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What's New
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July 2026
New article: “The Book of Revelation” (Revelation).
New article: “The Letters to the Seven Churches” (Revelation).
New article: “The Liturgy of Heaven” (Revelation).
New article: “The Woman, the Dragon, and the Lamb” (Revelation).
New article: “Babylon and the Judgment” (Revelation).
New article: “The New Jerusalem” (Revelation).
New article: “The Catholic Letters” (Catholic Letters).
New article: “The Letter of James” (Catholic Letters).
New article: “The Letters of Peter” (Catholic Letters).
New article: “The Letters of John” (Catholic Letters).
New article: “The Letter of Jude” (Catholic Letters).
New article: “The Book of Acts” (Acts).
New article: “Pentecost” (Acts).
New article: “The Church of the First Days” (Acts).
New article: “The Gospel to the Nations” (Acts).
New article: “To the Ends of the Earth” (Acts).
New article: “The Book of Hosea” (Hosea).
New article: “The Book of Micah” (Micah).
New article: “The Book of Jonah” (Jonah).
New article: “The Book of Habakkuk” (Habakkuk).
New article: “The Book of Zephaniah” (Zephaniah).
New article: “The Book of Malachi” (Malachi).
New article: “The Book of Daniel” (Daniel).
New article: “Faith in the Trial” (Daniel).
New article: “The Kingdoms That Pass” (Daniel).
New article: “The Son of Man and the Resurrection” (Daniel).
New article: “Susanna and the Wisdom of God” (Daniel).
New article: “The Book of Jeremiah” (Jeremiah).
New article: “Jeremiah, the Tested Prophet” (Jeremiah).
New article: “The New Covenant” (Jeremiah).
New article: “The Fall of Jerusalem and the Lamentations” (Jeremiah).
New article: “Baruch and the Hope of Exile” (Jeremiah).
New article: “The Song of Songs” (Song of Songs).
New article: “The Movement of Love” (Song of Songs).
New article: “The Garden of Symbols” (Song of Songs).
New article: “Love Strong as Death” (Song of Songs).
New article: “The Senses of the Song” (Song of Songs).
New article: “The Book of Job” (Job).
New article: “The Prologue and the Trial” (Job).
New article: “Job and His Friends” (Job).
New article: “God’s Answer” (Job).
New article: “My Eyes Have Seen You” (Job).
New article: “The Book of Ecclesiastes” (Ecclesiastes).
New article: “The Quest for Happiness” (Ecclesiastes).
New article: “A Time for Everything” (Ecclesiastes).
New article: “The Joy That Is God’s Gift” (Ecclesiastes).
New article: “Remember Your Creator” (Ecclesiastes).
New article: “The Book of Wisdom” (Wisdom).
New article: “The Righteous, the Wicked, and Immortality” (Wisdom).
New article: “Wisdom, the Breath of God” (Wisdom).
New article: “Wisdom, Guide of History” (Wisdom).
New article: “Knowing God and the Folly of Idols” (Wisdom).
New article: “The Book of Sirach” (Sirach).
New article: “The Fear of the Lord, Source of Wisdom” (Sirach).
New article: “Wisdom and the Law” (Sirach).
New article: “The Choice of Life and Everyday Wisdom” (Sirach).
New article: “The Praise of the Ancestors” (Sirach).
New article: “The Book of Proverbs” (Proverbs).
New article: “The Fear of the Lord and the Two Ways” (Proverbs).
New article: “Personified Wisdom” (Proverbs).
New article: “Wisdom for Daily Life” (Proverbs).
