Commentaria in Isaiam
Second, Sasbout and others: Silver, they say, stands for the words of God, as in Psalm 11, 7: “The words of the Lord are chaste words,” “as silver tried by the fire”; and elsewhere it signifies the words, law and pure doctrine of the Lord. The same is denoted by the word “wine” here, as also Proverbs; and by “water” is signified the very corruption of the law through the traditions which the Scribes and Pharisees introduced, says St. Jerome, Cyril and Basil.
Third, Leo Castrius takes by “silver” the very doctors and wise men of the Jews, and adds: Plato, he says, in book 3 of the Republic, was borrowed from Isaias and Jeremias, in that he names men endowed with heavenly wisdom and virtue “golden”; “silver” he says is that heavenly element placed in the souls of those who are distinguished by common wisdom and common virtues; to the remaining men, according to variety of morals, brass, or iron, or lead is placed in their souls. In like manner among the Jews Isaias and the other Prophets were heavenly and incorruptible as gold, the Scribes and Priests were as silver. The sense is, then, as if to say: Isaias: Thy doctors and priests, O Jerusalem, are depraved in doctrine and morals, and deprave others.
St. Jerome, Cyril and Basil favor this, who tropologically refer these words to heretics, Basil also to preachers who traffic in men’s favor by flattering them with their blandishments, and make the Gospel serve their cupidity, avarice and ambition: for these are the silver and wine adulterated and spoiled, of whom could be said what Ennius said of treacherous soldiers and leaders: “Trafficking in war, not waging it.” So these are traffickers in the Gospel (as the Apostle says, 2 Corinthians 2, 17), not evangelizers. See Ambrose on Psalm 118, sermon 12. These three senses are apt, and tend almost to the same.
THY WINE IS MIXED WITH WATER.—The same he says in another proverb. The Septuagint render: “Thy tavern-keepers mix water with wine.” St. Jerome follows them in his Commentary. The tavern-keepers are the Scribes and Pharisees, who by their Pharisaic expositions depraved the law. Where note: St. Jerome sometimes translates otherwise in his Commentary than he translated in the Bible; but the Church has received his version of the Bible: that therefore is to be followed in preference to the Commentaries, when it differs from them.
Second, Hector Pintus explains it thus: “Thy wine is mixed with water,” that is, there is in thee no pure and genuine virtue: thy justice is mixed with cruelty, revenge, and a certain malicious interpretation of the law: fortitude is mixed with rashness and elation of mind; temperance is joined with negligence and sloth; prudence has joined malice and craftiness to itself. The religious mixes wine with water when with obedience he mixes his own will and judgment, with prayer curious and worldly conversations, with heavenly thoughts and delights vile and human consolations. Preachers mix wine with water if with the word of God they join the allurements of words, with reproofs flatteries, while with the glory of God they mix the glory of men. This sense is accommodated, but moral.
Wrongly, therefore, from this place of Isaias Luther, in a writing against the king of England published in 1522, tries to prove that water is not to be mixed with wine in the chalice of the Eucharist. “For this,” he says, “has a most evil signification, since Isaias says: Thy wine is mixed with water.” For Bellarmine rightly answers him, book 4 On the Eucharist, chapter 11, that the signification would be most evil if tavern-keepers (of whom Isaias treats here) mixed wine with water: for this signifies their avarice, fraud and injustice. But not if they themselves in drinking mix them; for this argues their temperance. But the glutton Luther wants to drink wine neat, not mixed: hence the mixed has for him a most evil signification, because namely by it he cannot satisfy his gluttony and drunkenness.
23. THY PRINCES ARE FAITHLESS.—In Hebrew there is a paronomasia between sarim, that is, princes, and sorerim, that is, the faithless, as if you said, the first are depraved. So you may call, says Calvin in Marlorat, Bishops Episcotos or Aposcopos, Cardinals Carnals or Carpinals, Canons Cenonicos, Provosts Preposterous. Thus that buffoon with venomous tongue learned from his father the devil only to calumniate and curse: but let the branded man begone, and mindful of his brand keep silent.
