Author: Hervé of Bourg-Dieu
(Herveus Burgidolensis, fl. early 12th century) was a Benedictine monk
and biblical commentator known for his concise, Christological exegesis.
This commentary on Isaiah 50 exemplifies his method: literal-historical
reading focused on Christ's passion, with moral application for the
Church. The following was translated by Qwen
Is 50:1: Thus says the Lord: "What 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."
Sometimes a man would sell his own sons to his creditor.
Is 50:2: "Because I came and there was no man; I called, and there was none who would listen."
Indeed, a husband would give a bill of divorce to a hateful wife when he dismissed her. But the Lord Jesus does not acknowledge having given a bill of divorce to the mother of the Jews—that is, the synagogue—as to a hateful spouse, since she rather abandoned Him than He her. Nor did He sell them to a creditor, because He had never borrowed another's debt—that is, He had committed no sin—so that, compelled by necessity, He would hand them over to a greedy creditor, that is, to the devil. For He received nothing from this creditor. For "the prince of this world comes," He says, "and in me he has nothing" (John 14:30).
Therefore, the Lord did not sell the Jews, but rather they sold themselves in their iniquities to the devil, taking his money. For murder is the devil's currency; for "he was a murderer from the beginning" (John 8:44). You committed murder: you received the devil's coin. Adultery is the devil's currency; for the devil's image and inscription is in it. You committed adultery: you accepted the devil's coin. Theft, false witness, rapacity, violence, envy, pride—all these are the devil's tribute, the devil's treasure. For such currency proceeds from his mint. With this currency he buys those whom he buys, and makes servants for himself all who accept any amount whatsoever of such tribute.
Therefore, the Jews were not sold by the Lord, but by themselves in their iniquities, since each person willingly sells himself to the devil when he sins voluntarily. Hence it is said of Ahab that "he was sold to do evil" (1 Kings 21:25). Those, therefore, who killed the Author of life, who brought false witness against Him who is the Truth, who through envy delivered Him up—these are rightly declared to have been sold in their iniquities. Their mother was dismissed in their crimes, because they committed such great evils against the Lord and His disciples that the entire synagogue, consenting to itself, went together to destruction: when the chief priests and elders persuaded the people to ask for Barabbas, but to destroy Jesus; when that entire people said, "His blood be upon us and upon our children" (Matthew 27:25).
For the Savior came to them, born of a Virgin, and there was no man among them—that is, no one acting manfully—but "they have all turned aside, together they have become worthless" (Psalm 13:3). He called them to the grace of renewal by His preaching, and there was none among them who wished to hear Him. There was no man or human among them. For all, abandoning the image of the true God, assumed the image of beasts and serpents.
The Lord did not give their mother a bill of divorce, nor did He sell them to a creditor; but their crimes and sins sold them to demons, entangled as they were in the pleasures of this present age, so that he might abandon his parent and she her spouse—whom, as an adulteress, he himself could no longer hold, but permitted her to depart willingly. Therefore they were dismissed by Him so that they might be oppressed by countless calamities with no one to help them.
To them He adds, saying: "Has My hand become shortened and small that I cannot redeem? Or is there no power in Me to deliver?" For the great hand—that is, the power—by which He once used to rescue their fathers from all tribulations, has not become shortened so that He could not similarly redeem these from the captivity in which they are held, dispersed throughout the whole world, if they deserved to be redeemed. Nor does power fail Him to liberate them from this most prolonged servitude, if they were worthy of liberation, as their fathers were.
Indeed, to demonstrate that His power has not diminished, He adds: "Behold, at My rebuke I will make the sea a desert; I will turn the rivers to dryness; their fish shall rot without water and die of thirst."
Is 50:3: "I will clothe the heavens with darkness, and make sackcloth their covering."
He who once rebuked the Red Sea and dried it up, now at His rebuke will make a desert of the sea of this age—that is, the turbulent and bitter idolatry or worldly wickedness. And He who dried up the waters of the Jordan so that the people of Israel might cross, will now dry up the rivers of secular doctrines, so that without obstacle the people of the elect may pass along the way of righteousness to the kingdoms of heaven.
But when such rivers are dried up, their fish will rot—that is, either the demons who swam in them, or unfaithful men who, generated from them in wickedness, always lived blind in evil, abandoned in the depth of errors with harmful liberty to their own wills. The fish will rot without water—that is, without worldly wisdom—because when all the categories of errors are condemned, the stench of their impiety will appear. And they will die of thirst: for when, the truth having been known, they fall silent, the life of their perversity—which subsisted from the waters of such doctrines—will fail for those teachings of falsehood.
