Commentaria in Scripturam Sacram, Vol. 11: Prolegomena (prefaces and canons)
XLI. Ver. 19. “But hail shall be on the descent of the forest,” that is, as if to say: The wrath of God will hail upon and smite the Jews, who have fallen away and descended from the true worship of God and their own glory, and become like a deserted and wild field.
XLII. Ver. 20. “Blessed are ye that sow upon all waters, sending thither the foot of the ox and the ass,” as if to say: O blessed you, Apostles, who into all waters, that is into all peoples, send oxen and asses, that is, workers and preachers of the Gospel.
XLIII. Chap. xxxiv, ver. 4. “And all the host of heaven shall pine away, and the heavens shall be folded together as a book: and all their host shall fall down as the leaf falleth from the vine, … the stars of the world shall fall from heaven, and the heavens shall be so darkened that they seem to pine away and vanish.
XLIV. Chap. xli, ver. 2. “Who hath raised up the just one (Abraham) from the east, hath called him to follow him? he shall give (that is, gave) the nations in his sight, and he shall rule over kings: he shall give them as the dust to his sword, as stubble driven by the wind to his bow,” as if to say: Who called Abraham, and made him glorious and a conqueror of four kings, Gen. xiv, was it not I God?
Ver. 4. “Who hath wrought and done these things, calling the generations from the beginning? I the Lord, I am the first and the last.” For God is king of ages, establishing, disposing and ordering them.
XLV. Ver. 27. “The first shall say to Sion: Behold they are here,” the Apostles and heralds of the Gospel, “and to Jerusalem I will give an evangelist,” that is evangelists and preachers of Christ and salvation.
XLVI. Chap. xliii, ver. 8. “Bring forth the people that are blind and have eyes: that are deaf and have ears,” as if to say: My people have eyes, and yet are blind; because they close them: and have ears, and yet are deaf; because they stop them against the warnings of God. Again, seeing they do not see, hearing they do not hear; because they will not understand what they have seen and heard, and in deed …
XLVII. Ver. 20. “The beast of the field shall glorify me, the dragons and the ostriches: because I have given waters in the wilderness, rivers in the desert, to give drink to my people, to my chosen,” as if to say: The Gentiles, who lived in heathendom as beasts and dragons, now made men through Christ, nay Angels, will glorify God; because I have given them the rivers of graces.
XLVIII. Chap. xliv, ver. 5. “This shall write with his hand: To the Lord,” that is, I am the Lord’s servant;
… shall be surnamed Israel, or Israelite.
XLIX. Chap. xlvi, ver. 1. “Bel is broken, Nabo is destroyed,” as if to say: Babylon with her gods, Bel and Nabo, is overthrown and destroyed.
… from the greatest to the last:
L. Chap. l, ver. 11. “Behold all you that kindle a fire, encompassed with flames, walk in the light of your fire, and in the flames which you have kindled.” The sinner by sins, as by a bellows and dry wood, kindles for himself the fire of God’s wrath, of vengeance and of hell; whence follows what comes next: “You shall sleep in sorrows.”
LI. Chap. li, ver. 1. “Look unto the rock whence you are hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence you are dug out.” The hewing from the rock and the cave is an enigma of the begetting of Abraham and of Sara, both barren, as a rock is barren. For the Hebrews call begetting building a house, and sons they call banim, as if abanim, that is stones; of which each builds a house.
LII. Chap. lii, ver. 11. “Depart, depart, go ye out from thence, touch no unclean thing: go ye out of the midst of her, be ye clean, you that carry the vessels of the Lord,” as if to say: Go out of Babylon, O Israelites, that you be not defiled by its crimes, nor by its destruction and slaughter.
