Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
He prophesies the destruction of the Jews by Titus and Vespasian on account of their having slain Christ, yet in such a way that most of what he says here could be applied to themselves by the Jews who lived in the time of Isaiah and heard these things from him. Second, at verse 8, he assigns the cause of the destruction, namely the sins of the people, and the stupor and fraud of the rulers. Third, at verse 16, he gives another cause of the destruction, namely the wanton and proud adornment of women, whom he accordingly predicted would be shaved bald and clothed in ropes and sackcloth.
Vulgate Text: Isaiah 3:1-26
1. For behold, the Sovereign Lord of hosts will take away from Jerusalem and from Judah the mighty and the strong, every support of bread and every support of water; 2. the warrior and the man of war, the judge, and the prophet, and the diviner, and the elder; 3. the captain of fifty, and the honorable of countenance, and the counselor, and the skillful among architects, and the expert in mystical speech. 4. And I will give boys as their princes, and the effeminate shall rule over them. 5. And the people shall rush upon one another, man against man, and each against his neighbor: the youth shall rise up against the elder, and the base against the noble. 6. For a man shall take hold of his brother, of his father's household, saying: You have a garment, be our ruler; but let this ruin be under your hand. 7. He shall answer in that day, saying: I am no healer, and in my house there is neither bread nor garment: do not make me ruler of the people. 8. For Jerusalem has fallen, and Judah has collapsed; because their tongue and their devices are against the Lord, to provoke the eyes of His majesty. 9. The recognition of their countenance has answered them: and they have proclaimed their sin as Sodom, nor have they hidden it: woe to their souls! for evil has been repaid to them. 10. Say to the just man that it shall be well, for he shall eat the fruit of his devices. 11. Woe to the wicked unto evil! for the retribution of his hands shall be done to him. 12. My people — their exactors have despoiled them, and women have ruled over them. O my people, those who call you blessed, they themselves deceive you, and destroy the way of your steps. 13. The Lord stands to judge, and He stands to judge the peoples. 14. The Lord will come to judgment with the elders of His people and with their princes: for you have devoured the vineyard, and the plunder of the poor is in your house. 15. Why do you crush my people, and grind the faces of the poor, says the Lord God of hosts? 16. And the Lord said: Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, and walk with outstretched neck, and with winking eyes they went about, and clapped their hands, they walked with their feet, and moved with measured step. 17. The Lord will make bald the crown of the daughters of Zion, and the Lord will lay bare their hair. 18. In that day the Lord will take away the ornament of shoes, and little moons, 19. and chains, and necklaces, and bracelets, and bonnets, 20. and hair-pins, and ankle-bands, and small chains, and perfume-boxes, and earrings, 21. and rings, and jewels hanging on the forehead, 22. and changes of apparel, and short cloaks, and linen garments, and pins; 23. and mirrors, and fine linens, and headbands, and summer veils. 24. And instead of a sweet fragrance there shall be a stench, and instead of a girdle a rope, and instead of curled hair baldness, and instead of a breast-band sackcloth. 25. Your fairest men also shall fall by the sword, and your mighty in battle. 26. And her gates shall mourn and lament, and she, desolate, shall sit upon the ground.
Verse 1: For behold
1. For behold. — The word "for" signifies that these things depend upon and are connected with what precedes, as if to say: I have warned you to leave Christ alone, and not to harass or kill Him; but I know that you will do the contrary, and will kill Christ; therefore I predict to you that Titus and Vespasian, in vengeance for the blood of Christ, will overthrow and burn Jerusalem. So say St. Basil, Jerome, Cyril, Rupert, and generally the ancient Fathers. Isaiah therefore is not speaking of the destruction of the Jews by the Babylonians, as Haymo would have it, but by the Romans, and this up to chapter 6, as is clear from the whole course and connection of Isaiah: for what he says in the following chapter about the magnificent shoot of the Lord, about the book of life, about the washing away of sins in the spirit of judgment and burning; and in chapter 5, about the canticle of the beloved and kinsman, is manifestly, by the common opinion of interpreters, pertaining to Christ and the times of Christ and the Church. This chapter therefore predicts that God will take away from the Jews on account of the slaying of Christ, first, all strength and all valiant soldiers; second, all provisions, so that they waste away from hunger; third, prophecy and Prophets; fourth, elders and princes; fifth, counselors; sixth, architects; seventh, pious and spiritual men; and finally all light of Sacred Scripture, all worship of religion, all grace and favor of God. From all of which it will come about that the Jews, deprived of God's help, blind and wretched and destitute of counsel, will rush to their own destruction, and will be afflicted by terrible war, famine, and pestilence, slaughtered and dragged into slavery. So say the Fathers already cited.
(1) In this chapter the Prophet pursues the same argument as in the preceding one, namely he depicts the punishment coming from God the avenger: First, the diminution of the people from a scarcity of things necessary for life, verse 1; second, the decline of government, from the failure of administrators and the ineptitude of rulers, 2-4; third, the disturbance of the state from future civil war and anarchy, 5-7; fourth, the ruin of Jerusalem, which will deservedly follow from insolent opposition against God and shameless opposition against decency, 8-9; fifth, the separation of the just from the wicked, with a favorable outcome for the former and an unfavorable one for the latter, not only on account of the sins of the people, but on account of avaricious, rapacious, cowardly, and negligent princes and prelates, who will be the cause of oppression, disgrace, and deception for the people, 10-12; sixth, the judicial action by which God reproaches the more powerful for oppressing the weak, 14-15. He decrees punishments for the women, to chastise their pride, vanity, and luxury with opposite evils, 16-24, and predicts the slaughter of very many men, and the resulting scarcity both of inhabitants for the cities and of husbands for marriages, 25-26; and also verse 1 of the following chapter.
The Lord of hosts will take away, etc., the mighty and the strong. — In Hebrew, the mighty [masculine] and the mighty [feminine], or the male supporter and the female supporter: the word "strong" is therefore feminine, as if to say: God will take away from Judah mighty leaders, such as Moses, Joshua, and Gideon once were; and mighty women leaders, such as Deborah, Jael, and Judith were. So says St. Basil. Second, Scripture customarily uses both genders, namely masculine and feminine, to signify the totality of a thing, as in Ecclesiastes 2: "Male singers and female singers," that is, every kind of musician; Jeremiah 7: "The voice of the bridegroom and the bride," that is, all nuptial rejoicing; so here "the mighty [masculine] and the mighty [feminine]," that is, every defense, every support. So says Sanchez. By "strong," understand one who is courageous as well as robust and powerful. For Lampridius rightly said: "No one dares to provoke or injure that kingdom or people which he knows to be ready and prompt to take vengeance."
He will take away, etc., every support of bread and every support of water, — as if to say: God will take away from you all provisions, so that you perish from hunger and thirst; He will take away from you whatever could serve as nourishment or protection: He will bring barrenness and famine. How true this was is evident from Josephus and Hegesippus, who record that during the siege of Jerusalem by Titus, mothers devoured their own children because of hunger.
Note the Hebraism. For the Hebrews call bread, food, and everything that sustains and supports a man in life by the name "strength" — and, as it is in Hebrew, mishan, that is, support, staff, walking-stick; hence bread is called a rod or staff, Leviticus 26:26; Ezekiel 4:16, and chapter 5:16, and chapter 14:13. For just as a staff supports the aged body, bent and unsteady, so bread sustains wavering and failing life. Other Fathers explain these things differently, as if to say: I will take away the strength of bread, that is, I will cause your bread to lack strength, juice, and nourishing power, to be empty and dry, and not satisfy hunger; and likewise I will cause water not to quench thirst. For thus God even now makes the fruits and produce growing in Sodom empty and tasteless. And thus He often makes grain crops dry and worthless inside by sending blight upon them.
Allegorically, in that same siege and thenceforward up to now, God has taken away from the Jews spiritual bread, that is, first, the true understanding of Sacred Scripture. So say St. Jerome, Cyril, and Haymo. Whence Philo of Carpathia on the Song of Songs, chapter 4: "It should be noted," he says, "that the strength of bread is said first, and afterward the strength of water will be taken away; because when the weighty sayings of Sacred Scripture are not diligently sought out, nor practiced so as to be kept, the mind will gradually fall from knowledge, so that eventually it will not understand even easy things." Second, the Eucharistic bread and the water of baptism. So say Cyril and Basil — see the latter, for he beautifully teaches how God, as a punishment for sins, takes away the use of the sacraments. Third, all spiritual charisms. So says Chrysostom, in his third Oration Against the Jews. Thus He has already in great part taken the same things away from the Greeks, Africans, Syrians, etc., once most flourishing in holiness and learning, whom on account of the sins of their descendants He allowed to be handed over to the Turks and Saracens.
