Every head is weary, and every heart mournful. The joy of the soul sometimes alleviates the pain of the body: but if mental distress accompanies physical illness, the weakness is doubled. Among the senses themselves, and all the members of the body, the head occupies the chief place, in which there is sight and smell, hearing and taste. Therefore, when the head aches, all the members are weak. And by metaphor, it teaches that from the leaders to the lowest of the people, from the learned to the ignorant masses, there is no health in anyone: but all unanimously consent in impiety with equal ardor.
From the sole of the foot to the crown of the head, there is no soundness in it: wounds, bruises, and oozing sores. The translation has been maintained: from the feet to the head, that is, from the lowest to the highest, from the outermost to the innermost, they are pierced through the whole body. 'Wounds,' he says, 'and bruises, and oozing sores': for either bodies turn blue from beatings, or swell from blows, or gape with wounds. We ask, to what time should these things be adapted? After the Babylonian captivity, under Zerubbabel, Ezra, and Nehemiah, Israel returned to Judaea and restored its ancient state. Under various rulers and kings, the temple was rebuilt to be more magnificent, to the extent that even foreign nations, such as the Spartans, Athenians, and Romans, formed alliances. Therefore, when it says, 'There is no soundness in it,' it refers to the ultimate captivity, since from Titus and Vespasian to the final destruction of Jerusalem, under Aelius Hadrianus and up to the present time, there is no remedy. And what is written is fulfilled: 'All have turned away; they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one' (Rom. 3:12). And what is also inferred: there is no health in it, either in the people, or in the body, or in the head.
1:6
(Verse 6) It is not wrapped, nor treated with medicine, nor anointed with oil. For which the LXX translated: It is not to apply a plaster, nor oil, nor bandages. Even today, the wound and swelling of the people of Israel are not wrapped with strips, nor treated with medicine. Which Aquila interpreted as μότωσιν, namely, the little linen cloths that are applied to wounds to dry up pus and extract impurities. Nor was oil applied, so that the hardness of their wounds might be softened by tears of repentance. For the boils, with which the wounds of the Israelites were not at all bound up, the 70 doses were transferred. Therefore, Israel lies wounded and slaughtered because they killed the doctor who had come to heal the house of Israel. Hence, in Jeremiah, the Angels speak tropically under the person of Babylon: We have healed Babylon, and she is not healed (Jeremiah 51:9), namely the city of confusion and vices. And in the Gospel (Luke 10) we read that a man, who was descending from Jerusalem to Jericho, was attacked by robbers and was cared for by a Samaritan. And after the severity of the wine, the softness of the oil poured on his wounds. Therefore, from that place where it was said above: In which I will strike you, and: every weak head, until it is brought to the suffering: There is no healing remedy or soothing oil, the likeness of the translation is preserved, and the description of incurable wounds expresses the eternal captivity of the Jews.
1:7
(Verse 7) Your land is deserted; your cities are burned with fire. Foreigners devour your land before your eyes, and it is desolate like a hostile wasteland. These things were partially fulfilled under the Babylonians, with the temple being burned and Jerusalem being destroyed, when the Samaritans possessed the region of the ten tribes, and the promised land was so desolate that it was ravaged by lions. But a more complete and perfect description of what would happen under Roman captivity is given: when the Roman army devastated all of Judea, and the cities were burned, and their land is currently being devoured by foreigners, and the desolation of the Jews will continue until the end of the world. However, we can interpret these things tropologically about sinners who have fallen from their former holiness, after they have been handed over to contrary powers: that all their goods come to a desert: and God does not remember the former righteousness: and they are consumed by the fire of the devil; and they become food for beasts, of whom it is also written in another place: Do not give the soul confessing to you to beasts (Ps. 73, 19).
1:8
(Verse 8) The daughter of Zion will be abandoned like a shelter in a vineyard, like a hut in a cucumber field. The vineyard, which is called the whole of Israel, is testified to by the Prophet in the following, saying: 'The vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel; and the man of Judah, a new plant and beloved' (below chapter 5, verse 7); and in the Psalm: 'You brought a vine out of Egypt; you drove out the nations and planted it' (Psalm 80:9). This vine, as long as it brought forth abundant fruits, had God as its guardian, of whom it is written: 'He does not slumber or sleep, who keeps Israel' (Psalm 121:4). But after they had harvested it, everyone passing by the road trampled it down, and a wild boar from the forest ravaged it. The Lord abandoned his temple and, rising up in anger, said, 'Arise, let us leave this place; and let your house be left desolate to you.' (Matt. XXIII, 38). And through Jeremiah: 'I have forsaken my house; I have abandoned my inheritance. My inheritance has become to me like a lion in the forest; it has roared against me, therefore I hate it.' (Jerem. XII, 7). However, the likeness of the devastation of the Temple and Jerusalem is taken from the farmers, who, as long as the vineyard is full of grapes, place guards in the shade. In the Cucumber House, which they call the guardian of seventy fruits, small huts are built to shield against the heat of the sun and to deflect its rays; and from there, they drive away either the men or the little animals that are accustomed to lurking in the newly grown crops. But when these types of produce have been harvested, only the withered coverings of the bushes and the huts remain, as the guard withdraws because he no longer has anything to protect. So the almighty God abandoned the Temple and made the city deserted: which does not need to be proven by words, especially to us, who see Zion deserted and Jerusalem destroyed, and the Temple completely demolished to the ground. But what he calls the daughter of Zion shows the affection of a most merciful parent. It is not surprising if Zion is called daughter, since even Babylon is often called daughter. For we are all by nature children of God, but by our own fault we become estranged. According to the anagoge, our soul can be called the vineyard of God and the paradise of apples: if our mind, that is, νοῦς, is in charge, it has God as the guardian of the mind; but if our vices have preyed upon us like certain beasts, we are abandoned by the guardian God, and all our things are reduced to solitude.
If the Lord of hosts had not left us seed, we would have been as Sodom, and we would have been like Gomorrah. This place Paul the Apostle explains more fully to the Romans, writing: I say therefore, has God rejected his people? By no means: For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew (Romans 11:1-2). And a little later: Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace (Romans 11:5). From this it is shown that the earlier prophetic discourse against Jerusalem and Judah is not referring to the time of the Babylonian captivity, but to the final period of the Romans, when the remnants of the Jewish people were saved in the Apostles; and on one day three thousand believed, and on another five thousand, and the Gospel was spread throughout the whole world. In the Lord of hosts, which we, following Aquila, translate into Latin, it is read in Hebrew as Lord Sabaoth, which the Septuagint interpreters, depending on the context, translate in two ways: either Lord of hosts, or Lord Almighty. And let it be sought whether it is said of the Father or of the Son. There is no doubt that what is read in the twenty-third (or fourth) psalm: Lift up your gates, O princes, and be lifted up, eternal gates, and the king of glory will enter. Who is this king of glory? The Lord of hosts (Psalm 23:7-8), that is, the Lord of powers, he is the king of glory, to be referred to Christ, who after the triumph of his passion ascended to the heavens as the victor. And in another place it is said about the Lord, that he is the king of glory: For if they had known, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory (I Cor. II, 8). Therefore, not only according to the Apocalypse of John and the Apostle Paul, but also in the Old Testament, the Lord of hosts, that is, the Almighty, is called Christ. For if all things are the Father's, and as he himself says in the Gospel: All power is given to me in heaven and on earth (Matth. XXVIII, 18); and: All mine are yours, and I am glorified in them; why should not the name of the Almighty also be referred to Christ: so that as God of God, and Lord of Lords, so may the Almighty Son be?
1:10
(Verse 10) Hear the word of the Lord, rulers of Sodom: listen with your ears to the law of our God, people of Gomorrah. After preserving the remnants of the people of Israel through the Apostles, the Scribes and Pharisees, and the people who cried out: Crucify, crucify him (John 19, 6), the prophetic word turns; and it calls them rulers of Sodom and people of Gomorrah, according to what we read in the following: They have declared and shown their iniquity like Sodom. Woe to their souls: for they have devised an evil counsel against themselves, saying: Let us bind the just, because he is unprofitable to us (Isaiah 3). Therefore, the rulers are called of Sodom, and the people of Gomorrah, because they have devised an evil counsel, and have bound the just, and have said: We have no king but Caesar (John 19:15). And again: We know that God spoke to Moses: but as for this man, we know not from whence he is (John 9:29). At the same time boasting in the Gospel: We are the seed of Abraham and have never served anyone (John 8:53); they hear from the Lord and Savior: If you were children of Abraham, you would do the works of Abraham; and again: You were born of the devil as your father, and you want to do the works of your father (ibid., 39). Such a thing Ezekiel also speaks to Jerusalem: Your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite (Ezekiel 16:45). The Hebrews say that Isaiah was killed for two reasons: because he called the princes of Sodom and the people of Gomorrah, and because while the Lord was saying to Moses, You cannot see my face (Exodus 33:20), he dared to say, I saw the Lord sitting on a high and lofty throne (Isaiah 6:1); without considering that the seraphim cover the face and feet of God, or their own, because it is ambiguously read in Hebrew, and Isaiah writes that he only saw the middle part of Him. Therefore, a human being cannot see the face of God. However, angels in the Church always see the face of God, even the faces of the least. And now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. When we progress from being human to being angels, we will be able to say with the Apostle: But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord. Although no creature can see the face of God according to its own nature, it is seen in the mind when it is believed to be invisible.
1:11
(Verse 11) What use to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? says the Lord. I am full. I do not desire burnt sacrifices of rams, or the fat of fattened cattle, or the blood of bulls, or lambs, or goats. Because they exist, I did not desire them. The Septuagint translates 'I do not desire' as 'I will not desire', using the present tense instead of the past tense. Furthermore, according to the Hebrew, it demonstrates that God never desired the sacrifices of the Jews, as we read in the forty-ninth psalm: I will not accept a bull from your house, or goats from your flocks. For every beast of the forest is mine, the cattle on a thousand hills. I have known all the flying creatures of the sky, and the beauty of the field is with me. If I were hungry, I would not say to you: for the world is mine and all its fullness. Shall I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats? (Psalm 49, seq.) And when he rejected the ceremonies of the old Law, he passed on to the purity of the Gospel and showed what he desires for these things: Sacrifice to God the sacrifice of praise, and pay your vows to the Most High. Call upon me in the day of trouble, and I will deliver you, and you will honor me. Therefore, the content of this chapter, up to the point where it says: Judge the orphan, defend the widow, and come, let us reason together: it rejects sacrifices of victims and teaches that obedience to the Gospel is a superior sacrifice. And what he brings is to be understood in this sense: I am full, I need nothing: the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof (Psalm 24:1). Therefore, we have all received from his fullness. This can also be understood about those who, not obeying God's precepts, believe they can redeem themselves with gifts and offerings to God: or those who offer stolen goods and ill-gotten gains on the altar and to the poor.
1:12
(Verse 12.) For who indeed sought these things from your hands? Let the Ebionites hear, who after the passion of Christ think that the Law has been abolished and should be observed. Let the associates of the Ebionites hear, who decree that these things should be observed only by Jews and those of Israelite descent. Therefore, the offering and sacrifice of victims were not primarily sought by God, but so that they would not be made to idols; and so that we might pass from carnal victims, as it were by a type and image, to spiritual sacrifices. But by saying that he did not desire sacrifices, he showed that the law is spiritual: and that all the things that the Jews do in a carnal way are fulfilled spiritually by us.
1:13
(Ver. 13.) You will not trample on my courtyard. Note that after the devastation of Babylon, the Temple was built again by Zerubbabel: and for many years sacrifices have been offered in the Temple (1 Esdras, 5). Therefore, it indicates the final destruction of the Temple under Vespasian and Titus, which will persist until the end of the world.
1:14
(Verse 14.) I will not bear your new moons, and sabbaths, and other feasts: your assemblies are wicked. Every gathering that does not offer spiritual sacrifices, and does not listen to what is sung in the fiftieth psalm: A sacrifice to God is a contrite spirit: a broken and humbled heart God does not despise, is abominable to God. And therefore it connects and says: Your new moons and solemnities. So that it does not call them their own feasts: but those who misuse them. And as the Seventy translated, fasting and idleness: we can say that fasting is accepted by God, because it does not have the idleness of good works. My soul hates it. Anthropomorphically, not that God has a soul; but it speaks with our affection.
1:15
(Verse 15) You have become wearisome to me; I will by no means forgive your sins. Regarding this, Aquila interpreted, 'I labored and endured.' Symmachus, feeling sorry, said, 'I have failed in seeking mercy,' in order to show that he will no longer have compassion, because it is one thing for a servant sent to him to be killed, and another for a Son. We read this same meaning in the prophet Hosea: 'Your destruction, Israel; only in me is your help' (Hosea 13:9). This is understood thus: Perish, Israel, not by your merit, but only by my help are you saved.
Your hands are full of blood. The reason is clear why God turns His eyes away from you and does not listen to your multiplied prayer: because you have shed the blood of the righteous, and the wicked farmers have killed the heir sent to them. Therefore, the Savior speaks to them: And you, fill up the measure of your fathers (Matth. XXIII, 31). For they have killed the messengers sent to them: you kill the Son of the Master of the house. This testimony should be used against those who, while having their hands full of blood with their daily works, join in prayer day and night.
1:16
(Verse 16.) Wash yourselves, be clean. For the previous sacrifices, and burnt offerings, and the fat of the rich, and the blood of bulls and goats: and for the incense and new moons, sabbaths, feast days and fasts, calends and other solemnities, the religion of the Gospel is pleasing to me: that you may be baptized in my blood through the washing of regeneration, which alone can forgive sins. For unless one is born again of water and the Spirit, they will not enter the kingdom of heaven (John 3:5) . The Lord himself, ascending to the Father, said: Go, teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19).
Remove the evil of your thoughts from my sight. As John the Baptist said: 'Brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit worthy of repentance.' (Matt. III, 7; Luke III, 7) So, whoever has received Christ's baptism, let them remove evil from their heart and cease to do evil, and afterwards learn to do good, according to what is commanded elsewhere: 'Turn away from evil and do good.' (Ps. XXXVI, 27)