Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
It is a prophecy against the Jews, who 150 years later, in the time of Jeremiah, after Gedaliah had been killed by Ishmael, fearing the Chaldeans who had appointed him governor of Judea, lest they avenge his death, fled into Egypt against the commandment of God, as Jeremiah narrates in chapters XLII and XLIII. So say St. Jerome and Cyril, Theodoret, and Procopius, and it is evident from what follows. Lyranus and others think it is a prophecy against the Jews who, under Sennacherib devastating Judea, thought that help should be sought from the Egyptians: and there are things in this chapter that favor this view, which Sanchez reviews both here and at number 40. But it is more truly the case that these things regard the times of Jeremiah and the Chaldeans, as I said: whence in verse 8, he commands that they be written on a tablet, as things to happen long in the future. Second, in verse 9, he rebukes those who desire to hear pleasant things from the Prophets, even if false and perverse. Third, in verse 19, under the type of the holiness and prosperity of the reign of Hezekiah, he describes the holy and blessed kingdom of Christ. Fourth, in verse 26, he passes to the day of judgment, and says that then the sun and moon will shine seven times more brightly. Finally, in verse 30, he teaches that Topheth and the gehenna of fire have been prepared for the wicked.
Vulgate Text: Isaiah 30:1-33
1. Woe to the rebellious children, says the Lord, who take counsel, but not from Me: and who weave a web, but not through My Spirit, so as to add sin upon sin: 2. who set out to go down into Egypt, and did not consult My mouth, hoping for help in the strength of Pharaoh, and putting their trust in the shadow of Egypt. 3. And the strength of Pharaoh shall be your confusion, and trust in the shadow of Egypt your shame. 4. For your princes were in Tanis, and your messengers reached as far as Hanes. 5. All were confounded over a people that could not profit them: they were not for help nor for any benefit, but for confusion and for reproach. 6. The burden of the beasts of the South. In the land of tribulation and distress, from which come the lioness and the lion, the viper and the flying serpent, they carry upon the shoulders of beasts their riches, and upon the humps of camels their treasures, to a people that will not be able to profit them. 7. For Egypt shall help in vain and to no purpose: therefore I have cried out about this: It is only pride; be still. 8. Now therefore go in: write for them upon a tablet, and carefully inscribe it in a book, and it shall be on the last day for a testimony forever; 9. for it is a people that provokes to anger, and lying children, children unwilling to hear the law of God. 10. Who say to the seers: Do not see; and to those who behold: Do not behold for us what is right; speak pleasant things to us, see illusions for us. 11. Take from me the way, turn aside from me the path, let the Holy One of Israel cease from before our face. 12. Therefore thus says the Holy One of Israel: Because you have rejected this word, and have hoped in calumny and tumult, and have leaned upon it: 13. therefore this iniquity shall be to you
like a breach about to fall, found in a high wall, because suddenly, when it is not expected, its destruction will come. 14. And it shall be broken as a potter's vessel is broken with an overpowering destruction: and there shall not be found among its fragments a shard in which to carry a spark from the fire, or to draw a little water from the cistern. 15. For thus says the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel: If you return and rest, you shall be saved: in silence and in hope shall be your strength. And you would not: 16. and you said: By no means, but we will flee to horses: therefore you shall flee. And we will mount upon swift ones: therefore those who pursue you shall be swifter. 17. A thousand men before the terror of one: and before the terror of five you shall flee, until you are left like the mast of a ship on the top of a mountain, and like a signal upon a hill. 18. Therefore the Lord waits to have mercy on you: and therefore He shall be exalted, sparing you: because the Lord is a God of judgment: blessed are all who wait for Him. 19. For the people of Sion shall dwell in Jerusalem: weeping you shall not weep; having mercy He shall have mercy on you: at the voice of your cry, as soon as He hears, He shall answer you. 20. And the Lord shall give you the bread of affliction and the water of distress: and He shall not cause your teacher to fly away from you any more: and your eyes shall see your instructor. 21. And your ears shall hear the word of one admonishing behind your back: This is the way, walk in it: and do not turn aside either to the right or to the left. 22. And you shall defile the plates of your silver idols, and the garment of your golden molten images, and you shall scatter them like the uncleanness of a menstruous woman. Depart, you shall say to it. 23. And rain shall be given to your seed, wherever you sow in the land: and the bread of the produce of the earth shall be most abundant and rich; your lamb shall feed in your possession in that day in broad pastures: 24. and your bulls and the colts of your donkeys, which till the ground, shall eat mixed provender, as it is winnowed on the threshing floor. 25. And there shall be upon every high mountain and upon every elevated hill, streams of running waters, on the day of the slaughter of many, when the towers shall fall. 26. And the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, like the light of seven days, on the day when the Lord shall bind up the wound of His people, and shall heal the bruise of their wound. 27. Behold, the name of the Lord comes from afar, His anger burns, and is heavy to bear; His lips are filled with indignation, and His tongue is like a devouring fire. 28. His breath is like an overflowing torrent reaching to the middle of the neck, to destroy nations into nothing, and the bridle of error that was in the jaws of the peoples. 29. You shall have a song as in the night of a sanctified solemnity, and gladness of heart as when one goes with a flute, to enter the mountain of the Lord, to the Mighty One of Israel. 30. And the Lord shall make the glory of His voice heard, and shall show the terror of His arm, in the threatening of His fury, and the flame of devouring fire: He shall crush with the whirlwind and with hailstones. 31. For at the voice of the Lord, Assyria shall be terrified, being struck with the rod. 32. And the passage of the rod shall be firmly grounded, which the Lord shall cause to rest upon him, with timbrels and harps: and in great battles He shall overthrow them. 33. For Topheth has been prepared from of old, prepared by the king, deep and wide. Its nourishment is fire and much wood: the breath of the Lord, like a torrent of brimstone, kindles it.
Verse 1: WOE, REBELLIOUS CHILDREN
1. WOE, REBELLIOUS CHILDREN, — woe to the Jews, who having forsaken and spurned God's counsel, which they received through Jeremiah — that they should not flee from the Chaldeans into Egypt, but should remain in their homeland — followed their own will and fled into Egypt.
WHO WEAVE A WEB, BUT NOT THROUGH MY SPIRIT
(that is, that you would begin this work of flight, not with My inspiration but against My protest), that you might add sin — namely that you might increase your former sins with a new sin of disobedience, contempt and pride. In the word 'web' he implies that by this flight they are weaving for themselves a net and snare, in which they would be so entangled and ensnared that they could not extricate themselves.
Verse 2: AND YOU DID NOT CONSULT MY MOUTH
2. AND YOU DID NOT CONSULT MY MOUTH. — They had consulted the mouth and will of the Lord, as is evident from Jeremiah XLII, but they had been unwilling to follow it. This is therefore metalepsis: "you did not consult," that is, by consulting you did not obey Me: because it is the same thing not to do what is advised, as not to seek advice at all. Thus one is said not to hear, who does not obey; and not to know, whom knowledge and understanding do not direct in right action. So Sanchez. See Canon LV.
IN THE SHADOW OF EGYPT. — The Septuagint reads: that you may be protected by the Egyptians; it is a metaphor from the shade of trees, which protects travelers from the heat.
Verse 3: AND THE STRENGTH OF PHARAOH SHALL BE YOUR CONFUSION
3. AND THE STRENGTH OF PHARAOH SHALL BE YOUR CONFUSION. — For Nebuchadnezzar pursued the Jews into Egypt, and there struck them down together with the Egyptians, Jeremiah XLII, 15 and following.
Verse 4: FOR YOUR PRINCES WERE IN TANIS
4. FOR YOUR PRINCES WERE IN TANIS. — Tanis was the royal city of Pharaoh, where Moses performed his wonders before him, Psalm LXXVII, verse 43. Likewise Hanes, says St. Jerome, was the last city of Egypt near the Ethiopians and the Blemmyes. The Prophet signifies that the Jews had sent ahead messengers, namely some of their leaders, to Pharaoh, to ask him for permission and a place for all the Jews fleeing the Chaldeans to dwell in Egypt.
Note: For "your messengers" the Septuagint translates: Evil angels labored in vain toward the people. Which St. Justin, Against Trypho, and Procopius apply to the demons, who brought greater assistance of Pharaoh, so that they might perform miracles with which to contend against Moses. But this passage does not deal with the time of Moses, but of Jeremiah.
Verse 5: THEY WERE CONFOUNDED
5. THEY WERE CONFOUNDED — they shall be confounded: thus also the following past tenses are to be explained as futures; for they are prophetic words, as is evident from what precedes and follows.
Verse 6: THE BURDEN OF THE BEASTS OF THE SOUTH
6. THE BURDEN OF THE BEASTS OF THE SOUTH. — The Septuagint translates: the vision of four-footed beasts in the desert; and they prefix this as a title to the following prophecy. Moreover this is not a new prophecy, but a continuation of the prior one against the Jews fleeing to Egypt against God's will. This is evident from what follows. The preceding section up to this point was therefore a kind of preface and preliminary narrative to the following prophecy, whose title is placed here. So St. Jerome.
