Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
The Prophet continues in this chapter and the next with the argument of the preceding chapter. He had said there, verse 24, that Jacob and Israel had been given over to plunder by the ravaging Assyrians on account of their sins: now as usual he consoles him, because God will liberate and bring him back from them, and also from Babylon, where he is to be led captive, as is clear from verse 14 and the following chapter, verse 28. So St. Thomas, Hugo, Pagninus, and Sanchez. Now under this type he understands something higher, namely, the liberation of spiritual Israel, that is, of the faithful, from the captivity of sin and the devil through Christ. For many things more sublime than what would befit the Jews liberated from Babylon are said here: yet he alludes to them and touches upon them in passing. Hence he mixes type with antitype, now saying things that better fit the type, now things that better fit the antitype. See Canon V. So St. Jerome, Cyril, Procopius, Haymo, Forerius, and others, who all take these words rather of the Church of Christ than of the Synagogue of the Jews.
Literally, therefore, He promises to Israel, that is, to the Church, this name, namely "You are Mine," and that He will lead her unharmed through fire and water, and that He will subject to her all nations from the four quarters of the globe, but will cast out the Jews as blind and deaf. Then, in verse 9, He returns to the dispute with the nations and their idols, and urges them to bring forward witnesses who would testify that those gods had bestowed similar benefits and miracles upon their worshippers, and He teaches that He Himself has bestowed them: and as witnesses of this He produces the Israelites, who saw themselves recently liberated from Sennacherib, and formerly from Pharaoh by God's help, and will soon see themselves liberated from Babylon in a similar manner. Third, in verse 18, He brings forward new arguments for His divinity, namely the benefits to be conferred by Him upon the Gentile people, namely grace, salvation, and the remission of sins. For He demonstrates that the Israelites ought to ascribe this not to their own merits or sacrifices, but to His mere mercy and the merits of Christ, and ought to expect it from there.
Vulgate Text: Isaiah 43:1-28
1. And now thus says the Lord who creates you, O Jacob, and who forms you, O Israel: Do not fear, for I have redeemed you, and I have called you by your name: You are Mine. 2. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you, and the rivers shall not overwhelm you: when you walk through fire, you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not scorch you. 3. For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior; I have given Egypt as your ransom, Ethiopia and Saba for you. 4. Since you became precious in My eyes, and glorious: I have loved you, and I will give men for you, and peoples for your life. 5. Do not fear, for I am with you: from the East I will bring your offspring, and from the West I will gather you. 6. I will say to the North: Give them up; and to the South: Do not hold them back: bring My sons from afar, and My daughters from the ends of the earth. 7. And everyone who calls upon My name, I have created him for My glory, I have formed him, and I have made him. 8. Bring forth the people that are blind, yet have eyes; that are deaf, yet have ears. 9. All the nations are gathered together, and the tribes are assembled: who among you can declare this, and make us hear the former things? Let them bring their witnesses, let them be justified, and let them hear and say: It is true. 10. You are My witnesses, says the Lord, and My servant whom I have chosen: that you may know, and believe Me, and understand that I am He. Before Me no god was formed, and after Me there shall be none. 11. I am, I am the Lord, and there is no savior besides Me. 12. I have declared, and I have saved: I made it heard, and there was no stranger among you: you are My witnesses, says the Lord; and I am God. 13. And from the beginning I am He, and there is none who can deliver from My hand: I will work, and who shall turn it back? 14. Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: For your sake I have sent to Babylon, and I have brought down all their bars, and the Chaldeans glorying in their ships. 15. I am the Lord, your Holy One, the Creator of Israel, your King. 16. Thus says the Lord, who made a way in the sea, and a path in the mighty waters. 17. Who brought forth chariot and horse, army and warrior: together they lay down and shall not rise: they were crushed like flax, and they were extinguished. 18. Remember not the former things, and do not consider the things of old. 19. Behold, I am doing a new thing, and now it shall spring forth; surely you shall know it: I will make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert. 20. The beast of the field shall glorify Me, the dragons and the ostriches: because I have given waters in the wilderness, rivers in the desert, to give drink to My people, My chosen. 21. This people I have formed for Myself; they shall declare My praise. 22. You have not called upon Me, O Jacob, nor have you wearied yourself for Me, O Israel. 23. You have not offered Me the ram of your burnt offering, and with your sacrifices you have not glorified Me: I have not made you serve with offerings, nor wearied you with incense. 24. You have not bought Me sweet cane with silver, and with the fat of your sacrifices you have not satisfied Me. Yet you have made Me serve with your sins, you have wearied Me with your iniquities. 25. I am, I am He who blots out your iniquities for My own sake, and I will not remember your sins. 26. Put Me in remembrance, and let us be judged together: declare if you have anything to justify yourself. 27. Your first father sinned, and your interpreters transgressed against Me. 28. And I have profaned the holy princes, I have given Jacob to destruction, and Israel to reproach.
Verse 1: AND NOW THUS SAYS THE LORD WHO CREATES YOU. — Lest Israel, afflicted by enemies, despair and think himself done for, He raises him up in hope, saying that God has created and formed him as His own peo...
1. AND NOW THUS SAYS THE LORD WHO CREATES YOU. — Lest Israel, afflicted by enemies, despair and think himself done for, He raises him up in hope, saying that God has created and formed him as His own people. And to confirm him further in hope, He commemorates four kinds of benefits conferred upon him. The first is that of creation, saying "who creates." For God created all men, but the Hebrews especially, because miraculously Abraham begot Isaac from the aged and barren Sarah, and Isaac begot Jacob from Rebecca, from whom the Hebrews descended. The second is that of formation, when He says "who forms," as if to say: Just as a potter forms and shapes for himself a vessel for honor, and distinguishes it from other common and lowly vessels, so I have formed you, O Israel, into a faithful, pious, and holy commonwealth, giving you the law and holy ceremonies and rites of sacrifice. The third is that of redemption from servitude, when He says: "I have redeemed you." The fourth is that of election as a chosen and special people, that you should be called the people of God, when He says: "You are Mine."
