Introductory Notes on the Translation:
Author: Hector Pinto (aka Hector Pintus,
late 16th century) was a Catholic biblical commentator. His style is
characteristic of the Counter-Reformation era: heavily Christological,
moralizing, and reliant on Patristic authority (Cyril, Jerome) while
engaging with Hebrew texts (Pagninus, Rabbis).
Textual Corrections: The provided Latin text contains significant OCR errors which have been corrected in the translation:
Theological Context:
Moral Exhortation:
Pinto uses the text to launch into extended moralizing about serving
God vs. serving the world (Verse 1), reflecting the spiritual concerns
of his era.
Christological Suffering:
He emphasizes the physical details of Christ's passion (beard plucking)
not explicitly found in the Gospels but inferred from prophecy, arguing
for the completeness of Christ's humiliation.
Human Dignity:
He explores the concept of "vir" (man) in Verse 2, arguing that sinners
degrade themselves to the level of beasts (vipers, foxes, swine).
Hebrew Scholarship:
Pinto demonstrates knowledge of Hebrew philology, comparing the
Vulgate, Septuagint, and Pagninus, and citing Rabbinic interpretation
regarding the timing of preaching ("in time to the weary").
Style:
Pinto's commentary is rhetorical and passionate, using exclamations ("O
intolerable madness!", "O matter worthy of great groaning!") to move
the reader emotionally. The translation preserves this homiletic tone.
Structure:
The commentary follows the verses sequentially, with a distinct section
at the end for philological notes on the Hebrew text, a common feature
in scholarly commentaries of this period. The translation was done by Qwen.
Father Hector Pinto's Commentary on Isaiah 50:1-11
Introduction:
The prophet introduces Christ saying that the Jews are rejected due to their own fault, because they separated themselves from Him and did not receive Christ Himself. Christ did all things for the Jews which pertained to their perfection; but when He saw them unwilling in any way to desist from their perfidy, He cast them off and scattered them into a calamitous exile.
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."
"THUS SAYS THE LORD: WHO IS THIS BILL OF DIVORCE..." The prophet beheld with the eyes of his mind that the Jews were to be rejected by God because they were not going to receive Christ. Therefore, after he predicted the calling of the Gentiles in the preceding chapter, now he makes Christ say that the synagogue itself sold itself and separated itself from Him.
He says therefore: "Who is the bill of divorce, O Jews, by which I dismissed your mother, the synagogue?" As if to say: "Do not say that I repudiated the synagogue by hardness and austerity; for she withdrew herself from Me and departed from Me by her crimes." He says this because the Jews were accustomed to dismiss wives and give them a bill of divorce, as may be seen in Deuteronomy 24 and Matthew 19.
"BEHOLD, FOR YOUR INIQUITIES YOU HAVE BEEN SOLD." This passage teaches that when a man is bound by mortal sin, he sells himself to the devil and is alienated from God. He sells himself whom God bought at a great price—not with silver and gold, but with life and blood. "For you are bought with a great price," says the Apostle (1 Corinthians 6:20). And in the following chapter: "You are bought with a price; do not become the slaves of men" (1 Corinthians 7:23). John in the Apocalypse: "No one," he says, "could sing the canticle except those one hundred and forty-four thousand who were purchased from the earth" (Revelation 14:3). Peter, prince of the Apostles, in his epistle: "Knowing," he says, "that you were not redeemed with corruptible things as gold or silver from your vain conversation of your father's tradition, but with the precious blood as of a lamb unspotted, of Christ" (1 Peter 1:18-19).
What madness therefore is it, when we are servants of God—to whom to serve is to reign—to sell ourselves to the devil and become the vile slaves of such an abject and reprobate lord, and for fleeting things to wish to lose eternal things? "Do you not know," says Paul, "that to whom you yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants you are whom you obey?" (Romans 6:16). If therefore you serve Christ, you are the servant of Christ; if the world, you are the servant of the world.
