Father Cornelius a Lapide's Commentary on Isaiah 55:1-13

Commentary on Isaiah Chapter 55 by Cornelius a Lapide

Summary of the Chapter In the preceding chapter, he explained the riches, peace, splendor, and happy lot of the children of the New Testament: now he invites individuals to the same, that by embracing the faith of Christ, they may enjoy them, leaving behind their vain things and hopes. Secondly, in verse 3, promising them a new covenant, he warns them to follow Christ as Leader and Preceptor. Thirdly, in verse 10, he assures that these promises of His will be firm, by the example of rain and showers. And accordingly, in verse 12, he describes how great the joy, happiness, and glory of the faithful will be. Forerius at the end of the chapter thinks this chapter pertains to the Jews: for they are invited to Christ, and because they are unwilling to come, the Gentiles are substituted for them. For the Jews seemed to labor under thirst for the advent of Christ, and they weighed out their silver not for satiety, because they sought justice in victims and empty ceremonies of the Law, which do not satisfy the soul. He exhorts therefore that they seek it in Christ; wherefore in verse 3 He promises them the new covenant of Christ. But because He foresaw that they would spurn Christ, in verse 4 He threatens that He will transfer Christ and this covenant to the Gentiles. Wherefore in verse 6 He exhorts the Jews that they repent in time, while they have the opportunity. And lest they object that the words and promises of God made to them concerning the Messiah cannot be void and irrit: He responds in verse 10 that they are to be fulfilled in the Gentiles, to whom accordingly in verse 12 He promises all joyful and happy things. But there is nothing which compels the general words of the Prophet to be restricted to the Jews: He invites therefore both Gentiles and Jews to Christ.

Is 55:1 ALL YOU WHO THIRST. Hebrew is: O all you who thirst, come to the waters. This is, as the Chaldean [Paraphrast says], all who desire to learn, and who wish to extinguish the thirst of cupidity, all who are eager for truth and saving wisdom, come to the waters of the doctrine and grace of Christ, draw and drink from them wisdom and the Evangelical spirit, and thus quench the thirst of your soul, the thirst for truth, the thirst for heavenly and saving wisdom. Christ alluded to this in John 7:37: If any man thirst, let him come to me, and drink. And Matthew 11:28: Come to me all you who labor and are burdened, and I will refresh you. And to the Samaritan woman in John 4:13, speaking about this matter. Truly Nazianzen, Oration on Holy Baptism, which is the 40th: The Lord, he says, thirsts to be thirsted for, and if we can possess so great a good, without labor and most easily, namely by approaching only to the fountain, whose madness is it to defer so great a good? Wherefore He arouses and sharpens that thirst, inviting here to the waters, so that He may extinguish the thirst vain of knowledge, the thirst for honors, the thirst for gold and silver, the thirst for wine and feasts, innate in us from concupiscence, with the thirst for wisdom, the thirst for honors, the thirst for spiritual and heavenly feasts. (Whence the Septuagint translate, Ho, everyone who thirsts, namely for vanities.) For these, not those, are able to satisfy and fill the soul. Thus David thirsted in Psalm 41:3: My soul has thirsted for the strong living God (Hebrew fortem). For Christ is the living fountain, which never dries up, but continually and copiously sends forth waters, leaping up into life eternal. And Saint John in the Apocalypse 22:17: And the Spirit and the spouse say: Come. And he who hears, let him say: Come. And he who thirsts, let him come: and he who will, let him take the water of life, freely. Whence he himself, now old, and desiring to be dissolved and to enjoy Christ, in verse 20 responding to this invitation, says: Yes, I come quickly: Amen. Come, Lord Jesus, as if to say: Come, my Jesus, come, my love, my joy, my delights.

AND EAT. From this it is clear, that God offers not only water to drink, but also food to eat. Namely the doctrine and grace of Christ is both food and drink of the soul: as also His holy Sacraments, especially the Eucharist. Whence He Himself sent servants who called the invited to the dinner opulently prepared, Matthew 22:4.

BUY WITHOUT MONEY. For buy in Hebrew is שִׁבְרוּ shibru, that is break, that is procure and buy food and bread to be broken: because those about to eat were accustomed to break and divide bread, hence they called bread by this name שֶׁבֶר sheber, that is a breaking, or food to be broken. Hence shabar, that is to break, by metalepsis signifies to procure and buy a breaking, that is bread. Buy therefore without money, that is, procure and receive freely. Thus Saint Jerome and Cyril. Acutely and piously also Saint Bernard, Sermon 2 on the Resurrection of the Lord: Here, he says, the coin of proper will must be used to buy, so that what was proper may become common. Moreover common will is charity. Christ alludes to this in the Apocalypse 3:18: I counsel you to buy from me gold tried by fire.

