Commentary on the Twelve Prophets 1 part 11/19

For when these nations behold these things, they shall be filled with shame, and seeing the weakness of their own power, 'They shall lay hands upon their mouth, and their ears shall be made deaf.'

(v. 17) 'For they shall lick the dust like serpents that drag along the ground; they shall be confounded in their enclosure before the Lord our God;'

'they shall be astonished and afraid of you.' For seeing the prosperity that suddenly comes upon you, and the help supplied by me, they shall not dare even to utter discordant words against you;

writhing, they shall fall down, daring neither to do nor to say anything.

The prophet, having ministered in these words, and being amazed at the divine loving-kindness, cried out:

but whenever, after chastising, you see a little repentance, you overlook the transgressions, you pass over the impieties committed;

which indeed you have now also wrought toward your people.

'He will not be angry to the end, nor will he be wroth for ever;'

'he has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor requited us according to our iniquities.' And so the divine Micah also cries out that He has not kept His anger to the uttermost for the reproof and testimony of the people's transgression, but employing mercy He will turn back.

'He will turn back, and have compassion on us; he will sink our sins, and all our sins shall be cast into the depths of the sea.' Things closely resembling these, the very God of all cries out through Isaiah the prophet:

'I, I am he who blots out your iniquities, and I will remember your sins no more.' For this is the marvel indeed, that he not only forgives, but even casts them out of remembrance, and consigns them, as it were, to oblivion in some abyss.

For indicating this same thing, the blessed Micah also said:

'He will sink our sins, and all our sins shall be cast into the depths of the sea.' For just as that which is cast into the depth of the sea is utterly out of sight;

so, he says, he will also consign our sins to total oblivion, on account of the covenants made with our forefathers.

'He remembered his covenant for ever;'

'the word which he commanded to a thousand generations, which he made with Abraham, and his oath to Isaac;'

but our sins he blots out in the sacred and divine font, of which the Red Sea, according to the divine Apostle, became a type—which the people passed through and were delivered from the servitude of Egypt.

According to that type, let us too, being set free from the tyranny of the devil through the holy font, take thought for our own salvation;

continually hymning our Benefactor, and following his laws, and travelling the path worn smooth by the saints;

that together with them we may attain to the good end of the way, by the grace and loving-kindness of our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom to the Father be glory, together with the Holy Spirit, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages.

The Ninevites, fearing the divine threat which the inspired Jonah proclaimed to them, and employing earnest repentance, found salvation.

For in place of the threatened utter destruction, they enjoyed the divine loving-kindness.

But when a short time had passed, they forgot this ineffable grace, and returning to their former wickedness, they committed countless other lawless deeds, and dared to make expeditions against Israel;

Shalmaneser, having reduced them to slavery, led them away as captives;

and Sennacherib, having campaigned against Judea, both took other cities by siege, and indeed, having dispatched his army against Jerusalem, moved his tongue against the very God of all.

But immediately, invisibly, through a single angel the many myriads were dispatched to death;

and their very king, having escaped this blow, and having become a herald of the God-sent punishment (for it was for this reason that God permitted him to escape unharmed), received the blow in his very palace at the hands of his own offspring.

And a little later, when the kingdom had been transferred to Babylon, this whole royal line was extinguished, and the city was overthrown and given over to utter desolation.

For this reason he delivered Israel, who had acted impiously, to the Assyrians;

but the Assyrians, who had treated them like wild beasts and dealt with them in cruelty, he again requited with many penalties through others.

For neither did they make their campaign against Israel as ministers of the divine will, but employing self-will and insolence, and attempting to extend their own dominion over all.

The God of all permitted them to carry their undertaking into effect, exacting through them penalties from Israel.

But lest he should think that he had accomplished this by his own power, having prevailed over all the other cities, right by the very walls of Jerusalem he struck down the many myriads.

These are the predictions which the prophecy of the blessed Nahum contains;

and now we must make a beginning of the interpretation of the words.

and to some he sounded certain things as he willed, and they seemed to hear someone conversing with them;

into others he breathed the prophecy, and through their tongue uttered what he willed.

For the prophetic grace, suddenly seizing their understanding, and separating them from all things human, prepared them to serve and minister to the prophetic words.

This, then, the prophet called 'a burden' (lēmma)—the seizing of the understanding, and its transference away from human things.

'For my understanding,' he says, 'being seized by the divine Spirit, foresaw the things that would befall Nineveh.'

'God is jealous, and the Lord avenges his adversaries, and himself removes his enemies.' For since, raging against Jerusalem, they employed blasphemous words against the God of all, he fittingly names them adversaries and enemies, and threatens destruction.

