Isaiah 50

But Joseph was sold into Egypt, because Christ was going to come to those to whom it was said: For your sins you have been sold. And therefore, He redeemed them with His own blood, who had sold themselves by their own sins. But Christ, who was sold, is held by the assumption of the condition, not by the price of guilt, because He Himself did not commit sin. Therefore, He contracted our debt, not His own money; He took away the handwriting, removed the lender, stripped off the debtor: He alone paid what was owed by all.

God never sends away anyone who makes his home with him, and he rejects none of those who walk uprightly. He allows them to be forever associated and firmly joined to him as a way of obtaining help. However, everyone who opposes or fights against his divine teaching falls completely away from the glory of God and shows that he is a lover of pleasure rather than a lover of God. Therefore, like one who lived with the mother of the Jews God says, "What kind of bill of divorce did your mother have when I sent her away?" For no one could prove that I hated her and despised her. Instead, he would rather have to accuse her of deserting me.… It says, "I came," that is, I took human form and appeared to those in Israel, and there was no man among them, that is, no one with a heart who was able to recognize the season of redemption. "I called, but no one listened." … For he was in a form like ours, and yet he was God the Word, having become man by taking on flesh born of a woman. But those who knew this and were not ignorant of the depth of the mystery of his divinity knew that he was able to do all things because he was God by nature and suitable for the redemption of everyone under heaven.

"Did my hand reap the crop? And did it drop?" that is, Is it tired and weakened? He is inspired by what happens to the harvesters, from whose hands the ears escape. For he teaches, through these words, that it is from them that the cause of their afflictions derives and not from him.

Thus says the Lord: What is this bill of divorce of your mother, with which I put her away? Or who is my creditor, to whom I sold you? Behold, for your iniquities you were sold, and for your crimes I put away your mother. For I came, and there was no man: I called, and there was none to hear. LXX: Thus says the Lord: What kind of bill of divorce of your mother is it, with which I put her away? Or to which creditor and exactor of mine did I sell you? Behold, for your sins you were sold, and for your iniquities I put away your mother, for I came, and there was no human being: I called, and there was none to obey. After the calling of the nations, and the kings and princes, the foster fathers and nurses, and the captivity of the one formerly strong and mighty, whose prey has been distributed to the Apostles, and after the madness of the demons, who have been glutted with their own flesh and made drunk with their own blood, when all flesh has known that the Redeemer and the strong one is himself the God of Jacob, he speaks to the people of the Jews concerning Zion, who had said before: The Lord has forsaken me, and the Lord has forgotten me. Do you think that your mother, the earthly Jerusalem, has been cast off by my harshness, and that I, of an unbending mind, gave her a bill of divorce, and do you not rather understand, what is true, that she withdrew from me by her own fault? For when I said to her: Cease to act wickedly, learn to do good, she would not hear me; but turned against me a shoulder that drew away: hence I said to her sons: Woe to them, for they have withdrawn from me. Manifest are those who have acted wickedly against me. And to her herself: Your departure will instruct you, and your wickedness will rebuke you; and you will know that it is evil for you that you have forsaken me. But perhaps you cannot show a bill of divorce, and some creditor of mine, demanding money, while I had nothing to pay, takes you in compensation for the debt? It is not so: but I will show you why I have forsaken your mother with her sons. Your crimes and sins have sold you to the demons, so that, ensnared by the pleasures of the present age, both you forsook your parent and she her husband. Hence I could no longer keep your adulterous mother, but, as she wished to go, I let her. And that each one is sold by his own sins, since, left to our own choice, we are led by our will either to good or to evil, Paul the apostle also teaches: But I am carnal, sold under sin (Rom 7:14). For he who commits sin is the servant of sin (John 8). And as the avaricious and the robbers are servants of mammon, so every sin lords it over sinners. To whom it is said: Let not sin reign in your mortal body (Rom 6:12).

But hear what the prophet says: "By your sins you were sold, and for your iniquities I dismissed your mother." You see, then, that we are indeed all the creature of God, but each one is sold by his own sins and for his own iniquities departs from his own creator. We are, therefore, God's, according as we were created by him; but we became slaves of the devil, according as we were sold by our sins. But Christ, coming, "redeemed us," while we were serving that lord to whom we had sold our very selves by sinning. And so he seems to have received back as his own those whom he had created, but to have acquired as aliens those who by sinning had sought for themselves an alien lord.

For he compares himself with a husband who is his wife's master and householder. For what master is obliged to let you go? But you have been transgressors from the beginning and so cast out, "sold to your iniquities," enslaved by them, who were before independent and free. And finally, since God did not wait for you but came to you, and coming down to a lowly dignity, he became man. But no one answered him as he was calling for salvation. He adds "there was not one person," since the mass of those not answering are deemed to be as nothing. Whereas those who answered, a few out of the nations will be exempted from the fate of the nations; as with Lot in the days of Sodom, they will be brought out. For the Lord did not think fit to make the holy land available to many. And the barren fig tree was a sign of that.

Thus says the Lord: what is this. Here he begins to remove the impediments to their liberation.

And first, he removes the impediments;

second, he applies the remedies: who has believed our report (ch. 53).

Concerning the first, he removes three impediments:

first, the lack of divine benefits;

second, the dejection of persons: give ear to me, you that follow (ch. 51);

third, poverty of goods: arise, arise (ch. 52).

