Woe to Those Who Rely on Egypt 1 Woe to them that go down to Egypt for help; and stay on horses, and trust in chariots, because they are many; and in horsemen, because they are very strong; but they look not to the Holy One of Israel, neither seek the LORD!
Ambrose of Milan · AD 397 Let our course take us to regions above, because it is better to ascend. Finally, as was read today, "Woe to them that go down to Egypt." Surely it is not wrong to go to Egypt, but to change to the ways of the Egyptians, to change to the violence of their treachery and to the ugliness of their wantonness—this is wrong.
Jerome · AD 420 (Chapter 31, verses 1 onwards) Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, who rely on horses, who trust in the multitude of their chariots and in the great strength of their horsemen, but do not look to the Holy One of Israel, or seek help from the Lord. Yet he too is wise and can bring disaster; he does not take back his words.
Thomas Aquinas · AD 1274 693. Woe to them that go down. In this part, he threatens both at the same time, namely, the Egyptians and the Jews, and concerning this, he does two things: first, he sets out the threatening; second, the consolation, where it says, for thus says the Lord to me (Isa 31:4). Concerning the first, he sets out two things.
2 Yet he also is wise, and will bring evil, and will not call back his words: but will arise against the house of the evildoers, and against the help of them that work iniquity.
Thomas Aquinas · AD 1274 694. Second, he threatens the punishment: but he. And first, against their contempt of divine help he sets out the wisdom of God, and the firmness of the sentence: the wise one has brought evil, and has not removed his words, that is, he has not made void what he threatened through the prophets: God is not a man, that he should lie, nor as the son of man, that he should be chan…
3 Now the Egyptians are men, and not God; and their horses flesh, and not spirit. When the LORD shall stretch out his hand, both he that helps shall fall, and he that is helped shall fall down, and they all shall fail together.
Thomas Aquinas · AD 1274 Second, against trust in human help, he sets out their weakness: Egypt is man: whereas you are a man, and not God, in the hand of them that slay you (Ezek 28:9–10); and he adds the punishment: and the helper shall fall: they that dwell in houses of clay, who have an earthly foundation (Job 4:19).
4 For thus has the LORD spoken to me, Like as the lion and the young lion roaring on his prey, when a multitude of shepherds is called forth against him, he will not be afraid of their voice, nor abase himself for the noise of them: so shall the LORD of hosts come down to fight for mount Zion, and for its hill.
Jerome · AD 420 (Verses 4, 5.) For thus says the Lord to me: Just as when a lion roars, and a lion cub over its prey, when a multitude of shepherds come against it, it will not be afraid of their voices, nor terrified by their numbers; so the Lord of hosts will come down to fight upon Mount Zion and its hill.
Thomas Aquinas · AD 1274 695. For thus says the Lord. Here he sets out the consolation, promising liberation by God from their enemies, from whom they could not be liberated by the Egyptians. And concerning this, he does three things.
5 As birds flying, so will the LORD of hosts defend Jerusalem; defending also he will deliver it; and passing over he will preserve it.
Thomas Aquinas · AD 1274 And under the likeness of a protecting bird: as birds: how often would I have gathered together your children, as the hen doth gather her chickens under her wings, and you wouldst not? (Matt 23:37); as the eagle enticing her young to fly, and hovering over them (Deut 32:11).
6 Turn you to him from whom the children of Israel have deeply revolted.
Jerome · AD 420 In place of the last clause ["But you have played the harlot with many lovers; yet return again to me, says the Lord."] the true Hebrew text (which is not preserved in the Greek and Latin versions) gives the following: "you have forsaken me, yet return, and I will receive you, says the Lord." Isaiah also speaking in the same sense uses almost the same words: "Return," he cries,…
Thomas Aquinas · AD 1274 696. Second, he sets out the destruction of their enemies, promising counsel for meriting this: return, to me: the wicked man, when he is come into the depths of sins, contemns (Prov 18:3); as you have yielded your members to serve iniquity, unto iniquity: so now yield your members to serve cleanness, unto sanctification (Rom 6:19).
7 For in that day every man shall cast away his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which your own hands have made to you for a sin.
Thomas Aquinas · AD 1274 And he sets out the completion of the counsel: in that day, above: in that day a man shall cast away his idols (Isa 2:20).
8 Then shall the Assyrian fall with the sword, not of a mighty man; and the sword, not of a mean man, shall devour him: but he shall flee from the sword, and his young men shall be discomfited.
Thomas Aquinas · AD 1274 And he sets out the fruit, namely, the destruction itself as to the death of the slain: by the sword: my sword shall devour flesh (Deut 32:42); and as to the removal of the survivors in flight, fear, and servitude, for his young men shall be tributaries, afterwards, to the Babylonians.
9 And he shall pass over to his strong hold for fear, and his princes shall be afraid of the ensign, says the LORD, whose fire is in Zion, and his furnace in Jerusalem.
Gregory the Dialogist · AD 604 Of this love that is begun here to be perfected from the sight of the Lord in the eternal kingdom Isaiah rightly speaks, saying, "The Lord lives, whose fire is in Zion, and his furnace in Jerusalem." It is, however, greater to be a furnace than a fire because a fire can also be small, but a larger flame is kindled in a furnace.
John Damascene · AD 749 The prescription of the law must be taken in the more spiritual sense. For there is a spiritual seed which through charity and the fear of God is conceived in the womb of the soul, which in turn travails and brings forth the spirit of salvation.
Thomas Aquinas · AD 1274 697. Third, he sets out the strengthening of both: the Lord has said it, whose fire, burning the Assyrians, above: the light of Israel shall be as a fire, and the Holy One thereof as a flame (Isa 10:17); or the fire on the altar of incense; his furnace, on the altar of holocausts: the fire on the altar shall always burn (Lev 6:12); or the fire of charity burning imperfectly in…