Is 1:1 The vision of Isaiah, son of Amos, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.
It is understood first: "This is," so that the sense is: "This is the vision of Isaiah, son of Amos." It is characteristic of prophetic speech to first describe the person, kingdom or city, and time, and afterward to begin speaking the mysteries of prophecy—to show the truth more solidly, to fix the root first and afterward bring forth the fruits of the Spirit through signs and allegories.
Therefore, Isaiah first declares his own [vision], saying "The vision of Isaiah." To indicate his person, he also relates his lineage when he adds "Son of Amos." Indeed, he announces the kingdom about which he will principally speak and the city, saying "Which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem." He also describes the time, adding "In the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah."
Nor should it disturb us that he does not say "my vision" but "the vision of Isaiah." For it is the custom of Sacred Scripture that those who write speak of themselves in it as if about others, showing that they themselves do not speak, but the Holy Spirit. Hence Moses says: "Moses was a very meek man, above all men who dwelt on the earth" (Numbers 12:3). For he who does not say "I was" but "he was" clearly indicates that he who spoke through him about him was another. Hence John also says: "That disciple whom Jesus loved" (John 21:23). Therefore, since the writers of Scripture are moved by the impulse of the Holy Spirit, they present testimony of themselves in it as if about others. The Holy Spirit spoke through Moses about Moses; the Holy Spirit spoke through John about John; the Holy Spirit spoke through Isaiah about Isaiah. Well then does the man filled with God say "The vision of Isaiah" and not "my vision," because through the fact that, filled with the Holy Spirit, he is drawn beyond himself, he becomes as it were outside himself and delivers a statement about himself as if about another—also avoiding in this way appearing to speak boastfully.
He who saw this vision "concerning Judah and Jerusalem." For although he prophesied about the twelve tribes, he prophesied especially about the tribe of Judah and the royal city where the temple was. But we must ask why he began by saying "The vision of Isaiah, son of Amos" and did not add what he saw or indicate what this vision was.
To this it must be answered that there are three kinds of visions: corporeal, spiritual, and intellectual. For behold, in this one precept when it is read "You shall love your neighbor as yourself" (Matthew 5:45), three kinds of visions occur: one through the eyes by which the letters themselves are seen; another through the spirit of man by which the neighbor, even when absent, is thought of; the third through the contemplation of the mind by which love itself, being understood, is perceived.
Among these three kinds, the first is manifest to men. For in this are seen heaven and earth and all things that are visible in them to our eyes. Nor is that second kind, by which absent bodies are thought of, difficult to explain. For we think of heaven and earth itself and what we can see in them, even when situated where we see nothing with bodily eyes, yet with the mind we perceive bodily images—either true ones, as we saw the bodies themselves and retain them in memory, or fictitious ones, as thought was able to form them. For one thinks of Rome differently having seen it than of Jerusalem not having seen it.
But that third kind, by which love understood is perceived, contains those things that do not have images similar to themselves, which are not what they themselves are. For indeed, a man or tree or sun or any other corporeal things, whether celestial or terrestrial, are seen present in their forms and absent are thought of in images impressed on the mind, and they make two kinds of visions: one through bodily senses, another through the spirit in which those images are contained. But love—is it seen present in a different form than it is, and absent in some image similar to it? Not at all. But insofar as it can be perceived by the mind, it is perceived more by one person, less by another. If however something of a corporeal image is thought of, love itself is not perceived. For it is not seen imaginatively but properly, and not through the body but in the mind cleansed from all stain of vices and filled with the grace of that love.
These are the three kinds of visions. Let us call the first corporeal, because it is perceived through the body and presented to the bodily senses. The second, however, spiritual. For whatever is not body yet is nevertheless something is rightly called spirit. And it is not body, although similar to body, [the image] of an absent body, nor that very perception by which it is discerned. The third, truly, we call intellectual from intellect.
Moreover, spiritual vision, by which likenesses of bodies are perceived in spirit not in mind, is more excellent than corporeal vision by which bodies themselves are seen through the eyes of the body. And again, intellectual [vision] is more excellent than both, because divine things are seen by the pure mind through some signification spiritually or corporeally, but by pure and keen intellect of the mind.
From these three kinds of visions, therefore, the second and third are found in the vision of Isaiah. His vision is intellectual and sometimes also spiritual. For in spirit, with images formed, [he saw] the Lord sitting upon a high and elevated throne and the seraphim standing around (Isaiah 6:1), but by keenness of mind he understood what he had seen—which is proper to the minds of prophets. For signs are shown through certain likenesses of corporeal things in the spirit, but the function of the mind is added so that they may also be understood. For the spirit of man is called a certain power of the soul, inferior to the mind, where likenesses of corporeal things are impressed but are not understood by the liveliness of the mind. But what is seen not imaginatively but properly, and not through the body—this is perceived by the mind alone, such as justice, truth, and wisdom, and other such things.
Therefore, the vision of Isaiah is intellectual and sometimes perhaps both spiritual and intellectual at once. For those things described in this volume he calls his vision. Therefore, the reason why he states first "The vision of Isaiah, son of Amos" and nothing about corporeal vision is because the sentences of the heavenly oracle, which are from that intellectual vision which he narrates—on account of such visions prophets are called seers, that is, those who understand. Therefore, beginning to narrate his vision, he says: "but they have despised me."
Is 1:2: Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth, for the Lord has spoken: I have nourished and raised up sons, but they have despised me.
All who held the office of preaching in the Synagogue are rightly called heavens, because they were believed to be concerned with higher things. But the Jewish people are called earth. Hence Moses also, when he aroused the priests and people to the words of his admonition [said]: "Hear, O heavens, what I speak" (Deuteronomy 31:1), etc.—evidently calling the orders of prelates [heavens] and the subject people earth. For the same reason, Isaiah now addresses both heaven and earth. But he commands the heavens to hear and the earth to perceive with ears.
Hearing in the Holy Scriptures is not that which is in the ear but which is perceived in the heart. Hence the Lord [says]: "He who has ears to hear, let him hear" (Matthew 11:15). For he who receives the words of truth in the ear of the heart by understanding hears, but he perceives with ears who, hearing the words with bodily ears, by no means grasps their inner meaning. And because it is for priests and teachers to understand mysteries, but for the people to draw in the surface of the history by hearing with the body, the heavens are commanded to hear and the earth to perceive with ears.
This must be noted in all Scriptures: whenever two words are joined [in this way]. Therefore, to hear, O heavens, and for earth to perceive with ears, because God complained, saying: "I have nourished and raised up sons, but they have despised me." And whom does he now call sons except those of whom Moses says: "The Lord saw and was provoked to wrath because his sons and daughters provoked him" (Deuteronomy 31:19)? He raised them up, feeding them with manna in the desert for forty years, in the land which he had promised to their fathers, just as Paul also says: "The God of the people of Israel chose our fathers and exalted the people" (Acts 13:17). But they despised him because they transgressed his law and sacrificed to demons, and finally dishonored his only-begotten. Hence it is added:
Is 1:3: The ox knows his owner, and the donkey his master's crib, but Israel has not known me, my people has not understood.
For who was the ox except the Jewish people, whose neck the yoke of the law wore down? And who was the donkey except the Gentiles, whom any seducer who found them subjected like a brute animal, resisting with no reason, to whatever error he wished? The ox knew his owner and the donkey his Lord's crib, because both the Hebrew people found God whom they worshiped but did not know, and the Gentiles received the food of the law which they did not have.
For the crib in this place is not inappropriately understood as Sacred Scripture, in which holy animals are satisfied with the food of the Word, of which it is said through the Psalmist: "Your animals shall dwell in it" (Psalm 68:11). Hence also the Lord when born was found by shepherds in a crib (Luke 2:16), because his incarnation is recognized in that Scripture by which the prophets refresh us.
