Jerome

(Verse 6) Rejoice and praise, O dwelling place of Zion, for the Holy One of Israel is great among you. First, it must be said according to the letter: O dwelling place of Zion, rejoice and praise your God, for He who was once considered your God and was enclosed within the narrow bounds of the land of Judaea, now fills the whole earth with His knowledge. Rising from the dead, He reigns over the nations, and the nations shall beseech Him and worship Him. However, He will add secondly His hand to possess what remains of His people, and to gather together the dispersed of Israel and the scattered of Judah from the four corners of the earth. For the seedbed of the Gospel spread forth from the fountains of Israel through the Apostles, who were from the Jews. But it is better, as the Church is interpreted as the high tower, that we interpret Zion, from which the fiftieth psalm sings: Deal gently, O Lord, in thy good will with Zion; that the walls of Jerusalem may be built up. That in her may be made acceptable to God the sacrifice of justice, oblations, and holocausts, and the calf, which the most merciful father offered to the repenting son.

(Chapter XIII—Verse 1) The burden of Babylon, which Isaiah, son of Amos, saw. The Hebrew word 'Messa' can be understood as burden, load, or weight. And wherever it is mentioned, it signifies a heavy message. Hence, I wonder why the Septuagint translators wanted to use the word 'vision' in this sad context; but that is a topic for another time. Now let us proceed with what we have started: Babylon was the capital of the Chaldeans, whose king Nebuchadnezzar conquered all nations as far as Ethiopia. Among others, he devastated Judah and besieged Jerusalem for a long time until he captured it in the eleventh year of King Zedekiah's reign. He also captured Zedekiah himself and brought him to Antioch, which was then called Riblah. There, with Zedekiah's father and sons killed before him, he had Zedekiah's eyes put out, had him bound in chains, and sent him to Babylon, fulfilling the prophecy of Jeremiah which he had spoken: 'You will go to Babylon, but you will not see it.' (Jeremiah XXXIV, XXXIX, LII). Therefore, for the consolation of the people of Judah, the ruin of Babylon is foretold, just as Nineveh, the capital of the Assyrians, who had captured the ten tribes, Phul, and Theglathphalasar, and Salmanasar, and Sennacherib, was devastated by the Chaldeans, so too may this city, which has rebelled against God, be overthrown by the attack of the Medes and Persians.

(Chapter XIII—Verse 1) The burden or vision against Babylon that Isaiah, son of Amos, saw. He saw not with the eyes of the flesh, but with the eyes of the mind, how great and weighty a burden is to be imposed upon Babylon. And because Babylon, which in Hebrew is called Babel (), signifies confusion; because there the speech of the builders was confounded, it is understood spiritually that this world, which is placed in evil, not only confuses languages, but also the works of individuals and their minds. The king of Babylon is the true Nebuchadnezzar, who rebels against the Lord, saying in his heart: I will ascend to heaven, I will set my throne above the stars of heaven. I will sit on the mountain of the Covenant on the sides of the North. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High. This is the one who shows the Lord all the kingdoms of the world, and said to him: All these things are given to me, and I will give them to you, if you fall down and worship me (Matthew 4:9). Finally, in the following statements, there is a threat not against Babylon, but against the whole world. The Lord of Hosts commanded the most warlike nation to come from a distant land, from the highest heavens, to destroy the world. And again: Behold, the day of incurable fury and wrath is coming, to make the world a deserted place, and to destroy sinners from it. And then: I will bring evils upon the whole world, and upon the wicked their own sins. From these things it is proved that everything that is said against Babylon pertains to the confusion and destruction of this world.

(Version 2.) On the dark or open plain, raise the sign. The Apostles and the Apostolic men and masters of the Churches are instructed to raise the sign of the Lord's cross when they are about to fight against Babylon, not in a lowly place or in sunken valleys, but on a dark or open mountain. The former signifies the hidden sacraments of the Church, which Moses entered into darkness and gloom in order to see and hear the voice of God. For God has set darkness as his hiding place: and clouds and mists surround him. (Psalm 17). The other teaches us that we should ascend to the heights of ecclesiastical teachings in such a way that, according to the Apostle Paul, we humble ourselves and say: 'I am not worthy to be called an Apostle, because I persecuted the Church of God' (1 Corinthians 15, 9). He himself raised a sign on the mountain plain, when, with inherent humility, he said: 'But I have judged myself to know nothing among you, except Jesus Christ, and him crucified.' But this sign he himself shall raise up in the previous days, who has arisen from the root of Jesse amongst the nations, in order to gather the lost of Israel.

