Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
By the example of Sarah and Abraham, He promises to Zion, that is, to the Christian Church begun from the Jews, abundant offspring, joy, and eternal salvation. Wherefore, at verse 7, He reproves the timid and admonishes them not to fear persecutors: for He is their protector and is omnipotent, and therefore through Christ He will plant new heavens and a new earth. Thirdly, at verse 17, He consoles Jerusalem, devastated both by the Chaldeans and by the Romans, promising her restoration and the destruction of her enemies.
Vulgate Text: Isaiah 51:1-16
1. Hear me, you who follow what is just and seek the Lord: attend to the rock from which you were hewn, and to the hollow of the pit from which you were cut out. 2. Attend to Abraham your father, and to Sarah who bore you: for I called him when he was one, and I blessed him, and I multiplied him. 3. Therefore the Lord shall comfort Zion, and shall comfort all her ruins: and He shall make her desert like a place of delight, and her solitude like the garden of the Lord. Joy and gladness shall be found in her, thanksgiving and the voice of praise. 4. Attend to me, O my people, and my tribe, hear me: for a law shall go forth from me, and my judgment shall rest as a light of the peoples. 5. My just one is near, my savior has gone forth, and my arms shall judge the peoples: the islands shall wait for me, and they shall sustain my arm. 6. Lift up your eyes to heaven, and look upon the earth beneath: for the heavens shall melt away like smoke, and the earth shall be worn out like a garment, and its inhabitants shall perish in like manner: but my salvation shall be forever, and my justice shall not fail. 7. Hear me, you who know what is just, my people who have my law in their heart: do not fear the reproach of men, and do not dread their blasphemies. 8. For as a garment, so shall the worm consume them: and as wool, so shall the moth devour them. But my salvation shall be forever, and my justice for generations of generations. 9. Arise, arise, put on strength, O arm of the Lord: arise as in the days of old, in the generations of ages. Was it not you who struck the proud one, who wounded the dragon? 10. Was it not you who dried up the sea, the waters of the great abyss: who made the depths of the sea a way, that the delivered might cross over? 11. And now those who have been redeemed by the Lord shall return, and shall come into Zion praising, and everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain joy and gladness, sorrow and sighing shall flee away. 12. I, I myself shall comfort you: who are you that you should fear mortal man, and the son of man, who shall wither like grass? 13. And you have forgotten the Lord your maker, who stretched out the heavens and founded the earth: and you have been in continual dread all the day long from the fury of him who oppressed you and prepared to destroy you: where now is the fury of the oppressor? 14. He shall come quickly, striding forth to open, and he shall not kill unto utter destruction, nor shall his bread fail. 15. But I am the Lord your God, who stir up the sea and its waves swell: the Lord of hosts is my name. 16. I have put my words in your mouth, and in the shadow of my hand
I have protected you, that you may plant the heavens and found the earth: and say to Zion: You are my people. 17. Arise, arise, stand up, O Jerusalem, you who have drunk from the hand of the Lord the cup of His wrath: you have drunk to the very dregs of the cup of drowsiness, and you have drained it to the lees. 18. There is none to support her among all the sons she has borne: and there is none to take her by the hand among all the sons she has reared. 19. Two things have befallen you: who shall grieve for you? Desolation and destruction, and famine and the sword; who shall comfort you? 20. Your sons have been cast down, they have slept at the head of every street, like a snared oryx: full of the indignation of the Lord, of the rebuke of your God. 21. Therefore hear this, you poor one, and drunk but not with wine. 22. Thus says your sovereign Lord, and your God, who will fight for His people: Behold, I have taken from your hand the cup of drowsiness, the dregs of the cup of my indignation; you shall drink it no more. 23. And I will put it into the hand of those who have humbled you, and who have said to your soul: Bow down, that we may pass over: and you have laid your body on the ground, and as a road for those passing over.
Verse 1
1. HEAR ME. — From the unbelieving Jews He returns to the Jews who believe in Christ, of whom He treated in chapter xxx, as I said there at the beginning, and in the preceding chapter, verse 10, saying: 'Who among you fears the Lord, hearing the voice of His servant?' For these few mourned the unbelief of their nation. God continues here to console them and to raise them to the hope of better things.
ATTEND TO THE ROCK FROM WHICH YOU WERE HEWN, AND TO THE HOLLOW OF THE PIT FROM WHICH YOU WERE CUT OUT (that is, as he explains in what follows): 2. ATTEND TO ABRAHAM YOUR FATHER, AND TO SARAH WHO BORE YOU. — He calls Abraham a 'rock,' both because of the firmness of his faith, and because the Hebrews call families 'houses': hence אבנים banim, that is, 'sons,' they call as if אבנים abanim, that is, 'stones,' who were hewn from their father as from a rock. For the kidneys, which are the origin of seed and of the generative power, have the shape and hardness of stones, and indeed from time to time generate stones, that is, calculi. Thus Rachel and Leah are said to have 'built the house,' that is, the stock and family of Israel, Ruth IV, 11. Some think there is an allusion here to the fountain of water drawn from the rock struck by Moses, Numbers xx; for just as water flows from a spring, so children proceed from a parent. But the words 'hewn' and 'cut out' stand against this. For water is drawn from a spring and rock, but is not hewn or cut out.
More fittingly, St. Cyril says: 'Just as it is most difficult to hew stones from a solid and immense rock, and to drain a deep well: in the same way it is extremely difficult, nay impossible, for a son to be born from an old man and a barren woman (such as Abraham and Sarah were). But this was accomplished beyond all expectation by the will and command of God.' Secondly, just as innumerable stones are hewn from a quarry, so from Abraham and Sarah innumerable Jews were begotten, and mystically from Christ and the Church innumerable Christians. Hence perhaps Christ had this in view when He said to the Jews, Matthew III, 9: 'God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham.' Thus Ovid, in Metamorphoses I, invented the tale that after the flood Deucalion cast stones behind his back, and from them men, a hard race, were born.
The Septuagint translates: 'Look upon the solid rock which you have hewn, and upon the pit of the quarry which you have dug.'
(1) He had divided the Jewish people in the preceding chapter into two groups, as Forerius rightly notes: namely those who, fearing God, hearkened to His servant Jesus, and those who, judging the matter by outward appearance and being injurious to the servant of God, were kindling eternal fire for themselves. Now He addresses only those who lent their ears to Christ, to whom in the preceding chapter, verse 10, He had urged patience and faith. These He here calls followers of justice and seekers of the Lord, who do this as it were by duty, and whose sole intent is to do what is just and not to depart from the Lord's will. He therefore turns His discourse to those holy remnants. For these people, seeing the impiety of the Jewish nation and the calamity which, on account of that impiety, had engulfed it, could not but be sorrowful. We do not deny that some, albeit very few, verses can be understood of the liberation of the Jews by Cyrus, in a closer and incomplete sense; but it must at the same time be held as certain, along with most Catholic interpreters, that the greater part of this chapter is far more august both in its words and in its predicted deeds than could suit Cyrus and the return of the Jews from Babylon, and consequently must be referred to the times of Christ alone, in whom we have seen it perfectly fulfilled.
First, therefore, the Prophet consoles the sorrow of the faithful Jews and lifts their spirits: first, against faintheartedness, by giving better hope, both from the example of fertility granted to Abraham and Sarah, who were barren and aged, 1, 2; and from the promise made of solace that would bring joy and gladness, 3; secondly, against sloth, by injecting a spirit of emulation toward the Gentiles, who will hear the preached Gospel, 4, and embrace what they have heard, 5; thirdly, against distrust, by the attestation that the world shall perish sooner than the truth of God shall change, 6; fourthly, against reproaches and wounds, by strengthening faith, both concerning the imminent abolition of all opposition, and conversely concerning the perpetuity of the Gospel, 7, 8. Secondly, when the prophet in the name of the whole people prays to God to deliver His people as soon as possible, 9; and summons Him to the examples of divine power already displayed on other occasions, 10: promising thanks and praises for the salvation granted, 11; God responds that the time pleasing to God must be awaited, and to this end He brings His people along: and first, He rebukes the anxiety born from fear of human force and forgetfulness of divine power, 12, 13; secondly, He pledges the approaching liberation, instruction, and salvation through the coming of Christ, 14, 16; thirdly, He raises them to hope from the calamities by which the Synagogue, deserted until now, was being exercised by God as avenger, 17–21; fourthly, He decrees the transfer of punishments from the faithful to their persecutors, 22, 23.
