The majesty of God, his goodness to his people, and severity to his enemies.
Niniue shal be destroyed not able to escape Gods powreful wrath. 9. The Asstrians shal not preuaile against Ierusalem: 13. but themselves shal be slaine.
1The burden of Ninive. The book of the vision of Nahum, the Elcesite.Annunzio grave contro di Ninive. Libro della visione di Nahum Elceseo.THE burden of Niniuie. The booke of the vision of Nahum the Elce•e•te.Onus Ninive. Liber visionis Nahum Elcesæi. 2The Lord is a jealous God, and a revenger: the Lord is a revenger, and hath wrath: the Lord taketh vengeance on his adversaries, and he is angry with his enemies.Il Signore è un Dio zelatore, che fa vendetta; il Signore fa vendetta, e si arma di furore; il Signore fa vendetta de' suoi nemici, e serba l'ira pe' suoi nemici.God is ielous, & our Lord reuenging, our Lord reuenging, and hauing furie: our Lord reuenging on his aduerseries, and he is angrie with his enemies.Deus æmulator, et ulciscens Dominus: / ulciscens Dominus, et habens furorem: / ulciscens Dominus in hostes suos, / et irascens ipse inimicis suis. 3The Lord is patient, and great in power, and will not cleanse and acquit the guilty. The Lord’s ways are in a tempest, and a whirlwind, and clouds are the dust of his feet.Il Signore paziente, e grande in possanza, né avrà alcuno per mondo, e per innocente. Il Signore cammina tralle tempeste, e i turbini, e sotto i suoi piedi una nebbia di polvere.Our Lord is patient, and great of strength and clensing, he wil not make innocent. Our Lords wayes in tempest, and whirle wind, and clowdes the dust of his feete.Dominus patiens, et magnus fortitudine, / et mundans non faciet innocentem. / Dominus in tempestate et turbine viæ ejus, / et nebulæ pulvis pedum ejus. 4He rebuketh the sea and drieth it up: and bringeth all the rivers to be a desert. Basan languisheth and Carmel: and the flower of Libanus fadeth away.Egli sgrida il mare, e lo asciuga, e i fiumi tutti cangia in arida terra: rende sterile il Basan, e il Carmelo, e languiscono i fiori del Libano.Rebuking the sea, and driyng it vp: and bringing al riuers to a desert. Basan is weakened and Carmel: & the floure of Libanus is faided.Increpans mare, et exsiccans illud, / et omnia flumina ad desertum deducens. / Infirmatus est Basan et Carmelus, / et flos Libani elanguit. 5The mountains tremble at him, and the hills are made desolate: and the earth hath quaked at his presence, and the world, and all that dwell therein.Per lui sono scosse le montagne, e le colline son desolate; dinanzi a lui trema la terra, e il mondo tutto, e tutti quei, che lo abitano.The mountaines were moued at him, and the hilles were desolate: and the earth hath trembled at his presence, and the world, and al that dwel therin.Montes commoti sunt ab eo, / et colles desolati sunt: / et contremuit terra a facie ejus, / et orbis, et omnes habitatores in eo.
6Who can stand before the face of his indignation? and who shall resist in the fierceness of his anger? his indignation is poured out like fire: and the rocks are melted by him.Chi sussister potrà all'apparir del suo sdegno? E chi potrà a lui resistere irato, e in furore? L'indegnazione di lui divampa qual fuoco, e da esso i massi sono squagliati.Befote the face of his indignation who shal stand? and who shal resist in the wrath of his furie? his indignation is powred out as fire: and the rockes are dissolued by him.Ante faciem indignationis ejus quis stabit ? / et quis resistet in ira furoris ejus ? / Indignatio ejus effusa est ut ignis, / et petræ dissolutæ sunt ab eo. 7The Lord is good, and giveth strength in the day of trouble: and knoweth them that hope in him.Buono il Signore, e consola nel giorno di tribolazione; e conosce quelli, che sperano in lui:Our Lord is good, and strenghning in the day of tribulation: and knowing them that hope in him.Bonus Dominus, / et confortans in die tribulationis, / et sciens sperantes in se. 8But with a flood that passeth by, he will make an utter end of the place thereof: and darkness shall pursue his enemies.Egli con impetuosa inondazione distruggerà la sede di lei, e i nemici di lui dalle tenebre saran perseguitati.And in a floud passing by, he wil make a consummation of the place therof: & darkenes shal pursew his enemies.Et in diluvio prætereunte consummationem faciet loci ejus, / et inimicos ejus persequentur tenebræ. 9What do ye devise against the Lord? he will make an utter end: there shall not rise a double affliction.Che andate voi macchinando contro il Signore? Egli farà fine: non verrà doppia tribolazione.VVhat thinke ye against our Lord? consumation he wil make: there shal not rise duble tribulation.Quid cogitatis contra Dominum ? / Consummationem ipse faciet: / non consurget duplex tribulatio, 10For as thorns embrace one another: so while they are feasting and drinking together, they shall be consumed as stubble that is fully dry.Perocché costoro, che ne' conviti sbevazzano insieme, saran consunti come le spine, che tra loro s'intrecciano, e come aridissima paglia.Because as thornes claspe one an other: so the feast of them that drinke together: they shal be consumed as stuble ful of drienes.quia sicut spinæ se invicem complectuntur, / sic convivium eorum pariter potantium; / consumentur quasi stipula ariditate plena. 11Out of thee shall come forth one that imagineth evil against the Lord, contriving treachery in his mind.Da te uscirà colui, che mal pensa contro il Signore, che ha in testa iniqui disegni.Out of thee shal come forth one that thinketh malice against our Lord in the minde deuising preuarication.Ex te exibit cogitans contra Dominum malitiam, / mente pertractans prævaricationem.
12Thus saith the Lord: Though they were perfect: and many of them so, yet thus shall they be cut off, and he shall pass: I have afflicted thee, and I will afflict thee no more.Queste cose dice il Signore: Quantunque ei siano fortissimi, e anche in maggior numero, contuttociò saranno recisi, e passeranno. Io ti ho afflitto, ma non ti affliggerò di più.Thus saith our Lord: If they shal be perfect: and so a grear manie, so also shal they be shorne, and he shal passe by: I haue afflicted thee, and I wil afflict thee no more.Hæc dicit Dominus: / Si perfecti fuerint, et ita plures, / sic quoque attondentur, et pertransibit: / afflixi te, et non affligam te ultra. 13And now I will break in pieces his rod with which he struck thy back, and I will burst thy bonds asunder.E la verga di lui romperò infesta al tuo dorso, e spezzerò le tue catene.And now I wil breake his rod from of thy backe, and I wil burst thy bondes in sunder.Et nunc conteram virgam ejus de dorso tuo, / et vincula tua disrumpam. 14And the Lord will give a commandment concerning thee, that no more of thy name shall be sown: I will destroy the graven and molten thing out of the house of thy God, I will make it thy grave, for thou art disgraced.Il Signore pronunzierà contro di te questa sentenza: non rimarrà più seme del tuo nome: sterminerò le statue, e gl'idoli di getto dalla casa del Dio tuo, e farolla tuo sepolcro, e tu sarai disprezzato.And Our Lord wil command vpon thee, there shal not be sowen of thy name any more: out of the house of thy God I wil destroy sculptil, & molten, I wil put thy graue, because thou art dishonored.Et præcipiet super te Dominus; / non seminabitur ex nomine tuo amplius: / de domo Dei tui interficiam sculptile, et conflatile; / ponam sepulchrum tuum, quia inhonoratus es. 15Behold upon the mountains the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, and that preacheth peace: O Juda, keep thy festivals, and pay thy vows: for Belial shall no more pass through thee again, he is utterly cut off.Ecco sui monti i piedi di colui, che annunzia la buona novella: annunzia la pace: celebra, o Giuda, le tue solennità, e sciogli i tuoi voti; perocché non passerà mai più Belial per le tue terre: egli è perito interamente.Behold vpon the mountaines the feete of him that Euangalizeth, and preacheth peace: celebrate ô Iuda thy festiuities, & render thy vowes: because Belial shal no more adde to passe through thee, he is wholly perished.Ecce super montes pedes evangelizantis, / et annuntiantis pacem. / Celebra, Juda, festivitates tuas, / et redde vota tua, / quia non adjiciet ultra ut pertranseat in te Belial: / universus interiit.
