Father Cornelius a Lapide's Commentary on Isaiah 54:1-17

Commentary on Isaiah Chapter 54 by Cornelius a Lapide

Summary of the Chapter He exhorts the Primitive Church, though small, to praise and jubilation, promising her, previously barren, numerous and glorious offspring, because God will have mercy on her, though deserted and repudiated, and will again join her to Himself in marriage. Hence, in verse 8, He initiates a new covenant with her, and confirms it with an oath, promising her solid riches, consolation, splendor, and glory, asserting that He will found her in sapphires and other gems, and that all her sons will be taught by the Lord and enjoy full peace. Thirdly, in verse 14, He says that He will found her in justice, and protect her from all calumny and fraud, as well as from violence and the enemy.

Is 54:1. PRAISE, O BARREN ONE, WHO DO NOT BEAR. Saint Thomas and Hugo [de Saint-Cher] understand this concerning earthly Jerusalem, that is, concerning the Jews captive in Babylon: to them is promised a return, abundance of things, and abundant offspring. The Jews after Christ promise themselves these same things from this passage in the advent of their Messiah. Secondly, the Chiliasts and Millenarians, whose parent was Papias, the disciple of Saint John, understand this concerning the thousand years of felicity, during which they think the Saints will reign with Christ here on earth after the day of judgment, and will enjoy all His delights, as Saint Jerome testifies. Thirdly, Forerius thinks this treats of the Heavenly Jerusalem, from the Apostle in Galatians 4:26, where he says that the Heavenly Jerusalem is our mother, whom Saint John in the Apocalypse 21:2 calls the new city coming down from heaven, in which all things are heavenly: the walls, houses, citizens, rites, laws, customs, just as the King Himself is heavenly, who descended from heaven, and founded the kingdom of heaven on earth, and made one kingdom out of heaven and earth. This is true anagogically, not literally, except insofar as the Church Militant is called the Heavenly Jerusalem by John in the Apocalypse 21 and others for the reason already given by Forerius.

Wherefore I say, literally Isaiah here addresses the Church of Christ, to be gathered both from the Jews, but rather from the Gentiles. For this was small at the beginning, and as it were barren with respect to the Synagogue. Again, Gentility before Christ was barren, and deserted by God, faith, grace, children, the faithful and saints; but through Christ, she was made fertile with all these things more than the Synagogue, which had long had a husband, namely God. Thus the Apostle explains this place in Galatians 4, verse 27. See what has been said there.

Note: The Prophet here explains that long-lived seed born from the mortified grain, that is, from Christ crucified, concerning which he treated in the preceding chapter, verse 10. Thus Saint Augustine, Book 1 On the Harmony of the Gospels, chapter 13.

Beautifully Saint Ambrose, Book On Virgins: "Holy Church," he says, "is immaculate in union, fertile in birth; she is a virgin in chastity, a mother in offspring. She nourishes you, a virgin, not with the milk of the body, but with the milk of the Apostles. She is a virgin in Sacraments and virtues; she is a mother to the peoples, whose fecundity Scripture testifies, saying: For many are the children of the desolate, more than of her who has a husband. Ours does not have a husband, she has a spouse. She has a spouse of sound doctrine; she is wedded to the eternal Spouse with the Word, without any bending of shame."

BREAK FORTH IN SONG, YOU WHO DID NOT BEAR. As if to say: Rejoice after the likeness of a neighing mare, when she neighs to her mate and to her offspring and foal, especially when some victory has been won. Thus Saint Jerome. It is a catachresis. For the neighing of the mare signifies the hilarity, profuse joy, jubilation, and triumph of the Church.

FOR MANY ARE THE CHILDREN OF THE DESOLATE. As if to say: The Church will give more sons to God than the Synagogue. He alludes to Sarah and Hagar; for Sarah was a type of the Church, Hagar of the Synagogue. Sarah is called desolate, because when she saw there was no hope of offspring from herself, she piously substituted her handmaid Hagar to her husband; whence she, abstaining from union with her husband, as is clear in Genesis 15:3, seemed to be deserted by him.