New article: “The Valiant Woman” (Proverbs).
New article: “The Psalter, Prayer of Israel” (Psalms).
New article: “The Psalms of Praise and Thanksgiving” (Psalms).
New article: “The Psalms of Supplication and Trust” (Psalms).
New article: “The Royal and Messianic Psalms” (Psalms).
New article: “The Psalms of Ascents and Wisdom” (Psalms).
New article: “The Psalms on the Lips of Christ” (Psalms).
New article: “The Crisis and the Profanation of the Temple” (1 Maccabees).
New article: “Eleazar and the Seven Brothers” (2 Maccabees).
New article: “Judas Maccabeus and the Dedication of the Temple” (1-2 Maccabees).
New article: “Jewish Independence” (1 Maccabees).
New article: “Tobit” (Tobit).
New article: “Judith” (Judith).
New article: “Esther” (Esther).
New article: “The Return and the House of God” (Ezra).
New article: “Ezra and the Return to the Law” (Ezra, Nehemiah).
New article: “Nehemiah and the Rebuilt City” (Nehemiah).
New article: “Samuel and the Rise of Kingship” (1-2 Samuel).
New article: “Saul and the Rise of David” (1 Samuel).
New article: “David, the Covenant, and the Promise” (2 Samuel).
New article: “Solomon and the Temple” (1 Kings).
New article: “The Schism and the Northern Kingdom” (1-2 Kings).
New article: “Judah until the Exile” (2 Kings, 2 Chronicles).
New article: “The Entry into the Promised Land” (Joshua).
New article: “The Division of the Land and the Covenant at Shechem” (Joshua).
New article: “The Time of the Judges” (Judges).
New article: “In Those Days There Was No King” (Judges).
New article: “Ruth the Moabite” (Ruth).
New article: “Abraham, Father of Believers” (Genesis).
New article: “Isaac and Jacob” (Genesis).
New article: “Joseph” (Genesis).
New article: “The Creation and the Rest” (Genesis).
New article: “The Garden and the Fall” (Genesis).
New article: “From Cain to Babel” (Genesis).
New article: “Personal Responsibility” (Ezekiel).
New article: “The Ministry of the New Covenant” (2 Corinthians).
New article: “The Collection for the Saints” (2 Corinthians).
New article: “Strength in Weakness” (2 Corinthians).
New article: “The Decalogue.”
New article: “The Law of the Neighbor.”
New article: “The Law of Worship and Holiness.”
New article: “The Law and Christ.”
New article: “The Law, Gift of the Covenant.”
New article: “Freedom and idols” (1 Corinthians 8-10).
New article: “The charisms and the assembly” (1 Corinthians 12 and 14).
New article: “The Cardinal Virtues”.
New article: “Prudence”.
New article: “Temperance”.
The French Bible of the site is now the Chérubin translation, with section headings in the reader.
New article: “Resentment and Forgiveness”.
New article: “Judging One’s Neighbour”.
New article: “The New Temple and the River of Life” (Ezekiel).
New article: “The Restoration of Israel” (Ezekiel).
New article: “The Oracles Against the Nations” (Ezekiel).
New article: “The Symbolic Actions and the Judgment of Jerusalem”.
New article: “Ezekiel, the Prophet of the Exile”.
New article: “Anger and Meekness”.
New article: “Love”.
New article: “The Desire to Feel the Spirit”.
New article: “The Dark Night of the Soul”.
June 2026
New article: “Consolation and Desolation”.
New article: “Discerning the Movements of the Heart”.
New article: “The Fall of Nineveh”.
