Isaiah 59

Behold, the hand of the Lord is not shortened, that it cannot save, nor is his ear made heavy, that it cannot hear; but your iniquities have divided between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he would not hear. LXX: Is the hand of the Lord not able to save, or is his ear made heavy, that it cannot hear? But your sins separate between you and God, and because of your sins he has turned his face away from you, so as not to have mercy. The things which I have now said I will do, You shall be confident in the Lord, and he will lift you up to the good things of the land, and will feed you with the inheritance of Jacob your father, I could have fulfilled before as well. For my hand is not shortened and drawn in, so that I cannot stretch it out to set my people free; nor do I have deaf ears, so that I cannot hear. From this it is shown that the ears of the Lord, which hear the righteous and do not hear sinners, are by no means like our ears, which hear equally the voice uttered, whether of righteousness or of unrighteousness.

1036. Behold the hand of the Lord is not shortened. Here he sets out the preparation for receiving salvation on the part of the Savior himself.

And first, he sets out the necessity of salvation;

second, the preparation: and the Lord saw (Isa 59:15).

Concerning the first, he does two things:

first, in the person of the Lord, he shows the necessity of salvation, showing the misery of the people;

in the second, the people respond, recalling their misery: therefore is judgment far from us (Isa 59:9).

Concerning the first, he does two things:

first, he shows the cause of their misery;

second, the misery itself: wasting and destruction (Isa 59:7).

1037. Concerning the first, he does two things.

First, he excludes a false cause, from lack of God's power or understanding, because he would not rush to hear: neither is his ear heavy that it cannot hear, above: is my hand shortened? (Isa 50:2).

Rising again with the same flesh as that with which he was buried, [Christ] stands behind the wall of our unbelief, the wall that as we sinned we built with our muddy, dirty works. About these works God spoke through the prophet Isaiah, "But your sins have made a wall between you and God." Behind the wall stands Christ the Lord, and he waits to be called on by the ungodly, and he summons the sinful soul to penitence. Behind the wall where [Christ] stands, he waits for the unbelieving to believe in him until such time as they reach baptism or penitence.

Let us consider our sins, and reviewing the secrets of our action and mind, let us weigh the merits of our conscience.

The Lord can prohibit adversities, but the merits of sinners cause him to give no aid.… Therefore, let your sins and offences be numbered; let the wounds of your conscience be considered; and let each one cease to complain about God and about us, if he understands that he deserves what he suffers.

Scripture is accustomed to call hatred "toil." For the word has more than one meaning. Hatred wastes and withers up the hearts of those who receive it. Thus says the psalmist about someone or about Israel as a whole, "He conceived toil and bore iniquity."

Therefore, since bodies that cannot exist without a place cannot be spatially separated from God, without a doubt neither are the spirits that God created spatially separated from God.For every spirit that God created exists in some place, and God is there. [God], through the grace by means of which he grants to whom he wishes a holy and blessed life, is not in evil spirits; still he is always in all his creatures through his natural power. Thus there is no creature than can be found in whom God is not present through his power. Therefore, that nature can be separated from God that was or is able to be subject to sin. There is no other thing that can go away from God except that substance that is able or has been able to sin with its own will. For Isaiah says, "See, the Lord's hand is not too short to save or his ear too dull to hear. Rather, your iniquities have been barriers between you and your God."

But since we say that God is plenteous in mercy, why is it that when amidst temptations we unceasingly knock and pray, we are not heard and He disregards our prayer? This we are clearly taught by the Prophet when he says, "The Lord's hand is not little, that it cannot save; nor is He hard of hearing, that He cannot hear: but our sins have separated us from Him." … Remember God at all times, and He will remember you whenever you fall into evils.

But the sins, he says, of yours, like a wall set up in the midst, divide you and God. Hence the Savior too in his passion made both one (Eph 2), and, dissolving the middle wall of partition, destroyed the enmity in his own flesh, so that those whom the wall of sins had divided the blood of Christ might join together. He opened the gate of paradise, which had been shut for a long time (Gen 3), and quenched the fiery sword with his own blood, so that the thief might hear: Today you shall be with me in paradise (Luke 23:43). What follows, And because of your sins he has turned his face away from you, so that he would not hear, or so as not to have mercy, shows this: that he could not bear the stench of their sins and their iniquities, but turned away his face, so as not to see their foulness and be compelled at once to strike. Hence the sinner, longing to see the face of the Lord, says in the psalm: How long, Lord, will you forget me to the end? How long will you turn your face away from me? (Ps 12 [13]:1). And elsewhere: Show your face, and we shall be saved (Ps 79 [80]:4).

What the middle wall of partition is, he interprets by saying, "the enmity having abolished in His flesh, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances." Some indeed affirm that he means the wall of the Jews against the Greeks, because it did not allow the Jews to hold intercourse with the Greeks. To me, however, this does not seem to be the meaning, but rather that he calls "the enmity in the flesh," a middle wall, in that it is a common barrier, cutting us off alike from God. As the Prophet says, "Your iniquities separate between you and Me;" for that enmity which He had both against Jews and Gentiles was, as it were, a middle wall. And this, whilst the law existed, was not only not abolished, but rather was strengthened; "for the law," saith the Apostle, "worketh wrath."

It is the greatest punishment to commit sin, though we may remain unpunished; as on the other hand, it is the greatest honour and repose to live virtuously, though we may be punished. For sins separate us from God; as He Himself speaks; "Have not your sins separated between you and Me?" But punishments lead us back to God. As one saith, "Give peace; for Thou hast recompensed us for all things." Suppose any one hath a wound; which is the most deserving of fear, gangrene, or the surgeon's knife? the steel, or the devouring progress of the ulcer? Sin is a gangrene, punishment is the surgeon's knife. As then, he who hath a gangrene, although he is not lanced, hath to sustain the malady, and is then in the worse condition, when he is not lanced; so also the sinner, though he be not punished, is the most wretched of men; and is then especially wretched, when he hath no punishment, and is suffering no distress.