Is 54:2-3. ENLARGE THE PLACE OF YOUR TENT. Saint Jerome notes in the word tent and tabernacle, an allusion to the Tabernacle of Moses made in Sinai. For this, as a movable temple of God, was a type of the Church and the temples of Christ. Secondly, the faithful dwelling in the earthly Church do not have here a firm house, but dwell in it as guests and travelers, as in a tabernacle; and they stretch toward the eternal house prepared in the heavens. Therefore the whole Church here dwells in tabernacles, as a stranger, and passing into heaven, as to her home and seat.

SPARE NOT, LENGTHEN YOUR CORDS AND STRENGTHEN YOUR STAKES. Do not spare labor or expense, but with all study and expense make your cords long, that you may receive in your tabernacle such numerous offspring as will come to you. As if to say: So many faithful sons will grow up for you, that you ought to enlarge and amplify the place and temples to gather them, and build more. STRENGTHEN YOUR STAKES. Because you are to endure until the end of the world, indeed forever. For these imperatives, make, strengthen, signify the future, namely that God will enlarge the Church through all nations and provinces, and solidify her forever, whereas He confined the Synagogue to Judea alone, and after a short time took her away and abolished her. For this is what Jeremiah says concerning her in Lamentations 2:6: "He has destroyed His booth like a garden, He has demolished His tabernacle."

Verse 3 3. FOR YOU SHALL SPREAD ABROAD TO THE RIGHT HAND AND TO THE LEFT. (To the East and to the West, that is, everywhere through all regions of the world). YOU SHALL BURST FORTH. Hebrew תפרצי tiphrotsi, that is, you shall burst in, break through, by force, zeal, and the multitude of your children, like soldiers who burst into any regions of the enemy, even the most fortified, or like seed, or a tree and root, e.g., a palm, which powerfully diffuses and roots itself everywhere, and therefore grows and spreads upward just as much, and stands firm and immovable.

AND YOUR SEED SHALL INHERIT THE GENTILES. Your sons, namely the Apostles and Apostolic men, and other faithful. He shall subdue and possess the Gentiles, firmly and securely like an inheritance. He alludes to that which God promised to Abraham in Genesis chapter 22, verse 17: "Your seed shall possess the gate of his enemies." For this carnal seed of Abraham was a type of this spiritual seed, Christ and the Church.

AND YOU SHALL INHABIT THE DESOLATE CITIES. Desolate by God, faith, law, grace, and salvation, such as all outside Judea were formerly, and now are in India, Japan, Mexico, etc., which we hear and rejoice are daily more and more illuminated by the faith of Christ, and increased with the faithful. YOU SHALL INHABIT. Both because Apostolic men will fix there houses, temples, and altars; and because the inhabitants will be converted by them, and become Christians, and the seed, that is sons, of the Church. As if to say: By the preaching of your sons, O Church, you shall have sons, that is faithful Gentiles, in deserted cities, that is, in infidel ones. Thus Vatablus.

Verse 4 4. BECAUSE YOU SHALL FORGET THE CONFUSION OF YOUR YOUTH, AND THE REPROACH OF YOUR WIDOWHOOD YOU SHALL REMEMBER NO MORE. The Church consists of Jews and Gentiles. The youth of the Jews was in the time of Moses, under whom the Synagogue began and grew. The confusion was the adoration of the golden calf, and their other crimes both in Egypt and in the desert. The widowhood was in the Babylonian captivity, concerning which it is said in Lamentations 1:1: "She who was mistress of the Gentiles has become like a widow."

But the youth of the Gentiles was the second age of the world, namely, that which was shortly after Noah, indeed under Noah (whence he mentions it in verse 9), in the time of Abraham (for Noah saw Abraham), and thereafter. For in Noah God made a covenant with all the Gentiles in Genesis 9:9. But shortly after the Gentiles flowed away from God to idols, and from all of them God chose for Himself one Abraham with his family as a people. For Noah died when Abraham was fifty years old, and when the world was full of idolatry and impiety. Whence God called Abraham from it to His worship, when he was 75 years old. Wherefore for youth the Hebrew is עלמים alamim, that is of hidden ones, because עלמה alma, is an unmarried adolescent girl and virgin, hidden at home from her husband. So also infidel Gentility, as if unmarried, hid herself from God, and sought hiding places in which to cover and conceal her superstitions, filth, and crimes.

