Isaiah 10

For the robbers have not vanished from the old high forests to the west of the great city. The thieves have not vanished; they have grown so large that they are invisible. You do not see the word "Asia" written across a map of that neighbourhood; nor do you see the word "Thief" written across the countrysides of England; though it is really written in equally large letters. I know men governing despotically great stretches of that country, whose every step in life has been such that a slip would have sent them to Dartmoor; but they trod along the high hard wall between right and wrong, the wall as sharp as a swordedge, as softly and craftily and lightly as a cat. The vastness of their silent violence itself obscured what they were at; if they seem to stand for the rights of property it is really because they have so often invaded them. And if they do not break the laws, it is only because they make them.

Woe to those who make unjust laws, and who in writing have written injustice, to oppress the poor in judgment, and to do violence to the cause of the humble of my people, that widows might be their prey, and that they might plunder the orphans. What will you do in the day of visitation, and of the calamity coming from afar? To whose help will you flee? And where will you leave your glory? that you may not be bowed down under the chain, and fall with the slain. For all these his fury is not turned away, but his hand is still stretched out. Most think that these things too are still said against the ten tribes which dwelt in Samaria, because they joined these as well to their former crimes. To us, however, it seems that the prophetic word cries out against the judges of the tribe of Judah and of Jerusalem, namely the scribes and the δευτερωτὰς, because they wrote unjust laws against the law of God, and by their traditions overturned the truth of judgment. For when God says: Honor your father and mother (Exod 20:12), they on the contrary taught sons to say to their parents: Whatever gift comes from me will profit you, so that they do not honor father and mother (Matt 15:5-6; Mark 7:11), and other things like these. And they wrote these most evil laws for this purpose, to oppress the poor and the humble of the people, to make plunder of widows and to despoil orphans. They are asked what they will do when the day either of captivity or of judgment has come, and of the calamity coming from afar, which was foretold long before. To whose help, he says, will you flee, when you have offended God, who is the true helper, and where will you leave your glory? For riches will not profit in the day of wrath, to keep the Assyrian from leading you in chains into the enemy's land, to keep you from falling in battle (Prov 11:4). And finally, just as in the preceding passages he had often said against Samaria: For all these his fury is not turned away, but his hand is still stretched out, he speaks so against Judah too, because the final captivity is not the end of their evil, but even in the enemy's land the sword of the Lord will pursue them. According to the anagogy, every heretic writes iniquity in order to deceive the poor and humble of the people and to despoil widows and orphans. For the rich man, of whom we read: A man's own riches are the redemption of his soul (Prov 13:8), does not endure threats, is not quickly caught by them. But the poor man, and he who is humble and small among the peoples, is quickly made to stumble by them. The widow too, who has lost God her husband, and the orphan who has lost his father the Creator, of whom it is written: You have forsaken God who begot you, and have forgotten God your nourisher (Deut 32:18), are easily tripped up. What then will they do in the day of judgment, when they have deceived so many, and of the calamity coming from afar? For just as it is said to the righteous man: The word is near, in your mouth and in your heart (Rom 10:8); and in another place: The kingdom of God is within you (Luke 17:21); so the calamity of the heretics will come from afar, prepared for them over a long time. To whom will they flee for refuge, when the God they have is a fiction? To whom will they hand over their glory, when everything is feigned? Nor will they be able to escape the chain with which they have bound very many. Hence also in the vision of the valley of Zion, which, forsaking the height of God, has been deceived by heretical lowliness, it is said of the teachers of knowledge falsely so called: All your princes have fled, and those who were captured were harshly bound (Isa 22:3); and that they fall with the slain one by one, and perish themselves in the slaughter of others, and though they suffer many things, and the day of visitation has come, their destruction is not their end: but they are ever to tremble at the hand of the Lord hanging over them. Up to this point is God's threat against the ten and the two tribes, that is, against Samaria and Jerusalem, which began among the people while Ahaz was still reigning: of these, two and a half tribes were taken captive under him, and the rest under Hezekiah, who succeeded Ahaz in the kingdom (2 Kgs 16:17). The following prophecy is written against the Assyrians.

Woe to them that make wicked laws. Here he begins to threaten against foreign enemies who persecute them bodily: and first, against those who lay waste, second, against those who rejoice in this laying waste: in the year that king Achaz died (Isa 14:28). The first of these is divided into two: in the first, he threatens against the Assyrians who were taking the ten tribes captive and afflicting the two tribes; in the second, against the Babylonians who take the two tribes captive: the burden of Babylon (ch. 13). The first of these is divided into three: in the first, he threatens the destruction of the enemies; in the second, he promises the restoration of the people: and there shall come forth (ch. 11); in the third, he places their thanksgiving: I will give thanks (ch. 12).

And this chapter is divided into two parts: in the first, he threatens against the princes of the two tribes, who trusted in the help of the Assyrians, namely Achaz, under whom this vision was written, as is read in 2 Kings 16:7; in the second, against the Assyrians themselves: woe to the Assyrian (Isa 10:4). However, some begin chapter 10 there, and then it would be easier, because this part would thus not be distinguished from the preceding chapter.

The first of these is divided into two: in the first, the threat is set out; in the second, the preparation of further punishment is shown: in all these things (Isa 10:4). The first is divided into two: in the first, he denounces their fault, in the second, he threatens punishment: what will you do? (Isa 10:3). He denounces the fault of the princes as to two things. As to perverse lawgiving: woe to them that make wicked laws, in as far as the law is established by the decree of the prince, and when they write, in as far as it is confirmed in writing: for they, not knowing the justice of God and seeking to establish their own, have not submitted themselves to the justice of God (Rom 10:3); why do your disciples transgress (Matt 15:2).

Second, as to the intention of oppressing those who are powerless, either because of poverty: the poor, or because of low rank: humble: they crush as the dust (Amos 2:7); or because of weakness of sex: widows; or because of age: orphans. Above: they judge not for orphans (Isa 1:23).

"What shall we do in the day of visitation?" One of the prophets terrifies me [with this question], whether that of the righteous sentence of God against us or that upon the mountains and hills, of which we have heard. Whatever and whenever it may be, he will reason with us and oppose us and set before us those bitter accusers, which are our sins, contrasting our wrongdoings with our benefits, striking thought with thought, scrutinizing action with action and calling us to account for the image that has been blurred and spoiled by wickedness. He will finally lead us away self-convicted and self-condemned, no longer able to say that we are being unjustly treated—a thought that is able even here sometimes to console in their condemnation those who are suffering.

[Christ] said to Peter, the prince of the apostles, "Simon, [son] of John, do you love me more than these?" He answered, "Lord, you know I love you." He said to him, "Feed my lambs." He asked him a second time, "Simon [son] of John, do you love me?" He answered, "Yes, Lord, you know I love you." He said to him, "Feed my sheep." And he ordered him to feed his sheep a third time, and in Peter he enjoined this office on all of us, diligently to feed the sheep of the Lord, that on the day of his visitation we may, for our toil and watchfulness, receive what he promised us in the gospel, saying, Father, I wish that where I am, there also shall be my minister. Let us look to the promises and rewards; then in an attitude of faith we will more easily stand all our pains, walking as the Lord himself walked, who is the one promising the rewards.

What will you do? Here he threatens punishment, and first, he takes away the remedy of escape. And this is threefold: confidence in their own power: what will you do in the day of visitation, and of the calamity which comes from afar, as to the fortifying of their enemies or as to the prediction of the prophets: what will you do in the solemn day, in the day of the feast of the Lord? (Hos 9:5). Who can stand before the face of his indignation? (Nah 1:6). Second, as to the friendship of the powerful: to whom will you flee for help? Behold there is no help for me in myself, and my familiar friends also are departed from me (Job 6:13). Third, as to the glory of riches: and where will you leave your glory, as if to say: which will not profit you. What has pride profited us? Or what advantage has the boasting of riches brought us? (Wis 5:8).

Second, he expresses the manner of punishment, and first, the punishment of captivity: that you be not bowed down under, above: and the loftiness of men shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be humbled (Isa 2:17); second, of killing: and fall with the slain: all of them slain, fallen by the sword (Ezek 32:24).

In all these things. Here the preparation of further punishment is set out: this is explained as above.

