Commentaria in Isaiam
Chapter Thirty-two
Under the type of Ezechias, the best of kings, he describes the kingdom of Christ (for to him he flies as usual) and his commonwealth, namely the Church, most excellently constituted. So St. Thomas, Hugh, Lyranus, Vatablus and Sanchez; although St. Jerome, Procopius, Cyril and Adam take these things literally only of Christ, because some of the things said here are too august to suit Ezechias: but the Prophet mingles type with antitype, namely the kingdom of Ezechias with the kingdom of Christ; hence some things belong more to the one, some to the other, according to Canons 4 and 5. Second, in verse 9, he prophesies and describes the siege of Jerusalem by the Romans, and the desolation of the Jews, both temporal and spiritual: whom nevertheless, in verse 15, he consoles, in that to them, and more to the Gentiles, he will send the Holy Spirit, who will bring them justice and peace and abundant rest.
1. Behold, a king shall reign in justice, and princes shall rule in judgment.
2. And a man shall be as when one is hid from the wind, and hideth himself from a storm, as rivers of water in a dry place, and as the shadow of a rock that standeth out in a desert land.
3. The eyes of them that see shall not be dim, and the ears of them that hear shall hearken diligently.
4. And the heart of fools shall understand knowledge, and the tongue of the stammerers shall speak readily and plain.
5. The fool shall no more be called prince: neither shall the deceitful be called great.
6. For the fool will speak foolish things, and his heart will work iniquity, to practise hypocrisy, and to speak to the Lord deceitfully, and to make empty the soul of the hungry, and to take away drink from the thirsty.
7. The vessels of the deceitful are most wicked: for he hath framed devices to destroy the meek with lying words, when the poor man speaketh judgment.
8. But the prince shall devise such things as are worthy of a prince, and he shall stand above the rulers.
9. Rise up, you rich women, and hear my voice: you confident daughters, give ear to my speech.
10. For after days and a year, you that are confident shall be troubled: for the vintage is at an end, the gathering shall come no more.
11. Be astonished, you rich, be troubled, you confident ones: strip yourselves, and be confounded, gird your loins.
12. Mourn for the breasts, for the pleasant land, for the fruitful vineyard.
13. Upon the land of my people shall thorns and briers come up: how much more upon all the houses of joy of the city that rejoiceth?
14. For the house is forsaken, the multitude of the city is left: darkness and groping are come upon its dens for ever: the joy of wild asses, the pastures of flocks, 15. Until the spirit be poured upon us from on high: and the desert shall be as Carmel, and Carmel shall be counted as a forest. 16. And judgment shall dwell in the wilderness, and justice shall sit in Carmel. 17. And the work of justice shall be peace, and the service of justice quietness, and security for ever. 18. And my people shall sit in the beauty of peace, and in the tabernacles of confidence, and in wealthy rest. 19. But hail shall be in the descent of the forest, and the city shall be brought very low. 20. Blessed are you that sow upon all waters, sending thither the foot of the ox and the ass.
1. Behold, a king shall reign in justice—namely Ezechias, and his antitype Christ, whose princes are the Apostles; whereas before Ezechias the impious Achaz had reigned, who defiled the city and the temple with idols. This was in fact done after the slaughter of Sennacherib and after Ezechias’s cure: for then both king and people in full peace cherished piety and justice. The Septuagint says beautifully: princes shall rule with judgment, that is, shall command. Note: judgment is necessary to a prince; for want of it the people have often fared very badly even under good princes.
So we read of Nerva, under whom all things were allowed, so that the condition of many was worse under him than under Nero: because the slackness of one lax man was for many wicked men the cause of license.
