Isaiah 59

(Chapter 59, Verses 1, 2) Behold, the hand of the Lord is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither is His ear heavy, that it cannot hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear. (Chapter 70) Is the Lord's hand shortened, that He cannot save, or His ear heavy, that He cannot hear? But your sins have separated you from your God, and because of your sins, He has turned His face away from you, so that He will not show mercy. I could do what I said I would do: You will be confident in the Lord, and He will lift you up to the good things of the land, and He will feed you with the inheritance of Jacob your father, before the completion. For my hand is not shortened, nor is it contracted, that I cannot stretch it out to deliver my people: nor do I have deaf ears, that I cannot hear. From this it is shown that the ears of the Lord, which listen to the righteous and do not listen to sinners, are in no way similar to our ears, which equally hear the spoken word of either justice or injustice; but your sins, like a certain wall in the middle, separate you and God. And so, the Savior in His passion made both one (Ephesians 2), and by breaking down the middle wall of partition, He destroyed enmity in His flesh, so that the blood of Christ might unite those whom the wall of sin had divided. He opened the door of paradise, which had been closed for a long time (Genesis 3), and He extinguished the fiery sword with His own blood, so that the thief might hear: Today you will be with me in paradise (Luke 23:43). And what follows: And because of your sins, He turned His face away from you; to not hear, or to not show mercy, he demonstrates this, that he was not able to bear the stench of sins and their iniquities, but he turned his face away, so as to not see their shamefulness, and he would immediately be forced to strike. In the psalm, when the sinner desiring to see the face of the Lord says: How long, O Lord, will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? (Ps. XII, 1). And elsewhere: Show your face, and we shall be saved. (Ps. LXXIX, 4).

1036. Behold the hand of the Lord is not shortened. Here he sets out the preparation for receiving salvation on the part of the Savior himself.

And first, he sets out the necessity of salvation;

second, the preparation: and the Lord saw (Isa 59:15).

Concerning the first, he does two things:

first, in the person of the Lord, he shows the necessity of salvation, showing the misery of the people;

in the second, the people respond, recalling their misery: therefore is judgment far from us (Isa 59:9).

Concerning the first, he does two things:

first, he shows the cause of their misery;

second, the misery itself: wasting and destruction (Isa 59:7).

1037. Concerning the first, he does two things.

First, he excludes a false cause, from lack of God's power or understanding, because he would not rush to hear: neither is his ear heavy that it cannot hear, above: is my hand shortened? (Isa 50:2).

Rising again with the same flesh as that with which he was buried, [Christ] stands behind the wall of our unbelief, the wall that as we sinned we built with our muddy, dirty works. About these works God spoke through the prophet Isaiah, "But your sins have made a wall between you and God." Behind the wall stands Christ the Lord, and he waits to be called on by the ungodly, and he summons the sinful soul to penitence. Behind the wall where [Christ] stands, he waits for the unbelieving to believe in him until such time as they reach baptism or penitence.

Let us consider our sins, and reviewing the secrets of our action and mind, let us weigh the merits of our conscience.

The Lord can prohibit adversities, but the merits of sinners cause him to give no aid.… Therefore, let your sins and offences be numbered; let the wounds of your conscience be considered; and let each one cease to complain about God and about us, if he understands that he deserves what he suffers.

Scripture is accustomed to call hatred "toil." For the word has more than one meaning. Hatred wastes and withers up the hearts of those who receive it. Thus says the psalmist about someone or about Israel as a whole, "He conceived toil and bore iniquity."

Therefore, since bodies that cannot exist without a place cannot be spatially separated from God, without a doubt neither are the spirits that God created spatially separated from God.For every spirit that God created exists in some place, and God is there. [God], through the grace by means of which he grants to whom he wishes a holy and blessed life, is not in evil spirits; still he is always in all his creatures through his natural power. Thus there is no creature than can be found in whom God is not present through his power. Therefore, that nature can be separated from God that was or is able to be subject to sin. There is no other thing that can go away from God except that substance that is able or has been able to sin with its own will. For Isaiah says, "See, the Lord's hand is not too short to save or his ear too dull to hear. Rather, your iniquities have been barriers between you and your God."

But since we say that God is plenteous in mercy, why is it that when amidst temptations we unceasingly knock and pray, we are not heard and He disregards our prayer? This we are clearly taught by the Prophet when he says, "The Lord's hand is not little, that it cannot save; nor is He hard of hearing, that He cannot hear: but our sins have separated us from Him." … Remember God at all times, and He will remember you whenever you fall into evils.

What the middle wall of partition is, he interprets by saying, "the enmity having abolished in His flesh, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances." Some indeed affirm that he means the wall of the Jews against the Greeks, because it did not allow the Jews to hold intercourse with the Greeks. To me, however, this does not seem to be the meaning, but rather that he calls "the enmity in the flesh," a middle wall, in that it is a common barrier, cutting us off alike from God. As the Prophet says, "Your iniquities separate between you and Me;" for that enmity which He had both against Jews and Gentiles was, as it were, a middle wall. And this, whilst the law existed, was not only not abolished, but rather was strengthened; "for the law," saith the Apostle, "worketh wrath."

It is the greatest punishment to commit sin, though we may remain unpunished; as on the other hand, it is the greatest honour and repose to live virtuously, though we may be punished. For sins separate us from God; as He Himself speaks; "Have not your sins separated between you and Me?" But punishments lead us back to God. As one saith, "Give peace; for Thou hast recompensed us for all things." Suppose any one hath a wound; which is the most deserving of fear, gangrene, or the surgeon's knife? the steel, or the devouring progress of the ulcer? Sin is a gangrene, punishment is the surgeon's knife. As then, he who hath a gangrene, although he is not lanced, hath to sustain the malady, and is then in the worse condition, when he is not lanced; so also the sinner, though he be not punished, is the most wretched of men; and is then especially wretched, when he hath no punishment, and is suffering no distress.

For He Himself never turns away from us, but it is we who put ourselves far off: for "I am a God" we read "at hand and not a God afar off." And again, when He was rebuking them by the mouth of this prophet He said "Do not your sins separate between you and me?" Inasmuch then as this is the cause which puts us far from God, let us remove this obnoxious barrier, which prevents any near approach being made.

But now hear how this has actually occurred in real instances. Amongst the Corinthians some man of mark committed a sin such as was not named even among the Gentiles. This man was a believer and belonged to the household of Christ; and some say that he was actually a member of the priesthood. What then? Did Paul cut him off from the communion of those who were in the way of salvation. By no means: for he himself it is who rebukes the Corinthians countless times, backwards and forwards, because they did not bring the man to a state of repentance: but, desiring to prove to us that there is no sin which cannot be healed, he said again concerning the man who had transgressed more grievously than the Gentiles: "Deliver such an one to Satan for destruction of the flesh that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus Christ."

Second, he adds the true cause, namely, their own fault, first touching upon their fault in general: but your iniquities, as to great sins, have divided, like a wall or clouds might be interposed, and your sins, as to common sins: he said: I will hide my face from them (Deut 32:20).

1048. Note on the words, your iniquities have divided between you and your God (Isa 59:2), that sin divides

first, from one's neighbor through dissension: every kingdom divided against itself shall be brought to desolation (Luke 11:17);

second, from oneself, through contrary affection: their heart is divided: now they shall perish (Hos 10:2);

third, from God, through aversion: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living water, and have dug to themselves broken cisterns (Jer 2:13);

fourth, from the kingdom, through disinheritance: he shall separate him (Luke 12:46);

fifth, from the assembly of the saints through dissimilarity, above: the Lord will divide and separate me from his people (Isa 56:3).

