Isaiah 22

If, as I was saying, we are in the church, if we possess the faith of the church, of the apostles, of Christ, the truths of Christian teaching, we are the mountains of Zion. We do not want to be among the valleys of Zion; we want to be mountains of Zion. Zion, indeed, has its valleys; it has plains, too. The sinner is a valley of Zion, not a mountain. Someone may interpose, "You are giving us your own opinion." Let us call upon the testimony of Isaiah when Zion had fallen into sin, in which after many visions, the prophet mentions one against Idumea, one against Moab, one against Edom and the sons of Ammon, and lastly, "a vision of the valley of Zion." Because Zion had descended from sublime faith, it fell recklessly from the mountain into the valley.Before all else, then, let us flee from the valleys of Zion and come to the plains; from the plains, let us go to the hills, from the hills up the mountains.

The burden of the valley of Vision. The Seventy, although it is not found in the Hebrew, translated more plainly, the word of the valley of Zion. For this city is the seedbed of the prophets, in which the Temple was built and the Visions of the Lord were multiplied. Because, then, it is placed among the other nations and reckoned as one of many, it is by no means called a mountain, according to that prophetic saying: Its foundations are on the holy mountains: the Lord loves the gates of Zion above all the tents of Jacob (Ps 86 [87]:1); but a valley, because it has been humbled. Jeremiah says this very thing in other words, when he receives the cup full of wine and gives it to all the nations, and last of all holds it out to Jerusalem, that it may drink and vomit and fall and go mad: signifying that it too was to be laid waste by the Babylonians (Jer 25). The history of Kings and of Jeremiah tells this more fully. From this we understand that God is equally the creator of all, and disposes all things by the same judgment, according to what he himself says through Amos: Are you not to me as the sons of the Ethiopians, O sons of Israel? says the Lord. Did I not bring Israel up out of the land of Egypt, and the Palestinians from Cappadocia, and the Syrians from Cyrene? Behold, the eyes of the Lord are upon the sinful kingdom (Amos 9:7). Lest the Jews should think that they had a privilege of merit because they had been led out of Egypt, he says that the other nations too had been transferred to other lands by his command.

The burden of the valley of vision. LXX: The word of the valley of Zion. In the book of Hebrew Names we have set down that Zion means watchtower, which, set on high places, beholds from afar the things that are coming. Since, then, Zion, according to the laws of tropology, is referred to the Church, as in that saying of the second Psalm in the person of the Lord the Savior, But I have been appointed king by him over Zion, his holy mountain (Ps 2:6); and, Those who trust in the Lord are as Mount Zion (Ps 124 [125]:1); and, The Lord loves the gates of Zion above all the tabernacles of Jacob (Ps 86 [87]:2); and more plainly the Apostle: You have come, he says, to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem (Heb 12:22): we ask why in the present vision it is called the valley of Zion. And by the very sequence of the words we are drawn to a spiritual understanding: that we should know that all the princes of perverse doctrines, who have fallen from the loftiness of the sense of the holy Scriptures and have rolled down to low things, dwell in the valley of Zion. Something of this kind I think Solomon too says in the Proverbs: The eye that mocks its father and despises the old age of its mother, let the ravens of the valleys dig it out, and the young eagles eat it (Prov 30:17). For as soon as the mind of the heretics has mocked the Creator, the Father, and despised the old age of the Church, its mother, it is dug out by foul and unclean birds, which are referred to the opposing powers. Nor can such men say, I have lifted up my eyes to the mountains, whence help shall come to me (Ps 120 [121]:1); but, like brute beasts, they are bowed down to earthly things.

What is the matter with you also, that you too have gone up, all of you, onto the housetops? LXX: What has happened to you now, that you have all gone up onto vain housetops? That which, according to the Seventy translators, is asked in the volume of Kings, what is meant when Elisha says (2 Kgs 2:14), Where is the God of Elijah APHPHO (אפא), is set down more plainly in the present place: where the Seventy translated now, the Hebrew has APHPHO, which we have translated now also; and Aquila, wishing to preserve the Hebrew idiom, set down καίπερτοι, a conjunction which the Latin tongue cannot render. And when he says, What is the matter with you also?, he asks why she too goes up among the others, and, with the reputation of lofty things, abides in low ones. And the sense is: Since the Philosophers are puffed up, and all worldly wisdom, disputing about lofty things, despises the simplicity of the Church, why do you too pursue high things? These the Seventy, σημαντικώτερον, translated δώματα μάταια, that is, vain housetops, to show that there is also another housetop, from which the Savior forbids us to come down (Matt 24), which is not, however, a vain housetop. Indeed the apostle Peter too went up onto the housetop at the sixth hour of prayer (Acts 10). But now, to show the great variety of heresies, he has named not one housetop but very many housetops.

What is it with you too, that you also have gone up, all of you, onto the housetops, full of clamor, a crowded city, an exultant town? A Hebrew used to tell me that the present Vision does not belong to the time when Nebuchadnezzar took Jerusalem and led Zedekiah, bound and deprived of his eyes, to Babylon, but to the times of Sennacherib, when Shebna the high priest betrayed a great part of the city, and only Zion, that is, the citadel and the Temple, and the nobles remained, after the example of the city of Rome, which, when the Gauls burst in, preserved its patricians and the flower of its youth in the citadel. But we can also speak of it as of the Babylonian captivity; although Eusebius refers everything to the coming of Christ, and thinks it was fulfilled in the times of Vespasian and Titus. Let us then pick out each point, touching briefly on the threefold exposition. What is it with you too? What do you have, he says, O Zion, that you too have gone up, all of you, onto the housetops? When he says, you too, he shows that the others had gone up before. Have you also been reckoned among the nations, that you are besieged by enemies and climb onto the housetops, full of the howling and lamentation of wretched women, you who were once a royal city?

The burden of the valley. Here he threatens against those who were joined to the people of God by right of authority and yet were plundering their goods.

And first, as to those to whom pertained authority in temporal affairs;

second, against those to whom pertained authority in spiritual affairs: thus says the Lord (Isa 22:15).

Now, authority in temporal affairs pertains to kings, and therefore in the first part he threatens against Jerusalem, which was the seat of the kingdom; and concerning this, he does two things.

First, the inscription is set out: the valley, that is, Jerusalem, not because of the site of the place, which was on a mountain, but because of its baseness, for filth from every direction flowed together to it as to a valley, while they followed the act of the neighboring nations: this is Jerusalem, I have set her in the midst of the nations (Ezek 5:5); or it is called a valley because of the lowest part of the city, which was handed over to Sennacherib by Sobna. Vision, because of the holiness of the temple: for in the temple visions came to the prophets from the Lord; or because of the prominence of the place, for it could be seen from distant places; or because of the name which Abraham gave to the place, as it says in Genesis 22:14: and he called the name of that place, the Lord sees.

