Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
God foretells the Babylonian captivity of the Jews on account of their sins, and their subsequent liberation — which neither idols nor anyone else had predicted to them beforehand — and from this He proves that He is God, not the idols. Whence, at verse 12, He recalls them to the knowledge and worship of Himself. Thirdly, at verse 17, He teaches that He is the counselor and governor of Israel, but that it happened through Israel's own fault that it fell into the hands of enemies and other calamities, because it did not obey His counsels. Finally, at verse 20, He describes the joyful return from Babylon and rouses the captives to undertake it.
Vulgate Text: Isaiah 48:1-22
1. Hear these things, O house of Jacob, you who are called by the name of Israel, and who came forth from the waters of Judah, who swear by the name of the Lord, and remember the God of Israel, but not in truth nor in justice. 2. For they are called from the holy city, and are established upon the God of Israel: the Lord of hosts is His name. 3. The former things I declared from the beginning, and they went forth from My mouth, and I made them heard: I worked suddenly, and they came to pass. 4. For I knew that you are obstinate, and your neck is an iron sinew, and your brow is of brass. 5. I foretold you from the beginning: before they came I declared them to you, lest perhaps you should say: My idols did these things, and my graven and my molten things commanded them. 6. See all the things you have heard: but have you not declared them? I have made you hear new things from this time, and things are kept in store which you know not: 7. they are created now, and not from the beginning: and before the day when you heard them not, lest perhaps you should say: Behold, I knew them. 8. You have neither heard nor known, neither was your ear opened from that time: for I know that transgressing you will transgress, and I have called you a transgressor from the womb. 9. For My name's sake I will remove My wrath far off: and for My praise I will bridle you, lest you should perish. 10. Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have chosen you in the furnace of poverty. 11. For My own sake, for My own sake will I do it, that I may not be blasphemed: and I will not give My glory to another. 12. Hearken to Me, O Jacob and Israel whom I call: I am He, I am the first, and I am the last. 13. My hand also has laid the foundation of the earth, and My right hand has measured the heavens: I shall call them, and they shall stand together. 14. Assemble yourselves together, all of you, and hear: which of them has declared these things? The Lord has loved him; He shall do His will in Babylon, and His arm shall be upon the Chaldeans. 15. I, even I, have spoken, and called him: I have brought him, and his way is made prosperous. 16. Come near to Me, and hear this: I have not spoken in secret from the beginning; from the time before it was done, I was there: and now the Lord God has sent Me, and His spirit. 17. Thus says the Lord your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: I am the Lord your God who teach you profitable things, who govern you in the way that you walk. 18. O that you had hearkened to My commandments! Your peace would have been as a river, and your justice as the waves of the sea: 19. and your seed would have been as the sand, and the offspring of your womb as its pebbles: its name would not have perished nor been destroyed from before My face. 20. Go forth from Babylon, flee from the Chaldeans, declare it with the voice of joy: make this heard, and carry it forth even to the ends of the earth. Say: The Lord has redeemed His servant Jacob. 21. They did not thirst in the desert when He led them out: He brought forth water out of the rock for them, and He cleft the rock, and the waters flowed. 22. There is no peace for the wicked, says the Lord.
(1) What benefit the Jews ought to derive, says Forerius, both from the consideration of their liberation from Babylon and from the prediction of these events, the Lord reveals through the Prophet, and prepares the way for the more open prophecies concerning Christ. First, He captures their attention, vividly depicting those to whom He was speaking, and vehemently rebuking them because, although in outward profession and rite they seemed to follow the true religion and to acknowledge the true God and rely on Him, yet for the most part their hearts were estranged from Him and inclined toward the worship of idols and abominable superstitions, verses 1-2. Second, He recalls to memory God's prediction of evils, in order to break the obstinacy of the apostates and to forestall the false attribution of events to their gods, verses 3-5, and He demands contemplation of the predictions already fulfilled in fact, verses 6-8. Third, to the tacit objection — If they were rightly called transgressors from the beginning, if You know that they will not desist from their pursuits, why do You wish to lead them out of captivity and predict this to them? — God responds that He is moved by regard for His honor and glory, to temper His most just severity and indignation with clemency, verses 9-11. Fourth, God then asserts the authority He claims, and designates Cyrus as the executor of His will against the Chaldeans, through the Prophet who wins credence for himself and asserts his mission from God, verses 12-16.
Verse 1
1. WHO ARE CALLED BY THE NAME OF ISRAEL — that is: You who bear the empty name of Israel, and who boast of Israel as your father, as though you were his sons and descendants, when you have degenerated from his religion, sincerity, and holiness. For he worshipped the true God constantly and in holiness even unto death; you sacrilegiously look to idols and turn aside to them. You are therefore painted Israelites, you are hypocrites, you are the seed of Canaan, not of Judah, not of Israel.
AND YOU COME FORTH FROM THE WATERS OF JUDAH. — That is, as the Chaldean paraphrase has it, you who come from the stock of Judah. He calls the spring and offspring 'waters.' It is a metaphor from fountains and streams: for Jacob was like a fountain, from which twelve streams, that is, the twelve Patriarchs and tribes, flowed forth. But the Jews descended from the noblest stream, namely from Judah. So it is said in Psalm 67:27: "In the assemblies bless God the Lord, you who are from the fountains of Israel," that is, you who have flowed forth from the fountains, that is, the streams of Israel, and are Israelites. So St. Jerome, Sanchez, and others.