Verse 2: The Prophet
2. The Prophet. — For in the destruction of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans, says Sanchez, there were few prophets, namely Jeremiah alone. Whence Azariah says: "There is at this time no prince, nor leader, nor Prophet" (Daniel 3:38). Sanchez adds that it is said that Prophets were lacking, because, although they were to exist, nevertheless the people would not listen to them or heed them, just as if they had not existed. For what was in vain is said not to have been; what was useless is said not to have existed. For if medicine does not heal, we say there was no medicine; if no counsel was useful, that a counselor was lacking; if the king is a boy or a fool, that there is no king. But I say that Isaiah is speaking of the destruction of the Jews not by the Babylonians, but by the Romans: for then they had no Prophets at all; nor indeed was that Jesus who continually cried out "Woe to Jerusalem!" (as Josephus testifies, book 7 of the Jewish War, chapter 12) a Prophet, but rather an omen and a portent.
And the diviner. — The Hebrew word qosem can be taken in a good sense, to signify a conjecturer, a sagacious and prognosticating person, who from past observation of causes, effects, and signs makes conjectures about future or hidden things — so the Septuagint understand it, translating it as sophisten, and Vatablus and other more recent interpreters; or in a bad sense, to signify a soothsayer or diviner — so St. Jerome and other ancient authors, as if to say: God will take away from the Jews all prophecy, both true and false, and all prophets, both true and false.
Verse 3: The captain of fifty,
3. The captain of fifty, — who commands fifty soldiers. For the Jews had pentacontarchs (commanders of fifty), just as we have hecatontarchs or centurions, who command a hundred soldiers, as if to say: God will take away from the Jews commanders and captains, so that there will be none among them who can lead a war and draw up a battle line. Hence Epaminondas, as Plutarch records, the commander of the Thebans and Boeotians, on his deathbed urged his people to make peace with their enemies on any terms: for he saw that among the Boeotians there was no one who could wisely preside over war as a commander; therefore with him the empire of the Thebans both began and ended. True is that saying: "An army of deer led by a lion is more formidable than an army of lions led by a deer," as Chabrias used to say, and after him King Philip, according to Plutarch.
And the honorable of countenance, — who by his maturity, gravity, and authority presides over others and directs them, as if to say: There will be no one who can rescue the falling fatherland by any means: neither by divine oracle, as a Prophet; nor by his own authority, as an honored man; nor by human counsel, as an elder; nor by military stratagem, as a captain of fifty; nor by mathematical engines, as architects are accustomed to employ; nor by his eloquence, as the expert in mystical speech: for although the Jews besieged by the Romans made frequent sorties against their engines and designs, they scarcely constructed any siege engines themselves, as Josephus testifies. Moreover, their engines were useless to them, nor could they avert the destruction, so that the Romans gained possession of the city and of the most strongly fortified citadel of Zion. Hence he does not say "the architect," but "I will take away the skillful among architects."
And the expert in mystical speech. — "The expert in mystical speech," according to Jerome Prado, is a pious man endowed with the gift of prayer, who by his lips, as if by incantations, can soothe and calm the divine fury. Second, and more fittingly, it is one who excels in eloquence, the grace and efficacy of persuasion — for example, in reconciling the discordant, calming the angry, bending the obstinate, correcting the wicked: for such men are necessary in the state, to disperse and quell the tumults and seditions of the populace when the enemy threatens. Whence St. Jerome says: "The expert in mystical speech, or, as Theodotion translates, the skilled enchanter; and, as Aquila has it, the skilled whisperer, is a man learned and practiced both in the Law and the Prophets and in the Gospel and the Apostles: who can heal each perturbation of the soul by his teaching, and restore the mind to its sound state, so that the fornicator receives chastity, the glutton frugality, and the formerly avaricious man gives alms." This eloquence is called "mystical," both from its manner, because it creeps mystically, that is secretly and imperceptibly, into the soul and bends it; and from its end and fruit, because it works a mystical, that is spiritual, movement and conversion, and produces mystical gifts and virtues in the soul. The Septuagint translate it as the prudent hearer, that is, the prudent judge, who, having heard counselors or Prophets, can discern between good and evil, between true and false. For when one Prophet was speaking, others would listen and judge, 1 Corinthians 14:29; and this judge could also be understood as the expert in mystical speech, that is, in prophecy, who has the gift of discernment of spirits, so that, as one experienced and skilled in prophecy, he can distinguish the genuine from the spurious.
Note here the manner in which states collapse when God punishes, namely when civil and ecclesiastical officials gradually fail, along with upright and wise men who direct others by word and example. A political writer sagaciously said: "Five things indicate whether a state is doing well or badly: first, houses of prayer; second, the senate house; third, the school; fourth, the marketplace; fifth, the clock — as these are well or badly maintained and governed, so too is the state." Thus Emperor Charles V, when visiting cities, used to look at the clock, whether it was properly set, at the church, and at the streets, whether they were clean and orderly. He also used to inquire about three P's: Who in the city was the Praetor, the Pastor, and the Preceptor.
Moreover, even the pagans judged that wise and prudent men are the charioteers of the state, and that prudence is the pillar of human life. Plato said that "states would be blessed if either philosophers governed them, or kings took up philosophy." He meant not speculative and dry philosophy, but practical philosophy, namely political, economic, and ethical. Euripides used to say that "one right counsel conquers a great force of soldiers." Antisthenes said: "Prudence is the safest wall, which neither collapses nor is betrayed." Archytas said: "Just as a general leads an army, a helmsman ships, God the world, and the mind the soul: so prudence governs and directs the happiness of the present life." For, as Isocrates teaches: "It belongs to the prudent man to remember the past, act cautiously in the present, and foresee and guard against the future." For these are the three duties of prudence, and if they are observed, both the state and human life will be happy.
Therefore what the eye is in the body, that is prudence and the prudent man in the state. Hence "a king or prince lacking prudence is like a one-eyed Cyclops," who does nothing from judgment but everything from fancy and caprice with tumult, and thus brings misfortune upon the state and upon himself. So says Plutarch. A political writer truly said: "In the highest fortune, more is accomplished by auspices and counsels than by weapons and hands." On the other hand: "All enterprises begun from rash impulse," says Tacitus, "though strong at first, languish over time; and: Cunning and bold counsels are pleasant in first appearance, difficult in execution, and sorrowful in outcome."
Verse 4: And I will give boys as their princes,
4. And I will give boys as their princes, — as if to say: Not only will I take away elders, Prophets, and prudent rulers, but in their place I will give them boys as princes — not so much in age as in imprudence, folly, and character, namely reckless, foolish, unwarlike, wanton, and dissolute men. For this is a great punishment for a state, as is clear from Ecclesiastes 10:16. At Rome, in the portico of the public inn (from which oil miraculously flowed at the time of Christ's birth), where veterans and discharged soldiers were once maintained, these verses were inscribed in golden letters:
Ancient Rome, while ancient citizens governed you,
No good man was exempt from duty, no wicked man unpunished:
When depraved youth succeeded the departed fathers,
By their counsel you were cast headlong to ruin.
Of such persons Lucan says, book 8:
The age of the Nilotic tyrant is suspect to us:
For difficult trust demands robust years.
Nicomachus Vopiscus, in Vopiscus's Life of the Emperor Tacitus, says: "May the gods avert that boys be princes and that minors be called fathers of the fatherland, whom sweets, toys, and every boyish pleasure entice to granting consulships." The poets feign that the boy Phaethon begged from his father the Sun the driving of his chariot. To whom his father said: "You ask great things, Phaethon, things that do not suit your strength." Yet he wrested permission; but what a conflagration the inexperienced boy brought upon the world! Most truly does Ecclesiastes 10:16 say: "Woe to you, O land, whose king is a boy!" — namely "the sons of reproach are children of harm." Such boys were the foolish and ignorant Scribes and chief priests and leaders of the people; likewise those factious Zealots, who by their reckless seditions and massacres destroyed the city and their own citizens more than the Romans did, as Josephus testifies, books 5 and 6 of the Jewish War. And this befell the Jews by the just judgment of God, because they had preferred Barabbas the seditious man to Christ, the King of glory, as St. Athanasius says in his sermon On the Passion and the Cross. So in this century the English schismatics, because they refused to be subject to the Pope, by the just judgment of God had as head not only of the state but also of the Church: first, a layman, Henry VIII; second, not a man but a boy, Edward; third, not a male but a woman, Elizabeth. Are not these monstrosities at which posterity will marvel? Are they not the disgraces of our age?
