Isaiah 42

It is possible, with the help of God, easily to distinguish the presence of the good and the bad; a vision of the holy ones is not agitated. "He shall not protest and cry out; none will hear his voice." It occurs so quietly and gently that joy and gladness and confidence are at once born in the soul.… The soul's thoughts remain untroubled and calm, so that, enlightened of itself, it contemplates those who appear. LIFE OF ST.

The passage reads, "Jacob, my son, I will uphold him; Israel, my elect, my soul has assumed him." … It is true, indeed, that the Vulgate text has "my servant" in place of "Jacob" and "Israel," but the Septuagint translators preferred to make the meaning more explicit, namely, that the prophecy concerns the "Highest" insofar as he became the "lowliest," in the form of a servant. Hence they placed the name of that man from whose stock the "form of a servant" was assumed. It was to him that the Holy Spirit was given.

Although this very great person is not the one who was in the mind of those hearing the prophecy the first time, he is not here called "Jacob" or "Israel" or "the seed of Abraham," so clearly the Christ of God is meant here, just as the Evangelist paid witness: "I have set my Spirit on him, and he will execute judgment on the nations." And after many things have taken place in the nations, which were not made fit to be counted in the apostolic chorus, the nations will hope in him. But in Isaiah's prophecy the names of Jacob and Israel are missing. Who else could this be, the one called servant of God and his chosen one? Therefore it continues, "My soul delights in him." For only he is the chosen one of God, and the so-called soul of God was delighting in him. In a manner similar to referring to the feet, hands, fingers and eyes of God, Scriptures make use of the term "soul" in relation to God.… He is "chosen," not in the same way as the apostles, since it is to him alone that it is said, "whom my soul esteems," but also "the Spirit of God was dwelling in him alone." "For in him the fullness of the deity dwelled bodily." For the Spirit is given to the one coming forth "from the root of Jesse," the unique Word of God, whom the apostle revealed saying, "The Lord is the Spirit." For he alone, pouring out the Spirit of inheritance, worked all things outwardly concerning the worldwide judgment on the nations, so that all would be prepared for the coming of God's verdict.

Next is the fact of his being called Servant and serving many well, and that it is a great thing for him to be called the Child of God. For in truth he was in servitude to flesh and to birth and to the conditions of our life with a view to our liberation, and to that of all those whom he has saved, who were in bondage under sin. What greater destiny can befall humanity's humble state than that it should be intermingled with God and by this intermingling should be deified, and that we should be so visited by the Dayspring from on high, that even that holy thing that should be born should be called the Son of the Highest, and that there should be bestowed on him a name that is above every name? And what else can this be than God?—and that every knee should bow to him that was made of no reputation for us, and that mingled the form of God with the form of a servant, and that "all the house of Israel should know that God has made him both Lord and Christ"? For all this was done by the action of the Begotten and by the good pleasure of him that begat him.

As the Word shows his compassion and his denial of all preferential treatment among all the saints, he enlightens them and adapts them to that which is advantageous for them. He is like a skillful physician, understanding the weakness of each one. The ignorant he loves to teach. The erring he turns again to his own true way. By those who live by faith he is easily found. To those of pure eye and holy heart, who desire to knock at the door, he opens immediately. For he casts away none of his servants as unworthy of the divine mysteries. He does not esteem the rich person more highly than the poor, nor does he despise the poor person for his poverty. He does not disdain the barbarian, nor does he set the eunuch aside as no man. He does not hate the female on account of the woman's act of disobedience in the beginning, nor does he reject the male on account of the man's transgression. But he seeks all and desires to save all, wishing to make all the children of God and calling all the saints to one perfect human person. For there is one Son (or Servant) of God, by whom we too, receiving the regeneration through the Holy Spirit, desiring to come all into one perfect and heavenly human person.

Behold my servant, I will uphold him; my chosen one, in him my soul is well pleased. I have put my spirit upon him; he will bring forth judgment to the nations. He will not cry out, nor will he accept a person, nor will his voice be heard outside. A bruised reed he will not break, and smoking flax he will not quench; in truth he will bring forth judgment. He will not be sad nor troubled, until he sets judgment in the earth; and the islands will wait for his law. LXX: Jacob my child, I will take him up; Israel my chosen one, my soul has received him. I have put my spirit upon him; he will bring forth judgment to the nations; he will not cry out, nor will he let go, nor will his voice be heard outside. A broken reed he will not break, and smoking flax he will not quench; but in truth he will bring forth judgment. He will shine and will not be broken, until he sets judgment upon the earth; and in his name the nations will hope. Jacob and Israel are not found in the present passage, which the Evangelist Matthew too did not set down, following the Hebrew truth. We say this to the shame of those who despise our work. This has been discussed more fully in the little Commentaries on Matthew, and in the book which we recently wrote to Algasia. Meanwhile it must be noted that where it is written of the choir of the Apostles, they are called both Jacob and Israel and the seed of Abraham, to whom, as to men and servants, it is said accordingly: Do not fear, worm Jacob, and Israel small in number. But where the prophecy is of Christ, it is read without Jacob and Israel: Behold my servant, I will uphold him; my chosen one, in him my soul is well pleased. And in what follows: I have given you as a covenant of the race, as a light of the nations, to open the eyes of the blind, and to bring the bound out of their chains, and those who dwell in darkness out of the prison house. Nor is it to be wondered at if he is called a servant, made of a woman, made under the law (Gal 4); he who, though he was in the form of God, humbled himself, taking the form of a servant, and was found in fashion as a man (Phil 2). In him the soul of God was well pleased, seeing that all virtues were in him; nay rather, that he himself was the power and wisdom of God. I have put, he says, my spirit upon him: the Spirit who descended in the form of a dove. He will bring forth judgment to the nations, which before they did not know.

Behold my servant whom I have chosen, my beloved, and the rest. This is said through the prophet Isaiah in the person of the Father: I will put my Spirit upon him. The Spirit is put not upon the Word of God and upon the Only-begotten who came forth from the bosom of the Father, but upon him of whom it was said: Behold my servant.

