Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
The Prophet had persuaded the Jews at the end of the preceding chapter that those who worship God and hope in Him would renew their strength and mount up like eagles; here he now shows how much more wisely they act than the Gentiles, who trust in their idols. He therefore introduces God disputing with the Gentiles and, as it were, pleading His case before judges, and wishing that they would plead the cause of their gods, since the idols themselves, being mute images, cannot speak for themselves. He therefore presents God pleading His own cause, and beginning thus: Let the islands keep silence before me, etc. First, He proves His divinity point by point from the power and providence which He showed to His servants, namely Abraham and his descendants, by giving them so many miraculous victories, leading them through the desert, protecting them, etc. Second, at verse 11, by promising them in the future this same help and beneficence, whereby He tacitly exhorts them to persist in faith, hope, and worship of Him. Third, at verse 21, He disputes with the idols and proves by two arguments that they are not gods. The first is the certain prediction of future events, which He demonstrates belongs to Himself and not to the gods of the Gentiles. The second is, at verse 24, that the idols neither exist of themselves nor are firm, but were made by craftsmen and fastened with glue lest they dissolve and collapse, and therefore they can do neither good nor evil to anyone (1):
Vulgate Text: Isaiah 41:1-29
1. Let the islands keep silence before me, and let the nations renew their strength: let them come near, and then let them speak. Let us come near together to judgment. 2. Who raised up the just one from the East, called him to follow him? He will give the nations in his sight, and he will obtain kings: he will give them as dust to his sword, as stubble driven by the wind to his bow. 3. He shall pursue them, he shall pass in peace, the path
shall not appear in his feet. 4. Who has wrought and done these things, calling the generations from the beginning? I the Lord, the first and the last, I am He. 5. The islands saw and feared, the ends of the earth were astonished, they drew near and came. 6. Every one shall help his neighbor, and shall say to his brother: Be of good courage. 7. The coppersmith striking with the hammer encouraged him who was forging at that time, saying: It is good for the soldering: and he fastened it with nails, that it should not be moved. 8. But you, Israel, My servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham My friend: 9. in whom I took hold of you from the ends of the earth, and from its remote places called you, and said to you: You are My servant, I have chosen you, and have not cast you away. 10. Fear not, for I am with you: turn not aside, for I am your God: I have strengthened you, and have helped you, and the right hand of My just one has upheld you. 11. Behold all who fight against you shall be confounded and ashamed: they shall be as nothing, and the men who strive against you shall perish. 12. You shall seek them and shall not find them, the men who resist you: they shall be as nothing: and as a thing consumed, the men who war against you. 13. For I am the Lord your God, who takes you by the hand, and says to you: Fear not, I have helped you. 14. Fear not, you worm of Jacob, you who are dead of Israel: I have helped you, says the Lord: and your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. 15. I have made you as a new sharp threshing instrument having teeth: you shall thresh the mountains, and break them in pieces: and shall make the hills as chaff. 16. You shall fan them, and the wind shall carry them away, and the whirlwind shall scatter them: and you shall rejoice in the Lord, in the Holy One of Israel you shall be joyful. 17. The needy and the poor seek water, and there is none: their tongue has been dry with thirst. I the Lord will hear them, the God of Israel will not forsake them. 18. I will open rivers on the high hills, and fountains in the midst of the plains: I will turn the desert into pools of waters, and the impassable land into streams of waters. 19. I will plant in the wilderness the cedar, and the thorn, and the myrtle, and the olive tree: I will set in the desert the fir tree, the elm, and the box tree together: 20. that they may see, and know, and consider, and understand together, that the hand of the Lord has done this, and the Holy One of Israel has created it. 21. Bring your cause near, says the Lord: bring forth your arguments, if you have any, says the King of Jacob. 22. Let them come and tell us what things are to happen: tell us the former things what they were: and we will set our heart upon them, and shall know the latter end of them, and tell us the things that are to come. 23. Show the things that are to come hereafter, and we shall know that you are gods. Do good also, or evil, if you can: and let us speak, and let us see together. 24. Behold, you are of nothing, and your work of that which has no being: he is an abomination who has chosen you. 25. I have raised up one from the north, and he shall come from the rising of the sun: he shall call upon My name, and he shall bring the magistrates as clay, and as the potter treading the mire. 26. Who has declared from the beginning, that we may know: and from of old, that we may say: You are just? There is none that shows, none that foretells, none that hears your words. 27. The first shall say to Zion: Behold they are here, and to Jerusalem I will give an evangelist. 28. And I saw, and there was no one even of these who could give counsel, and being asked could answer a word. 29. Behold they are all unjust, and their works are vain: their idols are wind and vanity.
Verse 1: LET THEM BE SILENT. — Theodotion renders: let them mutter and be silent. "Let them be silent," therefore, means let them listen to me in silence: it is a metalepsis. For He does not impose absolute si...
1. LET THEM BE SILENT. — Theodotion renders: let them mutter and be silent. "Let them be silent," therefore, means let them listen to me in silence: it is a metalepsis. For He does not impose absolute silence on the Gentiles, since He provokes them and wishes to contend with them juridically, but He demands that they silently
listen to Him as He presents the arguments of His cause and divinity. Then let them freely respond, if they have anything to say. For this is what He means by "let them renew their strength," that is, let them be strengthened in courage, power, and arguments, so that they may dispute with Me; let them boldly, strongly, and audaciously refute Me, and establish their cause if they can. "Let them come near," therefore, and when they have heard Me, "then let them speak. Let us draw near together to judgment." So say St. Jerome, Cyril, Procopius, and Theodoret. It is a hysterologia, that is, an inverted order of words; for in normal order it would have said: Let the nations renew their strength, let them come near, let us draw near together to judgment, let them listen to me in silence, then let them speak. So Forerius.
For "let them be silent," Symmachus translates: plow (for the Hebrew חרש charas also means this) toward me, O islands, that is, as Procopius says, serve me, O islands, as a plowman serves his master. The Septuagint, reading חדש chadas instead of חרש charas, meaning "he renewed, he built," translate ἐγκαινίζεσθε, that is, celebrate a dedication, or, as the interpreter of Nazianzen in his oration on the new Lord's Day renders it, "enenianini," as if to say: Break up the fallow ground of paganism with the plow of faith and the preaching of Christ. Again, break up the fallow ground of your heart, plow, sow in it new virtues and good works, and thus dedicate your heart as a new temple of God, and celebrate the dedication thereof. In a similar way, Jeremiah says in chapter IV, 3: "Break up your fallow ground, and do not sow among thorns." Third, the Hebrew charas can be translated as: fashion and build yourselves toward me, O islands, so that you may be for me a spiritual house.
ISLANDS. — He calls islands the islanders, that is, the remote nations situated across the sea from the Jews, such as the Greeks, Italians, Spaniards, etc.
