Isaiah 49

He calls to "the islands," which we take to be the churches of Christ, just as they are lying in the sea or the waves of this present existence and surrounded by the insulting attacks of "the waves," or the persecutions and afflictions that the enemies of the truth inflict on the churches as they war against the divine call. Concerning these islands the divinely inspired Scripture often speaks. There the blessed David sang a psalm and said, "The Lord reigns, and let the earth be glad and many islands rejoice." So when Christ taking all things in his hands reigned over it from heaven and ejected the demons' tyranny, then did they rejoice, that is, the churches over all the earth were filled with happiness.… [Isaiah] promised that our Savior Jesus Christ would be revealed to everyone and that God as the Word would come on the earth among them in a form "after our likeness." … That this is so, the person of the Savior himself attests, "Out of my mother's womb he called my name." Mixed into these words is a deep and great mystery that requires mystical understanding from above.… For he was and is God the Word, equal and sharing the throne with God the Father, coexisting and coeternal.

Consider how he who was not yet born could have a people, unless he were in being before he was born. The prophet says this in his person, "From my mother's womb he gave me my name"; because the angel foretold that he would be called Jesus. Again, concerning the plots of Herod, he says, "He … concealed me in the shadow of his arm."

Hear, islands, and give heed, peoples from afar: the Lord called me from the womb, from the belly of my mother he remembered my name. And he made my mouth like a sharp sword: in the shadow of his hand he protected me. And he made me like a chosen arrow: in his quiver he hid me; and he said to me: You are my servant, Israel, for in you I will glory. And I said: I have labored in vain, without cause and vainly I have spent my strength: therefore my judgment is with the Lord, and my work with my God. LXX: Hear me, islands, and give heed, nations. After a long time it shall stand, says the Lord. From the belly he called me, and from the womb of my mother he called my name. And he made my mouth like a sharp sword, and under the protection of his hand he hid me. He made me like a chosen arrow, and in his quiver he hid me. And he said to me: You are my servant, Israel: and in you I will be glorified. And I said, I have labored without cause, in vain, and I have given my strength for nothing. Therefore my judgment is with the Lord, and my labor before my God. I know that both these things and those further on that we are going to speak of belong to the knowledge or understanding of a single chapter, and that all must be taken in the person of Christ. But I did not wish, by setting everything out together, to burden the reader's mind, and to confound by its magnitude what can more easily be said in parts. Hence I have also set down both editions, so that what seems obscure in the one may be unlocked by the reading of the other. After the calling of the remnant of Israel, then, and the casting off of the people that remained in unbelief, of whom he had said: There is no peace for the wicked, says the Lord (Isa 48:22), he passes over to the Churches gathered from the nations, and speaks to them under the name of islands. These lie open to the ambushes of persecutors as to the waves of the sea, and, with shipwreck raging on every side, are beaten rather than moved. And lest anyone think that our exposition is forced, and that what is said belongs not to the nations but to the Synagogues of the Jewish people, there follows: And give heed, peoples, or nations, from afar, that is, from the furthest ends of the earth. Or, as the Seventy translated, after a long time it shall stand, that is, not at this time in which they are spoken; but they will come to pass after many times. The Lord, he says, called me from the womb, and from the belly of my mother he remembered my name. Which for the present seems obscure to the hearers, but afterwards will become known to all the nations, when Gabriel will have said to Joseph of the virgin birth: And you shall call his name Jesus: for he will save his people (Matt 1:21).

Instead of "after a long time," Symmachus has said, "Lend your ear, O Gentiles, [who come] from afar." The text therefore calls [those of] the islands, the continents and even those who inhabit the extremities [of the earth] to listen to the prophecy. But the expression of the Septuagint, "after a long time," should be understood as follows: the Lord of the universe promised to Abraham to bless all nations in his posterity. This promise he also made to Isaac and to Jacob. Jacob, in his turn, gave it to Judah as a blessing: "The scepter shall not depart from Judah, or a lawgiver from between his feet, until he comes for whom it is reserved, he who is also the expectation of nations." Now, a very great number of years had passed from the promise made to Abraham until the call of the Gentiles. This is why the prophetic text says, "Listen, you Gentiles, after a long time." Then he adds, "It shall stand, says the Lord," that is, to say the word of the promise, for the promise of God is trustworthy.

896. Give ear, you islands. In this part, he describes more particularly the order of liberation. And concerning this, he does two things:

first, the people confess the benefits they received;

second, they receive the promise of future benefits, where it says, and I said: I have labored in vain (Isa 49:4).

Concerning the first, they confess four benefits.

First, the privilege of divine election; and this continues why the prophet had enjoined above upon the people that they should declare (Isa 48:20); thus, immediately the voice of the people is added, declaring and saying: give ear; the Lord has called me from the womb, choosing me in my fathers: from my mother's womb you are my God (Ps 21:11–12[22:10–11]).

897. According to others, this is the voice of Cyrus, whose name was foretold by Isaiah before he was born, above (Isa 45:1). It is otherwise explained of Christ, whose name was foretold by the angel.

Make for yourself, O man, a case; stripping off the old man with his actions, put on the new. Your case, your sheath, is Christ, who protects and hides you in the evil day. Do you want to know why the case is protection? My quiver, He says, protected him. Therefore, your case is faith: fill it with the good scents of your virtues; that is, chastity, mercy, and justice, and in it, enter completely fragrant with the sweet scent of excellent deeds of faith.

This arrow signifies his divinity, resting in a quiver signifying the body assumed from the Virgin, in whose cloth of flesh his divinity was clothed.

The name Christ is not appropriate for God the Word before the generation that, as I said, was according to the flesh. If he was then not yet anointed, how could he be called "Christ"? But when the man came forth from his mother's womb, then he received the name at the same time as the generation according to the flesh. For it says that he "set his mouth like a sharp sword" … for no one can overcome his all-powerful right hand, but the Word is kept distinct from the dimensions of the humanity. For he is the Word from the Father and himself is the Lord of hosts. When he became man, the Father did not remove the power of the mystery but confirmed him in the economy of salvation.… There have been several arrows of God hidden in his quiver, in his foreknowledge, and brought out at the time prepared for each, but the chosen arrow above all others is the Christ hidden in the quiver or foreknowledge of God. For he was known before the creation of the world and brought forth in the middle of time when it was necessary that the earth be visited as it was falling into destruction.… This chosen arrow, as I said, got rid of Satan and the evil powers with him … yet he wounds in another way, for benefit and salvation. Thus it says in the Song of Songs, "I am wounded with love."

He also made his mouth like a sharp sword, so that with the spirit of his mouth he may slay the wicked one. Of which sword he himself also speaks in the Gospel: I came not to send peace upon the earth, but a sword, separating the evil from the good: For I came to divide a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law (Matt 10:34, 35). And in the shadow, he says, of his hand he protected me, so that the lowliness of the flesh might be covered by the power of the divinity, as the angel announced to the Virgin: The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you (Luke 1:35). He made me, he says, like a chosen arrow, in his quiver he hid me. When he says, a chosen arrow, he shows that God has very many arrows, but not chosen ones: which arrows are the Prophets and the Apostles, who run through the whole world. Of whom it is sung in another place too: Your arrows are sharp, O most mighty; peoples will fall beneath you (Ps 44 [45]:6); and again: The sharp arrows of the mighty, with desolating coals (Ps 119 [120]:4). But Christ, out of many arrows and very many sons, is the one chosen arrow, and the Only-begotten Son: whom he hid in his quiver, that is, in a human body, so that the fullness of the divinity might dwell in him bodily. And rare is the faith of believers: to whom it is also said above (Isa 45:15): You are a hidden God, and we did not know it. Receiving a wound from this arrow, the bride too speaks in the Song of Songs: I am wounded with love.

According to tropology this place can be explained thus: Judah is stretched as a bow when the Lord and Savior is sent by the Father into this world, he who is himself both the bow and the archer and the arrow. The bow, as in the present place. The archer, as in Psalm 44 (45): Your arrows are sharp, most mighty; and when someone has been wounded by them, he says: I am wounded with love. And the arrow is he himself who speaks through Isaiah: He has set me as a chosen arrow, and in his quiver he has hidden me. The chosen arrow is the Word of God; the quiver in which the arrow is hidden is the dispensation of the flesh he assumed.

Therefore, if anyone can with a capacious mind conceive and consider the beauty and comeliness of all these things which were created in Him, being struck by the very loveliness of things and pierced by the magnificence of their splendor as by a chosen arrow, as the prophet says, he will receive from Him a saving wound, and will burn with the blessed fire of His love.

