Isaiah 21

The burden of the desert of the sea. If I did not read in what follows in this chapter: Babylon, my beloved, has become a wonder to me; and again: Fallen, fallen is Babylon, and all the graven images of her gods are broken on the ground; and above: Go up, Elam, and besiege, O Mede, I would be in doubt what this Burden is that is laid upon the desert of the sea. It is plain, therefore, that Babylon is called the desert of the sea, as Jeremiah says in the person of God: And I will make her sea desert, and I will dry up her land, and Babylon will become heaps of sand (Jer 51:36-37). And it is called sea because of the multitude of its inhabitants. Hence above, too, the multitude of Egypt was compared to the sea: The Lord will make the sea of Egypt desert. And that the Medes and Persians fought against Babylon and overthrew it, we read in the aforesaid Jeremiah: Sharpen the arrows, fill the quivers. The Lord will rouse the spirit of the kings of the Medes, and his mind is against Babylon, to destroy it, for it is the vengeance of the Lord, the vengeance of his Temple. Upon the walls of Babylon lift up a signal, strengthen the watch, set up watchmen, prepare ambushes: for the Lord has purposed, and has done all that he spoke against the inhabitants of Babylon. And again: Lift up a signal in the land, sound the trumpet among the nations, sanctify the nations against her, proclaim against her to the kings of Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz, number Tapsar against her, bring up the horse like the stinging locust. Sanctify the nations against her, the kings of Media, its leaders and all its magistrates, and all the land of its dominion. And the land will be shaken and troubled, because the thought of the Lord has kept watch against Babylon, to make the land of Babylon desert and uninhabitable (Jer 51:11ff.).

The burden of the desert of the sea. As whirlwinds come from the south-west, it comes from the desert, from a terrible land. A hard vision has been told to me: he who is unbelieving deals faithlessly, and he who is a spoiler lays waste. Go up, Elam; besiege, O Mede: I have made all its groaning to cease. Therefore my loins are filled with pain; anguish has taken hold of me, like the anguish of a woman in labour. LXX: The vision of the desert of the sea. As a tempest passes through from the desert, coming from the desert. From a terrible land a hard vision has been announced to me: the transgressor transgresses, and the wicked man does wickedly. Against me come the Elamites and the ambassadors of the Persians: now I shall groan, and comfort myself; therefore my loins are filled with anguish, pains have seized me, as a woman in labour. What we think according to the History we have said briefly; now let us gather the chief points of tropology. The vision, or weight, is seen against the sea of this world; and it is seen by the Prophet with how many temptations this world is filled. That the world is called the sea (to pass over many things), I am content with a single testimony of the Psalm: They who go down to the sea in ships, doing business in many waters, these have seen the works of the Lord, and his wonders in the deep (Ps 106 [107]:23). For those who do the work of God in this world, and say with the Prophet, I have come into the depth of the sea, see his wonders in the deep; and, delivered from temptations and straits, they say that they have heard a terrible and hard vision. Now this very tempest comes from the desert, in which the Lord too was tempted (Matt 4), and Israel lay open to the bites of serpents and the stings of scorpions (Num 21).

As whirlwinds come from the southwest, it comes from the desert, from a terrible land. A hard vision has been announced to me. The voice of the Babylonian people in fear is brought in, or of Babylon itself, because it hears that the Medes and Elamites are preparing an army against it and are coming from the wilderness; and it sets forth an example by way of comparison. As, it says, a violent storm usually comes from the southwest wind, so devastation comes upon me from the wilderness, from a terrible land, whose very name I cannot hear without dread. A hard vision has been announced to me: for what is harder than captivity at hand?

And rightly, according to the Hebrew, whirlwinds and tempests come from the desert and from a terrible land, where God is not the inhabitant, and where all things are earthly; and whoever is unbelieving does a thing in keeping with his faithlessness, and he who is a spoiler lays waste. Hence he speaks boldly against his adversaries: Go up, Elam; besiege, O Mede: I have made all the groaning of the desert of the sea, and of the terrible land, and of the hardest vision that has been told, to cease. For my loins, doing penance, are full no longer of pleasure, as before, but of pain; and I shall no longer say: My loins are filled with illusions (Ps 37 [38]:7). For anguish and tribulation have taken hold of me, as it is wont to hold a woman in labour. The common edition and the Hebrew differ greatly from each other in this place; therefore we shall touch briefly on both, lest we leave the φιλεγκλημῶσιν some little occasion of carping at us.

507. The burden of the desert of the sea. Here he threatens against the enemies who oppressed them by taking away their goods, although they were joined to them by some treaty. And this is divided into three parts.

First, against those who were joined to them by a treaty of friendship;

in the second, against those who were joined by right of authority, the burden of the valley of vision (ch. 22);

in the third, against those who were joined to them by association in trade, the burden of Tyre (ch. 23).

The first of these is divided into two.

In the first, he threatens against foreign friends, namely, the Babylonians, who were friends, and yet plundered their goods, as is evident below (ch. 39);

in the second, he threatens against kindred friends: the burden of Duma (Isa 21:11).

508. Concerning the first of these, he does two things.

First, the title is set out, the burden of the sea, that is, Babylon, on account of the sound of the multitude of peoples, as above: of the desert (Isa 17:12), for it will be reduced to solitude: I will make her sea desolate, I and will dry up her spring (Jer 51:36); he introduces the threat against them that he might add the manner.

Second, the prophecy itself is set out,

and first, the vision of the threat is set out;

second, the manner of accepting the vision: for thus has the Lord said to me (Isa 21:6).

509. Concerning the first, he designates four things.

First, he designates the gravity of the tribulation, presenting a similitude: as whirlwinds, speaking in the voice of Babylon, come from Africa, from the desert, which was to the south, so comes devastation against me from a land, namely, Persia, terrible to me: the Lord's ways are in a tempest, and a whirlwind (Nah 1:3). A hard vision, speaking in the person of Babylon: this saying is hard (John 6:61).

We receive the Son's light from the Father's light in the light of the Spirit: that is what we ourselves have seen and what we now proclaim—it is the plain and simple explanation of the Trinity. Let the treacherous deal treacherously, let the transgressor transgress—we shall preach what we know. We shall climb a lofty mountain and shout it out, if we are not given a hearing below. We shall extol the Spirit; we shall not be afraid. If we do have fear, it will be of silence, not of preaching.

