magnificence to our God, by proclaiming His greatness and praise. For thus this phrase is understood in Genesis 4, last verse. Hence conversely, for the name of God to be invoked upon someone means that God is worshipped by that person, and that person is and is called a servant or people of God, as I said at chapter 28, verse 10.
Verse 4: The Works of God Are Perfect
4. THE WORKS OF GOD ARE PERFECT, as if to say: God is to be invoked and magnified because His works are everywhere perfect, so that they can in no way be faulted, reproved, or amended; and specifically this work, by which He promised to your fathers to give the land of Canaan, He has now so faithfully and magnificently accomplished, and nearly completed, that He has brought you to the entrance of that land, as if to say: The works of God are not like those of men -- perishable, defective, incomplete, and flawed, in which almost always something is lacking; but they are stable, complete, and perfect. Moreover, when a man begins some work, he often does not finish it, but changes his conception and plans; likewise when he has promised something, he often does not fulfill it: but God never revokes plans He has begun or promises He has made, but always completes and fulfills them; third, God did not create your works, O Israel, O man, as imperfect and flawed, just as He did not create you a sinner, but you shaped them, you made yourself a sinner by your own will; for as the Psalmist says: "Your eyes saw my imperfection;" and Hosea: "Your destruction, O Israel, is from yourself alone; only in Me is your help": for the works of God are perfect; fourth, there is nothing that God does not bring to perfection either by Himself or through another, says Molina.
Note: For "God," in Hebrew it is tsur, that is, rock, or cliff; for such is God, both because of His stability, immutability, and faithfulness in keeping His promises; and because He most firmly fortifies and strengthens those who worship Him and hope in Him.
AND ALL HIS WAYS (all His works are) JUDGMENTS, that is, they are just and equitable: for the Hebrews often use the abstract for the concrete, especially where there is emphasis.
Note here seven epithets and attributes of God: first, that He is magnificent; second, that He is tsur, that is, an immutable rock; third, that He is perfect in all His works, so that you may learn from God that saying of the Wise Man: "In all your works," even small ones, "be excellent;" fourth, that He is just; fifth, that He is faithful; sixth, that He is without any iniquity, that is, most holy; seventh, that He is upright, who is moved from the right and equitable neither by favor, nor hatred, nor gifts, nor flattery. Let the Saints imitate these things, as children of God, that they may be perfect, as their heavenly Father is perfect.
Verse 5: They Have Sinned Against Him
5. THEY HAVE SINNED AGAINST HIM, AND ARE NOT HIS CHILDREN IN THEIR FILTHINESS. Our translator has clearly rendered the Hebrew, which is complex, and says that the Hebrews have sinned against Him, and therefore are not His children, since they wallow in the filth of their sins; but they have utterly denied their adoption, and therefore are a depraved and perverse generation. The Hebrew literally reads: "This perverse and twisted generation has corrupted itself (namely its ways and actions, they who) are not His children in their stains."
The Septuagint by metathesis read the Hebrew differently; for they translate: "they sinned not against Him"; to which the Chaldean also alludes: "they destroyed themselves, and not Him, children who served idols." Explaining this, St. Augustine in Question 55 says: "They sinned not against Him," because he who sins does not harm God, but himself; or "not against Him," understand: "as submitting themselves to a physician," because they refused to do penance for their sins, nor to return to God so as to be healed by Him.
A DEPRAVED AND PERVERSE GENERATION. The Chaldean translates differently: "the orders of the world are perverted on account of it," as if to say: The entire harmony of this world is dissolved on account of sins, as I showed at Genesis 6:7.
Verse 6: Is This What You Render to the Lord?
6. IS THIS WHAT YOU RENDER TO THE LORD, O FOOLISH AND SENSELESS PEOPLE? "Foolish" is one who acts contrary to reason, says Abulensis; "senseless" is one who fails to judge rightly. Whence properly, the foolish person is one who has a depraved and perverse judgment, and from it produces wicked affections and perverse actions. For since three things, as Aristotle says at the beginning of book 6 of the Ethics, are the principles of human acts, namely the intellect, the will, and the senses; if the senses and sensual allurements corrupt the intellect, the intellect will corrupt the will, which is the effective and proximate cause of all human actions; and so those actions will likewise be corrupted.
IS HE NOT YOUR FATHER, WHO POSSESSED YOU, AND MADE YOU, AND CREATED YOU? For "who possessed you" can be translated from the Hebrew as "who acquired or bought you," namely by redeeming you from the Egyptians and claiming you for Himself, so that you might be the Lord's inheritance, making this a climax or gradation; for God first redeemed you; second, He made, that is, formed you at Sinai into His Church, people, and commonwealth; third, He created, in Hebrew "established and confirmed," you and your kingdom. So also the Septuagint.
Abulensis takes "created" in its proper sense; whence he infers: "Moses, he says, proves here that God is to be worshipped for seven reasons: the first is by reason of creation, which attests the true God and infinite power, to whom alone latria [worship] is most truly owed, and to no other thing." But in that case, "created" should precede "possessed." The sense, therefore, which I gave from the Hebrew seems more genuine; especially since Moses here gives a particular title to the Jews, by which they, chosen above other nations, were bound to God, as is clear from what follows.
Verses 7-9: Remember the Days of Old
7. REMEMBER THE DAYS OF OLD, the days of former times; in Hebrew, "the days of the age": which can also be understood as the days of the world, as if to say: Recall to memory the days since the world began to exist, and you will find that God created all men, and you and your parents, and acted as a father toward them and you, and chose you from among all nations, and prepared for you this excellent inheritance of Canaan.