Morally, in adversities and threats of God, lest we lose heart, we ought to encourage ourselves by the remembrance of God's benefits, and say to God: "Do not hand over to beasts, O Lord, the souls of those who confess You, and do not despise the works of Your hands." So Forerius.
I HAVE REDEEMED YOU — from captivity, both that of Egypt through Moses, and that of Babylon through Cyrus, and most especially that of the devil through Christ. For "I have redeemed" can also be explained as "I will redeem" in the future, according to Canon XIII.
I HAVE CALLED YOU BY YOUR NAME. — He alludes to the custom of kind masters, who call the servants they love by their proper name, saying not "Servant, come here," but "Peter" or "Paul, come; listen, Pamphilus." So God says, "Israel, come": for this is a sign of benevolence. So Vatablus. Second, and better, Leo Castrius explains "I have called you by your name," that is, as you translate from the Hebrew, I have called your name — namely what follows: "You are Mine." Therefore He gives Israel a new name, namely this: "You are Mine." In a similar manner, in Hosea chapter 1, he is commanded by God to call his firstborn son "Jezreel," that is, "seed of God": but the third: "Not My people." For it is a great dignity as well as advantage that, as the Apostle says, "we should be called and be children of God." For, as Plato says in the Cratylus: "God's naming is when God causes to be present in the thing named that which the name signifies." Therefore when He gives to spiritual Israel, that is the Church and faithful Christians, this name, "You are Mine," He makes it so in reality that they are the people, the treasure, and the possession of God.
This is what, from Moses, Exodus 19:5, St. Peter says, 1 Peter 2:9: "You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of His own possession," that is, as Moses has it, in Hebrew segullah, that is, the treasure and precious possession of God. See what was said there.
Verse 2: WHEN YOU PASS THROUGH THE WATERS, I WILL BE WITH YOU, etc.; WHEN YOU WALK THROUGH FIRE, YOU SHALL NOT BE BURNED. — Some translate in the past tense: When you passed through the waters, I was with you,...
2. WHEN YOU PASS THROUGH THE WATERS, I WILL BE WITH YOU, etc.; WHEN YOU WALK THROUGH FIRE, YOU SHALL NOT BE BURNED. — Some translate in the past tense: When you passed through the waters, I was with you, namely in the crossing of the Red Sea and the Jordan; when you walked through fire, you were not burned, namely when I brought Abraham out of Ur, that is, out of the fire of the Chaldeans. See what was said at Genesis 11:31, as if to say: In the same way now and hereafter I will lead you unharmed through fire and water, that is, through any even the most grievous dangers of life, both in Babylon, and even more so in the persecution of Emperors and tyrants pursuing the Church of Christ and Christians with flame and sword, and so in every temptation and adversity I will deliver you, or so strengthen you that for My name's sake you would prefer to be in fire rather than in comfort — indeed that you would rejoice and desire for God and for faith in God to be plunged in waters, burned with fire, and say with St. Lawrence: "You have tested me with fire, and no iniquity was found in me." For just as Christ conquered death by dying, so St. Lawrence and the Martyrs, burned with fire, proved themselves superior to fire and tyrants by their magnanimity and constancy — indeed they provoked fire, as it were, to a duel. As St. Ignatius did when writing to the Romans: "Fire, he says, cross, beasts, etc., let all the torments of the devil come upon me, only that I may enjoy Christ." Whence Clement of Alexandria, Book I of the Pedagogue, chapter 9: "If you pass through fire, he says, you will not be burned, because you will not fall into corruption, but will pass to immortality;" and you will say with the Psalmist: "We passed through fire and water, and You brought us out into refreshment."
Aptly St. Athanasius, in his book On the Incarnation of the Word, and from him Leo Castrius: "Just as, he says, from asbestos stone (as attested by Dioscorides, Book V, chapter 113, and Pliny, Book XXXVI, chapter 19), being ductile and flexible, weavers draw out threads and from them weave cloths and veils which, if thrown into fire, do indeed burn, but come out more splendid, unconquered by the flames: so the Blessed Virgin brought forth the Lamb, from whose glorious fleece was made for us the garment of immortality, clothed in which we can neither be burned by fire, nor overwhelmed by waters, nor by anything else, but pass through all torments unharmed, and fly up to heaven." For the soul flies away at once, and the body will fly away in the resurrection.
Indeed, so literally in the Babylonian furnace, an Angel, with his garment as it were, protected the three youths on account of the merit of their chastity, innocence, religion, and constancy from the fire — an Angel, I say, like the Son of God, and a type of Christ, Daniel 3:92. So St. John came out unharmed from the cauldron of boiling oil here at Rome before the Latin Gate (a place I have often visited and seen with great devout feeling). So also the Smyrnaeans write about St. Polycarp placed upon the burning pyre, in Eusebius, Book IV of the History, chapter 15: "The fire, taking the form of a vault, like a ship's sail filled with wind, surrounded the Martyr's body as with a kind of wall; and it was in the midst not like burning flesh, but like gold and silver glowing in a furnace. Indeed we perceived so great a fragrance of good odor, as if frankincense or some other precious aromatic were breathing forth. At length, therefore, the wicked men, seeing that his body could not be consumed by fire, ordered the executioner to approach and pierce it with a sword. When this was done, copious blood flowed out, so that the fire was extinguished, and the whole crowd marveled."