Second, by these "boys" can be understood Titus and the Roman pederasts, as I shall say shortly: for to these God gave over, that is, handed over for punishment, the Jews, just as criminals are handed over to the executioner; although Sanchez explains "I will give" as meaning "I predict that they will be given."
And the effeminate shall rule over them. — He notes the lust and pederasty of the rulers both of the Jews and of the Romans, namely of Titus, the conqueror of the Jews, whom Suetonius places among troops of catamites, and of the Emperor Hadrian, who was a male prostitute (as Aquila translates here) to Trajan; just as Antinous was to the same Hadrian, as is clear from Dio and Xiphilinus in the Life of Hadrian. Moreover, that the Romans at that time were most effeminate is evident from Juvenal, Satires 1 and 2:
Soft riches broke the ages with shameful luxury, etc.
Hence consequently they were not virile in spirit but effeminate, that is, womanish, timid, weak, and fainthearted.
Second, the Septuagint and Theodotion translate "boys" as empaiktai, that is, mockers: for the Hebrew olel comes from alal, meaning to mock, to disgrace. For the Jews, captured by the Romans, were mocked, just as they themselves had mocked Christ. So say Leo Castrius, following St. Athanasius and Procopius. Finally, "the effeminate" are also those who are subject to the rule of women, who are governed by their wives and children. Famous is that saying about the boy Biophantus: "Biophantus rules Greece" — because his father ruled Greece, his mother ruled his father, and the son ruled his mother.
Verse 5: And the people shall rush upon one another, man against man,
5. And the people shall rush upon one another, man against man, — as if to say: From having boys and effeminate men as rulers, it will follow that no order of age or rank will be observed, but without respect the youth against the elder, the commoner against the noble, everyone against his neighbor will rise up. Thus it happened under Titus; for, as Josephus teaches, the city of Jerusalem was divided into three parts by those factious Zealots mentioned in verse 4: for some occupied the citadel and the temple; a second group the lower part of the city, and a third the upper part. So says St. Jerome. This discord is the certain ruin of an empire; just as, conversely, unity is its preservation: "For not even the smallest nation can be destroyed by adversaries, unless it has consumed itself by its own feuds," says Vegetius.
Verses 6 and 7: You have a garment: be our ruler, as if to say: Each man will say to any rich...
6 and 7. You have a garment: be our ruler, as if to say: Each man will say to any richer or better-dressed person: You have a fine garment and a splendid toga; therefore you have wealth and provisions; so be our ruler. But let this ruin be under your hand.
(1) The cloak among the Hebrews was regarded, as among Easterners, as a garment of honor by which a free man was distinguished from a slave and from the lowly common people.
But let this ruin be under your hand. (It is a hypallage, as if to say: Let your hand be under this ruin, that is, support with your hand our tottering and desperate state, lest it collapse; but he will say): I am no healer (I cannot remedy so great an evil; this disease and infirmity of the state surpasses my skill, this ruin exceeds my strength and resources, I cannot prop it up or restore it. So says Cyril, more or less. This is what the Emperor Hadrian wisely warned: "Do not lean against a crumbling wall"), and in my house there is no bread, — which I could distribute to the starving people, to relieve their hunger and sustain them. For "healer," the Hebrew is chobes, that is, a surgeon who binds a wound. He alludes to chapter 1: "The swelling wound has not been bound up," as if to say: This city is not so much a state as a hospital; it therefore needs a surgeon (which I am not) rather than a ruler and governor: so do not choose me as ruler. So says Sanchez. For "I am no healer," the Septuagint translate: I will not be ruler; Pagninus: I will not be lord; another: I will not be curator; Pintus: I will not be one who binds, the metaphor being taken from surgeons; the Chaldean: I am not worthy to be head or ruler. Hence conclude that a ruler or Prelate is the head and physician and surgeon; and must not only bind his subjects with just precepts, but also heal their wounds and ailments of soul. Hence the king is called by the Greeks aken from akos, that is, healing, medicine, and health, as Plutarch and Eustathius note, and from them the Lexicon. Alciatus, emblem 143, depicts a ruler devoted to the safety of his subjects, in the image of an anchor wrapped around by a dolphin, which, as Pliny testifies (book 18), foresees a storm, and when the sea is agitated by winds, directs the ship's anchor with quasi-human instinct so that it may be more securely fixed. For thus a ruler ought to strive that the state not be disturbed by the storm of war.
St. Jerome here warns that the common people generally choose the wealthier as their pastors and rulers, not the wiser or more capable; and therefore those chosen by them ought not to acquiesce in their judgment, unless they recognize themselves equal to the burden.
Verse 8: For Jerusalem has fallen (These are words not of one excusing himself from le...
8. For Jerusalem has fallen (These are words not of one excusing himself from leadership, but of the Prophet, as if to say: Therefore no one will be willing to undertake the government of Judah and Jerusalem, because it will fall and be destroyed. He adds the cause of the destruction): Because their tongue and their devices are against the Lord, — as if to say: Because by their cursing and blasphemous words, and by their wicked machinations and works, they provoked God. For they called Christ a demoniac, a wine-drinker, a Samaritan, and they persecuted and killed both Him and His Apostles.
Verse 9: The recognition of their countenance has answered them,
9. The recognition of their countenance has answered them, — as if to say: the openness and sight of their faces testify that they themselves have merited this ruin, this destruction. They themselves ask and inquire: How did such great punishment come upon us? Why are we overwhelmed with such great evils? What sin of ours was so great as to deserve this calamity? The Prophet answers: They need not look far; let them merely look at each other's faces, and there they will recognize and read the written cause and guilt of their sin: for their brazen, open, and shameless brow will answer and give clear testimony of their impudence and wickedness; for the face speaks crimes, even when all others are silent: in their countenance one sees lust, arrogance, haughtiness, etc.; their faces cry out that they swell with pride, anger, hatred, and lust. Whence, explaining further, he adds: "They have proclaimed their sin like Sodom." The same is said in Jeremiah 3: "You have the forehead of a harlot, you refused to blush." He explains this clearly of the women in verse 16, saying: "The daughters of Zion are haughty and walk with outstretched neck, and with winking eyes they went about, and they clapped," as if to say: Their brazen forehead gives them testimony of impudence. He signifies here that the men were like the women, and there is no doubt about it: therefore their crimes, shining on their faces, signify that they have merited this disaster. Hence St. Jerome, rendering not so much the phrase as the sense, explains by saying: "They themselves have received their sins." Similarly Jeremiah 14 says: "Our sins have answered us." And Hosea 5: "The arrogance of Israel shall answer to his face."
The Hebrew word haccarat can be translated, first, as "recognition, opening, laying bare," as our translator renders it, from the root nachar, meaning "he recognized, he knew." Second, alienation, as if to say: The alienation and disfigurement of their face, or their pale and sallow countenance, signifies their frauds and crimes. Hence the Septuagint translate: the confusion of their countenance has resisted them. Third, simulation, pretense, painting of their face has answered them: for nachar in the hitpael form, namely hitnacker, means to pretend to be someone else, to feign that one is unknown, to act as a stranger: for both men and women (verse 16) paint their faces and, as it were, put on a mask: for they pretend to be good, friendly, just, and chaste, when they are entirely other, namely wicked, hostile, fraudulent, and unchaste; these masks of crimes therefore testify to their guilt and summon them to deserved punishments. Fourth, very aptly haccarat can be translated as hardness, harshness, shamelessness; for this is what they displayed on their face. Hence Rabbi Jonah says that the Arabic haccar means hardness, from the Hebrew root hachar, meaning he showed himself harsh, hard, shameless; he was brazen-faced and, as it were, stupefied. So say some more recent authors.
Note the Hebraism, whereby abstract terms are put for concrete: "recognition of countenance," that is, sins recognized in the face, which the Septuagint call confusion, because they produce shame, both present and eternal: thus "fear" is called the thing to be feared; "praise," the thing to be praised; "custody" is called the precept to be kept; "hearing," the thing heard; "vision," the thing seen.
Tropologically, learn that the face is the image of the mind, and this not only naturally but also supernaturally. Thus that holy Bishop in the Lives of the Fathers, book 3, number 166, during Holy Communion could see through the faces of each person approaching their state of soul: for he saw the faces of sinners to be black as coals and filled with blood; but the faces of the just he saw to be bright and radiant. Blessed Paul the Simple saw the same thing, in the same work, number 167. I follow the latest edition of our Father Heribert. Truly did the Wise Man say, Ecclesiastes 8:1: "The wisdom of a man shines in his face." The reason is that the mind and the senses are active in the head and face.
