Commentaria in Isaiam
or is to be taken away; as if to say: The Jewish nation, thus multiplying after the destruction by Titus, will again after 50 years be so laid waste by the Emperor Hadrian that scarcely one out of ten is left; for this is what to decimate means here: for it is not taken properly, so as to be the same as to take away one out of ten; for Hadrian afflicted the Jews, rebelling again, with greater slaughter than Titus, and almost destroyed them, so that by edict he forbade fugitives to return to their land and to look upon it: whence the Jews, thus dispersed, most miserable, were, are and will be a spectacle and derision, as Isaias here foretells. So St. Jerome, Cyril, Rupert, Haymo and others.
Note: for decimation the Hebrew is asiriah, which signifies a tenth, a decade. Whence it is variously explained by various persons.
First, thus, “decimation,” that is, the carrying away of the ten tribes into Assyria, shall take place in Israel.
Secondly, Vatablus thus, as if to say: Yet in Juda there shall be a decade, that is, ten kings (for so many there were from Joatham son of Ozias to Sedecias); and in the tenth (Sedecias) reigning the Jews shall again be cast out, and destroyed.
Thirdly, Adam, as if to say: Nine parts of the Jews will be laid waste by the Romans, the tenth part due to God will be given to him, and there shall be a holy seed (for from the tenth of the fruits things were consecrated to God), that is, the tenth part of the Jews shall be converted to Christ. So also St. Basil, Arias, Osorius, Pintus and Alcazar on this passage.
Fourthly, Sanchez, as if to say: Nine parts of the Jews will be destroyed by enemies, namely the Chaldeans or the Romans; the tenth part left will be gleaned and destroyed by God, and will be as it were a nation devoted and consecrated to his wrath, no otherwise than a victim to the altar and the knife.
Fifthly, the same: To decimate, he says, is to lay waste ten times, and “decimation” is a devastation repeated ten times, as if to say: Juda will be laid waste often and many times: for ten is a symbol of multitude; hence some enumerate ten devastations of the Jews after the times of Isaias thus: the first was made by Salmanasar, who carried off the Ten Tribes; the second, by Sennacherib; the third, by Asarhaddon, who carried off King Manasses in chains; the fourth, by Pharao Nechao, who slew Josias; the fifth, by Nabuchodonosor; the sixth, by Nabuzardan; the seventh, by Antiochus Epiphanes; the eighth, by Pompey; the ninth, by Titus; the tenth, by Hadrian.
Sixthly, most aptly the Chaldean: The Jews, he says, shall be decimated, that is, one out of ten shall be left; only the tenth part of the Jews shall remain, as after the vintage the vineyard is gleaned, that is, the remaining clusters are gathered, so that scarcely one out of ten remains. To decimate, therefore, here is the same as to glean. For so Hadrian gleaned the Jews, as I have said.
AND IT SHALL BE CONVERTED, AND SHALL BE FOR A SHOWING.—Note the Hebrew enallage, by which the verbs I turn, I return, I add, I join are put for the adverbs again, once more, further: “it shall be converted,” therefore, “and shall be for a showing,” that is, again it shall be for a showing. So it is said in Psalm 84:7: “Thou wilt turn again and quicken us,” that is, thou wilt again quicken us; and in Psalm 77:41: “They turned back and tempted God,” that is, they again tempted God: the same phrase is frequent in the Psalms. So Forerius.
FOR A SHOWING.—First, that devastated Judea may be shown to all nations as an example of the just vengeance of God, by which other nations may be struck, lest by their impiety they provoke God.
Namely, that Juda may be a spectacle and a laughing-stock to the Gentiles, so that it is pointed at by them with the finger as foolish and stupid (the Hebrew taar signifies foolish), or as infamous for such great crimes and its punishments, according to what Moses threatened them, Deuteronomy chap. 29: “And all nations shall say: Why hath the Lord done thus to this land? What is the meaning of this heat of his great wrath? And they shall answer: Because they forsook the covenant of the Lord.”
Fourthly, it can be rendered with the Chaldean, it shall be for burning up.