YOU MAKE MENTION OF THE GOD OF ISRAEL (in Hebrew iaskiru, that is, you commemorate, celebrate, and proclaim, that is: You who frequently have the name of God, the name Elohim and Adonai, on your lips, and swear by it, but) NOT IN TRUTH, NOR IN JUSTICE — both because you often swear to what is false or unjust, and because you hold out this outward show and mask of religion to cover your hypocrisy, by which you depart far from God's truth and justice toward deceits, frauds, unjust contracts, usury, and robbery. This is what Isaiah cries out to them, chapter 29:13, and from him Christ, Matthew 15:8: "This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me." For these men are wicked and unjust, indeed forgers: for they take away from God by their life and conduct what they attribute to Him with their voices; and while they sing His praise with their mouth, they provoke others by their life to blasphemy. So Forerius.
Verse 2
2. FOR THEY ARE CALLED FROM THE HOLY CITY. — From the holy city of Jerusalem they are called citizens of Jerusalem, citizens of the city of God, who are sustained by the God of Israel, as His deputies and household members. To this St. Paul alluded, Ephesians 2:19: "You are fellow citizens of the saints and members of the household of God." For the Jews, from their holy city, Church, and temple, were called the people
Fifth, He commemorates His benefits toward the Jews, both those already bestowed and those that would have been amplified had they obeyed, verses 17-19. Sixth, the Prophet now turns his discourse to the pious, to whom he predicts liberation, and urges them to depart from Babylon lest they perish with the pagans, and demonstrates divine providence by examples drawn from ancient history, verses 20-22.
a faithful and holy people. Whence they thought that, on account of God's protection and guardianship, they were impregnable against the arms of the Chaldeans and Romans, from what Isaiah says, chapter 62:6: "Upon your walls, O Jerusalem, I have set watchmen;" and from what God promises through King David, Psalm 124:1: "He who dwells in Jerusalem shall never be moved. The mountains are round about it, and the Lord is round about His people." They therefore called themselves citizens of Jerusalem, or Salem, that is, of peace — from which the city had taken its name — and in which Solomon the peaceful had reigned, that is, a secure, powerful, and wealthy king. As if to say: We dwell in Salem, that is, in peace, in a city to which God has promised peace and all prosperity; we lean upon the God of Israel, as His own and special people; therefore there is no reason to fear an enemy or destruction. But these names of yours, O Jews, are empty and vain without substance. For your life, unworthy of these names, does not correspond to them: "Do not look to the smoke and empty names of the Catos," says the Poet. "It is a great thing to be a Christian, not merely to be called one," says St. Jerome, Epistle to Paulinus.
THE LORD OF HOSTS IS HIS NAME. — By this name the Jews greatly gloried, that they belonged to the household of the most powerful God, who has ready armies of angels, men, and all creatures. Rightly so, if they had remained faithful in His worship.
Verse 3
3. THE FORMER THINGS I DECLARED FROM OF OLD — that is: The "former things," which have already long since come to pass, those things I foretold "from of old," that is, from ancient times, and as I foretold, I did and accomplished, so that they came about suddenly, that is, unexpectedly, beyond the course of events and of nature — for example, that Abraham would beget Isaac from Sarah, who was old and barren, whose seed would be as the stars of heaven; that his descendants would serve in Egypt for 400 years, and after them, in the utmost desperation of affairs, I would deliver them, so that they might go forth into Canaan and occupy it; that I would raise you into My commonwealth and kingdom, etc. Behold, all these things I foretold, as they came to pass: therefore from this conclude and believe that what I now foretell will likewise come about, namely, that the Chaldeans will be overcome by Cyrus and the Persians, and you will be liberated from them. So St. Jerome. He repeatedly reiterates and presses the point that His prediction of future events has infallibly come true, as an irrefutable argument for His divinity and providence. Note the word 'suddenly.' For in Scripture something is called 'sudden' that arrives unexpectedly, or when affairs are desperate or unprepared, even if it was foretold and promised long before. So in 1 Thessalonians 5:2, it is said that "the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. For when they shall say peace and security, then sudden destruction shall come upon them."
Verse 4
4. FOR I KNEW THAT YOU ARE STUBBORN. — The word 'stubborn' denotes the unteachableness of the Jews; the iron neck denotes their disobedience, obstinacy, and stubbornness; the bronze forehead denotes their shamelessness. As if to say: Because you are unteachable, obstinate, brazen-faced, and shameless, I therefore so often cast these things in your face and strike it with the repetition of former predictions and benefits that I bestowed upon you, so that through this I may at last teach you, soften you, and put you to shame, and thus you may finally acknowledge that not idols but I accomplished these things. The Chaldean translates: It is manifest before Me that you are rebellious, and your neck is hard as iron, and your forehead strong as bronze. On which see what was said at Ezekiel chapter 3:7 and chapter 2:4.
