The prophecy has described those things concerning the conversion of the nations and those concerning the elect of the seed of the sons of Israel, and it now turns once more to address the Jews and intends the complete destruction of idolatry . . . (following Symmachus, their idols have become the prey of animals, that is, cast aside into total destitution). According to the literal sense, this has been fulfilled among us by these very deeds, while according to a spiritual understanding it concerns the heavy and burdensome and diabolic load of deceitful idolatry that used to lie on the souls of people.

Having discussed the Deity, displayed the believers and confounded the unbelievers, the prophetic text also predicts the destruction of the idols. Some copies carry Dagon. That was an idol of the Allophyles [foreigners]. As for Bel, some claim that he was Kronos. Then [Isaiah] generalizes: Their graven images are gone to the wild beasts and the cattle. For they did not only manufacture anthropomorphic idols but also idols resembling wild beasts and cattle. The Egyptians, in particular, worshiped representations of monkeys, of dogs, of lions, of farm animals and of crocodiles, whereas the Akaronites even had an image of a fly, and some others worshiped figures of bats. These are the practices that the beginning of the prophetic text has already denounced.^[1] He predicts the destruction of all these idols.

But Bel was also honored in other cities. For they say that Bel was the mythical figure Chronos among the godless Greeks, one who was reputedly cruel and bloodthirsty and loved to slaughter humans . . . whereas the God of the universe is not pleased with such terrible impieties and through one of the holy prophets he said to those who were accustomed to doing this, You sacrifice humans, for you have run out of cattle.^[1] . . . The expression cast down is apt, since the prophet here speaks of a time near to his own. For we can read in the books of the Kings that when the former people carried the divine ark to the temple of Dagon, as those worshiping the idol went in, they saw Dagon fallen down in front of the ark.^[2]

These then are imitations that cannot save those who carry them and are nothing other than burdens for the priests and weigh them down to the point of exhaustion. And when captivity came, these were carried off first of all due to the value of the metals from which they were made, and they were not able to free the souls of those carrying them. For it is not as dumb imitations they had a life and any feeling of pain, but they are figuratively ascribed soul and body parts, though having no feeling and body parts. . . . So it could be said that this error of idolatry was the greatest burden among the nations, one that pressed its worshipers down into the ground and could not save and, in fact, made their souls captive to the devil and his demons. ^[1] THE ORIGIN OF THE NAMES BEL AND NEBO. ISHO‘DAD OF MERV: Bel and Nebo are Babylonian idols. Bel is the statue that Nebuchadnezzar erected in the plain of Dura;^[1] its name derives from Babel. Nebo was the teacher of the school for children in Mabbugh; since he was extremely stern toward the children, one of them, in order to please him, made a statue for him, and they worshiped it and so appeased his anger; and after this generation, people were seduced by that statue, and worshiped it and called it god. ^[2]

By the same token, [Isaiah] says, as all the other burdens that are unable to walk but have to be carried, the idols, by reason of their inanimate nature, constrain their porters to toil. Their impotence is so great that they cannot even—as people do in war time—take flight.

Here [Isaiah] argues that the idols are weak since they will be carried into slavery as the cargo of elephants and even the burden of mules. And the people who carry them will bow low to put them on their shoulders. How can someone bearing God be weak like that? But these burdens are not God. Otherwise how could they be carried off as slaves of war? How would the ones carrying such things worship them? Others say that this burden is like the solemn procession of the demons that priests carry out when they bear statues on their shoulders and process through the streets bearing their burdens.

These words also remind Israel of their enemies who led them off: just as their enemies fell down and worshiped these idols who spoke in riddles contrary to reason, so also the demons were a heavy and oppressive burden to the souls [of Israel] whenever these demons enslaved them in ungodliness as they took them prisoner and bound them with the ropes of their [own] sins.

We hear the voice of the Holy Spirit with wonder when it tells us in many passages of Scripture that the Word of God, in an ineffable motion of love, has given human nature the names of sister, daughter, bride. For example, the words in Isaiah, Listen to me, Israel my people, the race of Abraham my friend, you whom I carry in my womb. . . . Our mind is set aflame with desire to obtain the love that burns between the Word of God and the soul, so that it can know the measure of love and give love to God in return.

After your apostasies I will still continue to call you to repentance, since you are my creation. I created you; therefore I sustain you. I promise I will make atonement for your sins, if you change.

O Lord our God, under the shadow of your wings let us hope; defend us and support us. You will bear us up when we are little, and even down to our gray hairs you will carry us. For our stability, when it is in you, is stability indeed; but when it is in ourselves, then it is all unstable. Our good lives forever with you, and when we turn from you with aversion, we fall into our own perversion. Let us now, O Lord, return that we be not overturned, because with you our good lives without blemish—for our good is you yourself.