So St. Vincent under Dacian, St. Cecilia, St. Lucy, St. Agnes, and very many other virgins remained unharmed in the flames, with Christ protecting them: and by no lesser miracle, when they were assailed on every side by the fire of lust, they did not burn with it, but persevered inviolate — indeed from their Spouse Christ they obtained an angel as the perpetual guardian and defender of their virginity. So also St. Dominic — not the founder of the Order of Preachers, but another of the same Order and name — tempted by a woman externally, and by the demon internally with the fire of lust, when he bravely
A marvelous example on this matter is related by St. Paulinus, in his letter to Macarius, about a certain old catechumen, who in baptism was called Victor. For he, alone in a ship, carried away by the force of a storm, without a rudder, without food, without any human help, was tossed about at sea for several weeks, protected, fed, and guided by God and the Angels: "For Christ Himself, says Paulinus, now shining with His own countenance, now venerable with the face of St. Felix, sat at the stern and was attracting the old man, who reclined his head between His knees; and he often saw Angels keeping watch over the ship and performing all the duties of sailors: for indeed none but Angels as sailors were guiding that ship, whose helmsman was the Governor of the world. For twenty-three days a man, cut off not only from land but from human beings, the sport of all the winds, an exile from all the earth, a guest of different seas, and estranged from the human race amid the waves and beasts of the sea, in the wandering lodging of a drifting ship, worn out by fasting, old age, and fear — I ask you, did he endure by his own nature? Who then could doubt that God was in him? The ship
first, being driven toward the City, it saw the lighthouse of the Roman port: then it coasted along Campania in long stretches, and when the winds changed, it flew across to the shores of Africa; and being carried away again from there, it ran past Sicily; thus plowing the straits, as if a divine ship, wise with a divinely sent spirit, of its own accord avoiding what should be avoided and seeking what should be sought. At length it put an end to its wanderings and perils on the shores of Lucania." For there the old man, calling for the help of fishermen, and having the ship dragged to shore by them, found port. Wherefore giving thanks to God, having received baptism, he established a Christian and holy life. Paulinus narrates these things at length and elegantly. Thus God rules His faithful ones, leading Joseph like a sheep.
Mystically, St. Gregory, Book VI, Epistle 169, to Cyriacus: "When you pass through the waters, He says, I will be with you, and the rivers shall not overwhelm you. For the rivers overwhelm those whom the affairs of this world confound with mental disturbance. For he who holds the grace of the Holy Spirit in his mind passes through the waters, and yet is not overwhelmed by the rivers; because even amid the throngs of the people he so carries out the steps of his journey that he does not submit the head of his mind to worldly affairs."
had overcome all temptations, he heard the demons crying out: "You have conquered, because you were in the fire and did not burn."
Bartholomew of Pisa narrates in the Deeds of St. Francis that Emperor Frederick II invited St. Francis, after a sermon he had preached against the vice of lust, to dinner, and having treated him sumptuously, introduced him alone into a bedroom where a prostitute had been prepared, who was enticing him to shameful conduct. Immediately the Saint threw himself into the fire burning in the fireplace of the room, and reclining in it as on a bed, invited the same harlot to join him: she, struck both by the blaze of the fire and by the holiness of the man, immediately took flight. The Emperor, having observed everything through the cracks, seeing the blessed man with body whole and unharmed by the fire — the very man he had planned to mock — began greatly to admire and venerate him. Such still today are many Religious and virgins, who live angelically in the flesh, who like salamanders in this fire, through the grace of Christ, live whole and unharmed. See what was said at Daniel chapter 3, verse 4.
From this passage of Isaiah, St. Cyprian, in his treatise On the Exhortation of Martyrs, teaches that the faithful should not fear injuries or persecutions: "Because, he says, the Lord is greater for protecting than the devil for attacking. Wherefore in persecutions let no one think of the danger the devil brings, but rather consider the help God provides: let not human assault weaken the mind, but let the Lord's protection strengthen faith, since each person, according to the Lord's promises and the merits of his faith, receives as much help from God as he believes he will receive; nor is there anything the Almighty cannot bestow, unless the fragile faith of the recipient has failed." The same author, in his treatise On the Lord's Prayer: "Since all things are God's, he says, he who has God will lack nothing, if he himself does not fail God."
Verse 3: I HAVE GIVEN EGYPT AS YOUR RANSOM, ETHIOPIA AND SABA FOR YOU. — St. Jerome takes "ransom" in an active sense, as if to say: I have given you, O Israel, O Church, the Egyptians, Ethiopians, and Sabaean...
3. I HAVE GIVEN EGYPT AS YOUR RANSOM, ETHIOPIA AND SABA FOR YOU. — St. Jerome takes "ransom" in an active sense, as if to say: I have given you, O Israel, O Church, the Egyptians, Ethiopians, and Sabaeans, so that by preaching the Gospel of Christ you might convert them, propitiate and reconcile them to God. "And I will give men for you," as if to say: The salvation of all the men to whom you will preach, and whom you will convert, will be credited to you. But in this reading the Septuagint's "for you" is taken rather improperly.
Wherefore it is better to take "ransom" passively, as a sin offering or expiatory sacrifice, but a human one (which the ancients called katharmata), such as Marcus Curtius, who on horseback leapt into the great chasm in the earth at Rome to appease the deity by his death for the entire people. Such also symbolically was that scapegoat, to whom the High Priest on the Day of Atonement imprecated the sins of the whole people, and thus sent him into the wilderness to be devoured by wild beasts, as I said from Origen and Cyril at Leviticus chapter 16, verse 21 and following.
The sense therefore is, as if to say: When Sennacherib was threatening Israel, that is, Judea and Jerusalem, and it was about to be laid waste and, as it were, devoured by him, I brought it about that instead of Judea, Ethiopia, Egypt, and Saba were set before Sennacherib as an expiatory sacrifice, to be slain by him in place of Judea. Whence the Septuagint translates: I made an exchange of you — Egypt and Ethiopia and Saba for you. This is what is said in Proverbs 11:8: "The just man is delivered from distress, and the wicked man is handed over in his place."
See the history above, chapter 37, where it is narrated that Sennacherib, having left Jerusalem, proceeded against Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, who was moving arms against him, and chapter 20, where Egypt conspiring with Ethiopia is predicted to be devastated by Sennacherib. Moreover, Saba here is a part of Ethiopia, in which the Queen of Sheba reigned, namely Abyssinia, where Prester John now reigns, from which came the Eunuch of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, to Jerusalem, converted and baptized by Philip, Acts 8:27.
