4 Be thou ashamed, O Zidon: for the sea hath spoken, even the strength of the sea, saying, I travail not, nor bring forth children, neither do I nourish up young men, nor bring up virgins.
If all our acts and deeds depend on the fates acquired at our birth and not on principles of morality, why are laws established and statutes promulgated by which punishment is meted out to the wicked and security bestowed on the innocent?… Why does the farmer toil and not rather wait until it is time to convey into his storehouses the produce for which he has not labored, relying on the prerogatives of his birth? If he was destined by birth to be endowed with wealth without the expenditure of labor, he should undoubtedly wait until the earth brings forth fruit spontaneously without seed. If such were the case, he should not sink his ploughshare into the earth or put his hands on the curved scythe or undergo the expense of harvesting the grapes. Rather, the wine would without effort flow plenteously into his stock of jars. Without effort, too, he would let the wild olive berry exude its oil without the labor of grafting upon the trunk of the olive tree. In the same way a merchant who travels over the wide seas would not be in dread of the perils that threaten his own life, for it is within his power, because of a certain destiny allotted to him at birth, to come without labor into a wealth of treasure.But this is far from the accepted opinion. As a matter of fact, the farmer cleaves the earth “with deep-driven plough”; “stripped he ploughs, stripped he sows”; stripped in the glowing “heat he thrashes on the floor the parched ears.” The merchant, impatient when the east winds are blowing, ploughs the sea often when the course is unsafe. Insolent and rash men such as these are condemned by the prophet, who says, “Be ashamed, O Sidon, the sea speaks.” That is to say, if dangers do not move you, then shame can check and modesty confound you. “Be ashamed, O Sidon,” in which there is no place for virtue, no care for safety, no young men exercised in arms and ready to fight in defense of their country. They are anxiously and entirely preoccupied with gain and the benefits derived from commerce.
Therefore, after being so often ploughed by returning merchants, “Be ashamed, O Sidon, has said the sea.” This is the voice of the fatigued element, as it were, saying, “Be ashamed, Sidon”; that is: Merchant, you accuse my waves although you yourself are more restless than they. Blush indeed for shame since you are not disturbed by peril. More modest are the winds than your desires. They have their rests; never do your cravings for gain take holiday. Even when the weather is quiet, never are your ships quiet. The water is churned under the oar when it is at rest from the blast. “I have not been in labor,” it says, “nor have I reared, nor have I nourished up young men.” Why do they disquiet me whom I do not know, whom I do not acknowledge?
(Verse 4.) Blush, O Sidon: for the sea speaks as the strength of the sea, saying: I have not given birth, and I have not borne, and I have not nourished the youth, nor have I led the maidens to growth. I have said before that the colony of the Sidonians is Tyre. Therefore, listen, mother, all the seas together cry out against your daughter, and in a way, emit a voice that they cannot naturally speak: I have gathered riches in vain: for no reason did I bring wealth from the whole world into Tyre: she, once rich, once luxurious, and once rejoicing in the multitude of peoples in which a crowd of mortals were born, a crowd of children, the trials of youth, whose streets were filled with the games of maidens, infants, youths, and girls: now she has been reduced to desolation. However, the practice of personifying mute objects is a common ritual.
