Isaiah 27

Let us earnestly endeavor, therefore, to flee every crooked and tortuous act, and let us keep our mind and the judgment of our soul as straight as a rule, in order that the praise of the Lord may be permitted to us since we are upright. In the same way the serpent, which is the author of sin, is called crooked, and the sword of God is drawn against the dragon, the crooked serpent, which makes many twists and turns in its progress.… Therefore one who follows the serpent shows that his life is crooked, uneven and filled with contrarieties; but one who follows after the Lord makes his paths straight and his footprints right.

For "Leviathan" is interpreted to be "their addition." Whose "addition," then, but the "addition" of people? And it is properly styled "their addition," for since by his evil suggestion he brought into the world the first sin, he never ceases to add to it day by day by prompting to worse things.Or indeed it is in reproach that he is called Leviathan, that is, styled "the addition of men." For he found them immortal in Paradise, but by promising the divine nature to immortal beings, he as it were pledged himself to add somewhat to them beyond what they were. But while with flattering lips he declared that he would give what they did not have, he robbed them cunningly even of what they had. And hence the prophet describes this same Leviathan in these words, "Leviathan, the serpent: even Leviathan that crooked serpent." For this Leviathan crept near to people with tortuous windings through the false promise of what he would give them; for while he falsely promised things impossible, he really stole away even those which were possible.

For who is described by the designation of the "serpent" but our old enemy, at once slippery and crooked, who for the deceiving of humankind spoke with the mouth of a serpent? Of whom it is said by the prophet, "Leviathan the serpent, the crooked one"; who was for this reason allowed to speak with the mouth of a serpent, that by Leviathan's vessel humanity might learn what he was that dwelt within. For a serpent is not only crooked but slippery as well; and so because he stood not in the uprightness of truth, he entered into a crooked animal.… He spoke to man by means of a slippery animal because if one does not resist him, he secretly slips into the interior of the heart. Now "the dens" of this serpent were the hearts of wicked people.

In that day the Lord will visit with his hard and great and strong sword upon Leviathan the bar serpent, and upon Leviathan the twisting serpent, and he will slay the whale that is in the sea. LXX: In that day God will bring the holy and great and strong sword upon the dragon, the fleeing serpent, upon the dragon, the twisting serpent, and he will slay the dragon that is in the sea. The Hebrews hand down that the devil, that is, the slanderer, which is a Greek name, is called in Hebrew SATAN (שטן), that is, adversary. Hence in Zechariah too it is said: Satan, that is, the adversary, stood at his right hand to oppose him (Zech 3:1). And he is also called BELIAL (בליעל), that is, apostate, transgressor, and without yoke. Hence the Apostle too: What fellowship, he says, has Christ with Belial? (2 Cor 6:15). And wherever the Seventy put sons of pestilence, in the Hebrew is written sons of Belial. Hence also that which is sung in the psalm about the mystery of the Savior, The son of iniquity shall not proceed to harm him (Ps 88 [89]:23), in the Hebrew is said the son of Belial. And he is called by other names too, as is written in another psalm: You shall walk upon the asp and the basilisk, and you shall trample the lion and the dragon (Ps 90 [91]:13). This dragon is properly called in the Hebrew language LEVIATHAN (לויתן). He is the great whale of whom it is told in mystical language in Job that he is to be caught by Christ: Who is going to catch the great whale (Job 40:20); for there too Leviathan is put for whale; and again: But you will draw the dragon with a hook, you will put a halter about his nostrils; and immediately: This is the beginning of the Lord's creation, which was made to be mocked by his angels. And in the psalm: This is the great and wide sea: there are creeping things without number, small animals with great. This dragon which you have formed to mock him (Ps 103 [104]:25, 26). Of him John too writes in the Apocalypse: There was a battle in heaven: Michael and his angels fought with the dragon, and the dragon fought, and his angels, and they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven (Rev 12:7ff.). And: The great dragon was cast out, the ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, who makes the whole world go astray; and he was cast down to the earth, and his angels with him; and there it is said: The accuser of our brethren has been cast out, who accused them before our God (ibid., 12:10). And it must be noted that in the psalm and in Job the dragon, that is, Leviathan, is said to have been made for this purpose, that he might be mocked by the angels. Hence also the Apostles receive power to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and upon all the power of the enemy (Luke 10). Because, then, from the place where it is written, Behold, the Lord will scatter the earth and will lay it bare (above, Isa 24:1), or, according to the Seventy, Behold, the Lord will destroy the world and will make it desolate, up to the present passage, judgment has been foretold against the world at the consummation of the world, and the last enemy, death, will be destroyed (1 Cor 15): therefore the final sentence is against the devil, that the holy and great and strong sword be brought upon him, or, according to the Hebrew and the other translators, the hard sword. For it is not said CADESA (קדשה), as the Seventy thought, which, if it were so, would signify holy; but CASA (קשה), which is properly translated hard. Hence also Kish, the father of Saul, is interpreted hard. And the holy, or hard, sword, on account of the sense of him who suffers it, some of our writers understand as the Word of God, of which the Apostle says: For the word of God is living and effective, and sharper than any two-edged sword (Heb 4:12). Hence in another place too we read that a two-edged sword goes out of the mouth of the Savior (Rev 19). And when at the end of the world the holy, or hard, and great and strong sword has been brought against Leviathan, who at the beginning of Genesis is called the most cunning serpent above all the beasts (Gen 3:1) that were on the earth, he will flee who was never accustomed to flee, not knowing that which is written: Whither shall I go from your spirit, or whither shall I flee from your face? (Ps 138 [139]:7). A certain poet in his Gigantomachy jested finely about Enceladus: Whither do you flee, Enceladus? Whatever shores you reach, you will always be under God. And this Leviathan, the fleeing serpent, is called in the Hebrew BARI (ברי), which Aquila translated bar, Symmachus shutting in, Theodotion mighty. I think he is called bar, or the one who shuts, because he has shut many in his prison and subjected them to his own power; and he has nothing straight in him, and for that reason is called twisting, nor can he imitate the rod of the Lord, of which it is written: A rod of uprightness is the rod of your kingdom (Ps 44 [45]). Him the Lord will slay with the breath of his mouth (2 Thess 2), him who was once the inhabitant of the sea, of its salty and bitter waves. Let those who say that the devil will do penance and obtain pardon explain to us how they take what is written: And he will slay the dragon that is in the sea, or the whale. For in the second place in the present passage he is not called Leviathan in the Hebrew, but THANNIN (תנין), which properly means whale. Hence the Hebrews suppose that Leviathan dwells under the earth and in the ether, but Thanniim in the sea; which is a Jewish fable. And what is said at the end of this passage, in that day, Eusebius joins to the former chapter, lest the following prophecy be fitted to this time. But the Hebrews and the other expositors join it to the following, which we are now about to set forth.