Second, the threat itself is set out. And concerning this, he does three things:

first, he denounces the fault;

second, he threatens punishment: your slain (Isa 22:2);

third, he shows the pertinacity of their obstinacy in this punishment: and you have gathered (Isa 22:9).

Concerning the first, he does two things.

First, he denounces a twofold sin:

of idolatry: what ails you also, that you too, who rejoiced in the special act of holy privilege, art gone up to the housetops, to sacrifice to idols: if you play the harlot, O Israel, at least let not Judah offend (Hos 4:15).

Now is the time to utter aloud those words of the prophet who said, "Who will give water to my head and a fountain of tears to my eyes, and I will weep for the slain of the daughters of my people?" For, even if deep silence enfolds them and they lie dispossessed once and for all of their senses by the horrible deed (for by the deadly blow they have been deprived already of the very awareness of their condition), still we must not tearlessly disregard so great a fall. For, if Jeremiah judged those whose bodies were smitten in war worthy of innumerable laments, what should be said regarding so terrible a disaster to souls? "Your slain," it is said, "are not slain by the sword, and your dead are not dead in battle." But I bewail the sharp sting that causes real death, that is, grievous sin, and the fiery darts of the evil one, barbarously burning soul and body alike.

Full of clamour, a crowded city, an exulting town. LXX: The city is filled with those who cry out, an exulting city. The teaching of the heretics consists not in sense but in much speaking and clamour. Hence, on account of the multitude of those deceived, it is called a crowded city, and exulting on account of its pride. For being puffed up they swell, and boast that they have found holier things.

Your slain are not slain by the sword, nor dead in battle. LXX: Your wounded are not wounded by the sword, nor are your dead dead in battle. The greatest part is overthrown by the deceptions of the heretics without any struggle or debate, and this is a very great crowd. The slain, then, or as the Seventy translated, the wounded of the valley of Zion are not slain and wounded by the sword, but have gone over to the heretics of their own will; and in comparison with those who are overcome after battle, he is the more unhappily wounded and slain who has surrendered of his own accord. Just as in martyrdom too, he who yielded after torments is liable to a lighter penalty than he who denied Christ without any necessity and without the pain of tortures.

Your slain are not slain by the sword, nor dead in war. All your princes have fled together, and have been harshly bound. All who were found have been bound together: they have fled far away. If you refer it to the times of Sennacherib, when the city was partly taken, they are rightly said not to have been conquered by the sword nor slain in war, but by treachery, some fleeing from the city, and others, whom the enemy overpowered, bound in chains. But if to the Babylonian captivity, which is also the truer view, we shall say that they were overcome not by battle but by siege. And if you wish to understand it tropologically, with Eusebius, of the coming of Christ, you will say that they were slain not by the sword but by unbelief, and that all their princes withdrew from God and were bound with the cords of sins, and that there was none of the Pharisees who was not bound in the nets of the devil.

And the sin of strife: full of clamor, above: I looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes (Isa 5:2).

Second, to add to the weight of their sin, the twofold benefit of God is set out, namely,

the multitude of men: a populous city: how doth the city sit solitary that was full of people (Lam 1:1);

and the fullness of joys: a joyous city, formerly, in the time of Solomon because of its great prosperity: with the joy of the whole earth is mount Zion founded (Ps 47:3[48:2]).

Your slain. Here he sets out the punishment.

And first, he threatens the destruction of men as to the besieged who died by hunger: your slain are not slain by the sword, but by hunger and thirst: it was better with them that were slain by the sword, than with them that died with hunger (Lam 4:9).

All your princes have fled together, and have been harshly bound. In this place we have followed the translation of the Seventy, because in sense it is not far from the Hebrew. But to translate word for word from the Hebrew, it reads thus among them: All your chief men have departed together, they have been bound by the bow; and the other translators also followed this edition. For all the princes of the heretics have departed from the Church of Christ to the synagogue of Satan, and have gone over together, discordant in faithlessness, concordant in desertion; and they have been bound by the bow, of which it is written in the Psalm: Behold, the sinners have bent the bow, they have made ready their arrows in the quiver, to shoot in the dark at the upright of heart (Ps 10 [11]:2), and to send the fiery darts of the devil, which both wound and bind. And therefore they have been harshly bound, because they have stopped their ears like deaf asps, and stopping their ears, which will not hear the voices of the charmers, nor of the sorcerer charming wisely. For this reason the apostle Paul too commands that a heretic be left to his perversity after one admonition (Titus 3), because he is perverted and condemned by his own judgment. For they went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would surely have remained with us (1 John 2:19). Of these fugitive princes the prince is he whom the same Isaiah calls the fleeing dragon, the crooked serpent, who, when he has sent deadly words into the ears of the deceived, binds them harshly and does not suffer them to escape from his bonds. Delivered from these, the saint rejoiced in the Psalm: My soul has been rescued like a sparrow from the snare of the fowlers (Ps 123 [124]:7). And in another place, rejoicing that he has escaped, he says: You are my upholder and my refuge. My God, I will hope in him. For he has delivered me from the snare of the fowlers, and from the harsh word (Ps 90 [91]:2-3), or the turbulent word, which properly signifies the teaching of the heretics.

All who were found in you are bound together; they have fled far off. LXX: And the strong in you have fled far away. The Prophet's speech is still against the valley of Zion, whose inhabitants have gone up onto vain housetops and have cried out with a confused clamour, and have been wounded without battle; all of whose princes have fled and been harshly bound, and those who were strong among them have fled further away. For the more prudent a man is in heretical perversity, the further he withdraws from the Lord. And as for what he says according to the Hebrew, All were found in you, we ought to note this: that the heretics too say they have found those whom they have deceived; but their finding is perdition. Accordingly they are bound together and flee far off. Nor am I pleased with that exposition which holds that, according to the diversity of the heresies, the distances of those who flee are also diverse, since the holy Scripture says (Luke 11:23) that all who have been found by the heretics are bound together and have fled very far, the Lord saying: He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters. Hence it is said of Moses (Exod 24): Moses alone drew near to God, but the rest did not draw near. For to his saints God is a God who draws near, and not from afar, says the Lord.

As to fugitives, namely the princes who were taken and bound, as it says in Jeremiah 52; all the princes: her princes are become like rams that find no pastures (Lam 1:6); as to those taken in the city, who were similarly captured: all that were found, they are fled far off, led into captivity to a far off land: the Lord will bring you to a far off nation (Deut 28:49).

