Chapter 1

Theophylact of Ohrid, Exposition of the Prophet Nahum

1 Argument

¹ Jonah the wonderful preached to the Ninevites that, unless they repented, they would perish; and Nineveh was the foremost city of the Assyrians. And these men, having been persuaded, and having turned away the divine wrath through repentance, at that time experienced none of the dreadful things that had been threatened; but, such are the affairs of human weakness, afterward they grew slack, and returned to their former wickedness, and did countless other lawless deeds, and dared to make campaigns against Israel. And the ten tribes, both Tiglath-pileser and Shalmaneser enslaved and led away captive. And Sennacherib, having made war upon the tribe of Judah, and having taken many cities, and having besieged Jerusalem itself, and having moved his tongue against God himself, lost in a single night those many thousands; and he himself, having escaped this blow and having come home — in order that he might proclaim the divine power (for it was for this that he was preserved) — within his very palace received the blow at the hands of his own sons. Then a little later, when the kingdom was transferred to the Persians and Medes, Nineveh was given over to utter destruction, at which time Cyrus also set the Israelites free.

² The prophet Nahum, then, who is here in hand, proclaims beforehand this destruction of Nineveh: at once teaching all men that God, being just, leaves nothing without his providence, but lays upon each the penalties that befit him. Therefore Israel, having become impious, he handed over to the Assyrians; and these same men in turn to the Persians, because, when they had received Israel, they treated them savagely. For they did not campaign against Israel as ministering to the divine wrath, but as glutting their own greed, and wishing to lord it over all. Therefore God at that time used them as chastisers and executioners against Israel; but, that they might not suppose that they had accomplished what they did by their own power, he struck down the many thousands of Sennacherib, and at last brought down Nineveh itself together with the kingdom of the Assyrians. For God, when his own people has sinned, hands them over indeed to their enemies; yet he wills that these treat them not without mercy in the things against the divine people. Therefore, if he should see these executioners chastising too bitterly, he lets loose his own wrath upon them as well, that they may learn by experience how great an evil is cruelty. But if someone shall say: How then was Saul cast off, because he dealt more humanely with the Amalekites? — let him hear, first, that the Amalekites were not the people of God, but apostates and enemies; whereas we are speaking about the divine people, whom God wishes to discipline as a father a son, but not to destroy; and next, that God also expressly commanded Saul to destroy the Amalekites, and it was not right to transgress the plain command of God. And besides, it was not out of love for mankind that Saul spared Amalek, but out of love of money. The prophet, then, teaches all men, as has been said, the divine providence; and in a particular way he also instills good hopes into the Israelites, that they might not, despairing utterly, fall away from their hope in God; but, looking to him, and armored by their faith in him as the only one able to redeem, might have consolation, since the Assyrians were destined to pay penalties to Cyrus, by whom they too would be released from their captivity. For despair was making them go over to the nations and pursue the customs of those nations. This, then, is the manifest theme of the present prophecy. And the mystery concerning Christ, which lies deep, is here perceived. May he himself grant us to behold it, who enlightens every man that comes into the world, at the same time setting right our character as well, through the good and upright Spirit, of whom the prophecy is an operation.

2 Chapter One

¹ The oracle of Nineveh.[1] The grace of the Holy Spirit worked in the prophets in various ways. For some it caused to see the things to come, as Isaiah, and Micah, and Daniel, and Zechariah; and into others it sounded certain things, as it willed, and they seemed to hear someone conversing with them. For what shall he speak in me, and, What shall I answer to my reproof? says Habakkuk; just as David also says: I will hear what the Lord God will speak in me.[2] But this too may be seen even in the aforementioned prophets. And of some the Spirit took hold suddenly, and, possessing them and separating them from human things, spoke through them the things to come. This sudden seizure of the understanding, then, Nahum called an “oracle,” as though saying this: My understanding, being taken by the Spirit, foresaw the things that would befall Nineveh. It must be known, however, that every prophecy may be called an “oracle” by a common name; for the prophets received it from God. But “vision” too seems to be something common; for in all the modes of prophecy the mind was illumined by the light of the Spirit. Hear, then, what he adds here as well.

² The book of the vision of Nahum the Elkeshite. This oracle, he says — that is, the prophecy against Nineveh, which I make, having been taken by the Spirit, or, Which I received from God — is a book, containing the vision of me, Nahum, who set out from the village of Elkesai. For indeed I foresaw the things to come, and as one who foresaw them, I speak. But some take “oracle” — that is, The subject taken up by me here in hand — to be about Nineveh, and concerning it I am about to make my discourse; and this book is of the vision of Nahum. But perhaps from the prophecy of Jeremiah one might more fittingly understand what “oracle” signifies here. For he seems to call the “oracle” the wrath that comes with zeal, drawn from the stronger man’s seizing the weaker and dashing him down. And whoever has leisure, let him read that part of the prophecy of Jeremiah. So here too, then, since God is angered at Nineveh, and is about to seize her, and to dash her down from the height of her dominion, he named Nineveh an “oracle of God.” And since Nahum is interpreted “consolation,” and Nineveh too may be taken for the familiar abode of wickedness, which the world-ruler held as his palace — he that has the dominion of death — the consolation is our Lord Jesus Christ, according to John, who says: If we sin, we have an Advocate, Jesus Christ.[3] And the “oracle against Nineveh” is the flesh which he took up, that he might condemn sin in the flesh — which flesh is a “book,” as having received the Word, who tabernacled in it. And since the same Word is also the true light, which enlightens every man that comes into the world, and he who follows him shall by no means walk in the darkness; and for this he came, that those who do not see might see: fittingly his flesh is a “book of vision.” But also, he says, many kings and prophets, those, that is, before this Incarnation, desired to see the things which you see, and saw them not; but blessed are your eyes. And if anyone, after the manner of Barnabas, being a good man, and full of the Holy Spirit and of faith, is able to exhort all to remain with the Lord in the purpose of their heart, he too will be called a son of consolation; and he will have the “oracle of Nineveh,” as taking and leading captive every thought into the obedience of Christ, and giving a “book of vision” to those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death, when he enlightens with the light of knowledge those who are in ignorance. And observe that first comes “The oracle of Nineveh,” then “The book of the vision.” For unless one despoils wickedness and brings it under hand, he could not attain to the “book of the vision,” which is contemplation. And both of these belong to the consolation, that is, to the working of the Paraclete; for the word of wisdom is given in the Spirit, and the workings of powers, in the same Spirit.

³ A jealous Lord. These things he says to the Ninevites. For since, raging against the Israelites, they had treated them harshly, and were blaspheming against God as well, supposing that they had prevailed not by his permission but by their own power, he now says to them: See where you are being carried; God is jealous — that is, against transgressors and the arrogant. For by “jealousy” he means righteous wrath, the wrath that comes with heat. Therefore he adds:

⁴ The Lord takes vengeance with wrath, the Lord takes vengeance on his adversaries. And these are they who, besides their idolatry, sin also in other ways; but his adversaries are especially the proud. For the Lord resists the proud.

⁵ And he himself removes his enemies. That is, putting them out of the way, making them vanish. And the word “himself” is emphatic. For he himself, he says, the great, and mighty, and strong — just as when one, about to show that a certain city was utterly destroyed, would say that the king campaigned against it and plundered it, coming with his whole army. It is like this: It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. But the prophet says these things also to the Israelites of that time, who were grieved, and perhaps even blaming God, showing that they were justly handed over to the Babylonians. For, having committed idolatry, instead of being the people of God, and his own, and rather his sons, they became his enemies. Therefore also, having been jealous because they forsook him, he handed them over to their enemies. This he said also in the Song of Moses: They provoked me to jealousy with that which is no god, they angered me with their idols; and I will provoke them to jealousy with that which is no nation, with a nation void of understanding I will anger them. And the nation void of understanding is the Babylonians, both as boastful and as serving gods that are not. For nothing is more void of understanding than a boaster and an idolater.

⁶ The Lord is long-suffering, and great is his power, and he will by no means leave the guilty unpunished.[4] The Lord, he says, does not at once bring on the penalty, but uses the greatest long-suffering toward sinners; for he wishes them to turn back. And of this you are witnesses, O Ninevites, who made use of repentance; then again, falling sick with much wickedness, you yet paid no penalties for it. Nevertheless, being long-suffering, and bearing for a long time the transgressions of men, he does not do this out of weakness. For great is his power, and when he is about to chastise those who do not repent, he brings on a severe punishment. For “leaving the guilty unpunished he will not leave them unpunished” means, he brings on utter destruction. For even if he seems to leave unpunished, yet he does not leave unpunished in the end. Or, according to an idiom of Scripture, the phrase “leaving the guilty unpunished he will not leave them unpunished” is said, like the phrase, Seeing I have seen the affliction of Israel. So here too, being about to say that he does not leave unpunished, he doubled the expression. And those who killed his Son he avenged with wrath — that is, he exacted penalties from those who did not repent, and removed them out of Jerusalem, being jealous on behalf of the righteous one, whose murderers they had become. And everyone who lives according to the flesh is an enemy of God; for the mind of the flesh is enmity toward God. The Lord, then, avenges himself on such an enemy, perhaps even here handing him over to temptations, so that the hostile mind in him may be removed out of such a man. But if here he is long-suffering, as he is often wont to do, that through his kindness he may draw the man to himself — yet at all events in the final judgment he will not leave unpunished, though here he leaves unpunished. And these things he does as a bridegroom, jealous on behalf of the souls which he created that they might be joined to him as pure virgins, but sees them clinging to the enemy and apostate, and shaming the nobility which by nature they had from the Word.

⁷ The Lord is in consummation, and in tumult is his way. By “way” he means the motion which God makes against those worthy of punishment. This motion, then, does not simply bring on punishment, but works a consummation, which is utter destruction, and it makes a tumult — that is, it throws into confusion, removing and overturning affairs. In this manner, then, he will deal with the Ninevites as well. And for the rest, do not be despondent, you Israelites who have suffered cruelly at their hands. For the consummation will come upon them too.

⁸ And a cloud is the dust of his feet. More fittingly has he added the dust to the way. A man, then, he says, walking on the road, raises dust; but God moves with such magnificence as to raise clouds. So, having moved against the Ninevites, he will set clouds upon clouds from every side. And the way of the Only-begotten toward our last estate, having come about at the consummation of the ages, shook together both principalities and powers. And the very removal from the Law to the Gospel may be understood as an earthquake. And the spiritual clouds — that is, the prophets — made known his coming; just as the dust that rises makes known those who run. And he calls them “clouds,” as having used a more obscure, and not very plain, speech, but conceiving within themselves the spiritual water, and rendering it in due season to those worthy to understand spiritual things. And the Lord journeys also in us, in those who pursue the earnest life that is lived according to virtue. When, then, wickedness is brought to consummation and is utterly destroyed out of the soul — that is, is shaken — and no longer has any firmness or permanence in it, then the way of the Lord finds room. And from this way and this motion, what is gross and earthy in us becomes something fine, and as it were airy and spiritual. So that, being borne aloft, it is gathered into clouds, able to rain down a spiritual shower upon others also.

