Cornelius a Lapide

Isaiah VI

Table of Contents

Synopsis of the Chapter

Isaiah sees God on a magnificent throne, and Seraphim acclaiming Him: Holy, holy, holy. Secondly, in verse 6, touched by a Seraph with a burning coal, he is purified and set aflame, and sent to prophesy to the Jews. Thirdly, in verse 9, he is commanded to prophesy the blinding and desolation of the Jews; yet in such a way that a holy seed remains among them. He could have summed up this entire chapter in three words by saying: It will come to pass that the Jews will be rejected by God; but because this prophecy was grave and odious, God first fortified and confirmed it by His magnificent appearance. St. Bernard wrote five moral sermons on this vision of Isaiah.

Vulgate Text: Isaiah 6:1-13

1. In the year that king Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne high and elevated: and the things that were under Him filled the temple. 2. The Seraphim stood upon it: the one had six wings, and the other had six wings: with two they covered His face, and with two they covered His feet, and with two they flew. 3. And they cried one to another, and said: Holy, holy, holy, the Lord God of hosts; all the earth is full of His glory. 4. And the lintels of the doors were moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke. 5. And I said: Woe is me! because I have held my peace; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people that has unclean lips, and I have seen the King, the Lord of hosts, with my eyes. 6. And one of the Seraphim flew to me, and in his hand was a live coal, which he had taken with tongs from off the altar. 7. And he touched my mouth, and said: Behold this has touched your lips, and your iniquity shall be taken away, and your sin shall be cleansed. 8. And I heard the voice of the Lord, saying: Whom shall I send? and who shall go for us? And I said: Here am I, send me. 9. And He said: Go, and you shall say to this people: Hearing, hear, and do not understand; and see the vision, and do not know. 10. Blind the heart of this people, and make their ears heavy; and shut their eyes: lest perhaps they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and be converted, and I heal them. 11. And I said: How long, O Lord? And He said: Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land shall be left desolate. 12. And the Lord shall remove men far away, and she that was left in the midst of the land shall be multiplied. 13. And there shall be still a tithing therein, and she shall turn, and shall be made a show like the terebinth, and like the oak that spreads its branches: the holy seed shall be that which shall stand therein.

Verse 1: In the Year That King Uzziah Died

1. In the year that king Uzziah died — that is, in the 52nd year of the reign of Uzziah or Azariah: for this was the last year both of his reign and of his life. The Chaldean [Targum] takes "death" to mean the separation by which Uzziah, struck with leprosy because he wished to burn incense, lived in a separate house, and in his place his son Jotham reigned: for this separation was a kind of civil death. But others generally take this as referring to his natural death. So St. Jerome, Cyril, Origen, homily 4 on chapter 2 of Judges; Chrysostom on these words of Isaiah, volume 1, and they give the reason why Isaiah began to prophesy after Uzziah's death, or rather resumed the prophecy he had interrupted: namely that God had withdrawn the spirit of prophecy from Isaiah and the Prophets, because the Jews had not expelled the leprous king from the city, but had allowed him to live in a separate house; or even if He had given them oracles, He had not wished them to be made known to the Jews, contaminated as they were by the sacrilege of their king; but when the king died, as though the obstacle were removed, He again communicated His oracles to them. However, it is uncertain whether this vision came to Isaiah after Uzziah's death or before it: for Sanchez and others think it occurred before his death, and the words more strongly suggest this: "In the year that king Uzziah died." Again, the Jews seem to have sinned little or not at all in allowing the leprous Uzziah to live in a separate house: for to say nothing of the uncertainty whether this house was within the city or outside it, it is certain that this house was so separated that it could not infect the city and its citizens with leprosy. Hence Scripture, when it narrates this event, 2 Chronicles 26:21, in no way censures it: especially because something had to be granted to royal dignity, and the common law was to be more mildly interpreted in his case; namely, that it sufficed for the leprous king to live separately, so that he would not infect anyone, and it was not necessary for him to be expelled from the city like commoners: otherwise the priests who had expelled the leprous king from the temple would also have expelled him from the city. For the same courage would have sufficed for both.

Therefore, if it is true that prophecy ceased on account of some sin, it is more likely that this was the very sin of Uzziah himself, by which he wished to usurp the rights and duties of the priests and burn incense: which sin of the king, as of the head, God punished in the whole body, that is, in the entire Jewish people; especially because some, particularly the nobles and courtiers, seem to have customarily favored the king in this audacious attempt. For this reason Isaiah notably introduces this vision by saying: "In the year that king Uzziah died." From which you may infer how destructive the sins of rulers are to the people. For thus on account of the sins of the sons of Eli, the people were slain, 1 Samuel 4 and 5; and on account of the sin of David, the whole people was struck by God with a great calamity, 2 Samuel 24:15.

Tropologically, St. Gregory, homily 14 on Ezekiel, says: "When Uzziah the proud and presumptuous king dies, the Lord is seen; because when the arrogance of this world is slain in the desire of the mind, then the mind itself contemplates the glory of God."

I SAW THE LORD SITTING. — Isaiah saw here God sitting on an august throne, and this in the temple, as is clear from what follows: "And the things that were under Him filled the temple." Note here: God appears in that form and appearance which the matter itself demands. Thus He appeared to Moses in the burning bush, to show that He was, as it were, pricked and burned by the afflictions of His people oppressed by the Egyptians. Thus He appeared to Stephen as he fought, standing, as if about to fight together with him. Thus He appeared to Magdalene as a gardener; to the disciples going to Emmaus, as a traveler — because He was appearing in a garden and abroad to travelers, and because He was a gardener and a stranger in the mind and opinion of those who doubted His resurrection, and who, clouded by His passion and cross, wavered in their faith in Christ. So here He appears to Isaiah as a king and magnificent judge sitting on a splendid and royal throne, because He wished to display the image of His majesty to Isaiah, and through him to the unbelieving people, so that they might learn to believe God and revere Him, and to dread Him as judge and avenger.

You may ask first, why was this vision presented to Isaiah? I answer, first, so that through it, in verse 7, he might be as it were consecrated as Prophet and Apostle. So Nazianzen, Oration 2 On Theology. Second, so that from the heavenly spirits he might learn how divine things are to be handled, says St. Dionysius, chapter 17 of the Celestial Hierarchy. Third, so that he might be emboldened by God to freely, in verse 9, reprove the blindness of the Jews. Fourth, Isaiah here came to know and foreshadowed for us the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity and of the Incarnation of the Word (for God sitting on the throne had a face and feet, as though He were going to become man), as will be clear from what follows.

You may ask secondly, how did he see God? I answer that he did not see the divine essence: for if "no man has seen God at any time," John 1, then neither did Isaiah. So Theophylact, Euthymius, and others in the same place. He therefore saw God through a certain appearance and bodily image, just as Abraham, Jacob, and Moses also saw Him: and this appearance was as of a man, that is, of a king. Hence He was seen sitting, verses 1 and 2; His feet and face are described; and thus everywhere in the Old Testament God appeared in human form, because He was going to become man. Furthermore, this appearance was gloriously adorned with immense light and majesty. Hence John 12:41 calls it the glory of Christ.

You may ask thirdly, whether Isaiah saw these things with bodily eyes? Some probably affirm this from verse 5: "I saw," he says, "with my eyes." For thus Moses saw the glory of the Lord with bodily eyes, as I said on Exodus 33:22, and St. Pachomius, as is clear from his Life. But the opposite is more true, namely that this appearance was presented to the imagination, as St. Augustine holds in his book Against Adimantus, chapter 28, or rather to the mind of Isaiah. First, because it was most sublime; second, because it is not likely that he heard with bodily ears the voice of God and the cry of the Angels, nor saw in heaven the temple, the wings, the coals, and that his mouth was really burned by them; third, because just as Isaiah saw Seraphim, so Ezekiel, chapter 1, saw Cherubim: but that vision was partly imaginary, partly intellectual: therefore this one was the same; fourth, this will become clearer from Question IV. See what was said in the Prooemium, Question II.

You may ask fourthly, whether he saw God alone, or also the three Persons in Him? Alcazar on Revelation 4:2, note 3, holds that Isaiah saw only God the Father, not the Son, not the Holy Spirit, and cites for this opinion St. Athanasius, Irenaeus, and Origen. On the other hand, Procopius, Arias, and Sanchez hold that only the Son appeared here. The same is held by all those Fathers and Doctors who think that in all the appearances of God in the Old Testament it was the Son who appeared, and this in order to give the fathers a foretaste of His future Incarnation. So think Theodoret, Justin, Tertullian, Hilary, Ambrose, Cyril, and others whom I cited at Genesis 32:24, indeed the Council of Sirmium, canon 14. Note here that these Fathers do not deny that when one Person of the Most Holy Trinity appeared, the others were also present by concomitance; indeed they confess this very thing, both because all are united in the divine essence, which they have as one and the same; and because one Person is in another by perichoresis, or circumincession; and because the works of God ad extra, such as an apparition, are common to the entire Most Holy Trinity. So St. Ambrose expressly teaches, book 3 On the Holy Spirit, chapter 23; indeed all the rest acknowledge that the Seraphim here cried "Holy" three times, because they were acclaiming the Most Holy Trinity. Hence Procopius: "The Seraphim," he says, "who call Him Lord of hosts, posit a Trinity in one divine nature." See Damascene, On the Trisagion.

But I say that the three Persons of the Most Holy Trinity appeared here to Isaiah, not by concomitance, but directly and expressly in themselves; and therefore I say with Toledo on John 12, and Maldonatus in the same place, that this image represented not only the unity of the essence, but also the three Persons, in a certain divine and ineffable way: just as if someone were to see the mental word of the Blessed, he would abstractively see in it the one and triune God; and therefore Isaiah's vision was more excellent than Abraham's, who saw three with his eyes but adored one with his mind. This is proved first, because it is clearly said in John 12:41 that the Son appeared here.

neither Moses, nor Paul, nor Isaiah. So Theophylact, Euthymius, and others in the same place. He therefore saw God through a certain appearance and bodily image... Alcazar on Revelation 4:2, note 3, holds that Isaiah saw only God the Father, not the Son, not the Holy Spirit, and cites for this opinion St. Athanasius, Irenaeus, and Origen. On the other hand, Procopius, Arias, and Sanchez hold that only the Son appeared here. The same is held by all those Fathers and Doctors who think that in all the appearances of God in the Old Testament it was the Son who appeared, and this in order to give the patriarchs a foretaste of His future Incarnation. So think Theodoret, Justin, Tertullian, Hilary, Ambrose, Cyril, and others whom I cited at Genesis 32:24, indeed the Council of Sirmium, canon 14.

The same is clear concerning the Holy Spirit from Acts 28:25, joined with this passage of Isaiah: for St. Luke there says that the Holy Spirit spoke these words that are found here, verses 9 and 10, through Isaiah; but, as is said here in verse 1, Isaiah saw Him who spoke these words, sitting on a throne: therefore he saw the Holy Spirit. Concerning the Father, all the Fathers teach this, whom see in Damascene, treatise On the Trisagion: nor can there be any doubt.

Secondly, because just as on account of the unity of essence, the Seraphim cried only once: "Lord God of hosts," so on account of the three Persons they acclaimed the same One sitting on the throne three times: "Holy," as Pope Alexander I teaches, Epistle 1 Decretal, and Benedict I, Epistle 1 Decretal, St. Dionysius, chapter 7 of the Celestial Hierarchy, and others soon to be cited; and this is the common understanding of the Fathers and the Church, as Leon de Castro attests. Hence therefore the true divinity of the Son of God and of the Holy Spirit is evident, against the Arians and Macedonians. For by this argument Cardinal Bellarmine refuted the Arian Palaeologus: "He whom Isaiah saw was true God, as is clear, and the Arians admit; but Isaiah saw the Son of God, as is clear from John, chapter 12, verse 41; therefore the Son is true God."

Thirdly, because serious theologians teach that God can create and infuse in someone a likeness that represents the divine essence and the three Persons: which likeness, if someone were to perfectly understand and comprehend it, he would know the divine essence quiddatively, and through its proper concept, not intuitively but abstractively. For if there is given an expressed likeness of God, namely the mental word of the Blessed, why could there not be given an impressed likeness of God, infused by God? Therefore such a likeness or image could have been given to Isaiah, and that it was given, the things already said conclude.

Some bring a comparison, namely that Isaiah saw God in three Persons, just as the poets feign that Geryon had three bodies. But this comparison is dissimilar in this, that the deity is not in three Persons as the soul of Geryon is feigned to have been in three bodies: for these three bodies each had their own essence distinct from the essence of the others; but the divine Persons all have one and the same essence numerically. Hence a more similar image would be if one soul were posited in the same body three times, as it were, replicated; for God was seen here as a man and king sitting on a throne: just as in a digression

Luke says the Holy Spirit spoke these words that are found here, verses 9 and 10, through Isaiah: but, as is said here in verse 1, Isaiah saw Him who spoke these words, sitting on a throne: therefore he saw the Holy Spirit. Concerning the Father, all the Fathers teach this, whom see in Damascene, treatise On the Trisagion: nor can there be any doubt.

