Commentaria in Isaiam
HE SHALL SHOUT AND CRY.—Soldiers are wont to shout in battle, to encourage one another and to terrify the enemy: so God through Christ and the Apostles will cry out against the idols and sins, and will overthrow them, and when they are overthrown, will shout and sound a cry of triumph. So St. Cyril, Procopius and others; though St. Jerome and St. Thomas refer this to the destruction of the Jews by Titus. This voice, then, signifies the efficacy of the preaching of Christ and of the Gospel, but without strife and turbulence of mind. For this he took from Christ, saying in verse 2: “He shall not cry.”
14. I HAVE ALWAYS HELD MY PEACE.—This is a mimesis and prosopopoeia. For the Prophet imitates the words of God, and brings him in speaking, as if to say: I, God, have for many ages permitted demons to rage against men, and idols and vices to rule over the Gentiles: I will bear it no longer, I will not suffer it, I will not be silent; but will speak like a woman in labor, who from the force of the pain with which she strains to bring forth the child cries out and roars. So I too, roaring, will thunder against my enemies, and rebuke them, condemn them and strike them with lightning. Whence it follows:
I will destroy and swallow up at once all my enemies. It can, secondly, be translated, with Vatablus and Forerius: I will pant and gasp together, that is, panting, and with frequent sobbing I will breathe out and breathe in, gulp out and gulp in: which is the case of those who are wearied either by labor, or by grief and anguish of mind, as if to say: I shall make such slaughter of enemies that from weariness I shall have to pant, breathing out and in together. Forerius takes this otherwise, and translates in the past: I panted and drew breath, and looks to the past time, which preceded vengeance and redemption, as if to say: I was silent for a long time, though indignant, and therefore sighing, groaning and panting, which is the same as what the Apostle says, Romans 9:22: “He endured with much patience vessels of wrath, fitted for destruction.” And therefore, not being able to bear it longer, I will speak as a woman in labor, and burst forth into sharp vengeance. For, as Cicero says: “A brave man never groans, unless perhaps he strikes, and gives a stronger blow.” As, therefore, the timid but boastful “in peace are lions, in battle deer”; so, on the contrary, the truly brave “in peace are deer, in battle lions.”
15. I WILL MAKE THE MOUNTAINS DESERT (in which were the high places, that is, the altars and temples of idols), AND I WILL TURN THE RIVERS INTO ISLANDS,—that is, into dry land, as if to say: I will dry up the rivers and pools. For the Gentiles worshipped their gods on mountains, in woods and by rivers, on account of their pleasantness and delights, altars being erected. Indeed also the Gentiles worshipped mountains, fountains and rivers as gods, and sacrificed to them. As Aeneas sacrificed to the Tiber, Aeneid 8. So Horace testifies, book 3, ode 13, that it was the custom to sacrifice to the fountain Blandusia. And Cicero teaches, book 3 On the Nature of the Gods, that temples were dedicated to fountains. And Herodotus testifies, book 7, that the Magi were wont to offer white horses to the river Strymon. Lastly Maximus asserts, sermon 18, that the Phrygians sacrificed to the Maeander, the Massagetae to the Tanais. So Sanchez. In this verse, then, there is a catachresis, signifying the overthrow of the kingdom of Satan, of impiety and sin, namely of groves, idols, etc. Again it signifies that the very kingdoms of the idolaters, and of the Jews, enemies of Christ, are also to be overthrown, say St. Jerome and Procopius, so that there may be no obstacle to the Gospel and the kingdom of Christ; but all the Gentiles may eagerly hear and receive it, and vie in joining themselves to it, and be enlightened by it with heavenly light. For this is what he says: that to the Gentiles, who, addicted to their lusts, followed neither the light of faith, nor of reason, nor of the law, this threefold light will be imparted through Christ, who is the light, the way, the truth and the life of the world, that henceforth they may walk not by the crooked paths of passions and vices, but by the straight paths of virtues, which lead to heaven.
THESE THINGS HAVE I DONE (that is, shall do) TO THEM;—for it is a prophecy, as is plain from what precedes.
