Commentaria in Isaiam
20. “Which he had made for himself to adore moles and bats.” So the Egyptians and other foolish men of old worshipped as gods crocodiles, apes, cats, beetles, moles and mice, that is, their images and idols, as St. Augustine teaches at length, City of God, book 4, chapters 7 and 20. St. Jerome explains otherwise: idols, he says, are called moles and bats metaphorically and in scorn, because like moles and bats they lack eyes and sense and mind. Forerius also thinks that by moles and bats, which are, as it were, winged moles and therefore shun the light and love darkness, the devil is signified, who is prince of darkness, that he may shoot in the dark at the upright of heart.
In the moral sense, moles are men sunk in earthly things and in the belly, such as the idolaters often were, imitating their idols. For it is written: “Let them that make them become like to them.” At the college of Louvain I saw a lay gardener who was called the mole of our garden, because he was always bent over the earth with face and body down, digging, sowing, hoeing, weeding, watering, and so on. In the same way those who always gape after earthly goods are moles. Bats are those who love darkness, and are amphibious, that is, share something of the spiritual and something of the carnal. So Varro says: “I have become a bat; I am neither plainly among the mice nor among the birds.” The bat is so called because it flies out at evening; hence it has wings and flies, which does not agree with mice; but it bears its young alive and does not lay eggs, in which it agrees with the nature of mice, not of birds. Secondly, the bat nourishes its young at the breast with milk, whereas birds put food into the mouths of their chicks. Thirdly, it has teeth, which birds lack. Fourthly, it has a head like a mouse, and wings not of feathers but of membranes: it is therefore a winged mouse. This applies to men who are unsettled and changeable, who are neither fish nor flesh, neither heavenly nor earthly, but share in both.
Hence St. Basil here beautifully compares the devil and his followers to the bat. For the bat, he says, flees the light, and the devil is a flier from light. Secondly, the bat has for wings a little fleshy membrane, and the devil is indeed incorporeal, but, inflamed by no desire, he flies forth on wings; yet, fastened to material things by desire and wasting away, he has hardened like a thicker skin. Thirdly, the bat is both a flier and a four-footed creature, weak in its feet and in its flight; so the devil is neither angel nor man, having weakened by sin the powers of mind and soul. Fourthly, the bat has teeth, which birds lack; and the devil is eager for vengeance, which angels lack. Fifthly, the bat bears live young, not eggs; and the devil most quickly puts an end to his malicious working. Those, therefore, who prostrate themselves in worship before devils may allegorically be called bats. So far St. Basil.
21. “And he shall go into the clefts of the rocks.” He repeats and presses what he said in verse 10, because it is terrible, to strike the hearers. So preachers often press upon the people the vengeance of God and the remembrance of the last things.
22. “Cease ye therefore from the man whose breath is in his nostrils.” For “breath” the Hebrew has nescama, that is, breath. This is the conclusion and epiphonema of the whole chapter, and it is a prophecy of Christ, say Origen and Jerome and the ancient Rabbis. For the Prophet flies to Christ, and returns from him, as to a mark, according to Canon 4, as if to say: Since in this chapter I have foretold that Christ will raise up the Church as the mountain and house of the Lord, and that he himself will overthrow the whole state of the Jews and the Synagogue, for this reason I earnestly warn and command you to cease from harassing and killing Christ, who according to the flesh is indeed a frail man, says St. Jerome, and has a human soul and breath that breathes through the nostrils (as the Septuagint has), like other men (hence in Lamentations 4:20 Christ is called “the breath of our mouth,” that is, our breath), but according to the divine nature and majesty is exalted, or, as the Hebrew has, is himself loftiness and sublimity (of which presently). For Christ is the one who, as is said in verse 19, shall rise up “to strike the earth,” namely on the day of judgment; he also, as God, will bring upon the Jews all that devastation which I foretold from verse 10 to 22, by the Chaldeans. This sense is indicated by the Arabic version of Alexandria, which reads thus: from the face of the fear of the Lord, and from the glory of his majesty, when he shall rise to rebuke the earth for the man who offends the wind (the odour, the breath) of his nostrils; with whom is he measured?
Note: “Whose breath is in his nostrils” signifies not only the humanity of Christ and his longanimity and patience, but also his magnanimity, wrath, indignation and vengeance. For the Hebrew aph, that is, nose and fury, often signifies this: for fury, with the nostril aflame, often shows itself. Hence it is said in 2 Kings 22: “Smoke arose from his nostrils”; and Martial, Wouldst thou try the smoking nostril of a living bear?
and of the horse Virgil, Georgics, book 3:
He knows no sport, he rages, he snorts, his whole frame groans, and, pressing it together, he rolls fire beneath his nostrils.
So holy Job, chapter 39, verse 20: “The glory of his nostrils is terror”; and Plautus says: “Hunger and delay stir up bile into the nose.” So too “spirit” often signifies fury, as in Isaias 30: “His breath is as a torrent overflowing”; and Judges 8:3: “And their spirit was appeased, with which they swelled against him.” The sense, then, is as if to say: Do not persecute Christ, for though he is meek and humble, he is also magnanimous, and his patience, when injured, will turn to fury. The same is said in Psalm 2: “Embrace discipline (the Hebrew has, kiss, or adore the Son), lest at any time the Lord be angry, and you perish.” So Sanchez and Delrio, adage 139, and Luisius of Leon on the Canticle 8: “Cease, he says, from the man whose breath is in his nostrils, that is, from a man of great and abundant spirit, who is endowed with a great and lofty mind. For, as follows, he himself is exalted. For the nose signifies wrath, and also the gravity and majesty of countenance, which shows itself in the nostrils. Much and strong breathing is a sign of a great mind,” as appears in the horse. This is very apt.
Others translate otherwise. The Chaldee renders it quite the contrary: Beware lest ye be made subject to a man when he shall have become terrible, in whose nostrils is breath; because today he is alive, and tomorrow he is not, and he is reckoned as nothing. And the Arabic version of Antioch: Abstain from the man whose breath is in his nostrils; for he is as a vessel.
Arias Montanus renders: Cease from Adam, namely the old Adam, by imitating him, that ye may put on the new and heavenly Adam, namely Christ, because wherein is he esteemed? as if to say: Because the old Adam is of no value before God and the saints.
Leo Castrius renders: Trust not in man, namely Caesar, saying, “We have no king but Caesar”; because he, being a man, is of no value, and he too has breath in his nostrils, that is, wrath, for he will punish and overthrow you. The Jews explain it so also, except that by the man they understand not Caesar but the king of the Assyrians or of the Egyptians.
“For he is reputed high.” For “high” the Hebrew has bamme, which by dages and segal they read bamme, that is, “wherein.” So the Chaldee renders it, and Aquila (and he did it out of hatred of Christ, says St. Jerome), and indeed the Septuagint. But, as St. Jerome rightly teaches, then the sense would not hold together; for what is it to say: Cease from man, for wherein is he reputed? that is, because he is of no value. No one praises another so: Take care not to offend him, because he is altogether nothing. This would be said foolishly; whence St. Jerome infers that we should read not bamme but bama, that is, “high,” height, sublimity: Christ is bama, for Christ, as God, is height itself and divine majesty.
In the symbolic sense, St. Gregory, Morals, book 31, chapter 12: “The spirit of our Redeemer is said to be in his nostrils, that is, that his knowledge may be signified in foreknowledge; because whatever he came to know in the nature of his humanity, this he certainly foreknew before the ages from his divinity.” Hence he adds: “Because he is reputed high, as if he said: He foresaw from above what was to come in lower things, because he is come from the heavenly.”