(V. 3, 4.) For your hands are polluted with blood, and your fingers with iniquity: your lips have spoken lies, and your tongue mutters wickedness. There is no one who calls for justice, nor is there anyone who truly judges: but they trust in nothingness, and speak vanities. LXX: For your hands are polluted with blood, and your fingers with sins. Your lips are polluted with iniquity, and your tongue meditates injustice. No one speaks the truth: there is no fair judgment. They trust in empty things, and speak worthless words, injustices and sins. What he has mentioned generally above, he now explains in detail. And it should be considered that he does not accuse them of idolatry, which they were practicing in the time of Isaiah, but rather of shedding blood, about which he had already spoken: The righteous is perishing, and there is no one who takes it to heart. The upright are taken away, and no one understands in his heart. For the righteous man is taken away from the face of wickedness: his grave shall be in peace, and his tomb shall be with honour. Though their hands have not injured in any wise the Lord, yet they take upon them to cry out with blasphemous voices, saying: His blood be upon us and upon our children. His death shall therefore bear witness against them, and their hands shall be defiled. Of whom the same Prophet testifies, saying: If ye stretch forth your hands against me, I will not hear you. Your hands are full of blood. Your lips and tongue speak iniquity and lies, claiming to be Christ's chosen ones but behaving as Antichrists. There is no one among your people who cries out for justice and judges according to truth, or in the Hebrew language, faith in Christ. Instead, they trust in nothingness and speak empty words. Therefore, the Apostle commands us not to pay attention to Jewish fables and the commandments of those who turn away from the truth. For truly they trust in nothing, and they follow vanities, in which is fulfilled the prophecy of the Lord: I am come in my Father's name, and you receive me not: if another shall come in his own name, him you will receive. (John 5:43).

Second, he describes their fault in particular: for your hands. And he touches in particular upon their sins against their neighbor: for he touched upon their sins against God above (Isa 57:3–11), and their sins against themselves, above (Isa 56:11–12).

1038. And he first touches upon the injustice by which they were oppressing others as to action: for your hands are defiled with blood, of the innocent, whom you have killed, and your fingers, as to lesser injustices, or as to the diligence of their action, above: for your hands are full of blood (Isa 1:15); as to speech: your lips have spoken lies, and your tongue utters iniquity, so that the ugliness of injustice is added to the ugliness of lying: and you shall not find iniquity in my tongue (Job 6:30).

Now those who meditate evil, we say, do not [think] truth but falsehood, and not righteousness but iniquity, for their tongue learns to speak lies. They have done evil and have not ceased that they might repent. For, persevering with delight in wicked actions, they hasten thereto without turning back, even treading under foot the commandment with regard to neighbors, and instead of loving them, they devise evil against them, as the saint testifies, saying, "And those who seek my evil have spoken vanity and imagined deceit all the day." But that the cause of such meditation is none other than the lack of instruction the divine proverb has already declared: "The son who forsakes the commandment of his father meditates evil words." But such meditation, because it is evil, the Holy Spirit blames in these words and reproves too in other terms, saying, "Your hands are polluted with blood, your fingers with sins, your lips have spoken lawlessness, and your tongue imagines iniquity: no one speaks right things, nor is there true judgment." But what the end is of such perverse imagining, he immediately declares, saying, "They trust in vanities and speak falsehood, for they conceive mischief and bring forth lawlessness."

And as to omission of justice: there is none that judges, as to superiors, to whom it belongs to judge: seek in the broad places thereof, if you can find a man that executes judgment (Jer 5:1).

1039. Second, he touches upon the cunning by which they deceived others.

And first, he touches upon the cunning itself, inasmuch as they intended their own advantage by it: but they trust in a mere nothing, in vain counsels, or in idols, and speak, expressing the vanity of their hearts with words: you that rejoice in a thing of naught (Amos 6:14); and inasmuch as they intended the oppression of others by it: they have conceived labor, that is, they have devised so to labor at ways of harming; or to bring about labor for others; and brought forth iniquity, in the completion of their work: he has conceived sorrow, and brought forth iniquity (Ps 7:15[14]).

Those who bent their knee to drink are those who inclined themselves totally to philosophy: and the same are inclined to an infinite number of errors, and that is how the leaven of error is warmed. They warm the eggs of asps, so that what has been warmed breaks out into a serpent.

Of such a kind as this, perhaps, is that of which the prophet says, touching the ungodly, "They weave a spider's web." For as in the cobweb there is the appearance of something woven, but no substantiality in the appearance,—for he who touches it touches nothing substantial, as the spider's threads break with the touch of a finger,—just such is the unsubstantial texture of idle phrases. "Not dividing His own essence by begetting and being at once begetter and begotten." Ought we to give his words the name of argument, or to call them rather a swelling of humours secreted by some dropsical inflation? … Who is so distracted, who is so demented, as to make the statement against which Eunomius thinks he is doing battle? For the Church believes that the true Father is truly Father of His own Son, as the Apostle says, not of a Son alien from Him.

"They will hatch adders' eggs." Also the children, whom they have generated, are evil and want to be even more harmful than their parents. "And they have woven a spider's web." As the threads woven by the spider catch the flies, so their schemes catch the poor amid the trials, which they organize arbitrarily. According to Qatraya, he calls "spider's web" their faith in the idols, which is of no use for the [spiders] on the day when they are caught. Through the words "adders' eggs," he shows their venomousness and iniquity, and through "spider's web," their weakness.

(Verse 5, 6.) They conceived labor and gave birth to iniquity: they broke the eggs of vipers and wove spider webs. Whoever eats their eggs will die, and what is hatched will break out into a viper. Their webs will not be turned into clothing, nor will they be covered with their works. LXX: For they bring forth pain and generate iniquity. They broke the eggs of vipers and wove spider webs. And whoever wants to eat their eggs, breaking them open, will find something rotten, and in the end a viper; their webs will not be used for clothing, nor will they be covered with their works. Those who await the coming of the Antichrist cannot say: 'We have conceived and brought forth from fear of you, O Lord, and we have made the spirit of your salvation come upon the earth' (Isaiah 26:18), they conceive pain correctly, and give birth to wickedness, so that they receive iniquity instead of what they seek with much effort; of whom it is written in the Psalms: 'They conceived pain, and brought forth wickedness' (Psalm 7:15). They break and shatter the eggs of asps, so that they may receive their venom in their own minds, of whom it is said in the Gospel: 'You offspring of vipers' (Matthew 3:7). And beautifully they have laid the eggs of asps and serpents, which eggs are said to generate first. And because they not only retain the poisons of malice in their hearts, but also meditate on old wives' fables day and night, they are therefore said: And they weave webs of spiders: by which they catch flies and mosquitoes and small creatures; to which when something happens by chance, it flies through the empty air. Whoever eats, he says, of their eggs, will die, that is, whoever agrees with their counsels, as Abel agreed to Cain when he said, Let us go into the field (Genesis IV, 8), will instantly be killed: or as the Seventy have translated it: Whoever wants to eat of their eggs, he will find decay when crushed, and in it a ruler. For whoever, being deceived by mere appearance, thinks that the eggs of hens and other birds, the consumption of which is harmless, if he breaks them before eating, will immediately recognize the most foul odor and stench, and will find what is cooked, the rule. Or according to Symmachus and Theodotion, the asp. But the eagle put the viper; for which in Hebrew it is read Ephee (). Therefore, whoever, hearing the Jewish traditions, wishes to prepare himself for the pleasures of a thousand years, and being ensnared by the promises, reaches out his hand to the egg: if before he eats, that is, he agrees with deadly words, he wishes first to consider what is said, and to examine each word, and to handle their meaning, he will immediately discover that the Antichrist is being prepared in them. Therefore, according to the Hebrew text, whoever eats from their eggs will die. But according to the Septuagint, whoever breaks them beforehand and carefully looks and sees what lies hidden will discover a most foul stench and the prince of all serpents, the devil, lurking in their traditions. And because he had said above, 'They weave spider webs,' he explains that the weaving of these webs is not profitable. Their labor, he says, and all their teaching does not make the garment of Christ, nor the cloak by which the nakedness of the soul is protected, but they sweat in vain labor, as the same Prophet says: 'This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.' But they worship me in vain, teaching doctrines and precepts of men (Isaiah 29:13): which following, they neglect the law of God. And that we may know that their works are like a spider's web, he added: Neither shall their works cover them. Some have explained this passage thus: They have crushed, or broken, the eggs of asps, that is, they have disregarded all the words of the prophets and have woven for themselves the flattering words of false prophets: of whom whoever partakes, shall be bitten by the serpent; and he will understand that the words of lies have profited him nothing.

