Isaiah 24

Behold, the Lord will scatter the earth, and will lay it bare, and will afflict its face, and will disperse its inhabitants; and as the people is, so will the priest be; and as the servant, so his master; as the handmaid, so her mistress; as the buyer, so he who sells; as the lender, so he who receives the loan; as he who demands repayment, so he who owes. With scattering the earth will be scattered, and with plundering it will be despoiled: for the Lord has spoken this word. After the particular rebuke of the individual nations, Judea, Babylon, the Philistines, Moab, Damascus, Israel, Egypt, the desert of the sea, Edom and Arabia, the valley of vision, and at the last Tyre, in the explanation of which we have said what we could, the prophetic discourse now describes what the whole world is going to suffer at the consummation, and the prophecy is by no means about the individual nations, but about all of them alike. And first, what torments the impious are going to suffer; and how, according to the Gospel and the Apostle, heaven and earth and the fashion of this world pass away (Matt 24; 1 Cor 7), and sinners are led down into hell (Ps 30 [31]), of whom it is written: They shall go into the lowest parts of the earth, they shall be delivered into the hands of the sword, they shall be the portions of foxes (Ps 62 [63]:10). Then, because according to the quality of their merits there are many mansions with the Father, it is told how the saints are caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and are to be with him always (John 14; 1 Thess 4). For the earth scattered, the Seventy translated the world corrupted; and for its face afflicted, that is, the earth's, the same translated, and he will uncover its face, so that the dead may come forth from their tombs; or he will lay it bare, so that all its works may be brought out into public view, and its inhabitants be dispersed into different places, destined for rewards or for punishments.

565. Behold the Lord. In this part, he threatens the destruction of the entire earth, either that which was carried out in particular kingdoms and different regions, or that which is to come in the day of judgment, according to what is said above, this is the counsel, that I have purposed upon all the earth (Isa 14:26); however, some explain this as pertaining to the land of the Jews, or the land of Babylon, or the land of the Idumeans. And it is divided into two parts: in the first, he threatens against the inhabitants of the land; in the second, against the rulers of the peoples: and it shall come to pass, that in that day (Isa 24:21). Concerning the first, he sets out three things: first, the destruction of men; second, the removal of joys, where it says: the vintage has mourned (Isa 24:7); third, a multitude of dangers: the prevaricators (Isa 24:16).

566. Concerning the first, he does three things. First, he threatens destruction: the Lord shall strip it, purging it of inhabitants; lay waste, depriving it of those who cultivate it; afflict, with various punishments, the face, that is, inhabitants on its surface; scatter abroad, dividing them into various parts by captivity: I have stripped you bare (Joel 1:7).

Nor indeed is there any distinction between the state of the people and that of the priesthood: but it seems to me to be a simple fulfillment of the ancient curse, "As with the people, so with the priest." Nor again are the great and eminent men affected otherwise than the majority; no, they are openly at war with the priest, and the piety of the people is an aid to their powers of persuasion. And indeed, provided that it is on behalf of the faith and of the highest and most important questions, let the people be thus disposed, and I do not blame them. To say the truth, I go so far as to praise and congratulate the people.

We are put as guards in the vineyards, but we do not cultivate our own. When we are involved with external affairs, we neglect to watch over our own activities. I think that God suffers greater outrage from no one, dearly beloved, than from priests. Those he has placed to reprove others he sees giving an example of wickedness in their own lives. We who ought to have restrained sin, ourselves commit it. More seriously, priests who ought to give of their own possessions frequently plunder the goods of others. If they see others living humbly and chastely, they often make fun of them. Consider what will become of the flocks when wolves become shepherds! They undertake to guard the flock and are not afraid to waylay the Lord's flock.We do not seek to gain souls; we devote ourselves daily to our own pursuits, we attend to earthly matters, we strive for human praise with all our will. From being set over others we have greater freedom to do anything we like, and so we turn the ministry we have received into an occasion for display. We abandon God's cause, and we devote ourselves to earthly business; we accept a place of holiness and involve ourselves in earthly deeds. What is written in Hosea is truly fulfilled in us: "And so it will be, like people, like priest."

And this indeed is what the Lord, in the wrath of just retribution, menaced through the prophet, saying, "And there shall be like people, like priest." For the priest is as the people, when one who bears a spiritual office acts as do others who are still under judgment with regard to their carnal pursuits.