Therefore, the ox, that same people of the Hebrews tamed by the yoke of the law, knew his owner, that is, Christ present in the flesh; and the donkey, that is, the Gentile people who had been given to pleasures and were more brutish, recognized his Lord's crib, that is, the Scripture of God in which they might receive the food of life. But Israel, that is, that part of the Jewish people which preferred to persist in unbelief, did not know that same owner. For "if they had known, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory" (1 Corinthians 2:8). And [the people] who were the peculiar people of God did not understand the majesty hidden in flesh. For he ought to have understood before all others, because when others recognized him, this one alone, having lost the light of heart, did not understand the hidden coming of God.
Nor should it be passed over that the great Isaiah prophesies the coming of that same Savior not only by voice and person but also by his name. For Isaiah [means] "salvation of the Lord." Christ is he of whom the same Lord had promised: "My salvation is near to come" (Isaiah 56:1). Moreover, the father of Isaiah was called Amos. Amos indeed means "strong" or "powerful." And who is strong and powerful except the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ? Again, Amos is interpreted "tearing away the people." And God the Father tore away the Jewish people from their land on account of the killing of the Savior and scattered them captive through all nations. Therefore, Isaiah son of Amos designates his Only-begotten and the Father.
But Isaiah saw a vision concerning Judah and Jerusalem. And Christ saw a vision concerning us, that is, he foresaw our salvation and looked upon [us] with the illumination of his grace, when praying for his disciples he added: "Yet not for these only do I pray, but for those also who through their word shall believe in me" (John 17:20). For Judah is interpreted "confessing" or "confession." And the Lord was seeing a vision concerning Judah when he said: "Everyone who shall confess me before men, the Son of Man also shall confess him before the angels of God" (Luke 12:8). Jerusalem indeed is called "vision of peace." The Lord was looking upon a vision concerning Jerusalem when he said: "For many shall come from the East and West and shall recline with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 8:11); "Blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God" (Matthew 5:8). For there shall be the perfect vision and peace when we shall see without end that very fountain of peace.
Moreover, he saw this vision in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. For these four kings not inappropriately designate the four evangelists, of whom John says: "The first living creature was like a lion, and the second living creature like a calf, and the third living creature having a face as of a man, and the fourth living creature like a flying eagle" (Revelation 4:7).
For Uzziah, which means "strength of the Lord," can be mystically understood as the living creature like a lion. Jotham, however, which is interpreted "perfected," [corresponds to] the living creature like a calf, because the calf was customarily perfected in the sacrifice of God. Ahaz, moreover, which in our language means "continent," [is] the living creature having a face as of a man, because it belongs to man to be continent and chaste. Hezekiah, truly, which means "seizing the Lord," [is] the living creature like a flying eagle, because the fourth evangelist as it were seized the Lord when he explores more profoundly the secrets of his incomprehensible divinity, just as the eagle is accustomed to fly more sublimely than all other birds and to look upon the rays of the sun with unwavering gaze.
These living creatures, that is, the holy evangelists, are not undeservedly called kings of Judah, because through them the holy Church is ruled until the end of the world. In whose days Isaiah, that is our Savior, sees a vision concerning Judah and Jerusalem, as has been said, because conversing bodily on earth, he raised the eyes of his mercy upon all who were to believe. His vision is unfolded in this book of the prophet, because this book has sufficiently predicted whatever he himself disposed to do for the faithful of the New Testament. For all the mysteries of evangelical grace are read foretold in this volume.
Moreover, just as Isaiah bore the type of the Savior in his person and in his name, so he prefigured him by his preaching. Hence immediately the same Savior, beginning through him to open his vision, adds: "Hear, O heavens, what I speak, and give ear, O earth, for the Lord has spoken: I have nourished and raised up sons, but they have despised me."
Indeed, he narrates a vision when he speaks those things which he saw or heard with the Father. And because he descended from heavenly things to the lowest for us, he shows this descent at the beginning of his speech. For he who at the beginning teaches the angels on high, now comes to earth to teach men, and therefore beautifully begins: "Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth." For what is designated by the name of heavens except those angelic spirits who are created in the heavenly places? And what is expressed by the appellation of earth except human nature, which is from the earth? Hence also in our prayer we are instructed to say by the voice of the same Savior: "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven" (Matthew 6:10), so that the will of God, as it is performed by the superior nature, may be kept by men and by human weakness.
The minds of the elect can also be expressed by the name of heavens, suspended from all earthly contaminations by inmost love, who, although they live in the body in the lowest places, yet already cling in heart to the highest, truly saying: "For our conversation is in heaven" (Philippians 3:20). By earth, however, sinners can be designated, because it was said to sinning man: "Dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return" (Genesis 3:19)—certainly not sinners and reprobates, but those who, occupied with earthly actions, arrive at eternal life through the help of almsgiving and tears. Therefore, either the angelic and human nature, or the just and sinners, or the contemplative and active are expressed by heaven and earth. And all these are commanded to hear the complaint which God makes concerning ungrateful sons, that every rational creature may be a witness of their depravity.
For he says: "I have nourished and raised up sons, but they have despised me." And whom does he call sons except those whom the Church begets through water and the Spirit? He himself nourishes them in faith and heavenly doctrine and raises them up that they may seek the things that are above, not the things that are on earth (Colossians 3:1). For "he has raised us up together and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus" (Ephesians 2:6). But we, after so many benefits—alas!—despise him, because we despise the words of his preachers, to whom his Only-begotten says: "He who hears you hears me, and he who despises you despises me; but he who despises me despises him who sent me" (Luke 10:16).
Therefore, these carnal ones who seek to dishonor by name her whom they ought to obey—they are the ungrateful sons of whom the Lord complained that he was despised by them. Of whom also what is added below can aptly be understood: they are counted Christians but rather despise the prelates of the Church.
"The ox knows his owner, and the donkey his master's crib, but Israel has not known me, my people has not understood," because the one whom the Hebrew and Gentile people quickly knew as God and to whose grace they easily flew from their former rite, this people of false Christians—who were nourished with the milk of the flesh from the breasts of holy Church and born from Christian parents—was not able to know. For "he who says he knows God and does not keep his commandments is a liar" (1 John 2:4). And "He who does not love does not know God, because God is love" (1 John 4:8). Therefore, this multitude of men who have faith without charity and good works by no means sees God, yet nevertheless is called Israel, that is, "seeing God," because the one whom they do not know by love and good works, they perceive in some way by faith.
Where also is aptly subjoined, either by prophetic or dominical voice:
Is 1:4: Woe to the sinful nation, to the people laden with iniquity, to the wicked seed, to the criminal children.
"Woe" designates perpetual sorrow and groaning and the bitterness of eternal punishment. Although [Scripture] declares that there is no difference between sin and iniquity, saying: "Everyone who commits sin also commits iniquity, and sin is iniquity" (1 John 3:4), nevertheless by the very usage of speaking, iniquity sounds greater than sin, and every man freely confesses himself a sinner, but sometimes blushes to be called iniquitous. Wickedness, moreover, is so called from that which is "for nothing," because through it anyone tends toward non-being. Crime, however, surpasses the weight of sin, because we are accustomed to call murderers and such criminals "wicked." And indeed by any sin anyone offends God, to whom all sin is displeasing; by iniquity, however, he is weighed down as by a burden of great weight. By wickedness, indeed, he fails and becomes far from the true being of God, and growing cold from eternal love, burns in the appetite for temporal things; by crime, moreover, he exercises cruelty.
Therefore, to the people of Jews or Christians entangled in such faults, the due woe of perpetual torment and eternal bitterness is promised. Hence it is added: "They have forsaken the Lord, they have blasphemed the Holy One of Israel, they are alienated backward." The Jews forsook the Lord, as was said to them through Jeremiah: "You have all forsaken me, says the Lord" (Jeremiah 2:29).
