Isaiah 56

Thus says the Lord: Keep judgment, and do righteousness: for my salvation is near to come, and my righteousness to be revealed. For righteousness the Seventy translated mercy; the rest alike. The prophecy about the nations being ended, which at the coming of the word of God are to be changed from saliunca and nettle into cypress and myrtle, Isaiah speaks to the hearers of that time, that they should do all things that are right and prepare themselves for the coming of the Savior, because He Himself is the righteousness and mercy of God. For if the thoughts of the Saints are judgments, and we ought to have senses trained for discerning good and evil, why should we not at all times keep judgment, so as not to despise the person of the poor man in judgment, nor be frightened by the power of the rich, but judge the great as we judge the small, knowing, according to Moses, that judgment belongs to the Lord, who judges those who judge (Deut 1)? In accordance with which we also read in the psalm: God has stood in the synagogue of gods: and in the midst He judges the gods (Ps 81 [82]:1). To what is now said, Keep judgment, and do righteousness, this is like: Blessed are they who keep judgment and do righteousness at all times (Ps 105 [106]:3), so that they may pursue justly what is just. And yet under the name of righteousness the whole field seems to me to be signified: that he who has done one righteousness is said to have fulfilled all the virtues, which follow one another and cling to each other, so that he who has one has all, and he who lacks one lacks all. Something of the kind the fourteenth psalm also sounds: He who walks without blemish and works righteousness (Ps 14 [15]:2). And elsewhere it is written: Learn righteousness, you who dwell upon the earth (Isa 26:9). And that the Savior, who has been made for us righteousness and holiness and redemption, is Himself the mercy of God (1 Cor 1), the words of the saints testify: And God sent His mercy and His truth (Ps 56 [57]:4).

The inspired prophets spoke not only of things to come but also gave dogmatic and ethical instruction. And they announced both judgment and salvation to those of former times, so that by the promise of good things and by the warning of pains they might turn them from evil and point them to virtue. One can easily learn this from the present oracle. For the prophetic word counsels Israel to be held by righteousness and to have uprightness as the soul's principle and then adds the prediction of the Savior and the revelation of mercy. For both [the moral and the predictive teaching] point to the Master's appearing.

Thus says the Lord. Here, after he had promised liberation from evils, he begins to promise salvation in the conferring of goods. And this is divided into three parts:

in the first part, the preparation of salvation is set out;

in the second, the promise of salvation: arise, be enlightened (ch. 60);

in the third, the great separation in the conferring of salvation: who is this? (ch. 63).

The first of these is divided into two:

in the first, the preparation on the part of the recipient of salvation is set out;

in the second, on the part of the savior himself: behold the hand of the Lord is not shortened (ch. 59).

The first of these is divided into two:

in the first, he gives beneficial counsel of preparation;

in the second, he excludes vain remedy: cry, cease not (ch. 58).

The first of these is divided into two:

in the first, he sets out the diversity of the recipients of this counsel, as to constitution of rewards;

in the second, their diversity as to escape from dangers: the just perishes (ch. 57).

The first of these is divided into three:

in the first, he sets out the counsel;

in the second, the fruit of the counsel in the recipients: blessed is the man that doth this (Isa 56:2);

in the third, the lack of salvation in those who hold it in contempt: all you beasts (Isa 56:9).

Concerning the first, he does two things.

First, he considers the due preparation: keep judgment, you superiors, to whom it belongs to judge; do justice, you subjects, that is, do every virtue, in as far as it is conformed to others by the precepts of the law: I will show you, O man, what is good, and what the Lord requires of you: Verily to do judgment, and to love mercy, and to walk solicitous with your God (Mic 6:8).

Second, he promises the nearness of salvation: for my salvation is near, for you shall be saved by me after your captivity, and my justice, as to your enemies, from whom I will vindicate you, above: I have brought my justice near, it shall not be afar off (Isa 46:12).

No one should be exercised by the words said to the Israelites about keeping the law, which doubtless belongs to the shadows of the world of types; for no one is justified by the law with God.… We should understand this spiritually; and abstaining from the care of the flesh we should offer spiritual sacrifices with the odor of a good spiritual fragrance and minister to God … to keep the sabbath spiritually now means for us keeping away from worldly cares … and with holy vigor making him glad, and offering ourselves in holy sweetness.

Blessed is the man who does this, and the son of man who lays hold of it: keeping the sabbath, so as not to profane it: keeping his hands, so as not to do any evil. LXX: Blessed is the man who shall do these things, and the man who holds them fast, and keeps the sabbaths, so as not to profane them, and guards his hands, so as not to do iniquity. He who can say with the apostle Paul: When I was a little child, I spoke as a little child; I understood as a little child, I thought as a little child; when I became a man, I destroyed the things that belong to a little child (1 Cor 13:11): he obtains the present blessedness, forgetting the things that are past and stretching himself forward to what is to come, until he attains to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God, to the perfect man, to the measure of the age of the fullness of Christ; so that that psalm can be fitted to him: Blessed is the man who has not walked in the counsel of the ungodly (Ps 1:1). This man, then, and son of the inner man, of whom it is said more than once in Leviticus, Man, man (Lev 17:8), is blessed in this, that he first does, and then lays hold of, these things: namely judgment and righteousness and the salvation of the Lord, which is near and is to be revealed to all the nations; so that he not only does what is commanded but holds it with a tight hand; and keeps the sabbath, so as not to profane it. And what the sabbath is which he has commanded to be kept the following verse shows: Keeping his hands, so as not to do any evil. For it profits nothing to sit still on the sabbath, or to sleep, and to gape after feasts; rather, it profits if one, doing good, rests from evil, and keeps a continual sabbath, that is, a rest, from iniquity, and does only those things that pertain to the salvation of the soul, and does not set his hand to any servile work. For he who commits sin is the slave of sin (John 8). But we have been called into freedom, with which freedom Christ has endowed us (Gal 4), so that we may by no means work for the food that perishes; but, cleaving to the Lord, let us say with the Prophet: But for me it is good to cleave to God (Ps 72 [73]:28). Let us become one spirit with Him, and let us fulfill the dedicated sabbaths, lest we be of the six days in which the world was made, to which the Apostles did not belong, to whom the Lord said: If you were of this world, the world would love what is its own. But now you are not of this world, because I have chosen you, and therefore the world hates you (John 15:19).

Blessed is the man. Here he sets out the fruit of this counsel in those who receive it.

And first, he sets out its utility, setting out the fruit of fulfilling it: blessed is the man that doth this, fulfilling it by his works, and the son of man that shall lay hold on this, undertaking it strenuously: blessed is the man that fears the Lord (Ps 111[112]:1); and the manner of fulfilling it, as to ceremonial precepts: that keeps the sabbath. For the observance of the sabbath belonged to the moral law as to the requirement that rest be placed in God and sometimes freed for divine affairs by abstaining from other things; but it belonged to the ceremonial law as to the determination of the time.