He who is unbelieving acts faithlessly: and he who is a despoiler lays waste. In the Hebrew it can be read thus: You who slay, slay; and you who lay waste, lay waste, so that the prophetic utterance is directed to the Elamite and the Mede himself, urging him to accomplish what he has begun, to go up fearlessly, to besiege the most mighty city. But if it is read as we have translated, as though spoken of a third person, he who is unbelieving acts faithlessly: and he who is a despoiler lays waste, it is to be joined with what precedes, in which Babylon declares that a hard vision has been announced to it.

Go up, Elam, besiege, O Mede: I have made all its groaning cease. Do not fear, he says, O Persian and Mede, the multitude of Babylon; do not dread its past power: I have made to cease all its groaning and the weight with which it used to oppress you before; either because no one now groans and grieves, oppressed by the power of Babylon; or because Babylon itself is oppressed by such great evils that it does not even have freedom to groan.

And when it has come, it passes through and goes by; and then he who endures it understands that none transgresses but the transgressor, and none does wickedly but the wicked. That we are overwhelmed, then, by the waves of the sea, and that a savage tempest overpowers us, is our own fault, who were transgressors and wicked before the tempest. And what he says, Against me come the Elamites and the ambassadors of the Persians, has this sense: Elamites means despisers; Persians, tempters. Let those come, then, who are wont to despise, to scorn and to tempt: but I shall groan, and my groaning will be my consolation.

510. Second, he designates the devastator.

And first, as to the condition of their leader: in infidelity. Cyrus, he that is unfaithful, that is, unfaithful to his lord Baltasar, rebelling, and besieging Babylon, trusting in his effeminacy, deals unfaithfully, that is, he will deal unfaithfully, seeing that the city cannot be taken by force, fraudulently making peace and commanding homage to the king of Babylon. When the king of Babylon invited him to a banquet (concerning which, see Daniel 5), he killed him and took the city, bringing his soldiers in through a hole in the city wall, through which a stream flowed, after they had divided its water into many parts. In cruelty: he that is a spoiler; hence in punishment for his cruelty he was suffocated in blood, and it was said to him: you thirsted for blood, so drink blood; behold, he that is unbelieving, his soul shall not be right in himself (Hab 2:4).

Second, as to his departure from the region: go up, O Elam, a Persian city and province; Medaba, a city in Media, besiege Babylon: speaking in the voice of the Lord: go up against her, all nations (Jer 51:28).

Third, the power of the enemy: I have made all the mourning thereof, that is, of Babylon, to cease, so that they do not even dare to mourn, above: there was none that moved the wing, or opened the mouth, or made the least noise (Isa 10:14); or because he makes his own to mourn.

But my loins too are filled with anguish, and pains have taken hold of me as of a woman in labour, so that from the fear of the Lord I may conceive and bring forth, and make the spirit of his salvation upon the earth.

Therefore my loins are filled with pain: anguish has possessed me, like the anguish of a woman giving birth: I fell down when I heard, I was troubled when I saw. My heart has withered, darkness has stupefied me. Babylon, my beloved, has been made a wonder to me. The Prophets are obscure for this reason, that the persons in them change very often. So now too the voice of Isaiah is brought in, lamenting Babylon in the prophetic spirit: that such great evils are to come upon it that he who tells of them, overcome by fear, cannot burst out into words, seeing the blood of so great a multitude shed; and, moved by the feeling of pity (for he is a man speaking of men), he grieves no less than a woman is wont to howl in childbirth; but, troubled and trembling, and falling to the ground, with his eyes darkened, he does not know what he is saying. And for what we have rendered: Babylon, my beloved, in the Hebrew one reads NESEPH ESCI (נשף השקי); and it is the very word which we set down at the beginning of the Babylonian Burden, upon a misty mountain: for there Neseph is written for misty or dark. And this city is properly so called because of its height and the summit of its pride raised up to heaven.

I fell down when I heard, I was troubled when I saw; my heart withered, darkness stupefied me; Babylon my beloved has been made a wonder to me. Set the table, behold in the watchtower those who eat and drink: rise up, princes, seize the shield. LXX: I did wickedly so as not to hear, I hastened so as not to see; my heart goes astray, iniquity has overflowed upon me; my soul stands fast in fear. Prepare the table, watch the watchtower: eat, drink; rise up, princes, prepare the shields. At the hearing and at the hardest vision which the Prophet saw coming from the desert of the sea, he says that he fell down and was troubled, and that with his eyes almost darkened and his mind stupefied he did not know what he was seeing. For that Babylon (for which Aquila and Theodotion translated darkness, to signify this world, which lies in the evil one (1 John 5), and whose princes, according to the apostle Paul (Eph 6), are the rulers of this darkness), which was once dear either to the Prophet or to God, has become a wonder in its overthrow. Hence the Prophet is commanded, eating at the table of the Lord and filled with his food, to contemplate more carefully what is to come upon the world; and through him it is said to all believers that, eating and drinking the body and blood of the Lord, they should be turned into princes of the Church, and hear with the Apostles, Rise up, and seize the shield of faith from the armour of the apostle Paul (Eph 6), with which they may quench the fiery darts of the devil. This according to the Hebrew and the interpretation begun concerning the world. Let us pass on to the edition of the Seventy, which differs greatly from the foregoing. The Prophet reproves himself, or rather in his own person confesses the error of others, who, following the letter that kills, despise the spirit that gives life; and he says that he did wickedly so as not to hear the law spiritually, but on the contrary hastened not to see the mysteries of God, and did not say with David: Unveil my eyes, and I shall consider the wonders of your law (Ps 118 [119]:18). Therefore his heart goes astray, and, filled with Jewish superstition, stands fast not in the love of God but in fear, so that he has the spirit of bondage in fear, and by no means the spirit of adoption, in which we cry, Abba, Father (Rom 8). Hence he is commanded to come to the table of spiritual food, and that all who follow his example should eat and drink at it; and that, having scorned the old error, those who lay in the letter should rise up in the spirit and become princes, and say with the Prophet: Lord, you have crowned us as with the shield of your good will (Ps 5:13).