Therefore he calls these Jews beasts of burden: first, because foolishly and brutishly abandoning God, whose help and vengeance they had so often and so recently experienced, they fled to the king of Egypt and to idols. Second, because laden with their goods, which they had carried away from the destruction of Judea, they went along burdened like beasts of burden. They are called 'of the South' because Judea to the south, that is to the south, borders on the desert through which one travels to Egypt, and because they were fleeing to Egypt, which is to the south of Judea. So St. Jerome and others; as Forerius says, "the burden," that is, a threatening and harsh prophecy against the Jews, who against God's will, like beasts of burden laden with their goods, set out toward the south, that is toward Egypt.
Mystically St. Bernard, On the Burden of the Beasts of the South, sermon 11, though less aptly applied to the literal sense: "The south wind, he says, which is a warm wind, signifies the Holy Spirit, as you have in the Song of Songs: Arise, O north wind, and come, O south wind, blow upon my garden. Happy the soul that is the beast of burden of this south wind, that is guided by the bridle of its moderation, that in all things is subject to its will. Happy indeed the soul over which the Holy Spirit presides, and directs all its works, disposes its thoughts, orders its impulses, and arranges its conduct. Of such it is written: Wherever the impulse of the spirit was, there they went as they walked. Of which the Prophet says: You made a way in the sea for your horses. Paul was a beast of burden of this south wind, who said: We have not received the spirit of this world, but the Spirit who is from God: that we may know the things that have been given to us by God. And see how the beast of burden of the south wind is everywhere guided by the bridle of its ruler," etc. And shortly after: "He therefore who is a beast of burden of the south wind, is burdened with another's weakness, is burdened with another's iniquity, is burdened with another's need and perversity. The burden is the hunger of the poor, the oppression of the needy, the misery of the sick.
the temptation of the one making progress, the fall of the one failing. But you also, brothers, who have fled from the north wind out of the midst of Babylon, and now dwell in the land of the south wind, bear one another's burdens, and thus as beasts of burden of the south wind you will fulfill the law of Christ." And above: "They are beasts of burden of the south wind, therefore they are burdened by the south wind, that is, by the Holy Spirit, whose charity has been poured forth in our hearts.
IN THE LAND OF TRIBULATION — namely they were, or they passed through, meaning: The beasts of burden of the south, that is the Jews, passed through the land of tribulation, that is the desert, in which there is great scarcity of things, hunger and thirst: whence, Deuteronomy XXXII, 10, it is called a place of horror and vast solitude; in which again "lions from among them," namely from the places and caves of the land, come forth to attack travelers; likewise also "vipers" and "serpents," as is evident from Deuteronomy VIII, 15, they passed through, I say, the Jews "carrying upon the shoulders of their beasts of burden their riches:" for thus these words must be connected and completed. So Vatablus, Pagninus, Adamus and Sanchez, meaning: I seem to see the Jews fleeing through the desert, and their beasts and camels carrying on their backs the wealth which they had carried away from the destruction of Jerusalem.
Second, Procopius by the lion, viper, and serpent understands demons and the deities of the Egyptians: for Herodotus in Euterpe teaches that the Egyptians worshipped these, meaning: Wretched Jews, why do you flee from the true God to idols, indeed to beasts? For example, to Jupiter Ammon, whom the Egyptians worshipped in the form of a goat. For Ammon signifies 'goat' to the Egyptians, as Herodotus attests.
Third, St. Jerome, Haymo, Forerius, and Cyril favors this view, think the lion, viper, and serpent here are the Jews themselves being so called, meaning: These beasts of burden, namely the Jews, who are similar to the lion, the asp, and the serpent in fierceness and poisoned conscience, were going through the land of tribulation, that is the desert, carrying their riches on camels into Egypt.
Mystically Origen, homily 16 on Leviticus, and from him Cyril, by the lion, asp and serpent understands demons, who place the riches of their deceptions, that is the wealth and pleasures with which they deceive men, upon the backs of camels and beasts of burden, that is upon foolish and perverse souls. Moreover the asp is a most venomous serpent, which with a slight bite without feeling or pain, in a pleasant sleep (whence it is also called 'the drowsy one') releases a man to death: such again are pleasures and sins, which with sweet titillation kill the soul. Whence Origen warns, and from him Castrius, that each of us should consider how great the riches of asps he has carried before, and the wealth of beasts in his soul, so that he may cease to sin, lest he wish to feel the bite of the asp.
THE FLYING SERPENT. — In Hebrew שרף מעופף meopheph saraph, that is, a flying fiery serpent, or prester, such as those sent against the murmuring Hebrews, Numbers XI, 6. See what was said at chapter XIV, 29.
Verse 7: IT IS ONLY PRIDE, BE STILL
7. IT IS ONLY PRIDE, BE STILL — meaning: In Egypt there is nothing but pride, that is, an empty display of wealth and strength, and "vain anger without force:" therefore you are deceived, O Jew, who hope in Egypt! So do not flee there, but be still and remain in the land of your homeland.
Vatablus and the Rabbis translate from the Hebrew: their strength is to be still, or rest and quiet, meaning: The salvation and strength of these fugitives consists in this, that they remain in Judea and not flee to Egypt.
Verse 8: NOW THEREFORE ENTER
8. NOW THEREFORE ENTER — namely into a room. Here the command is given not to Jeremiah, who was to be born later, as the Hebrews and Hugo think; but to Isaiah himself, to write these things for the people on a tablet, as things to happen 150 years later, so that on the last day when these things have come to pass, they may know that they were predicted, and that they were forewarned by God, indeed so that it may be a certain eternal testimony both of God's care and providence toward them, and of their own obstinate malice and stubbornness against so many warnings and commands of God.
UPON BOXWOOD — In Hebrew, upon a writing tablet, which in ancient times was generally made from boxwood, whose wood is imperishable, says St. Jerome, so that it might be set before the eyes of the Jews more durably and more clearly. For it looks to the distant times of Jeremiah, as I said. Thus Propertius says, book III, elegy 3: "On common boxwood (that is, a tablet) was the soiled wax;" and Prudentius, book IX, in the Martyrdom of St. Cassian, pierced by his own students with styluses and tablets: "Others hurl punches, and tablets at his face. Waxed boxwood tablets crack, struck against his bloody cheeks." He calls them 'waxed' because they wrote with styluses in wax, with which the boxwood tablet was coated: therefore this tablet was waxed.
Verse 9: LYING CHILDREN
9. LYING CHILDREN — perfidious children, and therefore illegitimate and degenerate from the faith and piety of their patriarchs.
Verse 10: SPEAK TO US PLEASANT THINGS
10. SPEAK TO US PLEASANT THINGS — things that favor our desires. Such are today the soft, the pleasure-seekers, who cannot bear stern preachers and sermons about death, judgment, hell, eternity. And this was the cause of heresy; for the people sought to hear pleasant things about the freedom of the flesh. These things Luther and Calvin poured into their ears. What wonder, if so many went after them? The philosopher Arcesilaus, when asked why very many deserted from the Academy to Epicurus but very few returned, answered very shrewdly: "From men eunuchs can be produced, but from eunuchs men never." Thus from wisdom into the pit of error all easily rush headlong, but to return from error to the way of truth belongs to few. So Laertius, book IV.
Likewise Strato the Physicist, when it was objected that Menedemus had more disciples than he himself, said: "What wonder if more are found who prefer to be bathed than to be anointed?" For the soft bathe, those who prepare themselves for combat are anointed: meaning that he did not tickle ears, but taught the practice of conquering vices and exercising virtues.
ERRORS — namely things flattering and pleasing to our ears, eyes and palate; for these are often false and erroneous. Again, "errors," that is, false oracles about the prosperous outcome of our flight to Egypt. These impious men said: Speak to us pleasing oracles; but because these were erroneous, hence the Prophet, substituting the true name of the thing, says: "Speak, etc., errors."
Verse 11: TAKE AWAY FROM ME THE WAY
11. TAKE AWAY FROM ME THE WAY. — "From me," that is, from us; for the people speaks of itself, now in the singular, now in the plural. By "the way" and the path he means either the well-worn speeches frequently used by the Prophets about hearing and worshipping the Holy One of Israel, or rather the manner and rule of life that the Prophets prescribed for them.
THE HOLY ONE OF ISRAEL. — For which the Septuagint and the Chaldean translate: the holy word of Israel, meaning: Why do you so often repeat to us, O Prophets? "Thus says the Holy One (God) of Israel: Return to Me in fasting, weeping, mourning," etc. We are weary of hearing these things; let these unpleasant and bitter words cease; let this mournful preaching cease. It is a mimesis: for it is the voice of the obstinate Jews, as is evident.
