Isaiah 14

Truly his will shall be fulfilled swiftly and suddenly, as the Scripture testifies.

For the proselytes have no need of a covenant, if, since there is one and the same law imposed on all that are circumcised, the Scripture speaks about them thus: 'And the stranger shall also be joined with them, and shall be joined to the house of Jacob.'

We will show in what follows that these things are not said of someone else but of that tyrant, the one without shame, the enemy of God, as Isaiah says.

According to Isaiah, in which lament is offered on behalf of the king of Babylon, much can be learned about the origin and beginning of evil. Evil derived its existence from some who had lost their wings by following the one who was first to lose his own wings.

It is most clearly proved by these words that he who formerly was Lucifer and who "arose in the morning" has fallen from heaven. For if, as some suppose, he was a being of darkness, why is he said to have formerly been Lucifer or lightbearer? Or how could he "rise in the morning" who had in him no light at all?… So he was light once … when "his glory was turned into dust."

How can we possibly suppose that what is said in many places by Scripture, especially in Isaiah, about Nebuchadnezzar is said about a human being? For no human being is said to have "fallen from heaven" or to have been "Lucifer" or the one who "arose every morning."

The Word clearly demonstrates many things in this passage: the lunacy of that spirit, his fall from what was good to what was bad, and the result of his fall. Having pronounced many terrible threats against humanity he realized that they had the possibility of falling into evil by virtue of their own free will. Therefore he turned them from a good state to a bad one, leading the many souls by the lure of desire to every fashion of evil. There was no device he did not attempt. With the myths of the gods and impure stories he tempted his victims with the things they loved and the things that gave them pleasure.… Soon, according to the blessed apostle, they no longer pondered the works of God that still illumined the heavens.

Now Nebuchadnezzar said, "I will ascend to heaven and exalt my throne above the stars of God and sit in the lofty mountains that are in the borders of the north." Isaiah said concerning him: "Because your heart has thus exalted you, therefore you shall be brought down to Sheol, and all that look upon you shall be astonished at you."

For what proud enemy can there be against the servants of God, who exalts himself against God and says: I will ascend into heaven, I will place my seat above the stars of heaven: I will sit on a lofty mount, above the high mountains that are from the north: I will ascend above the clouds, and I will be like the Most High? Therefore, it is not surprising if he can burden men, who with obstinate spirit do not yield to God. How then will he preserve the measure of truth and faith in man, who promises himself to be equal to the Almighty Lord with blasphemous and shameless falsehood? How he falsely accuses individuals, who has amazed the whole earth, shaken kings, laid waste the entire world, and destroyed cities: he did not release those who were in captivity. Let us beware, therefore, lest he destroy the walls of our soul, lest he demolish the defenses of our mind, lest he set his throne above the stars. He sets it above the stars when he deceives the chosen, when he circumvents the just, whose works shine like stars in the sky.

When the Lord Jesus redeemed the human race through obedience and restored justice, the serpent introduced sin through disobedience; we can estimate the extent of this vice, of which the author is the devil, whom the Prophet introduces saying: I will set my throne above the clouds, and I will be like the Most High. Therefore, since he is most wicked, he did not give honor to our Lord God; nevertheless, he educated worse disciples. For he exalted himself in such a way that he wanted to be equal and similar to the Most High: but his disciple, as signified by the Apostle, would be indignant to be considered equal and similar to God. For it is written: When the man of sin and son of perdition is revealed, who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god. Therefore, the teacher considers himself similar, this one superior. And so the Lord said to his disciples: You will do greater things; so that to those whom the serpent had taken away more than he himself had lost, Christ would give greater things than he had done on earth. For he wanted to deceive the prince of the world in himself, to triumph in the disciples.

For their part they plotted to hand him [Joseph] over to death, distress, slavery and the worst of evil fates; but God who is skillful in devising good used the wickedness of the plotters for the credit of him whom they had plotted to sell. Lest anyone think that these things happened through some coincidence or reversal of circumstances, by the very men who opposed and hindered them God brings about the events that they tried to prevent, using Joseph's enemies as servants for his credit. From this you may learn that what God has planned no one will scatter, and no one will turn aside his lofty hand, so that when people plot against you, you may not fall or be annoyed but may keep in mind that the plot leads to good at the end, if only you endure nobly whatever happens to you.

What God has reared up and wishes to remain, no one can tear down. In the same way, what he has destroyed and wishes to stay destroyed, no one can rebuild.

There were some who dared in the opinion of the multitude to immortalize themselves and, notwithstanding that the very sense of sight bore witness to their mortality, were ambitious to be called gods and were honored as such; to what a length of impiety would not many people have proceeded, if death had not gone on teaching all humanity the morality and corruptibility of our nature? Hear, for instance, what the prophet says of a barbarian king, when seized with this frenzy: "I will exalt," he says, "my throne above the stars of heaven; and I will be like unto the Most High."

(Verse 31.) Howl, O gate! Cry out, O city! Philisthaea is laid waste, all of it. For from the north comes smoke, and there is no escaping its horde. He calls the gate for those who are at the gate, and the city for the inhabitants of the city. He also directs his speech to the cities of the Philistines, saying that they should wail and mourn when Senacherib comes, and when the torrent ravages everything. For the Assyrian came under the reign of Hezekiah, and among other nations he devastated the Philistines. To whom Jeremiah speaks: Behold, waters rise up from the north, and they shall be like a overflowing torrent, and they shall cover the land and its fullness, the city and its inhabitants (Jer. 47:2). For from the north comes the Assyrian, and from its heat, they go forth, subjugating Nineveh and other nations. At that time when these things were being sung, smoke rose up on high, that is, a rumor spread among the peoples in the order of all nations, that the Phoenicians and the Philistines were also to be devastated.

(Verse 8.) The firs and the cedars of Lebanon also rejoiced over you: since you have fallen asleep, no one has come up to cut us down. By firs and cedars of Lebanon, understand the leaders of the nations, who were cut down by Nebuchadnezzar, and who themselves, bursting forth into a voice of joy, say: Since you have been brought down to the underworld, no one else could be found to cut down the great and powerful.

(Verse 8) 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?

(Verse 20) For you have destroyed your land, you have killed your people. According to the Septuagint interpreters who said, 'Because you have destroyed my land and killed my people,' there is no doubt about what they mean. Indeed, Nebuchadnezzar killed and destroyed the land of Judah and its people. According to the Hebrew text, it is difficult to understand how he lost his own land and killed his own people, unless perhaps it should be understood in this sense: you completely destroyed those whom God had given you to correct. Or else: the ancient kingdom of the Assyrians, with you proudly and defiantly raising your neck against God, was completely destroyed. For if you had behaved humbly, and understood your limits, the Assyrians and Babylonians would still be reigning. It was in this manner: you were so cruel to foreigners that you even oppressed subjugated peoples in your frenzy.

(Verse 13) Who spoke through pride: I have achieved such great power, that heaven remains for me and the stars should be subjected beneath my feet. Although the Jews want to understand the sky and the stars of God, from what follows: I will sit on the mount of the testament, that is, in the Temple, where God's laws are established, and on the sides of the North, that is, in Jerusalem. For it is written: The mountains of Zion are the sides of the North (Ps. 47:3).

