Translated by Qwen.

St. Cyril of Alexandria's Commentary on Isaiah 50:1-11

Isa 50:1: "Thus says the Lord: What is the bill of divorce of your mother, whom I have put away? Or to which creditor have I sold you? Behold, for your sins your mother was put away."

The Divinity is without body, separated from matter, without form, and simple; and no one who reasons correctly attributes to It any corporeal form. Yet Holy Scripture speaks to us about It in human terms. For those who exist in this tangible and gross body could not otherwise understand unless things among us were brought forward by way of example, so that from things subject to sense and sight we might understand something, at least in part, concerning the divine and supreme essence, which surpasses every corporeal form.

Observe also here that the prophet has adopted a manner of speaking according to human custom. For as though he were a man dwelling with a wife and united [to her], he discusses and speaks concerning their mother—that is, the earthly and sensible Jerusalem—so that from this, again, their community might be understood in the person of one woman. For just as when we say "the Church," we do not apply the force of this expression to a circuit of walls, but rather signify the most holy multitude of the faithful within it, so also if anyone should speak of "the mother of the Jews," he nevertheless designates the people themselves.

"Therefore," He says, "I did not cast out your mother, although I was to her in place of a bridegroom and sowed seeds of virtue both through the Law and also through the Prophets; but rather she departed, making light of the rights owed to Me and considering fellowship with God as nothing, so to speak. For what bill of divorce was given to her by Me? For God thrusts no one out from participation with Himself, nor does He reject anyone who is accustomed to walk with upright foot; but whoever is genuine and knowledgeable of all virtue, He permits to possess perpetually the firm riches, as it were, of fellowship and union with Him. Whoever opposes and disagrees with His divine oracles with his whole mind, and is more a lover of pleasure than of God, falls away from such great glory."

Accordingly, as though He had dwelt with the mother of the Jews in the place of a husband, He says: "What is the bill of divorce of your mother, whom I put away?" For, He says, "no one will prove that I repudiated her and held her in hatred; but rather they will accuse her as one who deserted Me of her own free will."

"Or to which creditor have I sold you?" In these words there is another manner and figure of speech. For as a master addresses slaves, He says: "Was it, as though a man pressed by poverty and encountering creditors—chreōstēs meaning either debtor or creditor—when going abroad, that I exposed My servants to other masters?" But how utterly foolish it is even to think or say such a thing! For the Divinity is above necessity and poverty, nor does It have any commerce with such things.

"Therefore," He says, "I did not sell you, nor did I hand you over to other masters, you who love Me and are nourished by My oracles. How then did you submit to the yoke of alien servitude? The cause of this evil for you was sin. For because of this, the father of sin and inventor of all wickedness fashioned you all—[he] who casts out from fellowship and union with God and drags [people] into the snare of Hades. For it will inevitably follow that those who have fallen away from union with God become entangled in inescapable snares. For Satan is vehement and violent in seizing [souls], and whomever he sees dwelling on earth and making light of being with God, these he subjects to his yokes and leads into the utmost evils, rendering them slaves instead of free, dishonored instead of glorious. For such are always the wages of his sinister perversity: he snatches [souls] to himself and casts them into the abyss of evils."

Isa 50:2–3: "Why is it that when I came, there was no man? I called, and there was none to hear. Has My hand no power to deliver? Behold, by My threat I will make the sea desolate, and I will turn rivers into a wilderness, and their fish shall dry up because there is no water, and they shall die of thirst. And I will clothe the heavens with darkness, and I will make sackcloth their covering."

Having spoken most beautifully concerning the free-born of Zion—that is, those sprung from Israelite blood—and concerning earthly Zion herself, namely Jerusalem, [how they were] sold because of their own sins and cast out from union with Him, He now calls them to reproach and accusation for remarkable folly combined with ignorance. For when the Only-Begotten shone upon the earth's inhabitants in the flesh and appeared in a form like ours, they impiously consigned both the Law and the Prophets to oblivion; they remained hard and stubborn, and were intemperately unrestrained. For they did not wish to acknowledge the Redeemer, the Prince of salvation, who justifies the ungodly, who can free from every crime those hindered by human weaknesses.

