Commentaria in Isaiam
The lamb shall feed at large—this was done literally under Ezechias and Esdras, symbolically under Christ. For the lambs are the meek and innocent who follow Christ the Lamb; the bulls are the Apostles and Evangelists, who till the field of the Church; the colts of asses are the sons of the Gentiles, who in the Church are plentifully fed with spiritual food.
24. They shall eat mingled provender, as it was winnowed in the floor—that is, pure, without chaff; for these are winnowed away in the floor: migma, or smigma in Greek, is the same as the Hebrew belil, and the Latin mixtio, from the root balal, I mix. Now a mixture is the same as fodder, just as “mixed” signifies drink or wine, Psalm 74: “Full of pure wine with mixture.” For as in wine, even pure, many grapes, many drops, many liquors are mingled, so in the fodder of beasts many grains or many stalks of straw are mingled. This fodder is therefore a mixture, or mixed.
For “mingled” the Hebrew has chamets, that is, fermented, that is, seasoned with sourness; for farmers are accustomed to add something to the fodder of their beasts, though pure, in summer when it grows flat (for example cakes made of the husks of turnip seeds, from which by pounding they have drawn oil), to sharpen it and by its sourness stir the languid appetite, as leaven does in bread. Second, it is called mingled because, although it is winnowed, and without chaff, yet the migma is mingled with it, that is, a mixture of various kinds of grain (as vetch, lentils, oats, barley, and so on), a medley or farrago, says St. Jerome; for this by its variety is pleasing to the palate and removes disgust.
Symbolically, first, Christ gives the faithful migma, that is, doctrine drawn from both Testaments, and mingled from Moses, the Prophets and the Apostles. So St. Jerome, Cyril, Procopius and Leo Castrius.
Second, Christ gives migma, that is, himself in the Eucharist, says Castrius. Why is this called migma? First, because it is mingled of the Godhead, and of the body and blood of Christ, and of the species of bread and wine. Second, because these species are made of various grains and mingled together. Third, because the Eucharist signifies and effects a wonderful commingling: for through it we are really mingled with the flesh of Christ, with God, and with the whole Blessed Trinity. Hence St. Cyril says that through it we are united to Christ and God, as melted wax is mixed and united with other wax, and therefore through it we become of one body and one blood with Christ, nay Christ-bearers. Again, through it spiritually, namely by the union of charity, we are mingled with Angels and other men. For this is the migma of Angels and of men, or the food common to both. See St. Bernard, sermon 3 on the Vigil of the Nativity of Christ, on the threefold mixture which was made in the incarnation: for this is set before us to taste in the Eucharist, namely, first, of God and man; second, of virgin and mother; third, of faith and the human heart. In the same, sermon 2 On the Nativity, see also another threefold mixture: first, of creation; second, of redemption; third, of glorification.
Leo Castrius notes that some Hebrews derive the Hebrew belil, that is, migma, from beli, that is, not, and lo, that is, to himself, as if to say fodder not for himself, that is, not his own; as if to say: The faithful shall eat the migma of the Eucharist, namely food not their own, but of the Angels: “Man did eat the bread of angels.” But this etymology is too subtle and far-fetched; for it is agreed that belil is derived not from beli and lo but from balal, that is, to mix; hence belil is a mixture, migma. The Eucharist is rather called migma because Christ, who before had been only the food of Angels, now mingled with flesh, has been made in it also the food of men, and in it mingles men with God and the Angels, as I have said.
25. And upon every high hill, rivers of running waters—as if to say: Under Ezechias, as under Esdras, there shall be rivers of water, whether of rain or of a fountain springing up in the mountains, which shall make fruitful the very mountains and hills; as if to say: Great will be the fertility from abundance of waters “in the day of the slaughter of many,” when 185 thousand Assyrians shall be slain; “when the towers shall fall,” both the towers of the walls and palaces of Babylon, and the towers, that is, the princes, who stood out among the people as towers in a house. So St. Thomas, Hugh, Forerius and Sanchez.