⁹ Threatening the sea, and drying it up, and laying waste all the rivers. Teaching us the all-powerfulness of God, and that he easily does whatever he wills, namely, that if he should will, he will dry up the whole sea, and make all the rivers vanish. And this is plain from the fact that he dried up the Red Sea in the time of Moses, and the river Jordan in the time of Joshua the son of Nun. He will therefore dry up Nineveh as well, which was like some broad sea, deep in its glory and wealth, surging with all its wars, and the nations under her, like so many rivers emptying into her and joining with her to swell her bulk and multitude — he will lay it waste. The “sea” is the bitterness of the present life, which we, in our folly, welcome as if they were rivers. This the Lord dried up, and made vanish what seemed sweet to drink in it, teaching that in the world we have affliction; but if we take up his yoke, we shall find rest for our souls. But even if one is in temptations, he is in a sea, and in rivers. To that one, then, must he flee for refuge, who threatens the sea, and dries up the rivers.

¹⁰ Bashan was brought low, and Carmel. This too is indicative of the power of God. For Bashan, he says, a most fertile region of Palestine, and Carmel, which is a mountain of Judea — places that they inhabited unconquered and hard to subdue — yet God brought these down, and settled in them men from Israel. There is nothing unbelievable, then, if he should bring Nineveh down too.

¹¹ And the flowering things of Lebanon failed. Lebanon is a mountain of Phoenicia. And by its “flowering things” he means the rulers and kings of the region subject to Lebanon, whom God also overcame and made subject to the Israelites. But you may also take these things as referring to the future, as though the prophet were saying that God is so powerful that, if he should will, Bashan shall be brought low, although it is most populous because of its fruitfulness; and Carmel and Lebanon, although they are mountains most rich in trees, and thickly wooded, shall fail, if only he should give the nod. In the same way you will understand all that follows as being said also of the future.

¹² And the mountains were shaken at him, and the hills were moved, and the whole earth recoiled from before his face. For since some supposed that he was able only in Judea, even as they said: A God of mountains is the God of Israel, and not a God of valleys — [5] he says that all the mountains shall be shaken at him — that is, by his nod alone; and the earth too, not this part or that, but the whole, recoiled from before his face — that is, it shuddered, or was removed, and stood out from its own seat, when he looks upon it more sternly.

¹³ And all that dwell in it. If the element itself, much more those who dwell in it, both men and the other living creatures. Bashan and Carmel were brought low when the Jews, on account of the Lord of glory who was crucified by them, were handed over to the Romans. But also, by Bashan is signified the ethical and practical life of conduct; and by Carmel, the loftier things of the doctrines, which, being many, were brought low, being summed up into the concise and finished word of the Gospel. And since Lebanon was a workshop of idolatry, there failed also the kinds of idolatry that formerly flowered in it, or even the wisdom of the Greeks, which God made foolish. And in the cross the mountains were shaken, and our nature, which formerly was earth, recoiled, journeying upward and making its way toward the heavens; and all the earthy thoughts that dwell in it became divine and heavenly. But also, even if one bears fruit in wickedness and flourishes, he is brought low, and fails in it, when God looks upon him, instilling repentance into him; and the mountainous, hard heart of him, which is minded of the things of earth, is shaken and removed from its standing in evil.

¹⁴ Before the face of his wrath who shall stand? Even if in many places in Scripture the “face” of God is set down for a certain chastising power, yet it is also sometimes found in a more gracious sense, as in: Make your face to shine, and we shall be saved; and, Why do you turn away your face? For this reason, having here said before the face, he added of wrath. Who, then, shall stand, he says, when he shall display to us the face full of wrath? It seems, then, that the only-begotten Son is called the “face” of the Father, as the express image of his subsistence, and the one who makes him known, the same who both chastises and saves. For this one, he says, is set for the fall and rising of many.

¹⁵ And who shall withstand in the anger of his wrath? He indicates a certain intensification here by saying “in the anger of his wrath.” But perhaps, since according to some “wrath” is the beginning of the passion, which arises from the steaming up of the boiling blood about the heart, while “anger” is wrath swelling to work some deed, for this reason he has said here “in the anger of his wrath” — that is, When his wrath also does deeds for requital and for paying back grief, who shall withstand, so as to turn back his hand and hold off the punishment?

¹⁶ His wrath melts principalities, and the rocks were broken to pieces at him. Those, he says, who have been entrusted with the greatest principalities, and are supposed to have the strength of rocks, his wrath crushes and dissolves, and melts, as fire melts wax. Fittingly, then, no one shall withstand him. But his wrath dissolved also the principalities of darkness, and the powers, when he sent them into the abyss; and the Jewish principalities, on account of the pollution of their crucifying him; and the rocks were broken to pieces, perhaps the perceptible ones at the cross, and perhaps also the hard-hearted nations, which received the word of the Gospel. When, then, the mind rules in us, there is one principality; therefore it is not melted; but when wrath rules, and desire, behold, there are many principalities, which the wrath of the Lord melts, when it is taken into our mind — he who says, at one time, Those who would not have me reign over them, bring here and slay; and at another, He shall cut him asunder, and shall appoint his portion with the hypocrites. There shall be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth. And the rocks are broken to pieces by such wrath — those dispositions until then heavy and unyielding in evil.

¹⁷ The Lord is good to those who wait for him in the day of affliction. Since he had spoken the fearful things, and had made mention of wrath and anger and much severity, in order that some might not reckon God to be hard and wicked — which is what those of Simon and Marcion suffered — he adds also the things of his goodness, and says: Even if I have spoken of the wrath of the Lord as great and irresistible, yet the wrath is set apart for his enemies, that is, for those who not only do evil, but also, when chastised for these things, do not receive the discipline gratefully, but blaspheme and grow impatient. For to those who wait for him in the day of affliction — that is, who bear gratefully the discipline brought on by him, and wait for him as for a father who disciplines — to such he is good. Or “wait for” stands for, Those who look for his consolation, and gaze toward him, and not toward other helps, whether of demons or of men. Such is the saying, Waiting I waited for the Lord; therefore he adds: And he attended to me, and brought me up out of a pit of misery. For whoever waits for him as helper shall be heard, and enjoys his goodness.

¹⁸ And knowing those who reverence him. That is, loving and taking to himself those who reverence him, and for this reason do not sin; or those who reverently receive whatever he brings upon them.

¹⁹ And in an overwhelming flood of his going he will make a consummation of those who rise up. Having shown how God deals with the reverent, now again he sets forth his coming-out against the unholy, and says that God makes a consummation of those who rise up against him — that is, the stiff-necked, who, like wicked servants, set themselves against his divine laws — that is, he will utterly destroy them, he makes them self-destruction, in the overwhelming flood of his going; that is, going forth and moving against them, like violent water borne down a slope and making a flood of what lies beneath.

²⁰ And darkness shall pursue his enemies. The darkness of calamities; for those who are in afflictions and ill-treatments are darkened in their understanding, and pass even the day as if in night. The Only-begotten also made a consummation of the demons who ever rise up and apostatize against him, in the overwhelming flood of his going — that is, in the baptism with which he was baptized, having journeyed from the bosom of the Father to us; the outer darkness, which has been prepared for them, shall pursue them. But the Pharisees and Scribes who rose up against him, and the rest of the disobedient, he put to death together, when in their spiritual sense they did not hear the one who says: I am the light of the world; and, While you have the light, walk in the light, lest darkness overtake you. And in us too the flood of tears, which has also a “going,” that is, a motion in the virtues, makes a consummation of the demonic thoughts that rise up against us. And darkness pursues the enemies of God — sin itself, ever darkening the conscience, and by its own unseemliness all but thrusting them toward the seemly works of virtue.

²¹ What do you devise against the Lord? He asks concerning God, and says: What manner of power do you suppose him to have?

²² He himself will make a consummation; he will not take vengeance twice over for the same thing in affliction. Having asked, he himself answers again, namely: God is such in power that, whenever he wishes to punish someone worthily, he makes a consummation of him all at once by a single blow, and has no need of a second vengeance; for how, when he makes a consummation of him at one stroke? But some have read it thus: What do you devise against the Lord? Will he himself make a consummation? — up to this point interrogatively; then he answers: He will not take vengeance twice over for the same thing in affliction. They say, then, that these things are spoken to the Israelites. For since, when Shalmaneser had taken the ten tribes captive, and had seized certain cities of the kingdom of Judah, those who were left feared that the Babylonians might come back upon them again, and for this reason were fleeing to the neighboring peoples and were being defiled together with the nations, here the prophet consoles them, saying: Why do you devise that the Lord is not a lover of mankind, and that he will make a consummation and utter destruction of you? This shall not be. For he will not take vengeance twice over for the same thing, bringing upon us [some copies: upon you] a second affliction; once, he says, he has punished you; he will not bring on a second blow. Do not, then, go over to the nations, but wait for the Lord, who is good to those who wait for him.

²³ For it shall be laid waste to its foundations. Either the one being punished by God, or Nineveh. For from this point on he makes his discourse most plainly concerning her, and to her. He says, then, that, when its foundations and those firm walls and splendid houses have been torn down, the great city shall be laid waste — that is, shall be desolate, useful neither for habitation, on account of the demolition, nor for husbandry, on account of the rubble-heaps of the buildings.

²⁴ And as an entwining bindweed it shall be devoured.[6] The bindweed, being an ivy-like plant, ever creeps upward, and sends out slender shoots, and lays hold of the plants standing near, especially the thorn-bushes, so as to choke them, yet itself also perishing in time. Such a thing too was Babylon, ever wishing to run up to the higher, and everywhere stretching out the tendrils of its dominion, so as to press down and choke those caught by it, and so that many kingdoms were dissolved by it. This one, then, shall be devoured by the Persians and Medes, with Cyrus as their general — that is, it shall be made to vanish, its kingdom laid desolate.

²⁵ And as stubble full of dryness. Therefore it shall be handed over to the fire of the enemy to be consumed.

