Judgment on the Nations 1 Draw near, nations, to hear; and peoples, listen! Let the earth hear, and its fullness, the world and all that comes out of it.
Jerome · AD 420 (Chapter 34, Verse 1, etc.) Come near, you nations, and listen; pay attention, you peoples! Let the earth and all that fills it hear, the world and all that springs from it. For the Lord's indignation is against all the nations, and His fury is against all their armies; He has utterly destroyed them and given them over to slaughter.
Thomas Aquinas · AD 1274 734. Come near, you Gentiles. In this part, he threatens those who were assistants to the Assyrians, and first, he threatens all of them together; second, he threatens the Idumeans in particular, where it says, behold it shall come down upon Idumea (Isa 34:5). Concerning the first, he does two things.
2 For the LORD has wrath against all the nations, and fury against all their host. He has devoted them to destruction, he has given them to the slaughter.
Thomas Aquinas · AD 1274 735. Second, he sets out the threatening: for the indignation, as to three things. First, as to the destruction of their people, setting out the indignation of the judge, namely, God: the indignation of the Lord, above: this is the hand that is stretched out upon all nations (Isa 14:26); above: to destroy the nations unto nothing (Isa 30:28); the killing of men: he has killed t…
3 And their slain will be thrown out, and from their corpses their stench will go up, and the mountains will melt with their blood.
Thomas Aquinas · AD 1274 And the throwing out of their corpses: their slain shall be cast forth, without burial: his stench shall ascend (Joel 2:20). Second, as to the end of their tyrants: the mountains, that is, the tyrants, shall be melted with their blood, that is, because of the fault of shedding blood, below: the mountains would melt away at your presence (Isa 64:1).
4 And all the host of the heavens will rot away, and the heavens will be rolled up like a document; and all their host will wither as a leaf withers from a vine, and as a withering fig from a fig tree.
Cyril of Jerusalem · AD 386 So, our Lord Jesus Christ comes from heaven, and he comes with glory at the last day to bring this world to its close. For this world will accomplish its course, and the world that once came into being is hereafter to be renewed.
Jerome · AD 420 "You have spread out the heavens like a tent cloth." The prophet means to say that from the beginning God spread out the heavens, just as if he were unfolding a scroll and rolling it back again, as it is written in Holy Scripture: "And the heavens shall be rolled up like a scroll." You have constructed your palace upon the waters, as similarly in Genesis, there were waters abov…
Thomas Aquinas · AD 1274 Third, as to the destruction of their idols; and concerning this he does three things. 736. And first, he shows that the help of idols will cease in wars: and all the host of the heavens, namely, of the air, that is, the demons; or, literally, the spirits, which, according to the opinion of the gentiles, governed the stars, shall pine away, above: the idols of Egypt shall be mo…
Judgment on Edom 5 For my sword has drunk its fill in the heavens. See, upon Edom it comes down, and upon the people I have devoted, for judgment.
Jerome · AD 420 To us this life is a race course: we contend here, we are crowned elsewhere. No one can lay aside fear while serpents and scorpions beset his path. The Lord says, "My sword has drunk its fill in heaven," and do you expect to find peace on the earth? No, the earth yields only thorns and thistles, and its dust is food for the serpent.
Thomas Aquinas · AD 1274 Third, he shows the effect of both: for my sword, that is, my vengeance, is inebriated in heaven, that is, I have carried out vengeance on the demons abundantly: I will make my arrows drunk with blood, and my sword shall devour flesh (Deut 32:42). 737. Behold it shall come down upon Idumea.
6 The sword of the LORD is full of blood, it is gorged with fat — with the blood of lambs and he-goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams. For the LORD has a sacrifice in Bozrah, and a great slaughter in the land of Edom.
Thomas Aquinas · AD 1274 Second, he describes the killing as to those of middle rank, setting out the diversity of those killed: the sword of the Lord is filled with blood, it is made thick with the blood of lambs and buck goats, with the blood of rams, through all of which are to be understood the various ranks of those killed: this is the sword of a great slaughter (Ezek 21:14); and the magnitude of…
7 And wild oxen will go down with them, and young bulls with the mighty ones; and their land will drink its fill of blood, and their dust will be gorged with fat.
Thomas Aquinas · AD 1274 And as to the great, setting out their killing: and the unicorns, a fierce animal the size of a cat, with one horn, and thus it signifies the powerful and monarchs, shall go down, into death, above: their strong ones, and their high and glorious ones shall go down into it (Isa 5:14); and the magnitude of the killing, their land shall be soaked with blood: the land was killed wi…
8 For the LORD has a day of vengeance, a year of recompense for the case of Zion.
Jerome · AD 420 (Verses 8 and following) For it is the day of the Lord's vengeance, the year of retribution in the judgment of Zion. Its streams will be turned into pitch, and its soil into sulfur; its land will become burning pitch. Night and day it will not be extinguished; its smoke will go up forever. From generation to generation it will lie desolate; no one will pass through it forever.
Gregory the Dialogist · AD 604 Sacred Scripture has stature, because it directs conduct toward standing, so that the minds of hearers may not be bent toward earthly desire. It has height, because it promises the joys of eternal life in the heavenly homeland. It also has a horrible appearance, because it threatens all the reprobate with the punishments of hell.