And by 'jealousy' he designated righteous anger.

For thus the Lawgiver speaks:

'You shall not make the likeness of anything, of whatever is in heaven above, or whatever is on the earth beneath, or whatever is in the waters under the earth; for I am the Lord your God, a jealous God, a consuming fire.' Thus also the great Elijah says:

'I have been very jealous for the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel'; that is to say, 'I am indignant against those who act impiously toward God.'

'The Lord is longsuffering, and great is His power, and He will by no means clear the guilty.' He does not, he says, bring on punishments at once and immediately, but employing very great longsuffering.

Of this you Ninevites are witnesses, who, having exercised repentance, found salvation; and again, having practiced very great wickedness, have thus far paid no penalty for it.

'He will by no means clear the guilty'; that is to say, He will not release from punishment the one who has committed offenses worthy of chastisement.

'The Lord: in destruction and in whirlwind is His way.' No longer, he says, will the God of all impart to you His lovingkindness, but He will bring on destruction.

To this is like what is said in the psalm:

'All the ways of the Lord are mercy and truth.' For truth involves not lovingkindness alone, but also just punishment.

Here too, then, and there also, 'way' is to be understood as action.

'And the clouds are the dust of His feet.' Very fittingly he has joined the dust to the 'way.'

He means to say that now He will no longer employ longsuffering, but will bring destruction upon you, setting over you from every side the cloud of evils.

And teaching that He easily does whatever He wills, he added:

'Threatening the sea and drying it up, and making all the rivers desolate.' For if He should determine to make all the water of both the sea and the rivers vanish, He will be able to accomplish this in an instant.

And of this He provided the proof from things that have already come to pass.

'Bashan is brought low, and Carmel, and all the blossoms of Lebanon have failed.' For, willing to exact a penalty from those inhabiting Bashan and Carmel and Lebanon, I delivered them into your hands.

But you, having laid waste their lands and sacked their cities and reduced the inhabitants to slavery, gave them over to utter desolation.

'The mountains were shaken by Him, and the hills were moved, and the whole earth recoiled before His face, and all who dwell in it.' For since some supposed that He was the God of the Jews only, the prophet fittingly teaches that with a mere nod He shakes mountains and hills and the whole earth together with its inhabitants.

As for the phrase 'the earth recoiled,' Aquila rendered it 'shuddered.'

'Before the face of His anger who shall stand? And who shall withstand in the anger of His wrath? His wrath melts down principalities, and rocks are shattered by Him.' For if those who pride themselves on their dominions and are supposed to have the strength of rocks He very readily crushes and destroys,

who is able to withstand the chastisement borne down from thence? But just as He readily destroys the boastful, so 'the Lord is good to those who wait for Him in the day of tribulation, and He knows those who reverence Him.'

'And with an overflowing flood He will make a complete end of the place;

and those who rise up and His enemies darkness shall pursue.' For to utter destruction and to perpetual darkness He will deliver those who behave insolently against Him.

For by 'flood' and 'complete end' he named utter destruction.

'What do you devise against the Lord?' What power, he says, do you suppose Him to have? 'He Himself will make a complete end, and He will not take vengeance twice at once in tribulation.' All at once, he says, He will bring the punishment upon you, so that there will be no need of a second blow.

'For down to their foundation they shall be laid waste, and like clinging bindweed they shall be devoured, and like stubble full of dryness.' For just as fire readily consumes dry stubble, and the weed that grows along the hedges and entangles itself especially with the thorns neither allows those to flourish and is itself destroyed in time,

so you, having overthrown the kingdoms of others, shall be stripped even of your own kingdom and shall be given over to destruction.

And showing the justice of the punishment, he added:

'Out of you shall come forth a device against the Lord, plotting wicked things, contrary things.' These things you shall suffer because of the frenzied birth-pangs of your own thinking.

For in those books Sennacherib is recorded, who raged in that blasphemy against the God of all:

'Thus says the great king, the king of the Assyrians:

you trust in Him, that He will deliver Jerusalem out of my hand.' And the other things similar to these.

Pointing out this arrogance of his, God said through the prophet:

'I will visit upon the great mind, the king of the Assyrians'; thus He lays bare the arrogance of his reasonings.

'Thus says the Lord, who rules over many waters, and thus they shall be divided.' By 'multitude of waters' he calls the multitude of the Babylonians who campaigned against Nineveh, which, divided like waters into companies, advanced to the siege of the city.

'And when this has come to pass,' he says, 'your report shall no longer be heard. For you shall be given over to utter oblivion.'

