Isaiah 63

The angels, too, were in doubt when Christ arose; the powers of heaven were in doubt when they saw that flesh was ascending into heaven. Then they said, "Who is this King of glory?" And yet some said, "Lift up your heads, O gates! And be lifted up, O ancient doors! That the King of glory may come in." In Isaiah, too, we find that the powers of heaven doubted.

Isaiah asks: "Who is this that comes from Edom, in crimson garments, from Bosra? 'It is I who announce vindication, I who am mighty to save.'" For that reason, He is called Strong, and from Him come strong defenses. And so all the wars of Scripture refer to the victory of Christ.

The only-begotten Word of God ascended in the heavens with his flesh united to him, and this was a new sight in the heavens. The multitude of holy angels was astounded seeing the king of glory and the Lord of hosts in a form similar to ours. And they said, "Who is this that comes from Edom [that is, from earth], in crimsoned garments, from Bosor." But "Bosor" is to be interpreted as "flesh" or "anguish and affliction."

For he appeared to the powers above not only in the form in which he came for us, that is, as a human, but also showing the signs of his passion. Thus, we say that after his resurrection from the dead the marks of the nails and the other things of his wounds were marked on the holy flesh.… So that the angels asking each other might say, "Who is this?" He considers and replies to them, "I speak justice and the judgment of salvation." He calls "justice" the divine and good news-bearing message or every just word that the Lord speaks. And the judgment of salvation refers to the judgment we receive. He indicated the world also to Satan, who was accusing it, and he saved those burdened by terrible greed. And he expelled the rebel and foreign usurper from among them, saying, "Now is the judgment of this world."

"Who is this that comes from Edom?" It seems that the prophet sees God under the aspect of a warrior who marches at the head of his people, and, after destroying the Edomites, has come back and arrives; and the prophet asks who is this that comes from Edom and Bozrah, their royal cities.

Who is this who comes from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah? This one, beautiful in his robe, marching in the greatness of his strength. LXX: Who is this who comes from Edom, with tawny garments from Bosor? So beautiful in his robe, violence with strength. This whole passage, from the place where according to the Seventy it is said, Be enlightened, be enlightened, Jerusalem, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you (Isa 60:1), up to the present passage, where it is said, Who is this who comes from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah?, many of our people refer to the end of the world, in which they contend these things are to be fulfilled, whether carnally or spiritually (for the opinion of most is divided). But we, since we read above in this same section too, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me; he has sent me to bring good news to the poor, which the Lord and Savior, having read the volume of Isaiah in the synagogue of the Jews, showed to be fulfilled in himself, saying, Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your ears (Luke 4:21); and since it is now said of the same one that after his passion he ascended to the Father bloodied, we are compelled by necessity to take everything that is said of the first coming of the Savior. For it cannot be, as most of our people strive to make it, that things joined together in the works should be divided in time. Nor do we deny that it is a task of the greatest toil to join all these things together, and so to show that they are to be fulfilled spiritually at the consummation as to teach that they have already been fulfilled in Christ both according to the flesh and according to the spirit. Since, then, the Savior has come to the daughter of Zion, whose reward is with him and his work before him; and the righteous one has gone forth as brightness, and the Savior has been kindled as a lamp; and the bridegroom has rejoiced over his bride the Church, nay rather her God has exulted over her, who is himself both bridegroom and Lord: therefore, according to the assumption of the flesh and the passion of the cross, it is said to him: That your foot may be dipped in blood (Ps 67 [68]:24). And under the name of Judah it is prophesied in Genesis: Judah, your brothers will praise you; your hands will be on the necks of your enemies (Gen 49:8ff.), the sons of your father will worship you. Judah is a lion's whelp; to the prey, my son, you have gone up; resting, you have couched as a lion, and as a lioness: who will rouse him (Gen 49:8, 9)? And again: Binding his foal to the vineyard, and his she-ass, O my son, to the vine, he will wash his robe in wine, and his cloak in the blood of the grape (ibid., 11). This is he whom the angelic powers, seeing him ascend bloodied to the Father, command the other angels, and hear from them: Lift up your gates, O princes, and be lifted up, O everlasting gates, and the king of glory will come in. Who is this king of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle (Ps 23 [24]:7, 8). And again: The Lord of hosts, he is the king of glory (ibid., 10). We have set this down beforehand to show that the present passage too agrees with the other testimonies. Hence it is said in the Song of Songs too: My kinsman is ruddy and white (Song 5:10): ruddy in the passion, white in the resurrection. The angels, then, terrified by the strangeness of the thing (for the mystery of the passion and resurrection of Christ, according to the apostle Paul (1 Cor 2), had been unknown to all past generations), ask: Who is this who comes bloodied from the land of Edom? For EDOM (אדם) is expressed in our language as both earthly and bloody. With dyed garments from Bozrah? Many, falling into a pious error, think this is to be understood of the Lord's flesh, that is, BASAR (בשר); but if this word signified flesh, it would be written with the letter SIN in the middle, whereas now it is written with SADE, and means strong and fortified. This we take either of Jerusalem (Ps 59 [60]:11), which formerly was surrounded with very strong walls, in which the Lord suffered; or of hell, of which it is written in the fifty-ninth and in the hundred and seventh psalm: Who will lead me into the fortified city (Ps 107 [108]:11)? in which the souls of the dead are shut up, and which is surrounded with very strong guards. It must be known also that according to the history BOSRA (בצרה) is not in Edom but in Moab. There follows: So beautiful in his robe, marching in the greatness of his strength. Of him the forty-fourth psalm too sings: Beautiful in comeliness above the sons of men. Gird your sword upon your thigh, O most mighty. In your comeliness and your beauty set out, proceed prosperously, and reign (Ps 44 [45]:3-5). For which the Seventy translated, violence with strength. What sense this has, let the prudent reader inquire.

I who speak righteousness, and am a champion to save. LXX: I who speak righteousness, and the judgment of salvation. The Lord answered the angels who asked: Do you ask who I am, who ascend bloodied to the heavens, and that the blood with which I am sprinkled has given me not unsightliness but beauty? I am he to whom the Father has given all judgment (John 5). Of him the Psalmist too said: O God, give your judgment to the king, and your righteousness to the king's son (Ps 71 [72]:1). I who speak righteousness, so as to repay evil to the evil and good to the good; who came to fight against the adverse powers, and to preach remission to the captives, and to free the bound from prison, so that the adversaries may feel punishment and the captives liberty.

Similarly, in Isaiah, "who is this that comes from Edom, in radiant garments?" Notice what the angels do; they proclaim his beauty but are silent about his essence.

Furthermore, because Idumea means both earthly and, on account of the color red, can also be understood as bloody, for this reason the Savior, carrying back to the Father the victory over the world, when the angels were crying out: Open your gates, O princes, and the king of glory shall enter in. And in Isaiah, astonished, they were asking: Who is this who comes up from Edom, with garments tawny from Bozrah, so beautiful in a white robe? And one spoke to him face to face: Why is your clothing red, and your garments like those of men who tread in the winepress? He himself speaks in triumph, displaying the palms of his cross: I have trodden the winepress alone, and of the nations there is no man with me.

