Commentaria in Isaiam
I SOUGHT FOR THE RESIDUE OF MY YEARS. The interpreter read paqadti, that is, “I sought, I required,” that is, I saw taken from me and lacking. It is a metalepsis; for what is lacking or lost we are wont to seek. So Forerius. Thus we commonly say: I desire or require in you diligence, that is, I see diligence lacking in you.
Others now read it passively puqqadti, that is, as Vatablus translates, I am deprived of the residue of my years. Whence the Septuagint translate, I shall leave the residual years. For pakad, that is, to number, to require, in the passive conjugation Niphal (the same holds for Pual, which puqqadti is) signifies to be taken away, withdrawn or subtracted from a sum or place, so that something is lacking, as Forerius shows by many examples in his Lexicon. Whence Pagninus also in his Lexicon asserts that pakad in Niphal signifies to fail, to be lacking.
11. I SHALL NOT SEE THE LORD GOD IN THE LAND OF THE LIVING, namely in this mortal life, that is, I shall not live among the living, nor see the Lord, that is the temple of the Lord, or the Lord dwelling in the temple, speaking, and showing himself in a cloud, as if to say: I shall no more act, no more be occupied with the Lord in the temple, as I am wont. Whence the Chaldee translates, I shall not appear any more before the ark of the Lord, in the land of his tabernacle. This is the genuine sense. So Lyranus, Adam, Forerius and Jansenius, on this song.
Secondly, Vatablus and Hugh: “I shall not see God,” that is, the illustrious works of God, which he does day by day and will do for his people, especially the victory over Sennacherib and the slaughter of the Assyrians, which he promised in chapter 37; for the works of God are as it were his garment and veil, through which he shows himself and is seen.
Thirdly, more closely and piously, Leo Castrius understands by Lord, Christ; for the Septuagint for “Lord God” translate “the salvation of God,” in which way they commonly call Christ; and in Hebrew it can be translated: God of God, or God from God; whence, I shall not see Christ made man of my stock and blood, who I hoped would shortly be born and be seen by me. Whence St. Jerome: The king fears, he says, that Christ will not be born of his seed: Theodoret and Hugh also incline to this.
Fourthly, Haymo (and St. Jerome indicates) thinks that the king feared on account of his sins that he would not see God after death in the land of the living, that is, in heaven. But this is little probable; for Ezechias had lived piously, and therefore says himself, verse 3, that he had walked before God in truth and with a perfect heart.
I SHALL BEHOLD MAN NO MORE, NOR THE INHABITANT OF REST; as if to say: Henceforth my nation and my Jerusalem, delivered from the Assyrians, will enjoy rest; this I shall not see, for behold, I die.
Secondly, Forerius and Vatablus for “rest” translate “age”; others, “world,” as if chadel, that is, rest, by metathesis stood for cheled, that is, age.
Thirdly, Leo Castrius, as if to say: I shall not see the Messiah or Christ, as I hoped, who will be the inhabitant of rest, that is, will be a peaceful and glorious king; for he will be blessed and a wayfarer at once, and will be inhabitant of the world, namely of the earth, made man. But in Hebrew it is, I shall not see man any more with the inhabitants of rest, or of the world; wherefore the first sense is the literal one. The Septuagint translate, I shall not see man any more, I have failed (so St. Jerome reads, and the Complutensian: he has not failed, as Caraffa reads) from my kindred; but St. Cyril reads thus from the Septuagint: I shall not see man any more from my kindred. The Septuagint add: I have forsaken the remainder of my life.
12. MY GENERATION (that is, life, or age and time; for this is the Hebrew dor) IS TAKEN AWAY (for generation is often a name for the age of anyone, or the time of anyone’s life): AND IS ROLLED UP FROM ME. He says the same: for he alludes to the tents of shepherds or soldiers stretched out, which on departing they are wont to roll up, to carry them with them and transfer from one place to another. So St. Cyril, Theodoret, Forerius, Adam.