Secondly, because just as on account of the unity of essence, the Seraphim cried only once: "Lord God of hosts," so on account of the three Persons they acclaimed the same One sitting on the throne three times: "Holy," as Pope Alexander I teaches, Epistle 1 Decretal, and Benedict I, Epistle 1 Decretal, St. Dionysius, chapter 7 of the Celestial Hierarchy, and others soon to be cited; and this is the common understanding of the Fathers and the Church, as Leon de Castro attests. Hence therefore the true divinity of the Son of God and of the Holy Spirit is evident, against the Arians and Macedonians. For by this argument Cardinal Bellarmine refuted the Arian Palaeologus: "He whom Isaiah saw was true God, as is clear, and the Arians admit; but Isaiah saw the Son of God, as is clear from John, chapter 12, verse 41; therefore the Son is true God."

and at sunset, both these words of Isaiah, or rather of the Seraphim, and those of Moses, Deuteronomy 6:4, according to the Hebrew text: "Hear, O Israel, God, God, our God is one," are recited by every Jew daily, which he asserts persisted among them even to his own times: namely, so that they professed the Trinity of Persons with the unity of the divine essence. For the name "God" repeated three times in Deuteronomy, just as "holy" in Isaiah, signifies the three Persons. But the word "our" added in the second place signifies that the Word assumed our flesh, and that Emmanuel was given to us and born for us; for which reason David also said, Psalm 66:7: "May God bless us, our God, may God bless us." Genebrardus also cites, at the end of book 1 of his Chronology, the ancient Rabbi R. Ibba, who says that these three kadosh, that is "holy," are elsewhere called three mirrors, three luminaries, three supreme fathers without beginning or end; elsewhere called the crown, wisdom, and understanding; elsewhere three yods designating three Jehovah, that is, three divine Persons.

Upon a throne high and elevated. — This throne was similar to the propitiatory of the temple, supported by two Cherubim, Exodus 25. For it was in the temple, as I shall presently say. This throne is called "high" with respect to the earth on which Isaiah stood: for he saw this throne in the high heaven. It is called "elevated" because in heaven itself it appeared lofty and raised from the floor. This throne is that of God the judge, and therefore signifies that God's sentence against the Jews concerning their blinding and rejection was determined. Symbolically, some take the high throne to mean the throne of the Church and of the Roman Pontiff, on which God sits and presides. Hence for "high" the Hebrew is ram: whence Roma, that is "loftiness," according to St. Jerome, book 2 Against Jovinian.

AND THE THINGS THAT WERE UNDER HIM (Symmachus and Theodoret translate: that were under His feet) FILLED THE TEMPLE. — Hence it is clear that Isaiah saw not only God, but also the temple, that is, God residing in a magnificent and glorious temple. Some think, as our Prado in the first vision of Ezekiel, section 6, that this temple was the temple of Solomon, as though Isaiah saw God sitting in it, just as the High Priest entering the Holy of Holies heard the voice of God sitting on the propitiatory. But, because this was a sublime and divine vision, and because

Note: For the things that were under Him, the Hebrew is schulai, that is, fringes or hems of garments; as if to say: The robe and royal vestment, or the cloak of God, was so long, wide, and flowing, that its fringes and hems filled the temple, in the way that kings and queens, as well as Cardinals, have very long trains that are lifted and held up by attendants. The Septuagint and the Chaldean call these fringes "glory," because they were august and glorious. Hence they translate: and the house was full of His glory — which crept into some copies of the Latin version. Hence the Church also combined both versions in the first responsory of the Sunday of November, saying: "All the earth was full of His majesty: and the things that were under Him filled the temple."

Rabbi David thinks these fringes were not of God's garments, but of the coverings with which His royal throne was spread; but schulai signifies fringes of garments rather than of the throne.

Literally, these fringes were symbols, and signified the immense power, majesty, and glory (as the Septuagint and the Chaldean translate) of the divinity in itself, but hidden from us and veiled, yet revealed through faith in a riddle, known obscurely and faintly by men, even by Isaiah and the Prophets.

Mystically, these fringes and garments signify the humanity of Christ, which is, as it were, the fringe of the divinity, that is, the outermost and lowest garment of the Word, or the Son of God, whose doctrine, Gospel, miracles, Sacraments, grace, and charisms fill the whole temple with glory, that is, the whole Church is filled. So Rupert, who refers these things to the glory of Christ, which He had after His Ascension into heaven, when the Seraphim, that is, the Apostles, having received the fiery Holy Spirit, proclaimed and spread the faith and glory of Christ throughout the whole world.

THE TEMPLE. — In Hebrew it is hechal, that is, the first temple, namely the Holy Place, in which were the lampstand, the table of showbread, and the altar of incense; for the latter part of the temple, namely the Holy of Holies, was called debir, that is, the oracle, in which was the ark with the propitiatory and the Cherubim. But hechal here, as elsewhere, when it is used alone and not distinguished from debir, signifies the whole temple and encompasses both the Holy of Holies and the Holy Place. Now the meaning is: these fringes were so long and wide that they not only filled the Holy of Holies, in which God sat on His august throne, as on the propitiatory between the Cherubim; but also spread through the hechal, or through the Holy Place, and likewise filled it, as if to say: This glory and majesty of God and of Christ filled the Church, both the heavenly and triumphant Church (for the Holy of Holies represented this) and the earthly and militant Church (for the Holy Place represented this); that is, it filled heaven and earth. Hence from this passage the Church sings: "All the earth was full of His majesty." These fringes therefore signify that the least of the divine majesty is greater than all the glory of men, and than the whole world.

Verse 2: The Seraphim Stood Upon It

2. THE SERAPHIM STOOD UPON IT. — "Seraphim" is a Hebrew word from the root saraph, meaning to kindle, to burn. Hence "Seraphim" are so called as burning and kindling, on account of their substance: first, most pure and free from every stain; second, ever watchful; third, marvelously ardent; fourth, most agile; fifth, endowed with singular power and efficacy; sixth, shining like fire; seventh, and most especially, on account of the ardor of charity, which is the supreme good and the happiness of man in this life. For from the use, feeling, and estimation of men in this life, names were given to the Angels. And although all these things already mentioned are common to other Angels — hence it is said of them in Psalm 103:4: "Who makes His Angels spirits, and His ministers a flame of fire" — yet in the Seraphim, who, being closest to God, receive the illumination and ardor of the divine light and fire immediately and directly, these qualities are found in a peculiar and more perfect way, as St. Dionysius teaches, On the Celestial Hierarchy, whom St. Chrysostom, homily 64 to the People, and the rest of the Fathers follow.

St. Bernard beautifully says, sermon 3 on this vision of Isaiah: "Why, he says, you who arose in the morning, O Lucifer, did you not stand in the truth, except because you were not a Seraph? For 'Seraphim' is interpreted as 'burning' or 'kindling.' But you, wretch, drank in light, but had no ardor. It would have been good for you if you were more a fire-bearer than a light-bearer, and with less immoderate appetite for shining, since you yourself were cold, you would not have chosen so cold a region. For you said: I will ascend above the height of the clouds, I will sit on the sides of the North."

For you said: I will ascend above the height of the clouds, I will sit on the sides of the North."

Morally, the "Seraphim" signify that those who wish to be like Isaiah, that is, Prophets and heralds of God, must burn with charity. Thus St. Serapia, virgin and martyr, was an imitator and emulator of the Seraphim not only in name but in reality, who, kindled by love of Christ, overcame both carnal fires, namely the fire of lust and of Vulcan; and finally she set ablaze many others, and especially St. Sabina, and spurred her to the same crown of martyrdom, whose birthday the Church celebrates on September 4, so that the Christian Poet rightly sings of her: Unharmed, Serapia bears the burning torches, She who bore unviolated the flames of Venus.

Such a herald was Elijah, of whom Sirach 48:1 says: "The prophet Elijah arose like fire, and his word burned like a torch;" hence he was caught up to heaven in a chariot of fire. Such a herald was St. Basil, whom St. Ephrem, though absent, saw like a column of fire, and when present saw a tongue of fire speaking through his mouth, as St. Amphilochius attests in his Life of St. Basil. Such a herald was St. Francis, of whom St. Bonaventure, chapter 12 of his Life, says: "His word was like a burning fire, penetrating the inmost recesses of the heart, and it filled all minds with admiration; since it bore the fragrance not of human invention's adornment, but of divine revelation's inspiration." He then narrates the example that, when he had composed a sermon to preach before the Pope and Cardinals, he forgot it all; wherefore betaking himself to prayer, "he suddenly began to pour forth such efficacious words, and with such powerful virtue to bend the minds of those sublime men to compunction, that it was clearly evident that it was not he himself, but the Spirit of the Lord who was speaking; for he preached the truth most confidently; he knew not how to handle the faults of some gently, but to pierce them; nor to foster the life of sinners, but to strike them with harsh reproof. With the same constancy of mind he spoke to the great and to the small, and with the same joy of spirit he spoke to few and to many" (let preachers who lose heart and zeal when the congregation diminishes take note); "every age and both sexes hastened to see and hear this new man, sent from heaven to the world; and he himself, going through various regions, preached confidently, the Lord cooperating and confirming his word with signs that followed." Not only a preacher but also a Doctor of this kind was St. Bonaventure himself, who in his books, even the scholastic ones, equally inflames the reader to piety and enlightens him with wisdom: hence he is rightly called the Seraphic Doctor. Let scholastic Doctors imitate him, especially Religious, so that they may show themselves to be equally devout and learned.

Similarly Ezekiel, chapters 1, 4, and 7, saw the Cherubim standing in fire, sparkling and flashing: "And the sparks," he says, "were like the appearance of glowing brass." Explaining this mystically, St. Gregory, homily 3 on Ezekiel, says: "The power of preachers both sounds and burns: it burns with desire, it sounds with the word. Glowing brass therefore is fervent preaching; but from the glowing brass sparks proceed; because from their exhortations, flaming words go forth to the ears of the hearers, which set on fire those whom they touch in the heart."

Therefore our Alcazar literally understands by the two Seraphim Peter and Paul, and apostolic men, on which see verse 6.

THEY STOOD UPON IT — namely the throne; "they stood," I say, "upon" (in Hebrew al, that is, near or around the throne), that is, upon the step or pavement of the throne; for it was fitting that they should be at a lower level than the seat and throne of God itself. For thus we see kings sit on a high throne, and princes attend them below.

Note: These Seraphim attend the throne in the manner of the Cherubim attending the propitiatory, Exodus 25. Indeed our Prado in the place already cited thinks these Seraphim of Isaiah are the same as the Cherubim of Moses and Ezekiel; but more truly they are different. For hence the Church among the nine choirs of Angels distinguishes the order of Seraphim, and places it before the order of Cherubim as the highest. For the order of Seraphim is named nowhere else in Scripture except here. Moreover, since Moses and Ezekiel saw Cherubim, but Isaiah saw Seraphim, the reason is that the chariot of the Cherubim, which Moses and Ezekiel saw, was a symbol both of the divine wisdom and providence, by which God Himself governs the world, and especially the Church and the Synagogue; and also of the divine battle and victory, which defeated and crushed Pharaoh and other enemies of His people; but Isaiah saw Seraphim, because by their fire he was to be purged of lethargy and timidity, and to be kindled and inflamed with divine fire, as is clear from verse 7.

St. Bernard beautifully notes, sermon 3 on this vision, that it belongs to God to sit, to Angels to stand, and that Lucifer fell because he said: "I will sit on the sides of the North." "The Seraphim stand," he says, "plainly, because charity never fails. They stand astonished and suspended in contemplation of Him who sits on the throne; they stand in eternal unchangeableness and unchangeable eternity. You (Lucifer) attempted to sit, O impious one! Therefore your feet were moved, and your steps were poured out. It is the Son who sits on the throne, the Lord of Hosts, judging all things with tranquility. The Trinity alone sits, which alone has immutability; but the Seraphim stand."

THE ONE HAD SIX WINGS, AND THE OTHER HAD SIX WINGS. — Hence it is clear that this vision was not real but imaginary and symbolic; for Seraphim do not have wings with which they truly and really fly; hence also the flight of one Seraph to Isaiah and the touching of his lips was not real but imaginary.

Note first, the Seraphim are symbolically represented and depicted with wings, to signify that they are of a heavenly nature, soaring to God and traveling most swiftly everywhere.

Secondly, each of them had not twelve wings, as some would have it, but only six, as is clear from what follows: for with two they flew. For what the Hebrew says — six wings, and six wings for one — does not mean that one had twice six, that is twelve, wings; but it is a Hebraism signifying that each had six wings, as our Translator [the Vulgate] and the Chaldean render it.