(Verse 29.) Do not rejoice, O Philistia, all of you, because the rod of your striker is broken; for from the root of the serpent a little king will come forth, and his offspring will consume the flying creature. It is natural that we say: when the king of the enemy nations dies, the enemies always rejoice, waiting for civil wars, seditions, and the incompetence of ruling from new things. Therefore, with the sinner Ahaz dead, who had walked in the ways of the kings of Israel and had been joined to them by kinship, we understand that the Philistines were pleased to be nearby and insulted the Israelites because with the mature king lost, they would be subject to the young Hezekiah. But, as we said above, Philisthaeos signifies the Palestinians, whom the Vulgate edition of the Bible refers to as foreigners: even though this is not the name of one particular nation, but of all foreign nations. Do not, he says, rejoice, O Philisthaea, do not insult my people because the rod of your smiter Achaz is broken; because the staff that used to strike you appears to be shattered; because the snake is killed. For this reason, a more harmful ruler will be born, whom the Greeks call the basilisk, who will put you to death with his gaze and the breath of his mouth. For no bird of prey can pass through unharmed: however far away it may be, it is sucked up by its mouth. So too, you will perish from the sight of King Hezekiah. And he preserved the metaphor well: for he had mentioned both a snake and a bird of prey, and he says that birds are devoured by its mouth and breath. As for no king of Judah having struck the Philistines like Hezekiah devastated them, listen to the Book of Kings: He struck the Philistines as far as Gaza, and as far as its borders: from the tower of the keepers to the fortified cities (2 Kings 18:8). But because we have translated it as absorbing the winged creature, and it is written in Hebrew as Saraph Mopheth (), which can be interpreted as a flying serpent: so the sense is: from the root of the serpent a king will be born, and its fruit, that is, the king's flying serpent, so that you may understand a flying dragon.

Therefore, it is commanded to the Philistines, whom they now call Palestinians, and always by the LXX called ἀλλόφυλοι, that is, foreigners; and it is said to them not to rejoice or be glad, because they have broken the rod or yoke of their oppressor (Heb. XII, 6). For whom the Lord loves, he chastises, and he punishes every son he receives. And as God instructs our children, when He visits our iniquities with a rod, and our sins with chastisements, so that He does not take away His mercy from us (Ps. 88). This is the rod about which it is written in another Psalm: Your rod and your staff, they comfort me (Ps. 23:4). This is the rod, and this yoke that the Savior wants to impose on the necks of all, so that having laid aside the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar, they may carry the yoke of Christ. But if someone rejects and destroys it, immediately from the seed or root of the serpent, which is the winding serpent, little snakes and asps will come out, and from the asps flying serpents will come out, or those that devour birds. But when the yoke of God is rejected and the discipline of the Lord is destroyed, first the seed of the serpent takes root in our thoughts, secondly a little snake is born from the evil seed, which is the king of serpents, and it is said to kill men with its breath and sight: or the offspring of asps, of which it is said in the Psalms: The venom of asps is under their lips (Psalm 13:3, and 139:4), which are the various sins, and they burst forth from the wicked treasure of thoughts into evil deeds. And when they rule among alien men, who are strangers to God, immediately feathered serpents emerge; so that it is not enough for them to have thought and done evil things, unless they also seek the protection of evil works, and invent various heresies. I believe that these feathered serpents are those who exalt and rise up against the knowledge of God, and put their mouth in the heavens: or who swallow birds, that is, those who with their venomous mouth devour each one desiring to fly and rise to high places. And in the meantime, concerning the evils.

[Daniel 7:4] "The first beast was like a lioness and possessed the wings of an eagle. I beheld until her wings were torn away, and she was raised upright from the ground and stood on her feet like a human being, and she was given a human heart." The kingdom of the Babylonians was not called a lion but a lioness, on account of its brutality and cruelty, or else because of its luxurious, lust-serving manner of life. For writers upon the natural history of beasts assert that lionesses are fiercer than lions, especially if they are nursing their cubs, and constantly are passionate in their desire for sexual relations. And as for the fact that she possessed eagle's wings, this indicates the pride of the all-powerful kingdom, the ruler of which declares in Isaiah: "Above the stars of heaven will I place my throne, and I shall be like unto the Most High" (Isaiah 14:14). Therefore he is told: "Though thou be borne on high like an eagle, thence will I drag thee down" (Obadiah 1:4). Moreover, just as the lion occupies kingly rank among beasts, so also the eagle among the birds. But it should also be said that the eagle enjoys a long span of life, and that the kingdom of Assyrians had held sway for many generations. And as for the fact that the wings of the lioness or eagle were torn away, this signifies the other kingdoms over which it had ruled and soared about in the world. "And she was raised up," he says, "from the ground"; which means, of course, that the Chaldean empire was overthrown. And as for what follows, "And she stood upon her feet like a human being, and she was given a human heart," if we understand this as applying to Nebuchadnezzar, it is very evident that after he lost his kingdom and his power had been taken away from him, and after he was once more restored to his original state, he not only learned to be a man instead of a lioness but he also received back the heart which he had lost. But if on the other hand this is to be understood as applying in a general way to the kingdom of the Chaldeans, then it signifies that after Belshazzar was slain, and the Medes and Persians succeeded to imperial power, then the men of Babylon realized that theirs was a frail and lowly nature after all. Note the order followed here: the lioness is equivalent to the golden head of the image [in chap. 2].

(Verse 14) And his pride was not enough to desire heavenly things, unless he had burst forth into such madness as to claim the likeness of God for himself.

(Verse 11) 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 7) 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.

(Verse 7) The whole earth is at rest and quiet; they break forth into singing. How he has rested and been humbled, and all the land has conspired for his downfall, only making the voice of rejoicing heard.

(v. 32.) What will the response be to the messages of the nation? Because the Lord has founded Zion, and in it the poor of his people will hope. Because it was said, there is no one who can escape his army, it seemed in the general sentiment that even Judah was included. Yes; he says, if the angels of the Assyrian nation inquire why only Judah escaped, answer them, because the Lord has founded Zion, and he has protected his humble people with his power. For the Angels () the kings () translated in the Septuagint, deceived by the error of a single letter Aleph.

(Verse 22, 23.) And I will rise up against them, says the Lord of hosts: and I will destroy the name of Babylon, and the remnants, and the seed, and the offspring, says the Lord. And I will make it a possession for the hedgehog, and pools of water: and I will sweep it with the besom of destruction, says the Lord of hosts. Babylon was the most powerful, and situated on a plain, with walls stretching from one corner to another, covering sixteen thousand stadia, which is equivalent to sixty-four times around, according to Herodotus and many others who wrote Greek histories. But the citadel, that is, the Capitol of that city, is a tower which is said to have been built after the flood, and is reported to be four thousand paces high, gradually narrowing from the sides to the top, so that the weight pressing upon it may be more easily supported by the broader base. There they describe marble temples, golden statues, streets gleaming with stones and gold, and many other things which almost seem incredible. We have narrated all this to show that all human power is as dust and ashes compared to the anger of God. If it were permitted to enter barbarian nations and see the remains of such a great city, we would see the possession of heretics, and swamps of water, and truly fulfill what is now sung by the voices of Isaiah: I will sweep it with a broom, wearing it out; for except for the baked brick walls, which are being restored after many years in order to enclose wild animals, the entire middle space is a desolation.

(Verse 9.) The underworld beneath you is stirred up, it raises the giants to meet your arrival: all the rulers of the earth have risen from their thrones: all the rulers of the nations will respond and say to you. These things are to be read emphatically and in a dramatic manner; not that they have actually happened, but that they could have happened: unless, of course, we believe that the souls of the kings whom you have killed have appeared, taunting the Babylonian king. For it is a comfort in misfortune, when enemies see them endure the same things.

(Verse 9) 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.

