And Isaac went out to meditate in the field in the evening: and he lifted up his eyes, and saw, and, behold, the camels were coming.
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Ambrose of Milan
AD 397
He withdrew and lifted himself away from the vices of this world, he lifted up his soul, even as Isaac meditated—or, as others have it, walked about—in the field. Isaac, or the Soul
That field contained a figure of the world. Isaac went out into the field, because Christ was to come into the world; Isaac toward the evening of the day, Christ at the end of the world. “He went out,” it says, “to meditate.” For this reason Isaac went to meditate in the field, because Christ came into the world to fight against the devil, that he might justly conquer him while being unjustly killed by him, so that by dying he might destroy death, and by rising again bring life to all who believe. Moreover, just as Rebekah was corporally joined to Isaac, so the church was spiritually joined to Christ, receiving at present the blood of her spouse as a precious dowry and later to receive the dowry of his kingdom. The blessed apostle Peter clearly proclaims this when he says, “You were redeemed, not with gold or silver but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish.”
To meditate on the obligations of the state on which he was about to enter, and on other pious subjects, free from noise and distraction. (Haydock)
In profane authors, the word used by the Septuagint means to talk about trifles (Calmet)
But the known piety of Isaac, and the authority of that version, forbid that we should take it here in that sense. (Haydock)