Thirdly, the six wings signify: first, that they are most agile and endowed with the greatest power of motion, so that they can move and fly most swiftly in the six directions of position, namely upward, downward, forward, backward, to the right, and to the left; so that in speed they surpass the winds, thunderbolts, the sun, and all the heavens. So Pererius on Revelation 4, disputation 24. Second, that they tend toward God with the most perfect knowledge and love. So St. Dionysius, Celestial Hierarchy, chapters 4 and 13: "The most sacred representation of six wings," he says, "signifies the most absolute and supreme intention toward God in the first, middle, and last intelligences." The reason is that the ternary, according to Aristotle, is a symbol of perfection; therefore the doubling of the ternary, that is the senary, adds a great abundance to perfection, and signifies twofold perfection. For six is the first perfect number, which is composed of its own first parts; for one, two, three, which are the first parts of six, when joined and added together make six.

Again, the six directions of position, to which the six wings correspond, as I said, arise from the ternary, or from the triple dimension of quantity and body, namely from length, breadth, and thickness; for these are their boundaries. For front and back are the boundaries of length; right and left of breadth; up and down of thickness or depth. Moreover, these three dimensions arise from three lines intersecting perpendicularly at right angles, that is, from a triple cross, as I said on Ephesians 3:18. But properly, six wings were fitting for the Seraphim; because two were needed for veiling the face, two for veiling the feet, and two for flying.

Tropologically, St. Bonaventure, at the end of volume 2, wrote a book on the six wings of the Seraphim, which every faithful person and every Superior and Prelate ought to have. For the faithful endowed with faith and the charity of God: the first wing, he says, is confession; the second, satisfaction; the third, purity of the flesh; the fourth, purity of mind; the fifth, love of neighbor; the sixth, love of God. But a Superior should have as his wings: first, zeal for justice; second, piety and fatherly compassion; third, patience and constant long-suffering; fourth, to be an example of every virtue; fifth, discretion and prudence; sixth, familiarity and union with God. With these wings he will make himself and his subjects soar to perfection and to God.

WITH TWO THEY COVERED HIS FACE, AND WITH TWO THEY COVERED HIS FEET. — The Hebrew panav signifies both "their faces" and "His face," that is, God's; likewise raglav signifies both "their feet" and "His feet." There is therefore a double translation here. The former: with two they covered their own faces, and with two they covered their own feet. So the Chaldean, Forerius, Vatablus, Sanchez, and Chrysostom, homily 4 on this vision, translate it, and so it is read in the Preface of the Liturgy of St. James and of the Ethiopians. The latter: with two they covered His face, and with two they covered His feet. So our Translator [the Vulgate], St. Cyril, Hugo, Peter Damian, epistle 6, St. Jerome, epistle 142 to Damasus.

Both these readings are true, and one is connected with the other. For these Seraphim joined their wings above, and thus with them veiled their own face, and consequently with the same wings also veiled for themselves the face of God. For the wings interposed between the face of the Seraphim and the face of God veiled for them both the face of God and their own face, nor could they otherwise veil the face of God with their wings than by veiling their own face with them; and conversely, they could not veil their own face with them without at the same time veiling the face of God, that is, removing from themselves the sight of God's face. The same reasoning applies to the wings covering the feet; for by joining the wings that were below, they veiled their own feet, and with those veiled, they consequently veiled for themselves the feet of God, especially since the face was already covered.

First, therefore, they veiled their faces out of deep reverence, because they could not gaze with unblinking eye upon so great a radiance of divinity; and they veiled their feet out of modesty, lest anyone should see the imperfection of their love and affection, of which the feet are a symbol. So St. Chrysostom, sermon 4 on this vision. Let us therefore also learn with what fear, what modesty, and what reverence we ought to approach God in our prayers, with what decorum and piety we should stand in His praises. For this reason the ancients prayed with covered head and face; hence arose the use of the amice, with which the priest about to offer sacrifice veils and covers his head.

Again, the feet are a symbol of action and execution. They veil their feet, therefore, to signify that despite their ardent zeal for fulfilling God's will, they are of slow and impeded step, even though equipped with six wings; just as, even though they have the sharpest eyes, yet against so great a splendor that shines from the divine countenance, they confess themselves blind with veiled face and eyes, says Sanchez.

He also adds that by "feet" is understood not so much the shins (for they stood ready and prepared for God's service and for flight; therefore their feet were free, not veiled), but rather the thighs, and especially the private parts (for thus among the Hebrews, the water of the feet or thighs is called urine). These therefore the Seraphim veiled, to teach how pleasing to God is the disposition of a chaste soul, which that people had already largely lost. For in those years, especially under Ahaz, very many indecent things were done both in the temple and in the city.

The Seraphim therefore were here a figure of religious and perfect obedience; for this obedience, as if blind with veiled eyes, does not question the command: again it veils its thighs, that is, it is chaste; and it does not so much serve its own affections or will, as it obeys another's, and offers and accommodates its hands and feet to that other. It is signified therefore here that a truly obedient person ought to be entirely winged, so that he may receive and carry out the commands of his Superior with a winged ear, winged shoulders, winged feet, and even a winged judgment.

Secondly, the Seraphim also veiled the face and feet of God, in the manner I described, to signify: first, that the divinity, and its face, that is, its beginning and eternity, and its feet, that is, its end and abyss, are incomprehensible. So St. Cyril. Second, to signify that no one can know the face of God, that is, what God did before the world; nor His feet, that is, what will be after the world, or what God will do; for we know only the things in between, says St. Jerome. Third and best, Rupert says: "The face is the divinity of Christ, the feet are His humanity, and the mysteries of His humanity, such as His nativity, passion, cross, resurrection, ascension," etc., as if to say: The mystery both of the Trinity and of the Incarnation, and of the entire economy of the incarnate Word, is impenetrable even to the Seraphim themselves, and they cannot sufficiently wonder at or comprehend the former on account of its loftiness and splendor, nor the latter on account of its lowliness and abjection. Hence in amazement they say, chapter 63: "Who is this that comes from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah?" etc. For, as Christ says of Himself, Psalm 21: "I am a worm, and no man: the reproach of men, and the outcast of the people."

Timanthes, the excellent painter, when he painted the most sorrowful immolation and slaughter of Iphigenia, expressed the tears and grief of the others, but covered the face of her father Agamemnon with a veil; because he saw that he could in no way better express the supreme grief and sorrow of the father than by not expressing it, and veiling it. For a similar reason the Seraphim here veil God. So St. Ephrem, treatise On the Passion of the Lord, speaking of Caiaphas condemning Christ, and his servant striking Him with a slap: "The heavens," he says, "trembled, the foundations of the world were shaken, all the Angels and Archangels were terrified, Gabriel and Michael covered their faces with their wings, the trembling Cherubim hid themselves under their wheels, the Seraphim at that hour seemed to have struck their wings together, when the minister of iniquity gave a slap to the Lord of majesty. How then did the foundations of the earth not produce an earthquake and trembling, when at that hour they saw their Creator treated with insults?"

AND WITH TWO THEY FLEW — not circling around God's throne. For this would have been trivial and unseemly; but with wings extended, as though about to fly while remaining in the same place. Hence they are said to have stood, verse 2. For this posture: first, designates them as prepared and agile for every command of God; second, they flutter their wings to signify the immense desire by which they are carried to see God and to immerse themselves entirely in Him; third, Sanchez says, they balance their wings so that the burning of the love by which, being near God, they are as it were scorched, they might cool with their wings as with a fan; therefore by this agitation of wings is signified the force of the most ardent and intense love.

Morally, the two wings by which we soar to God and to heaven are the intellect and the will, meditation and love, contemplation and action. But how do the Seraphim stand and fly at the same time? Eucherius (or whoever the author is) answers in the Questions on the Old Testament, in the chapter on Isaiah, that to stand before God is the same as to fly. Do you hasten to God? Sit in the quiet and silence of prayer, and you will be raised up, and will soar to the God of gods in Zion. Literally, the Seraphim stood, that is, they were erect, they did not sit, but stood with wings spread as if about to fly, as I said.

Mystically, St. Bernard, sermon 5 on these words of Isaiah, understands by the two wings nature and grace: "For with a lively intellect through nature," he says, "and no less fervent affection through grace, stretched out and intent continually toward Him who is above them, they are said to stand indeed through ministry, but to fly through zeal. For although they veil the head of the Lord, and veil also His feet, yet they do not veil these things from themselves; but rather they diligently fly and flutter, investigating the lofty things of His power and the deep things of His wisdom;" and soon after: "That proud Lucifer, bearing light but not having fire, relying on only one wing, was able to make a fall, not a flight. For he exulted in being luminous, not fervent, not inflamed — which is what 'Seraphim' means. The vivacity of his nature lifted him up, but plainly to his own destruction, since the lack of grace soon cast him down."

it does not so much serve its own affections or will, as it obeys another's, and offers and accommodates its hands and feet to that other. It is signified therefore here that a truly obedient person ought to be entirely winged, so that he may receive and carry out the commands of his Superior with a winged ear, winged shoulders, winged feet, and even a winged judgment.

Verse 3: And They Cried One to Another

3. AND THEY CRIED ONE TO ANOTHER. — Namely the Seraphim: the Son to the Holy Spirit, says Origen, homily 4, but wrongly. For it is clear from the preceding that the Seraphim are meant here. Father Prado above, and Pererius on Revelation 4, disputation 7, think that four Seraphim were seen by Isaiah; hence twenty-four (for four times six make 24) wings signified the twenty-four elders, of whom Revelation 4:10 speaks. There also in verse 8, four living creatures, namely four Cherubim, cry: "Holy, holy, holy, Lord God;" and St. Dionysius, chapter 13 of the Celestial Hierarchy, seems to suggest this, though elsewhere he indicates the contrary. Secondly, Forerius and Arias think that very many Seraphim were seen by Isaiah: for they are innumerable; for Isaiah uses the plural number, not the dual. Thirdly, others, and more truly, think that only two Seraphim were seen by Isaiah. And this, first, because this is what these words properly signify: "They cried one to another;" second, because these Seraphim were like the Cherubim of the propitiatory, and those were two, Exodus 25; third, because the Church in the eighth responsory of the Sunday after Pentecost sings: "Two Seraphim cried one to another." So St. Dionysius, Ecclesiastical Hierarchy, chapter 4, part 3, twice mentioning twelve wings, and Origen, book 1 Periarchon, chapter 3, St. Jerome here, Philastrius, heresy 101, St. Bernard, treatise On the Words of Isaiah, sermon 3. Understand this to mean that only two more illustrious Seraphim, as it were princes, appeared to Isaiah, while the rest attended their princes from behind; for God is the Lord of hosts, that is, of armies. And in this way reconcile this opinion with the second.

For this reason the Arabic version has disagion, not trisagion: "They cried," it says, "Holy, holy," to signify that they sang alternately in the manner of a choir, not that it denies the trisagion. For these words "one to another" signify that they sang antiphonally, that is, with alternating voices, as is done in a choir of singers. So the Fathers commonly hold; hence Damascene, treatise On the Trisagion, teaches that the Church learned the choir, that is, the manner of singing and chanting alternately, from these Seraphim. So also St. Ignatius the Martyr, as attested by Socrates, book 6 of the History, chapter 8, that is, Nicephorus, book 13, chapter 8, Cassiodorus, Amalarius, and others, saw Angels chanting alternately, and from this introduced alternate psalmody into the Church. The same angelic voices St. Magdalene, the penitent in her cave at La Baume, heard seven times a day raised aloft. Psalmody therefore is a heavenly and angelic work, so that the Psalmist rightly says, Psalm 137:1: "In the sight of the Angels I will sing to You," as if to say: I will take up the office of the Angels before the Angels, and with the Angels I will sing to You.

Hence Cyril notes that the Seraphim sang "Holy" alternately, not because they grew weary from singing, but because they give mutual honor to one another; for all heavenly things are ordered and harmonious; and they did this above all to teach men to chant alternately in the choir, and thus to praise God continuously and harmoniously, and to rouse one another and all men to the praise of God. In the same way an Angel, chanting twelve psalms with prayers interspersed, taught this same manner of chanting to the Egyptian monks, as Cassian attests, book 2 of the Institutes, chapter 5.

HOLY, HOLY, HOLY. — They repeat "Holy" three times. First, to signify the Most Holy Trinity in the unity of essence. So teach St. Ambrose, book 3 On the Holy Spirit, chapter 23, Nazianzen, oration On Easter, Damascene at length in his Trisagion, St. Jerome and Cyril, Procopius, Origen, homily 4, here, and others everywhere. Hear Damascene: "The Deity," he says, "is thrice sanctified and glorified when it is said three times, Holy, holy, holy; and again the three hypostases are glorified with one single glory, when it is said: Lord God of hosts, all the earth is full of His glory. Therefore holy is the Father, holy the Son, holy the Holy Spirit. We therefore call the deity and the Trinity thrice holy, but not a single person of it." And he adds: "Divinity does not belong to the Trinity on account of number; but because divinity is in the Trinity, therefore the ternary number is perfect." The same is taught by St. Augustine, book On Faith addressed to Peter, chapter 1, volume 3, and the Fifth General Council, which was Constantinople II, and the entire Church.

