Commentary on Nahum

(Verse 1.) God is a jealous God, and the Lord takes vengeance. The voice of the prophet praising God, because he has avenged the wrong done to his people by the Assyrians. Or, according to a higher understanding, because he hears the groaning of his saints, and at the consummation of the world will make the adversaries feel torments. That zeal, moreover, is taken in a good sense, the apostle Paul also shows, saying: Be zealous for the greater gifts. And in another place: For I am jealous over you with the zeal of God. And the Lord himself in the psalm: The zeal of thy house has consumed me. And Elijah: With zeal, he says, have I been zealous for the Lord God Almighty of Israel. We also read of the zeal of Phinehas, and of Mattathias. And we understand Simon the Zealot, an apostle of Jesus Christ, whom Mark the evangelist calls Simon the Canaanite.

Now the Lord is zealous for the salvation of those for whom he is zealous: that those whom his clemency could not preserve, his jealousy might preserve. Whence also God speaks to Jerusalem, which, on account of exceeding sins, did not deserve a visitation of his zeal and fury, in Ezekiel: My zeal has departed from thee, and I will be angry with thee no more. As long, therefore, as the world was doing penance, its consummation did not come to pass: but after, iniquity having multiplied, the charity of many grew cold, so that even the elect of God are tempted: then the Lord, being zealous, comes for vengeance—not that he himself is an enemy and avenger, which is said of the devil; but that his vengeance is hostile to the enemy, and, like a fire, consumes wood, hay, and stubble, that pure gold and silver may remain.

The Lord takes vengeance, and has fury: the Lord takes vengeance on his enemies, and he himself is angry with his foes. The Seventy: The Lord takes vengeance with fury: the Lord takes vengeance on his adversaries, and he himself removes his enemies. According to either understanding, because the Lord loves whom he corrects, and chastises every son whom he receives, therefore he is angered, that he may remove what is adversarial and hostile to himself, and, the enemies and contrary thoughts being broken, and their speeches removed, they may return to their former condition. Finally, in what follows he says: The Lord is patient, and great is his strength. But since we have proposed once to expound the history, let us understand the enemies and foes of God to be the Assyrians, toward whom, though he shall have been long patient, afterward with fury and wrath he will arise as avenger. (Verse 2.) The Lord is patient, and great in strength, and cleansing, will not make innocent. Which is more significantly said in the Greek: καὶ ἀθωῶν οὐκ ἀθωώσει.

And the sense is: He was indeed long patient with the wickedness of the Assyrians, and by the strength of his magnanimity bore with their iniquities, provoking them to repentance; but because, having despised the goodness of God, according to their impenitent heart they treasured up wrath for themselves against the day of wrath, he who was formerly patient will by no means suffer them to go unpunished as though clean and innocent. Or certainly thus (since we wish always to take what is said in a good sense) he is patient, who sustains all who are falling, and raises up the crushed: who heals the brokenhearted, and binds up their wounds; and great is his strength, dissolving enmity in the flesh, and not making the guilty innocent: since even he who applauds himself too much shall be convicted, that not by his own merit, but by the mercy of God, he has been saved.

For although he may say: Behold, I have served thee so many years, and never transgressed thy commandment: yet since the Lord is good to all, and his mercies are over all his works, and all have sinned and lack the glory of God, justified freely by him he shall hear: Is thy eye evil, because I am good? And thus it will come about, that in the very act of reproving and forgiving, he suffers none to go unpunished. (Verse 3.) The Lord is in the tempest and in the whirlwind, and his ways, and the clouds are the dust of his feet.

Instead of "tempest" and "whirlwind," the Seventy translated "consummation" and "commotion": although where we have set "in the tempest," in the Hebrew is written BASUPHA (בסופה), which can also be understood as "in commotion." This signifies that at the end of the world all things shall be moved, according to what is written in Haggai: Yet once more, and I will move heaven and earth, sea and dry land (Haggai 2, 7): and when all things shall have been moved (that they may believe the ways of the Lord, who says in the Gospel: I am the way, and the life, and the truth; and: When the Son of man shall come in the clouds, to whom it is commanded in Isaiah [ch.

5] not to rain a shower upon the vineyard, and unto whom the truth of God reaches, the Psalmist saying: Thy truth reaches even to the clouds), then also those very clouds—namely, the prophets and the souls of the saints, who before had been weighed down by union with the flesh—lifted up on high, will become of a more tenuous substance, and, reduced to a footstool for the feet of God, will minister in the lowest offices among the angels. For former and ancient things, which pertain to the Head, they will not be able to know. But another will take "clouds" in the contrary sense, that they always trouble what is serene, and strive to veil with their own gloom the clear light of sun and stars, and that, afterward being subjected to the dominical power, they are reduced to dust and to nothing, and the earth in them, which is rich, is dissolved. (Verse 4.) He rebukes the sea, and dries it up, and leads all the rivers to the desert.

According to the letter, the power of God is described, who is about to avenge Israel of his adversaries, since it is no great thing for him to destroy the Assyrians, whose majesty it is even to change the elements. Or certainly, since we have once said that the prophecy concerns the consummation of the world, take this simply: When the consummation of the world shall come, and heaven and earth shall have passed away, the sea also and the rivers will be dried up. But when I read that passage in the Psalms: This great and spacious sea: there are creeping things without number; small animals with great; there ships go about.

This dragon which thou hast formed to play therein, it seems worthy of the goodness and clemency of God, by his rebuke to destroy all the bitterness and saltiness of the sea, and to humble the dragon reigning in the waters, and to dry up the whirlpools of malice in which the small creeping things swim, which are without number: for those things which consort with the dragon are not worthy of number. Also, he leads the rivers to the desert—all knowledge falsely so called, which, raising itself against God, uses the river of eloquence, and by the rolling flow of words and swelling whirlpools turned aside, is carried headlong to the amazement of onlookers. Behold Plato, look at Demosthenes, consider Cicero too, philosopher and orator alike, and gaze upon the leaders of the heretics, among whom were Valentinus, Marcion, Bardesanes, Tatian, and you will not doubt concerning the rivers. But all these things the Lord Jesus will consume with the breath of his mouth, and destroy by the brightness of his coming, and lead into the deserts.

And observe at the same time that, according to the title inscribed: "The burden of Nineveh: the book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite," rightly the world too is figuratively understood in Nineveh, and its sea and rivers of eloquence are dried up at the consummation.

Bashan languishes, and Carmel, and the flower of Lebanon fades. The Seventy: Bashanitis is diminished, and Carmel, and the things that flourished of Lebanon have failed. Metaphorically, through Bashan and Carmel and Lebanon—a fertile region, and mountains thickly planted—the devastation of the Assyrian is shown, that he who was once powerful and flourishing and ruling over very many nations, the Lord being angered, is to be laid waste. But we can also understand this of the consummation of the world, that the powerful and noble, and those abounding in excessive wealth, will suddenly perish, and it will be said to them: Fool, this night shall thy soul be required of thee: and whose shall those things be which thou hast provided?

Furthermore, according to the interpretation of the names, since Bashan means "confusion" and "ignominy," we assert that at the consummation of the world all things worthy of ignominy and shame will be weakened when the Lord comes, and not only will sins be reduced to nothing, but Carmel also, which is interpreted "knowledge of circumcision," and those who seem to themselves rich and flourishing in good works, will tremble at the coming of Christ, and that will be fulfilled which is said in the Gospel: When the Son of man comes, do you think he will find faith on the earth? For as iniquity increases, the charity of many will grow cold, on account of which the wrath of God will come. (Verse 5.) The mountains are moved at him, and the hills are made desolate, and the earth trembled at his presence, and the world, and all that dwell therein.

The Seventy: The mountains are moved at him, and the hills are shaken, and the earth is contracted at his presence, the whole world, and all that dwell in it. It can also be taken simply that at the consummation of the world, when the Savior shall come in his majesty, both mountains and hills, and the world and the earth, and all things shall be moved. For if at his passion the sun fled, the rocks were split, the earth trembled: much more at his splendor will all things be thrown into confusion. But figuratively also, the mountains and hills are to be understood as all the lofty and powerful, who at the coming of the Lord will be cast down to the ground, and, brought down from their throne, will cling to the pavement. For the face of the Lord is against those who do evil, that he may destroy the memory of them from the earth.

Then too the earth will tremble, and the world and the whole universe will dread the face of the Lord: this leading to the utmost torment and punishment, that they will not dare to look upon his countenance.

Verse 6. Before the face of his indignation who shall stand, and who shall resist in the anger of his fury? The Septuagint: From the face of his anger who shall endure, and who shall resist in the anger of his fury? For that which we have put: And who shall resist in the anger of his fury? Symmachus interpreted more openly: And who shall endure the anger of his fury? Rare, therefore, or none at all will be found who is not worthy of being seized by wrath. Nor will there be any soul that does not tremble at the judgment of God, since even the stars are not clean in his sight. Further, let us carry over the Hebrew word JACCUM (יקום), which both Aquila and the Septuagint translated "shall resist," to that understanding of which it is spoken in the second book of Kings and the first of Chronicles, concerning the wrath of God, in the masculine gender.

And there is no doubt that there the "wrath of God" is understood as the devil, and the most wicked angels, who are sent to punish those worthy of wrath. It will therefore be difficult, at the consummation of the world, to find one who, spotless and pure, might dare to say: Behold, the prince of this world comes, and finds nothing in me, and stand with a free brow against him. But concerning the Assyrians it must be understood thus: that when the Lord comes in tempest and whirlwind, drying up the empire of Babylon, which is interpreted "sea," and overturning all its kingdoms, which are understood as rivers, and reducing to nothing its power and abundance—which are metaphorically called Bashan and Carmel and the flower of Lebanon, and the mountains and hills—and shaking the breadth of the empire, which is called the circle of the earth: then no power will be able to resist God when he is angry and avenging his people.

His indignation is poured out like fire, and the rocks are dissolved by him. The Septuagint: His fury consumes principalities, and the rocks are broken by him. For what we have rendered "is poured out," Aquila translated συνεχωνεύθη, that is, "was smelted together"; Symmachus and Theodotion, ἔσταξεν, that is, "dripped." Whether, then, the indignation of God was smelted like fire, or his fury dripped in the likeness of a conflagration, so that the hard hearts of men, which are called rocks, might be ground down and dissolved, the indignation of God is useful, which for a long time, through patience, sustains our sins, and is scarcely ever smelted together, and yet does not break out entirely into punishment, but drips upon us with a modest heat. But if a single drop of his indignation consumes the principalities against which our struggle is a wrestling-match, what would happen if the whole wrath of God were poured out upon us?

May Jesus grant that the heart of stone be taken away, and be changed in us into a heart of flesh; and, its hardness softened, that it may receive in itself the precepts of the Lord which are written: For a sacrifice to God is a troubled spirit; a contrite and humbled heart God will not despise. And that you may know that the things said sound of the clemency of God, not of severity, learn in what follows.

Verse 7. The Lord is good, and strengthening in the day of tribulation; and knowing them that hope in him. The Septuagint: The Lord is sweet to those who wait for him in the day of tribulation, and knowing them that fear him. When he begins to be angry with the nations, and to lay waste kingdoms once most powerful, he will know those who are his own, and will not oppress those who sail with him in one and the same storm. Let us, however, understand the "day of tribulation" according to the higher sense as the day of judgment, of which Isaiah wrote: Behold, the day of the Lord comes, incurable, of fury and of wrath, to make the world desolate, and to destroy sinners out of it. Let us hope in the Lord, and through his patience await his coming, so that when he comes we may perceive him to be good, not a judge, and that he may recognize either those who hope in him, or those who fear him.

For the Lord knows those who are his. Verse 8. And in the passing flood he will make an end of its place, and darkness shall pursue his enemies. The Septuagint: And in the passing flood he will make a consummation: those rising up, and his enemies, darkness shall pursue. The Lord is patient and of much mercy, and will not be angry forever, nor be indignant unto eternity; but when malice has grown upon the earth, and all flesh has corrupted its way, he will bring in a flood that shall pass through, not one that shall remain forever. He will make, moreover, a consummation, or an end, of its place, that is, of the flood, so that just as it is said of the wicked man: And he passed away, and his place was not found; and: The way of the wicked shall perish; so the course of the flood perishes after the wrath of the Lord, only clemency appearing.

