Commentaria in Isaiam
And he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth. The “rod of the mouth” is sharp reproof and rebuke; as if to say: Christ will not flatter sinners, but, armed with the spirit of fortitude, will most freely rebuke with the gravest words men given to earthly desires. From this spirit and this rod flow those words, or rather thunderbolts, against the Pharisees, Matthew 23, and against the rich and the lovers of pleasure, Luke 6, on whom he threatens woe and damnation.
This rod of the mouth is shared with Christ by preachers, not theatrical, nor political, nor cold, but apostolic, zealous and effective, who convert cities and the world, such as were St. Dominic, St. Vincent Ferrer, St. Bernardine and others.
And with the breath of his lips he shall slay the wicked. First, by driving out at his command not only sins but also demons, both from the souls of men, so as to make the pious of the impious, and from bodies: for to a demon this expulsion is bitter as death and slaughter.
Second, and properly, he will slay “the wicked one,” that is, the head of the wicked, namely Antichrist, as Paul explains in 2 Thessalonians 2:8, and together with Antichrist he will punish all the wicked with the sentence of the second death, that is, of eternal damnation.
Verse 5. And justice shall be the girdle of his loins, and faith the girdle of his reins. That is: justice and faith, that is, truthfulness or fidelity (for this the Hebrew emuna signifies), will cling to Christ perpetually after the manner of a girdle, binding, adorning and strengthening him. For as the whole humanity of Christ was girded by the Godhead, so too by justice and fidelity, so that whatever he said or did, he always said and did promptly, vigorously and constantly according to justice and fidelity.
Note: by the girdle the Hebrews signify first, adherence and union; second, strength and power. Hence “to loosen the girdle of the loins” is to lose strength, Daniel 5:6; and “to gird the loins” with fortitude is to undertake and do something with a vigorous and manly spirit, Proverbs 31:17. Third, alacrity and readiness, as if to say: Christ will be girded to defend justice and truth upon earth. Fourth, value and love: for as the breast-band is to a maiden, so the belt is a delight to a man; as if to say, justice and faith will be dear to Christ the King, and will never be laid aside, as if they were his belt. So Sanchez. Fifth, that justice and faith will be proper to Christ, perpetual and unchangeable: for such is each one’s own girdle.
Hence, second, some take the girdle to mean the sword, with which we are girded by the girdle; for this befits Christ as judge and king, Psalm 44:4: “Gird thy sword upon thy thigh, O thou most mighty, because of truth, and meekness, and justice.”
Third, the Chaldee understands by justice the faithful and the just, by whom the Messias will be surrounded, according to that of Isaias 49: “With all these (the faithful) as with an ornament thou shalt be clothed.”
Morally, learn here how much justice ought, first of all, to be the concern and care of a prince. Rightly says St. Augustine, City of God, book 4, chapter 4: “Take away justice, and what are kingdoms but great robberies?” And Cicero in the Paradoxes: “Right and equity are the bonds of states.” Augustus in Seneca, in the satire: “By godliness and justice princes become gods.” Hesiod in the Theogony:
For this one end kings of old were created: to declare right to the peoples, and to remove unjust deeds.
Aristotle, Politics, book 5, chapter 10: “The king,” he says, “ought and wishes to be a guardian, so that neither the wealthy suffer any wrong, nor the common people receive insult.” Wherefore that barbarous saying of a barbarian in Tacitus, book 15, is barbarous: “In the highest fortune that is juster which is stronger.” And that in Lucan, book 8:
The whole force of sceptres perishes, if it begins to weigh what is just.
And that in Spartianus, in Caracalla: “It is lawful, if you please.”
Second, faith. “For faith is the foundation of justice,” says Cicero, Offices, book 1; and “the most sacred good of the human breast,” says Seneca, epistle 88. Hear Silius Italicus, on Faith:
Begotten before Jove, glory of gods and of men, Without whom neither earth nor seas know peace: companion of Justice, a silent deity in the breast.