New article: “The God Who Judges and Who Saves”.
New article: “Nahum and the Assyrian Empire”.
New article: “Justice, the Day of the Lord, and Hope”.
New article: “The Visions and the Rejected Worship”.
New article: “The Judgment of the Nations and of Israel”.
New article: “Amos, the Shepherd Prophet”.
New article: “The Glory of the Second Temple”.
New article: “The Four Oracles”.
New article: “Haggai and the Rebuilding of the Temple”.
New article: “The Expansion of Christianity”.
New article: “All Under Sin”.
New article: “The Epistle to the Romans”.
New article: “Sinai and the covenant”.
New article: “The deliverance”.
New article: “The bondage and the call”.
New article: “The oracles against the nations”.
New article: “Sadness”.
New article: “Fear”.
New article: “The finger of God”.
New article: “The baptism of Christ”.
New article: “The Resurrection and the Glorification”.
New article: “Holy Week”.
New article: “The third year: the opposition”.
New article: “The second year: popularity”.
New article: “The first year: the inauguration”.
New article: “The preparation for the ministry”.
New article: “The prologues and the coming of Christ”.
New: the “Memorise” tool.
New article: “The Real Presence.”
New article: “The four Servant Songs”.
New article: “Trito-Isaiah”.
New article: “Deutero-Isaiah”.
New article: “Proto-Isaiah”.
New article: “Predestination”.
New article: “The Angel of the Lord”.
New article: “Wars of Extermination in the Bible”.
New article: “Slavery in the Bible”.
New article: “The Nature of God”.
New article: “The Age of the Martyrs”.
New article: “The Abode of the Dead”.
New article: “The Canon and the Deuterocanonical Books”.
New article: “The Deacon”.
New article: “The Priest”.
New article: “Sola Scriptura”.
New article: “The Angels”.
New article: “Sola Fide”.
New article: “Once Saved, Always Saved”.
New article: “Elijah at Horeb”.
New article: “Turning the Other Cheek”.
New article: “Buy a Sword”.
New article: “Let the Dead Bury Their Dead”.
New article: “Jesus before Pilate”.
New article: “Jesus and Nicodemus”.
New article: “Invincible Ignorance”.
New article: “The Prophet and His Time”.
New article: “The Eight Night Visions”.
New article: “Joshua, the Branch and the Crown”.
New article: “Fasting and Restoration”.
New article: “First Oracle: The King Who Comes”.
New article: “The Book of Obadiah”.
New article: “Second Oracle: The Pierced One”.
New article: “The Day of the Lord”.
New article: “The Plague and the Day of the Lord”.
New article: “Conversion and the Spirit Poured Out”.
New article: “The Judgment of the Nations and the Salvation of Zion”.
New article: “The Three Ways of the Interior Life”.
New article: “Freedom and Responsibility”.
New article: “The Moral Conscience”.
New article: “Doubt and the Moral Systems”.
New article: “Doing Evil for a Good”.
New article: “Adoration and Praise”.
New article: “Why God Asks for Adoration”.
New article: “Faith and Science”.
New article: “The Theory of Evolution”.
New article: “The Woes of Isaiah”.
New article: “The Dwelling, the Priesthood and the Sacrifices”.
New article: “The Forty Years in the Desert”.
New article: "The Discourses of Moses".
New article: "The Death of Moses".
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Proto-Isaiah