'And now I will break his rod from off you, and I will burst your bonds.' For I will take away from you, He says, the authority which I once gave you;

and I will destroy your dominion, bursting apart its bonds.

For by 'rod' he calls authority;

and this the prophet Isaiah teaches us clearly:

'the rod of my fury and of my wrath is in their hands.'

'And the Lord will give command concerning you.' For at My nod you shall suffer these things.

'There shall no more be sown any of your name.' For your appellation shall no longer be laid upon your subjects;

for it is the custom that the subjects be named from their rulers;

so from Babylon the Babylonians;

and from Cyrus the Persian the Persians;

and the Macedonians afterward from the Macedonians;

and now the Romans from Rome.

'Out of the house of your God I will destroy the graven images, and I will make your grave a molten thing, because you have been dishonored.' Your handmade gods too shall share in your destruction with you, whom you shall hide in the earth and bury as in certain graves, so that they too may not become spoil for the enemy.

'For behold, swift upon the mountains are the feet of one bringing good tidings, and proclaiming peace.' When these things come to pass against you, many shall run bearing to those who dwell in Judea the good tidings of peace.

'Keep your feasts, O Judah; pay to God your vows;

it is finished, it is done away.' You, he says, having heard of the overthrow of the enemy, celebrate the appointed festivals to God, and offer the customary sacrifices;

for he who made his many campaigns against you has undergone utter destruction, and no longer, as it were, will he attempt to consume and to spend you.

'He has come up who breathes into your face, delivering you out of tribulation.' Of these things God is the author for you, having by His own nod, as by a certain breath, destroyed those men, and set you free from their dominion.

For just as, having breathed into Adam the breath of life, He made him a living soul;

so to you, by the breath of life, He grants salvation.

For 'He breathed on them, and said':

But let us return to the historical narrative.

'Watch the way, gird up your loins';

to receive the good tidings brought by those men, and in place of your former cowardice to take up courage.

For this is what he said, 'Gird up your loins';

that is to say, 'Put off your former cowardice.'

So the blessed Elijah girded up his loins and ran before the chariot of Ahab.

So God says to Job:

'Gird up your loins like a man.' And the divine Paul exhorts us to gird up our loins with truth.

Here too, then, He exhorts Judah to take courage, because 'the Lord has turned back the arrogance of Jacob, even as the arrogance of Israel.'

It must be known that the name Jacob was given to Jacob by his fathers;

but the name Israel was given by God;

and the people descended from Jacob shared in both names.

He says, then, that 'For the terrible things that were done to you, Jacob, by the Assyrians, I exacted a penalty from them for the sake of the virtue of the forefather, on account of which I also bestowed on him the appellation Israel.'

(3.) 'The weapons of his dominion are from men.' Just as those who shake off the branches of the vine, he says, destroy the whole crop,

so those enemies who came against these men both dissolved their dominion, and stripped away their full armour, and forced those who had escaped death to serve as slaves.

And showing that they would suffer these things not through weakness, but on account of the sentence pronounced against them by him, he added:

'Mighty men making sport in the fire.' For they employed such great insolence that they even dared to defy the fire itself.

'The reins of their chariots in the day of their preparation, and the horsemen shall be thrown into confusion.'

(4.) 'In the roads the chariots shall be thrown into confusion, and they shall clash together in the broad ways.' For nothing, he says, shall profit you—neither the multitude of your well-equipped chariots, nor the strength of your cavalry;

for by reason of the tumult of the enemies coming upon them, all these things shall become useless, entangling one another in the roads and being trampled down by one another.

'Their appearance is like torches of fire, and like lightnings that dart to and fro.' Indeed, he says, you once had a noble spirit, and you displayed your fierceness through your eyes, and as with certain torches and flashes of lightning you struck terror into your subjects;

but at the assault of the enemies, cowardice instead of courage shall seize you.

For this he indicated through what follows.

'For their nobles shall remember,' he says, 'and shall flee by day, and shall grow faint in their march;

they shall hasten to the walls, and shall prepare their outposts.' For those who once prided themselves greatly on their dominion shall set every means in motion, trying to escape;

and failing in this too, they shall again go up into the fortified enclosures, and shall busy themselves with the defence of the city.

(5.) But nevertheless none the less the gates shall be opened, and the palace shall fall under the enemies' power, and the treasures in the palace shall be seized.

For this he intimated when he said:

'The substance was uncovered.' That is to say, the things long hidden and secured with many bolts became manifest to all.

'And she went up.' He means Nineveh;

'and her handmaids were led away, moaning as doves in their hearts.' Her subject cities and villages shall share her captivity, groaning in their minds and imitating the sound of doves.

