Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
He returns to the beginning of the preceding chapter, and continues to respond to the complaints of the Jews as to why they are not freed from Babylon and from their enemies and calamities. For he answers that the cause is not God's impotence, as though He could not; nor His deafness, as though He were unwilling to hear them and free them; but their own sins, both many and grievous, which demand this scourge and wrest it, as it were, from an unwilling God. Therefore he enumerates and exaggerates their many sins. Finally, at verse 16, God taking pity on His people utterly abandoned and afflicted, girds Himself with weapons to free them from their enemies, and so that all nations may see His glory, when He sends Christ the Redeemer to those who turn from iniquity, who will establish between them and God a new and everlasting covenant.
Vulgate Text: Isaiah 59:1-21
1. Behold, the hand of the Lord is not shortened so that it cannot save, nor is His ear made heavy so that it cannot hear: 2. but your iniquities have divided between you and your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you so that He would not hear. 3. For your hands are polluted with blood, and your fingers with iniquity: your lips have spoken falsehood, and your tongue utters iniquity. 4. There is none who invokes justice, nor is there any who judges truly: but they trust in nothing and speak vanities: they have conceived labor and brought forth iniquity. 5. They have hatched the eggs of asps and woven the webs of spiders: whoever eats of their eggs shall die, and what is hatched will break forth as a basilisk. 6. Their webs shall not be for clothing, nor shall they cover themselves with their works: their works are useless works, and the work of iniquity is in their hands. 7. Their feet run to evil and hasten to shed innocent blood: their thoughts are useless thoughts: devastation and destruction are in their ways. 8. They have not known the way of peace, and there is no judgment in their steps: their paths are crooked for them: everyone who walks in them does not know peace. 9. Therefore judgment is far from us, and justice does not overtake us: we looked for light, and behold darkness: for brightness, and we walked in darkness. 10. We groped for the wall like the blind, and fumbled as if without eyes: we stumbled at noonday as in darkness, in dark places like the dead. 11. We shall all roar like bears, and mourn like doves with their meditations: we looked for judgment, and there was none; for salvation, and it was far from us. 12. For our iniquities are multiplied before You, and our sins have answered against us, because our transgressions are with us, and we know our iniquities, 13. to sin and lie against the Lord: and we turned away from following our God, to speak calumny and transgression: we conceived and uttered from the heart words of falsehood. 14. And judgment is turned backward, and justice stood far off: because truth has fallen in the street, and equity could not enter. 15. And truth was forgotten: and whoever departed from evil became a prey: and the Lord saw, and it appeared evil in His eyes that there was no judgment; 16. and He saw that there was no man: and He was perplexed, because there was none to intervene: and His own arm brought salvation to Him, and His own justice sustained Him. 17. He was clad
with justice as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation on His head: He was clad in garments of vengeance, and covered as with a cloak of zeal. 18. As if for vengeance, as for retribution of indignation to His enemies, and recompense to His adversaries: He will repay the islands their due. 19. And they who are from the west shall fear the name of the Lord; and they who are from the rising of the sun, His glory: when He shall come as a violent river, which the spirit of the Lord drives. 20. And the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and to those who turn from iniquity in Jacob, says the Lord. 21. This is My covenant with them, says the Lord: My Spirit, who is in you, and My words which I have put in your mouth, shall not depart from your mouth, and from the mouth of your seed, and from the mouth of your seed's seed, says the Lord, from now and forever.
Verse 1: BEHOLD, THE HAND OF THE LORD IS NOT SHORTENED. — The hand, that is, His power. See what was said at chapter...
1. BEHOLD, THE HAND OF THE LORD IS NOT SHORTENED. — The hand, that is, His power. See what was said at chapter 50, verse 35. For there the Prophet said the same thing. These words are rightly connected to the end of the preceding chapter in this way, as if to say: I have already declared and shown, O Jews, that if you are pious and merciful and keep My sabbaths, I will build up the ruins of ages; I will raise you above the heights of the earth and feed you with the inheritance of Jacob your father. Behold, from these My promises and similar benefits, which I bestowed upon Abraham, David, and your fathers at other times, you easily see that it is not My fault or delay that you are not freed from your enemies and afflictions, nor that this happens from a deficiency of My power or goodwill — as though I had heavy ears, that is, hard and blocked and closed up by some heavy and thick humor so that I could not hear your prayers; but rather that you are at fault, who by your sins have introduced a cloud and a great gulf between Me and you, which blocks and repels your prayers so that they do not penetrate and reach My ears. See what was said at Lamentations 3:44. Whence he adds:
Verse 2: BUT YOUR INIQUITIES HAVE DIVIDED BETWEEN YOU AND YOUR GOD. — Just as the firmament is the barrier dividing ...
2. BUT YOUR INIQUITIES HAVE DIVIDED BETWEEN YOU AND YOUR GOD. — Just as the firmament is the barrier dividing the upper waters from the lower, Genesis 1:6, so your sins are the barrier firmly dividing and separating you from heaven, the Angels, and God; therefore your sins have "hidden" from you "His" benevolent "face" and eyes, so that He would not look upon you kindly and graciously; and His open ears, so that He would not hear your prayers.
The Septuagint translates: Because of your sins He turned His face from you so as not to have mercy. St. Jerome gives a twofold reason for this. First: "He shows," he says, "that He cannot bear the stench of sins and their iniquity." For just as we turn our noses away from a putrid and stinking corpse, or from latrines, so God turns Himself away from sin. Second: "He turned away His face," he says, "lest He should see their baseness and be compelled to strike them immediately." He turned away, therefore, not so much from anger as from clemency and indulgence, by which He waited patiently for their conversion.
Verse 3: FOR YOUR HANDS ARE POLLUTED WITH BLOOD. — He descends from the general to the particular, and specifically ...
3. FOR YOUR HANDS ARE POLLUTED WITH BLOOD. — He descends from the general to the particular, and specifically reviews and reproves their crimes. The first is that of homicide, in that they had polluted their hands and conscience with blood shed by them.
AND YOUR FINGERS WITH INIQUITY — with slaughter, robberies, and every kind of violence.
YOUR LIPS HAVE SPOKEN FALSEHOOD, AND YOUR TONGUE UTTERS INIQUITY — and by speaking adorns and contrives it, as Vatablus translates; for it incites and impels others to the same iniquity.
Verse 4: THERE IS NONE WHO INVOKES JUSTICE — as if to say: There is none who calls justice to his counsel and employ...
4. THERE IS NONE WHO INVOKES JUSTICE — as if to say: There is none who calls justice to his counsel and employs it so as to judge truly; but they employ in their counsel their own avarice and cupidity; and so they pervert judgments on account of bribes and favors, condemning the innocent and awarding the case to the guilty. This is clear from what follows.