1:1
Year of the World about 3264, Year before Christ 740.
Worthington
Burden, or threat. (Worthington)
Theodoret
Septuagint, "assumption," (Haydock) when the prophet saw in spirit the impending ruin. (Theodoret)
Worthington
Allegorically, Nahum is "the comforter" of the just, shewing that God will avenge their cause against Ninive, "the beautiful," and destroy the world, (kosmos, which also means "beautiful,") after which the saints shall reign in eternal glory. (Worthington)
Calmet
We have described Ninive, Jonas 1:(Calmet)
Usher
It was overturned first in the year of the world 3257, and again in the year 3378. (Usher)
Calmet
Elcesite. Some think that Elcesai was the father of Nahum; but most suppose that it was a village Galilee. (Calmet)
1:2
Calmet
The Lord. The six following verses (Haydock) tend to excite attention. (Calmet)
1:3
Haydock
Cleanse. Literally, "cleansing, he will not make innocent." (Haydock)
Calmet
The same expression is rendered, No man of himself is innocent before thee, Exodus 34:7. (Calmet)
Haydock
Septuagint, "the innocent he will not deem innocent." (Haydock)
Haydock
No man is perfect in God’s sight, (Calmet) though they may appear to be such to others. (Haydock)
None can escape punishment, if he be treated with rigour. De Dieu translates, "he will not utterly evacuate," or destroy, which seems very correct, Jeremias 30:11., and Numbers 14:18.
Dust. He walks upon them as we do on dry land.
1:4
Languisheth. The most fruitful places produce nothing, when God is angry.
1:5
Made. Septuagint, "shaken."
Calmet
Quaked. Hebrew and Septuagint, "risen." (Calmet)
1:6
Like fire. Septuagint, "melts kingdoms."
1:7
Haydock
Hope. Septuagint, "fear." He approves of his faithful servants. (Haydock)
1:8
Challoner
Thereof; viz. of Ninive. (Challoner)
Haydock
This is connected with Ver. 1. (Haydock)
Diod. ii
Ninive was taken by the waters of the Tigris overflowing, at the first siege. (Diod. ii.; Athen. xii.)
Calmet
The like might happen at the second, though profane authors be silent. (Calmet)
Haydock
Septuagint, "He will utterly destroy: those who rise up and his enemies, darkness," etc. (Haydock)
Calmet
Chaldean, The.[Theodotion?] and Aq.[Aquila?] adopt the same sense, but Symmachus, etc., agree with us. (Calmet)
1:9
Haydock
Affliction. Septuagint add, "for the same thing, or together." (Haydock)
Origen † AD 253
Many hence infer, that those who have been slain by God, like the Sodomites, etc., will not be condemned to hell. (Origen, 1:Ezec.; St. Jerome.; St. Thomas Aquinas, 3. p. q. 59. a. 5.)
Calmet
But this principle cannot be always correct. (Calmet)
St. Gregory
Their temporal suffering might usher in eternal ones. (St. Gregory, Mor. 18:12.)
Calmet
Ninive shall perish; so that a second blow will not be requisite, 1 Kings 26:8. (Drusius) (Calmet)
1:10
Worthington
Dry. The Assyrians, feasting in the hopes that they would speedily become masters of Jerusalem, were cut off in one night. (Worthington)
Calmet
God's enemies cannot escape; as when a thorn bush has taken fire, all must perish, Psalm 57:10., and Isaias 9:18. (Calmet)
1:11
Challoner
Forth. Some understand this of Sennacherib. But as his attempt against the people seems to have been prior to the prophecy of Nahum, we may better understand it of Holofernes. (Challoner)
Haydock
One. Septuagint, "a most wicked thought against the Lord, devising opposition." (Haydock)
Calmet
We may render, "hath come," etc., alluding to Sennacherib and Rabsaces, Isaias 36:18.; Isaias 37:23. (Calmet)
1:12
Challoner
Perfect. That is, however strong or numerous their forces may be, they shall be cut off, and their prince or leader shall pass away and disappear. (Challoner)
Haydock
If there were many just at Ninive, or among the Jews, (Calmet) a moderate chastisement would suffice. (Haydock)
Haydock
The latter have been afflicted; now their enemies shall suffer. Septuagint have read otherwise: (Calmet) "the Lord, reigning over the great waters; thus shall they be divided, and thou shalt be heard of no more." (Haydock)
1:13
Calmet
Asunder. Ezechias was tributary to Assyria, 4 Kings 18:14. After the fall of Ninive, its yoke was removed. (Calmet)
1:14
Challoner
Commandment. That is, a decree concerning thee, O king of Ninive, thy seed shall fail, etc. (Challoner)
Worthington
His son Asarhaddon succeeded; but soon the line was extinct. (Worthington)
No alarm shall be spread by thee.
Haydock
Grave. Sennacherib was slain in the temple: (Isaias 37:38.; Calmet) or the idols were deemed unclean by the victors. (Eurip.[Euripides?] Troad.) (Haydock)
1:15
Peace. Sentinels were established on the hills.
Haydock
Festivals. St. Jerome quotes the Book of Paralipomenon as saying (Calmet) that the Jews could not observe the Passover in the first month. But they did it in the second, after they knew that Sennacherib was slain, 2 Paralipomenon xxxii. (Haydock)
Calmet
This passage does not, however, appear at present in Scripture, and it could not speak of the second month (Calmet) following Nisan, (Haydock) as the king was slain forty-five days (Tobias 1:22.; Greek, 55.) after his return to Ninive; and some time must have elapsed before he could get thither, and the news arrive in Judea. (Calmet)
Challoner
Belial; the wicked one, viz. the Assyrian. (Challoner)
1:8
Of the place thereof.... Viz., of Ninive.
1:11
Shall come forth one, etc.... Some understand this of Sennacherib. But as his attempt against the people seems to have been prior to the prophecy of Nahum, we may better understand it of Holofernes.