AS A TEREBINTH, AND AS AN OAK WHICH SPREADETH OUT HER BRANCHES,—namely dry and dead ones, and therefore unsightly: for “spreadeth out” the Hebrew is bescallechet, that is, it sheds, throws off, casts down its leaves, so that it spreads out and shows only bare, naked, dry branches, and those few and short, which are therefore called in Hebrew mattsebet, that is, a stock (in them, namely in the terebinth and the oak), from which again in spring a new shoot may grow green, and the holy seed that follows may spring up. Hence the Chaldean renders, they shall be like a terebinth and like an oak, which when their leaves fall away seem as it were dry, and yet retain moisture, so that seed is sustained from them; and so he said in chap. 1, verse 30: “When you shall be as an oak with the leaves falling off.”
Secondly, the Septuagint render mattsebet as husk; for they have, they shall be like an acorn that falls from its husk. For as this is food for swine, so Juda shall be the prey of enemies. Others render, they shall be like a chestnut that falls from its husk, as if to say: As a chestnut, so long as it is enclosed in its thorny husk, is safe, but when that opens it is prey for swine: so Israel, so long as it was fenced by the protection of God, was safe from enemies; now stripped of it, it shall be plundered by them. So Sanchez.
Thirdly, Vatablus renders, as an elm and an oak when a prop is put under them, so the holy seed shall be its prop, and he explains thus: As in the elm and the oak, when the leaves are cast off, there is a certain generative force, by whose help in the new spring they put forth leaves and foliage again: so shall it be with the inhabitants of Juda, who when they are thought to be dead in Babylon will then return and flourish again, and produce a holy seed, that is, holy sons, so that from them may be born the Holy of holies, Christ the Lord.
THE HOLY SEED SHALL BE THAT WHICH STANDETH IN IT.—Theodotion renders, the holy seed shall be the pillar of its foundation. For the Hebrew mattsebet signifies a statue, a pillar, a support, a stay. Aquila renders, the holy seed shall be its bud, as if to say: Although this tree (terebinth or oak), that is the people of the Jews, may seem in the slaughter of Titus and Hadrian to have died, yet there will be preserved in it some bud and holy seed, namely Christ the Lord, who is the pillar and base of all holiness: whose branches will soon fill the whole world, through whom the remnants of the Jews shall be saved, and into whom, as into a fruitful olive, the Gentiles like wild olives shall be grafted, Romans 11. So nearly St. Jerome, the Chaldean and others.
For the Prophet is wont to fly from sad things to joyful, from earthly to spiritual, and to promise Christ the Saviour to the afflicted Jews. Hence, secondly, “the holy seed,” that is, the holy offspring, are the Jews believing in Christ. For the same is said here as he said in chap. 4, verse 3: “And every one that shall be left in Sion, etc., shall be called holy.” The “holy seed,” then, are the Apostles and the other first Christians, from whom the race of saints has been propagated through the whole world.
Note: the Hebrews call zera, that is seed, not only the grains of seed, but the very stocks, shoots and buds, from which, as from seed, leaves, foliage and fruits are generated. Not the trunk of the tree itself, therefore, but the branches or stocks on the trunk are here called seed: for the trunk is the very tree on which this seed stands, that is, the stocks and branches, which he therefore calls in Hebrew mattsebet, as the stay of future budding and propagation, as our Interpreter renders.
CHAPTER SEVEN. Here begins the second general prophecy of Isaias, which extends to chap. 13, and was made under Achaz, a most wicked king (for the first, which has been expounded from chap. 1 to here, was made under Ozias and Joatham). It treats chiefly of Emmanuel to be born of a virgin, and of his salvation, victory, graces and triumphs. In this chapter, therefore, Isaias promises aid and deliverance to Achaz and Juda, who feared destruction from the Syrians and Samaritans, but threatens the Syrians and Samaritans with destruction. Secondly, verse 10, he offers and gives a sign of this, that of Emmanuel to be born of a virgin. Thirdly, verse 17, he threatens Achaz and the unbelieving Jews with slaughter by the Egyptians and destruction by the Chaldeans.
Note: the following chapters 8, 9 and 10 are connected, and repeat and press the same thing as before; for chap. 8 teaches that Emmanuel is to be called the swift plunderer: because through the Assyrians he will lay waste the kingdom of Syria and Samaria, and through himself the kingdom of the devil. Chap. 9 assigns six other names which signify the power and endowments of Emmanuel, and again threatens Syria and Samaria with devastation. Chap. 10 denounces the siege and affliction of the Jews and of Ezechias by the Assyrian Sennacherib, and then at length the destruction of Sennacherib himself and the slaughter inflicted on him by an angel.