(Verse 5, 6.) They conceived labor and gave birth to iniquity: they broke the eggs of vipers and wove spider webs. Whoever eats their eggs will die, and what is hatched will break out into a viper. Their webs will not be turned into clothing, nor will they be covered with their works. LXX: For they bring forth pain and generate iniquity. They broke the eggs of vipers and wove spider webs. And whoever wants to eat their eggs, breaking them open, will find something rotten, and in the end a viper; their webs will not be used for clothing, nor will they be covered with their works. Those who await the coming of the Antichrist cannot say: 'We have conceived and brought forth from fear of you, O Lord, and we have made the spirit of your salvation come upon the earth' (Isaiah 26:18), they conceive pain correctly, and give birth to wickedness, so that they receive iniquity instead of what they seek with much effort; of whom it is written in the Psalms: 'They conceived pain, and brought forth wickedness' (Psalm 7:15). They break and shatter the eggs of asps, so that they may receive their venom in their own minds, of whom it is said in the Gospel: 'You offspring of vipers' (Matthew 3:7). And beautifully they have laid the eggs of asps and serpents, which eggs are said to generate first. And because they not only retain the poisons of malice in their hearts, but also meditate on old wives' fables day and night, they are therefore said: And they weave webs of spiders: by which they catch flies and mosquitoes and small creatures; to which when something happens by chance, it flies through the empty air. Whoever eats, he says, of their eggs, will die, that is, whoever agrees with their counsels, as Abel agreed to Cain when he said, Let us go into the field (Genesis IV, 8), will instantly be killed: or as the Seventy have translated it: Whoever wants to eat of their eggs, he will find decay when crushed, and in it a ruler. For whoever, being deceived by mere appearance, thinks that the eggs of hens and other birds, the consumption of which is harmless, if he breaks them before eating, will immediately recognize the most foul odor and stench, and will find what is cooked, the rule. Or according to Symmachus and Theodotion, the asp. But the eagle put the viper; for which in Hebrew it is read Ephee (). Therefore, whoever, hearing the Jewish traditions, wishes to prepare himself for the pleasures of a thousand years, and being ensnared by the promises, reaches out his hand to the egg: if before he eats, that is, he agrees with deadly words, he wishes first to consider what is said, and to examine each word, and to handle their meaning, he will immediately discover that the Antichrist is being prepared in them. Therefore, according to the Hebrew text, whoever eats from their eggs will die. But according to the Septuagint, whoever breaks them beforehand and carefully looks and sees what lies hidden will discover a most foul stench and the prince of all serpents, the devil, lurking in their traditions. And because he had said above, 'They weave spider webs,' he explains that the weaving of these webs is not profitable. Their labor, he says, and all their teaching does not make the garment of Christ, nor the cloak by which the nakedness of the soul is protected, but they sweat in vain labor, as the same Prophet says: 'This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.' But they worship me in vain, teaching doctrines and precepts of men (Isaiah 29:13): which following, they neglect the law of God. And that we may know that their works are like a spider's web, he added: Neither shall their works cover them. Some have explained this passage thus: They have crushed, or broken, the eggs of asps, that is, they have disregarded all the words of the prophets and have woven for themselves the flattering words of false prophets: of whom whoever partakes, shall be bitten by the serpent; and he will understand that the words of lies have profited him nothing.

1040. Second, he applies a certain metaphor to this. And first, he sets out the metaphor itself as to their cunning, both as to their oppression of others: eggs of asps, that is, counsels full of poison, they have broken, namely, bringing their works in public: their wine is the gall of dragons, and the venom of asps, which is incurable (Deut 32:33); and as to their own advantage: and have woven the webs, that is, thoughts useless for their own advantage: for the calf of Samaria shall be turned to spiders' webs (Hos 8:6). He sets out the metaphor again as to the effect of their cunning, as to the first: he that shall eat, sharing in their deeds, of their eggs, their counsels, and that which is nurtured, carefully prepared for a long time, shall be hatched into a basilisk, as if to say, it will kill even from afar, flying in a certain manner, above: out of the root of the serpent shall come forth a basilisk (Isa 14:29).

And as to the second: their webs shall not be for clothing; that is, as spider webs do not avail for clothing, so their counsels avail nothing for them, if they gain no advantage, above: they shall be confounded that wrought in flax, combing and weaving fine linen (Isa 19:9).

1041. Second, he explains the metaphor. And first, as to action: their works are unprofitable, as to one part, the work of iniquity, as to the other, above: their works shall not profit them (Isa 57:12).

(V. 7, 8.) Their deeds are useless deeds: and the work of iniquity is in their hands. Their feet run towards evil: and they hasten to shed innocent blood. Their thoughts are worthless thoughts: destruction and ruin are in their ways. They have not known the way of peace: and there is no justice in their steps. Their paths are crooked for them: whoever walks on them does not know peace. LXX: For their deeds are the deeds of iniquity: and their feet run towards malice. They are swift to shed innocent blood, and their thoughts are the thoughts of fools. Destruction and misery are in their ways, and they do not know the way of peace. There is no justice in their ways. Their paths are twisted and they do not know peace. Therefore, their deeds are not hidden, for their actions are the works of wickedness, which the Apostle calls unfruitful, that is, having no fruit (Ephesians 5). And their feet run to evil, and they are swift to shed innocent blood (Prov. 1). For they also had the custom of killing the prophets. To whom Stephen was speaking: Which of the prophets have your fathers not persecuted (Acts 7:52)? And the Lord in the Gospel: Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you (Matt. 23:37); and again: On you will come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, son of Berechiah, whom you killed between the temple and the altar (Ibid., 35). And it is said above to them: Your hands are polluted with blood: and your tongue speaks wickedness (Isaiah 1:15). And through this meditation of cruelty and blasphemy, they came to the death of the Lord. Likewise, Judas came to murder through the path of greed, rather sacrilege coupled with greed. And what follows: Their thoughts are the thoughts of foolish ones: destruction and unhappiness are in their ways, and they have not known the way of peace. And above: Their feet are swift to shed blood, the Apostle placed in Romans (Ch. III): which many ignorant people think is taken from the thirteenth psalm, which verses are added in the Vulgate edition and are not found in Hebrew. We have spoken more fully about this at the beginning of this volume. But those who have refused to accept its author have rightly ignored the way of peace. For he himself is our peace, who speaks to the Apostles: Peace I give to you, my peace I leave with you (John XIV, 27). And to Jerusalem: If you knew the things that are for your peace, for the days shall come upon you when your enemies shall cast a trench about you, and encompass you round, and straiten you on every side, And beat you flat to the ground, and your children who are in you. It follows: Their paths are perverse, not by nature, but by their own will. For whatever is distorted and curved, is twisted from straight to crooked. Every teaching of the Pharisees is a subversion of truth, through which one who follows it not only does not find peace, but also does not even know it, so as to know what they should seek.

What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin; As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips: Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: Their feet are swift to shed blood: Destruction and misery are in their ways: And the way of peace have they not known: There is no fear of God before their eyes. [Isaiah 59:7-8] Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.

They sin with all parts of the body, through hands, feet, tongue. But it is the life inside their minds that sins before all of these once it has fallen into imprudence, so that it cannot recognize the peace that is at hand.

Second, as to thoughts: their feet, that is, their affections, as to one part: their feet run to evil (Prov 1:16); their thoughts, as to the other: woe to you that devise that which is unprofitable (Mic 2:1).

1042. Wasting. Here he shows them their misery. And first, he sets out the magnitude of their misery: wasting, as to injury to things, and destruction, as to injury to persons, are in their ways, that is, wasting and destruction by their enemies threaten them because of their evil ways.