620. In that day. In this part he recalls divine and paternal correction, and first, by foreign scourges, second, by their own scourges: in that day (Isa 27:2); hence it said in Wisdom 11:11: for you didst admonish and try them as a father.

Concerning the first, he sets out the scourge of Babylon: with his sword, namely, vengeance; Leviathan, namely, Nabuchodonosor, because of the addition to his kingdom that he subjugated to himself; the serpent, because of his poisonous tyranny; bar, because of the correction of the people by God, above: woe to the Assyrian, he is the rod of my anger (Isa 10:5); crooked, because of their infidelity: behold, he will drink up a river, and not wonder (Job 40:18); the whale: I sit in the heart of the sea (Ezek 28:2).

630. Note on the words, the Lord with his sword shall visit (Isa 27:1), that the vengeance of God is called a sword that is: first, hard because of the harshness of punishment; second, great, because of the universality of those who are punished: a great sword was given to him (Rev 6:4); third, strong, because of the power of the one who punishes: flee from the face of the sword (Job 19:29); fourth, sharp, because it is piercing, even to the soul: the word of God is living and effectual and more piercing than any two edged sword (Heb 4:12); fifth, shining, because of its evident fairness: you shall perish by the sword, it shall devour you like the bruchus (Nah 3:15).

631. Also on the word, Leviathan (Isa 27:1), note that the devil is called Leviathan, because he adds, first, to human wickedness: add you iniquity upon their iniquity (Ps 68:28[69:27]); second, to his own power: all these will I give you, if falling down you will adore me (Matt 4:9); third, to divine justice: my iniquity is greater than that I may deserve pardon (Gen 4:13); fourth, to divine mercy: whereas she was sad, he comforted her with sweet words (Gen 34:3).

632. Note also on the word, serpent (Isa 27:1), that the devil is called a serpent, first, because of his ability to renew himself: Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light (2 Cor 11:14); second, because of his manner of going about: I have gone round about the earth, and walked through it (Job 1:7); third, because of his poisonous bite: in the end, it will bite like a snake (Prov 23:32); fourth, because of his manner of enveloping: he sets up his tail like a cedar, the sinews of his testicles are wrapped together (Job 40:12).