(Verse 10) 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.

(Verse 15.) However, you are dragged down to the depths of hell. He who had said through pride, 'I will ascend to heaven, I will be like the Most High,' is dragged not only to the depths of hell, but to the deepest depths of hell. In the Gospel, we read about these outer darknesses, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth (Luke 13:28).

(Verse 4) How the oppressor has ceased: the tribute has ceased! This is the lamentation with which the people of Israel bewail themselves: 'How the Lord has become weak and powerless, the conqueror of the nations who once plundered everything!'

[Daniel 4:4] "I, Nebuchadnezzar, was at ease in my house and prospering in my palace." The narrative is clear indeed and requires but little interpretation. Because he displeased God, Nebuchadnezzar was turned into a madman and dwelt for seven years amongst the brute beasts and was fed upon the roots of herbs, Afterwards by the mercy of God he was restored to his throne, and praised and glorified the King of heaven, on the ground that all His works are truth and His ways are justice and He is able to abase those who walk in pride. But there are some who claim to understand by the figure of Nebuchadnezzar the hostile power which the Lord speaks of in the Gospel, saying: "I beheld Satan falling from heaven like lightning" (Luke 10:18). Likewise John in Revelation, in the passage where the dragon falls upon the earth drawing a third of the stars with him (Revelation 12:4). Likewise Isaiah: "How hath the morning star fallen, which used to rise early in the morning" (Isaiah 14:12). These authorities assert that it was absolutely impossible for a man who was reared in luxury to subsist on hay for seven years and to dwell among wild beasts for seven years without being at all mangled by them. Also they ask how the imperial authority could have been kept waiting for a mere madman, and how so mighty a kingdom could have gone without a king for so long a period. If, on the other hand, anyone had succeeded him on the throne, how foolish he would have to be thought to surrender an imperial authority which he had possessed for so long. Such a thing would be especially incredible since the historical records of the Chaldeans contain no such record, and since they recorded matters of far less import, it is impossible that they should have left things of major importance unmentioned. And so they pose all of these questions and offer as their own reply the proposition that since the episode does not stand up as genuine history, the figure of Nebuchadnezzar represents the devil. To this position we make not the slightest concession; otherwise everything we read in Scripture may appear to be imperfect representations and mere fables. For once men have lost their reason, who would not perceive them to lead their existence like brutish animals in the open fields and forest regions? And to pass over all other considerations, since Greek and Roman history offer episodes far more incredible, such as Scylla and the Chimaera, the Hydra and the Centaurs, and the birds and wild beasts and flowers and trees, the stars and the stones into which men are related to have been transformed, what is so remarkable about the execution of such a divine judgment as this for the manifestation of God's power and the humbling of the pride of kings? Nebuchadnezzar says, "'I was at ease in my house and prospering in my palace...'" or as Theodo-tion renders it "upon my throne." Now those who follow the interpretation we are opposing understand by the devil's home this world of ours. Concerning the world Satan himself in the Gospel says to the Savior: "All these things have been given over to me" (Luke 4:6). Likewise the Apostle says: "The world lieth in the Wicked One" (1 John 5:19).

For greater ease of understanding we translated this phrase as follows: "How you have fallen from heaven, Lucifer, who arose in the morning." But if we were to render a literal translation from the Hebrew, it would read, "How you have fallen from heaven, howling son of the dawn." Lucifer is also signified with other words. And he who was formerly so glorious that he was compared to a bearer of lightning is now told that he must weep and mourn. Just as Lucifer scatters the darkness, it says, glowing and shining with a golden hue, so also your stepping forth to the peoples and the public seemed like a shining star. But you who spoke with arrogance, who wounded the nations, fell to the earth. I have obtained so great a power that heaven should stand still for me, and the stars above deserve to be thrown under my feet. Nevertheless, the Jews wanted to be understood as the heaven and stars of God, inasmuch as it continues, "I will sit in the mount of the covenant," that is, in the temple where the laws of God are hidden, "and on the sides of the north," that is, in Jerusalem. For it is written, "Mount Zion, the sides of the north." Nor was his pride satisfied with desire for the heavens, but it would break forth with such madness that he would claim for himself likeness to God.

Lucifer fell, Lucifer who used to rise at dawn; and he who was raised in a paradise of delight had the well-earned sentence passed upon him: "Though you exalt yourself as the eagle, and though you set your nest among the stars, thence will I bring you down, says the Lord." For he had said in his heart, "I will exalt my throne above the stars of God," and "I will be like the Most High."

(Verse 12) However, it is signified by other words, Lucifer; and it is said to him that he should weep and mourn, who once was so glorious, that he was compared to the brightness of Lucifer. As, it says, Lucifer dispelling the darkness, burning and ruddy he shines forth; so also your advancement among the people and the public seemed similar to a bright star; but you have fallen to the earth, O wounded conqueror of nations.

(Verse 28.) In the year that King Ahaz died, this burden came. We read in the Book of the Prophets that four kings of Judah held the title of Prophet: Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, each succeeding the other in order and lineage. We have read earlier about the death of Uzziah, as recorded by Isaiah: In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a high and lofty throne. From this, we understand both the vision of the Lord sitting and the things that are commanded to the Prophets, up to the point where it is written (Chapter VI): "As a terebinth and as an oak that spreads its branches, so shall be the holy seed, it shall be the germ under King Jotham prophesied" (Ibid., VII). Achaz, the son of Joatham, the son of Ozias, succeeded as the third king of Judah. During his reign, Rasin, the king of Syria, and Phacee, the son of Romelia, the king of Israel, came to Jerusalem to fight against it, as the Scripture recounts. Therefore, from Achaz up to the present point, which we now endeavor to explain, we know all the things that are placed in the middle, prophesied: after his death, Ezechias, the fourth and final king, succeeded, under whom the entire book is woven together until the end.

(Verse 28, etc.) In the year in which King Ahaz died, this burden occurred. Do not rejoice, all you Philistines, for the rod of your oppressor is broken. From the root of the snake will come forth a ruler, and his offspring will swallow up the flying creatures. The firstborn of the poor will be fed, and the needy will rest securely. I will cause the root to die by famine, and I will slay your remaining ones. According to the LXX: In the year in which King Ahaz died, this word was fulfilled: Do not rejoice, all you foreigners, for his yoke that oppressed you is broken. Indeed, from the seed of the serpent, offspring of asps will come forth, and from their offspring, winged serpents will come forth. And the poor will be fed by them, and poor men will rest in peace. But your seed will be killed by famine, and your remnants will be destroyed. After the death of Ahaz, which means κατάσχεσις, that is, possession or occupation, whom we read is the most impious king, this burden falls upon the Philistines, or word. For while he was living and reigning among sinners, neither the weight against foreigners nor the word of God could come to the Prophet. Indeed, I remember having said this before, when Uzziah died, Isaiah saw the Lord sitting on a high and exalted throne. And in Exodus we read (Exodus 22) that after the death of the king of Egypt, the sons of Israel groaned because of their labors, and they cried out, and their cry rose up because of their labors, and the Lord heard their groaning. For if what was said was not mystical, they should have shouted all the more when he was reigning, when they were serving with mud and bricks.

(Ver. 30.) And the firstborn of the poor will be fed, and the poor will rest confidently. When the ruler strikes you, and the flying dragon devastates your boundaries, you will not plot against Judah, and you will not frighten my humble people with your deceit; but crushed by your own troubles, you will weep for your calamity. But the humble and poor, who did not trust in wealth and power, but in my name, will rest in secure peace and will not fear the attack of any enemy.


