Introductory Notes on the Translation:
Author: Cornelius a Lapide
(Cornelis van den Steen, 1567–1637), S.J. This conclusion of his
commentary on Isaiah 50 emphasizes martyrdom, Christ's vindication, and
the twofold destiny of believers and unbelievers.
Theological Context: Lapide's commentary is intensely pastoral and polemical:
Martyrological Emphasis:
He cites numerous martyrs (Celerinus, Romanus, Ignatius, Lawrence,
Vincentius, Ogilvie) as exemplars of Christ-like endurance, drawing from
Prudentius's Peristephanon and hagiographical sources.
Christological Vindication:
Verses 8-9 are interpreted as Christ's triumph over His accusers, with
the "moth" symbolizing the self-destructive nature of sin.
Twofold Destiny:
Verses 10-11 present the classic Catholic dichotomy: the just who hope
in God amid darkness vs. the wicked who kindle their own eternal fire.
Lapide emphasizes human responsibility: sinners create their own
punishment.
Anti-Calvinist Polemic: The reference to Ogilvie's martyrdom "to the stupor of Calvinists" reflects Lapide's Counter-Reformation context.
Style:
The translation preserves Lapide's characteristic rhetorical
flourishes: direct address ("O Christian," "O Jews"), vivid imagery
(charcoal-burners, moth-eaten garments), and integration of poetry
(Prudentius, Plautus) and patristic wisdom (Gregory, Bede).
Structure:
This completes Lapide's commentary on Isaiah 50:1-11. The chapter moves
from Christ's suffering (vv. 4-7) to His vindication (vv. 8-9) to the
final exhortation and warning (vv. 10-11), with extensive moral and
martyrological application throughout. Translation provided by Qwen.
Synopsis of the Chapter
Christ speaks and teaches that the synagogue—that is, the Jews unbelieving in Him—ought to be repudiated and rejected by God, because she herself first repudiated God and Christ. For He demonstrates that neither power, nor wisdom, nor a learned tongue, nor patience, nor labors were lacking on His part for saving them. Whence in v. 6 He says: "I have given my body to strikers, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair"; but in all things, He says, God assisted Him, and turned all things to glory. Wherefore in v. 10, by His example, He exhorts the faithful to hope in God and invoke Him in every tribulation. But those who despair and are unbelieving, such as the Jews were, He affirms kindle for themselves a fire in which they shall burn forever.
Is 50:1: "Thus says the Lord: Who is this bill of divorce of your mother, by which I have dismissed her? Or who is my creditor, to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities you have been sold, and for your transgressions I have dismissed your mother."
"WHO IS THIS BILL OF DIVORCE?" Hebrew: Where is the bill of divorce? As if to say: Let it be produced—for it was kept at that time both by the divorced woman and by the public scribe—and let it be examined, and let it be seen whether I first repudiated you, or you Me. Thus Foreiro and Vatablus.
Now St. Thomas, Hugo, and Sanchez understand these words literally up to v. 4 as referring to the Jews captive in Babylon, as if they were complaining that they were dismissed and rejected by God; to whom God responds that He did not dismiss them, but they first deserted Him and flowed away to idols and vices; yet He has the hand and power by which He can redeem and liberate them.
But St. Cyril, Procopius, Eusebius (Demonstr. Evang. 2.34), Ambrose (In Luc. 8.1), where he says among other things: "You have heard of the divorce; believe in the marriage"; Adamus, Foreiro, and very many others—so much so that Origen (In Matth. 26), on those words "Prophesy to us, Christ," adduces this as the consensus of the whole Church—understand these things of the Jews who were after Christ and were unwilling to believe in Him.
These things therefore pertain to the complaint of Zion, that is, of the Jews, in the preceding chapter, v. 14, saying: "The Lord has forsaken me." But with this distinction: that there the voice is of Jews believing in Christ, complaining of their fewness; but here rather it is the voice of unbelieving Jews persisting in Judaism. As if: O unbelieving Jews, why do you complain that in the time of Christ you were deserted, repudiated, cut off, and dispersed by God; that you lack the temple, sacrifices, and public worship of God; that you were given as prey to the Romans and other nations? You say: "Our synagogue was the spouse whom God betrothed to Himself at Sinai through Moses" (Exodus 19:6). Why then has He now utterly cast her off? Why has He given her a bill of divorce?
God responds: "I repelled and repudiated your mother, the synagogue, to whom as a husband I had given the dotal tablets of the Law" (so says St. Augustine), "because she first made a divorce from Me. For I repudiated her not from hatred or loathing on My part, that I might join another to Myself, but on account of her crimes, especially because she repelled and killed My Christ; nor so much I as she herself sold and handed herself over to the devil as to a creditor. For when I came into the world, 'there was no man,' that is, scarcely any one; there was hardly any Jew who wished to hear Me." Thus the Fathers cited.
Concerning the bill of divorce, I have spoken on Deuteronomy 24:1.
"OR WHO IS MY CREDITOR TO WHOM I HAVE SOLD YOU?" Ambrose, in his book On Tobias, chapter 8, reads: "to whom I have sold you as a usurer." He says the same thing by another metaphor, just as of others sold into slavery.
Note: Among the Jews, it was lawful for a father constituted in necessity, that he might support himself, to sell his sons into slavery; yet so that he sold them not to a Gentile but to a Hebrew or proselyte, and only for a time. For in the Jubilee—indeed in the seventh year—they went forth free, as is clear from Exodus 21:1, 7; Leviticus 25, where vv. 39 and 47 permit that in necessity one may sell even himself, not only to a Jew but also to a foreigner dwelling among Jews, but only until the Jubilee.