The Holy One of Israel is Christ, to whom the crowds sang: "Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, the King of Israel" (John 12:13). For he is by nature the Holy of Holies, "whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world" (John 10:36). Whom the Jews blasphemed, saying: "He has a demon and is mad" (John 10:20). For blasphemy is that by which false things are said about God himself.
And they are alienated from God backward, as they finally say to him in penitence: "We have become as in the beginning, when you did not rule over us, nor was your name invoked upon us" (Isaiah 63:19).
But also many who are counted by Christian profession forsake the Lord, who, having left heavenly things, seek earthly things. For having deserted the love of the Creator, they love the creature; having deserted supernal joys, they rejoice in base things; and having omitted heavenly things, all that they thirst for is earthly. Of these, therefore, it can truly be said that "they have forsaken the Lord." Who also "have blasphemed the Holy One of Israel," because they speak many foolish things about God and frequently dare to reprove his judgments and say many things not well ordered, that things are not rightly done by him. And they are alienated backward, because they return to their former iniquities and are alienated from God, "for whom it would have been better not to have known the way of justice than, after knowing it, to turn back from the holy commandment that was delivered to them" (2 Peter 2:21)—whom he rebukes when he adds:
Is 1:5: Upon what shall I strike you further, you who add to transgression?
"Upon what," that is, for what sin shall I strike you further, he says—that is, for what fault shall I test you with blows, you who do not profit from the blow but rather multiply faults more and add transgressions? Anyone adds transgressions who, when corrected for his fault, murmurs, or who does not abandon the evils he sustains for correction, or who, for the vices for which he has been corrected, inflames himself more with the torches of impatience. Hence it follows that all the members of actions are weakened by the same spiritual disease. For it follows:
Is 1:6: From the sole of the foot to the top of the head, there is no soundness in it.
And what is designated by the sole except every most extreme and minimal action? What truly is expressed by the top of the head except the sublimity of faith? Hence also through Jeremiah it is said to such a soul: "Even the children of Memphis and Tahpanhes have defiled you even to the crown of the head" (Jeremiah 2:16). To be defiled even to the crown of the head is, after the practice of evil operation, to be corrupted even in the very sublimity of faith itself.
For when most wicked spirits involve the soul of anyone in depraved works but cannot vitiate the integrity of faith, they still as it were pollute the lower members but do not reach to the crown. But whoever is corrupted in faith is now defiled even to the crown. For the malign spirit as it were reaches from the lower members even to the summit when, polluting the active life, it corrupts the chaste height of faith with the disease of unbelief.
Aptly therefore it is said of each such person that "from the sole of the foot to the top of the head there is no soundness in it," because the languor of sin has occupied all things, from his extreme action even to the highest elevation of faith. For to those who pursue in their morals what they venerate by credulity, it often happens by divine judgment that through the fact that they live wickedly, they lose even that which they believe wholesomely. For they incessantly stain themselves with depraved actions, and beyond this they doubt that the vengeance of judgment can be repaid. And often, while they understand living well, even with no one pursuing them, they slip away even to perfidy. For how can those be or be called faithful who do not believe that strict judgment is imminent, who suspect that they sin with impunity?
Indeed, to have lost faith is not to believe that worthy punishments can be repaid for uncorrected evil works. But also the people of the Jews, while they scorned to do works worthy of faith, lost faith, because, blinded by their malice, they did not believe that the Redeemer whom they had believed would come had come.
Therefore, either concerning the people of the Jews or of pseudo-Christians, or concerning each one of them, it is fittingly taken as said: "From the sole of the foot to the top of the head there is no soundness in it." For the ancient serpent diffuses his lethal poison through all the limbs of their actions, beginning from his least things and gradually arriving even to the highest. But so great a languor becomes irremediably strong from this, that medicine is not applied to it. For it follows:
"The wound and the bruise and the swelling sore have not been bound up, nor treated with medicine, nor fomented with oil."
Either their bodies gape with wounds, he says, or are bruised with blows, or swell with sores. What ought to be understood by the name of wound except the plague of lust, of which it is written: "He has broken my loins" (Job 16:14)? "For she has cast down many wounded, and the strongest have been slain by her," as Solomon says (Proverbs 7:26).
What truly is designated by bruise except envy, which makes the mind livid when it is tortured inwardly about the goods of others? And the swelling sore is the sickness of pride, which renders the wounded mind swollen and turgid. Let us refer [the remedies] individually, so that we may say that the wound has not been bound up, nor the bruise treated with medicine, nor the swelling fomented with oil.
The wound is bound up when lust, which wounds both conscience and flesh, is constrained through continence, as the Lord commanded: "Let your loins be girded" (Luke 12:35). [But] this prophet reproaches him who has lost chastity: "There is no longer a girdle for you" (Isaiah 23:10). The bruise indeed of wasting envy is cured with the medicine of benevolence, when Paul says: "Let all bitterness and anger and indignation and clamor be put away from you, with all malice. But be kind to one another, merciful" (Ephesians 4:31-32). And the swelling sore of pride is fomented with oil that it may receive softness, that is, with the gentle blandishment of sacred admonition, when the Lord soothes, saying: "Learn of me, for I am meek and humble of heart, and you shall find rest for your souls" (Matthew 11:29).
But the wound and bruise and swelling sore of the Jews or of this multitude of carnal Christians has not been bound up nor treated with medicine nor fomented with oil, because no prelate is found in the Synagogue, and very rarely indeed in the Church, who seeks the salvation of the souls of the flock committed to him and applies spiritual medicines to minds. For priests, as spiritual physicians, ought, by prohibiting and constraining their subjects on all sides, to bind up the wound of fornication, and with the medicine of the Scriptures to cure the bruise of envy, and those who carry beneath their breast the swelling sore of pride or glory arising from the sense of their flesh, to foment with oil, that is, with sweet and gracious admonition which soothes the mind and anoints it—not because the proud man, when he has been [made proud], should not be struck with harsh rebuke, but that haughty one who cannot be touched otherwise should be mitigated by the blandishments of sacred admonition as if by certain incantations, that he may be healed by the gentleness of humility.
But if individual words have not been rendered to individuals as has been said, and if anyone has understood something else by the name of wound and bruise and swelling sore, any wound of sin is bound up by inhibiting and restraining; then it is to be cured with the sharp medicine of penance; and if the sinner has afflicted himself in penance, he is to be fomented lest he despair with the oil of pious consolation. Hence also the Samaritan, that is, the Lord Jesus, about to heal wounded humankind, "bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine" (Luke 10:34). He bound up the wounds by prohibiting sins; he poured in wine of sharpness, terrifying about the punishment of future damnation of sinners.
Still further, the evils of the wicked are described when it is added:
Is 1:7: Your land is desolate, your cities are burned with fire.
And what is designated by land except flesh, which was made from earth? Hence also it is sung in the psalm that "Truth has sprung out of the earth" (Psalm 85:11), that is, Christ was born of a virgin. The land truly of our body ought to be cultivated by the exercise of sacred disciplines, that it may bring forth the fruit of good works, and all its members ought to be enslaved to divine actions and to serve the command of the Creator. But if these things are lacking to us, then it can also be said to us: "Your land is desolate." For the land of those is desolate whose flesh is not occupied with sacred disciplines and actions.
What moreover is expressed by the cities of this land except the senses of the body, that is, sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch? Hence also the Lord says to a faithful servant: "Be thou over five cities" (Luke 19:19). Therefore they are burned with fire when the flame of vice burns up the five senses of the body: when the eyes willingly contemplate shameful forms, and the ears pleasurably hear foul words, the mouth greedily takes up delightful tastes, the nostrils are fed with odors, and the hands delight to touch those things which pertain to sin. For whose senses are so inflamed, burning with the heat of concupiscence, their cities have surely been burned with fire.
That still worse things happen to them is shown when it is added:
"Your region, foreigners devour it before your eyes, and it shall be desolate as in the devastation of the enemy."