Remember the compassion of God, how he heals with olive oil and wine. Do not despair of salvation. Recall the memory of what has been written, how he that falls rises again, and he that is turned away turns again, he that has been smitten is healed, he that is caught by wild beasts escapes, and he that confesses is not rejected. The Lord does not wish the death of the sinner, but that he return and live. Be not contemptuous as one who has fallen into the depths of sins.There is still time for patience, time for forbearance, time for healing, time for amendment. Have you slipped? Rise up. Have you sinned? Cease. Do not stand in the way of sinners, but turn aside; for then you will be saved when turning back you bewail your sins. In fact, from labors there is health; for sweat, salvation. So take heed, lest, in wishing to keep your contracts with others, you transgress your covenants with God that you confessed before many witnesses. Do not, therefore, because of certain human considerations, hesitate to come to me. For, receiving my dead, I shall lament; I shall care for him, "I shall weep bitterly for the devastation of the daughter of my people." All welcome you, all will aid you in your sufferings. Do not lose heart; be mindful of the days of old. There is salvation; there is amendment. Have courage; do not despair. There is no law that passes sentence of death without pity, but grace, exceeding the chastisement, awaits the amendment. Not yet have the doors been closed; the Bridegroom listens; sin is not the master. Again take up the struggle; do not draw back, but pity yourself and all of us in Jesus Christ, our Lord, to whom be glory and might, now and forever, for ages of ages. Amen.

Therefore I said: Depart from me, I will weep bitterly: do not press to console me over the devastation of the daughter of my people. If at the devastation of Babylon the Prophet weeps with the feeling of a mourner, and says: 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, how much more now, at the ruin of his own city, can he accept no consolation, giving himself wholly to lamentation!

Therefore I said: Depart from me, I will weep bitterly; do not press to comfort me over the devastation of the daughter of my people. For it is a day of slaughter and of trampling and of weeping from the Lord God of hosts in the valley of vision, searching the wall, and magnificent upon the mountain. LXX: Therefore I said: Let me alone, I will weep bitterly; do not strive to comfort me over the breaking of the daughter of my race; for it is a day of tumult and of perdition and of trampling, and error from the Lord God Sabaoth in the valley of Zion; they err from the least to the greatest, they err upon the mountains. Samuel too mourned for Saul (1 Sam 15), and the Lord and Savior wept over Jerusalem (Luke 19; 2 Cor 12:21); and the Apostle writes to the Corinthians: Lest, when I come to you again, God humble me, and I mourn for many who sinned before and have not done penance. Hence, with the feeling of one who suffers with them, he says to others also: Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is scandalized, and I do not burn? (2 Cor 11:29). So the Prophet too, seeing the people that was once of vision climbing the vain housetops and living in clamour, and all its princes fled and bound with the chains of sins, bursts into tears, and drives away those who would console him, and testifies that he weeps with most bitter weeping, not over the sons but over the daughter of his people, which has lost the dignity of manhood.

Grief is often capable of refreshing distressed souls, and of rendering a burdened conscience light: consider how often women, when they have lost their most beloved children, break their hearts, and perish, if they are forbidden to mourn, and to shed tears. But if they do all which those who are sad, are wont to do, they are relieved, and receive consolation. And what wonder that this should be the case with women, when you may even see a prophet affected in a similar manner? Therefore he was continually saying, "Suffer me—I will weep bitterly—labour not to comfort me, because of the spoiling of the daughter of my people." So that, oftentimes, sadness is the bearer of consolation; and if it is so with regard to this world, much more with regard to spiritual things.

It is, after all, the practice of the prophets and the just to grieve not only for themselves but also for the rest of humankind.

Second, he sets out the inconsolable compassion of the prophet: depart, you who console the prophet, labor not, in the manner of those who console: who will give water to my head, and a fountain of tears to my eyes that I may weep for the slain of my people (Jer 9:1).

For it is a day of slaughter, and of trampling, and of weeping, for the Lord God of hosts in the Valley of vision. He gives the reasons, according to the threefold understanding, why he said: Depart from me, I will weep bitterly: because Zion has been trampled down, once the mountain of visions and now the valley of weeping.

For the day of judgment and slaughter and trampling will by no means be Jerusalem, which means vision of peace, but of its ancient name Jebus, which means trampling; a day of weeping too, or of error, as the Seventy translated, from the Lord Sabaoth: not that weeping and error come from the Lord, but through the occasion of the holy Scriptures, which the Lord gave to be read, an occasion of error arises for those who can say: Why have you made us err from your way? (Isa 63:17). And in another place: The Lord has mingled for them a spirit of error (ibid. 29:10): so that they should stand not on the mountain of Vision but in the valley of Zion. And this very day, which arises from the Lord of hosts in the valley of Vision to show the works of each, searches the wall of the heretics, which they have built against the Church like a most solid rampart; and it searches the magnificent and glorious one, that is, their teachers, who boast that they stand upon Christ the mountain, of which we read elsewhere: Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob, and he will declare to us his way (Isa 2:3). Further, as for what the Seventy translated, they err from the least to the greatest, they err upon the mountains, we ought to understand this: that those who are greater are in greater wickedness, and yet that all err from the least to the greatest, and err upon the mountains: Moses, Jeremiah and the other Prophets, the Evangelists and the Apostles. And though they dwell in the valley, they err in a wondrous way upon the mountains.

Searching the wall, and magnificent upon the mountain: and Elam took up the quiver, the chariot of a horseman, and the shield laid bare the wall. The army of Babylon is described entering the city, occupying the temple, and proudly driving through the streets in four-horse chariots. And that the shield, which is wont to cover other things, laid bare the gilded doorposts and the walls clad with marble facing, sounds elegantly in the Hebrew, and the sense is most beautiful: that the shield protected no one, but laid bare, since all the riches were torn out by the strength of the soldiers. If, however, the Elamites are set in the battle, Elam being a city of the Assyrians, it cannot be referred to the times of the Roman overthrow, unless perhaps we interpret everything allegorically.

Third, he sets out the manner and order of punishment: a day of slaughter, and concerning this, he sets out three things.

First, the indignation of God: a day of slaughter is imminent; searching, making it to be searched by the enemy; magnificent, making the enemy magnificent: for they trusted in mountains and walls: at that time, I will search Jerusalem with lamps, and will visit upon the men that are settled on their lees (Zeph 1:12).