Second, and more truly, rivers, nay floods, flowed everywhere freely through Christ, when the tyrants and enemies of the faith were slain or laid low under Constantine. Then the towers fell, that is, the Gentile emperors and princes, and all the wisdom of the Gentiles, though most lofty, was cast down, and the whole world bowed its neck to Christ. So St. Cyril, Jerome, Haymo, Procopius, and the author of the Questions on the New and Old Testament in St. Augustine, volume 4, Question 105.
The same will be more truly so at the end of the world; for then rivers of glory will run down upon the elect, when the wicked shall be slain, and all the towers, walls and cities shall fall, as will appear more fully in the following verse.
26. And the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun—first, Vatablus, Sanchez, Hugh, Forerius and the Rabbis explain it thus: for the Jews delivered from Sennacherib, and likewise those returning from Babylon under Esdras, there shall be the greatest light, that is, gladness; they shall so rejoice that the moon and sun shall seem to them to shine sevenfold more than before, and this when God shall have healed the wound inflicted by the Assyrians and Chaldeans, and restored what was torn down or destroyed by them. So of the Jews delivered from the destruction of Aman through Esther, chapter 11, verse 11, it is said: “The light and the sun rose upon them”; and chapter 8, verse 16: “But to the Jews a new light seemed to rise.” This sense is colder and thinner; yet the Prophet alludes to it, as I have said.
Second, St. Cyril, Procopius and the author cited in St. Augustine, Question 105, explain, as if to say: After the cross the intelligible sun shall rise sevenfold, that is, shall shine upon the Church with much, as it were immense, light; and the moon, that is, the Apostles and other preachers, shall shine before it as if they were suns. This is what Isaias says, chapter 9: “To them that dwelt in the region of the shadow of death, light is risen.”
Third, and best, St. Jerome, Haymo, Adam, Lyranus and Dionysius refer this to the day of judgment and to the resurrection; for thither the Prophet flies. For then cities and towers shall fall, then the moon renewed and glorified shall shine as the sun, and the sun shall be sevenfold, that is, far brighter than usual; and this that the sun and moon may receive the rewards of their course and labor. Hence there shall then be a new heaven and a new earth. So St. Jerome, Lyranus and the Gloss; which however falsely adds that the light of the sun and moon is to be increased because it was diminished by sin.
Moreover, the sun and the heavens will receive this light not from the splendor of the bodies of the Blessed, as Richard holds, on the Fourth Book, distinction 18, article 2, reply to 5, but immediately from God; first, that so the majesty of God may shine forth in the heavens; second, for the greater joy and glory of the Blessed, and that between the place and what is placed in it, that is, between the heaven and the glorious bodies of the Blessed, there may be a fitting and congruous proportion; third, that the sun and moon, set opposite each other, may separately, yet clearly and gloriously, illuminate each whole hemisphere for ever; for then there will be no more motion of sun, moon or heavens.
Mystically, the author in St. Augustine, Question 105: In heaven, he says, the just shall shine as the sun, above all those who, leaving all the things of the world, have followed Christ. These, as illustrious in justice and holiness, are rightly compared to the sun and moon; for in heaven they will be sevenfold brighter than the rest; for they will be like Christ, John 3:2, so that their resurrection is rightly likened to the sun and moon, but that of the rest to the stars, 1 Corinthians 15.
As the light of seven days—that is, as the sun shone in the first seven days of the world, before Adam sinned. So St. Jerome, Haymo and the Gloss: for they think that in the first seven days of the world the sun had a brighter light than it now has, but that it was diminished because of Adam’s sin. But against this stands the fact that the sun and moon were created on the fourth day of the world, and Adam on the sixth, on which he also sinned, as the Fathers commonly teach; therefore before his sin the sun could not shine seven days, but only three.
Second, therefore, and genuinely, as if to say: The light of the sun shall be sevenfold greater; hence Vatablus renders, it shall be as great as the light of seven days.