21. (1:16a) Wash yourselves; be clean.
Instead of the sacrifices named above [cf.
Isa 1:11, 13, 14] and burnt offerings and the fat of fatlings and the blood of
bulls and goats [cf. Heb 10:4]; instead of incense and new moons, the Sabbath,
the feast day and fasts, calends and other solemnities, the religion of the
gospel pleases me: that you should be baptized in my blood through the bath of
regeneration [cf. Titus 3:5], which alone is able to forgive sins. For unless
someone is reborn from water and the spirit, he will not enter into the kingdom
of heaven [cf. John 3:5]. The Lord himself too, when ascending to the Father,
says, “Go and teach all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father
and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” [Matt 28:19] . . . 25. (1:18b–c) If your sins be as scarlet, they will be made as white as snow. And if
they be red as crimson, they will be like white wool.
The progression is excellent; for it does not
suffice to have said, “Wash yourselves” [Isa 1:16a], without adding, “Be clean”
[cf. Isa 1:16a], so that after the bath in water, they have purity of heart. For
“blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God” [Matt 5:8]. And when
they have purity of heart, they ought to remove evil from their minds [cf. Isa
1:16a], not in the sight of men, but in the sight of God, which nothing can
cover. And what he adds, Cease acting
perversely [Isa 1:16b], harmonizes with the words of the Gospel: “Behold
you have been healed; sin no more, lest something worse happen to you” [John
5:14]. Therefore, by withdrawing from vices, let him learn good, and let him
seek judgment, let him come to the aid of the oppressed, let him sustain the
orphan and the widow [cf. Isa 1:17]. And if he does this, then sins that at first had been blood-red
like scarlet will be forgiven, and
the works of gore and blood will be changed in the garment of the Lord, which
has been made from the wool of a
lamb, which in the Apocalypse those follow who are resplendent with the
brightness of virginity [Rev 14:4].
(St.
Jerome's Commentary on Isaiah: Including St. Jerome's Translation of Origen's
Homilies 1-9 on Isaiah [trans. Thomas P. Scheck; Ancient Christian Writers
68; Mahwah, N.J.: The Newman Press, 2015], 84, 85-86)