What does it mean that it is written in Matthew: 'A bruised reed shall he not break, and smoking flax shall he not quench' (Matthew 12:20). For the explanation of this passage, the whole testimony that Matthew takes from the Prophet Isaiah must be set forth, even the words of Isaiah (Isaiah 42): according to the Septuagint interpreters and the Hebrew itself, to which Theodotus, Aquila, and Symmachus agree. Thus of the four Evangelists, only Matthew relates: "And Jesus knowing it, retired from thence: and many followed him, and he healed them all. And he charged them that they should not make him known. That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaias the prophet, saying: Behold my servant whom I have chosen, my beloved in whom my soul hath been well pleased. I will put my spirit upon him, and he shall shew judgment to the Gentiles." (Chapter 12, verses 15-18) He will not strive, nor cry out, nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets. A bruised reed he will not break, and smoking flax he will not extinguish, until he brings forth judgment unto victory. And in his name the Gentiles will hope" (Matthew 12:15 and following). For which in Isaiah, according to the Septuagint interpreters, it is thus written: "Jacob my servant, I will uplift him. My chosen one, my soul has received him. I have given my spirit upon him, he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. He shall not cry, nor have respect to person, neither shall his voice be heard abroad. The bruised reed he shall not break: and smoking flax he shall not extinguish: but he shall bring forth judgment unto truth. He shall shine, and shall not be broken, until he set judgment in the earth: and the countries shall wait for his law." However, we translate it from Hebrew like this, "Behold my servant, I will uphold him; my chosen, my soul has delighted in him. I have given my spirit upon him: he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. "He will not cry out, nor raise his voice, nor make it heard in the street. A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out. In truth he will bring forth justice. He will not grow faint or be discouraged till he has established justice on the earth; and the islands will put their hope in his law." This shows that the Gospel writer Matthew, not bound by authority of the old interpretation, dismissed the Hebrew truth and brought forth to the nations, educated in the Law of the Lord, the things he had read in Hebrew as if he were a Hebrew among Hebrews. For if it is to be taken thus, as the Seventy Interpreters have given it: Jacob is my servant, I will receive him; Israel is my chosen, my soul has received him, how do we understand that it has been fulfilled in Jesus, what has been written concerning Jacob and Israel? We read that Blessed Matthew did this not only in this testimony, but also in another place: Out of Egypt I called my son (Hosea 11:2): for which the Seventy translated: Out of Egypt I called his sons. Certainly, if we do not follow the Hebrew truth, it is evident that it does not pertain to the Lord and Savior. For it follows: but they sacrificed to Baalim. And that which is less in the assumed testimony in the Gospel: it shall shine and not be shaken, until he shall place judgment upon the earth, seems to have happened by the error of the first writer who, reading the higher sentence to be finished in the word judgment, thought that the final word of the lower sentence was judgment, and he omitted a few words which were in the middle, that is, between judgment and judgment. And again, that which is read among the Hebrews: And in his law shall the islands hope, Matthew, interpreting the sense rather than the words, put for law and islands, a name and nations. And not only in the present place, but wherever the testimonies of the Evangelists and Apostles from the old Instrument have been brought forth, it should be observed more diligently: not that they followed words, but the sense: and where they differ from the Hebrew in the Septuagint, they expressed the Hebrew sense in their own words. Therefore, the Child of the almighty God, according to the dispensation of assumed flesh, which is sent to us, is called the Savior. To whom and in another place the Father says: It is great for you to be called my child, to gather the tribes of Jacob (Isai. 49.3). This is the vineyard of Sorec, which is interpreted as chosen. This is the beloved son, in whom the soul of God is pleased; not because God has a soul, but because every affection of God is shown in the soul. And it is not surprising if the soul is named in God, when all the members of the human body, according to the laws of tropology, and various intelligences, are said to have it. He also placed his spirit upon him: the Spirit of Wisdom and Understanding, the Spirit of Counsel and Strength, the Spirit of Knowledge and Piety, and the Spirit of the Fear of the Lord (Isaiah 11): He who descends upon him in the form of a dove, about whom John the Baptist narrates having heard from God the Father: "The One upon whom you see the Holy Spirit descending and remaining upon, He is" (John 1:33). And He will announce judgment to the Gentiles; concerning whom it is also written in the Psalms: "Give the king your justice, O God, and your righteousness to the son of a king" (Psalm 71:1). He Himself speaks about it in the Gospel: "For the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son" (John 5:22). He will not contend: like a lamb led to the slaughter: He will not argue in the hearing. Nor will he cry out, in accordance with what the Apostle Paul writes: Let all clamor, and anger, and bitterness be taken away from you (Ephesians 4:31). He will not cry out: because Israel did not do justice, but cry out. Nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets or outdoors. For all the glory of the daughter of the king is within (Psalm 44:14): And, Narrow, and cramped is the way that leads to life (Matthew 7:14). Therefore his voice is not heard in the streets, where wisdom confidently acts, not entering a broad and spacious way, but accusing and condemning. And so he spoke to those who were outside, not in his own voice, but in parables: 'The reed, he said, shaken does not break; or, as the Septuagint translated, the broken reed not to be crushed. The broken reed that was once vocal, and sang in praise of the Lord, is called Israel, who, because he stumbled on a corner stone and fell on it, was broken in it; therefore it is said of him: Rebuke, O Lord, the beasts of the reed (Ps. 67. 31): and in the volume of Jesus he is called the torrent of the cane, that is, of the reed; who has turbid waters, which Israel chose, despising the purest streams of the Jordan: and turning his mind back to Egypt, and desiring the marshy and swampy region, and pumpkins, and onions, and garlic, and cucumbers, and the pots of Egyptian flesh, is rightly called a broken reed by Isaiah: he who wants to lean on which, his hand will be pierced. For whoever, after the advent of the Lord and Savior and leaving behind the spirit of interpreting the Gospel, rests in the death of Jewish literature, all the works of that person are harmed. Even smoking linen will not extinguish a people gathered from the nations who, with the ardor of natural law extinguished, are wrapped in the bitter smoke, which is hurtful to the eyes, and enveloped in the darkness of errors. He who not only did not restrain and reduce to ashes, but on the contrary, from a small spark, and almost dying, raised the greatest fire; so that the whole world burned with the fire of the Lord and Savior, whom he came to send upon the earth, and in all desires to burn (Luke 12:49). According to the tropology, what we see in this place, we have briefly noted in the Commentaries of Matthew. But he who has not broken the bruised reed, and has not extinguished the smoking flax, has also brought judgment unto victory (Isai. 42:3), whose judgments are true, justified in themselves (Psalm 18), so that he may be justified in his words and may overcome in judgment (Psalm 50), and so that the light of his preaching may shine in the world, not be crushed by anyone, and may overcome all snares, until he establishes judgment on earth and that which is written may be fulfilled: 'Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven' (Matthew 6:10). And, in his name shall the Gentiles hope (Isaiah 11:10); or the islands shall hope in his law (Ibid. 42:4). For just as the islands are struck by the blast and rush of winds and frequently buffeted by storms, but they are not overturned, as an example of the Gospel house built on a sturdy foundation of rock (Matthew 7; and Luke 6), so the Churches, which hope in the law and in the name of the Lord and Savior, speak through Isaiah: I am a strong city, a city that cannot be taken (Isaiah 27:3, LXX).

And when he was departed thence, he went into their synagogue: And, behold, there was a man which had his hand withered. And they asked him, saying, Is it lawful to heal on the sabbath days? that they might accuse him. And he said unto them, What man shall there be among you, that shall have one sheep, and if it fall into a pit on the sabbath day, will he not lay hold on it, and lift it out? How much then is a man better than a sheep? Wherefore it is lawful to do well on the sabbath days. Then saith he to the man, Stretch forth thine hand. And he stretched it forth; and it was restored whole, like as the other. Then the Pharisees went out, and held a council against him, how they might destroy him. But when Jesus knew it, he withdrew himself from thence: and great multitudes followed him, and he healed them all; And charged them that they should not make him known: That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, Behold my servant, whom I have chosen; my beloved, in whom my soul is well pleased: I will put my spirit upon him, and he shall show judgment to the Gentiles. He shall not strive, nor cry; neither shall any man hear his voice in the streets. A bruised reed shall he not break, and smoking flax shall he not quench, till he send forth judgment unto victory. And in his name shall the Gentiles trust. [Isaiah 42:1-4]

The goodness of the Deity has endless love for humanity and never ceased from benignly pouring out on us its providential gifts. … It made it possible for us to escape from the domain of the rebellious, and it did this not through overwhelming force, but, as Scripture mysteriously tells us, by an act of judgment accomplished in all righteousness. Beneficently God's goodness wrought a complete change in our nature. It filled our shadowed and unshaped minds with a kindly, divine light and adorned them with loveliness suitable to their divinized state. It saved our nature from almost complete wreckage and delivered the dwelling place of our soul from the most accursed passion and from destructive defilement. Finally, it showed us a supramundane uplifting and an inspired way of life in shaping ourselves to it as fully as lay in our power. - "Ecclesiastical Hierarchy 3.3.11"

817. Behold my servant. Here he shows divine love from the Son, whom he promised: God so loved the world, as to give his only begotten Son (John 3:16).

And first, from such a benefit, he shows the love of God;

second, the perversity of the Jews: these things have I done to them (Isa 42:16).

Concerning the first, he does three things;

first, he foretells the coming of the Son of God;

second, the fall of the wicked: the Lord shall go forth as a mighty man (Isa 42:13);

third, the resurrection of the good: and I will lead the blind (Isa 42:16): behold this child is set for the fall and for the resurrection of many in Israel (Luke 2:34).

Concerning the first, he does three things:

first, he describes the condition of the one who is to be sent;

second, he foretells the sending: thus says the Lord God (Isa 42:5);

third, he invites to thanksgiving: sing to the Lord (Isa 42:10).

818. Concerning the first, he does three things.

First, he shows his fullness of grace as to the grace of union: I will uphold him; my servant, according to his human nature: he has upheld Israel his servant (Luke 1:54); as to the grace of the head: my elect, that he may be the head of the Church, chosen out of thousands (Song 5:10); blessed is he whom you have chosen and taken to you (Ps 64:5[65:4]); my soul delights in him: this is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased (Matt 17:5); as to the habitual grace, which was in him alone: I have given my spirit, above: the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him (Isa 11:2).

819. Second, he shows the equity of his judgment as to three things: namely, the authority to judge, he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles: give to the king your judgment, O God (Ps 71:2[72:1]); the Father has given all judgment to the Son (John 5:22).

He will not cry out: for he will be gentle and meek; and he will not accept a person in judgment, or he will not lift up (it is understood) his voice on high. Or, according to Symmachus, he will not be deceived, understanding all the snares of the devil; or, according to the Seventy, he will not let go, namely the people of the Jews, calling them to repentance. Nor will his voice be heard outside: for he did not preach the Gospel outside Galilee and Judea among the other nations. And if we read that he was in the borders of Tyre and Sidon (Matt 15), or in the region of Caesarea Philippi, which is now called Paneas, still it must be known that it is not written that he entered those cities themselves.

Nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets. Wide indeed and spacious is the way that leads to perdition, and many enter by it. Who are the many? Those who do not hear the voice of the Savior, because they are not on the narrow way but on the spacious one.

To which he joins his meekness: he shall not cry: the words of the wise are heard in silence, more than the cry of a prince among fools (Eccl 9:17).