This indeed can also be understood according to history, because when he has laid waste Israel, and has flooded, as it were with a deluge, the land of promise, he will make an end of the captivity, calling him back to his former dwellings. But on the other hand, darkness shall pursue his enemies, the Assyrians, who led the people into captivity. What we have said concerning Israel and the Assyrians can be understood of the consummation of the world, and of the saints and their persecutors, or of the contrary powers, in that the God of the saints has mercy after his wrath; but persecutors and their enemies, who chose darkness and not light, may the very darkness which they chose seize hold of them: for they shall be sent into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

The word MACOMA (מקומה), which we have translated "of its place," all have divided into two parts of speech, so that they turned MA into a preposition, that is, ἀπὸ; and interpreted COMA as "those rising up." Thus Aquila says, ἀπὸ ἀνισταμένων, that is, "from those rising up"; the Septuagint, "those rising up"; Theodotion, "rising up against him"; the fifth edition, "from those rising up against him." Symmachus alone, agreeing with our interpretation, says: And in the passing flood, he will make a consummation of its place. Certain of our own writers interpret "those rising up, and his enemies," as Marcion and all the old heretics, who dispute against the Creator.

Verse 9. What do you devise against the Lord? He will make a consummation: there shall not arise a double tribulation. The Septuagint: What do you devise against the Lord? He will make a consummation: he has not taken vengeance twice for the same thing in tribulation. Symmachus more plainly: They will not endure the onset of a second distress. Theodotion: A second tribulation will not arise. He speaks, however, according to the tropological sense, against Marcion, of whom we have spoken above, and against all the old heretics, who, fashioning some good God I know not what, say that he himself will bring about the consummation of the world, and accuse the God of the Law, as it were, of cruelty, because he punishes many, and inflicts torments for sins. What, then, he says, do you devise against the Lord? He himself who created the world will also bring about its consummation.

But if he seems to you cruel, harsh, and bloodthirsty, because in the flood he destroyed the human race, rained fire and brimstone upon Sodom and Gomorrah, drowned the Egyptians in the waves, and laid low the corpses of the Israelites in the wilderness: know that he inflicted punishments for this reason at present, lest he punish forever. Surely either what the prophets say is true, or false. If those things are true which they seem to say concerning his severity: They themselves said, The Lord will not take vengeance twice for the same thing in tribulation. But if those things are false, and this also is false which is said, A double tribulation shall not arise: then his cruelty also, which is described in the Law, is false. But if it is true, as they will not be able to deny, the prophet saying: The Lord will not take vengeance twice for the same thing in tribulation: then those who have been punished will not be punished afterward.

But if they are to be punished afterward, Scripture lies, which it is impious to say. Therefore those who perished in the flood, and the Sodomites, and the Egyptians, and the Israelites in the wilderness, received their evils in their lifetime. Here someone may ask, if a believer caught in adultery is beheaded, what happens to him afterward. For either he will be punished, and this saying is false: The Lord will not take vengeance twice for the same thing in tribulation. Or he will not be punished, and adulterers ought to wish that, in the present life, by a brief and swift punishment, they might be cheated of eternal torments. To which we shall answer, that God knows the measures of all things, and likewise of punishments, and is not anticipated by the sentence of the Judge, nor is the power afterward to exercise punishment upon the sinner taken from him, and a great sin is expiated by great and long-continued torments.

But if anyone has been punished, as that man in the Law who cursed the people of Israel, and the one who gathered wood on the sabbath: such are not punished afterward, because a light fault has been compensated by present punishment. The Hebrew has expounded this passage thus: What do you think, O Assyrians, devising iniquity against the Lord, that he himself will consume the people Israel, that is, the twelve tribes, to utter destruction? A double tribulation shall not arise, that is, he will not hand over to you Judah and Israel, as he handed over the ten tribes and Samaria.

Verse 10. For as thorns entwine themselves one with another: so shall the feast of those drinking together be consumed like stubble fully dry. The Septuagint: For unto their foundations they shall be reduced into briers, and shall be devoured as a bindweed twined about, and as stubble fully dry. It seems to me that the prophet is here repeating the three distinctions which the Lord set forth in the parable of the sowing—apart from the good ground, which brings forth thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold—one which fell by the wayside, and another among the stones, and a third among thorns; which indeed the Apostle also hints at concerning those who do not build well upon the foundation of Christ, that there are some who build wood, hay, stubble. Let us, then, apply "wood" to what is now said: For unto their foundations they shall be reduced to briers. Let us apply "hay," moreover, to what follows: And as a bindweed which is twined about, shall be devoured.

And "stubble" plainly refers to the stubble of which it is now said: And as stubble fully dry. Therefore the Lord will not take vengeance twice for the same thing, because the malice that had arisen in the authors of heresy will be consumed down to its foundation and its very roots. But even if any among them seemed to have pomp of words, that is, empty leaves, delighting only the sight, like the bindweed, which in Greek is called σμίλαξ, it shall be devoured, and reduced to nothing. Now the bindweed is a plant like ivy, which is wont to entwine itself about vines and shrubs, and to creep at length. Whatever also among them seems to have the pomp of a crop, but does not have ears and grains of wheat, like stubble fully dry, shall be given over to burning. This according to the Septuagint.

But according to the Hebrew, truly the leagues and bonds of heretics are like thorns entwining one another, and their feast and mysteries—since they too say they have the table of the Lord—are a covenant of thorns, of those eating and drinking together. For when, drunk with the wine of the vineyard of the Sodomites, they blaspheme with raving mouth against their maker, is this not a feast of thorn-bushes? Which nevertheless shall be consumed along with its authors, like stubble fully dry.

Verse 11. For out of you shall come forth one devising evil against the Lord, mentally contriving transgression. The Septuagint: Out of you shall come forth a device against the Lord, devising wicked things contrary to him. Truly, from the heretics shall come forth a device hostile to the Lord. Does it not seem to be malice and transgression against God, to say, as Valentinus does, that the Creator was brought forth as a kind of abortive last remnant of erring wisdom? Is it not a device against God, the impudence of Basilides, and the monstrous name Abraxas, which is set before the Lord the Maker? Further, because, taught by the Hebrews, we wish also to follow their tradition, and to demonstrate to our own people, that is, to Christians, the explanation of the history, it must be said: A double tribulation shall not arise, that is, the two tribes will not be taken by the Assyrians, as the ten were taken.

For while the Assyrians are still in the land of Judah, and, like thorns, entwine themselves one with another, rejoicing and exulting, they shall be consumed by an angel, when in one night a hundred eighty-five thousand of the enemy were slain. Fittingly, too, he compared the multitude of their army to the feast of drunkards, and said that this very feast was not one of roses, not of lilies, not of flowers, but like thorns entwining one another, which are always given over to fire, and shall be burned with a light flame like stubble fully dry. And what follows: Out of you shall come forth one devising evil against the Lord, mentally contriving transgression, they wish to be understood of Rab-shakeh, who, having gone out from the Assyrians, blasphemed the Lord, and wished to persuade the people that, despairing of the Lord's help, they should surrender themselves to the Assyrians, to serve not God, but idols.

Verse 11. Thus says the Lord: If they shall be perfect, and thus more numerous: so also they shall be shorn, and it shall pass through: I have afflicted thee, and I will afflict thee no more: and now I will break his rod from off thy back, and I will burst thy bonds. LXX: Thus says the Lord, ruling over many waters, and thus they shall be divided, and thy report shall no more be heard: and now I will break his rod from thee, and I will burst his bonds. According to the letter the sense is plain: Although, he says, the Assyrians are strong, and their might is increased by the number of all nations, yet so too, with an angel laying waste, they shall be shorn.

For just as a number of hairs does not resist a sharp shears, so too the number of the adversaries of God shall be removed by an easy cutting off, and Assur shall pass through, or shall cease to exist, or, his army being laid waste, he shall return to his own country, leaving thee safe. And again the discourse is directed to Judah and Jerusalem: I have afflicted thee, and I will afflict thee no more: not that perpetual security is promised, but only for that time, and from those enemies by whom he was then being besieged. Then he adds: And now I will break his rod, that is, of the Assyrian, from off thy back, and I will burst thy bonds: either signifying his power by metaphor, or indeed the rod with which he tried to strike, and the bonds which he was preparing for captives; although the siege of the enclosed multitude could also be taken for the bonds. But according to the LXX the sense is quite different.

For he still seems to be speaking against those to whom he had said above: What do you devise against the Lord? And: Out of thee shall come forth a most wicked device against the Lord, devising contrary things. Thus therefore says the Lord, ruling over many waters, or powers, which are called the waters above the heavens: and it is commanded them to praise the Lord: or indeed intellects and wisdom, and the teachings of God. For as rivers shall flow from the belly of the just man, and abundant fountains unto eternal life, through various and manifold sentences, over which the word of the Lord rules: so also the heresiarchs have their own waters, over which they rule, and which have flowed forth first from their own fountain. But what follows: And so they shall be divided, can be understood either of the heavenly powers which serve God in the realms above; that each may be in its own office and ministry, or of the manifold variety of wisdom.

Lest anyone should say that, in "ruling over many waters," a confused and undistinguished number of senses were meant: but that each sentence has divisions of sense among itself, and separated subject-matters and its own ὑποθέσεις. For what is said: Thy report shall no more be heard, is a rebuke to those who had devised contrary things against God, that, once their sophisms and snares, by which the people of God were being entrapped, have been exposed, their discourse may run no further, nor be received by the peoples. But also what he adds: And now I will break his rod from thee, and I will burst thy bonds, is said for the sake of those to whom the threat is made, that they may in no way be struck by the devil, nor be subject to him, at whose instigation they had devised and gathered together so many things.

His dominion, therefore, shall be broken over them: and the bonds by which the souls of sinners were bound shall be burst by the word of God, saying to those who are in bonds, Go forth.

Verse 14. And the Lord will give a charge concerning thee: no more shall any be sown of thy name: out of the house of thy god I will destroy the graven and the molten image: I will make thy grave; for thou art vile. LXX: And the Lord will give a charge concerning thee: no more shall any be sown of thy name: out of the house of thy god I will destroy the graven images and the molten images: I will make thy grave; because they are swift; behold, upon the mountains the feet of him that brings good tidings and announces peace. I have set forth more from the Seventy interpreters, because the second περικοπή could not be separated from the former. For where it is said, "for thou art vile," for which the fifth edition put ὅτι ἐβρίσθης, the Seventy translated: "because they are swift," which in the Hebrew is read כִּי קַלּוֹתָ (Chi calloth). But "swift" hangs unresolved in sense, unless you refer it to the feet of the following chapter.

So then, according to my custom, I will first sift the history, and afterwards the sense of the Vulgate edition. He will give a charge, he says, against thee, O Assur, that what thou art to suffer may not come by chance and without any judge, but that thou mayest suffer it by the Lord's pronouncement. No more shall any be sown of thy name: for indeed, as soon as Sennacherib returned to Nineveh, he was slain by his own sons. Read Isaiah: and he was slain in the house of his god, which he had entered to worship. For this is what is meant: out of the house of thy god I will destroy—thence thou shalt be punished, whence thou hoped for help.

The graven and molten image shall be thy grave, so that among the altars and cushions of the idol-worshipper the wicked blood may be poured out. But according to the Seventy interpreters, join what follows with the foregoing: No more, he says, shall any be sown of thy name. In no wise, O heretics, shall the souls of the deceived receive names from your doctrines, which they had before invoked over their lands, as is sung figuratively in the forty-eighth psalm. And this very cessation of sowing shall profit you, which formerly was wont to kill first the soul of the sower, then that in which he sowed. The doctrines of your errors, therefore, shall die for thee; but thou too, who before seemed to thyself to live, shalt die to error, and, dead to thy own good, thou shalt have as thy grave the idols which thou didst worship.

And so it shall come to pass that from thy breast, which had before been a temple of thy god (whom thou hadst feigned), all errors shall be taken away. But these things shall come upon thee, who once devised contrary things against the Lord, when the word of God, who ever ascends into the mountains—that is, into lofty and exalted souls—shall come swiftly to thee, and, the waves of former errors being trodden down and reduced to calm, shall restore to thee the peace of faith and of the senses. Forgive the prolixity, for I cannot, while following both history and tropology, comprehend both briefly: especially since I am torn by variety of interpretation, and am forced sometimes, against my own conscience, to weave the sequence of the Vulgate edition.