²⁶ Out of you shall come forth a thought devising evil and adverse things against the Lord. Making his discourse to Nineveh herself, he shows her the causes of her desolation. For, he says, when God had handed over the Israelites to you, you did not ascribe the trophy to him, but to your power; and you reckoned God to be weak, unable to save those who trusted in him. For indeed Sennacherib said: Say to Hezekiah: Thus says the great king: Let not your God deceive you, in whom you trust, that he will deliver Israel out of my hand. And his lieutenant Rabshakeh blasphemed in like fashion. Pointing out this arrogance of his, God says through the prophet: I will visit upon the proud mind, the king of the Assyrians. And again, teaching him that he had not accomplished what he accomplished by his own power, but by God’s permission: Shall the axe, he says, glorify itself without him that cuts with it? or shall the saw be exalted without him that draws it? The Lord-slaying Synagogue too was laid waste to its foundations — that is, the sacrifices, and all the worship of the Law; for it seemed to stand upon these. And those who compass sea and dry land to make one proselyte, and then make him a son of Gehenna, were an entwining bindweed, choking those caught by it; and like dry stubble, it received neither the rain that came down, nor the water leaping up to eternal life. And they devised against the Lord of glory things evil and adverse to the benefits they had received from him — to put him to death. Therefore they shall be devoured both by the fire of the Romans, and by the last and everlasting fire. And those too who feign love resemble the bindweed, entwining their neighbors through their kindness, but devising their ruin. Out of these comes forth a thought evil and adverse against the Lord. For the Lord is upright, but they are crooked; and the Lord is love, but they are enemies of love. But greed too is a bindweed, laying hold of all things, and devising against the Lord things that are evil, namely, that he does not provide for the things here below; for no greedy man truly believes that there is a providence, even if he feigns this; and adverse things, because the righteous man both is righteous and loved acts of righteousness, while the greedy man is unjust, and loves unrighteousness. Such a bindweed, then, shall be devoured by itself; for this greedy man is consumed by that one who is greedier.

²⁷ Thus says the Lord, who rules over many waters; and thus they shall be parted. By “many waters” he means the Persians and Medes, who campaigned against Nineveh, over whom the Lord ruled, leading them against her; and these shall also be parted by the Lord — that is, marshaled and divided, as by some general — so that this one should besiege this part, and that one that part.

²⁸ And the report of you shall no more be heard. For, having been formerly renowned for your dominion, you shall no longer have such a report and fame. Or, that those who formerly obeyed you and served you shall not obey you, nor serve you. And the Lord rules over “many waters,” those of baptism, which he so parts and marshals that they are accomplished everywhere. Make disciples, he says, of all the nations, baptizing them; so that there come to be many baptisms — that is, baptisms of the faithful in every place. For “one baptism” is spoken of, just as also “one faith,” on account, that is, of the doctrine attending the rite, which is one in every Church that has received to baptize in the invocation of the Trinity, and to typify the death of the Lord and the resurrection by the threefold immersion and emersion. And because it is given once for all to each of the faithful, one might say that it is called “one.” The baptizings, however, are many, because the baptized are many too. And in another way the waters of the baptizings are so parted by the Lord that, since we are twofold, of soul and body, the cleansing of the body is accomplished through the water, and the things of the soul through the Spirit. Then to the devil: The report of you shall no more be heard. For the demonic rites are no longer heard. “Many waters” — Scripture knows the temptations as well, as in: Yet in a flood of many waters they shall not come near to him. For the flood of temptations, even if they are many and one upon another, shall not come even near the holy man. He says, then, that the Lord rules over the temptations. For he, dispensing our salvation, or our testing, permits these to be brought on. And “they shall be parted” stands for, they shall be cut off; and their continuity shall have a parting. So it is “by the Lord,” and not by human devices or even diligences. For he himself strikes, and again heals.

²⁹ And now I will break his rod from off you. He turned his discourse toward Israel, saying: The dominion of Nineveh and her authority (for this he named a “rod”) I will break from off you; or, The rod of Israel itself, by which it is chastised, I will break from off you, Nineveh, so that you, holding it no longer, may no longer chastise Israel by it. But he might say it also to human nature: The rod of the devil, namely sin, by which he put you to death, I will break; for the sting of death is sin. And I will break it from off you — that is, having put you on, and through you having wrestled against the principalities and powers, and having stripped them off and triumphed over them in the cross. The “rod of the devil” is the temptations, by which he strikes a man that he may blaspheme, as he did Job; which rod the Lord breaks, teaching: Do not fear those who kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul; and, In your patience possess your souls; and, Being reviled, and not reviling again; suffering, and not threatening.

³⁰ And I will burst your bonds asunder. To Israel he says: You had the dominion and tyranny of Nineveh, like certain bonds holding you fast, so that you served her and accomplished no work of freedom; but this dominion I will burst asunder, handing her over to the Persian. But if the discourse is to Nineveh, you will understand “bonds” not as those by which she was held, but rather as those by which she held — both the other nations, and Israel. Great bonds, too, for human nature, is disobedience, holding it down in the earth; for on its account it heard: Earth you are. But since the heavenly one, having taken the form of a servant, became obedient unto death, he burst asunder the bonds of disobedience, and, exalted to heaven, draws all to himself.

³¹ And the Lord will give command concerning you. He will give command to Cyrus concerning you, O Israel, that he release you from the captivity. And how will he give command? Not by sending prophets, but by invisibly touching his soul, by the judgments which he knows, even though he was an idolater and unworthy. So too he commanded the sea-monster to swallow Jonah, and the gourd to shade him, and the worm to smite the gourd. But he also says to Nineveh: Concerning you the Lord will give command to Cyrus, that he campaign against you. The Lord will give command concerning human nature as well to his angels, that they guard it in all its ways. For to each of the little ones in the Church an angel has been set apart, as we have learned. And perhaps the prophecy has reference also to the teachings of the Savior. For since, having taken up our nature, he strengthened it, and made it more powerful, he all but says this: The commandments of the Law belonged to the old nature, that which in Adam was condemned and weak; but concerning you, the new nature that has come to be through the new Adam, the Lord Jesus gives other commands: It was said to them of old, You shall not forswear yourself; but I say to you, Do not swear at all, and so forth. And he might say also to the one who is in temptations: He will give command concerning you to his angels, that no scourge come near your dwelling.[7]

³² There shall no more be sown of your name. If the discourse is to Nineveh, he might say: No longer shall the seed of any man be called by your name. For it is the custom for subjects to be named after their rulers. So from Babylon, Babylonians; and from Cyrus the Persian, Persians; from Alexander the Macedonian, Macedonians; and from Rome, Romans. According indeed to this principle Paul too was a Roman. You shall not, then, rule from now on, so that those who are ruled should be named after you. But if these things are said to Israel, you will understand that, after you have been set free by Cyrus, no longer shall any Israelite of your name be scattered into captivity. For even if they were warred upon both by Antiochus and by many other neighboring nations, yet a general dispersion did not come upon them. And one might confidently declare that no true Israelite is ever scattered. For not all those of Israel, these are Israel. Therefore the Lord also said: Behold, truly an Israelite, as though there were certain false Israelites. And those now scattered into all the world are spurious, and not Israelites; for otherwise they too would have said, with Nathanael: You are the Son of God, you are the King of Israel. Before Christ, then, human nature was scattered into one and another opinion of polytheism; but in Christ, having been united to the divine nature, it learned also true piety. Therefore it is said: There shall no more be sown of your name — that is, man (for this is the name of our nature) shall not be scattered into many opinions and fantasies. And to the one being tempted, and as it were doubting what is the gain from temptations, he says: This you will gain, that no longer shall a human thought be sown in you; so Job too, after the temptation, says: I count myself as earth and ashes, and I have despised myself and wasted away. For as much as the outer man decays, so much is the inner renewed.

³³ Out of the house of your god I will destroy the carved images, and the molten things I will make your grave. Many of the Jews, even after the captivity, committed idolatry, not at all chastened by it. Hence Josiah the wonderful both took down all the idols, and burned their vessels, and scattered their dust upon the face of the tombs of those who sacrificed to them. This, then, is the meaning of “I will make your grave,” namely, to mix the dust of the gods with the dust of the idolaters. And it might be said to Nineveh: I will hand over your gods also to destruction; whence you, fearing lest they become spoils of the enemy, will hide them away, burying them as it were in tombs. But perhaps, since as idolaters they were handed over by God to their enemies unto death, he says: These idols I will make your grave — that is, they shall be to you procurers of death, and a grave. And the devil too was the god of human nature; and the house of such a god is the whole world, out of which all idolatry was destroyed by Christ. And good is the promise which he who destroys the idols promises to our nature, namely, “I will make your grave” — that is, I will kill the old man, and bury you, that I may make you new and raise you up: for we died and were buried together with Christ through baptism. But also out of our mind, which was fashioned as a house of God, shall be destroyed the carved images, namely rhetorical fine speaking, and the molten things, namely the opinions of the philosophers, carried up through what they call demonstrative methods, as if through certain firings. And then our mind, that is, our understanding, is buried, when we are minded of nothing of our own and human, even as Solomon also says: The understanding of a man is not in me. For the word “Believe” is a burial of the understanding, when it is not permitted to be set in motion, and to reason, and to busy itself about things.

³⁴ For swift — behold, upon the mountains are the feet of one bringing good news and announcing peace.[8] He all but shows the good things to be at the doors. For behold, he says, behold, there shall come a messenger bringing good news of my Lord’s campaign against the Ninevites, and the capture of Nineveh — which was peace for the Israelites, setting them free from the captivity. “Upon the mountains,” see, he says, either because this road, from Nineveh to Jerusalem, is mountainous, or because those who announce some news from the mountains, as from places in full view, make signals, by which they make the announcement plain to those below. The “feet of the Lord” are the apostles, who were sent to the mountains, the nations, the dwelling-places of the spiritual beasts, making disciples of them — he who was bringing good news of peace; and through all that he taught and did, making peace for us with the Father: That they too in us, he says, may be one. And most plainly he brought good news of peace with one another, by saying: From him that takes your goods, do not ask them again; and, to him that would go to law with you, and take your tunic, leave him your cloak also. And he announced these things as saying nothing of himself, but announcing the things of the Father. And the feet of John too were swift upon the mountains, the high-minded Pharisees, as he announced the true peace, Christ, to whom he also said: Offspring of vipers, prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Every ravine shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low. And no one is able to announce peace while he is below and attached to the things of earth; for it is on account of the good things of earth that wars arise. If, then, you are going to bring good news of peace, both to yourself and to your neighbors, become higher than the earth and its good things, wealth and glory. Ascend to the heavenly mountains, where David too, lifting up his eyes, hoped that help would come to him from thence. To this let the teachers also give heed, that, standing upon the mountains of the lofty life of conduct, they may thus announce peace to the peoples — which is signified to them also through the elevated platform.