Therefore Calvin wrongly denies this here, and asserts that against the Arians, clearer passages ought to be used, lest we appear ridiculous to them: "And certainly," he says, "by this repetition rather an untiring constancy is noted, as if the Prophet had said that there is no end to the angelic melody in singing the praises of God, just as His holiness supplies us with inexhaustible material for them." Thus that braggart applauds the Arians and makes all the Fathers appear ridiculous to them. Was not Hunnius right to write his Calvinomastigem [Scourge of Calvin] with this title: Calvin the Arianizer?

Therefore the Belgian Carpenteius learnedly rendered this passage, as well as all of Isaiah, in heroic verse thus: O Holy, Holy, O Lord, thrice Holy at last! O King of arms, Lord and mighty in war! For holy is that great Father, the origin of all And fount of good, who fills the great world with His divine power. Holy also is that Son of the supreme Father, begotten Before the morning star, founder of a better age, The Voice and Mind of the supreme God, whom the Father Poured forth from His lofty Mind, and gave a share in His great kingdom. Holy also is that Fire, the kindling of divine love, Flowing from the Father through the Son with the same Godhead, The mutual Love of Both.

Secondly, to signify that God is an abyss of holiness, from which both Angels and men and Christ partake of all their holiness, just as rays draw their light from the sun. For all things are three, says Aristotle. Hence this canticle is called trisagion, that is, thrice holy, meaning most holy; just as Mercury was called trismegistos, that is, thrice greatest, because he was at once king, priest, and teacher, or theologian. Therefore the Chaldean translates: Holy in the highest heavens, the dwelling of His majesty; holy upon the earth, which is the work of His power; holy forever and ever, Lord of hosts. For this reason they repeat the cry, and sing nothing else but "Holy," as if this were their whole and constant office and business, namely to praise the holiness of God: so we too ought to praise God unceasingly by word and by life.

Hear Procopius: "The Seraphim," he says, "repeat the holy praises not just once, but often, indeed infinitely many times," that is, they repeat the trisagion.

Thirdly, to signify that he who wishes to go to God in heaven must be holy; and that God will not leave anything polluted or unclean unpunished in His world, nor permit it unpunished in His sight, and especially that He will sharply punish the impiety and crimes of the Jews, which Isaiah reproves in this and the preceding chapter, especially by their blinding and hardening.

From this hymn of the Seraphim, therefore, the Church takes up the trisagion as angelic, indeed Seraphic, in the Preface of the Mass, and this from the very time of the Apostles, with the whole people, or the clergy and choir singing on behalf of the people: "Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of hosts," as Clement attests, book 8 of the Constitutions, chapter 16. Moreover, the Greeks, and from them the Latins on Good Friday, added epithets to the trisagion, saying: Hagios ho Theos, hagios ischyros, hagios athanatos, eleeson hemas — "Holy God, holy mighty one, holy immortal one, have mercy on us." This hymn, or rather Litany, under the Emperor Theodosius the Younger in the year of Christ 446, at the time of an earthquake in Constantinople, was revealed by God to uproot the heresy of Eutyches (who taught that there was only one nature in Christ, as there is one person; and since that nature seemed to be divine rather than human, it followed that God in Himself was mortal, and that the deity in Christ suffered and was crucified — which is heretical). This was then spreading, and was revealed to a certain boy who was caught up into the air, who related the same hymn received from the Angels to Archbishop Proclus and others, so that by singing it they might implore God's help and mercy. They did so, and immediately the earthquake ceased, as Damascene relates, treatise On the Trisagion, and Nicephorus, book 14, chapter 46. See also Pope Felix and Acacius of Constantinople, in their epistle to Peter Gnapheus, or Fullo, a follower of Eutyches, whom they condemn because he had added to the trisagion "who was crucified for us," as though the entire Trinity were crucified; or as though the trisagion belonged to the Son alone, and the Most Holy Trinity were only one person, namely the Son, as Sabellius held. See the Second Council of Constantinople celebrated against him, and Baronius at the year of Christ 483.

Moreover, Mercury Trismegistus, and from him Rhodiginus, book 12, chapter 4, puts this crown on what has been said about God: "Holy God, Father of all. Holy God, whose will is fulfilled by His own powers. Holy God, who makes Himself known to His intimates. Holy are You, whom nature never created. Holy are You, mightier than all power. Holy are You, greater than all excellence. Holy are You, better than all praise. Accept the holy sacrifices of words, flowing from a soul and a heart devoted to You, O ineffable One, to be proclaimed only by silence."

See here what the work of the Seraphim is, namely to perpetually celebrate the abyss of God's holiness. Let us therefore also say: Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of hosts. Holy in creation, holy in redemption, holy in our sanctification. Holy in heaven, holy on earth, holy in hell. Holy in glory, holy in grace, holy in justice. Holy glorifying the Angels, holy justifying men, holy punishing the demons. Holy before the ages, holy in the ages, holy forever and beyond. Holy in the Seraphim, holy in the Cherubim, holy in the Thrones. Holy in the womb, holy in the manger, holy on the cross. Holy in miracles, holy in doctrines, holy in examples. Holy in labor, holy on the cross, holy in the resurrection. Holy among Christians, holy among Jews, holy among the Gentiles. Holy among the faithful, holy among the unfaithful, holy among the elect and the reprobate. Holy in consolation, holy in desolation, holy in jubilation. Holy in power, holy in wisdom, holy in providence. Holy in charity, holy in mercy, holy in vengeance. Holy in generation, holy in filiation, holy in spiration. Holy Father,

holy Son, holy Holy Spirit: Amen, Amen, Amen.

Morally, to see what the holiness of God is, and how much He wishes all to be holy, see what was said on Exodus 28:36; Leviticus 20:26, and chapter 22, at the end, and chapter 27:28. Moreover, how much the devil dreads this hymn and doxology of the Most Holy Trinity is clear from what Sophronius narrates in the Spiritual Meadow, chapter 119: "Abbot Eusebius," he says, "told us that a demon in the habit of a monk went to the cell of an old man; and when he had knocked, the old man opened the door and said to him: Pray. But the demon said: Both now, and always, and unto the ages of ages, Amen. The old man again said: Pray, and the demon likewise said: Now and always, and unto the ages of ages, Amen. Then the old man said: Say also: Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, both now, and always, and unto the ages of ages, Amen. But when he had said this, the demon, as though suffering violence from fire, vanished."

But it is remarkable, what Baronius relates from Nicolas of Aragon, Sigonio, and others, for the year of the Lord 1055, namely that when simony was rampant throughout the world, Pope Victor II sent the Archdeacon Hildebrand to hold a Council at Lyon to uproot it: at which an Archbishop accused of simony, when he denied the charge, was told by the Archdeacon: "Say: Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit." Then he said "Glory be to the Father, and to the Son" readily enough, but could not utter "the Holy Spirit": and when he tried many times without success, seeing himself confounded by the divine judgment, he came forward to the feet of the Archdeacon, and confessed that he was guilty of simony. After he was deposed from his priestly and episcopal office, he sang "Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit" in a free and clear voice. This event so terrified the simoniacs that, besides other Prelates, forty-five Bishops confessed themselves to be simoniacs, and renounced their offices without any accusation.

Just as the Seraphim here delivered to Isaiah, so St. John the Apostle delivered to St. Gregory Thaumaturgus the confession and praise of the Most Holy Trinity in the Creed, which is found in Gregory of Nyssa, in the Life of the Thaumaturgus.

Finally, the miracle by which this was confirmed is narrated by Gregory of Tours, book 1 On Miracles, chapter 13, and Sigebert at the year of the Lord 438, namely: when the city of Bazas was besieged by the Huns, and a priest was celebrating Mass for the liberation of the people, he saw falling from on high three drops, equal in size, surpassing crystal in brightness and whiteness; and as they rolled with a wandering course across the altar, flowing down onto the paten itself, immediately they joined into one, as if forming one most beautiful gem. And so it was evident by a clear sign, against the Arian heresy then sprouting up, that the three equal Persons of the Most Holy Trinity come together in one nature. They enclosed this gem in a cross made of gold, through which God worked many miracles: and without delay, the Huns were routed and the city was liberated.

ALL THE EARTH IS FULL OF HIS GLORY. — First, it is full because the whole earth, through its creation, governance, and specifically through the continual production of herbs, flowers, trees, animals, and men, provides an unceasing and abundant subject for praising the divine power, goodness, and majesty.

Secondly, more divinely and prophetically, with St. Cyril, Jerome, and Haymo, by "glory" understand the life and miracles of Christ, and the preaching through the Apostles and their successors, through whom the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity and the Incarnation is celebrated throughout the whole world, as if to say: The Lord now disdains the narrow confines of the temple and Jerusalem; He designates more spacious dwellings for His habitation; the whole earth will henceforth be His temple, and the sanctuary of His worshippers and His glory; everywhere they will sing together: "Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of hosts."

Let those who pray, chant, and meditate note here that the best composition of place is one by which minds, keeping themselves collected with God, may lift and sharpen themselves — if they think of themselves as standing with Isaiah, and with Daniel, chapter 7, verses 9 and 10, before God residing on His divine throne, and thousands upon thousands ministering and attending Him, and crying out: "Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of hosts."

Again, by this angelic hymn, not only clergy but all the faithful are admonished to praise God unceasingly night and day, both by voice and by action and good works, so that their pious and holy life may be an unceasing praise of God, by which they may equally invite other men, Angels, and all creatures to praise God. On this matter I have said more at Exodus 13, verses 2 and 11, and Deuteronomy 10:21. For they are called "Seraphim," that is "kindling ones," because they set all Angels, and consequently all men, on fire for the praise of God. So St. Dionysius, chapter 7 of the Celestial Hierarchy.

Hence tropologically: "A holy soul," says Origen here, homily 4 (see it), "is full of the glory of God, when all that it does and suffers, it refers to the praise and glory of God;" and when with the Psalmist, Psalm 148, it sings: "Praise the Lord from the heavens; praise Him, all His Angels; praise Him, sun and moon; praise Him, fire, hail, snow, ice, kings of the earth, young men and virgins," etc. And with the three young men, Daniel 3: "Bless the Lord, O heavens and Angels: bless the Lord, O dew, frost, mountains, hills, fountains; bless the Lord, O saints and humble of heart." Again with the Psalmist, Psalm 102: "Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless His holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul; and do not forget all His benefits. Who forgives all your iniquities: who heals all your diseases. Who redeems your life from destruction: who crowns you with mercy and compassion: who fills your desire with good things." For on a double title God

of the fire the whole earth was filled with the glory and splendor of the grace of the temple and the teaching of Christ: then only the house and temple of the Jews was darkened; and this from smoke, that is, from the wrath of God, who, preparing to avenge Himself, as it were breathed out smoke and fire from His nostrils, and was already destining that very thing to smoke and fire; and thus the first sense concerning the burning of the temple, which I brought forward a little earlier, can find its place here. Hence symbolically, Pintus takes the smoke or darkness to mean the blinding of the Jews, when the glory of God and the splendor of the Gospel shone upon the Gentiles.

Verse 5

5. AND I SAID: WOE IS ME, BECAUSE I WAS SILENT! — The Septuagint has: because I was pricked in heart. Whence first, Prado on Ezekiel II, 1, explains it thus: Alas for me! I have perished, I am slain, I have fainted from the consternation of so great a vision, so that by metalepsis "to be silent" signifies to be stunned, to tremble, to be struck down, so that you cannot speak but must be silent. "I was silent," therefore, means: I was struck dumb with consternation. Thus in 1 Maccabees chapter 1, the earth is said to have been silent in the presence of Alexander, that is, so shaken with fear that it dared not murmur or resist him. The same is said of Moab below, chapter XV, and of Ashkelon, Jeremiah XLVII. The same seems to have happened here to Isaiah: for if the Seraphim veil their faces and mouths before God, why should not Isaiah, a mortal man, fall down seeing God with the Seraphim? Sanchez adds that Isaiah, though eloquent, in the presence of the Lord, and having heard that sweetness and ardor with which God is praised by the Seraphim, thought himself mute and tongue-tied, as if to say: Woe is me, because I was silent and did not praise so great a Majesty, which I now see being praised by Angels with so great a spirit! I was silent, I say, when I could have spoken; but now, since I have seen God and the Seraphim, I am forced to be silent even though I desire to speak: for their appearance and majesty has rendered me speechless; but justly do I suffer this, because when I could speak I would not, and yielding to fear I was silent; now when I most wish to speak, I cannot. Thus we see even the most eloquent men struck dumb before kings, as if stunned and repelled by the sight of royal majesty.

Second, more aptly and fully, St. Jerome notes that Isaiah, when he saw the Seraphim praising the majesty of God with such reverence, trembling, and clamor, wished to join them in this song and hymn; but on account of the consciousness of sin he did not dare to do so. He says therefore: "Woe is me!" because I judged that I must be silent, since I am polluted in my lips and a sinner like the polluted people among whom I dwell, as if to say: Wretched me, who am in no way holier than my fellow citizens in this matter, since they themselves are merely profane and polluted; and therefore in this concert of Angels I am forced to be silent and dare not murmur; for praise of God is not seemly in the mouth of a sinner.