Verse 12: YOU HAVE HOPED IN CALUMNY AND IN TUMULT
12. YOU HAVE HOPED IN CALUMNY AND IN TUMULT — that is, in wealth and luxury acquired through fraud, plunder and tumults. So Vatablus. Second, Adamus and Sanchez, meaning: You have hoped in the Egyptians, who are slanderers and riotous. Third and properly, you have hoped and leaned upon calumny and tumult, by which you tumultuously slandered Jeremiah who forbade this flight, as though he were a false Prophet, in order to suppress him, Jeremiah XLII, 2. Thus the Calvinists in this century in Belgium, France, and England have advanced their cause through tumults and slanders; for they have learned to fish in troubled waters.
Verse 13: THEREFORE THIS INIQUITY SHALL BE TO YOU LIKE A BREACH FALLING
13. THEREFORE THIS INIQUITY SHALL BE TO YOU LIKE A BREACH FALLING — meaning: Just as a wall that is breached and leaning toward ruin at last suddenly and unexpectedly falls, and with its heavy mass and fall crushes those who lived under it: so this iniquity, that is, this proud and vain trust, which against God's command you place in the Egyptians, will crush you. Again, the Egyptians themselves, struck down by the Chaldeans, like a collapsing wall, will by their own fall overwhelm and crush you who were hiding under their protection: just as the tower of Siloam falling crushed eighteen men, Luke XIII, 4. He compares the destruction of the Jews, that is, their devastation, first to the ruin of a wall; second to the crushing of a jug, which is so shattered that no fragment remains.
AND FOUND WANTING IN A HIGH WALL. — For "found wanting" the Hebrew has בערה, which Arias, Vatablus and Forerius translate as swelling, puffed out, projecting beyond the perpendicular, because it is a part torn from the wall and leaning toward ruin. But the root בערה baa means to dig out, to elicit something from a person or thing that was hidden; and this, in the case of a person, means to interrogate and search out. Therefore our Translator rightly rendered it "found wanting." Now first, Arias explains "found wanting" as searched out; second, others as that which the enemy seeks to break through; third, Hugo as "patched up"; fourth, Emmanuel Sa, as sought out, namely by the Jews, who hoped and wished to be saved under this breached wall of the Egyptians; fifth, others as inspected by builders, as suspect and dangerous, and therefore needing investigation, inspection and examination; sixth, Sanchez says: "found wanting" means absent and lacking; for thus we say that those who have fallen are missed or desired in the battle line: likewise the found-wanting part of the wall is that part which, where it fell, is not found in the wall, or whose firmness was looked for but not found; seventh, and most aptly, Adamus says "found wanting" means enormous, sudden and unforeseen, whose cause, which does not appear, is therefore inquired into with amazement after the fall. Thus David inquires about the sudden and sad fall of Saul and Jonathan: "How are the mighty fallen?" II Kings I; and Isaiah, chapter XIV, about the fall of Belshazzar: "How you have fallen from heaven, O Lucifer?" and Jeremiah about the fall of Jerusalem: "How does the city sit alone?" Lamentations I, 1.
Verse 15: IF YOU RETURN AND BE STILL, YOU SHALL BE SAVED
15. IF YOU RETURN AND BE STILL, YOU SHALL BE SAVED — meaning: You are planning flight, and have set out on the road to go to Egypt: if you return from this plan and road to your home, and there be still, you shall be saved from the incursion of the Chaldeans. For that the subject here is flight to Egypt is evident from what precedes and follows. Second, if from your disobedience, by which against the Lord's will you wish to proceed to Egypt, and from every other sin, you return to God through true contrition, and resolve henceforth to rest from all sin, you shall be saved, that is, you shall be justified, and you shall gain for yourselves God's grace and friendship in this life, and His glory in the life to come. Hence the Septuagint translates: if you are converted and groan, then you shall be saved (from which words that sentence commonly repeated seems to have been taken: "In whatever hour the sinner shall groan, he shall be saved"). Hence from this passage rightly infer St. Leo, Chrysostom, Augustine, Jerome and others whom Franciscus Suarez cites and follows, tract. On Penance, Question VIII, article 1, disputation 4, section 2, that true contrition abolishes sins, and is always conjoined with the infusion of justifying grace; because conditional truth requires that, once the antecedent is posited, the consequent is infallibly posited, namely, that once conversion is posited, inchoate salvation, that is justice, is posited; and a person is converted when he first elicits an act of contrition.
IN SILENCE AND IN HOPE. — That is, if you are silent and still in your own land, and hope in God, and do not laboriously run to Egypt, you will be strong and saved from the Chaldeans: he alludes to Exodus XIV, 13 and 14.
Morally, learn here how useful and strong are hope, quiet and silence, namely if we do not anxiously look to human supports, but trust in God, and rest in silence. Do you wish to know the fruits of silence of the tongue as well as of the mind? Receive them:
The first is that it avoids and restrains both the sins of the tongue and the tumults of the mind. St. Lawrence Justinian, book On Discipline, chapter xv, having enumerated the vices of the tongue: "All," he says, "are avoided by the censure of silence alone;" and before him St. Augustine taught this on Psalm LXXXVIII: "Against these (vices of the tongue)," he says, "the best remedy is silence." The author of the rule of monks in St. Jerome says: "Imposed silence corrects a cursing tongue."
The second is that it teaches the mind to be wise and the tongue to speak prudently and piously. Hence St. Lawrence Justinian, in the passage already cited, says "silence is the beginning of speaking well." Richard of St. Victor on that passage of the Song of Songs IV: "Your lips are like a scarlet ribbon," teaches that the ribbon which binds and ties signifies the custody and discipline of the tongue; the scarlet color signifies charity. For silence teaches the bride of Christ to speak pious things and things that pertain to charity.
St. Gregory, homily 2 on Ezekiel: "He," he says, "truly knows how to speak, who first learned how to keep silence well." And for this reason there is such great care for silence in monasteries. Hear about Clairvaux under St. Bernard
what the author of his Life writes, book I, chapter vii: "At midday the silence of midnight was found by those arriving, except for the sound of labor, or if the brothers were occupied with the praises of God. Moreover the order and fame of the silence itself produced such reverence even among secular people who came, that they themselves feared to speak there, I will not say wicked or idle things, but even anything that did not pertain to the matter at hand."
The third is that, as one of the Saints says: "Silence is the mother of the wisest thoughts," and makes a person heavenly and divine. Hear Blessed Peter Damian to the Empress Agnes, letter 130: "When the noise of human conversation ceases," he says, "the temple of the Holy Spirit is built within you through silence. Hence it is that Sacred History attests concerning the construction of the Israelite temple that no hammer or axe or any iron tool was heard in the house of the Lord when it was being built. Indeed the temple of God grows through silence; because, when the human mind does not pour itself out through external words, the structure rises to the lofty summit of a spiritual edifice; and the more it grows upward, the more it is lifted higher, the more it is kept from pouring itself out externally by the custody of silence; for silence is the guardian of justice, and through Jeremiah it is said: It is good to wait in silence for the salvation of the Lord."
Illustrious examples of silence are as follows. Among Christians, St. Thomas Aquinas was called the Dumb Ox on account of his silence, and by being silent and meditating he drew all his learning. St. Romuald, already an old man, was enclosed for seven years and kept continual silence. Theodosius in the Spiritual Meadow, chapter LXVII, spent 35 years in solitude always keeping silence. Concerning the monks of Blessed Dominic Loricatus, Peter Damian in his Life says thus: "They kept throughout the whole week a strict censorship of silence; which they released on Sunday after Vespers and had the freedom of speaking with one another until the office of Compline."
Radulphus the Silent, a monk of Affligem near Brussels, was silent for sixteen years; a fire broke out; and when it could not be extinguished, Radulphus broke his silence and said: "Stand still, fire, at this hour; flame, be completely quiet." A wonderful thing! The fire immediately obeyed and was extinguished. So reports Thomas of Cantimpre, book II of The Bees, chapter xiv, section 4.
St. John the Almsgiver, from bishop become monk, was silent for a full 47 years up to the 104th year of his age.
St. Arsenius heard from an Angel: "If you wish to be saved, flee, be silent, be still." Likewise to a brother visiting him he said nothing more after the greeting, but continually said to himself: "Arsenius, why did you go out?" And: "I have often repented of having spoken, but never of having been silent."
Thalassius, according to Theodoret in the Religious History, chapter XXII, knowing the tongue to be slippery, spoke nothing for the longest time. For the same reason Agatho carried a stone in his mouth for three years, as Palladius attests in the Lausiac History, chapter L.
Theonas was silent for 30 years, as is evident in the Lives of the Fathers under Theonas. St. Gregory Nazianzen was silent throughout all of Lent: he gives the reason in his oration On the Silence of Lent: "Obeying the prescriptions of pious men," he says, "I closed my lips as with a bolt: if you ask the reason for this action of mine; it is because I completely abstained from speech, so that I might learn to moderate my words."
St. Arnulph, Bishop of Soissons, was perpetually silent for three years and six months, as his Life states in chapter viii, in Surius under August 15.
"Sulpicius Severus in his old age, deceived by the Pelagians, and recognizing the fault of talkativeness, kept silence until death, so that the sin he had contracted by speaking he might thoroughly correct by being silent," says Gennadius in Famous Men, under Severus.