For He Himself never turns away from us, but it is we who put ourselves far off: for "I am a God" we read "at hand and not a God afar off." And again, when He was rebuking them by the mouth of this prophet He said "Do not your sins separate between you and me?" Inasmuch then as this is the cause which puts us far from God, let us remove this obnoxious barrier, which prevents any near approach being made.

But now hear how this has actually occurred in real instances. Amongst the Corinthians some man of mark committed a sin such as was not named even among the Gentiles. This man was a believer and belonged to the household of Christ; and some say that he was actually a member of the priesthood. What then? Did Paul cut him off from the communion of those who were in the way of salvation. By no means: for he himself it is who rebukes the Corinthians countless times, backwards and forwards, because they did not bring the man to a state of repentance: but, desiring to prove to us that there is no sin which cannot be healed, he said again concerning the man who had transgressed more grievously than the Gentiles: "Deliver such an one to Satan for destruction of the flesh that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus Christ."

Second, he adds the true cause, namely, their own fault, first touching upon their fault in general: but your iniquities, as to great sins, have divided, like a wall or clouds might be interposed, and your sins, as to common sins: he said: I will hide my face from them (Deut 32:20).

1048. Note on the words, your iniquities have divided between you and your God (Isa 59:2), that sin divides

first, from one's neighbor through dissension: every kingdom divided against itself shall be brought to desolation (Luke 11:17);

second, from oneself, through contrary affection: their heart is divided: now they shall perish (Hos 10:2);

third, from God, through aversion: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living water, and have dug to themselves broken cisterns (Jer 2:13);

fourth, from the kingdom, through disinheritance: he shall separate him (Luke 12:46);

fifth, from the assembly of the saints through dissimilarity, above: the Lord will divide and separate me from his people (Isa 56:3).

For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken falsehood, and your tongue utters iniquity. There is none who calls for righteousness, nor is there any who judges truly; but they trust in nothing and speak vanities. LXX: For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with sins. Your lips are defiled with iniquity, and your tongue meditates unrighteousness. No one speaks righteous things, nor is there righteous judgment. They trust in vain things and speak empty things, iniquities and sins. What he named above in general, he now sets out in its parts. And we must note that he by no means charges them with the idolatry in which they were held in the times of Isaiah, but with the shedding of blood, of which he had already spoken before: The righteous man perishes, and there is none who considers it. And righteous men are taken away, and no one understands in his heart. For the righteous man has been taken away from the face of iniquity; his burial shall be in peace, and he shall be taken from the midst (Isa 57:1, 2). And although they themselves did not lay hands on the Lord the Savior, yet by crying with one voice of impiety, His blood be on us and on our children (Matt 27:25), they are guilty of his death and have defiled hands. Of them the same Prophet testifies, saying: If you lift up your hands to me, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood (Isa 1:15).

Their lips too and their tongue speak iniquity and falsehood, so that instead of Christ they promise themselves the Antichrist; and there is no one among the people who calls for righteousness and judges truth, or, as it is in the Hebrew, faith, that is, who believes in Christ; but they trust in nothing and speak vanities. Hence the Apostle commands that we should not give heed to Jewish fables and the commandments of men who turn away from the truth (Titus 1). For truly they trust in nothing and follow vanities; in which the Lord's prophecy is fulfilled: I have come in the name of my Father, and you have not received me; if another comes in his own name, him you will receive (John 5:43).

Second, he describes their fault in particular: for your hands. And he touches in particular upon their sins against their neighbor: for he touched upon their sins against God above (Isa 57:3–11), and their sins against themselves, above (Isa 56:11–12).

1038. And he first touches upon the injustice by which they were oppressing others as to action: for your hands are defiled with blood, of the innocent, whom you have killed, and your fingers, as to lesser injustices, or as to the diligence of their action, above: for your hands are full of blood (Isa 1:15); as to speech: your lips have spoken lies, and your tongue utters iniquity, so that the ugliness of injustice is added to the ugliness of lying: and you shall not find iniquity in my tongue (Job 6:30).

Now those who meditate evil, we say, do not [think] truth but falsehood, and not righteousness but iniquity, for their tongue learns to speak lies. They have done evil and have not ceased that they might repent. For, persevering with delight in wicked actions, they hasten thereto without turning back, even treading under foot the commandment with regard to neighbors, and instead of loving them, they devise evil against them, as the saint testifies, saying, "And those who seek my evil have spoken vanity and imagined deceit all the day." But that the cause of such meditation is none other than the lack of instruction the divine proverb has already declared: "The son who forsakes the commandment of his father meditates evil words." But such meditation, because it is evil, the Holy Spirit blames in these words and reproves too in other terms, saying, "Your hands are polluted with blood, your fingers with sins, your lips have spoken lawlessness, and your tongue imagines iniquity: no one speaks right things, nor is there true judgment." But what the end is of such perverse imagining, he immediately declares, saying, "They trust in vanities and speak falsehood, for they conceive mischief and bring forth lawlessness."

They have conceived toil and brought forth iniquity; they have broken the eggs of asps and woven the webs of the spider. He who eats of their eggs shall die, and what has been warmed shall break out into a basilisk. Their webs shall not serve for a garment, nor shall they be covered with their works. LXX: For they are in labor with pain and beget iniquity. They have broken the eggs of asps and woven the web of the spider. And he who wishes to eat of their eggs, breaking one, will find it rotten, and in it a basilisk. Their web shall not serve for a garment, nor shall they be covered with their works. Those who await the coming of the Antichrist, and cannot say, From your fear, Lord, we have conceived, and been in labor, and brought forth; we have wrought the spirit of your salvation upon the earth (Isa 26:18), rightly conceive pain and bring forth iniquity, so that the one whom they seek with much labor they may receive in iniquity. Of their father it is written: He conceived pain and brought forth iniquity (Ps 7:15).