17. THEY ARE TURNED BACK,—that is, they shall be turned back, that is, they shall be frustrated in their hope and vow. It is an antithesis, as if to say: My worshippers I will preserve, the idolaters I will put to shame by the splendor of the Gospel shining through the whole world. So Vatablus. What follows requires this sense: “Let them be greatly confounded that trust in a graven thing.” Secondly, Forerius, as if to say: The idolaters, convinced by the arguments of God, abandoned their cause and yielded, and turning their backs went away. Thirdly, Procopius and Sanchez take this of the Gentiles converted to Christ, but again apostatizing from him, and returning to their former idols and vices.
18. YE DEAF, HEAR: AND YE BLIND, BEHOLD THAT YOU MAY SEE.—This is said to the Jews, as if to say: When by the shining of the Gospel I enlighten the Gentiles, hitherto blind and deaf in the things of salvation, then you, O Jews, hitherto seeing and eloquent, will become blind, because you will not perceive the light offered by the Prophets and Christ; and deaf, because you will not wish to hear his voice: as now you do not wish to hear my oracles and those of the other Prophets, but deride them and hiss at them. This is plain from what follows;
19. WHO IS BLIND, BUT MY SERVANT?—namely the Jewish people, who would not receive the Prophets and Christ. So St. Jerome, Procopius, Theodoret, Justin, Chrysostom and others generally writing against the Jews.
The Jews and Vatablus expound this contrariwise, as if Isaias himself and Christ were here called blind and deaf by the Jews: for instead of “my messengers” (malachai), they expound, as if to say: O unbelieving Jews! in your opinion my servant Isaias is blind and ignorant of divine things: but you rather are the blind, who cannot see him who sees most, whence he is also called the Seer. And who is deaf in your opinion, as is my messenger Christ? as if to say: You will say the same of Christ, whom I am about to send, as of Isaias. For they, reading malachai with other points, translate thus: Who is blind but my servant; and deaf as my messenger whom I am about to send?
The Septuagint, for malachai with aleph, that is, my messengers, reading without aleph, melachat, translate, their rulers.
WHO IS BLIND, BUT HE THAT IS SOLD?—For “sold” the Hebrew is meshullam: which Vatablus first translates, perfect, as if to say: Israel ought to see perfectly, and know and worship God; but now is blind.
Secondly, Forerius translates, paid in full, as if to say: To Israel has been paid by God all that he promised; why then does it fall away from its God?
Thirdly, reading with other points meshallem, it signifies a repayer, as if to say: Israel, which ought for so many benefits to be grateful to God and a repayer, is now most ungrateful.
Fourthly, our version translates “sold,” which some explain thus: He who has wholly given himself over and sold himself to the devil and sin. But better from the Hebrew meshullam we shall take “sold” with Forerius and Sanchez for paid, repaid, requited. It is the epithet of a servant who has received so many gifts from the Lord that to pay for them he is not equal unless he repay himself to him, and enslave himself, and as it were sell himself. For so Israel has been so loaded with benefits by God that he owes him his soul, indeed even if he sold himself to him as a servant a thousand times, he would yet not satisfy them in equal measure. Much more is every Christian meshullam, that is, a bought servant of Christ, whom the Arabs call mamluk; whence the origin and rule of the Mamelukes among the Egyptians, as I said at 1 Corinthians 6:20: “You are bought with a great price.” This sense is illustrious, and pricks sinners with a sharp goad.
20. THOU WHO SEEST MANY THINGS;—as if to say: O servant! O my people! thou hast seen many things, many visions, revelations and prophecies, many portents and miracles thou hast received from thy God through the Prophets, and with open ears thou hast received them, and thou shalt hear more from Christ and the Apostles, by whom thou hast learned and shalt learn the will and commandments of God; and yet thou dost not care, dost not keep, dost not carry out what thou understandest through them is to be done by thee: wherefore I have deservedly called and do call thee blind in the midst of the light of the sun, and deaf among so many voices of God. So St. Jerome and Theodoret. This is what he said, chapter 6:9: “Hear, and understand not: and see the vision, and know it not.” Preachers may urge these same things on Christians who, at the words and threats, as at the benefits of God, are blind and deaf.