Commentaria in Isaiam
Chapter Thirty. Synopsis of the Chapter
This is a prophecy against the Jews who, about four hundred and fifty years later, in the time of Jeremias, after Godolias was slain by Ismael, fearing the Chaldeans who had set him over Juda lest they should avenge his death, fled into Egypt against the command of God, as Jeremias relates in chapters 41 and 43. So St. Jerome and Cyril, Theodoret and Procopius, and it is plain from what follows. Lyranus and others think it a prophecy against the Jews who, when Sennacherib was laying waste Judea, thought that help should be sought from the Egyptians; and there are things in this chapter that favour this opinion, which Sanchez recounts, both here and at number 40. But it is truer that it regards the times of Jeremias and of the Chaldeans, as I have said: whence in verse 8 he bids these things be written on boxwood, as things to come long afterwards. Secondly, in verse 9, he rebukes those who wish to hear pleasing things from the Prophets, though false and perverse. Thirdly, in verse 19, under the type of the holiness and happiness of the reign of Ezechias, he describes the holy and happy kingdom of Christ. Fourthly, in verse 26, he passes to the day of judgment, and says that then the sun and the moon will shine sevenfold brighter. Lastly, in verse 30, he teaches that Topheth and the hell of fire are prepared for the wicked.
1. Woe to you, apostate children, saith the Lord, that you would take counsel, and not of me: and would begin a web, and not by my spirit, that you might add sin upon sin: 2. who walk to go down into Egypt, and have not asked at my mouth, hoping for aid in the strength of Pharao, and trusting in the shadow of Egypt. 3. And the strength of Pharao shall be your confusion, and the confidence of the shadow of Egypt your shame. 4. For thy princes were in Taphnis, and thy messengers came even to Hanes. 5. They were all confounded at a people that could not profit them: they were no help, nor any profit, but a confusion and a reproach. 6. The burden of the beasts of the south. In a land of trouble and distress, from whence come the lioness and the lion, the viper and the flying basilisk, carrying their riches upon the shoulders of beasts, and their treasures upon the bunch of camels, to a people that cannot profit them. 7. For Egypt shall help in vain, and to no purpose: therefore have I cried concerning this: It is pride only, sit still. 8. Now therefore go in, and write it down for them upon box, and note it diligently in a book: and it shall be in the latter days for a testimony for ever. 9. For it is a provoking people, and lying children, children that will not hear the law of God. 10. Who say to the seers: See not: and to them that behold: Behold not for us those things that are right: speak to us pleasant things, see errors for us. 11. Take away from me the way, turn aside from me the path, let the Holy One of Israel cease from before us. 12. Therefore thus saith the Holy One of Israel: Because you have rejected this word, and have trusted in calumny and tumult, and have leaned thereon: 13. therefore shall this iniquity be to you as a breach that falleth, and is discovered in a high wall, for the destruction thereof cometh suddenly, when it is not looked for. 14. And it shall be broken small, as the potter’s vessel is broken all to pieces with a mighty breaking: and there shall not a sherd be found of the pieces thereof, wherein a little fire may be carried from the hearth, or a little water be drawn out of the pit. 15. For thus saith the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel: If you return and be quiet, you shall be saved: in silence and in hope shall your strength be.
