Isaiah 54

WHAT DOES THE PROPHET MEAN WHEN HE SAYS, “REJOICE, O BARREN ONE WHO DOES NOT BEAR; BREAK FORTH AND CRY ALOUD, YOU WHO DO NOT LABOR, BECAUSE THE CHILDREN OF THE DESOLATE ARE MORE THAN THOSE OF HER WHO HAS A HUSBAND." — Since the children of earthly Jerusalem have fallen away from God, joy cannot be ascribed to her, but rather sorrow. Therefore, as a criticism to this Jerusalem, the prophet says that that higher Jerusalem should rejoice, the one the Apostle calls “our mother” (Gal. 4:26): because without groaning and pains she has far more children than this Jerusalem, which in tears gives birth carnally, namely, the Jews, whereas the other gives birth to Christians spiritually through faith. He calls her “desolate” because she is the life that Adam, the first man, abandoned when he followed death. So when people are reborn, they return to the life they had deserted. This life is Christ, because he says, “I am the life” (Jn. 14:6). And God the Father is also life, because the Lord says, “As the Father has life, so he has given the Son to have life” (Jn. 5:26). Without doubt the Holy Spirit is life as well, since the Lord says, “He will receive from what is mine” (Jn. 16:15). Whoever receives from life is necessarily life. Therefore the three are one life. This is the life by faith in whom we are reborn. She is our mother, as we read in Genesis, because she, namely, Life, is the mother of all the living (Gen. 3:20). And who are the living, if not those who believe?

WHAT IS IT THAT THE PROPHET SAYS: REJOICE, BARREN WOMAN, YOU WHO DO NOT GIVE BIRTH; BREAK FORTH AND CRY OUT, YOU WHO DO NOT LABOR IN CHILDBIRTH, BECAUSE THE CHILDREN OF THE DESOLATE ARE MORE NUMEROUS THAN THOSE OF HER WHO HAS A HUSBAND? — In this passage we understand two mothers: the heavenly and the earthly, that is, the free Jerusalem, of which the Apostle says that she is our mother, and this Jerusalem which he says is in slavery with her children, that is, the Jews. For the prophet, proclaiming the coming of the Lord and seriously calling out in joyful voice for the time of grace, exhorts the heavenly Jerusalem, called “desolate” because she did not yet have dwelling in her the children generated through faith, to rejoice. For the time had come when she should have the children foretold long ago, and many more than those of this Jerusalem, because Christians have surpassed the number of Jews. She is therefore called barren because she is a virgin, who does not bring forth a son through physical union and embrace, but spiritually through faith alone. Therefore she is not said to be in labor; for one who is in labor suffers pains. This one cries out instead in the joy of human salvation. But earthly Jerusalem is said to have a husband because she gave birth carnally. For the city is presented as a kind of mother, just as that heavenly dwelling to which we are called is called our mother.

Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law? For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman. But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise. Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar. For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children. But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all. For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not: for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband. [Isaiah 54:1] Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise. But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now. Nevertheless what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman. So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free.

For it is written: Rejoice, barren one, you who do not bear; break forth and cry out, you who do not travail: for many more are the children of the desolate than of her who has a husband (Isa. 54:1.)

The synagogue had the Law as her husband; and, according also to the prophecy of Hannah, she was once fruitful in children (1 Sam. 1). But the barren Church, without Christ as husband, without any address of the Bridegroom's word, lay long in the desert. But after the synagogue received the bill of divorce into her hands, and turned all her husband's ornaments into the ornament of an idol, then the husband, his former girdle rotting, wove another belt for his loins, another loincloth out of the Gentiles; and she, as soon as she was joined to her husband, conceived and gave birth. And in Isaac the Lord cries out through the prophet: "Is a nation born all at once?" (Isa. 66:8): when in a single day, in the Acts of the Apostles, three thousand and five thousand men believed (Acts 3 ff.). Nor do I think it necessary for us to speak of the Christian multitude and of the fewness of the Jews, since the banners of the cross shine forth in the whole world, and a Jew scarcely appears in the cities, rare and conspicuous.

I know that I have often said, Eustochium, that the Apostles and Evangelists, wherever they set down testimonies from the Old Instrument, were accustomed, if there is no difference between the Hebrew and the Septuagint, to use either their own words or those of the Seventy Translators; but if the sense is one thing in the Hebrew and another in the old edition, they follow the Hebrew rather than the Seventy Translators. In short, just as we have shown that they set down many things from the Hebrew which are not found in the Seventy, so let our rivals show some testimonies taken from the Seventy which are not in the books of the Hebrews, and the dispute is finished. We have said this because the present passage, though it is one in sense, differs in words. With its explanation the fifteenth book on Isaiah begins.

Praise, O barren one, who do not bear; sing out praise and neigh, you who were not in labor: for more are the sons of the deserted one than of her who had a husband, says the Lord. LXX: Rejoice, O barren one, who do not bear: break forth and cry out, you who are not in labor: for more are the sons of the deserted one than of her who has a husband. For the Lord has said. Symmachus translated this passage thus: Rejoice, O barren one, who have not borne. Be glad in exultation, and neigh, you who have not been in labor: For more are the sons of the scattered one than of her who was under a husband. From him Theodotion and Aquila do not differ, apart from a few words. After the nativity of the Savior, and the course of His life and mighty works, the passion of the cross, and the glory of the resurrection, when, laying down His soul, He saw a long-lived seed, and in His knowledge He, the righteous one, justified very many, and divided the spoils of the strong, and prayed for the transgressors, giving room for repentance, the Prophet passes to the calling of the nations, and describes in full discourse those who were to believe in Him. This passage the apostle Paul too refers, under the name of Sarah and Isaac, to the Church (Gal 4:27ff.): that the former people, from Mount Sinai and Hagar, is in bondage with her children, but the later one is free, of whom Isaiah says: Rejoice, O barren one, who do not bear: break forth and cry out, you who are not in labor: for more are the sons of the deserted one than of her who has a husband; and immediately: But we, he says, brethren, are sons of the promise according to Isaac. But as then he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was according to the spirit, so it is now also. But what does the Scripture say? Cast out the bondwoman and her son. For the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the free woman. But we, brethren, are not sons of the bondwoman, but of the free: with which freedom Christ has endowed us (Gal 4:27ff.). If, then, the vessel of election, taking from Isaiah the testimony which we now have in hand, referred it to the sons of the promise, and to the Church gathered from the nations, or from both peoples, which had been deserted and abandoned among the Jews, which had not had God as her husband, nor had received the Law or the Prophets, we are compelled by that very reasoning to follow the footsteps of our predecessor, and to call her the deserted one of whom we read above (cf. Isa 35): Rejoice, O deserted one, and the rest like these. Of her too it is written in Jeremiah, in the person of God: She who bore seven has been made empty, and her soul has fainted. Her sun has set while it was yet midday (Jer 15:9). And in the volume of Samuel: The barren has borne seven, and she who had many sons has been weakened (1 Sam 2:5). And in the Psalms: Who makes the barren woman dwell in a house, a joyful mother of sons (Ps 112 [113]:9). Now the synagogue is said to have borne seven sons because of the mystery of the week and of the sabbath, to which the former people had been bound. Or else, for seven, many are to be understood, according to an ambiguity of the Hebrew speech, by which both sabbath and many are signified; of this more has been said in the book of Hebrew Questions which we wrote on Genesis. She, then, as long as she had God, the divine word, for her husband and was joined to the Law, bore very many sons to God; but when she received the bill of divorce, and would not answer her husband when he called, she heard: You are your mother's daughter, who have forsaken your husband (Ezek 16:45). And again: You have not called me as Lord, nor as father and guide of your virginity (Jer 3:4): therefore she is lamented in this same Prophet: How has the faithful city become a harlot, Zion, full of judgment: in which righteousness slept in her, but now robbers (Isa 1:21). But this too is to be noted, that when he says: More are the sons of the deserted one than of her who has a husband, the synagogue is not wholly excluded from childbearing, but the multitude of the nations is preferred to her. For she too, in the Apostles and through the Apostles, first bore a people from the Jews. Hence the two chief of the Apostles divided between them the hosts of those who believed in Christ, of the Circumcision and of the Gentiles, so that from both peoples they might build up Jerusalem, formerly deserted and poor. And that the Hebrew has put neighing for gladness signifies the greatness of joy, in the likeness of a horse neighing for victory; of which more is written in Job (Job 39). This passage and the rest that follow the Jews and our own judaizers refer to Jerusalem, which they say is to be restored in a kingdom of a thousand years, and they say she is the same who formerly had a husband and afterward ceased to have one, and that after the divorce she will have many more sons than she had before under a husband. Yet the comparison is plainly set out of two women: of her who had a husband and was put away, and of her who was always deserted and without a husband. Nor is it to be wondered at in the Jews, whose eyes and ears are closed, if they do not see the open truth. Of the Christians I do not know what to say, who, though the Apostle says, which things are allegorical, and refers Sarah and Hagar to the two Testaments, the old and the new, give their hands to the Jews out of desire for earthly pleasures in the thousand years.