Concerning the first, he does three things:

first, he excludes the impediment;

second, he gives himself as an example: the Lord has given (Isa 50:4);

third, he deduces salutary counsel: who is there among you that fears the Lord (Isa 50:10).

Concerning the first, he does two things:

first, he excludes the lack of divine benefits on the part of the divine will;

second, on the part of the divine power: is my hand shortened (Isa 50:2).

Concerning the first, he does three things.

First, he excludes the lack of divine will, as though of his own accord God did not wish to benefit them, excluding a twofold manner of alienation, namely, the manner of alienating a wife, which occurred through a bill of divorce, as is said in Deuteronomy 24:1, which indeed was permitted to them because of the hardness of their hearts (Matt 19:8). What is this bill of the divorce of your mother?

But, on the contrary, Jeremiah 3:8 says, because Israel had played the harlot, I had put her away.

And to this is to be said that the Lord, considered in himself, did not repudiate them, but rather they, through their sins, put God away. He also excludes the manner of alienating a possession: or who is my creditor, to whom I sold you, as if to say: if I should sell you, who are my inheritance (Isa 19:25), to him, what should I repay, not having anything else? Thus it is clear, because I did not alienate you from my dominion, that I am ready to benefit you of my own accord.

Second, he shows the sin of human will: behold you are sold for your iniquities: but I am a carnal man, sold under sin (Rom 7:14).

Note on the words, you are sold for your iniquities (Isa 50:1), that man sells many things for sins:

first, the virtue of his soul: they have given all their precious things for vile things (Lam 1:11);

second, his heavenly inheritance: the Lord be merciful to me, and not let me sell the inheritance of my fathers (1 Kgs 21:3);

third, the liberty of his soul: there is not a more wicked thing than to love money (Sir 10:10);

fourth, the honor of divine love: the Lord loves the children of Israel (Hos 3:1).

No one who views things correctly thinks God possesses a physical body. It is only that the holy Scriptures speak in a human fashion about him. For those of us in simple and crass bodies can think in no other way, except that these things are adapted for us by a range of metaphors, so that in the perception of visible things we are able to know in part about the divine and higher being, which is higher than all bodily imaginings. Observe how in these words the message is adapted to human understanding.

And so that you may know that your mother was not repudiated by me, but withdrew by her own will, after many benefits I took a human body, and spoke no more through the Prophets, but in person. I came, and there was no man, or human being. For all, abandoning the image of man and of a human being, took on the images of beasts and serpents. Hence it is said to Herod because of his malice: Go and tell that fox (Luke 13:32). And to the Pharisees: Brood of vipers (Matt 23:33). And to the lustful: They have become horses mad after females (Jer 5:8). And of the pleasure-lovers: Do not cast your pearls before swine. And to the shameless: Nor give what is holy to dogs (Matt 7:6). And in common of them all: The vision of the four-footed beasts that were in the desert (Isa 30). The Lord therefore came, and did not find a man. For man, when he was in honor, did not understand: he was compared to senseless cattle, and became like them (Ps 48 [49]:13). I called them, he says, as a rational animal, and said: Incline your ear to the words of my mouth (Ps 77 [78]), and my people did not hear my voice. I cried out, and said: If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink (John 7:37). And in another place: Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened (Matt 11:28). And there was none to hear; hence I said to them in the Gospel: You have neither seen the form of God, nor heard his voice, because you do not have his word abiding in you (John 5:37, 38).

According to the anagogy, at the rebuke of the Lord the sea becomes a desert when all the bitterness of this world is dried up, and the rivers are made desolate, of which the spiritual dragon in Egypt said: The rivers are mine, and I made them (Ezek 29:9). And of which we read in another place: What have you to do with the way of the Assyrians, to drink the waters of the rivers (Jer 2:18)? The fish too, when the net has been cast into the sea, shall rot, those which have been separated from the good fish.

Is my hand shortened, and made very small, so that it cannot redeem? Or is there no power in me to deliver? Behold, at my rebuke I will make the sea a desert, I will turn the rivers into dry land: the fish shall rot for lack of water, they shall die of thirst. I will clothe the heavens with darkness, and make sackcloth their covering. LXX: Is my hand not able to deliver, or is it not strong enough to rescue? Behold, by my threat I will make the sea a desert, and make the rivers deserts, and their fish shall dry up, because there is no water, and they shall die of thirst. And I will clothe the heaven with darkness, and make its covering as haircloth. Against those who thought that the Lord had not been able to free his people from captivity, he sets out a reason and the fullest examples: that he who made the Red Sea passable for his people (Exod 14), dried up the streams of the Jordan, and, when the rivers in Egypt dried up, turned the fish to rottenness (Exod 7), and who for three days in Egypt made a darkness that could be felt, so that the heaven seemed covered as with sackcloth and darkness, could surely also free his people from danger. Or, because he had said above: I came, and there was no human being: I called, and there was none to hear, we can say this: that he who is the performer of such great signs, and makes heaven and earth and the seas serve his nod, could also himself have escaped the cross, as he says in the Gospel: Or do you think that I cannot ask my Father, and he would give me at once more than twelve legions of angels (Matt 26:53)?

