Commentaria in Isaiam
Chapter 16
First, verse 1, he prays that a lamb, the ruler of the earth, be sent from Petra. Then he gives them counsel to receive kindly the fugitive Jews. Thirdly, he says that the pride of Moab is greater than its strength. Fourthly, he continues in the defeat and lamentation of Moab, which, verse 14, he says shall come within three years.
1. Send forth, O Lord, the lamb, the ruler of the earth, from Petra of the desert, to the mount of the daughter of Sion.
2. And it shall be: as a bird fleeing away, and as young ones flying out of the nest, so shall the daughters of Moab be at the passage of Arnon. 3. Take counsel, gather a council: make thy shadow as night in the midst of the noonday: hide them that flee, and betray not them that wander about. 4. My outcasts shall dwell with thee: Moab, be thou a hiding place to them from the face of the destroyer: for the dust is at an end, the wretch is consumed, he is failed that trod the earth under foot. 5. And a throne shall be prepared in mercy, and one shall sit upon it in truth in the tabernacle of David, judging and seeking judgment, and quickly rendering that which is just. 6. We have heard of the pride of Moab, he is exceeding proud: his pride, and his arrogancy, and his indignation, are more than his strength. 7. Therefore shall Moab howl to Moab, every one shall howl: to them that rejoice upon the brick walls, speak ye of their wounds. 8. For the suburbs of Hesebon are desolate, and the lords of the Gentiles have cut down the vineyard of Sabama: its branches reached even to Jazer: they wandered in the desert, its shoots were left, they passed over the sea. 9. For this I will weep with the weeping of Jazer for the vineyard of Sabama: I will water thee with my tears, O Hesebon, and Eleale: because the voice of the treaders is come upon thy vintage, and upon thy harvest. 10. And gladness and joy shall be taken away from Carmel, and in the vineyards there shall be no singing nor shouting for joy: he that was wont to tread shall not tread out wine in the press: I have taken away the voice of the treaders. 11. Therefore my bowels shall sound like a harp for Moab, and my inner parts for the brick wall. 12. And it shall come to pass, when it shall appear that Moab hath laboured on his high places, that he shall come to his sanctuaries to pray, and shall not prevail. 13. This is the word which the Lord hath spoken to Moab from that time: 14. And now the Lord hath spoken, saying: In three years, as the years of a hireling, the glory of Moab shall be taken away for all his great multitude, and he shall be left small and few, and not many.
1. SEND FORTH THE LAMB.—The Septuagint codices of Sixtus, and Basil and Cyril, have: I will send as creeping things upon the earth, that is, I will send serpents into Moab; for in the Hebrew, instead of car mosel arets, that is, the lamb ruling the earth, they read, by a different division of the word, keremes laarets, that is, like a reptile of the earth.
Secondly, the Hebrews and Rabbi Solomon, from the Hebrew, translate: Send ye the lamb to the ruler of the earth, and interpret thus: that since the Moabites had been accustomed to pay the king of Israel an annual tribute of a hundred thousand lambs, after Achaz died they refused it, 4 Kings 3. Wherefore under Ezechias, the pious and fortunate king, Israel, taking heart and strength again, now insultingly says to the Moabites: Send, O Moabites, as you are wont, the tribute, namely lambs, to the ruler of the earth, that is, the new and powerful king Ezechias, from Petra of the desert, that is, from Moab. But in vain do they twist these words away from Christ to Ezechias; for Ezechias was not king of Israel, but of Juda; much less can he be called ruler of the earth, nor is he read in Scripture to have made war upon the Moabites or imposed tribute upon them. Add that both the Septuagint and our version read: “Send forth the lamb, the ruler of the earth” (not “to the ruler”). Leo Castrius refutes this at greater length. Much less can this passage be taken of Osee, the last king of Israel, because he had already been slain and the kingdom of Israel overthrown, not by the Moabites but by the Assyrians.