But under this type He understands something higher about the Christian Church, as if to say: For you, O Israel, that is, O Church of the faithful! I will destroy the Ethiopians, Egyptians, and Sabaeans, that is, all nations and enemies opposing you, and I will make it so that they are, as it were, a sacrifice for you, through which My justice and just vengeance may be satisfied and, as it were, fed, and thereby all the more be reconciled to you. So Cyril.
Otherwise Procopius, St. Jerome, and Forerius explain it, as if to say: I have given a "ransom," or as the Septuagint has it, an exchange — that is, in exchange and as the price for Your blood and the blood of Your Martyrs, O Israel, My servant, that is, O Christ! I have delivered and subjected to Your Church Egypt, Ethiopia, and all parts of the world. This sense agrees with the first. For according to the rule of Ticonius, what is said of the body, that is the Church, applies also to the head, that is Christ, and vice versa. So therefore Christ represents the Church, as a king represents his kingdom. What He adds favors Christ: "I will give peoples for Your life."
Note here that the nations hostile to the Church became victims, either because remaining in unbelief they were slain and cut off by God, or rather because God subjected them to Christ, and made them from unbelievers into believers, and subject to Christ. For thus they were victims most pleasing to God, when dying to sin and to their old life, they began to live for God: for offering these, Paul says, Romans 15:16: "That I might be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles, sanctifying (in Greek hierourgounta, that is, sacrificing) the Gospel of God, that the offering (sacrifice) of the Gentiles might be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit." And to this sacrifice he willingly offers his own blood as a libation, Philippians 2:17, saying:
"But even if I am poured out as a libation upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I rejoice and congratulate you all." And of this he says, Romans 12:1: "I beseech you, brethren, by the mercy of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, pleasing to God, your rational service."
Verse 4: AND I WILL GIVE MEN FOR YOU. — Just as I gave the Ethiopians for you, so I will also give the Babylonians; for Cyrus destroyed them to liberate the Jews. Much more will I give all men and peoples for...
4. AND I WILL GIVE MEN FOR YOU. — Just as I gave the Ethiopians for you, so I will also give the Babylonians; for Cyrus destroyed them to liberate the Jews. Much more will I give all men and peoples for Christ and the Church — that is, I will overthrow or convert them, as I have already said.
Verse 5: FROM THE EAST I WILL BRING — as if to say: In the Babylonian captivity you will be scattered to the four quarters of the globe, as is said in Zechariah 2:6; but from all of them I will bring you back...
5. FROM THE EAST I WILL BRING — as if to say: In the Babylonian captivity you will be scattered to the four quarters of the globe, as is said in Zechariah 2:6; but from all of them I will bring you back to Judea. Much more do these words apply to the Gentiles, brought from all quarters of the world and coming to the Church of Christ. So from the West the Europeans came and come to it; from the East the Indians; from the North the Goths, Livonians, Muscovites, Poles; from the South the Egyptians and Africans. Whence it follows:
Verse 7: AND EVERYONE WHO CALLS UPON MY NAME. — The word "and" here is causal, signifying "because," as if to say: I will bring them, because I have created, formed, and made them faithful Christians, for this...
7. AND EVERYONE WHO CALLS UPON MY NAME. — The word "and" here is causal, signifying "because," as if to say: I will bring them, because I have created, formed, and made them faithful Christians, for this purpose, that they might invoke and celebrate My name, and serve My Majesty and glory in holiness and justice, all the days of their life, indeed of their eternity.
Verse 8: BRING FORTH THE BLIND PEOPLE. — Calvin thus translates and explains: I will bring out the blind, to restore their sight; I will so free the deaf that they may recover their hearing, as if to say: In c...
8. BRING FORTH THE BLIND PEOPLE. — Calvin thus translates and explains: I will bring out the blind, to restore their sight; I will so free the deaf that they may recover their hearing, as if to say: In captivity their eyes will be opened to see, and their ears to hear, which they are now deprived of by their own malice, since they stop them up. But the Hebrew opposes this, which literally reads: Bring forth or cast out the blind people, who have eyes; and the deaf, who have ears. Some take this as referring to the idolatrous Gentiles; but I say the Prophet speaks of the Jews; for in the preceding chapter, verse 19, he called them blind and deaf: for such they became when the Gentiles were illuminated by Christ, as if to say: Cast out, O Christ! through Yourself and Your Apostles, from You and Your Church the Jews, who have eyes with which to see Your miracles, and have ears with which to hear Your doctrine; but the light of truth which they see and hear, they refuse to receive and admit into their souls. Therefore reject these blind and deaf ones, and blind them further, and at last cast them into eternal darkness, and bring about that in place of the Jews, all the tribes of the nations may be joined to You and to the Church. So St. Jerome, Procopius, and Theodoret. See Prosper, Book I On the Calling of the Nations, chapter 6. This is what Christ says, Matthew 8:12: "The children of the kingdom shall be cast out into the outer darkness," that is, the uttermost darkness, or the darkness that occupies everything outside the kingdom of God. For in the kingdom of God there is light; but whatever is outside it is dark, indeed mere darkness.
Verse 9: ALL THE NATIONS ARE GATHERED TOGETHER. — The Prophet returns as is his custom to the nations and their idols, with which he began to dispute in chapter 41, verse 22. Now supply the word "if," as if to...
