Commentaria in Isaiam
16. He shall dwell on high, the fortifications of rocks shall be his highness—as if to say: He shall dwell in a lofty place, like a rock, most strong and most fortified, namely in heaven, in Christ, who, as Cyril and Tertullian say, Against Marcion, book 4, chapter 11, is the rock upon which the Church is founded, “upon the mountains,” that is, upon the doctrine of the Apostles. Hence Vatablus for “his highness” renders, his asylum or refuge. Bread is given him, his waters are sure—that is, continually flowing, which never fail and deceive. The Chaldean renders, sufficient food is given him; as if to say: Nothing shall be lacking to the Blessed, such as food and drink, which in this life are most necessary to sustain life. It is a catachresis: for the Blessed properly need not food and drink, nor eat and drink; but God will feed, that is, preserve them without food, by himself, and by glory and glorious endowments for ever. Otherwise St. Cyril and Procopius: Bread, they say, is Christ, water is the sacrament of Baptism: these two will never fail in the Church. And Justin, Against Trypho: Bread, he says, is the Eucharist. But these are symbolic, not literal.
17. His eyes shall see the king in his beauty.—The Rabbis explain thus: The pious Jews will see King Ezechias exulting in glory, Sennacherib being slain. But this sense is thin, yet he alludes to it: for properly he treats of the Blessed, as is plain from what goes before and follows, as if to say: The Blessed shall see God, or rather Christ their king, now after the cross and death crowned with glory and honor: which vision will wondrously refresh them. For all these things Procopius, Justin Against Trypho, Prosper, On the Predictions, part 3, and Cyprian, book 2 Against the Jews, chapter 28, take best of the glory of the Blessed; although Tertullian, in the book Against the Jews, refers this to the glory and miracles of Christ while he lived here. See Canon 9.
They will look from afar from the empyrean heaven and look down upon the earth, as a point on which men walk like ants, and which among them is divided by iron and fire. Truly all who are there behold those vast machines of the heavens, with as many little eyes as there are bright shining stars, and above all look upon the most ample empyrean heaven, furnished with every kind of most beautiful and excellent things: whence, despising the smallness of the earth, they see and laugh at the labors and pursuits of men, how they catch flies, how they quarrel about goat’s wool, how for a point of earth to be cut into a thousand particles they contend even to the sword and death, and say:
O how narrow are the bounds of mortals! O how narrow the minds of mortals!
18. Thy heart shall meditate fear.—This is the conclusion of what precedes, as if to say: O Sion! or whoever thou art, if thou meditatest on what I have said of the everlasting burnings, of dwelling on high, and so on, and weighest these seriously, thou shalt surely conceive a wholesome fear both of that fire and of God the avenger. For “shall meditate” the Septuagint have a Greek word, that is, I think studiously and seriously, weigh, care for, exercise myself in the affection of the fear of God, by meditation on this fire to be stirred up in me.
Where is the learned?—as if to say: I have urged the meditation of fear; because without it all science, wisdom and meditation is vain and vanishing; for where are those great and famous scholars, skilled in the law, and teachers glorying in their empty knowledge? where are Lycurgus, Aristotle, Plato, Socrates, Cicero? where are Annas, Caiphas, the Scribes and Pharisees, some who lived before, some after Isaias? Surely they have vanished in their vanity and pride, and therefore will not see the king in his beauty, but will go to the devouring fire. St. Paul cites this place, 1 Corinthians 1:20. See what was said there.
Otherwise Pagninus and Vatablus render thus: Where is the scribe? where the weigher? where the counter of the towers? as if to say: The timid and politically wise Jews, who counseled surrender to the Assyrians, because counting and weighing the fortifications of Jerusalem and its citizens, they thought they could not resist: where are these? They fled to the Assyrians, and with them either perished, slain by the Angel, or fled in terror into Assyria.