And as to omission of justice: there is none that judges, as to superiors, to whom it belongs to judge: seek in the broad places thereof, if you can find a man that executes judgment (Jer 5:1).

1039. Second, he touches upon the cunning by which they deceived others.

And first, he touches upon the cunning itself, inasmuch as they intended their own advantage by it: but they trust in a mere nothing, in vain counsels, or in idols, and speak, expressing the vanity of their hearts with words: you that rejoice in a thing of naught (Amos 6:14); and inasmuch as they intended the oppression of others by it: they have conceived labor, that is, they have devised so to labor at ways of harming; or to bring about labor for others; and brought forth iniquity, in the completion of their work: he has conceived sorrow, and brought forth iniquity (Ps 7:15[14]).

Those who bent their knee to drink are those who inclined themselves totally to philosophy: and the same are inclined to an infinite number of errors, and that is how the leaven of error is warmed. They warm the eggs of asps, so that what has been warmed breaks out into a serpent.

Of such a kind as this, perhaps, is that of which the prophet says, touching the ungodly, "They weave a spider's web." For as in the cobweb there is the appearance of something woven, but no substantiality in the appearance,—for he who touches it touches nothing substantial, as the spider's threads break with the touch of a finger,—just such is the unsubstantial texture of idle phrases. "Not dividing His own essence by begetting and being at once begetter and begotten." Ought we to give his words the name of argument, or to call them rather a swelling of humours secreted by some dropsical inflation? … Who is so distracted, who is so demented, as to make the statement against which Eunomius thinks he is doing battle? For the Church believes that the true Father is truly Father of His own Son, as the Apostle says, not of a Son alien from Him.

"They will hatch adders' eggs." Also the children, whom they have generated, are evil and want to be even more harmful than their parents. "And they have woven a spider's web." As the threads woven by the spider catch the flies, so their schemes catch the poor amid the trials, which they organize arbitrarily. According to Qatraya, he calls "spider's web" their faith in the idols, which is of no use for the [spiders] on the day when they are caught. Through the words "adders' eggs," he shows their venomousness and iniquity, and through "spider's web," their weakness.

These break and burst the eggs of asps, so as to take their poisons into their own minds; to them it is said in the Gospel: Serpents, brood of vipers (Matt 3:7). And he fittingly set down the eggs of asps and serpents, which are said to produce eggs first. And because they not only retain the poisons of malice in their hearts, but also meditate on the law of the Lord day and night, muttering old wives' fables, therefore it is said: And they weave the webs of the spider, with which they catch flies and gnats and small creatures; but if anything strong comes against them, it flies through as though through empty air. He who eats, he says, of their eggs shall die, that is, he who yields to their counsels, as Abel yielded to Cain when he said, Let us go out into the field (Gen 4:8), will at once be killed; or, as the Seventy translated: He who wishes to eat of their eggs, crushing one, will find it rotten, and in it a basilisk. For he who, deceived at first sight, thinks them the eggs of hens and other birds, which are harmless to eat, if he breaks one before he eats, will at once perceive a most foul stench and stink, and in what has been warmed he will find a basilisk; or, according to Symmachus and Theodotion, an asp. Aquila put a viper, for which in the Hebrew is read EPHEE (אפעה). He, then, who, hearing the Jewish traditions, wishes to prepare himself for the feasts of the thousand years, and, entangled in the delights of the promises, to stretch out his hand to the egg: if before he eats, that is, before he yields to deadly words, he is willing first to consider what is said, and to examine each word and handle its reasoning, he will at once find that in them the Antichrist is being prepared. According to the Hebrew, then, he who eats of their eggs shall die. But he who, according to the Seventy, is willing to break them first, and to look more carefully and see what lies hidden, will find a most foul stench, and the serpent, the prince of all, the devil, lying hidden in their traditions.

Some explain this place thus: The eggs of asps they have split, or broken: that is, they abandoned all the biting words of the Prophets, and wove for themselves the smooth speeches of the false prophets; and whoever eats of them will be struck by the serpent, and will understand that the words of falsehood have profited him nothing.

1040. Second, he applies a certain metaphor to this. And first, he sets out the metaphor itself as to their cunning, both as to their oppression of others: eggs of asps, that is, counsels full of poison, they have broken, namely, bringing their works in public: their wine is the gall of dragons, and the venom of asps, which is incurable (Deut 32:33); and as to their own advantage: and have woven the webs, that is, thoughts useless for their own advantage: for the calf of Samaria shall be turned to spiders' webs (Hos 8:6). He sets out the metaphor again as to the effect of their cunning, as to the first: he that shall eat, sharing in their deeds, of their eggs, their counsels, and that which is nurtured, carefully prepared for a long time, shall be hatched into a basilisk, as if to say, it will kill even from afar, flying in a certain manner, above: out of the root of the serpent shall come forth a basilisk (Isa 14:29).

And because he had said above, They weave the webs of the spider, he explains that the weaving of these webs does no good. Their labor, he says, and all their doctrine does not make the garment of Christ, nor a cloak by which the nakedness of the soul may be covered; but they sweat with fruitless labor, as this same Prophet says: This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. And in vain do they worship me, teaching the doctrines and precepts of men (Isa 29:13); following these, they neglect the law of God. And so that we may know that works are signified by the web, he added: Nor shall they be covered with their works.