The Hebrew literally has: There is none who calls in justice, which our translator rightly renders: "Who invokes justice." It can, however, secondly be translated thus, as if to say: No one summons another justly to court. Whence it follows in the Hebrew: There is none who litigates or disputes in judgment truly; or rather: There is none who is judged truly, because, as our translator renders it, there is no judge who judges truly and sincerely. Thirdly, Vatablus takes it thus: No one calls in justice, that is, no one cries out to the impious, and justly accuses and judges those who act iniquitously. Whence others translate: There is none who cries out for justice. Let the assessors of judges take note of this, as well as pastors, who, although they do not pronounce unjust sentences, nevertheless do not protest against unjust judgments, nor take up the defense of justice. For their silence is tacit consent.
BUT THEY TRUST IN NOTHING — as if to say: They do not trust in justice and truth, but place their hopes in vain and worthless things, namely in their stone and wooden idols. So say St. Thomas and Haymo. Or rather, in external form and empty appearance and pretense — both of justice and piety, of wisdom and cunning, of power and authority, with which they unjustly oppress others.
THEY HAVE CONCEIVED LABOR. — Note that by "labor" or toil, and, as Psalm 7, verses 15 and 17 (to which Isaiah alludes here), our translator renders, "sorrow," sin is signified by metonymy, because it is the cause of very many sorrows and labors both present and future, and it is conceived and committed with great solicitude, anxiety, labor, and sorrow. The sinner, therefore, like a woman in labor, carries, cherishes, and nourishes sin in the womb of the mind with great trouble and pain; which he afterward brings forth with similar pain, and moreover soon bears for himself punishments both present and eternal. How true this is can be seen with one's own eyes in those who pursue honors, riches, and alliances. So says Hugo. Secondly, and more properly, the sin of homicide and violence against one's neighbor (for about this he
spoke at verse 3) is called here labor and iniquity — both passively, because it afflicts the sinner with labor and pain, as I already said; and actively, because it causes the neighbor whom he kills or injures to labor, groan, and suffer. So say St. Cyril, St. Thomas, Forerius, and Sanchez. Whence it follows:
Verse 5: THEY HAVE HATCHED THE EGGS OF ASPS (Aquila alone translates, vipers) — It is a proverb, as if to say: "The ...
5. THEY HAVE HATCHED THE EGGS OF ASPS (Aquila alone translates, vipers) — It is a proverb, as if to say: "The eggs of asps," that is, their malignant conceptions and machinations of wrath, plunder, and murder, they carried out through their children (for eggs are broken not by the mother but by the offspring enclosed in the eggs, when it is already alive and eager to come forth into the light) or through their followers (just as in a republic there are often some who plot the crime, and others who assist and execute it), and in fact committed robberies and murders. For these are like asps emerging from eggs, which bring ruin both to others against whom they are directed and to the very authors and parents themselves. So say St. Jerome, Haymo, Procopius, Hugo, and others. For he who hatches an asp from an egg is bitten by the same; for when the egg is broken, the asp bursts forth and inflicts venom in the wound of its tongue upon the one who broke the egg.
Some think that the topic here is an allusion to the birth of the viper, which bears many offspring up to twenty, but brings them forth gradually, namely one each day; and so the rest, impatient of the delay, burst through the sides, killing the parent," says Pliny, Book 10, chapter 62. Whence St. Gregory, Book 15 of the Morals, chapter 9: "The viper," he says, "is so named because it gives birth by force." For thus the wicked, while plotting and bringing forth evil against others, bring harm and ruin upon themselves. Although Aldrovandus and other learned men deny that the viper is killed by its offspring, yet Pliny teaches this, and it is the common understanding and speech of mankind, to which Sacred Scripture is accustomed to conform. In like manner, whether the viper conceives eggs and hatches offspring from them in the womb is uncertain. For Pliny asserts this, but Aristotle denies it, Book 5 of the History of Animals, chapter 5. Therefore Scripture calls "eggs" whatever membrane in which it is certain the fetus is enclosed in the womb, and which is ruptured when it is born and emerges. But the topic here is not the viper, but the asp.
Moreover, that the asp, like other serpents, lays eggs is established and clear from this passage of Isaiah; indeed, not only birds, fish, and serpents, but also shellfish and other testaceous animals lay eggs in spring and autumn, as Aldrovandus teaches, Book 3 on the same subjects.
Aelian records, Book 1 of On the Nature of Animals, that a remedy is found against the bites of vipers and all serpents, with the sole exception of the asp, especially if it has tasted a frog, as he says in Book 2. Therefore the strike of the asp alone is more powerful than any cure, and is conquered by none (except by a woman); inasmuch as it kills by its mere gaze and touch alone, of which the former it shares with the basilisk, and the latter with aconite. Hence Nicander says: "The bite of the asp is incurable." Hence also the proverb:
A wicked woman is truly the weapon of an asp.
Furthermore, this proverb: "The bite of the asp" especially applies to a secret enemy, all the more pestilent because this serpent infuses its venom secretly and without pain; nor does any wound appear on the body after the bite, but only a lethal sleep steals over the victim — although Pliny, Book 29, chapter 4, and Dioscorides, Book 2, chapter 33, assert that bedbugs are effective against the bite of the asp.
Morally and by way of analogy, this proverb may be employed when someone plots evil against another, which simultaneously rebounds and falls upon the plotter's own head. For such a person, as it were brooding upon and hatching the eggs of asps, is bitten by the offspring that bursts forth.
A similar and most elegant example is found in Emblem 154 of Alciati, about the crow and the scorpion:
The crow, they say, seized the scorpion in its talons aloft — The prize obtained by its bold gullet. But it, gradually infusing venom through the limbs, As avenger drove the raptor to the Stygian waters. O matter worthy of laughter! He who was preparing death by threats Perished himself and succumbed to his own devices.
Similarly the ichneumon acts: by a certain natural antipathy, after killing the mother, it attacks the eggs, but incurs death from contact with them. So the crow seizing the scorpion receives a lethal wound from its curved tail and perishes. Whence the proverb: "A crow with a scorpion;" again: "You are stirring up a four-footed creature" — namely the scorpion, whose legs
are eight. Such also is: "You are provoking a lion; you are irritating hornets; you have been caught in your own snare; you are being slain with your own sword." So Ovid laments: "Alas, I suffer wounds made by my own weapons!" And Livy, Book 2 on the Second Punic War: "Hannibal perceived that he was being attacked with his own stratagems." Plutarch records that the general Brasidas, having drawn the javelin from his body, stabbed with it the one who had thrown it. Trebellius Pollio narrates that Marius, one of the thirty tyrants, was killed by a soldier who, attacking him, said: "This is the sword which you yourself made." For Marius before his reign had been a blacksmith, and had used that soldier's labor in his forge.
