The Lantern

Commentary on Isaiah31

CCEL

What is also true for you, because you ascended and you are all in the roofs? LXX: What happened to you now, because you all ascended into empty roofs? This, which is sought next to the interpreters of the LXX in the book of Kings, whether it was said by Elisha (4 Kings 2:14): Where is the God of Elijah Aphpho (), is more clearly stated in the present place, because the Seventy translated it as 'now'; in Hebrew it has Aphpho, which we also interpret as 'now', and Aquila, wishing to preserve the Hebrew idiom, put καίπερτοι, which the Latin language does not explain. But when he says, 'What is it to you also?' he asks why she ascends among others herself, and why she remains with the opinion of the lofty in lowly things. And the meaning is this: when philosophers swell, and all secular wisdom disputes about lofty things, despising the simplicity of the Church, why do you also follow lofty things? which the Seventy have interpreted as more important, 'vain dwellings,' that is, empty roofs, in order to show that there is another roof, from which the Savior prohibits descending (Matthew 24): which yet is not an empty roof. Finally, the apostle Peter at the sixth hour of prayer ascended to the roof (Acts X). Now, however, to demonstrate the great variety of heresies, he mentioned not one roof, but many roofs.

22:2

(Version 2.) Full of cries, a bustling city, a rejoicing community. The city is filled with those crying out, the bustling city is rejoicing. The teaching of the heretics is not in meaning, but in many words and clamor. Therefore, because of the multitude of the deceived, the city is called bustling and rejoicing, because of their pride. For they are inflated and boast that they have found more sacred things.

Those who were killed were not killed by the sword, nor did they die in battle. Seventy: Those who were wounded were not wounded by the sword, nor did your dead die in battle. The majority, without any struggle or disagreement, is taken in by the deceptions of the heretics, and this is the very large crowd. Therefore, those who were killed, or as the Septuagint translated, those wounded in the valley of Zion, were not killed, and those wounded by the sword, but of their own free will, they went over to the heretics, and in comparison to those who were defeated after the battle, he who surrendered willingly was more unfortunate, and he was wounded and killed. How much more in martyrdom is he who, after suffering punishment, gave his hand, a lesser punishment than he who, without any necessity and pain of torment, denied Christ.

22:3

(v. 3) All your leaders have fled together and have been harshly bound. In this place, we have followed the Septuagint interpretation, as it does not differ much in meaning from the Hebrew. However, in order to transfer the word from word from Hebrew, it is read among them as follows: All your leaders have migrated together, they have been bound by the bow. This edition has been followed by other interpreters as well. For indeed, all the leaders of the heretics have migrated to the synagogue of Satan from the Church of Christ, and they have passed by together in discord, united in perfidy, and have been bound by the bow, as it is written in the Psalm: Behold, the sinners have drawn the bow, they have prepared their arrows in the quiver, to shoot in the dark at the upright in heart (Psalm 10:2), and to hurl the fiery darts of the devil, which would wound equally and bind together. Therefore they are firmly linked, because they have stopped up their ears like deaf adders, and stopping up their ears, they will not hear the voices of enchanters, nor the wise voices of the enchanters. For this reason, even the Apostle Paul commands that a heretic should be abandoned after one warning, because he is perverted and condemned by his own judgment. And indeed they have gone out from us, but they were not of our number. For if they had been of our number, they would surely have remained with us. Of these fugitive princes, he is the chief whom the same Isaiah calls the fleeing dragon, the twisted serpent, who, when he has whispered deadly words into the ears of the deceived, securely binds them and does not allow them to escape from his chains. About whom the saint rejoiced when he was delivered in the Psalm: My soul hath been delivered as a sparrow out of the snare of the hunters (Ps. CXXIII, 7). And in another place, rejoicing that he has escaped, he speaks; Thou art my protector, and my refuge. My God, I will hope in him. For he himself will deliver me from the snare of hunters, and from the harsh or turbulent word (Ps. 90:23), which specifically signifies the doctrine of heretics.