And I will make your root perish in famine, and I will destroy your remnants. He is speaking entirely in figures. The meaning is that, while the people of God are confidently resting, the root of the Philistines will dry up, and all the remnants will be consumed.

Moreover, those who have not broken the rod and yoke of their oppressor, but have submitted their neck to the Lord, and are poor in spirit, will be nourished, and will say: The Lord feeds me, and nothing will be lacking for me (Ps. 122:1). And they will hear from the Lord: I will feed them in fertile pastures (Ezek. 34; John 10); and they will enter and leave, and will find pastures. And the poor will be nourished by Him who strikes them in order to correct them: and they will rest in peace, whether the shepherd is watchful, they will act confidently, and they will rest with Lazarus in the bosom of Abraham (Luke 16). But those who broke the yoke and the staff of their oppressor shall endure everlasting hunger, so that they may not be nourished by the word of God, but all their remnants shall perish, so that nothing may grow from the evil seed.

(Verse 26, 27.) This is the plan that I have devised for the whole earth, and this is the hand stretched out over all nations. For the Lord of hosts has purposed, and who can annul it? His hand is stretched out, and who will turn it back? Some interpret this passage as a general prophecy against the entire world, and that the desolation of the cities of Babylon and Assyria are a type of the end of the world. We do not disagree with them, as long as we understand that in this passage the whole earth properly signifies the land of the Assyrians and all the nations allied with the Assyrian king. But whatever is decreed by the Lord, is not prevented by the power of anyone. And no one can restrain his outstretched hand, ready to strike.

(Verses 10, 11.) And you have been wounded as we, you have become like us: your pride has been brought down to the grave: your body has fallen, tinea will spread beneath you, and worms will cover you. The speech of the powerful and the princes of the earth, whom he called higher than cedars and fir trees, is directed to the king of Babylon who is established in the depths. Now we do not grieve to have been cut down, since you also fall by the same axe. All your power, and the pride raised to the heavens, has been brought down to earth. Therefore, shall I support your corpse in my hand, and cover it with a multitude of swarming worms? You will feel through the death of a man the worthlessness, who preferred the power of God in you.

(Verse 5) The Lord has broken the rod of the wicked, the staff of rulers. That man, I say, who was the staff of the wicked, who fiercely struck down all with his scepter and royal rod.

(Verse 21.) The seed of evildoers will not be called forever. Prepare his children for slaughter because of the iniquity of their fathers: they will not rise, nor will they inherit the land, nor will they fill the faces of the cities. All histories agree that after the killing of Balthasar, the grandson of Nebuchadnezzar, and the succession of Darius to the kingdom of the Chaldeans, no one from the offspring of Nebuchadnezzar ruled thereafter. Therefore, Scripture predicts that such devastation will come upon Babylon that no royal seed will remain, but because of the wickedness of the father, all offspring will be destroyed. But because we have moved to the final part of the sentence, the faces of the cities will not be filled up, it is written in Hebrew for cities, Arim (), which we can translate as adversaries; so the meaning is: no one from your seed will desire to restore the kingdom, an adversary will be raised up. According to the Seventy Interpreters, who said: Wicked seed, prepare your sons for destruction because of the sins of your father, I cannot understand the meaning.

Read in the letter of James how much evil the tongue can cause. The tongue knows no middle way; either it is a great evil or a great good; a great good when it acknowledges that Christ is God, a great evil when it denies that Christ is God. Let no one, therefore, harbor the illusion and claim: I have not committed sin in act; if I sinned, I sinned with my tongue. What more monstrous sin is there than blasphemy against God? Yet it is the tongue that is sinning. Why did the devil fall? Because he committed theft? Because he committed murder? Because he committed adultery? These are certainly evils, but the devil did not fall because of any of these; he fell because of his tongue. What was it that he said? "I will scale the heavens; above the stars I will set up my throne; I will be like the Most High!" Monks surely, then, have no right to think they are safe and say: We are in the monastery, and so we do not commit serious offenses; I do not commit adultery; I do not steal; I am not a murderer; I am not guilty of parricide; and so of all the rest of the big vices. But the devilish sins are those of the tongue. It is outrageous to detract from my brother; I am killing my brother with my tongue, for, "Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer."Listen to what Solomon says: "Death and life are in the power of the tongue." "In the power of the tongue," do you see how much evil there is in the tongue? It has power, for what does he say? "In the power of the tongue."

(Chapter XIV - Verse 1) The time is near for it to come, and its days will not be prolonged. It says that the time is pressing and that it must be captured from the enemies. After the captivity of Jerusalem, not much time passed, and it was devastated by the Medes and Persians.

For the Lord will have mercy on Jacob and will still choose Israel and cause them to rest on their own land. This is more fully explained by Zephaniah: Rejoice, O daughter of Zion; shout aloud, O Israel; be glad and exult with all your heart, O daughter of Jerusalem; for the Lord has taken away your judgments; he has turned away your enemies (Zephaniah 3:14-15). This signifies the time when King Cyrus of Persia allowed the captive people of Jerusalem to return. Read the book of Ezra (Ezra 1), Haggai (Haggai 1) and Zechariah (Zechariah 1), when under Zerubbabel, the high priest Joshua, Ezra, and Nehemiah, the altar, the Temple, and the walls of the city were rebuilt.

(Verse 16, 17.) Those who see you will bow down to you and look to you (saying in their hearts): Is this the man who troubled the earth, who shook kingdoms, who made the world a wilderness and destroyed its cities, who did not open the prison for his captives? This voice of those insulting and marveling expresses how the one who laid waste to everything himself has been laid waste. But when it says: He did not open the prison for his captives, the greatness of his cruelty and impiety is expressed, as he even held the prisoners in captivity, and the chains would not be enough for the wretched unless the horror of darkness also enclosed them.

(Verse 3) And it shall be in that day, when the Lord has given you rest from your labor, and from your turmoil, and from your hard service which you had to bear, that you shall recite this proverb against the king of Babylon and say, The speech is addressed to Israel, that after Jerusalem has been restored and the yoke of servitude has been cast off, they should remember the former power of Nebuchadnezzar and the height of Babylon, and lament him with a pitiful voice, because he has come to such great calamity that he seems worthy of even his own enemies' pity.

(Vers. 2.) A stranger will be joined to them, and will cleave to the house of Jacob, and the peoples will hold them, and will bring them to their place, and the house of Israel will possess them as servants and handmaids; and those who had taken them captive will be taken captive, and their oppressors will be subject to them. We infer that many from various nations have come to Jerusalem with the people of Judah, believing in the God of Israel and forsaking the idols of error. There is no doubt that they have been restored to the letters of the king and have received gifts and expenses for the Temple. In this alone intelligence seems to be confined, how Israel once possessed the land of the Lord as conquerors, and subjected their oppressors, and had them as slaves and maidservants. Unless, perhaps, we understand the whole synecdochically from a part: that they were of such great prosperity afterwards, that they even acquired families of slaves and maidservants from different nations around. This can also be understood in the times of Ahasuerus (Esther 9; Judith 13), when the hostile army was cut off from Israel with the slaying of Holofernes. Because I stick to letters, and in the manner of a serpent, I devour the earth, it is your will, since you wanted to hear only the historical interpretation.

(Verse 6) That struck the people in anger with a continual stroke, that ruled the nations in wrath with a relentless persecution. Whose blow could not be withstood, who even cruelly pursued those fleeing.

