Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
He foretells the disaster of Egypt, on account of the dissensions of its inhabitants, and the proud and foolish counsels of its princes, by which they led Pharaoh into war and ruin, verse 11. Then, from verse 15, he foretells the salvation and grace which Christ will bring to Egypt: so that Egyptians and Assyrians together with the Jews will unite in the worship of Christ and His Church.
Vulgate Text: Isaiah 19:1-25
1. The burden of Egypt. Behold, the Lord will ascend upon a light cloud, and will enter Egypt, and the idols of Egypt will be moved at His presence, and the heart of Egypt will melt in the midst thereof. 2. And I will set the Egyptians against the Egyptians: and they will fight every man against his brother, and every man against his friend, city against city, and kingdom against kingdom. 3. And the spirit of Egypt will be broken in the midst thereof, and I will cast down its counsel: and they will inquire of their idols, and their diviners, and their mediums, and their soothsayers. 4. And I will deliver Egypt into the hand of cruel lords, and a fierce king will rule over them, says the Lord God of hosts. 5. And the waters will dry up from the sea, and the river will be wasted and dried up. 6. And the rivers will fail: the streams of the embankments will diminish and dry up. The reed and the rush will wither: 7. the bed of the river will be laid bare from its source, and every irrigated field will dry up, wither, and be no more. 8. And the fishermen will mourn, and all who cast hooks into the river will lament, and those who spread nets upon the face of the waters will languish. 9. They who worked in linen will be confounded, those who combed and wove fine cloth. 10. And its irrigated lands will be parched: all who made ponds for catching fish. 11. The princes of Tanis are fools, the wise counselors of Pharaoh have given foolish counsel. How will you say to Pharaoh: I am the son of the wise, the son of ancient kings? 12. Where now are your wise men? Let them tell you, and let them declare what the Lord of hosts has purposed concerning Egypt. 13. The princes of Tanis have become fools, the princes of Memphis have withered, they have deceived Egypt, the cornerstone of its peoples. 14. The Lord has mingled in the midst of it a spirit of giddiness: and they have made Egypt to err in all its works, as a drunkard staggers and vomits. 15. And there will be no work for Egypt, which may make head or tail, he who bends or he who restrains. 16. In that day Egypt will be like women, and will be stupefied, and will fear because of the shaking of the hand of the Lord of hosts, which He will move over it. 17. And the land of Judah will be a terror to Egypt: everyone who remembers it will be afraid, because of the counsel of the Lord of hosts, which He has purposed against it. 18. In that day there will be five cities in the land of Egypt, speaking the language of Canaan, and swearing by the Lord of hosts: one will be called the City of the Sun. 19. In that day there will be an altar of the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar of the Lord at its border. 20. It will be for a sign and a witness to the Lord of hosts in the land of Egypt. For they will cry to the Lord because of oppressors, and He will send them a savior and a defender, who will deliver them. 21. And the Lord will be known to Egypt, and the Egyptians will know the Lord in that day, and will worship Him with sacrifices and offerings: and they will make vows to the Lord, and will pay them. 22. And the Lord will strike Egypt with a plague, and will heal it, and they will return to the Lord, and He will be appeased toward them, and will heal them. 23. In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrian will come into Egypt, and the Egyptian into Assyria, and the Egyptians will serve with the Assyrians. 24. In that day Israel will be the third with Egypt and Assyria: a blessing in the midst of the earth, 25. which the Lord of hosts has blessed, saying: Blessed be My people Egypt, and the work of My hands Assyria: but Israel is My inheritance.
Verse 1: The burden of Egypt
1. The burden of Egypt. Mystically, St. Bernard, in his work On the Burden of Egypt, sermon 5, thus philosophizes:
"Egypt is interpreted as 'darkness.' There are the darknesses of ignorance, and there are those of iniquity. Come, brethren, it is no light burden that we bear from the blindness of our ignorance, not knowing in many things what is expedient, what to praise, what to disapprove; so that we often call evil good, and good evil. Moreover, we do not know what we ought to pray for as we should, and in the light of the Scriptures we walk as in the night. Those therefore who are of this sort are burdened by Egypt, but are not burdened with Egypt, that is, with those who are Egypt and darkness, children of darkness, of whom the Lord says in the Gospel: Everyone who does evil hates the light. And the Apostle: Those who sleep, he says, sleep at night; and those who are drunk, are drunk at night. These indeed will be punished with that same weight of penalty with which the Prophet teaches that Egypt is to be punished."