Tropologically, St. Gregory, Book 15 of the Morals, chapter 9: "To hatch the eggs of asps for wicked men," he says, "is to lay open by perverse works the counsels of malignant spirits which lie hidden in their hearts." And Procopius: He calls them "the eggs of asps," he says, meaning the seeds of the devil, who is an asp and the most venomous and cunning serpent, who deceived Eve and all her children.
Allegorically, St. Jerome and Haymo apply this to the Jews, who like vipers and asps stopped their ears so as not to hear the doctrine and saving admonitions of Christ; and who like vipers killed Christ their own parent. Whence also St. John the Baptist calls them "brood of vipers." Arias also rightly applies this to perverse judges, who by their fraudulent practices drive litigants to desperation and ruin.
AND THEY WOVE THE WEBS OF SPIDERS — as if to say: Just as spiders weave webs to catch flies and gnats, so these men by their frauds, robberies, and murders thought to prepare and weave for themselves the riches of common folk and the poor, so that they might feast and clothe themselves splendidly; but they wove nothing but futile and useless spider webs. These webs pertain to clothing, just as the eggs pertain to feasting and food; for all robbery is done for food and clothing. Therefore just as in clothing it denotes emptiness and want — for no garment can be made from spider webs, as is said in verse 6 — so in food it denotes ruin: for whoever eats the eggs of asps, as follows, eats poison and death; and whoever broods upon and hatches the eggs produces a basilisk. As if to say: These violent men think by their weapons and frauds to prepare clothing for themselves, but they prepare spider webs, that is, thinness, nakedness, filth, obscurity, and poverty; they think they are preparing a feast, but they are preparing death and punishment. For all these things the Chaldeans inflicted upon them by the just judgment of God the Avenger on account of these crimes, and afterward the Romans who destroyed Judea.
Whence St. Gregory at the cited passage: "To weave the webs of a spider," he says, "is to work at any temporal things for the sake of this world's concupiscence; which, since they are established by no stability, the wind of mortal life undoubtedly carries away." We see the spider diligently and continuously weaving, laboring, and eviscerating itself: but what does it weave? An empty and sordid web. O foolish merchants and weavers, who weave small, fleeting, and worthless things, and exchange them for great, precious, and eternal ones, giving heaven for earth, soul for body, life for death!
Forerius explains these things differently: The fasts, he says, of the Jews, their sabbaths, prayers, tithing, and other things which the Jews celebrated with great ambition were spider webs: for they seemed to have some value and dignity, but since they lacked faith and charity, all their labor was useless.
Symbolically, spider webs (which are subtle and artful but fragile and futile, as St. Gregory of Nazianzus beautifully explains, Oration 2 on Theology) are woven first by heretics, by whose sophisms flies are caught — that is, the stupid and ignorant; but wasps — that is, the keen and learned — tear them apart. So says Nazianzen in his oration in praise of Hero. Second, by astrologers, who presume to divine with certainty from the stars about future events. So says St. Ambrose, Book 4 of the Hexaemeron, chapter 4. Third, by unjust judges and executors of the laws, about whom it is said:
The censor pardons crows and persecutes doves.
Therefore Thales used to say that laws are like spider webs, which hold small animals but are torn by large ones. Fourth, by notaries, scribes, and unjust advocates, who entangle, despoil, and drain the poor with their frauds. Fifth, by the Jews and their vain traditions, futile histories, and Cabalistic fictions. So say St. Jerome, Cyril, Procopius, and Delrio, adage 803.
WHOEVER EATS OF THEIR EGGS SHALL DIE — as if to say: Those who join and associate themselves with their impious machinations will draw from them not advantage but harm and destruction. So say St. Jerome, Cyril, Procopius, and others. Note here what are the force and destructiveness of perverse association, how fatal it is to converse and associate with the wicked. For these, at their tables, banquets, and games, eat the eggs of asps with them, and imbibe the poison of lust, scurrility, quarrels, or even of depraved doctrines, by which they kill the soul, and not rarely the body. Hence against such people there is a similar proverb, which Tertullian mentions, Book 3 Against Marcion, chapter 8: "The asp borrows from the viper" — when the worst takes something evil from the worst: "Let the heretic cease," says Tertullian, "to borrow venom from the Jew, as the asp (so they say) from the viper." It is moreover recorded among the sayings of Diogenes, who, having observed two women secretly conversing together, said:
The asp borrows venom from the viper.
The venom of each serpent is incurable and equally noxious; except that the bite of the viper kills more with torments, while the bite of the asp brings no pain at all, so that there is even pleasure in it, if we believe Pliny.
Forerius explains these "eggs" differently, namely as perverse doctrines contrary to the law of God, such as Christ objects to the Scribes and Jews: namely, that they perverted by their wicked interpretations the commandment of God about honoring parents, about oaths, about the violation of the sabbath, and others, as can be seen at Matthew 23:16. For those who imbibed and followed these things killed the soul; for they were poisons of conscience. Whence Christ warns, Matthew 16:11: "Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees," that is, of their corrupt doctrine, which corrupts and infects good morals, as leaven does a mass of flour; indeed, as the basilisk, which kills those who look at it not only by its breath but even by its gaze. Whence it follows:
AND WHAT IS HATCHED WILL BREAK FORTH AS A BASILISK — as if to say: Plainly harmful are these eggs of the wicked. For if you eat them, you will be killed by poison; if you step on them, you will be killed by the young creature bursting forth. Instead of "basilisk," Aquila translates "viper"; Symmachus, "asp." It is certain that naturally from the eggs of asps, not basilisks, but asps are born. It is therefore a proverb similar to that of chapter 14:29: "From the root of the serpent shall come forth a basilisk," signifying that these conceptions and machinations of the wicked burst forth into the most pestilent and pernicious things, such as the basilisk, as if to say: Wicked thoughts and machinations, if they break forth into action, produce the most wicked deeds, which far surpass the thoughts themselves in wickedness and harm. He gives the reason for what he said at verse 5: "They have hatched the eggs of asps."
The Septuagint translates: Whoever wishes to eat of their eggs (for the eggs of asps are beautiful in external appearance), upon breaking them will find corruption, and a basilisk within. This is to be explained according to the meaning already given.
Sanchez thinks Christ alluded to this when, in Luke 11:12, He said that a father would not give a son asking for an egg a scorpion, as if to say: He would not give an egg of an asp in which a basilisk or scorpion might be hiding.
