The things said here are of a quite different tenor from what was said in the previous passage about the people of the covenant, where he called them blind, deaf and plundered. Now the message here is of the better condition of those believers of the covenant who belong to a better order. For the former ones were those who were suffering. Here he addresses as you those who recognize their Creator and Maker. Do listen to the one who keeps you an unblemished creation and product, for here you are fittingly called Jacob and Israel. For I made you in your soul, according to the image, and formed you, taking a body from the ground, and I provided my blood for you, buying back my own creation. You, being made worthy of these things, go by the road on which you are instructed to go and preach the good news. Although some will attack you, be encouraged that you are special. ‘For behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.’^[1] Be followers of me, the one who wished to give my blood of redemption for you, as atonement. . . .

You are mine. For we are said to have been Christ’s, even before the separation from God that occurred when we as sinners went out of the garden, though by nature we were always God’s. But he has made us once more to be his own through the Holy Spirit making us strong through every trial. Rivers, water and flames denote the many channels of temptation. For it is written, All who wish to live godly lives in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.^[2] And Christ says to those who believed in him, You will have sorrow in the world.^[3]

Even if we cross over, they shall not slip, says the Lord. We shall not slip into corruption, we who are crossing over into incorruption, because he himself will support us. For so he himself has said and so he has willed.

We are wayfarers in this life. Many are walking along this way. All need to make a good passage. The Lord Jesus is walking with one who is making a good passage. Thus we read, When you pass through the waters, I will be with you, and the rivers shall not cover you, nor fire burn your garments when you shall walk through. But one who keeps a fire pent up in his body, the fire of lust, the fire of immoderate desire, does not pass through but burns the covering of his soul. A good name is more excellent than money, and above heaps of silver is good favor. Faith itself redounds to itself, sufficiently rich and more than rich in its possession. There is nothing that is not the possession of the wise person except what is contrary to virtue. Wherever he goes, he finds all things to be his. The whole world is his possession, since he uses it all as his own.

If thou go through fire, thou shalt not be burned, and the rivers shall not flow over thee. Faith has many times worked such things before the eyes of all creation. If knowledge were given the opportunity to attempt such things, it would in no wise be persuaded. For it is by faith that men have entered into flames and bridled the burning power of the fire, walking unharmed through the midst thereof, and they have trodden upon the back of the sea as upon dry land. All these are above nature and opposed to the modes of knowledge.

If you watch and seek, the Lord says, Here I am,^[1] and If you pass through fire, I am with you and the flames shall not consume you. If you ask through prayer, you will find, and if you knock through giving to the poor, Christ opens the doors to you in order that you may enter and possess paradise. Now if you still think that anything will remain at the end of the world, consider your own end.

Become guileless, and be like the guileless sheep whose wool is sheared off without their saying a word. Do not go from one place to another saying, I will find God here or there. God has said, I fill the earth, I fill the heavens,^[1] and again, If you cross the water, I am with you.

For the rivers overflow those whom the active business of this world confounds with perturbation of mind. But one who is sustained in mind by the grace of the Holy Spirit passes through the waters and yet is not swamped by the rivers, because in the midst of crowds of peoples he so proceeds along his way as not to sink the head of his mind beneath the active business of the world.

What kind of fire? He stationed the cherubim and the fiery sword, which turns about to protect the way of the tree of life.^[1] Where the tree of life is, where the paradise of God is, where God the gardener is, where the blessed and the elect and the holy ones of God reside, there the blessed await God’s own way of handling affairs.

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

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

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

I will destroy those warring with you on account of the gospel, both people and leaders. He encourages them in this way. And your children, which you have sown by God and which you have begotten throughout the world, I will gather to my heavenly city, raising up those airborne, through the air, like birds made light by the winds, that is, the angelic forces. I shall raise up your offspring to be my children through their being reborn in the church, and all those called by my name Christians are welcomed. For Christ prophesied these things through the godly prophet.

