Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
Here God responds to Isaiah's complaint about the reprobation of the Jews, and asserts that the cause is not God, but the Jews themselves, because He extended His hand to them, and they refused it; but the Gentiles of their own accord sought it; therefore He rightly passed from the Jews to the Gentiles; especially since their parents had worshipped idols and Fortune; and they themselves by their own sins, and especially by spurning God and the Messiah, had filled up the measure of their parents' sins, and therefore were reprobated by God and destined for destruction. Then, in verse 8, He softens this sentence against the Jews, and says that a few of them will be converted to Christ and saved, who then scattered among the nations will subject them to Christ. Finally, in verse 13, He describes the unhappiness of unbelievers and the marvelous happiness of believers, namely that He will give them a new name, that former distresses will be consigned to oblivion, that He will create new heavens and a new earth, that He will create Jerusalem as an exultation, and its people as a joy, that the voice of weeping and the voice of crying will no longer be heard, that they will enjoy an abundance of things, and will be long-lived and blessed by God, who will hear them before they cry out, and will cause the wolf and the lamb to feed together.
Vulgate Text: Isaiah 65:1-25
1. They have sought Me who before did not ask, they have found Me who did not seek Me; I said: Behold Me, behold Me, to a nation that did not call upon My name. 2. I have spread forth My hands all the day to an unbelieving people, who walk in a way that is not good, after their own thoughts. 3. A people who provoke Me to anger before My face continually: who sacrifice in gardens, and offer sacrifice upon bricks: 4. who dwell in sepulchres, and sleep in the temples of idols: who eat swine's flesh, and profane broth is in their vessels. 5. Who say: Depart from me, come not near me, for you are unclean: these shall be smoke in My fury, a fire burning all the day. 6. Behold it is written before Me: I will not be silent, but I will render and repay into their bosom 7. your iniquities, and the iniquities of your fathers together, says the Lord, who have sacrificed upon the mountains, and have reproached Me upon the hills, and I will measure back their first work into their bosom. 8. Thus says the Lord: As if a grain be found in a cluster, and it be said: Destroy it not, because it is a blessing: so will I do for the sake of My servants, that I may not destroy the whole. 9. And I will bring forth a seed out of Jacob, and out of Judah a possessor of My mountains: and My elect shall inherit it, and My servants shall dwell there. 10. And the plains shall be for folds of flocks, and the valley of Achor for the resting place of herds, for My people who have sought Me. 11. And you who have forsaken the Lord, who have forgotten My holy mountain, who set a table for Fortune, and offer libations upon it. 12. I will number you for the sword, and you shall all fall in slaughter: because I called, and you did not answer: I spoke, and you did not hear: and you did evil in My eyes, and you have chosen the things I did not will. 13. Therefore thus says the Lord God: Behold My servants shall eat, and you shall be hungry: behold My servants shall drink, and you shall be thirsty: 14. behold My servants shall rejoice, and you shall be confounded: behold My servants shall praise for joy of heart, and you shall cry out for sorrow of heart, and shall howl for grief of spirit. 15. And you shall leave your name for an oath to My elect: and the Lord God shall slay you, and shall call His servants by another name. 16. In which he who is blessed upon the earth, shall be blessed in God, amen: and he who swears in the earth, shall swear by God, amen: because the former distresses are delivered to oblivion, and because they are hidden from My eyes. 17. For behold I create new heavens, and a new earth: and the former things shall not be in memory, and they shall not come upon the heart. 18. But you shall be glad and rejoice forever in these things which I create: for behold I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and its people a joy. 19. And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in My people: and the voice of weeping shall no more be heard in it, nor the voice of crying. 20. There shall no more be an infant of days there, nor an old man who does not fill up his days: for the child shall die a hundred years old, and the sinner being a hundred years old shall be accursed. 21. And they shall build houses, and inhabit them: and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruits thereof. 22. They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and another eat: for as the days of a tree, so shall be the days of My people, and the works of their hands shall be of long continuance: 23. My elect shall not labor in vain, nor bring forth in trouble: because they are the seed of the blessed of the Lord, and their posterity with them. 24. And it shall come to pass that before they call, I will hear: as they are yet speaking, I will hear. 25. The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, the lion and the ox shall eat straw: and dust shall be the serpent's food: they shall not hurt, nor shall they kill in all My holy mountain, says the Lord.
Verse 1: 1. They have sought Me (This is the voice of God responding to Isaiah's complaint, meaning: The Gent...
1. They have sought Me (This is the voice of God responding to Isaiah's complaint, meaning: The Gentiles, to whom I was hitherto unknown and unrecognized, began eagerly to seek Me, as soon as through the preaching of the Apostles I began to be made known to them. Whence) I said: Behold Me (leaving the unbelieving Jews, I will turn Myself and go) to a nation that did not call upon My name — inasmuch as they now with such great zeal seek Me and the law of Christ
Verse 9: 9. Be not angry, O Lord, exceedingly. — For 'exceedingly' the Hebrew has, even very much, that is, b...
9. Be not angry, O Lord, exceedingly. — For 'exceedingly' the Hebrew has, even very much, that is, beyond measure, excessively. He prays that the abandonment of the Jews may not last forever.
Verse 10: 10. The city of Your holy one (in Hebrew, of Your holiness, that is, of Your sanctuary, in which nam...
10. The city of Your holy one (in Hebrew, of Your holiness, that is, of Your sanctuary, in which namely Your holy temple was) has become desolate. — Forerius explains differently: "the city of Your holy one," namely David, who once reigned there as a holy king. But the Hebrew and the following words favor the former sense: "The house of our sanctification (in Hebrew, the house of our holiness) and of our glory, in which our fathers praised You, has been burned with fire," that is, that temple which we thought was holy and inviolable, of which we boasted that it was Yours, as well as ours and our fathers', has been burned.
Verse 11: 11. Our desirable things (Vatablus: our precious things, that is, palaces, and other splendid places...
11. Our desirable things (Vatablus: our precious things, that is, palaces, and other splendid places, which we hold dear) have been turned into ruins. — By whom? By the Chaldeans, says Vatablus. But I say, by Titus and the Romans. So St. Jerome, Justin, Against Trypho, Forerius, Adamus and others generally. For under Titus all the goods of Israel, both spiritual and temporal, collapsed and perished. Whence the Prophet, concluding his prayer through the pathos of compassion for his nation, so desolated and deplored, says:
Verse 12: 12. Will You hold Yourself back over these things, O Lord, and afflict us exceedingly? — What the Lo...
12. Will You hold Yourself back over these things, O Lord, and afflict us exceedingly? — What the Lord responds to this, we shall hear in the following chapter.
Hear St. Jerome: "The Jews think all these things were fulfilled in the times of the Assyrians and Babylonians. But we, according to those things which follow from the person of the Savior: I appeared to those who did not ask, I was found by those who did not seek Me; refer everything to the time of the Roman victory, which Josephus the Jewish historian of history explains in seven volumes, that is, On the Capture, or On the Jewish War, and it is superfluous to expound in words what is evident to the eyes, since all their desirable things have been turned into ruin, and the temple celebrated throughout the whole world has become a dung heap of the new city, which is called Aelia from its founder, and has become a dwelling of owls: and in vain they say daily in their Synagogues: Over all these things, O Lord, will You hold Yourself back, and afflict us, and humble us exceedingly?"
Tropologically, the same St. Jerome refers these things to the Church, or to the soul of a holy man: "Which, he says, can rightly be called a watchtower, and the vision of peace, since the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit have dwelt in it. But if by our own fault, or the people's, such a Sion has been abandoned by the Lord, it will immediately be exposed to the fire of the devil's burning arrows. For all adulterous, like an oven are their hearts, Hosea VII. And once the chill of chastity has been expelled, the flame of lust will rage in the temple of God, so that whatever was glorious and renowned in us before, may collapse, be destroyed, and perish; and that word of the Psalm may be fulfilled: They have burnt Your sanctuary with fire, they have profaned the tabernacle of Your name upon the earth. Which only He can extinguish, from whose belly flow rivers of living water."
The Prophet gives God's decisive response to the question posed in the preceding chapter, in which God Himself: First, promises the gratuitous calling of the Gentiles, 1; Second, announces to the Jews a penal vengeance for their own and their fathers' crimes, 2-7; Third, lest the pious despair because of the threats made above against the wicked, He adds some mitigation of the punishment for their consolation, and excepts from it the faithful portion of the Jews and explains the benefits with which God will pursue them, 8-10; Fourth, turning again to those who, forgetful of their ancestral religion and the true God, followed the religions, indeed superstitions, of the idol-worshipping nations, He repeats the condemnation against them, 11, 12; Fifth, He amplifies both sentences through an antithesis of promises and threats, and now shows by various images what the future difference will be between the lot of those who kept faith with God, and of others who had defected from His religion to foreign superstitions, 13-16; Sixth, He promises a new formation of the Church and kingdom of Christ under the image of a new world, 17, 18, and describes the manifold blessing and future prosperity thereof, alluding to the blessings that are in the law for those who keep God's commandments, verses 19-25.
should also seek Me: therefore I will lead them through Christ to faith and to salvation.
