Глава 66

“Thus says the Lord: Heaven is My throne, and earth is My footstool. What house will you build Mi?” (Isa.66:1). What measurable building is sufficient for Him who is immeasurable? For Him, according to His essence, even the glorious is small; and according to His goodness, the heart is small and humble in the Church of the Gentiles. “Eat a calf as if you were killing a man, and slaughter a lamb as if you slaughtered a dog...” (Isaiah 66:3) This is similar to what was said in Malachi: “and... I will scatter the entrails (dung) on ​​your faces” (Mal. 2:3). The prophets call the sacrifices of the Jews abominable. Isaiah likens them to the corpses of men and dogs, and Malachi, the last of the prophets, considers them to be the droppings of animals, and, as if with anger, throws them in the face of those who bring them. “And they have chosen their ways, and their abominations (idols), even their soul willed” (Is. 66:3), that is, the soul of the Jews delights in such sacrifices, and they remain in deception. “And I will choose their reproach” (Is.66:4). I will bring upon them disasters from which they thought to be saved under the shadow of their vain altars. The prophet repeats here the same reproach with which he addressed the Jews at the beginning of the prophecy, and which was confirmed by other prophets and the Lord of the prophets, that is, that the rites of the law will not benefit them if they despise the commandments of the law, and that in vain they build a church to God, who loves the human heart, and not stones. “The voice of the cry is from the city,” because enemies surrounded it, “the voice is from the church,” because the cry is either of the priests offering prayers, or of the inhabitants of the cities, who, being pressed by enemies, ran there with the intention of finding refuge for themselves. “The voice of the Lord rewarding those who resist” (Is. 66:6), rewarding the wicked Jews and pagans who dared to attack them before the invasion of the tribe of Gog. “Before she has stomach pain, she will give birth,” that is, before those who fell in the days of Zerubbabel enter. “Before the labor of labor comes, you will avoid and give birth to the male sex” (Isaiah 66:7). This speaks of the joy that the land of Judea will feel on the day of its redemption; and this joy will be the same as that of a wife who was previously despised by her husband for infertility, but who, at the birth of her first child, forgets with joy the cruel illnesses of birth and her previous contempt. “Who has heard the calico?.. if the earth gave birth with sickness in one day?” For it does not happen that the earth produces fruit in one day. “From the four winds the sons of Zion return; and in one hour ... a people is born" (Is. 66:8), that is, a city devoid of inhabitants is filled with them in one day. "I have given this hope, and will I not bring forth the child?" (Is. 66:9). I promised to return My people after seventy years; can I really not fulfill this? “Let you sow... from the breast of his consolation” (Is. 66:11), that is, I will give my people the breast of consolation, so that the sick and weak may be nourished. “And you will be taken on the shoulder and comforted on the knee. As if a mother comforts someone, I will also comfort you” (Is. 66:12-13). The Lord promises the Jews that when they do His will, then He will be with them. And just as the king’s children are carried on the shoulder and rest on the servants’ knees, so God will carry them and raise them in joy, and He will console them with His blessings for the sorrows that have befallen them before. “And the hand of the Lord shall be known to His servants; and he will destroy his enemies” (Is.66:14), that is, the wicked Jews. “Behold, the Lord will come like fire, and His chariots like a storm” (Isaiah 66:15). This is an image of those nations by whose hand the Lord wants to punish those who disobey His law. “For by the fire of the Lord... and by the sword... all flesh will be judged” (Is. 66:16), that is, God will punish all the inhabitants of Jerusalem by the hand of his enemies. “Many plagues will come from the Lord. Those who are cleansed and sanctified in the heliports, after one in the midst” (Is. 66:16–17), that is, before everyone and without shame. “After one in the midst,” that is, either according to the example of one, or one after another, but everyone strives for evil deeds. "Eating swine meat and abominations and mice". Since everyone together despised the law that forbade this, then “together they will perish... when all nations and languages ​​are gathered together” (Is. 66:16-18). Maybe the prophet is talking about the nations that Ezekiel calls Gog and Magog, and about which he says that they will come “to the mountains of Israel” and will be defeated there (Ezekiel 39: 2, 4), repeating the same thing that Isaiah spoke about them. Or the prophet means those nations that Ezra mentions when he says that they rebelled against the Jews after their return, and were put to shame by Zerubbabel and the princes of Judah. Or - these are the peoples who, at the command of the kings of Persia, Antiochus and the kings of the Greeks, who rebelled against the Jews, entered Judea and were overthrown by the Jews, Judas Maccabee and his brothers, and finally completely exterminated by the Romans. The prophet says that by the hand of these peoples God will punish the Jews who sinned upon their return from Babylon, and at the same time clearly shows that the death of these peoples will be after the captivity, but before the deliverance and conversion of the Jews and pagans, which our Lord did and accomplished through the preaching of the apostles. “And they will come and see My glory” (Is. 66:18). This is how the prophet speaks of the glory that God gave to the Israelites after the destruction of their persecutors. “And I will put on them,” that is, on those who will be saved, a sign of fear, that is, the sign that Ezekiel saw imprinted on the faces of the Jews who escaped from the destruction that befell their brethren (Eze. 9:4), or “a sign of fear,” instilling in them the respect of those nations to whom they were sent. Such was the sign that Felix saw and was afraid when Paul told him about truth and holiness and about the coming judgment (Acts 24:15). “And I will send from them, as if surprisingly, to Tarshish... and to Tobel... and to Java" (Is. 66:19) and to other cities that came to the aid of Gog to make war with Zerubbabel, that is, with Christ, whose image was Zerubbabel, the prince of the people, upon his return from captivity into the land of the Lord's inheritance. For the peoples who rebelled against Zerubbabel were the image of the nations, according to the prophet’s prediction, who rebelled against our Lord, as it is written: “The king of the earth appeared, and the rulers gathered together against the Lord and against His Christ” (Ps. 2:2). “And they will proclaim My glory among the nations” (Is. 66:19), that is, they will go and tell the pagans about the wonderful works of God. The apostles did all this. “And they will bring your brethren from all the tongue of the gift of the Lord, with horses and chariots and with bears of the Lord,” that is, they will not bring you by force, as they took you into captivity to Babylon, but with honor and reverence, as they usually bring gifts to God. “The children of Israel would bring seven dallons in a clean vessel to the house of the Lord” (Isaiah 66:20). Perhaps those who brought them will regard them as such to God in their thoughts. “And from them I will take for myself priests and Levites” (Is. 66:21). Here we mean either the sons of the people of God who come and bring tithes, that is, priests and Levites, or the pagans who also bring priests and Levites from themselves and are called faithful Jews, because they believed and through the fellowship of faith became brothers of the Jews. For they too enter the house of the Lord with their offerings. “And month by month, and Sabbath by Sabbath, all flesh will come to worship before the Lord” (Isaiah 66:23). The prophet promises a constant and uninterrupted continuation of the festivals and sacrifices that were stopped during the seventy-year Babylonian captivity. “And they will come out and see the corpses of men who have transgressed Me.” When Gog is destroyed, then the believing pagans, who come to the holidays with the sons of Israel, will come to the place of Gog’s defeat to see the righteous judgment that befell him; and what has been said will be fulfilled: “The righteous will rejoice when he sees vengeance; he will wash his hands in the blood of the sinner” *** (Ps. 57:11). In this place and some other places, a small part of the Syriac text of St. Ephraim is omitted, because in Asseman’s edition it has a dubious appearance, and it was not possible to verify it from the manuscripts You might be interested in: