The Commentaries of St. Eusebius Hieronymus of Stridon, Presbyter, on the Book of Isaiah, consisting of eighteen books.
Latin Text from public domain Migne Editors, Patrologiae Cursus Completus.
Translated into English using ChatGPT.
Table of Contents
Prologue
Having completed, after a long time, twenty books of explanations on the twelve Prophets, and commentaries on Daniel, you compel me, the virgin of Christ, Eustochium, to move on to Isaiah. And what I promised to your holy mother, Paula, while she was alive, I remember promising to you. Indeed, I recall promising this to your learned brother, Pammachius; and since you hold a special place in my affection, your presence overpowers me. Therefore, I fulfill my duty to you and to him through you, in obedience to the commandments of Christ, who says: Search the Scriptures (John 5:39); and Seek and you shall find (Matthew 7:7). I will not listen to this from the Jews: You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God (Matthew 22:29). For if, according to the Apostle Paul, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God (1 Corinthians 1:24), and whoever does not know the Scriptures, does not know the power of God and His wisdom; ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ. Therefore, relying on the aid of your prayers, which you meditate on day and night in the law of God, and being a temple of the Holy Spirit, I will imitate the father of the household, who brings forth both new and old treasures from his storehouse; and I will say, like the bride in the Song of Songs: My brother, I have kept new and old for you (Song of Songs 7:13); and thus I will explain Isaiah, teaching him not only as a Prophet, but also as an evangelist and Apostle. For he himself, speaking of himself and the other evangelists, says: How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news, who bring peace (Isaiah 52:7). And God speaks to him, as if to an Apostle: Whom shall I send, and who will go to this people? And he responded: Here I am, send me (Isaiah 6:8).
And let no one think that I desire to comprehend the subject matter of this volume in a brief discourse, since the present Scripture contains all the sacraments of the Lord; and that the birth of Emmanuel from the Virgin, as well as the accomplishment of illustrious works and signs; his death and burial, and his resurrection from the dead, and that the Savior of all nations is preached. What shall I say of physics, ethics, and logic? Whatever is of the holy Scriptures, whatever can be conveyed by human language, and received by the senses of mortals, is contained in this volume. He himself who wrote attests to the mysteries of Him: 'And there shall be for you the vision of all, like the words of the sealed book, which, when given to one who knows letters, they shall say: Read this. And he shall answer: I cannot, for it is sealed.' And a book shall be given to one who does not know letters, and it shall be said to him: Read this. And he shall answer, 'I do not know letters' (Isaiah 24:11-12). Therefore, whether you give this book to the people of the nations who do not know letters, they shall answer: I cannot read, for I have not learned the letters of the Scriptures; or whether you give it to the writers and Pharisees, who boast of knowing the letters of the King, they shall answer: We cannot read, for the book is sealed. Why was he marked for them? Because they did not receive the one whom the Father marked (John 6:27): who has the key of David; who opens, and no one will shut; who shuts, and no one will open (Revelation 3:7).
And indeed, just as Montanus dreams with insane women, the Prophets spoke in ecstasy, not knowing what they were saying, and while instructing others, they themselves were ignorant of what they were saying. Concerning them, the Apostle says: 'Not knowing what they speak, nor concerning what they affirm' (1 Timothy 1:7); but according to Solomon who speaks in Proverbs: 'The wise understands what he speaks, and knowledge will be carried on his lips' (Proverbs 16:23), they themselves also knew what they were saying. For if the prophets were wise, which we cannot deny; and Moses spoke to the Lord with all wisdom, and the Lord answered him; and it is said of Daniel to the prince of Tyre: Are you wiser than Daniel? (Ezek. 28:3) ? And David was wise, who boasted in the Psalm: You have revealed to me the uncertainties and hidden things of your wisdom. (Ps. 50:8) , how is it that the wise prophets did not know what to say, like dumb animals? We also read in another place of the Apostle: The spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets (1 Cor. XIV, 32): so that they have it in their power, when they are silent, when they speak. But if anyone thinks it is weak, let him hear this from the same Apostle: Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others judge: but if anything is revealed to someone sitting, let the first be silent (Ibid., 29). By what means can they remain silent, when the spirit who speaks through the prophets is in their control, to either be silent or to speak? Therefore, if they understood what they were saying, all things are full of wisdom and reason. And the air, when struck by the voice, did not reach their ears; but God spoke in the minds of the prophets, according to what another prophet says: 'The angel who spoke in me' (Zech. 1:9), and 'Crying out in our hearts, Abba, Father' (Gal. 4:6), and 'Let me hear what the Lord God says within me' (Ps. 84:9).
After the truth of history, everything should be understood spiritually: thus Judaea and Jerusalem, Babylon and the Philistines, Moab and Damascus, Egypt and the desert sea, Idumaea and Arabia, and the valley of Vision, and finally Tyre, and the Vision of the four living creatures should be understood; so that we may seek all things in their meaning, and in all these things, like a wise architect, the apostle Paul may lay the foundation, which is nothing else but Christ Jesus. And it is a great and arduous task to want to explain the entire book of Isaiah, in which the talents of our ancestors have toiled: I mean the Greeks. However, among the Latins, there is great silence, except for the renowned martyr Victorinus, who could say with the Apostle: 'Though I am unskilled in speech, yet I am not in knowledge' (2 Corinthians 11:6). For Origen wrote thirty volumes on this Prophet, according to the four editions, up to the Vision of the four living creatures in the desert, but the twenty-sixth book is not found. Others are also said to have written under his name the Vision of the Quadrupeds, two books addressed to Grata, which are considered pseudographical; and twenty-five Homilies, and Notes, which we can call Excerpts. Eusebius Pamphili also published fifteen volumes, in accordance with a historical explanation; and Didymus, with whom we recently had friendly relations, published eighteen volumes from the place where it is written: Comfort, comfort my people, says the priest: speak to the heart of Jerusalem (Isaiah XL, 1), until the end of the volume. However, Apollinaris explains everything in his own way, so that he traverses all things and passes over large spaces of the road with certain points and intervals, as if he were flying over the shortcuts: so that we believe we are reading not so much commentaries as indexes of chapters. From this you realize how difficult it is for our Latins, whose ears are fastidious and who feel nauseated at understanding the Holy Scriptures, and who are delighted only by the applause of eloquence, to pardon me if I have spoken too long; since Isaiah, according to the number of verses, is equal to or greater than the twelve Prophets. However, if I have omitted 70 points of discussion regarding Hebrew, it is because most of them are either the same or similar to the others, and I did not want to extend the books of explanation, which already exceed the limits of brevity even in their simple explanations. But now let us carry out the proposed plan.
Book One
Book One
1:1
(Chapter 1, Verse 1) The vision of Isaiah, the son of Amos, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. For Judah, in which two tribes are signified, the Seventy and Theodotion have translated 'Judah,' which signifies the entire land of the twelve tribes. And because we translate from Hebrew, 'concerning Judah and Jerusalem,' they have interpreted it as 'against Judah and Jerusalem.' Symmachus, in his own way, more clearly, 'concerning Judah and Jerusalem,' so that he does not want to indicate either prosperity or adversity by the title, but what the prophetic discourse has foretold about Judah and Jerusalem in both respects. Therefore, Isaiah primarily speaks about two tribes, Judah and Benjamin, excluding the ten tribes that were in Samaria and were called Ephraim and Israel; and those that under the reign of King Uzziah of Judah, and Jerusalem, the king of Assyria, Tiglath-Pileser, had already begun to devastate. Finally, in the fifty-second year of his reign, when Pekah, the son of Remaliah, was reigning in Samaria, Tiglath-Pileser, the king of Assyria, came and captured Aijon and Abel, the house of Maacah, and Janoah and Kedesh and Hazor and Gilead and Galilee, all the land of Naphtali, and he resettled them in Assyria (2 Kings 15:18-19). From this it is shown that all these things are narrated as a warning by the neighboring destruction of Samaria to the two tribes.
But Ozias himself is the same person who is also called Azarias with a double name. And indeed, at the same time we know that Isaiah, Hosea, Joel, and Amos prophesied, from the kings who are mentioned in the title. But the beginning of the word of the Lord was with Hosea, son of Beeri. However, Amos is the father of Isaiah, not as most people think, he is the third of the twelve Prophets, but another; they are written in different letters among the Hebrews. This one has the first and last letters Aleph and Sade (); that one has Ainet Samech (): and this one is interpreted by some as strength or robust; that one as a hard or heavy people: about which we have spoken more fully in Amos. Not only this prophet, but also others with the title 'Vision seen by Isaiah or Obadiah' do not reveal what they saw. For example: 'I saw the Lord of hosts sitting on a high and lofty throne, and the two seraphim were around Him.' But what was said, they tell, that is, 'Hear, heaven, and listen, earth' (Isa. 6:1-2). And: 'This is what the Lord God says to Edom. I have heard an announcement from the Lord, and a messenger has been sent to the nations' (Obad. 1:1). For the prophets were previously called seers, who were able to say: Our eyes are always towards the Lord (Psalm 14:15). And: To you, I lift up my eyes, you who are enthroned in heaven (Psalm 123:1). Therefore, the Savior commanded the Apostles: Lift up your eyes and see the fields, for they are already white for harvest (John 4:35). The bride in the Song of Songs also had these eyes of the heart, to whom the bridegroom says: You have ravished my heart, my sister, my bride, with one glance of your eyes (Song of Songs 4:9). And in the Gospel we read: The light of your body is your eye (Matt. VI, 22). It is also said in the old Scriptures that the people saw the voice of God (Exod. XX, 18). From this, the delusions of the Montanists are silenced, who in their ecstasy thought that the prophets spoke of future events from a deranged mind, for they could not see what they were ignorant of. I know that some interpret Judah and Jerusalem to mean heavenly things, and Isaiah to represent the Lord Savior: that it foreshadows the captivity of that province in our land, and later the return and ascent to the holy mountain in the last days. We despise everything that is contrary to the Christian faith, judging it, and following the truth of history, we interpret it spiritually so that whatever they dream about the heavenly Jerusalem, we refer it to the Church of Christ, and to those who either leave it because of sin or return to the original seat because of repentance, and also because we consider that this is said in the same Prophet: 'Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. For darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the Lord will arise upon you, and his glory will appear over you. Nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn. Lift up your eyes and look around; they all gather together, they come to you; your sons shall come from far away, and your daughters shall be carried on their nurses' arms. Then you shall see and be radiant; your heart shall thrill and rejoice, because the abundance of the sea shall be brought to you, the wealth of the nations shall come to you. A multitude of camels shall cover you, the young camels of Midian and Ephah; all those from Sheba shall come. They shall bring gold and frankincense, and shall proclaim the praise of the Lord. All the flocks of Kedar shall be gathered to you, the rams of Nebaioth shall minister to you; they shall be acceptable on my altar, and I will glorify my glorious house.'
And it is stated in the title that he prophesied during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. This is not to be understood in a confused manner like in other prophets, so that we do not know what was said under which specific king. Rather, it is referred to the end of the book to indicate what was separately revealed to him by the Lord under Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. Let us also know that Hezekiah began to reign in Jerusalem in the 12th year of Romulus, who founded a city in Italy bearing his name, so that it is clear how much older our histories are than those of other nations. Isaiah is interpreted as the Savior of the Lord; Judah, the confession; Jerusalem, the vision of peace; Uzziah, the strength of the Lord; Jotham, the perfection of the Lord; Ahaz, the one who holds or is strong; Hezekiah, the rule of the Lord. Therefore, whoever is saved with the Lord presiding is the son of Amos, that is, strong and mighty; he spiritually perceives the vision of confession while lamenting the ancient sins, and the peace while moving from repentance to light, and he rests in eternal peace. And all his times pass under the strength, perfection, and power of the Lord. And when he has done all things, he will say that evangelical saying: We are useless servants: for what we ought to have done, we have done (Luke 17:10).
1:2
(Version 2.) Listen, O heavens, and hear, O earth: for the Lord has spoken. Above, it is shown by the title, who the prophet is, whose son, what is against Judah and Jerusalem, or concerning Judah and Jerusalem, and at what time he saw. Now he calls to hear the heavens and the earth. In heaven, representing the heavenly and angelic powers; on earth, the mortal race, metaphorically signifying both those which contain and those which are contained. Whether it be because, through Moses, the Lord had summoned the witnesses of heaven and earth, giving his law to the people of Israel, and had said: 'Listen, heaven, and I will speak; let the earth hear the words of my mouth' (Deuteronomy 31:1): after the transgression of the people, he summons them again as witnesses, so that all the elements may know that God, justly provoked to anger by the violation of his commandments, punishes. In Hebrew, 'heaven' is called 'Samaim', in the plural form. Especially when it says 'listen', that is, 'Semu', which is pronounced in the plural form, not the singular. But some want to be called heavens in the plural, but understood in the singular, according to that which we call individual cities, Thebes and Athens. And there is the Hebrew language, in which all words ending in Im are masculine and plural, like Cherubim and Seraphim. And words ending in Oth are feminine and plural, like Sabaoth. And it should be noted that heavens is used, hear, earth, perceive with your ears; for those things that are exalted have a greater understanding, while those that are more humble are wrapped in earthly senses. And the Savior in the Gospel says: He who has ears to hear, let him hear (Matt. XI, 15). Therefore, if anyone is heavenly and has citizenship in the heavens, let him hear mystically what is being said. If anyone is earthly, let him follow the simple history. Also, it should be noted that he did not say: Hear, heaven, and perceive with your ears, earth, what the Lord has spoken to you; but what he has spoken to me, so that I may recount to you what I have heard in the spirit, since you do not deserve to hear him speaking. Some (Origenists) think that the heavens and the earth are, as it were, animated beings capable of hearing, according to what is said elsewhere about the earth: Who looks on the earth, and makes it tremble (Ps. CIII, 32): whereas this is the power of God, not of earthly intelligence.