All who were found in you, they were bound together, they fled far away. 70: And the strong ones fled far away from you. Yet the word of the Prophet is against the valley of Zion, whose inhabitants ascended to empty roofs and cried out with confused noise, and were wounded without battle. All its princes fled, and they were harshly bound, and those who were strong among them fled even further. For as much as one is wiser in heretical perversity, they recede farther from the Lord. But what it says according to the Hebrew: All have been found in you, we must note that even heretics claim to have found those whom they have deceived: but their finding is their destruction. In the end, let them be gathered together and flee far away. Nor do I approve of that explanation, that according to the diversity of heresies, there are different spaces for those who flee, since the holy Scripture says (Luke 11:23): all who are found with the heretics are gathered together and flee far away, with the Lord saying: Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters. Where it is said of Moses (Exod. XXIV), Moses alone approached God, but the others did not approach. For God is near to his holy ones, God who draws near, and not from afar, says the Lord.

22:4-6

(Ver. 4-6.) Therefore I said: Depart from me, I will weep bitterly: labour not to comfort me, for the devastation of the daughter of my people. For it is a day of slaughter and treading down, and of weeping from the Lord God of hosts in the valley of vision, searching the wall, and magnifying upon the mountain. LXX: Therefore I said: Let me alone, I will weep bitterly: labour not to comfort me, for the destruction of the daughter of my people. For it is a day of tumult, and of destruction, and of treading down, and of error from the Lord God of hosts in the valley of Zion; they wander about from the least to the greatest: they are wandering upon the mountains. And Samuel wept for Saul (1 Samuel 15), and the Lord and Savior wept for Jerusalem (Luke 19; 2 Corinthians 12:21): and the Apostle wrote to the Corinthians: For if I cause you sorrow, who is there to make me glad but the one whom I have pained? And I wrote as I did, so that when I came I would not be distressed by those who should have made me rejoice. I had confidence in all of you, that you would all share my joy. For I wrote to you out of great distress and anguish of heart and with many tears, not to grieve you but to let you know the depth of my love for you. (2 Corinthians 2:2-4). So with a compassionate affection, he speaks to others: Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to fall, and I am not indignant? (2 Corinthians 11:29)? Therefore, seeing the people once climb the empty rooftops of vain visions, and being in turmoil; and all its leaders fleeing, and being bound by the chains of sins, the Prophet bursts into tears and dismisses the comforters, and with bitter weeping testifies that he weeps not for his sons, but for the daughter of his people, who has lost her dignity of manhood. For the Day of Judgment and slaughter and trampling shall never come to Jerusalem, which is interpreted as the vision of peace; but to the ancient name Jebus, which is interpreted as trampling. And also tears or errors, as the Seventy have translated from the Lord of hosts, not that tears and errors are from the Lord; but by the occasion of the holy Scriptures, which the Lord has given to be read, occasions of error are born to those who can say: Why have you made us to err from your ways? (Isa. LXIII, 27). And in another place: The Lord mixed for them the spirit of error (Ibid. XXIX, 10): so that they would not stand on the mountain of Vision, but in the valley of Zion. But this very day, which rises in the valley of Vision from the Lord of hosts, examines the wall of the heretics, which they have constructed against the Church as the strongest defense; and also the magnificent and glorious, that is, their teachers, who boast of standing on the mountain of Christ. We read elsewhere: Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob: and he will instruct us in his ways (Isaiah 2:3). Moreover, what the Seventy translated, they err from the minimum to the maximum, they err over the mountains. We should understand that they are in a greater sin, who are greater, and yet all err from the minimum to the maximum, and err over the mountains: Moses, Jeremiah, and the other prophets, the evangelists and apostles. And when they are in the valley, they wander astonishingly in the mountains.