Woe to Assur, the rod of my fury, and he is the staff; in their hand is my indignation. Against a deceitful nation I will send him, and against the people of my fury I will give him charge, to take spoils and to seize prey, and to make it a thing trodden down like the mire of the streets. But he does not think so, and his heart does not reckon so, but his heart will be set on crushing, and on the slaughter of very many nations. For he says: Are not my princes all of them kings? Is it not: as Carchemish, so Chalanno and as Arpad, so Hamath? Is it not: as Damascus, so Samaria? As my hand found the kingdoms of the idol, so also their images from Jerusalem and from Samaria. Shall I not, as I did to Samaria and to her idols, so do to Jerusalem and to her images? Let us set down in this place the translation of the Seventy, which disagrees with the Hebrew in very many things. LXX: Woe to the Assyrians: the rod of my fury is he, in their hands; my wrath I will send against a lawless nation, and to my people I will give command to make spoils and prey, and to trample the cities, and to lay them in the dust: but he did not so think, and did not so reckon; but his mind is to crush, and to destroy very many nations. And if they say to him: You alone are prince, he will answer: I have not taken the region which is above Babylon, and Chalane, where the tower was built. But I have taken Arabia, and Damascus, and Samaria: as I have taken these, so I will take all kingdoms. Howl, you carved images in Jerusalem and Samaria; for as I did to Samaria and to her idols, so I will do to Jerusalem and to her images. First it must be known that in the Hebrew it does not have Chalane, but CHALANNO (כלנו). For the last letter of this name is not IOD, as they supposed, but VAU, letters which differ from each other only in size. Now the tower was built in the plain of Shinar, in which were Erech, Accad, and Chalanne, and Babylon, which received its name from the confusion of tongues (Gen 11). Arabia, moreover, is not found in the Hebrew, but Hamath, which the Syrians to this day call Epiphania. Howl too, you carved images in Jerusalem, they added of their own. And what is written above: If they say to him, You alone are prince, he will answer, I have not taken the region this one and that one, but I have taken Arabia, and Damascus, and Samaria, suggests this sense: When, he says, those who have been taken captive say to the Assyrian, You are prince of all, he, still feeling himself to be weak, will answer: How do you call me prince, when I have taken only Arabia and Damascus and Samaria, and have not yet brought under my power the nations set far off beyond Babylon? But as I took Arabia, Damascus and Samaria, so I will lay all kingdoms beneath me. Let us pass to the Hebrew, and briefly note what seems right to us. Woe to the Assyrian, that is, Sennacherib, because he is the rod and the staff of my fury, for in his hand is my indignation, and through him I will strike a most deceitful nation, which has always limped between me and the idols, which lied that it would do my precepts; and against the people of my fury I will command him to despoil it and plunder it, and to reduce it to dust, and to trample it like the mire of the streets, that is, to strike it and not kill it, to wound it and not take away its life. But he went beyond the measure of my anger, and raged not only against Israel, against which he had been directed, but against very many nations, so as to crush all the kingdoms round about, and his sword raged even to the slaughter of very many nations. For, lifted up into pride, he dared to say this: My captains are kings of other nations, and, being subject to me, they will rule all nations. As I took Carchemish, so I took Chalanno too; as Arpad, so I gained Hamath too; as Damascus, so I subjected Samaria to myself too. As I have put under my feet the other kingdoms which served the worship of idols, so I will subject to my power Jerusalem too, and Samaria, in which are the same idols. As I took Samaria with its idols, so I will take Jerusalem too, because it worships the same gods. For Carchemish, however, the Seventy, adding of their own, translated the region beyond Babylon, and Chalane where the tower was built, leaving out Arpad altogether. But according to their translation, and with the freedom of tropology, provided it is pious, from what he says, and I will give command to my people to make spoils and prey, and to trample the cities, and to lay them in the dust, we can say this too: that the Lord daily commands his people to reduce to dust the cities of the adversaries, which are raised up against the knowledge of God and have been built by the heretics with enormous labor, and to show that they are nothing. And he, understanding the weakness of the human heart, and that, surrounded as he is with mortal flesh, he cannot have a perfect victory of the virtues nor take all the nations, though others admire him and say: You alone are prince, will answer them: There are many things that I ought to destroy, and have not yet been able to destroy: I know that I do not know. And although I have overcome many arguments of the adversaries, yet there are very many which are still to be overcome. And at the same time, in hope of what is to come, from those which he has overcome he promises himself the victory over the rest as well. Now the images of Jerusalem and of Samaria are bidden to howl: not the things themselves which were fashioned, but those who fashioned them: μετωνυμικῶς, those who made them, by the things that were made: so that not only those who have fabricated idols in the heresies, but those who in the Church through ignorance defend a lie for the truth, may testify by howling and penitence that they have erred.

Woe to the Assyrian. In this part, he threatens against the Assyrians themselves, and this is divided into two parts: in the first part the threat against the enemies who oppress them is set out; in the second, the strengthening of the oppressed people: therefore, thus says the Lord (Isa 10:24). The first of these is divided into three: in the first, he denounces their fault; in the second, he threatens punishment: therefore the sovereign Lord, the Lord of hosts, shall send (Isa 10:16); in the third, he shows the effect of the punishment: and he shall run away (Isa 10:18). And their fault consists in transgression of precept or in abuse of authority; hence, the first part is divided into three: in the first, their commission of authority is set out; in the second, their abuse of authority: but he shall not take it so (Isa 10:7); in the third, the vainglory of the abuser: and it shall come to pass, that when the Lord shall have performed (Isa 10:12).

Concerning the first, he does three things: first, the office of scourging is committed to the Assyrians; second, he designates the one who is deserving of scourges: I will send him to a deceitful nation (Isa 10:6); third, he sets out the manner of scourging: to take away the spoils (Isa 10:6). Concerning the first, he designates three things: the one who scourges: woe, it nears you, the Assyrian, you who are the rod of my anger; the power of scourging: the staff, by which I myself scourge, is in their hands, that is, their power, that is, in execution; and the scourging: my indignation is fulfilled through them, below: the Lord has broken the staff of the wicked, the rod of the rulers, that struck the people in wrath with an incurable wound (Isa 14:5–6).

I will send him to a deceitful nation. Here he describes the one who is deserving of scourges, both as to the fault: a deceitful nation, because it does not keep its promise: all that the Lord has spoken, we will do (Exod 19:8); and as to the sentence, the people of my wrath, that is, whom I have already judged fit to be punished, I will send, I will inspire you to be fit to be punished: the Lord said to me: go up to this land, and destroy it (2 Kgs 18:25); to, that is, against.

To take away. Here he sets out the mode of scourging as to the taking away of their things: take away spoils; as to detention, lay hold; as to the oppression of men: tread them down like the mire, for their baseness: I shall bring them to naught, like the mire in the streets (Ps 17:43).

But he shall not take it so. Here the abuse of the power conceded to the Assyrian is set out, insofar as he exceeded the ends of the mandate; and first, his intention is set out; second, the motive of his intention is set out: for he shall say (Isa 10:8). Concerning the first, he does two things: first, he dismisses the fixed measure of the mandate, both as to the judgment of reason: but he shall not take it so, and as to the intention of the heart: his heart shall not think so, that is, he will assess the punishment; second, he increases the punishment both as to manner: to grind to pieces, that is, utterly destroy everything, and as to number: nations not a few, but rather many, not only those to whom he was sent: you have devised confusion to your house, you have cut off many people, and your soul has sinned (Hab 2:10).

For he shall say. Here his motive is set out; and first, he argues, second, he concludes: so shall I do to Jerusalem and her images (Isa 10:11). Concerning the first, he first argues the servitude of kings: are not my princes as so many kings? He shall triumph over kings, and princes shall be his laughingstock (Hab 1:10).

Second, the subjugation of cities: is not Calano as Charcamis, below: for of a truth, O Lord, the kings of the Assyrians have laid waste lands, and their countries (Isa 37:18).

Long ago, indeed, when the former people sinned, Judah fell away from religion and fashioned "graven images in Jerusalem," and he who was called Israel did so "in Samaria". But if now too someone should consider, out of the multitude of those sinners who are gathered together, he will not be reluctant to say that each one who makes for himself a god — whatever he reckons to be good — and serves sin, is accursed, making a "graven image" and casting a work of the craftsman's hands and setting it up in secret; for in the secret place of the heart we make many idols, if we sin. Hence the word teaches us to do penance and to "wail over the graven images" and idols that are "in Jerusalem and Samaria". And if indeed we sin, we who desire to be of the Church, we make "graven images in Jerusalem"; but if those who are established outside the Church — as heretics — sin, they make "idols in Samaria". Nevertheless God, according to his goodness, calls all to penance, saying: "Wail, you graven images in Jerusalem and in Samaria; for just as I did to Samaria and to the works of its hands, so will I do also to Jerusalem and to its idols". He threatens that whatever things "he did to the Samaritans" he will do also to those who are of the Church.

Third, the destruction of idols: how my hand has found the kingdoms of the idol: wonderingly, as if to say: how was it that their gods did not resist me: who are they among all the gods of the nations that have delivered their country out of my hand, that God may deliver Jerusalem out of my hand? (2 Kgs 18:35).

So shall I do to Jerusalem and her images. Here he concludes first, from the nations to the entire people of Israel: so also their images of Jerusalem, and of Samaria; second, from the ten tribes to the two: shall I not, as I have done to Samaria and her idols, so do to Jerusalem and her images? He speaks the truth concerning Samaria, because they worshipped idols, but Ezechias had removed the idols from Jerusalem (2 Kgs 18:4); also perhaps some idols secretly remained, which he found in the part of the city that Sobna the scribe handed over to him; or he calls the ark and the other things that adorned the temple images: behold the house of Judah is like all other nations (Ezek 25:8).

And it shall be, when the Lord has accomplished all his works on mount Zion and in Jerusalem, I will visit upon the fruit of the proud heart of the king of Assur, and upon the glory of the haughtiness of his eyes. For he said: By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom I have understood, and I have removed the bounds of the peoples, and I have plundered their princes, and like a mighty one I have pulled down those who sat on high; and my hand has found the strength of the peoples as a nest; and as eggs are gathered which have been left, so I have gathered all the earth, and there was none who moved a wing, or opened the mouth, or chirped. For fruit the Seventy translated sense, or great mind. After the captivity of Samaria, and the victory of the Assyrians, and the threat against Jerusalem, that, because it had imitated the images of Samaria, it must be struck with a like sentence, the Prophet now speaks against the Assyrian himself, who was lifted up into pride and thought that what he conquered was the work of his own strength. For the Assyrian, boasting in the swelling of his heart, said that by the strength of his hand he had conquered all the nations, and by incredible wisdom had taken possession of the bounds of all. And according to the Seventy he was of such power that he overthrew from their foundations the cities of warlike men, and seized the whole world like a nest, and made it his prey like eggs abandoned by their mothers. And because he had once taken a metaphor from birds, from the nest and the eggs, he kept it in the rest, so as to say: There was none who moved a wing, or opened the mouth, or chirped. So great, he says, was the terror of my strength and victory, that the conquered did not freely utter even weeping and groaning. There are those who think these things are said generally against the kingdom of the Assyrians: that after the Lord has accomplished all his works on mount Zion and in Jerusalem, that is, after Jerusalem has been overthrown, the empire of the Assyrians is destroyed. To me, however, from what follows, the threat seems to be properly against Sennacherib king of the Assyrians. And what he says: After the Lord has accomplished all his works on mount Zion and in Jerusalem, signifies not the overthrow of the city but its siege, when Rabshakeh, Sennacherib's general, came and did the things which the same Prophet records in later chapters (Isa 37:17). According to tropology, when Samaria and Jerusalem have borne the wrath of the Lord, and have perceived that they erred in fabricating idols, then will the great mind be destroyed, the Assyrian, who was puffed up into such pride against the Lord that he reckoned that all things would yield to his wisdom, and that any lofty doctrines, even those fortified by the art of dialectic, were to be shaken and utterly destroyed: so much so that, like the chicks of birds, they would not be able to rise up on high, and, not yet quickened, would be without sense and torpid, which the example of the eggs shows; and that he would not hear anyone so much as mutter or move his tongue against the reason and strength of his discourse.