What is this gold? and how is it bought? Response: First, this gold is the pure and worthy charity of God, which strongly tolerates persecutions and adversities, even martyrdoms. This is bought, that is, procured, by no other price than prayer, tears, penance, good works. This gold, says Rupert there, buy with the price of pious confession, and continual memory of your own fragility, always remembering what you are from yourself, what you have received from God. That you may become rich, that is, grace may be added to you, and you may be clothed with white garments, not from your works, but from the same grace of largess. Ambrose adds, Book On Joseph the Patriarch, chapter 7: This gold is bought with silver, not ours (for the sinner is able to merit the first grace by no work or merit), but Christ's, namely with the price of the blood of Christ. Buy, he says, without money: for the price of our salvation was not paid by us, but by Him who paid the price of His blood for us.

Thirdly, Nazianzen, Oration on Holy Baptism, responds that God, on account of His immense goodness, by which He desires our salvation, estimates our desire for grace and salvation as the price. O swiftness, he says, of beneficence! O easy method of contracting! This good is proposed to you to be bought with the price of will alone; God estimates the very desire as the place of immense price; He thirsts to be thirsted for; He offers drink to those desiring to drink; when a benefit is sought from God, He considers Himself affected by a benefit, He is of prompt, munificent and profuse nature; He gives more joyfully than others receive. Whence below Nazianzen says this thirst is to be sharpened and augmented, that we may draw and capture more graces from God: Let us beware of this only, he says, lest we undergo the note of a fasting and small soul, asking small things, and little worthy of the liberality of God. Blessed is he, from whom, as from that Samaritan woman, Christ asks a drink, and gives a fountain of water leaping into life eternal.

And Clement of Alexandria in Exhortation to the Gentiles: All who thirst, come to the waters: He exhorts, he says, to the laver, to salvation, to illumination, crying out closely, and saying: I give to you, O son, earth, sea, heaven; only, O son, do you thirst, God will show Himself to you freely.

Fourthly, Abbot Joachim on the Apocalypse 3: God gives, he says, grace for grace, John 1:16. Let us trade therefore with the lesser grace of God, that we may buy and procure the greater. And Thomas Anglicus: Buying, he says, is the disposition of free will. The word therefore of buying signifies, that man ought to do great things, and contribute much, that he may be fit to receive these gifts from God. So therefore this buying sharpens the industry of our arbitrium. Thus Proverbs 23:23 it is said, Buy truth, that is, with great labor and study, even with the loss of temporal things, procure wisdom; do whatever you will, suffer whatever you will, that you may attain it. Thus Pererius. And Dionysius the Carthusian: Buy, he says, with a price not condign, but congruous. For acts of faith, hope, penance, and others are, by which this grace is bought, that is procured, with great labor.

WINE AND MILK. But what He called waters and food, here He calls wine and milk. By waters therefore He understood every drink, but from drink He left food to be gathered: whence He names here milk, which serves both for eating and drinking. By wine and milk therefore understand any food and drink. For wine is savory, hot and robust: milk sweet and fat. Whence with these two Scripture signifies any feasts and delights. Just as therefore wine and milk, first, are grateful to the taste in color and flavor; secondly, they induce sweet sleep; thirdly, they take away the sense of other things: so the doctrine and gifts of the Holy Spirit are most efficacious and sweet, they lull and tranquilize the mind, and lead it away from vain desires and anxieties, and satisfy it, so that it thirsts not in eternity, says Forerius. Whence the Chaldean translates: Come and hear freely, without price, without money (which is accustomed to be given to masters by disciples) a doctrine better than wine and milk. Moreover, wine signifies spiritual food and drink, namely, wisdom and grace for the proficient and perfect (whence wine is called the milk of old men); but milk for little ones and beginners: for to these simplicity, candor and innocence are suitable. Hence from this place of Isaiah formerly wine and milk were given to the recently baptized, as Nazianzen teaches above. Which custom, says Saint Jerome, is preserved even today in the Churches of the West, that to those reborn in Christ wine and milk are distributed. Just as in the Primitive Church, honey and milk were given to the same, from that which Isaiah said concerning the little child Christ in chapter 7:15: He shall eat butter and honey. See what has been said there. Excellently Saint Dionysius the Areopagite, Epistle to Titus, teaches that divine wisdom provides aliments to each according to capacity, and therefore divine and spiritual eloquences are meritously assimilated to dew, and water, and milk, and wine, and honey: because they obtain the power of vivifying and fecundating, as in water; and of leading to increase, as in milk; and of recreating and strengthening, as in wine; and of purging simultaneously and preserving, as in honey.