Therefore the whole time of Gentility before Christ is called youth, or virginity and hiding, because she, with respect to God the Spouse of the Church, was like a wandering and unmarried girl (for thus we call adolescents those who are not conjugated, even if they are advanced in years), and because she hid and concealed herself in the darkness of infidelity and shameful crimes. Secondly, the same time is called the reproach of widowhood, both because in it, on account of crimes, the people of the Gentiles was deserted by God and left like a widow; whence in verse 6 He calls her a wife cast off, that is repudiated; as well as because she was sterile of spiritual children, that is, of the faithful. For barrenness among the Jews and Gentiles was a reproach to women. The reproach of widowhood, therefore, is the reproach of sterility.

Therefore the Prophet signifies that Christ so called Gentility, thus deserted, and cast off and repudiated by God from youth, to Himself, and joined her to Himself as a spouse, and made her fertile with a generous offspring. So that she, now happy, joyful and glorious, should utterly forget her prior sterility and reproach. Thus Forerius, Sanchez, and others.

Verse 5 5. FOR HE WHO MADE YOU WILL RULE OVER YOU, THE LORD OF HOSTS IS HIS NAME. He shall rule over you, that is, He shall marry you, He shall join you to Himself as a wife to a husband, He Himself who is the Lord of Hosts and Lord of the whole earth, whom therefore He will subject to you just as to Himself; you, indeed, who were unmarried, a widow and deserted. For here there is treatise of the marriage of God and Christ with the Church, and the Hebrew בעל baal signifies this, namely both husband and lord; for a husband is as it were the lord of his wife. Whence Vatablus and Forerius translate: Because your husband will be He who made you, Jehovah Sabaoth is His name. Thus Sarah calls Abraham her husband "lord," Genesis 18:12. So Saint Natalia, wife of Saint Adrian the Martyr, called him "lord," as is clear from his Life. For it is the law of nature, which God sanctions for women, Genesis 3:16: "You shall be under your husband's power, and he shall rule over you." Whence Saint Augustine asserts and is cited in the chapter Caput, at the end, 33 q. 5: "That women serve their husbands by the common law of nature." And the Apostle in 1 Corinthians 11:3: "The head of every man is Christ: but the head of the woman is the man: and the head of Christ is God." And Aristotle, Book 2 Oeconomics, chapter 1: "A truly composed woman," he says, "ought to consider the morals of her husband to be the law of her life imposed by God." And Pittacus, one of the seven sages of Greece: γυναικὸς ἄρχε, that is, "Rule over your wife." Moreover, that the husband with his relatives, among the ancient Romans, was the judge of the wife, when she was accused of reputation or life, that law of Romulus teaches in Suetonius in Tiberius, chapter 15: "A woman convicted of adultery, let the husband and relatives kill her as they wish." Wherefore Saint Ignatius to the Antiochians: "Let women," he says, "honor their husbands, and not dare to call them by their proper name; but by the common name, saying, 'my lord,' as Bethsabee calls David her husband 'lord,' and herself his handmaid, 3 Kings 1:17."

Verse 6 6. BECAUSE AS A WOMAN FORSAKEN AND MOURNING IN SPIRIT. The particle because gives the reason why in the preceding verse he said: Your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, that is, of Israel. As if to say: God will redeem you, because you were as a woman deserted and repudiated, and therefore mourning, and afflicted and miserable; from this reproach and misery God will redeem and liberate you, by assuming you into marriage and partnership of the bed; because He is as merciful, as you are miserable, indeed He is mercy itself. This is what Saint Leo says, Sermon 1 on the Nativity: "God the omnipotent Father and Lord, whose nature is goodness, whose will is power, whose work is mercy... lest the malignity of the devil should prevail over us... He predestined Christ to come in the future, who from a Virgin... should repair the loss of the human propagation by an incorrupt nativity, etc."

