Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
God foretells that the idols of the Babylonians, burdening their worshippers, will be broken together with them and will go into captivity; but that He Himself cares for His own and carries them as from the womb unto old age. Then, at verse 5, He returns as usual to His dispute with idols and idolaters, and demonstrates their emptiness and helplessness. Thirdly, at verse 10, He assigns His own plan, and promises Cyrus, swift as a bird, who will fulfill His will in the devastation of Babylon, and the liberation of the Jews from it. Under Cyrus He means Christ.
Vulgate Text: Isaiah 46:1-13
1. Bel is broken, Nebo is crushed: their idols are become burdens for beasts and cattle, your loads of heavy weight unto weariness. 2. They are consumed and broken together: they could not save him that carried them, and their soul shall go into captivity. 3. Hearken to Me, O house of Jacob, and all the remnant of the house of Israel, who are carried from My womb, who are borne by Me from the matrix. 4. Even to old age I am the same, and to grey hairs I will carry you: I have made, and I will bear: I will carry and will save. 5. To whom have you likened Me, and made Me equal, and compared Me, and made Me like? 6. You that contribute gold out of the bag, and weigh silver in the scales: hiring a goldsmith, to make a god: and they fall down, and worship. 7. They carry him on their shoulders, bearing him, and set him in his place, and he shall stand, and shall not move from his place: yea, when they shall cry unto him, he shall not hear: he shall not save them from tribulation. 8. Remember this, and be confounded: return, you transgressors, to your heart. 9. Remember the former age, for I am God, and there is no God beside, neither is there the like to Me. 10. Who declare from the beginning the things that shall be at last, and from the beginning the things that as yet are not done, saying: My counsel shall stand, and all My will shall be done: 11. who call a bird from the East, and from a far country the man of My own will, and I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass: I have created, and I will do it. 12. Hear Me, you hard of heart, who are far from justice. 13. I have brought My justice near, it shall not be far off: and My salvation shall not tarry. I will give salvation in Sion, and My glory in Israel.
Verse 1: BEL IS BROKEN, NEBO IS CRUSHED. — God had said in the preceding chapter that in the time of Christ idols would be destroyed, and at verse 24: "To Me every knee shall bow." Here He shows this with rega...
1. BEL IS BROKEN, NEBO IS CRUSHED. — God had said in the preceding chapter that in the time of Christ idols would be destroyed, and at verse 24: "To Me every knee shall bow." Here He shows this with regard to the chief idols of the Chaldeans and the world, namely Baal or Bel, and Nebo; that is, these would be devastated and plundered by Cyrus the conqueror, and much more would these and all other idols be abolished by Christ in the golden age of the Gospel. Therefore God the victor here insults them. For the destruction of the gods of the Babylonians, accomplished by Cyrus, was a type of the destruction of idols throughout the whole world to be accomplished by Christ. Whence for "is broken" the Hebrew is cara, that is, "is bowed down," meaning he will shortly be bowed down by Cyrus, as if to say: Cyrus will overthrow Babylon, and then Baal, to whom the Babylonians and all nations subject to them used to bow the knee and worship, will himself be forced to bow his knee and his back to Cyrus and the true God, when he is cast to the ground and broken by Cyrus. For Cyrus will seize the gold and silver from which he was made, and load it in parts upon camels, to transfer it to Persia. Moreover, what Cyrus did in Babylon, Christ his antitype will do throughout the whole world. Who Bel or Baal was, I shall say at Daniel 14:2.
NEBO. — This was the second god of the Babylonians, so called, as it seems, because he gave oracles. For Nebo in Hebrew and Chaldean means the same as prophecy, or divination, says St. Jerome. The Prophet here implies that Christ would impose silence on Nebo, that is, on the oracles of the idols. For when the very Word of God began to speak to men in Christ, then all the talkative gods, or rather demons, of the Gentiles fell silent, as Porphyry confesses in Eusebius, Book IV of the Preparation for the Gospel, chapter 1.