For what is expressed by the name of region except the breadth of their conversation, concerning which kind of regions it was said to the apostles: "Lift up your eyes and see the regions, for they are already white for harvest. And he who reaps receives wages and gathers fruit unto eternal life" (John 4:35-36). Foreigners, moreover, are malign spirits, alienated in perpetuity from the lot of the elect. Therefore foreigners devour their region before them, because malign spirits now entirely plunder their conversation, no longer lying in ambush secretly to those who are ignorant.
Indeed, they do violence to some who know, because often they take away good works in such a way that he who suffers the violence sees with grief that he is losing these things. For the mind often groans, and yet, overcome by the delights of the flesh, loses the goods it had made; it considers the damages it sustains, and yet is not able to resist the violence of demons plundering its goods. To others, however, it is not necessary that they inflict violence, because they always find them ready for the obedience of their will. Therefore foreigners devour the region of these before them, because unclean spirits consume all the goods of their conversation while they themselves watch.
And that very region of their conversation "shall be desolate as in the devastation of the enemy," because the ancient enemy rushes upon it with the whole army of vices, that whatever remains green or fertile in it, whatever is beautiful or useful, whatever is just and good, he may destroy and scatter with barbaric cruelty.
Is 1:8: And the daughter of Zion shall be left as a cottage in a vineyard, and as a lodge in a cucumber field, and as a city that is laid waste.
Because Zion means "watchtower," the daughter of Zion is the soul that used to dwell on high as if in a watchtower, foreseeing with vigilant circumspection and repelling the coming of temptations. For thus she watched and foresaw for herself while she had Christ as her inhabitant, who makes the minds he inhabits watchful and causes them to be solicitous for guard duty. Now, however, she is said to be like a cottage in a vineyard and like a lodge in a cucumber field.
Indeed, in the cottage of the vineyard remains one who guards it day and night, and when he departs, the cottage remains empty. Similarly, this daughter of Zion had God as her guardian and inhabitant while her actions, which can be represented by the vineyard, abounded in good fruits. But because foreigners devour the region of her conversation, she now ceases to have the fruit of justice in her actions; she is abandoned by God just as a cottage is deserted by its guardian. "For the Holy Spirit of discipline will flee from deceit, and will withdraw himself from thoughts that are without understanding, and shall be put to flight when iniquity comes" (Wisdom 1:5).
And she shall be left "as a lodge in a cucumber field," because just as in the morning one deserts the lodge where the cucumbers have failed, so God will abandon this one because now in her life and morals the sweetness of spiritual fruits, like cucumbers, is failing. She will also be left "as a city that is laid waste," just as from a city which enemies capture, those who can escape flee and leave it to be destroyed without resistance, so also the Son and the Holy Spirit depart from this soul which the ancient enemy enters, and they leave it to be plundered and destroyed by demons. Each soul suffers this when through its own negligence it is invaded by malign spirits and is abandoned by God.
Where also the voice of those who have suffered such things is immediately added, saying:
Is 1:9: Unless the Lord of hosts had left us a seed, we would have been as Sodom, and we would have been like Gomorrah.
For "all the Sodomites and Gomorrans were sinners and very wicked" (Genesis 13:13), whence they deserved to perish together. Therefore, if in the multitude of carnal people there were only sinners and reprobates whom the fire of gehenna will devour, then this [people] would be like Sodom and Gomorrah. But lest it become entirely similar to Sodom and Gomorrah, a seed is left, because from the multitude of the wicked some good ones are born who are preserved to provide an example of sanctity.
Therefore, lest the whole religion in this [people] perish at once as among the Sodomites and iniquity alone reign, a seed is left which may be saved, because although the multitude of the reprobate always abounds in this world, and especially near the end of the world, nevertheless the elect are by no means all so withdrawn that only the perverse remain, as in Sodom, but in every time the just are left who may show examples of goodness to the rest.
Moreover, he calls God "Lord of hosts" because he himself exercises all judgment through angels upon men, and at his command not only does the army of good angels serve, who watch over and uplift the elect, but also [the army] of evil ones, who deceive and weigh down the impenitent and reprobate.
The prophet has discoursed these things concerning the wickedness of those who, ceasing to seek heavenly things, fail in good works and, on account of the present life, seeking only the things of the world, are entangled in innumerable sins. For he says many things in the earlier parts of this volume about those who look back and are converted backward.
Historically, moreover, from what was said—"Your land is desolate"—up to what he says—"As a city that is laid waste"—the destruction of the homeland of the Jews was foretold, which the Romans perpetrated when through Vespasian their land was made desolate and their cities burned and the whole region devoured before them by the army of foreigners, when, with his son Titus besieging and capturing Jerusalem, it was left "as a lodge in a cucumber field and as a city that is laid waste."
And "unless the Lord of hosts had left them a seed," they would have been like Sodom or Gomorrah, because unless Christ had left there the apostles and those who believed through their word, from his Passion only the reprobate would have remained there, as in Sodom. But because their perversity grew to such an extent that they expelled all believers from their borders, the prophet, continuing, thus addresses them:
Is 1:10: Hear the word of the Lord, princes of Sodom; give ear to the law of our God, people of Gomorrah.
Deservedly indeed were the priests and Pharisees and scribes called princes of Sodom, and the Synagogue the people of Gomorrah. For just as the Sodomites surrounded the house of holy Lot, "from the boy even to the old man, all the people together" (Genesis 19:4), and that they might be destroyed from the land, Lot the just was led out from their midst with his wife and daughters, so also all these invaded the primitive Church with unanimous conspiracy, and that they alone who would perish might remain, they caused Christ with all his own to depart from them.
And because, being blind, they thought they were doing these things as if with zeal for the law, they are rightly invited to hear the law. For the lawgiver had said concerning Christ: "For the Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet from your brethren like me; you shall hear him in all things whatsoever he shall speak to you" (Deuteronomy 18:15). And this one whom the lawgiver commanded should be heard in all things says: "The law and the prophets [were] until John; from that time the kingdom of God is preached" (Luke 16:16).
Well therefore are they commanded to hear the word of the Lord and to perceive the law with their ears, and they are accused as transgressors of the law—they who still wished to observe the law carnally, which he teaches has ended, whom Moses teaches should be heard in all things whatsoever he shall speak. Hence immediately the Lord, rejecting all those things that used to be offered and celebrated according to the law, adds:
Is 1:11: To what purpose do you offer me the multitude of your victims? says the Lord. I am full, etc.
"Why do you bring to me," he says, "the multitude of your carnal victims? I do not need your gifts, because I am full of all good things." The rest of what is now added concerning the rejection of such oblations and solemnities, because they are manifest according to the letter, we judge superfluous to explain. For these sacrifices were once necessary in their time because of the reason of the prophetic sacraments which they contained. But from the time when the Law and the Prophets ceased to prophesy and what had been prophesied appeared, they now confer no utility but rather provoke God to anger, and therefore are rejected, because when the sun comes, the shadow flees.
Therefore, having set these things aside, let us return to the spiritual understanding. For he says: "Hear the word of the Lord, princes of Sodom; give ear to the law of our God, people of Gomorrah." And whom he now names princes of Sodom and people of Gomorrah is manifest from what precedes—namely, those about whom he said above: "Woe to the sinful nation, to the people laden with iniquity, to the wicked seed, to the criminal children," and "From the sole of the foot to the top of the head there is no soundness in it," and the other things he spoke there.
For justly are those who are such designated by so abhorrent a name, because they have lost all sanctity and, filled with all wickedness, are given over privately to their own iniquities. But they are commanded to hear the word of the Lord and to perceive his law with their ears, that there they may know themselves condemned with all that they do. For these things are not said to those who are wholly ignorant of God, but rather to those "who profess that they know God, but in their works they deny him, being abominable and disobedient and to every good work reprobate" (Titus 1:16).