1:12
Though they were perfect, etc.... That is, however strong or numerous their forces may be, they shall be cut off; and their prince or leader shall pass away and disappear.
1:14
Will give a commandment.... That is, a decree, concerning thee, O king of Ninive, thy seed shall fail, etc.
1:15
1:1
Burden signifieth comminatorie & pen siue prophecie of ruine and punishment. Allegorically Nahum according to his name, comforteth the iust, shevving that God vvil reuenge them by destroying Niniue the beautiful great citie, that is, the terrestrial vvorld called cosmos beautful, and then reward his Sainctes in eternal glorie.
1:10
The Assirians accounting themselues assured to take and spoile Ierusalem, and therupon banketting and drinking were defeated al in one night.
1:14
To Senacherib succeded his sorne Asar haddon, but presently after the vvhole lineage vvas destroyed ••g ••.
1:15
1:1
St Gregory of Nazianzus † AD 389 Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen 16.16
… Nahum the Elkoshite was afraid before me, when he proclaimed the burden of Nineveh, God is jealous, and the Lord takes vengeance in wrath upon His adversaries,
1:3
St Jerome † AD 420 Against the Pelagians 2
Nahum i. 3 . Though he cleanse, yet will he not make thee innocent.
1:4
Tertullian † AD 220 The Five Books Against Marcion 4.20
… As psalm is, in fact, accomplished by this crossing over the lake. “The Lord,” says the psalmist, “is upon many waters.” When He disperses its waves, Habakkuk’s words are fulfilled, where he says, “Scattering the waters in His passage.” When at His rebuke the sea is calmed, Nahum is also verified: He rebuketh the sea, and maketh it dry,”
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Homilies on First Corinthians 34
… Matt. xii. 38; John vi. 31; Philip. iii. 19 .) Since then they were proving Him by these things, He saith to them, “This is also possible with God to make both rich and poor;” not that it is of course He Himself who maketh them, but that He can, when He will. Just as when he saith, “Who rebuketh the sea, and maketh it dry, and drieth up all the rivers,” (
1:5
St Cyprian of Carthage † AD 258 Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews 3.21
… and the earth was laid bare before His face, and all who dwell therein. From the face of His anger who shall bear it, and who withstandeth in the fury of His soul? His rage causes the beginnings to flow, and the rocks were melted by Him. The Lord is good to those who sustain Him in the day of affliction, and knoweth those who fear Him.”
1:9
St Basil the Great † AD 379 The Letters 188
Herein, as I suppose, the ancient authorities followed the old rule “Thou shalt not avenge twice for the same thing.”
St Basil the Great † AD 379 The Letters 199
XXXI. A woman whose husband has gone away and disappeared, and who marries another, before she has evidence of his death, commits adultery. Clerics who are guilty of the sin unto death are degraded from their order, but not excluded from the communion of the laity. Thou shalt not punish twice for the same fault.
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 68
… When once the doctor gives over caring for the patient, it is a sign that he despairs. You should answer thus: “as Lazarus in his lifetime received evil things so will I now gladly suffer torments that future glory may be laid up for me.” For “affliction shall not rise up the second time.”
1:14
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 City of God 18.31
… For lo, the feet of Him that bringeth good tidings and announceth peace are swift upon the mountains! O Judah, celebrate thy festival days, and perform thy vows; for now they shall not go on any more so as to become antiquated. It is completed, it is consumed, it is taken away. He ascendeth who breathes in thy face, delivering thee out of tribulation.”
1:15
Tertullian † AD 220 The Five Books Against Marcion 4.13
… “I am present, while it is the hour, upon the mountains, as one that bringeth glad tidings of peace, as one that publisheth good tidings of good.” So one of the twelve (minor prophets), Nahum: “For behold upon the mountain the swift feet of Him that bringeth glad tidings of peace.”
St Athanasius of Alexandria † AD 373 Festal and Personal Letters of Athanasius 1
… And not from me should these things be learned, but the sacred voice of the prophet foretold, crying; ‘Behold upon the mountains the feet of Him that bringeth good tidings, and publisheth peace
St Athanasius of Alexandria † AD 373 Festal and Personal Letters of Athanasius 3
… but obeying the voice of truth, we together with you cry aloud in the day of the feast. For the God of all hath commanded, saying, ‘Speak , and the children of Israel shall keep the Passover.’ And the Spirit exhorts in the Psalm; ‘Blow the trumpet in the new moons , in the solemn day of your feast.’ And the prophet cries; ‘Keep thy feasts, O Judah
St Athanasius of Alexandria † AD 373 Festal and Personal Letters of Athanasius 6
… For that God who brought Israel out of Egypt, even He at this time calls us to the feast, saying by Moses, ‘Observe the month of new fruits , and keep the Passover to the Lord thy God :’ and by the prophet, ‘Keep thy feasts, O Judah; pay to the Lord thy vows
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 53.8
… Micah the Morasthite a joint heir with Christ announces the spoiling of the daughter of the robber and lays siege against her, because she has smitten the jawbone of the judge of Israel. Nahum, the consoler of the world, rebukes “the bloody city” and when it is overthrown cries:—“Behold upon the mountains the feet of him that bringeth good tidings.”
John Cassian † AD 435 The Conferences of John Cassian 21.23
… and after a brief show of carnal joy we begin to mourn our lost purity of heart with a lasting sorrow of repentance. Moreover we should strive that this warning of the prophetic exhortation may not be uttered against us to no purpose: “Celebrate, O Judah, thy festivals, and pay thy vows.”