(Verse 18, 19.) All the kings of the nations, all slept in glory, each man in his own house. But you have been cast out of your tomb like a useless branch, defiled and wrapped with those who were slain by the sword, and have gone down to the foundations of the abyss; you will not have the company of a decaying corpse, nor be buried with them. The Hebrews tell the following story: Evilmerodach, who during his father Nebuchadnezzar's lifetime spent seven years among the beasts, had reigned before he was restored to the kingdom. After his father's death, he was imprisoned with Joachim, the king of Judah, until he succeeded to the throne again. But when he returned to the kingdom, the princes did not accept him, fearing that the one who was believed to be extinct was still alive. To demonstrate the death of his father, he opened the tomb and dragged out the corpse with hooks and ropes. And the meaning is: With all those who were killed having been buried, you alone will lie unburied. Others, however, interpret this place in the following way: All souls in the underworld will receive some rest, but you alone will be bound in complete darkness. For you will be covered in the blood of all, and the blood of all will press upon you like a shroud of the filth of the dead. Symmachus translated this passage as follows: Even with those who are killed in war, you do not deserve to have a share in burial. But concerning what we have said, as though a useless shoot, it is read in Hebrew: Chaneser Nethab, which Aquila interprets as a polluted sore. Neser, on the other hand, properly means a twig, which grows at the roots of trees and is cut off by farmers as though useless; we can understand this as the same thing as a sore and decay. At the same time, we learn that hell is beneath the earth, as Scripture says: To the foundations of the lake.

(Verse 24, 25.) The Lord of hosts swore, saying: If it shall not be as I thought, so it shall be, and as I devised it in my mind, so shall it come to pass, that I will break the Assyrian in my land, and upon my mountains tread him under foot: and his yoke shall be taken away from them, and his burden shall be taken off their shoulder. He returns to the present, that is, to Sennacherib, the king of the Assyrians, who devastated Samaria and Judah, and except Jerusalem, destroyed everything all around; and he associates events in the distant future, so that the impending fear may be removed: for those who hear could say: We endure the present siege, but he promises something that will come many centuries later. Therefore, there is a prophecy, although after many years Babylon will be destroyed and the entire seedbed of the Assyrians and Chaldeans will be scattered: nevertheless, so that you do not fear the imminent captivity, the Lord swears (to whom even the one who does not swear must be believed) that his estimation will not deceive and that what he has conceived in his mind will not be in vain. However, he speaks this with human affection, namely, that the one who cannot be deceived will not be deceived: I will crush, he says, the Assyrian in my land, and I will trample him on my mountains. For in one night, 185,000 soldiers of the Assyrian army were destroyed by the Angel. And the yoke that oppressed those who were besieging Jerusalem, and the heavy burden that weighed upon them, will be removed from them and instead pushed back onto themselves. For when the Assyrian king fled to his own land, King Hezekiah went out with the rest of the people, free from oppression.

"He deemed it no robbery to be God's equal, yet he emptied himself and took on the form of a slave." This was by no means robbery! Who was the robber, then? Adam. And the primordial robber? The being who seduced Adam. How, then, did the devil seize what did not belong to him? "I will set my throne in the north; I shall be like the Most High," he said. He grabbed for himself something not given to him; that was robbery. The devil tried to usurp what had not been granted to him and thereby lost what he had been given. Then from the cup of his own pride he offered a drink to the humans he was trying to seduce, saying, "Taste it, and you will be like gods." They too wanted to make a grab at divinity, and they lost their happiness. The devil robbed and paid for it; but Christ declares, "I was discharging a debt, though I had committed no robbery."As the Lord approached his passion, he testified, "Now the prince of this world (that is, the devil) is coming, and he will find nothing in me (that means, he will find no justification for killing me). But so that the world may know that I am doing my Father's will, rise, let us leave here." And he went out to his passion, to pay back where he had committed no robbery. What else does his statement mean—"he will find nothing in me"? He will find no fault. Had the devil found anything missing from his house? Let the devil pursue any robbers he may find; "he will find nothing in me."

It was by a kind of strength that man offended, so as to require to be corrected by weakness: for it was by a certain "pride" that he offended; so as to require to be chastened by humility. All proud persons call themselves strong people. Therefore have many [others] "come from the East and the West" and have attained "to sit down with Abraham, and Isaac and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven." Therefore, how was it that they so attained? Because they would not be strong. What is meant by "would not be strong"? They were afraid to presume of their own merits. They did not "go about to establish their own righteousness," that they might "submit themselves to the righteousness of God." … Behold! you are mortal; and you bear about you a body of flesh that is corrupting away: "And you shall fall like one of the princes. You shall die like human beings" and shall fall like the devil. What good does the remedial discipline of mortality do you? The devil is proud, as not having a mortal body, as being an angel. But as for you, who have received a mortal body, and to whom even this does no good, so as to humble you by so great weakness, you shall "fall like one of the princes." This then is the first grace of God's gift, to bring us to the confession of our infirmity, that whatever good we can do, whatever ability we have, we may be that in him; that "he that glories, may glory in the Lord." "When I am weak," he says, "then am I strong."

For example, what is said in Isaiah, "How he is fallen from heaven, Lucifer, son of the morning!" and the other statements in that context that speak of the king of Babylon are of course to be understood of the devil. However, the statement that is made in the same place, "He that sent orders to all nations is crushed on the earth," does not altogether fitly apply to the head himself.

The one says, "I will exalt my throne above the stars of God"; the other, "Learn of me, for I am meek and lowly of heart." The one says, "I know not the Lord and will not let Israel go"; the other, "If I say that I know him not, I shall be a liar like unto you: but I know him and keep his commandments." The one says, "My rivers are mine, and I made them"; the other, "I can do nothing of myself, but my Father who abides in me, he does the works." The one says, "All the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them are mine, and to whomsoever I will, I give them"; the other, "Though he were rich, yet he became poor, that we through his poverty might be made rich." The one says, "As eggs are gathered together which are left, so have I gathered all the earth, and there was none that moved the wing or opened the mouth, or made the least noise"; the other, "I am become like a solitary pelican; I watched and became as a sparrow alone upon the roof." The one says, "I have dried up with the sole of my foot all the rivers shut up in banks"; the other, "Cannot I ask my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels?" If we look at the reason of our original fall and the foundations of our salvation, and [if we] consider by whom and in what way the latter were laid and the former originated, we may learn, either through the fall of the devil or through the example of Christ, how to avoid so terrible a death from pride.

And because he "loved the words of ruin," with which he had said, "I will ascend into heaven," and the "deceitful tongue," with which he had said of himself, "I will be like the Most High," and of Adam and Eve, "You shall be as gods," therefore "shall God destroy him forever and pluck him out and remove him from his dwelling place and his root out of the land of the living." Then "the just," when they see his ruin, "shall fear, and shall laugh at him and say" (what may also be most justly aimed at those who trust that they can obtain the highest good without the protection and assistance of God): "Behold the man that did not make God his helper but trusted in the abundance of his riches and prevailed in his vanity."

Because the Lord Jesus would destroy their staff, that is, their power to oppress, Isaiah said, "How has the oppressor ceased and the tax ended? Was his oppressor's staff destroyed?" It befits Christians to be cautious, therefore, and it is right for the people of the Lord to be observant, lest oppressors who had once been repelled by divine grace should rouse themselves again to demand the kind of taxes which are paid with spiritual delinquency.