Woe to the audacious soul that hoped that by forsaking you it would find some better thing! It tossed and turned, on back and side and belly, but the bed is hard, and you alone give rest. Yet you are near. You deliver us from our wretched wanderings and establish us in your way. You comfort us and say, Run, I will carry you. I will lead you home, and I will set you free.

But since their heart was not responsive to his promptings, he predicted the evils to come so that they would be gradually troubled by these terrors and would cease their irregular and foul way of life.

And despite my exhortation you delayed in expelling such blasphemy and ungodliness, daring to compare me with those who lack being and in no way have my divinity. You esteemed me as equal to soulless wood that you shaped. You added gold and silver from contributions and made a statue from human hands, and you were not ashamed to worship it. These idols were not able to walk, let alone move, but they needed to be carried on your shoulders or dragged around by others. They are unable to hear prayers or to save.

[Isaiah] has clearly mocked the impotence of the idols. And since he had made mention of their creation from a piece of wood in a preceding passage,^[1] but gold and silver are more precious material than wood, and many people on account of the material treated the gods of gold and of silver with the greater regard, he considers it necessary to give this instruction concerning them: people collect gold and silver. They hire a goldsmith, weigh the statue he has fashioned and treat it as a god. Yet it moves with the feet of others, but if they are lacking, it stands still. Moreover, it brings no help to its worshipers. After this refutation, [Isaiah] introduces an exhortation.

Behold, there he is, wherever truth is known. He is within the inmost heart, yet the heart has wandered from him. Return to your heart, O you sinners, and hold fast to him who made you. Stand with him, and you shall stand firmly. Rest in him, and you shall be at rest.

Go back, therefore, to the heart, and if you are believers, you will find Christ there. He himself is speaking to you there. Yes, here am I, shouting my head off—but he, in silence, is doing more teaching. I am speaking by the sound of these words; he is speaking inwardly by the awe you feel in your thoughts.

Return, you transgressors, to the heart.^[1] Return to the heart! Why do you go away from yourselves and perish from yourselves? . . . You go astray by wandering about. Return. Where? To the Lord. It is quickly done! First, return to your heart. You are wandering away. You are an exile from yourself. You do not know yourself. You ask by whom you were made! . . . Just return to your heart! See there what perhaps you perceive about God, because the image of God is there. In the inner person Christ dwells. In the inner person you are renewed according to the image of God.^[2]

Return, you transgressors, to the heart. As I have already said, what the Lord repeatedly asks of us is not found in distant lands. He sends us within, into our own hearts. For he has placed within us that which he wants, in which consists the perfection of charity in the will and goodness of the soul.

Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.^[1] There cannot be a greater prayer than to desire that earthly things should deserve to equal heavenly ones. For what does it mean to say your will be done on earth as it is in heaven, if not that human beings should be like angels and that, just as God’s will is fulfilled by them in heaven, so also all those who are on earth should do not their own but his will? No one will really be able to say this but one who believes that God regulates all things that are seen, whether fortunate or unfortunate, for the sake of our well-being, and that he is more provident and careful with regard to the salvation and interests of those who are his own than we are for ourselves. And of course it is to be understood in this way—namely, that the will of God is the salvation of all, according to the text of blessed Paul: Who desires all to be saved and to come to the knowledge of truth.^[2] Of this will the prophet Isaiah, speaking in the person of God the Father, also says, All my will shall be done.

For he says I am the one possessing knowledge of all, and whatever happens, I give notice of it beforehand. That which is announced, I execute . . . for what the holy God wills, who will thwart it? And who will avert his hand when it is raised? . . . We take the bird that is called from the east and from a far land to be the Babylonian, who scorched all the territory of the Jews, took Jerusalem and ruined the temple. They removed both ordinary flock and the leading birds among them and forced them into the region of the Persians. They also subjected them to a yoke of harsh imprisonment. . . .

This work was done not by Israel’s own hand, as if God would need a helper. For it is I alone who save, guard and lead him on the right road, so that those who have made little progress in godliness will help the righteous ones and the humble. By these means, glory and honor are finally given to me alone, even from among wood and stones.

All is easy for the God of the universe. Not only the beings endowed with reason but even those devoid of it submit to divine authority. In addition, by the term bird he has clearly shown the speed of Israel’s return from exile.

I call a bird of prey from the east. [Isaiah] either calls the Medes a bird, who will destroy the Babylonians, or the Israelites, who, in the course of their return, destroyed the Arameans, the Greeks and the house of Gog.

Who other can this be than his Christ, who, it says, has been called from a distant land, that is, from the innermost part of Hades? All the things I have announced before him, I will bring into action through him.