Morally, note here that our eagerness toward God in turn provokes God's eagerness and benefits toward us. For God, most munificent, does not allow Himself to be surpassed in munificence, but spontaneously comes to meet those who are willing, and fulfills their prayers, indeed surpasses and transcends them. This repetition signifies this: "Behold Me, behold Me." Thus St. Paul explains it, Romans X, 20, and adds: "But Isaiah is bold, and says;" because indeed it was of great boldness to preach among the Jews the calling of the Gentiles and the reprobation of the Jews, and accordingly Origen and others judge this to have been the cause of Isaiah's death and martyrdom. St. Menas the Martyr fittingly used these words. For when he had led a wonderfully austere life in the desert for five years, preparing himself for martyrdom, at God's warning he went out into the city during a solemn pagan festival, ascended the theater, and from a high place exclaimed in a loud voice: "I have been found by those who do not seek Me; I appeared to those who do not ask for Me." By which voice he turned all eyes upon himself, and being led to the governor, freely and fearlessly preaching the faith of Christ, he was beaten with ox sinews, torn with iron claws, singed with burning torches, and tortured in other horrible ways; laughing at all these things and constantly praising Christ, at last struck by the sword, he suffered a glorious martyrdom for the profession of Christ under the Emperors Diocletian and Maximian, whose triumph the Church commemorates with an annual memorial on November 11.
Verse 2: 2. I have spread forth My hands all the day to an unbelieving people — meaning: To the Jews I have f...
2. I have spread forth My hands all the day to an unbelieving people — meaning: To the Jews I have from the very beginning spread wide My bosom and My hands, as though pouring out upon them My gifts and charisms, and especially I spread forth My hands on the cross, say Theodoret and Forerius, so that even in dying, though killed by them, I might attract and embrace them. But from them I obtained nothing: for to the ancient idolatry and crimes of their fathers, the sons add new offenses; and just as the fathers were unbelieving toward God by worshipping idols, so the sons are unbelieving toward Christ, following their own thoughts, and stubbornly clinging to Moses and Judaism. Thus the Apostle explains it, Romans X, 20, and likewise Ambrose, Origen, Chrysostom, and St. Jerome, Cyril, Theodoret here, and Hilary, book V On the Trinity, and Cyprian, book I Against the Jews, chapter XXI.
For 'unbelieving' the Hebrew has סורר, that is, withdrawing, rebellious, contumacious, and, as the Apostle translates, "not believing and contradicting."
Verse 3: 3. A people who provoke Me to anger before My face continually. — For the fathers in the temple, as...
3. A people who provoke Me to anger before My face continually. — For the fathers in the temple, as if before the face of God, sacrificed to idols, says Cyril; but the sons resisted Christ to His face, and reviled Him.
And they sacrifice upon bricks — that is, upon an altar constructed of bricks, after the manner of the Gentiles, says St. Jerome. Whence this was forbidden to the Jews: for God had commanded them to construct an altar from earth, or from unhewn stone. I gave the reasons in Exodus XX, 21. But note: For 'who sacrifice' the Hebrew has מקטרים, that is, as the Septuagint renders, they burn incense, they offer frankincense, they incense. For the Jews according to the law of Exodus XXX, 1, burned incense on the altar, not of holocausts but of incense, which was made of acacia wood overlaid with gold: but these people from the pagan rite had the same altar of holocausts and incense, and it was made and fashioned of cheap brick. This the Prophet censures and ridicules.
Verse 4: 4. Who dwell in sepulchres. — The Septuagint translates: Who sleep in sepulchres and caves for the s...
4. Who dwell in sepulchres. — The Septuagint translates: Who sleep in sepulchres and caves for the sake of dreams, so that through them they may be taught about the truth of some hidden or future matter which they seek, and reveal it to others, and thus divine like prophets: as Pomponius Mela and others relate, the Libyans worship the dead as deities, and lie in tombs, so that they may seek dreams from the dead, by which they may be advised what to do in hidden and doubtful matters. So Cyril, Theodoret, and others.
For the sepulchres of the ancients, as even now those of kings and religious, were large and spacious, like chambers or rooms, in which therefore one could sleep, and even dwell.
Whence secondly, here are noted magicians and sorcerers, who dwelt in tombs, in order to consult the demon there, and converse with him. For that demons love tombs is evident from the demoniacs dwelling in the tombs, whom Christ healed, Matthew VIII, 28. For since demons are most foul and most filthy, they therefore put on most foul bodies, and frequent most foul places, as being similar to themselves, such as tombs, gallows, caves, etc. Add that this happens by God's will, so that at the same time it may be signified that they delight in the death of men, and dwell among the dead: just as the place of the executioner and of criminals to be punished is Golgotha, or Calvary. Finally, thirdly, St. Chrysostom, Theophylact, and Euthymius on Matthew VIII, report that they do this in order to persuade men that the souls of men are transformed into demons, and sit beside their buried bodies. Whence St. Chrysostom: The demoniacs, he says, cry out: "I am the soul of that man."
And they sleep in the temples of idols. — "Where, says St. Jerome, having spread the skins of the victims, they were accustomed to lie down, in order to learn future things through dreams. Which error the pagans celebrate to this day in the temple of Aesculapius, and of many others, which are nothing else than the tombs of the dead." Thus that the sick slept in the temple of Aesculapius, in order to obtain health from him, Aristophanes testifies in the Plutus. Thus Tertullian, book On the Soul, chapter LIV, asserts, "The Nasamones capture their own oracles by lingering at the tombs of their parents, as Heraclides writes: and the Celts pass the night at the graves of brave men for the same reason, as Nicander affirms."
Wherefore Isaiah joins these temples to tombs, because they used to erect temples near the tombs of their dead, either to make the gods propitious and providers for their deceased, or to worship in them deceased heroes and princes, as though enrolled among the gods. Whence Asconius in his Divination judges that the bodies of the dead were customarily washed in temples, and thence the places before the altars were called delubra (temples), because in them there were labra, that is, basins and vessels, for washing the dead; or, as others say, delubra were so called from the washing both of corpses and of the hands of priests before sacrifice; although Festus thinks delubrum is so called as if 'delibratum,' that is, a stripped stake, which they worshipped as a god. But Servius says: Delubrum is so called because under one roof it encompasses multiple divinities, as is the Capitol, in which are Minerva, Jupiter, and Juno. It seems therefore that the pagans sought divinations and oracles through necromancy in temples as well as in tombs.
Wrongly therefore Vigilantius, and our saint-fighters, twist this against the basilicas of the Martyrs, and the vigils and prayers of the faithful in them. "For, says St. Jerome, the demons dwelling in them do this, rather than those people, unable to bear the power and scourges of the holy ashes." Note this, Calvin.
Again, in the temples of idols, especially of Venus, they would sleep indulging in lust, as I will show in Baruch VI, 24. It was otherwise at the vigils of Christians; for they spent the night in churches devoted to prayer. Moreover, how pleasing this is to God and the Saints, they have often declared with many miracles. Hear one illustrious one which happened at Rome in the basilica of St. Peter in the year of Christ 649, under Pope Martin I, and which is narrated in the Seventh Council of Toledo, at the end. When in Spain the first and second parts of the Moralia of St. Gregory could not be found, Taio, Bishop of Zaragoza, set out for Rome to transfer them from there to Spain. And when the archivists at Rome were causing him delay in searching the archives and chests, Taio, keeping vigil at night at the tomb of St. Peter, and praying that an indication of St. Gregory's books be given to him, saw the whole church filled with immense light. Then he beheld a great and august multitude of white-robed prelates proceeding two by two toward the altar of St. Peter. Of these, two turned aside to Taio, and one of them pointed out to him with his finger the chest in which the sought books were contained. Taio asked: "What is this procession of such illustrious men?" He immediately responded: "Those two whom you see walking before the others and embracing each other with joined hands, are Saints Peter and Paul. The rest whom you see standing after them are their successors, the Pontiffs of this Apostolic See in order. And just as they loved this Church in their lifetime, so now even after death they love it, and frequently come to visit it." Then the Bishop: "I beg you, my lord, that you would deign to tell me who you yourself are." He answered: "I am Gregory, for whose books you have endured the labor of so great a journey." Again the Bishop: "I beseech you, my lord (if he is here), to tell me which of them is St. Augustine, whose books I have loved no less than yours?" To whom St. Gregory replied: "A different place from ours holds St. Augustine, that most excellent man." For he was not buried at Rome in that basilica. Having said these things, he returned with his companion to the company of the others, and all together, bowing their heads reverently at the altar of St. Peter, withdrew in the same order and light in which they had come. Finally Taio, searching in the chest shown to him, found the books and carried them to Spain.
Receive another example. Theodosius the Elder built a magnificent temple at Constantinople in honor of St. John the Baptist, and transferred his holy head there, for which reason we still celebrate the feast of the beheading of St. John the Baptist on August 29, as Prosper in his Chronicle, Sozomen, book VII, chapter XXI, Cedrenus, Sigebert in the year of the Lord 391, and others testify. When afterwards a dangerous war arose between the tyrant Eugenius and Theodosius, Theodosius, relying more on God and the Saints than on arms, poured out ardent prayers in this temple, and invoked the aid of St. John, that he himself might be his protector and the leader in battle. The Saint heard him, and rewarded the Emperor's piety: for when the battle was joined, Eugenius was slain, his general Arbogastes escaped by flight and killed himself. Moreover, that this was done by the help of St. John was evident from what Sozomen narrates, book VII, chapter XXIV: "It is reported, he says, that at the time when the Emperor, having gathered his forces, was praying in the temple of God called the Hebdomon, a certain demon came forth, and having been carried up on high, reviled John the Baptist, and reproaching him for his beheading, cried out, saying: You conquer me, and lay snares for my army. Those who were present, etc., wrote down the day on which these things happened, and shortly after learned from those who were present at the battle that the events had indeed so occurred."