Note: Age or the time of life is rightly compared to a tabernacle; because as a tabernacle contains a certain place, so age or the span of life contains the spaces of life as time; secondly, because like a tabernacle it is small, movable, uncertain and perishable; thirdly, because like a tabernacle it rolls up and is rolled up; for our whole life is passed in continual revolutions and changes, says Forerius. Fourthly, because in this life we dwell as guests and pilgrims in a tabernacle; for we are making our way to our home and heavenly country, in which we are enrolled as citizens of the saints, and domestics of God, Ephesians 2. Secondly, “generation,” that is, my stock and the hope of posterity, is taken away, I lack offspring from whom Christ might be born, who was promised to David, and consequently to my seed: wherefore I shall not build for myself a house, that is, a stable family, but it like a tent will soon be rolled up and carried away. So St. Jerome, Lyranus, St. Thomas, Haymo and others.
MY LIFE IS CUT OFF AS BY A WEAVER, as if to say: As the weaver weaves a web, and the spider her net, assiduously, so man weaves the years, the works and pursuits of his life. But as maids cut and take away the spider’s web a thousand times, and do not let it be finished, so also God will cut my life, that I should not weave it through to its due age and old age, perhaps they feign that the Parcae spin the threads of our life. Secondly, and more genuinely, as if to say: As a weaver, when a soldier comes or another necessity presses, cuts off in haste the web he has begun: so I also, as a weaver, pressed by sickness, am forced to cut off and break the web of my life begun. Whence in Hebrew it is, I have cut off like a weaver my life. So Vatablus and Forerius.
Morally, Theodoret: “The saint,” he says, “weaves a robe, putting about it the adornment of his soul by his right deeds;” but the impious, like spiders, disembowel themselves, to weave for themselves a most foul garment of vices, in which they are burned in gehenna.
WHILE I WAS YET BUT BEGINNING. In Hebrew, in my thinness, that is, in the thin first threads he cut my web; which our version renders: “while I was yet beginning,” namely a settled, manly and perfect life; for this is about the 39th year, which Ezechias had; or: “while I was yet beginning,” namely great works which I had designed in mind, and by name generation, and through it the propagation of my stock and posterity; for this web the king was striving to weave; but in the very striving he was oppressed by sickness unto death.
FROM MORNING EVEN TO EVENING THOU WILT MAKE AN END OF ME, that is, within the space of one day thou wilt end my life, as if to say: My life was brief, so that it seems to have been only one day; secondly, St. Jerome, Adam and Vatablus, as if to say: So grave was the sickness that I thought I should live only that day, and die in the evening.
Aristotle reports (as Cicero says, Tusculans 1) that about the short river Hypanis, which flows down near Thrace into the Black Sea, certain animals are born which live only a single day. Physicians also write that there are herbs which grow in the morning and wither in the evening, so as to last only one day. This is a type of human life, which, though it reach the eightieth or the hundredth year, is like one day if compared with eternity: when the course of this life is finished, the Blessed await salvation; but for the impious everlasting punishment remains. This is what Ezechias says here: “From morning even to evening thou wilt make an end of me;” and the Psalmist, Psalm 89: “A thousand years in thy sight are as yesterday which is past. In the morning man shall grow up like grass, in the morning he shall flourish and pass away: in the evening he shall fall, grow dry and wither. Our years shall be considered as a spider.” What does the spider consider? That with the greatest care she assiduously pours out threads from her bowels, and interweaves them one after another, to finish her web. To what end? To catch flies. And what does the greater part of men consider all their life? what do they labor at? that one by the labor of sewing, another of building, another of writing, another of teaching, should exhaust himself, to complete his work. To what end? To catch flies. For what else are the honors and riches of this life? Is not our meditation, then, like a spider’s, vain, our labor vain, our life vain? And Psalm 101: “My days have declined like a shadow; and I am withered like grass,” and Psalm 143: “Man is like to vanity: his days pass away like a shadow;” and Psalm 102: “He remembereth that we are dust: as for man, his days are as grass, as the flower of the field so shall he flourish;” and Job 14: “Who cometh forth like a flower,” and so on. This is what Horace says, book 4, ode 7: “We are dust and shadow.”