Is 5:1. “I will sing,” he says, “to my beloved, a song of my cousin concerning his vineyard.”
Moses sang a song of joy after crossing the Red Sea (Exodus 15). Deborah too, together with Barak, sang after the victory was accomplished (Judges 5). And David, when he had been delivered from all his enemies, sang (2 Samuel 22). Jeremiah, however, sang a lamenting song, saying: “How the city sits solitary, that was full of people” (Lamentations 1:1). The final song of Moses is likewise more a song of sadness than of joy, because in it the infidelity of the people is foretold. So now Isaiah is about to sing a song of sorrow.
“I will sing,” he says, “to my beloved,” that is, to God the Father, “the song of my cousin,” that is, of the Lord Jesus, who would become my kinsman through the assumption of flesh. I say “a song concerning his vineyard,” that is, concerning his people. A cousin (patruelis) is the son of a paternal uncle; an uncle (patruus) is the brother of one’s father, just as a maternal uncle (avunculus) is the brother of one’s mother. Therefore the prophet calls Christ his cousin on account of kinship of lineage, because from that people He was to take His humanity. Or else Christ is the beloved of whom the Father says, “You are my beloved Son” (Mark 1:11). And that Beloved composed a mournful song for His vineyard, which I shall sing to my beloved people.
The song begins thus: “My beloved had a vineyard on a fertile hill” (literally, “on a horn, the son of oil”). And later it is said: “The vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel.” What does the “horn” signify if not the strength of the kingdom? Therefore the vineyard was made for my beloved “on a horn” when the ancient people of God advanced into a kingdom. It was made “on a horn, the son of oil,” because the strength of that kingdom came from the grace of God.
Is 5:2. “He fenced it, cleared it of stones, and planted it with choice vines.”
“He fenced it” — or “hedged it” — with the guardianship of angels. “He cleared it of stones” because He removed the remnants of the Amorites and drove out adversaries. “He planted it with choice vines” because He chose them for Himself as a special possession from all the nations under heaven (Exodus 19:5). It continues: “He built a tower in the midst of it,” that is, the Temple. “And he dug a winepress,” that is, the altar, where the blood of sacrifices was poured out, just as grapes are pressed in the winepress.
After all these benefits it is added: “He expected it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes.”
He expected that His vineyard, according to the sweetness of its nature, would produce grapes — that is, that it would render to God the pleasing and sweet fruits of good works — but on the contrary it produced wild grapes, that is, bitter and savage works of paganism. For the wild cluster is called labrusca because it grows on the lips of the earth, that is, along roads and hedges, signifying the works of the surrounding nations. The vineyard of the Lord, Judea, degenerating from the fruit of the patriarchs, produced not the fruit of righteousness but the works of paganism.
Then the voice of the householder himself is introduced, saying:
Is 5:3. “And now, inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard.”
Here it is not stated what the inhabitants, acting as judges, replied. But in the Gospel it is made clear, for they said: “He will put those wretches to a miserable death and lease the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons” (Matthew 21:41). And when they had condemned themselves by their own judgment, the Lord added: “The kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a nation producing its fruits.” In the same way He speaks here: “Judge,” He says, “between me and my vineyard.”
Is 5:4. “What more was there to do for my vineyard that I have not done for it? Why, when I expected it to yield grapes, did it yield wild grapes?”
Understand: What more should I have done? Is it my fault that it produced wild grapes when I expected it to produce grapes?
Is 5:5. “And now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard.”
What He says in the Gospel — “The kingdom of God will be taken away from you” (Matthew 21:43) — He adds here: “I will remove its hedge, and it shall be devoured; I will break down its wall, and it shall be trampled.”
Is 5:6. “I will make it a waste …”
“I will remove its hedge,” that is, the guardianship of angels and the protection of my defense, and it shall be given over to plunder by the Roman army. “I will break down its wall,” that is, the wall of Jerusalem when Titus besieges it, and it shall be trampled by all who pass by, because they will fall by the edge of the sword and be led captive among all nations (Luke 21:24). “I will make it a waste,” so uncultivated that it will no longer produce any fruit of domestic labor, but will always perform wild works. “It shall not be pruned or hoed, and briers and thorns shall grow up over it.” It shall not be pruned because the branches of vices will not be cut away, but they will die in their sins; nor will it be hoed by the mattock of preaching so as to bear fruit. And briers and thorns will grow over it, that is, the stings of sins and crimes. “And I will command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it.”