Their works are useless works, and the work of iniquity is in their hands. Their feet run to evil, and they hasten to shed innocent blood. Their thoughts are useless thoughts; desolation and destruction are in their ways. The way of peace they have not known, and there is no judgment in their steps. Their paths have become crooked to them; everyone who treads in them does not know peace. LXX: For their works are works of iniquity, and their feet run to malice; swift to shed harmless blood; and their thoughts are the thoughts of fools. Destruction and misery are in their ways, and the way of peace they have not known, and there is no judgment in their ways. For their paths are perverse, which they pass along, and they do not know peace. Therefore they are not covered with their works, because their works are works of iniquity, which the Apostle calls unfruitful, that is, having no fruits (Eph 5).

And as to the second: their webs shall not be for clothing; that is, as spider webs do not avail for clothing, so their counsels avail nothing for them, if they gain no advantage, above: they shall be confounded that wrought in flax, combing and weaving fine linen (Isa 19:9).

1041. Second, he explains the metaphor. And first, as to action: their works are unprofitable, as to one part, the work of iniquity, as to the other, above: their works shall not profit them (Isa 57:12).

And their feet run to evil and hasten to shed harmless blood (Prov 1). For they had this custom in the slaying of the Prophets too. To them Stephen said: For which of the Prophets did your fathers not persecute? (Acts 7:52). And the Lord in the Gospel: Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the Prophets and stone those who are sent to you (Matt 23:37); and again: All the righteous blood that has been shed upon the earth shall come upon you, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah the son of Barachiah, whom you killed between the Temple and the altar (ibid., 35). Hence it is said to them above as well: For your hands are defiled with blood, and your tongue speaks iniquity (Isa 59:3). And through this practice of cruelty and blasphemy they came to the slaying of the Lord, just as Judas too came by the way of avarice to murder, or rather to sacrilege joined with avarice.

What follows, Their thoughts are the thoughts of fools; destruction and misery are in their ways, and the way of peace they have not known, and, above, Their feet are swift to shed blood, the Apostle set down in Romans (ch. 3). Many, not knowing this, think it was taken from the thirteenth psalm, in which the verses were added in the common edition and are not found in the Hebrew; about this we spoke more fully at the beginning of this volume.

What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin; As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips: Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: Their feet are swift to shed blood: Destruction and misery are in their ways: And the way of peace have they not known: There is no fear of God before their eyes. [Isaiah 59:7-8] Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.

They sin with all parts of the body, through hands, feet, tongue. But it is the life inside their minds that sins before all of these once it has fallen into imprudence, so that it cannot recognize the peace that is at hand.

Second, as to thoughts: their feet, that is, their affections, as to one part: their feet run to evil (Prov 1:16); their thoughts, as to the other: woe to you that devise that which is unprofitable (Mic 2:1).

1042. Wasting. Here he shows them their misery. And first, he sets out the magnitude of their misery: wasting, as to injury to things, and destruction, as to injury to persons, are in their ways, that is, wasting and destruction by their enemies threaten them because of their evil ways.

Rightly did they not know the way of peace, who refused to receive its author. For he is our peace, who says to the Apostles: My peace I give you, my peace I leave you (John 14:27); and to Jerusalem: If you knew the things that are for your peace; for the days shall come upon you, and your enemies shall surround you with a rampart, and besiege you, and dash your children to the ground (Luke 19:42, 43). And those who have not received peace consequently have no judgment in their ways either: namely him of whom it was said above, Behold my servant whom I have chosen, my beloved whom my soul has loved; he shall bring forth judgment to the nations (Isa 42:1). It follows: Their ways are perverse, not by nature, but by their own will. For whatever is perverted and bent is twisted from straight into crooked. The whole doctrine of the Pharisees is a subversion of the truth; whoever walks by it not only does not find peace, but does not even know it, so as to know what he ought to seek.

Second, the fairness of their misery, namely that they suffer the kinds of things that they do to others: the way of peace, by which they might have set others in peace; there is no right judgment, and therefore, their paths, that is, the things they devise, are become crooked, that is, they are made curved to them, because what they prepared for others, they themselves will suffer; every one that treads, following them, knows no peace, with the knowledge of experience: destruction and unhappiness in their ways; and the way of peace they have not known (Ps 13[14]:3).

1049. Note also on the words, their paths are become crooked (Isa 59:8), that there is the crookedness

first, of guilt, above: bow down, that we may go over (Isa 51:23);

second, of misery: I am become miserable, and am bowed down even to the end (Ps 37:7[38:6]);

third, of sadness: the soul that is sorrowful for the greatness of evil she has done, and goes bowed down (Bar 2:18);

fourth, of fraud: though he humble himself and go crouching, yet take good heed and beware of him (Sir 12:11);

fifth, of justice: God, whose wrath no man can resist, and under whom they stoop that bear up the world (Job 9:13).

Because of this judgment is far removed from us, and righteousness will not overtake us. We waited for light, and behold, darkness; for brightness, and we have walked in darkness. We have groped for the wall like the blind, and we have felt about as if without eyes; we have stumbled at noon as in darkness; in dark places as dead men. We shall all roar like bears, and like doves we shall moan in meditation. We waited for judgment, and there shall be none; for salvation, and it is far removed from us. LXX: Therefore judgment has departed from them, and righteousness does not overtake them. While they waited for light, darkness came upon them. Waiting for it, they shall walk in darkness; they shall grope for the wall like the blind, and shall feel about as though having no eyes. They shall fall at noon as at midnight; like dying men they shall groan; like a bear and like a dove they shall walk together. We waited for judgment, and there is none; salvation has departed far from us. After the accusation of the people of the Jews, the Prophet answers in their person what they ought to say as penitents, if indeed they wish to recover health after their wounds. And I wonder why the Seventy framed the speech as though the Prophet were speaking about them, and not they themselves answering the Prophet's words, when in what follows, overcome by the truth, they did this very thing, saying: We waited for judgment, and there is none; salvation has departed far from us. For our iniquity is great in your sight, and our sins have withstood us, and the rest. In the present time, then, all things are fulfilled. Judgment, which has been announced to the nations, is far removed from the Jews; and righteousness, which has been laid hold of by the nations, will not overtake them. They waited for the light, saying, Send forth your light and your truth (Ps 42 [43]:3), which had been promised them through the Prophets, and they have been seized by the darkness of error. They waited for brightness, and they walked in darkness.