Second, the fairness of their misery, namely that they suffer the kinds of things that they do to others: the way of peace, by which they might have set others in peace; there is no right judgment, and therefore, their paths, that is, the things they devise, are become crooked, that is, they are made curved to them, because what they prepared for others, they themselves will suffer; every one that treads, following them, knows no peace, with the knowledge of experience: destruction and unhappiness in their ways; and the way of peace they have not known (Ps 13[14]:3).

1049. Note also on the words, their paths are become crooked (Isa 59:8), that there is the crookedness

first, of guilt, above: bow down, that we may go over (Isa 51:23);

second, of misery: I am become miserable, and am bowed down even to the end (Ps 37:7[38:6]);

third, of sadness: the soul that is sorrowful for the greatness of evil she has done, and goes bowed down (Bar 2:18);

fourth, of fraud: though he humble himself and go crouching, yet take good heed and beware of him (Sir 12:11);

fifth, of justice: God, whose wrath no man can resist, and under whom they stoop that bear up the world (Job 9:13).

Because of this, judgment has been far from us: and justice does not overtake us. We waited for light, and behold darkness: for brightness, and we have walked in gloom. LXX: Therefore judgment has withdrawn from them, and justice does not apprehend them. While they wait for light, darkness shall come upon them. After the accusation of the Jewish people, their Prophet responded, advising what repentant individuals should say if they wish to receive healing after their wounds. And I am amazed why the Seventy, as if speaking on behalf of the Prophet, do not respond to the words of the Prophets themselves, but instead weave together a prayer, when later, overcome by the truth, they themselves do the same, saying: We have waited for judgment, and it has not come; salvation has moved far from us. For our iniquities are many in your sight; and our sins testify against us, and we know them. In this present time, everything is being fulfilled. Judgment has been delayed for the Jews, which has been announced to the Gentiles. And justice, which has been embraced by the nations, will not seize them. They have waited for the light, saying: Send forth your light and your truth (Ps. 42:3), which had been promised to them through the prophets, and they are occupied with the darkness of error. They sustained splendor; and they walked in darkness.

1043. Therefore is judgment far from us. Here the people confess. And first, they confess their misery as to the injustice of the enemies oppressing them: judgment is far from us, because God does not judge us from our adversaries: the contrary is found above: I have brought my justice near (Isa 46:13[12]); as to the distress of their tribulations, setting out the obscurity of tribulation under the metaphor of darkness: we looked for light, divine consolation, and behold darkness, of tribulation, above: we shall look towards the land, and behold darkness of tribulation (Isa 5:30).

At times even we, when we were in error, mired in the pride of our mind as if our feet were stuck in the mud, did not perceive our error of the divine gospel each day. We would "grope around in the dark like blind people," because our inner mind did not possess that which is necessary for discernment. Then, as if from a deep sleep, the mercy of the Most High poured out like pure rain, was sprinkled on our drowsiness, and from our sleep we were roused and boldly took up this mirror to see our self in it. At that very moment we were convicted by our faults, and we discovered that we were barren of any good virtue and that we had become a dwelling place for every corrupting thought and a lodge and abode for every lust.

We have groped like the blind against a wall: and we have touched as if without eyes: we have stumbled at noonday, as if in darkness: we are in dusky places as dead. LXX: They shall grope in the dark and feel their way like blind men; they shall stumble at noonday as in the twilight; they shall be like those who die in the midst of their groaning. Thus they handle the holy Scriptures, like blind people feeling the wall, seeking only words and leaves, not understanding the meaning and fruit that is held within the letters. Finally, the author joins and says: We stumble, or we fall at midday, as if in darkness: in the shadows, as if dead. For in the whole world, with the sun of righteousness shining brightly, they dwell in darkness, namely because they are dead in sin.

This is to be understood that just as there are eyes where there is no light or there is light but not eyes to see it with, they are unable to see the matter at hand; so it is necessary that the one who wants to understand the sense must not miss what is offered as wisdom from the holy Scriptures.There will be on that day so much groaning and howling, just as a bear when it is robbed of her cubs, or even as with doves who by nature constantly moan.

And the difficulty of deliberations: we have groped, as though not knowing what to do, above: who is blind, but my servant? (Isa 42:19); and injury from dangers: we have stumbled at noonday, on these things where there was a clear way for us to avoid them, we are in dark places, that is, in doubts: they shall meet with darkness in the day (Job 5:14).

And, like doves, we groan, without sense and understanding of the Scriptures, only meditating on words that we recite from memory. But just as the doves, of which it is written: Ephraim is like a dove without sense (Hosea 7:11); and just as in the Gospel, simplicity is set against the malice of serpents (Matthew 10): so in the present place, simplicity without prudence, which is close to foolishness, is shown in the meditation on words alone.

We roar like bears, all of us: and we moan like doves, meditating. We waited for judgment, and it does not come: for salvation, and it is far from us. LXX: They shall be like a bear and a dove walking together. We hoped for judgment, but there is none; salvation has far from us. He says, let us roar like bears, and let us moan like doves; that they may be equally cruel and miserable: fierce and savage towards the humble and submissive: fearful and trembling before those who are stronger, whom they dread like hawks. We also read in another place: Like a bear robbed of her cubs. And in Daniel, a bloody kingdom compared to the fiercest bears (2 Kings 17:8; Dan. 7). And, like doves, we groan, without sense and understanding of the Scriptures, only meditating on words that we recite from memory. But just as the doves, of which it is written: Ephraim is like a dove without sense (Hosea VII, 11); and just as in the Gospel, simplicity is set against the malice of serpents (Matthew X): so in the present place, simplicity without prudence, which is close to foolishness, is shown in the meditation on words alone. They will await judgment, and it will not come. Salvation is implied: they will wait and it will not come, because she has migrated far away to the nations. In this, it should be noted that everything is said in the future tense, so that what the Jews are now enduring is indicated.

1044. They also confess their misery as to sadness of heart: we shall roar all of us like bears, on account of their cruelty; as mournful doves, on account of their lewdness: mourning as doves (Nah 2:7); and as to the absence of salvation: we have looked for judgment, for ourselves: we looked for peace and no good came (Jer 8:15).

For this reason righteousness and peace are far from you, since each has abandoned the fear of God and grown blind in his faith and ceased to walk by the rules of his precepts or to behave in a way worthy of Christ. Rather does each follow the lusts of his evil heart by reviving that wicked and unholy rivalry, by which, indeed, "death came into the world."

For just as the deeds of the wicked are their accusers before the righteous Judge, making them bend and bow down their heads silently in shame, so also their beautiful deeds plead cause for the good before the good One. For the deeds of all humankind are both silent and speak silently by their nature, yet they speak when one sees them.In that place there is no interrogation, for [God] is the judge of knowledge; nor is there any response, for when he sees it, he hears. He hears with sight, and he sees with hearing.

Our iniquities have multiplied before you, and our sins have answered us: for our crimes are with us, and we know our iniquities. LXX: For our iniquity is great in your sight, and our sins have held us back. For our iniquities are within us, and we have acknowledged our injustices. For our iniquities have multiplied, saying, our iniquities are before you, from whom you have turned away your face for a long time, so that you would not see them, nor strike us. And our sins have answered against us, so that we receive what we deserve. And our crimes are with us: we have recognized our injustices, which we used to think were righteousness for a long time.

It was not you who failed to be concerned for us, but it was our life of iniquity that deprived us of your care and concern.

1045. Second, they confess their fault. And first, the manifestation of their fault as to God: for our iniquities are multiplied before you, in your sight: all things are naked and open to his eyes (Heb 4:13); and as to the people themselves: and our sins have answered us, in punishments, for our wicked doings are with us, because we do not make satisfaction or correct our ways, above: the show of their countenance has answered them (Isa 3:9).