8. WHEN THE MOST HIGH DIVIDED THE NATIONS, etc., HE ESTABLISHED THE BOUNDARIES OF PEOPLES ACCORDING TO THE NUMBER OF THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL. Procopius and Lyranus explain it thus, as if to say: When God at Babel divided and scattered the nations, He established as many nations as there were persons in the people of Israel who entered Egypt with Jacob, namely seventy: for the Hebrews reckon seventy languages in the division of languages and scattering of nations at the tower of Babel, as many as the nations divided and scattered. But that there were not seventy but far fewer, I showed at Genesis 10.
The sense therefore is: When God scattered the nations at Babel, He established the boundaries of regions and lands for all of them, and this to the end that He might set apart and reserve a sufficient extent of land for the children of Israel, not yet born but to be born, for habitation.
9. BUT THE PORTION OF THE LORD IS HIS PEOPLE: JACOB IS THE LOT OF HIS INHERITANCE. From the Hebrew you may translate it more aptly: "for the portion," etc.; so the Chaldean, as if to say: It is no wonder that God so loved the children of Israel that according to their number He established the boundaries of peoples, because Jacob, that is, the Israelites, are His people and as it were His hereditary portion, which is here called a "measuring line," because formerly they used to measure land with lines and divide it among brothers, as is evident from Amos 7, last verse: whence "measuring line" is taken for the inheritance itself, as in Psalm 15:3: "The lines have fallen for me in excellent places;" which he explains in his usual manner, adding: "Indeed, my inheritance is excellent to me." Similar passages are Psalm 77:55; Zephaniah 2:5, and elsewhere.
Verses 10-11: He Found Him in a Desert Land
10. HE FOUND (God found) HIM (His people, that is, Israel) IN A DESERT LAND, as if to say: The Lord appeared in a pillar of cloud to Israel when they were wandering in the desert, and there began to lead them to the promised land. He says that He "found" them in the desert because in Egypt Israel served idols and was joined to the Egyptians; but in the desert, namely at Sinai, they were drawn into the people and Church of God.
HE GUARDED HIM AS THE PUPIL OF HIS EYE. See how great is the solicitude, care, providence, and guardianship of God toward His own: namely, as great as a man's care for the dearest, most tender, and most precious thing, namely the pupil of his eye.
Hence that self-love of the Jews, such that Rabbi David dares to say that God has no care or providence for any other nations except insofar as they in some way pertain to Israel; that is, that God does not punish other nations except insofar as they harm or do injury to Israel: nor does He do them good, except insofar as they have helped Israel in some matter. But this is as foolish as it is blasphemous madness.
11. AS AN EAGLE PROVOKING ITS YOUNG TO FLY, etc., HE SPREAD HIS WINGS, as if to say: God, like an eagle, provoked Israel as His young through various signs in Egypt to go out and fly away from there, and when Israel was preparing to depart, He took him up as it were on the spread wings of His providence, protected and carried him upward, both by Himself, and through the angel who was guide of the way, and through the pillar of fire and cloud.
Note: The eagle is a symbol of God: first, because it is the queen of birds; second, because it is prolific and long-lived; third, because it is an image of the sun: for it gazes at the sun with uncovered and unmoving eyes; fourth, because while other birds ascend by an oblique path, the eagle alone flies straight upward: hence it is called by the poets the bird of Jupiter, as "the bird bore the rule of Jupiter to heaven;" fifth, here God is properly and aptly compared to the eagle on account of its singular love for its young, about which St. Jerome writes on Isaiah 65: "Among all other living creatures, the love of eagles for their young is indeed the greatest, for they place their nests in lofty and inaccessible places, lest a serpent harm the offspring. They also write that an amethyst stone is found among its young, by which all poisons are overcome. If this is true, rightly has the affection of God toward His creatures been compared to eagles, who with every effort protects His children, lest the dragon and the ancient serpent the devil creep upon the new offspring, so that at the name of the stone which is laid in the foundations of Zion, all the snares of the adversaries may be broken."
Beautifully, learnedly, and piously, St. Ambrose, in book 2 of On Solomon, chapter 2, compares Christ the Savior to an eagle by four other analogies; first: "Just as the eagle, he says, as a settler is always the mother of one nest, nor does she ever seek another resting place to produce offspring; second, when the young first burst forth from warm eggs at the mature time of birth, she leads out the unfledged chicks and holds them against the face of the burning sun, so that any chick that lowers its weak and feeble gaze at the flashing assault of the rays, condemned by maternal judgment and separated from the company of its siblings, is cast down to the earth; third, just as this bird is an enemy of serpents, which, bearing them aloft by binding them with the rowing of its wings, it tears and rips apart with its hooked beak and its feet armed as with certain weapons, and when it devours them, it extinguishes that noxious poison with its internal heat: so first, Christ the Lord loves the one Church, as an eagle its nest, which He defends from the heat of persecution with the shade of His wings; second, He likewise casts outside the Church those in whom the light of faith is weak, who, polluted with worldly vices, cannot bear the fiery light of the Gospels; third, as the eagle devours serpents and digests their poison with its internal heat, so also Christ our Lord, having struck the dragon, that is, having torn apart the devil, while He assumed a human body for Himself, extinguished that sin which held man liable, like a deadly poison, as the Apostle says: 'And concerning sin He condemned sin in His flesh'; and elsewhere: 'He who knew no sin, for us was made sin.' And below he adds a fourth point: 'The eagle does not tread upon the ground, but chooses a lofty place: so also Christ, suspended on the high cross, with thundering noise and terrible flight made an assault from the underworld, and snatching the saints returned to the heights above." Add a fifth point: just as the eagle flies the highest, so Christ ascended above all the heavens; whence that saying of Proverbs 30: "Three things are difficult for me, etc., the way of an eagle in the sky." St. Ambrose, at the passage cited, understands this of Christ ascending into heaven. And sixth, the eagle is generous and shares the prey it has caught with other birds: so also Christ shares the prey of eternal blessedness with the Saints. Seventh, the eagle excels in keenness of sight and discerns things far off at a distance: so Christ our God looks upon lowly things in heaven and on earth, He who dwells on high.