Verse 6
6. WHAT YOU HAVE HEARD, BEHOLD IT ALL: BUT HAVE YOU NOT (that is, 'have you not?'; for so the Hebrew has it, hala) DECLARED IT? — This should be read interrogatively, following the Roman editions. He speaks of the people, being many, now in the plural, now in the singular, that is: You see that what you heard from Me has been fulfilled. For you yourselves daily announce and commemorate these things, and you celebrate festivals instituted in their memory, for example, the feast of Passover in memory of the liberation from Egypt, and when you sing the psalms — for these often impress upon you the benefits of the past. So Forerius, Adamus, Vatablus, and Sanchez.
But St. Jerome, Haymo, and Dionysius, reading without the interrogation and taking 'not' instead of 'whether,' explain it thus, that is: You see that what I predicted and what you heard has been fulfilled, but you did not announce these things to your descendants, you did not publish them to My glory, so that your children and posterity might thereby know Me to be the truest source of prophecy, and consequently the true God.
I HAVE MADE YOU HEAR NEW THINGS FROM THEN (it seems it should be read 'from now': for so the Hebrew, the Septuagint, the Chaldean, Forerius, Vatablus, and others have it; whence St. Jerome also explains it thus, that is: I do not bring forth old things to establish credibility, but I announce new things which I am going to do against the Babylonians) WHICH HAVE BEEN PRESERVED (that is, reserved, hidden away) — with Me.
Verse 7
7 and 8. NOW THEY ARE CREATED (that is, now they are decreed by Me, as if to say: Now the sentence has been passed by Me concerning Babylon's destruction, since I now declare and predict it through Isaiah; so Vatablus); AND BEFORE THE DAY (ON WHICH, that is, this destruction will occur, lest you think I am prophesying about past events), AND YOU HAD NOT HEARD, etc. (that is: I foretell these things to you when you know nothing of them, when you have never heard anything of them, either from idols or from others, since) NOR FROM OF OLD WAS YOUR EAR OPENED — that is, no report or knowledge of this matter reached your ears, not even "from of old," that is, from ancient times. He repeatedly hammers home this foreknowledge and prediction of future events, lest the Jews, going to Babylon, attribute their captivity and their liberation from it to the gods of the Babylonians rather than to their own God. For 'to open the ear' in Hebrew means to reveal and to indicate something to someone, or to cause someone to hear or understand something. For one who is ignorant and does not hear seems to have his ears closed or blocked, which the one who makes them hear and know, as it were, opens.
FOR I KNOW THAT TRANSGRESSING YOU WILL TRANSGRESS — that is: I impress these signs of My divinity upon you so many times because I know that you will transgress, that is, you will fall away; you will be a deserter and apostate: for in your customary manner you will desert from Me to idols.
AND I CALLED YOU A TRANSGRESSOR FROM THE WOMB — that is: From your very origin and conception, namely, when I
was forming My Church and, as it were, giving birth to it on Sinai, giving you the law through Moses, you were a transgressor, so that you may rightly be called by Me 'a transgressor from the womb.' For on Sinai you fashioned and worshipped the golden calf. This is what St. Stephen reproaches them with, Acts 7:51: "You always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so do you."
Verse 9
9. FOR THE SAKE OF MY NAME. — This is a prolepsis or anticipation: for He meets a tacit objection, as if to say: You will say to Me: If You know that we will be so wicked, unstable, ungrateful, and transgressive, why do You labor so anxiously over us and our liberation from Babylon? Why do You predict and press this so earnestly? God responds: I do this not for your sake, nor for your merits, but "for the sake of My name," lest the Gentiles blaspheme it if they see Me abandoning My people in captivity.
I WILL REMOVE MY FURY FAR AWAY (in Hebrew aarich, that is, I will prolong, extend, remove far, that is, take away, remove) — Alternatively, Forerius and Vatablus say: I will prolong, they say, that is, I will defer vengeance for a long time, until they fill up the measure of their sins, which they will do when they kill Christ. Therefore then I will fully punish all their crimes and cut them off.
AND WITH MY PRAISE I WILL BRIDLE YOU, LEST YOU PERISH. — So the Roman edition, and generally all the Bibles, although Arias prefers the passive reading 'I will be bridled,' so that it would say the same as what preceded, that is: 'With praise,' that is, for the sake of My praise and glory, I, God, will be bridled and will restrain My fury, lest I destroy you. Whence Vatablus translates: For the sake of My name I will defer My fury, and for the sake of My praise I will put a bridle on Myself, for your sake, lest I utterly cut you off.
But the active reading, 'I will bridle you,' should be retained. Which, first, St. Thomas and Haymo explain thus, that is: When you return from Babylon to Judea, I will put upon you the bridle of My law and religion, and compel you to worship Me, so that in the temple you may praise Me as usual through psalms, prayers, sacrifices, and sacred ceremonies, lest you slip away to the worship and praise of idols.
