Thomas Aquinas

And he shall judge. Here he promises peace to those converted; and concerning this he does three things. First he sets down the effective cause of peace; second, the sign of peace: and they shall beat their swords; third, the fruit of peace: nation shall not lift up. The effective cause of peace is the judgment of the king; and therefore he first says: he shall judge the nations, giving them laws, and shall rebuke the peoples, correcting sins. Below, 11: he shall judge the poor in justice, and shall rebuke in equity for the meek of the earth. The sign of peace is that instruments of war are turned into the cultivation of the field: hence he says: and they shall beat their swords into ploughshares. Psalm 45: he shall break the bow, and shatter the weapons. The fruit of peace is in the removal of enemies: hence he says: nation shall not lift up sword against nation. Below, 26: the old error has departed, you will keep peace, peace, because we have hoped in you. But against this, because afterward there were many wars. The Gloss answers, that they were not so great as before. Hence in the time of Antichrist, although there is to be the greatest persecution of the saints, yet they will have great peace among themselves, as was the case in the time of Diocletian. Or it should better be said that it refers to the peace made through Christ, which will be completed in the future.

House of Jacob. Here is set down the calling of the Jews made after the conversion of the Gentiles: either from the person of the prophet, or from the person of the Gentiles, so that those who were at the head may be at the tail. Romans 11: blindness in part has happened until the fullness of the Gentiles should come in, and thus all Israel would be saved. Let us walk — together and in harmony, that there may be one fold. John 10: and there shall be one fold and one shepherd. In the light. John 12: walk while you have the light.

For you have cast off. Here he shows their guilt: first in general; second in particular, at the place, and they have had soothsayers. Concerning the first he does two things. First he shows their distancing from God, when he says, for you have cast off: and as the Gloss continues: they are rightly to be called, because you have cast off. Jeremiah 22: why are he and his seed cast out, and cast forth into a land which they have not known. Second he gives the reason for the distancing, namely because they are filled with iniquity, as of old, in Egypt. Jeremiah 23: the land is filled with adulteries; for there is no cause of distancing from God except sin. Hence below, 59: your sins have divided between you and God.

And soothsayers. Here he sets down their fault in particular; and especially concerning idolatry, which he charges against them in three ways. First as to their pagan manner of life; second as to the occasion of idolatry, at the place, the land is filled; third as to the observance of the cult, at the place, and the land is filled.

He reproves their pagan manner of life in two respects. First as to the diviners and soothsayers whom they had: hence he says: soothsayers — that is, those who foretell future things from the voice and chattering of birds — they have had, like the Philistines, among whom this superstition especially flourished, against what is commanded in Deuteronomy 18: take care lest you wish to imitate the abominations of those nations. And immediately below: let there not be found among you one who consults soothsayers, and observes dreams and auguries. But it seems that augury is not a sin. For birds have a better estimative sense than fish, which are more watery; but sailors, from the movement of certain fish, take conjectures about a coming storm: therefore also through birds something can be foretold about future things. And it must be said that God has provided for each thing those means by which it can be preserved in being, according to the capacity of its nature: and therefore to man he gave reason, by which, through deliberation, he can discover for himself remedies against harmful things. And because in brute animals reason is lacking, he ordained that what is lacking from reason, nature should supply; and therefore to such creatures are given, naturally, weapons and coverings, which man acquires for himself through art. Likewise also there was created in them a certain natural power of estimation, impelling them to perform the works of their species. Hence they are acted upon rather than act, as the Damascene says. And since the lower nature is regulated by the higher nature and is moved by it, there remain in them impressions of the higher motions, stirring up a motion of this kind by which they are moved to provide for themselves in what is necessary. And in such matters, to take a conjecture from birds, or the movements of birds, or of other animals, is not a sin; but only concerning those things which have their cause from free will, which does not operate by the necessity of the stars.

Second, as to unnatural passions, to which they were subject: hence he says: to strange children — that is, foreigners, or those alien from God — they clung, through shameful abuse. Romans 1: males working shameful acts with males. 2 Maccabees 4 speaks of this vice: for this was, moreover, a certain increase and advance of pagan and foreign manner of life, on account of the wicked and unpriestly Jason's nefarious and unheard-of crime.

The land is filled. Here he sets down the occasion of idolatry, which is avarice or likeness. Ephesians 5: or avarice (...) which is the service of idols. First, therefore, he shows their avarice as to the multiplication of things pertaining to the necessity of sustenance, when he says, the land is filled: in which the abundance of things is noted; and there is no end: in which is noted the insatiability of the avaricious man, who will not be filled with money. Ecclesiasticus 5: the avaricious man will not be filled with money; and he who loves riches will receive no fruit from them. And Hosea 2: I gave them grain, wine and oil and silver, and I multiplied them, and gold; which they made into Baals. Second, as to things which pertain to the use of the one who carries, when he says, filled. Psalm 19: these in chariots, and these on horses; but we, etc.

And the land is filled. Here he charges against them the cult of idolatry; and he aggravates this from three things. First from the multitude, when he says, and it is filled. Hosea 7: Ephraim has multiplied altars for sinning. Jeremiah 2: under every leafy tree and on every high hill you lay down, a harlot. Second from the vileness of the idols: because it is the work of their own hands, and still more what their fingers have made. Psalm 113: the idols of the nations are silver and gold, the works of the hands of men. Third from the dignity of man: and therefore he says: man, who was made to the image of God, has bowed himself down, subjecting himself to idols; the man, who seemed virtuous as to what he had acquired, has been humbled. Psalm 48: man, when he was in honor, did not understand; he was compared to senseless beasts, and became like them. Below, 44: he bows down before it, and worships, and says, deliver me.