The Final Judgment of the whole World. Summary and Comments.
Chapter 24

After foretelling the doom of so many nations, not strangely
Isaiah as it were sums it up, and speaks of the great Day of the
Lord. The words "day of the Lord" could be used for lesser
occasions, but especially meant the final reckoning. He says it
will be the same for all classes of people, for it is time to
reckon. Of course, the good will fare well in the long run: the
reckoning for them is favorable; not so for the wicked.

       He says the earth will be totally laid waste. This is
Semitic hyperbole and apocalyptic language. - Apocalyptic is a
genre in which bizarre images are used, it foretells cataclysmic
events and often secret things. The original readers knew well
they needed to reduce the wording-- though it was not always
clear how far. --Some think apocalyptic was not known as early as
Isaiah. We agree that full blown long passages are far in the
future from Isaiah. But we did see touches of it in Isaiah 13:9-
10 for the fall of Babylon. There the prophet said that the stars
will not give their light, the sun will be dark at its rising.
Similar language appears again in Isaiah 34:4 on the fall of
Edom, and in Ezek 32:7-8 for the punishment of Egypt. There will
be more of it in Matthew 24. And 2 Peter 3:12-13 says the heavens
will be destroyed in fire and the elements will melt. But the
fire is a purifying and refining one. Hence 2 Peter continues,
saying that there will be a new heavens and a new earth.

       He says that the reason is that people have defiled the
earth and disobeyed the laws. So a curse will strike, and very
few will be left.

       What is the city that will be left in ruins? Probably he has
in mind Babylon, which stands for the world power opposed to God.

       At first it may seem strange, but often in 24:14 Isaiah
begins to speak of praise from the east and from the west for the
Lord. They sing: "Glory to the righteous One." This is the same
sense as a favorite title used by Isaiah for God: the Holy One.
Holy means that He loves and observes all that is right. Perhaps
in the background of his thought is the event of 2 Chronicles
32:23, when after the Lord's victory over Sennacherib in 701,
many brought gifts to Jerusalem to the good king Hezekiah.

       Then gloom comes again to the prophet's mind so that he
says:I waste away. The floodgates of the heavens are opened -
does he think of the language used for the deluge? -- and the
earth reels like a drunkard.

       The prophet next says in 24:24 that the Lord will punish
even the powers in the heavens and the kings on the earth below.
So it seems the powers are not the same as the kings - powers
above, kings below. He must be thinking of the powers of evil
spirits - we think of the words of St. Paul (Eph 2:2) about "the
prince of the air". Then again comes more apocalyptic language:
the moon will be confounded and the sun ashamed, before the Lord
of Hosts.

       The Kingdom of God and Salvation. Summary and Comments.
Chapter 25

       The whole of chapters 24-27 speak of the end times. They
include an intermixture of dire prophecies and of praise of God.

       Now Isaiah exalts God as doing marvelous things which He had
planned long ago. For in His eyes, time is as nothing: a thousand
years are as one day.

       The city is reduced to rubble. It obviously stands for the
forces opposed to God. Babylon as we have seen is often spoken of
in that way.

       Some people will honor God when they see His great works in
destroying the proud city and protecting His own.

       But later all people, including those a first punished are
invited to a rich feast which the Lord prepares on Mount Zion. We
naturally recall the words of the prophet about all people
streaming to Jerusalem, in chapter 2. He will swallow up death
forever - we think naturally of the imagery of the Apocalypse
(21:4-5) at the end of the New Testament where death will be no
more, and God will wipe away all tears.

       Commentators are not in agreement as to the meaning of the
covering, which some versions translate as shroud, that covers
all nations. Some suggest it means spiritual blindness, which
will be removed finally: cf. 2 Cor 3:15-18. Then there will be a
song of praise for the victory of God, whose hand will rest on
Mount Zion, while His feet will trample Moab - a symbol of the
forces opposed to Him. (The plains of Moab could be clearly seen
from Jerusalem).

       Thanksgiving of Judah. Summary and
Comments. Chapter 26

       The redeemed, typified by the land of Judah, will sing then:
we have a strong city. It does not mean Jerusalem, but God
Himself is their Rock - a frequent name for Him in the OT -- and
their strength. So they can open the gates without fear to let
the righteous enter.

The righteous are those who keep <faith>. That means: who keep
the covenant. It does not mean the unfortunate mistake of Luther
who thought confidence that the merits of Christ applied to him
was the needed faith. In the OT, fidelity always means fidelity
to the covenant. We think of Hosea 6:6, so often mistranslated:
"For I desire <hesed>, that is, fidelity to the covenant, not
[the mere externals of] sacrifice, and love of God, rather than
burnt offerings." Hebrew <hesed> is often mistranslated as
<mercy>, since the Septuagint used <eleos>, not having any real
word for <hesed>, fidelity to the covenant bond. And we rendered
Hebrew <da'ath> as love. For it is the same root as <yada> which
means not only intellectual acknowledgement, but complete
adherence in mind and will. Those who do this, God will keep in
"perfect peace" --which is really <shalom>, which means general
well-bring, not only peace.

       So Isaiah tells them to trust in the Lord, for He is the
Rock-- which we noted above. He levels the proud city to the
dust, so that the feet of the poor can trample upon it.

       Therefore the way on which the righteous walk is level, they
walk in the way of God's laws - again, fidelity to the covenant.

       He adds that even if favor or grace is shown to the wicked,
they learn nothing - for they are hardened. The word we rendered
by <grace or favor> - is Hebrew <hen> which has both meanings.
But if we render it as favor, we must keep in mind that it does
not mean only that God sits there and smiles on people, but gives
them nothing, so that they would do good by their own power. That
would be Pelagian heresy. So it is really better to say grace,
which expresses what He gives. Isaiah adds that even when they
live among the righteous, they still are evil - even though the
kind of company one keeps tends to pull him in to the same level.
These wicked people do not see that the hand of the Lord is
raised on high, ready to strike them.

Then he prays that fire may consume them. We must not take this
as a desire for revenge, which is immoral. No, he is asking that
the objective order be observed, which calls for punishment of
the wicked.

He even says: "All that we have done, you have done for us."
This expresses our total dependence upon God. A meditation on
Philippians 2:13 would help here.

       He adds that those who once ruled them - probably thinking
of Assyria-- are dead, and they will not return, their very
memory will be forgotten.

       In enlarging the nation, the Lord has gained glory for
Himself. We must not misunderstand this. The First Vatican
Council defined that God created for His own glory. But the head
of the theological committee there, Bishop Gasser, explained that
those words did not mean God was seeking to gain something - He
cannot gain anything, and glory does Him no good - but merely
that the fact that He does good to His creatures, is a glory to
him. We think of the saying of St. Irenaeus (4. 14. 1): "In the
beginning God formed Adam, not because He stood in need of man,
but that He might have someone to receive His benefits. "

       The prophet says that we were in labor, like a woman about
to give birth, but brought forth only wind, nothing worth while.

       However he tells God: "Your dead [the righteous] will live,
their bodies will rise." He tells the dead to wake up and shot
for joy, for the morning dew is upon them, and the earth will
give birth to its dead."

       Some commentators here try to deny that Isaiah speaks of a
resurrection of the dead, saying such a belief was not found that
early in history of the Jews. But the argument is a vicious
circle: it means we cannot find any early text, because this is
not one. It is undeniable that Daniel 12:2 (much later, in all
probability) also speaks of a resurrection. Much earlier, Psalm
17:15 seems to speak of being with God after death. Psalm 49:16
probably has the same sense, and perhaps Psalm 73:23. Isaiah
53:20 seems to speak of a resurrection of the suffering servant.
And the debated text of Job 19:25-27 seems to mean survival too.

       Finally in verses 20-21 he tells the people to hide in their
rooms until God's wrath has passed by. This is remarkable: no one
could really hide from God. That is only a poetic fancy. But it
is like the poetic fancy found in Job 14:13 where Job wishes he
could hide in Sheol until God's anger had passed - a passage
which one unperceptive commentator thinks must mean a denial of
survival.

       Destruction of the wicked, salvation for God's people.
Summary and Comments. Chapter 27.

       God will punish three monsters, two of them called
Leviathan, symbolically representing world powers. In Caananite
mythology Leviathan was a sea monster, whom God conquered. The
fact Isaiah uses the word need not mean he believes such
mythology - we can use lines from <Alice in Wonderland> without
believing the tale itself. The gliding serpent may stand for the
Euphrates river, which is swift, the coiling serpent could stand
for the Tigris, with all its windings. And together of course
they stand for Assyria and Babylon. The monster of the sea could
stand for another great power, Egypt.

       God will punish them, and will protect Israel -- both north
and south included -- which He calls a fruitful vineyard - that
same imagery was used in Isaiah 5:5.

       He says He is not angry with His vineyard -- so this stands
for the future Israel, not that of Isaiah's day.

       Finally Israel will bear much fruit. We think of the words
of Jesus saying that he who abides in Him bears much fruit. Only
in this sense is 27:6 true that Israel will fill all the world
with fruit.

       Before that time, however, He needs to strike His people. He
will send the East wind - a hot desert wind, standing easily for
the powers to the East, Assyria and Babylon. He destroyed them
completely. He will leave a remnant in Israel, after their sin is
atoned for, their debt paid (cf. on this concept our comments on
chapter 1 above, as to sin as a debt, which the Holiness of God
wants paid).

       The destruction of the city, overcome by the enemies from
Mesopotamia, is so great that cattle graze in what used to be a
populous city. Israel has been a people without understanding of
the will of the Creator.

       But the prophet looks far into the future when the Lord will
thresh and purify His people, from the lands towards Assyria, and
the lands toward Egypt. Then all will come to worship on
God's holy mountain. On this cf. our explanations in the
commentary on chapter 2 above.

       This is the completion of the chapters 14-27 that look far
into the future, even into the last period.

       Egypt, Assyria and Zion. Summary and Comments. Chapters 28-33

               A)Judah and Samaria: one in sin, one in judgment.
Chapter 28

       Except for the first 6 verses, on Samaria, the prophecies of
chapters 28-33 are likely to date from the period 705-701, just
before the invasion of Sennacherib, in which, because of the
piety of Hezekiah, God saved Jerusalem from being taken.

       The first six verses foretell the destruction of Samaria, so
they must belong to a period before the siege of 722-21. These
lines may belong before 730 BC, and if so are the earliest
prophecies of Isaiah we possess.

       The imagery in this section is among the finest given us by
Isaiah.

       Samaria is called a wreath, and a flower with splendid
color, which will soon fade. For it was a beautiful city crowning
a hill that rose high above the valley beneath. But corruption
was eating at its roots, the moral looseness and debauchery of
its nobles. We are reminded of chapter 4 of Amos.

       The Lord has prepared Assyria against them, which will come
like a destructive wind and hailstorm. And just as any passerby
is apt to pick an early fig (one that ripens early, in June) and
eat it on the spot, so Assyria will gobble up Samaria.

       Even then, the Lord will be a glorious crown and wreath for
the remnant of Samaria, those that are faithful to Him.

        B) Against Judah:28:7-13:

       It seems that here the scene shifts form Samaria and its
fall to Judah. Its leaders also stagger from wine, priests and
prophets and others. It sounds like a drinking bout, according to
some commentators held in the forecourt of the temple.

       It is a foul scene: the tables are covered with vomit. Yet
the drunks think they are seeing visions.

       These same drunks object to the objection of Isaiah: "Who
does he think he is trying to teach? Is it to children just
weaned? He says: Do and do, rule on rule, rule on rule, a little
here, a little there, ". The sense seems to be that Isaiah is
berating them as one would children. So they imitate what his
words sound like. In Hebrew the words have a strange sound: <sav
lasav, sav lasav, kav lakav, kav lakav>.

       The reply Isaiah makes picks up on their sad words. He tells
them that God is saying: "I will speak to this people with
foreign lips and a strange tongue". He means they will hear
Assyrian spoken, which they will not understand. God had offered
them rest and refuge. But they would not listen. Interestingly,
St. Paul uses these words to object to the foolish attachment the
Corinthians had to the gift of tongues (1 Cor 14:21:) "I will
speak to this people by men of strange tongues. . . and even then
they will not listen to me, says the Lord." St Paul seemed to
mean: "You Corinthians think tongues are a sign of God's favor -
it may be quite the opposite, the way Isaiah used these words to
warn that the Assyrians were coming.

       So the prophet continues: You scoffers who rule the people
are boasting that you have made a covenant with death. The words
are strange indeed. They seem to mean that the leaders have made
a secret agreement with the Assyrians, so that even if an
invasion comes, they themselves will be secure.

       Isaiah replies in the name of God: Your pact with death will
not stand up when the terrible scourge of Assyria comes.

       Instead what they should notice is this: God says he has
placed a tested corner stone in Zion as a secure foundation. God
says: "I will make justice (<mishpat>) his measuring line, and
righteousness (<sedaqah>) his plumb line."

       There is a double meaning here, a kind of multiple
fulfillment: 1) They really ought to trust in having the kingship
that descends from David, instead of foreign alliances (a pact
with death); 2) the real cornerstone, the righteous king is to
come, the Messiah, which is Christ: Cf. Romans 9; 33 and 1 Peter
21:6ff. Jesus will be the cornerstone, on which some will rise,
by placing their faith in Him, ; others, who should have been the
builders, the leaders of the people, will reject this
cornerstone, and so they themselves will stumble and fall: Psalm
118:22 and Isaiah 8:14, and Luke 2:34.

       So, returning to the imagery of the pact with death from
above: Hail (the Assyrian storm) will sweep away the refuge you
thought you had made for yourself. Your pact with death will be
annulled. It will sweep you away.

       For the sake of something somewhat parallel: in 490 B. C. in
the Peloponnesian War, Themistocles the Greek engaged in
duplicity or double dealing with the Persian invaders. First, he
told them to attack the Athenian fleet, which they gladly did-
but it helped the Greeks, who otherwise might have fled and lost
the best opportunity to defeat the Persian fleet. In 479 after
Xerxes, King of Persia was beaten and on the way home,
Themistocles wanted the Greeks to pursue. They refused. So he
wrote to the king and said he stopped them from pursuing.
Eventually it paid off for him when Athens later rejected him. A
new Persian king, Artaxerxes, made him governor of Magnesia and
gave him a fine pension.

       They then will be like those who seek rest on a proverbial
bed that is too short for them or warmth with only half a
blanket. It seems Isaiah is here using a proverb known to his
hearers.

       God Himself will turn out to be not their protector, for
they rejected Him, but their enemy. At Mount Perazim (the word
means "breaking forth" and in the Valley of Gibeon (2 Sam 5:18-25
and 1 Chron 14:10-16) David defeated the Philistines when the
Lord roused Himself. Now the Lord will rouse Himself against His
own people, for they have deserted Him.

       The multiple fulfillment of this prophecy came when Babylon,
successor of Assyria, destroyed Jerusalem under Nebuchadnezzar,
and again when the Romans in 70 AD destroyed Jerusalem again, for
the leaders' rejection of the true Messiah, the true cornerstone.

       Now Isaiah turns to speaking like a Wisdom teacher. Just as
the farmer does not plow continually, nor thresh constantly, nor
does he use a sledge on small things like Caraway or Cummin, so
God will act - even though it will take time. The threatened fall
of Samaria came in 722-21; the fall of Jerusalem to
Nebuchadnezzar came more than a century later in two waves in 596
and 586 B. C. To God a century is as a day.

       Also, the image showing that the farmer does not plant or
thresh indefinitely long - all would be destroyed - so too God
will leave a remnant after the destruction. We think of St. Paul
in Romans 9:29: "If the Lord of Hosts had not left us a seed [a
remnant] we would be like Sodom and like Gomorrah."

       Jerusalem Afflicted and Redeemed. Summary and Comments.
Chapter 29

       The Ariel to which Isaiah announces woe is clearly, from
context, Jerusalem. The word itself is puzzling. It means altar
hearth. We find it also in Ezek 43:15. The point is this: even
the place where so many offerings are brought to God will not
escape punishment. For there will be a siege. We are not sure if
this is the one by Sennacherib in 701, when God prevented the
Assyrians from actually taking the city, or the later one, 596-
586 by Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon, who really did wreck the
city.

       The prophet says:Add year to year- he seems to mean their
constant celebration of religious feasts will not stop the
punishment that is coming, which he describes with fine poetic
figures: thunder, earthquake, noise, windstorm, tempest, flames,
hordes.

       And yet, if it refers to the unsuccessful siege by
Sennacherib -- in divine prophecies, we may, as we have seen,
have more than one fulfillment - the enemy who has dreamed of
rich spoils from conquest will find it was all only a dream. For
as we read more fully in Isaiah 37, God Himself rescued the city
from Sennacherib, dramatically slaying so many of his army.

       Isaiah not turns to the spiritual blindness of his people.
We recall how in chapter 6, where the prophet described his
inaugural vision, God told him to blind the people. Of course, as
we explained there, it really meant they would blind themselves.
But now the people including their leader, even especially they,
are so blind and in such a stupor they remind one of the
staggering of someone drunk with alcohol.

       If we recall what we said about the two spirals, in chapter
6, here we have more on the descent into the evil spiral.

       then in 29:13 we meet a famous line, which we fear applies
to many today:This people honors me with their lips, but their
hearts are far from me. ---Yes the Jews of that day were good at
what we today call "participation". They loved to sing, to join
in processions, all the externals. But a sacrifice needs the
outward things only as a sign of the interior disposition, which
is always that of obedience to God. The people of Isaiah's day
were offering many sacrifices, but not obeying. Part of that
disobedience, though not nearly the whole of it, was their pact
with Egypt, when the prophet had warned them they must trust in
God, not in foreign powers.

       Then inverse 14 we meet a frightening thought: because they
have not worshiped Him rightly, that is, using only the
externals, not the interior obedience, therefore wisdom will
perish from the wise. We are tempted to ask today: Has wisdom
departed from many today who should know better, but who dissent
from the teaching of the Church, and break God's laws, with the
result that they fall into errors that really are foolish?