"But when the Lord has finished doing all things on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, he will bring judgment upon the great mind, the prince of the Assyrians, and upon the loftiness of the glory of his eyes". We are taught what shall come to be for our enemy the devil, whom the prophecy has now called a certain "great mind". For just as "the serpent was wiser than all the beasts that are upon the earth", and "the sons of this age are wiser than the sons of light in their generation", and "the steward of iniquity acted wisely" according to a wisdom that is not good, in the same way this one, who is figuratively called "the prince of the Assyrians", is a "great mind", and one may marvel at the greatness of his "mind"; which he has misused for the instructing of the wise of this world, who compose the falsehood of their sects with every appearance of truth and with all their power, and put it on display. "When" therefore "God has done all things on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem" and has rendered those things which have been promised to the just, then "he will bring judgment upon the great mind, the prince of the Assyrians, and upon the loftiness of the glory of his eyes". The word knows him to be "wise" as to "high things", and that the beginning of his ruin took its start from being puffed up. Hence, if we too have been puffed up, we "fall into the judgment of the devil", "into" which "the devil himself fell".

And it shall come to pass. Here he denounces his pride. And first, his proud boasting is set out, second, the occasion of his boasting: for he has said (Isa 10:13); third, the rebuke of the boaster: shall the axe boast? (Isa 10:15). Therefore he says: and it shall come to pass, that when the Lord shall have performed all his works in mount Zion, namely, the punishments by which he wishes to correct them, the proud heart, as to presumption of his doing, and the glory of the haughtiness of his eyes, as to his vainglory over his deeds, above: the lofty eyes of man are humbled (Isa 2:11).

And by the prophet, "the enemy said, I will pursue and overtake," and again by another, "I will grasp the whole world in my hand as a nest, and take it up as eggs that have been left." Such, in a word, are their boasts and professions that they may deceive the godly. But not even then ought we, the faithful, to fear his appearance or give heed to his words. For he is a liar and speaks of truth never a word. And though speaking words so many and so great in his boldness, without doubt, like a dragon he was drawn with a hook by the Savior, and as a beast of burden he received the halter round his nostrils, and as a runaway his nostrils were bound with a ring, and his lips bored with an armlet. And he was bound by the Lord as a sparrow, that we should mock him. LIFE OF ST.

These are the words of God's antagonist, boasting in the strength of his wickedness, as he threatens to steal and obliterate the divisions of the nations delivered by the Most High to the angels. And loudly [he] cries that he will spoil the earth, and shake the whole human race, and change them from their former good order.

All sins must be avoided, to be sure, because all sins are contrary to God, but they vary in degree. The proud, for example, are God's enemies. "God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble." The devil is the prince of the proud. "Lest he be puffed up with pride," says holy Scripture, "and incur the condemnation passed on the devil," for everyone who glorifies himself in his heart is partner to the devil, who used to say, "By my own power I have done it, and by my wisdom, for I am shrewd. I have moved the boundaries of peoples." … All other failings deserve the mercy of the Lord because, in humility, they are submitted to the tribunal of God; pride alone, because it honors itself beyond its power, resists God. The adulterer or the fornicator does not dare to raise his eyes to heaven; in defection of soul, he looks for God's mercy; yet this one whom conscience bows down and humbles to the ground, it also elevates to heaven. When pride and inordinate desire for glory raise up a person, they at the same time abase him, for by his sin they make him an enemy of God.

But let us also see how great his self-inflation is, that we may guard against it and not permit him to speak true things over us. What, then, does he say? "By my strength I will act, and by the wisdom of my understanding I will take away the borders of the nations". He reckons that by his own might he is able to accomplish in us whatever he wishes. And truly, if we are conquered and after these words we sin — if after the Church we go again into the circus and to the horse-races and to the assemblies of the Gentiles — what else happens than that he possesses us as those he has overcome? And what the devil said, "By my strength I will act," comes to pass in us who sin, as he threatened. And also, if we commit fornication after chastity of long duration, after much holiness, what else happens than that he is proved to have spoken true things over us, he who said: "By my strength I will act"? But let us look at what else this boaster promises. "And by the wisdom of my understanding I will take away the borders of the nations". He promises some kind of "wisdom" or other — the wisdom of which the prophet also speaks: "there is a certain alien wisdom in them". There is a certain "wisdom estranged" from the truth, which God destroys. Having this, he reckons himself to be "wise" and says: "By the wisdom of my understanding I will take away the borders of the nations, and I will feed upon their strength". For his working has reached to all the "nations", but the Savior, sending his words into all the "nations", rescues those who by the devil were held captive among all the "nations". "And I will feed upon their strength". He threatens that he will go to plunder our "strength" and to hand it over to those who war against us. And truly one may see him doing this to certain people. For when someone is conquered by the devil and handed over to demons, to most wicked spirits, to the opposing powers, what else has happened than that he who had said, "and I will feed upon their strength", has taken our "strength" and "fed upon" us? "And I will shake the cities that are inhabited". This too the devil threatens: he perceives that the "cities" — the churches of God built in Christ the Lord — are "inhabited", and he gives out that he will "shake" these. And frequently indeed he has shaken the "inhabited cities" with persecutions, frequently he has shaken them with scandals. But let us strive, having our "foundation upon the rock", to become such that this one who says, "I will shake the cities that are inhabited", may not be able to "move" us by his storms nor by his adverse spirits, but that we may persevere steadfast against all things that may befall, inasmuch as we have our edifice "upon the rock," Jesus "Christ", "to whom be glory and dominion unto the ages of ages. Amen!"

For he has said. Here he sets out the occasion of his glory from the great things which he had done, and first, as to the condition of the doer; second, as to the greatness of the deed: and I have removed; third, as to the ease of doing: and my hand has found (Isa 10:14). He shows the condition of the doer as to the power of wars: by the strength of my own hand, as to the wisdom of counselors, and by my own wisdom: but for the wrath of the enemies I have deferred it: lest perhaps their enemies might be proud, and should say: our mighty hand, and not the Lord, has done all these things (Deut 32:27).

The greatness of the deed is measured from three things: from the multitude of kingdoms; hence he says, and I have removed the bounds of the people: he speaks like someone who acquires many fields and removes the bounds by which the separate possessions were divided; as to the plundering of princes: and have taken the spoils of the princes; as to the subjugation of kings: and as a mighty man has pulled down them that sat on high, namely, on the seat of the king: whom he would, he set up: and whom he would, he brought down (Dan 5:19).

And so God, the Creator and Healer of all, knowing that pride is the cause and fountain head of evils, has been careful to heal opposites with opposites, that those things which were ruined by pride might be restored by humility. For the one says, "I will ascend into heaven," and the other, "My soul was brought low even to the ground." … The one says, "As eggs are gathered together which are left, so have I gathered all the earth"; the other says, "I am like a pelican of the wilderness … and am become as a sparrow dwelling alone on a roof." … If we look at the reason for our original fall and the foundations of our salvation, and [if we] consider by whom and in what way the latter were laid and the former originated, we may learn, either through the fall of the devil, or through the example of Christ, how to avoid so terrible a death from pride.

Behold, then, how the Maker of the universe has always shown a loving care for humanity, not merely for the race of the descendants of Abraham but for all the descendants of Adam; through one tribe he has led all tribes to a knowledge of himself. He used them for this purpose both when they were religious and when they were paying the penalty for their sins. For instance, Nebuchadnezzar, the arrogant tyrant, who raised up the golden image and called on all to adore it, said, "I will gather in my hand the whole earth as a nest, as eggs that lie abandoned will I gather it."

The ease of doing is determined as to three things: as to absolute subjection: and my hand has found the strength of the people as a nest, which is in the power of the finder, below: and it shall come to pass, that as a bird fleeing away, and as young ones flying out of the nest (Isa 16:2); as to easy destruction: and as eggs are gathered, that are left, so have I gathered all the earth, it was so easy: but he will gather together unto him all nations, and heap together unto him all people (Hab 2:5); as to the removal of all contradiction: and there was none that moved the wing, that is, the hand—for a bird defends itself with its wing—or opened the mouth, to contradict, or whimpered, which is how wolves or birds lament: son of man, behold I take from you the desire of your eyes with a stroke, and you shall not lament, nor weep; neither shall your tears run down (Ezek 24:16).

"My hand found the strength of the people like a nest. And like abandoned eggs are collected, so I gathered all the earth. No one moved a wing, or opened a mouth, or chirped." "You sent your Spirit and the sea covered them; they descended to the depths like lead in the mighty water." When the Spirit of the Lord was sent, the Egyptians were immersed in the waters of the sea. Although we desire to see ourselves there in the word of the Lord, which is also fulfilled in us, we would do better to apply this passage to the Gentiles, who were filled with the knowledge of the truth when they received the Spirit of God. To this the prophet bore witness: "All the earth is filled with the knowledge of the Lord, like the waters covering the sea.""They descended to the depths like lead in the mighty water." The "depths" are to be understood as carnal living, which tosses them to and fro on waves of sin. It drowns their self-absorbed souls and sends them to the bottom. Gossip, jealousy, depravity, cruelty and envy are the waves of worldly vice.

For you, Sennacherib, are the ax in the hands of him that cuts, and you are the saw in the hands of him that saws, and the rod in the hand of him that wields you for chastisement, and you are the staff for smiting. You are sent against the fickle people, and again you are ordained against the stubborn people, that you may carry away the captivity and take the spoil; and you have made them as the mire of the streets for all people and for all the Gentiles. And when you have done all these things, why are you exalted against him who holds you, and why do you boast against him who saws with you, and why have you reviled the holy city?