'And Nineveh, her waters are like the waters of a pool, and they flee and do not stand, and there was none to look back.' For those who inhabited that city, being so numerous that she was likened to a pool filled with waters and overflowing at the brim, all turned to flight, not even daring to turn back again.

Then he recounts their former injustice.

'For they are laden beyond all her precious vessels.' For against these treasures, he says, the multitude of the enemies shall advance.

according to the peculiar idiom of Scripture.

'A shaking out, and a tossing up, and a seething, and tumult of heart, and loosing of knees, and pangs upon every loin, and the faces of all as the blackening of a pot.' The things that are wont to happen in earthquakes, when the earth is shaken and quivers, these same things he has set down also with respect to the assault of the enemies;

namely, that as their hearts are smitten with dread, the joints of their knees shall be loosed, and they shall be in anguish like women in travail, and their faces, as the blood congeals, shall turn livid, so as to resemble that part of the pot which is wont to come into contact with the fire.

'Where is the dwelling-place of the lions, and the pasture that belonged to the lions' whelps?' And he calls Nineveh the dwelling-place of the lions, the kings the lions, their sons the whelps, and their subject cities the pasture.

Those, he says, who of old dwelt in Nineveh like lions, coming fearlessly upon all and providing food for their whelps—how is it that you now do no such thing, when the enemies have come upon you? And continuing in the figure:

'Whither did the lion go to enter in?' he says. But surely, he says, you were not away on some campaign that you had launched against certain peoples, when the throng of your adversaries fell upon you? But this is not so;

'For there,' he says, 'were the lion's whelps, and there was none to make them afraid.' For not you alone were then at home, but also all the generals, who of old feared no one, but overthrew other kingdoms, and gathered the tribute from thence, and provided food for their offspring.

For this he intimated through what he added:

'The lion seized enough for his whelps, and strangled prey for his lionesses;

and he filled his lair with spoil, and his dwelling-place with plunder.' For the wild beasts are wont to strangle the animals they hunt, and thus to bring food to their offspring.

And the Assyrians likewise, overthrowing the kingdoms of the nations, reaped the tribute from thence.

But for this lawlessness I will exact penalties from you.

'For behold, I am against you, saith the Lord Almighty, and I will burn up your multitude in smoke, and the sword shall devour your lions, and I will cut off your prey from the earth, and your works shall no longer be heard.' Since he had figuratively mentioned above lions, and whelps, and prey, and pasture, fittingly he foretells their destruction also in a figurative manner.

And since hunters, when wild beasts are hidden in certain caves and unwilling to come forth, bring smoke to the entrances and compel them to come out, and receive them upon their spear-points as they come out, fittingly he said that he would deliver the multitude to smoke, and the lions to the sword;

and he signifies the burning of the city and the slaughter of the kings, at whose coming-to-pass the prey too came to an end.

Then in the same manner he also depicts as tragedy her wickedness, calling it wholly false and unjust;

and he describes the terrible things that came upon her, saying that the din of the chariots resembled an earthquake, together with the neighing of the horses and the tumult of the horsemen.

And he strikes terror also by his account of the weapons, saying that the breastplates and the swords flash like lightning.

And he foretells also the multitude of the fallen, and the destruction of the nations that had come together to give aid.

And he says that few are those who are saved from this.

For this he indicated when he said:

'They shall grow faint among their nations.'

(3.) 'From the multitude of harlotry.' For their multitude, he says, shall be reduced to few, both on account of their error concerning the idols and on account of their utter licentiousness;

for both of these he here calls harlotry.

And this the following words teach more clearly:

…he deemed you worthy of the fullest opportunity to repent, yet you devoted yourself to sorcery, and through it you persisted in doing all these things.

'She who sells nations by her harlotry, and tribes by her enchantments.' Not content with your own impiety, you also forced your subjects to hold the same views as yourself.

'I, the Lord of all, will uncover your skirts upon your face, and I will show the nations your shame, and kingdoms your disgrace.'

'And I will cast abomination upon you according to your uncleannesses.' The words, 'I will uncover your skirts upon your face,' are spoken by a metaphor drawn from household slaves who are stripped for greater humiliation and are scourged.

'And I will make you a spectacle.'

(7.) 'And it shall come to pass that everyone who sees you shall go down from you, and shall say:'

He shall go down from you, and shall seek out a manner of lamentation worthy of the desolation.

'Tune a string, make ready, O portion of Ammon, you who dwell among the rivers;

water round about her, whose beginning is the sea, and water are her walls.' These things he enjoins upon Egypt, which suffered terrible and grievous things at the hands of the Assyrians.