Note: For "woe" the Hebrew is אוי oi, which Prado and others more clearly render as "alas," and the Septuagint as "O wretched me!" For it is the voice of Isaiah not threatening, but grieving.

Furthermore, Origen, in homily 5 here, thinks that this sin of Isaiah was one of speech, from the fact that Isaiah adds: "Because I am a man of polluted lips." For most easily, as St. James says, chapter III, verse 2, we sin with the tongue: therefore Isaiah seems to have said something timidly or imprudently, the fault of which he here acknowledges though he does not express what it was, or that he spoke vain and idle things; for hardly any man escapes this, especially one who lives among vain and talkative people, say Origen and Gregory, book III of the Dialogues, chapter V; or that, while he rebuked others, he did not reprove himself, says Nazianzen in his Apology to his Father: which should be understood of light and venial faults.

Second, and more probably, St. Jerome, Cyril, and Haymo (though Chrysostom disapproves of this) think that this sin of Isaiah was one of the tongue, but not so much of speech as of silence; namely, that overcome either by weariness or by fear, he had ceased to denounce the sins of the people and the rulers, and specifically that he had not rebuked with bold lips King Uzziah, who, though he was not a priest, wished to burn incense and invade the priesthood — he himself being a Prophet and descended from royal blood.

Moreover, that this sin of Isaiah was not mortal but venial is gathered from the fact that God deemed him worthy, as His friend, of so sublime a vision of Himself and the Seraphim: with which He certainly would not have honored a sinner and His enemy.

Sanchez adds that Isaiah sinned in that out of fear of the king he was silent and allowed him, already leprous, to dwell in the city; nor did he see to it that according to the law, Leviticus XIII, 46, he be expelled from the city. Whence he aptly adds: "And in the midst of a people having polluted lips I dwell," as if to say: I have become like one of the common people, who in so grave a case did not dare to murmur, when yet, while others were silent, I as a herald of God ought to have spoken and rebuked him fearlessly: just as Elijah and Elisha rebuked Ahab, Joram, and other kings of Israel. But that this sin was slight or non-existent, I showed at verse 1. Impiously Oecolampadius thinks Isaiah's lips were polluted: "Because," he says, "man of himself can bring forth nothing but what is filthy and full of stench."

Morally, learn here that knowledge of God begets humility in us: for he who sees God sees himself; he sees how far he is from God, how little, indeed how nothing he is; and the more clearly he sees God and himself, the more he admires and reverences God, but depresses and despises himself. This therefore is the sign of a good spirit, just as on the contrary it is the sign of an evil spirit if anyone becomes puffed up from it, esteems himself and his own things highly, thinks himself learned, holy, perfect, etc. Thus Abraham before the Lord: "I will speak," he says, "to my Lord, since I am dust and ashes," Genesis XVIII, 27. Thus Moses, hearing God from the bush, "hid his face; for he did not dare to look upon God," Exodus III, 6. Thus Tobias with his companions, recognizing the angel Raphael, "prostrate for three hours upon their faces, blessed God," Tobit XII, 22. Thus Jeremiah, hearing from God: "Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you," etc., said: "Ah, ah, ah, Lord God, behold I do not know how to speak, for I am a child," chapter I, verse 6.

Thus Daniel, seeing the Ancient of Days on His throne and thousands of thousands attending Him: "My spirit was horrified," he says, "I was terrified, and the visions of my head troubled me," chapter VII, verse 15. And chapter X, verse 8, upon seeing the angel: "There remained," he says, "no strength in me, I withered away, and I had no vigor at all. And I heard the voice of his words, and hearing I lay prostrate upon my face, and my countenance clung to the ground." And Ezekiel, seeing God in the chariot of the Cherubim, fell upon his face and as if into a swoon, chapter II, 1. Thus the twenty-four elders before the throne of God "fell down before Him who sits on the throne, and worshipped Him who lives forever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying: You are worthy, O Lord our God, to receive glory and honor and power," Apocalypse IV, 10. Thus St. Francis, elevated in spirit, used to say: "Who are You, Lord, and who am I? You are the abyss of essence, truth, and glory; I am the abyss of nothingness, vanity, and misery."

AND IN THE MIDST OF A PEOPLE HAVING POLLUTED LIPS I DWELL. — "Polluted," that is, first, contaminated both by speech and by silence, as I said; second, "polluted," that is, profane and common, as if to say: My lips are consecrated to God; I ought therefore to speak sacred and divine things, as befits a Prophet; but now, associating with the people, I have learned from them to speak, like them, secular, vulgar, and common things. Whence St. Jerome and Cyril note here how harmful the company of worldly people, especially of the wicked, is even to saints and Prophets, which so greatly swayed so great a Prophet. Truly the Wise Man said: "These three things cannot but defile: the potter, the wheel of the cart in deep mud, those who associate with the wicked." And Sirach chapter XIII: "He who touches pitch will be defiled by it." And St. Paul, 1 Corinthians XV: "Evil conversations corrupt good morals." Thus St. Peter, being among the servants of the high priests, denied Christ; and God led Abraham out of Chaldea lest he be contaminated by the society of unbelievers.

Again St. Bernard: "Trifles," he says, "in the mouth of a priest (and of a Prophet) are blasphemies. For the lips of the priest shall keep (ought to keep) knowledge, and they shall seek the law from his mouth: because he is the angel of the Lord of hosts."

AND I SAW THE KING, THE LORD OF HOSTS, WITH MY EYES — as if to say: Before, I made little of my sin; now, seeing the purity and holiness of God, and the Seraphim crying: "Holy, holy," etc., I see how impure and horrible this sin of mine is, and every other sin: just as if you were to see darkness and light, the sun and a sewer, a king and a buffoon at the same time, you would more clearly perceive how far one is from the other: because "my imperfection my eyes have seen" — both mine and God's — "in Your light."

Verse 6: And One of the Seraphim Flew to Me

6. AND ONE OF THE SERAPHIM FLEW TO ME. — You ask whether this Angel was truly from the order of Seraphim? St. Dionysius, chapter XIII of the Celestial Hierarchy, following the teaching of his master Hierotheus, distinguishes the choirs of Angels from Daniel chapter VII, verse 10, into those who Attend, who always attend upon God, and those who Minister, who are sent forth. He teaches that the Attendants are the four highest choirs of Angels, and that they far surpass in their number the lower five who are Ministers: therefore this Angel, because he was sent, was not truly from the order of Seraphim, but from some order of Ministers; yet he is called "Seraphim" either because he was illuminated and sent by some Seraph, or from his office, because he was sent to burn the lips of Isaiah. The contrary, however, is more true, namely that he was truly from the choir of Seraphim. For from this passage the doctors and the Church prove that the ninth order of Angels is the Seraphim: for it cannot be proved from any other passage of Scripture. Thus teach St. Ambrose, book I On the Holy Spirit, chapter X, and many Scholastics, and the Apostle favors this, Hebrews chapter I, 14, where he says that all are ministering spirits sent for service. See the commentary there.

AND IN HIS HAND A STONE, WHICH HE HAD TAKEN WITH TONGS FROM THE ALTAR. — For "stone" (calculus) the Hebrew is רצפה ritspa, in Greek ἄνθραξ, that is, a coal or burning ember, which is similar to a glowing stone, that is, a carbuncle or pyrope: for that it was a burning coal is clear both because it was taken with tongs and because it was taken from the altar, in order to burn the lips of the Prophet. And so Apocalypse VIII, 5: "The Angel took the censer and filled it with fire from the altar." The Cherub did the same, Ezekiel chapter X, 2. Thus the Syriac, Arabic, Forerius, Vatablus, Pagninus, and generally the more recent commentators translate ritspa as a burning coal, and so Damascene reads it, book IV On the Faith, chapter XIV; for ritspa or רצף retseph, by metathesis alludes to צרף tsaraph or שרף saraph, that is, to burn, kindle, smelt. Whence, aptly for this passage, St. Jerome, epistle 143 to Damasus, understands by the stone the divine word, and its purity and rigor of truth; while by the carbuncle the shining doctrine is manifestly shown, according to Psalm XVIII: "The precept of the Lord is luminous, enlightening the eyes." From retseph is derived רצוף ratsuph and מרצפת martsephet, which signifies paved with stone, or a stone pavement, in 4 Kings XVI, 17, and Canticles III, 10, where for "he paved it with charity," the Hebrew is rutsaph, which the Septuagint translates λιθόστρωτον, that is, paved with stone, and the fifth Edition translates: "he composed its midst with stones" (that is, with carbuncles, say St. Ambrose, Theodoret, and Nyssen). Therefore our Alcazar, on Apocalypse II, 17, note 5, strongly contends that this stone of Isaiah was a carbuncle, and gives this sense: Isaiah saw, he says, the throne which God has in the Christian Church; therefore the Seraphim are the Apostles and Apostolic men who were to preach the Gospel, which because it was of the greatest difficulty and, as it were, to embrace fire, they timidly took the coal from the altar with tongs, that is, they timidly approached the labors and persecutions of the Gospel; but when they took it and looked at it, they saw it was not a coal but a carbuncle, because these labors and crosses for Christ, through the charity with which they were inflamed and the anointing of the Holy Spirit, became most sweet and most precious to them. This sense is pious and moral, but it is not the literal or genuine sense, as Alcazar and Rupert would have it.

I say therefore that both are true, namely that this stone was both a burning coal and a stone or carbuncle; for in the heavenly temple and altar, where Isaiah saw these things, all things are precious, eternal, and celestial: therefore its coals are not of wood but of stone, so that they may last forever; indeed of gems, because such things befit God. That heavenly fire therefore is fed with pyropes and carbuncles; for the carbuncle is the most precious of all gems. For a carbuncle weighing one drachma is valued at sixty thousand gold pieces, that is, more than four diamonds of the same weight. And although our carbuncle rejects our terrestrial fire, so that fire cannot heat it, as Pliny and Aristotle teach, book IV of the Meteorology, chapter XLVIII, yet that heavenly carbuncle easily receives that heavenly fire of God. The Church favors this opinion, for she prays in the Sacred Liturgy: "O God, who cleansed the lips of Isaiah with a burning stone." It was therefore a stone, but a burning one.

You ask why the Seraph touched the lips of Isaiah with this stone? I answer: to punish and expiate the sin of his lips; hence he burned them with this stone, especially because Isaiah had sinned by not rebuking Uzziah, who had seized the coals and incense of the altar; therefore he is punished with coals, for this is what the Seraph says: "Behold, this has touched your lips, and your iniquity shall be taken away, and your sin shall be cleansed."

Second, however, St. Jerome translates ritspa as calculus, that is, a small stone or gem, to which translation the other Interpreters, namely Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion, agree, says St. Jerome. The Septuagint translates it digaza, which signifies both a carbuncle and a coal. St. Jerome, epistle 143 to Damasus, interprets it as a carbuncle, which is a gem of fiery and flaming color; and he adds: "Whether we translate it as stone or carbuncle, in the stone the truth and rigor of the divine word is shown, while in the carbuncle the shining doctrine of the same is manifestly displayed, according to Psalm XVIII: The precept of the Lord is luminous, enlightening the eyes." From retseph is derived רצוף ratsuph and מרצפת martsephet, which signifies paved with stone, or a stone pavement, in 4 Kings XVI, 17, and Canticles III, 10, where for "he paved it with charity," the Hebrew is rutsaph, which the Septuagint translates λιθόστρωτον, that is, paved with stone, and the fifth Edition translates: "he composed its midst with stones" (that is, with carbuncles, say St. Ambrose, Theodoret, and Nyssen). Therefore our Alcazar, on Apocalypse II, 17, note 5, strongly contends that this stone of Isaiah was a carbuncle, and gives this sense: Isaiah saw, he says, the throne which God has in the Christian Church; therefore the Seraphim are the Apostles and Apostolic men who were to preach the Gospel, which because it was of the greatest difficulty and, as it were, to embrace fire, they timidly took the coal from the altar with tongs, that is, they timidly approached the labors and persecutions of the Gospel; but when they took it and looked at it, they saw it was not a coal but a carbuncle, because these labors and crosses for Christ, through the charity with which they were inflamed and the anointing of the Holy Spirit, became most sweet and most precious to them. This sense is pious and moral, but it is not the literal or genuine sense, as Alcazar and Rupert would have it.

This stone, therefore, is first a symbol of penance and contrition. Alcazar notes it on Apocalypse II, 17. Viegas on Apocalypse VIII, Commentary I, section IV, at the end, says this coal was a carbuncle, as I said. If anyone objects: How could the fire of the altar be fed with carbuncles? The answer is that coals were cast into the fire, but by the force of the fire they were converted into carbuncles, to signify the power of our altar of burnt offering, namely penance, through which sinners who were like cold and black coals become carbuncles and gems — that is, they become either carbuncles through the ardor of charity, or emeralds through chastity, or diamonds through patience and fortitude; hence it is said in Psalm XVII: "Coals were kindled by Him," and not only kindled but also divinely converted into gems. This speculation is more pious and clever than solid: for carbuncles are not generated from coals, nor can fire change coals into carbuncles. But one could reply that this vision (and what was seen in it), being symbolic, was not natural but miraculous and divine. Thus we read that St. Vincent Ferrer so inflamed two condemned criminals who were being led to execution with his exhortation to such great sorrow that their faces were as if turned into coals, and so they expired. Sorrow and love therefore was, as it were, their executioner, indeed the maker of new men.