This is what the apostles also say to this vineyard: “It was necessary that the word of God be spoken first to you. But since you reject it and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we turn to the Gentiles. For so the Lord has commanded us: ‘I have set you as a light to the Gentiles’” (Acts 13:46–47). They are the clouds, for of them it is said: “Who are these who fly like clouds?” (Isaiah 60:8). They were therefore commanded not to rain the shower of preaching upon the unfruitful vineyard, because they were sent to the Gentiles, where they would find fruit.
Up to this point he has spoken mystically; now he clearly declares what this vineyard is, adding:
Is 5:7. “For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are his pleasant planting.”
The house of Israel signifies the ten tribes, and the men of Judah the house of Judah, from which the Lord was born. Because of kinship of lineage, every man of Judah is a delightful shoot; the remaining tribes are simply His vineyard, that is, His people. “And I expected justice, but behold iniquity; righteousness, but behold a cry.”
Between me and Barabbas they should have executed justice (Matthew 27:21), but they committed iniquity, that is, a transgression of the Law, by freeing a murderer whom the Law condemns. For the Law is called νόμος (nomos, “law”) in Greek speech, and from this comes anomia (“lawlessness,” iniquity), meaning whatever is without the Law or against the Law. “I expected righteousness,” that they would condemn the wicked, “but behold a cry,” against me, saying: “Crucify him, crucify him” (Luke 23:21).
Now let us see whether these things can be understood of those who are counted by the name Christian. “My beloved had a vineyard on a fertile hill.” The Church is the vineyard of God, which produces as many shoots as saints, to whom He says: “I am the vine; you are the branches” (John 15:5). By the horn, that is, by the corner of the field, the outstanding and best part of the land is signified, and through this the chosen part of the human race. Therefore the vineyard was made on a horn, because the Church was planted in the chosen portion of humanity. By oil the anointing of the Holy Spirit is figured.
Thus he says: “My beloved had a vineyard on a horn, the son of oil.” The son of oil is the faithful people, who are generated into the faith of God by the inner anointing of the Holy Spirit. Of this same oil it is said elsewhere: “The yoke shall rot away from before the oil” (Isaiah 10:27). For the yoke rots away before the oil because, when we are anointed by the grace of the Holy Spirit, we are freed from the servitude of our captivity; and when the proud dominion of evil spirits is driven back, the yoke is broken by which the necks of our freedom were oppressed.
Therefore the vineyard was made for my beloved on a horn, the son of oil, because the Church was made for Christ among the chosen and spiritual people, who are born from heavenly grace.
“And he fenced it and removed the stones from it and planted it with choice vines.”
He fenced it, as it is written: “Salvation will be placed in it as a wall” (Isaiah 26:1). And in Zechariah: “I will be to her,” says the Lord, “a wall of fire all around” (Zechariah 2:5). Or else, by the name of a hedge (sepes), the fortification of discipline can be signified. He fenced it because He gave it the protection of discipline. What is signified by the harmful stones of the vineyard except the hardness of those who remained in unbelief while the world was receiving the faith? Therefore He removed the stones from it, because He carefully took away the remnants of the unbelieving from the midst of the dwelling of the faithful, and all those things that could hinder God’s work.
“And he planted it with choice vines.”
For, as it is said elsewhere: “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. The good seed are the sons of the kingdom” (Matthew 13:37–38). Although the enemy sowed the tares, nevertheless the householder sowed nothing but good seed in his field and planted his vineyard with what was chosen.
“And he built a tower in the midst of it and dug a winepress in it.”
He built a tower in it because He gave it overseers whose way of life would rise up as it were on high, so that they might look out for it and guard it — of whom it is said: “Prosperity within your towers” (Psalm 122:7). What is signified by the winepress except the pressure and strictness of discipline, which cleanses the elect from the filth of vices and separates them from the reprobate, just as the grape is pressed in the winepress and oil is separated from the dregs? Hence certain psalms are titled “for the winepresses.”
