Theodoret of Cyrus — Commentary on Scripture

Isaiah 42:22

But this is a people robbed and spoiled; they are all of them snared in holes, and they are hid in prison houses: they are for a prey, and none delivereth; for a spoil, and none saith, Restore.

He has taught us both the divine object and the free will of the human creature. Although he desires, he says, that you be justified by choosing godliness, you have, on the contrary, taken the opposite way and reaped death. “For there is a snare in the secret chambers everywhere, and in the houses also, where they have hidden them.”

Isaiah 43:2

When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.

Even when the compassionate God disciplines, he does not abandon mercy.… For, he says, “judge, consider, take heart.” Now God strengthens those who were reduced to slavery in Babylon. And since they bore the title “the people of God,” it was appropriate that God addressed the people in this way: “I have called you by your name. You are mine.” He says, “You possess the name by which I have called you.”

Isaiah 43:4

Since thou wast precious in my sight, thou hast been honourable, and I have loved thee: therefore will I give men for thee, and people for thy life.

God renders the summary of benefits in which they take pleasure. It is because I love you, he says, and because I have chosen you that you have become respected and glorious. “And I will give men for you, and princes for your life.” He means to speak of the Babylonians, whom he has delivered over to Cyrus.

Isaiah 43:5

Fear not: for I am with thee: I will bring thy seed from the east, and gather thee from the west;

These predictions received their fulfillment after the defeat of the Babylonians, for Cyrus commanded [the Jews] to return to Judea. At the time the latter made [their] return from the east, those who had taken flight during the war and reached the west then [also] returned to the land, probably because they recognized the peace that had come on Judea. In any case, it is with truth and precision that the text clearly indicates the people that the holy apostles have called from the entire world and who have obtained salvation. For in every city the Jews were the first to whom the apostles offered the divine teachings.

Isaiah 43:11

I, even I, am the LORD; and beside me there is no saviour.

If you want to have me as a witness to your verdict, then be the first to render witness to my truth. In this case, I will not be alone in bearing witness, but there is also my chosen servant. Now it is neither Moses nor another of the prophets who is referred to here, but Christ our Master. And he calls him a [servant], not as God but as a human being; for it is as a human being that he has named him “chosen.” … We likewise find in the holy Gospels this number of two witnesses. In the course of a conversation with the Jews our Master Christ in effect declared, “It is written in your law that the testimony of two persons is true. I bear witness concerning myself, and the Father who sent me bears witness.” … “I am, I am your God, and there is no other savior besides me.” Again these words proclaim the one divinity. For our Master Christ is called “savior” throughout the holy Scriptures, as I think even the followers of Arius and Eunomius would concede. Now if apart from God there is no savior and if Christ is called “Savior,” it is clear that he participates in the [divine] nature. If…

If you want to have me as a witness to your verdict, then be the first to render witness to my truth. In this case, I will not be alone in bearing witness, but there is also my chosen servant. Now it is neither Moses nor another of the prophets who is referred to here, but Christ our Master. And he calls him a [servant], not as God but as a human being; for it is as a human being that he has named him “chosen.” … We likewise find in the holy Gospels this number of two witnesses. In the course of a conversation with the Jews our Master Christ in effect declared, “It is written in your law that the testimony of two persons is true. I bear witness concerning myself, and the Father who sent me bears witness.” … “I am, I am your God, and there is no other savior besides me.” Again these words proclaim the one divinity. For our Master Christ is called “savior” throughout the holy Scriptures, as I think even the followers of Arius and Eunomius would concede. Now if apart from God there is no savior and if Christ is called “Savior,” it is clear that he participates in the [divine] nature. If Christ does not, as the blasphemers allege, then he is not Savior.… But if he is Savior, then he shares the same essence to which alone belongs the faculty of saving.

Isaiah 43:12

I have declared, and have saved, and I have shewed, when there was no strange god among you: therefore ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, that I am God.