But someone will say: "I will serve Christ and the world." To whom Christ responds that it cannot be done, since "no man can serve two masters" (Matthew 6:24). It is foolish to wish men to have reckoning with the world, which has reckoning with no one, and not to wish to have reckoning with God, who has reckoning with all; to serve the world, which never rewarded anyone, and not to serve God, who never ceases to bestow rewards. The joys of the world, gathered over fifty years, can be numbered in one day; but the troubles and afflictions of one day, you will not be able to number in fifty years. And nevertheless, so great is the insanity of men that they wish to serve the world rather than God.
When we ought to serve, to whom should we serve rather than to Him who made Himself a servant for us, of whom the Apostle says: "He emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant" (Philippians 2:7). Why then do we serve the world? Let us consider who is the God from whom we depart, and who is the world to whom we obey. What do we do? Whom do we follow? What do we hope? Why do we not see that, heaven having been contempted, we hasten to hell; life having been spurned, we embrace death; glory having been deserted, we incur disgrace? O intolerable madness! O supreme abjection and incredible blindness!
What is the world to whom we serve, unless it be a sepulcher of the dead, a prison of the living, a workshop of vices, a contempt of virtues, a butcher and torturer of those directing life to the norm of reason, a favorer of those watching for malice, an enemy of present things, an oblivion of past things, and a defiler and extinguisher of the splendor of things gloriously done? Let us return therefore to ourselves, and with the world contempted and neglected, let us serve Christ and aspire to heavenly things.
"AND FOR YOUR TRANSGRESSIONS I HAVE DISMISSED YOUR MOTHER." Namely, the synagogue. God dismisses us because we depart from Him, and following our own inventions and unbridled cupidity, we are implicated in crimes. Wherefore He Himself says in the Psalm: "I dismissed them according to the desires of their heart; they shall walk in their own inventions" (Psalm 80:13). Then God afflicts us with great punishment when He permits us to obey our depraved desires and leaves us in the hand of our own appetites.
Is 50:2: "Because I came and there was no man; I called and there was none who would listen. Has My hand become shortened and small, that I cannot redeem? Or is there no power in Me to deliver? Behold, at My rebuke I will make the sea a desert, I will turn the rivers to dryness; the fish shall rot without water and die of thirst."
Is 50:3: "I will clothe the heavens with darkness and make sackcloth their covering."
"BECAUSE I CAME... THERE WAS NO MAN." These are the words of Christ. As if to say: "That you may see the dismissal and rejection of the synagogue ought to be attributed to its crimes, hear what I say: I came into the world, I was born in Judea, I did divine miracles there, and there was no man who received Me, except the few who believed in Me. I found no man in the synagogue. There were many there, but none worthy to be called a man."
This passage teaches that impious men ought not to be called men, but beasts; for they conceive such crimes that they surpass brute animals in ferocity, stupidity, and malice. John the Baptist called the Pharisees a "generation of vipers" (Matthew 3:7). To whom Christ said: "Serpents, generation of vipers, how will you flee from the judgment of hell?" (Matthew 23:33). Christ called Herod, on account of malice, a "fox": "Go," He says, "and tell that fox" (Luke 13:32). Jeremiah calls those given to lust "horses": "They were become as lustful horses" (Jeremiah 5:8). The voluptuous are called "swine"; the impudent indeed "dogs", according to that which Christ says: "Do not give that which is holy to dogs, nor cast your pearls before swine" (Matthew 7:6).
Christ came therefore to men and found no man. He found beasts who tore Him, an innocent lamb. "He came unto His own," as St. John says, "and His own received Him not" (John 1:11). For He came, as here He says through Isaiah, "and there was no man." Not without merit did the philosopher Diogenes, traversing the forum at midday with a lantern, when asked what he sought, respond: "A man," because he judged those whom he saw were not men. How many cities are full of men who by no means deserve to be called men? For a great thing, St. Luke says, was there in Jerusalem a certain man; for thus he says: "And behold there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon" (Luke 2:25).
"I CALLED AND THERE WAS NONE WHO WOULD LISTEN." Christ cried out, saying: "Come to Me all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will refresh you" (Matthew 11:28), and there was none who would listen to Me. In the Psalm the prophet introduces Him speaking in this mode: "I have labored crying, my throat is become hoarse" (Psalm 68:4). Concerning which we have discoursed elsewhere.
