Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
First, Titus of Bostra, Eusebius, and from them Leo Castrius and Vatablus, think that this chapter deals with the devastation brought upon the Jews after and on account of the crucifixion of Christ. Second, Cyril and Procopius think that here is recapitulated what was said about the destruction of Babylon, Moab, Damascus, Egypt, Idumea, and Jerusalem. Third, and this is the genuine interpretation, St. Jerome, and beautifully St. Ambrose in On Elijah and Fasting, chapter 21, and others generally consider that Isaiah here, after the burdens and destructions of other nations, which he treated from chapter 13 up to this point through eleven chapters, and specifically after the burden of Tyre, which was like a microcosm, passes in his usual manner to the burden of the whole world and the day of judgment, so that we may know that through the common calamities of various nations, the whole world will suffer what Tyre, Babylon, Jerusalem, and other kingdoms suffered, whose destruction and conflagration was only a type and shadow of the conflagration of the world and of eternal fire. Thus Christ passes from the destruction of the city of Jerusalem to the destruction of the world, Matt. 24:29. Therefore in this chapter the Prophet pathetically describes that very thing, namely: first, its horrible appearance; second, verse 5, its cause — namely the impiety and crimes of men, by which they have polluted the earth; third, verse 13, he predicts those few who will be saved and blessed, and their exultation; fourth, verse 17, the distresses and terrors of that destruction; and finally, verse 22, he describes the eternal and universal punishments. Therefore this chapter, up to chapter 28, is the fourth section of Isaiah, which foretells the burden of the whole world, the hell of the reprobate and the devil, and the glory of the Blessed.
Vulgate Text: Isaiah 24:1-23
1. Behold, the Lord shall lay waste the earth, and shall strip it bare, and shall afflict its face, and shall scatter its inhabitants. 2. And it shall be: as the people, so the priest; and as the servant, so his master; as the handmaid, so her mistress; as the buyer, so the seller; as the lender, so the borrower; as the creditor, so the debtor. 3. The earth shall be utterly laid waste and utterly despoiled. For the Lord has spoken this word. 4. The earth has mourned and faded away, and is weakened; the world has faded away, the height of the people of the earth is weakened. 5. And the earth is infected by its inhabitants, because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant. 6. Therefore a curse shall devour the earth, and its inhabitants shall sin; and therefore its tillers shall go mad, and few men shall be left. 7. The vintage has mourned, the vine is weakened, all who were glad of heart have groaned. 8. The joy of timbrels has ceased, the noise of the joyful has ended, the sweetness of the harp is silent. 9. They shall not drink wine with singing; the drink shall be bitter to those who drink it. 10. The city of vanity is broken down, every house is shut up, no one enters. 11. There shall be a cry for wine in the streets; all gladness is forsaken; the joy of the earth is taken away. 12. Desolation is left in the city, and calamity shall crush the gates. 13. For thus it shall be in the midst of the earth, in the midst of the peoples: as if a few olives that remain should be shaken from the olive tree, and as grapes when the vintage is ended. 14. These shall lift up their voice and shall praise; when the Lord is glorified, they shall neigh from the sea. 15. Therefore in the teachings glorify the Lord; in the islands of the sea, the name of the Lord God of Israel. 16. From the ends of the earth we have heard praises, the glory of the just one. And I said: My secret to me, my secret to me; woe is me! The transgressors have transgressed, and with the transgression of transgressors they have transgressed. 17. Fear and the pit and the snare are upon you, O inhabitant of the earth. 18. And it shall be that he who flees from the noise of fear shall fall into the pit; and he who extricates himself from the pit shall be caught in the snare; for the cataracts from on high are opened, and the foundations of the earth shall be shaken. 19. The earth shall be utterly broken, the earth shall be utterly crushed, the earth shall be exceedingly moved, 20. the earth shall be shaken like a drunkard, and shall be removed like a tent of one night; and its iniquity shall weigh it down, and it shall fall, and not rise again. 21. And it shall come to pass in that day that the Lord shall visit upon the host of heaven on high, and upon the kings of the earth who are upon the earth. 22. And they shall be gathered together in the gathering of one bundle into the pit, and shall be shut up there in prison; and after many days they shall be visited. 23. And the moon shall blush, and the sun shall be confounded, when the Lord of hosts shall reign in Mount Sion and in Jerusalem, and shall be glorified in the sight of His elders.
