Isaiah 50 · The Lantern

Hæc dicit Dominus: Quis est hic liber repudii matris vestræ, quo dimisi eam? aut quis est creditor meus, cui vendidi vos? Ecce in iniquitatibus vestris venditi estis, et in sceleribus vestris dimisi matrem vestram.

Hear what the prophet says: "You have been sold for your sins, and for your iniquities I sent your mother away." You see, therefore, that we are all creatures of God. But each one is sold for his own sins and, for his own iniquities, separates from his Creator. We, therefore, belong to God insofar as we have been created by him.

God never sends away anyone who makes his home with him, and he rejects none of those who walk uprightly. He allows them to be forever associated and firmly joined to him as a way of obtaining help. However, everyone who opposes or fights against his divine teaching falls completely away from the glory of God and shows that he is a lover of pleasure rather than a lover of God.

Thus says the Lord: what is this. Here he begins to remove the impediments to their liberation. And first, he removes the impediments; second, he applies the remedies: who has believed our report (ch. 53). Concerning the first, he removes three impediments: first, the lack of divine benefits; second, the dejection of persons: give ear to me, you that follow (ch.

Quia veni, et non erat vir; vocavi, et non erat qui audiret. Numquid abbreviata et parvula facta est manus mea, ut non possim redimere? aut non est in me virtus ad liberandum? Ecce in increpatione mea desertum faciam mare, ponam flumina in siccum; computrescent pisces sine aqua, et morientur in siti.

(Verse 2.) Has my hand been shortened and become small, that I cannot redeem? Or is there no power in me to deliver? Indeed, I will make the sea a desert, I will dry up the rivers. The fish will rot without water and die of thirst. I will clothe the heavens in darkness and make sackcloth their covering. LXX: Can my hand not save, or is it not strong enough to deliver?

Then he recalls for them what he has accomplished: "Behold, by my rebuke I will dry up the sea and make rivers a wilderness; and their fish shall be dried up because there is no water and shall die for thirst." Symmachus has rendered this passage as if it concerns events already accomplished: "Behold that at my rebuke I have dried up the sea, that I have made the rivers a deser…

Third, he sets out the argument: because I came, through inspiration, I called, through the prophets: I called, and you refused (Prov 1:24). Is my hand shortened?

Induam cælos tenebris, et saccum ponam operimentum eorum.

And what follows: I will clothe the heavens in darkness, and its covering will be like sackcloth; or everything that is above us, let us understand as heaven, just as those flying creatures that are in the air are called celestial; and the opposing powers are said to be celestial, which move between heaven and earth.

"I will clothe the sky with shadows, and I will change its cover to be like mourning cloth." He has done this and will do it. For he did it when he was crucified: "From the sixth hour to the ninth the shadows covered the whole earth." And he will do it again at the time of the fulfillment, for it says, "The sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give off its light."

Second, he shows signs of his power in the heavens: I will clothe the aerial heavens with darkness, as in Egypt (Exod 10:21); who covers the heaven with clouds (Ps 146[147]:8).

Dominus dedit mihi linguam eruditam, ut sciam sustentare eum qui lassus est verbo. Erigit mane, mane erigit mihi aurem, ut audiam quasi magistrum.

For the power of His strong word, by which He always confuted the Pharisees and Scribes, and, in short, all your nation's teachers that questioned Him, had a cessation like a plentiful and strong spring, the waters of which have been turned off, when He kept silence, and chose to return no answer to any one in the presence of Pilate; as has been declared in the memoirs of His a…

(Chapter 50—Verse 4 and following) The Lord has given me a learned tongue, so that I may sustain with words the weary. He awakens me morning by morning, awakens my ear as a master. The Lord God has opened my ear; I do not resist, I do not turn back. I offered my body to the ones striking me, and my cheeks to those plucking my beard.

The Lord has given me. Here he gives himself as an example. And first, as to the grace of the benefit he received, both as to eloquence: a learned tongue, that I should know how to uphold, with encouragements: your words have confirmed them that were staggering (Job 4:4); and as to wisdom: he wakens my ear, to listen, in the morning, from the beginning of my preaching, or from…

Dominus Deus aperuit mihi aurem, ego autem non contradico: retrorsum non abii.

Corpus meum dedi percutientibus, et genas meas vellentibus; faciem meam non averti ab increpantibus et conspuentibus in me.

Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ comes before us, when he would show [people] how to suffer, who when he was struck bore it patiently, being reviled he reviled not again, when he suffered he threatened not, but he gave his back to the smiters and his cheeks to buffetings, and he turned not his face from spitting; and at last, he was willingly led to death, that we might behold…

Now if God willed to accept and to lower Himself to such sufferings, dishonours, and humiliations, then no matter how much you humble yourself, you whose nature is mud and subject to death, you will never resemble your Lord [in this]. God for your sake humbled Himself, but you, for your own sake, do not humble yourself. You are proud and puffed up.

He also sets out the constancy of his obedience, that he did not abandon his obedience for any danger: I have given my body, that is, I exposed myself that I should suffer such things; or perhaps he literally suffered these things, but in Christ this was completely fulfilled (Matthew 26 and 27): I have given my dear soul into the hand of enemies (Jer 12:7).

Dominus Deus auxiliator meus, ideo non sum confusus; ideo posui faciem meam ut petram durissimam, et scio quoniam non confundar.

Nevertheless, you will say, adversity is a terrible thing and grievous to be borne. Yet look at it again compared with another image and then also learn to despise it.

And the Father was Christ's helper. For he did not allow or concede that his own Son should be completely shamed or overwhelmed. For they were punished, those who sought to take their punishment out on me as those who dare to fight with God.… For though being with us, he was the only-begotten Word of God.

Third, he gives himself as example as to the trust which he had in God, first, setting out his ready defense: the Lord God is my helper: the Lord is with me as a strong warrior (Jer 20:11); second, the security of his trust: and I set my face as a most hard rock, that I might be moved by neither fear nor shame: I have made your face like an adamant and like flint (Ezek 3:9); th…

Juxta est qui justificat me; quis contradicet mihi? Stemus simul; quis est adversarius meus? accedat ad me.

Ecce Dominus Deus auxiliator meus; quis est qui condemnet me? Ecce omnes quasi vestimentum conterentur; tinea comedet eos.

There is a person who runs down birth, describing it as subject to decay and death, who forces things and suggests that the Savior was speaking about having children in saying that we should not store treasure on earth, where it grows rusty and moth-eaten.

Isaiah also gives the name "moth" to those who devour their conscience in their recklessness.… It might be said that the moths are their sins, which worm their way in among those they inhabit, like moths devouring clothing for food.

Who is he that shall condemn me, with false judgments: God is he that justifies: who is he that shall condemn? (Rom 8:33–34); again, he assigns the reason for this security from the weakness of those who attack him: lo, they shall all be destroyed as a garment, with old age, in which is signified natural defect, the moth, in which is signified the violent man: who am to be cons…

Quis ex vobis timens Dominum, audiens vocem servi sui? Qui ambulavit in tenebris, et non est lumen ei, speret in nomine Domini, et innitatur super Deum suum.

By the mouth of Isaiah also [God] has asked concerning him, "Who is there among you that hears God? Let him hear the voice of his Son." When, therefore, he here presents him with the words, "This is my beloved Son," this clause is of course understood, "who I have promised." For if he once promised and afterwards says, "This is he," it is suitable conduct for one who accomplish…

It is as a man that he calls himself "Servant," for "although he exists in the form of God, he has assumed the form of a servant." Likewise in the divine Gospel [Christ] says that he has received instruction as to what he should say and proclaim. "They walk in darkness, and there is no light for them." Although the light has risen, as for them, they have clung to the darkness.

Who is there among you? Here he deduces salutary counsel from his own example. And first, he sets out the counsel; second, he sets out their contempt of this counsel: behold all you (Isa 50:11). Now, he gives counsel that they should trust in God, and thus he does three things.

Ecce vos omnes accendentes ignem, accincti flammis: ambulate in lumine ignis vestri, et in flammis quas succendistis; de manu mea factum est hoc vobis: in doloribus dormietis.

This "fire" is not "from the altar." The fire that is "from the altar" is the fire of the Lord. But that which is outside the altar is not of the Lord but is properly of each one who sins.… This fire is of those who have ignited it, just as it also was written in other places, "Walk in your fire and in the flame which you kindled for yourselves." But to Isaiah his own fire was…

(Verse 11) Behold, all of you who kindle fire, girded with flames, walk in the light of your fire, and in the flames that you have kindled: it is made by my hand, you will sleep in sorrows. LXX: Behold, all of you who kindle fire, and strengthen the flame; walk in the light of your fire, and in the flame that you have kindled; these things have been made for you because of me.

Behold all you. Here he sets out their contempt of this counsel, setting out three things. First, their fault: you that kindle, by your sins, a fire, meriting it for yourselves, girded, as though bound by your sins, or ready for sin, above: and your strength shall be as the ashes of tow (Isa 1:31); second, he sets out the punishment: walk in the light of your fire, as if to say…

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