Commentaria in Isaiam
So St. Jerome and Basil. Hence, second, by the head and heart, as the principal parts of the body, he leaves the other members to be understood by synecdoche, and thus that the whole political body of the Synagogue, namely the whole people of Israel, is in an evil state and corrupted by vices; for that Isaias speaks literally of the body of his people, and not of the body of Christ in His Passion, torn and afflicted on all sides with scourges and wounds (to which most preachers apply these words), is plain from what precedes and follows. Third, by enallage “all” is taken for the whole, as is plain from what follows; yet he says “all” because the head can be accommodated to the princes, the feet to the people subject to them, the heart to the priests. First, because as in the head the senses flourish, so in the prince there ought to flourish wisdom and provident government. Second, as the heart is the principle of motion and direction in man; for the heart first receives life from the soul, and diffuses it through the vital spirits into the whole body, whence the heart in an animal is the first to live and the last to die (as on the contrary the eyes, because farthest from the heart, are the last to live and the first to die): so the priest is the mediator between God and men, and the spiritual gifts and motions which he receives from God he pours into the people; and so he moves him in the way of God and directs him. Third, when the heart dies the body dies, when it lives it lives: so when the priest flourishes the people flourish, when he languishes they languish and die in spirit. So Cyril, Haymo, St. Thomas and others. Whence also the Chaldee translates: “From the people even to the princes all are rebellious.” For, as Seneca says to Nero: “From the head good health in all is vigorous and erect, or sunk down by languor.” And Ecclesiasticus 10, 3: “An unwise king shall destroy his people.” And Hesiod: “For one man’s crime the whole city pays the penalty.” He names therefore the heart and head, because as the natural body receives animal spirits from the head and vital from the heart, so the political body, namely the commonwealth, receives its vigor and strength from the royal and priestly order, and when this languishes it languishes and dies. Sanchez suspects not badly that Isaias, when he says, “Every head is sick,” notes and touches King Ozias, who, arrogating to himself the right of priesthood in burning incense, was struck in the head and forehead with leprosy, and that perhaps about the same time as Isaias said this. Finally, he says “all” or “whole,” that is, many, the greater part, not all or wholly. For the holy Church always remained, that is, some company of the faithful, pious and holy, though small, and as Christ says, a little flock. So St. Augustine, book On the Unity of the Church, chapter 12. Similar adages of the Gentiles are cited by Delrio, adage 133.
matter, namely, and pus: whence for “swelling” the Hebrew is teria, that is, a wound full of matter, purulent and putrid. So Pagninus, as if to say: The whole body of this people is so infected with vices and diseased that it seems to be nothing else than one continuous wound, ulcer, bruise and stroke of sin. Others apply these terms particularly, so that “wound” is the inmost sin of the heart, “bruise” the outward sin of the mouth, “stroke” the public sin of deed. Others by “wound” understand open malice, by “bruise” hidden envy, by “swelling stroke” the swelling and pride of the mind, says Sasbout. To this comes our Sanchez: “By wound,” he says, “which is a division of continuity, and which gapes as if with open mouth and cries out, public sin is understood; by bruise, which is putrid humor collected within the skin, hidden sin; by swelling stroke, long-standing sin,” which now stinks and festers.
THEY ARE NOT BOUND UP (the stroke just mentioned), NOR DRESSED, NOR FOMENTED WITH OIL,—as if to say: There was no one to cure this stroke of your sin. Second, and genuinely, as if to say: You, obstinate in the disease of your sins, would not admit any hand of a physician or any cure; whence the Septuagint render: There is no plaster to apply, as if to say: The lack of cure comes from your obstinacy, by which you reject all medicine: not from a lack of a physician; for the Prophets, who like physicians of the soul exhort you to penance, are not wanting to you: but you despise their admonitions. Far more truly will this be said now of Christians, who have so many Sacraments, graces and other means of salvation; and yet neglect or reject them.
