Commentaria in Isaiam
BUT THOU (moved by my penance, prayer and tears) HAST DELIVERED MY SOUL (from present and future death: for, as follows), THOU HAST CAST BEHIND THY BACK (that is, forgiven, removed from thy sight, forgotten) ALL MY SINS. It is a catachresis: for what we forget and blot out we cast behind our back. The king here, enlightened by God in prayer, and recalling past years, seems to acknowledge that he had at some time committed graver sins on account of which he was liable to death; whereas before prayer and this examination of conscience he had said, as it were secure, verse 3, that he had walked before God in truth and with a perfect heart. See what was said at verse 15. But all these sins his contrition and desire wiped away, as he here says.
18. FOR HELL SHALL NOT CONFESS TO THEE, as if to say: Therefore hast thou restored to me life and strength, that I may praise and celebrate thy clemency toward those who serve thee and invoke thee in this life; for those who are in hell and in death cannot praise thee, that is, celebrate thy name among men, especially in the temple, of which the king says, verse 20: “We will sing our psalms in the house of the Lord.”
Morally note: This life is desired by the pious for two reasons, first, that they may praise God, as Ezechias says here; secondly, that they may lament their sins: for which reason Job wished his life prolonged, chapter 10, verse 20. The first arises from knowledge of God; the second from knowledge of oneself. So Sanchez.
THEY THAT GO DOWN INTO THE PIT (the sepulchre and hell) SHALL NOT LOOK FOR THY TRUTH, that is, thy fidelity, namely that by which first thou hast provided for Jerusalem, besieged, safety from the Assyrians, and for me health promised by Isaias in thy name; secondly, “truth,” namely that which pertains to the promised Messiah, whom we look for to be born of my seed and David’s, that we may see him born and hear him teaching: for which reason thou hast kept me in life: for this living men only can render, not the dead. Whence he says:
19. THE LIVING, THE LIVING SHALL GIVE PRAISE TO THEE, for example a father while he lives will tell his children of the benefits of God, to celebrate God, and invite them to the praise of God: but this the dead cannot do.
20. O LORD, SAVE ME, keep me in the health received: for he was already healed of the sickness. Secondly, “save me” perfectly from the Assyrians, by slaying their camp, as thou hast promised.
21. AND ISAIAS COMMANDED. This is a hysterology: for these things happened before the song of Ezechias: for he sang it after he was healed by this plaster, as is plain from verse 9, wherefore “he commanded,” that is, had commanded that they should make a plaster of figs, to lay upon the wound, by which the king might be healed, as indeed he was healed. In Hebrew it is, let them bruise it upon the ulcer, that is, lay the bruised mass upon the ulcer: this wound of the king was therefore an ulcer, as Aquila, Symmachus and Theodotion translate, and our Interpreter, 4 Kings 20:7. For the Hebrew shechin signifies an ulcer.
Note: Figs of themselves hurt an ulcer rather than help; for although Galen, book 2 On the Art of Healing, chapter 7, for tumors which neither easily come to suppuration nor are easily dispersed, bids us use a poultice of dried figs, yet the case is different in ulcers: for these require cleansing and drying, not dispersal, softening or suppuration: for these are the treatments of tumors, not of ulcers. Incidentally, however, if tumor and inflammation accompany an ulcer (as could happen in the sickness of Ezechias), figs are of use to resolve or suppurate it. Some think this was not a formed ulcer, properly so called, but an abscess, by which the body swelling inwardly and putrefying is filled with matter: which if true, the pus or matter could be drawn to the surface of the skin by drier figs and bruises, and there discharged: and thus naturally the figs helped the king’s sickness, but our Interpreter judged it a formed and open ulcer; whence he translates, wound, wherefore figs were not needed to draw the matter to the skin. Whatever it be, it is certain that figs did not have such power as to bring a dying man back to life and restore him to health, and so quickly, namely that on the third day he went up to the temple, as is said in 4 Kings 20:5. Wherefore this cure is to be attributed rather to a miracle than to figs. So Valesius, Sacred Philosophy, chapter 28, Vatablus, Adam and others. So Christ, laying clay on the eyes of the blind man, enlightened him. So the Saints of old in the desert cured any diseases with oil blessed by them. So also here the figs, not so much of themselves and their own virtue, as because they were applied by St. Isaias, as blessed by him, and as an instrument of God, at whose command Isaias applied them, suddenly healed the king. Add St. Jerome here: “Aquila,” he says, “Symmachus and Theodotion interpreted shechin as an ulcer, by which they would have the royal disease understood, to which things sweet, whether taken as food or applied to the body, are thought contrary,” such as figs. But the Greek word means an ulcer, an abscess and a swelling, not the royal disease.