Morally, St. Gregory, Book 15 of the Morals, chapter 9: "Whoever eats of their eggs," he says, "shall die; because whoever receives the counsels of unclean spirits kills the life of the soul within himself. And what is hatched will break forth as a basilisk; because the counsel of the malignant spirit that is concealed in the heart is nourished unto complete iniquity. For the basilisk is called the king of serpents. And who is the head of the reprobate, if not the Antichrist? Therefore what has been hatched will break forth as a basilisk; because he who receives within himself the counsels of the asp, to be nourished, having become a member of the wicked head, grows into the body of the Antichrist."
Verse 6: NOR SHALL THEY COVER THEMSELVES WITH THEIR WORKS. — Instead of "their," it can be translated "of them," nam...
6. NOR SHALL THEY COVER THEMSELVES WITH THEIR WORKS. — Instead of "their," it can be translated "of them," namely of the webs, as if to say: With so much effort and zeal, like spiders they weave webs to cover themselves with them; and yet they cannot be covered by them — they can be soiled by them.
Verse 7: THEIR FEET RUN TO EVIL. — Behold, here he explains the spider webs and the eggs of asps, as if to say: Thei...
7. THEIR FEET RUN TO EVIL. — Behold, here he explains the spider webs and the eggs of asps, as if to say: Their thought is perpetually intent on malice, their hand is stretched out for plunder, their feet run to slaughter,
their paths are perverse, as if to say: Their whole life is corrupt, all their habits and deeds depraved; they think and do nothing other than evils, by which they bring harm and ruin to others and equally to themselves. St. Paul cites this passage, Romans 3:15. See what was said there.
DEVASTATION AND DESTRUCTION ARE IN THEIR WAYS — as if to say: Wherever they go, they lay waste and crush everything; they are like a plague that destroys all things.
Verse 8: THEY HAVE NOT KNOWN THE WAY OF PEACE — as if to say: They disturb the peace everywhere, mixing everything w...
8. THEY HAVE NOT KNOWN THE WAY OF PEACE — as if to say: They disturb the peace everywhere, mixing everything with disturbances and tumults. It is a litotes. St. Clement, Book 2 of the Apostolic Constitutions, chapter 21, aptly applies this to bishops who excommunicate unjustly and hastily (for these shed blood — that is, they kill their own soul and that of another), and who refuse to receive the penitent, when the Lord Jesus, who is the way of peace, taught, saying: "Forgive, and you shall be forgiven."
AND THERE IS NO JUDGMENT (that is, justice, uprightness, equity) IN THEIR STEPS — as if to say: Their steps are unjust, wicked, and crooked.
THEIR PATHS ARE CROOKED (that is, depraved, and, as the Septuagint has, perverse) — not straight.
EVERYONE WHO WALKS IN THEM (who follows their paths, steps, and deeds) DOES NOT KNOW PEACE — because with the tumultuous he creates tumult, and plots robberies and murders.
Verse 9: THEREFORE JUDGMENT IS FAR FROM US (that is, as follows), AND JUSTICE DOES NOT OVERTAKE US. — For often in S...
9. THEREFORE JUDGMENT IS FAR FROM US (that is, as follows), AND JUSTICE DOES NOT OVERTAKE US. — For often in Scripture judgment is joined with justice and explained through it, as in Psalm 71:1: "O God, give your judgment to the king: and your justice to the king's son: to judge your people in justice, and your poor in judgment." The meaning therefore is, as if to say: Because of our sins just recounted, true justice has departed from us. For that which we sought through fasts, feasts, and other ceremonies, and claimed for ourselves, was only external, feigned, and masked; because we lacked interior purity, mercy, and piety. This is a general statement that applies both to the Jews of Isaiah's time and to their descendants. Whence St. Jerome rightly applies it to the Jews who disbelieved Christ and persecuted Him; for from them faith, religion, and justice were therefore taken away and transferred to the Gentiles who believed in Christ.
Secondly, Sanchez also explains it so that by "judgment" he understands vengeance against the enemies of the Jews, while the conjunction "and" has a causal force, meaning "because," as if to say: Therefore vengeance was not taken on our enemies; because justice was not found in us, since we exercised judgments without truth, and without justice summoned the innocent to court, as he said in verse 4. For this is a just punishment — that just judgment should not be rendered to one who neglects just judgment. So says Forerius.
WE LOOKED FOR LIGHT, AND BEHOLD DARKNESS. — "Light" means prosperity; "darkness" means calamity. For light is the symbol of liberty and a happy and fortunate condition; as darkness is of captivity
and misfortune, as I have already said many times. Now, referring this to the Jews of Christ's time, symbolically "light" and brightness signify the splendor of the Gospel and the justice of Christ; for what shortly before he called judgment and justice, here he calls light and brightness, as if to say: We Jews expected the Messiah, who would enlighten, redeem, and justify us; but on account of our unbelief and impiety, when He came, we became blind, and we groped and stumbled at noonday, because while the faith, justice, and grace of Christ were propagated and shining everywhere, we alone, as if blind, did not see it, and walked as if groping (for the blind man has his hand in place of his eye; whence he first explores the ground by feeling with his hand before he sets his step upon it), so that deservedly all should roar and groan, and all who recognize this will truly roar and groan. So say St. Jerome, Cyril, Procopius, and Theodoret. For that these things refer most especially to Christ is clear from the end of the chapter and from what has already been said.
Verse 10: IN DARK PLACES LIKE THE DEAD. — Leo the Hebrew translates: We dwell in tombs like corpses; it signifies the...
10. IN DARK PLACES LIKE THE DEAD. — Leo the Hebrew translates: We dwell in tombs like corpses; it signifies the utmost blindness and calamity, as if to say: Just as the dead dwell in foul and fetid tombs, so we, given over to our vices and impurities, cling to them, wallow in them, stumble into them, fall, and slip, so that the light of grace, joy, and happiness never dawns for us, as if we were utterly dead, bloodless, and lifeless. Indeed, if we are brought out to behold its brightness, we are dazzled and blinded by it, just as Galen reports that a certain tyrant was accustomed to blind men: for he would force them into prisons and dark, gloomy places, and after a long time would lead them out into the sun, and, overwhelmed by the sudden brightness of the sun, they were immediately blinded.
The same happens tropologically to philosophers, atheists, politicians, and even to those who place all the resources of their life and state in their own prudence, labor, arms, and strength: if they are called back to the clear doctrine of divine truth, will, and providence, like owls unable to bear such great light, they are all the more blinded by it. So says Arias, and from him Delrio, adage 804.
Verse 11: WE SHALL ALL ROAR LIKE BEARS. — The Chaldean explains this of the enemies of the Jews, who had raged agains...