511. Third, he designates the compassion of the prophet himself, which he designates as to the body, to which the affections of the mind redound, and this as to the feeling of pain: therefore are my loins filled with pain, that is, I suffer thus like one who suffers pain in the kidneys: there were pains as of a woman in labor (Ps 47:7[48:6]); and as to falling: I fell down; and as to troubled expression: I was troubled: I was troubled, and I spoke not (Ps 76:5[77:4]; I am troubled in my exercise (Ps 54:3[55:2]).

[Daniel 5:30-31] "On that same night Belshazzar, King of the Chaldeans, was slain, and Darius the Mede succeeded to his kingdom at the age of sixty-two." Josephus writes in his tenth book of the Jewish Antiquities that when Babylon had been laid under siege by the Medes and Persians, that is, by Darius and Cyrus, Belshazzar, King of Babylon, fell into such forgetfulness of his own situation as to put on his celebrated banquet and drink from the vessels of the Temple, and even while he was besieged he found leisure for banqueting. From this circumstance the historical account could arise, that he was captured and slaughtered on the same night, while everyone was either terrified by fear of the vision and its interpretation, or else taken up with festivity and drunken banqueting. As for the fact that while Cyrus, King of the Persians, was the victor, and Darius was only King of the Medes, it was Darius who was recorded to have succeeded to the throne of Babylon, this was an arrangement occasioned by factors of age, family relationship, and the territory ruled over. By this I mean that Darius was sixty-two years old, and that, according to what we read, the kingdom of the Medes was more sizable than that of the Persians, and being Cyrus's uncle, he naturally had a prior claim, and ought to have been accounted as successor to the rule of Babylon. Therefore also in a vision of Isaiah which was recited against Babylon, after many other matters too lengthy to mention, an account is given of these things which are to take place: "Behold I Myself will rouse up against them the Medes, a people who do not seek after silver nor desire gold, but who slay the very children with their arrows and have no compassion upon women who suckle their young" (Isaiah 13:17-18). And Jeremiah says: "Sanctify nations against her, even the kings of Media, and the governors thereof and all the magistrates thereof and all the land under the power thereof" (Jeremiah 51:28). Then follow the words: "The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing-floor during the time of its treading; yet a little while, and the time of its harvesting will come" (Jeremiah 51:33). And in testimony of the fact that Babylon was captured during a banquet, Isaiah clearly exhorts her to battle when he writes: "Babylon, my beloved, has become a strange spectacle unto me: set thou the table and behold in the mirrors those who eat and drink; rise up, ye princes, and snatch up your shields!" (Isaiah 21:4-5).

Second, as to the affections: my heart, that is, the affections, failed, in sadness: my bowels are in pain (Jer 4:19).

Third, as to astounded understanding: darkness, that is, the troubles I have foreseen, amazed me, as if I were in darkness: every one that shall pass by Babylon, shall be astonished, and shall hiss at all her plagues (Jer 50:13). Babylon my beloved, at that time, although afterwards, Babylon was an enemy, is set in a wonder, that is, in astonishment. And I wondered, when I had seen her, with great astonishment (Rev 17:6).

And in testimony of the fact that Babylon was captured during a banquet, Isaiah clearly exhorts her to battle when he writes: "Babylon, my beloved, has become a strange spectacle unto me: set thou the table and behold in the mirrors those who eat and drink; rise up, ye princes, and snatch up your shields!"

Set the table, watch in the watchtower those eating and drinking: arise, princes, seize the shield. This place is taken in two ways. O Medes and Elamites, to whom I said above: Go up, Elam, besiege, O Mede, take food, prepare yourselves for the coming battle, lest, when the time of fighting has come, weariness hold you back. And when you have eaten and drunk, arise, seize your arms, vanquish the Babylonian. And his saying, watch in the watchtower, is read in this sense: look out diligently for what is to come. It can also be understood thus: O Babylon, prepare a table and a banquet for Belshazzar your king, son of Evil-merodach, grandson of Nebuchadnezzar, and see what happens after the meal, at which he will drink toasts to harlots and concubines from the vessels of the Lord. O princes, who recline at table with the king (and he means the Medes and Persians), arise and seize your arms to kill the king. We learn this more fully in the volume of Daniel (Dan 5).

512. Fourth, he designates the manner and condition of the destruction, saying: O Babylon, prepare the table, inviting Cyrus and Darius to the banquet, contemplate, that is, see, in the watchtower, that is, in the writing of the hand that writes, Mane, Thecel, Phares (Dan 5:25) in the clear light of the Lord; you princes, namely, O Cyrus, O Darius, that eat and drink, with him, arise, strengthened by the vision, take up the shield and kill him: prepare the shield and buckler (Jer 46:3).

513. Or otherwise, the words of the Lord: O prophet, prepare the table, that is, announce that it is prepared, in the watchtower, that is, in the spirit of prophecy, as above. Or the words of Cyrus: prepare the table, make haste, you Persians, give your horses their ration, that you may be prepared; you, watchman, contemplate, what may happen in the treatise; you, my princes, eat. And this stands even if it is not maintained that Cyrus and Darius were at the banquet, as some say, maintaining that the festival happened in the city, and was given over to pleasure; either they reclined at table because of the festival, or because of a truce, or once they had the victory, or because of the help that they had received, at night they attacked the city.

514. Note on the words, contemplate in the watchtower, that man ought to contemplate in the mirror of the mind

first, the sins which he has committed, that he may mourn: set you up a watchtower, make to you bitterness: direct your heart into the right way (Jer 31:21);

second, the punishments he has merited, that he may fear: the day of your inspection, your visitation comes (Mic 7:4);

third, the benefits which God has conferred on him, that he may give thanks, below: the voice of your watchmen: they have lifted up their voice, they shall praise together: for they shall see eye to eye when the Lord shall convert Zion (Isa 52:8);

fourth, the commands God has enjoined, that he may fulfill them: the watchman of Ephraim (Hos 9:8);

fifth, the rewards which God has promised, that he may possess them. We were eyewitnesses of his greatness. For he received from God the Father honor and glory (2 Pet 1:16–17).

