Commentaria in Isaiam
27. And the yoke shall putrefy at the presence of the oil.
Understand the yoke of the servitude of Sennacherib; for to him the Jews were subject, and paid yearly a tribute of three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold, 4 Kings 18:14, and they were expecting a heavier yoke of his, Jerusalem being taken by him. Whence the Antiochene Arabic translation renders clearly: the yoke shall be broken from the neck of the people; and the Alexandrian: his yoke shall cease.
Vatablus and Forerius render: by fatness his yoke shall be loosened and dissolved; for the Hebrew shemen, oil, signifies all fatness; and chabbal signifies to be dissolved, loosened, broken, corrupted. The sense is, as if to say: As thongs, knots (these farmers are wont to loosen by anointing with oil or fat) and ropes, of which the yoke of oxen is made, when oil is put on them are wont to grow supple, soften, be dissolved, become oily and at last rot, so the yoke of Sennacherib will be loosened, broken and as it were rot at the presence of the oil, that is, at the presence of divine help and mercy, says St. Jerome. Note: The divine help by which Ezechias overcame and shook off the yoke of Sennacherib is compared to oil: first, because it made his hard yoke soft and slack, and dissolved it; secondly, because quietly and without noise, as oil flows, it brought disaster on the Assyrians when they see it; thirdly, because oil makes men sleek, fat, lively, robust and strong; such Ezechias and the Jews were made here by the help of God, who before, besieged, were pale, lean, dejected, unwarlike and feeble; fourthly, because oil makes the thongs rot, that is, makes them supple, soft, loosened; for “rotten” (putris) is often taken for supple and loosened. So Virgil says, Georgics 1: “The clod, rotten (that is, loose) with the west wind, dissolves”; Columella, book 2: “the same rich and rotten”; so by Ovid “a rotten ox” is mentioned; and by Statius: “rotten sands and rotten ashes.” I add that the word “shall putrefy” (computrescet) is applied to the yoke, that is, to the Assyrians who are to be slain by God through an Angel, and who will become corpses that actually rot.
It could be expounded secondly by metonymy thus: “the yoke,” that is, the harshness of the yoke, is taken away, and as it were rots and perishes, when both the necks of the oxen and the leather yoke are anointed with oil, that is, fat or lard; for by it they become soft and smooth. This is truer and more proper in the spiritual yoke and oil, to which the Holy Spirit chiefly looks here; of which presently.
Some explain it not comparatively but adversatively thus: A bodily yoke is wont to wear even the fat necks of oxen and to ulcerate them and make them sore and foul; but the spiritual yoke, namely the hardness and harshness of the servitude by which the Jews are pressed by the Assyrians, and mystically sinners by the demon and sin, is worn away, rots and vanishes by the very oil, that is, by the help, grace and spirit of God. So nearly Delrio, adage 103.
Sanchez explains otherwise, and that in two ways: first, oil, especially olive oil, is wont to penetrate iron and an iron yoke, to soften, wear away and consume them. Whence smiths testify that arms are corrupted by oil, and therefore when they polish them they abstain from olive oil; and Pierius, Hieroglyphics 58: “Smiths,” he says, “who wish iron to become soft and pliant are accustomed to dip it, made white-hot, in oil.” But because this is not so certain, others say that for the merits of king Ezechias God removed the yoke of Sennacherib from the Jews. Fourthly, allegorically, others from Chelkhom explain thus, as if to say: God takes from us the yoke of the demon for the sake of the Messias, or Christ, who was anointed with the oil of gladness above his fellows, and whose name is oil poured out, which softens and loosens all the hardness of the yoke of sins; finally from whom, as from the head, the anointing flows down into all the members, and who, if he shall have freed us, we shall be free indeed. Of this oil of Christ see St. Bernard, sermon 45 on the Canticle. For truly of Christ, that is, the anointed of God, it is said: “Thy name is as oil poured out.”