Now, for them, the seventh day was determined because of the work of creation, which had as yet been surpassed by nothing worthier; for us, the first day, or the eighth, is determined because of the mystery of the resurrection, in which created nature was restored to something better: remember that you keep holy the sabbath day (Exod 20:8); take heed to your souls, and carry no burdens on the sabbath day (Jer 17:21). And as to moral precepts, that keeps his hands from doing any evil: I will wash my hands among the innocent (Ps 25[26]:6).

What does it mean that the Law calls those accursed who have not left seed in Israel, while through Isaiah it is said that eunuchs suffer no disadvantage, because they cannot generate offspring? — Because it had begun to be understood in a way different from how it was spoken, therefore the prophet Isaiah later showed in what sense it had been said. For since this had been set down in the manner of a sentence of judgment on account of God’s displeasure, because those who abandoned God were struck in this way, that even though they took wives they would not leave offspring, human error seized on this as if those would be guilty before God who either did not want wives, or, having taken them, could not generate children as is usual; as though God sought nothing else but offspring, just as they are criticized through the prophet Malachi. Therefore Isaiah, in order to console those whom wrong understanding had saddened, taught that it is no hindrance if someone either cannot have children or does not wish to, provided that he keeps God’s law. For that curse applied to those who, though they could and wished to, by divine judgment standing against them were barren, so that they might have no fruit of God’s creation, which they despised; so that when they saw either that they could not generate, or that they in no way possessed those born, they might recognize this as the wrath of an outraged God and, turning back, make satisfaction. For even holy men, when they were eager for children and did not obtain this, thought that sins were standing in the way and were grieved, not knowing that it was the providence of God for whom they were being reserved. Finally, by God’s arrangement, Hannah conceived and bore Samuel (1 Sam. 1:20), and Elizabeth John (Luke 1:57), and Manoah’s wife Samson (Judg. 13:24). For the spiritual understanding in this matter is this: that those are held accursed who have not left seed that shall see God, that is, who have not instilled either a son, or a servant, or a neighbor, who will teach the fear of God upon the earth.

The stranger who comes before the Lord should not say, "The Lord will surely cut me off from his people." For it will not be because he is foreign in the sense of not having Israelite blood therefore that he will be without a share in the gifts from the Lord, the intimate and spiritual relationship with him. But if he clings to the Lord in his domestic affairs and his friendships, he will be made to belong in the holy people and to the royal priesthood and to the inheritance of God. He will be numbered among the children of Abraham. For not all from Israel are Israel as most-wise Paul said: not all the progeny are the seed of Abraham, but the children of the promise are reckoned as descendants.

And let not the son of the stranger who cleaves to the Lord say: The Lord will divide me from His people with a separation: and let not the eunuch say: Behold, I am a dry tree. LXX: Let not the foreigner who has been joined to the Lord say: Do you think the Lord will separate me from His people? and let not the eunuch say: For I am a dry tree. Those who understand this passage in a lowly way refer what is said to proselytes from the nations and to eunuchs in the literal sense: that both strangers, if they have taken up the law of the Lord and are circumcised, and eunuchs, such as was that eunuch of Queen Candace (Acts 8), who could not be idle even on a journey, and, while he sought an interpreter of his reading, found Christ whom he was seeking, are not strangers to the salvation of God. And this, they say, is said against the Jews, who boast of the nobility of their race, and say that they are sons of Abraham, and think those blessed who have seed in Zion and kinsfolk in Jerusalem (John 8). But we understand that the same people whom we interpreted above (above, on Isa 55) through the saliunca and the nettle and the κονύζην and the στοιβήν as turned into the fir and the cypress and the myrtle are now summoned to the faith of the Gospel: that they ought not to despair if they cleave to the Lord, nor think themselves separated from the people of God. For all who have been baptized in Christ have put on Christ (Gal 3:27). There is neither Jew nor Gentile, Circumcision nor Uncircumcision; to whom it is commanded in the Song of Deuteronomy: Rejoice, you nations, with His people, that is, of God, who had as His former people the Jews (Deut 32:43). These, coming from the East and the West, will rest in the bosom of Abraham. This is what John the Baptist also said: And do not say, We have Abraham as our father. For I say to you: God is able from these stones to raise up sons to Abraham (Matt 3:9). And as among the proselytes there is no difference, but both men and women are called equally to salvation, so too among the eunuchs who have castrated themselves for the kingdom of heaven both sexes are included: those who have put to death their members which are upon the earth, fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, until all attain to the perfect man and say with the Apostle: We know no one according to the flesh. And if we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him no longer (2 Cor 5:16). Therefore by eunuchs are by no means to be understood those whom the fiery poet describes, saying (Lucan, Book 10): And the unhappy youth too, maimed by the steel, and cut away from manhood........ But those of whom the Lord speaks in the Gospel: Who have castrated themselves for the kingdom of heaven (Matt 19:12); such were the Apostles too, to whom, when they wondered and said because of the difficulty of the thing, Who then can be saved?, the Savior answered: He who can take it, let him take it. Hence the Apostle too testifies that concerning eunuchs of this kind, that is, concerning virgins, he has no commandment of the Lord, but gives counsel as one who has obtained mercy from the Lord, wishing all to be as himself: For the time, he says, is short: it remains that those who have wives be as though they had none (1 Cor 7:29). For he who has been called free from the bondage and duty of marriage is truly the slave of Christ.

Those who please me are those who choose to be eunuchs voluntarily.… Who can receive this teaching, let him receive it. It is a matter of great faith and great virtue to be the purest kind of temple of God, in that one dedicates oneself completely to the Lord as a burnt offering and to be holy in body as well as spirit. Those are eunuchs who, thinking themselves to be "dry trees" because of their infertility, hear through Isaiah that instead of sons and daughters they will have a place prepared in heaven. Of this sort were Ebedmelech in Jeremiah and that eunuch of Queen Candace.

Second, he sets out the universality of this utility: and let not the son of the stranger.

And first, he excludes the desperation of some who seemed unworthy, either because of defect of race, because they were not of the race of Israel: that adheres to the Lord, keeping his precepts; saying: the Lord will divide and separate me from his people, not making me a sharer in the salvation promised to them: for there is no distinction of the Jew and the Greek: for the same is Lord over all (Rom 10:12). Or because of lack of generative power: and let not the eunuch say: behold I am a dry tree, unable to beget, like a dry tree is unable to sprout: the just shall spring up as a green leaf (Prov 11:28).