BEHOLD, THE LORD WILL ASCEND UPON A LIGHT CLOUD. This is said symbolically and poetically about the cloud: for the poets are accustomed, in order to signify the swiftness, heavenly majesty, strength, battle, and victory of God, to say that God rides upon clouds, sits upon clouds and rides them, as if from there He might hurl storms, winds, hail, and thunder against His enemies, if He so wills. Thus does the Psalmist, Psalm 17:11. Hence St. Athanasius, in his book On the Incarnation of the Word, reads "upon a light storm-cloud."
Second, the "light cloud" signifies the most swift army of the Assyrians, of which God was, as it were, the leader and commander, who sent them against the Egyptians most swiftly and most powerfully, so that like a dense cloud He might hurl lightning-bolts, that is, weapons and arrows, against the Egyptians and strike them down. So say St. Jerome, St. Thomas, Haymo, Hugo, and Lyra. Egypt was devastated both by Sennacherib, as will be evident in the following chapter, and by Nebuchadnezzar, as Jeremiah foretold, chapter 46, and Ezekiel, chapter 30.
Allegorically, St. Cyril, Jerome, Procopius, Theodoret here, Eusebius in book II of the Demonstration of Christ, chapter 4, St. Athanasius, Augustine, Bernard, and others whom Leo de Castro cites: Christ will come in a light cloud, or, as Aquila translates, in a light thickness, that is, in a body conceived of the Holy Spirit, from the holy Virgin Mary; for just as a cloud is generated from wind and the vapor of the earth, so Christ's body was formed from the Holy Spirit and the earthly substance, the sun of the Godhead being tempered, by which Christ the Child was carried, fleeing Herod into Egypt, as if bringing rain, that is, spiritual doctrine, with which shortly afterward He showered upon Egypt so many holy shoots of monks, and so many illustrious flowers of the Alexandrian Church under St. Mark, and thereafter.
Second, the same St. Jerome, Cyril, Procopius, and St. Ambrose, in his Exhortation to Virgins, teach that the "light cloud" is the Blessed Virgin, in whose arms Christ the Child was carried into Egypt, and there immediately shattered the idols of the gods, as St. Jerome and many others relate. See what was said on Jeremiah chapter 44, at the end. Hence Palladius in the Lausiac History, chapter 52, and Rufinus, book II, chapter 7: "We saw," he says, "in the Thebaid, on the borders of Hermopolis, a temple in which, when the Savior entered the city, all the idols fell on their faces upon the ground." Furthermore, the Blessed Virgin is called a light cloud because, burdened by no concupiscence or weight of marriage, says St. Jerome, she rose above all earthly things like a cloud, says Procopius, and relieved the world of its burden and debt of sins. She rained Christ upon us, and through Him moistens the interior of our mind and extinguishes concupiscence. So says St. Ambrose, in his book On the Instruction of Virgins.
Third, Procopius understands the cloud as baptism. Christ therefore first entered Egypt in a light cloud, when, incarnate in a body assumed from the Virgin, He was carried there in Her arms as in a Cherubic chariot. But afterward He entered, as it were, in a heavy cloud laden with waters, which poured out the heavenly dew and rain of baptism upon the Egyptians after the Ascension.
Christ therefore excellently repaid the hospitality of Egypt, when He led that land, superstitiously addicted to so many monstrous idols, to the worship of the one God and to salvation, and indeed raised up such swarms of religious and virgins in it, that St. Chrysostom says, homily 8 on Matthew, that Egypt was converted by Christ into a paradise, and that innumerable choirs of angels shine there in mortal bodies: "The heavens," he says, "do not so shine with their varied choruses of stars as Egypt is distinguished and illuminated by the innumerable dwellings of monks and virgins." Hermes Trismegistus, as cited by St. Augustine, book VIII of The City of God, chapter 14: "Egypt," he says, "is an image of heaven, indeed the temple of the whole world." This was true not in the time of Trismegistus, but of Christ: for then Egypt itself was an image of heaven, and of the angelic life, and a temple of God.
AND THE IDOLS OF EGYPT WILL BE MOVED. That is to say, the Assyrians will plunder and sack the temples, and carry off the golden and silver gods of the Egyptians, and lead them captive along with the Egyptians to Babylon, as Jeremiah says, chapter 43, verse 12. Furthermore, Herodotus in the Euterpe teaches that idolatry flowed from Egypt as from a fountain into Greece.
