Commentaria in Isaiam
The false prophet is called the tail. First, because he is the vilest, as in this age we have seen shoemakers, cobblers, grooms and undertakers become prophets, that is, ministers and preachers of the word of God among heretics. Secondly, because like a dog he fawns with the tail on his own, but with the same, like a scorpion, instils the venom of his heresy and impiety. The same is called the one who holds the reins, because by his false oracles and dogmas he bridles and bends the people. The same is called the rush. First, because this bridle of his is of rush, that is, fragile, futile and empty. Secondly, because like a rush drawing water he sucks up and drains the wealth of the people. Thirdly, because he is more prickly than a rush, and pierces his own with the sting of eternal death. Fourthly, because like a rush he is soft and pliant, and teaches soft things pleasing to the flesh. Fifthly, because as a rush is easily bent, so he bends his neck and head to feign piety and humility. For he is a hypocrite, whence of such Isaias says, chapter 58, verse 5: “Shall he bend his head like a circle?” where for “circle” the Hebrew is agmon, that is, rush. Wherefore Vatablus and Martin render: that he bend, or twist his head like a rush.
Tropologically, St. Jerome: “In calling them tail,” he says, “he shows that heretics are not men but beasts of burden, which use this member to cover their dung and to ward off small creatures.”
Choleus and some others refer both to princes: for they bend and rein their subjects. Whence from the Hebrew agmon, which our version renders “the one who holds the reins,” in Chaldee is hegmon, he who presides and commands, and thence in Greek hegemon is called leader and prince. So the Chaldee renders, chapter 19, verse 15: and there shall not be in Egypt a king to reign, nor prince, nor satrap, nor prefect, nor ruler.
Others expound thus: the one who bows down is the old man, who walks bent; the one who holds the reins is the false prophet, who reins the people back from good, delays and restrains them; or rather, the one who holds the reins is the bold and strong youth, who needs a bridle, lest he be carried headlong by following the heat and impulse of his youth.
Others take by the one who bows down the common people, who bend and bow to the orders of the powerful; by the one who holds the reins the princes, who rule the people with their edicts and laws as with a bridle.
Thirdly, Jerome in his Commentary renders “bending and perverting,” and refers both to the tail, that is, to the false prophet. For he bends, twists and perverts the right oracles and precepts of God: as the serpent bends its tail in a winding curve, and twists and coils it in many spirals. This proverb Isaias repeats, chapter 19, verse 19, but otherwise, and applies to others.
17. Therefore the Lord shall not rejoice over their young men. As if to say: Offended by this flattery and falsehood of the false teachers and prophets, and by the vanity and impenitence of this people, the Lord will not be kindly or beneficent even to the softer and gentler age, namely youth, which is wont to be the care and delight of parents, nor will he have mercy even on wretched persons, such as orphans and widows, whom he is wont to protect with special care, because all are wicked and transgressors of the law. It is a metalepsis: for from joy is understood love, kindness and goodwill; so “he will not have mercy” means he will not be merciful, will not be moved by pity, will not spare, will not do good.
Note: God is said to rejoice over, or in, a people when the people obey God’s precepts, and therefore God does it good; but he is said to grieve over sinners when he turns away from their crimes and purposes to punish them. Whence Genesis 6:6 says he was “touched with sorrow of heart within.” Hence the Apostle also says: “Grieve not the Holy Spirit,” Ephesians 4:30. Do you wish, then, to gladden God? Do the works of virtue that please him, in which he himself delights and is fed. For in God delight and joy are true, as is love concerning good things; just as in him also are hatred and sadness, that is, aversion and detestation concerning evil things: yet here sadness brings God no pain, anxiety or distress, as it does in us.
