Cornelius a Lapide

Isaiah V

Table of Contents

Synopsis of the Chapter

He complains about the Synagogue as about a vineyard, which though duly cultivated, instead of grapes produced wild grapes, namely avarice, gluttony, injustice, and other vices, which he enumerates from verse 8 to 24. Hence, in verse 24, he threatens it with destruction by the Romans, whose strength and might he describes. Moreover he frequently uses here a mournful song and rhythm, both to praise God more harmoniously and to flow more sweetly into the mind of the people, and to move them more effectively and convict them of ingratitude toward God.

Vulgate Text: Isaiah 5:1-30

1. I will sing to my beloved the canticle of my cousin concerning his vineyard. My beloved had a vineyard on a hill in a fruitful place. 2. And he fenced it in, and picked the stones out of it, and planted it with the choicest vines, and built a tower in the midst thereof, and set up a winepress therein: and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes. 3. And now, O ye inhabitants of Jerusalem and ye men of Juda, judge between me and my vineyard. 4. What is there that I ought to do more to my vineyard, that I have not done to it? Was it that I looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it has brought forth wild grapes? 5. And now I will show you what I will do to my vineyard. I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be wasted: I will break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down. 6. And I will make it desolate: it shall not be pruned, and it shall not be dug: and briers and thorns shall come up: and I will command the clouds to rain no rain upon it. 7. For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel: and the man of Juda, his pleasant plant: and I looked that he should do judgment, and behold iniquity: and do justice, and behold a cry. 8. Woe to you that join house to house, and lay field to field, even to the end of the place: shall you alone dwell in the midst of the earth? 9. These things are in my ears, says the Lord of hosts: Unless many houses shall be desolate, great and fair, without an inhabitant. 10. For ten acres of vineyard shall yield one little measure, and thirty bushels of seed shall yield three bushels. 11. Woe to you that rise up early in the morning to follow drunkenness, and to drink till the evening, to be inflamed with wine. 12. The harp, and the lyre, and the timbrel, and the pipe, and wine are in your feasts: and the work of the Lord you regard not, nor do you consider the works of His hands. 13. Therefore is my people led away captive, because they had not knowledge, and their nobles have perished with famine, and their multitude were dried up with thirst. 14. Therefore has hell enlarged her soul, and opened her mouth without any bounds, and their strong ones, and their people, and their high and glorious ones shall go down into it. 15. And man shall be brought down, and man shall be humbled, and the eyes of the lofty shall be brought low. 16. And the Lord of hosts shall be exalted in judgment, and the holy God shall be sanctified in justice. 17. And the lambs shall feed according to their order, and strangers shall eat the deserts turned into fruitfulness. 18. Woe to you that draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as the rope of a cart! 19. That say: Let Him make haste, and let His work come quickly, that we may see it: and let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel approach and come, that we may know it. 20. Woe to you that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! 21. Woe to you that are wise in your own eyes, and prudent in your own conceits! 22. Woe to you that are mighty to drink wine, and stout men at drunkenness. 23. That justify the wicked for gifts, and take away the justice of the just from him. 24. Therefore as the tongue of fire devours the stubble, and the heat of the flame consumes it; so shall their root be as ashes, and their bud shall go up as dust. For they have cast away the law of the Lord of hosts, and have blasphemed the word of the Holy One of Israel. 25. Therefore is the wrath of the Lord kindled against His people, and He has stretched out His hand upon them, and struck them: and the mountains were troubled, and their carcasses became as dung in the midst of the streets. For all this His anger is not turned away, but His hand is stretched out still. 26. And He will lift up a sign to the nations afar off, and will whistle to them from the ends of the earth: and behold they shall come with speed swiftly. 27. There is none that shall faint, nor labor among them: they shall not slumber nor sleep, neither shall the girdle of their loins be loosed, nor the latchet of their shoes be broken. 28. Their arrows are sharp, and all their bows are bent. The hoofs of their horses shall be like the flint, and their wheels like the violence of a tempest. 29. Their roaring like that of a lion, they shall roar like young lions: yea they shall roar, and take hold of the prey, and they shall keep fast hold of it, and there shall be none to deliver it. 30. And they shall make a noise against them in that day, like the roaring of the sea: we shall look towards the land, and behold darkness of tribulation, and the light is darkened with the mist thereof.

Verse 1: I Will Sing to My Beloved

1. I WILL SING (in Hebrew אשירה ashira, that is, I will lead the singing, I will go before as a teacher and precentor; so says Forerius) TO MY BELOVED THE CANTICLE OF MY COUSIN CONCERNING HIS VINEYARD. — By cousin, or, as Vatablus translates, uncle, Forerius understands Isaiah's uncle, namely King Amaziah, or his brother, who had this saying frequently on his lips, so that when he wished to signify that someone had wasted oil and effort on some matter, he would say: My friend had a vineyard in a fruitful place, etc., he expected it to produce grapes, and it produced wild grapes, as if Isaiah were saying: I will sing to my beloved this song about his vineyard, which my uncle used to sing about his friend's vineyard, and which has now become a proverb.

But this sense seems rather cold and Judaizing: hence St. Jerome and others generally take cousin as referring to Christ. For which note first: Christ is "cousin and beloved." Hence Vatablus translates, I will sing to my beloved a song to my uncle concerning his vineyard; for beloved in Hebrew is ידיד jedid; hence Solomon was called by God Jedidiah, that is, beloved of the Lord, or dear to the Lord (II Kings XII, 25). For cousin, or, as Vatablus translates, uncle, the Hebrew is דוד dod. Therefore each of these names is virtually the same, and from the same root, it descends. Hence the Septuagint here, and St. Jerome in the Song of Songs, frequently translate dod as beloved; here, however, Jerome, following Aquila, translates πατράδελφον, that is, cousin, and this is more fitting: for Isaiah calls Christ his cousin or kinsman, because He was to be born of the same nation as himself, namely the Jewish nation. Third, dod can be translated as lover. Hence H. Pintus translates, I will sing to my beloved a song, to my lover, I say. Fourth, dod signifies love and charity; fifth, breasts. Hence that verse of Song of Songs I: "Your breasts are better than wine" can be translated, your loves are better than wine. From which you may gather that Christ is beloved by just men, and their lover, and love and charity itself, according to I John IV: "God is charity; and he who abides in charity abides in God, and God in him."

Note second: In Hebrew fashion, the antecedent is placed here instead of the relative. For Christ, whom he called beloved, he next calls cousin; he says therefore: "I will sing to my beloved the song of my cousin;" instead of what we would say: I will sing to my beloved the song of the same, namely of my beloved, who is also my cousin. The sense therefore is, as if to say: It pleases me to sing, indeed to lead the singing for my beloved and cousin, or kinsman, whom I uniquely love, namely Christ, a song of Christ Himself, which He Himself will sing to His vineyard, that is, the Jewish people, saying (Matthew XXI): "There was a man, a householder, who planted a vineyard and set a hedge around it."

MY BELOVED HAD A VINEYARD ON A HILL IN A FRUITFUL PLACE. — Note: The Synagogue and Judea are called a horn, that is, a mountain, or a lofty and elevated place: so say Vatablus, Forerius, and Sanchez. "Son of oil," that is, fertile, rich, abounding in olive oil. The sense is, as if to say: The vineyard of my beloved, namely Christ, was situated on a horn, that is, on a high and lofty place, which was a son of oil, that is, a fertile, olive-rich, and rich place. Hence the Septuagint, St. Jerome, and St. Basil translate, "on a hill, in a fruitful," or "fertile place." For Christ planted the Jewish people as a vineyard in Judea, which is a high, mountainous, and very fertile region: hence it was formerly called a land of milk and honey. Again, He planted this vineyard on Mount Sion, which is the summit of Mount Moriah, on which stood the temple and the city of Jerusalem. Therefore the horn properly is Mount Sion and Jerusalem.

Again, this vineyard of Christ is the Church, which was planted on a mountain, that is, in an elevated and conspicuous place; according to Matthew V: "A city seated on a mountain cannot be hidden." Again, by the fat place, or son of oil, is signified the grace of the Holy Spirit, as of the olive and oil, by which the Church is irrigated and made fruitful.

Note fifth: In Hebrew fashion, the song is placed here before the subject matter being sung about, saying: I will sing to my beloved a song, or a song about his vineyard, that is, a song about the vineyard of my beloved and my cousin. The sense is, as if to say: I will sing a song, that is, a parable, for my beloved, namely Christ, about His vineyard, namely the Synagogue and the Jews; in which, that is, in this parabolic song, I will set forth the benefits that Christ as vinedresser bestowed upon His vineyard, and how it, instead of grapes, produced wild grapes.

Hence the Chaldean, imitating Symmachus, translates thus: I will now tell my beloved what my dearest one has done for his vineyard. My beloved had a vineyard on a hill, in a fertile place.