Shall the axe boast against him who cuts with it, or shall the saw exalt itself against him by whom it is drawn? As if a rod should lift itself against him who lifts it, and a staff should exalt itself, which is but wood. Against Sennacherib, or, as many think, Nebuchadnezzar, boasting and saying: By the strength of my hand I have done it, by my wisdom I have understood, and the rest, the holy Prophet answered: O most foolish of mortals, do you think the wrath of God to be your own wisdom, and do you ascribe his command to your own strength? It is as if an axe should boast against him who holds the axe, and a saw against him by whom it is drawn, and they should say that all the works done by axe and saw were accomplished by their own skill. And if someone should lift a rod, and raise a staff to strike whom he will, and the rod and the staff themselves should boast and say that he who was struck was struck by them: so you too, though you have been the instrument of God's will, are lifted up into pride, and boast that all that is done belongs to your own power. Whatever is said to the Assyrian can also be referred both to the pride of the heretics and to the devil, who is called in the Scriptures axe and saw and rod, because through him unfruitful trees are cut down and cleft, and the hardness of unbelievers is sawn, and those who do not receive discipline are struck with the rod. The heretics too are those whose mouth is set against heaven, and their tongue passes through the earth, and who abuse the sense which they received from God for good, turning it to the contrary and the perverse, so as to speak against him by whom they were made, and to turn into blasphemy the ministry of the tongue, by which the Lord should be praised (Ps 72 [73]).

Let us consider therefore those to whom God has granted power, to see if we may deserve to serve them and to cling to their doctrine, putting aside all pride and resisting with great courage the sin, which fearlessly operates in bodies; for death has been swallowed up by victory. On the other hand, how weak we are in this age, knowing that the church is to stand and to be led toward what is good.… You know that the ax does not boast without the man who uses it to cut … but we must fight to be able to have peace with those who keep the commandments of God.

Shall the axe boast itself? Here the rebuke of the boaster is set out, because he is like an instrument, which cannot work except by the movement of the craftsman: the axe, for killing the wicked; shall the saw, for separating the good from wicked, exalt itself; a rod, for correcting; a staff, for supporting those corrected: why doth your spirit swell against God, to utter such words out of your mouth? (Job 15:13).

Therefore the Sovereign Lord of hosts will send leanness among his fat ones, and beneath his glory a burning shall be kindled and burn like the burning of fire. And the light of Israel shall be in fire, and his Holy One in flame: and his thorn and his briers shall be kindled and devoured in one day. And the glory of his forest and of his Carmel shall be consumed from the soul even to the flesh, and he shall be a fugitive for terror, and the remnants of the wood of his forest shall be numbered for their fewness, and a child shall write them down. Because you have done these things, and spoken what I related above, therefore the Lord will send his Angel, and in one night a hundred and eighty-five thousand of your army will die: so that all the most powerful, whom he calls fat, are reduced to leanness and to nothing; and, as the Hebrews relate, while the garments of the Assyrians were unharmed, their bodies were burned with a hidden fire: then the light of Israel and his holy one, that is, the angel, will be in fire and in flame, and all the thorns and briers of the Assyrians, that is, their malice, will be consumed, not over a long time, but in one day and moment. And as a forest and Carmel, which is a mountain in Galilee planted with woods, is quickly burned up when fire is set beneath it, so from the soul even to the flesh all the glory of the Assyrian will be consumed. Then the despoiled army will flee, as the same Prophet attests in what follows, and of so innumerable a multitude, which was compared to Carmel and a forest, it will come to such fewness that a little child could number them and write them down. For the Hebrews relate that only ten of his army remained; some of ours will have it that this king is a type of the adverse power. And as in Daniel (ch. 10) we read of the princes of the kingdom of the Persians, and of the kingdom of the Medes, and of the kingdom of the Greeks, so there is also a prince of the Assyrians, who because of his pride is called the great mind, and in the day of judgment will be handed over to the burnings of Gehenna, which has been prepared for the devil and his angels. And that the light of Israel and the holy one, that is, the Lord himself, kindles the briers and thorns of the Assyrian, and that all his power and his innumerable peoples are to be brought to nothing. That then he, terrified with fear, like a crooked and fleeing serpent, wishes to escape the punishments hanging over him. And that those who have been able to escape from his forest and confusion and from the wood doomed to perish are worthy to be numbered and written down by the child whose government is upon his shoulders. This same thing can also be referred to the heretics: that after the Church's teaching has shone forth, and all their snares have been laid open, then they come to such desolation that, of the forest and the unfruitful trees and their innumerable multitude, which they had deceived by heretical fraud, scarcely a few remain to follow their error. Where we have rendered, the Lord will send leanness among his fat ones, the Seventy translated, the Lord will send dishonor upon your honor. And where we said: and his Holy One in flame, they rendered: and he will sanctify him in fire: by which some would have it understood that punishments and torments are applied to sinners for this purpose, that they may be purged by divine fire. And where we said: And the glory of his forest and of his Carmel, they translated: The mountains and the hills and the forests shall be quenched, whereby all the brightness and pride and multitude of the Assyrians is quenched and humbled.

Therefore the sovereign Lord, the Lord of hosts, shall send leanness. Here he threatens punishment. And concerning this, he does three things: first, he threatens the judgment of punishment; second, he determines the manner of punishment: and under his glory; third, the effect of punishment: and he shall run away through fear (Isa 10:18). Among his fat ones, the powerful and the rich, below: and the Lord of hosts shall make unto all people in this mountain, a feast of fat things (Isa 25:6).

And under. Here the manner of punishment is determined, which was through burning; and three things are set out. First, the species of punishment: his glory, that is, the multitude of his host; under, that is, under his clothes, for bodies were cremated in intact clothing, above: and your strength shall be as the ashes of tow, and your work as a spark (Isa 1:31).

And Isaiah shows that the Holy Spirit is not only light but also fire, saying, "And the light of Israel shall be for a fire." So the prophets called him a burning fire, because in those three points we see more intensely the majesty of the Godhead; since to sanctify is of the Godhead, to illuminate is the property of fire and light, and the Godhead is customarily pointed out or seen in the appearance of fire: "For our God is a consuming fire," as Moses said.

Second, the one bringing the punishment, the Holy One of Israel, God, or the angel Michael, to whom that people was committed: behold Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me (Dan 10:13); as a fire, for he will punish them through fire: all the land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy: for he shall make even a speedy destruction of all them that dwell in the land (Zeph 1:18).

Third, the one suffering the punishment, both as to the lowly, his thorns and his briers, which do not grow much; and the glory of his forest, of Lebanon, as to the great, whom he compares to high trees of Lebanon because of their dignity; from the soul even to the flesh, for they died both in soul and in body, above: for wickedness is kindled as a fire, it shall devour the brier and the thorn: and shall kindle in the thicket of the forest, and it shall be wrapped up in smoke ascending on high (Isa 9:18).

Note on the words, and the light of Israel shall be as a fire (Isa 10:17): that our God is called a fire, first, because he is subtle; and as to this, he is called subtle as to substance, because he is called spirit: God is a spirit (John 4:24); second, as to knowledge, because he is piercing: for the word of God is living and effectual and more piercing than any two edged sword (Heb 4:12); third, as to appearance, because he is invisible: whence then comes wisdom? (Job 28:20); and below this: it is hid from the eyes of all living (Job 28:21), or: all men (Job 36:25). Second, because he is full of light: but that he is full of light is evident first, because he manifests as to the intellect: in your light we shall see light (Ps 35:10[36:9]); second, because he delights as to the affections: what manner of joy shall be to me, who sit in darkness and see not the light of heaven? (Tob 5:12); third, because he directs as to action, below: the Gentiles shall walk in your light, and kings in the brightness of your rising (Isa 60:3). Third, because he is hot: and this is so, first, because he vivifies: you perhaps will warm them in the dust? (Job 39:14); from above he has sent fire into my bones, and has chastised me (Lam 1:13); second, because he cleanses: the vapor of the fire wastes his flesh, and he fights with the heat of the furnace (Sir 38:39); third, because he devastates: a fire is kindled in my wrath, and shall burn even to the lowest hell (Deut 32:22). Fourth, because he is light: and this is so, first, because of his motion, for the Lord has made all things for himself (Prov 16:4); second, because of his position, for he dwells on high (Ps 112[113]:5); third, because of his unmixed manner: wisdom reaches everywhere, by reason of her purity. For she is a vapor of the power of God (Wis 7:24–25).

And he shall run away through fear. Here the effect of the punishment is set out. And first, the effect on the enemy as to their flight: and he shall run away through fear.

As to their small number, and they that remain of the trees, for Sennacherib literally fled with few, namely, with ten: you shall remain few in number, who before were as the stars of heaven for multitude (Deut 28:62).

And it shall be in that day, the remnant of Israel, and those who have been saved of the house of Jacob, shall no more lean upon him who strikes them, but shall lean upon the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, in truth. The remnants shall be converted, the remnants, I say, of Jacob, to the mighty Lord. For if your people Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant of it shall be converted. The consummation cut short shall overflow with righteousness. For the Lord God of hosts will make a consummation and a cutting short in the midst of all the earth. Where in the Greek it says: The remnants of Jacob shall be converted to the mighty God, for mighty God there is written in the Hebrew EL GIBBOR (אל גבור), two names of the six names by which, as we read above, the little child and son who is given to us was called. And where it is written: The remnants shall be converted, in place of that it is said in the Hebrew in the singular number, what is left shall be converted, that is, τὸ ὑπόλειμμα ἐπιστρέψει; in the Hebrew it is written SAR JASUB (שאר ישוב). And from the occasion of this expression they think that Jasub son of Isaiah went before as a sign of the people that was to be saved out of Israel. So when the light of Israel and the holy one has consumed the forests and briers of Carmel, and the Assyrian king has fled with a few, then the remnant of Israel, who with Hezekiah as their prince, when the other cities of Judea had been taken, were besieged in Jerusalem, will in no way trust in the Assyrian, as they do now under king Ahaz, who sent messengers to the king of the Assyrians, saying: I am your servant; come up and free me from the hand of the king of Syria, and from the hand of the king of Israel, who have risen up against me (2 Kgs 16:7); when he took the gold and silver that was found in the treasuries of the house of the Lord and in the king's house, and sent gifts to the king of the Assyrians, and the Assyrian king hearkened to him, and came to Damascus, and took it, and carried it away, and killed Rezin; but, freed from that very Assyrian, the smiter, who had first been a friend and afterwards proved an enemy, they will lean and rely upon the Lord the Holy One of Israel, not falsely, as they had done under the former kings, but in truth. This we read was done under Hezekiah, so that, forsaking their idols, they were converted to the worship of God.