For thus says the Lord to the eunuchs: If they keep my sabbaths, and choose the things I have willed, and hold fast my covenant, I will give them in my house and within my walls a place, and a name better than sons and daughters: an everlasting name I will give them, which shall not perish. LXX: Thus says the Lord to the eunuchs: Those who keep my sabbaths, and choose the things that I will, and hold fast my testament, I will give them in my house and within my wall a renowned place, better than sons and daughters: an everlasting name I will give them, and it shall not fail. He had set forth two, proselytes and eunuchs. He speaks first of the eunuchs, and gives them precepts for living, and promises them the rewards to come; and after them he comes to the proselytes, promising them also like things. He speaks, then, to the eunuchs, who in despair said, Behold, I am a withered tree (Exod 23), that they should not think themselves subject to the curse spoken to the barren: Cursed is the barren one who does not raise up seed in Israel (Deut 7). If, he says, they keep my sabbaths, and choose out of my precepts those things which I have willed, and not those which I have conceded because of the weakness of the hearers, and hold fast my covenant or testament with all fidelity, I will give them in my house, and in my Temple, and within the walls of my most strongly fortified city, a place, and a name better than sons and daughters, which shall be blotted out by no forgetfulness. Who the eunuchs are we have said above: those who are anxious for the things that are God's; to whom the Wisdom also speaks which is inscribed with the title of Solomon: Blessed is the barren woman who is undefiled, who has not known the bed in transgression; she shall have fruit in the visitation of souls. And the eunuch who has not wrought iniquity with his hand, nor devised evil things against the Lord: for the chosen grace of his faith shall be given him, and a most delightful portion in the temple of the Lord (Wis 3:13, 14). This barren woman is fruitful in virginity; this eunuch does violence to the kingdom of heaven and takes it by force. He is a keeper of the sabbaths, so as never to do the works of marriage (1 Cor 7). He has chosen what the Lord willed, so as to offer more than is commanded: so as to consider not the indulgence of His Apostle but his will. He holds fast the everlasting covenant of the Lord, so as not to be free for prayer for a time and then return again to the same thing, but he knows that he will receive in the house of the Lord, which is His Church, the best place. For there are many mansions with the Father (John 14). And he who has been a eunuch and has done all the things that are written will have the best place within His walls, namely, so as to become a tower of the Lord and to stand in the priestly rank, and instead of sons of the flesh to have many spiritual sons. That such a eunuch was the Evangelist John, whom Jesus loved most, the histories of the Church relate: he who reclined on the breast of Jesus (John 13); who, while Peter walked more slowly, ran to the Lord borne up on the wings of virginity (John 20); who, plunging himself into the secrets of the divine nativity, dared to say what all the ages had not known: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God: He was in the beginning with God (John 1:2). Away, then, with all the cavilling of the Jews, and let it cease to make itself ridiculous at the opening of the kingdom of heaven to half-men, since chastity lies not in the weakness of the body but in the will of the mind.

Second, he sets out the promise: for thus says the Lord. And first, in those things pertaining especially to eunuchs: they that shall keep my sabbaths, as to religious worship, and shall choose the things that please me, as to obedience of the law, and shall hold fast my covenant, as to observance of the promise to abstain from evils.

And what could be greater than the reward the Lord bestowed upon His mother, whom He honored above all others? For He deemed no gift more abundant than virginity, as Scripture teaches us. For thus the Lord spoke through Isaiah: Let not the eunuch say, I am but a dry tree. Thus says the Lord to the eunuchs: Whoever keeps my commandments, and chooses what I desire, and embraces my covenant, I will give them a place in my house and on my wall, a name better than sons and daughters, an everlasting name will I give them, which shall not be cut off. He promises others that they will not fail: did he allow his mother to fail? But Mary does not fail, the teacher of virginity does not fail; nor could it be possible that she who carried God would think of carrying a human being.

All the pure virgins who are betrothed to Christ shall light their lamps, and with the Bridegroom they shall go into the marriage chamber. All those who are betrothed to Christ are far removed from the curse of the law and are redeemed from the condemnation of the daughters of Eve. For they are not wedded to men so as to receive the curses and come into the pains of childbirth. They take no thought of death, because they do not deliver children who will die. And in place of a mortal husband, they are betrothed to Christ. And, "because they do not bear children, there is given to them the name that is better than sons and daughters." And instead of the groans of the daughters of Eve, they utter the songs of the Bridgroom. The wedding feast of the daughters of Eve continues for only seven days. But for these virgins, the Bridegroom never leaves. The adornment of the daughters of Eve is wool that wears out and perishes, but the garments of these does not wear out. Old age withers the beauty of the daughters of Eve, but the beauty of these shall be renewed at the time of the resurrection.

The house and wall that are strength and security seem to describe the church that is above somewhere in the heavens, that is, over the earth. People dwell there who have grown in holiness and virtue and who shine forth and receive the honor of self-control along with a greater inheritance. They receive from God an eternal glory. There is nothing lacking of grace in them. For the rewards of self-control are great. And not only to the guileless eunuchs does he announce the provision of illustrious dignity, but he also announces it to those who keep the [new] sabbath that Christ established. For the others kept his sabbath by the law. For what was formerly in type is now illuminated in the beauty of truth.

Within my walls, a place, that is, a dwelling within the walls of my city; and a name better, because they will be called my servants and holy ones, and sons, that is, as if they had begotten many sons: the eunuch, that has not wrought iniquity (Wis 3:14).

Note on the words, I will give to them . . . a name better, that the saints have a name

first, from predestination, above: the Lord has called me from the womb, from the bowels of my mother he has been mindful of my name (Isa 49:1);

second, from divine obtaining, behold what manner of charity the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called and should be the sons of God (1 John 3:1);

third, from the infusion of grace: you have a name and hold fast my name (Rev 2:13);

fourth, from the renewal of their minds: I will give him a white counter: and in the counter, a new name written (Rev 2:17).

As if you did not know that all human beings come from Adam and that it is written that the nations will believe in Christ, as it is said, "My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations." … The saints were uncircumcised before they were circumcised, and Abraham before circumcision had faith, since there is one God who justifies a circumcision of faith. And he proclaims that each nation ought to be saved through the faith of Christ, that is, by faith in him.

"And the sons of the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord, … these I will bring to my holy mountain and make them joyful in my house of prayer." These words refer to the church of the Gentiles, as the Lord himself explained to the Jews, and it is written in the Gospel, "My house shall be called the house of prayer for all nations."

