Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
He continues what he had said at the end of the preceding chapter about Cyrus. To Cyrus therefore God here foretells and promises riches, victories, prosperous successes, and the overthrow of the Chaldean monarchy, to this end, that he might free the Jews from Babylon. Then Isaiah, at verse 8, rises up and yearns for Christ the antitype of Cyrus, that He, the Savior and Redeemer of the whole world oppressed by sin, might come from heaven. Then, at verse 9, he returns to Cyrus, and to those who murmur against God's providence on account of their own wretched and unhappy lot in captivity, while Cyrus and others enjoy a happy one, he responds that the clay ought not to clamor against its potter, nor a son against the father who begets him. Next, at verse 14, he passes to Christ, and promises that He will subject to Himself all nations, even barbarian ones, which, being converted, will say to Him: Truly You are a hidden God, the God of Israel, the Savior. After this, at verse 16, he returns to the dispute with idols, and finally, at verse 23, having refuted them, He swears that He will cause every knee to bow to Him, and every tongue to worship and glorify Him.
Vulgate Text: Isaiah 45:1-26
1. Thus says the Lord to His anointed Cyrus, whose right hand I have grasped, that I may subdue nations before his face, and turn the backs of kings, and open doors before him, and gates shall not be shut. 2. I will go before you, and I will humble the mighty of the earth: I will break in pieces gates of bronze, and I will shatter bars of iron. 3. And I will give you hidden treasures, and secret riches: that you may know that I am the Lord, who calls you by your name, the God of Israel. 4. For the sake of my servant Jacob and Israel my chosen one, I have called you by your name: I have likened you, and you have not known me. 5. I am the Lord, and there is no other: besides me there is no God: I have girded you, and you have not known me: 6. That those who are from the rising of the sun, and those who are from the west, may know that there is none besides me. I am the Lord, and there is no other, 7. forming light, and creating darkness, making peace, and creating evil: I the Lord do all these things. 8. Drop down dew, O heavens, from above, and let the clouds rain the Just One: let the earth be opened, and bud forth a Savior: and let justice spring up together: I the Lord have created Him. 9. Woe to him who contradicts his maker, a potsherd of the earthen vessels! Shall the clay say to its potter: What are you doing, and your work has no handles? 10. Woe to him who says to his father: Why do you beget? and to a woman: Why do you give birth? 11. Thus says the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, its maker: Ask me of things to come, concerning my sons, and concerning the work of my hands, command me. 12. I made the earth, and I created man upon it: my hands stretched out the heavens, and I have commanded all their host. 13. I have raised him up in justice, and I will direct all his ways: he shall build my city, and he shall release my captives, not for a price, nor for gifts, says the Lord God of hosts. 14. Thus says the Lord: The labor of Egypt, and the merchandise of Ethiopia, and of the Sabeans, men of stature, shall come over to you, and shall be yours: they shall walk after you, they shall go bound with manacles: and they shall worship you, and shall make supplication to you: Only in you is God, and there is no God besides you. 15. Truly you are a hidden God, the God of Israel, the Savior. 16. They are all confounded and ashamed: the makers of errors have gone together into confusion. 17. Israel is saved in the Lord with an eternal salvation: you shall not be confounded, and you shall not be ashamed forever and ever. 18. For thus says the Lord who created the heavens, God Himself who formed the earth, and made it, He its maker: He did not create it in vain: He formed it to be inhabited. I am the Lord, and there is no other. 19. I have not spoken in secret, in a dark place of the earth: I did not say to the seed of Jacob: Seek me in vain. I am the Lord who speaks justice, who declares right things. 20. Assemble yourselves, and come, and draw near together, you who have been saved from among the nations: they have no knowledge who lift up the wood of their graven work, and pray to a god that cannot save. 21. Declare, and come, and take counsel together: who has caused this to be heard from the beginning, who has foretold it from that time? Have not I, the Lord, and there is no other God besides me? A just God and a Savior, there is none besides me. 22. Turn to me, and you shall be saved, all you ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is no other. 23. I have sworn by myself, the word of justice shall go forth from my mouth, and shall not return: 24. for every knee shall be bowed to me, and every tongue shall swear. 25. Therefore in the Lord, he shall say, are my justices and dominion: to Him shall come, and all who resist Him shall be confounded. 26. In the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified and shall glory.
Verse 1: THUS SAYS THE LORD TO HIS ANOINTED CYRUS. — Note with St. Jerome, Theodoret, Cyril, Procopius, Eusebius (book VI of the Demonstration, chapter IX), and others, that God here speaks literally of Cyrus,...
1. THUS SAYS THE LORD TO HIS ANOINTED CYRUS. — Note with St. Jerome, Theodoret, Cyril, Procopius, Eusebius (book VI of the Demonstration, chapter IX), and others, that God here speaks literally of Cyrus, the future king of the Persians, and here promises him victory against the Chaldeans and the monarchy. For to Cyrus, not to Christ the Lord, applies that of verses 4 and 5: "And you have not known me." For God chose Cyrus to be the destroyer of the Chaldean monarchy, and to transfer it to himself, with this purpose, that he might be the avenger of the Jews and set them free from Babylon to Judea.
This prophecy was published by Isaiah about Cyrus two hundred and ten years before Cyrus's time, says Josephus. Moreover, that Cyrus read this prophecy about himself, and being encouraged by it, took the boldness to invade Babylon, and promised liberty to the captive Jews, is gathered first from Josephus, book XI of the Antiquities, chapter I, where he narrates that the Jews showed this oracle of Isaiah to Cyrus; and from this Cyrus acknowledged the true God of the Hebrews and publicly professed it, and accepted his kingdom as received from Him, and sent the Jews back from Babylonian captivity with gifts for the temple to their homeland; second, the same is clear from the letters and edict of Cyrus himself releasing the Jews, in I Esdras chapter I, 2: "All the kingdoms of the earth, he says, the Lord God of heaven has given me, and He has commanded me (where? unless here through Isaiah?) to build Him a house in Jerusalem." Cyrus therefore could legitimately, that is, by the will of God and by right received from Him, overthrow Babylon and transfer its empire to himself; and thus was not a tyrant, but a legitimate king and monarch, at least after he heard from the Jews this oracle of Isaiah about himself. He could, I say; for in fact he seems to have served not so much God as his own ambition in this matter. For this is what he says, verse 4: "And you have not known me." See Canon XXXVI and Canon XXXVII.
Moreover, God willed that these things about Cyrus be foretold by Isaiah with this purpose: that from this future liberation by Cyrus, as well as from other ancient benefits of God conferred on them, He might through experience give the Jews faith in His oracles through Isaiah concerning the remission of sins and the graces to be brought through Christ, of which those events were a type. Again, to this end, that the Jews might not attribute this liberation of theirs through Cyrus to another, whether a man or an idol, e.g. of the Persians or Chaldeans; but to their God alone, as the only one who had promised and foretold it so many years before. Allegorically Isaiah speaks of Christ. For Cyrus was His type, who freed the Jews and all mankind from the captivity of sin, death, and the devil, and who broke the bars of hell and led forth from it the holy Patriarchs, says St. Chrysostom, Demonstration that Christ is God, tome V. Indeed many of the ancients, such as St. Augustine, book On the Five Heresies, chapter VII, tome V; Tertullian, Nyssen, and Cyprian in their books and testimonies Against the Jews; Lactantius, Chrysostom, and others whom Leo Castrius cites, R. Abraham, R. Solomon, and other Rabbis in Galatinus, book IV, chapter XII, take this literally of the Messiah, or Christ. Whence the Fathers just cited, from the Seventy, for Κύρῳ, that is Cyrus, read Κυρίῳ, that is Lord, and thus translate: Thus says the Lord to His Christ, my Lord. But an error crept into the Seventy; for it should be corrected to Κύρῳ: for thus the Hebrew, Chaldean, and Latin Bibles have it. So St. Jerome. For the opinion of Leo Castrius that the Seventy, reading the Hebrew לכורש lecores, that is, to Cyrus, in a divided manner as לכו leco, that is, to him, and רש ras, that is, poor, as if to say: To Christ, who entered Jerusalem like a poor man riding on a donkey on Palm Sunday, as if there to be inaugurated as king and Messiah; this, I say, is forced and not true. For in Hebrew, not לכו leco, but לו lo, means and. Castrius adds: Or certainly the Seventy supposed that Cores, like Emmanuel, was a name of Christ. But since we have in this word the clear name of Cyrus, why should we invent these diversions lacking a foundation? Note here that the Massoretes, unskilled in the histories and names of Gentile kings, wrongly substitute vowel points here: for כורש cores, as they point it, it should be pointed כורט curos, that is, Cyrus. For thus the Seventy, our translator, and others read it with those vowels. Similarly for Darius, they wrongly point דריום Dariaves, I Esdras chapter VI, 1.
TO HIS ANOINTED CYRUS. — Cyrus is called in Hebrew Messiah, that is Christ, or Anointed; both by allusion to the kings of the Hebrews, for they were consecrated by anointing; whence they alone in Scripture are called the Lord's Anointed, says St. Augustine on Psalm XLIV, verse 8. And Cyrus was a king chosen by God for the liberation of the Hebrews; whence God here calls him His own, for He says: "to my Anointed." Also because Cyrus was the type and image of Christ; and an image receives the name of its antitype, or exemplar. For thus, when we see an image of St. Peter or St. Paul, we say: This is St. Peter, this is St. Paul. Whence Cyrus in the Persian language means the sun, says Plutarch in the Life of Artaxerxes Mnemon. For Cyrus, the Persians, as also the Rabbis, with different vowel points say Cores, which is related to the Hebrew Chares, that is, sun. For he himself shone forth upon the world and the Hebrews like a new sun, just as Christ, the Sun of Justice, visited us rising from on high. Thus Samson in Hebrew means the same as little sun. For such he was to the Hebrews sitting in the darkness of affliction and captivity under the yoke of the Philistines, which he, if he did not entirely cast off, certainly dispelled for a time; whence he too was a type of Christ. Hence they report that Cyrus saw in a dream the sun standing at his feet, and when Cyrus tried to grasp it, the sun fled, and this happened three times: the diviners, being asked what this portended, responded that it portended that Cyrus would reign for thirty years. Cyrus therefore among the kings of the Gentiles and among the Persians shone forth like a sun, both in wisdom, and in justice, and in temperance, and in magnanimity, and in liberality, and so was a model of all royal virtues, says Xenophon, who in book VIII of the Education of Cyrus says: "It is not the custom of Cyrus to amass money, for he takes more delight in giving than in seeking and possessing;" just as the sun, which gives light and life to all, and receives nothing from anyone. But he especially shone forth like a sun in religion among his own people; for he began his rule with divine worship and sacrifice, says Xenophon, book I, and he believed in the immortality of the soul. For his is the saying in Cicero's Cato the Elder: "I could never be persuaded that souls live while they are in mortal bodies, and die when they leave them; nor indeed that the soul is foolish when it has escaped from a foolish body, but that when freed from the admixture of the body and beginning to be pure and whole, then it is wise."