Truly says Ovid: Alas! how difficult it is not to betray a crime by the countenance!
And Claudian:
The brow foretells the fires of the expiring heart.
And Seneca: And their very fierce countenances bear witness to their crimes.
And the same author:
The face speaks whatever you deny.
Verse 10: Say to the just man that it shall be well
10. Say to the just man that it shall be well. — From the unjust and their punishment, by antithesis he turns to the just and their reward; for just as the former reap the fruits of their evil works, so the latter from the seed of their good works reap the fruits of joy, glory, and exultation, both in this life and especially in the life to come. Hence for "that it shall be well" the Hebrew is ki tob, which can be translated as "that it is good," that is, he shall eat the pleasant and most sweet fruit of his devices. "Devices" in Scripture are called the pursuits, machinations, and works of both the pious and the impious. For just as the pious strive to devise new ways of doing good, living rightly, and pleasing God, so the impious strive to devise new pleasures and new ways of enriching themselves, exalting themselves, and pleasing the world.
The Septuagint, for imru, that is "say," read isru, that is "bind"; hence they translate: let us bind the just man, because he is useless to us, as if these were the words of the Jews wishing to seize, bind, and kill Christ.
For "he shall eat" the Hebrew has "they shall eat"; hence St. Jerome explains it thus, as if to say: You who are about to read this prophecy, say to the just one, namely to Christ, that is, praise Christ, because He has rightly overthrown the Jews and made them eat the fruit of their iniquities. But this sense is too narrow and foreign to the text. The first sense therefore is the genuine one, and the Hebrew "they shall eat" is to be explained distributively through the syllepsis customary among the Hebrews, as if to say: Each one shall eat, every one of them shall eat. So says Vatablus.
Woe to the wicked unto evil! — that is, to one poured out into all wickedness; hence in Hebrew it is: woe to the wicked who is evil, or malignant! So says Vatablus. "Woe" in Scripture signifies destruction both present and eternal, as if to say: Both present and eternal damnation awaits all the wicked. Second, Adamus explains it thus: "Woe to the wicked unto evil," namely destined for evil! because he is destined by God for grievous torments; so that it means the same as what preceded: "Woe to their souls! for evil has been repaid to them."
For the retribution of his hands (that is, of the works done by hands) shall be done to him. — It is a metonymy.
Verse 12: My people
12. My people — their exactors have despoiled them. — He has given the internal cause of the ruin of the state, namely the sins of the people; now he gives the external cause, which was merited by those same sins of the people, namely avaricious, rapacious, cowardly, and negligent princes and Prelates. By "exactors" therefore he means the princes and magistrates, who were not so much governors as plunderers of the people; likewise the Prelates and teachers, namely the Scribes and Pharisees; for these avaricious men exacted a great deal from the people, even commanding children to deny sustenance to their parents, and to say "corban," that is, "this gift is dedicated to God, it must be given to the Scribes and priests" (Mark 7:11).
For "despoiled" the Hebrew is meolel, that is, "they gleaned," that is, they stripped them of almost every last coin: for a vineyard is gleaned when, after the vintage is completed, the few grapes that remained here and there are diligently sought out again and gathered up: for thus these rulers plundered and fleeced the people's wealth.
Women (that is, womanish Scribes and effeminate Romans) have ruled over them. — See what was said at verse 4. Thus the Poet says: "You are Achaean women, not Achaean men"; and Virgil, book 9 of the Aeneid: "O truly Phrygian women, for you are not Phrygian men," as if to say: You have degenerated from men into women. Second, properly "women," that is, the wives of the Scribes and Pharisees ruled over them, namely over the Scribes, their husbands, who were womanish, and consequently over the rest of the Jews. Thus Cato said: "Women rule us, we rule the Senate, the Senate rules Rome, Rome rules the world." This is a great plague. For a woman in her dominion is without self-control, foolish, avaricious, and commands great exactions for the adornment of herself and her family; and she acts not so much from reason and judgment as from emotion and desire, or from impulse and rashness. So says Adamus.
O my people, those who call you blessed, they themselves deceive you. — He warns the people out of sincere compassion, to recognize that they are being deceived by their Scribes, as if to say: The priests and Scribes, on account of the gifts and offerings made to the temple and to themselves, call you blessed and favored by God; but they deceive you, and turn and lead you away from the law, from virtue, from God, from blessing and salvation: for they are devoted not to your interests but to their own profit and avarice; and in order to fill their own purses, they teach you vain and impious things, flatter your sins, and promise that they will expiate everything through your gifts and sacrifices; but falsely. For these gifts and ceremonies do not please God, nor do they appease Him; but what does so is contrition and charity from a pure heart, and faith working through love.
Morally, note here how great an evil flattery is. Truly did the Wise Man say, Proverbs 27:6: "Better are the wounds of a friend than the deceitful kisses of an enemy." Plato in the Phaedrus "calls the flatterer a beast pestilential to the human race," and in the Menexenus he says he is "like a conjurer," since he is worse than any robber, snatching from us reason and judgment — indeed he is crueler and more pernicious than Circe herself: for she transformed the outward forms of men into beasts, but the flatterer by his blandishments transforms the inward nature. Second, as a shadow imitates whatever you do — if you stand, it stands; if you run, it runs — so the flatterer follows wherever you turn; if you are silent, he praises your silence; if you speak, he celebrates and admires your eloquence; if you rejoice, he pretends to rejoice; if you grieve, to grieve. Moreover, just as when the shadow grows or shrinks, the body itself neither increases nor diminishes: so neither are we made better by praises nor worse by detraction. Hence Antisthenes, as Laertius records, when someone said to him: "Many people praise you," replied: "What evil have I done?" That philosopher considered it shameful to be praised by the shameful and celebrated by the blind and reckless multitude. Third, Plutarch, in his work On Distinguishing a Flatterer from a Friend, "calls the flatterer an enemy of one's country and of virtue." Diogenes "calls flattery a honeyed snare"; Epictetus in the Enchiridion compares flatterers to crows. For "as crows devour the eyes of the dead, so flatterers ruin and blind the minds and souls of the living." Fourth, flatterers are like the heliotrope plant, whose love for the sun is so great that it turns with it, and wherever the sun turns, it bends its top the same way; even at night, as if from longing for the sun, it closes its flower: thus sycophants accommodate themselves to kings and the people in all things, and applaud their vices. Therefore Agesilaus, king of the Lacedaemonians, used to say that they should be pursued no less than those who plot against one's very life.
And they destroy the way of your steps (the plan, condition, salvation, and happiness of your life, both private and public). — For they take away from you all fear of evil, of the enemy, and of destruction, so that you may sleep more securely in your sins and be overwhelmed by the threatening enemy; for they say, as Jeremiah says in chapter 6: "Peace, peace; and there was no peace." For this is the reason why the Jews were handed over to the Chaldeans, namely because, as is said in Lamentations 2: "Your prophets have seen for you false and foolish things, and they did not reveal your iniquity to provoke you to repentance." Thus morally, a sinner who sets aside all fear, who acknowledges only a merciful God and does not fear Him as the avenger of evils, and does not think himself liable to eternal punishments — he clearly destroys his steps and rushes headlong into all evils, both of punishment and of guilt; for he who fears God places his feet on the path of salvation, according to Psalm 128: "Blessed are all who fear the Lord, who walk in His ways. He who is without fear cannot be justified" (Sirach 1:28). Hence, in order to stir both the leaders and the people to fear, he gives a goad, saying:
Verses 13 and 14: The Lord stands to judge (he speaks properly of judgment, not the last and un...
13 and 14. The Lord stands to judge (he speaks properly of judgment, not the last and universal one, but the judgment proper to the Jews, which He carried out in the destruction by the Romans, also) with the elders of the people, — that is, against the elders or senators of the people, whom he previously called "exactors," namely by justly punishing them, and killing or capturing them, because they had unjustly oppressed the people and deceived them. So says St. Jerome.
Note: Senators are called "elders" because they ought to be mature in maturity, wisdom, and uprightness; and therefore men advanced in age were accustomed and are still accustomed to be chosen as senators: for the elderly are more mature and wiser than the young.
Others explain it as if to say: "With the elders," that is, with the Patriarchs, Prophets, and Apostles, the Lord will come to judge the peoples.