(Verse 4-5) Blush, Sidon, said the sea; but the strength of the sea says, I have not given birth, nor have I brought forth, nor have I nourished young men, nor have I exalted virgins. But when it is heard in Egypt, sorrow will seize them over Tyre. The sea of this age, in which small creatures dwell with large ones, and the dragon which God created to mock it, seeing the hunters of Christ, who hunt from every mountain and hill, captured those who had been previously captured by demons, speaks to the opposing strength of the hunters, which is interpreted as Sidon, and says to it: Blush, Sidon; for I have not given birth, nor have I brought forth, nor have I nourished young men captured by you, nor have I exalted virgins, whose foolishness is condemned in the Gospel (Matthew 25). For by my travail, and travail, and nourishing, and the raising of virgins, is the travail of the Apostles of Christ abolished; of whom one spoke: My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you (Gal. IV, 19). And: I have given you milk to drink, not meat (I Cor. III, 2). And again: But I would have you to be without solicitude. He that is without a wife is solicitous for the things that belong to the Lord, how he may please God. But he that is with a wife is solicitous for the things of the world, how he may please his wife: and he is divided (I Cor. VII, 32-34). Also: Woman is saved by bearing children, if she continue in faith, and love, and sanctification, with sobriety (I Tim. II, 15). When Egypt shall hear this, which is called in Hebrew Mesraim, which is interpreted as pressing out, that is, afflicting, and oppressing, she shall be disturbed, understanding that she herself shall suffer the same things that Tyre endured. And when it is referred to all vices, it can be understood in the diversity of heresies, when one captivates through heresy, another trembles, and in the confusion of one, another feels that it must be captured. However, as it is said about Sodom: For if the miracles that were done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day; and it is inferred: Nevertheless, it will be more tolerable for Sodom on the day of judgment than for you: thus we learn about Tyre and Sidon from the Savior saying: Nevertheless, it will be lighter for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment than for that city (Matthew 11:21 ff.). Now the Canaanite woman, who understood that her daughter, that is, her soul, was being severely vexed by a most fierce demon, is said to have come out from the borders of Tyre and Sidon. For she could not encounter the Savior otherwise, unless she had left the borders of Tyre and Sidon.
To convince you of this, return again to the sea, and observe its depths, its extent, its division into bays, its shores, its port, the islands in its midst, the kinds of fishes in it and their species, shapes, variety and fondness for the shore.…Since journeying by land is fraught with difficulty and the satisfaction of all our needs on such journeys is not only difficult but impossible, the surface of the sea is there to take vessels, small and large, and to provide much necessary cargo for those in short supply. A single frigate can be seen taking as much as many thousand beasts. To ease the burden for seafarers the Creator made islands as ports in which they could call, rest, buy their needs and then set sail again for their destination. “Be ashamed” then “at this multitude of blessings, said the sea.”
For the words of the prophet apply more to you than to Sidon. For Sidon, ignoring the Creator, divided the divinity into many gods, mutilated the monotheistic form of worship and extended it to nonexistent deities, not indeed denying providence but ascribing it also to these false gods. For it would not offer sacrifice to these false gods unless it had fully persuaded itself that they provide assistance and avert disaster. But you who have been delivered from the error of polytheism and agree that all visible things are created; you, who adore their Creator, banish him from his creatures, set him completely outside his creation, assert that such an ordered universe is without a pilot and is borne about aimlessly like a ship without ballast. Be ashamed, then, at the blessings received from the sea, from the earth, from the air, from the sun and the sky that affords a roof over our heads. Respect the tribute you receive from creation.
Sidon is brought to shame, as it were, by the voice of the sea, when the life of one who is fortified and supposedly steadfast is reprobated in comparison with the lives of those who are worldly and are being tossed about in this world. For often there are those who, returning to the Lord after their sins of the flesh, evince themselves the more zealous in doing good works, as they realize they were worthy of condemnation for their deeds. And often certain people who persevere in preserving the integrity of the flesh, on perceiving that they have less to deplore, think to themselves that the innocence of their lives is sufficient and do not arouse themselves by zealously striving to be fervent in spirit.
Divine Providence has compassed us about and cut off all excuse. All openings to people’s equivocating arts are in every way closed. A Gentile, one without the law, is brought forward to confound the iniquity of those that are under the law; which is well and summarily shown by the prophet, when he says, “Be ashamed, O Sidon, says the sea.” For in Sidon we have a figure of the steadfastness of those settled upon the foundation of the law, and in the sea of the life of the Gentiles. Accordingly, “Be ashamed, O Sidon, says the sea,” because the life of those under the law is convicted by the life of Gentiles, and the conduct of people in a state of religion is put to confusion by the conduct of those living in the world, so long as the first do not, even under vows, observe what they hear enjoined in precepts. The latter by their manner of life keep those ways so that they are not in any wise bound by legal enactments.
[AD 397] Ambrose of Milan on Isaiah 23:4