Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
He rouses the primitive Church, small as it was, to praise and jubilation, promising her, who was formerly barren, a numerous and glorious offspring, because God will have mercy on her who was forsaken and rejected, and will again join her to Himself in marriage. Whence, in verse 8, He enters into a new and everlasting covenant with her, and confirms it with an oath, by which He promises both solid riches, consolation, splendor and glory, and asserts that He will found her upon sapphires and other gems, and that all her children shall be taught by the Lord and shall enjoy full peace. Third, in verse 14, He says that He will found her in justice, and will protect her from all calumny and fraud, as well as from force and the enemy.
He rouses the small primitive Church to praise and jubilation, promising her, who was formerly barren, a numerous and glorious offspring, because God will have mercy on her who was forsaken and rejected, and will again unite her to Himself in marriage. Whence, at verse 8, He enters a new and everlasting covenant with her, and confirms it with an oath, by which He promises solid riches, consolation, splendor, and glory, and declares that He will found her upon sapphires and other gems, and that all her children shall be taught by the Lord, and shall enjoy full peace. Third, at verse 14, He says that He will establish her in justice, and will protect her from all calumny and fraud, as well as from violence and enemies.
Vulgate Text: Isaiah 54:1-17
1. Give praise, O barren one, who does not bear: sing forth praise and rejoice, you who were not in labor: for many are the children of the desolate, more than of her who has a husband, says the Lord. 2. Enlarge the place of your tent, and stretch out the skins of your tabernacles; do not spare: lengthen your cords, and strengthen your stakes. 3. For you shall spread to the right and to the left: and your seed shall inherit the nations, and shall inhabit the desolate cities. 4. Fear not, for you shall not be confounded nor shall you blush: for you shall not be put to shame, because you shall forget the shame of your youth, and shall remember no more the reproach of your widowhood.
1. "Praise, O barren one, who did not bear; break forth into song and rejoice, you who did not travail: for many are the children of the desolate, more than of her who has a husband, says the Lord. 2. Enlarge the place of your tent, and let the curtains of your tabernacles be stretched out; spare not: lengthen your cords, and strengthen your stakes. 3. For you shall spread abroad to the right and to the left: and your seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and shall inhabit the desolate cities. 4. Fear not, for you shall not be confounded, nor shall you blush: for you shall not be put to shame, because you shall forget the confusion of your youth, and shall remember no more the reproach of your widowhood. 5. For He who made you shall rule over you: the Lord of hosts is His name; and your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, shall be called the God of all the earth. 6. For the Lord has called you as a woman forsaken and mourning in spirit, and as a wife cast off from her youth, says your God. 7. For a brief moment I forsook you, and with great mercies I will gather you. 8. In a moment of indignation I hid My face for a little while from you, and with everlasting mercy I have had compassion on you: says the Lord your Redeemer. 9. This is to Me as in the days of Noah, to whom I swore that I would no longer bring the waters of Noah upon the earth: so I have sworn not to be angry with you, and not to rebuke you. 10. For the mountains shall be moved, and the hills shall tremble: but My mercy shall not depart from you, and the covenant of My peace shall not be moved: says the Lord who has mercy on you. 11. O poor little one, tossed with tempest, without any comfort. Behold, I will lay your stones in order, and will found you upon sapphires, 12. and I will make your bulwarks of jasper: and your gates of graven stones, and all your borders of desirable stones: 13. All your children shall be taught of the Lord; and great shall be the peace of your children. 14. And you shall be founded in justice: depart far from oppression, for you shall not fear; and from terror, for it shall not come near you. 15. Behold, an inhabitant shall come, who was not with Me; the stranger who was formerly yours shall be joined to you. 16. Behold, I have created the smith who blows the coals in the fire, and brings forth an instrument for his work; and I have created the destroyer to destroy. 17. No weapon that is formed against you shall prosper: and every tongue that resists you in judgment, you shall condemn. This is the inheritance of the servants of the Lord, and their justice with Me, says the Lord."
Verse 1: 1. "Praise, O barren one, who does not bear." St. Thomas and Hugh take this as referring to the earthly Jerusalem, that...
1. "Praise, O barren one, who does not bear." St. Thomas and Hugh take this as referring to the earthly Jerusalem, that is, to the Jews captive in Babylon: for to them is promised a return, abundance of goods, and numerous offspring. The Jews after Christ promise themselves the same things from this passage at the coming of their Messiah. Second, the Chiliasts and Millenarians, whose founder was Papias, a disciple of St. John, take this as referring to the thousand years of happiness during which they believe the Saints will reign with Christ here on earth after the Day of Judgment, and will enjoy all its delights, as St. Jerome attests. Third, Forerius holds that this treats of the heavenly Jerusalem, from the Apostle in Galatians 4:26, where he says that the heavenly Jerusalem is our mother, whom St. John, Revelation 21:2, calls the new city descending from heaven, in which all things are heavenly — walls, houses, citizens, rites, laws, customs — just as the King Himself is heavenly, who descended from heaven and founded the kingdom of heaven on earth, and from earth and heaven made one kingdom. This is anagogically true, not literally, except insofar as the Church Militant is called by John in Revelation 21, and by others, the heavenly Jerusalem, for the reason already stated by Forerius.
Wherefore I say that, in the literal sense, Isaiah here addresses the Church of Christ, to be gathered both from the Jews and more especially from the Gentiles. For this Church was small at the beginning, and as it were barren in comparison with the Synagogue. Again, the Gentile world before Christ was barren, and deserted by God, by faith, grace, children, faithful ones, and saints; but through Christ, it was made fruitful with all these things more than the Synagogue, which had long had a husband, namely God. So the Apostle explains this passage in Galatians 4:27. See the commentary there.