Yet it often happens that such persons devote themselves to fasts and afflict themselves in many ways. But since both their mind and conscience are polluted and they do nothing with a simple heart, their abstinence or afflictions and works cannot please. Hence through rebuke is added:
"To what purpose do you offer me the multitude of victims? says the Lord. I am full."
They sacrifice a multitude of victims who mortify the flesh in many ways. But where crimes reign in the heart or even sometimes in actions, the interior Judge of minds and Inspector of hidden acts cannot approve exterior honesty. For he does not receive the gifts of external conversation when he condemns the hearts and works which are shown outwardly; he praises what is in hidden places, and he who is full of his own goods is not fed by exterior giving.
Who also adds: "The holocausts of rams and the fat of fatlings and the blood of calves and lambs and goats I do not desire."
Holocaust in our language means "wholly burned." For holon means "whole," caustis "burning"; hence from the combined parts it is called holocaust, that is, "wholly burned." Therefore, he offers a holocaust who inflames himself wholly with the fire of compunction in prayer. But God did not desire the holocausts of rams. For rams lead the flocks. And what now is figured by rams except those who, placed among the innocent and simple as among sheep, esteem themselves better than them and prefer themselves and desire to claim as it were dominion among them?
Their excessively perverse attempt, because while they seek to show themselves better than or prefer themselves to others, they imitate him who, despising the social life of angels, wished through pride to become more sublime than all, saying: "I will exalt my throne above the stars of God" (Isaiah 14:13), that is, above the angels. Therefore the holocausts of rams are rejected, because the prayers of the proud are not received when they sometimes inflame themselves wholly with the fire of compunction for an hour. For in order that prayer may be received divinely, it is necessary that it arise from the root of humility and that the heart persevere henceforth in humility.
Moreover, the princes of heretics can also be understood by rams, who, if they offer these holocausts we have mentioned, are not received. For it is not only about evil Catholics that we now speak, but also about some heretics.
What truly is expressed by the fat of fatlings except the tears of those praying? For he who does not weep in his prayers offers a lean victim; but he who in prayer pours forth tears immolates a fat victim. And among heretics there are some, as it were more religious, who seem to be occupied with prayers and tears. But the Lord signifies that he by no means approves their weeping and supplications when he testifies that he did not desire the fat of fatlings.
Who also "did not desire the blood of calves and lambs and goats." Moreover, the blood of victims was always accustomed to be offered to the Lord, for their flesh was eaten. And since by blood sin is usually understood, what is designated by the pouring out of blood which was offered except the confession of sin? In calves, however, we can understand the proud, the powerful of the world, the oppressors of the humble, and those left to themselves in harmful liberty, because Jeremiah says to the Chaldeans: "You rejoice and speak great things, plundering my inheritance, because you are spread abroad like calves upon the grass and you have bellowed like bulls" (Jeremiah 50:11).
In lambs, truly, the lascivious, because Solomon, having spoken about a harlot, added about the libidinous man, saying: "He immediately follows her as an ox led to the victim and as a lamb frisking" (Proverbs 7:22). In goats, however, any sinners, because the judge "will set the sheep indeed on his right hand, but the goats on his left" (Matthew 25:33).
Therefore God did not desire the blood of calves and lambs and goats, because their confession never pleased him—those who are dissolved in harmful liberty like calves feeding on the goods of others, and who follow lasciviousness like lambs, and of other sinners who are signified by goats. For they are accustomed to confess their sins in such a way that they do not wish to abandon them entirely, but to intermit them for a time and afterward repeat them, or even they still retain some in their heart and confess some, or their mind is held captive by some error.
Hence when they bring these and such sacrifices to the Church, as is added below, the Lord says to them:
Is 1:12: When you came to appear before me, who required these things at your hands, that you should walk in my courts?
For it was said above concerning this people that "from the sole of the foot to the top of the head," that is, from the minimal and extreme action even to the elevation of faith, "there is no soundness in it," and therefore these things are now fittingly understood to be said to those who do evil actions and do not have sound faith, that is, to the followers of the heresy of Simon, who sell or buy ordinations and churches and other sacred things, or consent to such merchants.
For when they have gathered in a purchased Church and offered their oblations, the Lord says to them, as has been set forth: "When you came to appear before me, who required these things at your hands, that you should walk in my courts?" For God neither seeks nor receives these things from their hands. "For without faith it is impossible to please God" (Hebrews 11:6). Hence he also adds:
Is 1:13: Offer sacrifice no more in vain.
"No more," that is, after you have taken this place through the simoniacal heresy, do not now offer sacrifice in it, because it has been profaned. Or "no more," that is, after you have been infected with the poisons of Simon, do not bring sacrifice, because I will not receive it from your hands any longer, since you are always held reprobate from the priesthood.
It follows: "Incense is an abomination to me."
The Lord detests the incense which is offered by such in such a place. Similarly he shows that he execrates all their solemnities, adding: "The new moon and the sabbath and other festivals I will not abide; your assemblies are wicked."
Is 1:14: My soul hates your new moons and your solemnities; they have become troublesome to me, I am weary of bearing them.
For what is expressed by the new moon and sabbath and new moons and solemnities except everything that is celebrated festively by these? Let Simoniacs therefore or other heretics make however great and frequent solemnities; without doubt they are exceedingly odious to God. For their assemblies are wicked in their festivities of those gathered, because all are infected with the poison of heretical impiety, and therefore whatever they do, the Lord abominates.
But we can refer these things to evil Catholics. For by the name of incense the virtue of prayer is expressed, the Psalmist saying: "Let my prayer be directed as incense in thy sight" (Psalm 141:2). Therefore, the Lord, rejecting the prayer of the iniquitous, says: "Incense is an abomination to me." For according to Solomon, "He that turns away his ear from hearing the law, his prayer shall be an abomination" (Proverbs 28:9).
Moreover, Neomenia is a Greek word: neon indeed means "new," mēnē however "moon." Hence by the composite name is called Neomenia the festivity of the new moon which the Hebrews celebrate at the beginning of months. Neomenia therefore is interpreted "new moon." And what is the new moon except new life?
And there are some who, as if compunct in conversation at the voice of preaching, change their habit but not their mind, so that they assume a religious garment but do not trample underfoot their former vices; they are proud before human eyes concerning certain goods shown; greedily seeking the gains of the present world and having confidence of sanctity from the exterior habit alone which they have assumed. Therefore their neomenia, that is, the pretense of new conversation, is burdensome to God.
By Sabbath, however, what ought to be understood except the cessation from evil works? (Exodus 31:15) For on the Sabbath it was commanded to cease from exterior action. But he who outwardly rests from perverse work and inwardly labors with depraved desires, his Sabbath is heavy to God.
He also keeps festival who with exultant heart praises God. But the festivity of his praise, concerning whom it is written: "He will praise thee when thou shalt do well to him" (Psalm 49:18), is not pleasing to God, because he praises in prosperity and murmurs in adversity, and loves him more for present goods than for future ones.
Well therefore to those who serve their vices under the ostentation of justice, "having an appearance indeed of godliness but denying the power thereof" (2 Timothy 3:5), does the Lord say that "the new moon and sabbath and other festivals I will not abide," and also that "my soul hates your new moons and solemnities," that is, his will. Or since God is exterior to all bodies, interior to all minds, that very [power] of his by which he penetrates all things and disposes all things is called his soul.
Moreover, this can be distinguished between new moons and neomenia: that neomenia is new conversation, but new moons are a beginning. But when he says "My soul hates your new moons," he execrates the beginnings of those who are converted to faith as that Simon Magus (Acts 8) or who are converted to cenobitic life as Ananias and his wife who made fraud concerning the price of their field (Acts 5). He detests the beginnings of those who purchase the monastic or canonical life or ordination. He condemns the beginnings of those who come to the monastic order not with the intention of pleasing God but for some other thing. Finally, he rebukes those who begin a good work not with a good intention.