Such is the word, the source of division that he presented to all people; likewise he declared, "I have not come to bring peace to the earth, but a sword." And moreover, the divine apostle says, "The Word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword." … "He has set me like a chosen arrow and hidden me in his quiver." Similarly, Isaiah said this metaphorically; he speaks of an arrow that wounds the souls of those who love him. Each cries, "I am wounded by love." The quiver represents the mystery of the economy of the incarnation.

Second, the efficacy of their prayer: and he has made my mouth, my prayer, like a sharp sword, penetrating unto the ears of God and the heart of his mercy: and the sword of the Spirit (Eph 6:17).

Third, the help of divine protection: in the shadow of his hand, that is, under the protection of his power; as an archer hides a chosen arrow, to preserve it: protect me under the shadow of your wings (Ps 16[17]:8); he has hidden me in his tabernacle (Ps 26[27]:5).

897. According to others, of Cyrus, whose threatening words were like a sword; and who was protected lest his grandfather kill him, and was preserved like a chosen arrow for the appointed time. Or of Christ, whose word of preaching is a sword penetrating hearts; who was protected from the weakness of the flesh by the power of his divinity; and who was chosen among all to complete the salvation of the human race.

And he said to me: You are my servant, Israel: for in you I will be glorified (Song 4:9). A servant, because, though he was in the form of God, he deigned to take the form of a servant (Phil 2), and Israel, because he was born of the seed of the Jews. And, what can be understood of no other of the servants, there is joined: For in you I will glory. For he himself also says in the Gospel, Father, glorify your name (John 12:28). He it is who in the psalm says to the Son: Arise, my glory, and arise, psaltery and harp (Ps 56 [57]:9), that is, the choir of all the virtues.

"You are my servant Israel, and I will glorify myself in you." This is to be understood according to Christ's human nature. For according to his human nature Christ is called Israel, Jacob, the son of David, the seed of Abraham, and so on. Christ is called "servant" since the servile nature God the Word assumed was the form of a slave. For "he has given him the name above every name," that is, to be the Son. As God, Christ the master was always Son, but as man he became Son. For there is not one that is "that Son" and another that is "this Son," but the one who is God the Son also became the Son as a human being.

Fourth, the glory of divine service: and he said to me: in you will I glory, through the wonders shown in you, I will appear glorious, above: every one that calls upon my name, I have created him for my glory (Isa 43:7).

897. According to others, of Cyrus, to whom it was declared that the people of Israel was the servant of God. Or of Christ, who is called "Israel," because he was born from the people of Israel according to the flesh.

For it was a labor for the Word to come among us and to surrender himself to human fragility. But "my judgment" is the punishment of the Father that I [the Savior] have turned into a feast for their salvation. For that reason the judgment was taken away from him [the servant]. Just what sort of judgment was that? [Sinners] have been cast out of his company, to be placed outside the people of God, no longer sharers in the salvation wrought by him, and they have no longer any taste of the hope of the saints, to which many of the nations have been called in their place.

And when the Father said to me these things that I have related, I answered him: How are you glorified in me, Father, since I have labored in vain, and could not call back to you a great part of the Jewish people? And all these things are said to show the free will of man. For it is God's to call, and ours to believe: nor, if we do not believe, is God at once powerless; but he leaves his power to our choice, so that the will of the righteous may obtain its reward. Since, then, they would not believe in you through me, my judgment is with you, that I have done all things that I ought to have done for them, saying in the Gospel: I have glorified you on the earth, having completed the work which you gave me to do (John 17:4); and again: I have manifested your name to men. And my work, or my labor and pain (for this is what πόνος signifies), is in your sight. For in the Gospel too he wept over Jerusalem (Luke 19), and in the psalm, because of the multitude of unbelievers, he says that in a certain way he suffered in vain: What profit is there in my blood, while I go down to corruption (Ps 29 [30]:10)? And according to the Hebrew, hanging on the cross, he says: Far from my salvation are the words of my lamentations (Ps 21 [22]:1).

It is necessary to recognize that he says these things as a human. For in the holy Gospels Christ as a human makes a number of humble declarations. For instance, … "I do nothing from myself."

898. And I said. Here the Lord promises future benefits.

And first, he promises exaltation to the prophet Isaiah;

second, he promises liberation to the people: thus says the Lord the redeemer (Isa 49:7).

Concerning the first, he does two things.

First is set out the claim of the prophet who puts forth his labor in preaching, even though, due to the fault of those who heard it, it bore no fruit, and he concludes: therefore my judgment, for myself, is with the Lord, before him, and my work with my God, as though pleasing to him: the founder has melted in vain (Jer 6:29).

In respect of nature, [Christ] differs in nothing from us, though he precedes us in time, so long as we all consist and are created by the same hand.

For a lowly appellation is given to the Word whose origin is from God, that he is called slave, that is, a household member. For such a title can sometimes indicate "son," and at other times, as we have said, "household member." In the economy of the flesh, it is appropriate to consider the Son as a slave. For he is God by nature and free as being from God the sovereign Father, yet he took the shape or form of a slave. For no one with right understanding could say that he was a slave by nature who was then able to be brought into the form of a slave. Rather, he was outside of slavery and constraint, but for the sake of a sign, in the freedom of his nature, he received the shape, that is, the form of slave.… For he was Emmanuel, and he revealed to us no less in this way his freedom which was real and by nature.… For he who was God the Word dwelled in them and among us for no other reason except so that he could save Israel and gather Jacob. For he had scattered all others who were on the earth, every inventor of wickedness, into their many-colored and multifaceted vices.

"Who formed me from the womb to be his servant." This is clearly said with reference to Zerubbabel and the people but was accomplished in Christ. And indeed, since Christ will descend from them, it is with good reason that what concerns him is represented in them as in a sign.

And now says the Lord, who formed me from the womb to be his servant, that I might bring Jacob back to him, and Israel will not be gathered: and I am glorified in the eyes of the Lord, and my God has become my strength. And he said: It is a small thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to turn back the dregs of Israel. I have given you as a light of the nations; that you may be my salvation to the end of the earth. LXX: And now thus says the Lord, who formed me from the womb to be his servant, that I might gather Jacob to him, and Israel: I shall be gathered and glorified before the Lord, and my God shall be my strength. And he said to me: It is a great thing for you to be called my child, and to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to turn back the dispersion of Israel. Behold, I have set you for a covenant of the race, for a light of the nations, that you may be salvation to the end of the earth. When I said, I have labored in vain, without cause and vainly I have spent my strength, because the Jews would not believe, and my judgment is with the Lord, and my work, which with his help I have fulfilled, is with the Lord: the Lord, who formed me from the womb to be his servant, answered me. By this he shows that he is called servant who was formed from the womb. He also says in the psalm: From the belly of my mother you are my God (Ps 21 [22]:11). What, then, does the Lord say to him? That he should bring back to him Jacob, who had wandered off, who, having forsaken his Creator, was serving idols. Hence he himself says to the disciples: Do not go into the way of the Gentiles, and do not enter the cities of the Samaritans; but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel (Matt 10:5); and in another place: I came only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel (Matt 15:24). This, then, was the will of the Father: that the wicked vinedressers should receive the Son who was sent, and render the fruits of the vineyard; but they killed him, saying: Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours (Matt 21:38); and this is what he now says: And Israel will not be gathered, that is, will not return to the Lord. And I greatly wonder how the common edition has overturned, by a different interpretation, a very strong testimony against the faithlessness of the Jews, saying: I shall be gathered and glorified before the Lord: since Theodotion and Symmachus agree with our interpretation. About Aquila, however, I do not wonder, that a man most learned in the Hebrew language, and rendering word for word, has in this place either feigned ignorance or been deceived by the perverse exposition of the Pharisees, since he chose to translate, and Israel will be gathered to him, that is, to God. For the Hebrew word LO in this place is not written with LAMED and VAV (לו), which, if it were, would signify to him or to that one, but with LAMED and ALEPH (לא), which properly sounds not. Since, then, Jacob was not brought back to God, nor Israel gathered, therefore, since they did not believe, the Son says: I am glorified in the eyes of the Lord. For in me the whole world has believed: and my God has become my strength, who also comforted me in my sadness over the casting off of my people; and said to me: It is a small thing if you serve me to raise up the tribes of Jacob, which fell through their own fault; and to turn back the dregs, or remnant, of Israel. For this is what the Hebrew word NESURE (נצורי) sounds. For in their place I have given you as a light of all the nations, to illumine the whole world, and to make my salvation, through which all are saved, reach to the ends of the earth. And what is read in the Seventy, I shall be gathered, and glorified before the Lord, can be understood thus: that the Lord has been gathered together with the believers. And as for what follows: He said to me: It is a great thing for you to be called my child, let us refer 'great' to the man and to the child, who is small in comparison with God.