22:7-9

(Verses 7-9.) And he took Elam, the quiver, the chariot of a man, and the shield uncovered the wall. And your chosen valleys will be full of chariots, and horsemen will set their seats at the gate. And the covering of Judah will be revealed, and on that day you will see the arsenal of the house of the forest. And you will see the breaches of the city of David, for they are multiplied. LXX: But the Elamites took quivers, climbers, men upon horses, and a gathering of fighters. And your chosen valleys will be filled with chariots, and horsemen will crowd your gates. And they will reveal the gates of Judah, and on that day they will look upon the chosen houses of the city. And they will reveal the hidden things of the houses of the stronghold of David, and they will see that there are many. Aelam, which is interpreted as their ascent, or the Elamites, as the LXX translated it, whom we turn into despisers, have taken up the quiver, to drive the upright in obscurity, who are the horsemen in the chariot of men, to expose the wall of Zion and the foundations of the Church with their shield and attack. 'But', he says, 'your chosen valleys will be,' and humble teachings, oh valley of Zion, full of chariots, which the Lord submerged with Pharaoh, and their horsemen and climbers will place their thrones at your gates, so that they do not allow the besieged and confined to go out from you. Then Almighty God will reveal the coverings of the Jews through the ecclesiastical men; and all their secrets, who are established in the confession of faith, will be revealed. And then, O Valley of Zion, you will see on that day, and in the clear light of truth, all the armor of the Apostle, and the house of the jump, in which the multitude of the nations stands. Just as it is sung in Psalm 131: Behold, we have heard of it in Ephrata: we have found it in the fields of the forest. But when the veil of the Jews and their secret, which was previously concealed due to mystery, has been revealed, and you see the armor of the Church; then you will understand the divisions of the city of David, which you have multiplied, in order to gather deceived peoples to yourself. These Elamites, according to the edition of the Septuagint, do not have a single quiver, but many; and they are mounted on men who ride on souls; and there is a great multitude preparing for battle against the Church, so that all its valleys are filled; and the horsemen hinder their senses, and by their conflict provoke the Ecclesiastical man, who is called Judas, to contend; so that, as he presents testimonies of the Scriptures and refutes all lies, the heretics will see the houses of the city of David, and know all the previously secret things, how in the stronghold of David, which means the strong hand, that is, of Christ, all the dogmas of truth exist. These are obscure places, not only according to history, but also according to reasoning. Therefore, those who are displeased with ours should present their own, so that we may agree with their explanation if it is true.

22:10-11

(Vers. 10, 11.) And you gathered the waters of the lower pool, and you numbered the houses of Jerusalem, and you destroyed houses to build a wall. And you made a reservoir between two walls, and the water of the old pool. And you did not look to Him who made it, and the worker of it from afar you did not see. LXX: And they turned the water of the old pool into the city, and they destroyed the houses of Jerusalem to strengthen the city wall. And you made water between two walls within the old pool, and you did not look to Him who made it from the beginning, and you did not see its creator. You who know the divisions of the city of David, that is, the Church, will see or have seen, which have multiplied throughout the world; you who have gathered the waters of your pool and your doctrine, not of the higher, but of the lower, and have counted the houses of Jerusalem, whether you have destroyed them to fortify your wall, you have not dug wells that would have had life-giving and eternal water, but broken cisterns that cannot hold water. And you have made them between the two walls of the old and new covenant, and you have neglected the water of the old pool, and you have not considered the giver of the law, God, and you have completely neglected the operator of the world. This is according to the Hebrew. Moreover, according to the Septuagint, the heretics considered themselves many, and with this confidence, they turned the teaching of the old Testament away from the city of God, which is the Church, and destroyed the houses of Jerusalem, in order to build meeting places of the wicked; and while they reject the old Testament, they have not followed the new, because the new is confirmed by the testimonies of the old Testament. Therefore, between the two walls of the old and the new, they have made for themselves new waters, which they think are interior and contain greater mysteries than those contained in the old Testament; and they have not respected God, who is the creator of the old Testament, and they did not even want to see his maker from afar.

22:12-14

(Verse 12 and following) And on that day the Lord God of hosts will call for weeping and mourning, for baldness and the wearing of sackcloth; and behold, joy and gladness, killing calves and slaughtering rams, eating meat and drinking wine: 'Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.' And it was revealed in my ears by the Lord of hosts: 'Surely this iniquity will not be forgiven you until you die,' says the Lord God of hosts. Every day the Lord God of hosts invites heretics to repentance, who, despising the water of the old pool between two walls, dig a pit for themselves and gather the water of the lower pool, which does not have water from heaven but from the earth; and He calls them to weeping; Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted (Matthew 5:5). And to lamentation, lest they hear afterwards: We have mourned to you, and you have not lamented (Matthew 11:17). And for baldness, so that they may shave off all the works of death and rid their bodies of anything that does not live in the body. And for the belt of the robe, so that they may not be bound with a rope around their waist near Jerusalem. But on the contrary, for weeping and lamentation, baldness and sackcloth, they had joy and gladness, and as if everything were ending in death, they slaughtered calves and lambs, so that they could eat meat and drink wine, and they spoke words of blasphemy. While we are in the present age, we abound in delights. For tomorrow, which is the future time, will be without meaning. When they were saying these things, the Lord heard words of blasphemy and threatened that He would not let go of this wickedness until they either die and perish in sin and vices, or drag themselves down to the underworld with their own faults. And this can be understood not only of heretics, but of every sinner who, neglecting his sins, becomes worse through despair; and ensnared by pleasures, combines blasphemy with sin, thinking that all sense of living things ends in death, saying that statement of Epicurus: 'After death, there is nothing, and death itself is nothing.' »