³⁵ Keep your feasts, O Judah. For since, being in the captivity, you were hindered from keeping feasts (for the Law commanded that the feasts be kept in Jerusalem; therefore upon the rivers of Babylon those of old hung their instruments upon the willows, since it was not permitted to sing the song of the Lord in a foreign land); now, having been released from the captivity, keep your feasts without hindrance. And these things either the prophet says, or the messenger who brings the good news. And every spiritual Judah, that is, the one who confesses, so long as he is in Babylon, in the confusion, in the land that is foreign to God, is not able to keep the feast — neither the Passover, the festival of passing-over and of going-out (for he has not passed over, nor gone out from sin), nor that of Weeks, which is Pentecost; for he is outside the spiritual sabbath-rest, not having taken up the yoke of Christ, from which the rest is found; nor yet that of Tabernacles; for he does not dwell in the world as in a tent, but abides in it as in a fixed habitation. Nor does he make remembrance of the resurrection and of the life that goes with it, when the tabernacle of each shall be fixed, new and incorruptible. But when he is delivered from the slavery under confusing sin, then he is commanded to keep his feasts, which we have named. And these three were altogether the greatest feasts in the Law as well.

³⁶ Render your vows. That is, Fulfill the promises which you promised, sacrificing, and performing the other things prescribed by the Law. For they promised, when they were in the captivity, to render to God many thank-offerings, if only they should return, as we shall find in the sixty-fifth and sixty-eighth Psalm. [9]

³⁷ Because they shall no more pass through to grow old. That is, No longer shall your enemies endure for a long time, nor shall their prosperity grow old; but quickly they too shall perish, and their abundance shall perish with them. Or also, that the feasts of the one who confesses do not come to growing old; for they are ever renewed day by day, according to the image of him that created him.

3 Chapter Two

¹ It is finished, it is taken away.[10] Nineveh, that is, and her ruler; so that there is no longer any fear for you from them — or else it is sin and impiety that is finished and taken away.

² There has come up one who breathes upon your face, delivering you out of affliction. Cyrus, he says, came up against Nineveh, who, having breathed upon you, delivered you out of affliction. And he spoke of “breathing” from a certain Jewish custom; for just as it was their custom to rend their garments, so also to breathe upon the faces of those who had grown faint — and this the exorcists especially did. Some have said that God is here spoken of, who by his own nod, using it as a kind of breath, brought the people back to life as though they were dead, even as Ezekiel says, giving him over to dry bones; just as, when he breathed the breath of life into Adam also, he made him a living soul. And the Lord too came up from the dead, having brought to nothing the one who held the power of death, the spiritual Assyrian; and he breathed upon the disciples, saying: Peace be to you. For the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. For since Adam had lost the image which he received through the divine breathing, fittingly did Christ renew it and give it back to the holy apostles, and through them to all who believe.

³ Watch the road. He says this to Judah, urging him to look about the roads, and to expect the messengers, and to receive the good tidings that come from them. Or else he speaks to the one who is about to be brought back from captivity, telling him: Look well about you, which road is easier and shorter for you.

⁴ Take hold of your loins, be a man with all your might. That is: Put off your former cowardice, and play the man, having girded your loins tight. So also the Lord says to Job: Gird your loins like a man; and Paul: Gird your loins about with truth. Here, then, he exhorts him to be manful and to take courage, putting off his former cowardice. Or else: Make ready for the road of the return; for to take hold of the loins by means of the girdle belongs to travelers. For the tunic, flowing loose, wearies the traveler with toil; but be a man against this. And he charges each one of us as well: Watch the road, which is Christ, that you may walk in it. Or again, urging us toward the contemplation of the mystery of Christ, he says: Learn well the road. And since it is through the practical life that we ascend to the watching of things divine, and without sanctification no one shall see the Lord, he says: Take hold of the loins, in which is the desiring power. Then, since when we are admonished to be chaste we are wont to say, “We cannot, the passion is natural,” he shows also how we shall master it. For be a man, he says, with all your might — that is, do not resist slackly, but mightily; and this, in the strength — that is, in Christ, who strung our nature with sinews by taking it up and uniting it to the Godhead. For without this, even if you play the man, you shall avail nothing. For this reason none of the unbelievers is a virgin; for they are not manful in the strength.

⁵ Because the Lord has turned away the insolence done to Jacob, even as the insolence done to Israel. By “Jacob” he names the ten tribes; by “Israel,” the two that were in Jerusalem. Now the ten were carried captive earlier by the Babylonians; the two later, when Nebuchadnezzar made war upon Jerusalem. Since, then, Cyrus granted the return to the twelve tribes together, he says that the Lord turned away the insolence of Jacob — that is, he took away the captivity and the slavery of the ten tribes, even as also of Israel, that is, the two, and brought them back to their own homes. For the slavery was an insolence to men who were free and descended from the race of Abraham. Or else in this way: Since the name “Jacob” was set upon the patriarch by his fathers, but “Israel” by God — and so this name too was the more honorable — he here names the whole people by the human name; but he says that the insolence, that is, the slavery, of Jacob, that is, of the whole people, the Lord turned away, as being an insolence to that patriarch who for his virtue was surnamed Israel. So then, that he might not be dishonored, who is worthy of all honor, for this cause he spared his descendants. The insolence of Jacob — that is, of the practical man, who is appointed to trip up the passions — is to be enslaved to some passionate deed; just as the insolence of Israel, that is, of the contemplative man, is to be bowed down beneath a false doctrine. And these insolences the Lord turns away: to the practical man giving the commandments, so that by working them he may be set free; and the contemplative man enlightening in mind, toward the orthodoxy of the Church.

⁶ Because, shaking them out, they shook them out, and destroyed their branches; the weapons of his dominion are from men. Just as, he says, those who shake out the branches of the vine destroy the fruit, so also the Persians, having shaken and beaten down the Babylonians, destroyed their kingdom, which was the fruit of their branches. And what the branches were, he interprets: that they are the weapons of the dominion — not the dominion that is from God, but that which is from men. For they prevailed by human powers; for by “weapons of his dominion” — namely, of the Babylonian people — he means surely the mighty men-at-arms. He adds accordingly:

⁷ Mighty men mocking in fire. Lest anyone suppose that the Babylonians were subdued to the Persians as being weak, he made mention above of “weapons of dominion”; and now he says more plainly that they shook out men who were mighty, and so bold and daring that they dared even the fire itself, and reckoned as a plaything things perilous and dreadful. So that it was not because of any weakness of theirs that the Persians prevailed against them, but because of the divine decree, which delivered them over to these men for destruction.

⁸ The Romans too shook out from Jerusalem the slayers of God, who had once been — that is, had been planted — a true and fruit-bearing vine, but had turned into bitterness. For their wine was the rage of dragons, and the rage of asps. For indeed they gave the Lord gall to drink, and their branches, which were outside the city, stretched as far as the sea, they destroyed; for they slew almost all who were caught in the regions outside. For the weapons of their dominion were not from God (how could they be, whose Son they slew?), but they trusted in the helps that are from men, in the zealots who stirred them to revolt. These slayers of God, then, were also mighty, as schooled in the Law (and the mighty shall be mightily put to the test), and they mocked the Lord, who was fire by reason of his Godhead — partly by tempting him at every turn, partly by handing him over to the Roman soldiers to be mocked. They shook out also the spiritual Babylonians, the demons, who are generaled by Christ, putting these far from themselves, and thrusting away their error, and destroyed their branches — I mean the divinations and the sorceries, from which they begot the wine of error and gave it to men to drink, as he says also in Hosea: Wine and strong drink the heart of my people received. Then he speaks concerning the devil, that the weapons of his dominion are from men; for from our own slothfulness he has gotten his dominion. And the demons are mighty men, in that, being fleshless, they war against us who are of the flesh; and they mock in the fire of wrath and of desire. Just as, the Lord being a vine, his branches are the apostles, and those who at every time become his body and members; so also of the adversary, who is a Sodomite vine, the tendril accordingly is of Gomorrah — those who come forth from him, and receive from him the bitterness of every wickedness.

⁹ The reins of their chariots in the day of his preparation; and the horsemen shall be thrown into tumult in the roads, and the chariots shall be confounded, and shall be entangled with one another in the broad ways. The Babylonians, he says, shall be made ready, so as to set themselves in array against the Persians from horseback. And the reins of his chariots — of the Babylonian army — shall be ready, but they shall profit nothing. For the horsemen shall be thrown into tumult in the roads, by reason of the multitude of the enemy coming on; and there shall be a confounding of the chariots — that is, a colliding — as they are entangled with one another and trampled by one another, and that not in any narrow places, that one might lay the blame on the strait room, but in the broad ways, so that it is plain that they are warred upon by God, both the horsemen and the charioteers. Our own souls were created a chariot of the Lord, that, bearing him as Word, and moved according to him, they might ride in the contemplation of the things that are, pursuing the inner principles of these. But they become chariots of the Babylonian whenever they are moved toward irrational deeds. And our reins are both the natural notions and the commandments of the Lord. When, then, these that are as reins are made ready for us, then the demons that ride upon us are thrown into tumult in the various and many-wandering roads of wickedness, in which they persuaded us to move; and they collide their chariots one with another, and are entangled in the broad ways. And what I mean is this: Wickedness, so long as we pursue it, seems something level, and even with itself, and peaceable; but when we take up the reins, both naturally considering the good and being led by the hand toward it by the commandments, then we see it uneven with itself, clashing and entangled. Do you not see those who travel in the broad ways of this god, and do not tread the narrow road of the life according to God — how at one time, made slack by good fortune, they exalt themselves over all; and at another, when some small reverse has come upon them, they become baser than all, bowing down beneath the small misfortune, and counting life unlivable? And these things are beheld by us when, as I said, we take up the reins given to us, and have them ready, having come to be in the day and in the light of our own self-awareness.

¹⁰ Their appearances are as torches of fire, and as lightnings darting to and fro. Since he had said that the chariots of the Ninevites, or rather of the Babylonians, shall suffer such and such things, he says: And yet they were not weak, but courageous and high-spirited, such as even to send forth fire from their eyes, and who by certain torches and lightnings, as it were, struck terror into their subjects; yet nevertheless, at the onset of the enemy, cowardice shall hold them fast. But some understood these things also concerning the Persians, the prophet all but seeing them with his bodily eyes, coming like fire against Nineveh.