Concerning the first, he does two things. First is set out the claim of the prophet who puts forth his labor in preaching, even though, due to the fault of those who heard it, it bore no fruit, and he concludes: therefore my judgment, for myself, is with the Lord, before him, and my work with my God, as though pleasing to him: the founder has melted in vain (Jer 6:29).

Second, he sets out the response of God: and now says the Lord.

And first, the acceptance of the prophet's claim is signified: that formed me from the womb to be his servant, that I may bring back Jacob unto him, as if to say: who chose me from my mother's womb for this, that I may bring back his people to him; and, yet, Israel will not be wholly gathered together, to him through my preaching, and, yet, I am glorified: the Lord God is my strength (Hab 3:19);

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 49:6] 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.

It is one thing to be named Son according to the divine substance; it is another thing to be so called according to the adoption of human flesh. For, according to the divine generation, the Son is equal to God and Father, and, according to the adoption of a body, he is a servant to God the Father. "For," it says, "he took upon him the form of a servant." The Son is, however, one and the same.… According to his glory, he is Lord to the holy patriarch David but David's son in the line of actual descent, abandoning nothing of his own but acquiring for himself the rights that go with the adoption into our race. Not only does he undergo service in the character of man by reason of his descent from David, but also by reason of his name, as it is written: "I have found David my servant";4 and elsewhere: "Behold, I will send to you my Servant, the Orient is his name." And the Son himself says, "Thus says the Lord, that formed me from the womb to be his servant and said to me: It is a great thing for you to be called my servant. Behold, I have set you up for a witness to my people and a light to the Gentiles, that you may be for salvation to the ends of the earth." To whom is this said, if not to Christ? Who, being in the form of God, emptied himself and took on him the form of a servant. But what can be in the form of God, except that which exists in the fullness of the godhead?

But when Christ appeared in the world they were gathered though faith in the one straight and blameless opinion, those whom Satan once had scattered and who formerly had deserted their love for God. They had run toward the enemy who produces and pursues sin. Those who had thrown away God's providence of good things are now with Christ at peace.… So he reveals the ministry of his incarnation, that he was formed as a slave by the Father from the womb so as to gather Israel and Jacob. If anyone says that these are the Jewish people that are meant, he has not strayed from the intention of the text. For Christ said, "I have come to save the lost sheep of Israel." But if anyone decides it is all those saved by faith who are called Israel and Jacob, he is right to do so.

He is called Servant and serves many well. And his being given the grand title "Child of God" agrees with this. For in truth he was subject as a servant to flesh and to birth and to the conditions of our life with a view toward our liberation. He was subject to all that he saved, held captive as we were in sin.

Nor is it any wonder that men, holy though they are, are nobly called servants of God, since through the prophet Isaiah the Father speaks to the Son: "It is a great thing for you to be called my child (puer)" (Isa. 49:6), which in Greek is said: μέγα σοί ἐστι τοῦ κληθῆναί σε παῖδά μου. Now because "child" (puer), that is, παῖς, can according to the Greeks signify both servant (famulus) and son, we inquired in the Hebrew, and found written not "my son" but "my servant", that is, ABDI (עבדי). Hence also the prophet Obadiah (Abdias), whose name means "servant of the Lord", received his name from his service to God. If it disturbs anyone that the Lord and Savior, who is the founder of the universe, is called a servant of God, he will not be disturbed if he hears him speaking to the apostles: "Whoever wishes to be greater among you, let him be the servant of all"; and: "The Son of man came, not to be served, but to serve" (Matt. 20:27, 28); and, lest he should seem to teach this by words alone, he showed it by example. For taking a towel, he girded himself, and filling a basin with water, he washed the feet of the disciples (John 13). It is therefore not impious to believe that he who had taken the form of a servant did those things which belong to a servant, so that he may be said to have served his Father's will, since he himself served his own servants.

We must also understand the prophet to be speaking of Christ's humanity here, for it would be no great honor for God the Word to be called the slave of God the Father. It is not "my child" but "my slave" that both the Hebrew text and the three translators make clear to us.

Then Isaiah predicts the disobedience of the Jews and the salvation of the nations. "Behold, I have given your race as a covenant, as a light to the nations." The Lord's race according to the flesh was the entire race of human beings, yet his own and nearest was Israel.… "And I will put an end to the arrangements that I made with their ancestors."

second, the response itself is set out: and he said: it is a small thing, as if to say: I will honor your ministry so much that not only among the Jews, but among all the gentiles my salvation will be declared by you: is he the God of the Jews only? Is he not also of the Gentiles? (Rom 3:29).

899. This is also clearly explained of Christ, who by preaching and the consumption of death bore little fruit among the Jews but illuminated and saved the gentiles. Similarly, it is also explained of Cyrus, although this is more tortured, who through his benefits in intention called the Lord's people back to the worship of God, and yet did not carry it out, and to whom dominion was given by God over many nations.

The Son of God assumed human nature, and in it he endured all that belongs to the human condition. This is a remedy for humanity of a power beyond our imagining. Could any pride be cured, if the humility of God's Son does not cure it? Could any greed be cured, if the poverty of God's Son does not cure it? Or any anger, if the patience of God's Son does not cure it? Or any coldness, if the love of God's Son does not cure it? Lastly, what fearfulness can be cured, if it is not cured by the resurrection of the body of Christ the Lord? Let humanity raise its hopes and recognize its own nature: let it observe how high a place it has in the works of God. Do not despise yourselves, you men: the Son of God assumed manhood. Do not despise yourselves, you women: God's Son was born of a woman. But do not set your hearts on the satisfaction of the body, for in the Son of God we are "neither male nor female." Do not set your heart on temporal rewards: if it were good to do so, that human nature which God's Son assumed would have set its heart on this. Do not fear insults, crosses and death: for if they did harm humanity, the humanity that God's Son assumed would not have endured.

For any powers and rational beings and also human beings on the earth who are holy—only through participation in the holy One by nature and who alone is truly holy are they called holy … and he who is alone holy together with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit has given from his own fullness to those sharing the holiness with him.

For it is clear that Christ caused the salvation of the flesh for all those on the earth. Through his resurrection, death was destroyed and destruction was stamped out, and we are brought springing back to life, we who through Adam had been driven into opposition. So we do not say that the Savior prayed out of a sense of failure but rather on account of the plan [economy] that he carried out in order to inspire our following.… For he stands as an example for us in the way he showed courage before the cross.

Thus says the Lord, the redeemer of Israel, his Holy One, to the contemptible soul, to the abhorred nation, to the servant of lords. Kings shall see, and princes shall rise up, and they shall worship for the Lord's sake, for he is faithful: and the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you. LXX: Thus says the Lord who delivered you, the God of Israel. Sanctify him who despises his own soul, who is an abomination to the nations, who is the servant of princes. Kings shall see him, and princes shall rise up, and they shall worship him for the Lord's sake: for the Holy One of Israel is faithful, and he has chosen you. In place of what we have said: to the contemptible soul, to the abhorred nation, to the servant of lords, Theodotion translated: to him who despises his soul, who is an abomination to the nation, who is the servant of princes: which plainly fits the person of Christ. For he, the good shepherd, laid down his soul for his sheep (John 10), and despised it, he who is an abomination to the nation of the Jews, who curse him three times every day in their synagogues under the name of the Nazarenes. He was the servant of princes, and so humble that he stood before Annas and Caiaphas, and was sent to Pilate and Herod to be crucified. With this interpretation Aquila agreed, and in part the Seventy, although they changed and weakened the sense in this, that for nation they translated nations, and for servant servants. Others, however, think that this is said to the nation of the Jews, which despised its own soul, and is an abomination to the whole world, and serves princes, of whom it is written: Who devour my people as they eat bread (Ps 13 [14]:4). But the interpretation concerning Christ is better. What, then, does the Father, once the redeemer and the Holy One of Israel, say to the Son? Kings shall see, and princes shall rise up, and they shall worship, when he comes in the glory of the Father with his angels, and sits on the throne of his glory, judging the living and the dead: then all will worship him for the sake of the Lord his Father, who chose him. Or it is to be understood thus: Kings, whose heart is in the hand of God, and the princes of the Church of God, will worship you: for the Lord is faithful, the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you. And all these things he refers to him who despised his own soul, who is abhorred by the nation, who is the servant of princes.

900. Thus says the Lord the redeemer. Here he promises liberation. And concerning this he does two things:

first, he promises liberation;

second, he excludes their doubt: and Zion said (Isa 49:14).

Concerning the first, he does three things.