"I came, therefore," He says—that is, "I assumed humanity and appeared to the Israelites, and there was no man among them"—that is, no one prudent, who could recognize the time of redemption. "I called, and there was none to hear." For thus again the prophet Isaiah himself says, in the person of us all, concerning Christ the Savior: "I was found by those who did not seek Me; I became manifest to those who did not ask for Me. I said, 'Behold, I am here,' to a nation that did not believe in Me. I spread out My hands all the day to a disobedient and contradicting people."

Also in the evangelical writings we shall often find the Lord calling the Jews to faith: "Come to Me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you..." Again elsewhere: "He who follows Me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." Certainly He declares it profitable and useful for them to believe, saying: "Amen, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life." And many other things one could adduce to the same effect, if indeed one wished to pursue the matter at length.

"Therefore," He says, "I called, but there was none to hear." However, perhaps those who were offended by such remarkable folly, with hard and stubborn heart, will say that My hand is not able to deliver the world. But truly these people do not think correctly. For, as I said, though He was in our form, although the Word was God, He assumed man—indeed, having His origin through the propagation of flesh, born of a woman. Those who knew this and were not ignorant of the depth of His divine nature understood that He, existing by nature as God, possessed sufficient power for the redemption of the world. But the faithless and ignorant approached Him as though He were an ordinary and common man, so much so that they insulted Him and said: "It is not for a good work that we stone You, but for blasphemy, because You, being a man, make Yourself God."

It was consistent for them both to think and to say that His hand could not aid the earth's inhabitants nor deliver those conquered by the devil and sin. But when, He says, you have considered these things, think also something better: for I am not simply a man like you, but rather God, having assumed your likeness and form for the sake of the divine economy, in order to deliver you from death and sin. For I Myself, who speak, am He who once through Moses performed miracles and by ineffable power divided the sea—namely, the Red Sea. For the waters stood like a wall, and the redeemed passed through, those who cast off the yoke of Egyptian bondage.

"I will make the sea desolate"—here He means "I will dry it up." "And I will turn rivers into a wilderness"—again, "I will turn" should be understood as "I have turned." For He made the Jordan stand still and rendered it empty of waters when Jesus led Israel across and brought them into the promised land. And what He says about fish drying up in the waters, understand this as signifying that the entire Jordan was dried up; this is what is assumed. The divine David also makes mention of this so illustrious and great miracle, saying somewhere: "What ails you, O sea, that you fled? And you, O Jordan, that you turned back?" Elsewhere again: "The waters saw You, O God; the waters saw You and were afraid; the abysses trembled. The voice of Your thunder was in the whirlwind..." Concerning the Jordan again He thus says: "You dried up rivers, even Etham"—that is, southern rivers.

He also mentions another miracle and says: "I will clothe the heavens with darkness, and I will make sackcloth their covering"—and again, "I will clothe" should be understood as "I clothed." For we recall that the most wise Moses wrote that three days of profound darkness covered the Egyptian region, yet no harm whatsoever came to the Israelites, for whom there was day and light. This is marvelous and cannot be expressed or explained by any words.

Since, therefore, He says, "I am He who both appeared in the flesh and formerly made the sea desolate"—or dried it up—and accomplished this also in rivers, and clothed the vast heaven with darkness, and by many proofs made it plain that I am Lord of all, that nothing is beyond My power—why would it not be ridiculous, or rather akin to the charge of impiety, if anyone should think and say that My hand is not able to deliver?

Isa 50:4–5: "The Lord gives Me the tongue of instruction, that I may know how to speak a word in season. He awakens Me morning by morning; He awakens My ear to hear as those who are taught. The Lord God has opened My ear, and I was not rebellious, I turned not backward. I gave My back to those who strike, and My cheeks to those who pull out the beard; I hid not My face from shame and spitting. For the Lord God helps Me; therefore I have not been confounded; therefore I have set My face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed. He is near who justifies Me."

It is not inconsistent—indeed, it is most perfectly in accord with correct interpretation—to apply these words to the choir of the holy apostles, or even to all who believe in our Lord Jesus Christ, who have been instructed by the Spirit and thereby have their mind and intellect richly illumined, who have become partakers of divine charisms and have been able to contemplate with pure eyes of the soul the depth of divinely inspired Scripture, and who have attained a right and evangelical manner of life, prudence, and knowledge befitting the saints.