For thus the Lord said to me: Go and set a watchman, and let him declare whatever he sees. And he saw a chariot of two horsemen, a rider on an ass, and a rider on a camel; and he gazed diligently with much attention, and a lion cried out. LXX: For thus the Lord said to me: Go and set for yourself a watchman, and whatever you see, declare it. And I saw two horsemen riding, a rider on an ass, and a rider on a camel; I heard much hearing, and I called Uriah to the watchtower. The Prophet is bidden to set a watchman in his heart, and to gaze more carefully at what is to come upon the world; and he saw two horsemen, a rider on an ass and a rider on a camel. These someone has interpreted so as to call the rider on the ass, according to the Gospel reading (Matt 21) and the prophecy of Zechariah (Zech 9), Christ; and on the contrary the rider on the camel the opposing power, on account of the foulness of that crooked animal. Others again refer the two riders, of the letter and of the spirit, to the two Testaments.

For thus the Lord said to me: Go and set a watchman, and let him announce whatever he sees. And he saw a chariot of two horsemen, a rider on an ass, and a rider on a camel. And he gazed diligently with much attention, and the lion cried out: Upon the watchtower of the Lord I stand continually by day, and upon my watch I stand whole nights. Behold, there comes this rider, a man of the two-horsed chariot; and he answered and said: Fallen, fallen is Babylon, and all the graven images of her gods are broken on the ground. My threshing, and son of my threshing floor, what I have heard from the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, I have announced to you. He gives the reasons for the fear above: why anguish possessed him like a woman in labor, and he fell down on hearing, and was terrified and surrounded with dark horror. Thus, he says, the Lord said to me: Go and appoint a watchman, to foretell the future to you in the prophetic spirit; and when I had set him in the watchtower, he saw a two-horse chariot coming, and a charioteer upon it, and an ass and a camel drawing the chariot. And he signifies Cyrus king of the Persians and of the Medes, coming with a small and a great empire. For before Cyrus the Persians were obscure, and were held of no account among the nations; the Medes were always most mighty. This one rider, then, supported by the army of two nations, comes against Babylon: and that watchman who had been set to look out for what was to come cried out like a lion; or else the prophet himself is called a lion.

515. For thus has the Lord said to me. Here he sets out the manner of accepting this vision, and concerning this, he does four things.

First, the divine command is set out: go, and set a watchman, you yourself, or your disciple, whom the Hebrews say was Habakkuk; whatsoever he shall see, in the prophetic spirit, or bodily: son of man, I have made you a watchman to the house of Israel (Ezek 3:17).

[Daniel 5:1] "Belshazzar the king made a great feast for his one thousand nobles; and each one drank in the order of his age." It should be known that this man was not the son of Nebuchadnezzar, as readers commonly imagine; but according to Berosus, who wrote the history of the Chaldeans, and also Josephus, who follows Berosus, after Nebuchadnezzar's reign of forty-three years, a son named Evilmerodach succeeded to his throne. It was concerning this king that Jeremiah wrote that in the first year of his reign he raised the head of Jehoiachin, king of Judah, and took him out of his prison (Jeremiah 52:31). Josephus likewise reports that after the death of Evilmerodach, his son Neriglissar succeeded to his father's throne; after whom in turn came his son Labosordach. Upon the latter's death, his son, Belshazzar, obtained the kingdom, and it is of him that the Scripture now makes mention. After he had been killed by Darius, King of the Medes, who was the maternal uncle of Cyrus, King of the Persians, the empire of the Chaldeans was destroyed by Cyrus the Persian. It was these two kingdoms which Isaiah in chap. 21 (Isaiah 21:7) addresses as a charioteer of a vehicle drawn by a camel and an ass. Indeed Xenophon also writes the same thing in connection with the childhood of Cyrus the Great; likewise Pompeius Trogus and many others who have written up the history of the barbarians. Some authorities think that this Darius was the Astyages mentioned in the Greek writings, while others think it was Astyages' son, and that he was called by the other name among the barbarians. "And each one of the princes who had been invited drank in the order of his own age." Or else, as other translators have rendered it: "The king himself was drinking in the presence of all the princes whom he had invited."

[In the Gospels it is said,] "And he began to send them forth two by two." He sent them two by two that no one of them, being abandoned and alone, might fall into a denial, like Peter, or flee, like John. Human frailty quickly falls if it proudly relies on itself, despises companions and is unwilling to have a colleague. As Scripture says, "Woe to him that is alone, for when he falls, he has none to lift him up." The same Scripture testifies how much one is strengthened by another's aid, when it states, "A brother that is helped by his brother is like a strong city."… This was done also to fulfill the prophecy of Isaiah, who testified that he had seen a rider of a two-horse chariot, when he heard it said to him, "What do you see?" And he replied, "I see a rider of a two-horse chariot." Because of this he cried out right away that Babylon had fallen, and all its graven gods. Who doubts, brothers, that by this two-horse chariot Christ was riding upon his saving journeys, since he sees that through the apostles' preaching temples have fallen, idols have perished, the bleating of herds has ceased and the victims, along with even the very altars with their perfume of incense, have already disappeared through all the centuries.

516. Second, the vision is set out,

and first, he sets out the thing that was seen: and he saw a chariot with two horsemen, which was usually pulled by two horses, signifying the army of two kingdoms; a rider, namely of chariots, upon an ass, the kingdom of the Persians, which formerly was ignoble, a camel, the kingdom of the Medes, which was always lofty: as if these two animals were yoked together to a chariot in the place of two horses.

Second, the diligence of the one who sees: and he beheld them diligently: set your heart upon all that I shall show you (Ezek 40:4).

And because there was doubt about the person of the watchman who had seen Cyrus coming up, he himself explains it more plainly, and says: Upon the watchtower of the Lord I stand continually by day, declaring himself to be the watchman of the Lord, who, always set in the prophetic office, and obeying the command of the Lord by day and by night, speaks whatever he commands.

But what the Seventy interpreters meant in this place, in translating uriam for lion, which in Hebrew is called ARIA (אריה), I do not well understand, especially since the aforementioned priest Urias, who is called to bear witness, is written with other letters.

