Commentaria in Isaiam
Calvin therefore errs shamefully, who for “city of the sun” translates: One shall be called a city of desolation, and gives this sense: “By these words he marks out every sixth city for destruction, signifying that all perish without hope of restoration who are not converted to God, to worship him. For he opposes the cities of Egypt which begin to acknowledge him to the others which are devoted to destruction. For cherem signifies execration and malediction, which desolation, that is, ruin and eternal death, follows.” He errs, I say, for instead of cheres, that is, sun, as St. Jerome, the Septuagint, the Chaldean, Symmachus, Vatablus and others generally read and translate, he reads cherem, that is, anathema; and it is clear from the very sequence of the text that there is no opposition here, but a continuation of the same matter and sense. Finally, because the Hebrew cheres signifies not only the sun but also a potsherd, some translate “ostracon,” that is, potsherd, and think that by it is signified the city Ostracina, says St. Jerome.
Mystically, St. Jerome: Some, he says, understand by these five cities the five orders of the Church in the time of Christ: namely bishops, priests, deacons, the faithful and catechumens.
Tropologically, Procopius, Ambrose, Augustine, and from them Leo Castrius, say that the five cities are many families of Religious, lauras and mandras, that is, monasteries in Egypt; so that in one city of it, namely Oxyrhynchus, there were twenty thousand monks; one Abbot, Or, had three thousand under him, Abbot Serapion ten thousand monks; in several other cities of the Thebaid there were many thousands of them; so that the cities were not so much the dwellings of lay people as of Religious, in which they dwelt like innumerable ants, devoted to manual work and prayer. These, with the five senses of body and soul, were wholly borne toward God, and spoke the language of Chanaan, that is, the Jewish, in which they ceaselessly sang the psalms and the words of God, and praised God; for by the number five is signified the perfection and fullness of the servants and Religious of Christ, as St. Ambrose teaches on Psalm 118, sermon 22, on the words: “I have gone astray like a sheep that is lost”; and St. Augustine, volume 10, on Matthew, sermon 23, where likewise he mystically explains the five wise virgins of whom Christ speaks in the Gospel. St. Jerome adds that the five senses speak the Egyptian language when they pursue carnal pleasures, but the Chanaanite when they pursue spiritual ones. See him.
SWEARING BY THE LORD,—that is, worshipping and invoking the Lord. For Scripture signifies by oath all worship of God, namely the whole from a part, by synecdoche.
19. IN THAT DAY.—Note: Prophets say “in that day,” that is, at that time, though it be long after in the future.
They call it a day, though it be completed after, or through many years, because in God’s foreknowledge the course of one kingdom, indeed of a whole age, is as it were one and the same; and it looks to the day of the New Testament, of which he spoke in verse 17. See chapter 4.
Note secondly: Onias, son of the holy pontiff Onias, of whom 2 Machabees 3 and 4, when he saw Judea devastated by the kings of Syria, fled into Egypt to Ptolemy Philometor, and alleged to him this place of Isaias, as though God here commanded a temple to be built for him in Egypt, and persuaded him; who built a temple for the Jews at Heliopolis, and appointed as its pontiff the said Onias. So Josephus, book 13 of the Antiquities, chapter 6. But wrongly; for Isaias willed nothing of the kind, for Onias was blamed by the Jews, who rightly disapproved this deed of his, because it was not lawful in the old law to erect an altar or temple to God outside Jerusalem, whereas these erectors of an altar are praised by Isaias.
I say therefore that the Prophet flies to the times of Christ, whom God sent to the Egyptians and to all nations as redeemer, so that in Egypt under St. Mark and thereafter Christianity especially flourished, indeed that there the monastic and religious life began from St. Mark and the Essenes. So St. Augustine, book 1 On the Unity of the Church, chapter 14. For the Evangelical vows (that is, of keeping the Evangelical counsels), and especially the monastic ones of poverty, chastity and obedience, are here noted, and will be asserted in Christianity, when the Prophet says: “And they shall make vows to the Lord, and perform them.” In vain therefore does Calvin here torment himself to do away with them on the ground that they are not consonant with the word of God, but are self-chosen worship, which Paul condemns, Colossians 2:23. But this must be proved by Calvin; for I have shown the contrary, on Colossians 2.
AND A MONUMENT OF THE LORD AT THE BORDERS THEREOF.—He calls monuments either temples, as Cyril, or the cross of Christ, or statues, or columns erected in honour of Christ, as if to say: The Egyptians throughout their provinces and borders shall erect crosses, temples, altars, and the like to Christ; for him, and not idols as of old, they shall invoke when they are in tribulation, who shall send them saviours, namely notable Prelates and Princes, who may deliver and defend them from enemies both bodily and spiritual.
22. AND THE LORD SHALL STRIKE EGYPT WITH A SCOURGE.—First, God will strike Egypt, both through the Assyrians and through the Chaldeans; but after forty years he shall restore it to himself, as Ezechiel foretold, chapter 29, verse 13; secondly, and rather, as if to say: God will chastise the Egyptians, now made Christians, both for the expiation of sins and for their trial, and for their greater crown.
23. IN THAT DAY THERE SHALL BE A WAY FROM EGYPT TO THE ASSYRIANS,—as if to say: In the time of Christ there shall be mutual peace, commerce and fellowship among nations once hostile, such as the Egyptians and Assyrians were. For Christianity is a law of peace, which gathers and unites enemy nations into one faith, one charity and one Church.
AND THE EGYPTIANS SHALL SERVE THE ASSYRIAN,—namely by those services by which Christians serve one another through charity, especially by sending thither preachers and notable priests.
Secondly, more plainly from the Hebrew, it can be translated with Vatablus and Montanus: The Egyptians shall worship the Lord with the Assyrians, under whom understand also the Babylonians. And so Sanchez explains our Version, as if to say: The Egyptians shall serve (God) with Assur, or the Assyrian, that is, together with the Assyrian. Hence there follows:
24. IN THAT DAY SHALL ISRAEL BE THE THIRD TO THE EGYPTIAN.—The third, who namely, like the Egyptians and Assyrians, shall receive the faith and worship of Christ, and therefore shall be a blessing, that is, most blessed; as if to say: These three nations, namely Israelites, Egyptians and Assyrians, which now so contend with one another, shall be in accord in Christianity.
A BLESSING IN THE MIDST OF THE LAND.—As Israel was in the midst between the Egyptians and the Assyrians, so from it, as the people of God, blessing shall be poured out through Christ upon the Egyptians and other nations. Hence, although other nations are to be blessed by me, yet mine inheritance it is, and shall be Israel; for as Israel was once a people specially chosen by God, so it shall be now. For from it shall be born Christ, the Blessed Virgin, the Apostles, the first Christians, indeed Christianity and the Church of God.