Commentaria in Isaiam
Verse 9. They shall not hurt. That is, those who were before most virulent idolaters, now converted to Christ, will no longer hurt the faithful in the Church, which is the holy mountain of God. So St. Jerome. Wherefore Luther wrongly infers from this passage: Therefore in the Church it is not lawful to put heretics to death; he ought to have inferred: Therefore heretics (for these are the serpents and asps) shall not kill, nor shall they hurt Christians in the Church: for although they seem to harm them, yet in truth they do not harm, but exercise them, and make them grow in doctrine and virtue.
For the earth is filled with the knowledge of the Lord, that is, with the knowledge of God: this is what the Psalmist says, Psalm 18: “Their sound hath gone forth into all the earth.” So St. Jerome, St. Cyril and others. Moreover, “for” signifies that the cause of this change is the knowledge of the Lord: for this changes and tames souls: for who, knowing and seriously considering Christ God, humble, meek, poor, sober, and so on, would not at once lay aside pride, anger, avarice, gluttony, and so on? So those who are seriously converted to Christ, though they were before lions in cruelty, wolves in rapacity, basilisks in poison, become lambs in meekness, kids in sobriety, calves in purity: this is the admirable power of the Gospel, that it tames fierce souls. Luther and Oecolampadius foolishly gather from this passage that it is lawful for laymen and the unlearned to profess knowledge and exposition of Sacred Scripture: for this knowledge is not the teaching of teachers but the discipline of the faithful, which they as disciples ought to drink in and increase through the instruction and preaching of the Apostles and Doctors. This knowledge, therefore, is faith in Christ, which all Christians have, but in which they ought to grow and be perfected by listening to those more learned than themselves.
As the covering waters of the sea, namely covering some land; as if to say: As the waters of the sea overflowing seize and cover the neighbouring land, so the Church, dispersed through the whole world and in every land, will be flooded and covered with the doctrine of the Gospel preaching. So St. Augustine, On the Unity of the Church, and Eusebius, Demonstration, book 2; or, as Guevara on Habacuc 2, as if to say: As the sea girds and encompasses the land, so faith and the knowledge of God will encompass the whole world.
Forerius here carps at our interpreter: for he denies that “the waters of the sea covering” can be rendered from the Hebrew, because, he says, in the Hebrew it ought to have been said in the construct state; whereas it stands in the absolute state, that is, as the waters covering the sea. But I reply: the Hebrews commonly use enallage of cases, as of moods and tenses; for they often put the absolute state for the construct, or the nominative for the genitive, and vice versa. Hence Leo the Hebrew also here renders: as waters covering the sea.
I admit, however, that it can properly be rendered, with the Septuagint, Pagninus, Forerius and Vatablus, as the waters covering the sea, so that “sea” is put for the bed or basin of the sea; as if to say: As the waters cover the bed of the sea, or even the surface of the sea when they seethe, as water or wine covers a bowl when it is full to overflowing and runs over: so also the knowledge of God in the new law overflows, and is poured out over all. For in a similar way Habacuc says, chapter 2:14: “For the earth shall be filled, that they may know the glory of the Lord, as waters covering the sea,” that is, over the sea; that is, as copious waters and waves seethe and boil over the sea, so as to overflow and inundate and overwhelm the neighbouring lands. So Theophilus there, and Guevara. Third, the same Guevara there renders: as waters coming from the sea and covering, that is, as if the sea were to overflow, so as to cover the land, as happened in the deluge, and often at other times. For the Pontus carried off Pyrrha and Antissa near the Maeotis; Helice also and Bura in the Corinthian gulf, whose traces in the deep existed in his own time, Pliny testifies. The sea swallowed up the island of Atlantis; and, if we believe Plato, whatever the Atlantic sea covers was once an island.