And for what is said in the Hebrew, ARIE (אריה), for which Aquila and Symmachus translated lion and lioness, the Seventy, meaning I know not what, set down οὐρίαν, which a certain man thinks is to be interpreted light of the Lord, though light of the Lord, which is not found here, is written with other letters, and lion, which is read here, with others. And he would have this watchman, whom the Prophet is bidden to set in his heart, be called Uriah, and by the interpretation of the name he refers it to the understanding of Christ, so that, with him dwelling in us, we may be able to see what is to come. This indeed could also be fitted to the lion, since Jacob (Gen 49) and Balaam (Num 23 and 2) name the lion under the mystery of Christ.

I am upon the watchtower of the Lord, standing continually by day, and I am upon my guard, standing whole nights. Behold, this man comes, the rider of a chariot of horsemen, and he answered and said: Fallen, fallen is Babylon, and all the graven images of her gods are broken to the ground. My threshing, and the sons of my floor, what I have heard from the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, I have declared to you. LXX: The Lord said: I stood all day, and upon the camp I stood all night; and behold, he comes, the rider of a chariot, and answering he said: Fallen, fallen is Babylon, and all her idols and the things made with hands are broken to the ground. Hear, you who are left and are grieving; hear what I have heard from the Lord Sabaoth; the God of Israel has declared it to us. The Prophet stands on the watchtower of the Lord, and, set in his light, looks forward to what is to come. And this is the guard he keeps, this the office entrusted to him: to see, in the darkness of this world, what is to come.

517. Third, the declaration is set out: and a lion cried out, a lion according to strength of soul, who formerly was a watchman through eminence of contemplation.

And first, he declares his own diligence: I am upon the watchtower of the Lord: I will stand upon my watch (Hab 2:1).

What, then, did the lion cry out? Behold, there comes this rider, a man of the two-horsed chariot: there is no doubt that Cyrus is indicated. And the lion himself, who had cried out above, answered and said: Fallen, fallen is Babylon, and all the graven images of her gods are broken on the ground. For when the rider of the two-horse chariot laid it waste, Babylon was destroyed forever, and the temple of Bel and all the idols were leveled to the ground.

Behold, he says, this man comes, signifying by what follows that he saw the Lord the Savior coming, seated on a chariot of two, and yoking to one car two horses, or rather two animals, the ass and the camel. And this rider of the chariot answered the Prophet, who longed and desired to hear his words, and said: Fallen, fallen is Babylon, the confusion of the whole world; it fell at my coming, when I took a human body, and it will utterly collapse at the consummation of the world. And all her graven images are broken to the ground. For which the Seventy translated idols and things made with hands, signifying the scripture of the heretics and the various errors of heresies, who are makers of idols and worship what they have fashioned out of their own heart.

Second, he declares what he has seen: behold this man comes, as above;

third, the punishment of Babylon: Babylon is fallen: you are taken, O Babylon, and you were not aware of it (Jer 50:24).

Notice how in this passage he does not call those of the circumcision to hear the un-speakable words, but only those whom he calls "forsaken and tortured." These were those of the time of the apostles who regretted and lamented the evil of humanity.

And in what follows: My threshing, and son of my threshing floor, he makes an apostrophe to Jerusalem, and to the Temple which stands on the threshing floor of Ornan, and says to her: O Jerusalem, and you people, son of my Temple, let not what I have said seem incredible to you: for they are not my words but the Lord's, and it is his words that have resounded through my mouth. Some think, but wrongly, that this is said not to Jerusalem but to Babylon, of which he said above as well: Babylon, my beloved, has been made a wonder to me; and that the sense is: You who have crushed me will yourself be crushed too, not by my word, but by the power of the Lord, which foretells to you that these things will come.

And what follows, in the person of the Prophet saying, My threshing, and the sons of my floor, what I have heard from the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, I have declared to you, has this sense according to the Hebrew: O people, who are to be stored in my granaries, whom I have therefore threshed in various straits, that I might shake the chaff from you, and the purest wheat might be stored in my granaries: what I have heard from the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, is to come upon the whole world, this I have declared to all of you who are in the world. Others again say that the person is still the earlier one, namely the Lord the Savior, and that he himself speaks to the Apostles: What I have heard from the Father I have declared to you (John 15:15). And since in place of this the Seventy read, hear, you who are left and are grieving, this seems to me the sense according to their translation: O Apostles, of whom Isaiah writes, Unless the Lord had left us seed, we should have been as Sodom, and should have been like Gomorrah (Isa 1:9), whose remnant the Apostle too, writing to the Romans, teaches has been saved (Rom 9): you who were left of the people of the Jews that you might be saved, and grieve over the perdition of your nation, of which we read elsewhere also, There is sorrow in my heart, and continual grief for my brethren, who are Israelites according to the flesh (Rom 9:2, 3): these things which I have heard from God the Father I declare to you, which the God of Israel foretells to you as things to come.

518. Fourth, the declaration of the prophet to the people is set out: O my thrashing, the words of the prophet, or of Christ, that Jerusalem is to be thrashed with many tribulations, children of my floor, that is, the temple, which is located on the thrashing floor of Ornam (2 Sam 24:18); whatsoever thing he shall answer me, I will declare it to you (Jer 42:4).

Again he says, "Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night? The watchman said, 'The morning comes, and also the night.' " For "the watchman came by night," in that the guardian of the human race even showed himself manifest in the flesh, and yet Judea, being close pressed by the darkness of its faithlessness, never knew him. Where it is well added in the voice of the watchman, "The morning comes, and also the night." For by his presence has a new light shone out upon the world, and yet the former darkness remained in the hearts of unbelievers. And it is well said, "They shall grope in the noonday as in the night," for we search out by groping that which we do not see with our eyes. Now the Jews had seen his undisguised miracles, and yet they still went on seeking him, as it were groping for him, when they said, "How long do you make us to doubt? If you be the Christ, tell us plainly." See, the light of miracles was before their eyes, yet stumbling in the darkness of their own hearts, they continued to grope in seeking for him."

The Jews dream in vain that this prophecy is made against the city of Rome and the Roman empire; and that in what is written in Isaiah, The burden of Dumah, with the stroke of a letter slightly changed, res can be read in place of deleth, and it sounds Rome, since the letter vau in their language is taken both for u and for o.