The Gentiles did the same, indeed more: for Romulus enacted a law by which he gave a parent the right freely to sell his children. The same law was among the Athenians, which Solon abolished, as Plutarch testifies in his Life of Solon. This law and this custom prevailed also in the time of Christians. Whence St. Ambrose, in his book On Tobias, chapter 8, gravely complains about it. Wherefore Constantine (Codex 2, De patribus qui filios distraxerunt, book 4, title 43) restricted this law and sanctioned that a son not be sold in perpetuity, but so that, the price having been given, he could be redeemed.
God therefore alludes to this and says: "Who is my creditor?" As if: I have no creditors whose money I need, so that on that account I ought to sell you to them as slaves. You therefore, O Jews, have been sold and emancipated to sin and the devil as slaves, not so much by Me as by yourselves. For by sinning voluntarily, you voluntarily underwent this yoke. For as it is said in John 8:34: "Whoever commits sin is a slave of sin."
Moreover, the word vendidi (I sold) signifies not simple sin but the habit of sin, to which carnal men—as the Jews devoted to Judaism, the ambitious to their ambition, the voluptuous to their pleasures, the concubinary to their concubines—have so addicted and attached themselves that they cannot be torn away from it. Thus Ahab is said to have been "sold to do evil" (1 Kings 21:25). O hard servitude! O miserable necessity! For those who hand themselves over to sin, God also alienates from Himself and sells—that is, hands over and consigns—to the devil, although He receives no price from him. For as it is said in Psalm 43:13: "You have sold Your people for no price."
Is 50:2 "BECAUSE WHEN I CAME" into the world teaching and preaching, "THERE WAS NO MAN" who would receive Me, who would listen to Me. See here how dangerous and pernicious it is to spurn God calling and to make His vocation void and ineffectual. For on this account God repudiated and rejected the Jews.
Morally, note the word vir (man). For as St. Chrysostom notes (Homily 23 on Genesis 3, vol. 1), Sacred Scripture calls those "men" who retain the pure image of God so that they shine forth in virtue and religion; but it calls the others, as unworthy of the name of man, "beasts" and "serpents."
"HAS MY HAND BECOME SHORTENED AND SMALL, THAT I CANNOT REDEEM?" As if: The cause of the repudiation—indeed of the unbelief and reprobation of the Jews, equally as of their miserable condition and servitude, and finally of their destruction by Titus—is not the infirmity and impotence of God or of Christ, as you Jews estimate, and therefore you contemn Christ as humble, poor, and abject. For He could, if He wished, dry up the whole sea and all rivers and turn them into an arid desert, so that all fish, deprived of their element, might putrefy, be corrupted, and exhale the vital spirit, as He did to Pharaoh in Egypt under Moses (Exodus 7:21). He can also change and obscure the heavens and stars, as He did in the passion of Christ and will do at the end of the world (Matthew 24:29). For His hand and power is not cut off, broken, or diminished, but always remains strong, vigorous, and omnipotent. Thus St. Jerome.
Again, the cause of the dereliction and desolation of the Jews is not the ignorance or imprudence of Christ, because "the Lord gave Him a learned tongue."
Thirdly, the cause is not the softness of Christ, as if He shirked labors and pains to be undergone for them. For He Himself "gave His body to strikers and His cheeks to them that plucked," etc.
The true cause therefore is the hardness and obstinate malice of the Jews. Thus St. Jerome, Cyril, and Origen (In Matth. 26).
"BEHOLD, AT MY REBUKE I WILL MAKE THE SEA A DESERT." He calls "rebuke" the menacing and terrible command of God. For God seemed as if angry at the Red Sea when He divided it contrary to nature and dried up its channel and commanded that it yield and give place to His people passing through. Thus the Psalmist says (105:9): "He rebuked the Red Sea, and it was dried up."
"I WILL MAKE"—that is, I am able to make whenever and as often as I please, as I did in the Red Sea. For these are modes of the potential mood, which the Hebrews enjoy; they are to be taken dynamically (δυνατικῶς), so that they signify not so much the act as the power and faculty for the act.
"I WILL TURN THE RIVERS TO DRYNESS." "I will turn"—that is, I am able to turn as often as I have wished, as I placed the Jordan when I divided and dried it up so that the Hebrews might cross under Joshua as leader.
"THE FISH SHALL ROT WITHOUT WATER," if indeed I dry up the sea or rivers, as they putrefied and previously died in the Red Sea and Jordan when I dried them up; or rather, as they putrefied in the Nile when I turned its waters into blood (Exodus 7:18). For then, as it is said there, "the fish also putrefied and died," from thirst equally as men. For thirst is satisfied and extinguished by a draught of water, not of blood. This is what the Psalmist says (104:29): "He turned their waters into blood, and slew their fish." Thus St. Jerome, St. Thomas, and Hugo.
Is 50:3 "I WILL CLOTHE THE HEAVENS WITH DARKNESS, AND MAKE SACKCLOTH AS IT WERE THEIR COVERING." As if: I will cover and veil the heavens so that they do not appear, as if they were wrapped in sackcloth, as I did in Egypt when through Moses I brought upon it palpable darkness (Exodus 10:22). God did this in the passion of Christ. Thus Tertullian (Against Marcion 4.42).
Symbolically, it signifies that the Gospel and cross of Christ obscured all the glory of Judaism equally as of Gentilism, of which Egypt was the type and as it were the matrix; just as by the bloody and putrid Nile He signifies that all the delights, riches, and pomp of the world by the doctrine of Christ have become worthless as filth, so that the faithful with Paul reckon them as dung.