In that day the vineyard of pure wine will sing to him. I the Lord, who keep it, will suddenly give it to drink: lest perhaps it be visited, I keep it night and day. LXX: In that day the good vineyard is his desire, that he may be its prince. I am a strong city, a city which is besieged: in vain will I give it drink. For they will be taken by night, and by day the wall will fall. The Hebrew in this place differs much from the edition of the Seventy; therefore let us discuss the particulars as we have set them out. The vineyard of which Isaiah speaks above, A vineyard was made for the beloved on a horn, in a fertile place: how it ought to be understood, let us learn from his own teaching: For the vineyard of the Lord Sabaoth is the house of Israel (Isa 5:1); of which it is sung in the psalm: You brought a vine out of Egypt, and so on (Ps 79 [80]:9). To this vineyard too he gives the cup of purest wine to drink through Jeremiah (Jer 25). For when he had sent him to give drink to all the nations, and the Prophet had willingly offered himself for this office, he is commanded first to make Jerusalem drunk. Hence he says: You have deceived me, O Lord, and I was deceived (Jer 20:7). Jerusalem, then, will drink, and an unmixed draught is given it to drink, so that it may learn lamentation and weeping. And the Lord says that he has guarded it for a long time and has given it a place for repentance, and because it would not be converted, it is to be made drunk suddenly. For he says that he has done this by days and by nights, so that it might always be kept by his help. But the Seventy call the same vineyard beautiful, in which were the Law and the Prophets, the priesthood and the high priesthood, and the knowledge of God, as Scripture says: God is known in Judea, his name is great in Israel (Ps 75 [76]:1). Others think that, according to their edition, it pertains to the Church, than which nothing is more beautiful, and of which it has been said: Glorious things are spoken of you, city of God (Ps 86 [87]:3): which is the princess of her mother, and says in the Song of Songs: The sons of my mother have fought against me (Song 1:5). And she says: I am a firm city, a city which is besieged. And he did well to say is besieged, not is taken by storm. And immediately he adds concerning the Synagogue, which has been turned from head into tail: In vain do I give it the drink of my teachings, for it will be taken in the darkness of its error. And because it did not receive the open light, its wall has fallen by day, that is, all that it thought its help; and there will be none of the adversaries who does not take it, which we ought to understand of the adverse powers.

621. In that day. Here correction by their own scourges is set out. Hence he first describes the chastisement; second, the consolation: and it shall come to pass, that in that day (Isa 27:13). Concerning the first, he does two things: first, he foretells the chastisement; second, the manner is examined: there is no indignation in me (Isa 27:4). Concerning the first, he does three things. First, he foretells the song of sorrow: the vineyard, formerly, in the prophets and patriarchs, of pure wine, above: for the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel (Isa 5:7).

It is the soul, too, that says, "I am a strong city, a city besieged." The city is besieged through Christ, the city is that heavenly Jerusalem, in which there are interpreters of God's law and men skilled in doctrine in great abundance; through them one seeks the Word of God.

Therefore let us flee these evils and elevate our soul to the image and likeness of God. The flight from evils is the likeness of God, and the image of God is gained through the virtues. And so, like a painter, he has painted us with the colors of the virtues. "See, I have painted your walls, Jerusalem." Let us not wipe away with the brush of neglect the props of the painted walls of our soul. And so "I have painted the walls," with which we can turn away the enemy. The soul has its walls; from them it stands forth and concerning them it says, "I am a strong city, a city besieged." By these walls it is guarded, and by them it is protected under siege. And truly the soul is a wall, which stretches forth over the camp. And therefore the bride says in the Song of Solomon, "I am a wall, and my breasts are like towers." The wall that the Lord painted is good, even as he says: "On my hands I have painted your walls, and you are always in my sight."

You have in Isaiah the speech made by the soul of a just man or of the church: "I am a strong city, I am a city besieged," defended by Christ and besieged by the devil. But one whom Christ aids ought not to be fearful of a siege. [Such a person] is defended by spiritual grace and is besieged by the perils of this world. Hence also it is said in the Song of Songs, "I am a wall, and my breasts are as a tower." The wall is the church, and the towers are her priests, who have full power to teach the natural and the moral sciences.

Second, he sets out the intention of the one who punishes: I am the Lord that keep it, below: you have drunk at the hand of the Lord the cup of his wrath (Isa 51:17). Third, he sets out the benefit, for which they were ungrateful: lest any hurt come to it, I keep it night and day: your word, O Lord, which heals all things (Wis 16:12).