19. A shameless people (the Plantin wrongly reads imprudent) thou shalt not see.—He returns to verse 17, as if after the parenthesis of verse 18; he returns, I say, to the heavenly Sion. But he alludes to the Assyrians, who were shameless, arrogant, and spoke to the Jews in a foreign tongue, as is plain in chapters 36 and 37, as if to say: These henceforth thou shalt not see, O Ezechias, O Jews! for God will take them away. But by this he wishes to signify what is done in heaven, as if to say: O heavenly Sion! O Blessed! you shall not see there shameless men, proud, barbarous, whom you cannot understand, destitute of wisdom, such as in this life you have often with sorrow experienced in the Assyrians and other men; for all the citizens of heaven will be kind, humble, affable, wise; with these will be your converse there, O how sweet! how pleasant! For from hell the Prophet has flown up to heaven, verse 16 and following. The same is plain from the following verse.
St. Jerome and Haymo also refer this, not ill, to the Church militant, as if to say: O faithful, O Christians! in the Church of Christ you shall not see, shall not heed, shall overcome, depress and confound the shameless Scribes, Pharisees, and the Philosophers and orators of the Gentiles, who seem to themselves wise and to know lofty things. For God will show through Christ and the Apostles that the worldly wisdom of these is foolish, and is folly, and they will demonstrate that true wisdom is placed in Christ crucified.
A people of profound speech.—In Hebrew, a people deep in speech to be understood, that is, whose speech is obscure, so that thou canst not understand “the eloquence of the tongue”: in Hebrew nilag, that is, lisping or stammering of tongue.
20. Look upon Sion (the word Sion can be accusative or vocative; hence what follows: “thine eyes”—O true Israelites, look) the city of our solemnity.—This city, first, with St. Jerome can be taken as the Church militant: it is called a city of solemnity, because to the Christian and just man every day is a holiday and a solemnity and a sabbath, since he serves and gives leisure to God alone.
Second, the perpetual firmness of the Church is signified, and its firm perpetuity, by the nails and cords, by which Theodoret in particular understands the Martyrs and Apostles, who by their death, giving to posterity an example of virtue, fix the body to earth, the soul to heaven, and make firm the Church, as ropes driven into the earth by pegs and drawn upward through the sides of a tent tighten and make it firm. Hence St. Augustine, on Psalm 103, explaining that verse: “Stretching out the heaven like a skin,” says: After the death of the dead Apostles the skin was stretched out, and heaven, that is, heavenly doctrine. For then their truth, virtue and holiness became known. “He stretched out the heaven like a skin, because doctrine was written on skins, and is stretched, and as a skin is stretched so is the word of the dead; for the Church is propagated by martyrdoms, and the blood of Martyrs is the seed of Christians,” says Tertullian.
Third, he signifies the gifts of the Church, when he says that God will be its stream, river and most abundant fountain.
Fourth, he signifies its defense, when he says that no ship or hostile trireme shall pass through it; because the Lord is its judge, that is, avenger, against the devil.
But St. Cyril, Procopius, Adam and others better refer these things generally to the heavenly Jerusalem; for he set it against hell, verse 16. Hence he says: Look at, or look up to, heaven, live mindful of heaven, live as a traveler tending to heaven; and therefore let thy life be heavenly, thy thought heavenly, that in all thy acts thou mayest look to heaven and breathe heavenly things. When therefore something arduous occurs, when temptation assails, when a heavier cross is laid on thee, look at the heavenly city; say: I will bear, I will suffer, I will overcome whatever is hard and rough: thus one goes to the stars.
He calls the triumphant Church, therefore, first, “the city of our solemnity”; because in heaven there will be perpetual solemnity, perpetual jubilee, perpetual praise and melody of God.
Second, he calls it “Jerusalem,” that is, vision of peace.
Third, “a rich habitation”; because it abounds in all beauty, grace, glory, and all wealth.
Fourth, “a tabernacle that cannot be removed,” that is, firm, stable, perpetual; whereas here our houses and palaces are temporary, and with time come to an end; for the nails and cords signify this by catachresis: for otherwise it is plain that these are not, nor will be, in heaven. He gives the reason: “Because only there is our Lord magnificent,” as if to say: There is one prince and king there, namely the Lord, whose all things are magnificent, who preserves and perpetuates all things under him in peace and concord, as well as in firmness and duration. Otherwise it is on earth, where many wish to be magnificent, many princes, and the more powerful or cunning overthrows the lesser, as all monarchies have been overthrown.