       The blind men of that time said: Who sees us? Who will know?
As if they could hide things from the Lord! God uses through
Isaiah a comparison of a potter, who has made something that did
not turn out well. Before firing the clay, he reshapes it. So God
will reshape His people, even though only a remnant are open to
follow Him.

       What of free will? We explained in commenting on Isaiah
10:15 that there are two orders, the external and the internal.
It is in the internal that God has committed Himself to freedom
for us. But in the external order, which includes the way His
providence governs even kingdoms, He may use nations as He wills,
just as 10:15 said the axe should not boast against the hand that
swung it. We cited too Proverbs, 21:16 saying the heart of the
king is in the hand of the Lord: wheresoever He wills, He will
turn it.

       This chapter ends with a prediction of a better future. He
first uses images from nature: Lebanon will become a fertile
field, and the humble will rejoice in the Lord. It is evident he
speaks of the remnant who are and will be devoted to the will of
the Lord who will enjoy this. Then the Lord who redeemed Abraham
will redeem His people, so they need no longer be ashamed. They
will acknowledge the holiness of the Holy One of Israel- Isaiah's
favorite title for God- the one who supremely observes all that
is objectively right.

       those who do so will grow in understanding - we think again
of the two spirals we described in commenting on chapter 6 above,
but now of the good spiral.

       Foolish Reliance on Egypt, Summary and Comments. Chapter 30

       Judah has sent envoys to Egypt for help. This was probably
part of the moves that led Sennacherib to invade in 701. But
Isaiah says they should not do that, should instead trust in the
Lord:Woe to the obstinate children, who heap sin upon sin. Egypt
will not really help them, it will bring disgrace instead. Isaiah
imagines the envoys have gone as far as Zoan, the first city in
the NE part of the Delta, and then to Hanes, later Heracleopolis,
in Middle Egypt, on an island in the Nile.

       We are not sure which Pharaoh is in mind:it could be
Tirhakah of the Ethiopian dynasty, or it could be a lesser
Egyptian king in the Delta who by this time had regained some
power.
       The envoys have rich presents for the Pharaoh, on donkeys
and camels. But Isaiah calls Egypt "Rahab-do-nothing". As a proof
to be seen later that he was right, he wants his word written on
a scroll or tablet. In some other places also Egypt is called
Rahab, cf 51:9.

       So again, the prophet calls his people rebellious, who are
unwilling to listen to the Lord. They tell the seers to stop
having visions, just tell them pleasant things, like false
prophets: cf. 1 Kings 22:12; Mic 112:11. And they want Isaiah to
stop telling them of the Holy One of Israel. Therefore the
prophet tells them this sin will be for them like a high wall
that is cracked and will collapse suddenly, into so many pieces
that one cannot even scoop up water with the larger fragments of
the wall.

       This seems like a total collapse. Yet he does not mean to
deny what he has so often said: a faithful remnant will remain.

       Their salvation will be in staying quiet and trusting. They
wanted to say: We will flee upon horses. Isaiah tells them that
then their pursuers will be swift, and a thousand will run away
from just one. They probably had a fair number of horses at the
time(cf. 2:7), b ut not enough to confront the Assyrians.

       So, only a remnant will remain, like a flag planted on a
mountain in the midst of ruin.

       Even in this dire prediction, Isaiah says: "The Lord is so
good that He actually longs to be gracious to them, if only they
will let Him, by not breaking His covenant. He is a God of
justice. That is, He will keep His promise to reward those who
keep His covenant. Therefore blessed are those who wait for Him.
If you turn right or left, His voice will be there assuring you.
Then you will put aside your idols, with gold or silver inlay
like a filthy cloth.

       He will make your crops rich and plentiful, on the day when
the towers of the strength of the enemy fall. Then the moon will
be as bright as the sun, and the sun will be seven times
brighter, when the Lord heals the wounds He had to inflict on
them to bring them to their senses.

       See the Name of the Lord - for in Hebrew thought the name as
almost identical with the person will come with burning anger and
clouds to shake the nations. He will lead them like animals, with
a bit He puts into their mouths.

       Then they will sing for joy as at a holy festival, praising
the Rock, the mighty support of Israel. With a thunderous voice
the Lord will shatter Assyria. He will strike them to the music
of tambourines -- the instruments used at a sacrifice, for He is
making the enemy like victims for sacrifice.

       The burning place of Topheth - where the Hebrews sacrificed
their infants by fire to Moloch - is prepared for Assyria. The
pit is deep and wide to take in all the Assyrians.

Moloch means king, a name for a false god. Topheth was in the
valley of Hinnom near Jerusalem, where they worshipped Moloch.
From the name <ge hinnom>, valley of hinnom, we get the word
gehenna. Later it came to mean the final punishment by fire for
the wicked, and so it came to be a NT name for hell.

       Follow not Egypt but the Lord. Chapter 31, summary and comments.


       The diplomats of Judah have been dealing with the Egyptians,
and probably. it seems, in secret, and are proud of their
cleverness. Isaiah says the Lord too is wise: He can bring His
plans to realization. The others do not. It is vain to trust in
Egypt. Judah especially wanted the help of horses from Egypt,
which had many. Judah too had many, but far to few for the
Assyrian threat.

       He makes a comparison: A lion that is holding and eating his
prey will not be deterred by shouts. He will continue to eat. But
the Almighty Lord will hover over Jerusalem and shield it, if
only they trust in Him. So they should return to Him, and give up
their idols. Assyria is doomed to fall by a sword that is no mere
human sword. God will devour the Assyrians like a fire.

       The Messianic State:true and false security. Chapter 32.
Summary and Comments.

       The prophet looks forward to an ideal king- who must be the
Messiah. The king will rule in righteousness, like the king
foretold in Isaiah 9:5-6 and 11. and his subordinate authorities
will do the same - in contrast, to the corrupt government of
Judah. God will be like the shade of a great rock in a thirsty
land. In the sun-scorched places, such shade was very welcome.

       At that time the eyes which were once failing to see will
then really see; and the once deaf ears will hear. He thinks of
the terrible prediction in his own chapter 6 which said that
seeing they will not see, and hearing they will not understand.

       In Isaiah's day, and in many other periods too, those who
were base and foolish were called noble. Under the ideal king it
will be otherwise.

       But then Isaiah remembers the sad fact that the ideal King
is not yet at hand, and God will punish those who are
disobedient.

       He singles out here one calls of sinners, the complacent and
ostentatious women- he had spoken of them earlier in 3:16-4:1.
These women are vain, and severely tempt men by their displays.
He tells them that "in little more than a year" the harvests will
fail. Of course, on God's time scale, one day is like 1000 years,
and 1000 years like one day:cf. 2 Peter 3:8 and Isaiah 29:17-21.

       He urges the women to do penance in sackcloth and to beat
their breasts ford the fertile fields are going to turn into
thorns and briers, and Jerusalem, the city of revelry will be a
wasteland, where donkeys enjoy wandering.

       Since the prophet sees all time on God's scale, this
fulfillment came more than once. It began with Sennacherib in
701, who did not take the city, but afflicted it. The Babylonians
under Nebuchadnezzar II did sack the city in two waves, 596 and
486 BC. And the Romans did much worse in 70 A. D.

       Peace through Justice. Chapter 32. Summary and Comments

       As so often before, after predicting terrible woes, the
prophet consoles himself - and the faithful remnant - with a
promise of better things in the future. In place of the false
security of the vain women, there will be real security when
God's Spirit is poured out on the land. Then the desert - namely,
the steppe land, which was not sand dunes, but a land that
provided only scant grazing -- will be turned into a fertile
field. And what was already a fertile field will be as rich as a
forest.

       Then "the fruit of righteousness will be peace." For as St.
Augustine observed (City of God 19. 13), "Peace is the
tranquillity of order," which gives to each its proper place, and
each readily and harmoniously accepts that place.

       Then, even if hail would flatten the forest and level the
city - not that he predicts that, it is only a hypothetical
picture -- the faithful remnant will still be blessed. Isaiah
uses earthly things to picture the blessedness. But as Augustine
also noted in the same work (4. 33) material things promised by
God were often the images of spiritual things to come in the
future.

       Traitorous Assyria. Chapter 33. Summary and Comments

       Isaiah says woe to the destroyer, to the traitor. When he
has finished destroying, he will be destroyed; when he has
finished betraying, he will be betrayed. This seems to refer to
the immoral action of Sennacherib of Assyria, who tried to take
Jerusalem in 701.        He had promised King Hezekiah he would not
attack the city if Hezekiah gave tribute. He did, Sennacherib
beseiged it anyway. As we will see in chapter 37, he was not able
to take the city, only to get tribute. It is true Isaiah had
complained against the embassies of Judah to Egypt for help, when
they should have trusted in God anyway. But that does not excuse
the acts of Sennacherib.


       So Isaiah predicts that plunder from Assyria will be
harvested as if by locusts. This came true when the Assyrians
left the siege after so many of their army had been wiped out b
God, and left spoils behind. Assyria actually fell in 612, with
the fall of Nineveh, long after Isaiah. And Sennacherib was
killed by his own sons as he worshipped in temple of a false god:
37:38.

       So, the prophet said: The Lord is exalted, for He dwells on
high, far above human affairs, the course of which He yet
controls (cf. our comments on 10:5-15 above). He says the fear of
the Lord will bring them a rich store of salvations - the plural
means acts leading to salvation. The words save and salvation in
Scripture could have three meanings: Rescue form temporal evils
is usual in the OT. In the NT that is also possible. The only
other meanings are: to enter the Church, to enter heaven. The
silly infallible salvation about with fundamentalists brag is
devoid of all scholarly foundation. The standard reference,
<Theological Dictionary of the New Testament>, ed. G. Kittel, in
its article on these words does not even mention that foolish
notion, since intellectually it is worthless.

       After this, Isaiah's thoughts return to the current
situation: the envoys who thought they would bring peace are
weeping bitterly at their failure. The whole land - poetical
spoken -- mourns along with them:Lebanon's fine forests wither;
the rich plain of Sharon turns into a steppe land.

       Then the prophet uses a most remarkable bit of imagery,
speaking of the Assyrian endeavor: You are pregnant with chaff,
and will give birth to stubble. They will all be consumed by
God's fire. Hence sinners in Zion will be terrified: Who can
stand before a raging fire? Who can live with everlasting
burning? Isaiah had spoken similarly in 10:17. Psalm 25 similarly
asks who can dwell on God's holy mountain: only the righteous can
do that. And Malachi 3:2, in the future was to write: "He is like
a refiner's fire. Who can stand when he appears?" In passing we
note this has an implication for purgatory, useful for those who
reject 2 Mac 12: 39-46. Protestants claim that 2 Mac is not part
of Scripture - though really they have no way of proving which
books really are part. But all accept Malachi. If someone who is
still totally corrupt, or who has committed fornication and
murder a thousand times a day (Luther in Epistle of August 1,
1521 said even that would not separate us from Christ!":
<Luther's Works, American Edition> 48. 182) tries to join himself
to God i heaven, that fire will b urn out all the filth or even
send him to everlasting fires if he is beyond repair.

       B ut those who really do keep the covenant, the remnant, can
stand before God, and their bread will be supplied, nor will
water fail them.

       Then Isaiah advances to add: Your eyes will see the king in
his splendor. A bit earlier 32:1-8) we saw his vision of the
ideal king, who is the Messiah. Surely this is that King, who is
really God Himself. Hezekiah might be seen as a prefiguration of
the Messiah -- for Isaiah 7:14 is apt to be a prophecy with
multiple fulfillment, referring weakly to Hezekiah (as Hillel
saw, according to B. Talmud (cited b y Jacob Neusner <Messiah in
Context>, op. 173) the son promised to Achaz to continue the line
of David, or to the divine Messiah Himself, foretold as divine in
Isaiah 9:5-6.

       The prophet said the land of the king would stretch afar.
This is also spoken of in 9:7 and In Mic 5:3 and Zech 9:10.

       Then in their joy the people of Judah will say: Where is
that chief officer, who collected tribute? Where is the officer
in charge of checking the towers? These arrogant people will be
seen no more, nor will we again hear the obscure language of the
Assyrians-- it was related to Hebrew, but too distant for the
Hebrews to understand.

       Jerusalem will be a peaceful place to dwell under that
messianic king, it will be a "tent" not to be moved-- we notice
the use of the imagery of nomads. No galley with oars will come
against Judah on the broad rivers of that day.

       Instead the riggings - apparently of the ships of the enemy-
will hang loose, the mast will not be secure. But the devout
remnant will see even the lame carrying of plunder. Sins will
have been forgiven and so there will be no sickness (cf. Exodus
23:25).

               The future of Edom, and of the Remnant. Chapters 34-35,
Summary and Comments

       The first four verses refer to God's anger with the whole
world: The Lord Is angry with all nations. Then a wonderful piece
of apocalyptic language in 4: "The stars of the heavens will be
dissolved, and the sky will roll up as if a scroll, and the
starry host will fall." This is much like the language of Matthew
24:29-35. Much the same language is found also in Isaiah 13:9-10
on the fall of Babylon. We gather that although God could make
these things happen at what seems to be face value, yet,
considering that the genre is apocalyptic, it is more likely that
the imagery is greatly exaggerated.

       Then in the next verse, v. 6, the prophet turns to Edom,
which often stands, like Babylon, for a power opposed to God's
people, even though Edom descended from Esau, brother of Jacob,
and even though God in Dt 2:1-7 had told Israel to treat Edom
like a brother. Yet Edom was noted for much hostility against
Judah. Edom had refused the Israelites permission to pass through
the territory on their way to the Promised Land, so they had to
go around. (cf. Obadiah-- all 21 verses of the book!) More
trouble from Edom when Judah was returning from exile)

God's sword is ready in the heavens it has drunk its fill of
wrath there, for he has made his judgment against Edom. His sword
has as it were made Edom a victim for sacrifice. Edom's streams
will become pitch and its dust like burning sulphur -- poetic
hyperbole of course.

It will lie desolate for generations and the desert owl and
screech owl will possess it. Of course, the animals could not
live in pitch and burning sulphur - so again we see clearly this
is apocalyptic with exaggeration.

       He continues saying the nobles will have no kingdom left,
princes will vanish, thorns will overrun the citadels. Wild
animals will make their home there. V, 14 says the Lilith will be
there. In later Jewish literature that was the name of a female
demon who was supposed to abduct children - superstition of
course. Without accepting the myth, Isaiah can use the imagery.

       Isaiah tells later generations to look at the scroll in
which he has written this, and see that it has been fulfilled. Of
course, we still must consider the literary genre and the
hyperbole. After the fall of Jerusalem in 596, 586, some Edomites
moved into the southern part of Judah. Still more came during the
Persian period. In the reign of John Hyrcanus (135-05) Edom was
incorporated into the Jewish nation, and even accepted
circumcision.

       Next Isaiah speaks to Judah, which seems at the time to be
in exile. He promises it will blossom again and have the glory of
Lebanon. They will see the glory of the Lord. So strengthen
feeble knees, do not fear, your God will come with vengeance to
save you. He predicts that the blind, the deaf, the lame, and the
dumb will be healed (cf. Mt 11:5), and streams will gush in the
desert.

       There will be a holy highway, called holy since the holy
people will return from exile on it. No lion or other beast will
threaten those who return. They will enter Zion singing, with
everlasting joy on their heads.

       Of course there is multiple fulfillment here. It was
fulfilled in the return from exile, but not in so grand a
fashion. The fullness awaits the redemption of all nature by the
Messiah, of which St. Paul speaks in Romans 8:19-25.

       Isaiah and Hezekiah. Chapters 36-39. Summary and Comments

       Now the prophet turns to prose, and tells mere history.
Remarkably, starting at 38:9 the text itself calls it a writing
of King Hezekiah, which Isaiah must have incorporated.

36:Assyria demands surrender

       Note; The story here is in parallel with 2 Kings 18:13-37.
Each account has details the other has not, and vice versa.

       When Sargon died in 705 a movement to shake off the yoke of
Assyria broke out strongly. Sennacherib showed himself as strong
as his father. He first defeated Chaldean King Merodach-Baladan,
systematically devastated the territory of Chaldea in 703, and
also struck nearby nations. Then he turned to the west against
Eluli king of Tyre and Sidon. the king fled, his territory
surrendered except for Tyre. Sennacherib left troops behind to
press Tyre, and then he turned south. Fear and panic fell upon
the people there. Many small city states came out and offered him
gifts. Then Sennacherib invaded the Philistine land and struck
Ashkalon and Ekron. South of Ekron, at Eltekeh he met an allied
army of Philistines, Egyptians and Ethiopians. He won a victory
although not a brilliant one there.

       So the only rebel state that still defied him as Judah under
Hezekiah. In the 14th year or Hezekiah, Sennacherib captured all
the fortified cities of Judah.

       Sennacherib then sent his field commander from Lachish to
Hezekiah. The commander stopped at the aqueduct of the Upper
Pool. Eliakim son of Hilkiah, palace administrator, Shebnah the
secretary, and Joah son of Asaph the recorder went to meet him.

       The field commander (<rabshakeh>) said: Tell Hezekiah he is
helpless. Egypt is only a splintered reed (lean on it and you get
no support, but it may pierce you). He says that Hezekiah had
stopped worship at the high places -- illegal shrines to Yahweh,
and commanded worship only at the Jerusalem temple. The field
commander did not understand that Hezekiah had done as God
ordered.

       The commander proposed a test of strength: Sennacherib would
provide 2000 horses if Hezekiah could furnish their riders --
Hezekiah could not do that. He had that many men, but not all
could fight on horseback. He had been depending on the chariots
and horsemen from Egypt.

