Commentaria in Isaiam
DO ALSO WELL OR EVIL, IF YOU CAN.—He demands another proof of divinity from the idols, namely kindness to their worshippers and vengeance on their despisers, as God showed he had done for Abraham and his descendants in verse 2. So Gedeon, Judges 6:31, says: “If he be a god (Baal), let him revenge himself on him that hath dug down his altar.” Baruch enlarges on this impotence of the idols at length.
24. BEHOLD, YOU ARE OF NOTHING, AND YOUR WORK OF THAT WHICH HATH NO BEING.—The idols being struck dumb, God presses his case against them, and as a victor insults the vanquished, as if to say: Why do I labor? why do I seek out arguments? You are stupid and dumb, without tongue, without mind, without strength, indeed you are nothing, so far are you from being able to do good or evil to anyone. Moreover, the idols are of nothing, and consequently are nothing, whether you look at their matter: for this, with other things, was created by God out of nothing; or at their form, namely divinity, as if to say: Divinity, O idols, is not your form, but a mask put on; you are fictitious gods; you have your origin not from any truth, but from the empty, foolish and sacrilegious imagination and flattery of certain men: you have nothing, therefore, of a true divinity; all your things are full of pretense and falsehood; you lie in saying you are gods. In this sense the Apostle said: “We know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is no God but one,” 1 Corinthians 8:4.
Note: for what our version translates, “of that which hath no being,” the Hebrew is meaphah, which St. Jerome, the Chaldee and Vatablus translate, of nothing, or “of that which hath no being”; Forerius and Forster translate, than a hiss, from the root paah, that is, he hissed, as if to say: Your works are empty and wholly nothing, and have less weight than a mere hiss.
Note secondly: “Work” here can be taken in two ways. First, passively, “your work,” namely that by which you idols have been made, as if to say: Your workmanship, that is, you yourselves, who are the work and workmanship of foolish men, are of that which hath no being, that is, of nothing. For “behold, you are of nothing” seems to be the same as “your work of that which hath no being,” namely, as if to say: You are of nothing, and therefore nothing. For the latter half-verse, in the Hebrew manner, explains the former. In like manner in the last verse, when he says: “Their works are vain,” it is the same as what he adds: “Their idols are wind and vanity.”
Secondly, “your work,” actively, that is, what you do and work, as if to say: Your works are of nothing, that is, are nothing, are none, because you can work nothing, can do nothing good or evil, as he says in the preceding verse. The former sense seems more plain and genuine from the Hebrew phrase; the latter, however, follows from the former, and completes it: because what is nothing can do nothing, bring no aid.
AN ABOMINATION (that is, abominable) IS HE THAT HATH CHOSEN YOU,—who worships you. This is what Osee says, chapter 9:10: “They became abominable, as those things which they loved.”
25. I HAVE RAISED UP ONE FROM THE NORTH, AND HE SHALL COME FROM THE RISING OF THE SUN.—St. Thomas, Lyranus, Vatablus and Hugh take this of Cyrus: for God raised him up as the support of the Hebrews out of Persia, which is partly north of Judea and partly east.
But Forerius and Sanchez better take this of Abraham. For this is a recapitulation and conclusion of what has been said, as if to say: The world, then, ought to worship me, because I did what I recounted in the foregoing verses and which you have heard, namely I called Abraham from the East, that is, from Chaldea, and from the North, that is, from Mesopotamia: of whom, since he was a worshipper of my name, and worshipped me alone as God, and he himself, and through his descendants, overcame and trampled powerful kings like clay, no one can doubt that he did it by my strength. Symbolically, take this of Christ, as if to say: I have raised up, that is, I shall raise up, Christ, who by his coming will warm the North, that is, the cold nations, by his rising, and who will tread down the magistrates, that is, all the proud princes of the world, and subject them to himself like clay to the potter, to make of them some vessels unto honor, others unto dishonor. So St. Jerome, Cyril, Procopius, Theodoret.
HE SHALL CALL UPON MY NAME,—In two ways: first, as if to say: He shall worship and invoke my name; secondly, as if to say: He shall be called by my name, that is, my servant and worshipper: “shall be called,” that is, has been called, is called, shall be called, according to Canon 13.
AND SHALL BRING (Forerius, shall assail) MAGISTRATES,—in Hebrew seganim, that is, nobles, princes and kings, as the potter, that is, the figulus, assails and subdues clay.
O idols! foresaw and foretold the order of these things? so that in this dispute and judgment we may pass sentence in his favor, “Thou art just,” that is, thy cause is just; right stands with thee, thou art rightly held and worshipped as God. Others: “just” means “thou art God.” For justice is proper to God; whence his title “Thou art a Prophet,” because thou hast foretold these things.
NOR THAT HEARETH YOUR WORDS,—O idols! as if to say: You are mute stones and wood; therefore there is no witness who can say that he has heard and learned anything of the future from you.
27. THE FIRST SHALL SAY TO SION: BEHOLD THEY ARE HERE (so to read with the Romans and the Hebrews, not “I am here”), as if to say: Not the idols, but God first of all, that is, I myself (for the change of person is frequent among the Hebrews), will say to Sion: Behold, they are here who foretell the future to thee: AND I WILL GIVE TO JERUSALEM AN EVANGELIST,—that is, a joyful messenger, namely Isaias and the other Prophets, who as Evangelists announce what is to come, above all concerning Christ and the Gospel of Christ, salvation and the kingdom; for this is what he said in chapter 40:9: “Get thee up upon a high mountain, thou that bringest good tidings to Sion.”
Again, “behold they are here,” that is, shortly there will be here the successors of the Prophets, the Apostles and Evangelists, who will announce, indeed point with the finger to, the good things to come under Christ and through Christ. For they will cast out the demons and idols, and will be heralds of the Gospel at Jerusalem, indeed to the whole world, to call it into the way of truth, as the Septuagint have it; for this is what Christ commands them, Luke, last chapter, verse 46: “It behoved Christ to suffer... and that penance and remission of sins should be preached in his name unto all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.” So St. Jerome and Theodoret. Isaias intimates here that at the coming of Christ all the oracles of demons would cease and fall silent. For it is plain from histories that then, and thereafter, they all fell silent. Whence Plutarch wrote a book On the Failure of Oracles.
28. AND I SAW, AND THERE WAS NO ONE EVEN AMONG THEM,—namely of the prophets and worshippers of the idols. These are the words of Isaias, who, seeing that neither the idols nor the Gentiles could answer anything to the arguments of God disputing with them, or take counsel about preparing a reply, concludes:
29. BEHOLD THEY ARE ALL IN THE WRONG,—as if to say: The gods, which are worshipped by fools, namely by the Gentiles, as well as the Gentiles themselves, are unjust, that is, they uphold an unjust and iniquitous cause, they lose their case, and are condemned; for “unjust” is opposed to what he said in verse 26: “Thou art just.” Again, they are unjust because, as gods, they wring gold and wealth from their worshippers, promising help which they do not give: for their works are vain, that is, as follows, “their idols are wind and vanity.” See what is said on verse 24. Leaving them aside, then, he passes in the following chapter to God and the wonderful works of God which he foresaw he would do in the following ages, above all under Christ; yet so that from time to time he returns to the idols and censures them. For “vanity” the Hebrew is tohu, that is, Vatablus, a shapeless thing; others, chaos, that is, a confused and empty thing. See what is said on Genesis 1:2.