Second, he shows the equality of the judge: nor have respect to person: God is not a respecter of persons (Acts 10:34); to which he joins his piety in coming to help: neither shall his voice, the voice of his preaching, be heard abroad, outside Judea, so that he should first come to the aid of those to whom he was sent (Matt 15:24): to day if you shall hear his voice, harden not your hearts (Ps 94[95]:8).

828. There is the cry (see 42:2),

of devout prayer: with a strong cry and tears (Heb 5:7);

of attentive preaching: and on the last festival day, Jesus cried (John 7:37);

of strife and contention, above: I looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes (Isa 5:2).

[The abbot] must be aware of his own frailty and remember that it is forbidden to break the already bruised reed. We do not mean that he should countenance the growth of vice but that he use discretion and tenderness as he sees it expedient for the different characters of his brothers. He is to endeavor much more to be loved than to be feared.

He does not say, "Jacob my son and Israel my beloved," but simply "Behold my son and my beloved." Hence, the names of Jacob and Israel are marked with an obelisk in the Septuagint, as if the prophecy were not in the Hebrew. And it is silently omitted by the other translators, as it is not found in the Hebrew.… Therefore, the prophecy does not apply either actually or figuratively to the Jews but only to the Christ of God, to whom clear evidence and the results bear witness. For Christ alone prophesied the future judgment to the Gentiles, quietly sojourning in human life and setting judgment on the earth. And not only did he not break the bruised reed, but so to say he bound it up, setting up and strengthening the weak and the bruised in heart. And just as Christ did not neglect the sick and the corrupt, who needed his medicine, or bruise the repentant with harsh judgment, so he did not quench those who continued in evil and were smoking under the fire of passion by preventing their following their own choice; nor did he punish any of them before the time, reserving the time of their due chastisement for the general judgment.

The prophets, therefore, did not openly behold the actual face of God, but [they saw] the dispensations and the mysteries through which man should afterwards see God. As was also said to Elias: "Thou shalt go forth tomorrow, and stand in the presence of the Lord; and, behold, a wind great and strong, which shall rend the mountains, and break the rocks in pieces before the Lord. And the Lord [was] not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord [was] not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord [was] not in the fire; and after the fire a scarcely audible voice" (vox aurae tenuis). For by such means was the prophet-very indignant, because of the transgression of the people and the slaughter of the prophets-both taught to act in a more gentle manner; and the Lord's advent as a man was pointed out, that it should be subsequent to that law which was given by Moses, mild and tranquil, in which He would neither break the bruised reed, nor quench the smoking flax. The mild and peaceful repose of His kingdom was indicated likewise. For, after the wind which rends the mountains, and after the earthquake, and after the fire, come the tranquil and peaceful times of His kingdom, in which the spirit of God does, in the most gentle manner, vivify and increase mankind.

"A bruised reed he will not break, and a dimly burning wick he will not quench," that is, [Christ] will not be hard or angered with those who have a feeble spirit. He will not render powerless that strength that is left to them, but he will lead them back to virtue with kindness. [Isaiah] calls a "dimly burning wick" the one whose oil is finished and where there is no greasy matter left. This means, when the people are about to be extinguished because of the affliction of captivity, he will make them shine against their hope. This is clearly said with regard to Zerubbabel but is evidently accomplished by our Lord, the Savior.

It appears that Matthew the Evangelist did not by preferring the authority of the old interpretation ignore the truth of the Hebrew text. Rather, as a Hebrew among Hebrews and deeply taught in the law of the Lord, Matthew distributed his Hebrew learning to the nations. For if the Septuagint translators are accepted when they write, "Jacob my son, I will lift him up; Israel my chosen, my soul has lifted him up," then how can we understand the text fulfilled in Jesus, since it was obviously written about Jacob and Israel? We read that the blessed Matthew, not only in this verse but in another, has done this: "Out of Egypt I have called my son," while the Septuagint translated, "Out of Egypt he has called his sons.

For after the coming of the Lord and Savior, who gave the spirit of the gospel interpretation, [Christ] rested in the death of the Jewish letter, with which all works are bruised. Christ did not snuff out the smoking wick, reducing it to ashes. Instead, he ignited a great flame from this little spark, a spark that had almost gone out. The result is that the whole earth was ablaze with the fire of the Lord and Savior.

A bruised reed, or a broken one, he will not break. For he will be easy to appease toward all, and will give pardon to sinners, saying to the woman: Take heart, daughter, your sins are forgiven you (Luke 7:48). And smoking flax, or, as the others translated, dim and dark, he will not quench: those who were near to being quenched were preserved by the clemency of the Lord (which we have discussed in the works mentioned above concerning the Jews and the nations); but he will judge all things with truth, in no way fearing the scribes and Pharisees, whom he boldly called hypocrites (Matt 7, 15, 22, 23 throughout, and Luke 6, 12).

A battered reed he will not break, and smoldering flax he will not put out. He who does not hold out a hand to a sinner and does not carry the burden of his brother, he breaks the battered reed. And he who despises the small spark of faith in little ones, he puts out the smoldering flax. Christ did neither of these things; for he had come for this, to save what had perished.

[Isaiah] calls him "servant" or "slave," according to the other interpreters, in connection with his humanity. It is in relation to this that he has [also] given him the name of Jacob and Israel, seeing that it is from Jacob, who is also Israel, that [Christ] descended according to the flesh. In the same way he also receives the most Holy Spirit, not insofar as [he is] God—for he lacks nothing—but as man for the purpose of becoming the model for those who have believed in him. Of this gentleness both his words and his deeds give witness: "Learn from me," [Christ] says, "for I am gentle and lowly of heart." Even when he received a blow to the face, he said to the one who struck him, "Friend, if I have spoken evil, bear witness to the evil; but if well, why do you strike me?" Although he could destroy those who unleashed rage against him by having lightning strike them immediately, he breaks them like a bruised reed and snuffs them like smoldering flax; he has borne their folly. For [Christ] was aware of the outcome of these events, and he knew that the truth would be manifested through them. It was likewise even after he had been delivered over to death; he shone forth anew, filled the earth with truth and had invited the Gentiles to put their hope in him. It is this that the prophetic text has said: "In his name the nations put their trust."

And in dissembling: the bruised reed, namely, the kingdom of the Jews, smoking flax, of the priests: that which was broken you have not bound up (Ezek 34:4).

Third, he shows the truth of his judgment: he shall bring forth judgment unto truth: he shall judge the world with justice, and the people with his truth (Ps 95[96]:13).

With truth and boldness to all, he proclaims the judgment of God, which has not ceased to operate. Rather, God's judgment is like light shining through the resurrection of the dead, which the prophetic word announced, saying, "He will give light and not be crushed." For those who planned Christ's death tried to crush him and extinguish him. For it is the nature of all mortal species to be crushed by death. But it did not crush him. Christ was the only person of all time who was shown to be stronger than death.

But what follows, He will shine and will not be broken, until he sets judgment upon the earth, the Evangelist Matthew did not set down (Matt 12); or else the words in the middle, between judgment and judgment, were removed by a scribe's error. And it signifies that, rising from the dead, he enlightened all, and was not broken by death, until he set judgment upon the earth, he who said in the Gospel: For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind (John 9:39). For this we translated: He will not be sad, nor troubled, but he will keep an evenness of countenance at all times: what the philosophers falsely boast of Socrates, that he was never sadder or happier than usual. For this Aquila and Theodotion translated: He will not darken, and he will not run, until he sets judgment in the earth. And the sense is: he will deter no one by sadness of countenance, nor will he hasten to punishment, he who has reserved the truth of judgment for the last time. And what follows, and the islands will wait for his law, the Seventy set down more plainly: in his name the nations will hope; these are called islands in the Scriptures because they lie open on every side to the inroads of persecutors. And by his law let us understand not that which was given through Moses, but the Gospel: For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem (above, Isa 2). Of this law Jeremiah too prophesies: Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, and I will make a new covenant, not according to the covenant which I once made with their fathers (Jer 31:31-32).

To which he joins his pleasantness: he shall not be sad, in his heart, nor troublesome, in his face, for he was always cheerful and pleasant, keeping evenness of mind, even if, as to the sensible part, there was the suffering of sadness, not indeed of necessity, but of will; thus, my soul is sorrowful even unto death (Matt 26:38); the joyfulness of the heart (Sir 30:23[22]).

820. Third, he shows the power of the Lord: till he set the final judgment, or his precept, by the preaching of the Apostles; his law, the Gospel: he shall be the expectation of nations (Gen 49:10), below: for, the islands wait for me (Isa 60:9). Others explain these things of Darius the king of the Persians, who was meek, just and peaceful, and whom the Lord chose to liberate the Jews.

The Son is both sent and given, and the Spirit also is both sent and given; they have assuredly a oneness of Godhead who have a oneness of action.