Verse 2: WHO RAISED UP THE JUST ONE FROM THE EAST? — First, Hugo, Adamus, and Pagninus understand by "the just one" Cyrus, who was the executor of divine justice and vengeance by overthrowing the Chaldean tyra...
2. WHO RAISED UP THE JUST ONE FROM THE EAST? — First, Hugo, Adamus, and Pagninus understand by "the just one" Cyrus, who was the executor of divine justice and vengeance by overthrowing the Chaldean tyrants and liberating the Hebrews from them, whom God called forth from the East, that is, from Persia. The words of Isaiah favor this interpretation, as he graphically describes his victories just as in chapter XLV, where he explicitly names Cyrus at verse 1. For that chapter appears similar to this one and of the same argument.
Second, St. Jerome, Cyril, and Procopius understand by "the just one" Christ, as if to say: Christ was given by God to mankind as a kind of sun of justice rising in the East. For just as the sun rising there illuminates and vivifies the world, so Christ, as Zechariah says, "visited" and enlightened "us, the rising from on high," that is, from the rising of the divine light; for from there God the Father caused Him to rise for us.
Third, and most genuinely in the literal sense, he calls Abraham "the just one," because he alone among the unfaithful and impious lived as almost the only faithful and just man: hence he is called "the just," Wisdom X, 5, just as Lot among the Sodomites is called "the just," in the same passage, verse 6. Again, Abraham is called just because he was, as it were, the father of faith and justice, propagating it among the Canaanites and to his descendants. Finally, because he begot Christ, the just one and the justifier of the world. Hence in Hebrew, for "the just one" we have צדק tsedec, that is, "justice": for this justice, dead in the world, God raised up through Abraham, and as it were built it up. God therefore called Abraham from the East, that is, from Mesopotamia, which lies east of Palestine, "to follow Him"; for Abraham followed God who called him, with blind obedience, "not knowing where he was going," Hebrews XI, 8. For "Him" the Hebrew has לרגלו leraglo, that is, "at his foot," as if to say: God showed and, as it were, went before Abraham on the way, and Abraham, like a blind man stepping foot by foot in His footsteps, followed securely and confidently. So the Chaldean, St. Thomas, Hugo, Lyranus, Forerius, Sanchez, and others.
Vatablus translates and explains this passage somewhat differently in this way: Who raised up justice from the East (that is, the just Abraham)? He proclaimed it at his foot, that is, Abraham preached justice in all the places through which he traveled and in which he dwelt. Justice, he says, means the worship of the one God. For he who does not render to others what is theirs is unjust; therefore also he who defrauds God of His honor. As if to say: Abraham, that glorious Patriarch, lived among you idolaters, yet it was not the idols that made him noble, but God: and although you knew this, you nevertheless did not abandon your idols to follow Abraham, the just man blessed by God. So far Vatablus.
HE WILL GIVE THE NATIONS IN HIS SIGHT. — "He will give," that is, He gave; for all these future tenses are to be interpreted as past, both because the past tense "raised up" preceded, and the things that follow are joined to it by "and"; hence they are to be interpreted with the same tenor and tense; and because past tenses follow: "Who has wrought these things," etc. See Canon XIII. So the Chaldean, Forerius, and Vatablus, who aptly translates thus: He delivered, or was delivering before him the nations, and caused him to rule over kings, so that he might make them as dust before his sword, and as stubble before his bow. He pursued them and came through unharmed by a way his feet had never before traveled. He speaks first of Abraham's victory, which he achieved swiftly, easily, and without bloodshed over Chedorlaomer and three other kings in liberating his nephew Lot, Genesis chapter XIV, 15, as if to say: Who made Abraham victorious over those four kings proud of their conquest? Was it the worship of idols that accomplished this? By no means; but I did: and therefore worship Me, not idols, and you will experience the same. Second, he speaks of the victories which Abraham's descendants, namely Moses, Joshua, and the Hebrews, often won miraculously over the Amalekites, Canaanites, Philistines, and other nations. For what was conferred on his descendants is considered as given to Abraham. For thus the land of Canaan was promised not to him personally, but to him in his descendants, Genesis chapter XIII, 15. See Canon XXXIV.
HE WILL GIVE THEM AS DUST TO HIS SWORD. — "Dust," namely "driven by the wind," as follows; for this must be supplied here by zeugma, as if to say:
As easily as the wind sweeps away and scatters dust and stubble, so easily did Abraham and the Hebrews slaughter their enemies.
Verse 3: HE PASSED IN PEACE. — Forerius and Vatablus translate: peace, or soundness, passed through, that is, Abraham came through from battle whole and unharmed with his men. For the Hebrews often put abstrac...
3. HE PASSED IN PEACE. — Forerius and Vatablus translate: peace, or soundness, passed through, that is, Abraham came through from battle whole and unharmed with his men. For the Hebrews often put abstract nouns for concrete ones. Second, our translator, by supplying the understood beth, that is "in," which is frequent in Hebrew, translates "he passed in peace," that is, peacefully, wholly, and happily, with none of his men lost. Thus peacefully the Hebrews under Joshua occupied Canaan, with God fighting for them and striking and routing the Canaanites.
THE PATH SHALL NOT APPEAR IN HIS FEET. — First, it can be a hypallage, as if, with the words inverted, he were saying: He passed through so swiftly in attacking the kings that his feet did not appear on the path, that is, he left no footprints on the road; for hypallage is familiar to the Hebrews.
Second, in the proper sense, as if to say: God led Abraham and the Hebrews so healthy, vigorous, and whole, both through the desert and as victors through Canaan, that no trace of the path and such a great journey appeared on their feet. For their feet did not grow calluses, nor were their shoes or garments worn out by age, just as if they had traveled no distance at all; for this is what is said in Deuteronomy XXIX, 5: "He led you forty years through the desert: your garments are not worn out, nor are the sandals of your feet consumed with age"; and Deuteronomy chapter VIII, 4: "Your foot has not been bruised." So Sanchez.
Forerius and Vatablus translate differently, namely: His feet had never before traveled this road, as if to say: Abraham went by an unknown way and waged an unaccustomed war, for he had never before entered battle: therefore this victory of his was all the greater, and God's favor and protection toward him all the greater. For he obtained the victory with God as his guide.
Finally, St. Jerome, Cyril, and Theodoret, who interpret these things of Christ, explain it thus, as if to say: Christ will pass through as conqueror so easily and swiftly, and will subject enemies and nations everywhere to His faith, that He will seem not so much to have walked as to have flown, or, like the sun, to have pervaded and occupied all things with His light in a moment; for His spiritual victory is described through arms and material things, because it alludes to the arms and victories of either Abraham or Cyrus, who was also a type of Christ.