LIII. Ver. 14. “As many have been astonished at thee, so shall his visage be inglorious among men, and his form among the sons of men. He shall sprinkle many nations, kings shall shut their mouth at him.” It is an enigma of Christ, who was inglorious in his birth, life and death, but with his blood sprinkled and washed all nations, and therefore they themselves with their kings subjected themselves to him. Hence follows: “For they to whom it was not told of him, have seen, and they that heard not have beheld,” as if to say: The Gentiles, ignorant of God and salvation, have through Christ beheld it.
LIV. Chap. liii, ver. 9. “He shall give the ungodly for his burial, and the rich for his death,” as if to say: God will subject the wicked and the rich to Christ, as a reward of his death and burial, and in particular will cause Joseph of Arimathea, a noble and rich man, to bury him honorably.
LV. Chap. lv, ver. 13. “Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the nettle shall come up the myrtle tree,” as if to say: In the Church virtues will grow in place of vices.
LVI. “And the Lord shall be named for an everlasting sign, that shall not be taken away,” as if to say: God in the Church will have a perpetual name, praise and monument.
LVII. Chap. lvi, ver. 10. “His watchmen are all blind, they are all ignorant: dumb dogs not able to bark, seeing vain things, sleeping and loving dreams: and the dogs most impudent never had enough.” These dogs, watchmen and sentinels, are an enigma of wicked pastors, who study not the salvation of the flock but their own gluttony, sloth and avarice. Hence he adds in explanation: “The shepherds themselves knew no understanding: all have declined into their own way, every one after his own gain … come, let us take wine, and be filled with drunkenness.”
LVIII. Chap. lvii, ver. 3. “But come you hither, you sons of the sorceress, the seed of the adulterer and of the harlot. Upon whom have you jested? upon whom have you opened your mouth wide, and put out your tongue? Are not you wicked children, a bastard seed?” These are the enigmas and titles of idolaters and the impious, who, given to auguries and superstitions, are sons not of God but of the demon and of impiety. Hence of them he adds: “Thou hast taken an adulterer (a strange god): thou hast enlarged thy bed, and hast made a covenant with them: thou hast loved their bed with open hand. And thou hast adorned thyself for the king (the idol Moloch) with ointment, and hast multiplied thy perfumes.”
LIX. Ver. 16. “… the spirit shall go forth from my face, and I will make the breath”: vital, both natural breath and supernatural. It is an enigma of God, who alone creates the souls of men, and breathes and inspires into them the spirit of grace.
LX. Ver. 19. “I create the fruit of the lips, peace,” as if to say: The fruit of piety and prayer is peace. For “the wicked are like the raging sea, which cannot rest.”
LXI. Chap. lix, ver. 5. “They have broken the eggs of asps, and woven the webs of spiders: he that shall eat of their eggs shall die, and that which is brooded shall be hatched into a basilisk.” It is an enigma of the wicked, who infect others by their wickedness, as if to say: As an asp cannot lay an egg except of asps and vipers, so these wicked men are so full of wickedness that they send forth nothing but what is wicked and harmful; whoever therefore shall have joined himself to them, will be ruined by them and with them.
… shall drink in nothing but destruction and pestilence. He compares the same to the idle webs of spiders, as if to say: The wicked always harm by their acts, and never profit.
LXII. Chap. lx, ver. 8. “Who are these that fly as clouds, and as doves to their windows?” The clouds and doves are an enigma of the faithful, who at the preaching of the Apostles flew in flocks to the Church, as when the wind blows clouds fly thick through the air, and when rain threatens doves fly back in flocks to the nest.
LXIII. Ver. 17. “For brass I will bring gold, and for iron I will bring silver; and for wood brass, and for stones iron: and I will make thy visitation peace, and thy overseers justice.” He alludes to the temple of the Jews, and compares to it the Church and prefers her, as if to say: The Church will succeed the Synagogue, in which all things will be more august and more magnificent than they were in the temple. For in her I will bring truth for figure, light for shadow, for the spirit of fear and servitude the spirit of love and liberty, for a few Jews all the nations, for bodily goods spiritual gifts, for earthly things heavenly, for temporal eternal.