Indignation is not in me: who will make me a thorn and a brier in battle? I will march upon it; I will burn it up together. Or rather shall I hold fast my strength? It will make peace for me, peace it will make for me. LXX: There is none that has not laid hold of it. Who will set me as keeper of stubble in a field? Because of this adversary I have driven it back. Therefore the Lord has done all that he arranged: I have been burned; its inhabitants will say, we will make peace with him, we will make peace with him. According to the Hebrew, this is the sense: I, who by days and nights have always preserved my vineyard, lest the boar out of the wood should lay it waste, lest the beasts should devour it, have I no indignation, and do I not know how to strike the sinner, and to render to each what he deserves? Where Aquila put thorn and brier, in the Hebrew is written SAMIR (שמיר) and SAITH (ושית), which signify adamant and places full of brambles. Hence he says: Who will teach me to be hard, and to overcome my clemency, and to advance savage in battle and contest, so that I may march upon the vineyard which I kept before, and burn that which I had hedged with my wall? Or rather will my strength bring this about, that I defer my wrath, and save by the clemency of the Gospel those who were by no means saved by the authority of the Law? And according to the Hebrew it is to be read ἐμφατικῶς: Who will make me hard and cruel, so that I overcome my nature? For this indeed is signified by the desert and by the thorns: that I should crush, as in battle, and burn that which I have always guarded with my diligence. Or rather shall I hold fast my strength, which without doubt is Christ, and of which we read, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God (1 Cor 1:24), so that it may make peace for me and reconcile the world? According to the Seventy, this is the sense, if we take it in the person of the Church: I am a firm city, a city surrounded by many enemies, I who in vain gave cups to my enemy the Synagogue. For it will be taken by night, and its wall will fall, and there will be none of the adverse powers which does not lay hold of it. Again I will speak: What does it profit me to guard her, who has stubble in her, not grain, who is so uncultivated that she is full of briers and thorns, whom I wished to save? But because she deals with me as an enemy, I have withdrawn from her. And the Apostles, born in me and from me, said: It was necessary that the word of God should be spoken first to you; but since you have rejected it and judged yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we turn to the Gentiles (Acts 13:46). Therefore the Lord will do what he threatened, so that all in her burn, surrounded by Roman fire. Or certainly they burn with vices and sins, so that they cannot quench the burning darts of the devil. For all are adulterers, their hearts like an oven. And those who formerly dwelt in her, after they have cried out, The city is taken and burned, will leave her, and, reconciling the world to God, will say: Let us make peace with him, let us make peace with him, that is, with Christ, always writing in their Epistles: Grace be with you and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord (1 Cor 1:3). Of whom we read in this same Prophet: How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good tidings of peace! (Isa 52:7). Some refer this place to the Churches: that they are indeed guarded by God, but many in them bear no fruit; and for that reason they are set on fire by the burning zeal of a good teacher, so that they cry out and confess their error, and afterwards make peace with God, being truly called sons of Jacob.

622. There is no indignation in me. Here he examines the manner of punishment, and first, the deliberation of the judge is set out; second, the execution of the result of deliberation: for the strong city shall be desolate (Isa 27:10). Concerning the first, he does three things. First, he sets out severe judgment, setting out the wrath of rage: there is no indignation in me, as if to say: indeed, I am justly indignant, for they are ungrateful for my benefits, below: full of the indignation of the Lord (Isa 51:20); and out of wrath he determines a severe punishment: who shall give to me a thorn and a brier, as to the preceding difficulties that arose together among them, above: briers and thorns shall come up over it (Isa 5:6); in battle, as to the attack of the enemy: I myself will fight against you (Jer 21:5–6); shall I set it on fire, as to the destruction of homes and cities: my indignation goes forth like a fire (Jer 21:12).

623. Second, he sets out the moderation of the sentence: or rather shall I take hold of my strength? As if to say: I will restrain my wrath; by way of contrast: the Lord will not turn away the wrath of his indignation (Jer 30:24). And he sets out the fruit of the moderation of the sentence as to the good, which all will bear in relation to God: shall it make peace with me, as if to say: will he make peace with me by good works? Below: the work of justice shall be peace (Isa 32:17).

Those who come forth from the root of Jacob, Israel will blossom and bud, and they will fill the face of the world with seed. LXX: Those who come are the sons of Jacob: Israel will bud and blossom, and its fruit will fill the world. After the Apostles, preaching the Gospel in the whole world, have said, We will make peace with Christ, we will make peace with him, those who were of the seed of Jacob on high, and have attained to the apostolic dignity, will be called sons of Jacob. Then Israel will bud and blossom, seeing that the whole world has been filled with the teaching of its sons and has borne most abundant fruits, which while it remained in Judea it had not borne.