Wherefore Xenophon describes his death thus in book VIII. There seemed to approach him someone of more august than human appearance, who said: "Gather your things, O Cyrus! for you are about to depart to the gods." Immediately therefore, having taken the sacrificial victims, he performed a divine rite to Jupiter his father-god and to the sun, saying: O Jupiter, father-god, and sun, etc., I give you great thanks, because I have recognized your care for me, and because my spirit was never raised above the human condition by prosperous circumstances.
Thus Aesop (as his Life relates), renowned for ancient wisdom, when received magnificently by Nectanebo the Egyptian king (for the king was clothed in a royal cloak, wearing a jeweled turban on his head, surrounded by the flower of his chief men, and sitting on a lofty throne), was asked by the king: "To whom do you liken me and those around me?" He replied: "You to the spring sun, and these to precious ears of grain." At which saying the king was so delighted that he honored the man with admiration and gifts.
A king and prince therefore is on earth what the sun is in heaven. For first, just as the sun is alone in the world, so the king is alone in his kingdom. Second, the sun in its motion follows nature: so let the king follow reason, and not admit the passions and desires of the soul to a share in the kingdom; for the sun is in the world what reason is in man, says Philo. Third, the sun is most pure and most bright: so let the king shine before his subjects. Fourth, the sun is called Apollo, ὡς ἀπολύων ἡμᾶς τῶν νόσων, as one who frees us from diseases: likewise it is the king's duty to avert every plague and calamity from his subjects. Wherefore Plutarch, in his book On the Instruction of Princes: "A prince, he says, is the image of God who governs all things, needing no Phidias as sculptor, but rendering himself like God through virtue, and fashioning a statue most pleasing and magnificent to the eyes of all. For just as God in heaven established the sun and moon as the most beautiful image of Himself, such in the state is the prince, an image and light, who reverencing God, upholds justice — that is, bears God's reason, namely understanding, not a scepter, or thunderbolt, or trident, in which form some depict and portray themselves, making their foolishness, of appearing unapproachable, odious."
Fifth, the sun penetrating and warming all things, that is, is in the world what the heart is in an animal, says Plato: so too it is the king's role to govern and, as it were, give life to all things. Sixth, the chief gift of the sun is goodness; for by its shining rays it does good to all, and therefore is full of cheerfulness: so too let the king, who wears a radiant diadem, take care that from his head shine forth prudence, constancy, justice, and especially beneficence, by which, like a life-giving sun, he may illumine and refresh all. Seventh, Orpheus gave this encomium to the sun: ἥλιε παντοκράτορ, κόσμου πνεῦμα, κόσμου δύναμις, κόσμου φῶς: O all-powerful sun, spirit of the world, power of the world, light of the world. What in the entire kingdom is more powerful than the king? Is he not also the spirit of the kingdom? Is he not its power and light?
Eighth, the sun consumes harmful and superfluous moisture, lest it infect the air: the king removes evildoers, lest they disturb the state. Ninth, the sun is a light that sees all: and βασιλεύς is πασιλεύς, a king is one who sees all, knows all. Thus Demosthenes, as Plutarch reports, when the Athenian people were struck with terror at the arrival of Philoxenus, one of the admirals of Alexander's fleet (for at that time the question of sending aid against Alexander was being discussed): "What will they do, said Demosthenes, if they see the sun, who cannot lift their eyes against a lamp?" He was of course calling King Alexander the sun, and Philoxenus the admiral a lamp. Thus Virgil attributes a radiant head to King Latinus, and says that he was a grandson of the Sun. Thus Joseph in a dream saw his father Jacob, who was the prince of the Hebrews, represented by the sun, Genesis XXXVII, 9.
The Apharantes, a Libyan people, cursed the rising sun, because it revealed many evils: and criminals hate the king. Tenth, as the sun sees all things, so also it is seen by all: so the king is exposed to the eyes of all, the judgments of all, the speech of all. Let him therefore think that this is said to him: in the sphere of the sun you hide and sleep. Eleventh, the sun is intolerant of every stain: and the king of every crime and impurity. Twelfth, the Dorians called the sun ἁλίζ, κατὰ τὸ ἁλίζειν εἰς ταυτὸ τοὺς ἀνθρώπους, because it gathers men together into one and the same place: and the king brings together into one body and commonwealth people dispersed in language, customs, institutions, and religion.
Thirteenth, the sun when eclipsed, darkened, and dim, portends every evil to men: and a king deformed by vices brings all vices and disasters upon the state. Fourteenth, the sun is surrounded by stars, and although it alone gives light, it nevertheless shares its light with the stars: likewise from the presence of the king, all the heights of dignities rise. When the sun departs, the stars lose their beauty: so without a king, all authority perishes for the nobles and magistrates. Fifteenth, the sun is restless, indeed ἀδαμάνατος, that is, indefatigable, and always the same, never swifter or slower than usual: and the king is always acting and governing all things, but with a calm spirit, and avoids every rash counsel. Sixteenth, as under the sun, so under a good king, all things are not only healthy, but also grow beautiful, golden, and strong. Seventeenth, the sun rises on the pious and the impious, so fair and impartial it is: the king is intent on the welfare of all, both protecting the good and calling the wicked to amendment. Hence, as the sun, as if by a chariot,
rides in the middle among the planets: so let the king reside in the middle, and as it were in the center of the kingdom, that he may present himself equally to all on every side. Eighteenth, the sun is always young (whence the Persians called it κοῦρος, that is, a youth), always vigorous. Yet it has, as it were, three ages. For at first sight, says Martianus Capella, book I: "It is like a smiling and resisting boy; at mid-course, it is a panting youth; at the end, it appears as an old man setting." And let the king at his very entrance display affability, lest he deter those approaching by his majesty; but in the handling of affairs let him show youthful vigor; finally, in councils, let him display the prudence of an elder in deciding what must be done. So Carolus Paschalinus, book IX On Crowns, chapter XV. Hence also St. Augustine teaches that a king is like the sun, and the people like the moon. Hear him, book I On Genesis against the Manicheans, chapter XXIII: "What, he says, more evidently signifies the splendor of a kingdom than the excellence of the sun? and the splendor of the moon shows the people obedient to the kingdom," etc.
WHOSE RIGHT HAND I HAVE GRASPED. — First, because I have used his right hand for striking and punishing the Chaldeans. Second, because like a tutor grasping him by the right hand, I have led him through so many enemies and obstacles, strengthening him, directing him, protecting him, giving him victories, and bringing about all favorable things up to the destruction of Babylon. Whence the Arabic version has: I grasped him by his right hand between his hands, I will go before him.
AND I WILL TURN THE BACKS OF KINGS. — In Hebrew it is, I will open or loosen the loins, that is, I will make kings weak-loined, unwarlike, and feeble to resist Cyrus. Again, I will disarm them, and ungird them of the sword with which they are girded at the loins. For thus in Job XII it is said: "He loosens the belt of kings." Conversely, to gird and tighten the loins signifies to strengthen, make agile and ready. Whence the Seventy clearly translate here: I will shatter the strength of kings.
Isaiah therefore foretells that God will give Cyrus such great strength that no one will be able to resist him, that he may conquer the most powerful kings and the most fortified cities, that he may obtain riches, victories, and glory to an astonishing degree, and this for the sake of His servant Jacob, namely that He might favor the descendants of Jacob and free them from Babylon: all of which things, as Isaiah foretold, were fulfilled, and actually happened to Cyrus, as Herodotus and Xenophon teach in the eight books in which he wrote the history of this Cyrus the Great, says St. Jerome.
Hear Xenophon, at the beginning of book I: "Cyrus, he says, subjugated the Syrians, Assyrians, Arabs, Cappadocians, Phrygians, both Lydians, Carians, Phoenicians, Babylonians. He also gained dominion over the Bactrians and Indians, and the Cilicians, and likewise the Sacae, and Paphlagonians, and Mariandynians, and very many other nations, whose very names one could scarcely recite. Moreover he ruled over the Asiatic Greeks, the Cypriots, and the Egyptians," etc. Hear also Herodotus, book I, where commending the good fortune of Cyrus he says thus: "Whatever nation Cyrus invaded, that nation could by no means escape."
I will go before you — like a standard-bearer whom you follow, or like a quartermaster, and like a scout, who examines whether the advance is safe, and detects and forestalls any danger, so that there is nothing for you to fear while you follow me going before you. Thus the Angel in the pillar went before the camp of the Hebrews in the desert, Exodus XIII, 21.
Verse 3: I WILL GIVE YOU HIDDEN TREASURES AND SECRET RICHES. In Hebrew, I will give you treasures of darkness, and treasures of hidden places, that is, treasures buried in the earth, and lying there hidden in...
3. I WILL GIVE YOU HIDDEN TREASURES AND SECRET RICHES. In Hebrew, I will give you treasures of darkness, and treasures of hidden places, that is, treasures buried in the earth, and lying there hidden in the dark, and concealed in secret, and, as the Seventy translate, σκοτεινούς, ἀποκρύφους, ἀοράτους, that is, dark, hidden, invisible; as if to say: I will cause you to possess the treasures, even the most deeply hidden, of the cities that I will subject to you. For the inhabitants of cities are accustomed to bury or hide their treasures, especially when an enemy approaches. Thus the Mexicans buried theirs, and when conquered by the Spaniards, were unwilling to reveal them despite any threats or punishments. Only King Atabaliba, captured by them, promised in order to ransom himself that he would fill the room in which he was detained with gold, and he nearly did so; yet he did not escape death.
Thus Cyrus seized the vast wealth of Croesus, after defeating him. For the wealth of Croesus passed into a proverb, so that we say: "Richer than Croesus, poorer than Irus." Again, the wealth of Babylon, which Nebuchadnezzar had collected from so many kingdoms, and his golden and immense statue, Daniel III, 1 — the victorious Cyrus possessed all this. If you calculate in our currency the sum of the treasures that Pliny, book XXXIII, chapter III, writes Cyrus carried off from conquered Asia, you will find that he carried off three hundred million. The Chaldean codices, which according to Sanchez exist in manuscript at Complutum [Alcala], at the beginning of the book of Esther, read thus: When Cyrus devastated Babylon, he dug at the bank of the Euphrates and found there six hundred and eighty bronze jars full of the finest gold, and precious stones and pearls and gems.
The Prophet alludes to the name of Cyrus according to its Hebrew etymology. For Cyrus in Hebrew signifies heir and possessor; from the root ירש iaras, that is, he inherited, he possessed. See here the fleeting nature of wealth. For "Cyrus," after three years of his monarchy, became "Irus" [a beggar], when by Tomyris, queen of the Scythians, he was stripped of his life, kingdom, and all his goods; indeed Tomyris, casting the head of Cyrus into a leather bag full of blood, taunted him saying: "Satiate yourself, O Cyrus, with the blood for which you so greatly thirsted."
