Isaiah 44

And now hear, Jacob my servant, and Israel, whom I have chosen. Thus says the Lord, who makes you and forms you from the womb, your helper: Do not fear, my servant Jacob, and you, Most Upright, whom I have chosen. For I will pour out waters upon the thirsty, and streams upon the dry ground; I will pour out my spirit upon your seed, and my blessing upon your offspring. And they will spring up among the grass, like willows beside flowing waters. This one will say, I am the Lord's; and that one will call in the name of Jacob; and this one will write with his hand, To the Lord; and he will be likened in the name of Israel. LXX: But now hear, Jacob my child, and Israel whom I have chosen. I am the Lord God, who made you and fashioned you from the womb; you will yet have help. Do not fear, my child Jacob, and beloved Israel whom I have chosen; yet I will give water in thirst to those who walk in the waterless land; I will put my spirit upon your seed, and my blessings upon your sons. And they will spring up like grass in the midst of water, and like the willow beside flowing waters. This one will say, I am God's; this one will cry out in the name of Jacob. And another will write on his hand, I am God's, and will cry out in the name of Israel. Where the people of the Jews is accused for its unbelief and blasphemy, it is called by the bare words, without any dignity of name: You have not called upon me, Jacob, nor have you labored in me, Israel; and again: I have given Jacob to slaughter, and Israel to blasphemy (above, Isa 43:22, 28). But where he speaks to the choir of the Apostles, which is from the Jews, the privileges of names are also added: Hear, Jacob my servant, and Israel whom I have chosen: so that servitude comes first, election second.

And now hear, O Jacob. Here, third, he strengthens them from the worthlessness of the idols, lest perhaps they should believe that the divine promises could be impeded by them. And this is divided into two parts: in the first, he excludes fear; in the second, he shows the worthlessness of the idols, where it says, thus says the Lord the king (Isa 44:6).

Concerning the first, he does three things. First, he rouses attention: hear, O Jacob whom I have chosen, Esau having been rejected: I have loved Jacob, but have hated Esau (Mal 1:2–3).

Thus says the Lord, your maker and former, who helped you from the womb (Gen 25), so that while still in your mother's womb you seized your brother's heel; or who at the beginning of the newborn Church preserved you from the persecutors. Do not fear their cruelty, Jacob my servant, and Most Upright, whom I have chosen. He calls Israel by another name; for the Hebrew word ISURUN (ישרון) the others translated εὐθύτατον, or εὐθῆ, that is, most upright and upright; the Seventy alone most beloved, adding Israel of their own. For properly, according to the Hebrews and the faithfulness of the letters, ISRAEL (ישראל) means upright of God; whereas a man seeing God lies not in the letters but in the sound of the word. Hence also the book of Genesis is called εὐθεῖς, that is, of the righteous: Abraham, Isaac and Israel.

846. And now hear, O Jacob. Here, third, he strengthens them from the worthlessness of the idols, lest perhaps they should believe that the divine promises could be impeded by them. And this is divided into two parts: in the first, he excludes fear; in the second, he shows the worthlessness of the idols, where it says, thus says the Lord the king (Isa 44:6).

847. Concerning the first, he does three things. First, he rouses attention: hear, O Jacob whom I have chosen, Esau having been rejected: I have loved Jacob, but have hated Esau (Mal 1:2–3). Second, he excludes fear: thus says the Lord that formed you, below: thus says the Lord, that formed me (Isa 49:5); most righteous, because the name "Israel" expresses this, as to its true signification, but, as though by its etymology, it is said to mean "man who sees God": is, "man," rac, "seeing," El, "God."

God himself testifies that the Holy Spirit presides over his blessings, saying, "I will put my Spirit on your seed and my blessings on your children." For no blessing can be full except through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

Do not fear, then, Jacob and Israel, because I will pour out waters upon the thirsty and the dry ground, of which it has often been said: And I will pour out, or I will put my spirit upon your seed, and my blessing upon your offspring, which will be born again of water and the Holy Spirit in baptism. This the Savior also promised in the Gospel, saying: If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. And at once it is added: But this he said of the Holy Spirit, whom those who believed were to receive (John 7).

He does not cease to make mention of the creation and of his kindness after the creation.… You will not be alone in enjoying my benefits, he says, for the thirsty nations will also drink from the streams of salvation, thanks to your descendants.… He is addressing those who are in Babylon, yet it is not to them but to their descendants that he promises to give the grace of the Spirit.… Here the prophetic text, having promised to give water to those traveling through a dry land, has shown through whom he will give it. "I will set my Spirit on your seed and my blessing on your children."

Third, he sets out a promise, where it says, I will pour out. And first, he promises divine benefit as to temporal things: I will pour out waters, that is, consolations: I will pour upon you clean water (Ezek 36:25); as to spiritual things, I will pour out my spirit; and my blessing upon your stock, as to the multiplication of gifts: I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh (Joel 2:28).

The Spirit is given to beginners: for the principle of live-giving: the spirit came into them, and they lived (Ezek 37:10); for the laver of renovation: by the laver of regeneration and renovation of the Holy Spirit (Titus 3:5–6); for the privilege of adoption: you have received the spirit of adoption (Rom 8:15).

To those making progress: to instruct the intellect: but the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things (John 14:26); to refresh the affections: my spirit is sweet above honey (Sir 24:27[20]); to assist action: the Spirit also helps our infirmity (Rom 8:26).