Incorrectly the Septuagint according to the Complutensian edition, and likewise Cyril and Procopius, read Dagon instead of Nebo. For the Hebrew, the Latin, and the Greek of the Roman Septuagint all have Nebo: for this was the god of the Chaldeans, whereas Dagon was the god of the Philistines. Moreover, Nebo appears to be the same as Merodach. For just as Isaiah here says: "Bel is broken, Nebo is crushed," so Jeremiah, signifying the same thing, says in chapter 50:2: "Bel is confounded, Merodach is overcome." A sign of this is that Belshazzar, the son of Nebuchadnezzar, just as he was called Merodach, or Evil-merodach, so also he was called Natonitus, or Labinitus; for the letters N and L, since both are labial, are often interchanged.
For kings, both of the Jews and of the Chaldeans, used to borrow their names from their gods. Thus the word Jah, which is an abbreviation of Jehovah, is attached to the names Abijah, Hezekiah, Josiah, Uzziah, etc., kings of Judah. Whence Abijah means the same as "father of the Lord"; Hezekiah, "strength of God"; Josiah, "fire of God"; Uzziah, "might of God." Others placed Jah or Jehovah at the beginning of their names, as Jehoshaphat, that is, "God is judge"; Joash, or as it is in Hebrew, Jehoash, that is, "fire of God"; Jehoiakim, that is, "resurrection of God"; Jehoahaz, that is, "God's seizure"; Jonathan, that is, "gift of God." Thus from Baal was named Belshazzar, as I shall say at Daniel 5:1. Indeed, it is likely that Nebuchadnezzar took his name from the god Nebo, unless you prefer that Nebo is Nebuchadnezzar himself, abbreviated. For he himself wished to be worshipped as a god in the golden statue which he erected, Daniel 3:1.
THEIR IDOLS ARE BECOME BURDENS FOR BEASTS AND CATTLE. — Here something must be supplied. St. Jerome, Haymo, and Hugo supply the word "similar." For St. Jerome says thus: "Their idols have been made like beasts: not that they are exposed as prey to beasts and cattle, but that the religion of the nations consists in images of beasts and brute animals, which especially in Egypt are consecrated to divine worship: of which Virgil also says: 'Monsters of gods of every kind, and barking Anubis.' For most of the names of towns derive their names from beasts and cattle: kynon, from a dog; leon, from a lion; thmouïs in the Egyptian language, from a goat; lykon, from a wolf — not to mention the fearsome and horrible onion and the bursting of the swollen belly, which is the Pelusian religion: these, he says, idols, which cannot save those who carry them, are nothing other than burdens for the priests." So far Jerome.
Thus that dragon which Daniel killed, chapter 14:22, was worshipped as a god. Thus Jupiter Ammon had the form of a goat, and was a goat. For Hammon in Punic means a goat, says Herodotus in the Euterpe. Whence for Nebo the Septuagint here translates Dagon. For Dagon was an idol of the Philistines having the form of a fish: for Dagon in Hebrew means a fish, and Dagon appears to have had the form of a whale, or of some sea monster, like the one made famous by the story of Perseus and Andromeda, which they worshipped as a god. See what I said about Dagon at Philippians 3:19.
Secondly, St. Thomas, Forerius, and Vatablus supply the word "placed upon," as if to say: Bel, Nebo, and the other idols of the Chaldeans, now broken, were placed upon beasts of burden and carried off to Persia.
Thirdly, Haymo by beasts and cattle understands the worshippers of Bel. For unless they had been stupid and senseless like brute animals, they would never have worshipped idols of wood, stone, bronze, and gold.
Fourthly, others explain it thus: they were made for beasts, that is, they were trampled by beasts; when they were left desolate and cast down by the Persians. For the Persians worshipped different gods from the Babylonians; indeed, just as they considered the nation their enemy, so also its gods.
Fifthly, very aptly Sanchez by zeugma repeats the word "burdens," as if to say: The images of Bel and Nebo have become burdens for beasts and cattle (namely when the Persians loaded their camels, donkeys, and horses with them, to transport them to Persia), which previously were burdens for you, O Babylonians! and with their heavy weight burdened and wearied you unto exhaustion, namely when you carried them on your shoulders. For Baruch 6:3 teaches that they used to do this.