Blessed is that soul which, by the gore of blood poured out in martyrdom, casts down the airy throngs of demons that meet it. Blessed is he of whom, as he goes to heaven, the angels speak that prophetic word: "Who is this that comes up from Bozrah?"—that is, who ascends from the flesh to heaven. "Who is this that comes up from Bozrah, the redness of his garments?"—by the "redness of his garments" signifying the gore of blood. Blessed, then, are the souls that so follow Christ as Christ went before them. And therefore, because they so follow, they arrive even at the very altar of God, where the Lord Jesus Christ Himself is, the "high priest of the good things to come," "to whom is glory and power unto the ages of ages. Amen!"

He likewise, when mentioning the cup and making the New Testament to be sealed "in his blood," affirms the reality of Christ's body. For no blood can belong to a body that is not a body of flesh. If any sort of body were presented to our view, which is not one of flesh, not being fleshly, it would not possess blood. In order, however, that you might discover how anciently wine is used as a figure for blood, turn to Isaiah, who asks, "Who is this that comes from Edom, from Bosor with garments dyed in red, so glorious in his apparel, in the greatness of his might? Why are your garments red, and your clothing as his who comes from the treading of the full winepress?" The prophetic Spirit contemplates the Lord as if he were already on his way to his passion, clad in his fleshly nature; and as he was to suffer therein, he represents the bleeding condition of his flesh under the metaphor of garments dyed in red, as if reddened in the treading and crushing process of the winepress, from which the laborers descend reddened with the wine juice, like men stained in blood.

They call the red land "Edom," and "Bosor" to the flesh; they were amazed at the ineffable beauty of the one wrapped in earthly and fleshly apparel, such as to drive those who looked to love. The blessed David is mindful of this beauty: "Fair and beautiful among the sons of humankind." That Edom means flame-colored is affirmed in the Song of Songs by the bride, who cries, "My beloved is red and white." Christ's nature is twofold. Therefore, white means the inaccessible light of divinity, red the human appearance.

1095. Who is this. Here he begins to treat the separation of the wicked from the good in the execution of the promised salvation. And this is divided into three parts:

in the first, he introduces the judge, as though to distinguish between them;

in the second, he sets out a petition, to the judge, where it says, I will remember the tender mercies of the Lord (Isa 63:7);

in the third, the judge wisely pronounces the separation: they have sought me (ch. 65).

Concerning the first, he does two things:

in the first, the question is raised of the person of the judge;

in the second, the question of the quality of his clothing: why then is your apparel red? (Isa 63:2).

1096. Concerning the first, he does two things.

First, he sets out the question;

second, the response: I, that speak justice.

And it should be known that all the saints agree in explaining these words as referring to Christ; and the question comes from the angels, who indeed did not fully understand the mystery of the Incarnation of Christ, and therefore they asked as though ignorant, as Jerome says.

But Augustine seems to say the opposite of this on Genesis, where he says that from the beginning of their creation the angels knew everything that God was going to do, whether he imparted the seminal virtues of things to the things, or retained to himself alone that they would come to be, although it would inhere in things that they could come to be; and thus, it seems that they did understand the mystery in this way.

1097. To which the Gloss on Ephesians 3:8, to me, the least of all the saints, responds, saying that the greater angels understood the mystery, but the lesser angels, whose voice this is, did not know of it. Nevertheless, Dionysius seems to say otherwise in De Cael. Hier. 7.3; for he thinks that this question belongs to the supreme angels, who receive illuminations immediately from God; thus, God immediately responds to them: I, that speak, although from reverence for Christ, they ask each other, like disciples waiting for the response of their teacher. But although the supreme angels knew mysteries of this kind as to the substance of the deed, nevertheless, they did not know them perfectly as to their particular circumstances; thus, the mystery is seen even better by a superior perfect intellect, namely, the divine intellect, than an angelic intellect: therefore, they seek to be more illuminated above this, that they might understand more perfectly.

1098. They are amazed, however, by three things.

First, the coming of the victorious one: who is this that comes, into heaven, from Edom, earth, for "Edom" means "bloody" or "earthly"; with dyed garments from Bosra, hell, formerly fortified by a guard of demons. "Bosra" is sometimes the proper name of a certain city in the land of Moab and is sometimes an appellative name, meaning a fortified land or city: thus, it is frequently used for the land of Idumea, which is fortified by mountains, but here it is used for Jerusalem, or hell. Garments, that is, bodily members, dyed, with the blood of his passion, above: behold it shall come down upon Idumea, and upon the people of my slaughter unto judgment (Isa 34:5).

Second, they are amazed at the beauty of his appearance: this beautiful (formosus) one, from "formo," hot, and thus someone is "formosus" who is roused up because of heat; or from "form," and thus he is called "formosus" because of his shape, that is, the proper symmetry of his members; in his robe, in the clothing of humanity: on whom the angels desire to look (1 Pet 1:12).

Third, they doubt his powerful advance, walking, into heaven, not by angelic help, but by his own power, which was unheard of up to this point: upholding all things by the word of his power (Heb 1:3).

1099. I. Here he sets out the response, and he shows himself to be judge: that speak justice, that is, who have authority to bring forth judgment on the Gentiles, above (Isa 42:1); teacher, above: I am the Lord that speak justice (Isa 45:19); and Savior: I am a defender, against the demons, to save, the human race: the Lord is my strength and my praise, and he is become salvation to me (Exod 15:2); the Lord is as a man of war, Almighty is his name (Exod 15:3).

1100. Note on the words, this beautiful one, that Christ is beautiful

first, because he glows with the splendor of divinity: who being the brightness of his glory and the figure of his substance (Heb 1:3);

second, because he is fashioned in conformity of union: you are beautiful above the sons of men (Ps 44:3[45:2]);

third, because he is distinguished by the diverse color of virtue: my beloved is white and ruddy (Song 5:10);

fourth, because he is clothed with honesty of conduct: be glorious, and put on goodly garments (Job 40:5).

1104. This may all also be explained literally, so that the Lord would be introduced metaphorically, as though coming to wipe out the various enemy peoples of the Jews, and especially the Edomites. And he, according to the metaphorical manner of speaking, is clothed, above: he put on justice as a breastplate (Isa 59:17).

Why then is your clothing red, and your garments like those of men treading the winepress? LXX: Why are your garments red, and your clothing like that of men treading the winepress, full and trodden down? Where it now says red, the Hebrew reads EDOM (אדום). So above too, where Edom is written, it is not the name of a place but a word for blood. And again the angels ask and say: We have learned that you are he who speaks righteousness, and that the salvation of all has been placed in your judgment. Now we wish to know why your garments are as if dyed with new wine; or what cause there was for you to stain with blood the tunic that was woven from the top and cannot be torn, and that had from the virgin's womb such whiteness as no fuller on earth could make? For mercy befits you more than cruelty, whiteness more than gore. To them the Lord answered, not with one little verse as before, but with many words, so as to teach everything to those who did not know, lest they be compelled to ask again.