Abbot Pambo, hearing that passage of Psalm XXXVIII: I said: I will guard my ways, so that I do not sin with my tongue, said: "That is enough; I will hear the rest when I have fulfilled this." After a long time, returning and asked why he had delayed so long, he replied: "I had not yet perfected what I had learned." So the Tripartite History, book VIII, chapter 1. Therefore by silence he achieved this, that when dying he said: "To this hour I do not repent of any word that I have spoken: and thus I depart to God, as one who has not even begun to be pious or religious." Palladius is the witness in the Lausiac History, chapter x.
Indeed even beasts keep silence at appointed times: birds sing in the morning, during the day they are silent: cicadas are silent in the morning, nightingales at midday: shall a Religious not be silent at the hours defined by the rule? Geese flying in flocks from Cilicia, about to cross Mount Taurus, out of fear of the eagles dwelling there, which they know to be hostile, take a large stone in their beak, and block their mouths so they do not make noise as long as they are passing through the danger. Plutarch is the witness, in his book On the Cleverness of Animals. Bees make noise while flying, but in the hive they are silent and work. Swallows nesting in the town of Alviano, and making a great racket with their chattering, were hindering the sermon of St. Francis. He commands them to be silent: they are silent until the word of God is completed, says St. Bonaventure.
St. Ambrose reports, book III to Virgins, that when the murmuring of very many frogs was assailing the ears of the religious congregation, a priest of God commanded them to be quiet and to show reverence for the sacred prayer; then suddenly the surrounding noise fell silent. "The marshes therefore are silent," says St. Ambrose, "and shall men not be silent?"
Among pagans the illustrious one was Pythagoras, who imposed a five-year silence on his disciples, so that they might learn by being silent the moderation of speech and how to speak rightly, says Nazianzen.
Philostratus, book I, chapter xi, writes that Apollonius of Tyana, because he could not keep silent, imposed upon himself the five-year Pythagorean silence, and observed it so stubbornly that he responded to the Emperor when questioned not by voice but in writing.
Stobaeus, sermons 126, 128, 129, reports that Xenocrates assigned parts of the day to individual activities, and also gave its own part to silence: that Aeschines the Socratic said he had learned from Socrates not only how to speak, but also how to be silent. That Harpocrates the philosopher, who preferred silence to all things, was worshipped by the Greeks as a god in the image of a man pressing his lips together.
Finally, the most wise Solomon says, Ecclesiastes III, 7: "A time to be silent, and a time to speak." Pythagoras, and after him Nazianzen, taught that one should speak when speech is better than silence; one should be silent when the contrary is the case. St. Jerome on the cited passage of Ecclesiastes III: "Let us learn," he says, "first not to speak, so that afterward we may open our mouths to speak: let us be silent at a certain time, so that we may hang upon the words of the teacher; let nothing seem right to us except what we learn, so that after much silence we may be made teachers from disciples."
The means and practice for learning to be silent is: First, to close the ears, and to restrain the curiosity of hearing and learning new things. Hence Abbot John in the Spiritual Meadow, chapter CLXXXVII: "Whoever wishes to restrain his tongue," he says, "let him block his ears, lest he hear many things!" And Seneca, letter 105: "There is a certain sweetness of speech," he says, "which creeps in and flatters, and just like drunkenness or love, draws out secrets; no one who has heard will keep silent."
Second, for some time to completely refrain from speaking, and therefore to withdraw into one's room, and to avoid the company of chatterboxes. Hence St. Basil, in the Shorter Rules, Response 208: "Perpetual silence is necessary," he says, "until through it they may be healed of the vice of impudence in speaking, and in leisure may be able to learn what, when and how it is proper to speak." Blessed Peter Damian, letter 114: "Let the tongue accustom itself," he says, "to restrain itself under the censorship of silence, and let it learn by being silent what it may afterward gravely utter by speaking; lest, if it now neglects to keep strict silence, it be unable afterward to bridle the itch to speak." Hence Nyssen and Olympiodorus note on Ecclesiastes III that it first says: "A time to be silent," then "a time to speak;" because the former must precede, the latter must follow; for through silence at the time of being silent we learn what is afterward to be brought forth through speech at the time of speaking;" and Blessed Ennodius, book VIII, letter 3, speaking of the philosophy of saying nothing, reports that "the ancients, in order to speak better, said nothing in the present, and that care for silence was the nurse of speech."
Third, to think and persuade oneself how great is the strength, honor and fruit of silence. Thalassius, hecatontad 1, number 66: "Silence and prayers," he says, "are the greatest weapons of the virtues," and, as Blessed Antiochus says, homily 103: "Silence is the mother of virtues;" St. Bernard, sermon On the Changing of Water: "Silence," he says, "is the guardian of religion, and that in which our strength consists;" others say: "Silence is the honor of religion, and the chief custody of mental quiet." Hence Blessed Peter Damian, letter 59 to Desiderius,
says that the violator of silence is like a crocodile yawning, into whose jaws the enemy water-snake (Pliny attributes these ambushes to the ichneumon) enters and gnaws its belly; likewise the oyster incautiously opening itself to the sun, into which the crab first throws a pebble so it cannot close, then feeds on its flesh: then he concludes: "The Religious person truly lives when he is enclosed under the censorship of silence; but he perishes when he opens himself too immoderately to speaking."
Hence our Holy Father Ignatius gave three signs by which one might discern whether there was good discipline in any monastery or college: first, if the gate and enclosure were well maintained; second, if all places were clean and orderly; third, if silence was well kept, and there were no idle tales, noise, or shouting. On the contrary, the disadvantages of talkativeness are very many. See about them the sayings of the ancients, which I reviewed at Leviticus xv, 22.
Verse 16: WE WILL FLEE TO HORSES (of the Egyptians)
16. WE WILL FLEE TO HORSES (of the Egyptians). — For Egypt abounds in horses and cavalry, as is evident from III Kings x, 28, while the Jews in wars scarcely used cavalry, as I showed at Deuteronomy XVII, 16.
THEREFORE YOU SHALL FLEE. — He plays through antiphrasis on the word 'flee,' meaning: "You said: We will flee," that is, we will take refuge in the cavalry of Egypt; therefore you shall flee as conquered and routed, before the face of the Chaldeans devastating Egypt.
AND WE WILL MOUNT UPON SWIFT ONES (horses of the Egyptians): THEREFORE (with Me as avenger) SWIFTER SHALL BE (the Chaldeans) WHO SHALL PURSUE YOU. — In a similar manner Servius Tullius, king of the Romans, who was born of a slave-woman, played on the word for the flight of deer and slaves when he dedicated a temple of Diana on the Aventine, because deer are under her protection, and from the swiftness of deer they call runaway slaves 'fugitives.' Therefore he established the feast day of slaves to be celebrated in this temple on the Ides of August, because on that day he himself was born of a slave-woman. So teaches Bartholius Marlianus, book V of Ancient Rome, chapter II. See here how God catches, ridicules, and overthrows the rebellious and the proud in their own words.
Verse 17: A THOUSAND MEN AT THE TERROR OF ONE (supply: shall flee; for this which follows
17. A THOUSAND MEN AT THE TERROR OF ONE (supply: shall flee; for this which follows must be repeated by zeugma): AND AT THE TERROR OF FIVE YOU SHALL FLEE — namely many, as the Septuagint has, or all together, meaning: One Chaldean will terrify and put to flight a thousand of you, and five Chaldeans will put to flight your entire flock. So St. Jerome. For 'a thousand men' the Hebrew has אלף אחד eleph echad, that is, one thousand, or one chiliad. So the Septuagint, the Chaldean and our Translator. Vatablus translates differently: a thousand shall flee as from the rebuke of one. And Sanchez differently, meaning: A thousand men at the terror of one, and, that is indeed, at the terror of one, five thousand men shall flee.
UNTIL YOU ARE LEFT LIKE A MAST OF A SHIP ON THE TOP OF A MOUNTAIN — meaning: Just as, when a ship is wrecked, with all the planks and other rigging floating and perishing, the sailors carry only the mast up a mountain and erect it, or raise some other signal on a hill, so that it may be an indication to navigators that the place is dangerous due to sandbanks, rocks, shoals, etc.: so you few survivors of this disaster will be like a signal of God's wrath, so that by the example of your calamity others may avoid and beware of the same. So St. Jerome. The destruction of Jerusalem is compared to a shipwreck, from which the mast, that is, few escaped, so that scattered throughout the world, they might be the indicators and heralds of the Jewish disaster.
Verse 18: THEREFORE THE LORD WAITS TO HAVE MERCY ON YOU
18. THEREFORE THE LORD WAITS TO HAVE MERCY ON YOU — meaning: Because so great a disaster is to come, therefore God waits, so that warned here by Isaiah you may do penance, and thus God, having had mercy on you, may remove this disaster.