Sixthly, and most plainly, Forerius says that the images of the Chaldeans were made, or as it is in Hebrew, became for beasts of burden, that is, they were handed over to beasts of burden, they were in the power of beasts of burden, as their lot. For this is what the Hebrew phrase signifies, when something is said to be, or to become, another's, namely to be in its power, or to be under its right and dominion: for since the beasts of burden held the idols on their backs, they had them as captives, in their hand and power. This sense is required by what follows: "Their soul shall go into captivity."
Verse 2: THEY ARE CONSUMED AND BROKEN TOGETHER. — As if to say: Your idols which you used to carry to the point of exhaustion have, together with you, been bowed down and broken by the Persians; they have wast...
2. THEY ARE CONSUMED AND BROKEN TOGETHER. — As if to say: Your idols which you used to carry to the point of exhaustion have, together with you, been bowed down and broken by the Persians; they have wasted away, perished, and been consumed. Just as if a donkey carrying a heavy load of jars on its back were pushed by an enemy and fell, and thus broke the jars together with itself: for this is what the Hebrew implies. Whence the Complutensian Bible connects these words with the preceding in this manner: Your burdens of heavy weight unto weariness have wasted away, and are broken together. Hence also follows: "They could not save" from the Persians "him that carried them," that is, the Chaldeans who carried them. Our translator reads masse in the hiphil past tense, that is, "him that carried"; but with different vowel points they read massa, that is, "burden." Whence Vatablus and Forerius translate: They are bowed down, they are bent together, they could not escape the burden. And they understand this of the beasts of burden, not of the idols, as if to say: Those beasts laden with idols collapsed under the burden, and could not shake off the load itself.
THEIR SOUL SHALL GO INTO CAPTIVITY. — That is, the very idols themselves which idolaters think are endowed with a soul, because oracles are given from them, as if they had voice and mind, will be carried off into captivity by the Persians. So Vatablus. Or rather, he calls the soul of the idol the idol itself, which because it is the image and likeness of an animate thing, is therefore said to have a soul by metonymy. Thus dead flesh which once lived is called a soul, because it is similar to flesh previously animate, and is as it were the same as it, as I said at Leviticus 19:28. Thus the soul of a man is called the man himself. So Sanchez. Add that the soul of the idol is the demon sitting beside it and as it were bound to it, and through it giving oracles, as if to say: The whole idol together with its attendant demon will be captured.
Forerius explains it differently, referring these words to the beasts of burden, and translating thus: their soul departed with the captivity; that is, the beasts of burden, collapsing under such a great weight of idols, expired and breathed out their soul, just as the captured idols themselves, falling with the beasts of burden, were broken; and thus they departed, that is, vanished, perished, and as it were breathed out their soul.
Thirdly, St. Jerome: "Their soul," namely of the idolaters or of the priests who accompanied the idols, "shall go into captivity."
Verse 3: HEARKEN TO ME, O HOUSE OF JACOB, AND ALL THE REMNANT (all those surviving and remaining from captivity) OF THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL, WHO ARE CARRIED FROM MY WOMB. — He rebukes the idols and idolaters, as i...
3. HEARKEN TO ME, O HOUSE OF JACOB, AND ALL THE REMNANT (all those surviving and remaining from captivity) OF THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL, WHO ARE CARRIED FROM MY WOMB. — He rebukes the idols and idolaters, as if to say: Stone and bronze idols are carried by their worshippers, and weary them so that they groan under the burden; but I Myself carry My worshippers, with the care and love with which an infant is usually carried by its mother in the womb.
For "from My" the Hebrew is minni, which the Septuagint, Forerius, and others take for min, that is "from," with the yod being paragogic here, and they translate: who are carried by Me from the womb; that is, whom I carry from birth, when they came forth from the womb; that is, from infancy unto grey hairs, as follows.