AND AS A WIFE CAST OFF FROM HER YOUTH. That is, repudiated: whence He called her a little before an unmarried adolescent and widow, because she was repudiated as if unmarried and a widow; for although she had a husband, nevertheless she was immediately rejected by Him, she ceased to have Him, which is the same as if she never had Him. Whence she is called a virgin, equally as a widow. A virgin, because scarcely joined to her husband; a widow, because soon she was repudiated by Him. This is what Paul says in Ephesians 2:12: "That at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the conversation of Israel, and strangers to the testament, having no hope of the promise, and without God in this world."

Verse 7 7. FOR A SMALL MOMENT I HAVE FORSAKEN YOU, AND IN GREAT MERCIES I WILL GATHER YOU. Note, a moment is called the time of two thousand years, which was from Abraham up to Christ, during which Gentility was deserted and repudiated by God, because with respect to the eternity, by which thereafter she was joined to God, and made His eternal wife, the prior time is like a moment, says Saint Jerome. In vain do the Jews object to Christ for a moment. For similarly when they refer these things to their Messiah, whom they have now fruitlessly expected for 1600 years, to us objecting for a moment, they respond that 1600 years are a moment, with respect to eternity. And so here they put out the eyes of the crows [i.e., outwit the cunning].

Tropologically, Saint Ambrose: As if to say: For a moment in this life I have left you to temptations, that I might adorn you with an eternal crown. Whence Saint Peter seems to have alluded to this in his first epistle, chapter 1, verse 6, when he says: "Wherein you shall rejoice, if now you must be sorrowful for a little while in various temptations." And Saint Paul, 2 Corinthians 4:17: "For that which is at present momentary and light of our tribulation, works for us above measure exceedingly an eternal weight of glory." For these are the mercies of the Lord, as Isaiah says here, so great and so large, that they overwhelm all past time of calamities, so that it seems to have been like a moment and an instant. Whence soon explaining and inculcating the same in other words, he subjoins:

8. IN A MOMENT OF INDIGNATION I HAVE HID MY FACE FROM YOU FOR A LITTLE WHILE, AND IN ETERNAL MERCY I HAVE HAD MERCY ON YOU. Note. The hiding, or aversion of the face of God, in Scripture signifies and in reality brings about every evil, just as the illumination or showing of His face [brings] every good. For just as with the sun absent, or hiding itself through clouds, all things are occupied by darkness (for the sun is the eye of the world, through which the whole earth sees all things); but with it returning and showing itself, all things appear lucid, joyful and vivified: so much more does the matter stand in God, who is the uncreated and immense sun of the world. The eclipse of this sun is brought about by clouds, that is our sins, which make a great chaos and cloud between us and God. For He Himself is light from Himself, emitting perpetual rays, by which He illuminates every man coming into this world; we therefore cover and bar Him from ourselves by the cloud of sins, which that He might dispel, Christ descended to us: therefore made man He dispelled it, and made us dwell in the light. Wherefore let us walk honestly as in the day, says Forerius.

For mercy, the Hebrew is חסד chesed, that is piety, namely that tender, benign and beneficent affection, by which parents naturally love their offspring, as their own vitals. Saint Paul alluded to this in Titus 3:4: "But when the goodness and kindness of God our Savior appeared... not by the works of justice which we did, but according to His mercy He saved us." He calls this mercy eternal, because God will not change or revoke this affection, to repudiate the Church, or substitute another for her, as He did with the Synagogue: but He will have the Church as a spouse forever, He will love and protect her. Whence it follows,

Verse 9 9. AS IN THE DAYS OF NOAH THIS IS TO ME. As if to say: This my oath and pact, which through Christ I sanction with the Gentiles and with the Church, will be firm and eternal, just as the pact made with Noah about inhibiting the flood thereafter, was firm and eternal. Our [Vulgate] reads בימי bime, that is in the days; now they read כי מי kirne, that is because the waters. Whence they translate: The waters of Noah this is to me, as if to say: I seem to myself to be in the days of the waters of Noah, or my anger will be like the flood, which happened in the time of Noah, says Vatablus. For just as the anger of God overwhelmed the sins of the world under Noah with a flood, so also He lost and condemned all Gentiles through Christ. Again, just as God swore to Noah that He would no longer destroy men with a flood: so He swore to Christ, that He would no longer lose the Church gathered from the Gentiles.