Verse 15. Behold, upon the mountains the feet of him that brings good tidings and announces peace. Keep thy feasts, O Judah, and pay thy vows: for he shall no more pass through thee again, Belial: he has utterly perished. I will delay a little on the Seventy interpreters, because among them the very chapters are confused by variety of interpretation. When I have briefly set forth the history, I will temper their edition with my own discourse. It is written in the book of Chronicles, that while Sennacherib was besieging Jerusalem, they could not keep the passover in the first month (2 Chron. Xxxii). But when his army was struck down by the angel, and his flight and death announced, they celebrated the day of the passover with the greatest festivity in the second month. So then what is said is this: O Judah, who reign in Jerusalem, be not anxious, now that thy enemy has been slain in the temple of his own god.

Behold, a messenger comes to thee, running across mountains and hills, and as if from a lofty watchtower announcing from afar that Sennacherib is dead; that thy city has been freed from his dominion. Keep thy feasts, pay the vows which thou didst promise to God for the slaying of the enemy: no more shall the transgressor and ἀποστάτης pass through thee—for this is what Belial means. He has utterly perished, that is, the army, and the king, and the empire of the Assyrians have wholly collapsed. This indeed according to the letter. But according to ἀναγωγή, it is said to the Church, it is said to souls confessing the Lord, because the devil, who before was ravaging thee and pressing thee with a most grievous yoke, has perished in the idols and with the idols which he had fashioned: keep thy feasts, and pay thy vows to God, singing continually with the angels: for Belial shall no more pass through thee, of whom the Apostle also says, What communion has Christ with Belial?

Because, Nineveh being overthrown, he has utterly perished. If ever there be a most grievous persecution, such as under Valerian, and Decius, and Maximian, and the Lord's vengeance shall appear against his adversaries, let us say to the Church: Keep thy feasts, O Judah, and pay thy vows LXX: Keep thy feasts, O Judah, pay thy vows, for they shall no more oppose thee so as to pass through into oldness: it is finished, it is consummated: he has come up breathing upon thy face, delivering thee from tribulation. I have said once that, according to the variety of interpretation, the very chapters also are divided differently, and that the sense of the Hebrew interpretation cannot agree with the chapters.

So then what is now said is of this kind: O man of the Church, because from the name of thy adversaries no more shall be sown, and their rod is broken; and their bonds have been dissolved, and he has come who would announce peace to thee, keep thy feasts, not in wine and banquets, as carnal Jews suppose, but in spiritual delights and the pleasure of the torrent. O Judah, pay thy vows: for no more shall enemies pass through who would bring thee into oldness, that is, who wish thee to bear the image of the old man. For that which is old grows aged, and that which grows aged is near to destruction: the world is completed, the adversary is consumed: there has come to thee Christ, who had before breathed upon thy face when he formed thee out of clay: and after the resurrection also, breathing upon the face of the apostles, he said, Receive the Holy Spirit—he it is who delivers thee from tribulation.

For with Nineveh laid waste, and the world passing away, tribulation too shall pass away.

(Verse 1, 2.) He is come up that shall scatter before thy face, keeping the siege: watch the way, gird up thy loins, greatly strengthen thy power: for as the Lord has requited the pride of Jacob, so shall he requite the pride of Israel: for spoilers have wasted them, and have marred their branches. I am compelled by necessity, as if amid rocks and reefs, with shipwreck threatening, thus to bend the course of my discourse between history and allegory, and to watch that it not suddenly strike. For, according to the fables of the poets:

Scylla besets the right side, implacable Charybdis
The left:

if we flee the rocks, we run into the deep; if we avoid the twisted whirlpools, we are carried onto the rocks. The Lord is my witness that I do not speak all that I discuss according to the Hebrew from my own sense—which is charged against the false prophets—but that I follow the exposition of the Hebrews, by whom, having been instructed for no small time, I owe it to my own people simply to point out what I have learned. Certainly it shall be in the reader's judgment, when he has gone through both, to decide which he ought rather to follow. To Nineveh, then, the discourse now turns (and hence the prophets are especially obscure, because suddenly, while one thing is being treated, the person shifts to others), and it is said to her: Nabuchodonosor has come up against thee, to besiege thee, to lay waste the fields before thy face, to pursue the farmers, to plunder the countryside, and to hold thee too, shut up.

Since then war threatens thee: behold, the prophet, rejoicing, now sings beforehand, watch diligently and observe, and consider what shall befall thee. Gird up thy loins, that is, be girded: greatly strengthen thy power, that is, gather thy armies: for as the Lord avenged Judah of the pride of Sennacherib, his army slain in Judea, and he himself also slaughtered by his own sons, so shall he avenge Israel, that is, the ten tribes which are possessed by Nineveh. For the Assyrians have wasted and overthrown both Judah and Israel, and, under the metaphor of a vine, have marred the branches of both.

LXX: Contemplate the way, hold your loins, strengthen yourself vehemently with power, for the Lord has turned away the reproach of Jacob, as the reproach of Israel: because those shaking out have shaken them out, and their branches have been demolished. Three things are commanded to Judah. First, that he contemplate the way, and diligently observe the path by which he is about to walk, according to that which is written in Jeremiah: Stand in the ways, and ask for the eternal paths, and see which is the good way, and walk in it: so that when we have stood in the many ways, we may come to that way which says: I am the way. Then he is told to hold his loin, that is, that after choosing the way he mortify his body, and subject it to servitude, lest, preaching to others as a king and master, he himself be found reprobate.

It would be long now to say that the power of the devil is especially in the loins, and that the promise made to David is: Of the fruit of thy loin I will set upon thy throne. And that saying of the Apostle: For Levi was yet in the loin of his father Abraham, when Melchisedech went to meet Abraham. And that John was girded with a leather girdle, and that it is commanded by the Saviour to the disciples: Let your loins be girded. And the Apostle to the Ephesians: Stand therefore, having your loins girt about in truth: for although ἄσκησις (ascetic discipline) and continence of life avail very much for the mortification of the loins, yet nothing so mortifies them as the knowledge of truth. Whence it is said: Gird your loins in truth. For if truth is Christ, whoever has believed with his whole mind in Christ has mortified his loins in Christ.

Thirdly it is commanded, strengthen yourself with power exceedingly: you have chosen, it says, the way, you have held your loin, take up strength, that you may be able to fight with enemies. And lest perchance you despair, a reason is given you to hope: The Lord, it says, has turned away the reproach of Jacob, as the reproach of Israel, which is ambiguous: for either he turned away the reproach of Jacob himself, by which he did injury to others, or he turned away the reproach which Jacob endured from others. But it seems to me better that the reproach which Jacob was accustomed to inflict on others should be turned away by the Lord. For it is not so great a virtue to endure injury done by others as it is a grace of the Lord to be unable to do injury, being placid, mild, and tranquil. It is asked how the injury of Jacob was turned away, just as that of Israel had been turned away.

After Jacob wrestled with the angel, he deserved to receive the name of Israel, and because he saw God, he ceased to do injury. Therefore, just as Israel—that is, the mind or man seeing God, and always thinking of God—does not know how to do injury, so all insolence and reproach was turned away from Jacob, that is, from the supplanter, from him who, still placed in the contest, supplants his enemies. But that we may know how injury is taken in a bad sense, Solomon is a witness, saying: Insolent eyes, an unjust tongue. But how, according to either understanding, injury was turned away from Jacob, which had first been turned away from Israel, the following words declare: For those who shook them out have shaken them out, and their scourges have been demolished, or corrupted. The angels, it says, of each one, who daily see the face of the Father, have shaken off whatever dust had clung to Jacob and Israel. Whence also Peter's feet are washed.

And through the prophet it is said: Shake off the dust, and arise, O Jerusalem. To the disciples also it is commanded by the Saviour: Shake off the dust of your feet. And in the Psalms it is written: As arrows in the hand of the mighty, so are the sons of the shaken out.

Therefore the mind prone to reproach is turned away from the true Jacob and from the true Israel: because whatever earthly thing had been in them, and had congealed from the lower dregs, this has been shaken off and cleansed by the ministering angels, or by monitors and teachers, who not only shook them out but also scattered the vices, which for the present only soothe the pleasure of the senses, and in the manner of scourges and branches, which are full of leaves without fruit, the Lord saying: Every branch that abides in me, and bears fruit, my Father purges that it may bring forth more fruit: but that which abides not in me, and bears no fruit, my Father will cut off, and cast into the fire. (Verses 3 and following.) The shield of his mighty men is fiery, the men of the army are in scarlet: the fiery reins of the chariot in the day of his preparation: and the drivers are lulled to sleep, they are troubled in their ways, the chariots are dashed together in the streets.

Their appearance is like lamps, like lightning running to and fro. He will remember his mighty men, they shall stumble in their ways, they shall speedily climb the walls thereof, and a shelter shall be prepared. The gates of the rivers are opened, and the temple is thrown down to the ground, and the soldier is led away captive, and her handmaids were mourning, moaning like doves, murmuring in their hearts. LXX: The weapons of his power are from men, mocking the strong men in the fire, the reins of their chariots in the day of his preparation, and the horsemen will be afraid at the goings forth: and the chariots will be confounded, and will be dashed together in the streets.

Their appearance is like lamps of fire, and like lightning running to and fro, and their nobles will be remembered, and they will flee in the days, and will grow feeble in their way, and will hasten to the walls, and will prepare their bulwarks: the gates of the cities are opened, and the royal things have fallen, and the substance has been laid bare; and she herself was going up, and her handmaids were led like doves speaking in their hearts. According to the historical sense the order follows against Nineveh, and the army of the Babylonians is described as coming against her. But when it says: Fiery reins of the chariots, it signifies speed in burning reins, and it is narrated as a kind of pageant of those preparing themselves, ἐπισκευῆς, for battle. And the Scripture is woven together, mixing now what Israel formerly suffered, now what the Assyrian did, now what the Babylonians will do against the Assyrians.

It is not, then, a wonder, it says, if they come so swiftly to lay waste, since the drivers and mighty men, whether of Israel before, or afterward of the Assyrians, have been lulled to sleep. And returning again to the order of the description: So great, it says, is the multitude of those coming, that the army is mingled together on the way, and cannot be distinguished. The very chariots too, not finding the road, on account of the multitude, dash against one another in the streets. The appearance of the Babylonians is like lamps, like lightning running to and fro, so that they may terrify their adversaries by sight before they lay them low by the sword. Then Assur will remember his mighty men, and will seek those who have fallen in the ways, and they will swiftly climb the walls of Nineveh, and on account of the very long siege he will prepare shelters to ward off the heat. But what does it profit to build a house, unless the Lord build it?

What does it help to shut gates which the Lord opens? The gates of Nineveh are opened, which had a multitude of citizens like rivers, and the temple, that is, her kingdom, is destroyed, and the soldier is led away captive, that is, all are led into Babylon. But understand the handmaids of Nineveh, by metaphor, as the lesser cities and villages and strongholds. Or certainly the captive women will mourn before the faces of the victors; and so great will be the terror, that grief will not even burst forth into sobs and wailing, but they will groan silently within themselves, and swallow their tears with a low murmur, after the manner of moaning doves. These things according to the Hebrew tradition. Now let us come to the Septuagint translators.

Those who have shaken out, who have shaken out Jacob and Israel, and have scattered their scourges; the weapons also, which, while they were insolent, they were accustomed to have, and with which they had oppressed each of the weak, they have broken: and this they did not only, but they also destroyed the mighty men who were mocking, in the fire. Consider whether you can call the mighty men mocking in the fire the opposing powers, which serve the burning darts of the devil, who, being mighty and mocking, once had, against Jacob and Israel, chariots and horses in the fire, by which, driven on, they were carried into war on the day of their preparation. The reins, then, of these chariots and the horsemen will be troubled in their ways, and will be dashed together in the streets, when, by the illumination of the Lord upon Jacob and Israel, both the demons and those who serve their will shall be overthrown by the Lord.

We can understand these things of his first coming, when the mighty men and the drivers of chariots and the horsemen were saying: What have we to do with thee, Son of David? Art thou come hither to torment us before the time? But since we have once taken the prophecy against Nineveh as referring to the consummation of the world, it is better to say that then the weapons of the power of the devil will be taken away from men, and his strong ministers, who mocked men in the fire. For all committing adultery are as an oven, their hearts (Hosea vii): the chains too, by which captives were led into vices, and the riders of the chariots, will be loosed.