Secondly, more significantly and effectively, our translator took minni properly, to mean "from Me"; whence you may translate literally from the Hebrew thus: Who are carried from My womb, who are borne from My matrix. He calls the womb and matrix by catachresis and metaphor the maternal providence of God toward His own, and His tender love and care, indeed more than maternal. For a mother gives part of the matter to the body of the embryo, but gives nothing to its soul; God gives both entirely and wholly: for He forms and creates both the soul and the body.
Again, a mother nourishes and feeds the embryo in the womb from what is superfluous, namely from menstrual blood, and the infant after it has come forth from the womb with milk; but God nourishes and feeds us with Himself, and this continuously throughout the whole of life, from the womb unto grey hairs, from sunrise unto sunset and death. Moreover, God feeds not only the body, as a mother does, but also the soul with His grace, teaching, illumination, impulse, and the Holy Sacraments, especially the Eucharist.
Literally He speaks to the Jews remaining and surviving not from the Babylonian captivity, but from the Assyrian, namely the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin; for these remained in Judea when the ten tribes were led into Assyria by Shalmaneser in the sixth year of Hezekiah. For this had already happened when Isaiah was saying these things; but the Babylonian captivity had not yet occurred, but was to come after many years, as if to say: O Jews! I love you intimately, even though you are rebellious toward Me, and I care for you from the womb unto grey hairs and old age, just as a mother loves and cares for the infant she carries in her womb. So St. Jerome.
Again, "from the womb," that is, from the birth of the Synagogue, namely from the time when you began to exist, O Jews, that is, from the time of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, I have taken and do take the greatest care of you; I nourish, cherish, preserve, and deliver you. This is what is said at Exodus 19:4: "You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, how I bore you upon eagles' wings, and took you to Myself." And Deuteronomy 32:10: "He led him about, and taught him; and He kept him as the apple of His eye. As an eagle enticing her young to fly, and hovering over them, He spread His wings, and took him, and carried him on His shoulders."
Now under the Jews remaining from captivity, He understands the holy remnants of both Jews and Gentiles who survived from unbelief, whether the former unbelief of the Gentile fathers, or the native unbelief of the other Jews who spurned Christ; for these few remaining who believed in Christ, Christ and God the Father and the Holy Spirit, like a mother in the womb of the Church, form, nourish, cherish, raise, and direct them until they arrive at eternal salvation in heaven.
Mystically, "from the womb," that is, from the rudiments of heavenly doctrine, which were in the Old Law, unto the perfection of the Gospel, God ruled and directed His Church and His faithful. So St. Augustine, and from him Leo Castrius.
Hence again St. Augustine, on Psalm 112:1, infers that we at every age, from childhood to old age, ought to praise God, because always and at every age we are nourished by Him with such care.
Verse 4: EVEN TO OLD AGE, — as if to say: Mothers only nurse and carry infants until the third year; soon they remove them from their arms and from milk, so that they learn to walk by themselves and to eat com...
4. EVEN TO OLD AGE, — as if to say: Mothers only nurse and carry infants until the third year; soon they remove them from their arms and from milk, so that they learn to walk by themselves and to eat common food. So birds drive chicks already able to fly from the nest with their beaks; horses do the same with their hooves, and dogs with their teeth. But God pursues His own not only in the womb and as infants, but also as adults throughout all of life unto old age, with the same care and indulgence, even when they sin and provoke God to anger. Now the infancy of the Synagogue and of the Jews was in the time of Abraham; its youth, in the time of Moses; its manhood, in the time of David. Until then, as a mother, God cherished, raised, and advanced it. Its old age was in the time of captivity, nor did He abandon it then; but He raised up Jeremiah and the Prophets, who admonished, taught, and consoled it, and shortly afterward brought them back from captivity, when they seemed already lost and destroyed. The death and decline of the Synagogue was in the time of Christ, when it ceased and was abrogated, with the Church of Christ succeeding it. And so as long as that people stood and was the people of God, God as a mother took care of it; but when it ceased and fell, the care of God also ceased. Much greater is the care of God and of Christ for His Church, which He purchased and washed with His blood, and established to remain forever; and accordingly He will exercise eternal care over it.