Verse 1: The Lord Shall Lay Waste the Earth
1. Behold, the Lord shall lay waste (in Hebrew boker, that is, He shall make it empty and void) the earth (whence Ambrose at the cited passage says: "He will make," he says, "the earth like an empty stadium where all the decorations have been removed:" all things will be burned, consumed, destroyed, so that God alone remains): this is said literally of the last conflagration and destruction of the world.
AND SHALL STRIP IT BARE, — both of people, and of animals, and of its other ornaments.
AND SHALL AFFLICT ITS FACE. — He will burn the surface of the earth with the fire of the conflagration, II Peter iii, 10.
AND SHALL SCATTER ITS INHABITANTS. — Just as in the destruction of a city the inhabitants are usually scattered as they try to flee, but often do not escape, so the inhabitants of the world will be scattered by the terror of the conflagration, running here and there, seeking a place of refuge but finding none.
Verse 2: As the People, So the Priest
2. AND AS THE PEOPLE, SO THE PRIEST. — All will be wrapped in the same common destruction of the world, priests as well as laity, nobles as well as commoners, rich as well as poor.
Morally, St. Bernard in his Declamations pathetically applies these words to priests who lead the life of laymen.
Verse 3: It Shall Be Utterly Despoiled
3. IT SHALL BE UTTERLY DESPOILED. — This doubling conveys amplification, meaning: The earth shall be altogether plundered and devastated by the fire and the last judgment of God: for the Lord has spoken this word, therefore it is most certain and infallible.
Verse 4: The Earth Has Mourned and Faded Away
4. THE EARTH HAS MOURNED AND FADED AWAY. — In Hebrew there is a paronomasia: habela nabela, which the translator aptly imitated by rendering it "mourned and faded away," as if to say: The earth has mourned and drooped like a flower wilting and fading, as it were mourning the loss of its beauty.
The height (that is, the strength or excellence, namely the princes and nobles) of the people of the earth is weakened.
Verse 5: The Earth Is Infected by Its Inhabitants
5. THE EARTH IS INFECTED — by sins (whence the Chaldean and the Septuagint translate it as "sinned"), and equally by pretense and hypocrisy; for this is what the Hebrew chaneph means. Likewise by pollutions, murders, idolatries, and all kinds of wickedness.
THEY HAVE BROKEN THE EVERLASTING COVENANT. — He calls God's laws and ordinance a covenant, for the laws of God are the condition of the covenant entered into between God and men, by which God promised salvation and happiness to men, and men promised to observe His laws. This everlasting covenant, that is the natural law, has been violated by the Gentiles; and the Mosaic law by the Jews; and the evangelical by the Christians: hence all deserve to be punished by this common destruction of the world.
Verse 6: A Curse Shall Devour the Earth
6. THEREFORE A CURSE SHALL DEVOUR THE EARTH. — For "curse" the Hebrew is ala, which first, with the Chaldean and Vatablus, can be translated as "perjury," as if to say: Perjury, that is the punishment of perjury, shall devour the earth; that is, God will avenge perjuries and perjurers with fire. Secondly, ala means an oath, as if to say: The decree, sentence, and oath of God will burn the earth.
AND ITS INHABITANTS SHALL SIN. — "And" is causal, meaning "because"; whence the Septuagint translate: "because men have sinned."
AND THEREFORE ITS TILLERS SHALL GO MAD, — driven mad by extreme terror, grief, and despair, seeing that the world is being destroyed and that there is no way of escape.
AND FEW MEN SHALL BE LEFT — meaning: Few will be exempted from this alarm and insanity of sorrows — namely those who live not as brutes, but as men created by God, and worship and love their Creator.
Verse 7: The Vintage Has Mourned
7. THE VINTAGE HAS MOURNED, THE VINE IS WEAKENED. — "Has mourned," that is, has caused mourning; "is weakened," that is, the vine has caused weakness and sickness. He uses the past tense to signify the certainty of the future, and a metonymy, attributing to the cause (the vine) the mourning and weakness of those who mourn over the vine. All joys shall cease, and be turned to mourning. St. Jerome adds: in the conflagration of the world and in the judgment not only men but also the vine and all creatures shall mourn.
Verses 8-9: The Joy of Timbrels Has Ceased
8, 9. THE JOY OF TIMBRELS HAS CEASED, etc. — All music and convivial merriment shall cease: wine shall be drunk not with song, but with mourning, groaning and bitterness.
9. THEY SHALL NOT DRINK WINE WITH SINGING. — It has been shown at Ephesians 5:19 that Jews and Gentiles as well as Christians were accustomed to eat and drink at feasts to the accompaniment of songs and music. This will cease at the conflagration of the world.