God's warning is twofold, one directed toward the submissive and the other toward obstinate minds. As was said about the submissive: "I will punish their crimes with a rod and their sins with a whip, but I will not remove my mercy from them or deceive them in my truth." But the wrath of God's rebuke upon obstinate sinners is unbearable, as Isaiah testifies: "The descendants of the evil will never be named. Prepare their sons to be killed for the iniquity of their fathers. They will not rise, or inherit the earth or fill the face of the world with children. 'And I will rise against them,' says the Lord of hosts, 'and I will destroy the name of Babylon and its seed and offspring,' said the Lord."

The devil regarded himself as great when he said, "I will set my throne at the north, and I will be like the Most High." Even today proud people count themselves greater than all others. But no one can be truly called great except God alone, for nothing can be remotely compared with his power; he is subject to no change but continues always in the glory of his nature.

And again: "I shall set my seat to the north, and I will be like the Most High." So he is rightly termed a calumniator, for while performing cruel deeds he always lays accusations against the devoted. Scripture elsewhere says of him, "He shall humble the oppressor, and he shall continue with the sun." So they most justly ask that the humble be not betrayed to the proud, the ingenuous to the liar, the pious to the ungrateful, for the persons whom those persecutors cannot seduce they treat with more savage violence.

Michael indeed means "Who is like God"; Gabriel, "the strength of God"; and Raphael is called "the medicine of God." And whenever something of wondrous power is accomplished, Michael is said to be sent, so that from the act itself and the name it may be understood that no one can do what God is able to do. Hence that ancient enemy, who through pride desired to be like God, saying: "I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt 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 height of the clouds, I will be like the Most High," when at the end of the world he is left to his own power to be destroyed by the final punishment, is said to be about to fight with the archangel Michael, as it is said through John: "There was a battle with the archangel Michael," so that he who proudly raised himself to the likeness of God, slain by Michael, might learn that no one rises to the likeness of God through pride.

But because this Leviathan is called in another place not merely a serpent, but also a basilisk, because he rules over unclean spirits, or reprobate men, as Isaiah says, Out of the serpent's root shall come forth a basilisk, we must attentively observe how a basilisk destroys, that by the doings of the basilisk, his malice may be more plainly made known to us. For a basilisk does not destroy with its bite, but consumes with its breath. It often also infects the air with its breath, and withers with the mere blast of its nostrils whatever it has touched, even when placed at a distance.

Michael indeed means "Who is like God"; Gabriel, "the strength of God"; and Raphael is called "the medicine of God." And whenever something of wondrous power is accomplished, Michael is said to be sent, so that from the act itself and the name it may be understood that no one can do what God is able to do. Hence that ancient enemy, who through pride desired to be like God, saying: "I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt 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 height of the clouds, I will be like the Most High," when at the end of the world he is left to his own power to be destroyed by the final punishment, is said to be about to fight with the archangel Michael, as it is said through John: "There was a battle with the archangel Michael," so that he who proudly raised himself to the likeness of God, slain by Michael, might learn that no one rises to the likeness of God through pride.

Both meditated iniquity, affecting height: the one, of power; the other, of knowledge. For the foolish woman believed him who promised, but who was deceiving: "You shall be as gods, knowing good and evil." Had he not already first deceived himself, he who had persuaded himself that he would be like the Most High? For he who thinks himself to be something, when he is nothing, deceives himself.

Therefore the devil was judged in fury, because his iniquity was found to be unto hatred; but man's unto wrath, and therefore he is chastised in wrath. Thus every height has been crushed, both that which puffs up and that which casts down, the Father indeed being zealous for the Son. For in both cases there is an injury to the Son: both from the usurped power against the power of God, which he himself is; and from the knowledge presumed from elsewhere than from the wisdom of God, which he no less is.

Howl. Here he threatens destruction by the Assyrians. And first, he threatens their destruction; second, the liberation of the Jews: and what shall be answered? (Isa 14:32).

Concerning the first, he sets out three things. First, he threatens universal destruction: gate, that is, the judges sitting in the gates: a voice was heard in the highways, weeping and howling of the children of Israel (Jer 3:21); and the multitude of the enemy: smoke, stirred up by the multitude of the army on account of the dust, from the north, because of the location of the Assyrians in relation to the Philistines: from the north shall an evil break forth upon all the inhabitants of the land (Jer 1:14); third, the impossibility of escape: and there is none that shall escape: there was none in the day of the wrath of the Lord that escaped (Lam 2:22).

For the Lord of hosts. Here he shows the support of the divine purpose, both as to the decree of wisdom: he has decreed, and as to the fulfillment of power: and his hand is stretched out: and who shall turn it away? He is alone, and no man can turn away his thought: and whatsoever his soul has desired, that has he done (Job 23:13).

Third, it contains the eagerness of the princes: the fir trees also, which signify those elevated in dignity; similar to this is what is found in Ezekiel 31:8: the cedars in the paradise of God were not higher than he. You have slept, with the sleep of the dead; cut us down, that is, kill us.

Third, they reproach him with the damage he inflicted on his own kingdom: you have destroyed your land, for the Chaldeans would have held the kingdom longer had it not been for the sins of Nabuchodonosor; for the people are punished for the fault of their prince, as is evident from Proverbs 31; the reason for this is that the people are accustomed to imitate the fault of their king: a prince that gladly hears lying words, has all his servants wicked (Prov 29:12).

The seed of the wicked shall not be named. Here he confirms the insult, and first, through the prophecy of the prophet; second, through the divine purpose: and I will rise up (Isa 14:22); third, through the support of the divine purpose: the Lord of hosts has decreed (Isa 14:27).

Concerning the first, he threatens three things. And first, the loss of his kingdom: the seed of the wicked, that is, the sons of Nabuchodonosor and their sons, shall not be named for ever, that is, his name will not survive in the honor of his kingdom.

Third, they reproach him with the pride of heart which he had, as to three things: as to his proud thought; second, as to his perverse intention: I will be like the most high (Isa 14:14); third, as to the frustration of his proposal: but yet you shall be brought down to hell (Isa 14:15).

Now his thought was proud because he thought to usurp what belongs to God, according to the error of the gentiles, who believed that men are turned into gods, and that stars come to be from princes, as it says in 2 Maccabees 11:23: our father being translated amongst the gods; he also thought to usurp the divine place: I will ascend into heaven, above the stars of God, as if to say: for as I am above other the princes on earth, so will I be above other the stars in heaven; and divine worship: I will sit, as though receiving sacrifice, in the mountain of the covenant, that is, in the temple of God, which was on mount Zion, and in which was the testament of the law, in sides of the north, that is, in Jerusalem, which was on the north part of the mountain. And divine action: above the height of the clouds; as if to say: that I might send thunder and lightning. Or the clouds signify the prophets; heaven, the kingdom of the Jews; the stars, the Jews shining in the knowledge of God.

Note on the words, above the stars of God (Isa 14:13), that the saints are compared to stars: first, because of their number: who tells the number of the stars (Ps 147:4); thousands of thousands ministered to him, and ten thousand times a hundred thousand stood before him (Dan 7:10); second, because of their location: the beauty of heaven with its glorious show (Sir 43:1); but our conversation is in heaven (Phil 3:20); third, because of their different degrees: star differs from star in glory (1 Cor 15:41); fourth, because of the glow of their splendor: they that instruct many to justice, as stars for all eternity (Dan 12:3); fifth, because of their well-ordered motion: the stars, remaining in their order and courses, fought against Sisara (Judg 5:20); let all things be done decently and according to order among you (1 Cor 14:40); sixth, because of their appearance: as the morning star in the midst of a cloud (Sir 50:6); it has not yet appeared what we shall be (1 John 3:2); seventh, because of their circular figure: a woman appeared in heaven . . . and on her head a crown of twelve stars (Rev 12:1), by which is signified the perfection of their glory.