Is 50:4: "The Lord God has given me a learned tongue, that I may know how to sustain with a word him who is weary; He awakens me morning by morning, He awakens my ear to hear as those who are taught."
Is 50:5: "The Lord God has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious; I turned not backward."
"THE LORD GOD HAS GIVEN ME A LEARNED TONGUE." The Hebrews refer these words to Isaiah, who in chapter 6, his lips having been purified by a seraph, became eloquent and bold for preaching. But St. Jerome rightly refutes this. For the common sentiment of the Fathers is that here there is discourse concerning Christ; and the following words prove this.
For "eruditam" (learned), in Hebrew is limudim (לִמּוּדִים), that is, "of the learned," such as the learned have who have seen, heard, read, studied, and meditated on many things, and have taught many. He alludes to Moses and prefers Himself to him. For Moses, excusing himself lest he be sent by God to Pharaoh because he was of impeded speech, heard from Him: "Who has made man's mouth? Is not I? Aaron shall be your mouth" (Exodus 4:11, 16). But Christ had no need of an interpreter as Moses, because He had a learned tongue; nor did He excuse Himself from the mission to men as Moses did.
For a ruler and teacher of the people, a learned, powerful, and efficacious tongue is necessary for persuading. Christ had this to such a degree that even the Jews said concerning it: "Never has man spoken like this man" (John 7:46). And the Apostles: "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life" (John 6:68). Again, He was teaching not as the Scribes and Pharisees, but as one having power (Mark 1:22), by the word which proceeds from the mouth of God.
It is a great gift of God. Whence Plato asserts that the soul is nourished by the word of God, and that the knowledge of God is the true food of souls. Indeed, "man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God" (Matthew 4:4). Therefore, let a wise and learned tongue be sought, for which one ought to pray daily with the Psalmist (50:17): "O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth shall show forth Your praise." Explaining this, St. Gregory says there: "God opens the lips of him who attends not only to what he speaks, but also when, where, and to whom he speaks." For the wisdom of God says: "The Lord has given me a learned tongue." Whence he subjoins: "Let us therefore bring forth words weighed in the balance of justice, so that there may be gravity in thought, measure in words, weight in speech. Nor let us open the mouth in speaking before it is expedient; but let us examine our words: whether this is to be kept silent, whether that is to be said; whether this is the time for this speech; finally, whether it does not dissent from the virtue of modesty. Let nothing indecent, nothing dishonest, nothing envious burst forth in sound."
Diogenes truly said, as reported by Laertius (book 6), that for the afflicted and despairing one ought to seek not brochon (a noose) but logon (reason/speech)—not a halter but the reason and consoling oration of a wise man; for this is a physician to the sick soul, that is medicine. Whence Demetrius Phalereus, when he was living in exile among the Thebans, inglorious and abject, and had learned that Crates the philosopher had come to visit him, called him to himself; and when he heard him disputing about bearing exile bravely and moderately, he said: "May it go ill with all business and occupations through which hitherto it was not permitted to know such a man"—signifying that much of his sickness had been removed by the philosopher's disputation. Thus Laertius, book 5, chapter 5.
"THAT I MAY KNOW HOW TO SUSTAIN WITH A WORD HIM WHO IS WEARY," that I may raise up, console, and sustain miserable and languid sinners, weary, panting, and groaning under the yoke of sin and the devil, in hope; that I may refresh and heal all oppressed by the devil.
"HE AWAKENS MORNING BY MORNING, HE AWAKENS MY EAR." He teaches here whence he has a learned tongue, namely from this: that God has awakened—that is, stirred up—his ear and opened it to hear the doctrine and commands of God; and this "in the morning," that is, quickly and seasonably, namely from the first instant of conception, as is clear from Hebrews 10:5. He alludes to schoolmasters who open their schools at early morning and teach disciples. Moreover, he repeats "mane, mane" (morning, morning), that is: on each day, or daily, at early morning. For this repetition signifies both continuity and haste and diligence, of a most vigilant teacher. Similar is Ezekiel 46:14-15 in the Hebrew. For morning doctrine and study is best; for "the dawn is friendly to the Muses"; for then after sleep and nocturnal refreshment the brain and senses are vigorous.
Moreover, "to awaken the ear" is a symbol of a teacher; for by silence and attention he indicates to disciples; whence also by tweaking the ears he stirs them up so that they may intend and receive his dogmas. This is what the Poet says: "When Cynthus tweaked the ear" (Virgil, Eclogues 6.3). "To awaken the ear" is to stir up the hearer to hearing; let him prick up his ears and receive the voice of the master.
"THE LORD GOD HAS OPENED MY EAR, AND I WAS NOT REBELLIOUS; I TURNED NOT BACKWARD." He alludes to Moses, who contradicted God calling when, for the third and fourth time, he strove to shake off the burden of liberating the people from Egypt, Pharaoh, the hardness of the people, and the difficulties of accomplishing the task (Exodus 4). But Christ, sent by the Father for the redemption of men, immediately acquiesced and offered Himself even to the death of the cross. As if: When God at the beginning of My conception opened the ears to Me, a man—indeed an infant—that is, revealed to Me and instilled into the ears of My mind His will and command concerning the economy of My incarnation, and showed Me each and every hard and difficult thing which He wished Me to do and suffer throughout My whole life until the death of the cross, I did not contradict, but eagerly accepted all things and said: "Behold, I come... In the head of the book it is written of Me that I should do Your will, O My God; I have desired it, and Your law is in the midst of My heart" (Hebrews 10:7; Psalm 39:9). Nor did I only say it, but in fact I performed it; for I yielded to no difficulty, I never turned backward, but constant in this work I persevered to the last breath, when, all things having been perfected, I said: "It is finished" (John 19:30).