He mentions Noah and the flood, first, because in Noah began the renewal both of the human race, and of the Church, which God then betrothed to Himself: but soon with it apostatizing to idols and vices, He repudiated it up to Christ, when He reconciled the repudiated to Himself, and bound it with a new marriage. What therefore God began to do for the Church in the time of Noah, this He restored and perfected in the time of Christ.

Secondly, because Noah the repairer of the human race, was a type of Christ the Redeemer; the water of the flood, of Baptism; the ark, of the Church; the rainbow, of the Cross of Christ. For this placates God angry. Thus Saint Justin against Trypho. Indeed Saint Peter, first epistle, chapter 3, verses 20 and 21. See what has been said in Genesis 9:13.

THAT I MAY NOT BE ANGRY WITH YOU, AND MAY NOT REBUKE YOU. That namely being angry I may not destroy you, as I destroyed the world with a flood, and the Jews with extermination. By anger and rebuke therefore He understands extermination, or repudiation: otherwise indeed God is angry with the Church, when He punishes her, not that He may destroy, but that He may purify. As if to say: I will make it so that, just as the waters of Noah no longer covered, nor shall cover the earth, so neither shall the inundation of crimes (for the flood signified this) overwhelm her, nor shall the world relapse again to idols and pristine vices; but Christ shall dry up and remove them: whereby it will come to pass, that I will no longer be angry with you, O Church, nor rebuke you, namely by destroying you with a flood or extermination: you shall indeed be tossed, like the ark of Noah, by the waters, that is by persecutions, but you shall not be overwhelmed by them.

Verse 10 10. FOR THE MOUNTAINS SHALL BE MOVED. As if to say: Sooner shall the mountains be transferred from their place, than I shall cease to have mercy on you: or, let the mountains be moved, yet I shall not be moved, I shall not change the sentence, the mercy, which I promised you both here, and in Jeremiah 31:31, I will not revoke. Thus Saint Jerome.

Verse 11 11. O POOR LITTLE ONE, TOSSED BY A TEMPEST. Hebrew סערה soara, horribly agitated, tossed and prostrated. For it is Hophal, which signifies a valid and efficacious passion, corresponding to the efficacious action and tossing of Hiphil. Such was the Church before Christ deserted by God; but through Christ from poor little one she was made rich and splendid, from tossed solid, from destitute of consolation, abounding in it. For this is what he subjoins:

BEHOLD I WILL LAY YOUR STONES IN ORDER. The Chaldean, Vatablus, Forerius and others translate, I will lay your stones in stibium, that is like stibium, namely like a woman adorned, who paints her eyes with stibium, I will sculpt your stones, and with them I will adorn you, says Saint Jerome. For the Hebrew פוך puch, is the same as the Latin fucus, namely stibium. For stibium is a fossil substance blackish like marble, testifies Dioscorides book 5, chapter 59. As if to say: I will pave your floor with colored and shining marble, like stibium, or, as Forerius wishes, with stibium itself.

Secondly, better the Septuagint translate puch, carbuncle; for this is of the color of stibium, so that puch is the same as nophech akin to it. Whence they themselves translate: I will prepare for you a carbuncle your stone. Whence also the Rabbis translate: I will make your stones rest in carbuncle, that is, I will substern the stones of your building carbuncles and sapphires. As if to say: Your foundation will be splendid and precious from carbuncles and sapphires. For we can refer both these stones, and both verbs, namely I will lay and I will found, to the foundations. Now Forerius understands foundations as pavements: for that is also called a foundation, which is on the surface of the earth; and then according to the Septuagint who translate, I will prepare, or I will lay, carbuncle your stones, the sense will be, as if to say: The stones, with which I will pave your floor, will be carbuncles. For kings and princes are accustomed to pave the floors of bedrooms or houses with precious stone, such as marble, and even Plinius book 37 narrates that the bedrooms of Nero were paved with pearls: but these were the excessive and insolent luxuries of Nero. Whence also Martial subsanning similar, says: "And the onyx shines under your trampled foot." In like manner we see the pavements of temples at Rome, such as Saint Peter's, Saint Paul's, Saint Cecilia's, and very many others, paved with precious and shining marble, alabaster, Parian, etc. Therefore the Prophet signifies, that the Church will claim for herself these ornaments of kings, namely sapphires, jaspers, etc.; but so, that those things which they carry as precious in rings and fingers, she herself will substern to herself as vile and small and tread under foot. This sense agrees with the Latin, I will lay.