Allegorically, the idols of Egypt fell when Christ the Child entered it, as I have already said: but the Emperor Theodosius completed this, who in Egypt overthrew the temples of Canopus, Isis, Serapis, and throughout the whole world destroyed the shrines of idols, in the year of Christ 379. See Baronius. Again, Egypt is the world, which Christ conquered when He cast down and crushed its idols, errors, and vices through the Apostles: "Egypt is understood as the whole world by the title of superstition and curse," says Tertullian, in his book Against the Jews, chapter 9.
AND THE HEART OF EGYPT WILL MELT. Vatablus renders it "will liquefy," that is to say: Just as wax wastes away, liquefies, and melts before fire, so the spirit and courage of the Egyptians will be broken, will soften, and will collapse before the Assyrians and Babylonians.
Verse 2: And I will Set the Egyptians Against the Egyptians
2. AND I WILL SET THE EGYPTIANS AGAINST THE EGYPTIANS. Because when the Assyrians invaded Egypt, discord arose among the Egyptians, first of minds, then of arms: for since some wished to surrender to the Assyrians and others wished to resist, sedition arose among them, so that they slaughtered one another.
KINGDOM AGAINST KINGDOM. The Septuagint has nomos epi nomon, which the translator of the Royal Bibles incorrectly rendered as "law against law." For the Septuagint uses nomos metonymically to mean province or diocese, which is commonly called a territory or jurisdiction: for each of these has its own particular laws and rights. So Leo de Castro, following Procopius and Epiphanius. Hence Pliny, and from him Ortelius in his Theatre, interprets nomos as prefectures, of which Ortelius counts sixty-six in Egypt.
Verse 5: And the Waters will Dry up from the Sea
5. AND THE WATERS WILL DRY UP FROM THE SEA. Scripture calls an abundance of waters a "sea." The Nile is therefore here called a sea; for unless it swells above twelve cubits and fills the fields of Egypt, it brings famine upon Egypt, as I said elsewhere from Pliny, book V, chapter 9, that is to say: I will bring a scarcity of water to the Nile, so that it does not overflow, and thus I will bring barrenness and famine upon Egypt. St. Jerome adds: It is natural, he says, that drought and pestilence follow the wrath of God and the destruction of a nation, and that all elements rage against sinners.
Second, these things, like what follows up to verse 11, can be understood metaphorically and figuratively, namely so that by the river we understand the kingdom, by the streams the leaders, by the greenery, reed, rush, and papyrus, all the abundance and wealth of Egypt, says St. Jerome, that is to say: All these things are to be dried up, that is, devastated and plundered, by the Assyrians. He names the reed (that is, the cane) and the rush, because Egypt abounds in these, and its banks of the Nile are clothed and adorned with them: and from them it makes ships, sails, ropes, coverings, paper, and even food-sacks, as Pliny testifies, book XIII, chapter 11. Therefore, just as the palm tree is the horn of plenty for the Indians, supplying them with everything: so the reed is for the Egyptians.
Verse 9: They who Worked in Linen will be Confounded
9. THEY WHO WORKED IN LINEN WILL BE CONFOUNDED. Egypt produced excellent and fine linen, as Pliny testifies, book XIX, chapter 1, and its use was in sacred rites: hence the Egyptian priests are called "linen-bearers" by Martial. He says therefore that as the waters dry up, all green things, and the linen in which Egypt glories, will perish, so that the women who card, spin, and weave linen will be impoverished and confounded: and (that is, because) its irrigated lands will be dry and withered, that is, flaccid or drooping. He says the same shortly after about the fishermen who make ponds beside the Nile, so that fish may be carried into them when the Nile overflows, and may be caught there when it recedes: for these likewise, when the Nile and its flooding fail, will be impoverished and confounded, and will waste away and wither with hunger and hardships. Note: For "weaving fine cloth," the Hebrew has chorai, which Vatablus and others translate as "weaving perforated nets" or "nets with holes" (for chur means a hole), that is, weaving nets. But he has already spoken of nets, and the Hebrew is not churai but cherai, which signifies fine and byssine garments, such as those of heroes and princes. Hence the Septuagint translates, "those who work in fine linen." And it is well known that the most precious fabrics were manufactured in Egypt. Perhaps he also notes the improper and shameful luxury of women, who clothed themselves in garments so fine that the nakedness of their limbs showed through and was displayed.