As if to say: Look, O Jews, upon Christ, whom you pierced with nails in His hands and feet, and with a lance in the side of His heart, as Procopius, St. Jerome, and Haymo say. This is what St. John says, from Zechariah xii, 10, in chapter XIX, verse 37, concerning Christ crucified and pierced through: 'They shall look on Him whom they pierced,' and Zechariah III, 9, speaking of Jesus the High Priest clothed in filthy garments: 'The stone which I have laid before Jesus, etc. Behold, I will engrave its sculpture, and I will take away the iniquity of that land in one day.'
AND TO THE HOLLOW OF THE PIT. — This is Sarah, the mother of the Jews, from whom, as from a ditch or pit, the Jews and so many thousands of them were dug out and hewn. The Hebrew מקבה maccebet, that is, 'pit,' alludes to נקבה nekeba, that is, 'female.' It is a decent circumlocution for the conjugal act, which parents use when their little children, not knowing and wondering how they came into this world, are told and persuaded that they themselves, as well as their little brothers, when born, were dug and are dug out from cabbages or from ditches.
Arias and Delrio note, in adage 788, that there is an allusion to architecture; for in this the principal materials are stones and mortar or cement. Stones are fetched from a quarry, namely from Abraham; cement from a cavern, or, as the Septuagint translates, a pit or excavated trench, namely from Sarah. For she is the mother, he the father. Hence the Syriac and Arabic translate: 'behold the mountain from which you were hewn, behold the lake (or well) from which you were hollowed out.' This phrase is taken somewhat differently by the Latins; for the lowborn and sons of the earth, or the rough and barbarous, are said to be sprung from rock, cavern, or stone. So Homer, Odyssey XVIII: 'Tell me,' he says, 'your lineage, whence are you? For you are not from an ancient oak, nor from a rock'; which others say: 'Neither a creature of clay nor a child of the earth.' And Christ: 'God is able from these stones (that is, from the vile and hardened Gentiles) to raise up children to Abraham,' as if to say: From the dust He shall raise up the needy, and from the dunghill He shall lift the poor.
FOR I CALLED HIM WHEN HE WAS ONE, AND I BLESSED HIM, — as if to say: Just as God gave Abraham, when he was alone and barren like a stone and pumice — his body being as it were dead, along with his power of generation, especially from Sarah, an old woman and likewise barren — a son, Isaac, and through him so blessed and multiplied him that Abraham became the 'father of many nations,' and had descendants as numerous as the stars of heaven and the sand of the sea: so also God will so bless and multiply the Church, established from a few Jews converted to Christ, with the addition of all the Gentiles, that they shall embrace the whole world. Do not fear, therefore, O little flock, O few faithful, Jews and Apostles! I will make you Abrahams. That this is the meaning is clear from verse 4. So say St. Jerome and Cyril. Of what then were Sarah and Abraham the type, who, old and barren, begot Isaac, that is, 'laughter' and 'joy,' inasmuch as from him was to arise Christ, who was to bring the Gospel as the most joyful tidings to the whole world, and to propagate His offspring of the faithful throughout the entire globe.
Verse 3
3. THEREFORE THE LORD SHALL COMFORT ZION, — both the earthly Zion, by bringing back her citizens from the Babylonian captivity and multiplying them in Judea, as the Hebrews, St. Thomas, and Hugo explain; and more especially the spiritual Zion, namely the Church that arose from the Jews in Zion: for in the time of Christ, the Church consisted of them alone. The ruins of Zion, therefore — by which the greater part of the Jews fell from the faith when they rejected Christ — God repaired through the calling of the Gentiles, and thus consoled her in her sorrow. For 'her ruins,' the Hebrew is חרבתיה charboteha, which the Septuagint properly translate τὰ ἔρημα αὐτῆς, that is, 'her deserts': Vatablus translates 'her desolations'; Forerius, 'her barren places.' 'For just as,' he says, 'when enemies ravage, trees are burned and some stumps and dry trunks remain, and as the fire rages and roofs collapse, some scorched walls survive: so when impiety devastated everything, and on account of that impiety the Roman soldier plundered and trampled everything in Jerusalem, there remained some pious Jews, like the scorched walls or half-burned stumps of that noble edifice. These barren remnants, these survivors, the Lord consoles, because from those few, as from a certain seedbed, they will see an infinite multitude of the faithful come forth, and increase immeasurably like the Lord's harvest.'
AND HE SHALL MAKE HER DESERT LIKE A PLACE OF DELIGHT — In Hebrew כעדן keeden, that is, 'like Eden'; the Septuagint has 'like paradise'; for this was in the region of Eden. Genesis II, 8, in the Hebrew. For Eden, or paradise, was a place of the most pleasant delights. Hence it is soon called 'the garden of the Lord,' which the Lord had cultivated and adorned as His own garden, and it is contrasted with the uncultivated and barren desert. Thus the delights of the world were the Apostles and the primitive Church itself, previously uncultivated and desert.
Moreover, the 'desert' of Zion either refers to the deserted ruins of the Jews, about which I have already spoken; or, as Procopius and Haymo say, to the Gentiles hitherto deserted and forsaken by God. But it comes to the same meaning. For it is established that this desert was changed into a paradise through the conversion of the Gentiles.
JOY AND GLADNESS SHALL BE FOUND IN HER, — in the solitude of the Gentiles now converted to Christ, in which before there was nothing but darkness, miseries, and sorrow; now nothing shall be found but joy, gladness, 'thanksgiving, and the voice of praise,' as if to say: The Gentiles, who before perjured themselves, quarreled, blasphemed, and devoted themselves and others to curses, now through Christ receiving a fiery mind and fiery tongues, shall resound with nothing other than hymns and praises of God. For they will see the Apostles continually rejoicing and praising God for so many and so great benefits which He bestowed upon the world through Christ, especially by sending and giving the faithful the Holy Spirit and so many and so great of His gifts; whence the faithful too will recognize the same, and will congratulate themselves, and will give thanks to God that He called and adopted them into so illustrious a share of the saints, and they will say continually:
'I will bless the Lord at all times, His praise shall always be in my mouth. We praise You, O God, we acknowledge You as Lord,' who called and transferred us from darkness and the shadow of death to light and life, from the power of the devil to the fellowship of Your Son, from hell to heavenly kingdoms: 'Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ; just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless in His sight in love. Who predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the purpose of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace,' etc., Ephesians I, 3.
This ought to be the continual voice and jubilation of Christians, and it would in fact be that of all, if they more deeply considered and weighed the blessings received and yet to be received through Christ, and lived worthily of them, as is fitting. As it is, there are but few who, devoted to perfection and contempt of the world, emulate the angelic life on earth; for the life and voice of these is nothing other than continual praise of God. For as St. Bernard, speaking from experience, says in sermon 11 on the Song of Songs: 'Nothing so truly represents on earth the state of the heavenly dwelling as the eagerness of those praising God, as Scripture says: Blessed are those who dwell in Your house, O Lord, they shall praise You forever and ever.' And St. Ephrem, in his treatise On the Beatitudes, places among them this preeminent one: 'Blessed,' he says, 'is he who has become like the Seraphim and Cherubim, and in the divine and spiritual office is never sluggish, but continually glorifies the Lord.'
Christ says: 'He who does not believe is already judged'; and: 'He who believes in Me, even if he has died, shall live,' etc. Fourthly, because through it, as through a judgment and definitive sentence, God condemned the evil works of the world. For this is what Christ says: 'I have come into the world for judgment'; and: 'This is the judgment: that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness more than light,' John III, 19. This judgment is further called by Isaiah a 'light,' or given 'as a light to the peoples,' because through the preaching of the Gospel, as through a light, God clearly showed all men the perversity of the world's works, and on the other hand how great in God's sight is the value and merit of each virtue or work. For everything that is made manifest is manifested in the light, says St. Paul. Fifthly, because through the Gospel Christ will judge, and will say to the faithful at the end of the world: 'Come, blessed of My Father, possess the kingdom'; but to the unfaithful and disobedient: 'Depart, accursed, into eternal fire.'