9. ALL THE NATIONS ARE GATHERED TOGETHER. — The Prophet returns as is his custom to the nations and their idols, with which he began to dispute in chapter 41, verse 22. Now supply the word "if," as if to say: "If all the nations are gathered," or imagine them gathered, or as Vatablus translates, let all nations be gathered with their gods, let them do and foretell what I here do and foretell, let them bring forward witnesses if they have any. I have demonstrated from chapter 30 up to this point that I am Yahweh, the God who accomplished past things as I had foretold, and who will accomplish new things — namely, that from the stock of Abraham the Messiah will come, who will illuminate the whole world and redeem it from the power of the devil; at whose coming the Jews will degenerate from the faith of their fathers, and will become blind, and will perish: wherefore in their place I will call and substitute the Gentiles, and adopt them into the seed of Abraham. This mystery — who among the nations, who among the gods recognized it? Who foretold it? Let them "bring witnesses" if they have any of their oracles, and let them "be justified," that is, let them justify their cause — namely, let them prove themselves to be gods from their foreknowledge of the future, so that the peoples hearing may say: "Truly" — that is, these are gods and foreknowers of the future. So St. Cyril, Forerius, and others.
Verse 10: YOU ARE MY WITNESSES, SAYS THE LORD, AND MY SERVANT WHOM I HAVE CHOSEN. — The nations and their idols have no witnesses of their oracles and miracles: but I produce very many. You, O Israelites, are w...
10. YOU ARE MY WITNESSES, SAYS THE LORD, AND MY SERVANT WHOM I HAVE CHOSEN. — The nations and their idols have no witnesses of their oracles and miracles: but I produce very many. You, O Israelites, are witnesses of what I say: for you have recently seen Me deliver you from Sennacherib, and his army fall by an Angel, as I had promised. Likewise you have seen the miracle of the sun and the shadow reversed on the sundial of Ahaz, and the life of your king Hezekiah, already given up for dead, restored by Me. You also, O Prophets, are witnesses of your oracles, that is, of Mine. You finally, O Apostles, O faithful ones, O Martyrs! in the time of Christ, you will be witnesses, when you see these My oracles and promises actually fulfilled. This is what Christ says, Acts chapter 1, verse 8: "You shall be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."
AND MY SERVANT — that is, Cyrus, says Hugo: for he, liberating the Jews from Babylon, was, as it were, a witness of the divine promise concerning that liberation. Second, Forerius takes it as Isaiah. Third, and best, others generally take it as Christ; for He, in chapter 42:1, was called the "servant" of God, and He, by fulfilling these oracles of God through His words, deeds, miracles, and through His passion and redemption, will be a witness — that is, He will actually testify and demonstrate that they are true, and consequently that both He and the Father, by whom He was sent, are the true God. Whence He says of Him, chapter 55, verse 4: "Behold, I have given Him as a witness to the peoples, a leader and teacher to the nations;" so Revelation 1:5 says: "From Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness;" and chapter 3, verse 14: "Thus says the Amen, the faithful and true witness."
Verse 12: I HAVE DECLARED, AND I HAVE SAVED: I MADE IT HEARD, AND THERE WAS NO STRANGER AMONG YOU — that is, no other god who did these things, as if to say: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Joshua, etc., and rece...
12. I HAVE DECLARED, AND I HAVE SAVED: I MADE IT HEARD, AND THERE WAS NO STRANGER AMONG YOU — that is, no other god who did these things, as if to say: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Joshua, etc., and recently Hezekiah, to whom I foretold and conferred salvation, whether from enemies or from illness, and whom I so protected and magnified — these, I say, did not worship other gods, but
Me alone. Indeed, with My help they drove the Canaanites and other nations who worshipped other gods from their land: therefore they accomplished this not by the power of those gods, but by Mine alone.
Verse 13: THERE IS NONE WHO CAN DELIVER FROM MY HAND — as if to say: I hold the keys of life and death; I hold the soul and breath of every man in My hand; I give life and I put to death; I alone am the almight...
13. THERE IS NONE WHO CAN DELIVER FROM MY HAND — as if to say: I hold the keys of life and death; I hold the soul and breath of every man in My hand; I give life and I put to death; I alone am the almighty and all-knowing God. By Me the idols, the princes, and all mortal things are condemned to death, as Seneca says. Would that we might often think of this, and strive eagerly to attend to Him alone, and to reverence and fear Him "who can destroy both soul and body in hell!"
Verse 14: FOR YOUR SAKE I HAVE SENT (I will send Cyrus) TO BABYLON, AND (through him) I HAVE BROUGHT DOWN (that is, I will bring down) ALL THEIR BARS — as if to say: I will break the bars of the gates, and all...
14. FOR YOUR SAKE I HAVE SENT (I will send Cyrus) TO BABYLON, AND (through him) I HAVE BROUGHT DOWN (that is, I will bring down) ALL THEIR BARS — as if to say: I will break the bars of the gates, and all the strength and fortifications of Babylon, to free you from it. In a similar manner, through Christ, of whom Cyrus was a type, I will free you from the power of Babylon, that is, the world, and of the Chaldeans, that is, the demons. So St. Jerome, Procopius, and Cyril.
By "bars" Jerome again understands the princes, because they are strong and powerful. Second, Sanchez by "bars" understands the obstacles and hindrances, which were like prisons and barriers by which God had until now restrained the Persians and Medes, eager for war and empire, and had, as it were, shut them in; but now, having broken these, He set them free, so that they might rush headlong upon Babylon. These bars Zechariah, chapter 6:1, calls "mountains of bronze."
Third, and best, the "bars" are the walls, towers, gates, and their bars and bolts, and all the fortifications of Babylon. The Septuagint translates "bars" as "fugitives." For the Hebrew bariach means both: for the root barach means "he fled," and from this a bar is called bariach, because it runs across, and as it were flees from one end to the other. Moreover, by "fugitives" Cyril understands the Persians, as if to say: The Persians, who had previously fled from the Chaldeans, now emboldened by God will attack them. But Procopius understands the Chaldeans, whom the Persians, pursuing them as they fled, killed or captured.
AND THE CHALDEANS GLORYING IN THEIR SHIPS. — Babylon is washed by the Tigris and Euphrates: for these rivers, like bars, encircle and enclose the city, and through aqueducts forming pools in many places (as happens at Venice) they provide it with marvelous utility as well as delights. But Cyrus removed and overturned these things, when having diverted the Euphrates into other and numerous channels through his soldiers, he invaded and occupied the city on dry foot, as I will show at Jeremiah 50:36.