Note: The Synagogue and Judea is called a horn: first, because the horn is a symbol of power and strength, and consequently of royal authority and magnificence, which God had given to David, Solomon, and the Jews; second, because Judea is situated on a horn, that is, in a high place: whence Pagninus for "on a horn" translates, on a hill: for a horn is an elevated and mountainous place; because a horn is pointed, and occupies the highest part of the animal, namely the head. So Vatablus, Arias, and Sanchez. For vineyards ought to be planted on a mountain facing south, but enclosed toward the north; for "Bacchus loves the hills, the north wind and cold belong to the forests," etc.; third, because the shape of Judea's terrain has the appearance of a horn, says Forerius, just as the shape of Belgium's terrain has the appearance of a lion: whence it is called the Belgian lion. Whence the Syriac version has: the vineyard of my beloved was in a corner of the place, or region; or as the Arabic, at the extremity of the land.

Allegorically St. Basil says: Judea, he says, has a horn, that is, defensive weapons against enemies, namely the cross of Christ; hence Habakkuk says, chapter 3:4: "There are horns in His hands."

Note second: This horn is called a son of oil, that is, oiled, producing oil, abounding in and full of oil: thus one is called a son of iniquity, that is, full of iniquity, most wicked. Or rather a son of oil, that is, fat, that is, fertile as if born from oil. Whence the Septuagint and the Chaldean translate: on a horn in a fat place, as if to say: This vineyard was planted in a sublime place, on a mountain not barren but fertile, whose soil is happy and rich, yielding an abundant produce. Again, horn signifies strength: oil, abundance, as if to say: I, God, raised Israel and Judea to a powerful and strong kingdom, at the same time prosperous: for it flows with milk and honey; so that it seems to be the horn of Amalthea. So St. Jerome. Whence Symmachus translates: on a horn in the midst of olives; the Arabic and Syriac: a cultivated and rich vineyard.

Some therefore think Judea is called a son of oil on account of its abundance of olives, as I have said. Rabbi Joseph thinks it is so called on account of the king and priest who were in it, and were anointed with oil. Whence in Zechariah 4 it is said: "These are the two sons of oil, who stand before the Lord of the whole earth," where by the sons of oil are understood the prince and the priest, that is, Zerubbabel and Jesus son of Josedec. Again, H. Pintus considers that Jerusalem is called a fat and oily mountain, because Christ taught there, and from there went forth the Gospel, by which the world was fattened, which before was dry and lean. Second, Sanchez says: Oil, because it softens, soothes, nourishes, and titillates the senses, is taken for delights, indulgence, and blandishments, Psalm 140:5; Proverbs 5:3, as if to say: The Jewish people was strong through God, and by God like a horn, and at the same time was to Him a son of oil, that is, a son of love and delights, to whom God displayed His generous liberality, and poured out not only the necessities of sustenance and life, but pleasures and delights.

Mystically, H. Pintus says: Judea is called a son of oil; because just as oil in a lamp is the material of fire and brightness, so the Hebrews provided many nations with the clear light of the knowledge of God.

St. Basil notes that there is an ancient tradition that Adam, expelled from the most pleasant paradise, in order to alleviate his sorrow, occupied Judea, the most fertile of all lands; whence Pentapolis, which was a part of it, is called the "Paradise of God," Genesis chapter 13, verse 10. Hence also the common tradition of the Fathers is that the skull of Adam was buried on Mount Calvary where Christ was crucified, and from this received the name of Calvary.

Allegorically, the vineyard, that is, the Church, was made for Christ on a horn, a son of oil, that is, as a powerful inheritance and kingdom, both fertile and merciful; for oil is the symbol of both. For Christ, who was for us a son of oil, that is, supremely merciful, willed that the Church also should be a son, or rather a daughter of oil, so that the governance of the Church might be benign, gentle and gracious like oil, whereas the rule of the Synagogue was threatening and terrible. For this reason, a little before the birth of Christ, in the Transtiberine region of Rome, from a tavern called the meritoria, He willed that a fountain of oil (which was like the horn of the son of oil) should burst forth, which flowed for an entire day without interruption: to portend that Christ was about to be born, and that as soon as He had set foot on earth, He would at the same time display the right foot of mercy, and thereby open the fountain of His clemency and mercy, from which all kinds of benefits would continually flow into the Church. Witnesses of this fountain are Eusebius in his Chronicle, Orosius, Book 6, chapter 19, and others. The place has now been converted into a church of the Blessed Virgin, in which the very spot of the oil fountain was shown to me, on which inside these ancient verses are inscribed: Hence oil flowed, when Christ shone forth from the Virgin; Here also whatever is asked of pardon is granted. For formerly in that place was the seat of the Penitentiary.

Verse 2: And He Fenced It In

2. AND HE FENCED IT IN (Septuagint: and I made a wall around it; Symmachus and St. Jerome: he surrounded it with a wall; that is, He hedged and walled in this vineyard with a wall and fence), AND PICKED THE STONES OUT OF IT (in Hebrew: and he stoned it, that is, cast out of it the stones and rocks that are an obstacle and impediment to fruitfulness), AND PLANTED IT WITH THE CHOICEST VINES (in Hebrew, sorek, that is, a most noble vine, which yields choice, red, and very sweet grapes; Jeremiah II, 21. That is, says St. Jerome, Christ made the Jewish people like a most noble vineyard, giving them patriarchs, prophets, priests, the law, the temple, and the worship of God), AND BUILT A TOWER IN THE MIDST THEREOF (for the guarding and watching of the vineyard), AND SET UP A WINEPRESS THEREIN: AND HE LOOKED THAT IT SHOULD BRING FORTH GRAPES, AND IT BROUGHT FORTH WILD GRAPES.

Second, he sings this song about the Church of Christ, which, like a vineyard planted by Christ in a fertile and lofty place, was fenced in with a wall and enclosure of faith and the Christian law, freed from stones, that is, from the unbelief and vices of the pagans, and from stones were made sons of Abraham, that is, the faithful of Christ: it was planted with the most noble vines, namely the Apostles and holy men, having in its midst a tower, namely the chair and teaching of the faith, and a winepress, namely the passion of Christ, through which is pressed out the wine of His blood for our salvation; and He expected the grapes of good works, and many brought forth the wild grapes of vices.

He fenced it, and gathered out the stones from it, etc. — For they are accustomed to gather and remove stones from stony ground, so that vines may be planted in it. Christ used this parable almost word for word, Matthew 21, as Isaiah predicted, verse 1. Both Isaiah, as he himself explains in verse 7, and Christ by the vineyard understand the Church, or the Synagogue, as also the Psalmist, Psalm 79:9: "You transplanted a vineyard from Egypt; You cast out the Gentiles" from Canaan, and there "You planted it." The hedge, winepress, tower, stone-clearing, etc., signify in general that God cultivated the Church thoroughly, and provided it with all necessities. In detail however, and distinctly, the hedge was first the wall of Jerusalem, says St. Jerome; second, and more fittingly, the hedge was the law and precepts, which were given to the people as a hedge, to protect them and keep them in duty and piety. So the Author of the Imperfect Work, Theophylact, and Euthymius on Matthew 21, and Irenaeus, Book 4, chapter 70. Again third, the hedge was the guardianship of God and the Angels, say St. Ambrose, Jerome, and Origen, who in Homily 19 on John says thus: "The guardianship of God was the hedge of the vineyard, the tower was the temple, the winepress was the place of libations." This is what Zechariah says, chapter 2: "Jerusalem shall be inhabited without walls," that is, the Synagogue and the Church; for "I will be to it, says the Lord, a wall of fire round about." Thus it is said in Isaiah 26:1: "Sion, the city of our strength, the savior shall be set in it as a wall and bulwark." Again Psalm 33:8: "The angel of the Lord shall encamp round about those who fear Him: and shall deliver them." Finally Zechariah 9: "I will compass, He says, My house by those who serve Me, going and coming." Fourth, H. Pintus by the hedge understands holy men, who are a wall for the people before God, and when they are removed the people are trampled; just as when Lot departed, Sodom burned; when the Hebrews departed, Egypt perished.

The "winepress" moreover is the altar, from which the blood of victims was pressed out, say Origen, St. Jerome, Bede, Euthymius, Theophylact on Matthew 21. Mystically, the winepress is the cross of Christ, by whose press martyrs, virgins, and all followers of Christ are pressed: and from it the wine of joy is expressed.

The "stones" which He removed from the vineyard are idols, sins: and all impediments to divine worship and religion.

The "tower," first, can be understood as royal dignity; second, as Sacred Scripture, says H. Pintus: for to it as to a tower and citadel we ought to flee in our temptations and dangers, and just as from a tower we behold things far off, so from the law and the Prophets they looked forward to Christ coming after so many centuries. Note: In vineyards towers are usually erected, both so that the vinedressers may retire to them, and so that the grapes and vineyard tools may be safely stored there, but especially for watching, so that in them as in watchtowers guards may keep watch, and look around on every side lest any thieves or beasts invade and plunder the vineyard. I have seen such towers in vine-growing regions, as near Rome and in Germany, especially near Wurzburg: for vineyards abound there; so much so that serious men, indeed princes, assured me there that in the city of Wurzburg there is more wine than water. Whence I also saw there enormous wine casks, each of which contained more than a hundred wine vessels, or amas, and had doors through which the vinedressers entered the casks (just as Diogenes entered his) to prepare and clean them.