Verses 13-14: He Set Him upon a High Land
13. HE SET HIM UPON A HIGH LAND. In Hebrew, "He made him ride upon the heights of the earth," because the promised land is high and mountainous. Note: Prophetically here and in what follows, the past tense is used for the future; "He set," that is, He will soon and certainly set, and in His predestination and foreknowledge He has already set.
TO SUCK HONEY FROM THE ROCK, as if to say: In Canaan Israel will have such an abundance of honey that even among the rocks bees will spontaneously produce honey.
AND OIL FROM THE HARDEST STONE, so that even among the rocks olive trees might wonderfully bear fruit and produce olives abundantly, which would either freely drip oil of their own accord, or when pressed would release and pour it forth. Add that olive trees love rocky soil, and by the wonderful providence of nature and of God, better and more abundant ones grow there, as we see happen at Tivoli; for Tivoli, situated on a mountain and cliff, abounds in the finest olive trees and olives: whence Tiburtine oil is celebrated throughout all Italy.
Allegorically, St. Gregory, Homily 26 on the Gospels, says: The rock, that is Christ, gave honey, that is, He showed the sweetness of miracles to His disciples; He also gave the holy oil of anointing, when after the Resurrection He sent the Holy Spirit upon them.
And Ambrose, book 2 of On Solomon, chapter 9, says: By honey it was signified that God would indeed give the sweetness of the Gospel; by oil, that He would give the Holy Spirit through the anointing of chrism.
Tropologically, some apply these words to Religious life and Religious: for God guarded them upon the high land, namely the state of Religious life, to gather heavenly fruits, to be fed with the honey of divine consolation, and to be anointed with heavenly oil. For Religious life is a high land flowing with milk and honey; it is "a rich mountain, a curdled mountain, a mountain in which God is pleased to dwell," Psalm 67; it is "an enclosed garden," Song of Songs 4, in which Religious are planted like trees that bring forth fruits most pleasing to God; it is "a sealed fountain," quenching the thirst of the world; it is "a tower of ivory," enclosed on every side by the choir of chastity; it is "the tower of David," from which a thousand shields hang, all the armor of the strong, Song of Songs 4. For all armor against vices is found in Religious life, as an armory
of the world is Religious life, from which weapons against the devil, the flesh, and the world are drawn forth. "It is a wall, upon which are built battlements of silver," Song of Songs 8, that is, the three vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. "The gate of heaven is framed with boards of cedar," that is, of all virtues. Finally, of it you may rightly say with Jacob: "How terrible is this place! This is none other than the house of God and the gate of heaven." For Religious life is terrible to demons, "as an army set in battle array;" in it is a ladder leading from earth to heaven; it is an angelic state.
14. WITH THE FAT OF LAMBS, AND OF RAMS OF THE SONS OF BASHAN, that is, of rams that are nourished in the best and richest pastures of the region of Bashan. For the Israelites, having killed King Og, occupied Bashan, and that region was most fertile and excellent for grazing; whence the cows of Bashan and the bulls of Bashan are called the fattest cows and bulls.
HE MIGHT DRINK THE BLOOD OF THE GRAPE. He poetically calls the juice pressed from grapes, namely must and wine, "blood," because it is of a blood-red or ruby color.
Verse 15: The Beloved Grew Fat
15. The beloved grew fat. All these past tenses prophetically signify the future: for Moses foresaw all these future things so certainly as if they had already happened. So "he grew fat," that is, he will grow fat with riches, luxuries, and indulgence in Canaan; "beloved," in Hebrew Jeshurun, that is, "the upright one," as our translator renders it in the next chapter, verse 5; he calls Israel "upright" because he worshipped the true God with the most upright faith and religion. Our translator here renders it "beloved," because Jeshurun also means "directed," namely by God, that is, "beloved." And this epithet fits this passage better. For thus children and students who have been loved and sumptuously maintained and fed by their parents and teachers are accustomed to kick against them. So the Apostle forbids younger widows from being supported by the Church, because, he says, "when they have grown wanton against Christ (in Greek, against Christ, that is, to the injury of Christ), they wish to marry," 1 Timothy 5:11. Third, Jeshurun could be derived from shor, that is, "bull," as if to say: Jeshurun, that is, among the herds of peoples he was like a bull, the leader of the herd, that is, he was to God as a firstborn and prince of other nations: so Forerius on Isaiah chapter 44.
HE DEPARTED FROM GOD HIS SAVIOR, that is, his Savior. So the Septuagint; the Chaldean: he departed from God his Redeemer, who namely redeemed him from Egyptian slavery.
Verses 16-17: They Sacrificed to Demons
16. THEY PROVOKED HIM (they provoked God to anger and indignation) WITH FOREIGN GODS, namely by worshipping them.
17. THEY SACRIFICED TO DEMONS. In Hebrew, shedim, that is, "destroyers," who plunder and devastate the souls, bodies, and goods of all their worshippers: for this is what demons do, who are the greatest tyrants.
NEW AND RECENT ONES CAME, they recently began to be, to be regarded as, and to be worshipped as gods.
Such also are the dogmas or inventions of heretics, which the Apostle accordingly calls profane novelties of words, invented by innovators, that is, heretics. Wherefore the Christian priests and deacons of Alexandria responded to the prefect who was exhorting them to Arianism: "Cease frightening us with these words; restrain yourself from empty words; for we worship neither a novel nor a recent God: and although you are tossed about as by waves and recklessly spew foam from your mouth, and rush upon us with violence like a fierce wind, yet we will firmly adhere to the doctrine of piety to our very last breath." So Theodoret, book 4 of the History, chapter 20.