They were ignorant of the words of the prophet Isaiah, who prophesied these very same things concerning him, and said in the person of the Lord and Savior himself: "what, that I came, and there was no man? I called, and there was none who would obey? Is my hand not able to rescue? Or can I not deliver? Behold, at my rebuke I will make the sea a desert, and I will set the rivers a desert. And their fish shall be dried up because they have no water, and shall die of thirst. And I will clothe the heaven with darkness, and make its covering like sackcloth. The Lord gives me the tongue of instruction, that I may know how it behooves me to speak the word; he set me in the morning, he applied to me an ear to hear, and the instruction of the Lord shall open my ears; but I am not unbelieving, nor do I contradict. I offered my back to the scourges, and my cheeks to the palms of hands, but I did not turn away my face from the confusion of spittings, and the Lord God became my helper". For all who are of the Church confess him to be Christ who says: "the Lord, the Lord gave me the tongue of instruction" and the rest which I have expounded.

But I have fittingly expounded also those things which above were joined to these, wishing to show that this was prophesied concerning that glorious one, that he should be spat upon and buffeted. For to what other does it fit to say: "I came", except to Christ who came into the world? Or whom did it befit to say: "I called, and there was none who would obey", except him who came to call the people of the Jews and was not heard, and therefore did not rescue the people nor deliver it, but forsook it? And it is Christ who says: "behold, at my rebuke I will make the sea a desert, and I will set the rivers a desert", who is to bring about the consummation of the world. For it is he who will clothe the heaven with "darkness" and clothe it "as with sackcloth", and, receiving from the Father the "tongue of instruction", knew how "it behooved him to speak the word" which God had entrusted to him; and "he applied to him an ear", that he might hear more than all who hear, and the "instruction" of the Father opened his ear, because he was not unbelieving to the Father who sent him nor contradicting, and by the very deed he taught those desiring to learn meekness and praiseworthy humility. And there was a work in this, that he taught these things by deeds, offering his "back to the scourges and his cheeks to the palms of hands" and not turning away his face "from the confusion of spittings", so that us (as I judge), who had all been worthy to suffer these disgraces, he himself might rescue by suffering them for us. For he did "not die for us", that we might not die, but that we might not die for ourselves; and he was struck with blows for us and was spat upon, so that we, who had been worthy of all these things on account of our sins, might not suffer them, but that, suffering them for righteousness, we might receive them gladly.

Then he recalls for them what he has accomplished: "Behold, by my rebuke I will dry up the sea and make rivers a wilderness; and their fish shall be dried up because there is no water and shall die for thirst." Symmachus has rendered this passage as if it concerns events already accomplished: "Behold that at my rebuke I have dried up the sea, that I have made the rivers a desert and that their fish have been putrified for lack of water." Thus, the God of the universe accomplished this at the time he delivered them from the bondage of the Egyptians: it was then that he parted the Red Sea, divided the Jordan in two and revealed that the fish in its bed were dead from deprivation of its nourishing waters. If, however, one likewise understands this passage [to relate] to the future, as the Septuagint desires [to do], one will do no violence to the senses. It indicates from great miracles that he will also be able to accomplish small things: if it was easy for me to dry up the sea, he says, and to interrupt the course of rivers, it would have been much easier to annihilate an army that was marching against you.

I have many times endured your belief in idols and the infinite number of iniquities that you have perpetrated, but what you have dared now is not susceptible to any pardon: it is an evil that is irremediable and incurable. For I am no longer acting through the prophets as intermediaries, but I have assumed the form of a servant, and I have lived among you as a man; and in spite of the frequency of my appeals and my exhortations, I have not persuaded you. This, in turn, is confirmed by the recital of the divine Gospels in these terms: "Jesus cried out, saying, 'If anyone thirst, let him come to me and drink,' and elsewhere: "Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." The divine Evangelists have let us know still many other declarations of this kind. In this way, then, the prophetic text has taught us that the total destruction that they undergo in the last place has been obtained for them by their folly against the Master. Then, in interrogative form again [he declares]: "Is not my hand strong to redeem? Or do I not have the strength to protect you [from danger]?" Do you think, he says, that the adversaries have conquered me because of my weakness? Is it not possible for anyone to see how easy and convenient it is for me to make you appear superior to everyone?

Third, he sets out the argument: because I came, through inspiration, I called, through the prophets: I called, and you refused (Prov 1:24).

Is my hand shortened? Here he excludes lack on the part of divine power, first excluding lack of power: shortened, that I cannot subject them to me even from afar; little, against the powerful, below: behold the hand of the Lord is not shortened (Isa 59:1).

Second, he sets out a sign of divine power: behold,

first, in the waters: at my rebuke, that is, my command, I will make the sea a desert, if I wish, as I did when Israel came forth from Egypt (Exod 14:15–31); I will turn the rivers into dry land, like the Arnon (Num 21:13–20) and the Jordan (Josh 4); the fishes shall rot, as in Exodus 7:16–21, when the waters were turned into blood: he rebuked the Red Sea and it was dried up (Ps 105[106]:9).

And as for what follows: I will clothe the heaven with darkness, and its covering shall be as haircloth, either let us understand by heaven all that is above us, as the birds which are in the air are called heavenly, and the adverse powers, which run to and fro between heaven and earth, are said to be heavenly. Or certainly the heaven is clothed with darkness when it is covered with clouds. According to what is written: Who covers the heaven with clouds, and gives rain to the earth (Ps 146 [147]:8). And in threatening drought God says: I will make the heaven bronze, and the earth iron (Deut 28:23). Not that the nature of the elements is changed, but that by bronze and iron the greatness of the punishments is shown. The philosophers say that the clouds are not raised up more than ten stadia from the earth, and hide the brightness of the sun. It is not, then, the heaven that is wrapped in sackcloth, but, the light of heaven being shut off, the air that is beneath is darkened by the darkness of the cloud. We can interpret the heavens wrapped in darkness and covered with sackcloth thus: that we say all are under sin, and that the saints too need the mercy of God.