Therefore, after receiving so many and such great benefits from God, let us see what humanity has rendered in return. It follows: “He expected it to produce grapes, but it produced wild grapes.” For after God bestowed so many good things upon it and cast out the remnants of unbelievers like stones, granting it peace everywhere, soon, as the multitude of carnal people increased, it clung to vices, and in many who are called Christians it lives in a pagan manner. Not only the Church as a whole, but each one of us individually, is long awaited by heavenly mercy to do good. Hence He promises, saying: “If he comes in the second watch, or if he comes in the third watch, and finds them so, blessed are those servants” (Luke 12:38). “But it produced wild grapes,” because, alas, we are not even ashamed, when we are awaited, to live carnally, to follow the examples of the perverse, and to perform the works of unbelievers.
“Now therefore, inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard.”
The inhabitants of Jerusalem are those who dwell in the Church, for this is the city of the great King; this is the vision of peace. Peace, indeed, is multiplied in us, if we are truly children of peace. And we too are the men of Judah, on account of Christ who was born from Judah. The very name Judah is referred to Christ, as it is written: “Judah, your brothers shall praise you; your hand shall be on the necks of your enemies; your father’s sons shall bow down before you” (Genesis 49:8). Now therefore the discourse is addressed to the inhabitants of Jerusalem — that is, to those who are in the Church — and to the men of Judah; without doubt it is directed to Christians. We can also understand this as said to those who “will sit on twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel” (Matthew 19:28). For even now the vineyard of the Lord is judged through them, because “the time has come for judgment to begin with the house of God” (1 Peter 4:17), which is also His vineyard.
“And now I will show you what I will do to my vineyard. I will remove its hedge of protection and defense, because I was a wall all around it. And it shall be given over to plunder by greedy robbers,” that is, by evil spirits who seize the goods of virtues. “I will break down its wall,” that is, I will destroy the safeguard of its discipline and its very religion. “And it shall be trampled,” because it will be trampled in the mire of vices by unclean spirits. Hence it is said elsewhere: “Open it up so that those who trample it may enter” (Jeremiah 50:26).
“And I will make it a waste, so that it will produce no fruit of good works. It shall not be pruned or hoed, and briers and thorns shall grow up over it.”
Pruning is judgment or assessment. For when someone takes a vine to cleanse it, he prunes it — that is, he considers and judges what ought to be cut away and what ought to remain. Thus God considers the works of His faithful: He preserves what is good and cuts away what is evil. But those who are constantly devoted to evil deeds and stubbornly trample the commandments do not easily have their vices cut away; rather, by a dreadful judgment, He abandons them in their wickedness. And this is what He now threatens: that it will not be pruned nor cut back; it will not be rebuked for the evils it commits, but will be left uncultivated in the terror of its iniquities.
“And I will command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it.”
The clouds are the holy preachers, who water the soil of the human heart with the flowing rain of heavenly understanding. But they are commanded to withhold the rain when the soul of the hearer is unworthy of the heavenly shower, as it is said through Solomon: “Do not speak in the ears of a fool, for he will despise the wisdom of your words” (Proverbs 23:9). For because of the sins of those subject to them, the word of preaching is sometimes taken away from teachers. Hence the Lord says to Ezekiel: “I will make your tongue cling to the roof of your mouth, and you shall be mute and not be one who reproves, for they are a rebellious house” (Ezekiel 3:26). From this also Amos says: “The prudent will keep silent in that time, for it is an evil time” (Amos 5:13). This, therefore, is what is meant when it is said: “I will command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it,” which we lament is all too much fulfilled in our own days, since scarcely anyone now speaks the word of God to His people.
“For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the man of Judah is his delightful plant.”
Israel is the Church, to whom it is said through the Apostle: “If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise” (Galatians 3:29). Israel is the Church, which follows the faith of the patriarchs, and the Church is the vineyard of God. Every Christian is a man of Judah, as we have shown above; therefore the man of Judah is His delightful shoot, because God delights in those sons “who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:13).
“I expected it to produce justice, but behold iniquity; righteousness, but behold a cry.”