Symbolically, Forerius notes that the Hebrew matmon or mammon, and the Chaldean mammona, that is, riches and treasures, are called things of darkness or obscurity (for matmon is derived from טמן taman, that is, he hid, he concealed in darkness), not without wit, because Pluto, the god of darkness, presides over them, and because they are dug up from darkness and stored away in darkness. For the friends of these riches are only those who love darkness.
Verse 4: FOR THE SAKE OF MY SERVANT JACOB. — This is the end and purpose of God, for which He so exalted Cyrus: whence it is clear that God likewise willed that this prophecy of Isaiah about him should become...
4. FOR THE SAKE OF MY SERVANT JACOB. — This is the end and purpose of God, for which He so exalted Cyrus: whence it is clear that God likewise willed that this prophecy of Isaiah about him should become known to Cyrus, so that through it the Jews might gain his favor, since he would see that their Prophet had published so favorable a prediction about himself, as I said at the beginning of the chapter. I have called you by your name — calling you, at verse 1, my anointed Cyrus. Otherwise John of Alba, Electorum IX: "I have called you by your name," that is, he says, I have chosen you, O Cyrus, for power and a kingdom. For "name" is sometimes put for power, riches, and kingdom. Thus at Exodus XXXIII, 17, God says to Moses: "I know you by name," that is, I have chosen you for this office, to be the leader and prince of my people. For "name" is put for office and dignity, because this brings with it a title and appellations, and produces a name and glory. This sense seems symbolic rather than literal.
I have likened you. — In Hebrew כנה iecannecha, that is, I have given you a surname, calling you my anointed: for I have made you like Christ my king and shepherd, and his type. For just as you will free the Jews from Babylon, so Christ will free men from hell. So St. Jerome, Forerius, Vatablus, and others. See what was said at verse 4. Secondly, Sanchez: "I have likened you," that is, I have described you by your marks and characteristics, calling you by your name, which you will bear, namely Cyrus, also the rider of a donkey and camel, chapter XXI, verse 7, that is a mule or half-donkey, because you are to be born of a Persian father and a Median mother. Again, by foretelling your riches, victories, and the destruction of Babylon; for from these, as from your image and likeness, when you are born you will be recognized, namely that these things were foretold about you, and that I have here described a portrait most similar to you.
And you have not known me. — Namely at this time when I here describe and liken you, because you are not yet born. So Lyranus and Forerius. Whence Vatablus translates: I gave you a surname when you did not yet have knowledge of me. Secondly, even when born and existing as king, "you did not know me," except after I illuminated you through the Jews and showed you this prophecy of mine about you. Thirdly and genuinely, "you have not known me," namely in this, that I have likened you to my Christ, as if to say: You do not know that you are chosen and directed by me for the overthrow of Babylon, with this plan, that you may free the Jews from there, and that you may bear the form and type of my Christ. For you do not know my Christ, much less do you know that you foreshadow Him; wherefore you do not sufficiently recognize either me or my providence, which destines you and your victories for this purpose; indeed you ascribe them not to me, but to yourself, and to your arms and your fortune. For it happened to Cyrus just as if someone inexperienced in painting were to paint the image of a king whom he had never seen, most perfectly and to the life. For everyone would say that a higher and divine hand had intervened, which directed the right hand of the painter. Thus God's hand shaped and painted Cyrus, so that he might represent to the life his exemplar, that is, Christ. So Sanchez. Fourthly, because although Cyrus acknowledged the God of the Hebrews and confessed Him in public documents, yet he did not withdraw from his idolatry (as it seems), but worshipped his former idols, not the God of the Hebrews; whence he also perished miserably in the tyrannical invasion of the Scythians. So St. Jerome.
Verse 5: I have girded you — I will gird you with a sword, I will arm you, I will give you strength and courage for daring great things; I will make you ready, like a valiant soldier; I will send you nimbly to...
5. I have girded you — I will gird you with a sword, I will arm you, I will give you strength and courage for daring great things; I will make you ready, like a valiant soldier; I will send you nimbly to battles, and under my auspices you will join combat and conquer, even though you do not know me. So Forerius. The Seventy translate, I have strengthened you.
Verse 6: THAT THEY MAY KNOW. — Truly and piously Forerius says: Since the true knowledge of God is absolutely necessary for our salvation, and one is as far from salvation as he is distant from this knowledge,...
6. THAT THEY MAY KNOW. — Truly and piously Forerius says: Since the true knowledge of God is absolutely necessary for our salvation, and one is as far from salvation as he is distant from this knowledge, hence God, most loving of our salvation, impresses it upon our senses in wondrous ways. Throughout Scripture therefore you will find floods, storms, drownings, conflagrations, calamities, punishments; and on the other hand liberations, unexpected victories, etc., which men cannot fail to observe are done by the Lord to this end, that no one may be so dull as not to become a partaker of divine knowledge, and especially not to recognize that there is a divinity which presides over the world, kingdoms, and men, and disposes them, and which is equally an avenger and punisher of crimes as it is a rewarder of virtues.
Verse 7: FORMING LIGHT AND CREATING DARKNESS — as if to say: I in the beginning of the world created the heavens and the earth, and made it so that light succeeds darkness, and darkness light. It is a synecdoc...
7. FORMING LIGHT AND CREATING DARKNESS — as if to say: I in the beginning of the world created the heavens and the earth, and made it so that light succeeds darkness, and darkness light. It is a synecdoche: for from the creation of light and darkness, He means the creation, arrangement, and governance of the whole world. For it is impossible that one God should have established the world, and another govern what was established, especially because the preservation of created things is the continuation of creation, and as it were a continuous creation. He mentions light and darkness rather than other things created by God, because light is a symbol of joy, freedom, and prosperity, which God brought to the Jews through Cyrus; while darkness is a symbol of sadness, imprisonment, and troubles. Again, in the word 'light,' He alludes to the name of Cyrus, which in Persian signifies the sun, which is most bright. For God caused Cyrus to rise like a sun for the Jews in the darkness of captivity, as stated in verse 1.
MAKING PEACE AND CREATING EVIL. — Peace for the Hebrews means rest, affluence, freedom, happiness, and the abundance of all good things: therefore the "evil" opposed to this is the disturbance of things, poverty, plague, famine, war, slavery, captivity, and whatever afflicts and makes a person wretched. God therefore creates this evil of punishment, but not the evil of sin. So St. Jerome, Augustine, Irenaeus, Chrysostom, and from them Leo Castrius. See St. Basil, homily That God is not the cause of evils, as if to say: That you, O Israel, once lived in peace — this was my gift. Again, that you are now held captive — this too is my work. So St. Jerome. Moreover, I created for you this evil of the Babylonian captivity; I in turn through Cyrus will make peace and restore you to freedom. God therefore is He who governs by His power and wisdom all things created by Him: who first brought darkness and evil upon the Jews, but light and peace upon the Chaldeans; then conversely, through Cyrus He created light and peace for the Jews, darkness and evil for the Chaldeans. He did the same in other ages, in individual kingdoms, alternating turns, now giving light, now darkness. He does the same today in Belgium and other provinces. Wherefore rightly St. Jerome, from this saying of Isaiah: "Let Marcion be confounded, he says, who introduces two gods, one good, the other evil; one the creator of visible things, the other of invisible; one the author of peace, the other of evil; when one and the same God has created both according to the diversity of merits."
And symbolically St. Gregory, III Moralia VII: "The Lord indicates, he says, that He creates evils, when He turns things well made and good by nature into a scourge for us who act wickedly. Whence also poison is indeed death to a man, but life to a serpent. Whence also it is well said: Forming light, and creating darkness: because when through scourges the darkness of outward pain is created, inwardly through instruction the light of the mind is kindled. Making peace, and creating evils, because then peace with God is restored to us, when those things which were well made but evilly desired are turned into scourges which are evils for us."
Verse 8: DROP DOWN DEW (Forerius translates: flow down), O HEAVENS, FROM ABOVE. — The Syriac translates: Rejoice, O heavens, from above, and let the clouds sprinkle justice: let the earth be opened, and let sa...
8. DROP DOWN DEW (Forerius translates: flow down), O HEAVENS, FROM ABOVE. — The Syriac translates: Rejoice, O heavens, from above, and let the clouds sprinkle justice: let the earth be opened, and let salvation be multiplied; the Antiochene Arabic: Grant grace, O heaven, from above, and you, O cloud, who sprinkle justice! Let the earth rejoice, and let truth be multiplied; the Alexandrine Arabic: Grant grace, O heaven, from above, and let the cloud sprinkle justice: let the earth be opened, and let salvation be multiplied. St. Thomas, Lyranus, Forerius take these words literally of Cyrus, allegorically of Christ. For the Jews captive in Babylon yearned for Cyrus as for heavenly dew. Again, Cyrus, says Lyranus, is compared here to heavenly rain and to the germinating earth, because Astyages, as Herodotus reports in book I, the grandfather of Cyrus, saw in a dream that from the body of his daughter, who was the mother of Cyrus, there grew a vine whose branches overshadowed all of Asia: which the diviners interpreted as meaning that from her would be born a son who would rule all of Asia. But more august things are said here than can apply to Cyrus.
I say therefore that the Prophet, as is his custom, when he saw in Cyrus the image of Christ, immediately leaped to Him: for Christ was his love, his aim, his desire. Whence here he bursts forth into an ardent prayer. Thus in chapter XVI, verse 1, he suddenly flew to Him saying: "Send forth the Lamb, O Lord, the ruler of the earth." See Canon V. Wherefore these words are to be taken literally of Christ, and should be enclosed in a parenthesis, which separates this entire verse from what precedes and follows, where the prophecy about Cyrus is continuous. So the Fathers generally. Whence St. Augustine, in the book On the Five Heresies, chapter IV, judges that these words are so plainly and openly said about the incarnation of Christ that they need no interpretation.
The Council of Hispalis [Seville] notes, Canon XIII, that by these words of Isaiah both natures in Christ are signified, namely the divine, when he says: "Drop down dew, O heavens, from above;" and the human, when he says: "Let the earth be opened, and bud forth a Savior." For just as the Holy Spirit is called rain and dew, so also is the Son. As Psalm LXXI, 6: "He shall come down like rain upon a fleece." Of which the dew descending on Gideon's fleece was a symbol, Judges VI, 37. So Sanchez.
Secondly, more correctly and genuinely, you may take both hemistichs as referring to the human generation and nature of Christ: for this is the Prophet's entire subject here. For Christ, as man, was the bud of heaven, because He was conceived from the heavenly dew, that is, from the Holy Spirit; and the bud of the earth, because He was formed and born from the Blessed Virgin. Whence Vatablus explains thus: "Drop down dew, O heavens, from above," that is, let the Holy Spirit descend upon the Virgin, and bedew and make her fruitful, that she may give birth to the Just One and the Savior. Again, at Christ's nativity and coming, Forerius says: "Mercy and truth have met each other: justice and peace have kissed" each other: "truth has sprung up from the earth, and justice has looked down from heaven:" because heavenly gifts have germinated on earth. And when through the whole world the heavens became flowing with honey, the whole earth was filled with the mercy of the Lord. And thus heavenly riches became also earthly, and earth and heaven were brought together into one field and one crop, as it were.