Note: The Prophet here explains that long-lived seed born from the grain that was put to death, that is, from Christ crucified, which he treated of in the preceding chapter, verse 10. So St. Augustine, Book I of On the Harmony of the Gospels, chapter 13.
Beautifully, St. Ambrose, in his book On Virgins, says: "The holy Church is immaculate in intercourse, fruitful in childbearing; she is a virgin in chastity, a mother in offspring. She nourishes you as a virgin, not with the milk of the body, but with the milk of the Apostles. She is a virgin in her Sacraments and virtues; a mother in her peoples, whose fruitfulness Scripture attests, 'for many are the children of the desolate, more than of her who has a husband.' Ours has no husband; she has a Spouse. She has a Spouse of sound doctrine; by the Word, without any bending of modesty, she weds, as it were, the eternal Spouse."
"Rejoice, you who did not bear," that is to say, rejoice like a neighing mare, when she neighs to a stallion and to her foal, especially after gaining some victory. So St. Jerome. It is a catachresis. For the neighing of a mare signifies the joy, overflowing gladness, jubilation, and triumph of the Church.
These are also the fruits of Christ's passion and death flowing into the Church, as we said in the analysis of chapter 53; which indeed: First, she is roused to joy and to enlarging the assembly for receiving the Gentiles, 1-3; Second, she is brought back from the state of her former smallness and bereavement to a larger lot, as God recalls the one He had rejected, verses 4-6; Third, she is confirmed by an oath that the rejection will not be repeated, 7-10; Fourth, she is forewarned of stability and adornment through an abundance of charisms, of peace of conscience and integrity of reputation through the gifts of knowledge and justice, of growth and abundance through the conversion of the Gentiles who will come, 11-15; Fifth, she is instructed that the efforts of enemies, whether opposing by hand or tongue, will come to nothing, 16, 17.
"Many are the children of the desolate," that is to say, the Church shall give more children to God than the Synagogue. He alludes to Sarah and Hagar; for Sarah was the type of the Church, Hagar of the Synagogue. Sarah is called desolate because, when she saw there was no hope of offspring from herself, she substituted her handmaid Hagar for herself with her husband; whence, abstaining herself from conjugal union, as is clear from Genesis 15:3, she seemed to be deserted by him.
"Enlarge the place of your tent." St. Jerome notes that in the words "tent" and "tabernacle" there is an allusion to the tabernacle of Moses made at Sinai. For this, as a mobile temple of God, was a type of the Church and the temples of Christ. Second, he notes that the faithful dwelling in the earthly Church do not have a permanent home here, but live in it as guests and travelers, as in a tabernacle; and they tend toward the eternal home prepared in heaven. The whole Church therefore dwells here in tents, as a stranger and one passing through to heaven as its true home and dwelling.
"Spare not" labor or expense, but with all zeal and expenditure "lengthen your cords" (so that you may receive in your tabernacle the numerous offspring that will come to you, that is to say, so many faithful children will grow up for you that you must enlarge and extend the place and temples for gathering them, and build more). "Strengthen your stakes." Because you shall last until the end of the world, indeed for eternity. For these imperatives — make, strengthen — signify the future, namely that God will extend the Church through all nations and provinces, and will establish it in perpetuity, whereas He confined the Synagogue to Judea alone, and after a short time took it away and abolished it. For this is what Jeremiah says of it in Lamentations 2:6: "He has destroyed His tabernacle as if it were a garden; He has demolished His tent."
Verse 3: 3. "For to the right and to the left" (to the east and to the west, that is, in every direction through all regions of...
3. "For to the right and to the left" (to the east and to the west, that is, in every direction through all regions of the world) "you shall spread." In Hebrew tiphrotsi, that is, you shall break in, you shall break through, by the force, zeal, and multitude of your children, like soldiers who break into any regions of the enemy, even the most fortified, or like a seed, or a tree and root, for example a palm, which powerfully spreads and takes root in every direction, and therefore equally grows upward and spreads, and stands firm and immovable.
"And your seed" (your children, namely the Apostles and apostolic men, and other faithful) "shall inherit the Gentiles." It shall subdue and possess the Gentiles, firmly and securely like an inheritance. He alludes to what God promised Abraham in Genesis 22:17: "Your seed shall possess the gates of its enemies." For this carnal seed of Abraham was a type of this spiritual seed of Christ and the Church.
"And the desolate cities" — desolate of God, of faith, of law, of grace, and of salvation, such as all cities outside of Judea once were, and such as now exist in India, Japan, Mexico, etc., which we daily hear and rejoice are being more and more illuminated by the faith of Christ and increased with faithful ones — "shall be inhabited." Both because apostolic men shall plant houses, churches, and altars there; and because the inhabitants shall be converted by them and become Christians, the seed, that is, children, of the Church, that is to say, through the preaching of your children, O Church, you shall have children, that is, faithful Gentiles, in the desolate, that is, in the unbelieving cities. So Vatablus.
Verse 4: 4. "For you shall forget the confusion of your youth, and shall remember no more the reproach of your widowhood." The...