Concerning the first, he does three things. For first, he excludes foolish joy: rejoice not you, over this, namely, that the rod, that is, the power, of him that struck you, that is, Achaz, is broken in pieces, by death: laughter I counted error (Eccl 2:2).

Second, he threatens an increase of the punishment: for out of the root of the serpent shall come forth a basilisk, as if to say: as the basilisk does more harm than another serpent, for even with its sight and breath it kills not just land animals, but also flying birds, just so, Ezechias, the son of Achaz shall afflict you more than others: my father put a heavy burden upon you, but I will add to your burden (1 Kgs 12:11).

I will be like the most high: here, his perverse intention: will you yet say before them that slay you: I am God? (Ezek 28:9).

Then as to the humiliation of the dead man, both in soul, your pride is brought down to hell, and in body, your carcass of death is fallen down; then also as to the affliction of the dead man in hell: under you shall the moth be strewed; worms, in which all the punishments of hell are designated: he will give fire, and worms into their flesh, that they may burn, and may feel for ever (Jdt 16:21).

Second, the place of destruction: in my land, for the army of Sennacherib was destroyed near Jerusalem, below: and the Lord of hosts shall make . . . in this mountain, a feast of fat things (Isa 25:6).

Third, he describes the fruit of the punishment, his yoke shall be taken away from them, above: for the yoke of their burden, and the rod of their shoulder, and the scepter of their oppressor you have overcome (Isa 9:4).

Second, it contains the ensuing peace: the whole earth is quiet, ceasing from that tumult, and still, ceasing from weeping, it is glad, in your destruction, and has rejoiced, in its liberation: the just shall rejoice when he shall see the revenge (Ps 58:10).

As to it being inhabited by beasts: I will make it a possession for the hedgehog, below: there has the hedgehog had its hole, and brought up its young ones, and has dug round about (Isa 34:15). As to the destruction of its walls: I will sweep it, so that nothing will remain but pavement, like a house that has been cleansed with a broom.

And what shall be answered. Here he promises liberation. And first, he sets out the inquiry: messengers, angels placed over the different provinces or asking anxiously of their state; or messengers sent to consult with Isaiah, like we read of in Jeremiah 37:3.

Second, the response is set out: that the Lord has founded Zion, that is, he has strengthened it by his protection, below: behold I will lay your stones in order (Isa 54:11).

Hell below. Here the insult of the dead against Nabuchodonosor is set out, and first, that of the princes and the powerful, second, of the others: they that shall see you (Isa 14:16).

Concerning the first, he does two things. First, he sets out the meeting with the lower regions, as to the ministers of punishments or officials: hell, that is, the devil, who is set over hell, below, for hell is below, was in an uproar, that is, turned to tumult, as if this could happen, below (ch. 30). Likewise as to other powers rushing in: it will stir up the giants for you, as though to rise to you with them; giants, as to the strong in body, below: let not the dead live, let not the giants rise again (Isa 26:14).

All the princes of the earth, as to kings, to whom it belongs to sit in thrones; the princes of the nations, as other power; but they are risen up.

All, namely, all the giants of hell, shall answer, as if you had summoned them, or as though crying.

Second, he sets out their reproach. And they reproach him with three things: namely, the punishment which he found, as to his death: you also are wounded, in death, by the force of divine power: you have humbled the proud one, as one that is wounded (Ps 89:10).

But yet: here, the frustration of his intention; into the depth of the pit, that is, into the harshest punishments: they spend their days in wealth, and in a moment they go down to hell (Job 21:31).

You shall take up this parable, that is, a sermon of similitudes, which says one thing and signifies another: for the things spoken of in the parable signify the condition of Nabuchodonosor, as to his power, his fault and his punishment, because of which these things could have happened, even if they did not happen: against the king of Babylon; in that day a parable shall be taken up upon you, and a song shall be sung with melody (Mic 2:4); shall not all these take up a parable against him? (Hab 2:6).

The insult itself is set out: and first, of the living; second, of the dead: hell below (Isa 14:9). The insult of the living contains three things: his destruction with the fault which he committed in exacting tributes: how is the exactor come to nothing.

Second, they reproach him with the glory he has lost. Both as to the dignity of the king: O Lucifer, beautiful among all other kings, in the morning, monarch before all others; and as to the power of war: how are you fallen to the earth: you, therefore, are the head of gold. And after you shall rise up another kingdom, inferior to you (Dan 2:38-39).

In the year. Here he threatens against the enemies who were rejoicing over the affliction of the Jews, and first, against the Philistines, who were rejoicing over their reduction by the death of Ezechias; second, against the Moabites, who were rejoicing over their destruction by the Assyrians or the Chaldeans: the burden of Moab (Isa 15:1).

The first of these is divided into two. In the first, the time of the threat is set out: in the year, in the time when the Philistines had occupied certain cities of the kingdom of Judea, as it says in 2 Chronicles 28, and yet Achaz resisted them, and therefore they were delighted in his death, as though they might more freely attack the Jews. Second, the threat is set out: rejoice not you. And first, he threatens the affliction which they suffered from Ezechias, second, the destruction which they suffered under the Assyrians, where it says, howl (Isa 14:31).

Third, he foretells the effect of the punishment, in all things as to the fruitfulness of the land: and the firstborn of the poor shall be fed, that is, the Jews, about which it says in Exodus 4:22: Israel is my firstborn; and as to the security of peace: shall rest with confidence, below: my people shall sit in the beauty of peace, and in the tabernacles of confidence (Isa 32:18); and the effect on the Philistines by the opposite of these, namely, famine, against the first: I will make your root perish with famine, that is, those also who ought to furnish nourishment to others; and killing, against the second: and your remnant, left by Ezechias, I will kill, through the Assyrians and Chaldeans, below: my servants shall eat, and you shall be hungry: my servants shall drink, and you shall be thirsty (Isa 65:13).

Second, they reproach him with the grave he has lost, for he was exhumed by his son, who divided his corpse into two-hundred pieces and bound the pieces to just as many birds gathered from different lands, that he might not rise again: defiled, by the blood of those whom you killed: he shall be buried with the burial of an ass (Jer 22:19).

And I will rise up. Here the divine purpose to fulfill the prophecy is set out. And first, to destroy Babylon, as to the destruction of its men: against them, namely, the sons of Nabuchodonosor, I will destroy the name of Babylon, that is, the reputation of its power, the remains, his sons, and the offspring, his nephews and so forth: his seed shall not subsist, nor his offspring among his people (Job 18:19).

That made the world a wilderness, exiling men, and destroyed the cities, overturning their governments, that opened not the prison to his prisoners, that they might see light: they spread their terror in the land of the living (Ezek 32:25).

In inflicting punishments on men: the Lord has broken the staff of the wicked, the rod of the rulers, that struck the people in wrath, as though in reply to a preceding question; in attacking kingdoms: that brought nations under: how is the hammer of the whole earth broken, and destroyed (Jer 50:32).

Second, he sets out the divine purpose to destroy the Assyrians, that it might set an example. And first, he sets out the oath: the Lord of hosts has sworn, that is, immovably established, surely as I have thought, that is, established: the Lord has sworn, and he will not repent (Ps 110:4).

Second, the killing of his sons by the Medes and Persians: prepare his children for slaughter in the iniquity, that is, for the iniquity, of their fathers.