What is written has surely been fulfilled in us: And it shall be, as with the people, so with the priest. For the priest does not differ from the people when by no merit of his own does he transcend the common conduct.

Then there will be no difference between noble and base, priest and layman, servant and master, handmaid and mistress, rich and poor, the lender and him who is pressed by debt, buyer and seller. For all will stand on equal terms before the judgment seat of Christ, and there will be no respect of persons with God (Rom 14; Col 3). Of this Job too speaks in almost the same words: The small and the great are there, and the servant who does not fear his master (Job 3:19). And the Savior in the Gospel, to whom all judgment has been committed, bears witness in full discourse.

567. Second, the universality of destruction as to those punished, making equal those who differ in rank: as with the people, so with the priest; in condition: as with the servant so with his master; in possession of things: as with the buyer, so with the seller: the small and great are there, and the servant is free from his master (Job 3:19).

The earth, therefore, will be scattered, and all earthly works will be reduced to nothing, so that, the image of the χοϊκοῦ having been abolished, the image of the heavenly may remain. For the first man was from the earth, earthly, and the second from heaven, heavenly: as is the earthly, such also are the earthly; and as is the heavenly, such also are the heavenly; so that, as we have borne the image of the earthly, we may bear also the image of the heavenly (1 Cor 15:47-49). Hence the same Apostle says: Flesh and blood shall not possess the kingdom of God (ibid., 50). Not that, as the heretics say, the nature of bodies perishes, but that this corruptible puts on incorruption, and this mortal puts on immortality. And all these things will come to pass, because what is to come the Lord has spoken through the prophets.

As to the diversity of punishments: with desolation, setting out the loss as to immovable things: the earth shall be laid waste; as to movable things: it shall be spoiled: with desolation is all the land made desolate (Jer 12:11).

The earth has mourned and has wasted away, and has been weakened; the world has wasted away, the height of the people of the earth has been weakened, and the earth has been slain by its inhabitants. LXX: The earth has mourned, the world has been corrupted, the lofty of the earth have mourned, but the earth has acted impiously because of its inhabitants. God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble (Jas 4:6). Hence the first sentence is against those who are lofty on the earth, that all things which are now strong may be weakened because of those who have mingled blood with blood, and, in the manner of the blood of Abel, have made the gore of the slain cry out to God (Gen 4).

As to the downfall of power, the earth mourned, and faded away, using the past tense for the future, that is, it shall fade away, mourning for its weakness; and this is: is weakened, that this may be said as to the common people; but as to the powerful, the world, that is, leaders of the world, faded away, above: I will visit the evils of the world (Isa 13:11).

Because they have transgressed the law, they have changed the ordinance, they have broken the everlasting covenant. Because of this a curse will devour the earth, and its inhabitants will sin; therefore its tillers will go mad, and few men will be left. LXX: Because they have transgressed the law, they have changed the precepts, the eternal testament. Because of this a curse will devour the earth, because its inhabitants have sinned; therefore the inhabitants of the earth will be poor, and few men will be left. Let the Jews hear, who boast that they alone have received the law of the Lord, that first all the nations and the whole world received the natural law, and that the law was given afterwards through Moses for this reason, because the first law had been broken. Of it the Apostle speaks: For when the Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature the things that are of the law, these, not having the law, are a law to themselves: who show the work of the law written in their hearts (Rom 2:14). Those, then, who have kept these laws will obtain rewards; but those who have neglected them will endure what the prophetic discourse now threatens.

And he sets out the killing of men: and the earth is killed: the land was killed (Ps 106:38).

568. Third, he shows the equity of the punishment: because they have transgressed, and he does this by comparing it to their fault; hence he does two things. First, he sets out their fault: they have transgressed the laws, written or natural; the ordinance, of custom; the covenant, of friendship, everlasting, because it is caused by likeness of kind: they have transgressed my covenant, and have violated my law (Hos 8:1); they have polluted the sanctuary, they have acted unjustly against the law (Zeph 3:4).

After he rebukes those of the circumcision who have trespassed the law of the covenant of God and warns them with what he has written, he prophesies that only a small number of them will be saved. These few are those whom the apostle calls "the remnant according to the election of grace."

And as in the beginning God blessed every creature that he had made (Gen 1), so at the consummation of the world he will curse those who are earthly, and who were not sojourners but inhabitants of the earth, and sinned in it; who, forgetting their condition, have raged against one another in mutual fury. And few will remain who have the heavenly image; or, according to the Seventy, the inhabitants of the earth will be poor, because they have lost their spiritual riches.