Proto-Isaiah is the first part of the book of Isaiah, chapters 1 to 39. It gathers the oracles of the prophet Isaiah, son of Amoz, who spoke in the name of God at Jerusalem in the eighth century before Christ. In it one hears God’s judgment on an unfaithful people, the call to trust in him alone, and the promise of a king and of a remnant saved.

The prophet and his time

Isaiah, son of Amoz, exercised his ministry at Jerusalem for some forty years, under four kings of Judah: Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah. It was the time when Assyria, the great power of the north, was extending its empire and swallowing the small kingdoms one after another. The northern kingdom, Israel, fell under its blows and was deported; in the south, Judah, around Jerusalem and its Temple, remained under constant threat. To this people pressed by fear, Isaiah ceaselessly recalled that its salvation lay in its faithfulness to the God who had chosen it, and not in its armies. Chapters 1 to 39 gather his oracles, his visions and the accounts of his ministry.

The vision in the Temple: the Holy One of Israel

Isaiah received his mission in a vision, in the year of the death of king Uzziah. He saw the Lord seated on a throne high and lifted up. Before him stood the seraphim, the angels closest to God: of their six wings, two served them to fly, two covered their face and two their feet. Even the highest of the angels cannot bear the sight of God’s glory; they veil their face in adoration before his holiness, and cover their feet in reverence in his presence. And they sang his holiness: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts! The whole earth is filled with his glory.” Isaiah 6:3 Before this holiness, Isaiah found himself unclean and lost; a seraph then took a burning coal from the altar, touched his lips with it and purified him. The voice of the Lord asked who would go for him, and Isaiah answered: “Here I am: send me!” Isaiah 6:8 From this vision he kept the name he gives to God more than any other prophet, the Holy One of Israel. The Hebrew word rendered as “holy”, qadosh (קָדוֹשׁ), says what is set apart, infinitely above all: God is the wholly other, whose purity burns sin away and calls man to holiness. The Church takes up this song of the seraphim at every Mass, in the Sanctus.

The trial of Judah

Isaiah opens the book with an indictment: Judah multiplies sacrifices and feasts, but its hands are full of blood and its courts crush the weak. God rejects this worship emptied of justice. “When you stretch out your hands, I hide my eyes from you; though you multiply your prayers, I do not listen: your hands are full of blood.” Isaiah 1:15 What he asks is the conversion of the heart and the defence of the oppressed; to whoever returns to him thus, he promises an entire pardon. “though your sins are as scarlet, they shall become white as snow.” Isaiah 1:18 The same trial returns under an image, the song of the vineyard: God planted a choice vine, surrounded it with care, and it gave only wild fruit. “He waited for justice, but behold, bloodshed; for righteousness, but behold, a cry of distress.” Isaiah 5:7 The vine is the house of Israel, and its wild fruit, its injustices. Jesus will take up this song in the parable of the tenants: a vineyard entrusted to workers who refuse to render its fruits and kill even the master’s son, whence the sentence: “the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will make it bear its fruits.” Matthew 21:43 The vineyard then passes to those who will bear its fruit.

Faith or alliances

When Syria and the northern kingdom allied against Jerusalem, king Ahaz and his people trembled. Isaiah came to tell him to stay calm and to lean on God alone. Everything held in a single word, carried by one Hebrew verb, rendered as “to believe” and as “to stand firm”, aman (אָמַן): “If you do not stand firm in faith, you shall not stand at all!” Isaiah 7:9 To believe, here, is to lean firmly on God as on a rock; whoever leans elsewhere collapses. God confirmed this word by a living sign: Isaiah had a son whose name, written in advance on a great tablet before witnesses, carried the sentence of the two allied kings, the Hebrew name rendered “Quick to the plunder, swift to the spoil”, Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz (מַהֵר שָׁלָל חָשׁ בַּז): before the child could cry father and mother, Damascus and Samaria would be stripped by Assyria. The prophet says it himself: “Here I am, and the children the Lord has given me: we are signs and portents in Israel.” Isaiah 8:18 Ahaz preferred to buy the help of Assyria, and Isaiah never ceased to warn against this politics of fear, which seeks salvation from the great powers, Assyria then Egypt, instead of seeking it in God. “Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, who rely on horses… but do not look to the Holy One of Israel.” Isaiah 31:1 Against the politics of supports, God sets a foundation he lays himself: “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation: whoever leans on it in faith shall not be shaken.” Isaiah 28:16 All the refuges of fear one day force to flight; this foundation holds, and whoever leans on it holds with it. Jesus will apply to himself the stone the builders rejected, which has become the corner stone (Mark 12:10); and Peter joins this word to that of Isaiah to confess Christ, the foundation laid by God, on whom faith leans without ever being disappointed (1 Peter 2:6-7), as Paul had done before him (Romans 9:33).