To the perfect: as the benefit of liberty: where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty (2 Cor 3:17); as the bond of unity: careful to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace (Eph 4:3); as the pledge of their inheritance: you were signed with the holy Spirit of promise, who is the pledge of our inheritance (Eph 1:13–14).

The willow is a type of saintly and faithful persons. As Isaiah puts it, "There shall spring up, as it were, grass in the midst of water, and the willow in ever-flowing water." So it is on people like these that we hang our instruments, when we bestow them by sharing the grace from reading from the divine Scriptures. Our instruments are the means of bestowing the grace of psalmody and the cause of our joy when it is bestowed on us in turn.

He also compares those who are born again in baptism to green grass, and to the willow which springs up beside flowing waters and, against the nature of things, bears fruit, though before it was barren, or rather its seed, taken as food, makes people barren. This indeed is read in the first psalm: And he will be like a tree which is planted by the streams of waters, which will give its fruit in its season, and its leaf will not fall. Others understand by the grass and the willows springing up anew a twofold calling: so that the people of the nations is in the grass, and in the willows those of Israel who believed.

For everywhere the divine writings take the willow as the type of chastity, because when its flower is steeped in water, if it is drunk, it extinguishes whatever kindles sensual desires and passions within us, until it renders completely barren and makes every inclination to the begetting of children without effect, as also Homer indicated, for this reason calling the willows destructive of fruit.… For as it is the nature of this tree to bud and grow to maturity when enriched by words, so it is the nature of virginity to blossom and grow to maturity when enriched by words, so that one can hang one's body on it.If, then, the rivers of Babylon are the streams of voluptuousness, as wise people say, which confuse and disturb the soul, then the willows must be chastity, to which we may suspend and draw up the organs of lust that overbalance and weigh down the mind, so that they may not be borne down by the torrents of incontinence and be drawn like worms to impurity and corruption.

Second, he sets out the fruit of the benefit as to temporal goods: and they shall spring up, namely, they will be multiplied out of the abundance of your prosperity, as a tree by a multitude of water, above: it shall bud forth and blossom (Isa 35:2); and he shall be like a tree (Ps 1:3).

And at the same time he describes the variety of believers: One will say, I am the Lord's, he who trusts that the works of righteousness are in him; another will call (understand: sinners to repentance) in the name of Jacob, so that they too may supplant vices and sins. Another will write with his hand, I am God's; or, as the Seventy translated, he will write on his hand, I am God's, so that he glories in being a soldier in the new service of Christ's warfare. And he will be likened in the name of Israel. For not all from Israel, but a great part from the multitude of the nations will be likened in the name of Israel, so as to receive the Law and the Prophets and all the graces of the Holy Spirit which were promised to the people of Israel.

We have seen many of the saints themselves latch on to names of certain men. One calls himself Jacob, another Israel, others even call themselves Jeremiah and Isaiah and Daniel. Encouraged by these names, they give themselves over to martyrdom with enthusiasm. "Another will write with his hands, 'the Lord's.' " This signifies the marking that many have on their hands or arms, or it refers to those marked with the sign of the cross or the name of Christ. The portion or the inheritance of the name of God is implied by the use of the name derived from "Jacob" [i.e., "Israel"]. It signifies that those who have acted in a godly way will not be allowed to go to utter ruin, for he does not want to destroy the whole of Israel but turn them totally toward God. And he provides the way of salvation to those who believe in him.He calls himself Lord and God, Creator and Framer—this is intended to show that they were in error when Israel gave the name of "god" to others who were not gods and forgot the one who was from the beginning the creator of humanity. They were honoring their parents as the ones who were responsible in the beginning and ignoring the Maker, as one of the prophets said: "The son gives glory to the father and the slave to his master," and "If I am the Father, then where is my glory?" and "If I am the ruler of all, where is the fear of me?" says the Lord. For [the Son] is the Lord who rules the creation by hand, but the Father is the one who made it.

The reality comes to confirm the prophecy: it is with total freedom of language that each of the believers calls herself a Christian and derives glory from this name.

He also sets out the effect of the spiritual gifts: one shall say: I am the Lord's, for whoever confesses himself to be subject to God, shall write, songs, to the Lord, that is, to the honor of the Lord; or another shall write, the Lord's, namely, I am the Lord's, on his hand, carrying the Scripture, which pertains to the worship of God; he shall be made like in the name of Israel, the foreigner in worshiping God; or he will be vigorous like Jacob: you shall call me father and shall not cease to walk after me (Jer 3:19).

I have not read of, or heard of or found any varying degree in God. Never have I read of a second, never of a third God. I have read of a first God; I have heard of a first and only God.

For God is one and only and first. But this is not said to the denial of the Son; perish the thought. For he is in that One and First and Only, as being of that One and Only and First the only Word and Wisdom and Radiance. And he too is the First, as the fullness of the godhead of the First and Only, being whole and full God.

If we count, we do not add, increasing from one to many. We do not say, "one, two, three," or "first, second, and third." God says, "I am the first, and I am the last." We have never to this present day heard of two gods.… How does one and one not equal two gods? Because we speak of the emperor and the emperor's image—but not two emperors.… The image of the emperor is an image by imitation, but the Son is a natural image.