Isaiah again says: Thus saith the Lord, he that made the heaven and pitched it; and the Apostle in like manner says: Of the true Tabernacle which the Lord pitched and not man. They both speak of the heaven as standing on and fixed on the earth, and not as revolving round it.

The name by which he will be praised as the Lord and God of all, [Isaiah] says, "I will give to no other" but to you alone, whom I shall grant to be light to the nations. Hence, in the promise the Christ of God is called Lord and God by all the nations, the Father having granted him alone that glory. Next comes "nor will I give my powers to the carved images," or, according to Aquila, "my worship to carved images," or, with Symmachus, "my praise to carved images." … According to this, Christ alone is called God since to him alone and to no other has God, who is above all things, given his glory and power.

For the breath of life, which also rendered man an animated being, is one thing, and the vivifying Spirit another, which also caused him to become spiritual. And for this reason Isaiah said, "Thus saith the Lord, who made heaven and established it, who founded the earth and the things therein, and gave breath to the people upon it, and Spirit to those walking upon it;" thus telling us that breath is indeed given in common to all people upon earth, but that the Spirit is theirs alone who tread down earthly desires. And therefore Isaiah himself, distinguishing the things already mentioned, again exclaims, "For the Spirit shall go forth from Me, and I have made every breath." Thus does he attribute the Spirit as peculiar to God which in the last times He pours forth upon the human race by the adoption of sons; but [he shows] that breath was common throughout the creation, and points it out as something created. Now what has been made is a different thing from him who makes it. The breath, then, is temporal, but the Spirit eternal. The breath, too, increases [in strength] for a short period, and continues for a certain time; after that it takes its departure, leaving its former abode destitute of breath. But when the Spirit pervades the man within and without, inasmuch as it continues there, it never leaves him.

Thus says the Lord God, who creates the heavens and stretches them out, who makes firm the earth and the things that spring from it, who gives breath to the people that is upon it, and spirit to those who tread on it: I the Lord have called you in righteousness, and have taken hold of your hand, and have kept you, and have given you as a covenant of the people, as a light of the nations, that you might open the eyes of the blind, and bring the bound out of confinement, out of the prison house those who sit in darkness. I am the Lord, that is my name; my glory I will not give to another, nor my praise to graven images. The former things, behold, they have come; new things too I declare; before they spring up, I will make you hear of them: It was uncertain who had said before: Behold my servant, I will uphold him; my chosen one, in him my soul is well pleased. I have put my spirit upon him; he will bring forth judgment to the nations. For after the condemnation of the idols the speech had burst out suddenly: Behold my servant, and the rest, which we interpreted as spoken in the person of the Father concerning Christ. So, lest he leave it ambiguous who had said the foregoing, he adds and says: Thus says the Lord God, who creates the heavens and stretches them out. Or, as the Seventy translated: Who made the heaven and fixed it. The Creator and Lord of the universe, therefore, himself promised the coming of his Christ, he who not only stretched out the heavens and fixed them, but also made the earth firm with its lofty mass, and all things that spring from it: so that his invisible things may be clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made (Rom 1), his eternal power also and divinity. He gave breath to all who dwell on the earth, by the first law of mortals: for God breathed into the face of Adam the spirit of life, and he became a living soul (Gen 2). But spirit he gave properly to those who tread on the earth and subject the wisdom of the flesh to their own power.

It says, "He who gives spirit to the people who are on the earth, and spirit to them who walk on it." For undoubtedly every one who walks on the earth, that is, every earthly and corporeal being, is a partaker of the Holy Spirit that he receives from God.

And again, "who gave breath to the people on the earth and spirit to those walking on it." For at first the soul, that is, "breath," was given to the people who go around on the earth, that is, to those acting in flesh in a fleshly manner; then later the Spirit was given to those who walk on the earth, that is, those who subdue the works of the flesh, as the apostle affirms, "Not that which is spiritual first, but that which is animal and then that which is spiritual." For although Adam from the beginning prophesied that great mystery in Christ and the church, "this is now bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh, on which account a man will leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife and they two will become one flesh," he was subject to a falling of the spirit.

821. Thus says the Lord God. Here he foretells the sending.

And first, he sets out the power of the one who sends as to the creation of heavenly things: that created the heavens; as to the disposition of earthly things: that established the earth; as to the animation of living things: that gives breath, of natural life, and spirit, freely: the Lord, who stretches forth the heavens, and lays the foundations of the earth, and forms the spirit of man in him (Zech 12:1).

And the next sabbath day came almost the whole city together to hear the word of God. But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy, and spake against those things which were spoken by Paul, contradicting and blaspheming. Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold, and said, It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you: but seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles. For so hath the Lord commanded us, saying, I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles, that thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the earth. [Isaiah 42:6] And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and glorified the word of the Lord: and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed. And the word of the Lord was published throughout all the region. But the Jews stirred up the devout and honourable women, and the chief men of the city, and raised persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and expelled them out of their coasts.

Moses then received it, but they proved themselves unworthy. Learn now how we have received it. Moses, as a servant, received it; but the Lord himself, having suffered in our behalf, hath given it to us, that we should be the people of inheritance. But He was manifested, in order that they might be perfected in their iniquities, and that we, being constituted heirs through Him, might receive the testament of the Lord Jesus, who was prepared for this end, that by His personal manifestation, redeeming our hearts (which were already wasted by death, and given over to the iniquity of error) from darkness, He might by His word enter into a covenant with us. For it is written how the Father, about to redeem us from darkness, commanded Him to prepare a holy people for Himself. The prophet therefore declares, "I, the Lord Thy God, have called Thee in righteousness, and will hold Thy hand, and will strengthen Thee; and I have given Thee for a covenant to the people, for a light to the nations, to open the eyes of the blind, and to bring forth from fetters them that are bound, and those that sit in darkness out of the prison-house." Ye perceive, then, whence we have been redeemed.

He, then, whose praises are so great, spoke these things to him whose law the islands and the nations await: I the Lord have called you in righteousness: of whom he himself speaks in the Gospel: Righteous Father, the world does not know you (John 17:25); so that he might be the God not only of the Jews but also of the nations. And I have taken hold of your hand, because whatever the Son works, the Father works. And I have kept you, you who yourself preserve all things. And I have given you as a covenant of the people of Israel, to whom I had promised beforehand that you would come. And as a light of the nations, which sat in darkness and in the shadow of death, that you might open the eyes of the blind, who before did not see God. And bring the bound out of confinement (Prov 5); for each one is bound fast by the cords of his own sins. And in the Gospel the Lord loosed him whom Satan had bound (Matt 8). Out of the prison house those who sit in darkness, those who were living in the night and gloom of error.

Since, therefore, we were as though blind before, and when we sat as though enclosed by the prison house of foolishness in the darkness, not knowing God and his truth, we were enlightened by him who adopted us by his gracious treatment (his will in our favor). And when he had freed us as from evils and bonds and brought us into the light of wisdom, he recognized us as the heirs of his heavenly kingdom.

Second, he foretells the sending, setting out the exaltation of the one sent: I the Lord have called you, my Son, from eternity predestining to the unity of the divine person, in justice, that is, that I may be just, fulfilling my promise: who was predestined the Son of God (Rom 1:4); and taken you by the hand, as to his working: the Father who abides in me, he doth the works (John 14:10), and preserved you, lest you be detained by death: nor will you give your holy one to see corruption (Ps 15[16]:10), below: I have called him and brought him (Isa 48:15).

He also sets out the injunction of his office: and I have given you for a covenant, as a mediator: I will set my bow in the clouds, and it shall be the sign of a covenant (Gen 9:13), for a light, as an illuminator, above: to them that dwelt in the region of the shadow of death, light is risen (Isa 9:2); that was the true light (John 1:9).

828. Christ is given for a covenant (see 42:6),

of preserving salvation: I will set my bow in the clouds, and it shall be the sign of my covenant (Gen 9:13);

of fulfilling the promise: for all the promises of God are in him (2 Cor 1:20);

of divine love: God so loved the world (John 3:16);

of the law to cease: burnt offering and sin offering you didst not desire (Ps 39[40]:7).

"The opened eyes of the blind" means [Christ] provided clear knowledge of the Father through the Son.

He calls "blind" here those who are impaired in their intellectual vision; he calls the same people imprisoned by the bonds of sin and held by the darkness of error. After having delivered them from the murk of ignorance and having broken the bonds of sin, he has led them to the light of truth.

He also shows the use of his office against faithlessness: that you might open the eyes of the blind: for judgment I am come into this world: that they who see not may see; and they who see may become blind (John 9:39); against the slavery of sin: and bring forth the prisoner out of prison: you also by the blood of your testament have sent forth your prisoners out of the pit (Zech 9:11).