       Then the commander said:Do not trust in your God --He has
sent me to conquer you. He, since he spoke Hebrew, may have known
the thought of Isaiah 10:5-6 were Isaiah spoke of Assyria as a
the rod of God's anger. That was true in that God had sent
Assyria to punish Judah. (Later Cyrus of Persia would also be in
a similar position). Eliakim, Shebna and Joan who went to meet
the commander spoke Aramaic as well as Hebrew. The two languages
are related, but the differences such that a speaker of one would
not understand the other language. Aramaic at that time was a
sort of language of international diplomacy, so the chancery of
both nations would know it. Assyrian was also a semitic language,
but again, too different for Hebrews to understand it.

       The commander spoke Hebrew so he could frighten the people
of Judah who were nearby. But they had been instructed not to
answer him at all, and they did not reply.

       The commander told them their god could not help them - look
at the gods of other cities the Assyrians had taken:those gods
could not help them. Most cities at that time had their own
special god. If the city prospered, especially in war, the god
was considered powerful; otherwise if the city was defeated.

       He also told them that if they did not surrender they would
have to eat their own filth and drink their own urine. But the
Assyrian army would have had a greater shortage of water in a
siege than Jerusalem, which had a good supply (cf. 2 Chron 32:2-
30 and 2 Kings 20:30. BAR of July-Aug. 1994, pp. 20-38 has a fine
article on Hezekiah's tunnel which brought water into the city
from the Gihon spring).

Then Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah went to Hezekiah and reported all
that had happened.

       37. Isaiah's Predictions and their fulfillment

       The first prediction is also found in 2 Kings 19:1-7.

       Hezekiah rent his garments and put on sackcloth when he
heard the message from the commander of Sennacherib. He went to
the temple, and sent Eliakim, Shebna and the leading priests, in
sackcloth, who reported what had happened to Isaiah.

       When they came to Isaiah, he at once answered, and it seems
he did not first pray: Tell Hezekiah not to be afraid of Assyria.
God would put a spirit into Sennacherib such that when he hears a
certain report, he will leave, go back to his own country, and
there will be cut down with the sword.

       Sennacherib had heard a report (2 Kings 19: 8-13) that
Tirhakah, of Ethiopia was coming against him. So he decided to
send messengers to King Hezekiah - he calls him king this time -
to say: Do not let your god deceive you when he says: Jerusalem
will not be handed over. You have heard what the Kings of Assyria
did to other countries and their gods.

       Hezekiah (cf. 2 Kings 19:14-19) took the message, and went
again to the Temple, and spread out the letter before God there.
He prayed earnestly for help, saying: Hear, Lord, the insult
Sennacherib has sent against the Living God. Yes, Sennacherib has
destroyed other cities, and their gods did not help. But they
were not living Gods, as you are. Help us.

       Then Isaiah (2 Kings 19:20-32) answered Hezekiah: God has
spoken against Sennacherib thus: The Virgin Daughter of Zion - it
means the virgin daughter that <is> Zion - despises and mocks
Sennacherib, who has blasphemed against the Holy One of Israel.
God asks Sennacherib: Have you not heard it? I ordained it long
ago and now I bring it to pass. I know where you stand and when
you come or go, and how you rage against me. Because of this
insolence I will put a hook into your nose and a bit into your
mouth, and I will cause you to go back the way you came. You will
be liked the grass that withers on the roof of houses (since not
much soil was there, the growth could not stand long. Roofs of
simple houses then were of logs and branches with some earth
tamped on).

       On the words "I have ordained it before it happened" cf. our
comments on 10:7 above.

       The divine message added: This will be a sign for Hezekiah:
This year you will eat the crops that sprout by themselves, for
you have not been able to plant. Similarly in the second year.
But in the third year you should sow and reap and plant
vineyards. A <remnant> of the house of Judah will take root and
bear fruit, a remnant that will come out of Jerusalem. The zeal
of the Almighty Lord will accomplish this.

       It seems Sennacherib invaded shortly before the sowing
season and stayed about a year, preventing sowing in the second
year also. But he would be gone before the third year.

       Therefore God said: He will not enter this city or shoot an
arrow into it. He will return the way he came. God will defend
the city and save it for His sake, and for the sake of David.

       In 2 Kings 19:35-37 we learn that that night, apparently
right after the prophecy of Isaiah, the angel of the Lord went
out and slew 185, 000 of the men in the Assyrian camp. In the
morning the survivors saw all the dead bodies.

       Most likely a plague broke out in the camp of the Assyrians.
Since it seems from 2 Kings 29:8 that Sennacherib himself was at
Libnah, the plague may have hit chiefly there, or both there and
in the army before Jerusalem. (Libnah is probably between
Makkedah and Lachish near the Philistine border).

       We gather from an inscription found at Nineveh that
Sennacherib did not take Jerusalem. He boasted that he received
tribute there, but does not say he took the city. Considering the
boastfulness of such inscriptions, it is clear that he did not
take Jerusalem.

       So Sennacherib broke camp and left. He returned to Nineveh.
Assyrian inscriptions say he reigned about another 20 years after
this. For sacred history that point is not of importance. But
after that when he was praying in the temple of an Assyrian god,
Nisroch (we do not know that name from other sources) two of his
sons killed him. Another son, Esarhaddon (691-68) ascended the
throne.

       Hezekiah's Illness and the Embassy from Babylon. Chapters
38-39. Summary and Comments

        "In those days" Hezeziah became seriously ill, near to
death. The time expression is vague. Since God promised him
through Isaiah at this time that He would defend Jerusalem from
Sennacherib, it is clear that these events belong before or
during the invasion. More likely they are before the invasion.

       Isaiah came to the king and told him to put his house in
order, for he was going to die. Hezekiah then turned his face to
the wall and prayed earnestly. He appealed to the fact that he
had carried out the commands of the Lord. And he wept bitterly.

       In what sense could he appeal to his own good conduct? It
would be a mistake to say that eternal salvation is by faith not
merits. That is true. But Hezekiah is not thinking of eternal
salvation, but he seems to think of the covenant, in which God
had said in Exodus 19:5: "If you really hearken to my voice and
keep my covenant, you will be my special people."

"That is, you will get special favor. It was reasonable then to
appeal to this covenant. Some protestants say the covenant
consisted primarily in the exercise of faith. They are
preoccupied with Luther's misinterpretation of faith, and have
not noted that the covenant originally referred to temporal
blessings. Did Hezekiah know the later (cf. Galatians 3:15-22)
reinterpretation of covenant that it would refer to eternal
salvation? Not too likely. He probably took it to refer to
temporal things.

       Then the word of God came again to Isaiah: Go tell Hezekiah.
God has heard his prayer. He will add 15 years to his life, and
deliver him from the king of Assyria and defend the city.

       What was the illness? We read in 2 Kings 20:7, that after
God's promise, Isaiah ordered a poultice of figs to be put on the
boil that Hezekiah had. Such a poultice is used even today in the
Near East.

       Then Hezekiah asked for a sign that these things would come
true. We do not approve of such a lack of confidence when God has
already spoken. Yet in Isaiah 7:10-16 God offered Achaz a sign to
make him believe.

       The sign was this: God made the sun go back the ten steps it
had already gone down on the stairway.

       It may have been some sort of a sundial - sundials had been
known for some time among the Babylonians. In what way was this
done? Did God actually change the course of the heavenly bodies?
or just change the light on the dial? We do not know. He surely
could act either way.

       Next we find inserted in the text a sort of Psalm said to
have been composed by Hezekiah. It is poetic in form, tells of
his illness and recovery and praises God. In 38:17 Hezekiah says
God put all his sins behind His back. This seems to reflect the
common belief then that sickness came as a result of sin.

       The psalm adds that those who go down into the pit, the
grave, cannot hope for God's faithfulness, meaning that He would
observe the covenant. That covenant applied only to the present
life. It said that only the living praise God. He has in mind the
grand liturgical praise in the Temple, which of course was absent
from the realm of the dead. We must add that up to the time of
the death of Christ, the just who had died, and had had all their
bills paid, were still not admitted to the vision of God, they
were in the Limbo of the Patriarchs. There they would not know
what went on on earth, unless God decided to reveal something to
them. And of course there would be no grand liturgical praise
there, though they might praise God in a lesser way. Some of the
Psalms show expectation that even in death they would not be
totally cut off from association with God: cf. Ps 16:9-11; 17:15;
49:15 and Job 19:25-27.

When Merodach-Baladan king of Babylon heard of the illness and
recovery of Hezekiah, he sent an embassy to him with gifts.
2 Chronicles 3:21 says that the ambassadors came from Babylon to
investigate the sign. If this means the change on the sundial, it
seems to imply that the change in the sun was visible in Babylon.
Hezekiah received the envoys gladly, and showed them everything
in his storehouses (cf. 2 Kings 20:12-19).

       Isaiah came to Hezekiah and asked where the men came from
and what did he show them. Hezekiah said he showed them
everything in his palace. This looks a bit boastful. Isaiah then
said: A time will come when everything in the palace will be
carried to Babylon, and some of the descendants of Hezekiah will
be carried there too to become members of the court of the King
of Babylon (cf. Daniel 1).

       Hezekiah seems to have picked up the implication that it
would not happen in his own time. So he said: "There will be
peace and security in my lifetime."


       Introduction to the Second Part of Isaiah


At the end of Chapter 39 we have come to what many consider a
break point in Isaiah. They call the rest of the work Second
Isaiah, and many even speak of a Third Isaiah (chapters 56-66).
This tendency to split Isaiah first appeared in the 18th century,
in the work of commentators like Koppe and D�derlein.

       The fact that the whole book is inspired does not tell us
anything about authorship. In ancient times it was not unusual to
use a pen name, and to pick the name of a famous person. Also,
rights of authorship were not respected as they are today: a
later author might change or add to an existing work, leaving it
under the name of the original author.

       <Arguments against unity> are chiefly these: chapters 40-66
deal with a period later than the lifetime of Isaiah, including
the time after the return from the great exile, in 539 B. C.
There is even a mention by name of Cyrus of Persia who allowed
them to return.

       It is said too that First Isaiah is a prophet of judgment
and punishment, while the rest of the book offers comfort to the
exiles, and then advice for living in their land after the
return.
We do not know the date of the death of Isaiah himself. One old
tradition says he was sawed apart by order of the wicked King
Manasseh (687-42), but this is uncertain.

       There is a difference in style after the end of chapter 39.
The first chapters were strongly illustrative, now the style
becomes lofty with a lot of rhetorical questions and even
passages in which God argues His own case with His people.

       <Arguments for unity>:

a) <We can easily answer the above arguments>. The fact that the
later chapters deal with a time after the death of Isaiah are a
problem only for those who deny on principle the possibility of
supernatural prophecy. The only really specific point is the
mention of the name of Cyrus.

       Really the whole picture is the same as the so called
Deuteronomic pattern: threats of punishment, arrival of
punishment, repentance and deliverance. Any author following that
could have confidently written the whole, except for the one
point, the name of Cyrus. That would require revelation.

       As for style: No one who has read the works of
Tacitus, the great Roman historian, in the original Latin would
think much of any argument from differences in style. The style
of Tacitus in his 4 historical works is highly distinctive and
pungent -- one needs to read the original language to get most of
the flavor. But there is still another work by Tacitus, the
<Dialogue on Orators>. There the style is day and night
different, and really much like that of Quintilian, who also
wrote on the same topic, but his work is lost. There is of course
a temptation to say the manuscripts confused two works, and we
really have that of Quintilian, that of Tacitus on orators is
lost. Yet there are enough arguments of a different nature to
convince almost everyone that the Dialogue we have is really by
Tacitus. The differences of style found in Isaiah, or between
early and later Epistles of St. Paul, are much smaller.

B) <Positive arguments for unity>: The ancient Jews accepted the
whole as the work of Isaiah, well before the coming of Christ.
Ecclesiasticus (Sirach) in 48:24 says that "By the spirit of
power, Isaiah saw the last things and comforted those who mourned
in Zion". The last clause points easily to Isaiah 61:3. But
Sirach was probably written in the second century B. C.


The Isaiah scroll from Qumran has the complete text of Isaiah. A
few lines of chapter 40 actually begin at the foot of a column in
that scroll. Also, Josephus (<Antiquities> 11. 1. 1-2) says Cyrus
read the prophecies about himself in Isaiah, and intended to
fulfill them.

       The arguments on both sides are really inconclusive, but we
must say that those against unity are much too weak to make us
certain that there were several Isaiahs.

       Zion's King and God is coming. Chapter 40. Summary and
Comments

       Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Isaiah speaks of
a period about a century after his death, thanks to prophetic
light. He says: Speak tenderly to Jerusalem. Her hard service,
that is, her distress, brought on by sins, but atoned for by
suffering, is at an end. For her sin has been paid for. She has
received double for her sins.

       Only the sufferings of Jesus paid the debt of sin fully. Yet
it is the will of God that human should be like Him in this, and
in that sense, pay. To speak of double payment is of course just
poetic exaggeration: if taken at face value God would be unjust.

       Now the prophet hears a voice in the desert calling for
making the way of the Lord ready. Roads at that time were not so
good, and when a King was to pass over them, his servants would
go ahead to make the roads ready. The imagery seems to be that
God Himself will lead them back from their exile. The desert
could mean the Syrian desert which is between the promised land
and Babylon. But those who traveled did not ordinarily go over
that desert. So the desert here probably stands for the distress
of Israel in exile.

       The notion of atonement by suffering is common in the OT,
Intertestamental literature, NT and Rabbis and Fathers in that
sin is pictured as a debt which the Holiness of God wants to have
paid. Rabbi Simeon ben Eleazar in <Tosephta, Kiddushin> 1. 14
wrote (thinking of a two pan scales): "He [anyone] has
has committed a transgression. Woe to him. He has tipped the
scale to the side of debt for himself and for the world." Cf. Wm.
Most, <The Thought of St. Paul> (Christendom Press, 1994,
appendix, pp. 289-301.

       Of course the Gospel applies these words to John the
Baptist, who was to prepare the way for the Messiah, Jesus.
Interestingly, in Malachi 3:1 God says He is sending His
messenger before Him, that is before God, who is to come to His
temple. To apply this passage to John coming before Jesus could
suggest the divinity of Jesus. In Mt 11:10 Jesus does use these
words about John. But he uses the words of Malachi in the
adaptation common in His day, which happened by telescoping as it
were the words of Malachi with those of Exodus 23:20 where God
said He would send His messenger before Israel on their journey
to prepare the way for them.

       As part of the work of preparing the way for the Lord,
valleys will be filled, mountains leveled - poetic exaggeration
of course.

       Then the glory (<kabod Yahweh>) of the Lord will be
revealed. That phrase most commonly stood for the visible
presence of God -as in the pillar of cloud at the Exodus -- to
reveal the presence of God to help His people. Ezekiel in chapter
10 saw the glory of God leaving Jerusalem. (In chapter 43 Ezekiel
saw it returning).

       But then a remarkable addition; All mankind shall see it
(His glory) together. This probably means that God plans to
extend the privilege of being His special people to all. St. Paul
in Eph 3:3-6 says that plan of God was not known to previous
times. It is only dimly hinted at here in Isaiah, and it seems
the Jews did not grasp it. Even when Jesus told the Apostles to
teach all nations, they still did not understand, as we notice in
Acts 10.

       Then a voice, seemingly the voice of God, says to Isaiah:
Cry out. He asks: What shall I cry out? The answer: All men are
like grass, their glory is like that of the flowers of the field
(Cf. Psalm 103:15-17). When the breath of the Lord blows on them
-- thinking of the desert wind in May - they wither. Similarly
the exile should not be afraid of the power of their oppressors,
who seem so strong now. The breath of the Lord can make them
collapse. Only the word of the Lord, what He decrees, shall stand
forever.

       The prophet is also to go up to a high mountain and say:
Here is your God. He comes with power. His arm rules for him. His
arm stands for his power - really, a poor image for the power of
the mere word of the Almighty! He brings reward, and He tends His
flock like a shepherd. There is an even more remarkable line in
Ezek 34:11 in which God says: "Thus says the Lord God: Behold I,
I will search out my sheep and seek them out." We notice the
repeated <I, I>. It seems to mean God will come in person. And in
verse 23 of the same chapter He continues: "I will set one
shepherd over them, my servant David." So it seems to say God
will come in person, but will come in the person of the Messiah,
my servant David. There is apt to be a similar implication in
Jeremiah 23:3: "And I myself shall gather the remnant of my sheep
from all the lands to which I have driven them. But in verse 5:
"I will raise up for David a righteous branch." Here the Targum
understands the word branch as the Messiah. (The Targums commonly
take that word branch to stand for the Messiah). Cf. also
Jeremiah 30:11: "I am with you to save you." The Targum calls
this messianic. Another hint, it seems, that the Messiah is to be
God Himself.

       Then to increase their confidence in the power of God who
will save them: "Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his
hand? Or with a breath has marked off the skies?"

       In admiration Isaiah adds: "Who has understood the mind of
the Lord, or whom did the Lord consult for wisdom". No, God is
infinitely above all human designs and wisdom. At the end of the
grand sketch of the Providence of God in Romans 11, St. Paul
exclaims: "O the depth of the wisdom and knowledge of God. How
incomprehensible are His judgements and untraceable His ways! . .
Who has been His counsellor?" Similarly in 1 Cor 1:26: [We
paraphrase]: "That which seems stupid in God's work is really
wiser than men, and what seems weak is stronger than men." We
will see a similar thought in Isaiah 55:9: "As high as the
heavens are above the earth, so high are my ways above your
ways."

       He continues saying that the nations are like a drop in the
bucket to God's eye. The islands are mere dust. Lebanon with its
great forests is not enough for a fire for His altar, nor are all
its animals enough for a sacrifice. In His eyes all the nations
are nothing, worthless and less than nothing.

       Then to the Israelites who were so prone to worship idols:
To whom could you compare God? A craftsman laboriously makes an
idol, but the idol can do nothing at all. He asks the people:
Have you not heard: He sits enthroned above the skies, people
look like grasshoppers from that height. He stretches out the
heavens like a canopy. He brings princes to nothing. He blows on
them and they wither. He calls out the host of the stars - here
we might think of some figures from astronomy. Antares in the
southern sky seems like a dot, yet it is so huge that if the
distance from the earth to the sun were tripled, it could not get
in between them. The nearest of the countless spiral galaxies,
Andromeda, is so far away that light racing at over 186, 000
miles per second takes 2. 2. million years to reach us. And yet
He made all these, not with great planning or computers, but by
merely saying: Let it be.