Second, this burning stone was a symbol of the grace of the Holy Spirit, which purifies and sanctifies the soul of Isaiah and of any penitent from sins. Thus St. Ambrose, book I On the Holy Spirit, chapter IX.

Third, this stone was a symbol of gratuitous grace, namely prophecy, as if to say: Behold, by this sign, that is, an imaginary one (for this was a vision, whence all things were done through a vision, not really; therefore Isaiah's lips were not really burned, for then he would have become stammering and unfit for preaching), by the touch of the burning coals upon his lips, God signifies that He both forgives your sins and fills you with the prophetic spirit, and at the same time with confidence and magnanimity, so that having overcome the fear of the powerful you may henceforth prophesy fearlessly and reprove the blindness of the people and the rulers. Whence St. Jerome, Haymo, and Philastrius, in his book On Heresies, at the end, understand by the stone the word of God, which is sought from the altar, that is, from Sacred Scripture. Thus Jeremiah was consecrated a Prophet by a divine touch, chapter XIX. Whence St. Jerome, Dionysius the Carthusian, Sanchez, and others think that this was the first vision and prophecy of Isaiah, and that those which have already been narrated in the five preceding chapters were later than this, and that Isaiah, emboldened by this vision, thundered forth: "Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom," as was said in chapter I.

This opinion is probable; but the contrary seems more true: for that Isaiah had prophesied before this is gathered not only from the preceding chapters, but also from the fact that Isaiah says here: "Woe is me, because I was silent!" as if to say: Woe is me, who being a Prophet ought not to have been silent! as the Fathers and Interpreters generally explain. Second, because Eusebius in the Chronicle records that Isaiah began to prophesy in the 17th year of Uzziah; and Isaiah, chapter I, says he prophesied under King Uzziah, that is, while he was reigning; therefore he prophesied before his death, indeed before he was struck with leprosy and separated; for then he ceased to rule. Third, because it is not plausible that he would have begun his prophecy thus: "Blind the heart of this people," as he begins here, verse 10. For God usually first warns and admonishes the people through His Prophets, as He did through Isaiah in the five preceding chapters, before He threatens them with blinding and hardening.

Fourth, Isaiah, desiring to join the Seraphim in praising God, had to be inflamed by this stone of their charity and ardor, and at the same time had to be, as it were, consecrated through it not only as a Prophet but also as an Evangelist and Apostle (for he is sent to the Jews, verse 9), just as the Apostles were consecrated through the fiery tongues which they received at Pentecost: by this stone, therefore, Isaiah received a fiery mouth and a fiery tongue, just as the Apostles did, so that he might inflame the Jews with divine fire, according to Jeremiah XXIII: "Are not My words like fire?" and Psalm CXVIII: "Your word is exceedingly fiery." This glowing stone therefore seals Isaiah for the Gospel, so that nothing may sound from his mouth except what is pure, evangelical, and divine; nothing may his lips breathe except what is fiery from that heavenly fire which Christ came to cast upon the earth. Thus St. Francis was set ablaze by the Seraph with the stone of God's love; for as St. Bonaventure says, chapter XII of his Life: "When he was being borne upward to God with Seraphic ardors of desire, around the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, while he was praying, he saw one Seraph having six wings, fiery and brilliant, descending from heaven, and between the wings appeared the figure of a crucified man: two wings were raised above his head, two were extended for flight, and two veiled his whole body. Seeing this, he was struck with wonder and joy: at length he understood from this, by the Lord's revelation, that he was to be transformed entirely into the likeness of Christ crucified, not through martyrdom of the flesh but through the burning of the mind. For this vision left a marvelous ardor in his heart, and impressed upon his hands and feet the marks of nails, just as he had seen them in that image of the Crucified."

Allegorically, this stone that sets us ablaze is Christ; so say St. Basil and Cyril: for just as fire is united to a coal, and a coal to fire, so humanity was united to the Word, so that the incarnate Word is, as it were, a burning coal.

Again, this coal is the Holy Eucharist, which purges us from all sin, strengthens, and inflames us: "So that like fire-breathing lions we may depart from that table, having become terrible to the devil," says St. Chrysostom, homily 61 to the People. Thus St. Justin explains this stone in his Response to Question XLIV, proposed by the Gentiles, and Damascene, whom I shall cite shortly.

Whence the priest is morally admonished here that he must be pure and fervent like the Seraphim, so as to take the body of Christ in the Eucharist from the altar with tongs that are two-pronged, that is, with faith and charity; or with the twofold perfection of the law, namely love of God and of neighbor, and hand it to Isaiah, that is, to the sinner who has confessed, is lamenting, and is reverent. St. Cyril explains this at length, in his book On the Incarnation of the Only-Begotten, chapter VIII.

Hear also St. Damascene, book IV On the Faith, chapter XIV: "Let us approach," he says, "with burning desire, forming our hands in the shape of the cross, let us receive the body of the Crucified, and placing our eyes and lips and forehead upon it, let us conceive the divine coal, so that the fire of the desire implanted in us, taking upon itself the inflammation that arises from the coal, may burn our sins, illuminate our hearts, and by participation in the divine fire we may be set ablaze and deified. Isaiah saw a coal; but a coal is not simple wood, but wood united to fire: so the bread of communion is not simple bread, but bread united to divinity." St. Monica experienced this, who in Holy Communion could not contain herself for sweetness, but would exult, and sighing toward Christ, would be caught up from the earth into the air and say: "My heart and my flesh have exulted in the living God."

Finally, Rupert applies this to the keys and the power of the keys given to Blessed Peter and his vicars. For the Seraph is the priest, who by the stone of his sentence absolves Isaiah, that is, the penitent, from sins.

Tropologically, St. Cyril understands by this stone applied to the mouth of Isaiah the confession by which we profess our faith with our mouth, as well as our sins: for this must be constant and continual in our mouth, so that we may be cleansed from sins and inflamed with the fervor of the Holy Spirit. Foolishly therefore Calvin says here that "in the Papacy there is mere corruption, where the Sacraments are turned into theatrical performance." For from this it follows by parity that this Angel, taking the stone from the altar with tongs and touching and efficaciously purging the lips of Isaiah, was an actor. Let Calvin answer: the Angel added a word to his action, in which the principal reason of the Sacraments consists. But Catholics likewise use the word in their Sacraments. You know, Calvin, that saying of Augustine, tract 80 on John: "The word comes to the element, and a Sacrament is made." You know that Catholics assign the role of form to the words in the Sacraments: but the form is more important than the matter, and gives being to the thing, namely to the Sacrament. But I know your sore point: you want the word to be preached, not consecrated; that is, you wish to abolish the sacraments and convert them into sermons. This is your intent, this your aim.

WHICH HE HAD TAKEN FROM THE ALTAR. — This altar was similar to the Mosaic one and to that which John saw, Apocalypse VI, 9, and it was either the altar of burnt offerings, or more likely the altar of incense, of which Apocalypse VIII, 3; for from it the smoke of incense ascended, with which the temple was filled. He mentions the altar because he saw God in the temple, whose chief ornament is the altar: for the altar represents the sacred mystery of the divine Majesty, as well as the worship, religion, and sacrifices owed to Him: for with these He is to be worshipped at the altar; and because coals in the temple were customarily taken from the altar. What the altar symbolically signifies in each case, I discussed on Exodus chapter XXVII, 1, and chapter XXX, 1 and following.

Verse 7

7. AND YOUR SIN SHALL BE CLEANSED — that is, it shall be purged, taken away, and swept out, as filth is usually swept from a house. Hence it appears that Isaiah, illuminated and moved to compunction by God in this intellectual vision, freely elicited acts of contrition and love of God, through which he was disposed for the purging of sin and the infusion of new and heroic grace and virtue. For here he received from God freedom and boldness, and the zeal to prophesy and preach fearlessly; whence in verse 8 he says to God: "Send me;" and immediately thereafter he freely proclaims, in verse 10: "Blind the heart of this people."

Verse 8

8. WHOM SHALL I SEND, AND WHO WILL GO FOR US? — Again here the mystery of the Trinity is indicated in the word "us," and the unity of essence in the word "I shall send."

Morally, note the condescension of God that is to be imitated by rulers, Prelates, and anyone wishing to govern well. God could have commanded Isaiah: Behold, I have already consecrated you a Prophet, I am present and will be with you; therefore I send you to the Jews, go. But He did not wish to compel him to so arduous a task by His command: hence He invites him, merely proposing His desire to him, which Isaiah accordingly, as is fitting, immediately embraces and voluntarily offers himself. Second, this is a stimulus for Isaiah and the Apostles, that they undertake the missions of God with a sincere and great spirit, considering first that in this matter they are companions of the Seraphim and that they go to a divine work, called and chosen not by themselves but by God; second, that by this they render God a special and most pleasing service; third, that in this office they must look to and care for not their own glory but God's, say St. Thomas and Hugh.

Beautifully St. Bernard, in his sermon On Saints Peter and Paul: "These are," he says, "men of mercy, whether because they obtained mercy, or because they were full of mercy, or because they were mercifully given to us by God: we know that these men neither lived for themselves nor died for themselves, but for Him who died for them, and even more for all of us. Their life produces eminence in conduct, their teaching wisdom in preaching, and their very death patience in suffering: these things the blessed Apostles conferred upon us, and even to this day they do not cease to confer them, full of mercy and the fruits of holy prayers."

AND I SAID: HERE AM I, SEND ME. — For I see that You designate me for this, from the fact that I feel my lips cleansed by the stone, my tongue loosed, and a new freedom and desire to prophesy being implanted in my spirit by You; especially since at the same time the glory of Your Majesty which I behold spurs me on, and the Seraphim whom I see flying and ready for every service to You. These reasons gave courage to Isaiah, so that from a generous and eager magnanimity he offered himself to God for so arduous a task, even though he knew he would be sawed in two for it, says Origen on Romans chapter X: "But Isaiah dares." On the contrary, Moses out of humility, or rather out of a certain pusillanimity, refused God's mission a third and fourth time, as I noted on Exodus chapter IV, and as St. Jerome teaches, epistle 142.

He says therefore: "Here am I;" which expression signifies a prompt spirit to obey. Thus Abraham, called by God, responded: "I am here," Genesis chapter XXII, verse 1; or, as it is in the Hebrew and Greek: Here am I. Thus Ananias, similarly called by God, said: "Here am I, Lord," Acts IX, 10.

So also Isaiah, hearing from God: "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" promptly comes forward: "Here am I, send me," Isaiah VI, 8. Nothing is usually more pleasing to God than such promptness. Whence St. Ambrose, sermon 14, on the words: "Make the voluntary offerings of my mouth pleasing, O Lord," Psalm CXVIII, 108, asks why God did not send Isaiah on that mission before Isaiah voluntarily offered himself for it? And he aptly responds: "Indeed," he says, "He could have commanded His little servant, whom He had found worthy to be sent, but He preferred not to defraud him of the reward of a spontaneous offering, since He waited for him to offer himself; and although He knew his desire, He nevertheless waited for his voice, in order to increase his grace."

Isaiah therefore gives here the model and example of perfect obedience, by which he spontaneously and promptly offers himself to every danger, not to God commanding but merely intimating His will. Let the faithful imitate this, especially Religious, considering that they are invited and called by God, and consequently that God will be with them to overcome generously and easily all difficulties. For this is the power and reward of so generous an obedience. Truly did that Religious say: "I do not fear the voice of obedience calling me to anything, however arduous: I offer myself to it, I am ready;" for I am certain that God, who commands through my Superior, will be with me. "For He who presses the command, anticipates with help," says St. Leo. Hence the perfectly obedient person, like Isaiah, "anticipates the one commanding," as St. Bernard teaches, sermon On Obedience. For "an intelligent servant is acceptable to the king," Proverbs XIV, 35.

Hence our Rule prescribes that we not wait for our Superior's command, but as soon as he gives a sign of his will, we promptly and immediately carry it out, and obey his mere nod, and at his every gesture run in every direction. For this is a better obedience, and more pleasing to God as well as to the Superior, than that which waits for a command, as St. Thomas teaches, II-II, Question CIV, article 2. And Albertus Magnus in the Paradise of the Soul, chapter III: "The truly obedient man," he says, "never waits for a command, but knowing or believing only the will of the Prelate, he fervently carries it out as if it were a command." Finally St. Bernard in the passage cited: "The faithful obedient man," he says, "knows no delays, flees the morrow, is ignorant of tardiness, anticipates the one commanding, prepares his eyes for seeing, his ears for hearing, his tongue for speaking, his hands for working, his feet for traveling; he gathers his whole self together to gather the will of the one commanding." Thus did both Isaiah here, and the Seraphim, standing with outstretched wings before God, ready to fly anywhere at His every nod.