Therefore of all these and such, he execrates the evil beginnings when he declares that he hates the new moons. Nor does he only abominate the new moons of such but also their solemnities—the sequence of thoughts in which they rejoice to have begun themselves thus, or they are glad to retain what they began thus and to persevere in the same evil.
Concerning which, on the contrary, it is said to him: "For the thought of man shall confess to thee, and the remainders of the thought shall keep holiday to thee" (Psalm 76:10). Therefore the first thought of the penitent is that which condemns the former life and begins to confess; but the remainders of the thought are those which also celebrate solemnities to God, that he who has been freed from sins may always give thanks to the liberator, mindful of the evils from which he has been freed.
Just as the first thought of the one confessing is pleasing to God, and the solemnities of the thought of one celebrating thanksgivings for his [liberation] are [pleasing], so the new moons of the evil beginning of these and the solemnities of subsequent thoughts in the same intention are odious to him. Who also declares that he has labored, because he has borne their hard depravities now for a long time. In himself indeed he always remains quiet and immutable, but nevertheless he says, as has been said, that he has labored, because he has long now sustained their hard iniquities with patience.
Who also sometimes make long prayers but are not corrected from their depravities. Hence is added:
Is 1:15: And when you stretch forth your hands, I will turn away my eyes from you, and when you multiply prayer, I will not hear. For your hands are full of blood.
For it is the custom of those praying to extend their hands on high. But God does not deign to look upon the extension of hands of the iniquitous, and he refuses to hear their prayer, though it be multiplied. For he hears prayer not on account of prolixity but on account of pure devotion. Hence he commands his own in the Gospel: "When you are praying, speak not much, as the heathens do. For they think that in their much speaking they may be heard. Be not you therefore like to them" (Matthew 6:7).
Therefore prayer is multiplied in vain by depraved men, because not the speech of the mouth but the affection of the heart is weighed by the Lord, and their life obstructs that prayers be heard. For their hands are full of blood; their works and prayers are rejected by the Lord, and the hands of their actions are full of the blood of the death of souls which they kill.
To these up to this point God has spoken in his anger, but from here he begins to speak according to mercy, saying:
Is 1:16: Wash yourselves, be clean, take away the evil of your thoughts from my eyes.
"Wash yourselves" through penance; "be clean" through continual observance of cleanness. For he is washed and clean who both bewails past sins and does not admit things to be bewailed; but he is washed and is not clean who bewails what he has done nor abandons it, and after tears repeats these things which he had wept for. For after washing he neglects to be clean, whoever after tears does not guard innocence of life. And therefore they are washed and by no means clean who do not cease to weep for things committed but again commit things to be wept for.
The evil also of perverse thoughts ought to be taken away from his eyes, that one may be most pure in his sight not only in action but in heart. "No one of men," says Gregory (Morals, book 25, chapter 5), "sees the hidden ways of our mind, and yet before the eyes of God we place as many steps as we move affections. We fall before him as many times as we limp with the foot of weak thought from the right path. For unless this assiduous fall of our minds increased before his sight, he would by no means cry out: 'Take away the evil of your thoughts from my eyes.' Saying these things, he testifies that he cannot as it were bear the force of our covered malice, which cannot be hidden from him, because whatever is thought by us illicitly in secret is importunately thrust upon his sight."
Still moreover, the Lord insinuates what ought to be done, adding: "Cease to do perversely."
Is 1:17: Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge for the fatherless, defend the widow.
Is 1:18: And the Lord says: Come and accuse me.
"Cease now," he says, "from perverse acts, and learn from the truth to do well. Seek judgment from the wise, lest, if judgment has not been made between those disagreeing, the iniquitous prevail against the just. And mercifully relieve the oppressed and the fatherless, that is, defend his cause in judgment. And when you have done these things, come and accuse me."
Whom we accuse, we constrain by the authority of reason. What is it that the Lord commands holy ones to do: "Come and accuse me," except that he insinuates how much confidence he provides to good actions? As if he openly said: "Act rightly, and meet the movements of my animadversion now not through the groaning of supplication but through the confidence of authority." For indeed John says: "If our heart does not reprehend us, we have confidence towards God" (1 John 3:21).
Hence it is that [God] complains that he had one accusing him when through the prophet [he says]: "I sought among them for a man who would make up the hedge and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it, but I found none" (Ezekiel 22:30). Therefore, to accuse God is to meet his wrath confidently and to restrain the impetus of his animadversion.
Who still indicates what they will obtain through mercy who have done the aforesaid works of piety, saying to them: "If your sins be as scarlet, they shall be made as white as snow; and if they be red as crimson, they shall be white as wool."
Moreover, scarlet is the same as coccus, which is a little worm. But David, when he was doing penance for the perpetration of incest and homicide, said: "Deliver me from blood-guiltiness" (Psalm 51:14). And just as with David by the appellation of bloods enormous sins are signified, so now with Isaiah by the blood color of the little worm and scarlet. Snow, however, and white wool insinuate the purgation of sins and the whiteness of justice. For the aforesaid Psalmist then says: "Thou shalt wash me, and I shall be made whiter than snow" (Psalm 51:7). When therefore he promises that red sins will be made white, without doubt he pledges that great faults will be converted into the whiteness of justice.
It follows:
Is 1:19: If you be willing and will hear me, you shall eat the good things of the land.
"If," he says, "you will have good will and will hear me obediently, you will eat the goods of that land of which it is said: 'I believe to see the good things of the Lord in the land of the living'" (Psalm 27:13). For since all the elements are in motion, but earth alone remains immobile and solid, fittingly by earth is designated the solidity of eternal rest. The goods of this land are the pleasant delightfulness of the heavenly homeland, the society of angels, the presence of the divine vision, and the rest "which eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither has it entered into the heart of man" (1 Corinthians 2:9), which then the souls of the just eat when they delight in all these things without end.
Then the contrary is added:
Is 1:20: But if you will not, and will provoke me to wrath, the sword shall devour you.
"If you will not," he says, "do good things"—and he did not add "and you will deserve my anger," but "and you will provoke me to wrath." For indeed to deserve the wrath of God is to sin even unknowingly; but to provoke him to wrath is to go knowingly against his commands, to know good but to despise it, to be able but not to will.
The sword, however, designates either the sentence of the judge or the torment of perpetual death. For by the name of sword is understood whatever kills, whatever torments, whatever punishes, and whatever burns. Therefore the sword will devour those who provoke God to wrath when they hear from him: "Depart from me, you cursed, into everlasting fire" (Matthew 25:41). For then, as it is written, "they shall go into the lower parts of the earth; they shall be delivered into the hands of the sword" (Psalm 63:9).
Because the holy man said these things not from himself but heard them from God, he fittingly adds: "For the mouth of the Lord has spoken it." For the mouth of the Lord is the supernal inspiration which formed in the mind of the prophet without sound of words all things which he himself narrated outwardly.
It follows:
Is 1:21: How has the faithful city, full of judgment, become a harlot? Justice dwelt in it, but now murderers.
Jerusalem was a faithful city while it faithfully awaited Christ its king coming in the flesh. It was also full of judgment while right judgment was frequently practiced in it. But then it became a harlot when it would not receive the King and Spouse whom it awaited coming, but admitted the ancient corrupter of the soul. For it rejected the legitimate husband and received an adulterer.
Justice once dwelt in it, but now murderers, who also killed the Savior himself. For this was said of that space of time which flowed from the Passion of the Lord up to the destruction of Jerusalem, to which is added:
Is 1:22: Your silver has turned into dross, your wine is mixed with water.
The purgings and filth of metals are called dross, which can also be called rust. Silver, truly, is the brightness of sacred eloquence, since "the words of the Lord are pure words, as silver tried by fire" (Psalm 12:6). And "The tongue of the just is as choice silver" (Proverbs 10:20). Dross, however, designates the traditions of the Pharisees. Therefore the silver of Jerusalem has turned into dross, since by the sordid interpretation of the Scribes and Pharisees, sacred eloquence was obscured among the Jews.