The heavens also—that is, the teachers of the synagogue, who seemed to understand heavenly things—will be clothed, that is, covered, with the darkness of ignorance, so that the light of truth or understanding may not appear in them. And sackcloth, which is the garment of those who mourn or repent, will become their covering, so that under the apostles or under Elijah they may do penance. Or, if in sackcloth is signified the roughness and pricking of sins, the teachers of the Jews are covered with sackcloth because they are surrounded by sinful conduct, so that nothing appears in them except sin.
Is 50:4: Then the Savior turns His speech to that time when He lived among them, adding: "The Lord God has given me a learned tongue, that I may know how to sustain with a word him who is fallen." (The Vulgate reads "weary" or "exhausted.")
For according to the dispensation of the assumed body, He was instructed and received the tongue of discipline, that He might know when to speak and when to be silent. For the Father gave Him a learned tongue for preaching, so that He might sustain with a word him who had fallen into sin, that he might rise all the more to good. He had a learned tongue, since both His enemies and His friends confessed that "never has man spoken like this man speaks" (John 7:46).
With His word He sustained him who had fallen, when He said to the paralytic: "Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven you" (Matthew 9:2). And to another: "Behold, you have been made well; sin no more, lest something worse happen to you" (John 5:14). And to the woman: "Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more" (John 8:11). And to all together: "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Matthew 4:17). Thus with His word the Lord sustained those who had fallen.
What follows: "He awakens me morning by morning; He awakens my ear to hear as those who are taught." What is expressed by "morning" except the supreme advent of divine contemplation, when the mind is wholly suffused with divine light? Therefore, in the morning the Lord awakened the ear of the Son of Man to hear Him as a teacher, because, suffusing his mind with the light of His contemplation, He lifted it to the highest things and in that accessible light taught Him whatever He was about to teach men.
Whence also He says: "For I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me has Himself given me a commandment about what to say and what to speak. And I know that His commandment is eternal life. What I say, therefore, I say as the Father has told me" (John 12:49-50). And when He was completing His preaching, He said to His disciples: "All that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you" (John 15:15).
Is 50:5: What follows: "The Lord God has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious; I turned not backward."
The Lord God opened the ear of His heart that he might understand His words and hear His commandments. But He Himself did not contradict what He heard, but was obedient in all things. Nor did He turn backward from what He had been commanded, but persevered in them to the end, "becoming obedient unto death" (Philippians 2:8).
But on the contrary, we, after the Lord has opened [the ear] within us, contradict Him because we are unwilling to do the good things which we understand; and if we have begun something good, it often happens that we turn backward from it. But whoever says he abides in Christ ought to walk just as He walked (1 John 2:6), so that he may not contradict the commandments of God which he has heard, but may obey in all things; so that he may not go backward from that same obedience, but may persevere in the good things which he has begun unto the end.
But our Redeemer received this command especially from His Father: that He should lay down His soul—in which He preserved obedience—as He immediately begins to recount, saying...
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."
For these things were done when the Jews condemned Him as guilty of death and began to spit upon Him, to veil His face, to strike Him with blows, and to say, "Prophesy!" (Luke 22:64); and when His ministers struck Him with palms; and when Pilate delivered Him, having been scourged, to be crucified; and when the soldiers led Him into the court of the praetorium, and calling together the whole cohort, clothed Him with purple, and placing upon Him a crown of thorns which they had plaited, began to salute Him: "Hail, King of the Jews!" (Matthew 27:29); and they struck His head with a reed and spat upon Him.
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."
Is 50:8: "He who justifies me is near. Who will contradict me? Let us stand together, who is my adversary? Let him come to me."
In the contest of this passion, the Lord is my helper. For "I am not alone, but the Father is with Me" (John 16:32). And therefore I am not confounded amid so many contumelies, mockeries, and reproaches; but, with the joy set before Me, I endure the cross, despising the shame (Hebrews 12:2).
"Therefore I have set my face as a hardest rock" amid all illusions and injuries, so that I may in no wise blush. "And I know that on account of all things which I suffer I shall not be confounded," but rather I shall glory; because He who now, with the Jews insulting, I am unwilling to descend from the cross, afterwards, with the soldiers terrified, I shall rise from the sepulcher.
"He who justifies Me is near," because He who sent Me is with Me, and "has not left Me alone, because I do always the things that please Him" (John 8:29).
"Who will contradict Me?" "If anyone," He says, "contradicts Me, let him come, and let us stand together before the tribunal of Pilate, that he may accuse Me as much as he can. And if anyone is My adversary, let him approach Me, so that he may fulfill his will upon Me in My punishments."
And note in these words how much the Savior desired to suffer for us.
Is 50:9: "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."
"THE LORD GOD IS MY HELPER," because "you shall see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the power of God and coming in the clouds of heaven" (Matthew 26:64). Who therefore will dare to condemn Me?
For when the Lord had said this, immediately the chief priest tore his garments, saying: "You have heard the blasphemy; what think you?" And they answered: "He is guilty of death" (Mark 14:64).
