Ambrose of Milan — Commentary on Scripture

Isaiah 23:4

Therefore, after being so often ploughed by returning merchants, “Be ashamed, O Sidon, has said the sea.” This is the voice of the fatigued element, as it were, saying, “Be ashamed, Sidon”; that is: Merchant, you accuse my waves although you yourself are more restless than they. Blush indeed for shame since you are not disturbed by peril. More modest are the winds than your desires. They have their rests; never do your cravings for gain take holiday. Even when the weather is quiet, never are your ships quiet. The water is churned under the oar when it is at rest from the blast. “I have not been in labor,” it says, “nor have I reared, nor have I nourished up young men.” Why do they disquiet me whom I do not know, whom I do not acknowledge?

On Elijah and Fasting 19.71

Isaiah 23:4

If all our acts and deeds depend on the fates acquired at our birth and not on principles of morality, why are laws established and statutes promulgated by which punishment is meted out to the wicked and security bestowed on the innocent?… Why does the farmer toil and not rather wait until it is time to convey into his storehouses the produce for which he has not labored, relying on the prerogatives of his birth? If he was destined by birth to be endowed with wealth without the expenditure of labor, he should undoubtedly wait until the earth brings forth fruit spontaneously without seed. If such were the case, he should not sink his ploughshare into the earth or put his hands on the curved scythe or undergo the expense of harvesting the grapes. Rather, the wine would without effort flow plenteously into his stock of jars. Without effort, too, he would let the wild olive berry exude its oil without the labor of grafting upon the trunk of the olive tree. In the same way a merchant who travels over the wide seas would not be in dread of the perils that threaten his own life, for it is w…

If all our acts and deeds depend on the fates acquired at our birth and not on principles of morality, why are laws established and statutes promulgated by which punishment is meted out to the wicked and security bestowed on the innocent?… Why does the farmer toil and not rather wait until it is time to convey into his storehouses the produce for which he has not labored, relying on the prerogatives of his birth? If he was destined by birth to be endowed with wealth without the expenditure of labor, he should undoubtedly wait until the earth brings forth fruit spontaneously without seed. If such were the case, he should not sink his ploughshare into the earth or put his hands on the curved scythe or undergo the expense of harvesting the grapes. Rather, the wine would without effort flow plenteously into his stock of jars. Without effort, too, he would let the wild olive berry exude its oil without the labor of grafting upon the trunk of the olive tree. In the same way a merchant who travels over the wide seas would not be in dread of the perils that threaten his own life, for it is within his power, because of a certain destiny allotted to him at birth, to come without labor into a wealth of treasure.But this is far from the accepted opinion. As a matter of fact, the farmer cleaves the earth “with deep-driven plough”; “stripped he ploughs, stripped he sows”; stripped in the glowing “heat he thrashes on the floor the parched ears.” The merchant, impatient when the east winds are blowing, ploughs the sea often when the course is unsafe. Insolent and rash men such as these are condemned by the prophet, who says, “Be ashamed, O Sidon, the sea speaks.” That is to say, if dangers do not move you, then shame can check and modesty confound you. “Be ashamed, O Sidon,” in which there is no place for virtue, no care for safety, no young men exercised in arms and ready to fight in defense of their country. They are anxiously and entirely preoccupied with gain and the benefits derived from commerce.

The Six Days of Creation 4.4.19

Isaiah 23:14

“Howl,” he says—he repeats it—“O you ships of Carthage, for your strength is laid waste. And it shall come to pass in that day, Tyre shall be abandoned;” and below, “but after seventy years, Tyre shall be as the song of a harlot.” Behold what words the prophet employs, and how he does not avoid the baseness of words of this kind. We ourselves sometimes avoid them, not because our tongue is more chaste than theirs, but our authority inferior. For very great is the force of words in the vivid exposition of such things, so that they who do not blush at their sins blush at least at the names of their sins. “Tyre shall be,” he says, “as the song of a harlot.” Beware, lest, when someone sees those dances being performed, and unseemly words being sung, he says, “Behold, Tyre has become the song of a harlot.”

On Elijah and Fasting 20.73-74

Isaiah 25:8

In the Old Testament the jaw of death is bitter, since it is said, “Strong death is all devouring.” In the New Testament the jaw of death is sweet, for it has swallowed death, as the apostle says: “Death is swallowed up in victory! O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?”