And Elam took up the quiver, the chariot of a man, a horseman, and the shield laid bare the wall. And your choice valleys shall be full of chariots, and the horsemen shall set their seats in the gate. And the covering of Judah shall be uncovered, and you shall see in that day the armoury of the house of the forest; and you shall see the breaches of the city of David, that they are multiplied. LXX: But the Elamites took quivers, riders, men upon horses, and a gathering of fighters; and your choice valleys shall be filled with chariots, and horsemen shall throng your gates; and they shall uncover the gates of Judah, and they shall look on that day into the choice houses of the city; and they shall uncover the hidden things of the houses of the citadel of David, and they shall see that they are many. Elam, which means their ascent, or the Elamites, as the Seventy translated, whom we render despisers, took up the quiver to shoot in the dark at the upright of heart; they are horsemen of men in a chariot, to lay bare with their shield and their assault the wall of Zion and the strongholds of the Church.

These Elamites, according to the edition of the Seventy, have not one quiver but several; and they are riders of men, on whose souls they ride; and there is a very great multitude preparing itself for battle against the Church, so that all its valleys are filled; and the horsemen stop up their senses, and by their combat challenge to the contest the churchman, who is interpreted Judah; and when he brings forward the testimonies of the Scriptures and refutes all lies, the heretics will see the houses of the city of David, and will come to know all the things formerly secret: how in the citadel of David, which means strong of hand, that is, of Christ, are all the doctrines of truth. The places are obscure, not only according to the history but according to the ἀναγωγὴν. Those, then, whom our views displease ought to bring forward their own, so that we may acquiesce in their explanation, if it is true.

Second, he sets out the conquest by their enemies, and Elam, a Persian city, from which came warriors with Nabuchodonosor, who held the monarchy of the East; the shield, carried against Jerusalem, laid bare the wall, on which it was hung to adorn the house: prepare the shield and buckler (Jer 46:3); or otherwise: the shield, the power of Chaldea, laid bare the wall of the temple of the gold with which it was covered.

And your choice valleys, he says, and your lowly doctrines, O valley of Zion, shall be full of chariots, those which the Lord sank with Pharaoh, whose horsemen and riders shall set their seats in your gates, so as not to let those besieged and shut up in you go out.

And your choice valleys will be full of chariots, and the horsemen will set their seats at the gate. And the covering of Judah will be uncovered, and you will see in that day the armory of the house of the forest, and you will see the breaches of the city of David, that they have been multiplied. He plainly describes the captivity which took place in the eleventh year of King Zedekiah, of which Jeremiah too speaks: Behold, I will call together all the families of the kingdoms of the North, says the Lord, and they will come, and each will set his throne at the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem, and upon all its walls round about (Jer 1:15). And lest we should think this foretold in word and not fulfilled in deed, the same Jeremiah says: In the eleventh year of Zedekiah, in the fourth month, on the fifth of the month, the city was opened, and all the princes of the king of Babylon entered, and sat in the middle gate (Jer 39:2). Then, therefore, a countless army was poured out round about the city of Jerusalem, and the Holy of holies was opened, and the armory, which was planted with a grove, was thrown open by the enemy's ravaging, and, the walls having been breached, the enemy entered through all parts of the city.

Third, he sets out the infliction of damage as to four things.

First, as to the destruction of their properties: your choice valleys shall be full of chariots of Babylon: why glory in the valleys? Your valley has flowed away, O delicate daughter (Jer 49:4).

Second, as to the taking of their cities: the horsemen shall place themselves in the gate, lest anyone escape: all the princes of Babylon came in, and sat in the middle gate (Jer 39:3).

Then almighty God, through churchmen, shall uncover the coverings of Judah and all the secrets of those who stand in the confession of the faith; and then, O valley of Zion, in that day and in the clear light of truth, you shall see the whole armour of the Apostle, and of the house of the forest, in which the throng of the nations stands; as it is sung also in Psalm 131 (132): Behold, we have heard of it in Ephrathah; we have found it in the fields of the forest (Ps 131 [132]:6). And when the covering and secret of Judah, which formerly was hidden on account of the mystery, has been uncovered, and you have seen the armour of the Church, then you will understand the schisms of the city of David, which you have multiplied in order to gather to yourself deceived peoples.

Third, as to the profanation of holy things: and the covering, that is, the holy things formerly hidden, which no one but the priest was allowed to see, of Judah shall be discovered, that is, laid bare: the gentiles have seen your shame (Lam 1:8).

Fourth, as to the destruction of their armory: you shall see in that day the armory, that is, the house of the forest, in which arms were hidden, overthrown; concerning this building, see 1 Kings 7. The city of David, most strongly, or Jerusalem itself with a strong wall in many places: the tower of David, which is built with bulwarks (Song 4:3).

And you gathered the waters of the lower pool, and you numbered the houses of Jerusalem, and you destroyed houses to fortify the wall. And you made a reservoir between the two walls, and the water of the old pool: and you did not look up to him who had made it, and you did not see its maker from afar. He relates how they prepared the city for the siege: they transferred the waters of the lower pool, which could be captured, to the upper fortification; they destroyed houses and built walls; family by family they reckoned up how much water each house should receive; they made a cistern between the two walls, and restored the old pool to store the waters; and they did not rather call upon the help of God, who is the founder of the city and the Lord of the pool; as if he had said in other words: You have placed your trust in man, and not in God, who is the maker of man. Some, according to mystical senses, understand the old pool as the shadow of the Law, and the reservoir built between two walls, namely the New and the Old Testament, as built by the traditions and commandments of the Pharisees, one that cannot hold water: and that they did not look to the Son of God, nor believe in the presence of him whom they had not seen of old, because they had always been unbelieving toward the precepts of God.

And you gathered the waters of the lower pool, and you numbered the houses of Jerusalem, and you pulled down houses to fortify the wall. And you made a reservoir between the two walls, and the water of the old pool; and you did not look to him who had made it, and you did not see its maker from afar. LXX: And they turned the water of the ancient pool into the city, and they pulled down the houses of Jerusalem to strengthen the walls of the city; and you made yourselves water between the two walls within the ancient pool; and you did not look to him who made it from the beginning, and you did not see its creator. You who will see, or do see, the breaches of the city of David, that is, of the Church, which have been multiplied throughout the whole world; who have gathered the waters of your pool and teaching, not the upper but the lower, and have numbered, or pulled down, the houses of Jerusalem in order to fortify your wall: you have not dug wells which might have living and eternal waters, but broken cisterns, which cannot hold water. And you have made them between the two walls of the New and the Old Testament, and have neglected the water of the old pool, and have not considered God the giver of the law, and have utterly neglected the maker of the world. This according to the Hebrew. But according to the Seventy, the heretics considered that they were many, and trusting in this multitude they turned the teaching of the Old Testament away from the city of God, which is the Church, and pulled down the houses of Jerusalem in order to build assemblies of the wicked; and while they reject the Old Testament, they have not followed the New either, because the New is strengthened by the testimonies of the Old Testament. Therefore between the two walls, the old and the new, they have made themselves new waters, which they think are more inward and contain greater mysteries than are contained in the Old Testament; and they did not look to God, who is the founder of the Old Testament, and would not see its maker even from afar.

