Isaías 25
Jerome · Comentário Patrístico (catena)
Isaías 25:1-5
(Chapter 25 — Verse 1 and following) O Lord, you are my God; I will exalt you and praise your name, for you have done marvelous things, faithful and true are your ancient thoughts. Amen. For you have made a city into a heap, a fortified city into ruins, a palace of foreigners, so that it is no longer a city and will never be rebuilt. On this the strong people will praise you, the city of the mighty nations will fear you. For you have been a stronghold for the poor, a stronghold for the needy in their distress, a refuge from the storm, a shade from the heat. The breath of the strong is like a whirlwind driving against a wall. Just as the tide quells the thirst, you will humble the uproar of strangers; and like heat under a torrential cloud, you will cause the offspring of the strong to wither. LXX: O Lord my God, I will glorify you; I will praise your name, for you have done wondrous things, an ancient true counsel, let it be done. For you have laid cities in ruin; strong cities, so that their foundations may fall. The cities of the wicked will not be built forever. Therefore, the people of the poor will bless you, and the cities of those who sustain injustice will bless you. For you have been a helper to every humble city and a protection to the sorrowful due to their poverty. You will free them from the worst men: a shade for the thirsty, and the spirit of men who endure injustice as weak and thirsty men in Zion from wicked men, whom you have delivered us to. There are two possible interpretations of this place. The Jews believe the voice of the saints to be that of the believing people: when God has done what was said against the whole world, and the prophecies of all the prophets have been fulfilled; and they interpret the city that has been overthrown as Rome, which should be completely destroyed, and they refer the strong people who praise the Lord and for whom the Lord has become their strength in their tribulation and distress to Israel, who has been freed from the persecution of the nations as if from the most intense heat and thirst. But others understand that it is said more truthfully and rightfully in the person of the prophet, giving thanks to the Father for the suffering of the Lord and Savior, because he did wonders and fulfilled ancient thoughts with truth, when they stand at the right hand and hear: Come, you blessed of my Father, take possession of the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world (Matt. XXV, 34). And Paul also, understanding, was speaking: Just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless (Ephes. I, 4). And desiring to become what he prophesied, he adds the word in Hebrew Amen, for which the Septuagint translated it as 'let it be so.' And the Lord often uses this word in the Gospel: Amen, amen, that is, truly, truly I say to you (John VI, 54). But why does he praise and confess the name of the Lord, and what are these wonders, and the ancient thoughts that he has truly demonstrated in his works, follows: For you have made the city a heap, the fortified city a ruin, the house of strangers, so that it is no longer a city and will not be built forever. The once strong city of Jerusalem is understood, which has become a house of strangers; concerning them, the Savior says in the psalm: The sons of strangers have lied to me, the sons of strangers have grown old and have stumbled in their paths (Ps. XVII, 46). When this city has been destroyed, it will never be rebuilt, so that the kingdom of a thousand years and the golden Jerusalem and the jewel-adorned dreams may rest. But the people of the strong will praise the Lord, when Jerusalem has been destroyed for its impiety. However, the following verse shows who the strong people are: The city of strong nations will fear you. While they blaspheme, the people of the nations will fear you. For the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom (Prov. IX, 10). The strong people will praise you, and the city of mighty nations will fear you; this is the Church gathered from the nations. For you have become the strength of the poor, your Christ, of whom we also read in the Psalms: Blessed is he who understands the needy and the poor (Ps. 40:1). And in Zechariah according to the Hebrew truth, the poor, that is, the Ebion, is described as sitting on a donkey's colt (Zech. 9). Strength for the needy in the tribulation of his passion, hope from the whirlwind of the gallows, and shade from the heat, when he spoke: Father, into your hands I commend my spirit (Luke 23:46). For just as the wind, if it were to strike against a wall and pass through it, was unable to harm the blasphemous Jews, so too, using another comparison, just as a branch is scorched by intense heat and withers, in the same way you will cause the commotion and shouting of those who have become strangers to you to wither away and perish. According to the Septuagint translators, I was unable to find, not to mention the meaning, but even the arrangement of words and continuity, in this place. And in that place where we have interpreted, like the heat in thirst, for which in Hebrew it is written Basaion (), which among them means impassable, or thirst; therefore, they have translated it as impassable and in thirst, to Sion; the error is clear, because of the similarity of the words Saion and Sion (both), which are signified by the same elements. — Commentary on Isaiah
Isaías 25:6-8