¹¹ And their great men shall remember, and shall flee by day, and shall grow weak in their march, and shall hasten to the walls, and shall make ready their outposts. The great men of the Ninevites, he says, who think highly of themselves on account of their power, shall stir up every reasoning, and shall call to mind every device; and they shall try indeed to flee by day, as men hemmed in by terrors, and not even able to await the night; but they shall not prosper in the march of their flight, but again shall hasten to mount up to the walls, as men to be saved by these, and shall take thought for the guard of the city. Or else you will understand the word “remember” thus: that they shall call to mind the evils which they brought upon the Israelites, and the blasphemies against God; and shall know thereafter that they have God for an enemy, and for this cause shall flee not secretly, but by day; for so great a cowardice shall lay hold of them. There is also the appearance of the demons, as torches by reason of their nature (For I beheld, he says, Satan fallen as lightning from heaven), and perhaps too because they are transfigured into an angel of light; and as “darting to and fro,” in that they walk about under heaven. Or because they are not lightnings that abide, but darting to and fro — that is, more swiftly quenched. For their light, which they counterfeit, is quickly quenched, according to what is said: The light of the wicked shall be quenched. And their great men — that is, the legions — shall remember the power of the Lord, so as to say: Ah! what have we to do with you, Son of God? And they shall grow weak in their march, when together with the swine they are cast down headlong into the sea, or because they shall no longer have strength to march against men. And they shall hasten, so as to bring about the cross and the death of the Lord. For they supposed these to be as walls for them, as though the Lord would be without a name, or even of ill name, as one crucified like a robber. And they made ready their outposts as well — either all the things before the cross, the mockings and the reproaches (for these were as certain outposts of the cross and the death), or the watches of the soldiers at the tomb. But in the soul also there are great men, the mind and the reason. They shall remember, then, their own dignity, and shall flee the slavery of the passions, day being round about it; for they no longer pass through, as before, in darkness. And in their former perilous march they shall grow weak, no longer running well in wickedness; and they shall hasten to the walls — the commandments, which wall us about — and shall make ready the outposts — the natural notions; for these keep guard before the commandments. But holy baptism too, and the chrism, are great and firm walls, to which every initiate hastens, when he has come to know Jesus who is able to save. Yet not so simply, but he is also guarded beforehand, being commanded to fast and to keep chaste before baptism, that he may come to be in the habit of the good.

¹² The gates of the cities have been opened, the royal palaces have fallen, and the foundation has been uncovered. The Ninevites, he says — that is, all their subjects — shall mount up to the walls, as men to be guarded by these, but it is no profit to them. For the gates both of Nineveh itself and of all the other cities shall be opened, and the royal palaces shall be under the enemy, their glory having fallen and been taken away; and all their foundation — that is, the treasures, shut up and made secure — shall be uncovered, and shall be plain to all, laid open for plunder. The gates of cities are the senses of souls, which are opened when they apply themselves to matters without deception. Then too the royal palaces of the sin that reigns in our mortal body fall down, appearing rotten, and the foundation of virtue is uncovered. For then it is made plain that sin is without foundation, but virtue truly has substance. For this, I think, is what David too says to God: My foundation is with you. For when a man is in God, then he has substance. For in him, he says, we live and move and are. For he who has his being in being rational is then also in God, when he lives according to reason, and fittingly has his substance in God — not to say that, being also in our own reason, we are in God the Word; for our reason is a portion of the divine.

¹³ And she went up, and her handmaids were led away, moaning as doves in their hearts. As it were, the prophet beholds Nineveh led away into captivity, and says that she went up as one led toward Persia, and with her the cities subject to her, groaning in their hearts — that is, secretly — and imitating the murmur of doves. When the foundation of virtue is uncovered, the soul ascends the divine ascents; and her handmaid powers, wrath and desire, no longer led, but were led by the mind and the reason; and so they have fittingly become doves of the Spirit. For then neither does desire long after any human day, nor does wrath grow angry with its brother without cause; but the one stands before the Lord, and the Lord is Spirit, even as Daniel too was a man of the desires that are of the Spirit. And the other is angry, and does not sin, emptying out all its gall against wickedness — even as Moses also, the most meek, armed the Levites against those who had committed idolatry; and Phinehas, and Elijah, were named zealots. And the Spirit itself, being of meekness, is said even to be provoked. And the doves thus understood speak unutterably, and bear witness to the power of Christ, by which these things were set right; for by the strength of Christ they crucified the flesh, with its sufferings and its desires. There were opened also the gates of the cities and of the strongholds of death, when the Lord underwent for us the death on our behalf; and the royal palaces of Hades fell down, and of him who has the power of death. And the divine foundation of the Word was uncovered, together with the holy soul united to it, breaking the brazen gates and shattering the iron bars for those who sat in darkness and the shadow of death, and making plain his own power. And he was present with the soul in Hades, working wonders, and with the body in the tomb, keeping it incorrupt. And the soul of the Lord shone forth from Hades, and her handmaids, the souls of the saints, followed her as doves, guileless and unfeigned, and full of uprightness and innocence, singing: Where, O death, is your sting? Where, O Hades, is your victory?

¹⁴ And Nineveh, her waters are as a pool of water. And they, fleeing, stood not, and there was none who looked back. The conjunction “And” carries an emphasis, standing for “And yet,” he says: the waters of Nineveh — that is, those who inhabited and filled her — were so great a multitude that she might be likened to a pool full of water and overflowing the surplus (for indeed, the people being multiplied, she sent out colonies); yet nevertheless such as these, having looked to flight, stood not; nor was there among them one who looked back; but all looked forward, scanning ahead where they might flee. But the Church too, the one of the nations (for Nineveh is gentile), has the waters of baptism; and the dwellers in her, fleeing wickedness, do not stand still, lest they suffer what Lot’s wife suffered; and there is not among them one who looks back. For they do not put their hand to the plow and turn back; but forgetting the things behind, and stretching forward to the things before, so they run, as not in uncertainty.

¹⁵ They plundered the silver, they plundered the gold, and there was no end of her adornment. He goes through the former injustice and covetousness of the Ninevites, and that they gathered from plunderings. And one cannot say, he says, that they plundered from need; for the evil would have been more moderate. Rather they plundered out of insolence, and out of the wish to have adornments of many kinds and very costly; for there was no end, he says, of her adornment. For in womanish fashion men too, through softness and effeminacy, adorn themselves.

¹⁶ They are weighed down beyond all their desirable vessels. That is: the adornment with which they adorned their bodies had much weight — that is, mass, and a token of abundant wealth; so much and so costly was it beyond all their other vessels. And though those too were “desirable” — that is, superfluous and fashioned for luxury — yet nevertheless the adornment surpassed them. Or else in this way: The things which they had treasured up, he says, the enemy themselves shall take, when they have prevailed over them, and shall carry these off into their own land, weighing down those who convey them. And he speaks of the things to come as already done, according to the idiom of Scripture; for “they are weighed down” stands for “they shall be weighed down.” But the gentiles too, who were once idolaters, but now are of the Church, plunder both the silver — the oracles of the Law — and the gold — the pure and shadowless grace of the Gospel — being sick with the good insatiableness. And so the Church too is filled full, so that there is no end of her adornment. For her adornment is the kingdom of the Word, who tabernacled among us, of whose kingdom there shall be no end. And such an adornment is also weighty; for it is not carried about by every wind of teaching, but has weight and steadfastness beyond all the philosophic doctrines, which were the vessels desirable to those of the nations. But the demons too once plundered the silver and the gold, taking captive both the reason of the practical and that of the contemplative life, and using the wisdom of the Greeks not as they ought; but now they are weighed down beyond all men, who once were their vessels fashioned for destruction. For those who were cleansed have become vessels of good use unto the honor of the Master, who, entering into the house of the strong man, bound him, and plundered these his vessels; but those who were delivered over to chains of darkness were thrown into confusion.

¹⁷ A shaking and an upheaval, and a tossing up, and a breaking of the heart, and a loosing of the knees, and pangs upon every loin. The things that are wont to happen in earthquakes, when the earth is shaken, these he has set down also for the coming of the enemy. For they, he says, shall shake all things and raise them up; and the hearts of the Ninevites shall be broken and crushed together, so that, as they are stricken with dread, the joints of their knees too shall be loosed, and like women in travail they shall have pangs — that is, unbearable pains, bringing forth great evils. “Every loin” — that is, every manly power; for Scripture sets the loin also for power, as was said above. The earth, then, shakes — that is, shakes off — when it shakes off the things that stand upon it; and it upheaves, when it brings the foundations up from the deep, hurling them aloft; and it tosses up, when, as in a sieve moving things this way and that, it gives up the things below, often even breaking open springs of cold and of hot waters; since they say there are three kinds of earthquakes. So Cyrus and his men shall move both the upper and visible things and the lower and unseen, and, confounding and troubling all things, shall let nothing remain in its established state.

¹⁸ The face of all is as the scorching of a pot. From fear, he says, the blood shall be congealed; and the face of all shall grow livid — which happens in the greatest colds — so that it resembles that part of the pot which, being close to the fire and scorched, is blackened. These things befell also those who crucified the Lord, who were both shaken out of their ancient homeland and scattered into every place. There was shaken out also the error of the demons, and the man who lay below was upheaved on high, and every wickedness was tossed up, cast outward and broken open through confession. And with confession is beheld also the breaking of the heart; for he who has condemned his former life will plainly be crushed, repenting of the things he did; whose face too — that is, the boldness he had, while he did evils shamelessly — is now blackened, as he is downcast over his deeds of that time, of which he is now ashamed. And his knees too are loosed beneath him, on which he leaned as he stood in wickedness; and the loin, in which is the desiring power, has the pangs of the divine fear, which, conceiving, brings forth a divine Spirit, the Spirit of sanctification, without which no one shall see the Lord.

¹⁹ Where is the dwelling place of the lions, and the pasture that belonged to the cubs? By “lions” he calls the kings; the dwelling place of lions, Nineveh; and by “cubs,” either the sons of the kings, or the satraps and lieutenants of the kings; and their pasture, the subject cities, which, being required to pay tribute and bringing in their moneys, were their pasture, feeding them; for the pastures of the rich, according to what is written, are the poor. Since, then, Nineveh too, together with the kings and the kings’ sons and the satraps, and the cities under her, were destroyed, so as to appear nowhere, Where is, he says, so great and so mighty a city, and her subject towns?

²⁰ Where did the lion go to enter in? Continuing in the figure, he says, as though in irony: Can it be that the lion — that is, the king of Nineveh — went abroad on a journey, so as to enter into another country, and that for this reason the enemy, finding the place deserted, made themselves masters of the city?

