Chapter 3

Chapter Two

¹ It is finished, it is taken away.[1] 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.