22. AND EZECHIAS SAID. That is, Ezechias had said to Isaias, promising a cure, verse 5; hence this belongs there: for it is a hysterology, as I said; and it is plain from 4 Kings 20:8 and 9. This verse, therefore, must be placed before verse 7, where Isaias answers and gives the sign which the king here asks.
Morally, learn from Isaias in this chapter how pious and useful it is to visit the sick, and how sincerely we ought to warn the sick of death, that they may prepare for it: so indeed Isaias here freely warned king Ezechias, saying: “Take order with thy house, for thou shalt die,” and soon obtained for him by prayer fifteen years of life; nay even actually healed him by a plaster of figs, verse 21.
So the Martyr Gallicanus, a man of consular rank, raised with triumphal insignia and dear to Constantine Augustus, converted to the faith of Christ by SS. John and Paul, retiring with St. Hilarinus to the mouths of the Tiber, gave himself wholly to hospitality and the service of the sick: the fame of which, spread through the whole world, many coming thither from all sides saw a man, formerly a patrician and consul, washing the feet of the poor, laying the table, pouring water on their hands, solicitously ministering to the languishing, and showing the other offices of piety: and by these acts he merited martyrdom, and prepared himself for it. For he was afflicted with martyrdom by Julian the Apostate. So Baronius in the Martyrology, 25 June, from Usuard and Ado.
A certain man named Apollonius, when he had renounced the world and dwelt on the mountain of Nitria, and could not learn a trade, nor letters, being advanced in age, for twenty years, in which he lived on the mountain, had this exercise: with his own money and his own labors buying at Alexandria medical stores of every kind, he supplied them to the whole brotherhood for their sicknesses: and he might be seen till the ninth hour running about visiting the monasteries, entering the doors, and seeing whether anyone lay sick. He carried raisins, pomegranates, eggs, fine wheaten bread, and what the sick need. This manner of life he found for himself, as a servant of Christ, even to old age. So Palladius in the Lausiac History, chapter 4, and Nicephorus, book 11, chapter 35.
Placilla, wife of the Emperor Theodosius, took wonderful care of the sick and maimed, and served them with wonderful charity. For she frequented their dwellings, and supplied to each what he needed; going round the hospitals of the Churches, she tended those who were confined to bed with grave illnesses. For she not only touched their pots and tasted their broths; but set before them plates, laid bread, cut up morsels of food, washed the cups, and performed with diligence and alacrity everything else that is the office of servants and handmaids. To those who tried to hinder her ministry, which she performed with her own hands, she was wont to say: “It becomes the Empire, indeed, to bestow that gold; but I offer the work of my own hands, in place of the Empire itself, to him who once bestowed it.” So Nicephorus, book 12, chapter 43, and John Nauclerus, volume 2 of Generations, chapter 13.
St. Radegund, queen of France, had made herself this rule, that every Sunday, having gathered the poor, she herself with her own hand gave them drink. When lepers came and betrayed themselves by a signal, she kissed their faces. Then, the table laid, she brought warm water and washed their faces, anointing their hands and ulcers, and again herself served them, feeding each one. On their departure she gave them little gifts of gold or clothing. When her attendant said: Lady, who will kiss you, who embrace lepers thus? she answered kindly: “Truly, if you do not kiss me, I have no care for it,” says Fortunatus in her Life, book 1, chapter 39.
With how great care and kindness Eustochium served her mother St. Paula in her sickness, St. Jerome relates in the Epitaph of Paula. Similar things of St. Mary of Oignies Cardinal James of Vitry relates, book 2 of her Life, chapter 3, and of St. Catherine of Siena Raymund in her Life.
In St. Bernardine this ardor shone beyond other Saints: for when in the year of the Lord 1400, which was a Jubilee, a great plague raged at Siena, with horrible stench and the death of very many, he by fervent prayer persuaded twelve young men to give themselves entirely under his leadership, which they did, he going before, most dutifully. Worth reading is what is contained on this matter in his Life, chapters 10, 11, 12, 20 May, in Surius.
Like was the charity toward the sick of our holy Father Ignatius, as is plain from his Life in Maffei, book 2, chapter 2, of Xavier, and of very many others, as is plain from the Annals of our Society.