Christ signifies here the command imposed on Him by the Father of suffering and dying, and thus of redeeming men. For that the Father imposed this on Christ is clear from John 10:17-18, and chapter 12:49, and chapter 14:31, and from this place already cited, Hebrews 10.
St. Bernard beautifully says (Sermon 28 on the Canticle): "How blessed is he who says: 'The Lord God has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious; I turned not backward.' Where you have both the form of voluntary obedience and the example of longanimity. For he who does not contradict is spontaneous, and he who does not turn back perseveres. Both are necessary, since 'God loves a cheerful giver' (2 Cor. 9:7), and 'he who shall persevere unto the end, he shall be saved' (Matt. 10:22). Would that the Lord would open my ear also, that the word of truth might enter into my heart," etc.
Is 50:6: "I have given my body to strikers, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair; I have not turned away my face from them that rebuked and spat upon me."
Is 50:7: "The Lord God is my helper; therefore I am not confounded; therefore I have set my face as a hardest rock, and I know that I shall not be confounded."
"MY BODY." Foreiro translates: "my back." Whence the Septuagint, and from them St. Cyprian and Ambrose (On the Incarnation of the Lord, sacred chapter 5), translate: "I have given my back to scourges, and my cheeks to palms or blows." For the Hebrew geveh signifies both "back" and "body."
The Jews understand these words of Isaiah, as if he himself suffered these things from the people and princes whose vices he rebuked. Thus also St. Thomas. But from this and similar things it is clear that these commentaries are not his and are falsely ascribed to St. Thomas. For all the Fathers whom Leo of Castro adduces understand these words literally of Christ; concerning whom these words are so clear that they need not explanation but meditation.
Note the word dedi (I gave), that is: The Jews did not inflict blows on Me unwilling and coerced by force, but I of My own will offered, indeed gave, My body to them to be struck. There exists at Rome, in the church of St. Praxedes, the column to which Christ was bound when He was scourged. I myself have seen it often, and never without a great emotion of soul. It is short and low; wherefore to some it seems that Christ, bent over, was bound to it and its ring, so that He offered His curved back as if an anvil to be struck by the torturers raging on every side and their scourges. Or rather, with His hands bound behind His back, Christ was thus bound upright to the ring of the column so that the torturers could strike both His chest and His back freely. For that it is entire, not a part of a column as some think, the ancient inscription and title affixed above proves; and Jacobus Bobius proves this more fully (On the Triumphant Cross, book 1, chapter 13).
This was patience, this fortitude, this love—love of us, namely: "Love is strong as death, jealousy is hard as hell" (Canticle 8:6). Behold, O Christian, the scourges of Christ, and you will judge yours, of whatever sort, to be soft, indeed nothing. Weigh well, says St. Augustine (Sermon 114 De Tempore): "He who gave such a price for us, namely His blood and life—indeed the whole God—what interest will He exact from us? 'My body,' He says, 'I gave to strikers,' etc. Acknowledge, O man, how much you are worth and how much you owe; and while you perceive the great dignity of your redemption, prescribe for yourself the shame of sinning. Behold: for the impious, Piety is scourged; for the foolish, Wisdom is mocked; for the liar, Truth is killed; Justice is condemned for the unjust; Mercy is afflicted for the cruel; Sincerity is filled with vinegar for the wretched; Sweetness is inebriated with gall; Innocence is assigned to death for the guilty; Life dies for the dead."
"AND MY CHEEKS TO THEM THAT PLUCKED OFF THE HAIR," that is, to those plucking the hairs of the cheeks and beard, says Vatablus. Concerning this plucking and depilation of Christ, the Evangelists have nothing; but from this place it is clear that He suffered it, for Isaiah also is an Evangelist. For Christ was afflicted by every kind of punishments and contumelies. For the pulling of the beard has significant pain equally as contumely, just as the spitting in the face. For the beard is the ornament of a man and the mark of manliness. Whence when the Ammonites had shaved half the beard of David's legates, David accepted this as a supreme contumely and waged war against them (2 Kings 10). Wherefore Alexander the Great took care that his soldiers shave their beards, lest if they were captured by the enemy they undergo this ignominy of plucking or shearing of the beard, as Plutarch narrates in his Life of Theseus. The Septuagint translate: "I have given my cheeks to blows."
"I HAVE NOT TURNED AWAY MY FACE FROM THEM THAT REBUKED," that is, from those reviling, mocking, scoffing: "Hail, King of the Jews! Save Yourself! If You are the Son of God, come down from the cross! You who destroy the temple... He saved others; Himself He cannot save," etc.
"AND FROM THEM THAT SPAT UPON ME." The Septuagint, and from them St. Ambrose and others, read: "I turned not away my face from the shame of spittings." This is what Jeremiah says (Lamentations 3:30): "He shall be filled with reproaches."
Think on these things, ruminate on them, O Christian, when you suffer mockeries, reproaches, calumnies; endure and harden yourself. You have not yet borne the scoffs and reproaches of Christ; you have received words only, not blows; nor have you yet given your body to strikers and your cheeks to pluckers, as your Christ gave for you. Christ gave Himself wholly as prey to God the Father, indeed to torturers and enemies, so that you in turn may give yourself as prey to God; offer yourself wholly to Him, resign yourself wholly into His hands, so that He may ordain and do concerning you and all that is yours as He pleases. Give Him your body as prey—to diseases, pains, torments; give your soul as prey—to obediences, loves, jubilees, and divine praises. Thus St. Lawrence, St. Vincent, and other martyrs gave themselves wholly as prey to God and, for God, to executioners—for fires, racks, gibbets, and beasts.