"For you have devoured my vineyard." — You, O Scribes and Pharisees, who should have been the guardians of the vineyard, that is, of the Synagogue, or of my people, have devoured it, despoiling it of its goods. The Septuagint translate: you have burned it: for the Hebrew biar signifies both, as if to say: You were the cause why Jerusalem was destroyed and burned by the Romans.
Verse 15: "Why do you crush (gradually consume) my people, and grind the faces of the p...
15. "Why do you crush (gradually consume) my people, and grind the faces of the poor?" — that is, you emaciate and cause them to fail through leanness and starvation, as Amos says, chapter 8, verse 4. Second, for "you grind," Vatablus translates: you strike with fists; others: you pound; the Septuagint: you put to shame, as if to say: With disgrace, harsh words, and even with fists you afflict and torment the poor. By "the poor" understand here both anyone at all and especially the poor of Christ, namely the disciples and Apostles of Christ; for of these, beaten by the council, Luke says, Acts 5:41: "They went forth rejoicing from the presence of the council, because they were counted worthy to suffer disgrace for the name of Jesus."
Let rulers and Prelates consider these things said to them even now; indeed also the clergy, who squander the goods of the Church on their own luxuries or lusts.
Verse 16: Because the daughters of Zion are haughty
16. Because the daughters of Zion are haughty. — From men and rulers he turns to their wives and daughters, who, in order to adorn themselves lavishly, made their husbands exactors and plunderers of the poor, and by the sweat and blood of those poor they, decked out for wantonness, lived luxuriously and shone. He censures three vices of women, especially of young women: the first is pride; the second, impudence; the third, lust. "Haughty" signifies pride, as if to say: In order to tower over men and be gazed at by all, they put on high-soled shoes beneath themselves, so that they might walk tall in them and seem to be, as it were, queens or goddesses.
And they walked with outstretched neck. — Most proudly they stretched out their necks, like cranes or swans: this posture is that of the insolent and impudent.
And with winking eyes they went about, — rolling their eyes, that is, casting sidelong glances at young men and lovers, and wantonly winking at them, which is the surest sign of an enticer and a harlot, says St. Chrysostom: "Touches, jests, nods, whispers are the beginnings of a dying virginity," says St. Jerome in the Life of St. Hilarion. Rightly does St. Basil compare these women to the basilisk, because each kills men by its gaze. See St. Chrysostom, homily 27 on that passage of Matthew: "Whoever looks at a woman to lust after her, etc." The Chaldean translates: they went with eyes painted with antimony, and with curled hair, and provoking with their feet, which our translator renders as "and they clapped."
And they clapped. — That is, by striking their silk garments against each other and against the pavement they produced a sound, to indicate that they were dressed in silk. For the Hebrew taphaph seems to signify the rustling and noise of garments, such as is usually made by that silk fabric which is hence commonly called taffeta.
Second, others translate the Hebrew taphaph as "they played the timbrel," they went beating a drum, as children do at dedications and weddings. For the Hebrew toph means a timbrel. So says Vatablus.
Third, and properly, "they clapped," that is, they walked with a soft movement, with a mincing gait, and with stamping, as if dancing; as is customary in choral dances. Hence Virgil: "Some stamp out dances with their feet." Likewise of children, whose step is therefore called in Hebrew taph, Ezekiel 9:6.
Fourth, "they clapped," that is, they produced the sound of rattles, says Vatablus; for thus fashionable young men and women show themselves off by walking in new and rattling shoes and sandals; and perhaps these women added rattles and small cymbals to their shoes; for Cicero in his speech against Piso testifies that the effeminate Gabinius added such things to his shoes.
Fifth, "they clapped," says Sanchez, that is, they produced a sound by the clashing of pearls on their shoes; for Pliny teaches that this was customary, book 9, chapter 35: "Then," he says, "they call them crotalia, as if they rejoiced also in the sound and in the very clashing of the pearls, and now even the poor affect this, women declaring that a pearl is their lictor in public." Where he says that these sounding pearls served women as lictors; because just as lictors going ahead clear the crowd, signifying that the consul is approaching, so the sound of the pearls signified that a noble lady was coming, so that everyone would make way for her.
And they moved with measured step, — they walked with a step pompously arranged for majesty and elegance. Perhaps also on the soles of their shoes or platform shoes they wore headed nails arranged in such an order that, when stamped into the ground with a sound, they left certain amorous marks. So from Clement of Alexandria, book 2 of the Paedagogus, chapter 11. Sanchez.
Verse 17: The Lord will make bald the crown of the daughters of Zion,
17. The Lord will make bald the crown of the daughters of Zion, — as if to say: God will punish this proud lust of the daughters of Zion with the greatest disgrace to them, namely by removing and shaving off their chief ornament, that is, their hair; and this first and chiefly through the Chaldean enemies; for enemies are accustomed to shave captives bald. Hence the Septuagint, for sippuel with sin, that is "He will make bald," reading schippach with shin, "He will make them handmaids," translate: "He will humble the proud mistresses." For shaving and making bald was the mark of the conquered, and hence of male and female slaves, even among the pagans. Thus it was said of the Scipios:
Under whose standards shorn Africa lies.
Second, by God, who will strike this proud and glorious head with a just punishment, namely alopecia, ringworm, and leprosy, which will strip the head bare not only of hair but also of flesh: for this is sippach, with sin.
Others add a third possibility, that they would be made bald from the burden and weight which they would continuously carry on their heads as captives: for thus the soldiers of Nebuchadnezzar, carrying loads for the siege of Tyre, had their heads made bald and their shoulders stripped of hair, as Ezekiel says in chapter 29. How great an ornament for a woman (in which therefore they so delight) is her hair, and how great a deformity is baldness, Apuleius teaches in book 2 of the Metamorphoses, and from him St. Ambrose in book 6 of the Hexaemeron, chapter 9: "If," says Apuleius, "you were to strip the head of any outstanding and most beautiful woman of its hair — even if she came down from heaven, even if attended by the whole chorus of the Graces and escorted by the entire company of Cupids, and girt with her own girdle, fragrant with cinnamon and dripping with balsam — were she to come forth bald, she could not please." To this point belongs the verse of Ovid:
Ugly is a hornless flock, ugly a field without grass,
A bush without leaves, and a head without hair.
And the Lord will lay bare their hair. — For "hair" the Hebrew has pat, that is, "corner," meaning the locks of hair that are at the corners of the forehead and are artfully curled, in which young men and women especially take pride. Others translate pat as "buttocks," as if to say: Those who used to walk in long garments and sweep the ground with their train, will now, like handmaids and slaves, walk in short garments, so that they scarcely cover their private parts. Thus Isaiah says in chapter 20, verse 4: "The king of the Assyrians will drive the captivity of Egypt, etc., barefoot, with buttocks uncovered, to the shame of Egypt." Likewise the sons of Ammon cut the garments of David's servants down to their buttocks.
Third, others translate pat as the private parts. Hence the Septuagint translate: apokalypsei to aischynoma auton, "He will reveal their shame," as if to say: God will strip the daughters of Zion bare through the Chaldeans and expose them naked to be mocked and violated as a spectacle; for this is what Jeremiah laments in Lamentations 5: "They humiliated the women in Zion." Or, as others say, as if to say: God will cause these daughters to suffer menstruation and hemorrhage, so that with that foul flow of blood they will defile the ornaments of their shoes.
Verse 18: The ornament of shoes
18. The ornament of shoes. — The Septuagint from the Hebrew add kai tous kosymbous, which some translate as fringed garments, others as hairnets and curls. With Sanchez I follow St. Basil, who says they are those ornaments which are sewn to the outermost hem of garments or hang from it, such as little bells and pomegranates, which hung from the tunic of the High Priest; and perhaps these proud women sacrilegiously wished to imitate them on their own garments.
Little moons. — These were crescent-shaped necklaces in the form of a moon; they wore them either on the head, like diadems, or on the neck, or on the garment.
Verse 19: Necklaces
19. Necklaces. — A necklace is an ornament of the throat, which hangs from the neck; so called because it reminds (admoneat) one of virtue: for in ancient times a necklace was given as a reward for some distinguished deed.
Bracelets. — These are arm-bands, or rings and small chains adorning the arms: they are called armillae from armi (arms); because in ancient times the shoulders together with the arms were called armi.
Bonnets. — These are veils, or bands of fine linen for the head, sparkling with gems and trembling little plates of gold. The Hebrew realot also means poisons, and fittingly so: for, as St. Jerome says, "if a man or woman adorns himself or herself and draws the gaze of people to himself; even if no harm follows from it, he shall nevertheless suffer eternal judgment; because he brought poison, if only there had been someone to drink it."