Truly and aptly said our Ogilby, a martyr in Scotland this year: "The faith of the ministers of Scotland is only eight years old; for two primary articles of faith, which eight years ago they even condemned in published books, they now believe and teach, namely that the king is head of the Church, and that bishops and bishoprics are to be admitted." St. Hilary said even more, namely that "the faith of heretics is two or three months old," because they change the dogmas of their faith every year, indeed every month: "The practice of innovating the faith has taken hold, says St. Hilary to Emperor Constantius, and faith has become a matter of times rather than of the Gospels. It is extremely dangerous and indeed pitiable for us that there now exist as many faiths as there are wills, and as many doctrines as there are customs." Our Frusius truly says: Since there is but one faith, which our parents taught us: Why is the one faith now mocked with so many strings?
Verse 18: You Have Forsaken God Who Begot You
18. YOU HAVE FORSAKEN GOD WHO BEGOT YOU, AND HAVE FORGOTTEN THE LORD YOUR CREATOR. This is an expression of wonder, as if to say: How could it have happened, O Israel, that you gave to oblivion God, who labored in birth and begot you, and who, being most mighty, brought you forth strong and powerful and formed you? Whence the Hebrew reads thus: "The Rock that begot you, you have forgotten; you have forgotten the Mighty One who gave you birth."
Verses 20-21: I Will Hide My Face
20. AND HE SAID (God, angered by the sins of the Israelites): I WILL HIDE MY FACE FROM THEM (I will withdraw and remove My favor, care, protection, and benefits -- for the face is the symbol of these things -- from the ungrateful; and so I will idly look on) AND I WILL CONSIDER THEIR END, namely what will finally happen to them once I have abandoned them, and what fruit they will reap from their idols and sins.
21. THEY HAVE PROVOKED ME BY THAT WHICH WAS NO GOD, etc., AND I WILL PROVOKE THEM BY THAT WHICH IS NO PEOPLE. For "they provoked" and "I will provoke," in Hebrew it is aqni'em, that is, I provoke to envy, emulation, and jealousy, just as when a bride prefers one rival over another, she stirs him to jealousy. For thus the Jews, clinging to vain idols and neglecting their true God, so far as it was in their power, provoked Him to emulation and jealousy; whence God justly punishes them with a similar emulation, as if to say: I in turn will provoke them to emulation and envy by preferring other peoples to them. For I will make it so that those who are not the people of God, indeed who are Gentiles and idolaters, live happily, abound in wealth, empire, and glory, and indeed subjugate and rule over My people, namely the Hebrews, and afflict, plunder, and slay them.
Abulensis explains this differently: so that "in" is taken as "like," as if to say: Just as they angered Me by that which was not God, that is, treating Me, or acting against Me, as though I were not God and were like idols: so I will anger them by that which is not a people, that is, by one like him who is not My people, but an enemy, "and by a foolish nation I will irritate them," that is, I will so provoke them to anger or to mockery, as foolish men are provoked. For thus the Babylonians and Romans made sport of the Jews. But the former sense is simpler and more genuine.
AND BY A FOOLISH NATION I WILL IRRITATE THEM, I will move them to anger and envy by preferring to them a foolish, base, and inglorious nation, namely the Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, etc., who may overcome, subjugate, and torment them. St. Jerome, writing to Fabiola on the 42 Stations, at the end, refers this to the calling of the Gentiles, with the Jews being rejected: for in this final canticle of Moses, he says, the Synagogue is most openly cast away and the Church is joined to the Lord; indeed the Apostle teaches that these words are to be referred above all to this, in Romans 10:19: see what was said there. Whence also Theodoret, in Question 41, explains thus, as if to say: "Just as you, forsaking the one God, preferred many false gods to Him, so I, leaving one people, will confer salvation upon all nations: but you worshipped those who were truly not gods, nor could you make them gods by worshipping them; but I will truly fill the foolish nations with the divine Spirit, and you, seeing it, will waste away with envy."
Verse 22: A Fire Kindled in My Fury
22. A FIRE IS KINDLED IN MY FURY, AND SHALL BURN EVEN TO THE LOWEST HELL (as if to say: The vengeance of My wrath and indignation against them is prepared and shall blaze like fire, so much so that it reaches to the lowest depths of hell: this is a metaphor and hyperbole, which is explained by the following words, namely thus): TO DEVOUR THE EARTH WITH ITS INCREASE, AND IT SHALL BURN THE FOUNDATIONS OF THE MOUNTAINS, namely to consume the lowest and deepest places of the earth and mountains and turn them to barrenness; for God often threatened this barrenness and often inflicted it upon the Hebrews on account of their sins.
Allegorically, Procopius, Rupert, Rabanus, and Gregory in book 18 of the Moralia, chapter 12, understand by this fire the fire of hell and of the damned.
Note first here that this fire is said to be already kindled, both because it has existed from the beginning of the world, Matthew 25:41; Isaiah 30:33; and because it has been prepared in God's presence and predestination, to burn sinners and the reprobate in its own time.
Second, this fire is said to be kindled "in the fury of the Lord": because the author of it is the fury of the Lord, that is, His will and firm resolve to punish the wicked in a horrible and unheard-of manner, such as fury tends to suggest. For anger and fury in God are not passions such as they are in us, but a tranquil and rational will, yet most keen and most effective, and omnipotent to inflict eternal punishments: and so since its effect equals and even surpasses all fury, it is rightly called fury.
Third, that this fire "shall burn even to the lowest hell," as if to say: That fire will not only seize and engulf the wicked here on earth (when the Lord judges the world), but also in hell and in the lowest abyss of the earth it will burn for all eternity.
Fourth, that this fire will "devour the earth," that is, the entire soil and surface of the earth and whatever grows from the earth, namely all trees, forests, crops, and herbs; and it will reduce all houses, fortresses, palaces, cities, towers, and all the riches they contain to ashes and cinders, 2 Peter last chapter, verses 10 and 12.