Since he is the only God, in a proper and true sense, he is the Creator of all, and so he is confessed to be by us; as the most wise Paul says: "Even though there may be many so-called gods and lords in heaven or on earth, yet for us there is one God and Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and through whom we exist." And since he presented himself to us as the author of great and marvelous things, he says that his glory, which is the virtues proper to God, is not to be given to lifeless idols or to any other created thing, but to be retained for himself alone. It follows, therefore, that the glory of the divinity cannot be attributed to any of the beings that differ from him in essence, but only to the ineffable and transcendent nature itself. Even though he says that his own glory is to be given to no one, he gave it to the Son who, of course, has been glorified in the same way as the Father who is worshiped in heaven and on earth. How, then, did [God] give [his glory] to someone who is not different from him, at least on the basis of consubstantiality, even though each is distinguished into his own hypostasis? For there is a single nature of the divinity on high in three distinct hypostases, and it is so understood and worshiped by right-minded people.

There was no other way to honor the slave [i.e., humanity] except by making the characteristics of the slave his very own so that they could be illumined from his own glory. What is preeminent will always conquer, and the shame of the slavery is thus borne away from us. He who was above us became as we are. He who is naturally free took on the limitations of our life. This was why honors passed even to us, for we too are called the children of God, and we regard his own true Father as our Father also. All that is human has become his own. And so, to say that he assumed the form of a slave expresses the whole mystery of the economy in the flesh. So, if [my opponents] confess one Lord and Son, the Word of God the Father, but say that a simple man of the line of David was conjoined as a companion of his sonship and his glory, then it is time for you to speak to people who choose to think like this.… It seems that they argue as though there are two sons unequal in nature and that a slave is crowned with the glory that is proper to God, that some bastard son is decked out with the selfsame dignities as the one who is really God's natural Son, even though God says quite clearly, "I will not give my glory to another." How can someone who has only been honored with a mere conjunction fail to be "other" to the true and natural Son when he has just been assumed for the office of servant, given the honor of sonship, just like us, and sharing in another's glory that he attains by grace and favor?So the Emmanuel must not be separated out into a man, considered as distinct from God the Word? On no account. I say that we must call him God made man, and that both the one and the other are this same reality, for he did not cease to be God when he became man, nor did he regard the economy as unacceptable by disdaining the limitations involved in the self-emptying.

The same thing applies to the word Lord, which is also used as a name of God. "I am the Lord your God," he says. "This is my name," and "The Lord is his name." But we are making deeper enquiries into a nature that has absolute existence, independent of anything else. The actual, personal being of God in its fullness is neither limited nor cut short by any prior or any subsequent reality—so it was, and so it will be.

[Eunomius says:] "…receiving glory from the Father, not sharing His glory with the Father, for the glory of the Almighty is incommunicable, as He hath said, 'My glory will I not give to another.'" Who is that "other" to whom God has said that He will not give His glory? The prophet speaks of the adversary of God, and Eunomius refers the prophecy to the only begotten God Himself! For when the prophet, speaking in the person of God, had said, "My glory will I not give to another," he added, "neither My praise to graven images." For when men were beguiled to offer to the adversary of God the worship and adoration due to God alone, paying homage in the representations of graven images to the enemy of God, who appeared in many shapes amongst men in the forms furnished by idols, He Who healeth them that are sick, in pity for men's ruin, foretold by the prophet the loving-kindness which in the latter days He would show in the abolishing of idols, saying, "When My truth shall have been manifested, My glory shall no more be given to another, nor My praise bestowed upon graven images: for men, when they come to know My glory, shall no more be in bondage to them that by nature are no gods." All therefore that the prophet says in the person of the Lord concerning the power of the adversary, this fighter against God, refers to the Lord Himself, Who spake these words by the prophet!

And what he adds, I am the Lord, that is my name; my glory I will not give to another, does not exclude the Son; for when he says in the Gospel, Father, glorify me with the glory which I had with you before the world was (John 17:5), the Father himself answered: I have both glorified it, and will glorify it. For he did not say: My glory I will give to no one, for if he had said that, he would have excluded the Son too; but my glory I will not give to another, besides you, to whom I have given it, to whom I will give it. Hence I greatly admire the propriety of holy Scripture, in that all the translators, who are accustomed to disagree in many other places, translated the word AHER (אחר) with one voice another. And that we may know that by this sentence not the Son but the idols are excluded, the following words bear witness: Nor my praise to graven images. For which the Seventy have: nor my powers to images. For since Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God, he contains in himself all the powers of the Father.

It is the Son who possesses the glory of the Father, and it is in the glory of the Father that he will manifest himself, for the divinity of the Son and of the Father is one. Thus, if God says that he will not give his glory to another and if the Son manifestly possesses the glory of the Father, it is evident that he is not another according to the essence but that [the Son] has the same nature as the Father.

Third, from the sending he deduces the singularity of the divine majesty as to power: I the Lord: make a way for him who ascends upon the west: the Lord is his name (Ps 67:5[68:4]); my name Adonai (Exod 6:3); my glory, by which I am called Lord: glory to God in the highest (Luke 2:14).

When the prophet says, "See, the former things have come to pass, and new things I now declare; before they spring forth, I tell you of them," he does not allow for us to disbelieve the word of the Savior in any respect. In fact, he is saying that, just as what was said from the beginning about his coming has been fulfilled, so also what he calls the "new things" will be shown to be true and will be revealed before they are made manifest. And what are these things? Our Lord Jesus Christ promised life in the age to come, namely, the life of incorruption, and holiness, and righteousness, the kingdom of heaven, the glorious participation in the spiritual goods, the fruits of gentleness, the reward of piety, the crown of love for him. May it be that we, too, attain this through his grace and loving-kindness.

"Behold, the first things," he says, "came to pass. But I proclaim new things, and before they arise, I will cause these things to be heard by you." Just as he says "the first things" would be fulfilled through my works, as I promised Abraham concerning his "seed," so indeed I acted. I fulfilled also those things foretold by Moses and the rest of the prophets; "now I promise to everyone what was proclaimed before" and to make them come to light through the prophecies, for "I caused these things to be heard by you."

There follows: The former things, behold, they have come. And the sense is: What I have spoken, what I have promised through Moses and the Prophets, all has been fulfilled. But now I announce to you the Gospel, the calling of the nations, the passion of Christ, the newness of faith: so that as you see the former things fulfilled in fact, so you may also believe that the things I now promise will come,

And as to knowledge: the things that were first, etc., below: I foretold you of old (Isa 48:5). They also refer this to Darius.

Well, in as much as the Word was from the first, He was and is the divine source of all things; but in as much as He has now assumed the name Christ, consecrated of old, and worthy of power, he has been called by me the New Song. This Word, then, the Christ, the cause of both our being at first (for He was in God) and of our well-being, this very Word has now appeared as man, He alone being both, both God and man-the Author of all blessings to us; by whom we, being taught to live well, are sent on our way to life eternal. This is the New Song, the manifestation of the Word that was in the beginning, and before the beginning. The Saviour, who existed before, has in recent days appeared.

The word of the holy apostles and Evangelists about the Savior made visible the message of the glory of the Savior. At that time they wrote words concerning his ineffable divinity, and they hymned his transcendent virtue, not placing him among the things that are born but above those things that have been called into being and in such a nature he was placed beside God the Father. At that time their words set forth the divine signs that are beyond wonder and its explanation.

Here [Isaiah] speaks again about the Gentiles and invites them to sing a new song to the Lord. Indeed, if the Jews, redeemed from captivity after seventy years, had to sing a new hymn to the Lord, their liberator, why should not the Gentiles do the same? And should they not burst out into a new song with much more good reason, since they have been delivered from a bondage of many centuries?"His praise from the end of the earth," that is, it happens in a wonderful way that the salvation given by Christ to humankind is celebrated by the remotest nations with hymns and songs. "The coastland and their inhabitants": those nations who submit to the waves of the sea with their ships will praise the Lord. Those who have considered the sea as a divinity and sacrifice to it will recognize, after being enlightened by faith, their true God, and they will consider and preach him as the Lord of the sea.

Even as islands have been set in the midst of the sea, churches have been established in the midst of this world, and they are beaten and buffeted by different waves of persecution. Truly these islands are lashed by waves every day, but they are not submerged. They are in the midst of the sea, to be sure, but they have Christ as their foundation, Christ who cannot be moved.