"I will clothe the sky with shadows, and I will change its cover to be like mourning cloth." He has done this and will do it. For he did it when he was crucified: "From the sixth hour to the ninth the shadows covered the whole earth." And he will do it again at the time of the fulfillment, for it says, "The sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give off its light."

Second, he shows signs of his power in the heavens: I will clothe the aerial heavens with darkness, as in Egypt (Exod 10:21); who covers the heaven with clouds (Ps 146[147]:8).

Now what ought we to learn before everything else, but to be silent that we may be able to speak? Lest my voice should condemn me before that of another acquits me, for it is written: "By your words you shall be condemned." What need is there, then, that you should hasten to undergo the danger of condemnation by speaking when you can be more safe by keeping silent? How many have I seen to fall into sin by speaking, but scarcely one by keeping silent; and so it is more difficult to know how to keep silent than how to speak … a person is wise, then, who knows how to keep silent. Lastly, the Wisdom of God said, "The Lord has given to me the tongue of learning, that I should know when it is good to speak." Justly, then, is one wise who has received of the Lord to know when he ought to speak. Wherefore the Scripture says well: "A wise person will keep silence until there is opportunity."

[Ministers] who sing thankful hymns say that they have been given a tongue of discipline; that is, they are able to speak in a trained manner and expound the divine mysteries without fault and are able to speak fittingly to those who need words of encouragement.… On us the sun of righteousness has arisen and has shed its light on our mind so that we are and are known as children of light and of the day. For we, having faith in Christ, are enriched with illumination from him; that is, we have our hearing enhanced and are thus enabled to hear.

"The Lord God has given me the tongue of the doctrine." These words refer to Christ as well, who preached his new doctrine to all the peoples. And therefore all the peoples listened to it and were converted.

The Lord has given me a learned tongue, that I may know how to sustain by a word him who is weary. He rouses in the morning, in the morning he rouses my ear, that I may hear him as a master. The Lord God has opened my ear: and I do not gainsay; I have not gone backward. I gave my body to those who struck, and my cheeks to those who plucked them. I did not turn away my face from those who rebuked and spat. The Lord God is my helper, therefore I am not confounded: therefore I have set my face like a very hard rock, and I know that I shall not be confounded. LXX: The Lord gives me a tongue of discipline, that I may know when I ought to speak a word. He set me in the morning, he added to me an ear for hearing; and the discipline of the Lord opens my ears. But I do not refuse, nor do I gainsay. I gave my back to the scourges, and my cheeks to blows. But I did not turn away my face from the shame of spittings. And the Lord is my helper, therefore I am not confounded: but I have set my face like a very strong rock, and I shall know that I shall not be confounded. The Jews, separating this little chapter from what goes before, want to refer it to the person of Isaiah: that he says he received from the Lord the word by which to sustain the weary and wandering people and call it back to salvation; and that, after the manner of little children, who are taught in the morning hours, he hears from the Holy Spirit what he should speak; and that he did not gainsay his command, but when the Lord asked, Whom shall I send, and who will go to this people? he answered him: Here am I, send me (Isa 6:8). And because he had said, Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom: give ear to the Law of our God, you people of Gomorrah (Isa 1:10), he suffered such hard things that he was exposed not only to insulting words but also to the pains of blows. Yet, through his awareness of the God who commanded him, he was not at all terrified; but, according to what is said to Ezekiel, Behold, I have made your face stronger than their faces, and your forehead harder than their foreheads; like adamant and flint I have made your face (Ezek 3:8, 9), he beat down all their assaults. So let those say who strive by every means to overturn the prophecies about Christ and to twist them by a crooked interpretation into a perverse understanding: as if, should these things too have been written of Isaiah, they could take away the other testimonies about Christ, which are so plain that they pour their clear light into the eyes of all. To the person of the Lord, then, with whom the previous book also ended, these things too are to be referred: that according to the dispensation of the body he assumed he was taught, and received a tongue of discipline, that he might know when he ought to speak and when to be silent. Indeed, he who was silent in his passion now speaks through the Apostles and apostolic men in the whole world. And it belongs to great knowledge to give one's fellow servants their food in due season, and to consider the persons of the hearers. Hence the Apostle Paul too speaks to those who did not accept the faith of the Prophets with testimonies from their own authors: as some of your own poets have said: For we are also his offspring (Acts 17:28), meaning Aratus. And again, from the Comic poet: Evil conversations corrupt good morals (1 Cor 15:33); and the hexameter verse of Epimenides: Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, idle bellies (Titus 1:12). If these do not keep the order and measure of the meter in translation, it must be known that in Greek they run on metrical feet. And he did this because he had received a tongue of discipline, that he might know when he ought to speak a word. To him an ear was added by grace, which he did not have by nature: so that we may understand that by no means are the ears of the body to be taken here, but those of the mind, of which the Lord also spoke in the Gospel: He who has ears to hear, let him hear (Luke 8:8). This discipline and instruction opened his ears, that he might pass on the knowledge of the Father even to us; he who did not gainsay him, but became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross (Phil 2). So that he set his body, or his back, to the blows; and scourges cut the breast that held God, and he did not turn his cheeks away from the slaps. That he endured this from the servant of the chief of the Priests is not in doubt, so that the crowds of the Jews too mocked him, vying with one another. Struck and spat upon, he did not blush, but was led as a lamb to the sacrifice; and as a sheep before its shearer he did not open his mouth. And that the Son, according to the mystery of the body he took up, heard from the Father what he should speak, we learn more fully in the Gospel, in which he himself says: And the Father who sent me has given me a commandment, what I should say and what I should speak. And again: As I hear, so I judge (John 8:28; 5:30).

