We. Septuagint, "they have sinned," which seems preferable. (Haydock) CHAPTER XLII. And. Notwithstanding the sins of his people, God will deliver them, that they may be his witnesses, ver. 10. (Calmet) --- Name. As an intimate friend, (Haydock) or slave, chap. xlix. 1. (Calmet) --- God grants grace without any preceding merit. (Worthington) --- Forerius explains this mostly of the Gentile church, though it regards the converted Jews. (Houbigant) Waters. In every emergency, God will protect thee, (Calmet) as he did the three children. [Daniel iii.] (Haydock) --- He will suffer none to perish, without their own fault. Hence the Church still continues pure. (Worthington) Ethiopia. Hebrew, "Chus," the isle of Meroe, (Grotius) or the country bordering on the Red Sea, chap. xlv. 14. These were given to indemnify Cyrus. They obtained their liberty to return home, after 40 years, Ezechiel xxix. 11. Eyes, by a gratuitous choice. --- Men. Chaldeans, &c. East. Babylon. --- West. The island beyond the Mediterranean. North. Assyria. --- South. Egypt. The captives returned from these countries under Cyrus, Alexander the Great, &c., so that before the coming of Christ, Judea was as well peopled as ever. (Calmet) Calleth. Hebrew, "is called by my name." (Protestants) (Haydock) --- My people's chastisements and liberation prove my divine perfections. Ears. Yet will not hear, (Calmet) or who are miraculously healed. (Haydock) --- It seems rather to mean idolatrous nations, (ver. 9.; Calmet) or rebellious Jews. (Forerius) (Houbigant) Former. The pagans were little acquainted with antiquity. Such researches lead to the knowledge of the true religion. (Haydock) --- Truth, if they can produce any true prophecy. Witnesses. The history of the Israelites was sufficient to shew who was God. (Calmet) --- Thus the establishment of Christianity manifests its truth. (St. Augustine, City of God xxii. 6.) --- Septuagint add, "and I am witness." (Haydock) One idol, to announce what would happen. Bars. Septuagint, "fugitives." Theodotion, "strong ones." --- Glorying. Septuagint, "shall be bound in ships," to be sent beyond the Caspian Sea. (Calmet) --- Cyrus was victorious for the sake of God's people; for he will not neglect his Church. (Worthington) Waters. of the Jordan and the Red Sea, in the latter of which Pharao perished, ver. 17. New. I shall work the like miracles as were seen in the wilderness. Chosen. We know not that rivers were found in Arabia. But the people were equally favoured. Christ facilitates the road to heaven by his example and graces, while the most savage tempers are changed in baptism. Incense. My kindness is gratuitous. In a strange land, thou couldst not offer sacrifice. See chap. xlviii. 9., and xlix. 1. (Calmet) CHAPTER XLIII. Iniquities. Thou hast shewn the greatest ingratitude. (Haydock) --- Yet I will save thee. Thyself. God condescends to act thus with men, chap. xli. 20., and Osee iv. 1. First father. Adam, (Lyranus) or rather Abraham sinned, by diffidence, (Genesis xv. 8.; St. Jerome) or was formerly an idolater, Josue xxiv. 2. (Genebrard,the year of the world 2049) (St. Augustine, City of God xvi. 12.) (Calmet) (Tirinus) --- Teachers. Literally, "interpreters," (Haydock) Moses and Aaron, Numbers xx. 9. (Calmet) --- All the patriarchs and teachers sinned, till Christ, the immaculate lamb, appeared. Adam engaged all in guilt. (Worthington) Profaned, or declared such, (Haydock) Nadab, &c., (Leviticus x. 1.; Calmet) or Moses and Aaron. (Menochius) --- Septuagint, "and the princes defiled my holy things. " (Haydock) --- Slaughter. Hebrew, "anathema." Yet I will re-establish all. (Calmet) Stock. I will give fresh life to my people, as to the figure of Christ's Church. Israel. They shall no longer be ashamed of being called Israelites or Christians. Witnesses. The history of the true religion is its best proof, chap. xliii. 9, 10. --- Known. Ruled, consequently no other can be truly God. (Calmet) --- Idolaters are foolish, trusting in those who cannot announce future events. (Worthington) Ashamed of the origin and imbecility of their idols. (Calmet) --- All this may be turned against heretics, who worship their own fictions; which the Church never does. (St. Jerome) (Worthington) File. Hebrew mahatsad, (Haydock; Jeremias x. 3.) "to make an ax, with," &c. This is the remote cause of the idol. Man. To be styled afterwards a god. (Calmet) --- Maluit esse deum. (Horace i. ser. 8.) Covered. Septuagint, "darkened." Are Catholics in the same predicament? (Chap. xl. 18.) (Haydock) Lie. Can I assert in conscience that it is a god? Return from captivity, (Calmet) and from their former errors, Matthew xi. 26. (Haydock) Mad. That people may be no longer deluded. Servant. The prophets and Jesus Christ, whose works never fail, Matthew xxiv. 35. (Calmet) --- In all this prediction of the Church, Isaias alludes to Jerusalem destroyed, and afterwards rebuilt. (Worthington) Deep. Babylon, situated amid waters, chap. xxi. 1. (Calmet) --- Rivers, as Cyrus did. (Herodotus i. 191.) CHAPTER XLIV. Cyrus. This was spoken 110 years before his birth, which shews the prescience and power of God, so as not to injure free-will. The parents of Cyrus could not give him this name to fulfill the