Sing to God a new song, his praise from the ends of the earth, you who go down to the sea, and its fullness, the islands and their inhabitants. Let the desert and its cities lift up; Kedar will dwell in houses; give praise, you inhabitants of Petra; from the top of the mountains they will cry out. They will give glory to the Lord, and will declare his praise in the islands. The Lord will go forth as a mighty one, as a man of war he will stir up zeal; he will shout and cry aloud; he will prevail over his enemies. I have always held my peace, I have kept silent, I have been patient; like a woman giving birth I will speak; I will scatter and swallow up at once. I will make the mountains and hills desolate, and I will dry up all their grass; and I will turn the rivers into islands, and I will dry up the pools. And I will lead out the blind into a way that they do not know, and in paths of which they are ignorant I will make them walk. I will turn darkness before them into light, and crooked things into straight. These words I have done for them, and I have not forsaken them. They have turned back; let them be confounded with confusion, who trust in a graven image, who say to a molten image: You are our gods. LXX: Sing to the Lord a new song; his dominion is glorified, and his name from the top of the earth; those who go down to the sea and sail it, the islands and their inhabitants. Rejoice, O desert, and its villages, the farmsteads and the inhabitants of Kedar. Those who dwell in Petra will rejoice; from the top of the mountains they will cry out. They will give glory to God; they will declare his powers in the islands. The Lord God of powers will go forth and will crush war; he will stir up zeal, and will cry out over his enemies with strength. I have held my peace from the beginning; shall I always hold my peace and endure? Like a woman giving birth I have been patient; I will burst forth and will dry up at once; I will lay waste mountains and hills, and I will dry up all their hay. And I will turn the rivers into islands, and I will dry up the marshes. And I will lead the blind by a way that they do not know, and I will make them tread paths of which they have been ignorant; I will turn darkness into light for them, and crooked things into straight. These words I will do for them, and I will not forsake them; but they have turned back. Be confounded with confusion, you who trust in graven images, who say to molten images: You are our gods. He who had said before, The former things, behold, they have come; new things too I declare; before they spring up, I will make you hear of them, and had promised that he would tell what they did not know, declares in the following discourse what those new things are, commanding the Apostles and apostolic men to sing a new song, in no way in the oldness of the letter, but in the newness of the spirit; and not only in the old Instrument, but in the new; and that his praise should reach even to the ends of the earth. For his going forth is from the highest heaven, and his circuit even to its height (Ps 18 [19]). The sound of the Apostles went out into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world. Or, according to the Seventy: Glorify his name in the ends of the earth: so that in the whole world the name of Christ may be announced to the nations. And who these are who are to sing the new song, the following words declare: You who go down, he says, to the sea, and sail it, or the fullness of the sea. For Jesus, seeing the Apostles on the shore by the sea of Gennesaret mending their nets, called them and sent them into the great sea (Luke 5), so that from fishers of fish he might make them fishers of men; and they preached the Gospel from Jerusalem as far as Illyricum and the Spains, capturing in a short time even the might of the city of Rome itself. Or certainly they went down to the sea and sailed it, enduring the storms and persecutions of this world. By the islands too and their inhabitants understand either the diversity of the nations or the multitude of the Churches.

These indeed try to pursue, but you go down into the water and come out unharmed, and, the filth of your sins being washed away, you ascend "a new man" ready "to sing a new song." But the Egyptians, pursuing after you, are drowned in the abyss, even though they seem to beg Jesus not to send them meanwhile into the abyss.

822. Sing to the Lord. Here he invites to thanksgiving.

And first, he enjoins praise, and especially upon the rustic, whether because of the distance of their habitation: from the ends of the earth, above: from the ends of the earth we have heard praises (Isa 24:16); or because of they are confined by the sea: you that go down to the sea, namely, sailors, and the fullness thereof, namely, of the sea, that is, let everything with which it is filled praise God: they that go down to the sea in ships (Ps 106[107]:23-24).

Let, he says, the desert and its cities lift up their voice, of which we have also spoken above. Or let the desert rejoice, and its villages, and Kedar, which was once an uninhabitable region beyond Arabia, of the Saracens; and the inhabitants of Petra, which itself is also a city of Palestine. And this signifies that the people of the nations, formerly a desert as regards the knowledge of God and bound by the errors of idolatry, is turned to the praises of the Lord. Or, because Kedar means darkness, and, according to the Apostle (1 Cor 10), the rock is Christ, all believers are commanded that those who were before in darkness, and now believe in the Lord the Savior, should cry aloud from the top of the mountains and openly preach Christ, those to whom it was said also above (cf. Isa 40:9): Go up on a high mountain, you who bring good tidings to Zion; lift up your voice with strength, you who bring good tidings to Jerusalem. And I will set his glory in the islands, of which we spoke before.

Or because their way of life is in the desert: let the desert, that is, its inhabitants, especially as to the Ishmaelites, raise, its voice in praise of God; Cedar, the son of Ishmael, shall dwell in houses, according to the custom of other nations, for they were formerly wanderers through the desert, above: the land that was desolate and impassable shall be glad, and the wilderness shall rejoice (Isa 35:1); or because their habitation is in the mountains: give praise, you inhabitants of Petra, the city in Palestine, which is built in the rocks; or any mountain, below: the mountains and the hills shall sing praise (Isa 55:12); and he invites these who seem less likely to be turned to praising God.

Second, he foretells the spreading of divine praise: they shall give glory to the Lord, in others, not only in themselves, below: I will send of them that shall be saved, to the Gentiles (Isa 66:19). Mystically, all this refers to the conversion of the gentiles to the faith.

And the prophetic word describes the glorious coming of the Savior, of which the Apostle Paul also speaks: According to the illumination of the glory of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ (2 Cor 4; 2 Tim 1:10); and compares him to a most mighty man, who is about to fight against his adversaries and to stir up zeal. Of this it was prophesied also in the Song of Deuteronomy: They have moved me to jealousy with that which was not God, and have provoked me with their idols; and I will move them to jealousy with a nation that is not, and with a most foolish nation I will provoke them (Deut 32:21).

It is [Christ] who has destroyed the power of death; it is he who has crushed the way of sin; it is he who has made the tyranny of the devil to cease; it is he who has put an end to the error of idols.

823. The Lord shall go forth as a mighty man. Here he foretells the coming fall of the wicked through the coming of Christ; and concerning this, he sets out four things.

First, power: the Lord shall go forth as a mighty man, to fight against the Jews through the Romans: the Lord is as a man of war (Exod 15:3); zeal, for vengeance: the zeal and rage of the husband will not spare in the day of revenge (Prov 6:34);

second, he sets out wrath: he shall shout, through the tribulations which he sends upon them; against what is said above, he shall not cry (Isa 42:2); for he first shows meekness when he comes, but he shows indignation to those who disdain him: he shall thunder with the voice of his majesty (Job 37:4).

It is sufficiently discovered that He suffered shame for man's sake, to set him free from death; and that He exclaimed, as in the words of the prophet, "I have endured as a travailing woman." In very deed did He endure for our sakes sorrow, ignominy, torment, even death itself, and burial. For thus He says Himself by the prophet: "I went down into the deep." Who made Him thus to go down? The impious people. Behold, ye sons of men, behold what recompense Israel made unto Him! She slew her Benefactor, returning evil for good, affliction for joy, death for life. They slew by nailing to the tree Him who had brought to life their dead, had healed their maimed, had made their lepers clean, had given light to their blind. Behold, ye sons of men! behold, all ye people, these new wonders! They suspended Him on the tree, who stretches out the earth; they transfixed Him with nails who laid firm the foundation of the world; they circumscribed Him who circumscribed the heavens; they bound Him who absolves sinners; they gave Him vinegar to drink who hath made them to drink of righteousness; they fed Him with gall who hath offered to them the Bread of Life; they caused corruption to come upon His hands, and feet who healed their hands and feet; they violently closed His eyes who restored sight to them; they gave Him over to the tomb, who raised their dead to life both in the time before His Passion and also whilst He was hanging on the tree.

WHAT IS GOD? — [God is] good, just, merciful. Good, because He brought into existence things that were not; just, because whatever He made to advance He left to the free judgment of their own liberty; yet because they are not so perfect that they cannot fall, He decreed that seeds of law should naturally exist in them, adding the help of revealed law, so that His authority might be complete for humankind; merciful, because He does not quickly repay those who sin, but bears with them so that He may forgive the repentant. He is also severe, so that, through fear, the things well created by Him may be preserved, lest negligence give rise to the downfall of life. And, lest we omit what is more wondrous, His mercy is so great that He endures insults from those He has made and Himself first calls them to peace. Is this not an act of greater power than having created the creature? Yet if His excessive goodness remained without limit in this, it would harm the creature. Therefore He wills that He be at times loved, at times feared, lest those who stray from Him perish. Therefore it is that, lest His patience be thought something to be despised, not indeed to His loss, but altogether to ours, He says: I have kept silence; shall I always keep silence? (Isa. 42:14).

