Commentaria in Isaiam
9. Gather yourselves together, ye people, and be overcome. Isaias, who from his watchtower foresaw the strength and multitude of the Assyrian enemies and had as it were trembled, at the name of Emmanuel takes back his spirit and courage, and by sarcasm mocks the enemies, the enemies, I say, both those present, Rasin and Phacee, and those who would come a little later under Ezechias, namely Sennacherib.
Go to, Syrians, Samaritans, Assyrians, fight against Jerusalem, prepare arms and engines, do whatever you can: you will gain nothing, but you will be conquered and cut down by the Angel, because Emmanuel (so it is in the Hebrew), that is, because God is with us; Emmanuel is our leader and protector, he is the whole cause of our victory. The same is to be thought and said by the faithful when rumors of war and tribulations come upon them.
11. As if he had taught me with a strong hand, that I should not walk in the way of this people. As if to say: God, by his wonderful and terrible inspiration and prophecy, by which he promises us help, threatens the Assyrians with disaster; as with a strong hand he instructed, that is, rebuked, and as if laying a hand upon me restrained and compelled me, Isaias, not to follow the way and counsel of a despairing people, who wished to fall away from their king Achaz to the enemies Rasin and Phacee; indeed he instructed me and commanded me to persuade others of the same and to say to them: “Say not: A conspiracy,” that is, do not conspire with the enemy against your king. The same is to be done and said by brave men when fear of war or sedition threatens, or a private conspiracy in some body or assembly. Or: “Say not, a conspiracy,” concerning the conspiracy of Rasin and Phacee against Jerusalem: for this was then all their talk: There is a conspiracy against us, the Syrians and Samaritans have conspired against Judea. So Sanchez.
12. And be not afraid of their fear (namely of the hostile army of the Syrians, or Rasin, of whom in verse 6),
13. Sanctify the Lord of hosts himself. That is, worship and glorify him as pious, faithful and holy, who stands by his promises and helps his own: this you will do by hoping in him, by committing yourselves and yours to him, by pleasing him through good works, by fearing and reverencing him, by obeying his law and will in all things: for he is the Lord of hosts; the Angels serve him, the heavens serve him, the winds serve him, all creatures serve him, by which they will most easily bring down the Syrians and all your enemies. For the Prophet could not but grieve when it came to his mind what that people was to suffer from enemies: “They shall fill,” he says, “the breadth of thy land, O Emmanuel,” with thee knowing and seeing it, even though thou art with us. But foreseeing that neither at that time was Jerusalem to be laid waste, nor in the last times were the Jews to be altogether destroyed by enemies, but rather that at that time the enemies were to be slain near Jerusalem, and that in the last days God would subject the world to the holy remnant, he cannot restrain himself from crying out: “Gather together,”
he will kill like fleas. He rebukes king Achaz, who, following the kings of Israel and forsaking God, took refuge in idols and the Syrians.
Morally, learn here that God is sanctified by hope: for his goodness, power and faithfulness are honored when we entrust ourselves and ours to him, who alone kills and makes alive, brings down to hell and brings back.
St. Peter alludes to this in his first epistle, chapter 3, when he says: “And be not afraid of their fear, and be not troubled; but sanctify the Lord Christ.” Truly Seneca says: “The best mind (such as that of one who hopes in God) is the most beautiful worship of God.”
Let him be your fear. That is, the object of your fear, namely him whom you should fear, that is, revere and religiously worship. “God demands to be feared as Lord, honored as Father, loved as Bridegroom,” says St. Bernard, sermon 83 on the Canticle. So Jacob “swore by the fear of his father Isaac,” that is, by the God whom Isaac feared and worshipped, Genesis 31:53; hence some derive Deus, that is God, from deos, that is fear; for Fear first made gods in the world.
And let him be your terror, both passively, that you may dread him as a terrible avenger, and actively, that he may make you terrible to your enemies. Whence the Chaldee renders, let him be your strength, and this is what the Hebrew maarits signifies.
God will sanctify those who believe and hope in him and set them apart for himself, and will protect them as holy, faithful to him and set apart, from every incursion of enemies, and he will be to you as a sanctuary and refuge, as can be rendered from the Hebrew, and as Vatablus renders it.
But for a stone of stumbling, and for a rock of scandal (he shall be) to the two houses of Israel. By the two houses or families he means the two kingdoms of Israel, one of two tribes, the other of ten, namely Juda and Samaria. Here the Prophet turns to the impious and unbelieving, such as most were in Juda and Samaria. As if to say: As God will bring sanctification, protection and safety to the pious in Juda, as I have already promised, so conversely to the impious Jews, turned to idols, above all those of Jerusalem, he will bring stumbling, ruin and disaster. Again, he will be to them as a rock of scandal and stumbling; for seeing themselves taken and ravaged they will be scandalized, and will say: Our God is not as strong as we thought; for he could not deliver us from our enemies.
Allegorically, this is said of Christ, who was to the Jews a stone of stumbling and a rock of scandal, as Paul explains, Romans 9:32. See what is said there.
16. Bind up the testimony, seal the law among my disciples. First, our Sanchez thinks that the scroll in which Isaias, in verse 4, was commanded to write, “Make haste to take away the spoils, make speed to take the prey,” is here called first “the testimony,” because it was confirmed by the witnesses Urias and Zacharias; secondly “the law,” that is, the edict. As if to say: I, God, commanded you, O Isaias, in verse 1, that this scroll be explained and the mysteries set clearly before the people (as Isaias has done until now); now I command it to be bound, that is, folded up and sealed, that is, closed, because I see that the unskilled multitude will not understand it, that it may be kept for my disciples, who will explain, read and understand it. For a prophecy is said to be closed and sealed when it is obscure and is to be explained after a long time, when it actually comes to pass, late and slowly.
Secondly, Adam thinks that this prophecy, by which God through Isaias revealed and testified his will to the Jews, is called “the testimony” and “the law,” and that there is a metaphor in the word “bind,” taken from those who, fearing to forget something, tie something on the hand or fingers, by which they are reminded of the matter and recall it to memory. As if to say: Even if the common people neglect these prophecies of yours, nevertheless do you set them down, write them and gather them, because at least my children, that is, the disciples who believe in me, especially the Apostles in the time of Christ, will understand and observe them; for Christ will hand over and open to them the key of Holy Scripture. This sense is very plain and fitting: for “among the disciples,” in Hebrew idiom, is the same as “in” or “to the disciples,” or “for the disciples.”
Whence Vatablus also expounds thus, as if to say: “Bind,” that is, cover with wrappings this prophecy of the coming Christ, when you shall have set it before the eyes of my disciples and of those whom I shall teach through you and others, and shall have explained it to them, and so cover it that it cannot be understood by others. It is a metaphor from merchants, who pack up their wares, which they afterwards bind and cover with cloth.
Thirdly, Ribera on Hebrews 2 explains thus, as if to say: The Gospel law will be closed and sealed to the Jews in the disciples, that is, through my disciples, who will carry it from the Jews to the Gentiles. Whence the Septuagint render, then shall they be manifest who seal the law, that is, those to whom the law is sealed and closed, that they may not learn.
17. I will wait for the Lord. As if to say: Although the Lord seems to have forgotten his people, and to have hidden and turned away his face from it, yet I will not cast away hope, but will wait for him, even though he delay; because the Lord will have mercy on his people, and therefore some even now, but in the time of Christ many more, will be converted from it; for to that people I and my children have been given for a sign and a wonder, as follows.