Verse 10: The City of Vanity Is Broken Down
10. THE CITY OF VANITY IS BROKEN DOWN. — First, St. Jerome, St. Thomas, and Haymo say: The city of vanity is Babylon, that is, Rome, which at the end of the world will relapse into paganism under the Antichrist, and will be devastated. So Apocalypse xvii and xviii.
Second, Sanchez says: The city of vanity, that is, devoted to profit and vanity, was Tyre, about which the preceding chapter spoke. Moreover, Tyre was a type and image of the whole vain and worldly world.
Third, the same Sanchez says: The city, that is, all the cities of the world, which seemed to be most fortified and destined to last forever, will at the end of the world be destroyed and burned.
Fourth, plainly and genuinely, the city of vanity is the world itself, in which, as Ecclesiastes says, chapter 1, verse 2, there is "vanity of vanities, and all is vanity."
Note: Just as God and heaven, in which is eternal life and truth, is the city of truth, so the earth and all things in it are vanity. Moreover, just as truth and vanity are opposed, so heaven and earth, truth and vanity, are opposed. In God there is truth, because He is unchangeable and eternal; in earth and earthly things there is vanity, because they are changeable, mutable, and fleeting. Second, in God, in heaven, and in the Blessed, there is truth, because they possess full and solid being; vanity is in the earth and its goods, because they lack being and solidity. Third, in God and in eternal life there is truth, that is, constancy — for this is the meaning of the Hebrew emuna and amen; on earth there is vanity, that is, inconstancy and mutability.
Fourth, in God and in heaven there is truth, that is, eternity; on earth all things are vain, that is, perishable and momentary. Where now is that famous Tyre, that most opulent Babylon, that most distinguished Nineveh, that most powerful Rome, Athens, Sparta, Corinth, Carthage? One reads about them, but their former splendor has utterly perished.
It is a common proverb: "Nothing is so changeable as the air and the court of Rome." We see this with our eyes, we feel it with our hands.
Fifth, in God and in the enjoyment of God there is truth, that is, fullness of being and possession of all goods. For His name is: "I am who I am," Exodus 3. In the earth and in creatures there is vanity, that is, emptiness of being and of every good: for every creature, compared to God, is as nothing; and whatever good it has, it received from God and depends on God: separated from God, it has nothing.
St. Tiburtius the Martyr, converted to Christ by his brother Valerianus and his wife St. Cecilia, when accused of madness by the Prefect Almachius, replied: "If I were allowed, I would show you that the gods of the nations are demons. Place your foot upon burning coals, and if you are not burned, I will confess that I said what is false. If I, however, invoking the name of the Lord my God, am not injured, you will know that your gods are vanity."
St. Elizabeth, daughter of the King of Hungary, having heard from her mother Sophia that her husband had died, scarcely shaken, said: "If my brother has died, God's will be done: all things of the world are vanity; in God alone is rest for us."
Verse 11: A Cry for Wine in the Streets
11. THERE SHALL BE A CRY FOR WINE IN THE STREETS. — "For wine," that is, over the scarcity of wine. So St. Thomas, Lyranus, and Vatablus. This is clear from what follows: all gladness is forsaken.
Verses 12-13: Desolation Is Left in the City
12, 13. DESOLATION IS LEFT IN THE CITY, AND CALAMITY SHALL CRUSH THE GATES. — Like olives and grapes, God will leave a few just after the general devastation of the world.
13. IN THE MIDST OF THE EARTH — in the very earth, in the whole earth; for thus elsewhere "midst" is often taken not geometrically, but commonly. For these just ones remaining shall be found scattered throughout the entire world.
AS IF A FEW OLIVES — meaning: At the end of the world, especially in the time of the Antichrist, the faithful who remain constant in faith will be as few as the olives that remain on the olive tree after the olives have been beaten down, or as the grapes that remain on the vine after the vintage.
Verse 14: These Shall Lift Up Their Voice
14. THESE SHALL LIFT UP THEIR VOICE AND SHALL PRAISE; WHEN THE LORD IS GLORIFIED, THEY SHALL NEIGH FROM THE SEA. — When the Antichrist has been cast down and slain, those few just ones shall exult and praise God, as if to say: They will exult and leap for joy with their whole body, like horses that neigh; "from the sea," that is, from the west, or from all parts of the world.