First, he sets out the things preceding the liberation, namely, the veneration of the Jews, which was the cause of their liberation; and he recalls their original dishonor: despised, because of the foolishness of the people; abhorred, because of the singularity of their worship; servant, because of their subjection to various nations, above: I will send you to a nation rent (Isa 18:2); and he sets out the veneration itself: kings shall see my wonders which I will show for you, and adore, as, literally, Nabuchodonosor did (Dan 2:46), and Cyrus and his other princes honored Esdras.

We then, as workers together with him, beseech you also that ye receive not the grace of God in vain. (For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.) [Isaiah 49:8] Giving no offence in any thing, that the ministry be not blamed: But in all things approving ourselves as the ministers of God, in much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses, In stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labours, in watchings, in fastings; By pureness, by knowledge, by longsuffering, by kindness, by the Holy Ghost, by love unfeigned, By the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armour of righteousness on the right hand and on the left, By honour and dishonour, by evil report and good report: as deceivers, and yet true; As unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and, behold, we live; as chastened, and not killed; As sorrowful, yet alway rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things. O ye Corinthians, our mouth is open unto you, our heart is enlarged. Ye are not straitened in us, but ye are straitened in your own bowels. Now for a recompence in the same, (I speak as unto my children,) be ye also enlarged.

Those who have faith by which they win justification attain by the grace of God to the law of justice. For this reason the prophet says, "In an acceptable time I have heard you, and in a day of salvation I have helped you."

It seemed right to some of the previous exegetes to make this the head of the chapter that follows. For thus says the Lord: "In due season I heard you and on the day of salvation I helped you." And they say that this is what was said by the God and Father of all to Christ our Savior. For they weave in such a sense to the words. For he prayed, saying before the precious cross, "Father, if it is possible, take away this cup from me." But he was not heard, and he drank it. When he had suffered death with the Father permitting it, then the Father said to him what was necessary, "In due season I heard you, and on the day of salvation I helped you."

The blessed Paul knew the distance between the present world and the world to come. He knew that only in the present world could the blessing of salvation be acquired but that only in the world to come could a just reward be given to individuals according to the quality of their work, good or wicked. So, when he had repeated the prophetic testimony that God speaks, "In an acceptable time, I heard you, and on the day of salvation, I helped you," he immediately followed it up by adding, "Behold, now is a very acceptable time; now is the day of salvation."

Thus says the Lord: In a pleasing time I have heard you, and in the day of salvation I have helped you. And I have kept you, and given you as a covenant of the people, that you might raise up the land, and possess the scattered inheritances: that you might say to those who are bound: Go forth; and to those who are in darkness: Be revealed. In the ways they shall feed, and in all the plains shall be their pastures. They shall not hunger nor thirst, and the heat and the sun shall not strike them: for he who has compassion on them shall rule them, and shall give them drink at the springs of waters. And I will make all my mountains a way, and my paths shall be raised up. Behold, these shall come from afar, and behold, those from the North and the sea, and these from the land of the South. Praise, O heavens, and exult, O earth: shout praise for joy, O mountains, for the Lord has comforted his people, and will have mercy on his poor. LXX: Thus says the Lord: In an acceptable time I have heard you, and in the day of salvation I have helped you. And I have formed you, and given you as a covenant of the nations, that you might establish the land, and possess the deserted inheritances. And that you might say to those who are in bonds, Go forth, and to those who are in darkness, Be revealed: in all the ways they shall feed, and in all the paths shall be their pastures. They shall not hunger nor thirst, nor shall the heat nor the sun strike them; but he who has mercy on them shall comfort them, and shall lead them by the springs of waters. And I will make every mountain a way, and every path a pasture for them. Behold, these shall come from afar, these from the North and the sea: and others from the land of the Persians. Rejoice, O heavens, and let the earth exult, let the mountains break forth into gladness: for God has had mercy on his people, and has comforted the lowly of his people. The Apostle Paul used this testimony in the second Epistle to the Corinthians, saying: In an acceptable time I have heard you: and in the day of salvation I have helped you. Behold, now is the acceptable time, etc. (2 Cor 6:2). If, then, the vessel of election refers what is said to the understanding of the first coming, let us too follow the footsteps of his exposition, and, like little children, press our letters upon the lines our teacher has traced. The pleasing and acceptable time, and the day of salvation, is the passion and resurrection of the Savior, when he prayed on the cross: My God, my God, why have you forsaken me (Matt 27:46)?

And he kept him, or formed him, when death had been overcome, and gave him as a covenant of the people of the Jews, that is, of those among them who were willing to believe: that he might raise up the land, which lay in the errors of idolatry, and possess the scattered, or deserted, inheritances, which did not have God as their inhabitant, and might say to those who were in bonds, Go forth, those who were held fast by the bonds of sins, since each one is bound fast with the cords of his own sins (Prov 5); and to those who were in darkness, Be revealed: those who sat in darkness and in the shadow of death, and could not see the light. And after they have been converted, and have beheld the clear light of Christ, they shall feed in the ways and in the paths of the holy Scriptures, and shall say: The Lord feeds me, and I shall lack nothing; in a place of pasture there he has set me: he has brought me up beside the waters of refreshment (Ps 22 [23]:2).

God says through the prophet, "In an acceptable time I have heard you, and in a day of salvation I have helped you." What other time, then, is more acceptable than when for piety toward God in Christ we are led under guard in procession before the world, celebrating a triumph rather than being led in triumph? For the martyrs in Christ disarm the principalities and powers with him, and they share his triumph as fellows of his sufferings, becoming in this way also fellows of the courageous deeds wrought in his sufferings. These deeds include triumphing over principalities and powers, which in a short time you will see conquered and put to shame. What other day is so much a day of salvation as the one when we gain such deliverance from them?

"Father, if this is not able to pass, then let your will be done." The Father received this prayer and then pointed to the time of the resurrection after death, saying, "In a time of favor I have answered you." Some dislike this interpretation and think it not persuasive, saying that the Son failed in his prayer to form a prayer that fit with God's plan. However, even before this [prayer], it was necessary that death could in no way be avoided except through him undergoing the cross and its death. Therefore, such an earnest intercession demonstrates the guilt of those Jewish leaders who exposed him to such shameful suffering against his will. For there was no previous discussion as to whether he should be given the death sentence. "For I have come down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me." So he used their cruelty as a means to an end: the salvation of the world. He also provided an example for us not to fall into temptation but to pray to God. And so these words have special meaning for those who are chosen, "In a time of favor I have answered you." For the mystery of Christ was in existence before the foundation of the world, but it was put into action for us at a time when it pleased the Almighty. So he calls the time of the incarnation "day," as does the divine apostle: "Now is the acceptable time, now is the day of salvation."

901. Another preamble to their liberation is the exaltation of the liberating king, namely, Cyrus: in an acceptable time, and he does not determine the time of his exaltation: acceptable, when it pleased me to save my people, I have heard you, exalting you into kingship, according to your desire; and the fruit of his exaltation: I have preserved you; to be a covenant fulfilled of my people. Or of Christ, who was despised in his passion and was judged like a servant, below: we have seen him . . . despised (Isa 53:2–3), but afterwards he was literally adored by kings: all kings of the earth shall adore him (Ps 71[72]:11); in an acceptable time, namely, the time of grace: behold, now is the acceptable time: behold, now is the day of salvation (2 Cor 6:2).

[When] we have changed our creditor, we have not entirely escaped, or, rather, we have escaped, but the debt remains, while the interest is canceled, the Lord Jesus saying, "To them that are bound, come forth. And to them that are in prison, go forth," for your sins have been forgiven. He has forgiven all, and there is no one whom he has not set free.

To apply these words to Zerubabbel is absolute nonsense. For Zerubbabel led the Jews out of Babylon, but he did not deliver the nations from error or present the new covenant to the nations. Isaiah says these things about the Lord Christ; it is Christ who has filled the wilderness of the world with divine shoots. He has restored the ruined earth, set those trapped in sins free from chains and illuminated those sitting in darkness with the light of the knowledge of God.

Show yourselves, that is, be illuminated.

902. Second, he sets out the things that will follow the liberation, promising abundance of good things to the liberated people: they shall feed in the ways, that is, they shall enjoy consolations so abundantly like sheep in pasture, when it is even found in the way beyond what is usual: they shall rest on the green grass (Ezek 34:14).