(Verses 6-8.) And the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples on this mountain a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined. And he will swallow up on this mountain the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken. LXX: And the Lord of hosts will make all nations drink joy on this mountain, they will drink wine. They will be anointed with an oil on this mountain. Give all these things to the nations, for this counsel is over all nations: the prevailing death has devoured. And again: the Lord God has taken away every tear from all faces, and he has taken away the disgrace of his people from all the earth. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken. Because we have turned, the face of a bound captive over all people, the Eagle has interpreted, the face of darkness over all people. And when the eagle has twice spoken of darkness, Theodotius once named darkness, and similarly with the rest. For which Symmachus translated, the face of the Lord who rules over all peoples. But what the Seventy wanted to say about this place is clear to the reader, that they did not put the words of Scripture, but their own interpretation, because all the mysteries of the Law and the Temple are to be transferred to the Churches of the nations. After the passion of the Lord, when He will have freed Him from thirst and heat, and whirlwind, the Lord will make a rich feast not for the Jewish people, but for all nations on Mount Zion, with fatty delicacies and wine from the choicest vineyards, so that He may cause the face of death and the bonds by which all people were bound to be precipitated and swallowed up; He will break the net of death and the web that had captured all nations. And according to the Apostle, death will be swallowed up forever (I Cor. XVI). And the Lord shall wipe away every tear from their faces, when death is overcome and the kingdom of Christ arrives. And the reproach of the human race, which was created in the image of the Creator, shall escape the bondage of the devil and death. It is no wonder that, according to Symmachus, death is called the mistress, since the blessed Apostle said, 'Death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam' (Rom. 5:14). They understand by the word "Antichrist" the one who is the ruler of all peoples, or the face of darkness over all peoples, and the web that is woven over all nations, and who is to be consumed on the Mount of Olives, as we have said in the last vision of Daniel. According to the Septuagint, a feast of gladness is prepared for all nations on Mount Zion, where they will drink the wine that the Lord promised to drink with his saints in the kingdom of his Father (Matt. 20 and Luke 22); and they will be anointed with oil, so that they may become a new people born again in Christ. Therefore it is said: "Give all these things to the nations, which Israel once celebrated in type and image. For this is the counsel of the Lord, that all things be transferred to the nations, because death has been swallowed up (1 Cor. 15) and every tear wiped away, and the reproach of the whole earth, with the command of Christ succeeding, has been erased. — Commentary on Isaiah
Isaías 25:8
"Where, O death, is your strife? Where, O death, is your sting?" Commenting upon the power of this testimony, Paul infers "the sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. Yet thanks be to God, who gave us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." Because he interpreted the resurrection of the Lord in this way, we dare not nor are we able to interpret it differently. Death can be understood as hell and as the devil, who was strangled by the death of Christ. In this connection, Isaiah also said, "Growing stronger, he devoured death," and again, "the Lord has wiped every tear from every face." The two brothers who divided from one another at death, according to the history of that time, are understood to be Israel and Judah, that what was then partially prefigured might now be known fully and that Israel and Judah might be liberated and redeemed along with every human family. — COMMENTARY ON HOSEA 3:13.14-15
Isaías 25:9-12
(Verse 9 and following) And they will say on that day: Behold, our God, we have waited for him, and he will save us; this is the Lord, we have endured him, we will rejoice and be glad in his salvation. For the hand of the Lord will rest on this mountain; and Moab shall be crushed under him, as straw is crushed on a threshing floor. And he will stretch out his hands under him, as a swimmer stretches out to swim, and his glory will be humbled with the buffeting of his hands. And the fortifications of your lofty walls will fall, and they will be humiliated and brought down to the ground, even to dust. Swallowed up by death forever, the people of God, who have been delivered from the hand of death, will say to the Lord: Behold, this is our God, whom the unbelievers thought so little of; and we have waited for him, that is, we have believed in his words, because he will fulfill his promises and save us. Therefore, having been rescued from the jaws of death by his help, we will rejoice and be glad in him; and his hand and power will rest on this mountain. Regarding what we read above: When the Lord of hosts reigns on Mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and is glorified in the presence of his elders (Isaiah 24:23). But Moab, which means 'from the father', will be crushed like straw is crushed by a wagon. This is spoken according to the custom of Palestine and many provinces of the East, which, due to a shortage of meadows and hay, prepare straw for the feeding of animals. These are iron wagons, with wheels that rotate in the middle like saws, which crush and break the straw into pieces. Therefore, just as wagon wheels crush straw, so Moab would be crushed under him, either under God's power or in itself, so that nothing remains intact in it. And just as a person who swims tends to stretch out their whole body, so he will collide with the ground from his own power and make a crashing sound. All the fortifications of those mighty men, both the walls as stated in Hebrew, will collapse, be humiliated, and be brought down to the ground, shattered into dust. Therefore, although the prophetic discourse generally refers to the consummation of the world, it does not entirely neglect the present. It mentions Moab, who was an enemy of Israel, to such an extent that they committed fornication with the Midianites and consecrated themselves to the idol Beelphegor, which is interpreted as Priapus. Against this idol Jeremiah speaks: Chamos will go into captivity, along with its priests and princes (Jeremiah 48:7). And again: Moab will be confounded with Chamos, just as the house of Israel was confounded with Bethel (Ibid., 13), and similar things can be found throughout. And from one idol and the demon that presided over this idol, it indicates that all opposing strengths are to be humiliated and led into Tartarus, and crushed like dust. But if this is the case, where is the devil's repentance? — Commentary on Isaiah