IT SHALL REST. — It shall not pass by in haste, but 'shall rest' among the Gentiles, as in its own seat and place, firmly and for a long time. Forerius translates it in the opposite sense: 'I shall stir up.' For the Hebrew רגע raga has contrary meanings and signifies two opposite things, namely, 'to rest' and 'to stir up,' as if you were to say: I shall stir up my judgment as a light to the peoples, that is, I shall cause it to appear in an instant and to shine forth like lightning and pervade the whole world.
Verse 5
5. MY JUST ONE IS NEAR, MY SAVIOR HAS GONE FORTH (that is, shall shortly go forth). — These are the words of the Father concerning the Son, whom He promises to send shortly, that He may be, He says, 'my savior,' through whom, namely, I may save the world and subject it to Myself. The Hebrew and Septuagint have: 'My justice is near, my salvation has gone forth,' which words befit the Son no less than the Father. Behold, this is the judgment which He promised to give as a light to the peoples, namely, justice, that is, their justification and salvation. These are the fountains of the joy, gladness, and consolation promised in verse 3.
MY ARMS SHALL JUDGE THE PEOPLES. — First, St. Thomas and Hugo take the 'arm of God' to mean Cyrus, who by God's strength overthrew Babylon and freed the Jews. But these things pertain to Christ, not to Cyrus. Wherefore St. Augustine, in the book On the Essence of the Divinity, by the 'arms of God,' namely of the Father, understands the Son and the Holy Spirit; for these proceed from the Father as arms from the shoulder. Secondly, Haymo, Vatablus, and Lyranus take the 'arms of God' to mean the Apostles; for these proceeded from Christ as arms, and from Him received the strength to subdue the world, alluding to the strength and arms of soldiers. Thirdly and most properly, the 'arms of God' are the power and might which God exerted through Christ and the Cross of Christ, when through the preaching of the Apostles He subjected all nations to Himself. For the Cross of Christ was the power of God, as the Apostle says. So say St. Jerome, Adamus, and Forerius. Wherefore he alludes to the arms of Christ extended on the Cross; these
Verse 4
4. ATTEND TO ME, O MY PEOPLE, — again and again see whence this joy and gladness of so numerous and joyful an offspring shall come to you. A LAW SHALL GO FORTH FROM ME. — 'A law,' namely not the old law of Moses, but the new law of Christ and of the Gospel, that is, the preaching of the Gospel shall go forth into the whole world. For 'their sound has gone forth into all the earth,' namely of the spiritual heavens, that is, of the Apostles. This is what He said in chapter II, 3: 'From Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.' There follows on the same topic: AND MY JUDGMENT SHALL REST AS A LIGHT OF THE PEOPLES. — The law of the Gospel is called 'judgment.' First, because it teaches us the judgment of God, namely what pleases God, what displeases Him, what He approves, what He condemns. For from it we learn that humility, poverty, and contempt of the world please Him, while pride, avarice, pleasures, etc. displease Him, and consequently that the judgment of God is contrary to the judgment of the world. Secondly, because it teaches the judgment of God, that is, justice, and what we owe to each one according to God's ordinance: namely, worship to God, charity to our neighbors, self-control for ourselves. Moreover, this law will bring to men the judgment of God, that is, justification, so that they may live justly, piously, and holily. This meaning is very fitting; for He adds: 'My just one is near.' Thirdly, the law of Christ is called 'judgment,' because he who accepts it is adjudged to heaven, and he who rejects it is adjudged to hell by that very law. This is what
for these are the strong points and, as it were, the horns with which He scattered His enemies and subdued the world, of which it is said in Habakkuk III, 4: 'Horns are in His hands.' Moreover, 'to judge,' among the Hebrews, is the same as to govern and to rule, as I have said elsewhere. He says the same thing here, therefore, as in chapter XL, 10: 'And His arm shall rule.' Again, 'they shall judge,' that is, they shall vindicate the peoples from the yoke and tyranny of the devil, and shall set them free. For thus Gideon, Samson, and others are called 'judges,' that is, deliverers of Israel. So says Sanchez.
THE ISLANDS (that is, islanders, meaning remote nations) SHALL WAIT FOR ME. — The Hebrew קוה kava has emphasis; for it signifies to direct and to stretch out like a line; hence קו kav signifies a line, as if to say: The islanders will stretch out their soul, and their hopes, vows, and desires, and will direct them like a line toward Christ. For hope, as it were, extends the soul toward the thing hoped for, so that the one hoping may, through hope, hold and grasp it. Hence the Psalmist says, Psalm XXIV, 1: 'To You, O Lord, I have lifted up my soul.' It is signified that there will be an immense desire among the Gentiles for Christ and for Christianity, once they have heard of Him, of His holiness and of His miracles. This is what Jacob foretold, Genesis XLIX, 10: 'He shall be the expectation of the Gentiles.'
Secondly, Forerius explains the Hebrew kava thus: as if to say, the islanders, now made Christians, will direct and aim all their thoughts, words, and actions toward Christ, inasmuch as they depend on Him alone and study to please Him alone. The former sense is more genuinely Hebrew. Thirdly, some explain it thus: 'they shall wait,' that is, they shall most eagerly receive, just as if they had long awaited me; this is a metalepsis: for what we eagerly receive, we customarily have long awaited before.
AND THEY SHALL SUSTAIN MY ARM, — that is, awaiting it, or as the Septuagint, Vatablus, and others translate: 'and in my arm they shall hope.' He calls the power, strength, and efficacy of the Gospel, or of Christianity, an 'arm,' which changes and sanctifies minds and hearts, so as to kill vices and to plant and vivify virtues in them.
Secondly, Forerius translates: 'and they shall wait for my arm,' as if to say: The Gentiles will obey the rule of Christ, will hang upon Christ's words, and hanging upon them will receive and promptly carry out His commands, saying: 'Lord, what do You wish me to do?' Give me a sign of Your will, I will obey, and I will go through rocks, through fires.
Verse 6
6. FOR THE HEAVENS SHALL MELT AWAY LIKE SMOKE. — In the Chaldean: 'they shall pass away.' This is what Christ says, Luke XXI, 33: 'Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words shall not pass away,' as if to say: The salvation and justice which I have promised to give through Christ, verse 5, will be more firm and lasting than heaven and earth; for it will be eternal and will stand forever: but the heavens and the earth shall pass away, if not in substance, certainly in quality, form, and their renewal. See what was said on chapter XXXIV, 4. So says St. Jerome. Therefore the salvation and justice of the world is temporal; but the salvation and justice of God is eternal. The latter, therefore, must be sought with the Apostles and Martyrs, the former neglected. For what will it profit you that all men, who will die tomorrow, should save and justify you, if God, the Lord of eternity, condemns you? The tyrants condemned the Apostles and Martyrs, they killed them for a brief time; but they shall rise again, and shall condemn their torturers and tyrants for eternity.
The Septuagint translates: 'for the heaven has been established like smoke.' This is, as St. Jerome explains: 'that all the firmness, strength, and might of the heavens is made equal to the most empty wind and to smoke that dissolves into the air, according to Ecclesiastes: Vanity of vanities, and all is vanity.' Such too are riches, pleasures, honors, pomp, and everything contained within the circuit of the heavens. How vain and foolish, then, are those who pursue these things and exchange them for eternal ones! Symmachus translates: οὐρανοί ἐλιώτονται, that is, 'the heavens shall melt and vanish like salt'; Aquila: οὐρανος μειωθήσεται, that is, 'the heaven shall be diminished to nothing' — not that it shall properly perish and be reduced to nothing, but that it shall be changed for the better, says St. Jerome, or that this its appearance and form shall be annihilated, and a new one, far more august and splendid, shall be given to it.