COMPANIONS OF THIEVES: (because, as follows) THEY ALL LOVE BRIBES;—and on that account pervert all laws. See how judges ought to despise bribes, the examples and sayings of the ancients, which I cited on Exodus 18, 21, and Exodus 23, 8. Moreover, admirable in this matter was in this age Blessed Thomas More, who, being supreme judge and Chancellor of all England, and having found his tribunal full of causes and lawsuits, in the space of two years despatched and decided them all, so that he left not even one remaining, and that with such fidelity that no one could complain of him: so great an enemy was he of avarice and despiser of bribes, that, having been engaged in public affairs from boyhood to the fiftieth year of his age, and discharged the highest offices, he yet in all this time did not increase his annual income beyond seventy gold pieces. How many today do we see of slender means, who, when raised to dignities, in a few years increase their income by many thousands. These are fools (mori), not Mores.
St. Peter Damian applies this place to avaricious Prelates, epistle 2, book 2, which he wrote to the Holy Roman Church to the Cardinal Bishops, in which he teaches that all the calamities of the Church flow from the vice of avarice, especially in accepting bribes. He thus begins: “The wise man says, Ecclesiasticus 20: Presents and gifts blind the eyes of judges, and as one dumb in the mouth turn away their rebukes. For he arms those who approach with gifts, and through them storms and blinds the hearts of those who hold the place of suggesting to the ears of princes, of whom the Lord complains through Isaias, saying: Thy princes are faithless, companions of thieves, they all love bribes, they run after rewards. Someone will say: I indeed seek nothing, but if anything is offered freely, I do not refuse to accept it. Behold here are not those noted who seek gifts, but who only love them. Who are also, not undeservedly, called companions of thieves (for in Italian a thief is called furbo, as if fure): because while they receive stolen gifts, they shudder to be detected by their fellow-ministers and associates as in the crime of theft. And it is to be noted that it says: They run after rewards; because although they extend to their benefactors the help which they ask, they do not escape the stains of guilt; because while they receive a return for their benefit, they lose the fruits of eternal reward. Of whom a little after he also says: Ah, I will comfort myself over my adversaries, and I will be revenged of my enemies.” He adds the cause: “For when gifts have been received, if we wish to do anything against the giver, soon the words soften in our mouth; the edge of speech is blunted, the tongue is hindered by a certain blush of shame. For the mind, conscious of the gift received, weakens the vigor of judicial censure, represses the freedom of eloquence. For even if the rectitude of judgment is not wholly taken away, the authority of judging is nevertheless enervated. According to the Prophet, therefore (Isaias chapter 33), let us shake our hands from every gift, and keep for ourselves the free liberty both of hurting and of helping; that we may not litigate under the servitude of money, but serve in the liberty of justice.”
Note: For “faithless” the Hebrew is sorerim, from the root sur, that is, he turned aside, withdrew, was perverse and rebellious. Whence Aquila renders, withdrawing; Pagninus, turning aside; Pintus, perverse; the Septuagint and St. Jerome, in the Commentary, disobedient: for obedience belongs not only to subjects but also to a good prince. For as the people ought to obey the prince, so he ought to obey the laws of God. Over the people is the prince, over the prince the law. Hence Deuteronomy 17, 18, God commands that the king have the law with him, and read it all the days of his life. Whence 4 Kings 11, 12, it is said of the high priest Joiada: “And he brought out the king’s son (the boy Joas) and put the diadem upon him, and the testimony; and they made him king.” By “testimony” is understood the law, which was given to the king together with the royal crown, that he might govern according to it. The Gentiles held the same. Bias, asked “who was truly a prince?” answered: “He who first submits himself to the law.” Pindar says: “Law is queen of all mortals.” The reason is, that since justice is the end of the law, when the law is despised the prince cannot but despise justice; which done, a seditious and turbulent state of the commonwealth follows, and thence its ruin and destruction. Rightly therefore Justinian said: “It is a voice worthy of a prince to profess himself subject to the laws.” But wrongly that flatterer said to Alexander the Great, groaning that in drunkenness he had killed his friend Clitus, that justice is painted seated beside Jupiter, because whatever Jupiter or the king commands is just. Finally St. Bernard fittingly applies this to our first parents, Sermon 1 On the Advent: “Thy princes,” he says, “faithless, or, as another translation has, disobedient, companions of thieves. Truly our princes Adam and Eve, the beginning of our race, disobedient: and companions of thieves: who tried to steal by the counsel of the serpent, indeed of the devil through the serpent, what belongs to the Son of God. Nor does the Father dissemble the injury of the Son, but at once repays vengeance on man himself, and lays his hand heavy upon us. For we all sinned in Adam.