Letter 44.9

Isaiah 25:8

Stricken by the indecency of this act [the golden calf], Moses broke the tablets and shattered the head of the calf and beat it to powder in order to destroy all traces of impiety. The first tablets were broken so that the second ones might be repaired whereon, through the teaching of the gospel, faithlessness, now utterly destroyed, vanished. Thus Moses shattered that Egyptian pride and by the authority of the eternal law checked that loftiness overreaching itself. Therefore David says, “And the Lord will break the cedars of Lebanon, and shatter them like the calf of Lebanon. Thus the people swallowed all faithlessness and pride, so that impiety and haughtiness might not swallow them. For it is better that each person be master of his flesh and its vices, that it may not be said of him that all-powerful death has devoured him, but rather, “death is swallowed up in victory!”

Letter 74.5

Isaiah 26:18

Nature provides woman with a womb in which a living person is brought to birth in the course of time. Such too is that characteristic of the soul which is ready to receive in its womblike recesses the seeds of our thoughts, to cherish them and to bring them forth as a woman gives birth to a child. This and no other is the meaning of the words of Isaiah: “We have conceived and brought forth the spirit of salvation.”

On Cain and Abel 1.10.47

Isaiah 26:18

Isaiah also, proclaiming the resurrection to the people, says that he is the announcer of the Lord’s message, for we read thus: “For the mouth of the Lord has spoken, and they shall speak in that day.” And what the mouth of the Lord declared that the people should say is set forth later on, where it is written: “Because of your fear, O Lord, we have been with child and have brought forth the Spirit of your salvation, which you have poured forth upon the earth. They that inhabit the earth shall fall; they shall rise that are in the graves. For the dew which is from you is health for them, but the land of the wicked shall perish. Go, O my people, and enter into your chambers; hide yourselves for a little until the Lord’s wrath pass by.”

On the Death of Satyrus 2.67

Isaiah 26:18

Their cows did not miscarry, therefore, but gave birth, so that their labor would be increased and that they would beget everything they conceived without reverence for God. The righteous, however, take delight in an altogether different way. They glory not in the abundance of their wealth or the fruitfulness of their livestock but in the Lord, saying, “We were impregnated with reverence for you, and we brought forth the spirit of salvation.”

Interrogation of Job and David 2.4.15

Isaiah 27:3

Therefore let us flee these evils and elevate our soul to the image and likeness of God. The flight from evils is the likeness of God, and the image of God is gained through the virtues. And so, like a painter, he has painted us with the colors of the virtues. “See, I have painted your walls, Jerusalem.” Let us not wipe away with the brush of neglect the props of the painted walls of our soul. And so “I have painted the walls,” with which we can turn away the enemy. The soul has its walls; from them it stands forth and concerning them it says, “I am a strong city, a city besieged.” By these walls it is guarded, and by them it is protected under siege. And truly the soul is a wall, which stretches forth over the camp. And therefore the bride says in the Song of Solomon, “I am a wall, and my breasts are like towers.” The wall that the Lord painted is good, even as he says: “On my hands I have painted your walls, and you are always in my sight.”

On the Death of Satyrus 2.17-18

Isaiah 27:3

It is the soul, too, that says, “I am a strong city, a city besieged.” The city is besieged through Christ, the city is that heavenly Jerusalem, in which there are interpreters of God’s law and men skilled in doctrine in great abundance; through them one seeks the Word of God.

On Isaac and the Soul 5.39

Isaiah 27:3

You have in Isaiah the speech made by the soul of a just man or of the church: “I am a strong city, I am a city besieged,” defended by Christ and besieged by the devil. But one whom Christ aids ought not to be fearful of a siege. [Such a person] is defended by spiritual grace and is besieged by the perils of this world. Hence also it is said in the Song of Songs, “I am a wall, and my breasts are as a tower.” The wall is the church, and the towers are her priests, who have full power to teach the natural and the moral sciences.

The Six Days of Creation 6.8.49

Isaiah 28:16

The foundation of justice therefore is faith, for the hearts of the just dwell on faith. And the just man that accuses himself builds justice on faith, for his justice becomes plain when he confesses the truth. So the Lord says through Isaiah: “Behold, I lay a stone for a foundation in Zion.” This means Christ as the foundation of the church. For Christ is the object of faith to all; but the church is as it were the outward form of justice; it is the common right of all.

