Is 58:6-7 Is not this rather the fast that I have chosen?
Loose the bonds of impiety, untie the bundles that oppress; let those who are broken go free, and tear apart every harsh burden. Break your bread for the hungry, and bring the poor and the wandering into your house; when you see the naked, clothe him, and do not despise your own flesh. Is not this rather the fast…?
After He has taught what kind of fasting He rejects, He shows what kind He gladly accepts; and what follows now pertains, in due order, to charity toward one’s neighbor. Therefore abstinence from food, when joined with these works, is pleasing to God.
“Loose,” He says, “the bonds of impiety.” What this means He explains by what follows: untie the bundles that oppress. Whom He calls oppressive bundles we understand from the Septuagint, which has the obligations of violent contracts. It signifies heaps of promissory notes, or bundles of documents, in which the extortions of moneylenders are contained and by which the poor are crushed through debt. Therefore, you who possess such documents—tear them up, and then the Lord will accept your fasts. And tear apart every burden. This the Septuagint has translated more plainly, saying: tear apart every unjust document; and Symmachus: tear apart every false contract.
“And do not despise your own flesh,” that is, those who consist of passible flesh as you do—do not despise them. For this, however, the Septuagint translated: do not despise the members of your own household.
Is 58:8-9“Then your light shall break forth like the light, and your healing shall quickly spring forth; your justice shall go before your face, and the glory of the Lord shall gather you. You shall call, and the Lord will say to you; you shall cry out, and He will say: Behold, I am here," because I am merciful, the Lord your God.
“Then your light shall break forth…” That is, when you no longer do those things which the previous discourse recounted, and you perform those which I have now spoken of, then your fast will be acceptable, and your light will break forth like the morning or the dawn. And your healing shall quickly spring forth. Here there is an outstanding doctrine: that through grace the intellect is illuminated and the will is healed.
This passage is to be carefully noted, together with that one in the first chapter of this prophet where it is said: Wash yourselves, be clean; and it is to be set against Philip and others who, in the matter of justification, attribute everything to faith and nothing to works. For it is certain that this people was impious; and yet the Lord says to them: When you have performed those works mentioned above, then your light shall break forth like the morning. Grace will be infused into you, by whose infusion the darkness of your sins will be dissolved; you will be illuminated in the intellect and healed in the will, so that you who were previously powerless to fulfill the law will now be able to fulfill the law.
Yet this must be understood here: that by no works preceding justification does a human being merit the grace of justification—just as neither does he by faith. But just as by faith, so also by works that proceed from faith, we prepare ourselves, desiring the gratuitous mercy of God—that is, justification and the remission of sins—which are given entirely freely.
“And your justice shall go before your face,” that is, your justice will be praised, inasmuch as you possess true justice. In this way one may use the term justice in two senses: Isaiah here calls it our justice, whereas Paul in the Epistle to the Romans, chapter 3, calls it the justice of God. Both usages Augustine explains in De Spiritu et Littera, chapter 9: it is called ours in an improper sense, but properly because it inheres in us; it is called God’s in another sense, namely because it is given to us by Him.
“And the glory of the Lord,” etc. This glory is that of which Paul speaks in the Epistle to the Romans, chapter 3: All have sinned and lack the glory of God, that is, the grace of God that justifies and remits sins. For in the glory of God it is established that He mercifully justifies the unworthy human being and makes one who is powerless to fulfill the law capable of fulfilling the law.
“Then you shall call,” etc. That is, when you cease to do your own will and have performed the works of mercy of which I have spoken, then you will experience that the Lord is present to you as you call upon Him; you will cry out, and He will say—not by voice, but by deed—Behold, I am here, that is, He will show Himself present by His benefits.
If you remove from your midst the chain, the chain—and if you cease to extend the finger and to speak what is of no benefit; if you pour out your soul to the hungry and satisfy the afflicted soul, then your light shall rise in the darkness, and your darkness shall be like midday. And the Lord your God will give you rest continually; He will fill your soul with splendors and will set free your bones. And you shall be like a watered garden, and like a spring of waters whose waters do not fail.
If you remove, etc. Once again he presses home what he had already said, because they were very prone to the vice of avarice and behaved inhumanely toward their neighbors. He uses images far removed from us, first saying, If you remove from your midst the chain. Now chain is taken in three ways in this chapter in the Hebrew Isaiah. First, where it says, Untie the bundles that oppress, where in the Hebrew, word for word, it is bundles of a chain. Second, where it says, Tear apart the burden, that is, tear apart every chain. Third, here: If you remove, etc.
The chain pertains to all the other means by which they oppress others, such as those who summon the wretched to court, excommunicate them, burden them further, and in a thousand other unjust ways crush those who are unable to pay. The prophet therefore teaches that one must deal civilly and humanely with people, especially since business dealings are common among us. From this it is understood what this chain is. Therefore, if you remove from your midst the chain—that is, whatever ways you may finally use to entangle others—for this is what it means to remove the chain.
Hence the Septuagint, in the first place, translated: Remove the obligations of violent contracts. And in the second place: Tear apart every unjust document (syngrapha). They translated more according to the sense than word-for-word, and yet they did not fully express the sense.
Then it is said, And if you cease to extend the finger. Jerome adds and if you cease on his own initiative. The version of Pagninus has: that you may not send forth the finger, which addition too is his own. For to send forth the finger does not stand literally among the Hebrews. Pagninus, however, refers it to those who seize what belongs to another; for his version runs: that you may not send the finger into another’s property. But into another’s property is not in the Hebrew. Jerome, on the other hand, thinks it refers to those who mock others and point at them with the finger. The Septuagint, however, refer it to those who, in giving votes in the election of magistrates, readily extend the fingers by which they signify the mind’s consent. Therefore, in appointing a magistrate, do not lightly or rashly extend the finger—that is, the hand. For they have the term χειροτονία (cheirotonia, “raising of the hand,” “vote by show of hands”). On its various uses see Budé in his Commentaries on the Greek Language.
And to speak what is of no benefit, etc. This is a single word, which Jerome sometimes renders as idol, sometimes as useless, at other times as iniquity or injustice. Therefore, if you cease to speak iniquity and pour out your soul to the hungry—that is, if you help the poor with your whole heart—He will give you rest, that is, peace and tranquility of mind. You will rest sweetly in the Lord even amid evils and disturbances. And He will set free your bones, that is, the chief powers of the soul: the intellect and the will. You will judge rightly about matters pertaining to religion and be rightly disposed toward divine things.
CONTINUE
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