Finally, note the word rorate [drop down dew]. For aptly is the birth of Christ compared to dew. First, because the origin of dew is hidden and secret: so too was the generation of Christ a mystery. Second, dew, which is nothing other than a pure and subtle vapor resolved into water, is a symbol of virginity and of a virgin birth. Third, dew arises at night: so Christ was born at night. "For while peaceful silence encompassed all things, and the night was in the middle of its course, Your almighty Word from heaven, from the royal throne, etc., leaped down to earth," Wisdom chapter XVIII, 14. Fourth, dew breathes a gentle breeze and the breath of life upon living creatures and upon all that lives, and mitigates their heat: so Christ breathes the breath of life upon us, and thereby tempers the heat of concupiscence. Fifth, dew is of an aerial and celestial nature, so much so that if you fill an empty egg, that is, the shell of a dried egg, with dew and place it on a stick and fit it properly, as the sun grows warm it will ascend to the top of the stick. For dew is carried upward, especially if it is stirred by heat and partly turned into vapor. Thus Christ is of a heavenly nature and life, and makes His followers heavenly. "The first man, says the Apostle in I Corinthians XV, 47, was of the earth, earthly: the second man, from heaven, heavenly. Such as is the earthly, such also are the earthly; and such as is the heavenly, such also are the heavenly. Therefore, as we have borne the image of the earthly, let us bear also the image of the heavenly."
Sixth, dew is rich, and instills a rich and almost oily sap into sprouts, seeds, and plants, and thus fattens, thickens, and makes them fertile: so Christ, bedewing the world with the dew of grace, made it fruitful to bring forth virtues, as well as saints in every kind of virtue and holiness — namely, illustrious Martyrs, Confessors, Bishops, Religious, virgins, widows, married people, and those of every state, condition, and rank. Seventh, condensed dew becomes manna, which is sweet for food and effective for medicine: so Christ in the Eucharist gave Himself to us as food, and He Himself is manna, that is, "bread descending from heaven," by whose power we not only live and resist temptations, but will also rise to eternal life, John VI, 55. See what was said about manna, Exodus XVI. Eighth, dew fallen into an open shell, when it is breathed upon and compressed by a heavenly force, especially lightning, becomes a pearl or union, as Pliny attests, book IX, XXXIII and others: so the deity of Christ, falling into the shell of the virginal womb, and forming from it a human body for Himself, and uniting it to Himself by divine power through the working of the Holy Spirit, formed the most beautiful pearl and most precious union, namely Christ, man and God.
Finally, dew is honey-like, and so honey is nothing other than the marrow of dew and its most sweet and subtle juice, which is received by herbs, flowers, and the surface of the earth, and is collected by bees. So Aristotle, book V of the History of Animals, chapter XXII, teaches that bees construct their combs from flowers, fashion wax from the sap of trees, and collect honey from the dew of the air. For that bees do not make honey, as Seneca thought, but transport it ready-made from the air, is proven by Aristotle, Pliny, and our scholars of Coimbra, treatise 7 on the Meteorology, chapter IX: both from the fact that beekeepers find the cells of bees filled with honey in one or two days (for bees cannot make so much honey in so short a time), and from the fact that in autumn bees do not replace the honey taken from them, even though flowers are still available at that time. It is different with silkworms, which we see making silk, but slowly, after prolonged eating, digestion, and transformation of mulberry leaves, so that they change color three times and finally turn yellow: for then they gradually spin the threads of yellow silk from their insides (by a wonderful work of nature, indeed of God). We do not see this in bees: therefore they collect honey, that is, the marrow of dew; they do not make it. In like manner, what is Jesus but the marrow of heavenly dew, that is: "Honey in the mouth, melody in the ear, jubilation in the heart?" says St. Bernard.
AND LET THE CLOUDS RAIN THE JUST ONE. — In Hebrew, justice, that is, the Just One, namely Christ, who is most just, and as it were justice itself, which He will accordingly bring with Him to the world. Whence it follows: "I the Lord have created Him." The Prophet signifies that the incarnation of Christ will be nothing other than the joy and jubilation of the clouds and the heavens, indeed of the entire world.
LET THE EARTH BE OPENED, AND BUD FORTH A SAVIOR — as if to say: Would that the earth may produce and bring to light a Savior! For the earth too was to contribute its part in this wonderful work of Christ's nativity: for Christ was indeed to be born from heaven, but on earth. So Adamus. This is the genuine sense: for earth here is taken simply and generically. For the earth supplied the material for the body, so that Christ might be born. Secondly, this earth is the Blessed Virgin, who, receiving the dew of the Holy Spirit, conceived and budded forth the Savior. For no other earth did this, or could have done it. So the Fathers generally. The first Adam therefore was formed from virgin earth, that is, from lowly clay; but the second Adam fashioned a body for Himself from the most pure blood of the most holy Virgin.
You will object: How can the Blessed Virgin, who always remained a virgin, that is, with a closed womb, be said to be opened? I reply that it is a metalepsis: "Let it be opened," that is, let it bring forth and produce as one who opens. For the earth cannot naturally germinate and produce a sprout unless it is split and opened by the force of the seed breaking forth and germinating, and thus yields and gives place to the emerging sprout. By a similar metalepsis it is said in chapter LXIV, 1: "Oh that You would rend the heavens and come down!" For if a body were descending naturally from heaven, it would have to rend the heavens; but God, who is spirit, in His descent does not need the rending of the heavens.
Secondly, Sanchez responds that τό aperiatur signifies here the spring season, for this we call "open": because then the things that were contracted by the cold in winter are loosened, warmed, and released. Concerning which Ovid says: They say April was named from the open season. As if to say: Adam and Eve by their sin brought winter and the harshness of virtue and joy upon the world. This winter and cold lasted until the Blessed Virgin, who brought a spiritual and virginal spring upon the world, when she, like a lily of the valley, not from human seed, but from the dew of the Holy Spirit, budded forth the Savior. This is what is said in the Song of Songs II, 12: "The voice of the turtle-dove has been heard in our land: the fig tree has put forth its young figs, the vines in blossom have given their fragrance."
Thirdly, Origen, Tertullian, St. Jerome, Epiphanius, Nyssen, and Ambrose say that Christ alone opened the womb of His mother, that is, He was born and came forth from it while it was closed, just as if it had been opened: for it was permeable and penetrable to Him, just as things that are open are accessible to us. And so they judge that Christ alone is designated by that law, Exodus chapter XIII, 12: "You shall set apart everything that opens the womb for the Lord." See what was said there. It is a catachresis. It is similar to when we say that Christ by His death opened heaven for us, which was previously closed, because He made it accessible and penetrable for us. Thus the Spanish and Portuguese are said to have opened the Indies and the islands of the new world for us, because they were the first to penetrate there with their ships and showed the route to be passable.
From the Hebrew it can be translated otherwise. First thus: Let the earth be opened, and let salvation and justice bear fruit, or germinate. Secondly thus: Let the earth be opened, and let them (namely the heavens and the earth) germinate salvation, and let justice grow up together. So Forerius. AND LET JUSTICE SPRING UP TOGETHER. — He alludes to, indeed almost literally quotes, that saying of David, Psalm LXXI, 6: "He shall come down like rain upon a fleece, and like drops dripping upon the earth. In His days justice shall arise," as if to say: From Adam to Christ, the earth germinated thorns and thistles of sins; let Christ the justifier therefore come, that with Him justice and the just may germinate — Apostles, Martyrs, Confessors, Virgins, etc.
It can, secondly, be translated thus: Let the earth be opened, and let them (the heavens and earth) bring forth the fruit of salvation and justice, which He will cause to sprout together, that is, which the Virgin will produce together with Christ, says Vatablus. Note this against the heretics who mock us when we say that the Blessed Virgin crushed the head of the serpent and gave birth to salvation, when we greet her: "Hail, Queen, Mother of mercy, our life, our sweetness, and our hope, hail."
I THE LORD HAVE CREATED HIM. — "Created," that is, I will create. It is the voice of God, responding to Isaiah's prayers, as if to say: What you so eagerly desire, O Isaiah — just as the dry and thirsty earth desires rain from heaven — this I will in its time provide and create, that is, I will produce this Just One: for His coming and birth are my gift and benefit, as if to say: If I am the one who promises, forms, and creates Christ, so that He may free you from sin and the devil, as you yourself confess by beseeching me for His coming; then to me therefore
this whole matter of His must be entrusted; it belongs to me to designate the time when He should be born and come forth. Whence it follows: "Woe to him who contradicts his maker." Secondly, Sanchez and others more aptly refer these words to Cyrus, as though the Prophet here returns to him after his sigh intercepted by a parenthesis. For thus these words, aptly and plainly connected with what precedes, cohere very well, and equally so with what follows. For explaining τό I created him, he adds at verse 13: "I raised him up: he shall build my city (Jerusalem), and shall release my captives." Which words properly apply only to Cyrus, but in such a way that Cyrus was a type of Christ.
Verse 9: WOE TO HIM WHO CONTRADICTS HIS MAKER, A POTSHERD OF THE EARTHEN VESSELS — as if to say: Woe to the potsherd that contends with its potter, and says: Why did you form me this way and not that? For the...
9. WOE TO HIM WHO CONTRADICTS HIS MAKER, A POTSHERD OF THE EARTHEN VESSELS — as if to say: Woe to the potsherd that contends with its potter, and says: Why did you form me this way and not that? For the potter would immediately break and crush it. In like manner, a man shaped by God and, as it were, a potsherd of God, contending with Him, would deserve to be crushed and annihilated by Him. These words pertain to the statement: I the Lord, making peace and creating evil. For He rebukes the murmurers who say: Why, O Lord, did You give peace to our fathers, as also to other nations, but created for us a wretched and evil time of captivity in Babylon? Again, why do You so prosper Cyrus, an unfaithful and impious man, and appoint him our liberator and leader? Why do You not send us another Moses, Joshua, Gideon, etc., as You sent to our fathers from their own seed and stock? For the discourse up to this point has been about Cyrus. Whence God also responds concerning Cyrus, verse 13: "I raised him up, etc., he will build my city," etc. God silences these, as if to say: Who are you to clamor against me? You, I say, who are in my hand, by which I formed you like a potter, like a potsherd of earthen vessels, that is, of clay vessels, fashioned from earth? For Samian vases are called earthen, from the island of Samos, where these were made most beautifully, because of the clay, which there is the finest, firmest, and hardest, so much so that from it sharp knives are made, as Pliny attests, book XXXV, chapter XII. Whence also Agathocles, king of Sicily, used to dine from Samian vessels, to always remember that he was the son of a potter. The Apostle uses a similar comparison of mud and clay, Romans IX, 20, and silences those who murmur against God about the lot of state and grace given to them. God does the same through Jeremiah, chapter XVIII, 6. See what was said there.