AND THEREFORE HE SHALL BE EXALTED (that is, He shall be lifted on high as if withdrawing Himself and His hand, and, as Vatablus translates, He will suspend the blow), SPARING YOU. — Thus in Hosea chapter XI it is said: "I will be to them as one who exalts," that is, lifts on high and removes "the yoke from their jaws." Others on the contrary say "He shall be exalted" means God will lift His hand on high, as if threatening a powerful blow, to terrify and compunct you, and thus avert the blow; others say "He shall be exalted" means God will be glorified through this His clemency, and the deferral of punishment, "sparing you;" for God is most greatly exalted by showing mercy and sparing. So St. Jerome.
BECAUSE THE LORD IS A GOD OF JUDGMENT — because God is not driven by fury, but judges and vindicates with just judgment and equity: hence He delays punishment and tempers it with indulgence. Others say: "Because the Lord is a God of judgment" means because God is faithful and just, fulfilling His promises: hence He waits for Jerusalem, that it may repent, and thus He may spare it; for He promised it His help, favor and salvation.
BLESSED ARE ALL WHO WAIT FOR HIM. — This is an exclamation on the preceding, meaning: Wretched and unhappy you are and shall be, O Jews, hoping in men, fleeing to the Egyptians! But blessed, indeed thrice and four times blessed and happy are those who hope in God, who wait for Him and His help.
Verse 19: FOR THE PEOPLE OF ZION SHALL DWELL IN JERUSALEM
19. FOR THE PEOPLE OF ZION SHALL DWELL IN JERUSALEM. — He proves what he said, that blessed are those who hope in God and wait for Him, from the fact that the people of Zion, that is, the true and faithful Jews who hope in God, under Hezekiah will safely dwell in Jerusalem, not fearing the threats and armies of Sennacherib. So Forerius. Second, Procopius, St. Thomas and Hugo refer these words to the Jews returning from Babylon to Jerusalem under Cyrus. Third, and especially, the Prophet under these symbols means that the people of Zion, that is, the faithful and Christian people, will peacefully dwell in Jerusalem, that is, in the Church under Christ, who will be their instructor and teacher, as follows; for he passes as usual to Christ. Hence St. Jerome, Procopius, Cyril, Theodoret, and all others refer everything that follows from this place to the end of the chapter literally to Christ and the grace, redemption and salvation of Christ; but in such a way that the Prophet alludes to, and as it were touches in passing upon, its type, namely the happiness of those returning from Babylon under Ezra and Jesus the son of Josedech.
AT THE VOICE OF YOUR CRY, AS SOON AS HE HEARS, HE WILL ANSWER. — Thus the Lord soon heard Hezekiah crying out and praying in the siege of Sennacherib, and freed him after Sennacherib was slain: likewise He also heard the captives crying out in Babylon, leading them back to their homeland: likewise, and indeed much more, He hears faithful Christians who call upon Him.
Verse 20: AND THE LORD WILL GIVE YOU THE BREAD OF AFFLICTION AND WATER OF DISTRESS
20. AND THE LORD WILL GIVE YOU THE BREAD OF AFFLICTION AND WATER OF DISTRESS — But the Hebrew has: He will give you אחל צר ומים לחץ lechem tsar umayim lachats, that is, bread of anguish or tribulation, and water of distress, or rather oppression, as the Septuagint translates here and our Translator at III Kings last chapter, 27. Now this is the case if the bread is straitened, that is, restricted and meager; and the water short, that is, scanty and small, so that they cannot satisfy hunger and thirst, meaning: You will indeed suffer, O Jews, under Sennacherib as well as in Babylon, some want, hunger, thirst, etc.; but God will be with you, will protect you, and will give you teachers and instructors, namely Ezra, Jeremiah, Daniel, Ezekiel, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi and other Prophets, who will always be present to you, indeed they will not cease to admonish from behind opportunely and importunely, so that you may walk in the right way of the Lord and not turn aside to idols; and then in place of straitened bread and water God will give you abundance of things, as He did for the Jews returning from Babylon, as is evident from Zechariah VIII, 11, and Haggai II, 17; and also for Hezekiah under Sennacherib, as is evident from IV Kings XIX, 29. So St. Thomas, Procopius, Hugo, Lyranus.
These things are more truly fulfilled in the time of Christ, who is the perpetual teacher and instructor of the faithful through all ages, meaning: God will give to the faithful Christ as their teacher, says St. Jerome, and the Holy Spirit and the Apostles.
Second, St. Cyril, Procopius and St. Jerome, by the bread of affliction and water of distress understand the Gospel and the brief doctrine of the Gospel, which the Septuagint at chapter x, 23 called the abbreviated word, which succeeded the long and winding precepts of the law; for this, like bread, feeds souls. But short bread does not mean here ultimately small bread, but bread of affliction, as is evident from the Hebrew: although the Gospel too is bread of affliction, because it commands us to mortify the flesh, bear the cross, suffer hard things for Christ.
Third, St. Cyril and Leo Castrius say: This bread of affliction is Christ, who descended from heaven and straitened Himself to an infant's body, to the manger, and to the cross: again He is called straitened because He is found with labor and sweat. Hence again the bread of affliction is the Eucharist, or Christ in it, who is to be received with penance and tears: likewise the water of distress is either baptism, which frees and liberates those oppressed by the demon; or it is the blood of Christ in the Eucharist, in which we recall the sufferings of His passion, so that we may be encouraged to endure similar ones bravely for Him. This sense is allegorically fitting.
Tropologically, the bread of affliction and the water of distress is poverty, hunger, thirst and every anguish and tribulation sent by God to purify and test His own: and then He is accustomed equally to give teachers and preachers who may strengthen, console, teach and perfect the afflicted.
Anagogically, he refers these things to the end of the world: for then there will be great affliction and want, and then God will give to the unbelievers the teachers Elijah and Enoch. So the Fathers, whom St. Jerome mentions.
HE WILL NO LONGER CAUSE YOUR TEACHER TO FLY AWAY FROM YOU. — In Hebrew לא יכנף lo yikaneph, that is, He will not wing away, that is, your teacher will not fly away from you. So Vatablus.
Verse 21: AND YOUR EARS SHALL HEAR THE WORD OF ONE ADMONISHING FROM BEHIND
21. AND YOUR EARS SHALL HEAR THE WORD OF ONE ADMONISHING FROM BEHIND. — It is a periphrasis for a teacher, or instructor and pedagogue, who is accustomed always to be present with his students, and to follow them, to admonish from behind, etc. Second, morally Haymo says: God, he says, follows the sinner who has turned away from Him and toward perishable goods, as it were from behind, so that He may draw and turn him back to Himself. And St. Gregory, homily 34 on the Gospel: "We turn our backs, as it were," he says, "to the face of our teacher, when we despise the words whose precepts we trample on, and yet He does not cease to call us."
On the contrary, St. Jerome takes the back not as the sinner's, but as God's; for God offended by the sinner departs and turns His back to him, but in such a way that, loving him, He often looks back at him, and turns Himself back toward him so as to call him back to Himself by nod, gestures, and voice.
THIS IS THE WAY, WALK IN IT. — This way is the doctrine of the law and the Prophets, and especially the Evangelical doctrine of Christ, in which we walk when by persisting in it we advance toward perfection and toward heaven. Thus the rule and institute of St. Benedict, which embraces the counsels of Christ, appeared as a luminous way; for, as St. Gregory reports in book II of the Dialogues, chapter XXXVII, when St. Benedict had departed this life, on the same day two of his monks seemed to see a certain broad and straight way strewn with tapestries and gleaming with innumerable lights; and a certain old man standing by, who said: "This is the way by which Benedict, beloved of the Lord, ascended into heaven."
Verse 22: AND YOU SHALL DEFILE
22. AND YOU SHALL DEFILE — meaning: Under Ezra, and more so under Christ, you shall defile, that is, consider defiled, cast away, burn your graven images, that is, your idols, and their precious garments, and you shall regard them as the most foul things, such as the filth of a menstruous woman.
GET OUT — meaning: Go to perdition, "you shall say to it," namely to the graven and molten image, that is, the idol.
Verse 23: AND RAIN SHALL BE GIVEN
23. AND RAIN SHALL BE GIVEN. — God gave rain and fertility to the Jews under Ezra; but He gave a better rain of the grace of the Holy Spirit to the earth, that is, to the souls of the faithful under Christ, so that they might produce the fruits of good works. So St. Cyril.
THE LAMB SHALL FEED, etc., SPACIOUSLY. — This was fulfilled literally under Hezekiah and Ezra, symbolically under Christ. For the lambs are the meek and innocent, who follow Christ the Lamb: the bulls are the Apostles and Evangelists, who cultivate the field of the Church: the colts of asses are the children of the Gentiles; these are abundantly fed with spiritual food in the Church.
