Commentaria in Isaiam
Chapter Forty
Here begins the second principal part, or section, of the oracles of Isaias, all consoling and prosperous. For the former, from chapter 1 to this point, comprising five oracles, all sad except the second, was reproachful and threatening. This second part extends from this chapter to the end of the book, in which Isaias is not so much Prophet as Evangelist.
First, the Jews take this of the consolation and joy to them from the ending of the Babylonian captivity by Cyrus. But many things here are said too august to suit the Jews and Cyrus. Secondly, St. Thomas, Hugh, Sanchez and Jansenius and Maldonatus on Matthew 3:3, and many recent writers take this literally and historically of the Jews freed by Cyrus, allegorically of the loosed captivity of the human race by Christ. Thirdly, and best, Forerius, Adam and others take this literally of Christ and his redemption, yet with an allusion to the redemption and liberation of the Jews from Babylon. For that was a type of this, as Cyrus was of Christ. See chapters 4 and 5.
Christ, therefore, is here the consoler foreseen and promised by Isaias; whence his type (as all the Fathers teach) is Noe, that is, consoler, in three ways: Noe was restorer of the human race almost swallowed up by the deluge, and therefore was named Noe, that is, consoler, Genesis 5:29. For Christ consoled us, first, by himself and his exhortations and graces while he lived, and because by his labor and death he brought us redemption, that is, justice and eternal salvation. Secondly, from heaven day by day he consoles us, pleading to the Father his merits, and obtaining and supplying new graces. Thirdly, going away from the world he appointed us another Paraclete, or consoler, namely the Holy Spirit. So St. Jerome, Cyril and Procopius.
In this chapter, therefore, first, he promises this consolation of Christ, and his forerunner John the Baptist, who will be the voice of one crying in the desert, and will be bidden by God to cry: Prepare the way of the Lord, by thinking namely that all flesh is grass, but the word of the Lord abideth for ever; that men may acknowledge both their own infirmity, and God’s indulgence and power toward them, and so prepare themselves to receive it. But because these promises are grave and great, hence secondly, verse 12, he digresses to describe the power, greatness and wisdom of God: who, as he created and governs all things, can also perform all that he promises. Whence thirdly, verse 18, he inveighs against those who instead of God worship mute and lifeless idols. Finally, verse 27, he charges the Jews in affliction with distrust of God’s help and providence, and teaches that those who hope in the Lord change strength, and overcome and fly over all things like eagles.
1. Be comforted, be comforted, my people, saith your God. 2. Speak ye to the heart of Jerusalem, and call to her: for her evil is come to an end, her iniquity is forgiven: she hath received of the hand of the Lord double for all her sins. 3. The voice of one crying in the desert: Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the wilderness the paths of our God. 4. Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall become straight, and the rough ways plain. 5. And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh together shall see that the mouth of the Lord hath spoken. 6. The voice of one saying: Cry. And I said: What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the glory thereof as the flower of the field. 7. The grass is withered, and the flower is fallen, because the spirit of the Lord hath blown upon it. Indeed the people is grass: 8. The grass is withered, and the flower is fallen: but the word of our Lord endureth for ever. 9. Get thee up upon a high mountain, thou that bringest good tidings to Sion: lift up thy voice with strength, thou that bringest good tidings to Jerusalem: lift it up, fear not. Say to the cities of Juda: Behold your God: 10. Behold the Lord God shall come with strength, and his arm shall rule: behold his reward is with him, and his work is before him. 11. He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather together the lambs with his arm, and shall carry them in his bosom, and shall himself carry them that are with young. 12. Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and weighed the heavens with his palm? who hath poised with three fingers the bulk of the earth, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance? 13. Who hath forwarded the spirit of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor, and hath taught him? 14. With whom hath he consulted, and who hath instructed him, and taught him the path of justice, and taught him knowledge, and shewed him the way of understanding? 15. Behold the Gentiles are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the smallest grain of a balance: behold, the islands are as a little dust. 16. And Libanus shall not be enough to burn, nor the beasts thereof enough for a burnt offering. 17. All nations are before him as if they had no being at all, and are counted to him as nothing and vanity. 18. To whom then have ye likened God? or what image will ye make for him? 19. Hath the workman cast a graven statue? or hath the goldsmith formed it with gold, or the silversmith with plates of silver? 20. He hath chosen a strong wood, and that will not rot: the skilful workman seeketh how he may set up an idol that may not be moved. 21. Do you not know? hath it not been heard? hath it not been told you from the beginning? have you not understood the foundations of the earth? 22. It is he that sitteth upon the globe of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as locusts: he that stretcheth out the heavens as nothing, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in. 23. He that bringeth the searchers of secrets to nothing, that hath made the judges of the earth as vanity: 24. And surely their stock was neither planted, nor sown, nor rooted in the earth: suddenly he hath blown upon them, and they are withered, and a whirlwind shall take them away as stubble. 25. And to whom have ye likened me, or made me equal, saith the Holy One? 26. Lift up your eyes on high, and see who hath created these things: who bringeth out their host by number, and calleth them all by their names: by the greatness of his might, and strength, and power, not one of them was missing. 27. Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel: My way is hid from the Lord, and my judgment is passed over from my God? 28. Knowest thou not, or hast thou not heard? the Lord is the everlasting God, who hath created the ends of the earth: he shall not faint, nor labour, neither is there any searching out of his wisdom. 29. It is he that giveth strength to the weary, and increaseth force and might to them that are not. 30. Youths shall faint, and labour, and young men shall fall by infirmity. 31. But they that hope in the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall take wings as eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.
1. BE COMFORTED, BE COMFORTED, MY PEOPLE. The Jews and Haymo, Hugh and the Gloss refer this to the end of the preceding chapter, namely to the words of Ezechias: “Let there be only peace and truth in my days,” as if to say: Ezechias, O Jews, seems to have consulted for himself and his own days only, in asking peace for himself; you and your posterity too have you neglected? Therefore God himself will take care of you, and promises, saying: “I will console you.” But from verse 3 and following it is plain that this belongs to the times of John the Baptist and Christ; it alludes, however, to the captivity, as I said. The sense, therefore, is, as if to say: I foretold in the preceding chapter, verse 6, that you would go captive into Babylon; hence you are rightly troubled and mourn: but be comforted, for after 70 years I will rescue you thence, and restore you to your former, nay better, state. This I promise you in passing, and as it were touch upon; but under this slight consolation, as a type, I understand another far greater, and promise it to you, namely that which Christ will bring, when he will recall you, given over to death and gehenna and the devil, to liberty, and restore you to God and heaven.
Note: “Be comforted” is taken passively, for “receive consolation”: for there follows “my people.” The Septuagint, however, take it actively; whence they translate in the accusative, comfort my people. And so read the Greeks, St. Cyril, Procopius, Chrysostom, and so translate among the Latins Pagninus and Vatablus. Secondly, he calls his people the company of the faithful, namely Christians, both Jews and Gentiles believing in Christ.