Commentaria in Isaiam
Chapter Thirty-one
Synopsis of the Chapter
To the ten tribes he threatens woe and destruction by the Assyrians, because they implored the help not of God but of the Egyptians. On the contrary, in verse 4, he commends the two tribes under Sennacherib who invoke God alone, and promises that God will protect them, as a lion his prey, and as a bird defends its nest with beak and claws. Hence in verse 6 he exhorts the ten tribes to return with the two to God: which if they do, they will find God their protector, as the two tribes have found, when God fighting for them struck down the camp of Sennacherib.
1. Woe to them that go down to Egypt for help, trusting in horses, and putting confidence in chariots, because they are many: and in horsemen, because they are very strong: and have not trusted in the Holy One of Israel, and have not sought after the Lord.
2. But he, that is wise, hath brought evil, and hath not removed his words: and he will rise up against the house of the wicked, and against the aid of them that work iniquity.
3. Egypt is man, and not God: and their horses flesh, and not spirit: and the Lord shall bow down his hand, and the helper shall fall, and he that is helped shall fall, and they shall all be confounded together.
4. For thus saith the Lord to me: As the lion roareth, and the lion’s whelp upon his prey, and when a multitude of shepherds shall come against him, he will not be afraid at their voice, nor be afraid of their multitude: so shall the Lord of hosts come down to fight upon mount Sion, and upon the hill thereof.
5. As birds flying, so will the Lord of hosts protect Jerusalem, protecting and delivering, passing over and saving.
6. Return as you had deeply revolted, O children of Israel.
7. For in that day a man shall cast away his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which your hands have made for you to sin.
8. And Assur shall fall by the sword not of a man, and the sword not of a man shall devour him: and he shall flee not from the face of the sword, and his young men shall be tributaries.
9. And his strength shall pass away for fear, and his princes flying shall be afraid: saith the Lord, whose fire is in Sion, and his furnace in Jerusalem.
1. Woe to them that go down into Egypt—first, Leo Castrius literally understands by Egypt the Romans, and explains all this of the destruction of the Jews by Titus. But this exposition is forced, and wrests many things elsewhere.
Second, St. Jerome, Cyril and Haymo refer this to the Jews who, Godolias having been slain, fearing the Chaldeans fled into Egypt.
Third, better, Adam, Sanchez and others refer this to Salmanasar and Sennacherib (for he is Assur, of whom verse 8); for then many Jews, fearing him, fled into Egypt. Thus the first part of the chapter regards the ten tribes, which because they implored the help not of God but of Egypt, were therefore overthrown by Salmanasar and carried off into Assyria; the latter part regards the two tribes, which, vexed by Sennacherib, besought the help of God, and so were saved. So Adam and Sanchez.
2. But he is wise, and hath brought (will bring: for it is a prophecy) evil—he calls God wise, setting him against the wisdom which the Egyptians foolishly arrogated to themselves, Isaias 19:11.
And hath not removed his words—that is, will not remove, will not recall, but will accomplish what he has threatened by his word. It is a meiosis or litotes, as if to say: God, who is most wise in his counsels, will bring evil on the Egyptians as well as on the Samaritans fleeing into Egypt, that is, disaster through Sennacherib; nor will he withdraw his threats against them, but will rise up a fierce avenger against the house, that is, against the ten tribes, who, despising God, fled for refuge to the golden calves and to the Egyptians.
And against the aid of them that work iniquity—that is, against the Egyptians, who help the ten tribes, and are wicked men and workers of iniquity. Others render, against the help of the makers of vanity. The Jews are called makers or artificers of vanity because they thought to fortify themselves with vain protection against the avenging hand of God, namely the unlawful help of the Egyptians. We are taught here that in adversities and dangers there is nothing better than, denying our own judgment, to submit ourselves wholly to God; because in all the anxious precaution with which unbelievers wear themselves out there is nothing firm; nay, the wrath of God is provoked by such fleshly artifices as if on purpose.