And the sons of the stranger who cleave to the Lord, to worship Him and to love His name, so as to be His servants: everyone who keeps the sabbath so as not to profane it, and holds fast my covenant, I will bring them to my holy mountain, and I will make them joyful in my house of prayer. LXX: And to the foreigners who have been added to the Lord to serve Him, and to love His name, so as to be His servants ÷ and handmaids ⁚ and all who keep my sabbaths so as not to violate them, and hold fast my testament, I will bring them into my holy mountain, and I will make them joyful in my house of prayer. After the eunuchs he passes to the foreigners whom he had named before, and to them also he promises rewards: that if they serve Him, and pass from servitude to the love of His name, they shall be His servants; such as was the Apostle Paul too, who writes at the beginning of his Epistles: Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ (Rom 1:1); and Moses, the servant of God (Heb 3). And that and handmaids has been added in the Seventy we have marked beforehand with an obelus. For it cannot be that in spiritual gifts there should be any difference of sex, since in Christ Jesus there is neither male nor female, but in Him we are all one (John 17). Of the sabbath and the everlasting covenant we have spoken above.

Is it not written, "He says, 'My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations' "? We read this in Isaiah: "But you have made it a den of thieves." …Where we read, "You have made it a den of thieves," John's Gospel had instead, "You have made it a house of business." Wherever there are thieves, there is a house of trafficking. Would that it were applied only to the Jews and not the Christians! We would, indeed, weep for them but rejoice for ourselves. But now, in many places, the house of God, the house of the Father, has become a place of business.… I who am speaking and each one of you, priest, deacon or bishop, who yesterday was a poor man, who today is a rich man in the house of God!

Heresies and schism spring from the source of evils and, therefore, whoever comes to unity returns from vice to nature; for just as it is natural for many to become one, so is it a vice to avoid the sweetness of brotherly love. Let us, then, with our whole hearts be lifted up in joy that Christ has restored to his friendship in a single church the people who perished from love of strife. In this church, the harmony of love will again receive them. Of this church, the prophet foretold, saying, "My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples."

And as to foreigners: and the children of the stranger, that is, I will give them the privileges in which the Jews glory, to worship him, as to special worship, and to love his name, like children, to be his servants, and to glory in his dominion, above: they shall worship the Lord (Isa 19:21). And these things were indeed fulfilled in the return of the people from captivity, but more fully in the conversion of the gentiles to the faith of Christ, as to the Gloss explains.

Note also that the name of God is to be loved (see 56:6),

first, because it is great to be feared: my name is great among the Gentiles, says the Lord (Mal 1:11);

second, because it is holy to be venerated: he that is mighty has done great things to me: and holy is his name (Luke 1:49);

third, because it is sweet to be meditated upon, above: your name, and your remembrance are the desire of the soul (Isa 26:8);

fourth, because it is abundant to show mercy: your name is as oil poured out (Song 1:2);

fifth, because it is effective to be called upon: whatsoever you shall ask of the Father in my name, he will give it you (John 15:16);

sixth, because it is powerful to save: for there is no other name under heaven, whereby we must be saved (Acts 4:12);

seventh, because it is hidden for knowing: what is his name? (Prov 30:4).