Israel is tempted to say: God does not know our woes. Yet His
eye takes in all things, His understanding no one can fathom. He
gives strength to the weary;, even young men in their great vigor
may stumble, but those who hope in the Lord will see their
strength renewed, they can soar like eagles.

       God Sends Cyrus. Chapter 41. Summary and Comments

Solemnly the prophet bids the foreign lands to be silent, and to
come to a place of judgment for a lawsuit to see if God is true
or not.

        Who has stirred up someone from the east and called him in
righteousness to serve Him? Of course it is God, who has called
Cyrus to serve Him by conquering Babylon and then releasing
israel from captivity and even encouraging them to rebuild the
temple.

Isaiah says God has done this in righteousness. For God to
observe the covenant was righteous, for He could not enter into a
covenant, and then refuse to fulfill what He had promised. He
promised to save israel if they were faithful, to punish if they
were not. They had deserved punishment, and by this point, had
fully received it. So now it is time as righteousness says to
rescue them. For that, He calls Cyrus of Persia.

       The prophet says God hands over nations to Cyrus. On God's
handling of things in the external economy cf. our comments on
10:5 ff. above. He subdues king before Cyrus. Then "he" turns
them to dust with his sword. The he here is probably Cyrus. But
soon: God asks: Who has done this? It is the Lord who has
predicted it and has done it. In contrast, the idols have never
predicted anything and brought it to fulfillment: they have done
nothing at all.

       But now that their debt has been paid by the exile, He calls
Israel His servant and friend. He says He took them from the ends
of the earth. This is probably a hyperbolic expression for the
fact that God called Abraham, the beginning of the chosen people,
from Ur of the Chaldees.

       He then says He has chosen and not rejected them. We must
ask:Why did He chose Israel for special favor? In Dt 7:7-8 we
read that God did not chose them because they were the greatest
of nations, but because He loved them, and was keeping the
promise He swore to Abraham.

       To love is to will good to another for the other's sake.
When we humans love, we need a starter for that, seeing something
fine in another. But God is the only one who can love without a
starter. What good did He see in me when He first loved me?
Nothing, for I was then nothing. And if he looked a bit farther
up and saw me already in existence, what good did He see there
that He had not put there? Nothing at all. 1 Cor 4:7: "What have
you that you have not received?"

       So Israel did nothing to earn the beginning of the favor
they received - we speak of the beginning, since in Ex. 19:5: "If
you really hearken to my voice and keep my covenant, you will be
my special people." If you obey, you get favor. They had done
very badly in the matter of obeying, and had received their
punishment. Now, gladly He says that is all over, and He can
begin to give favor within that covenant, in righteousness as we
said above.

       But we ask further: Why did He make choice of that people
for such special treatment? It seems the reason is the same as
that for which He chooses people for the special favor of being
full members of His Church, as He says in Romans 8:29ff and all
though to the end of chapter 11. It was not for merits. What was
it for then? Paul in Romans does not say what for. But at the end
of 1 Cor 1 we notice that God has chosen the weak to confound the
strong. In Ezek 5:6-7 God told the prophet: "I am not sending you
to a people with obscure speech and difficult language. . . . If
I were to send you to these, they would listen to you, but the
house of Israel will refuse to listen to you, since they will not
listen to me. For the whole house of Israel is hard of brow and
obstinate in heart." And Ezek 5:6: "She [Jerusalem] has changed
my judgments into wickedness more than the gentiles." And so when
God sent Jonah to the pagan Nineveh, he found they welcomed him
at once, in contrast to what happened to the prophets sent to the
Holy People of Israel. The <Mekilta de Rabbi Ishmael>, a late 4th
century work, a Midrash on Exodus, imagines Jonah as saying that
since the gentiles are more inclined to repent, he might be
bringing on the condemnation of Israel by going to Nineveh.

       Similarly in the NT, the parable of the good Samaritan
pictures two officials of the holy people passing by the wounded
man, but a Samaritan takes good care of him. And in Luke 17:11-19
ten lepers are cured; the only one who came back to say thank you
was an outsider, a Samaritan. Cf. also Matthew 11:21.

       So we gather that the reason was not only not merits, but
instead greater need: they were, as Ezek 3 and 5 said, more hard
of heart than the gentiles.

       This is quite uncomplimentary to Israel - but also to those
chosen for full membership in the Church of Christ.

       Isaiah continues saying that all who rage against them will
be ashamed and disgraced and become as nothing. If they look for
their erstwhile enemies, they will not even be able to find them.

       But then, to try to keep Israel from pride: "Do not be
afraid, O worm Jacob. . . . Your redeemer is the Holy One of
Israel." Redeemer here is <goel> the next of kin who has the
right and the duty to rescue his kinsman who has fallen into
captivity or terrible straits. So God by the covenant became
their kinsman, as signified by the ceremony of the sprinkling of
the blood at the foot of Sinai.

By His power they will thresh the mountains and winnow the hills.
But you will rejoice in the Lord and glory in the Holy One of
Israel. Holy One as we saw above refers to the fact that He is
perfectly righteous, both in rewarding and in punishing. To be
righteous in rewarding, He created a covenant, so that if they
fulfilled their condition, He would owe it to Himself to do what
He had said. He loves to have one thing in place to serve as the
reason for granting a second thing, even though that first thing
does not really move Him: St. Thomas I. 19. 5. c.

       So <if> they are poor and needy and search for water and do
not find it, the Lord will take care of them and turn the desert
into pools of water. We filled in the word <if> on the ground
that we could take the structure as paratactic, i.e., one in
which subordinate conjunctions are not expressed, but carried by
the thought.

       After all of this, He returns to the lawsuit: Who has
predicted all these things and has brought them to pass? Not the
idols, which do nothing at all. But the God of Israel.

       So to help them He again says He has stirred up one from the
north, Cyrus. Here He says from the north, before He had spoken
of the East. Really Cyrus came from lands to the East, but came
north around the upper bend of the fertile crescent. Only God
predicted and brought to reality these things, not the dumb idols
who cannot do anything at all.

       First Servant Song. Chapter 42:1-7. Summary and Comments

       This is the first of four such songs. The others, which will
be marked as we go along are: 49:1-9a; 50:4-9; 52:13 - 54:12.

       First, there is no special reason for calling these songs.
We keep the word only since it has become usual.

       The word servant or servant of God is frequent in Scripture
in general. It is used of Moses, of Joshua, Job, David,
Zerubabbel and often of prophets like Ahijah, Elijah, Jonah or
the prophets in general.

Next we ask: Who is the Servant? There is no need to suppose the
Servant is the same person in all four. The Targum marks the
first and fourth as messianic, but not the others. The New
Testament similarly indicates that the first and fourth are
messianic, but does not do so for the other two.

Some have suggested the servant is a collective figure for
Israel, or the faithful remnant. But the very personal terms used
are against that view.

       In Mt 12:17-21, after Jesus has worked some cures, we read
that thus was fulfilled what Isaiah predicted. It then quotes
substantially this first passage. We could still ask: Did the
text of Isaiah refer directly to Christ, or only through a
typological sense? Such combinations do occur at times. However,
there is no good reason to suppose that happens here. Yet, we saw
in commenting on 7:14 that it is quite possible that the Holy
Spirit, the chief Author of Scripture, may have intended more in
a given passage than what the human author saw. Such a thing is
quite possible here especially with the first and fourth songs
which definitely do look ahead to a Messiah.

       In the first verse God says "I have put my spirit upon Him."
We naturally think of the Messiah of Isaiah 11, on whom the
Spirit will rest.

       Then verses 2-3 say he will not put out a smoldering wick:
He will be kind and merciful to the weak. WE think of Jesus in
Matthew 11:28: "Come to me all who find life burdensome. . . my
yoke is easy." The smoldering wick could also refer to Israel
languishing in exile.

       Then in v. 4 He will not stop until He establishes justice
(<mishpat>) on the Lord, and in His teaching (<torah>) even the
gentiles who are far off will have hope. They had walked in the
darkness spoken of above in 9:1. Hebrew <mishpat> could be
translated, <that which is right>. Before the coming of the
Messiah the gentiles depended upon what the Spirit wrote upon
their hearts(Jer 31:33 and Romans 2:15)t o know this. But the
Messiah will spell out the will of God to the nations, that they
may more easily know and fulfill it. So He will be like another
Moses, who made the will of God known explicitly to the people.

Verse 6 says he will be a covenant for the people and a light
for the gentiles. Even though the singular is used, <people>,
which seems to refer primarily to Israel, yet the following
words, a light to the gentiles, foreshadows in a way what St.
Paul was to say in Eph 3:6, a thing not revealed before, that the
gentiles are co-heirs with the Jews as members of the People of
God in the new covenant. And He is surely a light for the
gentiles: cf. Luke 2:32 in the canticle of Simeon who says He
will be "a light for the gentiles."

       Finally: Thus says God the Lord who created the heavens and
gives breath to all those who dwell on earth. This expresses His
majestic power, which is also an assurance that the mission of
the Servant will be fruitful. For God has called the Servant in
righteousness (<sedeq>), He will free captives and those in the
dungeon.

       Thus ends the first Servant Song.

       New things and a New Song. Chapter 42: 8-17. Summary and
Comments

       Now God speaks and says He is the Lord, and will not let
idols take His glory. As proof; See the former things predicted
have taken place-- this could be the fall of Damascus and the
northern Kingdom, the frustration of Sennacherib. Since they have
happened as predicted, Israel should trust in the further
prediction that He will bring them out of exile.

       therefore all the ends of the earth should sing a new song
to the Lord. Even the desert and it towns --like Kedar in North
Arabia, and Sela, capital of Edom -- should join in the song. The
words "the ends of the earth" can easily refer to the gentiles--
and this idea is aided by the mention of Kedar and Sela. In time,
all nations are to praise the Lord. Israel did not understand
this, as we saw in the introduction to Isaiah, yet it s true that
as St. Paul foretold in Eph. 3:6 the gentiles are to be part of
the People of God, and to join in praising Him.

       Therefore as to the future:The Lord will march as a mighty
warrior and triumph over the enemies of Israel. He has kept
silent for some time during the Exile. The time was not right,
and the demands of justice to pay the debt of Israel's sin had
not yet been met by their suffering.

       God asks: Who is blind but my servant, and deaf like the
messenger I send? This is remarkable, for in the first servant
song, the servant is the Messiah. Now he calls Israel his servant
and messenger. He intended them to bring the truth to the
gentiles; but the have been blind, and instead have taken over
the errors of the gentiles by worshipping false gods.

But now He is glad to hold back no longer. He announces the end
of the exile, and, as he said in chapter 40, He will make the
rough places plain. He will do all this for the sake of his
righteousness (42:21:sedeq): This is the same as saying:His
Holiness, for it is His Holiness that loves all that is right,
and insists that if out of balance, it be restored. Now the
suffering of the exile has restored the balance -- so far as mere
humans could - the full rebalance is to come from the obedient
sufferings of the Suffering Servant, Jesus, who thereby
[<daetho>] will make many just: 53:11.

       The Lord Redeems His unworthy People. Chapter 43. Summary
and Comments

       To restore the confidence of the exiles God says: I am the
one who created you, and formed you. Do not be afraid. Even if
you pass through waters or fire I am with you. I gave Egypt and
Cush and Seba as your ransom. He means that these lands are the
compensation to Cyrus for releasing Israel. (Not Cyrus in person,
though he had planned it), but his son Cambyses actually took
Egypt).

       So, God says, I will bring your sons from afar from the
east, from the north, from the south, from the ends of the earth.
He speaks of all of them as His Sons. This is like what Hosea
11:1 has God saying at the Exodus: "Out of Egypt I have called my
son", which St. Matthew, under inspiration, saw fulfilled a
second time in the return of Jesus from Egypt.

       Isaiah imagines all nations gathered together. They hear and
see that what God had foretold has now come true. So again He
calls Israel His servant whom He has chosen. There was no god
before Him, nor will there be any other after Him. He is the
Lord, the Savior. They are to be His witness that He is their
Savior. He planned this from eternity, from ancient days, and
when He acts, no one can reverse it. Again, as we saw in 41:14,
He calls himself their <goel> the next of kin who was pledged to
redeem them. For their sake He is sending Cyrus to Babylon and he
will bring it down. Once He made for them a path through the Red
Sea and drew the Egyptian army into the sea to destroy it there.

       But He urges: Forget what is past. I am doing new things. He
is making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland
through which they will pass on the way out of exile. He had long
ago provided water from the rock in the desert, so that they
should praise Him.

       He blots out their sins for His own sake -- for they have
not earned it. So He asks: Review the past, as it were, come to
court with me. Your first father sinned - probably referring to
the sins of Jacob, and your spokesmen rebelled against me-
perhaps thinking of the infidelity of Aaron and of the doubt of
Moses, plus the infidelities of so many kings of theirs. So, He
says, He will bring disgrace upon the officials of their temple,
and hand over Israel to scorn -- the captivity.

       God predicts restoration, Cyrus will accomplish it. Chapter
44. Summary and Comments

       He tells Jacob to listen and calls him His servant - a tie
to the first servant song perhaps? Then he even says that He is
the one who formed them in the womb. Is this meant as an allusion
to the sort of thing God was going to say to Jeremiah in 1. 5:
"Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. . . I dedicated you
as a prophet to the nations." God could call them prophets only
in that they were destined to preserve the clear knowledge of the
true God and eventually to give it to the gentiles. So He says;
Do not be afraid. Then he calls Jacob <Jesrun> - a name that also
is found in Dt 32:15; 33:5, 26. Meaning is uncertain, probably
means <upright>, in contrast to the seeming etymology of Jacob,
which may mean <deceiver>.

       So to bring them back, He will pour water on the thirsty
land and pour out His Spirit on their offspring, which will
flourish like the grass in the meadow. Then verse 5 according to
some means that gentiles will accept the God of Israel.
The Jews did not at first see that this meant the Gentiles were
to be accepted as part of God's people without becoming Jews. Cf.
again St. Paul Eph. 3:6.

       To try to keep them from going back into idolatry - into
which so many had fallen before the exile -- he says: I am the
first and the last, there is no God but me. In proof of that: The
idols have never done anything, never foretold anything. The true
God has done so.

       Verse 7 speaks of what has happened since He established "My
ancient people." This may refer to the whole human race.

       But returning to idolatry,. He tells what is obvious: the
craftsman makes an idol - an expensive one from fine wood, a
cheaper one from lesser wood. But half of the wood he cut he uses
to make a fire to warm himself and to cook food. What an
implication of the worth of the idol! Their craftsmen who make
them are only human - so they could not make a real god. If the
craftsman works long he gets weak. When he has made a god -- out
of half the material of which the one half served for cooking --
he bows down before it: Save me, my god! What nonsense! Shall
anyone bow down to a block of wood? Anyone who does this is like
a man who tries to make a meal of ashes.

       So Israel should remember these things. God has made Israel,
and has redeemed Israel. So the heavens should sing for joy.

       The beginning of the actual restoration is God's choice of
Cyrus. The Lord who made all things, who makes fools of diviners,
called Cyrus, who is called His shepherd, who will do all God
wills. Interestingly, the Hebrew form of Cyrus is <Koresh>.

       We notice the diviners are called fools. Isaiah is thinking
probably of the Babylonian pseudo- science of divination. They
even made clay models of livers, and marked on them the
significant spots to look for in the liver of sacrificed animals.

       But their predictions are haphazard. Only God can predict
and make His predictions come true. He will say of Jerusalem: Let
it be rebuilt, and of the temple: Let its foundations be laid.

       Continuation of the above thought. Chapter 45. Summary and
Comments

       The Lord speaks to Cyrus, His anointed, whose right hand He
takes. He calls Cyrus the anointed. Kings were anointed. Cyrus
has a special mission for God. So God will subdue nations and
kings before him, and will level the mountains. We notice the
same language as He used for preparing a way for the exiles to
return. God will give Cyrus the treasures of darkness, that is,
things that have been hidden away, so Cyrus may know God is the
Lord. God will cut through bars of iron: Herodotus the Greek
Historian (1. 179) said there were a hundred brass gates in the
walls of Babylon.

       God will do all this for the sake of Jacob, His servant.
Again we see a connection to the Servant songs, in which the
Servant sometimes seems to be Israel, sometimes the Messiah.
Really, Hebrew writing often enough used an individual to stand
for and in a sense be identified with a group. This was commonly
done with the King of Israel.

       God will honor Cyrus, even though Cyrus does not know or
honor Him, so that from the rising to the setting of the sun man
may know there is no Master but God. For Cyrus does all this only
by commission of the Lord.

Then God says: I form light and create darkness. Amos 3:6 says:
"Is there an evil in the city which God has not caused?" This was
in accord with the Hebrew way of saying God positively did things
that He really only permitted. We compare 1 Samuel 4:3, in which
the Israelites exclaim (in the Hebrew, NAB disguises it) after
being beaten by the Philistines: "Why has the Lord struck us
today before the face of the Philistines?" They knew the
Philistines did it, but that was their way of speaking. Again,
during the plagues before the Exodus, the Pharaoh more than once
was on the point of letting Israel go, but then became hardened.
Exodus at times says that the Pharaoh hardened his own heart.
More often it says God hardened his heart. -- Really, if we
remember Aristotle's potency and actuality, even when some evil
is done, it is the power of God, the First Cause, that actualizes
the potency - though the evil orientation comes from the
creature, not from God: cf. Phil 2:13. As a loose comparison,
think of an electric outlet. The power company furnishes the
power that makes things go, but the customer decides the way it
will be used: cf. 2 Cor 6:1.