Wine also is the spiritual sense of divine Scripture, by which the minds of hearers are inebriated; water, however, is the carnal understanding of the same Scripture, as the Evangelist designates where he relates that the Lord converted water into wine (John 2). Therefore the wine of Jerusalem has been mixed with water, because the sense of the Scriptures among the Jews has been softened by the admixture of carnal understanding.
It follows:
Is 1:23: Your princes are faithless, companions of thieves. They all love bribes, they pursue after rewards. They judge not for the fatherless, and the widow's cause does not come in to them.
"Your princes are faithless," because they keep faith neither to God nor to man. "Companions of thieves," because they are both associates and participants in thefts. "They all love bribes," because they are full of avarice. "They pursue after rewards," because they seek to receive a return from those to whom they bestow something good. "They judge not for the fatherless," that is, they do not sustain his part in judgment. "And the widow's cause does not come in to them," because they do not deign to hear it or defend [her] from injuries, since she does not have gifts to offer. Such were the princes of the Synagogue when the Savior conversed bodily on earth.
It follows:
Is 1:24: Therefore says the Lord, the God of hosts, the mighty one of Israel: Ah, I will comfort myself over my adversaries, and I will be avenged of my enemies.
The Lord avenged himself on his enemies, the Jews, through the Romans. Hence he also calls himself "Lord of hosts," because the army of the Romans, although unknowing, served him when they destroyed and exterminated the Jews for his killing. He avenged himself on them also after they were killed, because he handed them over to the punishments of gehenna. And in this vengeance the armies of angels served him. They also felt him strong whom in the passion they thought weak.
In whose vengeance he asserted that he would be comforted, because he was saddened by their evil acts. But when he says "Ah, I will comfort myself," he shows that he did not wish such consolation. Hence also elsewhere he speaks: "Do I desire the death of the wicked, says the Lord, and not rather that he should be converted from his ways and live?" (Ezekiel 18:23). For unwillingly does he act when he compels sinners by just [judgment], he "who wills all men to be saved" (1 Timothy 2:4).
Then what he says to Jerusalem pertains only to that part of the Israelite race which was about to believe through the new preaching:
Is 1:25: And I will turn my hand to you, and I will purge your dross to the pure, and I will take away all your tin.
Is 1:26: And I will restore your judges as at the first, and your counselors as of old. After this you shall be called the city of the just, a faithful city.
Indeed, he turns his hand to the elect part, because, having left the unfaithful, he worked signs and miracles powerfully through those who believed, for the illumination of others. "But they going forth preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word with signs that followed" (Mark 16:20).
And he purged their dross to the pure, since, with the rust of the old understanding removed, "he opened their understanding that they might understand the scriptures" (Luke 24:45). And he took away all their tin, because gradually he removed from them the rite of Judaizing. For tin, which has the color of silver but is a base metal, designates the doctrine of the Pharisees, which seemed similar to divine eloquence.
The doctrine of those was tin concerning whom it is written: "There rose up certain of the sect of the Pharisees who believed, saying: It is necessary to circumcise them and to command them to observe the law of Moses" (Acts 15:5). But the Lord took away the tin, Peter saying: "Why do you tempt God to put a yoke upon the necks of the disciples which neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear?" (Acts 15:10).
And he restored the judges of the Church as they were before, because [the Church], which had formerly had patriarchs and judges and prophets, now received in their place apostles and prophets and doctors. Hence also it is said to her elsewhere: "Instead of thy fathers, sons are born to thee; thou shalt make them princes over all the earth" (Psalm 45:16).
After these things, not now the Synagogue of the Jews but the city of the just was called, that is, the Church of Christ, of whom it is sung that "the Lord is just in his words" (Psalm 145:17). Who also is "a faithful city," because "the Lord is faithful in all his words." Or his city is faithful because it keeps the faith whole for its Lord.
It follows:
Is 1:27: Zion shall be redeemed in judgment, and they shall bring her back in justice.
Zion, which is called watchtower, is the people of the Jews who awaited the coming of Christ. For Christ himself, coming, redeemed her with his blood in that judgment of discernment of which it is said: "Judge me, O God, and distinguish my cause from the nation that is not holy" (Psalm 43:1). Or "Now is the judgment of this world; now shall the prince of this world be cast out" (John 12:31).
And after she was redeemed, the apostles brought her back to the grace of the Redeemer. And they did this in justice, because it was just that those things which had been promised to the fathers should be fulfilled in the sons. In this justice Peter strove to bring her back when he said: "You are the children of the prophets and of the testament which God made to our fathers, saying to Abraham: And in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed. To you first, God, raising up his Son, has sent him to bless you, that every one may convert himself from his wickedness" (Acts 3:25-26).
But concerning those who would not be converted, it is added:
Is 1:28: And he shall destroy the wicked and the sinners together.
For the wicked, that is, those who killed the Lord, and the other sinners of that people were crushed together in the siege of Jerusalem by pestilence and famine and swords. For he calls the wicked murderers. Concerning those also who, having once left the temple of the Lord, were converted to idols, it follows: "And those who have forsaken the Lord shall be consumed."
Is 1:29: For they shall be confounded for the idols to which they have sacrificed.
For these also were consumed by the sword of the Babylonians and Assyrians and were confounded by their idols, when in the time of necessity they could not be helped by them. To whom, with the address turned, is added: "And you shall be ashamed of the gardens which you have chosen."
Is 1:30: When you shall be as an oak with the leaves falling off, and as a garden without water.
They had chosen gardens that in their pleasantness they might sacrifice to idols. But over them they then blushed when they were made like an oak from which the leaves fall, and like a garden which is not watered with water. For an oak, when it lays down its leaves, now has neither fruit nor the greenness of leaves, and a garden without water begets nothing green, but whatever was green in it withers.
So also these through the Assyrians and Chaldeans lost all the beauty of their former elegance and the flower of glory and the greenness of virtue and the fruit of their goods, nor did they afterward recover them to completeness.
It follows:
Is 1:31: And your strength shall be as the ashes of tow, and your work as a spark, and both shall burn together, and there shall be none to quench it.
When the Chaldeans were fighting and besieging Jerusalem, the strength of the Jews was crushed and dry like the ashes of tow, and the work of their rebellion, as it generated fire by which they themselves would be burned. For if they had subjected themselves to the yoke of the Chaldeans, they would not perish. Hence Jeremiah [says]: "He that shall dwell in this city shall die by the sword and by famine and by pestilence; but he that shall go out and flee over to the Chaldeans that besiege you, shall live, and his life shall be to him as a spoil" (Jeremiah 21:9).
Therefore their work, like a spark, made fire which would burn their strength like tow, because while they [fought] in Jerusalem so as to defend themselves [and fought] the Chaldeans so that they might deserve no clemency. And in that tribulation both were kindled together, their strength and their work, nor was there one who might extinguish the fire of that tribulation, but they were permitted for a very long time to be cooked in it.
Still further, it pleases us to reconsider these things which we have discussed.
"How," he says, "has the faithful city, full of judgment, become a harlot? Justice dwelt in it, but now murderers."
The faithful city is the Church, which keeps its faith to Christ the King. And it is also "full of judgment," rightly judging all things and weighing each thing equitably. "For the spiritual man judges all things" (1 Corinthians 2:15). This Church, to be sure, has not entirely become, nor will it ever become, a harlot, but because, with the end of the world approaching, it already abounds with so great a multitude that scarcely anyone of the just appears in it, the prophet marvels how the feeling of the multitude could be corrupted and could lose the chastity which is for Christ, and he breaks forth into a voice of sorrow and admiration, saying: "How has the faithful city, full of judgment, become a harlot?"
