Isaiah 30

In this are reproved certain ones who wish to be governed by their own knowledge; of whom Isaiah says: 'Woe to you, deserting children! That you would take counsel and not from me, and would begin a web and not through my Spirit.' They weave spider's webs who cite sacred Scripture for evil purposes. Bernard says: 'You will never understand Paul unless you find the spirit of Paul.'

Reprimand is disapproval expressed in correction or strongly worded blame. The Educator resorts to this method of training when he says through Isaiah, "Woe to you, apostate children, says the Lord, that you would take counsel and not of me, and make treaties and not of my Spirit." He flavors each pronouncement in turn with the tart spice of fear to whet the appetite of his people for salvation and make them more aware of it, just as wool to be dyed is usually steeped first in an astringent to prepare it to preserve the dye.

Woe, you deserting sons, says the Lord: that you should take counsel, and not from me; and weave a web, and not by my Spirit; that you might add sin upon sin. You who walk to go down into Egypt, and have not asked my mouth, hoping for help in the strength of Pharaoh, and having confidence in the shadow of Egypt. And the strength of Pharaoh shall be to you for confusion, and the confidence in the shadow of Egypt for disgrace. For your princes shall be in Tanis, and your messengers have come as far as Hanes. All are confounded over a people that will not be able to profit them: they were not for help nor for any use, but for confusion and for reproach. LXX: Woe, you transgressing sons, says the Lord. You have taken counsel, and not through me; and a pact, not through my spirit, that you might add sins to sins: you who go to go down into Egypt, and have not asked me, that you may receive help from Pharaoh and be protected by the Egyptians. The protection of Pharaoh shall be to you for confusion, and to those who trust in Egypt, a reproach. For there are in Tanis princes, most evil messengers. In vain shall they labor for a people that will not profit them for help, nor for use, but for confusion and reproach. After the prophecy against Ariel, and the other things that the preceding discourse set forth up to this place, there now begins another prophecy, which is shown to have been fulfilled after the hundred and fifty years that lay between Isaiah and Jeremiah. For it foretells that history which we read in the volume of Jeremiah (Jer 41), when, Jerusalem having been overthrown and all its wealth and princes carried off to Babylon, Gedaliah son of Ahikam was set over those of royal stock who had remained in Judea; and when he had been slain by treachery together with his Chaldean companions, all the captains of the warriors, and Johanan son of Kareah, and Jezaniah son of Hoshaiah, and the rest of the common people from the least to the greatest, came to Jeremiah the prophet and said to him: Let our prayer fall before you, and pray for us to the Lord your God for all this remnant. For we are left a few out of many, as your eyes behold us; and let the Lord your God show us the way by which we should go, and the thing that we should do (Jer 42:2-3). And when Jeremiah, after ten days, had answered from the word of the Lord: Thus says the Lord God of Israel: If you remain quietly in this land, I will build you up and not pull you down, I will plant you and not pluck you up, for I am appeased concerning the evil that I have done to you. Do not be afraid of the face of the king of Babylon, whom you fearfully dread (ibid., 10-11). And a little after: But if you say: We will not dwell in this land; and set your face to enter Egypt, and go in to dwell there, the sword which you dread shall overtake you there, and the famine about which you are anxious shall cleave to you in Egypt, and there you shall die (ibid., 42:13, 15, 16). The proud men answered, saying to Jeremiah: You are speaking a lie: the Lord our God has not sent you, saying: Do not enter into Egypt to dwell there; but Baruch son of Neriah is inciting you against us, to deliver us into the hands of the Chaldeans, to kill us and to have us carried away to Babylon (Jer 43:2-3). At length all the princes of the people, gathering the remnant with the women and little ones and the king's daughters, not hearing the voice of the Lord, entered Egypt, taking Jeremiah and Baruch with them, and came to Tahpanhes, so that Jeremiah, as a sign of the captivity to come, prophesied against the disobedient people the things contained in his book. What, therefore, was to happen afterward is foretold many years before; and those are called deserting and transgressing sons who, forsaking the counsel of God which they had received through Jeremiah, followed their own will, and wove a web, not by the spirit of God, which sounded to them from the mouth of Jeremiah. He put the weaving of a web μεταφορικῶς, to show an evil counsel; and they did this so as to increase their former sins with the sin of contention and pride.

Some think this place was written against the ten tribes in Samaria, because, seeking help from the Egyptians, they were taken captive by the Assyrians. According to tropology: all who, despising the religion of God, return to their vomit, and, having lost the name of sons, are called most shameless dogs, take counsel not through the Lord, and strike a covenant not through the spirit of the Lord, and add sins to sins: so that, overcome by flattering vices, they also accept the perversity of false doctrines, and go down into the darkness of Egypt, seeking the help of Pharaoh, who reigns in Egypt, whose protection leads to disgrace and to everlasting reproach. For his princes are in Tanis, that is, in a humble and lowly command, most evil messengers, who labor in vain over a people that will not be able to profit them. For as the salvation of their disciples helps holy teachers, so the perdition of those seduced destroys the patriarchs of those who have fled to the help of Egypt.

Let every man and woman among us, whether meeting together at church, or remaining at home, call upon God with much earnestness, and He will doubtless accede to these petitions. Whence does this appear evident? Because He is exceedingly desirous, that we should always take refuge in Him, and in everything make our requests unto Him; and do nothing and speak nothing without Him. For men, when we trouble them repeatedly concerning our affairs, become slothful and evasive, and conduct themselves unpleasantly towards us; but with God it is quite the reverse. Not when we apply to him continually respecting our affairs, but when we fail to do so, then is he especially displeased. Hear at least what He reproves the Jews for, when He says, "Ye have taken counsel, but not of Me, and made treaties, but not by My Spirit." For this is the custom of those who love; they desire that all the concerns of their beloved should be accomplished by means of themselves; and that they should neither do anything, nor say anything, without them. On this account did God not only on that occasion, but again elsewhere, uttering a reproof, speak the same language. "They have reigned, but not by Me; they have ruled, and they made it not known to Me." Let us not then be slow to take refuge in Him continually; and whatever be the evil, it will in any case find its appropriate solution.

Moreover, in the same [Gospel] he also says, "All who have come before are thieves and robbers." Who are such but the deserters of the faith and the transgressors of God's church, who strive against God's ordinance—whom the Holy Spirit rightly rebukes by the prophet, saying, "You have taken counsel, but not by me; and have made a confederacy, but not by my Spirit, to add sin to sin."

667. Woe to you, apostate children. In this part, the prophet threatens against those who despised the prophet Jeremiah, and who went into Egypt against his counsel, as it says in Jeremiah 42 and 43. And this is divided into two parts:

in the first, he threatens against the Jews only;

in the second, against the Jews together with the Egyptians, in whom they trusted, woe to them that go down (ch. 31).

Or, according to the Gloss,

in the first part, he prohibits them from descending to Egypt,

in the second, he threatens punishment against those who descend.

The first of these is divided into two:

in the first, he sets out threatening;

in the second, consolation: therefore the Lord waits (Isa 30:18).

The first of these is divided into two:

in the first, he denounces their descent;

in the second, he denounces their contempt of the divine command: therefore have I cried (Isa 30:7).

668. Concerning the first, he denounces three things in them.

First, the disposition of the journey, setting out the intention: that you would take counsel; a web, wicked machination; and the consequent effect: that you might add sin upon sin: why will you add sin upon sin? (2 Chr 28:13).

Scripture is the mouth of God. Hence Isaiah: "Woe to you who walk to go down into Egypt," that is, to secular sciences, "and have not asked at My mouth," that is, Sacred Scripture. We need not go down to other sciences in order to gain certainty before having had the witness on the mountain, that is, of Christ, Elias and Moses, meaning of the New Testament, of the Prophets and of the Law.

You who go down, he says, into Egypt, and have not asked my mouth. Not that they did not ask, but that they would not hear the counsel of the prophet, hoping for help in the strength of Pharaoh, and having confidence in the protection, or shadow, of Egypt. For the strength of Pharaoh, which is put twice in this place, the Hebrew has written MAOZ (מעוז). We have noted this so that, where we read in the last vision of Daniel (Dan 11) the God MAOZIM (מעוזים), we may understand not, as Porphyry dreams, the God of the village of Modim, but the mighty and strong God. Pharaoh among the Egyptians is the name of the royal power; and each is called by a particular name as well, as Pharaoh Neco and Pharaoh Hophra: as if we were to set Caesars and Augusti before the proper names of kings. And the strength of Pharaoh, he says, shall be to you for confusion, and the confidence in the shadow of Egypt for disgrace. The same Jeremiah writes that in Tahpanhes, a city of Egypt, he buried stones in the gate of Pharaoh's house, and said to the men of Judah: Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will send and take Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, my servant, and I will set his throne upon these stones which I have hidden, and he shall set his throne upon them. And he shall come and strike the land of Egypt: such as are for death, to death; and such as are for captivity, to captivity; and such as are for the sword, to the sword: and he shall kindle a fire in the shrines of the gods of Egypt, and burn them, and carry them away captive. And he shall wrap himself in the land of Egypt as a shepherd wraps himself in his cloak, and he shall go forth from there in peace (Jer 43:10-12). For when the Egyptians had been overcome, the Jews too who had fled to the Egyptians were taken captive.

669. Second, he sets out the execution of this counsel as to walking the way: who walk, which is deformed by contempt of divine counsel; who have not asked at my mouth, the prophet: if you will separate the precious from the vile, you shall be as my mouth (Jer 15:19), because you would not do what he said; and by trusting in human help, trusting in the shadow of Egypt: cursed be the man that trusts in man, and makes flesh his arm (Jer 17:5).

And he sets out the effect: and the strength of Pharaoh shall be to your confusion: I will change their glory into shame (Hos 4:7).