But since they have been called to the light of truth, they have become pastures for them, and feeding-grounds that nourish them toward spiritual manliness, and to the desire for every good thing. And God promises them the abundance of His grace, and help, and spiritual consolation. For they shall not hunger, nor shall they thirst, he says. For long ago they were in want of spiritual consolation, for there was among them no divine law, no prophet, no guide, no instructor, no teacher, no spring of spiritual waters. But since they have received mercy from God, the supply of spiritual goods has now become most abundant for them, as they have received soul-profiting nourishment. For they ate bread from heaven, they drank living water, about which Christ Himself spoke, addressing the woman in Samaria: "Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again. But whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will have in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." And the prophet Isaiah also said somewhere concerning those justified by faith, and who submit the neck of their mind to the evangelical decrees: "He will dwell in a high cave of a strong rock; bread will be given to him, and his water will be sure." But neither shall the burning heat strike them, nor the sun. For Christ has become their protector. He who long ago also suspended a cloud for the sons of Israel by day, and led them by a pillar of fire by night. Therefore, they will be outside of the sun and burning heat, he says, that is, they will obtain protection from God, so that no burden befalls them, that is, one that leads to faintheartedness.

"The merciful One will encourage them, and he will lead them by springs of water." For the springs of Israel and of salvation are plentiful. The springs of Israel are those of the Old Covenant, and the springs of salvation are those of the New.

And he who has been fed and nourished in such ways and paths shall neither hunger nor thirst, nor feel the heat of the sun: and in him what is written will be fulfilled: The sun shall not burn you by day, nor the moon by night (Ps 120 [121]:6). So that he feels neither the adversities nor the prosperities of this world. Since the Lord is merciful and compassionate, he himself will comfort them and rule them, and lead them to the springs of waters. Or, he will give them drink at the springs, of which it is written: Bless the Lord from the springs of Israel (Ps 67 [68]:27). And in another place: Draw waters from the springs of the Savior (Isa 12:3). These springs are in the Old Testament and the New.

After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands; And cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb. And all the angels stood round about the throne, and about the elders and the four beasts, and fell before the throne on their faces, and worshipped God, Saying, Amen: Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honour, and power, and might, be unto our God for ever and ever. Amen. And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they? And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple: and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat. [Isaiah 49:10] For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.

He has threatened Israel [with suffering] hunger for the Word and [with] a dearth of clouds: "I will send," he says, "a famine of hearing the word of the Lord," and elsewhere: "And I will command the clouds to rain no rain upon it." Here, on the contrary, he promises those who have believed in him that they would have an abundance of divine nourishment and that they will have sources of salvation at their disposal forever.

As to the absence of evils, both of privation: they shall not hunger, etc., and of inflicted harm: neither shall the heat, of tribulation, nor the sun, tyrants that make tribulation: the sun shall not burn you by day (Ps 120[121]:6); and he assigns the cause of both: for he that is merciful to them, shall rule them; at the fountains of waters, of consolations, he shall give them drink: the Lord rules me: and I shall want nothing. He has set me in a place of pasture (Ps 22:1–2[23:1–3]).

According to one interpretation, this refers to the lowly and Jewish people. According to another, this is the entire gathering of souls that make up the godly spiritual commonwealth. According to a still further interpretation, this is the angelic order about which the apostle says, "She is the free Jerusalem of above that is our mother," and "you have come to Zion, the mountain and city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem." The present word is addressed to the godly communion that formerly comprised the Jews. But they were brought down and suffered a fall, forfeiting their place to the church of the Gentiles.

If some come "from the north" and some "from the sea," that is, from the western parts, and others come "from the land of the Persians" (meaning the highlands), then those in the first clause who are from the land far away are called "of the midday," since the uncircumscribable southern country lies among the midday people. These people are the ones who "shall come from a distance." But the word prophesies that they will come from all over, from the four latitudes to God and will receive the promises spoken to them.

And all the stumbling-blocks that could hinder the steps of believers the Lord will turn into level ground for them, and he will bring low the high places and raise up the low, that they may have a level and open road.

903. Third, he promises liberation itself, setting out the preparation of the ways: and I will make all my mountains a way, that is, princes will help you to return, above: every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low (Isa 40:4).

And who these are for whom the way is prepared, he sets out more plainly: Behold, these shall come from afar: and behold, those from the North and the sea, and these from the land of the South. Showing the four regions of the world, East and North, West and South, he put afar for the East: for the southern region, in the Hebrew is read SINIM (סינים), which the Seventy translated of the Persians. The rest expressed it as it is read in the Hebrew, sinim, which we have translated from the South: suspecting this, that Mount Sinai is situated in the southern part, according to the Prophet Habakkuk: God will come from the South, and the holy one from Mount Paran, shady and thick (Hab 3). But if by sinim, as the Seventy translated, we understand the Persians, who are situated toward the East, we shall be able to refer what is said above, Behold, these shall come from afar, to the South.

And he sets out the return of the captives: behold these shall come from afar, from the east, and from the sea, the west: I will bring them from the north (Jer 31:8).

We say that those humble ones who submit their necks to Christ and who do not despise the yoke of a kingdom under him, in that they welcome faith, will be fit to worship him in spirit and in truth. [They will] fulfill the worship of those who did not receive faith, those who were not humble but raised their proud horns in the air and spoke unrighteousness against him and his holy prophecies and who exulted in stretching out the neck of their understanding. These were not worthy of spiritual consolation, for they were not deserving. "For what share has faith with unbelief?" as it is written.

And the heavens and the earth are commanded, either the powers that dwell in heaven and on earth, or angels and men, to sing together the praises of God. And those who are set on the height of the virtues are to testify to the gladness of their mind with jubilation and exultation. For the Lord has comforted his people, those of the Jews who were willing to believe. And he has had mercy on his poor and lowly ones: or on all his people, who were called to him from East and West, North and South, having neither Law nor Prophets nor spiritual riches, but, deserted, poor and lowly, lay subject to all the demons.

It should be noted with attention that he has not made mention here either of Israel or of Jacob but that he has given the name of "people" to those he has assembled from all parts and has deemed worthy of salvation. He has again called on creation to join in the rejoicing, since even for a single sinner who repents, according to the word of the Lord, the assembly of angels rejoices.

And he sets out the thanksgiving: give praise, O you heavens: let the heavens and the earth praise him (Ps 68:35[69:34]).

And again speaking by the comparison of a wife, He says: "Even if she shall have forgotten, yet will I not forget thee." For who can be ignorant, that the memory of God is neither broken off by oblivion, nor yet repaired by recollection? But when He neglects and passes over some things, He is said, after the manner of minds, to forget, and when, after a long time, He visits the things He wills, He is said, after the fashion of our changeableness, to have remembered. For how does oblivion weaken the strength of that Godhead, with Which even praiseworthy memory itself has no essential agreement. For men remember no things, except those which are either past or absent. How then does God remember past things, when the very things which in themselves pass away, stand ever present at His beck? Or how does He call to mind things absent, when every thing that is, is present to Him, from the fact that it exists in Him? For if it were not present to Him, it would not exist at all; for things nonexistent He creates, by looking on them, things existent He keeps together, by looking on them.

And Zion said: The Lord has forsaken me, and the Lord has forgotten me. Can a woman forget her infant, so as not to have pity on the son of her womb? And if she should forget, I will not forget you. Behold, I have engraved you on my hands: your walls are always before my eyes. Your builders have come: and those who destroyed you and scattered you shall go forth from you. Lift up your eyes round about, and see, all these are gathered together, they have come to you. As I live, says the Lord, you shall be clothed with all these as with an ornament, and you shall put them about you like a bride, for your deserts and your solitudes, and the land of your ruin, shall now be too narrow for the inhabitants, and those who swallowed you up shall be chased far away. Still they shall say in your ears, the sons of your barrenness: The place is too narrow for me, make room for me to dwell. And you shall say in your heart: Who has begotten these for me? I was barren and not bearing, carried away and captive: and who has brought these up? I was left destitute and alone: and these, where were they? LXX: But Zion said: The Lord has forsaken me, and God has forgotten me. Will a woman forget her little one, so as not to have pity on the offspring of her womb? But if a woman should forget even these, yet I will not forget you, says the Lord. Behold, upon my hands I have painted your walls: and you are always before me. And quickly you shall be built by those by whom you had been destroyed: and those who scattered you shall go forth from you. Lift up your eyes round about, and see: all these are gathered together, they have come to you. As I live, says the Lord, you shall be clothed with all these as with an ornament, and you shall put them about you like a bride's necklace: for your deserts, and the places that were scattered, and those that fell down. Now you shall be straitened because of the inhabitants: and those who had humbled you shall be far from you. For your sons, whom you lost, shall say in your ears: The place is too narrow for me: make me a place to dwell. And you shall say in your heart: Who has begotten these for me? But I was childless and a widow, and who has brought these up for me? I was left alone, and these, where were they? We have often recalled that Jerusalem and Zion are to be understood in four ways in the holy Scriptures. In one way, according to the Jews, the city over which the Lord laments in the Gospel: Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the Prophets, and stone those who are sent to you (Matt 23:37). And in another place: When you see Jerusalem surrounded by an army, then know that its desolation has drawn near (Luke 21:20). Second, it is the congregation of the Saints, who, set in the peace of the Lord and on the watchtower of the virtues, are rightly called Zion, of which it is said: Its foundations are on the holy mountains: the Lord loves the gates of Zion above all the tents of Jacob (Ps 86 [87]:1). For neither were the foundations of the Jewish Zion, which we see destroyed, loved by the Lord, nor could what is loved by the Lord be destroyed. Third, the multitude of the Angels, Dominions and Powers, and all that is appointed to the ministry of God, is called Jerusalem. Of this Jerusalem the Apostle too was speaking: But the Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all (Gal 4:26). And in another place: But you have come to Mount Zion, and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem (Heb 12:22). Fourth, that is called Jerusalem which the Jews, and our own Judaizers, following the Apocalypse of John, which they do not understand, think is to be set down from heaven, golden and jeweled (Rev 21), whose bounds and boundless breadth they think are described also in the last part of Ezekiel. Since these things are so, we must now consider more carefully which of the four Zions has said: The Lord has forsaken me, and the Lord has forgotten me. And there is no doubt that it is the congregation of the Saints, which formerly was among the Jews and has been forsaken by the Lord, that recalls these things, and complains with a tearful voice that it has been deserted and left destitute of the Lord's help.