Verse 10. In that day the root of Jesse, who standeth for an ensign of the people, him the Gentiles shall beseech. It is, which you may express in Latin more clearly thus: the root of Jesse will be standing for an ensign of the people; or, as Vatablus has it, it shall come to pass that the Gentiles also shall seek the root of Jesse which stands for an ensign of the peoples. Note first: Root of Jesse is called the shoot born of the root of Jesse, namely Christ; hence he says “who,” not “which,” because he passes from the type to the antitype, namely from the root to Christ.
Second, the Hebrews repeat the same thing by putting a demonstrative or relative pronoun together with its antecedent, as “root of Jesse and him”; and therefore “root” is put in the nominative absolutely, because the accusative “him” follows, which the verb “shall beseech” requires; for it would have sufficed to say: “The Gentiles shall beseech the root of Jesse.” So Psalm 10:5 it is said: “The Lord, in heaven his seat,” that is, the seat of the Lord is in heaven. Third, the ensign in Hebrew is nes, that is, a standard, by which is signified that Emmanuel will be a commander who will raise a standard, to which all the nations will flock. The sense therefore is: when the Gospel is thus preached, as I said, then that shoot sprouting from the root of Jesse, namely Christ, exalted upon the cross, and there raised up as a standard, will draw all, Jews as well as Gentiles, to himself and to his camp, that they may seek him, hope in him, and invoke his help, by which they may overcome their enemies, the devil, sin, flesh and the world. This is what Christ says, John 12:32: “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all things to myself.” So St. Jerome, and indeed St. Paul, Romans 15:19. See what was said there.
And his sepulchre shall be glorious. Because the Prophet treated of the sign of the cross, which was infamous, he wipes away this infamy by saying that the sepulchre of Christ crucified, our leader, shall be glorious. In Hebrew it is: and his rest shall be glory. Now by rest may be understood whatever followed upon the death of Christ, says Sanchez. For first, the death of Christ was glorious, because the earthquake, the splitting of rocks, the mourning of heaven and the eclipse of the sun honoured it. Second, the resurrection of Christ was glorious. Third, a wondrous exaltation of his once despised name was brought about. Hence the Septuagint render: and his rest shall be honour. Fourth, his sepulchre was glorious; as if you said: the rest of Christ from labour and death, and whatever succeeded the opprobrium of the cross and death, such as the sepulchre, the exaltation of his name, the Resurrection, the triumph, were glorious. Wherefore St. Chrysostom, in the homily That Christ is God, plainly teaches that the passion of Christ, the cross, the sepulchre, and all ignominies, that is, death, were turned into glory and triumph. Mystically, his rest shall be glory, that is, Christ after death shall rest and be glorious in the minds of believers, say St. Jerome and Cyril. Hence there follows: “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.”
Again, the rest here is the Church and its Sacraments, especially the Eucharist, in which Christ rests, and which is truly glorious; hence the Chaldee renders: and the place of his dwelling shall be in glory.
Anagogically, the rest, that is, the beatitude of Christ and equally of the faithful, will be heavenly glory. So St. Basil.
Moreover, by “rest” our version has very well taken “sepulchre”: for there, after the labours and struggles of life, Christ dead rested.
That the sepulchre of Christ was glorious is plain: first, Second, because St. Helena adorned the sepulchre of the Lord with a most magnificent church, in which afterwards Godfrey of Bouillon, the recoverer of the Holy Land and first king of Jerusalem, and then all the other kings of Jerusalem were buried, as William of Tyre testifies in the History of the Holy War: hence even now there the nobles are decorated with the title of Knights, Golden Knights, as Adrichomius testifies, page Third, because for many centuries even now, to the sepulchre of the Lord, though situated among the Turks, there is a most frequented pilgrimage of the faithful from the whole world, to receive whom the Franciscan Fathers have always there their Patriarch and a perpetual residence of their order; nor has the Turk, though hostile to Christians, ever dared to overthrow it, although he threatened the Pontiff that he would do so unless he compelled Emmanuel, king of Portugal, to give up the Indian expedition; but partly on account of the profit and tax which he receives from the pilgrims, partly from reverence and fear lest God punish this sacrilege of his, he has not so far brought himself to carry out these threats, as Osorius and others relate.