569. Second, he threatens a fourfold punishment because of this fault: first, a divine curse: a curse: the land has mourned by reason of cursing (Jer 23:10); second, divine desertion: they shall sin, as if the Lord has abandoned them: for this cause, God delivered them up to shameful affections (Rom 1:26); he that is filthy, let him be filthy still (Rev 22:11); third, they shall be made foolish: therefore they shall be mad: they were turned aside into vanities (Ps 78:57); fourth, reduction in numbers: few men shall be left: you shall remain few in number (Deut 28:62).

The vintage has mourned, the vine has been weakened, all who were glad of heart have groaned. The joy of the timbrels has ceased, the sound of those who rejoice has been stilled, the sweetness of the harp has fallen silent; they shall not drink wine with song, the drink will be bitter to those who drink it. The city of vanity has been crushed, every house has been shut, with no one entering. There will be an outcry over wine in the streets; all gladness has been forsaken, the joy of the earth has been carried away. And desolation has been left in the city, and calamity will overwhelm the gates: for these things will be in the midst of the earth, in the midst of the peoples. At the consummation of the world, the remembrance of past delights will be the matter of torments. Hence also that rich man clothed in purple at his banquet, who had received his good things in his life, lifting up his eyes from hell, sees Lazarus at rest (Luke 16). And the Lord, rebuking the rich, the luxurious and those who laugh, says in the Gospel: Woe to you rich, for you have received your consolation. Woe to you who are now filled, for you shall hunger. Woe to you who now laugh, for you shall mourn and weep (ibid., 24, 25). When, therefore, the resurrection of the dead has come, and the day of judgment has arrived, then will mourn the wine and the vintage of which Moses speaks: Their vine is of the vine of Sodom, and their shoot of Gomorrah. Their grape is a grape of gall, their cluster is one of bitterness. Their wine is the fury of dragons, and the incurable fury of asps (Deut 32:33). Then every drink, or, as it is said in Hebrew, sicera, that is, drunkenness, which overturns the state of the mind and does not allow men to keep watch, will be changed into bitterness: it counterfeits honey for a time to those who use it, and in the end is found more bitter than gall. Then all the sweetness of those who rejoice, and the sound of timbrels and harp, will be turned into lamentation and groaning. Let us press this testimony upon those who at banquets are wanton not only with gluttony and drunkenness but also with their ears, so that through all the senses the strength of the soul grows soft.

570. The vintage has mourned. Here he threatens the removal of joys as to the wicked; and second, he sets out the joys of the good: as if a few olives (Isa 24:13). Concerning the first, he does three things. First, he sets out the ending of joy which came from three things: either in the fertility of things, the vintage has mourned, failing, that is, it was the cause of mourning, above: there shall be no rejoicing nor shouting in the vineyards (Isa 16:10).

Or in the playing of games: the mirth of timbrels has ceased: the voice of harpers, harping on their harps (Rev 14:2).

Or in the pleasures of feasts: they shall not drink wine with a song, above: the harp, and the lyre, and, the timbrel and the pipe, and wine are in your feasts (Isa 5:12).

571. Second, he sets out the recompense of sadness: the drink shall be bitter, for in their feasts, they will have sadness, against the pleasures of feasts: I will turn your feasts into mourning (Amos 8:10).

581. Note on the words, the drink shall be bitter (Isa 24:9), that the drink of sin is bitter: first, because of the remorse of conscience: her end is bitter (Prov 5:4); second, because of the fear of death: O death, how bitter is the remembrance of you (Sir 41:1); third, because of the lack of divine sweetness: know you, and see that it is an evil and a bitter thing for you, to have left the Lord your God (Jer 2:19); fourth, because of the mourning of penance, below: I will recount to you all my years in the bitterness of my soul (Isa 38:15).

The city of vanity will be crushed, or every city, or the spiritual Babylon, which sits clothed in purple upon seven hills, whose punishments we read in the Apocalypse of John (Rev 18). And he did well to say the city of vanity. For if it is said of heaven and earth and of all things that are earthly: Vanity of vanities, and all is vanity (Eccl 1:2), how much more must this be said of one city, which is a small part of the whole world! Then the houses whose ceilings are now gilded, and whose walls, while the poor die of cold without roof or hut, are clothed with veneers of marble and shine with the gleam of sawn ivory, will remain empty.