904. And Zion said. Here he excludes their doubt.

And first, that which arose from divine indignation;

second, that which arose from their dejection: and you shall say in your heart (Isa 49:21);

third, that which arose from the power of their enemies, where it says, shall the prey be taken from the strong? (Isa 49:24).

Concerning the first, he does three things:

first, he sets out their doubt, the Lord has forsaken me, without help, and therefore I cannot hope for liberation: I am left alone (Bar 4:19);

The blessed Virgin paid that price as a woman strong and devout with the piety of mercy toward the world, and especially toward the Christian people. Isaiah: "Can a woman forget her infant, so as not to have mercy on the son of her womb? And if she should forget, yet I will not forget you." This is said of Christ. And it can be understood here that the entire Christian people was brought forth from the womb of the glorious Virgin, which is signified to us by the woman formed from the side of the man, who signifies the Church.

To it God answered, using a likeness from nature: If it can happen that a mother forgets her infant, and is not moved by pity toward the offspring of her own womb, then I too will forget you. I will say something more: even if she should forget, overcoming the laws of nature by hardness of mind, yet I will not forget my creature, and I will always hold the souls of the Saints in my heart.

This providence and love of God therefore, which the Lord in His unwearied goodness vouchsafes to show us, He compares to the tenderest heart of a kind mother, as He wishes to express it by a figure of human affection, and finds in His creatures no such feeling of love, to which he could better compare it. And He uses this example, because nothing dearer can be found in human nature, saying: "Can a mother forget her child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb?" But not content with this comparison He at once goes beyond it, and subjoins these words: "And though she may forget, yet will not I forget thee."

So tell me, where did you learn that you did not belong to those who are foreknown and predestined to become conformed to the image of God's glory? Tell me, who told you this? Was it, maybe, God Who announced this to you, Himself, or by one of His prophets, or through an angel? "No," you say, "but I do suppose that I am not predestined to salvation, and that all my effort would be in vain." And why do you not believe instead with all your soul that God has sent His only-begotten Son on the earth for your sake alone, and for your salvation, that He knew you beforehand and predestined you to become His brother and co-heir? Why are you not eager to love Him with all your heart and to honor His saving commandments? Why do you not rather believe that, having been slaughtered for your sake, He will never abandon you, nor allow you to perish? Do you not hear Him saying: "Can a woman forget her suckling child . . . yet I will not forget you" [Isaiah 49:15]? So, if by anticipation you judge yourself unworthy, and willfully separate yourself from the flock of Christ's sheep, you should understand that it is none other than you who are the cause of your own damnation.

Therefore, casting out of our souls all faithlessness, sloth, and hesitation, let us draw near with all our heart, with unhesitating faith and burning desire, like slaves who have been newly purchased with precious blood. Indeed, with reverence for the price paid on our behalf, and with love for our Master Who paid it, and as having accepted His love for us, let us recognize that, if He had not wished to save by means of Himself us who have been purchased, He would not have come down to earth, nor would He have been slain for our sake. But, as it is written, He has done this because He wills that all should be saved. Listen to Him say it Himself: "I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world" [John 12:17]. - "Second Ethical Discourse"

Only let us put the rudders of our lives in his hands, and we shall encounter an unfailing providence. God's guardianship will be surer than that of any person, for his are the words, "Can a woman forget her nursing child? Will she not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yet I will not forget you." God is nearer to us than a father and mother, for he is our Maker and Creator.

Concerning the first, he does three things:

first, he sets out their doubt, the Lord has forsaken me, without help, and therefore I cannot hope for liberation: I am left alone (Bar 4:19);

second, he excludes this doubt through the similitude of a mother: can a woman forget her infant: surely Ephraim is an honorable son to me (Jer 31:20);

third, he adds the promise of the restoration of the city.

Let us flee these evils and elevate our soul to the image and likeness of God. The flight from evils is the likeness of God, and the image of God is gained through the virtues. And so, like a painter, he has painted us with the colors of the virtues. "See, I have painted your walls, Jerusalem." Let us not wipe away with the brush of neglect the props of the painted walls of our soul.

He bore our sins in his body on the cross, and as he lay there, we were saved, and his sufferings became for us like a safe place and a protecting wall. He suffered outside the city so that he could sanctify the people with his own blood. Therefore … the suffering of Christ and his precious cross and the nailing of his hands became safety and an impregnable wall without any breach for those who believe in him. Thus he says, "I have painted your walls on my hands." … And if one wants to understand this in another way, I think it makes sense to understand it that all who believe in Christ are in the hands of the Father.… The walls of the spiritual Zion are the holy prophets and apostles as ones written on his hands, set there by God and having the knowledge of him that does not fade. For their names were written in the heavens and included in the book of life.

For know, you who think yourself utterly forsaken, that you are engraved and painted on my hands, and that your walls remain continually before my eyes. From this we learn that Jerusalem is by no means to be sought in the region of Palestine, which is the worst of the whole province, and rough with rocky mountains, and suffers a dearth of water, so that it uses the rains of heaven, and consoles the scarcity of springs by the construction of cisterns; but in the hands of God, to whom it is said: Your builders have hastened. Or, according to the Seventy: Quickly you shall be built by those by whom you had been destroyed. For destroyed by the Jews, it was built by the Jews. Deserted because of the guilt of the Scribes and Pharisees, it was gathered together at the preaching of the Apostles of Christ, both from the Jews and from the nations. There follows: And those who destroyed you and scattered you shall go forth from you: the most wicked teachers; so that you may by no means follow the commandments and traditions of men (Matt 15), but the law of God.

905. And first, as to the rebuilding of its walls, he sets out the divine intention: behold, I have graven you in my hands, as if to say: I hold you so in memory as one writes or makes some sign in his hand so that he may remember something; your walls are always before my eyes, as if to say: already I see the rebuilding of your walls: in his hands he hides (Job 36:32); a thousand years before your eyes (Ps 89[90]:4).

Since by the command of the apostle we are not allowed to understand this as about the Jewish people but about Christians, what are we to understand in that which Isaiah says here, "you will quickly be built up by those from whom you fled," except the kings of the earth who formerly persecuted the church and later would help it as much as previously foretold.

It is the king of Babylon who has destroyed Jerusalem and the king of the Persians who has ordained its reconstruction. But as these last were formerly subjects of the Assyrians, they also joined with them in taking the city. Thus, he can say that the same men both destroyed the city and reconstructed it. "And they that made you desolate shall depart from you." It is to levy the punishment for their faults that they have been delivered into the hands of their enemies. But it is the demons who are the cause of their faults, those they served in giving them the name of gods. He, therefore, predicts the end of the cult of idols and the deliverance from error.

And the manner of its fulfillment: your builders are come, that is, the rebuilders, namely, Zorobabel and Jesus and others already before my eyes; they that destroy you, the Chaldeans: the hands of Zorobabel have laid the foundations of this house (Zech 4:9).

And he added: And in the blood of the grape, his garment: that is, in the suffering of his body, he washed the nations with his blood. For indeed, the nations are the garment of the Word, as it is written: As I live, says the Lord, unless I clothe them all as a garment. And elsewhere: You will change them as a garment, and they will be changed. Therefore, he has cleansed not with his own blood, their sins which they did not have, but with our sins which we have committed.