In Hebrew it is, a potsherd among the potsherds of the earth, as if to say: An earthen and clay potsherd, not a bronze one, one potsherd among a heap of potsherds, a most worthless potsherd. It can, secondly, from the Hebrew with Forerius and Vatablus be translated: Woe to him who quarrels with his maker, a potsherd with the potters or shapers of the earth; so that the latter hemistich says the same as the former. Thirdly, the Seventy and Theodotion, instead of 'a potsherd of the earthen vessels,' translate: those who plow, plowing the earth. For the Hebrew חרש charas, if the ש is pointed on the right horn, means to plow; but if on the left, with different points reading חרש cheres, it means potsherd. This Procopius explains as one meaning, as if God says: I have reshaped the people into another form, I who exercise, plow, and subdue the inhabitants of the earth like fields. See therefore that you do not resist the disposition of my providence, no more than clay resists the potter. Leo Castrius however translates it as a plow for plowmen, so that it is another simile, but meaning the same as the former one of the potsherd and the potter, as if to say: Shall the plow contend with the plowman, and say to him: Why, after you have plowed and sown, do you set me aside and cast me off? Why do you not always use me and plow? So from St. Ambrose, Castrius. Whence the Seventy translate: Shall the plowman plow all day long?
SHALL THE CLAY SAY TO ITS POTTER: WHAT ARE YOU DOING, AND YOUR WORK HAS NO HANDLES? — that is, your work lacks its handles. For handles are to a vessel what hands are to a man. Secondly, as if to say: Your work is unpolished and unformed, as if it had been fashioned with the feet, not the hands. And thus the blasphemy is greater.
Verse 10: Woe to him who says to his father: Why do you beget? — With another simile He confounds the murmurers, as if to say: He would be a foolish and insulting son, worthy to perish and be destroyed, who wou...
10. Woe to him who says to his father: Why do you beget? — With another simile He confounds the murmurers, as if to say: He would be a foolish and insulting son, worthy to perish and be destroyed, who would say to his father: Why did you beget me deformed, blind, lame, stupid, that is, ignoble, poor, unfortunate, and not handsome, whole, talented, noble, rich, and fortunate? And as Forerius puts it: Why have you made me loaded with many children whom I cannot feed? Or if in the very act of generation he should prescribe a manner to him: I want you to beget me as such and such, and not as such and such. Much more is this the case with one who clamors and murmurs against God his heavenly Father about the lot given to him, or prescribes a manner, that in the future He should grant him such and such a lot, and not another. For in a similar way Jeremiah complains, chapter XV, verse 10: "Woe is me, my mother! Why did you bear me, a man of strife, a man of discord?"
Symbolically St. Jerome explains these words of Christ, as if to say: Woe to you who say to the almighty Father: Why do You beget a Son? And who say to the Blessed Virgin: Why do you give birth? To a God? But God is eternal, He is not begotten in time. To a man? Then why are you called Θεοτόκος, that is, Mother of God? — as Nestorius blasphemed, as though these were his and similar persons' words. Whence allegorically St. Cyril refers these words to Nicodemus and those like him, who, hearing from Christ that everyone must be reborn through baptism, said: "How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born again?" John III, 4.
Verse 11: THUS SAYS THE LORD, THE HOLY ONE OF ISRAEL, ITS MAKER — namely, of Israel. Here He gives the apodosis, that is, the application of the similitude, applying it to God, as if to say: Israel is the clay...
11. THUS SAYS THE LORD, THE HOLY ONE OF ISRAEL, ITS MAKER — namely, of Israel. Here He gives the apodosis, that is, the application of the similitude, applying it to God, as if to say: Israel is the clay or the pottery, God is the maker or the potter: Israel is the son, God is the Father: there is therefore no reason for the Israelites to clamor and quarrel with God, or to complain as though He had no care for them. Let them be silent like clay: let them be submissive like obedient and prudent children — this is their lot: it is mine to provide for them and to arrange their affairs, both sorrowful and joyful. Nevertheless, to show you my immense benevolence toward you, O Israelites, I grant you what the potsherd would not dare against the potter, nor the son against the father. Wherefore "ask me of things to come, concerning my sons," namely, what I have decreed concerning you who are my sons, and concerning the prolongation or release of your captivity, and what shall befall you: "and concerning the work of my hands," which is you, "command me," that is, inquire of Isaiah and my Prophets, and demand that they tell you what things are to come and what I am to do; which idols can by no means do. For He repeatedly returns to the prediction of future things, and disputing from this with idols about divinity, He wins and triumphs. So Sanchez. Again, this "work" of God is the heavens, stars, earth, and men. Whence it follows: "I made the earth."
Otherwise St. Jerome and Forerius, who think these words are said ironically and mockingly, as if St. Jerome says: Let the potsherd question me and inquire into the secrets of the future, and prescribe to me how I ought to govern my adopted sons, who will believe in my Son; as if to say: Is it for you to command me what to do, how I should govern my sons? As if to say: By no means.
Verse 12: I made the earth. — Here God explains His work, of which He is the maker, and as it were assigns the reason for it to the murmurers. AND I HAVE COMMANDED ALL THEIR HOST — as if to say: The stars, whic...
12. I made the earth. — Here God explains His work, of which He is the maker, and as it were assigns the reason for it to the murmurers. AND I HAVE COMMANDED ALL THEIR HOST — as if to say: The stars, which the Gentiles worship as gods, are subject to me; I command them, that is, I arrange and order them.
Verse 13: I have raised him up in justice. — By "him" St. Jerome, Procopius, Eusebius (book V of the Demonstration, chapter IV), Epiphanius, Hilary, Origen, Haymo, and from them Leo Castrius understand Christ:...
13. I have raised him up in justice. — By "him" St. Jerome, Procopius, Eusebius (book V of the Demonstration, chapter IV), Epiphanius, Hilary, Origen, Haymo, and from them Leo Castrius understand Christ: but St. Thomas, Hugh, Forerius, and Sanchez understand Cyrus. Both are true: for here He mixes the type with the antitype, and treats of Cyrus as of the type of Christ. Whence He says some things that apply more to Cyrus, and some that apply more to Christ. "In justice," that is, that Cyrus might justly punish the Chaldean tyrants and free the faithful Hebrews from their tyranny. From the Hebrew it can be translated: in justice, that is, out of my sheer goodness, provoked by no merits of yours, but only because I am just and holy, I will give you Cyrus as a liberator. Secondly, Forerius says: Justice can here be taken for the very reason behind God's counsels, which is most full of equity, and is the very standard and rule of all things justly done, as if to say: I raised up Cyrus with the highest justice and equity, having weighed all things that needed to be weighed in so difficult a matter, and having taken account of causes and effects, time and place. There is therefore no reason for anyone here to murmur saying: Why did you send Cyrus, a Gentile, and not a Hebrew or some faithful person, to free us from Babylon? Or, why did you send him so late, or at this time rather than that? But let all acknowledge and praise my wisdom, equity, and clemency. Now under Cyrus He looks to Christ, who was clearly raised up by God for justice to be propagated throughout the whole world.
HE HIMSELF WILL BUILD MY CITY (Jerusalem) AND HE SHALL RELEASE MY CAPTIVES (that is, my captive people, namely the Jews) — freely and without ransom. That Cyrus did this through his command and edict is clear from I Esdras I, 3. Whence it is clear that this passage is to be understood literally of Cyrus, yet in such a way that in Cyrus the Prophet looked to something higher, namely Christ, who built the city, that is, the Church, and released the captivity of the human race, not for a price, but freely — indeed by paying and expending as our ransom Himself, that is, His blood. So the Fathers cited a little before.
Verse 14: THE LABOR OF EGYPT, AND THE MERCHANDISE OF ETHIOPIA, AND THE SABEANS, MEN OF STATURE, SHALL COME OVER TO YOU AND SHALL BE YOURS. — Hugh and Vatablus refer these words to Israel, or to Judea, as if to...
14. THE LABOR OF EGYPT, AND THE MERCHANDISE OF ETHIOPIA, AND THE SABEANS, MEN OF STATURE, SHALL COME OVER TO YOU AND SHALL BE YOURS. — Hugh and Vatablus refer these words to Israel, or to Judea, as if to say: The Egyptians, Ethiopians, and Sabeans, seeing you, O Israel, prosper and be blessed by God, will make a covenant with you, indeed many of them will embrace your religion. Or, as Vatablus puts it, the sense is, as if to say: The Israelites will gain possession of the riches of the Egyptians, Ethiopians, and Sabeans, when God at the walls of Jerusalem shall strike down through an Angel the camp of Sennacherib and the Assyrians: for these forces consisted of the aforementioned peoples, who had already been conquered, and these already had the spoils of Egypt, Ethiopia, and Sheba, which they had plundered there, and which the Jews will now take from them. But this sense, being cold, uncertain, and doubtful, does not cohere with the text. For the Prophet has been treating not of Israel but of Cyrus up to this point.
I say therefore that literally the discourse is about Cyrus, whose victories he touches on in passing; but under him he means Christ and Christ's victories, as if to say: Cyrus will conquer Egypt, Ethiopia, and its chief province, namely Sheba, or Abyssinia; and these provinces will surrender to Cyrus, the destroyer of Babylon and the Chaldean monarchy. For Xenophon teaches that this happened, book VII of the Cyropædia, and book VIII, where he sets the boundaries of Cyrus's kingdom from the east at the Red Sea, from the west at Egypt, from the south at Ethiopia, from the north at the Euxine Sea. Moreover, it is said of Cyrus: "Only in you is God." Just as it is said in chapter X, verse 5, that the indignation of God was in the hand and rod of Assyria, when through it He struck and punished the Jews and other nations. For in like manner God was driving Cyrus to the destruction of Babylon and to the liberation of the Jews; whence he adds:
Verse 15: Truly You are a hidden God — who indeed hide Yourself in Cyrus, an impious man, an idolater and tyrant, and who so secretly work through him and wage war, that not You but he alone seems to be waging...
15. Truly You are a hidden God — who indeed hide Yourself in Cyrus, an impious man, an idolater and tyrant, and who so secretly work through him and wage war, that not You but he alone seems to be waging war. Whence Xenophon and other historians attribute Cyrus's victories to his own virtue; this is what Isaiah said in verse 5: "I have girded you, and you have not known me." So Didacus Alvarez, Pintus, and Sanchez, who morally and aptly draws the conclusion from this that what is well done by a prelate or magistrate, even an unfaithful and impious one (such as Cyrus was), must be attributed to God. Again, that God from time to time uses unworthy instruments, such as Cyrus was, for the sake of and for the good of His faithful ones.