For the power of His strong word, by which He always confuted the Pharisees and Scribes, and, in short, all your nation's teachers that questioned Him, had a cessation like a plentiful and strong spring, the waters of which have been turned off, when He kept silence, and chose to return no answer to any one in the presence of Pilate; as has been declared in the memoirs of His apostles, in order that what is recorded by Isaiah might have efficacious fruit, where it is written, "The Lord gives me a tongue, that I may know when I ought to speak." Again, when He said, "Thou art my God; be not far from me," He taught that all men ought to hope in God who created all things, and seek salvation and help from Him alone; and not suppose, as the rest of men do, that salvation can be obtained by birth, or wealth, or strength, or wisdom.

Christ our Master says this in a human way. For the rest, we find many statements of this kind in the divine Gospels: "And Jesus increased in age," it is said, "and wisdom and grace before God and before people." He calls youth "early"; thus, the prophet likewise taught this in a preceding passage. After having announced [Christ's] conception by the Virgin, he had added, "Before he [the child] shall know good or evil, he refuses evil, to choose the good." The Evangelist declares something similar: "And the child grew and became strong in spirit, filled with wisdom; and the grace of God was on him." As for the phrase "the instruction the Lord gives opens my ears," in my opinion, it is not pronounced regarding him but on the subject of the disciples who believed in [Christ], for he gives the name of "ears" to his hearers, that is, to those to whom he presents the divine words, that is, to those to whom he declared, as we learn it in reading the holy Gospels: "He who has ears to hear, let him hear!"

The Lord has given me. Here he gives himself as an example.

And first, as to the grace of the benefit he received, both as to eloquence: a learned tongue, that I should know how to uphold, with encouragements: your words have confirmed them that were staggering (Job 4:4); and as to wisdom: he wakens my ear, to listen, in the morning, from the beginning of my preaching, or from the beginning of his life, or because he was then alone to pray: I will meditate on you in the morning (Ps 62:7[63:6]).

The Lord God has opened my ear, to understand: I will hear what the Lord God will speak in me (Ps 84:9[85:8]); one is your master, Christ (Matt 23:10).

Second, he gives himself as an example as to obedience, setting out his perfect obedience: and I do not resist, but I receive and accept his inspiration; I have not gone back, from my good intention, above: woe to him that gainsays his maker (Isa 45:9).

Also, on the words, and I do not contradict (Isa 50:5), note that they contradict God,

who, first, are unfaithful to divine truth: in nowise contradict the truth (Eccl 4:30);

second, those who are impatient with divine correction: who contradict him, and has had peace? (Job 9:4);

third, those who are impenitent toward the divine goodness, above: they shall be as nothing, and the men shall perish that contradict thee (Isa 41:11);

fourth, those who are disobedient toward divine authority: your people are as they that contradict the priest (Hos 4:4).

And being by nature intangible, the Word yet said, "I gave my back to the stripes, and my cheeks to blows, and I hid not my face from shame and spitting." For what the human body of the Word suffered, this the Word, dwelling in the body, ascribed to himself, in order that we might be enabled to be partakers of God the Word. Truly it is a mystery that it was he who suffered, and yet suffered not. He suffered, because his own body suffered, and he was in it, which thus suffered. He suffered not, because the Word, being by nature God, is impassible. And while he, the incorporeal, was in the passible body, the Body had in it the impassible Word, which was destroying the infirmities inherent in the body.

Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ comes before us, when he would show [people] how to suffer, who when he was struck bore it patiently, being reviled he reviled not again, when he suffered he threatened not, but he gave his back to the smiters and his cheeks to buffetings, and he turned not his face from spitting; and at last, he was willingly led to death, that we might behold in him the image of all that is virtuous and immortal, and that we, conducting ourselves after these examples, might truly tread on serpents and scorpions and on all the power of the enemy.

If you remain unruffled, you silence your insolent assailant by giving him a practical illustration of self-control. Were you struck? So also was the Lord. Were you spat on? The Lord also suffered this, for "he did not turn his face from the shame of the spittle." … You have not been condemned to death or crucified.

[This is] as though he were to say, "Though I knew beforehand that they would strike me, I did not even turn aside my cheek; for how could I have nerved my disciples to undergo death for the truth if I had been afraid?"

Now if God willed to accept and to lower Himself to such sufferings, dishonours, and humiliations, then no matter how much you humble yourself, you whose nature is mud and subject to death, you will never resemble your Lord [in this]. God for your sake humbled Himself, but you, for your own sake, do not humble yourself. You are proud and puffed up. God came and took up your burden to give you His rest, but you do not wish to endure labours and suffering. By your labours your wounds are healed.