Verse 7
7. Hear Me (Christ speaks to His first faithful and Apostles), you who know what is just (in Hebrew, 'justice,' or that which I have taught you to be just and holy before God). My law is in their heart, — that is, in whose heart My law and doctrine is, as Vatablus and Forerius translate. This is a Hebraism: for the demonstrative pronoun 'their' is used in place of the relative 'whose.' DO NOT FEAR THE REPROACH OF MEN, — of the Scribes and Pharisees, of tyrants and other unbelievers, who will persecute you, mock you, scourge you, and kill you on account of My faith. Hence Tertullian, in book IV Against Marcion, chapter XIV, thinks Christ was alluding to this and saying the same thing when He said: 'Blessed shall you be when men shall hate you, and shall separate you, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice on that day and exult: for behold, your reward is great in heaven,' Luke VI, 22. For these words of Christ correspond to those of Isaiah as an antistrophe. Moreover, Tertullian reads and translates this passage of Isaiah thus from the Septuagint: 'Do not fear the disgrace from men, and be not diminished by their nullification,' that is, be not overcome, as others read. For this is the Greek ηττάσθαι. By 'nullification' or 'annulment,' he means the contempt by which one is made nothing and esteemed as nobody: 'What disgrace? What nullification? Which was to come on account of the Son of Man,' says Tertullian, book IV Against Marcion, chapter XIV.
Verse 8
8. FOR AS A GARMENT, — supply: of itself generates a worm and moth, which gnaw and consume it: so mortal men of themselves generate for themselves diseases and death, by which they perish: 'For all mortal things are condemned by mortality,' as Seneca says; and especially sinners and persecutors of the Church generate from themselves crimes which provoke upon themselves the wrath and destruction of God. See what was said on chapter L, 9. He alludes to the heavens, verse 6, as if to say: If the heavens, which are founded and cast like bronze, shall melt and waste away, how much more man, who is nothing but corruption and misery?
the Red Sea, on account of its depth; and 'mighty,' on account of its tides and waves. For it is a gulf or arm of the sea, where the sea, being narrowed, surges and rages more violently.
Verse 9
9. Arise, arise (Vatablus translates: 'awake, awake,' as from the sleep of rest, gentleness, and patience), put on strength, O arm of the Lord. — Forerius holds that these are the words of God to Himself, or to His own power, namely Christ, who is called both the power of God and the arm of the Lord in Scripture. More plainly, Sanchez considers them to be the words of Isaiah, or of the people awaiting and longing for the coming of Christ, that God through Him might with powerful arm defeat the demons, sin, and death, and free His faithful from them, and through the Apostles mightily subdue to Himself enemies, tyrants, and the whole world. The Septuagint adds 'Jerusalem'; for they translate: 'Arise, arise, O Jerusalem.' But this word is not in the Hebrew, Chaldean, or Latin, in which 'arise, arise, put on,' and all the following verbs refer to and look back to 'the arm of the Lord.'
Moreover, to 'put on strength' is to prepare and gird oneself for battle, to fight bravely in it and crush the enemies, Psalm XCII, 1: 'The Lord has put on strength and has girded Himself'; and Psalm XLIV, verse 4: 'Gird Your sword upon Your thigh, O most mighty.' He alludes to Cyrus, who was as it were the arm of the Lord in defeating the Babylonians: indeed St. Thomas and Hugo think this is the literal sense; but this is scarcely probable.
ARISE AS IN THE DAYS OF OLD, IN THE GENERATIONS OF AGES. — By 'the days of old,' or 'the generations of ages,' He means ancient times, namely the Egyptian era under Moses, between which and the present many centuries have passed. WAS IT NOT YOU, — namely, O 'arm of the Lord'! That the pronoun 'you' refers to this is clear from the feminine pronoun את at; for זרוע zeroa, that is, 'arm,' is likewise of the feminine gender. WHO STRUCK THE PROUD ONE, WHO WOUNDED THE DRAGON, — namely Pharaoh in the Red Sea, when the Hebrews crossed it dry-footed, as follows. For he is called a sea or river dragon, namely a whale, or rather a crocodile, because he dominated Egypt, which is encircled by the sea on one side and by the branches of the Nile on the other, and therefore he thought himself invincible and insuperable. For this is what He says about the Pharaoh of his own time, who was surnamed Ephree, Ezekiel chapter XXIX, 3: 'Behold, I am against you, O Pharaoh, king of Egypt, great dragon, who lie in the midst of your rivers.' So say St. Jerome, Cyril, and others. Mystically, the dragon is Satan, as I said on chapter XXVII, 1. So says Rupertus.
THE WATERS OF THE MIGHTY ABYSS. — He calls the Red Sea an 'abyss' on account of its depth; and 'mighty' on account of its tides and waves.
Verse 11
11. AND NOW THOSE WHO HAVE BEEN REDEEMED. — The comparative particle 'as' is understood in the Hebrew manner, as if to say: Just as God, under the leadership of Moses, freed the Hebrews from the hand of Pharaoh by drowning him, and led them with joy, jubilation, and dancing all the way into Judea, to Zion: so now through Christ He will redeem them — namely, the true Israelites — from the captivity and tyranny of the devil, that they may come into Zion, that is, the Church, and may rejoice and exult, here in an incipient way, but perfectly in heaven. For this is what follows:
EVERLASTING JOY SHALL BE UPON THEIR HEADS. — For this, as I have already said, is explained in Revelation VII, 16. It is a metaphor 'taken,' says Forerius, 'from women who carry enormous loads placed upon their heads: to which perhaps Paul also alluded when he spoke of the weight of glory.' Sanchez more aptly thinks it is taken from the crowns which victors in triumphs or those celebrating a feast, at a festival or wedding, place upon their heads. Moreover, by 'crowns' it is signified that these days will be days both of triumph and of festivity and celebration. For the blessed in heaven shall be crowned not with laurel, not with olive, not with the thyrsus; but with the unfading crown of glory, as St. Peter says, epistle I, chapter V, verse 4.
Again, 'head' is used for the whole person; for it is the principal part, in which the senses flourish, and it is the seat of joy and gladness, as well as of sorrow and sadness. Thirdly, the word 'upon their heads' signifies that this joy will not be human and earthly, but sublime, transcendent, and supernatural, namely heavenly and divine, flowing from the grace and consolation of God in this life; and in the future life flowing from the light of glory, the vision and enjoyment of God. In a similar manner, in chapter XI, 2 and chapter LXI, 1, the Spirit of the Lord and all His gifts are said to have 'rested upon' Christ. For the word 'upon' signifies that these gifts are supernatural and descend from heaven upon men, yet in such a way that they are imparted to them and dwell within them.
Finally, the word 'upon' signifies the encompassing extent, abundance, and greatness of the joy. For just as a crown encircles and encompasses the whole head, so this joy will encompass them. This is what the Psalmist says, Psalm XXIX, 12: 'You have torn my sackcloth and girded me with gladness.' It is therefore signified that the joy will be so great that man cannot contain it; but he will be bathed, immersed, and inebriated in it on every side. This is what Christ says: 'Enter into the joy of your Lord,' as if to say: The joy will be so great that you shall not so much contain it in yourself, as you shall enter into it: just as one invited to a wedding enters into the wedding hall, furnished and filled with delights, music, tapestries, and every delectable thing, so that he seems to enter into sheer joys.
THEY SHALL OBTAIN JOY AND GLADNESS. — He speaks of the joy that begins here but is consummated in heaven, as is clear from Revelation VII, 16. We read in the histories that some in this life were struck lifeless by the greatness of their joy: how great, then, shall be the joys of the Blessed, in which they will be awash and inebriated on every side? Indeed, the joy would split their hearts, they would burst from joy, if God did not sustain them beyond nature and preserve them in life. Thus Diagoras had three adolescent sons: one a boxer, another a pancratist, the third a wrestler; and he saw them all conquer and be crowned on the same day at Olympia. Moreover, when these three victorious sons embraced their father and placed their crowns upon his head, and the congratulating populace threw flowers upon him from every side, he, unable to contain himself and his joy, immediately in that very place and stadium, in the sight of the people and in the eyes and arms of his sons, breathed his last.