Wherefore third, more fittingly you may understand by the tower the teachers and pastors and watchmen of the people, or the temple of Jerusalem, and the worship and religion of God, as the Chaldean explains here, Origen, St. Jerome, Bede, Euthymius, Theophylact above: for from the temple as from a tower and citadel, God was a help and refuge to the struggling people.

AND PLANTED IT WITH THE CHOICEST VINE. — For "choicest" in Hebrew it is sorek: which the Hebrews say is a species of the best vine, which has no, that is, few and small, seeds: perhaps it was called sorek from the region of Sorec, abounding in noble vines; where Samson saw and fell in love with Delilah, Judges 16:4. So Sanchez.

Such was the best vineyard of God: the Synagogue in the time of the Patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, who were most holy, and rendered to God the grapes and fruits of holy works.

IT BROUGHT FORTH WILD GRAPES. — Note that "labrusca" (wild grape) is here put for the fruit of the wild vine; for the labrusca is a wild vine, whose flower, according to Dioscorides, Book 5, chapter 5, is called oenanthe, as if to say, the flower of wine or of the vine: therefore the labrusca is an unripe, sour, and worthless grape. Whence the Septuagint for "wild grapes" translates "thorns"; Symmachus, imperfect, that is, unripe. For it is, says Pliny, Book 16, chapter 27, a wild vine, which he himself calls insane, which luxuriates with a threefold but fleeting produce: for in it at the same time some fruits ripen, others swell, others bloom; but nothing is ripe and useful: for they display fruit rather than offer it. In Hebrew it is beuscim, that is, foul-smelling: whence Aquila translates putrid; for, as Casius Dionysius reports from Varro: "There are certain vines which cause the freshly produced fruit to putrefy before the clusters are nourished and ripen."

Now the sense is, as if to say: My beloved, namely God the Father, and His Son and heir Jesus Christ, expected from the vineyard so cultivated by Himself sweet grapes, pleasing and delightful to His palate; but behold He found them unpleasant and bitter, which caused Him annoyance and nausea: that is, from the Jewish people He expected the joyful and sweet wine of virtues, of faith and of good works: but they returned to Him the verjuice and vinegar of unfaithfulness, injustice (as he says in verse 7), pride, lust, etc., and truly poured forth that same vinegar instead of wine to Christ the Lord on the cross: for St. Chrysostom, Homily 2 On the Cross and the Thief, teaches that the Prophet's gaze was looking specifically at this; and the Fathers everywhere refer these things to the Passion of Christ.

Tropologically, he who turns his mind and zeal away from the faith and piety which he ought to render to God, toward false follies and foolish thoughts, produces foul-smelling grapes, says Sanchez, concerning which Ecclesiasticus 11:32 says: "As the belchings of the entrails of the foul-smelling, etc., so also the heart of the proud."

Again, luxuriant but imperfect and unripe grapes are Religious and others who begin the way of virtue with great fervor; but soon grow weary, and do not complete what they began. Likewise those who from fickleness and inconstancy now embrace this kind of life, virtue, and pursuit, now that one, and while they try everything they fall away from everything, and, as Sanchez says, in that not so much labor as manifold play they produce nothing ripe which the Lord might pluck and take: for nothing so hinders progress in the spiritual way as this inconstancy; and the frequent changing of plans and pursuits.

Verse 3: Now Therefore, O You Inhabitants of Jerusalem

3. Now therefore, etc., men of Judah, judge. — God here out of condescension submits Himself to the judgment of the people, so that the people may be compelled to justify God in so evident a case, and to slay themselves by their own testimony and sword.

3. NOW THEREFORE, O YOU INHABITANTS OF JERUSALEM AND MEN OF JUDA, JUDGE BETWEEN ME AND MY VINEYARD. 4. WHAT IS THERE THAT I OUGHT TO DO MORE TO MY VINEYARD, THAT I HAVE NOT DONE TO IT? — Thus Christ in the Gospel, Matthew XXI, proposing the parable of the vineyard: "When the lord of the vineyard shall come, what will he do to those husbandmen?" And they answer. As if to say: He complains about the Synagogue as about a vineyard, which though duly cultivated, instead of grapes produced wild grapes, as if to say: I Christ, who am God and Lord, say these things to you Jews: Judge for yourselves, what more ought I to have done for you that I have not done? Have I not planted you, hedged you about, made you most cultivated, provided everything? And yet instead of grapes you have borne wild grapes, instead of piety impiety, instead of justice injustice.

Note second: These words are rendered in Hebrew with a mournful song and rhythm. The Prophet is consistent in these: mishpat, that is, judgment, and mispach, that is, oppression; tsedaqah, that is, justice, and tse'aqah, that is, the cry of injustice. See how beautifully the opposition of the words is expressed by paronomasia, and how fittingly those words rhyme and resonate.

Morally: St. Bernard, in his sermon On St. Andrew, applies these words to Christians, saying: "What ought I to have done that I have not done? Therefore He will judge us, not only on account of our ingratitude and injustice, but on account of His own goodness, because He left nothing undone that He could do for us."

Note: The Synagogue and the Church are called a vineyard because, just as the vineyard is the noblest of all plants, so the Synagogue and the Church is the most noble and most holy society of all, which yields the most noble fruit, namely the good Christian, that is, a man consecrated and sanctified to God.

Verse 4: What Is There That I Ought to Do More

4. WHAT IS THERE THAT I OUGHT TO DO MORE, etc., WAS IT THAT I EXPECTED? — It is a grave reproach, as if to say: What duty of a vinedresser have I omitted? What have I neglected in cultivating the vineyard? What ought I to have done for it that I did not do? Have I sinned in this, that I expected grapes? Is this my fault, this my sin, namely the long expectation of fruits, and my excessive long-suffering? Has this turned grapes into wild grapes? Long delay and time ripens grapes: has then my mere delay alone made them unripe? So speaks God. On the contrary, man can truly say, and ought to say: "What ought I to have done for my Lord that I have done? Who am I, what sort am I, what evil have I not committed?" says St. Augustine; for a holy man ought to regard himself as an unprofitable servant of God. In a similar way God complains through Jeremiah, chapter 2, verse 21: "I planted you as a chosen vineyard, all true seed: how then are you turned into the depraved shoots of a strange vine?"

Verse 5: I Will Take Away Its Hedge

5. I will take away its hedge, — as if to say: I will strip the Jewish people of my law as well as of my protection, and of the guardianship of the Angels, so that they may be laid waste by the Romans, and I will transfer these to the Gentiles. Whence Josephus, Book 7 of the Wars, chapter 12, says that shortly before the destruction of Jerusalem, the very heavy gate of the temple was opened of its own accord, and a voice was heard (of Angels) in the temple: "Let us depart from here." Similar is that passage of the Angels or soldiers, Jeremiah 51:9: "We have healed Babylon, and she is not healed: let us forsake her."

Verse 6: It Shall Not Be Pruned, and It Shall Not Be Dug

6. IT SHALL NOT BE PRUNED, AND IT SHALL NOT BE DUG. — For a luxuriant vineyard is usually pruned and cut, and also dug, or uncovered at the roots, that is, the earth around its roots is dug away, so that they may draw in air and heavenly moisture; which all experts in husbandry teach is necessary for the fertility of vines and trees. Whence St. Ambrose, Book 3 of the Hexameron, chapter 12: "He dug around the vineyard, he says, when He relieved it of the weight of earthly cares." Again, the earth near the vine is usually dug, as a field is dug, so that the seed may draw greater and better nourishment from the earth that has been dug up and turned over. For a vineyard requires perpetual, varied, and continuous cultivation: whence the Italians rightly say: "The vineyard is a pest."

The sense is, as if to say: God will abandon this vineyard of His, He will not cut back nor restrain the luxuriant wickedness of His people: again He will not dig up their heart, will not touch it, will not prick it, will not cultivate it; but will allow it to be filled, hidden, and choked by briers and thorns of sins. This is a great punishment, when a sinner is abandoned by God, and is allowed with impunity to follow his lusts and wallow in concupiscences. For, as St. Gregory says, Homily 12 on Ezekiel: "He who turns away from God, and prospers, is so much nearer to perdition, as he is found more remote from the zeal of discipline."

Tropologically, the soul must be pruned and cultivated both by the precepts of God and by adversities, says St. Basil here.

I WILL COMMAND THE CLOUDS THAT THEY RAIN NOT. — The rain which is denied to the vineyard rejected by God, that is, to the Synagogue, is heavenly doctrine: whence both words derive from the same root in Hebrew. For the Apostles and apostolic men are called clouds: because through them God rains this heavenly shower upon the Church, Isaiah 60:8: "Who are these who fly as clouds?" and Joel 2:23: "Because He has given you the teacher of justice, and will cause the rain to come down upon you, the early and the latter rain." So St. Jerome. The sense therefore is, as if to say: I, God, will forbid the Apostles and their followers to water the Jews with the shower of holy doctrine and of the Gospel, but to pour it upon the Gentiles instead. So St. Jerome, Cyril, and Basil himself.