4. "For you shall forget the confusion of your youth, and shall remember no more the reproach of your widowhood." The Church consists of Jews and Gentiles. The youth of the Jews was at the time of Moses, under whom the Synagogue began and grew. The confusion was the worship of the golden calf and their other crimes both in Egypt and in the desert. The widowhood was in the Babylonian captivity, of which it is said in Lamentations 1:1: "She is become as a widow, the mistress of the Gentiles." The youth of the Gentiles, however, was the second age of the world, namely that which was shortly after Noah, indeed under Noah (whence he mentions him at verse 9), at the time of Abraham (for Noah saw Abraham), and thereafter. For in Noah God entered into a covenant with all the Gentiles (Genesis 9:9); but shortly after, the Gentiles fell away from God to idols, and from all of them God chose Abraham alone with his family as His own people. For Noah died when Abraham was fifty years old, and when the world was full of idolatry and impiety. Whence God called Abraham out of it to His worship, when Abraham was 75 years old. Therefore for "youth" the Hebrew is alumim, that is, "concealments," because alma means a young unmarried virgin, hidden at home from men. So too the unfaithful Gentile world, as if unmarried, hid itself from God and sought hiding places in which to cover and conceal its superstitions, filth, and crimes. Therefore the entire time of the Gentile world before Christ is called youth, or virginity and concealment, because it, in relation to God, the Spouse of the Church, was like a wandering and unmarried girl (for we call "youths" those who are not married, even if they are of advanced age), and because it hid and concealed itself in the darkness of unbelief and of shameful crimes.
Second, this same period is the time of the widowhood of the Gentiles. For the people of the Gentiles immediately in their youth, that is, immediately after their origin in Noah, became widowed, that is, without God, and fell away to idols and vices. If therefore you consider them as having been united to God in Noah their father, they became widowed; but if you consider them as having departed from Noah's faith, and as having become, as it were, a different people of paganism, they were as if an unmarried youth and virgin. From the rise of paganism, therefore, the Gentile world, or the people of the Gentiles, was a virgin. Moreover, he calls this time the reproach of widowhood, both because during it, on account of its crimes, the people of the Gentiles were deserted by God and left like a widow — whence at verse 8 he calls them a wife cast off, that is, divorced — and because they were barren of spiritual children, that is, of the faithful. For barrenness among the Jews and the Gentiles was a disgrace. Therefore the reproach of widowhood is the reproach of barrenness. The Prophet therefore signifies that Christ called to Himself the Gentile world that was so forsaken, and from its youth cast off by God and rejected, and united it to Himself as a spouse, and made it fruitful with a noble offspring. So that it, now happy, joyful, and glorious, entirely forgets its former barrenness and reproach. So Forerius, Sanchez, and others.
Verse 5: 5. "For He who made you shall rule over you; the Lord of hosts is His name." "Shall rule over you," that is, shall...
5. "For He who made you shall rule over you; the Lord of hosts is His name." "Shall rule over you," that is, shall marry you, shall unite you to Himself as a wife in marriage — He Himself who is the Lord of hosts and Lord of all the earth, which therefore He shall subject to you as well as to Himself; you, I say, who were unmarried, widowed, and forsaken. For the subject here is the marriage of God and Christ with the Church, and this is what the Hebrew baal signifies, namely both husband and lord; for a husband is, as it were, the lord of his wife. Whence Vatablus and Forerius translate: "For your husband shall be He who made you; the Lord of hosts is His name." So Sarah calls Abraham her husband "lord" in Genesis 18:12. Similarly St. Natalia, wife of St. Adrian the Martyr, called him lord, as is clear from his Life. For it is the law of nature, which God ordains for women in Genesis 3:16: "You shall be under the power of your husband, and he shall rule over you." Whence St. Augustine asserts, and is cited in Caput, at the end of CXXIII, Question V: "Women serve their husbands by the common law of nature." And the Apostle, in 1 Corinthians 11:3: "The head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God." And Aristotle, in Book II of the Economics, chapter 1: "A truly well-ordered woman should consider the customs of her husband to be the law of her life imposed on her by God." And Pittacus, one of the seven sages of Greece, said: "Rule your wife." Indeed, that the husband together with his relatives, among the ancient Romans, was the judge of his wife when she was accused of crimes against reputation or capital offenses, is shown by that law of Romulus in Suetonius, in Tiberius, chapter 15: "A wife convicted of adultery, let the husband and kinsmen put to death, as they will." Wherefore St. Ignatius writes to the Antiochians: "Let women honor their husbands, and not dare to call them by their proper name, but by the common title, saying 'my lord,' as Bathsheba calls David her husband 'lord,' and herself his handmaid" (3 Kings 1:17).
Verse 6: 6. "For as a woman forsaken." The word "for" gives the reason why in the preceding verse he said: "Your Redeemer, the...
6. "For as a woman forsaken." The word "for" gives the reason why in the preceding verse he said: "Your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel," that is, of Israel, meaning: God will redeem you, because you were like a woman forsaken and rejected, and therefore mourning, afflicted, and miserable; from this reproach and distress God will redeem and free you, taking you into marriage and as a companion of His bed; because He is as merciful as you are miserable — indeed, He is mercy itself. This is what St. Leo says in Sermon 2 On the Nativity: "God, almighty and merciful, whose nature is goodness, whose will is power, whose work is mercy, as soon as the malice of the devil poisoned us with its envious venom, predestined Christ to come in the flesh, who, born of a Virgin, would condemn the violator of the human race by an incorrupt birth," etc.