I not only made the predictions; I have also brought them to their conclusion. “I reproached, and then there was no strange god among you.” The three interpreters have rendered the word “I have reproached” by the verb “I have made to understand,” which comes back to saying, I have born witness. The verb “I have made reproaches” also has the same sense: it is because they do not cease to sin that they suffer reproaches. Moreover, he then makes the following declaration: At the time when I gave the law, no strange god was present: “You are my witnesses, and I am the Lord God.” Know clearly, he is saying, that no one else is concerned for you, but that you alone have benefited by my providence.

Isaiah 43:14-15

Thus saith the LORD, your redeemer, the Holy One of Israel; For your sake I have sent to Babylon, and have brought down all their nobles, and the Chaldeans, whose cry is in the ships.

[Isaiah] predicts the defeat of the Babylonians and the enslavement of the Chaldeans. They will suffer these misfortunes because of you, he says, since they were unwilling to recognize that their victory depended on my good will and that you were made prisoners because I rejected you.

Isaiah 43:19-20 · 2 passages

Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.

“Because I have given water in the wilderness and rivers in the waterless land to assuage the thirst of my elect race; the people I have set aside for myself proclaim my virtues.” The race that [Jesus] put on according to his human nature is human nature in its entirety, yet is nearer still to the Jewish race. For there is no doubting that our Lord came from Judah.

What I am going to do, he says, merits still more admiration than the things done [in the past]. He adds what will be: “And I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the dry land.” Some have thought that these declarations relate to the return from Babylon. This is wrong, for he did not favor them at that time, while they were returning from exile, either with a strange road or with rivers. But he is calling the Gentiles “the desert” [wilderness], and the preachings of the apostles “rivers” and the course that escapes error “the way.” What he has added makes it equally obvious.

Isaiah 43:25

I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins.

Do not forget your errors, God says, but keep them firmly in your memory so that you will always recognize how great are my benefits. In this way you will avoid committing the same misdeeds. Now since he has mentioned judgment and that fear is an appropriate response, he teaches them who would learn the way of victory. “You be the first to confess your sins, so as to be justified.” I do not want to overcome you, but rather I long for the opposite. Learn how it is possible for you to overcome; confess first your errors, and I will grant you pardon. I will judge you if you attempt to hide something from me. If you confess, I will forgive.

Isaiah 43:27

Thy first father hath sinned, and thy teachers have transgressed against me.

[The Lord] has proclaimed these words in addressing those who were in Babylon. It is not I, he says, who am the cause of these misfortunes, but your ancestors, and your priests, who have transgressed my laws. Their iniquity has transformed the renown of Israel to an object of shame.

Isaiah 44:3

For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground: I will pour my spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring:

He does not cease to make mention of the creation and of his kindness after the creation.… You will not be alone in enjoying my benefits, he says, for the thirsty nations will also drink from the streams of salvation, thanks to your descendants.… He is addressing those who are in Babylon, yet it is not to them but to their descendants that he promises to give the grace of the Spirit.… Here the prophetic text, having promised to give water to those traveling through a dry land, has shown through whom he will give it. “I will set my Spirit on your seed and my blessing on your children.”

Isaiah 44:5

One shall say, I am the LORD'S; and another shall call himself by the name of Jacob; and another shall subscribe with his hand unto the LORD, and surname himself by the name of Israel.

The reality comes to confirm the prophecy: it is with total freedom of language that each of the believers calls herself a Christian and derives glory from this name.

Isaiah 44:6

Thus saith the LORD the King of Israel, and his redeemer the LORD of hosts; I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is no God.

“Thus says the Lord, the king of Israel, the God of hosts who has saved them: I am the first, and I remain after these things. Apart from me there is no God.” If there is no God apart from him, the Son is not consubstantial with the Father, as the blasphemy of Arius and Eunomius teaches. How, then, can they call him God? If the Son is God and the prophetic word is true that openly states there is no other God, the divinity of the holy Trinity is one, even if they do not admit this.

Isaiah 44:12

The smith with the tongs both worketh in the coals, and fashioneth it with hammers, and worketh it with the strength of his arms: yea, he is hungry, and his strength faileth: he drinketh no water, and is faint.