22:15-25

(Verse 15, 16, etc.) Thus says the Lord, the God of hosts: Go, enter to him who dwells in the tabernacle, to Shebna, the overseer of the temple, and say to him: What are you doing here? or who are you here? for you have carved out a sepulchre here for yourself. You have carved out a lofty memorial for yourself diligently in the rock for your tent. Behold, the Lord will cast you down as one is cast down, like a cockerel; and he will lift you up like a cloak. The one who crowns will crown you with tribulation: he will throw you like a ball onto a vast and spacious land. There you will die, and there will be the chariot of your glory, the disgrace of the house of your Lord. I will remove you from your position and take away your authority. And on that day, I will call my servant Eliakim, son of Hilkiah, and clothe him with your robe and strengthen him with your belt. I will give him your authority, and he will be like a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and the house of Judah. And I will place the key of the house of David upon his shoulder; and he shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open. And I will fasten him as a peg in a sure place, and he shall be for a throne of glory to his father's house. And they shall hang upon him all the glory of his father's house, diverse kinds of vessels, from the smallest to the largest. In that day, says the Lord of hosts, the peg that was fastened in a sure place shall be removed; and it shall be cut down and fall, and the burden that was upon it shall be removed; for the Lord has spoken. LXX: Thus says the Lord of hosts: Go to the treasurer in Somna's temple and say to him, What are you doing here? Or what have you gained here? For you have dug a grave for yourself and made a memorial for yourself on high; you have carved out a dwelling place for yourself in the ground. Behold, the Lord of hosts will cast you out and bring low the man, and he will take away your glorious robe and crown, and throw you into a vast and measureless place, and there you will die. And he will bring your finest chariot to shame, and the house of your prince to trampling. And you shall be removed from your office, and from your position. And it shall be on that day, I will call my servant Eliakim son of Hilkiah, and I will clothe him with your robe, and I will strengthen him with your belt, and I will give your authority into his hand. And he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. And I will place the glory of the house of David on him, and he will rule as prince, and there will be no one to oppose him. And I will give him the key of the house of David; he will open, and no one will shut; he will shut, and no one will open. And I will appoint him as a faithful ruler, and on the throne of glory in the house of his father. And every glorious one will have confidence in him, from the least to the greatest, in the house of his father. All vessels, from the smallest to the largest, will hang upon him. In that day, says the Lord of hosts, the man who was firmly established in a faithful place will be shaken and removed, and he will fall, and the glory that was in him will perish, because the Lord has spoken. The prophet Isaiah is commanded to enter into the one who dwells in the tabernacle, which in Hebrew is called Sochen, to Sobna, the overseer of the temple, or as the Septuagint translated, the treasurer, that is, the treasurer and steward of the treasures of the house of God. But Sochen interprets either tabernacle or pastophorion, that is, a chamber, in which the overseer of the temple dwells. But who else dwelt in the tabernacle of the Jews and in the former house of God, if not the word and reason of the Jewish law, which is revealed in the reading of the Old Testament? So it is said to this tradition and teaching: what are you doing here? Why do you want to build a house with the letter O in the west, and to fix your tent, which does not have a foundation, on a solid rock, which should not be called a tent or a house, but rather a tomb and a memory? Therefore, I tell you not to labor in the excavation of a tomb, because the Lord will transfer your priesthood; just as Geber (), which all men have interpreted, is usually transferred. But the Hebrew, who instructed us in the reading of the Old Testament, translated the rooster to be a chicken. Just as, he says, a rooster is transferred from one place to another on the shoulder of a porter, so the Lord will lightly take you from your place. And those who once had the crown of the high priest, and the sanctification in the