Having made mention of the knowledge in Christ, recapping things for our benefit, he now turns his address to something else that is very necessary. For at the time when the godly prophet Isaiah composed the words about such things, offensive and irresistible temptations ruled over them. For what "God" and "honor" meant seemed to be up to the judgment of each individual. So God needs to provide them with some rousing encouragement and arguments tailored to their situation. He turns them away from polytheism and the sicknesses that troubled them and summons them through a change of mind to a knowledge of the truth and of his glory and brings them back to the awareness of his incomparable power.

"I am the first, and hereafter am I, and no God was before Me, and no God shall be after Me." For knowing more perfectly than all others the mystery of the religion of the Gospel, this great prophet, who foretold even that marvellous sign concerning the Virgin, and gave us the good tidings of the birth of the Child, and clearly pointed out to us that Name of the Son,—he, in a word, who by the Spirit includes in himself all the truth,—in order that the characteristic of the Divine Nature, whereby we discern that which really is from that which came into being, might be made as plain as possible to all, utters this saying in the person of God: "I am the first, and hereafter am I, and before Me no God hath been, and after Me is none."

Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel, and his redeemer, the Lord of hosts: I am the first and I am the last, and besides me there is no God. Who is like me? Let him call and declare, and set out the order for me, since I established the ancient people; let them declare to them the things to come and the things that shall be. Do not fear, nor be troubled: from that time I have made you hear, and I have declared; you are my witnesses. Is there a God besides me, and a former whom I have not known? The makers of an idol are all nothing, and their most beloved things will not profit them. They themselves are their witnesses, that they do not see nor understand, so that they may be confounded. Who has formed a god, and cast a graven image that is profitable for nothing? Behold, all its partners will be confounded; for the craftsmen are of men; they will all assemble, they will stand, and they will be afraid, and they will be confounded together. The ironsmith has worked with the file; with coals and with hammers he has formed it, and he has worked with the arm of his strength. He will hunger and faint, he will not drink water, and he will grow weary. The carpenter has stretched out the rule he has formed it with the plane; he has made it with the corner tools, and turned it with the compass; and he has made the image of a man, like a handsome man dwelling in a house. He cut down cedars, he took the holm oak and the oak that had stood among the trees of the forest. He planted a pine, which the rain nourished; and it became fuel for men; he took from them and was warmed; he kindled it and baked bread. But of the rest he has made a god, and has worshiped it; he has made a graven image, and has bowed down before it. Half of it he burned in the fire, and on half of it he ate flesh. He cooked a stew and was filled, and was warmed, and said: Aha! I am warm, I have seen the fire. But the rest of it he made into a god and a graven image for himself; he bows down before it and worships it, and prays to it, saying: Deliver me, for you are my god. They have not known, nor understood; for they have forgotten, so that their eyes may not see, so that they may not understand with their heart. They do not consider in their mind, nor know, nor perceive, so as to say: Half of it I burned in the fire, and on its coals I baked bread; I cooked flesh and ate, and of the rest of it shall I make an idol? Shall I fall down before the trunk of a tree? Part of it is ash; a foolish heart has worshiped it; and he has not delivered his soul, nor will he say: Perhaps there is a lie in my right hand. After the preaching of the Apostles, the calling of the nations, the coming of the Savior, and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, whom he promised he would give to all believers, when, according to the variety of their merits, one will say, I am the Lord's; another will call in the name of Jacob; another will write with his hand that he is the Lord's, and, though sprung from the unbelieving crowd of the Gentiles, will be likened in the name of Israel, so that, forsaking idols, he may be a worshiper of the one God, another περικοπὴ begins, which we have set out whole at once, so as not to divide the continuity of a single sense. And because the Seventy in this passage, except for a few words, do not differ from the Hebrew, we have been content with our own edition, and when it has been understood, the others too will be known. The discourse is against the idolaters of that time when the prophet Isaiah was announcing things to come to the peoples, and it reproves those who, despising the religion of Almighty God, bow down to wooden images and worship the works of their own hands. Let us run through it, then, point by point. Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel, which is to believe in me, and his redeemer, which will receive the coming of my Son: the Lord of hosts, and of powers, and the Almighty. For this is what SABAOTH (צבאות) means in Hebrew. I am the first, and I am the last, I am the Α and the Ω; and besides me there is no God, because the child whom I have chosen is God in me. Of him I said above: Behold my child, whom I have chosen; my chosen one, whom my soul has received; he will bring forth judgment to the nations; and in his name the nations will hope. Nor does he say that he is alone, but that besides his own power and wisdom there is no outside God; and condemning the opinion of many gods, and images, he says: Who, he says, is like me?

I John, who also am your brother, and companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was in the isle that is called Patmos, for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ. I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet, Saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last: and, What thou seest, write in a book, and send it unto the seven churches which are in Asia; unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, and unto Pergamos, and unto Thyatira, and unto Sardis, and unto Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea. And I turned to see the voice that spake with me. And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks; And in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle. His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire; And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters. And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth went a sharp twoedged sword: and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength. And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first and the last: [Isaiah 44:6] I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death. Write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter; The mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in my right hand, and the seven golden candlesticks. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches: and the seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches.

"Thus says the Lord, the king of Israel, the God of hosts who has saved them: I am the first, and I remain after these things. Apart from me there is no God." If there is no God apart from him, the Son is not consubstantial with the Father, as the blasphemy of Arius and Eunomius teaches. How, then, can they call him God? If the Son is God and the prophetic word is true that openly states there is no other God, the divinity of the holy Trinity is one, even if they do not admit this.