And you have gathered together the waters. Here he sets out the pertinacity of their obstinacy.

And first, he denounces the sin of obstinacy;

second, he sets out the divine sentence against them: and the voice of the Lord of hosts was revealed (Isa 22:14).

Their pertinacity is denounced as to two things.

First, as to divine help, which they did not invoke, trusting in their own men and clever devices: you have gathered together, in one place within the city, through a hidden channel, the waters of the lower pool, which had waters flowing from the earth that nevertheless could be hindered by enemies.

And have numbered the houses of Jerusalem, that water may be dispensed by number and measure; and have broken down houses which were next to the wall, so that they wouldn't impede the defenders.

And you made a lake, of the lower pool, to flow between the two walls, which encircled the city, and the water, namely, you have restored; nor regarded him, namely, God, that wrought it, the water: they have not called upon God (Ps 13:5[14:4]).

And in that day the Lord God of hosts shall call to weeping and to mourning, to baldness and to the girding of sackcloth; and behold joy and gladness, killing calves and slaughtering rams, eating flesh and drinking wine: let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we shall die. And it was revealed in my ears by the Lord of hosts: Surely this iniquity shall not be forgiven you until you die, says the Lord God of hosts. Daily the Lord God of hosts calls to repentance the heretics, who, despising the water of the old pool between the two walls, have dug themselves a reservoir and gathered the water of the lower pool, which has its waters not from heaven but from the earth; and he calls them to weeping, for blessed are those who weep, for they shall laugh (Matt 5:5); and to mourning, lest afterwards they hear: We have lamented to you, and you have not mourned (ibid. 11:17); and to baldness, that they may shave off all the works of death, and remove from their body whatever does not live in the body; and to the girding of sackcloth, lest afterwards, according to Jerusalem, they be girded with a rope instead of a girdle.

And the Lord God of hosts will call in that day to weeping, and to lamentation, and to baldness, and to the girding of sackcloth. And behold, joy and gladness, slaying calves and slaughtering rams, eating flesh and drinking wine: let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we shall die. And it has been revealed in my ears by the Lord of hosts: If this iniquity will be forgiven you until you die, says the Lord God of hosts. When the captivity was at hand and Jerusalem besieged, while sword, famine and thirst pressed hard upon the city, Jeremiah called the people to repentance (Jer 34); and on the contrary the kings and princes, and the wretched multitude, with the despair of men perishing, gave themselves over to feasting. But nothing so offends God as a stiff neck after sins, and contempt born of despair. This he says through Amos too: For three and for four impieties I will not turn him back: because he both devised it and did it, and did not repent, and moreover taught evil. Hence now too it is said: If this iniquity will be forgiven you until you die (Amos 1:4). The allegorical interpreters think this was foretold of the passion of Christ: that God called the unhappy people to repentance even after the cross of the Lord Savior, and nevertheless they gave themselves over to despair and pleasure. For the beginning of this vision, where he says: Full of clamor, a crowded city, an exultant town, they refer to that time when the people, stirred up by the Pharisees, resounded with one voice against Jesus: Crucify, crucify such a one: we have no king but Caesar (John 19:6, 7). The Apostle too made use of the example of this testimony, writing to the Corinthians about the resurrection: If the dead do not rise, let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we shall die (1 Cor 15:32).

Second, as to divine counsel, which they held in contempt: and he shall call. And concerning this, he sets out three things.

First, the counsel itself: to weeping, of the eyes; to beating, of the hands; to baldness, according to the custom of the ancients, who did these things in sadness: be converted to me with all your heart, in fasting, and in weeping, and beating (Joel 2:12).

Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen: And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain. Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ: whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not. For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised: And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept. For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming. Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. For he hath put all things under his feet. But when he saith, all things are put under him, it is manifest that he is excepted, which did put all things under him. And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all. Else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead, if the dead rise not at all? why are they then baptized for the dead? And why stand we in jeopardy every hour? I protest by your rejoicing which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily. If after the manner of men I have fought with beasts at Ephesus, what advantageth it me, if the dead rise not? let us eat and drink; for to morrow we die. [Isaiah 22:13] Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners. Awake to righteousness, and sin not; for some have not the knowledge of God: I speak this to your shame.

Now we say that the wicked are dead, but not in an ascetic life opposed to sin; nor do they, like the saints, bear about dying in their bodies. But it is the soul which they bury in sins and follies, drawing near to the dead and satisfying it with dead nourishment. [They are] like young eagles which, from high places, fly upon the carcasses of the dead, and which the law prohibited, commanding figuratively, "You are not to eat the eagle or any other bird that feeds on a dead carcass." And it pronounced unclean any other animal that eats the dead, for these kill the soul with lusts and say nothing but "let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die."

That too great lust of food is not to be desired. In Isaiah: "Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we shall die. This sin shall not be atoned for to you, even until you die." Also in Exodus: "And the people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play." Paul, in the first [letter] to the Corinthians: "Food does not commend us to God; neither if we eat shall we abound, nor if we do not eat shall we lack." And again: "When you come together to eat, wait one for another. If any is hungry, let him eat at home, that you may not come together for judgment." Also to the Romans: "The kingdom of God is not food and drink but righteousness and peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit." In the Gospel according to John: "I have food of which you don't know. My food is that I should do his will who sent me and should finish his work."

But they, on the contrary, instead of weeping and mourning, baldness and haircloth, had joy and gladness, and, as if all things ended with death, killing calves and slaughtering rams, to eat flesh and drink wine, they spoke the words of blasphemers: While we are in the present world, let us abound in delights; for tomorrow, that is, the time to come, will be without sensation. While they were saying these things, the Lord heard the words of blasphemy, and threatened that he would not forgive this iniquity until they either die to sin and vices, or are dragged down to the underworld with their offences. This indeed can be understood not only of the heretics but of every sinner who, neglecting his sins, becomes worse through despair, and, ensnared by pleasures, joins blasphemy to sin, so as to think that all the sensation of the living ends with death, saying that saying of Epicurus: "After death there is nothing, and death itself is nothing."

Second, he sets out their contempt for this counsel: and behold joy, above: the harp, and the lyre are in your feasts (Isa 5:12).