Verse 24: THEY SHALL EAT MIXED FODDER, AS IT HAS BEEN WINNOWED ON THE THRESHING FLOOR
24. THEY SHALL EAT MIXED FODDER, AS IT HAS BEEN WINNOWED ON THE THRESHING FLOOR. — That is, pure, without chaff: for the chaff has been winnowed away on the threshing floor. Migma or smigma in Greek is the same as the Hebrew בליל belil, and the Latin 'mixtio' (mixture), from the root μίγνυμι, that is, 'I mix.' Now mixture is the same as fodder: just as 'mixed' signifies drink or wine, Psalm LXXIV: "Full of pure wine mixed." For just as in wine, even pure wine, many grapes, many drops, many liquors are mixed together: so in the fodder of beasts of burden many grains or many stalks are mixed. Therefore this fodder is a mixture, or something mixed.
For 'mixed' the Hebrew is חמץ chamets, that is, fermented, that is, seasoned with sourness; for farmers are accustomed to add something to the fodder of their beasts, though pure, when it wilts in summer (for example, cakes made from the husks of turnip seeds from which they extracted oil by pounding), which sharpens it and provokes a flagging appetite by its sourness, just as leaven does in bread. Second, it is called mixed because although it has been winnowed and is without chaff, nevertheless mixed fodder is blended into it, that is, a medley of various kinds of grain (such as vetch, lentils, oats, barley, etc.), a mixed blend, or mash, says St. Jerome; for this by its variety is pleasing to the palate and removes nausea.
Symbolically, first, Christ gives the faithful a mixed fodder, that is, doctrine mixed from both testaments; and blended from Moses, the Prophets and the Apostles. So St. Jerome, Cyril, Procopius and Leo Castrius.
Second, Christ gives a mixed fodder, that is, Himself in the Eucharist, says Castrius. This is called a mixture: First, because it is mixed from the divinity, body, and blood of Christ, and from the species of bread and wine. Second, because these species are made from various grains and mixed together. Third, because the Eucharist signifies and brings about a wonderful commingling: for through it we are really mixed with the flesh of Christ, with God, and with the whole Most Holy Trinity. Hence St. Cyril says that through it we are united to Christ and to God, just as melted wax is mixed and united with another, and therefore through it we become co-corporeal and co-sanguine with Christ, indeed Christ-bearers. Again through it spiritually, namely by reason of charity, we are mixed with Angels and other men. For this is the mixture of Angels and men, or food common to both.
See St. Bernard, sermon 3 on the Vigil of the Nativity of Christ, on the threefold mixture that was made in the Incarnation: for this is set before us to taste in the Eucharist, namely, first, of God and man; second, of virgin and mother; third, of faith and the human heart. In whose sermon 2 On the Nativity, see also another threefold mixture, first, of creation; second, of redemption; third, of glorification.
Leo Castrius notes that some Hebrews derive the Hebrew belil, that is, mixture, from beli, that is, 'not,' and lo, that is, 'for itself,' meaning: food not for itself, that is, not one's own, meaning: The faithful will eat the mixture of the Eucharist, namely food not their own, but of the Angels: "For man ate the bread of Angels." But this etymology is too subtle and far-fetched; for it is established that belil is derived not from beli and lo, but from בלל balal, that is, to mix; hence belil is a mixture, migma. Rather, therefore, the Eucharist is called a mixture because Christ, who before was the food of Angels alone, now mixed with flesh, became in it also the food of men, and in it He mixes men with God and Angels, as I have said.
Verse 25: UPON EVERY ELEVATED HILL, STREAMS OF FLOWING WATERS
25. UPON EVERY ELEVATED HILL, STREAMS OF FLOWING WATERS — meaning: Under Hezekiah as well as under Ezra there will be streams of water, either rain or fountains springing up in the mountains, which will make even the mountains and hills themselves fertile, meaning: Great will be the fertility from the abundance of waters "in the day of the slaughter of many," when 185 thousand Assyrians will be slain by Cyrus; "when the towers fall," both the walls and palaces of Babylon, and the towers, that is, the leaders who stood out among the people as towers in a building. So St. Thomas, Hugo, Forerius and Sanchez.
Second, and more truly, streams, indeed rivers of grace flowed everywhere through Christ, when tyrants and enemies of the faith were either killed or overthrown under Constantine. Then the towers fell, that is, the pagan Emperors and princes, and all the wisdom of the nations, however lofty, was cast down, and the whole world submitted its neck to Christ. So St. Cyril, Jerome, Haymo, Procopius, and the Author of the Questions on the Old and New Testament; in St. Augustine, volume IV, Question CV.
The same will be even more truly fulfilled at the end of the world; for then rivers of glory will flow down upon the elect, when the wicked are struck down, and all towers, walls and cities fall, as will be more evident in the following verse.
Verse 26: AND THE LIGHT OF THE MOON SHALL BE AS THE LIGHT OF THE SUN
26. AND THE LIGHT OF THE MOON SHALL BE AS THE LIGHT OF THE SUN. — First, Vatablus, Sanchez, Hugo, Forerius and the Rabbis explain it thus: When the Jews are freed from Sennacherib, and likewise when they return from Babylon under Ezra, there will be the greatest light, that is, joy: they will rejoice so much that the moon and sun will seem to shine seven times more brightly than before, and this when God shall have healed the wound inflicted by the Assyrians and Chaldeans, and shall have restored what was torn apart or destroyed by them. Thus of the Jews freed from the destruction of Haman through Esther, chapter XI, 11, it is said: "Light and sun arose for them;" and chapter VIII, 16: "A new light seemed to arise for the Jews." This sense is rather cold and thin: yet the Prophet alludes to it, as I have said.
Second, St. Cyril, Procopius and the Author cited in St. Augustine, Question CV, explain it, meaning: After the cross Christ will rise, and then as the intelligible sun He will shine with sevenfold, that is, with great and as it were immense light before the Church; and the moon, that is, the Apostles and other preachers will shine before it as if they were suns. This is what Isaiah says, chapter IX: "For those dwelling in the region of the shadow of death, a light has arisen for them." Thus there was a common proverb among Plato, Aristotle and others: "Neither Vesper nor Lucifer is so admirable as the just man."
Third, and best, St. Jerome, Haymo, Adamus, Lyranus, and Dionysius refer these things to the day of judgment and to the resurrection: for there the Prophet soars. For then cities and towers will fall, then the moon renewed and glorified will shine as the sun, and the sun will be sevenfold, that is, far brighter than usual; and this so that the sun and moon may obtain the rewards of their course and labor. Hence there will then be a new heaven and a new earth. So St. Jerome, Lyranus and the Gloss; which however falsely adds that the light of the sun and moon must be increased because it was diminished by sin, about which see the next section.
Moreover, the sun and the heavens will receive this light not from the splendor of the bodies of the Blessed, as Richard wants in IV Sentences, distinction XLVIII, article 2, ad 5, but immediately from God, and this first, so that God's majesty may thus shine forth in the heavens; second, for the greater joy and glory of the Blessed, and so that between the place and what is placed in it, that is, between heaven and the glorious bodies of the Blessed, there may be a fitting and congruent proportion; third, so that the sun and moon, opposite to each other, may separately but clearly and gloriously illuminate both hemispheres entirely for all eternity; for then there will be no further motion of the sun, moon, or heavens.
Mystically, the Author in St. Augustine, Question CV: In heaven, he says, the just will shine as the sun, especially those who, having left all things, followed Christ. For these, as distinguished in justice and holiness, are rightly compared to the sun and moon; because in heaven they will be sevenfold brighter than the rest; for they will be like Christ, John chapter III, verse 2, so that the resurrection of these is deservedly compared to the sun and moon, while that of the rest to the stars, I Corinthians chapter xv, verse 41.
AS THE LIGHT OF SEVEN DAYS. — That is, as the sun shone in the first seven days of the world, before Adam sinned. So St. Jerome, Haymo and the Gloss: for they think that in the first seven days of the world the sun had brighter light than it now has, but that this was diminished on account of Adam's sin. But against this stands the fact that the sun and moon were created on the fourth day of the world, and Adam on the sixth, on which he also sinned, as the Fathers commonly teach; therefore before his sin the sun could not have shone for seven days, but only for three.
Second, therefore, and genuinely, meaning: The light of the sun will be sevenfold greater, whence Vatablus translates: it will be as great as the light of seven days.
Thus Claudian, in his book On the Rape of Proserpina, introduces Pluto consoling and promising her wondrous light: "Do not believe the day is lost; there are for us other stars, there are other spheres: you will see a purer light, and you will marvel more at the Elysian sun, and its pious inhabitants."
IN THE DAY WHEN THE LORD SHALL BIND UP THE WOUND — when, that is, God shall heal in us the wound of all corruption, misery, sadness, and mortality through the four endowments of the glorified body.
Verse 27: BEHOLD THE NAME OF THE LORD COMES FROM AFAR
27. BEHOLD THE NAME OF THE LORD COMES FROM AFAR. — Cyril, St. Thomas, Hugo, Forerius refer these words to the slaughter of the Babylonians, meaning: After a long space of time, namely after two hundred years, the Lord will come to overthrow Babylon through Cyrus. Others refer these words to the slaughter of Sennacherib and the Assyrians; but that did not come from afar; for it happened under this time, namely around the 15th year of Hezekiah.