Second, more simply, more expressively, and more genuinely, this praise by which God bridled the Jews was God's indulgence and mercy toward them, or His very benefits to them. For nothing so commends a prince — and all the more God — and makes him praiseworthy, as clemency and beneficence, which is the special virtue of kings and princes, and which bridles subjects and compels them to love and obey them. Moreover, this praise of God, or bridle, namely His beneficence, was twofold. The first was tribulation, namely the Babylonian captivity. For by this, as by a bridle, God restrained the people rushing headlong into crimes and destruction, and drew them back from idolatry and other sins, as well as from ruin, and recalled them to Himself. Whence St. Jerome says: "I will bridle you, so that even unwillingly, like a beast of burden, you may follow Me, your Lord." This captivity, therefore, was a great benefit from God. From this you will learn that tribulations are great
gifts of God, and proceed from a benevolent and beneficent heart of God, willing, namely, to tame, bridle, and cut away our luxury and wantonness. Tribulation, therefore, is God's praise, and consequently in it we ought, with Job, Tobias, and the Martyrs, not to murmur but to praise God and give Him thanks. Conversely, it is a clear sign of God's anger when He loosens the reins on someone and allows him to follow his lusts, so that like a wanton horse without a bridle he rushes to his ruin. So Haymo, Adamus, Dionysius, and Sanchez. The second praise of God was the benefit of the liberation of the Jews from Babylon; for concerning this He said before: "For the sake of My name I will remove My fury far away"; just as concerning the first, namely the captivity itself, there follows: "Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have chosen you in the furnace of poverty." For this statement, "With My praise I will bridle you," since it stands between these two, pertains to both and encompasses both. The meaning, therefore, is: O My people! You are stiff-necked and a transgressor from the womb: therefore I will put a bridle on you, lest like an unbridled and furious horse you hurl yourself headlong and perish. This bridle will be My praise, namely My royal beneficence — specifically, My fatherly chastisement, namely the Babylonian captivity, but brief and shortened, and soon to be relaxed by God. This captivity, therefore, was not My wrath or fury, but My praise, love, and favor toward you: for I could have kept you in it forever, scattered you, and utterly destroyed you, as you deserved. But for the praise of My beneficence and clemency I did not will this; nay rather, lest you perish in it, after a short time I freed you from it, and led you back to your homeland like a horse now tamed by the spur of affliction, so that henceforth you might learn to follow perpetually the guidance of My bridle, that is, of My will, and learn to praise Me, when you see such great love, care, and kindness of Mine toward you — which is My supreme praise. Hence
Third, from the Hebrew Forerius piously translates: I will seal My praise upon you, lest you be cut off, that is: Since you have nothing of your own by which you could provoke My mercy, I will put My praise upon you like My cloak, and seal you with it as with My sign and mark, so that you may appear to Me as the material, reason, and cause of My praise, and thus this praise of Mine may intercede for you, and always accompany, cover, and protect you — indeed, make you beautiful and lovable in My eyes, and so strike them that, even if I wished to destroy you, I could not, but would immediately remember that My praise would likewise perish. For when I look upon you, I behold My praise. Hence
Fourth, the Seventy translate: My glorious things I will put upon you. 'Glorious things,' that is, the glorious liberation from Babylon, says St. Cyril, who adds: "God's glory is to be able to rule over all without effort, to save and to show mercy."
Allegorically, Leo Castrius explains, that is: "With My praise," etc., that is, I will perform so many glorious signs and miracles through Christ and the Apostles, that I will put a bridle on your unbelief and blasphemies, O Jews, and
will convert many of you to the faith of Christ, and save them.
Tropologically, St. Bernard, Sermon 11 on the Song of Songs, says, that is: "Lest out of excessive sorrow for your sins you despair like Cain, and like an unbridled horse rush headlong, I will restrain you with the bridle of My indulgence, and raise you up with My praises, and you will find refreshment in My good things, you who are confounded by your own evils, when you find Me indeed more kind than you are culpable."
Thus by the praise of God was bridled that religious man Vincent, disciple of St. Dominic, a man of singular learning, humility, self-denial, and love of God, wonderfully devoted to the Blessed Virgin, such that he never preached without always saying something in her praise. When he had fallen into illness and thence into a severe and prolonged melancholy, near the end of his life, upon seeing the Blessed Virgin, he began to exult and rejoice in the Spirit. And when his companion was reciting Matins and Lauds and had reached the end and was saying the last verse of the last psalm, "Let every spirit praise the Lord," he, sick and in his agony, bade his companion stop, and, repeating many times and jubilantly exclaiming "Let every spirit praise the Lord," he breathed forth his spirit to praise the Lord perpetually in heaven — as Ferdinand Castiglius relates, History of the Dominican Order, Part I, Book I, chapter 61.
