Consider whether what follows in the prophet has not received its fulfillment: The Lord of hosts has taken away from Judah and from Jerusalem, among other things, both the prophet and the wise craftsman; that is, his Holy Spirit, who builds the church, which is indeed the temple, and household and city of God. . . . And so in this manner the law and the prophets were until John, but the dews of divine grace were withdrawn from the nation.

The climax of your sin is that you hate the right-eous one whom you killed, as well as those who by his grace are godly, righteous and loving. It is for this reason that the Lord said, Woe to their soul, because they have taken evil counsel against themselves, saying, ‘Let us take away the just one, for he is distasteful to us.’ Although you did not offer a sacrifice to Baal, like your ancestors, and did not offer cakes in groves and on hills to the heavenly army, you did not accept the Lord’s Christ. Whoever does not know Christ does not know the will of God. Whoever rejects and hates him obviously rejects and hates the one who sent him.^[1] Whoever does not have faith in him does not believe the words of the prophets who preached his good news and proclaimed him to all people.

It is the tribes, then, that are meant by the names of the patriarchs. From the tribe of Simeon come the scribes, from that of Levi the chief priests, who brought their wickedness to completion and filled up the entire measure of their fathers’ ungodliness^[1] in the passion of the Lord. They took counsel against the Lord Jesus, to kill him, even as Isaiah says, Alas for their souls! Because they have devised an evil counsel against themselves, saying. ‘Let us bind the just one, for he is profitless to us.’ They killed the prophets and apostles who announced the coming of the Lord of salvation and preached his glorious passion and resurrection. Thereafter, in their greed and out of their desire for earthly wickedness, they fled from sharing in the divine, from chastity of body and moderation of spirit, contempt for money and profit in grace.

Immediately following, the prophet himself explains why he called them rulers of Sodom and people of Gomorrah: Your hands are full of blood. Again a little later he says, They have proclaimed their sin as Sodom and made it manifest. Woe to their souls, because they have taken evil counsel with themselves, saying, ‘We will bind the just one, for he is a burden to us.’ Since he overtly speaks of blood and a plot against a just man, there is nothing else this could be than the plot against our Savior Jesus Christ.

They bound Jesus and led him to the meeting place of the high priest. Can you recognize that this was already written? Isaiah says, Woe to their souls because they have taken evil counsel against themselves, saying, ‘Let us bind the just one, for he is troublesome to us.’ Woe to their souls indeed! Let us see why. Isaiah was sawn in two, but afterwards the people were restored. Jeremiah was thrown into the dungeon, but the Jews had their wound healed. In these instances the sin was against a man, and therefore less. However, when they sinned not against a man but against God become human, then woe to their souls!

For he [Jesus] had done so many good works among them. He had given sight to the blind, feet to the lame, the power of walking to the palsied, life also to the dead; for all these good works they paid him death as his price, appraised at thirty pieces of silver. It is related also in the Gospels that he was bound. This also the word of prophecy had foretold by Isaiah, saying, Woe to their soul, who have devised a most evil device against themselves, saying, ‘Let us bind the just one, seeing that he is unprofitable to us.’

Those who look upon their dispersion and the desolation of their city may not aptly say, Woe to them, for they have imagined an evil imagination, saying against their own soul, let us bind the righteous man, because he is not pleasing to us. It is so true, for when they erred concerning the Scriptures, they did not know that the one who digs a pit for his neighbor falls in it; and a serpent will bite the one who destroys a hedge.^[1]

Again, they are to be admonished that if they are not afraid of being wicked; they should at least be ashamed of being seen for what they are. Often a sin that is concealed is avoided, because a mind that is ashamed to be taken for what it does not fear to be in fact is sometimes ashamed to be in fact what it avoids appearing to be. On the other hand, when a person is shamelessly and notoriously wicked, then, the more freely he commits every kind of evil, the more he thinks it lawful, and in imagining it lawful, he is thereby without doubt immersed in it all the more. Therefore, it is written, They have proclaimed abroad their sin as Sodom, and they have not hid it. For if Sodom had concealed its sin, it would still have sinned, but in fear. But it had completely lost the curb of fear, in that it did not seek even darkness in its sinning. Therefore, it is said again, The cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is multiplied.^[1] For sin in words is sin in act, but sin that is cried out is sin committed with deliberation.