How could it be shown from the testimony of the prophets, already received among the Gentiles in the New Testament, that the promise which God made to Abraham has been fulfilled through the coming of Christ? — It is written in the prophet Isaiah: “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations” (Isa. 56:7). But perhaps the Jews will say: The house of God, that is, the synagogue, is open to all. Nor do we object; yet in such a way that, as always, the circumcised join themselves to the Law. For their Law is that by which they were commanded, after the manner of Abraham, to be circumcised. Therefore, nothing new can seem to be signified by this example of the prophet; since anyone coming from any nation has never been forbidden from the beginning of Judaism to join himself to the Law. Nothing new spoken by the prophet can be thought, indeed it would be unessential, if the Gentiles have always been admitted to serve the God of Abraham and are never found to have been forbidden. And this is true, because those who submit themselves to the Law are never found not to have been received. If, therefore, these things are so, it seems needless that the prophet admonished about what, once handed down, has always been observed. And could anyone so dull be found as to say that the prophet spoke something unnecessary and empty? I do not know for whom it would be safe even to hear this and not oppose it. For since the Jewish people, on account of the sins which they committed against God, seeking help from idols, were often rebuked by the prophets but refused to enter upon the path of repentance so as to return to God, God, in reproach of them, indicated that He would open His house to all nations to pray, so that, the Jews being cast off, He would show that He would place others in their place. For if the nations have always been admitted to the Law, as was said above, how could the prophet say that this would happen in the future, unless he meant something different from what had been previously commanded? He could not speak of a thing which was done daily as though it were going to come. Therefore it is clear that this tends to the ruin of the Jews, to whom the prophet shows that, with them removed, others were to be called and were to receive the house of God’s grace, which had been promised to the Jews. What that promise is, the prophet Isaiah teaches, saying: “There shall come out of Zion one who shall deliver and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob; and this shall be my covenant with them” (Isa. 59:20–21). Therefore this covenant is the removal of sins. This is the New Covenant, which was promised through Jeremiah, who says: “Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, and I will accomplish for the house of Israel and the house of Judah a new covenant, not according to the covenant which I arranged for their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; for they did not continue in my covenant, and I neglected them, says the Lord” (Jer. 31:31–32). This is their transgression, when they made the image of a calf; then they corrupted His covenant. Therefore also the tablets on which the Law had been given were shattered under the mountain (Exod. 32:4, 19), because they deserved to receive more severe precepts. But because God is mild and merciful, He promised through the prophets that He would change the Law, so as to give another Covenant, which would differ from that which He had given before: that not only what was burdensome might be changed, but also those things which were given in figure, that is, the sabbath and circumcision; so that, since they had long been oppressed, being relieved in all things, they might give grateful thanks to God as petitioners. And because, persisting in their fathers’ transgression, they refused to turn their minds away from idols, He testifies that the nations, together with the remnant who kept the faith, will enjoy the Covenant which He had said would come: so that the faithless Jews might be tortured in a twofold way. For they were burdened for a time by the precepts, and in the future they will pay fitting penalties, because they were found faithful neither in the Old nor in the New Covenant. So He said that He would give a New Covenant, so that the Old, which had been given to the Fathers, would cease. And therefore, whoever serves God in this Covenant does not observe the sabbath, nor new moons, nor circumcision, nor distinctions of foods; but has only the fear of God in faith: because he will not be justified by the Law, but by faith, as the prophet Habakkuk says: “For the righteous shall live by faith” (Hab. 2:4); so that he no longer uses many precepts to gain favor with God, but few. Isaiah again, speaking with the same meaning, says: “Though the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant of them shall be saved. For the Lord shall accomplish and cut short His word in righteousness, because the Lord will make a short word upon the whole earth” (Isa. 10:22–23). For the remnant who will persevere in the faith of the promise, while the others do not believe, He shows the shortened word of the Law: this is the New Covenant which He promised. It would not otherwise be called a Covenant, unless in a similar way this too were confirmed by the witness of blood, just as the Old Covenant, so that both might have one and the same name: but in the Old, many precepts, in the New, however, few, as He promised. So that, since He had said that Abraham would be the father of many nations (Gen. 17:4–5), in the same way the sons might be justified as the father had been justified: so that, once those things ceased which began after the faith of Abraham, those who receive the faith by which that same Abraham was justified might be sons of Abraham, as was said by the Lord. And this is neither strange nor unheard of, that men should be justified without care for the sabbath and circumcision and the rest of the commandments of this sort. For Enoch did not please God by this, that he might be translated; nor was Noah found righteous in the flood by observing this alone; nor was Abraham himself justified after he was circumcised: “Abraham,” it says, “believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness” (Heb. 11:5, 7, 8; Rom. 4:3). Then he was circumcised, so that there might be in him a sign that, though he was old, he believed that he would have a son. Therefore it is not circumcision that commends Abraham, but faith. And so, for those who believe, faith is sufficient for justification, that they may be sons of Abraham in faith, not in circumcision, because they have no need of circumcision. For what Abraham believed is not what is believed in their case. But the Jews were therefore ordered to be circumcised, so that they might have the sign of Abraham’s faith, not of their own faith, but so that they might be known as his sons according to the flesh. Yet if they believe, they will be his sons also in justification. For what advantage is it to be called the son of a powerful man if one is powerless, except that it is even more harmful? For it is a disgrace to be the son of a noble and glorious man without honor. Indeed, bodily circumcision is so far from being a merit that God says through the prophet Jeremiah that He will take vengeance on all the circumcised in foreskin, if they are not circumcised in heart (Jer. 4:4). Yet He is not angry with those who are circumcised in heart but uncircumcised in flesh, because no one has ever pleased God without the circumcision of the heart. Whoever, therefore, are circumcised in the flesh signify the lineage of Abraham according to the flesh; but those who are circumcised in heart signify the lineage of God according to faith, because, being circumcised from all worldly error, they confess God as their Father. What then does the circumcision of the flesh profit, if, when faith is lacking in the Jew, he cannot attain to the merit of Abraham? Or what harm is there in foreskin, when no one attains to his righteousness except the one who has followed the faith of Abraham? They therefore glory in the circumcision of the flesh in vain, since they see that it has no merit before God. And since, as has been shown, it is better to have faith than circumcision, the Gentiles are better than the Jews; for the Gentiles have faith, the Jews have circumcision. And whom do you think He recognizes more as sons of Abraham: those who are like him according to the flesh, or those who are like him in faith? But the faith of Abraham bears witness. And therefore he glories not in the flesh but in faith. For this reason he has received as sons those whom he sees to be imitators of his glory. For how can he call those sons from whom he sees a shrinking back from that by which he pleased God and was justified? He will therefore be able to judge them not as his sons, but as his enemies. For they appear to be envious of him, despising the faith through which he was glorified. Nor is it surprising if the Jews are found untrusting, not at all accepting the New Testament, when we know that they were not faithful even in the Old. They were always rebellious and disrespectful against God, and therefore they received such commandments by which their necks, which were unbending, might be pressed down. For they never wished to hope for good things from God, whose such great benefits and such wondrous powers they had come to know. Therefore it is that, among other things, the prophet Ezekiel says: “I lifted up my hand to them in the desert, that they should be scattered among the nations and dispersed in the lands, because they did not perform my ordinances and rejected my commandments.” And in what follows: “I gave them laws that were not good, and judgments whereby they should not live in them” (Ezek. 20:23–25). He shows for what reason such great and so harsh commandments were given to them: because they proved ungrateful for such great benefits, and, justice dictating, they were to be pressed by more severe precepts. Therefore He called them “not good,” although they are just: because they did not lead them to justification, but to destruction; and although a punishment rightly inflicted, yet for the one who suffers it, it is not a good. After these things, however, because God is merciful, He promised that He would give the New Testament, in which the shortening of the Law would justify believers, just as Abraham was justified: so that, with new moons and the sabbath and circumcision and the other precepts ceasing, not those that belong to the natural law, that is, murder, adultery, and such things, they might be justified as Abraham was. For, with the faith of Abraham renewed, He willed that all things should cease, so that the time might be such as it was when Abraham believed. But perhaps the Jews say: “If those things that were given by Moses are said to cease through the shortening of the Law, was circumcision given by Moses so that it should cease? And therefore we have the sign of our father, because we are the sons of Abraham, a sign which, for the sake of the testimony of our lineage, ought not to cease.” Circumcision indeed had to be observed in its time, that is, before the New Testament which had been promised was given. But when, by the grace of God, the burdens of the Law were ordered to cease, what need is there of circumcision? Therefore a new Law was given, that is, a spiritual one, so that carnal things might cease, and those who received it might accept its sign: so that just as in the Old Testament they had the sign of Abraham, from whom the Old Testament began, so also in the New they might have the sign of the Savior, who is the institutor of the New Testament. For just as from Abraham they were called Hebrews, so from Christ they are called Christians. Whoever, therefore, are still called Hebrews have not received the New Testament which God promised, bringing to nothing the kindness and mercy of God: for He no longer wished His people to be designated by the name of a man, but agreed to establish them under the name of His Son. With what courage, then, do the Jews say that we do not use our Law but theirs, when David says, “I will give thanks to you among the nations” (Ps. 17:50), and again, “Rejoice, O nations, with his people”? And to the prophet Jeremiah the Lord says, “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you; and before you came forth from the womb, I sanctified you; and I appointed you as a prophet to the nations” (Jer. 1:5). Judaism certainly has its own particular signs: for this people is signified either in Jacob, or in Samaria, or in Jerusalem, or in Judea, or in Israel. As for the nations, however, it is clear that He signifies them in a different way than He does the Jews. Therefore Jeremiah is our prophet. For although in all the Prophets God showed that the nations would share in His gift, yet to Jeremiah in particular He says that He has given him to us as a prophet. For he signified that the New Testament would come, which would profit the Gentiles more than the Jews, as now appears clearly. For since the preaching of the New Testament is spread over the whole earth, a faithful Jew is so rarely and with such difficulty found that all the Churches of the New Testament are called “of the nations,” as it was said in the prophet Hosea: “I will call that which is not my people, my people; and her that was not beloved, beloved” (Hosea 2:24; Rom. 9:25). Therefore, the Jews having been rejected, He calls the nations with the same mercy and grace with which He agreed to call Abraham. For Abraham did not come to know the Lord without being called. Therefore, He who agreed to call Abraham likewise agreed to call the nations. Why then do they say, “The Law is ours,” when it is clear that the gift of God is for all who are willing? Let this careless violation cease, since the grace of God is common to all. With what shame do they deny that our Christ was promised in the Law, when they see in Him all the signs which the Law foretold as to come? For both according to the promise made to Abraham all nations are justified by believing in Him (Gen. 22:18); and according to the prophet Isaiah He was born of a Virgin (Isa. 7:14) in Bethlehem from the tribe of Judah, as was promised, from the seed of David (Micah 5:2); and in accordance with what Jeremiah prophesied (Jer. 31:31–32), He proclaimed the New Testament which God then promised would come; and after all the signs of power had been shown, He humbled Himself, according to the words of the Prophets; and having suffered all that had been foretold, He rose on the third day, as it is written in the prophet. And if they inquire about the time of the promise, as it is shown in the prophet Daniel (Dan. 9:24 ff.), they will find it fulfilled in the time when Christ was born and suffered: for from the first year of Darius, king of the Persians, down to the birth and passion of the Lord and the destruction of Jerusalem, which was carried out by Vespasian, chief of the Roman Empire, the seventy weeks were completed, which are four hundred and ninety years, a reckoning made clear through the kingdoms and the successors of the empire. Therefore also it is found calculated by Tertullian in the book which he wrote against the Jews; but, lest this should backfire to his disadvantage, although he calculated correctly, we have passed it over in silence. And who can doubt this number, when now about three hundred years are found in addition to that number? It is therefore shameless, after so many years have been added beyond the time of the coming of the Saviour, to say, “He has not come.” Under the Apostles, or at the time when the Lord was living among men, hatred opposing the truth could still hide itself; so that, although it saw all the signs of the Christ who had been promised in the Savior, it could say that it doubted about the time, to conceal its unbelief. But afterwards, when many years began to exceed the promised number, what shamelessness it is to deny that He has come, whose coming is known to have been fulfilled both by signs and by times! For when something is full and does not overflow, a combative person may say that it is not full; but overflow closes the mouth of the argumentative. So the Jews, in the time of the Saviour, could say, though deceitfully, that the calculation from the time of Darius to the Lord Christ was not correctly made, so that He might not be acknowledged as the one who had been promised. We are mistaken, they might say, in the years and in the months and in the days of the emperors, and we do not make an exact reckoning. But when the times have extended beyond the prescribed number of years of the promised Christ, no excuse can be put forward to deny that He who has come is the Christ, unless, which God forbid, the one who promised is said to have lied. For when the time of the promise has elapsed, and it is denied that the one who was promised has come, what else is charged against the promiser but falsehood? Yet that He who made the promise is truthful, all the signs teach which were foretold in Christ and are known to have been found in Christ. The Jews, however, while they are ashamed to change themselves, do not consider that there will be a judgment to come. For nothing is worse than for someone to deny that a thing is true when he understands that it is not a lie.