Verse 10
10. BEHOLD, I HAVE REFINED YOU, BUT NOT AS SILVER; I HAVE CHOSEN YOU IN THE FURNACE OF POVERTY. — Forerius and Vatablus translate clearly from the Hebrew: Behold, I have smelted, burned, or refined you, not in a furnace of silver, I have chosen you in the furnace of want and affliction, that is: I have refined you not as a silversmith in a most fiery furnace refines silver, so that the fire separates from it all tin, lead, and dross, that only pure and unadulterated silver remains. For if I had so refined you, I would have consumed you entirely, since you are nothing but the dross of sins (for this is what He said in chapter 1:22: "Your silver has turned into dross"). But I purified you in a gentler furnace and purgatory, namely, by poverty, servitude, and hardships in Babylon; and thus I caused you to correct your ways and once again, through My grace, to become from dross into silver, that is, faithful, just, and pious. Whence, thus purified, "in the furnace of poverty I chose you" — just as in a furnace, once the dross is separated, the silversmith selects and gathers the pure silver. So St. Cyril and Procopius. Jeremiah uses a similar and illustrious metaphor of the smelter in chapter 6:27. See what was said there.
Mystically, Forerius says: Silver, he says, is the Gospel and the utterances of God, according to Psalm 11:7: "The words of the Lord are pure words, silver tried in the fire, proved in the earth, purified seven times." That is: I refined you through poverty, but not yet through the Gospel of Christ: for that full purification I reserve for a happier time, which will be in the law of grace.
The Seventy translate: Behold, I sold you not for silver; I rescued you from the furnace of poverty, that is: I handed you over to the Chaldeans, and from them again I freed you, not seeking My own gain thereby (for I received silver neither from the Babylonians nor from you), but seeking your good, namely your expiation and purification, that I might restore you to the former brightness of faith and religion and of a pure conscience.
Verse 11
11. THAT I MAY NOT BE BLASPHEMED — by the Gentiles who say: The God of the Hebrews is powerless, or unfaithful and cruel, inasmuch as He allows His people to be oppressed by enemies; our gods are stronger and more favorable than He. Just as the Turks, having obtained so many victories against the Christians, blaspheme and say that Muhammad is more powerful than Christ.
MY GLORY I WILL NOT GIVE TO ANOTHER. — I will not allow idols to appear more powerful than Me, as if they had delivered My people to the Chaldeans, when I Myself did this. For by destroying the Chaldeans and liberating the Jews, I will show that I am the God and Lord of the Chaldeans no less than of the Jews, and that I handed the Hebrews over to them for a time, to be chastised, and then that I might free them with greater glory. So St. Cyril, St. Thomas, and others.
ISRAEL, WHOM I CALL. — First, Forerius: whom I call, that is, whom I have as a familiar and member of My household, inasmuch as I always have his name on My lips, so that I cannot forget him.
Second, Haymo and Hugo: whom I call, namely to repentance, or rather, as St. Jerome and Cyril say, to My particular worship, to My Church, grace, and salvation.
Third, Symmachus, Aquila, Vatablus, and others best translate the Hebrew mecerai as 'My called one,' or 'O My called one,' that is: Whom I call Israel, to whom I gave the name of Israel.
He confronts Israel with its name, so that from it Israel may know that it belongs to God and ought to worship God, not idols. For this is God's argument: You ought to worship and adore as God the One from whom your father Jacob, or Israel, received his name, and whom he carries and displays in his name. But I am the One who called him Israel, that is, 'prevailing with God,' whence he always carries Me in his name; and I am the One who from him called and calls you Israel. Therefore I am your God, to be loved and worshipped by you. As if to say: Do you wish to know your God? Look at your own name and your father's name. For as I am El, that is, God, so you are called Israel, that is, 'prevailing with God.' For just as soldiers were called 'Caesarians' from Caesar, and 'Pompeians' from Pompey, so from El was named Israel, just as from Christ, 'Christian.' So Sanchez. For He seems here to say the same thing as what He said in verse 1: "Hear these things, O house of Jacob, you who are called by the name of Israel."
To this add, fourth, that God names Israel His 'called one,' that is, His servant. For just as nobles are summoned by the king to services both domestic and public, especially military, so that they may serve the king and kingdom in them (whence the Spaniards too boast that they are creados del Rey, that is, servants called and summoned by the King): so God had summoned Israel to His service and worship. To this St. Paul alludes, who calls both himself and the faithful 'called ones,' that is, those called by God: "Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an Apostle, etc. Among whom you also are the called of Jesus Christ," Romans chapter 1, verses 1 and 6. For Israel and its calling were a type of St. Paul and the faithful, and of their calling.
I MYSELF, I AM THE FIRST, AND I AM THE LAST — that is: I existed before heaven and earth, before the world and the Angels. I existed from eternity, and I will exist for eternity; I am the possessor and lord of eternity. Second, that is: I am the beginning and end of all things, from whom all things come and to whom all things tend. So Forerius.
Sanchez notes that in the threefold repetition of the word 'I,' the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity is hinted at.
Verse 13
13. MY RIGHT HAND MEASURED THE HEAVENS. — For 'measured,' the Hebrew has tippecha, which can be translated, second, as: My right hand measured the heavens with a span, that is: I am so great that I measure and encompass the vast expanse of the heavens with a handspan. So Vatablus. Third, it can be translated: My right hand with a span spread out, unfolded, and stretched forth the heavens. So Forerius. Fourth: My right hand formed the heavens; My right hand shaped the heavens into this form, appearance, figure, and beauty. See what was said at Lamentations 2:20.
