Commentaria in Isaiam
Chapter 28
Synopsis of the Chapter. In this chapter is the fifth section of the first principal part of Isaias, containing burdens or threatening prophecies. In this section from the burden of the world he returns to the burdens of the Gentiles, and these various and mixed. This chapter therefore treats of the destruction of the ten tribes; chapter 29, of the destruction of Ariel, that is, of Jerusalem and the two tribes; chapter 30, of the slaughter of the Jews fleeing into Egypt, or before it Jeremias, from which he flies to Topheth and the gehenna of the damned; chapter 31, he returns to the slaughter of the ten tribes; chapter 32, under the type of the kingdom of Ezechias he describes the happy and holy kingdom of Christ; chapter 33, he foretells the slaughter of Sennacherib by an Angel; chapter 34, he flies again to the destruction of the world; chapter 35, he passes to the golden age of the Gospel, and describes the calling and glory of the Gentiles; chapter 36, from prophecy he passes to the history of Sennacherib and Ezechias, and relates that what he had foretold of them was in fact fulfilled. From these it is clear that these burdens and prophecies were published at different times, and were afterwards placed by a collector, with neglect of order and time, in this order which we now see. See Canon 1. This chapter 28, therefore, foretells the destruction of Ephraim, that is, of Samaria and the ten tribes, for their pride and drunkenness. Secondly, in verse 7, the same is foretold to the two tribes for the same causes, and because they derided the words and threats of the Prophets, and hence he says that their covenant with death and hell shall not stand: wherefore, in verse 16, he promises them a corner stone, a solid one, that they may rest upon it; for the worship of God does not endure with it the worship of idols. Finally, in verse 24, he teaches that God, like a husbandman, now sows, now purges, now reaps, now threshes His own with tribulation; because vexation gives understanding to the hearing.
1. Woe to the crown of pride, to the drunkards of Ephraim, and to the fading flower, the glory of his joy, who were on the top of the fat valley, staggering with wine! 2. Behold the Lord is mighty and strong, as a storm of hail; a destroying whirlwind, as the violence of many waters overflowing and sent out upon a spacious land. 3. The crown of pride shall be trodden under feet Ephraim. 4. And the fading flower, the glory of his joy, who is on the top of the fat valley, shall be as an early fruit before the ripeness of autumn: which when he that seeth it shall behold, as soon as he taketh it in his hand he will eat it up. 5. In that day the Lord of hosts shall be a crown of glory, and a garland of joy to the residue of his people: 6. And a spirit of judgment to him that sitteth in judgment, and strength to them that return from the battle to the gate. 7. But these also have been ignorant through wine, and through drunkenness have erred: the priest and the prophet have been ignorant through drunkenness, they are swallowed up with wine, they have gone astray in drunkenness, they have not known him that seeth, they have been ignorant of judgment. 8. For all tables were full of vomit and filth, so that there was no more place. 9. Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand the thing heard? them that are weaned from the milk, that are drawn away from the breasts. 10. For command, command again, command, command again, expect, expect again, expect, expect again, a little there, a little there. 11. For with the speech of lips, and with another tongue he will speak to this people. 12. To whom he said: This is my rest, refresh the weary, and this is my refreshing: and they would not hear. 13. And the word of the Lord shall be to them: Command, command again, command, command again, expect, expect again, expect, expect again, a little there, a little there: that they may go, and fall backward, and be broken, and be snared, and be taken. 14. Wherefore hear the word of the Lord, ye scornful men, that rule over my people, who is in Jerusalem. 15. For you have said: We have entered into a league with death, and we have made a covenant with hell. When the overflowing scourge shall pass, it shall not come upon us: for we have placed our hope in lies, and by falsehood we are protected. 16. Therefore thus saith the Lord God: Behold I will lay a stone in the foundations of Sion, a tried stone, a corner stone, a precious stone, founded in the foundation. He that believeth, let him not hasten. 17. And I will set judgment in weight, and justice in measure: and hail shall overthrow the hope of falsehood, and waters shall overflow its protection. 