These, therefore, singing songs of thanksgiving, say that a "tongue of instruction" has been given to them—that is, that they may be able to speak with knowledge and to explain the divine mysteries blamelessly, [knowing] when and how it is fitting to use words of consolation. This indeed the divine disciples did, filling and heaping up souls and hearts with sound and immaculate knowledge of the Christian faith, offering to each of those who approached the divine preaching one discourse or another, as was suitable for each. For to those still infant, they excellently proposed, as it were, milk—the discourse of simple instruction or catechesis; but to those advancing toward the perfect man and attaining to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, they gave solid food, most fitting for nourishment.

This, therefore, was the "tongue of instruction" and the gift of knowledge: [knowing] when it is necessary to speak the word. They say that "morning" has been added to them—that is, in soul and heart, the splendor of divine and intelligible light, the rising of the morning star. And this again we shall understand from the blessed Paul writing thus: "Giving thanks to God and the Father, who has delivered us from the power of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in the light." For "the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, so that the illumination of the gospel of the glory of Christ might not dawn on them"; but to us "the sun of righteousness has risen," flooding our minds with divine light, so that we may be and be called sons of light and of the day.

Then He adds: "He has opened My ear to hear, and the discipline of the Lord opens My ears." For when we have admitted faith in Christ and have been enriched by illumination from Him, we have the "opening of the ear"—that is, the capacity and power for hearing things unusual and not customary. For the Jews, reading the Law of old, do not pass beyond the shadow, but cling to bare types alone. For "the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God," as it is written. But we, believing the Law to be a tutor, when we admit the Mosaic [writings] into our ear, we understand them with different ears and transfer the figures to the truth, and turn the shadow into an occasion for spiritual contemplation.

We therefore have the "opening of the ear." For "discipline" through Christ is the evangelical proclamation, and its mystagogy teaches [us] to understand the Law spiritually and opens the ears of those who have believed in Him—[ears] which the Israelites did not have. Therefore our Lord Jesus Christ addresses them: "Search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me. But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life." And the most wise Paul writes and says concerning them: "But their minds were blinded; for until this day the same veil remains unlifted in the reading of the Old Testament, which veil is done away in Christ."

Isa 50:6–7: "I gave My back to the strikers, and My cheeks to those who plucked out the beard; I did not hide My face from shame and spitting. For the Lord God is My helper; therefore I will not be confounded, therefore I have set My face like a firm rock, and I know that I shall not be ashamed, for He who justifies Me is near."

From what has already been read and examined above, He has strongly inveighed against the disobedience of the Jews. For He said: "I came, and there was no man; and I called, and there was none to hear." Meanwhile, the person of those who have embraced [the faith] is introduced, who said: "The Lord gives Me the tongue of instruction, that I may know when to speak the word," and what follows—those who also resounded with voices of thanksgiving. Again, the person of Christ Himself interposes, opposing His obedience to the contumacy of the Jews, so that He might altogether convince them to be enemies of God, and [convince] those who lift up a proud and stubborn neck against Him who calls [them] to salvation.

"For I called," He says, "and there was none to hear." They became slothful, and too slow and ignorant, and unfit for understanding what would be to their advantage, and by what means and in what ways it was likely they could escape both the tyranny of sin and the snares of diabolical perversity—and indeed without any labor; but these refused. "But I did not refuse, nor did I contradict." For when God willed, so to speak, to sum up all things in Me—both heavenly and earthly—I emptied Myself and descended to the measure of humanity, appearing as man, that I might be [faithful] even unto death, and indeed the death of the cross.

"Therefore I gave My back to blows, and My cheeks to slaps. But My face I did not turn away from the shame of spittings." For this befell Him to suffer when both the ignorance of the Jews raged against Him, and Pilate scourged [Him], and one of the impious servants treated [Him] contemptuously, struck [Him], and the rest spat upon [Him]. But this alone was the aim of the Sufferer: to carry out the good will of the Father. Indeed, Christ said: "I came down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day." Therefore, that He might procure for those who believe in Him life, He did not refuse insults, nor blows, nor the trial of spittings—however much He was by nature God and true Lord.

