Commentaria in Isaiam
Chapter Forty-two
1. Behold my servant, I will uphold him: my elect, my soul delighteth in him: I have given my spirit upon him, he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. 2. He shall not cry, nor have respect to person, neither shall his voice be heard abroad. 3. The bruised reed he shall not break, and the smoking flax he shall not quench: he shall bring forth judgment unto truth. 4. He shall not be sad, nor troublesome, till he set judgment in the earth: and the islands shall wait for his law. 5. Thus saith the Lord God, he that created the heavens, and stretched them out: he that established the earth, and the things that spring out of it: he that giveth breath to the people that is upon it, and spirit to them that tread therein. 6. I the Lord have called thee in justice, and taken thee by the hand, and preserved thee. And I have given thee to be a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles: 7. that thou mightest open the eyes of the blind, and bring forth the prisoner out of prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house. 8. I the Lord, this is my name: I will not give my glory to another, nor my praise to graven things. 9. The things that were first, behold they are come: and new things do I declare: before they spring forth I will make you hear them. 10. Sing ye to the Lord a new song, his praise is from the ends of the earth: you that go down to the sea, and all that are in it: ye islands, and the inhabitants thereof. 11. Let the desert and the cities thereof be exalted: Cedar shall dwell in houses: ye inhabitants of Petra, give praise, they shall cry from the top of the mountains. 12. They shall give glory to the Lord, and shall declare his praise in the islands. 13. The Lord shall go forth as a mighty man, as a man of war shall he stir up zeal: he shall shout and cry: he shall prevail against his enemies. 14. I have always held my peace, I have kept silence, I have been patient, I will speak now as a woman in labor, I will destroy and swallow up at once. 15. I will lay waste the mountains and hills, and will make all their grass to wither: and I will turn the rivers into islands, and will dry up the pools. 16. And I will lead the blind into the way which they know not: and in the paths which they were ignorant of I will make them walk: I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight: these things have I done to them, and have not forsaken them. 17. They are turned back: let them be greatly confounded that trust in a graven thing, that say to a molten thing: You are our gods. 18. Ye deaf, hear: and ye blind, behold that you may see. 19. Who is blind, but my servant? or deaf, but he to whom I have sent my messengers? who is blind, but he that is sold? and who is blind, but the servant of the Lord? 20. Thou who seest many things, wilt thou not observe them? thou who hast thine ears open, wilt thou not hear? 21. And the Lord was pleased to sanctify him, and to magnify the law, and make it honorable. 22. But this is a people robbed and wasted: they are all snared in the holes of young men, and they are hid in the houses of prisons: they are made a prey, and there is none to deliver them: a spoil, and there is none that saith: Restore. 23. Who is there among you that will give ear to this, that will attend, and hearken for time to come? 24. Who gave Jacob for a spoil, and Israel to the robbers? Did not the Lord himself, against whom we have sinned? And they would not walk in his ways, and they heard not his law. 25. And he hath poured out upon him the indignation of his wrath, and a strong battle, and hath burned him round about, and he knew not: and it hath burned him, yet he understood not.
1. BEHOLD MY SERVANT, I WILL UPHOLD HIM.—Some take “servant” to mean Jacob, others Isaias, others Cyrus: but it is certain from Matthew 12:18 that Christ is understood, who is the servant of God inasmuch as he took the form of a servant and was made man. For although the same, as man, is the natural Son of God, inasmuch as that humanity subsists in the person of the Word, who is the natural Son of God; yet the same is also a servant by reason of that nature itself, namely the humanity which he assumed: for this is a creature, and therefore a servant of its Creator. See St. Thomas and the Scholastics, part 3, question 20. Note: the Hebrew ebed does not signify a servant who serves servilely from a servile condition, as slaves do; but a minister, who worships his lord and serves him in a high office and dignity, as dukes and princes serve and minister to the king, Cardinals to the Pontiff, the Apostles to Christ. For so St. Paul calls himself servant, that is, Apostle of Christ, as I said at Philippians 1:1.
