The Jews refer this to the time of Zerubbabel, because after the devastation of Babylon Zion was restored and its temple built up and the old religion reinstated. . . . But here the Lord speaks to those who were persecuting him because he was righteous. . . . Moreover, according to the Septuagint, it is said to the persecutors of righteousness that they are to look on the hardest stone, which they cut out, and on the pit of the crater that they dug, that is, on the Lord and Savior, about whom the apostle said, The rock was Christ.^[1] We can say that the cut-out rock means the tomb of the Savior into which he was placed. When he rose from the dead, he bore innumerable children and was called Abraham, that is, the father of many nations, just as Sarah’s once sterile womb means the church, which is otherwise called Zion, whom the Lord comforted and made its desert places like paradise.

Righteous, he says, instead of righteousness,^[1] which is through Christ through faith in him, a faith that justifies the ungodly and removes all stain from those who have been filthy, and cleanses them in the Spirit and prepares for them the shining honor of sonship. They pursue righteousness, not in the sense of driving it before them and so away from their minds, but of running toward it to take hold of it. As David said, Seek peace and pursue it.^[2] . . . The speech of the holy prophets always draws figures from the visible and the tangible things. For it has expressions that transcend reference, the senses and even the mind. In this way Zion is mentioned—not that we think of the earthly city but rather take it to be the spiritual one, that is, the church of the living God. Or how else would we see the words of the prophet coming true? . . .

Worship in spirit and truth,^[3] and the power of spiritual worship gave off the pleasant spiritual fragrance and joy in the hope that is in Christ. For if we trust that our body of lowliness will be transformed into the body of his glory, so we shall be with him and reign with him, assembled among the children of God and enriched with his divine and life-giving Spirit. We too bring forward the spiritual harvest to him—the confession and hymns of thanksgiving. For with such sacrifices is God well pleased.

For the divine voice says somewhere in the prophecy of Isaiah, Consider Abraham, your father, and Sarah, who gave you birth. Scripture gives this admonition to those who wander outside virtue. Just as at sea those who are carried away from the direction of the harbor bring themselves back on a course by a clear sign, on seeing either a beacon light raised up high or some mountain peak coming into view, in the same way Scripture by the example of Abraham and Sarah may guide again to the harbor of the divine will those adrift on the sea of life with a pilotless mind.

He is leaving aside the unbelievers here in order to address those who have believed: it is to them that he gives the name of enamored with God and with righteousness. He comforts them because they are few in number and invites them to turn their eyes toward their ancestors: he reminds them of Abraham and Sarah and the many thousands of descendants who came from them. This is similar to the term expressed in the divine Gospels: Do not fear, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.^[1] It is the same here.

Nothing made is an obstacle to my power: not the fact that I called just one man or that old age was on him, or that Sarah lacked the physical capability; yet his race was [indeed] increased, just as I had wished. Be unbelieving no longer, therefore, even though you are [now] easy to count; I will make you too many to number.

It is not a question of inhabited places but of desert places, not of regions situated in the east but of those in the west. Those who have seen the city with their own eyes know that the temple of the Jews was in the eastern part of the city, whereas the cross and the [place of] the resurrection were in the western part. Moreover, these places were formerly situated outside the walls. The divine apostle was witness to this when he said, Jesus . . . suffered outside the gate. Therefore let us go forth to him outside the camp, bearing his reproach.^[1] He makes this prediction accordingly: all the places of the city that were deserted and all those that were in the west will be as the garden of the Lord, for they truly possess the tree of life. They shall find in it gladness and exultation, thanksgiving and the voice of praise. This also we still see fulfilled in our day: in place of the smoke, of the odor of fat that rises from the victims and of the cult rendered according to the law, which the Lord of the universe, even in former days, did not find agreeable, night and day Zion raises hymns in honor of the God of the universe, for it is filled with [worshipers] who chant hymns.

Listen to me, my people, and give ear to me, my nation; for a law will go forth from me. And how could it go forth now, if it were the same law that went forth in the days of Moses? But it is evident that here he mystically signifies the spiritual law, which is the New Testament. And my justice is a light to the peoples, that is, my sacrament. He also means that the conscience of the Gentiles, which is now clouded by idolatry, will be enlightened after all their gods are condemned by the divine sentence.

In the Septuagint listen to me is said twice to teach us that we ought to listen with the ears of our body and with the understanding of our soul. . . . For tribe, as we have translated, Theodotion has race, Symmachus people and the Septuagint kings. For we are a tribe and line and a royal, priestly race of the Lord, such as was Abraham, who was called king, and the rest of the saints, concerning whom it is written, touch not my christs.^[1]

The law promulgated on Horeb is now old and belongs to yourselves alone, but this is for all universality. Now, law placed against law has abrogated that which is before it, and a covenant that comes after in like manner has put an end to the previous one; and an eternal and final law—namely, Christ—has been given to us, and the covenant is trustworthy, after which there shall be no law, no commandment or ordinance. Have you not read this, which Isaiah says: Hearken to me, hearken to me, my people; and your kings, give ear to me: for a law shall go forth from me, and my judgment shall be for a light to the nations. And Jeremiah, concerning this same new covenant, speaks this way: Behold, the days come, says the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah; not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers, in the day that I took them by the hand, to bring them out of the land of Egypt.^[1]