Verse 11: The Princes of Tanis are Fools
11. THE PRINCES OF TANIS ARE FOOLS. Tanis was the capital of Egypt and the royal seat of Pharaoh, where Moses once disputed with Pharaoh and inflicted the ten plagues on him and Egypt, about which see more in Exodus 7, at the end, that is to say: The proud and foolish counselors and princes of Pharaoh gave proud, and therefore foolish, counsel to Pharaoh, namely that which follows. True is that saying of Cicero in his On Duties: "Arms abroad are of little use unless there is wisdom at home;" and that of Vegetius: "A general should be more cunning than strong;" for the enemy is more easily and safely conquered by skill than by arms.
How will you say (persuade) Pharaoh (so that he himself may think and say—for it is a mimesis): I AM THE SON OF THE WISE, THE SON OF ANCIENT KINGS, that is to say: Hereditary and as it were natural from a lineage of so many centuries is my wisdom, no less than my royal majesty; therefore I cannot fall from it, or be overthrown by the Assyrians or Chaldeans. So say Haymo, Forerius, and Sanchez. He tacitly ridicules the Egyptians, who boasted of their antiquity, as if they had been the first of men and had existed many thousands of years before. Thus Lucian, in his book On Astrology, relates that the Arcadians were considered stupid for this reason: that they despised astrology and made themselves out to be older than the moon itself. Hence they were called proselenaoi, that is, "before the moon." Aristophanes, in the Birds, ridicules with various titles those who boast of their antiquity, and says:
You were more ancient than Cronus and the Titans.
And another:
More ancient than chaos and the Saturnian kingdoms.
Others think that the counselors say these things about themselves, as if they were proclaiming before Pharaoh their own wisdom received from their ancestors, and their royal pedigree, and thereby gaining authority with him; for, as St. Jerome says, the Egyptians consider the founders of their race to be heroes and gods, namely Horus, Isis, Osiris, Typhon; and on this account they boast of being descended not from royal but from divine seed; hence the Septuagint also translates: How do you say to the king, We are sons of the wise. So say St. Jerome, Cyril, St. Thomas, and Hugo. The Satirist truly says: "Do not look at the trappings and empty names of the Catos." And again: "Our lineage, our ancestors, and what we ourselves have not done: I scarcely call these our own." It is a great thing to be noble, not to seem so; to live nobly, not to be born noble; to be noble not by nation, not by birth, but by virtue and deeds.
Verse 13: They Have Deceived Egypt, the Cornerstone of its Peoples
13. THEY HAVE DECEIVED EGYPT, THE CORNERSTONE OF ITS PEOPLES. "Cornerstone," because in a building it holds the principal place, and holds and binds both walls together; hence it is used metaphorically by the Hebrews for a prince, who binds and holds the people by his laws, and is the support, pillar, and glory of the kingdom and the commonwealth. So Christ is said to have been "made the head of the corner," and to be the cornerstone of the Church, Psalm 117:22, and Matthew 21:42. Thus the commonwealths of the Swiss are called Cantons, that is, corners.
The meaning therefore is, that is to say: The counselors deceived Pharaoh, saying that Egypt was the cornerstone, that is, the chief of the peoples, who of course preeminent over neighboring peoples, whose duty it was to keep them in order and peace, and to defend them against enemies, as if to say: It is your duty, O Pharaoh, to defend the Jews against Nebuchadnezzar; this is your title, this your ancestral dignity; namely, Pharaoh is the cornerstone of the peoples, Pharaoh is the defender and protector of the Jews and other neighboring nations. This is their foolish counsel, about which he spoke in verse 11; for by this reasoning they brought ruin upon Pharaoh and Egypt; for they provoked and challenged the Chaldeans and their most powerful and warlike king, who consequently invaded and devastated Egypt. Others, such as Leo de Castro, Arias, and Lyra, apply this to the destruction of Egypt by the Romans. Hence Lyra wittily says: "The corner, which is formed by two converging lines, here refers to the union of Antony and Cleopatra."
14. A spirit of giddiness, by which the troubled head is accustomed to spin, so that it thinks everything it sees is revolving and rotating. "The spirit of giddiness" therefore is a disturbed and erring spirit. Hence the Chaldean and the Septuagint translate, a spirit of error. Hence also our Vulgate immediately explains, adding: "And they have made Egypt to err in all its works," that is to say: God has blinded them. God has overturned and made foolish their counsel: how God does this, I have explained in Canon 27.