What God here promises, David asked for himself, saying at Psalm 70:6, 9: "By You I have been confirmed from the womb; from my mother's womb You are my protector, etc. Do not cast me off in the time of old age; when my strength fails, do not forsake me."
I HAVE MADE (I begot you, I nourished you, I raised you, I advanced you), I (likewise) WILL BEAR, — and I will carry you henceforth unto old age. As if to say: Not on account of your merits do I embrace you with this care, but on account of Myself, on account of My maternal affection toward you. For just as a mother is not so offended by the filth, wailing, wantonness, naughtiness, and a thousand annoyances of her little one as to cast off her care for him, but devours all these with maternal affection, and says what mothers commonly say when asked: How do you tolerate these things from a child? "I am a mother; a mother cannot be angry with her infant," indeed by his very follies her love for him is more inflamed. And if anyone reproaches her, she says: "You do not know what it is to be a mother. You do not know what a mother's heart is like, how great it is. No one knows how great a mother's affection is, unless one has experienced it, unless one has been or is a mother." Just so God bore the murmurings, idolatry, and other crimes of His people, and did not cast them off, but showed greater love of God and greater benefits through David, Solomon, and other kings, and through Isaiah, Jeremiah, Elijah, and other Prophets.
Morally, learn here who and what God is, how great, how benign and beneficent, and how much He is to be loved in return and worshipped by all.
What is God? "He is an eternal and most excellent being," says Aristotle, Book 11 of the Metaphysics. What is God? "He is an incorporeal mind, diffused through the nature of all things, bestowing vital sense upon all living creatures," says Pythagoras, cited by Lactantius, in the book On the Anger of God. What is God? "He is the mind of the universe. God is the whole of whatever you see, and the whole of whatever you do not see," says Socrates. What is God? "He is a spirit diffused through the immense parts of the world, from whom all things that are born receive life," says Plato. What is God? "He is an infinite mind, which moves through Himself," says Thales of Miletus. What is God? "He is the ineffable principle and origin of all things: by whose power the world was created, by whose providence it is preserved and continually governed," says Theophrastus. What is God? He is an immense being, unthinkable and inexplicable. "The longer I consider what God is, the more the knowledge of God is taken from me and becomes more obscure," says Simonides to Hiero, tyrant of Sicily, after repeated delays requested by him for thinking about God; as Cicero relates, Book 1, On the Nature of the Gods.
Hear the Orthodox and the Theologians. What is God? "He is an infinite good, from whom a fourfold being is given: of creation, conservation, re-creation, and beatitude," says Dionysius. What is God? "He is that than which nothing better, nor greater, can be conceived." What is God? "He is one whose power is not numbered, whose being is enclosed by neither beginning nor end, whose goodness, wisdom, piety, justice, generosity, and prudence is without limit." What is God? "He is an uncreated good, which the more it is possessed, the more vehemently it pleases and refreshes."
Verse 5: TO WHOM HAVE YOU LIKENED ME, — by fabricating an idol, as if it were another God similar and equal to Me, as I said at chapter 40:18 and 25. Therefore wrongly from this passage Calvin, and among Catho...
5. TO WHOM HAVE YOU LIKENED ME, — by fabricating an idol, as if it were another God similar and equal to Me, as I said at chapter 40:18 and 25. Therefore wrongly from this passage Calvin, and among Catholics Abulensis on chapter 4 of Deuteronomy, Question 5; Durandus in Book III, distinction 9, Question 5; and Peresius, On Tradition, part 3, On Images, from this passage of Isaiah seek to prove that it is lawful to make images of the Saints, but that to make an image of God is unlawful. See what I said at Deuteronomy 5:7.