For a harlot has become the greatest multitude of this people who bear the name of Christianity, because, deserting the legitimate husband, that is Christ, with his commandments, while it refuses to do the divine will and prostitutes itself softly to unclean spirits in pleasures and sins. For the prophet also consequently insinuates why he said it became a harlot, because justice once dwelt in it when it was full of the observance of commandments. But now it overflows with murderers who either strike others with the sword or have them in hatred. "For everyone who hates his brother is a murderer" (1 John 3:15), and every murderer is without charity.
Therefore the people who have expelled justice from themselves and are full of murderers are deservedly said to have become a harlot, because they have deserted the charity of the Spouse who is Christ and have ardently adhered to the adulterers who are demons. But also some priests who ought to correct its morals, now depraved by similar perversity, so that they themselves nourish the vices of their subjects, it follows:
"Your silver has turned into dross, your wine has been mixed with water."
For very often one who dares to teach what he neglects to do, when he begins to teach subjects good things which he has scorned to work but evil things which he does, by the just judgment of God now does not have a good tongue, he who refuses to have good action—so that while he attends to the love of earthly things, he always speaks about earthly things and holds the place of rule as if for the fruit of pleasure, not for the use of labor.
Therefore the silver of this preaching has turned into the dross of sordid speaking, because instead of heavenly things he speaks earthly things, instead of spiritual things carnal things, instead of good things evil things. His wine also, by which he could inebriate others, has been mixed with water, because he softens the spiritual sense of Sacred Scripture with his own sense, so that he rather delights hearers than corrects them, nor does he inflame them with the fire of charity but allows them to remain torpid in the cold of his sensuality.
Or rather, it is said to the people: "Your silver has turned into dross, your wine has been mixed with water," because now rarely does anyone speak the divine eloquence to the people of God without an admixture of lies and things which do not pertain to edification. For modern preachers do not study to observe what Peter says: "If any man speak, let him speak as the words of God" (1 Peter 4:11). And the silver of this people is said to be the silver of sacred eloquence which it receives from teachers.
What also is added evidently depicts the morals of those whom we now see endowed with secular power:
"Your princes are faithless," and so forth.
For faithless are these secular princes, because now they keep faith with almost no one but act fraudulently toward all. They are also companions of thieves whom they protect and with whom they divide what those steal. All not only receive but also love bribes, because they consult with or help their subjects not from love of justice but from cupidity of money. For they pursue rewards, because they only do good to those from whom they hope for recompense—which the elect are commanded to transcend in benefits when they hear: "If you do good to them that do good to you, what thanks are to you? For sinners also do this. And if you lend to them of whom you hope to receive, what thanks are to you? For sinners also lend to sinners, to receive as much" (Luke 6:33-34). This is to pursue rewards.
The aforesaid princes, however, "judge not for the fatherless, and the widow's cause does not come in to them," because while they do all things for bribes, they neglect to defend the innocence of the poor in whom they do not hope to acquire earthly gains.
"Therefore says the Lord, the God of hosts, the mighty one of Israel: Ah, I will comfort myself over my adversaries and I will be avenged of my enemies."
Who now, irritated by the evil acts of these, will take vengeance on them when he is avenged on them. Hence also he is called Lord of hosts, because he exercises vengeance through angels. He is also called mighty Israel, because strong in power he will save the humble who are now afflicted and will condemn the powerful who do not help them. "For to the little ones mercy is granted," as it is written (Wisdom 6:6), but "the mighty shall be mightily tormented, and a more severe examination shall be for the more powerful. For the most mighty shall mightily suffer torments, and for the stronger a stronger torture awaits" (Wisdom 6:7-9).
His enemies and adversaries are the aforesaid princes on account of the evils which he described them doing, for whom the judgment of damnation is imminent, as it is written. But these evils which he has depicted up to now, and which we see multiplied daily in this Christian people, will be corrected through Elijah, as we believe, because the Savior says in the Gospel: "Elijah is to come and will restore all things" (Matthew 17:11). Hence also here he adds:
"And I will turn my hand to you and will purge your dross to the pure," etc.
For he seems to have turned away from this people which now works so many evils. But when Elijah comes and restores all things, he will turn his hand again to them, that he may work holy things as of old, marvelously. And through Elijah, he says, "I will purge your dross to the pure," that is, I will cleanse the rust of secular understanding from the Scriptures. "And I will take away all your tin," that is, whatever false doctrine you will have. For Elijah will restore all things.
An immense multitude of this people has become a harlot because it has prostituted itself to the devil in pleasures. But after Elijah, who will restore all things, brings it back to the chaste love of the legitimate husband, it will no longer be called a harlot but "the city of the just," that is, the people of God. And because the day of judgment will come, it is fittingly added:
"Zion shall be redeemed in judgment," etc.
For Zion, that is, the Church of the just, will be redeemed from those miseries in that judgment, concerning which redemption the Savior himself says: "Look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near" (Luke 21:28). "And they shall bring her back in justice," the angels, "because the Son of man shall send his angels with a trumpet and a great voice, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds" (Matthew 24:31).
And then "he shall destroy the wicked together," that is, the killers of the saints and other sinners, and those who, seduced by Antichrist, have forsaken the Lord, shall be consumed by eternal punishments.
"They shall be confounded by the idols to which they have sacrificed."
They are called idols because, according to the faith of the Apocalypse, they "worshiped the dragon which gave power to the beast, and they worshiped the beast and the image" (Revelation 13:4ff), or they had "his mark in their right hand and his name or the number of his name in their foreheads" (Revelation 14:9). To such idols they sacrificed their most wicked actions, but by these they will be confounded in the advent of the Judge.
It follows: "And you shall be ashamed of the gardens which you have chosen, when you shall be as an oak with the leaves falling off and as a garden without water."
Whoever gives himself entirely over to transitory pleasures chooses gardens. They chose gardens who say to their like in the book of Wisdom: "Come, let us enjoy the good things that are, and let us speedily use the creatures as in youth. Let us fill ourselves with costly wine and ointments, and let not the flower of the time pass by us. Let us crown ourselves with roses before they be withered; let no meadow escape our riot. Let none of us be exempt from our riot; let us leave tokens of joy everywhere, for this is our portion" (Wisdom 2:6-9).
Behold how they chose the pleasantness of gardens, and what it is to choose gardens! Over these they will gravely blush when, full of confusion, they stand before the tribunal of the eternal Judge. For then they will be like an oak from which the leaves fall, because they will have no fruit of past pleasure, and losing all beauty entirely, they will remain naked and dry and fit for burning. "The rich man shall fade away in his ways" (James 1:11).
It follows: "And they will be as a garden without water," because the sun of justice appearing in judgment will terrify them and will dry up all their moisture and greenness. Hence James [says]: "The sun rose with a burning heat and withered the grass, and the flower thereof fell off, and the beauty of its appearance perished" (James 1:11). And he added: "So also shall the rich man fade away."
It follows: "And your strength shall be as the ashes of tow, and your work as a spark, and both shall burn together, and there shall be none to quench it."
The strength of the iniquitous who trust in their own virtue and for the concupiscences of this life bravely tolerate so many labors will be in the resurrection crushed and dry and fit for burning like the ashes of tow. Hence also it is said elsewhere: "The congregation of sinners is like tow heaped together, and the end of them is a flame of fire" (Sirach 21:9).
And their work will be as a spark when the memory of the evils they have done begins to burn them, for it is written: "They shall come with fear at the thought of their sins, and their iniquities shall stand against them to convict them" (Wisdom 4:20). For just as a spark is nourished in tow and sets it on fire, so the memory of their sins will become for these the beginning of perpetual burning.
And after they hear "Depart from me, you cursed, into everlasting fire" (Matthew 25:41), both shall burn together in gehenna—they themselves, that is, and their work. "For the thing that is made shall suffer torments together with him that made it" (Wisdom 14:10), as the wise man speaks. "And there shall be none to quench it, because their worm shall not die, and their fire shall not be quenched" (Isaiah 66:24).
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