Commentaria in Isaiam
For these so the impious man is most harmful both to others and to himself. Eleventh, the locust, because it ruins the fields, is a symbol of human corruption. Beautifully St. Chrysostom, homily That no one is harmed except by himself: “Everything,” he says, “that is among things has something by which it is corrupted and harmed: the moth ruins wool, the wolf flocks of sheep, change into vinegar wine, bitterness the sweetness of honey; darnel harms the crops; hail harms the vine; locusts lay waste the shoots and plants.”
Twelfth, locusts, says Aristotle, give birth at the end of spring, and die soon after the birth; in like manner man is short-lived, and not rarely is killed by his own offspring.
So St. Gregory, going to England, meeting a locust, compared himself to it, and from it understood that he must stay in that place, and that he must return to Rome. On which more at Ezechiel 21:21.
HE THAT STRETCHETH OUT THE HEAVENS AS NOTHING.—For “nothing” the Hebrew is dok, that is, thin, by which Forerius understands a mist; Vatablus, a curtain or the finest cloth. “Nothing,” therefore, here signifies something so thin and so light that it seems almost nothing, which can very easily be stretched out, such as a curtain, a mist, etc. For so God very easily stretches out the vast heavens, that men might dwell under them as under a tent. Hence the Septuagint translate, who stretcheth out the heavens like a vault, that is, round and solid like a vault and arch.
Thirdly, dok can be rendered fine and small dust, as our version has it, verse 15, as if to say: God created and made the heavens as easily as if he made the finest atom of dust. So St. Chrysostom, in his book On the Incomprehensible Nature of God.
23. WHO GIVETH THE SEARCHERS OF SECRETS AS IF THEY WERE NOT—So he calls the philosophers, who search into the secrets of nature, of wisdom and of God; or rather counsellors and princes, as the Septuagint translate (whence our version, too, in Habacuc 1:10, renders “tyrants,” and in Proverbs 8:15 “makers of laws”), who search into the secrets of the state, of politics and of government. For these are called in Hebrew roznim. For the latter half-verse explains the former in the Hebrew manner. “Who giveth the searchers of secrets as if they were not” is therefore the same as “he hath made the judges of the earth as a thing of naught.” For the Hebrews call princes judges, because the chief office of princes is to guard justice among the citizens, and to judge the people, that is, to defend it from the injuries of enemies. Hence Solomon prays the Lord, 3 Kings, chapter 3, saying: “Give therefore to thy servant an understanding heart, to judge thy people.” Hence also the book of Judges is so called, that is, of the deliverers and princes of Israel. Isaias therefore celebrates the power of God, that he himself can cast kings and princes down from the throne, make them fools, destroy them, and bring them as it were to nothing, and often does so. For “empty” the Hebrew is tohu, that is, shapeless, unadorned, disordered: for so in Genesis 1 the earth is said to have been empty and void, in Hebrew tohu vabohu, before God adorned and decked it with herbs, flowers and fruits. In like manner God can strip kings of all honor and splendor, and often does. Hence, explaining, he adds:
24. AND SURELY THEIR STOCK WAS NEITHER PLANTED, NOR SOWN, NOR ROOTED IN THE EARTH.—Although the princes of the earth seem to be highest, firm and powerful in it, yet their principate is like a tree or a branch, which is neither sown nor planted in the earth, nor rooted; whence, destitute of sap, it withers, or is thrown down by a light wind or whirlwind: so also the glory of princes is fleeting. Second, like a thing painted over, which the breath and command of the Lord soon throws down and scatters. Again Forerius gives this sense, as if to say: God often takes away kings and tyrants at the very beginning of their rule, and removes them from the midst before they beget offspring, leaving no children: like a trunk which has put no roots into the earth and cannot bring forth flowers and fruits.
AND HE CALLETH THEM ALL BY THEIR NAMES.—This phrase of God signifies three things. First, that God has an intimate insight into the nature, power and efficacy of all the stars, so that he can call them by their own and most fitting name. It is a catachresis. Second, that God has care and providence of each of the stars and of created things, so as to give each what it needs, and to enjoin on each works and offices measured by and suited to its nature and powers; for example, to the morning star to announce light, to the evening star to announce evening; to the moon to preside over the night, to the sun over the day; and to command nothing to anyone beyond its faculty and powers. Third, that all the stars obey God in all things, so that when he himself summons them, or commands them anything, all straightway obey him and come to him, so that none is left that does not present itself to him; for this is what he says:
25. AND TO WHOM HAVE YE LIKENED ME, OR MADE ME EQUAL? SAITH THE HOLY ONE.—Not only Jupiter, Mercury, Venus, etc., and wicked princes now rotten, but even serpents and monsters have you made gods, and equated with me?
26. LIFT UP YOUR EYES ON HIGH.—“Who is there,” says Cicero, “who, when he has lifted his eyes to heaven, does not perceive that God exists?” For the heavens and the stars “declare the glory of God.” Again, the heavens existed before Jupiter and all the gods, created by the true God.
WHO HATH CREATED THESE THINGS?—that is, these heavens. In Hebrew, for “who are these” mi elleh, which the Cabalists by anagram read in reverse order as elohim, as if the answer were: elohim, that is, God the Creator, “hath created these things.”
HE THAT BRINGETH OUT THEIR HOST BY NUMBER.—By “host” he means the stars and heavenly bodies. Hence the Septuagint translate, their ornament. God brings these out “by number,” that is, numerously; for the stars are very many. Secondly, “by number,” that is, in their order, in which each has its own place and number, and keeps it constantly, so that this is first, that second, another third, just as soldiers in the line constantly keep their order. For the strength of an army, and likewise its victory and splendor, depend on order. It is a catachresis: for number is used for a numerous arrangement, harmony, proportion and order. So the musical number is called the harmony and concord of many voices and sounds. Such also is the ordered array of the stars. “God,” says St. Augustine, letter 98 to St. Jerome, “brings forth the stars, marked out by so many orbs, with such variety of motions and such concert of sounds (he speaks according to the opinion of Pythagoras and the ancients, who believed that the heavens by their motion give forth a most sweet concord), and moves them in such a way that no creature can sufficiently admire.” For “who bringeth out” the Hebrew is motsi, which can be rendered, “bringing forth,” that is, making to rise. The name of God, therefore, as of Christ, Zechariah 6:12, is “the East.” So Forerius.
IN THE MULTITUDE OF HIS STRENGTH, AND MIGHT, AND POWER, NOT ONE WAS MISSING.—Some refer the strength and might to the stars, as if to say: As great as is the virtue and strength of the stars, it obeys God, and there is not even one that fails in its order and function, in which it was set by God. But then it should have been said “their”; yet now he says “his,” namely God’s, as if to say: So great and so many are the strength, might and power of God, who governs the heavens and the stars, that there is not even one that does not fulfil his ordinance and command in all things. Beautifully Boethius, book 1 of the Consolation, addresses God thus:
O Creator of the star-bearing sphere, Who, resting on an everlasting throne, turn the heavens with swift whirl, and compel the stars to bear law!