Second and genuinely, St. Jerome, St. Thomas, Hugo and Lyranus refer these words to the day of judgment: for he dealt with this in the preceding verse and does so in what follows, especially in verse 33, where he speaks of the fire of Topheth, that is, of hell.
The sense therefore is, meaning: "Behold the name," that is, the majesty, power and vengeance of an angry God, which He Himself will exercise against the reprobate on the day of judgment, will come after a long time. Whence follows: "His burning fury," etc.
Mystically, Sanchez says: The vengeance of God comes from afar; because it comes from the hardness of our sins, which is far from God, and compels Him to leap forth to vengeance, since of Himself and by His nature He is most merciful, and averse and remote from punishing.
HIS BURNING FURY. — It is a beautiful hypotyposis of an angry God: for the angry are accustomed to breathe fury with eyes flashing, nose smoking, and flames darting from tongue and lips.
Verse 28: HIS BREATH AS AN OVERFLOWING TORRENT
28. HIS BREATH AS AN OVERFLOWING TORRENT — meaning: The breath that was exhaled from the indignant mouth of God was so vehement that it alone seemed about to prostrate all enemies; not otherwise than a rushing torrent, which having swollen up to the middle of the neck, prostrates, overwhelms and drowns men. So Sanchez.
Note: "An overflowing torrent" is a proverb signifying the greatest abundance, speed, force, and slaughter and disaster. For a "torrent" implies these things, especially when "overflowing." Thus Seneca in the Oedipus: "Leading golden streams from a torrential bank:" "torrential," that is, overflowing, by catachresis.
TO DESTROY THE NATIONS INTO NOTHING — so that they may no longer be on earth, but in hell; on earth therefore they will be nothing: in hell they will be burned and annihilated insofar as it pertains to the force of fire and combustion; but with God preserving them for eternal torments, they will never be nothing or annihilated.
From the Hebrew it can be translated with R. David, Pagninus and Vatablus: to sift the nations with a sieve of vanity, that is, with useless winnowing, that is, because the grains are not purified, but are destroyed, and everything that is in the winnowing fan is cast to the wind.
AND THE BRIDLE OF ERROR THAT WAS IN THE JAWS OF THE PEOPLES. — First, Forerius and Sanchez explain it, meaning: The bridle and yoke that Sennacherib and the Chaldeans imposed upon the Jews, by which they made them, exiled from their homeland through various regions, many also from their ancestral religion to the gods of the nations (as is evident from Jeremiah XVI, 13), wander and err — God will destroy and crush.
Second and genuinely, meaning: God on the day of judgment will remove and destroy the power of the demon, by which he, as with a bridle, ruled sinners and led them into every error and impiety; consequently He will also remove the bridle of the world and the flesh, by which many are now bridled. To this pertains the exposition of St. Gregory, homily 18 on Ezekiel: "The bridle of error," he says, "had constrained the jaws of the peoples, when the pagan world, bound by the error of idols, did not know how to give the praise of confession to the true God. But this very bridle of error has now been turned into a song for us, when we sing psalms and hymns with joy: All the gods of the nations are demons, but the Lord made the heavens. And rightly it is said: As the voice of a sanctified solemnity; because when we render the praise of confession to God, we rejoice in a sanctified solemnity."
Verse 29: YOU SHALL HAVE A SONG AS IN THE NIGHT OF A SANCTIFIED SOLEMNITY
29. YOU SHALL HAVE A SONG AS IN THE NIGHT OF A SANCTIFIED SOLEMNITY. — Thus it should be read, namely 'night,' as the Roman, Hebrew, and Chaldean editions read; not 'voice,' as the Plantin and other editions read. Now first, he says, "as a night;" because, says Pintus, since the victim was to be sacrificed in the morning, the Jews spent the entire preceding night in joy and songs.
Second and genuinely, the Prophet speaks to the saints and the elect, who in heaven will sing "a song as a night" (that is, "of the night;" this is a Hebrew enallage: for the Hebrews lack grammatical cases; hence they use one for another, indeed for all); "of a sanctified solemnity," not of the Passover, but of the crossing of the Red Sea, meaning: The Blessed will sing such a song as the Hebrews sang when, after crossing the Red Sea by night and Pharaoh being submerged, they sang: "Let us sing to the Lord: for He is gloriously magnified," Exodus xv, 1. For St. John teaches that the elect will sing this canticle of Moses, Revelation XV. So St. Jerome.
Some by night understand the night of weddings, when the Hebrews, they say, from the desert, that is from the gardens, went with pipes and music to the mountain, that is to Jerusalem, meaning: The song of the Blessed will be like a wedding hymn or hymeneal; but weddings are nowhere called, nor were they at that time, a "sanctified solemnity."
AS ONE WHO GOES WITH A PIPE, TO ENTER INTO THE MOUNTAIN OF THE LORD — For those who were about to fulfill vows and offer sacrifice were accustomed to go exulting with harps and pipes to the temple, that is, to God, who is the Mighty One, indeed the strength, of Israel.
Verse 30: AND HE SHALL MAKE HEARD (meaning: The Lord will make known to the whole world th
30. AND HE SHALL MAKE HEARD (meaning: The Lord will make known to the whole world the power of His voice, by which, as with thunder, He will cast the wicked down to the netherworld and enroll the saints in heaven): IN, etc., THE FLAME OF FIRE (both of the conflagration of the world and of hell), HE SHALL STRIKE WITH THE WHIRLWIND — that is, as with a whirlwind and hail. This is catachresis, signifying that God will destroy the reprobate in a terrible manner and with a horrible onslaught. See Canon XXXVI. So St. Jerome.
Verse 31: FOR AT THE VOICE OF THE LORD ASSYRIA SHALL TREMBLE
31. FOR AT THE VOICE OF THE LORD ASSYRIA SHALL TREMBLE. — ASSYRIA, that is, the devil, and every tyrant and oppressor, will be struck and condemned by God's sentence. So St. Jerome. He alludes to Assyria, that is, to Sennacherib, who was struck down by God the avenger.
Verse 32: AND THE PASSAGE OF THE ROD SHALL BE ESTABLISHED (that is, the rod or scourge of
32. AND THE PASSAGE OF THE ROD SHALL BE ESTABLISHED (that is, the rod or scourge of God passing through the reprobate and striking them, shall be established, that is, strong, firm, stable and perpetual in hell: and so) WITH TIMBRELS AND HARPS (that is, with the highest jubilation and triumph of the saints), AND IN GLORIOUS BATTLES (that is, in a renowned and glorious manner of fighting and subjugating enemies, namely by a mere nod and command alone, which is usually celebrated with timbrels and harps, as was done for Moses, Exodus xv, and for David against Goliath), HE SHALL FIGHT AGAINST THEM: — for the Saints will marvelously rejoice over their impious enemies conquered, trampled, and consigned to eternal damnation. So St. Jerome.
Second, Vatablus explains it, meaning: God will conquer the Assyrians not with arms, nor fighting seriously, but as if playing.
Third, Forerius, meaning: The Assyrians and Sennacherib will be conquered not by arms, but by sacrifices, which were offered with timbrels and harps: for the prayers of the pious avail more for victory than the arms of soldiers. For in Hebrew תנופה tenupha, which our Translator renders 'glorious,' signifies elevation and agitation, and from this a victim, which in sacrifice was offered to God the Creator of all by elevating and agitating it toward the four quarters of the world in the form of a cross.
But rather a battle of tenupha is a fierce and illustrious battle, in which the victor tosses the enemy in every direction, as a lion does a bull; or in which, as if certain of victory, he exults with the raising of hands, rejoices, and as it were celebrates a triumph while fighting. Therefore our Translator rightly renders it "in glorious battles;" and accordingly the first sense is more genuine; the Septuagint translates tenupha as 'interchange'; for they translate: they themselves will fight against him with timbrels and harp by way of interchange.
Verse 33: FOR TOPHETH HAS BEEN PREPARED FROM OF OLD
33. FOR TOPHETH HAS BEEN PREPARED FROM OF OLD. — The Chaldean renders it: hell; the Septuagint: a deep valley. For Topheth was Gehenna, that is, the valley of the sons of Hinnom, near Jerusalem, where the Jews burned their children to the idol Moloch, and, lest they be moved by their wailing, they beat תוף toph, that is, drums; hence the place was called Topheth, as if 'Drum,' and from its owners it was called Gehenna: hence, on account of a similar cruelty and burning, the underworld was called Topheth and Gehenna.