Second, the effect on the people: and it shall come to pass, as to three things in which they offended, namely, in their trust in the nations: upon him that strikes them, because even those from whom they sought help sometimes afflicted them, they that shall escape, either to Ezechias or to other nations: they leaned upon you (Ezek 29:7).

This is therefore what the patriarch Isaac said: You will serve your brother. But when you have removed and freed yourself from his yoke on your neck, he is signifying two future peoples, one the son of a handmaid, the other of a free woman (for the letter is a servant, but grace is free), and that people who adheres to the letter will be a servant as long as they follow the interpreter of spiritual doctrine. Then also what the Apostle said will come to pass: That the remnants may be saved according to the choice of grace. Serve your brother, therefore: but then you will feel the benefit of servitude when you begin to obey your brother willingly, rather than forcibly.

But yet grace from above sometimes looks upon these mighty men, and afflicts them by the very employments caused by their abundant goods, and intersperses with their prosperity, adverse, but profitable, tribulations: in order that, when sorrowful, they may turn to their heart, and learn how vainly they are engaged in perishable pursuits. Because the light of truth, which is concealed from proud and overbusied minds, is revealed to the afflicted and humbled. For light approaches, when the afflicted mind discerns the gloom of tribulation which it is enduring from perishable pursuits: for, if it had not some perception of the light within, it would not even see that it had lost the light. But this can be specially understood also of the Jews, who dared for this reason to speak against our Redeemer, coming in the flesh, because they were mighty in their own thoughts. But the light was hid from these mighty men; because, while they are persecuting in their pride the light of truth, they lost it. But because they are to be admitted to the faith at the end of the world, it is rightly subjoined, And ordereth it to return again. Whence also it is said by Isaiah, If the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved. For the light then returns to them when they themselves return to confess the power of our Redeemer.

And what does Isaiah cry? "Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved." Do you see that he too does not say that all are to be saved, but that those that are worthy shall? For I regard not the multitude, he means, nor does a race diffused so far distress me, but those only do I save that yield themselves worthy of it. And he does not mention the "sand of the sea" without a reason, but to remind them of the ancient promise whereof they had made themselves unworthy. Why then are you troubled, as though the promise had failed, when all the Prophets show that it is not all that are to be saved? Then he mentions the mode of the salvation also. Observe the accuracy of the Prophet, and the judgment of the Apostle, what a testimony he has cited, how exceedingly apposite! For it not only shows us that those to be saved are some and not all, but also adds the way they are to be saved. How then are they to be saved, and how will God count them worthy of the benefit? "He will finish the work, and cut it short in righteousness," he says, "because a short work will the Lord make upon the earth." What he means then is somewhat of this sort. There is no need of fetching a circuit, and of trouble, and the vexation of the works of the Law, for the salvation is by a very short way. For such is faith, it holds salvation in a few short words.

Second, as to their worship of idols, both as to manner, for in truth, the remnant, against what is said in 1 Kings 18:21: how long do you halt between two sides? If the Lord be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him; and as to the converted, the remnant of Jacob, who were left by the Assyrians: save, O Lord, your people, the remnant of Israel (Jer 31:7).