Who is this who before was "barren" and "desolate"? Clearly it is the church of the Gentiles, which was before deprived of the knowledge of God. Who is "she who has the husband"? Plainly the synagogue. Yet the barren woman surpassed her in the number of her children, for the other embraces one nation, but the children of the church have filled the country of the Greeks and of the barbarians, the earth and the sea, the whole habitable world.

For all the Gentiles were "desolate" of the true God, serving the works of their hands; but the Jews and Samaritans, having the word of God delivered to them by the prophets, and always expecting the Christ, did not recognise Him when He came, except some few, of whom the Spirit of prophecy by Isaiah had predicted that they should be saved.

The church, then, is that sterile city which, because of the bad condition of the waters before the coming of Christ (that is to say, because of the sacrilege of the Gentile peoples), was unable to conceive children for God in its sterility. But when Christ came, taking on a human body like a clay vessel, he cleansed the bad condition of the waters; that is to say, he cut off the sacrileges of the peoples, and immediately the church, which used to be sterile, began to be fruitful.

So when he was not a desert or a land made dry to Israel, he was, with respect to what is particular, a desert and land made dry to the pagan nations. But when he turned away from Israel and became to that Israel like a desert and land made dry, then grace was poured forth on the pagan nations, and Jesus Christ became now to us not a desert but abundance, and not a land made dry but one that bears fruit.

And through these prophecies, the God of the universe declares that in his overflowing love for human beings he is not only "Lord" and "Father" but that he also calls himself "husband" and "groom." This prophecy teaches that the woman who was deserted produced more children than the one who had a husband.

976. Give praise, O you barren. Here against the dejection of their affairs, he promises the remedy of exaltation.

And first, he promises multitude as a remedy against their fewness in number;

second, restoration of honor against their confusion: fear not (Isa 54:4);

third, prosperity against their former adversity: O poor little one (Isa 54:11).

977. Concerning the first, he does three things.

First, he foretells a multitude of children, declaring the praise of thanksgiving: O you barren, Jerusalem, that bear not, because you are forsaken and desolate, give praise, to God for the benefits granted to you; the joy of those who give praise: sing forth praise, for a song is an exultation of the mind burst forth into voice; and the greatness of their joy: whinny, in the manner of a horse, from greatness of joy, not being able to form speech to express it: rejoice in joy, Jacob, and neigh before the head of the Gentiles (Jer 31:7); to our God be joyful and comely praise (Ps 146[147]:1). And he promises a multitude of children: for many are the children of the desolate, more than of her that has a husband; as if to say, though you may be desolate, your children shall be multiplied more than the children of cities which have men to beget them: so that the barren has borne many: and she that had many children is weakened (1 Sam 2:5).

983. Note on the words, give praise, O you barren (Isa 54:1), that there is

first, the barrenness of perverse action: for the congregation of the hypocrite is barren (Job 15:34);

second, of holy contemplation: Rachel was barren (Gen 29:31);

third, of temporal tribulation, above: the children of your barrenness shall still say in your ears (Isa 49:20).

Enlarge the place of your tent, and stretch out the skins of your tabernacles: do not spare: make your cords long, and make your stakes firm. For you shall penetrate to the right and to the left, and your seed shall inherit the nations, and shall inhabit the deserted cities. LXX: Enlarge the place of your tabernacle, and fix the skins of your curtains, do not spare. Lengthen your cords, and strengthen your stakes; yet more to the right, and to the left spread out, and your seed shall possess the nations, and you shall make the deserted cities to be inhabited. To her to whom he had said: Praise, O barren one, who do not bear; break the bonds, by which you were formerly held bound, and cry out in confession of the Lord, you who had no children, it is now commanded, in the likeness of the tabernacle of Moses which he once had (Exod 36) in the desert, that she enlarge her tent and stretch out the skins; and make her cords longer, and drive deep and strengthen the stakes by which every tent is shaped, lest it be scattered by the blasts of the winds. And let her penetrate to the right and to the left, and by no means imitate the narrowness of the Jewish tabernacle, which enclosed a hundred cubits of length and fifty of breadth, nor be shut in by the smallness of the Temple, which had sixty cubits in length and twenty in breadth; but let her not cease to take up room to the right and to the left (Exod 27). And lest we think this is said, according to the frivolous contention of the Hebrews, of Zion, which is to be restored by the Lord to its ancient state, he sets out more plainly what lay hidden: And your seed shall inherit the nations. Of this we read in the Gospel also: He who sows went out to sow (Matt 13:3); and again: Did you not sow good seed in your field (ibid., 27)? This seed will also make the deserted cities to be inhabited, so that Churches of the nations rise up throughout the whole world. Or certainly the seed is to be called that of the Apostles and the remnant of the Jewish people, of which it is said in this same Prophet: Unless the Lord Sabaoth had left us seed, we should have been as Sodom, and should have been like Gomorrah (Isa 1:9). And the Apostle: A remnant, he says, has been saved (Rom 11:5). This concerns the greatness of the Churches, which, in place of the one land of Judea, and that a very narrow one, will spread their bounds through the whole world. Let us come to the spiritual understanding. He who is in a tabernacle does not possess a firm and perpetual dwelling; but he always changes places, and hastens on to what lies beyond, saying in the psalm: I will pass over into the place of the wonderful tabernacle (Ps 41 [42]:5), forgetting the things that are past and stretching himself forward to what is to come, until he attains the prize of the heavenly calling. Of this tabernacle we read in another place also: How beloved are your tabernacles, O Lord of powers! my soul longs and faints for the courts of the Lord (Ps 83 [84]:1). And afterward he adds: Blessed are they who dwell in your house; for ages of ages they shall praise you (ibid., 6). For the end of the tabernacles is the possession of an eternal house, which does not change its foundations, nor is moved from one place into another. For those who are planted in the house of the Lord have first flowered in His courts, so that they may come from flowers to fruit, and may be able to say: But I am like a fruitful olive tree in the house of God (Ps 51 [52]:10). In short, the holy man, hastening to pass beyond the tabernacles and longing to see the house of God, says that he has one wish, never to go out of the house of God: One thing I have asked of the Lord, this will I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life (Ps 26 [27]:4). The tabernacle, then, must be enlarged, and the curtains and skins stretched out, and the cords of manifold and varied discourses drawn out further, and the stakes made firm by reason on the right and on the left, so that the seed of the word, that is, of the doctrine of God, may be able to possess the nations, and to make habitable the cities which he received who had doubled the mina. Now the right and the left in the holy Scriptures are taken in a good sense when we understand them both according to the spirit and according to the letter, through the arms of righteousness on the right and on the left (2 Cor 6), so that the humbler understanding may hold to the ordering of life and the examples of our forebears, and the spiritual and sublime one may carry us over from present things to things to come. This is what the Lord also said to the Pharisees when they questioned Him: Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's (Matt 22:21): that we should both be subject to the powers of this world, which not unjustly bear the sword for vengeance on those who have done evil, and this is understood as the left; and that we should render to God the things that are God's, so as to fear no one else but Him who has power over both soul and body, and this is taken as the right (Matt 10). Finally, it is said of the wisdom of God, to which nothing precious can be compared, that in her right hand she has length of life and very many years, but in her left riches and glory; so that those riches are to be understood which consist in knowledge in the present and in good works, and the glory which he receives through whose works God is glorified among the nations; while length of life and very many years signify eternal life, which, disregarding present things, hastens toward what is to come.