This whole recital is taught by the holy Gospels. For the servant of the high priest gave [Christ] a blow on the cheek; some struck his face, saying, "Prophesy to us, Christ! Who is the one who struck you?" Others spat in his face; as for Pilate, he had him scourged and delivered him to be crucified. So, all this he predicts in the prophecy to teach of his own patience.

He also sets out the constancy of his obedience, that he did not abandon his obedience for any danger: I have given my body, that is, I exposed myself that I should suffer such things; or perhaps he literally suffered these things, but in Christ this was completely fulfilled (Matthew 26 and 27): I have given my dear soul into the hand of enemies (Jer 12:7).

And the Father was Christ's helper. For he did not allow or concede that his own Son should be completely shamed or overwhelmed. For they were punished, those who sought to take their punishment out on me as those who dare to fight with God.… For though being with us, he was the only-begotten Word of God. He put on an identical human likeness, by which reason alone he was believed to be of a nature with us. For every human being is subject to faults and sins, and no one alive is completely blameless. He alone in becoming man retained the divine dignity.… And being Word and God, his flesh was able to shoo away destruction. Thus, the Son became a man who was fit to be accepted by the Father. For all that human beings have is God-given. For the one God and Father, through him, undid the power of death through his resurrection from the dead.… He was the servant of God, who while being human was yet truly the Son of God and the Father. And to hear his voice means no transgression of the law but a confirming of the law through types and shadows discerning the truth which is Christ and the prophecies of him, as Paul notes. … His voice is the evangelical and divine preaching that calls us to the redemption that is through faith in Christ. He also calls us to a proper behavior that lives in a way that is, by far, more consistent than the way of the law. The law was given in the shadows. Faith was given in the bright and shining light.

Nevertheless, you will say, adversity is a terrible thing and grievous to be borne. Yet look at it again compared with another image and then also learn to despise it. For the railings, and insults, and reproaches, and gibes inflicted by enemies, and their plots are compared to a worn-out garment, and moth-eaten wool when God says "Fear ye not the reproach of men, neither be ye afraid of their revilings, for they shall wax old as doth a garment, and like moth-eaten wool so shall they be consumed." Therefore let none of these things which are happening trouble thee, but ceasing to invoke the aid of this or that person, and to run after shadows (for such are human alliances), do thou persistently call upon Jesus, whom thou servest, merely to bow his head; and in a moment of time all these evils will be dissolved.

Third, he gives himself as example as to the trust which he had in God,

first, setting out his ready defense: the Lord God is my helper: the Lord is with me as a strong warrior (Jer 20:11);

second, the security of his trust: and I set my face as a most hard rock, that I might be moved by neither fear nor shame: I have made your face like an adamant and like flint (Ezek 3:9);

third, he assigns the reason for this security from the power of the one who helps him: he is near that justifies me, namely, God. Who will contend with me, with words; let us stand together: set me beside you, O Lord, and let any man's hand fight against me (Job 17:3); who is my adversary, with deeds. Who is he that shall condemn me, with false judgments: God is he that justifies: who is he that shall condemn? (Rom 8:33–34); again, he assigns the reason for this security from the weakness of those who attack him: lo, they shall all be destroyed as a garment, with old age, in which is signified natural defect, the moth, in which is signified the violent man: who am to be consumed as rottenness, and as a garment that is moth-eaten (Job 13:28); as if to say: from all these things, just as I, after the benefits I received, obey God and trust in him, so should you also.

Near is he who justifies me: who gainsays me? Let us stand together. Who is my adversary? Let him come near to me. Behold, the Lord God is my helper: who is he that will condemn me? Behold, they shall all be worn away like a garment, the moth shall eat them. LXX: He who is near justifies me: who is he that is judged with me, let him resist me together? And who is he that enters into judgment against me? Let him draw near to me. Behold, the Lord is my helper, who will afflict me? Behold, all of you shall grow old like a garment, and like a moth it shall eat you. If anyone, he says, thinks that I was justly given over to the cross and had committed some sin, let him resist me. Who is he that is judged with me, so that he may be overcome not by the power of my majesty but by reason? Now a man is judged with the Lord not by the authority of one who reigns but by comparison of virtues: as the Apostles also judge the twelve tribes of Israel, and the Ninevites and the queen of Sheba judge the people of the Jews. In this sense it is said to Jerusalem: Sodom is justified by you (Ezek 16:52).

Third, he assigns the reason for this security from the power of the one who helps him: he is near that justifies me, namely, God. Who will contend with me, with words; let us stand together: set me beside you, O Lord, and let any man's hand fight against me (Job 17:3); who is my adversary, with deeds.

There is a person who runs down birth, describing it as subject to decay and death, who forces things and suggests that the Savior was speaking about having children in saying that we should not store treasure on earth, where it grows rusty and moth-eaten. And [this person] is not ashamed to set alongside these the prophet's words: "You shall all grow old like clothes, and the moth will feed on you." We do not contradict Scripture. Our bodies are subject to decay and are naturally unstable. Perhaps he might be prophesying decay to his audience because they were sinners. The Savior was not speaking about having children. He was encouraging sharing of resources in those who wanted only to amass vast amounts of wealth rather than offer help to those in need.

Since, then, no one can be justified in the presence of the Lord, all shall grow old like a garment (Ps 101 [102]). And what grows old is near to perishing. And like a moth, he says, it shall eat them: namely the conscience of sins, and jealousy over the nations that have been saved. Of this it is said at the end of this volume: Their worm shall not die. And in Micah, against the perverse princes: I will take away their goods like a moth that eats them up, and walks upon the rule in the day of watching (Mic 7:4 LXX). And in Proverbs: An understanding heart is a moth of the bones (Prov 14:30 LXX). For moth in the present place Symmachus translated rust, Aquila worm.