Verse 16: WHO MADE A WAY IN THE (RED) SEA, AND A PATH IN THE MIGHTY WATERS. — He commemorates the former benefits and miracles bestowed upon Israel, in the crossing of the Red Sea, Exodus chapter 14. By "mighty...
16. WHO MADE A WAY IN THE (RED) SEA, AND A PATH IN THE MIGHTY WATERS. — He commemorates the former benefits and miracles bestowed upon Israel, in the crossing of the Red Sea, Exodus chapter 14. By "mighty waters" he means either the waters of the Jordan, which the Hebrews, led by Joshua, crossed on dry ground, when at harvest time it had swollen and was therefore rushing headlong with great force like a torrent, Joshua 3; or rather the waters of the Red Sea, so that in the latter verse, in the manner of Hebrew rhythm, he elegantly says the same thing as in the former. Whence the Septuagint translates "mighty water," in the way that the crossing of the Red Sea is described in Exodus 15:10: "They sank like lead in the mighty waters." For the waters of the Red Sea, suspended by God on either side like mountains to give a path in the middle for the Hebrews' crossing, as though suffering violence and roaring, when they had passed through, soon rolled together with great crash, like torrents, indeed like mountains, and overwhelmed the pursuing Egyptians. So St. Jerome, Procopius, Sanchez, Forerius, and others. This is what follows:
Verse 17: WHO BROUGHT FORTH CHARIOT — as if to say: God lured and, as it were, led Pharaoh with his chariots and forces into the Red Sea, to pursue the Hebrews, and there drowned him. Whence there the Egyptians...
17. WHO BROUGHT FORTH CHARIOT — as if to say: God lured and, as it were, led Pharaoh with his chariots and forces into the Red Sea, to pursue the Hebrews, and there drowned him. Whence there the Egyptians fell asleep in perpetual death.
THEY WERE CRUSHED LIKE FLAX, AND THEY WERE EXTINGUISHED — with that same ease by which flax, or a smoking wick plunged into mighty waters or a great river, is quickly crushed and extinguished.
Again, because the soul is like a certain little flame in us, hence he called the extinguished Egyptians like smoking flax. Third, in the smoking flax he notes the anger and ardor of pursuing the Hebrews in the Egyptians, which was extinguished like a flame by the waters. So Forerius.
Verse 18: DO NOT REMEMBER THE FORMER THINGS — as if to say: These miracles that I performed for you at the Red Sea seem great; but they are small, or nothing, if compared with those I am about to do for you in...
18. DO NOT REMEMBER THE FORMER THINGS — as if to say: These miracles that I performed for you at the Red Sea seem great; but they are small, or nothing, if compared with those I am about to do for you in the Church of Christ. For those new things will overwhelm these old ones by their greatness and glory. So St. Jerome, Procopius, Sanchez, Forerius, and others. Let Christians note here with how many and how great benefits they have been heaped by God beyond the Jews and all nations of all ages, and let them show themselves grateful to God.
Verse 19: I WILL MAKE A WAY IN THE WILDERNESS. — Some take these words literally about the return from Babylon: for either literally, as they sound, these things were given by God to the Hebrews, just as the sa...
19. I WILL MAKE A WAY IN THE WILDERNESS. — Some take these words literally about the return from Babylon: for either literally, as they sound, these things were given by God to the Hebrews, just as the same things were given when they set out through the desert under Moses' leadership toward Canaan; or by these proverbial expressions it is merely signified that the Jews, returning from Babylon, received the greatest benefits from God.
But these were things of old, and small ones at that; here, however, God promises new and magnificent things for the new Church. He therefore speaks of grace poured out through Christ upon the nations, "so that where sin abounded, grace might abound all the more." Yet He alludes to the type of the Hebrews crossing the desert under the leadership of Moses. For then God went before them, as it were, in a pillar of fire and cloud; then also from the rock struck by Moses He gave copious waters, like rivers, sufficient for so great a host, and these enduring and thereafter perennial: so that after the departure of the Hebrews, the wild beasts, dragons, and ostriches, parched with thirst, might from these quench their thirst; and therefore with mute voice glorify God and give Him thanks.
Whence Abulensis, in Numbers 20, Questions II and III, holds with the Hebrews that these waters not only flowed through the desert and followed the Hebrews, as the Apostle suggests in 1 Corinthians 10:4; but also that from that time Arabia became habitable on account of the waters drawn forth by Moses and enduring thereafter, whereas before it had been uninhabitable due to aridity, heat, and thirst; which is to be discussed elsewhere.
The sense therefore is, as if to say: I once opened a way for the Hebrews in the Red Sea and in the pathless desert; but now I will open a way in the whole world, as in a great sea, for all nations — a way, I say, to Christ, the Church, salvation, and heaven, and I will give in the pathless wilderness of the Gentiles, not for the body but for the soul, from the "fountains of the Savior" not a river but rivers of graces, that the nations — similar in barbarism and ferocity to dragons, ostriches, and other beasts, indeed incorporated with Leviathan himself, as I said in chapter 27, verse 1 — may praise and glorify Me. So St. Jerome.
Hence Plato, in Book III of the Republic, teaches that in man, as in the Trojan horse, there are all animals: for in the deceitful there is a fox, in the cruel a lion, in the lustful a pig fond of mud, in the sluggish a donkey, in the suspicious the keen scent of dogs, in the gluttonous a wolf, in the well-groomed man or woman a peacock, in the chatterbox a magpie, etc. And some think that this is what Pythagoras meant when he said that the souls of the wicked degenerate and migrate into the bodies of beasts, and clothe themselves in lions, wolves, dogs, etc. See Canon XIX. In a similar way St. Gregory, Book XXXI of the Morals, chapter 5, verse 6, by "dragons" understands men crawling on the ground, carnal and openly wicked, and by "ostriches" hypocrites. For the ostrich has wings as if about to fly, yet does not fly. Both these groups, converted by Christ and the Apostles, will sincerely and earnestly glorify God. The Septuagint translates "dragons" as "Sirens," namely such as those who enchanted the companions of Ulysses with their song and turned them into pigs, donkeys, and other beasts. Such are mistresses and procuresses, who drive young men mad with their beauty, voice, and gestures: Christ and the Apostles will convert these, and teach them to sing alleluia to God.