You, almighty Master, created all things for your name’s sake and gave food and drink to people to enjoy, that they might give you thanks; but to us you have graciously given spiritual food and drink and eternal life through your servant. Above all we give thanks because you are mighty; to you be the glory forever.

If it is necessary for some to be marked by name, then I will make it clear to them all that they are now those who have been called by my name. From where else did the name of Christians come than from the name of Christ? For it was he who foretold such a thing through the prophet.

If they seemed to have the eyes of the soul and a human mind, they were still nonetheless blind to the deceit of idolatry. But what then happened to them provides the basis for Isaiah’s message. For the former blind and deaf were gathered together into the church of God even as the rulers of the nations opposed the people of God. The prophet is amazed and tries to make sense of the prophecy that he is speaking, and so he calls out, saying, Who can announce these things?

If Christ is Son, Christ is certainly after God. But after God there is nothing comparable to him. Christ is therefore not comparable to God; or if he is not after God, certainly he is with God; for in no way can he be before God; therefore he is consubstantial (homoousion) . . . substance as substance, especially if it is a homogeneous substance that is realized in two or more individuals, which is said to be identical substance, not similar.

Still I would like to ask of our opponents what the words mean that were once uttered by the prophet, Before me there was no God, and after me there is none. If the Son is younger than the Father, how can the Father say, after me there shall be none? You will not, therefore, also deprive the Only Begotten himself of his substance, will you? Indeed, you must dare to do this or else to accept the one Godhead with the distinct persons of the Father and the Son.

I have glorified you in the world.^[1] By this glory Christ has led the blind people into the light. For the sun of righteousness does not allow us to be children of the night and shadows but rather of day, as the divine apostle says. When Paul says, They have been gathered,^[2] this in fact has not yet taken place, and he is obviously speaking prophetically, meaning they will be gathered. For speaking of things to come as if they had happened is customary in the Scriptures; another example of such is I have given my back to the rod^[3] and they divided my clothing among them.^[4]

If you want to have me as a witness to your verdict, then be the first to render witness to my truth. In this case, I will not be alone in bearing witness, but there is also my chosen servant. Now it is neither Moses nor another of the prophets who is referred to here, but Christ our Master. And he calls him a [servant], not as God but as a human being; for it is as a human being that he has named him chosen. . . . We likewise find in the holy Gospels this number of two witnesses. In the course of a conversation with the Jews our Master Christ in effect declared, It is written in your law that the testimony of two persons is true. I bear witness concerning myself, and the Father who sent me bears witness.^[1] . . . I am, I am your God, and there is no other savior besides me. Again these words proclaim the one divinity. For our Master Christ is called savior throughout the holy Scriptures, as I think even the followers of Arius and Eunomius would concede. Now if apart from God there is no savior and if Christ is called Savior, it is clear that he participates in the [divine] nature. If Christ does not, as the blasphemers allege, then he is not Savior. . . . But if he is Savior, then he shares the same essence to which alone belongs the faculty of saving.^[2]

It has been sufficiently demonstrated that God exists and that his essence is incomprehensible. Furthermore, those who believe in sacred Scripture have no doubt that he is one and not several. For the Lord says at the beginning of his lawgiving, I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt. You shall not have strange gods before me.^[1] And again: Hear, O Israel: the Lord your God is one Lord.^[2] And through the mouth of the prophet Isaiah: I am, he says, the first God, and I am the last, and there is no God besides me. Before me there was no God, and after me there shall be none, and beside me there is none. And the Lord speaks thus to his Father in the holy Gospels: This is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God.^[3] With those who do not believe in sacred Scripture we shall reason as follows. The Divinity is perfect and without deficiency in goodness or wisdom or power. He is without beginning, without end, eternal, uncircumscribed; to put it simply, he is perfect in all things. Now, if we say that there are several gods, there must be some difference to be found among them. For if there is no difference at all among them, then there is one God rather than several. But if there is some difference, then where is the perfection? For if one should come short of perfection in goodness, or power, or wisdom, or time or place, then he would not be God. The identity of God in all things shows him to be one and not several.