Specifically, by "feet" Procopius and St. Augustine, commenting on Psalm XC, "Lest perhaps you dash your foot against a stone," understand the Apostles by whom Christ traversed the world, whom Saul wished to trample: but in vain. For of these it is said, chapter LII, 7: "How beautiful are the feet of him who announces... peace!" Christ therefore is the swift plunderer; hence the name given to Him, chapter VIII, 3: "Make haste to take away the spoils: Make speed to plunder." This meaning is fitting, but allegorical rather than literal.
Verse 4: WHO HAS WROUGHT AND DONE THESE THINGS, CALLING THE GENERATIONS FROM THE BEGINNING? — Forerius places the question mark after "done," as if the answer then follows: He does it who calls the generations...
4. WHO HAS WROUGHT AND DONE THESE THINGS, CALLING THE GENERATIONS FROM THE BEGINNING? — Forerius places the question mark after "done," as if the answer then follows: He does it who calls the generations from the beginning. But the Roman Bible and others place the mark after "from the beginning." The sense therefore is, as if to say: Who brought it about that the Hebrews, unarmed and timid, should expel so many nations from their regions, should win so many victories unharmed, and this in a continuous succession of generations from Abraham their father down to the present Hezekiah? Surely none other than God, who calls the generations from the beginning, who indeed called and chose all Hebrews descended from Abraham up to this point as His own people, and who, as He bestowed benefits upon Abraham, so also upon his descendants, as long as they worshipped Him and hoped in Him.
Note the phrase "calling the generations," that is, creating them, and, as the Chaldean puts it, ordering the perpetual course of generations so that one continually succeeds another. It is a metalepsis. "Calling," that is, foreknowing, providing, and placing each one individually in its order, so that He can distinctly designate and summon each one, and in fact does summon and produce each one in its time, as if to say: Who is it that makes successive generations follow one another in continuous series? For example: Who brought it about that Abraham should come in his time, then Isaac, then Jacob, afterward Moses, Joshua, David, and the rest down to the present Isaiah and Hezekiah, and after Hezekiah will in like manner bring on others and others, and at last Christ, as Cyril and Procopius say, whose generations He will likewise order, so that in His Church, first Apostles, then Martyrs, then Doctors, and others in succession to the end of the world, may follow one another in their order? Who, I ask, ordered all these generations from Abraham, indeed from Adam, down to Hezekiah; and in like manner will order them from him down to Christ and the end of the world, unless God, who, as St. Paul says, is "the King of the ages," that is, the author, creator, and governor of the ages, who by His providence arranges in a fixed series the ages and the events destined for each age? The reason for this is that, as St. Dionysius says in De Divinis Nominibus, chapter V, in God and around God the whole and entire being, every entity and subsistence, revolves and, as it were, turns. For just as in a wheel the felloes revolve around the axle, in a circle the circumferences revolve around the center, and in the world the heavens revolve around the earth: so all times and ages, past, present, and future, revolve in a fixed order around the eternity of God; for this is always stable, and the same present to every time, and embraces and encompasses every time. This is what Boethius sings in Book III of the Consolation:
O You who govern the world with perpetual reason, Sower of earth and heaven, who command time to proceed from eternity, And remaining stable, give all things their motion, At once the beginning, bearer, guide, path, and end!
I THE LORD, THE FIRST AND THE LAST, — as if to say: "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end," Apocalypse XXII, 13. "I am He. Before Me there was no God formed, and after Me there shall be none," Isaiah, chapter XLIII, 10,
as if to say: I create, preserve, and dispose all ages, because I am the first and the last; I precede and follow all ages. I am the one from whom all things come, to whom all things tend, around whom all things revolve. The idols and gods of the nations do not do this; for they are fabricated and carved by those very persons: therefore they are younger than their own craftsmen — how then are they the first and the last? How could they have ordered all ages, indeed their own worship and worshippers, from the beginning? The Septuagint translates: I am God the first, and in those things which are to come I am He, as if to say: I was, I am, and I shall be in every age; I am eternal. So also the Chaldean referred these words to the eternity of God.
Thus Plato, in Book IV of the Laws, says there is an ancient proverb about God, that He contains and encompasses the beginning, middle, and end of all things. Thus Theocritus in the Encomium of Ptolemy says: Among men let Ptolemy be called the first, the last, and the middle.
In the literal Hebrew they have: I the Lord am the first, and with the last I am He, with the understood addition "I shall be," as if to say: I am the first, because I created all things: and after the last things, and after the consummation of the world, I shall be: I am the last, I am eternal, without beginning and end. So Vatablus. And consequently I am the Alpha and Omega, I am the sum of all things, I am the prow and stern of the universe, its head and foot. All things proceed from Me as from a fountain, and to the same all things are directed as to the harbor of happiness. Hence that saying of Virgil: "From you the beginning, in you the end."
Verse 5: THE ISLANDS SAW AND FEARED, — as if to say: The remote nations, hearing of the victories granted not only to Abraham, but also to Moses in the crossing of the Red Sea and in the desert, and to Joshua...
5. THE ISLANDS SAW AND FEARED, — as if to say: The remote nations, hearing of the victories granted not only to Abraham, but also to Moses in the crossing of the Red Sea and in the desert, and to Joshua in Canaan, and to their other descendants, acknowledged the power of the God of the Hebrews, and struck with fear they feared Him, as is clear from Exodus XV, 15, and Joshua V, 1. Yet from ingrained habit they persisted in their idolatry, and persist forever, and mutually exhort one another to defend it; and since they have nothing with which to solidly defend their idols or establish their divinity, so that they may appear to have some firmness, they compose their idol, which of itself is futile and destined to collapse, from strong material, and cover it with plates, and fasten and solidify it with nails.
Those who refer these things to Christ explain it thus: The nations saw the glory and miracles of Christ, and through them came to Christ and yielded to the evangelical preaching and the victory of the word of God. So St. Cyril, Jerome, Procopius, Haymo, Adamus, and St. Augustine, in De Unitate Ecclesiæ, chapter VI. But since what follows is: "Every one, etc., shall say to his brother: Be of good courage," namely to make an idol; hence it is better to understand these things of the nations who, aroused by the fame of Christ and the Gospel, rose up for their paganism against Christ, as nearly all the Emperors did during the first three hundred years of the Church down to Constantine.
BE OF GOOD COURAGE. — This is the cry of idolaters wishing to stoutly defend their idols against God, who was displaying His divinity and power through so many victories and miracles, and mutually encouraging one another to make their idol's construction firm and elegant, so that all together would vigorously and stoutly persist in fabricating and stabilizing the idol. This is clear from what follows. In the same way, after Christ and against Christ, the idolaters acted, as is clear from Acts XIX, 27, in the case of the craftsmen of Diana. So Lyranus, Arias, Forerius, and Vatablus.
Verse 7: THE SMITH ENCOURAGED, — as if to say: One coppersmith who uses a hammer and anvil, that is, a hammerer, encouraged another smith, his companion or assistant, who was likewise hammering the same idol (...