Then He says, as man: "The Lord has become My helper; therefore I have not been confounded, but I have set My face like a firm rock." And I knew that I would be affected by no disgrace, "because He who justifies Me is near." He speaks, therefore, as I said, according to human custom, and always in a manner consistent with the measure of His self-emptying. But by these words He seems to hint at the punishment that awaits those guilty of impiety toward Him. For He says: "The Lord has become My helper." It is as if He should say: "When I gave My back to blows, and My cheeks to slaps, and endured the passion of the cross, the Father became My helper." For He succored [Me] and did not allow His Son to be utterly covered with shame and disgraced. For those who dared to fight against God were afflicted with punishment and paid the penalties for their offenses against Me.

When He adds "He who justifies Me is near," He again elegantly intimates that the punishment of those raging against Him is not far off, nor thereafter to be delayed, but as it were near at hand and to accompany their deeds, so to speak, as a follower. Moreover, we say that the Son is "justified" in a certain manner. For when they dared to kill One who was just and in no way associated with crimes—as I said—they were afflicted with punishment, and the punishment of those who suffered [at His hands] testifies to the innocence of Him who was contemptuously abused by them and impiously [treated]. Such is what was said: "God and the Father: And I will give the wicked for His burial, and the rich for His death." He calls the leaders of the Jews "rich and wicked." For burning with incredible covetousness, they were thrust into this wickedness on that account. For although they recognized Him, they said: "This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and let us seize his inheritance for ourselves."

Isa 50:8: "Who is he that contends with Me? Let him stand against Me together. And who is he that contends with Me? Let him draw near to Me."

That He is just and wholly innocent, and did not commit those sins which the Jews in their raging fastened upon Him, the divine prophet Isaiah himself will confirm, saying concerning Him: "Behold, the just man has perished, and no one lays it to heart." And again, as though in the person of the Jews concerning Him: "Let us bind the just man, for he is useless to us." The matter itself also cries out this. For it is impossible that the divine and pure nature of the Word should deviate from what is proper and befitting to Itself, or conceive the stain of sin. For it was said concerning the Savior of us all, Christ: "He knew no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth."

Since, therefore, He declares Himself innocent and just, having endured plots from the Jewish synagogue, He necessarily addresses those who either utterly ignored His innocence or thought that nothing unworthy had been done to Him, but that He justly suffered those things on the cross, and He says: "Who is he that contends with Me? Let him stand against Me together." Similar to this is what was expressly said by Christ Himself to the Scribes and Pharisees: "Which of you convicts Me of sin? If I tell the truth, why do you not believe Me?" For although it came to pass—as we [believe]—that the Only-Begotten Word of God assumed this same likeness entirely, nevertheless even in this respect He alone is believed to possess a nature more exalted than ours. For since all men are subject to offenses and sins, and there is no one whose life is entirely free from reproach, He alone, even when He became man, retained His divine dignity. For the nature of God may rightly be considered too great to be able to sin.

Therefore He also said: "The prince of this world comes, and in Me he finds nothing." For He who became like us, that He might deliver us from the snares of sin—how could He be convicted of sin with us, or how could God, who justifies, condemn all who believe in Him? "Who is he that condemns?"

Isa 50:9: "Behold, the Lord God helps Me; who is he that will harm Me? Behold, all of you shall grow old like a garment; the moth shall eat you up."

By these two things He wishes to teach those who labored with impious and unjust envy against Him both what is profitable and what is necessary: first, that the counsel against Him and the nefarious deed would be utterly void; second, that those who sinned against Him would pay bitter and intolerable penalties. For they thought they could deliver to death the Captain of life, the Lord. But as the Psalmist says: "They took counsel together, but they could not establish it." For it was impossible, since He Himself was Life, that He should be conquered by death. Therefore He was raised by the power of God and the Father, just as it is written; nor is the Word and God weak, insofar as He is understood, so that He could not cast off the corruption of His flesh—but because He became man, and this He was seen to have received from the Father. For all things are given to man by God. For that God and the Father through Him abolished the dominion of death may be evident from the resurrection from the dead, when He says to the crowd of Jews: "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." But because that which is above the hand and nature of man is accustomed to be attributed to the Person of the Father, therefore here also He speaks according to human custom, lest their plots and vain efforts should [seem to] prevail.