Thus, as St. Chrysostom says, homily 3 on the Epistle to the Colossians: "God deigned to speak to Cain for the sake of Abel; to the devil for the sake of Job; to Pharaoh for the sake of Joseph; to Nebuchadnezzar for the sake of Daniel; to Belshazzar for the sake of the same. And the Magi also obtained a revelation; and Caiaphas, although he was the killer of Christ and unworthy, prophesied because of the dignity of the priesthood." Finally, Sanchez draws from this the conclusion that subjects must obey even impious prelates, and reflect that God speaks, commands, and governs in them. Indeed St. Gregory adds, book II of the Moralia, chapter VI, that the power of the devil is never unjust, although his will is always wicked: "For from himself, he says, he has the will, but from the Lord the power."
But rather these words are to be taken of Christ, whom he means under Cyrus and represents as in an image. For to Him, not to Cyrus, properly and fully applies what follows: "Only in you is God, and there is no God besides you. Truly you are a hidden God." So St. Jerome, Procopius, Theodoret, Cyril, Eusebius (book V of the Demonstration, chapter IV); Hilary (book IV On the Trinity), and others generally. The sense therefore is: "The labor of Egypt," etc., that is, riches gained by the labor of the Egyptians, Ethiopians, and Sabeans, that is, of whatever Gentiles, even the most remote, shall serve You, O Christ! The whole world will submit itself to You, as if conquered in war and bound by the spirit of grace and charity. For the nations converted by Christ and the Apostles offered all their possessions together with their faith to Christ the Lord, so that they seemed, as it were, captives of the Apostles. For those first Christians surrendered themselves, their bodies and souls, and all things, and would even have plucked out their eyes if they could, says St. Paul, Galatians IV, 15, to advance the grace and glory of Christ and His Apostles.
It can, secondly, be explained more morally thus: "The labor of Egypt," that is, the laborious Egyptians and the industrious Ethiopians, namely those who are wealthy from labor and agriculture, as well as from commerce and industry: these, I say, with their riches and goods "shall come over to You, O Christ," abandoning their religion and their gods, and they shall believe in You, worship You, and adore You, "bound with manacles," as if conquered in war, defeated, and led in triumph. This phrase signifies an absolute but spontaneous submission: which the following words of bowing down, supplication, or entreaty indicate, along with the free confession and congratulation of those saying to Christ: "Only in You is God." These manacles therefore were the powerful and efficacious grace and impulse of the Holy Spirit, "whose bonds are stronger than adamant," says St. Ambrose on Psalm XXXVII, near the beginning. So also St. Jerome and the other Fathers already cited, among whom St. Hilary says: "Such was Paul, bound for Christ's sake, who consequently, in Ephesians III, 1; Philippians I, 13, and elsewhere, glories in these bonds of his."
ONLY IN YOU IS GOD. — Vatablus translates: Truly in you is God, besides whom there is no other. That is: certainly in you, O Cyrus, is God, who fights and conquers, besides whom there is no other God; as if to say: It is not Cyrus who overthrows Babylon and saves Israel, but it is God who directs his right hand to strike the Chaldeans and free the Hebrews. Whence, this work of God having been accomplished, he was unfortunate, and in the third year after, he was slain by the woman Tomyris along with his entire army; just as Sennacherib, after God's vengeance was accomplished, was killed by an Angel; Vespasian and Titus, after the destruction of Judea, to which they were directed by God, shortly afterward both perished unhappily. So Sanchez, Alvarez, Pintus, and Vatablus.
But properly these things apply to Christ alone. For first, in Christ, insofar as He is God, is the entire divinity as well as the Most Holy Trinity. For the Father (as also the Holy Spirit) is in the Son through that divine circuminsession of the Most Holy Trinity, as the theologians call it; for this is what Christ signifies when He says, John XIV, 9: "Philip, he who sees me sees also the Father. Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?" As if to say, says Cyril: My doctrine and works I have from the Father, and they are shared with the Father: therefore also my nature and divinity. Therefore by these words of Christ is signified the intimate and perfect indwelling of one Person of the Most Holy Trinity in another, and conversely, which Damascene, book I On the Faith, chapter XI, calls περιχώρησιν, and the Scholastics after him call circuminsession.
Concerning which mystery St. Augustine disputes, book VI On the Trinity, last chapter, Hilary, book IV On the Trinity, Ambrose, on chapter XIII of the Epistle to the Corinthians: "Each one, says Augustine, is in each one (of the persons), and all are in each one, and each one is in all, and all are in all, and all are one." Wherefore from this passage and similar ones the Scholastics, and specifically Francis Suarez, book IV On the Trinity, at the end, learnedly teaches against Durand and Henry that this circuminsession exists in the Most Holy Trinity not only as regards the divine essence, but also as regards the persons themselves, and that more properly: although its foundation is the essence itself, which in the three persons is one and the same. And so in the essence properly there is unity and identity, not circuminsession or περιχώρησις. Wherefore Budaeus, and after him Henri Estienne, in their Lexicon, incorrectly interpret περιχώρησιν in Damascene at the cited passage as ἑνότητα, that is, unity. For περιχώρησις, that is, circuminsession, is one thing, and unity another, as is evident from the terms. This circuminsession therefore is nothing other than the intimate presence of one person to another, whose root and as it were cause is the very immensity of those same persons. For since they are in themselves immense, it necessarily follows that they are intimately in each other, not only according to essence, but also according to their proper relations. Whence, just as they have the immense character of the essence which they include, so from the same root they have that they are intimately in each other, also according to their proper relations.
Wherefore this circuminsession is a mutual presence, and as it were penetration, that is, inexistence and indwelling of one person in another. This is what St. Athanasius says in the Exposition of the Faith: "The Holy Spirit is always in the hands of the Father and the Son." And Damascene, book I On the Faith, chapter X, for this reason calls the Holy Spirit "inseparable from and never departing from the Father and the Son." And in chapter IX, he compares the procession of one person to light emanating from fire: "Because, he says, light is begotten from fire, and is not separated from fire, but is always in it." And Fulgentius, book On the Faith to Peter, chapter I: "Through this unity of essence, he says, the whole Father is in the Son and the Holy Spirit, the whole Son is in the Father and the Holy Spirit, and the whole Holy Spirit is in the Father and the Son. None of these is outside any of them." The same we sing in the hymn at Lauds on Monday: "In the Father is the whole Son, and the whole Father in the Word." The cause is both the immensity of the divine persons, as I have said, and their supreme connection and intimate conjunction, which arises from one and the same essence in number. For from it results that the Divine Persons are mutually inseparable, most closely joined and intimate: whence it results that they mutually exist in each other.
Thus of Christ insofar as He is God, this passage of Isaiah is explained by St. Jerome, St. Ambrose, book I On the Faith, chapter II, and Athanasius, book On the Assumption of Man. You will object: It is false that God is only in the Son, for He is also in the Father and the Holy Spirit. I reply: the word "only" excludes only idols, angels, and other beings. For the rule of the theologians is: When exclusive words are added to the Divine Persons in essential attributes, or attributes common to the three persons, they only exclude other things which have a different nature and essence from God; but not other divine persons: for since these have the same essence, they also have the same essential attributes. The sense therefore is: Only in You, O Christ, is God, as if to say: There is no other divinity in the world than that which is in You, which nevertheless is also in the Father and the Holy Spirit. See St. Thomas and the Scholastics, Part I, Question XXXI, articles 3 and 4.
Secondly, these words apply to Christ insofar as He is man, because in the humanity of Christ, as in a temple, the divinity dwells bodily, indeed the fullness of the divinity, as the Apostle says, Colossians II, 9. See what was said there. So St. Jerome, Procopius, Theodoret, and Cyril (book I on John, chapter XV), Epiphanius (book II on the heresy of the Noetians). The sense therefore is, as if to say: The nations, seeing the grace of Christ, the Apostles, and the first Christians, their virtues, angelic conduct, and holy and divine manner of life, indeed seeing in themselves through baptism and Christianity such a great change of morals taking place, that from barbarians, proud, blasphemous, cursing, murderous, rapacious, gluttonous, licentious persons, etc., through Christ's faith and grace they become humane, humble, God-fearing, lovable, just, sober, chaste, etc. — they will be astounded and will say to Christ: Truly "only in You is God." Happy are we, who have You, indeed God, transforming not bodies but souls, and making from beasts men, indeed angels. This literally happens today in Japan, China, Brazil, and other parts of the Indies, as the letters of our men from there attest.
Let European Christians note this, especially Pastors and Churchmen. For if heretics, Jews, and other unbelievers saw in them that holiness, those angelic morals, without avarice, ambition, or turpitude, which were in the Apostles and exist today in India, surely many of them, as if bound by manacles, would follow them, and would exclaim: "Truly in you is God." Truly nothing but God shines in you. "You are the seed whom the Lord has blessed." On the contrary, we know that just as Lutheranism was given its occasion by the ignorance and wicked life of certain priests, so today these same heretics blaspheme and insult the Church when they hear or see their impure life, and become more confirmed in their heresy and hatred of priests.
AND THERE IS NO GOD BESIDES YOU. — For who could have subjected the whole world to Christ crucified and to His Gospel, so paradoxical in its contempt for honor, wealth, and pleasures, but God alone? Who, if not God, is able to so change the mind of man? By what powers could a man so master himself, so tame his unbridled passions? Who could so overcome and suppress the concupiscence innate in each person? Who would be able to make so many men at once into angels, indeed into gods of a sort, if not God? It was not to you, O Christ, and Christians, that arms, armies, or eloquence produced this dignity, this efficacy. Only in you, in this work of yours, is God perceived, the author of your efficacy and freedom. To none is this glory due but to God. Thus Paul preached "Christ crucified, not in the persuasive words of human wisdom, but in the demonstration of the spirit and power, that the sublimity, he says, may be of the power of God, and not from us." So Forerius.
Hence Muhammad in the Koran took that profession of his faith, or rather perfidy, which the Muslims cry out hoarsely in their mosques or temples: "There is no God but God, and Muhammad is his counselor."
TRULY YOU ARE A HIDDEN GOD. — In Hebrew אתה אל מסתתר mistatter, that is, hiding Himself. Thus first, God is called hidden because by His nature He is invisible and escapes the sight of Angels as well as of men, "and dwells in inaccessible light." Whence He appeared to Moses, Solomon, and others throughout covered with cloud and darkness. Again, "hidden," because He revealed Himself not to all, but only to His chosen Israelites. "God is known in Judea: in Israel His name is great." So Vatablus. Hence in the temples of the Egyptians was inscribed this emblem of God: "I am what was, what is, and what shall be; my veil no one has ever uncovered."