And what follows: For your princes shall be in Tanis, and your messengers have come as far as Hanes, is to be read with mockery and ἐμφατικῶς: that, despising the counsel of God, they sent their princes to Tanis, a city of Egypt, in which was the royal house of Pharaoh, and where under Moses very many signs and portents were performed, as the Psalmist says: Who did wonders in the land of Egypt, in the plain of Tanis (Ps 77 [78]:43). And the same Isaiah says against Egypt: Where now are your wise men? Let them tell you and say what the Lord Sabaoth has purposed against Egypt. The princes of Tanis have failed (Isa 19:12-13); and he records that they failed at that time when the Lord entered Egypt upon a light cloud. We do not read of Hanes, a city of Egypt, anywhere else; but from his saying: Your messengers have come as far as Hanes, we understand that it is the farthest city of Egypt, toward the Ethiopians and the Blemmyes; for which the Seventy translated: Most evil messengers shall labor in vain, who trusted in the people of Egypt, which could not profit them, and they became an everlasting reproach.

Hence, as to the end of the way: for your princes went into Taphnis, which is only in the other part of Egypt, as if they feared to remain in the first borders: what have you to do in the way of Egypt, to drink the troubled water? (Jer 2:18).

And he shows their lack of hope: they were all confounded: put not your trust in princes: in the children of men, in whom there is no salvation (Ps 145:2–3[146:3]).

The burden of the beasts of the South. For this the Hebrew says MASSA BEEMOTH NEGEB (משא בהמות נגב), which the Seventy translated: The vision of the four-footed beasts in the desert. The foregoing exposition, which we have woven with a very full unfolding of the history, is the interpretation of this place: that, according to prophetic custom, the burden, that is, the weight and load of torments and punishments, came not only upon Babylon and Philistia, and Moab, and Damascus, and Egypt, and the desert of the sea, and also Edom and Arabia, and the valley of Zion, and lastly Tyre, but also upon the beasts of the South, which the Seventy translated four-footed beasts in the desert. He means the tribe of Judah, which, situated in the southern part, borders on the wilderness; and those who, rejecting the prophecy of Jeremiah, when Jerusalem had been taken, would not dwell in Judea, but fled through the desert to the Egyptians. And rightly are they called beasts of the South, or four-footed beasts in the desert, because they rejected the knowledge of God, and, despising his command, fled to the images of Egypt, having hope in Pharaoh; and whoever leans on him is like one who rests upon a reed, which, when broken, wounds the hand of him who leans on it. Of such beasts the sons of Korah too spoke in the psalm: Man, when he was in honor, did not understand; he has been compared to the senseless beasts, and has become like them (Ps 48 [49]:13). And what follows: This way of theirs is a stumbling block to them, can rightly be understood of the present chapter: that the way of the desert was their ruin. I know that I have read that the beasts of the South and the four-footed beasts in the desert, who, leaving the borders of Judea, fled to the darkness of Egypt, refer to the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places, and the rulers of this darkness, who through their longing for Egypt lost all their riches and former wealth. So he may have said. We, according to tropology, so as to discuss what we have not yet set out, say that all who, having deserted the Creator, have given themselves to the errors of the world are four-footed beasts in the desert of this world, from which they hope for help in vain, since they have abandoned the true help of God.

In a land of tribulation and anguish, the lioness and the lion: from them the viper and the flying basilisk: carrying their riches on the shoulders of beasts of burden, and their treasures on the hump of camels, to a people that will not be able to profit them: Egypt shall help in vain and to no purpose. LXX: In tribulation and anguish, the lion and the lion's whelp: thence asps and the offspring of flying asps: who carried their riches on asses and camels to a nation that will not profit them: the Egyptians will profit you emptily and vainly. For lion the Hebrew has written LEIS (ליש); and for flying basilisk, which the Seventy translated offspring of flying asps, in the Hebrew it is called ἐμπρηστὴς and flying, which we can call the burner, and in Hebrew it is named SARAPH (שרף). Again, in the place where we translated carrying on the shoulders of beasts of burden, for beasts of burden all alike translated πώλους, that is, the foals of asses. The land of tribulation and anguish signifies the vast waste of the wilderness, through which the remnant of Jerusalem, with Johanan son of Kareah and the daughters of King Zedekiah, taking with them all they could have, fled over to Egypt. Understand the lioness and the lion's whelp μεταφορικῶς as Jerusalem and its people, as Balaam says in Numbers: Behold, the people shall rise up as a lioness, and shall be lifted up as a lion: it shall not lie down until it devours the prey and drinks the blood of the slain (Num 23:24). In Ezekiel too it is written: Take up a lamentation for the prince of Israel, and say: Why did your mother, a lioness, lie down among lions, and rear her whelps in the midst of young lions (Ezek 19:1-2)? And lest we should think that holy Scripture speaks truly of a lioness and a lion, it speaks against the nature of things, saying that from a lioness and a lion was born a viper and a flying basilisk, or the flying offspring of asps: namely, that from evil parents worse children were begotten, of whom the Gospel too spoke: Brood of vipers, who showed you to flee from the wrath to come (Matt 3:7)? And to the land of Israel it is said: You are a land on which it has not rained, nor has a shower come upon you in the day of wrath; whose princes in the midst of it are like roaring lions, seizing the prey, devouring souls by their might (Ezek 22:24-25). These offspring of vipers, or of flying asps, that is, the princes of the people and the whole crowd of the ungodly, went to a people that could not profit them, as Jeremiah says (Jer 44), that the Lord would deliver Pharaoh Hophra king of Egypt into the hand of his enemies and into the hands of those who sought his life, and that all the men of Judah who were in the land of Egypt would be consumed by sword and famine to utter destruction; so much so that the Hebrews hand down that, before Nebuchadnezzar took Egypt, Jeremiah and Baruch escaped the impending captivity by death. A certain writer expounded the lioness and the lion's whelp as the heavenly Jerusalem and the people deceived from it; and the flying basilisk, and the vipers, and the offspring of asps, as that crooked serpent of which we read above (above, Isa 14 and 27), and of which the Savior spoke in the Gospel: I saw Satan falling like lightning from heaven (Luke 10:18): who, called a dragon in the Apocalypse (Rev 12), drew down with him to the earth a third part of the stars, which by the perversity of their judgment lost their former riches, abandoning them in the Egypt of this world.

It is written in Isaiah: "the vision of the quadrupeds in tribulation and distress", and the rest, up to the place where he says: "the riches of the asps will not profit them". Let each one of us consider how great wealth of asps he has borne before this, how great riches of beasts, and how a rational man never sat upon our donkey — not the word of Moses, not of Isaiah, not of Jeremiah, nor of all the rest of the prophets — and he will see that the word of God and reason then sat upon us, when the Lord Jesus came and commanded his disciples that, going, they should untie "the colt of a donkey", which before had been tied up, so that it might walk free.

But if you wish to learn yet more beasts, the prophet Isaiah will teach you, who, under "the vision" which he entitled "of the quadrupeds in the desert", speaks by the prophetic spirit certain such things concerning beasts: "in tribulation", he says, "and anguish, the lion and the lion's whelp; thence also the offspring of flying asps, who carried upon asses and camels their riches to a nation which shall not profit them". Can these things in any way be seen as said of bodily beasts, even by those who are exceedingly friends of the letter? For how can "the lion and the lion's whelp" or "the flying asps" "carry upon camels and asses their riches"? But evidently the prophet, filled with the Holy Spirit, enumerates the contrary powers of the most wicked demons, and designated that they place "the riches" of their deceptions upon souls stolid and perverse, which by a figure he compares to camels and asses. And that his soul might not be handed over to these beasts, fearing God he prayed, saying: "deliver not to the beasts the soul that confesses to you".

670. Third, he describes the carrying away of goods: the burden of the beasts;

he threatens first the destruction of Egypt. The burden, of the sons of Judah, beasts, because of their stupidity or because they bore their goods like beasts; of the south, because they fled to the south or because their dwelling was in the southern part. In a land of trouble, in Egypt, which in Hebrew is called "Meyrey," which is translated "trouble" or "distress": the sword which you fear, shall overtake you there in the land of Egypt (Jer 42:16).

Second, he sets out the condition of those who carry away the goods: the lioness, because of its ferocity, the lion, because of the presumption of its audacity, the viper, because of its cruelty, the flying basilisk, not because it has wings, but because it leaps on the face of men, because of its swiftness to do evil: her princes are as roaring lions (Zeph 3:3).

Third, the carrying away of the goods: they carry their riches.

Fourth, the vanity of their labor: to a people that shall not be able to profit them: vain is the salvation of man (Ps 59:13[60:11]).

Therefore I have cried out concerning this: it is only pride: be still. For which the Seventy translators, meaning I know not what, translated: Announce these things, since this consolation of yours is vain. Further, Symmachus translated ταραχαί εἰσιν κατοικεῖν, that is, there are tumults, that they may dwell. The Hebrew word REEB (רהב) Aquila translated ὅρμημα, that is, onset and pride; Symmachus disturbance; the Seventy vanity; Theodotion breadth; it is written with three letters, RES and HE and BETH, and it is the very word read in the Psalms: I will be mindful of Rahab and of Babylon, who know me (Ps 86 [87]:4). And the sense is: Since in the Egyptians there is vain help, I have commanded her, that is, Jerusalem, or I have cried out, that the Egyptians had only the name of a kingdom, and pride without strength; and that Israel ought to sit or dwell in its own land, and not seek help in vain from the weak.

671. Therefore have I cried. Here he denounces their contempt of the divine command.

And first, he shows how they despised the divine command;

in the second part, how they despised salutary counsel: for thus says the Lord God (Isa 30:15).

Concerning the first, he sets out three things:

first, the divine command;

second, the contempt of the people: for it is a people (Isa 30:9);

third, he threatens those who despise death or the destruction of death: therefore thus says the Holy One of Israel (Isa 30:12).

672. Concerning the first, he sets out three things.

First, the command, therefore have I cried concerning this, that it is useless to go into Egypt, sit still, in your own land: thus says the Lord to this people, that have loved to move their feet, and have not rested, and have not pleased the Lord (Jer 14:10).

675. Note on the words, sit still (Isa 30:7), that man ought to sit still

first, from the act of sin, above: cease to do perversely, learn to do well (Isa 1:16–17);

second, from the course of wandering: thus say to this people, that have loved to move their feet, and have not rested (Jer 14:10);

third, from immoderate appetite, below: the heart of the wicked is like the raging sea, which cannot rest (Isa 57:20);

fourth, from presumptuous intellect: when a man has done, then shall he begin (Sir 18:6).