Fifth, that this fire will also "burn the foundations of the mountains," sunk to the deepest depths, both because it will consume the metals, gems, and all riches contained in the bowels of the earth; and because by its force it will dissolve all composite things and reduce them to their first and simple elements; this is what the Psalmist sings in Psalm 96: "The mountains melted like wax before the face of the Lord, before the face of the Lord all the earth;" and Judith chapter 16: "The mountains shall be moved from their foundations with the earth; the rocks shall melt like wax before Your face." We know that with immense heat stones liquefy and flow down from the mountains through the plains like a fiery torrent; such will this fire be: think of this when you sin. Who shall dwell with devouring fire, with everlasting burnings?
St. Prosper describes the punishments of hell thus briefly but vigorously, in book 3 of On the Contemplative Life: "Continuous groaning, he says, eternal torture, supreme pain, punitive sensation -- they torment souls but do not wring them out; they punish bodies but do not finish them; the fire does not extinguish those assigned to it, so that while the capacity for feeling remains, the punishment may remain, and it may hold those shackled in eternal bodies for suffering rather than for living, whom the immortality of the second death slays in living flames." That holy Abbot in the Lives of the Fathers, book 7, chapter 44, continually set this fire before himself, saying: "I have condemned myself to hell on account of my sins, and I say: Be with those of whom you are worthy; soon you will be numbered among them. I see
tears. I behold them gnashing their teeth, and leaping with their whole body, and trembling from head to foot. I see also an immeasurable sea of boiling fire, with waves flowing around and roaring, so that some think the waves of fire reach to the heavens, and in that terrible sea countless human beings cast down, and all crying out and wailing together with one voice, such wailing and cries as no one on earth has ever heard, and all burning like dry brushwood; while the mercy of God turns away from them. And then I lament the human race, which dares to speak or attend to anything, with such great evils stored up for the world. And in these thoughts I hold my mind, meditating on mourning, judging myself unworthy of heaven and earth."
Verses 23-24: Arrows, Famine, and Beasts
23. And I will spend My arrows among them. "I will spend," that is, I will fully send forth; "arrows," that is, all My punishments and plagues.
24. They shall be consumed with famine. The Chaldean translates: they shall be scorched with hunger.
BIRDS SHALL DEVOUR THEM. For "birds," in Hebrew the word is resheph, which generally signifies everything that burns, sets on fire, and inflames while flying; for by metathesis it alludes to saraph, that is, "to burn, to scorch": although St. Jerome translates resheph as "creeping on the belly," as if by another metathesis resheph alludes to raphas, or ramas, that is, "to creep."
Hence both the Septuagint and the Chaldean, Symmachus, Aquila, Theodotion, and the Fifth edition translate resheph as "bird" or "flying creature," as St. Jerome attests in Habakkuk 3 and 4; and Jerome adds that the Hebrews say resheph is also the name of a demon, who is called a bird and a flying thing on account of his speed and darting movement; whence in Habakkuk 3:4, our translator renders resheph as "devil."
Hence second, resheph signifies fire or lightning, which like birds dart about most swiftly and burn, as in Psalm 77:48.
Third, resheph signifies fiery arrows, which soldiers powerfully and most swiftly shoot from their bows to set houses and cities on fire, as is evident from Psalm 76, verse 4.
I WILL SEND UPON THEM THE TEETH OF BEASTS, as if to say: I will send against them wild beasts, such as wolves, lions, bears, and tigers. Thus sacred history teaches that God sent lions against the Israelites who worshipped idols, in 4 Kings 17:25.
WITH THE FURY OF CREATURES THAT TRAIL UPON THE GROUND, AND OF SERPENTS. In Hebrew: with the fury of serpents in the dust, that is, with venomous and raging serpents, which creep and hideously, to the horror of onlookers, drag themselves along the ground, so that they might rage against them, bite and tear them.
Verses 28-29: O That They Were Wise
28. THEY ARE A NATION WITHOUT COUNSEL. In Hebrew the particle ki, that is "because," is prefixed; whence Vatablus thinks the reason for the preceding is given here, namely why the enemies of Israel were proud and said: "Our hand is exalted, and the Lord did not do all these things," because they themselves are a nation without counsel, understanding, and prudence. But ki often is redundant in Hebrew and merely introduces a sentence. Therefore our translator rightly omitted it; whence we will better refer these words to the Israelites themselves: for Moses continually thunders against them here.
29. O THAT THEY WERE WISE, AND WOULD UNDERSTAND, AND WOULD PROVIDE FOR THEIR LAST END! Vatablus and Abulensis continue to refer these words to the enemies of the Jews, as if to say: If these enemies had been wise, they would have understood that it was accomplished not by their own strength but by Mine, namely God's, that I afflicted and destroyed this nation of Mine, namely the Jews, not they themselves: they would have understood moreover what end or outcome awaits them; they would have understood that the same things would befall them on account of their own sins that befell My people, says Vatablus. For thus the Assyrians, because they boasted of having destroyed the Israelites, were therefore destroyed by the Chaldeans; in turn the Chaldeans, because they boasted of having destroyed Judah, were therefore destroyed by the Persians and Medes, says Abulensis.
But as I said a little before, Moses is not concerned here with the enemies of the Jews, but with the Jews themselves: for although these things would happen later, he here pricks and goads them with the fear of their last end, so that they may return from idols to God, from transgression to repentance and the law of God, as if to say: Would that the Jews, afflicted by their enemies and by so many plagues sent upon them by Me, would return to their senses, repent, and understand what it means to sin against God; and would foresee what will befall them in the last time, and what the reward of their sin and impiety will be, both in this life and in the future life, or rather in death and hell! For as the Wise Man says: "Remember your last end, and you will never sin." O how wise are those who continually set these things before their own eyes and those of others!