7. THE SMITH ENCOURAGED, — as if to say: One coppersmith who uses a hammer and anvil, that is, a hammerer, encouraged another smith, his companion or assistant, who was likewise hammering the same idol (for just as some idols were cast from molten metal, and some were joined together, so also some were hammered with a mallet upon an anvil), exhorting them to proceed together boldly and eagerly in fabricating and fashioning the idol; and to unite its parts with glue, saying by way of praise and encouragement: "The glue," that is, concerning the glue (for this is the Hebrew לדבק laddebec), "it is good"; the Septuagint renders: the soldering is good; in Greek σύμβλημα, that is, a joining or fusion; Symmachus, Aquila, and Theodotion render εἰς κόλλαν, that is, "for the gluing it is good." Come then, let us use this glue and join the parts of the idol most excellently; and at last he fastened the idol thus fashioned to the wall with nails, so that it would be firm and immovable. In sum, as if to say: Smith encouraged smith, hammerer encouraged hammerer, to defend and fabricate idols.
Verse 8: BUT YOU, ISRAEL, MY SERVANT. — Having shown the Gentiles the vanity of idols, namely that they can confer no help or aid upon their worshippers, God turns to the Israelites, His worshippers, and confi...
8. BUT YOU, ISRAEL, MY SERVANT. — Having shown the Gentiles the vanity of idols, namely that they can confer no help or aid upon their worshippers, God turns to the Israelites, His worshippers, and confirms them in His worship, faith, and hope, promising that He will be their God and protector, just as He was Abraham's.
Allegorically, by Israel he understands the spiritual Israel, namely Christians, who imitate the ancestral faith of Abraham and Israel, that is, Jacob; for he gradually rises to them, and indeed St. Cyril, Jerome, Theodoret, Pope Eusebius in his first Decretal epistle, and St. Augustine in De Unitate Ecclesiæ, chapter VII, take these words literally of them. See Canons VIII and XXII, as if to say: I took hold of Christians not only in Judea but everywhere among the remotest nations, and through all adversities, hardships, enemies, and dangers kept them safe, protected them, and as it were led them by the hand, as My friends, to whom I show the greatest love, affection, and fatherly care. Concerning this affection and care of God for His faithful, the Prophet speaks through the six following chapters, in which he wondrously consoles the Apostles and us believers, and raises us to hope against all afflictions, temptations, and martyrdoms, and encourages us to freely preach the word of God amid them. So the Fathers already cited.
Verse 9: IN WHOM I TOOK HOLD. — The Septuagint, the Chaldean, Vatablus, Forerius, and others translate more clearly: whom (namely Israel) I took hold of. But the sense is the same, indeed more expressive, if y...
9. IN WHOM I TOOK HOLD. — The Septuagint, the Chaldean, Vatablus, Forerius, and others translate more clearly: whom (namely Israel) I took hold of. But the sense is the same, indeed more expressive, if you translate with our Vulgate, "in whom," namely Abraham, as if to say: When I called Abraham from the ends of the earth, that is, from remote Chaldea, in him I simultaneously called his children and took hold of all his posterity.
Verse 10: AND THE RIGHT HAND OF MY JUST ONE HAS UPHELD YOU. — In Hebrew, "of My justice," as if to say: I upheld you with My just and faithful right hand; for with the same faithfulness with which I upheld and...
10. AND THE RIGHT HAND OF MY JUST ONE HAS UPHELD YOU. — In Hebrew, "of My justice," as if to say: I upheld you with My just and faithful right hand; for with the same faithfulness with which I upheld and protected Abraham, I upheld and protected his descendants, as I had promised Abraham. So the Septuagint, the Chaldean, Vatablus, and Forerius.
But the word "justice" can be taken for "the just one," as it is taken in verse 2, and the sense comes to the same thing. Accordingly, by "the just one" Lyranus understands Moses, Hugo understands Cyrus, St. Jerome, Haymo, and others understand Christ, while more genuinely in the literal sense St. Thomas and others understand Abraham; for he has been speaking of him since verse 2. Yet so that through Abraham he rises and tends toward Christ. For the Prophets are accustomed to gradually rising from type to antitype, from shadow to reality, and finally to embrace both in the literal sense, as here he embraces both. See Canon V. I shall therefore explain these and the following passages literally of both with Forerius, as if to say: With the right hand with which I upheld Abraham, and much more Christ, with the same I upheld their children and descendants, who were contained in them as in their parents and in their loins. When therefore Abraham, and likewise Christ, extended his right hand to God, that is, embraced the knowledge and faith of God, and committed himself and his own to His help, grace, and guidance, in that right hand God embraced his whole family. So Forerius, Sanchez, and others.
I AM WITH YOU: TURN NOT ASIDE. — The Septuagint translates: for I am with you; I do not deceive.
Verse 11: BEHOLD THEY SHALL BE CONFOUNDED, — with God defending His own and fighting for them. These, therefore, are what God hurls against the enemies of His faithful: shame, disgrace, destruction, and total c...
11. BEHOLD THEY SHALL BE CONFOUNDED, — with God defending His own and fighting for them. These, therefore, are what God hurls against the enemies of His faithful: shame, disgrace, destruction, and total consumption and annihilation, as He annihilated Pharaoh and the Egyptians in the Red Sea, and the Canaanites in the promised land.
Verse 12: THEY SHALL BE AS NOTHING, — they shall be things of no account, soon to become nothing.
AND AS A THING CONSUMED (as that which has been consumed and destroyed, shall be) THE MEN WHO WAR (for so it should be read with the Roman edition and the Hebrews, not "of the man who wars," as some read) AGAINST YOU.
Verse 13: TAKING YOU BY THE HAND. — That is, encouraging you, helping you, strengthening you so that you may overcome your enemies and all adversities; for this is customarily done among men by clasping the rig...
13. TAKING YOU BY THE HAND. — That is, encouraging you, helping you, strengthening you so that you may overcome your enemies and all adversities; for this is customarily done among men by clasping the right hand, which is therefore a symbol of honor, covenant, and friendship. So Vatablus and Forerius.
Verse 14: FEAR NOT, YOU WORM (Vatablus: little worm) OF JACOB. — Historically and typically, St. Thomas, Hugo, Lyranus, Vatablus, and Forerius say this refers to the Jews afflicted by the Assyrians and soon to...