Secondly and genuinely, He is called "the hidden God" as Savior (as follows), that is, Jesus, because of the secret mystery of the assumed body, says St. Jerome, by which His divinity is hidden under the covering of flesh. Whence the Seventy translate: You are God, and we did not know it. So Hilary, book IV On the Trinity; Ambrose on chapter II to the Romans; Eusebius, book V of the Demonstration, IV; Cyril (or rather Clictovaeus Boeterius of Paris; for he restored the four middle books of Cyril on John, which had been lost), book V on John, chapter II, on those words: "We do not know where He is from." Where he teaches that the Jews took from this passage of Isaiah the occasion for saying: "When Christ comes, no one knows where He is from." For the Prophet throughout this entire chapter treats of Christ the man, the antitype of Cyrus. The sense therefore is, as if to say: Just as God secretly worked the salvation of the Jews in Cyrus, and as it were hid Himself: so much more in Christ, a poor and lowly man, the divinity will hide itself, and will not be able to be seen with the eyes: but in His works it will shine forth and show itself. For men will recognize Him to be God from His miracles and the salvation that He will bring: for He will be the Savior of the whole world. From this passage it is clearly evident against the Arians that Christ is truly and properly God. Whence St. Ambrose at the passage already cited: "Because, he says, the Son of God had indeed always appeared, but who He was remained hidden; when after the resurrection He is recognized, it is said to Him in confession: You are God, and we did not know it. And He who was thought to be in the Law merely an Angel and a leader of the army of the Lord, when He is understood to be the Son of God, it is said to Him with thanksgiving: For You are God, and we did not know it."
Mystically, these words aptly apply to the Eucharist: there not only the divinity but also the humanity of Christ is hidden under the species of bread and wine: there all the senses are deceived except hearing: sight sees the color of bread, taste tastes the flavor of bread, smell smells the odor of bread, touch touches the round shape and smoothness of bread: hearing alone hears the truth, namely: "This is my body." Here therefore is mystically fulfilled that saying of Isaac about Jacob covering himself with the hairy skins of Esau: "The voice indeed is the voice of Jacob; but the hands are the hands of Esau," Genesis XXVII, 22. For here likewise the hand touches the accidents of bread, but the voice is the voice of Christ, who can neither be deceived nor deceive, and says: "This is my body." Of the Eucharist therefore it is truly said: "Only in You is God" — namely Christ, not bread, not any other substance. "Truly You (O Christ in the Eucharist) are a hidden God, the God of Israel, the Savior." You are really present there in body, soul, and divinity: but You are recognized in the power and salvation which You bring to the Israelites, that is, to the faithful who worthily receive communion, when You change their hearts, heal their vices, lull their passions to sleep, make their minds heavenly, and so sweeten them with divine consolations that they rejoice and say with St. Monica at Holy Communion: "My heart and my flesh have exulted in the living God."
Verse 16: THEY ARE CONFOUNDED. — Again and again God turns back and rises up against the idolatry then rampant, as if to say: When the Babylonians and other nations see that Baal, or Bel, their god, cannot prot...
16. THEY ARE CONFOUNDED. — Again and again God turns back and rises up against the idolatry then rampant, as if to say: When the Babylonians and other nations see that Baal, or Bel, their god, cannot protect them from being devastated by the true God through Cyrus, then they together with their gods and the makers of those gods will be put to shame. Again, when the nations see Christ revealing the divinity hidden in Himself through miracles, through holiness, and through the gifts of the Holy Spirit, then all who worshipped and made idols will be put to shame; indeed they will despise them and burn them, and transfer themselves to the worship of Christ. Note: Idols are called errors, because it is the supreme error that stones and wood should claim to be gods. In Hebrew it is צרים tsarim, that is, distresses. For idols, or rather demons, through idols drive the minds of their worshippers into a thousand distresses, and above all torment them with a perpetual remorse of conscience for neglecting God the Creator of heaven and worshipping stones instead of Him. So Forerius, Sanchez, Vatablus, and others. Otherwise Adamus: as if to say: The Scribes and Pharisees together went into the confusion of their errors and lies which they spread throughout the whole world, namely that Christ did not rise again but was stolen by the Apostles. For the contrary became evident, and the whole world believed. But this sense is too narrow.
Verse 17: ISRAEL IS SAVED IN THE LORD WITH AN ETERNAL SALVATION — as if to say: Upon the Babylonians and the idolatrous nations will come shame and ignominy, both temporal through Cyrus and eternal through Sata...
17. ISRAEL IS SAVED IN THE LORD WITH AN ETERNAL SALVATION — as if to say: Upon the Babylonians and the idolatrous nations will come shame and ignominy, both temporal through Cyrus and eternal through Satan in hell, of which the temporal was a shadow and prelude: but true Israelites, that is, faithful Christians, will be gifted by Christ with eternal salvation and glory. Hence it is clear that these words pertain to Christ, not to Cyrus. For the Prophet leaps from the type to the antitype, and soon springs back to the type, or history; for it is established that the salvation which Cyrus brought to the Jews was not eternal: indeed, shortly after it, they were most grievously afflicted by the Antiochuses and other kings of Asia for two hundred years at the time of the Maccabees; and not much later they lost their scepter under Herod and the Romans, and were finally destroyed by Titus.
Verse 18: THUS SAYS THE LORD WHO CREATES THE HEAVENS. — He adds τό creating the heavens, to imply that the heavens were created by God for this purpose, that true Israelites might enter them and possess them, a...
18. THUS SAYS THE LORD WHO CREATES THE HEAVENS. — He adds τό creating the heavens, to imply that the heavens were created by God for this purpose, that true Israelites might enter them and possess them, and there obtain the eternal salvation which He promised them here. HE DID NOT CREATE IT (the earth) IN VAIN: HE FORMED IT TO BE INHABITED — as if to say: Just as God created heaven as a reward for the faithful, so He created the earth as an arena, namely that men might inhabit it for a time, and there live so piously and holily, bravely fighting against sins and all the assaults of the flesh and the devil, that they might deserve to be crowned as victors in heaven. This is what Paul says: "We are made a spectacle (in Greek θέατρον, theater) to the world, and to angels, and to men," I Corinthians IV, 9.
Moreover, God casts His eye upon the land of Judea and returns to Cyrus, as if to say: I will lead you back through Cyrus into Judea: for I did not create it in vain, so that it should be and remain deserted, as it now lies deserted since you are captives in Babylon; but that I might lead you back into it, just as I first led you in long ago, having expelled the Canaanites through Joshua.
Verse 19: I HAVE NOT SPOKEN IN SECRET, IN A DARK PLACE OF THE EARTH — as if to say: The Sibyls gave oracles from a cave, enchanters and magicians from underground places where they consulted the demon, who, con...
19. I HAVE NOT SPOKEN IN SECRET, IN A DARK PLACE OF THE EARTH — as if to say: The Sibyls gave oracles from a cave, enchanters and magicians from underground places where they consulted the demon, who, conscious of his own wickedness, shuns the light and is the prince of darkness, and therefore seeks hiding places: but I, not in secret, but on Sinai, on the summit of a lofty mountain, before all the Hebrews, with lightning and thunder, with a clear voice, in broad daylight, made a covenant with them and promised that I would give them the land of Canaan if they would obey my law, and just as I promised, so also I fulfilled. I therefore am He who led you into Canaan; I likewise am He who from Babylon leads you back to the same place. To this Christ alluded when He said, John XVIII, 20: "I have spoken openly to the world: and in secret I have spoken nothing." For impostors and heresiarchs who teach falsehood seek hiding places and there hold their conventicles, as Vincent of Lerins rightly noted in his golden little book Against Heresies.
I DID NOT SAY TO THE SEED OF JACOB: SEEK ME IN VAIN. — Here God gives a threefold distinction between Himself and idols. First, that He responds in public, idols in secret. Second, that they are worshipped in vain: for they give no reward to their worshippers; God gives ample rewards to His worshippers, as He led and brought back the Jews into Canaan. Third, idols and demons demand impure and wicked homage and worship from their followers; God demands only what is pure and holy, as follows.
Verse 20: Assemble yourselves — as if to say: All of you therefore who now escape from Babylon and emerge from captivity: you also who from paganism are converted to Christ, come together and bring forward if y...
20. Assemble yourselves — as if to say: All of you therefore who now escape from Babylon and emerge from captivity: you also who from paganism are converted to Christ, come together and bring forward if you have anything to oppose to what I have said in defense of idols: if you have seen or heard anything in Babylon or in paganism that would show them to be gods, if you have experienced any help or divine power from them, produce it. But I propose this in vain: for I know that you will all say with me: THEY DO NOT KNOW (that is, all idolaters are blind and foolish) WHO LIFT UP THE WOOD (thus it should be read with the Romans and Hebrews, not 'sign') OF THEIR CARVED WORK (that is, who set up a wooden idol carved by themselves, and worship it), AND PRAY TO (and invoke) A GOD THAT DOES NOT SAVE. — For how can he save and raise up others, who cannot raise up and save himself? So St. Jerome, Cyril, St. Thomas, Adamus, Forerius, and others.
Verse 21: DECLARE, AND COME, AND TAKE COUNSEL TOGETHER — as if to say: Join your discussions, assemblies, and councils, so that what does not occur to one, another may suggest in favor of the divinity of idols;...
21. DECLARE, AND COME, AND TAKE COUNSEL TOGETHER — as if to say: Join your discussions, assemblies, and councils, so that what does not occur to one, another may suggest in favor of the divinity of idols; and above all deliberate this among yourselves: who foretold that the Jews would be freed from Babylon by Cyrus, and actually accomplished it? And that men would be freed from the captivity of the devil by Christ, and will accomplish this with equal faithfulness in its own time? Who, I say, if not I, whom Israel worships? It is therefore clear that there is no other holy God and Savior than I. Wherefore:
Verse 22: TURN TO ME AND YOU SHALL BE SAVED, ALL YOU ENDS OF THE EARTH. — Here God promises to the faithful who worship and invoke Him every salvation, temporal and spiritual, but especially spiritual and etern...
22. TURN TO ME AND YOU SHALL BE SAVED, ALL YOU ENDS OF THE EARTH. — Here God promises to the faithful who worship and invoke Him every salvation, temporal and spiritual, but especially spiritual and eternal through Christ.
Verse 23: I HAVE SWORN BY MYSELF. — Here God sanctions and confirms His promises with an oath, as if to say: By myself I have sworn, that is, I swear (see Canon XIII), that the sentence and word justly and equi...
23. I HAVE SWORN BY MYSELF. — Here God sanctions and confirms His promises with an oath, as if to say: By myself I have sworn, that is, I swear (see Canon XIII), that the sentence and word justly and equitably uttered by my mouth will by no means be void, but will actually be fulfilled. Moreover, that word is what follows: "For (that) every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall swear," that is, not only the Jewish nation but absolutely all nations will acknowledge, fear, and worship me: and therefore will swear by me, not by idols. They will worship, I say, in an incomplete way in this life, when they are converted to me, say St. Jerome, St. Cyril, St. Thomas, and others: but they will worship perfectly and completely in the future life and on the day of judgment: so that my enemies too, compelled by force, will be subjected as a footstool under my feet and will confess me to be their God and Lord. For that these things also pertain to the day of judgment is clear from Romans chapter XIV, 10, where after the Apostle had said: "For we shall all stand before the tribunal of Christ," he adds a proof from this passage, saying: "For it is written: As I live (that is, I swear by my life), says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me: and every tongue shall confess to God." So Adamus and Sanchez.