11. WE SHALL ALL ROAR LIKE BEARS. — The Chaldean explains this of the enemies of the Jews, who had raged against them like roaring beasts. But then it should have been said: The enemies will roar — not: We shall roar. The meaning therefore is, as if to say: Just as bears who have lost their cubs roar terribly from extreme grief, and just as doves perpetually moan as if meditating, so also we Jews, forsaken by God and Christ, and ravaged both by the Chaldeans and by the Romans, shall groan and lament horribly and incessantly. So says Cyril. He mentions the roar of the bear rather than the lion, because bears give birth to shapeless cubs, which they then form by licking, and so they give birth, as it were, twice; therefore they love them supremely, and if they lose them, they grieve supremely. Again, the roar signifying the fury of the bear represents the indignation of the Jews, and at the same time the cries of conscience, which testifies to them and proclaims that they suffer these things justly on account of their crimes and because they killed Christ.
Secondly, St. Jerome considers the bear to signify the cruelty of the Jews toward the poor and humble, for example, Christians; and the dove, their fear and timidity toward enemies, whether the Chaldeans or the Romans. For he says: "We shall all roar like bears, and moan like meditating doves; so that they are both cruel and wretched at once: fierce and savage toward the humble and subject, timid and trembling toward those who are stronger, whom they dread like hawks." And such we see the Jews to be today. Whence the Spanish, when they wish to describe someone as fearful, say: "He carries a Jew in his breast," says Delrio, adage 805.
Thirdly, Procopius thinks that in the bear is noted the savagery of the Jews, in the dove their simplicity, both combined with imprudence and stupidity.
WE LOOKED FOR. — He repeats, in the manner of one groaning, what he said at verse 9, except that there he called it justice, here he calls it salvation; for justice is salvation begun, just as eternal salvation is justice consummated. For this is what Zechariah sings concerning the coming of Christ the Savior: "Salvation from our enemies, and from the hand of all who hate us."
Verse 12: AND OUR SINS HAVE ANSWERED AGAINST US — that is, as Vatablus and Forerius explain, they accuse us before Go...
12. AND OUR SINS HAVE ANSWERED AGAINST US — that is, as Vatablus and Forerius explain, they accuse us before God and demand vengeance from Him. Here by personification, sins are imagined as persons standing before God, and as it were being asked what should be done with sinners, and the voice of all is one: that they should be destroyed and perish. So sins are said to cry out to heaven, as though they accuse sinners without being asked and cry out against them; for the more eagerly we embrace them, the more fiercely they plead the case against us before God.
Secondly, more simply and genuinely: when the Jews were thinking about and complaining of their afflictions and punishments, and inquiring into their cause, their sins answered that they were worthy of this punishment. This is what he said in chapter 3:9: "The recognition of their countenance has answered them." See what was said there.
Thirdly, Forerius and Sanchez say beautifully: Sins, they say, answer sinners like an echo. For just as an echo returns from the rocks the same sound that it received from the one who cried out, so the punishment of sin corresponds to the same fault, as its most deserved echo and reflection or reverberation; so that, just as the Jews were impious and cruel to others, so in turn they would feel and experience the Chaldeans and Romans being impious and cruel to them. Furthermore, echo denotes the frequency and widespread nature of sins, says Forerius.
BECAUSE OUR TRANSGRESSIONS ARE WITH US — among us, indeed before us, always presenting themselves to our face. So the penitent David would say: "Against You alone have I sinned, and done evil before You. For I know my iniquity, and my sin is always before me."
Sanchez explains it differently: "Our transgressions," he says, that is, the punishments of our transgressions, are with us, constantly tormenting us. Moreover he enumerates these transgressions when he adds: "To sin and lie against the Lord" — namely, so that we might break the faith given to God of serving Him alone, not idols, not vices, etc.
Verse 14: AND JUDGMENT IS TURNED BACKWARD (Vatablus and Forerius translate: is driven back) — that is, justice has be...
14. AND JUDGMENT IS TURNED BACKWARD (Vatablus and Forerius translate: is driven back) — that is, justice has been driven away from us. Whence it follows: BECAUSE TRUTH HAS FALLEN IN THE STREET, AND EQUITY COULD NOT ENTER — as if to say: Openly and publicly truth and justice have been overthrown, because violence, wickedness, and injustice everywhere rage, overflow, and dominate — both among magistrates and common people. Therefore in our assembly no place, no entrance, no access has been left for equity. Hence the Son of God descended from heaven to restore exiled justice. Let republics and kingdoms take note of this, in which justice and virtue along with religion have been routed, as we see happening and lament in England, Scotland, Greece, and many other provinces, where Christians and just men are exposed as prey to the wicked: "So that, unless you are a wolf, you must be the prey of wolves."
Mystically, the street, says St. Jerome, is the broad and licentious life of carnal men; in this, truth and uprightness have fallen and been trampled underfoot.
Verse 15: WHOEVER DEPARTED FROM EVIL BECAME A PREY. — For where violence and impiety dominate, there innocence is opp...
15. WHOEVER DEPARTED FROM EVIL BECAME A PREY. — For where violence and impiety dominate, there innocence is oppressed, and the just are prey to the wicked. An Arabian adage is expressed in Latin word for word by Arias:
In our age it is necessary to be food for wolves; But endure it, unless it pleases you to be a wolf.
For a thief recognizes a thief, and a wolf a wolf.
Verse 16: THERE IS NO MAN (as if to say: There is no one who would render judgment, that is, justice): AND HE WAS PER...
16. THERE IS NO MAN (as if to say: There is no one who would render judgment, that is, justice): AND HE WAS PERPLEXED — that is, God hesitated, anxious and perplexed: for this is what aporiasthai means, as I said at 1 Corinthians 4:8. In Hebrew ishtomem, that is, He was astonished — being astonished and amazed, and as if at a loss for counsel in a desperate situation, God hesitated in uncertainty; because there was no one who by praying would oppose His wrath. So say St. Jerome and the Chaldean. Therefore, employing a divine counsel, He sought the remedy not from earth but from heaven; not from men but from His own arm and clemency.
Note: Up to this point the Prophet has enumerated the very many and most grievous sins of the Jews (under which he understands also the graver crimes of the Gentiles as idolaters), and has shown that they were incurable. Therefore he adds that God in this desperate situation undertook this cure and brought them salvation through Christ. Paul imitated this in his Epistle to the Romans. For in chapter 1 he exaggerates the incurable sins of the Gentiles, in chapter 2 of the Jews, in chapter 3 of both; and from this he concludes, chapter 3, verses 23 and 24, that both needed Christ the Redeemer. This is what the Prophet adds:
AND HIS OWN ARM BROUGHT SALVATION TO HIM — that is, God's arm was His salvation; as Vatablus puts it, His arm brought Him salvation. As if to say: When the sins of the Jews as well as of the Gentiles had grown to the utmost and were incurable, when the affairs of the world were desperate and there was no one who would or could bring a remedy or help, then God restored this whole matter — both His own and the world's — by His arm, that is, by His power; He Himself alone accomplished the whole matter by His own strength. So say Forerius, Vatablus, and others. Some explain it thus, as if to say: Christ brought salvation to Himself on the cross and in death, when on the third day He raised Himself from it by His own arm and power. But this is not the literal nor the genuine meaning. The Septuagint translates: He took vengeance by His arm; others: His arm saved him, namely the people — His arm, namely God's.