But when the time of his incarnation unexpectedly arrived, then the shadows made way for the truth. And he said, Listen to me, O my people. . . . He is speaking here not only to those who are numbered among the people but also to the kings, because he wanted the rulers, the leaders of the people, to receive his message as well. . . . The law will go forth from me, and my judgment will be a light to the nations. He refers to the divine and evangelical preaching as law here; it is just that it is in a different form now, just as the oracles and salvation also are new. For just as the old law was changed to something better, there has also been a transfer from those things that were provisional types to that which is the truth. For Christ said, Do not think I have come to destroy the law.^[1] . . . The law in letters was given by Moses, but the preaching of salvation, which is the gospel, came through Christ. . . . He calls his judgment here something that is both sanctioned by the law of God as well as a benevolent accounting; it is the grace from him that went out to illuminate the Gentiles; they were amazed at his judgment, which was both righteous and just—truly the righteousness that is clearly made known in the gospel.

If we want to know the meaning of these words in the person of God and Father, then we say that he calls the Son his righteousness. For we are saved in him . . . through his great mercy. . . . He is called righteousness and salvation and rightly so. For he has removed all evil from us and, freeing us from the chains of death, has led us into eternal life. . . . Those who were once weak and prostrate on the ground grasp his right hand and gain the hope of an unexpected salvation. For the holy Scriptures often call the Son the right arm of the Father. For he is his power.

He calls his power arm: that which constitutes the greatest proof of divine power is to have conquered the world by the cross, by ignominy and by death; it is to have given fishermen, publicans, shoemakers as masters to philosophers and to rhetoricians; it is to have, thanks to a dozen men, cultivated the whole world and, thanks to an equally small number of men, filled the entire earth and sea with the divine message.

[Some malignantly assert] that if heaven is indeed the throne of God and earth his footstool,^[1] and if . . . the heaven and earth shall pass away, then when these pass away, the God who sits above must also pass away, and therefore he cannot be the God who is over all. In the first place, they are ignorant what the expression means, that heaven is [his] throne and the earth [his] footstool. For they do not know what God is, but they imagine that he sits after the fashion of a person and is contained within the bounds, but nothing contains God. And they are also unacquainted with [the meaning of] the passing away of the heaven and earth; but Paul was not ignorant of it when he declared, For the form of this world passes away.^[2] In the next place, David explains their question, for he says that when the fashion of this world passes away, not only shall God remain, but his servants also, expressing himself thus in Psalm 101: In the beginning, you, O Lord, have founded the earth, and the heavens are the works of your hands. They shall perish, but you shall endure, and all shall grow old as a garment; and as a piece of clothing you shall change them, and they shall be changed. But you are the same, and your years shall not fail. The children of your servants shall continue, and their seed shall be established forever;^[3] pointing out plainly what things they are that pass away and who it is that does endure forever—God, together with his servants.

But if our opponents say, How then is it, if the universe is not destroyed, that the Lord says that heaven and earth shall pass away, and the prophet, that the heaven shall perish as smoke and the earth shall grow old as a garment; we answer, because it is usual for the Scriptures to call the change of the world from its present condition to a better and more glorious one destruction, as its earlier form is lost in the change of all things to a state of greater splendor, for there is neither contradiction nor absurdity in the Scriptures. For not the world but the fashion of this world passes away, it is said. So it is usual for the Scriptures to call the change from an earlier form to a better and more comely state destruction; just as when one calls by the name of destruction the change from a childish form into a perfect adult, as the stature of the child is turned into mature size and beauty.

And not only the souls of people, which are immortal, but also their bodies will be changed into a glorified substance. . . . The opinion of the world’s philosophers is that all things that we can see will be destroyed by fire. . . . Just as John the apostle says, The world and its desire will pass away,^[1] and here in Hebrew it is said, The sky like smoke will evaporate, or, as Aquila and Symmachus have it, will be reduced to nothing and will be worn away. . . . Therefore I wonder at what the Septuagint wants to say when it says, The sky like smoke has been made firm. For if we take firmness to be solidity, how can what is firm be compared with smoke? Unless perhaps we can say that all the firmness and solidity and strength of the heaven that dissolves in the air is as Ecclesiastes says, the most empty wind and smoke: Vanity of vanities, all is vanity. And that must be said that if the sky and the earth were to perish and grow old, then its inhabitants would also die and vanish, although we know that souls are everlasting and bodies are also resurrected. From this it is clear that heaven and earth do not perish and become reduced to nothing, but they are changed into something better.