The city of vanity is broken down, against the vanity of games, all things are vanity (Ps 39:5); vanity of vanities, and all is vanity (Eccl 1:2); the city, of Babylon, any soul.

There will be an outcry in the streets over wine, not in the strait and narrow way that leads to life, but in the broad and spacious one that leads to death (Matt 7): over the wine and drunkenness of the error of those who have slept their sleep, and all the men of riches have found nothing in their hands (Ps 75 [76]). For the joy of the earth has been carried away into heaven, and desolation has been left in the once most crowded city, and the calamity of its inhabitants will overwhelm the gates of the busy streets, through which the throngs of the peoples used to stream in.

There shall be a crying, of those lamenting over the lack of wine, against fertility: in all vineyards there shall be wailing (Amos 5:17).

572. Third, he concludes the exchange: all mirth is forsaken, exchanged for sadness: woe to you that laugh: for you shall weep (Luke 6:25); laughter shall be mingled with sorrow (Prov 14:13).

And that we might know plainly that the destruction of the whole world is being announced, he added: These things will be in the midst of the earth, in the midst of the nations, or of the peoples.

As if a few olives that are left were shaken from the olive tree, and the grape clusters when the vintage is finished. These will lift up their voice and give praise; when the Lord has been glorified, they will neigh from the sea: therefore glorify the Lord in teachings, in the islands of the sea the name of the Lord God of Israel. How far the translation of the Seventy differs in this place from the Hebrew truth, the following words will show. LXX: As if someone were to shake an olive tree, so they will shake them; and if the vintage ceases, these will cry out with clamor. But those who have been left upon the earth will rejoice together with the glory of the Lord; the water of the sea will be troubled; therefore the glory of the Lord will be in the islands of the sea, the name of the Lord will be glorious, of the Lord God of Israel. When few men have been left, when the curse has devoured the earth, and there is desolation in the city, and all these things have happened in the midst of the earth, in the midst of the peoples and nations, so great will be the fewness of the saints, of whom the Lord speaks in the Gospel: Many are called, but few chosen (Matt 20:16); and so violent the oppression of the righteous, that even the elect of God, if it were possible, would be tempted; and their fewness is compared to the very rare berries of olives, of which, when they have been shaken down and gathered, scarcely a few remain at the tops of the branches; and to the way that, when the vintage is finished, the poor, driven by need, are accustomed to go round the empty vines and gather a few grapes.

According to the Seventy, all that we have understood of the saints can be referred to the impious: that when the vintage is finished, then they cry out, set in punishments. But those who have escaped the number of the impious rejoice in the glory of the Lord, and the waters of the peoples of this world are troubled.

573. As if. Here he places the joys of the good. And first, he foretells the praise of those to come, whose salvation he foretells: as if a few; few will be saved, in relation to the others, above: the fruit thereof that shall be left upon it, shall be as the shaking of the olive tree, two or three berries in the top of a bough (Isa 17:6).

These, then, who remain, and after the vintage and the pressing of the world have been able to escape the hands of the persecuting Antichrist, or the burning of the impending punishment, will lift up their voices on high and will praise God. When the Lord comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels, and they see him reigning in majesty, then they will neigh in the likeness of horses, exulting in the greatness of their joy, and they will neigh from the sea of this world.

And he places their praise: these shall give praise; they shall whinny, like horses to signify their great joy, below: the voice of your watchmen: they have lifted up their voice, they shall praise together (Isa 52:8).

By "sea" he means the multitude of nations, and by "coastlands," perhaps, he means cities. All their inhabitants will "raise their voices" when the divine wrath comes upon them. But the majesty of Christ will somehow be in the sea, that is, in all those nations, and they will realize that it is through divine Providence that they are destroyed and annihilated. They are destroyed because their impiety provoked the Almighty God; hence they will reject their gods who are unable to help them. That is how the majesty of the Lord is celebrated. It is clear that the purpose of the prophecy is to point to the mystery of Christ and to remind about the coming salvation in him.… Now, when the preaching of the holy apostles, which leads the nations from the idolatry to the grace of Christ, is spread to the ends of the earth, then, he says, "they shall cry aloud from the sea," that is, all the nations of the world.

"Therefore, the glory of the Lord is in the islands of the sea." That pertains obviously to the church, which is located in the midst of the godless nations as if an island in the sea. It is in that island that the glory of the Lord shines.