"Behold, the Lord succors Me; who will harm Me?" For, He says, with God and the Father succoring and blotting out all your wickedness, and establishing My glory, who among you will be so great as to resist His immutable counsel, or be able to harm him who is helped by Him? Therefore the Scribes and Pharisees, if indeed they had been prudent, would have abstained from the counsels and attempts they were devising against Him, since they had read beforehand from the holy prophets that no one could harm Christ—God and Lord, and true Son of the Father. But they themselves drew down upon themselves this dire and most audacious punishment.

And He teaches this when He added above: "Behold, all of you shall grow old like a garment, and the moth shall eat you up"—that is, you shall pass into old age, into corruption and destruction, worn down by many evils and inescapable [ones], and an incurable calamity shall consume you like a moth. The prophet Isaiah again says this to them elsewhere: "Why will you still be struck, adding to sin? Every head is sick, and every heart faints. From the sole of the foot even to the head there is no soundness in it, but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores; they have not been closed or bound up, nor softened with ointment. Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire; strangers devour your land in your presence, and it is desolate, overthrown by foreigners."

This prediction would have been sufficiently powerful to persuade the Jews to keep quiet and in no way offend God—if indeed, as I said, they were about to pay penalties for their vain [efforts] and utterly fall into ruin and destruction.

"Who is among you that fears the Lord? Let him hear the voice of His Servant." Just as He says they "shall grow old like a garment"—all who wish to labor uselessly and exult in raging against Him—for He says: "Behold, all of you shall grow old like a garment, and the moth shall eat you up." He proceeds thenceforth to show His loving-kindness to upright and moderate men, and points out to them the path of salvation. For very many Israelites believed, just as is openly proclaimed in the Acts of the Apostles. For remnants were saved, whose firstfruits and initial spoils, as it were, were the divine disciples.

Therefore, to those more ready to receive the faith, He proposes clemency, saying: "Whoever among you fears the Lord, let him hear the voice of His Servant." When He calls Himself the "Servant of God," He intimates that He, the true Son of God and the Father, became man. And to "hear the voice of His Servant" was not a transgression of the Law, but a confirmation of the Law—which beforehand described the truth, which is Christ, and His oracles, through type and shadow. Hence the most wise Paul also writes and says: "Do we then make void the Law through faith? Certainly not! On the contrary, we establish the Law. For it is written: 'The just shall live by faith.'" And the mystery of Christ was the end of the Law and the Prophets, justifying the ungodly through faith and freeing from sins those who were bound by transgressions. Therefore, to "hear the voice of Christ"—that is, to receive the evangelical and saving proclamation—was the confirmation of the Law.

Moreover, that it seemed good to God and the Father that the inhabitants of the earth should be instructed by the voice of the Son, the power of the evangelical writings can demonstrate to the more prudent. For Christ was transfigured on the mountain, and His face shone like the sun, and His garments became white as light; and Moses and Elijah appeared, conversing with one another; and then the voice of God and the Father was made, announcing and saying to the holy apostles: "This is My beloved Son; hear Him." If, therefore, He says, there is anyone who has the fear of God in his soul and has laid it up and hidden it as a certain treasure, let him "hear the voice of His Servant." But this is, as I said, the evangelical and divine proclamation, calling to redemption through faith in Christ and to a holy manner of life, more excellent than legal observance. For the former, as I said, was in shadows; this has illustrious and manifest truth.

Isa 50:10: "Who among you walks in darkness and has no light? Let him trust in the name of the Lord and lean upon his God."

Most skilled physicians sometimes mix certain aids of gentle remedies with biting medicines, at times soothing the bitter and sharper pain only by a kind of charm. Such also we now find our Lord Jesus Christ to have done. For He reproves them as walking in darkness and as it were held in fog and altogether deprived of light—divine light, that is, and that which falls under understanding—and proceeding not toward those things that make for salvation and benefit, but rather toward those which easily drag [them] down into the abyss of destruction. For those who are in darkness cannot walk with upright foot. For they are carried into a pit, whoever may be found [there], and if stones are cast [at them], they stumble through imprudence.