²¹ There was the lion’s cub, and there was none to make him afraid. The lion seized enough for his cubs, and strangled for his lionesses, and filled his nest with prey, and his dwelling place with plunder. Since he asked, Where did the lion go? he answers, as it were, and says: He did not go, nor did he travel abroad; rather he too was there, and the lion’s cub — that is, his sons, or the satraps and the generals, whom there was none to make afraid before (for they were undaunted in former times, fearing no one), but rather, like a lion, they seized the moneys of the other kingdoms, and gathered tribute, and provided food for their offspring. For this he shows by saying, He strangled for his lionesses. For since wild beasts are wont to strangle the animals hunted by them, and so to bring food to their young, in the same way, he says, the Assyrian kings too, overthrowing the other kingdoms, gathered for their own lions — that is, for their children and kings — the wealth of those peoples, and the tribute that was at every time collected. Even as Shalmaneser plundered Samaria, and Nebuchadnezzar Jerusalem, and they filled Nineveh, which was their nest and dwelling place, with prey and plunder. He called her a “nest,” as of birds, both because of the lightness and high-mindedness of the kings, and because, when she was easily taken by the Persians, they flew away, led off into Persia; and a “dwelling place,” as of lions, because of her former power. There is also another reading: “Where did he go to enter in there?” and then, from another beginning: “The lion’s cub,” and so forth; and it has this sense: Where is Nineveh, where kings entered in and abode securely, the city being unassailable? And the cubs of the kings too entered in, and there was none to make them afraid. For dwelling in Nineveh they were without fear. And Jerusalem too was a dwelling place of lions — of the kings from David, and of the rest of the rulers, who plundered and strangled the poorer of the people. But now, after the slaying of Christ, where is it? But in the souls of those who now make confession the spiritual lions also dwelt, whose offspring being the wicked thoughts, they fed on and consumed the divine portion within them. The devil, then, who goes about as a lion, seeking whom he may devour, where is he now? Where has he gone? For there, where he himself was before, now is the Lord Jesus, the cub of the lion that is with Jacob; and there is no longer one to make afraid those who have received this cub. For long enough, in the time that is past, did that savage lion seize what he seized, and strangle those whom he deprived of the Holy Spirit, and fill Hades with prey, with those who were put to death through sin; which Hades is his dwelling place now; for no longer has he his dominion in the air, but has been delivered over to Hades.

²² Behold, I am against you, says the Lord Almighty. Thus, then, O Nineveh, you plundered all the kingdoms. In requital for these things, behold, I quickly rise up against you, even if until now I was long-suffering. And the word “Almighty” is added emphatically. For if I rule over all, I shall prevail over you also.

²³ And I will burn up your multitude in smoke, and the sword shall devour your lions. Since above he made mention figuratively of lions, and cubs, and prey, and pasture, fittingly he also foretells figuratively their destruction. For since hunters compel the beasts hidden in certain caves, and unwilling to come forth, to come out, by bringing smoke to the mouths of the caves, and receive them with spears and swords as they come out, and kill them — he says: The multitude of your people I will burn up in smoke; that is, I will set fire to this populous city, and the kings and rulers I will deliver to slaughter; even as he delivered Jerusalem too to burning, and the rebels in her, who were lions, devouring the lowlier, the sword of the Romans devoured.

²⁴ And I will utterly destroy your prey from the earth, and your works shall no more be heard. That is: No longer shall you hunt and plunder nations and kingdoms; nor shall your works of war, and the evils that come of them, which you did to those who were under you, be heard; for you shall cease from doing these things. The Pharisees too hunted the souls of the proselytes and Jews who were persuaded by them, by teaching them the letter — which prey he utterly destroyed from the earth of human nature, who gave to it the law of the Spirit of life. And no longer are the works of the legal polity heard, since by them no flesh shall be justified. But also against the power of the devil the Lord might say: Behold, I am against you, taking my stand with the flesh; and the multitude of the demons under you I will burn up in the vapor of the working of the Spirit, or even in the first beginnings of the fire to come. For the things which tormented the demons were a smoke of the fire prepared for them. And the sword — the evangelical word — devoured his lions, either these very demons, or the wise, and those mighty in word. And the error, by which he hunted men, was utterly destroyed from the earth; and the works which were performed in the temples of the idols are no longer heard.

4 Chapter Three

¹ O city of blood, wholly false, full of unrighteousness. He bewails, in tones of indignation, the character of Nineveh, and calls it a city of blood; for the Ninevites were lovers of war, and rejoiced in bloodshed. And wholly false, both inasmuch as they were idolaters — all alike, poor and rich, worshiping the falsely named gods — and inasmuch as they were lovers of falsehood in their words, pursuing wiles and cunning, upon which follows wrongdoing also. For everyone who is deceitful and crafty is also unrighteous, if in nothing else, yet in this very thing — the wronging and deceiving of his neighbor. And the prophet seems to teach whence Nineveh came to be a city of blood: namely, out of lying and out of wrongdoing; for where there is falsehood and unrighteousness, do not there despair of bloodshed either. But Jerusalem too is a city of blood, in that she killed the prophets and stoned those who were sent to her; and wholly false, in that she hated the truth, which was Christ, and spoke false things concerning him — that he is a Samaritan and has a demon, and a deceiver — and full of unrighteousness, in that she crucified the Benefactor, and denied the holy and just one, and filled up the measure of her prophet-slaying fathers, by herself becoming a slayer of God.

² The prey shall not be handled. What he said above — I will utterly destroy your prey — this he says now also: that no longer shall prey be handled by you; that is, no city or kingdom shall be mastered by you, nor shall you hunt down wealth and tribute; for these were your prey. And the prey of Jerusalem of old was all the prophets. No longer, then, he says, shall there be a prophet in you, neither shall you hunt and ensnare him.

³ A sound of whips, a sound of a quaking. The prophet seems both to hear and to see the evils of war, and so he recounts them as though already present; for he is, as it were, made to ring with a sound of whips, by which the horses are roused to run the more swiftly, and he says that the clatter of the wheels resembles an earthquake.

⁴ And of a horse pursuing. The word “sound” is to be supplied in common. For he seems to hear the neighings of a horse pursuing, and as it were perceiving the victory, and for this reason neighing a song of triumph; for the horse is a high-spirited thing. And having said, “A sound of whips,” he showed also who it was that was being whipped — namely, the horse, that it might pursue the more vigorously.

⁵ And of a chariot bounding. Having said, “A sound of the quaking of wheels,” he shows more plainly that this sound is the sound of a chariot, tossed up by the rush of its course.

⁶ And of a horseman mounting up. A sound, he says, of a horseman mounting up — that is, a tumult and a war-cry; for the horsemen, when they are about to mount either horses or chariots, make a tumult and raise a war-cry, urging one another on.

⁷ And of a flashing sword, and of glittering arms, and of a multitude of slain, and of a grievous fall. No longer ought you to hear a sound, but rather to behold a sight. For he seems to see the swords flashing, and the breastplates and the other arms glittering, and a multitude of men, some being wounded, and others falling under the weight of their arms. And such things have their fitting application also to those who besieged and sacked Jerusalem; for indeed many such things befell the accursed Jews at that time as well.

⁸ And there was no end to her nations, and they shall be weak in their bodies from the multitude of fornication. Many nations, and beyond number, subject to Nineveh, shall come to fight as her allies; yet in their bodies, in which they have put their trust as being, presumably, of fine physique, they shall be weak. Why? Because they practiced fornication — both that which is in their ways and habits, having played the harlot away from all virtue and from chastity itself, and that which is away from God unto idols. But to the nations of Jerusalem too — that is, to her inhabitants, who emulated the ways of the nations — there was no end; for they came together into her beyond all number, as Josephus relates. And they grew weak in their bodies, wasted by famine. Why? Because they committed fornication, and fell away from Christ, saying: Write not, The King of the Jews. But according to the plain sense, weakness comes upon the body from the multitude of fornication; for no one who is licentious has a strong body. So that if anyone, being a soldier, especially wishes to be strong, let him be chaste.

⁹ A fair harlot and full of charm. Nineveh was a harlot also according to bodily fornication, living licentiously through her great luxury, and according to idolatry. And fair and full of charm, in that she gloried in renown, in wealth, and in her other good things, and was a splendid thing, and rich in many graceful and elegant adornments, as being indeed a queen over the other cities.

¹⁰ A mistress of sorceries. That is, full of witchcraft, and ruling over the others in the practice of drugs; for by magic arts and sorceries the Assyrians had the mastery over the others.

¹¹ Selling nations in her fornication, and tribes in her sorceries. You were not content, he says, with your own impiety, but you even compelled the nations subject to you to do the same things as yourself, and you sold them, and made them slaves, both by fornication and by sorcery. Or thus also: The sorcerers, using their own arts of trickery, promised all who went out to war that they would make their enemies subject to them, and they took a fee for these things. They sold, then, the nations and the tribes to those who gave them a fee for their sorceries, undertaking to make those nations subject. So too Balaam promised Balak to make the Israelite people subject to him. And if you understand these things concerning Jerusalem, Nahum will appear to be saying all but the very same things as Isaiah, who cries out in indignation: How has she become a harlot, the faithful city Zion? For here too Jerusalem is understood to be called fair and full of charm, because she received the Law, which was itself a grace also (for, it says, grace for grace); but she became a harlot, both when those fell away from the Lord who said: This saying is hard; who can hear it? and again when they said: You are that man’s disciple; but we are disciples of Moses; and last of all when they all said together: We have no king but Caesar. And she is a mistress of sorceries, inasmuch as her leaders and rulers and teachers bewitch the people with their hypocrisies and false teachings, and sell them to the demons. And the soul also was created fair by God, and full of charm, having received the grace of the in-breathing; but it becomes a harlot whenever, bewitched and beguiled by pleasure, it falls away from that which is truly fair — and to such a degree that it even becomes for others a leader in the sorcery of pleasures.

¹² Behold, I am against you, says the Lord Almighty. Do not suppose, he says, that a man will make war upon you. The Lord — but rather, I rise up against you, the Almighty Lord; so that you must look for a great assault.

¹³ And I will uncover your hinder parts upon your face. The word is as concerning a woman who plays the harlot: so far as regards her face and her outward adornment, she seems desirable to those who behold her; but if someone should strip her, and lay bare and display the unseemly parts of her body, she will be utterly disgraced. So then, he says, O Nineveh, I will uncover your hinder parts; that is, Whatever is unseemly in you, hidden before, I will now bring out into the open, so that it appears in place of your face; and dishonor instead of glory shall encompass you, and I will make all your lawlessness manifest, through the punishment that shall be brought upon you.