The one who speaks is now keeping quiet. He speaks in commandments; he keeps quiet in judgment.… How has he kept quiet, seeing that he spoke to say this very thing? He says, "I have kept quiet," and yet he does not keep quiet, because just by saying "I have kept quiet," God has not kept quiet. So then, Lord, I hear you speaking in so many commandments, as many sacred signs, so many pages, so many books. And then I hear you saying this, "I have kept quiet, will I keep quiet always?" So how have you kept quiet? Because I am not yet saying, "Come, you blessed of my Father, receive the kingdom." And I am not yet saying to the others, "Go into the eternal fire that has been prepared for the devil and his angels." And while I am not yet saying these things, I am already warning you that I am going to say them.

"Sweet and righteous is the Lord." You love [him] because he is sweet. You fear [him] because he is righteous. In a gentle voice, he said, "I have kept silence." But as a just person, "shall I always be silent?" "A Lord compassionate and merciful." Yes, indeed. Yet add, patient; yet add, and very compassionate.

Still, the saying of Isaiah has come to my mind: "I have kept silence; I shall not always keep silence and endure, shall I? I have been as patient as a woman in labor." May it be that we both receive the reward for our silence and acquire some power for refuting, so that, when we have given our proofs, we may dry up this bitter torrent of falsehood poured out against us. May we say, "Our souls have passed through a torrent," and, "If it has not been that the Lord was with us, when people rose up against us, perhaps they had swallowed us up alive, perhaps the waters had swallowed us up."

Which same truth he conveys by the Prophet in few words, saying, "I have long time holden my peace, I have been still and refrained myself; now will I cry like a travailing woman." For as we have already before said, a woman in travail with pain gives forth that which she bore for long in her inner parts, He then that for long time held his peace, 'crieth like a travailing woman,' in that the Judge that shall come, who for long bore with the deeds of men without taking vengeance, sooner or later brings to light with hotness of examination, as if with pain of mind, the sentence of direful visiting which He kept within. Therefore let none despise this Lamp, when it is out of sight, lest He burn up His despisers when He shineth from heaven. For to whomsoever He does not now burn to give pardon, He shall then assuredly burn to award punishment. Therefore because by grace from above we are vouchsafed the season of our calling, whilst there is still the room left, let us by altering our ways for the better flee from the wrath of Him, Who is every where present. For him alone that visitation fails to find, whom correction keeps in hiding.

He will also shout and cry aloud against his enemies, openly rebuking their unbelief and declaring with a loud cry: I have held my peace, I have always kept silent, I have been patient, or, as the Seventy translated: I have held my peace; shall I always hold my peace (Eccl 3:7)? So that what is said through Solomon may be fulfilled: A time to keep silence, and a time to speak. And the sense is: For a long time I have often borne you when you sinned; but because I had kept silent before, I will no longer keep silent. And as a woman giving birth pours forth the infant into the light, and makes open what was before held shut in her womb, so I will now bring forth my pain and the forbearance which I always had over your crimes, and I will scatter your counsels; and at one time I will swallow up the whole nation, and all the pride of your mountains and the swelling of your hills. And the grass, of which it was said above, Truly the people is grass, that is, princes as much as the common herd, I will reduce to a desert. This was added in the Seventy, which had passed over these words in silence, from the edition of Theodotion (see above, Isa 40:7). And when I have dried you up and destroyed you from head to foot, then I will make the rivers of my teaching run in the islands of the nations, and I will reduce your pools or marshes to dryness, so that among the nations there may be the knowledge of the Scriptures, and among you the dryness of teaching.

Third, he sets out justice, for it is just that when he has long waited for the impenitent, he should swallow them all up at once: I have always held my peace: have I not dissembled? Have I not kept silence? (Job 3:26), I have been patient, above: therefore the Lord waits that he may have mercy on you (Isa 30:18); as a woman in labor, I will bring forth hidden pain, as a woman brings forth the infant she has conceived, or because as a woman in labor, I will be pained at such a grave penalty.

Fourth, he sets out the punishment as to men: I will lay waste the mountains, the great, hills, the middle ranks, grass, the common people: and I will make mount Seir waste and desolate (Ezek 35:7); and as to the removal of every teaching or consolation, I will turn rivers into islands: he has turned rivers into a wilderness: and the sources of waters into dry ground (Ps 106[107]:33). This can also be referred to the destruction of the enemies of the Jews by Darius.

And I will lead the blind by the way which before they did not know, of whom we also read above: I have given you as a covenant of the people, as a light of the nations, that you might open the eyes of the blind. These will be led by the way of which Christ speaks: I am the way, or by the way of the knowledge of God; and I will make them walk by the paths of the Prophets. Then their darkness will be changed into light, and crooked things will be turned into straight, so that they may understand what they read, and with the eyes of the heart behold the clear light of Christ in the Old Testament. And at the same time he adds: These words which I have done, or I will do for them: no longer promising things to come, but rendering what I had promised before.

The apostle John teaches how this is fulfilled: "We know that the Son of God came and gave understanding to us, that we might know the truth and be in his true Son." And again, "Let us love, therefore, since God first loved us." By loving us, God restores us to be his image, so that he might find the form of his own goodness in us. He grants that we ourselves might work what he works, indeed setting light to our minds and causing us to burn with the fire of his love, in order that we love not only him but also the things that he loves.

Again, God calls the people who suffer from unbelief and who are devoid of intellectual acuteness "the blind." He promises to guide their steps on the way they do not know, for they failed to recognize the path of the truth but followed on the paths of error. "I will turn darkness into light for them." After freeing them from their previous ignorance, I will deem them worthy of the knowledge of God, for ignorance is like darkness, whereas knowledge is analogous to the light. "And crooked things into straight." For the difficult course of wisdom, of the governing of oneself and of justice, he has made an easy course, since he has attached the hope of future benefits to the efforts to claim virtue. "These are the words that I will fulfill for them; and I will not forsake them." I will not cease to judge them worthy of these benefits, and I will lavish all kinds of care, even to the future.

824. And I will lead. Here he sets out the resurrection of the good as to three things:

first, as to the restoration of action: I will lead the blind, namely, the gentiles, into the way, Christ, or the precept of the law, or also the Jews, according to another explanation: I will lead you by the paths of equity (Prov 4:11);

second, as to the illumination of the intellect: I will make darkness light before them: to enlighten them that sit in darkness (Luke 1:79);

third, as to the direction of the affections: and crooked things, namely, their hearts, straight, above: the crooked shall become straight (Isa 40:4).

825. These things have I done to them. Here he shows the perversity of the Jews.

And first, he shows that they are ungrateful toward his benefits;

second, that they are hard-hearted toward his precepts: hear, you deaf (Isa 42:18);

third, obstinate between scourges: who is there among you (Isa 42:23).

But while I say these things, the people of the Jews has turned back, so as not to believe him who promises, and to be confounded in its errors, and to neglect the pledge of God, having before believed in idols. Or, when the fullness of the nations has come in, then the people of Israel too will be converted (Rom 11), and will repent of its error, through which it had before served idols. Or certainly, after the calling of the nations, he returns to the beginning, so as to say that all the nations which refused to believe the Gospel are to be confounded in their idols.

Concerning the first, he does two things:

first, he shows their ingratitude: these things, namely, the aforementioned benefits. They are turned back, from me: you have forsaken me, says the Lord, you are gone backward (Jer 15:6);

second, he calls down confusion on them: let them be greatly confounded: let all them be confounded (Ps 24:4).

It is evident, indeed, that some possess ears better able to hear the words of God. But to those who do not have those ears, what does he say? "Hear, you deaf, and, you blind, behold." Also, "I opened my mouth and panted," and "You have broken the teeth of sinners."4 All these things were said in reference to the faculties that render service for spiritual food and spiritual doctrine.

You deaf, hear, and you blind, look, that you may see. Who is blind but my servant? and deaf but he to whom I have sent my messengers? Who is blind but he who has been sold? and who is blind but the servant of the Lord? You who see many things, will you not keep them? you who have open ears, will you not hear? And the Lord willed to sanctify him, and to magnify the law and exalt it. But this is a people plundered and laid waste; all are the snare of young men, and they are hidden in prison houses; they have become a prey, and there is none to rescue; a plunder, and there is none to say: Give back. Who is there among you who will hear this, who will attend and listen for the time to come? Who gave Jacob up to plunder, and Israel to those who lay waste? Was it not the Lord himself, against whom we have sinned? And they would not walk in his ways, and they did not hear his law. And he poured out upon him the indignation of his fury, and strong war; and he burned him round about, and he did not know it; and he set him on fire, and he did not understand. LXX: You deaf, hear, and you blind, look up, that you may see. Who is blind but my children, and deaf but those who rule over them? Who is blind but he who has received; and the servants of God have been blinded. You have often seen, and have not kept watch; your ears are open, and you have not heard. The Lord God willed that he should be justified, and should magnify praise. And I saw, and the people was laid waste and plundered. For there is a snare in the chambers everywhere, and in the houses together, in which they hid them. They became a plunder, and there was none to rescue the prey, and there was none to say: Give back. Who is there among you who will hear these things and know the things to come? Who gave Jacob up to plunder, and Israel to those who lay waste? Was it not God, against whom they sinned? And you would not walk in his ways, nor hear his law. And he brought upon them the anger of his fury, and war prevailed against them, and those who burned them round about; and each one did not know, nor did they lay it to heart. Lest anyone should think that what is said, You deaf, hear, and you blind, look, that you may see, belongs to the people of the nations, which before was deaf and blind (as the Jews strive to prove by a foolish interpretation), the prophetic word itself shows who ought to be understood as the deaf and the blind. Who, he says, is blind but my servant, and deaf but he to whom I have sent my messengers? There is no doubt that he means the Prophets. Who is blind but he who has been sold by his sins? Who is blind but he who formerly was the servant of the Lord?