18. And your league with death shall be abolished, and your covenant with hell shall not stand: when the overflowing scourge shall pass, you shall be trodden down by it. 19. Whensoever it shall pass through, it shall take you away: because it shall pass through in the morning early, in the day and in the night, and vexation alone shall make you understand what you hear. 20. For the bed is straitened so that one must fall out, and a short covering cannot cover both. 21. For the Lord shall stand up as in the mountain of divisions, he shall be angry as in the valley which is in Gabaon: that he may do his work, his strange work: his work is strange to him, that he may work his work. 22. And now do not mock, lest your bonds be tied strait: for I have heard of the Lord the God of hosts a consumption and a cutting short upon all the earth. 23. Give ear, and hear my voice, hearken, and hear my speech. 24. Shall the ploughman plough all the day to sow? shall he break and harrow his ground? 25. Will he not, when he hath made plain the surface thereof, sow gith, and scatter cummin, and set wheat in order, and barley, and millet, and vetches in their bounds? 26. For his God will instruct him in judgment, and will teach him. 27. For gith shall not be thrashed with saws, neither shall the cartwheel turn about upon cummin: but gith shall be beaten out with a rod, and cummin with a staff. 28. But bread corn shall be broken small: but the thrasher shall not thrash it for ever, neither shall the wheel of the cart hurt it, nor break it with its teeth. 29. This also cometh forth from the Lord God of hosts, to make his counsel wonderful, and magnify justice.
1. “WOE TO THE CROWN OF PRIDE, THE DRUNKARDS OF EPHRAIM.” As if to say: Woe to the proud and gluttonous kingdom of Israel! for “Ephraim” he calls Israel, that is, the ten tribes. He threatens them with the woe of destruction, as being proud and drunken, and says they will be like a fading flower, which as soon as it has flowered, withers and perishes.
He fittingly says “crown,” because Samaria, the metropolis of Ephraim, built by King Amri on the top of Mount Somer, was surrounded by him with a wonderful pride of buildings in the manner of a crown, and offered a most pleasant prospect, stretching very far in every direction, says Adrichomius in his description of Samaria.
“WHO WERE ON THE TOP OF THE FAT VALLEY.” That is, who dwelt in the city of Samaria, which is situated on the top of a mountain, beneath which lies a most fertile valley abounding in vineyards and olive groves.
Allegorically, St. Jerome, Cyril, Procopius, Eusebius, Nazianzen and Theodoret in Leo Castrius: The crown, they say, of glory or, as the Septuagint, of injury (for the Septuagint are wont to put injury for pride, that is, the effect for the cause; for the proud are wont to be injurious to others; so St. Jerome) is Jerusalem and the Jews, especially the Scribes and Pharisees, who put a crown of thorns on Christ’s head, says Procopius. The same are drunk, not so much with wine as with avarice and fury, or, as the Septuagint, they are the hirelings of Ephraim (for the Hebrew sickor or sotker signifies a hireling with the one letter, a drunkard with the other), because they hired Judas for a reward to betray and destroy Christ; Judas, I say, who was born of the village of Ephraim, whose name was Iscarioth, and who was once the flower of apostolic glory, as they of the Jewish; but he fell drunk in Gethsemani, that is, in the fat valley, when there he with the Jews was cast to the ground and prostrated by Christ, and betrayed Christ. Leo Castrius will have this sense to be literal: hence he, translating the “woe” by “alas” according to the Septuagint, paraphrastically renders this verse thus: “Alas the ignominious crown placed on the Lord! alas the hirers of Judas! alas the dying flower, and the magnificence and ornament of the Father! alas the glory of the people of Israel dying by the hands of the Jews! alas the valley of Gethsemani! alas the hammered sacred feet! the hammered sacred hands!” But it is more true that this sense is allegorical, as I said; because Gethsemani, over which Jerusalem hangs, does not signify a fat valley (for this is signified by Ge-shemanim), but an oil-press.
Thirdly, Vatablus translates and explains thus: Woe to the crown and glory, etc., which is over the head of the valley of the fat ones smitten with wine, or, over whose head is the valley of ointments, and they are smitten with wine. By valley he understands a stream which flows through valleys, that is, a great abundance, as if to say: Woe to the Ephraimites, on whose heads an abundance of ointments descends like a stream, and who are wont to be drunk with wine! A man drenched with ointments he calls by hyperbole a valley of ointments. But this sense is symbolic and mystical, not literal.