¹⁴ And I will show the nations your shame, and the kingdoms your dishonor. For you seemed to all nations and kings to be a fair thing, fortified by your magic arts, and supposing that by these you towered above your enemies, while I was long-suffering; but now, having risen up against you, I will show to the nations over which you had the mastery that not even then were you strong, when you had the mastery over them, but it was my will that did these things; and the kingdoms that formerly honored you as mighty shall now recognize the dishonor of your weakness. These things may be referred also to the judgment to come, when there are uncovered, upon the face of each of the sinners, the things done behind them — that is, the unseemliness of their former sins. And the shame of each is shown, and his dishonor, both to nations — that is, to the rest of the sinners — and to kingdoms — that is, to the righteous, who shall reign together with Christ, if indeed they also suffered together with him here. And then too the divine word lays hold of a soul that has been sinning until now, and brings it to a perception of its former life in evil; it makes such an uncovering, and through confession it parades the things formerly hidden, and the word shows the shame of the works to the nations — that is, to the demons — so that, having come to know that it is ashamed of their works, they may no longer approach it as their own. And these same are also called many kingdoms, as reigning in manifold ways within man through sin, whereas the kingdom of the Lord, at least, is one.

¹⁵ And I will cast abomination upon you according to your uncleannesses. That is, I will make you such that all who see you abhor you. Then, lest anyone should say that God makes some abominable and others glorious, and that thereafter all things come about by mere allotment, he added: According to your uncleannesses; showing that Justly will I bring abomination upon you, because you have uncleannesses. And to the unclean what else is fitting than to be abhorred? So that let no one blame God, if men abhor him, but rather his own uncleanness. So also upon the Hebrews he cast abomination because of their uncleannesses — both the others, and those that came of the slaying of God; for their hands were unclean, as being full of blood. And according to the measure of each one’s uncleanness is the abomination also brought on, neither more nor less, the Master and Judge here mingling his kindness. But in the judgment to come too one shall be more abominable than another, according to the measure of the uncleanness of his works.

¹⁶ And I will make you an example. That is, I will make your sufferings so notorious that, whenever at any time a city or a region perishes, some will say: So-and-so the city has perished, even as Nineveh.

¹⁷ And it shall be that everyone who sees you shall go down away from you. For when you have been razed to the ground, whoever stands over your ruins and wreckage — even if he was formerly an enemy, and chafed at your dominion — and beholds the very great desolation, he shall go down away from such wreckage; that is, he shall leap away, not bearing to look upon so great a desolation; or else fearing lest he too should suffer some harm because of so great a desolation.

¹⁸ And he shall say: Wretched Nineveh; who shall groan for her? Miserable and wretched is Nineveh; who shall be found a mourner such as to lament her worthily? Or, that there was not left to her any of her own household to lament her; and so he adds also:

¹⁹ Whence shall I seek comfort for her? For in the case of the other cities or regions, some perish and some are saved, and those who are saved are a comfort; but in the case of Nineveh, comfort is not to be found; for she has been given over to utter destruction.

²⁰ Tune a string, make ready, a portion of strength. — a root] Ammon.[11] Or, that he gives these commands to Alexandria, even if it was not yet called Alexandria at that time; for the place called On, that is Ammon, is so called as being dedicated to Ammon, who is a demon so renowned among the Greeks that many came there from Greece for the sake of oracles. And Alexander too, the king of the Macedonians, is said to have run to him as to his own father, and to have received oracles from him. Since, then, all Egypt, and On — which was later called Alexandria, after Alexander — depended upon this demon, he names her a portion of Ammon. Many evils, then, did she too suffer at the hands of the Ninevites, that is the Assyrians; for these made war upon all Egypt, where also, having found those of the Israelites who had fled there, they treated them in like manner. He commands On, then, to tune a string, and make ready the lyre, and as one rejoicing over the evils of the Ninevites, and as keeping festival in another fashion — even as above he commanded Judah also to keep festival.

²¹ Dwelling among rivers. By “rivers” he means the canals of the Nile.

²² Whose beginning is the sea, and water her walls. On every side, he says, Ammon has her safety: on the northern side, having the sea; on the southern, the Maeotian lake; and being rich also in the water of the Nile, which makes, as it were, marshes hard to pass through.

²³ Ethiopia is her strength, and Egypt, and there is no end of your flight. Phud and the Libyans became her helpers. He enumerates her auxiliaries and allies, showing that she was fortified not only by the situation of her place, but also by the power of her allies. And by “Phud” he names the western Libyans, who are now called Africans. But nevertheless, he says, though you, the portion of Ammon, are thus fortified — by the canals and the marshes of the Nile’s water, and by the sea, and by the lake, and by the allies just named — you too shall be turned to flight, and there shall be no end to your flight. A portion of Ammon is also the Church gathered out of the nations, which dwells among rivers — the sweet waters of the Gospel of grace — and water is round about her — the spiritual baptism — to guard her on every side; and she rules over the sea — the tempting waves of this life, and the salt heresies — being overcome by none of these; for the gates of Hades shall not prevail against her. And after baptism she has walls also — the water of the tears of repentance. And Ethiopia and Egypt are her strength. For the Ethiopian eunuch is the first of the nations to be baptized; and the Lord visited Egypt first, when, having been born, he straightway fled there. And it is no small strength to the preaching of the Church that such nations should run to her. But the Libyans too, who were present at Pentecost at the coming of the Spirit, she has as helpers, who bore witness, out of the gift of tongues, that the preaching is divine. For this reason it ever befits her also to flee — both from impiety, and from him who ever pursues us through all things, both words and works — lest, ceasing from her flight, she be overtaken.

²⁴ And she too goes into exile, a captive. Namely, Alexandria, and all Egypt; for when Nebuchadnezzar sacked her, and afterward when Cambyses — who was the son of Cyrus — dissolved her kingdom, she was compelled to be subject to the dominion of the Persians. But Alexander also brought the Egyptians under the Macedonian kingdom.

²⁵ And her infants they shall dash to the ground at the head of all her streets. That is, the enemies shall display such cruelty as even to kill the infants, dashing their heads against the ground; for this is what “to dash them to the ground” means, and to do it “at the head of the streets” — that is, at the crossroads, for the greater terror of those passing by, who see that they do not spare even infants worthy of sparing.

²⁶ And upon all her glorious things they shall cast lots. So that these may be distributed without strife — not only possessions and goods, but also glorious persons, such as women and children, so that they become slaves to those who obtain them by lot.

²⁷ And all her great men shall be bound in handcuffs. So cowardly shall they be, he says, that they shall not even be slain in war — which belongs to noble men — but shall be bound, after the manner of women and of base little men, as slaves. And though they were great men, they went into exile. And the Synagogue of those who slew the Lord, and her infants and nurslings, who are nourished with the elementary and imperfect milk of the Law, are dashed to the ground, remaining upon the earth, as being able to conceive nothing lofty. And this they have suffered from self-conceit; for this is the head of all the precipitous streets of the God-slaying Synagogue. And upon all her glorious things — the anointing of the high priesthood, and the robe of the high priest, and the sacrifices — were cast the divine lots in the Church, from which the clergy too are named. For the office of those who are ordained is held to be no human grace, but a divine lot, that is, a gift of grace. Their glorious things, then, God allotted to us spiritually. And their great men, the Pharisees and Scribes, were bound in handcuffs, being able to perform nothing of the things of the Law, in requital for their having bound the Lord.

²⁸ And you also shall be made drunk, and shall be overlooked. Having foretold the things spoken concerning the portion of Ammon, he again transfers the discourse to Nineveh, and says that, These things she shall suffer; and you also, as though by a kind of drunkenness, shall be given over to calamity, and shall be overlooked by me the Master, who no longer keep you, as before, above every evil, but give you over to your sins.

²⁹ And you shall seek for yourself a standing-ground from your enemies. Since he made mention of drunkenness, he continues with the figure, and says that, Carried this way and that, and unsteady, like those who are drunk, you shall seek a standing-ground, that is, freedom from your enemies; but you shall not have it, but shall flee forever. The slayers of the Lord too were made drunk with wrath (for the wrath of dragons is their wine), and for this reason, being overlooked by the Lord, who ever watches over both them and their house — even as Solomon prayed — they heard: Behold, your house is left to you desolate. And they seek to stand again in Jerusalem, and to cease from the dispersion and the persecution; but they find not what they seek.

³⁰ All your strongholds are like fig trees with watchers; if they be shaken, they shall fall into the mouth of the eater. Your fortified cities, he says, shall be given over to the foe. For just as fig trees with watchers — that is, with early figs and very ripe ones — if they be shaken by the wind, or rather by a man who wishes to eat figs, easily cast these down, and thereupon a man takes them up and eats them: so also your cities shall easily cast off their inhabitants, who fall into the mouth of the enemies. The strongholds of the Synagogue are the Pharisaic observances according to the letter, and their traditions, having fruits that display a temporary and slack sweetness; which, being shaken at the coming of Christ, fell into the mouth of the devil, who ever devours human souls; so that thenceforth they are devilish words, and worthy of that mouth. But the strongholds of a sinning soul too are the pleasures; for it is through pleasure that we are held fast by sin. And these, having the early figs that appeared in our forefather Adam (for the fruit that put him to death was fair to behold and good for food), are shaken by the reason within us, which shows their instability, and that they have more of grief; and those that before seemed to be strongholds fall, for they cannot withstand the shaking of reason; so that even the one who formerly ate them opens his mouth against them, and accuses them as deceitful, and parades them. So too the sin against Bathsheba, and the sin against Uriah, were fig trees, delighting David with their temporary fruit; but, shaken by the reproof of Nathan, they fell into the mouth of him who formerly ate them with pleasure, who held them up as a public reproach in the fiftieth psalm.

³¹ Behold, your people are like women among you. That is, your most noble soldiers, held fast by cowardice, shall in no way differ from women. And this they shall suffer “among you,” that is, because of you, and your sins, and your pride. For of themselves they are manly; but you made them cowards, by provoking God to anger. And the people of you also, O cast-off Jerusalem, are like women, having nothing manly to display against the error in which they wander, but submitting themselves to those who teach them evil things and promise them a restoration. And this they suffer “among you” — that is, because they look to you, and hope to receive you back, not considering that there is another Jerusalem, indissoluble, the free one, the mother of all who believe in Christ.

³² To your enemies the gates of your land shall be opened wide. Fire shall devour your bars. The gates, he says, of the cities of your land shall be opened to the Persians: some without effort, since those who guard them go over willingly; others taken by siege, and their bars consumed by fire. Or else he speaks not of the gates of cities, but wishes to show that, All your land shall be laid open to invasion and ruin, which formerly was so impassable to enemies, as though secured by gates of some kind. And your bars — that is, all your power and security — fire, that is, the irresistible and flaming power of the foe, shall consume. The land of the Jews is the polity according to the letter, which lies below. Yet this had gates leading toward the Spirit, which were opened to the gentiles, whom those of the circumcision held as enemies and abominable. And their bars, and the strongholds of the Pharisaic teaching, the fire of the evangelical and spiritual word devoured.

