Commentaria in Isaiam
Chapter 11. Synopsis of the Chapter
The prophet returns to his Emmanuel as to his beloved, whom he cannot forget, and his birth already begun, chapter 7:14; the grace, preaching and conversion of the Gentiles move him deeply. So St. Jerome and the Hebrews. For this whole chapter and the next, as St. Jerome says, speak of the Messiah, as well the Christians as the whole Synagogue; with this difference only, that the Jews take everything about the one who is to come and his temporal kingdom simply according to the letter, while Christians understand most of it metaphorically of the spiritual kingdom of Christ God, who has already come.
First, therefore, he foretells that Christ shall rise like a flower from the root of Jesse, and that the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit shall rest upon him. Second, verse 6, that under him the wolf shall dwell with the lamb. Third, verse 10, that his sepulchre shall be glorious, as well as the standard of the cross, to which all the Gentiles and Jews shall flow together with one accord. Fourth, verse 14, that the Apostles shall plunder the Philistines, Idumeans, Moabites, Egyptians, and so on.
1. And there shall come forth a rod out of the root of Jesse, and a flower shall rise up out of his root. 2. And the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him: the spirit of wisdom, and of understanding, the spirit of counsel, and of fortitude, the spirit of knowledge, and of godliness. 3. And he shall be filled with the spirit of the fear of the Lord. He shall not judge according to the sight of the eyes, nor reprove according to the hearing of the ears. 4. But he shall judge the poor with justice, and shall reprove with equity for the meek of the earth: and he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall slay the wicked. 5. And justice shall be the girdle of his loins: and faith the girdle of his reins. 6. The wolf shall dwell with the lamb: and the leopard shall lie down with the kid: the calf and the lion, and the sheep shall abide together, and a little child shall lead them. 7. The calf and the bear shall feed: their young ones shall rest together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. 8. And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp: and the weaned child shall thrust his hand into the den of the basilisk. 9. They shall not hurt, nor shall they kill in all my holy mountain, for the earth is filled with the knowledge of the Lord, as the covering waters of the sea. 10. In that day the root of Jesse, who standeth for an ensign of the people, him the Gentiles shall beseech, and his sepulchre shall be glorious. 11. And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set his hand the second time to possess the remnant of his people, which shall be left from the Assyrians, from the islands of the sea. 12. And he shall set up a standard unto the nations, and shall assemble the fugitives of Israel, and shall gather together the dispersed of Juda from the four quarters of the earth. 13. And the envy of Ephraim shall be taken away, and the enemies of Juda shall perish: Ephraim shall not envy Juda, and Juda shall not fight against Ephraim. 14. And they shall fly down upon the shoulders of the Philistines by the sea, together shall they spoil the children of the east: Edom and Moab shall be under the rule of their hand, and the children of Ammon shall be obedient. 15. And the Lord shall lay waste the tongue of the sea of Egypt, and shall lift up his hand over the river in the strength of his spirit: and shall strike it in the seven streams, so that men may pass through it in their shoes. 16. And there shall be a way for the remnant of my people, which shall be left from the Assyrians: as there was for Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt.
Verse 1. And there shall come forth a rod out of the root of Jesse. For “rod” Symmachus and Theodotion render “sprout,” which gave a flower; he alludes to the glory of the forest and of Carmel, that is, to Sennacherib and the Assyrians, whom he said in the preceding chapter, verse 18, were plainly to be burned up and cut down, so that their empire, now flourishing and green, should perish and be transferred to the Chaldeans.
That is: this tree, or rather this political forest of the Assyrians, now so flourishing and green, will be rooted out and never grow green again; but the tree of the Jews and the royal stock of David, although it is to be laid waste and cut down to a remnant by Sennacherib, as he said there at verse 22, and afterwards almost cut off by the Chaldeans, yet the trunk and root will remain, from which it will grow green again and flower again, giving a new rod and a new flower, whose glory and kingdom will never fail.
Moreover, the rod is the Blessed Virgin Mary, the flower is Christ, the root is the family of David, now, with the sceptre taken away, as if dead and cut down (for this is what the Hebrew geza signifies), so that its root alone seemed to lie hidden and to be green among the common people; but this very root, flowering again, shall bring forth the flower Christ, as King of kings. So St. Jerome, Tertullian, Augustine, and the book On the Blessings of the Patriarchs, chapter 4, which says: “The root is the family of the Jews; the rod, Mary; the flower of Mary is Christ, who, cleansing the stench of the world’s filth, abolished it, and poured in the fragrance of eternal life.” So also St. Leo, Bernard, and many others of the Fathers, whom Leo Castrius cites at length here. Hence the Chaldee renders it plainly: and a king shall come forth from the sons of Jesse, and Christ shall be anointed from the sons of his sons.
Note: Christ is called a flower on account of his beauty, and of the sweetness of the fragrance of so holy a life, fame, teaching and passion. For flower the Hebrew has netser; hence Maldonatus, Jansenius, and others, with St. Jerome, derive the name Nazarene. Hence the riddle of Virgil, Eclogue 3: “Tell me, in what lands are the flowers born that are inscribed with the names of kings?”
For on the cross the name of our King appeared inscribed with the name Nazarene, that is, of a flowering flower.
Second, St. Basil, Cyril, Hilary on Psalm 2 at the words “Thou shalt rule them with a rod of iron,” and Origen, homily 9, at the end, explain this somewhat differently. For by the root they understand the Blessed Virgin, by the rod and the flower Christ, who is a rod to the wicked and a flower to the good. For Christ is a rod, because he was king, shepherd and judge; second, because like a rod he is unbending in poverty, humility and meekness.
Of the root of Jesse. He does not say of David, to whom this flower was promised, but of Jesse, because as the kingdom of David took its beginning from the humble stock of Jesse, so also from the humble lineage of Christ the Saviour it was restored; for this is the power of God, to make the greatest things of the least. Second, lest Christ should seem to have received glory from David, rather than to have given glory to his family.
Note: for “of the root,” Symmachus and Theodotion render “from the stump”; but our version and the Septuagint render better “of the root,” because the Hebrew geza is not just any trunk, but a trunk whose part outside the earth is as if dead, while the greater and living part, namely the whole root, is within the earth. It signifies therefore that this rod and flower would spring not from the trunk itself, which stood dead and inglorious outside the earth without branches, that is, without its kings, but from the very root, which lay hidden in a plebeian family as in the earth. For at the birth of Christ the royal family of David had been reduced to private and poor men: such was Joseph, the father of Christ, and his grandfather and great-grandfather.
He sets Christ against the king of the Assyrians, the king of Samaria, King Achaz and others, who had foolish counsels and counsellors, led an idle and effeminate life, oppressed the poor, and enacted unjust laws to increase their wealth and glory. As if to say: on the contrary, Christ will govern his kingdom, namely the Church, and will establish the spirit of wisdom, fortitude, godliness, and so on.