To sin and lie against the Lord: and we turned away, so as not to go after the back of our Lord, to speak calumny, and we conceived transgression, and we spoke deceitful words from the heart. LXX: We have acted impiously, and we have lied, and we have turned away from our God. We have spoken wickedly and we have been disobedient. We have conceived and contemplated wicked words in our hearts. But what are these injustices? To sin and to lie against God: or as Aquila translated according to the Hebrew, to deny God: which refers to the Savior. And they say: We have abandoned our God, saying: We know that God spoke to Moses: but we do not know where this one comes from (John 9:29), so that we may speak false accusations, If this man were from God, he would not break the Sabbath (Ibid., 16). And he cast out devils from the prince of devils (Luke 11:15). And transgression, which is more significantly called apostasy in Greek, is when someone denies God and is accused of rebellion. We have conceived and spoken words of falsehood from the heart, despising the law of God and following the traditions of men, which they call second commandments, and which we have pretended in our heart.

Second, the variety of their sins, against God: in sinning, in deed, and lying, in speech, we have turned away, in omission; and against their neighbor, in speech: but spoke calumny, against our neighbor; and against the law: and transgression: from the heart come forth evil thoughts (Matt 15:19).

And judgment has been turned away backwards, and justice has stood far off, for truth has fallen down in the street, and equity could not enter. LXX: And we have gone away from judgement, and justice stands far away, because truth has been consumed in their ways, and they were not able to pass through the straight path. And judgment is turned away backward, and justice stands afar off. For what part does justice have with iniquity? What fellowship does Christ have with Belial? Righteousness has stood among the nations and has departed from us, for truth has fallen in the squares. For the way that leads to death is wide and spacious (Matthew 7), for they refused to enter the narrow path where truth resides.

The prophetic text makes this statement detailed in order to invite those who desire help to appease the Lord by saying something like the following: We acknowledge our offenses, we have recognized our impiety, we have spoken falsely against you, our Master, since we promised to keep your laws and we have violated them. We have not ceased contradicting you, uttering words of unrighteousness, proposing things that are unjust, failing to dread your judgment. We have kept ourselves far from righteousness. After this, he changes the form of his statements and puts their accusation categorically: "For truth is consumed in their ways." It has vanished, he says, because deceit has veiled it. "And they could not pass by a straight path." For they have not stopped taking the opposite route.

And as to action, and judgment is turned away backward, that is, the judgment of God for saving us; in the street, they carried out their injustices in public.

And truth has been turned into forgetfulness, and those who have turned away from evil have become a prey. LXX: And truth has been taken away, and they have turned their mind so that they do not understand. And truth has been forgotten, as it is written: Truth has sprung up from the earth, and righteousness has looked down from heaven (Psalm 85:12). It should be noted that the truth is frequently mentioned in order to show the person of Christ, whom they abandoned and followed falsehood. And he who departed from evil was exposed to plunder. Although this may seem obscure, it can be explained as follows: when we fabricate lies from our own hearts and abandon God's law, righteousness remains far away, and truth falls in the streets, and fairness cannot enter us, and the Son of God, who is the truth, is forgotten: to such an extent that whoever desires to depart from the traditions of the Jews immediately becomes exposed to snares and persecutions, so that they expelled the man blind from birth who received sight from the synagogues (John 9). And after the resurrection of the Lord Savior, all those who believed in him were persecuted and stripped: to whom the ministries of the Church were directed, which were distributed through the hands of the Apostles to the whole world of the nations.

He has shown how truth has departed: they did not want to consider their duty, he says, but they have distorted their intelligence so as not to understand what ought to be done and what is useful. "The truth in this has disappeared, and the person who turned away from evil has been besieged." They have distanced themselves so far from the truth that they openly combat those who turn away from perversity and choose the good.

He that departed from evil, lay open to be a prey, for not only did they do wicked deeds, but they plundered those who would not: there is no mercy (Hos 4:1); let us lie in wait for the just, because he is contrary to our doings (Wis 2:12).

1046. And the Lord saw. Here he sets out the preparation of salvation on the part of the Savior. And first, he sets out the manner of preparation, speaking of God according to a human manner. He sets out his compassion: and the Lord saw, with the eye of mercy, there is no judgment, of anyone to save.

(Verse 16, 17.) And the Lord saw, and evil appeared in his eyes: because there is no justice, and he saw that there is no man, and he was astonished, because there is no one to oppose. And his own arm will save him: and his righteousness itself will strengthen him. He is clothed with righteousness as with a breastplate, and the helmet of salvation on his head. He is clothed with garments of vengeance, and covered with a cloak of zeal. As for revenge, it is like retaliation for his enemies, and retribution for his foes; he will repay the islands. LXX: The Lord saw, and it displeased him that there was no justice. He saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no one to intercede; then his own arm brought him salvation, and his righteousness upheld him. He put on righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation on his head; he put on garments of vengeance for clothing, and wrapped himself in fury as in a mantle, repaying his enemies with their just deserts. Up to this point, the prophetic discourse has been from the perspective of the people: now the prophet speaks from his own perspective. While they were saying these things, the Lord saw that they were professing repentance with their mouths, but not acting with their hearts, and this did not please Him. For He sought truth in judgment among them, which had been transferred to the nations, but He did not find it. He desired a righteous man who could meet Him in anger, but He did not find one; as He had previously said: 'I came, and there was no man; I called, and there was none to hear.' (Isaiah 50:2) And because those who persist in wickedness, not even one righteous person is found: but all have turned away, and together they have become useless; there is no one who does good, not even one (Psalm 14). But God has strengthened him with his arm and righteousness, and confirmed him with mercy, so that those who desire to turn from error may be saved not by their own merit, but by God's mercy. Finally, he has put on the armor of righteousness, and the helmet of salvation, and the garments of vengeance, and has wrapped himself in the cloak of zeal. Thus, armed, he has gone forth to battle, to exact vengeance upon his enemies. Without a doubt, this signifies the Jews, who persist in blasphemies, and the Roman army surrounding their enemies. When they are conquered, the Lord is shown to have fought. Paul used this testimony when writing to the Ephesians, and wanting us to put on the armor of Christ, by which we may be able to resist the fiery darts of the devil (Ephesians 6). And this is not found in the Septuagint: He will repay the islands, that is, he means the cities of Judea, which the Roman army devastated. For also above (Chapter 20), the Lord speaks to the inhabitants of the island, that is, to Jerusalem, through the Prophet.

For the unjust deeds displeased the just judge so he did not call the workers of these deeds "humans," for although being in an honored place they do not understand and are comparable to the unthinking beasts and resemble them.… In place of "mercy" the three translators have rendered "justice," so as to say "he has exacted a just recompense on them." It calls the operation of God his "arm," while "mercy" teaches the usefulness of discipline. The God of all things disciplines for profit.

And the Lord saw. Here he sets out the preparation of salvation on the part of the Savior. And first, he sets out the manner of preparation, speaking of God according to a human manner. He sets out his compassion: and the Lord saw, with the eye of mercy, there is no judgment, of anyone to save. And he saw that there is not a man, saving the Jews, and he stood astonished, saddened or distressed: and I sought among them for a man (Ezek 22:30). And he sets out the taking up of armor: and his own arm brought salvation to him, that is, his power, that he should suffer nothing contrary, or the people to the worship of him; his own justice supported him, that his vengeance be executed firmly; he put on justice as a breastplate: for as a soldier is strengthened by armor, so his work is strengthened by justice and his intention to save: his arm has wrought for him salvation (Ps 97[98]:1); he will put on justice as a breastplate (Wis 5:19).

But God has strengthened him with his arm and righteousness, and confirmed him with mercy, so that those who desire to turn from error may be saved not by their own merit, but by God's mercy. Finally, he has put on the armor of righteousness, and the helmet of salvation, and the garments of vengeance, and has wrapped himself in the cloak of zeal. Thus, armed, he has gone forth to battle, to exact vengeance upon his enemies. Without a doubt, this signifies the Jews, who persist in blasphemies, and the Roman army surrounding their enemies. When they are conquered, the Lord is shown to have fought. Paul used this testimony when writing to the Ephesians, and wanting us to put on the armor of Christ, by which we may be able to resist the fiery darts of the devil. And this is not found in the Septuagint: He will repay the islands, that is, he means the cities of Judea, which the Roman army devastated. For also above, the Lord speaks to the inhabitants of the island, that is, to Jerusalem, through the Prophet.

