Chapter 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.