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Theodoret of Cyrus

Nicene & Post-Nicene · AD 325–500

1,374 passages across 50 books of the Bible · Who was this?

On Isaiah

20 of 208
  1. Isaiah 50:10
    It is as a man that he calls himself “Servant,” for “although he exists in the form of God, he has assumed the form of a servant.” Likewise in the divine Gospel [Christ] says that he has received instruction as to what he should say and proclaim. “They walk in darkness, and there is no light for them.” Although the light has risen, as for them, they have clung to the darkness. “Trust in the name of the Lord, and rely on God.” [Isaiah] says, if you really put absolute and true hope in God, that will [serve to] sustain you and make you sure.

    COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH 16:50.10

  2. Isaiah 51:2
    Nothing made is an obstacle to my power: not the fact that I called just one man or that old age was on him, or that Sarah lacked the physical capability; yet his race was [indeed] increased, just as I had wished. Be unbelieving no longer, therefore, even though you are [now] easy to count; I will make you too many to number.

    COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH 16:51.2

  3. Isaiah 51:2
    He is leaving aside the unbelievers here in order to address those who have believed: it is to them that he gives the name of enamored with God and with righteousness. He comforts them because they are few in number and invites them to turn their eyes toward their ancestors: he reminds them of Abraham and Sarah and the many thousands of descendants who came from them. This is similar to the term expressed in the divine Gospels: “Do not fear, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” It is the same here.

    COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH 16:51.1

  4. Isaiah 51:3
    It is not a question of inhabited places but of desert places, not of regions situated in the east but of those in the west. Those who have seen the city with their own eyes know that the temple of the Jews was in the eastern part of the city, whereas the cross and the [place of] the resurrection were in the western part. Moreover, these places were formerly situated outside the walls. The divine apostle was witness to this when he said, “Jesus … suffered outside the gate. Therefore let us go forth to him outside the camp, bearing his reproach.” He makes this prediction accordingly: all the places of the city that were deserted and all those that were in the west will be as the garden of the Lord, for they truly possess the tree of life. “They shall find in it gladness and exultation, thanksgiving and the voice of praise.” This also we still see fulfilled in our day: in place of the smoke, of the odor of fat that rises from the victims and of the cult rendered according to the law, which the Lord of the universe, even in former days, did not find agreeable, night and day Zion raises…
    It is not a question of inhabited places but of desert places, not of regions situated in the east but of those in the west. Those who have seen the city with their own eyes know that the temple of the Jews was in the eastern part of the city, whereas the cross and the [place of] the resurrection were in the western part. Moreover, these places were formerly situated outside the walls. The divine apostle was witness to this when he said, “Jesus … suffered outside the gate. Therefore let us go forth to him outside the camp, bearing his reproach.” He makes this prediction accordingly: all the places of the city that were deserted and all those that were in the west will be as the garden of the Lord, for they truly possess the tree of life. “They shall find in it gladness and exultation, thanksgiving and the voice of praise.” This also we still see fulfilled in our day: in place of the smoke, of the odor of fat that rises from the victims and of the cult rendered according to the law, which the Lord of the universe, even in former days, did not find agreeable, night and day Zion raises hymns in honor of the God of the universe, for it is filled with [worshipers] who chant hymns.

    COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH 16:51.3

  5. Isaiah 51:5
    He calls his power “arm”: that which constitutes the greatest proof of divine power is to have conquered the world by the cross, by ignominy and by death; it is to have given fishermen, publicans, shoemakers as masters to philosophers and to rhetoricians; it is to have, thanks to a dozen men, cultivated the whole world and, thanks to an equally small number of men, filled the entire earth and sea with the divine message.

    COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH 16:51.5

  6. Isaiah 51:6
    From the sky and the earth, from the things on high and those below, learn of my power. I produced these elements with great ease and, conversely, I can make them disappear. “But my salvation shall be for eternity, and my righteousness shall not fail.” This is what the Lord has likewise said in the holy Gospels: “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words will by no means pass away.”

    COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH 16:51.6

  7. Isaiah 51:7-8
    This is what the Lord has also said in the divine Gospels: “Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul,” and again: “Do not fear them,” and: “Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you and shall say all kinds of evil against you falsely for my sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven.” Similarly, here, the prophetic text has shown that people who revile and trample underfoot the heralds of truth are like garments and like wool that is eaten away by the moth, while the salvation and the righteousness of those who are being insulted has no end and escapes death. After having made the prediction here concerning the new people, [the prophet] passes to another subject and prophesies to Jerusalem the return from exile in Babylon. One should know, however, that these announcements were not made at the same time as the others, but that the first dates from one epoch, the second from some other time, and that they were put together later to form a single book.

    COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH 16:51.8

  8. Isaiah 51:9
    He addresses these words as if [Jerusalem] had fallen and were prone on the ground, and he invites it to take up again its power of other times. “Awake as in the early time, as the ancient generation.” Renew yourself, he says, and become again such as you were when your splendor attracted all eyes.

    COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH 16:51.9

  9. Isaiah 51:10
    The great number of the Egyptians he calls the “sea.” If, however, one wishes also to see the Assyrians under this name, the explanation would hardly stray from the truth. “[Are you not the one] who made the depths of the sea a way of passage for the delivered and redeemed?” He has said that of the Red Sea: because it was parted in two, Israel enjoyed salvation. So he is recalling these events in order to invite them to have confidence relating to future events. The ensuing passage makes this quite clear.

    COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH 16:51.10

  10. Isaiah 51:11
    “They will be gathered by the Lord, and they will arrive in Zion full of joy and an eternal cheerfulness; and on their head praise and joy will take hold of them; sadness, pain and grief will have gone.” He has declared in advance the return of cheerfulness and joy, which take hold of believers after the coming as man of our Savior.… Then by the expression of the face he inspires confidence.… It is the Lord who strengthens him, the One who worked these paradoxes in former times, who delivered Pharaoh with his army into the sea, who killed the many thousands of Assyrians through one angel. … He says, “You have worked with the enemies and have carried out their aims—you were afraid of them and forgot me who am the Creator of all things, among whom he gave a thousand pledges of power. Yet you feared a mortal and corruptible man while you have not paid attention to your own dignity and you have not sought my help.”

    COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH 16:51.11-13

  11. Isaiah 51:14
    “And his bread will not fail because I am the Lord your God, who stirs up the sea and its waves, the Lord of hosts is my name.” The phrase “and his bread will not fail” appears in the Septuagint with an asterisk. The text means that in very captivity they will enjoy the divine concern since God provides generously for their need.

    COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH 16:51.15

  12. Isaiah 51:16
    It is by means of actions that I will teach you the truth of my words. “And I will shelter you under the shadow of my hand, with which I fixed the sky and founded the earth: and the Lord shall say to Zion, you are my people.” It suffices to recall the creation to show the capability of his dynamic force that he has promised to convey to them; for he has indicated his dynamic force by the name “hand.”

    COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH 16:51.16

  13. Isaiah 51:17
    He calls chastisement “the cup,” because it is stupefying like drunkenness. Of this cup, the blessed David has likewise made mention in the following terms: “For there is a cup in the hand of the Lord, full strength, full of a mixture [of aromatics]; and he has turned it from side to side”—for he chastises some, now others—“but its dregs have not been wholly poured out; all the sinners of the earth shall drink them.” The divine Jeremiah, in turn, has mentioned this in these terms: “Thus the Lord God said, Take the cup of this undiluted wine from my hand, and you shall cause all the nations to drink, to whom I send you. And they shall drink and vomit and become mad.” And to teach what he means by the name “cup,” he has added, “from the face of my sword, which I shall send in the middle of them.” Then he adds, “I took the cup out of the Lord’s hand and caused the nations to whom the Lord sent me to drink: Jerusalem and the cities of Judea, and the kings of Judea and their princes, to make them a desert place, a desolation and a hissing,” as is the case today and so on. Here also, God h…
    He calls chastisement “the cup,” because it is stupefying like drunkenness. Of this cup, the blessed David has likewise made mention in the following terms: “For there is a cup in the hand of the Lord, full strength, full of a mixture [of aromatics]; and he has turned it from side to side”—for he chastises some, now others—“but its dregs have not been wholly poured out; all the sinners of the earth shall drink them.” The divine Jeremiah, in turn, has mentioned this in these terms: “Thus the Lord God said, Take the cup of this undiluted wine from my hand, and you shall cause all the nations to drink, to whom I send you. And they shall drink and vomit and become mad.” And to teach what he means by the name “cup,” he has added, “from the face of my sword, which I shall send in the middle of them.” Then he adds, “I took the cup out of the Lord’s hand and caused the nations to whom the Lord sent me to drink: Jerusalem and the cities of Judea, and the kings of Judea and their princes, to make them a desert place, a desolation and a hissing,” as is the case today and so on. Here also, God has therefore declared through the prophet: “You have drained the cup of calamity and emptied it,” that is to say, you have endured a very great chastisement, and you have had no help from the kings, the generals and the multitude of soldiers in whom you continued to put your trust.

    COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH 16:51.18

  14. Isaiah 51:19
    By “two,” he means the bravery of the adversaries and the desertion of the auxiliaries: while the former attack with courage, the others flee in a cowardly fashion. “Downfall and destruction.” He has again presented two calamities: that of falling and that of being crushed. For sometimes a person falls without being struck. “Famine and sword.” Again a double chastisement: if the first make a siege from the city of the outside, even harder to endure than the enemies was the famine that was within, annihilating them.

    COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH 16:51.19

  15. Isaiah 51:20
    By the slumber, he has indicated their indolence, and by the cooked vegetables their laxness. But what he adds is even harsher than what he has said before: “They that are full of the anger of the Lord are caused to faint by the Lord God.” By their iniquity they draw my anger, and by reason of my anger, they are deprived of my kind attention and despoiled of every kind of strength.

    COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH 16:51.20

  16. Isaiah 51:23
    He has indicated both the arrogance of the enemies and the distress of the city. He says, If you had requested my alliance, you would have prevailed over those who waged war on you; but since you did not want to do this, you have been abased even to the level of the ground.

    COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH 16:51.23

  17. Isaiah 52:1
    He calls the lower city “Jerusalem,” and the city on high “Zion,” but both together are one city. This is why he promises restoration to both; and, since foreign nations crossed through it without fear when its inhabitants had been taken captive, he is promising deliverance from these foreigners.… It is due to their sins that they have been sold, but it is by the benevolence of God that they have obtained deliverance.

    COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH 16:52.1-3

  18. Isaiah 52:4
    His question is a matter of style meant to show the strangeness of the happening: did you not go to Egypt? he says. Why then have you come back from there? “Thus says the Lord, because my people was taken for nothing, you wonder and howl.” You are struck with amazement, he says, in deploring the captivity, because, despite the title of “my people” that you carry, you have suffered these misfortunes. Well, do not wonder, but consider how “on account of you my name is continually blasphemed among the Gentiles.” The fact that you are justifiably undergoing these misfortunes is not so insupportable as the fact that I am blasphemed because of you and that the Gentiles think my weakness is the cause of the bad fortune that you have endured.

    COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH 16:52.5

  19. Isaiah 52:10
    The God of the universe will show his power, he says, to all the nations—for he gives to his power the name “arm”—and all people will know the Provider of salvation.

    COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH 16:52.10

  20. Isaiah 52:11
    When the Romans were on the point of making a campaign against Jerusalem, all those who had accepted the message exiled themselves in other cities, for they had learned of the misfortunes that would strike Jerusalem. Thus, it is the Lord in person who commanded them to do this: “But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation is near,” and again: “Then, let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, let him who is on the housetop not come down to take anything out of his house.” Therefore, because they knew these events in advance, they went out and escaped the misfortunes of the siege of the city, while the Savior in person guided them, directed their steps toward the Gentiles and assembled the church derived from the Gentiles. Since we also have learned of these events, let us, therefore, flee disbelief; let us persevere in the faith; let us guard the commandments of God and let us proceed on the right path, with the Lord Jesus to guide our way.

    COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH 16:52.12

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