       Poetically Isaiah exclaims: Let the heavens and the clouds
shower down righteousness. Let the earth cause salvation to
spring up. Salvation here means rescue from temporal danger, not
eternal salvation.

       Then: woe to him who quarrels with his master, as if a pot
should tell the potter: why did you not make me into something
nicer? (We think of the same comparison in Romans 9:20-24 --
where the comparison is to bring out the fact that God alone
decides who will get the special added favor of full membership
in the People of God. These verses do not at all refer to
predestination to heaven or hell, as was once mistakenly thought.

       But the Holy One of Israel, its Maker says: Why question me
about what I am doing? It is I who made the earth, who gathered
the stars. So if I will to use Cyrus for my purposes, who can
speak against it?

       After this is over, the gentile nations will bring gifts to
Jerusalem, even Egypt, Cush, and Saba, wanting to attach
themselves to Israel, for God is there. Basically a prediction of
the time when the Gentiles would be invited to be part of the
People of God, without becoming Jewish: cf. again Eph 3:6.

       In wonder, Isaiah exclaims: Truly, you are a God who hides
himself, Savior of Israel. He hides self in that His ways are
cloaked in impenetrable mystery, even though we see some things,
such as His use of Cyrus to end the exile. But this is the God
who created the heavens. He fashioned the earth, wanting it to be
inhabited. He did not tell Jacob to seek Him in vain. He said He
has not spoken in secret from the land of darkness - may be an
allusion to the practice, in Babylon and even in Israel, of
necromancy, of consulting the dead.

       He says: Was it not foolish of you gentiles who are
fugitives from Cyrus to trust in idols instead of in me? They are
gods who cannot save. They never did anything, never foretold
anything. But Israel's God does all things, even creating
darkness as well as righteousness. There is no other God. He is
righteous. He wants all things to be done in accord with
objective morality. And that same Holiness leads Him to keep His
covenant when the people do what He has prescribed. So He says to
the gentiles: Turn to me, and be saved. Every knee will bow to
me. All the descendants of Israel will become righteous: this
includes the gentiles who will join the People of God.

       Babylon's Gods and the God of Israel. Chapter 46. Summary
and Comments

       The gods of Babylon, Bel and Nebo, bow before the God of
Israel. Those idols have to be carried by beasts of burden, they
cannot move by themselves. They themselves are led into
captivity. In those times each city had its god. If the city was
powerful in war, they thought their god must be powerful. If the
city was defeated, the god was defeated. The idols are made by
craftsmen who are paid a price. And when the idol is made, they
bow down before it, though it cannot do anything.

       So they should remember what He has done long ago. He makes
known the end from the beginning, for all is in His hands. Now He
summons Cyrus from the East. He promises salvation to Israel.

       Fall of Babylon is Near. Chapter 47. Summary and Comments

       Isaiah calls out: Daughter of Babylon (= the city), come
down off your glorious throne and sit in the dusk, and do a
slaves work of grinding flour. God will exact justice, sparing no
one. (please recall our comments on chapter 1 where we explained
the great difference between vengeance and rebalancing the
objective order, Hebrew <naqam>). The Holy One of Israel, who
loves all that is right, will bring this about.

       In chapter 13 from the viewpoint of his own days before 700
B. C. Isaiah had foretold the fall of Babylon. Now in a vision
(unless we think it a different author - please recall our
comments before chapter 40) he sees the fall of Babylon as
proximate).

       He continues to speak to Virgin Babylon: No longer will you
be called a queen. God was angry with Israel, and gave them into
the hand of Babylon. Babylon was harsh, did no spare even feeble
old people. Babylon thought it could never fall. But it will
come, and all their spells and astrology cannot ward it off.

       Then in mockery: Keep up your magic spells, and sorceries.
Let your astrologers come forward. They will be burned like
stubble. Not one of them can save Babylon.

       The city fell to the forces of Cyrus in 539 B. C. It had
been powerful since the time of Nabopolassar and Nebuchadnezzar
II (who wrecked Jerusalem) in the period 605-562. It is
interesting to read the account of the fall of Babylon in Daniel
chapter 5 through 6:1. There it is said that Darius the Mede took
Babylon. Many say there was no such person. But Josephus in
Antiquities 10, 245-49 does report that Darius was a kinsman who
could have ruled for Cyrus for a time while Cyrus was occupied
with other things. This would be in accord with known policies of
Cyrus.

       Cyrus is at Hand. Chapter 48. Summary and Comments

       There are abrupt alternations of mood in this chapter, but
we have seen such things before, threats of punishment
interspersed with hopeful passages.

       God speaks to His people. He says they do take oaths in His
name, but not in truth or righteousness. They still, in exile,
speak of themselves as citizens of the holy city, Jerusalem. .

God reminds them again that He foretold things to them before.
He says they were and are stubborn, with a stiff neck and a
forehead of bronze. Already in Exodus 32 the people fell into
idolatry while Moses was on the mountain with God for 40 days.
Then God told Moses He wanted to destroy them, and make him into
a great nation:Ex 32:10. Moses appealed to the memory of
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and God relented. It is sad to see how
often God Himself or Moses called them a stiff-necked people, or
used similar terms: Exodus 33:3, 5; 34:9; Dt 9:6, 13; 31:27. Cf.
also Ps 78:8; Jer 5:23; 16:12; Ezek 2:4; 3:7; Hos 4:16.

       Because they were so rebellious, God has foretold things far
in advance, so that when they happened they might not give the
credit to their idols.

       So, now He will tell them new things, that is, the coming
victory of Cyrus. God will delay His wrath for His name's sake,
that is, for His own sake (name is often about the same as the
person). He has refined them in the fire of tribulation, yet they
have not responded like silver which becomes fine in such a test.
Yet He will do as He has said, He will not give His glory to
another.

       He repeats: I am the fist and the last. My hand laid the
foundations of the earth. Tell me: Which of your idols foretold
these things? Yes, I have called Cyrus, and will bring him.

       God is the Lord who teaches them what is best for them. If
only they had heeded His command, well-being (<shalom>) would be
like a river for them.

       Now the prophet imagines that Babylon is already fallen, and
he tells them: Flee Babylon. This may mean so they will not be
hurt in its destruction, or he could use Babylon as a symbol of
evil, so this would mean: flee from evil.

       Second Servant Song. 49:1-9a. Summary and Comments

       Who is the Servant here? At times it seems like an
individual, at times it is all Israel. This fits the Hebrew
pattern we mentioned above, where an individual stands for and
embodies a group. So at times, such as 49:6, the Servant has a
mission to Jacob or Israel, at other times, he is individual.

       The Targums do not mention this passage as messianic, nor
does the NT. Yet since the servant is in close continuity with
the servant of the first song, and especially because of the
prediction of suffering by him, when he is despised and abhorred
by the nation, the nation of Israel, it seems the same as the
suffering servant of the 4th song.

       The servant speaks to the far away lands, or islands. He
says that before he was born the Lord called him from the womb of
his mother - a thought like that of Jer 1:5 of or 44:2 above.

       The servant says the Lord made his mouth like a sharpened
sword, or he was a polished arrow. His words, it seems, are like
the two-edged sword that the word of God is (Hebrews 4:12). God
concealed Him, that is, did not make him known at first, like the
Lord in His 30 years hidden life.

       The servant groans: I have labored for no purpose - the
people of Israel are stiff-necked, as we saw above, and as Jesus
saw when He preached to them. But His reward is from the Lord --
like that of the suffering servant of the fourth song, in 53:10 -
11. So he is sent to bring back Jacob and gather Israel.

       But that alone is not enough for his mission: he is to be a
light to the gentiles. We saw this in 42:6, and in the canticle
of Simeon in the NT, saying he will be a light to the gentiles.
Through him salvation is to come to the ends of the earth, that
is, to even the most distant places. Again, an indication of the
universality of the mission of Jesus.

       After he is despised and abhorred by the nation - which must
be the Jewish people, as happened to Jesus. (Here the singular
<goy> is used. When the gentiles are meant it is normally
<goyim>, the plural) - after that Kings will see and bow down
before Him - the later honor paid to Jesus too.

       It is then that it is said that he will be a covenant for
the people and will free captives - like the words of 42:7.

       The Return from Exile: 49:9b - 50:3

       On their return, they will find food even besides the roads,
and on barren hills. There will be no hunger of thirst, nor will
the desert heat strike them. In fact, God will turn the mountains
into roads and raise up the highways -- we think of course of the
opening words of chapter 40.

       They will come from afar, some from the north, and some from
the west, a nd some from the land of Syene. (We are not sure of
this last name. The Hebrew has <sinim>. Some have thought it
meant <Chinese>, but there were no Jews in China then. From
Qumram, the old text of Isaiah, 1QIsa, reads: <swnyym>. That
could mean Jews living at Aswan or Syene, the first cataract of
the Nile in Egypt:cf. Ezek 29:9-11. Jeremiah 44:12-29 refers to
Jews of his day living in this area of Lower Egypt.

       So the Lord comforts His people.

       Now, beginning at v. 14, Isaiah visualizes the people
actually back in Jerusalem. First for contrast he paints the
picture of Jerusalem during the time of exile. The people
complain that the Lord has forsaken them. He replies: Sooner
could a mother forget her own child. We think of the lament of
Our Lord over Jerusalem in Mt 23:27 where He says He wanted to
gather them as a hen gathers her chicks, but they refused. St.
Augustine (<Tract on John> 15) makes a fine remark that the hen
is the most motherly of animals. Even when the chicks are not
following her, one can still see that she is a mother.

       Then Isaiah changes the image, saying He has engraved them
in the palms of His hands. This would be tattooing, which was
prohibited in Israel: Lev 19:28.

       After that: See, your sons are hurrying back, they will be
like ornaments on a bride. Yes, Jerusalem was ruined, but now it
will be too small for all those who come. Those there will
marvel: Where did these come from? The Lord replies: I will call
the gentiles. Kings shall be your foster fathers and queens your
nursing mothers.

They will bow down before you. -- A prophecy of the conversion
of the gentiles. At that time, and much later, the Jews thought
it meant all gentiles would become Jews, not knowing that God
intended to call the Gentiles (Eph 3:6) as gentiles to be part of
His people.

       Someone objects: Who can take plunder away from an armed
warrior? He replies: Yes, the all powerful Lord can do all
things. He will make your oppressors eat their own flesh, i.e.,
destroy one another in civil war.

       Now, at the start of the next chapter (poor chapter
division), He imagines them saying: Where is the bill of divorce,
for He had renounced Israel. He replies: You were sold because of
your sins. I called, and no one answered. I could have ransomed
you, I can dry up the sea, but I needed to punish you.

       3rd Servant Song. 50:4-11. Summary and Comments

       The Servant speaks: The Lord has given me a tongue trained
to help the weary. Every morning He wakens me to listen to His
message. I have not been rebellious to His plans, even though I
have suffered. Instead, I offered my back to those who beat me,
my cheeks to those who pulled my beard. I did not hide from those
who mocked and spat upon me.

       Even though the Targum does not mark this song as messianic,
we cannot help seeing the connection to the fourth song, which is
surely messianic. The prophet had to suffer personally, and the
same sort of sufferings as in the fourth song, and as in the
Passion of Jesus. So there is really no obstacle to understanding
all three songs thus far - and the fourth to come - as having a
double sense: they refer to the servant individually, who at
times seems like the Prophet, but with full fulfillment in Jesus
-- and at times the servant is Israel, following the Hebrew
pattern of using an individual to stand for and even embody a
collectivity.

Did God really appear to Isaiah every day? Not necessarily.
Perhaps at times, at other times it could be merely interior
locution, or just part of the general commission: please recall
the introduction to this text.

       So the prophet does not lose confidence, he makes his own
face like flint to stand up to those who torment him. The Lord
defends me, he says, no one can accuse me. Does Isaiah ask for
punishment of the offenders? If he did, it would not be in a tone
of revenge, but of rebalancing the objective order, cf. our
comments at chapter 1 on <naqam>. Is this different from Jesus
praying: Father forgive them? Not entirely. Jesus did ask for
forgiveness, and of course His prayer was granted. Yet as with
any offer of forgiveness by God, it is not effective if the
intended recipient rejects it. And so many did reject Jesus. He
knew all too well both sides of the picture. Hence in Mt 23:27 He
wept over Jerusalem, and He foretold what was going to happen in
70 A. D. He willed to offer forgiveness, yet He knew it would be
in vain for most of them.

       In v. 10 the prophet is the one who speaks, asking: Who
obeys the message he gives? Even though the one who obeys is
still walking in the dark, he must trust in the Lord.

       In v. 11 God Himself speaks: They light fires, hoping to
destroy the Servant. But God will turn even the fire against
them, it will burn, not help them. Instead of walking, they will
"lie down" in suffering.

       More on Zion's Restoration. Chapter 51. Summary and Comments

       God says: Listen to me, you who follow after what is right,
i.e., morally right, in accordance with God's law.
Look to the rock from which you were cut. God Himself is often
called the Rock. But here the term means:you are descended from
Abraham and Sarah. He assures them:God will comfort Zion. He will
turn her deserts into a paradise like Eden. Joy and gladness will
be in her.

       Then again: "Listen my people, my nation. The teaching on
what is right, law (<Torah>) will come from me, and God's justice
(<mishpat>) will be a light to the nations. God promises to bring
justice (<mishpat>) to the nations, that is, even the gentiles.
It means they will come to know what is right even by revelation.
Anthropology shows that primitive people in general have a rather
good knowledge of the basic moral code in their consciences. St.
Paul echoes this in Romans 2:14-16, where he says that the
gentiles who do not have a revealed law, still do what the law
calls for, since that requirement is written on their hearts. Of
course it is an advantage to have it spelled out in writing, for
what is in the hearts may be misunderstood or dimmed by sin.
Again, the result of all this is very similar to what St. Paul
will say clearly in Eph 3:6 that the gentiles are called to be
part of the people of God. Paul says this call was not known to
previous generations. That is true, for it was in the prophecies,
but was not clear enough. Most Jews took these prophecies of all
nations coming to Jerusalem as meaning all would become Jews.
They did not yet grasp God's intent. (Please recall comments
given on chapter 2 above).

       Then: the heavens will vanish like smoke. We spoke of this
before, it is apocalyptic language. It means not that this
creation will be destroyed, but renewed. It goes on to say "Its
inhabitants will die like flies." This probably does not mean
there will be a large extermination of humans before the end. But
Luke 18:8 says: "When the Son of Man comes, do you think He will
find faith on the earth?" In other words, a great apostasy. 1
Thes 2. 3 also speaks of it. But no matter what happens, God
says: His salvation (<yeshua) and my righteousness (sedaqah)>
will last forever. (<Yeshua> does mean salvation. It may mean
eternal salvation, or it may mean rescue from temporal dangers.
<Sedaqah> means basically God's concern for what is morally
right, but if people keep His covenant, then He has bound Himself
to give favors to them, so <sedaqah> later develops the meaning
of benefits. Cf. the appendix to Wm. Most, <The Thought of St.
Paul>).

       In verse 7 the thought of universality continues: "Hear me,
you who <know> what is right, you people who have my law
(<Torah>) in your hearts." <Know> here is the verb <yada>, which
is much broader than English <know>. It means not only know with
the mind, but also act with the will, by love/obedience. The next
words speaks of those who have his law in their hearts. Again we
think of St. Paul, Romans 2:15: "They show the work of the law
written on their hearts." (That in turn is taken right out of
Jeremiah 31:33, the prophecy of the new covenant). So not only
Israel can know God's will and obey it. Even the gentiles can
know what is written in their hearts, and obey it. And many of
them did better than did Israel, cf. The book of Jonah which
shows gentiles responding to a prophet with open arms, and Ezek
3:5-7, plus the terrible words of Ezek 5:6: "She [Jerusalem] has
changed my judgments into wickedness more than the gentiles." So
those who obey the Lord should not be frightened at the insults
they may meet. We think of 2 Timothy 3:12: "Anyone who wants to
live devoutly in Christ will suffer persecution." The same could
happen to men who wanted to obey God even before Christ. Cf.
Wisdom 2:12-20, especially the words of the wicked: "Simply to
see him [the just man] is a hardship for us."

       Now the prophet cries to God: Awake, arm of the Lord. It was
you who cut Rahab to pieces, and pierced the monster through.
Rahab was thought of as a mythical sea monster: cf. Job 26:12.
The monster may be Rahab too, or may be another creature of
fancy: cf. Psalm 89:10. It continues, reminding God that He had
dried the Red Sea. So He can easily ransom Israel from exile.
Gladness will overtake them.

       God responds: "I, yes I, am He who comforts you, sons of man
who last no longer than the grass, but forget Him who made you,
who made the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth.
Prisoners who cringe will soon be free." We do not know if some
of the exiles were actually in prison, or if this is merely
Semitic exaggeration again. God says He is the one who churns up
the sea, who set the heavens in place. The same God says to Zion:
You are my people. So no need to fear.

       Then the prophet seems to see Jerusalem in a sleep of
helplessness before him. He cries out: Awake, Jerusalem. You have
drunk to the dregs the cup of the Lord's wrath. But that is over
now. Your sons fainted away like an antelope that struggled long
against the net that caught him, but in vain. So they were drunk,
but not on wine. God says: See, I have taken out of your hand the
cup of wrath that made you stagger. I will give that cup to your
enemies. You may walk over them as they lie prostrate. In the
Near East, sometimes conquerors literally did walk or ride over
the backs of the conquered.

       Fourth Servant Song. 52:13 - 53:12. Summary and Comments

       Who is the Servant?. The Targum says it is the Messiah -
though we will see presently how the Targum distorted it. The
relation of this person to the previous songs is easy to see. We
even saw mention of the sufferings of the servant in the third
song. In the second, it seemed to be at times Israel, at times an
individual. We explained the Hebrew pattern in which an
individual stands for and embodies a collectivity. But here it
could not be such a double though, for in no way is the Servant
here Israel. Here the Servant suffers innocently; not so for the
sufferings of Israel. Here the servant suffers for others; Israel
did not suffer for the nations.

