Commentaria in Isaiam
Chapter Thirty-three
He threatens destruction to Sennacherib, the enemy of the people of God, and teaches that he, besieging Jerusalem and in sure hope devouring it, is to be crushed by an Angel. Allegorically, Sennacherib was the pattern of tyrants and of all enemies of the Church, who have been punished by God with a terrible disaster and death. So Hugh, Adam, Forerius and others. Second, in verse 14, from the burning of the Assyrians he rises to the devouring fire of Gehenna, and all sinners: he rouses them, that by thinking of it they may avoid sins and follow virtues. Then, third, in verse 16, he flies to the heavenly Sion, and sets its beauty and glory graphically before our eyes. Finally, in verse 23, he returns to Jerusalem, and to the lame carrying off the spoils of the Assyrians.
1. Woe to thee that spoilest, shalt not thou thyself also be spoiled? and thou that despisest, shalt not thou thyself also be despised? when thou shalt have made an end of spoiling, thou shalt be spoiled: when being wearied thou shalt cease to despise, thou shalt be despised.
2. O Lord, have mercy on us: for we have waited for thee: be thou our arm in the morning, and our salvation in the time of trouble.
3. At the voice of the angel the people fled, and at the lifting up of thyself the nations are scattered.
4. And your spoils shall be gathered together as the locusts are gathered, as when the ditches are full of them.
5. The Lord is magnified, for he hath dwelt on high: he hath filled Sion with judgment and justice.
6. And there shall be faith in thy times: wealth of salvation, wisdom and knowledge: the fear of the Lord is his treasure.
7. Behold they that see shall cry without, the angels of peace shall weep bitterly.
8. The ways are made desolate, the man that went by the paths hath ceased: he hath made void the covenant, he hath rejected the cities, he hath not regarded men.
9. The land hath mourned and languished: Libanus is confounded and become dull: and Saron is become as a desert: and Basan and Carmel are shaken.
10. Now will I rise up, saith the Lord: now will I be exalted, now will I lift up myself.
11. You shall conceive heat, you shall bring forth stubble: your spirit as fire shall devour you.
12. And the people shall be as ashes after a fire, as a bundle of thorns they shall be burnt with fire.
13. Hear, you that are far off, what I have done: and you that are near, know my strength.
14. The sinners in Sion are afraid, trembling hath seized upon the hypocrites. Which of you can dwell with devouring fire? which of you shall dwell with everlasting burnings?
15. He that walketh in justices, and speaketh truth, that casteth away avarice by oppression, and shaketh his hands from all bribes, that stoppeth his ears lest he hear blood, and shutteth his eyes that he may see no evil.
16. He shall dwell on high, the fortifications of rocks shall be his highness: bread is given him, his waters are sure. 17. His eyes shall see the king in his beauty, they shall see the land afar off. 18. Thy heart shall meditate fear: where is the learned? where is he that pondereth the words of the law? where is the teacher of little ones? 19. The shameless people thou shalt not see, a people of profound speech, so that thou canst not understand the eloquence of his tongue, in whom there is no wisdom. 20. Look upon Sion the city of our solemnity: thy eyes shall see Jerusalem, a rich habitation, a tabernacle that cannot be removed: neither shall the nails thereof be taken away for ever, neither shall any of the cords thereof be broken. 21. Because only there our Lord is magnificent: a place of rivers, most broad and spacious streams: no ship with oars shall pass by it, neither shall the great galley pass through it. 22. For the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our king: he will save us. 23. Thy tacklings are loosed, they shall not be of strength: thy mast shall be so that thou canst not spread the sail: then shall the spoils of many prey be divided: the lame shall take the spoil. 24. Neither shall the neighbor say: I am weak: the people that dwell therein shall have their iniquity taken away from them.
1. Woe to thee that spoilest.—You who have plundered Judea, and now threaten Jerusalem; for there in turn you will be plundered, not actively but passively, that is, you will be despoiled, and plundered by the Jews: woe to thee, proud one, who, insolent with victories, despisest both the Jews and the God of the Jews! They in turn will spurn and despise thee, when thy camp is suddenly cut down by an Angel and as it were blown away; nay thy sons will despise thee, when they see thee stripped of thy camp and a fugitive, and will kill thee.
Allegorically, Sennacherib was a type, first, of the devil, whom Christ despoiled, says St. Jerome; second, of the persecutors of the Church, as if to say: He who despises you, persecutes and plunders you, O Apostles, O Church, does not despise you but me, and him who sent me, and therefore he too will be plundered and torn in pieces by me. So St. Jerome, Cyril, Theodoret, Procopius.
Woe therefore to thee, who slayest Paul and many of the faithful, who first stirrest up persecution against Christians; thou shalt be declared an enemy by the senate and by the Roman people, who will conspire for thy death, and drive thee to bring about thy death by thy own hand.
Woe to thee, O Domitian! thou vexest and slayest Christians; and with thee the stock of the Flavians shall end.
Woe to thee, O Aurelian, who supplantest Christians! thou shalt be captured by the king of the Persians, and shalt serve him, and, when he mounts his horse, thou shalt offer him thy back as a footstool.
Woe to thee, O Decius! thou burnest Laurences, thou slayest Christians: thou also shalt be slain by the enemy in an infamous disaster.
Woe to you, O Maximian, O Diocletian, O Maxentius! a Christian shall drive you to death, to the halter.
Woe to thee, O Julian, who declarest war on Christ, and despisest him as a Galilean! The hour shall come in which he himself from heaven, piercing thee, shall force thee to exclaim: “Thou hast conquered, O Galilean!”
Woe to thee, O Valens the Arian, who persecutest the faithful; and they will burn thee as thou liest hid in a cottage.
2. O Lord, have mercy on us.—This is the prayer of Isaias (which he inserts in passing, as by a parenthesis, out of feeling) to God, that he would have mercy on Jerusalem besieged by Sennacherib, and succor it.
For we have waited for thee—in thee we have placed all our hope, not in idols, not in the help of neighboring kings; from thee alone we have waited and do wait for help and deliverance.
Be thou our arm in the morning.—The Hebrew has labbekarim, that is, in the mornings, in every morning, that is, every day; as if to say: With thy strength, as with an arm, defend us daily, from earliest morning to evening, against the constant and daily insults of enemies. So “morning” is taken in Psalm 72:14: “And I have been scourged all the day, and my chastisement hath been in the mornings” (in Hebrew, every morning and early); and Psalm 100:8: “In the morning I put to death all the wicked of the land.”
The Interlinear Gloss explains “in the morning” as in prosperity: for there follows, “and our salvation in the time of trouble”: for we are tempted and assailed as much in prosperity by pride as in adversity by distrust and despair, and therefore in both we need the help and aid of God. Rightly did Ausonius say in the sentence of Periander:
If fortune favors, beware of being lifted up; if fortune thunders, beware of being submerged.
3. At the voice of the Angel (in Hebrew, at the noise and tumult which was made in the camp, the Angel smiting 185 thousand Assyrians) the people fled.—It could be rendered, second, at the voice of the multitude (for the Hebrew hamon signifies this) the peoples fled: for it is likely that with the Angel leader, who smote the Assyrians, more Angels came, as soldiers and cohorts of God. After the parenthesis he returns to the slaughter of Sennacherib.
And at the lifting up of thyself (that is, by thy sublime power, with which, lifting as it were thy hand, thou wilt inflict so mighty a blow and stroke on the Assyrians) the nations are scattered (that is, shall be scattered)—namely those serving in the camp of Sennacherib.