Similarly we read that, in the period when the army of the Roman people was slaughtered at Cannae, an aged mother, upon receiving the report of her son's death, was afflicted with extreme grief and sorrow; but that report was false, and the young man returned to the city from that battle not long after. The old woman, suddenly seeing her son, was overwhelmed and struck dead, as if by the collapse of unexpected joy falling upon her. So says Aulus Gellius, book III, chapter XV.
SORROW AND SIGHING SHALL FLEE AWAY. — Beautifully the Poet says: 'We are born in tears, with tears our life is drenched, And again we leave life amid tears. Death shall wipe away many tears of men, but all The tears of all the elect, God Himself shall wipe away.' To this St. John alludes, Revelation XXI, 4: 'Death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.' Because, as he said in verse 11: 'Everlasting joy shall be upon their heads.' Indeed, Christ here places upon the heads of His own His crown of thorns; in heaven He shall place one of gold and gems, as He truly showed and bestowed upon Blessed Catherine of Siena.
This joy the just begin here on earth, and it is the companion of their virtue, which leads them to heavenly and eternal joys. Seneca saw this dimly, writing to Lucilius: 'I do not want you,' he says, 'ever to lack joy; I want it to be born for you at home: it will be born, provided it be within yourself. Other delights do not fill the breast but merely smooth the brow: they are superficial, unless perhaps you judge that the one who laughs truly rejoices: the spirit must be eager, confident, and above all things upright.'
Verse 12
12. I, I Myself shall comfort you. — Consider how great, how vast, and how firm is the consolation that proceeds from so great a Comforter, as a gift worthy of so great a Prince. Wherefore: 'Who are you that you should fear mortal man?' In Hebrew, from אנוש enos, that is, man who is wretched, miserable, condemned to death. He rebukes lukewarm and timid Christians, who were about to waver in the faith or to defect from it out of fear of the Jews, the Emperors, or other persecutors or mockers. So say St. Jerome and Cyril. Hence the Hebrew is in the feminine gender, מיאת ותיראי mi at vattirei, as if to say: What are you, O woman,
that you should fear? For to fear, amid so great the help and consolation of God, especially a hay-like enemy who will perish like hay, is the mark of a timid and feminine disposition; for you should have said: 'If God is for us, who is against us?'
Verse 13
13. And you have forgotten the Lord your maker (He gives the reason for the fear, as if to say: You fear persecutors like a woman because you are forgetful of God, your most powerful protector, who created, established, and sustains the heavens and the earth. For seeing the furious face of the persecutor and oppressor, you were afraid; but see how brief is the fury, how quickly it disappears). WHERE NOW IS THE FURY OF THE OPPRESSOR? — As if to say: Just as the fury of Pharaoh pursuing the Hebrews was swallowed by the sea: so also the fury of those who persecute you, with God as avenger, shall soon be swallowed up and vanish.
Verse 14
14. HE SHALL COME QUICKLY, STRIDING FORTH TO OPEN. — The Hebrews, St. Thomas, and Hugo take this as referring to the liberation of the Jews from the Babylonian captivity. But others generally take it as referring to the help and assistance of Christ, who frees, protects, sustains, and nourishes His own in persecution, as if to say: The arm of the Lord, that is, Christ the mighty warrior, shall come quickly, striding and trampling your adversaries, to open the prisons and lead you out, already condemned to death, as He did for St. Peter, Acts XII, 11.
Again, 'he shall not kill,' that is, He will not allow tyrants to kill the faithful unto total destruction; rather, through the martyrdoms of a few, He will cause more to spring up. Hence in Hebrew it is ולא ימות lo iamut, that is, 'he shall not die,' namely, the faithful person. Our translator (the Vulgate) read מית lo iamit, that is, 'he shall not slay, he shall not kill.'
NOR SHALL HIS BREAD FAIL. — Even in the most extreme famine, God will be present and will provide provisions for His own, both bodily and especially spiritual. This is what Paul, speaking from experience, said: 'We are hard pressed, but not destitute,' II Corinthians IV, 8. Thus God has often done and still does for the faithful, and wondrously comes to their aid on the razor's edge: so that when they seem to be shut up in the deepest and most eternal prison, He suddenly brings them freedom; when they seem to be on the threshold of death and to be led to the cross, He saves them and restores their life; when they seem about to die of famine, He abundantly sends them food, as Daniel, chapter XIV, in the lions' den was sent food through Habakkuk carried by an Angel.
Moreover, Forerius takes this passage in the sense that God will so change the minds of the persecutors that they themselves will release and set free the Christians whom they had imprisoned; will acquit those whom they had condemned to death; and will nourish and feed those whom they had been tormenting with hunger. For he himself translates thus: 'He who was rolling about (tormenting the faithful) hastened to open, and the faithful shall not die to the pit, and his bread shall not fail.'
For 'striding' the Hebrew is צעה tsoe, which Pagninus and R. Abraham translate as 'bound'; Vatablus, 'running about'; Forerius, 'rolling'; R. David, 'captive'; Symmachus, however, translates it as 'hell.' For he translates thus: 'Quickly hell shall be opened, and he shall not die in corruption,' as if to say: Christ dying shall open the limbo of the fathers, and shall lead out those bound, both in limbo and in purgatory, and in death His flesh shall not be corrupted. For this is what is said, Psalm XV, 10: 'Nor shall You allow Your Holy One to see corruption.' So says St. Jerome.
Verse 15
15. BUT I AM THE LORD — as if to say: Why do you fear, when you have Me as defender? I, who when I will, stir up the sea, can much more stir up men and your enemies, as I stirred up the Midianites in the time of Gideon, Judges VII; and I am the Lord of hosts, who, namely, when it pleases Me, lead into battle the heavens, stars, elements, lightnings, thunders, hailstorms, tempests, and innumerable legions of Angels.
Verse 16
16. I have put My words in your mouth. — St. Thomas and Hugo think these are the words of God to Isaiah, or, as the Chaldean has it, to the Prophets. Secondly, Cyril, Procopius, and Sanchez hold that He spoke these words to the Apostles and apostolic men. Thirdly and most plainly, St. Jerome, Forerius, Adamus, and others generally hold that these are the words of God the Father to Christ the Son: for the Father addressed the Son with the same words in chapter XLIX, 2. And it is Christ who founded the Church, as follows.
that is to say, Christ dying shall open the limbo of the fathers, and shall lead out those bound, both in limbo and in purgatory, and in death His flesh shall not be corrupted. For this is what is said, Psalm XV, 10: 'Nor shall You allow Your Holy One to see corruption.' So says St. Jerome.
Moreover, under Christ He includes the faithful and Apostles of Christ; for He continues to strengthen and confirm these, who were timid and fearful of the persecutions of the Jews and tyrants, as I said on verses 7 and 12, saying that He will be present to them and will give them both wisdom and eloquence, with which to respond prudently and steadfastly to persecutors; and strength and fortitude, with which to receive and sustain their attacks and blows. And so God here turns from the faithful, as from His subjects, and redirects His speech to the head, namely to Christ, and in Him addresses and consoles the faithful; just as a king turns from his soldiers to the captain, and in addressing and encouraging him, addresses and encourages the soldiers through him, as if to say: Do not fear, O faithful, O Apostles, the threats and terrors of enemies; behold, I have given you Christ as your head and leader. I, O Christ, have put My words in Your mouth, so that You in turn may put them in the mouths of Your Apostles and faithful. Likewise, I have protected You in the shadow of My hand, so that You in turn may protect them under the shadow of Your hand. For the Apostles could, with Moses in Exodus IV, have objected two obstacles to the Gospel: first, their own ignorance and inarticulation — this He removes by saying: 'I have put My words in your mouth'; second, the strength and fury of persecutors — this He removes by saying: 'In the shadow of My hand I have protected you.'