Note: the vices that Isaiah censures here pertain to the Jews not so much at the time of Christ (for then they did not worship idols), as to those who lived during and after the times of Isaiah: for he reproves the sins of these, as well as of their posterity. For the Prophets are accustomed to prophesy about posterity in such a way that they nevertheless do not neglect to censure the vices and morals of the parents of their own age.
Forerius, to show that these things also apply to the Jews at the time of Christ, explains everything mystically and symbolically: The Pharisees, he says, first sacrificed in gardens to their gods — not to Priapus or Jupiter, but to gluttony, the belly, lust, and their own desire. Second, they sacrificed upon bricks: because in earthen vessels they burned incense and other perfumes for softness and luxury. Third, they dwelt in tombs, that is, they were hypocrites, and like them outwardly presented an appearance of piety, while inwardly they were full of deceit and avarice: they were therefore to themselves as whitewashed sepulchres. Fourth, they slept in temples, that is, they committed horrible crimes. But these are mystical, not literal interpretations. Whence Pythagoras also had this third maxim, but in a different sense: "To sleep in a consecrated tomb, he says, is dangerous," that is, to lay beneath oneself for pleasure and sloth things consecrated to the gods above is dangerous, because this provokes the wrath and vengeance of God.
Who eat swine's flesh, and profane broth. — He censured the idolatry of the Jews; now he censures their gluttony and disobedience, namely that they cooked and ate meats forbidden by law, such as pork. Hence the broth of these is called "profane broth," that is, forbidden. For when the flesh is forbidden to be eaten, the broth of the meats is also forbidden. Again, the profane broth was that which from the cooked peace offerings was left until the second, or if it was from a vow, until the third day: for it had to be eaten on the same day; whence if it was kept in vessels until the third day, it was פגול piggul, that is, an unclean and polluting thing, Leviticus VII, 15, and chapter XIX, 7. So Forerius. Moreover, swine's flesh, or pork, because it is filthy, was forbidden to the Jews, Leviticus XI, 7. Whence Rupert, book II On the Trinity, chapter XXXIII, considers that the pig (porcus) is so called from filthiness (spurcitie): "The Latin, he says, calls the horse (caballum) from digging (cavando), because it digs the earth with its hoof: the donkey (asinum) from sitting (assidendo); the pig (porcum) as if filthy (spurcum), because it is filthy: and the dog (canem) because it produces a melodious bark while hunting." So he says, about which let etymologists judge.
Verse 5: 5. Who say (to a Gentile): Depart from me, for you are unclean — as if to say: Those Jews out of pri...
5. Who say (to a Gentile): Depart from me, for you are unclean — as if to say: Those Jews out of pride turn away from Gentiles as unclean, because they eat pork and other meats forbidden by law; although they themselves eat the same: and therefore they are more unclean than the Gentiles, since they act against their own law; but to the Gentiles no law forbids these meats.
These shall be smoke in My fury, a fire burning all the day — meaning: These shall go into the smoke and fire both of Titus and the Romans, who will burn Jerusalem; and into smoke and fire, that is, into a fire not bright, but smoking, foul, loathsome, and dark — the fire of hell. It is a metonymy: for "fire" and "smoke" are what the objects and fuel of fire and smoke are called, such as will be the bodies of the damned, for example, of these Jews who reject Christ. So St. Jerome, Forerius, Adamus, and others.
Verse 6: 6. Behold it is written before Me — meaning: Their sins are written both in their own conscience, an...
6. Behold it is written before Me — meaning: Their sins are written both in their own conscience, and in My memory and mind; and therefore they are continually observed by My eyes, and they strike My justice, that it may execute just vengeance upon them. He alludes to Deuteronomy XXXII, 34: "Are not these things stored with Me, and sealed up in My treasures? Vengeance is Mine, and I will repay them in due time." So also Jeremiah says, chapter XVII, 1: "The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, with a point of diamond," on which see there.
I will not be silent — I will not rest, I will not cease from vengeance upon the Jews. He looks back to what He said in chapter XLII, 14: "I have always been silent, I have held My peace, I have been patient; like a woman in labor I will speak;" I will rage indeed against the Jews at the time of Christ, when they will have plainly filled up the measure of their fathers' sins; for then I will punish both the parents' and the children's sins with the destruction of the entire nation. See what was said in Genesis XV, 16. This is what Christ says to the Jews, Matthew XXIII, 32: "Fill up the measure of your fathers, that upon you may come all the just blood that has been shed upon the earth, from the blood of Abel the just unto the blood of Zacharias," etc.
Verse 7: 7. Who have sacrificed upon the mountains (in high places, which were called 'the heights'), and hav...
7. Who have sacrificed upon the mountains (in high places, which were called 'the heights'), and have reproached Me upon the hills. — For those who worship idols as gods reproach God for the arrogance of divinity, and transfer it from God, as though falsely claimed, to idols, as though owed to them. Add that idolaters are accustomed to praise their idols and to attribute to them their wealth, victories, and fortunes; and on the contrary to revile and mock the God of the Jews, as the Jews did when worshipping the golden calf, Exodus XXXII, 4: "These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you out of the land of Egypt."
And I will measure back their first work into their bosom — meaning: I will recompense and repay the first and ancient works of the Jews, pouring out the deserved punishments into their bosom.
Verse 8: 8. As if there be found, etc. — Here God soothes and softens Isaiah's complaint with some consolatio...
8. As if there be found, etc. — Here God soothes and softens Isaiah's complaint with some consolation, which He mixes into the desolation of the Jews, meaning: Just as if someone in a corrupted cluster of grapes — for example, frozen, crushed underfoot, or rotten — were to find one grape or berry (so also the Septuagint and Vatablus; Marloratus therefore wrongly translates 'new wine' instead of 'grain') undamaged and whole, and were to say to another: Do not pluck it, or cast it away; but let it be sown, and germinate and grow into a vine, and produce new clusters: Because there is a blessing in it (so the Hebrew has); a blessing, that is, fruitfulness, namely seed, and the hope of propagation. For thus to bless in the Scriptures often means to benefit, namely to cause to grow and multiply. Thus God blessed man, animals, and plants, saying: "Increase and multiply," Genesis I, 22. In like manner, I will preserve a few from among the Jews, like a berry from a cluster, that is, from the whole nation, unharmed, so that the entire nation may not perish, but a seed may remain, namely the Apostles, and a few others believing in Christ, who will then propagate their faith and grace to others. This is
what Isaiah said in chapter I, 9, and from him Paul, Romans IX, 29: "Unless the Lord of hosts had left us a seed, we should have been as Sodom." So St. Cyril, Jerome, Rupert, and Eusebius, book II of the Demonstration, chapter XLIX.
Verse 9: 9. (This is what Isaiah adds): And I will bring forth from Jacob (from the Jacobites, or Israelites)...
9. (This is what Isaiah adds): And I will bring forth from Jacob (from the Jacobites, or Israelites) a seed (the aforementioned one), and from Judah (from the Jews) a possessor of My mountains. — Namely the Apostles and their successors, who will possess Jerusalem situated on the mountains, that is, the Church, whose doctrine and life is lofty and heavenly. So Forerius, Vatablus, and others.
Verse 10: 10. And the plains shall be for folds of flocks. — For 'plains' the Hebrew has שרון Saron. "But Saro...
10. And the plains shall be for folds of flocks. — For 'plains' the Hebrew has שרון Saron. "But Saron, says St. Jerome on chapter XXXVII of Isaiah, is the name given to the whole region near Joppa and Lydda, in which very broad and fertile plains extend." Hence they translate it as 'the plains,' just as the flat region in Italy and Gaul is most fertile, which is commonly called Campania. Saron therefore by synecdoche signifies verdant fields, and any fertile and pleasant place, meaning: To the faithful in the Church, as on the most pleasant mountains and the richest pastures, I will give the most abundant and joyful pastures, so that they may feed and be sheltered there, as flocks in rural folds. It is a continuous metaphor, or allegory.
And the valley of Achor for the resting place of herds, for My people. — "For the resting place," that is, like a resting place. Note: The valley of Achor was near Jericho, Joshua VII, 26, and therefore was very rich and fertile. For such was the field of Jericho; for balsam grows there, and nowhere else: it abounds in rose gardens, sugar cane, palm groves; whence it was also called the city of palms. It is called "Achor," that is, of trouble, because at the entrance to the Holy Land under Joshua, on account of the sacrilege of Achan, Israel was troubled and defeated there; but when Achan was punished and killed, through Joshua, who was a type of Jesus Christ, their mourning was turned to joy; and there the hope of victory and rest was opened, where there had been despair and trouble. Now "the valley of Achor" here can, first, be taken as the world, in which men, the flesh, and the devil trouble us, meaning: Although the world is the valley of Achor, that is, of trouble, yet in it through Christ all the faithful will sweetly rest; for by the power of grace and the strength of the Holy Spirit they will overcome all trouble, or generously endure it. Second, "the valley of Achor" is the region of the Gentiles, or the Gentile world before Christ. So Cyril. Third, and best, "the valley of Achor" is Judea. For Achan signifies the Jews unbelieving in Christ, and enemies and troublemakers of Christians. For he has been speaking about the Jews from verse 8 onward, and so "the valley of Achor" is taken for Judea, Hosea II, 15, meaning: From Judea, the troubler of Christ and Christians, will come forth, and in it will dwell at rest, will feed and feed others, herds, that is, the Apostles and other Christians. For he is speaking of faithful Jews and Christians; for he deals with the unfaithful in what follows. See Canons VI and VII.