Clement of Alexandria treats copiously concerning this milk and wine, Book 1 Pedagogue, chapter 6. Where first, he says: The Word (that is Christ, who is the Word of the Father) is said allegorically in many ways both food, and flesh, and nourishment, and bread, and blood, and milk, and wine. Secondly, Useful, he says, is the mixture of milk and wine: for milk is separated and divided by wine, and whatever is adulterine in it, is led out as if through an aqueduct: so faith making carnal concupiscences separate, contracts man to eternity, making him immortal by divine things. Thirdly, wine is as it were the heat and soul of the coagulum of milk. So the Church consists of body, namely faith, but of soul hope, as Christ consists of flesh and blood (for the ancients thought blood to be the substance of the soul). For truly the blood of faith is hope, in which it is contained, as faith by the soul. But when hope has expired, just as if blood has flowed out, the vital faculty of faith is dissolved. So therefore milk is faith, wine is hope, which is as it were the soul of faith.

The Septuagint reading חֵלֶב cheleb, that is milk, with other points חֵלֶב cheleb, that is fat, translate, buy wine and fat; which Saint Jerome, Cyril, Procopius, and Leo Castrius rightly refer to the Sacrament of the Eucharist. For the Hebrews call fat or pinguedine that which is most choice and best in any thing. Such however in the new law is the Eucharist, which is the wheat of the elect, and wine germinating virgins, as Zacharias says 9:17. Concerning which in the mystical sense the Psalmist says Psalm 80:17: He fed them with the fat of wheat.

Is 55:2. WHY DO YOU WEIGH OUT MONEY NOT FOR BREAD, that is, as follows, AND YOUR LABOR NOT FOR SATIETY? that is, not for food and satisfying bread. It is a metonymy. For satisfying bread is called, satiety, because it induces it. Thus chapter 56, verse 12 drunkenness is called inebriating wine. Under breads understand any food from the Hebrew phrase: for among all foods, bread as it is most common, so also it most nourishes and satisfies, since other foods often only irritate or obtund. By silver therefore understand labor, industry, efforts, studies, etc. The sense therefore is, as if to say: Why, O mortals, do you pursue with such study and price the vain goods of this world, as riches, honors, delights, vain wisdom and eloquence, which are not able to satisfy the mind? God alone, and the grace of God, doctrine, and especially the Eucharist, is the bread, which is able to refresh and satisfy the mind: why do you neglect this, and buy trifles so dearly? Whence groaning at this madness of men He says, verse 1: Ho, all who thirst, come, as it is in the Hebrew.

The same thing said Plato, Book 6 On the Republic, who seems to have learned and accepted this from this place of Isaiah. For he was himself a Moses Atticus. He who is well born, he says, and who is truly a lover of disciplines, will not adhere to these goods, which the vulgar admire, which truly do not satisfy: but he will proceed to go further, he will not be wearied, but mixed with true being, that is, embracing with the mind true being, this is God, he will truly live, truly be nourished, truly be satisfied. And Book 11 he teaches that these goods, which men, like cattle, appetite, and for which they contend, do not satisfy more, than those who dream they are feasting lavishly: for awakened they feel themselves hungry, just as before. I heard a wonderful story from the Governor of the city of Trajectum in Belgium: He narrated, he said, that he with primary Nobles had been invited by another to lunch: I went, he says, with others; I found a splendid house, an illustrious dining room, an opulent table, instructed with all feasts and delights. All were drinking and eating hilariously. But when they departed, soon they began to hunger with an empty belly, and the stomach to bark, as if they had eaten nothing. Namely by the work of a certain magician, all these things were adorned and performed by the aid of a demon, and they were mere prestiges. For they seemed to themselves to eat and see those things, which they truly did not eat, nor see. Such are all the goods of the world, they have appearance, not truth; delight, not satiety; they are a mockery of the eyes, not food of the mind. The reason is, because the mind is created by God to the image of God; whence it is capable of infinite good, namely of God; ergo it can be filled and satisfied by no finite, thin and shadowy good, such as are all earthly things: but while it has drunk one, soon equally hungry it seeks another, and with mouth always open and gaping, like a most voracious dog, it gapes for others and others, nor can it ever satisfy its insatiable gluttony. We see this in drunkards and tipplers, who the more they drink, the more they thirst, and they appetite to drink more, and they always say that of Proverbs 23:35: When shall I awake, and find wine again? God alone therefore is the rest and satiety of our soul: wherefore in Hebrew He is called Shaddai, concerning which I have said more in Genesis 17:1 and Exodus 6:3.

HEARKEN DILIGENTLY, that is, hear diligently and hearken, not as idle hearers, but as doers of the word and sermon heard.

AND YOUR SOUL SHALL BE DELIGHTED IN FATNESS. Vatablus: in pinguedine, that is in that fat food, which is more savory, and nourishes more than lean, such as is milk, in which is the pinguedine of butter and cheese; also fat meat, fat bread, etc. Such is Evangelical doctrine and grace, which fattens and impinguates the mind.