Note that Isaiah and the Apostles had to be sent by God: heretics who thrust themselves into preaching of their own accord and have not been sent by Christ, the Apostles, and Bishops are apostles not of Christ but of the devil. Whence Christ calls them thieves and robbers, John X, says Chrysostom, homily 5 On John the Baptist.

Verse 9

9. HEAR INDEED, BUT DO NOT UNDERSTAND; AND SEE A VISION, BUT DO NOT PERCEIVE. — That is, you will hear and you will see, but you will not understand, or you will not wish to understand and perceive, as the Septuagint explains, and from them St. Paul, Acts, last chapter, verse 26. It is a Hebraism and an enallage of moods; for the imperative is used for the future: for it is certain that God did not command the Jews to sin; indeed it is evident that He willed and commanded that the Jews should understand, know, and carry out His oracles: for this reason He ordered the Prophets to set them before them and proclaim them.

Note: Isaiah prophesies here about the blinding of the Jews, both of those in his own time who were blind and deaf to the threats of Isaiah and the Prophets, and especially those at the time of the Messiah; and consequently about their rejection and reprobation: for just as a river is the same, even though different and different water flows and succeeds in it, so the people of the Jews was always the same, even though different and different men succeeded one another in it, says St. Basil, as if to say: I know, O Jews, that you will eagerly await the promised Messiah; but when He comes, you will reject Him: you will hear and see His preaching and miracles, but you will not wish to recognize them, nor believe them to be the works of the Messiah; indeed you will say that He casts out demons by Beelzebub. So say St. Basil, Chrysostom, Cyril, and Jerome.

And St. Chrysostom, in his homilies On the Praises of St. Paul, volume III: "Paul, citizen of heaven, pillar of the Churches, earthly angel, heavenly man. For just as iron cast into fire becomes entirely fire, so Paul, inflamed with charity, became entirely charity." Paul therefore was a Seraph and a Seraphic Apostle. And again: "Christ sent the Apostles," he says, "as the sun sends its rays; as the rose sends the sweetness of its fragrance; as fire scatters its sparks: so that just as the sun appears in its rays, as the rose is perceived in its fragrance, as fire is seen in its sparks, so in their virtues the power of Christ might be recognized. For who, seeing well-instructed disciples, would not praise the knowledge of the master?" St. Augustine, in his sermon On the Apostles: "The Lord gave the Apostles power over nature, to heal it; over demons, to overthrow them; over the elements, to change them; over death, to despise it; over Angels, to consecrate the body of the Lord. This power was also given to their successors, according to Apocalypse XI, 6: 'These have the power to shut heaven, and to turn waters into blood.'"

"Send me," Isaiah VI, 8. Nothing is usually more pleasing to God than such promptness. Whence St. Ambrose, sermon 14, on the words: "Make the voluntary offerings of my mouth pleasing, O Lord," Psalm CXVIII, 108, asks why God did not send Isaiah on that mission before Isaiah voluntarily offered himself for it? And he aptly responds: "Indeed," he says, "He could have commanded His little servant, whom He had found worthy to be sent, but He preferred not to defraud him of the reward of a spontaneous offering, since He waited for him to offer himself; and although He knew his desire, He nevertheless waited for his voice, in order to increase his grace."

Isaiah therefore gives here the model and example of perfect obedience, by which he spontaneously and promptly offers himself to every danger, not to God commanding but merely intimating His will. Let the faithful imitate this, especially Religious, considering that they are invited and called by God, and consequently that God will be with them to overcome generously and easily all difficulties. For this is the power and reward of so generous an obedience. Truly did that Religious say: "I do not fear the voice of obedience calling me to anything, however arduous: I offer myself to it, I am ready;" for I am certain that God, who commands through my Superior, will be with me. "For He who presses the command, anticipates with help," says St. Leo. Hence the perfectly obedient person, like Isaiah, "anticipates the one commanding," as St. Bernard teaches, sermon On Obedience. For "an intelligent servant is acceptable to the king," Proverbs XIV, 35. Hence our Rule prescribes that we not wait for our Superior's command, but as soon as he gives a sign of his will, we promptly and immediately carry it out, and obey his mere nod, and at his every gesture run in every direction. For this is a better obedience, and more pleasing to God as well as to the Superior, than that which waits for a command, as St. Thomas teaches, II-II, Question CIV, article 2. And Albertus Magnus in the Paradise of the Soul, chapter III: "The truly obedient man," he says, "never waits for a command, but knowing or believing only the will of the Prelate, he fervently carries it out as if it were a command." Finally St. Bernard in the passage cited: "The faithful obedient man," he says, "knows no delays, flees the morrow, is ignorant of tardiness, anticipates the one commanding, prepares his eyes for seeing, his ears for hearing, his tongue for speaking, his hands for working, his feet for traveling; he gathers his whole self together to gather the will of the one commanding." Thus did both Isaiah here, and the Seraphim, standing with outstretched wings before God, ready to fly anywhere at His every nod.

Third, for blinding, two things are required: first, a wicked disposition, by which one does not wish to receive the light, or even places impediments (as one who shuts the window excludes the rays of the sun from himself) against the divine illumination, by which God through Himself, or through Prophets or Apostles, sufficiently proposes, explains, and confirms things necessary for salvation. Second, from this follows the lack or privation of divine light, and thence a moral inability to see the truth. Thus the Jews, seeing Christ perform so many signs, by which they could and were bound to believe that He was the Messiah, rejected this light and so were blinded, and this on account of their avarice, ambition, envy, etc., which they saw being reproved by Christ. Likewise hardening: first, it is the wickedness or malice of one who wills to sin and refuses to do his duty; second, it is obstinacy and a firm adherence to it, namely to some pleasure or illicit good, so that he will not allow himself to be torn away by warnings, counsels, threats, promises, rewards, scourges, or the ordinary inspirations and graces of God. Hear the amazing obstinacy of one who was blinded and hardened. The pious Empress Irene was succeeded by Nicephorus, patron of the Iconoclasts and Manichees: while he oppressed the Church with heavy exactions, he stirred up complaints and lamentations from all orders. Warned about this by the patrician Theodosius Salibara, he replied: "If God has hardened my heart like Pharaoh's, what good will come to those under my hand from Nicephorus? Theodosius, do not expect anything beyond what you have seen." This man therefore surpassed nearly all Emperors in ambitions, debaucheries, and barbaric cruelties. Therefore he felt God's vengeance; for the Slavic prince Krum hung his severed head from a high pole for several days, and then stripping it of its skin and covering it with silver on the outside, he gloriously taught the Slavic princes by his example to drink from it. So says Zonaras, volume III, and elsewhere.

Fourth, St. Jerome, St. Thomas, Hugh, Haymo, and the Gloss think these are the words of Isaiah, as if he were praying and saying: Blind, O Lord, the Jews, so that the Apostles may go to the Gentiles and enlighten them. But St. Cyril, Lyra, Forerius, Adam, and generally the more recent commentators more truly judge these to be the words of God to Isaiah: for this is what the thread and connection of the discourse requires. For God began to speak and continues, and at last concludes: "Lest perhaps he should be converted and I should heal him." Which are without doubt the words of God.

You will say: Does God then command Isaiah to deceive and blind the Jews? I answer, by no means. But there is a twofold sense. The first: "blind," that is, propose your message to the Jews so obscurely through enigmas and parables that they do not understand, but are clouded over and blinded; for St. John teaches that Christ did this, chapter XII, verse 40, where he cites this passage of Isaiah. The later and truer sense is: "blind," that is, predict that they will be blinded: for often real words must be explained by mental ones, as I showed in Canon XXIX, as if to say: The Jews, blinded through their own sins, will assuredly be abandoned by Me, and will be further blinded and hardened; and so it will happen that you will preach to them in vain, both you, O Isaiah, and You, O Christ! For they will not change their ingrained ways, nor attain justice and salvation; yet, O Isaiah, preach that they will be blinded, so that they may know these things were foreseen and foretold by Me, so that Christ may hold this up to them. Whence the Septuagint translates: Their heart was made fat. But St. John, chapter XII, translates and reads: "He blinded their eyes and hardened their heart." This happened because different points were substituted for the same Hebrew word. For if you point השמן hasmen, it will be "make fat, blind"; if השמן husman, it will be "was blinded"; if השמין hismin, it will be "he blinded": all of which mean the same thing.

Verse 10: BLIND THE HEART OF THIS PEOPLE, AND MAKE HEAVY THEIR EARS.

For "blind" the Hebrew is השמן hasmen, that is, make fat, make thick, that is, blind and harden. For a fat and thick heart, namely one serving luxury and the belly, is unfit for grasping heavenly things, and therefore is dull and blind. For blinding is nothing other than a certain fatness and dullness of the mind for seeing and tasting divine things, and an obstruction preventing the admission, influx, and understanding of heavenly teaching, as the following words indicate. For the heart and ears are to be understood not of the body but of the mind: for the mind itself is the heart, is the ear, is the eye, namely the spiritual one; for the mind of itself sees like an eye, hears like an ear, perceives like a heart: for it eminently contains within itself the heart, eyes, ears, nose, and all the senses of the body.

Second, blinding properly pertains to the intellect; burdening or hardening to the will; both are sin, the punishment of sin, and the cause of sin. "Blindness," says St. Augustine, book V Against Julian, chapter III, "which God the illuminator alone removes, is both a sin, by which God is not believed in; and a punishment of sin, by which a proud heart is punished with deserved chastisement; and a cause of sin, when something evil is committed through the error of a blind heart. Likewise the concupiscence of the flesh is both a sin, because there is in it disobedience against the dominion of the mind; and a punishment of sin, because it was rendered to the merits of the disobedient one; and a cause of sin, through the defection of the consenting one or the contagion of the one being born." Thus the Jews, through the error and hardness of their blind hearts, persecuted and killed Christ.

Fifth, it is properly man himself who hardens and blinds himself, for this is what the Wise Man says, chapter II, 21: "For their own malice blinded them"; therefore the positive cause of blinding is the blinded person's own malice. But God blinds and hardens indirectly, because He withdraws from the wicked the light of truth and the sense of grace, and allows occasions of error and blindness to be placed before them, to punish their sins, as I said more fully in Canon XXVII, as if to say: Preach, O Isaiah, that the Jews through their own wicked dispositions will directly blind and harden themselves, so as not to hear your preaching or Christ's, while I will indirectly blind them on account of their sins, in the manner I have described.

Therefore the Jews were blinded: first, by themselves; second, by God; third, by Isaiah: by themselves directly and positively; by God indirectly and permissively; Isaiah, however, blinded them, that is, he predicted their blinding. Therefore the blasphemy of Calvin must be detested, who says that God properly and directly blinded and hardened the Jews, Pharaoh, and other wicked people — against which I argued on Romans IX, 17, and Exodus VII, 1. Therefore one must beware of the commentary of Vatablus on this passage, corrupted by heretics, which explains "make heavy their ears" thus: As if with some weight stop them up, fill them with filth or some other thing, so that they cannot hear; and of others who translate: anoint, smear, stop up with fatty ointment; likewise, harden the heart of this people. For these things are said too harshly, and signify that God actively, directly, and positively hardens the wicked.

Finally, St. Clement, book III of the Apostolic Constitutions, chapter VI, rightly applies these words of Isaiah to those who negligently and drowsily hear the word of God and its teachers and preachers.

LEST PERHAPS HE SHOULD SEE WITH HIS EYES. — Again these words are to be explained prophetically through the future tense, as if to say: From this blinding of the Jews it will assuredly happen that they will not see, will not understand, and consequently that they will not be converted and healed. For as an ancient doctor beautifully says: "God does not here deny healing to those who want it: for whoever understands it thus, absolves man and condemns the author (God); but He declares that those who contradict Him do not wish to be healed: for in vain has the goodness of the physician been promised for conferring a remedy, if the intemperance of the sick person contradicts it" — that is, if the sick person refuses to follow the counsels and the diet prescribed by the physician, as the Jews refused to follow the faith and law of Christ.

Verse 11

11. And I said: How long, O Lord? — as if to say: How long will the Jews, my countrymen, be punished with this penalty of blinding? Second, and more aptly, as if to say: What will become of this blindness and hardness of the Jews, as well as Your, O Lord, abandonment and fury against them? For to this question the following response of the Lord fittingly corresponds: UNTIL THE CITIES ARE DESOLATED WITHOUT INHABITANT — For "until" the Hebrew is עד ad, that is, until the desolation of the cities of all Judea, as if to say: Their blindness and hardness, which inflames My wrath, will come to this: that the entire nation will be desolated, and it will not cease until all their cities are devastated by Titus and Vespasian, by whom the Jews will either be killed, or scattered by flight or captivity throughout the whole world, yet so that throughout the whole world they will not perish, but through propagation they will sprout and multiply, as follows. So say St. Jerome, Basil, Cyril, Haymo, and Rupert, who teach that Isaiah speaks of the destruction of the Jews by the Romans, not by the Assyrians, as St. Chrysostom holds, nor by the Chaldeans, as Vatablus holds.