Isaiah also gives the name "moth" to those who devour their conscience in their recklessness.… It might be said that the moths are their sins, which worm their way in among those they inhabit, like moths devouring clothing for food. An attitude that inclines toward having no fear is indicative of a people on their way to this kind of ruin, yet who think they are indestructible. But punishment also clearly awaits them. They will be utterly consumed by misfortune as by a moth.

"Behold, you will all like a garment grow old, and something like a worm will devour you." The parable is accurate, for the worm that comes from the clothes destroys them, and sin, which is born from us, ruins those who allow it to grow.

Who is he that shall condemn me, with false judgments: God is he that justifies: who is he that shall condemn? (Rom 8:33–34);

again, he assigns the reason for this security from the weakness of those who attack him: lo, they shall all be destroyed as a garment, with old age, in which is signified natural defect, the moth, in which is signified the violent man: who am to be consumed as rottenness, and as a garment that is moth-eaten (Job 13:28); as if to say: from all these things, just as I, after the benefits I received, obey God and trust in him, so should you also.

Who among you fears the Lord, hearing the voice of his servant? He who has walked in darkness and has no light, let him hope in the name of the Lord, and lean upon his God. LXX: Who is there among you that fears the Lord, let him hearken to the voice of his child: those who walk in darkness have no light. Trust in the name of the Lord, and lean upon God. You scourged me, you spat upon my face: yet I call my persecutors to repentance. For I do not will the death of the sinful people, but only that it turn back and live (Ezek 33). And I say: who is there among you that fears the Lord and hears the voice of the servant, or child, that is, of his Son? Of these the one belongs to the flesh he assumed, the other to his nature. Nor let us think it a small thing to fear the Lord, according to what is said in Proverbs: The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom (Prov 9:10). For perfect love casts out fear, because fear has punishment; and he who fears is not perfect in love. But here fear is put for timidity, and εὐλαβείᾳ, of which we also read elsewhere: Blessed is he who fears all things (Prov 28:14), on account of εὐλάβειαν, that is, on account of timidity: those whom people commonly call God-fearing in the religion of God. For the Lord protects their path, and guards the way of the God-fearing. Of this fear it is written: The fear of the Lord surpasses all things. And elsewhere: There is no want for those who fear him (Sir 25:14; Ps 33 [34]:10). Indeed, it is only after many steps of virtue that one arrives at such fear of the Lord. For the divine word speaks in the person of a master and father, instructing a disciple and a son: If you call upon wisdom, and give your voice to understanding, and if you seek her like money, and search her out like treasures: then you shall understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God (Prov 2:3). This is the fear that keeps the souls of the saints whole, chaste and pure, of which it is said: The fear of the Lord is holy, enduring for ever and ever. To it the divine oracles exhort us: Fear the Lord, and give him glory (Rev 14:7). Let him, then, who so fears the Lord hear the voice of his servant, or child, who walked in darkness, and there was no light for him; who had no form nor glory, but in the likeness of sinful flesh took the form of a servant, that he might overcome sin in the flesh. Of him it is said that he should hope in the name of the Lord and lean upon his God, so that whatever belongs to human frailty he may strengthen and sustain by the divine majesty. This is according to the Hebrew. But according to the Seventy it is said of sinners, who would not obey the voice of his Son, and walk in the darkness of error, and therefore have no light. For it could not be that wisdom should enter into a perverse soul. They neither knew nor understood, and therefore they walk in darkness. For they did not do the works and commandments of the Lord, nor sow righteousness for themselves, nor gather the vintage of the vine, so as to kindle for themselves the light of knowledge. For he who desires wisdom, let him keep the commandments, and the Lord will grant it to him. Hence it is also said to God: Your precepts are light. And elsewhere: The commandment of the Lord is bright, enlightening the eyes (Ps 18 [19]:9). And the ungodly are commanded to trust in the Lord, and, falling through their sins, to lean upon his help and be sustained by it.

By the mouth of Isaiah also [God] has asked concerning him, "Who is there among you that hears God? Let him hear the voice of his Son." When, therefore, he here presents him with the words, "This is my beloved Son," this clause is of course understood, "who I have promised." For if he once promised and afterwards says, "This is he," it is suitable conduct for one who accomplishes his purpose that he should utter his voice in proof of the promise that he had formerly made; but unsuitable in one who is amenable to the retort, "Can you, indeed, have a right to say, 'This is my son,' concerning whom you have given us no previous information, any more than you have favored us with a revelation about your own prior existence?"

It is as a man that he calls himself "Servant," for "although he exists in the form of God, he has assumed the form of a servant." Likewise in the divine Gospel [Christ] says that he has received instruction as to what he should say and proclaim. "They walk in darkness, and there is no light for them." Although the light has risen, as for them, they have clung to the darkness. "Trust in the name of the Lord, and rely on God." [Isaiah] says, if you really put absolute and true hope in God, that will [serve to] sustain you and make you sure.

Who is there among you? Here he deduces salutary counsel from his own example.

And first, he sets out the counsel;

second, he sets out their contempt of this counsel: behold all you (Isa 50:11).

Now, he gives counsel that they should trust in God, and thus he does three things.