Moreover, this is connected with the preceding chapter in this way: that there he said, verses 4, 23 and 27, that he announces and brings forward future things as well as former and past ones; and since he demonstrated this there for past things, by what he conferred on Abraham and the Hebrews, now he demonstrates it for future things, namely Christ and his descendants, of whom Abraham and the Hebrews were a type. For this is what he says in verse 9: “The things that were first, behold they are come: and new things do I declare.” Again, he had said, in the preceding chapter, verse 27, that he would give to Sion an evangelist; hence in this section he promises Christ, the founder of the Gospel and chief of the Evangelists.
The Septuagint translate: Jacob my servant, I will take him up: Israel my elect: Jacob, that is, the Jacobite; Israel, that is, the Israelite, namely Christ, who was to be born of Jacob. So of him it is said, chapter 49, verse 3: “Thou art my servant, Israel, for in thee will I glory.” See Canon 34. To this the Blessed Virgin alluded in her canticle: “He hath received Israel his servant, being mindful of his mercy. As he spoke to our fathers,” Luke 1:54. For “I will take up” and “hath received” the same verb is in the Greek in both places.
I WILL UPHOLD HIM.—In Hebrew it is etmak, that is, I will sustain, I will sustain him as a father his dearest son, with the highest love, care and zeal I will cherish and support him. The Chaldee: I will be with him, as a companion, protector, indeed leader and guide. So Christ said to St. Ignatius, founder of the Society of Jesus, as he was going to Rome: “I will be propitious to you at Rome.” He said it, and did it.
MY ELECT, MY SOUL DELIGHTETH IN HIM.—“Elect” both as leader and commander of the spiritual war which he will wage against the devil and sin, and as most beloved Son: for to this God the Father alluded when, at the baptism of Christ, he thundered: “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased,” Matthew 3:17.
I HAVE GIVEN MY SPIRIT UPON HIM.—“Spirit,” namely the sevenfold one, of which chapter 11, verse 2. As a symbol of this the Father sent upon him, when he was baptized by John, the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove.
HE SHALL BRING FORTH JUDGMENT TO THE GENTILES.—“Judgment,” that is, that which is just, namely just laws; secondly, the true and just worship of God; thirdly, true justice and holiness, namely the Evangelical law, which embraces these three, he will teach and promulgate through all the Gentiles. The word judgment therefore signifies that Christ will be the new teacher and lawgiver of justice, that is, of the Gospel. Hence in what follows his equity, modesty, meekness, mercy and clemency are described. So commonly the Fathers and Interpreters here, and at Matthew chapter 12, except Theodoret and Eusebius, Demonstration book 9, chapter 15, who explain it thus, as if to say: Christ will announce to the Gentiles the coming general judgment of God, that all may look to themselves and prepare for it. This is true, but in the anagogical sense.
Procopius notes that the Gospel of Christ is called “judgment” because the Jews called their old law “judgment”: and to the old law, as a type and shadow, the Gospel succeeded, as truth. Whence with greater reason the truth of the Gospel is called “judgment,” that is, justice and judging of what is right, than the shadow of the Mosaic law: for it delivers a greater, more divine and more sublime justice and perfection than that. Again, Christ was a far greater lawgiver than Moses. Moreover this signifies “he shall bring forth judgment,” that is, shall pronounce the law. For this phrase is a periphrasis for the power of a king and commander. Hence still in the Church Christ, through his Pontiffs and ministers, pronounces the law. Whence, since princes and kings have given their name to Christ, they will not think they exercise judgments as is fitting, judge causes justly, and render justice justly, unless they have first consulted the law of Christ. Again, when Christian kings have disputes among themselves, let them seek judgment from Christ, that is, from his vicar on earth, and abide by it and obey it, and not pronounce right for themselves by arms. For to this end Christ left the head of the Christian Church after him on earth.