To produce the justice of God is this: that in all the works you intend to do, you first think of God, and if what you are considering accords with God, you carefully examine it and, finding it right before the Lord, you carry it out; but if it is found to be contrary, you cut it away from your soul. Those who follow the fickleness of their own will, however, when they are expected to produce justice and righteousness, instead bring forth iniquity and a cry. For the one who commits lesser sins, as it were, speaks perversely in the ears of God; but the one who perpetrates grave evils cries aloud to the ears of the Almighty. Hence it is written: “The cry of Sodom and Gomorrah has grown very great” (Genesis 18:20). Such a cry, therefore, daily ascends to God from the unjust.
It follows:
Is 5:8. “Woe to those who join house to house and add field to field, until there is no place left; will you dwell alone in the midst of the land?”
Now the Prophet speaks openly about the corrupt morals of his people, explaining what he had previously said allegorically — that the vineyard of the Lord produced wild grapes — rebuking the greedy, the followers of drunkenness, those who drag iniquities along with them, those who praise evil and blaspheme good, those who arrogantly claim wisdom for themselves, or who boast in excessive drinking; and to each of these he threatens a woe of everlasting bitterness. But just as we have shown that what was said about the people of the Jews also applies to the Christian people, so now let us understand these prophetic threats as directed equally to those who are counted by the Christian name and yet act in such ways. Whoever, then, strives to seize what belongs to others, wishing to enlarge the spaces of lavish dwellings or to extend the boundaries of fields, let them hear what is said: “Woe to you who join house to house and add field to field, until there is no place left; will you dwell alone in the midst of the land?” As if it were said: How long do you stretch yourselves out, as though you could not possibly have companions in the common dwelling of the world?
It follows:
Is 5:9. “These things are in my ears,” says the Lord of hosts.
Such deeds, as was said above, cry out to the ears of the heavenly Judge. And in His anger He adds: “Surely many houses shall be desolate.” The abrupt break in expression is a sign of vehemence and of the strongest confirmation of what is threatened. Thus, when the Pharisees sought a sign from heaven, testing Him, He groaned in spirit and said: “Amen, I say to you, no sign shall be given to this generation” (Mark 8:12). And elsewhere: “As I swore in my wrath, they shall not enter into my rest” (Psalm 95:11).
Therefore, angry with those who join house to house, He says: “Surely many houses shall be desolate,” because while the greedy insist on multiplying possessions, they are snatched away by an unexpected death. Hence the rich man who said, “I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods, and I will say to my soul: Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, and rejoice,” heard from God: “Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared — whose will they be?” (Luke 12:18–20). This, then, is what He threatens when He says: “Surely many houses shall be desolate.” And to what He had said, “you add field to field,” He adds…
Is 5:10. “For ten acres of vineyard shall yield one flask, and thirty measures of seed shall yield three measures.”
Because they join field to field in order to gather abundance of produce from them, by the just judgment of God their vineyards and fields are made barren, so that ten acres of vineyard scarcely yield a single flask of must, and the breadth of fields where thirty measures of seed have been sown scarcely return three measures. For often, on account of the iniquity of the greedy, barrenness of the land occurs. Hence Haggai also says: “You looked for much, and behold, it came to little” (Haggai 1:9).
After this Isaiah rebukes the drunkards, saying:
Is 5:11. “Woe to those who rise early in the morning to pursue drunkenness, and linger late into the evening, inflamed by wine.”
Is 5:12. “The harp and the lyre, the tambourine and the flute and wine are at your feasts, but you do not regard the work of the Lord, nor do you consider the works of his hands.”
These things are clear even without explanation. For those who do not seek future joys are corrupted by pleasures. And while they are dissolved in musical sounds, they do not regard the work of the Lord — that is, they do not consider what the Lord commands them to do — nor do they consider the works of His hands, which He accomplished through Himself in the flesh. Hence evil spirits subject them to every servitude of vices.
For it follows:
Is 5:13. “Therefore my people have gone into captivity for lack of knowledge; their nobles have perished from hunger, and their multitude is parched with thirst.”