The sign of Immanuel

At the heart of this crisis, Isaiah offered Ahaz a sign from God. The king refused it, and God gave one of himself: “Behold, the Virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.” Isaiah 7:14 The Hebrew word rendered as “young woman”, almah (עַלְמָה), designates a young girl of age to be a mother; the Greek version of the Septuagint translated it as “virgin”, parthenos (παρθένος). The name of the child carries the promise: “Immanuel”, Immanou-El (עִמָּנוּ אֵל), means “God with us”. In the moment when it was given, this sign assured Ahaz that God was not letting go of the house of David: before the child knew to reject evil and choose good, the two kings who frightened him would have vanished. The word overflowed that moment, however. The Church reads in it the announcement of Christ, conceived of a virgin, God made man dwelling among his own, according to the word the Gospel takes up: “they shall give him the name Emmanuel, which means, God with us.” Matthew 1:23

The child of the light

Two great oracles announce a king to come. The first opens on a geography: Zebulun and Naphtali, the lands of the north, were the first that Assyria swallowed up, and they will be the first that glory raises again. “In former times, God brought contempt upon the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali; but in the latter times, he will bring glory to the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations.” Isaiah 8:23 This humbled Galilee is where Christ will come to dwell and begin his preaching, and the Gospel then cites the oracle: “he left Nazareth and went to live in Capernaum, by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, to fulfil the word of the prophet Isaiah.” Matthew 4:13-14 Then comes the light upon this people: “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; on those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, a light has shone.” Isaiah 9:1 The oracle then likens the joy of the delivered people to two joys all knew: that of the harvest brought in, and that of victorious soldiers dividing the spoil, the goods and herds taken from the enemy at the close of a battle won. Then the deliverance, in three images of broken war: the yoke snapped from the shoulder, the rod of the oppressor shattered as on the day of Midian, that victory God gave Gideon with a handful of men (Judges 7), and the soldier’s gear cast into the fire. “For every soldier’s boot that thundered in battle, and every cloak soaked in blood, shall be given to the flames, devoured by fire.” Isaiah 9:4 The peace announced surpasses the truces of men: the machine of war itself is consumed. Then appears the reason for all this light: “For a child is born to us, a son is given to us; the sovereignty rests upon his shoulders. And his name is proclaimed: Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” Isaiah 9:5 And the oracle closes on the reach of this reign: “That the sovereignty may increase in a peace without end, upon the throne of David… to establish and uphold it in justice and righteousness, from now and for ever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.” Isaiah 9:6 The throne is David’s, the peace is without end, and the worker of it is God alone. These names already say more than a king. “Mighty God” renders the Hebrew El Gibbor (אֵל גִּבּוֹר) : it is the very title Isaiah gives to God in the next chapter, when he announces the remnant that will return “to the Mighty God” Isaiah 10:21. The child bears the name of God; the Church reads here the divinity of the Messiah, born a child and yet God.

The shoot of Jesse

The second oracle begins from a cut stump: the dynasty of David, felled, from which a shoot springs. “a shoot shall come out of the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall spring from his roots.” Isaiah 11:1 Jesse is the father of David; the promised king will tie royalty back to its root. Upon him rests the Spirit of the Lord, which tradition has counted in seven gifts. The Hebrew names six; the seventh, piety, comes from the Greek of the Septuagint, taken up by the Latin Vulgate, which renders the second “fear of the Lord” as “piety.” From this the Church counts seven gifts of the Spirit. “On him shall rest the Spirit of the Lord: the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.” Isaiah 11:2 His first work is justice: this king judges neither on appearance nor on rumour, he takes the side of the little ones, and his only weapon is his word. “he shall judge the weak with justice, and defend the right of the humble of the land.” Isaiah 11:4 Under this reign, creation itself is reconciled: the panther rests with the kid, the lion eats fodder like the ox, the infant plays over the viper’s hole. “The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down beside the kid; the calf, the young lion, and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them.” Isaiah 11:6 And the oracle gives the reason for this peace: “They shall do no harm, they shall destroy no more on all my holy mountain; for the land shall be filled with the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the bed of the sea.” Isaiah 11:9 Then the gaze widens: the root of Jesse is raised as a standard, and it is the pagan nations who come seeking it. “the root of Jesse shall stand as a banner for the peoples; the nations shall seek him, and his dwelling shall be glorious.” Isaiah 11:10 The nations come to the standard; the scattered people, for their part, are brought back. God stretches out his hand a second time to ransom the remnant of his people, the sons of Israel and Judah deported to Assyria and scattered as far as Egypt and the islands, and he gathers them from the four corners of the earth. He also quenches the old rivalry of Ephraim and Judah: after the death of Solomon, the people had split into two long-hostile kingdoms, Ephraim in the north, the other name for Israel, and Judah in the south; the promised king reunites them into a single people. To all he opens a road of return, “as there was for Israel on the day it came up out of Egypt.” Isaiah 11:16 The oracle ends in a new Exodus: the king of peace gathers a people whom God brings out a second time. The Church recognizes in this king Christ, son of David, upon whom rests the Spirit of the seven gifts, raised as a standard before the nations, and whose reign will have no end. And this section of the book closes on a canticle of thanksgiving, set on the lips of the redeemed people: “With joy you shall draw water from the springs of salvation.” Isaiah 12:3