In relation to himself, Israel shall blossom, in faith, or in good intention, and bud, in completion of the work, below: Jerusalem shall flourish like the lily (Isa 35:1); and in relation to his neighbor: they shall fill the face of the world with seed, who shall rush in, namely, the Apostles, above: the law shall come forth from Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem (Isa 2:3); their sound has gone forth into all the earth: and their words unto the ends of the world (Ps 18:5[19:4]).

Has he struck him according to the stroke of him who struck him? Or as he killed his slain, so was he killed? This place is understood in two ways: either against Jerusalem, so as to say that it was not struck by God as it itself struck Christ and his Apostles; or against the multitude of the nations, in that, while they persecuted and shed Christian blood, the Apostles and apostolic men nonetheless took care of their salvation and reconciled them to God.

624. And he sets out the supplementing of the punishment as to the ungrateful: has he struck him according to the stroke of him that struck him? Here he reproaches the benefit of the moderated punishment: he has not dealt with us according to our sins (Ps 102[103]:10).

In measure against measure, when it has been cast off, you will judge it. LXX: Quarreling and reproaching, he will send them away. According to the Hebrew, this is the sense: As Jerusalem did, so will it receive, and according to the measure with which it measured, it will be measured back to it. And it will receive the measure heaped up when the time of judgment has come and God has cast it off. According to the Seventy, what is said depends on what precedes. For Israel will not be struck as it struck, nor killed as it killed: Israel, which quarreled against the Apostles, and reproached its teachers, and commanded them not to speak in the name of Christ. Therefore the Lord will cast them off and drive them out of his flock.

He has meditated in his hard spirit through the day of heat. LXX: Was it not you who meditated with a hard spirit to kill them, with a spirit of fury? According to the Hebrew this is said: with the measure with which it measured, Jerusalem will receive; therefore God in his hard and vehement spirit has meditated, or spoken, against it in the day of heat, that is, in the time of persecution, when the day of indignation and punishments is more burning. According to the Seventy, it is said to Jerusalem itself, or to Israel: Was it not you who, in your most hard and cruel spirit, and in the fury of your blasphemies, desired to kill the Apostles and teachers of the Lord?

In measure: here he threatens judgment adequate to their sin; when it shall be cast off, from the worship of God through faithlessness, not believing in Christ: according to the measure of the sin shall the measure also of the stripes be (Deut 25:2); he has meditated: here he shows the support of the sentence, with his severe spirit, because it cannot be placated, above: cease therefore from the man, whose breath is in his nostrils (Isa 2:22).

Therefore by these things iniquity will be forgiven to the house of Jacob, and this is all the fruit, that his sin may be taken away: because he has made all the stones of the altar like stones of ash dashed to pieces; the groves and the shrines will not stand. LXX: Therefore the iniquity of Jacob will be taken away, and this will be his blessing, when I have taken away his sin, when he has made all the stones of the altars crushed like ash ground small, and their trees will not endure, nor the idols. He gives the reasons why, after the Jews have laid hands on the Lord, they may obtain pardon if they are willing to do penance, so that the prayer of the Savior may be fulfilled: Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do (Luke 23:34). Therefore, he says, iniquity will be forgiven to the house of Jacob, and its sin will be taken away, so that it may merit the blessing of God, which had called down a curse upon itself, saying: His blood be upon us and upon our children (Matt 27:25); because through the Apostles of the stock of Israel the Gospel will be sown in the whole world, and idolatry will be destroyed, and the altars will be ground down to dust, the groves will be cut down, the shrines will fall, and the knowledge of the one God under the mystery of the Trinity will be preached.

625. Third, he explains the motive for moderating the punishment, so that he would not destroy them entirely at that time, namely, because Christ and the Apostles were to descend from that people, and through their preaching the worship of idols was to be abandoned; and this is what is meant by, when he shall have made all the stones of the altar, as burnt stones broken in pieces, above: man shall bow down himself to his Maker, and his eyes shall look to the Holy One of Israel (Isa 17:7).

