Commentaria in Isaiam
Chapter 1
First, he exaggerates and condemns the sins of the people. Second, he threatens punishment, namely the destruction of the nation, when he says in verse 7: Your land is desolate, etc. Third, he shows how by penance they can appease God, when he says in verse 16: Wash yourselves, be clean, etc. Thus far Isaias acts the preacher and teaches the manner and order of preaching, which our preachers should imitate. Fourth, he acts properly the Prophet, when in verse 26 he flies off to Christ and the Apostles, and in verse 31 to the fire of Gehenna.
1. The vision of Isaias the son of Amos, which he saw concerning Juda and Jerusalem, in the days of Ozias, Joathan, Achaz, and Ezechias, kings of Juda. 2. Hear, O ye heavens, and give ear, O earth, for the Lord hath spoken. I have brought up children, and exalted them: but they have despised me. 3. The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib: but Israel hath not known me, and my people hath not understood. 4. Woe to the sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a wicked seed, ungracious children: they have forsaken the Lord, they have blasphemed the Holy One of Israel, they are gone away backwards. 5. For what shall I strike you any more, you that increase transgression? the whole head is sick, and the whole heart is sad. 6. From the sole of the foot unto the top of the head, there is no soundness therein: wounds, and bruises, and swelling sores: they are not bound up, nor dressed, nor fomented with oil. 7. Your land is desolate, your cities are burnt with fire: your country strangers devour before your face, and it shall be desolate as when wasted by enemies. 8. And the daughter of Sion shall be left as a covert in a vineyard, and as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, and as a city that is laid waste. 9. Unless the Lord of hosts had left us seed, we had been as Sodom, and we should have been like to Gomorrha. 10. Hear the word of the Lord, ye princes of Sodom: give ear to the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrha. 11. To what purpose do you offer me the multitude of your victims, saith the Lord? I am full, I desire not holocausts of rams, and fat of fatlings, and blood of calves, and lambs, and buck goats. 12. When you came to appear before me, who required these things at your hands, that you should walk in my courts? 13. Offer sacrifice no more in vain: incense is an abomination to me. The new moons, and the sabbaths, and other festivals I will not abide, your assemblies are wicked. 14. My soul hateth your calends and your solemnities: they are become troublesome to me, I am weary of bearing them. 15. And when you stretch forth your hands, I will turn away my eyes from you: and when you multiply prayer, I will not hear: for your hands are full of blood. 16. Wash yourselves, be clean, take away the evil of your devices from my eyes: cease to do perversely, 17. Learn to do well: seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge for the fatherless, defend the widow. 18. And then come, and accuse me, saith the Lord: if your sins be as scarlet, they shall be made as white as snow: and if they be red as crimson, they shall be as white as wool. 19. If you be willing, and will hearken to me, you shall eat the good things of the land. 20. But if you will not, and will provoke me to wrath: the sword shall devour you, because the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. 21. How is the faithful city, that was full of judgment, become a harlot? justice dwelt in it, but now murderers. 22. Thy silver is turned into dross: thy wine is mingled with water. 23. Thy princes are faithless, companions of thieves: they all love bribes, they run after rewards. They judge not for the fatherless: and the widow’s cause cometh not in to them. 24. Therefore saith the Lord the God of hosts, the mighty one of Israel: Ah, I will comfort myself over my adversaries, and I will be revenged of my enemies. 25. And I will turn my hand to thee, and I will clean purge away thy dross until it be pure, and I will take away all thy tin. 26. And I will restore thy judges as they were before, and thy counsellors as of old: after this thou shalt be called the city of the just, a faithful city. 27. Sion shall be redeemed in judgment, and they shall bring her back in justice: 28. And he shall destroy the wicked and the sinners together: and they that have forsaken the Lord shall be consumed. 29. For they shall be confounded for the idols to which they have sacrificed: and you shall be ashamed of the gardens which you have chosen, 30. When you shall be as an oak with the leaves falling off, and as a garden without water. 31. And your strength shall be as the ashes of tow, and your work as a spark: and both shall be kindled together, and there shall be none to quench it.
