Commentaria in Isaiam
Theophrastus, the successor of Aristotle, is said, when dying, to have accused nature that she had given crows and rooks a long life, to whom it made no difference, but to men, to whom it would have made the greatest difference, so short a life: whose age, if it could have been longer, it would have come about that, all arts being perfected, men’s life would be instructed in all learning, and would gather richer fruits of the labors of its youth. So Cicero, book 3 of the Tusculans, Diogenes Laertius, book 5, in his Life, St. Jerome, letter to Nepotian, volume 1, who ascribes this to Themistocles (unless it is a scribe’s fault); but Sallust replies to this complaint of the philosopher in the Jugurthine War: “Falsely,” he says, “does the human race complain of its nature, that, being weak and of short duration, it is ruled by chance rather than by virtue; for on the contrary, reflecting, you will find nothing greater nor more excellent; and that it is the industry of men, rather than the strength or the time of nature, that is lacking.”
13. I HOPED UNTIL MORNING. First, Vatablus expounds, as if to say: When I saw that I had escaped that day of which I said: “From morning even to evening thou wilt make an end of me,” and had come to evening, I hoped, or, as it is in Hebrew, shivviti, that is, reckoned and determined that I should live until morning. The context, says Vatablus, teaches that Ezechias labored with this sickness two days, the one natural, the other artificial. On the second day Isaias came to him announcing death, soon the king wept and obtained life, and on the same day was healed by Isaias, as is said in 4 Kings 20:9. The sense, therefore, is: When in the evening and night I was in good hope of recovering health, in the morning I began to despair; for then the sickness utterly cast me down and overcame me, like a lion devouring all my strength. So Adam, and genuinely.
Secondly, and on the contrary, Sanchez, as if to say: When by night I was gravely vexed by the sickness, I did not promise myself life beyond the dawn of the following day.
AS A LION SO HATH HE BROKEN ALL MY BONES. “He broke,” namely the sickness, and God through the sickness: those feel this, says Adam, who burn with ardent fevers; for the internal fire of these, like a lion, consumes all the body’s strength, juice and bones, so that they think, from the greatness of the pain and the weakness of their strength, that they will live no longer. Sickness therefore raging fiercely is compared to a lion, crushing and tearing a man with its claws: for like a lion it strips the man of his bones and consumes him. Whence Isaias also announced to the king imminent death, verse 1, and that, in order that the miracle might be clearer: for on the same day the king was healed, as I have already said, When I saw, on the second morning, the sickness thus recrudescing and raging like a lion, then again I said: From morning to evening, that is, in this space that intervenes from morning to evening, thou wilt cut me off, as if to say: On this second day of my sickness, before evening thou wilt end my years. So Vatablus. For “thou wilt make an end of me,” the Hebrew has tashlimeni; which can be translated, thou wilt set me in peace, that is, in death; for this is called peace, as well as rest and silence, especially if it be the death of the pious. Whence we pray for the dead: “May he rest in peace.” So Sanchez.
14. LIKE A YOUNG SWALLOW, as if to say: Then I said I would groan like the young swallow in the nest, unfledged, shivering and hungry, groans; and like a dove that meditates, that is, groans, from deep down not in the throat only but in the breast also. For this reason Varro calls the young of the swallow chattering and complaining, fritinnientes. For so he has it from Nonius: “And she bore young ones twittering.”
Mystically, St. Bernard, explaining this song, gives three senses: The first, as if to say: “When the morning of grace has smiled, I will give thanks for the visitation, rejoicing and crying out like a swallow: and when evening comes on, the evening sacrifice will not be wanting, when like a dove I shall pour out tears in tribulation: Mourning I will mourn in the evening, that I may joyfully enjoy the morning. Both please God, the contrite sinner and the devout just man; to whom on the other hand an ungrateful just man is as displeasing as a secure sinner.”