Verse 11: 11. And you who have forsaken the Lord (He passes to the impious and unfaithful Jews, both of his ow...
11. And you who have forsaken the Lord (He passes to the impious and unfaithful Jews, both of his own time and those who imitated their fathers at the time of Christ; for he reproves the impiety and unbelief of both, these against Christ, those against God. Whence he says): Who have forgotten My holy mountain — namely Zion, and its temple, and you flee to the high places of idols, and at the time of Christ, having abandoned the Church, which began on Zion, you stubbornly cling to the impious Scribes and Pharisees.
Who set (prepare, furnish) a table for Fortune. — For Fortune the Hebrew has גד Gad, that is, happiness, fortune. Whence Leah called the son born from Zilpah her handmaid Gad, saying: Fortunately, namely this son has been born to me, Genesis XXX, 11. Hence it is clear that Gad was a god of the Gentiles, on whom they believed fortune and victory in wars depended, whom accordingly some called Mars, others Fortune. For Gad is derived from גדוד gedud, that is, from a military troop or band, which they believed Mars presided over. And hence the Germans, once devoted to wars and plunder, called their god God, as the patron of both fortitude and military fortune. For in battle, as the Poet says, "chance and valor are mingled in one." Hence for Gad, Forster and Forerius translate Mars; R. Moses, Jupiter; our Translator, Vatablus, the Syriac, and others, Fortune; Arias, good favor, or a good outcome. For this reason "the first, says Plutarch, in his book On the Fortune of the Romans, to dedicate a temple to Fortune was Ancus Martius, born of a sister of Numa, and he seems to have made Fortune a cognomen of fortitude, to which fortune contributes greatly for obtaining victory." And below: "But the Fortune which was dedicated at the Tiber is Fortune the Strong, endowed with the power of conquering all things and generous; they built a temple to her in the gardens bequeathed to the people by Caesar; because they judged that by the favor of Fortune he too had been elevated to the supreme power; which he himself also testified." Gad therefore is Strong Fortune, or Mars and Fortune.
Hear also St. Jerome: "There is in all cities, and especially in Egypt, an ancient custom of idolatry, that on the last day of the year they set out a table laden with various kinds of foods, and a cup mixed with new wine, either taking the auspices for the fertility of the past year or the coming one. But this the Israelites did, worshipping the portents of all manner of images." Just as they imitated the Apis which they had seen worshipped in Egypt, with the golden calves which they fashioned and worshipped, both in the desert and in Canaan. And this custom of the Gentiles seems to have persisted among those who converted to Christ. For from this seems to have arisen that custom of Christians, to hold banquets on the last day of the year as well as the first, in order to end the happiness of the past year with joy, and take the auspices for the prosperity of the new year with the same, and wish each other well.
It is certain therefore that the Gentiles worshipped Fortune as a god or goddess. Whence Virgil: Almighty Fortune and inescapable fate.
You ask the reason? I will state it. Many things in human affairs are fortuitous, and happen by chance, such as wealth, honors, victories in war. Again, adversities often befall the good, and prosperity the wicked, not by merit, but as if by chance; whence the common people attribute these things to Fortune, not knowing that Fortune is governed by God's providence. Hence many repeat that saying of Hercules: "Why have I devoted myself to virtue, when I see it subject to fortune?" For this reason, then, the Gentiles worshipped Fortune as a most powerful goddess, one who blessed her devotees. Indeed, even among Christians there are those who attribute more to fortune than to prudence or virtue. Thus that miser in Gregory Nazianzen, in his treatise On Fortune, used to say: "A drop of good luck or fortune is worth more to me than a barrel of good sense or prudence."
Bupalus, says Giraldus, Syntagma 16, was the first of all to make a statue of Fortune for the Smyrnaeans, bearing the celestial sphere on her head and the horn of Amalthea in her hand. After this Pindar celebrated the goddess herself. But already before him Orpheus had sung a hymn to Fortune with the burning of frankincense. There was also in the city of Aegira a statue of Fortune, similarly bearing a cornucopia, beside which there was a winged Cupid. Pausanias therefore thinks it is signified that even those things that pertain to love succeed for mortals more by fortune than by beauty. Likewise Lactantius, book III, chapter XXVIII, teaches that Fortune was depicted with a cornucopia and a rudder, as though she bestowed riches and obtained the government of human affairs. Hence Pliny, book II, chapter VII, exclaims: "Throughout the whole world and in all places and at all hours, in all voices, Fortune alone is invoked and named, alone accused, alone arraigned, alone thought of; alone praised, alone reproached, and worshipped with reproaches, thought to be fickle, wandering, inconstant, uncertain, variable, and the patroness of the undeserving: to her all expenditures, to her all receipts are attributed, and we are so subject to fate that fate itself takes the place of God, by which God is proved uncertain." This was therefore a fraud of the devil, says St. Augustine, book IV of the City of God, chapter XIX: "That men should not care to live rightly, as if God did not exist, having won over Fortune to their side, who would make them fortunate without any good merits."
Now they depicted Fortune, first, as blind, as Cebes the Theban did in his Tablet: "But who, he says, is that woman who appears to be blind and insane, standing on a round stone? She is called Fortune, he says: but she is not only blind, but also insane and deaf. What are her functions? She wanders about, he says, among all nations, and from some she snatches away their possessions, to others she bestows them, and from those again she takes away what she had given, and confers it randomly on others." St. Augustine, book VII of the City of God, chapter III: "The ancients, he says, called Fortune a goddess, conferring her gifts on each person not by rational arrangement, but as happened by chance. Of her Sallust says: But truly Fortune rules in all things: she makes all things famous or obscure more by caprice than by truth." But wiser than Sallust is Seneca in his epistles: "Fortune, he says, can give neither good nor evil: for the mind is stronger than all fortune, which in either direction
directs its affairs, and is to itself the cause of a blessed or miserable life." And Juvenal: No divinity is absent, if there be prudence: but we / make you, Fortune, a goddess, and place you in heaven. And Plautus, in the Trinummus: "A wise man, by Pollux, fashions his own fortune." And Attius, cited by Sallust, said to Caesar: "Each man is the maker of his own fortune." And Fabius in Livy, book XXII: "For a good general, fortune is of no great importance; mind and reason rule."
Second, they depicted her as a woman. Hear Artemidorus: "Mercury, he says, is a youth and adolescent, Hercules a young man, Jupiter a mature man, Saturn an old man, the Dioscuri twin youths, Hope a virgin, Diana and Minerva: Hope indeed laughing, Diana with a chaste face, Minerva gazing at the Gorgon. Fortune is a young woman, Vesta an old one. The Fates are three clothed women, the Hours are naked, the Nymphs are bathing." St. Augustine, book IV of the City of God, chapter XIX, reports that a statue of womanly Fortune was dedicated and named at Rome by the matrons, and that it was said to have spoken on several occasions. Giraldus gives the reason, Syntagma 16, and Plutarch, in his book On the Fortune of the Romans. For when Coriolanus the exile had waged war against his homeland, namely Rome, and could not be resisted by arms or by entreaties; yet he was appeased by the tears of women, and therefore a temple was built to Womanly Fortune, on the Via Latina, at the fourth milestone from the city.
Third, others, says Giraldus, Syntagma 16, depicted Fortune sailing amid the waves of the sea, others on the peak of a rock or mountain exposed to the winds, most depicted her standing on a wheel. Certainly when Apelles himself had painted Fortune seated, and was asked why he had done so, he replied: "Because she never stood still." Among the Scythians she was depicted without feet, having only hands and wings, like the birds they call apodas (footless), because they lack feet; others call them swifts, of which Pliny speaks, book X, XXXIX. There were also those who called her glass, on account of her fragility. Others placed Fortune on the swiftest horse, and Fate pursuing her at a run with bow drawn, signifying Fortune's instability and swiftness; and that she is always driven by the force of Fate: hence the proverb: "Fortune is a Euripus," signifying her inconstancy.
Fourth, she was depicted with a cornucopia. Hence she was also called Mammosa (Bountiful) by the Romans, on account of her abundance and fecundity; likewise Obsequens, that is favoring and indulging, and Omnipotens (Almighty) by Virgil, says Lactantius, book II, chapter XXVIII. Whence the Romans owe their empire more to fortune than to virtue, says Plutarch, in his book On the Fortune of the Romans. Where he also adds an illustrious example: Fortune, he says, lifting Cornelius Sulla from the bosom of a harlot of Nicopolis, exalting him above the Cimbrian triumphs of Marius and his seven consulships, bestowed upon him sole power over the republic and dictatorships: who indeed openly gave himself and his deeds over to Fortune for adoption, crying out with the Oedipus of Sophocles: "I myself
I consider Sulla a son of Fortune." He then adds: "Numa, and the kings who followed him, admired Fortune as the leader and nursling of Rome, and because (as Pindar said) she truly bore the city." Thus even now the king of Narsinga, ruling broadly in East India, styles himself the bridegroom of subvasth, that is, of good fortune, as is clear from Indian letters.