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

I will act, and who will hinder it? For I have accomplished the calling of the nations, he says, that is, I have saved those who were led astray. And who can alter this, or who could change things so that they did not happen? The Savior himself assures us that no one can snatch those who are being saved from the hand of God. For my sheep hear my voice, and I know them; and they follow me, and I give them eternal life.^{[1] [2]} GOD WILL SEND THE MEDES TO DELIVER THE ISRAELITES. ISHO‘DAD OF MERV: I have brought down all the runaways and the Chaldeans, that is, For your sake I will send you to Babylon and will make the Medes rise, in order to deliver you from captivity. And when the Babylonians fly from you in every manner, through the land and the sea, they will be captured in their ships and be imprisoned. He calls runaways the Medes because of their previous weakness. ^[1]

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

Although these things were done to the Babylonians and Chaldeans, prophetically speaking, the future things that are not yet shall be as if already accomplished. God has completed these by himself, comparing the present events with those that happened earlier: I showed my divinity to those in Egypt and led my people through the Red Sea. I made a way in the mighty water and a dry path through that same sea when I threw the chariots of Pharaoh and his forces into the sea to the bed prepared for them, sinking down to the abyss and no longer able to rise. They were like those of old who were bent like a snuffed wick in a burning flame. I worked such things among the ancients, who in turn passed on the memory of those wonders to those of old who followed. But for the present I command them no longer to be amazed at those deeds, neither those done in Babylon nor those in Egypt.

How has he led chariots and horses? It is clear that Pharaoh pursued Israel by his own decision, for God had already spoken in this way to him: I have raised you up as to show my power in you and so that my name might be made known throughout the earth.^[1] Thus in a marvelous way God saves those who are fleeing from the desire for earthly things as they are pursued by the devil. God shows them that the wild waves of the present life are passable and that they will not be overwhelmed by trials but will arrive securely in the desert with a stilled and purified mind. They will eat the heavenly bread and drink the water from the rock. This is to share in Christ and to go through the Jordan and gain the Promised Land.

Although he took a body, although he became man to redeem humanity and recall it from death, still, being God, he came to earth in an unusual way so that, as he had said, ‘Behold, I make all things new,’ he might thus be born from the womb of an immaculate virgin, and be believed to be, as it is written, ‘God with us.’ ^[1]

For of this number I find figurative hints up and down the Creator’s dispensation in the twelve streams of Elim.^[1] . . . Now the same number of apostles was thus portended, as if they were to be fountains and rivers that should water the Gentile world, which was formerly dry and destitute of knowledge, as he says by Isaiah, I will put streams in the unwatered ground.

The Word says, Look, I am doing something new, which no eye has seen, no ear heard, no human heart felt.^[1] These are to be seen, heard and grasped by a new eye, a new hearing and a new heart when the Lord’s disciples speak, listen and act in the Spirit.

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

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

But as often as water is named alone in the holy Scriptures, baptism is referred to, as we see intimated in Isaiah: Remember not, says he, the former things, and consider not the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing. . . . There God foretold by the prophet that among the nations, in places that previously had been dry, rivers should afterwards flow plenteously and should provide water for the elected people of God, that is, for those who were made children of God by the generation of baptism. Moreover, it is again predicted and foretold before, that the Jews, if they should thirst and seek after Christ, should drink with us, that is, should attain the grace of baptism. If they shall thirst, he says, he shall lead them through the deserts, shall bring forth water for them out of the rock. The rock shall be cloven, and the water shall flow, and my people shall drink,^[1] which is fulfilled in the Gospel, when Christ, who is the Rock, is cloven by a stroke of the spear in his passion; who also, admonishing what was before announced by the prophet, cries and says, If anyone thirst, let him come and drink. He who believes in me, as the Scripture says, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.^[2] And that it might be more evident that the Lord is speaking there not of the cup but of baptism, the Scripture adds, saying, But this spoke he of the Spirit, which they that believe in him should receive. For by baptism the Holy Spirit is received, and thus by those who are baptized and have attained to the Holy Spirit is attained the drinking of the Lord’s cup.