Is 55:3. I WILL MAKE AN EVERLASTING COVENANT WITH YOU (the new testament, concerning which verse 6, namely) THE SURE MERCIES OF DAVID, that is stable and firm. This covenant therefore are the mercies promised to David by God concerning Christ, in whom his kingdom is to be perpetuated, and who will enrich and beatify His followers, giving them abundantly most sweet wine, and most fat milk, as if to say: The covenant, which I will make with you, is entirely milky and honeyed; it is entirely charity and mercy. Whence the Septuagint and from them Saint Paul in Acts 13:34 translate, I will give you the holy things of David faithful, that is, I will faithfully and most certainly perform the pacts, namely the mercy promised to David, and the goods to be given through Christ. Moreover these mercies and these goods are enumerated both elsewhere, namely Psalm 88, which begins, I will sing the mercies of the Lord forever; whence that psalm is called by the Hebrews the mercy of David. Thus Saint Jerome, Saint Thomas, Hugo and Forerius.

You will say: How does Saint Paul in Acts 13:34 refer these things and from these prove the resurrection of Christ? I respond: He does this rightly, from the fact that this covenant and mercies of David promised concerning Christ, are concerning blessed and eternal life, to be given to those who have believed and obeyed Christ as conqueror of death, who rising from the dead, became the firstfruits, lord and king of those rising. Whence Psalm 88:37 an eternal throne is promised to Christ; in which is included and presupposed the resurrection of Christ and Christians to life and eternal kingdom. The same clearly is promised to David, bearing the type of Christ Psalm 15:10 where it is said: Because you will not leave my soul in hell: nor will you give your holy one to see corruption. Otherwise responds and explains Leo Castrius: I will give, he says, the holy things of David faithful, that is, I will give the holy thing of David, sea the holy body of the Lord sprung from the stock of David, faithful, that is, incorruptible, which ought not to return to corruption. Whence Henriquez Book 9 On the Mass chapter 9, number 5, letter H, in the gloss through holy things, that is holy thing, understands the Holy Body of Christ in the Eucharist, which taken from the seed of David is faithful, that is, incorrupt and firm. But that these holy things literally are pacts, is clear from what has been said. Whence also Tertullian Book 3 Against Marcion chapter 20, for holy things, reads religious (for however the Greek ὅσια signifies) namely, covenants and pacts, which are to be kept holily and religiously, especially those which are sanctified, that is consecrated by God.

Is 55:4. BEHOLD I HAVE GIVEN HIM FOR A WITNESS TO THE PEOPLES. Behold, here he designates the Mediator, who may conclude this pact between God and men, and to whom the mercies of David pertain: for he says, him, namely Christ: for on this the eyes of the Prophet were continually intent and fixed. He calls Christ therefore a witness, namely of the divine pact and promise, as also of faith and fidelity. For Christ coming into the world, testified to the world those things, which He saw and heard in heaven, concerning God and the Holy Trinity, and especially the benevolence, dilection and mercy of God towards men, which pleased Him to redeem fallen men through Christ, and to make with them this new covenant of glory and beatitude to be given to them. Whence Saint Jerome: He, he says, is the witness of all things, which the Father promised and prestated to the world. For Christ fulfilled those things, which the Father promised to the world. Whence Christ Himself Matthew 24:14: This Gospel of the kingdom, he says, shall be preached in the whole world, for a testimony to all nations. Whence He subdelegated other witnesses, namely Apostles, who might fulfill and persevere in this His testimony. This is what Saint Augustine says: Christ was the witness of divine charity towards men. Again, as Saint Ambrose, Cyril, Isychius, and from them Leo Castrius say: He was the witness that all prophecies and promises of God were completed. For He Himself performed and completed the work of our redemption.

Secondly, Christ was the witness of the divine will. For He taught us, what God wishes to be done by us, that we may please Him, and that we may obtain the salvation promised in the new pact. Thirdly, He was the witness of truth, and of sound and saving doctrine. Whence He Himself said to Pilate in John 18, verse 37: For this was I born,... that I should give testimony to the truth. Hence soon Isaiah subjoins Him to be leader and preceptor of the Gentiles. Fourthly, He was the witness of future things in eternity. For He testified before all, that there would be universal judgment, there would be resurrection, there would be retribution of works both of evils and of goods, there would be eternal joys for the pious, for the impious the flame of gehenna and of inextinguishable fire. Thus Theodoret. Whence He is not only the witness of these same things, but also the leader of the way to blessed eternity, and prescribing the modes and reasons, by which we may contend and arrive there: namely, a pure and holy life, works of faith, hope, charity, penance, alms, etc. Whence Joel chapter 2:28 calls Him the teacher of justice.