3. Egypt is man, and not God—“Egypt,” that is, the Egyptian; as if to say: The Egyptians are frail and feeble men; why then do you flee to them, and not rather to the immortal and most mighty God, against whom to fight is just as if flesh, that is, man, were to fight against spirit, that is, against the wind, or rather against an angel or a demon?
The Lord shall bow down his hand—namely to strike both the Egyptians who offer help and the ten tribes who expect help from them.
4. For thus saith the Lord—he proves by a contrary example that the Samaritans did ill in fleeing for refuge not to God but to the Egyptians: because, namely, the two tribes, invoking God alone, escaped unharmed from the enemy.
As the lion roareth—here he passes to Ezechias and the two tribes, who, pressed by Sennacherib, fled for refuge not to the Egyptians but to the Lord; and therefore God, like a most mighty lion fighting for his prey and food, protected them.
Procopius notes that a lion, when he preys, first by his roaring terrifies both the cattle and the keepers, then falls upon them and tears them in pieces; so God first roars, that is, threatens through the Prophets, then bruises, lacerates and destroys men obstinate in their sins.
5. As birds flying—God, the protector of Ezechias, he compared first to a lion, for strength, because he is able to protect his own. Second, here he compares him to a bird brooding her young, who wishes in every way to protect them from the hawk and the fowler, nay exposes her own life to danger for her young. In the lion, therefore, strength is noted; in birds, piety, clemency and diligence: the latter that he is willing, the former that he is able to preserve those who have committed themselves to the faith and protection of God.
Homer uses the same image, Iliad 18, 161:
As the shepherds who live in the fields cannot drive a tawny lion from a carcass when he is very hungry.
So Christ, Matthew 23, compares himself to a hen gathering her chicks under her wings. So St. Jerome.
Hence symbolically, Plato in the Phaedrus, says Castrius, asserts that lofty and divine men become winged and grow feathers, by which, like birds and eagles, they fly away to heaven.
6. Return as you had deeply revolted—the Hebrew more effectually: as you have deepened iniquity; as if to say: As you have profoundly turned from me, and gone down to your idols and crimes, so now seriously, from the depth and inmost heart, return to me. He addresses the ten tribes, that by the example of the two they may return to God; likewise some of the Jews of the two tribes, who under Achaz had turned aside with him to idols.
7. For in that day a man shall cast away his idols—these things hang together with the following verse and must be completed from it, as if to say: Return to God, O ten tribes! for so you will experience his help, as the two tribes will presently experience, when, all the idols having been cast away which some of them made in the time of Achaz, they shall with one mind and whole heart worship me and call upon me: for then I will deliver them, and will strike down Assur, that is, Sennacherib, who is attacking them.
8. And Assur shall fall by the sword not of a man—hence it is plain that the matter here is not the Chaldeans but Sennacherib: for he was the Assur who fell by a sword “not of a man,” but of an Angel, who in one night slew 185 thousand of his army. So St. Jerome. See here that the world is nothing else than a perpetual ruin of men of every kind and condition.
And his young men shall be tributaries—as if to say: The Assyrians, who were accustomed to impose tribute on others, shall be forced to pay the same both to the Chaldeans and to the Persians and Medes, and so on. In Hebrew it is, and his young men shall be for melting; that is, they shall fall in spirit and as it were melt. So Vatablus. Pagninus, they shall be dissolved; the Septuagint, they shall be conquered, the young men namely, who before were fervent, warlike and fierce. Our version renders best, they shall be tributaries: for the Hebrews call tribute by a word from the verb meaning to melt, because tributes melt the wealth of each, and gradually eat away and consume it.
9. And his strength shall pass away for fear—it shall pass away, vanish and fall at the terror of the Lord of the retiring camp; for all, shaken with dread, shall either be slain or flee as if lifeless, that is, from the forces of the Angels invading the Assyrians; and perhaps the Angels had standards, like soldiers, and were the battle lines of the Lord. The Chaldean renders, on account of the miracle, namely of so great a slaughter; our version reads, for min nes, “his princes being affrighted shall flee away: said the Lord,” Whose fire is in Sion, and his furnace in Jerusalem—it is strange that the Septuagint render: Blessed is he who has seed in Sion and household in Jerusalem. For Symmachus also renders, as our translator:
He has a fire in Sion and a furnace in Jerusalem; and Aquila and Theodotion: A light to him in Sion, and a furnace in Jerusalem. The sense is as if he said: God, for the Jews, will so lay waste and burn up the Assyrians; because on the altar, with perpetual fire, he is worshipped by them in Sion with sacrifices.