1101. Why then is your apparel red? Here he sets out the second question, concerning his clothing.

And first, he sets out the question: why then, as if to say: it is not the just, but the wicked who usually bear the marks of blood like this, not saviors, but rather murderers; like theirs that tread in the winepress: for there is red wine in that region that dyes clothing like blood: and Jesus was clothed with filthy garments (Zech 3:3).

Second, he sets out the answer: I have trodden.

And first, he assigns the reason for the redness of his garments;

second, he goes through the entire order of the matter: for the day of vengeance is in my heart (Isa 63:4).

Each quality, though, that is both beauty and strength, had been seen and understood by Isaiah, when he said, "Who is this who is arriving from Edom, the crimson of his garments from Bozrah, so handsome in the robe of his garment with strength?" So this prophet, who called him both handsome and strong, knew him as bridegroom and giant.

Isaiah, when he was speaking of the passion of the Lord, introduced the Lord saying: I have trodden the winepress alone, and of the nations there is no man with me (Isa. 63:3). But there, by the winepress the cross of the Lord is understood; here, however, not the cross, but the place of punishments into which the wicked are to be thrust is signified.

And does not also the Holy Spirit, speaking in Isaiah, testify the same thing concerning the passion of the Lord, saying, "Why are your vestments red and your garments as from treading the wine press full and well-trodden?" For can water make vestments red, or is it water that is trodden by the feet in the winepress or forced out by the press? The mention of wine is placed there, indeed, that in the wine the blood of the Lord may be known and that which was afterward manifested in the chalice of the Lord might be foretold by the prophets who announced it. The treading and pressing of the winepress are also spoken of, since wine cannot be prepared for drinking in any other way unless the cluster of grapes is first trodden and pressed. Thus, we could not drink the blood of Christ unless Christ had first been trodden on and pressed, and unless he had first drunk the chalice of which he should also give believers to drink.

Who is that who for shame is clothed in scarlet? For Bosra among the Hebrews has such a meaning.

The central idea of the great part of the Old Testament may be called the idea of the loneliness of God. God is not the only chief character of the Old Testament; God is properly the only character in the Old Testament. Compared with His clearness of purpose, all the other wills are heavy and automatic, like those of animals; compared with His actuality, all the sons of flesh are shadows. "I have trodden the winepress alone, and of the peoples there was no man with me." All the patriarchs and prophets are merely His tools or weapons; for the Lord is a man of war. He uses Joshua like an axe or Moses like a measuring rod. For Him, Samson, is only a sword and Isaiah a trumpet.

Everywhere else, then, the Old Testament positively rejoices in the obliteration of man in comparison with the divine purpose. The book of Job stands definitely alone because the book of Job definitely asks, "But what is the purpose of God? Is it worth the sacrifice even of our miserable humanity? Of course, it is easy enough to wipe out our own paltry wills for the sake of a will that is grander and kinder. But is it grander and kinder? Let God use His tools; let God break His tools. But what is He doing, and what are they being broken for?"

And, if they marvel and say, as in Isaiah's drama, "Who is this that comes from Edom and from the things of the earth?" or "How are the garments red when he is without blood or body, as of one that treads in the full winepress?"—if they say this, then set forth the beauty of the array of the body that suffered, adorned by the passion and made splendid by the Godhead. Nothing can be lovelier or more beautiful than that.… Will you think little of him because he humbled himself for your sake?… Do you conceive of him as less because he girds himself with a towel and washes his disciples and shows that humiliation is the best road to exaltation?

Edom is by interpretation either "earthy" or "bloody"; Bosor either "flesh" or "in tribulation." In a few words, [Isaiah] shows the whole mystery of the resurrection, that is, the reality of the flesh and the growth in glory. And the meaning is, Who is he that comes up from the earth, comes up from blood? According to the prophecy of Jacob, he has bound his foal to the vine and has trodden the winepress alone, and his garments are red with new wine from Bosor, that is, from flesh or from the tribulation of the world, for he himself has conquered the world. And, therefore, his garments are red and shining, because he is beautiful in form, more than the sons of humankind, and on account of the glory of his triumph they have been changed into a white robe; and then, in truth, as concerns Christ's flesh, were fulfilled the words, "Who is this who is coming up all in white, leaning upon her beloved?" And there is also that which is written in the same book, "My beloved is white and ruddy."

I have trodden the winepress alone, and of the nations there is no man with me. I have trodden them in my fury, and trampled them in my wrath; and their blood has been sprinkled upon my garments, and I have polluted all my clothing For the day of vengeance is in my heart; the year of my redemption has come. I looked round, and there was no helper; I sought, and there was none to give aid. And my own arm saved for me, and my indignation itself helped me. And I trampled the peoples in my fury, and made them drunk in my indignation, and brought down their strength to the earth. The Seventy, instead of what we have said, I have trodden the winepress alone, translated full and trodden down, which is rather to be read with the preceding passage than taken as the beginning of the following one. The rest they translated thus: And of the nations there is no man with me; and I trampled them in my fury, and broke them like earth, and brought down their blood to the earth, and I have defiled all my garments. For the day of retribution has come upon them, and the year of redemption is at hand. I looked, and there was no helper; I considered, and there was none to give aid; and my arm rescued them, and my fury came on, and I trampled them in my wrath, and brought down their blood to the earth. For the winepress, which in Hebrew is called GETH (גת), Theodotion set down the Hebrew word itself, PHURA (פורה). But Symmachus is better in this place, and we have followed him. For the word PHURA is ambiguous, and generally signifies both winepress and flask. Something must be said, then, about the winepress: that according to the custom of holy Scripture it is sometimes put for the vengeance and punishment of sinners, sometimes for the gathering of new fruits. It is put for penalties and torments when Jeremiah, lamenting the overthrow of Jerusalem in Lamentations, says: The Lord has trodden the winepress for the virgin daughter of Judah; therefore I weep (Lam 1:15, 16). In a good sense the eighth and the eighty-third psalms are inscribed 'for the winepresses'. Of these we shall speak in their own places, if life goes with us, the Lord granting it. This winepress, in which both punishments for the evil and rewards for the good are trodden out by the Savior, he alone trod, and he had no helper. For neither angel nor archangel, Thrones, Dominions, nor any of the heavenly powers assumed a human body, and suffered for us, and trampled and crushed the adverse powers, but only he who speaks in the psalm: Save me, O Lord, for the holy one has failed (Ps 11 [12]:1); so much so that even the most confident apostle Peter, most firm in the truth of faith, fled terrified with fear, nay even denied the Lord (Matt 27). And what follows, And their blood has been sprinkled upon my garments, and I have polluted all my clothing, must by no means be understood as though we believed that demons and the adverse powers have blood; but everything is to be taken tropologically, when the most merciful God, in order to instruct his people and free them from the bonds of captivity, is compelled to strike the enemies.

1102. Concerning the first, he does three things.

First, he tells of his victory alone: the winepress, namely, the cross on which he was pressed by the weight of his passion, I have trodden, my enemies, alone, suffering and conquering; and of the Gentiles there is not a man with me, to help me, because everyone fled, abandoning him. And he says expressly, not a man, because of the Blessed Virgin, in whom faith never failed: a cluster of cypress my love is to me, in the vineyards of Engaddi (Song 1:13); the Lord has trodden the winepress for the virgin daughter of Judah (Lam 1:15).