1043. Therefore is judgment far from us. Here the people confess. And first, they confess their misery as to the injustice of the enemies oppressing them: judgment is far from us, because God does not judge us from our adversaries: the contrary is found above: I have brought my justice near (Isa 46:13[12]); as to the distress of their tribulations, setting out the obscurity of tribulation under the metaphor of darkness: we looked for light, divine consolation, and behold darkness, of tribulation, above: we shall look towards the land, and behold darkness of tribulation (Isa 5:30).

At times even we, when we were in error, mired in the pride of our mind as if our feet were stuck in the mud, did not perceive our error of the divine gospel each day. We would "grope around in the dark like blind people," because our inner mind did not possess that which is necessary for discernment. Then, as if from a deep sleep, the mercy of the Most High poured out like pure rain, was sprinkled on our drowsiness, and from our sleep we were roused and boldly took up this mirror to see our self in it. At that very moment we were convicted by our faults, and we discovered that we were barren of any good virtue and that we had become a dwelling place for every corrupting thought and a lodge and abode for every lust.

So they grope at the holy Scriptures like the blind feeling for a wall, seeking in them only the words and the leaves, not the sense and the fruit which is held in the letters. Then he adds and says: We have stumbled, or we shall fall at noon as in darkness; in dark places, as dead men. For while the sun of righteousness flashes its brightness over the whole world, they linger in darkness, namely as men dead in sin.

This is to be understood that just as there are eyes where there is no light or there is light but not eyes to see it with, they are unable to see the matter at hand; so it is necessary that the one who wants to understand the sense must not miss what is offered as wisdom from the holy Scriptures.There will be on that day so much groaning and howling, just as a bear when it is robbed of her cubs, or even as with doves who by nature constantly moan.

And the difficulty of deliberations: we have groped, as though not knowing what to do, above: who is blind, but my servant? (Isa 42:19); and injury from dangers: we have stumbled at noonday, on these things where there was a clear way for us to avoid them, we are in dark places, that is, in doubts: they shall meet with darkness in the day (Job 5:14).

We shall all roar, he says, like bears, and like doves we shall moan in meditation; so that they are at once cruel and wretched: fierce and savage toward the lowly and those subject to them, fearful and trembling toward those who are stronger, whom they dread as doves dread hawks. We read in another place too: Like a she-bear robbed of her cubs; and in Daniel the bloody kingdom, in which there are three rows of teeth, is compared to a most ferocious she-bear (2 Sam 17:8; Dan 7). And like doves we shall moan in meditation, without sense and understanding of the Scriptures, meditating only on the words, which they chant by heart. But just as the doves of which it is written, Ephraim is like a dove that has no sense (Hos 7:11), and as in the Gospel the simplicity of doves is set against the malice of serpents (Matt 10), so in the present place simplicity without prudence, which is close to folly, is shown in the mere meditation of words. They will wait for judgment, and there will be none; for salvation, understood, they will wait, and there will be none, because it has gone far away to the nations. Here it must be noted that everything is said in the future tense, so as to indicate what the Jews are now enduring.

1044. They also confess their misery as to sadness of heart: we shall roar all of us like bears, on account of their cruelty; as mournful doves, on account of their lewdness: mourning as doves (Nah 2:7); and as to the absence of salvation: we have looked for judgment, for ourselves: we looked for peace and no good came (Jer 8:15).

For this reason righteousness and peace are far from you, since each has abandoned the fear of God and grown blind in his faith and ceased to walk by the rules of his precepts or to behave in a way worthy of Christ. Rather does each follow the lusts of his evil heart by reviving that wicked and unholy rivalry, by which, indeed, "death came into the world."

For just as the deeds of the wicked are their accusers before the righteous Judge, making them bend and bow down their heads silently in shame, so also their beautiful deeds plead cause for the good before the good One. For the deeds of all humankind are both silent and speak silently by their nature, yet they speak when one sees them.In that place there is no interrogation, for [God] is the judge of knowledge; nor is there any response, for when he sees it, he hears. He hears with sight, and he sees with hearing.

Our iniquities are multiplied before you, and our sins have answered against us; for our crimes are with us, and we have known our iniquities: to sin and to lie against the Lord; and we have turned away so as not to go behind our Lord, so as to speak calumny; and we have conceived transgression, and have spoken from the heart words of falsehood. And judgment is turned backward, and righteousness has stood far off, for truth has fallen in the street, and equity could not enter. And truth has been given over to forgetfulness, and he who departed from evil lay open to be a prey. LXX: For our iniquity is great in your sight, and our sins have withstood us. For our iniquities are in us, and we have known our unrighteousnesses. We have acted impiously, and we have lied, and we have departed from our God. We have spoken unjust things and been disobedient. We have been in labor with and meditated from our hearts unjust words. And we have departed from judgment, and righteousness has stood far off, for truth has been consumed in their ways, and they could not pass by the straight road. And truth has been taken away, and they turned aside their mind so as not to understand. He gives the reasons why they roared like bears and meditated like doves, and waited for a judgment that was not there, and for a salvation that passed over to the nations: because multiplied, they say, are our iniquities in your sight, from which you had turned away your face for a long time, so as not to see them, so as not to strike. And our sins have answered against us, so that we have received what we deserved. And our crimes are with us, and we have known our iniquities, which, while we committed them for a long time, we thought to be righteousness.