Second, because in the temple he dwells as a citizen, nay as the Lord of Jerusalem. Hence the Septuagint render: Blessed is God, who has seed in Sion and household in Jerusalem. Therefore he will protect this his city, nay his royal city, and like a fire going out from his temple and altar will rush upon the Assyrians his enemies, and like a devouring flame consume them as stubble and wood, says St. Jerome; see what was said on chapter 10.
Third, symbolically, Sanchez, as if to say: God will therefore have fire and thunderbolts to hurl at the enemies of his people; because among us fire burns always in the worship of God; we then furnish as it were arms to God, which he may use for us against our enemies, when by victims and prayers we conciliate him to us, and render him hostile to our enemies, and appease his wrath: as on the contrary by our sins we arm the fury of God against us, stirring him up, and treasuring up to ourselves wrath, as Paul says, Romans 2:5.
Let princes, magistrates and citizens note this, and learn not to reject churches and monasteries, nor to set the houses of citizens before them, as if these enlarged the city: for those who have temples and altars in their streets and squares have God dwelling in them as neighbor and household member, nay as governor and protector, who like fire will defend them, “whose fire is in Sion, and his furnace in Jerusalem.” We know how Egypt flourished in temporal and spiritual things alike when there dwelt Anthonys, Macarii, Pambos and the like, nay Oxyrhynchus and other cities were almost wholly inhabited by monks, so that there were as many monasteries as houses, and as many monks, nay more, than citizens. The Gentiles also saw the same, who accordingly in all their cities and assemblies had temples, that they might have the gods as neighbors, nay as inhabitants and governors. Hear Plutarch, in the book Against Colotes, near the end: “If you go over the earth, you may find cities lacking walls, letters, kings, houses, wealth and coinage, and ignorant of gymnasia and theaters: but a city lacking temples and gods, which uses no prayers, oath or oracle, does not sacrifice for good things, and does not strive to avert evils by sacred rites, no one ever saw. But I think a city could be founded without ground more easily than a commonwealth could be formed or stand if belief in the gods were wholly taken away. Moreover, that which holds together all society (namely the religion, fear and worship of the divine) is the foundation of all laws.” Aristotle said, in the Rhetoric to Alexander: “The gods are more inclined to those who most worship them.” Cicero dared to boast, in the oration On the Response of the Haruspices, that the Romans “surpassed all nations not by cunning or strength, but by piety and religion.” Prudently, therefore, Maecenas advised Augustus, in Dio Cassius, book 52: “Worship that divinity in every way, at all times, yourself according to the ancestral laws; and bring it about that others worship.” For, as Diogenes says in Stobaeus, “it is fitting that what is best be worshipped by the best, and what commands, by him who commands.” And Justin, book 8: “Rightly is he held next to the gods through whom the majesty of the gods is vindicated.”
Why God is represented by fire, and appeared in fire, I said on Exodus 24:17, Deuteronomy 4:15, and Hebrews 12:29. Mystically, here “fire” is charity, by which God is chiefly worshipped in the Church. For in this, and in the Holy Spirit its author, God resides and rests in the mystic Jerusalem and temple; that is, in the Church and its Saints. Hence St. Gregory, homily 24 on Ezechiel: “From the love of the Lord,” he says, “comes fire in Sion, a furnace in Jerusalem: because here we burn somewhat with the flames of his love, where we contemplate something of him; but there we shall burn fully, where we shall fully see him whom we love.” For by Sion he understands the Church militant, by Jerusalem the triumphant; and it is more to be a furnace (for in it the flame is greater) than a fire. St. Jerome by fire understands the illumination and judgment of God, by which he enlightens the just, and blinds and consumes sinners, of which Daniel 7:9.