1:1
Verse 1. 1. The burden of Ninive. — "Burden," that is, a burdensome and calamitous prophecy, which is imposed like a heavy burden and yoke upon the neck of Ninive, as upon a wanton heifer, so that it may lead her to slaughter, that God may slay and sacrifice her. Whence the Chaldean translator renders it, the burden of the cup of malediction. See what I said concerning the word burden in Isaiah chapter XIII, 1. For burden the Septuagint translates as λήμμα, that is, assumption, namely a burden which is assumed; which Theophylactus explains otherwise and variously. First, according to the letter, as if to say, Assumed, lifted up, and "my mind was seized by the spirit, and foresaw what was to befall Ninive." Second, "it appears that he calls lemma the reason and amazement which was called rapture. And St. Jerome in the Preface to Isaiah: "Nor indeed," he says, "as Montanus with mad women (Prisca and Maximilla, his prophetesses) [held that] the dreams of the Prophet in ecstasy were spoken, so that they knew not what they were saying; and while they instructed others, they themselves knew not what they said, of whom the Apostle says: Not knowing what they speak; but according to Solomon (a wise man understands what he brings forth from his mouth, and in his lips he carries knowledge) they themselves also knew what they said. For if the Prophets were wise, which we cannot deny, how, like brute animals, did they not know what they were saying?" And St. Chrysostom, homily 29 on I Corinthians: "This," he says, "is proper to a seer, to be moved in mind, and necessarily compelled, and drawn as if driven by furies: But a Prophet is not of this sort, but with a sober mind, and modest, and firm, he knows all that he speaks, as is fitting." Therefore the vision of the Prophets was not an arbitrary ecstasy, but a mental understanding, by which they saw, that is, understood, those things which were shown and revealed to them by God, as I said in Isaiah chapter 1, 1. Furthermore, Nahum calls his prophecy both a burden and a vision, because it was burdensome to the Ninevites, and the same was a consoling vision to the Israelites; for he consoles them from the destruction of Ninive and Sennacherib. Elcesaei, — descended from Elcese, a village of Galilee, concerning which St. Jerome in the Proem: "Some," he says, "think that Helkesaeus was the father of Nahum, and according to Hebrew tradition he himself was also a prophet, since Helkesai is even today a village in Galilee, small indeed, and scarcely showing traces by the ruins of ancient buildings; but nevertheless known to the Jews, and also shown to me by my guide." Thus also Epiphanius in the Life of Nahum, the Chaldean, Theophylactus, Remigius, Lyra, Hugo, Ribera, a Castro and others throughout. Wherefore some less correctly with Vatablus think that Nahum was surnamed Elcesaeus from a family. Furthermore, symbolically Elcesaeus in Hebrew is the same as late, tardy (whence from the same root is derived the name לקש lekes, or מלקוש malcos, signifying late rain); wherefore it aptly denotes the late and tardy vengeance of God to be exercised upon Ninive, which Nahum, as if late, announces to her after Jonah. For God is slow to punish, but compensates the slowness of punishment with its severity, according to that saying of the ancients: "The gods have woolen feet, but iron hands." Wherefore Arias thinks that the oracle of Jonah was as it were an early rain, which causes crops to germinate: but the prophecy of Nahum is as it were a late rain which ripens the harvest; for he announces to the Ninevites an impending calamity and reaping of the nation and kingdom. 2. God the zealous, and the Lord avenging. — In Hebrew: God (or mighty, for this is אל el) zealous, and the avenger is Jehovah; Syriac: God zealous and avenging. As if to say, Jehovah is God zealous, who with great zeal guards his faithful, equally as justice and piety; and therefore he sharply punishes and avenges the unfaithful and tyrants, who vex and oppress the faithful and innocent. For his zeal does not bear that faith and justice be trampled by the impious, or that their injuries remain unavenged and unpunished. Wherefore he, as zealous, will strike you with grave vengeance, O Assyrians and Ninevites, because you have often invaded and laid waste his faithful people, namely the Israelites. Thus zeal embraces two, and those contrary, acts. The first is great love and care in guarding the thing loved, namely his people; the latter is great wrath and desire to punish those who have dared to harm and afflict the people loved by him. Whence for God zealous, the Zurich Bible translates, God taking ill the injuries; the Chaldean, God the judge. For it is the judge's part to guard the just and justice, and to punish the unjust and their injuries. Zealous therefore is the same as vehement and ardent lover of his own, and avenger of enemies.
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Whence the Prophet here repeats a third time that He avenges, to signify that God is a most severe avenger, and will most severely punish the Ninevites, because after the warning of Jonah they relapsed into their former crimes, and a third time, that is often, invaded and plundered the people of God. Behold here and marvel at the zeal and, so to speak, jealousy of our God toward His faithful ones and sons, whom when He has scourged, He immediately turns His indignation upon the very scourges themselves; and therefore against His enemies He rises up as a sharp avenger, and is vehemently angry with them; just as a father scourging his sinning son feels the pain of the struck son with far more compassion than the son himself feels it in being beaten; whence presently turning his fury upon the rod itself, he breaks it, cuts it into pieces and casts it away, and soon, wholly bathed in tears, falling upon the neck of his weeping son, amid sweet embraces, he heals his grief and sorrow with joyful and most pleasing promises. Thus does God here toward Israel: wherefore caressing him, verse 12, He says: "I have afflicted thee, and I will afflict thee no more." Finally, God is jealous, because He alone wishes to be loved by the Church and by the holy soul, nor does He suffer any rival in love. Having fury. — In Hebrew בעל חמה baal chema, that is, a man of wrath, or lord of fury, that is, having fury; for baal, that is, lord of something, is called he who has and possesses it. Thus a husband is called baal, that is, lord of the wife, that is, having or possessing a wife, as if to say: Do you think, O Ninevites, that God lacks wrath, because He has so long dissimulated your crimes and left them unpunished? You are deceived: for He has in Himself and gathers together an immense fury, which in His own time, like a torrent of fire, He will pour out upon you. The bee, while it pours forth honey, draws back and hides its sting; but if anyone attempts to seize this honey, it immediately draws out its sting against him; thus also God pours forth the honey of His gifts to His own, but reserves the sting of punishments for the impious. This is evident in the blessed and the damned. For as great as is the happiness and glory of the blessed, so great is the unhappiness and misery of the damned; for these drink the most bitter gall of wrath, just as those drink the sweetest honey of the grace and love of God. Mystically, God is called lord of wrath and fury, because He rules over them; men who are angry and furious, powerless over themselves, are ruled by anger and fury: but God is not ruled by them, but rules them at His nod, places them, exerts them, moderates them, just as a shepherd rules a sheep. Angry Himself against His enemies. — In Hebrew נוטר noter, that is, keeping, namely the memory of offenses, and their vengeance, and the desire of avenging. Whence Pagninus translates: Wrath reserved for His enemies; the Zurich Bible: Mindful of injuries against His foes; the Septuagint: Taking up His enemies Himself, and that in vehement wrath, as the Chaldean says. God therefore gathers in His mind, and as it were lays up in a treasury wrath, that in His own time He may pour it all out upon the impious, says Mariana. 3. The Lord Patient. — In Hebrew, Jehova longis, that is, broad, nostrils, that is, slow to wrath, as Vatablus translates, and long-suffering, as the Septuagint translates. Whence the Chaldean translates: The Lord far drives away wrath; the Arabic: The Lord prolonging, tolerating, patient. For those who have long, that is, broad and wide, nostrils easily breathe out and exhale the fumes of wrath and bile, and therefore are long-suffering; but those who have narrow ones exhale them with difficulty, and therefore are choleric, as I said at Exodus chapter XXXII, 28, as if to say: God, although He has wrath and fury, nevertheless patiently bears with you and your crimes, O Ninevites, because He waits for you to repent. Thus the philosopher Athenodorus, bidding farewell to Caesar Augustus, gave him this as a golden and divine precept: "When angry, say or do nothing until you have gone through the 24 letters of the Greeks." Thus Suetonius in Augustus.