How could it be shown from the testimony of the prophets, already received among the Gentiles in the New Testament, that the promise which God made to Abraham has been fulfilled through the coming of Christ? — It is written in the prophet Isaiah: “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations” (Isa. 56:7). But perhaps the Jews will say: The house of God, that is, the synagogue, is open to all. Nor do we object; yet in such a way that, as always, the circumcised join themselves to the Law. For their Law is that by which they were commanded, after the manner of Abraham, to be circumcised. Therefore, nothing new can seem to be signified by this example of the prophet; since anyone coming from any nation has never been forbidden from the beginning of Judaism to join himself to the Law. Nothing new spoken by the prophet can be thought, indeed it would be unessential, if the Gentiles have always been admitted to serve the God of Abraham and are never found to have been forbidden. And this is true, because those who submit themselves to the Law are never found not to have been received. If, therefore, these things are so, it seems needless that the prophet admonished about what, once handed down, has always been observed. And could anyone so dull be found as to say that the prophet spoke something unnecessary and empty? I do not know for whom it would be safe even to hear this and not oppose it. For since the Jewish people, on account of the sins which they committed against God, seeking help from idols, were often rebuked by the prophets but refused to enter upon the path of repentance so as to return to God, God, in reproach of them, indicated that He would open His house to all nations to pray, so that, the Jews being cast off, He would show that He would place others in their place. For if the nations have always been admitted to the Law, as was said above, how could the prophet say that this would happen in the future, unless he meant something different from what had been previously commanded? He could not speak of a thing which was done daily as though it were going to come. Therefore it is clear that this tends to the ruin of the Jews, to whom the prophet shows that, with them removed, others were to be called and were to receive the house of God’s grace, which had been promised to the Jews. What that promise is, the prophet Isaiah teaches, saying: “There shall come out of Zion one who shall deliver and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob; and this shall be my covenant with them” (Isa. 59:20–21). Therefore this covenant is the removal of sins. This is the New Covenant, which was promised through Jeremiah, who says: “Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, and I will accomplish for the house of Israel and the house of Judah a new covenant, not according to the covenant which I arranged for their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; for they did not continue in my covenant, and I neglected them, says the Lord” (Jer. 31:31–32). This is their transgression, when they made the image of a calf; then they corrupted His covenant. Therefore also the tablets on which the Law had been given were shattered under the mountain (Exod. 32:4, 19), because they deserved to receive more severe precepts. But because God is mild and merciful, He promised through the prophets that He would change the Law, so as to give another Covenant, which would differ from that which He had given before: that not only what was burdensome might be changed, but also those things which were given in figure, that is, the sabbath and circumcision; so that, since they had long been oppressed, being relieved in all things, they might give grateful thanks to God as petitioners. And because, persisting in their fathers’ transgression, they refused to turn their minds away from idols, He testifies that the nations, together with the remnant who kept the faith, will enjoy the Covenant which He had said would come: so that the faithless Jews might be tortured in a twofold way. For they were burdened for a time by the precepts, and in the future they will pay fitting penalties, because they were found faithful neither in the Old nor in the New Covenant. So He said that He would give a New Covenant, so that the Old, which had been given to the Fathers, would cease. And therefore, whoever serves God in this Covenant does not observe the sabbath, nor new moons, nor circumcision, nor distinctions of foods; but has only the fear of God in faith: because he will not be justified by the Law, but by faith, as the prophet Habakkuk says: “For the righteous shall live by faith” (Hab. 2:4); so that he no longer uses many precepts to gain favor with God, but few. Isaiah again, speaking with the same meaning, says: “Though the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant of them shall be saved. For the Lord shall accomplish and cut short His word in righteousness, because the Lord will make a short word upon the whole earth” (Isa. 10:22–23). For the remnant who will persevere in the faith of the promise, while the others do not believe, He shows the shortened word of the Law: this is the New Covenant which He promised. It would not otherwise be called a Covenant, unless in a similar way this too were confirmed by the witness of blood, just as the Old Covenant, so that both might have one and the same name: but in the Old, many precepts, in the New, however, few, as He promised. So that, since He had said that Abraham would be the father of many nations (Gen. 17:4–5), in the same way the sons might be justified as the father had been justified: so that, once those things ceased which began after the faith of Abraham, those who receive the faith by which that same Abraham was justified might be sons of Abraham, as was said by the Lord. And this is neither strange nor unheard of, that men should be justified without care for the sabbath and circumcision and the rest of the commandments of this sort. For Enoch did not please God by this, that he might be translated; nor was Noah found righteous in the flood by observing this alone; nor was Abraham himself justified after he was circumcised: “Abraham,” it says, “believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness” (Heb. 11:5, 7, 8; Rom. 4:3). Then he was circumcised, so that there might be in him a sign that, though he was old, he believed that he would have a son. Therefore it is not circumcision that commends Abraham, but faith. And so, for those who believe, faith is sufficient for justification, that they may be sons of Abraham in faith, not in circumcision, because they have no need of circumcision. For what Abraham believed is not what is believed in their case. But the Jews were therefore ordered to be circumcised, so that they might have the sign of Abraham’s faith, not of their own faith, but so that they might be known as his sons according to the flesh. Yet if they believe, they will be his sons also in justification. For what advantage is it to be called the son of a powerful man if one is powerless, except that it is even more harmful? For it is a disgrace to be the son of a noble and glorious man without honor. Indeed, bodily circumcision is so far from being a merit that God says through the prophet Jeremiah that He will take vengeance on all the circumcised in foreskin, if they are not circumcised in heart (Jer. 4:4). Yet He is not angry with those who are circumcised in heart but uncircumcised in flesh, because no one has ever pleased God without the circumcision of the heart. Whoever, therefore, are circumcised in the flesh signify the lineage of Abraham according to the flesh; but those who are circumcised in heart signify the lineage of God according to faith, because, being circumcised from all worldly error, they confess God as their Father. What then does the circumcision of the flesh profit, if, when faith is lacking in the Jew, he cannot attain to the merit of Abraham? Or what harm is there in foreskin, when no one attains to his righteousness except the one who has followed the faith of Abraham? They therefore glory in the circumcision of the flesh in vain, since they see that it has no merit before God. And since, as has been shown, it is better to have faith than circumcision, the Gentiles are better than the Jews; for the Gentiles have faith, the Jews have circumcision. And whom do you think He recognizes more as sons of Abraham: those who are like him according to the flesh, or those who are like him in faith? But the faith of Abraham bears witness. And therefore he glories not in the flesh but in faith. For this reason he has received as sons those whom he sees to be imitators of his glory. For how can he call those sons from whom he sees a shrinking back from that by which he pleased God and was justified? He will therefore be able to judge them not as his sons, but as his enemies. For they appear to be envious of him, despising the faith through which he was glorified. Nor is it surprising if the Jews are found untrusting, not at all accepting the New Testament, when we know that they were not faithful even in the Old. They were always rebellious and disrespectful against God, and therefore they received such commandments by which their necks, which were unbending, might be pressed down. For they never wished to hope for good things from God, whose such great benefits and such wondrous powers they had come to know. Therefore it is that, among other things, the prophet Ezekiel says: “I lifted up my hand to them in the desert, that they should be scattered among the nations and dispersed in the lands, because they did not perform my ordinances and rejected my commandments.” And in what follows: “I gave them laws that were not good, and judgments whereby they should not live in them” (Ezek. 20:23–25). He shows for what reason such great and so harsh commandments were given to them: because they proved ungrateful for such great benefits, and, justice dictating, they were to be pressed by more severe precepts. Therefore He called them “not good,” although they are just: because they did not lead them to justification, but to destruction; and although a punishment rightly inflicted, yet for the one who suffers it, it is not a good. After these things, however, because God is merciful, He promised that He would give the New Testament, in which the shortening of the Law would justify believers, just as Abraham was justified: so that, with new moons and the sabbath and circumcision and the other precepts ceasing, not those that belong to the natural law, that is, murder, adultery, and such things, they might be justified as Abraham was. For, with the faith of Abraham renewed, He willed that all things should cease, so that the time might be such as it was when Abraham believed. But perhaps the Jews say: “If those things that were given by Moses are said to cease through the shortening of the Law, was circumcision given by Moses so that it should cease? And therefore we have the sign of our father, because we are the sons of Abraham, a sign which, for the sake of the testimony of our lineage, ought not to cease.” Circumcision indeed had to be observed in its time, that is, before the New Testament which had been promised was given. But when, by the grace of God, the burdens of the Law were ordered to cease, what need is there of circumcision? Therefore a new Law was given, that is, a spiritual one, so that carnal things might cease, and those who received it might accept its sign: so that just as in the Old Testament they had the sign of Abraham, from whom the Old Testament began, so also in the New they might have the sign of the Savior, who is the institutor of the New Testament. For just as from Abraham they were called Hebrews, so from Christ they are called Christians. Whoever, therefore, are still called Hebrews have not received the New Testament which God promised, bringing to nothing the kindness and mercy of God: for He no longer wished His people to be designated by the name of a man, but agreed to establish them under the name of His Son. With what courage, then, do the Jews say that we do not use our Law but theirs, when David says, “I will give thanks to you among the nations” (Ps. 17:50), and again, “Rejoice, O nations, with his people”? And to the prophet Jeremiah the Lord says, “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you; and before you came forth from the womb, I sanctified you; and I appointed you as a prophet to the nations” (Jer. 1:5). Judaism certainly has its own particular signs: for this people is signified either in Jacob, or in Samaria, or in Jerusalem, or in Judea, or in Israel. As for the nations, however, it is clear that He signifies them in a different way than He does the Jews. Therefore Jeremiah is our prophet. For although in all the Prophets God showed that the nations would share in His gift, yet to Jeremiah in particular He says that He has given him to us as a prophet. For he signified that the New Testament would come, which would profit the Gentiles more than the Jews, as now appears clearly. For since the preaching of the New Testament is spread over the whole earth, a faithful Jew is so rarely and with such difficulty found that all the Churches of the New Testament are called “of the nations,” as it was said in the prophet Hosea: “I will call that which is not my people, my people; and her that was not beloved, beloved” (Hosea 2:24; Rom. 9:25). Therefore, the Jews having been rejected, He calls the nations with the same mercy and grace with which He agreed to call Abraham. For Abraham did not come to know the Lord without being called. Therefore, He who agreed to call Abraham likewise agreed to call the nations. Why then do they say, “The Law is ours,” when it is clear that the gift of God is for all who are willing? Let this careless violation cease, since the grace of God is common to all. With what shame do they deny that our Christ was promised in the Law, when they see in Him all the signs which the Law foretold as to come? For both according to the promise made to Abraham all nations are justified by believing in Him (Gen. 22:18); and according to the prophet Isaiah He was born of a Virgin (Isa. 7:14) in Bethlehem from the tribe of Judah, as was promised, from the seed of David (Micah 5:2); and in accordance with what Jeremiah prophesied (Jer. 31:31–32), He proclaimed the New Testament which God then promised would come; and after all the signs of power had been shown, He humbled Himself, according to the words of the Prophets; and having suffered all that had been foretold, He rose on the third day, as it is written in the prophet. And if they inquire about the time of the promise, as it is shown in the prophet Daniel (Dan. 9:24 ff.), they will find it fulfilled in the time when Christ was born and suffered: for from the first year of Darius, king of the Persians, down to the birth and passion of the Lord and the destruction of Jerusalem, which was carried out by Vespasian, chief of the Roman Empire, the seventy weeks were completed, which are four hundred and ninety years, a reckoning made clear through the kingdoms and the successors of the empire. Therefore also it is found calculated by Tertullian in the book which he wrote against the Jews; but, lest this should backfire to his disadvantage, although he calculated correctly, we have passed it over in silence. And who can doubt this number, when now about three hundred years are found in addition to that number? It is therefore shameless, after so many years have been added beyond the time of the coming of the Saviour, to say, “He has not come.” Under the Apostles, or at the time when the Lord was living among men, hatred opposing the truth could still hide itself; so that, although it saw all the signs of the Christ who had been promised in the Savior, it could say that it doubted about the time, to conceal its unbelief. But afterwards, when many years began to exceed the promised number, what shamelessness it is to deny that He has come, whose coming is known to have been fulfilled both by signs and by times! For when something is full and does not overflow, a combative person may say that it is not full; but overflow closes the mouth of the argumentative. So the Jews, in the time of the Saviour, could say, though deceitfully, that the calculation from the time of Darius to the Lord Christ was not correctly made, so that He might not be acknowledged as the one who had been promised. We are mistaken, they might say, in the years and in the months and in the days of the emperors, and we do not make an exact reckoning. But when the times have extended beyond the prescribed number of years of the promised Christ, no excuse can be put forward to deny that He who has come is the Christ, unless, which God forbid, the one who promised is said to have lied. For when the time of the promise has elapsed, and it is denied that the one who was promised has come, what else is charged against the promiser but falsehood? Yet that He who made the promise is truthful, all the signs teach which were foretold in Christ and are known to have been found in Christ. The Jews, however, while they are ashamed to change themselves, do not consider that there will be a judgment to come. For nothing is worse than for someone to deny that a thing is true when he understands that it is not a lie.

If the chaff be condemned, let the wheat be gathered together. May the remnant be saved, as Isaiah saith, "And the remnant hath" clearly "been saved:" for out of them were the twelve Apostles, out of them more than five hundred brethren, to whom the Lord showed Himself after His Resurrection: out of their number were so many thousands baptized, who laid the price of their possessions at the Apostles' feet. Thus then was fulfilled the prayer here made to God: "For Thy servant David's sake, turn not away the presence of Thine Anointed."

If it is of these the predestinated remnant, about whom another prophet has said, "The remnant shall be saved;" whence the apostle also says, "Even so then at this time also the remnant according to the election of grace is saved;" assuredly he believes in Christ; just as in the time of the apostle very many of that nation believed; nor are there now wanting those, although very few, who yet believe.

The Jews who slew Him, and would not believe in Him, because it behoved Him to die and rise again, were yet more miserably wasted by the Romans, and utterly rooted out from their kingdom, where aliens had already ruled over them, and were dispersed through the lands (so that indeed there is no place where they are not), and are thus by their own Scriptures a testimony to us that we have not forged the prophecies about Christ. And very many of them, considering this, even before His passion, but chiefly after His resurrection, believed on Him, of whom it was predicted, "Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, the remnant shall be saved."

Through this Son of man, Christ Jesus, and from his remnant, that is, the apostles and the many others who from among the Israelites have believed in Christ as God, and with the increasing plenitude of the Gentiles, the holy vineyard is being completed.

And because he had said that a remnant would be saved, he passes to later times, and says that the full salvation will come under Christ. Understanding this, the apostle Paul too writes to the Romans: But Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: Though the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant will be saved. For he is finishing the word and cutting it short in equity, because a shortened word will the Lord make upon the earth (Rom 9:27). And as Isaiah said: Unless the Lord Sabaoth had left us seed, we would have become as Sodom, and would have been like Gomorrah (Isa 1:9). Where, then, the authority of so great a man goes before, let every other interpretation cease. And indeed, if we read Josephus (bk. 10, ch. 2), and how great a multitude of men there was in Jerusalem and in Judea when the Lord suffered, we understand that scarcely a few of the Jews were saved, among the Apostles and apostolic men. Now the shortened and perfect word is the word of the Gospel, which in place of all the ceremonies of the long-winded Law gave a very brief precept of love and faith: that what we would not have done to ourselves, we should not do to another. Hence the Lord too in the Gospel: On these two commandments, he says, hangs all the Law and the Prophets (Matt 22:40). Some refer this chapter to those times when under Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, and Jeshua son of Jozadak, and Ezra, and Nehemiah, a part of the people returned to Judea. To them we shall answer that they do not keep the order of the history, especially since the things that follow are said not against the Babylonians, whose king was Nebuchadnezzar, but against Sennacherib king of the Assyrians.

Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will? Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour? What if God, willing to show his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction: And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory, Even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles? As he saith also in Osee, I will call them my people, which were not my people; and her beloved, which was not beloved. And it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people; there shall they be called the children of the living God. Esaias also crieth concerning Israel, Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved: For he will finish the work, and cut it short in righteousness: because a short work will the Lord make upon the earth. [Isaiah 10:22-23] And as Esaias said before, Except the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, we had been as Sodoma, and been made like unto Gomorrha. What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith. But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness. Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumblingstone; As it is written, Behold, I lay in Sion a stumblingstone and rock of offence: and whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.

And he confirms the promise: for if your people, O Israel, shall be as the sand of the sea: I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, and as the sand that is by the sea shore (Gen 22:17).

Third, as to the justice of their works; and first, he sets out the promise: the end abridged, that is, the destruction made brief in the army of Sennacherib, shall overflow with justice, that is, he will make justice overflow in the people, below: let us have pity on the wicked, but he will not learn justice: in the land of the saints he has done wicked things (Isa 26:10).

But somebody will perhaps think that we lack nothing for the knowledge of righteousness, since the Lord, when He summarily and briefly expounded His word on earth, informed us that the whole law and the prophets depend on two commandments; nor was He silent as to what these were, but declared them in the plainest words: "Thou shalt love," said He, "the Lord thy God, with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind;" and "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." What is more surely true than that, if these be fulfilled, all righteousness is fulfilled?

What wonder, most beloved brothers, if such [the Lord's Prayer] is the prayer that God has taught, who by his instruction has abbreviated our every prayer in a saving word? This had already been foretold by Isaiah the prophet, when filled with the Holy Spirit, he spoke of the majesty and loving kindness of God. He said, "He will finish the word and cut it short in righteousness, because the Lord will make a short word in all the world." For when the Word of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, came to all, and gathering together the learned and unlearned alike, he gave forth the precepts of salvation to every sex and age, he made a concise compendium of his precepts. [This was] so that the memory of the learners might not be burdened in heavenly discipline but might learn quickly what was necessary to a simple faith.

Three gathered together in the name of the Lord count for more with God than tens of thousands of those who deny the Godhead. Would you prefer the whole of the Canaanites to Abraham alone? or the men of Sodom to Lot? or the Midianities to Moses, when each of these was a pilgrim and a stranger? How do the three hundred men with Gideon, who bravely lapped, compare with the thousands who were put to flight? Or the servants of Abraham, who scarcely exceeded them in number, with the many kings and the army of tens of thousands whom, few as they were, they overtook and defeated? Or how do you understand the passage that though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved? And again, I have left me seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to Baal? … God has not taken pleasure in numbers.

When God made statements such as "You shall not murder; you shall not commit adultery; you shall not steal; you shall not bear false witness," he was teaching me to refrain from doing to others what I would be unwilling to do to myself. Therefore the precept offered in the Gospel belongs only to the one who first drew it up in ancient times, arranging it according to his own teaching in a formula that could easily be understood. This was predicted in another passage in which the Lord, that is, Christ, was "to make a concise word on the earth."

Second, he places the confirmation: for the Lord God of hosts shall make an end: with a flood that passes by, he will make an utter end of the place thereof (Nah 1:8); in the midst of all the land, that is, in Jerusalem, which is in the middle of the land: this is Jerusalem, I have set her in the midst of the nations, and the lands round about her (Ezek 5:5). Romans 9:27 interprets this as concerning the remnant of those to be saved; and the abridged word, as the Septuagint reads, is the word of the Gospel: on these two commandments depends the whole law and the prophets (Matt 22:40); or the Word incarnate.

I find, indeed, that some eminent writers have published treatises on these matters piously and briefly written. Moreover, I know that the heretic Photinus has written on the same, with the object not of explaining the meaning of the text to his readers but of wresting things simply and truthfully said in support of his own dogma. Yet the Holy Spirit has taken care that in these words nothing should be set down which is ambiguous or obscure or inconsistent with other truths; for therein is that prophecy verified, "Finishing and cutting short the word in equity: because a short word will the Lord make upon the earth." It shall be our endeavor, then, first to restore and emphasize the words of the apostles in their native simplicity.

Therefore thus says the Lord God of hosts: Do not fear, my people, dweller in Zion, because of Assur: he will strike you with the rod, and will lift up his staff over you in the way of Egypt. For yet a little while, and a very little, and my indignation will be ended, and my fury upon their crime. And the Lord of hosts will raise up a scourge against him, like the slaughter of Midian at the rock of Oreb, and his rod over the sea, and he will lift it up in the way of Egypt. And it shall be in that day: his burden shall be taken from your shoulder, and his yoke from your neck, and the yoke shall rot away before the oil. For rock, which Aquila translated according to the Hebrew, Symmachus and Theodotion set down the Hebrew word itself, SUR OREB (צור עורב). In place of which the Seventy translated place of tribulation: of which we shall speak in its own place. It seems hard to you, he says, O dweller in Zion, that when all the nations round about have been subjugated by the Assyrian, you alone should be freed from his hands. Listen to what I say: do not fear, my people, that you will be taken when Assur conquers. For although in the fourteenth year of king Hezekiah (2 Kgs 18) Sennacherib king of Assyria is to go up against all the fortified cities of Judah, to take them, and to send Rabshakeh to terrify the people besieged in Jerusalem, yet you must know this, that he will strike you not with the sword but with the rod, and, marching against Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, and against the Egyptians and the Red Sea by the way of Egypt, he will only lift his staff against you, and will not be able to strike. For yet a little while, and when he has returned from Egypt with an infinite multitude of his army, and wishes to besiege you, he will at once be struck by my indignation, and by that scourge which I once raised up against the Midianites under Gideon (Judg 7), who by another name was called Jerubbaal: when Oreb and Zebah, princes of the Midianites, were slain upon a very hard rock, that is, flint, which in Hebrew is called SUR (צור), so that the place received the name rock of Oreb from the rock and from the king who was slain upon it. So he will lift his rod over the Red Sea when he marches against the Ethiopians, and will lift it when he returns to you by the way of Egypt: but as soon as he has come from Egypt, the burden will be taken from your shoulders, and the yoke of his rule, and you will cease to serve. And this yoke, that is, the power of the Assyrian, will rot away before the oil, that is, the mercy of God. But we can also understand what he said: He will strike you with the rod, and will lift up his staff over you in the way of Egypt; and again: And his rod over the sea, and he will lift it up in the way of Egypt, in this way too: that he struck very many of the tribe of Judah, and took the cities round about the kingdom of Jerusalem, for this reason, because they had their trust not in God but in the Egyptians. Hence Rabshakeh too reproaches them, saying: Behold, you trust upon a broken staff of reed, upon Egypt. If a man lean upon it, it will go into his hand and pierce it (2 Kgs 18:22): so is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust in him. The history of the Midianites is written in the book of Judges (Judg 7), and we read it also in the Psalm: Make their princes like Oreb, and Zeeb, and Zebah, and Zalmunna (Ps 82 [83]:12). They err, therefore, who think that the time is signified when in the book of Numbers (ch. 25) the Midianites are reported to have been slain by Israel from the desert of Sur to Oreb, the mountain of God: for these are written among the Hebrews with other letters, and at that time they were not at mount Oreb, but in the wilderness of Shittim. According to the anagogy, the people that dwells in the Church is commanded not to fear the adversaries, who are always ready to fight and have overturned souls by their much disputation. For they receive a little power against the people of God, and strike not so much with the sword as with the rod, that is, not to kill but to threaten, for this reason, because the people have walked in the way of Egypt and have not trusted in the Lord. But when they have returned to God and have left the road of Egypt, then the scourge of God is to be raised up by his judgment against the adversaries. For Midian means from judgment: so that by the spirit of his mouth and by the oil of mercy the yoke of the enemies may rot away.

Therefore, thus says the Lord. Here the strengthening of the people is set out, and concerning this, he does two things. First, he sets out the strengthening: be not afraid, below: fear not, you worm of Jacob, you that are dead of Israel (Isa 41:14). Second, he explains their escape, and first, in general, second, in particular: he shall pass into Magron or he shall come into Aiath (Isa 10:28). Concerning the first, he does three things. First, the affliction is set out: with his rod, that is, with the affliction of siege and plunder, and his staff, breaking into pieces, in the way of Egypt, for, hearing that the king of Ethiopia had come out from his land (as it says in 2 Kings 19:9), the king of Assyria left the land, and on his return, destroyed the cities which he found coming by the way of Egypt: how is the strong staff broken, the beautiful rod? (Jer 48:17).

Second, the destruction of those who afflict them: for yet a little. Concerning which is first noted hastening: yet a little in relation to eternity or in relation to the time in which they will afflict them: very shortly I will pour out my wrath upon you (Ezek 7:8); second, the magnitude of the punishment: my indignation shall cease, as to punishment, wrath, as to vengeance.

Third, the ease of punishing, my (Judg 7:25); and over the sea, the Red Sea: and he shall lift it up (Exod 14:21–29), against you, first, in the way of Egypt, because you trusted in the Egyptians.

It is said through Moses: "They sucked honey from the rock, and oil from the solid rock." For nothing of this kind is read according to history, if the whole sequence of the Old Testament is reviewed. Nowhere did that people suck honey from the rock, nowhere oil. But because according to Paul's words: "The rock was Christ," they sucked honey from the rock who saw the deeds and miracles of our same Redeemer. But they sucked oil from the solid rock, because by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit after his resurrection they deserved to be anointed. Therefore, as it were, the weak rock gave honey, when the Lord, still mortal, showed to his disciples the sweetness of his miracles. But the solid rock poured forth oil, because, after his resurrection now made impassible, through the breathing of the Spirit he sent forth the gift of holy anointing. Of this oil it is said through the prophet: "The yoke shall decay because of the oil." For we were held under the yoke of demonic dominion, but we have been anointed with the oil of the Holy Spirit. And because the grace of liberty has anointed us, the yoke of demonic dominion has rotted away, as Paul attests when he says: "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty."