It is written in the prophet Isaiah, "My house will be called a house of prayer among all nations." But perhaps the Jews will say that the house of God, that is, the synagogue, is open to all. We will not argue the point, except to say that the circumcised always appeal to the law. For their law is of the manner of Abraham's circumcision. Nothing new is to be seen in what the prophet gives. But if only worthless things can be found, who will say that the prophet is speaking unnecessary and empty words? I do not know whether it is prudent to listen and not to prohibit. For since the Jewish people because of their sins, which took them away from God, were asking requests from idols, they were often rebuked by the prophets. They did not want to walk the road of penitence and return to God; to their shame he signals his house is open to all nations for prayer and that since the Jews have abandoned it, he will put others in their place. For if the nations were always being admitted to the law, as the Jews claim, how was the prophet speaking of the future, unless that signified something other than had already been commanded? For it would not be possible to speak of such things as happening every day, since they were yet to come.

Whoever, then, does these things, God will bring him to His holy mountain and fill him with gladness in His house of prayer. The holy mountain is either the doctrines of truth and the confession of the Trinity, or the Lord Himself, to whom in the last time (according to this same Isaiah and the prophet Micah) very many nations shall flow together (Isa 2; Mic 4). And the house of prayer is the Church, which is spread throughout the whole world, and not the Temple of the Jews, which was confined within the very narrow bounds of the land of Judea.

Their holocausts and their victims shall please me upon my altar: for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples, says the Lord God, who gathers the scattered of Israel: I will yet gather to him his gathered ones. All you beasts of the field, come to devour, all you beasts of the forest. LXX: Their holocausts and victims shall be acceptable upon my altar. For my house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations, says the Lord, who gathers the scattered of Israel: for I will gather to him a congregation. All you wild beasts, come, eat, all you beasts of the forest. The difference between sacrifices and holocausts we learn more fully in Leviticus. Holocausts are those which are burned whole upon the altar; victims and sacrifices are those of which part is offered to the altar and part is given to the priests. It is not to be believed, then, that the sacrifices of the foreigners and the eunuchs are required according to the Jewish rite. But we ought to know this: that the eunuchs offer holocausts, since they consecrate themselves wholly to God; and the foreigners victims, since they are free for prayer for a time; of which God says: The sacrifice of praise has glorified me; and in another place: Offer to God the sacrifice of praise (Ps 49 [50]:14). Of these victims and holocausts the Lord speaks through Hosea: I desire mercy and not sacrifice: the knowledge of God more than holocausts, which are offered upon the altar of the Lord (Hos 6:6); the altar which John in the Apocalypse testifies that he saw in heaven, under which were the souls of the martyrs (Rev 6); from which one of the Seraphim, grasping a coal with tongs, brought it to purify the lips of Isaiah (Isa 6:6). This is the altar, and this the tabernacle, to whose likeness all the things made in Exodus are referred, by which spiritual victims have been offered to God (Exod 38). Otherwise, concerning bodily sacrifices and holocausts, the same God testifies above: To what purpose do I want the multitude of your victims? says the Lord. I am full of the holocaust of rams, and of the fat of lambs, and the blood of bulls and goats I do not want. For my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples. Not for the one nation of Judea, nor in the one place of Jerusalem and its city, but in the whole world; by no means of bulls and goats and rams, but of prayer. This testimony the Lord made use of when He spoke against those who, under the name of the Holy Spirit, sold the gifts of doves in the Temple, and sat in the chairs of pestilence, and had the tables of the money-changers (Matt 21 and John 2), doing all things for the sake of shameful gain, not knowing what is written: Freely you have received, freely give (Matt 10:8).