Thus says the Lord. Here he shows the worthlessness of the idols. And concerning this, he does three things: first, he shows the defect of the idols; second, from this, he recalls them to worship of himself: remember these things (Isa 44:21); third, he promises the benefit of liberation to those who worship him: thus says the Lord your redeemer (Isa 44:24).

Concerning the first, he does two things: first, he argues against the idols from divine operation; second, from the formation of the idols, where it says, who has formed a god? (Isa 44:10).

Concerning the first, he does two things: first, he sets out the singularity of his own divinity: I am the first, and I am the last: I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end (Rev 1:8); second, he applies a test, who is like to me?

Let him call the things that are not as though they were, and set out the order of my creation, I who have balanced all things by reason, since I made man upon the earth. Nor do I want this only, but I also ask for knowledge of things to come.

And concerning this, he does three things. First, he sets out the divine act in announcing future things and the order of past things: let him call and declare, predestining, etc. All things were known to the Lord God, before they were created (Sir 23:29[20]).

The saints are elect through predestination: he chose us (Eph 1:4); formed through the infusion of grace: the Lord God formed man (Gen 2:7); righteous through love: the righteous love you (Song 1:3); servants through the duty of work: we are unprofitable servants (Luke 17:10).

Hence you, Israel, whose king and redeemer I am, do not fear the images, which you learned on Mount Sinai are nothing. Or is there perhaps another Creator, whom I have not known? Or besides this is there another world, to show the power of an unknown God?

Second, he indicates the sign of his divinity confirmed by witnesses: fear not, as if to say: be not worried for me, as if I would fail in a test of my divinity, below: I have made you to hear new things (Isa 48:6). Third, he deduces the defect of the idols: is there a God besides me, and first, he sets out the question: is there a God besides me, see that I alone am, and there is no other God besides me (Deut 32:39).

Isaiah sees that in the ensuing time a very great number of people will arise who all "will be ashamed" and who will cease from their continual error. They will be ashamed and hide their faces. If they persist in their error, however, they will be given over to destruction at the time of judgment. But this word is also for those of us now in the present.

And not only the things that are made, but those also who make them, will be held as nothing. And when the time of vengeance has come, the works of their hands will in no way be able to free them; blind and senseless, they confound their own craftsmen.

And the prophetic discourse on the mockery of idols is woven more fully, but these things are easy to understand and do not call for a long-winded, nay, a superfluous exposition. On this Flaccus too writes in a Satire, deriding the images of the nations (Satires, book 1, 8): Once I was a fig-tree trunk, a useless log, when the craftsman, uncertain whether to make a stool or a Priapus, preferred that I be a god: thence I am a god, of thieves and birds the greatest terror. . . . . . . . . . . . . And whatever has been said of idols can be referred also to the chiefs of the heresies, who with a crafty heart put together the images of their doctrines and lies, and venerate what they know to have been feigned by themselves. Nor is their own error enough for them, unless they have deceived all the simple into worshiping them. They think gain to be godliness, and devour the houses of widows (1 Tim 6), and, abusing the ignorance of the common people, with the art of dialectic, as with adze and auger, file and plane, they form their god, and forge it with the hammer, and gild it with the charm of rhetorical speech: whose god is the belly, and whose glory is in their shame (Phil 3).

Second, he shows the unsuitableness of their witnesses: the makers (plastae) of idols, are all of them nothing, of no power, above: all nations are before him as if they had no being at all (Isa 40:17), or because they do not obtain their intention, wishing to form a god with their hands, as the idol also is nothing (1 Cor 8:4), let the companions of him that is not, dwell in his tabernacle (Job 18:15); their best beloved things, the idols, which are either large and greatly to be revered or made from precious materials; third, he shows the falsehood of their testimony: they are their witnesses, that they do not see, namely, of the idols, calling them gods: a false witness shall not be unpunished (Prov 19:5).

Who has formed. Here he shows from their formation that they are not gods. And concerning this, he does two things: first, he sets out their formation to exclude their divinity; second, the manner of their formation to show their worthlessness: the smith (Isa 44:12).

Concerning the first, he does two things. First, he sets out their formation, intending this reasoning: what it is made by man is not God, etc. Who, as if to say: no one; profitable for nothing else: they themselves that make them, are of no long continuance (Bar 6:46).

How could he fail to pity them in this also, seeing that they worship them that cannot see. In hearing, they pray to them that cannot hear. Born with life and reason, people, as they are, call gods things that do not move at all but do not even have life. Strangest of all, do they serve as their masters beings whom they themselves keep under their own power?

When, however, the Scripture terms them [gods] which are no gods, it does not, as I have already remarked, declare them as gods in every sense, but with a certain addition and signification, by which they are shown to be no gods at all. As with David: "The gods of the heathen are idols of demons;" and, "Ye shall not follow other gods." For in that he says "the gods of the heathen"—but the heathen are ignorant of the true God—and calls them "other gods," he bars their claim [to be looked upon] as gods at all. But as to what they are in their own person, he speaks concerning them; "for they are," he says, "the idols of demons." And Esaias: "Let them be confounded, all who blaspheme God, and carve useless things; even I am witness, saith God." He removes them from [the category of] gods, but he makes use of the word alone, for this [purpose], that we may know of whom he speaks.