1. THE VISION OF ISAIAS THE SON OF AMOS, WHICH HE SAW CONCERNING JUDA AND JERUSALEM IN THE DAYS OF OZIAS, etc.—This is the title of the book, containing the name of the author himself or prophet, and of the people to whom he prophesies, and the time at which he prophesied, namely under Ozias or Azarias, Joatham, Achaz and Ezechias, kings of Juda.
Note first: “vision,” that is, a thing seen or sight, namely prophecy, which Isaias saw not with the eyes of the body, but with the imagination, or rather with the mind and intellect: where to see and to hear are often the same, namely to know a thing clearly. For although Isaias sometimes saw certain symbols, as in chapter 6 he saw God on a throne with the Seraphim; yet commonly he only heard God speaking to him.
Second, he says “vision” rather than prophecy, both to indicate the certainty of his prophecy, because, as St. Basil says, sight is the most certain of the senses; and that we may know that Isaias in this illumination of God beheld not so much a foreknowledge of a future thing as a clear sight of a present one; for in God’s foreknowledge and foresight all things, even future ones, are as it were present. So Cyril. St. Gregory relates in book 2 of the Dialogues, chapter 35, concerning St. Benedict, that in prayer he was so raised in mind to God that he saw beneath him the whole world as a small globe gathered in the rays of the sun. Asked how this could be, he answers, and assigns the cause and manner, saying: “Because to one who sees God every creature is narrow,” and the mind of St. Benedict, enlarged in God, saw the world beneath it like a little globe. In like manner our Prophets. They were so raised in spirit to God that they beheld even remote things as if set before them, and therefore their prophecy is called Vision, and they themselves are called Seers, as the book of Addo the Seer, that is, the Prophet; and Saul to Samuel: “Where is the house of the seer?” to whom Samuel: “I am the seer,” that is, the Prophet, 1 Kings 9, 18. This foresight God communicated to the Prophets, but most of all to Isaias. For Isaias sets forth what he foretells so distinctly and clearly that whoever reads it thinks he sees present things rather than hopes for future ones. So Thales, being asked “how far truth is from falsehood?” answered: “As far as the eyes from the ears.” The wise man felt that those things at last are of indubitable credit which are seen with men’s eyes, not those heard with the ears.
Third, Prophecies often take these three as the same, namely “vision, word, burden,” that is, for prophecy, of which chapter 13, 4. See Canon 1.
Fourth, he says “vision,” not mine, but Isaias’s: not so much for modesty as for the sake of history, namely that in later ages it may be known that this book is Isaias’s, and no other’s; for it is for this reason that writers prefix their name to the books they publish.
THE SON OF AMOS.—This Amos is different from the Amos who is the third among the minor Prophets, as I said in the Preface. The Hebrews hold that both were Prophets; for they hand down this rule: whenever in the title of the Prophets the father, or grandfather, or great-grandfather of a Prophet is named, it is signified that each of them was a Prophet; but this rule seems doubtful, and to the learned false, of which matter I shall treat elsewhere.
WHICH HE SAW (that is, heard from God) UPON JUDA AND JERUSALEM.—The Septuagint: which he saw against Juda and Jerusalem. For the Hebrew al signifies upon and against: here you may better render “upon.” For Isaias foretells not only adverse things but also joyful things to Juda. Under “Juda” understand also the Tribe of Benjamin; for this, in the schism of the ten Tribes under Jeroboam, adhered with Juda to Roboam and the house of David; as if to say: This book of Isaias contains both the prosperous and the adverse things which he foresaw in spirit, to befall in the days of Ozias, Joatham, Achaz and Ezechias the descendants of Juda and Benjamin, and above all the people of Jerusalem, partly under those very kings, partly after them. For “in the days of Ozias” is to be referred to “saw,” as is plain; for although Isaias, chapter 13 and following, prophesies also against the Babylonians, Medes, Syrians, Egyptians, etc., yet chiefly and most commonly he prophesies to the Jews. Hence he inscribes his prophecy to them.