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And mighty in strength. — Vatablus, powerful in strength; the Arabic, his strength is very great; others, mighty in virtue, or power, that is to say, God is not led by anger and weakness of spirit, but is able to restrain his anger within himself as long as he wishes; and yet he punishes in his own time. "God," says St. Jerome, "by the strength of his magnanimity sustained the iniquities of the Ninevites, calling them to repentance." For God is of such an exalted and strong spirit that he is neither irritated by offenses nor broken by rejection; nor is he overcome by any multitude or magnitude of crimes, so as to rush forth in fury to vengeance, but he knows and is able to sustain his anger, so that, if men repent, he may have mercy and spare them; if they are obstinate, he waits for the opportune time in which to strike them, and pours out all the fury collected over so long a time upon them in one assault. For as great as God's patience has been in waiting, so great will be his power and fury in avenging, according to that passage of St. Paul to the Romans, II, 4: "Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness, and patience, and longsuffering? knowest thou not that the benignity of God leadeth thee to penance?" that is, strives to lead thee: "But according to thy hardness and impenitent heart, thou treasurest up to thyself wrath against the day of wrath, and revelation of the just judgment of God." Which words St. Augustine explains in book I Against the Adversaries of the Law and the Prophets: "He," he says, "increases longsuffering, and thou increasest iniquity. His treasure will be in eternal mercy, but for those who have not despised mercy: but thy treasure will be found in wrath, and what thou layest down daily little by little, thou shalt afterwards find to be a great mass. Thou addest bit by bit, but afterwards thou shalt find a heap. Do not regard thy small daily sins; for from the smallest drops rivers are filled." Whence Nahum also adds: And cleansing shall not make the innocent, that is to say, In no way will God show you, O Ninevites, to be clean and innocent by keeping silent, suffering, and dissembling; but rather by punishing in his own time will he show you to be most guilty. Hence the Chaldean translates: He will forgive the penitent, but will not forgive the impenitent; the Zurich: Mighty in strength, but in no way letting crimes go unpunished; Vatablus: Absolving will not absolve: for to absolve is not to punish, and in fact to declare the guilty one to be pure and innocent, that is to say, Even if God does not punish the wicked immediately, he does not on that account absolve them; but at length he will take vengeance upon them. Whence the Syriac translates: And justifying does not justify; the Arabic of Antioch: And cleansing does not cleanse; the Arabic of Alexandria: And clean without cleansing. Nahum alludes to Moses, who gives the same epithets to God, Exodus xxxv, 28, and Numbers xiv, 18. See the remarks there. Theophylactus gives two other versions of this passage. The first is: Being without harm is not without harm, that is to say, God, since he is without harm and blemish, punishes nevertheless the guilty, and brings upon them deserved harm. The latter: Innocent without harm he does not let go, that is to say, In the common destruction and the ruin of Nineveh, he will destroy the innocent with the guilty, because he will bring upon all a common ruin. Mystically St. Jerome, taking all these things in a good sense: "God is patient," he says, "who sustains all who are falling, and raises up the cast down: who heals the troubled in heart, and binds up their bruises. And great is his strength: dissolving enmities in the flesh, and not making the guilty innocent; since even he who applauds himself too much, when reproved, learns that he is saved not by his own merit, but by God's mercy. For although he may say: Behold I serve thee so many years, and never transgressed thy commandment; yet because the Lord is good to all, and his mercy is over all his works; and all have sinned, and need the glory of God, he shall hear from him, justified freely: Is thy eye evil, because I am good? And Morally: Note that patience is true strength. For God is mighty in strength because he is patient. Truly the Poet: He is stronger who conquers himself than he who conquers the strongest walls. And another: Thou shalt reign more widely by taming the greedy spirit than if thou joinest Libya to the distant Gadira, and both Carthaginians serve one. Indeed the Wise Man, Proverbs xvi, 32: "Better," he says, "is a patient man than a strong man: and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city." And the Psalmist, Psalm vii, 12: "God is a just judge, strong and patient." And Ecclesiastes, cap. VII, 9: "Better is the patient than the arrogant." The Wise Man gives the reason, Proverbs XIV, 29, saying: "He that is patient is governed by much prudence:" for prudence is the teacher and mother of fortitude. Indeed Cicero also: "To conquer the spirit," he says, "to restrain anger, etc., he who does this, I do not compare him to the greatest men, but I judge him most like to God." The Lord in tempest and whirlwind in the way thereof, — that is to say, The ways of the Lord are in tempest and whirlwind. This is a Hebraism: for the Hebrews by pleonasm express the relative with its antecedent, namely Lord and his, whereas the Latins omit one or the other. Whence the Zurich Bible, Vatablus and Pagninus translate: The way of the Lord is through whirlwind and storm; which Vatablus explaining says: "When, he says, the Lord determined to afflict someone, he afflicts vehemently and swiftly;" for tempest has vehemence, whirlwind has swiftness, which in an instant sweeps together and carries away all things with it. Note here a poetic catachresis, by which graphically the strength, battle and vengeance of God is described, as if coming and rushing upon his enemies the Assyrians with great force and noise. It is similar to Psalm XVII, 10 and following. Whence the Prophet soon compares it to a great army, which hastening stirs up dust with its feet, and by it darkens the air, according to that of Virgil, Aeneid IX: Here the Teucrians see a sudden cloud gathering in black dust and darkness rising over the fields; First from the opposing mass Caicus cries out, What globe, O citizens, is wrapped in dark haze? The enemy is at hand. For he says: "And clouds dust of his feet," that is, as Pagninus: And darkness as the dust of his feet shall be. This phrase and parable therefore signifies symbolically: first, the great power, wrath and fury of God in invading Nineveh and the Assyrians; second, that God not rarely sends forth storms, winds and whirlwinds against his enemies, by which he crushes them, as in the year 1572, in the naval battle of Christians with Turks at Naupactus — he suddenly turned an adverse wind to the Christians, and made it adverse to the Turks, and favorable to the Christians: which was the cause of the illustrious victory which the Christians then obtained by the aid of the Blessed Virgin. He did the same for the Emperor Theodosius fighting against Eugenius the tyrant. Which Claudian admiring exclaims in the Panegyric of Theodosius: O too much beloved of God, to whom Aeolus pours forth from his caves armed winters, etc., and turned back missiles against their authors, and repelled spears with a whirlwind. He did the same to Pharaoh and the Egyptians in the Red Sea, as I said on Exodus xiv, to which Nahum here alludes. Third, this phrase signifies the innumerable forces of the Medes and Chaldeans, by which God with great force invaded and laid waste Nineveh; for these forces truly stirred up great dust with their feet, horses and chariots. Whence the Chaldean translates: The Lord in whirlwind and spirit shows himself as leader, and placed a cloud of darkness before him. Hence concerning the cavalry of Nebuchadnezzar Ezekiel says, cap. xxvi, 10: "With the multitude of his horses he shall cover thee with dust of them." Fourth, the word clouds, says Arias, signifies symbolically that