prediction, as they knew nothing of it. Amon was apprised that a person called Josias would overturn idolatry; but he had no reason to suppose that it would be his son, 1 Kings xiii. 2. --- My shepherd. Chaldean, "that he shall reign." This was shewn by the Jews to Cyrus, on which account, (Calmet) he gave them leave to return, &c. (Josephus, [Antiquities?] xi. 1.) --- The title of shepherd is given to Agamemnon by Homer, and it denotes a good prince, such as historians represent Cyrus to have been. He observed that kings and shepherds had the like duties to perform; (Xenophon viii.) and after his death he was bewailed as a "father." (Herodotus iii. 89.) --- At first he did not bear the name of Cyrus, (Herodotus i. 113.) which in the Persian language means "the sun." (Ctesias.) (Plut.[Plutarch?]) Anointed, often implies one chosen for some great work. Cyrus was to ruin the empire of Babylon, and to set the nations at liberty. He was a proof of the Deity by executing his decrees. --- Cyrus. Some copies of the Septuagint seem to have read Greek: kurio, "to the Lord," incorrectly. (St. Jerome) --- Though Cyrus was not anointed, he is styled thus, in allusion to the custom of the Jewish kings. (Worthington) Brass. Babylon had 100 such gates. (Herodotus i. 179.) Treasures. See Pliny, [Natural History?] xxxiii. 3. He overcame the rich king of Lydia, &c. Likeness of Christ. --- Known me. Before the Jews had shewn Cyrus the prophecies, he did not attribute his success to the Lord, and even afterwards he seems not to have left the superstitions of his country, as his sacrifices to idols are described. He resembled Nabuchodonosor and the philosophers, who did not glorify God according to their knowledge, Daniel ii. 47., and Romans i. 21. Cyrus even revoked the decree for building the temple, 1 Esdras iv. 5. (Calmet) --- He believed there was one God; (1 Esdras i.) yet he did not embrace the truth entirely. (Worthington) Create evil, &c. The evils of afflictions and punishments, but not the evil of sin. (Challoner) --- I afflict and comfort my people. Saviour. Thus the ancient saints thirsted for the coming of Christ. His figure is styled the just, chap. xli. 2, 25. --- Him. Christ, born of the virgin, in time, and of God from all eternity. I have appointed Cyrus to be his precursor, to set the captives free. (Calmet) --- He has been spoken of before. But now the prophet turns to Christ alone, who built his Church on a rock. (Worthington) --- Cyrus had not a right faith in God, and Zorobabel was himself set free, and was not king. (St. Jerome) Earthen. Literally, "Samian." (Haydock) --- Samos was famous for its pottery. (Pliny, [Natural History?] xxxv. 12.) Hebrew, "Clay, disputest thou against the potters of the earth?" He shews the folly of idols, after having proved his own divinity. (Calmet) --- Protestants, "Let the potsherds strive with the potsherds of the earth." (Haydock) Forth. As such language would be improper to parents, so it is wrong to complain that God places us in any situation. (Menochius) To me. Ask what will come to pass, or direct me how to act. Justice. Cyrus shall punish the Chaldeans and restore the Jews. (Calmet) --- The prophet returns to him after having mentioned a greater Saviour, ver. 8. (Houbigant) Stature: the people of Saba were the tallest and best proportioned in Arabia. (Agathar. v. 50.) --- Cyrus possessed all these countries. He sent the Egyptians home in the third year of his reign, at Babylon, the year of the world 3470, Ezechiel xxix. 11. They never became subject to the Jews; but embraced the religion of Christ, acknowledging him for God, ver. 15. (Calmet) --- Besides thee. Protestants, "Surely God is in thee, and there is none else, there is no God." Those whom we have hitherto adored, deserved not the name. Vulgate and Septuagint make the people address Christ, the God-man. (Haydock) Saviour. We confess that thou hast delivered the Jews; or rather, we acknowledge that thou, O Christ, art true God under the veils of thy human nature, and Saviour of all. Cyrus was only a feeble representation of thee. Confusion. Idolaters shall be confounded, when they shall behold the glory of the elect. In vain. Hebrew, "to be a chaos," Genesis viii. 2. Earth. The pagan oracles were given chiefly in mountains, where the impostures of the priests might escape detection. They were also generally ambiguous, or mere guesses. The declarations of the true prophets were quite the reverse. --- In vain; without reward. (Calmet) Gentiles: converts, (Haydock) or Jews, returning from Babylon. Me. He transports his auditors to the times succeeding the captivity, when the completion of the prophecies will be evident. Myself, having none greater, Hebrews vi. 13. --- Justice: sure. --- To me. All that are born belong to me. The Jewish women had seldom recourse to midwives, (Exodus i. 19., and 1 Kings iv. 19.; Calmet) no more than the Ethiopians. (Ludolf. i. 14.) --- Swear, by the true God. (Haydock) --- Oaths on proper occasions, honour him, Deuteronomy vi. 13. Nothing could be spoken more plainly of the Gentiles' conversion. Empire. Cyrus shall make this confession, (1 Esdras i. 2.) and all who embrace the religion of Christ, shall attribute all their virtue to him.