Now go in and write for them on boxwood, and inscribe it carefully in a book: and it shall be in the last day for a testimony forever. The Hebrews say that, since in the prophets there is one spirit, and all times are joined together with the Lord, Jeremiah is commanded, and it is God's charge, that, having entered Egypt, he should write for them on boxwood, which is a wood that does not rot; or, as Symmachus translated, ἐπὶ πτυχὶ, that is, on a very broad tablet. For them, doubtless for the Jews: and that he should set it out carefully in a book, so that there may be no difficulty in reading it, so that when the prophecy has been fulfilled in fact, they may then understand that the word of the prophets is true. We run over the plain things so that we may linger on the more obscure.

[Isaiah] set his prophecy down in writing in a new book so that, after his prophecy was fulfilled, what he had written might bear witness against the Jews of what the inspired prophet predicted to them a long time before. This is why he did not simply write it in a book, but in a new book, a book capable of staying sturdy for a long time without easily falling apart, a book which could last until the events described in it would come to pass.

Second, he sets out the confirmation of the command. Now therefore, you, Isaiah, go in, by prophetic vision, or you, Jeremiah, go in, into Egypt with the people, as it says in Jeremiah 43;

third, he assigns the fruit of this confirmation: and it shall be in that day for a testimony for ever: write this for a memorial (Exod 17:14).

For it is a people provoking to anger, and lying sons, sons unwilling to hear the law of God. Who say to the seers: Do not see; and to those who look: Do not look out for us the things that are right: speak to us pleasing things; see errors for us. Take the way away from me: turn the path aside from me: let the Holy One of Israel cease from before our face. It is plain that they provoked the Lord to anger, unwilling to hear the words of Jeremiah (Jer 43). They said to him: Do not see for us what we do not want: do not forbid us the way of Egypt, nor preach the things that are right; but say what pleases us, that we may go on into Egypt, which heaps sins upon sins. Why do you press upon us what we do not willingly hear? why do you show the way by which we do not wish to go? Why do you so often repeat in our ears: Thus says the Lord, the Holy One of Israel? Let this preaching cease from us. According to tropology, all heretics are called lying sons. For they went out from us, but they were not of us (1 John 2); they do not hear the Law of God with the ears of the inner man, and they say to the teachers of the Churches: Do not see for us the things that are right, nor threaten the flames of Gehenna; but promise us the kingdom of heaven, so that after luxury and delights paradise may be opened to us. Why do you show me the way of the Lord, by which I do not willingly go? Why do you repeat the name of the Holy One of Israel, or the word of Israel, which does not penetrate the secret places of my breast? This indeed is said also to the people of the Church when it is negligent, if it turns away from the severity of its teachers and favors flatterers.

673. For it is a people. Here he sets out the contempt of the people,

and first, the contempt by which they despised God: that provokes to wrath, as to sin of transgression: do not you provoke me, as the house of Israel provokes me (Ezek 2:8); and lying children, as to sin of speech, for they promised obedience to Jeremiah, a promise which they would not keep, as it says in Jeremiah 42. The children that are strangers have lied to me (Ps 17:46[18:45]): that will not, as to sin of omission: he that stops his ears from hearing the law, his prayer shall be an abomination (Prov 28:9).

The chief priests and the Pharisees, through the agency of Pilate, sealed the tomb; but the women saw him who was risen.… The chief priests lacked understanding, but the women beheld with their own eyes. When the soldiers came into the city and told the chief priests what had happened, they said to the soldiers, "Say, his disciples came by night and stole him while we were sleeping." Well did Isaiah foretell this also, in their persons: "But tell us, and relate another error." Christ has risen and come back from the dead, and by a bribe they persuade the soldiers.

Say, when is a person most insulted—when he is silent, and one makes no answer, or, when he does speak (and is unheeded)? So that the insult is greater in the present case, when He does speak and thou wilt not hear: greater the contempt. "Speak not to us," we read, they said of old to the Prophets: but ye do worse, saying, Speak: we will not do. For there they turned them away that they should not even speak, as feeling that from the voice itself they got some sort of awe and obligation; whereas you, in the excess of your contempt, do not even this. Believe me, if you stopped our mouths by putting your hands over them, the insult would not be so great as it is now. For say, whether shows greater contempt, he that hears, even when hindering by this action, or, he that will not even hear? Say—if we shall look at it as a case of an insult offered—suppose one person to check the party insulting him, and to stop his mouth, as being hurt by the insults, and another person to show no concern, but pretend not even to hear them: whether will show most contempt? Would you not say the latter? For the former shows that he feels himself hit: the latter all but stops the mouth of God.

Second, he sets out their contempt of the prophets: who say to the seers, according to which they prohibited them from carrying out their proper office: you seer, go, flee away (Amos 7:12); inasmuch as they induced them to lie: speak unto us pleasant things: behold the words of the prophets with one mouth declare good things to the king (1 Kgs 22:13).

Turn away, inasmuch as they prohibited the word of divine knowledge: who have said to God: depart from us, we desire not the knowledge of your ways (Job 21:14).

Therefore thus says the Lord, the Holy One of Israel: Because you have rejected this word, and have hoped in false accusation and tumult, and have leaned upon it: therefore this iniquity shall be to you like a breach that falls, and is sought for in a high wall: since suddenly, when it is not hoped for, its crushing shall come. And it shall be broken in pieces as a potter's jar is shattered with a very mighty crushing: and there shall not be found among its fragments a sherd in which a little fire may be carried from the burning, or a little water drawn from the pit. Because, he says, you said above: Let the Holy One of Israel cease from before our face, or, as the Seventy translated, take away from us the word of Israel, therefore thus says the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, and he thrusts himself upon you against your will, so that him whom you neglected when he warned you, you may feel when he punishes. You had confidence in the false accusation and lying of the Egyptians, and leaned upon their tumult, or contradiction and pride, as Symmachus and Theodotion translated; therefore this iniquity, or sin, will turn against you, so that you will be like the suddenly falling wall of a most strongly fortified city that has been taken, whose ruin has come all at once: for so the Seventy translated. And the sense according to the Hebrew is: As the breach of a very high wall that has drawn after it a long ruin can hardly be repaired and recover its former beauty, so sudden crushing will come upon you. And to use another comparison: As a potter's vessel, if it is shattered with a very mighty crushing, is broken into pieces so that scarcely a tiny sherd remains among the fragments in which a little fire may be carried, or a little water drawn from a puddle and a pit, so you, when you have gone into Egypt, with Nebuchadnezzar pursuing you there, will perish to utter destruction. The heretics too, and every doctrine contrary to the truth, trust in false accusation and lying, and, according to the Seventy, mutter against their Creator. Therefore the city of their ungodliness, which Cain built, will be destroyed; sudden perdition will come upon it, when it has been taken by churchmen, and so destroyed and broken in pieces that nothing remains in it that could rekindle a dead fire, or offer even a little muddy water to thirsting peoples.

674. Therefore thus says the Holy One of Israel. Here he threatens destruction to them, resuming the subject of their guilt that the punishment may appear more just: because you have rejected this word.

And he adds the punishment, where it says, therefore shall this iniquity be to you, signifying sudden punishment by the likeness of ruin, which lies hidden for a long time in a wall that falls suddenly in the end: for the destruction thereof shall come on a sudden: for when they shall say: peace and security; then shall sudden destruction come upon them (1 Thess 5:3).

And he shows the strong punishment: and it shall be broken small, under the likeness of the breaking of a vessel, of which no fragment remains whole for any use, namely, for carrying fire and drawing water, above: with breaking shall the earth be broken (Isa 24:19).

Let us, then, devoutly think over these truths, dearest brothers, while it is still within our power to do so with the help of God. As we shudder at the wounds of our sins as at deadly poisons, let us apply ourselves to almsgiving, prayer and fasting. Above all, by a charity that loves not only friends but even enemies, let us have recourse to the mercy of that heavenly Physician to recover the health of our souls as if by spiritual remedies. For he himself said, "I take no pleasure in the death of the sinner, but rather in the wicked man's conversion, that he may live"; and again: "When you groan and are converted, you shall be saved." In his goodness may he lead us to this salvation, who together with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns forever and ever. Amen.

Would you know the power of repentance? Would you understand this strong weapon of salvation and the might of confession? By confession Hezekiah routed 185,000 of the enemy. That was important, but it was little compared to what shall be told. The same king's repentance won the repeal of the sentence God had passed on him. For when he was sick, Isaiah said to him, "Give charge concerning your house, for you shall die, and not live." What expectation was left? What hope of recovery was there when the prophet said, "For you shall die"? But Hezekiah did not cease from penitence, for he remembered what was written: "In the hour that you turn and lament, you shall be saved." He turned his face to the wall, and from his bed of pain his mind soared up to heaven—for no wall is so thick as to stifle reverent prayer—"Lord," he said, "remember me." "For it is sufficient for my healing if you remember me. You are not subject to circumstances but are yourself the legislator of life. For not on birth and conjunction of stars, as some vainly say, does our life depend. No, you are the arbiter, according to your will, of life and the duration of life." He whom the prophet's sentence had forbidden to hope was granted fifteen further years of life, the sun turning back its course in witness thereof. Now while the sun retraced its course for Hezekiah, for Christ it was eclipsed, the distinction marking the difference between the two, I mean Hezekiah and Jesus. Now if even Hezekiah could revoke God's decree, shall not Jesus grant the remission of sins? Turn and lament, shut your door and beg for pardon, that God may remove from you the scorching flames. For confession has the power to quench even fire; it can tame even lions.

So useful are trials for Christians that through them, our spirit becomes a sacrifice to God. For it is written in the psalm: "The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise." Enlightened by this and innumerable other texts of this type, let us hasten as rapidly as possible to be converted to God absolutely.… Converted, let us never despair of the forgiveness of sins, holding on to the faithful promise of the Lord who says, "In returning and rest, you will be saved." Let us put up with the pressures and trials of the present time with patient courage, and let us never depart from the fear of the Lord. For the apostle commands us to "endure in affliction." He bears witness that the correction of the present time is of great avail to us for avoiding the punishment of the future judgment, saying, "But since we are being judged by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world."