For the fortified city will be desolate; the beautiful one will be left, and abandoned as a desert. There the calf will feed, and there he will lie down and consume its topmost shoots. LXX: Their idols will be cut down like a grove, and the flock dwelling far off will be abandoned like a forsaken flock, and it will be for a long time for pasture, and there the flocks will rest, and after a long time there will not be in it anything green, because it has been dried up. Jerusalem, the city once firm and fortified, because it did not receive the son of the householder, but said, Come, let us kill him, for this is the heir, and the inheritance will be ours (Matt 21:38), will be desolate. And she who was once beautiful, of whom it is said in Ezekiel too, You ate fine flour and honey and oil, and you became exceedingly beautiful (Ezek 16:13), and in whom dwelt he of whom it is written, Beautiful in form above the sons of men (Ps 44 [45]:3), will be left and abandoned as a desert, as the Lord says to the Apostles: Arise, let us go hence (John 14:31). There the calf will feed, the Roman army, of which it is said in another place under the name of the boar: The boar out of the wood will lay it waste, and the solitary wild beast has fed upon it (Ps 79 [80]:14). And there he will lie down and consume its topmost shoots, under the metaphor of a vineyard and its shoots, so that nothing green, nothing of the tendrils, remains in it, but the enemy consumes all. According to the Seventy, because they did not receive the good shepherd, therefore they will be like a forsaken flock, and will lie open to the bites of the beasts; and nothing green will remain in them, because drought will possess all things.

626. The strong city, namely, Jerusalem: how doth the city sit solitary that was full of people? (Lam 1:1); as to the power of the enemy: there the calf, the army of the enemy, shall feed, as though resting without fear; branches, metaphorically, that is, ears of wheat, which signify princes, above: wild beasts shall rest there (Isa 13:21); or literally, it may be a sign of desolation: they saw the chambers joining to the temple thrown down (1 Macc 4:38).

In the drought of its harvest the women coming and teaching it will be crushed. For it is not a wise people: therefore he who made it will not have mercy on it, and he who formed it will not spare it. LXX: Women coming from the spectacle, come: for it is not a people having understanding; therefore he who made them will not have mercy on them, and he who formed them will not spare. What is said, In the drought of its harvest they will be crushed, for which the Seventy translated, there will not be in it anything green, because it has dried up, according to the Hebrew is coupled with what follows, according to the Seventy with the preceding sense. Let us speak first, then, according to the Hebrew. When the time of the drought and the harvest of Jerusalem, and, to speak more openly, of its devastation, has come, the throng of the synagogues will run together from the whole world to lament Jerusalem and console her evils. Or he is speaking openly of the women who, with bared breasts, strike their arms till they bleed; and the prophecy of the Lord will be fulfilled: Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but lament over yourselves and over your children (Luke 23:28). And it is a great unhappiness for the people to learn songs of lamentation from women; just as it was a reproach to the people of Israel when, in the book of Judges (Judg 4), the Lord wrought salvation by the hand of the woman Deborah, and at the time of the approaching captivity, while the men were silent, the woman Huldah prophesied (2 Kgs 22). But for this reason the women will be crushed by the long journey, worn out by weakness, hunger and squalor, and they will teach the wretched people, because it is not a wise people, nor has it understood its Creator, who, neglected and despised by them, will not have mercy on his handiwork and will not spare his creature. According to the Seventy, it is said of Mary Magdalene, and the other Mary, and the rest of the women, who first saw the Lord rising again, and held his feet, and merited to hear from him: Do not fear: go, tell my brethren to go into Galilee, and there they will see me (Matt 28:10). Of these women, long before they were born, the prophetic discourse foretells, and calls them from the spectacle of the Lord's Passion and Resurrection, so that they may preach the Gospel, and, according to the Hebrew, teach Jerusalem, or the land of Israel, that this is the Lord and God. For since the people of Israel did not have wisdom at that time, when the Lord suffered, and the prophetic oracle was fulfilled, Save me, O Lord, for the holy one has failed (Ps 11 [12]:1), and, All have turned aside, together they have become unprofitable: there is none who does good, there is not even one (Ps 13 [14]:4), the women are called from the spectacle, so that they may announce to the Apostles what they themselves have seen. But Israel, of which it was said (above, Isa 1:3), Israel has not known me, and my people has not understood, provoked its most clement Creator and maker to bitterness, so that he by no means has mercy on it. These things are indeed said piously; but how they agree with the rest, and are fitted to the times of the consummation of the world, is a difficult interpretation.

And there were many women there, watching from afar, who had followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering to him; among whom was Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of the sons of Zebedee (27, 55. 56). They report that Isaiah prophesied concerning these women when he said: Women coming to the spectacle, come; for it is not a people having wisdom. For he calls women those who had been from afar and from afar were watching Jesus; he calls them to the word, that they may indeed forsake the senseless and forsaken people and come to the new covenant. And I judge those women to be blessed who are built up unto blessedness by the spectacle of the word and by the death of the body of Jesus; for everything that is in Christ, if it be truly seen, makes the beholder blessed.