Rightly did Abbot Alexander say to a brother overcome by sloth: "If in your cell you would carefully consider the kingdom of heaven and eternal torment, in your cell you would not feel sloth." The witness is Sophronius, or rather John Moschus in the Spiritual Meadow, chapter 142. Again in chapter 169, Alexander thus rouses himself: "Woe to you, Alexander! How great will be your confusion when the others are crowned!"
And in chapter 156, a certain old man said to two philosophers who were asking him for a word of edification: "You are zealous for eloquence, not true philosophy; for how long will you be learning to speak, as if you did not know how to speak? Let
therefore let the work of your philosophy be always to meditate on death, and accustom yourselves to silence and quiet."
Abbot Silvanus in the Lives of the Fathers, book 5, under the heading On Compunction, having been caught up in ecstasy and returning to himself, fell on his face and wept; when asked why, he said: "I was taken to the judgment, and I saw many in our habit going to torments, and many laypeople going to the kingdom." And the old man grieved and no longer wished to leave his cell; but if he was forced to go out, he would cover his face with his hood, saying: "What need is there to see this temporal light, in which there is nothing useful?"
In the same place, a certain monk who had lived negligently, while ill, was taken to the judgment, and found his mother, already dead, among those who were being judged. When she saw him, she was astonished and said to him: What is this, my son? You too have been ordered to come to this place of condemnation? Where are those words of yours which you used to say: I want to save my soul? He himself, confounded, and returning to his senses, shut himself up in penance and weeping over his negligence: and when many asked him to moderate his excessive weeping lest he harm himself, he refused to be consoled, saying: "If I could not bear the reproach of my mother, how shall I be able to bear the shame brought against me by Christ and His holy angels on the day of judgment?"
In the same place another old man said: "If it were possible for the souls of men to perish from fear at the coming of God after the resurrection, the whole world would die from terror and dread. For what is it to see the heavens rent open, and God revealed with wrath and indignation, and innumerable armies of angels, and the whole human race gathered together at once? For this reason we ought to live here as those who will have to give an account to God for our every movement."
Another old man saw someone laughing and said to him: "We are going to render an account of our whole life before the Lord of heaven and earth, and you laugh?"
Piously, St. Bernard says in the Sermon on the Apostles Peter and Paul: "O that they were wise, etc., he says, so that the image of eternity might be reformed in us; namely that we might govern present things through wisdom, judge past things through understanding, and provide for the last things with caution!"
The same, Epistle 202: "O that, he says, you were wise in the things of God, understood the things of the world, and foresaw the things of hell! Surely you would shudder at the things below, desire the things above, and despise the things of the world." So Abbot Olympius was wise in the Spiritual Meadow, chapter 141: for when asked: How do you sit in this cave? How do you endure the heat and the gnats? he said: "I endure these things in order to be freed from future torments; I suffer the gnats in order to escape the immortal worm; so also I endure the heat, fearing the eternal fire: for these things are temporal, but those things have no end." So too Abbot Moses was wise in the Lives of the Fathers, book 7, chapter 26, saying: "So that
I may be beautiful." And another in chapter 44, whose daily exercise was this: "I, he says, behold the angels ascending and descending to call souls, and I always await my end, saying: My heart is ready, O God, my heart is ready." And another in the same place: "I, he says, from the time I renounced the world, have said to myself daily: Today you were born anew, today you began to serve God; so be a pilgrim every day, and one to be set free tomorrow." I have cited more at Leviticus 16, toward the end of the chapter.
Verses 30-31: How Should One Pursue a Thousand?
30. How should one pursue (so it should be read with the Roman texts, not "pursued") a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, as if to say: From this very thing that I shall say, they ought to have been warned of their impiety, and incited to become wise, and to learn and observe the judgments of God: for how could it happen that one of the enemies pursues a thousand Israelites, and two put ten thousand of them to flight, unless because God delivered them up and, as it were, sold them to their enemies, and shut them up in their hands?
31. FOR OUR GOD IS NOT LIKE THEIR GODS, who allow many sins of their worshippers, and who are powerless to avenge themselves or their own, to do good or harm to anyone, of which thing even our enemies are witnesses, who have experienced the power, severity, and justice of our God in comparison with their idols, such as the Egyptians, the Amalekites, the Amorites, and the other nations through which we passed, and which will hereafter experience the same things.
Verses 32-33: The Vine of Sodom
32 and 33. THEIR VINE IS OF THE VINEYARD OF SODOM (as if to say: Rightly has God delivered, that is, let Him deliver, the Jews to their enemies, because this people, which was to Me like a choice vine, degenerating, has become like the vines of Sodom and the suburbs and fields of Gomorrah, as if to say: It has become the worst, imitating the Sodomites and the people of Gomorrah, as if it had sprung from them, not from the holy patriarchs. Whence also) THEIR GRAPE
IS A GRAPE OF GALL (as if to say: The grapes of such a vine, that is, the fruits and works of the Jews are full of gall, most bitter, and most wicked. Hence also) THEIR WINE IS THE GALL OF DRAGONS, AND THE INCURABLE VENOM OF ASPS, as if to say: "Their wine," that is, the doctrine expressed and flowing from such impious people, which they offer to others so as to pour out their crimes upon them, is poisonous and deadly, like the gall of dragons, and a cruel and incurable venom which kills and destroys all who drink it.
Thus Isaiah, chapter 1, verse 10, calls the leaders of the Jews "rulers of Sodom" and the people "people of Gomorrah." Thus Ezekiel 16:3, addressing the impious Jews, says: "Your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite." On the contrary, Gentiles who imitate the faith and works of Abraham are called children of Abraham. So Procopius.
Aptly that honorable man, when someone reproached him with his ignoble family, responded: "My lineage is a disgrace to me, but you are a disgrace to your lineage," as Blessed Gregory Nazianzen reports in his oration Against a Nobleman of Bad Character.