God would make a new covenant with people,^[1] not such as that which he made with the ancestors at Mount Horeb, and would give to people a new heart and a new spirit.^[2] And again [it is written], And do not remember the things of old: behold I make new things. [This] plainly announced that liberty that distinguishes the new covenant and the new wine that is put into new bottles,^[3] [that is], the faith that is in Christ, by which he has proclaimed the way of right-eousness sprung up in the desert and the streams of the Holy Spirit in a dry land, to give water to the elect people of God, whom he has acquired. [This is done] that they might show forth his praise but not that they might blaspheme him who made these things, that is, God.

In the section we examined and read previously, he delivered a prophecy of the covenant in Christ and the graces bestowed by him, for he said that he would make a way in the desert and rivers in the dry land, and because of this he would be blessed by all the wild animals of the field.^[1] The praise-giving is to be understood as a spiritual sacrifice and fruit of the new covenant in Christ. In the present passage, however, he tries to assure Israel that they had been redeemed from Egypt, rescued from the slavery that they endured there and freed from such intolerable labors, not so that they would offer him calves and thus secure access to him through blood and smoke—for such things are repugnant to God, and shadow rather than reality. That is why he says: I have not called you now, O Jacob. The word now ought to be understood to mean, Not when you were offering sacrifices, that is, I have not called you when you were sacrificing oxen and slaughtered sheep, so that you should not think that you had been redeemed as a reward for the offerings. Rather, it was when you were still in sin and guilty of defilement, for you had worshiped the gods of the Egyptians, that I deemed you worthy of mercy and love. So the gift is one of gentleness, and the fruit of loving-kindness is mercy, and the redemption came from love. The sheep of your burnt offering are nothing to me, he says, nor did you glorify me with your sacrifices.^[2] After all, how can that which is wholly unacceptable and offered in vain contribute to my glory? You did not serve me with your sacrifices. The one who pursues any good deed, he says, who achieves the character that leads to virtue, who bends his neck in submission to my decrees, who puts the teachings of the prophets into practice, could be said to serve the God who is over all. As for the one who fills the holy tent with incense, who offers oxen or sheep, or who performs successfully any of the other fine actions, that one will not genuinely glorify me. Such a person, in fact, has done nothing at all that pleases me. So then, service does not consist in offering sacrifice, but in being prepared to submit a tender neck, that willingly submits to his wishes.^[3] . . .

Everywhere he rejected worship in shadows, leading them away from types, and drawing them to the justification which is in Christ, and teaching them to be refashioned according to the way of life taught by the gospel, by which alone it is possible to do what is pleasing to God, and come to truly blameless and sincere worship—that is, worship that is spiritual. For it says, God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.^[4]

For there was no mention at all of such things required from you in the laws of the new covenant that I established through my servant whom I chose. But you did not offer these things to me. If it had been necessary to say such things, you still probably would have done something contrary. In your sins is your preference or as the other interpreters put it, in your sins and in your unrighteous acts you called on me.

You have blotted it out, indeed, in your hearts and minds, but the Word of God is not blotted out, the Holy Spirit is not blotted out but turns away from impious minds. It is not grace but iniquity that is blotted out; for it is written, I am he, I am he who blots out your iniquities.

We must always have these sins before our eyes, so we may be purified from them. And though God, by clemency, forgives you every sin, yet you, for the safety of your soul, must always have the sin before your eyes. For the memory of past sins hinders future ones; and one who is bitten by his past sins demonstrates the will to be steadfast about the next ones. For David says, And my sin is ever before me,^[1] in order to have the past ones before his eyes and not to fall into future ones. That God demands this firm stance from us, listen to him say, I am the one who blots out your sins, and I will not remember them; you, however, remember them, and we shall settle accounts, says the Lord. First state your sin so you may be justified. . . . Time does not excuse; rather, the manner of the repentant individual erases the sin.

