Hearken to me, you that follow after righteousness, you that seek the LORD: look unto the rock from where you were hewn, and to the hole of the pit from which you were dug.
Read Chapter 51
Cyril of Alexandria
AD 444
“Righteous,” he says, instead of “righteousness,” which is through Christ through faith in him, a faith that justifies the ungodly and removes all stain from those who have been filthy, and cleanses them in the Spirit and prepares for them the shining honor of sonship. They pursue righteousness, not in the sense of driving it before them and so away from their minds, but of running toward it to take hold of it. As David said, “Seek peace and pursue it.” … The speech of the holy prophets always draws figures from the visible and the tangible things. For it has expressions that transcend reference, the senses and even the mind. In this way “Zion” is mentioned—not that we think of the earthly city but rather take it to be the spiritual one, that is, the church of the living God. Or how else would we see the words of the prophet coming true?…
“Worship in spirit and truth,” and the power of spiritual worship gave off the pleasant spiritual fragrance and joy in the hope that is in Christ. Fo...
The Jews refer this to the time of Zerubbabel, because after the devastation of Babylon Zion was restored and its temple built up and the old religion reinstated.… But here the Lord speaks to those who were persecuting him because he was righteous.… Moreover, according to the Septuagint, it is said to the persecutors of righteousness that they are to look on the hardest stone, which they cut out, and on the pit of the crater that they dug, that is, on the Lord and Savior, about whom the apostle said, “The rock was Christ.” We can say that the cut-out rock means the tomb of the Savior into which he was placed. When he rose from the dead, he bore innumerable children and was called Abraham, that is, the father of many nations, just as Sarah’s once sterile womb means the church, which is otherwise called Zion, whom the Lord comforted and made its desert places like paradise. - "Commentary on Isaiah 14.6"