For while they devote themselves to feasting and drinking, they die of spiritual hunger and thirst. Thus the Jews were led captive by the Romans among all nations because they lacked the knowledge of the Scriptures, so as to recognize and receive Christ whom Moses and the prophets had promised to them. Sacred Scripture, however, is sometimes food and sometimes drink for us. It is food in the more obscure passages, which are explained, as food is broken and swallowed by chewing. It is drink in the clearer passages, which are so to speak imbibed as they are found. Thus the prophet saw both food and drink lacking to this people, saying: “Their nobles have perished from hunger, and their multitude is parched with thirst.” For it belongs to the few to understand the strong things, but to the many to grasp the more open narratives. Therefore he asserts that the nobles of Judea perished not by thirst but by hunger, because those who seemed to preside, while giving themselves wholly to outward understanding, did not have what they might chew by examining interior things. But since, when the higher fall away from inner understanding, even the understanding of little ones dries up in outward matters, it is rightly added: “Their multitude is parched with thirst,” as if he were openly saying: while the common people abandon the pursuit of life, they no longer even seek the streams of history.
It follows:
Is 5:14. “Therefore Sheol has enlarged its appetite and opened its mouth without measure; and their nobles descend, and their people, and their lofty and glorious ones.”
Whoever is seized by hell is swallowed up into immeasurable depths. For wishing to express its vast breadth, the prophet says: “Sheol has enlarged its appetite,” that is, its inward parts. “And it has opened its mouth without measure,” namely, to devour an infinite multitude of sinners. It is said to be enlarged and opened without limit because it draws innumerable souls to itself, and those whom it receives it absorbs, as it were, into a certain abyss of its immensity.
Blessed Pope Gregory also writes in the Dialogues (Book IV, chapter 35) that in certain places on the islands of Sicily, cauldrons of torments have been revealed by belching fire, which, as those who know relate, grow wider daily as their mouths are loosened, so that as the end of the world draws near — when it is certain that more are being gathered there to be burned — those same places of torment appear to be opened more widely. This the almighty God willed to be shown in this world for the correction of the living, so that unbelievers, who do not believe that there are torments of hell, might see places of torment which they refuse to believe when merely heard. Therefore it is well said that, as the multitude of the wicked increases, “Sheol has enlarged its appetite and opened its mouth without measure.”
“And their nobles shall descend, and their people, and their lofty and glorious ones.”
This was fulfilled especially among the Jews at that time, when, with the Romans besieging the city of Jerusalem, such a vast multitude of that unbelieving people perished by famine, pestilence, and the sword.
Concerning them it is further added:
Is 5:15. “Man shall be bowed down, and man shall be humbled, and the eyes of the lofty shall be brought low.”
Is 5:16. “But the Lord of hosts shall be exalted in judgment, and the Holy God shall show himself holy in righteousness.”
For those who raised themselves up against the Romans — indeed against God — were bowed down by the capture of Jerusalem, bent under Roman chains, and cast down in captivity. And the Lord Jesus was exalted, trampling those who had until then trampled upon Him, He who is holy in justice and, in the sight of men, justly condemning His enemies and handing them over to the Romans; once these were destroyed or exterminated, the preaching of the Church gained strength.
For it follows:
Is 5:17. “Then lambs shall graze according to their order, and strangers shall eat among the ruins made fertile.”
And each of these shall graze according to its order. He speaks of lambs to be fed, of whom Peter heard: “Feed my lambs” (John 21:16). And of them the Lord says through Jeremiah: “I will give you shepherds after my own heart, and they shall feed you with knowledge and understanding” (Jeremiah 3:15). “According to their order,” because although there are different orders in the Church, holy teachers know how each one ought to be instructed.
The sacred Scriptures are called deserts, because among the Jews they were uncultivated, since their spiritual sense was not frequented. But these deserts, having been turned into fertility of spiritual understanding, are now eaten by strangers, that is, by the Gentiles. The Christian people too are led into a kind of spiritual captivity, because they possess the knowledge of the Scriptures while not having learned the letters. And their nobles, that is, the priests, have perished from hunger for the word of God, because even they do not understand the Scriptures, being occupied with earthly affairs.
The fault against which the woe is now pronounced can scarcely be avoided by anyone living. For often we call evil good because it pleases us, and good evil because we do not want it. Often we boast that the darkness of our error is the light of knowledge, and we call the light of a brother’s counsel the darkness of ignorance. Moreover, the bitterness with which we are filled, when we wish to serve our own desires, we judge to be sweet: we love the present age, and we judge the sweetness of spiritual conduct to be bitter. And it is the same crime to call good, light, and sweet by the names of evil, darkness, and bitterness, as it is to call vice by the names of virtue.
