Commentaria in Isaiam
2. Full of clamour, a populous city, a joyous city.—Formerly thou wast thronged with people, and didst exult with dances, trumpets and timbrels; now, while thou art laid waste, thou art full of clamour.
Thy slain are not slain by the sword, nor dead in battle—as if to say: it is a consolation to the soldier and his kindred if he falls bravely fighting in battle; for that is a glorious death.
But thy citizens, O Jerusalem, fell not by the sword, but by famine in the time of the siege, says Theodoretus; the survivors, not fighting but fleeing like unwarlike women, were taken and bound or slain. Again, ascribe thy destruction, O Jerusalem, not to the sword of the Chaldeans but to the vengeance of God. For God took away thy courage and strength, himself cast fear upon thee that thou shouldst flee, and in flight expose thyself to the fury of the enemy.
So Virgil says of the fall of Troy:
It is not the hated face of the Spartan daughter of Tyndareus, nor Paris to blame; it is the harshness of the gods that overturns this wealth.
So Titus the Emperor, to whom Eusebius refers this literally, and from him Leo Castrius, on entering captured Jerusalem and admiring its fortifications and towers, said: “God drew the Jews out from these strongholds; for what hands of men or what engines could have prevailed against them?” Josephus is witness, Jewish War, book 7, chapter 16.
I prefer, however, with St. Jerome and others, to take this literally of the destruction of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans, which verse 15 and those following sufficiently indicate; and typically, of its destruction by Titus and the Romans.
As for some who refer this to the devastation by Sennacherib, St. Jerome plainly rejects it, and it has no probability, as is evident to anyone who weighs the words of the Prophet.
5. For it is a day of slaughter.—Vatablus renders: a day of confusion, or of crushing, of treading down and perplexity, from the Lord, as if to say: The day is at hand on which God will confound, crush and trample all things, sacred and profane; and in Jerusalem too he will make all who are in it perplexed, so that they know not whither to turn.
Searching the wall, and glorious upon the mountain.—Understand who, namely God the avenger, and leader of the war of the Chaldeans, searches the wall of Jerusalem, to see on what side he may conveniently overthrow and demolish it. For searching the Hebrew has mekar-ker, which can be rendered with Vatablus, the Lord has torn down the wall, or undermined and scattered it; for he is glorious upon the mountain, as if to say: It is he who has the mountain of Sion and its glory subject under his feet, to cast it down, and to press it down like a very valley.
6. And Elam.—This Elam was a city of the Assyrians, says St. Jerome.
Secondly, Forerius says that Elam is here taken metaphorically for any most skilful archer: for such were the Elamites or Persians, just as Arab is taken for any robber.
Thirdly and properly, Elam is a city of Persia, from which horsemen were then sent to help the Babylonians, still holding the monarchy, against Jerusalem. So Cyril.
Took the quiver.—In a fine word-picture there is here described the army of the Chaldeans, gathered from the Persians and other nations, furnished with quivers and shields, so that the wall where shields are hung is now bare: an army, that is, entering Jerusalem, occupying Mount Sion, and proudly advancing with chariots through streets, valleys and gates, says St. Jerome.
8. And the covering of Juda shall be discovered.—First, the Chaldeans shall open the veil which is before the Holy of Holies, and shall enter there and profane it. Hence Lamentations 1:10 it is said: “She hath seen the Gentiles enter into her sanctuary,” etc. So St. Jerome.
Secondly, Forerius explains it thus: the besieged Jews, to provide for their own and the city’s need and to pay their soldiers, will uncover treasures that were covered and hidden: for these were the covering of Juda.
Thirdly, others understand by the covering the outer rampart and the other fortifications of the city, as if to say: These shall be uncovered and taken by the Chaldeans. Hence the Septuagint render the covering as the gates. This sense is the plainest and most fitting of all.
Fourthly, Vatablus explains it thus: Juda before seemed to hope in God and to be under his protection, who was to it in the place of a covering; but then the enemy will make manifest that Juda is forsaken of God’s help, because it sinned and did not repent.
And thou shalt see in that day the armoury of the house of the forest.—The Hebrew is, thou shalt look to the armoury of the house of the forest. So Vatablus, Forerius and others, as if to say: To resist the Chaldeans thou wilt not have recourse to God, as is said in verse 11, but to the arms which Solomon laid up in the palace, which he called the house of the forest of Libanus, because with its multitude of columns, trees and gardens it resembled the forest or wood of Libanus, 3 Kings 7:2. So Procopius and others.