Note: Just as a jealous husband repeatedly attacks and rages against an adulterous rival — for the rival is always before his mind and stirs his bile, because he uniquely loves and adores his wife, whom he resents another courting — so God here, out of the zeal with which He vehemently loves the Church and souls as His brides, frequently hurls His mind, words, and weapons against idols, and their makers and worshippers, as against adulterers. The words "Me" and "to whom" carry great feeling, as if to say: Do you know who I am? What an idol is? An idol is a log and a stone, which brings you no help; I am the one who begot you, fed you, raised you from childhood, and continually feed and exalt you. How then do you compare Me with idols? How do you equate idols with Me, indeed prefer them, and take away My providence and divinity from Me and transfer them to idols? (Let every sinner who paints for himself the idol of his own desire consider this said to him by God.) For the Jews, at this time under Ahaz and Hezekiah, were very inclined toward idols, and would be even more so shortly after, in the time of Manasseh, and therefore were to be devastated and taken captive by the Babylonians; and thus in Babylon itself they would worship its idols, as Jeremiah 16:13 says. For this reason, therefore, God so often rises up against idols here, to turn the Jews away from them; and lest they object the prosperity of the Babylonians dominating at this time, as if they had received this empire from their idols, He predicts the destruction both of Babylon and of its gods.
Verse 6: YOU THAT CONTRIBUTE GOLD OUT OF THE BAG, — as if to say: Behold your fine gods, by whom and how they are made; namely, you yourselves form and fashion them. For you bring forth gold from the bag, and...
6. YOU THAT CONTRIBUTE GOLD OUT OF THE BAG, — as if to say: Behold your fine gods, by whom and how they are made; namely, you yourselves form and fashion them. For you bring forth gold from the bag, and weigh out silver on the scales for the smelter, so that he may melt an idol from it of the same weight, so that you may receive a god of the exact weight you gave.
Verse 8: AND BE CONFOUNDED. — The Hebrew is hitoscasu, which more recent scholars derive from isch, that is, "man." Whence first, Leo the Hebrew translates, "and be strengthened"; secondly, Forerius and Vatabl...
8. AND BE CONFOUNDED. — The Hebrew is hitoscasu, which more recent scholars derive from isch, that is, "man." Whence first, Leo the Hebrew translates, "and be strengthened"; secondly, Forerius and Vatablus: "Show yourselves men," that is, show that you are capable of right judgment, and abandon idolatry; thirdly, Pagninus and Forsterus: "Be strong as foundations." Whence Forerius thinks the Latin text here is corrupt, and that instead of "be confounded" it should read "be established," that is, lay as foundations in your heart, that is, store in the depths of your mind. But Forerius is mistaken; for all manuscripts, even the Roman ones, read "be confounded." For the translator rightly rendered it thus. For the Hebrew hitoscasu is derived not from isch, but from esch, that is, "fire." Whence hitoscasu means the same as "be red as fire," that is, blush and be confounded; wherefore the Septuagint translates, stenaxate, that is, "groan."
RETURN TO YOUR HEART. — In Hebrew hascibu al leb, that is, bring back to your heart, recall to your mind, that I created you, raised you, carried you; but that idols are created and carried by their worshippers. St. Gregory aptly says, Moralia 26, chapter 27: "What, he asks, is closer to us than our own heart? And yet when it is scattered by wicked thoughts, our heart wanders far from us. Therefore the Prophet sends the transgressor far indeed when he compels him to return to his heart; because the further he has poured himself outward, the harder he finds it to return to himself." Indeed Seneca also said: "The wicked are everywhere except with themselves."
Morally, this passage teaches that the benefits of God must frequently be recalled and brought back to memory and meditated upon; for the meditation on these is wonderfully effective at rousing torpor, inflaming the mind with the knowledge, esteem, and love of God, and rightly ordering one's life. This is to return to the heart, namely to dwell within oneself, to meditate on the things of God and salvation, and not to wander and dissipate toward the things of the world, which draw the mind away from God and from itself. There the mind sees within itself who and what both it and God are, what and how great things it has received from God, and receives daily, indeed at every hour and moment. There it sees the goodness and magnificence of God, that there is none like Him in the world, that He alone feeds and satisfies the mind, while all other things only irritate and wound it. The Psalmist understood this when he said: "In my meditation a fire shall burn." See St. Bernard in his book On Consideration, addressed to Pope Eugene.