God so surrounds and strikes down his enemies, and cuts off all exits of escape, that they themselves, as if preoccupied by dense clouds and darkness of shadows, are in no way able to guard themselves, or seek safety by flight, much less to resist and fight back. For God, as master of all things, has at hand mountains, winds, sea, rivers, hail, very many and most powerful thunderbolts, which like soldiers of God keep watch at his nod, and rush upon enemies, according to that Psalm CXLVIII, 8: "Fire, hail, snow, ice, spirits of storms, which do the word of him." Hence God is called the God of Sabaoth, that is of armies, both angelic and human and of all creatures. Allegorically, these will be more truly fulfilled on the day of judgment, when, as the Wise Man says, cap. v, 18: "He will arm creation for the vengeance of enemies, etc., and the whole world will fight with him against the senseless. The emissions of lightnings will go forth directly, and as from a well-bent bow of clouds will be destroyed, and will leap to a fixed place. And from the rocky (πετροβόλου, that is stone-throwing) wrath full hail will be sent, the water of the sea will grow hot against them, and rivers will run hard. Against them will stand the spirit of power, and as a whirlwind of wind will divide them." How wise are those who by meditating on these things foreseeing them, avoid sins, and live holily, so that they may be able to flee from this coming wrath of God! Julian, archbishop of Toledo, wrote a moral and elegant commentary on Nahum, which is found in volume II of the Library of the Holy Fathers, where he explains this passage tropologically thus: "There are, he says, four tempests of the soul, and four whirlwinds of it. The first is of vices, the second of business, the third of temptations, the fourth of useful affections. The first therefore is of wrath, the second of misery, the third of justice, the fourth of grace. The first hails down the flower of virtues, the second destroys the honor of conscience, the third puts to flight the most sweet fragrance of contemplation, the fourth ardently raises to love of heavenly things. The first is from the devil, the second from the world, the third from the debt of misery, the fourth from God. The first annihilates the sanctity of religion, the second disturbs the serenity of conscience, the third puts to flight the sweetness of the most divine fragrance, the fourth raises to angelic purity. The first therefore is of divine indignation, the second of dispensation, the third of probation, the fourth of love." Then he adds remedies or uses for each individually thus: "The ways of the first are pure confession and manly penance; of the second, contempt of the world and solitary life; of the third, devout compunction and innocence of mind; of the fourth, purified silence of soul and joy of the Spouse. But because the Prophet asserts that the ways of the Lord are in a tempest, not in tempests, concerning the fourth, as may be understood, he speaks especially, concerning which in III Kings xix, 11. For he says: Elias stood in the door of the cave, and behold the spirit of the Lord passed, overthrowing mountains and breaking rocks; not in the spirit was the Lord, and after the spirit a commotion; not in the commotion was the Lord, and after the commotion fire; not in the fire was the Lord, and after the fire a whistling of a thin breeze; there was the Lord. By the spirit passing is designated a tempest of the soul, namely bitter but useful contrition of sinners. By the commotion, devout compunction of mind. By the fire, fervent and ordered love. By the silence, the most secret infusion of blessed contemplation." In like manner below he recounts four whirlwinds of the soul: the first is sudden oppression of the just, which is followed by a tempest, first of vices, second of punishments; the second is an incursion of cares and business, to which succeeds a flood of crimes; the third is an invasion of temptations, which is followed by tranquility of conscience and grace of gifts; the fourth is sudden and vehement commotion of the soul from various causes, which is followed by a tempest of just affections, to which succeeds the pleasantness of ordered love, and the joyful serenity of divine contemplation. Thus far Julian. And clouds the dust of his feet,—that is to say, God, advancing with his troops of soldiers, stirs up a cloud of dust, as I have already said. Tropologically, Julian archbishop of Toledo in the place already cited: "The feet, he says, of the Lord (namely the apostles and holy men) are dust, through humility of conscience; clouds, through obscurity of eloquence. They are dust, thinking humbly of themselves; clouds, covering heavenly mysteries with the veil of the letter; humble in life, obscure in doctrine. They are dust, that they may please; clouds, that they may not give pearls to swine. Whence in the psalm it is read: He made darkness his covert, because under the veil of the letter of the Prophets he lay hidden for a long time. Concerning these feet Isaiah says: How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of them that preach peace, that preach good tidings! And elsewhere: They that draw near to his feet shall receive of his doctrine. These therefore were the feet of the Lord, who by preaching carried him through the whole world, Peter in Rome through Italy, Andrew through Achaia, John through Asia, etc., Paul through the whole world; but because the office of preaching can scarcely be exercised for long without blemish, therefore dust is said to be in the feet, because a little ferment of glory adheres to their conduct. But since it is soon put to flight by the burning light of compunction, the dust vanishes in the manner of a cloud." 4. Rebuking the sea, and drying it up. — From the Hebrew, first Pagninus translated in the past tense: He rebuked the sea, and dried it up; namely the Red Sea, so that the Hebrews might cross over, Exodus xiv; secondly, more fully the Zurich Bible translated: He who as soon as rebukes the sea, dries it up, and all rivers he dries up. For the words rebukes and dries up are of the potential mood, and are taken dynamically, as futures are frequently taken among the Hebrews. For they signify the omnipotence of God, by which by His word alone He is able to stop the seas, and to dry up rivers however vast, as He dried up the Jordan, when Joshua and the Hebrews crossed over. Rebuking therefore, or, as the Septuagint has it, threatening, is the same as commanding the sea in the manner of one rebuking and threatening, and dividing it, or drying it up, as it pleased Him. He alludes to the division of the Red Sea, concerning which Psalm cv, 9: "He rebuked the Red Sea, and it was dried up: and He led them (the Hebrews) through the depths as through a desert." Thus Christ "rising up rebuked the wind, and said to the sea: Be silent;" which said, He calmed the waves, and made the sea tranquil, Mark IV, 39. Thus Albert, Hugh, Arias, Ribera and others. By a similar scheme Isaiah xl, 12, describes the power and magnificence of God graphically: "Who, he says, has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and weighed the heavens with a span? Who has weighed the bulk of the earth with three fingers, and balanced the mountains in a weight, and the hills in a balance, etc.? Behold the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the smallest grain of a balance. Behold the islands are as a very little dust. All nations are as nothing before Him, and are counted to Him as nothing and vanity. He that sitteth upon the globe of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as locusts." Tropologically, "The sea, says Theophylactus, is the bitterness of this life, which we unwise ones desire as rivers. This the Lord has dried up, and what in it seemed suitable for drinking, He has blotted out; teaching us that we ought to bear affliction in the world. For if we bear His yoke, we shall find rest for our souls. Furthermore if anyone shall be in temptations, he is in the sea, and in rivers. To Him therefore who is tempted must flee, who threatens the sea, and dries up the rivers."