Therefore you who are now instructed in the Holy Scriptures, and know that such great joy and such great rewards are reserved for you, glorify the Lord in teachings, hearing that which is written: He who glories, let him glory in the Lord (2 Cor 10:17). Not at all in the land of Judea, but in the islands, that is, in the Churches of this sea and world, in which is blessed and praised the name of the Lord God of him who was once Israel, or, of the man who sees God.

"And God remembered Babylon the great, who came into his sight." This designates the confused multitude of all the lost. "That he might give it to drink from the wine of his wrath." The retribution of due punishment to be returned to the wicked is here recorded. "And all the islands fled, and no mountains could be found." I believe that these islands and mountains are literary figures for the church on account of the prominence of its stability, concerning which it is also said through Isaiah: "Glorify the Lord in doctrine, the name of the Lord God of Israel in the islands of the sea."

574. Second, he introduces praise in the present: therefore. And first, he places the precept, glorify the Lord in instruction, that is, in teaching others; another translation has: in praises: glorify the Lord as much as ever you can, for he will yet far exceed (Sir 43:30).

From the ends of the earth we have heard praises, the glory of the Righteous One; and I said: My secret is mine, my secret is mine: woe is me. LXX: From the wings of the earth we have heard portents: hope for the righteous; and they will say ※ my mystery is mine ⁚. This, which is said, my mystery is mine, is not found in the Seventy, but has been added in the Greek from the translation of Theodotion. Again, for what they put as woe, so as to join it to the following verse, in the Hebrew is said OI LI (אוי לי), which properly means woe is me. Also for ends, which we have set down for the sake of explaining the sense more openly, the Hebrew has MECCHENAPH (מכנף), which means wing, not end. These, then, of whom it was said above: They will lift up their voice and give praise, when they have neighed from the sea, and have glorified the Lord in teachings, and have seen the name of the Lord God of Israel praised in the islands of the sea, then will sing with harmonious voice and say: From the wings of the earth, that is, from the prophets and from the saints of the Lord, who, having taken the wings of a dove, hasten to the kingdoms of the heavens, we have heard his praises proclaimed; and that the glory or hope of the Righteous One is not vain, but all things are fulfilled in deed. So, while the saints say these things, and neigh from the sea, and lift up their voice and give praise, the Prophet speaks to himself: When, he says, I had heard these things, and perceived that the prophecy of the Prophets was to be fulfilled in the overthrow of the world, I said to myself with the inward feeling of my heart: I cannot tell all that I see. My tongue cleaves to my throat, my voice is shut in by grief. Woe is me, what a train of punishments passes before my eyes! I see as present the things that are to come. But those err who think this must be understood as spoken in the person of God, not following the order of the matter. And I wonder in what sense, for psalms and praises, which in the Hebrew reads ZEMROTH (זמרות), the Seventy translated portents, unless perhaps it is a sign and a portent that, the people of the Jews being shut out, the once unbelieving multitude of the nations is saved.

The transgressors have transgressed, and with the transgression of transgressors they have transgressed. Terror and the pit and the snare are upon you, who are an inhabitant of the earth; and it shall be that he who flees from the voice of terror shall fall into the pit, and he who extricates himself from the pit shall be held by the snare. LXX: Woe to the transgressors who transgress the law. Fear and the pit and the snare are upon you who inhabit the earth. And it shall be that he who flees fear shall fall into the pit, and he who comes out of the pit shall be caught by the snare. This is the cause of my mourning and groaning, on account of which I said a second time, my secret is mine, my secret is mine: because all have transgressed the law of God, and the Lord's punishment is by no means put off, nor is it foretold as future, but it is imminent, and holds the inhabitants of the earth captive. And when they think they have escaped, they will fall from one thing into another, and wherever they turn they will not evade the impending wrath of the Lord.

"The Spirit of the Lord filled the world." But that will be done with the broken horns of sinners. The horns of the righteous one are said to be exalted, concerning which Isaiah prophesied: "From the ends of the earth we heard praises announcing the glory of the righteous one." The church is understood to have seven horns, as does every world in which the sevenfold grace of the Spirit rules on account of his remarkable sevenfold operation. And eyes are mentioned here because of illumination. It is in relation to this, I believe, that Zechariah said, "These seven are the eyes of the Lord, which run through all the earth."