Second, he foretells the confusion of the workers: behold, all the partakers, of the worship of idols, when they come to judgment, shall stand, as if to be judged; the makers are from men, that is, from the number of men: let them be all confounded that adore graven things (Ps 96[97]:7).

"He becomes hungry, and his strength fails." The first reason for the making of idols is the need of their makers. They are hungry and thirsty and have no food, and, therefore, they make idols, so that their need may be satisfied, thanks to what they themselves do. According to Henana, it is with regard to the weakness of the idols that the prophet says that they cannot deliver anybody from these needs, when they hunger and thirst, not even the person who makes them and believes he has made a god.

For who could believe that a god is formed by adze, file and auger and hammer? And that images are either cast in the coals, or by rule, plane and corner tools and compass suddenly rise up into gods? Especially since the cheapness of the art is shown by the hunger and thirst of the craftsman. For a wooden statue is made, expressing the human form, and the more beautiful it is, the more august a god it is thought. It is set in a shrine and shut up in an eternal prison, the thing that grew for a long time in the forests and, according to the variety of trees, was a cedar or a holm oak or an oak or a pine. And in a wondrous manner its chips and shavings are thrown into the fire to warm the god's craftsman and to cook various stews; but the other part is formed into a god, so that, when the work is finished, its maker may worship it and invoke the help of his own work.

[Isaiah] has demonstrated that the production of these so-called gods relies on contributions. Their creator needs the blacksmith to prepare the tools and the whetstone for sharpening them; for his part, the bronzesmith needs coal and fire, while the constructor of the objects needs food and drink! It takes all this to prepare a god who is worshiped by these ignorant people. Isaiah is not finished mocking them. After choosing a log, the artisan immediately measures the so-called god. whereas the true God is immeasurable. He then shapes it with the appropriate tools, whereas the real God has no form or shape.… He does not copy divine characteristics but human ones; he shapes his human image and adores his own image as if it were divine.

The smith. Here he shows their worthlessness, that not only are they not gods, but even worthless things. And first, he sets out the manner of their formation as to idols made from metal: with the strength of his arm, that is, striking strong blows; he shall hunger and faint, as if to say: the god which he is making cannot help him, although it is especially bound to its maker, above: the coppersmith striking with the hammer (Isa 41:7).

Second, as to idols which are made from wood: the carpenter. And first, he shows the worthlessness of the idol, setting out its efficient cause with his tools: his rule, for making the wood straight; a plane, an instrument curved back from the side for hollowing out wood; with corners, that is, four-sided in shape, or this is the name of a tool for making shapes of this kind; the compass, that is, the lathe; as to its formal cause: and he has made the image.

As to its material cause: he has cut down cedars, which are also used for base purposes: the works of the hand of the workman has cut a tree out of the forest (Jer 10:3).

What do you think of them, and what is the nature of those who make gods from inanimate statues? For it is easy to see in the latter that they are works of artisans, prepared by axes and drills and such tools, the invention of skillful and industrious people, who through a need of food have found an instrument of leisurely falsehood. What do you think of the nature of God and about whether God needs our sacrifices and whether God is weak, as if according to Symmachus he is hungry and weak and feeble and cannot even drink water. The statement that God cannot drink water implies that he desperately needs liquid, while in fact God shares in no such thing, as though he were a dumb creature.

And neither do we honour with many sacrifices and garlands of flowers such deities as men have formed and set in shrines and called gods; since we see that these are soulless and dead, and have not the form of God (for we do not consider that God has such a form as some say that they imitate to His honour), but have the names and forms of those wicked demons which have appeared. For why need we tell you who already know, into what forms the craftsmen, carving and cutting, casting and hammering, fashion the materials? And often out of vessels of dishonour, by merely changing the form, and making an image of the requisite shape, they make what they call a god; which we consider not only senseless, but to be even insulting to God, who, having ineffable glory and form, thus gets His name attached to things that are corruptible, and require constant service.

The prophet proceeds to teach that the Creator gave the forests and woods on the mountains to supply food and fuel and for the sake of human bodies. They, however, take a holm oak, an oak or a cedar that God has planted and watered by providing rain for the benefit of human bodies and use these trees to create gods.

The wise and eloquent people among the pagans are full of admiration for a well-turned phrase. One of their main preoccupations is with elegance of expression. They are filled with the greatest enthusiasm for good style and take great pride in verbal dexterity. The base material of their poets is merely lies fashioned in rhythms and meters for grace and harmony, but for truth they have little if any regard. I would say that they are sick from the lack of any true or proper notion of the nature and reality of God.… And God said of them through the voice of Isaiah, "Know that their hearts are dust and that they have erred." … As for the inventors of impure heresies, those profaners and apostates who have opened their mouths against the divine glory, "those who have uttered perverted things," we could accuse them of having slipped in their madness as low as the foolish pagans; perhaps they have slipped even lower, for it would have been better never to have known the way of sacred truth than once to have known it, to have turned away from the sacred commandment that was handed on to them.

Nor does he understand or consider, nay, he does not see with the eyes either of the flesh or of the mind, that that cannot be God of which a part has been burned in the fire, nor can the divine majesty be made by the hand of a man.

Second, he shows the blindness of the craftsman: they have not known. Part thereof, of the wood from which the idol was made, now is ashes, for it was burned. Perhaps there is a lie in my right hand, that is, in my working: he is not ashamed to speak to that which has no life (Wis 13:17).