"To you, therefore," He says, "I propose admonitions—to you who are versed in darkness and do not admit My light with due consideration: Trust in the name of the Lord, and lean upon God." For the Jewish people, when by remarkable [condescension] they saw the Only-Begotten Word of God in a form like ours—that is, having become man—did not understand concerning Him, but imprudently took offense at opprobrious words, at times calling Him a Samaritan and a drunkard, incited to anger by false zeal. For they said: "It is not for a good work that we stone You, but for blasphemy, because You, being a man, make Yourself God."

Necessarily, therefore—as I already said—having become man, He declares to them His excellent and most divine glory, and always needs Him who preserves [Him], and [needs] the saving and powerful hand; and He draws [them] away from lowly thought concerning Himself, saying: "Trust in the name of the Lord, and lean upon God." Most expressly, therefore, He says that He is Lord and God, drawing [them] away—as I said—from wishing or thinking or saying certain lowly and abject things concerning Him. But it is glorious for those who have received faith to trust in Him and to constitute Him as a rod and support for themselves. For He sustains all things, that they may be well. And this, I suppose, the divine Lyricist teaches, saying to the Father and Lord of all: "Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me." For the human mind is unstable and precipitous toward the things of this world, and very prone to base pleasures and the pursuit of the flesh, unless someone extend a helping hand, so that even those who have been made partakers of aid may say: "He set my feet upon a rock, and established my steps."

Moreover, that the mind of the Jews was surrounded by darkness and fog may be seen from the Sacred Scriptures. For the most wise Paul says: "The god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, so that the illumination of the gospel of the glory of Christ might not dawn on them." Likewise the divine prophet Isaiah says thus concerning those sprung from Israelite blood: "While they waited for light, darkness came upon them; and while they waited for brightness, they walked in obscurity." Christ Himself also called them to the light, saying: "I am the light of the world; he who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." Therefore it is true that for those who refuse to follow Him, it will altogether happen that they walk in night and darkness.

Isa 50:11: "Behold, all you who kindle a fire and equip yourselves with burning brands! Walk in the light of your fire and in the brands you have kindled. This you shall have from My hand: you shall lie down in sorrow."

He shows them something else which seemed able to lead them without labor to right thinking. For the recollection of punishments renders even a disobedient and stubborn mind, by a certain useful terror, in a way tractable and compliant. He says, therefore, that they kindle a fire in themselves and strengthen a flame. For since by long disobedience they give offense and have a heart that is intractable, they arouse against themselves an inextinguishable flame—namely, of punishment.

Similar in sense to this is what was expressly said by the Savior of us all, Christ: "He who believes in the Son is not judged; but he who does not believe is already judged, because he has not believed in the name of the Son of God." For what else is "to be judged" than to fall into flame and into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels? But when He adds "you have equipped yourselves with burning brands," He hints at something harsh. And indeed it is true: for those who supply material to fire which kindles it render it stronger and firmer. For the flame rages, so to speak, from abundant material; but not abounding in many logs, it becomes weaker.

The Jews, therefore, kindled a fire in themselves by killing the prophets and stoning those who were sent. Moreover, they strengthened and increased their flame when to their former crimes they added raging against Christ. For they added [insult] to the servants [by attacking] the Son; and the Prince of life, insofar as it lay in them, they killed—even though, as God and Life, He rose again. Since, therefore, adhering to the shadow of the Law, they did not admit the discipline of Christ, therefore most deservedly, although they thought they possessed the light of the Law yet did not truly possess it, He disowns them from fellowship and union with Himself, saying: "Walk in the light of your fire, and in the flame which you have kindled." For there was no light in them; but since they supposed they knew the Law, and afterward were unwilling to admit the Christian doctrine handed down to them, this produced for them this flame and conflagration.

Moreover, He declares that they paid the penalties for their raging against Christ and, entangled in sins, would die, when He adds: "This you shall have from My hand: you shall lie down in sorrow." But what sort of things were these? Their country was laid waste; the wicked perished miserably; and the holy city was captured and fell into the hands of enemies. The temple itself was also burned, and they "slept in sorrow." For those who end their lives uncircumcised and refuse to receive redemption through Christ do not sleep in hope of rewards nor in spiritual tranquility, but in fear of punishments and in sorrow because of them.