Commentaria in Isaiam
Secondly, St. Jerome, as if to say: Give us peace in heaven; for whatever Thou hast promised through the Prophets Thou hast fulfilled and wrought in this life.
Thirdly, the Septuagint translate, give us peace, for Thou hast rendered all things to us, as if they said, as St. Jerome explains: Give us peace, because for our evil works Thou hast rendered just punishments, and so Thou hast justly punished and expiated them. Give therefore pardon and peace: we have given enough in penalties.
Fourthly and genuinely, this is the voice of the Church and of the Saints, whose works are twofold, namely first passive, which we suffer by God’s working; secondly active, which we work with Him. For the Hebrew maase signifies not only work and action but every deed and every event. Hence, first, this is the sense: Give, or, as the Hebrew has it, tishpot, that is, appoint and firmly place within our borders (that it may never depart from us) peace; for Thou hast wrought all other things for us, as if to say: Everything that has been done for us is from Thee, for Thou art the giver and worker of all; in Thy hands is all our lot. Hence Forerius aptly explains it thus: Thou, O Lord, who hast wrought for us the works of our redemption through Christ (for he says for us, not in us), who through the Apostles and their successors hast done so many miracles, converted so many nations, so enlarged and exalted the Church, and so often prostrated or subdued her enemies: give her also full peace and quiet from persecutors, and begin it in this life, that Thou mayest perfect it in heaven, when, as has gone before, the fire shall devour the wicked, Thy enemies and ours alike. So also St. Cyril, who takes by works the benefits and divine miracles, as if to say: Thou wilt give us peace, since all our wonders, that is, what has been done in us, are Thy gifts; and yet lords without Thee have had possession of us.
But taking “our works” as active, this is the sense: Since, as the Apostle says, the fruit of justice and of good works is peace, give, O Lord, to us who desire Thee by night and day, as he says in verse 9, peace. Give, I say, that is, give and go on giving (for “give” here signifies a continued, not a begun, act); for Thou hast given us good works, as the root and tree of peace. Here note that God so works these works for us that we also freely cooperate with God and work them. Hence the Chaldean translates: Lord, Thou wilt ordain peace for us; because in all the time in which we have been separated from our sins, Thou hast wrought with us. God therefore works these works in us, first, by operating and prevenient grace, rousing us to them; secondly, by accompanying or cooperating grace: because our will, roused by the grace of God, freely willing and doing a good work, God works together with it. He says therefore: Thou hast given the tree, give the fruits; Thou hast given the works, give peace; Thou hast given merit, give the reward.
13. “O LORD OUR GOD, OTHER LORDS BESIDES THEE HAVE HAD DOMINION OVER US; ONLY IN THEE LET US REMEMBER THY NAME.” These lords are first idols; secondly kings and tyrants. Therefore, first, the sense is, as if to say: It was for Thee, O Lord, to possess us; for Thou hast wrought all our works. But alas, strange gods, or the idols which we worshipped, have possessed us, “without Thee,” that is, without Thy knowledge, Thou resisting, indeed Thou being cast out of Thy possession; but our folly summoned them for us and set them over us as lords, indeed as tyrants; wherefore we pray that Thou wouldst take them away, and that we may worship and invoke the one true God and Lord. And this was in fact done about this time, when Ezechias purified the temple and overthrew the altars of the idols.
Secondly, Sanchez, as if to say: While we are oppressed by the wicked, Thou alone, O Lord, dost not possess us: for “without Thee,” that is, besides Thee, who alone oughtest to have ruled in our souls, other lords also, namely the kings of Syria, Samaria and the rest, rule over us; while, pressed by enemies, we implore their help, or they of their own accord invade us, divided among ourselves and forsaken by Thee. Thou wilt therefore give peace, so that there may be no need to call in or to fear these foreign lords and kings: so that we may think of Thee alone, look to Thee alone, and in Thy name our counsels, zeal and endeavours may rest.
Note the pleonasm, “in Thee” and “of Thy name”; for one or the other is redundant. The sense is, as if to say: In Thee, that is, with Thee, let the keenness of our mind and our memory dwell continually, so that we may always have Thee present and remember Thy name. Vatablus translates, let us remember only Thee and Thy name. For the Hebrew bach, that is, “in thee,” is often taken as governing the genitive, and is the same as “of thee.”
Mystically, as if to say: Other lords, namely the world, the flesh, the devil and sin, “without Thee,” that is, against Thee (for they are Thine enemies), have possessed us; but we beseech Thee to deliver us from them, that we may be wholly Thine, and devoted to Thee alone for ever. Give us therefore Thy grace, and the gift of perseverance.
14. “LET NOT THE DEAD LIVE, LET NOT THE GIANTS RISE AGAIN.” He explains who the lords were that possessed them, namely “the giants,” that is, powerful tyrants, and endowed with a giant’s strength and spirit: the same are called the dying, or the dead, both here and elsewhere: because all the giants before the flood, of whom Genesis 6, were drowned and died in the flood, according to that of Job 26:5: “Behold the giants groan under the waters.” Hence Scripture everywhere places the giants in hell, as damned for their remarkable pride and impiety, and calls hell the place of the giants, Proverbs chapter 14, verse 6. Indeed the Gentiles, as Macrobius testifies, book 1 of the Saturnalia, chapter 11, said that the giants of the poets signified an impious race, despising and denying the gods; and therefore the feet of serpents were attached to them, to signify that they had thought nothing holy, the whole progress and course of their life tending toward hell; as if to say: Let these our lords and tyrants, who are like the giants, die as those did, and be cast down from their strength, insolence and tyranny, and not rise again to it or to life; but let their name and memory perish, that Thou mayest be our Lord, and that we may always remember Thee. So Forerius.
Secondly, others explain it generally: “The dying,” namely the wicked, “let them not live” in their sins, but die by eternal death and torment; and “the giants,” that is, the oppressors of others, “let them not rise again” to the blessed life. So Adamus. Hence the Septuaginta translate: the dead shall not see life, nor shall physicians raise them up. For the Hebrew rephaim signifies both physicians and giants.
Thirdly, Symmachus translates, the dead shall not be made alive, the giants shall not raise up, as if to say: I have prayed that other lords may not possess us, but Thou, O Lord, and that we may continually remember Thee: because those lords, namely the idols, being dead, cannot give life, and those kings and tyrants like giants, since they are to die as those did, cannot raise us up and restore us to our former state. So Sanchez.
“THEREFORE (namely that the dying should not live and the giants not rise again) THOU HAST VISITED AND BROKEN THEM IN PIECES, AND DESTROYED ALL THEIR MEMORY.” From what has been said the sense of this place is plain, namely, first, concerning the idols, as if to say: When Thou didst afflict the Jews by Sennacherib and by the kings of Syria and Samaria, Thou didst take away from their minds all memory of the idols, and by this affliction Thou didst drive them through Ezechias to Thee and to Thy worship and invocation: in like manner, therefore, afflict the impious nations, and so drive them to Thee. Secondly, concerning kings and tyrants, as if to say: Thou hast destroyed, and wilt destroy, the kings and tyrants who afflict us and force us to think of them; and so Thou wilt remove their memory from our minds, that we may think of Thee alone, and continually remember Thee.
15. “THOU HAST FORGIVEN THE NATION.” He proves by the event what he said in verse 10 and following, namely that affliction is useful to the wicked, and clemency is harmful.