Against such people it is said: “And their multitude,” that is, the simple, “suffers thirst for knowledge.” “Therefore Sheol enlarges its appetite,” because on account of them the places of torment are enlarged. “And their nobles descend to it,” because “the mighty shall suffer mightily” (Wisdom 6:7). “And their people,” because, as Hosea says, “a people without understanding shall be beaten” (Hosea 4:14). “And man shall be bowed down” to punishment, who now raises himself up in pride, “and the eyes of the lofty shall be humbled.” Leaving these things to be understood, let us pass on to others.
It follows:
Is 5:18. “Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as with a cart-rope.”
Is 5:19. “Who say: ‘Let him hurry, let him speed his work that we may see it; let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw near and come, that we may know it.’”
Iniquity is drawn with cords of vanity when the increase of guilt is prolonged. For a cord, by being twisted, grows as it is lengthened; thus sin is fittingly figured by a cord, because with a perverse heart it is always multiplied when it is defended. Hence the Psalmist says: “The cords of sinners have entangled me” (Psalm 119:61). The cart-rope is the strap that binds the ox so that it may bear the yoke and draw the loaded cart. Sin is drawn like a cart-rope when the yoke of the devil is borne together with a great burden of iniquities.
Thus they prolong wickedness who believe that they will at some time suffer punishments worthy of their evil deeds. Hence, mocking, they say: “Let him hurry, let his work come quickly,” that is, what He is to do on the day of judgment. “And let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel come,” which He has devised concerning the rewards of the just and the retribution of the wicked, “and we shall know it.” They speak thus because they do not think that they will be punished.
It follows:
Is 5:20. “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.”
The fault against which the woe is now pronounced can scarcely be avoided by anyone living. For often we call evil good because it pleases us, and we call good evil because we do not want it. Often we boast that the darkness of our error is the light of knowledge, and we call the light of a brother’s counsel the darkness of ignorance. And the bitterness with which we are filled, when we wish to serve our own desires, we judge to be sweet, because we love the present world and judge the sweetness of spiritual life to be bitter. It is the same crime to call good, light, and sweet by opposite names, as it is to call vice by the names of virtue.
This is directed against those who do not think it a sin to detract from what is good, and who do not judge it a fault to praise what is evil. The Jews also, especially at that time, called evil good and good evil when they said to the Lord: “Do we not say rightly that you are a Samaritan and have a demon?” (John 8:48). They put darkness for light and light for darkness when they said to the blind man: “You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses” (John 9:28). They put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter when, during the Passion of the Savior, they cried out: “Take this one away, and release to us Barabbas” (Luke 23:18).
This sentence can also be understood in yet other ways; but we hasten on to other matters.
It follows…
Is 5:21: Woe to you who are wise in your own eyes and prudent in your own sight.
The proud person always seems wise to himself and judges that he acts prudently. If one of the brethren should give him counsel and say, ‘Brother, you ought not to act in this way,’ he does not deign to listen, because he thinks himself wiser than the one who admonishes him. Hence the Apostle rightly says: If anyone thinks that he knows something, he has not yet learned how he ought to know (1 Cor 8:2). For one must take care lest the wisdom that has been received—while it enlightens the darkness of ignorance—extinguish the light of humility, and thus wisdom itself cease to be wisdom; for even though it may shine outwardly by the power of speech, it nevertheless obscures the heart of the speaker by the veil of pride. For the more arrogantly someone appears wise to himself, the farther he is from the light of true wisdom, inasmuch as he is not humble before himself. Such were the scribes and Pharisees, who boasted of their wisdom and persecuted the wisdom of God, which is Christ.
Is 5:22 follows: Woe to you who are mighty in drinking wine and strong men in mixing strong drink.
Is 5:23: Who justify the wicked for a bribe and take away the justice of the righteous from him.
Indeed, holy Timothy was commanded to use a little wine because of his stomach and his frequent infirmities (1 Tim 5:23). But what the righteous man takes sparingly, compelled by necessity, the perverse take immoderately, enticed by pleasure, and they glory in the fact that they are able to drink much wine. Gorged with it, they lose the steadiness of their mind, and in judgment they justify the guilty because of money, and condemn the just because he offers no gifts and because of greed.