The remnant

Through the judgment, Isaiah holds a hope: the chastisement will not destroy everything, a remnant will survive and return to God. This promise is inscribed even in the name of a son of Isaiah, whom he brings to meet Ahaz, the Hebrew name rendered as “a remnant will return”, Shear-Yashub (שְׁאָר יָשׁוּב). From the unfaithful mass, God always keeps a small faithful number, through which he takes up his work again. “A remnant shall return, the remnant of Jacob, to the Mighty God.” Isaiah 10:21 This remnant, purified by the trial, is the seed of the renewed people.

The mountain of the Lord and the nations

Isaiah’s gaze widens beyond Israel, to all the nations. He sees a day when the peoples will go up to Jerusalem to learn there the way of God, and when arms will become tools. “they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks. Never again shall one nation raise the sword against another, nor shall they learn war anymore.” Isaiah 2:4 The nations themselves are under the hand of God: a long series of oracles announces the judgment of Babylon, of Assyria, of Egypt and of the neighbouring kingdoms, for the Holy One of Israel is the master of the whole earth. At the end, a great vision reaches to the end of time: God prepares for all peoples a feast, wipes the tears from all faces and abolishes death itself. “He will swallow up death for ever. The Lord God will wipe away the tears from every face.” Isaiah 25:8 Paul recognizes the fulfillment of this word in the resurrection: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” 1 Corinthians 15:54 And the Apocalypse takes it up for the new creation, where “death will be no more” Revelation 21:4 and God wipes away every tear.

The deliverance of Jerusalem

The last chapters recount the decisive trial of Isaiah’s ministry. Sennacherib, king of Assyria, comes up against Judah, takes its cities and besieges Jerusalem. The chief cupbearer he sends, the officer charged with serving the king’s wine and one of the highest figures of his court, mocks before the walls the God of Israel, denying that he can save the city. King Hezekiah carries the threat before God in the Temple and entrusts himself to him through the mouth of Isaiah, who announces that the Assyrian will not enter the city. That night, the Assyrian camp is struck, and Sennacherib lifts the siege and returns home. “The angel of the Lord went out and struck down, in the Assyrian camp, a hundred and eighty-five thousand men.” Isaiah 37:36 The trust that Ahaz had refused, Hezekiah gave, and Jerusalem was saved.

Soon after, Hezekiah falls ill to the point of death. Isaiah announces his end; the king then turns to God and beseeches him in tears. God hears his prayer, and Isaiah comes back to bring him the answer: fifteen years added to his life. The king asks for a sign assuring him of his recovery, and God grants it: on the sundial, the instrument that marks the hours by the shadow cast by the sun, the shadow moves back ten degrees instead of advancing. Having heard of his illness and recovery, the king of Babylon sends him messengers bearing letters and a gift; Hezekiah then shows them all his treasures with pride. Isaiah reproaches him for it and announces the judgment: these riches will one day be carried off to Babylon, and his own sons will be deported there. Thus already opens, on the threshold of Proto-Isaiah, the horizon of the exile that the rest of the book will sing.

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