Wherefore the Romans wished Faith to dwell near Jupiter Best and Greatest on the Capitol, as Cato said;
for as he is the guardian of the human race, so is she: “Nor does anything hold a commonwealth together more strongly than faith,” says Cicero, Offices, book 2.
Verse 6. The wolf shall dwell with the lamb. First, the Jews take this literally as it sounds, as if to say: in the time of the Messias the wolf, leopard, lion and other beasts will be tamed, and will no longer harm the just and good. Hence they gather that Christ has not yet come, because the lion still tears, the wolf devours, the serpent bites. Certain Catholics apply and explain this of the Apostles and Martyrs, whom vipers, lions and beasts let loose against them often could not harm. But this is not apposite enough; for the Prophet says: “The wolf shall dwell with the lamb”: if the wolf is taken properly, so is the lamb; but we nowhere see in the time of Christ wolves dwelling with lambs. Second, because he says this will be universally so: but it is certain that many Martyrs were torn by beasts. Third, because there follows: “The lion shall eat straw like the ox.” What has this to do with Martyrs? Wherefore Galatinus, book 5, chapter 7, rightly refutes the Jews from the old Rabbis.
Second, Lactantius, Institutes, book 7, chapter 24, thinks that these things will come to pass literally as they sound, after the judgment, during the thousand years in which the Saints will reign with Christ on earth. For then there will be a golden age: and thus he understands the Sibyls, who prophesied the same as Isaias does here. For so sings the Cumaean in Virgil, eclogue 4:
Nor shall the herds fear the great lions; the serpent too shall die, and the deceitful herb of poison.
But this was the error of the Chiliasts, or Millenarians, whose author was Papias, a disciple I say, therefore, with the Fathers and Christian interpreters, that all these things are said metaphorically of men whose manners are like those beasts. Some understand by the wild beasts the Gentiles, and by the tame the Jews, as if to say: in the Church of Christ Jews and Gentiles will live together in peace. So Clement of Alexandria, Stromata, book 6.
More rightly do others take by the lion, wolf and asp any men who are strong, powerful, rapacious and harmful; as by the leopard those entangled in various errors and vices, for these are the spots of the leopard; but by the lamb, kid, calf and ox [are meant] the weak. In the Church of Christ the just and sinners, the gentle and the fierce, the patient and the choleric, the poor and the rich, the weak and the powerful will dwell together in peace. By these metaphors, therefore, it is signified that the wild and barbarous Gentiles, laying aside their ferocity, will grow tame, and with kids and lambs, that is, with humble and simple Christians, will most holily conspire in the unity of the faith of the Church; so that, for example, the wolf, that is St. Paul, who, breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the Christians, is rightly compared to a wolf, Genesis 49:27, shall dwell with the lamb, that is, with St. John and Peter, says St. Jerome. So also Origen, homily 2 on Genesis; and Chrysostom in the same place, homily 23; Basil, homily 10 on the Hexameron; Gregory on Ezechiel, homily 16, who similarly take the passage of Osee 2:18, where he says: “And I will strike a covenant with them in that day with the beast of the field, and with the fowl of the air, and with the creeping things of the earth.” Isaias therefore signifies that through the grace of Christ there will be a union and concord of all the Gentiles, which is the mother of all prosperity and happiness. The emperor Vespasian signified this on a coin, on which were engraved beautiful full ears of corn coming forth from two hands given and joined together; for this signifies that from concord and fidelity an abundance of happy things flows. Julius Caesar signified the same, engraving on his coin a caduceus with a horn of plenty: for the caduceus signifies concord, the horn of plenty abundance of goods. See what was said at chapter 2:4.
Beautifully does St. Ambrose, book 2 On Virgins, apply these words, “The wolf shall dwell with the lamb,” to a Christian soldier who, to rescue from defilement a virgin condemned for the faith of Christ to a brothel, exchanged clothes with her and put himself in her place; and so, condemned to death, the virgin running to him and contending with him over the martyrdom, he obtained its crown together with her. More on this opinion I have said at Ecclesiasticus 12:22, at the end.