And this too we have learned from the other prophets, who foretold to the Israelites that not even by fleeing into Egypt would they obtain safety, but being overtaken there by the enemies they would be delivered to death.

Just as, then, in what was said before he bids Judah keep festival, inasmuch as the kingdom of the Ninevites had been overthrown,

so here too he bids Egypt dance for joy.

And he calls her, as I think, the portion of Ammon, as being dedicated to the demon Ammon.

For this one was of old renowned, so that many even set out thither from Greece for the sake of oracles.

And those who have written the history of Alexander, who first reigned over the Macedonians, say that he too ran to that one, and received oracles from thence.

Since, then, while this deception prevailed, Egypt was attached to this demon above all, he names her the portion of Ammon, and bids her dance for joy, inasmuch as Nineveh had received destruction.

And by 'rivers round about her' he means the canals.

Then he enumerates her allies, the Ethiopians, the Libyans, and the western Libyans, those now called Africans;

for these he called Put.

But nevertheless, even having so many allies, and being encircled by sea and rivers, not even she, he says, shall remain untried by calamities, but shall go into exile as a captive.

'And her infants they shall dash to pieces at the beginnings of her streets, and upon all her glorious things they shall cast lots, and all her nobles shall be bound with fetters.' These things both Nebuchadnezzar wrought upon her, and afterwards Cambyses the son of Cyrus, who, having overthrown her kingdom, compelled her to be subject under his dominion;

and Alexander too, many generations later, brought her under the Macedonian kingdom.

Having foretold these things concerning Egypt, he again transfers his discourse to Nineveh.

'And you too shall be made drunk, and shall be overlooked, and you too shall seek for yourself a stand against your enemies.' For as if delivered to some drunkenness by the calamity, and running hither and thither, you shall seek some deliverance from the terrors that hold you fast, and shall not find it.

And in like manner your fortified cities also shall be handed over to the enemy.

For this he signified by means of the image.

And your valiant soldiers shall differ in nothing from women, being gripped by cowardice.

as the enemy consume it, and as the adversaries burst in through these breaches like a rushing torrent.

For he says, 'Draw for yourself water for the siege.' Then, by way of irony:

'And take firm hold of your strongholds.' Make use, he says, of your power, since you have ramparts, and trenches outside the ramparts.

'Enter into the clay, and be trodden down among the straw; take firm hold, work harder than a brick-maker.'

(15, 16.) 'There fire shall devour you, the sword shall utterly destroy you, and it shall consume you like the locust, and you shall be weighed down like the caterpillar.'

'You have multiplied your merchandise above the stars of heaven.' Do not take courage, he says, in your strongholds;

for from there you shall have no help at all;

but like clay trodden down together with straw for brick-making, so shall you be trodden down by the enemies who come upon you;

and the city they shall set on fire, and you the inhabitants they shall slaughter with weapons of every kind;

and like the locust and the caterpillar they shall consume you all utterly, and the wealth which you gathered from every quarter—wealth that could not easily even be numbered, like the stars of heaven—the foes shall seize.

'The caterpillar rushed forth, and flew away.'

(17.) 'Your mingled multitude leaped up like the grasshopper, like a locust settled upon a fence in a day of frost;

the sun arose, and it flew off, and its place was not recognized.' For just as, he says, the locust and the caterpillar and creatures like them, while dew lies upon them, perch on the bushes, being unable to fly away;

but when the sun's ray strikes them, it rises up, and spreads its wings, and passes over to another place;

so those who came to your aid, when they behold the enemies' assault, will care for their own safety, and taking to flight will leave you alone.

(18.) 'Your shepherds slumbered, the king of Assyria put your mighty men to sleep;

your people departed to the mountains, and there was none to gather them.' And from this it is plain that the divine Scripture also calls the Babylonian an Assyrian.

And thus the outside historians too name him.

For he said that the kings of Nineveh slumbered;

and by sleep he means death.

'At your rebuke, O God of Jacob, they that mounted the horses slumbered.' These, the kings, he said were put to sleep;

'The king of Assyria put your mighty men to sleep.' And when these were slain, 'your people departed to the mountains,' taking to flight, 'and there was none to gather them,' nor any able to withstand.

Then, foretelling the incurableness of the evils:

'There is no healing for your ruin.' Since he had used 'ruin' and 'healing' figuratively, he added in like manner:

'Your wound has festered.' They were handed over, he says, to incurable evils.

'All that hear the report of you shall clap their hands over you, for upon whom has not your wickedness come continually?' Remembering, he says, the evils done to them by you, they will rejoice at your suffering these things, and will clap their hands.