"A wife cast off from youth," that is, rejected: hence he called her a little before a young unmarried woman and a widow, because she was rejected as if she were unmarried and widowed; for although she had had a husband, yet having been immediately cast off by him, she ceased to have him, which is the same as if she had never had one. Whence she is called a virgin as well as a widow: a virgin, because she was barely joined to a husband; a widow, because she was soon afterwards rejected by him. This is what Paul says in Ephesians 2:12: "You were at that time without Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the testaments, having no hope of the promise, and without God in this world."
Verse 7: 7. "For a brief moment I forsook you, and with great mercies I will gather you." Note here that a period of two...
7. "For a brief moment I forsook you, and with great mercies I will gather you." Note here that a period of two thousand years, which extended from Abraham to Christ, during which the Gentile world was forsaken and rejected by God, is called a "brief moment"; because in comparison with eternity, during which it has since been joined to God and become His eternal wife, the former time is like a mere point, says St. Jerome. In vain therefore do the Jews object to Christ with the phrase "for a moment." For similarly, when they apply these words to their own Messiah, whom they have been vainly awaiting now for 1,600 years, and when we object to them with the phrase "for a moment," they reply that 1,600 years are a mere moment in comparison with eternity. And thus here they gouge out their own eyes.
Tropologically, St. Ambrose explains, that is to say: "For a brief moment in this life I, as it were, forsook you with trials, so that I might crown you with an eternal crown." Whence St. Peter seems to have alluded to this in his First Epistle, chapter 1, verse 6, when he says: "In which you shall greatly rejoice, if now you must be for a little time made sorrowful in various temptations;" and St. Paul, in 2 Corinthians 4:17: "That which is at present momentary and light of our tribulation works for us above measure exceedingly an eternal weight of glory." For these are the mercies of the Lord, as Isaiah here says, so great and so vast that they overwhelm all the past time of afflictions, so that it seems to have been like a mere point and moment. Whence immediately, explaining and emphasizing the same thing in other words, he adds:
Verse 8: 8. "In a moment of indignation I hid My face for a little while from you, and with everlasting mercy I have had...
8. "In a moment of indignation I hid My face for a little while from you, and with everlasting mercy I have had compassion on you." Note: The hiding or turning away of God's face in Scripture signifies and in reality brings about every evil, just as the shining forth or showing of His countenance brings every good. For just as when the sun is absent, or hides itself behind clouds, darkness covers everything (for the sun is the eye of the world, through which the whole earth sees); but when it returns and shows itself, all things appear bright, joyful, and vivid: so much more is this the case with God, who is the uncreated and immense sun of the world. The eclipse of this sun is caused by clouds, that is, our sins, which make a great and dark abyss between us and God. For He in Himself is light, sending forth perpetual rays, by which He "illuminates every man coming into this world." We therefore cover and ward off that light from ourselves by the cloud of our sins, and to dispel this cloud Christ descended to us: therefore, becoming man, He drove it away and brought it about that we live in light. Wherefore, "let us walk honestly as in the day," says Forerius.
For "mercy" the Hebrew is chesed, that is, piety — namely, that tender, kind, and beneficent affection by which parents naturally love their offspring, as their own flesh and blood. To this St. Paul alluded in Titus 3:4: "When the goodness and kindness of God our Savior appeared; not by the works of justice which we have done, but according to His mercy, He saved us." He calls this mercy "everlasting" because God will not change or revoke this affection, so as to reject the Church or substitute another for her, as He did with the Synagogue: but He will forever have, love, and protect the Church as His spouse. Whence there follows:
Verse 9: 9. "This is to Me as in the days of Noah," that is to say, this oath and covenant of mine, which through Christ I shall...
9. "This is to Me as in the days of Noah," that is to say, this oath and covenant of mine, which through Christ I shall establish with the Gentiles and with the Church, shall be firm and eternal, just as the covenant made with Noah about preventing future floods was firm and eternal. Our translator reads bime, that is, "in the days;" now they read kime, that is, "because the waters." Whence they translate: "the waters of Noah — this shall be to Me," that is to say, I seem to myself to be in the days of the waters of Noah, or my anger shall be like the flood that happened in Noah's time, says Vatablus. For just as the wrath of God overwhelmed the sins of the world under Noah with the flood, so too it destroyed and condemned all the Gentiles through Christ. Again, just as God swore to Noah that He would no longer destroy men by a flood, so He swore to Christ that He would no longer destroy the Church gathered from the Gentiles. He mentions Noah and the flood, first, because in Noah began the renewal both of the human race and of the Church, which God then espoused to Himself: but when it soon apostatized to idols and vices, He rejected it until the time of Christ, when He reconciled the rejected one to Himself and bound her with a new marriage. What therefore God began to do for the Church in Noah's time, He restored and perfected in Christ's time.
Second, because Noah, the restorer of the human race, was a type of Christ the Redeemer; the water of the flood, of Baptism; the ark, of the Church; the rainbow, of the cross of Christ. For this appeases God's wrath. So St. Justin, in the Dialogue Against Trypho; indeed St. Peter himself, in his First Epistle, chapter 3, verses 20 and 21. See the commentary on Genesis 9:13.
"That I may not be angry with you, and not rebuke you," that is, that in anger I may not destroy you, as I destroyed the world with the flood and the Jews with destruction. By wrath and rebuke, therefore, He means destruction or rejection: for otherwise God does become angry with the Church, when He punishes her, not to destroy but to purify her, that is to say: I shall bring it about that, just as the waters of Noah no longer covered and will not cover the earth, so neither shall the flood of wickedness (for this is what the flood signified) overwhelm it, nor shall the world fall back again to its former idols and vices; but Christ shall dry them up and remove them. The result will be that I shall no longer be angry with you, O Church, nor rebuke you, that is, by destroying you through a flood or devastation: you will indeed be tossed, like Noah's ark, by the waters, that is, by persecutions, but you will not be overwhelmed by them.