I have begotten and exalted sons: but they have despised me. For which Symmachus and Theodotion rendered it thus: I have nourished and exalted sons (Exod. IV, 22). From this place the Prophet relates what the Lord has spoken, that he has turned the people of Israel, whom he had established as servants by a common law, into sons, and has said: My firstborn son is Israel. Finally, the Lord in the Gospel promises the Apostles that if they do his will, he will no longer call them servants, but friends (John XV, 15). But if Israel becomes proud, let him understand that he is called the firstborn, because it signifies that he is followed by second sons from the nations. For he is not called the only begotten who excludes other brothers, but the firstborn, to show that others will follow: and yet according to the mysteries of the Scriptures, it is not the firstborn who receive the inheritance, but the second. Cain was the firstborn, but Abel's offerings pleased God. The firstborn was Ishmael, but Isaac received the inheritance. The firstborn was Esau, but he was cheated out of the father's blessing by Jacob the supplanter. The firstborn was Reuben, but nevertheless the blessing of the seed of Christ was transferred to Judah. Therefore, according to the order of their calling, they were the first, and were called the head: we who were second were called the tail, but now we have been turned into the head, and are called the sons of God. For as many as received him, he gave them power to become the sons of God (John 1:12). We have not received the spirit of bondage in fear, but the spirit of adoption, in which we cry out: Abba, Father (Rom. VIII, 15): because perfect love casts out fear (I John IV, 18). But it is better to read according to the Hebrew, 'I have nourished sons', than 'I have begotten', lest it seem contrary to that saying which we read in the Epistle of John: Whoever is born of God does not sin (I John III, 9). Therefore, if these are born from God, how could they have sinned: since everyone who is born from God cannot sin?
1:3
(Verse 3.) The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master's crib. But Israel does not know; my people do not understand. Woe to the sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, offspring of evildoers, children who deal corruptly! They have forsaken the Lord, they have despised the Holy One of Israel, they are utterly estranged. Why will you still be struck down? Why will you continue to rebel? The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even to the head, there is no soundness in it, but bruises and sores and raw wounds; they are not pressed out or bound up or softened with oil. Your country lies desolate; your cities are burned with fire; in your very presence foreigners devour your land; it is desolate, as overthrown by foreigners. And the daughter of Zion is left like a booth in a vineyard, like a lodge in a cucumber field, like a besieged city. If the Lord of hosts had not left us a few survivors, we should have been like Sodom, and become like Gomorrah. Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom! Give ear to the teaching of our God, you people of Gomorrah! What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? says the Lord; I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed beasts; I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of goats. When you come to appear before me, who has required of you this trampling of my courts? Bring no more vain offerings; incense is an abomination to me. New moon and Sabbath and the calling of convocations— I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hates; they have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them. When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not listen; your hands are full of blood. Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow's cause. Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool. If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land; but if you refuse and rebel, you shall be eaten by the sword; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken. And he did not compare them to dogs, which are the most keen-witted species of animals, and they protect their owners' homes for little food: but rather to dumber animals like oxen and donkeys, one of which pulls carts and turns over the toughest clumps of earth with a plow, and the other carries heavy loads and moderates the labor of men while walking: hence they are called 'beasts of burden' from it, because they aid men. This place can be understood to refer to God the Father: but it is more often related to the Son, because the people of Israel did not know him, nor did they receive him: whose day Abraham saw and rejoiced, and for whose coming the hopes of all the prophets depended. And in the Gospel, he speaks to Jerusalem: How often would I have gathered your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing (Matt. XXIII, 37)! We ask, where shall we read about the ox and the donkey together? In Deuteronomy it is written: You shall not plow with an ox and a donkey together (Deut. XXII, 10). And in the same Isaiah: Blessed is he who sows beside all waters, where the ox and the donkey tread (Isai. XXXII, 20). Ebion, who plows with the ox and the donkey together, is worthy of humble understanding, poverty in his name; he receives the Gospel in such a way that he does not abandon the ceremonies of Jewish superstitions, which preceded in shadow and image. Blessed is he who sows in the words of Scripture, both of the Old and New Testament: and he treads upon the waters of the letters of the setting sun, in order to reap the fruit of the life-giving Spirit. The ox is metaphorically related to Israel, who carried the yoke of the Law, and is a clean animal. The donkey burdened with the weight of sinners represents the people of the Gentiles, to whom the Lord spoke: Come to me all you who labor and are burdened, and I will refresh you (Matt. 11:28). Therefore, the Pharisees and Scribes, who did not believe, but had the key and knowledge of the Law, and were truly called Israel, that is, a people seeing God, a part of the Jewish people believed, so that on one day three thousand would believe together, and on another day five thousand. Even the wise of the world, who did not accept the cross of Christ, were received by the unlearned crowd of the nations. Hence the Apostle said: Consider your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many powerful, not many noble, but what is foolish in the world, God has chosen, to confound the wise; and what is weak in the world, God has chosen, to confound the strong (1 Corinthians 1:26-27). But this is forced, the previous interpretation is true.