Thus St. Eusebius of Vercelli, bishop and martyr, in the year of our Lord 371, imprisoned and having suffered many bitter things from the Arians, writing to his church at Vercelli, among other things by which he animates them to constancy in the faith, says: "The heretics were saying many things to me, boasting of their strength and power. But I showed them that it was nothing, and that he could do nothing against me who voluntarily gave my body to them as prey, as to executioners; and during the several days in which they tortured me, I showed with what great spirit I received their injuries, with profound and continuous silence, while they were more cruel than the pagan Gentiles who persecuted the Christians." Thus St. Agatha to the tyrant: "If it pleases you," she says, "to draw the sword against me, behold my neck; if scourges, behold my back; if fire, behold my whole body: burn, cut, bind, stretch, tear, rend, torture, slay. The more cruelly you rage against me, the greater a benefit you confer on me, the greater a crown will my spouse Christ adorn for me."
These same things concerning Christ, clearly and expressly, the Sibyl sang—for the confusion of the Jews and for the instruction of the Gentiles, that they might believe in Christ crucified. St. Augustine cites her verses (Against the Jews, Pagans, and Arians, chapter 16, vol. 6, p. 47), and they are these:
Into wicked and faithless hands afterwards He shall come;
They shall give God blows with unclean hands,
And with impure mouths spit poisonous salivas.
But He, altogether innocent, shall give His back to scourges,
And receiving buffets, He shall be silent, lest anyone recognize Him,
And He shall wear a crown of thorns.
But for food they shall give gall, and for thirst vinegar;
They shall show this table of inhospitality.
For you yourself, foolish, did not know your God
Sporting with mortal minds; but with thorns
You crowned Him, and mixed dreadful gall.
But the veil of the temple shall be rent, and at midday
Darkness—night for three most grievous hours—
And death having accomplished its end, a sleep of three days having been undertaken,
And now returning from the dead into the light, He comes;
Recalled, He shows the first beginning of resurrection.
"THE LORD GOD IS MY HELPER." As if: In these supreme reproaches and blows, God was at my right hand; He animated and strengthened me, and gave such patience and constancy that I reckoned all things as nothing, and endured them with such spirit that I stood immovable as if they were striking a rock; indeed, I contended with their savagery and fury and far conquered and overcame them. For while the Jews and my executioners, raging, vomited cartloads of punishments and reproaches upon Me, I received all things as if they were not pains but joys, not reproaches but praises—as indeed they were. For God turned all these things to My praise and glory.
"THEREFORE I AM NOT CONFOUNDED." I am not put to shame, knowing that by the will, honor, and love of God I suffer these things. It can be translated with Foreiro: "Therefore I was not affected by ignominy"—that is, I did not reckon myself affected, but with joy proposed I endured all things gladly. Hence you see: if God helps and strengthens, contumely is not contumely, pain does not bring pain; but the athlete of Christ, with invincible spirit, endures all things and in them rejoices and glories with Paul.
"THEREFORE I HAVE SET MY FACE AS A HARDEST ROCK." Foreiro translates: "as steel." For in Hebrew it is chalmish (חַלְמִישׁ). Whence he says the Latin chalybs (steel) is derived from it, not from the peoples who are called Chalybes and dwell near the river Thermodon, who are reputed to have discovered the use of iron and steel—for steel is the marrow or kernel of iron, as Pliny teaches, or very hard iron, as Aristotle calls it. But the Septuagint, our Vulgate, Vatablus, Pagninus, and others translate chalmish here and elsewhere as "rock," "stone," "flint." Wherefore Vatablus translates: "Therefore I harden my face like flint."
Christ therefore in His passion stood immovable, invincible, and unshaken, like steel, like flint, like a rock against which dashed waves break apart and pass into foam; like adamant which is not broken by iron and hammers, but breaks those very ones beating against it. Hence with a terrifying and as it were adamantine face He responded to the Jews, to Pilate, to Annas and Caiaphas. Such it befits us to be for Christ and the faith; and therefore in all calumnies, pains, anxieties, persecutions, and adversities, nothing is better than to harden the face as a rock and with God's help, hope, and love to receive all things strongly. For thus we shall feel them less; indeed, they, as if repelled by our virtue and constancy, will rebound.
Notes on the Translation:
Author: Cornelius a Lapide (Cornelis van den Steen, 1567–1637) was a Flemish Jesuit priest and renowned biblical commentator. His commentaries, characterized by extensive patristic citation, moral application, and orthodox Catholic theology, were among the most influential of the Counter-Reformation era.
Textual Corrections: The provided Latin text contains numerous OCR errors which have been corrected in the translation:
Scripture Citations: "Exod 2 1.1" → Exodus 21:1; "pfalm 43 v 13" → Psalm 43:13; "3 Reg 21.25" → 1 Kings 21:25; "Hebr 10.5" → Hebrews 10:5; "pfalm 50" → Psalm 50; "2 Regum 10" → 2 Kings 10; "Thren 3.30" → Lamentations 3:30.
Patristic References: "S Thom" → St. Thomas Aquinas; "S Cyrill" → St. Cyril of Alexandria; "S Auguft" → St. Augustine; "S Bernar" → St. Bernard; "S Chrysost" → St. John Chrysostom; "Leo Ca Arius" → Leo of Castro (a commentator on Aquinas).