Third, the intention to hold it in contempt: let us eat and drink, 1 Corinthians 15:32, Wisdom 2:5: our time is as the passing of a shadow.

And the voice of the Lord of hosts was revealed. Here the sentence is set out. And it may be read as in the person of the Lord: this blasphemy of yours was revealed in my ears, that is, I heard it; surely this iniquity shall not be forgiven, as if to say: should you not believe, above: therefore forgive them not (Isa 2:9); or it may be read in the person of the prophet: this voice of the Lord was revealed in my ears. And all these things that have been said pertain to the captivity carried out at the command of Nabuchodonosor.

Thus says the Lord God of hosts: Go, enter in to him who dwells in the tabernacle, to Shebna who is over the temple, and you shall say to him: What are you doing here, or as whom are you here? For you have hewn yourself a tomb here; you have hewn a memorial on high carefully, a tabernacle for yourself in the rock. Behold, the Lord will cause you to be carried away as a cock is carried away, and he will lift you up like a garment. Crowning, he will crown you with tribulation; like a ball he will cast you into a land wide and spacious: there you shall die, and there shall be the chariot of your glory, the shame of the house of your Lord. And I will drive you from your station, and depose you from your ministry. And it shall come to pass in that day that I will call my servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, and I will clothe him with your tunic, and strengthen him with your girdle, and I will give your power into his hand; and he shall be as a father to those who dwell in Jerusalem, and to the house of Judah. And I will lay the key of the house of David upon his shoulder; and he shall open, and there shall be none to shut; and he shall shut, and there shall be none to open. And I will fasten him as a peg in a sure place, and he shall be for a throne of the house of his father. And they shall hang upon him all the glory of his father's house, divers kinds of vessels, every small vessel, from the vessels of bowls even to every vessel of the musicians. In that day, says the Lord of hosts, the peg that was fastened in the sure place shall be taken away, and shall be broken and fall; and what hung upon it shall perish, for the Lord has spoken. LXX: Thus says the Lord Sabaoth: Go to the pastophorion, to Somnas the treasurer, and you shall say to him: What are you here? Or what have you here? For you have hewn yourself a tomb, and have made yourself a memorial on high, and have marked out for yourself a tabernacle in the earth? Behold, the Lord Sabaoth will cast out and crush a man, and will take away your robe and your glorious crown, and will cast you into a great land, and without measure, and there you shall die; and he will set your excellent chariot in shame, and the house of your prince for trampling. And you shall be removed from your stewardship and from your rank. And it shall come to pass in that day that I will call my servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, and I will clothe him with your robe, and will give him your crown with strength, and will give your stewardship into his hands; and he shall be as a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and of Judah, and I will give him the glory of the house of David, and he shall rule, and there shall be none to gainsay. And I will lay the key of the house of David upon his shoulder; and he shall open, and there shall be none to shut; and he shall shut, and there shall be none to open. And I will establish him as a prince in a sure place, and for a throne of glory of his father's house; and every glorious one in his father's house shall trust in him, from the least to the greatest. Every small vessel, from the vessels aganoth; and they shall hang upon him. In that day thus says the Lord Sabaoth: The man who was established in a sure place shall be moved, and shall be taken away and shall fall, and the glory that was upon him shall perish, for the Lord has spoken. The prophet Isaiah is commanded to go in to him who dwells in the tabernacle, which in Hebrew is called SOCHEN (סכן), to Shebna who is over the temple, or as the Seventy translated, ταμίαν, that is, the treasurer and steward of the treasures of the house of God. Now Sochen is interpreted either tabernacle or pastophorion, that is, the chamber in which the one set over the temple dwells. And who else is it that dwelt in the tabernacle of the Jews, and in what was once the house of God, but the word and reasoning of the Jewish law, which was occupied with the reading of the Old Testament?

And what almost escaped us in the haste of dictation: Shebna means turn now, or conversion. It is said, therefore, to the prince of the Jews, that he should turn from the Law to the Gospel, and, forsaking the images of the victims, pass over to the truth of the spiritual sacrifice.

The Prophet, then, is commanded to go in to the high priest, who dwelt, according to the Seventy, in the pastophorium; according to Aquila, in the tabernacle; for which Theodotion, following the Hebrew truth, says: Go in to this Socen, which can be interpreted fair and upright (so that, namely, κατὰ ἀντίφρασιν, unjust and crooked is to be understood), to the high priest of the temple, and you will say to him: You who dwell in the house of God, whose crimes run riot through the whole city, why are you secure in your works, as though you did not fear captivity? Have you hewn yourself a tomb in the rock, and built so proudly that your ambition should follow you even in death?

Thus says the Lord God of hosts: Go, enter in to him who dwells in the tabernacle, to Shebna, who is over the Temple, and you will say to him: What are you doing here? or as whom are you here, that you have hewn out a tomb for yourself here? You have hewn out a monument on high, a tabernacle for yourself carefully in the rock. Behold, the Lord will cause you to be carried away, as a cock is carried away, and he will lift you up like a cloak. Crowning, he will crown you with tribulation; like a ball he will throw you into a broad and spacious land: there you will die, and there will be the chariots of your glory, the shame of the house of your Lord. And I will drive you out from your station, and depose you from your ministry. And it will come to pass in that day, I will call my servant Eliakim son of Hilkiah. And I will clothe him with your tunic, and strengthen him with your girdle, and I will give your power into his hand: and he will be like a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. And I will lay the key of the house of David upon his shoulder, and he will open, and there will be none to shut: and he will shut, and there will be none to open. And I will fix him as a peg in a sure place, and he will be for a throne of glory to his father's house. And they will hang upon him all the glory of his father's house, vessels of various kinds: every small vessel, from the vessels of bowls even to every vessel of the musicians. In that day, says the Lord of hosts, the peg that had been fixed in the sure place will be removed, and it will be broken and fall, and what had hung upon it will perish, because the Lord has spoken. We said above that Shebna was the high priest who betrayed the city to the Assyrians. But since this belongs to Hebrew tradition, and Scripture does not say it, let us understand him as proud, swollen and given to pleasure, trampling the peoples under his feet; and that, because he had done all the things the Prophet describes, his priesthood was transferred to Eliakim son of Hilkiah, so that, with him cast out, a new high priest might be made. From this we understand that pride, which offends God, is to be shunned with all zeal, and that it cannot be safe even with the privilege of the high priesthood. This is the Shebna (as some think) and the Eliakim of whom the same Prophet wrote further on: The king of the Assyrians sent Rabshakeh from Lachish to Jerusalem, to King Hezekiah, with a heavy force: and he stood by the aqueduct of the upper pool, on the road of the fuller's field; and there went out to him Eliakim son of Hilkiah, who was over the house, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah son of Asaph, the recorder (Isa 36:2ff.).