If it is a god, [Isaiah] says, the whole of the wood should be divine. Why, therefore, do you burn leftover parts of the wood and avail yourself of the fire to provide for your food, since at one time you bake bread, at another you boil and roast meat, and both eat and warm yourself and enjoy its light? Is not the wood that is put into the fire of the same kind as that which you worship? How, therefore, can you cast aside the one and adore the other?

Foolishness has mastered them; they have lost the faculty of reasoning and are slaves to folly. This is why I will put my Spirit on your descendants, so that they will be delivered from error, for in no other way can they receive the truth. "See, you will not say, There is a lie in my right hand." The other interpreters join this passage to the one that precedes: "[Know] that no one is able to deliver his soul and no one says, is it a lie that you have in your right hand?" [Isaiah] has, therefore, said about the people who are in error that they do not recognize as a lie that which they are holding. But according to the Septuagint, this phrase, which is put into the mouth of God, should be understood thus: "Are my works," he says, "like those of a whetstone? Has a human made me? Am I an idol? Am I fabricated by cutting wood or stones of gold or silver?"

Remember these things, Jacob and Israel, for you are my servant; I have formed you, you are my servant, Israel; do not forget me. I have blotted out your iniquities like a cloud, and your sins like a mist. Return to me, for I have redeemed you. Praise, O heavens, for the Lord has done it; shout for joy, you ends of the earth; resound with praise, you mountains, you forest and every tree in it; for the Lord has redeemed Jacob, and Israel will glory. LXX: Remember these things, Jacob and Israel, for you are my child; I have formed you as my child; and you, Israel, do not forget me. For behold, I have blotted out your iniquities like a cloud, and your sins like darkness. Return to me, and I will redeem you. Rejoice, O heavens, for God has had mercy on Israel. Sound the trumpet, you foundations of the earth; cry out with gladness, you mountains, you hills and all the trees that are in them; for God has redeemed Jacob, and Israel will be glorious. Since these things are so, and you know that idols are figments of men, O Jacob, and Israel my child, do not forget your Creator, nor do yourself the injury of bowing down to the work of your own hands.

Remember these things. Here he calls them back to worship of him. And first, he assigns the reason, setting out the duty of servitude: remember these things, that is, consider the worthlessness of idols; my servant: the portion of Jacob is not like them: for he that made all things he it is, and Israel is the scepter of his inheritance (Jer 51:19).

And since these are to be utterly destroyed at the coming of my child whom I have chosen, therefore know with all the eagerness of your mind that, as a cloud and darkness and mist is either dissolved by the heat of the sun or thinned out by a sweeping wind, so I will cause your iniquities to be dissolved, and all the sins with which you had before offended me. Only return to me and do penance, for you are to be redeemed with precious blood.

And thus, through each and every kind of malice, as though by diverse colors gathered together, you paint upon yourself this "image of the earthly," which God did not make in you. Therefore he is to be entreated by us who says through the prophet: "Behold, I blot out your iniquities as a cloud, and your sins as a mist." And when he has blotted out in you all those colors which were taken from the dyes of malice, then there shines forth again in you that image which was created by God. You see, then, how the divine scriptures introduce forms and figures by which the soul may be taught unto the acknowledgment or the cleansing of itself.

God pardoned Israel's sins when he brought them out of the Babylonian captivity. But, really and truly, it was only after the incarnation that God forgave the sins of those who believed in him. He removed the cloud of their sins and supplied them with eternal life.

And as to the benefit presented, or promised: I have blotted out, or I will blot out, your iniquities as a cloud, that is, easily: our life shall pass away as the trace of a cloud, and shall be dispersed as a mist (Wis 2:3). Second, he sets out the calling: return: return to me (Jer 3:1).

If you do this, know that heaven and earth rejoice in your salvation, and all the elements sing together; or the angels who dwell in heaven, and the other powers by which the foundations of the earth are borne; or certainly the Apostles and Prophets, of whom the Apostle also spoke: Built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets (Eph 2:20). The mountains also and the forests, or the hills, which, according to the variety of their virtues, have held the first, the middle and the last places, are bidden to shout for joy and to sound the trumpet, knowing that the Lord has redeemed Jacob, and that he rejoices in the conversion of Israel; or that Israel himself, turned from error, becomes glorious.

He calls "depths" what he once called "mountains." They excel in works and words.… For there is a great difference between grace and the law, since the law threatens punishments to those who transgress and calls out a command for repentance. Yet these heralds of grace, rejoicing, cry out proclaiming to the world the forgiveness of sins and justification by faith and the imparting of the Holy Spirit and the radiance of sonship [adoption], as well as the kingdom of heaven and the hope which will not pass away—good things beyond imagining.…The heralds of grace rejoice because Israel has been redeemed and the Son of God glorified. He is their kinsman by nature yet truly God. This moves the earth and its parts to praise. God, who has redeemed Jacob and Israel, will be glorified, or, as in the other translations, "He will be glorified in Israel."

Again, the prophetic text has made use of a personification. Just as when [Isaiah] accuses Israel, he has invited the heavens and the earth to serve as witness, so also when he announces benefits, he invites creation anew to partake in the joy; it is not as though the elements are animate, but when we are depressed, they seem somber to us, and when we are happy, they naturally seem more radiant. It is not the elements that have changed, but it is to us that they present this appearance. If, however, one desires to apprehend the celestial powers by the phrase "the heavens" and the holy prophets by "the foundations of the earth," with the thought that they are the ones who sustain [the benefits], one will not be far from the truth. For the Lord has said, "There is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents." One can understand the mountains, hills and the woods in a similar fashion. After the return of Israel, they flourished again because they were cultivated and were the source of rejoicing on the mountains.

