Jerome : (Verse 25.) On that day, the lamb will graze abundantly in your possession. And your oxen and donkeys, who work the land, will eat a mixture of barley and chaff, like it has been winnowed in the threshing floor. And on that day, your horses will graze in a fertile and spacious place. Your bulls and cows, who work the land, will eat the mixture of chaff and barley in the winnowed grain. In the abundance of all things, with heavenly rain descending, and with that bread which comes down from heaven, whoever eats it will never hunger again. The lambs will graze in the most spacious place, following the lamb wherever it goes, and those who are always on the right side will also graze. But the leaders of the herd, of whom we read: The congregation of bulls in the midst of cows of the people (Ps. LXVII, 31): and the foals of donkeys, on which the Lord sitting entered Jerusalem (Matth. XXI), who work the land, they will eat from the threshing floor in such a way that it has been winnowed, so that nothing mixed of course in their food there will be chaff, of which it is written in Jeremiah: What has chaff to do with wheat, says the Lord (Jerem. XXIII)? And those who are burned with unquenchable fire in the Gospel (Luke III). Moreover, according to the Septuagint, the animals, which are not yet full of reason and wisdom, and of which one speaks to God: I have become like a beast before you (Ps. LXXII, 23), will be fed in a rich and spacious place, which does not bring forth thorns and thistles, but flows like the land of Israel with milk and honey, and grants full freedom to those who feed on it. But the bulls and oxen that work the land, that is, the Apostles and apostolic men, of whom the apostle Paul also interprets the writing: You shall not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treads out the grain. And, is God concerned with oxen? But certainly He speaks about those who work their own land and of whom He speaks the same, we are God's agriculture, God's building. For the Father is the farmer, and Christ is the vine: they will eat chaff mixed with winnowed barley. We read that Isaac sowed barley, and because he was among foreigners, he received a hundredfold harvest of barley. And Hosea, having hired a coro and a half of barley, took to himself an adulterous woman (Hosea III). The Savior also, with five thousand men who still served the desires of the flesh and followed the Law of Moses, satisfied them with barley loaves (John VI). In another place, by breaking seven loaves of the Law and dividing them into pieces, he filled four thousand men with wheat bread, who followed the evangelical number (Matthew XV). People of this kind eat both the chaff and the grain. While in some respects they adhere to the letter, gradually they make progress through the chaff and barley, in order to pass on to the wheat. — Commentary on Isaiah Jerome : (Verse 25.) And they shall be upon every high mountain, and upon every elevated hill, flowing streams of water on the day of the slaughter of many, when the towers fall. In this place, the Jews attribute to the power of the Roman Empire the many who were killed and the towers that collapsed, about which the Apostle also speaks (2 Thess. 7): Only he who now holds it, let him hold it until it is taken away. That is, in that time there will be such great prosperity for the people of Israel that not only valleys and plains, but all mountains and hills will be irrigated by flowing waters. But we, let us understand the mountains and hills, those who are elevated in high virtues, who hunger and thirst for justice (Matt. 5), whom the Lord challenges to drink. For whoever drinks from His waters, will not thirst forever (John 4). Hence, in the psalm we read: Bless the Lord from the fountains of Israel (Ps. 67:27). And in the Gospel it is said that anyone who drinks from the waters of Jesus, rivers of living water will flow from his womb (John 7). And he speaks to God the Holy One, saying: For with you is the fountain of life (Ps. 36:10), from which the purest river flows, of which Scripture again mentions: The rushing of a river makes glad the city of God (Ps. 45:4). And in another place: The river of God is filled with water (Ps. 65:9); namely, the one who speaks through Jeremiah: They have forsaken me, the fountain of living water (Jer. 2:13). But this will happen when they are killed or perish, many indeed are called, but few are chosen (Matt. 20:16). And when the towers fall, whether they be the powers of demons, or the proud and arrogant and great of this world; of whom it is said in the Psalms: I have seen the wicked exalted, and lifted up like the cedars of Lebanon, and I passed by, and behold, he was not, I sought him, and his place was not found (Ps. XXXVI, 35, 36). These towers desired to build (Gen. XII), those who moved their feet from the East, whose tongues were confounded in Babylon, and those on whom the tower of Siloam fell (Luke XIII). — Commentary on Isaiah