14. FEAR NOT, YOU WORM (Vatablus: little worm) OF JACOB. — Historically and typically, St. Thomas, Hugo, Lyranus, Vatablus, and Forerius say this refers to the Jews afflicted by the Assyrians and soon to be devastated by Nebuchadnezzar; but in the antitype to the Apostles and Christians (indeed St. Jerome, Haymo, and Adamus take these words literally of them), He calls them a little worm — on account of both their fewness and their contempt and humility — for example, an earthworm or a wood-boring grub that gnaws through timber. For they are similar to Christ, who says: "I am a worm, and not a man." Again: "Just as a worm penetrates the earth, so the apostolic word penetrates the cities of the Gentiles and entered hearts that were previously very hard," says St. Jerome; hence what follows: "You who are dead of Israel," as if to say: You who are afflicted and despised (hence the Septuagint translates: O little Israel; Forerius: O tiny Israel), exiles and outcasts, so as to be considered as dead, indeed to be punished with death by tyrants. Thus Job XXV, 6, says: "How much more is man rottenness, and the son of man a worm." And Isaiah properly looks to this, namely to the earthworm, for example, which is usually trampled and crushed underfoot. For this denotes a man who is lowly, weak, afflicted, and trampled. And in II Kings XXIII, 8, Jesbaam, or the one sitting in the chair, the chief among the mighty men of David, is called "the most tender wood worm." Christ alluded to this in Luke XII, 32, saying: "Fear not, little flock, for it has pleased your Father to give you a kingdom"; and Paul in I Corinthians IV, 9: "For I think that God has set forth us the Apostles last, as it were appointed to death." With a similar figure, Ezekiel, chapter XXXVII, 14, calls the Jews captive in Babylon "dry bones" and "the dead dwelling in their graves."
Verse 15: I HAVE MADE YOU AS A NEW SHARP THRESHING INSTRUMENT, — as if to say: You appear to be, indeed you are, a little worm and a corpse; but I will raise you up and strengthen you, so that, just as threshin...
15. I HAVE MADE YOU AS A NEW SHARP THRESHING INSTRUMENT, — as if to say: You appear to be, indeed you are, a little worm and a corpse; but I will raise you up and strengthen you, so that, just as threshing wagons armed with toothed and serrated wheels or tribula crush and thresh the crops, that is, beat out the grain (as was done in Palestine, and is still done in some regions): so also you may thresh the mountains and hills, that is, kings and tyrants; for we Israelites in the type subjugated them, and the Apostles in the reality subjected them at their feet by the word of God, "Destroying every height that exalts itself against the knowledge of God," II Corinthians chapter X, 5; for the Apostles either crushed their most powerful and exalted enemies, like mountains — as they did the demons — or subdued them by breaking their pride and converting them to Christ — as they did the unbelievers, whom they made most humble, and as it were subjected like dust to the feet and precepts of fishermen. So St. Jerome, Cyril, and Theodoret.
Verse 17: THE NEEDY AND THE POOR SEEK WATER, AND THERE IS NONE. — Historically and typically, God provided these very things to the Hebrews in the desert and at other times; for the desert was not a desert to t...
17. THE NEEDY AND THE POOR SEEK WATER, AND THERE IS NONE. — Historically and typically, God provided these very things to the Hebrews in the desert and at other times; for the desert was not a desert to them in their need, but as it were a paradise of delights: there was no lack of water, nor of bread from heaven, and in place of shady trees there was the pillar of cloud overshadowing the camp; indeed, since by a miracle springs burst forth in more than one place like rivers, which satisfied the thirst of the entire Hebrew camp — who can doubt that cedars, myrtles, olive trees, and the other trees that the Prophet names here grew there over the space of so many years, says Forerius. And if to anyone
this seems new, uncertain, and hard to believe, let him accept these things figuratively with Sanchez, as merely signifying the highest happiness, as if to say: God will embrace the Hebrews after the slaughter of Sennacherib and after the return from Babylon so indulgently and gently, as if He were producing rivers in a dry desert, cedars, myrtles, and other fruit-bearing and fragrant trees, just as He gave their fathers in the desert (for He alludes to this) most abundant waters from the rock which Moses struck with his staff on the hill of Horeb, Exodus XVII, 6. Indeed, literally, after the thirst and want which the Hebrews suffered in Babylon, when they returned from there God gave them abundant rain, as is clear from Zechariah chapter X, 1; and this because they hoped in God, not in idols.
But in the antitype, and far more truly in the spiritual sense, these things apply to the Apostles and the disciples of Christ; for God turned for them that harsh and forbidding mode of Christian and apostolic life into heavenly delights, and changed their sadness into joy and heavenly consolations. This is what Christ had promised them, that "rivers from the belly" of those who believe in Him would flow forth, and what they themselves, having experienced it, profess, when they say: "In all things we suffer tribulation, but are not distressed; we are in difficulties, but are not destitute; we suffer persecution, but are not forsaken; we are cast down, but we do not perish"; II Corinthians chapter IV, 8, and chapter VI, 9: "As dying, and behold we live; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as needy, yet enriching many; as having nothing, yet possessing all things."
Again, "the needy and the poor," as if to say: Wretched sinners held captive by the devil sought refreshment and liberation for their souls; but they did not find it, neither in the law of Moses nor among the philosophers; but I will provide this for them through Christ. So St. Jerome, Theodoret, Cyril, and Procopius.
Verse 18: I WILL OPEN ON THE SLOPING (so it should be read with the Roman edition, not "highest") HILLS. — "Sloping," that is, rising and mountainous. Hence Horace, in Book I of the Odes, says: "Whether cold Pr...
18. I WILL OPEN ON THE SLOPING (so it should be read with the Roman edition, not "highest") HILLS. — "Sloping," that is, rising and mountainous. Hence Horace, in Book I of the Odes, says: "Whether cold Præneste be mine, or sloping Tibur." For Tibur was a city situated on the ascent of a hill which we observe daily from Rome, of which even today we see the ruins, indeed the neighboring city and the new Tivoli. Hence the Septuagint translates: on the mountains; the Hebrew word שפי sephi means a precipice, as if to say: I will cause grace and the gifts of the Holy Spirit to abound in places that are arid from sin, barren, precipitous, and impassable. So Procopius, St. Jerome, Cyril, and Basil, commenting on Psalm XXVIII: "The voice of the Lord shaking the wilderness." He alludes to the rivers that customarily rise from mountains, as we observe the Rhine, the Meuse, the Inn, and others rising in the Alps.
Verse 19: I WILL PLANT IN THE WILDERNESS THE CEDAR, — as if to say: I will cause the hitherto uncultivated Gentile world, cultivated by apostolic preaching, to bring forth the most beautiful and at the same tim...
19. I WILL PLANT IN THE WILDERNESS THE CEDAR, — as if to say: I will cause the hitherto uncultivated Gentile world, cultivated by apostolic preaching, to bring forth the most beautiful and at the same time most fruitful trees of virtues. So St. Cyril, Procopius, Theodoret, and St. Jerome, who says: "The hand of the Lord brought it about that in the barrenness of the Gentiles streams of virtues were found, and in a land once desert and full of saltness, the cedar, cypress, and other trees were born: whose loftiness and summit hastening toward heavenly things the olive tree would illuminate, which is the nourishment of light and the rest of the weary." We see these things being fulfilled even today in Japan, Brazil, China, and other provinces of the Indies with great joy of spirit.