The second, as if to say: “Like the young of the swallow running hither and thither, I will bind myself to the offices of Martha, showing myself a cheerful giver to every need, and like the dove,” that is, with Magdalene I will resume the leisure of contemplation. The third: “It can be,” he says, “that by the chattering little bird is signified the song of those singing psalms together in church; and by the mourning dove, the private sighs of prayers.” So St. Cyril and Eusebius also refer this to thanksgiving, not to groaning. But literally it is plain that these are the complaining voices and groans of the afflicted king, not the psalmody of one exulting, or the hymn of one rejoicing or giving thanks. It is strange, therefore, that Cyril says the swallow and the dove are here a type of those singing psalms and always praising God.
Note: For “young” the Hebrew is sus; which Leo Castrius, Vatablus, Pagninus and recent writers translate crane, as if the king compared his groaning to the mournful voice of the crane, the swallow and the dove. But the Septuagint, Theodoret, Symmachus, the Chaldee and St. Jerome constantly translate swallow, or young of the swallow, both here and Jeremias 8:7. See what was said there. It is an onomatopoeia. For the voice of the young of the swallow is sus, or as Marinus and others read, sis sis; as the sparrow’s is tsaphesaph; whence the swallow is called sis, the sparrow tsaphesaph in Hebrew. Whence some derive from the Hebrew sis the name Isis, and sistrum; for the sistrum rings like sis, that is, a swallow: and the Egyptians worshipped Isis with the beat of the sistrum, because Isis was believed to be the inventor of the sistrum.
MINE EYES ARE WEAKENED, both by the force of the sickness and rather from weariness of praying and looking up to God; for there follows: “looking upward”; I looked up to the Lord so earnestly that my eyes, wearied and enfeebled by sickness, were weakened. So Adam.
Secondly, Sanchez, as if to say: See, Lord, how my eyes, which I lift up to thee, are weakened; he moves pity by showing his appearance and leanness, especially of the eyes, which in the dying are wont to be weakened and to be hidden inwards.
LORD, I SUFFER VIOLENCE, because undeservedly and without fault of mine I suffer so much, as if to say: By my sins I have not deserved such sufferings: innocent, therefore, I suffer this, and violence is done me. So St. Jerome, Haymo and St. Thomas.
Secondly and better, by violence he understands the vehemence of the sickness, as if to say: I am so vehemently tormented by this sickness that I cannot bear it.
ANSWER THOU FOR ME, as if to say: Since I am unequal to the pain and suffer violence, undertake my defense, and as my patron protect me; avert and drive off this evil, this violence of sickness. Secondly, the Hebrew arbeni can be translated, be surety, or pledge thyself for me, and so Jansenius, Vatablus, Forerius, Montanus and others read, which St. Thomas, Hugh and Haymo expound as though Ezechias here invoked the Messiah, or Christ to come; for it is his office, as mediator and sponsor, to undertake the cause of those who are in distress.
Thirdly, arbeni can be translated with Vatablus and Leo Castrius: make me rest, make me glad, be sweet to me, give me so much joy, namely life, and from it offspring and Christ; for these I ask.
15. WHAT SHALL I SAY? (Ezechias here, returning to himself from the force of pain, corrects himself, as if to say: Why shall I plead against God my maker?) OR WHAT SHALL HE ANSWER FOR ME, WHEREAS HE HIMSELF HATH DONE IT? So we must read with the Roman edition, not “I have done,” as if to say: Since God himself has done what he willed, when by his just and secret counsel he sent me this sickness, why do I complain? what answer do I expect from him, but this: “O clay, in the potter’s hand, be silent and suffer.” From the Hebrew, otherwise obscure, taking vau causally, Sanchez clearly translates and explains thus: “What shall I say? because God will say, whom I call as advocate against the smiter, because he himself has done it.” In like manner Job corrects his complaint and dispute with God, chapter 13, verse 2 and following.
I WILL RECALL TO THEE ALL MY YEARS IN THE BITTERNESS, and so on. First, St. Jerome and Adam take away the “to thee,” whence they expound, as if to say: While dying I recall the prosperity and delights of years past, my soul grows bitter and grieved; for it sees that they have slipped away and are now turned into mourning, and that therefore I must die, according to Ecclesiasticus 11:29: “The affliction of an hour maketh one forget great delights,” as if to say: When the time of tribulation has come, it overcomes and extinguishes all past felicity.