Verse 7: The Vineyard of the Lord of Hosts Is the House of Israel

7. THE VINEYARD OF THE LORD OF HOSTS IS THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL. — Here he explains the song and the parable of the vineyard, as if to say: This vineyard is the people of Israel.

AND THE MAN OF JUDAH IS HIS DELIGHTFUL PLANT. — The Septuagint has: his beloved plant; the Chaldean: the plantation of his joy; others: his delicious plant, as if to say: The tribe of Judah (under which understand also Benjamin, which adhered to Judah in the schism of Jeroboam), in this vineyard of all Israel is the plant, or vine, which uniquely pleased God and was His delight. For the "His" refers not to the vineyard but to the Lord of hosts, who preceded. The reason was that Judah retained the faith, worship, and temple of God; and because from Judah Christ was to be born, who is the desire of the everlasting hills.

I EXPECTED THAT IT SHOULD DO JUDGMENT, AND BEHOLD INIQUITY; AND JUSTICE, AND BEHOLD A CRY. — As if to say: From this vineyard so cultivated by Me, I expected grapes, namely judgment and justice; but it yielded wild grapes, namely iniquity and outcry.

But by the outcry, as being the opposite of justice, you may more fittingly understand the outcry of the unjust themselves, the angry and violent, such as is customary with robbers, when with force and clamorous threats and shouts they terrify travelers, in order to plunder or slay them. Again, by this word Isaiah properly looks to the cry of the Jews against Christ: "Crucify, crucify." So St. Jerome and Cyril. In a similar way Jeremiah says, chapter 12, verse 8: "My inheritance has become to me like a lion in the forest: it has cried out against me, therefore I have hated it."

Sanchez interprets differently: The outcry, he says, is every sin which cries out in the ears of God and rouses Him to awaken to vengeance; and especially those four enormities which are therefore called sins crying to heaven, namely first, the oppression of the poor, widows, and orphans; second, voluntary homicide and parricide; third, the wages of laborers defrauded; fourth, the sin of Sodom.

Note: In the Hebrew there is an elegant paronomasia: I expected mishpat, that is, judgment; and behold mispach, that is, iniquity: I expected tsedaqah, that is, justice, and behold tse'aqah, that is, a cry, as if to say: I expected equity, and behold iniquity; justice, and behold injustice.

Verse 8: Woe to You Who Join House to House

8. WOE TO YOU WHO JOIN HOUSE TO HOUSE, etc., EVEN TO THE END OF THE PLACE! — even to the limit of the place, namely of the field or the city, as if to say: Woe to you greedy ones, who wish to seize everything by fair means and foul, who join fields to fields, houses to houses, until you possess the entire space of a city or region, which you have marked out for your greed or ambition! Here he explains in detail the bitterness of these wild grapes, namely of iniquity and outcry; whence in this verse he censures the pride and avarice of the Jews, especially the wealthy and powerful; in verse 11, their drunkenness; in verse 18, he upbraids their obstinacy.

Here therefore he rebukes ambition and greed, as the beginning of injury and violence, which in order to rise above others, despoils others, and sustains its own pomp and status from the plunder of others: as Nero did, who made all of Rome serve his pleasures or ambition, says Martial. For greed is insatiable, and therefore is the mother and origin of all evils, as the Apostle testifies: and accordingly both Christ and Isaiah threaten the woe of eternal damnation upon the rich and the greedy: this therefore is the first wild grape.

SHALL YOU ALONE DWELL IN THE MIDST OF THE EARTH? — As if to say: So great is your greed, that you seem to want to occupy alone, indeed to inhabit the whole earth, and to be kings of the entire world. For "in the midst of the earth" is the same as "in the whole earth," so that the whole earth may be like one house of yours, in the middle of which you sit, as a king sits in the middle of his kingdom, commanding and ruling on every side.

Thus Nero in Rome built so vast a palace (even today we see its enormous walls and enclosures), that it occupied a great part of the city; whence they mocked him and it with this verse: Rome will become a house: migrate to Veii, citizens, Unless that house should occupy Veii too. What are you doing, O unhappy miser? Do not three cubits of earth alone await you? Is not a small stone sufficient to cover your wretched body? Why then do you seek so ardently for so many estates and riches, and covet and accumulate impediments to eternal beatitude? The Poet truly said: "One world does not suffice for the youth of Pella (Alexander the Great): he will be content with a sarcophagus." Indeed, "yesterday the whole world could not contain Alexander: today the earth of six feet will hold and bury the dead man." St. Bernard, Epistle 51 to Henry, Archbishop of Sens, hurls this sentence of Isaiah against avaricious Churchmen who accumulate benefices and dignities: "O, he says, ever infinite ambition and insatiable avarice! When anyone has been made Dean, Provost, Archdeacon, etc., in any Church, not content with one in one, he strives to acquire for himself as many honors as he can in one as well as in several. But will he thus be satisfied? Having become a Bishop, he desires to be an Archbishop. Having perhaps obtained that, dreaming again of something still higher, with laborious journeys and costly connections he resolves to frequent the Roman palace. Woe to you who join house to house!" etc.

St. Ambrose speaks excellently, in his book On Naboth and Ahab, chapter 1, volume 1: "How far, he says, O rich men, will you extend your insane desires? Will you alone dwell upon the earth? Why do you cast out the partner of nature, and claim possession? The earth was established in common for all, both rich and poor: why do you alone, O rich, arrogate to yourselves a private right? Nature knows no rich men, for she begets all poor. She poured them naked into the light, needing food, clothing, drink: the earth receives naked those whom it brought forth, it knows not how to enclose the boundaries of possessions within a tomb. A narrow sod suffices equally for the poor man and the rich; and the earth which could not contain the desire of the living man, now contains the whole rich man." And in chapter 3: "Bird associates with birds, cattle joins with cattle, fish with fish: nor do they consider it a loss, but a commerce of living, when they take up the greatest company, and seek a certain protection in the consolation of more frequent society. You alone, O man, exclude your companion: you shut in wild beasts, you build dwellings for animals, you destroy those of men." And in chapter 6: "The Gentiles call Dis the ruler of the underworld, the arbiter of death. They call him both Dis and rich, because the rich man knows nothing but how to inflict death, he whose kingdom is of the dead, whose seat is in the underworld. For what is a rich man, but a kind of insatiable whirlpool of riches? An insatiable hunger for gold? The more he draws, the more he burns." And in chapter 12: "For every man of abundance judges himself poorer, because he considers that whatever is possessed by others is lacking to him. He needs the whole world, whose desires the world cannot contain; but for him who is faithful, the whole world is his riches."

Indeed even the pagan Seneca, Epistle 90, says: Formerly, according to Virgil, Georgics 1: No tillers subdued the fields, Nor was it even lawful to mark or divide the field with a boundary: They sought for the common good, and the earth itself More freely bore all things, with none demanding. But now, he says, "avarice has burst in upon things most well arranged; and while it desires to separate something and turn it to its own, it has made everything foreign; and having reduced matters to a narrow compass, it has brought poverty, and by coveting many things has lost all. Though you add fields to fields, no extension of boundaries will bring us back to where we departed from: we will have much, we used to have everything."

Verse 9: These Things Are in My Ears

9. These things are in my ears, — as if to say: I hear your clamorous lawsuits, frauds, robberies, oppressions of the poor, and their laments and outcries in turn; and I lend to them not deaf but open ears; so that they may rouse My vengeance, and it may leap furiously upon you.

UNLESS MANY HOUSES SHALL BE DESOLATE. — "Unless" among the Hebrews is a word of an execratory oath, in which by aposiopesis one must understand: "Otherwise may I not be held God or truthful;" just as the Latins say: "May I perish unless I do this;" but the Hebrews, for the sake of euphemism, as if for good omen, suppress that imprecation, which is so great and so terrible that not even the one swearing dares to express it out of reverence for the divine Majesty, as if to say: I swear by My divinity and truthfulness, that your houses and fields, which you have so greedily and avariciously accumulated without measure or limit, I will cut down and reduce to desolation and barrenness, so that from ten acres of vineyards you will gather so few grapes that from them you will be able to press only one little vessel of wine, and from a copious sowing of thirty bushels you will barely gather three bushels, that is, a tenth part of the seed, at harvest: this is the fitting reward of avarice, namely barrenness and poverty, which there is no doubt befell the Jews, especially in the wars, siege, and destruction by the Romans.

Morally, learn here how vain and pernicious riches and possessions are, if anyone avariciously hoards them, and fixes his hope and heart upon them. The ancients themselves teach this. First, David, Psalm 48, from verse 7 to the last: "Fear not, he says, when a man is made rich; for when he shall die, he shall not take all away: neither shall his glory descend with him;" and Psalm 61:10 and 11: "But vain are the sons of men, the sons of men are liars in the balances: that they may deceive by vanity together. Trust not in iniquity, and covet not robberies; if riches abound, set not your heart upon them."