Other Corrections: "va 4" → v. 4; "l 2 Demonft c 34" → Demonstr. Evang. 2.34; "1.8 in Luc c 1" → In Luc. 8.1; "lib de Tobia cap 8" → On Tobias, ch. 8; "l 1 de Triumphanti cruce c 13" → On the Triumphant Cross, 1.13; "ser 114 de Tempore" → Sermon 114, De Tempore; "orat cont Judæos Pagan & Arrian c 16 47 tom 6" → Against Jews, Pagans, and Arians, ch. 16, p. 47, vol. 6.
Theological Context: Lapide's commentary is thoroughly Christological and moral. He interprets the "Servant" as Christ, emphasizes the voluntary nature of Christ's suffering (dedi = "I gave"), and draws extensive moral applications for Christian endurance under persecution. His citations of the Sibylline Oracles reflect the Renaissance/Counter-Reformation interest in pagan prophecies of Christ.
Style: The translation preserves Lapide's characteristic blend of scholarly exegesis, patristic authority, and passionate moral exhortation. His frequent use of direct address ("O Christian," "Behold, O man") and vivid imagery (the column of scourging, the adamantine face) is maintained.
Structure: The commentary follows the verse-by-verse format typical of Lapide, with each verse receiving philological notes (Hebrew/Greek), patristic citations, theological explanation, and moral application.
Thus, with Christ as their leader, the martyrs stood in torments like adamant; for they were not cast down but rather raised up, and living more in spirit than in flesh, they overcame the infirmity of the body by the firmness of the soul. For as Cyprian says (Book 4, Epistle 5) concerning St. Celerinus the martyr: "Though his body was placed in chains, his spirit remained loose and free. He lay among pains, stronger than his pains; enclosed, greater than those enclosing him; lying down, loftier than those standing; bound, firmer than those binding; fettered, more sublime than those judging; though judged." And although his feet were bound with a sinew, the serpent was trampled underfoot, crushed, and conquered.
Thus St. Romanus the martyr, when grievously tortured and the torturers renewed the inflicted blows by drawing iron through the same furrows in his flesh, mocked them as cowards. For thus he says in Prudentius, Hymn 10:
O not manly strength! O soft hands!
That you cannot shatter in so long a time
One fabric of a faltering little body!
It scarcely now holds together, yet does not utterly fall;
Conquering the arms of inert right hands.
More quickly do dogs tear a corpse with their teeth;
You languish with unwarlike hunger and grow weary;
Your voracity is savage but sluggish.
Thus St. Ignatius: "Would that I may enjoy the beasts which are prepared for me! Fire, cross, beasts, breaking of bones, division of limbs, crushing of the whole body, and the torments of the devil—let them come upon me, only that I may enjoy Christ!" And when he had already been condemned to the beasts, with ardor for suffering, when he heard the roaring lions, he said: "I am the wheat of Christ; let me be ground by the teeth of beasts, that I may be found pure bread."
Thus St. Lawrence, cooked on the gridiron, addressing his torturer in Prudentius (Hymn 2), says: "It is cooked; devour, and make trial whether it is more savory raw or roasted."
Thus the invincible Vincentius (Hymn 5) addresses the judge amid torments: "Wrest from me faith if you can! Torments, prison, the rack, and the plate hissing with flames, and death itself, the last of punishments—these are sport to Christians." Nor did he speak more strongly than he in fact performed. For when by the extension of the rack his body was being loosened limb from limb, the soldier of God laughed at these things, rebuking the bloody hands because the fixed claw did not penetrate the limbs more deeply. And again:
There is another man within,
Whom no one can violate,
Free, quiet, whole,
Exempt from sad pains.
That which you labor to destroy
With such forces of fury
Is a vessel loose and earthen,
To be broken in whatever way.
Such soldiers the heavenly Emperor led forth into battle, stronger than columns, who urged on the weary torturers because they believed this delay was for them hastening to Christ. Such was also recently our Ogilvie, martyr in Scotland, once my catechumen at Louvain, who, as is clear from his martyrdom, to the stupor of the Calvinists, stood invincible in torments, sharp in responses, and closed the mouths of all assailing him.
What then? We praise these heroes, but we fear to imitate them; we go only as far as the altars, as far as words—and blows, exclusively. How well did John à Kempis, brother of our Thomas the Theodidactus, say, as his Life records: "We wish to be humble without contempt, patient without tribulation, obedient without constraint, poor without defect, virtuous without labor, penitent without pain, praised without virtue, loved without goodness, honored without sanctity." But Christ God did not so act and teach; rather, He promised the kingdom of heaven to those who do violence to themselves, and will repay glory and honor to those suffering injury, and will leave no evil unpunished.
Verse 8: "He who justifies me is near, who will contradict me? Let us stand together, who is my adversary? Let him come to me."
Verse 9: "Behold the Lord God is my helper, who is he that shall condemn me? Behold they shall all be worn out as a garment, the moth shall eat them."
"HE WHO JUSTIFIES ME IS NEAR." This is a preemption; for Christ meets a tacit objection. For someone might say: "You indeed have praise and reward from God for your patience and constancy, but nevertheless among men you labor under infamy, inasmuch as by the public judgment of Pilate and the Jews you were condemned to the cross as a seditious man. This infamy will turn many Gentiles from you and your faith; for the Jews will rejoice: 'We have seen Him condemned, hung on the cross among thieves, and accursed according to the Law. God did not snatch Him from this judgment and death so infamous. How then can He be our Redeemer and that of the world?'"
To these things Christ responds: "What do you object to Me—the unjust judgment of impious men and My enemies? To this I oppose the most just judgment of God. Behold, God justifies My cause, shows Me just and innocent to the whole world. For on the third day He raises Me from death, soon gloriously bears Me up into heaven, sends the Apostles throughout the world, who by miracles, gifts of graces, and all virtues may celebrate My name everywhere and render it amiable and admirable to all nations. Therefore no infamy, no stain from the cross and death clings to My name; indeed, God has turned all these things to My glory and veneration."