Verse 20: Hair-pins
20. Hair-pins. — These are instruments for parting and separating the hair, and also for twisting and curling it, namely curling-irons; or, as Lyra says, combs. Second, Sanchez says that discriminalia are ribbons, bands, and fillets which part the hair into curls and ringlets, and keep, sustain, and embellish the hair so parted — these are commonly called hair-bands: this manner of styling hair Juvenal calls "building the head," and Gregory of Nazianzus pyrgun kephalen, that is, "towering the head," or raising it to the likeness of a tower. Third, St. Jerome, on Ezekiel 24:17, translates the Hebrew pearim as crowns: by these the noble and wealthy were distinguished from the common people.
Ankle-bands. — These are bands for the shins or feet, says the Chaldean. They are called periscelides from peri and skelos, as if to say: around the shin.
Small chains. — Murenulae are twisted necklaces or winding chains made of gold; that is, when gold is drawn out into slender rods, a chain of winding pattern is woven from them, says St. Jerome to Marcella. In Hebrew they are called kiscurim, that is, bindings. They are called murenulae from the murena fish, because, like it, they are striped and variegated in gold and silver, coil in circles, and encircle the neck; or rather the lower arm or wrist. So St. Basil and Pollux interpret the Greek psellia, which the Septuagint have. See also Clement of Alexandria on these, book 2 of the Paedagogus, chapter 12.
Perfume-boxes. — These are perfume-cases, or perforated and pierced boxes, which breathe out their fragrances and sweet scents through their openings. Hence in Hebrew they are called "houses of the soul," that is, of breath. Sanchez by "houses of the soul" understands the vessels in which women kept perfumes at home, with which they sprinkled the table, the bed, or their garments; such was the alabaster jar of St. Mary Magdalene, which she broke and poured the ointment upon the head of Christ; and such also the harlot had who says in Proverbs 7:17: "I have sprinkled my couch with myrrh, and aloe, and cinnamon."
Earrings. — These are gold or silver circles which hang from the ear with a gem. Earrings were first used to serve as amulets for the ears against enchantments; hence in Hebrew they are called lachasim, from whispering: but from there they passed into ornament and luxury. So also rings, which according to the legends were first worn by Prometheus as a mark of disgrace, are now worn as a mark of honor. So says Hyginus in his account of Prometheus, and from him our Sanchez.
Verse 21: Jewels hanging on the forehead
21. Jewels hanging on the forehead. — "To this day," says St. Jerome on Ezekiel 16, "among the other ornaments of women, golden circles are accustomed to hang from the forehead before the mouth and to overhang the nostrils." Hence Theodoret translates it as epirrinion, that is, a nose ornament: and this is what the Hebrew nezem signifies. Others properly understand it as a gem or ring piercing the nose and hanging from it, such as some Indians wear. But this is barbarous and inelegant.
Verse 22: Changes of apparel
22. Changes of apparel. — The noble and wealthy frequently change their garments, and therefore have various changes of apparel: and this is a sign of wealth and luxury. Add that "changes of apparel" are the more costly garments which are rarely put on for display, to show off in public, and are immediately taken off as soon as one returns home. For thus the dress of the Romans at home was the synthesis, and in public the toga. Hence the Septuagint call these changes of apparel periporyphyra, that is, purple-bordered garments, which the Romans called laticlaviae.
Short cloaks. — Noble matrons still use these small cloaks, especially on journeys: those of the Jewish women were costly and splendid.
Linen garments. — These were bright white and transparent veils, with which they wantonly displayed their breast, thigh, or entire body at banquets and dances. Hence the Septuagint translate: Laconian see-through garments. For the Laconian maidens were called phainomerides, because they showed their bare thigh when walking. So says St. Basil.
Pins, — namely golden and silver hairpins, which were worn on the head for show, with which the hair was parted and fastened so it would not fall loose again. Hear Martial:
Lest silken ribbons spoil the damp locks,
Let a pin fix and hold the wet hair.
These pins therefore were not curling-irons, with which the hair was curled, but they were long and thick pins with which the hair and head were adorned. So say St. Jerome and Isidore, book 19, chapter 31.
Verse 23: Fine linens
23. Fine linens. — In Hebrew it is sedinim, whence the Latin "sindones" (fine linens), says Forerius. He thus calls them linen veils or outermost wraps, most delicate and fine, such as among us noble widows wear made of Cambrai linen. The Septuagint indicate that these fine linens were dyed purple, violet, and scarlet. St. Basil gives the reason, namely that these proud women, just as in other things, so also in this wished to sacrilegiously imitate priestly attire. For the High Priest, when about to pray for the whole world, put on a tunic woven of purple, hyacinth, fine linen, and scarlet, so that by these colors he might represent the four elements of the world for which he was praying, as I explained at Exodus 28:5. This hyacinth color, as well as the scarlet, was also the color of notorious women, namely of the unchaste — just as it is now the symbol of married women and conjugal love.
Headbands. — In Hebrew tseniphot, that is, turbans and tiaras. So say Forerius and the Hebrews: The turban or tiara was a round cap for the head, not pointed, which priests and pontiffs used. See here again the apes of pontifical adornment.
Summer veils. — These are summer garments, so called because they protected women's bodies therei, that is, in summer, from heat and scorching sun. St. Jerome says they were small cloaks, such as Rebecca had, and women in Arabia now have; small cloaks, I say, smooth and fine without nap, which are neither heavy nor warm, like our cotton garments. Forerius however thinks the theristra were head veils: for these in Hebrew are called reddidim, which word St. Paul, in 1 Corinthians 11:10, translates as exousian, that is, authority; because a covering on a woman's head is a sign that she is under the authority and dominion of her husband. Hence by theristra can also be understood the broad hats that women used against the sun, just as traveling women now use broader hats made of straw.
Verse 24: And instead of a sweet fragrance (from musk and other aromatics) there shall ...
24. And instead of a sweet fragrance (from musk and other aromatics) there shall be a stench, — from the filth and squalor of captivity and prison. Moreover, upon the Jews after the death of Christ there rests a natural and peculiar stench; hence Ammianus Marcellinus, book 2, calls the Jews "stinking," and adds that for this reason they were a great disgust to the Emperor Marcus; and Martial, book 4, in the epigram to Bassa: "You smell," he says, "O Bassa, like the fasts of the sabbatarians," that is, of the Jews: he says "fasts" because an empty stomach emits a heavy breath. Fortunatus, in book 5, asserted that this hereditary stench of the Jews is washed away by baptism:
The Jewish odor is washed away by divine baptism.
So says Sanchez. Hence also the Saracens formerly took care to have their infants baptized, in order to drive the stench from them by baptism; as is clear from the Sixth Council in Trullo, Canon 85, and Baronius, volume 12, year of Christ 1148.
And instead of a girdle (of gold and gems there shall be) a rope, — by which, like beasts of burden, the captive women will be dragged to Babylon.
And instead of curled hair, baldness, — which either they themselves will bring upon themselves as a sign of mourning, or the enemies, or God will bring upon them through disease. See what was said at verse 17.
And instead of a breast-band (with which the breasts are bound so that their size does not cause unseemliness, there shall be) sackcloth. — In Hebrew, a girding of sackcloth, or from sackcloth. The Hebrew text adds here ki tachat yophi, that is, "because instead of beauty" — in which they reveled — this deformity, namely, has been given back to them, as an exclamatory conclusion.
But Forerius translates: burning instead of beauty. For ki he renders as burning, from the root kavah, meaning "he burned," as if to say: Their faces and bodies, once so beautiful, are now consumed, wasted, and as it were burned. For thus it is said in Lamentations 5:10: "Our skin has been burned like an oven"; and Isaiah 13:8: "Their faces are burned countenances." Hence the Chaldean here clearly translates: This vengeance shall be taken from them, because they have played the harlot in their beauty.
Verse 26: And her gates shall mourn and lament
26. And her gates shall mourn and lament. — "Her," namely Jerusalem's, about which all this discourse of mine is most dear to me, as well as my thought and concern. Thus the bride says in the Song of Songs, chapter 1: "Let him kiss me with the kiss of his mouth" — who? the bridegroom, whom I love and turn over in my mind. In the words "shall mourn" and "lament" there is a catachresis: for just as flowering meadows are said to laugh, so gates that are burned or desolate and empty of citizens, and the city itself, are said to mourn and lament.