From the sky and the earth, from the things on high and those below, learn of my power. I produced these elements with great ease and, conversely, I can make them disappear. But my salvation shall be for eternity, and my righteousness shall not fail. This is what the Lord has likewise said in the holy Gospels: Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words will by no means pass away.^[1]

The Son is called salvation and righteousness, as we often say, and thus his quality is declared that he has in himself, by which and in which he is Son by nature. Indeed, he is eternal and does not wear out. Such is the difference between creator and creation, the made from the maker, which is clearly seen in this verse.

This is what the Lord has also said in the divine Gospels: Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul,^[1] and again: Do not fear them,^[2] and: Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you and shall say all kinds of evil against you falsely for my sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven.^[3] Similarly, here, the prophetic text has shown that people who revile and trample underfoot the heralds of truth are like garments and like wool that is eaten away by the moth, while the salvation and the righteousness of those who are being insulted has no end and escapes death. After having made the prediction here concerning the new people, [the prophet] passes to another subject and prophesies to Jerusalem the return from exile in Babylon. One should know, however, that these announcements were not made at the same time as the others, but that the first dates from one epoch, the second from some other time, and that they were put together later to form a single book.

He addresses these words as if [Jerusalem] had fallen and were prone on the ground, and he invites it to take up again its power of other times. Awake as in the early time, as the ancient generation. Renew yourself, he says, and become again such as you were when your splendor attracted all eyes.

According to the Hebrew, it is not Jerusalem but the arm of the Lord that has to put on strength. This relates to what we spoke about above [v. 5], about the nations hoping in my arm. For we have said that the divinity of the Word is signified here, since he urges the people not to fear the rebuke of human beings or to be affected by their filth, and in the same way here it is right to see in the person of the people a prayer being sent to the arm of the Lord to rouse himself and overcome the enemies of his people. For we confess we are nothing unless you rise up and overcome on our behalf.

The great number of the Egyptians he calls the sea. If, however, one wishes also to see the Assyrians under this name, the explanation would hardly stray from the truth. [Are you not the one] who made the depths of the sea a way of passage for the delivered and redeemed? He has said that of the Red Sea: because it was parted in two, Israel enjoyed salvation. So he is recalling these events in order to invite them to have confidence relating to future events. The ensuing passage makes this quite clear.

The Hebrew gives the historical sense for the Jews [the Red Sea overcoming Pharaoh], yet this includes another sense, since the One who who did these things now also leads those redeemed and freed by your blood into Zion and into the heavenly Jerusalem—into the church that you have prepared by your blood. . . . This is what the Hebrew teaches. The rest of the meaning is found through reading the Septuagint concerning Jerusalem, that is, the sinful soul is provoked to put on the strength of God’s arm and to take on the former works such as it did before the fall, when the soul was illumined.

They will be gathered by the Lord, and they will arrive in Zion full of joy and an eternal cheerfulness; and on their head praise and joy will take hold of them; sadness, pain and grief will have gone. He has declared in advance the return of cheerfulness and joy, which take hold of believers after the coming as man of our Savior. . . . Then by the expression of the face he inspires confidence. . . . It is the Lord who strengthens him, the One who worked these paradoxes in former times, who delivered Pharaoh with his army into the sea, who killed the many thousands of Assyrians through one angel.^[1] . . . He says, You have worked with the enemies and have carried out their aims—you were afraid of them and forgot me who am the Creator of all things, among whom he gave a thousand pledges of power. Yet you feared a mortal and corruptible man while you have not paid attention to your own dignity and you have not sought my help.

And David being taught this, and knowing that the Lord’s hand was nothing else than Wisdom, he says in the psalm, In wisdom you have made them all; the earth is full of your creation.^[1] Solomon also received the same from God and said, The Lord by wisdom founded the earth.^[2] And John, knowing that the Word was the hand and the Wisdom, preached, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God . . . without him was not anything made.^[3]

Symmachus in this verse translated, speedily hell will open up, and he will not remain in corruption, which indicates Christ when it says, You will not abandon my soul to hell, nor will you give your holy one over to see corruption.^[1]

And his bread will not fail because I am the Lord your God, who stirs up the sea and its waves, the Lord of hosts is my name. The phrase and his bread will not fail appears in the Septuagint with an asterisk.^[1] The text means that in very captivity they will enjoy the divine concern since God provides generously for their need.

For the same verse we, following the Hebrew and Aquila, translated I have put my words in your mouth, and in the shadow of my hands I have protected you as you lay out the heavens and establish the earth and say to Zion, ‘you are my people.’ Symmachus had, I will put my words in your mouth, and in the shadow of my hand I will protect you—[the hand] with which I laid out the sky and founded the earth so that I might say to Zion, ‘You are my people.’ According to the Septuagint, it is spoken to all the souls of believers because, though created towards the image and likeness of God, it was unaware of its dignity. Instead, it feared man and the son of man who can only kill the body and did not understand that it is immortal.

It is by means of actions that I will teach you the truth of my words. And I will shelter you under the shadow of my hand, with which I fixed the sky and founded the earth: and the Lord shall say to Zion, you are my people. It suffices to recall the creation to show the capability of his dynamic force that he has promised to convey to them; for he has indicated his dynamic force by the name hand.