³³ Draw for yourself water of a circuit; take strong hold of your strongholds. The Ninevites, when Cyrus was about to besiege them, fearing capture, dug trenches outside, and drew much water — some of it into the cities themselves, and some of it they let loose over the rest of the plain, so that marshes too were formed — and they supposed thus to bar the enemies’ passage into the city. This, then, God says here ironically: Make yourself secure, both by drawing water round about to encircle the walls, and by taking strong hold of your strongholds — your towers and the rest. The water of a circuit was the teaching of the Pharisees, which encircled and shut up under the Law those who allowed themselves to be so dealt with; and the strongholds, as has often been said, are the traditions which they hold fast. And he might say also to the sinning soul, burning with the fire of the pleasures: Draw for yourself the water of the circuit — that is, of God, who encircles all things; or of the Gospel, which encircles the inhabited world — and take strong hold of the strongholds. For God has given you, he says, by nature, strongholds — the mind and reason; and if you take hold of these, you shall no longer be easy to capture for your enemies.

³⁴ Enter into the clay, and tread it down among the straw, and take hold beyond brick. Still he continues in the irony, and seems to counsel them that, taking care of their strongholds, they should both make clay, and tread it down among the straw, so as to make bricks (for the brick, when baked, is most necessary for strong buildings). And why do I say bricks? he says; rather fortify with something beyond brick, and take strong hold through those things.

³⁵ There the fire shall devour you, the sword shall utterly destroy you, it shall devour you like a locust, and you shall be weighed down like the wingless locust. Take “there” in the sense of “then.” For you shall gain nothing, he says, from such devices, but when you have fortified her with baked bricks and with the other things beyond bricks, then the fire of the foe shall devour you the city, set ablaze together with your houses, and the sword shall consume your inhabitants, even as the locust consumes the fruits; and you shall be too heavy to flee, like the wingless locust, when its wings have been wetted. Or, that You shall become heavy, and great in multitude, summoning allies from every side, so that your multitude may be likened to a countless swarm of wingless locusts; yet you shall gain nothing. And of such a kind is what follows:

³⁶ Be multiplied like the wingless locust. That is, Summon auxiliaries and allies, and become a multitude. And he says these things in mockery, as also above. The clay is the sacrifices of the Law, as bodily; the straw, the letter, which has no fruit. The Spirit, then, mocks those who busy themselves with these things, showing them that, even though they are slaves to the bodily sacrifices, and receive the rest according to the letter, the fire of the Spirit shall be the stronger, and the sword of the word shall utterly destroy them — which is also likened to a locust, on account of its swift leaping, having gone forth into all the earth in a little time, as he says also elsewhere: His word shall run swiftly. But you also, he says, the Scribe, shall be heavy, like the wingless locust, so as to be unable to rise to the height of spiritual contemplation, your noetic wings being weighed down by your moist living. For everywhere the Hebrews are reproached for luxury, as also in Paul: Whose god is the belly. But he says also to everyone who is a lover of the body, to enter into the clay — that is, to look down upon and examine his own body, that it is clay. Why then do you honor the clay above the pearl? Lifted up out of such clay of the mire, David gave thanks to God. But also tread down, he says, the straw, the fruitless works, which the Word of God, who has the fire of discernment, shall burn up with unquenchable fire. Then the fire shall also devour you, as he is jealous on behalf of the precious treasure of your soul, which the enemies made dishonored. And since the locust too is itself a great power of God, and Christ is the power of God, and the same is also wisdom, the locust may be taken, if you understand it in a manner befitting God, as Christ, who devours everyone who is a lover of the body, saying: Whoever wishes to follow after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me; and again, The flesh profits nothing. And do not wonder if we liken the Lord to a locust, since he himself names himself a worm. But you shall also be weighed down, he says, like the wingless locust. For when the hail, like the drop that drips upon the earth, falls upon the wings of one who is borne lightly toward evils, then this one becomes heavy and hard to move toward the pleasures of the body.

³⁷ The wingless locust rushed forth, and flew away, and your mixed multitude leaped away like the grasshopper. You, he says, multiplied your allies, who were a mixed multitude. From many regions, he says, you multiplied them, supposing that in a time of distress you would be helped by them. Yet this mixed crowd, your ally, plainly showed itself a wingless locust. For all at once it rushed forth, and flew away, and leaped off like a grasshopper; and the grasshopper is a kind of locust. And the people of the nations, resembling the wingless locust, quickly let go their ancestral impiety; and the proselyte too, who had mingled with the Jews, leaped away from the error of the Law.

³⁸ Like a locust mounted upon a fence on a day of frost; the sun rose, and it leaped away, and knew not its place. Just as, he says, the locust and other such creatures, when dew and hoarfrost lie upon their wings, settle on the fences and the bushes, unable to fly up; but when the sun has risen, and has at once consumed the dew and warmed them, they spread out their wings and pass to another place: so also your allied crowd, so long as the enemies are not yet present, will abide with you; but when those attack, it will care for its own safety, and will leave you without help. And the power of God mounted also upon the fence of the Law, performing certain bodily purifications, and working wonders, so long as it was the day of frost — that is, so long as the winter of the sin from Adam held sway. But when the second Adam, the sinless one, who is the Sun of righteousness, had risen, the divine power leaped away from the fence of the Law, having shown it to be without strength, and unable to cleanse according to conscience, and passed over to faith, as able to justify, and no longer knew its former place, the Law. Yet it is possible to take all these things in another way also, as though God were saying to the slave of the body: Be it so; revel in your own desires; wallow in the clay; work the chaffy deeds. Then what? At the last the fire shall devour you, and the sword shall utterly destroy you — the Word that judges the imaginings and intents of the heart, who, having then examined the reasonings, shall cleave all things in two, and shall set some on the right and some on the left; when you shall also be weighed down by the burden of your sins, after the manner of the wingless locust held fast by hoarfrost, unable to fly over into a defense. And since the one who sins here is not to be despaired of, he says that, Your reasoning, now a mixed multitude out of passions of every kind, shall spread its wings again, if only you will, like the wingless locust, when the error is loosed. And the locust within you — that is, the power of the word, which now mounts and rests upon the fence, that is, upon your sins (for these are a fence, as we have often said, separating us from God) — shall leap away from this fence, when it is warmed by the Sun, who is Christ.

³⁹ Woe to them! As though suffering with them, he laments the allies of Nineveh, and says: Woe to them, what things they shall suffer! And as one indignant that, having been called as allies, they betrayed those who called them, taking thought safely for their own affairs, and for this reason escaping.

⁴⁰ Your shepherds slumbered. That is, your kings and your satraps fell into sleep — that is, into the relaxing of their former power; or even into death itself, being slain in the war.

⁴¹ The king of the Assyrians has put your mighty ones to sleep. He calls Cyrus an Assyrian, as being himself descended from the Assyrians. For indeed they say that the Persians are an offshoot of the Assyrians. This one, then, he says, has put to sleep the mighty ones of Nineveh, bringing them down into the sleep spoken of above. The shepherds of the Synagogue are the priests and the other rulers, whom — slumbering from being made drunk with their madness against the Lord — the noetic Assyrian put to sleep, slumbering a sleep unto the death of the soul. And in the case of every man too, whenever our shepherds slumber — both the natural law and the teaching word — then the Assyrian puts us to sleep, whom our own kingdom makes negligent, though he is a slave and an apostate.

⁴² Your people departed to the mountains, and there was none to receive them. Your rulers, he says, and satraps having perished, the rest of the people, turned to flight, ran up to the mountains, and there was none to check them and stay them from flight; but ever farther off they fled; or none to gather them from their flight. For so the rest of the translators rendered it. And the people of the Hebrews too, having run up to the mountains that hold the noetic beasts, has none to receive it, and stay its error. For how shall he receive it, who said: I will reject you from acting as priest to me? But the sinner also, whenever he goes up to the mountains of haughtiness, so as not to think that he sins, has none to receive him as one who has repented. For how shall he repent who does not think that he sins, inflamed with conceit and with the swelling tumor of the heart? — as what follows also makes plain.

⁴³ There is no healing for your fracture; your wound has festered. These things are spoken by a metaphor from those who fall from a great height, and break either their feet, or their hands, or their head, and fester incurably. For you too, he says, have fallen from a great height — from your former power and glory — and your most vital parts have been broken, the kings and the satraps; and your wound has festered, having taken on a great swelling and inflammation from much matter. For the more rich you were, the more violent the inflammation of the pain. Therefore there is no healing, neither shall you be restored and take up again your former renown and good estate. But the Synagogue too, having been broken, and bereft of both the temple and the city, is incurable, and shall not be recalled, even though in her wandering she hopes for recall. For the wound with which she was struck had inflammation. And the matter of this inflammation is the slaying of God, which is much and great.

⁴⁴ All who hear the report of you shall clap their hands over you; because upon whom has your malice not come continually? Those who hear the report concerning you, he says — how you were broken, and what you suffered — remembering the things done by you against them, shall clap their hands over you, rejoicing at your affliction. For indeed your malice came upon all, and you grieved all — not at this time or that, but continually. For the more you prospered and fared well, the more violently and bitterly you pressed upon those under your hand. Hearing these things, let all of us who are rulers consider that God stands over us as judge of our disposition toward those we rule, and wills us to be gentle toward our subjects, laying upon them nothing bitter, and nothing that exceeds their power; and the more, when our affairs are borne along according to our wish, let us fear the long-suffering of the Judge. For he is silent, not as one well pleased, but as letting us display the whole of our purpose — which is most of all to be feared — lest, struck with an incurable wound, like Nineveh, we both learn of ourselves, from our own case, how great an evil is bitterness, and afterward have many who rejoice over our afflictions; whom we, in the seasons of our good fortune, continually oppressing, were deceived as though we had escaped the divine judgment, or as though it, ever watchful, slumbers because of its kindness. But may the good Lord make good the hearts of all rulers, and grant them to conduct in kindness those entrusted to them, so that, having here too enjoyed his kindness, and having tasted nothing of the things that embitter, they may yet revel also in the sweetness that is in heaven, which is sweetness and altogether desire; to whom be the glory, together with the Father and the Holy Spirit, unto the ages of ages. Amen.

5 The Life of the Prophet Nahum

¹ Nahum is interpreted consolation.[12] This man was from Elkesai, beyond the Jordan, at Bigabri, of the tribe of Simeon. After Jonah, this man gave a portent: that Nineveh would be destroyed by sweet waters and by fire — which indeed came to pass. For the lake that surrounds it deluged it in an earthquake, and a fire coming upon it from the wilderness burned up its higher part. And he died in peace, and was buried in his own land.