Fifth, a golden Fortune was kept in the chambers of the Emperors. And when one was dying in the presence of Fortune, she was transferred to his successor: whence we say of someone that they have obtained (or snatched) another's Fortune. Spartianus in his Life of Severus also called this the royal Fortune. Dionysius of Halicarnassus, book IV, writes that Servius Tullius, king of the Romans, after defeating the Etruscans, built two temples to Fortune at Rome, whom he had enjoyed as favorable throughout his whole life (for from a slave he was elevated to the kingship, and that a happy and prosperous one), one in the Forum Boarium, the other on the banks of the Tiber. Plutarch adds that Servius proclaimed that he had an intimate relationship with Fortune, and that she was accustomed to glide into his chamber through a certain window, and he adds that by Servius himself a shrine was built on the Capitol to Fortune the First-Born, of whom the Poet says: You who are worshipped near the Tarpeian Thunderer, / Fortune, always avenger of my vows, / Receive these harsh offerings which piety sets before you as you deserve. He adds the reason, that Fortune bestowed on the city both its empire and its origin. So he himself says, in the book On the Fortune of the Romans. There is here at Rome in the palace of the most illustrious Cardinal Farnese, for anyone to see, an ancient statue of Fortune. It is a large and tall stone statue, in female form, holding the globe in her hand, with this inscription: "Sacred to Fortune the Restorer, from the house of Augustus."
A table. — Note: The Gentiles set tables for their gods, thinking they were fed and delighted by our delicacies, just as they themselves were delighted. For they measured the appetite of their gods by their own appetite. Thus they set a table for Bel, thinking that Bel devoured all the food placed on it, when in fact the priests devoured it, Daniel XIV, 14. Thus in Judges IX, 27, the Shechemites, feasting in the temple of their god, reviled Abimelech. But particularly for Fortune, as a festive and joyful goddess, who breathed all prosperity, they set out a table and a banquet, so as to worship the goddess with hilarity, as it were a goddess of merriment, and to feast together with her as it were, and indulge their appetites. This superstition being corrected, God transferred it to His own worship, and willed that on His altar meats should be set before Him as if for food, and a libation of wine as if for drink, and thence the altar was called the table of the Lord, as I said in Leviticus I and II.
And you offer libations upon it. — In Hebrew: you fill for Meni a drink, or libation, which the Septuagint translates: you fill a drink for the demon. For they seem, along with Symmachus, to have read מני minni, that is, without me, meaning: You who prepare a table for Fortune, and fill a drink without me, to teach that it is not done for Him but for the demon, says St. Jerome. The demon therefore is called minni, that is, without me, because he is without God, indeed against God. Second, others, like Pagninus, translate minni as 'planets'; others, as 'fate,' says Vatablus. Third, Forerius understands Meni (for so he reads with different vowel points) as Mercury; for he was the patron of accounts and business, from the root מנה mana, that is, he numbered, he counted. They therefore poured libations to Mercury, so that they might be more fortunate in business dealings. For astrologers even now ascribe to him a certain divine power over those who are born under his horoscope or ascendant, by which they are more fortunate than others in business. Fourth, very probably Sanchez translates למני limni as 'to the number,' and thinks there is an allusion to the ancient rites instituted in memory of Anna Perenna. For Anna, a goddess so called from the years (annis) over which she presided, and they sacrificed to her in the month of March, so that they might have years and perpetuity. She was a daughter of Belus, sister of Dido, who fleeing Lavinia, the wife of Aeneas, who was plotting against her, threw herself headlong into the river Numicus, and seemed to say to those pursuing her: I am the nymph of the calm Numicus, / Hiding in the perennial stream, I am called Anna Perenna. So Ovid, book III of the Fasti. In the rites of Anna, therefore, the superstitious Gentiles drank according to a number, thinking that as many years of life would be added to them as cups they drained in that solemnity, about which Ovid says in the passage cited above: Yet they grow warm from sun and wine, and pray for years, / As many as the cups they take, they drink to the number. / You will find one there who would drink down the years of Nestor, / Who through her cups would become a Sibyl.
Likewise Arias, and Delrio, in adage 810, think that here are noted those who in honor of their god drank as many cups as letters his name contained. The Prophet is therefore commanded to declare to them that those cups will not add years to their lives, but subtract them; for they themselves will not number years, but rather the sword will number them, as follows.
The Septuagint translates meni as δαίμονι, to a demon, or to a genius. For the Scholiast on Apollonius, book I, reports that there were three principal and sacred cups in banquets: the first of Jupiter the Savior, the second of the Good Genius, the third of Mercury the patron of sleep. The first, "of Jupiter the Savior," was called the cup "of good health," whence the French derived their custom of boire a la sante (drinking to health). The second, "of the Good Genius," is the cup "of Fortune," which they drained after dinner in her honor, thus worshipping her, and as it were denying God's providence. From this superstition flowed the more recent superstition of preparing nocturnal feasts for the good ladies, or white Sibyls, and their queen Abundia. The third cup they drank to procure sleep, which the Germans still drink. This is what Antiphanes said in Athenaeus, book X: Up to three cups the gods are to be honored.
These things Delrio proves and elucidates more fully from Athenaeus, Nicostratus, Eriphus, Diphilus, and others, in adage 811. Where he also adds, first, that the Septuagint calls Fortune a demon, with some allusion of the Hebrew word lameni to the Greek δαίμων. Second, that from this seems to have arisen the custom of the Belgians and Germans of drinking after saying grace. Third, that our Translator, having encompassed all these things, attributed them to Fortune alone, because she was the Jupiter, that is the god, of the Gentiles. He therefore notes the twofold act of one idolatry, namely of those worshipping Fortune: first, by the setting of a table; second, after the table, by a libation poured to the demon; and because this cup was only tasted, he expressed that practice with the word 'offering libation' upon the table, that is, after the table when dinner was over.
Our Translator therefore seems to have followed the Septuagint and Symmachus, and therefore omitted the interpretation of the name Meni, as though it was sufficiently contained in the name Fortune, which preceded; for those who pour libations to Fortune pour them not to God but to the demon: whence St. Jerome in his Commentary does not bring forward another explanation of Meni. Or rather he did this, as it seems, because by Meni he understood Fortune, as though she were called Meni from the number either of the dishes that were set before her on the table, and, as the Hebrew עורכים orechim signifies, were arranged, that is, placed in order; or of the cups which they drank in her honor, as I have already said; or of the riches, goods, and properties which they prayed Fortune to give them (for hence riches were called 'fortunes,' because they thought them given and inspired by Fortune); or of the crowds and military forces. For these are what the Hebrew גדוד gedud properly signifies, from which the name Gad, that is, Fortune, is derived: for they believed she presided over them and gave them plunder and victory. Whence in Hebrew the literal reading is: You who arrange a table for Gad, and fill for Meni a libation, where, in Hebrew fashion, the second hemistich says the same as the first. It is therefore the same thing to fill a libation for Meni as to arrange a table for Gad, that is, for Fortune: wherefore just as Fortune is called Gad in Hebrew, from military troops and plundering bands; so also she is called Meni, from their number and multitude.
Wrongly therefore Musculus translates: And you fill a libation by number: because, he says, the Jews worshipped a certain number of stars or gods; or because they sacrificed to them with a certain number of libations according to the number of offerers: which kinds of superstitions, he says, the Papists have many of, since they bind not only their offerings but also their prayers to the prescription of a certain number: so says the heretic. To whom I respond that the Jews are censured here not precisely for a certain number of libations, but because they poured them to their idols and gods, and matched the number to their false gods: for he censures their idolatry. But Christians are not idolaters, but worship the true God now with fixed and numbered prayers, now with uncertain and undefined ones at their discretion. Moreover, everyone knows that Sacred Scripture often marks divine mysteries with numbers, as is evident in the twelve thousand sealed, Apocalypse VII, and elsewhere throughout. Who therefore would reprove one who, in honor of the Holy Trinity recites three times, in honor of the five wounds of Christ recites five times the Lord's Prayer, etc.? See Peter Bongus, On the Mysteries of Numbers, Peter Canisius, Coster, and others, On the Rosary. Finally, the Syriac and Arabic fully agree with our Translator, for they translate: You have filled tables with Fortunes (in Arabic, with idols), and mixed flagons of wine for them.
Verse 12: 12. I will number you for the sword — namely when I will strike all and each of you, as if by count,...
12. I will number you for the sword — namely when I will strike all and each of you, as if by count, and in order, with the sword. It is a metalepsis, for from the numbering of those to be punished, their slaughter is understood. Whence Vatablus translates: I will number you for the sword, that is, having numbered you, I will expose you to the sword. He speaks especially of the sword of Titus and the Romans. He alludes to Meni, that is, number, in the word מניתי maniti, that is, I will number, meaning: Because you worshipped Fortune by drinking to the number, so likewise I will slaughter you with the sword by the number.
Verse 13: 13. Behold My servants. — This was plainly fulfilled in the disciples of Christ, who were inebriated...