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Bashan is brought low and Carmel, — that is to say, The most fertile mountains and regions, such as Bashan, Carmel and Lebanon, shall become sterile, shall wither and as it were die, whenever God wills it; for He Himself is the creator and preserver, and the supreme lord of all things; as indeed happened in the time of Elijah, when for three years rain was withheld, and therefore through lack of water all mountains and fields were dried up. Whence it is clear how great a gift of God rain is; farmers experience and feel this very thing. Symbolically Bashan, Carmel and Lebanon denote the fertility and riches of Nineveh; the sea and rivers the abundance of citizens and inhabitants, all of which God dried up and removed in its destruction. He alludes to the Tigris river, to which Nineveh is adjacent; for this river was unable to protect the city from the enemy, but rather with it, as if weakened and desolate, was laid waste. Theophylactus adds: They say, he says, that the region of Bashan was as fertile as Carmel, inhabited by warlike and troublesome nations; yet God overthrew them and led Israel into it; wherefore it is not absurd to faith that God would also overthrow Nineveh. So also Cyril. Again observe here the eminent dominion of God over all things. Truly the Poet: O Ruler of the poles, the sun, the salt, eternal King of all. And Virgil, book I of the Aeneid: O thou who rulest the affairs of men and God with eternal dominion, and terrifiest with thy thunderbolt. The same calls God "mighty over heaven and Erebus," and: "mighty over rains and storms alike." And book IV of the Aeneid: ...the Ruler of the Gods, he says, who sways heaven and earth with his power. Allegorically: "Bashan and Carmel were brought low when the Jews, because of the crucified Lord of glory taken from them, were delivered to the Romans. Then through Bashan, the commonwealth versing in morals and works; through Carmel however the height of dogmas is indicated; which when they were many, were brought low into the concise and consummated word of the Gospel collected in summary. Lebanon also, that is the wisdom of the Greeks, was made foolish. The mountains were shaken also on the cross, and our earthly nature, which existed before, was lifted up, making its way to things above, and instituting a journey to the heavens; all earthly thoughts dwelling in the same were made divine and thus heavenly. On the cross also truly rocks set before the senses were split; likewise rocks, that is the hard and stony hearts of men, receiving the word of the Gospel, were broken. Again in the flood, that is in the baptism by which Christ was baptized, He overwhelmed His enemies, that is the demons." Thus far Theophylactus. 5. The mountains were moved, — that is to say, Mountains shall be moved from their place, and the earth shall tremble, whenever and as often as God wills it: for all these words are of the potential mood, and demonstrate God's supreme strength and power, which therefore the Ninevites and all the impious ought rightly to fear. Whence the Zurich version translates: The mountains tremble at Him, and the hills dissolve themselves (or melt. He alludes to the melting of snow, which covers the mountains, and thus afterwards melts, so that the mountains seem as it were to dissolve and melt, as Vatablus says): the earth rushes forth from His sight, and the whole world together with those dwelling in it. For rushes forth Vatablus translates, burns, that is takes fire, is consumed, and thinks this happened in Sodom, that is God by His word alone is the author of fires, which sometimes appear in mountains, for example Aetna, Vesuvius, Hecla, etc. Or He sends such heat that hills and earth seem to burn, as happened in the burning of Phaethon. Whence the Chaldean translates: The mountains were moved at His sight, and were broken, and the earth was laid waste (the Septuagint, was contracted; Aquila, ἔφριξε, that is shuddered) at His presence, and also the world, and all who dwell in it, when He revealed Himself with mercy, to give the law to His people; thus the world was moved at His sight. For He seems to allude to the earthquake of Mount Sinai, when the law was given to Moses and the Hebrews upon it, Exodus xix, 18. From what has been said Nahum rightly infers: 6. Before the face of His indignation who shall stand? — that is to say, Since so great is the power, and likewise the wrath of God, who of you, O Ninevites, or of other men can stand before Him, much less resist Him?
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His indignation is poured out like fire: and the rocks are melted by him. — The Septuagint: His fury consumes the rulers, and the rocks are broken by him; Aquila, his fury, συνεχωνεύθη, that is, was fused together; Symmachus and Theodotion, ἔσταξε, that is, dripped, as if to say: Just as the most ardent fire dissolves and liquefies rocks, iron, bronze, and all things however most hard; so the wrath and vengeance of God dissolves, breaks, crushes enemies however most powerful, and all things however most firm, as you, O Ninevites, shall shortly experience. For "is poured out," that is, this fire of God's fury and vengeance shall now certainly be poured out upon you. He alludes to smelting and metallic furnaces, in which bronze, iron, lead, etc., are fused, which when heated by the most ardent fire become so ignited that, when the furnace is pierced and they flow into a neighboring pit, they appear to be a torrent and fiery river, which ignites and consumes any rocks and stones in its path in a moment, as I have seen with my own eyes in the Ardennes. Indeed, I seemed to myself to behold in those a living image of the fires of hell. So terrible is this fire, such is the wrath of God. Who therefore, wise man, pondering it, is not struck down? Who does not beware of sins, lest by them he provoke it upon himself, lest he willingly cast his body and soul into these fires? With good reason you cry out and proclaim to all the impious (but, alas! few hear), O Isaiah cap. xxxiii, 14: "The sinners in Sion are afraid, trembling hath seized the hypocrites. Who of you can dwell with devouring fire? Who of you shall dwell with everlasting burnings?"
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Secondly, Sanchez: "The fire of God's indignation," he says, "is lightning and thunderbolts; for these are the weapons of God, which he hurls at the head of his enemies. Habakkuk iii, 11: 'In the light of thy arrows, they shall go in the brightness of thy glittering spear.' Psalm xvii, 15: 'He sent forth his arrows, and scattered them,' that is, as the expositor adds: 'He multiplied lightnings, and troubled them.' Thus with lightning and hail God struck down Sisera, Judges v, 20: 'The stars from heaven fought against him: the stars in their courses fought against Sisera.' Thus also Virgil, Aeneid I: The heavens thundered, and the aether flashes with frequent fires, And all things threaten present death to men. And Aeneid VIII: For suddenly vibrated from the aether, lightning comes with sound, and all things seemed to fall suddenly. in the brightness of thy glittering spear.' Psalm xvii, 15: 'He sent forth his arrows, and scattered them,' that is, as the expositor adds: 'He multiplied lightnings, and troubled them.' Thus with lightning and hail God struck down Sisera, Judges v, 20: 'The stars from heaven fought against him: the stars in their courses fought against Sisera.' Thus also Virgil, Aeneid I: The heavens thundered, and the aether flashes with frequent fires, And all things threaten present death to men. And Aeneid VIII: For suddenly vibrated from the aether, lightning comes with sound, and all things seemed to fall suddenly. 7. The Lord is good. — The Prophets, as it were diligent and excellent preachers, are accustomed after threats to console, and to subjoin joyful things to sad ones, lest sinners despair; but that the penitent may conceive hope of pardon and salvation. Thus here Nahum, after he has graphically depicted the wrath and fury of God against the unfaithful, unjust and impious Ninevites, here in turn demonstrates God's clemency and goodness toward the faithful and pious Israelites and Judeans, and hence he is appropriately called Nahum, that is, consoler. For he consoles here Hezekiah and the Judeans besieged by Sennacherib king of the Assyrians, foretelling his destruction, and the liberation of Jerusalem, and the destruction of hostile Nineveh: by which he likewise consoles the Israelites, namely the ten tribes, a little before devastated by Shalmaneser, whom Sennacherib succeeded, and led away into Assyria. For it is a consolation to the afflicted to see that God avenges their injuries, and takes vengeance on their persecutors and devastators, and likewise pursues and devastates them by the law of retaliation. For I have shown in the Preface that Nahum prophesied between the sixth year of the reign of Hezekiah, in which Samaria was devastated, and the fourteenth, in which Jerusalem was besieged by Sennacherib; which was an interval of eight years. Therefore in this interval and shortly before the siege of Jerusalem, he foretells here its happy outcome, namely its relief and liberation. Thus he says: "The Lord is good, and strengthening in the day of tribulation;"; the Septuagint, χρηστός, that is, useful, pleasant, beneficent, the Lord to those who wait for him in the day of tribulation; the Chaldean: The Lord is good to Israel, that he may lean upon him in time of distress; Pagninus: The Lord is good, strength in the day of anguish, as if to say: God is accustomed to bring to his people in tribulation strong, mighty and efficacious aid. Most excellently the Zurich and Vatable versions: Benign, mild and clement (for the Hebrew טוב tob signifies all these things) is the Lord (to his faithful servants) a refuge in most difficult times. For in Hebrew מעוז maoz signifies strength, a strong place, a fortress, a refuge, a fortification. Whence the god of Antichrist is called Maozim, as if to say, God of fortifications; or Mars, as Pagninus renders it, Daniel cap. xi, 38. Mars therefore is our God, our fortress, our asylum, and that invincible, in all tribulation.