It is never too late to repent. You may have gone down from Jerusalem and may have been wounded on the way; yet the Samaritan will set you upon his beast and will bring you to the inn and will take care of you. Even if you are lying in your grave, the Lord will raise you though your flesh may stink. At least imitate those blind men for whose sake the Savior left his home and heritage and came to Jericho. They were sitting in darkness and in the shadow of death when the light shone upon them. For when they learned that it was the Lord who was passing by, they began to cry out, saying, "You son of David, have mercy on us." You too will have your sight restored, if you cry to him and cast away your filthy garments at his call. "When you shall turn and repent then shall you be saved, and then shall you know where you have been."

For thus says the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel: If you return and are quiet, you shall be saved: in silence and in hope shall be your strength; and you would not, and you said: By no means; but we will flee to horses: therefore you shall flee; and we will mount upon swift ones: therefore swift shall they be who pursue you. A thousand men from before the terror of one: and from before the terror of five you shall flee. LXX: Thus says the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel: When you have returned and groaned, then you shall be saved, and you shall know where you were: because you trusted in vain things, your strength has become vain; and you would not hear, but you said: We will flee upon horses: therefore you shall flee; and we will be upon light riders: therefore light shall they be who pursue you. A thousand shall flee at the voice of one, and at the voice of five many shall flee. The Holy One, he says, whose name I had kept silent above, is himself the Lord God, who speaks to you both through me and through Jeremiah (Jer 12): If you do penance, and abandon either your vices or the error of your evil counsel, and remain in Judea, fearing not the onset of the Babylonians but my precepts, you shall be saved. Be quiet and hope in the Lord, and take hold of the strength of faith in my promises, you who, despising the precepts of life, said in despair: It shall by no means be as you say; but we will flee to the horses of the Egyptians, and go to them with quick and swift step. Since, then, you have said this, you shall indeed flee and enter Egypt at a rapid pace; but swifter will be the Babylonians, who will pursue you even to Egypt, and such terror and dread will seize Egypt that a thousand Egyptians will not be able to withstand one Chaldean, and a very great multitude of fugitives will not withstand five enemies; according to what we read in Deuteronomy: The Lord will cause you to fall before your enemies. You shall go out against them by one way, and flee before them by seven ways, and you shall be scattered through all the kingdoms of the earth (Deut 28:25, 32). According to the anagogy and the edition of the Seventy, the divine word exhorts all sinners to repentance, and especially the heretics: that when they have returned from their vices and groaned, and done penance, they may be saved; and then they will understand where they were before, and that they hoped in vain things to no purpose. And while he exhorts them to repentance, they on the contrary trust in false teachers and in the uncertainty of the world; and, unwilling to hear the words of God, they long for the horses of Egypt and delight in their swiftness, horses which the Lord forbade to be multiplied (Deut 17). Therefore churchmen will swiftly pursue them, and a thousand men, a disorderly crowd of fugitives, will not be able to withstand the voice of one warrior, or of five fighters (which we should refer to the mind and to the five senses).

The Apocalypse also threatens the seven churches unless they should repent. Nor would he, indeed, threaten the impenitent unless he pardoned the penitent. God himself also says, "Remember then from where you have fallen, and repent." And again, "When, having returned, you shall mourn, then shall you be saved and know where you have been." Let no one so despair of the vileness of a sinful soul that he believe that God has no need for him anymore. The Lord wishes that not one of us should perish. Even those of little worth and the humblest are sought after. If you do not believe it, consider this. Behold, in the Gospel the single piece of silver is sought after, and when [it is] found [it] is shown to the neighbors. The little sheep, although it has to be carried back on his supporting shoulders, is not burdensome to the shepherd. Over a single sinner who repents, the angels in heaven rejoice and the celestial choir exults. Come then, you sinner. Do not cease your entreaties. You see where there is rejoicing over your return!

676. For thus says the Lord. Here he denounces their contempt of divine counsel, and concerning this, he sets out three things.

First, the counsel: if you return, below: be converted to me, and you shall be saved (Isa 45:22).

Second, their contempt: but have said: no. Therefore shall you flee: these are the words of the Lord. One way may we go out (Deut 28:25); and we will mount upon swift ones: the voice of the rebellious people; therefore shall they be swifter: the voice of the Lord: our persecutors were swifter than the eagles of the air (Lam 4:19).

When Moses fought against Amalek, it was not with the sword but with prayer that he prevailed. Therefore, if we wish to be lifted up, we must first prostrate ourselves.… We do not understand the prophet's words: "One thousand shall flee at the rebuke of one." We do not cut away the causes of the disease, as we must do to remove the disease itself. Else we should soon see the enemies' arrows give way to our javelins, their caps to our helmets, their saddle horses to our chargers.

Until you are left like the mast of a ship on the top of a mountain, and like a signal upon a hill. Jeremiah too writes that, when those who had fled into Egypt had been slain by sword and famine, a few remained who returned to Judea (Jer 44). And as, when a ship has been broken and its framework dissolved, only the tree that is called the mast remains, and is set up as a signal on the summit of a mountain or on a lofty hill, so, as a signal and a trace, scarcely one or two would remain, to show the power of God. And then, he says, all the remnant of Judah, who now are entering the land of Egypt to dwell there, will know, when they have returned to the land of Judea, whose word is fulfilled, mine or theirs.

Third, he threatens destruction: a thousand men, Egyptians, shall flee for fear of one, Chaldean, and for fear of five, Chaldeans, you, all you Jews, shall flee: how should one pursue after a thousand, and two chase ten thousand? (Deut 32:30); till you be left as the mast, as a sign to evade shipwreck, above: there shall be made a show as a turpentine tree, and as an oak that spreads its branches (Isa 6:13).

Therefore the Lord waits, that he may have mercy on you, and therefore he shall be exalted in sparing you, because the Lord is a God of judgment: blessed are all who wait for him. Great is the clemency of God, that he waits for our repentance, and, until we are converted from our vices, holds back his mighty hand, so as not to be compelled to strike. And he has mercy and spares for this reason, that his mercy may be exalted, and the goodness of the Creator made known to all. Or certainly, according to what he says in the Gospel (John 12:32): When I am lifted up, I will draw all things to myself, he is exalted on the cross for this reason, that he may spare all. For he is the God of judgment; and blessed are all who wait for the Lord, who waits for their conversion. But whose this conversion is, and what it is, the following words will show.

For he calls and invites us, when he says, "All the day long I stretched forth my hands to a disobedient and gainsaying people"; and he is invited by us when we say to him, "All the day long I have stretched forth my hands unto you." He waits for us, when it is said by the prophet, "Therefore the Lord waits to have compassion upon us"; and he is waited for by us, when we say, "I waited patiently for the Lord, and he inclined to me," and "I have waited for your salvation, O Lord."

677. Therefore the Lord waits. Here he sets out consolation, and concerning this, he does two things:

first, he sets out the intention of having mercy;

second, he describes the benefit of mercy: for the people (Isa 30:19).

Concerning the first, he sets out three things.

First, the intention in God of having mercy: therefore the Lord waits, not destroying you entirely: you shall wait for me many days (Hos 3:3);

second, the judgment of the ungrateful: and therefore shall he be exalted, that is, he will appear high in justice, punishing you who are ungrateful for his benefits, above: the Lord of hosts shall be exalted in judgment (Isa 5:16);

third, the reward of the good: blessed are all they that wait for him: you yourselves like to men who wait for their lord (Luke 12:36).

For the people of Zion shall dwell in Jerusalem. The Jews refer this to the times of Cyrus, when the people returned from Babylon to Judea under Zerubbabel and Jeshua the high priest. But we, as we have often said already, refer all the promises that exceed the modest measure of that time to the coming of Christ, at which the people once captive, set free by the passion of the Lord, dwelt in Zion and Jerusalem, that is, in the watchtower and the vision of peace, that is, in the Church. Further, as to the word of holiness added in the Seventy, who said: for a holy people dwells in Zion, we can interpret it thus: we say that no one dwells in Zion except one who is holy, and who hears the Lord saying: Be holy, for I too am holy (Lev 11:44).

Weeping, you shall by no means weep; showing mercy, he will have mercy on you: at the voice of your cry, as soon as he hears, he will answer you. When you have returned to Zion and dwelt in Jerusalem, you shall by no means weep as you had wept before, but your weeping shall be turned into joy: For blessed are those who weep, for they shall laugh (Luke 6:21). And after you have cried out and said to the Lord: I cried with my whole heart, hear me, O Lord (Ps 118 [119]:145); and again: I cried, have mercy on me, and I will keep your commandments (Ps 85 [86]); and elsewhere: I waited in the morning and cried out (Ps 118 [119]:147); and your voice has been so clear that it pierces the heavens: at once the Lord will answer you, and you will be like Moses, of whom it is written: Moses spoke, and the Lord answered him (Exod 19:19).

The divine protection, then, is always inseparably present to us, and so great is the love of the Creator for his creature that his providence not only stands by it but even goes constantly before it. The prophet, who has experienced this, confesses it very clearly when he says, "My God will go before me with his mercy." When he notices good will making an appearance in us, at once he enlightens and encourages it and spurs it on to salvation, giving increase to what he himself planted and saw arise from our own efforts. For, he says, "before they cry, I will hear them. I will hear them when they are still speaking." And again: "As soon as he hears the voice of your cry, he will respond to you." Not only does he graciously inspire holy desires, but also he arranges favorable moments in one's life and the possibility of good results, and he shows the way of salvation to those who are straying.

These two then, namely, the grace of God and free will, seem opposed to each other but really are in harmony. And we gather from the system of goodness that we ought to have both alike, lest if we withdraw one of them from man, we may seem to have broken the rule of the church's faith. For when God sees us inclined to will what is good, he meets, guides and strengthens us. For "at the voice of your cry, as soon as he shall hear, he will answer you"; and "Call upon me," he said, "in the day of tribulation, and I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me." And again, if he finds that we are unwilling or have grown cold, he stirs our hearts with salutary exhortations, by which a good will is either renewed or formed in us.

678. For the people. Here he describes the benefit of mercy,

and first, in their exaltation,

second, in the oppression of their enemies: behold the name (Isa 30:27).

Concerning the first, he sets out two things.

First, the removal of evils against the captivity of exile: for the people of Zion shall dwell in Jerusalem, in the time of Zorobabel; or rather, all, mystically: he shall not be moved for ever that dwells in Jerusalem (Ps 124[125]:1–2); against the anxiety of sadness: weeping, before, you shall not weep, forever, but when you will be freed, above: the Lord God shall wipe away tears from every face (Isa 25:8); against the indignation of God: he will surely have pity: he shall call upon me, and I will hear him (Ps 90[91]:15).