But you would not: 16. and you said: No, but we will flee to horses: therefore shall you be carried away; and we will mount upon swift ones: therefore shall they be swifter that shall pursue after you. 17. A thousand men shall flee for fear of one: and for the fear of five shall you flee, till you be left as the mast of a ship on the top of a mountain, and as a sign upon a hill. 18. Therefore the Lord waiteth that he may have mercy on you: and therefore shall he be exalted sparing you: because the Lord is the God of judgment: blessed are all they that wait for him. 19. For the people of Sion shall dwell in Jerusalem: weeping thou shalt not weep, he will surely have pity on thee: at the voice of thy cry, as soon as he shall hear, he will answer thee. 20. And the Lord will give you spare bread, and short water: and he shall not cause thy teacher to flee away from thee any more, and thy eyes shall see thy teacher. 21. And thy ears shall hear the word of one admonishing thee behind thy back: This is the way, walk ye in it, and go not aside neither to the right hand nor to the left. 22. And thou shalt defile the plates of thy graven things of silver, and the garment of thy molten gold, and shalt cast them away as the uncleanness of a menstruous woman: Go out, thou shalt say to it. 23. And rain shall be given to thy seed, wheresoever thou shalt sow in the earth: and the bread of the corn of the land shall be most plentiful and fat: the lamb shall feed in thy possession in that day largely: 24. and thy oxen, and the colts of the asses that till the ground, shall eat mingled provender, as it was winnowed in the floor. 25. And there shall be upon every high mountain, and upon every elevated hill, rivers of running waters in the day of the slaughter of many, when the towers shall fall. 26. And the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day when the Lord shall bind up the wound of his people, and shall heal the stroke of their wound. 27. Behold the name of the Lord cometh from afar, his wrath is burning, and heavy to bear: his lips are filled with indignation, and his tongue is as a devouring fire. 28. His breath as a torrent overflowing even to the midst of the neck, to destroy the nations unto nothing, and the bridle of error that was in the jaws of the people. 29. You shall have a song as in the night of the sanctified solemnity, and joy of heart, as when one goeth with a pipe, to come into the mountain of the Lord, to the Mighty One of Israel. 30. And the Lord shall make the glory of his voice to be heard, and shall shew the terror of his arm, in the threatening of wrath, and in a flame of devouring fire: he will bruise them to pieces with a whirlwind and with hailstones. 31. For at the voice of the Lord the Assyrian shall fear, being struck with the rod. 32. And the passage of the rod shall be grounded, which the Lord shall make to rest upon him with timbrels and harps: and in great battles he shall overthrow them. 33. For Tophet is prepared from yesterday, prepared by the king, deep and wide. The pile thereof is fire and much wood: the breath of the Lord, as a torrent of brimstone kindling it.
1. WOE TO YOU, APOSTATE CHILDREN,—that is, to the Jews who, having forsaken and despised the counsel of God which they had received through Jeremias, that they should not flee the Chaldeans into Egypt, remained in their own country, followed their own will, and fled into Egypt.
AND WOULD BEGIN A WEB (that is, that you might begin this work of flight without my inspiring it, but against my protest), THAT YOU MIGHT ADD SIN UPON SIN,—namely, that you might heap new sins of disobedience, contempt and pride upon your former sin. By the word web he intimates that by this flight they weave for themselves a net and snare, in which they will be so entangled and enfolded that they cannot extricate themselves.
2. AND HAVE NOT ASKED AT MY MOUTH.—They had asked the mouth and will of the Lord, as is plain from Jeremias 42, but they were unwilling to follow it. It is therefore a metalepsis: “you have not asked” means that by asking you have not obeyed me, since it is the same thing to disregard advice as not to seek it. So he is said not to hear who does not obey, and not to know whom knowledge and understanding do not direct in acting rightly. So Sanchez.
IN THE SHADOW OF EGYPT.—The Septuagint reads, that you may be protected by the Egyptians; it is a metaphor from the shade of trees, which shelters travellers from the heat.
3. AND THE STRENGTH OF PHARAO SHALL BE YOUR CONFUSION.—For Nabuchodonosor pursued the Jews into Egypt, and there struck them down together with the Egyptians, Jeremias 43:15 and following.
4. FOR THY PRINCES WERE IN TAPHNIS.—Taphnis was the royal city of Pharao, where Moses wrought his wonders before him, Psalm 77:43. So Hanes, says St. Jerome, was the farthest city of Egypt, next to the Ethiopians and the Blemmyes. The Prophet signifies that the Jews had sent messengers ahead, that is, some of their princes, to Pharao, to ask of him leave and a place for all the Jews, fleeing the Chaldeans, to dwell in Egypt.