golden plate, on which the name of God was written (Exodus 28), you will be crowned with tribulation and distress. And just as if a ball is thrown on a sloping and spacious place, it cannot stand, but rolls into the vastness: so all your people will be scattered to the ends of the earth. There you will die with your letter, and all your glory, and the chariots by which you were previously renowned; and the splendor of the house of God will be turned into ignominy. For the Lord will remove you from your position and from your ministry, that is, the ceremonies of the sacrifices, so that that which is written to the Hebrews may be fulfilled: For a change of the priesthood necessitates a change of the law (Hebrews 7:12). But when you are expelled from your ministry, I will call my servant Eliakim, to whom I have said also in another place: It is a great thing for you to be called my servant (Isaiah 49:6, according to the Septuagint). Eliacim is interpreted as God rising, or the resurrection of God. Therefore, this rising God, who is the son of Helcia, that is, a part of the Lord, will assume your place and will be clothed with your robe, and he will be strengthened by your belt, so that what you had in the letter, he may possess in the spirit, and he will be the father of those dwelling in Jerusalem, that is, in the vision of peace, which is interpreted as the Church, and of the house of Judah, where true faith is confessed. Where He Himself speaks to the Apostles: Little children, I am with you for a little while longer (John 13:33). And to another: Son, your sins are forgiven (Matthew 9:2). And to another: Daughter, your faith has saved you (Luke 7:50). I will give, He says, the key of the house of David, which opens and no one shuts; who shuts and no one opens (Revelation 3). And this same key will be upon His shoulder, that is, in His passion, according to what is written in another place: His dominion is upon His shoulder (Isaiah 9:6). For whatever he has loosed in his suffering, it cannot be closed; and whatever he has closed in the ceremonies of the Jews, it will be opened by no other. For I will fix the standard in a faithful place, where the assembly of the faithful is. Hence believers in Christ are called faithful. And he will be on the throne of the glory of his father's house, that is, the Church; and they will hang all the glory of his father's house upon him. Hence it is written in the Gospel: All the people were hanging upon him (Luke 19). And indeed, this was not done only at that time, but is fulfilled even to this day, so that different vessels of God, wisdom and justice, and everything by which Christ is called, hang from him. Different kinds of vessels, for which Aquila interpreted as Sasaim and Sephoth, which Symmachus translates as grandsons and mixed: so that both the Apostles and all believers, that is, the sons of sons, and mixed from all the nations, hang upon him. From the vessels of the craterae, which Theodotius Aganoth set up, both small and great are believed to be in the Lord. And I think that the craterae are the Apostles, full of vital waters. Of which it is said: Bless God from the fountains of Israel (Ps. 67:27), in which fountains He mixed His wisdom with wine. And everything, he says, musical, of those who at all times sing praises to God. What follows seems to be contrary to our understanding, how this peg, which had been fixed in a faithful place, is removed and broken, and falls and perishes what had depended on it, and this happens because the Lord has spoken. This can be solved if we read that Gospel, which in the last days the charity of many shall wax cold (Matt. 24); and the Lord Himself says: 'When the Son of man cometh, think you that he shall find faith on earth?' (Luke 18:8) Therefore, the pillar will not be broken and fall and perish, which is impious to say, but the pillar will be taken away from a faithful place, that is, from the Church, through the impiety that grows daily, and those who had previously hung on it with faith will afterwards be broken by unfaithfulness and fall and perish. But this will happen in the last days, because the Lord has spoken. As for the sparrow, which is called Jathed in Hebrew, and is pronounced the same by everyone, the Seventy above all have interpreted it as referring to a person. And what almost passed us by in the haste of dictation, Sobnas interprets as meaning conversion now, or turning back. Therefore, it is said to the leader of the Jews to convert from the Law to the Gospel: and forsaking the images of victims, to turn to the truth of spiritual sacrifice.