Now, the things which the prophet has spoken thus far in a moral sense are applicable both to the Jewish people and to Christians. But what he adds after these words we should understand as referring particularly to the Jews. For since they have committed the deeds he has reproved up to this point, let us see what he brings forward next.
Is 5:24: Therefore, as the tongue of fire devours stubble and the heat of the flame consumes it, so their root shall be as rottenness and their blossom shall go up like dust.
This is said of the Day of Judgment, of which Malachi speaks: Behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, and all the proud and all who do wickedly shall be stubble; and the coming day shall burn them up, says the Lord of hosts, leaving them neither root nor branch (Mal 4:1). Just as stubble is consumed by fire, so their root shall be like ashes; for what is burned is reduced to ashes. Their root will become like ashes because they will be torn away from the fellowship of the righteous and burned. And what does not appear green will rise like dust, when the Judge will cleanse his threshing floor with a winnowing fan. For they shall be like chaff before the face of the wind and like ashes scattered by a whirlwind.
And why? Because they have rejected the law of the Lord, which was given through Moses, and they have blasphemed the word of the Holy One of Israel, that is, the preaching of Christ. For if they had not rejected the law of the Lord, they would not have blasphemed the preaching of the Holy One of Israel, who says: If you believed Moses, you would perhaps believe me also; for he wrote of me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words? (John 5:46–47).
Is 5:25 follows: Therefore the anger of the Lord was kindled against his people, and he stretched out his hand against them and struck them; and the mountains were shaken, and their corpses were like refuse in the midst of the streets.
Anger is the most vehement stirring of the mind, an inflaming against the offender. But God cannot have anger in himself, because, being immutable, he is not moved in mind as one who grows angry; rather, he calmly accomplishes what is just. Yet because he strikes the sinner, he is said to appear as though moved by anger. The anger of the Lord was kindled against the Jewish people, and stretching out his hand against them, he struck them and their sons through Titus. And the mountains—that is, the exalted leaders of the Jews—were made corpses like refuse in the midst of the streets, because in the siege of Jerusalem such a multitude of them died from famine and pestilence that there were not enough to bury them.
It follows: In all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is still stretched out.
Even to this day the anger of God justly remains upon the remnants of the Jews. For anger in God is not like that in man, that is, a disturbance of an agitated mind, but a tranquil and simple ordering of justice. Since they themselves still persist in wickedness, heavenly wrath still remains upon them. His hand is still stretched out over them, because he still afflicts them.
Is 5:26 follows: And he will lift up a sign among the nations and will whistle to them from the ends of the earth, and behold, they shall come swiftly and speedily.
The sign of his victory is the sign of the cross, which our King raised among the nations in order to gather soldiers to himself. He “whistled” to them—that is, to the sign of the cross—after the manner of one who gathers his flock by a whistle, and he gathered them from the ends of the earth, because through the preaching of the apostles he summoned even the farthest reaches of the world to his faith. Hence he also says in Zechariah: I will whistle for them and gather them, for I have redeemed them (Zech 10:8). And once the nations have been gathered to the faith, behold, he will come swiftly and speedily to judgment, to repay them their reward, for the day of the Lord is near and coming very quickly (Zeph 1:14). For the brevity of this life passes quickly, and Christ soon comes to give eternal rewards to the righteous for their labors. Those who faithfully ponder these things endure all things now with readiness and do not lose heart.
Hence it is added:
Is 5:27: There is none weary or stumbling among them.
There is none who fails in him, because the one who perseveres to the end will be saved (Matt 24:13). Whoever fails in adversity does not possess salvation and is not a member of Christ. Nor is there anyone weary in him, because whatever the saints suffer for his sake is delightful to them.
It follows: He will not slumber nor sleep.
We say that sleep in God is the absence of providence, and that he is wakeful when he provides assistance through doctrine or salvation to those who beseech him. Therefore, toward the great elect of whom he is now speaking, he does not sleep, because he always provides what is useful to them and helps them. Nor does he even slumber, because he does not close his eyes to their providence even for a moment. Sometimes he may seem to sleep, because his servants are torn apart by the cruelties of the unjust without immediate vengeance; but then he watches over them all the more, for when he sees what they humbly endure here, he foresees what he will mercifully repay them there.
