1 Ecce Dominus dissipabit terram: et nudabit eam, et affliget faciem ejus, et disperget habitatores ejus.
Jerome · AD 420 (Chapter 24 - Verses 1 and following) Behold, the Lord will lay waste the earth, and make it desolate, and afflict its face, and scatter its inhabitants.
Thomas Aquinas · AD 1274 565. Behold the Lord. In this part, he threatens the destruction of the entire earth, either that which was carried out in particular kingdoms and different regions, or that which is to come in the day of judgment, according to what is said above, this is the counsel, that I have purposed upon all the earth (Isa 14:26); however, some explain this as pertaining to the land of th…
2 Et erit sicut populus, sic sacerdos; et sicut servus, sic dominus ejus; sicut ancilla, sic domina ejus; sicut emens, sic ille qui vendit; sicut fœnerator, sic is qui mutuum accipit; sicut qui repetit, sic qui debet.
Gregory of Nazianzus · AD 390 Nor indeed is there any distinction between the state of the people and that of the priesthood: but it seems to me to be a simple fulfillment of the ancient curse, "As with the people, so with the priest." Nor again are the great and eminent men affected otherwise than the majority; no, they are openly at war with the priest, and the piety of the people is an aid to their power…
Gregory the Dialogist · AD 604 We are put as guards in the vineyards, but we do not cultivate our own. When we are involved with external affairs, we neglect to watch over our own activities. I think that God suffers greater outrage from no one, dearly beloved, than from priests. Those he has placed to reprove others he sees giving an example of wickedness in their own lives.
Thomas Aquinas · AD 1274 567. Second, the universality of destruction as to those punished, making equal those who differ in rank: as with the people, so with the priest; in condition: as with the servant so with his master; in possession of things: as with the buyer, so with the seller: the small and great are there, and the servant is free from his master (Job 3:19).
3 Dissipatione dissipabitur terra, et direptione prædabitur; Dominus enim locutus est verbum hoc.
Thomas Aquinas · AD 1274 As to the diversity of punishments: with desolation, setting out the loss as to immovable things: the earth shall be laid waste; as to movable things: it shall be spoiled: with desolation is all the land made desolate (Jer 12:11).
4 Luxit, et defluxit terra, et infirmata est; defluxit orbis, infirmata est altitudo populi terræ.
Jerome · AD 420 (Verse 4, 5.) The earth mourned and declined, and became weak: the world declined, the height of the people of the earth became weak, and the earth was destroyed by its inhabitants. (LXX: The earth mourns, the world is corrupted, the lofty ones of the earth mourn, but the earth acts wickedly due to its inhabitants.
Thomas Aquinas · AD 1274 As to the downfall of power, the earth mourned, and faded away, using the past tense for the future, that is, it shall fade away, mourning for its weakness; and this is: is weakened, that this may be said as to the common people; but as to the powerful, the world, that is, leaders of the world, faded away, above: I will visit the evils of the world (Isa 13:11).
5 Et terra infecta est ab habitatoribus suis, quia transgressi sunt leges, mutaverunt jus, dissipaverunt fœdus sempiternum.
Thomas Aquinas · AD 1274 And he sets out the killing of men: and the earth is killed: the land was killed (Ps 106:38). 568. Third, he shows the equity of the punishment: because they have transgressed, and he does this by comparing it to their fault; hence he does two things.
6 Propter hoc maledictio vorabit terram, et peccabunt habitatores ejus; ideoque insanient cultores ejus, et relinquentur homines pauci.
Eusebius of Caesarea · AD 339 After he rebukes those of the circumcision who have trespassed the law of the covenant of God and warns them with what he has written, he prophesies that only a small number of them will be saved. These few are those whom the apostle calls "the remnant according to the election of grace."
Jerome · AD 420 (Verse 6.) Because they have transgressed the law, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore the curse devours the earth, and those who dwell in it are held guilty. Therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men are left. LXX: Because they have transgressed the law, changed the ordinances, broken the everlasting covenant.
Thomas Aquinas · AD 1274 569. Second, he threatens a fourfold punishment because of this fault: first, a divine curse: a curse: the land has mourned by reason of cursing (Jer 23:10); second, divine desertion: they shall sin, as if the Lord has abandoned them: for this cause, God delivered them up to shameful affections (Rom 1:26); he that is filthy, let him be filthy still (Rev 22:11); third, they shal…
7 Luxit vindemia, infirmata est vitis, ingemuerunt omnes qui lætabantur corde;
Jerome · AD 420 (Verse 7 and following) The grape harvest has failed, the vine is weakened, all those who rejoiced in their hearts have sighed. The joy of the tambourines has ceased, the sound of the rejoicers has quieted, the sweetness of the lyre has been silenced, as those who do not drink wine with singing, bitter will be the drink for those who drink it.