"Who is deaf but my servant?" And who is blind, but the one to whom I have sent my messengers?" And so that no one might ascribe their blindness to their nature instead of to their own will, he says elsewhere: "Bring forth the people that are blind and have eyes, that are deaf and have ears." And again he says, "You have eyes, but do not see, ears but do not hear."

Now the blind see when they see the world, and from the exceedingly great beauty of things that have been created they contemplate the Creator corresponding in greatness and beauty to them. And when they see clearly "the invisible things of God from the creation of the world, which are perceived through the things that are made," [then] they see and understand with attentiveness and clarity.

And since the keenness of the inner hearing is in our power, the prophet says: "Hear, you deaf, and look, you blind, that you may see. Who is so deaf as My servants, and who is so blind as those who rule over them?" Even the servants of God are blinded.

Who is as blind as the one who has moved away? Symmachus translates, "Who is as blind as the perfect and as blind as the servant of the Lord?" He says that although the nations are just as much in error, they do not deserve the same accusation. For they did not have the prophets guiding them toward the truth and were not deemed worthy of such attention. "The one who is far off" has the same meaning; he who has been called by God has left the service of God, preferring the worship of idols.

826. Hear, you deaf. Here he shows that they are hard-hearted or disobedient toward his precepts.

And first, he shows their hard-heartedness, calling them deaf and blind unitedly: for their own malice blinded them (Wis 2:21), though they may have the eyes and ears of the body, which shows that those who see take heed and those who have the ears of their hearts open obey.

He reports how they became the blind and dull by saying, "They see many things but do not observe." These things were previously communicated [in Isaiah]: "Keep listening, but do not comprehend; keep looking, but do not understand. Make the mind of this people dull." … You see that all these things he says about the people, he means concerning those of the circumcision. But "the Lord was pleased, for his righteousness' sake, to magnify his praise." And they surrendered to those who made war on their souls and became "a people who have been torn in pieces, plundered and trapped in a secret room" of their souls, "and in their own homes as well." For these very reasons those who plotted with these thoughts that they hid from Christ were themselves caught in a "trap from which they could not be delivered," there being no "rescuer" and none to say, "Release them."

He that is sold, as a slave of sin for love of temporal good: you are sold, to do evil in the sight of the Lord (1 Kgs 21:20).

To him it is said: O Israel, you who see many things, and have very many Prophets through whom to know the commandments of God, will you not keep what has been commanded you? You who have open ears, will you not hear what is said? Of whom we also read above: Hearing you will hear, and will not understand; and seeing you will look, and will not see; for the heart of this people has been made fat (Isa 6:9).

You that have ears open: hear, O foolish people, and without understanding: who have eyes, and see not: and ears, and hear not (Jer 5:21); above: blind the heart of this people, and make their ears heavy (Isa 6:10).

The Lord, he says, willed to sanctify him, and to magnify his Law, and to exalt and raise up the people lying prostrate.

Second, he shows the foolishness of the hard-hearted, because the Lord intended what is found in the precepts for their own advantage. Hence he sets out the intention of the Lord: and the Lord was willing to sanctify him, the people, both that the people themselves should magnify the law of God in their hearts by keeping it, and that the Lord should exalt the people: for this is the will of God, your sanctification (1 Thess 4:3).

But he refused to do the will of God, and therefore he was plundered and laid waste by his adversaries, whom we ought to understand either as demons or as enemies. All are the snare of young men, and they are hidden in prison houses. Or, as the Seventy translated, There is a snare in the chambers everywhere, and in the houses together, in which they hid them: signifying the scribes and Pharisees, who deceived the wretched common people and everywhere laid snares against the Lord the Savior and his Apostles (Luke 11), having the key of knowledge, neither entering themselves, and forbidding others who wished to enter. And beautifully he called their breasts, in which the worst thoughts dwelt, prisons. Therefore they became a prey and a plunder, and there was none to free them and to speak a word on their behalf.

He has taught us both the divine object and the free will of the human creature. Although he desires, he says, that you be justified by choosing godliness, you have, on the contrary, taken the opposite way and reaped death. "For there is a snare in the secret chambers everywhere, and in the houses also, where they have hidden them."

And he also shows their contradiction, because they sinned against themselves: but this is a people that is robbed, by demons through various sins, and therefore they are wasted, by enemies, above: from a people rent and torn in pieces (Isa 18:7); also by others who furnished the occasion of sin: the snare, that is, the occasion of sin, of young men, the foolish: you have been a snare to them (Hos 5:1); and because they hid their sins in the houses of prisons, that is, in the secret of their hearts: with a double heart have they spoken (Ps 11:3[12:2]).

Third, he sets out the punishment: they are made a prey, and there is none to deliver them, by the power of wars, and there is none that says, in the insistence of prayer: they compassed me on every side, and there was no one that would help me (Sir 51:10); or the punishment begins where it says: in the houses of prisons, so that this is explained literally.

And at the same time the Prophet exhorts them that, if all cannot hear, at least a few may know the things to come and understand from whom they have suffered these things, and may recognize the causes of their devastation, they who would neither hear nor do what had been commanded in the Law.

827. Who is there among you. Here he shows that they cannot be corrected by scourges, because they do not even recognize the cause of the scourges; and concerning this, he does three things.

First, he seeks those who perceive rightly, intimating their scarcity; things to come, which I foretell concerning your punishments: who is wise, and he shall understand these things? (Hos 14:10).

In this part of the Lord's Prayer, [Christ] shows that the enemy is powerless against us without God's prior permission. During temptation, consequently, all our fear and devotion and attention should be focused on God, since evil has only such force as he himself permits. … Moreover, evil is given power over us according to our [willful] sins. As Isaiah writes, "Who gave Jacob up to the looters and Israel to the ponderers." It was the Lord, against whom we sinned, in whose ways we would not walk and whose law we refused to obey. So he unleashed the fury of his anger against us. And again, when Solomon strayed from the precepts and paths of the Lord, it was recorded, "The Lord stirred up Satan against Solomon himself."

Since God had been addressing people who could not hear him, he now speaks of them as helpless and weak.… For the outcome of the matter was no longer an issue but would be accomplished very soon.… He sent on them the fury of his anger, and battle overtook them. Those who were already wearied by war once more took it on themselves so as to hold on to Jerusalem and their rule over it. But war was unleashed on them, and not only in an external sense but also in that which afflicted their souls.

But Scripture declares that these evils are not by nature made by God but rather come from causes dwelling within humans. Sins against the Lord are the source of trials and pressures of various persecutions that with God's permission rise up against those sinning, as it is written, "who gives Israel up to the spoil." Is it not the Lord against whom they sinned and his ways in which they did not want to walk? For Scripture elsewhere states that God did not make evil things. In the book of Genesis, which speaks of the creation of the world, it states that all God made was very good.… So evils are not naturally caused by God's creating but by human will.

Second, he determines the truth as to the doer of the punishment: who has given Jacob for a spoil, the Lord kills and makes alive (1 Sam 2:6); as to the fault: has not the Lord himself, against whom we have sinned: and they have not known his justices, nor walked by the ways of God's commandments (Bar 4:13).

Therefore the Lord poured out upon them all his anger and an indignation full of fury, so that he who before had kept silent would no longer hold his peace, and would chastise them not with words but with punishments and torments; and a most mighty war would seize them, which they could in no way escape, showing the ferocity of the Romans. And though he has been burned on every side and has no soundness in him, yet he does not understand the cause of his punishment: that he has been punished because he did not receive the Son of God.

And as to the punishment, and he has poured out: pour out your indignation upon them (Ps 68:25[69:24]), "pouring out" signifies its abundance.

Third, he excludes knowledge of the truth: and has burnt him, namely, with material fire through the wasting by their enemies, and he knew not, that he was punished by God for his sins: they have not known nor understood (Ps 81[82]:5).