She, desolate, shall sit upon the ground. — It is a personification: for he speaks of Jerusalem as though of a stricken matron, for such a one sits mourning on the ground, crushed by grief. Hence in Lamentations 1:1 it is said of her: "How does the city sit solitary?" Likewise there survives a coin of Vespasian on which Judea is depicted as a woman sitting at the foot of a palm tree, with this inscription: "Judea captured."
Moral teaching against feminine adornment and luxury in dress.
This is a famous passage against feminine adornment and luxury in dress: for if in the Jews of old this so displeased God and was punished with the destruction of the whole nation, how much more will it displease Him and be punished in Christians?
First, hear and learn this firstly from St. Cyprian's book On the Dress of Virgins, teaching this very thing from this passage of Isaiah: "Virgins," he says, "who adorn themselves have merited shame and defilement; clothed in silk and purple, they cannot put on Christ; bedecked with gold, pearls, and necklaces, they have lost the ornaments of the heart and breast."
Second, St. Basil, in his sermon On Rich Misers, who spend their wealth not on the poor but on the luxury of their wives, speaks thus: First, "while a proud woman burns for trifles and delights, she will increase the enticements of pleasure for her husband; her concern about pearls, emeralds, hyacinths, and gold occupies her nights and days. Second, a thousand flatterers are at hand bringing fullers, goldsmiths, perfumers, weavers, hair-dressers, who at her commands allow the husband no moment's rest. Third, no treasure is sufficient for feminine desire, not even if it flowed from rivers: some gems are fitted for adorning the neck, others the throat, others the girdle, others the hands and feet. Fourth, therefore the husband, following his wife's appetite, when shall he care for his soul? For just as storms scatter frail ships, so the depraved desires of wives corrupt the weak souls of their husbands."
Third, St. Gregory of Nazianzus, against women who adorn themselves too ambitiously: "For noble women," he says, "neither gold, nor purple, nor cosmetics bring adornment; but their ornament is probity and elegance of character, staying at home for the most part, conversing with the divine oracles, applying themselves to the spindle and wool, assigning tasks to their handmaids, etc."
Fourth, St. Ambrose, in his Exhortation to Virgins, cites this passage of Isaiah and adds: "Hence also St. Peter said that women should seek not the braiding of hair, nor twisted curls, nor gold and silver or costly garments, but rather the ornaments of the inner person, because that hidden man of the heart who is poor in the world is himself rich before God"; and in 1 Timothy chapter 2: "The more splendid a woman appears to men, the more she is despised by God."
Fifth, St. Jerome, in his letter On Avoiding Cohabitation, compares women who adorn themselves excessively and show off to brothels: "The dark and gleaming shoe," he says, "by its creaking summons young men to itself; the breasts are compressed with bands; and the chest is made narrower with a tight girdle; the hair falls either over the forehead or over the ears; the small cloak sometimes slips to bare the white shoulders; and as if she did not wish to be seen, she hastens to conceal what she willingly uncovered. And when in public, as if through modesty she covers her face — by the art of the brothel she shows only that which, if openly displayed, would please more."
Sixth, St. Augustine, sermon 18 On the Words of the Apostle, says thus: "The ornaments of the exterior person, the more eagerly they are sought, the greater are the losses to the interior person; but the less eagerly they are sought, the more a person is adorned with beautiful character."
Seventh, St. Chrysostom, homily 30 on the Epistle to the Romans: "Having laid aside," he says, "the worthless burden of hay (for this is what expenditure on clothing is), take up the heavenly adornment of virtues. This is the ornament of the Church, the other of theaters; this is worthy of heaven, the other of horses and mules; the other is wrapped around the bodies of the dead, but this shines only in the soul, in which Christ dwells." The same author, homily 18 on 1 Corinthians: "Do you not think," he says, "that the devil reclines at table with the avaricious and others whom Paul enumerates in 1 Corinthians 6? Do you not think that women adorned for lust consort with him? If anyone objects, let him strip the soul of women who conduct themselves so indecorously, and he will see clearly that that wicked demon is vehemently joined and mingled with them." The same, in his book On Virginity, chapter 62: "If a woman is beautiful, excessive ornament obscures her beauty; if she is ugly, ornament makes her uglier; for deformity always shines through and is apparent, so that spectators laugh at the woman and marvel at the ornament."
Eighth, St. Peter the hermit said to the adorned mother of Theodoret: "If a distinguished painter had painted a portrait, and some common person were to splash other colors upon it, the painter would surely be furious: so too God, the craftsman and painter of our nature, is justly angry that you accuse His nature and wisdom of ignorance, and condemn the Creator Himself of incompetence. Therefore do not corrupt the image of God, and do not attempt to add what He wisely did not give; nor contrive this counterfeit beauty, which brings ruin to the chaste and lays snares for those who behold it." So Theodoret reports in the Lives of the Holy Fathers, Life 9.
Ninth, Tertullian most fiercely attacks this luxury of clothing in his book On the Dress of Women, from which I shall pluck a few of the more notable passages: "You," he says, "are the devil's gateway, you are the opener of that tree, you are the first deserter of the divine law, you struck down man: on account of your desert, that is, death, even the Son of God had to die, and you have it in mind to adorn yourself over and above your garments of skins?"
Second: "The toilette of woman is twofold, namely the feminine adornment in gold, gems, and garments; and the cosmetic preparation, which ought to be called feminine uncleanness — in the care of hair, skin, and those parts of the body that attract the eyes: to the former we charge the crime of ambition, to the latter that of prostitution."
Third: "Stones and gems are tiny fragments of the earth, which know how to build not houses, not roofs, but only this stupefaction of women."
Fourth: "They say that gems are taken from the foreheads of dragons. Shall it also befall a Christian woman that she becomes more fashionable from a serpent? Thus she will trample on the devil's head, while she builds ornaments for her own neck from his head!"
Fifth: "Abundance is always an insult to itself."
Sixth: "What just honor of garments comes from the adulteration of unjust colors? What God Himself did not produce does not please Him, unless He could not have commanded sheep to be born purple and hyacinth-blue."
The same Tertullian, in his book On the Adornment of Women. First, he says this ornamentation belongs to pagans. Second: "The desire to please through beauty does not come from a pure conscience, for we know that beauty is naturally an invitation to lust." Third: "A man perishes at the same time in your beauty, O woman! and you have become a sword to him." Fourth: "You ought to please only your own husbands; but you will please them all the more, the less you have cared about pleasing others." Fifth: "It is unworthy of a Christian to wear a counterfeit face, when simplicity is prescribed to her; to falsify her appearance, when lying with the tongue is forbidden; to seek what has not been given, when the pursuit of modesty is her calling: how will you keep the precepts of God, when you do not keep the features of God?" Sixth: "Would that I, most wretched, on that day of Christian exultation, might see even by raising my head among your heels — whether you rise again with white lead and rouge and saffron, and with that structure around your head: whether angels will thus lift up such painted women into the clouds to meet Christ?" Seventh: "Where God is, there is modesty, and gravity is its helper and companion: by what arrangement, then, shall we practice modesty without its instrument, that is, without gravity and austerity of dress?" Eighth: "This time is short, says the Apostle; why then do you give it to vanity?" Ninth: "The Apostle commands that God be glorified in our body; but He is glorified through modesty, and through the fitting ornament of modesty." Tenth: "Let it be permitted to be seen as modest; certainly it is not permitted to be seen as immodest."
Eleventh: "It is not enough for Christian modesty to exist, but it must also be seen to exist; so that it flows from the soul into one's dress, and overflows from the conscience to the surface."
Twelfth: "Let us cast away earthly ornaments, the fetters of our hope, if we desire heavenly things."
Thirteenth: "The times of Christians are always, and especially now, spent not with gold but with iron; the robes of Martyrs are being prepared, the bearing angels stand ready. Come forth now, you women equipped with ornaments of the Apostles, taking from simplicity your whiteness, from modesty your blush, your eyes painted with bashfulness and silence of spirit, inserting into your ears the word of God, binding around your necks the yoke of Christ: submit your heads to your husbands, and you will be sufficiently adorned; occupy your hands with wool, plant your feet at home, and you will please more than with gold: clothe yourselves in the silk of probity, the fine linen of holiness, the purple of modesty; thus painted, you will have God as your lover."