Second, Solomon, Ecclesiastes 5:9, 10, 14: "He who loves riches shall reap no fruit from them; and this therefore is vanity. Where there are great riches, there are also many who eat them. And what does it profit the owner, except that he beholds riches with his eyes? As he came forth naked from his mother's womb, so shall he return, and shall take nothing away with him of his labor;" and Wisdom 5: "What has pride profited us? or what advantage has the boasting of riches brought us? All those things are passed away like a shadow," etc.

Third, Christ, Matthew chapter 6, verses 19 and following: "Lay not up for yourselves treasures on earth, where rust and moth consume; and where thieves dig through and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, etc. You cannot serve God and mammon." The same, Matthew 19:24: "It is easier, He says, for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven." See also the story of the rich man who feasted, Luke 16.

Fourth, St. Paul, 1 Timothy 6:6 and following: "But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world: and certainly we can carry nothing out. But having food and wherewith to be covered, with these we are content. For they who wish to become rich fall into temptation and into the snare of the devil, etc. For the root of all evils is covetousness;" and verse 17: "Charge the rich of this world not to be high-minded, nor to trust in the uncertainty of riches, but in the living God," etc.

Fifth, St. James, chapter 1, verse 9: "Let the humble brother, he says, glory in his exaltation; but the rich man in his humiliation, because as the flower of grass he shall pass away," etc.; and chapter 5, verse 1: "Go to now, you rich men, weep and howl in your miseries which shall come upon you. Your riches are putrefied, and your garments are moth-eaten. You have stored up wrath for yourselves in the last days," etc.

Sixth, St. Cyprian, On the Discipline and Dress of Virgins: "Let them know, he says, first, that she is rich who is rich toward God. Earthly things, received in this world and to remain here with the world, ought to be despised as much as the world itself is despised, whose pomps and delights we already renounced when we came to God by a better passage." And below: "Let the poor feel that you are rich; lend your patrimony to God at interest, feed Christ, acquire for yourself heavenly possessions. A great patrimony is a temptation, unless it is spent for good uses: for the richer anyone is, the more he ought to redeem rather than increase his sins." The same elsewhere: "Why, he says, do we think about tomorrow, and seek to live long in this world, we who ask that the kingdom of God come quickly?"

Seventh, St. Basil, sermon On Riches: "The fleeting nature of riches, he says, passes by their possessors more swiftly than a torrent; and it is accustomed to slip past one person after another: you are only their steward."

Eighth, St. Gregory Nazianzen, Oration 16, calls the riches of the impious a pledge of calamity, mistresses of vices, idols, instruments of perdition: their desire he calls a most foul and ruinous thing. The same says: "Would that riches might perish, unless they succor the poor! For what need is there to store up much for robbers, and thieves, and the changes of times, which transfer them to others?"

Ninth, St. Chrysostom, as quoted by Antonius in the Melissa, Sermon 131 On the Rich: "The poor man, he says, does not desire necessities as much as the rich man desires superfluities: nor again does the poor man have as much power or ability to practice wickedness as the rich man; the life of the rich is dangerous, and their change intractable: they have nothing from their riches except continual cares, anxieties, angers, perturbations; for the rich man does not fill many stomachs, and the poor man only one; but both fill one: yet the latter without fear and anxiety; the former trembling and fearing adversities."

St. Chrysostom wrote homilies on avarice, beneficence, charity, love, riches, almsgiving, mercy; from which gather these axioms: "Riches are not a sin, but it is a sin not to distribute them to the poor, and to use them badly. They are not a monument of glory, but of avarice; they are heavy chains, and cruel tyrants to those who use them badly; monstrous beasts as well, helpers of corruption, enemies of continence, foes of temperance, secret robbers of virtues, like wild animals and runaway slaves; they have never made good morals; stored away they are like enclosed wild beasts; they hide vipers and scorpions; they have many waves and disturbances; they are a disgrace to the wealthy; they are not with the one who has them; they suffocate the mind; they are dangerous and lethal to their owners; when shut up, they roar more fiercely than lions and disturb everything; they make men insane, cast them into temptations, and produce verbal insults against God; they are the parents of every absurdity, they are unstable, fleeting, deceitful, murderous, shameful. Riches are not a good, but our will is; they are wild beasts; if we hold them in, they flee; if they are scattered, they remain: scatter them therefore, that they may remain; do not hide and bury them, lest they flee. Only then are they ours, when they are given to the poor. Those riches are good to which sin is not joined. Those who spend riches badly are worse than misers. The greatest riches are not to need riches. The greed for riches is the citadel and metropolis of all vices; it does not allow one to do good works; it is a tyrant spread through the whole world; it is the offspring of Satan; he who accumulates them places his hope with sin upon the earth; they puff up and provide the power to harm. Riches receive the torments of the underworld; they should not be left to children, lest they in turn abandon virtue; those who die in riches are to be mourned, because they have acquired no consolation for themselves from their riches."

Tenth, St. Augustine, Sermon 13 On the Words of the Lord: "What kind of riches, he says, are those on account of which you fear your servant lest he kill you, steal, and flee? If they were true riches, they would provide you with security; those therefore are true riches which when we have them we cannot lose." And Sermon 33: "The love of temporal things, he says, is the birdlime of spiritual punishments." The same, Book 1 of the City of God, chapter 10: "Paulinus, he says, Bishop of Nola, from being a most wealthy rich man now most poor by choice, when he was held by the barbarians, prayed: Lord, let me not be tormented on account of gold and silver; for where all my things are, You know."

Eleventh, St. Ambrose, Book 8 on Luke: "Riches, he says, as they are impediments to the wicked, so they are aids to virtue for the good." The same, in the Treatise on Nebuchadnezzar: "Nature does not know the rich, for she begets all poor, and pours them naked into the light... and receives them naked in the tomb." The same in the Hexameron: "There is no distinction, he says, between the corpses of the dead, except that the bodies of the rich, swollen with luxury, smell worse."

Twelfth, St. Jerome, Epistle 69: "Every rich man, he says, is either unjust or the heir of an unjust man." The same on Matthew 6: "He who is a slave to riches guards them as a slave; but he who has shaken off the yoke of servitude distributes them as a master." The same to Paulinus: "Crates of Thebes, a most wealthy man, when he was going to Athens to philosophize, cast away a great weight of gold, and did not think he could possess both virtue and riches at the same time: we, loaded down with gold, follow the poor Christ," etc. So also Diogenes: "Nobility, he says, glory, riches, are veils of wickedness."

Thirteenth, St. Gregory, Homily 15 on Luke chapter 8: "The only true riches, he says, are those which make us rich in virtues. If therefore, brothers, you desire to be rich, love true riches: if you seek the summit of true honor, strive toward the heavenly kingdom: if you love the glory of dignities, hasten to be enrolled in that supreme court of the Angels." The same, Book 18 of the Morals, chapter 9: "The rich man, he says, when he has fallen asleep, will take nothing with him; he carries his possessions with him when he dies, who gave them to the one who asked; for all earthly things, which we lose by keeping, we preserve by giving away; and our patrimony retained is lost, but given away it remains; for we cannot endure long with our possessions: because either we leave them, or they leave us while we live, as it were perishing. We must therefore act so as to compel things that will absolutely perish to pass over into a reward that will not perish." See what follows, where he compares riches to a sleep, after which the proud rich are driven by the devil into the fires of torments.

Fourteenth, St. Bernard, On Conversion, to the Clergy, chapter 12: "The insatiable love of riches, he says, torments the soul with an ever longer desire more than it refreshes by its use, since the acquisition of them is found to involve labor, the possession fear, and the loss full of grief." Why then do you covet those things which when loved defile, when possessed burden, when lost torment? And chapter 14: "Fool, this night they will require your soul of you; and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?" The same, Sermon 4 On the Advent: "Sons of Adam, avaricious race, what have you to do with earthly riches, which are neither true nor yours? Gold and silver is truly red and white earth, which only the error of men makes, or rather considers, precious. Finally, if they are yours, take them with you." And in the book On Consideration: "Gold, silver, etc., are neither good nor bad: the use of them is good, the abuse bad, the anxiety worse, the profit more shameful."

Finally, the wisest of mortals, King Solomon, makes this vow to God: "Give me neither beggary nor riches; grant only the necessities of my sustenance." And he adds the reason: "Lest perhaps being satiated I be tempted to deny, and say: Who is the Lord? or being compelled by poverty I steal, and forswear the name of my God," Proverbs 30:8.

Forty thousand gold pieces had been brought to the Emperor Sigismund from Hungary, and when at nightfall he was anxiously wondering to what uses he might put them, through his chamberlains he quickly summoned all his counselors and military commanders to himself: "Behold, he said, these most cruel enemies and executioners (showing the coins) have robbed me of sleep; take them and divide them among yourselves, so that I may sleep in peace." And so when the money had been distributed among them, as the counselors were departing, he said: "Now that torturer who scourged me is gone; now I shall rest more securely." Aeneas Sylvius reports this, Book 4 of the Commentary on Alfonso.