Verse 10: 10. "For the mountains shall be moved," that is to say, sooner shall the mountains be moved from their place than I...
10. "For the mountains shall be moved," that is to say, sooner shall the mountains be moved from their place than I shall cease to have mercy on you: or, even if the mountains are moved, yet I shall not be moved; I shall not change My resolution; the mercy which I promised you both here and in Jeremiah 31:31, I shall not revoke. So St. Jerome.
Verse 11: 11. "O poor little one, tossed with tempest." In Hebrew soura, horribly shaken, tossed, and cast down. For it is the...
11. "O poor little one, tossed with tempest." In Hebrew soura, horribly shaken, tossed, and cast down. For it is the Hophal form, which signifies a strong and effective suffering, corresponding to the effective action and tossing of the Hiphil. Such was the Church before Christ, deserted by God; but through Christ, from being poor she was made rich and splendid, from being shaken she was made solid, from being destitute of consolation, she abounded in it. For this is what he adds next:
"Behold, I will lay your stones in order." The Chaldean, Vatablus, Forerius, and others translate: "I will lay your stones with antimony," that is, like antimony, that is, like an adorned woman who paints her eyes with antimony — I will carve your stones and adorn you with them, says St. Jerome. For in Hebrew puch means the same as the Latin fucus, that is, antimony. For antimony is a dark mineral like marble, according to Dioscorides, Book V, chapter 59, that is to say: I will pave your floor with colored and gleaming marble, like antimony, or, as Forerius prefers, with antimony itself. Second, better, the Septuagint translates puch as "carbuncle," for this stone is of the color of antimony, so that puch is the same as its cognate nophech. Hence they translate: "I will prepare for you a carbuncle as your stone." Whence also the Rabbis translate: "I will make your stones rest upon a carbuncle," that is, I will lay beneath the stones of your building carbuncles and sapphires, meaning: your foundation shall be splendid and precious with carbuncles and sapphires. For we can refer both these stones and both verbs, namely "lay" and "found," to the foundations. Now Forerius by "foundations" understands pavements: for "foundation" is also used for that which is on the surface of the earth; and then according to the Septuagint, who translate "I will prepare" or "I will lay carbuncle as your stones," the sense will be: the stones with which I will pave your floor shall be carbuncles. For kings and princes customarily pave the floors of their chambers and houses with precious stone, such as marble; indeed Pliny, in Book 37, relates that Nero's chambers were decorated with pearls — but these were the excessive and unusual luxuries of Nero. Whence Martial, mocking someone similar, says: "And the onyx gleams, trodden under your foot." In a similar way in Rome we see the pavements of churches, such as St. Peter's, St. Paul's, St. Cecilia's, and very many others, paved with precious and gleaming marble, alabaster, Parian marble, etc. The Prophet therefore signifies that the Church will claim for herself these ornaments of kings — sapphires, jaspers, etc. — but in such a way that what kings wear on their fingers and necks as precious things, the Church will lay beneath herself as cheap and small, treading them underfoot. This sense agrees with the Latin, "I will lay."
But more plainly from the Hebrew marbits, that is, "I will make to rest or lie," you should take "foundation" in its proper sense: for in it other stones lie and rest. Take "foundation" therefore as that which stands above the ground, on which are placed several courses of cut and polished stones for elegance.
Note: Here and elsewhere the structure of the Church is described as that of a most beautiful and precious royal palace or basilica, so that its foundations are of carbuncles and sapphires; its bulwarks of jasper; its gates of carved stone; and the rest proportionately of beautiful and precious stones. All of which symbolically signify that the charisms of the Holy Spirit, the virtues, and the sacraments, which Christ will communicate to the Church and with which He will establish and build it, will be most beautiful, most precious, and most solid. It also signifies the Apostles, apostolic men, and illustrious Saints, who either founded, defended, propagated, raised up, and adorned the Church. For these were carbuncles through their charity; sapphires for their heavenly life; jaspers for the strength of their faith, etc. For these are the riches of the Church — spiritual rather than temporal — by which she surpasses all the riches of kings. Whence, alluding to this, St. Paul says in Ephesians 2:19: "You are fellow citizens with the saints and members of God's household, built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the chief cornerstone." For upon the Apostles, as upon carbuncles, sapphires, etc., other faithful and just people have been built, as stones, though less precious. And Christ said: "You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My Church." Hence also Zechariah, chapter 9, verse 16, according to the Septuagint, says: "Holy stones are rolled upon the earth." Indeed, St. John, in Revelation 21:19, declares that the foundations of the holy city, that is, the Church, are twelve precious stones, and he asserts that these denote the twelve Apostles. So Cyril, Procopius, and St. Jerome.