Exalt your voice, raise your hand. Regarding which, the Seventy translated: 'Console his hand.' He who speaks of lofty matters raises his voice and despises present things as if they were brief and fleeting. He also hears from Isaiah: 'Ascend to the high mountain, O bearer of good news to Zion. Raise your voice with strength, O bearer of good news to Jerusalem; raise your hand, O bearer of good news.' And he is able, like David, to say: 'The raising of my hands is an evening sacrifice.' And he raises holy hands in every place, not only to raise his hands, but also to console with his hand, so that he does not say to the poor: 'Come back tomorrow and take it,' but rather to console his poverty and need with present mercy.


And let the leaders enter the gates. LXX: Open, O leaders. The leaders of the Church enter the gates of God's mysteries, and they understand the sacraments of the Scriptures, having the key of knowledge, so that they may open them to the people who believe in them. Therefore, it is commanded that the teachers open them, and the disciples enter.

(Verse 3) I have commanded my sanctified ones. Concerning this, in the Septuagint (LXX): I will command, and I will bring them. For he himself sanctifies his ministers, so that both the one who sanctifies and those who are sanctified may all be one. He also speaks in another place to the believers: Be holy, for I am holy, he himself commands, and he will bring his princes to do what has been commanded (Leviticus 19:2).

And I called my strong ones in my anger: rejoicing in my glory. LXX: Giants come to fulfill my fury, rejoicing together and causing insult. According to the Hebrew, they adhere to the previous statements, that He Himself called His strong ones, rejoicing in His glory, those whom He had commanded to be sanctified. However, according to the LXX, the coming giants to fulfill the wrath of the Lord, rejoicing in the injury of others and rejoicing, must be understood as the reception of left-handed and contrary virtues, of which we also read in the Psalms: He sent upon them the rage of His anger, wrath and trouble, by the sending of the worst Angels (Psalm LXXVII, 49). Among these is the destroyer in Egypt, who dares not enter the dwelling of the blood-stained doorposts (Exod. XII), and that spirit who went forth and stood in the presence of the Lord, and said: 'I will deceive Ahab.' And the Lord said to him: 'You will deceive and prevail, go forth and do so' (III Kings XXII, 21, 22). From the same book of Kings, Michaiah said: 'I saw the Lord of Israel sitting on His throne, and all the host of heaven stood around Him on His right hand and on His left' (Ibid., 9). The virtues of the angels who are sent for good are on the right, but those who are entrusted with punishing are on the left. Hence, the Apostle says: 'Those whom I have handed over to Satan, so that they may learn not to blaspheme' (I Tim. I, 20). However, the name of the giants, for which in Hebrew it is Geborim (), that is, the strong ones, is translated by the Septuagint and Theodotion into a likeness of the fables of the gentiles, just as they name the Sirens, and Titans, and Arcturus, the Hyades, and Orion, which are called by different names among the Hebrews. But if the giants are rebellious against God, and all heresies rebel against the truth contrary to God: all heretics are giants, who rejoice in their error, and especially glory when they have insulted the Church.

(Vers. 5, 6.) How has the tax collector ceased, the tribute rested? The Lord has broken the staff of the wicked: the rod of the rulers, smiting the people in wrath, with an incurable plague, subjecting the nations in fury, persecuting cruelly. In the Epistle of Peter we read: The time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God (1 Peter 4:17). And in Ezekiel it is said to the tormentors: Begin with my sanctuary (Ezekiel 9:6). For the diversity of sin, the order of judgment is established: so that those who have sinned less, may be purified first. But the final enemy to be destroyed is death. Therefore, when Israel has been liberated from harsh bondage, he will take up a parable against the king of Babylon, which we must understand as a parable. For if the speech is about Nebuchadnezzar and a simple explanation of history, how can it be called a parable, which is not compared to any other thing? So Israel wonders how the tax collector, who used to collect all the way to the last penny, has ceased. However, he is accustomed to pursue only debtors, who say in the Lord's Prayer: Forgive us our debts as we also forgive our debtors (Matth. VI, 12). These debtors are handed over to the collector by the judge, who sends them to prison and exacts from them up to the smallest sin. Moreover, the Apostle Paul also handed over to the collector the fornicator in Corinth, who had married his father's wife, as well as Phygellus and Hermogenes (I Cor. V; II Tim. I). And concerning these tax collectors, it is also said: My people, your tax collectors plunder you; and those who demand payment, they are your rulers. The eagle has interpreted hunger as tribute. For when our betrothed is taken away from us, we suffer hunger for the word of God, and continually fast from the body of the Lord. And so the rod and staff of the wicked, which are interpreted as a yoke of seventy, strike us or oppress us; because we did not want to bear the light yoke, the yoke of the Savior. However, with this staff and this rod, he would strike the people with incurable madness and cruelly pursue those who fled: not wanting to correct those who were handed over, but to kill them.