For the horsemen will fear at the goings forth, that is, at the consummation of the world, and the chariots will be confounded, and dashed together in the streets; for although the way that leads to death is broad and spacious, yet, straitened by the pressure of the time, they will not be able to find the straight path; but they will dash against one another, and nonetheless will breathe their old fury, and will run to and fro like lightning here and there. I saw, says the Lord, Satan falling like lightning from heaven. When the devil and all his nobles understand this, they will remember the consummation which had once been foretold, and will flee in the days. For they will by no means abide in the nights, but as the day grows bright, the darkness will be put to flight, and they will grow feeble in their way, making no progress nor accomplishing their attempts, and will hasten to the walls.

For so great a terror of the coming Lord will invade them, and they will be so feeble to resist, that they will flee to the ends of the world, by which, as by walls, the world is enclosed and surrounded, and they will prepare themselves to resist. Just as if someone flees from an enemy, not daring to resist him, when he comes to a solitary place, if by chance the enemy follows, he is forced by necessity to fight back. But while they are thinking this, all things which had been obtained and possessed by them will be brought forth into the open, and the gates which they had shut will be opened, and their kingdoms will fall, and their substance, that is, their riches, will be laid bare.

But the very substance of the world and all its handmaids, after they shall have subjected themselves to Christ, and begun to serve him, will be led away joyful and rejoicing, and believing from the inmost heart of confession, so that they may be compared to the purity of doves, they will murmur or speak in their hearts. And then shall be fulfilled what is said in the sixty-seventh psalm concerning the victory of the Saviour: Ascending on high, he led captivity captive: (Verses 8, 9.) And Nineveh is like a pool of waters, her waters: But they themselves have fled. Stand, stand, and there is none who returns: plunder the silver, plunder the gold: and there is no end of the riches from all the desirable vessels.

Septuagint: And Nineveh is like a pool of waters, her waters: and they, fleeing, did not stand: and there was none who looked back: they were plundering the silver, they were plundering the gold, and there was no end of her adornment: she is weighed down above all the vessels of her desire. It is clear that, the cities of Nineveh (which Scripture calls her daughters) having been led into captivity, Nineveh herself, who had nourished so many peoples that she was compared to the waters of pools, has a useless multitude: since there is none who resists, and bears the onslaught of the Babylonians rushing in. For she had peoples who did nothing but flee, and though the mother cried out: Stand, stand, shut the gates, mount the walls, resist the enemies, there was none who returned, none who looked back to the mother: but all, turning their backs, abandoned the city to the plunder of the enemies.

Whence it is said to the Babylonians, since they have fled, plunder the silver, and in a sudden devastation carry off as plunder the riches gathered over so long a time. For there is no end of the riches, furniture and vessels, which are stored up in Nineveh; nor can you carry off as much as she offers for plundering. But since we have once said that fair Nineveh means the world, let us see what the pool of the world is. Scripture does not say that the waters of Nineveh are like the waters of the sea, nor like the waters of rivers, nor like the waters of springs, nor like the waters of wells, but like the waters of a pool: so that, just as in Jeremiah the people are rebuked for having forsaken the fountain of living water, and having dug for themselves broken cisterns that cannot hold water: so also in Nineveh all those waters are such as have fallen from heaven, and, having left their former height, have sunk down to the depths.

For all the doctrines of this world, which are outside the fountain of the Church and the enclosed garden, cannot say: The rush of the river makes glad the city of God: nor are they of those waters that praise the name of the Lord above the heavens; although they seem great, yet they are small and shut in by a narrow limit. And let no one be troubled that we take "pool" in a bad sense, since that pool is taken in a good sense to which Isaiah, son of Amos, the prophet, is bidden to go up. For there it is said with an addition: The pool of the conduit of water, and the pool of the fuller, which is accustomed to wash away filth and cleanse the stains of garments. And because it is set on a height, therefore the prophet is bidden to go up to it, and to promise victory to the king coming to meet him, from two burnt firebrands. There follows: They fled, and did not stand—namely, the inhabitants of Nineveh.

First, indeed, they ought not to have fled from God; then, even if they had fled, they ought at some point to have stood: for there is a great difference between one who flees and stands, and one who, fleeing, never stands. For he who stands has ceased to flee; he who does not stand has always advanced in flight. So in so great a throng of those fleeing there was none who looked back, and did penance, and heard the Lord saying: Return to me, sons, returning, and I will heal your breaches. Whence also the Saint speaks in the Psalms: Flight has perished from me. This same thing, I think, also signifies the mystery of leprosy, concerning which it is said in Leviticus: When the leper has been separated by the priest outside the camp: if the leprosy has stood still, the man is clean, and he who had been cast out as a leper is cleansed, and returns to the camp, and dwells among the people.

But if, it says, the leprosy has spread, that is, has not stood still, but has grown, and made progress in evil, and changed the color of its former health, then the leprosy is most clearly proven by him who has the knowledge of examining and cleansing leprosy. But we too are bidden by the true Solomon to dwell in Jerusalem, and never to go out of it. But if we flee that which had before been subject to us, and it has gone off to the Philistines, let us not go out beyond the walls of our city, nor follow the footsteps of the fugitives: lest, while we wish to save those who flee, we ourselves perish: rather let us permit that the dead bury their dead: and, while we may, let us pluck out and cut off from us the eye, the hand, and the foot that give scandal.

But as for what is said: They were plundering the silver, they were plundering the gold, and there was no end of her adornment: she is weighed down above all the vessels of her desire—this is said of the waters of Nineveh, and of those fleeing who had fled and did not stand: nor was there one who looked back; and who, not content with merely having fled and not looked back, moreover plundered the silver, whatever in the world seemed to be eloquence: they plundered the gold, whatever was outstanding in the sentences of worldly doctrine, so as to adorn Nineveh, so as to fashion their doctrines with every flower of sense and words. Because of this Nineveh is weighed down above all the vessels of her desire; for the more she had a great possession of gold and silver, and varied furniture, which was heavy, so much the more was she herself weighed down, who loved heavy things.

Whence also in Zechariah iniquity sits upon a talent of lead; and the Egyptians, who were heavy with sins, were sunk in the sea like lead. And in the person of the sinner it is said in the psalm: Like a heavy burden they are weighed down upon me. And Peter, who before lightly trod the waves with a swaying step, after being weighed down by unbelief was being swallowed by the waves, is lifted up by the hand of the Lord. (Verse 10.) She is laid waste and torn and rent, and the heart melting away, and the loosing of the knees, and failing in all the loins, and the faces of all as the blackness of a pot. Septuagint: A shaking out, a re-shaking, and a boiling up, and the breaking of the heart, and the loosing of the knees, and pains upon every loin, and the faces of all as the scorching of a pot.

Under the metaphor of a captive woman, Nineveh is described as laid waste, torn, lacerated: her heart melting, her knees loosed, her loins broken, and, because of the terror of the enemies and the greatness of the fear, the faces of all her inhabitants seem, in the likeness of pots, to be burnt, wasted, and disfigured with pallor. Further, according to the Seventy, one must understand more deeply what "shaking out, re-shaking" signifies. What is it in regard to the people of God, when, as a man, one has at some time sinned, and returns to his former state, as it is said to Jerusalem: Shake off the dust of your feet, and arise, Jerusalem. And he who is such that, after he has been shaken out, he may deserve to pass over into arrows of God, and to be shot forth by the Lord against enemies, of him it is sung: Like arrows in the hand of a mighty man, so are the sons of the shaken out.

And when his footsteps, as of one walking upon the earth, have been sprinkled with dust, he will hear from the Savior: Shake off the dust of your feet as a testimony against them: without doubt meaning those who refused to receive those preaching. But he who belongs to Nineveh, who is weighed down above all the vessels of her desire, is shaken out not once, but frequently. And after he has again been shaken out, and his surface cleansed (lest any filth remain within), there also comes to him a boiling up, which is expressed more meaningfully in Greek as ἐκβρασμός: for properly ἐκβρασμός is used of such things when what lay hidden within breaks out onto the surface. Whence also the pustules that arise on the lips after an illness are called ἐκβράσματα, and it seems a sign of health that the disease has broken out onto the surface.

Not only, however, is this remedy applied to Nineveh, that she be shaken out frequently, and the hidden sickness be forced out from her vitals; but also the breaking of the heart and the loosing of the knees are proclaimed, so that just as the hard, stony heart of Pharaoh was broken—which, as long as he had it, did not let go the people of God—so also the broken heart of Nineveh may be softened and changed into flesh, and the rigid knees, which before did not bend to God, may be loosed and bent to God: from whom all fatherhood in heaven and on earth is named: and in the name of Jesus every knee shall bend, of those in heaven, on earth, and under the earth. So that, after they have known their Creator, they may hear: Strengthen the feeble hands, and confirm the weak knees. And pains, it says, upon every loin.

We have already said above that in the loin coition is signified, and that all the works pertaining to intercourse are indicated by the term "loins." Great, therefore, at the consummation will be the pains in the loins: because all the strength of the dragon is in his loins, and for all these things, on account of which there preceded the shaking out, the re-shaking, the boiling up, and the breaking of the heart, the loosing of the knees, the pains of the loins, the faces of all will be as the scorching of a pot, so that either it may be near to fire and burning heat, or, losing the sheen of oil, it may blacken into the likeness of coals, and be covered with eternal confusion—from which the saint is far off, saying: The light of your countenance is sealed upon us, O Lord. For with unveiled face he beholds the glory of God.

And I think that, just as one glory is of the sun, another of the moon, another of the stars, and star differs from star in brightness: so in the resurrection of the dead, there will be a great difference both of brightness among the saints, and of blackness among sinners. (Verse 11.) Where is the dwelling of the lions, and the pasture of the whelps of the lions, to which the lion went that the lion's whelp might enter there, and there is none to terrify? The lion took enough for his whelps, and slew for his lionesses, and filled his caves with prey, and his den with spoil. For "caves" and "lionesses" the Seventy translated "nests" and "whelps"; in the rest the sense is the same. It is further said of Nineveh: that it had been the dwelling of kings, and the hall of nobles; to which the lion, the king of Babylon, that is Nabuchodonosor, went, and the lion's whelp, that is, his petty subject-kings also, and there was none to resist them.

The lion took enough for his whelps, and slew for his lionesses. That is to say, the same Nabuchodonosor by right of victory possessed all things, and delivered their sons and their cities, or certainly their wives, into captivity as slaves, and filled his caves with prey, or, as it stands in the Hebrew, his pits, and his den with spoil, filling both treasuries and cities with gold, silver, garments, and every ornament, so that he possessed what Nineveh had had, and what Babylon had conquered. But since according to the ἀναγωγή (spiritual sense), both in Jonah and in this Prophet, we have interpreted Nineveh as this world; and according to John: The whole world lies in the evil one; after the world shall have passed away, the dwelling of beasts, and the place in which the lions fed, then, marveling and rejoicing, we shall say: Where is the dwelling of the lions to which the lion, the devil, went, of whom Peter also speaks: Your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, goes about, seeking whom he may devour?

And the lion's whelp is Antichrist, and all perverse doctrines, the word of contradiction. You have heard, says John, that Antichrist comes; but now there are many antichrists: for there are as many antichrists as there are false dogmas. And before the coming of Christ there was none to terrify; but after our Lord came into the world and entered Nineveh, he saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven: and Lucifer, who used to rise in the morning, fell from heaven. For the true Samson came to the Philistines: and while he went into Timnath, which is interpreted "its consummation," in order to take Delilah, a poor woman from among the Gentiles, he slew the lion, for whom the consummation had come, and, it being dead, he ate the sweetness of honey. But the true David also, keeping his father's sheep, caught the lion and slew it; and Benaiah, whose name is interpreted "the Lord is builder" (1 Chron.

11), went down into the pit of this age, which was wont to cool the hot waters, and slew the lion. And in the vision of Isaiah, which is seen against the four-footed beasts, it is said first of the distress of these beasts: In tribulation and distress, the lion and the lion's whelp. This lion, before he was slain by Christ, took very many as prey for his whelps: and slew for his young lions, that is, for his satellites, namely the demons. Look at the conventicles of the heretics, and you will not seek far for many caught by the lion. Consider the dead who have lost their life, and you will not call their churches the fold of the shepherd, but the caves of the lion, which he has filled with corpses and the blood of the dead. You have made darkness (says David), and it became night: in it all the beasts of the forest shall pass. The whelps of the lions roar after their prey, and seek their meat from God.