First, he seeks after the fittingness of trust, which is from fear and obedience: that fears the Lord, that hears the voice of his servant, Isaiah, or any other servant: who is the man that fears the Lord? (Ps 24[25]:12);

second, he shows the necessity of trust: that has walked in darkness, of error, or adversity: he who walks in the night, stumbles (John 11:10);

third, he sets out the counsel itself: let him hope in the name of the Lord, above: the remnant of Israel (Isa 10:20).

One light alone let us shun: that which is the offspring of the terrible fire. Let us not walk in the light of our own fire and in the very flame we have kindled. For I know of a cleansing fire that Christ came to send on the earth, and that he himself is anagogically called a fire. This Fire takes away whatever is material and of evil habit. This he desires to kindle with all speed, for he longs for speed in doing us good, since he gives us even coals of fire to help us. I know also a fire that is not cleansing but avenging; either that fire of Sodom, which he pours down on all sinners, mingled with brimstone and storms, or that which is prepared for the devil and his angels.

Behold, all of you who kindle a fire, girded with flames, walk in the light of your fire, and in the flames that you have kindled: by my hand this has been done to you; you shall sleep in sorrows. LXX: Behold, all of you kindle a fire and strengthen the flame; walk in the light of your fire, and in the flame that you have kindled; because of me these things have been done to you. You shall sleep in grief. Exhortation profits nothing, nor is there hope of salvation after crimes. All have turned aside, together they have become useless (Ps 13 [14]); all kindle a fire for themselves and strengthen the flame. For they have in themselves hay, wood, stubble, thorns and thistles and darnel, which are to be handed over to the eternal burning. Hence it is also written in Proverbs: In much wood the fire thrives (Prov 25:21). But if a little fire lays hold of great material, how much will a great flame lay waste? It is said also in the Epistle that is ascribed to the Hebrews, of the earth that, bringing forth thorns and thistles, is reprobate and near to a curse, and its end is burning (Heb 6:8). Therefore those who are girded and surrounded with flames, and have strengthened the burning for themselves, are called to salvation, and it is said to them: Walk in the light of your fire, and in the flames that you have kindled, that in punishments and torments they may learn the power of God and return to salvation. And it signifies the devastation of the Jewish people, by which they were handed over to the Romans, and they bear the yoke of captivity to this day. For by the hand of Christ all these things were done, and they shall sleep in grief and sorrows, because neither through benefits nor through torments would they receive the Son of God. Hence he speaks to them: Go into the eternal fire, which God has prepared for the devil and his angels (Matt 25:41). This is what the Apostle also says: For wrath has come upon you to the end (1 Thess 2:16). From this little chapter we learn that each one kindles a fire for himself according to the quality of his sin. And just as, of people staying in the same place and, if one may say so, in the same bed, some are healthy while others burn with the heat of fevers, feeling different torments from the diversity of their humors and phlegm: so the fire that is kindled by sinners has its fuel in sins and in iniquity, of which it is written: Iniquity shall burn like a fire, and shall be devoured by burning like dry grass (Isa 9:18).

Moreover, what we have set down according to the Seventy: A man who is estranged from me and sets his thoughts in his heart, and the torment (or punishment) of his iniquity before his face, agrees with that testimony which is written in Isaiah: Walk in the light of your fire, and in the flame which you have kindled; for each one kindles for himself the blazing of flames and prepares punishments for himself, while he is unwilling to correct his errors by repentance, but remains in errors that deserve the burning of flames.

If then this is the character of the body that rises from the dead, let us now see what is the meaning of the threatened "eternal fire." Now we find in the prophet Isaiah that the fire by which each person is punished is described as belonging to himself. For it says, "Walk in the light of your fire and in the flame which you have kindled for yourselves." These words seem to indicate that every sinner kindles for himself the flame of his own fire and is not plunged into a fire that has been previously kindled by someone else or that existed before him.

That "fire" is not "from the altar". The fire which is "from the altar" is the fire of the Lord; but that which is outside the altar is not the Lord's, but is the proper fire of each one of those who sin, of which it is said: "their worm shall not die, and their fire shall not be extinguished". That "fire" therefore is of those very ones who kindled it, as also elsewhere it is written: "walk in your fire and in the flame which you have kindled for yourselves". But to Isaiah not his own fire is applied, but the fire of the altar, which will "purge around" his "lips".

Behold all you. Here he sets out their contempt of this counsel, setting out three things.

First, their fault: you that kindle, by your sins, a fire, meriting it for yourselves, girded, as though bound by your sins, or ready for sin, above: and your strength shall be as the ashes of tow (Isa 1:31);

second, he sets out the punishment: walk in the light of your fire, as if to say: receive your punishment: the sinner has been caught in the works of his own hands (Ps 9:17[16]);

third, he sets out the power of the one who punishes: by my hand, namely, by the power of God; you shall sleep, in the sleep of death.

Note also on the words, you shall sleep in sorrows (Isa 50:11), that sinners are sorrowful in death:

first, because of the loss of bodily things: the rich man when he shall sleep shall take away nothing with him (Job 27:19);

second, because of the contradiction of their conscience: repenting, and groaning for anguish of spirit (Wis 5:3);

third, because of the despair of future glory: the crown is fallen from our head: woe to us, because we have sinned (Lam 5:16);

fourth, because of the fear of punishment: there were pains as of a woman in labor (Ps 47:7–8[48:6–7]).