It may be that by the designation of oil the actual anointing of the Holy Spirit is denoted, whereof it is said by the Prophet: "And the yoke shall rot at the presence of the oil." For the yoke doth rot at the presence of the oil, because whilst we are anointed with the grace of the Holy Spirit, we are set free from the bondage of our captivity; and whereas the proud dominion of the evil spirit is thrown off, the yoke is broken in pieces, wherewith the necks of our liberty were borne down. Of this oil again it is written: "A vineyard was made to my beloved on the horn, a child of oil." For a child of oil, the faithful people is called, which is engendered to the faith of God by the interior anointing of the Holy Spirit. And so at that time let Holy Church, being borne down by countless sorrows, recal to remembrance the gifts of the Spirit and the marvellous preachings which are her's now, and let her bewail her own silence, saying, "The rock poured me out rivers of oil."

Third, the liberation that follows is set out, and first, the liberation: his burden shall be taken away: and it shall come to pass in that day, says the Lord of hosts, that I will break his yoke from off your neck, and will burst his bands (Jer 30:8); second, the reason for the liberation: at the presence of the oil, of divine mercy, above: wounds and bruises and swelling sores: they are not bound up, nor dressed, nor fomented with oil (Isa 1:6).

He will come into Aioth, he will pass into Magron: at Machmas he will deposit his baggage. They have passed over in haste; Gabee is our lodging (or, as we have found it written elsewhere: they have lodged a lodging); Rama was astonished, Gaba of Saul fled. Neigh with your voice, daughter of Gallim; give heed, Laisa, poor little Anathoth: Medemena has departed: inhabitants of Gebim, take courage. There is still day enough for a halt at Nob: he will shake his hand against the mount of the daughter of Zion, the hill of Jerusalem. LXX: For he will come into the city of Aggai, and will pass into Mageddo: and at Machmas he will set down his baggage: and he will pass through the valley, and will come into Aggai. Fear will seize Rama, the city of Saul: the daughter of Gallim will flee: give heed, Laisa: it will be heard in Anathot: Medemena was astonished, and the inhabitants of Gebim. Be comforted today in the way, so that he may remain: comfort the mount of the daughter of Zion, and the hill of Jerusalem. In this place the Seventy differ much from the Hebrew: for this reason we have set down both editions, so that, with Christ inspiring us, if we have deserved it, we may say what seems right to us on each point. The prophetic word describes the march and the pomp of the Assyrian as he returns from Egypt to Jerusalem, and with how great a din and how great speed he will come to attack it. And first, he says, he will come into Aioth, where, in his excessive haste, unwilling to stay, he will pass into Magron, and he will have such confidence of taking the city that he will leave his packs at Machmas, as one who will soon return when the city has been overthrown: having laid them down, he will pass it in haste; and in Gabee he will have his lodging: and while he halts there a little, to refresh his weary army, Rama, a neighboring city, will be terrified: Gaba, once the city of Saul, will flee. Then the daughter of Gallim too, which in Hebrew is called BETH GALLIM (בת גלים), will wail so that you would think it the neighing of horses. Therefore, O Laisa, and you, poor, or obedient, or humble Anathoth (for it can be interpreted in three ways), take careful heed, and turn aside from the onrush of the runner, if you can: for the city of Medemena has already departed from its seats. But you who dwell in the hills, which is what Gebim means, safe in the height of your places, take courage, that is, seize your arms. There still remained so much of the day that, standing in the little town of Nob, and looking at the city of Jerusalem from afar, he shook his hand and brandished it over mount Zion, either looking down on it and despising it, or insulting and threatening it, and marveling that, when the whole East had been subjected to him, so small a city should dare to resist his power. These things according to the Hebrews, as they were handed down to us by them, we have touched on in brief discourse. Now let us add what the churchmen think about this place according to the edition of the Seventy. When the yoke of the Assyrian, or, as some wrongly think, of the Babylonian, has been taken from your shoulders and broken, the Assyrian Sennacherib, fleeing with a few survivors, will come into Aggai, which is not found in the Hebrew. And so great will be the panic of the fugitive that he will not dare to remain there, but will pass into Mageddo, which the Scripture itself does not contain either. And because, hampered by his packs, he will not be able to flee more swiftly, he will lay down his baggage in Machmas, and with hurried step will pass through the valley, which the Hebrew text does not have either: and he will come again into Aggai, which is set twice in this place and is not found in the Hebrew. At the sound of his flight Rama, the city of Saul, will tremble: which is plainly false. For the city of Saul is called Gaba, as is contained in the Hebrew. Then he will come into Gallim: Laisa will hear, Anathoth will hear, Medemena will tremble. But the inhabitants of Gebim, and the hills which are in Jerusalem, that is, all the lofty men, are called upon to console Jerusalem: not after a long time, but at the present moment, and on the same day, while the Assyrian is on the way; so that they may remain in their places, and, though disturbed by fear, may in no way flee. This according to the letter. But a certain writer in this place, since he could not find the ἐτυμολογίας of the false names according to the Seventy, and testifies that he could not find them in the book of Hebrew Names, sends us off into uncertainty, so as to say that at the last time of the world, and at the consummation of this age, when punishments are imminent, the great mind, the prince of the Assyrians, will flee, and through various places and by varied journeys will desire to flee from the wrath of God. And when he has fled, the inhabitants of Gebim, that is, all the lofty powers, are called upon by the prophetic word to console the fugitive, and to teach him not to flee but to remain on the way and wait for the mercy of God; and not only to console the fugitive, but by good works to call back the daughter of Zion from mourning and to summon her to the salvation of penitence; and that these are the hills in Jerusalem of which we read in the latter part of this prophet: Comfort, comfort my people, O priests: speak to the heart of Jerusalem (Isa 40:1). This he said because, constrained by the truth of the matter, he had nothing else to say.

He shall come into Aiath. Here their escape is described in particular. And first, the oppression is set out, numbering the cities through which he passed coming from Egypt to Jerusalem: he shall come from Egypt, into Aiath, he shall pass, in haste, into Magron; at Machmas, a certain city, he shall lay up his carriages, he shall send away part of his goods so that he might come unencumbered.

They have passed in haste, unimpeded by the resistance of those cities; Gaba is our lodging, the voice of the army which rested there; Rama was astonished, that is, it feared, because he was near; Gabaath of Saul, the royal city in the time of Saul.

Whinny, in the manner of horses; attend, O Laisa, how you may flee, and similarly, you, poor Anathoth, for it was a little village.

Medemena is removed; it fled, and similarly, the inhabitants of Gabim.

The voice of Sennacherib to his army: take courage: it is yet day enough, to remain in Nobe, which is a village near Jerusalem; as if to say: there is yet enough of the day that we can pitch our tents there, for it had been foretold to him that, if he drove to that point on that day, it would be conquered. Or: you inhabitants of Gabim, take courage, for the enemy is near. He shall shake his hand, like someone threatening, below: against the Holy One of Israel. By the hand of your servants you have reproached the Lord (Isa 37:23–24).

Behold, the Sovereign Lord of hosts will break the little flask in terror, and the lofty of stature will be cut down, and the high will be humbled, and the thickets of the forest will be overturned with iron, and Lebanon with its lofty ones will fall. Some think that this passage is still said of the Assyrian: that when he has been crushed, all the nations round about which lay under his dominion are cut down and humbled, and the densest forest is overturned; by which they would have it that μεταφορικῶς the people and the princes are understood. And that Lebanon too falls with its lofty ones, so that no power at all is left to Assyria. Others, however, would have it that from this place begins the passage concerning Christ: especially since both we and the Circumcision confess that what follows also is written of him. He had told above the name of the child to be born of the Virgin, that he would be called Emmanuel; and afterwards, that the conception of the prophetess's womb would be called hasten, strip the spoils, make haste to plunder (Isa 8:3), and that he himself would be a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense to both houses of Israel: that his government would be upon his shoulder, and he would be called by six names: wonderful, and counselor, and God, and mighty, and father of the age to come, and prince of peace: and that his empire would be multiplied, and of peace there would be no end. Now, in the prologue of his coming, before it is said that he will be born of the stock of Jesse and David, his passion is shown by the figure of the broken flask: that, by God's will, his flesh was handed over to death for this reason, that the loftiness of the Jews might be destroyed, and those once lofty might fall to the earth; and that Lebanon might be cut down with its cedars, of which we read in Zechariah: Open your gates, O Lebanon, and let fire devour your cedars: howl, fir tree, for the cedar has fallen, because the magnificent have been laid waste (Zech 11:1-2). And that he is said to have been crushed and struck by the Father, this too is evidence: I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered (Zech 13:7). And another testimony: For they persecuted him whom you struck (Ps 68 [69]:27). The Hebrew word (פארה) PHURA, which Aquila translated κεραμεῖον, Theodotion and Symmachus rendered ληνὸν, that is, winepress, which itself too, according to the title of three psalms, signifies the Lord's passion, as he himself says in Isaiah: I have trodden the winepress alone, and of the nations there was no man with me (Isa 63:3). But the Seventy, bringing in a new sense, translated glorious ones for winepress.

And who are these but the rich? Because they have indeed received their consolation, glory and honor, and a lofty position from their wealth.

Second, the destruction of the enemy: behold the sovereign. And first, ease on the part of the one who punishes: he shall break the earthen vessel, like what was done by Gideon (Judg 7:19–20); second, universality on the part of those who are punished: the tall, as to those strong in body, the lofty, as to princes. The Gloss interprets this verse mystically: he shall break the earthen vessel, in the passion of Christ.

[God spoke] of the branches (thickets), not the root. When the measure of the people's sins was complete, John came and took up the roots of their trees. "For the ax is laid to the roots of the trees," [the roots] which Isaiah had left [untouched]. When will this be, if not at the rising forth of the true One, who was designated by the [image of] the staff and the shoot, and upon whom rests the Spirit, who is referred to as being sevenfold.

In this instance Lebanon means Jerusalem … which the Word warns will fall with all of the men of greatness and glory.

In this instance the birth of Christ from the seed of Jesse and David is joined with the destruction of Lebanon and the call of the Gentiles.

The thickets of forest, as to the multitude of the people, that is, the shrubs which make a forest dense, and Libanus, Sennacherib himself, who was killed by his sons, below (ch. 27).