The lion is hard to find by day, but always goes about by night, that he may snatch from the Church of Christ, that he may be satisfied, according to Habakkuk, with chosen food. Finally, Judas was of the fold of Christ, and, being caught by the lion, was choked by hanging. But also that prophet to whom the Lord had commanded that he should not eat bread in that region, where the golden calves were, and false religion, because he ate, was struck by a lion. Jeremiah too speaks of sinners: A lion out of the forest has struck them, a wolf has destroyed them even unto their houses, and a leopard has watched over their cities. All who go out from them shall be caught. In which observe that no one is caught, except one who has gone out from the cities of God.

In the fourth book of Kings also (verse 17), those dwelling in the cities of Samaria and not knowing the judgment of the God of the land were being slain by lions, until they learned to worship God, and were freed from the lions. For this reason, I think, whatever is taken by beasts is not offered in the sacrifices of God, and it is said by the prophet: That which is unclean, and taken by a beast, has not entered into my mouth. The lion, therefore, was slain, and, the false dogmas being confuted, out of the eater came forth food, and out of the strong came forth sweetness (Judges 14). (Verse 13.) Behold, I come against you, says the Lord of hosts: and I will burn your chariots even to smoke: and the sword shall devour your young lions: and I will cut off your prey from the earth: and the voice of your messengers shall no more be heard.

LXX: Behold, I come against you, says the Lord Almighty: and I will burn your multitude, and the sword shall devour your lions, and I will take away your prey from the earth, and your works shall no more be heard. O Nineveh, all the things that have been said, you shall suffer, with me as their author. I, the Lord, will burn your chariots even to smoke and consumption, and I will cause all your nobles and petty kings alike to be devoured by the sword. No longer shall you lay waste lands, nor exact tributes, nor shall your emissaries be heard throughout your provinces: or I will not hear the angels who are your presiding guardians, henceforth interceding for you. But these same things are also said of the world, in which there is a multitude that goes by the broad and spacious way to death, which the Lord threatens shall be burned with fire, choked with the smoke of its malice arising from its excessive vanity (or, goodness).

The sword also shall devour the lions—the living and sharp word of God, cutting from every side; and moreover he promises to take away from the earth its prey, so that no one thereafter shall be captured in Nineveh, and, as it were mercifully, he takes away its evil deeds and suppresses them, that their voice and sound may no longer be heard.

Whence he says: And your works shall no more be heard.

(Verse 1 ff.) Woe, city of blood, all full of the tearing of lies: the prey shall not depart from you; the voice of the whip, and the voice of the rushing of the wheel, and of the neighing horse, and of the burning chariot, and of the rider mounting, and of the flashing sword, and of the glittering spear, and of the multitude slain, and of the grievous ruin, and there is no end of the carcasses: and they shall fall upon their bodies, because of the multitude of the fornications of the harlot that was beautiful and pleasing, and had witchcrafts, who sold nations by her fornications, and families by her witchcrafts.

LXX: O city of blood, wholly false, full of iniquity, the prey shall not be handled: the voice of scourges, and the voice of the shaking of wheels, and of the pursuing horse, and of the burning chariot, of the rider mounting, and of the flashing sword, and of the glittering weapons, and of the multitude of the wounded, and of the grievous ruin, and there shall be no end to its nations, and they shall grow weak in their bodies because of the multitude of fornication. A harlot beautiful and pleasing, a leader of witchcrafts, who sells nations by her fornication, and tribes by her witchcrafts. Where we have put "full of tearing," in the Hebrew stands Pherec malea (פרק מלא), which Aquila translated ἐξαυχενισμοῦ πλήρης, that is, "full of decapitation": but Symmachus, ἀποτομίας πλήρης, which we may render "full of cruelty, or severity." In another edition of his I found μελοκοπίας πλήρης, that is, "of the cutting up of flesh and pieces torn through the limbs": then immediately he adds, where the prey is unceasing.

Moreover the Hebrew PHEREC (פרק), he translated not as decapitation, for which in Aquila's edition we find ἐξαυχενισμόν, but as "steering," that is, κυβερνισμόν, so as to show that the city had been royal, and had held, as it were in a ship, the helm of all nations. Now her power is described, that is, Nineveh's, and she is accused amid a lamentation over her cruelty. Woe, city of blood, in which there is no truth, but all falsehood, full of plunder, and the tearing of spoils. The voice of the whip, ever cruel and of a raging empire, and the voice of the rushing of the wheel. Let us take "voice" for "sound": the burning wheel, running through various courses, and of the neighing horse, and of the burning chariot—in all of these, "voice" is understood. So beautiful, moreover, according to the Hebrew, and like a picture, is the description of an army preparing itself for battle, that all my speech is the poorer for it.

For as to what he says: And of grievous ruin, and there is no end of the carcasses, let us understand this of the adversaries who were slain by them. And they shall fall upon their bodies, or fall from their own multitude, while they are pressed together one upon another: or they shall fall upon the carcasses of the slain: for αὐτῶν signifies both "their own" and "of them." Because of the multitude, he says, of the fornications of the harlot: because she committed fornication with many nations, and worshipped the idols of the whole world which she had subjected to herself. Beautiful and pleasing, and having witchcrafts, signifies magicians: who sold nations by her fornications, and families by her witchcrafts, that is, who had power over all nations. These things are said of Nineveh simply.

But if we have rightly understood Nineveh as the world, because of the name meaning "beauty," rightly is the world, which lies in evil, called on account of the multitude of its archers, and of those who slay men with their tongues as with swords, a city of blood. Whence also, consequently, wholly false, which refers to the perversity of doctrines, since the word of God has no place in it to lay its head, seeing that perverse dogmas possess all things. There is none that understands or seeks after God: all have gone astray, together they are become unprofitable: there is none that does good, no not one. Which things, although they even now happen in part, yet are fulfilled the more at the consummation: when, iniquity being multiplied, the charity of many shall grow cold. How many are caught by Nimrod the giant and most savage hunter, who, exalting himself against God, has ensnared many with his own toils out of his forest, whose prey, or hunting, shall not be handled by many!

For he has many attendants, and hunters likewise with him, who rejoice in his hunting, and stand by him according to the custom of captives. But the voice of scourges is also heard in the world, because many are the tribulations of the just, by which those who are scourged cry out, and testify to the greatness of their pain with a tearful voice: when one is seized by a demon, another by anger, which is like unto madness, another by lust, hatred, envy, pride, the scourge of the Assyrian king sounds in them.

But also in the evils of the body we understand the scourge of the devil, of whom it is said to the just man: And the scourge shall not come near your dwelling; when we shall see this man rotten with dropsy, and surviving as his own corpse; another swollen with water beneath the skin, and swimming in a bloated body, and, his limbs growing, losing the shape of his former self, as we lately saw in a certain viper-bitten man; that one discharging certain purulent matters, and the ruin of a wounded lung; this one, the moisture dried into stones, feeling the bitterness of urine, and the torments of the bladder—let us not doubt to say that this is the voice of the scourges of Nineveh: though some suppose these things happen either from corrupted air, or from the diversity of foods and bodies.

We, who read of the fever rebuked, and of the woman who for eighteen years had been bound by the devil, healed by the Lord's medicine, let us know that all these are the scourges of Nineveh. Whence follows: And the voice of the shaking of the wheels; while the human race is dragged hither and thither, and, in uncertain courses through all things, we do not know where danger is, where safety is: of which wheel it is written also at the beginning of Ezekiel: and in the seventy-sixth psalm we read: The voice of your thunder was in the wheel. Nineveh also has the pursuing horse, whose neighing, and hoof digging the earth, and heaving breast, ever desire wars, the Lord speaking against the devil. He smells the battle from afar: with leaping and shouting he spares not those who flee, nor does he allow those who turn their backs to depart; but he pursues, that he may cast down, slay, trample, and dash to pieces.

There is also in Nineveh the voice of the burning chariot, such as I think Pharaoh had, which were drowned by the Lord. To this chariot four horses are yoked, namely the four passions, of which both philosophers dispute, and Maro does not keep silent, saying (Virgil, Aeneid 6):

These desire, and fear, and grieve, and rejoice [lacuna]

With these horses and this chariot Nineveh is wholly thrown into confusion. But the voice of the mounted rider also sounds in it, who, prepared for war by a certain art and wheeling movement, advances not without danger against the one fighting against him. This rider has the sword of speech, sharpened on the whetstone of dialectic, and smoothed with the oil of the rhetorical art: he has shining arms, Satan transforming himself into an angel of light, which arms are contrary to the apostolic armor. Nor is it strange if there is a multitude of the wounded in Nineveh, since there is a multitude of arrows. And just as the four things by which we fight and are shielded are the shields of the virtues—prudence, justice, temperance, fortitude—so on the contrary there are four vices—folly, iniquity, luxury, dread—by which we are struck by the enemy.

Each of these has within it sprouting and manifold kinds of arrows, by which wounds are inflicted, which unless medicine cure at once, become a grave ruin; and would that as many in Nineveh fell lightly and were lightly wounded as those who, weighed down by the ruin, are plunged even to the depths below. And there is no end to her nations: her wickedness has no end; and as many kinds of sins as there are, so many are the nations of Nineveh, who will be enfeebled in their bodies by the multitude of fornication. Although this can also be understood of those who, on account of venereal matters, have even been weakened in body, and along with the loss of the soul also break the flesh which they serve: yet those nations of whom we have spoken do not fall, according to the Hebrew, except in their bodies, and they do not stumble (as Symmachus interpreted) except upon the corpses of the dead, which have been laid low by the multiplication of fornication.

In this place the Seventy interpreters, whereas we have rendered according to the Hebrew, "because of the multitude of the fornications of the harlot," seem to have wished the beginning to be something else, so as to say: "Because of the multitude of fornication"; and here they end the sentence, then afterward begin, "the beautiful harlot of the world are filled," and a little after, without the negating particle, along with the older editions, "of whom it shall be handled." and pleasing, mistress of sorceries. For "mistress of sorceries," Aquila and Symmachus translated, "having sorceries." Nor should one wonder that Nineveh is now most pleasing to harlots, seeing so great a multitude of men fornicating with her, and being drawn to her love by her sorceries and certain incantations almost all together. She has sold nations in her fornications, who take away the members of Christ and make them the members of a harlot; and tribes in her sorceries.

For she makes them love what they ought to have hated, and detest what they ought to have loved, so that once deceived, according to what is written: "Evil communications corrupt good manners", they also trip up others by wicked art. I have read in the Holy Scriptures that "sorcerers" are also taken in a good sense: "And of the sorcerer charming wisely". But such a sorcerer charms in order that those bound by love of the harlot Nineveh may be drawn back to soundness of mind. (Verses 5, 6.) Behold, I am against thee, says the Lord of hosts, and I will uncover thy shameful parts before thy face, and I will show thy nakedness to the nations, and thy ignominy to the kingdoms: and I will cast abominations upon thee, and I will afflict thee with contumelies, and I will set thee as an example.

The Seventy: Behold, I am against thee, says the Lord Almighty, and I will uncover thy hinder parts upon thy face, and I will show the nations thy confusion, and the kingdoms thy ignominy, and I will cast abomination upon thee according to thy uncleannesses, and I will set thee as an example. Because thou hast sold, O Nineveh, nations in thy fornications, and families in thy sorceries, and like a public brothel hast spread thy feet to all: therefore I myself will come to overthrow thee, I will not send an angel, I will not entrust thy judgment to others. I will uncover thy shameful parts before thy face, that what thou didst not see before may be set before thy own sight. I will show the nations thy nakedness, and the kingdoms thy ignominy, that those who fornicated with thee may themselves despise thee, mock thee, and afflict thee with contumelies: and thou shalt be an example to all who see thee.

But all these things are narrated under the metaphor of an adulterous woman, who, when she has been caught, is brought forth into the midst, and stripped of her finery before the eyes of all. Which indeed, by transference, the prophetic word most fully describes also concerning Jerusalem in Ezekiel. Yet more truly and more usefully these things are said with reference to the world, to which the true physician came from heaven, both to cut and to heal it alike. Behold, I am against thee, says the Lord Almighty: because I am almighty, I am able to heal all diseases: and what is impossible for others is possible for me. I will uncover thy hinder parts upon thy face, that is, my virtues, my precepts and words, which thou hast cast behind thy back: although thou dost not deserve it, I will make thee see. For I had commanded thee concerning my words, that they should always be moved before thine eyes, be bound and hang there.