Fifthly, John Alba Book Of the Elect chapter 100, witness, he says, that is prince. Whence explaining he subjoins, leader. For to the Hebrews sometimes witness is called judge: but judge is called prince. Thus Apocalypse 1:14 Christ is called faithful witness, that is stable judge, eternal prince. Thus Malachi chapter 3, verse 5: He calls a swift witness a most sharp judge. And Psalm 88:38: Faithful witness in heaven, that is eternal prince in heaven, just as heaven is stable and eternal. It is a catachresis. For God and Christ, is judge not mortal, who is often deceived by false witnesses, but certain and infallible, as one who sees all things, and simultaneously is witness and judge. Ergo He is rightly called faithful witness. But why do the Hebrews call witness judge? Response: by metonymy, because witnesses are the cause of judgment, why namely this one is condemned, that one absolved. For the judge ought to judge according to alleged and proved things, namely according to witnesses; for the law of God sanctions: In the mouth of two or three witnesses every word shall stand. Deuteronomy 19:15. Therefore to testify against someone, or for someone, in reality and in effect is to condemn him, or absolve him. Therefore the witness is as it were the judge: for he compels by his testimony the judge to judge according to his testimony.

Is 55:5. BEHOLD YOU SHALL CALL A NATION WHICH YOU KNEW NOT. It is an enallage of person: for he passes from the third to the second. Therefore addressing Christ by apostrophe, he says: You, O Christ, shall call a Nation which you knew not, that is, which you did not acknowledge as Your own, alien from You, did not love, did not approve, You shall call to Yourself, and it called, shall run to You on account of the Lord Your God, that is on account of the endowments and graces: with which God will decorate You, who indeed is God of Your humanity, not of divinity. Thus Christ said to the foolish virgins: I know you not, that is I do not love, I do not approve you. Moreover these endowments of God, by which Christ drew the Gentiles to Himself, were wisdom, integrity, sanctity, miracles, efficacy of preaching, glory of resurrection, mission of the Holy Spirit, zeal and virtue of the Apostles. For these showed Christ to be God: whence when the Gentiles saw these, they ran in crowds to Christ: as they still do, when worthily, as is right, by the preachers of the Gospel His decor and glory is proposed to them, and the sanctity of the Gospel. Christ alluded to this in John 17:1: Father, the hour has come, glorify Your son, that Your son may glorify You. For this is the same with that which Isaiah says here: Because He has glorified You.

Is 55:6. SEEK THE LORD WHILE HE MAY BE FOUND. He proposed the covenant with God in verse 3, here he proposes the conditions of the covenant, of which the first is: Seek the Lord, while He may be found.

First, Saint Jerome refers these things to the Jews, who were in the time of Isaiah, as if to say: You, O Jews, who are not about to hear Christ, nor accept His covenant, hear me and the other Prophets, persuading to you penance, and holy conversation in this life, that through it you may find God, while you have the time of penance and salvation.

Secondly, Forerius refers these things to the Jews, who were in the time of Christ and the Apostles, up to their excision, by Titus. For during all this time Christ was near them, God and salvation, as if to say: Christ is near: for He lives and converses among you; ergo hear and accept Him, lest, when He has passed, you seek Him in vain.

Thirdly, and genuinely, the Prophet speaks to all men, both Gentiles and Jews. For Christ and salvation are proposed by God to all. The time therefore, in which these things can be found, and are near, is the time of the new law, which accordingly the Apostle in 2 Corinthians 6:2 calls acceptable time, and day of salvation: concerning which also Christ says, The kingdom of God is within you. This also He ordered the Apostles to preach, saying: Do penance, for the kingdom of God has approached. Wherefore rightly the Church usurps these words of Isaiah in the time of Lent, and with them daily warns the faithful, that they seek the Lord, whose passion, redemption and resurrection is at hand, and is near.

Fourthly, the Chaldean takes the time in which God is near, and can be found, as the time of this life. For even up to death we can repent, and be reconciled to God. For all this time is of mercy; what will follow, will be of justice and judgment. For then there will not be time of invoking, when God will be near to no one; but indeed present to some, but to others very greatly removed, says Saint Bernard, Sermon 3 on Lent.

Mystically, Theodoret: While He is near, he says, this is, while having obtained venia of sins from God, you approach to His friendship through grace. For thus God is near to the just, not to sinners: as if here the Prophet exhorts the just, that more deeply and constantly they seek and enter upon God, and the cult of God. But the following and preceding things indicate, that the Prophet speaks more to impious and infidel Gentiles: for he calls them to faith and Christ.

Sinners therefore and penitents are here aroused and invited, that they may seek God. Thus the spouse, having lost the spouse, seeking Him and panting after Him, says in the Canticles 3:2: I will rise, and will go about the city: in the streets and the broad ways I will seek him whom my soul loves, etc. Thus Magdalen sought Christ and found Him in the house of Simon, where washing the feet of Christ with tears, wiping them with her hair, kissing them with her mouth she merited to hear: Your sins are forgiven you.