This is what Christ said in John 16:16 concerning the Holy Spirit who was to come, that He would convince the world concerning justice—that is, would prove false the justice of the world: of the Jews indeed, because they sought it in the ceremonies of the Law; of the Gentiles, because they placed it in works naturally and morally good; but Christ, therefore held unjust by them, He would prove to be just and the fountain and parent of all justice, as St. Cyril explains. For the justice of Christ was conspicuous to the whole world even from this alone: that soon after death He went to the Father and ascended into heaven, no longer to be seen on earth. Moreover, whom God and heaven received with such great glory and applause, who would dare to call unjust and impious?
This is what Christ, giving the reason, subjoins there: "Because I go to the Father." St. Paul alluded to this in Romans 8:33: "Who shall accuse against the elect of God? It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns?" For just as God justified Christ, so also He justifies and absolves Christians elected by Christ. See what has been said there.
"WHO IS MY ADVERSARY?" In Hebrew: "Who is the lord of my lawsuit?" That is: Who is the plaintiff who may bring a case against me, who may accuse me, oppose me litigating, strive to prove me guilty of some crime? Let him approach and see how insane he is.
"BEHOLD, THEY SHALL ALL BE WORN OUT AS A GARMENT, THE MOTH SHALL EAT THEM." For tinea (moth), Symmachus translates "rust," Aquila "worm." As if: What miserable little men, soon to die and to be eaten by worms, dare to pass sentence on Christ the Lord or to contend with Him in judgment as if with an impious and guilty man, whom God has vivified, exalted, and constituted Redeemer of all? For all shall soon be consumed; indeed, by their own crimes, and especially by this—that they assail or condemn Christ the Lord—they shall be the cause and occasion of their own destruction and punishment to be inflicted by God, and they shall be like a garment which of itself brings forth a moth by which it is corroded and consumed.
For thus also the Jews by the slaughter of Christ called down upon themselves the scourge and destruction of Titus. For St. Jerome, Cyril, and others explain these words concerning them. To this pertains what the Prophet subjoins in chapter 51:7: "Fear not the reproach of men, and dread not their blasphemies. For the moth shall eat them up like a garment, and the worm shall devour them like wool."
For from the body of man, so miserable and composed of four elements, qualities, and humors perpetually fighting among themselves, proceed many putrefactions and foul humors, like moths, which corrode and destroy the very body itself. We therefore carry death in our bowels, and we create and bring it forth for ourselves because we carry it everywhere with us. Therefore to man may rightly be applied that enigma of Plautus concerning the thrush: "The bird itself creates death for itself." For from its own dung arises mistletoe, in which entangling itself, it is captured.
See here what is the fruit of sin, which like a moth—indeed like a viper—gnaws and denies its parent, that is, the sinner. Again, in the moth which creeps insensibly and secretly and erodes the garment, is signified that the crimes of the Jews gradually and secretly led them to destruction. For as St. Gregory says (Moralia 11.25): "The moth does damage and makes no sound; so the minds of the wicked, because they neglect to consider their losses, perish as if unknowing." Let religious take note of this: they neglect small venial sins and fall into their habit, and these as it were turn into them. For these, like a moth, will consume the spirit and strength of their virtue.
Verse 10: "Who is among you that fears the Lord, that hears the voice of his servant? He that walked in darkness and has no light, let him hope in the name of the Lord and lean upon his God."
Verse 11: "Behold all you who kindle a fire, who encompass yourselves with sparks, walk in the light of your fire and in the sparks which you have kindled; from my hand this has happened to you, you shall lie down in sorrow."
"WHO IS AMONG YOU THAT FEARS THE LORD?"
First, some understand these words of a penitent sinner: As if: Whoever hitherto has walked in the darkness of error, infidelity, and sin, and now, fearing the wrath of God, hears the voice of His servant—that is, of Isaiah, says St. Thomas, or rather of Christ, as others explain here—let him hope in the Lord; He will illuminate and expiate him from sins. Thus Haymo, Lyranus, Procopius, and St. Jerome, who thinks these are the words of Christ to His crucifiers, as if He were stirring them to penance and hope of pardon.
Second, more aptly, Cyril, Foreiro, Hugo, Sanchez, and others understand these words of the just man. For he is the one "fearing the Lord and hearing the voice of His servant," that is, of Christ. As if: Whoever is a Christian, faithful, and just, who with Christ has walked in the darkness of prison, pains, ignominies, and afflictions—let him hope in the Lord. For if he does this, God, who strengthened, rescued, and glorified Christ in scourges, spittings, and reproaches, will not suffer him likewise to be confounded and put to shame, but will strengthen, liberate, and make him glorious.
This is the conclusion of the whole oracle of Christ, by which He exhorts Jews and all faithful that in the midst of evils and tempests they trust not in men but in God, and from Him expect certain help.
"HE THAT WALKED IN DARKNESS." As Foreiro says: Even if you walk in the midst of the shadow of death, even if the whole seems mixed with darkness, even if you perceive no light shining forth but all things obscure on account of the malice of times and men—as will happen when, with that Servant of God, Christ, held as a seducer and apprehended as a robber and raised on the cross as a traitor, to denote the darkness of minds the sun will be obscured even in midday—nevertheless, do not desert faith and hope, but with Abraham your father, "against hope believe in hope" (Romans 4:18), and lean upon God, knowing that He is able to raise both Christ and Isaac, and Christians as well as Christ, from death.