Verse 15: And There will be No Work for Egypt
15. AND THERE WILL BE NO WORK FOR EGYPT, THAT MAY MAKE HEAD OR TAIL, that is to say: The counsels and works of the Egyptians will be imprudent, useless, and harmful; so that there will be no work of theirs that "makes," that is, proves and shows that in carrying it out there was a "head," that is, an old and wise man; and a "tail," that is, a young, vigorous, and strong man, who would execute what the old and wise had prudently decreed.
Note the Hebraism: to make a head, that is, a prince, means to do the work of a prince, worthy of a prince, on account of which one deserves to become or to be a prince, so that the work itself seems, as it were, to make one a prince. Hence the Antiochene version has: There will be no Egyptian man who becomes a leader (prince) or a tail, and in that day the Egyptian will be like a woman, he will fear and tremble at the hand of mighty God. And the Arabic Alexandrian: There will be no man for Egypt whom he may appoint as head and tail, first and last.
HE WHO BENDS AND HE WHO RESTRAINS. This is the same as what preceded, head and tail. So the Arabic and Syriac versions already cited. Hence the Septuagint translates, beginning and end, that is to say: The work of the Egyptians, like that of the Assyrians, will be imprudent, insipid, and defective, having neither head nor tail, neither beginning nor end. Hear St. Jerome: "The Lord, he says, has mingled for them a spirit of error, and they have made Egypt to err in all its works, as a drunkard errs and one who vomits, who is intoxicated with vices, of which drunken men Joel speaks: Woe to you who are drunk without wine! And not only drunk, but also vomiting the fury of dragons and the incurable fury of asps, so that after they have vomited out such wine, they may understand their intoxication and recognize that as long as they were drunk, they had neither beginning nor end, that is, neither head nor tail, but a trunk with the animal cut short on both sides. Hence the Septuagint and Symmachus translated, 'beginning and end'; Aquila, 'the bent and the perverse': by 'the bent' he means the old to be understood, by 'the perverse' the wanton youths who do everything perversely, and thus the meaning is that in Egypt not only the head and tail are lacking, but also the elders and the youths, that is, both the beginning and the end. Youths and boys, therefore, are called perverse and restraining, because they are driven by the surges of passions which ought to be restrained.
Pagninus and Vatablus translate these words in the nominative, in this manner: Nor will there be for Egypt a work that it may do, whether head or tail, whether branch or rush, and they explain it thus, that is to say: "Neither the great nor the common people will do anything that benefits the commonwealth, nor will Egypt be able to be freed from the Assyrians by their works or industry: head and branch are men of the first rank; tail and rush are the common and ignoble." See what was said on chapter 9, verse 14.
Verse 17: The Land of Judah will be a Terror to Egypt
17. THE LAND OF JUDAH WILL BE A TERROR TO EGYPT. That is to say: Even the very name of Judah will be a source of dread to the Egyptians, because when they wished to help them, they received such a great defeat from the Assyrians. Hence Aquila for "terror" translates gyrosin, "when one who is fearful and trembling looks around with his eyes and dreads the approaching enemy," as St. Jerome says and explains. Second, St. Cyril says: Judah will be a terror to the Egyptians, on account of Christ born from it, who will shatter the idols of the Egyptians. Third, and best, Sanchez says: "Terror" signifies reverence, religion, observance, and admiration. Hence St. Jerome in his Commentary translates "terror" as "solemnity," that is to say: The time will come when Egypt will embrace the Christian sacred rites, and will then celebrate the same religion and the same feasts that the land of Judah celebrates, that is, the Church, which began in Zion and Judah. Zechariah explicitly explains this, chapter 14, verse 16. For the Prophet here passes from the destruction of Egypt to its restoration through Christ, so that, as is customary, he may append joyful things to sorrowful ones, and conclude all the ancient deeds of the fathers with the consolation and redemption of Christ the Liberator: this is clear from what follows.
Verse 18: In that Day There will be Five Cities
18. IN THAT DAY THERE WILL BE FIVE CITIES. "Five," that is, many; for a definite number is used for an indefinite one, that is to say: The Egyptians now greatly abhor the Jews and their language and religion, although they border on them; but it will come to pass that they themselves will be zealous for the Hebrew language (which is here called Canaanite, because the Hebrews inhabited the land that formerly belonged to the Canaanites), or for the closely related Syriac, and not only for the language but also for the religion. Just as if, on the contrary, today in Hungary certain cities were found so impious that, weary of the Christian name, they aspired to Mohammedanism to such an extent that they even commonly learned and spoke the Arabic language, in which the Koran of Mohammed is written: "The Canaanite language," says St. Jerome, "is midway between Egyptian and Hebrew, and in large part akin to Hebrew."