Second, he designates the fulfillment of the precept: from the ends of the earth we have heard praises, the glory of the just one, that is, Christ, below: behold the Lord has made it to be heard in the ends of the earth (Isa 62:11).

Third, the reward of those who fulfill it: and I said: my secret, of their reward: eye has not seen, nor ear heard: neither has it entered into the heart of man, what things God has prepared for them that love him (1 Cor 2:9); to myself, alone. Woe is me, for I cannot tell of it to others: I heard secret words which it is not granted to man to utter (2 Cor 12:4). Of the punishments of the damned: woe is me, such great punishments I see; and thus this belongs with the following part.

575. The prevaricators. Here he threatens a multitude of dangers, and concerning this, he does two things. First, he denounces the diversity of their sins: prevaricators, by omission, transgressors, by commission, I have accounted all the sinners of the earth prevaricators (Ps 119:119).

582. Note on the word, secret (Isa 24:16), that the mighty works of God are secret: first, because of their greatness: all men take not this word (Matt 19:11); if I have spoken to you earthly things, and you believe not: how will you believe, if I shall speak to you heavenly things? (John 3:12); second, because of their dignity: to you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven (Matt 13:11), but to others, in parables; third, because of the unsuitableness of others: give not that which is holy to dogs (Matt 7:6).

Second, he threatens a multitude of dangers. And first, he sets out this multitude: fear. He speaks in likeness to those who flee pursuers because of fear, above: they shall fall, and shall be broken in pieces (Isa 8:15); a voice of terror (Jer 30:5).

For the floodgates from on high have been opened, and the foundations of the earth will be shaken. With breaking the earth will be broken, with crushing the earth will be crushed, with shaking the earth will be shaken. With tossing the earth will be tossed like a drunken man, and it will be removed like a tent of one night, and its iniquity will weigh it down, and it will fall, and will not add to rise again. Therefore no one will escape the terror and the snare and the pit of the Lord, because the floodgates from on high, or, as the Seventy translated more plainly, the windows of heaven have been opened, so that the Lord might look down upon all the sins of men, which before, because he did not punish them, he seemed to sinners not to know. But after he has seen all the works of mortals through the opened windows, the foundations of the earth have been shaken, according to what is written in another place of the gaze of God: Who looks upon the earth, and will make it tremble (Ps 103 [104]:32).

576. Second, the impossibility of escaping: and it shall come to pass, that he that shall flee from the noise of the fear, shall fall into the pit: as if to say, he will decide upon Scylla, wanting to avoid Charybdis: that which the palmerworm has left, the bruchus has eaten (Joel 1:4). And he assigns the cause: for tribulation will come to them from both heaven and from earth, and this is the flood-gates, that is, hidden channels through which water flows: the floodgates of heaven were opened (Gen 7:11).

Then the earth will be broken and crushed, and shaken and tossed in the likeness of a drunken man: not that the earth itself is reduced to dust and to nothing, but that all earthly things pass away, and another manner of life succeeds. And as a drunken man does not know what he is doing, but, his sinews growing dull with drunkenness, neither foot nor mind stands to its duty: so the whole earth, that is, all men who dwell on the earth, will be drunk with the greatness of the evils and the punishments, and will be stupefied at all that they see. And as a tent or pavilion of one night is moved from place to place, and the place of the former tent is abandoned by the traveler, so that no trace remains of the past lodging: so the fashion of this world will pass away, and the earth will be deserted which has been weighed down by its iniquity, whose weight and most grievous burden is described in Zechariah: Who sat upon a talent of lead (Zech 5:7). And it will fall, he says, and will not add to rise again. Not that the resurrection of men and of all who dwelt on the earth is denied, but that there will by no means be an earthly manner of life and the state of the former life, since human bodies rise again for this purpose, that souls may be clothed with the same bodies that they had laid aside before, and may receive from God either the good or the evil that they did upon the earth.

577. Third, he shows the impossibility of reparation under a threefold similitude, namely, of divided things, which are not restored: breaking, as to division into large parts, crushing, as to division into small parts: behold the eyes of the Lord God are upon the sinful kingdom, and I will crush it from the face of the earth (Amos 9:8).