Therefore they look upon the mortification of the body of Jesus and the manner in which he commended "his spirit" to the Father by his prayers. These first followed him from Galilee, and — that I may say it boldly (using the authority of the Scripture that teaches it) — they followed him from Galilee "of the Gentiles", not from a straight nor a firm one, but from one having a certain circuit (for this is what Galilee is understood to mean, that is, ROLLING or WHIRLING); and leaving this, they followed Jesus, not idly, but doing the things that were commanded by him, and they delighted him; for they followed him ministering.

And every soul that shares in some distribution of graces and in the Lord himself ministers to Jesus a ministry like the ministries of the angels, concerning whom it is written that "the angels, approaching, ministered to him".

Many therefore were watching Jesus then, but the chief ones are named, as being those who watched more attentively and ministered more fully and followed better: Mary Magdalene, more fitting to the interpretation of the name of her homeland, which is called Magdala (and that place is interpreted MAGNIFICATION).

And this Mary Magdalene was of magnification for no other reason than that she had followed Jesus and had ministered to him and had watched the mystery of his passion. And among the chief ones there was also

Mary the mother of James and Joseph, or (as Mark says) "the mother of James the less and of Joseph", according to the name of the patriarch Jacob, the SUPPLANTER of his brother, and of Joseph, over whom, when he was born, his mother said: "may the Lord add to me another son".

This one too, therefore, following the Lord and ministering and watching the dispensation of his passion, was so because she had been the mother of some faithful person — not of anyone great (such as the patriarch Jacob had been), but of a lesser one, and of another Joseph. And among the women there was also

the mother of the sons of Zebedee, perhaps some woman established in the ministry of THUNDER

on account of her faith and holy life, and because she followed the Lord and ministered to him and had been a beholder of all the things that had been done concerning him, for the sons of Zebedee were called "SONS OF THUNDER". For his sons were John and James: therefore John heard the words of the seven thunders, which, as being more eminent than all Scripture, he received a command not to write. But if it is proper also to conjecture and to state the name of the mother of the sons of Zebedee,

I say that this very woman had been called Salome, which means PEACEABLE. And I have conjectured this seeing that in Matthew and Mark three chief women are named, concerning whom the present discourse is held; and the present evangelist sets forth that two of them are "Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James", but that the third is called the mother of the sons of Zebedee; whereas in Mark that third one is called "Salome". And according to Mark, those who had followed Jesus from Galilee "went up to Jerusalem" with Christ.

For this is the end of those who forsake the Galilee "of the Gentiles" and follow Jesus, that they not only go up to Jerusalem, but also go up into it together with Jesus.

For this is what is signified by their being reported to have gone up together with Christ.

The women, returning from the sepulcher and from this vision of the angels, were foreseen by Isaiah, when he says, "Come, you women, who return from the vision," that is, "come" to report the resurrection of the Lord. It was well, however, that the unbelief of the disciples was so persistent, in order that to the last we might consistently maintain that Jesus revealed himself to the disciples as none other than the Christ of the prophets.

And the destruction of men: its harvest shall be destroyed with drought; this is a metaphor: that is, as ears of wheat are crushed in the drought of summer; women shall come and teach it, by whom the people were thrown greatly into sin, above: as for my people, their oppressors have stripped them, and women have ruled over them (Isa 3:12); or because the women themselves taught them, as Deborah (Judg 4), and Holda (2 Kgs 22:14).

627. Second, he sets out the fairness of the punishment in relation to their guilt: for it is not a wise people, above: therefore is my people led away captive, because they had not knowledge (Isa 5:13).

That the women were to see his resurrection, while the scribes and Pharisees and the people disbelieved, this also Isaiah foretold in these words, "You women, who come from beholding, come: for it is a people that has no understanding."