But more plainly from the Hebrew מרבצים marbits, that is, I will make to rest or lie, you should take foundation properly: for in it the other stones lie and rest. Therefore take foundation, which stands above the earth, in which are placed some orders of cut and polished stones for elegance. Note: Here and elsewhere is described the fabric of the Church, as of a palace, or a most beautiful and most precious basilica, so that its foundations are of carbuncles and sapphires; its bulwarks, of jasper; its gates, of sculpted stone, and the rest proportionally are of beautiful and precious stones. Which all symbolically signify, that the charisms of the Holy Spirit, virtues and sacraments, which Christ will communicate to her, and with which He will institute and build her, will be most beautiful, most precious and most solid.

Again it signifies the Apostles, and Apostolic Men, and illustrious Saints, who either founded, or defended, or propagated, raised up and adorned the Church. For they were carbuncles through charity; sapphires, on account of heavenly life; jaspers, on account of the fortitude of faith, etc. For these are the gems of the Church, spiritual namely rather than temporal, by which she exceeds the works of all kings. Whence alluding to this Paul in Ephesians 2, verse 19, says: "Now therefore you are no more strangers and foreigners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and domestics of God; built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner stone." For to the Apostles as carbuncles, sapphires, etc., other faithful and just, as stones, although less precious, yet precious, are built in. And Christ: "You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church." Whence also Zacharias chapter 9, verse 16, according to the Septuagint says: Holy stones are rolled upon the earth. Nay more Saint John in the Apocalypse 21:19, asserts the foundations of the holy city, that is of the Church, to be twelve precious stones, and he affirms they denote the twelve Apostles. Thus Cyril, Procopius and Saint Jerome.

Hear Saint Jerome: "The carbuncle which is prepared, or is laid in order, seems to me to be the fiery word of doctrine: which having dispelled the error of darkness, illuminates the hearts of believers. This is that which one of the Seraphim took taken with forceps, to purify the lips of Isaiah, etc. Moreover the sapphire, which is placed in the foundations, has the likeness of heaven and the upper air: which is such, that one is able to say the Aristophanic thing with Socrates: ἀναβαίνω εἰς ἀέρα..., that is 'I ascend into the air, and look down upon the sun.' Or with the Apostle Paul: 'But our conversation is in heaven.' The Scripture of Ezekiel also commemorates, that the place in which the throne of God is, has the likeness of sapphires, and the glory of the Lord consists in this color, which bears the image of the supercelestial. But the bulwarks of the Lord's city, that is the defenses of the walls, are strengthened with jasper: who are able to destroy and convince every height exalting itself against the knowledge of God, and subject falsehood to truth. He therefore who is strongest in disputing, and strengthened by the testimonies of the Holy Scriptures, this one is the bulwark of the Church."

Thus the sapphire is he, who is versed in mind in the heavens, and who shines with golden points, that is, with the rays of charity, and who cannot be sculpted, that is, is unbroken and invincible. See those things which I said concerning the sapphire in Exodus 24:10 and Exodus 28:18.

Finally Saint Cyril understands by the carbuncle Christ, because, he says, he who has believed in Christ, will not be ashamed: which he thus proves and explains. The faithful blush very much with the blood of Christ, however much they are attacked with opprobriums and injuries, they cannot be further suffused with blushes, so as to show confusion: because now through the imitation of Christ they have put on all the blush of confusion: just as he who is most rubicund by nature, cannot be further suffused with blush. This is pious, but mystical.