The burden of Dumah: he calls to me out of Seir: Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night? The watchman said: The morning comes, and the night. If you seek, seek; turn, and come. LXX: The vision of Idumea: he calls to me out of Seir: Guard the ramparts; I keep guard morning and night; if you seek, seek, and dwell with me. The Hebrew word ELAI (אלי), which all have translated to me, if you choose to read it ELI, means my God or my strong one. And what we have rendered he calls or he summons, that is, καλεῖ, may, by the ambiguity of the Hebrew and the Greek speech, be read call! or summon!; and the sense is: God, who is my watchman, calls me day and night to repentance, so that, leaving Seir, which means shaggy and hairy, I may return and dwell with him. Dumah sounds either likeness or silence; but Idumea is rendered earthly.

The burden of Duma. He calls to me out of Seir: Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night? And the watchman said: The morning comes, and the night: if you seek, seek; turn, come. For Duma the Seventy put Idumaea. But Duma is not the whole province of Edom, but a certain region of it which lies toward the south, and is twenty miles distant from the city of Palestine which today is called Eleutheropolis: near it are the mountains of Seir, which took their name from their founder; for Seir means shaggy and hairy, which Esau was. In the prophet Obadiah we have discussed this nation more fully: there it was necessary to go over the ancient history, and to draw in as testimony the same Visions of Ezekiel and Jeremiah, and especially the prophecy against Mount Seir (Ezek 25 and 35; Jer 49); and that saying from the Psalms: Into Edom I will stretch out my shoe; and elsewhere: The tents of the Edomites and the Ishmaelites, Moab and the Hagarenes, Gebal and Ammon and Amalek (Ps 59 [60]:10; Ps 82 [83]:7-8). Amos also says: For three crimes of Edom, and for four, I will not turn him back, because he pursued his brother with the sword, and violated his mercy (Amos 1:11), or, as Symmachus translated, his bowels: because he dared to fight against kindred peoples, and to be at variance with them in hostile hatred. Now the region of Esau was in the region of Duma, that is, in the mountains of Seir. We believe that this, as a metropolis, in keeping with the order of the preceding Visions, was conquered by the Assyrians or by Nebuchadnezzar, and that, mindful of its former stock, since it was begotten of the line of Abraham and Isaac, it implored the help of God, and under the compulsion of necessity begged for his clemency. Now, therefore, the Lord recounts: He who is besieged in Seir and surrounded by enemies implores my help, and says: O watchman of Israel, who guard your people with an everlasting watch, and, as it were in the night, keep vigil while they sleep, lest the enemy break in, why do you not protect us also, who are of his seed, with like clemency? To them I reply, the watchman and keeper of whom it is written: He who guards Israel will not slumber nor sleep (Ps 120 [121]:4). Morning comes for my people, and night for the nation of the Edomites; to them I will give light, you I will leave in darkness. Or certainly thus: the light has come, the night being past; if you call upon my help, and are of the stock of my servant Abraham, do not seek me only in your necessities, but turn to me with your whole mind. Come, and I will receive you as penitents. Let this be said according to the history. For the rest, because of the similarity of the letter, and because RES and DALETH differ little from each other, some of the Hebrews read Roma for Duma, wishing the prophecy to be directed against the Roman empire, by the frivolous persuasion by which they always think that the Romans are pointed out under the name of Edom: but Duma means silence.

The Lord therefore speaks to the choir of the Apostles and commands it: Call to me those who are of Seir, so that the multitude of the nations may serve me, which, after the likeness of Esau, has nothing in itself soft and smooth and sleek, but is shaggy, wild, intractable. And you, O Apostles, after you have called the nations to me out of Seir, guard the ramparts of the Church, lest the enemy break in easily; lest the lion, roaring and going about, seeking an entrance by which he may get in, tear and scatter the flock shut up in the Church. And the multitude of the Church answered: Not only in prosperity but in adversity, that is, both by day and by night, I will keep your commandments, O God. To her God says: If you truly seek me, show by your works that you seek me; and let it not suffice you to have sought once, but seek always him whom you have found; and to hold him more perfectly, forget your people and your father's house, and, having forsaken the error of the Gentiles, abide with me in the Church. This we would say according to the Seventy, who put in the title the vision of Idumea, that is, of the earthly, to show that those are called who formerly served earthly works. Further, according to Aquila, who set down Dumah, that is, silence, or likeness, we can understand it thus: that the multitude of the nations is roused to the likeness of the people of Israel, and that where formerly there was silence of the law of God, there the cry of confession should be, and the wild olive be grafted into the good olive. We read also in the parable of the Gospel that servants were sent to call good and bad, and to fill the householder's banquet with whomsoever they found, because the first guests refused to come (Matt 22). The Church too can relate that the Lord cries aloud to her out of Seir, that is, out of earthly places, and calls her forth to salvation; and she may say to the Lord himself: O watchman, why, rising by night, do you dwell in darkness? Why are you, without sin, in the flesh of sin? For what reason did you will to take a human body? The watchman answered, that is, the Samaritan, who in the Gospel carried the wounded man on his shoulders to the inn (Luke 10): The morning comes, and the night. And the sense is: For the multitude of the nations the sun of righteousness has risen, and for the Jews darkness has come; according to what is said by the Lord: For the judgment of this world I have come, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind (John 9:39). And the watchman himself, who had said, The morning comes, and the night, speaks to the multitude of the nations: If you seek me, seek more earnestly. Turn to me, you returning sons, and I will heal your bruises; and come to me. The passages are difficult, and since according to the history they are by no means plain, we are compelled to follow various opinions according to the ἀναγωγὴν.

519. The burden of Duma. Here he threatens against their friends and relatives.

And first, against the Idumeans, who belong to the descendants of Esau the brother of Jacob (Gen 25), and were sometimes friends, as it says in 2 Kings 3:9; I have heard all your reproaches, that you have spoken against the mountains of Israel (Ezek 35:12);

second, against the Arabs, who are of the descendants of Ishmael, who was the son of Abraham (Gen 16), where it says, the burden in Arabia (Isa 21:13).

Concerning the first, he does two things.

First, the inscription is set out, the burden of Duma, that is, of Idumea;

second, the threat, concerning which he does three things.