Mystically, St. Jerome says: Some, he says, by these five cities understand the five orders of the Church in the time of Christ: namely Bishops, priests, deacons, the faithful, and catechumens.
Tropologically, Procopius, Ambrose, Augustine, and from them Leo de Castro say that the five cities are the many religious families, lauras, and mandrae, that is, monasteries in Egypt; to such an extent that in one of its cities, namely Oxyrhynchus, there were twenty thousand monks: one Abbot Or had three thousand under him, Abbot Serapion ten thousand monks; in many other cities of the Thebaid, there were thousands of them; so that the cities were not so much dwelling-places of laypeople as of Religious, in which they lived like innumerable ants, devoted to manual labor and prayer. These were entirely carried toward God with all five senses of body and mind, and they spoke the Canaanite language, that is, the Jewish tongue, in which they continually sang the psalms and the words of God, and praised God; for by the number five is signified the perfection and fullness of servants and Religious of Christ, as St. Ambrose teaches in Psalm 118, sermon 22, on those words: "I have gone astray like a lost sheep;" and St. Augustine, volume X on Matthew, sermon 23, where he likewise mystically explains the five wise virgins, about whom Christ speaks in the Gospel. St. Jerome adds that the five senses speak the Egyptian language when they pursue carnal pleasures, but the Canaanite when they pursue spiritual ones. See him.
SWEARING BY THE LORD, that is, worshipping and invoking the Lord. For Scripture, by an oath, signifies the whole worship of God, namely the whole from the part, by synecdoche.
Furthermore, among those cities of Egypt there will be one, Heliopolis (that is, the City of the Sun, because in it there was a temple of the sun: hence it was dedicated to the worship of the sun, as if their god). This, says St. Jerome, has evidently come to pass even to this day: for the city of Ostracina and the others near Rhinocorura and Casius, which border on Judea, speak Syriac, and some think that neighboring Syrians were transferred there by Nebuchadnezzar. Second, more truly and clearly these things were fulfilled in the time of Christ and St. Mark, as will be evident from verse 19. As if you were to say: Egypt will receive the faith and worship of Christ, and will speak piously and in a Christian manner, as the Apostles and other Jews converted to Christ speak. So say St. Cyril and others everywhere.
He counts five cities because there were five principal cities, virtually metropolises, in Egypt, which Ezekiel names in chapter 30, namely Memphis, Tanis, Alexandria, Bubastus, and Heliopolis. But above the others he names Heliopolis, which was situated between Alexandria and Coptus, both because at Heliopolis the worship of the sun and of the gods flourished (hence it was a city of priests, as Strabo testifies, book 17), and therefore it especially resisted the Gospel of Christ at the beginning; and also because, once subdued by Christ and the Apostles, it was as devoted to Christ as it had been to the sun and idols, and the Christian religion and monasticism flourished wonderfully in it. Hence Heliopolis and its monasteries and monks are so often mentioned in Palladius, Rufinus, and others.
Calvin therefore shamefully errs, who for "City of the Sun" translates: One will be called the City of Destruction, and gives this meaning: "By these words he designates every sixth city for destruction, signifying that all who do not turn to God to worship Him perish without hope of restoration. For he contrasts the cities of Egypt that will begin to acknowledge Him with others that are devoted to destruction. For dan cherem signifies a curse and malediction, which desolation, that is, destruction and eternal death, follows." He errs, I say, for instead of cheres, that is, sun, as St. Jerome, the Septuagint, the Chaldean, Symmachus, Vatablus, and others generally read and translate, he reads cherem, that is, anathema; and it is evident from the very sequence of the text that there is no opposition here, but a continuation of the same subject matter and thought. Finally, because the Hebrew cheres signifies not only the sun but also a potsherd, hence some translate it as ostrakon, that is, a potsherd, and by it think the city of Ostracina is meant, says St. Jerome.
Verse 19: In that Day
19. IN THAT DAY. Note: The Prophets say "in that day," that is, in that time, even though it is far in the future. They call this a "day," even though it unfolds after or through many years, because in the foreknowledge of God the course of one kingdom, indeed of the whole age, is as one and the same: but it looks to the day of the New Testament, which he treated in verse 17. See Canon 4.