Thirdly, some Hebrews and Forerius translate “lamb” as ram, and by ram understand either war engines, which on account of their likeness to rams are called rams, or leaders and soldiers strong as rams; as if the Prophet said by irony and mockery: O Moabites, array your rams, your leaders and soldiers, to attack Sion, that they may rule the holy land and subject it to themselves; but you will do this in vain; nay, you shall pay the penalty of your arrogance.
translates: I will send upon them flies, or locusts; and the Antiochene: I will send upon them rulers over the earth.
Moreover, what some Hebrews relate, that Ruth was the daughter of the king of Moab named Eglon, whom the judge Aod slew, is a Hebrew fable; for between Eglon and Ruth 230 years intervened, nor is it credible that a king would give his daughter as wife to a plebeian man, such as the husband of Ruth was. So Abulensis and Lyranus.
Finally, for “ruler” it can be translated “O ruler!” For the Hebrews, lacking cases, use the same noun for any case; as if to say: O ruler of the earth, send us the Lamb, that is, thy beloved Son, who like a lamb of expiation may redeem and save us.
FROM PETRA OF THE DESERT.—This city was called Petra because it is walled round with rocks and precipices, says Strabo, book 16, and from it the whole region was called Arabia Petraea. Baldwin the king enlarged this city after the holy war. Then the Soldan, having taken it, placed there the treasure of Egypt and Arabia. So Adrichomius. But I hold with St. Jerome, Hugh, Lyranus, Adam, Vatablus and others that by “lamb” is here understood Christ, who was descended from Ruth the Moabitess. For when Isaias was prophesying of the destruction of Moab, and saw the nation almost about to perish, he grieved. Whence, on the other side, seeing that Christ was to be born of Ruth the Moabitess, he flies to him by the way, as is his custom (hence the Plantin Bible includes this verse in a parenthesis), and consoles both himself and the Moabites with his birth, and thence returns at once to the narrative he had begun, and to the burdens of Moab. As if to say: Send, O Lord! or, as the Hebrew is, shilchu, that is, send ye, and drop down dew, namely, O heavens! or you, O Father! O Son! O Holy Spirit! not those dumb and tributary lambs of the Moabites, but the lamb, the ruler of the earth, that is, Christ, who as the Lamb of God may take away the sins of the world and rule over the whole Church and the world: send him, I say, from Petra, the city of the desert, which is in Moab, namely from Ruth the Moabitess, who, born in this city, long ago migrated from it to the Jews. Wherefore what Vatablus expounds thus: O Lord, destroy not the Moabites, that at length the Messiah may be born, is to be understood thus, namely that the Messiah may be born who may save his kinsmen, the Moabites. For he will be born of Ruth, who by this counsel of God passed from Moab to the Jews, that Christ might descend from her and bring salvation to the Moabites. For otherwise, even if all the Moabites had been destroyed, Christ would still have descended from David and Ruth, since she had been grafted into the Jewish nation long before this calamity. For Booz begot Obed of Ruth, Obed begot Jesse, Jesse begot David, from whom Christ is descended. He calls Christ “lamb” or “ram”; for the Hebrew car signifies both. First, because he alludes to the tribute of lambs which the Moabites paid to the king of Israel. Secondly, because the Moabites were most devoted to cattle-raising and very rich in sheep. Thirdly, because the lambs and rams of Moab surpassed in body and strength the lambs and rams of other provinces, and were as leaders of the flocks; hence the lamb or ram here rightly signifies Christ, leader and ruler. Hence the Syriac translates: Send the daughter of the ruler of the earth. Wrongly the Arabic Alexandrian Note: Christ is said to be sent from Petra of Moab, not in himself, but in his grandmother Ruth; for she, from there, sent forth by God as it were, came to Sion; as the grandsons of Juda are said to have come out of Chanaan and entered into Egypt, not in themselves but in their parent Jacob; for they were born after the parent’s entry into Egypt. See what was said on Genesis 46.