Spiritual preparation produces faith in the one Lord, and this faith is the opportunity for salvation, through which there is a coming to the knowledge of God through baptism and the doing of various noble works for the hope of eternal life. Their souls are compared with various choice gems, and the church is shown to be fashioned with a crown.

If anyone asks what the Lord's garments, which became white as snow, represent typologically, we can properly understand them as pointing to the church of his saints. Of them Isaiah said, "You will be clothed with all of these as though with an ornament."

What, then, is the message promised by the divine words? Namely, the calling and assembling of those who were scattered and a return in the spirit for those who were lost and a way back for those who fled, and a return and a reawakening as well as the reward of love for Christ.… "And I have put them on" says the Lord, "to be the ornament of a bride." Such is the beautiful order of the churches. For it is customary in the divinely breathed Scriptures to decorate the church with gold and colors.

We have often said already that blessed Job stands for a type of Holy Church. But all they, who are joined to it by the unity of the Faith, are the garments of the Church. Of which the Lord says to the same Church by the Prophet, "As I live, thou shall be clothed with all these, as with an ornament." But by the south wind, which is doubtless warm, is designated, not improperly, the Holy Spirit, for when any one is touched by It, he is freed from the torpor of his iniquity. The garments, therefore, of Holy Church are warm, while the earth is breathed upon by the south wind; because they, who cling to her by faith, glow with fervent zeal of charity, while their mind is streamed through by the breath of the Holy Spirit.

And she is told to lift up her eyes round about, and see the sons who had been gathered to her. Of whom the Lord too spoke: Lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are already white for harvest (John 4:35). And to make us secure: As I live, says the Lord (which, according to the Old Testament, is said by the custom of swearing), you shall be clothed with all these as with an ornament, and you shall put them about you, as a bride puts a necklace about herself. Happy is he who is of such merit and such virtue that he is called an ornament of the Church. I think, moreover, that these signify the various spiritual graces by which the bride's array is adorned. Of her too it is sung in Psalm 44 (45): The queen stood at your right hand in gilded clothing, surrounded with variety (Ps 44 [45]:10).

906. Second, as to the inhabitation of men, and concerning this, he does three things.

First, he sets out the uniting of the citizens: lift up your eyes round about, and see all these are gathered together: look about you, O Jerusalem (Bar 4:36).

Second, the reinhabitation of the city, showing that it will be inhabited: I live, he says in the manner of an oath, you shall be clothed with all these as with an ornament, as a bride with her garments, so shall the city be adorned by her citizens, below: he has clothed me with the garments of salvation (Isa 61:10).

This means that he is teaching here about the ones who were swarming and absorbing it, those who had taken it over. For almost like wild beasts they had reduced and absorbed it. He shows here that the number of those called are so many that they are without number. For his children, it says, that you have lost have pleaded in your ear, "Make room for me."

For what had before been deserted, and had fallen into solitudes and ruins, will, at the coming of the Gospel of Christ, be restored, and will have so great a multitude of inhabitants that it cannot hold them. Provided only that the persecutors be chased far away, or those of whom we spoke above: Those who destroyed you and scattered you shall go forth from you.

And he shows that it will be filled with inhabitants: for your deserts, as to inhabitants, and your desolate places, as to those who cultivate the land, and the land of your destruction, as to the walls that were destroyed: Jerusalem shall be inhabited without walls (Zech 2:4); and he shows that it will be emptied of enemies: they that swallowed you up shall be chased far away.

And the sons of your barrenness, whom you thought you had utterly lost, and by them to have been widowed, shall say in your ears: The place is too narrow for me in the synagogues, make room for me in the Churches, to dwell more widely, so that I may not be crushed by the blasphemies of the Jews, so that your breadth may hold the whole world together with me.

Third, he foretells the multitude of its inhabitants: the children of your barrenness, that is, those who were born when they believed you were barren, emptied of inhabitants, below: enlarge the place of your tent (Isa 54:2).

We are to be a model for everyone around us, not just in our actions but also in our speech, in our chastity and in our faith. Let us be what we should wish others to think us, and let us show our feelings as they really are. We should never mutter a word that is unjust, even in our own heart, thinking to ourselves that it is hidden under a veil of silence; for the One who made the secret places hears words that are spoken in secret, and the One who implanted the power of thought in our innermost parts knows the hidden things that those innermost parts contain. So as people who live under the eyes of their Judge, let us remember that everything we do is exposed to the light, and in this way it will be manifest to all.

But you, unable to utter with your mouth the greatness of your joy, will ponder silently in your heart, and will say: Who has begotten these for me? I was barren and a widow, deserted and captive among the people of the Jews; I had ceased to have sons; for a long time I had not given birth. After Haggai and Zechariah and Malachi I had seen no other Prophets until John the Baptist; and how is it that I, who had been alone and destitute of a husband's help, have now begun to have so many sons? And so that we may know that Zion is built from both peoples upon the rock and foundation of Christ, Paul says to believers: Built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone. (Eph 2:20.) From this it is plain that the one foundation of the Apostles and Prophets is our Lord Jesus Christ.

907. And you shall say in your heart. Here he excludes the second doubt.

And first, he sets out their astonishment: and you shall say, because of astonishment, I was barren, because there were no men in me, who might beget children, I was destitute, of divine help, below: who has ever heard such a thing? (Isa 66:8).

Second, he excludes this doubt, setting out the manner of the multitude of inhabitants: thus says the Lord, as to four things:

Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I lift up my hand to the nations, and to the peoples I will raise up my standard: and they shall bring your sons in their arms, and carry your daughters upon their shoulders. And kings shall be your foster fathers, and queens your nurses. With face bowed to the ground they shall worship you, and lick the dust of your feet: and you shall know that I am the Lord, in whom those who wait for him shall not be confounded. LXX: Thus said the Lord God: Behold, I raise my hand over the nations, and over the islands I will lift up my standard, and they shall bring your sons in their bosom, and carry your daughters on their shoulders. And kings shall be your foster fathers: and princesses your nurses: on the face of the earth they shall worship you, and lick the dust of your feet; and you shall know that I am the Lord, and those who wait for me shall not be confounded. To what the Church had said: I was barren and captive, who has begotten these for me? I was left destitute and alone, and these, where were they? the Lord answered: Do you wonder why these things have come about? You will by no means wonder when you hear that I have lifted up my hand to the nations. Of this hand the Saint too says: You have formed me, and laid your hand upon me (Ps 138 [139]:4). And the Savior himself: No one can snatch out of my Father's hand (John 10:29). And the Apostle Peter: Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in the time of visitation (1 Pet 5:6). This hand lifted up to the nations is the very one of which this same Prophet speaks here: There shall be the root of Jesse, who shall rise up to be the prince of the nations: in him the nations shall hope (Isa 11:10). And not only will he lift up his hand to the nations; but he will also raise up his standard among the peoples. There is no doubt that this is the banner of the cross, so that what is written may be fulfilled: The earth is full of his praises. And again: In all the earth his name is wonderful (Ps 8:1). Then they shall bring the sons of Zion in their arms, or in their bosom, and carry her daughters upon their shoulders. Such too was Lazarus, and all the saints who rest in the bosom of Abraham (Luke 16), and the souls of believers, to whom Paul the Apostle said: I gave you milk to drink (1 Cor 3:2). And elsewhere: My little children, with whom I am again in labor until Christ be formed in you (Gal 4:19). And in another place: As a nurse cherishes her children: so, longing for you, we desire to impart to you not only the Gospel of Christ, but also our own souls (1 Thess 2:8). Otherwise it is ridiculous, in the Jewish manner, for full-grown sons and daughters to be carried in arms and on shoulders.

Second, he excludes this doubt, setting out the manner of the multitude of inhabitants: thus says the Lord, as to four things:

first, as to their divine inspiration: behold I will lift up my hand, as though beckoning, and will set up my sign to the people, above: he shall set up a sign unto the nations (Isa 11:12);

second, as to their honorable restoration: and they shall bring your sons in their arms, in which is signified the help which they had from the gentiles. And kings shall be your nursing fathers, providing for you in necessities: the Lord will bring them to you exalted with honor as children of the kingdom (Bar 5:6);

third, as to the exaltation of the liberated people: they shall worship you with their face toward the earth, especially in the time of the Maccabees, below: they shall come bowing down to you (Isa 60:14);

fourth, he assigns the reason for this: and you shall know that I am the Lord: in you, O Lord, I have hoped, let me never be put to confusion (Ps 70[71]:1).