He has seen us sinning and has borne with it. He who forbade us to sin before we did it does not stop waiting to pardon us even after we have sinned. The one we have rejected is calling us. We have turned away from him, but he has not turned away. Hence Isaiah said, "Your eyes shall see your teacher, and your ears shall hear the voice of a counselor behind you." A person is counseled to his face, so to speak, when he is created for righteousness and receives the precepts of rectitude. When he despises these precepts, it is as if he is turning his back to his Creator's face. But he still follows behind us and counsels us that we have despised him, but he still does not cease to call us. We turn our backs on his face, so to speak, when we reject his words, when we trample his commandments under foot; but he who sees that we reject him still calls out to us by his commandments and waits for us by his patience, stands behind us, and calls us back when we have turned away.

And the Lord will give you scant bread and short water. If we refer these things to the times of Zerubbabel, the interpretation is easy: that under him there was no perfect joy, as David says: When the Lord turned back the captivity of Zion, we became like those comforted: so that they received not full and perfect comfort, but a likeness of comfort. But if to the coming of the Savior, then by the scant bread and short water, according to the Apostle Paul and this same prophet Isaiah, the word of the Gospel is foretold, which, in place of the long-drawn observances and commandments of the Law, summed up all things in one word: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. For the Lord has made a word completed and cut short upon the earth (Gal 5).

And he will no longer make your teacher fly away from you, and your eyes shall see your instructor, and your ears shall hear the word of one admonishing behind your back: This is the way, walk in it, neither to the right nor to the left. LXX: And those who deceive you shall no longer come near you, because your eyes shall see those who led you astray, and your ears shall hear behind you the words of those who deceive, who said: This is the way, let us walk in it, whether to the right or to the left. In this place the Seventy's edition and the Hebrew disagree greatly. First, then, we shall treat of the common edition, and afterward follow the order of the truth. When the eyes of the heart have understood and discerned the truth, and have recognized with the whole reason of the mind those who had deceived them before, and with trained ears have perceived the words of the deceivers behind their back (for they always hasten to deceive the blind part of the body, according to what we read in the psalm: That they may shoot in the dark at the upright of heart (Ps 10 [11]:2)), who assume to themselves such authority that, whether they teach things on the right or on the left, that is, whether good or evil, they do not wish their disciples to examine them by reason, but to follow them as their forerunners: then those who before deceived will no longer be able to approach them, once they perceive that they have been seen through. Further, according to the Hebrew, the explanation is both easy and true. For when the Lord has given believers scant bread and short water, he will no longer make him who teaches man knowledge fly away from them; but their eyes will always see their instructor, and their ears will hear the word of one admonishing behind their back and saying: This is the right way, walk in it, neither to the right nor to the left; according to what is read elsewhere: We will turn aside neither to the right nor to the left; we will go by the king's highway (Num 20:17). For on either side whatever is beyond measure is in vice. And of the right side it is said: Do not be overly righteous (Eccl 7:17). And of the left, there is no doubt that it is placed on the side of the goats and of those who perish.

"Let waters from your own fountain flow in abundance for you, but let your waters pass through into your streets." And according to the prophet Isaiah, "You shall be like a watered garden and like a fountain of water whose waters shall not fail. And the places that have been desolate for ages shall be built in you; you shall raise up the foundations of generation and generation; and you shall be called the repairer of the fences, turning the paths into rest." And that blessedness shall come upon you which the same prophet promises: "And the Lord will not cause your teacher to flee away from you any more, and your eyes shall see your teacher. And your ears shall hear the word of one admonishing you behind your back. This is the way, walk in it, and go not aside either to the right hand or to the left." And so it will come to pass that not only every purpose and thought of our heart but also all the wanderings and rovings of your imagination will become to you a holy and unceasing pondering of the divine law.

Against poverty: and the Lord will give you spare bread, and this is the sense: they will be content with little food: the chief thing for man's life is water and bread (Sir 29:28[21]); or because in the return from Babylon they suffered scarcity. This should be understood mystically, according to the Gloss.

679. Second, he sets out the gathering of goods; hence he says, and will not cause.

And first, of spiritual goods, as to chosen teaching, describing the teacher: to flee, that is, to withdraw; your teacher, Esdras, whose teaching they still use, or Christ.

God opens the bosom of his loving kindness to us if we return to him after sinning, for he says by the prophet, "If a man puts away his wife, and she goes from him and marries another man, shall he return to her any more? Shall not that woman be polluted and defiled? But you have prostituted yourself to many lovers; nevertheless return to me, says the Lord." Note how the plea of justice is proposed in regard to the wife who commits fornication and is deserted, and yet, for us who return after our fall, it is not justice but loving kindness that is shown. The inference is obvious, namely, that if our sins are spared with such great love, how great would be our wickedness if we sinned but failed to return after our sin, and what pardon can the wicked expect from him who does not cease to call them after they have sinned! This mercy of God in calling us after our sin is well expressed by the prophet, when it is said to him who turns away from him: "And your eyes shall see your teacher, and you ears shall hear the word of one admonishing you behind your back."

We are truly repentant if we weep bitterly over the actions we have committed. Let us consider the riches of our Creator's attitude toward us. He has seen us sinning, and has borne with it. He who forbade us to sin before we did it, does not stop waiting to pardon us even after we have sinned. The one we have rejected is calling us. We have turned away from him, but he has not turned away. Hence Isaiah said, "Your eyes shall see your Teacher, and your ears shall hear the voice of a Counselor behind you." A person is counseled to his face, so to speak, when he is created for righteousness and receives the precepts of rectitude. When he despises these precepts, it is as if he is turning his back to his Creator's face. But he still follows behind us, and counsels us that we have despised him but that he still does not cease to call us. We turn our backs on his face, so to speak, when we reject his words, when we trample his commandments under foot; but he who sees that we reject him, and still calls out to us by his commandments, and waits for us by his patience, stands behind us, and calls us back when we have turned away.

If, then, such matters are carefully received, if they are hidden and consigned within the quiet places of the mind, if they are marked in silence, they will later be like a wine of sweet aroma bringing gladness to the human heart. Matured by long reflection and by patience, they will be poured out as a great fragrance from the vessel of your heart. Like some everlasting spring they will flow out from the channels of experience and from the flowing waters of virtue. They will come bounding forth, running, unceasing, from, as it were, the abyss of your heart.… And, as the prophet Isaiah declares, "You will be like a well-watered garden, like a flowing spring whose waters will never fail. And places emptied for ages will be built up in you. You will lift up the foundations laid by generation after generation. You will be called the builder of fences, the one who turns the pathways toward peace." That blessing promised by the prophet will come to you: "And the Lord will not cause your teacher to fly far away from you, and your eyes will look upon your guide. And your ears shall hear the word of warning from behind, 'This is the path. Walk along it and turn neither to the right nor to the left.' "

Behind your back, like someone fleeing when called back by his pursuer: he has given you a teacher of justice (Joel 2:23); and he sets out the teaching: this is the way: we will go the king's highway (Num 21:22).

And you shall defile the plates of your graven images of silver, and the garment of your molten image of gold, and you shall scatter them like the uncleanness of a menstruous woman: Go out, you shall say to it. LXX: And you shall defile the silvered and gilded idols: you shall break them in pieces and scatter them like the water of a menstruous woman, and you shall cast them away like dung. When you have understood the truth, and the deceivers have not come near you, but your eyes have seen your instructor and your ears have always heard: This is the way, walk in it, neither to the right nor to the left: then you will break in pieces and scatter all the errors and idols and likenesses of the truth which an artful tongue had composed in the splendor of eloquence, which is what silver means, and in the reasoning of wisdom, which is what gold signifies; and you will judge them so unclean that you will compare them to the most filthy blood of a menstruous woman, which the Seventy, in other words, translated as the water of a menstruous woman.

And also as to due worship of God: and you shall defile the plates of your graven things of silver, reducing them to common use: he defiled the high places, and demolished them (2 Kgs 23:8); the garment, every adornment of an idol.

Second, as to temporal goods; hence he says, get you hence, namely, from spiritual goods to temporal goods.

And rain shall be given to your seed wherever you sow in the land, and the bread of the fruits of the land shall be most abundant and rich. LXX: Then there shall be rain for the seed of your land, and the bread of the fruits of your land shall be plentiful and rich. It is written in the volume of Kings (1 Kgs 18) that after the false prophets had been slain by Elijah, rain was given to the land of Israel; and that the bread of Elisha, and afterward of the Savior, was most abundant and most rich, and had such fullness that many thousands of men were filled from it (2 Kgs 4; John 6). So also in the present place, rain will not be given to the spiritual seed, nor the most abundant and richest bread of the land, until the silvered and gilded idols have been broken in pieces and reckoned as a dunghill. For unless vices depart, virtues do not enter.

In that day the lamb shall feed in your possession at large. And your bulls and the foals of asses that work the ground shall eat mingled mash, as on the threshing floor it has been winnowed. LXX: And in that day your cattle shall feed in a rich and spacious place. Your bulls and your oxen that work the ground shall eat chaff mixed with winnowed barley. In the abundance of all things, when the heavenly rain comes down, and that bread which came down from heaven, which whoever eats will never hunger, the lambs shall feed in a most spacious place, those who follow the Lamb wherever he goes and who are always on the right hand. The bulls are the leaders of the flock, of whom we read: The assembly of bulls among the cows of the peoples (Ps 67 [68]:31); and the foals of asses, sitting on which the Lord entered Jerusalem (Matt 21), who work the ground, shall eat from the threshing floor in such a way that it has been winnowed, namely, so that no chaff be mixed in their food; of which chaff it is written in Jeremiah: What has the chaff to do with the wheat, says the Lord (Jer 23)? and which in the Gospel is burned with unquenchable fire (Luke 3). Further, according to the Seventy, the cattle, which are not yet full of reason and wisdom, and one of whom says to God: I have become like a beast before you (Ps 72 [73]:23), shall feed in a most rich and spacious place, which does not bring forth thorns and thistles, but, like the land of Israel, flows with milk and honey and gives full freedom to those who feed there. And the bulls and oxen that work the ground, that is, the Apostles and apostolic men, of whom the apostle Paul too interprets what is written: You shall not muzzle the ox that treads out the grain; and: Is it for oxen that God cares (1 Cor 9:9)? but surely he speaks of those who work their own ground, and of whom he likewise says: We are God's husbandry, God's building (1 Cor 3:9); for the Father is the husbandman, and Christ the vine (John 15): these shall eat chaff mixed with winnowed barley. We read that Isaac sowed barley and, because he was among the foreigners, received a hundredfold harvest of barley (Gen 26). And Hosea hired an adulterous woman for a cor and a half cor of barley (Hos 3). The Savior too had filled with barley loaves five thousand men who still served the senses of the body and followed the Law of Moses (John 6). In another place, breaking the seven loaves of the Law and crushing them into pieces, he filled with wheaten loaves four thousand men who followed the number of the Gospel (Matt 15). Peoples of this kind eat a part of the chaff too, since in certain things they follow the letter; and yet through the chaff and the barley they gradually advance, so as to pass on to the wheat.