Verse 15: In the Teachings Glorify the Lord
15. THEREFORE IN THE TEACHINGS GLORIFY THE LORD. — For "in the teachings," the Septuagint, Vatablus, and Pagninus translate "in the valleys"; others, "in the fires": for the Hebrew urim signifies both teachings and fires and valleys.
For "in the teachings" the Hebrew is beurim, that is, "in light" or "in fire," meaning: With the fire of your zeal and the light of your preaching, illuminate and inflame all nations, that they may glorify God. As if to say: You who survive, propagate the glory of God to all peoples.
Caninius Rebilius was Consul in Rome for only a single day; for on the same day he entered the consulship, he also laid it down, so that it was afterwards noted: Caninius was a wonderfully vigilant Consul, who during his entire consulship saw no sleep.
Hear Boethius, On the Consolation of Philosophy:
If the world's own form rarely endures,
If it varies through such great changes,
Believe in the fleeting fortunes of men,
Believe in the fleeting goods of mortals.
It is established by an eternal decree
That nothing born shall remain.
Quintus Caecilius, having obtained ample dignity and patrimony through the favor and generosity of Lucius Lucullus, and having always declared that Lucullus was his first and only friend, after Lucullus was worn out by prolonged illness, not only abandoned his benefactor but went over to his enemy Publius Clodius, rejoicing in the calamity of him to whose generosity he owed everything.
Verse 16: From the Ends of the Earth We Have Heard Praises
16. FROM THE ENDS OF THE EARTH WE HAVE HEARD PRAISES. — The Prophet exults and seems to himself to hear the voices of the Indians, the Chinese, and the Japanese praising and worshipping God from all the ends of the earth.
THE GLORY OF THE JUST ONE. — He explains what these praises are, and says they are those by which the glory of the Just One is celebrated, namely Christ, who is the Just One par excellence.
MY SECRET TO ME. — First, Vatablus and Pagninus translate: "leanness is upon me"; others: "wasting is upon me," meaning: I grow lean and waste away from anguish and fear, seeing the transgressors of the law so numerous and so bold, who drive away the just.
Third, St. Augustine on Psalm 7, and from him Leo Castrius, take this secret as the mystery of the calling of the Gentiles and the reprobation of the Jews: as if to say: I have my secret, namely that which is hidden from the prudent and wise and revealed to little ones, namely the calling of the Gentiles and the rejection of Israel.
Tropologically, St. Bernard, sermon 22 on the Canticle, applies these words to the Bride who seeks and finds the Bridegroom in the secret of conscience: "My secret to me, my secret to me," that is, the enjoyment of the Bridegroom and of His grace is to me alone and in my secret heart.
WOE IS ME. — Alas for me, because at the end of the world all transgression, every crime will overflow; and I am unable to express the dreadful punishment that will follow.
Verse 17: Fear and the Pit and the Snare
17. FEAR AND THE PIT AND THE SNARE. — These are symbols signifying the extreme evils threatening sinners at the end of the world, and their extreme distress, as if to say: Such extreme anguish and terror will press upon the wicked that wherever they turn, snares and pits will meet them.
Therefore Sanchez rightly notes that "fear" here is the name for a line or rope woven with multicolored feathers, which, placed in a certain spot by hunters, scares the timid beasts with its unusual sight and drives them into the pit or snare. From the Hebrew pachad, that is, fear.
The sense is, meaning: Just as deer and wild beasts are besieged and hemmed in on every side to be captured, so in that final disaster of the world God will beset sinners on all sides, so that they can by no means escape His vengeance.
Verse 18: The Cataracts from On High Are Opened
18. FOR THE CATARACTS FROM ON HIGH ARE OPENED. — Strabo, Book 5, chapter 17: "A cataract," he says, "is a kind of rocky ledge near the middle of the river, from which the waters fall precipitously with a huge noise." By cataracts he means the torrents and floods of fire that will descend from the clouds and from heaven itself to consume the earth. He alludes to the cataracts of Noah's flood, as if to say: Just as God once destroyed the world by a flood of waters, so at the end He will destroy it by a flood of fire. See II Peter iii, 6.
Verse 20: Removed Like a Tent of One Night
20. AND IT SHALL BE REMOVED LIKE A TENT OF ONE NIGHT — meaning: Just as those traveling through trackless or deserted places pitch the tents they carry with them for one night to protect them from rain and the inclemency of the weather, and in the morning fold them up and carry them away, so the earth and the world, which were erected as a temporary tent for mankind's sojourn of one night (for the time of this life is but a night compared to the eternal day of glory), will at the last day be folded up and removed.