But the kings who are foster fathers, and the queens and princesses who are nurses, plainly point to the Apostles and to Apostolic men: such as Abraham too was, to whom it is said: You are a king from God among us (Gen 23:6); and whose heart is in the hand of God (Prov 21): who say to believers: As newborn babes, rational and without guile, desire milk (1 Pet 2:2). The princess also, that is, ἄρχουσα, which is the sound of Sarah's name, and the queens, or the queen, of whom it is sung in Psalm 44 (45): The queen stood at your right hand in gilded clothing, nourishes Christ's little ones daily, and leads them to perfect age: and every age, sex and rank will worship Zion for the sake of him who dwells in her. For if Christ is the head of the Church, the head is worshiped in the body. And if it is said to certain people: Exalt the Lord our God, and worship the footstool of his feet (not that the footstool is to be worshiped; but that the majesty of his feet is indicated), why should not the Church be worshiped, which embraces the whole body of Christ, so that what is written in Zephaniah may be fulfilled: They shall worship him, each from his own place: all the islands of the nations (Zeph 2:11), so that they by no means come to Jerusalem three times a year in the Jewish manner, but, worshiping the Lord in their own place, possess Jerusalem. And as for what follows: and they shall lick the dust of your feet, this signifies that kings and princes, whatever of earthly work has clung to the feet of the Church, wipe and lick it away by their word. Hence the Apostles too are commanded to shake off the dust of their feet. And it is said to Peter that he who has once been washed needs only to wash his feet. (Matt 10; John 13). Through all these things the Church learns that there is no other Lord besides him, and those who have waited for him will possess eternal glory.

And all, even to our own day, stream toward Jerusalem, driven by the desire to see the three longed-for places of the cross, the resurrection and the ascension. Thus, it is from this church, gathered from across the earth and sea, that kings have become foster fathers and rulers providers of nourishment; the first offer firstfruits and the second tithes. These kings, for their part, are even granted an allocation of food for those consecrated to the God of the universe.… The rest of the passage teaches this with clarity. "With their faces to the earth, they prostrate themselves before you and lick the dust off your feet. You will know that I am the Lord." We see these things happening every day. In all the churches the faithful approach with their foreheads bowed to the ground and their lips on the doors to demonstrate their respect for God.

And kings shall be your nursing fathers, providing for you in necessities: the Lord will bring them to you exalted with honor as children of the kingdom (Bar 5:6);

third, as to the exaltation of the liberated people: they shall worship you with their face toward the earth, especially in the time of the Maccabees, below: they shall come bowing down to you (Isa 60:14);

fourth, he assigns the reason for this: and you shall know that I am the Lord: in you, O Lord, I have hoped, let me never be put to confusion (Ps 70[71]:1).

"Can the prey be taken from the giant?" These words refer to Christ, who took the imprisoned nations away from the demon, a mighty giant. Therefore the prey shall be snatched away from the mighty demon.

Shall the prey be taken from the strong? or can what has been captured by the mighty be safe? For thus says the Lord: Indeed even the captivity shall be taken from the strong: and what has been carried off by the mighty shall be saved. But those who have judged you, I will judge: and your sons I will save. And I will feed your enemies with their own flesh, and they shall be drunk with their own blood as with new wine: and all flesh shall know that I am the Lord who saves you, and your redeemer, the strong one of Jacob. LXX: Shall anyone take spoils from a giant? And if anyone leads a captive away unjustly, he shall be saved. Thus says the Lord: If anyone captures a giant, he shall take spoils, and he who takes from the strong shall be saved. But I will judge my judgment. And I will rescue my sons, and those who afflicted you shall eat their own flesh, and shall drink their own blood like new wine, and shall be drunk: and all flesh shall know that I am the Lord who rescued you, and the help of the strength of Jacob. Our Lord and Savior, who had spoken earlier through Isaiah, himself repeats the same sense in the Gospel: how can anyone enter the house of a strong man and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man, and then he will plunder his house (Mark 3)? The strong man and giant is the devil, who had subjugated all the nations to his rule, daring to say to the Savior: All these things have been delivered to me, and I will give them to you, if you will fall down and worship me (Matt 4:9). For the world lies in the evil one (1 John 5), and none of the righteous could conquer him: nor, according to Amos, take the prey from the lion's mouth (Amos 3). The question having been set, then, that no one could conquer the strong man and the giant, nor save what had been seized by him, the Lord answered that all would be accomplished by his coming: namely, that the nations formerly captured would be taken from the giant, and all his furniture and his whole household be divided among the Apostles. So is fulfilled what is written: The king of the powers of the beloved, and to the beauty of the house to divide the spoils. For he it is who, ascending on high, led captivity captive, he gave gifts among men (Ps 67 [68]:13, 19; Eph 4): that is, those who had formerly been taken captive unto death he received unto life. Hence Symmachus translated more plainly: But even the captivity of the strong one shall be taken away, and the plunder of the terrible one shall be safe. He wishes the strong and terrible one to be understood as the devil, who has been overcome by the power of the Lord.

908. Shall the prey be taken from the strong? Here he excludes the third doubt.

And first, he sets out the doubt itself: from the strong, Nabuchodonosor: or how can any one enter into the house of the strong (Matt 12:29).

Our Lord Jesus Christ came into the house of the strong man … he raided it and, throwing away the broken chains and the bonds of dark hell, he gave him over to the judgment of the great day to be kept for punishment.… Then Christ has conquered, and he has passed the victory on to us.… For he is the sole cause of our salvation. Therefore, he is the boast of the might of the saints, as Paul the most wise says: "I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength." …For Christ gave us the ability to overcome the murderous dragon so that we can take spoil from it, and we are saved from it as he sends us the victory to everlasting life for glory, praise and the kingdom of heaven.… For Christ said, "I have given you authority to tread on snakes and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy." … This is just what we take from the strong one, that is, from Christ. Since he is the Lord of powers, we have been saved and have the victory.

In consoling his people through the prophet, God accordingly promises to judge their enemies.… For the wickedness of the evil ones who customarily tear at the chosen of God with their own teeth. When this happens, the life of the unrighteous is undone while that of the righteous is not, but rather it flourishes. Meanwhile, however, the evil ones are educating the righteous through the training of tribulation so that they will hate this present life and long for the life to come.

Therefore the Lord, judging those who had oppressed Zion, or judging her judgment, will set free her sons who had been captured by the giant, and will save them, and he will feed the adverse powers with their own flesh, and make them drunk as with new wine, so that they may be glutted not by the slaughter of others but by their own death. And those who are flesh, because they have lost the spirit of God, are to feed on their own flesh. This indeed the Saint also says in the Psalms: When those who afflicted me drew near to eat my flesh (Ps 26 [27]:2). For it is not the spirit, which is incorporeal, that is eaten, but the flesh, which lies open to the bites of fierce beasts. And then Zion will learn, nay, all flesh which will see the salvation of God, that her Redeemer and Savior is he who wrestled with Jacob, or who was the helper of the strength of Jacob: so that in his passion, lifted up on high, he blessed those who crucified him: Father, forgive them: for they do not know what they are doing (Luke 23:34).

Well may that ancient ravager [the devil] mourn that he has lost his prey, for we see it is fulfilled as we have heard it foretold by the prophet. "Yes," he said, "captives can be taken from a warrior and booty rescued from a tyrant." The peace of Christ has destroyed the wall of discord built by the devil, and the house that was divided into mutual slaughter is now joined by the cornerstone, which is Christ.

For "it is I," he says, who "am God the first, and I am he for the things to come." It is he who has made us and judged us to be worthy of salvation, he who has freed us from the original deception, he who has promised us the kingdom of God, of which may we enjoy the grace of him who has saved us and to whom is due glory for ages of ages.

Second, he excludes this doubt: for thus says the Lord,

first, setting out the benefit of liberation: even the captivity, namely of the Jews: I broke the jaws of the wicked man (Job 29:17);

second, the manner of liberation, setting out the destruction of their enemies: but I will judge those, namely, the Chaldeans, that have judged you, unjustly: I will cut off all that have afflicted you (Zeph 3:19).

Whoever suffers anything on account of me obtains help from me, the One who gives strength to you, Jacob, that is, all of you from the seed of Jacob. I have said how he sends them prophetic words in the mouth of the holy apostles and evangelists that they are from Jacob, which clearly relates to the flesh. And it is small wonder that Jacob was called the supplanter, that is, the supplanter of Satan and of those who casually and with youthful neglect rush into the noose of sins.

And he sets out the determination of their punishment: and I will feed your enemies with their own flesh, either because of dissension, as above: every one shall eat the flesh of his own arm (Isa 9:20), or because of the multitude of the dead, when the mouth of one fell upon the blood of another, as if he wished to drink it, or because of famine.

Third, he sets out the fruit of liberation: and all flesh shall know, above: all flesh shall see the salvation of our God (Isa 40:5).