Now first, St. Cyril, St. Thomas, Hugo, Forerius and Sanchez refer these words to the Assyrians and Chaldeans, and think that Sennacherib's troops were slain by the Angel in Topheth, indeed burned, just as in Topheth infants were burned to the idol Moloch. Again, for the Chaldeans and the king, as Pagninus translates, namely Belshazzar, "there was prepared" by God his own "Topheth," namely in Babylon, where he was cast unburied into a dung-heap and rotted: just as in Topheth was the burial place of the Jews, who rotted there, as Jeremiah teaches in chapter XIX, 11. The Septuagint translates quite differently, namely: for you will be deceived before the days. For so the Complutensian edition reads, although the Roman codices of Caraffa have: for you will be demanded before the days; for the slip was easy from ἀπατηθήσῃ, that is, you will be deceived, to ἀπαιτηθήσῃ, that is, you will be demanded. The cause of this diversity is that the Septuagint took Topheth, or, as it is in Hebrew, Tophte, not as a proper noun, but as the future of the verb פתח patha, that is, he allured, he deceived.
Second and genuinely, the Prophet here gives the reason why he said in the preceding verse that the passage of God's rod upon the wicked is established, that is, perpetual; because, namely, He has prepared for them from of old, that is, from ancient times, from the beginning of the world, Topheth, that is, hell. Concerning the origin, etymology, etc., of Topheth, I shall speak at Jeremiah VII, 31.
The Jews from this passage think that "Topheth," or hell, was created by God on the second day of the world, because that day only had "yesterday," that is, one prior day; but "yesterday" signifies all past time, as I showed at Hebrews XIII, 8; see what was said at Genesis I, 4, where I showed that hell was established immediately after the fall of the Angels on the first day of the world. "Yesterday" therefore signifies first, that for the damned the torments and fires are always new and fresh, as if they had begun the day before. Second, the eternity of the same: because in eternity, as being stable and immovable, whatever span of ages is the same as yesterday: and therefore at any moment of eternity that fierce fire of hell will be as if it were burning today and had begun to be kindled yesterday, says Sanchez.
Note here six conditions of hell. The first is that it is "Topheth," that is, a place of burning and of the drum that is beaten. The second, that from "yesterday," that is, from the beginning of the world, it has been prepared for the wicked. The third, that it is "deep," because it is near the center of the earth: hence, Job X, 21, it is called "a land of darkness and covered with the mist of death." See St. Gregory there. The fourth, that it is "widened": both because it has a spacious belly, to hold so many millions of human beings; and because it has an open and gaping mouth, to swallow the damned: hence hell is compared to a hungry beast, gaping from hunger, and widening the opening of its mouth to devour food or a person. Hence it is said in Habakkuk II: "He has widened his soul like hell;" and in Isaiah v: "Therefore hell has widened its soul, and has opened its mouth without any limit." Indeed "hell insatiably extends its hollow gullet." Hence in Hebrew hell is called שאול sheol, that is, demanding; because, as is said in Proverbs XXX, 13: "Three things are insatiable, and the fourth never says: Enough; hell, and the mouth of the womb, and the earth that is not satiated with water: and fire never says: Enough." The fifth condition of hell follows, when he says:
ITS FUEL IS FIRE AND MUCH WOOD. — By "wood," which is the common fuel of fire, he understands by catachresis any other fuel whatsoever; such as will be eternal sulfur, and the same in number always burning, as I said at Revelation XIX. Again, the very bodies of the damned: for these are called wood, Luke XXIII, 31; Ecclesiasticus XI, 3. Calvin takes fire, etc., metaphorically as the punishment of God. For he denies that the damned in hell are burned with fire, and accordingly asserts that the punishment of the damned is nothing other than that they continually apprehend that God is angry with them: for by this apprehension they are tormented and tortured. But Scripture and Christ everywhere threaten the damned with real fire: "Depart from Me, you cursed, into everlasting fire," He Himself says, Matthew XXV, 41. The same is taught by the Church, St. Augustine and all the Fathers. See here how Calvin enervates matters of faith, and how he removes from men the fear of God and of hell, when he makes it imaginary and fantastical. This is the fraud of the devil, and men without fear of hell sin with impunity.
THE BREATH OF THE LORD LIKE A TORRENT OF BRIMSTONE KINDLES IT. — "Topheth," or hell. This is the sixth condition of hell. Just as therefore it is said of the Blessed, Psalm XXXV: "You will give them drink from the torrent of Your delight, for with You is the fountain of life," which, namely, perpetually for all eternity instills life and the same joys into the Blessed: so from God a torrent of sulfurous fire will burst forth, which with the same ever-burning heat will torture the damned for all eternity.
Moreover, "the breath of the Lord" is a stormy wind divinely excited there to intensify the fire, just as wind excites the conflagration of Etna, or it is the divine power perpetually preserving the fire, by which that fire will burn perpetually without consumption. This breath will kindle hell just as if a torrent of burning sulfur were poured into it: what more terrifying thing can be conceived in the mind?
"Hell is a lake without measure, deep without bottom, full of incomparable heat, full of intolerable stench; there is misery, there is darkness, there is no order, there is eternal horror; there is no hope of good, no cessation of evil," says Hugo, book IV On the Soul: "In a dreadful manner death without death befalls the wretched, end without end, failure without failure; because death always lives, and the end always begins, and failure knows not how to fail. Death slays, but does not extinguish; pain tortures, but in no way drives away fear; flame burns, but in no way dispels the darkness," says St. Gregory, IX Morals XXX.
Morally, learn here how great are the torments of hell, how eternal the fires; meditate on them often, always place them before your eyes, when enticement solicits you to sin, when lust, when companions; place your finger in fire, in a burning candle for a few moments, and say to yourself: If so great is the torment of a burning candle for a moment, how great will be the torment of the fire of hell burning for all eternity? "I will not purchase eternal repentance at so great a price;" I do not deserve a little honey at the cost of eternal gall, indeed fire. St. Gregory, book IV of the Dialogues, reports that Peter the hermit died and was immediately restored to his body and narrated that he had seen the punishments of hell and innumerable places of flames, and in them had observed certain powerful men of this world: and when he had already been led to be plunged into those flames himself, suddenly an angel of radiant garb appeared, who forbade him to be plunged into the fire, saying: "Go back, and most carefully attend to how you must live hereafter." Reviving, he constrained himself with such fasts and vigils that even if his tongue were silent, his way of life declared that he had seen and greatly feared the torments of hell. In the same place St. Gregory narrates that an illustrious man Stephen died and was led to the torments of hell, and saw many things which he had not believed when he heard them before: and when he was brought before the judge, he heard: "I did not order this one brought, but Stephen the blacksmith." He was immediately restored to his body, and Stephen the blacksmith, who lived near him, died at that same hour.
St. Gregory continues: A certain soldier, he says, coming back to himself from death, asserted that he had seen these things: "There was a bridge, under which a black and dark river flowed, exhaling a mist of intolerable stench. But beyond the bridge there were pleasant and green meadows, adorned with fragrant flowers of herbs, in which gatherings of people in white garments appeared to be: and so great was the odor of sweetness in that place, that the very fragrance of the sweetness satisfied those walking and dwelling there: there were dwellings of various persons, each full of the greatness of light: there a certain house of wondrous power was being built, which seemed to be constructed of golden bricks, but whose it was could not be known. There were indeed some habitations on the bank of the said river; but the mist of the rising stench covered some, while the rising stench from the river did not at all touch others. And this was the test on the said bridge: that whoever of the unjust wished to cross over it, would slip into the dark and fetid river; but the just, whom no fault hindered, would reach the pleasant places with a secure and free step across it."
How Josaphat, converted by Barlaam, was led into paradise and hell, and what manner of things and how great they were that he saw there, by which he completely overcame a most grave temptation of lust, indeed fell into sickness and loss of strength, Damascene narrates in his History of him, chapter XXX.
John Climacus, at step 4, narrates that in visiting monasteries he found a certain brother who had charge of the kitchen, endowed with a singular grace of tears: when he asked where he had obtained it, he heard from him "that he had never considered himself to be serving men in kitchen duties, but to be meriting well of the Apostles through his brothers; and from the sight of the fire which he perpetually beheld, he had contemplated the vast conflagrations of the fire of hell in his mind: which consideration was accustomed to draw abundant tears from his eyes." Likewise our Father Francis Borgia, through meditation on hell, attained such great contempt for himself and the world, and when he was burning with fever, he said: "From this, Francis, conjecture how great are the flames of hell."
St. Gregory, IV Dialogues XXX, asserts that a certain holy and solitary man saw Theodoric king of the Goths, at the hour he died, between Pope John and Symmachus the Patrician, whom he had unjustly killed, ungirded, barefoot, and with his hands bound behind his back, being cast into the volcanic crater which is on the island of Lipari. A certain man who had been blinded by Ebroin heard from sailors that to the same crater the soul of the tyrant Ebroin was being transported by ship, as Ado narrates in his Chronicle, age 6.
St. Mary of Oignies saw her deceased mother, saying that she was damned for the unjust goods she had possessed; and because, she said, I refused to notice what was being done against God in my household and by my subjects. Hearing this, Mary immediately conformed herself to God's will and blessed the just judgment of God, as Cardinal Vitriaco reports in book III of her Life, chapter XI.
Remember your last things, remember hell, and you will never sin. O Topheth! O hell! How fierce you are! How vast! How everlasting!