So also St. Gregory, in Homily 20 on the Gospels, says: "The cedars are those whose hearts are so solidified in eternal love that no corruption of earthly love can any longer corrupt them. The thorns are those who prick the hearts of their listeners and thus pierce the mind with the pain of compunction. The myrtles are those who temper the tribulation of their neighbors through compassion. The olives are the merciful. The firs are those who, placed in earthly bodies, contemplate heavenly things. The elms that support vines are the laypersons who by their generosity sustain holy men full of spiritual gifts. The box trees are those who, although from the infirmity of age they cannot bear good works, yet following the belief of their faithful parents, hold fast to the faith of perpetual greenness."
AND THE THORN. — In Hebrew it is שטים setim, which is a tree in the desert that is fragrant and incorruptible, surpassing all trees both in luster and in strength; in appearance similar to the white thorn: hence our translator calls it "thorn"; from which the ark, the tabernacle, and its vessels were made. So St. Jerome. See what was said on Exodus XXV, 10.
THE ELM. — The elm serves for various purposes, but especially for supporting vines. In Hebrew it is תדהר tidhar, which some translate as pine, so called from the splendor which it gives off when set on fire. For the root זהר zahar means to shine. Hence Forerius derives the Latin word tæda (torch) from the Hebrew tidhar. For the letter zain has the value of ds, whence it is often interchanged with daleth or d, as happens throughout the Hitpael conjugation.
THE BOX TREE. — The box tree in Hebrew is called תאשור theasur from happiness, because it is always green and luxuriant in foliage. So Forerius.
Verse 21: BRING YOUR CAUSE NEAR, — as if to say: I have thus far set forth the arguments for My divinity: you, O nations! if you have anything in favor of your idols, now bring it forth. So St. Jerome and Cyril...
21. BRING YOUR CAUSE NEAR, — as if to say: I have thus far set forth the arguments for My divinity: you, O nations! if you have anything in favor of your idols, now bring it forth. So St. Jerome and Cyril.
IF YOU HAVE ANY ARGUMENTS: — if they have any strong and solid argument for the divinity of their idols, let them bring it forth. For "forte" here is a noun, not an adverb; for the Hebrews call עצמות atsamot, that is "bones," the arguments and strong proofs which each person brings forth in his own cause and case in a trial: for these are in a cause and speech what bones and sinews are in a body. Hence the Septuagint translates: φέρετε εἰς μέσον τὰ ἰσχυρὰ ὑμῶν, bring into the midst your strong things; τὰ ἰσχυρά, your strengths and supports.
SAYS THE KING OF JACOB. — He purposely calls God the King of Jacob, to mock the gods of the nations, who although
they received worship as if they were gods, yet by them their worshippers are neither governed nor defended, as the Israelites are by their God.
Verse 22: TELL US THE FORMER THINGS WHAT THEY WERE: AND WE WILL SET OUR HEART, AND SHALL KNOW THE LATTER END OF THEM. — The word "their" does not refer to the idols, but to "the former things": for in Hebrew bo...
22. TELL US THE FORMER THINGS WHAT THEY WERE: AND WE WILL SET OUR HEART, AND SHALL KNOW THE LATTER END OF THEM. — The word "their" does not refer to the idols, but to "the former things": for in Hebrew both are in the feminine gender. God here addresses the idols themselves and disputes with them, as if to say: O idols! O stones! O logs! O trunks! If you are gods, show your divine omniscience, or at least your knowledge of former and past things; announce the beginnings of things, the origins of the world and of the Divinity. Tell what God did, thought, and decreed from the beginning and from eternity; from that "we will set our heart," that is, we will understand, and "we will know" that you also know "the last things of them," that is, those things which will follow and come to pass after those former things already mentioned; from that we will recognize that there is something prophetic and divine in you. So Origen, in Book IV of the Periarchon, chapter II. This sense is plain and easy. For although the demons, who occasionally speak through idols, know the beginnings of the world (for they saw them, since they were created together with heaven and earth), yet they do not know the beginnings of the Divinity.
Again, the Prophet speaks to the wooden and stone idols themselves, which of themselves and ordinarily are as mute as they are mindless: for it more rarely happens that a demon speaks through them.
Second, Sanchez explains it thus, as if to say: Announce, O nations! those things which your gods predicted, and "we will set our heart," that is, we will consider and weigh "the last things," that is, the outcomes and results of them, and from the outcome we will judge whether they spoke truly. He also offers another sense, as if to say: Consider the former things of the idols, and you will see their last things, namely that just as they were made from nothing, so also they will return to nothing, and that as they were fabricated from earth, so also they will return to earth.
Third, Forerius explains it thus, as if to say: From the things which God worked miraculously with Abraham and our other patriarchs, one may conjecture what end those things would also have, as truths from shadows, as I explained at verses 8 and 14, namely that God, just as He was present to Abraham, so also would be present to his descendants. In like manner, if you, O Gentiles, announce to us any former and past things which your gods have worked divinely, we will be able to gather that their end, that is, their outcome and conclusion, will also be divine. This sense aptly corresponds to what he recounted above, at verse 2, concerning the benevolence of God toward Abraham and his descendants; and at verse 9 of the following chapter, where he concludes this dispute with the idols.
Finally, St. Cyril and Theodoret take "the former things" and "the last things" as belonging to the idols, as if to say: Tell us, O idols! O gods of the nations! your former things, that is, your origin and beginning, how, when, and by whom you were fabricated; and predict also your last things, namely, what will happen to you, whether and when you are to be demolished. But you cannot do this; therefore
you are ignorant, not gods. But in that case it should have been said: "We know your last things"; but now he says, "of them," which cannot refer to the idols, as I have shown.
Verse 23: SHOW THE THINGS THAT ARE TO COME HEREAFTER, AND WE SHALL KNOW THAT YOU ARE GODS. — He demands another sign of the divinity and omniscience of the idols, namely foreknowledge and prediction of the futu...
23. SHOW THE THINGS THAT ARE TO COME HEREAFTER, AND WE SHALL KNOW THAT YOU ARE GODS. — He demands another sign of the divinity and omniscience of the idols, namely foreknowledge and prediction of the future. "For the testimony of divinity is the truth of divination," says Tertullian, Apologeticum, chapter XX. Therefore the human soul does not possess the power of divining and prophesying, as many have supposed, whom I cited and refuted in Canon XXI on the Minor Prophets. Hence from this passage theologians teach that God, just as He alone of Himself is the knower of hearts, or conscious of the thoughts and free volitions which the mind hides within itself and neither utters nor reveals, so also He alone can certainly foreknow future contingent and free events. For properly speaking, only those things are contingent which are free, or depend on someone's freedom: for those things that are merely natural are determined, and therefore necessarily occur; hence they are not contingent: therefore they can certainly be predicted by one who sees and penetrates the whole series of natural causes, such as eclipses, comets, winds, floods, plagues, etc. But free things, because they depend on the choice of the will, are undetermined; hence they cannot be foreseen and predicted except by God, who penetrates and comprehends the minds and wills of men and angels, and knows and foresees with absolute certainty what each will, in any given set of circumstances, will freely desire, choose, or do.