23:1

(Chapter 23, Verse 1) The Word of Tyre. As for our view on the burden or word and assumption of Tyre according to the Hebrews, we have already explained it in the book of ten Historical Visions. Now we will briefly go through every prophecy against Tyre according to the interpretation and version of the LXX. Tyre is called 'angustia' in the Hebrew language, and it is translated into our language as 'narrowness'. Therefore, every soul occupied by vices and evil thoughts can be called 'angustia'.

Ululate the ships of Carthage, for they have perished, and they will not come again. From the land of the Citians, a captive has been led. To whom the inhabitants of the island, the merchants of Phoenicia, who cross the sea in many waters, are similar, the seed of merchants like the harvest brought in, the merchants of the nations. For Carthage is written in Hebrew as Tharsis, which all have likewise translated. But Tharsis is interpreted as contemplation or exploration of joy. They are also called Chetim in Hebrew, which means the freezing sea, and in their language it is called Sidon instead of Phoenicia. Therefore, those who are surrounded by a crowd of evil thoughts are accused, and those who desire to become rich, as the Apostle said, fall into temptations and snares of the devil, and into many harmful and destructive desires, which lead people into destruction. And they are told to wail, knowing that all the dealings of this world are perishable, and that the contemplation of joy and happiness must be turned into mourning and tears. For this sea will no longer be navigable; but everything will freeze: and the Tyrian colonies will be led away as captives to punishment. For there are no others like them who inhabit this island, except for traders or translators who are carried around on every wind of doctrine, and who pass from one vice to another. But we dwell on an island, as long as we are beaten by the temptations of this world: and from every side our island and our little ship are struck by the waves of the sea. But the merchants of this island are from Sidon, which means huntress, and many hunters live there. Of them it is written: He will deliver you from the snare of the hunters (Ps. 90:3). And in another place the saint rejoices because he was delivered from their snares, saying: Our soul has been rescued like a sparrow from the snare of the hunters (Ps. 123:7). But all the merchants of the nations are compared to crops that wither quickly, or to harvests of a river that do not have rain from the sky but from the earth: therefore they are doomed to perish with the nations. Where we read, seed of business, in Hebrew it is written, seed of sior, which is understood as Nile, because it has turbid waters with which the crops of Egypt are irrigated.

23:4-5

(Verse 4-5) Blush, Sidon, said the sea; but the strength of the sea says, I have not given birth, nor have I brought forth, nor have I nourished young men, nor have I exalted virgins. But when it is heard in Egypt, sorrow will seize them over Tyre. The sea of this age, in which small creatures dwell with large ones, and the dragon which God created to mock it, seeing the hunters of Christ, who hunt from every mountain and hill, captured those who had been previously captured by demons, speaks to the opposing strength of the hunters, which is interpreted as Sidon, and says to it: Blush, Sidon; for I have not given birth, nor have I brought forth, nor have I nourished young men captured by you, nor have I exalted virgins, whose foolishness is condemned in the Gospel (Matthew 25). For by my travail, and travail, and nourishing, and the raising of virgins, is the travail of the Apostles of Christ abolished; of whom one spoke: My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you (Gal. IV, 19). And: I have given you milk to drink, not meat (I Cor. III, 2). And again: But I would have you to be without solicitude. He that is without a wife is solicitous for the things that belong to the Lord, how he may please God. But he that is with a wife is solicitous for the things of the world, how he may please his wife: and he is divided (I Cor. VII, 32-34). Also: Woman is saved by bearing children, if she continue in faith, and love, and sanctification, with sobriety (I Tim. II, 15). When Egypt shall hear this, which is called in Hebrew Mesraim, which is interpreted as pressing out, that is, afflicting, and oppressing, she shall be disturbed, understanding that she herself shall suffer the same things that Tyre endured. And when it is referred to all vices, it can be understood in the diversity of heresies, when one captivates through heresy, another trembles, and in the confusion of one, another feels that it must be captured. However, as it is said about Sodom: For if the miracles that were done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day; and it is inferred: Nevertheless, it will be more tolerable for Sodom on the day of judgment than for you: thus we learn about Tyre and Sidon from the Savior saying: Nevertheless, it will be lighter for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment than for that city (Matthew 11:21 ff.). Now the Canaanite woman, who understood that her daughter, that is, her soul, was being severely vexed by a most fierce demon, is said to have come out from the borders of Tyre and Sidon. For she could not encounter the Savior otherwise, unless she had left the borders of Tyre and Sidon.

23:6-7

(Verse 6, 7.) Go to Carthage: howl, you who dwell in this island. Is this not your insult from the beginning before it was handed over? They will lead it far on foot to wander. That which follows: They will lead it far on foot to wander, is added from Hebrew, and is prenoted by an asterisk, that is, by illuminating stars. O Tyrians who dwell in narrowness and reside on the island, who are exposed on all sides to the waves of trials, depart from it, and go to Carthage, that is, to Tharsis, and hasten to true joy, mourning for ancient sins, and for the old insult, which either you yourselves inflicted on others, or suffered from them. But I give this command for a reason: because you see your city Tyre about to be moved from its original seats and purpose, when they have humbled their necks to the Gospel of the Savior, after having cast away their old error. So that those who previously dwelled in narrowness may withdraw farther and become strangers and inhabitants of the teaching of the Lord, the Savior.

23:8-9