13. Behold My servants. — This was plainly fulfilled in the disciples of Christ, who were inebriated by God with the spiritual delights of wisdom, virtues, and heavenly consolations, while the Jews were utterly deprived and destitute of these — delights, I say, both of the graces already mentioned, and of the Eucharist; for Cyprian, book I Against the Jews, chapter XXII; Ambrose, book On Paradise, chapter IX; Cyril and Jerome here understand this passage in reference to the Eucharist. Anagogically and most perfectly these things will be fulfilled at that heavenly table promised by Christ, Luke XXII, 30, where the Blessed will perpetually enjoy divine nectar and ambrosia. So St. Jerome and Tertullian, book IV Against Marcion, chapter XVIII. Piously and movingly St. Jerome narrates in the Life of St. Paula that these things were fulfilled in her: "Paula, he says, has finished her course, and has kept the faith; and now she enjoys the crown of justice, and follows the Lamb wherever He goes. She is satisfied, because she hungered, and joyfully sings: As we have heard, so we have seen in the city of the Lord of hosts, in the city of our God. O blessed exchange of things! She wept, that she might laugh forever; she despised broken cisterns, that she might find the Lord as her fountain; she was clothed in sackcloth, that she might now wear white garments, and say: You have torn my sackcloth, and clothed me with joy. She ate ashes like bread, and mingled her drink with tears, saying: My tears have been my bread day and night, that she might forever eat the bread of Angels, and sing: Taste and see that the Lord is sweet; and: My heart has uttered a good word, I speak my works to the king. So that she might see the words of Isaiah, indeed of the Lord through Isaiah, fulfilled in herself: Behold those who serve Me shall eat, but you shall hunger: behold those who serve Me shall drink, but you shall thirst: behold those who serve Me shall rejoice, but you shall be confounded: behold those who serve Me shall exult, but you shall cry out for sorrow of heart, and shall howl for grief of spirit."
Verse 15: 15. And you shall leave your name for an oath — that is, for a curse; namely when people wish to cur...
15. And you shall leave your name for an oath — that is, for a curse; namely when people wish to curse someone or to swear against them, they will say: May what happened to the Jews happen to you; may the sword, the disaster, and the Jewish desolation overtake you. So St. Jerome. Similarly Jeremiah says, chapter XXI, 9: "I will give them over to vexation, etc., to reproach, and to a parable, and to a proverb, and to a curse," and chapter XXIX, 22, concerning Ahab and Zedekiah: "From them shall be taken a curse by all the captivity of Judah that is in Babylon, saying: May the Lord make you like Zedekiah, and like Ahab."
The Septuagint, reading sin instead of shin, namely שבוע sebua (that is, satiety) instead of שבוע schebua (that is, oath), translate: You shall leave your name for a satiety (that is, for nausea and disgust) to My elect.
And He shall call His servants by another name — namely, that of Christ, meaning: He will call them Christians, by which name the faithful of Christ were first called at Antioch, Acts XI, 26. See what was said in chapter LXII, 2. Whence this name in what follows is called blessed, and he says that they will swear by it; for he adds:
Verse 16: 16. In whom (namely Christ, or the God of the Christians) he who is blessed upon the earth, shall be...
16. In whom (namely Christ, or the God of the Christians) he who is blessed upon the earth, shall be blessed in God, amen — that is, in the true God, as the Septuagint translates. Hence it is clear that Christ is true God. For the meaning is: In the golden age of the Messiah and the Gospel, blessings and oaths will be made through the name of Christ, as the true God, so that whoever is blessed in His name may be blessed in the name of the true God, and therefore be truly blessed. For the faithful will say: May the God of the Christians bless me or you — God, I say, amen, that is, the true one; or: So may God love me, so may Christ do good to me, who is God, amen, just as He Himself did good to His Christians.
Note: "Amen" here is not an adverb of approbation, but is a noun in the construct genitive; for it reads באלהי אמן belohe amen, that is, in the God of amen itself, namely in the God of truth and faithfulness, who is the true God, and faithfully keeps His promises, and blesses His worshippers, and avenges and punishes covenant-breakers and perjurers, meaning: May the blessing come to me or to you, which was given to Christians by Christ, who is God, amen, that is, of truth and faithfulness, the very thing He promised to His faithful and beloved.
To this the Apostle alluded, 2 Corinthians I, 19, saying: "The Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us, etc., was not 'It is' and 'It is not,' but 'It is' was in Him; for whatever promises of God there are, in Him they are affirmed. And therefore through Him, amen to God, for our glory." See what was said there.
And (repeat 'in whom,' namely Christ) he who swears in the earth, shall swear by God, amen — meaning: The faithful will not swear by Jupiter, Juno, Hercules, as formerly, but by Christ, by the sacred Gospels of Christ, by the faith, by the Sacraments of Christ, as God amen, that is, the true God: for those swearing will say: I swear by Christ, who is God amen, that I did not commit this crime: So may Christ save me or destroy me, who is God amen, if I did this. So Forerius, Adamus, Sanchez, and others.
Because the former distresses are delivered to oblivion. — The Septuagint: They shall forget their first tribulation. For the Hebrew צרות tsarot properly signifies tribulations. Thus Joseph, exalted from prison to the rule of Egypt, called his son Manasseh, that is, forgetfulness, saying: "God has made me forget all my labors," Genesis chapter XLI, 51.
He speaks of the blessings and gifts of Christ in the Church both militant and triumphant: for these are so great that they overwhelm the sense of former evils. St. Jerome adds that in heaven all memory of evils will be abolished; for he says: "Although this too can be said, that in the new heaven and the new earth all memory of the former way of life will be effaced, lest this very remembering of former anguish be part of the evils." But St. Augustine refutes this, book XXII of the City of God, chapter XXX, from the Psalmist who says: "The mercies of the Lord I will sing forever;" nor is it part of evils, but of blessings, to remember former anguish, if from it you have escaped to great glory. For here that saying is true: Endure, O companions, someday it will be pleasing to remember.
"The remembrance of affliction is pleasant, when you have escaped it," says Aristotle, book III of the Rhetoric. Hence the Blessed sing the Canticle of Moses with exultation, because, just as the Hebrews, after the anguish of the Egyptians and the Red Sea, with those drowned, themselves escaped safely to the shore, so also they have arrived unharmed at the port of salvation from so many perils and shipwrecks, Apocalypse chapter XV, verse 3. Again, chapter VII, verse 14, one of the blessed, and indeed one of the elders, says: "These are they who have come out of great tribulation," etc.
More truly therefore is what Jerome first said: "They will forget evils, not with a forgetfulness of memory, but with the succession of good things," and, as St. Augustine says, "with a forgetfulness of experience, not of knowledge." Second, Forerius thinks this anguish is not tribulation, but the constraints of the law and legal observances, especially the small and narrow blessing of the Old Testament, namely the abundance of wine, oil, and similar earthly goods. For the faithful of Christ forget these, when through Him they receive ample and heavenly blessings of grace and eternal glory. For concerning these the Prophet adds: "Behold I create new heavens and a new earth," and concerning these God rightly says: "Because they are hidden from My eyes." For now God forgets and rejects the legal blessings, as well as the ceremonies. Tribulations however can also be said to be hidden; that is, removed and distanced from the eyes of God: because He Himself
removes them from heaven, so that the Blessed may not see them, that is, may not feel them, nor grieve over them. This sense seems sufficiently genuine and connected: for he was speaking of the blessings of Christ, and said they would be blessings of God amen, that is, of truth, and therefore they would be true and solid, such as those of Moses and the old law were not. The former exposition, however, is plainer and more common.
Verse 17: 17. Behold I create new heavens and a new earth. — Note here that the kingdom of Christ in the Churc...
17. Behold I create new heavens and a new earth. — Note here that the kingdom of Christ in the Church is called a new world, which is far more ample, more adorned, more august than this one we see, as is evident to anyone considering its graces, charisms, Sacraments, miracles, wisdom, efficacy, holiness, and its leaders the Apostles, Martyrs, Confessors, Virgins, etc. But this kingdom is here begun, but will be perfected in the resurrection, when heaven and earth will be truly and materially renewed, Apocalypse XXI, 1. See what was said in chapter XXXIV, verse 4. Wherefore others do not rightly refer these things to the joy of those returning from the Babylonian captivity. For that was too insignificant for it to be said: "Behold I create new heavens and a new earth."
Verse 18: 18. For behold I create Jerusalem (the Church) a rejoicing, and its people a joy. — "A rejoicing," t...
18. For behold I create Jerusalem (the Church) a rejoicing, and its people a joy. — "A rejoicing," that is, rejoicing; "a joy," that is, joyful: for abstract terms are used for concrete ones, according to Canon XXXVIII, to signify that it will greatly exult and rejoice, so that it seems entirely converted into exultation and joy. These and the following things pertain to the genuine children of the Church, namely the saints, not to the impious and wicked. See Canon IX.
Verse 20: 20. There shall no more be an infant of days there — that is, of few days, says Forerius, meaning: L...
20. There shall no more be an infant of days there — that is, of few days, says Forerius, meaning: Little children who have lived only a few days will not be snatched away by premature death: nor will an old man who has not filled up his days be carried out from there. Little children will not die before reaching mature age: nor will one who is already beginning to grow gray depart from life before reaching extreme old age.
Second, "an infant of days," that is, of many days, says Sanchez, is one who has many days and years of age, but as regards wisdom and morals is an infant. "An infant of days" therefore is the same as "a child a hundred years old," meaning: At the time of Christ true Christians will not be men in age yet boys in the fickleness and depravity of their morals; but all will be men in the purity of life, in grace and virtue, though in different degrees: for one will be greater, another lesser in holiness.
Third and most simply, meaning: Those reborn through baptism will not be infants of few days, but like men they will be full and strong with grace and virtues. He speaks of baptized adults, who immediately grow into men perfect in virtue, such as the first Christians were.