978. Second, he exhorts them to enlarge their place under the metaphor of a tent: enlarge the place, as to the ground over which the tent is extended; and stretch out the skins, with which it is covered; lengthen your cords, with which the stakes are tied; and strengthen your nails, with which the boards are joined, or the stakes themselves. And we read that these things were in the tabernacle of the covenant (Exod 26 and 36). Because of this great multitude of men it is necessary to seek a dwelling larger than the promised land, above: the children of your barrenness shall still say in your ears: the place is too strait for me, make me room to dwell in (Isa 49:20).

984. Note also on the words: enlarge the place of your tent (Isa 54:2), that the heart is to be enlarged

first, because of the greatness of its guest: do not I fill heaven and earth, says the Lord? (Jer 23:24);

second, because of the multitude of his gifts, below: then shall you see, and abound, and your heart shall be enlarged (Isa 60:5);

third, because of the completion of the way: I have run the way of your commandments, when you didst enlarge my heart (Ps 118[119]:32).

He accordingly bids the barren one to fill the world with houses of prayer and to make them left and right, that is to say, in the south and the north. One is not, however, mistaken if one gives the name of "stakes" to the holy prophets, to the apostles and to the martyrs, hidden in the earth, as the tent stakes are; these are the ones who maintain the tabernacle of the church, holding it upright with their doctrines as if with ropes. They are also called "foundations."

979. Third, he foretells their fulfillment of the exhortation: for you shall pass on to the right hand, and to the left, as if to say: you shall increase in every direction. This was fulfilled in the time of the Maccabees, when certain cities of the region of Samaria and other regions were added to the kingdom of the Jews: may your seed possess the gates of their enemies (Gen 24:60).

We have been justified in Christ, and not from works of righteousness that we have done but according to his mercy. But this is also what the supremely wise Paul has written. For we have been set free from the darkness, deceit and wickedness, which have been inherited from our ancestors.… [Therefore,] do not fear that you will be put to shame. For just as a parent looks after children, the Lord will look after those who fear him. Your sins will be as far removed from you as the east is from the west. How necessary is it, then, that you not stumble again but reject those same sins in fear. Remember the grace of our justifying God, and do not bear malice or demand justice from those who sin against you.

He makes clear how he makes the shame of widowhood disappear, saying that it is "the Lord who makes you, the Lord of hosts is his name." He is making you rather than creating you, transferring us into another type of citizenship and beautiful life. For we are being transformed in Christ into the newness of the holy and evangelical life, ascending to his own beautiful form through the Spirit so that others see us as different from the rest [of humanity].

Do not fear, for you shall not be confounded, nor shall you blush: for you shall not be ashamed, because you shall forget the confusion of your youth, and shall no more remember the reproach of your widowhood. For He who made you shall rule over you, the Lord of hosts is His name: and your redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, shall be called the God of all the earth. LXX: Do not fear, because you have been confounded: nor be confounded, because you have been reproached: for you shall forget the eternal confusion, and of the reproach of your widowhood you shall not be mindful: for the Lord who made you, the Lord Sabaoth is His name: and He who delivered you, the God of Israel, shall be called of all the earth. A question arises: if it is said to the Church gathered from the nations: Rejoice, O barren one, who do not bear; and: More are the sons of the deserted one than of her who has a husband, meaning that she who afterward bore more sons had not had a husband, and that she who formerly had a husband was turned to barrenness, how is it now said to her who had no husband: You shall no more remember your widowhood, and you shall forget the confusion of your youth? From this the Jews wish it to be understood that all that is said is said to Jerusalem, which, deserted by God, is to be restored by Him again. They will easily be repelled when they are reminded that it is said in the person of the Lord in Zechariah: And I took to myself two rods: the one I called Beauty, and the other I called Cord: and I fed the flock (Zech 11:7). Of this we have spoken more fully in its place, and now it will be spoken of in part. The two rods are the two peoples, of the nations and of the Jews; of these the first to be called was the throng of the Gentiles, which received the natural law fixed in their hearts, about which Paul, writing to the Romans, argues most forcefully (Rom 1); and nothing is more beautiful than this rod, that every creature should be called equally to the worship of its Creator. But the second, that is, the rod of the people of the Jews, was called Cord: which, after the offense of the nations, is called the portion of the Lord, and Israel the cord of His inheritance (Deut 32). Finally, after Israel was called in Abraham, the Lord says: I took my rod which was called Beauty, and I cut it off, to make void my covenant which I struck with all the nations (Zech 11:10). Therefore at the coming of Christ it is said to the rod that had been cut off: Do not fear, nor blush, nor flood your face with shame. For you shall by no means be confounded any longer, as you had been confounded before, nor shall you be mindful of the confusion of your youth, and you shall not remember your widowhood, through which you were abandoned by God: for your maker Himself shall rule over you, whose name is the Almighty, who reigns not in the one nation of Judea but in the whole world. Finally, there follows: He who had made you has Himself redeemed you with His blood, and He shall be called the God of all the earth: that is to say, of all who dwell on the earth. From this it is plainly evident that this is by no means said to Jerusalem, which never ruled over the whole world, but to the Church of Christ, whose inheritance is the possession of the world.

980. Fear not. Here he promises the restoration of their former honor as a remedy against the confusion which they had sustained earlier;

second, he sets out the firmness of the promise: this thing is to me as in the days of Noah (Isa 54:9).

Concerning the first, he does two things.