2. “BEHOLD THE LORD IS MIGHTY AND STRONG” (He will mightily lay low and ravage the fields of Samaria), “AS A STORM OF HAIL, A DESTROYING WHIRLWIND”: it is wont to lay low and crush the crops.
4. “AS AN EARLY FRUIT”: that is, as a fruit that ripens early, like apples and pears. Hence the Septuagint translate, as the first and premature figs (for this the Hebrew bikkurah signifies; hence the Punic abbocoras). It is a proverb like that which Plautus uses: “It will be as easy as for a fox to eat a pear,” as if to say: As first fruits, for example figs, being new, provoke the palate and are most greedily devoured before the ripeness of the others: so also you, O Samaritans! who by reason of steep mountains thought yourselves impregnable, shall be devoured most easily, most greedily and quickly, before you all acquire full glory and wealth. This happened when the ten tribes were carried off by Salmanasar into Assyria, 4 Kings 17.
5 and 6. “IN THAT DAY” (as if to say: When the ten tribes have been laid waste and carried off, the Lord will gird the two remaining tribes, Juda and Benjamin, like a crown, and adorn them, and gloriously protect them against Sennacherib, the Philistines and other enemies, and He will be) “A SPIRIT OF JUDGMENT TO HIM THAT SITTETH IN JUDGMENT” (that is, to King Ezechias, judge and prince of the people; a spirit of judgment, as if standing by the king and directing him, that he may judge and rule the people with right and just judgment: but to the soldiers) “RETURNING FROM BATTLE TO THE GATE” (of Jerusalem, there shall be) “STRENGTH.” It is a metonymy, as if to say: God will cause the soldiers, from the labour and strain of the fight, victory won, to return strong, fresh and vigorous to the gate by which they had gone out to war, as if they had not gone out and had not fought.
Allegorically, Cyril, Theodoret and Leo Castrius (who will have this sense to be literal): Christ gave the Apostles the spirit of judgment, that is, the Holy Spirit, that they might teach men the judgments, that is, the truth and commandments of the Gospel; He gave them the power, by the imposition of hands, of communicating this Holy Spirit to others; and “to them returning from battle,” that is, to the holy Martyrs, who will return from the contest of martyrdom victorious to the gate of the city, there will be fortitude and constancy, so that, thrust again into prison, they may prepare themselves for new struggles and torments, and overcome them with equal constancy.
7. “BUT THESE ALSO HAVE BEEN IGNORANT THROUGH WINE.” From the ten tribes he turns to the two, and their disaster, and predicts that they will imitate the drunkenness of the Samaritans.
“THE PROPHET” (the false prophet, under which he understands the priests and the whole clergy; for he taxes the surfeit of all, that is, of the people of Jerusalem as of the clergy): “THEY HAVE NOT KNOWN HIM THAT SEETH,” namely God: for God is the eye that sees all things, Proverbs 15:3. Secondly, “him that seeth,” that is, those who see, namely the Prophets; through wine they did not understand them, or would not hear and understand. Thirdly, from the Hebrew it can be translated, they were deceived in seeing. For eyes moist with wine, the spirits being disturbed, waver and are deceived, so that they cannot see anything rightly and surely. The Septuagint translate, they have erred: this is a phantom. For the Hebrew roeh, which our translator renders “him that seeth,” the Septuagint took as an abstract, so that it is the same as vision, a phantom, a spectre. Phantoms, says St. Jerome, are certain shadows and images that quickly perish and dissolve, such as drunkards often have. The sense therefore is, as if to say: Their vision is not prophecy, but an empty phantom of the drunken, a spectre and a dream: they prophesy what wine-bibbing suggests, what they had dreamed in drunkenness, they sell their dreams and phantoms as oracles.
“THEY HAVE BEEN IGNORANT OF JUDGMENT”: through drunkenness they could not judge rightly, discern and decide, but erred in judging, and, as the Hebrew has, pakku, that is, stumbled. Hence wisely Alphonsus king of Aragon, asked why he quenched his thirst with very diluted wine, answered: “Because by wine wisdom is obscured.” Panormitanus witnesses this, book 1 of his Life.