Those who take everything according to ἀναγωγὴν would have the priesthood of the Jews fall in the high priesthood of Shebna, and the mysteries of the Gospel worship shown in the succession of Eliakim, which means God rising again: so that what follows: In that day, says the Lord of hosts, the peg that had been fixed in the sure place will be removed, and it will be broken and fall, pertains to the ruin of the former people. And no one doubts, both according to the history and according to the allegory, that, because he had said peg, the metaphor is kept in the hanging up of vessels of different kinds; and that when the former have been broken, others are hung up.

Thus says the Lord God of hosts. Here the threat against those to whom pertained authority in spiritual affairs is set out,

and first, against the priest at that time;

second, against the entire priestly order: in that day, says the Lord of hosts (Isa 22:25).

Concerning the first, he does two things:

first, he foretells the deposition of him who, shaken by fear, handed the city over to Sennacherib, that is, the lower part of the city;

second, the substitution of another: and it shall come to pass in that day (Isa 22:20).

Concerning the first, he does three things.

First, he describes the person from his office: him that dwells in the tabernacle; for it belonged to the priests to keep watch in the tabernacle, as it says in Numbers 1:53; who is over, the highest over ten.

Note on the words, him that dwells in the tabernacle (Isa 22:15), that the tabernacle is manifold:

first, of carnal concupiscence, which belongs to swine: we have an altar whereof they have no power to eat who serve the tabernacle (Heb 13:10);

second, of temporal and natural life, which belongs to men: for I am assured that the laying away of this my tabernacle is at hand (2 Pet 1:14);

third, of the Church militant, which belongs to warriors, above: there shall be a tabernacle for a shade in the daytime from the heat (Isa 4:6);

fourth, of contemplative wisdom, which belongs to those who rest: we will go into his tabernacle: we will adore in the place where his feet stood (Ps 131[132]:7);

fifth, of eternal vision or our heavenly homeland, which belongs to all the blessed, below: your eyes shall see Jerusalem, a rich habitation, a tabernacle that cannot be removed (Isa 33:20).

To this tradition and teaching, then, it is said: What are you doing here? Why do you wish to build yourself a house in the letter that kills, and to fix your tabernacle, which has no foundation, in the firmness of the rock, which ought to be called not so much a tabernacle and a house as a tomb and a memorial?

Second, he denounces a threefold sin: of unworthy dwelling: what dost you here, in my house, unworthy of such a dwelling: what is the meaning that my beloved has wrought much wickedness in my house? (Jer 11:15); of proud presumption concerning himself: or as if you wert somebody here, you think of yourself as if you were of some value, when you are nothing: O shepherd, and idol (Zech 11:17); of building an elaborate tomb: you have hewed out, here in Jerusalem next to the temple, a monument, that is, an epitaph, in a high place, that is, in the highest place of the tomb; or literally, he had set up his tomb in a high place as his monument, as in 1 Maccabees 13:25–30.

For all these things will work for your destruction [i.e., Shebna's], since you have been deposed and rejected from the high priesthood, of which you showed yourself unworthy, God being a just judge who gives to each according to his worth. On you, then, he will bring these things; but on the other, Eliakim, whom he has assessed as his good servant and slave, he will invest with your robe and will honor by placing on him the crown of the high priesthood, whose ministry you had hitherto been entrusted with. For he is a man worthy of it. And since he has been promoted by God, unlike you he will not be proud and boastful. He will hold the place of a father toward all those who are going to be governed by him. Therefore, as to one who is soothing and gentle, [God] will give the glory of David, the most just and gentle king, in order to rule the people with great authority, so that none will gainsay his deeds. He will be rooted, established and placed securely at his ministry, so that no glorious member of the people shall contend or contrive envy, nor shall jealousy ever come into being on his account, but they shall "trust in him as in a father."

And I tell you this because you ought not to toil at hewing a tomb, since the Lord will carry away your priesthood, as GEBER (גבר) is wont to be carried, which all have translated man. But the Hebrew who instructed us in the reading of the Old Testament rendered it cock. As a cock, he says, is carried from one place to another on the shoulder of a porter, so the Lord will lightly carry you away from your place.

Hear what the Lord's sentence upon you is: as a cock is carried off on the shoulder of the one carrying it, and men each lift their cloak onto the shoulder, so your removal into captivity will be easy. You will have a crown, not of the golden plate and of the sanctification of the Lord, but of tribulation and anguish. For as a ball, if it is thrown down a slope, cannot stand still but rolls on in swift course, so you too will be led away to a most broad land, which we may understand as either Egypt or the plains of Babylonia, and there you will die; and there will be the chariots of your glory, all the powers and riches on which you now lean as you go about. There you will feel the shame of the house of your Lord: because you will suffer these things on account of your evil works and the violation of the Temple of your God.

Third, he threatens a threefold punishment: behold the Lord.

First, of subjugation: as a cock, which raises chicks like a hen, being castrated, called a capon, is carried away, bound, and without struggle; and he will lift you up and as a garment, easily lifted over the shoulder: you Phassur, and all that dwell in your house, shall go into captivity, and you shall go to Babylon, and there you shall die, and there you shall be buried, you and all your friends (Jer 20:6).

And you who once had the crown of the high priest, and the sanctification on the plate of gold on which the name of God was written (Exod 28), shall be crowned with tribulation and distress. And as a ball, if it is thrown down a sloping and spacious place, cannot stand still but rolls on without end, so all your people shall be scattered to the ends of the world. And there you shall die with your letter, and all your glory, and the chariots in which you were formerly borne in renown; and the splendour of the house of God shall be turned into shame.

Second, of confusion: he will crown you with a crown of tribulation, that is, in place of the crown which you used in pontifical worship, you will have tribulation; like a ball, which finds no high station; the chariot of your glory, which bore you gloriously, is turned into your confusion; the shame of the house of your Lord, that is, the glory which you had in the house of the Lord, is turned for you into ignominy: I will change their glory into shame (Hos 4:7).

For the Lord shall take you away from your station and from your ministry, that is, from the ceremonies of the victims, so that what is written to the Hebrews may be fulfilled: For when the priesthood is changed, there must of necessity be a change of the law also (Heb 7:12).

I will drag you down from your rank and cast you out of the office of high priest, and in your place I will clothe Eliakim my servant, son of Hilkiah, with your garments, and adorn him with your girdle, just as Eleazar was clothed with the garments of his father Aaron. To him I will give the authority of the Temple, so that he may have the people, not subject to him as a slave, but loving him as a son.