But thou, having despised the command of him who bade it, hast left them behind thy own footsteps, so that thou didst not only fail to do, but didst not even deign to look upon what I had commanded. Or certainly I will make thee see and understand thy errors, which before, while thou wert being carried blind and headlong, thou thoughtest to be virtues. After this also, to the nations whom thou hast sold in thy fornication, I will show thy nakedness, that they may in no way be captivated by love of thee, but seeing the filthy and shameful body within, by whose surface at first they were led, may cease to fornicate with thee. To the kingdoms also, which are greater than nations, I will show thy ignominy, which thou thyself hast brought about, that thou mightest have it.

And I will cast abomination upon thee according to thy uncleannesses, that as thou art unclean, so thou mayest be seen unclean; nor mayest thou deceive very many who, formerly cleaving to thee, were made one body with thee. And I will set thee as an example, that the likeness of dreaded punishment may forbid the likeness of transgressing. (Verse 7.) And it shall be, that every one who sees thee shall recoil from thee, and shall say: Nineveh is laid waste; who will shake his head over thee? From where shall I seek a comforter for thee? In the Hebrew "head" is not present, but we have added it, that the sense might become clearer. Indeed Symmachus interpreted thus: And every one who sees thee shall withdraw from thee, and shall say: Nineveh is destroyed, who will mourn with her? Further, the Seventy: And it shall be, that every one who sees thee shall go down from thee and shall say: Wretched Nineveh, who will groan for her? Whence shall I seek consolation, fitting a string to her?

He who sees the ruins of Nineveh, and sees her set as an example to all, will be terrified and amazed, and will say: Nineveh is destroyed, who will shake his head over thee? That is, who will grieve over thee, who will be able to be thy comforter? Thou, so long as thou wert powerful, like a cruel mistress, hadst no pity on the old man: nor didst thou regard the little one: nor didst thou prepare a companion for thy mourning, thou who didst not wish to have a partner in ruling. But whoever despises these earthly things, and has scorned the sorceries of beneficent Nineveh, and has not been ensnared by her false beauty, when he has seen all her inward foulness, and has begun to hate what others love, will flee and recoil from her, or, as it is said by the Seventy, will go down.

For so long as we honor earthly things, and think them to be sublime, we are as it were on a certain summit of pride, and we admire the beauty of Nineveh. But when we have considered her nature, and have despised all corporeal goods as base things, submitting ourselves to the power of God's hand, then we shall have pity on the Ninevites: and we shall judge all earthly goods worthy of lamentation, and we shall say: Wretched Nineveh, how many have been ensnared in thy snares, how many dost thou hold bound in thy chains! Who, think you, will recoil from thee and go down from thy pride, and will judge thee wretched? But when it says "who," we ought to take it not so much as expressing difficulty as rarity, as we have often said: "Who, think you, is the faithful and wise steward?"? And: "Who is wise, and will understand these things?"? And: "Who shall ascend into the [...] mountain of the Lord"? Who then will groan over Nineveh?

Who will be able to be found, who, weighed down by this tabernacle, will say with Paul: "Wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death"? We see daily, if death draws near to anyone, and he understands that he is being drawn away from this world, whether by fever, or by wound, or by any kind of illness, that he is afraid, trembles, and, shaking in his whole body, clings to the embraces of Nineveh, and is scarcely torn away from the body of the beautiful harlot. But what follows: "Whence shall I seek consolation," or a comforter for thee, who may fit the string? Is still spoken from the person of him who will recoil or go down from Nineveh, and will say: Wretched Nineveh, who will groan for her? Disputing about the confused manner of life of this age, in which nothing can please anyone perpetually: but what pleased displeases, and what had displeased pleases again. Who then could be found to be such a comforter?

And (so to speak) such a lyric writer and harper who could draw her dissonant strings into one harmony, and make a vocal concert unto the praises of God? This which we have expounded, "who may fit the string," or "fitting the string," is also said in Greek, ἁρμόσαι χορδήν, but we find it neither in the Hebrew nor in the other translators, but instead of it the beginning of another sentence: "Art thou better than Amon which dwells among the rivers?" Whence it seems to me that it ought rather to be joined with what follows. (Verse 8. And following.) Art thou better than Amon, that dwelleth among the rivers? Water is round about her, whose riches are the sea, whose walls are waters: Ethiopia was her strength, and Egypt, and there is no end; Africa and the Libyans were her helpers.

Yet she also was carried away, she went into captivity: her young children were also dashed in pieces at the head of all the streets, and they cast lots for her honourable men, and all her great men were bound in fetters. Thou also therefore shalt be drunken, and shalt be despised: thou also shalt seek help from the enemy; all thy strongholds shall be like fig trees with their green figs: if they be shaken, they shall fall into the mouth of the eater. The Septuagint: Prepare a cord, thou part of Ammon, that dwellest among the rivers, whose waters are round about her, whose beginning is the sea, and the water is her wall. Ethiopia was her strength, and Egypt, and there is no end to thy flight.

Phut and the Libyans became her helpers, and she also shall go into captivity, a captive; and her young children shall be dashed in pieces at the beginning of her streets, and they shall cast lots upon all her honourable things, and all her great men shall be bound with fetters: and thou shalt be drunken, and shalt be despised, and thou shalt seek there to stand against thine enemies; all thy strongholds shall be as a fig tree that hath green figs, which, if they be shaken, shall fall into the mouth of the eater. As to that which is read in the Septuagint, Prepare a cord, thou part of Ammon; whereas the other translators have rendered it: Art thou better than Amon? The Hebrew who instructed me in the Scriptures affirmed that it can be read thus: Art thou better than No, Amon?

And he said that in Hebrew NO is the name for Alexandria: but AMON means multitude, or peoples, and that the order of the reading is: Art thou better than populous Alexandria, or Alexandria of the peoples, that dwelleth among the rivers, water round about her? Not that at that time Alexandria was so called—for indeed she received her name much later from Alexander the Great of Macedon—but because under her first name, that is, No, she was always the metropolis of Egypt, and most abounding in population. Moreover, those who have handed down to memory the deeds of Alexander assert that she was the chief city of Egypt. But the prophet Jeremiah too, understanding by Amon, or No, Alexandria, in his vision against Egypt, to which he says: Egypt is a fair heifer, a goad shall come to her out of the north, also adds this more plainly: The daughter of Egypt is confounded, she is delivered into the hand of the people of the north, saith the Lord God of hosts, the God of Israel.

Behold I will visit Amon menno (אמון מנא), that is, upon the tumult of Alexandria: for AMON, as we have said, means peoples: MEN is a preposition meaning "of": and NO means Alexandria. And I will visit, he says, upon Pharaoh, and upon Egypt, and upon her gods, and upon her kings, and upon Pharaoh, and upon them that trust in him, and I will give them into the hand of them that seek their lives, and into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of his servants. It is said therefore to Nineveh: Art thou more populous, or more powerful than Alexandria? And the situation of Alexandria is described, which, being set above the Nile and above the sea, is surrounded on this side and that by waters and rivers. Water is round about her, whose riches are the sea: her walls are waters: for on this side she is girded by the stream of the Nile, on that by the Mareotic lake, and on another side by the sea.

And that Ethiopia and Egypt, and Africa—for which in the Hebrew is put PHUT (פוט)—and the Libyans are her garrison, the very situation of the provinces and of the city shows. And this city therefore, which my discourse, says the prophet, describes, shall be taken by the king of Babylon, and the same one shall be thy destroyer and hers. These things Josephus also, the writer of Jewish history, relates in his books. Her young children shall be dashed in pieces in the crossways (or, in fetters), her nobles shall be divided by the lot of the conquerors, and her once most powerful princes shall be led captive in chains. Since therefore Alexandria is to suffer these things, thou, O Nineveh, shalt drink of the same cup, and shalt be made drunk, and lying stupefied thou shalt be despised, and shalt come to such necessity that thou shalt ask help from the Babylonians, or against the Babylonians, from thine enemies.

All thy fortifications and walls raised on high, and the heights of thy towers, which now thou thinkest impregnable, and thy strong men and warriors, shall be compared to first-ripe figs, which, if they be shaken with a light touch, shall fall into the mouth of the devourer. For as to what is read in the Septuagint: Prepare, or arrange, the cord, this is still said to Nineveh. And the sense is: Arrange thy disordered and unorganized and variously discordant self, O Nineveh, in the likeness of chords, since thy beauty and greatness, which thou believest thyself to have in special measure, will profit thee nothing, unless thou fittest thyself to make music. Consider indeed the whole portion of the lot of the children of Ammon, and whatever goods they are reckoned to possess, how these did not defend them, that they should not go into captivity, and that their young children should not be dashed in pieces in the streets. What did the rivers profit her, beside which the city of Ammon was situated?

What, besides the rivers, did so great a multitude of wells and springs profit her, beginning at the Dead Sea, and fortifying her region? What defense did Ethiopia and Egypt, once her confederates, afford her? As, therefore, the help of her allies did not aid her: so neither shall there be an end of fleeing for thee, O Nineveh, but thou shalt be laid waste on every side. Why should I speak of the Ethiopians, and of the Egyptians who were the patrons of the children of Ammon, when even the Libyans had been confederate with her? And this city therefore shall be led into captivity, and her young children, because they will not be able to walk, shall be slain in the streets, thrown down before their parents' faces, and all her wealth shall be divided by lot among the victors. Nor shall any of the princes escape, for they shall be bound with iron and with fetters.

And thou therefore, O Nineveh, shalt be made drunk, and thou who wast once rich and beautiful, who hadst so many lovers, shalt be despised by all, and, thine enemies pursuing thee, thou shalt seek rest, and shalt not find it. All thy warriors and all thy help shall be spoil for thine enemies, and shall be taken without any labor, in the likeness of the green figs of the fig tree, which when shaken do not fall to the ground—lest there be even the small labor of gathering them—but fall at once into the mouth of the devourer. Let these things be said παραφραστικῶς (by way of paraphrase) according to the Septuagint translators: for we have proposed once for all to follow the Vulgate edition also, lest we should seem to have given occasion to be reproached by the serpent and by Sardanapalus. But it does not seem to me sufficiently fitting to compare the example of the overthrow of Nineveh with the children of Lot, who are called Amman.

For first, it is called Ammon, and not Amman: then, Ammana, which is now called Philadelphia, is not situated upon rivers, nor are her riches gathered from the sea: since she is inland, nor are waters her walls, nor has she Ethiopia and Egypt and Africa and the Libyans as confederates, whereas all these things, both according to power, and according to the example, and according to the description of the place and region, and of the friendly nations, are more fittingly applied to Alexandria: and never would the most powerful city Nineveh, being compared to the lesser Philadelphia, hear from the prophet: Art thou better? For to whomsoever it is said, Art thou better?, it is shown that she is lesser than the one to which she is compared, and that she ought not to take it ill if she be captured, since one greater and stronger and more powerful, both by the nature of her site and by her brave men, was overcome by the same enemy.

But since we have interpreted Nineveh also as this world, she is bidden to prepare and arrange her cords, and to make ready for a mournful song: for the part of the children of Ammon, which had been much better than Nineveh, and had dwelt upon the rivers, because she was caught in error, paid the penalties of her crime. And first, according to the history, it must be said of Alexandria, that Ammon is interpreted "peoples," and let the sense be, according to the rules of allegory: Consider the peoples of the Church, which dwells upon the streams of the prophets, and has teachers round about her, from whose belly flow rivers, whose beginning is the sea.

For from the reading of the Law, which without the wood of Christ is bitter, in the likeness of Marah, one comes to its mystery, which has Ethiopia for her strength: for Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her hands unto God: and Egypt, into which the Lord came in a light cloud: and the Libyans, who before dwelt in dry places, and afterward became her helpers. And this city, therefore, if she does not take heed to herself, and guard her heart with all diligence, shall be led captive, and shall mourn for her children. Her young children too, who are still at the beginnings of the ways, and have not yet reached the middle of the journey, shall be dashed in pieces at their very beginnings: and the most savage enemies shall hasten to divide among themselves by lot all her illustrious things, and her great men, whom we may understand as princes and rulers, bound with chains, and weighed down with the heaviest burden of fetters, they shall drag into captivity.