And through the similitude of shaken things, which are not made stable: with trembling shall the earth be moved, from place to place, shaken, as if trembling in its own place, as a drunken man, above: they have caused Egypt to err in all its works, as a drunken man staggers and vomits (Isa 19:14); and through the similitude of a traveler's tent, which is not fixed firmly in the same place: as the tent, below: my generation is at an end, and it is rolled away from me, as a shepherd's tent (Isa 38:12). And he assigns the cause: and the iniquity thereof shall be heavy upon it, like a heavy weight, so that it does not rise again: what is heavier than lead? (Sir 22:14); sin sits on a talent (Zech 5:7); my iniquities are as a heavy burden are become heavy upon me (Ps 38:4).

And this is the sense of the whole passage: The windows of heaven have been opened, so that, as the Lord looked out upon earthly sins, every fashion of earthly works might pass away and fall, and by no means rise again to its former state. In that day, that is, in the day of judgment, the Lord will visit upon the host, or upon the adornment, of heaven on high, so that he may judge not only earthly but also heavenly things. And what the adornment or host of heaven is, let us learn from the writing of Moses: Beware lest, looking up to heaven and seeing the sun and the moon, the stars and all the adornment of heaven, you be deceived and worship them (Deut 4:19). And the Lord will visit, according to the idiom of the Scriptures, the host and army of heaven as one sick and in need of the knife and cautery, according to this: I will visit their sins with a rod, and their iniquities with scourges (Ps 88 [89]:33). For in what follows too we read: My sword has been made drunk in heaven (below, Isa 34:5); and in Job: The stars are not clean in his sight. And: Against his angels he has found something perverse (Job 25:5). He will visit also upon the kings and princes of the earth, the rulers of this darkness, and the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Of these princes, who preside over the various provinces, it is written also in Daniel: The prince of the kingdom of the Persians came out to meet me, and the prince of the kingdom of the Medes, and the prince of the kingdom of the Greeks (Dan 10).

578. And it shall come to pass. Here he threatens against the rulers of the people; and concerning this he sets out three things. First, he sets out their punishment: in that day, of judgment; the Lord shall visit upon the host of heaven on high, that is, the demons, and upon the kings of the earth, these same demons: now shall the prince of this world be cast out (John 12:31); or also the wicked kings. Or, in that day, namely, the day of the destruction of particular kingdoms; the host of heaven on high, the idols, namely, of the sun and moon and the other stars: he adored all the host of heaven (2 Kgs 21:3).

583. Note on the words, and it shall come to pass, that in that day the Lord shall visit (Isa 24:21), that the visitation of the Lord is manifold: first, of condemnation: in the time of their visitation they shall fall (Jer 8:12); second, of correction: I will visit their iniquities with a rod (Ps 89:32); third, of consolation: the Orient from on high has visited us (Luke 1:78).

These princes, then, who did not keep their rank, the Lord will gather in the day of judgment, bound together as in one bundle, and will cast them into the pit of hell, so that in them too may be fulfilled what is written of the impious: He opened a pit and dug it, and he fell into the ditch which he made (Ps 7:16). And they will be shut up in prison, according to what the Lord says: Depart into the eternal fire, which has been prepared for the devil and his angels (Matt 25:41). But what follows, And after many days they will be visited, seems to applaud my friends who grant repentance to the devil and the demons, in that after long times they are visited by the Lord. But let them consider that the divine Scripture did not say openly, They will be visited by the Lord, or, they will be visited by the angels, but absolutely, they will be visited. From this ambiguity of the word both remedy and correction can be understood: that after the righteous have received their rewards, those are visited in perpetual punishments. Yet it must be known that human frailty cannot know the judgment of God, nor pass sentence on the greatness and measure of the punishments, which has been left to the Lord's decision.

And they shall be gathered together, at the same time in hell: which was prepared for the devil and his angels (Matt 25:41); as in the gathering of one bundle: bind it into bundles to burn (Matt 13:30), that they may be alike in punishment who were alike in sin: I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies, gathered together (Rev 19:19). And they shall be gathered together, through destruction, below: all the host of the heavens shall pine away (Isa 34:4).

579. Second, he designates the measure of the punishment as to time: and after many days they shall be visited, for after however much time of torment, they shall be punished in eternity: go, you cursed, into everlasting fire (Matt 25:41); or in the day of judgment, that, when the judgment has been executed, they might return to hell immediately; or, according to another interpretation: they shall be consoled, for after the storm, he makes a calm for all (Tob 3:22).