[Isaiah] says that God shares salvation, which is exchanged for repentance and understanding with those deserving, who put on righteousness just as if it were their garment. He says nothing less than that God is girded with the righteous deeds of human beings, just like body and head armor. Such things are said with reference to God to enthuse the listeners and to raise up their thoughts as being those capable of becoming the garment of God and so sharing his righteousness.

He put on justice as a breastplate: for as a soldier is strengthened by armor, so his work is strengthened by justice and his intention to save: his arm has wrought for him salvation (Ps 97[98]:1); he will put on justice as a breastplate (Wis 5:19).

And he sets out the execution of vengeance: to the islands, the various peoples, the like, for the wicked things which they did to the Jews: let all men dread and fear the God of Daniel (Dan 6:26).

(Verse 19, 20) And those from the West shall fear the name of the Lord, and those from the East, His glory, when He comes like a rushing river, driven by the breath of the Lord. And the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and to those who turn from wickedness in Jacob, says the Lord. This is my covenant with them, says the Lord: My spirit, which is in you, and my words that I have put in your mouth, will not depart from your mouth, nor from the mouth of your descendants, says the Lord, from now on and forever. LXX: And those from the west shall fear the name of the Lord, and those from the east, the glorious name. For he shall come like a violent river, the wrath of the Lord. He shall come with fury and he shall come from Zion to deliver. And he shall turn away wickedness from Jacob, and this shall be a covenant to them from me, says the Lord. My spirit, which is in you, and my words, which I have given in your mouth, shall not depart from your mouth, and from the mouth of your seed, says the Lord, from now and forever. After the Lord is clothed with the breastplate of righteousness, the helmet of salvation, and the garments of vengeance, and is clad with the cloak of zeal for battle, and comes to the contest and vindication, in order to repay the enemies and render to his adversaries, and to subvert their islands, that is, their cities and villages, then the foreigners who come from the West and the East, in order to rest in the bosom of Abraham (Matthew 8), of whom it is also said above (Isaiah 49:12), 'Behold, these will come from far away, some from the West, and some from the North, and some from the land of the Persians, they will fear the Lord with that fear which is the beginning of wisdom (Sirach 1).' Of which we read in many places, from which let us put a few: Blessed is the man who fears the Lord (Psalm 111:1). And: There is no want for those who fear Him (Psalm 34:10). And: The fear of the Lord is discipline and wisdom (Proverbs 15:33). And: Come, my children, listen to me: I will teach you the fear of the Lord (Psalm 34:12). And: Blessed is the man who fears the Lord (Psalm 127:4). And: The fear of the Lord prolongs days (Proverbs 10:27). But that after Israel is rejected, a multitude of Gentiles succeeds, the prophet Malachi teaches more fully, in which it is said to the Jews: My will is not in you, says the Lord Almighty. And I will not accept a sacrifice from your hands (Malachi 1:10,11). And again from the multitude of nations: From the rising of the sun to its setting, my name is glorified among the nations. The author of this blessing is the one who will come like a violent river, whom the spirit of the Lord forces. Whether as the eagle carries, like a narrow river, the spirit of the Lord is his seal. Or as Theodotio, like a river attacking, the spirit of the Lord is sealed. In this passage, which the Seventy have translated, the anger of the Lord will come with fury, like a violent river. The last part is not found in the Hebrew. For in the promises of God, anger and fury should not be placed, since in the other things that follow, there is the blessedness of the future and the threat and punishment of sinners. However, according to Aquila and Theodotion, the Spirit of the Lord, who is sealed in Christ, confirms that example which is read in the Gospel of John: 'For him, God the Father has sealed' (John 6:27); about whom it was previously said: 'A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord' (Isaiah 11:1-2). Therefore, we also say: 'The light of your face, O Lord, has shone upon us' (Psalm 4:7). And in Ezekiel, the foreheads of weeping men are marked with the letter Thav, the last Hebrew letter among them, by an imprint (Ezek. 9). But if we want to know how the Holy Spirit is a violent river, let us turn to the Acts of the Apostles, in which it is written: When they were all together in one place, suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a violent rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them tongues as of fire, which settled upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. (Acts 2:2-3). It follows: 'A Redeemer will come to Zion, and to those who turn from wickedness in Jacob,' says the Lord. For this reason, the Seventy translated it: 'A Deliverer will come from Zion, and will turn away wickedness from Jacob.' Therefore, if He will come from Zion to turn away wickedness from Jacob, we understand that a man will be born in Zion, and the Most High will establish it, He who turns away the crimes of Jacob. But if the Redeemer of Zion shall come and those who return from iniquity in Jacob, says the Lord, this is the meaning: Christ will come who will redeem Zion with his blood. Or according to Hebrew custom, who is near to Zion and born of the lineage of Israel, for this is what Goel (i.e., άγκιστεὺς) means. And lest we think that all of Zion is redeemed and delivered from the bloody sins of the Lord, he significantly adds: those who return from iniquity, if they are willing to repent, in whom the Lord's prayer is fulfilled: Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing (Luke 23:34). Therefore their redemption is in Zion: and the one who receives him from Jacob, and he promises to them, saying: This is my covenant with them, whether the agreement, as all others transferred, or the testament, as the Seventy have set forth. But what the covenant, agreement, and testament are, the following verse shows: My spirit, he says, who is in you, and my words that I have placed in your mouth, will not depart from your mouth, nor from the mouth of your seed, from now on and forever. What is said either to Isaiah, as it seems to me, or to the Lord, as most people think. Therefore, the order is connected to Isaiah in this way: This is the everlasting covenant of the Gospel, that my spirit which is in you, and my words which I have put in your mouth, by which you will foretell the future, may not depart from your mouth, nor from the mouths of your sons and grandsons, and your descendants, so that every generation may be shown: that is, that the grace of the Prophets may come in the Apostles, and through them, to those who will believe in Israel through the Apostles. But what He adds is in perfect harmony with this testimony: Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. (Matthew 24:35). Expounding this passage carefully, Paul writes to the Romans that there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, but the Lord is the Lord of all, rich unto all that call upon him. (Romans 10). And that the Gentiles have not so believed, as that Israel should be entirely rejected. For I also, says He, am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not rejected His people, whom He foreknew (Romans. XXII). And after a little while, when he had set an example with Elijah, who complained to the Lord that he alone was left, and heard from Him that the Lord had reserved for Himself seven thousand men who had not bowed the knee to Baal (1 Kings. XIX), he brought it to this: Even so now, at this time, there is a remnant according to the election of grace. And if by grace, then it is no longer of works; otherwise grace is no longer grace. What therefore is it? What Israel was seeking, this it has attained: but the elect have obtained it, and the rest have been blinded. And if they shall remain not in unbelief, they shall be grafted in: for God is able to graft them in again. For if thou wert cut out of the wild olive tree, which is natural to thee; and contrary to nature, were grafted into the good olive tree; how much more shall they that are the natural branches be grafted into their own olive tree? For I would not have you ignorant, brethren, of this mystery (lest you should be wise in your own conceits)... Because blindness has happened in part to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles enters, and so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: The Deliverer will come out of Zion, and he will turn away ungodliness from Jacob. And this is my covenant with them, when I take away their sins (Rom. 11:25-27). We have explained this in more detail so that whatever promises we read and will say, we understand them to be said specifically to Zion and Jerusalem, not generally to all Jews, but specifically to those who were chosen in the Apostles and through the Apostles from Israel.

1047. Second, he sets out the minister of salvation or vengeance: when he shall come as a violent stream, because of the magnitude of his power and strength, or Christ, the minister: the stream of the river makes the city of God joyful (Ps 45:5[46:4]).

1050. Note also on the words, as a violent stream (Isa 59:19), that Christ is a violent stream:

first, because of the multitude of water: the river of God is filled with water (Ps 64:10[65:9]);

second, because of the fervor of love: a swift stream of fire issued forth from before him (Dan 7:10);

third, because of the swiftness of its course: the stream of the river makes the city of God joyful (Ps 45:5[46:4]);

fourth, because of the height of its source: and he showed me a river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the lamb (Rev 22:1).