(Verse 5) The voice of the multitude on the mountains is like the voice of populous nations, the sound of gathered kings of nations. This place is understood in three ways. First, that with a raised sign on a rural mountain, a multitude of nations may come, and they themselves, being situated on the mountains, are divided into two, namely, peoples and kings, disciples and teachers, of whom the Savior spoke in the Gospel: Many will come from the east and west and recline at table with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 8:11). Therefore, one voice is said to be consonant, so that the apostolic saying may be proved: 'You all say the same thing and there are no divisions among you, but you are perfect in the same mind and in the same judgment' (1 Corinthians 1:10). Secondly, the pride of heretics is described, who, believing themselves to be on mountains, rise up against the knowledge of God and speak iniquity on high, and they raise their mouths to heaven. They themselves also have people, they have kings, who devour the deceived people. The third interpretation is as follows: because, as mentioned before, the giants come to fulfill my wrath, rejoicing together and committing insults; the passage describes the arrogance of the giants themselves and their agreement to carry out punishment against those who have been handed over to them.

The Lord of hosts has commanded the army of war, coming from a far country, from the end of heaven: The Lord and his vessels of wrath, to destroy all the earth. LXX: The Lord of hosts has commanded the most warlike nation, to come from a distant land from the highest foundation of heaven. The foundation must be noted. We read in the Book of Kings and Chronicles (2 Kings 24; 1 Chronicles 21). The passage states that the anger of God was kindled against Israel when David numbered the people, which offended the Lord. In the Psalms, it is also written: 'O Lord, do not rebuke me in your anger or discipline me in your wrath,' and so on with similar statements. It is mentioned in someone's (possibly Basil's) Commentaries that the anger of God can be understood as contrary to strength, which is given to us for punishment. This is also sung in the eighth psalm: 'To destroy the enemy and the avenger' (Psalm 8:3). Those can be called warriors who come from far away lands and from the highest heavens, even the ministering angels who are to be sent in the consummation of the world to gather the bundles of weeds and prepare them for eternal fire (Matthew 13). Likewise, the whole earth is destroyed when earthly works are overthrown. There are also other warriors of the Lord, armed like the apostles, who daily in the Church, which is called the inhabited world, fight against and kill those who rise up against the knowledge of God.

(Verse 6, 7.) Howl, for the day of the Lord is near; it will come as destruction from the Lord. Therefore all hands will be feeble, and every man's heart will melt, and be crushed. For the warriors of the Lord are coming to destroy all the earth, howl and repent, for punishment is coming. For the day of the Lord is near, the end of the world, and judgment, or the end of each person's life. For plunder comes from the Lord, which we call destruction, to keep the metaphor, because the warriors had been sent ahead. When the day of judgment or of death comes, all hands will be dissolved, as it is said elsewhere: Take courage, you who have dissolved hands. The hands will be dissolved because no work worthy of God's justice will be found, and in his sight, no living creature will be justified (Psalm 142:2). Therefore, the Prophet says in the Psalms: If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, who could stand? (Psalm 130:3). Every heart and every soul of man will waste away, and the conscience of their sin will cause fear. This is a day of fear and terror, about which even Zephaniah speaks: 'Fear before the Lord; for the day of the Lord is near' (Soph. I, 14). And again: 'The great day of the Lord is near, it is near and hastens quickly' (Zeph. I, 14). And Amos says: 'Woe to those who desire the day of the Lord! Why would you have the day of the Lord? It is darkness, and not light' (Amos V, 18). And that which is added in the Septuagint is: 'The messengers will be troubled and pains will seize them'. We can interpret those messengers as the citizens who sent against him who had gone into a far country to obtain a kingdom for himself' (Luke XIX, 27). But those mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring hither, and slay them before me.