       Some have foolishly tried to see this figure taken from
BAbylonian mythology, from Tammuz, a vegetation divinity that
died in the heats of summer, returns again later, and is mourned.
But Tammuz is not an innocent sufferer, nor does he atone for
others.

       The concept of atonement for others is strong here, as we
shall see. Such an idea comes in many other places in Judaism, e.
g., Job 42:7-8; 2 Mac 7. 37; Qumran Rule of Community 5:6; 8:3,
6; Simeon ben Eleazar citing R. Meir in <Tosefta, Kiddushin> 1.
14. Especially significant is 4 Mac 6:28-29 and 17:21-22. Cf.
also H. J. Schoeps, <Paul, the Theology of the Apostle>, p. 129.
This idea is part of the notion that sin is a debt, which the
Holiness of God wants paid, that is, He wants the scales of the
objective order to be rebalanced: cf. W. Most, <The Thought of
St. Paul>, appendix. Cf. also Paul VI, doctrinal introduction to
<Indulgentiarum Doctrina>.

       The Targum, as we said, does consider this song to be
messianic. Yet strangely it distorted it sadly. It turned the
meek suffering servant of the Hebrew into an arrogant conqueror.
There are several reasons why this happened. First, the idea that
the Messiah would reign forever and never suffer was very strong
at the time of Christ. This even led at times to a belief in two
Messiahs. So there is a Messiah Son of David, who does not
suffer, and another Messiah, son of Joseph who does: c. Talmud,
Sukkah 52a, commenting on Zechariah 12:10(which said: "They will
look upon me, whom they have pierced"). This second Messiah was
to be the precursor of the Messiah, son of David. Secondly the
Targum picture is influenced by hopes that Bar Kokhba (so of the
star, thinking of Numbers 24:17) leader of the second Jewish
revolt against Rome, 121-35. Thirdly, the Jews after a time,
seeing the Christian use of this song, tried to distort it. This
is admitted by several good Jewish scholars: H. J. Schoeps,
<Paul> (Westminster 1961, p. 129) and Jacob Neusner, <Messiah in
Context>, p. 190, and Samson Levey, <The Messiah, An Aramaic
Interpretation> p. 152, note 10.

       The NT takes this song as messianic: Mt 8:17; Lk 22:37; Acts
8:32-33; Romans 15:21.

       To see the distortion, we give first the Hebrew, then the
Targum of a few passages:

       Verse 3:
               Hebrew: "He was despised and rejected by men. "
               Targum: "then the glory or all kingdoms will be
despised and cease. "

       Verse 5:
               Hebrew: "He was wounded for our transgressions, he was
bruised for our iniquities. "
               Targum: "He will [re]build the sanctuary, polluted
because of our sins, [and] handed over because of our iniquities.
"

       Verse 7:
               Hebrew: "He was like a lamb being led to the slaughter.
"
               Targum: "He will hand over the mighty ones of the
peoples, like a lamb to the slaughter. "

       The word <sprinkle> in v. 15 has overtones of priestly
sacrifice, and prepare the way for further sacrificial language
later in this passage. Cf. Exodus 19:20-21 on the ordination of
Aaron and his sons, in which they are sprinkled with the blood of
sacrifice, and Leviticus 16:14-15 tells us of the sprinkling of
the blood of the sin offering on the propitiatory. In Romans 3:25
Christ is spoken of as the new propitiatory. During the "time of
passing over" of sins, in the OT, perfect rebalance for sins was
not provided. But God's concern for the objective order wanted to
supply that. (On this concept of Greek <dikaiosyne> in Romans,
cf. Wm. Most, <The Thought of St. Paul>, appendix).

However in Romans and here we of course should not take the idea
as being merely a liturgical ceremony - far too painful for that.
Rather, it is the fact that the sufferings of Christ rebalanced
the objective order, put out of line by sin. For the OT,
intertestamental literature, the NT, rabbinic writings, and the
Fathers view sin as a debt, which the Holiness of God wants
repaid. Hence the image of a two pan scales, suggested by Simeon
ben Eleazar (<Tosefta, Kiddushin> 1. 14. cited above in notes on
chapter 1) is helpful. A sinner takes from one pan what he has no
right to take: the scale is out of balance. It is the Holiness of
God that wants it rebalanced. If the man stole property he begins
to rebalance by giving it back; if he stole a pleasure, he begins
to rebalance by giving up some pleasure of similar weight. But
all this is only the beginning of rebalance, for the imbalance
from even one mortal sin is infinite. So IF the Father wanted a
full rebalance, the only way was to send a divine Person, who by
anything He did, could provide infinite rebalance, in the
categories of both merit and satisfaction.

In fact, the mere fact of the Incarnation, without any death,
would have been infinite in both ways. (The Greek Fathers with
their theology of Physical-Mystical Solidarity saw this). But the
love of the Father for us and for objective goodness led Him to
go even to the stable and to the cross.

We said IF, since contrary to St. Anselm, the Father was not
obliged to do this or anything at all. We also stressed Holiness.
There is a matter of justice too, but if we make justice central,
then someone may object: if someone offends me I do not always
demand justice: why cannot God just be nice about it? But if the
center is Holiness, then Holiness will want full rebalance. By
His terrible sufferings, Christ put back into the scale far more
than all sinners taken together took away. We are reminded of the
plaint of the Psalmist in 69:5: "I restore what I did not steal.
"

       It is evident that this explanation of the sufferings of
Jesus is right, and surely more in accord with the Holiness, the
Justice, and the Goodness of the Father than the notion put forth
by some Protestants, that Jesus was our substitute, that the
Father really <punished> Him. How could there be any justice in
that? How could injustice make up for sin?

       We said above that the love of the Father for objective
goodness and for us led Him to go beyond an incarnation without
death to the stable and the cross. Really, His attitude seems to
be: if there is ny way to make it all more rich, I do not want to
pass it by. In that vein, we might imagine Him looking back on
the fact that He could have used any ordinary human to do any
religious action and could have called that a redemption,
imperfect, but real. So the Father willed to add to the
sufferings of Christ those of Blessed Mother. She knew all too
well from the very day of the annunciation, that He would suffer.
As soon as the angel said He would reign forever, any Jew would
see He was the Messiah).

She understood our passage of Isaiah without the distortion the
stiff-necked Jews put into it. She understood Psalm 22, "they
have pierced my hands and my feet". She would have understood
also Zechariah 12:10: "They will look upon me whom they have
pierced."

At the annunciation in saying <fiat> she agreed to be the Mother
of the Suffering Messiah. At the cross of course she did not
retract that. Any soul that knows what the Father positively
wills, must positively will it too. She knew too well the
positive will of the Father, that He should suffer and die so
terribly. So she was called upon to will that He die, die then,
die so horribly - and that going counter to her love which was so
great that, as Pius IX wrote (<Ineffabilis Deus>), "none greater
under God can be thought of, and no one but God can comprehend
it." (Pius IX was speaking directly of her holiness, but holiness
and love of God are interchangeable terms). So Vatican II, twice
in LG #56 and again in 61 spoke of her as sharing the sacrifice
by <obedience> - the obedience we are speaking of. Of course,
obedience was the essential condition of the New Covenant, and
was the essential interior attitude of the Great Sacrifice and of
any sacrifice, without which it would have no value. So she
joined with Him in that which gave His sufferings all their
value. Of course, her whole ability to do that, and anything,
came entirely from Him. Yet is was real, painfully real, and
beyond our comprehension as Pius IX said.

       His appearance was so disfigured that he hardly looked like
a man - from the hideous scourging, skin torn everywhere and with
blood all over. Pilate brought Him out looking this way: :Behold
the man". But not even that horrid sight could appease the fury
of the priests and the mob.

He will sprinkle many nations - comment given above.

       Who has believed our message, what we report about Him? He
grew up like a tender shoot. He had no beauty of majesty. He was
despised and rejected. St. Margaret Mary reports that He told her
the rejection was worse than the physical pain.

       He took on our suffering, that which was due to our sins, to
rebalance the objective order. The Father did not really <punish>
Him - a hideous thought. Yet people thought or Him as stricken by
God. He was pierced for our transgressions, crushed for our sins.
All we (<kulanu>) had gone astray. But God laid upon Him the
iniquity of us all(<kulanu>). The punishment that brought us
well-being (<shalom>) was upon Him. We are healed by His wounds.

       He was oppressed, yet did not open his mouth, He was like a
lamb led to the slaughter. He was taken away, out of this life,
by this oppression and by a wicked judgment of His people before
Pilate. He was cut off from the land of the living, for the
transgression of my people.

       When he died they intended to give him a dishonorable
burial, a shallow burial where wild dogs might eat his body. But
God planned otherwise, had Him given a tomb by the rich Joseph of
Arimathea.

       It was the will of the Lord to crush him. The Lord made Him
a guilt offering, a sacrifice. We saw above in commenting on
Isaiah 29:13 that a sacrifice consists in two things: the outward
sign, and the interior disposition. The outward sign was his
physical suffering and death, which expressed His interior
disposition, obedience to the Father. (On the night before, He
had offered the same sacrifice, putting Himself under the
appearance of death, body and blood separated. The outward sign
then was that seeming separation, but the interior disposition
was the same). Already on entering into the world (Hebrews 10:7)
He had said: "Behold I come to do your will O God." He could do
this at the moment of conception only because, as the Church
teaches (Cf. Pius XII, <Mystici Corporis>, <Sempiternus Rex>,
<Haurietis aquas> and W. Most, <The Consciousness of Christ>) His
human soul at once saw the vision of God, in which all knowledge
is present. So He saw and accepted even then the painful
knowledge of all that was to come. During His life that bothered
Him greatly: Cf. Luke 12:50 and John 12:27 On the cross He still
had that attitude of obedience to the Father - we spoke of it
above as the condition of the new covenant, as the interior
disposition of His sacrifice.

       But now after this, the prophet speaks of His resurrection,
and says: "He will see his offspring, [that is, his spiritual
descendants, and He will prolong His days." So, there was a
resurrection. This is a remarkable line, for the doctrine of
resurrection was not much developed in the day of Isaiah. (We saw
a possibility of it at 14:9-22, which describes the king of
Babylon coming down to the underworld - but this may well be only
a literary fancy. Again 29:19 seems to speak of a resurrection,
but it could mean merely the resurrection of Israel, in its
restoration. Job 19:25 seems clearer, but is difficult to
interpret).

Verse 1l says much the same: After the sufferings of His soul He
will see the light of life, and be satisfied.

       Next, most versions say something like this: By his
knowledge. . . he will justify many." The word <knowledge> is the
heart of the problem.

It makes Isaiah sound like a Christian scientist. Every version
I have seen does use the word <knowledge>. What can we do with
it? The Hebrew is <be da'etho>. Unfortunately the standard
lexicons for that noun do not help here. But if we notice that
the noun <dath> is the same root as the verb <yada> we can get an
answer. That verb has a broad meaning, it is not narrow like
English <know> Rather, Zorell, <Lexicon Hebraicum et Aramaicum
Veteris Testamenti> lists among the meanings: <colit, amat>. He
gives examples: Jer 31. 34: "Know the Lord"; Hos 8, 2: "Israel
shall cry to me: My God, we know you"; Ps 36. 11: "continue your
love to those who know you." 87. 4: "I will remember Rahab and
Babylon among those acknowledging me."; Pr 3. 6: "In all your
ways acknowledge him"; Job 24. 1: "Why are not times set by the
Almighty and why do not those who know Him see His days?"; Dn 11.
32: "But a people who knows Him will be strong. "

       It is evident that in all of these we could use the
translation <love> or <obey>. This is especially suggested in the
lines from Ps 36. 11 and 87. 4 as well as in Pr 3. 6, Job 24. l
and Dn 11. 32.

       Now although there is a technical difference between <love>
and <obeying> God, in practice it all the same. In loving anyone
else we will good to the other for the other's sake. Of course we
cannot do that for God. So we turn to the analogical sense,
partly different but adjusted. Scripture pictures Him as pleased
when we obey, displeased when we do not. It is not that He gains
anything by our obedience - He cannot gain at all. But still He
wants it for two reasons: 1)He loves all that is good: but
objective goodness says creatures must obey their Creator,
children their Father; 2)He wants intensely to give us good: but
that is vain if we are not open to receive. His commandments tell
us how to be open, and at the same time, steer us away from the
evil that lurk in the very nature of things, e. g., a hangover
after a drunk, or a high danger of a loveless marriage after a
lot of premarital sex. Hence when we love God it really means we
obey Him. Incidentally, the Hittite vassal treaties commonly
required that the subject king "love" the great king. They meant
obey.

       Still more helpful is Hosea 6:6, so often mistranslated. It
should be: "For <hesed> is my pleasure and not sacrifice; and
knowledge [or love or obedience to] of God rather than burnt
offerings." The Hebrew parallelism is useful here as so often.
The first half says that God takes pleasure rather in observance
of the covenant, obedience, than in external offerings; the
second half says the same, so it must mean that to know or love
or obey God is more than burnt offerings. The thought is the same
as in Isaiah 23:19: "This people honors me with their lips, but
their hearts are far from me." That is, He does not desire the
externals of sacrifice, but the interior disposition, which is
obedience to Him.

       We conclude, instead of <knowledge> we should read
<obedience> to the Father, which gave the value to his sacrifice.
The NAB reads <suffering> instead of knowledge. That is an
improvement, but the direct meaning is not <suffering>, but
obedience, which led the Servant to accept suffering.

       But we notice also in verse 11, the word <many>. In Hebrew
it is <rabbim>. The same word occurs two more times, in verse 12.
It expresses the fact that His suffering was for <all>. We surely
must not say He died only for some. 52:15 about sprinkling surely
refers to all, for even gentile kings are sprinkled. The fact
that its does mean all is clear from the context, and especially
from 53:6: "All (<kulanu>) we had gone astray. . . . The Lord has
laid on Him the iniquity of us <all>. There the Hebrew has
<kulanu>, whose meaning is beyond all doubt. So by parallel, the
<rabbim> here means <all>. The solution lies in the odd use of
<rabbim>. If I were in a room with three people, I could say
<all>, but I could not say <many>. <Rabbim> means <the all who
are many>. Greek has no such word as <rabbim>. But a check of a
Greek concordance reveals that every time St. Paul uses Greek
<polloi>, which means <many>, he means <all>. There is no
exception. For example Romans 5:19 speaks of original sin coming
upon all. The word is <polloi>. Similarly in Mk 10:45 (=Mt 20:28)
Jesus said He was to give His life for <many [polloi]>. Of course
He did not die just for some. 1 Tim. 2:6 echoes Mk 10:25 and uses
Greek <panton>, which is of course <all>. For further data cf. G.
Kittel, <Theological Dictionary of the NT> s. v., <polloi>.

       Verse 12 concludes this song: So I will give Him a portion
among the <rabbim>, He will divide the spoils with the strong,
because He poured out His life, was counted among transgressors,
and bore the sin of <rabbim>.



The Eternal Covenant of Peace, Chapter 54. Summary and Comments

       A remarkable comparison: Sing O barren woman who never had a
child. More are the children of the desolate than of her who has
a husband. The meaning: Jerusalem has been briefly abandoned, but
now will have countless children. So they should enlarge their
tents - even though they no longer lived in tents -- to hold all
those who will come to Jerusalem.

       Do not be afraid, God says, you will forget the shame of
your youth. The Lord will call you back, as if you were a wife
deserted, who married young, only to be deserted. God speaks of
Himself as the husband of Israel. This theme is especially strong
in the book of Hosea. Really, He has not permanently abandoned
her. He will now call her back. He did abandon her briefly,
during the exile, but with deep compassion He will bring her
back. He hid his face only for a moment, but with everlasting
fidelity to the covenant He will have compassion on her. He has
sworn not to be angry with her again, an oath like He took to
Noah not to bring another deluge. What then, we must ask, of the
destruction of Jerusalem in 70? We reply: the prophet's vision
spans long periods of time, and much that he says applies fully
only to the really new covenant, that made by Christ. (We will
see a special instance of that in comments on chapter 55 below).

       So God says: O afflicted city, lashed by storms, I will
rebuild you splendidly with precious stones. All your sons will
be taught by the Lord. We think of Jeremiah 31. 31-33 where God
says much the same, which applies to the new covenant which
Jeremiah foretells, which is fulfilled in Christ. Your children
will have great peace (<shalom> --general well-being). Terror
will be far removed.


       Exhortation to Accept the Promised Blessings. Chapter 55.
Summary and Comments.

       Isaiah encourages them to take up what God promises and
return to their land. His fear was not in vain, for out of the 12
tribes, only 2 returned, Judah and Benjamin, and probably not
every one out of them either. For many had put down roots in
Babylon, had homes, and probably commercial interests too. To
return to a ruined city was not inviting.

       So God says: Those who are thirsty come to the waters, get
bread with no cost. Of course they had bread and water in
Babylon. This means accept all the good things God will give you.

       God adds: Come, I will make an everlasting covenant with
you, as I promised to David. I have made him a witness to the
peoples. The <he> seems to be David, who is dead. It really means
a future descendant of David, the Messiah. In 2 Samuel 7:12-17
God had promised David through Nathan: When your days are
fulfilled and you lie down with your ancestors, I will raise up
your offspring to rule. St. Augustine observes well (<City of
God> 17. 8) that this could not really mean Solomon, who began to
rule before, not after the death of David. Augustine points out
well, in <City of God> 17. 3, that some prophecies refer only to
OT persons and events, some to NT only, some to both. We get the
clue of this extension when we see something that seems at first
sight to refer to only OT things, but yet does not entirely fit,
as in the case of Solomon just mentioned.

The prophecy given through Nathan continued saying: If he is
wicked, I will punish him, but I will not take away the kingship
as I did with Saul, whose dynasty came to an end. Yet the line of
Davidic kings stopped with the great exile. Again, an indication
to look further to the One of whom the Archangel Gabriel said: He
will rule over the house of Jacob <forever>.