Symbolically, learn here that in battle, both spiritual and bodily, boldness is of the greatest value: "Let the general," says Vegetius, Book 2, "show the ardor of his spirit in his face and eyes." And Livy, Book 22: "The less fear there is, the less danger there generally is." And Sallust in the Jugurthine War: "In battle the greatest danger always belongs to those who fear the most; boldness is held as a rampart." And Curtius: "Whoever despises death escapes it; the most timid are the ones whom it overtakes." Hence Vegetius, Book 3, chapter 18: "You should always endeavor," he says, "to be the first to draw up the battle line." Again: "Those who do not hesitate to provoke appear stronger. For there is more courage in one who brings danger than in one who repels it."
AND HIS JUSTICE (that is, the holiness, goodness, and mercy of God) SUSTAINED HIM — namely God; that is, it upheld, sustained, and strengthened Him so that He would not desist from what He had begun, but would bravely undertake and steadfastly press forward so arduous a work of our salvation and redemption — so that, namely, for us who were enemies, impious, ungrateful, and blasphemous, He would give His only-begotten Son into the flesh and the death of the cross, and by His death drive from us our enemies and tyrants: namely the devil, sin, death, and hell.
Secondly, "justice" can be taken here properly, as if to say: Although men are entirely perverse, the Lord will nevertheless free them, and in freeing them He will use justice — namely, a just ransom and satisfaction, which He will demand not from their own merits, which are nonexistent, but from the merits of Christ, by which He satisfied to the last farthing for the sins of men, and thus justly reconciled us to Himself and redeemed us from the captivity of the devil.
He speaks literally about the redemption of the human race through Christ, but alluding to the redemption of the Jews from Babylon through Cyrus. For the cause of the latter was not their own strength and merits, but the power and grace of God. Therefore those who take these words plainly and literally of the Jews and Cyrus, and only mystically of Christians and Christ, indulge the Rabbis and Judaizers more than is fair, and satisfy neither the dignity nor the intention of the Prophet. St. Jerome expounds these things better and more probably
concerning the war and arms of God, by which through Titus and the Romans He conquered and destroyed the Jews on account of the sins previously recounted. But since this vengeance of God is characteristically against the devil and sin, in order to free men from them, and is itself His clemency toward men; moreover, since all that follows speaks of joy, grace, and covenant, the former sense concerning the redemption of men through Christ appears plainly to be the literal and genuine one.
Verse 17: HE WAS CLAD IN A BREASTPLATE. — Note the personification, by which the Prophet describes the arms and full ...
17. HE WAS CLAD IN A BREASTPLATE. — Note the personification, by which the Prophet describes the arms and full armor of God as if He were a soldier armed from head to toe — with the same armor the Apostle arms every believer as a soldier of God, fighting against the devil, the world, and the flesh, Ephesians 6:13.
And so first, the breastplate or armor of God is "justice"; for this armed and strengthened God's entire breast and heart, so that He would fight for justice and for His just dominion against tyrants — namely against the demons, who unjustly held man captive — so that He might drive them from their unjust possession and restore man to his former liberty and to his own right and dominion. This justice is mercy, says Haymo. More plainly, however, you may take justice here properly: for God communicated it to Christ, so that it armed and strengthened His entire breast, so that like a diamond He would give His back to those striking and scourging Him; and thus, taking upon Himself and enduring the punishments of our sins, He would justly satisfy God for them as much and more than they deserved.
Secondly, the helmet of God is "salvation": this armed God's head and mind, so that His entire intention was directed toward the salvation of men; this is the active helmet. The passive helmet in Christ was His divinity itself, for this protected Christ's head and guarded His safety against enemies, when it raised Him glorious from death as victor over death. But it is better to take it as active: for this is what God and Christ had in view, and from it He was called Jesus, that is, Savior. So say St. Thomas, Hugo, and Forerius.
Thirdly, His garment was "vengeance": for He was carried with His whole self, as it were with His entire body, against His enemies — namely sins — to destroy them.
Fourthly, His cloak was "zeal": for this heaped up, covered, and adorned the arms already mentioned. This zeal was threefold: first, for His own honor and glory, for it would have been a disgrace for God to allow His creature to remain under the power of the devil. Second, wrath against the devil and sin, His enemies and ours. Third, love for men. This threefold zeal, immense and abundant, encircled and adorned God on every side like a cloak, which loosely encompasses and surrounds the body and other garments. God communicated this zeal and the other arms to Christ, the leader of His war. For Christ's entire life breathed zeal and vengeance: for out of zeal for the glory of God, love for us, and hatred of enemies, He overthrew them from their dominion, abolished sin, killed death, subdued the flesh, so that everywhere and in all things He
A HELMET OF SALVATION ON HIS HEAD. — The ancients were accustomed to wear great crests on their helmets, especially of the plumes of eagles, roosters, and other victorious birds — both to terrify enemies, to add courage to each other by this display, and to bear upon their helmets and crests the victory and the end and fruit of war which they had conceived in hope and spirit, and to execute it strenuously by hand. Therefore the helmet of God and Christ was salvation; for He bore and brought this to the world through this war of His. Moreover, the emblem and, as it were, the crest of this helmet was the cross; for through it He gave salvation. Whence also Constantine, about to fight against Maxentius, bore the sign of the cross on his helmet. For as Prudentius sings, Book 1 Against Symmachus:
The cross blazed upon the topmost crests.
These and more on the helmet, says Sanchez.
HE WAS CLAD IN GARMENTS OF VENGEANCE. — St. Jerome, as I said, Cyril, Procopius, and Haymo refer this to the vengeance that God exercised upon the impious Jews and killers of Christ through the Romans. But for the reasons I assigned at verse 16, we shall more correctly and truly take this of the vengeance that God accomplished through Christ against the devil and sin.
Figuratively, therefore, Christ the Lord, coming to redeem men, is here introduced as a fully armored general who, driven by divine fury, rushes not only against demons but also against sinful men subject to them, and strikes down, tramples, and slaughters all who stand in His way, and quenches His thirst with the blood of the slain.