First, he promises forgetfulness of their former confusion: you shall not be confounded, inwardly, nor blush, outwardly; you shall not be put to shame, from consideration of your disgrace; you shall forget, because the abundance of your glory, the shame of your youth, when you sinned in the desert, and shall remember no more the reproach of your widowhood, when you were separated from God in the captivity of Babylon, above: you shall not be confounded, and you shall not be ashamed (Isa 45:17); in that day you shall not be ashamed for all your doings (Zeph 3:11).

981. Second, he promises the restoration of their former honor.

And first, he sets out restoration as to dominion: for he that made you shall rule over you, above: O Lord, other lords besides you have had dominion over us (Isa 26:13).

For the Lord has called you as a woman forsaken and mourning in spirit: and as a wife cast off from her youth, says your God. For a moment, for a little while, I forsook you: and with great mercies I will gather you. In a moment of indignation I hid my face from you for a little while: and with everlasting mercy I have had pity on you, says your redeemer, the Lord. LXX: Not as a woman forsaken and faint-hearted has the Lord called you, nor as a woman who is hated from her youth, says your God. For a little time I left you: and with great mercy I will have pity on you. In a little wrath I turned away my face from you: and with everlasting mercy I will have pity on you: says the Lord who delivered you. Here the friends of the Jews debase the forsaken woman and the wife cast off from her youth, whom the Lord forsook for a moment and for a little while, saying that she is Jerusalem; and that He, hiding His face for a little while, took her up again in everlasting mercies and changed her past grief into joy. This is according to the Hebrew. But according to the Seventy he says that He did not call her as a forsaken woman and faint-hearted, nor as a wife who had been held in hatred from her youth; but that He left her for a little while and turned away His face for this reason, that He might have pity on her forever. If, then, the Jews and our judaizers say that Israel was forsaken for a little while, so that at the coming of Christ God might have pity on it, and interpret 'a little' by comparison with the whole of eternity, why do they not grant us too to call that a little time during which the nations were forsaken, so that they, cast off in the middle period, who in their youth had been God's, might afterward in their old age obtain eternal mercy? Especially since, in the time of Israel's calling, the throng of the Gentiles was never shut out, but a door of return always lay open to them through the proselytes; so that, as we seem to have been shut out for a little while by their calling, so by their perpetual exclusion a return to God is granted to us. But we have spoken of a perpetual exclusion if they do not repent. Otherwise the apostle Paul says: God has shut up all things under sin, that He may have mercy on all (Gal 3:22). What we have interpreted of the Church gathered from both peoples, and the Jews take of Jerusalem, those who follow tropology alone, and in the most difficult places flee the questions that arise by an excursion of free disputation, refer to the sinful soul, which has been cast off by God, not out of hatred but by dispensation, so that, pressed by the weight of evils, she may return to her former husband, and, having lost her substance, may not despair of the father's clemency (Luke 15). Is it not great mercy to run to meet the returning son, to hold out the ring and the robe and a kiss, and, after the likeness of another parable, to say to the envious brother: Friend, if I am good, why is your eye evil (Matt 20:15)?

And as to marriage: for the Lord has called you as a woman forsaken: if a man put away his wife, and she go from him, and marry another man, shall he return to her any more? (Jer 3:1).

I seem, indeed, to hear that voice from him who gathers together those who are broken and welcomes the oppressed.… The measure of his kindness exceeds the measure of his discipline. The former things were owing to our wickedness, the present things to the adorable Trinity, the former for our cleansing, the present for my Glory.

Second, he promises increase of honor as to the great number of honors: said your God, for a small moment, you have suffered in respect of the things which, taking pity, I will grant you: for that which is at present, is momentary (2 Cor 4:17).

985. Note also on the words, with great mercies (Isa 54:7), that the mercies to come are great:

first, because they are interior: for I reckon that the sufferings of this time are not worthy to be compared with the glory to come that shall be revealed in us (Rom 8:18);

second, because they are eternal: for the things which are seen are temporal: but the things which are not seen, are eternal (2 Cor 4:18);

third, because they are perfect: for behold from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed (Luke 1:48);

fourth, because they are extended to many: a certain man made a great supper and invited many (Luke 14:16);

fifth, because they are complete: God shall wipe away all tears from the eyes of the saints (Rev 21:4).

"And by my eternal mercy I will have mercy on you." For the season of anger is short and brief in comparison with the measure of the boundless loving-kindness given to us from God. He rescued us out of the power of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of the Son of his love in light. It is appropriate to think greatly of the mercy that is through Christ, who cleanses us from every stain and takes away the accusation of justice. He restores us to a relationship with him through holinesss and gives the garlands of the glory of sonship to those whom he establishes in the kingdom of heaven.

And as to their duration, in a moment, as if to say: for a short time you have felt my wrath in respect to the time in which I will have mercy on you, above: hide yourself a little for a moment (Isa 26:20). All these things which have been said are mystically explained of the calling of the gentiles, for heathendom was at first barren, but afterwards gathered many children, according to the Gloss.

As in the days of Noah, so is this to me, to whom I swore that I would no more bring the waters of Noah upon the earth: so I have sworn not to be angry with you and not to rebuke you. For the mountains shall be moved, and the hills shall tremble: but my mercy shall not depart from you, and the covenant of my peace shall not be moved, says the Lord who has compassion on you. LXX: From the water which was under Noah this is to me: as I swore to him at that time that I would by no means any more be angry with the earth over you, nor in threatening you remove the mountains: nor shall your hills be removed. So neither shall my mercy fail, nor shall the covenant of my peace be taken away, says the Lord who is merciful to you. So that the congregation of the saints may believe the mercy of the Lord to be everlasting, and that we were forsaken for a moment and briefly for this reason, that they might be joined in friendship with God by an eternal covenant, he sets forth the examples of the forebears, saying: As, when the whole world was sinning, after all the earth had corrupted the way of the Lord, the flood was brought in, and together with all the authors of sins all sins were blotted out, and in one man, Noah, the human race was preserved; to whom I swore that a flood would by no means be brought on the lands, and my pledge has been kept until now and will never be made void (Gen 8 and 9): so I swear to my Church, which I have redeemed for myself with my blood, that I will by no means be angry with those on whom I have had pity, nor will my clemency be changed by any harshness of rebuke. For the mountains and hills will more easily be moved than my sentence will be changed. In accordance with which He also says in the Gospel: Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away (Matt 24:35). And this, he says, is my mercy: that the covenant of peace, by which the world has been reconciled to me, is kept not by the merit of those to whom it was given, but by my clemency. According to the Seventy the sense is confused, and everything is so disordered that what is being said can hardly be understood: not that I do not know what a most prudent man has said on this passage, but that it does not satisfy my mind. For he posits a tropological flood, which he interprets of the baptism of the Savior, gathering very many examples, such as this: The Lord makes the flood to be inhabited (Ps 28 [29]:10). And again: The Lord is sweet to those who wait for Him in the day of tribulation: and knowing those who fear Him, in the flood of the journey He makes an end (Nah 1:7, LXX): namely, that He blotted out all sins in baptism, saying in another place: I am, I am He who blots out your iniquities (Isa 43:25). For all had turned aside, together they had become unprofitable (Ps 13 [14]:3). There was none who did mercy or truth, nor was there knowledge of God upon the earth. Cursing and lying and murder and adultery and theft had seized everything, and they had mingled blood with blood. Whence He speaks through the Prophet: Woe is me! for the devout man has perished from the earth. There is none who does right among men; all are judged in my blood. Each afflicts his neighbor with affliction, and they prepare their hands for evil (Mic 7:2, LXX); and the rest like these. Among them is this: No one is clean from filth, not even if his life upon the earth be of one day (Job 14:4). Hence he holds that the Lord made the flood, who according to the apostle Peter was put to death in the flesh and made alive in the spirit (1 Pet 3), and preached to the spirits set in prison, when the patience of God waited in the days of Noah, bringing the flood upon the ungodly; after whose pattern water cleanses us, not washing away the filth of the flesh, but as the questioning of a good conscience toward God. And the mountains and hills which are not moved, and in a flood of this kind had been shaken, he wants to be understood as the saints, once the everlasting covenant has been received, who in the former flood had been moved and had left their firmness. He says that the mountains are also the demons and the adverse powers, who saw the daughters of men, that they were fair, and, wounded by the dart of love, took for themselves wives of all whom they chose, and lost their former strength; and they will by no means be in this flood (Gen 6). This is what he may have said; its explanation I leave to the reader's judgment.