Hear St. Jerome: "The carbuncle which is prepared, or laid in order, seems to me to be the fiery word of doctrine, which, having put to flight the error of darkness, illuminates the hearts of believers. This is what one of the Seraphim took, grasped with tongs, to purify the lips of Isaiah, etc. Moreover, the sapphire, which is placed in the foundations, has the likeness of heaven and of the upper air: one who is such can say with Socrates the Aristophanic saying: 'I walk on air and look down upon the sun.' Or with the Apostle Paul: 'Our conversation is in heaven.' The Scripture of Ezekiel also records that the place where God's throne is has the likeness of a sapphire, and the glory of the Lord consists in this color, which bears the image of the super-celestial. But also the bulwarks of the Lord's city, that is, the fortifications of its walls, are built of jaspers: who are able to destroy and refute every height that raises itself against the knowledge of God, and to subject falsehood to truth. He therefore who is the strongest in debate, and fortified with the testimonies of the Holy Scriptures, that man is a bulwark of the Church. So the sapphire is one who dwells in mind in the heavens, and gleams with golden points, that is, with rays of charity, and who cannot be carved, that is, who is unbroken and unconquered. See what I said about the sapphire at Exodus chapter 24:10 and Exodus 28:18."
Finally, St. Cyril by the carbuncle understands Christ, because, he says, "whoever believes in Christ shall not be put to shame," which he proves and explains as follows: Since the faithful are greatly reddened by the blood of Christ, however much they may be assailed with reproaches and injuries, they can no longer blush with shame, so as to display confusion; because they have already put on through the imitation of Christ every blush of confusion — just as one who is by nature most ruddy can no longer blush further. This is pious, but mystical.
Verse 12: 12. "And I will make your bulwarks of jasper" (Symmachus alone translates "archedonium," says St. Jerome). Forerius...
12. "And I will make your bulwarks of jasper" (Symmachus alone translates "archedonium," says St. Jerome). Forerius translates: "And I will make your windows of jet-stone;" Vatablus: "I will make your windows of crystal." But the Septuagint translates as does our Vulgate. For the Hebrew scimschotaich, that is, "solaria" (sun-platforms), is derived from scemes, that is, "sun," and signifies not so much windows, which admit the rays of the sun, as circular bulwarks, lofty and gleaming with the rays of the sun, which are seen shining from afar, so that they appear to be, as it were, earthly suns — whence they are called "solaria." "Of jaspers," says St. Jerome, "there are many kinds; for one has the likeness of an emerald, which is found in the springs of the river Thermodon, and is called Grammatias, by which all phantasms are said to be driven away. Another is greener than the sea, and tinged as if with flowers; this is reported to be found on Mount Ida in Phrygia, and in its deepest caverns, etc. There is also another jasper, resembling snow and the foam of sea waves, and gently gleaming with a reddish tinge, as if mixed with blood. We have said this so that we may recognize all spiritual graces in the bulwarks of the Church; whoever possesses these drives away vain fears, and can say with the bride: 'My beloved is white and ruddy.'"
Symbolically, St. Jerome says: "Four rows of stones were woven into the Breastplate (Exodus 28:17). The first row had sardius, topaz, emerald; the second row had carbuncle, sapphire, jasper. In which it is to be noted that the second row of stones is also placed here; for we do not yet retain perfection, nor have we arrived at the first things."
"And your gates of graven stones." It is a hypallage, that is to say: I will set graven stones in your gates, or I will make your gates of graven stones. He correctly translates "graven," for this is the Hebrew ecdach. Theodotion translates profiti, that is, "sculpture;" Aquila, trypanismou, which word conveys the sense of pierced and engraved gems, says St. Jerome, in which images or emblems are incised. So the life of a priest ought to be polished and carved, so that in it the life of Christ and the Apostles may appear as if portrayed. For the priest is the gate of the Church.
But the Septuagint, Forerius, and others, instead of ecdach, read ecrach with cech, and translate it as "crystal;" for it is derived from the root carach, that is, "he made bald," and is called kerach, that is, "frost," because it strips the leaves from trees and, as it were, makes the grasses of the earth mourn. Hence kerach signifies crystal, which is transparent like ice, indeed is made from ice, or from congealed and frozen moisture, if we believe Pliny (Book 37, chapter 2), Seneca, and others, and even St. Jerome, who says: "In the most severe cold of the Alps, and in caves inaccessible to the sun, waters are said to solidify into crystal, and to be stone to the touch but water to the sight." By which it is shown that those who stand at the doors of the Church ought to be stained by no defilement, but should be of the purest faith, and say with the Prophet: "By Your commandments I have gained understanding." And to hear: "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." Crystal therefore signifies how much a priest ought to shine and be white with virtues — he who, as a gate, leads and admits others into the Church. Again, how humble and at the same time steadfast he ought to be, surpassing nature by grace. For crystal solidifies and hardens from water into stone. So too a priest must harden from his soft and fluid nature into the strength of the Spirit through grace.
"And all your borders" (the Septuagint translates, "your walls") "of desirable stones." In Hebrew, "of desire," that is, beautiful and precious, and therefore desirable. It is a hypallage, that is to say: I will place desirable stones on all your borders, meaning: I will build you everywhere from precious stones; there shall be no stone in you that is not desirable; wherever you turn, you shall tread upon precious things, and shall enjoy an abundance of all riches. So St. Jerome. These stones signify all the faithful and just, and their virtues and graces; and at the same time they suggest that at the boundaries of Christian cities and provinces, stone crosses, images, altars, chapels, and other insignia of the Christian faith are to be erected as markers, all the signs and markers of idols being abolished.
Wherefore, morally, St. Gregory, in Book XVIII of the Moralia, chapter 19, says: "God laid stones in order in the Church, because in her He distinguished holy souls by the diversity of their merits. He founded her upon sapphires — stones which bear in themselves the likeness of the color of the air — because the strength of the Church is solidified in souls that desire heavenly things. And since jasper is of green color, He set jasper as her bulwarks, because those who live by interior desires and wither not against the reprobate dryness of the age are set against enemies for the defense of the holy Church." He then adds about the gates: "Her gates He set in graven stones. For these are the gates of the Church, through whose life and doctrine the multitude of believers enters into her. Because they also excel in great works, and living demonstrate what they assert in speaking, they are called not plain, but graven stones. For in their lives right action is seen, as if what they have done is expressed in themselves. Where also, concluding the entire number of the Saints in a general collection, he added: 'All your borders of desirable stones,' namely, as he adds, 'all your children taught by the Lord.'"