Appositely Saint Bernard, Sermon 75 on the Canticles citing these words of Isaiah: Seek the Lord while He may be found. Attend, he says, there are three causes, which are accustomed to frustrate those seeking, when namely they either do not seek in time, or not as they ought, or not where they ought. For there will be without doubt when He will not be able to be found, when namely avenging Angels will bar the impious, lest they see the glory of God. In vain the foolish virgins will cry out: the door is closed, by no means now does He go out to them. Let them think that said to themselves, You shall seek me and shall not find me, John 7. Moreover now is the acceptable time, now are the days of salvation, time plainly both of seeking and of invoking. First, therefore you, and in the midst of hell expect salvation, which, now has been made in the midst of the earth. Secondly, seek in that mode, in which the spouse the spouse in the Canticles saying: I sought him whom my soul loves: she does not seek tepidly, or negligently, or perfunctorily; for with ardent heart and altogether indefatigably she seeks, plainly as befits. Thirdly, see lest you seek where it is not fitting: In my little bed, says the spouse, I sought him whom my soul loves: in the little bed, I say, either of His mortality, or of His sublimity. You ought to sap the things that are above, not below; but you must seek Christ above, where He sits at the right hand of the Father.

Is 55:7. LET THE WICKED FORSAKE HIS WAY. Here he gives the mode, by which the Lord is to be sought and found, that we may enter into friendship and covenant with Him: if namely leaving the prior way and life of vices, we study penance and virtues. Thus three thousand men did on the day of Pentecost, who to the concion of Saint Peter concerning Christ, whom a little before they had crucified, believing and repenting, were received by Him into grace and the Church. Thus the prodigal son left the distant region, and the husks of swine, and returning to the father: Father, he says, I have sinned against heaven and before you. Wherefore the father soon rushed into his embraces and kisses, and for the torn and worn vestment, he clothed him with a decorated and noble stole, adorned him with a ring and bound him to himself, and received him with a feast. Whence it is clear that forsake, does not signify bare dereliction of sin, or resipiscence (which alone heretics wish to be penance), but also sorrow and detestation, with the purpose of emendation and satisfaction.

FOR HE IS PLENTIFUL TO FORGIVE. Excellent Saint Fulgentius, Epistle 7 to Venantius chapter 11: In this much, he says, nothing is lacking, in which is omnipotent mercy, and mercy is omnipotent. So great however is both the benignity of omnipotence, and the omnipotence of benignity in God, that there is nothing which He will not or cannot relax to the converted; and chapter 3: If our physician is peritus, He is able to heal all infirmities. If our God is merciful, He is able to dimiss all sins. There is not perfect goodness, by which not all malice is conquered; nor is there perfect medicine, to which some incurable disease is found. But it is held written in the sacred books: But malice has not conquered wisdom; and Psalm 102: Bless, O my soul, the Lord, etc., who propitiates all your iniquities, who heals all your infirmities.

Is 55:8-9. FOR MY THOUGHTS ARE NOT YOUR THOUGHTS. These plainly and aptly cohere with the immediately preceding: For He is plentiful to forgive, as if to say: Do not despair of venia and friendship of God, do not be terrified by the multitude, enormity, iteration and assiduity of your crimes; for the mercy of God is greater than all these, which He offers and promises here to penitents. For God offended, is not as man, who breathes threats and vindicta against the offender; but He differs from him by the whole heaven, and breathes venia and grace, and therefore with our offense His clemency and indulgence contends. Thus Saint Cyril, Saint Thomas and Adamus.

Secondly, Sanchez refers these things to the superior things, Let the wicked forsake his way, and thinks God here to oppose the ways of men to His, as if to say: Your prior ways differ from mine by the whole heaven; wherefore, if you wish to return from them to me, great spaces are to be crossed by you, great mutation of morals is to be made, human cogitations are to be put down, and divine ones assumed: you ought to contend and transcend with mind and conversation from earth into heaven.

Thirdly, Forerius thinks these things can be referred to ulterior things, namely to the Covenant verse 3, as if to say: Do not wonder, that among men God appears man, that He may sanctify a new covenant, by which it may be well with us, and we may pass life in delights, and summa felicity (but you will obtain these things if you will have sought God in Christ, having returned from the prior life). For this will not avert the covenant and benevolence of God, but rather will conciliate and sharpen it, if you repent of it), because my cogitations are plainly dissimilar to yours, and so much more sublime, as much as heaven is more sublime than earth: wherefore I have devised this new and wonderful covenant, by this one way I have judged to succor the afflicted things of men, and to show my immense and to the world paradoxical clemency towards them. This therefore my divine counsel do not scrutinize, but admire it, and give thanks to it. Thus Forerius and Saint Jerome. The first sense is plainer; this is fuller and more sublime.