He says, "Remember the covenants made with Noah and recognize their truth. I have promised never again to destroy the earth in such a way. Having the first covenant as a pledge, believe that you will always enjoy my love, and I will firmly guard your peace, and I will never dissolve this marriage."

982. This thing is to me as in the days of Noah. Here he shows the firmness of the promise.

And first, from a similitude with an earlier promise: to whom I swore, firmly established, if only you remain in my commandments: I will establish my covenant with you, and with your seed after you (Gen 9:9); the covenants of the world were made with him, that all flesh should no more be destroyed with the flood (Sir 44:19[18]).

Second, from the operation of stable creatures: for the mountains shall be moved, as if to say: it is easier for mountains and hills to be changed than for my words to be made void. Or, by mountains and hills, the powerful of the earth are signified: we will not fear, when the earth shall be troubled (Ps 45:3[46:2]).

"I will place you as a carbon stone." It is fitting to want to signify Jesus through this stone that was set, the Scriptures say, as the foundation of Zion. If anyone trusts in this foundation, he will not be ashamed. He calls him a foundation stone among them. And he is also mentioned by the holy prophets. For he says through the voice of Amos, "Look, I am setting a diamond in the middle of my people Israel." And through the voice of Zechariah, "Behold, I will bring my servant the sunrise." "I have placed a stone before the face of Jesus; on the one stone there are seven eyes." For the all-seeing one is Christ who is able to survey all things everywhere. For the carbon is placed to be a stone and a fixed foundation of the holy city. On it are the stones of sapphire, which perhaps signify the ranks of the apostles who are set. For they were very close to Christ, and when they followed him they became foundations in the earthly realm.

We should understand all these things of which Isaiah speaks as worthy and precious souls, with whom God commits himself to build the heavenly citizenry. He compares them with sapphire on the grounds of its likeness to the color of heaven. Their intercourse is heavenly and angelic, as Paul teaches, saying, "Our citizenship is in heaven." In Ezekiel the place under the throne of God is said to be like sapphire.… And the parapets of this new Jerusalem would be of jasper or, in Symmachus's translation, karchēdonion, a special, shining stone. This means those who belong to the church, whom in a spiritual manner strengthen their faith and are like the battlements of the heavenly citizenry, destroy "every obstacle raised against the knowledge of God" and refute any false opinion contrary to the truth. Since parapets are designed to resist the enemy, those who in the church are equipped with wisdom may be rightly called "parapets." Alongside these others is a comparison drawn with crystals, with which he foretells that the gates of the city will be built and denotes the clarity and purity of sure faith of those who believed the foundational and elementary doctrine. Isaiah also declares that the wall of the new city of God will be made from special stone. Such are they who through their prayers surround and confirm, just like an enclosure, the city's edifice and its great, precious and worthy building.

"Behold, I will transform your stones into beryl," that is, the place is stony, and God will transform the ordinary stones into beryl, both in reality and for the fact that this is imagined as a consequence of their great joy.

Poor little one, torn by the tempest, without consolation. Behold, I will lay your stones in order: and I will found you on sapphires: and I will make your battlements of jasper, and your gates of carved stones, and all your borders of desirable stones: All your sons taught by the Lord, and a multitude of peace for your sons, and in righteousness you shall be founded. LXX: Lowly and unstable, without consolation. Behold, I prepare for you the carbuncle as your stone, and sapphire as your foundations: and I will make your battlements jasper, and your gates stones of crystal, and your walls choice stones: and all your sons disciples of God, and great peace shall be for your sons, and in righteousness you shall be built. Where we have said: I will lay your stones in order, in the Hebrew is written BAPHPHUCH (בפך), which all except the Seventy have translated alike: I will lay your stones in stibium, in the likeness of an adorned woman who paints her eyes with stibium, so as to signify the beauty of the city. And where we, following the Seventy, have said jasper, the Hebrew has written CHODCHOD (כדכד), which Symmachus alone translated χαλκηδόνιον. For crystal also, in whose place ECDA (אקדה) is read among the Hebrews, Symmachus and Theodotion put of carving, that is, γλυφῆς, and Aquila τρυπανισμοῦ: a word that conveys the sense of bored and engraved gems. We have spoken of the difference of translation; let us come to the sense. He is still speaking to the Church, formerly lowly and poor, which had neither the Law nor the Prophets nor the word of God; torn by the tempest or unstable, which had endured many whirlwinds of the world and wavered among the various errors of idols; which had no comforter, and in vain spent all her substance on physicians: that He Himself will come, He Himself will descend, and build on earth the heavenly Jerusalem, which in the Apocalypse of John is called the bride and wife of the Lamb, having light like a precious stone, like jasper and crystal, and a great wall, and twelve gates inscribed with the names of the tribes of Israel, of which three were on the East, and three on the North, and three on the South, and three on the West (Rev 21); and the wall rested on twelve foundations, its whole building of jasper stone, and the several foundations of the walls had each its own stone: the first jasper, the second sapphire, the third chalcedony, the fourth emerald, the fifth sardonyx, the sixth sardius, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, the twelfth amethyst. Reading this, we cry out and say: O the depth of the wisdom and knowledge of God, how inscrutable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out! For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been His counselor (Rom 11:33, 34)? And again: Who is wise, and he will understand these things; understanding, and he will know them (Hos 14:10)? Let them answer, the lovers of the letter alone, which kills, who in the thousand years make ready exquisite foods for gluttony and luxury, whose God is the belly and whose glory is in their shame (Phil 3); who after the second coming of the Savior in glory hope for marriages, and little children of a hundred years, and the outrage of circumcision, and the blood of victims, and a perpetual sabbath; who say with Israel, in a perverse way: Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we shall reign: let them answer what this heavenly Jerusalem is to which it is now said: Behold, I will lay your stones in order; or according to the Seventy: Behold, I prepare for you the carbuncle, your stone: so that the whole city is full of carbuncles, and has sapphire foundations, and battlements of jasper or chalcedony, and gates of crystal or carved in relief, and a wall of precious stones round about; and all her sons have no men as teachers, but God, and are called disciples of God; and there is in her perpetual peace and the building up of righteousness. From this it is clear that under the occasion of righteousness, which is the name of a virtue, we ought to seek the other virtues too for the building up of the Church, and not follow Jewish ravings. For let them explain what it is that is said of wisdom in Proverbs: She is more precious than all the most precious stones (Prov 3:15). For if Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God (1 Cor 1), it is foolish for Christ to be compared to senseless stones. And again we read of the judgments of God: The judgments of the Lord are right, justified in themselves, desirable above gold and very precious stone (Ps 18 [19]:10, 11). From this it is plain that the stone compared with the other stones is the one of which it is said above in this same Prophet, in the person of God: Behold, I will lay in the foundations of Zion a corner stone, a chosen stone, precious: and he who believes in it shall not be confounded (Isa 28:16). This stone the builders rejected (Ps 117 [118]), namely the Scribes and Pharisees and the chief men of the Jews, and it has become the head of the corner (Matt 21). Of it the Apostle Peter also says in his discourse: To us therefore who believe in the corner stone, precious and chosen, there is honor; but to unbelievers it is a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense (1 Pet 2:7, 8). And he too speaks to the chief priests in the Acts of the Apostles: This is the chosen stone, precious, which you despised and rejected (Acts 4:11); which has become the head of the corner, and holds together the two peoples, of the nations and of Israel; which built the city whose builder and maker is God: of which the Apostle also writes to the Corinthians: You are God's building. And: As a wise architect I have laid the foundation, and another builds upon it. But let each one see how he builds. For no one can lay another foundation than that which has been laid, Jesus Christ (1 Cor 3:9, 10). And if anyone builds on this foundation gold and precious stones, wood, hay, stubble, each one's work will be made manifest. Of this foundation he speaks in another Epistle also: Built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the corner stone (Eph 2:20); and again: In whom you are all being built as living stones into a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices (1 Pet 2:5). Of these stones it is said mystically: Holy stones are rolled upon the earth (Zech 9:16), with which Christ builds the Church upon the rock, saying in the Gospel: Upon this rock I will build my Church (Matt 16:18). He who has deserved to enter this city says joyfully to the Lord: As we have heard, so have we seen in the city of the Lord of powers, in the city of our God: God has founded it forever (Ps 47 [48]:9). Concerning the founder of this city it is said in another place also: He shall build my city, and shall bring back the captivity of my people (Isa 45:13). As for the nature of the twelve stones and gems, this is not the time to speak, since very many both of the Greeks and of the Latins have written of it. Of these I will name only two: the bishop Epiphanius, a man of holy and venerable memory, who has left us a notable volume of his genius and learning, which he entitled περὶ λίθων; and Pliny the Second, at once orator and philosopher among the Latins, who in his most beautiful work of natural history filled the thirty-seventh book, which is also the last, with a treatment of stones and gems. These twelve stones are written in order in Exodus and in Ezekiel, that is, ἐν τῷ λογείῳ of the high priest, and in the crown and diadem of the prince of Tyre. Let us speak first of Exodus: four rows of stones were woven in (Exod 28). The first row had the sardius, topaz, emerald; the second row, carbuncle, sapphire, jasper; the third row, ligure, agate, amethyst; the fourth row, chrysolite, beryl, onyx, set in gold; and they were inscribed with the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel. In which it is to be noted that the second row of stones is also set down in the present Scripture: carbuncle, sapphire and jasper. For we do not yet hold what is perfect, nor have we come to the first things, because now we see through a mirror in an enigma. Further, in Ezekiel we find it written thus: You are the seal of likeness and the crown of beauty; you were in the delights of the paradise of God. You were clothed with every first stone: sardius, topaz and emerald, carbuncle and sapphire and jasper, silver also, and gold and ligure, and agate and amethyst, and chrysolite and beryl and onyx; and with gold you filled your treasuries and your storehouses within you. From the day you were created, I set you with the Cherubim on my holy mountain; you were in the midst of the fiery stones, spotless in your days, from the time you were created until your iniquities were found in you (Ezek 28:12ff.). For who is so foolish and of so senseless a mind as to think that the prince of Tyre, whoever he believes him to be, set in the paradise of God, and created among the Cherubim, and dwelling among the fiery stones (which we understand without doubt as the Angels and heavenly Powers), was one adorned with earthly stones and having the likeness and the seal? Of the nature of all the stones, then, and of each one in part, this is not the time to speak; for not everything is always to be said. Now let us discourse only of the carbuncle, the sapphire and the jasper. The carbuncle which is prepared, or laid in order, seems to me the fiery word of doctrine, which, putting to flight the error of darkness, illuminates the hearts of believers. This is the one which one of the Seraphim took, grasped with tongs, to purify the lips of Isaiah (Isa 6); which is born, according to the faith of Genesis, in the land of Havilah, where there is the best gold (Gen 2), and the carbuncle stone and the leek-green. Further, the sapphire, which is placed in the foundations, has the likeness of heaven and of the air above us: and it is such that it can say that line of Aristophanes with Socrates: Ἀεροβατῶ καὶ περιφρονῶ τὸν ἥλιον; which we can turn into the Latin tongue: I tread the air and look down upon the sun (See Suidas under περιφρονεῖν). Or with the apostle Paul: But our conversation is in heaven (Phil 3:20). The Scripture of Ezekiel also records that the place where the throne of God is has the likeness of sapphire, and that the glory of the Lord consists in this color, which bears the image of what is above the heavens. And the battlements of the Lord's city, that is, the ramparts of the walls, are strengthened with jasper: those who can destroy and refute every height that lifts itself up against the knowledge of God, and subject falsehood to truth (Ezek 1; 1 Cor 15). He, then, who is most strong in disputing and strengthened by the testimonies of the holy Scriptures, he is a battlement of the Church. There are many kinds of jasper: one has the likeness of emerald, which is found at the springs of the river Thermodon, and is called Grammatias, by which they assert that all phantoms are put to flight. Another is greener than the sea, and tinged as if with flowers; they report that this is born on Mount Ida in Phrygia and in its deepest caves. Another, again, is found among the Iberians and the Hyrcanians and by the Caspian Sea, and especially by the lake Neusis. There is also another jasper like snow and the foam of the sea waves, and mildly reddish as though with blood mixed in. We have said this so that we may recognize all the spiritual graces in the battlements of the Church; he who has them puts vain fears to flight, and can say with the bride: My kinsman is white and ruddy (Song 5:10). And the gates of this city are of crystal stone, which is carved in various ways; than this stone nothing is purer. In short, in the most violent frosts of the Alps, and in caves inaccessible to the sun, waters are said to congeal into crystal: to the touch it is stone, to the sight water. By this it is shown that those who are at the doors of the Church ought to be stained by no filth, but to be of the purest faith, and to say with the prophet: From your commandments I have understanding (Ps 118 [119]:104), and to hear this: Blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God (Matt 5:8).

Some think that Jesus is here called "coal" since he was placed as a foundation in Zion and those who believe in him will not be ashamed. Similarly Amos calls him "adamantine" in these words, "I will place adamantine in the middle of the people of Israel." And Zachariah, "Look, I will give the dawn over my servant. And the stone that I will give before the face of Joshua, on that stone there are seven eyes." For Christ is the all-seeing one. This coal, he says, is also the support and the foundation stone, to which, since they approximate to it, the apostles, too, are here called "foundations" and are spoken of as marked out by the name of sapphire, as in the seventeenth psalm, which says, "The springs of waters are uncovered and the foundations of the earth are revealed at your chastisement and from the breath of your Spirit, O Lord." For those in Israel were shaken by what the apostles dared to do through Christ, when purification through water first appeared. The disciples of the Savior receive this title, but the prophets are also called foundation, as Paul says, "building on the foundation of the apostles and prophets." Sapphire is the color of heaven, and again Paul tells us that this denotes the citizenship of heaven. … But "anthracite" [coal], according to another interpretation that has been handed down, refers to stones that adorn, just as the sainted martyrs who have been tested by fire adorn with stimei [a type of eyeliner] the eyes of the bridegroom of Christ.