This is what Christ says, Matthew X, 19: 'Do not be anxious about how or what you shall speak: for it shall be given to you in that hour what you shall speak; for it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you.' By these words, therefore, Christ, the Apostles, and their followers are instituted and, as it were, consecrated as heralds of God, and God claims their mouth for Himself, so that through it, as through His instrument, He may speak. Thus St. Gregory relates, in book I of the Dialogues, chapter IV, that by these very words the Abbot St. Equitius was appointed a preacher by an angel at God's command. For when Felix, a nobleman, asked him: 'You who do not have Holy Orders, and have not received permission to preach from the Roman Pontiff, under whom you live — how do you presume to preach?' Equitius, compelled to answer, replied: 'The things you say to me, I too ponder with myself; but one night a handsome young man appeared to me in a vision, and placed upon my tongue a medicinal instrument, that is, a lancet, saying: Behold, I have put My words in your mouth; go forth to preach. And from that day, even when I wish to, I cannot be silent about God.' St. Gregory adds: 'So great a fervor for gathering souls for God had inflamed him, that he presided over monasteries only insofar as he went about everywhere through churches, through camps, through villages, and even through the homes of individual faithful, stirring up the hearts of his hearers to the love of the heavenly homeland.' Grant, O Lord, to Your Church many Equitiuses.
THAT YOU MAY PLANT THE HEAVENS AND FOUND THE EARTH, — that is, that You may create and establish a new spiritual world, namely the Church and the kingdom of God, in which the faithful shall lead a heavenly life, and like the earth shall be firm and grounded in faith, hope, and charity. So say St. Jerome, Haymo, Forerius, Dionysius, Adamus, and others. Some, not improperly, take 'heavens' to mean the Apostles: for just as the heavens bring light, so the Apostles brought the light of the Gospel to the world. By 'earth,' namely the new earth, they understand the common people, who in the earthly Church, steadfastly receiving this light and forgetting their own heaviness, are borne up to heaven, and say with Paul: 'Our citizenship is in heaven.' Wherefore some, supplying the word beth, that is, 'in,' translate: 'that you may plant the heavens and establish them on earth.' For through the heavenly life that the Saints lead, both Angels and the blessed descend to men, and pious men ascend to the blessed. Hence St. John, Revelation XXI, 1, saw the Church and the faithful as a new Jerusalem descending from heaven.
Morally, the Saints are heaven: first, because they have their heart and mind directed upward. Secondly, because they are engraved with the grace of God and with every virtue, especially patience in tribulations. Thirdly, because they are the temple and throne of God; hence St. Augustine on Psalm CXXII: 'God dwells in heaven,' he says, 'and the heaven of God is all just and holy souls: for even the Apostles, though they were on earth in the flesh, were heaven; because God, seated in them, walked through the whole world, and Christ dwelt in them through faith, as the Apostle says: That Christ may dwell through faith in your hearts.'
Psalm CII. The Church therefore has her own heavens — men who are spiritual, conspicuous in life and repute, pure in faith, firm in hope, broad in charity, lifted up in contemplation. And these, raining down the saving rain of the word, thunder with rebukes and flash with miracles,' etc.
Fifthly, because, as St. Augustine says in book II Against Julian: 'Since we possess the body from the earth and the spirit from heaven, we ourselves are earth and heaven; and in both, that is, in body and spirit, we pray that the will of God may be done.' Hence, writing on Psalm XCVI: 'You,' he says, 'if you will, shall be heaven: purge the earth from your heart. If you have no earthly desires, and have not answered in vain that your heart is lifted up, you shall be heaven: you carry the flesh, yet in heart you are already heaven.'
Sixthly, 'heaven' (cœlum), according to Varro in book V of On the Latin Language, is so called because it is 'engraved' (cælatum) with stars, or because it is κοῖλον, that is, 'hollow'; or, as Isidore says, because it conceals and hides the things above; or, as Rupertus in Genesis, book I, chapter XXIX, from 'beholding' (cernendo), because it is visible to all and seen everywhere; just as Plato in the Cratylus holds that heaven is called in Greek from ἀπὸ τοῦ ὁρᾶν τὰ ἄνω, that is, 'from beholding the things above'; or, as Aristotle (or whoever the author is) in the book On the World, from ὅρος, because it is the boundary of the things above. Hence, combining both, Philo in the book On the Creation of the World says: 'Heaven is called οὐρανός, either because it is the ὅρος, that is, the boundary of all things; or because it was the first ὁρατόν, that is, visible thing, to be made.' In the same way, the Saint is 'hollow,' that is, completely rounded and well-formed: he is conspicuous to all through modesty, but hidden through devotion and contemplation. He is likewise the boundary and end of all things: for God created the world for the sake of the Saints and the Elect. Hence St. Gregory, book XXX of the Morals, XII: 'Heaven,' he says, 'is the name of the Church of the elect, which, while it strives for the sublime interior things through the elevation of contemplation, suppresses the tumults of thoughts rising from below, and makes within itself a certain silence for God.' The same author, in homily 14 on Ezekiel: 'Heaven is the soul of the just, as the Lord says through the Prophet: Heaven is My throne,' Psalm CII. The same author, in homily 30 on the Gospels: 'The ornaments of the heavens,' he says, 'are the virtues of those who preach. Hence it is written: By the word of the Lord the heavens were established, and by the breath of His mouth all their power; because they would not have presumed to stand against the powers of this world, had not the strength of the Holy Spirit made them firm,' etc.
Seventhly, in the sky there is the sun, moon, and stars; so in the soul of the just, the sun is the intellect, the moon is faith, and the stars are the virtues, says St. Bernard, sermon 27 on the Song of Songs, which is entirely on this subject: 'Just as the stars,' he says, 'shine at night and are hidden by day, so true virtue, which often does not appear in prosperity, stands out in adversity: therefore virtue is a star, and the man of virtues is heaven.' Rightly, then, the bride of Christ says: 'I am beautiful like the curtains of Solomon,' that is, like heaven: for God stretched out 'heaven like a curtain,'
Eighthly, because the just person, through heavenly conduct, begins the heavenly beatitude, and thus begins to be heaven. Hear St. Chrysostom, homily 16 on the Epistle to the Hebrews: 'Let us make our soul heaven,' he says. 'First, heaven is bright and festive, for it does not turn black in winter: for it is not heaven itself that changes its face, but the clouds that gather and cover it'; in the same way, the just person is serene and unperturbed. Secondly, 'heaven has the sun; we too have the Sun of Justice. And I see that it is possible for us to become even better than heaven; in what way? When we possess the Lord of the sun.' Thirdly, 'heaven is everywhere clean and without stain, it is not changed in winter nor at night; accordingly, let us too not suffer this either in tribulations or in the wiles of the devil, but let us remain spotless and clean.' Fourthly, 'heaven is high and far distant from the earth; let us do this too: let us separate ourselves from the earth and be raised to that height.' Fifthly, 'heaven is above, and is consumed neither by showers nor by rains (for Olympus rises above the clouds), nor by anything; this too we shall be able to do, if we will.' Sixthly, 'heaven is indeed thought to suffer, but it itself suffers nothing; so too let us, even if we are thought to suffer, not really suffer, if we sit on high with Paul and the Saints, who, loftier than heaven, reached the Lord Himself. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation? Or distress? Or persecution? Or famine?' etc.
AND YOU SHALL SAY (You, O Christ) TO ZION (to the Church): YOU ARE MY PEOPLE. — For all the faithful are the people of Christ, and hence are called Christians.
Verse 17
17. ARISE, O JERUSALEM. — First, the Hebrews, St. Thomas, Hugo, and Sanchez take this as referring to Jerusalem, that is, the people of Jerusalem held captive in Babylon, and they hold that freedom and a return to their homeland, as well as the rebuilding of Jerusalem and the temple, are here promised to them; and therefore Jerusalem is stirred to cheerfulness and joy, and admonished to henceforth avoid the former sins on account of which she was handed over to enemies. For the Prophet seems to return, as is his custom, to the Jews of his own age: for all that follows to the end of the chapter properly applies to them; yet under these he understands Christians as the antitypes.