And it will be in that day: the Lord will strike from the channel of the river to the torrent of Egypt. LXX: And it will be in that day: the Lord will shut in from the trench of the river to Rhinocorura. Had he not added, in that day, by which we are taught that what he is about to say is to be coupled with what precedes, we could have expounded a sense proper to this passage; but now everything is to be referred to what precedes. Since the fortified city will be desolate, and the once beautiful one will be left as a desert, and there the calf will lie down and consume the shoots of the vineyard, and all things will be dried up, since it is not a people having understanding, and because of its folly it has obtained no mercy from its Creator: therefore the Lord will strike, or shut in, from the channel or stream of the river to the torrent of Egypt, so that in all Judea, which was once the land of promise, no word of teaching may be found, nothing of the knowledge of the Scriptures; of whom the Apostle too speaks: That we may not give heed to Jewish fables and commandments of men who turn away from the truth (Titus 1:14); and again: For there are many both insubordinate and vain talkers and deceivers, whom one must refute, especially of the circumcision (ibid., 10). And the channel, or stream, of the river, according to the history, we can call the Euphrates, as it is written also in the seventy-first psalm: He will have dominion from sea to sea, and from the river to the end of the world (Ps 71 [72]:8). Others think it is the Jordan. And this must be noted, that in the borders of Judea it is called river, in the territories of Egypt torrent, which has turbid waters and not perpetual ones. For the torrent of Egypt, the Seventy translated Rhinocorura, which is a town on the border of Egypt and Palestine, expressing not so much the words of the Scriptures as the sense of the words. And what we have said, will strike, for which the Seventy translated συμφράξει, that is, will shut in, Aquila and Theodotion translated ῥαβδήσει, which can be understood either as will strike with a rod or will count under the rod the number of his flock, so that it may be taken not in a bad but in a good sense.

And you will be gathered one by one, O children of Israel. LXX: But you, gather one by one the children of Israel. O children of Israel, for which Symmachus translated house of Israel: when your adversaries have been struck from the stream of the river to the torrent of Egypt, that is, from the Euphrates to the Nile, you yourselves will be gathered to the faith of the Lord one by one, because the throng of the Jews did not believe; by which he signifies that few of the Jews will believe in the Lord Savior. Or certainly, O Apostles and apostolic men, since the multitude of the Jews does not believe, bring back from the whole world as many as you can, like sick sheep, to the folds of the Lord, and gather them with the people of the nations, so that that may be fulfilled which the Apostle Paul and Barnabas say to the Jews: It was necessary that the word of God should be announced first to you; but since you have judged yourselves unworthy of salvation, behold, we turn to the Gentiles (Acts 13:46).

628. Third, the magnitude of the destruction, both as to universality of place: and it shall come to pass, that in that day the Lord will strike from the channel of the river even to the torrent of Egypt, that is, from one end to the other, above: from the sole of the foot unto the top of the head, there is no soundness therein (Isa 1:6); and as to the small number of men who will remain: and you shall be gathered together one by one: you shall remain few in number (Deut 28:62).

And it will be in that day: a blast will be sounded on a great trumpet; and those who had been lost from the land of the Assyrians, and those who had been cast out into the land of Egypt, will come, and they will worship the Lord on the holy mountain in Jerusalem. LXX: And it will be in that day: they will sound with a great trumpet; and those who had perished in the region of the Assyrians, and those who had perished in Egypt, will come, and they will worship the Lord upon the holy mountain in Jerusalem. In this place the Jews promise themselves empty hopes: that at the consummation of the world, when the Antichrist, their ἠλειμμένος, as it is said, has come, the dispersed people will be gathered from the Assyrians and from the land of Egypt, and will come to Jerusalem, and, the temple having been built, will worship the Lord their God. This cannot stand at all according to the letter. For not from the Assyrians and from Egypt only, but from the whole world, those who are to believe in Christ will be called. This, therefore, is what it signifies: that at the last trumpet, according to the Apostle Paul (1 Cor 15), all who had perished among the Assyrians and in Egypt come to the Lord. Nor did he say all the children of Israel, but all who had perished, by which he signifies the multitude of the nations: that those bound to idolatry and to the magic arts and to philosophy come to the faith of Christ and worship him in the Church. And the great trumpet can be understood as the word of the Gospel, of which we read also in this same Prophet: Go up upon a high mountain, you who bring good tidings to Zion: lift up your voice, you who bring good tidings to Jerusalem (below, Isa 40:9). The holy mountain, then, and Jerusalem is that of which we have often spoken: You have come to Mount Zion and the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and many thousands of angels, and the Church of the firstborn, who are enrolled in the heavens (Heb 12:22). Thus far it has been spoken of the consummation of the world, from the place at which we began to expound, Behold, the Lord will scatter the earth and will lay it bare (above, Isa 24:1), which is contained in the present volume. Now, with Christ helping, nay rather inspiring us, let us pass on to the ninth, which will hold the beginning of another prophecy.

629. And it shall come to pass. Here he sets out the consolation, through return to their land. A great trumpet, the precept of the king, above: he shall set up a sign unto the nations, and shall assemble the fugitives of Israel (Isa 11:12).