Thomas Aquinas · AD 1274 570. The vintage has mourned. Here he threatens the removal of joys as to the wicked; and second, he sets out the joys of the good: as if a few olives (Isa 24:13). Concerning the first, he does three things.
8 cessavit gaudium tympanorum, quievit sonitus lætantium, conticuit dulcedo citharæ.
Thomas Aquinas · AD 1274 Or in the playing of games: the mirth of timbrels has ceased: the voice of harpers, harping on their harps (Rev 14:2).
9 Cum cantico non bibent vinum; amara erit potio bibentibus illam.
Thomas Aquinas · AD 1274 Or in the pleasures of feasts: they shall not drink wine with a song, above: the harp, and the lyre, and, the timbrel and the pipe, and wine are in your feasts (Isa 5:12). 571. Second, he sets out the recompense of sadness: the drink shall be bitter, for in their feasts, they will have sadness, against the pleasures of feasts: I will turn your feasts into mourning (Amos 8:10).
10 Attrita est civitas vanitatis, clausa est omnis domus, nullo introëunte.
Thomas Aquinas · AD 1274 The city of vanity is broken down, against the vanity of games, all things are vanity (Ps 39:5); vanity of vanities, and all is vanity (Eccl 1:2); the city, of Babylon, any soul.
11 Clamor erit super vino in plateis, deserta est omnia lætitia, translatum est gaudium terræ.
Thomas Aquinas · AD 1274 There shall be a crying, of those lamenting over the lack of wine, against fertility: in all vineyards there shall be wailing (Amos 5:17). 572. Third, he concludes the exchange: all mirth is forsaken, exchanged for sadness: woe to you that laugh: for you shall weep (Luke 6:25); laughter shall be mingled with sorrow (Prov 14:13).
12 Relicta est in urbe solitudo, et calamitas opprimet portas.
13 Quia hæc erunt in medio terræ in medio populorum, quomodo si paucæ olivæ quæ remanserunt excutiantur ex olea et racemi, cum fuerit finita vindemia.
Jerome · AD 420 (Verses 13-15) Just as when a few olives, which remain, are shaken from the olive tree, and the grape harvest is finished, these will lift up their voice and praise when the Lord is glorified, they will neigh from the sea: therefore, glorify the Lord in your teachings, in the islands of the sea proclaim the name of the Lord God of Israel.
Thomas Aquinas · AD 1274 573. As if. Here he places the joys of the good. And first, he foretells the praise of those to come, whose salvation he foretells: as if a few; few will be saved, in relation to the others, above: the fruit thereof that shall be left upon it, shall be as the shaking of the olive tree, two or three berries in the top of a bough (Isa 17:6).
14 Hi levabunt vocem suam, atque laudabunt: cum glorificatus fuerit Dominus, hinnient de mari.
Thomas Aquinas · AD 1274 And he places their praise: these shall give praise; they shall whinny, like horses to signify their great joy, below: the voice of your watchmen: they have lifted up their voice, they shall praise together (Isa 52:8).
15 Propter hoc in doctrinis glorificate Dominum; in insulis maris nomen Domini Dei Israël.
Eusebius of Caesarea · AD 339 "Therefore, the glory of the Lord is in the islands of the sea." That pertains obviously to the church, which is located in the midst of the godless nations as if an island in the sea. It is in that island that the glory of the Lord shines.
Primasius of Hadrumetum · AD 560 "And God remembered Babylon the great, who came into his sight." This designates the confused multitude of all the lost. "That he might give it to drink from the wine of his wrath." The retribution of due punishment to be returned to the wicked is here recorded.
Thomas Aquinas · AD 1274 574. Second, he introduces praise in the present: therefore. And first, he places the precept, glorify the Lord in instruction, that is, in teaching others; another translation has: in praises: glorify the Lord as much as ever you can, for he will yet far exceed (Sir 43:30).
16 A finibus terræ laudes audivimus, gloriam Justi. Et dixi: Secretum meum mihi, secretum meum mihi. Væ mihi! prævaricantes prævaricati sunt, et prævaricatione transgressorum prævaricati sunt.
Jerome · AD 420 (Verse 16) From the ends of the earth we have heard praises, the glory of the Just One. And I said: My secret to me, my secret to me. Alas for me! LXX: From others we have heard wonders of the earth: the hope of the just, and they say + my mystery to me **.