In like manner the Psalmist says, Psalm 102:11: According to the height of the heaven from the earth, He has strengthened His mercy towards those who fear Him, as if to say: That is the proportion of the mercy of God to men, which is of heaven to the earth: that is, of immense circles to one point and center, as if to say: In the immense He surpasses and ambits us and our merits, our cogitations, as also our miseries, He always confirms and strengthens with the highest mercy of God.

Is 55:10-11. AS THE RAIN AND THE SNOW COME DOWN FROM HEAVEN, etc., SO SHALL MY WORD BE. Saint Jerome, Cyril, Haymo and Forerius explain this word triplely, which however almost return into one and the same. For by word first, they understand Christ, who coming like rain and snow from heaven, made the earth of our heart frugiferous of good works; secondly, they understand the Gospel, by which Christ works these fruits; thirdly, and most plainly this promise of God, as if to say: This word of mine, by which I have promised such magnificent things concerning the new covenant, and concerning the Messiah and grace, and goods to be given through Him to the world, namely to those believing in Him and repenting, will be most firm and most efficacious; for it will effect, that men excited by the hope of venia, friendship of God, and salvation, may make fruits worthy of penance and virtues, by which they may be truly reconciled to God, federated, and become eternal friends of God, indeed heirs and sons. For thus this word of God irrigates and fecundates the soul, just as rain and snow the earth.

IT SHALL NOT RETURN THITHER VAIN, namely empty, as if to say: It will not be inane and sterile, but it will bring forth copious provision. For this is to the Hebrews to return and not to return; otherwise this particle not would not convene to the thing signified by similitude. For it is constant that Christ has returned into heaven, and transfers His elect, as it were the harvest of the Lord, to the same, as into the horreum of the Lord. For, He who descended, He is also who ascended above all heavens. Nor indeed would it convene to the parable itself; for rain when it has irrigated and fecundated the earth, resolved into vapor and exhalation, again ascends and returns into heaven. Beautifully Saint Bernard, Sermon 71 on the Canticles: The word of God, he says, does not return to me empty and fasting, but what it prospers in all things, it will be satisfied with the good fruits of those, who acquiesce in His dilection. Then indeed His speaking word is said to be impregnated, when it has been mancipated to affect; which namely so long is empty and barren, and as it were famelic, until it is completed by work. But hear what He says to be fed with food: My meat, he says, is to do the will of My Father.

Is 55:12. FOR YOU SHALL GO OUT WITH JOY, AND BE LED FORTH WITH PEACE. The particle for gives the cause why this word of pact, of promise and of divine benevolence, does not return vain, because namely It will effect, that infidels and impious, who entangled in the snares of the devil and of sin, were held captive, may be liberated from thence, and going out happy to Christ and the Church, thence peacefully may be led to celestial beatitude. See canon 17.

THE MOUNTAINS AND THE HILLS SHALL SING PRAISE BEFORE YOU. As if to say: So great will be the joy and gratulation of the Gentiles, coming from the cult of idols and of the demon to Christ and the Church, that the mountains and hills will seem to leap, to jubilate, and to applaud them. It is a hyperbolic prosopopoeia. Similar, indeed greater, is Baruch 5 the whole chapter. See what has been said there.

Add by mountains and hills, the inhabitants or speculators of mountains and hills can be understood. He alludes to the joy of those returning from Babylon, and to the speculators, whom the Jews placed on mountains and trees; as Sanchez rightly adverts. For these seeing a happy thing, e.g., the return of their own from captivity, gave applause, and by it excited all citizens and inhabitants to applause.