Third, he invites all creation to give thanks for the return: shout with joy, you ends of the earth: let the heavens and the earth praise him; the sea (Ps 68:35[69:34]).

And when the prophet says concerning the creation, "That stretches forth the heavens alone," and when God says, "I only stretch out the heavens," it is made plain to everyone that in the "Only" is signified also the Word of the Only, in whom "all things were made" and without whom "was made not one thing." Therefore, if they were made through the Word, and yet he says, "Only," and together with that Only is understood the Son, through whom the heavens were made, so also then, if it is said, "One God," and "I Only," and "I the First," in that "One" and "Only" and "First" is understood the Word co-existing, as in the Light the Radiance. And this can be understood of no other than the Word alone. For all other things subsisted out of nothing through the Son and are greatly different in nature, but the Son himself is natural and true offspring from the Father. And thus the very passage that these insensate have thought fit to adduce, "I the First," in defense of their heresy, does rather expose their perverse spirit. For God says, "I the first, and I the last"; if then, as though ranked with the things after him, he is said to be first of them, so that they come next to him, then certainly you will have shown that he himself precedes the works in time only; which, to go no further, is extreme irreligion. But if it is in order to prove that he is not from any, nor any before him, but that he is Origin and Cause of all things and to destroy the Gentile fables that he has said, "I the first," it is plain also that when the Son is called firstborn, this is done not for the sake of ranking him with the creation but to prove the framing and adoption of all things through the Son. For as the Father is first, so also is [the Son] both first, as image of the First, and because the First is in him, and also offspring from the Father, in whom the whole creation is created and adopted into sonship.

Thus says the Lord, your redeemer, and your former from the womb: I am the Lord who makes all things, who alone stretches out the heavens, who establishes the earth, and there is none with me; who makes void the signs of the diviners, and turns the soothsayers to madness; who turns the wise backward, and makes their knowledge foolish; who raises up the word of his servant, and fulfills the counsel of his messengers; who say to Jerusalem: You will be inhabited , and to the cities of Judah: You will be built, and I will raise up its deserts; who say to the deep: Be desolate, and I will dry up your rivers; who say to Cyrus: You are my shepherd, and you will fulfill all my will; who say to Jerusalem: You will be built; and to the temple: You will be founded. LXX: Thus says the Lord who redeemed you, and who forms you from the womb: I am the Lord who accomplish all things; I alone stretched out the heaven, and made firm the earth. Who else has scattered the signs of the pythons, and divinations from the heart? I who turn the prudent backward, and make their counsel foolish; and I establish the word of my child, and prove true the counsel of his angels; who say to Jerusalem: You will be inhabited; and to the cities of Judah: You will be built, and its deserts will spring up; who say to the abyss: You will be made desolate, and I will dry up your rivers; who say to Cyrus that he should be wise, and do all my wishes; who say to Jerusalem: You will be built; and I will lay the foundations of my holy house. When the idols and the iniquities of Israel have been destroyed and its sins blotted out, when the whole creation will rejoice together, and, according to the faith of the Gospel (Luke 15), the angels in heaven will rejoice over the repentance of sinners, the power of God is described: that it is in no way a great thing for him to redeem Jacob and to restore an upright heart in Israel, whom he formed from the womb. And if this should seem no small thing to anyone, let it not be difficult for him who alone stretched out the heavens; according to what is read elsewhere: Who stretches out the heaven like a skin (Ps 103 [104]:2). Not that the Son is excluded from the stretching out of the heavens, For all things were made through him, and without him nothing was made that was made (John 1:3); but that, as we have often said, the idols are excluded by this sentence. For in the Proverbs of Solomon too it is said in the person of Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God: When he was preparing the heaven, I was with him (Prov 8:27). For he spoke, and they were made; he commanded, and they were created (Ps 148; Ps 32 [33]:9); and: By the word of the Lord the heavens were made firm, and all their power by the spirit of his mouth (Ps 32 [33]:6). We press these points frequently, so that no occasion may be left to the heretics for blaspheming Christ. In the establishing of the earth too, when he was making its foundations solid, there was no one with God except him who was in him.

The text has presented, at the same time, a triple teaching: God is the creator, the master and the protector. For the term "Lord" demonstrates his sovereignty; the idea of "redemption," God's protection; and that of "formation," the creation. "I am the Lord who performs all these things." It is I who have sent you the sorrows and who will obtain the joys for you. Then God shows, by the events that have already happened, what he is able to do. "I alone stretched out the heaven and established the earth." This again serves to refute completely the madness of Arius and Eunomius, for who is the one who alone has created the elements? Is it the Father? Then the Son is not the Creator. Or is it the Son? Then the Father is not the Creator. But if it is the Father and the Son, how should we understand the term "alone"? Surely it is evident that we must understand it of the one divinity of the Trinity.

Thus says the Lord. Here he promises the benefit of liberation to those who return to him. And concerning this he does two things. First, he shows the power of the liberator through the benefit which he conferred on them: your redeemer, from evils, and your maker, in good things, below: thus says the Lord, that formed me from the womb (Isa 49:5); as to the creatures, which he made: I am the Lord, that make all things: he makes the earth by his power (Jer 10:12).