Primasius of Hadrumetum · AD 560 "The Spirit of the Lord filled the world." But that will be done with the broken horns of sinners. The horns of the righteous one are said to be exalted, concerning which Isaiah prophesied: "From the ends of the earth we heard praises announcing the glory of the righteous one." The church is understood to have seven horns, as does every world in which the sevenfold grace of the…
Thomas Aquinas · AD 1274 Second, he designates the fulfillment of the precept: from the ends of the earth we have heard praises, the glory of the just one, that is, Christ, below: behold the Lord has made it to be heard in the ends of the earth (Isa 62:11).
17 Formido, et fovea, et laqueus super te, qui habitator es terræ.
Jerome · AD 420 (Verse 17, 18.) The treacherous have dealt treacherously; indeed, they have dealt treacherously with treachery. Fear, the pit, and the snare are upon you, O inhabitant of the earth. And it shall be that he who flees from the noise of fear shall fall into the pit, and he who comes up from the midst of the pit shall be caught in the snare.
Thomas Aquinas · AD 1274 Second, he threatens a multitude of dangers. And first, he sets out this multitude: fear. He speaks in likeness to those who flee pursuers because of fear, above: they shall fall, and shall be broken in pieces (Isa 8:15); a voice of terror (Jer 30:5).
18 Et erit: qui fugerit a voce formidinis cadet in foveam; et qui se explicaverit de fovea tenebitur laqueo; quia cataractæ de excelsis apertæ sunt et concutientur fundamenta terræ.
Thomas Aquinas · AD 1274 576. Second, the impossibility of escaping: and it shall come to pass, that he that shall flee from the noise of the fear, shall fall into the pit: as if to say, he will decide upon Scylla, wanting to avoid Charybdis: that which the palmerworm has left, the bruchus has eaten (Joel 1:4).
19 Confractione confringetur terra, contritione conteretur terra, commotione commovebitur terra;
Jerome · AD 420 (Verse 19, 20.) For the gates from on high are open, and the foundations of the earth will be shaken. The earth will be crushed to pieces, shattered, and shaken. It will be thrown into agitation like a drunkard, and it will be taken away like a temporary shelter, and its own iniquity will weigh it down, and it will fall and not be able to rise again.
Thomas Aquinas · AD 1274 577. Third, he shows the impossibility of reparation under a threefold similitude, namely, of divided things, which are not restored: breaking, as to division into large parts, crushing, as to division into small parts: behold the eyes of the Lord God are upon the sinful kingdom, and I will crush it from the face of the earth (Amos 9:8).
20 agitatione agitabitur terra sicut ebrius, et auferetur quasi tabernaculum unius noctis; et gravabit eam iniquitas sua, et corruet, et non adjiciet ut resurgat.
Thomas Aquinas · AD 1274 And through the similitude of shaken things, which are not made stable: with trembling shall the earth be moved, from place to place, shaken, as if trembling in its own place, as a drunken man, above: they have caused Egypt to err in all its works, as a drunken man staggers and vomits (Isa 19:14); and through the similitude of a traveler's tent, which is not fixed firmly in the…
21 Et erit: in die illa visitabit Dominus super militiam cæli in excelso, et super reges terræ qui sunt super terram;
Jerome · AD 420 (Verse 21 onwards) And it will happen in that day, the Lord will visit upon the host of heaven on high, and upon the kings of the earth who are on the earth. And they will be gathered together into one assembly, into a pit, and will be shut up there in prison, and after many days they will be visited.
Thomas Aquinas · AD 1274 578. And it shall come to pass. Here he threatens against the rulers of the people; and concerning this he sets out three things.
22 et congregabuntur in congregatione unius fascis in lacum, et claudentur ibi in carcere, et post multos dies visitabuntur.
Thomas Aquinas · AD 1274 And they shall be gathered together, at the same time in hell: which was prepared for the devil and his angels (Matt 25:41); as in the gathering of one bundle: bind it into bundles to burn (Matt 13:30), that they may be alike in punishment who were alike in sin: I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies, gathered together (Rev 19:19).
23 Et erubescet luna, et confundetur sol, cum regnaverit Dominus exercituum in monte Sion et in Jerusalem et in conspectu senum suorum fuerit glorificatus.
Jerome · AD 420 He [Isaiah] was pricked by the thorn of sin; you are decked with the flowers of virtue. "The moon shall be ashamed, and the sun confounded, when the Lord shall punish the host of heaven on high." This is explained by another passage.
Bede · AD 735 The stars on the day of judgment will be seen obscurely, not because of a gradual waning of their own light but due to the overwhelming brilliance of the true light, who is the supreme Judge coming in majesty, and the light of the Father and the holy angels.
Thomas Aquinas · AD 1274 580. Third, the glory of him who punishes, and first, of the judge: and the moon shall blush, that is, its splendor shall be thought nothing in comparison to the splendor of the body of Christ: the sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood: before the great and dreadful day of the Lord doth come (Joel 2:31); or, the worshippers of the sun and moon.