986. O poor little one. Here he promises prosperity as a remedy against adversity.

And first, he recalls their former adversity: O poor little one, Jerusalem despoiled of goods; tossed with tempest, of adversity, above: to a nation rent and torn in pieces (Isa 18:2). I will send you.

Second, he promises future prosperity.

First, as to abundance of goods, setting out a metaphor: behold I will lay, as though in a pavement, your stones, precious stones, signifying men eminent in the virtues, in order, with each one in its order: the gates of Jerusalem shall be built of sapphire, and of emerald, and all the walls thereof round about of precious stones (Tob 13:21).

And the walls of the city, or the borders and περίβολος, are built of choice stones, by which we can understand the remaining stones, and that all her sons are taught, or are disciples of God: a testimony the Lord uses in the Gospel of John, saying: No one can come to me unless my Father who sent me draws him, and everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me (John 6:44, 45). And shortly after: It is written in the prophets: They shall all be taught by God. He also speaks through Jeremiah: Putting my laws in their minds, and I will write them on their heart; and they shall no more teach each his neighbor and his brother, saying: Know the Lord. For all shall know me, from the least to the greatest. For I will be merciful to their iniquities, and their sins I will not remember (Jer 31:33, 34). And the teaching of the disciples of God has a multitude of peace, which was left to them by the Lord; and the building of the most beautiful city is completed in righteousness, so that He is the God not of one nation but of the whole world, calling to His faith slaves and free, Greeks and Barbarians, rich and poor, noble and lowly, men and women, little children and old men, and all things in the world which seem to be contrary (John 14). We have gone beyond the measure of brevity, which is useful in all that has to be said, since we seek the city of God not, with the Hebrews and our Half-Jews, on earth, but in the heavens: the city which, set on Christ the mountain, cannot be hidden.

It seems to me also that that fancy of Plato, that those stones that we call precious stones which derive their luster from a reflection, as it were, of the stones in that better land, is taken from the words of Isaiah in describing the city of God: "I will make your battlements of jasper, your stones shall be crystal and your borders of precious stones."

And the surest sign that you have been taught of God is that you put into practice what you have been taught. Of that character are all who are called according to God's purpose, as it is written in the prophets, "They shall be all taught of God." The person, however, who has learned what ought to be done but does not do it, has not yet been "taught of God" according to grace but only according to the law, not according to the Spirit but only according to the letter. There are many who appear to do what the law commands through fear of punishment, not through love of righteousness, and such righteousness as this apostle calls "his own which is after the law"—a thing as it were commanded, not given.… When the free person keeps a commandment, he does it readily. And whosoever learns his duty in this spirit does everything that he has learned ought to be done.

In the same way He wrote through the prophets, for "He put His laws into their minds and He wrote them on their hearts," so that they should all be "taught of God."If we now set aright our disgraceful lives with the aid of writings on account of the rationality that our nature received from the beginning, how much shall we turn aside from God if we show contempt for the natural book of the heart, the book written by Moses and the prophets, and the light of our Savior's Gospel of life! Hence we shall bring capital punishment upon ourselves if we gain no help from the hidden book, or from the visible one, or from the Gospel of the life-giving commandments of our Lord Jesus Christ. Not even the man who toils and exerts himself in prayer, reading, divine vision, and insight, will make progress in the truth and gain an illumined intellect, unless he aims the intention of his mind toward the strength of what is written by the Spirit on the book of his heart. The veil of the passions that overlays our heart prevents us from truly beholding that which is written on our heart by the Spirit. When we pray, read, and sing praises, we float over the surface of our heart without truly perceiving what lies within. But if we raise the veil of the passions by observing the commandments, then with the eye of the spirit we shall see the truth that is imprinted in our heart.

The Jews then murmured at him, because he said, I am the bread which came down from heaven. And they said, Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? how is it then that he saith, I came down from heaven? Jesus therefore answered and said unto them, Murmur not among yourselves. No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day. It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me. [Isaiah 54:13] Not that any man hath seen the Father, save he which is of God, he hath seen the Father. Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life. I am that bread of life. Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead. This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.

Symmachus translated, "The Lord who takes pity on you says, lowly one, who has not been comforted, I have mercy for you. For I have seen you wandering aimlessly, as if surrounded by the spirits of deceit that have restless thoughts." … He calls godly public behavior a "city." The marks of the saints are various. But all are equally pleasing in God's sight. For that reason he calls them all precious stones, even if they have various characters. By coal is symbolized God's burning love. Sapphire represents the person who hides his virtue, for the hue of sapphire is a deep one. By "jasper" … is designated, I think, the luster of miracle working.… Then Isaiah leaves the figurative way of speaking to put things more clearly: "All your sons shall be taught of the Lord." He has called figuratively "stones," the appearance of virtue. The peace of God is here promised. Paul refers to this construction when he says, "Like a skilled architect I laid the foundation."

And he explains the metaphor as to the teaching of divine knowledge, all your children shall be taught of the Lord: I will give my law in their bowels, and I will write it in their heart (Jer 31:33); as to abundance of peace, and great shall be the peace of your children: much peace have they that love your law (Ps 118[119]:165).

I promised to you by grace beforehand—if you no longer struggle with these promises—that no fear of attack by war would touch you. Therefore rejoice in my commandments, for if you do so, these kinds of fears will not affect you—unless you do not guard the commandments and fall into the fear of human reproach. And so, I testify to you and say, "You will be far from oppression, and you will not fear. Terror shall not come near you." Rather, you will remain close to me and will act in a godly way according to the following words of Isaiah: "the proselytes will come to you." But they will not come apart from my will, for it says they also will come "through me."

Withdraw far from calumny, for you shall not fear; and from terror, for it shall not come near you. LXX: Withdraw from the unjust man, and you shall not fear, and trembling shall not come near you. A most beautiful order. He had consoled the poor and lowly one, promising her spiritual graces. Now he teaches what she ought to do if she does not wish to dread the assaults of her adversaries. And the sense is: You do not wish to fear your enemies? Do what I say: Withdraw far from calumny, or from iniquity, for all iniquity and plunder is born of calumny; and you shall not fear, and trembling and terror shall not come near you, so that you fear not men but God, saying with Moses: I am trembling and fearful (Deut 9:19); and with one of Job's friends: Horror and trembling came upon me, and shook my bones greatly (Job 4:14); and with the prophet: At the voice of my prayer trembling entered into my bones (Hab 3:16); and: Upon whom does the Lord rest, but upon the humble and quiet, and him who trembles at His words (Isa 66:2)? But the trembling of the ungodly is another, which is born of the fear of punishment; of it is written: Trembling seized the ungodly (Ps 47 [48]:7).