Note here: The Prophets, when they speak of this battle and redemption of Christ, are accustomed to signify it with a double name, and one that is almost coupled: namely vengeance and salvation, slaughter and redemption, indignation and peace, blood and life, victory and safety. For it alludes to the redemption of the Jews, which was accomplished with the slaughter of the Chaldeans, just as every victory is usually accomplished with the slaughter of enemies. Furthermore, in this slaughter and salvation the same persons are enemies and friends, conquered and freed, slain and redeemed — but dissimilar in habits, character, and disposition: for Christ subdued and abolished the unfaithful and impious by slaying sins and saving men; namely, by making the impious pious, the unfaithful faithful, blasphemers into worshippers of God, enemies into friends — which was an illustrious and divine victory as much as it was a slaughter. See Canon 46. Whence it follows:
HE WAS COVERED AS WITH A CLOAK OF ZEAL — that is, He was covered with zeal as with a cloak. Whence Vatablus translates: He was clothed with indignation in place of a cloak. So in chapter 61:3, "the garment of praise" is the praise itself encircling and adorning the faithful like a cloak. "Therefore zeal equally
as well as charity, is the cloak of God and of the divine Majesty," as one of the saints aptly said.
Verse 18: HE WILL REPAY THE ISLANDS THEIR DUE. — He calls "islands" the remote nations dwelling on islands and beyond...
18. HE WILL REPAY THE ISLANDS THEIR DUE. — He calls "islands" the remote nations dwelling on islands and beyond the islands, as I have said elsewhere. To these He repaid their due, that is, the retribution of vengeance, when He destroyed their impiety and idolatry and made them Christian and pious.
St. Jerome explains it differently; for he persisted in his interpretation of the destruction of the Jews by Titus: whence by "islands" he understands Jerusalem, which was surrounded and battered by the Roman army just as an island is by the sea and waves. But from what has been said, it is clear that the former meaning is the literal and genuine one.
Verse 19: AND THEY WHO ARE FROM THE WEST SHALL FEAR THE NAME OF THE LORD (as if to say: All nations, both those who d...
19. AND THEY WHO ARE FROM THE WEST SHALL FEAR THE NAME OF THE LORD (as if to say: All nations, both those who dwell in the East and those in the West, subdued by Christ and the Apostles, shall fear — that is, worship and revere — the faith and glory of God and Christ, and this will happen then), WHEN HE SHALL COME AS A VIOLENT RIVER, WHICH THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD DRIVES — as if to say: When the mighty army of the Lord comes to conquer the nations, which will come with such force that it will seem to be like a violent river that is simultaneously swept and propelled by the wind; for no one can stop or hinder the course of such a river rushing headlong, but overflowing it overwhelms and destroys everything. Whence the Septuagint translates: Like a violent river in the wrath of the Lord, He will come with fury. For "violent" the Hebrew has tsar, that is, narrow, as Aquila translates, and consequently violent. For if a river is confined in narrow channels and overflows, it becomes violent, flattening fields, crops, and the happy labors of oxen. By this force is signified the power, abundance, and efficacy of the Gospel and of the preaching of Christ and the Apostles, which no wisdom, eloquence, or prudence could resist, as was seen in the preaching of St. Paul. Whence Theodotion translates: Like a river pressing or assailing.
This was fulfilled at Pentecost, says St. Jerome, and afterward, when there came a sound from heaven like the rush of a mighty wind, by which the Apostles, impelled and driven in a mighty spirit, shattered the ships of Tarshish, that is, all the devices of the world, and most swiftly pervaded the whole globe and subjected it to Christ. Therefore whoever wishes to be an effective and apostolic preacher of the Gospel, and to effectively convert sinners through it, must, like the Apostles, go forth and preach in a mighty spirit. For cold sermons, of which we see many today, alas! do not strike or inflame cold hearts.
WHICH THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD DRIVES. — "The spirit of the Lord" is a great and powerful wind: for this gathers the waters and drives them to rush headlong. In a similar manner and with similar force, the zeal and spirit of the Lord drove and propelled the army of the Lord's Apostles. For "drives" the Hebrew has nosesah, which Leo the Hebrew translates "impels," from the root nasas, that is, he fled, and in the piel and poel noses, that is, he forced to flee, drove, and impelled. But Vatablus translates nosesah as "will raise a standard." For nes signifies a sign and standard, as if to say: Hence the spirit of God presides over God's army as a standard-bearer: it leads the army, drives it, and makes it powerful and effective so that it overthrows everything.
Whence, thirdly, Aquila translates nosesah: The Spirit of the Lord is His seal; Theodotion: Like a river assailing, the Spirit of the Lord is sealed — "in Christ," says St. Jerome. "For this is He of whom it is said, John 6:27: 'For Him the Father, God, has sealed'; and Isaiah 11:2: 'The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him: the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and fortitude, the spirit of knowledge and piety, and the spirit of the fear of the Lord shall fill Him.' Whence we also say: The light of Your countenance, O Lord, is signed upon us; and in Ezekiel 9:4, the foreheads of the groaning men are signed with the impression of the Hebrew letter thau, which among them is the last."
Verse 20: AND THE REDEEMER SHALL COME TO ZION ("Zion," that is, to Zion, namely to the Church. Whence, explaining, he...
20. AND THE REDEEMER SHALL COME TO ZION ("Zion," that is, to Zion, namely to the Church. Whence, explaining, he adds): AND (that is, namely) TO THOSE WHO TURN FROM INIQUITY IN JACOB. — So say St. Jerome, Cyril, and Procopius. For the Church is called "Zion, Jacob, Israel," etc., because it began in Zion among the Jacobites or Israelites, and they were the first stones, that is, faithful and Apostles, of the Church. So explains St. Paul, Romans 11:26.
Therefore the commentary ascribed to St. Thomas, and Hugo, who take "the redeemer" literally as Cyrus and Nehemiah, who led the Jews back from Babylon to Judea, so that Christ is signified here only allegorically, greatly weaken, indeed distort, this oracle of the Prophet, as well as the argumentation of the Apostle. I therefore say that the redeemer is literally Christ, not Cyrus — though there is an allusion to Cyrus: for Christ, not Cyrus, established the new covenant that follows. Whence in the following chapter the Prophet exults with jubilation, saying: "Arise, be enlightened, O Jerusalem," etc.
The Septuagint, and from them St. Paul, Romans 11:23, translate somewhat differently thus: He will come from Zion (for so read St. Jerome and the Complutensian Polyglot, although Cyril, Procopius, and the Sixtine edition have: For the sake of Zion, that He may rescue and turn away impiety from Jacob; because indeed the Hebrew lamed is not only the article of the dative, but is also sometimes taken for min, that is, "from"; whence they translate letsion as: From Zion).