Third, the impossibility of recovery, they shall not rise up; the face of the world, that is, of Babylon, which above (Isa 13:11) was referred to as the world: I am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children (Exod 20:5); from the unlawful iniquity is born (Wis 4:6).

Her time is near at hand. In this part, he promises liberation to the Jews through the destruction of Babylon, which he threatened above. And this is divided into three parts: in the first, he promises liberation; in the second, he foretells the insults of the liberated against their oppressor: and it shall come to pass in that day (Isa 14:3); in the third, he sets out the confirmation of the insult: the seed of the wicked shall not be named (Isa 14:20).

Concerning the first, he sets out three things: the shortness of time: near at hand is the day of the Lord, to whom all things are present, or after our subjugation, her days, of subjugation: the day of destruction is at hand, and the time makes haste to come (Deut 32:35).

Second, he sets out the manner and order of liberation, and first, as to the relief of their misery: for the Lord will have mercy: he will turn again, and have mercy on us (Mic 7:19); as to the recovery of divine favor: and will yet choose, namely, some of them: the Lord your God has chosen you (Deut 7:6); as to the restoration of their homeland: and will make them rest: I will bring them to their own land: and I will feed them in the mountains of Israel (Ezek 34:13).

Third, he describes the dignity of the liberated, as to the adhering of strangers to them: the stranger shall be joined: draw nigh to God: and he will draw nigh to you (Jas 4:8).

And it shall come to pass. Here the insult of the liberated people against their captor, who has now been destroyed, is set out.

And first, the title or the inscription is set out, containing three things: the time, when God shall give you rest from your labor, by which you have labored in waging war; and from your vexation, of captivity, by which you were kept in prison; and from bondage, by which you were oppressed in the land of your captivity.

As to honorable retention: the people, among whom they were taken captive, shall take them, namely, the Jews, as though to carry them in their arms, below: and they shall bring your sons in their arms, and carry your daughters upon their shoulders (Isa 49:22); or otherwise, as to the leading away of those who adhered to them, the people, namely, the Jews, shall take, that is, retain, them, leading those who adhered to them with themselves; as to the subjugation of the enemy or of those who adhered to them: and the house of Israel shall possess them, as they once possessed Israel: I will return your recompense upon your own heads (Joel 3:7).

They that shall see you. Here the insult of the other, common persons, is set out. And first, he describes their meeting: all others that shall see you, being punished, shall bend to you, as if to say: you will be so far below these others that it will be necessary for them to bend down for them to see you: the mighty shall be mightily tormented (Wis 6:7).

Second, he sets out their reproach, and they reproach him with three things. First, the fault which he committed: is this the man that troubled the earth, in wars, that shook the kingdoms, changing dominions.

All this is explained mystically of the devil: he shakes the kingdoms (Isa 14:16), as the minister of punishment, and inciter of sin; his power was lessened by Christ, and in the day of judgment, he shall be pulled entirely into hell, who wished to ascend to heaven and to come to equality with the divine majesty, according to what is explained in the Gloss.

Third, he places the divine purpose to destroy all peoples: this is the counsel, that I have purposed upon all the earth, to destroy it, as to deliberation; his hand, that is, his power, as to execution: take the cup of wine of this fury at my hand (Jer 25:15). Or the counsel, that I have purposed upon all the earth, to protect it from the Assyrians; and this is the hand that is stretched out, which was destroyed. And thus the fruit of the punishment will be in all nations.

That struck the people in wrath with an incurable wound, that brought nations under in fury, that persecuted in a cruel manner: how is the hammer of the whole earth broken, and destroyed (Jer 50:32).

It is the prince of the world; but it is also a usurper. So he will apprehend vaguely what the vision will give to him vividly; no less than all that strange story of treason in heaven and the great desertion by which evil damaged and tried to destroy a cosmos that it could not create. It is a very strange story and its proportions and its lines and colours are as arbitrary and absolute as the artistic composition of a picture. It is a vision which we do in fact symbolise in pictures by titanic limbs and passionate tints of plumage; all that abysmal vision of falling stars and the peacock panoplies of the night. But that strange story has one small advantage over the diagrams. It is like life.

Good and evil, then, are not on all fours. Badness is not even bad in the same way in which goodness is good. Ormuzd and Ahriman cannot be equals. In the long run, Ormuzd must be original and Ahriman derivative. The first hazy idea of devil must, if we begin to think, be analysed into the more precise ideas of 'fallen' and 'rebel' angel.

Now it is impossible at this point not to remember a certain sacred story which, though never included in the creeds, has been widely believed in the Church and seems to be implied in several Dominical, Pauline, and Johannine utterances--I mean the story that man was not the first creature to rebel against the Creator, but that some older and mightier being long since became apostate and is now the emperor of darkness and (significantly) the Lord of this world.

It seems to me, therefore, a reasonable supposition, that some mighty created power had already been at work for ill on the material universe, or the solar system, or, at least, the planet Earth, before ever man came on the scene: and that when man fell, someone had, indeed, tempted him. This hypothesis is not introduced as a general "explanation of evil": it only gives a wider application to the principle that evil comes from the abuse of free-will. If there is such a power, as I myself believe, it may well have corrupted the animal creation before man appeared.

And do you now begin to see why Christianity has always said that the devil is a fallen angel? That is not a mere story for the children. It is a real recognition of the fact that evil is a parasite, not an original thing. The powers which enable evil to carry on are powers given it by goodness. All the things which enable a bad man to be effectively bad are in themselves good things—resolution, cleverness, good looks, existence itself. That is why Dualism, in a strict sense, will not work.

If you mistake for your own merits what are really God's gifts to you through nature, and if you are contented with simply being nice, you are still a rebel: and all those gifts will only make your fall more terrible, your corruption more complicated, your bad example more disastrous. The Devil was an archangel once; his natural gifts were as far above yours as yours are above those of a chimpanzee.

According to Christian teachers, the essential vice, the utmost evil, is Pride. Unchastity, anger, greed, drunkenness, and all that, are mere fleabites in comparison: it was through Pride that the devil became the devil: Pride leads to every other vice: it is the complete anti-God state of mind...

Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man. We say that people are proud of being rich, or clever, or good-looking, but they are not. They are proud of being richer, or cleverer, or better-looking than others. If everyone else became equally rich, or clever, or good-looking there would be nothing to be proud about. It is the comparison that makes you proud: the pleasure of being above the rest...

But pride always mean enmity - it is enmity. And not only enmity between man and man, but enmity to God. In God you come up against something which is in every respect immeasurably superior to yourself. Unless you know God as that - and therefore, know yourself as nothing in comparison - you do not know God at all. As long as you are proud you cannot know God. A proud man is always looking down on things and people: and, of course, as long as you are looking down, you cannot see something that is above you.

When we have understood about free will, we shall see how silly it is to ask, as somebody once asked me: 'Why did God make a creature of such rotten stuff that it went wrong?' The better stuff a creature is made of—the cleverer and stronger and freer it is—then the better it will be if it goes right, but also the worse it will be if it goes wrong. A cow cannot be very good or very bad; a dog can be both better and worse; a child better and worse still; an ordinary man, still more so; a man of genius, still more so; a superhuman spirit best—or worst—of all.

How did the Dark Power go wrong? Here, no doubt, we ask a question to which human beings cannot give an answer with any certainty. A reasonable (and traditional) guess, based on our own experiences of going wrong, can, however, be offered. The moment you have a self at all, there is a possibility of putting yourself first—wanting to be the centre—wanting to be God, in fact. That was the sin of Satan: and that was the sin he taught the human race.