The poet Anacreon, having received five talents of gold from a king, could not sleep at night, for a wavering thought and care tormented him, as to what he should spend them on, and lest thieves steal them: therefore at dawn he returned to the king and gave back the gold, saying that "he preferred to be poor with peace, than wealthy with anxiety."

Verse 11: Woe to You Who Rise Up Early to Follow Drunkenness

11. WOE TO YOU WHO RISE UP EARLY TO FOLLOW DRUNKENNESS. — This is the second wild grape of the vineyard, that is, of the Jews, namely drunkenness, and that untimely, that is, in the morning. For, as the Apostle says, 1 Thessalonians 5: "Those who are drunk, are drunk at night."

TO BE INFLAMED WITH WINE. — The Septuagint translates: for wine will kindle or burn them, namely both with the flames and fire of spirits and vapors, and of passions. For as St. Basil explains this passage in his Homily on Drunkenness: "The heat of wine poured into the body becomes a fire of the enemy's fiery chains; for it depresses reason and the mind, and stirs up pleasures and the other evil passions of the soul like a swarm of bees. What chariot of untamed horses rushes so headlong, throwing off its master? What ship so deprived of its helmsman, so tossed and shaken by the waves, that is not safer than a drunkard?" And below: "Drunkenness is a voluntary demon, introduced into souls through pleasure, the mother of wickedness, the enemy of virtue." On drunkenness I will say more at Daniel chapter 5:2. Moreover, see on this subject St. Chrysostom, Homily 71 to the People, and St. Ambrose, book On Elijah and Fasting, chapter 15.

Hence the Greek Poets called wine "Bacchus, born of fire," both because near Vesuvius and Etna, mountains most famous for conflagrations, excellent and burning, and as it were fiery wine is produced; and because it kindles fires of quarrels, lusts, and all crimes, so that it seems to be fiery and born from fire. Alexander the Great obscured all his virtues by drunkenness: for inflamed by it he killed his friends. If he had listened to Androcides the wise man, he would have been the greatest of kings. For he wrote to Alexander: "O king, when you are about to drink wine, remember that you are drinking the blood of the earth. Hemlock is poison to man, wine is poison to hemlock."

Second, it will kindle, because the wine which they have drunk immoderately will be the torch and naphtha of the fire of hell, with which they will someday be consumed. Pythagoras truly said that "first luxury enters cities, then satiety, then insult, and lastly destruction." Wherefore Bacchus himself set three bowls as the limit for a feast, the third of which he said belonged to Jupiter the Savior. Hear him speaking thus in Eubulus: I mix only three bowls for the sane; One of health, a second of love, a third of enjoyment; After draining which, those who are wise go home. For the fourth bowl is no longer mine, But that of insult. Next to this, The bowl of clamor. Following this comes the frenzy of carousing. Thus the seventh brings wounds, the eighth lawsuits, The ninth nausea. But the tenth is that of insanity.

Verse 12: The Harp

12. THE HARP. — Note: Both Hebrews and Gentiles as well as Christians formerly employed music at feasts to cheer the guests, as I said at Ephesians 5:19.

AND THE WORK OF THE LORD YOU REGARD NOT. — The "work of the Lord" is twofold. The first is the work of creation, as if to say: You, given over to drunkenness, do not regard the heavens, the earth, and what was created in them, so that from them you might recognize and praise God the Creator. For to this end God gave man a countenance raised aloft above the beasts, which look downward to the earth, so that he might gaze upon heaven and the Ruler of heaven, love and worship Him, as if to say: You cast down that lofty mind to feeding and drunkenness, so that in the manner of beasts, which go out to pasture in the morning and devour all day, you drink from morning to evening, and have no time to devote to the contemplation of the works of God. Rightly does Claudian say, Book 3 of The Rape: What good was it to have drawn the mind from heaven, to have raised the head on high, if in the manner of cattle they wander through pathless places? The works of God therefore are creatures which lead us to the Creator, as streams to the fountain. Whence Trismegistus said that "the world is a mirror of invisible things." And Anaxagoras said that "he was born to see the sun," and from so admirable a star to contemplate its admirable Maker. "For the heavens declare the glory of God." And "The invisible things of God from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood through those things which were made; His eternal power also, and divinity," Romans 1.

But especially he calls the "work of the Lord" the provident and beneficent governance of God, by which He fed both animals and men, especially the Jews in Canaan, with the annual harvest and crops, as with a new work of creation each year; which accordingly He wanted them to recall at table, so that from these they might recognize God the giver, and give Him thanks: "When you have eaten, He says, and are satisfied, bless the Lord your God for the excellent land which He has given you," Deuteronomy 8:10. But the Jews here, cast down into food and belly, and forgetful of God, were abusing His creatures for their own gluttony and drunkenness against the will of God. Whence emphasizing and explaining, He adds: "And the works of His hands you do not consider."

The second "work of God" is the work of redemption through Christ, concerning which Habakkuk 3:2, according to the Septuagint: "I have considered Your works, and was struck with fear," as if to say: You, O Jews! O drunkards! do not consider the mystery of the redemption of Christ, the blood shed for you, Christ suffering on the cross, thirsting, given vinegar and gall to drink. The former sense is the more genuine.

Third, Forerius and Sanchez not badly understand this "work of God" not as past nor present, but as future, namely the vengeance of God threatening them. For thus "work" is understood in verse 19, as if to say: You indulge in the harp, the timbrel, and wine; and do not consider how great a destruction threatens you from an angry God.

Verse 13: Therefore Is My People Led Away Captive

13. THEREFORE IS MY PEOPLE LED AWAY CAPTIVE. — Note that here and in what follows, past tenses are taken for future on account of the certainty of the prophecy; for what he predicts is so certainly future, as if it had already happened: "has been led away" therefore means, will be led away; "have perished" means, will perish; "has dried up" means, will dry up; "has enlarged" means, will enlarge; "has opened" means, will open. See Canon 13.

BECAUSE IT HAD NOT KNOWLEDGE. — Because serving its belly, it did not regard the work of the Lord, about which verse 12 speaks, as if it did not know that it was created for heavenly and eternal, not for carnal and perishable nourishment. Whence the Septuagint translates: because they themselves did not recognize the Lord who feeds and nourishes them, but cast down into food they enslaved themselves to their gluttony; nor did they recognize God their Creator and so munificent a Benefactor.

AND ITS NOBLES HAVE PERISHED WITH FAMINE. — So great was the famine in Jerusalem besieged by Titus, that mothers cooked and ate their sons, as Josephus testifies. The Hebrew has: and its glory are men of famine, that is, the men of its glory, that is, the glorious ones, are men of famine, as if to say: Those whom glory once celebrated, famine now makes famous.

Verse 14: Therefore Hell Has Enlarged Its Soul

14. THEREFORE HELL HAS ENLARGED ITS SOUL, — that is, its bosom and capacity; or "its soul," that is, itself (see Canon 19), as if to say: For this reason hell has expanded itself immensely, to swallow innumerable people. It is a hyperbole and prosopopoeia, by which a soul, mouth, greed, and gluttony for devouring are given to hell: just as a famished and gluttonous man sitting down to a sumptuous table, enlarges his gullet and the gaping of his mouth: thus by the Poets the underworld is called rapacious and voracious, and to the three-throated Cerberus are given gaping mouths, and Solomon, Proverbs 30:16, calls hell insatiable, for: The underworld opens its hollow throat insatiably.

Second, Sanchez says: "Hell has enlarged its soul," that is, its mouth: for the soul, that is, the breath or exhalation, is expanded when the mouth is opened widest, so that the latter hemistich is an explanation of the former in the Hebrew manner, as if to say: The avaricious, powerful, and rapacious gape after the goods of the poor without end or limit, and devour them as if they were hell, and "the sepulchers of the poor," says St. Ambrose. Deservedly and fittingly therefore another hell is prepared for the avaricious, which likewise with its mouth always gaping wide, will expand itself immensely and most greedily devour them. They wish to be insatiable beasts: therefore I will open to them the belly and gullet of insatiable hell (as a most voracious beast), and hand them over to it for food.

Third, the same Sanchez understands by hell the common burial place of the Jews, which was in the valley of Cedron, in that part which is called Gehenna or Topheth, as is clear from 4 Kings chapter 23:6, as if to say: So great will be the slaughter of both noble and common Jews, so great the multitude of corpses, that that common burial place of the Jews, namely Gehenna, will not be able to contain them, but will have to expand very widely: so also Jeremiah, chapter 7, verse 31, predicts that the Jews will be buried in Topheth, because there they immolated their children to the idol Moloch. But the two former senses are more genuine.

Tropologically, it is easy to apply these things with St. Jerome to sinners, who do not have the knowledge of God, as if they were born for their belly, not for God: these are foolish, because bound by the cords of their sins, they are dragged bound to gaping hell, and since their number is immense, hell enlarges its mouth and soul without limit to swallow them.

