Commentaria in Scripturam Sacram, Vol. 11: Prolegomena (prefaces and canons)
About this time flourished the Erythrean Sibyl, whose verses on the nativity, judgment and resurrection of Christ St. Augustine recounts, City of God, book 18, chapter 23.
In the year of the world 3219, before Christ 750, when Achaz died and his son Ezechias succeeded him, that is, in the first year of Ezechias, Isaias prophesied, chapter 14, verse 28, victory and triumph over the Philistines. About the same time he prophesied, in chapter 13 and following, the burden, that is, the destruction, of Babylon by Cyrus, and of Moab, Damascus, Egypt, Ethiopia, Idumea, Arabia, and of Tyre by Nabuchodonosor.
In the year of the world 3224, before Christ 735, which was the sixth year of Ezechias king of Juda and the ninth and last of Osee king of Israel, Salmanasar took Samaria with king Osee, overthrew the kingdom of Israel, and carried off ten tribes into Assyria, according to the burden and prophecy of Isaias. Then took place the history of Tobias. For among others Tobias, with Anna his wife and Tobias his only son, of the tribe and city of Nephthali, was carried away by Salmanasar to Ninive: who, having from infancy shunned idols and zealously worshipped God, did not depart from the law and the fear of God even in captivity; wherefore, having obtained the favour of Salmanasar, he received power to go wherever he would: so going about he comforted his fellow captives the Israelites, helped the needy, and lent Gabelus ten talents of silver.
In the year of the world 3232, before Christ 717, which was the 14th of Ezechias, Isaias, chapter 20, walking naked for three days, by this deed of his foretold, and in very fact prophesied, the spoiling of Egypt and Ethiopia, which was accomplished in the same year by Sennacherib and lasted for three years.
Wherefore in the same year Sennacherib, besieging Jerusalem, belched out through Rabsaces blasphemies against it and threats against God; but at the prayers of Ezechias and Isaias God turned his arms away from it and diverted him elsewhere. For He stirred up against him Taraca king of Ethiopia, and Sennacherib, hearing of his coming, was forced to lead his forces away from Jerusalem against Taraca; and engaging with him, he was victorious and laid waste Egypt and Ethiopia, as I have already said on Isaias 36 and 37.
In the same year Ezechias fell sick, and Isaias announced death to him: he weeps and prays to God in penitence; God hears his prayers, and promises through Isaias that He will add fifteen years to his life. To Ezechias, who asks for a sign, He gives the wonder of the sun and the shadow going back ten lines on the dial of Achaz. So Isaias, applying a plaster of figs to Ezechias’s ulcer, cured him, and being healed, on the third day he went into the temple and sang a canticle of thanksgiving to God, Isaias 38.
In the same year Merodach king of Babylon, astonished that the sun had gone back, sends ambassadors and gifts to Ezechias, to ask how and why such a wonder had happened: whereupon Ezechias, puffed up, showed them all the treasures of his house; for which, rebuked by Isaias, he hears from him that those same treasures and his sons would in time to come be carried off to Babylon. The humble king receives the Prophet’s sentence patiently, and only prays: “Let peace and truth be in my days,” and he obtained it: for when he had happily reigned 29 years, he slept in peace, Isaias chapter 39.
In the year of the world 3234, before Christ 715, which was the 16th of Ezechias and the 3rd of Sennacherib from his invasion of Juda, Sennacherib, returning victorious from Egypt and Ethiopia and again besieging Jerusalem, receives a stroke from an angel, 185 thousand of the Assyrians being slain, according to the oracle and promises of Isaias, chapter 37, verses 30 and 36. Wherefore he fled, and returned to Ninive, and vented his wrath upon the Israelites lately carried away there. For so Tobias has it, chapter 1, verse 21: “When king Sennacherib was returned, flying from Judea, by reason of the plague which God had inflicted upon him for his blasphemy, and being angry, killed many of the children of Israel, Tobias buried their bodies. But when it was told the king, he commanded him to be slain, and took away all his substance.