The reason, therefore, why God foreknows and foresees all future things is the infinite keenness and cognitive power, the infinite intellect, and the infinite light which is His, which sees and penetrates every truth wherever it may be. For God is, as it were, a certain sun seeing all things, surveying all things. Just as keen-sighted men placed on a mountain see very far — for they have the sharpest vision — so God from the highest mountain and watchtower of His eternity sees all things that happen and will happen in this valley of the world through all times. Again, just as one who stands at the axle of a wheel sees all its felloes and all their turning: so God, standing as it were at the axle in eternity, sees the entire course of all the ages. For all things past, present, and future revolve around the eternity of God. Add that this world, and time and all things that are in it or happen in it, are like a small globe, or rather a point, in comparison with God and His immensity and omniscience. Therefore the whole of what is in it can easily be foreseen by God: for if what is in a small room is most easily seen in its entirety by a man standing in the middle of it, much more is what happens in the whole world perceived by God.
You will object: The demons too have often predicted the future. I reply: They did this not from certain knowledge but from conjecture, and therefore this was not certain divination but only probable guessing. For the demons possess a keen, subtle, and shrewd intellect for conjecturing. The methods by which they do this
are listed by St. Augustine in the book De Divinatione Dæmonum. Accordingly in this conjecturing they often erred, or mixed falsehood with truth; hence also they often responded ambiguously, so that their oracles could be taken in either direction: whence Apollo was called Loxias, that is, "the Oblique One." Such was his oracle to King Pyrrhus, who had consulted him as to whether he would overcome the Romans or not:
I say that you, son of Aeacus, can conquer the Romans.
And to Croesus: "Croesus, having crossed the Halys, will destroy a great kingdom." For "to destroy" means both to lose and to devastate. So St. Jerome and Cicero, in Book II of De Divinatione.
Moreover, that the demon is false in his conjecturing and has deceived many can be shown by examples. Accept a few. There is the illustrious example of King Ahab, to whom, when all the false prophets and diviners predicted victory against the Syrians, Micaiah alone predicted the contrary, namely slaughter and death, which truly befell him. See the history in III Kings, the last chapter. Similar was the prophecy of Hananiah, who promised the Jews liberation from the siege of the Chaldeans and victory: for Jeremiah predicted the contrary, and that truly, and for this reason he threatened Hananiah with death by God's command, Jeremiah XXVIII, 16.
When the mother of Ferrand of Flanders consulted soothsayers about his fortune, she received this oracle from them: "The King will fall in battle, will be trampled by the feet of men and horses, and will not be buried; but Ferrand will be received most joyfully by the Parisians." But the opposite happened. For in the war against Philip, King of the French, Ferrand was captured and led to Paris and thrown into prison, in the year of Christ 1214. So Robert Gaguin, Book VI of the History of the French.
I recounted a similar case about Meroveus at chapter VIII, at the end. Cato the Elder used to say that "he was amazed that a haruspex could look at another haruspex without laughing," because he saw clearly that this whole type of divination was an imposture by which the people were deceived. For impostors are accustomed to laugh among themselves at the stupidity of the multitude.
Finally, St. Cyprian speaks forcefully and elegantly in De Vanitate Idolorum: "These spirits (demons)," he says, "lurk beneath consecrated statues and images. They inspire the breasts of seers with their breath, animate the fibers of entrails, direct the flights of birds, control the lots, produce oracles, and always wrap falsehood in truth. For they are both deceived and deceive; they disturb life, trouble sleep, and creeping secretly into bodies, they terrify minds, distort limbs, shatter health, provoke diseases, in order to compel their worship, so that fattened by the smoke of altars and the pyres of cattle, having released what they had bound, they may seem to have healed. This is their remedy: when their harm ceases; nor have they any other aim than to draw men away from God and to overturn them from the understanding of true religion to the superstition of their own worship; since they themselves are under punishment, they seek companions in their punishment whom they have made partakers in their crime through error. Yet when adjured by the true God through us, they immediately yield and confess, and are compelled to depart from the bodies they possess. You may see them lashed by our voice and the operation of hidden majesty, scorched by fire, stretched out by the increase of spreading punishment, howling, groaning, and begging."
DO GOOD ALSO, OR EVIL, IF YOU CAN. — He demands another proof of divinity from the idols, namely that they bestow benefits upon their worshippers and vengeance upon their despisers, as God showed He had done for Abraham and his descendants at verse 2. Thus Gideon, in Judges chapter VI, verse 32, says: "If he be a god (Baal), let him avenge himself on him who has dug down his altar." Baruch greatly amplifies this impotence of idols, chapter VI, verse 52 and following.
Verse 24: BEHOLD, YOU ARE OF NOTHING, AND YOUR WORK OF THAT WHICH HAS NO BEING. — When the idols are struck dumb, God presses His case against them and, as it were, a victor taunts the vanquished, as if to say:...
24. BEHOLD, YOU ARE OF NOTHING, AND YOUR WORK OF THAT WHICH HAS NO BEING. — When the idols are struck dumb, God presses His case against them and, as it were, a victor taunts the vanquished, as if to say: Why do I labor? Why do I seek arguments? You are stupid and mute, without tongue, without mind, without power; indeed, you are nothing — far from being able to do good or evil to anyone. Moreover, from nothing, and consequently the idols are nothing, whether you consider their matter — for this, together with all other things, was created by God from nothing — or their form, that is, their divinity, as if to say: Divinity, O idols, is not your form but a mask rubbed on you; you are fictitious gods; you have your origin not from any truth but from the vain, foolish, and sacrilegious imagination and flattery of certain men: therefore you possess nothing of true godhead; all your things are full of deceits and lies; you falsely claim to be gods. In this sense the Apostle said: "We know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is no God but one," I Corinthians VIII, 4.
Note: For what our translator renders as "of that which has no being," the Hebrew is מאפע meapha, which St. Jerome, the Chaldean, and Vatablus translate as "from nothing," or "from that which is not"; Forerius and Forster translate it as "for a hissing," from the root פעה paa, that is, "he hissed," as if to say: Your works are empty and utterly nothing, and have less weight than a certain hissing.