Verse 15: And Man Shall Be Bowed Down

15. AND MAN SHALL BE BOWED DOWN, AND MAN SHALL BE HUMBLED. — Haymo notes that when "man" (homo) is joined with "man" (vir), by the former the common people are signified, by the latter the nobles and chief men, as if to say: All, both noble and ignoble, will be punished and humbled without distinction, and will descend into hell: and thus God as a just avenger will be praised by all, "and will be exalted in this His judgment" and just vengeance; and "will be sanctified," that is, will be declared to be holy, and as holy will be celebrated by all, "in this His justice."

Verse 17: And the Lambs Shall Feed According to Their Order

17. AND THE LAMBS SHALL FEED ACCORDING TO THEIR ORDER, AND STRANGERS SHALL EAT THE DESOLATE PLACES TURNED TO FERTILITY, — as if to say: The "lambs," that is, the poor and meek who were formerly oppressed by the more powerful, now that those have been slain or captured, will feed at their ease. For Nebuzaradan left some of the poor of the land as vinedressers and farmers, 4 Kings 25: and the possessions abandoned by their owners, now yielding an abundant harvest, will come into the hands of strangers, namely the Chaldeans or Romans. So Sanchez.

Second, St. Thomas expounds it thus: "The lambs shall feed," that is, they shall be eaten by your enemies, "according to their order," because the better ones will be eaten first. But "they shall feed" here means the same as "they will eat," not "they will be eaten," as is clear from the Hebrew raa.

But note third: For "according to their order," the Hebrew is kedaberam, which St. Jerome, Micah chapter 2, verse 12, translates "in the midst of the folds"; Pagninus and Vatablus, "according to their custom." Now by the lambs and strangers, he understands the just and innocent from the Gentiles, reborn in Christ through baptism, whom St. Peter calls "newborn infants"; by the desolate places he means the pastures of the Church, namely the pastures of faith, of the Gospel, of the Sacraments, and of the heavenly charisms promised to Abraham and his posterity the Jews, all of which the Jews themselves deserted and the Gentiles occupied, as if to say: When the Jews, not having the knowledge of God and of Christ, slain by Titus, shall descend into hell, then the Gentile Christians, as strangers and as newborn lambs, shall feed on the most abundant pastures of the spiritual Jerusalem and Sion, that is, of the Church, and shall enjoy those magnificent promises made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, from which the Jews fell away because of their impiety.

The Septuagint translates differently, namely: The despoiled shall feed like bulls, and lambs shall eat the desolate places of those who were captured. Which Sanchez explains thus, as if to say: Those powerful plunderers of the poor, who are despoiled, that is, will be despoiled by enemies, like bulls destined for slaughter, will feed and will be as if being fattened, while they grow fat on others' goods, so that having become fat they may be slaughtered: just as cattle destined for the butchery, the more they are fattened, the nearer they are to slaughter. And the "lambs," that is, the poor, harassed by them through violence and insult, will use their possessions, indeed their own, as if restored to them by right of return. H. Pintus explains the Septuagint differently: "Christians, he says, who in innocence are lambs, in fortitude of soul are bulls, especially the Martyrs, who like bulls in circuses and theaters were tormented by tyrants even to martyrdom; as here at Rome in the amphitheater St. Ignatius and very many thousands of Martyrs were driven about and slain by wild beasts."

Forerius also translates differently from the Hebrew, thus: the lambs shall feed according to their order, and the fat ruminants shall devour the dry places or those of the sword, as if to say: The poor despoiled by the powerful will grow rich; but the powerful, fattened and fat, will be devoured by sword and famine; and then will appear, both in the poor and in their oppressors, the just judgment of God, who will repay these with just punishment, and those with just reward.

Verse 18: Woe to You Who Draw Iniquity with Cords of Vanity

18. WOE TO YOU WHO DRAW INIQUITY WITH CORDS OF VANITY! — This is the third wild grape of obstinacy, or impenitence, as if to say: Woe to you in whom ambition, greed, drunkenness, lust, etc., have deeply settled, and who are bound by them as by cords, and have formed a callus, so that you cannot extricate yourselves from a habit strengthened through long delay and custom! Just as oxen accustomed to their straps pull a cart continually, so the ambitious, the greedy, drunkards, etc., continually pull a long rope and the cart of sins; for in order to obtain what they have set before their ambition or desire, they heap up sins one upon another, and that for empty and most vain things, as St. Basil beautifully shows.

Where note: He calls sin vanity, "because for those who commit sin it is easily woven, and is so empty and futile in itself, like a spider's web; but when we wish to escape from it, we are bound by the strongest chains," says St. Jerome. Just as therefore a spider draws long threads from its own entrails, and weaves a useless web, in which afterwards, when it has become dense, it entangles itself as in a rope and net: so the sinner exhausts himself with vain labors and cares, and expends and drains his strength, spirit, sap, and blood upon them, in order to satisfy his pleasure; and by them finally so entangles himself that he seems bound as by a snare and cords, as the Wise Man says, Proverbs 5:22.

Sins therefore are ropes: first, because they are made from threads, that is, from the most vain and trifling things and pleasures; second, because they are twisted, like ropes; third, because they are strong, like ropes; fourth, because they are mutually connected and intertwined, like ropes. Samson represented this, who yielding to his Delilah and revealing his secret to her, namely that his strength was in his hair, was shorn by her and thereby made weak and unwarlike, and was bound with ropes and blinded by the Philistines. For what is Delilah but concupiscence? What are the Philistines but the impulses of the soul? When therefore a man surrenders himself to concupiscence, immediately the devil, the world, and the flesh tear out the eyes of his soul and bind him with the chains of sins. If the sinner wishes to be freed from these chains, let him be contrite and confess, and hear the priest saying: "I absolve you from all your sins," as Christ commands, John 20:23.

Second, St. Cyril and Sanchez by "iniquity" and sin metonymically understand the punishment and penalty of sin, as if to say: Woe to sinners, because they drag behind them the punishment of their sins, like cart-ropes, by which like oxen they are bound so that they cannot break free! Thus it is said in Lamentations 1:14: "The yoke of my iniquities has watched; they are rolled up in His hand, and placed upon my neck." This sense is apt and connected with the former; for punishment is the inseparable companion of guilt: whence sinners are bound by the same cords of guilt and of punishment.

AND SIN AS IT WERE THE ROPE OF A CART. — Just as a cart is drawn by oxen with a rope or strap, so you draw sin, which like a loaded and most heavy cart plunges the soul into hell. Similar is Psalm 27:5 and Zechariah 5, verse 7, where there is a beautiful emblem and hieroglyphic of iniquity, which is presented as a woman enclosed in an amphora, and cannot escape, because the mouth of the amphora is closed with a lead talent: captive therefore she is dragged to Babylon.

Hence the Chaldean here translates: woe to those who begin little by little to sin, and increase their sins so that they grow and become strong like the rope of a cart! The Syriac: woe to those who draw out their sins like a long rope, and like the rope of a chariot their sin! The Antiochene Arabic: woe to those who multiply their sins, and prolong them (or continue and extend them at length), like a long rope, and revolve their sins in a circle, as a wheel goes round! The Alexandrian Arabic: woe to those whom their sins follow like a long rope, and their iniquities like the motion of chariots.

Tropologically, here three classes of men are rebuked: first, those who try to cover up a former sin with another of a different kind: for example, there is some bad Religious, he has sinned; he denies it is a sin, a lie is added; he rejects correction, contumacy is added; he is sought for prison, he flees, behold apostasy; he is excommunicated, he becomes a Calvinist minister; behold heresy. So St. Augustine, Treatise 10 on John.

Second, those who in order to accomplish one great thing which they have set before themselves, send ahead many other sins as means; as he who has resolved to become rich lies, slanders, practices usury, steals: he who plots to corrupt a maiden adorns himself excessively, employs music, feasts, dances, sends little letters, procuresses and go-betweens, and often even falls into magic. So St. Basil.

Third, those who, as St. Gregory says, Book 33 of the Morals, chapter 12, prolong guilt by increase, that is, augment it by the continuation and extension of the same sin, such as drunkenness, lust, usury, etc.; for by custom a habit is formed, and is as it were turned into nature. For just as a twig can easily be torn up; but if it is allowed to grow, it becomes a vast and sturdy tree which can scarcely be cut down with an axe: so also sin and its concupiscence at the beginning is like a thread; but if it is indulged, it grows thick like a strap or a cable. So Basil. Rightly therefore the Poet: Resist beginnings: medicine is prepared too late, When evils have grown strong through long delays. So Delrio, adage 693. How strong were these chains of evil habit, namely concubinage, in St. Augustine before his conversion, he himself teaches, Book 8 of the Confessions, chapter 5: "I was sighing, he says, bound not by another's iron, but by my own iron will. The enemy held my willing, and from it had made a chain for me, and had bound me. For from a perverse will came lust, and while lust was served, custom was formed; and while custom was not resisted, necessity was produced. By which links, as it were, joined one to another (whence I called it a chain), a harsh servitude held me bound." See what was said on Jeremiah chapter 13:22.