And they come to Jerusalem: and Jesus went into the temple, and began to cast out them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves; And would not suffer that any man should carry any vessel through the temple. And he taught, saying unto them, Is it not written, My house shall be called of all nations the house of prayer? but ye have made it a den of thieves. [Isaiah 56:7] And the scribes and chief priests heard it, and sought how they might destroy him: for they feared him, because all the people was astonished at his doctrine.

And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves, And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves. [Isaiah 56:7]

Second, as to everyone generally: every one that keeps the sabbath from profaning it. And concerning this, he does two things.

First, he sets out the promise, in which he promises restoration of the holy place: I will bring them into my holy mount, namely, as above: come and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord (Isa 2:3); and as to the acceptance of sacrifices: their holocausts, and their victims shall please me: the sacrifice of Judah and of Jerusalem shall please the Lord (Mal 3:4).

Second, he sets out the order of fulfillment, and first, as to the worship of the temple: for my house: the temple which is honored throughout the whole world (2 Macc 3:12); my house shall be called the house of prayer (Matt 21:13; cf. John 2:16).

These things the Lord promised would be, He who gathers the scattered of Israel; to whom the Apostle Peter also writes an Epistle; of whom the Evangelist says: This he did not say of himself, but, being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus was to die for the nation, and not for the nation only, but that He might gather into one the sons of God who were scattered (John 11:51, 52); and that might be fulfilled which was said: The congregation of the peoples shall surround you: for its sake return on high (Ps 7:8).

The Savior, however, is gentle not only with the nations. For he says, "I will gather the scattered of Israel." For these were far from the community in the law, being far away from Judah, and [they] were idol worshiping and teaching doctrines and precepts of human invention. Those who were thus gathered included the godly of old and even the disciples of the Savior.

Second, as to the gathering of the people: the Lord God, who gathers, to him, Israel, the peoples who adhere to him: the Lord builds up Jerusalem: he will gather together the dispersed of Israel (Ps 146[147]:2).

We have often seen the mass of the other nations called "the woodlands." These are the beasts of God's calling worthy to be called up due to their fear. Aquila has instead, "all the beasts," "all his living beings," and then, the second time, "all his living things." Do they belong to someone or to God? For he does not call them simply "beasts" but "his." Isaiah made mention of the nations of other tribes and the forest of beasts, and he saw in the Spirit that these would obey the call; yet so many of the Jews were persistent in unbelief.

And when the remnant of Israel had been gathered through the Apostles, and those who before had been scattered had been brought into one flock, all the beasts are summoned to come and devour Israel, namely those who would not believe, of whom the Apostle says: For the end shall come upon them (Phil 3). And the Lord in the Gospel: But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by an army, then know that its consummation has come (Luke 21:20). Or this is to be said: that they were handed over to be devoured by the beasts which the Prophet abhors, saying: Do not deliver to the beasts the souls that confess to you (Ps 73 [74]:19). Of these beasts, tropologically, which devoured a certain portion of the Lord, we have read above also (cf. Isa 9): Syria from the rising of the sun, and the Greeks from the West, who devour Israel with their whole mouth. And in Jeremiah: Israel is a wandering sheep, the lions have driven it out: first the king of Assyria devoured it, and last the king of Babylon shall break its bones (Jer 50:17). This too can be said: that together with the people of Israel the nations, formerly ravening, are summoned to faith, so that, leaving the forests which slew very many of Absalom's army, they may come to the Church, and eat the heavenly bread, and be filled with the flesh of the Lamb.

"The beasts of the forest" means the nations. For a forest denotes the group of nations of different branches that he invites to the spiritual banquet. According to Aquila, he does not call them simply wild beasts, but "his wild beasts." Why "his"? Why "God's"? Because, captured by the devil, they became wild beasts under his tyranny and while alive they were hardly human. Yet God calls these as his own to his spiritual banquet, to eat the bread of life and to rejoice.… For although they were away from him for a long time, they were able through faith to come close to him and to share in the bread that strengthens the heart of humankind.

Having made these promises to foreigners and eunuchs, he predicts to the Jews the last siege that would be made by the Romans.… The Roman army was gathered from diverse nations, because they were at that time the masters of all Europe and had conquered the larger part of Asia. This is why the prophetic text says, "Come to devour, all you beasts of the forest." Some, however, have related these words to Gog and Magog, without observing the fact that the latter were consumed in the mountains of Judea under the effect of punishment coming from God, whereas those who are now summoned are being urged to devour other people.

All you beasts of the field. Here he threatens lack of salvation to those who hold his counsel in contempt.

And first, he designates the punishment of killing: all you beasts of the field come to devour, their corpses: say to every fowl (Ezek 39:17).

In souls, pure and cleansed from all defilement, the prophetic gift shines clear. In a foul mirror you cannot see what the reflection is, neither can a soul preoccupied with cares of this life and darkened with the passions of the lust of the flesh receive the rays of the Holy Spirit. Every dream is not a prophecy, as Zechariah says, "The Lord shall make bright clouds and give them showers of rain … for the idols have spoken vanity, and the diviners have spoken false dreams." Those who, as Isaiah says, "dream and love to sleep in their bed" forget that an instigation of error is sent to "the children of disobedience."

Sometimes in sacred speech preachers are understood by dogs. For the tongue of a dog, when it licks a wound, heals it, because holy teachers too, when they instruct us in the confession of our sin, touch as it were the wound of the mind through their tongue; and because by speaking they rescue us from sins, by touching wounds as it were they restore us to health. For that by the name of dogs the tongue of preachers is signified, the Lord says through the Psalmist: "The tongue of your dogs from enemies, from him." For from the unbelieving Jews the holy preachers were chosen, who, coming against thieves and robbers in defense of the truth, gave great barkings, so to speak, for the Lord. Against this it is said of certain reprobates: "Dumb dogs, not able to bark." Because therefore holy preachers condemn sins, but approve the confession of sins, saying: "Confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be saved," dogs lick the sores of Lazarus.

"They are all stammering dogs" who stutter the praise of God and "cannot bark" against the idols, as against strangers. "They dream, lay down and love to slumber," that is, they love to sleep in the graves and in the places where sacrifices are offered to demons, and there they expect from them visions, dreams and ghosts.