"HAS MY HAND BECOME SHORTENED...?" "Do not estimate that I am not able to work miracles; for I can again divide the sea, just as I did in the exit of Israel from Egypt, and the rivers, just as I did the Jordan, and corrupt the fish and cover the heavens with darkness, just as I did in Egypt."
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." Christ says these things according to the dispensation of the assumed body, just as many other things. At St. John's, Christ thus says: "The Father who sent Me, He gave Me commandment what I should say and what I should speak" (John 12:49). And a little after: "What I speak therefore, even as the Father said unto Me, so I speak" (John 12:50).
"HE AWAKENS MORNING BY MORNING." That is, always and assiduously the Father awakens My ear that I may hear Him as a master.
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."
"I HAVE GIVEN MY BODY TO STRIKERS." It is Christ who speaks, who was struck, scourged, beaten with blows, wounded, and finally killed, as we firmly believe and the Gospels testify. O matter worthy of great groaning and abundance of all tears!
"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." That is: "I prepared My beard to those plucking it, and I did not turn My face from the perfidious Jews who calumniated Me and contaminated My countenance with their spittings."
Our God Christ was placed as a prey. For just as a castle, captured by soldiers and enemies, is plundered, and in that storming and plundering there is no piety in the soldiers, no mercy, but one casts down, another lifts up, one breaks, another tramples with feet, one snatches, another carries away with him, and all with truculent countenance fill all things with furious clamors—so, that horrible, most immense, and most unjust sentence having been issued by Pilate that Christ should be crucified and handed over to the will of the Jews, all rushed upon Him and made an attack. One beat Him with blows, another extirpated His hair. Some cast Him to the ground, others trampled Him with feet, some disfigured His most precious and beautiful face with spittings, others plucked out His beard and carried it away in their hands, and all finally vociferated, exercising their impious enormity and calling the most innocent lamb to a most cruel and bitter death.
What more? Our God was committed to plunder and handed over to the will of His enemies, and the meekest lamb was placed in the midst of wolves. What was ever done under the sun more unworthy? What ever was so impious a deed? Read the Evangelical history and you will see the most unworthy contumelies and most bitter tortures with which most wicked men afflicted Christ most holy.
But truly that which is written here, namely "My cheeks to them that plucked off the hair," I do not remember having read in the Gospels; but it is to be believed it was done, since it was predicted in this place by the holy prophet. For Christ suffered many things which the Evangelists did not particularly express. It was sufficient for St. Luke to say that Pilate delivered Jesus to their will (Luke 23:25). Consider therefore how many and how immense punishments are comprehended in those words. If Jesus was voluntarily handed over to His most cruel enemies, who burned with unheard-of hatred toward Him, ponder with how many wounds, with what injuries, with what reproaches they afflicted Him, and how impiously and immensely they dragged Him to punishment.
"THE LORD GOD IS MY HELPER... THEREFORE I HAVE SET MY FACE AS A HARDEST ROCK." That is, I feared no one, neither Annas nor Caiaphas nor anyone else. Moreover, this confidence is to be imitated and retained by us in the Catholic faith and in Christ.
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."
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."
"LET US STAND TOGETHER. WHO IS MY ADVERSARY? LET HIM COME TO ME." "If anyone has anything against Me, let him show it, let him bring a suit against Me, and let us dispute together." The same thing He said at St. John's in these words: "Which of you shall convict Me of sin?" (John 8:46). Christ shows His innocence and the malice of the Jews.
"THE MOTH SHALL EAT THEM." He compares the conscience of the wicked to a moth gnawing their hearts. And in the following chapter: "For the moth shall eat them up like a garment, and the worm shall devour them like wool" (Isaiah 51:8). That which is born within the heart of the impious man gnaws and kills him. The viper, as they say, conceives sons who, the sides having been gnawed, go forth with the death of the mother; so impious men conceive those thoughts and crimes which machinate destruction for them.
Is 50:10: "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."
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."
"WHO IS AMONG YOU THAT FEARS THE LORD..." The sense is: "None of you is there who, if he fears the Lord and hears the voice of Christ, who took the form of a servant, walks in darkness, deprived of light." Let him therefore who fears God and hears, lean upon Him, not however in the hope of the world, which is a fragile and broken reed and an infirm staff. Perhaps Christ wished to signify this when, as is at Matthew's, He said to His disciples that they should not wish to carry a rod (Matthew 10:10). For God is He in whom we ought to lean as in a most valid firmament. Wherefore the divine Psalmist said: "The Lord is my firmament and my refuge" (Psalm 17:2). And elsewhere: "The Lord is a firmament to those who fear Him" (Psalm 24:14). And in this place Isaiah: "Let him lean upon his God."
"BEHOLD ALL YOU WHO KINDLE A FIRE... WALK IN THE LIGHT OF YOUR FIRE..." The sense is: "I came and you did not receive Me, but you called Me to the danger of the head with false crimes, and you remain in your perfidy, adding crimes daily to crimes and burning with hatred toward Me. Therefore you, girded with flames of hatred, envy, impiety, and other flagrances, by which things you kindle the fire in which you are to be burned forever, go into your fire, into the eternal flames which you have kindled for yourselves, unwilling to hear My voice nor to acquiesce to My warnings."
This is the fire which Christ at Matthew's calls "eternal" (Matthew 25:41), and at Mark's "inextinguishable" (Mark 9:43). By which name also St. John the Baptist called it (Matthew 3:12). You perceive in this place that sinners machinate eternal destruction for themselves, and as often as they sin mortally, they kindle for themselves infernal fire.
Annotations from the Hebrew on Chapter 50
"That I may know how to sustain with a word him who is weary." That is, that I may know how to refresh with a word him who is fatigued and afflicted. Where you see it is a gift of God to know how to console the sad and raise up the lying down. In Hebrew it is: La'ut et ya'ef dabar (לָעוּת אֶת יַעֵף דָּבָר). Which words if you translate into Latin as they lie, you will thus say: "That I may know in time the weary with a word." Understand: to refresh or sustain. Or: "That I may know in time to the weary a word." Understand: to speak. For "weary" you may also translate "thirsty," that is, him who ardently thirsts for the word of God. And thus Pagninus translates, and rightly indeed. So also the Rabbi interprets this place.
For it is a great thing to know how to preach at an opportune time and distribute the word of God to those thirsting for it. For if you wish to reveal divine mysteries to impious men and those loathing them, no reason of time having been held, not only perhaps will you bring no benefit, but you will bring detriment. Just as if someone into a high pit full of mud should pour pure, clean, and excellent water, he will effect nothing else than to disturb the mud with filth and lose the water; so he who among impious and flagitious men holds an oration about divine arcans and pours into them the most clear and purest water of doctrine, at such a time does this that it profits them nothing, but rather they are rendered more impure. For that cause Christ said: "Do not give that which is holy to dogs, nor cast your pearls before swine" (Matthew 7:6). St. Cyril, in the third tome, explaining that sentence of Pythagoras, namely that the image of God is not to be carried on a ring, says it signifies that divine mysteries are not to be revealed to all.
"And my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair." The Septuagint have: "And my cheeks to blows." For Christ was struck with most unworthy blows. But in the Hebrew for "them that plucked" it is in this mode: lemoretim (לְמוֹרְטִים), from the verb marat (מָרַט) which signifies to shave bald and to pluck out hairs. Wherefore I estimate the Vulgate edition is better in this place. For you will find this word at Ezra, chapter 9, where also the Latin interpreter translates: "And I plucked off the hair of my head and my beard" (Ezra 9:3). But because this word signifies also to polish, and those who polish brazen vessels strike them, it may also be taken for "to strike." By which reason perhaps led, the Septuagint translated: "And my cheeks to blows or to strikings."
Christ came into the world, taught the truth, showed the way of obtaining eternal salvation, offered Himself as an example of life, issued miracles, omitted nothing which was necessary for our beatitude, and for all these things the impious men plucked out His beard and called Him to a most cruel destruction.
CONTINUE
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