Hence secondly, St. Jerome, Cyril, Haymo, Dionysius, Forerius, Adamus, Vatablus, and generally others, by 'Jerusalem' understand the primitive Church, which arose and was gathered in Jerusalem: for He has treated of it from the beginning of the chapter until now, and consoles and wipes away her sorrow conceived from the fewness of the faithful, with the promise both of His protection and of restoration and numerous offspring. But since in the city of Jerusalem some believed in Christ while others, and more numerous, did not; hence first He describes the slaughter of the unbelievers by the Romans; then at verse 22 He passes to the believers and consoles the true Jerusalem, that is, the Church, as is clearly evident from the following chapter, verses 2 and 7. For when the Jews were nearly wiped out by Titus, and their republic and Synagogue were utterly abolished, then suddenly the Church gathered from the Jews began to flourish and raised its head. This is what He says: 'Arise, arise, stand up.' For this was the restoration of Jerusalem and Zion, not bodily but spiritual: for He passes from the Jerusalem that did not believe and was destroyed, to that which believed in Christ and was growing — that is, from the Jewish to the Christian Jerusalem. For just as the same people, for example the Roman, was once pagan and is now Christian, so the same Jerusalem was once Jewish and is now Christian, especially because this Christian one originally began and was gathered from Jews. See chapter VII. Add that this also pertains to the consolation of Jerusalem, that is, of the Jews still practicing Judaism: because they are to be grafted into the Church in their time, as many have been grafted in, and are grafted in yearly; indeed all and each individually can be grafted in on any day, if they wish, and thus enjoy this promised consolation.
Finally, others by the devastation of Jerusalem understand the persecutions which the primitive Church suffered from tyrants. But this seems forced. For these cannot be called the cup of fury, full of the indignation of the Lord, desolation, destruction, etc., which follow, since they were rather her glory and triumphs.
YOU WHO HAVE DRUNK FROM THE HAND OF THE LORD (proffered and received) THE CUP OF HIS WRATH. — The 'cup' signifies the lot of each person, whether sad or joyful, measured out and assigned to each by God according to their merits, or according to the will of God. It is a metaphor from banquets, in which formerly the master of the feast, who was called the 'toastmaster,' mixed and tempered a cup for each guest. The 'cup of wrath,' therefore, is the measure of punishment or vengeance decreed and assigned by an angry God to Jerusalem for her offenses. See what was said on Jeremiah XXV, 15.
TO THE VERY DREGS OF THE CUP OF DROWSINESS. — In Hebrew it is תרעלה tarela, which our translator (the Vulgate) renders 'of drowsiness,' that is, as R. Solomon says, 'of stupor,' meaning that which induces a lethal stupor or drowsiness; the Chaldean has 'of cursing'; the Septuagint, 'of fury'; Symmachus and Theodotion, 'of rending'; R. David, 'of deadly poison'; R. Jonah, 'of confusion and contrition'; R. Emmanuel, 'of weeping and contrition'; Arias Montanus, 'of disturbance and nausea'; but best of all, Forerius, Vatablus, and others, 'of trembling'; for רעל raal signifies 'to tremble'; and it is called the 'cup of trembling' because it induces trembling and shaking of the limbs, and thence a lethal stupor, such as poisoned and cold potions cause. He is not, therefore, speaking of a cup of spiced and aromatic wine, which was given to those about to be executed to numb their senses so they would not feel the torment, or at least would feel it less: for this in itself was more of a consolation than a pain to the condemned.
Symbolically, however, and tropologically, John Frederick Matenesius in the Syntagma that was written against him rightly compares this cup of drowsiness to a soporific cup and draught, which the Germans call Schlaftrunk (a sleep-drink): for the soporific cup induces and provokes this drowsiness.
YOU HAVE DRAINED IT TO THE LEES. — Therefore you drank the whole cask, and you drank not so much from a cup as from a barrel, and you drained it dry: this signifies the immense and extreme vengeance, disaster, and calamity of Jerusalem, which occurred both in the Babylonian captivity and even more in the Roman destruction.
Verse 18
18. THERE IS NONE TO SUPPORT HER. — Aged parents are accustomed to be supported by their children and to lean upon them, as happened with P. Cornelius, who was therefore called Scipio, because his father while walking would lean upon him as upon a staff (scipio); hence he gave the name Scipio to the family and transmitted it to his descendants. But the opposite happened to Jerusalem: for her seditious sons destroyed one another, and afflicted the city more gravely than the enemies did during the siege of Titus, as Josephus attests.
Verse 19
19. TWO THINGS HAVE BEFALLEN YOU. — He names four scourges, for he adds: 'Desolation, and destruction, and famine, and the sword.' How then does he say they are two? Sanchez responds: first, they are two because one, namely famine, befell the Jews during the siege; the other after the siege, when the city was destroyed, namely desolation, destruction, and the sword. Secondly, he responds that they are two because one was the scourge of the city, namely desolation and destruction; the other of the citizens, namely famine and the sword. So also Forerius says: 'Desolation and destruction are one and the same scourge; the other is famine and the sword, for these are counted as one.' Thirdly, Vatablus says: 'The two latter are contained in the two former.' Therefore the first scourge is desolation, or famine; the second is destruction, or the sword. The second interpretation seems most fitting to the context.
WHO SHALL GRIEVE FOR YOU? — As if to say: So great is your affliction that both you and those who behold you are struck dumb, and in their stupor neither can they console you, nor can you receive any consolation from them: for intense pain induces a numbness in the senses and mind, so that they feel and comprehend nothing, however joyful and delightful it may be.
SHALL COMFORT. — In Hebrew it reads אנחם anachem, that is, 'I shall comfort'; but it seems it should be read ינחמו ienachem, that is, 'he shall comfort': for thus the Septuagint also translates it.
Fourthly, because like the sky they rain, thunder, and flash lightning. Hear St. Augustine on Psalm CI, sermon 2: 'By heaven,' he says, 'we not improperly understand the Saints of God, in whom God, dwelling, is present with His precepts, has flashed with miracles, and has rained upon the earth with the wisdom of truth: for the heavens declared the glory of God.' The same author, in sermon 3 on the Apostles: 'The heavens are the Saints who declare the glory of God, suspended from the earth, carrying God, thundering in their precepts, flashing with wisdom.'
Verse 20
20. YOUR SONS HAVE BEEN CAST DOWN. — They lie prostrate in the streets and crossroads, either pierced by the sword, or rather, wasting away with famine, emaciation, and disease unto death: for this is the meaning of the Hebrew עלף alaph. This is the same as what Jeremiah says, Lamentations IV, 5: 'Those who were nourished in scarlet have embraced dung': especially because the Chaldean enemies, just as the Romans, had burned or occupied the houses, so that the citizens were forced to sleep in the streets. LIKE A SNARED ORYX. — The 'oryx' is a one-horned and cloven-hoofed animal, says Aristotle, book II of the History of Animals, chapter 1, and book III of the Parts of Animals, chapter II; others hold it to be an auroch, or wild bull. So say Gesner and Forerius. But Procopius holds it to be a bird; yet this is scarcely probable. Better is Pliny, book II, XI, who says the oryx is a wild beast of Egypt, which has a cloven hoof and at the rising of the Dog Star stands facing it, and by sneezing seems to worship it. The same author, book VIII, chapter LIII: 'There are also oryxes,' he says, 'called \"alone\" by some, clothed with hair growing the wrong way, turned toward the head.' And Oppian, Cynegetica, book II, says it is a beast of milky color, having horns harder than bronze, iron, and flint, similar to sword-points, and venomous; trusting in these, the beast is bold and fierce, fearing neither hunters nor dogs, nor even bulls, boars, leopards, lions, or bears; but when it sees them charging, it stands unmoved and with head lowered pierces the belly of the attacker with its slanting horns. Hence Callixenes of Rhodes, as recorded by Athenaeus, narrates as something wonderful and unheard of that Ptolemy Philadelphus in the Alexandrian procession yoked oryxes as draft animals. So says Delrio, adage 789. Wherefore Martial, book XIII, depicts the oryx thus: 'Not the least prey among the morning's wild beasts Is the fierce oryx: it is established that he costs me the death of my hounds.'