Verse 12

12. AND THE LORD WILL REMOVE MEN FAR AWAY. — He speaks of Himself in the third person, as if to say: I the Lord will banish the Jews from their homeland and make them exiles, so that they may wander throughout the whole world.

AND IT SHALL BE MULTIPLIED. — The Jewish nation, though nearly destroyed, yet because it is naturally fertile and because it has many wives, will again multiply itself. The Septuagint translates: and those left upon the earth shall be multiplied. The Chaldean and Vatablus translate differently thus: and there shall be great desolation in the land.

Verse 13

13. And there shall still be a tithing in it — that is, one to be made or endured, as if to say: The Jewish nation, thus multiplying itself after the destruction by Titus, will again after 50 years be so devastated by the Emperor Hadrian that from ten scarcely one will be left; for this is what "to tithe" means here: for it is not taken properly, as if it meant to take one out of ten; for Hadrian afflicted the Jews, rebelling again, with a greater disaster than Titus, and nearly destroyed them, to the point that he forbade by edict the fugitives to return to their land or even to look upon it. Whence the Jews thus dispersed, most wretched, were, are, and will be objects of mockery and derision, as Isaiah predicts here. So say St. Jerome, Cyril, Rupert, Haymo, and others.

Note: For "tithing" the Hebrew is עשוריה usuria, which signifies a ten, a tenth, or a decade. Whence it is variously explained by various authors.

First, thus: "tithing," that is, the carrying away of the ten tribes into Assyria, will happen in Israel.

Second, Vatablus thus, as if to say: There shall still be a decade in Judah, that is, ten kings (for there were that many from Jotham the son of Uzziah down to Zedekiah); and under the tenth (Zedekiah) the Jews will again be expelled and destroyed.

Third, Adam, as if to say: Nine parts of the Jews will be devastated by the Romans; the tenth part, owed to God, will be given to Him and will be a holy seed (for tithes from the fruits were sacred to God), that is, the tenth part of the Jews will be converted to Christ. So also St. Basil, Arias, Osorius, Pintus, and Alcazar on Apocalypse chapter XI, verse 13, note 11.

Fourth, Sanchez, as if to say: Nine parts of the Jews will be destroyed by enemies, namely the Chaldeans or Romans; the remaining tenth part will be gleaned and destroyed by God, and will be like a nation devoted and consecrated to His fury, no differently than a victim to the altar and the knife.

Fifth, the same author: To tithe, he says, is to devastate ten times, and "tithing" is a tenfold repeated devastation, as if to say: Judah will be devastated many times over: for the number ten is a symbol of multitude. Whence some enumerate ten devastations of the Jews after the time of Isaiah in this manner: the first was by Shalmaneser, who carried away the ten tribes; the second, by Sennacherib; the third, by Esarhaddon, who led away King Manasseh in chains; the fourth, by Pharaoh Necho, who killed Josiah; the fifth, by Nebuchadnezzar; the sixth, by Nebuzaradan; the seventh, by Antiochus Epiphanes; the eighth, by Pompey; the ninth, by Titus; the tenth, by Hadrian.

Sixth, most aptly, the Chaldean: The Jews, he says, will be tithed, that is, one out of ten will be left; only the tenth part of the Jews will remain, just as after the vintage the vineyard is gleaned, that is, the remaining grapes are gathered, so that from ten scarcely one remains. To tithe therefore here is the same as to glean. For thus did Hadrian glean the Jews, as I said.

AND IT SHALL BE CONVERTED, AND SHALL BE FOR A DISPLAY. — Note the Hebrew enallage, by which the verbs "I turn," "I return," "I add," "I increase" are used for the adverbs "again," "once more," "further": therefore "it shall be converted" and "shall be for a display" means it shall again be for a display. Thus it is said in Psalm LXXXIV, 7: "You, turning, will revive us," that is, You will again revive us; and Psalm LXXVII, verse 41: "They turned and tempted God," that is, they again tempted God: the same phrase is frequent in the Psalms. So Forerius.

For a display. — First, so that Judea, laid waste, may be displayed to all nations as an example of the just vengeance of God, by which other nations may be struck with fear lest by their impiety they provoke God.

Second, and better, "for a display," that is, so that Judah may be a spectacle and a laughingstock to the Gentiles, pointed at by them as if stupid and senseless (for in Hebrew בער baar signifies "fool"), or as infamous on account of such great crimes as well as punishments, according to what Moses threatened them, Deuteronomy chapter XXIX: "And all the nations shall say: Why has the Lord done thus to this land? What is this immense wrath of His fury? And they shall answer: Because they forsook the covenant of the Lord."

Third, the Hebrew לבער lebaer can be translated: it shall be for a devouring, that is, as the Septuagint translates, for a plundering; for some codices incorrectly read "for a prayer."

Fourth, it can be translated with the Chaldean: it shall be for a burning.

LIKE A TEREBINTH AND LIKE AN OAK, WHICH SPREADS ITS BRANCHES — namely, dry and dead, and therefore deformed: for instead of "spreads" the Hebrew is בשלכת bescallechet, that is, sheds, sends forth, casts off leaves, so that it spreads and shows only its bare and naked dry branches, and those few and short, which are therefore called in Hebrew מצבת mattsebet, that is, a stump or remaining part (בם bam, that is, in them, namely the terebinth and the oak), from which again in spring a new shoot may grow green, and the holy seed that follows may sprout forth. Whence the Chaldean translates: they shall be like a terebinth and like an oak, which when their leaves fall off appear as if dry, and yet they still retain moisture, so that from them seed may be sustained; and thus he said in chapter I, verse 30: "When you shall be like an oak with falling leaves."

Second, the Septuagint translates mattsebet as "husk"; for they have: they shall be like an acorn that falls from its husk. For just as this is food for swine, so Judah will be the prey of enemies. Others translate: they shall be like a chestnut that falls from its husk, as if to say: Just as a chestnut, as long as it is enclosed in its thorny husk, is safe; but when it opens, it is prey for swine: so Israel, as long as it was fenced about by God's protection, was safe from enemies; now, stripped of it, it will be given over to them for plunder. So Sanchez.

Third, Vatablus translates: like an elm and an oak when a support is placed under them, so the holy seed shall be its support; and he explains it thus: Just as in the elm and oak, when their leaves have been cast off, there is a certain generative force by whose help they again put forth leaves and foliage in a new spring: so will the inhabitants of Judea fare, who when they are thought to be dead in Babylon will upon their return flourish again and produce holy seed, that is, holy children, so that from them will be born the Holy of Holies, Christ the Lord.

THE HOLY SEED SHALL BE WHAT HAS STOOD IN IT. — Theodotion translates: the holy seed shall be the pillar of its foundation. For the Hebrew mattsebet signifies a statue, column, support, prop. Aquila translates: the holy seed shall be its sprout, as if to say: Although this tree (terebinth or oak), that is, the people of the Jews, may seem to be dead in the disaster of Titus and Hadrian, yet there shall be preserved in it some sprout and holy seed, namely Christ the Lord, who is the column and foundation of all holiness; whose branches shall soon fill the whole world, through whom the remnant of the Jews shall be saved, and to whom, as to a fruitful olive tree, the Gentiles, like wild olive branches, shall be grafted in, Romans XI, 25. So roughly say St. Jerome, the Chaldean, and others.

For the Prophet usually flies from sad things to joyful, from earthly to spiritual, and promises the afflicted Jews Christ the Savior. Whence second, "holy seed," that is, a holy propagation, means the Jews believing in Christ. For what is said here is the same as what was said in chapter IV, verse 3: "And everyone who is left in Zion, etc., shall be called holy." Therefore the "holy seed" are the Apostles and the other first Christians, from whom the race of saints was propagated throughout the whole world.

Note: זרע zera, that is, seed, the Hebrews call not only the grains of seed, but also the stalks, shoots, and sprouts themselves, from which, as from seed, leaves, foliage, and fruits are produced. Therefore not the trunk of the tree itself, but the branches or stalks in the trunk are called seed here: for the trunk is the tree itself in which this seed stands, that is, the stalks and branches, which he therefore calls in Hebrew mattsebet, as the prop or support of future germination and propagation, as our Translator renders it.

For a display. — First, so that Judea, laid waste, may be displayed to all nations as an example of the just vengeance of God, by which other nations may be struck with fear lest by their impiety they provoke God. Second, and better, "for a display," that is, so that Judah may be a spectacle and a laughingstock to the Gentiles, pointed at by them as if stupid and senseless (for in Hebrew בער baar signifies "fool"), or as infamous on account of such great crimes as well as punishments, according to what Moses threatened them, Deuteronomy chapter XXIX: "And all the nations shall say: Why has the Lord done thus to this land? What is this immense wrath of His fury? And they shall answer: Because they forsook the covenant of the Lord."

Second, Vatablus thus, as if to say: There shall still be a decade in Judah, that is, ten kings (for there were that many from Jotham the son of Uzziah down to Zedekiah); and under the tenth (Zedekiah) the Jews will again be expelled and destroyed.

Third, Adam, as if to say: Nine parts of the Jews will be devastated by the Romans; the tenth part, owed to God, will be given to Him and will be a holy seed (for tithes from the fruits were sacred to God), that is, the tenth part of the Jews will be converted to Christ. So also St. Basil, Arias, Osorius, Pintus, and Alcazar on Apocalypse chapter XI, verse 13, note 11.

Fourth, Sanchez, as if to say: Nine parts of the Jews will be destroyed by enemies, namely the Chaldeans or Romans; the remaining tenth part will be gleaned and destroyed by God, and will be like a nation devoted and consecrated to His fury, no differently than a victim to the altar and the knife.

Fifth, the same author: To tithe, he says, is to devastate ten times, and "tithing" is a tenfold repeated devastation, as if to say: Judah will be devastated many times over: for the number ten is a symbol of multitude. Whence some enumerate ten devastations of the Jews after the time of Isaiah in this manner: the first was by Shalmaneser, who carried away the ten tribes; the second, by Sennacherib; the third, by Esarhaddon, who led away King Manasseh in chains; the fourth, by Pharaoh Necho, who killed Josiah; the fifth, by Nebuchadnezzar; the sixth, by Nebuzaradan; the seventh, by Antiochus Epiphanes; the eighth, by Pompey; the ninth, by Titus; the tenth, by Hadrian.

Sixth, most aptly, the Chaldean: The Jews, he says, will be tithed, that is, one out of ten will be left; only the tenth part of the Jews will remain, just as after the vintage the vineyard is gleaned, that is, the remaining grapes are gathered, so that from ten scarcely one remains. To tithe therefore here is the same as to glean. For thus did Hadrian glean the Jews, as I said.

AND IT SHALL BE CONVERTED, AND SHALL BE FOR A DISPLAY. — Note the Hebrew enallage, by which the verbs "I turn," "I return," "I add," "I increase" are used for the adverbs "again," "once more," "further": therefore "it shall be converted" and "shall be for a display" means it shall again be for a display. Thus it is said in Psalm LXXXIV, 7: "You, turning, will revive us," that is, You will again revive us; and Psalm LXXVII, verse 41: "They turned and tempted God," that is, they again tempted God: the same phrase is frequent in the Psalms. So Forerius.

THE HOLY SEED SHALL BE WHAT HAS STOOD IN IT. — Theodotion translates: the holy seed shall be the pillar of its foundation. For the Hebrew mattsebet signifies a statue, column, support, prop. Aquila translates: the holy seed shall be its sprout, as if to say: Although this tree (terebinth or oak), that is, the people of the Jews, may seem to be dead in the disaster of Titus and Hadrian, yet there shall be preserved in it some sprout and holy seed, namely Christ the Lord, who is the column and foundation of all holiness; whose branches shall soon fill the whole world, through whom the remnant of the Jews shall be saved, and to whom, as to a fruitful olive tree, the Gentiles, like wild olive branches, shall be grafted in, Romans XI, 25. So roughly say St. Jerome, the Chaldean, and others. For the Prophet usually flies from sad things to joyful, from earthly to spiritual, and promises the afflicted Jews Christ the Savior. Whence second, "holy seed," that is, a holy propagation, means the Jews believing in Christ. For what is said here is the same as what was said in chapter IV, verse 3: "And everyone who is left in Zion, etc., shall be called holy." Therefore the "holy seed" are the Apostles and the other first Christians, from whom the race of saints was propagated throughout the whole world.

Note: זרע zera, that is, seed, the Hebrews call not only the grains of seed, but also the stalks, shoots, and sprouts themselves, from which, as from seed, leaves, foliage, and fruits are produced. Therefore not the trunk of the tree itself, but the branches or stalks in the trunk are called seed here: for the trunk is the tree itself in which this seed stands, that is, the stalks and branches, which he therefore calls in Hebrew mattsebet, as the prop or support of future germination and propagation, as our Translator renders it.