For the Prophet knew that many in the passion of Christ would suffer scandal and cast away faith in Christ and hope in God; wherefore, now turned to these, not without irony, He says:
"BEHOLD ALL YOU"—that is, very many and almost all of you, O Jews, who either spurned, mocked, and killed Christ, or, seeing His cross and death, cast away faith and hope in Him.
"WHO KINDLE A FIRE." Above in v. 9 He said "the moth shall eat them"; here by another more efficacious metaphor He calls them "kindlers of fire," furnace-men, who both kindle furnaces and are charcoal-burners. For these are the titles of all the impious. For they prepare for themselves eternal fire and its fuel; already here semi-burnt, dismal and horrible like charcoal-burners, as Foreiro says. As if: O Jews, by your fire of cupidity and crimes, to which you are attached and by which you were unwilling to acknowledge Christ, you kindle the fire of God's wrath and call down upon yourselves the corporal fire which Titus will kindle and by which he will burn all Jerusalem, and the eternal fire which My hand will inflict upon you. And therefore you shall sleep in eternal pains and in eternal oblivion of Me. Thus St. Jerome and Cyril.
"YOU, WHO ENCOMPASS YOURSELVES WITH FLAMES." Hebrew: me'azzerê zîqôth (מְאַזְּרֵי זִיקוֹת), which:
First, Vatablus translates: "girded or surrounded with sparks." As if: Everywhere you scatter sparks of the fire of concupiscence and crimes, which, falling as if into chaff, will create for you a great and eternal conflagration. Therefore, a spark of hell is lust, anger, ambition, etc. Hear St. Jerome: "O infernal fire of luxury, whose material is gluttony, whose flame is pride, whose spark is evil conversation, whose smoke is infamy, whose ashes are uncleanness." Again, at the end of this chapter he says: "In this chapter we learn that according to the quality of sin, each one kindles a fire for himself. And just as, remaining in the same place and, if it may be said, the same bed, some are healthy while others are kindled with the heats of fevers, feeling diverse punishments from the diversity of humors and phlegm, so also the fire which is kindled by sinners has its material in sins and iniquity, concerning which it is written: 'Iniquity shall burn as a fire, and as dry grass it shall be devoured by the flame.'"
Thus the Venerable Bede (Ecclesiastical History 3.19) reports that St. Fursey, rapt in spirit, saw in the air four fires which were kindling the whole world; and when he asked his guiding angel what they were, he heard from him: "One is of lying, when they do not fulfill what they promised in baptism—to renounce Satan and all his works. The second is of cupidity, when they prefer the riches of the world to the love of heavenly things. The third is of dissension, when they do not fear to offend the minds of neighbors even in superfluous matters. The fourth is of impiety, when they reckon it as nothing to despoil the weaker and to defraud them." Moreover, the fire growing to greater effect was one, and it was approaching that Fursey; fearing the threatening fire, he said to the holy angel: "Fire approaches me." To whom the angel responded: "What you did not kindle shall not burn in you." For although this fire is terrible, nevertheless according to the merits of works it examines individuals, because the cupidity of each one shall burn in this fire. For just as the body burns through illicit pleasure, so also the soul shall burn through due punishment.
Second, Foreiro translates: "constricted and bound with snares," namely of flames, that is, with fiery bonds. For what else does man do when he sins than that he kindles eternal fire in himself and binds himself with fiery snares—namely, those by which demons and the damned are bound, held, constricted, and burned in hell, as Jude teaches in his epistle, v. 6: "The angels who kept not their principality... He has reserved under darkness in everlasting chains."
Foreiro adds: Or certainly he calls "snares" bundles tied with a bond. For thus bundles and piles of logs are constricted with a cord or bond. As if: You, O impious Jews, by your crimes do nothing else than prepare and bind for yourselves bundles or piles of logs by which you yourselves may be burned in Gehenna. For sins are the bellows and fuel of Gehenna. Thus the Apostle says that light sins are the wood, hay, stubble of purgatorial fire (1 Cor. 3:12). Whence through the prophet He subjoins:
"THEREFORE WALK IN THE LIGHT OF YOUR FIRE AND IN THE SPARKS WHICH YOU HAVE KINDLED." As if: Roll yourselves about in the conflagration of inextinguishable fire which you have created and prepared for yourselves.
More clearly from the Hebrew it may be translated: "Go into the focus of your fire and the bundles which you have kindled." Christ will allude to this, about to say to the reprobate: "Depart from me, you cursed, into eternal fire, which was prepared for the devil and his angels" (Matthew 25:41).
"FROM MY HAND." As if: I, Christ, the just judge and avenger, whom you unworthily treated, condemn you to this fire by My hand, invincible and eternal, which therefore will nourish and foster this fire for you forever.
"YOU SHALL LIE DOWN IN SORROW." You shall go to fires, to pains and torments; these shall be your beds, these your coverlets, these your pillows. Thus concerning the bed of Balthasar, slain, it was said in chapter 14:11: "Under you shall the moth be strewed, and worms shall be your covering." For these are the pillows of that body, of this soul.
In Hebrew: tishkâbûn (תִּשְׁכָּבוּן), that is, "you shall lie down." As if: You shall recline. This is the lot of the impious who were unwilling to hear the learned tongue of Christ and to listen to it. For "He shall rain upon sinners snares, fire and brimstone, and a stormy wind: this is the portion of their cup" (Psalm 10:7).
Otherwise, Sanchez reads by way of interrogation: "From My hand has this happened to you?" As if: By no means. For as I have shown, you yourselves have kindled this fire for yourselves, not I. But all Greek, Latin, and Hebrew Bibles read these words assertively, without interrogation; therefore the prior explanation is to be embraced.
CONTINUE
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