(Verse 7 and following) The whole earth rested and was silent; it rejoiced and exulted. The fir trees also rejoiced over you, and the cedars of Lebanon. Since you have fallen asleep, no one will rise up to cut us down; the underworld below is troubled, and it has aroused giants in anticipation of your coming. All the rulers of the earth have risen from their thrones; all the rulers of the nations will respond and say to you: Are you also wounded like us? Have you become like us? Your pride has been brought down to the underworld, your body has fallen; below you shall be spread out maggots, decay, and worms shall be your covering. For the destruction of the impious king, who struck the nations with an incurable wound and cruelly pursued them, all the earth has rested and become silent, which previously was full of turmoil and sedition, to the extent that the firs and cedars of Lebanon rejoiced, of which it is written in the psalms: You have transplanted a vineyard from Egypt, you have driven out the nations, and you have planted it. His shade covered the mountains, and his cedars, the cedars of God (Ps. 79:9). These cedars of God, because they sinned at one time, the Lord handed over to be crushed by punishments. Hence it is said in another psalm: The Lord will crush the cedars of Lebanon (Ps. 28:5). However, the tall and lofty trees, which are exalted in the service of the Lord, should be understood as saying with a harmonious voice: Since you have slept. Note that even the death of death is called sleep. He who cuts us down will not ascend. For when the strong one is defeated and his vessels plundered, even the rest of his companions fall. Hence the Lord speaks in the Gospel (Matthew 25:41): 'Depart into the eternal fire which is prepared for the devil and his angels.' How many of these woodcutters and tree fellers have cut down and made fall with their axes? The underworld also, disturbed and turned towards bitterness, at the approach of the true Nebuchadnezzar, is the place of punishments and tortures, in which the rich one clothed in purple appears: to whom the Lord descended, in order to release the prisoners from the prison. We can speak of the opposing inferno and the angel who is placed in charge of the punishments of the underworld, who raised all the giants: for which some call them Raphaims, others call them Titans. Giants, according to the custom of the Gentiles, are called those whom they consider to be earth-born, whom the earth has produced. However, we can call giants, according to the etymology of the Greek language, those who served earthly works. Finally, it follows: All the rulers of the earth rose from their thrones, in the coming of their former ruler: so that those whom they previously honored for their power, afterwards marveled at their punishments, and said: You have been wounded just like us: you have become like us. What words have this meaning: We thought that because of our weakness we could not resist the power of God, and that you were the only one who would remain in your greatness; but as it is evident, you were wounded and captured, like us; so that whom dignity separates on earth, punishment may unite in the underworld. The pride, or your glory, has been taken down to the underworld, and your corpse has fallen, or as the LXX translated, your great joy, with which you used to rejoice over the nations subject to you. Under you shall be strewn putrefaction, and worms shall be your covering. This is the resting place of the devil, this is the bed of the tempter, who was raised up in such pride that he dared even to tempt the Lord, saying: 'All these things I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.' (Matth. IV, 9). The putrefaction and worms, and the covering of vermin, signify the eternal punishments which the conscience itself gives birth to, or the material of punishments which arises from one's own sins. For just as long as the material of a corpse exists, and there is any moisture in the corpse, worms are born from the putrefaction; so from the same material the punishments of sins are produced. Therefore, the Apostle Paul, speaking of the death that Hosea prophesied about, saying, 'I will be your death, O death; I will be your sting, O grave' (Hosea 13:14), speaks to it, saying, 'Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O grave, is your sting?' (1 Corinthians 15:55). For when she is dead, there will be no one to cut us down: for there will be no sin that needs to be cut down, since the sting of death is sin.

(Verse 9) Behold, the cruel day of the Lord is coming, full of indignation, wrath, and fury, to make the earth a desolation and to crush sinners out of it. For the phrase 'the earth' the Seventy interpreted it as 'the inhabited world', that is, the globe. And for 'cruel' they translated it as 'incurable'. For when the day of judgment or death comes, that will be fulfilled which is read in the sixth psalm: 'For in death, who will give you thanks?' (Ps. VI, 6). For that time is not a time of repentance, but of punishment. And in another place it is said: How great is the multitude of your sweetness, Lord, which you have hidden for those who fear you! Therefore, much of God's mercy is hidden from those who are still in fear and do not have perfect love of God, so that when they hear of the cruel day of the Lord, and of the incurable and full of anger and fury, they may cease from sinning. The world or the earth will also be turned into a desert, and sinners will be crushed by it, which was previously burdened by the weight of sins, so that after wickedness is destroyed and lost, only justice may dwell and reign in the earth.