Furthermore, it is the same thing for Christ the Redeemer to be given to Zion, that is, to those who turn from iniquity, as for Him to come to rescue and turn away impiety from Jacob: for in this consisted Christ's redemption, just as the antitypical redemption by Cyrus consisted in Cyrus averting the Babylonian captivity from Jacob, and their returning from it to their homeland. For God and Christ bear upon the helmet and the crown of their head salvation — not temporal, but spiritual salvation from sin. Whence it can be translated more clearly with Forerius from the Hebrew: And the Redeemer shall come to Zion and to the Jacobites who are captives of sin. For the Hebrew schabe, from the root schabah, that is, he was captive, signifies captives; but if you derive it from schub, that is, he returned,
it signifies "those who return," as our translator renders it. Therefore St. Paul rightly teaches from this passage that the Jews are to be converted and saved at the end of the world, when the fullness of the Gentiles has entered the Church.
Moreover, what the Apostle adds — "When I shall have taken away their sins" — is not in this passage of Isaiah, but was added by the Apostle for the sake of explanation; for he explains and emphasizes what preceded: "Who shall turn away impiety from Jacob," to teach that therein lies the whole salvation and redemption of Christ. So on that passage of Paul say Origen, Anselm, Toletus, and Cajetan, although Sanchez more probably considers these words to be taken from Isaiah 4:4, where it says: "If the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion," etc. Or rather from Jeremiah 31:34, where, speaking of this same covenant, God says: "For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more." For Paul is accustomed to connect diverse passages of Scripture and to cite their sense rather than their words.
SAYS THE LORD — in Hebrew neum Iehova, as if to say: This is the utterance, decree, and oracle of the Lord. For with this weighty pronouncement, as with a seal, the Prophets are accustomed to seal the notable promises of God, such as this one about Christ the Redeemer. Whence the Apostle translates: "It is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance." See what was said at 1 Timothy 1:15.
Verse 21: THIS IS MY COVENANT — namely the one that preceded about sending a redeemer who would redeem Jacob from ini...
21. THIS IS MY COVENANT — namely the one that preceded about sending a redeemer who would redeem Jacob from iniquity: for this covenant, or new testament, is nothing other than a free decree of God and a promise of pardon and grace made primarily to the Jews (for to them the Messiah had been promised), and consequently to the remaining Gentiles as well. Secondly, and more fittingly, St. Jerome, Haymo, and Forerius consider this covenant to be what follows: "My Spirit," etc., as if to say: This new covenant will consist in God giving to the Jacobites who return from iniquity — that is, to the Church — His Holy Spirit, and never taking Him from her.
MY SPIRIT, WHO IS IN YOU. — St. Jerome thinks this is said by God to Isaiah, as if to say: My prophetic Spirit, which is in you, O Isaiah, will never fail, nor will My words, that is, My oracles, depart from your mouth, and from the mouth of your seed, that is, your posterity — namely the Prophets and Apostles — forever.
Secondly, Procopius and Cyril consider these to be the words of the Father to the Son, Christ the Lord: for upon Him the Spirit of the Lord rests fixedly and perpetually.
Thirdly, and genuinely, others generally consider these to be the words of God to the Church: for the preceding discourse was about her, and with her God here establishes a new covenant, saying: "My covenant with them," etc. — namely, the Jacobites who return from iniquity. For these are the Church, that is, the first part of the Church of Christ. Moreover, He changes the number here, saying "in you" instead of "with them" or "with you": because He is speaking to Jacob, that is, to the whole people, about whom He now speaks singularly and collectively,
and now we are accustomed to speak in the plural and distributively: "In you" therefore, O Jacob, O My Christian people, whom My Church constitutes, My spirit will rest. For the Hebrew lecha, that is, "in you," is masculine: whence it properly refers to the people, not to Zion, that is, the Church.
Moreover, this spirit is the Holy Spirit, who through faith and charity has been poured out in the whole Church, namely in the hearts of the faithful. "Spirit" here is therefore, first, that of faith and truth, which assists Zion, that is, the Church and its head, the Roman Pontiff, so that he does not err in definitions of faith. For Christ, ascending into heaven, promised this to the Apostles and the Church until the end; otherwise the Church could at some point err in faith, which God forbid — for then it would be the Church not of God but of the devil. Second, this spirit is that of charity and holiness.
The meaning therefore is, as if to say: The old covenant and Mosaic testament consisted in the giving of the law, Exodus 20. But now in the new covenant of Christ I will give the Holy Spirit — namely, the spirit of truth and charity — to you, O Jacob, that is, O Church, so that My words, that is, My precepts, may not depart from your mouth and heart, and from the mouth of your seed, that is, your posterity, forever; but that you may always recite and teach them with your mouth, and preserve them in your heart, and fulfill them in deed and life through the grace and help of the same Spirit. This new covenant and testament, therefore, consists in the giving of the spirit, by which we freely and joyfully fulfill the law and will of God. That this is the meaning is clear from Jeremiah, through whom the Holy Spirit explains this covenant thus, chapter 31, verse 33: "This will be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel: I will put My law in their innermost parts, and I will write it in their hearts" — namely, through the spirit of love and grace which I will pour into their hearts; whereas I wrote the Mosaic law on tablets of stone, not in the hearts of the Jews. Whence, alluding to this, the Apostle, 2 Corinthians 3:6, teaches that the new Testament is of the spirit, while the old was of the letter — on which subject St. Augustine writes learnedly in his book On the Spirit and the Letter.
Note here that this spirit is promised to the Church, that is, to the whole assembly of the faithful, and not to individual persons within it: for there are in the Church also impious believers and sinners as if they were withered members.
Secondly, however, this spirit is promised to each true and living member of the Church, that is, to the just: for all of these are animated and live by this vital spirit. Whence what he says, "in you," can be taken of any just person, as Adamus takes it. For God does not abandon any just person with His grace unless He is first abandoned by that person, as the Council of Trent teaches, Session 6, chapter 11. Therefore this spirit of grace on God's part is eternal and remains with the just person forever, unless he willingly shakes it off. In a similar way, the spirit of truth, which is promised not to individual members of the Church, that is, to the just, but to the whole Church and its head, the Roman Pontiff, for defining matters of controversy in faith, will not depart from her or from him forever.
The Hebrews explain it differently, as if to say: My prophetic spirit, that is, as follows, My words, oracles, and doctrine shall not depart — that is, let them not depart — from your mouth and heart, as if to say: Take care, O Jacob, that you always bear in your mind and memory those things which I have already said about your redemption from Babylon and about the Redeemer. For they consider "shall not depart" to be not a prediction but a command. But this interpretation forces the word "spirit" and weakens the oracle about the New Testament; therefore, as cold and Judaizing, it does not seem to be admissible; for the august words of the Prophet look toward something more august, namely the institution of the New Testament, which consists in the spirit and not in the law, as is clear from what has been said.