Second, he touches on vengeance against his enemies: I have trampled on them, the demons, or the Jews; in my wrath, my enkindled anger: you shall walk upon the asp and the basilisk: and you shall trample under foot the lion and the dragon (Ps 90[91]:13).

Third, he deduces, as it were, the cause of the redness of his garments: blood, my own blood, for it comes forth from my body, their blood, for it is given over to their power to pour it out, is sprinkled. He says this in the likeness of a victor, whose garments are stained with gore, above: garment mingled with blood (Isa 9:5); I have stained, in their estimation.

1108. Note on the words, I have trodden the winepress (Isa 63:3), that from the winepress of the cross flowed,

first, blood to redeem: you were not redeemed with corruptible things, as gold or silver, from your vain conversation, but with the precious blood of Jesus Christ (1 Pet 1:18–19);

second, water to clean: he brought forth water out of the rock (Ps 77[78]:16); I will pour upon you clean water (Ezek 36:25);

third, oil to heal: the rock poured me out rivers of oil (Job 29:6);

fourth, honey to solidify: that he might suck honey out of the rock (Deut 32:13);

fifth, wine to console: your presses shall run over with wine (Prov 3:10).

For the day of vengeance, he says, is in my heart; the year of my redemption has come. Of this we read above too (cf. Isa 61), in a good sense, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of retribution to our God; and now it is taken both in a bad and in a good sense. In a bad sense: For the day of vengeance is in my heart. In a good sense: The year of my redemption has come; so that at the time when the adversaries are punished, the people of God might be set free, nay rather redeemed by the precious blood of the Lamb, who in the Apocalypse of John is said to have been slain. Of this day of retribution Moses too prophesied by the Holy Spirit: And he will render vengeance to his enemies, and will repay those who hate him. I looked round, and there was no helper; I sought, and there was none to give aid (Deut 32:41).

For this is the time for these who were brazen to receive retribution and for those unjustly enslaved by them to get their freedom.

1103. For the day of vengeance. Here he goes through the entire order of the matter.

And first, he sets out the suitableness of the time: vengeance, as to the demons; redemption, as to the just, whose recompense had been delayed until then, above: it is the day of the vengeance of the Lord (Isa 34:8).

He had also said in the psalm: And I looked for one who would grieve with me, and there was none, and for one who would comfort me, and I found none (Ps 68 [69]:21). For he, though he was in the form of God, did not count it robbery to be equal with God, but emptied himself (Phil 2), taking the form of a servant, and became obedient to the Father unto death, even the death of the cross; and therefore he gave him a name above every name, so that he might save for himself by his right hand those who believe in him, and his indignation, which was against the adversaries, might set the people of God free. Or he rescued the believers by his arm, and no longer put off his fury; and he brought down their blood to the earth, either that of the demons, τροπικῶς, or certainly the blood of the Jews; for which the other translators rendered contention; who strove with all zeal that they might let the bound people go.

He calls "arm" the power of righteousness, for he guarded spotless and free from sin the nature that he assumed. We who have benefited from this good work and have been delivered from that bitter slavery, let us sing praises to the author of these things. He was the one who underwent the battle and provided us with the gift of victory and peace. Let us hope that we can enjoy this victory until the end, by the grace of the one who has conquered.

Second, he sets out the necessity of salvation: I looked about, and there was none to help, the human race, who could save it, above: he saw that there is not a man (Isa 59:16); or there was none to help, me on the cross: my brethren have withdrawn from me, and my acquaintance have departed from me (Job 19:13); I looked on my right hand, and beheld, and there was no one that would know me (Ps 141:5[142:4]); they compassed me on every side (Sir 51:10[7]).

Third, the completion of salvation: and my own arm, my power, has saved for me, that is, accomplished the salvation of resurrection for me, or the salvation of the human race: his right hand has wrought for him salvation, and his arm is holy (Ps 97[98]:1).

Fourth, the exposition of his vengeance: and I have trodden down the people, the Jews, through the Romans, and have made them drunk, filled them with affliction, and have brought down their strength, the Jews and the demons, above: the Lord of hosts has designed it, to pull down the pride of all glory, and bring to disgrace all the glorious ones of the earth (Isa 23:9).

"For the Lord is a good judge to the house of Israel." For he is not harsh but benevolent or good. For the task of a harsh judge takes the way of interrogating those sinners like ones standing accused. The good judge has mercy on them as weak ones. Since the judge is good, he will act according to his mercy, that is, he will temper his anger and will work in mercy in making the complaint. For there is so much justice in him that he will prosecute justice to the letter. Therefore, it is fitting that he will not let Israel go unpunished, but rather he will mingle his wrath with kindness, as I said. For a remnant will be saved.…Now he will save them himself, finding nothing worthwhile in them, but only because he loved them and cared for them. This is a strong visible sign of his unequaled philanthropy and the calmness of divinity. For he saved them from the house of slavery, carried them and raised them up. This is what he was talking about at the beginning of Isaiah, "I have borne and raised sons."

I will remember the mercies of the Lord, the praise of the Lord for all that the Lord has rendered to us, and for the multitude of good things to the house of Israel, which he has bestowed on them according to his indulgence and according to the multitude of his mercies. LXX: I have remembered the mercy of the Lord; I will remember the mighty works of the Lord in all that he has rendered to us: the Lord, a good judge to the house of Israel, will repay us according to his mercy and according to the multitude of his righteousness. Now that the passage on the coming of the Savior has been completed, the first coming, as we judge, the second, as most suppose, in which is understood the voice of one judging, nay rather fighting and slaughtering the adversaries of himself and of his people, and in which he is described as bloodied and victorious, another περικοπή begins, in which the Prophet speaks in the person of the people, recounting God's benefits toward it and the hardness of its own heart, on account of which Jerusalem was given over to burning and Israel to captivity. This the Jews refer to the Babylonian times. But we have shown by order and by reason that it is said of the present time, in which they serve the Romans, and Israel having been shut out, the crowd of the nations has taken its place. Let us run, then, through each member of the discourse, and set them forth briefly, so that the exposition may not be rambling. Pressed by the weight of evils, I have hope in nothing else but in the mercy of God, who shows mercy to thousands of those who love him, and extends his mercy to those who know him. From this it is shown that the mercy of the Lord comes to the aid of those who love and know God. For it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy (Rom 9). And unless the Lord builds the house and guards the city, he who builds and guards it watches in vain (Ps 126 [127]). For he himself will grant strength, so that we may do valiantly and be able to say: My strength and my help, and my refuge in the day of my evils (Jer 16). These evils in the present place we ought to take not for vices and sins but for distresses. And as for what follows according to the Seventy, I will remember the mighty works of the Lord in all that he has repaid me, for which the Hebrew contains the praises of the Lord, let us understand signs and miracles, for which 'mighty works' is often put, as there: My glory I will not give to another, nor my mighty works to graven images (Isa 42:8). And elsewhere: They will proclaim his mighty works in the islands, that is, either to the nations of the whole world, or to the churches, which are founded on a firm mass, and are struck rather than overthrown. Sometimes virtue is by no means taken for strength and miracles, but for good conduct, as in that saying of the Apostles, of Peter: Supply virtue in your knowledge (2 Pet 1:5); and of Paul: If there is any virtue, and if any praise (Phil 4:8). In accordance with which it is said in another place too: Better is barrenness with virtue. The first understanding of virtue befits God, the second men. And instead of what we have translated, For all that the Lord has rendered to us, which can be taken both in a good and in a bad sense, Symmachus set it down more plainly as a repayment of good things, saying: For all things in which he has done good to us, and for the multitude of goodness which he has shown toward the house of Israel. For which the Seventy translated: The Lord, a good judge to the house of Israel, has repaid us according to his mercy and according to the multitude of his righteousness. No one can say this except one who understands that he justly bears what he suffers. Thus in the seventy-second psalm, whose opening is, How good is the God of Israel to those who are upright in heart, the prophet speaks in the person of those who are troubled by the judgments of God: But my feet were almost moved, my steps had well nigh slipped, seeing the peace of sinners, and the rest, up to the end of the psalm. Hence the apostle Paul, who had known the Lord as a good and righteous judge, speaks with confidence: There is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the righteous judge will render to me; and not to me only, but also to all who love the coming of our Lord and Savior (2 Tim 4:8). Nor is there any difference, as the heretics would have it, between good and righteous, for the same Apostle writes: So the law is holy, and the commandment holy and righteous and good (Rom 7:12), so that goodness is understood as the genus and righteousness as the species. Wherefore he writes to the Romans: For scarcely will anyone die for a righteous man; for perhaps for a good man someone would dare to die (Rom 5:7).