18. For wickedness is kindled as a fire. He compares the wickedness of Israel, spreading widely and dominating, to a fire laying everything waste, as if to say: As fire sent into a forest first seizes the briers and thorns, then creeps and passes through the shrubs, the trees and the whole forest, so that the whole thickness of the wood is wrapped up in pride, that is, in the loftiness and height of the smoke rising even to heaven, so wickedness in Israel first seized the straw and briers, that is, the ignoble, then spread through the trees and cedars, that is, the nobles and chiefs, and laid everything waste with the fire of sin, so that it enveloped all Israel in its guilt and fault, and consequently the same whole in its punishment and in the burning and devastation by the enemy, and shall be wrapped up in the pride of smoke. In Hebrew: they shall lift themselves up according to the lifting of the smoke, as if to say: Their pride like smoke will be dissipated and vanish; or: The thorn and the forest will be wrapped together in the highest fire and smoke, as I said.
19. By the wrath of the Lord of hosts the land is troubled. He shows the prepared material and the cause of the conflagration, as if to say: As God’s indignation grew, all Israel was wrapped in the smoke of error and darkened with blindness, and was all shaken and torn by the very flames of the passions; so that, given over to a reprobate sense, it became as it were fuel and nourishment of the future fire by which it would be consumed. Understand the fire of internal seditions, by which both the Israelites among themselves, and the Jews also afterwards, fell. Of the Jews the history of the Machabees, of Josephus and of Hegesippus teaches this: of Israel it is plain from the fact that servants rising against their masters killed them; as when king Phacee was killed by Osee, which, though the history of Kings passes over it briefly, is yet not likely to have been done without slaughter and tumult. Afterwards also Osee wished to revolt to So, king of Egypt, which was soon reported by others to the king of the Assyrians, and is a sign that there were then dissensions in Israel, 4 Kings chapter 17 and following.
19 and 20. No man shall spare his brother. And he shall turn to the right hand, as if to say: So great will be the rage and cruelty of the Israelites, and their hunger, that as a wild beast pressed by hunger rages among the herds, and now on the right, now on the left slaughters the cattle, so they too will rage among their brothers and neighbors. So St. Jerome.
20. Every one shall devour the flesh of his own arm; Manasses Ephraim. As if to say: Each will despoil of wealth and life his sons, brothers and all neighbors, as we see fools and madmen rage against their own hands and arms. Brothers and kinsmen are called such because these are as one body of kinship, and each is as it were a member of the other. Wherefore by Christ and by Paul our neighbors are called our hands, feet and eyes. For as branches spring from one trunk and thence go off in different directions, and as arms spring from one body, so brothers, sons and kinsmen come from one stock, namely a father or grandfather. Note: To eat another’s flesh, or to drink his blood, is a symbol of the utmost hatred and cruelty.
Manasses Ephraim, one tribe the other. He names these two because they were own brothers, namely sons of Joseph born of the same mother, between whom there is wont and ought to be a greater union than between mere half-brothers or kinsmen.
And they together shall be against Juda. As if to say: The Ephraimites and Manassites, who before, divided by hatreds among themselves, rushed into mutual slaughter, will afterwards conspire in their way against Juda. This is the way of the impious: so Herod and Pilate did against Christ. So in the time of Julian the Apostate the Jews and Gentiles against Christians. So now and of old heretics tearing one another conspire against the Catholic Church, as St. Jerome and Rupert note here.
21. But his hand is stretched out still. This third is a repetition of this verse, by which he passes to Juda alone, as if to say: You have seen the punishments of the ten tribes, you imitate their examples, and are not frightened; expect therefore heavier punishments from the stretched-out hand of God. So it is wont to be: when God strikes our neighbors and those near us, then he wishes us to repent: if we are unwilling, he strikes us also. This is what Psalm 59:6 says: “Thou hast given a warning to them that fear thee, that they may flee from before the bow: that thy beloved may be delivered,” namely, escaping a like punishment by their amendment. So in Osee 5:8, Ephraim is roused to penance by the punishment of the cities set before him, which were as it were behind him, and he is bidden to look at them.