First, their prayer is set out: and these are the words of God to the Idumeans: he calls to me out of Seir, the Jews having been liberated after seventy years of captivity: watchman, you who guard the people of Israel, as though they were sleeping, what of the night, that is, why do you not free us from the night of captivity, as you do for them? And they show their great desire for liberation in the intensity and repetition of their words: behold he shall neither slumber nor sleep, that keeps Israel (Ps 120[121]:4).

522. Note on the words, watchman, what of the night? (Isa 21:11), that man ought to guard himself in the day of prosperity from riches:

first, lest he choose them, considering their worthlessness: the things that were gain to me, the same I have counted loss (Phil 3:7);

second, lest he trust in them, considering their vanity: I saw in all things vanity (Eccl 2:11);

third, lest he boast in them, considering the threat of adversity in them: in the day of good things be not unmindful of evils (Sir 11:27[25]).

523. Also, he ought to guard himself in the night of adversity, lest he be broken:

first, considering the affection of the one who strikes him: my son, reject not the correction of the Lord: and do not faint when you are chastised by him (Prov 3:11);

second, considering the example of Christ, who was stricken: think diligently upon him that endured such opposition from sinners against himself (Heb 12:3);

third, considering the fruit of the striking: for that which is at present momentary and light of our tribulation works for us above measure, exceedingly an eternal weight of glory (2 Cor 4:17).

520. Second, the refusal of their petition is set out: and the watchman, namely, God, said: the morning comes, the time of liberation for the Jews, also the night of captivity still remains for the Idumeans: but over them only was spread a heavy night (Wis 17:20).

521. Third, he adds the remedy: if you seek, me, seek, with your whole heart, abandoning idols; or, as in tribulation, so also in prosperity, below: seek the Lord, while he may be found (Isa 55:6); be converted to me with all your heart (Joel 2:12).

Since we have understood what Kedar is, and what Arabia, and what Hazor, let us see what the prophet Isaiah says: In the forest at evening you will sleep, in the paths of Dodanim. The word ARAB (ערב), as we have often said already, is used for evening, and Arabia, and raven, and plain, and the West. And for what we, following the Seventy, have translated you will sleep, one can render you will stay or you will dwell, that is, αὐλιθήσεσθε, which in Hebrew is THALINU (תלנו). DODANIM (דדנים) too is rendered as kinsmen and relatives. So it is now foretold to the Jews who have been able to escape the Babylonian siege, and to cross from the devastation of the whole province to the neighboring desert, that they will dwell in the wilderness of Arabia, on the road that leads to their brothers.

The burden in Arabia. This is not found in the edition of the Seventy Translators; but what follows, In the forest at evening you shall sleep, in the paths of Dodanim, is joined to the preceding vision, so that it reads, if you seek, seek, and dwell with me in the forest. Arabia in our tongue sounds evening, which is the beginning of night and of darkness; and everyone who has the beginning of sins dwells in the evening. But he who comes to the height of them stands in the middle of the night. Hence in Egypt too the firstborn are slain at midnight (Exod 12). And the apostle Peter denied the Lord three times before the cock crew, which is understood as midnight (Matt 26); but after the night was far spent and the day began to draw near, when the darkness of midnight had been overcome and the cock, herald of the light, sounded, he wept bitterly and understood his sin, and at that time he could say: In the evening weeping shall linger, and in the morning gladness (Ps 29 [30]:6). So much meanwhile on the present place. But the name of Arabia, that is, of evening and of the West, receives different meanings in other places of the Scriptures.

In the forest at evening you shall sleep, in the paths of Dodanim. LXX: In the forest at evening you shall sleep, in the way of Dedan. Those who have begun to be in wickedness, and are entering on the way of sins, do not sleep or linger in sown fields and fallow lands, nor in meadows and cornfields, which the Savior teaches are white for harvest, nor among fruit-bearing trees, but in fruitless forests, where there are brambles and thorns and where beasts dwell. Of such a forest we read also in the volume of Kings, that the wood or forest devoured more than were slain by the sword, when Absalom rose up as a rebel against his father (2 Sam 18). And rightly, since evening is the beginning of evils, they are said to dwell in the way and in the paths, and in the way of Dedan, which means judgments. For as many kinds of sins as they have, so many sentences of judgment do they deserve. But Dedan can also be interpreted great judgment.

The burden in Arabia. In the forest at evening you will sleep, in the paths of Dodanim. Meeting the thirsty, bring water: you who dwell in the land of the south, meet the fugitive with bread. For they have fled from the face of the swords, from the face of the threatening sword, from the face of the bent bow, from the face of grievous battle. For thus says the Lord to me: Yet in one year, as in the year of a hireling: and all the glory of Kedar will be taken away, and the remnant of the number of the mighty archers of the sons of Kedar will be diminished: for the Lord God of Israel has spoken. As I sought, and long turned over with deliberation, what Arabia this was to which the prophetic word is directed, whether the Moabites, or the Ammonites and Edomites, and all the other regions which are now called Arabia, what follows in this same Vision gave me occasion to see that the Ishmaelites must be understood: All the glory of Kedar will be taken away, and the remnant of the number of the mighty archers of the sons of Kedar will be diminished (Isa 21:16-17). The book of Genesis teaches that from Ishmael were born Kedar and the Hagarenes, who by a perverted name are called Saracens. These dwell throughout the whole wilderness; of them, I think, the poet too speaks: And the Barcaei, roaming far and wide (Virgil, Aeneid 4); and the aforesaid volume: He will dwell over against the face of all his brothers (Gen 16:12): because a very broad desert stretches from India as far as Mauretania and the Atlantic Ocean. This, I think, is what the title in Jeremiah expresses: To Kedar and to the kingdoms of Hazor, which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon struck (Jer 49:28); and at once there follows: Thus says the Lord: Arise and go up to Kedar, and lay waste the sons of the East: they will take their tents and their flocks; they will carry off for themselves their skins and all their vessels and their camels (ibid., 29); and again: For Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has taken counsel against you, he has devised plans against you. Arise and go up against a nation at ease, dwelling confidently, says the Lord: no doors, no bars for them: they dwell alone. And their camels will be for plunder, and the multitude of their cattle for a prey. And I will scatter to every wind those who have the hair of their head cut round: and from all their borders I will bring destruction upon them, says the Lord: and Hazor will be a dwelling of dragons, deserted forever; no man will remain there, nor will a son of man inhabit it (ibid., 30ff.). I have set down the whole testimony of the prophecy from Jeremiah, so that you may understand without doubt what Kedar is. And consider how he has described exactly the nation of the Ishmaelites, that is, of the Saracens: because they dwell in tents; they hold whatever abodes the night drives them to; they have herds, and flocks, and droves of camels; they have neither doors nor bars, for they do not live in cities but dwell in the wilderness. These too, then, were destroyed by the Babylonians, in that they overthrew to the ground the city of Hazor, which was the metropolis of that nation in the desert; and yet, though their droves of camels and sheep were taken, and their skins and tents divided by lot, the destruction of that whole nation is not signified, because on dromedary camels they are wont to flee a hundred miles and more in a single day through the vast wilderness. All the glory of Kedar, he says, will be taken away; and when the number of the archers has been diminished, since they excel above all in that art of fighting, the rest who have fled will remain.