It follows: The belt of his loins will not be loosed, nor the strap of his sandal broken.
As we read later: Righteousness shall be the belt of his loins (Isa 11:5). Therefore the belt of his loins will not be loosed, because faith will not be taken away from us. Persecutors have often tried to extinguish his faith and remove it from the world. The sandal signifies evangelical preaching, as the Apostle says: Your feet shod with the readiness of the Gospel of peace (Eph 6:15). Thus the strap of his sandal will not be broken, because the binding of evangelical preaching will not be destroyed. Heavenly doctrine is bound in the hearts of preachers, as it is written: Bind up the testimony, seal the law among my disciples (Isa 8:16). The strap that binds this evangelical sandal in us is never broken.
Is 5:28 follows: His arrows are sharp, and all his bows are bent.
What are the bows if not the divine Scriptures, from which sentences shoot forth like arrows to strike the hearts of adversaries? His arrows are therefore sharp, because toward those whom he corrects by fear he sends piercing and penetrating words. And all his bows are bent, because all divine Scriptures threaten punishments to every sinner.
It follows: The hooves of his horses are like flint, and his wheels like the whirlwind.
Strength is often recognized in the hooves of a horse. Who, then, are the horses of God, if not the holy preachers upon whom he sits to overcome his enemies? What is signified by the hooves of the horses if not the perfection of virtues, that is, the strength of a straight course? Therefore the hooves of his horses are like flint, because the power of the swift advance of the evangelists, by which they run, is exceedingly strong. And what is signified by the wheels if not the movement of preaching? Ezekiel saw a wheel within a wheel (Ezek 1:16), because the New Testament is within the Old. Thus his preachings are carried like the force of a tempest; they strike with mighty power and disturb the mind of the sinner.
Is 5:29 follows: His roar is like that of a lion; he roars like young lions, and he growls and seizes the prey and carries it off, and there is none to rescue it.
Is 5:30: He will roar over him on that day like the roaring of the sea.
His roar was like that of a lion because he cried out terribly, saying: Serpents, brood of vipers, how are you to escape the judgment of Gehenna? (Matt 23:33), and Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire (Matt 3:10). He roared like young lions because through the apostles—who are his sons, like lion cubs—he proclaimed the terror of that same judgment in the desert of this world.
“And he will growl,” it says, “and seize the prey and carry it off, and there will be none to rescue it.” He growled when he answered the persecutors, I am he (John 18:5), for immediately they went backward and fell to the ground (John 18:6). He seized the prey he had taken—that is, the disciples he had chosen—adding, If you seek me, let these go (John 18:8). As the Evangelist adds: That the word of Jesus might be fulfilled which he had spoken, “Of those whom you gave me, I have lost none” (John 18:9). Thus he embraced the prey like a lion in his power, because he struck down his enemies in a moment and lost none of his chosen disciples. He seized the prey when he said of his sheep: No one shall snatch them out of my hand (John 10:28).
“And there will be none,” it says, “who rescues; and he will roar over him.” Who will roar? The people of the Jews, who will attempt in vain to snatch the prey from him. He will roar over him like the roaring of the sea, that is, with a tumultuous and confused multitude crying out: He is guilty of death; crucify him, crucify him! (John 19:6). Thus they roared over him who were striving to take the prey from him, because they killed him precisely so that they might separate the multitudes of the faithful from him. Hence it is written elsewhere: They said among themselves, “This is the heir; come, let us kill him, that the inheritance may be ours” (Matt 21:38).
But because none of them thereafter lifted his mind to the joys of the heavenly homeland, and because the desolation of Jerusalem and the captivity of that people followed by the hands of the Romans, their own voice is added:
We shall look to the land, and behold, darkness and distress; and the light is darkened by its gloom.
“We shall look to the land,” they say, “we who used to look to heaven,” that is, we will now think only of earthly things. And behold, darkness of tribulation will break forth, because the whole country will suddenly be destroyed by Vespasian and Titus. And the light of our mind will be darkened in its gloom, because counsel, wisdom, and understanding will flee from us on account of the confusion and the overwhelming weight of tribulation.
Up to this point Isaiah has spoken of the things that were divinely shown to him under King Uzziah. From now on, he will speak of what he saw or heard under King Jotham.
CONTINUE
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