St. Jerome explains it otherwise, as if to say: You shall see, O Jews, the armoury scattered by the enemy, and the enemies entering the city through the breached and ruined walls.
Hence the Septuagint refer this to the Chaldeans, who are to see and seize this armoury, and likewise the breaches of the walls of the city.
But the former sense is more in agreement with the Hebrew and with what follows.
9. And the breaches of the city of David you shall see.—First, Adamus explains it thus: the citadel of Sion, which seemed to be impregnable, shall be breached by the Chaldeans and overthrown.
Secondly, the Septuagint render the breaches as caves, as if they said: When the enemy enters, you will look to caves and hiding places in which to hide yourselves; that they did this in the siege by the Chaldeans is plain from chapter 2, verse 10, and in that by the Romans from Josephus, Jewish War, book 3, chapter 14.
Thirdly, you shall see the breaches of the walls of Sion, that you may restore and repair them.
And you have gathered together the waters of the lower pool,—namely, to moisten and dilute earth with which to repair the split and broken walls, so Vatablus, or rather to relieve the thirst of the citizens in the siege: for Jerusalem laboured under a scarcity of water; hence Ezechias, 4 Kings 20:20, made a pool of waters and led the waters from it into the city by channels. The besieged Jews therefore made wells and cisterns in the city, as is plain from verse 11, and drew into them water from Siloe and its pool, that they might have water to drink, and to use for cooking food, for washing, and so on.
10. And you have numbered the houses of Jerusalem,—either to keep watch in turn, or to measure out water and provisions.
11. To the water of the old pool,—namely, to be received into these cisterns from the old pool.
11. And you looked not up to him that made it,—you were wholly intent on seeking human defences, and in that chiefly you were negligent: for you looked not up to God, who by the pious kings David and Ezechias bestowed on you the pool, the water and the other supports of life, and without whom these things are vain. So worldly men, like moles of the earth, gape after the goods of life that lie before them, and look not up to divine and heavenly things, which are better; and vain and fruitless are their efforts and endeavours.
12. And he shall call,—as if to say: God, when the Chaldean is at hand, by Jeremias and the other Prophets will call them to repentance; but they, not so much from desperate deliberation as in unbelief of their oracles, will despise them, and give themselves to gluttony and luxury, killing and eating calves and drinking wine, saying: “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we shall die.”
Like madness is that of the voluptuaries and Epicureans, who think that the soul perishes with the body; whence the error of the king is known, who ordered to be cut upon his tomb: “I have what I ate, and what my sated lust drank in; but many splendid things are left behind.” “What else,” says Aristotle, “would you inscribe on a tomb, not on a king’s sepulchre? He says that, being dead, he has those things which not even while living did he have longer than he enjoyed them.”
14. And it was revealed in my ears, the voice of the Lord.—The Chaldee, Haymo and Forerius think that the ears are the Prophet’s and the voice the Lord’s; and our Version requires it. The Septuagint, however, Hugo, Vatablus and Sanchez think that the ears are God’s and the voice that of the sinful people, as if to say: The voice of the Jews, full of impudence, has come to my ears, who am the Lord of hosts.
If it shall be forgiven.—That is, I swear that this iniquity shall not be forgiven you; for, as St. Jerome says, “Nothing so offends God as a neck held erect after sin, and contempt springing from despair.”
See here how God hates and punishes the Epicureans, who are given to gluttony and wine. So the Philistines, feasting and rejoicing at the capture of Samson, were buried under the ruin of the house when the pillars were pulled down by him, Judges 16. So Benadad king of Syria, drunk, though surrounded by a very great army, was overcome by the servants of the princes, 3 Kings 20. They snatch only at present pleasures, which the Wise Man graphically describes, Wisdom 2:6, namely:
So men live as if no death were to follow, and as if hell were an empty fable.
The Apostle cites this passage, 1 Corinthians 15:32, and from it proves the resurrection of the dead, as I said there. See here to what gluttony leads a man: for in order that he may freely indulge in pleasures, and be rid of the fear of future vengeance and of hell, it persuades him that he has a mortal soul, like a beast or a pig. Hence it persuades him that God has no care of man, or at least no more than of a pig, nor will punish the glutton any more than a pig. It takes away therefore from man the divinity and the fear of the divinity; it takes away God’s providence, judgment and vengeance; it takes away at last God and the divinity from the world. For, as Cicero says, if you take away from the world the divine power and providence, you take away God also. For who would be a God for man to fear or worship, who cares nothing for his affairs and has no providence over him?