But that their atrocity might not be feared, their weakness is demonstrated when it is added: "Behold, they shall all be worn out as a garment, the moth shall eat them."
As if it were said: Sooner, having grown old, they shall die and be eaten by worms. Or certainly, like a garment, their souls shall be worn out in eternal torments. Or, because none of them can be justified with the Lord present, all shall grow old like a garment. Moreover, that which grows old is near to perdition (Hebrews 8:13).
"And like a moth shall eat them"—namely, the conscience of sins and the zeal of the nations being saved.
Again the Lord cries out to them:
Is 50:10: "Who is among you that fears God, 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."
"WHO IS AMONG YOU THAT FEARS GOD, THAT HEARS THE VOICE OF HIS SERVANT?" As if to say: "If there is anyone among you who fears God, let him hear My voice. For neither have I come of Myself, but He sent Me" (John 7:28). "Why do you not know My speech?" (John 8:43). "If I tell you the truth, why do you not believe Me? He that is of God hears the words of God; therefore you hear them not, because you are not of God" (John 8:45-46).
"HE THAT WALKED IN DARKNESS AND HAS NO LIGHT, LET HIM HOPE IN THE NAME OF THE LORD AND LEAN UPON HIS GOD."
"Who," He says, "has hitherto led his conversation in the darkness of ignorance and is not yet illuminated by the light of truth—let him hope in the name of the Lord, because henceforth 'whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved' (Romans 10:13), whether Jew or Gentile.
"And let him lean upon his God"—that is, let him not seek to be justified in the works of the Law, but let him believe in Him who justifies the ungodly, that his faith may be reputed to him unto justice, according to the purpose of the grace of God.
For "if Abraham," says the Apostle, "was justified by works, he has glory, but not before God" (Romans 4:2). He therefore who strives to be justified not by faith but by his works, leans not upon God but upon himself. But he leans upon his God who believes in Christ Jesus that he may be justified by the faith of Christ and not by the works of the Law.
Is 50:11: "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."
Again the Lord says to His persecutors:
"BEHOLD ALL YOU WHO KINDLE A FIRE, WHO ENCOMPASS YOURSELVES WITH SPARKS."
And He adds: "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."
For they kindled for Him the fire of passion, and they were girded with flames—that is, armed with fury against Him. But from this fire a light shone forth, because from the passion and resurrection of the Savior the whole world was illuminated.
Therefore, that which He says: "Behold, all you who kindle a fire, girded with flames"—and mercifully admonishing, He subjoins: "Walk in the light of your fire"—that is, place the step of your action in the light of faith, which from My passion (of which you were the authors) responds to you through the glory of the resurrection.
"And in the flames which you have kindled, walk"—that is, the ardors of tribulations which you stirred up for Me, enemies, now for My name willingly tolerate, friends; just as Saul, the evils which he inflicted upon the saints, afterwards he himself endured.
"From My hand this has happened to you," because it has been granted to you not only to believe in Me but also to suffer for Me (cf. Philippians 1:29).
"You shall lie down in sorrows"—that is, you shall delight in the passions for My name and shall esteem them as rest.
But if this discourse is directed to those who have persevered in infidelity, by the sentence of just retribution it is said to them:
"Walk in the light of your fire and in the flames which you have kindled."
As if to say: "Suffer the fire of passion which you have kindled for Me, and pass through the flames which you have kindled for Me, so that whatever I or My disciples have suffered from you, you may suffer from the Romans."
"From My hand this has happened to you," that you might suffer all these evils, because I have caused the Romans to come against you and have conceded victory to them over you.
But, led into captivity, "you shall lie down in sorrows," because until the advent of Elijah you shall lie in the miseries of this captivity and shall be weighed down with sleep. Or, after all this tribulation, you shall lie down in sorrows, because when the body shall have been put to sleep, your soul shall sustain the pains of infernal torments.
Or, all have kindled a fire for themselves and have strengthened the flames, because they had in themselves wood, hay, stubble, thorns, briers, and tares (cf. 1 Corinthians 3:12). And because they are girded with flames and surrounded and have strengthened the conflagration for themselves, they are provoked to salvation and it is said to them:
"Walk in the light of your fire and in the flames which you have kindled," so that in punishments and torments they may learn the power of God and return to salvation.
Moreover, as has been said, this signifies their captivity.
Having spoken these things concerning the destruction of the perfidy of the Jews, consequently He speaks concerning the building up of the Church, speaking to those who from the same people have received the faith, saying...This concludes Hervé's commentary on Isaiah 50:1-11. The final sentence indicates a transition to discussing "the building up of the Church" for those Jews who believed—likely introducing Isaiah 51 or the following Servant passages.
CONTINUE.
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