Thomas Aquinas · AD 1274 Third, he sets out the reason of the punishment: for it is the day of the vengeance of the Lord, the year of recompenses of the judgment of Zion, namely, that Zion be vindicated against the Idumeans, below: the day of vengeance is in my heart, the year of my redemption is come (Isa 63:4); but, according to the Gloss: the judgment of Zion, that is, against Zion; hence it explain…
9 And her wadis will be turned to pitch, and her dust to sulfur, and her land will become burning pitch.
Thomas Aquinas · AD 1274 739. And the streams thereof shall be turned into pitch. Here he sets out the threat as to the destruction of the land. And concerning this he does three things: first, he foretells the destruction; second, the desolation of the destroyed land: it shall lie waste (Isa 34:10); third, the horror of its desolation: and it shall be the habitation of dragons (Isa 34:13).
10 Night and day it will not be quenched; forever its smoke will go up. From generation to generation it will lie waste; forever and ever none will pass through it.
Thomas Aquinas · AD 1274 Second, he places the duration of the punishment: it shall not be quenched, that is, the effect of this fire will remain forever; smoke, the sign and memory of preceding fire: her smoke ascends for ever and ever (Rev 19:3); and this is to be understood as being while the cause of the threat remains, namely, sin: for thus all prophecies of this sort are to be explained condition…
11 And the pelican and the hedgehog will possess it, and the owl and the raven will dwell in it. And he will stretch over it a line of formlessness and stones of emptiness.
Thomas Aquinas · AD 1274 As to the free habitation of beasts: the bittern, which is the same as the pelican, shall possess it, as if without fear, and the ibis, a bird hostile to snakes: "ibex, ibicis" is a four-footed beast; "ibis, ibidis" is a bird, and the ibis is envious: the highest of them is the house of the heron . . . the rock is a refuge for the irchins (Ps 103[104]:17–18).
12 Her nobles — there is no kingship there to proclaim, and all her princes will be nothing.
Thomas Aquinas · AD 1274 Second, he sets out the fairness of the desolation, and first, the judgment of fairness: and a line shall be stretched upon it, the measure of the punishment against the measure of their fault, a plummet, the rule of the stone-cutter, above: in measure against measure (Isa 27:8); second, he sets out the manner of judgment: the nobles thereof, in whom they boasted: I will take a…
13 And thorns will come up in her citadels, nettle and thistle in her fortresses. And it will be a pasture of jackals, an enclosure for daughters of the ostrich.
Gregory the Dialogist · AD 604 Which conduct the Lord by the Prophet well reproves, under the character of Babylon, saying; "Thorns and nettles shall spring up in her houses, and the bramble in the fortresses thereof." For what do we understand by 'nettles,' but the irritations of thoughts, and what by 'thorns,' but the piercings of sins?
Thomas Aquinas · AD 1274 And thorns and nettles shall grow up in its houses, which they built so carefully, and the thistle, a kind of plant with many thorns, which sticks to cloaks, having broad leaves: nettles shall inherit their beloved silver, the bur shall be in their tabernacles (Hos 9:6), so that as much as she has glorified herself and lived in delicacies, so much torment shall she have (Rev 18…
14 And desert creatures will meet with hyenas, and the goat-demon will call to its fellow. Only there will Lilith settle down and find for herself a resting place.
Thomas Aquinas · AD 1274 741. And it shall be the habitation of dragons. Here he shows the horror of the desolation from the monsters which dwelt there: demons, monsters of demons, which appear most in deserts; onocentaur, which is half ass and half ox, or this is the illusion of a demon rather than a natural animal; the hairy ones, an ape, or a wild man, or a demon incubus; lamia, having the feet of a…
15 There the arrow-snake will nest and lay eggs, and hatch and gather in her shade. Only there will the kites gather, each with her mate.
Gregory the Dialogist · AD 604 Hence it is rightly said through the prophet, under the similitude of Judah, to the soul that sins and excuses itself, "There the urchin had her nest." For by the name of urchin is denoted the duplicity of a mind that is insincere, and cunningly defends itself; because, to wit, when an urchin is caught, its head is perceived, and its feet appear, and its whole body is exposed t…
16 Inquire from the document of the LORD and read: not one of these will be missing, none will lack her mate — for it is his mouth that has commanded, and it is his spirit that has gathered them.
Thomas Aquinas · AD 1274 742. Search. Here he confirms all that was said by the authority of divine inspiration: search, you who are to come, in the book of the Lord, that is, in this book, which I learned from the Lord; not one of them was wanting, that is, all the monsters I have named will be there; one has not sought for the other, that is, the male for the female; his spirit it has gathered them,…
17 And he himself has cast the lot for them, and his hand has divided it to them with the line. Forever they will possess it; from generation to generation they will dwell in it.
Thomas Aquinas · AD 1274 And he has cast the lot for them, distributing to each suitable places to stay: heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away (Luke 21:33). Or, if this is explained as concerning Judea, these various monsters are understood to be the various errors of the gentiles, who were placed there as colonists by the Romans.