How could it be shown from the testimony of the prophets, already received among the Gentiles in the New Testament, that the promise which God made to Abraham has been fulfilled through the coming of Christ? — It is written in the prophet Isaiah: “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations” (Isa. 56:7). But perhaps the Jews will say: The house of God, that is, the synagogue, is open to all. Nor do we object; yet in such a way that, as always, the circumcised join themselves to the Law. For their Law is that by which they were commanded, after the manner of Abraham, to be circumcised. Therefore, nothing new can seem to be signified by this example of the prophet; since anyone coming from any nation has never been forbidden from the beginning of Judaism to join himself to the Law. Nothing new spoken by the prophet can be thought, indeed it would be unessential, if the Gentiles have always been admitted to serve the God of Abraham and are never found to have been forbidden. And this is true, because those who submit themselves to the Law are never found not to have been received. If, therefore, these things are so, it seems needless that the prophet admonished about what, once handed down, has always been observed. And could anyone so dull be found as to say that the prophet spoke something unnecessary and empty? I do not know for whom it would be safe even to hear this and not oppose it. For since the Jewish people, on account of the sins which they committed against God, seeking help from idols, were often rebuked by the prophets but refused to enter upon the path of repentance so as to return to God, God, in reproach of them, indicated that He would open His house to all nations to pray, so that, the Jews being cast off, He would show that He would place others in their place. For if the nations have always been admitted to the Law, as was said above, how could the prophet say that this would happen in the future, unless he meant something different from what had been previously commanded? He could not speak of a thing which was done daily as though it were going to come. Therefore it is clear that this tends to the ruin of the Jews, to whom the prophet shows that, with them removed, others were to be called and were to receive the house of God’s grace, which had been promised to the Jews. What that promise is, the prophet Isaiah teaches, saying: “There shall come out of Zion one who shall deliver and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob; and this shall be my covenant with them” (Isa. 59:20–21). Therefore this covenant is the removal of sins. This is the New Covenant, which was promised through Jeremiah, who says: “Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, and I will accomplish for the house of Israel and the house of Judah a new covenant, not according to the covenant which I arranged for their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; for they did not continue in my covenant, and I neglected them, says the Lord” (Jer. 31:31–32). This is their transgression, when they made the image of a calf; then they corrupted His covenant. Therefore also the tablets on which the Law had been given were shattered under the mountain (Exod. 32:4, 19), because they deserved to receive more severe precepts. But because God is mild and merciful, He promised through the prophets that He would change the Law, so as to give another Covenant, which would differ from that which He had given before: that not only what was burdensome might be changed, but also those things which were given in figure, that is, the sabbath and circumcision; so that, since they had long been oppressed, being relieved in all things, they might give grateful thanks to God as petitioners. And because, persisting in their fathers’ transgression, they refused to turn their minds away from idols, He testifies that the nations, together with the remnant who kept the faith, will enjoy the Covenant which He had said would come: so that the faithless Jews might be tortured in a twofold way. For they were burdened for a time by the precepts, and in the future they will pay fitting penalties, because they were found faithful neither in the Old nor in the New Covenant. So He said that He would give a New Covenant, so that the Old, which had been given to the Fathers, would cease. And therefore, whoever serves God in this Covenant does not observe the sabbath, nor new moons, nor circumcision, nor distinctions of foods; but has only the fear of God in faith: because he will not be justified by the Law, but by faith, as the prophet Habakkuk says: “For the righteous shall live by faith” (Hab. 2:4); so that he no longer uses many precepts to gain favor with God, but few. Isaiah again, speaking with the same meaning, says: “Though the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant of them shall be saved. For the Lord shall accomplish and cut short His word in righteousness, because the Lord will make a short word upon the whole earth” (Isa. 10:22–23). For the remnant who will persevere in the faith of the promise, while the others do not believe, He shows the shortened word of the Law: this is the New Covenant which He promised. It would not otherwise be called a Covenant, unless in a similar way this too were confirmed by the witness of blood, just as the Old Covenant, so that both might have one and the same name: but in the Old, many precepts, in the New, however, few, as He promised. So that, since He had said that Abraham would be the father of many nations (Gen. 17:4–5), in the same way the sons might be justified as the father had been justified: so that, once those things ceased which began after the faith of Abraham, those who receive the faith by which that same Abraham was justified might be sons of Abraham, as was said by the Lord. And this is neither strange nor unheard of, that men should be justified without care for the sabbath and circumcision and the rest of the commandments of this sort. For Enoch did not please God by this, that he might be translated; nor was Noah found righteous in the flood by observing this alone; nor was Abraham himself justified after he was circumcised: “Abraham,” it says, “believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness” (Heb. 11:5, 7, 8; Rom. 4:3). Then he was circumcised, so that there might be in him a sign that, though he was old, he believed that he would have a son. Therefore it is not circumcision that commends Abraham, but faith. And so, for those who believe, faith is sufficient for justification, that they may be sons of Abraham in faith, not in circumcision, because they have no need of circumcision. For what Abraham believed is not what is believed in their case. But the Jews were therefore ordered to be circumcised, so that they might have the sign of Abraham’s faith, not of their own faith, but so that they might be known as his sons according to the flesh. Yet if they believe, they will be his sons also in justification. For what advantage is it to be called the son of a powerful man if one is powerless, except that it is even more harmful? For it is a disgrace to be the son of a noble and glorious man without honor. Indeed, bodily circumcision is so far from being a merit that God says through the prophet Jeremiah that He will take vengeance on all the circumcised in foreskin, if they are not circumcised in heart (Jer. 4:4). Yet He is not angry with those who are circumcised in heart but uncircumcised in flesh, because no one has ever pleased God without the circumcision of the heart. Whoever, therefore, are circumcised in the flesh signify the lineage of Abraham according to the flesh; but those who are circumcised in heart signify the lineage of God according to faith, because, being circumcised from all worldly error, they confess God as their Father. What then does the circumcision of the flesh profit, if, when faith is lacking in the Jew, he cannot attain to the merit of Abraham? Or what harm is there in foreskin, when no one attains to his righteousness except the one who has followed the faith of Abraham? They therefore glory in the circumcision of the flesh in vain, since they see that it has no merit before God. And since, as has been shown, it is better to have faith than circumcision, the Gentiles are better than the Jews; for the Gentiles have faith, the Jews have circumcision. And whom do you think He recognizes more as sons of Abraham: those who are like him according to the flesh, or those who are like him in faith? But the faith of Abraham bears witness. And therefore he glories not in the flesh but in faith. For this reason he has received as sons those whom he sees to be imitators of his glory. For how can he call those sons from whom he sees a shrinking back from that by which he pleased God and was justified? He will therefore be able to judge them not as his sons, but as his enemies. For they appear to be envious of him, despising the faith through which he was glorified. Nor is it surprising if the Jews are found untrusting, not at all accepting the New Testament, when we know that they were not faithful even in the Old. They were always rebellious and disrespectful against God, and therefore they received such commandments by which their necks, which were unbending, might be pressed down. For they never wished to hope for good things from God, whose such great benefits and such wondrous powers they had come to know. Therefore it is that, among other things, the prophet Ezekiel says: “I lifted up my hand to them in the desert, that they should be scattered among the nations and dispersed in the lands, because they did not perform my ordinances and rejected my commandments.” And in what follows: “I gave them laws that were not good, and judgments whereby they should not live in them” (Ezek. 20:23–25). He shows for what reason such great and so harsh commandments were given to them: because they proved ungrateful for such great benefits, and, justice dictating, they were to be pressed by more severe precepts. Therefore He called them “not good,” although they are just: because they did not lead them to justification, but to destruction; and although a punishment rightly inflicted, yet for the one who suffers it, it is not a good. After these things, however, because God is merciful, He promised that He would give the New Testament, in which the shortening of the Law would justify believers, just as Abraham was justified: so that, with new moons and the sabbath and circumcision and the other precepts ceasing, not those that belong to the natural law, that is, murder, adultery, and such things, they might be justified as Abraham was. For, with the faith of Abraham renewed, He willed that all things should cease, so that the time might be such as it was when Abraham believed. But perhaps the Jews say: “If those things that were given by Moses are said to cease through the shortening of the Law, was circumcision given by Moses so that it should cease? And therefore we have the sign of our father, because we are the sons of Abraham, a sign which, for the sake of the testimony of our lineage, ought not to cease.” Circumcision indeed had to be observed in its time, that is, before the New Testament which had been promised was given. But when, by the grace of God, the burdens of the Law were ordered to cease, what need is there of circumcision? Therefore a new Law was given, that is, a spiritual one, so that carnal things might cease, and those who received it might accept its sign: so that just as in the Old Testament they had the sign of Abraham, from whom the Old Testament began, so also in the New they might have the sign of the Savior, who is the institutor of the New Testament. For just as from Abraham they were called Hebrews, so from Christ they are called Christians. Whoever, therefore, are still called Hebrews have not received the New Testament which God promised, bringing to nothing the kindness and mercy of God: for He no longer wished His people to be designated by the name of a man, but agreed to establish them under the name of His Son. With what courage, then, do the Jews say that we do not use our Law but theirs, when David says, “I will give thanks to you among the nations” (Ps. 17:50), and again, “Rejoice, O nations, with his people”? And to the prophet Jeremiah the Lord says, “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you; and before you came forth from the womb, I sanctified you; and I appointed you as a prophet to the nations” (Jer. 1:5). Judaism certainly has its own particular signs: for this people is signified either in Jacob, or in Samaria, or in Jerusalem, or in Judea, or in Israel. As for the nations, however, it is clear that He signifies them in a different way than He does the Jews. Therefore Jeremiah is our prophet. For although in all the Prophets God showed that the nations would share in His gift, yet to Jeremiah in particular He says that He has given him to us as a prophet. For he signified that the New Testament would come, which would profit the Gentiles more than the Jews, as now appears clearly. For since the preaching of the New Testament is spread over the whole earth, a faithful Jew is so rarely and with such difficulty found that all the Churches of the New Testament are called “of the nations,” as it was said in the prophet Hosea: “I will call that which is not my people, my people; and her that was not beloved, beloved” (Hosea 2:24; Rom. 9:25). Therefore, the Jews having been rejected, He calls the nations with the same mercy and grace with which He agreed to call Abraham. For Abraham did not come to know the Lord without being called. Therefore, He who agreed to call Abraham likewise agreed to call the nations. Why then do they say, “The Law is ours,” when it is clear that the gift of God is for all who are willing? Let this careless violation cease, since the grace of God is common to all. With what shame do they deny that our Christ was promised in the Law, when they see in Him all the signs which the Law foretold as to come? For both according to the promise made to Abraham all nations are justified by believing in Him (Gen. 22:18); and according to the prophet Isaiah He was born of a Virgin (Isa. 7:14) in Bethlehem from the tribe of Judah, as was promised, from the seed of David (Micah 5:2); and in accordance with what Jeremiah prophesied (Jer. 31:31–32), He proclaimed the New Testament which God then promised would come; and after all the signs of power had been shown, He humbled Himself, according to the words of the Prophets; and having suffered all that had been foretold, He rose on the third day, as it is written in the prophet. And if they inquire about the time of the promise, as it is shown in the prophet Daniel (Dan. 9:24 ff.), they will find it fulfilled in the time when Christ was born and suffered: for from the first year of Darius, king of the Persians, down to the birth and passion of the Lord and the destruction of Jerusalem, which was carried out by Vespasian, chief of the Roman Empire, the seventy weeks were completed, which are four hundred and ninety years, a reckoning made clear through the kingdoms and the successors of the empire. Therefore also it is found calculated by Tertullian in the book which he wrote against the Jews; but, lest this should backfire to his disadvantage, although he calculated correctly, we have passed it over in silence. And who can doubt this number, when now about three hundred years are found in addition to that number? It is therefore shameless, after so many years have been added beyond the time of the coming of the Saviour, to say, “He has not come.” Under the Apostles, or at the time when the Lord was living among men, hatred opposing the truth could still hide itself; so that, although it saw all the signs of the Christ who had been promised in the Savior, it could say that it doubted about the time, to conceal its unbelief. But afterwards, when many years began to exceed the promised number, what shamelessness it is to deny that He has come, whose coming is known to have been fulfilled both by signs and by times! For when something is full and does not overflow, a combative person may say that it is not full; but overflow closes the mouth of the argumentative. So the Jews, in the time of the Saviour, could say, though deceitfully, that the calculation from the time of Darius to the Lord Christ was not correctly made, so that He might not be acknowledged as the one who had been promised. We are mistaken, they might say, in the years and in the months and in the days of the emperors, and we do not make an exact reckoning. But when the times have extended beyond the prescribed number of years of the promised Christ, no excuse can be put forward to deny that He who has come is the Christ, unless, which God forbid, the one who promised is said to have lied. For when the time of the promise has elapsed, and it is denied that the one who was promised has come, what else is charged against the promiser but falsehood? Yet that He who made the promise is truthful, all the signs teach which were foretold in Christ and are known to have been found in Christ. The Jews, however, while they are ashamed to change themselves, do not consider that there will be a judgment to come. For nothing is worse than for someone to deny that a thing is true when he understands that it is not a lie.

"And he will come to Zion as Redeemer," that is, Zerubbabel. Therefore the spiritual Zion and the hill of visions and revelations is the church. The Redeemer, who comes to it, is Christ, that great Zerubbabel. "This is my covenant with you," which I made with your ancestors on the mountain, so that my words might never be lacking from the mouths of your descendants.

It follows: "A Redeemer will come to Zion, and to those who turn from wickedness in Jacob," says the Lord. For this reason, the Seventy translated it: "A Deliverer will come from Zion, and will turn away wickedness from Jacob." Therefore, if He will come from Zion to turn away wickedness from Jacob, we understand that a man will be born in Zion, and the Most High will establish it, He who turns away the crimes of Jacob. But if the Redeemer of Zion shall come and those who return from iniquity in Jacob, says the Lord, this is the meaning: Christ will come who will redeem Zion with his blood. Or according to Hebrew custom, who is near to Zion and born of the lineage of Israel, for this is what Goel (i.e., άγκιστεὺς) means. And lest we think that all of Zion is redeemed and delivered from the bloody sins of the Lord, he significantly adds: those who return from iniquity, if they are willing to repent, in whom the Lord's prayer is fulfilled: Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.

For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins. [Isaiah 59:20-21] As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers' sakes. For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance. For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief: Even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy. For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all.

And he promises to them, saying: This is my covenant with them, whether the agreement, as all others transferred, or the testament, as the Seventy have set forth. But what the covenant, agreement, and testament are, the following verse shows: My spirit, he says, who is in you, and my words that I have placed in your mouth, will not depart from your mouth, nor from the mouth of your seed, from now on and forever. What is said either to Isaiah, as it seems to me, or to the Lord, as most people think. Therefore, the order is connected to Isaiah in this way: This is the everlasting covenant of the Gospel, that my spirit which is in you, and my words which I have put in your mouth, by which you will foretell the future, may not depart from your mouth, nor from the mouths of your sons and grandsons, and your descendants, so that every generation may be shown: that is, that the grace of the Prophets may come in the Apostles, and through them, to those who will believe in Israel through the Apostles. But what He adds is in perfect harmony with this testimony: Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.

He calls "mouth" that of the apostles, and "seed" of the apostles those who learn from their teaching. Thus he promises grace of the Spirit to those who believe in him.… Thus, we who also enjoy this grace, let us sing praises to the fount of grace to whom glory is due for the ages of ages. Amen.

Third, his pact of strength: this is my covenant with them, says the Lord: my spirit that is in you, the spirit of prophecy; your seed, as to the other prophets and the apostles upon whom his Spirit came like an inheritance through a succession of descendants: I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy (Joel 2:28).