Tropologically St. Gregory, Morals 19, chapters 20 and 21, explaining that text of Job 29: “When the rock poured me out rivers of oil. That is,” he says, “when Christ filled the hearts of the disciples with the anointing of the Holy Spirit; for by oil the anointing of the Holy Spirit is signified, of which it is said: The yoke shall putrefy at the presence of the oil; for the yoke rots at the presence of oil, because while we are anointed by the grace of the Holy Spirit, we are freed from the servitude of our captivity; and while the proud dominion of the malignant spirit is driven back, the yoke is worn away by which the necks of our liberty were pressed. Hence the Psalmist says: Let my soul be filled as with marrow and fatness,” etc.
Finally St. Bernard, sermon 1 On the Dedication of the Church, derives this and applies it to the yoke, that is, to the discipline and penance of Religious: Seculars, he says, wonder at the strict discipline of monks and Religious, because they see the yoke, but do not see the oil and anointing. For God so soothes and softens this rigor of life with so great grace and so many consolations that this seems to be no yoke at all. This is what Christ says: “Come to me, all you that labour, and are burdened, and I will refresh you. Take up my yoke upon you, and learn of me, because I am meek, and humble of heart: and you shall find rest to your souls. For my yoke is sweet and my burden light,” Matthew 11.
Morally, then, this oil is threefold: First, the sweetness of love, of that charity which the law and spirit of Christ breathes, whose yoke is sweet. And it is uncertain that it is a question here of an iron yoke: hence secondly, he says, “shall putrefy,” that is, shall waste away and be corrupted, the yoke at the presence of the oil, that is, for lack of oil, because it is not anointed with oil, that is, fat, with which raw hide is wont to be softened and worked, that it may not dry and break. So it is said in Psalm 108: “My flesh is changed for oil,” in Hebrew “from oil,” that is, because oil was lacking. Whence Symmachus renders, for lack of anointing; for the Hebrew min, that is, from, often signifies negation, as 1 Kings 15:26; mihioth, from being, from pursuing, that is, lest he pursue. But there is an objection: “from the face”; for face signifies presence, not the absence and negation of oil. Add, this sense destroys the notable tropology which the Fathers commonly give; of which presently. Thirdly, Vatablus takes oil metonymically for the one anointed with oil, namely King Ezechias. He who submits his neck is not worn by the weight, but refreshed by sweetness. Whence St. Augustine, book On Grace, chapter 69: “All things,” he says, “become easy to charity, to which the burden of Christ is light; or rather that one burden is itself the light one. In this sense it was said: And his commandments are not heavy, that whoever finds them heavy may consider that it could not have been said by God: They are not heavy, unless there can be an affection of heart to which they are not heavy, and may ask for what he lacks, that he may fulfil what is commanded”; and soon: “For how is it heavy, when it is the commandment of love? For either a man does not love, and therefore it is heavy; or he loves, and it cannot be heavy.” The paths of justice, then, “are hard to fear, light to love.” For, as St. Bernard says: “Where there is love, there is no labor,” or if there is labor, it is not love. That therefore labors... So too St. Gregory of Nyssa, oration 3 On Loving the Poor: “Take up,” he says, “my yoke upon you. He calls the observance of the commandments a yoke: let us obey the one who commands, let us become the yoke-fellows of Christ, putting on the bonds of charity. Let us not shun such a yoke, let us not shake it off; it is sweet, it is light, it does not wear the neck of him who takes it up, but soothes it.”
Secondly, the oil is habit; for habit softens all hard things. Where Gilbert in the Allegories rightly insists on “shall putrefy”: “What putrefies,” he says, “fails slowly, not all at once. A purpose of the will can indeed be cut off and as it were broken; but an inveterate passion is not so much cut off as unlearned. And when the impossibility of working salvation is removed by grace, then as it were the yoke of captivity is broken; but the difficulty of good that remains while it is gradually removed, its yoke seems to rot away.”
Thirdly, it is divine grace and consolation. Whence St. Leo, sermon 5 On the Epiphany: “Nothing,” he says, “is hard to the humble, nothing rough to the meek; and all precepts easily come to effect, when grace gives help and obedience softens command.” Hence the bride says to the Bridegroom: “Thy name is as oil poured out.”
Perceiving this oil, the Psalmist sang: “Thou hast broken my bonds: I will sacrifice to thee the sacrifice of praise,” and “Thou hast anointed my head with oil; and my chalice which inebriateth me, how goodly is it!”