Chapter 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.[1] 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.