I WILL CALL THEM (the heavens with their stars, and the earth), AND THEY SHALL STAND TOGETHER — that is: If I call them, at once at My voice they will present themselves, just as servants will rush to the voice of a prince and present themselves, ready to receive orders and execute them immediately. This was evident under Joshua, when the sun, moon, and heavens stood still, Joshua chapter 10, verse 13; and under Hezekiah, when they reversed their course and went backward, Isaiah chapter 38, verse 8.
Verse 14
14. ASSEMBLE, ALL OF YOU (O Israelites) AND HEAR: WHO AMONG THEM (the gods of the Gentiles, whom I have so often named and refuted here; it could also be translated: who among the astrologers, divining from them, namely from the heavens and stars — for He argued against the astrologers in the preceding chapter, verse 12) DECLARED THESE THINGS — which I foretell concerning Cyrus and the destruction of Babylon? Concerning your captivity, and that in it I will be your leader and the one who brings you back?
THE LORD LOVED HIM — namely Cyrus, about whom He treats in chapter 41, chapter 44, and the following chapters up to this point throughout, and who will carry out this destruction of the Chaldeans of which I continually speak. So St. Jerome, Cyril, and the Hebrews. God loved Cyrus because He chose him as the minister of His vengeance. Forerius adds that Cyrus was truly and properly beloved by God because he was His worshipper, 1 Ezra 1. In what sense this is true I explained above.
HE SHALL DO HIS WILL IN BABYLON (IT CAN BE TRANSLATED from the Hebrew: He (Cyrus) shall do His (God's) will in Babylon), AND HIS ARM (power and mighty vengeance) UPON THE CHALDEANS. — But in translating 'his will,' there is here a threefold meaning.
The first concerns Cyrus, that is: Cyrus will do in Babylon his own will, that is, whatever pleases him, and will exercise his arm against the Chaldeans. So Forerius.
The second concerns God: God will make Cyrus His will in devastating Babylon, and will make him His arm against the Chaldeans. So Sanchez.
But since it is harsh to call Cyrus the 'will' of God, hence, third, you may explain most plainly, that is: God through Cyrus will execute His will and vengeance in Babylon, and His arm, that is, a mighty blow, upon the Chaldeans.
Allegorically, Cyrus is Christ, whom the Father loved, who did all the will of the Father, and who in Babylon, that is, in the confusion of this world, overthrew the Chaldeans, that is, the demons, says St. Jerome. Christ's "way was also made straight," because the Father through all hardships and difficulties powerfully and successfully directed and guided Him, far more so than Cyrus.
Verse 16
16. FROM THE BEGINNING I DID NOT SPEAK IN SECRET — that is: From the time I began to prophesy about the destruction of Babylon, I did not speak of it in corners, ambiguously and obscurely, but publicly, clearly, and openly.
FROM THE TIME BEFORE IT CAME TO BE — before, namely, Babylon was overthrown, I, Isaiah, was there present in spirit, and I saw and contemplated the sequence, manner, and order of the event to be accomplished.
Ineptly, therefore, R. Solomon and R. Tanhuma, cited by Galatinus, Book II, chapter 3, interpret the words 'from the time before it came to be, I was there' as follows, that is: I, Isaiah, and all the Prophets, as to our souls, were together and stood on Mount Sinai when the law was given there to Moses, and then and there we received our prophecies. For from this it would follow that their souls existed long before their bodies — which is the error of Origen and the Pythagoreans.
AND NOW THE LORD GOD HAS SENT ME, AND HIS SPIRIT — so that what He had previously revealed to me about Cyrus and Babylon, I might now proclaim and declare. For these are the words not of Cyrus, as some cited by Procopius would have it, but of Isaiah, who was sent as a Prophet and herald by God and the Spirit of God to deliver these prophecies. So St. Jerome, the Chaldean, Vatablus, Forerius, Sanchez, and others.
Whence, mystically, St. Jerome, Cyril, Procopius, Haymo, Hugo, St. Thomas (here), and also St. Basil, Eusebius, Origen, Augustine, Chrysostom, and Gregory of Nyssa — whom Leo Castrius cites — likewise Galatinus, Book II, chapter 3, teach that here the Most Holy Trinity is signified, namely the Son, who was sent by the Father and by His Spirit, that is, by the Holy Spirit — namely insofar as He is man — for the redemption of mankind.
(1) It is remarkable how often He recalls His power by which He created the earth and the heavens. Certainly He was dealing with unbelievers, a good part of whom worshipped idols and paid honor to the gods of the Gentiles. (Forerius.)
"Blessed are You, O Lord; teach me Your statutes. Remove from me the way of iniquity, and of Your law have mercy on me. Let my heart be blameless in Your statutes, that I may not be confounded," etc. For this is the whole of man.
For insofar as He is God and the Word of the Father, just as He proceeds from the Father alone, so He can be sent by the Father alone, as St. Thomas and the Scholastics teach, Part I, Question 43, article 8. And St. Anselm, in his book On the Procession of the Holy Spirit, says: "But if they say that the Holy Spirit also sends the Son, as He Himself says through the Prophet: 'And now the Lord,' etc., this is to be understood according to the humanity which He bore, because by the one will and disposition of the Father and the Holy Spirit, He appeared in the world to redeem the world."