And thou therefore, O Nineveh—that is, men who are unbelieving, men wholly cleaving to the world—shalt feel punishments, and shalt be lulled into stupor with my cup, when those also shall have drunk who had been of my part, and fell through their own fault. And thou shalt be despised by me: thou shalt seek an end amid the vices and disturbances that press upon thee, and nevertheless thou shalt not be able to find a resting-place and end of thy evils; but all thy desires and sweetnesses, and worldly powers, and doctrines which thou didst think thyself to hold most firmly, shall be devoured by the eater, of whom Samson speaks in a parable: Out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong came forth sweetness (Judges xiv, 14): for then all thy strong things, and those which promised sweet fruits to the eyes of onlookers, at the first shaking of the tree shall fall into the mouth of the devouring devil, by whom Nineveh had always been tempted and possessed.

Further, as to what we passed over: And there is no end to thy flight, since it is said to Nineveh, and is placed among the things written about Ammon, and seems to be inserted out of order in a foreign place, as it were by hyperbaton let us refer it to Nineveh, so that the order be: And thou shalt be made drunk, and there is no end to thy flight, and thou shalt be despised, and the rest that is said to Nineveh. And we shall interpret that there is no end of Nineveh's flight from God: because she always makes progress in fleeing, and never wishes to stand still, according to what we said above: And they fled, and did not stand, and there was none that looked back.

And we shall say that Holy Scripture, and especially the prophets, who are full of enigmas, is woven with these difficulties, so that the difficulty of the sense may also be wrapped in the difficulty of the language: so that what is holy may not easily lie open to dogs, nor pearls to swine, nor the holy of holies to the profane. But if we wish to interpret Ammon concerning the children of Lot, let us say that Lot had, by his two daughters, two sons, Moab and Ammon, of whom the elder, Moab, is interpreted "of the father," or "water of the father": but the younger, Ammon, "son of my kindred," or "our people".

And I think that just as he who was born of Judah, on account of sin, is called to him: Seed of Canaan, and not of Judah; and in Ezekiel, to sinning Jerusalem: Thy root and thy generation are of the land of Canaan; thy father was an Amorite, and thy mother a Hittite: so those, whoever they were, of the former people, that is, of the Jews; and of the latter, that is, of our own, are figuratively called Moabites and Ammonites. And because they departed from their father (for Lot is interpreted "departure"), they were to be subjected to punishment and to suffer all the things which we have expounded above.

But if the severity of God begins with these who once were holy, and she who dwelt among the rivers shall be purged by the fire of gehenna: how much more shall Nineveh, who before had not the law, nor received the yoke of the precepts of God, on account of her pride, in the end fall into the mouth of the devourer! (Verses 13 and following.) Behold, thy people, women in the midst of thee: to thine enemies the gates of thy land shall be opened wide: fire shall devour thy bars. Draw thee water because of the siege: build up thy fortifications: go into the clay, and tread it; hold fast the brick, working it. There shall the fire eat thee up; thou shalt perish by the sword, it shall devour thee like the bruchus: gather thyself together, therefore, like the bruchus; multiply thyself like the locust. Thou hast multiplied thy merchandise beyond the stars of heaven: the bruchus has spread its wings, and flown away.

Thy guards are like the locust, and thy little ones like the locusts of locusts, which settle in the hedges in the day of the cold. The sun rose, and they flew away, and the place where they had been is not known. LXX: Behold, thy people are as women within thee, to thine enemies thy land's gates shall be opened by opening: fire has consumed thy bars. Draw for thyself the water of the siege, hold thy fortifications; enter into the clay and tread it in the straw, hold fast upon the brick. There the fire shall devour thee, the sword shall destroy thee, and it shall devour thee like the locust: thou shalt be weighed down like the bruchus, multiply thyself like the bruchus: thou hast multiplied thy merchandise like the stars of heaven.

Still concerning Nineveh the discourse of the one speaking is being woven: It is no wonder if thy strong men and warriors, in the likeness of unripe figs, at once fall into the mouth of the one devouring them, since thy people have become effeminate, and are unable to resist. Therefore thy gates shall be opened, and the city shall lie open to its enemies; the fire shall consume the strongest bars by which the gates were shut. Draw water, therefore, and take care that drink not be lacking to the besieged fortress: make bricks, that you may build up the breaches of the walls, for the siege is near. And when you have done all these things, you shall be devoured by the sword like soil by the bruchus.

But even when you have been multiplied like the bruchus, and gathered together as one like the locust, and have amassed your riches like the stars of heaven, just as locusts and the bruchus, and the small offspring of locusts, which are called attelabi, fly away as the sun grows warm, and are not found again: so shall you be scattered and shall flee. For it is the nature of locusts, that though numb in the cold, they fly about in the warmth. Moreover the attelabus, which Aquila has translated more significantly as "the devourer," is a small locust between the locust and the bruchus, creeping on small wings rather than flying, and always leaping; and for this reason, wherever it arises, it consumes everything down to the dust, because until its wings grow, it cannot go away. This, following the Hebrew, for the reader's easier understanding, treading in the very footsteps of Scripture itself, I have explained more clearly.

But I shall also speak, following the tropology begun according to the LXX, first briefly, that is, as it were in an epitome, and afterward discoursing more fully on each point: Thy people, O Nineveh—that is, the worldly men who are properly called the people of the city of Assyria—have been so enervated by their passions, and have grown so faint through their vices, that they are compared to the weakness of women; for they possess nothing strong or robust and manly in their souls. Whence their enemies, prevailing against them, have opened all their senses, and have entered in through the bodily doors. And significantly, the bodily senses are called the doors of the land of Nineveh. Now those who have given themselves over to vices still have, from the first creation by God, the occasion of knowing God, as it were the strongest bars, with which they might block and shut the gates of the senses.

But even these the fire shall consume, the fire that is winged with burning arrows; wherefore it is said to Nineveh: Draw water for thyself, and sprinkle yourself with the word and with reason, and misuse for fighting the occasions of understanding God and of exercising the virtues that are implanted in you. But you, with hands undone—that is, by works of pleasure—have lost whatever strength you had in yourself; therefore turn, and do penance, and again hold your fortifications. And because you have once entered the clay, and have been enclosed in the body (which, like earth and straw and water, is put together of flesh, blood, veins, sinews, and bones), endure the injury and the necessities of the body: and be trodden down by enemies, and be open to all things fit for the mortification of the flesh, which are worthy of penance.

For having once taken up clay and straw, and being wrapped up in the empty affairs of this world, you ought to be trodden down by injury of your own will, yet do not despair utterly of salvation: be confident, and reduce your body, that is, your brick, into servitude by means of the word you have taken up, as it were by water, and subject it to yourself, that you may have dominion over your brick—otherwise, unless you do this, a living flame shall afterward consume you, either in punishment through Gehenna, or roused by the burning darts of the enemy: and not only shall you be laid waste by fire, but the sword also shall devour you like the locust devours the green things of the earth. And this you shall suffer if you are not above the brick, but, weighed down by your own weight and having lost all flight, are wholly dragged down to the earth, just as the bruchus suddenly falls to the ground, when, its flight exhausted, it can go no further.

Therefore have virtues as innumerable as the bruchus, lest you be dragged down to the earth by your own weight like the bruchus. All these things you have suffered because you multiplied for yourself riches and dealings in various doctrines, thinking them to be brighter than the stars, and to shine more than the constellations of heaven. These things, as I said, have been spoken by us briefly for the sake of grasping the sense; now, returning to the beginning of the chapter, let us explain each point as we are able. Who would not say that beautiful Nineveh, a soul beautiful by nature, softened by luxury and the pleasures of this world, has come to womanish delights, and, its manhood lost, has grown faint into a woman?

For if the soul of the just man, coming to perfect manhood, and preserving the rigor of its condition, and cleaving to God, becomes one spirit with him: why should not, on the contrary, the soul that loves the world become one with the world, and, reduced to feminine softness, lose its manly rigor? I think it is for this reason that in Exodus Pharaoh commands that every male born to the Hebrews be cast into the river, and every female be kept alive. For the king of Egypt, who elsewhere says: "Mine are the rivers, and I have made them", could command nothing else but this—that whatever among the Hebrews, and among those who pass through this world, is strong and manly, should be cast into the waters, and be carried away by their currents into the sea. And on the contrary, whatever seemed feminine and soft and beautiful in this world, this should be kept alive, should grow up and beget.

And consider at the same time that the Egyptian ruler could not kill the men of the Hebrews, nor those who had already come out of infancy, but only those whose age was still tender, and whose body was soft, and whose growth was just beginning: he knows that the females cannot be nourished unless the males are killed. He wishes, therefore, to drown in the whirlpool of his own river whatever is strong and manly among the Hebrews, so that whatever is feminine may grow up more freely alone. As for what follows: "To thine enemies the gates of thy land shall be opened wide," you may understand this by taking testimony from Jeremiah, where it is written: "Death is come up through your windows". And what Jeremiah calls windows, you will see here is shown under the term gates, and you will refer these very things to the senses.

For the divine word, knowing that meanings are twofold, says in Proverbs, for the distinction of evil senses: "You will find divine sense." But do not take "sense" here for the mind and intellect, which in Greek is called nous, mind, but for αἴσθησις, from which also the five senses are named—sight, smell, taste, touch, hearing. So let the gates of the land of Nineveh be understood as the bodily senses; but the gates of the heavenly Jerusalem, as every divine sense, coming from above.

These gates of Nineveh her people open through sight and hearing, and all the other senses, as it were through the broad and spacious way that leads to death, seeking to seize bodily pleasures, by which men shut the gates of God, stopping their ears lest they hear the judgment of blood, closing their eyes lest they see iniquity, stopping their nostrils lest they receive with pleasure the first perfumes unto the effeminizing of their soul; closing the mouth of gluttony, and to the greedy belly, and withdrawing their hands from soft touch, lest the belly, burning with lust, drive the burning soul into feminine embraces. But those who are men of God open their senses, that is, the gates of the heavenly Jerusalem, so that the word of God may enter into them. Of the evil gates this is the example: "Thou who liftest me up from the gates of death." Of the good gates, this: "That I may declare all thy praises in the gates of the daughter of Sion".

When you see a lover of pleasures rather than a lover of God, and one given over to luxury, say at once of him: "He has opened the gates of his land to his enemies"—for men open the gates of the land of Nineveh not to friends of their soul, but to enemies. But if those also who are thought leaders among the people do the same things, you need not fear to say of these too: "The leaders of my people have been cast out from the house of their delights." And if you see them hindered by pleasures, and by luxury encircling them on all sides, having no mercy on the poor, and unconcerned for the people of God, you will fit to them what follows: "Who sleep upon beds of ivory, and stretch themselves upon their couches in pleasure; who eat the kids from the flocks, and the sucking calves from the herds; who drink strained wine, and are anointed with the finest ointments; and they were not grieved for the affliction of Joseph".

Furthermore, what is said—"Fire has devoured your bars"—is of this kind: if there seemed to be in your soul any natural good, which, like bars, could hinder and repel the enemies who tried to break in through the gates of your senses, this has been set on fire by the Babylonian flame. And also "draw to yourself the water of fortification" is said of the word of God, that you may surround yourself as with a most firm wall of the doctrine and reasoning of the Scriptures, so that the enemy cannot break in to your inner parts. "Hold," it says, "your fortifications." Whatever good you have by nature, and which preserves in you the beginning made by the best Creator—hold this fast, O soul of Nineveh, for your own defense, and do not allow it to flow away from the ruling faculty (hegemonikon, ruling faculty) of the heart.

As for what is added afterward—"Go into the clay, and tread it down in the straw"—another might perhaps judge it to be said of the soul, which, fixed in the clay of the body and the straw of this world (that is, in empty and perishable things), turning wholly upon itself, is trodden down by demons. But to me it seems to be said to it thus: endure the temptations, the injuries to which you have been handed over; you suffer punishments deservedly; because if you walk upon the empty and fragile affairs of this world, know that you endure this as a remedy, provided, however, that you hold fast above the brick, and subject the flesh to the rule of the soul.

Then follows: "There the fire shall devour you." If you are not above the brick, and do not have dominion over the flesh, but remain in the brick, and love the straw, and live in the flesh according to the flesh, not only shall the burning darts of the enemy devour you, but his sword also shall kill you, and, in the likeness of locusts, whatever seemed green in you, and springing up of its own accord from the goodness of nature, it shall consume with a greedy tooth; and like the bruchus, having lost its flight, and weighed down by its own burden, so too shall you, weighed down by the burden of your sins, be dragged to the earth. Therefore, that you may not suffer such and so great things, multiply yourself like the bruchus, and however great a number it has, have that many virtues yourself.