Is 55:13. INSTEAD OF THE SPICKENARD SHALL COME UP THE FIR TREE. Spickenard is an herb immediately springing from the earth; thence it is called saliunca from salio (to leap), concerning which Pliny Book 21:7: Saliunca, he says, is indeed leafy, but short, and which cannot be bound. It coheres to a numerous root, rather an herb than a flower, dense as if pressed by a hand, and briefly a turf of its own kind. Pannonia generates this and the sunny places of the Noric Alps. Pliny adds, that the same however is of most noble odor and of such sweetness, that the Romans in it, just as in a mine of brass, established a census and public vectigal. The same, chapter 20, hands down that its root decocted in wine stops vomits, and corroborates the stomach. The saliunca therefore is humble, vile and abject, but odoriferous. Whence Virgil Eclogue 5: How much the humble spickenard yields to the purple roses, by our judgment so much does Amyntas yield to you. See Ruellius Book 2 chapter 7. Whence the Septuagint for saliunca translate, stebam, that is most vile stubble, says Saint Jerome. Aquila and Theodotion translate, conyzam, which to Hesychius is cunilago, a coronary herb, by syncope kunē, concerning which Pliny, Book 21:9 and Dioscorides Book 4 chapter 136. It cohibits venereal motions, says the Scholiast of Theocritus idyll 7. myrtle on the opposite side helps salacity and fecundity; whence formerly it was sacred to Venus. From which Delrio, adage 796, elicits this sense, as if to say: Who formerly were sterile in virtues, now will be fecund in them. But the sense of our version is, as if to say: The Gentiles and souls of Pagans, who like arid, spiny and sterile earth, produced only thorns, spickenards and nettles, that is vain, vile, injurious and scelerate works; now irrigated and fecundated by the rain of the word of God, and the preaching of the Gospel, will produce fir trees, myrtles, etc., that is honest, just, frugiferous and holy works, this is, that I may say in a word, for vices will be born virtues, for pride humility, for gluttony sobriety, for libidine chastity, for rapines justice, for cruelty mercy, etc., says Procopius, and Saint Jerome. Whence the Chaldean translates: For the impious the just shall arise, and for sinners shall arise those fearing God, as for Saul Paul, for the sinner Magdalen the penitent, for the publican Matthew the Apostle, etc. Isaiah used a similar metaphor in chapter 61:19: I will give, he says, in the solitude a cedar, and for a thorn, a myrtle, etc. Thus Cyril, Theodot. and others.

Hear Saint Gregory, Book 18 Moralia 12: Instead of the spickenard rises the fir tree, while in the heart of the Saints, for the abjection of terrestrial cogitation, the altitude of superna contemplation arises. But the nettle is of altogether fiery nature; but the myrtle is reported to be of temperative virtue. Instead of the nettle therefore grows the myrtle, when the minds of the just from the prurience and ardor of vices, arrive at the temperie and tranquility of cogitations, while now they do not appetite terrestrial things, while they extinguish the flames of the flesh with celestial desires. The same, Book 33:4 through nettles understands the pruriences of cogitations, through thorns the punctures of vices. Vatablus translates: For a thorn, or spiny rubus, shall arise the fir tree; and thus explains: Who formerly were spiny, and wounded others, will cease to do injury to others. Whence also Forerius translates: For a shrubbery shall grow up a fraxinus, and for a bramble patch shall grow up a myrtle.

AND IT SHALL BE TO THE LORD FOR A NAME, FOR AN EVERLASTING SIGN. Hebrew And it shall be to the Lord for a name for a sign perpetual, as if to say: This wonderful conversion and sanctification of the Gentiles made through Christ, will be to Him for a name, and for a monument of glory and victory eternal. For for victory obtained signs or monuments are accustomed to be erected. For that all faithful subdued and converted by Him from Christ, are named Christians, and with heart and mouth, indeed and with their name they profess themselves to be subjects to Christ, and this they will profess in eternity: this will be an eternal monument of the glory of Christ. Just as indeed Emperors assumed the name and title of conquered nations, for a perpetual trophy of victory; for they were called Parthici, Asiatici, Adiabenici, Sarmatici, Illyrici, etc.: so likewise the perennial trophy of Christ is, that He is the dominator of all nations, so that all nations as if subjected to Christ, prefer the name of Christ, and are called by Him Christians. The name of Christ therefore itself is the sign, that is the trophy.

Saint Jerome however distinguishes somewhat between name and sign. It shall be, he says, to the Lord for a name and for an eternal sign, that from His name they may be called Christians, and may be branded with the cautery of His cross; and soon: Concerning which He Himself who is the sign: When you shall see, he says, the sign of the son of man, which shall not fail nor be changed by any end; but from the present conversation it will pass into the future. For the cross of Christ in the heavens, as an eternal trophy of Christ, will be established and will shine. Saint Jerome seems to signify that the bodies of the Blessed are to be signed with the stigma of the cross, which eternity will not delete; just as the stigmata of the cross, and of the five wounds, will remain in eternity in the body of Christ Himself, that they may be a perennial monument of that, and of our redemption; unless you say the cross, that is, the stigmata and glorious cicatrices of the passion of each will remain in the bodies of the Blessed. For thus in the bodies of the Martyrs the signs of wounds shining in heaven like trophies of victories are to remain, teach Saint Augustine, Book 22 On the City of God chapter 20, Saint Ambrose Sermon 57, Paludan in 4 Distinction 49 question 8 article 4, John Major and others there.

Thirdly, Sanchez adds this sign can be taken as a stone, or title inscribed with the name or insignia of the lord, which he himself fixed in the field, or in the inheritance, when he entered into possession of it, that it might be clear to all that it was his, and pertained to him: so therefore Christ everywhere in churches fixes the title of the cross, which signifies them to pertain to Christ crucified.

Fourthly, others to whom Adamus seems to favor, by sign understand the character of baptism; for this consigns us to Christ, and is indelible. But the first sense is most genuine.

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