Galatinus and others wish this sense to be the literal one; but from what has been said it is clear that it is allegorical: for Isaiah here was a type and allegory of Christ.
Again, from this mystical sense, Paschasius, in his book On the Holy Spirit, chapter 7, proves that the Holy Spirit subsists and has a hypostasis in the Most Holy Trinity; for he says: "Therefore one person is the Lord the Father, another is the Spirit of God the Father. And so, while the Son is read to be sent by the Father and the Holy Spirit, under the name of three persons, the Holy Spirit is clearly shown to subsist of Himself (that is, through Himself)." Again, the fact that He says 'sent' [singular], not 'they sent,' signifies the unity of the divine essence in the Most Holy Trinity.
Verse 17
17. WHO TEACHES YOU PROFITABLE THINGS — not curious things, not vain, not ridiculous, not pompous things designed to win applause, but things that profit your present and eternal salvation. Let preachers note this and imitate it, if they wish to be heralds not of vanity but of God.
WHO GUIDES YOU IN THE WAY IN WHICH YOU WALK. — "Guiding" you not despotically, as a beast of burden, but politically, as a human being and His citizen, through counsel, command, and direction — to which, however, you, being free, can resist and oppose. Thus He guided Israel in the desert for 40 years and led them into Canaan. Thus He guided David: "The Lord, he says, rules me (as a shepherd his sheep), and I shall lack nothing," etc., Psalm 22:2. O happy are those whom God guides, and who follow God's leading and allow themselves to be ruled by Him in all things! These cannot fall, for they are ruled by the wisest and most powerful Governor.
Note here: The soundest and most useful counsel, as well as the means of reaching the port of salvation, is for one to pray to God unceasingly: "Lord, govern me as a teacher governs a child who does not know how to come in or go out, or by what way he should walk; lead me through those paths, states of life, offices, companions, etc., in which You foresee that I will not have the occasion of sin and the scandal of falling, but will proceed by a straight and sure path and arrive at eternal life"; or: "Lord, give me always and everywhere congruent grace; for this will be efficacious and will efficaciously lead me to the end and to salvation." This we pray in almost every verse of Psalm 118, which we recite in parts at Prime, Terce, Sext, and None: "O that my ways may be directed to keep Your statutes!
Verse 18
18. IF ONLY YOU HAD HEEDED MY COMMANDMENTS! YOUR PEACE WOULD HAVE BEEN LIKE A RIVER — "Peace" for the Hebrews means not only rest but also prosperity and the abundance and affluence of all things. Whence it is compared here to a perennial river, which never dries up but always brings fresh and fresh waters and flows on. Cyril and Procopius add that peace is here compared to torrents and waves, which are so violent that nothing can resist them; indeed, they break and flatten even mountains and rocks. As if to say: Thus you, O Israel, would have been to the Assyrians, Chaldeans, and other enemies not only impregnable but also terrible, victorious, and their trampler, if you had obeyed the laws of God.
AND YOUR RIGHTEOUSNESS LIKE THE DEPTHS OF THE SEA. — "Righteousness" is used metonymically for the reward of righteousness, namely the peace already mentioned — just as conversely "iniquity" often means the punishment of iniquity. Thus Jacob says: "My righteousness shall answer for me tomorrow," that is, the reward of my just labor, Genesis chapter 30:33. Thus Samuel says, 1 Samuel chapter 12, verse 7: "Stand, that I may plead with you before the Lord concerning all the mercies (benefits) of the Lord (in Hebrew, the 'righteousnesses' of the Lord)." Thus Daniel, chapter 4:24: "Redeem your sins with alms, and your iniquities with mercies (in Hebrew, 'righteousnesses') toward the poor." For mercy especially befits the just and holy, and is thus their genuine virtue and distinguishing mark.
Second, "righteousness" can be taken in its proper sense as the companion and effect of peace. For in peace righteousness flourishes, which in time of war often goes into exile. This also looks to Christ, who brought righteousness as well as peace to the world.
Third, Salmeron, volume 9, treatise 54, says: Righteousness is like the sea, peace like a river; because, just as rivers arise from the sea, Ecclesiastes chapter 1:7, so peace arises from righteousness, according to that passage of Isaiah chapter 32: "And the work of righteousness shall be peace, and the service of righteousness silence."
Verse 19
19. AND YOUR OFFSPRING WOULD HAVE BEEN LIKE THE SAND — as I had promised to Abraham your father, Genesis chapter 22:17, and to David, saying, Psalm 80:14: "Israel, if he had walked in My ways, I would have humbled his enemies to nothing"; his enemies would have submitted to him, he would have lived forever, "I would have fed him with the fat of wheat," etc. So Forerius.
AND ITS NAME WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN WORN AWAY — namely, the name of Israel. For when a nation is worn down, its name also, and its fame, as well as its kingdom, is worn down. Thus the kingdom of Judah and Israel was worn down in Babylon and virtually perished. Thus the Jews were formerly held as worthless, ignoble, indeed a reproach among the Gentiles, as they still are among Christians. Hence that saying: "He is circumcised; let the Jew Apella believe it: you circumcised fellow,
to me by Anchialus." And Juvenal, Satire 2:
"Shrines are rented out to Jews, whose furniture is a basket and hay."