       Isaiah added: See I have made him a witness to the peoples.
That of course applies to the Messiah, only then would verse 5
come true: You will summon nations, and nations that do not know
you will hasten to you. Israelites did not really understand
this, they thought all gentiles were to become Jews. They did not
yet know what St. Paul revealed in Eph 3:6 that the gentiles are
called to be part of the people of God. On the problem of
prophecies like this, please see again comments on chapter 2
above.

       Therefore: Seek the Lord while He can be found. Let the
wicked forsake his wicked way and come to God.

       Now a most remarkable line in vv. 8-9: My thoughts are not
your thoughts: as far as the heavens are above the earth, so far
are my ways above your ways. -- Yes, we could not understand God,
for He is transcendent, above all our categories (on
transcendence, please see our comments on the first part of
chapter 6 above), So we could not know what to expect form Him,
if He would not tell us, which He did by the commandments and the
covenant. Still more, He gave us His only Son, incarnate, and so
having a human heart. We can understand a human heart. Further,
so no one might say: Yes, but the human heart is the heart of a
divine Person --He has added the Immaculate Heart of His Mother,
which is perfectly attuned to His heart. We can surely understand
her heart.

       To encourage confidence: Just as rain and snow come down
from the sky, and do not go back without accomplishing all that I
send them to do, so my word will accomplish what I say. Trust it,
go out in joy. The mountains and hills will burst into song
before you. This will be an everlasting sign that will not be
destroyed. In ancient times there was a common belief that a word
spoken by a person in authority, of its own power, could bring
things into being. So in an ancient Egyptian creation myth, the
god Atum stood on a mud hillock that emerged from the primeval
waters, and named the parts of his body. Thus the gods came into
being. Much later, in early medieval lives of Irish Saints, one
Saint had a quarrel with an Irish King. During it both said harsh
things to each other. They made peace, but yet the text adds:
Everything they said to each other came true.

       Various Prophecies for Restored Israel. Chapter 56. Summary
and Comments

       We are now at the start of what many call Third Isaiah. They
claim there are three Isaiahs. One for chapters 40-55 looking
forward to exile; a second for chapters 40-55, in exile; third,
chapters 56-66 for restored Israel. We have not found any
convincing proof that there are three Isaiahs. Really the
patterns described here are simply the so-called Deuteromomic
pattern: sin and threat, punishment, repentance and restoration.
Without knowing anything of the future Isaiah could have written
all three except for the detail about Cyrus. Those who reject
everything supernatural of course have to reject that. But we do
not have to.
***
       This new block of chapters has puzzled many commentators.
For in the last block before this we saw the most glowing
promises about the restoration. Now it looks a bit different. We
have to remember the very strong Semitic hyperbole, of which we
have spoken many times. We recall the apocalyptic language he
used for the fall of Babylon, of Edom, and of Egypt, which sounds
just like the last signs in nature of Matthew 24.

       No, we must face the realities, as those who returned did.
Their city had been ruined, they needed to rebuild it. The same
for the temple. If we read the little Book of Haggai, only two
chapters, we see they were sluggish in rebuilding it, and
finally, in 520 (they returned in 539) God had to send them a
strong message through Haggai. In the fist chapter He said: Look
at the things you are doing, you are sowing much, reaping little,
putting on clothes, but you do not get warm, etc. The message: No
wonder things are not prosperous, you are not doing what you
should do: rebuild the temple. They had had trouble and
interference form neighboring people, which was finally resolved.
So they did go ahead to rebuild. Haggai said the glory of this
new house will be greater than that of the old. But that clearly
did not match the reality:" The glory was to come when Christ
entered the temple.

Haggai spoke of the coming of Christ in 2:6-7, if we adopt St.
Jerome's translation: Just a little while and I will move heaven
and earth, and the one desired by the nations will come in."
(There has been a doubt because the Hebrew word <hemdat> which we
translated as the desired one, is singular in ending, while the
verb is plural. But such shifts are not unknown else where in the
Old Testament). Jerome was following the tradition of the rabbis
with whom he associated). We noticed Haggai spoke in 520, yet
said "a little while" on the Lord's time scale, from 520 to the
birth of Christ is really only a little time. One day is like
1000 years, and 1000 years like one day.

       The books of Ezra and Nehemiah show conditions after the
return were not ideal. There were religious faults, severe ones.
The old administration needed to be rebuilt, for the line of
Davidic kings had not survived the exile - though even after it
they always had some kind of leader from the tribe of Judah - as
Gen 49:10 foretold - until the time of the Messiah.

During the exile, the only religious thing they could still hold
on to, lacking a temple, was the observance of the
Sabbath.

       Encouragement for those who keep the Law. 56:1-8. Summary
and Comments

       God tells them: Do what is right, for my salvation is close
at hand. Salvation of course here means temporal benefits. So the
foreigners who have bound themselves to the Lord by becoming
proselytes, or nearly that, we should not think God would exclude
them. No, He accepts them. Similarly eunuchs - formerly, as in
Dt. 23:1 eunuchs were not allowed to be in the Lord's community -
- should not say they are only a dry tree (no possible
offspring), nor think God would reject them. No, He now is
willing to accept even them. Also, many probably had been made
eunuchs during the exile, while in the Babylonian royal court.
Such courts had a use for them, for obvious reasons. So now God
will let them in and if they keep the Sabbath, they can come to
the temple, and their name will be continued, in that sense they
will have a memorial in the temple.

Some think the lines about eunuchs were not to be taken at face
value right after the return: that they referred to a later time,
when Jesus would say (Mt 19:12) that some have made themselves
eunuchs for the sake of His kingdom, or even the final
eschatological time.

       Sinful leaders and people. 56-9 - 57:21. Summary and
Comments

       But not all really did keep God's law. So now Isaiah says
that Israel's watchmen, the leaders, are blind, like dogs that ar
mute and so do not warn of coming danger. Or they are like
faithless shepherds, who just want to drink beer and wine.

       As a result, the righteous are oppressed, and no one wonders
about it. The righteous are taken away by death, to be spared
from such evils. So those who live uprightly do enter into peace,
at least with their deaths. This is remarkable if we interpret it
as we have just done: it refers to future retribution in the next
life, a concept that in general is not thought to have been known
in the time of Isaiah or even the so-called third Isaiah.

       So God calls the people sons of a sorceress, who mock Him,
who burn with lust among the oak groves sacred to
Baal (pagan rituals might involve ritual sex), who even sacrifice
their children to the idol Moloch. 2 Kings 21:6 tells that King
Achab immolated His son by fire (cf. Micah 6:7).

       Instead of the Lord as their portion, they have chosen
idols, and poured out drink offerings and brought grain offering
to the idols. They have made their bed on a high hill- may refer
to the high places of Canaanite idolatry.

       They have put pagan symbols on their doorposts - instead of
the text that God had ordered in Dt. 6:9 (which at least later
became the Mezuza).

       They went to their idol Molech (the word is another spelling
of <melech>, king, a Canaanite deity). To him they brought
offerings of olive oil and perfumes. They sent ambassadors far
off. Does this mean embassies like those they formerly sent to
Egypt? Possibly, more likely it meant embassies to the
netherworld, by sacrificing to idols.

       So He asks:Who did you fear and reverence so much that you
have been false to me, your real God? (We do know that fear was
one of the motives of the old idolatry: cf. Judges 6:10). So God
will expose their "righteousness" an ironic use of the word.
Properly it mean doing what God ordered; here it is use to mean
what the pagan gods ordered. But when they cry for help, these
idols will not save them.

       Ezekiel in chapter 8 (dated in 592 when he was already in
exile, between the first and second invasions of Nebuchadnezzar)
saw in a vision, the abominations being done even in the temple.
He saw images all over the walls, of animals, even creeping
things, which 70 of the Elders were worshipping even in
God's temple. He saw about 25 men with their backs to the temple,
facing east and bowing down to the sun.

       In contrast, the man who makes God his refuge will inherit
the land and possess Mount Zion. A voice will be heard: Make
straight the way on which the Lord will lead His people. God
lives on high, but also with those who are lowly in spirit. God
will not always be angry, if they repent. God was angry because
of their sinful greed, and so punished them. But now He wants to
heal them. and restore comfort to them. In contrast, the wicked
are like the tossing sea, which cannot rest. There is no peace
for them.

       True Fasting and True religion. Chapter 58. Summary and Comments

       God speaks:Shout out to the people that they are rebellious.
They seek God, and expect Him to hear. They want to know
precisely the <external> things required: cf. Zech 7. Cf. also
the distressing nit-picking they went in for in regard to
Levitical Purity, as explained in J. Neusner, <Invitation to the
Talmud> (Harper & Row, 1984, esp pp. 53-62) On p. 53 Neusner, a
great Jew, calls such things "monumental nonsense." For example,
on pp. 75-76 he tells of the debate between the Houses of Hillel
and Shammai -- the chief schools at the time of Christ - over
washing hands. Shammai said they wash hands before mixing the
cup: the liquid on the outer surface of the cup might be made
unclean on account of the hands, and then in turn that would make
the cup unclean. But Hillel said that the outer surfaces of the
cup are always considered unclean. Neusner explains that hands
are presumed to be unclean, but they are only in "the second
remove of uncleanness." So they would make the Heave-offering
unclean but could not make vessels unclean. But they do make
liquids unclean, and the liquids' uncleanness is in "the first
remove." So liquids will make the cup unclean.

       But now comes the real explanation why God does not hear
them: On the very day on which they fast they commit uncharitable
and unjust acts against workers and the poor. Their fasting ends
in quarrels - excessive physical stress can weaken one, and make
him quarrelsome.

       Instead, God wants the corporal works of mercy. They should
rend their hearts, not their garments: Cf. Joel 2:13. If they do
this, then their light and their healing will come quickly. When
the call, God will answer quickly. They will have the name of
those who rebuild ancient walls -- apparently after the ruin of
the destruction of Jerusalem in 596 and 586 BC.

       They must also keep the Sabbath and instead of considering
it a burden - cf. Amos 8:5, where the wicked are eager to see the
end of the Sabbath so they can sell their grain, and use false
measures.

       Then they will find their joy in the Lord. They will ride
triumphant over the heights of the land: cf. Dt. 21-13.

       No redemption without conversion. Chapter 59. Summary and
Comments

       This chapter seems to refer again to the period after the
exile. He says that the arm of the Lord is not unable to save
them, but their iniquities have separated them from Him and have
caused His face to be hidden from them. For their hands are
stained with blood, their lips have spoken lies, probably
including false accusations in court. There they use "empty
arguments." It sounds like ancient Greece where in court invalid
arguments often carried the day.

       So the prophet says they are like those who hatch eggs of a
viper. Whoever eats such eggs will die. When an egg is broken, an
adder comes out. They spin spider's webs, useless for clothing.
Their thoughts aim at evil, they turn into crooked paths.
Interestingly, in Romans 3:15-17 St. Paul cites verses 7 and 8a
as part of a sad litany of how low people have sunk. But
commentators need to notice that Paul is not only using Semitic
exaggeration, but also is making what can be called a focused
picture, i.e., one in which the law is seen as making heavy
demands, giving no help, and so everyone falls. We called it
focused since the view is limited, as if one looked through a
tube, and saw only what was framed by the circle of the tube.
Yet, off to the side, outside the circle, was divine help even
before Christ: if one used it, the result was the opposite (On
focusing cf. Wm. Most <The Thought of St. Paul> esp. p. 186.

So the people say that justice is far from them. They look for
light, but all is dark. They stumble and grope like the blind
feeling their way along a wall. They look for God's just
intervention (<mishpat>) but find none, and for deliverance
(<yoshua>) in vain. For their offenses are many in the sight of
God, and their sins are witnesses against them.

       The next lines (15b to 18) are remarkable for the way words
are used: "The Lord saw, and it was evil in His eyes, that there
was no carrying out of right judgment (<mishpat> by His people),
and He saw that there was no man [to help] and wondered that
there was no one to intervene [on behalf of <sedaqah>]. So His
own arm causes salvation for Him [<tosh'a lo>] and His moral
rightness [<sedaqah>] it sustained Him. And He put on moral
rightness [<sedaqah>] as a breastplate, and salvation [<yeshua>]
as a helmet on His head. He clothed Himself with garments of
executive vindication [<naqam>]. . . . According to deeds,
accordingly He will repay. "

       It is remarkable that in these lines we find three words -
<sedaqah> -- <yeshua> (usually meaning <salvation>) - and <naqam>
- which can turn in two directions, i.e., can mean favorable or
unfavorable action by God. This is because the framework is the
covenant. In Dt 11; 26 Moses told the people he was putting
before them a blessing or a curse, according to whether they did
or did not carry out the covenant. (Is 63:5 has a similar picture
with similar wording. On this cf the appendix to Wm. Most <The
Thought of St. Paul>).

       When God makes things right (<naqam- executive action to
correct things>) then people from East and West will fear the
name of the Lord. Judgment will burst in like a flood that has
been pent up. The Redeemer will come from Zion for those who
repent. St. Paul in Romans 11:26 uses this line about the
Redeemer from Zion to refer to the coming conversion of the Jews.

       Redemption of Zion. Chapter 60, Summary and Comments

       This is the theme of chapters 60-62.

       Isaiah opens: Arise, shine, for your light has come .
Darkness covers the earth, but the Lord rises upon you. --The
words about the darkness recall 9:1-2, which say that a light has
come to the people who walked in darkness, they have seen the
great light - the Messiah.

       So even the gentiles will come to your light. Here we need
to recall our comments on chapter 2 above. Most Jews took this
and similar texts to mean gentiles would all become Jews. The
fulfillment was that all would be called to the kingdom of the
Messiah.

       So the prophet says: Lift up your eyes, and look. Your sons
and daughters come from afar. The real fulfillment was that of
the nations coming to join the kingdom of the Messiah.

       Isaiah 60:5 says that the nations will bring their treasures
to Zion. This is like Haggai 2. 6-9: "Yet one moment [this as
said in 520 BC!], and I will shake heaven and earth, and the
treasures of all nations will come in, and I will fill this house
with glory, says the Lord of Hosts. . . . the glory of this later
house will be greater than that of the first, says the Lord of
Hosts." -- We have followed in the above the more usual way of
translating verse 7, by saying "the treasures." St. Jerome
rendered: "the one desired" by the nations will come in. The
problem is in the fact that the Hebrew <hemdat>, which can mean
the desired is singular in form, yet the verb is plural. So
translators feel authorized to change <hemdat> from the <desired
one> to the <desired things>, wealth. But St. Jerome was
following the interpretation of the rabbis. And clearly the
prophecy is messianic, even if we treat <hemdat> as plural. For
then we will have the same sense as 60:5. Further, Haggai said
the glory of the new temple would be greater than that of the
old. Physically that did not come true - but the glory was
greater when Christ, the Messiah, came into it. Then really the
house was filled with glory, even though the Jews did not
recognize it.

       So we have here as many times in Isaiah, a prophecy that
seemed to refer to the restoration after the Exile, and did in
part mean that, but the complete fulfillment was to come with
Christ.

       Next he says that herds of camels will come, all from Sheba
will come with gold and incense. The liturgy for the feast of the
Epiphany makes beautiful use of this verse, and of some of the
preceding verses. He says the flocks of Kedar, probably standing
for all Arabian tribes, and Nebaioth, a Midianite tribe, and
Sheba in SW Arabia will come to Jerusalem and bring sheep to
offer in the temple.

       Then Isaiah in his vision looks to the sea, and exclaims:
Who are these that fly along the clouds, like doves to their
nests? The far away nations are coming, and the ships of Tarshish
trading ships from the remote part of the Mediterranean.

       Foreigners, he says, will rebuild your walls and kings will
serve you. There was a partial fulfillment of this in the work of
Cyrus, who in 44:28 is foretold as saying: Let Jerusalem be
rebuilt, let the foundations of the temple be laid: cf. 2 Chron
36:22-23.

       So the glory of Lebanon, the precious wood, will come to
adorn the sanctuary. Even more, instead of bronze they will get
gold for the temple, and silver in place of iron.

       Then Isaiah becomes more fully eschatological in saying that
the sun will no longer be their light by day or the moon at
night: the Lord Himself will be their everlasting light: cf.
Apoc/Revel 21. 23.

       Then the people will be righteous, and possess the land
forever - that is, unless they become unfaithful. Cf. the
warnings in 1 Kings 9. 1-9 and Jer 22. 4-9.

       Because they did not know the day of their visitation, Jesus
wept over Jerusalem, in Luke 19. 41-44.

       Messenger of Good News. Chapter 61, Summary and Comments

       The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. - Who is it? A partial
fulfillment may have been in the prophet himself. But the great
fulfillment came when Jesus Himself said it was fulfilled in Him,
in Luke 4. 16-19. He was anointed by the Holy Spirit. He was to
aid those who were oppressed. This is much like the work of the
Servant of the Lord in 42. 3 and 50. 4.

       He is to proclaim a year of the Lord's favor, but also a day
of setting things right -- the word here is <naqam> which means
action by the one in charge of the community to put things right.
It is often translated vengeance, but improperly, for vengeance
is immoral. Rather, it is rectifying the objective moral order.

       There is an allusion here to the Year of Jubilee, every 50th
year, when those who had defaulted on debts and been sold into
slavery had to be set free: Lev 25. 39ff. It as also called the
Year of freedom: Ezek 46. 17. Then there would be a beautiful
crown, a fine turban, for all who grieved in Zion, instead of
ashes, put on the bare head in sign of mourning. They will be
called oaks of righteousness, planted by the Lord.

       They will rebuild ancient ruins, most likely those left from
the Babylonian invasion of 596 and 586. But now outsiders will
shepherd their flocks for them, for the people of Israel will be
called priests of the Lord: cf. Exodus 19. 6. They will feed on
the wealth that the nations will bring - cf. 60. 6ff above.

       In his faithfulness the Lord will reward them with a double
portion, and make an everlasting covenant with them, to
compensate them for all the suffering of the exile.