But Tobias with his son and his wife fleeing away, lay hid, for many loved him. And after forty-five days the king’s sons killed him, and Tobias returned to his house, and all his substance was restored to him.” St. Jerome, on Isaias chapter 1, holds that from this 16th year to the 29th and last of Ezechias, Isaias delivered all his remaining prophecies, which he sets down from chapter 40 to the end of the book. For Isaias subjoins these after the destruction of the army of the Assyrians, chapter 37. Moreover, they are about Christ and the Church. For he incidentally foretells that Cyrus will release the Jews from the Babylonian captivity; but at length he prophesies that Christ, the antitype of Cyrus, will redeem all men from the slavery of sin and the devil, and, leaving the Jews, will call the Gentiles to salvation, will suffer for them, die, ascend into heaven, and give an abundance of spiritual and temporal goods: that all the Gentiles will submit themselves to Christ and the Church, and that kings and queens will be her nursing fathers and nursing mothers, and will bring all their wealth and glory into her, and adore her with their faces to the ground. Finally, that Christ will repay the faithful and the pious with ineffable happiness, but the unbelieving and the impious with unquenchable fire.
In the year of the world 3247, before Christ 709, Manasses son of Ezechias began to reign, impious and an idolater, and he reigned 55 years; he sawed Isaias, who rebuked his crimes (though his kinsman), through the middle with a wooden saw, and cut him in two parts, by the fountain of Siloe. Moreover he shed innocent blood exceedingly much, till he filled Jerusalem up to the mouth. Wherefore God sent upon him the princes of the king of the Assyrians, who led Manasses bound with chains to Babylon, where doing penance and praying to God he is heard, and after 10 years is restored by Him to his kingdom: and being restored he took away the idols and altars, restored the altar and worship of God, served Him wholly and commanded his subjects to serve Him, 4 Kings 21 and 2 Paralipomenon 33.
In the year of the world 3317, before Christ 631, which was the 13th year of the pious king Josias, Jeremias, a priest sanctified in his mother’s womb, while still a boy is sent by God to prophesy; and when he made excuse because of his youth, being made a man by God, he receives the gift of prophecy, boldness and invincible strength to prophesy and preach freely. In this 13th year of Josias, therefore, he sees, chapter 1, a boiling caldron, and a watching rod coming from the face of the North, by which he declares is portended the coming of Nabuchodonosor from Babylon, who for its crimes would overthrow Judea and Jerusalem, and either slay the people or lead them away captive, and make the land desolate.
In the year of the world 3335, before Christ 614, which was the 31st and last of Josias, Nechao king of Egypt went up against the king of the Assyrians. But Josias, wishing to hinder his passage through Judea, goes forth to resist. To whom Nechao says: “I come not against thee this day, but I fight against another house, against which God hath commanded me to go in haste: forbear to do against God, who is with me, lest He kill thee.” Josias would not yield to the words of God speaking through him, but joined battle in the plain of Mageddo, and being wounded by the archers, was carried to Jerusalem, where he dies; and all the people mourned him, Jeremias most of all, whose lamentations over Josias, sung at the funeral, were repeated for a long time afterwards.
Joachaz, who is also Sellum, son of Josias, the twenty-first king of Juda, reigns wickedly and cruelly for 3 months. Meanwhile Nechao, having gained the victory, came to Jerusalem, sends Joachaz bound into Egypt, and having laid a tribute on the Jews, makes his brother Eliakim king, who is Joakim and also Jechonias, and changes his name to Joakim. He reigns 11 years, slays the prophet Urias because he preached that Jerusalem must be destroyed, and casts his body into the graves of the common people. Ezechiel calls him and the aforesaid Joachaz lions, because they violently oppressed the people. Then, by God’s command, Jeremias, entering the house of the king of Juda, says of the firstborn of Josias: “Weep not for the dead, neither bemoan him with your weeping; weep for him that goeth out; for thus saith the Lord to him: he shall return no more, but in the place whither I have carried him away, there shall he die.” Then of Joakim he says: “Thus saith the Lord to Joakim: They shall not lament him; but he shall be buried with the burial of an ass, rotten and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem.” And last, to his son Joachin, or Jechonias, he added: “As I live, saith the Lord, if Jechonias were the ring on my right hand, I would pluck him off thence. And I will deliver thee into the hand of the king of Babylon, and I will cast thee and thy mother into a strange country, and there shall you die.”
About this time Jeremias, preaching in the temple to all the people that unless they repented the temple and the city would be destroyed, is seized by the priests and false prophets, and accused before the princes in order that he may be put to death: to whom he answers that he was sent by God to announce these things: whereupon he is acquitted by the princes and elders; for Ahicam son of Saphan delivered him, Jeremias 26, last verse.