And Martial, Book 12, Epigram 57, reports that Jews were accustomed to beg from childhood:
"A Jew taught by his mother to beg, and a blear-eyed hawker of sulphur-tipped wares."
Thus we see them here in Rome selling sulphur matches and old wares, and bartering them for broken glass.
Verse 20
20. GO FORTH FROM BABYLON. — Literally, say St. Cyril and Procopius, the Prophet exhorts the Jews held captive and worn down in Babylon, that, leaving behind unfaithful, impious, and tyrannical Babylon and its vices, they should return to Judea, to the temple of God, to His worship, and to the piety of their forefathers.
Allegorically, He exhorts all to go forth from the captivity of sin and from the kingdom of the devil — not under Cyrus but under Christ as leader — into the state of grace, liberty, and adoption as children of God. For no region is more full of confusion than that of sin; no Chaldeans harm the children of God more than sins do. This is Babylon, these are the Chaldeans, from whom the Lord commands His own to flee. See chapter 52:11: "Depart, go out from there."
Whence the Apostle tropologically applies these words to the faithful, to the end that they should not mix marriages and business dealings with unbelievers and the impious, 2 Corinthians chapter 6:17.
For what follows is so joyful and auspicious that it was fulfilled more through Christ than through Cyrus. Forerius rightly says: "As often as I read in the Prophets these proclamations, exultations, and ovations directed to all nations and to the ends of the earth, so often I have no doubt that the Prophets are making mention of the universal redemption (through Christ). These look to more than one small and lowly Jewish nation alone."
Third, He rebukes the carnal, abject, and impious Jews, who, delighted either by the idols and vices, or by the peace and wealth of Babylon, chose to settle permanently there and were unwilling to return to their homeland when Cyrus granted them the power to do so. To these He predicts that they will not have true peace in Babylon. Moreover, that many remained there is clear from Ezra, chapter 2, when he describes the small number and few names of those who returned, and says, chapter 1, verse 5, that only those returned whose heart and spirit God had touched. Indeed, many Hebrew scholars teach that none of those who were taken captive with Zedekiah returned to their homeland, as St. Jerome reports on Ezekiel 11:17. So Sanchez.
Verse 21
21. THEY DID NOT THIRST IN THE DESERT. — He recalls the benefits granted to the Jews in the desert under Moses, Exodus chapter 17:6, and under these, figuratively through proverbial and hyperbolical language, He signifies that God provided similar care and providence to the Jews returning from Babylon — namely, that He took care both directly and through the edict of Cyrus and Darius, 1 Ezra chapter 6:8, that nothing necessary should be lacking on the journey for relieving hunger and thirst or for other needs. As if to say, says Cyril: Celebrate God, O Jews returning from exile! who, as once He redeemed you from Egypt, led you safely through the desert, fed you daily with manna from heaven, and gave you water from the rock — so now He has freed you from Babylon, led you through the desert, given you food and drink, and brought you safely back to your homeland, so that there you might dwell in peace, which you did not have in Chaldea; for: "There is no peace for the wicked, says the Lord."
Mystically, much more so Christ has redeemed us, and through the desert of this life leads us to heaven and gives us the manna of the Eucharist and water from the rock. For "from His side," wounded and opened by the lance, "water and blood flowed, dedicating baptism and martyrdom for us," says St. Jerome.
Verse 22
22. THERE IS NO PEACE FOR THE WICKED, SAYS THE LORD. — Because the wicked follow their lusts, which generate a thousand wars both in the soul itself and in public affairs, and by the just judgment of God, when they sow iniquities, they reap sorrows. Whence in chapter 57, the last verse, the Seventy translate: There is no joy for the wicked, says the Lord. To what purpose does the Prophet say this? What does this have to do with the foregoing? I answer first, it looks back to verse 18: "If only you had heeded My commandments! Your peace would have been like a river." For here He gives the reason for that, by way of antithesis: because "there is no peace for the wicked," and all things turn to their harm. This, therefore, is the lot of the wicked, which He contrasts with the lot of the righteous. So Forerius.
Second, it looks to verse 20: "Go forth from Babylon, flee from the Chaldeans." Why? "Because there is no peace for the wicked." Horace rightly says, Book II, Ode 16:
"What exile from his fatherland Also flees himself? Sinful care boards the bronze-clad ships, Nor leaves behind the troops of horsemen, Swifter than stags, and swifter than The East wind driving clouds."
Finally, mystically, says Forerius, these words are those of the Prophet grieving and indignant, because he foresaw that Christ would call the Israelites in vain to return from the Babylon of sin to Himself in Jerusalem, that is, the Church; for they would despise Him as He called — so that this is a correction, as if to say: Why do I delay? Why do I summon them from the kingdom of the devil? Why do I address stones? They are wicked and obstinate in Judaism and in vices, and therefore unworthy of the peace and happiness that is offered to them. Wherefore Christ, passing over to the Gentiles and turning to them, says in the following chapter: "Hear, O islands, and attend, you peoples from afar."