But now, what wounds can the conquered show, what injuries to gaping vitals, what tortures of the limbs, when faith did not fail in combat but perfidy arrived before the combat? Nor does the necessity of the crime excuse the one who was caught, where the crime is of the will. I do not say this to burden the cases of the brothers but rather to stimulate the brothers to prayers of satisfaction. For since it is written, They that call you blessed send you into error and destroy the way of your steps, one who consoles the sinner with flattering blandishments furnishes the means for sinning and does not check transgressions but nourishes them. But one who rebukes at the same time that he instructs with firmer counsels urges a brother on to salvation.^[1]

Isaiah also, filled with the Holy Spirit, cries out and chides the daughters of Zion who have been defiled by gold and raiment, and he reproves those who have an abundance of harmful riches and withdraw from God for the sake of the pleasures of time. . . . This, God blames; this, he brands with reproach. By this he declares that they have been defiled; by this they have departed from the true adornment and have merited disgrace and shame. Having put on silk and purple, they cannot put on Christ; adorned with gold and pearls and necklaces, they have lost the adornments of the heart and soul. Who would not detest and shun what has caused another’s ruin? Who would seek and take what has served as a sword and weapon for the death of another? If, on draining the cup, he who had taken the potion should die, you would know that what he drank was poison; if, after taking food, he who had taken it should perish, you would know that what could kill, when taken, was deadly. Seeing this you would not eat nor would you drink from that which had been used by those who died. Now what ignorance of the truth it is, what madness of mind to wish for what has always been and still is harmful, and to think that you yourself will not perish from the same causes from which you know that others have perished!

Let us hearken to God, as he proclaims through Isaiah: O my people, they that call you blessed lead you astray, throw you down headlong. Who is more guilty of throwing the people of God down headlong? He who relies on the power of the free will and scorns the help of the Creator and is secure in his own will, or he who fears the judgment of God at every thought of his precepts?^[1]

The Lord speaks by the mouth of Isaiah, saying, O my people, they who call you happy cause you to err and destroy the way of your paths. How do you help me by telling my misdeeds to others? You may, without my knowing of it, hurt someone else by telling of my sins (or rather of those sins you slanderously attribute to me). While you are eager to spread the news everywhere, you may pretend to confide in individual people, giving them the impression that you have not talked to anyone else. This behavior is not intended to correct me but to indulge your own failings. The Lord commands that those who sin against us are to be approached privately or in the presence of a witness. If the one who is confronted continues in sin, then he or she is to be regarded as a heathen and a publican.^[1]

Those who are zealous in the service of God, however, do not get a reward of praise, nor indeed do those who are concerned about the laws of God look for this return. For praise is often known to injure many, since it makes them less attuned and slows their pace. If a person thinks he has reached the goal of his endeavor—and praise gives him to understand that he has—he stops his race and victory eludes him. This was revealed by the God of the universe, speaking through the prophet: My people, they that call you blessed, the same deceive you and destroy the way of your steps. For praise slackens the intensity of their zeal and prevents them from reaching the goal.

But, says someone, Are these things to be understood of the Lord? Could the Lord be held prisoner by men and dragged to judgment? Of this also the same prophet shall convince you. For he says, The Lord himself shall come into judgment with the elders and princes of the people. The Lord is judged then according to the prophet’s testimony, and not only judged but scourged and slapped on the face with the palms [of men’s hands], and spit on, and suffers every insult and indignity for our sake. And because all who should hear these things preached by the apostles would be perfectly amazed, therefore also the prophet speaking in their person exclaims, Lord, who has believed our report?^[1] For it is incredible that God, the Son of God, should be spoken of and preached as having suffered these things. For this reason they are foretold by the prophets, lest any doubt should spring up in those who are about to believe.

Therefore, coming with all angels, together with him he shall have the saints also. For plainly says Isaiah also, He shall come to judgment with the elders of the people. Those elders of the people, then, those called angels in this passage, those thousands of many people made perfect coming from the whole world, are called heaven.

For not alone he shall come to judgment but with the elders of his people, to whom he has promised that they shall sit upon thrones to judge,^[1] who even shall judge angels. These are the clouds Isaiah is speaking of.

We read that the Holy Spirit announces in the mouth of Isaiah the number seven: Seven women took hold of one man. The one man is Christ, though he was not born through a man’s agency. The seven women are the seven churches, who receive his bread and are clothed with his apparel. They ask that their reproach be taken away and that they are called only by his name. The bread is the Holy Spirit who nourishes eternal life in those who have faith. The garments that they long to wear are the glory of immortality, of which the apostle Paul says, This corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.^[1]