I, wretched one, cast myself into the pit and the mud of the abyss of shameful thoughts and deeds, and once I had come there, I fell into the hands of those who were concealed by the darkness. From these neither I alone, nor the whole world gathered into one, could have availed to bring me up from there and deliver me from out of their hands.…Even when I in my senselessness rejoiced in being led astray by them, you could not bear to see me led about and dragged in dishonor, but you did have compassion, O Master, and showed pity on me. It was not an angel or a man whom you sent to me, miserable sinner, but you yourself were moved by your tender goodness.

1105. I will remember the tender mercies of the Lord. Here the prophet offers a petition to the judge, who comes to speak and fulfill justice.

And first, he inclines him to compassion;

second, he offers his petition, O that you wouldst rend the heavens (ch. 64).

The first of these is divided into two parts:

in the first, he inclines him to compassion by recalling his former benefits, which have passed away;

in the second, by recalling the dangers which they met: why have you made us to err? (Isa 63:17).

Concerning the first, he does two things.

First, he sets out the intention: all the things that the Lord has bestowed upon us, for our merits, as in good things, so, in the evils of punishments; good things, which he gave freely, I remembered your mercy, O Lord (Sir 51:11[8]).

Second, he describes the intention.

And he said: Surely they are my people, sons who do not deny; and he became their Savior. In all their tribulation he was not troubled, and the Angel of his face saved them; in his love and in his indulgence he himself redeemed them, and he bore them and lifted them up all the days of the age. But they provoked him to anger and afflicted the spirit of his Holy One and he was turned to be their enemy, and he himself fought them down. LXX: And he said: Is it not my people? Sons will by no means reject. And he became their salvation out of all their tribulation; not an envoy nor an angel, but he himself saved them, because he loved them and spared them; he himself redeemed them, and took them up, and exalted them all the days of the age. But they did not believe, and they embittered his Holy Spirit; he was turned to be their enemy, he himself fought against them. Where we have translated, In all their tribulation he was not troubled, the word which in Hebrew is LO, and is an adverb of negation, for not, can also be read as he himself, so that the sense is: In all their tribulation he himself was troubled, that is, God; so that he himself bore not only our sins but also our tribulations. For he bears our infirmities and grieves for us. Further, the Seventy put down something else which is not found in the Hebrew, not an envoy nor an angel, but he himself saved them, of which we shall speak in its place. So God, who is a righteous judge to the house of Israel, and who tempers the severity of righteousness with the mercy of one who judges, said: I have begotten sons and exalted them, and they have spurned me. Yet because they are my people, and have once been named sons, they will not perish for ever; if they cease to spurn and deny me, they will find a Savior, because in all their tribulation he himself was troubled. Or, he was not troubled, so that he forsook them for a little while, and compelled them, stripped of his help, to pray. Or certainly, he by no means troubled them, but on the contrary, when others persecuted them, he was their helper, and sent his angel to free them from danger. Or, according to the Seventy, he did not wish to save his people through angels and prophets and other holy men, but he himself came down to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, to carry back the sick sheep on his shoulders, and to find the drachma that had been lost, and to run joyfully to meet the prodigal son as he returned. For this reason the bride says in the Song of Songs: Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth: not through the Patriarchs, Moses and the Prophets, but let him assume my body, let him dwell in my flesh, let the Word become flesh, and so let him kiss me, dwelling in me, that he may be Emmanuel. Not as an envoy, then, nor as an angel, but he himself will save those who have received salvation, not by the merit of their works but by the love of God. For God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

1106. And first, he recalls the benefits, as to their escape from dangers, recalling his particular election: and he, namely, God, said: surely, although they may be against me, they are children that will not deny, namely, Abraham, or that will not deny, because they at least keep my faith: the Lord is my strength and my praise (Exod 15:2).

We say that these human things are his by an economic appropriation, along with the flesh all the things belonging to it. We recognize no other Son apart from him, for the Lord has saved us, giving his own blood as a ransom for the life of all.

For the grace of the incarnation is of mercy and good will. Aquila translates, instead of "virtues," "hymns"; Theodotion and Symmachus render it "songs of praise." For "make retribution," Symmachus has "work benefits." But the Septuagint is more accurate in putting "make retribution," since we deserved punishment but received salvation instead of punishment.… He switches us to the opposite, giving us good things in place of bad.… He does not use justice only in judging, but he moderates justice with mercy, or rather good will wins over justice.

And as to his diligent protection: in all their affliction; and he himself was troubled, from compassion; or he was not troubled, right away, but he delayed even now, that they might be corrected; and the angel of his face, that is, the angel that sees my face, saved them, as their leader in the desert: lead this people whither I have told you: my angel shall go before you (Exod 32:34); he has given his angels charge over you; to keep you in all your ways (Ps 90[91]:11).

And as to fatherly love: in his love he redeemed them, from Egypt; he carried them, in the desert; and lifted them up, that is, he exalted them over the others in the promised land: Israel was a child (Hos 11:1).

But if the prudent reader should answer in silent thought, Why have many not been saved, if he himself saved them, and loved and spared his sons, and redeemed them with his blood, and took them up and exalted them once assumed?, a clear reason is given: But they did not believe, and they embittered his Holy Spirit, or the Spirit of his Holy One, which in Hebrew is CADESO (קדש). God, then, willed to save those who desired it, and he called them to salvation, so that their will might have its reward; but they would not believe. Otherwise it is written of John too: There was a man sent from God, whose name was John; he came to bear witness to the light, that all might believe through him (John 1:6). Nor is he at once at fault if many would not believe; but the will of the one who came was this, that all should believe and be saved. And if whoever has exasperated and afflicted the Holy Spirit, or the Spirit of his Holy One, that is, of Christ, exasperates God, it is because the Holy Spirit is of the same nature with the Father and the Son. Wherefore the Apostle commands: Do not grieve the Holy Spirit, in whom you have been sealed (Eph 4:30). This Holy Spirit withdraws from a body subject to sins, and wisdom does not enter a perverse soul (Wis 1). Hence David too, conscious of his sins, prayed that he might not lose the Holy Spirit, saying: And do not take your Holy Spirit from me (Ps 50 [51]:13). And so that we may know that everyone who exasperates the Holy Spirit offends God, and from a friend becomes an enemy and a foe, the apostle Peter speaks more expressively in the Acts of the Apostles: Why have you agreed to lie to the Holy Spirit? You have not lied to men but to God (Acts 5:9). This is the Holy Spirit of whom the Lord said in the Gospel: If you love me, keep my commandments; and I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Paraclete, to be with you for ever, the Spirit of truth (John 14:15, 16). Of him we find also in the Wisdom which is written under the name of Solomon: For the Holy Spirit of discipline will flee deceit, and will withdraw from foolish thoughts (Wis 1:5).

1107. Second, he touches on the benefits as to the remission of faults.

And first, he sets out their fault: but they; his spirit, namely God's, or the spirit of his Holy One, Moses, through their various quarrels: and Moses was afflicted for their sakes, because they exasperated his spirit (Ps 105[106]:32–33).

Second, he sets out their punishment: and he, namely, God, was turned to be their enemy: the Lord is become as an enemy (Lam 2:5); you are changed to be cruel toward me (Job 30:21).

And he remembered the days of the age, of Moses, of his people. Where is he who brought them up out of the sea with the shepherds of his flock? Where is he who put in its midst the Spirit of his Holy One? Who led Moses by the right hand with the arm of his majesty; who divided the waters before them, to make for himself an everlasting name; who led them through the depths like a horse in the desert that does not stumble. Like a beast going down into the plain, the Spirit of the Lord was its leader; so you led your people, to make for yourself a name of glory. LXX: And he remembered the ancient days, he who brought up from the land the shepherd of the sheep. Where is he who put the Holy Spirit in them? Who led Moses by the right hand, the arm of his glory. So he led his people through the mighty water in his sight, to make for himself an everlasting name. He led them through the deep like a horse through the wilderness, and they did not labor. And like cattle through the plain the Spirit came down from the Lord, and was their leader: so you led your people, to make for yourself a name of glory. The Lord, who from a protector became the adversary of the people of the Jews, who provoked his Holy Spirit to anger, and who fought them down, himself remembered the ancient days, when Moses prayed for them in the wilderness, saying: Either forgive them this offense, or if you do not, blot me out of the book which you have written (Exod 32:31, 32). Isaiah, then, remembering the ancient history, says: Where is that Moses who brought them up out of the Red Sea? Where is the shepherd of the sheep? Where is he who labored with the other shepherds of the Lord's flock? Who obtained the Spirit of God by his prayer and entreaties, and put it in the Lord's flock? Or certainly it is to be understood thus: Where is that mercy of the Lord with which he once had pity on his people, so as to grant them the grace of the Holy Spirit too; who led Moses his servant to the right-hand side, not to the left, with the arm of his majesty; who divided the waters before them, to make for himself an everlasting name, so that his power might be told even to the present day?

Third, he sets out the remission of the fault: and he remembered, at last, Moses, who prayed for them: either forgive them, or strike me out of the book that you have written (Exod 32:31–32); he has remembered his covenant for ever: the word which he commanded to a thousand generations (Ps 104[105]:8).

1109. Where is he that brought them up? Here he laments the same benefits taken away from them.

And first, he laments the lack of benefits: where is he that brought them up out of the sea?, Moses, or God; with the shepherds, Miriam and Aaron: she led them out in the hands of the holy prophet (Wis 11:1). Where is he that put in the midst of them the spirit of his Holy One?, Moses, which is found in Numbers 11.

By the right hand, prosperously; where is the spirit that divided the waters before them? Who divided the Red Sea into parts (Ps 135[136]:13).

There can be no doubt that in refusing the accompaniment of an angel Moses was inviting God to lead them himself. God was making this promise, "This word that you have just spoken I shall accomplish, since you have found favor with me and I know you in preference to all the others." It is also said in Isaiah, "the one who made the shepherd of the sheep to ascend the earth? Where is he who put the Holy Spirit in their midst, who led Moses by his right hand?" … At that time God promised to lead the people himself, and now he promises to send, no longer an angel but the Spirit who is above the angels. It is he who becomes the guide of the people. He thereby shows that the Spirit is neither from among the creatures nor even an angel, but he is superior to creation, united to the divinity of the Father.

Where is he who put in them the Holy Spirit, that is, he who established the divine and saving Spirit in them? For the Spirit descended from the Lord and guided them, saying, "David divinely uttered, 'Send forth your word and heal us.' " For the Lord is the Spirit; he works through the Spirit that is of the same nature. Where then is he? For they forgot him and did not seek him, when they clearly should have remembered him and loved him. Where is he who led Moses by the right hand? Moses was great, famous and lofty in dignity. And this is shown in that it says [Moses] led them, working through [the Spirit] who is the right hand of God.

Indeed just as the Lord and the Son are one, the Lord is the Father. For they come together, and the Holy Spirit both is and can be understood to be in both, and he makes sharp the straight way of truth whenever the mind of believers lacks correct thinking. On account of this being the case, the Spirit is Lord and God, as the Scriptures declare, with the great Isaiah speaking concerning the race of Israel, "The Spirit came down from the Lord and led them."

It seems that Isaiah is making mention here of the resurrection of Christ, the Savior of us all. "He who has gone up" is said in place of "he who has risen"—from the earth—the chief shepherd of all, not just that he was rising up from the dead, but in the sense that he was clearly distinct among human beings. For he became like one of us, undergoing birth from a woman according to the flesh—he who was the only-begotten Word of the Father.

For he led his people through the boundless depths of the waters like a horse through the wilderness, and like cattle over the plain, and the Spirit of the Lord was its leader, that is, of the Lord's flock (Exod 14). By Spirit here we ought to understand the angel who was the leader of the people of Israel, according to what is written: Who makes his angels spirits, and his ministers a burning fire (Ps 103 [104]:4). And in the Epistle to the Hebrews: These are ministering spirits, sent forth to serve for the sake of those who are to possess salvation (Heb 1:14). Let us consider whether what is written in the Acts of the Apostles, The Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip, and the eunuch saw him no more (Acts 8:39), ought to be taken of an angel. There are some who maintain that the angel did these things in the Holy Spirit. We run through what is plain so as to dwell on what is more obscure.

Just as with Pharaoh and the Egyptians chasing them, the people led by Moses crossed the sea, so, too, as the devil and the demons were waging war, Christ the master shattered the gates of death, was first to go through them and took with him human nature in its entirety!

And where is he that led them out as a horse that stumbles not, namely, without hindrance.