His watchmen are all blind, they have all not known: dumb dogs, not able to bark, seeing vain things, sleeping, and loving dreams. And the most shameless dogs have not known fullness: the shepherds themselves have not known understanding: all have turned aside into their own way, each to his own avarice, from the highest to the last. Come, let us take wine, and be filled with drunkenness, and it shall be as today, so also tomorrow, and much more. LXX: See how they have all been blinded: they have all not known, dumb dogs, they will not be able to bark: dreaming of a bed, loving slumbers. And dogs shameless of soul have not known fullness. And they are evil, not knowing understanding: they have all followed their own ways. Each one alike from its summit. Come and let us take wine, and be drunk, and let tomorrow be such a day, great, exceedingly more ⁚. So that all the beasts of the forest may come and devour those who have been gathered, he says, or so that the throngs of the nations may succeed into the place of the Jews, their watchmen are the cause, namely the Scribes and the Pharisees: because they were all blind and did not know the Lord the Savior, nor would they see the present light. To them the Lord said: Fools and blind, which is greater, the gold, or the altar that sanctifies the gold (Matt 23:17)? and again: Blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel (ibid., 24); and: The blind leading the blind, both fall into the pit (Matt 15:14). And that teachers are called watchmen we have read above also. For in the place where, according to the Seventy, it is said: The voice of your guardians has been lifted up (Isa 52:8), in the Hebrew is written: The voice of your watchmen. Of these was Ezekiel, to whom God says: Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel (Ezek 3:17). But those watchmen were not blind; indeed, they were called seers. But these of whom the Prophet now speaks are called not only blind watchmen but also dumb dogs, not able to bark. For those who ought to have guarded the Lord's flock, and driven off the wolves, and barked for the Lord, love dreams and delight in demonic visions. And the sense is: they cannot speak the truth, but all lies.

Nor were they content with this end, they who slept in guarding the Lord's flock, and could not bark, and loved their couch, by which the pleasure of the body is indicated; but among their own, shameless of soul, they have not known fullness, they who are never sated with their error; who devour the people of the Lord as a meal of bread, and the houses of widows, and serve gluttony and lust. For they cannot say: The commandment of the Lord is bright, enlightening the eyes (Ps 18 [19]:9), nor know what is written: A man's wisdom enlightens his face (Prov 17:24). And they are dumb dogs against the enemies, of whom it is written: Do not give what is holy to the dogs (Matt 7:6). And sleeping dogs, who do not know the precept: Do not give sleep to your eyes, nor slumber to your eyelids (Ps 131 [132]); and again: Watch, for you do not know at what hour your Lord will come (Matt 24:42). And therefore, giving place to the devil, they are most shameless dogs, which are never sated. For they vomit what they have eaten, and return to their vomit (Prov 26). Of them the Apostle Peter also speaks: There has happened to them that true proverb: The dog returned to his vomit, and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire (2 Pet 2:22).

If this is said of the princes of the Jews, because of whom the people of the Lord was devoured by the beasts, let us avoid the examples of the worse; let us not be drunk with wine, in which is luxury, nor be overwhelmed by pleasures; let us not be dumb in speaking and ravening dogs against our adversaries; but let us follow the ways of God rather than our own, and hear the Scripture warning us: Think of the Lord in goodness (Wis 1:1). And again: Understanding is best for those who practice it. And if we have been dogs, let us not despair of salvation, hearing the words of the Canaanite woman saying to the Lord: Yes, Lord, for the little dogs also eat of the crumbs that fall from their masters' table (Matt 15:27). For this reason she obtained mercy, and heard from the Lord: O woman, great is your faith: be it done to you as you will. For she could say with the Prophet: I have run the way of your commandments (Ps 118 [119]:32). And again: Lead me in the right way.

Hence even sacred Scripture, with these sorts of disturbing passions in mind, in many places applies the names of brutes and of wild beasts to those gifted with reason; sometimes it calls them "dogs" on account of their shameful and headstrong behavior—"dumb dogs," since they are "unable even to bark."

Second, he sets out the fault.

And first, that of the superiors as to their lack in governing and in foreseeing dangers: his watchmen, for superiors are set over the people to guard them against dangers like a watchman guards against enemies; they are ignorant, unable to foresee dangers: let them alone: they are blind, and leaders of the blind (Matt 15:14); in the correction of vices: all dumb dogs not able to bark, against vices: but I, as a deaf man, heard not: and as a dumb man not opening his mouth (Ps 37:14[38:13]); in admonishing them of what is to be done: seeing vain things, promising them prosperity when adversity nears, and thus encouraging them in their sins: her prophets have daubed them (Ezek 22:28).

For often improvident rulers, fearing to lose human favour, shrink timidly from speaking freely the things that are right; and, according to the voice of the Truth, serve unto the custody of the flock by no means with the zeal of shepherds, but in the way of hirelings; since they fly when the wolf cometh if they hide themselves under silence. For hence it is that the Lord through the prophet upbraids them, saying, "Dumb dogs, that cannot bark." Hence again He complains, saying, "Ye have not gone up against the enemy, neither opposed a wall for the house of Israel, to stand in the battle in the day of the Lord."

That these watchmen and dogs are the same as the shepherds the following words show: The shepherds themselves have not known understanding. For the Hebrew word ROIM (רעים), which is written with four letters, res and ain and jod and mem, if it is read roim, means shepherds; if raim, the worst. We have said this to show the causes of the varying interpretation. For all have sought their own things, and not the things that are God's, nor have they walked in the way of the Lord (Phil 2), of which it is written: Seek which is the good way, and walk in it (Jer 6:16). But according to what is read in the volume of Judges: There was no king in Israel; each one did what seemed right to himself (Judg 17:6), and followed his own errors.

And what follows: Each to his own avarice, from the highest to the last: come, let us take wine, and be filled with drunkenness, and it shall be as today, so also tomorrow, and much more, is not found in the Seventy Translators, but has been added from the Hebrew and is marked beforehand with shining stars. In short, none of the Church's interpreters has expounded these little verses, but they leap over them and pass them by, as if a pit lay open in the middle of the road. And what he says is this: since, turning aside from the way of the Lord, they have followed their own paths, therefore they burn with avarice from the highest to the last, from the princes to the common people, so that, after they have begun to beat their fellow servants, and to eat and drink with the drunken, they say: Come, let us take wine, and be filled with drunkenness. Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we shall die. And it shall be as today, so also tomorrow, and much more (1 Cor 15:32). This is what he said above: They have not known fullness: they are not sated with past pleasure, but prepare future delights, much greater than those they had enjoyed before.

In plundering their goods: and most impudent dogs, plundering their subjects of their goods as if without any bridle of shame, and they are never satisfied: they shall suffer hunger like dogs (Ps 58:7[59:6]); and as to lack in perfection of knowledge: the shepherds themselves knew no understanding, of the law and the prophets: he that understands shall possess governments (Prov 1:5); they have not known nor understood: they walk on in darkness (Ps 81[82]:5).

Second, the fault of the subjects, or of all of them together.

And first, as to their own will, which pertains to pride: all have turned aside into their own way: every one of you walks after the perverseness of his evil heart (Jer 16:12);

second, as to their desire, which pertains to avarice: every one after his own gain: from the least of them even to the greatest, all are given to covetousness (Jer 6:13).