THE WORD OF JUSTICE. — Forerius and Vatablus translate: justice is the word, that is, the word which is true and pure justice: for justice, says Forerius, can first be taken as beneficence. For God here swears that He will give the whole world the greatest and most desirable benefit, namely the true knowledge of Himself, obedience, and religion, in which alone our salvation consists. Secondly, "justice" can be taken properly, as if to say: I swear that I will give the world justice, which is my very word: for Christ the Son of God is the "justice" and the "Word" of the Father, which did not return empty, but was efficacious, and saturated, fertilized, and justified the earth. So Haymo and Forerius. Thirdly, and most plainly, there goes forth here from the mouth of God the judge "justice" or "the word of justice," that is, a most just and equitable word. For it is most just that every rational creature, even demons, should submit to God their maker and creator, and worship and glorify Him. Justice therefore, that is, just and God-deserving observance and submission, is signified by τό every knee shall bow to me: observance by τό and every tongue shall swear.
To this the Apostle alluded, Philippians II, 10: "In the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, on earth, and under the earth; and every tongue should confess that the Lord Jesus Christ is in the glory of God the Father." Which he says Christ achieved through the humility by which He took the form of a servant, being made man. Therefore, when He swears that He will cause every knee to bow to Him, He implicitly swears that He will take the form of a servant: which word and oath is the justice, mercy, and sanctification of the world. St. Jerome notes that in the expression every knee shall bow, the Christian people is clearly signified. "For it is, he says, the custom of the Church to bend the knee to Christ: which the Jews, showing the pride of their mind, absolutely do not do." For the Jews pray standing and erect.
Verse 24: EVERY TONGUE SHALL SWEAR. — "Shall swear," that is, shall celebrate, worship, adore. It is a synecdoche. For an oath is put for any worship of God, as I said above. Whence St. Paul, instead of "shall...
24. EVERY TONGUE SHALL SWEAR. — "Shall swear," that is, shall celebrate, worship, adore. It is a synecdoche. For an oath is put for any worship of God, as I said above. Whence St. Paul, instead of "shall swear," translates "shall confess," that is, shall praise and glorify, Romans chapter XIV, 11. For men are accustomed to swear by him whom they believe to be God and the supreme Divinity, who is the avenger of perjury.
Verse 25: Therefore in the Lord he shall say (every tongue, as preceded): MINE ARE THE JUSTICES AND THE DOMINION. — First, Forerius thinks there is a transposition of words, and the sentence should be arranged...
25. Therefore in the Lord he shall say (every tongue, as preceded): MINE ARE THE JUSTICES AND THE DOMINION. — First, Forerius thinks there is a transposition of words, and the sentence should be arranged thus: Every tongue shall say: My justices are in the Lord, as in their source and giver, as if to say: From God flow all my justices; to Him are to be ascribed my virtues and holy works, not to me; He is to be glorified, not I. Therefore the heretics wrongly abuse this passage for their imputed justice, by which they say they are just not through formal and inherent justice, but through extrinsic or imputed justice from God. Secondly, with a different punctuation the same Forerius reads and understands it thus: Every tongue shall swear, and shall say 'in the Lord,' that is, by God, by Christ, so that by the phrase 'in the Lord' the formula of oath is described, which the faithful will use. Then also "every tongue shall say that mine are the justices and the dominion," that is, God's is the justice, or the praise of justice, and God's is the dominion. He says "mine" because these are the words of God speaking: this is therefore an explanation of what preceded, "every knee shall bow to me": just as the first part, τό in the Lord, is an explanation of τό every tongue shall swear, as if to say: Every tongue will proclaim that I am just and ruler: or that I possess both justice and power, strength, and dominion. For all these things are signified by the Hebrew עזה, and all these things are required in a true prince, such as Christ is, namely justice, to rule justly; and power, to be able to execute His justice. Whence Scripture often commends these two things in God, Psalm LXX, 19: "Your power and Your justice, O God." And
Psalm VII, 12: "God is a just and powerful judge." Whence the Seventy here translate: Every tongue shall swear to God, saying: Justice and glory shall come to Him. So Sanchez. Thirdly, the same Forerius translates thus: Indeed the Lord has said: Through the Lord I have justices and dominion, that is, the Lord Christ has said: From the Lord, that is from God the Father, I have justice, in that I am just and justifying: I have also the dominion of the Church and of the whole world: so that no one is a faithful citizen of the Church, no one is just, except him whom I have justified; and whomever I convert and justify, he is faithful and just, and enrolled by me in the civic right of the Church. This is what Christ says: "All power has been given to me in heaven and on earth," Matthew XXVIII, 18; and to the Apostles: "Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them: and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained," John XX, 23.
Fourthly, others think that these words refer to the faithful and the Church, as if to say: Every faithful person, saying with his tongue "in the Lord," that is, confessing and praising the Lord, will say: "Mine are the justices" of the Gospel, mine is the "dominion" and kingdom of Christ, mine is His Church, not the Jews'. So St. Jerome. The second sense coheres best with what precedes, and seems most genuine from the Hebrew phrase. For τό באדני badonai, that is, "in the Lord," is a formula of swearing customary among the Hebrews. Then the first, which is easy and fitting.
TO HIM (Christ God) SHALL COME (to bow the knee to Him), AND ALL WHO RESIST HIM SHALL BE CONFOUNDED (the unbelievers and rebels). — This will happen on the day of judgment. These are the words of the Prophet proving the sentence of God: for the preceding are the words and sentence of God.
Verse 26: IN THE LORD SHALL ALL THE SEED OF ISRAEL BE JUSTIFIED AND PRAISED. — The rebels shall be confounded and shall go into eternal fire: but the Israelites, that is, the faithful, "in the Lord," that is, w...
26. IN THE LORD SHALL ALL THE SEED OF ISRAEL BE JUSTIFIED AND PRAISED. — The rebels shall be confounded and shall go into eternal fire: but the Israelites, that is, the faithful, "in the Lord," that is, with the Lord, by the Lord, before the Lord, "shall be justified" through the faith of Christ: or rather, they shall be justified, that is, publicly declared just and pronounced so before the whole world, so that no one may dare to condemn those whom God justifies and absolves, as St. Paul says. Hence by all "shall all the seed of Israel be praised," so that even the reprobate who despised them in this life will be compelled to praise them and say: "See how they are counted among the children of God, and their lot is among the saints!" For this is the eternal salvation and praise which He promised to be given through Christ to true Israelites, that is, to the faithful, verse 17. By "the seed of Israel" He calls the children of Israel, not the carnal but the spiritual, namely the faithful and the saints.
Do you want illustrious examples of this praiseworthy seed, bowing not only the knee but also heart and body and soul to God, and swearing in Him with their tongue, and confessing and adorning His justice, strength, and dominion by glorious contest and victory? Receive them. In the city of Tipasa in Mauritania, the king Huneric installed Cyrilla as Arian bishop. The citizens, detesting Arianism and confessing Christ as God, began to celebrate the divine mysteries publicly, gathered together in one house. Cyrilla reported this to Huneric, who ordered that the entire province be assembled in the middle of the forum, and that their tongues and right hands be cut out at the root. When this had been done, by the power of the Holy Spirit, they spoke and continue to speak just as they spoke before, says Victor of Utica, book III on the Vandals.
In the same place he narrates that a Bishop named Habet Deum, when by the Arian Antonius, with his feet and hands bound and his mouth gagged so that his tongue could not cry out, was forcibly re-baptized; then when his bonds were loosened, he heard him say: "Behold now, brother Habet Deum, you have been made our Christian. What more can you do, except consent to the will of the king?" To whom Habet Deum replied: "That, impious Antonius, is the condemnation of death, where the assent of the will is held captive. I, holding fast to my faith, confessing with frequent outcries, have defended what I believe and have believed by crying out. But even after you bound me with chains and blocked the door of my mouth, in the courtroom of my heart, with the Angels writing, I drew up the record of my resistance, and sent it to be read by my Emperor."
The same man later, remonstrating with Huneric about the persecution: "What, he said, do you still have to do with those you have cast out? Why do you daily wage war on those you have sent into exile? You have taken away the wealth of the churches, deprived them of homeland and homes: only the soul remains, which you crush with captivity. O the times, O the morals! The whole world understands this, and even he who persecutes sees it. If what you hold is called faith, why do you harass the members of the true faith with such persecutions? What have you to do with our exile? What have you to do with beggars in this world, whose life is always in Christ? At least allow those whom you have cast out from the face of all peoples to enjoy the company of beasts."
Victorianus, Proconsul of Carthage and a familiar of King Huneric, when solicited by the king through intermediaries to accept Arianism, responded with a free voice: "Trusting in God and Christ my Lord, I say what you may tell the king: let him cast me into the fire, throw me to the beasts, torture me with every kind of torment; if I consent, I was baptized in the Church in vain. For if this present life were the only one, and we did not hope for another, which truly exists, an eternal one, I would not have acted so as to glory for a little while in temporal things and prove ungrateful to the Creditor who entrusted His faith to me." At this the tyrant was roused and tortured him with unspeakable torments: but he, rejoicing in the Lord and finishing his course happily, received the crown of martyrdom.
In the same place he narrates that St. Victoria, suspended by the same king, when she was being burned with fire thrown at her before her children and husband, was tempted by him with these words: "What are you suffering, wife? If you despise me, at least have pity, cruel woman, on these little ones whom you bore. Why do you forget your womb, and count for nothing those whom you brought forth with groaning? Where are the pledges of conjugal love? Look, I beg you, at your children and husband; obey the king, so that you may escape the torments still threatening, and at the same time be restored to me and the children." But she, hearing neither the weeping of her children nor the blandishments of the serpent, raising her affections much higher from the earth, despised the world with its desires. When with the continuation of the suspension, her shoulders dislocated, those who were torturing her saw her dead, they took her down, completely lifeless in every part: but she afterwards related that a certain virgin had stood by her and touched each of her limbs, and she was immediately healed. O glorious victory of Victoria!
In the same place he relates that two brothers had sworn to each other to be constant in the faith, and had asked their torturers that they be tormented with the same punishment; and while with the first suspension, with heavy stones tied to their feet, they hung all day, one of them asked to be taken down and to be given a respite. To whom the other brother, fearing that he would deny the faith, cried out from the suspension: "Do not, do not, brother! We did not swear thus to Christ. I will accuse you when we come before His terrible throne, because we swore upon His body and blood that we would suffer for each other for His sake." Saying this, he strengthened his brother, who cried out with a great voice: "Apply whatever punishments you wish, and press Christians with cruel penalties. What my brother is going to do, I will do also." And so, burned with red-hot plates, torn with hooks, and afflicted with other most grievous punishments, they stood firm, so that the torturers even cast them from their presence, saying: If the whole people imitate these men, no one will be converted to our religion, especially because no bruises and no traces of punishment whatsoever were visible in them. This is what the Prophet here says and foretells: "In the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified and praised." Truly did St. Jerome say: "The life of the Saints is the interpretation of the Scriptures."