Verse 13: 13. "All your children shall be taught of the Lord." Supply "I will place." The Teachers of the Church, like...
13. "All your children shall be taught of the Lord." Supply "I will place." The Teachers of the Church, like carbuncles, sapphires, jaspers, and graven stones, He placed in the foundation, bulwarks, and gates of the Church; now He describes their disciples, who are to be built upon them like desirable stones, and He says they shall be taught not only by them externally, but also internally by the Lord; so that their minds may be filled with wisdom, their wills with peace, and thus they may be enriched in all things with heavenly goods. So Christ explains in John 6:44. For when He had said: "No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him," He proves it by adding at verse 45: "It is written in the Prophets: And they shall all be taught of God" — in Hebrew limmude Yehovah, in Greek didaktoi tou Theou, that is, "taught by God." So often the translator takes verbal adjectives in -bilis as passive participles: as incredibilis for incredulus; desperabilis for desperatus; persuasibilis for persuasus or persuadens. They shall be taught by God, because God, internally breathing and sending into the mind a supernatural light to the intellect, and pious impulses to the will, shall teach them and persuade them of those things which Christ and His disciples will propose to them through the external voice. He contrasts Christians with Jews. For the latter were taught by God in the Old Testament more externally than internally, namely through the Prophets, through the Priests, through Sacred Scripture. This distinction is conveyed by Jeremiah, chapter 31:33, when speaking of the New Testament he says: "I will put My law in their minds, and write it in their hearts." So St. Jerome. Hence the Holy Spirit was given to the Apostles at Pentecost, and rested upon them in the form of tongues of fire, as if speaking through their mouths, and making their minds and tongues fiery, so as to hurl the flame of divine love into their hearers. Such God-taught men above all others were St. Anthony, Hilarion, Paul, Francis, Dominic, and others, as I said at Hebrews 8, at the end.
"And great shall be the peace of your children." Supply "I will give." From Christ's teaching there follows peace both of conscience with God, and of concord with one's neighbors, and also peace, that is, prosperity, and an abundance of all goods.
Verse 14: 14. "And you shall be founded in justice." That is, you shall be made firm, as Vatablus translates, meaning: There is...
14. "And you shall be founded in justice." That is, you shall be made firm, as Vatablus translates, meaning: There is nothing for you to fear, O Church, O My spouse, whether sedition, fraud, violence and persecution, or any enemy may snatch away this peace, doctrine, gems, and riches from you: for your own justice shall make you firm, your sanctity shall protect you, for God, who is the defender and champion of justice and sanctity, will not allow you to be destroyed. Let republics and magistrates, kingdoms, kings, and princes take note: if they wish to have a secure and stable kingdom or republic, let them found it on justice and sanctity. For "justice" here is taken generally, and embraces both other virtues and particular justice. So Haymo.
Second, Adamus says: "You shall be founded in justice," that is to say, God will bring it about that in you all things are done justly and in right order: for then justice, that is, the order due to each one, is rendered to each.
Third, St. Jerome takes "justice" as impartiality, or equality toward all: "So that He may be God not of one nation only, but of the whole world; who calls to His faith slaves and free, Greeks and barbarians, rich and poor, noble and ignoble, men and women, children and elders — and all things that seem to be opposites in the world." For this justice is in God, though He is not bound by it; whence He did not act unjustly, nor was He a respecter of persons, when before Christ He chose the Jews and left the Gentiles. But the first sense is more divine and genuine.
"Depart far from oppression." This is a prophecy, not a command. For He promises the Church, because she is founded on justice, complete security, meaning: then you shall depart and be far from oppression and terror. Now by "oppression," first, some understand the ancient oppressor, the devil. Second, St. Jerome understands sin and every form of evil. "For all iniquity and theft," he says, "arises from oppression." Third, and best, by "oppression" understand any fraud and caviling; by "terror" any violence, force, and arms that can strike fear. So St. Thomas, Vatablus, Adamus, and Forerius, who says: There are two things that can inspire fear in the Church — either fraud or force, heretics or tyrants, attacking secretly or openly: from both, Christ protects His Church through justice, by which He justified her. For if God justifies, who shall condemn? If God protects, who shall conquer?
By justice therefore, or justification, you shall be secure, you shall be firm: and all the machinations of the devil shall be unable either to overthrow you or to plunder your riches. Therefore in this verse I believe God was meeting an objection that could arise from the promise of such great riches. For just as poverty is secure, so conversely fraud and violence are prepared against riches. Consider here, O Christian, how greatly you should value this justification: for what Christ promises to His Church, He must be believed to have promised also to His own, namely that being justified we may have peace. If therefore we retain justice, though the devil may rage, though the world may try to deceive, though the flesh may lust — they can press us, but they cannot crush us; we shall nevertheless retain peace. Therefore let us not abandon justice.
St. Jerome, however, takes "depart" properly as an imperative, meaning: You are founded in justice; if therefore you wish to preserve this your firmament, depart from oppression and fraud, and so likewise you shall depart from all terror. For justice will make you secure.