It was not you who failed to be concerned for us, but it was our life of iniquity that deprived us of your care and concern.

1045. Second, they confess their fault. And first, the manifestation of their fault as to God: for our iniquities are multiplied before you, in your sight: all things are naked and open to his eyes (Heb 4:13); and as to the people themselves: and our sins have answered us, in punishments, for our wicked doings are with us, because we do not make satisfaction or correct our ways, above: the show of their countenance has answered them (Isa 3:9).

And what are the iniquities? To sin and to lie against God; or, as Aquila translated according to the Hebrew, to deny God: which refers to the Savior. And we have forsaken, they say, our God, saying: We know that God spoke to Moses; but as for this man, we do not know where he is from (John 9:29); so as to speak calumny: If this man were from God, he would not break the sabbath (ibid., 16); and: By Beelzebub the prince of demons he casts out demons (Luke 11:15). And transgression, which in Greek is called more expressively ἀπόστασις, when someone denies God and is convicted of prevarication. We have conceived and spoken from the heart words of falsehood, despising the law of God and following the traditions of men, which they call δευτερώσεις, and which we feigned in our heart:

Second, the variety of their sins, against God: in sinning, in deed, and lying, in speech, we have turned away, in omission; and against their neighbor, in speech: but spoke calumny, against our neighbor; and against the law: and transgression: from the heart come forth evil thoughts (Matt 15:19).

And judgment is turned backward, and righteousness has stood far off. For what share has righteousness with iniquity? What agreement has Christ with Belial? Righteousness has taken its stand among the nations and has departed from us, because truth has fallen in the street. For wide and spacious is the way that leads to death (Matt 7), because they would not enter the narrow way in which truth abides.

The prophetic text makes this statement detailed in order to invite those who desire help to appease the Lord by saying something like the following: We acknowledge our offenses, we have recognized our impiety, we have spoken falsely against you, our Master, since we promised to keep your laws and we have violated them. We have not ceased contradicting you, uttering words of unrighteousness, proposing things that are unjust, failing to dread your judgment. We have kept ourselves far from righteousness. After this, he changes the form of his statements and puts their accusation categorically: "For truth is consumed in their ways." It has vanished, he says, because deceit has veiled it. "And they could not pass by a straight path." For they have not stopped taking the opposite route.

And as to action, and judgment is turned away backward, that is, the judgment of God for saving us; in the street, they carried out their injustices in public.

And truth has been given over to forgetfulness, of which it is written: Truth has sprung from the earth, and righteousness has looked down from heaven (Ps 84 [85]:12). Here we must observe that truth is named often, so that the person of Christ might be shown; forsaking him, they followed falsehood. And he who departed from evil lay open to be a prey. Although this seems obscure, it can be explained thus: when we were fashioning falsehood from our own heart and forsaking the law of God, righteousness stood far off, and truth fell in the streets, and equity could not enter in to us, and the Son of God, who is the truth, was given over to forgetfulness; so much so that whoever wished to depart from the traditions of the Jews at once lay open to plots and persecutions, so that they cast out of the synagogues the man blind from birth who had received his sight (John 9). And after the resurrection of the Lord the Savior they persecuted and stripped all who believed in him, to whom the Churches from the whole world of the nations sent ministrations, for them to distribute through the hands of the Apostles.

And the Lord saw, and it appeared evil in his eyes, that there is no judgment; and he saw that there is no man, and he was at a loss, because there is none to meet him. And his own arm will save for him, and his righteousness itself has strengthened him. He has put on righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation upon his head. He has put on the garments of vengeance, and is covered as with a cloak of zeal. As for vengeance, as for the repayment of indignation to his foes, and recompense to his enemies, he will repay recompense to the islands. LXX: The Lord saw, and it did not please him, because there was no judgment. And he saw, and there was no man. And he considered, and there was none to defend. And he avenged them with his arm, and upheld with mercy. And he put on righteousness as a breastplate, and set the helmet of salvation on his head. And he was wrapped in the garment of vengeance, and in a cloak, as one repaying vengeance, reproach to his adversaries. Up to this point the prophetic discourse has been woven in the person of the people; now the prophet speaks in his own person. When they said these things, the Lord saw that they made a show of repentance with the mouth and did not practice it in the heart, and it did not please him. For he sought in them the truth of judgment, which had been transferred to the nations, and did not find it. He longed for some righteous man who could meet him in his anger, and did not find one; he who had said above as well: I came, and there was no man; I called, and there was none to hear (Isa 50:2). And because, while they persisted in their crime, not even one righteous man was found, but all had turned aside, together they had become useless, and there is none who does good, there is not even one (Ps 13 [14]), he strengthened him with his arm and righteousness, or mercy, so that those who wish to be converted from error may be preserved not by their own merit but by the clemency of God.

He has shown how truth has departed: they did not want to consider their duty, he says, but they have distorted their intelligence so as not to understand what ought to be done and what is useful. "The truth in this has disappeared, and the person who turned away from evil has been besieged." They have distanced themselves so far from the truth that they openly combat those who turn away from perversity and choose the good.

He that departed from evil, lay open to be a prey, for not only did they do wicked deeds, but they plundered those who would not: there is no mercy (Hos 4:1); let us lie in wait for the just, because he is contrary to our doings (Wis 2:12).