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

For now the devil urges us to sin and also accuses us when we do sin. If, therefore, in this life we anticipate him and are ourselves our own accusers, we escape the wicked-ness of the devil, our enemy and our accuser. . . . Does he [the prophet] not evidently show the mystery that we are dealing with when he says, you speak first to show you that you ought to anticipate him who was prepared to accuse you?

All truth is justice. In the confessing of what is the case, there is justice. He speaks the truth, that sinners who justify themselves by their faults cannot be justified. And in this way one is called truly just in that confessing one’s own sin, he asks them to be accounted to himself yet begs God for mercy. For he knows that it is stated in the law, Confess your sins, and you will be justified. What does it mean to confess at the start of speaking unless to speak freely and not just when forced to? For who (even one who fears God) is without sin, since faults get mixed into thinking and unconsciously we sin in so many ways?

Though this type of argument seems without resort and bereft of human force in court trials here on earth, before God it is invested with invincible protection. Only confession of faith can acquit the person whom no arguments defend. Such a course is permitted to those who truly repent, who in seeking pardon for themselves strive instead to condemn their own actions. This is what Isaiah too advises: Speak first of your iniquities that you may be justified.

Groan bitterly, sacrifice confession (for, he says, Declare first your transgressions that you may be justified),^[1] sacrifice contrition of heart. These victims turn not to ashes or dissolve into smoke or melt into air. They do not need wood and fire but only a deep-pricked heart. This is wood; this is fire to burn, yet not consume them. For one who prays with earnestness is burned yet not consumed, but like gold that is tested by fire becomes brighter.

Nature is too weak to gain righteousness by works. For the human disposition is inclined toward evil from an early age, as David clearly says, If you kept record of our transgressions, who would stand? For with you there is atonement.^[1] For I myself am merciful, and I wish that those in trouble remember their Savior and give him thanks through all things. For this is what the saints do. . . . And do not be ashamed to confess your sins. For the Pharisee did not do so, and he was condemned. But the tax collector did so, and he was justified.^[2] . . .

You transgressed against me—this is given great force. For it is not a transgression against humanity or created nature. For the idolater rejects the divine nature as he robs the same of its transcendence and glory, which are to be worshiped. As God says in Jeremiah, Why have you spoken to me? You have all acted unrighteously and impiously toward me,^[3] says the Lord Almighty.

God does not wait for time to elapse after repentance. You stated your sin, you are justified. You repented, you have been shown mercy. Time does not excuse; rather, the manner of the repentant individual erases the sin. One individual may wait a long time and not gain salvation, and another, who confesses genuinely, is stripped of the sin inside a short time.

Forgive us our debts as we also forgive our debtors.^[1] Whoever then desires to obtain forgiveness of sins, should strive to use these means. Let not the stubbornness of an obdurate heart turn away any from the saving remedy and the source of so much goodness, because even if we have done all these things, they will not be able to expiate our offences, unless they are blotted out by the goodness and mercy of the Lord, who when he sees us engaged in pious efforts with a humble heart, supports our small and puny efforts with the utmost bounty, and says: I even I am the one that blots out your iniquities for my own sake, and I will remember your sins no more.

And it is ours to flee to God. And let us endeavor after this ceaselessly and energetically. For he says, Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.^[1] And prayer and confession with humility are voluntary acts. Therefore it is enjoined, First tell your sins, that you may be justified. What afterwards we shall obtain, and what we shall be, it is not for us to judge.

We are just when we acknowledge that we are sinners, and our justice depends not on our personal merit but rather on the mercy of God, as holy Scripture says: The just is an accuser of himself in the beginning of his plea.^[1] And in another place, State your sins, that you may be justified.

Do you wish that I shall speak of the ways of repentance? They are many and various and different, and all lead to heaven. The first way of repentance is condemnation of sins. First declare your sins, that you may be justified.

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

Your princes profaned the sanctuary. Those who were from the house of Manasseh profaned the sanctuary with the four-faced idol, which they placed inside the sanctuary. Because of those crimes, and in particular because of Manasseh’s crime, I have given Jacob to the curse, and Israel to reviling.