1:4
(Verse 4) Woe to the sinful nation, a people burdened with iniquity, a wicked offspring, wicked children: they have forsaken the Lord, they have blasphemed the Holy One of Israel, they have turned away backwards. The phrase I placed last, 'they have turned away backwards,' is not found in the Septuagint and instead of 'they have blasphemed,' it is written in them, 'they have provoked to anger.' And instead of 'wicked offspring,' it is translated in the Hebrew as 'wicked ones,' so that the vice of the offspring is not so much a defect of their nature (lest good and evil be thought to have different natures) as it is a result of their wickedness, those who have forsaken the Lord by their own will.
In the beginning of the book, the title mentions the characters, the cause, and the time: in the second part, it captivates the listeners; in the third part, it narrates what the Lord said; in the fourth part, it reproaches the sinful nation, and a people full of or weighed down by injustice. Not that there is another nation and another people, as some think, but it is Israel itself, which is called both nation and people, and is referred to as wicked or unjust sons: those who were first called sons of the Lord through his kindness, but afterwards were called sons of iniquity because of their own fault; or as others have said in agreement, corrupting sons, that is, those who have lost the good of their nature through their own fault. And the text continues: 'They blasphemed the holy Israel, it is said specifically of the Jews, shouting: We have no king but Caesar' (John 19:15); and: 'Is this not the son of the carpenter?' (Matthew 13:55); and, 'He has a demon, and is a Samaritan' (John 8:48). Therefore, because they abandoned Christ and blasphemed the Holy Israel, they were estranged backwards, so that those who were called part and children of God would later be called: 'Alien children have lied to me' (Psalm 18:46). The Savior commanded that, with the plow seized, we do not look back (Luke 9:62), so as not to imitate Lot's wife. Hence the Apostle, stretching out towards the things before, forgets the things that are behind (Philippians 3:13). And what he said according to the Septuagint, to a people full of sins (Zechariah 5:7), shows that there was no kind of sins that the people of Israel did not have. But if we read it as in Hebrew, to a people heavy with iniquity, let us remember the testimony of that, that iniquity sits upon a talent of lead, and it is said from the person of a sinner in the thirty-seventh psalm: My iniquities have been lifted up above my head: As a heavy burden, they have been burdened upon me (Psalm 37:5). We pass through things that are manifest, so that we may linger in those that are more obscure and require explanation.
1:5
(Verse 5). In which way shall I strike you any longer, adding transgression? By this testimony we learn that the Lord strikes sinners in order to correct them, and that the punishment is not so much for retribution as for correction. The meaning is this: I cannot find any medicine that I can apply to your wounds; all your limbs are full of sores; I find no part of your body that has not been struck before. Or certainly in this way: I find no wounds by which I can break your stubbornness. For the greater the tortures are, the more impiety and injustice grows, or as Theodotion translated, the deviation, so that you may depart and deviate from the Lord. Such is that of Jeremiah: I have struck your children without cause: you have not received discipline (Jeremiah II, 30). Hence, he speaks angrily through Hosea: I will not visit your daughters when they commit fornication; and your daughters-in-law when they commit adultery (Hosea IV, 14). And in Ezekiel: My jealousy will depart from you, and I will no longer be angry with you (Ezek. 16:42). Of whom we also read in the Psalms: There is no firmament in their hands, and they are not laboring with men, nor will they be scourged with men (Ps. 73:4, 5).