Thus Tobias commanded his son, chapter 4, verse 6: "All the days of your life have God in mind," and verse 20: "At all times bless God, and ask Him to direct your ways, and that all your counsels may remain in Him."
So St. Dominic, as the Author of his Life records, Book 4, chapter 2, constantly had God in mind, "and both at home and on journeys he always wished to speak either about God or with God, rarely speaking otherwise; hence such guardianship over his tongue and such premeditation. And men of perfection who had lived with him for a long time testified that there was no guile in his mouth, nor had an idle, or harmful, or detracting, or flattering word ever proceeded from him. If anyone cursed him, he blessed in return." Hence also "such was his courtesy and affability. Whence he especially wished three things to be observed by his followers. First, that they always speak about God or with God. Secondly, that when traveling, they should not carry
money with them. Thirdly, that they never accept any temporary possessions; for these are what make the heart clean, free from cares, and ready for meditating on divine things." In the same place, chapter 11: O happy, O perfect, O angelic those who always converse about God or with God! So St. Bernard in his Meditations, chapter 6: "All the time," he says, "in which you do not think about God, consider yourself to have lost." And soon after: "The mind of the wise man is always with God. We ought always to have before our eyes Him through whom we exist, live, and are wise. For as the author of our existence we have Him; as teacher so that we may be wise, we ought to have Him; and as the bestower of sweetness so that we may be blessed." And a little above: "Just as there is no moment in which a man does not use or enjoy the goodness and mercy of God, so there should be no moment in which he does not have Him present in his memory."
Verse 9: REMEMBER THE FORMER AGE, — namely how much I promised, predicted, and performed for your fathers; from this you will see that I am your God whom your fathers worshipped. Let us say the same now to the...
9. REMEMBER THE FORMER AGE, — namely how much I promised, predicted, and performed for your fathers; from this you will see that I am your God whom your fathers worshipped. Let us say the same now to the heretics, who are new, and introduce into the world a new religion and faith unheard of in prior ages. St. Jerome says admirably, in his letter to Pammachius and Oceanus: "Whoever you are, champion of new doctrines, I beg you to spare Roman ears, to spare the faith which was praised by the mouth of the Apostles. Why after four hundred years (hear this, Luther; hear this, Calvin, who after 1500 years wish to make Christian faith new) do you strive to teach us what we did not know before? Until this day the Christian world existed without that doctrine of yours." Tertullian asks the same, in his book On Prescription: "Who are you? From where and when did you come? Where have you been hiding so long?" And Optatus, Book 2, Against Parmenian: "Show the origin of your chair, you who wish to claim the holy Church for yourselves." And Hilary, Book 7, On the Trinity: "Late has the age of this present world produced these most pious teachers for me; late has my faith, which You (O Christ) instructed, acquired them: therefore, having heard none of them at all, I believed in You."
WHO DECLARE FROM THE BEGINNING THE THINGS THAT SHALL BE AT LAST, — as if to say: I am He who from the beginning both of the world and of the Synagogue predicted what would come to pass in the last, that is, the later, times; for example, at Genesis 3:15, I predicted that the woman through her seed, that is Christ, would crush the head of the serpent. To Abraham I predicted a posterity as numerous as the stars of heaven, possession of Canaan, the birth of Isaac and of Christ, etc.
SAYING: MY COUNSEL SHALL STAND. — "Saying," that is, by saying, doing; for God's speaking (since it is efficacious) is doing. Whence Vatablus effectively translates: I who speak, and My counsel is ratified, and whatever I will, I do.
Verse 11: WHO CALL A BIRD FROM THE EAST. — Cyrus with his army is called a bird: ait, that is, a bird, or rather a gathering and flock of rapacious birds, which swiftly and impetuously swoop upon their prey; th...