Verse 21: The Lord Shall Visit the Host of Heaven
21. THE LORD SHALL VISIT UPON THE HOST OF HEAVEN ON HIGH. — First, the host of heaven in Scripture signifies the sun, moon, and stars, which march in orderly array through the heavens like an army; as if to say: The Lord will visit and punish the stars and luminaries of heaven, that is, will destroy them, so that they no longer shine.
Second, and this is the genuine interpretation, the host of heaven here is the army of Angels, that is, of demons, who, once cast out of heaven, now rule in the air, which they call their heaven; as St. Paul says: "We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world," Ephesians vi, 12. These God will visit, that is punish, and thrust down into the lowest hell.
Third, Forerius says: The soldiers of heaven are the ministers of the temple, that is, the priests, because, just as the Angels in heaven, so they in the temple attend upon God and offer sacrifice. These also God will visit and punish, if they are unworthy of their ministry.
AND UPON THE KINGS. — Kings will not be exempted from the judgment and wrath of God by their power or majesty: "For the mighty shall suffer torments mightily," Wisdom vi, 7.
Verse 22: Gathered Together in the Pit
22. AND THEY SHALL BE GATHERED TOGETHER — meaning: Kings as well as demons, bound together with other wicked and common people as into bundles, will be cast into the pit of hell and shut up in its prison forever.
AND AFTER MANY DAYS THEY SHALL BE VISITED. — Origen explains it thus: The damned will indeed be shut up in the prison of hell, but the prison will not be eternal; for after many days, that is after many ages, they shall be visited, that is liberated. But this is the error of Origen, condemned by the Church.
Second, Haymo says: After many days, that is, years, they shall be visited, namely so that they may rise again and be tormented in body and soul.
Third, Lyranus translates: "from many days they shall be visited"; and explains it thus, meaning: At the judgment and in hell, sins committed many days ago shall be visited and punished.
Fourth, and this is the genuine interpretation, "after many days," that is, after many centuries, they shall be visited, that is, punished, meaning: After the long patience and delay of God, when He has waited for their repentance, He will at last visit them with punishment, so that no one may think that God forgets or neglects the punishment of the wicked.
Fifth, our Turrianus, Alcazar in On the Eucharist, chapter 31, and Alcazar on Apocalypse 20:1, note 4, by this visitation to come after many years, understand the fall and destruction of pagan Rome, which happened about 400 years after Isaiah, under Constantine the Great and subsequent Christian emperors: for then the demons, who through pagan Rome held the world in captivity, were visited and punished, and bound in hell by the triumph of Christianity.
Hence the three following chapters of Isaiah, namely 25, 26, and 27, are devoted to giving thanks to God for having devastated pagan Rome and converted the world to Christianity.
Here may be referred the exposition of St. Thomas, III Part, Question 52, Article 6, Reply 1, which is as follows: "When Christ descended to the lower regions, He delivered the Saints who were there from bondage, not indeed by leading them immediately out, but by pouring into them the light of glory."
Verse 23: The Moon Shall Blush
23. AND THE MOON SHALL BLUSH. — First, the Chaldean and the Arabic translate: the worshippers of the sun and moon will blush on the day of judgment because they worshipped creatures instead of the Creator.
Fourth, and this is the genuine interpretation, meaning: The moon and sun will be stupefied and will blush when they see such great condemnation and punishment of the wicked, as if they are ashamed that they had served and illuminated such wretches. Or the moon and sun will blush, that is, will be darkened and eclipsed by the greater and most brilliant glory of Christ the Judge, just as a lantern is darkened by the brightness of the sun.
So St. Caesarius, brother of St. Gregory of Nazianzus, in Dialogue 3, gives as the reason why the moon now reddens, now grows pale: the murders, poisons, and crimes that are committed under its light.
Moreover, the Septuagint translate: "the brick shall melt, and the wall shall fall." For the Hebrew laben or lebana signifies both "brick" and "moon"; and chama signifies both "wall" and "sun." But our translator, St. Jerome, and others understand these literally of the moon and the sun.
WHEN THE LORD SHALL REIGN — when He begins to reign in the Valley of Josaphat near Mount Sion, judging and condemning the wicked, but glorifying the Saints. AND SHALL BE GLORIFIED IN THE SIGHT OF HIS ELDERS — that is, in the sight of the Patriarchs, Prophets, Apostles, and all the elect: for on the day of judgment the glory of the Lord shall shine forth most brilliantly, to the admiration and supreme joy of the Blessed.