[Isaiah] has demonstrated that the production of these so-called gods relies on contributions. Their creator needs the blacksmith to prepare the tools and the whetstone for sharpening them; for his part, the bronzesmith needs coal and fire, while the constructor of the objects needs food and drink! It takes all this to prepare a god who is worshiped by these ignorant people. Isaiah is not finished mocking them. After choosing a log, the artisan immediately measures the so-called god. whereas the true God is immeasurable. He then shapes it with the appropriate tools, whereas the real God has no form or shape.… He does not copy divine characteristics but human ones; he shapes his human image and adores his own image as if it were divine.

Isaiah 44:15

Then shall it be for a man to burn: for he will take thereof, and warm himself; yea, he kindleth it, and baketh bread; yea, he maketh a god, and worshippeth it; he maketh it a graven image, and falleth down thereto.

The prophet proceeds to teach that the Creator gave the forests and woods on the mountains to supply food and fuel and for the sake of human bodies. They, however, take a holm oak, an oak or a cedar that God has planted and watered by providing rain for the benefit of human bodies and use these trees to create gods.

Isaiah 44:19

And none considereth in his heart, neither is there knowledge nor understanding to say, I have burned part of it in the fire; yea, also I have baked bread upon the coals thereof; I have roasted flesh, and eaten it: and shall I make the residue thereof an abomination? shall I fall down to the stock of a tree?

If it is a god, [Isaiah] says, the whole of the wood should be divine. Why, therefore, do you burn leftover parts of the wood and avail yourself of the fire to provide for your food, since at one time you bake bread, at another you boil and roast meat, and both eat and warm yourself and enjoy its light? Is not the wood that is put into the fire of the same kind as that which you worship? How, therefore, can you cast aside the one and adore the other?

Isaiah 44:20

He feedeth on ashes: a deceived heart hath turned him aside, that he cannot deliver his soul, nor say, Is there not a lie in my right hand?

Foolishness has mastered them; they have lost the faculty of reasoning and are slaves to folly. This is why I will put my Spirit on your descendants, so that they will be delivered from error, for in no other way can they receive the truth. “See, you will not say, There is a lie in my right hand.” The other interpreters join this passage to the one that precedes: “[Know] that no one is able to deliver his soul and no one says, is it a lie that you have in your right hand?” [Isaiah] has, therefore, said about the people who are in error that they do not recognize as a lie that which they are holding. But according to the Septuagint, this phrase, which is put into the mouth of God, should be understood thus: “Are my works,” he says, “like those of a whetstone? Has a human made me? Am I an idol? Am I fabricated by cutting wood or stones of gold or silver?”

Isaiah 44:22

I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins: return unto me; for I have redeemed thee.

God pardoned Israel’s sins when he brought them out of the Babylonian captivity. But, really and truly, it was only after the incarnation that God forgave the sins of those who believed in him. He removed the cloud of their sins and supplied them with eternal life.

Isaiah 44:23

Sing, O ye heavens; for the LORD hath done it: shout, ye lower parts of the earth: break forth into singing, ye mountains, O forest, and every tree therein: for the LORD hath redeemed Jacob, and glorified himself in Israel.

Again, the prophetic text has made use of a personification. Just as when [Isaiah] accuses Israel, he has invited the heavens and the earth to serve as witness, so also when he announces benefits, he invites creation anew to partake in the joy; it is not as though the elements are animate, but when we are depressed, they seem somber to us, and when we are happy, they naturally seem more radiant. It is not the elements that have changed, but it is to us that they present this appearance. If, however, one desires to apprehend the celestial powers by the phrase “the heavens” and the holy prophets by “the foundations of the earth,” with the thought that they are the ones who sustain [the benefits], one will not be far from the truth. For the Lord has said, “There is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” One can understand the mountains, hills and the woods in a similar fashion. After the return of Israel, they flourished again because they were cultivated and were the source of rejoicing on the mountains.