1046. And the Lord saw. Here he sets out the preparation of salvation on the part of the Savior. And first, he sets out the manner of preparation, speaking of God according to a human manner. He sets out his compassion: and the Lord saw, with the eye of mercy, there is no judgment, of anyone to save.

For the unjust deeds displeased the just judge so he did not call the workers of these deeds "humans," for although being in an honored place they do not understand and are comparable to the unthinking beasts and resemble them.… In place of "mercy" the three translators have rendered "justice," so as to say "he has exacted a just recompense on them." It calls the operation of God his "arm," while "mercy" teaches the usefulness of discipline. The God of all things disciplines for profit.

And the Lord saw. Here he sets out the preparation of salvation on the part of the Savior. And first, he sets out the manner of preparation, speaking of God according to a human manner. He sets out his compassion: and the Lord saw, with the eye of mercy, there is no judgment, of anyone to save. And he saw that there is not a man, saving the Jews, and he stood astonished, saddened or distressed: and I sought among them for a man (Ezek 22:30). And he sets out the taking up of armor: and his own arm brought salvation to him, that is, his power, that he should suffer nothing contrary, or the people to the worship of him; his own justice supported him, that his vengeance be executed firmly; he put on justice as a breastplate: for as a soldier is strengthened by armor, so his work is strengthened by justice and his intention to save: his arm has wrought for him salvation (Ps 97[98]:1); he will put on justice as a breastplate (Wis 5:19).

Then he put on the breastplate of righteousness, and the helmet of salvation, and the garments of vengeance, and was wrapped in the cloak of zeal; and thus armed he went forth to war, to render vengeance to his enemies, doubtless meaning the Jews who persevered in their blasphemies, and recompense to his foes, when the Roman army surrounded them; and in their victory the Lord is shown to have fought. Paul used this testimony when writing to the Ephesians, wishing us to put on the armor of Christ, by which we may resist the fiery darts of the devil (Eph 6). And what is not found in the Seventy Translators, He will repay recompense to the islands, signifies the cities of Judea, which the Roman army laid waste. For above too (Isa 20) the Lord speaks through the Prophet to the inhabitants of the island, that is, of Jerusalem.

[Isaiah] says that God shares salvation, which is exchanged for repentance and understanding with those deserving, who put on righteousness just as if it were their garment. He says nothing less than that God is girded with the righteous deeds of human beings, just like body and head armor. Such things are said with reference to God to enthuse the listeners and to raise up their thoughts as being those capable of becoming the garment of God and so sharing his righteousness.

He put on justice as a breastplate: for as a soldier is strengthened by armor, so his work is strengthened by justice and his intention to save: his arm has wrought for him salvation (Ps 97[98]:1); he will put on justice as a breastplate (Wis 5:19).

And he sets out the execution of vengeance: to the islands, the various peoples, the like, for the wicked things which they did to the Jews: let all men dread and fear the God of Daniel (Dan 6:26).

And those from the West shall fear the name of the Lord, and those from the rising of the sun his glory, when he comes like a violent river which the spirit of the Lord drives on; and the redeemer shall come to Zion, and to those who return from iniquity in Jacob, says the Lord. This is my covenant with them, says the Lord: My spirit which is in you, and my words which I have put in your mouth, shall not depart from your mouth, nor from the mouth of the seed of your seed, says the Lord, from now and for ever. LXX: And those from the West shall fear the name of the Lord, and those from the rising of the sun the glorious name. For the wrath of the Lord shall come like a violent river, ÷ it shall come with fury ⁚ and he who delivers shall come from Zion. And he shall turn away impieties from Jacob, and this shall be my testament to them, says the Lord. My spirit which is in you, and my words which I have given in your mouth, shall not fail from your mouth, nor from the mouth of your seed, says the Lord, from now and for ever. After the Lord has put on the breastplate of righteousness, and the helmet of salvation, and the garments of vengeance, and the cloak of zeal for the fight, and has come to the contest and to vengeance, to repay his foes and render to his enemies, and to overthrow their islands, that is, their cities and villages, then the foreigners who are to come from the West and the East to rest in the bosom of Abraham (Matt 8), of whom it was also said above (cf. Isa 49:12), Behold, these shall come from afar, some from the West, and others from the North, and others from the land of the Persians, will fear the Lord with that fear which is the beginning of wisdom (Sir 1). Of this we read in many places, of which let us set down a few: Blessed is the man who fears the Lord (Ps 111 [112]:1); and: There is no want for those who fear him (Ps 33 [34]:10); and: The fear of the Lord is discipline and wisdom (Prov 15:33); and: Come, children, hear me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord (Ps 33 [34]:12); and: Blessed is the man who fears the Lord (Ps 127 [128]:4); and: The fear of the Lord adds days (Prov 10:27). That, once Israel has been rejected, the crowd of the nations takes its place, the prophet Malachi teaches more fully, in whom it is said to the Jews: I have no pleasure in you, says the Lord Almighty, and I will not accept a sacrifice from your hands (Mal 1:10, 11); and again of the multitude of the nations: For from the rising of the sun to its setting my name has been glorified among the nations. The author of this blessedness is he who will come like a violent river which the spirit of the Lord drives on; or, as Aquila translated, like a narrow river, the spirit of the Lord its seal; or Theodotion, like an assailing river, the spirit of the Lord is sealed. In this testimony, then, as the Seventy translated it, like a violent river the wrath of the Lord shall come with fury, the last part is not found in the Hebrew. For wrath and fury are not to be set among the promises of God, since in the other things that follow there is the blessedness of things to come, and the threat and punishment of sinners. According to Aquila and Theodotion, the spirit of the Lord which is sealed in Christ confirms the example which is read in John the Evangelist: For him God the Father has sealed (John 6:27); of whom it has already been said before: A rod shall come forth from the root of Jesse, and a flower shall rise up from its root, and the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and fortitude, the spirit of knowledge and piety, and the spirit of the fear of the Lord has filled him (Isa 11:1ff.). Hence we too say: The light of your countenance, Lord, is sealed upon us (Ps 4:7). And in Ezekiel the foreheads of the men who groan are sealed with the impression of THAV, the Hebrew letter which is the last among them (Ezek 9). But if we wish to know how the Holy Spirit is a violent river, let us read again the Acts of the Apostles, in which it is written: And when they were gathered together, suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a violent wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them tongues parted as of fire, and it sat upon each of them; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:2, 3).

1047. Second, he sets out the minister of salvation or vengeance: when he shall come as a violent stream, because of the magnitude of his power and strength, or Christ, the minister: the stream of the river makes the city of God joyful (Ps 45:5[46:4]).

1050. Note also on the words, as a violent stream (Isa 59:19), that Christ is a violent stream:

first, because of the multitude of water: the river of God is filled with water (Ps 64:10[65:9]);

second, because of the fervor of love: a swift stream of fire issued forth from before him (Dan 7:10);

third, because of the swiftness of its course: the stream of the river makes the city of God joyful (Ps 45:5[46:4]);

fourth, because of the height of its source: and he showed me a river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the lamb (Rev 22:1).

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.

"And he will come to Zion as Redeemer," that is, Zerubbabel. Therefore the spiritual Zion and the hill of visions and revelations is the church. The Redeemer, who comes to it, is Christ, that great Zerubbabel. "This is my covenant with you," which I made with your ancestors on the mountain, so that my words might never be lacking from the mouths of your descendants.

It follows: The redeemer of Zion shall come, and of those who return from iniquity in Jacob, says the Lord. For this the Seventy translated: He who delivers shall come from Zion, and shall turn away impieties from Jacob. If, then, he who turns away the impieties from Jacob will come from Zion, we understand this: that a man was born in Zion, and the Most High founded her, he who turns away the crimes of Jacob. But if the redeemer shall come to Zion, and to those who return from iniquity in Jacob, says the Lord, this is the sense: Christ will come, who will redeem Zion with his blood; or, according to the Hebrew idiom, he who is the kinsman of Zion and was begotten of the stock of Israel; for this is what GOEL (גואל), that is, ἀγχιστεὺς, means. And lest we think that all of Zion is redeemed and freed from its crimes, Zion which is bloodied with the blood of the Lord, he added significantly: to those who return from iniquity, if they are willing to do penance, in whom the Lord's prayer may be fulfilled: Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do (Luke 23:34).

Paul, explaining this place carefully, writes to the Romans that there is no distinction of Jew and Greek, but the same Lord of all, rich toward all who call upon him (Rom 10); and that the nations did not believe in such a way that Israel was wholly driven out. For I too, he says, am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not cast off his people whom he foreknew (Rom 11:1, 2). And a little after, when he had set down the example of Elijah, complaining to the Lord that he alone was left, and hearing from him that the Lord had left for himself seven thousand men who had not bent the knee before Baal (1 Kgs 19), he added: So then at this present time also a remnant has been saved according to the election of grace. And if by grace, it is no longer of works; otherwise grace is no longer grace. What then? What Israel was seeking, this it has obtained; but the election has obtained it, and the rest have been blinded. And they, if they do not remain in unbelief, will be grafted in. For God is able, he says, to graft them in again (Rom 11:5ff.): not against nature from the wild olive, as the multitude of the nations was grafted in, but according to nature into the good olive, that is, into their own. And at the end he set down, so as to arrive at the present chapter: For I would not have you ignorant, brothers, of this mystery, lest you be wise in your own eyes: that blindness has befallen Israel in part, until the fullness of the nations should come in, and so all Israel should be saved, as it is written: He who delivers shall come from Zion, and shall turn away impieties from Jacob; and this is my testament to them, when I take away their sins (Rom 11:25ff.). We have pursued these things at greater length so that we may understand that whatever promises we have read, and are going to speak of, concerning Zion and Jerusalem, are said not generally to all the Jews, but specially to those of Israel who were chosen in the Apostles and through the Apostles.

For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins. [Isaiah 59:20-21] As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers' sakes. For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance. For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief: Even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy. For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all.

Theirs, then, is the redemption in Zion, and theirs the kinsman, who from Jacob have received him; and to them he promises, saying: This is my covenant with them, or pact, as all the others translated, or testament, as the Seventy put it. What the covenant, pact and testament is, the following verse shows: My spirit, he says, which is in you, and my words which I have put in your mouth, shall not depart from your mouth, nor from the mouth of your seed, from now and for ever. This is said either to Isaiah, as it seems to me, or to the Lord, as very many think. With reference to Isaiah, then, the order is connected thus: This is the everlasting pact of the Gospel: that my spirit which is in you, and my words which I have put in your mouth, by which you foretell things to come, shall not depart from your mouth, nor from that of your sons and grandsons and your seed, so that every generation in succession is indicated: namely, that the grace of the Prophets comes upon the Apostles, and through those of Israel who are to believe through the Apostles. What he adds, from now and for ever, agrees with that testimony: Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away (Matt 24:35).

He calls "mouth" that of the apostles, and "seed" of the apostles those who learn from their teaching. Thus he promises grace of the Spirit to those who believe in him.… Thus, we who also enjoy this grace, let us sing praises to the fount of grace to whom glory is due for the ages of ages. Amen.

Third, his pact of strength: this is my covenant with them, says the Lord: my spirit that is in you, the spirit of prophecy; your seed, as to the other prophets and the apostles upon whom his Spirit came like an inheritance through a succession of descendants: I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy (Joel 2:28).