Note second: "Work" here can be taken in two ways. First, passively, "your work," namely, the work by which you idols were made, as if to say: Your fabrication, that is, you yourselves, who are the work and manufacture of foolish men, are from that which is not, that is, from nothing. For it seems to be the same thing to say "behold you are from nothing" and "your work is from that which is not," namely, as if to say: You are from nothing, and therefore nothing. For the latter hemistich, in Hebrew fashion, explains the former. In a similar way, at the last verse, when he says: "Their works are vain," it is the same as what he adds: "Their idols are wind and emptiness."
Second, "your work," actively, namely, what you do and perform, as if to say: Your works are from nothing, that is, they are nothing, they are null, because you can accomplish nothing, do neither good nor evil,
as the preceding verse says. The former sense seems plainer and more genuine from the Hebrew phrase: yet the latter follows from the former and completes it: for that which is nothing can accomplish nothing and bring no help.
AN ABOMINATION (that is, abominable) IS HE WHO HAS CHOSEN YOU, — who worships you. This is what Hosea says in chapter IX, verse 10: "They became abominable, like the things which they loved."
Verse 25: I HAVE RAISED UP ONE FROM THE NORTH, AND HE SHALL COME FROM THE RISING OF THE SUN. — St. Thomas, Lyranus, Vatablus, and Hugo take these words as referring to Cyrus: for God raised up this protector of...
25. I HAVE RAISED UP ONE FROM THE NORTH, AND HE SHALL COME FROM THE RISING OF THE SUN. — St. Thomas, Lyranus, Vatablus, and Hugo take these words as referring to Cyrus: for God raised up this protector of the Hebrews from Persia, which is partly to the north and partly to the east of Judea.
But Forerius and Sanchez more correctly take these words as referring to Abraham. For here is the recapitulation and conclusion of what has been said, as if to say: The world therefore ought to worship Me, because I did what I recounted in the foregoing, and what you have heard, namely I called Abraham from the East, that is, from Chaldea, and from the North, that is, from Mesopotamia: concerning whom, since he was a worshipper of My name and worshipped Me alone as God, and since he himself, both in person and through his descendants, defeated powerful kings and trampled them like clay, no one can doubt that he did this by My power. Symbolically, take these things of Christ, as if to say: I have raised up, that is, I will raise up, Christ, who by His coming will warm the North, that is, the cold nations, and by His rising will warm them, and who will trample the magistrates, that is, all the proud princes of the world, and will subject them to Himself as clay to the potter, to make of them some vessels for honor and others for dishonor. So St. Jerome, Cyril, Procopius, and Theodoret.
HE SHALL CALL UPON MY NAME. — This can be taken in two ways: first, as if to say: He will worship and invoke My name; second, as if to say: He will be called by My name, that is, My servant and worshipper: "he will be called," that is, he was called, is called, and will be called, according to Canon XIII.
HE SHALL BRING (Forerius: invade) THE MAGISTRATES, — in Hebrew סגנים seganim, that is, grandees, princes, and kings, as a potter, that is, a worker in clay, attacks and kneads the clay.
Verse 26: WHO HAS DECLARED? — as if to say: Which of you, O idols, foresaw and predicted the order of these events? So that in this debate and trial we might pronounce judgment in his favor and say: "You are ju...
26. WHO HAS DECLARED? — as if to say: Which of you, O idols, foresaw and predicted the order of these events? So that in this debate and trial we might pronounce judgment in his favor and say: "You are just," that is, your cause is just; right stands with you, you are rightly held and worshipped as God. Others take "just" as meaning "You are God." For justice properly belongs to God; hence His title is: "The Just One of Israel." Others take "just" as meaning "You are a true prophet," because you predicted these things.
NOR HEARING YOUR WORDS, — O idols! as if to say: You are mute stones and logs; therefore there is no witness who can say that he has heard anything from you or learned from you about the future.
Verse 27: THE FIRST SHALL SAY TO ZION: BEHOLD THEY ARE HERE (so it should be read with the Roman edition and the Hebrews, not "I am here"), as if to say: Not the idols, but God the first of all, that is, I Myse...
27. THE FIRST SHALL SAY TO ZION: BEHOLD THEY ARE HERE (so it should be read with the Roman edition and the Hebrews, not "I am here"), as if to say: Not the idols, but God the first of all, that is, I Myself (for the change of person is frequent among the Hebrews) will say to Zion: Behold they are here (those who foretell the future to you): and to Jerusalem I will give an evangelist, — that is, a messenger of glad tidings, namely Isaiah and the other Prophets, who as evangelists announce to her the things that are to come, especially concerning Christ and the Gospel, salvation, and the Kingdom of Christ; for this is what he said in chapter XL, verse 9: "Get up upon a high mountain, you who preach good tidings to Zion."
Again, "behold they are here," that is, soon the successors of the Prophets will be here, the Apostles and Evangelists, who will announce the good things that are to come under Christ and through Christ, indeed point them out with their finger. For they will cast out demons and idols, and will be heralds of the Gospel in Jerusalem and indeed to the whole world, to call it to the way of truth, as the Septuagint has it; for this is what Christ commands them in Luke, the last chapter, verse 46: "It was necessary that Christ should suffer, etc., and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem." So St. Jerome and Theodoret. Isaiah here intimates that when Christ came, all the oracles of the demons would cease and fall silent. For that they all fell silent from that time onward is evident from the histories. Hence Plutarch wrote the book On the Cessation of Oracles.
Verse 28: AND I SAW, AND THERE WAS NO ONE EVEN OF THESE, — namely, the prophets and worshippers of the idols. These are the words of Isaiah, who, seeing that neither the idols nor the nations could respond in a...
28. AND I SAW, AND THERE WAS NO ONE EVEN OF THESE, — namely, the prophets and worshippers of the idols. These are the words of Isaiah, who, seeing that neither the idols nor the nations could respond in any way to the arguments of God disputing with them, or even consult together about framing a response, concludes:
Verse 29: BEHOLD ALL ARE UNJUST, — as if to say: The gods who are worshipped by the foolish nations, as well as the Gentiles themselves, are unjust, that is, they foster an unjust and iniquitous cause, they los...
29. BEHOLD ALL ARE UNJUST, — as if to say: The gods who are worshipped by the foolish nations, as well as the Gentiles themselves, are unjust, that is, they foster an unjust and iniquitous cause, they lose their case and are condemned; for the word "unjust" is opposed to what he said at verse 26: "You are just." Again, they are unjust because from their worshippers, as if they were gods, they extort gold and wealth, promising help that they do not provide: for their works are vain, that is, as follows, "their idols are wind and emptiness." See what was said at verse 24. Passing over them therefore, he transitions in the following chapter to God and the wondrous works of God, which he foresaw He would accomplish in the following ages, especially under Christ; yet so that he occasionally returns to the idols and attacks them. For "emptiness" the Hebrew is תהו tohu, that is, as Vatablus says, a formless thing; others say chaos, that is, a confused and empty thing. See what was said on Genesis I, 2.