Commentaria in Isaiam
Note the arrogance of the tyrant when he says: “My hand hath found,” as if to say: I conquered the kingdoms so easily that I do not deign to call it conquest, but a kind of finding of prey lying in the way. With similar arrogance Mezentius says in Virgil:
My right hand is my god, and the dart I hurl.
15. Shall the axe boast itself against him that cutteth with it? He rebukes the pride and folly of Sennacherib, who attributed to himself and his forces so many victories, as if to say: These things were not accomplished by your forces; I used you as an instrument. What is more foolish than if the axe should say to him that cuts: It is I who with my strength have hewn the wood? if the saw should say to him that saws: I by myself have sawn the wood? if the staff, in itself immovable, should say to him that strikes: I lifted myself on high, and struck all these? Why then do you, O Sennacherib! since you are only an axe, sword and instrument (though a living and human one) of the will and wrath of God, grow proud, and ascribe so many victories to yourself? For it is God who gave you strength, courage, soldiers, success and victory; it is God who cast fear and dread on the Jews and other nations, so that they dared not resist you. Again, God had no need of your arms; he could by himself, he could by others, he could by gnats alone and ants destroy the Jews and his enemies, as by them he destroyed the Chanaanites, Josue 24:12.
16. Therefore the sovereign Lord, the Lord of hosts, shall send leanness among his fat ones, that is, he will make the fat, brawny and strong soldiers of Sennacherib lean, weak and feeble, when he shall slay them by an Angel, 4 Kings 19.
And under his glory shall be kindled (the leanness and wasting of the Assyrians, which went before) a burning like the burning of a fire. As if to say: I will consume the glorious army of Sennacherib, as bundles and stubble are consumed if you set fire to them. The Hebrews relate, according to St. Jerome, that out of his army only ten escaped, and that the bodies of the soldiers, as the Angel struck them, were burned by a hidden fire, their garments and arms unharmed.
17. And the light of Israel shall be as a fire, and the Holy One thereof as a flame. The light of Israel and its Holy One is God the avenger, who is called by Moses and Paul “a consuming fire”; for as the sun refreshes some by its light and scorches others by its heat, so God is light and joy to the good, and a burning fire to the wicked. Or certainly it is the Angel of God who struck one hundred and eighty-three thousand of the Assyrians, and that by a hidden fire, flame and plague, if we believe the Hebrews; or by fire, that is, by a most swift, most effective and as it were fiery disaster, which passed through the whole camp. Add with Forerius that the Prophet alludes to the fire sent down from heaven, (as will appear in chapter 37, last verse), which was kept perpetually in the temple for burning the sacrifices; as if this sacred fire, avenger of the worship of God and of religion, like the pillar of fire which was light and joy to the Hebrews, terror and darkness to the Egyptians, brought sanctification and deliverance to the Jews and devastation to the Assyrians, leaping upon them from the temple; because God, dwelling in this temple and fire, leapt upon them like fire. Whence he adds:
And his thorns and his briers shall be set on fire and devoured. That is, the Assyrian soldiers, greater and less, will be slain by the Angel.
18. And the glory of his forest, and of his beautiful hill (that is, the leaders and chiefs of the army), shall be consumed from the soul even to the flesh (that is, altogether, or entirely), with present death and with the eternal death of hell.
Where note: Metaphorically, as he called the plague of God fire, so he calls the thick massing of Sennacherib’s armed soldiers a forest, which with crests, helmets and spears looked like a very dense wood. He calls it Carmel, either the same armed men fine in their arms, or the abundant supplies and plenty of all things in their camp. For Carmel on account of the fertility and pleasantness of the place passed into a proverb, as among the Latins the vale of Tempe in Thessaly, or the gardens of the Hesperides. Eusebius, book 2 of the Demonstratio, chapter 40, takes this of the burning of the whole of Judea under Adrian.
Allegorically, there is signified here the burning of sinners, who on the day of judgment will be delivered to eternal fire, according to what is said in chapter 60, verse 19, that the Lord will be to the just for glory and everlasting light, and chapter 66, verse 15, that he will come to the faithless in fire, and his rebuke in a flame of fire, and the last verse, that their fire shall not be quenched.