Tenth, following Tertullian is St. Cyprian, who treats the same subject forcefully and elegantly in his book On the Discipline and Dress of Virgins. First: "Continence," he says, "and modesty do not consist solely in the integrity of the flesh, but also in the honor and modesty of attire and adornment." Second: "It is wicked for a virgin to adorn herself for the sake of her beauty, or to glory in her flesh and its comeliness, since they have no greater struggle than against the flesh, and an obstinate contest of conquering and subduing the body." Third: "Paul says: 'Those who are Christ's have crucified their flesh'; and she who professes to have renounced the lusts of the flesh and its vices — how is she found in the very things she renounced?" Fourth: "No Christian should, and especially a virgin should not, reckon any glory of the flesh and its honor; but should seek only the word of God, and embrace the goods that endure forever. Or if the flesh is to be gloried in, then clearly when she glories in the confession of His name, when a woman is found stronger than the men who torture her, when she endures fires, or crosses, or iron, or wild beasts in order to be crowned: those are the precious jewels of the flesh, those are the better ornaments of the body." Fifth: "The marks of ornaments and garments, and the enticements of beauty, befit only prostituted and immodest women; and scarcely any woman's attire is more costly than that of the woman whose modesty is cheap. In the Apocalypse, chapter 17, that ruined harlot is described, with whom the kings of the earth committed fornication, clothed in a purple and scarlet mantle, adorned with gold and precious stones, holding a golden cup in her hand." Sixth: "Did God wish wounds to be inflicted on the ears, by which innocent infancy, still ignorant of worldly evil, should be tormented, so that afterward from the scars and cavities of the ears precious gems might hang — heavy, if not by their own weight, then by the quantity of their price?"
Seventh: "The apostate angels taught women to paint around the eyes, to blacken the eyebrows, to stain the cheeks with the false pretense of a blush, to change the hair with counterfeit colors, and to assault all the truth of the face and head by the attack of their corruption." Eighth: "Women lay hands on God when they strive to reshape and transfigure what He formed, not knowing that everything born is the work of God, and whatever is changed is the work of the devil." Ninth: "Your Lord says: 'You cannot make one hair white or black'; and you, in order to overcome the voice of your Lord, wish to be more powerful? By bold attempt and sacrilegious contempt you dye your hair," etc. Tenth: "Do you not fear, I ask, you who are such, lest when the day of resurrection comes, your Maker may not recognize you, and may turn away and exclude you when you come for His rewards and promises? Rebuking you with the severity of a censor and judge, may He say: 'This is not my work, nor is this our image; you have defiled your skin with false medicine, you have changed your hair with an adulterous color; your face has been conquered by falsehood; your form has been corrupted; your countenance is alien; you cannot see God, when your eyes are not those which God made, but those which the devil has infected.'" Eleventh: "Conquer your garment, you who are a virgin, who serve God: conquer gold, you who conquer the flesh and the world: seek not the ornaments of necklaces or garments, but of character."
Justly therefore Blessed Bishop Nonnus, seeing Pelagia with such luxury of clothing and display attracting and enticing the eyes of the whole city to herself, wept profusely. Asked the reason, he said: "Two things move me: one indeed is the perdition of this woman; the other, that I who profess the Christian name do not strive as much to please God by innocence of life as this woman strives to please wicked men." But by praying for her and preaching, he so pierced her heart that he made of her another Magdalene, namely Pelagia the Penitent, whose life and marvelous deeds were written down with great fidelity by the eyewitness James the Deacon of the same Nonnus: it is found in Surius, October 8.
And St. Bernard refused to see his sister when she came to him more splendidly adorned: whence she herself, stricken with compunction, at his direction laid aside all luxury of clothing, and indeed with the consent of her husband entered a monastery, as the author of the Life of St. Bernard records, book 1, chapter 6.
But hear the horrible example of Praetextata, which St. Jerome reports in his letter to Laeta: "Praetextata, once a most noble woman, at the command of her husband Hymettius, who was the uncle of the virgin Eustochia, changed her manner of dress and grooming, and combed her neglected hair in the worldly fashion, wishing to overcome both the virgin's resolution and her mother's desire. And behold, that very night she saw in a dream that an angel came to her, threatening punishments in a terrible voice and uttering these words: 'Did you dare to prefer your husband's command to Christ? Did you dare to touch the head of a virgin of God with your sacrilegious hands? Those hands shall now wither, that in their agony you may feel what you have done; and at the end of the fifth month you shall be led to the underworld; but if you persevere in your crime, you shall be bereaved of both husband and children.' Everything was fulfilled in order, and her death signified the belated repentance of the wretch."
Hear also the pagans. Lycurgus banished the art of cosmetics from Sparta, and this first, because it was corrupting the city with evil arts: hence so great was the modesty of women at Sparta at that time that adultery was considered incredible. Second, so that anyone looking at the character of a girl might follow virtue in his choice when seeking a wife, and not be enticed by cosmetics. For the same reason he wished brides to be taken without a dowry; and also to be trained in running, wrestling, and the throwing of the discus and javelin, so that they might become strong and bear strong offspring. Hence Gorgo, the wife of Leonidas, when someone objected: "You alone, Spartan women, rule your husbands," replied: "For we alone give birth to real men." The witness is Plutarch in his Life of Lycurgus.
Diogenes said to a certain young man who was adorning himself excessively: "If indeed you do it for men," he said, "you are wretched; if for women, you are unjust."
Theophrastus: "A woman," he says, "ought neither to see others nor to be seen herself, especially one who has been elegantly adorned: for both are an incentive to immodest things."
Hyperides: "At home," he says, "before her husband, let a wife adorn herself as she pleases; but the ornaments she puts on when going out of the house are aimed not at her husband but at others."
Crates: "What adorns a woman," he says, "is what makes her more honorable; but such a quality is bestowed not by gold, not by emerald, not by scarlet, but by whatever gives evidence of gravity, moderation, and modesty."
Democritus: "Sparing speech," he says, "adorns a woman, and sparingness of ornament itself is becoming to her." The witness is Stobaeus, sermon 32.
Hear also the poets. Terence:
You know the ways of women;
While they prepare, while they primp, a year passes.
Ovid: We are carried away by adornment: with gems and gold everything is covered; The girl herself is the least part of herself.
Propertius:
What good does it do to go forth with adorned hair,
And to sell yourself with foreign gifts,
And to lose the beauty of nature with a purchased face?
Naked love does not love an artificer of beauty.
Plautus: She is by no means well adorned, if she is badly behaved, etc. It is more fitting for a harlot to wear modesty than gold. Foul morals stain a fine appearance worse than mud.
Hear also kings and emperors. The Emperor Aurelian, when his wife asked that he allow her to use a single silk cloak, replied: "Far be it that threads should be weighed against gold"; for at that time a pound of silk cost a pound of gold.
Alfonso, King of Aragon, dressed like the common people. When advised to walk in royal attire, he replied: "I prefer to excel my subjects by character and authority, rather than by diadem and purple."
Aristotle, in his Preface to Alexander the Great, teaches him thus: "It is far nobler and more kingly to present a cultivated and well-ordered mind than a well-dressed body."
Alexander Severus said: "Imperial majesty consists in virtue, not in bodily adornment." He also judged that royal matrons should be content with a single cloak sprinkled with gold, and a mantle that contained no more than six ounces of gold, as Lampridius testifies. This level of dress today would scarcely suffice for the wives of merchants.
Augustus Caesar, as Suetonius records, used to say: "Distinguished and soft clothing is the banner of pride and the nest of luxury." The same emperor, seeing many wearing cloaks at a public assembly, said indignantly: "Behold the Romans, lords of the world and the toga-clad nation." So earnestly did he strive to renew the ancient customs and manner of dress.
Dionysius, the tyrant of Sicily, sent splendid garments as a gift to the daughters of Archidamus. Archidamus refused to accept them, saying: "I fear that in this apparel the girls will look ugly to me."
Finally, Caesar Augustus truly said: "The luxury of banquets and clothing are the signs and omens of a sick and wasting state." Let Belgium be a witness, which has paid for this luxury with war and continual disasters for nearly fifty years; and what was formerly a terrestrial paradise of delights is now a valley of sorrows.
On the contrary, the ancient simplicity and modesty of dress shines forth among the Germans, which preserves their commonwealths in peace and prosperity. I saw at Nuremberg noble and very wealthy matrons walking in simple cloaks and boots, like the hardy and masculine wives of the ancient chieftains. I saw at Wurzburg all the matrons, even the noblest, wearing mantles or hooded capes not of silk or wool, but of wood. For instead of a hooded cape, they all wear a hotte (such as the charcoal-women wear at Liege), more or less fine according to the person's status; so much so that a woman who does not wear a hotte is not considered respectable. When these women are about to enter a church, they set their hottes down before it, and when leaving they take them up again and fit them on their backs. I believe that in this vine-growing region they formerly carried all their grapes in hottes, as they still do, and therefore preserved the custom of wearing them.