Commentaria in Isaiam
Yet I, if you stand by me thus, would dare to fight even against three hundred men, O goddess, with you as my companion and helper.
5. The fool shall no more be called prince.—He does not speak of the proud Sennacherib, as St. Thomas holds, but rather, with Hugh, of Achaz and other impious princes, who being fraudulent appointed fraudulent princes and magistrates of the people, to whom there had now succeeded a pious and wise king, Ezechias, who, impious and foolish princes and teachers being driven out, put in their place men like himself. Again, antitypically, he speaks of the time of Christ, as if to say: Under Christ the blind, avaricious and fraudulent Pharisees and Scribes will no longer be held princes.
Second, others refer this to Achaz, who foolishly led the people to idols, and so was the author to them of famine, want and other evils. Hence the Chaldean renders, the impious shall speak impiety.
But, as I said, these look to the times of Ezechias and Christ, as if to say: The foolish and the fraudulent shall not be princes and teachers in the time of Ezechias and Christ, as they were in the time of Achaz, Manasses and other impious kings: because then it will be evident through the true Prophets and Apostles that they speak foolish things, do iniquity, are hypocrites, speak to the Lord, that is, of the Lord (for so the Hebrew lamed, that is, to, is often taken for min, that is, of, as appears Hebrews 1:7 and 4:13) deceitfully, because, namely, they honor him with their lips, but their heart is far from him: and then it will appear that they have not satisfied with their doctrine the souls hungering and thirsting for truth. This is clear of the Pharisees in the time of Christ, both in temporal matters (for when they bade children say “corban” to a needy father, what else did they do but compel the father to hunger and thirst?) and in spiritual: for they turned the true and spiritual worship of God into empty washings and silly ceremonies. The same is clear in the oracles of the Gentiles, which then became dumb, and in the teachings of the Philosophers: for these all, like fools, were conquered and laid low by the wisdom of Christ and the Apostles, as the Apostle teaches, 1 Corinthians 1 and 3; wherefore the Apostles refreshed the souls hungering and thirsting for God with the accustomed food and drink of piety; and therefore the faithful, leaving the former, fled for refuge to them and to the Gospel. So St. Jerome, Cyril and Procopius.
Note: A thing is said to be done, or to have been done, when it is declared to be done or to have been done, according to Canon 29. Hence Vatablus renders sordid, that is, avaricious, where our translator rightly renders “fraudulent.” So Arias.
6. For the fool will speak foolish things.—St. Thomas by the fool understands Sennacherib, whose speech to the Jews was foolish, blasphemous and deceitful, promising the Jews grain and many other things, to bend them to surrender, which he was not about to perform, but would leave the people hungry and thirsty.
7. The vessels of the deceitful (that is, their instruments) are most wicked.—For, as follows, he himself plots and contrives how he may destroy the meek and poor who have a just cause, by lying and calumny; as if to say: Such judges therefore and magistrates, who crept in under Achaz, Ezechias will remove, and in place of the fraudulent will appoint faithful and sincere men. So in the time of Christ the vessels, that is, the instruments, of the deceitful Pharisees were most wicked: for they plotted by their wiles and calumnies, through friends and money, to destroy Christ and Christians, when the meek and poor Apostles were speaking judgment, that is, the most just and equitable things.
Kelai, that is, the avaricious, says Vatablus, who give nothing but seize much and shut it up in a chest (for the root kala signifies to shut up, to enclose), such as fraudulent men are wont to be: for those who wish to grow rich by every means, do so by right and wrong; whereas the liberal prince will bestow his favors liberally, and become renowned by it. For prince in Hebrew is called nadib, that is, liberal, in Greek euergetes, that is, benefactor, Luke 22:25. For liberality and beneficence is the virtue worthy of a prince and proper to him: for this is the sign of a wide, great and kingly mind. Wherefore Philo, to the Emperor Caius: “Those, O Emperor, are rather to be loved by you who humbly asking wish benefits to be bestowed on them by you, than those who are eager to offer you gifts. To the former you owe a recompense, the latter make God your debtor, who counts as his own what you have bestowed on them, and will repay with the best gifts the purpose of your humanity and kindness.” The emperor Alexander Severus was so beneficent to all that he invited even those who had deserved nothing from him to ask, and would say: “Why do you ask nothing? Do you wish me to become your debtor? Ask, lest as a private person you complain of me”: he acknowledged that beneficence especially befits princes. So Lampridius in his Life. The same, when asked who seemed to him the best king, answered: “He who keeps his friends by gifts and conciliates his enemies by benefits.” So Maximus relates, sermon 9 On Magistrates.