"Like cattle that go down into the valley, the Spirit of the Lord gave them rest. So you did lead your people." Through all these words that the prophet speaks about the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt, he leads the mind back to the wonders that God performed by means of his servant Moses, whom he called the shepherd of his flock, and through whose right hand, which moved the staff, he divided the sea. The staff, therefore, prefigured the cross of Christ, who is the hidden arm of the glory of the Father.

As a beast that goes down, with an unhindered course; the spirit of the Lord was their, the people's, leader: and in the Red Sea a way without hindrance (Wis 19:7); they shall walk confidently (Prov 3:23); where are his miracles? (Judg 6:13).

Here onwards the prophet prays for every nation, and in the person of the Israelites he presents his supplication. He prays that God will withhold his wrath from them and cease rebuking them and in a forgiving manner subdue Israel's desertion; for there was no one on earth for them other than the true God, one having a glorious home in heaven, their father. Although God is said to dwell in heaven, this should not be thought of him in physical terms. For we say that God is not in a place or to be circumscribed; he is simple, and without a body he fills all things.

Look down from heaven, and see from your holy dwelling and that of your glory. Where is your zeal and your strength? The multitude of your bowels and of your mercies toward me have held themselves back. For you are our father; and Abraham has not known us, and Israel has been ignorant of us. You, O Lord, are our father, our redeemer from of old is your name. LXX: Turn from heaven, and see from your holy house and that of your glory: where is your zeal and your strength? Where is the multitude of your mercies and of your compassions, with which you bore with us? For you are our father, because Abraham has not known us, and Israel has not known us. But you, O Lord our father, deliver us: from the beginning your name is upon us. You who granted such great things to the people as the preceding discourse has related, so that you even deemed us worthy of the fellowship of your Spirit, now too look down from heaven and see our works, if indeed they are worthy of you. Why do you turn away your face from us? Now heaven is called the holy dwelling and the house of his glory (Ps 43 [44]), according to that saying: Heaven is my throne, and the earth the footstool of my feet (Isa 66:1); and in another place: He who dwells in the heavens will laugh at them; and: To you I have lifted up my eyes, who dwell in heaven (Ps 122 [123]:1). Not that almighty God, who holds heaven in his palm and the earth in his fist, is shut in by any place, but that the things which are holier are called his place and dwelling. Thus Solomon, who built the house of God, says in prayer to him: The heavens of heavens and the earth do not suffice you (Sir 16:18). And in the Lord's Prayer it is said: Your will be done, as in heaven, so also on earth (Matt 6:10). Wherever, then, the will of God is done, that is his dwelling and the house of God. As for what follows, Where is your zeal and your strength?, let us discuss it by that testimony in which God, through Ezekiel, speaks to Jerusalem, who had followed her lovers: Now I will not be angry with you, and my zeal has departed from you (Ezek 16:42). And the sense is: Because we have sinned and you have begun to hate us, your zeal has departed from us, the zeal which does not depart when he speaks through Zechariah: I have been zealous for Zion and Jerusalem with great zeal (Zech 1:14). Hence he says too in what follows: And I will be angry over the nations that have gathered against her round about. When zeal departs, the strength of God departs too, and the affection of a father's bowels is overcome, while the incredible mercy of God is conquered by the greatness of our sins, so that he who could not bear to see me oppressed holds himself back from helping me.

1110. Second, he inclines the judge to affection.

And first, he seeks a hearing: look down from heaven: you will hear from your holy heaven (1 Kgs 8:32).

Second, he provokes him to mercy: where is your zeal with which you loved us. Lord, where are your ancient mercies? (Ps 88:50[89:49]); if he withhold the waters, all things shall be dried up (Job 12:15).

For Thou art our Father, though Abraham be ignorant of us, and Sarah travailed not with us, need we inquire further on this point? And if the Psalmist says, Let them be troubled from His countenance, the Father of the fatherless, and Judge of the widows, is it not manifest to all, that when God is called the Father of orphans who have lately lost their own fathers, He is so named not as begetting them of Himself, but as caring for them and shielding them. But whereas God, as we have said, is in an improper sense the Father of men, of Christ alone He is the Father by nature, not by adoption: and the Father of men in time, but of Christ before all time, as He saith, And now, O Father, glorify Thou Me with Thine own self, with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was.

For you, he says, are our father, you who are the creator of all. Abraham does not know us, and Israel is ignorant of us, because we have offended you, nor do they recognize as sons those whom they perceive not to be loved by their God. A sudden question arises: why did he set down Abraham and Israel, that is, Jacob, and leave the name of Isaac unspoken (Gen 32)? To this we shall answer that, when the beginning and the end are set down, the middle too is named. Or thus: Abraham was called to faith from the nations, and according to the character of his former and his subsequent condition received a change of name. Jacob too reached it only by much toil, to be called Israel. Hence too Abraham had three wives, and Jacob four; but Isaac kept his ancient name from beginning to end, and, signifying the chastity of the Church, was content with one wife. Those, then, who pray for a change from sinners to a better state take on the likeness of those to whom joy succeeded after sorrow. And this is all that they ask: that, since he is their father and has deigned to give them this name, he may not forget his sons, lest through them the name of God be blasphemed among the nations.

Third, he sets out a cause for having mercy: for you are our father, and Abraham has not known us, when he was still alive, because we did not then exist; or, even now, he is unwilling to pray for us, because we do not call upon him; or, according to Augustine, because the dead, even the saints, do not know what is to be done for the living: but this is to be understood as to the power of human knowledge, not as to the illumination of divine light: he is your father, that has possessed you, and made you, and created you (Deut 32:6).

Is not sin also punishment for sin?… We can recount many other events clearly showing that perversity of heart comes from a hidden judgment of God, with the result that a refusal to hear the truth leads to commission of sin, and this sin is also punishment for preceding sin.

Behold how a person is hardened if he does not merit to be chastised by the Lord for his correction? Moreover, what is written concerning those whom God's mercy does not even allow to become hardened? "God scourges every child whom he receives"; … and again, "For whom God loves he reproves." Concerning this hardening the prophet also exclaims to the Lord in the person of the people, "Why do you harden our hearts that we fear you not?" Surely this is nothing else than, You have abandoned our heart, that we should be converted to you.

The punishment for previous sins is called "hardening" that comes from the divine righteousness.… While those who are righteous are in no way driven by God to become evil, nevertheless, when they are evil they are hardened so that they become worse, as the apostle says, "Since they did not receive the love of God's truth that they might be saved, God sent them a spirit of error." So God made them sin. But in these cases there was so much sin that came before that they deserved to become worse.… Some sins come from God's anger which are balanced against the merit of other sins.