Symbolically, St. Athanasius, book On the Incarnation of Christ, near the middle, says that Christ is the light and the Holy Spirit is the fire; as if Isaias spoke of the fire of the Holy Spirit, which descended on the feast of Pentecost and kindled the hearts of the disciples; but convicts the unbelief and crimes of the Jews. Whence the Septuagint render: “He will sanctify it in fire,” because, as St. Augustine explains literally, book 4 of the Questions on Numbers, chapter 21, the rebuke and punishment of one admonishes others and makes them holier.
And he shall run away through fear. For Sennacherib fled after this disaster received from the Angel, and shortly after was killed by his sons Adramelech and Sarasar, 4 Kings 19. Vatablus renders: it shall be as when a standard-bearer is driven away; others: it shall be as the dissolution of a standard-bearer, as if to say: So great will be the disaster as there is wont to be in an army whose standard-bearer has fallen and the standard is taken or torn; for then the soldiers are dispersed and cut down and scatter in flight. The Septuagint render: and he shall be fleeing as one fleeing, that is, he shall flee plainly and altogether, he shall be wholly fugitive like a fleeing army. They seem to have read, for kimsos, that is, in melting, that is, in the fear by which spirit and strength fail and as it were melt, kinsos, that is, as fleeing. Reading kimsos, as is commonly read, our version renders best and most plainly: “He shall run away through fear.” Whence in chapter 13, verse 7, describing the fear of the Babylonians: “All hands,” he says, “shall be weakened, and every heart of man shall melt”; it is the same verb as here, namely masas, that is, shall melt.
19. And the remnant of the trees of his forest shall be so few. After this disaster so few soldiers survived him that a child could count them and make a list of them. The Hebrews, as I said, relate that only ten survived; for so children can count on their fingers ten.
Note: “shall be numbered” in Hebrew is mispar, that is, they shall be few. For so the Hebrews call men of small number; for what we count is little. Whence the Poet: “It is for the poor man to count his flock”; for the rich, who have countless wealth and flocks, do not count them. To the Latins it is quite otherwise to be a number; for it signifies to be a man of no account, as:
We are a number, born to consume the fruits of the earth.
20. The remnant of Israel shall lean no more. By “the remnant of Israel and Jacob” he means the remaining Hebrews, descendants of Jacob, whether they be Jews or Samaritans, as if to say: The survivors of the disaster of Samaria as of Juda, seeing the slaughter of Sennacherib, will no longer place their hope in him who struck and ravaged them, but in God, and that “in truth,” that is, truly, sincerely and firmly, not feignedly, not fearfully and wavering. He alludes to Achaz, and touches him, who, fearing Rasin and Phacee, called in the help of the Assyrians, 4 Kings 16:7.
21. The remnant shall be converted. In Hebrew it is Sear Jasub, which was the name of the son of Isaias, as I said in chapter 7, verse 3; for he alludes to it, says St. Jerome. It signifies, then, that a few remnants of the Jews, as the name of Isaias’ son signified, would be converted to God, both in the time of Ezechias, as St. Jerome and Cyril explain, and above all in the time of Christ. That under Ezechias this was done is plain, 2 Paralipomenon 30 and following, and that Isaias speaks of it is plain from what goes before and follows. For there goes before: “They shall lean no more upon him that striketh them,” that is, upon the Assyrian; there follows: “Therefore, etc., be not afraid, O my people, of the Assyrian.” That under Christ it was done is plain, Romans 9:27. The Prophet flies off, or rather extends himself from the type to the antitype, namely from Ezechias to Christ; for each was the deliverer and saviour of the remnants of Israel.
22. As the sand of the sea. He alludes to Genesis 22, where God promises Abraham a seed, that is, descendants, both according to the flesh and according to faith and spirit, innumerable as the sand of the sea. So they were in the time of David and Ezechias before the slaughter of the Assyrians; for by it they were abridged and made few, so that in one day by the king of Israel 120 thousand fighting men of the Jews were slain, and 200 thousand carried off captive, 2 Paralipomenon chapter 28; not a few were also slain by Teglathphalasar and by Sennacherib.