Alphonsus, king of Aragon, hearing that some were ungrateful for the benefits received from him, said: “These shall never prevent me from being both humane and beneficent.” So Panormitanus. The same: “To barking and rebellious dogs a morsel must be thrown,” as if to say: The ill-willed are to be conquered and bound by benefits.
Louis XI, king of the Gauls, was liberal toward men, especially holy men; asked the reason, he said: “Because I trust that by their prayers a long life can be obtained for me.”
To this looks the golden saying of Pacatus in the Panegyric of Theodosius: “I should believe,” he says, “that there is no greater happiness of princes than to have made men happy, and to have come between them and want, and to have conquered fortune, and to have given a man a new fate.” He adds the reason: “For since all things revolve within themselves, and as Ocean, which encircles all, receives from the lands the waters it supplies to them, so whatever flows from the prince to the citizens flows back upon the prince; and a munificent Emperor takes good counsel for his reputation and fame as well as his fortune. For he gains glory when he gives money that is to return.”
8. But the prince shall devise such things as are worthy of a prince, as if to say: Ezechias will give the idea of the best prince, and therefore will keep watch vigilantly to administer the commonwealth wisely, to direct leaders and magistrates rightly, and to think and carry out whatever is worthy of a good prince, as a living image of God on earth, representing God to his subjects, and a kind of earthly god.
Again, Christ, as another Ezechias, the Prince of princes, will wisely rule the Church by himself and by the Apostles, as his leaders, and will preside over them and do things worthy of a Prince.
Symmachus renders, the prince shall appoint principalities, and over the principalities he shall stand; as if to say: Christ the king shall appoint principalities, that is, apostolates and episcopates, in the Church, and will make the Apostles and their successors his leaders, and himself, like a hierarch and king, will preside over them. So St. Jerome, Procopius, Castrius.
The Hebrew nedib nedibot means, as Vatablus renders, the liberal prince deviseth liberal things, and by liberal deeds riseth illustrious; as if to say: Christ the Prince, according to the name of prince, is liberal, not stingy but magnificent: because the sordid will speak sordid things, and so on; as if to say: In the time of Christ there will be room for truth, not for pretense: then every vice as well as every virtue will be declared and made plain, and virtue will have its praise, vice its infamy; whereas before, false prophets called good evil and evil good, as I said more fully on Isaias 5. Let Christians, Monks and Prelates, who are called Faithful, Holy, Beneficent, Religious, Venerable, Most Reverend, and the like, see to it that they show themselves in works such as they are called, lest they bear an empty and painted name and title. Moreover “the fool will speak foolish things” is a proverb, which Euripides also uses in the Bacchae, “the fool speaks folly”; and Seneca to Lucilius: “Men’s speech was such as their life”; and Democritus: “Speech,” he says, “is the image of life.” As bronze vessels are known by their ring, so men by their speech; for speech is the mirror of the soul and mind.
9. Rise up, you rich women.—Here is a new prophecy, spoken at another time (for the order of time was not observed in arranging the writings of the Prophets), and a sad one, either of the destruction of the ten tribes by Salmanasar, as Sanchez holds; or rather, as St. Jerome, of the destruction of the two tribes by Titus and the Romans: for it will appear that this regards the times of Christ, verse 16 and following. Moreover by women St. Thomas understands the Jews, weak and soft and womanish; the Chaldean understands the Jewish cities. Most simply you may take by women rich women, confident in their wealth and proud: for against them here, as in chapter 3, he threatens destruction, and calls them to lamentation.
10. For after days and a year you shall be troubled—that is, after a short time determined by me, but which I will not definitely explain to you, and so I say: “After days and a year, you shall be troubled,” and shall be cut off by the Romans. So Hugh and Adam.