Abulensis applies this somewhat differently: "Sin, he says, is consummated in three stages: first, in the heart; second, in the mouth; third, in action; therefore three things are placed here, namely the vine, with respect to the first; the grape, with respect to the second; the wine, with respect to the third: and there is an order among them, because from the vine comes the grape, and from the grape wine; so from the sin of the heart comes the sin of the mouth, and thence the sin of action."
Morally, St. Gregory in book 4 on 1 Kings, chapter 4, says: "By the name of vineyards, the concupiscences of the mind are rightly represented, because they intoxicate the hearts of the reprobate and alienate them from the knowledge of truth. He who fills his mind with the most abominable concupiscences draws his vine from the vineyard of Sodom and his shoot from Gomorrah; for he as it were makes a vineyard, who thereby forgets eternal things while he is intoxicated through his concupiscences: and he who refreshes himself as it were under the shade of the vineyard and the pleasantness of wicked delight prepares for himself the retribution of eternal fire; whence the fruits of this vineyard are grapes of gall and clusters of bitterness; the grape is in the appearance, the gall in the taste; it delights the sight but embitters the taste: because indeed the reprobate mind is greatly pleased by what it desires, but in eternal punishment, what is now sweet to it will become bitter."
Finally, St. Ambrose, in the book On Elijah and Fasting, chapter 14, understands wine and drunkenness here literally and notes that they are called a poison not so much of the body as of the mind.
Verses 34-35: Vengeance Is Mine
34. ARE NOT THESE THINGS STORED UP WITH ME, as if to say: Do not think that with the passage of time I forget these things: for the memory of these faults, which are signified by the name of vine, grapes, and wine, remains with Me hidden and deeply stored in My mind.
34 and 35. AND SEALED IN MY TREASURES (as if to say: Just as those things which are in treasuries, that is, carefully locked up so that no one can steal them: so all things that the Jews do and will do are preserved in the secret of My knowledge, wisdom, and memory, as it were sealed, secured, and locked, so that in due time I may punish and avenge the same. For) VENGEANCE IS MINE, as if to say: It belongs to Me, vengeance pertains to Me, it is Mine to avenge, and I will not delay it: because the day of your destruction is at hand and the times of vengeance press on.
From this passage Abbot Sisois, in the Lives of the Fathers, book 5, chapter 16, on Patience, persuaded a certain monk who had been injured and wanted to avenge himself, to leave vengeance to God; and when the monk refused, he said: "Let us pray, brother." And rising he says: "O God, we no longer need You to think of us, since we ourselves are taking our own vengeance." Hearing this, the brother fell at his feet, saying: "I no longer quarrel with that brother; but I beg you, forgive me." It is our part, therefore, to wish upon our enemies not the vengeance of God, but His blessing: for vengeance belongs to God, Psalm 93: "The Lord is the God of vengeance; the God of vengeance has acted freely. Rise up, You who judge the earth; render retribution to the proud."
Memorable is what Valerius Maximus writes about M. Bibulus, a most distinguished man, in book 4, chapter 1: "He, he says, while staying in Syria, learned that his two sons of outstanding character had been killed by Gabinian soldiers in Egypt. Queen Cleopatra sent their killers bound to him, so that he might exact vengeance for this most grievous disaster at his own discretion. But he, presented with a favor than which none greater could be bestowed upon one in grief, compelled his sorrow to yield to moderation, and ordered the executioners of his own blood to be returned untouched immediately to Cleopatra, saying that the power of this vengeance should not be his own but the senate's." Shall a pagan prince resign the vengeance of a private injury, and that the gravest, to the senate, and shall a Christian not resign the same to his God?
THAT THEIR FOOT MAY SLIP, so that they may fall into all evils and plagues, especially before their enemies.
Verse 36: The Lord Will Judge His People
36. THE LORD WILL JUDGE HIS PEOPLE, as if to say: The Lord will justly avenge and punish the sins of His people.
AND HE WILL HAVE MERCY ON HIS SERVANTS. When He has punished them and they, through this punishment, have returned to the Lord, then the Lord will again be moved by mercy toward them as toward His servants.
FOR HE WILL SEE THAT THEIR HAND IS WEAKENED (that is, their strength and power, so that) even those who were shut up (in towers) have failed (and those few who remained). THE REMNANT are (almost entirely) consumed. In Hebrew: ki azelal yad, that is, "that the hand has gone away," that is, that they are without a hand, that they can do nothing, that
they are dissolved in strength and failing, as if their hands had been cut off. Whence the Septuagint translates: 'enfeebled and exhausted.' Seeing therefore this extreme misery of theirs, He will have mercy. "For the tribulation of the Jews is described here, says Abulensis, after the manner of a city besieged by enemies, in which first the defenders of the walls grow weary and die; then after the city is taken, those who shut themselves up in strong camps and impregnable towers are killed by hunger and thirst," and finally the defenseless common people that remain are captured and consumed.
Verses 37-39: Where Are Their Gods?
37. AND HE WILL SAY (God, through the Prophets whom He will send to the Jews, that they may come to their senses and return to God): WHERE ARE THEIR GODS? Where are your idols in which you trusted?
38. OF WHOSE VICTIMS THEY ATE THE FAT; (He says this mockingly: for in the true and ordered worship of God, all the fat of victims was to be eaten by no one, but was to be burned for God alone, as is clear from Leviticus 3:17; thus) AND THEY DRANK THE WINE OF LIBATIONS (that is, which was to be poured out and offered to God alone, they sacrilegiously, after the manner of the Gentiles, drank).
LET THEM ARISE AND HELP YOU. This is an enallage of person: for he shifts from the third person to the second.
39. I WILL KILL AND I WILL MAKE TO LIVE; I WILL STRIKE AND I WILL HEAL. Armachanus in his Armenian Questions asserts that he learned from a certain learned Hebrew that the Hebrew words should be pointed passively thus: ani amat vaechia muchatsti vaani eraphe, that is, 'I shall be killed and I shall live, I shall be pierced and I shall be healed'; and that it is so written in a codex written by the hand of Ezra, which is kept at Bologna with the Dominican Fathers: as if this were a prophecy about Christ, and it is said of Him that He would be killed by the Jews and would soon rise from death by His own power, as Lord of life and death. But let the credibility of this rest with him. For our translator, the Chaldean, and the Septuagint read it differently.
Verses 40-42: I Will Lift Up My Hand to Heaven
40 and 41. I WILL LIFT UP MY HAND TO HEAVEN (that is, I will swear; for the custom of those who swear is to raise their hands on high as if calling God who dwells on high as witness, as if to say: I, God, as with raised hand will swear by Myself and by My life, saying): I LIVE FOREVER (as men swear and say: As the Lord lives), IF I SHALL SHARPEN MY SWORD LIKE LIGHTNING, AND MY HAND TAKE HOLD ON JUDGMENT (as if to say: When I have prepared the sword of My vengeance, so that like lightning it may flash, terrify, and penetrate most swiftly, and My avenging power has turned to executing judgment): I WILL RENDER VENGEANCE TO MY ENEMIES. Consider how terrible the judgment of God is and will be, especially
the last judgment, when the damned will be adjudged to hell. Hear St. Anselm in his book On the Misery of Man: "On one side will be accusing sins, on the other terrifying justice; below the gaping horrible abyss of hell, above the angry judge; within a burning conscience, without a burning world. The just man will scarcely be saved: the sinner thus caught, to which side will he press?"
42. I WILL MAKE MY ARROWS DRUNK WITH BLOOD (as if to say: I will thoroughly drench My arrows in blood, namely) THE BLOOD OF THE SLAIN (as follows) AND OF THE CAPTIVITY OF THE BARE HEAD OF ENEMIES, that is, with the blood of captive enemies who are stripped bare of head, or with bared heads, are forced as conquered and captive to march before their victorious enemies.
Verse 43: Praise His People, O Nations
43. PRAISE HIS PEOPLE, O NATIONS. "His," namely God's, as if to say: O nations, as you understand these things, praise the people of the Lord, because they have so merciful and just a Lord; for although He delivered them for a time to impious enemies for punishment, yet He will finally avenge and repay retribution upon their enemies, and will have mercy on His people who have returned to Him.
The Septuagint paraphrases thus: Rejoice, O heavens, together with Him, and let all the angels of God worship Him. Rejoice, O nations, with His people, and let all the sons of God be strengthened in Him: for He will avenge the blood of His sons, etc. Theodoret beautifully explains this as referring to the calling of the Gentiles in Question 42; indeed the Apostle, in Romans 11:15: because just as literally these words promise the liberation of the people of God from the violence of their enemies, so mystically they promise the future liberation through Christ, which has been accomplished for both Gentiles and Jews.
Verses 44-46: Moses Spoke to the People
44. SO MOSES CAME AND SPOKE, etc., IN THE EARS OF THE PEOPLE; he spoke to the people who were listening and giving ear. This is a recapitulation; for here Scripture recapitulates that Moses heard and learned this canticle from the Lord in the tabernacle, in the preceding chapter, verses 13 and 19, and then promulgated it to the people.
St. Chrysostom asks, on Isaiah 1, why Moses calls and sings this as a canticle, when it is rather a sharp rebuke of the people; and he answers wisely
that he does this so that by song he may soften the harshness of the rebuke. From the practice, he says, of spiritual wisdom, by the modulation of a canticle he stole away from it its depressing effect. Indeed it was the art of a good shepherd of souls, as it were to sweeten for the sheep the bitter fodder by means of a pipe, which nevertheless he knew would be profitable for their health.
46. SET YOUR HEARTS UPON ALL THE WORDS (apply your mind and attend to all my words) WHICH I TESTIFY (that is, solemnly declare) TO YOU, on this day in which I shall die, having brought witnesses, namely calling upon heaven and earth.
Verses 48-52: Go Up into Mount Abarim
48, 49, and 50. AND THE LORD SPOKE TO MOSES ON THE SAME DAY, SAYING: GO UP INTO THIS MOUNTAIN ABARIM, etc., WHICH WHEN YOU HAVE GONE UP, YOU SHALL BE GATHERED TO YOUR PEOPLE. From this it is sufficiently gathered that Moses, on the same day that he sang this canticle, ascended the mountain, and from it gazed upon the holy land, and soon after departed this life.
49. ABARIM, THAT IS, OF PASSAGES. The word "of passages" is not in the Hebrew, but was added by the translator for the sake of explanation; for Abarim in Hebrew means "passages" in the plural: perhaps because by it one crossed from Moab to Canaan by several routes. Whence the Chaldean translator renders Mount Abarim as "the mountain of those crossing over." Moreover, through this mountain Moses crossed, not into Canaan, but from this life into Limbo, and thence into heaven. Let us too ascend with Moses often to Mount Abarim, and contemplate our passage from this life to the next: what house awaits us there, what place, what citizens, what age, what eternity, and let us learn to die and to cross over. So St. Basil ascended, but more directly than Moses, of whom hear St. Gregory Nazianzen in his praises: "When, his course completed and his faith preserved, he was held by a desire for dissolution and longed for the time of crowns, and indeed had not heard: 'Go up to the mountain and die,' but rather: 'Die and ascend to us'; here too he produced a miracle in no way inferior to the previous ones. For when he was nearly dead and lifeless, and had for the most part completed his life, around his final words he grew strong, so that he might depart with words of piety."
INTO MOUNT NEBO. Nebo was a ridge or summit of Mount Abarim.
52. FROM OPPOSITE, that is, from across.