And then Isaiah adds, "and you will be built up in righteousness." For with the utmost rightness the architect and builder of the whole is the wisdom of God, fitting the living and smooth stones to the building. Some he uses for towers, others for foundations and others for walls; some for the building of the temple of the city and others for the surrounding area. And with the rest he builds up the rest of the city, not in the human way by discriminating between types of people or evaluating them, but allowing all in, free and slave, poor and rich, so that they whose lives were unknown receive honor. And then God promises that he will give the church further orders, to step back from evil so that terror shall not come near. He instructs them in the mystery. Formerly the bride was encouraged by the prophets to advance to communion, summoning her through holiness and righteousness. By the kisses of Christ's mouth we have been kissed. He has appeared in the flesh, speaking mouth to mouth to us. He says that no enemy will prevail against [the church] if it cultivates righteousness.

And as to justice of works, and you shall be founded in justice, above: Zion shall be redeemed in judgment, and they shall bring her back in justice (Isa 1:27).

987. Second, as to freedom from evils, first, promising deliverance from dangers: depart, that is, you shall depart, for you shall not suffer calumny: he shall humble the calumniators (Ps 71[72]:4).

Behold, the sojourner shall come who was not with me; he who was once a stranger to you shall be joined to you. LXX: Behold, proselytes shall come to you through me, and they shall be your settlers, and shall flee to you for refuge. These things too the Jews think are said to Jerusalem: that many of the nations will be proselytes and will take up the law of Moses and its ceremonies. We, according to the interpretation we have begun, refer this to the Church, which has been gathered through the apostles from both peoples, which has neither spot nor wrinkle, which is free, and the mother of all believers (Eph 5; Gal 4). To gather these proselytes and strangers the Lord sent His disciples, saying: Teach all nations (Matt 28:19), so that they might flee to the Gospel and take up the new Law, and that those who were once dwellers in idolatry might become settlers of the Church. Of them it is said in the psalms: The Lord makes the blind wise. Or, as is read in the Latin codices: The Lord gives light to the blind, the Lord loves strangers (Ps 145 [146]:8, 9): so that after the blind have received the light of truth, and the foolish have learned wisdom, then, passing over to the Church, they may be loved by the Lord, and hear through the prophet: I will call not my people, my people (Hos 2:24); and when this people enters the Temple of God, jealousy seizes the unlearned people.

Second, the adherence of strangers: behold, an inhabitant shall come, for many from the gentiles adhered to them when they came out of captivity, below: let not the son of the stranger, that adheres to the Lord, speak, saying: the Lord will divide and separate me from his people (Isa 56:3).

"Behold, I have created the blacksmith, who made the vases in his work," that is, I elected the apostles and the disciples of the apostles, who perfectly instruct the peoples through the doctrine of truth. "I have also created the destroyer." I did not prevent the liars and the persecutors from rising against the church at the time of the apostles.

Therefore, it is good for us if we flee to the mercy of him whose justice we are incapable of escaping. The justice of God is such that it condemns those who turn away and saves those who turn to him. So he says, "Be converted to me, and I will save you." [God] is always delighted by our conversion, nor has he set a time for a human being, so long as he is in this life, at which time he cannot be merciful to the one who turns to him; on the contrary, the whole time of the present life is known to have been destined for our conversion. For the blessed Peter says, "The Lord does not delay his promise as some regard 'delay,' but he is patient with you, not wishing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance."

Behold, I have created the smith who blows the coals in the fire, and brings forth a vessel for his work: and I have created the slayer to destroy. Every vessel that is fashioned against you shall not prosper: and every tongue that resists you in judgment you shall judge. This is the inheritance of the servants of the Lord: and their righteousness is with me, says the Lord. LXX: Behold, I have created you, not as a coppersmith blowing the coals in the fire and bringing forth a vessel for work. But I have created you not for perdition, to destroy: every vessel that is made against you shall not prosper: and every voice shall rise against you in judgment: you shall overcome them all ÷ and they shall be liable to you in it ⁚ There is an inheritance for those who serve the Lord, and you shall be righteous to me, says the Lord. Let us speak first according to the Hebrew: If you wish not to fear, and that dread be far from you, do what the preceding discourse has related; for I am He through whom you are to have proselytes. I am He who created the smith who blows the coals in the fire, that is, the devil, the craftsman of all evils, not by necessity of nature but by the choice of his mind; who has kindled fires and will bring forth vessels against you, such as were Simon and Elymas the magicians, who resisted the apostles Peter and Paul (Acts 13). I have created the slayer of those who are going to be unbelievers: not that I am the cause of their perdition, but that the adversary is created for battle, so as to be perdition to the vanquished and a cause of rewards to the victors.

Further, according to the Seventy this seems to me the sense: I, your Creator, have not made you as the devil, that worst of smiths, forges vessels of iniquity with an unclean spirit and brings them forth to perdition; and he ought to know that vessels of this kind do not have a prosperous course, but are broken in mid-career. What the vessels are he shows in the following words: And every voice that shall rise against you in judgment, you shall overcome them all. The vessels of iniquity have a voice, and this voice rises against the Church when the heretics set their mouth on high and their tongue passes through the earth. And what follows, And they shall be liable to you in it, we have marked beforehand with an obelus, because it seems to have been added not so much by the Seventy as by bad copyists. And when the Church has overcome every voice that rises against her, then those who serve and obey the Lord will have an inheritance, an eternal possession; of which it is said in Jeremiah in other words: There is a reward for your works (Jer 31:16). And the dwellers of the Church will be righteous to the Lord. For everyone who does righteousness is born of God; and to them the Lord says: Be holy, for I am holy (Lev 20:26).

This the Lord has taught in turn in the holy Gospels: "Come, you blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundations of the world." He gives it to those who provide proof of the righteousness that he has established by his laws: "For I was hungry," he says, "and you gave me food; I was thirsty, and you gave me drink" and the rest.

Third, he promises the destruction of their enemies: behold, I.

And first, he shows the power of the one who promises, setting out a similitude: I have created the smith, the persecutor, who blows in the fire of tribulation, instruments, adversaries, according to his own will: his breath kindles coals (Job 41:12[21]); and he explains this: I have created the killer to destroy: the Lord kills and makes alive (1 Sam 2:6).

And all who have been fashioned against you by the blowing smith shall not prosper, but shall feel both present punishments and those to come. And what before seemed hidden is said more plainly in what follows: And every tongue that resists you in judgment you shall judge, destroying the wisdom of the wise and rejecting the prudence of the prudent. And all the leaders of the heretics, and the teachers of the Jews, and the philosophers of the world, whom that smith had forged, you will condemn by your judgment; as the Queen of Sheba also condemned the unbelievers, and the Ninevites; and on the contrary Sodom will be justified by comparison with a worse Jerusalem (Matt 12). After this he adds what the rewards to come are, lest they think the contest is in vain and ends with the present death. This is the inheritance of the servants of the Lord, that is, the kingdom of heaven, and life everlasting, and the repayment of labors, the things which eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have they entered into the heart of man, which God has prepared for those who love Him (1 Cor 2). And if for those who love Him, then also for those who serve Him, who have no other Lord but God. And this is the righteousness of those who are with God, says the Lord: that present tribulation should be compensated by future joy.

Second, he sets out the promise: no vessel that is formed against you shall prosper, that is, he will scatter everything formed, as to those attacking with deeds, and every tongue, as to those attacking with words, above: they shall be as nothing (Isa 41:11).