For "in a good heart wisdom will rest," and "he that fears the Lord shall find knowledge with righteousness." But that we must attain to spiritual knowledge in the order of which we have already spoken, we are taught also by the blessed apostle. For when he wanted not merely to draw up a list of all his own virtues but rather to describe their order, that he might explain which follows what, and which gives birth to what, after some others he proceeds as follows: "In watchings, in fastings, in chastity, in knowledge, in long suffering, in gentleness, in the Holy Spirit, in love unfeigned." And by this enumeration of virtues he evidently meant to teach us that we must come from watchings and fastings to chastity, from chastity to knowledge, from knowledge to long suffering, from long suffering to gentleness, from gentleness to the Holy Spirit, from the Holy Spirit to the rewards of love unfeigned. When then by this system and in this order you too have come to spiritual knowledge, you will certainly have, as we said, not barren or idle learning but what is vigorous and fruitful. And the seed of the word of salvation that has been committed by you to the hearts of your hearers will be watered by the plentiful showers of the Holy Spirit that will follow. And according to this the prophet promised, "The rain will be given to your seed, wherever you shall sow in the land, and the bread of the corn of the land shall be most plentiful and fat."

680. And first, he promises fertility of the land, promising the cause: and rain shall be given: he will make the early and the latter rain to come down to you (Joel 2:23); and the effect, as to the food of men: and the bread of the corn of the land shall be most plentiful, and fat: Aser, his bread shall be fat (Gen 49:20); he fills you with the fat of corn (Ps 147:14); as to the pasture of herds: the lamb in that day shall feed, as to sheep.

683. Note on the words, and the bread of the corn (Isa 30:23), that the word of God is bread that is,

first, strait because of the difficulty of observing it: strait is the way that leads to life (Matt 7:14);

second, abundant, because of the usefulness of its fruit, below: as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and return no more thither, but soak the earth, and make it to spring. So shall my word be, which shall go forth from my mouth (Isa 55:10–11);

third, fat, because of the sweetness of its delight: Aser, his bread shall be fat (Gen 49:20).

And your oxen, as to cattle; and in both, he notes their fecundity, setting out their young, and the ass colts; and as to provisions for beasts of burden: mingled provender, pure barley with husks, which they ate mingled before.

HOW THE PROPHECY AGREES WITH THE GOSPEL, CONCERNING THE DARKENING OF THE SUN AND CERTAIN OTHER THINGS. — Since at the Lord’s first coming it was foretold that the sun would be darkened at his passion, at the very hour when it is proved to have happened, that is, at midday, for therefore it is written in the prophet Amos: “And it shall come to pass in that day, says the Lord, I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in the clear day” (Amos 8:9). On that day, therefore, from the sixth hour the sun was darkened until the ninth hour, and therefore the prophecy of the aforementioned prophet was fulfilled. The image of this event, which is to occur at the Lord’s second coming, was shown in the Lord’s passion; for at the end, when the Lord begins to come to judge the world, the heavenly lights will be released from their service, as the Lord says: “In those days the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light” (Matt. 24:29). Joel the prophet has not omitted this either, so that, being signified by many, it may without doubt be believed to be fulfilled. For therefore he said: “The sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood, before the great and revealing day of the Lord comes” (Joel 2:31). As far as appears, this more fittingly belongs to the second coming; for then it will be openly revealed to all, as Scripture says: “Then every eye shall see him, and all the tribes of the earth shall mourn over him, and those who crucified him” (Rev. 1:7). Therefore, if in both comings it is contained that the sun shall be darkened in those days, what is that day on which Scripture rings that the sun and moon shall be increased? For among other things Isaiah says: “And there shall be upon every high mountain, and upon every high hill, streams running with water in that day, when many shall perish and when the towers shall fall. And the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, in the day when the Lord shall heal the brokenness of his people” (Isa. 30:25–26), and so forth. What day can be understood, on which the Lord promised to heal the brokenness of his people? I think this is the day which Zacharias, the father of John, pointed out when he said: “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and performed the redemption of his people. And he has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of David his servant, as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets, who have been since the world began, that he would deliver us from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us, to perform mercy with our fathers” (Luke 1:68–72). And Simeon, among other things, said: “This child is set for the fall and for the rise of many in Israel” (Luke 2:34). This fall is that of the scribes and Pharisees and the rulers of the Jews, whom the prophet signified by the towers. These, therefore, falling through unbelief, others rose up by believing, who had previously seemed weak and sick through negligence. Where the Savior says: “For judgment I have come into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind” (Jn. 9:39); so that those who by the practice and knowledge of the Law seem to be lights may be blinded through unbelief, but the blind, that is, the unlearned or publicans, may see by believing. Their weaknesses the prophet foretold that the Savior would bear (Isa. 53:11). And so at this time of the Savior it came to pass, as we read in the Gospel, that “he took our infirmities and bore our diseases” (Matt. 8:17). All these things indeed were completed and fulfilled in the Savior’s passion: for therefore the salvation of the human race, both in heaven above and in the lower regions, was both redeemed and confirmed, since the prophecy of the aforementioned Zacharias encompasses both. For here above they were freed from the crushing of enemies by the intervention of mercy; and there below, in the underworld, when they were snatched from Tartarus. For all who hoped in the promised Christ were awaiting his coming, that, death having been conquered, they might be freed from Hades. Therefore he said: “To perform mercy with our fathers.” If anyone, however, understands this salvation also to be contained in the second coming, yet in both comings, especially in the second, the sun will be turned into darkness and the moon will not give her brightness: how then shall we perceive the sun and moon to be increased on the day when the Lord will visit his people, when in both times, in which the liberation of the people was begun and completed, we read that the sun and moon are not diminished but darkened? Unless, clearly, we understand the sun and moon to be compared to the saints; just as in another place we read that the saints are made equal to the heavenly lights, with the Apostle Paul preaching that among these men the saints in this world appear as luminaries. And in the Gospel: “Then the righteous shall shine like the sun” (Matt. 13:43). For the Lord calls righteous works “light”: therefore he says, “Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven” (Matt. 5:16). Those, therefore, who, having left all that is theirs, follow the Lord for the sake of righteousness and holiness, are compared to the sun and moon as being honored sevenfold; as the Lord says: “There is no one who leaves house, or wife, or children, or fields, who will not receive seven times as much in this age” (see Luke 18:29–30). Those, then, who are now honored sevenfold can be understood to be believed in the future to become seven degrees brighter than the rest; so that their resurrection is compared to the sun and moon, while that of the others is like the stars. Therefore the brightness of the saints, which is honored sevenfold here, obtains another sevenfold in the resurrection, so that one who here has the brightness of the moon will receive the brightness of the sun in the future; and one who here is compared to the sun will be believed then to receive seven times as much. Therefore the prophet Isaiah foretold that by comparison with the sun and moon the merits of the saints would be increased, and not without reason. For if the Lord himself is called the Sun of righteousness, and the saints will be like him, as the Apostle John says: “When he appears, we shall be like him” (1 Jn. 3:2), then fittingly the saints are signified in the sun, yet the aforementioned prophet shows the sun to be greater than the moon by seven degrees For when it shows that the moon, like the light of the sun, will exist in the future, but the sun will be seven times as great; it certainly means, in the manner of speaking, that the moon will be increased sevenfold more than the sun, so that the moon will then be such as the sun is now: although the reasoning here concerns the saints, under this explanation of the luminaries it has nevertheless partly revealed their measure, so that after the increase of the sun and the moon, a saint will again be as much greater as the sun once was; and as much as one saint now differs from another saint, so much will one differ from another in the future after the reward.

And there shall be upon every high mountain and upon every lifted-up hill streams of running waters in the day of the slaughter of many, when the towers have fallen. In this place the Jews refer the many slain and the falling towers to the power of the Roman empire, of which the Apostle too speaks (2 Thess 2:7): Only let him who holds now hold, until he be taken out of the way: namely, that at that time the blessedness of the people of Israel will be so great that not only the valleys and plains but all the mountains and hills will be watered with flowing waters. But let us understand by the mountains and hills those who are lifted on high by virtues, who hunger and thirst for righteousness (Matt 5), whom the Lord invites to drink. For whoever drinks of his waters will never thirst (John 4). Hence in the psalm too we read: Bless the Lord from the fountains of Israel (Ps 67 [68]:27). And in the Gospel it is said that whoever drinks of the waters of Jesus, rivers of living water shall flow from his belly (John 7). And the holy man says to God: For with you is the fountain of life (Ps 35 [36]:10), from which goes forth a most pure river, of which Scripture again makes mention: The stream of the river gladdens the city of God (Ps 45 [46]:5). And in another place: The river of God is filled with waters (Ps 64 [65]:10): that is, he who speaks through Jeremiah: They have forsaken me, the fountain of living water (Jer 2:13). This will happen when very many have been slain, or have perished: for many are called, but few chosen (Matt 20). And when the towers have fallen, whether the powers of the demons, or all the proud and arrogant and great in this world; of whom it is said in the psalms too: I saw the ungodly man lifted up and exalted like the cedars of Lebanon, and I passed by, and behold, he was not; I sought him, and his place was not found (Ps 36 [37]:35-36). Such towers those desired to build (Gen 11) who moved their feet from the East, whose tongues were confounded in Babylon; and those too on whom the tower of Siloam fell (Luke 13).

