Isaias xxv.
Notes & Commentary:
Ver. 1. Amen. He approves of God’s judgments (Haydock) against Jerusalem. (Worthington)
Ver. 2. City; Jerusalem, or rather Babylon, (chap. xxi.; Calmet) or every city (Haydock) in the world. (Menochius) — Strangers: the temples of idols.
Ver. 3. People; the Chaldeans, or their conquerors.
Ver. 4. Poor; Juda, whom Nabuchodonosor’s fury could not exterminate.
Ver. 5. Away. Cyrus (Calmet) shall reduce Babylon the great. (Haydock)
Ver. 6. Mountain of Sion, a figure of the Church, and of heaven. The Jews shall feast: yea, some of all nations shall partake of the blessed Eucharist, and obtain heaven. The expressions are too grand for a corruptible feast. (Calmet) — Wine. Literally, “of vintage,” (Haydock) on which occasion great rejoicings were made. (Hesiod, Hercul. 297.) — Protestants, “of wines on the lees.” (Haydock) — In the East, the wines were very thick, Psalm lxxv. 9. (Calmet) — On the rejection of the Jews, the Gentiles were converted. (Worthington)
Ver. 7. Tied. He will open their eyes to the truth of the gospel. They shall be no longer as criminals, expecting death, or mourning.
Ver. 8. Ever. Hebrew, “he shall swallow up death in victory,” 1 Corinthians xv. 54. Christ, by dying, conquered death, and rescued us from its power, if we do not voluntarily subject ourselves to it again. This was faintly represented by the liberation of the captives.
Ver. 10. Mountain: the Church. (Calmet) — Moab. That is, the reprobate, whose eternal punishment, from which they can no way escape, is described under these figures. (Challoner) — The Machabees probably executed this vengeance on Moab, 1 Machabees v. 6.
Ver. 11. Hands. All his exertions and fury will prove useless. (Haydock) — Moab shall lie prostrate.
Bible Text & Cross-references:
A canticle of thanksgiving for God’s judgments and benefits.
1 O Lord, thou art my God, I will exalt thee, and give glory to thy name; for thou hast done wonderful things, thy designs of old, faithful, Amen.
2 For thou hast reduced the city to a heap, the strong city to ruin, the house of strangers to be no city, and to be no more built up for ever.
3 Therefore shall a strong people praise thee; the city of mighty nations shall fear thee.
4 Because thou hast been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress: a refuge from the whirlwind, a shadow from the heat. For the blast of the mighty is like a whirlwind beating against a wall.
5 Thou shalt bring down the tumult of strangers, as heat in thirst: and as with heat under a burning cloud, thou shalt make the branch of the mighty to wither away.
6 And the Lord of hosts shall make unto all people in this mountain, a feast of fat things, a feast of wine, of fat things full of marrow, of wine purified from the lees.
7 And he shall destroy in this mountain the face of the bond with which all people were tied, and the web that he began over all nations.
8 He shall cast death down headlong for ever: *and the Lord God shall wipe away tears from every face; and the reproach of his people he shall take away from off the whole earth: for the Lord hath spoken it.
9 And they shall say in that day: Lo, this is our God, we have waited for him, and he will save us: this is the Lord, we have patiently waited for him, we shall rejoice and be joyful in his salvation.
10 For the hand of the Lord shall rest in this mountain: and Moab shall be trodden down under him, as straw is broken in pieces with the wain.
11 And he shall stretch forth his hands under him, as he that swimmeth stretcheth forth his hands to swim: and he shall bring down his glory with the dashing of his hands.
12 And the bulwarks of thy high walls shall fall, and be brought low, and shall be pulled down to the ground, even to the dust.
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*
8: Apocalypse vii. 17. and xxi. 4.