2. And a man shall be as, etc.—as if to say: Each of the faithful shall be so safe under Ezechias, and more under Christ, as one who is hidden under a roof is safe from the wind; and as sailors hide in port and are protected from the tempest: nay, Ezechias and Christ shall be to them as a stream of waters in thirst, and as a shadow in the desert when the sun and heat burn. Learn here that a prince ought to be to the people, first, as a roof, to defend them from the wind and whirlwind of adversities; second, as a harbor, which receives ships from the storm and shuts them away; third, as a stream to the thirsty, for a prince ought to provide against famine and public want; fourth, as the shadow of a rock in the heat, under which the traveler lies hid in the desert, safe from the rays and burning of the sun. For tyrants and nobles often afflict the people, no less than a whirlwind a man, a tempest ships, thirst one parched, heat the traveler: he therefore who desires to be a king, not a tyrant, ought to protect the people from these. See what was said, chapter 4, verse 6. The Gentiles taught the same. Aristotle, Politics book 8, chapter 19, thus distinguishes the tyrant from the king: “The tyrant,” he says, “looks to and seeks his own advantage, the king that of his subjects.” Seneca, On Clemency: “Know, O prince, that the citizens have been handed over to you not for servitude but for guardianship; and that the commonwealth is not yours, but you the commonwealth’s.” Cicero, On the Republic, book 5: “For the ruler of the commonwealth,” he says, “the blessed life of the citizens is set before him, that it may be firm in resources, abounding in supplies, rich, ample in glory, honorable in virtue.” Hear Claudian to Honorius:
You bear the part of citizen and father; look to the good of all; let not your own losses or your own affairs move you, but the losses of the public.
Hence Seneca, in the Consolation to Polybius, infers that a prince ought to be ever watchful: “The watchfulness of that man,” he says, “defends the sleep of all, his labor the leisure of all, his industry the delights of all, his occupation the holiday of all. Therefore he will have his mind sometimes relaxed, never loosened”; and adds that this is the king’s part, this the support of the commonwealth: “The greatness of that prince,” he says, “is stable and well founded whom all know to be as much above themselves as on their behalf.” Hence again Cyrus in Xenophon, Cyropaedia book 7, held that “rule does not befit anyone unless he be better than those he rules.”
3. The eyes of them that see shall not be dim—he calls the Prophets seers, as if to say: Under Ezechias, and more under Christ, the morals of the people being changed for the better, the Prophets shall have clearer visions and revelations from God, and the people shall be more capable and docile to hear them. He sets this against what was said in chapter 29, verse 10, where he said that God for the sins of the Jews had closed their eyes and covered the Prophets; and against what was said in chapter 30, verse 9, where he said they would not hear the law of God. So we shall see it was done in Isaias, chapter 40 and following, where he prophesies so openly of Christ and of others that you think you are reading history, not prophecy.
4. And the heart of fools shall understand knowledge—The Jews were fools under Ezechias who believed false prophets; but these being excluded by Ezechias and true ones introduced, from them they understood the true knowledge of God and of what is to be done: and then God will loose the tongue of the stammerers, that is, of Isaias and the Prophets, who before preached as it were stammering, that is, timidly, hesitatingly, obscurely and imperfectly, that they may plainly, readily and swiftly set the oracles of God before the people. Under Christ, however, the Gentiles were fools, who foolishly served their idols and vices: these received the knowledge of God and of salvation from the Apostles, and then the tongue of the stammerers spoke plainly, when the Apostles, before rude and unfit, having received the Holy Spirit, received tongues of fire, by which they became eloquent and fervent to preach in the whole world, and teachers: for there are fools, and they teach foolish traditions, as follows, but the princes and teachers shall be the Apostles and apostolic men. So St. Jerome, Cyril and Leo Castrius.
Note here that in a king and ruler wisdom and prudence are above all required. For as prudence is “the eye of the soul,” as Aristotle testifies, so it is of a kingdom. Cicero said, book 5 On the Ends, “the art of living is prudence, as medicine is of health.” Another said better, “the art of ruling is prudence”; for, as Menander says: “Everything that is serves prudence.” And Sophocles, in the Antigone: “Prudence by far holds the first place in happiness.” But on the contrary, imprudence is unhappy, which “for the most part precipitates itself,” says Sallust to Caesar. The reason is that “no animal is more difficult, none needs to be handled with greater art,” than man, says Seneca, book 1 On Clemency. “Prudence, then, in a ruler is the one proper virtue,” says Aristotle, Politics 3; for more things are accomplished by counsels than by arms: “One wise mind overcomes very many hands,” says Euripides. And: “Many things that are hindered by nature are disentangled by counsel,” says Livy, book 40. Moreover it is no small part of the wisdom of princes to have wise counselors and follow them. For suppose a prince to be most wise: “If he does everything by his own opinion, I shall judge him proud rather than wise,” says Livy, book 44. So Alexander had Callisthenes, Scipio Panaetius and Polybius, Augustus Arius and Athenodorus, David Nathan, Joas Joiada, Cyrus Daniel, Artaxerxes Esdras and Nehemias; as ornaments and as supports of the kingdom. This the wise Ulysses wished in Homer, in the Odyssey, when he thus addresses Minerva, that is, prudence: