Notes on the Translation:
Author: Joseph Knabenbauer (1837–1913) was a German Jesuit priest and prominent biblical scholar of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. His commentaries (part of the Cursus Scripturae Sacrae) are known for balancing critical scholarship with orthodox Catholic theology. He often engages with both patristic sources (Jerome, Ephrem) and earlier Catholic commentators (Lapide, Menochius) as well as critical scholars (Gesenius, Knobel).
Theological Context: Knabenbauer explicitly defends the Messianic interpretation of the "Servant of the Lord" against rationalist critics (like Gesenius) who would separate the text or deny the vicarious satisfaction. He emphasizes the contrast between Israel's disobedience and Christ's obedience as central to the theology of redemption (vicarious satisfaction).
Structure: The commentary is divided into an Argumentum (Summary), a general introduction to the oracle's coherence, and then verse-byverse analysis divided into the People's Disobedience (Is 50:1-3); the Servant's Obedience (Is 50:4-7); and His Victory (Is 50:8-11).
Language: The Latin is Neo-Latin scholarly prose. The translation aims to preserve the precise theological terminology (e.g., theocraticum, satisfactionem vicariam, expiationem) while ensuring readability. This post was translated by Qwen.
Translation of Joseph Knabenbauer's Commentary on Isaiah 50:1-11
Argument. — The people have been sold into miserable servitude, not due to the Lord's injustice or impotence, but by their own iniquity, for they did not obey the Lord, to whom alone belongs all power to save (Is 50:1-3). Against this stubbornness and disobedience of the people, the Servant of the Lord professes his obedience, submission, and patience in enduring the greatest contumelies, in which, certain of divine help, he persists with a most strong spirit (50:4-7). Secure of victory and divine help, he provokes his adversaries to combat; it shall go well with those who obey his warnings; but the stubborn and refractory God will involve in destruction and the fires of flames (50:8-11).
In this oracle, the disobedience of the people and the prompt obedience of the Servant of the Lord are clearly opposed to one another (Is 50:2, 4 seq.). Moreover, this obedience is described in such a way that in its exercise the Servant of the Lord is exposed to scourges and contumelies, which he undergoes with an invincible spirit. In enduring these, God is present to him as helper; whence he will carry off a splendid victory over his adversaries. Finally, all are admonished to hear the voice of the Servant of the Lord if they wish to be blessed; for the contumacious, destruction remains. Thus the disobedient people, the obedient and patient Servant of the Lord are described. By this opposition between them, the way is paved for declaring the vicarious satisfaction, which the prophet finally teaches explicitly in 53:4 seq. That great humiliation and affliction of the Servant of the Lord (Is 49:4) is here also described more accurately in Is 50:6, and no less so the spirit with which he undergoes it (Is 50:1 seq. [cf. Is 49:4]). Finally, it is indicated in the last two verses that the Servant of the Lord brings salvation to those obedient to him, but ruin to those resisting, by which those things which were said in Is 49:9 and Is 49:26 are illustrated. Therefore, in this oracle these two things are contained: by the disobedience of the people calamity is brought upon them; by the obedience of the Servant of the Lord salvation is communicated. Wherefore it is clear that this chapter coheres entirely within itself. Gesenius and Knobel wrongly cut apart this oracle and attach Is 50:1-3 to the preceding oracle; but after the restoration has been described, this part concerning the people's guilt and chastisement cannot follow. But since the prophet returns to that afflicted condition (of which Is 49:14), rather an indication of a new oracle is had. Then those things which follow concerning the obedience of the Servant of the Lord openly respect the disobedience of the people, namely of the other Servant of the Lord (cf. Is 42:19). These two things cannot be separated from one another, except by those who desire in every way that every path by which the oracle leads to the satisfying Messiah be closed and blocked up.
a) The Disobedience of the People (Is 50:1-3)
As St. Jerome already notes, the discourse returns to that condition about which Zion complained in Is 49:14: "The Lord has forsaken me"; to which complaint another response is now subjoined in v. 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!" — Hebrew: Where then is the bill of divorce of your mother... or who of my creditors... for your transgressions your mother has been dismissed. By the question posed, He wishes the transgressors to return to their heart and consider the cause of their evils. Wherefore God recalls to their memory that neither that covenant nor the bond by which He had chosen the people for Himself as a possession from all nations and as a spouse was dissolved by Him. For this purpose, those two things are mentioned by which a man could eject a woman and children from the house; for either he gave her a bill of divorce (Deut. 24:1) or he sold the sons and daughters to pay debts (Ex. 21:1; 2 Kings 4:1; Neh. 5:5; Matt. 18:25). Both are adduced because Zion is considered as a mother and wife, but individuals as sons of that mother. Moreover, the Lord did not repudiate Zion; for where is the bill of divorce? Zion cannot exhibit it. Nor did the Lord sell them; for who is that creditor to whom the Lord, unable to pay, would have sold them? The theocratic covenant is considered as a sacred marriage with God (cf. Is. 54:5; Hos. 2:5, 9; Jer. 2:1; Ez. 16:8 etc.), to which it is altogether consistent that elsewhere the Messiah himself is called the bridegroom (Ps. 44; John 3:29), but the Church or the new theocracy as his spouse (2 Cor. 11:2; Eph. 5:25; Apoc. 21:2). God did not cast them off by injustice or tyranny, nor did he dissolve the covenant because of loathing and inconstancy, nor was it done by his impotence, so that adversaries might snatch away and lead off his people from him, but they themselves voluntarily and with God unwilling violated the covenant, departed, and on account of their iniquities were handed over to the power of enemies; cf. 49:19 seq. Therefore, the synagogue itself voluntarily threw itself into the condition of a dismissed woman by departing from the Lord; for, as St. Jerome says, "Do you not understand rather what is true, that she departed from me by her own fault? I could not hold an adulterous mother any longer, but I permitted her to depart willingly"; thus St. Jerome himself explains that which he translated dimisi (I dismissed), which is better expressed in the Hebrew by the passive voice among the Syriac and Chaldean: she was dismissed or she was cast out. Now what those iniquities and crimes are, is declared summarily in v. 2: "Because I came and there was no man; I called and there was none who would listen!" — God came to his people through legislation, through the prophets, the perpetual interpreters and guardians of the law; He called, taught, admonished, chastised; but the people were not present, did not run to meet the Lord coming, did not present themselves to Him, did not obey Him calling. Behold his disobedience! And yet the whole reason and condition of the covenant initiated with God was contained in the promise of obedience. For that the covenant might be concluded, God proposed this condition to them: "If you will hear my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be to me a possession from all peoples", to which having heard "all the people answered together: All things that the Lord has spoken, we will do" (Ex. 19:5, 8); and to this primary and principal reason of the covenant initiated is referred that which God says through Jeremiah: "This word I commanded them (on the day when I brought them out of the land of Egypt) saying: Hear my voice and I will be to you a God and you shall be to me a people, and walk in all the way that I have commanded you, that it may be well with you" (Jer. 7:23). The same cause of exile is frequently indicated in Jeremiah: "And I sent to you all my servants the prophets, rising early and sending, and they did not hear" (Jer. 7:25; cf. Jer 25:4; Jer 26:5; Jer 35:15; Je 44:4). Also more effectively in the Hebrew the question is posed: Why did I come to you and no one was there? (Why) did I call and no one answered? i.e., why was no one present when I came? When I called, why did no one respond? By this mode of interrogation, the indignation of the interrogator is simultaneously declared. The word veni (I came) seems to be said not without singular significance; for God truly came in the Servant of the Lord and through the Servant, nor did they receive Him then; wherefore most refer these words either uniquely or also to the Messiah, who came to his people and was not received, wherefore finally the people were separated and cast out by God into the Roman exile (cf. St. Jerome, Cyril, Pinton, Sassonius, Sanctius, Lapide, Menochius, Naegeli). And truly for God to be said to come thus absolutely is almost unusual; indeed God is said to come in sleep (Gen. 20:8), in a cloud or in the darkness of a cloud (Ex. 19:9; 20:21); He is said to come and bless when a sacrifice is offered (Ex. 20:24), or to come to Balaam and command him (Num. 22:8) or to come to Samuel and call him (1 Kings 3:10), or to come from Sinai (Deut. 33:2); more often to come to judgment (Ps. 49:3; 95:13; 1 Chron. 16:32) or Hab. 3:3 to come from the south, or Zech. 14:5 to come with the saints and similar, and at Isaiah 3:14 to come to judgment, Is 35:4: He himself will come and save us, 40:10: He will come in strength; but scarcely so absolutely: I came and no one was there; wherefore that explanation does not lack its probability, especially since immediately in Is 50:4 the Servant of the Lord speaks, through whom God truly came to the people. Therefore, that former disobedience, by which they had repudiated the Lord coming and speaking through the prophets, was a prelude and sad presage of the stubbornness by which they were about to spurn the Lord Himself coming.
And yet by how many and what great reasons were they held to lend a docile ear to the Lord? For with what and how great virtue is He endowed? "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; v. 3 I will clothe the heavens with darkness and make sackcloth their covering"; — Hebrew with emphasis: Has My hand become shorter than to redeem? And He sets forth the documents of His power from things formerly done, so that He may show that He is able to accomplish the same things even now and wills it if need be: At My rebuke I make the sea dry, the rivers I turn into a field; cf. Ps. 105:9: He rebuked the Red Sea and it was dried up; Ex. 7:18: The fish also that are in the river shall die and the waters shall putrefy, or Ps. 113:5: What ailed you, O sea, that you fled? And you, O Jordan, that you were turned back? cf. Ps. 16:47. In Egypt also He clothed the heaven with darkness; for Ex. 10:21: the darkness was so dense that it could be felt; cf. Ps. 104:28; Wis. 17:2 seq. When these things were done in Egypt the people, obeying the voice of God, followed Him calling with love into the desert (Jer. 2:4 seq.); but afterwards they became disobedient, nor now when He has promised them similar miracles and benefits (cf. Is 41:14-18; 42:15; 48:21), indeed greater (Is 43:16-19), will all be obedient to His word. — Next, this assertion of divine power refers to agitating their disobedience (Sansonius, Malvenda); but since the power of God is so distinctly set forth for redeeming and liberating, by these questions simultaneously that which was said in v. 1 is more explained, namely that they were handed over not on account of the Lord's impotence, not is the infirmity of the Lord to blame why they are constituted in misery; thus most conceive the connection (cf. St. Jerome, Cyril, Osorius, Maldonatus, Menochius, Lapide, Tirinus, Gordon, Calmet) or, as Sanctius wishes, on the part of God nothing stands in the way of their liberation, unless their crimes were present. By their sins they make the power of God as if impotent. St. Ephrem refers the words to conceding liberation: "Perhaps he figures Babylon by the sea and its army by the rivers; he expresses the overthrow of Babylon's kingdom by the dark heavens", similarly Barhebraeus.
b) The Obedience of the Servant of the Lord (Is 50:4-7)
Since therefore, as is gathered from the questions proposed in Is 50:2, the disobedience of the people itself impedes the power of God as much as possible from redeeming and saving, who now will expiate and remove this impediment? The Servant of the Lord exhibiting the greatest obedience is proposed by the prophet. The redemption from Egypt was made by the power of God; but that redemption from the captivity of iniquities might be able to be done, there is need of the Servant of the Lord as mediator and expiator, who by his obedience and patience prepares the way as it were for divine power to grant redemption and salvation. Nor can it lack significance, that after it was said that they were sold by their sins, indeed that by their obduracy the power of God was as if bound, now the Servant of the Lord is introduced speaking, who solemnly professes before the Lord his obedience and patience greatest in words and deeds, and teaches others by his doctrine and example, to whom if they hear his voice salvation is promised. Therefore, by the obedience of the Servant of the Lord it comes about that disobedience is conquered and the obstacle of salvation removed.
For to that expostulation and complaint of God: I came, I called and no one heard, he opposes and offers his own most prompt obedience, by which simultaneously he professes that he renders others ready for obeying; now what is this other than to offer expiation and satisfaction to God angry, so that He may benignly receive the prompt spirit of the servant for that crime? For he says in 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"; — Hebrew: He has given me the tongue of disciples... that I may hear like disciples; the Servant of the Lord professes himself a disciple of God who has been taught by the Lord, and as such by his word and doctrine raises up, strengthens, consoles the weary, who due to fatigue and weakness is now unable to walk in the ways of the Lord or who lies prostrate by desperation and misery. He says he has been educated and instructed for this by the Lord; similarly as he was described above: The spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding etc. (Is 11:2) and Is 49:2: He has made my mouth like a sharp sword; now therefore it is described more clearly what kind of enemy is to be slain by the sword of the mouth: the weary is to be sustained by the word; therefore weakness, infirmity, impotence, by which nothing is done in divine matter, in the work of God, these are to be slain by the sword. What is this other than: Come to me all you who labor and are heavy laden and I will refresh you? For this he himself is taught by the Lord. He says this with a certain joy and abundance of words: every morning He awakens his ear for hearing like disciples i.e., continuously he receives divine revelation and manifestation, continuously he is taught by God the master and divine illustration continuously flows into his mind which with awakened ear i.e., attentively, with greatest study and insight he receives. Every morning, thus continuously to perceive the address of God, no one of the prophets was able to assert; for to these God by no means spoke on individual days; nor could a prophet say every morning; for: If there be among you a prophet of the Lord, I will appear to him in a vision, or I will speak to him in a dream (Num. 12:6); here therefore he speaks who above all prophets receives divine communication and who in this matter also, just as Moses among the prophets, one excels and surpasses even the familiar commerce of Moses himself with God. Thus only he can speak who was described in Is 11:2 as having continuously in himself the fullness of the spirit of the Lord, upon whom the Lord gave his spirit (Is 42:2), so that namely it may continuously remain and act in him, who is assumed and instructed by God, as is proposed in Is 49:2. Moreover, it is clear that these things were splendidly fulfilled in Christ. For even His enemies were compelled to confess that no one ever prevailed with such sweetness of speaking power (John 7:46); no one ever discoursed with greater wisdom, power, sweetness or efficacy (Calmet), therefore he had a tongue divinely taught. He himself also constantly professed that he receives all things from the Father: As the Father has given me commandment, so I speak; the word which you have heard is not mine, but His who sent me the Father; my doctrine is not mine etc. (cf. John 8:26, 40; 12:50; 14:24; 15:15; 17:16 etc.).
To that divine complaint of Is 50:2 he further responds by showing his mind's promptness to obey in Is 50:5: "The Lord God has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious; I turned not backward"; — that is, just as God has always taught me and manifested His will, so I always obey, never do I refuse or hesitate even in the least; therefore he executes the duty enjoined by God with always the greatest alacrity and zeal: I do always the things that please Him; as the Father has given me commandment, so I do (John 8:29; 14:31); thus the Messiah often professes that he does not his own will but that of Him who sent him, the Father (cf. John 4:34; 5:30; 6:38). By the very words and this affirmation of obedience, it is already expressed that grave and burdensome things were demanded of him and the exercise of obedience consisted of much labor. St. Cyril notes well that Christ opposes his obedience to the stubbornness of the Jews: "For I called," he says, "and there was none hearing; they became idle, slow to obey, they refused; but I did not refuse nor contradict." And how greatly he learned obedience from those things which he suffered, and how much patience, fortitude, and constancy he exhibited in offering obedience, is declared by the following v. 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"; — behold, how he did not turn backward! Hebrew: I have given my back to strikers... I have not hidden my face from contumelies and spitting (cf. Foreiro, Maldonatus, Marckius, Malvenda); properly my cheeks (I gave) to them depilating i.e., plucking off the beard most indignantly; moreover, the plucking of the beard has both pain and significant contumely (Foreiro, Sanctius). And the word dedi (I gave) abundantly indicates how not unwillingly he endured these things, since he gave himself openly to strikers nor withdrew from the inclemency of those plucking the cheeks (Sanctius, Lapide). The contumely of spittings he placed in the last place as the greatest of all, Job: "They abhor me, and flee far from me, and spare not to spit in my face" (Job 30:10), for they are accustomed to choose the most despicable place for spittings and the foul ejectments of the mouth (Sanctius). The LXX translate: I gave my back to scourges and my cheeks to blows, but I turned not away my face from the shame of spittings. But why the Servant of the Lord ought to have undergone such hard obedience, will be explained more accurately in 53:4 and seq., and already here it may be conjectured in some way, if you consider that his obedience is opposed to the disobedience of the people; therefore he ought to take upon himself the penalties of this disobedience and expiate for it; the people who is also called the servant of the Lord was reduced by his crimes to an abject and servile condition; that he might loose it, the other Servant of the Lord innocently undergoes misery voluntarily: But I am a worm and no man, the reproach of men and the outcast of the people (Psalm 21:7), I have borne reproach, confusion has covered my face (Psalm 68:8). See the fulfillment in Matthew 26:67; 27:30. Mark 14:65. Luke 22:63-64. John 18:22.
Moreover, in these contumelies he knows the Lord is present to him as helper, wherefore with an invincible spirit he undergoes them, certain that they will finally be for ornaments of glory in 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"; — with what spirit, therefore, with what mind and confidence he undergoes those reproaches, he now describes: he knows the Lord is present to him with powerful help; for thus it was said concerning the Servant of the Lord: I have upheld him, I have taken hold of his hand, I have kept you (Is 42:1, 6), in the shadow of his hand he has protected me (Is 49:2) and again: in the day of salvation I have helped you and I have kept you (Is 49:8). Wherefore it is manifest that those things are referred to him who now speaks. Relying on divine help, he opposes to aggressors in this conflict of reproaches and vexations an invincible constancy, a lofty spirit, which is seen in the very intrepid face; therefore I have set my face as a flint (Hebrew); namely, he hardened himself to endure reproaches and blows nor does he yield to them; but he is "like a rock which the waves beat upon in the midst of the sea, yet they do not shake or move it" (Sanctius). A similarly intrepid and constant spirit God had promised to Jeremiah and Ezekiel (Jer. 1:18; Ez. 3:8). Moreover, he does not succumb to contumelies, but is higher than them because in the midst of ignominies he knows he will by no means be overwhelmed by confusion, but rather he will be elevated from them to his own glory and that of his work. For that I shall not be confounded is already present in those promises and the work assigned to him, it is present in the very name of Servant of the Lord, it is present in the solemn assertion of God: I will be glorified in you; wherefore he already said before, after he commended his cause to God: I am glorified in the eyes of the Lord (Is 49:5; cf. Is 42:1, 3, 6; Is 49:23). These are namely the words of him who said: Father, glorify your son, that your son may glorify you (John 17:1), take courage, I have overcome the world (John 16:33). Just as therefore through the whole prophecy of Isaiah from the first chapter and onward that norm is continuously set forth that finally through chastisement, humiliation, casting down of pomp etc. one must arrive at blessed prosperity and happiness, so the same way he delineates for us in the Servant of the Lord, which indeed he already indicates in Is 11:1, when he says a shoot will arise from the root of Jesse or from the stump of Jesse and finally will be for a sign of the peoples. Whence also it is hinted more and more that the Servant of the Lord takes upon himself the person of the people, enters into the same humble condition and takes upon himself its sufferings, so that he may lift the people together with himself to glory and beatitude.
c) The Victory of the Servant of the Lord (Is 50:8-11)
In this abjection and vilification (Is 50:6) the Servant of the Lord knows that glory and a distinguished victory are impending for him; whence 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" | — for he committed his cause to the Lord who promised that he would defend it and endow it with splendid success, as was explained in 49:4, 6. Wherefore in this place the Servant of the Lord asserts that He stands by him, who will declare him just by his judicial sentence to be pronounced before all; therefore to justify here is to undertake the cause of defense, to vindicate from adversaries, to lead him to his right, to demonstrate him victor in hostile conflict. Since therefore he knows such a God stands by him as helper and vindicator of right, he boldly provokes adversaries to combat: Who will dispute with me? (Hebrew); let us stand together i.e., let us go to law together! Who will be able to convict or accuse me? Come, let him appear in the middle! We hear a similar voice of Christ at John's: Which of you shall convict me of sin? (8:46)? Therefore the Servant of the Lord says provision has been made by God the helper, so that on account of the contumelies inflicted upon him his name may not labor under infamy among men, indeed it is decreed that it will be glorious and venerable to all (Sanctius).
Wherefore he declares victory will be certain in 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"! — he hints at those who will be assailants of the Servant of the Lord who lie in wait for his fame or strive to traduce him among others as a wicked man. But the attempts of adversaries will be vain and null; enemies are destitute of strength and virtue, impotent they collapse in themselves, corroded and consumed by their own crimes. If the comparisons are composed with others concerning Cyrus (Is 42:2; 45:1 seq.), they do not indicate that victory which is acquired by tumult and warlike clamor, but rather such as is had gradually, silently; for what befalls a garment or wood from a moth, gradually grows and by a silent bite eats away what previously seemed solid and intact and putrefies, whence the evil which creeps gradually and silently and accomplishes hidden damage, is designated by the name of moth (Sanctius). Certain indeed is the victory, but it may be delayed longer, there may be seen for some time among adversaries a certain false appearance of happiness, just as the moth lying hidden in secret does not immediately destroy nor remove the external appearance. The comparison is indeed apt, if you consider attentively how the Messiah is accustomed to triumph over his adversaries. Also concerning them is valid that which was announced concerning himself in Is 42:2, 3. What is more insignificant than a moth? But how great things God is accustomed to effect by the smallest thing! Here also is valid: God has chosen the weak things of the world to confound the strong, and the base things of the world and the contemptible things has God chosen, and things that are not, to bring to nought things that are (1 Cor. 1:27, 28).
Such therefore is the Servant of God exhibited in obedience and patience and such is he opposed to the contumacious people and finally will be led by God to a splendid victory; wherefore in him finally the hope of salvation is constituted for the afflicted; whence with that example proposed and such doctrine brought forth into the middle, God himself who began the discourse (v. 1) gathers the conclusion and application: it shall go well with those who have heard the Servant of the Lord, worst with those who have spurned him. For this is the victory of the Servant of the Lord, that he brings salvation to the obedient, but is for ruin to the contumacious. Let those who are afflicted conceive hope from the Servant of the Lord afflicted first and afterwards exalted; v. 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" | — that there will be few is indicated by the very form of the interrogation, for it is a constant norm that the remnant of Israel will be saved. Then let the connection be attended to between fear i.e., worship and religion of God and obedience to be prest to the Servant of the Lord; he who worships God, will hear and understand the voice of his servant; for "he who does not honor the Son, does not honor the Father who sent him" (John 5:23). Now indeed if they hear the Servant of the Lord recounting his obedience, patience, confidence, victory, easily they themselves will also understand what is to be done by them in anxieties and miseries. In the affliction therefore of the republic and of the pious which seems to rush in without any hope and entirely to remove all expectation of a better condition (if things are viewed humanly), let them place their hope and firm confidence in the Lord, in the name Yahweh, who is the immutable and constant God of the covenant; let them therefore see and understand the example of the Servant of the Lord and put on the same sentiments of mind, by which he himself overwhelmed by reproaches and infestations clung to the Lord with invincible hope: The Lord is my helper, therefore I am not confounded Is 50:5, 8. Therefore the prophet teaches for the time of calamity here the same thing which he already inculcated in Is 8:17 seq., Is 26:3, 9. Whence you perceive how greatly in the oracles also concerning future time he provides for the necessities of his own time.
That they may hear the voice of the Servant of the Lord more eagerly, he outlines the lot of those who prefer to be adversaries of the Servant of the Lord in v. 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"! — adversaries of the Servant of the Lord kindle a fire, gird themselves with mallets or burning arrows (Hebrew) i.e., they stir up great fires of persecutions against him, by calumnies and lying speeches, as by arrows, they strive to pierce and kill him; cf. Is 9:18: wickedness is burned as a fire; Ps. 56:5: their tongue is a sharp sword. But they will perish by their own machinations; wherefore they are ordered by the Lord to go into the light of their fire, to cast themselves and throw themselves upon their burning arrows; therefore the fires which they stirred up against the Servant of the Lord will turn to the destruction of those stirring them up. Thus therefore God will turn the fires upon them themselves and buried in their flames they shall lie down in sorrows (Hebrew). Has not this already been fulfilled literally in the enemies of the Servant of the Lord, in the contumacious Jews? What fires did they stir up against the Messiah and his disciples, until they themselves perished in those fires in the capture of the city and temple (cf. St. Jerome, Cyril, Theodoret)? A general norm is indeed established; but, as St. Jerome says, according to the quality of the sin each one will kindle a fire for himself, he will perish by his own iniquity with congruous punishment; whence application and fulfillment multiple is had through the course of ages for the variety of impugnations. Nor is there salvation in any other; "since you have not received my light, receive the fire of enemies, to which you yourselves have supplied fuel" (Theodoret). That you shall lie down in sorrows (Hebrew) indicates punishments prepared for the contemptors of the Messiah; cf. Is 66:24; and concerning such a fire stirred up by the wicked the prophet already warned in Is 1:31. "There is no peace to the wicked". You have here in Is 50:10-11 the same opposition, which in the prior part we have often discovered; cf. Is 8:21 and Is 9:1; Is 26:9-10; Is 30:23 and 21; ch. 34 and 35.
Just as our rationalists, so already the Jews in the time of St. Jerome separate Is 50:4 and seq. from the preceding and wish to refer them to the person of Isaiah, because he says he received speech from the Lord how he might sustain the weary and erring people and recall them to salvation"; thus St. Jerome reports; but at the same time he rejects that explanation concerning Isaiah: "Let those say this, who by every reason strive to overturn the prophecies concerning Christ and twist them to a perverse understanding by a depraved interpretation". St. Thomas also expounds concerning Isaiah; thus for example he writes: "he sets himself as an example regarding obedience: I do not contradict; he sets also the constancy of obeying, because he did not leave off obedience for any danger: I gave my body.. i.e. I exposed myself to suffer such things; or perhaps he suffered these things literally; but in Christ it was fully fulfilled". Likewise to Is 50:10 hearing the voice of his servant he writes: "of Isaiah or of any other whatever". To this exposition Sansonius observes that it is much to be wondered at that St. Thomas thus expounds, since almost all Christian interpreters expound this whole chapter concerning Christ. Hugo is also adduced by Sanctius, who explains concerning Isaiah, although he thinks it ought to be taken more concerning Christ. Of the Holy Fathers only St. Chrysostom expounds concerning Isaiah 50:2, 4 (cf. De mutatione nominum I; hom. 93 in Gen.; in Is. cap. 1; in 2 Cor. hom. 2; Migne 51, 115; 53, 201; 56, 13; 61, 400). Of Protestant interpreters some expound concerning Isaiah (Reinke recounts many l.c. p. 161), others concerning the Messiah (Hahn, Delitzsch, Naegeli, Orelli).
That the prior exposition concerning Isaiah cannot be admitted we have already said; for those things which are contained in v. 4 and seq. partly rest on those things which elsewhere are clearly asserted concerning the Messiah, partly on those things which are proposed and preformed in Is 42:1 and Is 49:9 seq., so that those things are only more explained and determined by these. Moreover, the connection with Is 50:1-3 and with Is 50:10-11 must be attended to. But it is such that concerning Isaiah one cannot think. For how would the obedience of Isaiah be assumed to expiate the disobedience of the people? Or how on account of contumelies inflicted on Isaiah would supreme and enduring destruction be inflicted on adversaries? These things do not cohere with the rest of the book, these things are nowhere hinted, nowhere indicated. But the explanation concerning the Servant of the Lord, concerning the Messiah, both coheres entirely with the antecedents and arises from them and is demonstrated often by the same plain words and also responds to the subsequents with wonderful concinnity. Briefly, if you hear the Servant of the Lord speaking, you have the book aptly joined and cohering in individual parts, you see one someone who is described by the same lineaments and the more the discourse progresses the more clearly and distinctly he is painted; but if you attempt to explain concerning Isaiah, all things are gaping; those things which are adduced by the same words, you will be forced to deny are now the same; otherwise also you will have to explain Is 42:1 seq. and Is 49:1-9 concerning Isaiah. But that these things concerning Isaiah can by no means be understood, has already been demonstrated from the very words, nor do the rationalists acknowledge Isaiah in those chapters. Therefore it is plainly arbitrary and sins against the rules of sound interpretation, if anyone wishes those things which rest on those chapters and arise from them nevertheless to be accepted concerning Isaiah, i.e., if he interprets Is 50:4 seq. concerning someone other than he interpreted Is 42:1 and Is 49:1-9. Then add this also, that nothing whatsoever is known of Isaiah ever that contumelies, scourges, spittings were inflicted on him; for which matter consider how accurately Jeremiah reports concerning the infestations made against him. But what this part inserted from the life of Isaiah in this place means, related by those words, what it wishes for itself, when, on what occasion it happened, no one is able to explain. Did Isaiah receive revelations on individual days (v. 4)? Did Isaiah struck by scourges still seek: who is the adversary? Will he provoke his insidiators to a new combat? Could Isaiah so boldly assert that he can be condemned by no one? And yet afterwards he was killed by enemies! How therefore was that oracle fulfilled: all his enemies will be crushed and consumed by a moth (Is 50:9)? How in Isaiah was that promise of Is 50:11 fulfilled, that his adversaries would be killed by their own machinations? Behold, if Isaiah said these things concerning himself, rather he is demonstrated a false prophet.
You will find the places of the Holy Fathers who expound this chapter concerning Christ recounted at Reinke l.c. p. 157 etc. and at Kilber, Analys. bibl. ed. Tailhan I p. 381.
CONTINUE
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