Why have you made us stray, O Lord, from your ways? You have hardened our heart, so that we did not fear you. Return for the sake of your servants, the tribes of your inheritance. As if for nothing they have possessed your holy people; our enemies have trodden down your sanctification. We have become as in the beginning, when you did not rule over us, nor was your name called upon us. LXX: Why have you led us astray, O Lord, from your holy way? You have hardened our hearts, so that we did not fear you. Return for the sake of your servants, for the sake of the tribes of your inheritance, that we may possess a little of your holy mountain; our adversaries have trodden down your sanctuary; we have become as from the beginning, when you did not rule over us, nor was your name called upon us. The Epistle which Paul writes to the Corinthians, though it is written to the people of one city, according to the variety of its inhabitants, that is, of saints and sinners, now praises them, now corrects them, now teaches, now rebukes; it calls them to continence; it does not refuse marriage; it draws them back from idolatry; it instructs them about the resurrection; it stretches out a hand to second marriage, lest it give place to fornication. We have said this so that we may understand that the present passage too, which is woven entirely out of the prayer of the people entreating God, belongs either to the righteous or to sinners, and that they now praise the Lord, now raise a question with the Lord and refer their own fault to God. Hence after the rest they say this too: Why have you made us stray, O Lord, from your ways, or led us astray from your way? You have hardened our heart so that we did not fear you? Not that God is the cause of error and of hardness, but that his patience, as he waits for our salvation and does not correct those who do wrong, seems to be a cause of error and hardness. Hence, when he is vehemently angry with some, he withholds his hand from striking and says: I will not punish your daughters when they have committed fornication, nor your brides when they have committed adultery (Hos 4:14). For he scourges every son whom he receives, and he strikes in order to amend (Heb 12). Thus of those who have by no means lost the name of sons, but are drawn back to repentance through punishment, he says: I will visit their iniquities with the rod, and their sins with scourges; but my mercy I will not take from them (Ps 88 [89]:33). For there is a sorrow that leads to life, and there is a sorrow that leads to death. Hence the sinner too says in the psalm: You have made our paths turn aside from your way, and have humbled us in the place of affliction (Ps 43 [44]:19). And for forty years the people wander in the desert, so that they may not find their former way nor return to the Egyptians (Num 32). In Hosea too the paths of Jerusalem are hedged in and closed with thorns, so that she may not follow her lovers, and, compelled by necessity, may return to her former husband (Hos 2). And God is said to have hardened the heart of Pharaoh, so that he would not let his people go, and so that he might be afflicted with ten plagues (Exod 4). This question Paul discussed most carefully to the Romans (Rom 9), and we have touched on it in a certain work.

As for what is set down above, Why have you made us stray (Isa 63:17)?, in what sense it is to be taken Jeremiah teaches most fully: You have led me astray, O Lord, and I was led astray; you took hold of me, and you prevailed (Jer 20:7). For while you promise me mercy, and like a merciful father you conceal your severity, and like a skilful physician you hide the sharpest knife so as not to frighten the sick man before you heal him, you have made me careless. For this reason God says of Jerusalem too: Behold, I will lead her astray, and I will make her like a desert, and set her like a land without water, and I will speak to her heart; and I will give her possessions from there, and the valley of Achor to open understanding (Hos 2:14, 15). Let us consider the order of each thing: he leads her astray, and makes her deserted and without water, so that she may suffer thirst for the virtues. After she has said, My soul has thirsted for you, how many ways my flesh for you (Ps 62 [63]:2), then he will speak to her heart and console her as she mourns. And he will give her a possession from there, that is, from the repentance and sorrow which works salvation. And the humility of her troubled heart (for this is what the valley of Achor means) opens her understanding, so that she may not be ignorant of her Creator.

Return, he says, O Lord, or turn us back, for the sake of your servants, Abraham and Israel, who have not known us, or whom we believe to be among the people. For as if for nothing, and without any toil, our adversaries have possessed your holy people. Or, turn us back so that, according to the Seventy, we may possess a little of your holy mountain, since we cannot possess the whole of your mountain; so that when we have had a part we may come to its fullness and contemplate the glory of the Only-begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth (John 1); of which it is said in this same prophet: In the last days the mountain of the Lord will be manifest (Isa 2:2).

Your great tolerance encouraged our shamelessness. When you did not punish our sins, we remained transgressors, disregarding your laws. In the same sense, God said to the blessed Moses, "I will harden Pharaoh's heart." He used his great forbearance and tolerance and punishes Pharaoh only with frogs and locusts and flies to begin with, and Pharaoh thought that God could not increase the level of punishment.… You have been patient for a long time; you have not disciplined us, seeing us transgressing without a care; we have accordingly hardened our hearts and as a consequence left the straight path.

1111. Why have you made us to err? Here he sets out the evils which they met.

And first, as to the evils of their fault: you made us to err, permitting, not sending grace and not correcting, from your ways, commands; you hardened, permitted: he has mercy on whom he will. And whom he will, he hardens (Rom 9:18).

1112. Second, he sets out the evils of their punishment.

And first, he asks for mercy: return, from wrath to mercy, for the sake of your servants, our fathers: return, O Lord, how long? And be entreated in favor of your servants (Ps 89[90]:13); convert us, O Lord, to you, and we shall be converted: renew our days, as from the beginning (Lam 5:21).

Our enemies, he says, have trodden down your sanctuary. There is no doubt that he means the Temple, which the victorious Romans trod down.

Second, he sets out their misery as to slavery: they have possessed your holy people as nothing, that is, without resistance, above: O Lord our God, other lords besides you have had dominion over us (Isa 26:13); as to the profanation of their holy places: our enemies have trodden down your sanctuary: the holy places are come into the hands of strangers (1 Macc 2:8).

The church is often called "the holy mountain" in the sacred Scriptures, and those from Israel are only a small part of it. For if they had demonstrated faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the company of the faith would have sprung from them for the most part and the Gentiles would have been added in to complete the number. But because of the serious disobedience of the Jews, the people of the church were consequently largely drawn from the nations, and these provided the majority; the former people were few in number (for a remnant shall be saved), so only in small measure will they be called on to the holy mountain, that is, into the church.

And you did this on account of our turning away from you. For we are now a desert untended by your careful attention. We are now like we were in the beginning. For there was a time when we had neither prophet nor priest not king nor any of your gifts of grace—in like manner we have now come back to the desert. Such were we in Egypt frittering away time before Moses took us out of there. Neither did we have your name to adorn us when we were not called your people, and we did not have a share in your inheritance. And now we have arrived at a similar point. It is right to refer these words to the season after the arrival of our Savior, by whom all those things will in the end be put behind them, through what was dared by our Savior for them.

And we have become as in the beginning, before we were called in Abraham, and while we were in Egypt, having no God, nor kings, nor princes, nor Prophets, nor the Law of the commandments of God (Hos 3); all of which was fulfilled after the passion of the Lord, and is being fulfilled today. For since they said, His blood be upon us and upon our children (Matt 27:25), an everlasting curse remains, and God does not rule over them, nor is his name called upon them, since they are by no means called the people of God.

The holy of holies of the sanctuary, which it was forbidden to touch and to which access was reserved for priests alone, has been despoiled and trampled by impious enemies. For the Babylonians were not the only impious ones; the Macedonians and the Romans were also, when they devastated Jerusalem.… We have resembled our ancestors who, in the time of slavery in Egypt, had not yet received the title of "your people."

As to the loss of their former honor: we are become, without a king, without the temple, as in the beginning, in Egypt, or even before the calling of Abraham: but you, O Lord, are among us, and your name is called upon by us, forsake us not (Jer 14:9).