       So he - Isaiah or the Messiah - says: I delight greatly in
the Lord, He has clothed me with garments of salvation. - These
lines are given as optional readings for the common of Masses of
the Blessed Virgin, there to be understood as referring to her.
This is not mere accommodation, for because of her close union
with Him in all His mysteries (as chapter 8 of <Lumen gentium>,
brings out) what is said of Him, applies in a way to her also. As
Pius XII said, in <Munificentissimus Deus> she is "always sharing
His lot. "

       As the soil makes plants sprout and come up, so the
almighty Lord will make righteousness and praise spring up before
all nations.

       Persistent Prophet. Chapter 62. Summary and Comments

       Isaiah himself speaks, it seems: For the sake of Zion I will
not be silent, I will call out until her righteousness and
salvation shine like the dawn. Righteousness and salvation here
are - <sedaqah> and <jeshua>. In context, they mean here, well-
being. Nations and kings will see this. You will have a new name-
recall that in Hebrew thought the name was often almost
equivalent to the person. So to give a new name is to change the
character. They will no longer call your land Deserted and
Desolate. Rather, you will be called <Hepzibah> ("My delight is
in her") and <Beulah> ("married"). The sense is that Israel is
the bride of God (Cf. the marriage imagery in Hosea). He now
takes her back. Her will delight in you as a young man delights
in his bride.

       So watchmen are posted on the walls to call on the name of
the Lord without rest until He establishes Jerusalem again. He
has sworn He will not again give your grain to an enemy. Rather,
you who harvest it will eat it, and then praise the Lord.

       So he exclaims: Pass through the gates, prepare the way for
the people to return. Say to the Daughter of Zion (that is Zion):
See, your Savior comes, and His reward is with him. They will be
called a Holy People, and the city will be Sought-after
(<derushah>), and No-Longer-deserted.


Day of retribution. 63:1-6. Summary and Comments

       Isaiah asks; Who is this coming from Edom, from Bozrah with
garments stained red. Bozrah was the capital of Edom, often used
to stand for nations opposed to the Lord - especially since Edom
had refused Israel passage on its return from Egypt, and had
taken advantage of the weakness of Judah when the Babylonians
took Jerusalem. Edom seems to have been understood to mean <red:
Genesis 25. 30. The figure coming however in spite of the blood
is robed in splendor. He replies, in righteousness (<sedaqah>),
mighty to save.

       He is asked why his garments are red. He replies that He has
trodden the winepress alone, no one from the nations helped. Here
treading the winepress stands for executing the wrath of God
(Apoc/Rev. 19. 15). He says that the day of naqam was in his
heart. <Naqam> sands for executive action of the authority to set
things right, whether favorable or unfavorable effect is
required. It does not really mean <vengeance>, as versions
commonly put it, for that word stands for immoral hate. Hence
here he adds: the year of redemption has come. <Naqam> means
benefit to God's friends, punishment for His enemies.

       Then he said:I looked, and there was no one to help - the
very wording is much the same as that which we saw above in 59.
15. God in His wrath made them drunk, on the wine of His wrath.

       Prayer and Lament. 63. 7 - 64. 12. Summary and Comments

       The prophet says; I will tell of the kindnesses of the Lord-
- really, the plural of <hesed>, the ways in which He observes
what He has pledged in the covenant, according to His compassion
(<rahamah>) and many kindnesses (<hesed again>). In all their
distress, He was so compassionate that even He was distressed
seeing their suffering. So an angel of His presence saved them
and carried them as in days of old. Some think the angel of His
presence is the Second Person of the Holy Trinity. But this is
unclear, though we grant that in Malachi 3. 1 the messenger of
the Covenant is probably the Lord Himself. He <carried them>,
recalls Exodus 19. 4, in which He said He carried them in leaving
Egypt as on eagle's wings.

       In spite of this they rebelled and grieved His Holy Spirit.
Does this mean the Third Person of the Holy Trinity? Not
impossible, but less likely so early as this in history. As a
result of this rebellion, instead of helping them, He actually
fought against them.

       Then the people recalled the days of Moses when He brought
them out of Egypt and through the sea.

       So Isaiah begs: Look down from heaven and see. Where are
your zeal (<qinah> intense love, like that of a jealous lover)
and your might? Your compassion is withheld from us.

       But you, Lord, are our Father. Even if Abraham did not know
us, or Jacob did not acknowledge us: you are our Father, our
Redeemer from of old is your name. Redeemer is <goel>, that next
of kin who had the right and duty to rescue his kinsmen in great
distress. In the covenant, as the blood sprinkling suggested, God
pledged to act as though their kinsman and <goel>.

       Therefore: Why, O Lord, do you cause us to wander from your
ways and harden our hearts? This is a common Hebrew way of
speaking, which attributes to direct action of God that which He
really only permits. Cf. Amos 3. 6: "Is there an evil in the city
which the Lord has not caused"? Or 1 Samuel 4. 3.

               So he pleads: Return for your servants, for your
inheritance. We are yours from of old.

       Now the prophet exclaims: O, I wish you would break open the
heavens and come down, while the mountains would tremble before
you. Since ancient times no one has heard nor has any ear
perceived, no eye has seen any God but you who acts on behalf of
those who wait for Him. -- St. Paul modified this considerably in
1 Cor 2. 9 to make it read: "Eye has not seen nor has ear heard,
nor has it entered into the heart of man, what things God has
prepared for those who love Him." Paul is not quoting Isaiah
closely at all. Some early writers -- Origen, Ambrosiaster and
St. Jerome, thought he was quoting from <The Apocalypse of
Elijah>. But this text is not found in any copy we possess of
that intertestamental writing. Most likely Paul was acting much
as the rabbis often did: he is free in his use of Scripture, and
does not normally take into account the original setting of the
words. (Similarly today, the line is often used to speak of
Heaven: Neither Paul nor Isaiah had that in mind).

       So he goes on saying: All of us have become like one who is
unclean. Everything we have done to be righteous is like the rags
of a menstruating woman. Some Protestants here have tried to use
these words to say we are so totally corrupt that all our best
works are evil. They forget several things: 1)64. 7 says: "There
is no one who calls on your name." But Isaiah and his followers
did. 2)40. 2 said that Israel "has received double for all her
sins." But that would be unjust. So we see strong, and common
Semitic exaggeration here. We compare 13:9-10 on the fall of
Babylon, and 34. 4 on the fall of Edom, and Ezek 7-8 on the
punishment of Egypt - all three use language much in line with
Matthew 24. 29 in which the sun is darkened, and the moon does
not give its light, and the stars fall from the sky. In the
seeming face value of these texts nothing like it happened in
reality: more Semitic exaggeration.

Furthermore, Luther did not really say what these objectors
think. In what he considered his major work, <The Bondage of the
Will> (Tr. J. J. Packer, and O. R. Johnston, Revell Co., Old
Tappan NJ, 1957) Luther said on p. 273 that we have no free will.
On pp. 103-04 he said man's will is like a beast. If God rides,
it does good. If satan rides, it does evil. A man has nothing to
say about which rider gets on. So he goes to heaven or hell
without any control over it. And God damns most people: p. 101.
So on p. 314 he said that in this God is "damning the
undeserving". Few Lutherans or other Protestants know what Luther
really held!

       Then, in a more consoling tone he says that the Lord is
their Father (cf. 63. 16), ?We are the clay, and He is the
potter. Of course Isaiah does not mean, like Luther, that we have
no free will. He means that God can guide us and affect our
actions in many ways without violating our free will. Cf. our
comments on chapter 10. 5 above. St. Paul used the comparison of
a potter i in Romans 9. 20-25 to teach that God gives or omits to
give full membership in the People of God as He wills,
independently of human merit. Cf. comments on those verses in Wm.
Most, <The Thought of St. Paul>.

       Isaiah continues pleading: Your sacred cities have become a
desert, our glorious temple has been burned. O Lord will you hold
back? Will you punish us beyond measure?

       Contrast of the Obstinate and the Lord's Servants. Chapter
65. Summary and Comments

       God says: "I revealed myself to those who did not call on
me. I was found by those who did not seek me. To a nation that
did not call on me, I said: Here I am."

       St. Paul in Romans 10. 20 uses this verse to mean God has
called the gentiles. And as Ephesians 3. 6 tells us, God did call
the gentiles to be part of His people. Paul adds in 10. 21: "to
Israel He says: All day I stretched out my hands to a people that
did not believe, but contradicted." Yes. Jesus did stretch out
His hands to Israel all day, but on the whole, they contradicted,
rejected, and nailed those hands to the cross.

       In Romans 3. 29 St. Paul asks: "Is He the God of the Jews
only? No, He is also God of the gentiles." He means that if God
had made eternal salvation depend on keeping the Mosaic law, He
would act as if He did not care for any people but the Jews. Then
He would not be the God of the others. But God has actually made
provision for the others, by means of justification by faith.
Faith in St. Paul's sense includes: 1)believe what God says;
2)Have confidence; 3) obey:cf. Romans 1:5, "the obedience of
faith", i. e, the obedience that faith is.

        So Paul in Romans 4 explains that Abraham was justified,
not by the law, but by faith. This is evident. 1)Abraham believed
God; 2) Had confidence in His word; 3)he obeyed, so as to believe
in the coming birth of Isaac, and to be willing to sacrifice
Isaac.

       We can see how the gentiles, as Isaiah predicts here, could
be justified by faith.

St. Justin Martyr, c. 145 A. D. in <Apology> 1. 46, said that in
the past some who were thought to be atheists, such as Socrates
and Heraclitus, were really Christians, for they followed the
Divine Logos, the Divine Word. Thus Socrates 1)believed what the
Spirit of Christ wrote on his heart (Rom 2:15 citing Jer 31. 33)
' 2) He had confidence in it; 3) He obeyed what the Spirit of
Christ wrote on his heart. Hence Socrates fulfilled the Pauline
definition of faith, and could be called Christian, for He
followed the Spirit of Christ, even though He did not know it was
the Spirit of Christ that wrote this on his heart.

Further Socrates in following that Spirit of Christ was
accepting and following the Spirit of Christ. Now in Romans 8:9
we learn that if one does have and follow the Spirit of Christ,
he <belongs to> Christ. So Socrates did belong to Christ. But
then, in Paul's terms: to belong to Christ means to be a member
of Christ, which in turn means to be a member of the Church. So
Socrates had a substantial, even though not formal, membership in
the Church. (Not formal, since there was no visible adherence).

In accord with this, in <Lumen gentium> 8. Vatican II said that
the Church "subsists" in the Catholic Church. For persons like
Socrates could be substantially members, by following what the
Spirit wrote on their hearts.

Socrates followed a pagan religion. That religion was not a
component part of the Church. Yet Socrates personally was a
member. The same is true of those who follow a Protestant
religion. That Protestant church is not a component part of the
Catholic Church, yet its adherents can be members of the Catholic
Church, as Socrates was.

So one reason we can call the Church a <mystery> with LG 3 is
that there is more to it than what meets the eye, it can include
those who are in this way substantial members.

       In saying there can be members without visible adherence, we
are not contradicting the documents of the Church, but adding to
them:

a)_Pius IX, in <Quanto conficiamur moerore> of August 10, 1863
said "God. . . in His supreme goodness and clemency, by no means
allows anyone to be punished with eternal punishments who does
not have the guilt of voluntary fault." But some who do not
visibly adhere meet this description. Pius IX in the very next
sentence repeats the necessity of the Church for salvation, so
those who meet thee requirement must in some way be members of
the Church.

b)On August 9, 1949, the Holy Office, by order of Pius XII,
condemned the interpretation given by L. Feeney of "no salvation
outside the Church" and said, citing the same Pope's Mystical
Body Encyclical: "It is not always required that one be actually
incorporated, but this at least is required that one adhere to it
in wish and desire" which can be "a desire of which he is not
aware" contained in the good dispositions mentioned.

c)Vatican II in LG #16 explicitly said the same: "Those who
without their own fault do not know of the Gospel of Christ and
His Church, but yet seek God with sincere heart, and try, under
the influence of grace, to carry out His will in practice, known
to them through the dictate of conscience, can attain eternal
salvation." To attain that, one needs to be in some way a member
of the Church. Socrates was, so are many others, even without
visible adherence.

d)John Paul II, in <Redemptoris missio>, 10 affirms the same
thing: "The universality of salvation means that it is granted
not only to those who explicitly believe in Christ and have
entered the Church. . . . For such people [those who do not know
of the Church] salvation in Christ is accessible by virtue of a
grace which, while having a mysterious relationship to the
Church, does not make them formally part of the Church. . . ." We
are proposing to fill-in on that "mysterious relationship", and
agree that those we have described are not 'formally" part of the
Church, since they do not explicitly and externally adhere, but
yet in some sense are members, for they could not otherwise be
saved.

       In contrast, the prophet complains of those who are
unfaithful to God, who offer sacrifice in gardens, and keep vigil
at night (probably for necromancy) and eat the flesh of pigs, and
even say they are thereby made holy and sacred: "Keep away from
me. I am holy." We think again of What Ezekiel saw in his vision
in his chapter 8.

       So God says: Such people are like smoke in my nostrils, a
fire that keeps on burning. So I will not be silent, but will
repay them with full payment for their deeds.

       Then the prophet thinks of the others, the remnant who are
faithful: Just as when a cluster of grapes still has some juice
in it, and so we do not destroy it, so God will not destroy all,
but will save the remnant. He will bring forth descendants from
Jacob and Judah. From the plain of Sharon (In the west by the
sea) to the Valley of Achor (in the east by Jericho) will be
pasture for their flocks.

       But the others, the unfaithful, who spread a table for
Fortune and mix bowls of wine for Destiny -- He will "destine"
them for the sword. He called (as in verse 1 above) but they did
not hear. Yet His servants will eat and not go hungry. They will
sing, and He will give them a new name (cf. Apoc/Rev. 2. 17) - a
new name stands or a new role). They will be so blessed that
people invoking a blessing will say: "May you be blessed like
these. "

       Behold, I am creating a new heaven and a new earth(cf. 2
Peter 3. 13 and Apoc. /Rev. 21. 1). The former things will be
forgotten. I will make Jerusalem a delight, its people a joy. The
sound of weeping will no longer he heard there. There will be in
it no infant who lives only a few days. If a man dies at age 100
he will be thought to be cursed, for not living out his lifespan.
I will answer them even before they call. The wolf and the lamb
will feed together, and the lion will eat straw, while the
serpent eats dust. -- A recollection of the idyllic image given
above in 11:6-9 and of the serpent in Genesis 3. 14 condemned to
eat dust.

       The end of all things. | Chapter 66. Summary and Comments

       God points out that the heaven is His throne, so nothing on
earth can contain Him, even if He wills to dwell in the old
temple -- unless and until the people are unfaithful, after which
it was to be destroyed, as indeed it was. Cf. again, mentioned
above, 1 Kings 9. 1-19 and Jer 17. 27. So an external temple is
not enough: God wants the interior, as in the those who are
humble in heart: cf. again God's complaint against empty
sacrifices in 1. 11-31; 29:13.

       A strange saying: He who sacrifices a bull is like one who
kills a man, and he who offers a lamb is like on who breaks a
dog's neck, or he who makes a grain offering is like one who
presents a pig's blood. There are two possibilities for these
sayings. They are against 1) Those who have only the exterior of
sacrifice, but not in the interior; 2) against those who offer
sacrifices but also kill. The first in context seems to be the
right sense.

       God then says: Those who have chosen their own ways will
receive harsh treatment from God. He called, but no one answered.
They did evil in His sight.

       Therefore: Hear what the Lord says, and tremble at His word.
God mocks those who ridicule the faithful Jews because they honor
the name of the Lord, and even say in mockery: "Let the Lord be
glorified, so we may see the joy you promise will come from Him!

       So the prophet tells them to listen. There is a noise from
the temple, it is the Lord repaying His enemies. But for His
friends. It will be as if a woman gives birth without any labor,
so will Zion bring forth so many children without labor.

       Therefore: Rejoice in Jerusalem and be glad for her. You
will nurse at her breasts. God will extend well-being (<shalom>)
to them like a flooding stream or river. He will be as kind as
mother comforting her child.

       Then the faithful will flourish like grass. But those who
seem to flourish without God will be burned down by the Lord.

       Such wicked persons go into the garden and do what they call
"purifying' themselves to worship false gods, and they follow a
leader who even eats the flesh of pigs and rats and does other
abominable things.

       So because of this, God is going to come to gather all
nations for judgment. He will show their punishment to all, this
will be a sign of God's justice. Some of the survivors, the
faithful remnant, will go far, to Tarshish, to Libya, and Lydia
that have not heard of the Lord and they will proclaim His glory
among the nations. They will bring other to the holy mountain in
Jerusalem, and bring them to the temple. The image again is like
that of chapter 2, in which God brings the nations to Jerusalem.
Please recall our comments there.

       To close the entire book: There will be new heavens and a
new earth, which will last. So too will the descendants of those
faithful to Him last - this includes those brought to Jerusalem,
which will include gentiles. Isaiah seems to say they will
worship according to Jewish rituals, from one New Moon to
another, from one Sabbath to another. But here he is using almost
material images to stand for a future which he does not clearly
see. This is much like the vision of Ezekiel 40-48 of a new
temple, which at first sight sounds like a restored Judaism with
animal sacrifices. Actually, just as many older things, such as
the Sinai covenant, promised in the first place material
blessings, which were later understood to really stand for
spiritual things, so it will be in the actual future.

       Then those who received final salvation, in heaven, will
look upon the dead bodies of those who rebelled against God. Not
in vengeance, which would be willing evil to another so it might
be evil to them (or delighting to see it). No, the sense is
rebalancing of the objective order. The sense of Hebrew <naqam>,
as we saw it above.

       Then God will even chose some to be priests and Levites - it
seems He will chose priests for Himself even from the gentiles.
Of course, this has happened in the new covenant made by the
Messiah.

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