The meaning is, as if to say: Just as the oryx, a wild animal, fighting against dogs and hunters, when exhausted and finally conquered, is captured and ensnared, and thus ensnared and entangled, soon to be killed, is put on display for all to see in the public square; so too the citizens of Jerusalem, exhausted, broken, worn out by afflictions, and surrounded on every side by the enemy and as if ensnared, lay in the streets, about to die or be slaughtered, and were a laughingstock to enemies and passers-by. He alludes to Titus, who so suddenly besieged and encircled Jerusalem, and all its roads, when all the Jews had gathered for Passover, that it was like a miracle that so great a city could be enclosed with a rampart and wall so quickly: for then the Jews were like an oryx ensnared by him. So says Josephus, book VI of the Jewish War, penultimate chapter. And this was the reason why many, pallid from famine and stench on account of such a great multitude of people, lay lifeless in the streets.
The Septuagint, instead of 'like a snared oryx,' translates 'like half-cooked beet,' that is, half-roasted, wilting and withering. So too the Syriac and Arabic: 'like a beet failing from dryness, with dry leaves unable to raise or hold themselves upright' — which is the image of a person failing and dying. Hence Virgil compares the dying Euryalus to a wilting flower and poppy, in Aeneid book IX: 'As when a crimson flower, cut by the plow, Languishes dying; or poppies with weary neck Have drooped their heads, when weighed down perchance by rain.' This is especially true of the beet, which, even though it flourishes and blooms, is limp, tasteless, and insipid. Hence in common speech it was once said λαχανίζων, that is, 'to beet-ize,' as Augustus Caesar translated it, according to Suetonius, meaning to languish, or to be tasteless or insipid; hence Catullus: 'More languid than a drooping little sickle to the tender beet'; and Martial: 'So that the tasteless beets at the workmen's lunches may have flavor, Oh how often the cook will demand wine and pepper!'
Hence Diogenes the Cynic, as Laertius attests, when certain young men called him a dog and said they would take care not to be bitten by him, told them to be of good cheer, for a dog does not eat beets — thus noting their softness. Such were the Jews during the siege: soft, languid, dull, and stupid, inasmuch as they were attacking one another, as Josephus attests, who also in book V of the Jewish War, chapter XLII, depicts them as drained of strength, dried out, gaping with hunger, and breathing their last.
Mystically, such 'beets' are soft and enervated men, who, like women, yield to temptations. Wherefore St. Cyril and Basil in the Ascetical Constitutions, chapter IV, forbid Religious from weakening and draining the body's strength through fasting and penances, lest they become like vegetables dried out and parched by the heat, unable to bear the common labors or to resist difficulties and temptations.
The Chaldean, instead of 'like a snared oryx,' translates 'like a broken flask': for the Jews were devastated like the fragments of a shattered bottle, as Isaiah says, chapter XXX, verse 14.
FULL OF THE INDIGNATION OF THE LORD. — He calls 'indignation' or 'rebuke,' by metonymy, the punishments and torments flowing and raining down from God's indignation upon sinners.
Verse 21
21. DRUNK, BUT NOT WITH WINE, — but from the wrath and indignation of God, namely from the vengeance, punishments, sorrows, and anguish sent upon you by God the avenger, that is, from having drunk the cup of the Lord's fury, of which the following speaks; hence St. Jerome says this signifies being drunk with the disturbances of the soul: for these make a person bereft of counsel and, as it were, out of his mind, and spin and whirl him about like a drunkard, so that he is tossed, tormented, and harassed on every side by cares and evils. In a different and opposite sense, Demosthenes in his first oration reproaches Philip for having become as if drunk and insane from the glory and success of his exploits; and of Cleopatra the Poet said: 'Drunk on sweet fortune.'
have embraced dung': especially because the Chaldean enemies, as well as the Romans, had burned or occupied the houses, so that the citizens were forced to sleep in the streets.
Verse 22
22. WHO WILL FIGHT FOR HIS PEOPLE, — who has often vindicated them against enemies, and is accustomed to free them from captivity: for the future tense signifies the past and present in the prophetic manner. BEHOLD, I HAVE TAKEN FROM YOUR HAND THE CUP OF DROWSINESS, ETC. — The Septuagint, instead of 'of drowsiness,' translates 'of ruin'; Symmachus and Theodotion, 'of rending and commotion'; St. Cyril, 'of incurable calamity and intolerable misfortune.' YOU SHALL DRINK IT NO MORE. — This was true of the Babylonian captivity: because the Jews were never again devastated by the Babylonians, nor by others for a long time, that is, for several centuries. For 'no more' often signifies not eternity, but a great length, namely an immemorial time that extends beyond the life and memory of man. More truly was this fulfilled in the Roman devastation and in the spiritual Zion, that is, the Church: for this shall never be utterly devastated or destroyed.
Verse 23
23. AND I WILL PUT IT INTO THE HAND OF THOSE WHO HAVE HUMBLED YOU. — That is, I will give it to your enemies to drink: both to the Chaldeans, for they too will be devastated by Cyrus; and to the Romans, for soon after the destruction of Jerusalem its authors, all the Flavians, perished miserably. For Flavius Vespasian the father died immediately in the same year; Titus within two years was slain by a most cruel death, paying the penalty; Domitian, murdered by his own, was so hated that the Poet sings of him: 'When the last Flavian was ruling the world, And Rome was serving a bald Nero.' Thus from St. Jerome and Procopius, Leo Castrius says.
Again, the enemies of Jerusalem, that is, of the Church, were Nero, Decius, Diocletian, Aurelian, Licinius, etc., and how miserably they perished is known to all.
AND THEY SAID TO YOUR SOUL (that is, to you): BOW DOWN. — For it is customary for the vanquished to be trampled by the victors and to bow their back to them, so that they may sit upon them as upon a footstool, or stand upon them when mounting a horse. Thus Aurelian was forced to bow before Shapur, king of the Persians; and Bayezid, king of the Turks, before Tamerlane. To this custom the Psalmist alluded, Psalm CIX, verse 1: 'Until I make your enemies your footstool.'
Mystically, this humiliation and bowing down of the body signifies, by catachresis, the depression of the soul and of the whole person through vices and sins under the power of the devil, whose slave he becomes. So say St. Cyril, Forerius, Arias, and Jerome, who also adds: 'Something similar we read in the Gospel, that for eighteen years Satan had bent a woman, whom the Lord raised to her former upright state.' And of the same woman, St. Gregory, homily 31 on the Gospels: 'The soul stands upright,' he says, 'when it desires the things above and is in no way bent toward the things below. But when evil spirits see it standing in its uprightness, they cannot pass through it: for their passing through means scattering those impure desires. They say, therefore: Bow down, that we may pass over: because if the soul does not cast itself down toward desiring lower things, the perversity of those spirits in no way prevails against it, and they cannot pass through one whom they fear because she stands rigid against them in her attention to things above. We therefore give a way to evil spirits within us when we desire earthly things, when we bend ourselves toward seeking temporal things.
Let us therefore be ashamed to desire earthly things and to offer the backs of our minds to our adversaries as they climb over us.' O minds curved toward the earth and empty of heavenly things! O base souls! Hear the pagan Seneca, epistle 42: 'Just as,' he says, 'the rays of the sun touch the earth but are where they are sent from; so a great and sacred soul, sent down to this world that we might know divine things more closely, dwells indeed with us, but cleaves to its origin.' And epistle 8: 'Reflect that there is nothing admirable in you except the soul, to which, when it is great, nothing is great.' Therefore he is small who bends himself toward these lowest things. And epistle 65: 'The place that God holds in this world, the soul holds in man,' that is, let it stand erect, let it command and rule, and have all affections, desires, and human things tamed and subjected to it. For another tropological reading of this passage, concerning those who are envious of the needs of their brethren, see St. Bernard, sermon 1 To the Fathers in Chapter.
and insane; and of Cleopatra the Poet said: 'Drunk on sweet fortune.'
Aurelian was forced to bow before Shapur, king of the Persians; Bayezid, king of the Turks, before Tamerlane. To this custom the Psalmist alluded, Psalm CIX, verse 1: 'Until I make your enemies your footstool.'