Commentaria in Isaiam
You will say: that rebuking of the princes by Isaias and the prophets was already sixty years past. I answer: so it is, but the princes revived it against the new king Manasses, who, being an impious and bloody man, when he was again rebuked in a like manner by Isaias, and on account of the other former rebukes of the princes made by Isaias, committed to writing and published, which were read daily by many, put him to death.
Hear St. Jerome relating the calumnies against Isaias and other matters concerning him and Manasses, in his Questions on the second book of Paralipomenon, near the end: “The Hebrews relate,” he says, “that this same Manasses was the son of the daughter of Isaias, and therefore in this place, although the name of his mother is written, that of his father is not written; because the profane king was unworthy of so great a grandfather. The Hebrews relate that Isaias was put to death for this reason, that he had called them princes of Sodom and Gomorrha. And because he said: I saw the Lord sitting; whereas through Moses He had said: For man shall not see me and live. And because he said: God will add to thy days fifteen years; whereas through Moses He had said: I will fulfil the number of thy days. And because he said: Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call upon him while he is near; whereas it is said: What nation is there so great that hath gods so nigh them, as our God is present to all our petitions? And Manasses knew that the Lord himself is God. For when he had been led into Babylon, and put into a vessel of brass full of holes, and fire applied, he called upon all the names of the idols which he worshipped; and when he was neither heard nor delivered by them, he remembered what he had often heard from his father: When thou shalt call upon me in tribulation, and shalt be converted, I will hear thee, as it is written in Deuteronomy; and he was heard by the Lord, and delivered and brought back to his kingdom, and in the manner of Habacuc was brought back, as he had been led away into Babylon.”
St. Epiphanius and Dorotheus, in the Life of Isaias, relate that by his prayers he obtained the fountain and waters of Siloe, and add that when enemies were occupying Jerusalem, this fountain gave water to the Jews when they came; but when the enemies came, it withdrew its waters; and that therefore the Jews buried Isaias near Siloe, that by his prayers he might make its waters perennial to the end of the world. Dorotheus adds that Isaias before he was sawn asunder asked for water, and that it was sent by God from this fountain; whence it was called Siloe, which is interpreted Sent. Others tell the matter thus, namely that Isaias before his death asked the executioner for water, and when the executioner refused, heavenly water by God’s act flowed into the mouth of Isaias, and that this water was called Siloe because it was sent from heaven; so that Isaias sawn asunder was a type of Christ, to whom likewise stretched on the cross and thirsting the Jews denied wine and water, and offered gall instead. But let the credit of these accounts rest with those who tell them. Finally Cedrenus relates that in the 35th year of Theodosius the Younger the relics of Isaias were translated to Paneas and laid in the church of St. Laurence. Finally hear the praises of Isaias gathered together by Ecclesiasticus, chapter 48, verse 23: “He purged them (the Jews) by the hand of Isaias the holy prophet. He overthrew the camp of the Assyrians, and the angel of the Lord destroyed them. For Ezechias did that which pleased God, and walked strongly in the way of David his father, which Isaias the prophet commanded him, who was great, and faithful in the sight of God. In his days the sun went backward, and he lengthened the king’s life. With a great spirit he saw the things to come, and comforted the mourners in Sion. He showed what should come to pass for ever, and hidden things before they came.”
Fourth, what is the subject of this whole work and book of Isaias? I answer. The work is as it were summed up in its very first chapter. For both in chapter 1 and throughout the whole work after it he reprehends the sins of the people of his time, namely ignorance and neglect of God, pride, confidence in their own strength and works, contempt of their wretched brethren, frauds in public judgments, sodomy, and above all idolatry. Second, he passes often to the rejection of the Jews, the calling of the Gentiles, and other mysteries of Christ and the Church; and this he often does covertly and suddenly, as if flying off from the type to the antitype, from the Jews to Christ and the Christians; for this is the manner and rapture of the prophets, most of all of Isaias; for which reason he is the more obscure. Wherefore there are two principal parts of this work: the first has a sad oracle, of reproach and threatening; and contains five sections, and extends from chapter 1 to 40. The first section is from chapter 1 to 6, in which he charges the Jews with their crimes, and threatens them with disaster, first the Assyrian through Sennacherib, then the Babylonian through Nabuchodonosor, then the Roman through Titus, and finally, in chapter 6, their blinding and rejection at the time of Christ. The second section extends from chapter 6 to 12, in which he vividly depicts the birth of Emmanuel from a virgin, his victory, names, dominion, grace, preaching, the conversion of the Gentiles, the seven gifts of the Holy Ghost, the cross, the glorious sepulchre, and the triumph by a song of victory. The third section from chapter 13 to chapter 24 contains burdens, that is, prophecies of the destruction of Babylon, of the Philistines, Moab, Damascus, Ethiopia, Egypt, Idumea, Arabia, Juda, and of Tyre by Nabuchodonosor. The fourth from chapter 24 to 27 contains a burden, that is, a prophecy of the destruction of the world on account of the impiety of men, at the end of the world; of the Gehenna of the reprobate, of the glory of the few to be saved, and their canticles and hymns of thanksgiving, and of the vengeance and destruction of the kingdom of Leviathan, that is, of the devil. The fifth from chapter 27 to 39 returns to the burdens of the present time, and treats of various things in mixed order, namely the destruction of the ten tribes, then of the two, then of Sennacherib, then of the whole world, then of unbelief and impiety up to the coming of Christ, as far as chapter 36; for there, up to chapter 40, the prophecy passes to the history of Sennacherib and Ezechias, and relates that what he had foretold of them was in fact fulfilled.
The latter principal part of Isaias has a sweet and joyful oracle concerning Christ and the Church, consisting of exhortations, consolations and promises; and although this part is often mingled with the former, it properly begins at chapter 40 and extends to the end of the book. In it Isaias often rejoices and exults, especially where (as he does very often) he treats of the calling of the Gentiles to the faith, grace and salvation of Christ.
Moreover the style and eloquence of Isaias in this so manifold subject is manifold and admirable; for now he rises sublime, now humbly lowers himself; now he gladdens his style with an abundant flow, now draws it tight and sharpens it, now slows and quickens it; now he threatens, now gently consoles; now he kindly rouses the docile, now violently drives on the resisting, and as it were strikes them down with thunder. Whence Isaias is called by St. Chrysostom, homily 8 on Genesis, “a most eloquent prophet.” Note first: Besides this book Isaias wrote Ghost: which error and heresy has been rejected.
which contains the secrets of the divine Trinity and the redemption of fallen mankind. Sixtus of Siena is witness, in his work on Isaias.
that Isaias wrote Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and the Canticle of Canticles. But it is the common opinion of Catholics that these are not Isaias’s, but Solomon’s.
Fifth, who and what sort are the commentators here? I answer: First, says St. Jerome, Origen wrote on Isaias 30 volumes and 25 homilies (of which, however, only nine now remain, and these almost all on chapter 6.)