681. Second, he promises abundance of water: and there shall be. The Jews say that these things are to be fulfilled literally at the end of the world; the slaughter of many, the Romans, according to them, which is preposterous. Or it may be metaphorical speech, so that the water signifies the consolation which they had after the return from captivity and the destruction of Babylon. Or, mystically, it may signify the teaching of Christ, below: I will open rivers in the high hills, and fountains in the midst of the plains (Isa 41:18).

Moreover, when the day of judgment has been completed and the glory of the future life has become evident with the new heaven and the new earth, then will come to pass what the same prophet announced elsewhere: "The light of the moon will be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be increased sevenfold, like the light of seven days."

Why should the lunar reckoning be calculated from the noontide hours, seeing that the moon had not yet been placed in the heavens or gone forth over the earth? On the contrary, none of the feast days of the law began and ended at noon or in the afternoon, but all did so in the evening. Or else perchance it is because sinful Adam was reproached by the Lord "in the cool of the afternoon" and thrust out from the joys of Paradise. In remembrance of that heavenly life which we changed for the tribulation of this world, the change of the moon, which imitates our toil by its everlasting waxing and waning, ought specifically to be observed at the hour in which we began our exile. In this way every day we may be reminded by the hour of the moon's changing of that verse, "a fool changes as the moon" while the wise man "shall live as long as the sun," and that we may sigh more ardently for that life, supremely blessed in eternal peace, when "the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days." Indeed, because (as it is written) "from the moon is the sign of the feast day," and just as the first light of the moon was shed upon the world at eventide, so in the law it is compulsory that every feast day begin in the evening and end in the evening.

But when there will be a new heaven and a new earth after the judgment—which is not one heaven and earth replacing another but these very same ones which will shine forth, having been renewed by fire and glorified by the power of the resurrection—then, as Isaiah predicts, "The light of the moon will be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be sevenfold, as the light of seven days."

And the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day when the Lord binds up the wound of his people and heals the stroke of its blow. LXX: And the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun sevenfold, in the day when the Lord heals the crushing of his people and cures the pain of your blow. I wonder how in the present place the same Seventy translated moon and sun, following the Hebrew, when above they translated the Hebrew words LABANA (לבנה) and HAMMA (חמה), which Aquila renders white and heat, and by which he signifies the moon and the sun, as brick and wall, in the place where it is written: And the moon shall blush, and the sun shall be confounded; for which they translated: the bricks shall melt, and the wall shall fall. Hence the suspicion comes to me that they did not err from the beginning, but were gradually corrupted by the fault of copyists. For it cannot be that those who in this place translated the same words well should have erred in the earlier passage. In the day, then, of the slaughter of many, when the arrogant and proud have fallen, and those who set their mouth against heaven have learned that they are earth, the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun: when the Lord gives a new heaven and a new earth, and the fashion of this world passes away, so that the moon and the sun may obtain the rewards of their labor and their course. For the expectation of the creature waits for the revelation of the sons of God, because the creature itself also will be set free from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the sons of God (Rom 8:19); although some, understanding them as instruments of light, contend that they are without sense. The moon, then, will receive the brightness of the sun. Nor is it a wonder to think this of a most bright element, to which the rule of the night has been given, since it is written of the saints too: The righteous shall shine like the sun (Matt 13:43). And the sun will receive a sevenfold light, as was the light of seven days when the world was created in the beginning (although the Seventy did not translate seven days), when the Lord binds up the wound of his people, or heals the crushing of his people: when what is written will be fulfilled: Sorrow and mourning and sighing shall flee away (Isa 35:10): when, the fullness of the nations coming in, all Israel shall be saved; or certainly when the vengeance comes of those whose souls cry out beneath the altar: How long will you not avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth (Rev 6:10)? And consider this too: that he did not say, when he heals the crushing of his people Israel, or Jacob, but absolutely, of his people, so as to signify all who serve God. Some refer this place, and all that is contained in this chapter of promises, to the heavenly Jerusalem and to the return of its people, when what is written will be fulfilled: Heaven and earth shall pass away (Matt 24:35). Others refer it to the times of Elijah, and say that he is the one of whom it is written above: Your eyes shall see your instructor, and your ears shall hear the word of one admonishing behind your back: that then, according to the fables of the poets and the golden age of Saturn, streams of milk will flow from the mountains and hills, and the purest honey will drip from the leaves of the trees. Those who accept these things will also, by a Jewish error, take up the fable of the thousand years and the earthly kingdom of the Savior, not understanding that the Apocalypse of John, under the surface of the letter, weaves together the inmost mysteries of the Church.

Does not Scripture say universally of all the things that were created by God, "Behold, everything that God made was very good"? … The things that belong to the present, then, are not declared good in a merely minimal sense but are emphatically "very good." For, in fact, they are useful for us while we are living in this world, whether to sustain life or as medicine for the body or on account of some benefit unknown to us. Or else they are very good in that they let us "see the invisible things of God, his eternal power and his divinity, from the creation of the world, through things that have been made graspable"23—that is, from the great and well-ordered construction and arrangement of the world—and let us contemplate them from the existence of everything that is in it. Yet all of these will be unable to maintain their title to goodness if they are compared with the future age, where no mutability in good things and no corruption of true blessedness is to be feared. The blessedness of this world is described as follows: "The light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days." The things that are great, then, and splendid and marvelous to behold will immediately seem empty if they are compared with the future promises in faith.

682. Third, the radiance of heaven: and the light of the sun shall be as the light of seven days, that is, as much light in one day as there is now in seven days, as if sevenfold; or as it was in the first week of seven days. The Jews preposterously say that these things are fulfilled literally in the golden age of Jerusalem; but it is better understood as referring to the future glory of the saints, after the renewal of the world; or metaphorically and hyperbolically, it may refer to the state of the people: who heals the broken of heart, and binds up their bruises (Ps 146[147]:3).

But in both editions it must be noted that it is not the Lord, but the name of the Lord, that comes after a long time, of which it is said in the Psalms: Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord; the Lord is God, and he has shone upon us (Ps 117 [118]:26). And he himself says in the Gospel: I have come in the name of my Father, and you have not received me (John 5:43). And it is well said that he comes after a long time, since human impatience says: How long, O Lord, will you forget me unto the end? How long do you turn your face away from me? (Ps 12 [13]:1). His burning fury also comes with glory, so that him whom we despised in humility we may fear in majesty. This very thing is written in the psalms too: God manifestly will come, our God, and will not keep silence. Fire will burn in his sight, and round about him a mighty tempest (Ps 49 [50]:3, 4). For he himself says in the Gospel (Luke 12:49): I have come to cast fire upon the earth, and how I wish that it may burn! Again, in another psalm we read: The voice of the Lord cutting off the flame of fire (Ps 28 [29]:7), so that the seizing flame may consume whatever there is in the world of hay, wood and stubble. Hence God is also said to be a consuming fire (Deut 4). And as for what follows: The wrath of his fury shall devour like fire, most of our writers interpret the wrath of the Lord's fury as the devil, to whom we are handed over for punishment, who, according to the book of Samuel, moved David to number the people of God (2 Sam 24). And the Apostle says: to hand such a one over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved (1 Cor 5:5). But this fury itself, and the wrath of the Lord's fury, will do nothing by its own will, but only what it has been commanded. Hence there follows: The utterance of his lips, an utterance full of wrath.

Behold, the name of the Lord comes from afar: his fury is burning and heavy to bear. His lips are filled with indignation, and his tongue is like a devouring fire. His spirit is like an overflowing torrent reaching to the middle of the neck, to destroy the nations unto nothing, and the bridle of error that was in the jaws of the peoples. You shall have a song, like the night of a hallowed solemnity, and gladness of heart, like one who goes with the pipe to enter into the mountain of the Lord, to the Mighty One of Israel. LXX: Behold, the name of the Lord comes after a long time: his fury burning with glory, the utterance of his lips, an utterance full of wrath, and the wrath of his fury shall devour like fire; and his spirit, like water in a valley, dragging, shall come up to the neck, and shall be divided to confound the nations for their vain error, and error shall be cast away, and it shall take them in their sight. Must you always rejoice and enter continually into my holy places, as though celebrating feasts and rejoicing, that you may enter with the pipe to the mountain of the Lord, to the God of Israel? Let us speak first according to the Hebrew. What is said here hangs on what precedes. The prophetic word had rebuked those who, scorning the help of God, were fleeing to the Egyptians for fear of the Babylonians, and it threatened those who went down that they would die there. And again, after the punishments, it promises that those who were willing to listen to him would not only dwell in Jerusalem under Zerubbabel, Ezra and Nehemiah, but it pledges a greater blessedness to all who believe the word of God at the consummation of the world, when rivers of waters will run over all the mountains and hills, and, when many have been slain, the towers will fall. The moon too and the sun will receive a brighter light, when the Lord binds up and heals the wound of his people; although some contend, ὑπερβολικῶς, that these things were fulfilled in the land of Judea in the times of Cyrus, who released the people from captivity. Since, then, rewards were promised to the good and obedient, now, on the contrary, punishments are announced to the wicked and the scorners: that the Lord will fulfill his purpose, and will come after a long time to punish sinners, and will pronounce sentence upon all, and with the breath of his mouth will slay the impious one, whom he calls the bridle of the peoples: not one by which he might govern those subject to him, but one by which he might drag those subjected to him to ruin. He also sets down the likeness of a torrent flooding up to the neck, to testify that the end of all things has come. For as a torrent chokes the one up to whose neck it has reached, so the judgment of God will let no one go away unpunished. And when he has destroyed the bridle that was in the jaws of all the nations, together with the nations subject to it, and has brought it to nothing, then, he says, you, the saints, who obey my commands, shall have a song, like the night of the hallowed solemnity when you went out of Egypt, and in the solemnity of the Passover threw off the yoke of Egyptian slavery, saying at the Red Sea, when Pharaoh had been drowned: Let us sing to the Lord, for he is gloriously magnified (Exod 15:1); and such gladness of heart that you will imitate those who, bringing first fruits to the temple and carrying gifts into the winepresses of God, go with pipes, showing the joys of their heart in song. These things according to the Hebrew I have touched on briefly.