Just as therefore an ox or horse, when first put to and harnessed to a cart, leaps, kicks, and tries to shake off the yoke and remain free: but once it has submitted to the yoke and grown accustomed to it, it willingly submits to it, indeed from habit approaches it, as soon as it is released from the manger, even though it must sweat and groan in it: so a man at the beginning shrinks from the burden of sin; but when he has grown accustomed to it, he willingly submits to it, and as it were laughing in his pain and groaning, rushes to it from custom.

Hear the same St. Augustine on Psalm 130: "Most aptly, he says, is it called a rope of sins; for in order to twist a rope, more is added, and not straight threads are added, but twisted ones: depravity connected to itself is drawn out at length, and does not think to cut off what it has badly woven; but to add, to extend, to stretch it out, so that in the end there may be something with which to bind his hands and feet, and he may be cast into outer darkness." The same in Psalm 51, citing this passage of Isaiah: "Woe, he says, to those who drag their sin like a long rope! What else does it mean than, woe to those whose hands connect iniquity? But you do not wish to break your bonds now, because you do not feel your bonds; they even delight you and give you pleasure; you will feel them in the end when it shall be said: Bind his hands and feet," etc. The same again elsewhere: "In the manner, he says, of a rope, which from many tiny threads grows into much (into a great size), sins are always dragged along, as by a long rope, so that they may strengthen into the thick cable of a cart:" by which, namely, sinners may be firmly bound to the cart of punishments and torments, so that as the chariot rushes headlong into perpetual damnation, they may be dragged along no differently than harnessed beasts.

For very often in avenging vices cruelty is practiced and considered justice; and the immoderate anger of zealous justice is believed to be merit; similarly the outpouring of mercy; stinginess is considered frugality; obstinacy, constancy. Such are, says Blessed Maximus, Sermon on Evils, the flatterers who call a buffoon gracious; one who speaks obscenities, civil; an angry man, vigorous; a miser, provident; a spendthrift, liberal. Such praisers indeed bless them with their mouth, but curse them in their heart: for by this praise they introduce every curse into their lives; indeed they make them liable to eternal damnation, by approving their very vices.

Verse 19: Who Say: Let Him Make Haste

19. Who say: Let Him make haste, and let His work come quickly, that we may see. — This is the voice of the Jews mocking the words of the Prophet; for they say: Let the wrath, punishment, and captivity of God come, which you, O Isaiah, and you Prophets, threaten and continually thunder against us as inevitable and decreed by God's eternal decree and placed upon our necks, as if to say: You brandish these threats in vain; your threats are empty; we are not moved by them; we are sufficiently equipped and armed against them and against all enemies; let Titus come, he will experience our strength, he will see how fortified and impregnable Jerusalem is. Thus the impious, indeed the atheists, consider God to be idle and not to care about human affairs: just as Epicurus placed the supreme happiness of God in the fact that He was free from every business. Hence they say: "Let Him make haste, and let it come quickly;" because from the delay they conclude that the threats of God are empty, since He does not immediately execute them. Thus St. Peter, 2 Epistle 3:4, introduces the impious as saying that since the world was created, all things flow with the same tenor and course, and therefore it is in vain that after so many centuries the day of divine judgment is expected.

Verse 20: Woe to You Who Call Evil Good

20. WOE TO YOU WHO CALL EVIL GOOD, AND GOOD EVIL! — Aquila translates: Woe to those who say to the evil one: You are good; and to the good one: You are evil! Behold, to this point comes the rope of sins, about which verse 18 speaks, so that finally they say evil is good, and excuse their own crimes, and call them virtues; and this they learned from their father the devil, concerning whom St. Gregory, Homily 8 on that verse of Psalm 100, "In the morning I slew all the sinners of the earth," says: "Our enemy, he says, conceals himself with a refined art, so as to pretend that our sins are virtues; so that from there each one may as it were expect rewards, from where he deserves to undergo eternal torments."

Verse 21: Woe to You Who Are Wise in Your Own Eyes

21. WOE TO YOU WHO ARE WISE IN YOUR OWN EYES, — who govern yourselves by your own human and political counsel, not by the law and will of God, not by divine prudence and counsel; who give more weight to your own judgment than to the Prophets, when you call good evil and evil good! See St. Basil, Question 207.

Verse 22: Woe to You Who Are Mighty to Drink Wine

22. WOE TO YOU WHO ARE MIGHTY TO DRINK WINE (Woe to you gluttons, who for everything are feeble, weak, inept, and tasteless! You are strong and wise only when it comes to wine), AND STOUT MEN TO MINGLE STRONG DRINK. — In Hebrew: to mix, that is, to pour, strong drink, that is, wine, beer, and whatever can intoxicate. Whence the ancient Greeks aptly translate strong drink word for word as intoxicant. For the sober ancients used to mix wine with water; hence "to mix" means to serve or pour. Thus Wisdom mixed her wine, Proverbs 9:2, as if to say: You are strong and vigorous not against enemies, but for draining cups: you are giants not for fighting, but for drinking.

Second, and properly, you are strong at mixing strong drink, that is, various liquors and intoxicating potions: for example, you mix various strong wines, which by themselves and because of this mixture more violently strike the brain, disturb, and intoxicate. Similar is Psalm 74:9; Isaiah 29:14. And this is properly the Hebrew mesech, whence the Latin misceo.

Verse 24: Therefore as the Tongue of Fire Devours the Stubble

24. THEREFORE AS THE TONGUE OF FIRE DEVOURS THE STUBBLE, — that is, the flame of fire, which has the appearance of a tongue: for it is red, and tends to a point; whence it is said to lick with its tongue, as if to say: The Romans will so burn this vineyard luxuriant and growing wild with vices, like dry stubble, that scarcely a trace of it will remain. This can be seen today in the old city of Jerusalem, whose ruins scarcely exist: for the Jerusalem which is now visited is a new city.

SO SHALL THEIR ROOT BE AS ASHES, AND THEIR BUD SHALL GO UP AS DUST, — as if to say: Thus the whole plant, or tree with its root, and shoot and branches, that is, the entire Jewish people with their families and stocks will perish by extermination, vanish, and go up in smoke. It is a hyperbole.

Verse 25: The Mountains Were Troubled

25. THE MOUNTAINS WERE TROUBLED. — So terrible will be the destruction of the Jews by Titus, that even the mountains seem to be troubled and amazed; and if they were endowed with sense, they would in fact be troubled and tremble. It is a hyperbole. See Canon 32. Arias Montanus by "mountains" understands leaders and princes.

AND THEIR CARCASSES WERE AS DUNG, — as if to say: Their corpses putrefied and stank like dung. Thus tropologically the brother of St. Bernard called an adorned woman "wrapped-up dung," as is recorded in Book 1 of his Life, chapter 6. For what is a beautiful body but a bag of dung, a whitened sepulcher, a case and food for worms?

HIS HAND IS STRETCHED OUT STILL, — because God still punishes the Jews day by day with exile and blindness; and, as Daniel says, chapter 9, verse 27: "Even to the end the desolation shall persist."

Verse 26: And He Will Lift Up an Ensign

26. And He will lift up an ensign, — as if to say: God as a general of war will Himself sound the trumpet, He Himself will go before, He Himself will cause the military standard to be raised among the nations far off, so as to summon the Gauls, Spaniards, and other peoples to the army of the Romans, so that it may come quickly against the Jews. The Jews, Lyra, and Sanchez all take these things as referring to the destruction by the Chaldeans: but from what has been said it is clear that the subject is Titus and the Romans.

AND HE WILL WHISTLE (as if to say, with the slightest signal, as it were a whistle, He will summon) TO THEM, — namely the army of the Romans, and Titus against the Jews. He alludes, says Cyril, to the whistle of beekeepers, who lead out the bees to flowers and pasture, and bring them back with a whistle. Whence chapter 7, verse 18: "He will whistle, He says, to the bee that is in the land of Assyria." Again he alludes to naval commanders: for at their whistle the sailors are at hand ready to carry out orders; as can be seen in galleys. Finally he alludes to shepherds, who in springtime are accustomed to lead their flocks out of the folds to pasture with a whistle: which voice of the shepherd they hear, and obey and follow, John 10.

Verse 27: There Is None Failing nor Weary Among Them

27. THERE IS NONE FAILING NOR WEARY AMONG THEM. — It is a vivid description, by which he graphically depicts the strength, speed, eagerness, fortitude, and ferocity of the Roman army against the Jews.

Verse 28: The Hoofs of His Horses Are Like Flint

28. The hoofs of his horses are like flint, — because Judea is rocky, and therefore not suited to cavalry charges; hence he attributes to the hoofs of the Roman horses a hardness like flint.

Verse 30: And They Shall Make a Noise

30. And they shall make a noise, — with great noise and force Titus with the Romans will rush upon them, namely the people of the Jews.

AND THE LIGHT IS DARKENED. — It is a hyperbole, as if to say: On account of the magnitude of the devastation and tribulation, even the light itself will seem dark and a night to the wretched and stunned Jews. See Canon 32.