Verse 21: THIS PEOPLE I HAVE FORMED FOR MYSELF; THEY SHALL DECLARE MY PRAISE. — Hence it is clear that by "dragons, ostriches," etc., not beasts but men and a people are understood. He meets the third objection...
21. THIS PEOPLE I HAVE FORMED FOR MYSELF; THEY SHALL DECLARE MY PRAISE. — Hence it is clear that by "dragons, ostriches," etc., not beasts but men and a people are understood. He meets the third objection of the Jews saying: How, O Lord, having abandoned us, who are faithful men and the people once chosen by You, who worship You with sacrifices and incense, do You transfer Yourself to the Gentiles, who live not as human beings but as dragons and wild beasts? How do You adopt and choose them for Yourself? God answers: I have formed this people; I have raised up children of Abraham from stones, indeed from beasts, so that they may continually represent and celebrate the magnificence of My beneficence, power, and glory toward them. Whence it follows:
Verse 22: YOU HAVE NOT CALLED UPON ME, O JACOB, NOR HAVE YOU WEARIED YOURSELF FOR ME, O ISRAEL. — "For Me," that is, in My worship. This is a new preemptive reply. For He meets another objection and protest of...
22. YOU HAVE NOT CALLED UPON ME, O JACOB, NOR HAVE YOU WEARIED YOURSELF FOR ME, O ISRAEL. — "For Me," that is, in My worship. This is a new preemptive reply. For He meets another objection and protest of the Jews. For Israel will say: If You called the Gentiles to praise You, what else am I doing? Do I not sing psalms and hymns to You? Do I not offer You incense and sacrifices? The Lord answers: "You have not called upon Me;" your invocations, praises, and psalms are not My praises but reproaches; and accordingly you have not offered them to Me, nor have you glorified Me with them, but dishonored Me. Consequently, I did not require, did not want, did not desire from you this service of offerings and the labor of burning incense, because those things bring Me not pleasure but vexation — both because, polluted with crimes, you praise Me and sacrifice to Me; and because with these external praises and sacrifices you think Me reconciled and delighted. You are deceived: for I am not appeased by the sacrifices of oxen and rams, I do not eat them, I am not sated with them; I do not smell the aromatic cane or the burning of incense; no odor feeds or delights Me. Rather, I am delighted by a contrite and pure heart, that is, by the sacrifices of the mind and the incense of the virtues, which you neglect: and to induce you to offer these, I instituted those external sacrifices merely as stimulants. So St. Jerome, Procopius, and others. This is what He said in chapter 1: "What is the multitude of your sacrifices to Me?" etc. See what was said there. The Syriac and Arabic translate differently, namely: You did not call Me, O Jacob! and (or because) behold, I have called you, Israel.
Verse 24: YOU HAVE NOT BOUGHT FOR ME — as if to say: What you bought of aromatic cane to offer to Me, I do not reckon as bought and offered to Me, I do not accept it, for the reasons already stated.
AROMATIC CANE — Forerius takes this as cinnamon, as it is commonly called, which he distinguishes from cinnamomum. See what was said at Exodus 30:24 and Jeremiah chapter 6:20.
YOU HAVE MADE ME SERVE — as if to say: I did not make you serve Me with sacrifices; but you have made Me serve you — that is, with your sins you have burdened Me, afflicted Me with trouble, and, as if I were your slave or chattel, loaded Me down. It is a catachresis. This is what He said in chapter 1, verse 14: "I am weary of enduring them." Whence the Septuagint translates: In your sins and iniquities you have stood before Me (for so reads the Roman edition, Irenaeus and Procopius, although others read differently, as I will presently say) — as brazen and shameless, not
thrusting before My eyes not so much sacrifices as sins, displaying and, as it were, offering them, and thereby provoking and, as it were, mocking Me — indeed fighting against Me. For the sinner stands before God with his sins as if about to fight against Him. For sins are a kind of weapons which the sinner aims and hurls against God, says Sanchez. This is the genuine sense.
Morally, let Christians note that when they sin, they make God, as it were, a slave to themselves and their sins. For they abuse His cooperation, the nature and gifts received from Him, for their crimes, and they drag God and God's gifts, as it were unwillingly, to these sins.
Second, Forerius explains it, as if to say: You did not so much serve Me with your sacrifices as I served your profit, honor, feasts, and pleasures derived from them, O priests and Jews! since I was permitting you to be purified by them, and to be regarded in the people as purified, when in reality those sacrifices did not have the power of purifying, but left you sinners just as before.
Third, from Lactantius, Book IV, chapter 19, Leo Castrius explains it, as if to say: By your sins you "made Me" — that is, Christ — "serve," that is, to put on the flesh of a servant, to take upon Myself the punishments of a servant, namely the cross: indeed, both you, O Israel, and Pilate and the Romans in My death treated Me not so much as a slave, but as a beast or brute. Whence, according to St. Jerome, the Septuagint thus translates: en tais hamartiais sou hyperespisa se — in your sins I defended you, and like a shield-bearer I set Myself as a shield before you against the wrath of God. So also from the Septuagint read Cyril, Theodoret, and Eusebius, Book X of the Demonstration.
Otherwise St. Jerome explains the Septuagint: As if, he says, it were labor and weariness for God to defend sinners. As though God in His clemency and mercy were fighting against Himself and His own justice, which demands that by just vengeance He punish sins and sinners.
Verse 25: I AM, I AM HE WHO BLOTS OUT YOUR INIQUITIES (as if to say: Not your sacrifices, which have more of wickedness than of piety, not the works of the law performed by you, as you suppose: but I, through C...