On the Duties of the Clergy 1.29

Isaiah 29:8

Let us speak of him who thought he was happy since he was chief butler and believed that this was the summit and crown of all power, that he would give the cup to the king. This was his glory, this was his grandeur in this world; when he was deprived of this he felt sorrow, and when he was restored to it he rejoiced. But this is a dream, and all worldly power is a dream, not a reality. To be sure, he saw by way of a dream that his preeminent position was restored to him. Isaiah also says that people of this kind are such as take delight in prosperity in this world. One who eats and drinks in his sleep thinks he is filled with food and drink, but when he awakens, he begins to be more hungry; then he understands how insubstantial were that dreamer’s food and drink. Just so, one who is asleep in this world and does not open his eyes to the mysteries of God, as long as he is in a deep corporeal sleep, supposes that such worldly power is of some importance, seeing it, as it were, in his dreams. But when he has awakened, he discovers how insubstantial the pleasure of this world is.

On Joseph the Patriarch 6.38

Isaiah 29:13

Again the form of righteousness is described and magnified when Scripture says, “The law of his God is in his heart, and his stride will not be broken.” The law of God is in the heart of the righteous. Which law? It is not the written law but the natural law, because “the law was not laid down for the righteous but for the unrighteous.” The law is in his heart, not superficially, as it is on the lips of the Jews, for “he who believes with his heart is justified.” The one who believes also speaks, but the one who speaks does not necessarily believe. For instance, the people did not believe about whom it is written: “This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.”

Commentaries on the Twelve Davidic Psalms 36.69

Isaiah 31:1

Let our course take us to regions above, because it is better to ascend. Finally, as was read today, “Woe to them that go down to Egypt.” Surely it is not wrong to go to Egypt, but to change to the ways of the Egyptians, to change to the violence of their treachery and to the ugliness of their wantonness—this is wrong. He that changes in this way descends, and one who descends falls. Let us keep away, then, from the Egyptian who is a man, but [let us] not [keep away] from God. Even the king of Egypt himself fell under the dominion of his own vices and in comparison with him Moses was accounted a god, ruling over kingdoms and subjecting powers to himself. So we read that it was said to Moses: “I shall make you a god to Pharaoh.”

Letter 28.8

Isaiah 32:20

Accordingly, like a perfect man learned in the law and made firm in the gospel, accept the faith of both Testaments, for, as we read today, “Blessed is he who sows upon every water, where the ox and the donkey tread,” that is, who sows upon the people who follow the teaching of both Testaments. This is the ploughman’s ox, wearing the yoke of the law, of which the law says, “You shall not muzzle the ox that treads out your corn,” for this ox has the horns of holy Scripture. But in the Gospel the Lord, representing the people of the Gentiles, mounts the colt of a donkey.

Letter 63.88

Isaiah 35:3

Therefore the traders came from Gilead, that is, from their possessions of or dwelling in the law, and brought their wares to the church, so that that balm might heal the sins of the nations. Of them it is said, “Be strong, you hands that are feeble and you knees that are without strength.” The balm is unspoiled faith. Such a faith Peter exhibited when he said to the lame man, “In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, arise and walk.” And he arose and walked, as was right. Such a faith Peter had when he said to the paralytic, “Aeneas, the Lord Jesus heals you; get up and make your bed.” And he got up and made his bed. Such a faith he had when he said to the dead woman, “Arise in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” And the departed woman arose. With the mortar made from this cement those stones are fastened together from which God is able to raise up children to Abraham.

On Joseph the Patriarch 3.17

Isaiah 35:3

Then let us flee the wickedness of this world, in which “the very days are evil,” and flee it relentlessly. On that account Isaiah cries out, “Be strong, you hands which are feeble and you knees which are without strength.” This means: Be strong, you knees, not of the body but of the soul, so that the footstep of the spirit can rise up straightway to the heights of heaven. Thus conduct will be more stable, life more mature, grace more abundant and discretion more guarded.

Flight from the World 7.37

Isaiah 35:10

[God] is the same one who said to Jeremiah, “Behold, I place my words in your mouth as a fire.” David, therefore, also received this tongue of fire, so that he could speak of divine knowledge while enkindled with zeal: “Make known to me my end, O Lord.” He was not here asking about his own death or about the final resurrection. He was inquiring into that end of which the apostle spoke: “For the end will come when the Lord Jesus hands over the kingdom to God the Father and when he destroys every principality and power and when death is the last of all things to be destroyed,” such that evil is defeated and eternal goodness is ignited. Therefore it was said, “Pain and wailing will flee.”

Commentaries on the Twelve Davidic Psalms 38.16

Isaiah 40:2

There is also another type of consolation for those who have paid heavy penalties, as it is written in the book of Isaiah: 'Comfort, comfort my people,' says the Lord. 'Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the Lord's hand double for all her sins.' Even if faith was lacking, punishment was satisfied. The penalties are mitigated for those who are acquitted by commendation of their merits.

Exposition On Psalm 118, Sermon 18