Third, the punishment of deposition, and I will drive you out from your station: so Solomon cast out Abiathar from being the priest of the Lord (1 Kgs 2:27).

When he says, "I will call my servant Eliakim" (the name Eliakim means resurrection of God), then everyone who is glorious in the house of his father will trust in him [Eliakim]. Yet what is the house of Christ's Father if not the church? And who are glorious there? Those who put their trust in Christ, and they are not just those who are glorious according to the judgment of this world. On the opposite they may be very small people according to that judgment. But God is just and unprejudiced. He repays everyone according to the measure of their spiritual age [maturity], as in that respect some are fathers yet others are still toddlers, babies and teenagers.

And when you have been cast out of your ministry, I will call my servant Eliakim, to whom I have said in another place also: It is a great thing for you to be called my servant (Isa 49:6, LXX). Eliakim means God rising again, or the resurrection of God. This God rising again, then, who is the son of Hilkiah, that is, of the portion of the Lord, shall receive your place, and shall be clothed with your robe and strengthened with your girdle, so that what you had in the letter he may possess in the spirit; and he shall be the father of those who dwell in Jerusalem, that is, in the vision of peace, which is interpreted as the Church, and to the house of Judah, where the true confession of faith is. Hence he himself says to the Apostles: Little children, yet a little while I am with you (John 13:33). And to another: Son, your sins are forgiven you (Matt 9:2). And to another woman: Daughter, your faith has made you whole (Luke 7:50).

And it shall come to pass in that day. Here he sets out the substitution of another, and concerning this he sets out three things.

His election: I will call, one of the twenty-four mentioned in 1 Chronicles 25; I will raise me up a faithful priest, who shall do according to my heart (1 Sam 2:35).

Second, his consecration: and I will clothe him, for they were consecrated with pontifical garments, as is evident from Leviticus 18, concerning these garments, and Exodus 28.

Third, he confers jurisdiction on him: and I will give your power into his hand.

And first, as to the power which he had among the people, he sets out power: and your power, namely, I will give: may his days be few: and his bishopric let another take (Ps 108[109]:8); and he shall be as a father: I will give you pastors according to my own heart, and they shall feed you with knowledge and doctrine (Jer 3:15).

He will receive the key of my house, and carry it on his shoulder; he will have authority over all the ceremonies.

I will give him, he says, the key of the house of David, he who opens and no one shuts, who shuts and no one opens (Rev 3). And this very key shall be upon his shoulder, that is, in his passion, according to what is written in another place: Whose government is upon his shoulder (Isa 9:6). For what he has unlocked by his passion cannot be shut; and what he has shut in the ceremonies of the Jews shall be opened by no one else.

And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write; These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth; [Isaiah 22:22] I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it: for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name. Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie; behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee. Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth. Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown. Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.

Second, as to the power which he had regarding the temple: and I will lay the key, which was of gold, of the house of David, that is, of the temple, for the building of which David prepared the materials, as is evident from 1 Chronicles 29, upon his shoulder, that is, his government, or because the key was used as a kind of adornment; he shall open, for it was allowed to him to enter into the holy of holies once per year, as it says in Hebrews 9:7.

And as, when a peg is fixed in the wall of the Temple and set in a very firm place, all the vessels of the priests and Levites are hung upon it, both those needed in the sacrifices and those of the musicians of every kind, so the whole people will hang upon the authority of Eliakim my servant.

For I will fasten him as a peg in a sure place, where the assembly of the Faithful is; hence too those who believe in Christ are called the faithful. And he shall be for a throne of glory of his father's house, that is, of the Church; and they shall hang upon him all the glory of his father's house. Hence it is written in the Gospel also: All the people hung upon him (Luke 19). And this indeed was done not only at that time, but is fulfilled to this day, so that there hang upon him, as it were, divers vessels of God: wisdom and righteousness and all the things by which Christ is called. Divers kinds of vessels: for these Aquila translated SASAIM (צאצאים) and SEPHOTH (הצפעית), which Symmachus rendered grandsons and mixed ones, so that the Apostles and all believers, that is, the sons of sons, and those mixed from all the nations, may hang upon him. From the vessels of bowls, for which Theodotion set down AGANOTH (אגנות): for both small and great shall believe in the Lord. And I think the bowls are the Apostles, full of living waters, of whom it is said: Bless God from the fountains of Israel (Ps 67 [68]:27), in which bowls wisdom has mingled her wine. And every vessel, he says, of the musicians, of those who at all times resound in the praises of God.

Third, as to the power which he had over the whole order of ministers: and I will fasten him as a peg, the diminutive form of palum (stake): for as various vessels are hung on a certain stake, so various offices, which had use of various vessels in the ministries of the house of the Lord, pertained to his care; in the place of the faithful, namely, the temple. Concerning this power, see Numbers 2 and 24.

And as for his saying: In that day the peg that had been fixed in the sure place will be removed, and it will be broken and fall, and what had hung upon it will perish, because the Lord has spoken, many refer it to Shebna: that when Eliakim had been fixed as a peg, the former peg, which had been fixed, collapsed. But since there follows: And what had hung upon it will perish, which by no means happened when Shebna was cast down, we understand this to be said: that when Shebna was deposed, Eliakim received the high priesthood, the dignity of whose priesthood the final captivity overthrew.

What follows seems contrary to our sense: how this peg, which had been fastened in a sure place, is taken away and broken, and what had hung upon it falls and perishes, and this happens because the Lord has spoken. This can be resolved thus, if we read that saying of the Gospel, that in the last days the love of many shall grow cold (Matt 24), and the Lord himself says: Do you think the Son of man, when he comes, will find faith upon the earth? (Luke 18:8). It is not, then, the peg that will be broken and fall and perish, which it is impious to say; but the peg will be taken away from the sure place, that is, from the Church, through the impiety that daily grows up, and those who before hung upon him by faith will afterwards through unbelief be broken and fall and perish. And this shall happen in the last days, because the Lord has spoken. For peg, which in Hebrew is called JATHED (יתד), and is rendered alike by all, the Seventy alone translated above prince, and here man.

In that day. Here he sets out the threat against the whole priesthood, which was destroyed in the time of Sedecias, when Nabuchodonosor took them captive; for what was said above of Sobna pertains to the time of Sennacherib. And here the priesthood itself, which ceased in the time of captivity, is called a peg: the children of Israel shall sit many days without king, and without prince, and without sacrifice, and without altar, and without ephod, and without theraphim (Hos 3:4).