684. Behold the name of the Lord. Here he consoles them with the punishment of their enemies, and concerning this, he sets out three things:

first, the coming of the judge who punishes;

second, the manner of punishment: and the Lord shall make (Isa 30:30);

third, the place of the punishment: for Topheth is prepared from yesterday (Isa 30:33).

Concerning the first, he sets out three things.

First, the coming of the judge: he comes, for universal judgment, from afar, long before announced by the prophets. Or: he comes, for destruction, Sennacherib, from afar from the height of his power; or to destroy the Babylonians, through the Medes coming from afar: behold I will bring upon you a nation from afar (Jer 5:15). The name of the Lord, the Son, as to the first explanation; or because it redounds to his glory, as to the second and the third explanation.

685. Second, he shows the zeal of the one who comes, setting out the wrath in his heart, through an anthropopathism, his wrath burns. Wrath is enkindled anger; it is enkindled, however, either as to the vehemence of the desire for vengeance, and as to this, he says, it burns; or as to the quantity of the punishment, and as to this, he says, it is heavy, below: these shall be smoke in my anger, a fire burning all the day (Isa 65:5). He also places wrath in his mouth: his lips are filled with indignation, reproaching sins, and his tongue as a devouring fire, threatening torments, above: with the breath of his lips he shall slay the wicked (Isa 11:4).

689. Note on the words, behold the name of the Lord (Isa 30:27), that the son of God is the name of the Father,

first, by which he is manifested: I have manifested your name to the men (John 17:6);

second, by which he is honored: Father, hallowed be your name (Matt 6:9);

third, by which he is invoked: whatever you ask the Father in my name, he will give it you (John 16:23).

690. Also, on the words, comes from afar (Isa 30:27), note that he came from afar,

first, because of the long expectation: all these died according to faith, not having received the promises but beholding them afar off (Heb 11:13);

second, because of the imperfection of our merits: coming, he preached peace to you that were afar off (Eph 2:17);

third, because of the delay of the time: I shall see him, but not now: I shall behold him, but not near (Num 24:17);

fourth, because of the height of his majesty: his going out is from the end of heaven, and his circuit even to the end thereof (Ps 18:7[19:6]).

692. Note on the words, his tongue as a devouring fire (Isa 30:27), that charity is called a fire:

first, because it illuminates: you that fear the Lord, love him, and your hearts shall be enlightened (Sir 2:10);

second, because it seethes: stay me up with flowers, compass me about with apples: because I languish with love (Song 2:5);

third, because it turns all things to itself: we know that to them that love God all things work together unto good (Rom 8:28);

fourth, because it makes one unencumbered: if any one love me, he will keep my word (John 14:23);

fifth, because it pulls one above: in my bed I sought him whom my soul loves: I sought him, and found him not (Song 3:1).

His spirit too, like water in a valley, dragging, will come up to the neck, to make punishments overflow upon sinners. It will be divided according to the quality of their deserts, to destroy and confound the nations which vain error had led astray, so that they may understand that they have been overthrown.

He also sets out wrath in his work: his breath, that is, his indignation, overflowing even to the midst of the neck, that is, it will lead to their extinction, above: there shall pass through Judah, overflowing wrath (Isa 8:8).

686. Third, he sets out the effect of his indignation on the wicked, the destruction of the nations: to destroy the nations: Lord, in your city you shall bring their image to nothing (Ps 72:20[73:21]); and the cessation of tyrants: and the bridle of error: he has put a bridle into my mouth (Job 30:11).

Hence it is said to men of this kind, who prevailed in the power of this world and took delight in their own error, that they will not always be doing this. And some of our writers think that this passage especially, and the whole tenor of the chapter, is spoken against the heretics and all the doctrines that are contrary to the truth: that when the time of judgment has come, they shall by no means enter his holy places and his mountain, that is, the Church of the Lord, lest under the name of religion they gather riches and abandon themselves to luxury, as though celebrating the feasts of the Lord. The Jews understand these things of the nations Gog and Magog, which they think will come from the North, that is, from the regions of Scythia, of whom Ezekiel speaks more fully (Ezek 38-39).

He also sets out the effect on the good in praise of the mouth: you shall have a song as in the night of the sanctified solemnity, for on three solemnities they went to Jerusalem with joy (Lev 23), below: the city of our solemnity: your eyes shall see (Isa 33:20); and in delight of heart: and joy of heart, below: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and mourning shall flee away (Isa 35:10); and the people of the Lord were joyful (Jdt 16:24).

And the Lord will make the glory of his voice heard, and will show the terror of his arm in the threatening of his fury and in the flame of devouring fire: he will dash them down with whirlwind and with hailstone. For at the voice of the Lord Assyria, struck with the rod, will tremble, and the passing of the rod will be founded, which the Lord will make to rest upon him with timbrels and with harps, and in chief battles he will overthrow them. For Topheth has been prepared from yesterday, prepared by the king, deep and wide; its fuel is fire and much wood: the breath of the Lord like a torrent of sulphur kindling it. LXX: And the Lord will make the glory of his voice heard, and will show the fury of his arm with fury and wrath: and with a devouring flame of fire he will strike with lightning vehemently, and like water and hail coming down with violence. For at the voice of the Lord the Assyrians will be overcome by the stroke with which he will strike them, and there will be round about him that from which he had the hope of help, in which he trusted; they themselves with timbrels and harp will fight against him by a change. For you will be deceived before the days: is a kingdom prepared for you too? A deep valley, wood laid, fire and the wood of many; the fury of the Lord, like a valley kindled with sulphur. I could have shown readers in passing what seems right to me according to the Hebrew; but what am I to do about the zeal of certain people, who declare that unless I also discuss the edition of the Seventy Translators, I shall have an imperfect work? I shall therefore follow the order of discussion I have begun. The voice of the Lord and his command will become known to all, and the strength of his arm will be plain to everyone, when the time of retribution has come, and it will be brought down with the greatness of flame and whirlwind and hail, and with the weight of stones. Of this, as we have said, Ezekiel writes at full length in his prophecy of Gog and Magog (Ezek 38 and 39).

687. And the Lord shall make the glory of his voice to be heard. Here he describes the manner of punishment; and concerning this, he does three things.

First, he describes the manner of punishment as to the act of the one who punishes: his voice, through which he will appear glorious, and the terror of his arm, through likeness to an angry man, who threatens in this manner: have you an arm like God? (Job 40:4); and as to the instrument: and the flame of devouring fire . . . with whirlwind, and hailstones, for, literally, the Assyrians were burned up, and perhaps there was some storm. Or the different punishments of the day of judgment are signified: fire and brimstone, and storms of winds, shall be the portion of their cup (Ps 10:7[11:6]).

At the command of his voice Assyria, struck with the rod, will tremble: every impious man, every imitator of the hostile nation; not that on the day of judgment the Assyrian alone is to be struck, but that by the Assyrian we should understand the devil.

Further, what is said according to the Seventy: At the voice of the Lord the Assyrians will be overcome by the stroke, when he has struck them, and there will be round about him that from which he had the hope of help, in which he trusted; they themselves with timbrels and harp will fight against him by a change, signifies that those who were once subject to the devil rise up against him, and fight against him with joy and gladness by a sudden change, when, understanding their error, they destroy him by whom they had been deceived. And it is said to him that from the beginning he deceived himself, thinking his kingdom everlasting, he for whom Gehenna and eternal punishments are prepared.

Second, he places the infliction of the punishment, showing the Assyrian's horror: for at the voice of the Lord the Assyrian shall fear.

Then there follows: And the passing of the rod will be founded, which the Lord will make to rest upon him. And the sense is: the rod will not strike him and then be lifted again, and, in the manner of those who flog, make an end of beating; but he will make it remain in his punishments as if founded and fixed with a deep root. And if it is understood in this way, where will the repentance of the devil be? Especially since it is said to sinners: Go into the eternal fire, which God has prepared for the devil and his angels (Matt 25:41). With timbrels and with harps, and in chief battles, he will overthrow them: that is, the Lord will overthrow the demons and all the impious, to the joy of all.

And the duration of the punishment: and the passage of the rod shall be strongly grounded, that is, strengthened.

Third, the exultation of the saints: with harps, and in great battles, which are waged by divine power alone: the just shall rejoice when he shall see the revenge (Ps 57:11[58:10]).

For from yesterday, that is, from time past, Topheth, that is, a broad and spacious Gehenna, has been prepared by the king, the Lord, to burn them with eternal fires. Its nourishment and kindling is fire and much wood, that is, perpetual flame and the punishments of sinners. And since the prophetic word had foretold this as of a furnace and an oven of burning fire, it keeps the metaphor, so that we may know that it is kindled by the breath and spirit and will of the Lord, with sulphur mixed in, which rouses the flames, to make the torments more bitter.

688. For Topheth is prepared. Here he describes the place of punishment.

And first, its disposition: Topheth, the valley of the son of Ennom, Gehenna, for the fire for sacrifices was kept there on stones of tufa (Tophis); this is the same as the valley of Gethsemane, where the army of Sennacherib was destroyed. Or it signifies hell; hence the Jews conjecture that hell is there, because smoke is always emitted from two palm trees which are there. From yesterday, that is, from the beginning; or, according to the Jews, from the second day, which had only yesterday, and no day before. Jeremiah 7 and 19 discuss this valley. Prepared by the king, God, deep, and wide, above: therefore has hell enlarged her soul (Isa 5:14).

Second, the variety of punishments: the nourishment thereof is fire and much wood, the impious, or the men of the army of Sennacherib; the breath of the Lord, that is, his will, metaphorically: fire and brimstone, and storms of winds, shall be the portion of their cup (Ps 10:7[11:6]).

691. Note on the words, is prepared by the king, deep, and wide (Isa 30:33), that hell is broad,

first, because of its desire to retain, above: therefore has hell enlarged her soul (Isa 5:14);

second, because of the multitude of the damned: strait is the way that leads to life; wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many there are who go in thereat (Matt 7:13–14);

third, because of the variety of punishments: fire, hail, snow, ice (Ps 148:8) or: fire and brimstone, and storms of winds (Ps 10:7[11:6]);

fourth, because of the eternity of the punishment: go, you cursed, into everlasting fire (Matt 25:41).