524. The burden in Arabia. Here he threatens against the Arabs.

And first, he indicates the cause of destruction: that when they offered bread to the fleeing sons of Israel, they took away their water. Hence he places the flight of the Jews: O you, Jews, in the forest, of Arabia, of Dodanim, the name of the place: they wandered in a wilderness, in a place without water: they found not the way of a city (Ps 106[107]:4).

Again, by bread is set forth the instruction of heavenly doctrine, as is said by the prophet, "You who dwell in the land of the south, meet with bread him that is flying away." For they dwell in the land of the south who, placed within [the] holy church, are breathed upon by the love of the Spirit from on high. But he is flying who is wishing to escape from the evils of this world. He then who dwells in the land of the south should meet with bread him that is flying; that is, he who is already full of the Holy Spirit within the church should console with words of instruction the one who is endeavoring to escape from his evil ways.

And again the discourse turns to the Ishmaelites, and urges them to mercy: Run, and go to meet your brothers, weary and in peril from burning thirst, and bring them water: for so great is the heat of the sun that, unless you come to their aid, they will perish in the wilderness; and bring not only water but bread too to the fugitives, so that your clemency may relieve those whom the siege has worn out.

Moreover, that place in which we have translated: You who dwell in the land of the south, meet the fugitive with bread, and have read it in the imperative mood, as if in the person of the Lord, they affirm can be read in the Hebrew thus: Those who dwell in the land of the south met the fugitive with bread; so that, when God had said to them, Meeting the thirsty, bring water, they with hostile mind brought bread without water, to increase their thirst with food.

Coming to meet the thirsty, bring water, you who inhabit the land of the South; meet the fugitive with bread. For they have fled from the face of the swords, from the face of the threatening sword, from the face of the bent bow, from the face of the grievous battle. LXX: To meet the thirsty bring water, you who dwell in the region of Teman; meet those who flee with bread, because of the multitude of the slain, because of the throng of those who go astray, because of the multitude of the sword, and because of the multitude of the bent bows, and because of the multitude of those who fall in war. You who are in Teman, which means South and perfection, and who dwell in that place of which it is written, God shall come from the South (Hab 3:3), and who are consummated and perfect, and have within you the light of the knowledge of the Scriptures: meet those who flee from Arabia and from the forest with water and bread, and do not wait until they come to you, but imitate that father of the Gospel parable who ran to meet his returning son. And he indeed gave the robe and offered the ring (Luke 15); but you, offer water and bread to those who flee, so that those who were weary and spent may be sustained by your mercy and pass the more quickly to your dwellings. For they have fled the swords of the heretics, the teaching of the Gentiles, the blasphemies of the Jews. And because they have seen many slain by their darts, and very many fallen in battle, they themselves long to be delivered by your help. This place may properly be understood as directed against those who, giving themselves to leisure and sloth, are content with their own salvation and do not stretch out a hand to the penitent and converted.

He exhorts them to mercy: meeting, you Arabs; the land of the south, that is, of the noon, below: deal your bread to the hungry (Isa 58:7).

And at the same time he gives the reason why he commands this to be done, saying: They have fled the Babylonian sword, they have fled the bows of the Elamites, they have fled the threatening battle.

And he places the cause of mercy: for they are fled from before the swords, that they might be moved to mercy: at the voice of the horsemen, and the archers, all the city is fled away (Jer 4:29).

Some, from the words yet in one year, and all the glory of Kedar will be taken away, would have it that what is foretold is not the Babylonian captivity, of which Jeremiah too speaks, but that of the Assyrians, who, one year after the devastation of Judea, pursued the Saracens far and wide.

And do not despise the wretched: your captivity too will come quickly. For as the hireling's year is swift, and he thinks all labor short until he reaches the wage he longs for, so all the glory of the sons of Kedar will be taken from you, and your arrows will be broken, and a small number of fighters will remain.

For thus says the Lord to me: Yet within one year, as in the year of a hireling, all the glory of Kedar shall be taken away, and the remnant of the number of the mighty archers of the children of Kedar shall be diminished. For the Lord God of Israel has spoken. I tell you to meet with water and bread those who flee from the forest and from Arabia because the Lord has promised that these things shall be. As the year of a hireling passes quickly, who every day looks for nothing but the wage of his labour, or certainly is always at work and toil in order to receive the wage of his labour, so all the glory of Kedar, which means darkness, of which we read in the Psalm too, I have dwelt with those who dwell in Kedar (Ps 119 [120]:5), shall swiftly be taken away; and the whole number of the archers, that is, of the various doctrines, which used to wound those placed in the forest of Arabia, shall be brought to nothing, once those fleeing from the forest have been delivered, and have received the water of saving baptism, and have eaten the heavenly bread. For the Lord of all, and properly the God of Israel, that is, of those who behold God with the mind, has spoken that these things shall be.

525. Second, because they refuse to do this, he threatens punishment: for thus says the Lord.

And first, by the Assyrians, from whom was authority of destruction of the Jews, and the destruction itself: within a year, according to the years of a hireling, which seems brief to him, in his hope for pay.

Second, by the Chaldeans: the residue, left behind by the Assyrians, shall be diminished, by the Chaldeans; Cedar, the son of Ishmael; archers, following the art of their father, where it is said of Ishmael that he became an archer (Gen 21:20).