7. YOUR LAND IS DESOLATE, YOUR CITIES ARE BURNT WITH FIRE: YOUR COUNTRY STRANGERS DEVOUR BEFORE YOUR FACE (you looking on, groaning, lamenting and gnashing your teeth).—Thus far Isaias has set forth the crimes of the people, and in them their obstinacy: now he threatens the punishment worthy of the fault. Sanchez and some others take “desolate,” “burnt,” properly, as past or present, as the words sound: for the Jews were often laid waste by the Egyptians, Ammonites, Moabites, Philistines, Madianites and Syrians in the time of Amasias, and by the Assyrians in the time of Achaz and Ezechias. But because this seems to have been the first prophecy of Isaias (as it is placed here), made under King Ozias, when the affairs of the Jews flourished, and because future things follow, “shall be desolate, shall be left,” etc., we shall therefore better say that in the Hebrew they are not preterites but participles, which can be explained by the future as well as by the past or present; what our version says, therefore, “Your land is desolate,” supply “shall be”; “your cities burnt,” supply “shall be”; “your country strangers devour,” in Hebrew, devouring, supply “shall be,” that is, shall devour: or the Interpreter put preterite participles (which in the Hebrew are present) for futures: “desolate,” that is, shall surely be made desolate: “burnt,” that is, shall surely be burned: “devour,” that is, shall surely devour, namely the Babylonians under Nabuchodonosor, says Basil, and much more the Romans under Titus and Vespasian: for these left in Jerusalem not a stone upon a stone. So Cyril, Jerome, Haymo and others, and this will appear more at verse 9.
Where note: Isaias and the Prophets, though they speak to the Jews present of their own age, yet by the prophetic spirit extend themselves and speak also to future ones, who were to share the crimes of their parents, and consequently their punishment, especially in the time of Christ. Whence the ancients generally (one may see them in Leo Castrius) take all these things said by Isaias to the people of his own age as said also to the Jews at the time of Christ: for he was the Holy One of Israel whom they blasphemed, and therefore they were cut off and laid waste by Titus.
Tropologically, St. Clement, book 4 of the Apostolic Constitutions, chapter 1, rightly applies these words to rich men who, being without children, do not take in orphans, whom they might hold in place of sons, to whom it commonly happens by the just judgment of God that strangers enjoy their goods: “If any rich man,” he says, “is ashamed of an orphan, the Father of orphans and Judge of widows will provide for the orphan; but the rich man himself will fall upon one who will consume the goods which he spared and withheld; and what was said will befall him: What the saints did not eat, the Assyrians shall eat, as Isaias says: Your country strangers devour in your sight.” To this looks that saying of St. Augustine: “What Christ does not take, the treasury seizes.”
AND IT SHALL BE DESOLATE AS WHEN WASTED BY ENEMIES.—“As” here is a mark of truth, not of likeness, and signifies truly, plainly and fully, as if to say: With a true and full desolation, such as is wont to be that of enemies, Judea shall be made desolate by the Chaldean enemies. So John 1, 14, it is said: “We saw his glory, as it were of the only begotten of the Father,” as if to say: We saw the glory of Christ as great as became him who was truly the only begotten of God the Father.
8. AND THE DAUGHTER OF SION SHALL BE LEFT AS A COVERT (Tertullian, in his book Against the Jews, chapter 2, reads as a hut, and in book 3 Against Marcion, chapter 22, as a watchtower, alluding to the etymology of Sion, which signifies a watchtower) IN A VINEYARD, AND AS A LODGE IN A GARDEN OF CUCUMBERS.—Sion or Jerusalem is called “daughter,” both for the reasons given in Canon 18, and specially because the city of Jerusalem lies beneath Mount Sion, so that it seems to descend and be born from it as a daughter; and because God loved and protected it singularly as a daughter. Now the sense is, as if to say: it shall be left desolate, and made a wilderness, just as, the vintage being over, the covert or booth in which before the vintage the keeper of the vines dwelt, to guard the grapes and fruit from thieves and beasts, is wont to be deserted and overturned: so that, as from this booth thrown down nothing remains but beams and uprights cast about here and there, so from Jerusalem laid waste and burnt, besides ruins and the stones of the sanctuary scattered here and there, nothing of its ancient glory will remain: indeed it will itself be set on fire, as when the grapes and fruits have been gathered and carried off, the little huts of the keepers in the cucumber gardens are burned. Second, Sanchez aptly takes by “daughter of Sion” the citadel of Sion, which overhung the city of Jerusalem as a bulwark, and was to it what a hut is to a cucumber garden, or a tabernacle to a vineyard, as if to say: When the enemy has gathered the city as a vineyard, the citadel of Sion and the temple are likewise scattered like a hut.
Note: A cucumber garden is a garden or place in which cucumbers grow, under which understand melons, pumpkins, watermelons and gourds: for there is a great abundance of these in Palestine, as a hot region. Hence the keepers there are wont in these cucumber gardens to build huts, and to keep watch in them against thieves. The same or a like hut, erected in orchards to guard the fruit, the Septuagint understand here and elsewhere by opôrophylakion, that is, the guarding of fruits: a word which they frequently and willingly use. Tertullian and Cyprian against the Jews render it custodiarium.
AND AS A CITY THAT IS LAID WASTE.—In Hebrew, as a city besieged, that is, taken and laid waste by siege; it is a metalepsis. So Vatablus.