He, then, being so great and such, when the time of the foreordained mystery has come, that all idols may be destroyed and the knowledge of God alone may be preached in the world, will destroy and overturn all the prophecies of the diviners, and the signs and portents of the pythons and soothsayers, by which they have deceived the human race; and he will show to be foolish the wisdom of the philosophers, which itself also is the greatest part of error, since by human thoughts they are in no way shown to have comprehended the wisdom of God.

Remember that the "heart of humanity is ashes," according to the estimate of God, and that "the very wisdom of the world is foolishness." … Then, if the heretic seeks refuge in the depraved thoughts of the vulgar or the imaginations of the world, I must say to him, "Part company with the heathen, O heretic!" For although you are all agreed in imagining a God, yet while you do so in the name of Christ, so long as you deem yourself a Christian, you are a different person from a heathen. So give the nonbeliever back his own view of things, since he does not himself learn from yours. Why lean on a blind guide, if you have eyes of your own? Why be clothed by one who is naked, if you have put on Christ?

As to the wise, whom has made fools, some of whom professed to know divine things: that make void the tokens of diviners: a sword upon her diviners, and they shall be foolish (Jer 50:36); some of whom professed to know things of the world: that turn the wise backward: has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? (1 Cor 1:20).

He will also fulfill in deed the word of his child, or servant, of whom we spoke above, and the counsel of his messengers, namely of the Apostles and all the teachers, who will announce the will of their master to the nations. He, then, who is to do such great things, whose power I have described in a brief discourse, now says also to Jerusalem, which was to be destroyed by the Babylonians, before it is destroyed, that it will again be inhabited by peoples; and to the cities of Judea, that they will be restored; he who will also raise up its solitudes, so that all may be filled with inhabitants.

Here he calls "servant" the very prophet who is exercising the ministry of these words. "And verifying the counsel of his messengers." Not only of this messenger, he says, but also that of all the others who transmit the divine word. Thus, it is not without forethought that he has made this declaration here but to give force to what is going to be said, for he prophesies in the next passage the royalty of Cyrus, who was the first to reign over the Persians, and the return of the people, the reconstruction of Jerusalem and the total defeat of Babylon. This is why he has prefaced it with "And confirming the word of his servant." "Who says to Jerusalem, you shall be inhabited; and to the cities of Judea, you shall be built, and its desert places shall spring forth." The text has shown the tremendous power of the Creator: I only have to speak, he says, and my will is accomplished; for it is by a word that I likewise effected the creation.

And as to the fulfillment of promises: that raise up the word, fulfilling it, of my servant, the prophet, or Moses, or Christ: raise up the prophets (Sir 36:17[20]).

Second, he promises liberation, first, as to the rebuilding of the cities: who say to Jerusalem: the cities of Judah shall be built up (Ps 68:36[69:35]).

Yet there will be a time when all things will be burned up by fire, as Isaiah says when he addresses the God of the universe: [You] "who say to the deep, 'Be thou desolate, and I will dry up all your rivers.' " Casting aside, therefore, the wisdom that has been turned into foolishness, receive with us the teaching of truth, homely in speech but infallible in doctrine.

"I will dry up your rivers," that is, he will extend his hand over the Euphrates. In a different way, we may intend that the Lord will destroy the devil and his frauds, into which he plunges people as into a sea. And the rivers, which he dries up, are the armies of his iniquity.

He, then, who says to Jerusalem and to Judea and its deserts that it will be inhabited and built and raised up, says to the deep or abyss, that is, to Babylon, Be desolate, and I will dry up your rivers, all the power of its kings. Or, because he had spoken of the deep and the abyss, rightly by metaphor he set down rivers too, of which the Psalmist also sings: By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat and wept (Ps 136 [137]:1).

Second, as to the destruction of their enemies: who say to the deep, that is, the sea, namely, Babylon; thus, above: the burden of the desert of the sea (Isa 21:1), above: the water of the sea shall be dried up (Isa 19:5).

And he who restores Jerusalem and destroys Babylon also says to Cyrus, king of the Persians, who first destroyed Babylon and the Chaldeans: You are my shepherd, or, as the Seventy translated, that he should be wise. The cause of this difference is plain. For if we read the Hebrew word ROI with the letter RES (רעי), it is understood as my shepherd; if with DALETH (דעי), as knowing or my understanding one; and the likeness of these letters is distinguished by a small stroke, and for this reason they are often confused. It is written at the beginning of Ezra that at the edict of Cyrus, king of the Persians and Medes, the captivity of the people of Israel was loosed, and those who wished to return were sent back to Jerusalem under Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, and Jeshua son of Jozadak, the high priest. For the Lord inspired him to do his will and to fulfill his commands. And significantly he added, who say to Jerusalem: You will be built; and to the Temple: You will be founded. For under Cyrus it was ordered that Jerusalem and the Temple be built, but while he lived only the foundations of the Temple were laid. For the rest, under Darius, in his second year, when Haggai and Zechariah prophesied, the Temple began to be built.

Third, as to the exaltation of the liberator: who say to Cyrus: you are my shepherd, feeding my sheep: he shall feed them, and he shall be their shepherd (Ezek 34:23). Fourth, as to the reestablishment of the temple: who say to Jerusalem; your foundations shall be laid, for in the time of Cyrus, only the foundations of the temple remained standing: Jerusalem will be built up again (Jer 30:18).