The stars on the day of judgment will be seen obscurely, not because of a gradual waning of their own light but due to the overwhelming brilliance of the true light, who is the supreme Judge coming in majesty, and the light of the Father and the holy angels. Nevertheless, nothing should prevent us from understanding that the sun, the moon and other stars will be deprived temporarily of their own light, as happened to the sun at the Lord's passion. But because the moon, which should have been full at that time, lay hidden behind the earth, Joel's prophesy remains unfulfilled still today, for after he had said "the sun will be turned to darkness," he added, "and the moon to blood before the great and magnificent day of the Lord comes." Isaiah also spoke about the day of judgment, saying, "The moon will be ashamed and the sun confounded when the Lord of hosts reigns on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem and is glorified in the presence of Jerusalem's elders."

He [Isaiah] was pricked by the thorn of sin; you are decked with the flowers of virtue. "The moon shall be ashamed, and the sun confounded, when the Lord shall punish the host of heaven on high." This is explained by another passage. "Even the stars are unclean in his sight";21 and again, "He charges his angels with folly." The moon is ashamed, the sun is confounded, and the sky covered with sackcloth. Shall we fearlessly and joyously, as though we were free from all sin, face the majesty of the Judge? After all, the mountains shall melt away, that is, all who are lifted up by pride, and all the host of the heavens, whether they are stars or angelic powers, shall fade away like heavens when the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll.

And it will be in that day: the Lord will visit upon the host of heaven on high, and upon the kings of the earth who are upon the earth. And they will be gathered together in the gathering of one bundle into the pit, and they will be shut up there in prison, and after many days they will be visited. And the moon will blush, and the sun will be confounded, when the Lord of hosts reigns on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, and has been glorified in the sight of his elders. For what we have translated, and the moon will blush, and the sun will be confounded, the Seventy translated, the brick will melt, and the wall will fall; what the cause of the error is, the following words will show. The sun in the Hebrew language is called by three names: SEMES (שמש), and HAMMA (המה), which means heat, and HERES (חרס), which signifies ὄστρακον, that is, potsherd or dryness. MAOR (מאר), however, which in Greek is called φωστήρ and in Latin luminary, is common to the sun and the moon. Again, the moon is called JAREE (ירה), which in Greek is called μήνη, because it makes a month by a circuit of thirty days, and LABANA (לבנה), that is, white or bright. In the present place, then, for LABANA, that is, moon, the Seventy translated brick, which in Hebrew is called LEBENA, deceived by the ambiguity of the word. Again, for HAMMA, that is, heat, by which is understood the sun, they put wall, which in Hebrew is called HOMA (הומה).

Then the moon will blush, and the sun will be confounded, according to what the Apostle says: For the creation itself groans and travails (Rom 8:22), seeing that men who enjoyed its light have done nothing worthy of the goodness of God, who makes his sun rise upon the righteous and the unrighteous (Matt 5): as if a steward and bailiff, when the master comes, were to see the household subjected to various torments and not having fulfilled his precepts at all. Of this same passage the Savior teaches more fully in the Gospel: The sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be moved, when the sign of the Son of man has appeared in heaven, and all the tribes of the earth have beaten their breasts, and have seen the Son of man coming with the clouds of heaven in power and much glory (Matt 24:29, 30). We have learned of the overthrow of the earth, the visitation of the host of heaven, the gathering of the kings and princes into one bundle, and their thrusting down into the pit, and the keeping of the prison, and the visitation of those shut up after a long time, the blushing of the moon and the confusion of the sun. After all these things the Lord of hosts will reign on Mount Zion and in the heavenly Jerusalem, of which it is written also in the Epistle to the Hebrews: And in the sight of his elders he will be glorified (Heb 12). Such an elder was Abraham, who died in a good old age and was gathered to his fathers (Gen 25). Such were the elders whom Moses too is commanded to choose, whom he knows to be elders (Num 11): for the gray hair of a man is his wisdom (Wis 4:8); who imitate the Ancient of days, whose hair is described as white, so that length of age may be shown (Dan 7:9). This can also be understood of the ecclesiastical rank, if only they do not destroy the dignity by their works.

580. Third, the glory of him who punishes, and first, of the judge: and the moon shall blush, that is, its splendor shall be thought nothing in comparison to the splendor of the body of Christ: the sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood: before the great and dreadful day of the Lord doth come (Joel 2:31); or, the worshippers of the sun and moon.

Second, of the judge's assessors: when the Lord of hosts shall reign . . . and shall be glorified in the sight of his ancients, above: the Lord will enter into judgment with the senators (Isa 3:14).