Commentaria in Isaiam
“St. Hilarion,” says St. Jerome in his Life, “one night began to hear the cries of infants, the bleating of flocks, the lowing of oxen, the lamentation as of women, the roaring of lions, the murmur of an army, and again the portents of various voices, so that he would give way, terrified by the sound before the sight. He understood the mockeries of the demons; and falling on his knees, he signed the cross of Christ on his forehead; and armed with such a helmet, and girt with the breastplate of faith, lying down he fought the more strongly, from now on desiring to see what he shuddered to hear, and looking about anxiously this way and that; when meanwhile, suddenly, in the shining of the moon, he saw a chariot, with its horses in a fury, rushing upon him; and when he had called on Jesus, before his eyes, by a sudden opening of the earth, all the pomp was swallowed up. Then he said: He hath cast the horse and the rider into the sea. Some trust in chariots and some in horses; but we shall be magnified in the name of our God.” At another time a demon in the form of a camel, raging and terrifying all the neighbours, ran about; St. Hilarion went out to meet him: “You do not terrify me,” he said, “O devil, with so great a mass of body; you are one and the same in a little fox and in a camel.” Another day a demon, sent by a lover through a love-charm into a girl, was mocked by the Saint and heard: “Great is your strength, who are held bound by a thread and a plate. Say why you dared to enter a maid of God?” “To keep her a virgin,” he said. “You keep her, betrayer of chastity? Why did you not rather enter him who sent you?” “Why,” he answered, “should I enter him who has my colleague, the demon of love?” At another time he checked, smiling, a leading man obsessed by a legion of demons and rushing furiously upon the Saint: “Let be,” he said; and trampling his feet with both of his own: “Be tormented, crowd of demons, be tormented.” When he wailed: “Lord Jesus,” he said, “free the wretched, free the captive; to conquer one, as many, is Thine.” And so this man too was cured.
This is what James says, chapter 4, verse 7: “Resist the devil, and he will fly from you,” as if to say: Resist, and refuse consent to the devil tempting, and you have conquered; for he will flee from you in confusion, like a dog with its tail cut off. Hence the demon is called by St. Job, chapter 4, verse 11, according to the Septuagint, Myrmicoleon, that is, ant-lion, because he shows himself terrible to the timid like a lion, but to the brave and resisting he is weak and feeble as an ant. Wherefore St. Bernard: “See, brothers,” he says, “how weak our enemy is, who conquers none but the willing;” the temptation of the devil saying to Christ: Cast thyself down: “It is,” he says, “the voice of the devil, who always desires all to fall downward. For he can persuade, but cannot compel.” So St. Antony derided the devil appearing in the form of giants, lions, bears and the like, saying: “If thou hast power from God over me, exert it: behold, I am here; if not, why dost thou strive in vain to terrify me with these monstrous phantoms, who canst do nothing?”
“THE CROOKED SERPENT.” The Syriac has, a boiling serpent, roused, stirred up; the Arabic, a crooked, treacherous, cunning serpent. The devil is crooked, first, on account of the perversity of his mind; for he has nothing right in himself, says St. Jerome, indeed he can neither love nor will any work, even if morally only good and honourable. The cause of this is the extreme hatred with which he pursues God, who inflicts on him the highest and eternal torments; for because he hates God supremely, he therefore hates all that is pleasing to God, such as are all good and honourable acts. Despair and rage drive him to this. Secondly, on account of his frauds; hence also in his oracles he is entangled, deceitful and lying; for which reason Apollo was called Loxias, that is, oblique and crooked. Thirdly, because, as St. Basil says on Psalm 32, he has various windings, by which he assails man and drives him to various and contrary kinds of vices.
“AND HE SHALL SLAY,” by eternal death, banishing and binding him in hell, where he shall be tormented for ever by fire and by the pains of an immortal death; for those who are in it are always dying, and yet are never dead.
2. “IN THAT DAY THERE SHALL BE A VINEYARD OF PURE WINE, SING YE TO IT.”
First, St. Jerome, Haymo and Hugo think that the mourning of the Jews, or of the Synagogue, at the end of the age is here described: the Synagogue laments its overthrow, because, though so cultivated and guarded by God, it bore not grapes but wild grapes; hence “shall sing” means, shall lament. Others, and better, judge that these are the Church’s praise and rejoicing, that she bore grapes and pure wine, not wild grapes like the Synagogue, namely justice, not outcry; faith and mercy, not perfidy and cruelty; moreover that they might fill the whole world with produce or fruit, be multiplied beyond measure, and be able to lead out colonies throughout the whole world. So Sanchez, Dionysius and Adamus.
You will ask, who sings this canticle, and to whom? Note that “to her” in Hebrew is feminine; wherefore it regards not God but the vineyard, that is, the Church.
First, some think that the vineyard itself, that is, the Church, sings this canticle; as if to say: The Church, in which is the pure wine of grace and of good works, rejoicing in it, “shall sing to it,” that is, to herself; because, namely, she will congratulate herself over the slain Leviathan, and will thereby be moved to a joyful and thankful canticle.
Secondly, others think it is the canticle of the Angels to the Blessed, or to the triumphant Church: for instead of “shall sing” the Hebrew has “sing ye”; hence Vatablus translates thus, in that day sing alternately to the vineyard of wine, as if God said to the Angels: Sing, ye Angels, to it (namely the vineyard, as is plain from the Hebrew): O vineyard, excellent, fruitful in pure wine! But our Interpreter, for anu lah, that is, sing ye to her, read ana lah.
Thirdly, and most aptly, Sanchez judges it to be the canticle of God; for there follows: 3. “I AM THE LORD, WHO KEEP IT,” etc. From this verse 3, therefore, to verse 6, is the canticle of God.
The sense therefore is: In that day, namely of judgment, when Leviathan and the wicked shall go into eternal death, God “shall sing,” that is, shall proclaim with a public and joyful voice and declaration, “to it,” namely to the vineyard, that is, to His Church, praising her and saying: O my vineyard (for there is here a metathesis, or transposition of words), that hast brought forth for me pure wine, blessed and happy art thou. For hereafter I will keep thee, and bless thee, as follows. “Suddenly” (in Hebrew lirgaim), which can be translated first, “suddenly,” because this joy comes to the Blessed in a short time; secondly, “continually,” without ceasing, through every moment, because it shall be eternal. “I will give it drink” sweet and generous wine, such as she herself brought forth, as if to say: Because this vineyard of the Blessed has brought forth excellent fruits of good works, therefore I will adorn her with excellent happiness and joy and give her drink; this is what the Psalmist says: “Thou shalt make them drink of the torrent” (not of a cup, not of a goblet, but of a whole torrent) “of Thy pleasure,” Psalm 35:9.