Note second: Onias, the son of Onias the holy pontiff, about whom see 2 Maccabees 3 and 4, when in the time of the Maccabees he saw Judea being devastated by the Antiochuses, the Demetriuses, and other kings of Syria, fled to Egypt to Ptolemy Philometor, and cited this passage of Isaiah to him, as if God here commanded that a temple be built for Him in Egypt, and persuaded him of this; and Ptolemy built a temple for the Jews at Heliopolis and appointed the aforementioned Onias as its pontiff. So says Josephus, Antiquities XIII, 6. But incorrectly; Isaiah meant no such thing, for Onias was censured by the Jews, who rightly disapproved of this deed of his: because it was not permitted under the old law to erect an altar or temple to God outside Jerusalem, whereas these altar-builders are praised by Isaiah.
I say therefore that the Prophet flies forward to the times of Christ, whom God sent to the Egyptians and all nations as Redeemer, to such an extent that in Egypt under St. Mark, and from that time on, Christianity flourished most vigorously, and indeed the monastic and religious life began there with St. Mark and the Essenes. So says St. Augustine, book I of On the Unity of the Church, chapter 14. For the Evangelical vows (that is, concerning the keeping of the Evangelical counsels), and especially the monastic vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, are noted here, and are asserted as being about to exist in Christianity, when the Prophet says: "And they will make vows to the Lord, and will pay them." Therefore Calvin here torments himself in vain, trying to abolish them on the pretext that they are not consonant with the word of God, but are "self-imposed worship," which Paul condemns in Colossians 2:23. But this must be proven by Calvin; for I have shown the contrary in my commentary on Colossians 2.
AND A PILLAR OF THE LORD AT ITS BORDER. He calls "pillars" either temples, as Cyril says, or the cross of Christ, or statues, or columns erected in honor of Christ, that is to say: The Egyptians throughout their provinces and borders will erect crosses, temples, altars, etc., to Christ; for Him, not idols as formerly, they will invoke when they are in tribulation, and He will send them saviors, that is, distinguished Prelates and Princes, who will free and defend them from enemies both bodily and spiritual.
Verse 22: And the Lord will Strike, that is to
22. AND THE LORD WILL STRIKE, that is to say: God will devastate Egypt, both through the Assyrians and through the Chaldeans; but after 40 years He will restore it to itself, as Ezekiel foretold, chapter 29, verse 13. Second, and more likely, that is to say: God will chastise the Egyptians now become Christian, both for the expiation of their sins and for their testing and their greater crown.
Verse 23: In that Day There will be a Highway
23. IN THAT DAY THERE WILL BE A HIGHWAY FROM EGYPT TO ASSYRIA, that is to say: In the time of Christ there will be mutual peace, commerce, and fellowship among nations formerly hostile, such as were the Egyptians and Assyrians. For Christianity is a law of peace, which compels and unites hostile nations into one faith, one charity, and one Church.
AND THE EGYPTIANS WILL SERVE ASSYRIA, namely with those services by which Christians serve one another through charity, especially by sending there distinguished preachers and priests.
Second, it can be translated more plainly from the Hebrew with Vatablus and Montanus: The Egyptians will worship the Lord together with the Assyrians, under which name also understand the Babylonians. And thus Sanchez explains our Version, that is to say: The Egyptians will serve (God) in Assyria, or with Assyria, that is, together with the Assyrian. Hence it follows:
Verse 24: In that Day Israel will be the Third with Egypt
24. IN THAT DAY ISRAEL WILL BE THE THIRD WITH EGYPT. The third, who will receive the faith and worship of Christ equally with the Egyptians and Assyrians, and therefore "a blessing," that is, most blessed, will be, that is to say: These three nations, namely, Israelites, Egyptians, and Assyrians, which now fight among themselves, will unite in Christianity.
A BLESSING IN THE MIDST OF THE EARTH. Just as Israel was situated between the Egyptians and the Assyrians, so from it, as the people of God, blessing will be poured out through Christ upon the Egyptians and other nations. Hence, although other nations are to be blessed by Me, yet My inheritance is, and will be, Israel; for just as Israel was formerly the people peculiarly chosen by God, so it will be now also. For from it will be born Christ, the Blessed Virgin, the Apostles, the first Christians, indeed Christianity itself and the Church of God, "the work of My hands (namely, you are, God will say) for the Assyrian."