For because you multiplied your dealings, and, as though desiring to possess heavenly things, gathered together by fair means and foul riches that were to perish for you, you ought to match the multitude of your sins with a multitude of virtues. Above, I proceeded according to the Hebrew as far as the place where it is said: "The sun rose, and they flew away, and the place where they were is not known." And I said what seemed to me in the context of that very passage. Now, because the Seventy seem to have their own particular sense as their starting point, having set forth their testimony, I shall follow the order of the explanation I have begun. LXX: The bruchus rushed forth, and flew away: your mixed multitude leaped up like the attelabus, like the locust that ascends upon the hedge in the day of frost: the sun rose and it leaped up, and it did not know its own place. Woe to them.

It seems to me that the multitude of Nineveh, without a ruler, mixed together here and there without order, and rushing wherever its impulse carries it, is compared to the bruchus, a small and innumerable creature, which seems to raise itself only a little from the ground. But also the attelabus, which in Greek is called συμμικτός, and is translated into Latin as "mixed multitude," we may understand as the ignoble common crowd, and a people gathered together here and there from diverse nations, that is, not citizens but strangers. Whence also the people of Israel who went out of Egypt is said to have had πολὺν σύμμικτον, that is, a great mixed multitude of Egyptians, Ethiopians, and various nations.

So here too, so to speak, the mixed multitude of Nineveh is compared to the leaping attelabus and the locust, which on the day of cold, because it cannot fly away, settles in the hedge, and afterward, when the sun has risen and warmed it with its heat, leaps up, and flying away to other regions, no longer remembers at all the hedge in which it had settled in the time of cold. Let these things be said paraphrastically, that the prophet's own speech may the more easily be understood. For the rest, you cannot doubt that the multitude of men, who, walking along the broad way, are occupied with the world, is called the bruchus, when you see them wholly given over to the earth, running here and there through the levity of their opinion, and unable to fly to higher things. Consider Rome and Constantinople, the latter exchanging its former poverty for its new name.

Consider Alexandria, the capital of Egypt, and when, whether from scarcity of grain, or (which is a matter of shame and blushing) because of charioteers and mimes and actors, sedition has been stirred up, see the people rush together in the likeness of the bruchus, and, wholly given over to vices, flying here and there by its own levity, changing its opinion from moment to moment: then truly you may say: "The bruchus went off with a rush and flew away." Further, what follows, "The attelabus leaped up, and your mixed multitude like the locust," I think the mixed multitude differs from the bruchus in this, that the bruchus is compared to the ignorant and innumerable multitude, while the mixed multitude is gathered here and there from all nations.

And just as some are citizens in cities and others are strangers, who choose to dwell in a city not their own: so I think the mixed multitude, which dwells in Nineveh, consists of those who seem to themselves, according to their own opinion, to follow certain doctrines of truth, and to be better than the bruchus in this, that the bruchus does nothing else but always remain on the ground, and, without wings, serves food and belly: whereas the attelabus at least takes up small wings, and though it cannot fly on high, still strives to leap up from the ground: and at length, arriving at the stage of the locust, it does indeed fly, but its flight is not continuous, for as its little wings fail, and contract with cold, even the locust settles down, and settles not on a fruit-bearing tree, and among green leaves, but in a hedge, woven together of briars and shrubs, or in a wall of stones placed here and there by chance.

Let us consider the wise men of Greece, and of the Egyptians and Persians, and the Gymnosophists of the Indians, and the Samaritans, and the various opinions among them: and the Jews, and their Pharisees, and Sadducees, and the manifold heresies of the Church, and we shall see the attelabus raising itself a little from the ground, and the locust indeed flying, but not with full flight: and because it does not have the warmth of the sun of righteousness, its love toward God growing cold, it settles in the thorny hedges. For all their doctrines, since they are cold and cannot fly, find for themselves a seat and rest among the thorn-bushes of Aristotle and Chrysippus. Hence Eunomius asserts: What is begotten was not before it was begotten. Hence Manichaeus, in order to free God from the responsibility for the creation of evil things, introduces another author of evil. Hence Novatus withdraws forgiveness, in order to abolish penance.

And, to sum up all in a brief statement, all their doctrines draw the streams of their arguments from those same sources, so much so that they have even inscribed the very places from which their arguments are drawn as τοπικά, "commonplaces." This locust, then, which now sits in the hedges, when the time of judgment comes, and the world grows warm at the rising of the sun, will leave its seat and the places in which it clung during the time of cold; and, turned toward better things, will not remember its former seat.

And what we have said generally concerning the time of judgment can also be understood partly now, so that through learned and skilled men the light of the sun of righteousness may rise upon such locusts; and, leaving behind their thorns, they may pass over into pure and free flight. (Verses 18 and following.) Thy shepherds have slumbered, O king of Assur: thy princes shall be buried: thy people is scattered upon the mountains, and there is none to gather them: there is no healing of thy bruise, thy wound is grievous. All that have heard the report of thee have clapped their hands over thee: for upon whom has not thy wickedness passed continually? LXX: Thy shepherds have slumbered: the king of Assur has lulled to sleep your mighty men, your people has gone away upon the mountains, and there was none to receive them, and there is no healing for your bruise, your wound swells. All who hear the report of you shall clap their hands over you: for upon whom has your wickedness not rushed continually?

It is no wonder if your shepherds have slumbered, O king of Assur, you who ruled in Nineveh, and if your princes—that is, the petty kings and leaders of all the nations who formerly served you—are buried or wander about: since your people were women in the midst of your city; and its gates were opened to your enemies, and the whole multitude sitting upon the wall was compared to the locust, which, as the sun grew warm, fled the coming of Nebuchadnezzar from the battlements, and turned its back on the enemy, and its place could not be found. Since God, therefore, was angered, because you had laid waste his people, O Assur, and had raised your nest even up to heaven, whence also you are said to be of great understanding, your city has been destroyed.

And with all your princes slain, who were able to resist the adversaries, the remainder of your people, unwarlike and ignoble, was scattered upon the mountains, and none of the leaders can be found to gather them, and to muster an army again from those gathered. Your wound is not obscure, nor is it such a plague as could be healed by a physician's hand. All who hear that Nineveh has been overthrown, and the Assyrian king overcome, and that the most powerful city and the king who once ruled the city are wounded, and lie half-dead, and wallow in their own blood, will either be stupefied at the greatness of the event and the unlooked-for news, and will clap their hands together, or else, out of the greatness of their joy, exulting over you, will clap their hands and will make a certain noise of gladness.

For there is no one who can grieve over you, and give tears for your overthrow and your wound: because there is no one over whom your wickedness has not always passed. And well does it say "has passed": for the wickedness of the Assyrian king cannot remain permanently among his enemies. Thus far let the order of the text follow the historical narrative.

But we must also, following the Hebrew, before we discuss the edition of the Seventy (for in that the sense is far different and other), ascend a little from the history to the sublime, and show that in this last part of the prophecy of Nahum an apostrophe is made to the devil, the great mind, the prince of the Assyrians, who once boastfully said: "By strength I will act, and by the wisdom of understanding I will remove the boundaries of the peoples, and I will devour their strength, and I will shake the cities that are inhabited", and it is said to him: "O Lucifer, who used to rise in the morning, who sent forth your little fires to all the nations: how have you fallen to the earth, and been crushed"?

Destroyed is Nineveh, your beautiful and powerful city, in which you presumed so great an empire for yourself that you even dared to say to the Son of God: "All these things have been given to me: if you fall down and worship me, I will give them to you". Your shepherds and petty kings have slumbered, who did not feed men unto salvation, but nourished them for your slaughter, that you might devour more fattened victims. All your people and the crowd of peoples, who once worshipped you, have deserted you and your city, and have fled to the mountains, and have placed themselves under the shelter of the apostles of Christ and of the teachers, and meanwhile none of your leaders remains to call your crowd back to himself. Your wound and your plague have resounded through the whole world: all have exulted over you, who had once been deceived by your treachery; for there is either no one, or scarcely anyone, whom you have not at some time deceived, and through whom your wickedness has not passed.

And it must be noted that whoever the wickedness of the devil stands in, he cannot exult over its ruin and wound, since he is one of the shepherds and people of the Assyrian king; but whoever he has passed through, that one exults over him, and, with good and upright works, as it were with hands, claps over him. And fittingly, according to the Hebrew, thus far it has been said concerning the ruin of the world: last of all, concerning the devil himself, who was the prince of the world—for "the whole world lies in the power of the evil one"—his wound and plague are proclaimed.

But according to the Seventy, it is still said with reference to the σύμμικτον, that is, to the mixed multitude of the world, that its shepherds have slumbered, and that, to make them sleep, they have been lulled by the king of Assur; and so it happens that, while what the Assyrian did among others is described, and not what he himself suffers, the devil's wound and plague and slaying are passed over in silence. Woe, therefore, to those who are the teachers of perverse doctrines in Nineveh. And fittingly it is said to them: "Your shepherds have slumbered": for they have given sleep to their eyes, and slumber to their eyelids. And therefore they have not found a place for the Lord, nor a tabernacle for the God of Jacob. Nor have they heard of Ephrata, that is, the fruitful Church; nor have they found her in the thickets of the woods.

Not only, however, have the shepherds of this mixed multitude, and the locust which, as the frost approaches, sits in the hedges, slumbered; but they have also been lulled to sleep by the king of the Assyrians. For the Assyrian king knows that he cannot deceive the sheep, unless he first lulls the shepherds to sleep. It is always the devil's aim to lull watchful souls to sleep. Finally, at the Passion of the Lord too, he weighs down the eyes of the apostles with a heavy slumber, whom the Saviour, rousing them, addresses: "Watch and pray, that you enter not into temptation". And again: "What I say to you, I say to all: watch". And because he never ceases to lull the watchful to sleep, the divine word rouses whomever he has deceived, and, as it were, enticed to sleep by the sweet and pernicious song of the Sirens, and says: "Awake, you who sleep, and arise, and Christ shall give you light".

At the coming, therefore, of Christ, and of the word of God, and of ecclesiastical doctrine, and of the destruction of Nineveh, once the most beautiful of harlots, the people who had before been lulled to sleep under their teachers shall arise and hasten, and shall go to the mountains of the Scriptures, and there shall find the mountains of Moses and of Joshua the son of Nun; the mountains of the prophets; the mountains of the apostles and evangelists of the New Testament: and when he has fled to such mountains, and has occupied himself in the reading of such mountains, if he does not find one to teach him (for "the harvest is great, but the laborers are few,"), then his own zeal will be proved, in that he fled to the mountains, and the negligence of the teachers will be exposed: for it follows, "and there was none to receive them." There follows:

"There is no healing of your bruise, your wound swells." Therefore the mixed multitude of Nineveh cannot be healed, because it does not lay aside its pride, and its wound is always fresh, and it is struck daily by the blow of the devil. And after all this, "there is no healing of its bruise": for though it may seem sound to itself, yet its soul is broken and crushed, struck from above by the hammer of the whole earth, and it is not healed, because it is always lifted up. But if it is humbled, and subjects itself to Christ: "A contrite and humbled heart God does not despise"; and: "The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit." At the end it is placed: "All who hear the report of you shall clap their hands over you.

For upon whom has your wickedness not rushed continually?" When you, O mixed multitude, begin to endure your punishments, all who hear the report will, with a united and vocal clapping, and, so to speak, with the sound and harmony of works, exult over you, and rejoice. For there is no one, or certainly scarcely anyone, upon whom your wickedness has not rushed, or come upon, continually. For if the city of Nineveh has mixed shepherds and strong men, and every false doctrine and lying opinion of knowledge comes from the mixed multitude, it is to be feared lest perhaps there be no one upon whom the wickedness of the mixed multitude has not come.

And observe carefully, that it did not say: "into whom your wickedness has not entered," O mixed multitude, but "upon whom it has not come." For often the darts of false doctrines come upon us, and desire, as it were, to enter into the secret place of the soul: but, as we shut the gates, the mixed multitude does indeed come upon us, and, as far as in it lies, rushes upon us, and always does this: but with Christ the Lord helping, and guarding our heart with every watchfulness, it does indeed come upon us, but cannot enter in. "Fortitudine" instead of "for fortitudine," the Greek text resisting this reading.