Is. 2

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Further prophecy of Juda and Jerusalem

1 THE word that Isaias the son of Amos saw, concerning Juda and Jerusalem. 2 And in the last days the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be prepared on the top of mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills, and all nations shall flow unto it. 3 And many people shall go, and say: Come and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob, and he will teach us his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for the law shall come forth from Sion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

Swords will be turned into ploughshares

4 And he shall judge the Gentiles, and rebuke many people: and they shall turn their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into sickles: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they be exercised any more to war.

Idolaters will be punished

5 O house of Jacob, come ye, and let us walk in the light of the Lord. 6 For thou hast cast off thy people, the house of Jacob: because they are filled as in times past, and have had soothsayers as the Philistines, and have adhered to strange children. 7 Their land is filled with silver and gold: and there is no end of their treasures. 8 And their land is filled with horses: and their chariots are innumerable. Their land also is full of idols: they have adored the work of their own hands, which their own fingers have made. 9 And man hath bowed himself down, and man hath been debased: therefore forgive them not.

God will humble the proud

10 Enter thou into the rock, and hide thee in the pit from the face of the fear of the Lord, and from the glory of his majesty. 11 The lofty eyes of man are humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall be made to stoop: and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day. 12 Because the day of the Lord of hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and highminded, and upon every one that is arrogant, and he shall be humbled. 13 And upon all the tall and lofty cedars of Libanus, and upon all the oaks of Basan. 14 And upon all the high mountains, and upon all the elevated hills. 15 And upon every high tower, and every fenced wall. 16 And upon all the ships of Tharsis, and upon all that is fair to behold. 17 And the loftiness of men shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be humbled, and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day.

Idolators will flee before God's majesty

18 And idols shall be utterly destroyed. 19 And they shall go into the holes of rocks, and into the caves of the earth from the face of the fear of the Lord, and from the glory of his majesty, when he shall rise up to strike the earth. 20 In that day a man shall cast away his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which he had made for himself to adore, moles and bats. 21And he shall go into the clefts of rocks, and into the holes of stones from the face of the fear of the Lord, and from the glory of his majesty, when he shall rise up to strike the earth. 22 Cease ye therefore from the man, whose breath is in his nostrils, for he is reputed high.

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2:1 Judea and Jerusalem: Isaiah mentions Judea and Jerusalem, and in this is nothing unusual. His discourse was a prophecy, momentarily obscured by the names that are indicated. For it is the same for Jacob, predicting this, in the same way Isaiah will now state it (cf. Gen 49:10-11). Is it then surprising that here too the prophet places the names of Judea and of Jerusalem in his predictions regarding the Church? As he addressed himself to the senseless people who killed the prophets, burned their books, overturned their altars, so it is reasonable that the veil would have been imposed on them in their reading of the Old Testament, according to the utterance of the blessed Paul, “But their minds were hardened. For until this day the same veil remains unlifted in the reading of the Old Testament, because the veil is taken away in Christ” 2 Cor 3:14. (St. John Chrysostom)

2:2 last days: The whole time of the new law, from the coming of Christ till the end of the world, is called in Scripture the last days; because no other age or time shall come after it, but only eternity. top of mountains: This shews the perpetual visibility of the church of Christ: for a mountain upon the top of mountains cannot be hid. (Bishop Richard Challoner)

2:3 It would seem that Christ should not have been born in Bethlehem. For it is written: "The law shall come forth from Sion, and the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem." But Christ is truly the Word of God. Therefore He should have come into the world at Jerusalem. But, as David was born in Bethlehem, so

also did he choose Jerusalem to set up his throne there, and to build there the Temple of God, so that Jerusalem was at the same time a royal and a priestly city. Now, Christ's priesthood and kingdom were "consummated" principally in His Passion. Therefore it was becoming that He should choose Bethlehem for His Birthplace and Jerusalem for the scene of His Passion. (St. Thomas Aquinas Summa Theologica 1.35.7)

2:4 When Christ was born, when the whole world lived under one ruler, peace abounded on the earth. Therefore it was a fitting time for the birth of Christ, for "He is our peace, who hath made both one," as it is written (Eph. 2:14). Wherefore Jerome says on Is. 2:4: "If we search the page of ancient history, we shall find that throughout the whole world there was discord until the twenty-eighth year of Augustus Caesar: but when our Lord was born, all war ceased"; according to Is. 2:4: "Nation shall not lift up sword against nation." (St. Thomas Aquinas Summa Theologica 2.35.8.r1)

2:5 This prophetic text urges those, then, no longer to sit by the dim lamp-light of the law, but to fill their souls with the brilliant rays of the true Light. (Theodoret of Cyrus)

Subpages (1): Is. 3

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