25. I AM, I AM HE WHO BLOTS OUT YOUR INIQUITIES (as if to say: Not your sacrifices, which have more of wickedness than of piety, not the works of the law performed by you, as you suppose: but I, through Christ and the merits of Christ, blot out your iniquities) FOR MY OWN SAKE (that is, on account of My immense mercy and pure love, not on account of the merits of your fathers): AND I WILL NOT REMEMBER YOUR SINS — so as to impute them to you as guilt and punishment, so as to avenge them. For otherwise there remains in God a cognizant memory of sins and of all past things, but not an avenging one.
St. Jerome notes that the word "I blot out" alludes to a bond, which a man, when he sins, as it were writes with his own hand and signs with his own name, by which he sells, delivers, and gives himself over to sin and the devil as a chattel. This God blots out and abolishes when He blots out the guilt and obligation of sin. On this see Origen, Homily 13 on Genesis.
Second, the repeated "I, I" has emphasis, and belongs to one affirming, and also one who takes pleasure and glory in this. How then are we not swept away into love of so indulgent a Father, who in Himself is pure love toward us?
Prudently St. Ambrose, Book II On Repentance, chapter 6: "I, says God, blot out your iniquities, and I will not remember them; but you, remember, for the sake of correction: remember, so that you may know that the sin was forgiven, lest you boast as though innocent."
Verse 26: PUT ME IN REMEMBRANCE, AND LET US BE JUDGED TOGETHER: DECLARE IF YOU HAVE ANYTHING TO JUSTIFY YOURSELF. — Note here the condescension of God, who descends to our judgments and, as it were, submits Him...
26. PUT ME IN REMEMBRANCE, AND LET US BE JUDGED TOGETHER: DECLARE IF YOU HAVE ANYTHING TO JUSTIFY YOURSELF. — Note here the condescension of God, who descends to our judgments and, as it were, submits Himself to human judgment, as if to say: O Israel! you who think yourself justified by the works of the law — if you have any merits on account of which you think I ought to forgive you and blot out your iniquities, bring them forth; cause them to come back to My mind: for I remember nothing of the sort. It is a tacit irony. For who could instruct God, or bring anything back to His memory? So Forerius.
LET US BE JUDGED TOGETHER — so that we may see whether from your works and merits, or truly from My mere mercy, the remission of sins ought to come to you, so that you may "be justified" — that is, so that in this case and lawsuit you may come out on top, and show that the right is on your side, and so the verdict may be pronounced in your favor, namely, that the remission of sins is to be attributed to your merits, not to the grace of God. So Forerius. This is the genuine sense.
Otherwise St. Gregory explains these words, Book XXVI of the Morals, chapter 6, namely about the examination of conscience, especially that which precedes the confession of sins, so that then making it and receiving absolution, we may be justified. For this examination is like a private and domestic judgment, in which the required persons — namely, the accuser, judge, bailiff, and executioner — he describes thus: "Conscience, he says, accuses; reason judges; fear binds; sorrow tortures."
Finally, the Septuagint translates: Declare your iniquities first, that you may be justified — which St. Cyril, Ambrose, Augustine, Leo, Chrysostom, and from them Leo Castrius, take as referring to sacramental confession, which from this passage they prove to be a necessary means for justification. Indeed, in this sense Castrius accepts and interprets our Vulgate version.
Verse 27: YOUR FIRST FATHER SINNED — as if to say: Do not say that you are justified on account of the merits of your fathers: for they also sinned. Who indeed would say that we are freed from sin by the merit...
27. YOUR FIRST FATHER SINNED — as if to say: Do not say that you are justified on account of the merits of your fathers: for they also sinned. Who indeed would say that we are freed from sin by the merit of one who was at some point subject to sin? "Your father" therefore is either Adam: for he sinned first, and transmitted sin to all his descendants. Or rather Abraham: for he was properly the father, that is, the patriarch of the Jews, and on account of his merits the Jews thought that righteousness and all things were owed to them. Whence they perpetually boasted: "We have Abraham as our father, and we are the seed of Abraham." Moreover, Abraham sinned, because before he was called by God, he worshipped the idols of his nation, namely the Chaldeans, as is clear from Joshua chapter 24:2. See what was said at Genesis chapter 11:31 and chapter 12:1.
AND YOUR INTERPRETERS — namely Moses and Aaron, who were mediators and messengers between God and the people. These too transgressed, namely at the waters of contradiction, and therefore were excluded by God from entering the promised land. Whence these
Verse 28: I HAVE PROFANED THE HOLY PRINCES — that is, I showed them to be contaminated by sin (see Canon XXIX), and unworthy to enter the holy land: wherefore I condemned them as guilty of sin to death, and com...
28. I HAVE PROFANED THE HOLY PRINCES — that is, I showed them to be contaminated by sin (see Canon XXIX), and unworthy to enter the holy land: wherefore I condemned them as guilty of sin to death, and compelled them to die in the desert.
I HAVE GIVEN JACOB TO DESTRUCTION (when I likewise condemned all the Jacobites, that is, the Hebrews, for their murmuring to die in the desert, Numbers 14:29. And so I gave) ISRAEL TO REPROACH — that is, as the Chaldean and the Septuagint have it, to the scorn of enemies. For the enemies mocked and sneered at them, because on account of their crimes they were all being killed in the desert by their God, who had led them out of Egypt. How then does the righteousness of your fathers justify you, when they were condemned to death for their crimes? There is no reason, therefore, for you to boast of their merits, O Israel! "For all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God," Romans 3:23. Therefore it is not Aaron who expiates you by his merits or sacrifices, but the mercy of God, by which you are freely justified through Christ. Wherefore it is no wonder if I wished to create a new people of believers from the Gentiles, who recognize this very thing, so that they may celebrate My mercy, since they see that from themselves they had nothing but sins at which to blush, and that they have been justified by My mere grace. So St. Jerome, Forerius, and others.