Книга пророка Исаии 1 глава 10 стих

Грехами жителей Содома и Гоморры были гордость, пресыщение, соединенное с праздностию, и жестокость к бедным и нищим (Иез. 16:49). Вельможи и народ Иудейский подражали жителям Содома и Гоморры в этих грехах и потому названы князьями Содомскими и народом Гоморрским.— Слово Господне, которому пророк призывает их внимать, — это слово обличения и вразумления, содержащееся в следующих стихах. Оно же есть закон Божий, ибо должно быть также для них священно, как закон писанный.

The prophet compares them with the rulers of Sodom and the people of Gomorrah because catastrophe was about to overcome them, and because they burned with impiety, like the men who lived in Sodom 8 and Gomorrah and because of the similarity of their lifestyle. The prophet himself sets this forth, continuing on in the rest of the verse, saying: “They proclaim their lawlessness like Sodom; they exhibit it. Woe to their soul, because they resolved to take evil advice against themselves, saying: ‘Let us enchain the just, for he is of no use to us.’” Surely, it is now evident on what grounds he called them rulers of Sodom.

The children of the Jews held their heads high and took pride in the virtue of their ancestors—after all, they were “descendants of Abraham” and the offspring of Israel. The Word then rightly humbles their boastfulness and brings down their conceited opinions, calling the renowned rulers of Israel rulers of Sodom and stigmatizing those who style themselves to be the people of God as the people of Gomorrah, since their practices equaled the wickedness of long ago.

Above he called heaven and earth to witness. Now he speaks to the Jews themselves, dividing them into rulers and people. He calls them of Sodom and Gomorrah, as being destined to suffer similar things, or because of a likeness of manners. For going on he will say. But they declared their iniquity as Sodom's, and made it manifest with their injustice, since they devised a wicked plan, saying against themselves: "Let us bind the just one, for he is unprofitable to us." The lawlessness, therefore, spoken against the one just man, that is, Christ, proved them liable to such an address. He also punishes their pride as if for their noble birth from Abraham, showing, according to the divine Apostle, "For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly," and what follows. And again: "For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel; nor because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children." Therefore, on the contrary, it is possible for those of other races to be called rulers of Israel, and the people of God, by providing worthy deeds and doctrines. And when the seed left to us was separated, he consequently deemed the rest worthy of such names, saying rulers of Sodom, because Sodom was, as it were, the metropolis of wickedness, whose rulers surpassed it in excess of evil. And he appropriately added, that just as those men rejected Lot who was judging righteous things, saying: "You came in to sojourn, not also to render judgment?" So also these men rejected the righteous judge, saying: "Crucify, crucify, away with such a one." And those men, on the one hand, committed outrage against strangers; but these men, on the other hand, against him who came to his own. And those men, against angels; but these men, against God. And Jerusalem, therefore, out of impiety became Sodom. For just as among those people God, when seeking, did not find ten righteous men for whose sake the city ought to be saved, so Jerusalem had a great scarcity of righteous men. Wherefore, to Jeremiah who was pleading for her, God said: "Run to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see, and know, and seek in her broad places if you can find a man, if there is one who does judgment, and seeks faith, and I will be merciful to her, says the Lord." And being deprived of every good thing, they moreover also arrived at the extreme of impiety by killing Christ; which indeed especially happened through the unholiness of the rulers. For knowing that he is the heir, they attempted to kill him, wishing to make his vineyard 1844 their own inheritance. Concerning whom God says in the prophets: "Many shepherds have destroyed my vineyard," and what follows. And again: "The shepherds have become foolish, and have not sought the Lord. Therefore the whole pasture did not understand, and they were scattered." For it was necessary for them, having believed Moses, to know the Lord, and to lead the others to him. "For," he says, "that man wrote concerning me," saying: "The Lord God will raise up for you a prophet from your brethren, like me; him you shall hear." Whence with rebuking admonition the prophet lovingly brings them to the necessity of knowing him, crying out to the rulers, on the one hand, as being more skillful, to hear, which is more a matter of the mind. Therefore, stirring them up to know the will of his own words, the Lord says: "He who has ears to hear, let him hear;" but to the peoples, as being without understanding, to pay attention, or to give ear, as others have rendered it. But it is clear that the mere sound is placed in the ears. Therefore also in Exodus the people say: "All that God shall say, we will do, and we will hear." For the imperfect, on the one hand, do, observing the bodily things of the law; wherefore it has been set forth first; "But the perfect man hears," understanding the will of the things in the law. So again, to the rulers, on the one hand, he assigned the word; but to the people, on the other hand, the law. For the law, on the one hand, is a rule of righteous and unrighteous things; commanding, on the one hand, what must be done; but prohibitive, on the other hand, of what must not, or, not be done, which the common man is eager to keep, being ignorant of its purpose. But the word, on the other hand, also gives the reason for which each thing was said, showing the law to be spiritual. But rulers of Sodom, not only as rulers of wicked men, he says, but also as being such themselves. And he also indicated the wickedness of the people by saying, people of Gomorrah. For the first would have been sufficient, if it signified the wickedness of the people. But the greater part of this he assigns to the rulers, because Sodom presided over the Pentapolis, showing its evil to be ruling and greater. But rulers of Sodom, except for those who were defeated, we have not received from history; but because with great boldness he reproves the wrongdoers, Paul says: "But Isaiah is very bold and says." Therefore they also say this is one cause of the plot against the prophet. And one might use these things against unfit rulers of churches, and a lawless people. ιαιεʹ. 

Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom; give ear to the law of God, you people of Gomorrah. They did not receive a punishment equivalent to the Sodomites, for that seed did not allow it, but they fittingly receive the names of Sodomites and Gomorrhans. For since they were greatly proud of the root of Abraham, but did not emulate the faith of Abraham, they are justly cast out from the kinship of Abraham. So also the divine John the Baptist cries out: "You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance, and do not think to say to yourselves that we have Abraham as our father; for truly I say to you that God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham." And to the prophet Ezekiel God instructs to say "to Jerusalem: Your seed and your birth are from the land of Canaan; your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite"; and again he calls Sodom her sister. For whose lawlessness they emulated, of these they are right to receive the name.