11. WHO CALL A BIRD FROM THE EAST. — Cyrus with his army is called a bird: ait, that is, a bird, or rather a gathering and flock of rapacious birds, which swiftly and impetuously swoop upon their prey; thus Cyrus and the Persians swooped upon Babylon. In a similar way Nebuchadnezzar is called a great eagle swooping upon the Jews and other nations, Ezekiel 17:3; Jeremiah 49:40. See what I said there.
Secondly, Cyrus is called a bird because he bore on his standard a golden eagle with outstretched wings, as Xenophon testifies, Book 7 of the Cyropaedia. Whence the kings of the Persians henceforth used this emblem, and afterward the Romans.
Thirdly, Arias by the bird understands the sun, which is most swift like a bird. For Cyrus in Persian means the same as sun, who shone serene and welcome upon the Jews in the darkness of captivity. But this sense is more remote.
This bird came "from the East," that is, from Persia, which lies to the east of Babylon.
Cyril explains it differently, understanding by the bird Nebuchadnezzar; and the Chaldean paraphrast, who by the bird understands the Jews; for he translates: I will bring back the Jews like a bird from the Babylonian captivity. Whence also the Arabic version, which exists in the Vatican, has: And I will call those who are in the East, and they will come more swiftly than a bird; and I will bring the man who has already done My will, from a far country.
Mystically this bird is Christ who "visited us, the rising sun from on high." So Cyril and Jerome, who again by birds understands Angels: for these, like birds, run most swiftly through the world for the sake of the elect.
AND FROM A FAR COUNTRY THE MAN OF MY OWN WILL. — By this man Vatablus understands not Cyrus, but Christ. But others generally understand Cyrus: for Cyrus exercised the will and counsel of God, namely His vindictive justice, upon the Chaldeans, for the glorious salvation and liberation of Sion, that is, of the Jews. Much more was Christ the man of divine will, who fully accomplished the will of God in the redemption of the Church. So St. Jerome, Cyril, Haymo, and others.
I WILL BRING IT TO PASS, — namely the counsel which preceded, about calling a bird from the East, and the man of My will.
Verse 12: HEAR ME (O Jews in Babylon, who are) HARD OF HEART, WHO ARE FAR FROM JUSTICE, — either because you have turned from God and virtue to the idols and crimes of the Babylonians; or rather, He understands...
12. HEAR ME (O Jews in Babylon, who are) HARD OF HEART, WHO ARE FAR FROM JUSTICE, — either because you have turned from God and virtue to the idols and crimes of the Babylonians; or rather, He understands justice here not of the Jews, but of God, namely His fidelity in promises, as if to say: You accuse Me, O Jews, of not keeping My justice, that is, My fidelity and promises about your liberation; for you think yourselves far from it; you seem to yourselves to be thrust into prison forever. But you are mistaken: for although you are hard of heart, and deserve that I revoke My fidelity and promises, nevertheless I will not do so; on the contrary:
Verse 13: I HAVE BROUGHT MY JUSTICE NEAR (For behold, Cyrus will soon fly in like a bird, who will fulfill My justice, that is My fidelity, and will free you from Babylon; whence also through him) I WILL GIVE I...
13. I HAVE BROUGHT MY JUSTICE NEAR (For behold, Cyrus will soon fly in like a bird, who will fulfill My justice, that is My fidelity, and will free you from Babylon; whence also through him) I WILL GIVE IN SION (or to Sion, that is to the people of Sion, namely the Jews) SALVATION, AND IN ISRAEL (or to Israel) MY GLORY. — For this was a glorious and magnificent liberation of Israel. So St. Jerome, who with others teaches that these things far more truly apply to Christ, the antitype of Cyrus: for Christ brought to Sion, that is to the Church, true and eternal justice, salvation, and glory. Note the expression "I have brought near." For when Christ draws near, then justice and our salvation also draw near, as well as the glory of God. For these proceed together, and with equal pace either approach or recede together: for as far as you are from Christ, so far are you from justice, salvation, and the glory of God; as much as you approach Him, so much you approach these as well; conversely, as much as you approach justice, so much you approach or recede from Christ: and the same is true of the salvation and glory of God.