Commentaria in Isaiam
Secondly, the lamiae may here be taken for witches and sorceresses, who poison and kill children; for they are wont to hold their assemblies in these deserts. See our Delrio in his Magical Disquisitions. Thirdly, Dionysius Chrysostom in his Libyan History teaches that lamiae are wild beasts, with the face and body of a woman down to the navel, and the lowest part ending in a dragon; that with their breasts and hissing they allure men, and seize, kill and devour those who approach. However it may be, that lamiae are not only women but also beasts, either these, or of the kind of apes, as Gesner will have it, or others, whether real or only popularly believed, is plain from Lamentations 4:3: “Even the sea monsters have drawn out the breast”; where for the sea monster the Hebrew has tannin, that is, a dragon, or any fierce and monstrous creature that nurses its young. So Lyranus, the Gloss, Haymo and St. Jerome there, as if Jeremias said: Even with the most savage beasts, such as history, fable or the common people say the ravenous lamiae are, maternal affection toward their young is not lacking; but that was lacking in the women of Jerusalem, who in their hunger devoured even their own children. So here Isaias says, as it were: This world and place after the judgment shall be so desolate that it shall be only the dwelling of beasts, demons, spectres and phantoms, or whatever else may be, which antiquity fabulously believed to be of wondrous shape, and named onocentaurs, fauns and lamiae: indeed the damned alone and the demons, now as onocentaurs, now as lamiae, now as hedgehogs, now as kites, now taking the form of a dragon (to terrify men, especially the damned, as they sought to terrify St. Anthony and other Saints with a like form), shall dwell in the land, that is, in hell, which is the lowest and hollow part of the earth: for the convex and outermost surface shall be altogether desert and empty, of men as of animals and demons. As the Saints, then, shall rejoice not only in the soul by seeing God, but also in the body by seeing the glorious humanity of Christ, so also the damned shall be tormented not only in the soul, by seeing so many torments, but also in the body, by seeing the dreadful spectres of the demons. For both the eyes of the body and of the mind have either sinned or lived holily; it is fitting therefore that each have its own punishment or reward. Hence painters depict these monstrous demons clothed in the masks of beasts, in hell, in a horrible form. Among others our John de Salas teaches this plainly, on the third part, Question 5, article 5, tract 2, disputation 14, section 14, number 113, and confirms it from Wisdom 17:4, where of the Egyptians in the plague of darkness it says: “Sorrowful visions appeared to them, and struck them with fear”; for these were a type and foreshadowing of this, as Job says: “They shall go and come upon him, horrible”; and Deuteronomy 32:24: “I will send the teeth of beasts upon them, with the fury of creatures that trail upon the ground, and of serpents.” In like manner it is probable that the Angels in heaven will assume beautiful bodies from the ether, with which to feed the eyes of the Blessed, so that they may be seen by them, and speak with them mouth to mouth. For this seems required by the friendship, and the closest union and communion, which shall be between Angels and blessed men, as fellow citizens of heaven. Again, this seems to be the reward of the mortification of the senses, and of the angelic life which the Saints led in this life in the hope of enjoying the company of the Angels in heaven: for otherwise the senses of the Blessed would receive no joy from the Angels, and indeed would have nothing in common with them; so that between Angels and Blessed there would be communion only in mind, not in body. Thirdly, because the Angels desire to praise God in every way: therefore they will praise him not only with the mind, but also with an assumed body and mouth (for this they can assume); just as we praise God not only with the voice, but also with organs and other musical instruments. Fourthly, because Isaias, in chapter 6, saw Seraphim in the shape of men in heaven; in like shape Ezechiel saw Cherubim, chapter 1, and St. John the Angels, throughout the Apocalypse. Finally, Angels have often been seen in human form carrying the holy souls of the departed into heaven, and have been heard to sing to God a sensible melody and most sweet hymns. So plainly teach Salas in the place cited, and St. Anselm in the Elucidarium, and Viguerius, chapter 16, section 4, verse 36. And our Lessius, book 13 On the Divine Attributes, chapter 22, number 32, treating of the day of the last judgment, says: “It is very credible that all the Angels will appear in resplendent bodies; otherwise this glory and power of Christ could not be seen by the wicked, for whose sake chiefly it will be displayed; nor would that army increase his external majesty (which Scripture wishes to describe). Since, then, the multitude of the Angels is innumerable, they will fill far and wide the highest regions of the air, on every side for many thousands of miles up to the heavens themselves, and will present the appearance of immense armies”; and number 134: “It is very credible that the demons also will appear in bodies: either because otherwise they could not be seen by the wicked, or because it pertains to the glory of Christ and the confusion of the wicked that they be seen.” Of these Virgil sings, book 6 of the Aeneid:
Centaurs stable in the doorways, and the two-formed Scyllas, and hundred-handed Briareus, and the beast of Lerna Hissing horribly, and the Chimaera armed with flames, Gorgons and Harpies, and the shade of the three-bodied form.
Other poets have similar things.
Symbolically, Leo Castrius, from St. Basil, Athanasius, Theodoret, Ambrose and Gregory, takes the onocentaurs, fauns and lamiae to mean vices and sins: for these are the greatest monsters and spectres, by which man degenerates into a beast, indeed into a demon; or at least, he says, there are understood the demons themselves, who suggest monstrous crimes, or the wicked men who commit them, whose dwelling shall be Judea, indeed the whole earth at the end of the world, when the just have departed to heaven.
16. Seek diligently in the book of the Lord.—That is, review, supply, the evils here set down, or rather the animals or monsters already mentioned, as if to say: When the desolation of Idumea comes, which I have described in this book and chapter, seek out from this prophecy whether the evils and punishments, or rather the animals, set down and recorded here, are present and dwell there; you will find all of them, and not one lacking, as if to say: You will see that I foretold most truly and most exactly the destruction of Idumea; for these things properly regard the desolation of Idumea, under which he understands the whole world and the company of the wicked, in which, on the day of judgment, before its full destruction, these same things will come to pass.
The book of the Lord he calls this prophecy of Isaias, dedicated by God. So St. Thomas, Hugh and Lyranus. Others understand the prophecy of Amos, chapter 1, and of David, Psalm 136, and of Balaam, Numbers 24:18, who foretold this destruction of Idumea.
None of them shall want her mate.—That is: Not one of these monsters or punishments shall be wanting, for God has diligently gathered all these things together.
17. And he himself hath cast the lot for them (the animals or monsters).
And his hand hath divided it to them by line.—That is: God has divided Idumea among the animals and monsters just mentioned, and has given each his own lot, place and measure, as though they were to be its proper and perpetual inhabitants. By this phrase, then, he signifies that the desolation of Idumea shall be lasting. Hence he adds: “Even for ever.” See what was said on verse 10.
Mystically, St. Jerome, Cyril and Athanasius, and from them Leo Castrius, take these last two verses of the Apostles sent to preach throughout the whole world. The “kites,” then, or, as the Septuagint have it, the ravens, feeding on carcasses, that is, on the vices and sins of men, are the Apostles. This sense is not incongruous, if with Castrius and others you take this chapter of the destruction of Judea. But the matter here concerns the destruction of Idumea, not of Judea; as I have said.