That this is the meaning is clear from what follows: "And an old man who does not fill up his days," meaning: In the new law there will be no infant, nor an old man of days, who does not fill up his days of virtue and holiness. Therefore the old in Christianity, as well as the young, will fill their years with virtues, so that they may have as many days and years of virtues as of age in the faith; and be as old in morals as in the years they have lived in Christianity: "For the understanding of a man is gray hairs, and the age of old age is an unspotted life." Such were the first Christians, who immediately from baptism ran to martyrdom. Those therefore who spend their life in idleness, or consume their years by living unworthily, do not fill up their days, even if they live the years of Methuselah.
St. Ambrose excellently says, in book I on Luke, explaining that passage: "And an old man who does not fill up his days": Let us not measure virtues and vices by times; and let there not be smallness of soul and childishness of virtue. For we reckon ages according to both soul and body; not by the measure of time, but by the quality of virtue: so that the perfect man is said to be he who lacks the error of childhood, and does not feel the slipperiness of adolescence through the maturity of his mind; but he is small who seems to have made no progress in virtue yet. Therefore John was great, not by strength of body, but by greatness of soul; small in the world, great in spirit.
Anagogically St. Jerome, Cyril, and Procopius refer these things to the resurrection of the Blessed. For they will rise in a perfect age, namely manhood; accordingly the Apostle alluded to this, Ephesians chapter IV, 13, saying: "Until we all meet in the unity of faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the age of the fullness of Christ."
For the child shall die a hundred years old, and the sinner being a hundred years old shall be accursed. — First, Forerius explains, meaning: In the new law a believing sinner will not die civilly, that is, will not be expelled from the Church, will not be cursed, will not be excommunicated, before he has been a son of a hundred years, that is, before he has grown old in sins; and in them has become hardened, shameless, and obstinate. The Arabic favors this, which translates: A youth shall die, when he is the son of a hundred years; and he who sins shall not be cursed, except after a hundred years. This passage therefore commends nothing other than that sins committed through frailty or ignorance will easily be pardoned: and that from them a man will not incur disgrace and condemnation in the Church; but if he repents, he will soon be admitted to penance and reconciliation. Second, St. Jerome, Cyril, Castrius, and Delrio, in adage 812, explain, meaning: In the Church of Christ even children as regards the age of regeneration in baptism will be men in Christian wisdom and virtue, that is, perfect. Third, and genuinely, he gives the reason why he said that in the Church there will not be an old man who does not fill up his days with morals and virtues: because, namely, if there were an old man who was childish in morals, and were a child of a hundred years, that is, in age were an old man of a hundred years, but in understanding and vicious life were a child; he will not persevere in the Church, so as to go from the militant to the triumphant; but will be punished with death
eternal, and will be cursed by God, and will go to the underworld, to be a companion of demons and the damned. It is therefore the same thing: "The child of a hundred years shall die," as: "The sinner of a hundred years shall be accursed," as follows. For in Hebrew verse the second hemistich repeats and confirms the first. So St. Jerome, Procopius, Cyril. Thus among the Romans there was a proverb: "To throw the sixty-year-olds off the bridge." Which Erasmus explains at length, Chiliades 1, Century 5, adage 37.
Note: A sinner of a hundred years is called a child, on account of his childish loves and manners. A similar phrase exists in Belgium, where even tall and aged men are called Holland boys: because Dutch mothers above other mothers wonderfully love their sons even when grown old, and therefore call and treat them as boys. Hear also Hesiod, book I of Works and Days: But for a hundred years the child at the side of his careful mother / Was nurtured, growing very unrefined in his own home.
On the other hand, a just man, even if only fifteen years old, is called a man, on account of his manly morals and deeds. Thus Barlaam, as Damascene testifies in his History, chapter XVIII, when Josaphat asked how old he was, answered 45. When Josaphat marveled, and replied: But your face and wrinkles indicate you are more than seventy. So it is, and I am older, said Barlaam, if I count the years of life in which I lived with the flies of the world: but if I count the years in which I lived for God, they are only forty-five; and these alone I count as years of life; the rest, which I spent in vanity, I count as death.
On the other hand, the ancients praised in a boy wisdom and old-mannered ways, and such a one was called παιδαριογέρων, 'child-elder' (as St. Macarius was called, according to Nicephorus, book IX, chapter XIV), meaning: A boy-old-man, such as Solomon the youth settling the dispute of the harlots, or Daniel freeing Susanna. Thus Philo the Jew, cited in book II of the Melissa, chapter XVIII: "Those who, he says, have lived much time in the life of the body without any virtue or probity, may be called boys of long time." And again: "How long shall we old men still be boys? In body indeed, on account of the length of time, old; but in soul, on account of ignorance and dullness, very much boys." Hence the proverb of the Gentiles: "Old men are twice boys," on which Suidas, under the word καταγηράσκω, says: "May you grow old more deeply than Tithonus, longer than Cinyras, more luxuriously than Sardanapalus, so that the proverb may be fulfilled in you: Old men are twice boys." And Seneca: "We, he says, are not twice boys, as is commonly said, but always; but the difference is that we play at greater things." For old men become childish again, and as it were return to boyhood. For, as Aristotle says in the Problems: "How one should understand what are called the first and last things:" in old men the whiteness and thinning of hair returns, then stammering, as a second infancy. Besides this, the gum is disarmed of teeth, or certainly furnished with very few, and those loose, as happens with children. Moreover, in old men every
the body diminishes to a childlike scale: the weakness of strength is similar, the foods are similar. Finally, the foolishness of behavior, the levity of mind, and this very knowing little or nothing recalls infancy. For Aristotle in the Politics is the authority that after 48 years the vigor of talent vanishes. Hence it happens that old men are wonderfully delighted by children, as though those who are similar are inclined to the love of their like.
Morally, hear Eusebius of Emesa (or rather Eucherius), homily 9 to Monks: "See, he says, your calling, brothers: to come to the desert is the highest perfection; not to live perfectly in the desert is the highest condemnation. What does it profit if there is rest and silence in the place, yet in the inhabitants there is a tumult of vices and a wrestling of passions; if serenity holds the exterior, and a tempest the interior? We are accustomed to reckon our years and the spans of time in which we now live: let not that number of days, whatever it may be, which you have spent here having bodily left the world, deceive you: count that you have lived only that day in which you denied your own desires, in which you resisted evil cravings, which you passed without any transgression of the rule. Count that you have lived that day which malice, envy, or pride did not stain; which did not yield to sin, which resisted the devil. Count that you have lived that day which has the light of piety and holy meditation. That day, I say, apply to your life, whose benefit has reached your soul." From which he concludes near the end: "Strive, that you may compete with praiseworthy emulation; let each one of you be more prompt in the work of God, more fervent in prayer, more diligent in reading, more pure in chastity, more sparing in sobriety, more profuse in the abundance of tears, more honest in body, more sincere in heart, milder in anger, more moderate in meekness, rarer in laughter, more fervent in compunction, more grounded in gravity, more joyful in charity." To these he suggests a means, namely the exact examination of conscience, that it may daily correct itself, and say to itself: Have I made progress today, or have I fallen back?
"I think that today I destroyed that beginner, today I was disobedient to my elder, I lied, I was overcome by anger or gluttony, today I laughed too much, I indulged in leisure and sleep more than was fitting, I read less, I prayed less than I ought. Who will give me back this day, which I lost in idle talk? Thus let us be pricked with compunction in our beds, that is, in our hearts, for all our negligences."
Symbolically St. Jerome says: The child of a hundred years is Christ, who was born from the stock of Abraham. For Abraham is the child of a hundred years; because at the hundredth year he begot Isaac, who was a type and parent of Christ; but the sinner of a hundred years is the Jewish people, who are descended from the stock of Abraham according to the flesh, and are accursed; because they laid hands on Christ, the true Isaac, who was the blessed seed of Abraham.
Morally St. Gregory, book XVII of the Moralia, chapter IV: "The child of a hundred years shall die, etc.," and
what follows; therefore Forerius and others wrongly join these together. Now "they shall grow old," that is, they shall reach old age, they shall be long-lasting, they shall not waste away, they shall not wither, they shall not lose their vigor or fruit; but they shall endure and continue with their masters.
openly deters us saying: The life of the child is indeed drawn out at length, so that he may be corrected from childish deeds; but if he is not restrained from the perpetration of sin, not even by the length of time, this very longevity of life, which he receives through mercy, grows for him into a heap of curse; whence it is necessary that, when we see ourselves being waited for longer, we should fear the very times of extended piety as arguments of damnation, lest from the clemency of the Judge the punishment of the sinner increase, and lest, where one could have been rescued from death, one tend more gravely toward death.
Verse 21: 21. AND THEY SHALL BUILD HOUSES. — Understand the houses and vineyards as the spiritual things of th...
21. AND THEY SHALL BUILD HOUSES. — Understand the houses and vineyards as the spiritual things of the Church, namely temples, monasteries, colleges, religious orders, sodalities, and other holy families, institutions, and convents, by which the Apostles and apostolic and zealous men will establish their faith and piety, and will propagate it to posterity for many ages, both in this life and in the future and blessed one: so St. Jerome, Cyril, Theodoret, Procopius, Forerius, and others. For these spiritual houses were signified by the material houses promised to the Jews, if they kept the law, Deuteronomy 28:4, to which the Prophet here alludes.
Verse 22: 22. For according to the days of the Tree (in Hebrew it is of that tree, namely the excellent and fa...
22. For according to the days of the Tree (in Hebrew it is of that tree, namely the excellent and famous one, that is, the tree of life, as the Septuagint translates) SHALL BE THE DAYS OF MY PEOPLE — meaning: My faithful shall be long-lived, indeed in heaven they shall live forever; just as if they had eaten and were eating of the tree of life, that is, the food of immortality. So Lyranus, Adamus, and others. So St. Jerome, Procopius, Theodoret, Lyranus, Castrius, Adamus, Osorius, and others refer these things to the eternity of the life of the Blessed. "This is what Solomon says of the wisdom of God, Proverbs 3:18: It is a tree of life to all who approach it, and those who lean upon it, as upon the Lord, have firmness. Nor is there any doubt that it signifies the Word of God, who is Himself life and wisdom, and speaks of Himself: 'I am the life,'" says St. Jerome. St. Cyril adds that the faithful will be holy, likewise happy, and abounding in all things, as were Adam and Eve in paradise, while they enjoyed the tree of life.
Arias and Sanchez take it differently: for they think the allusion here is to the beginning of the Psalms, which, according to the common proverb: "And he (the just man) shall be as a tree, which is planted near the running waters, which shall bring forth its fruit in due season, and its leaf shall not fall off," meaning: The just man, like a tree, always green beside the waters and continually bearing fruit, shall be happy, wealthy, and blessed by God in all things. For "days" sometimes signifies splendor, wealth, and happiness, as Jeremiah 17:16: "I have not desired the day of man." And 1 Corinthians 4:3: "But to me it is a very small thing to be judged by you, or by man's day." Finally, Theodoret takes the tree as the wood of the cross; but this is mystical.
AND THE WORKS OF THEIR HANDS SHALL GROW OLD. — These words are to be punctuated with a period after "My elect," and
Verse 23: 23. MY ELECT SHALL NOT LABOR IN VAIN — but they shall receive an abundant fruit and reward for their...
23. MY ELECT SHALL NOT LABOR IN VAIN — but they shall receive an abundant fruit and reward for their labor and patience. So it should be read and punctuated with the Roman editions: the Plantin editions punctuate these words differently.
NOR SHALL THEY BRING FORTH IN TROUBLE — but living in peace and joy, they shall beget children for Christ, and even if trouble and persecution arise, they shall bear it bravely and quietly, nor shall they be disturbed, and through it they shall increase in the offspring and progeny of the faithful.
Again, they shall not beget children who will soon be disturbed, struck down, or thrown headlong by the enemy, and by whose premature death the parents themselves would be troubled and saddened, but they shall live very long and very peacefully. For this is what follows: "Because they are the seed of the blessed of the Lord, and their descendants with them." Whence instead of 'in trouble,' the Hebrew has לבהלה labbehala, that is, for trouble, or for those who throw down headlong; the Septuagint renders it as 'into a curse,' that is, so that children just born should fall into the same servitude, mockery, and execration, as formerly the children of the Jews and of the Synagogue fell to the Babylonians, Lamentations 5:13, and Psalm 136, verses 8 and 9, and later to Titus and the Romans: just as also the faithful themselves were before Christianity. For the children they begot, they begot for sin, the devil, death, and hell. Symmachus, Aquila, and Theodoret translate it as 'into haste,' that is, so that they might be hastily and quickly killed or perish.
St. Jerome takes it differently: In haste, he says, so that they by no means hasten to believe in Christ and the Apostles without reason, but may imitate Nathanael inquiring and asking: "Can anything good come from Nazareth?"
BECAUSE THEY ARE THE SEED OF THE BLESSED OF THE LORD — that is, because they are the children of faithful parents, who have been blessed by the Lord, both in themselves and in their children, so that both may be happy and long-lived.
And their descendants with them — namely, they shall be "the seed of the blessed of the Lord," or they shall live with them, that is, with their parents and grandparents, meaning: Grandchildren shall not die before their parents and grandparents, but shall survive them and succeed them. For these are customarily the wishes of landowners and parents, namely, that they may see children and grandchildren to the third, fourth, and fifth generation, and may live with them long and happily, and at last, full of days, may leave them behind as propagators of their lineage and virtue. So St. John the Apostle, St. Polycarp, St. Simeon, Dionysius, and other first heralds of the Gospel lived very long, and saw their spiritual children and grandchildren propagated throughout the whole world, and lived most happily with them; and their grandchildren continue to be propag-
ated. "The Apostles, says St. Jerome, and apostolic men will so beget children, that they instruct them from the sacred Scriptures, so that they do not imitate the curse of Judah, but may say with the Prophet: From Your fear, O Lord, we have conceived in the womb, and have been in labor, and have brought forth. For of these it had been said: Blessed is the offspring of your womb. Such are the children of Abraham, who do his works, and in the old history are called children of the Prophets: such also in the New Testament the Apostles begot — Paul begot Timothy, Luke, Titus, and many others; Peter begot Mark the Evangelist, and the rest begot others, whose seed is blessed, and is blessed even to this day, and the children of children remain, of whom the Prophet says: His seed shall be mighty upon the earth, the generation of the upright shall be blessed, and elsewhere: Your children like young olive plants around your table. Behold, thus shall the man be blessed who fears the Lord."
Verse 24: 24. BEFORE THEY CALL, I WILL HEAR — meaning: I will anticipate their wishes and prayers: seeing thei...
24. BEFORE THEY CALL, I WILL HEAR — meaning: I will anticipate their wishes and prayers: seeing their need or desire, I will meet it and satisfy it, before they express it in mental or vocal prayers and petitions. I will hear, therefore, not only the prayers they pour forth, but their nod and silent affection.
Verse 25: 25. The wolf and the lamb (for example, Paul and Ananias: "For Paul was Benjamin the ravenous wolf,"...
25. The wolf and the lamb (for example, Paul and Ananias: "For Paul was Benjamin the ravenous wolf," says St. Jerome) SHALL FEED TOGETHER — meaning: Men formerly addicted to contrary morals and vices, through the law and grace of Christ will change and compose their manners, will not harm one another, but will convert antipathy into sympathy, and will live unanimously and harmoniously in the Church, and will use and enjoy the same spiritual foods, namely the doctrine of the Gospel, the Sacraments, rites, and other offices of piety beneficial to them. See what was said on chapter 11:6. So St. Jerome, Forerius, Vatablus, and others. This is what Christ says: "Behold, I send you as lambs among wolves," that is, so that you may lead proud, fierce, and barbarous men to your lamb-like innocence and meekness, and sheep-like patience, so that they may seem to be of one race, kind, and disposition with you, as well as of one faith and religion, frugality and temperance. Whence Forerius rightly applies symbolically "the lion and the ox shall eat straw" to ecclesiastical and religious fasts and abstinences. For in these, men who were formerly always carnivorous feed on vegetables and fruits. Again, says St. Jerome, when a man eloquent and powerful in the world gives himself over to the simplicity of the Scriptures, then "the lion and the ox eat straw."
AND DUST SHALL BE THE SERPENT'S BREAD — meaning: The serpent, formerly carnivorous and therefore harmful to man, shall not eat flesh, but dust and earth, as God also commanded at the beginning of the world, and decreed as a punishment for the seduction of Eve, Genesis 3:14: "Upon your breast you shall crawl, and you shall eat earth."
The Rabbis understand by the serpent the demon Azazel, whom they say is called in Leviticus 16 (see what was said there on verse 10) the prince of the desert. For they say the dust of the desert, that is, the human body, which was made from dust, is subject to his power, until it has been converted into a spiritual nature. Thus Pausanias mentions the demon Eurynomus, whom the Delphians believed devoured the flesh of the dead, leaving only the bones. Thus the Greeks placed a μελιττόσταν, that is, a honey cake, in the mouth of the dead immediately, which he would throw to the barking Cerberus in the underworld, and they gave the fare of Charon, as Alexander Sardus of Ferrara proves in book I of On the Customs of Nations.
Hence also Forerius takes the serpent literally as the devil, meaning: The devil, who before Christ devoured men whom he had turned into wolves and lions; now after Christ, he will not devour men, but dust, that is, those who have willingly given themselves over to him and offered themselves to be devoured. But since it is agreed that wolves, lions, and oxen are taken metaphorically, the same seems to be said of the serpent and dust. The sense therefore is, meaning: Serpent-like men, who injured others like serpents with their tongue and tail, and devoured their reputation, flesh, and life, will now through Christ put aside this venomous rage, they will not feed on the destruction of others, but will eat and feed on innocent food easily found, given to them by God, such as dust, that is, the Evangelical doctrine, which is the law of humility, modesty, and simplicity. Mystically, the food of the serpent, that is, the devil, will be dust, that is, earthly and carnal men, who crawl on the earth and turn its dust, meaning, says St. Jerome: The devil, who formerly fed on the deaths of men, henceforth will eat only those who are dust and earth, who, namely, gape entirely after earthly goods and desires.
St. Ambrose takes it differently, book I of On Penance, chapter 13: The serpent, he says, that is the devil, let him sink his tooth into dust, that is my flesh, and let him harm it; only guard the soul, so that the sickness of the flesh may repel sin and strengthen the spirit.
THEY SHALL NOT HURT, ETC. — because charity shall reign in the Church and kingdom of Christ, says Forerius. This is what St. Paul says, Galatians 6:16: "Whoever shall follow this rule, peace upon them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God."