"For you shall not fear." The word "for" is not causal, nor does it signify a cause, but a consequence and effect, and means the same as "whence" or "therefore," as often elsewhere. For this is the Hebrew ki, meaning: You shall depart far from oppression, whence you shall not fear it; and from terror, whence it shall not approach you.
15 and 16. "Behold, an inhabitant shall come" (Two things the Church could fear, as I said, namely oppression and violence: oppression from the mocking Gentiles, because she adored Christ crucified (for this seemed foolish to them); violence from the arms of smiths and soldiers. The former He here excludes, meaning: The inhabitants, that is, the Gentiles formerly alien from God and your enemies, O Church, shall be joined and subjected to you by the working of God. Whence in place of their former mockery and derision, they shall give you praises and acclaim. The latter He excludes when He says): "Behold, I have created the smith who blows the coals" (who, namely, with bellows stirs up the fire by which he heats the iron) "and brings forth an instrument" (that is, a tool, for example a hammer) "for his work" (so that the hammer, striking the red-hot iron, may forge from it a sword, a lance, or a spear. In like manner) "I have created the destroyer" (that is, the tyrant, the enemy, and the soldier, born and destined) "to destroy," meaning: there is nothing for you to fear from hostile weapons, or the smiths who make weapons, or the enemies themselves armed and prepared to slaughter and destroy you: because both they and their armies, weapons, smiths, and all their forces are in My hand. I created and gave them, and I shall bring it about that they do not harm you but are subject to you — either willingly, by converting themselves to you, or unwillingly, by being subjugated to you. Since therefore I command you to be secure, there is nothing for you to fear: for I shall bring it about that they either cannot use their weapons against you, or that they use them not for your destruction but for your defense and protection.
The Septuagint agrees with this sense; for they translate: "Behold, proselytes shall come to you through Me, and they shall be your tenants, and they shall take refuge with you."
Mystically, St. Jerome, Haymo, and Adamus by "smith" understand the devil, the smith and craftsman of all evils, who blows coals in the fire when he stirs up and inflames tyrants, heretics, and other enemies to persecute Christians. He brings them forth as his instruments, to do his work through them. He is also the destroyer of those who will be unbelievers. But all who are fashioned against you, O Church, by this smith who blows, shall not succeed, but shall suffer both present and eternal punishments.
For "the smith to destroy," the Septuagint translates to the contrary: "not as a smith, not unto destruction;" which St. Jerome and Cyril explain thus: I reform and reshape you, O Church, but not as an ironsmith, who indeed reshapes and reforges his vessels for the better, but in such a way that, when he has used them enough, he discards them and lets them perish — for he uses them not for their benefit, but for his own. But I reform you with a spiritual reformation that will endure forever and be eternal, not for My benefit but for yours, about which the Lord said to Nicodemus: "Unless a man be born again of water and the Holy Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God" (John 3:3). But the first sense is the genuine one, as is also the earlier reading and translation of our translator.
Finally, Forerius translates from the Hebrew as follows: "Behold, by gathering it shall gather itself" (the hostile mass), "it shall fail so as not to be; whoever shall be gathered with you" (against you) "shall fall beside you." So also approximately Vatablus, meaning: whoever gathers arms and soldiers against you, they shall fall at your feet, shall perish or succumb; for your enemies are My enemies: whoever touches you, touches the apple of My eye; whoever attacks you, attacks Me — so that Christ alluded to this when He said: "Whoever is not with Me is against Me; and whoever does not gather with Me, scatters" (Matthew 12:30). For whoever fights against God does not gather strength but dissolves and scatters it. If you translate it this way, these words belong to the following verse. But this rendering plainly disagrees with our Vulgate and the Septuagint, which certainly agrees more with the Hebrew: for gur signifies to sojourn and to be a stranger, not to gather soldiers.
Verse 17: 17. "Shall not prosper" — it shall not have success, shall not profit, shall not reach the effect for which it is...
17. "Shall not prosper" — it shall not have success, shall not profit, shall not reach the effect for which it is directed by the enemy, namely to crush or destroy the Church.
"And every tongue" (that calumniates, spoken of in verse 14) "that resists you in judgment, you shall condemn," meaning: God shall avert and repel violence and tyrants; but calumny and calumniators, heretics and the like, you yourself, O Church, shall judge and condemn in your tribunal. The calumnies and blasphemies of the Gentiles and Pagans as well, by just war through Christian princes, you "shall judge," that is, avenge and restrain.
Hence it is clear that the Church is the judge of controversies of faith, and that judgment concerning heresy and heretics pertains to her.
"This is the inheritance of the servants of the Lord." He closes the foregoing with an exclamation, meaning: This is the lot, as it were, the inheritance that shall come to the Church and the servants of the Lord from Him: namely, that they shall be rich with gems and heavenly goods, and shall enjoy full justice, sanctity, and peace; no one shall be able to disturb this or plunder their riches; but they themselves shall overcome all enemies, and either condemn or convert them.
"And their justice is with Me." "Justice," first, can be taken as just works, meaning: their just works are preserved with Me, always before My eyes; whence I shall repay them with the present reward already mentioned, and with an eternal one in heaven. So Vatablus. Second, "justice," that is, the reward and recompense of justice, meaning: I shall render to them the reward of justice, namely the lot just described. Third, "justice," that is, justification and praise. For sometimes "justice" is used for the very praise of justice, says Forerius. For this fittingly corresponds to and repays the calumny, meaning: for the calumny you have suffered, you shall receive praises and the commendation of your justice.