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And knowing those who hope in him. — The Septuagint: Knowing those who fear him. This knowledge is practical and efficacious, not speculative and idle; as if to say, God knows, that is, approves, loves, protects, defends those who place their hope in him; just as he will soon protect and defend Hezekiah and the Jews against Sennacherib. Thus God says to Moses: "I know thee by name, and thou hast found grace in my sight," Exodus XXXIII, 12. Thus concerning the elect and those to be blessed the Apostle says: "The Lord knoweth who are his," II Timothy II, 19. Concerning the reprobate and those to be punished with eternal punishment Christ says: "I never knew you: depart from me, you that work iniquity," Matthew VII, 23. 8. And in the flood passing by, he will make the consumption of his place. — First, Rupert and Lyra understand by the flood the numerous camps of Sennacherib, which like a flood inundated and overwhelmed Judea, as Isaiah teaches, chapter VIII, 7; as if to say, The army of the Assyrians will be like a flood overwhelming Judea, but passing by and quickly passing over. For God "will make the consumption of his place," namely of tribulation and captivity, says St. Jerome, that is, God will cause that quickly that tribulation is consumed, finished and ceases, nor shall that and its place be found any longer. Yet somewhat harshly is the consumption of the place attributed to the consumption of the tribulation; for place is one thing, and the tribulation of the place is another.
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Secondly, St. Jerome, Remigius and Hugh understand the flood passively, for the very desolation itself inflicted upon Samaria and the ten tribes by the Assyrians, which passed over when God completed its place, namely by destroying Nineveh. Thirdly and genuinely, the flood is here called the army of the Medes and Babylonians, who, like a flood, with a vast multitude, swiftness and force invaded the Assyrians and their place, namely the royal city Nineveh, and laid it waste. For this was the consummation and destruction of the city and kingdom of the Assyrians, as if to say: God will utterly destroy you, O Assyrians, as it were by a certain inundation of enemies, and will overwhelm your Nineveh with the forces and assaults of the Medes and Chaldeans; and its citizens He will pursue with darkness, that is, with every calamity and disaster. Thus Theodoret, Clarius, Arias, Vatablus and Castro. That this is the meaning is evident to one examining the Hebrew; for מקומרה (mekoma) signifies its place in the feminine, namely Nineveh, inasmuch as the whole oracle is directed against it; for this is the burden of Nineveh, as he said in the Prologue, verse 1. This is supported by what Diodorus Siculus relates in book III of his History, namely that for the destruction of Nineveh, there flowed together from the Babylonians, Persians, Medes, Arabs and Bactrians more than forty thousand men. For this was a flood not of waters, but of men and soldiers. Arias adds that by this flood is signified the inundation of the Tigris, by which Nineveh was overwhelmed; just as on the other hand Babylon was captured by Cyrus by diverting the Euphrates, which flows through Babylon, into other channels, and by sending soldiers through its dry bed into the city, as is shown from Xenophon and others, Daniel v, 30, and Jeremiah l, 38. For the Prophet seems to signify this inundation of the Tigris into Nineveh in this place, and in chapter II, 6, saying: "The gates of the rivers are opened, and the temple is destroyed to the ground;" and verse 8: "Nineveh is like a pool of waters, her waters; but they themselves fled," as if to say: God will drive clouds into the Tigris, so that it may swell up and overwhelm Nineveh with a cataclysm. A clear witness to this same inundation is Diodorus Siculus in book V of his History: "There was," he says, "an oracle given to the ancestors, that Nina (Nineveh, for this was named by its founder Ninus and Nina) could never be taken unless the river became an enemy to the city. The king of Nineveh, thinking this would never happen, took hope that the siege could be prolonged, and at the same time awaited future aid. When the siege had persisted for two years in complete idleness of the besieged, in the third year, the river, swollen by continuous rains beyond measure, having inundated part of the city, threw down the walls for twenty stadia. This king, thinking the time of the oracle had come, despairing of safety, lest he fall into the power of the enemy, built a great pyre in the palace, and threw himself and his own into the fire to be burned. The enemies, hearing of the king's death, entered the city through that part of the wall which had been predicted by the oracle, and called Arbaces, clothed in the royal robe, king." Thus Diodorus, with whom St. Epiphanius and Dorotheus in the Life of Nahum agree, who assert that Nineveh was destroyed by an inundation of waters, as I said in the Proem; all of which agree wonderfully with this place, where God threatens Nineveh with destruction by storm, whirlwind, clouds and winds, by which the swelling Tigris threw down the walls of the city. The only difference is this, that Diodorus asserts this happened under Sardanapalus and his enemy Arbaces the Mede, who were contemporaries of King Ozias of Judah and preceded the prophet Nahum by many years; but it is possible that Diodorus erred in the person and time. For Justin in book I, Herodotus in book I, Orosius in book I, chapter xix, and others, in the destruction of Nineveh under Sardanapalus, made no mention of any inundation. Thus we see that in ancient matters the facts themselves often agree among authors; the persons and certain times do not agree. For the fact itself can be indicated by monuments and signs left behind; but the persons and times, on account of the flowing nature of ages and peoples, on account of less careful diligence, on account of the variety of languages and speech, and the change of dominion, can easily be inverted and confused; but from the divine Scriptures the true account of times should be sought, says Arias. Finally, this flood could be understood as the slaughter and destruction of the Assyrians, namely of the slain soldiers; for in one night by an angel in the camp of Sennacherib there were slain 185,000; then indeed God made a consummation of that place, that is, of the place of the camp of Sennacherib, when He filled that place with the bodies of soldiers who were encamped in that place. For Nineveh, that is, the Ninevites and Assyrians, with their king Sennacherib, took and occupied this place near Jerusalem for their camp. For concerning Sennacherib, as he began, so he continues to act in what follows; because then the destruction of the Ninevites and Assyrians began, which was afterwards completely accomplished and fulfilled in the destruction of Nineveh by the Medes and Chaldaeans, concerning which cap. II, 1. Tropologically, learn here how swift is the flux, passage, and destruction of kingdoms, kings, riches, delights, honours, and the whole world. Behold the Tigris for you, which by ships was bringing all merchandise to Nineveh, swelling up overwhelmed that very city and delivered it to the enemy to be invaded. Behold that renowned Babylon for you, which the Euphrates enriched, strengthened and adorned, by that very river diverted into other channels by Cyrus, was captured and overthrown. Truly, as beautifully as St. Augustine mystically explaining that passage of Psalm CXXXVI: Upon the rivers of Babylon there we sat and wept when we remembered thee, O Sion: "The rivers, he says, of Babylon are all things which are here loved and pass away. I know not who loved, for example, agriculture, to practice it, to become rich from it, indeed to occupy his mind, to perceive pleasure from it; let him attend to the end and see that what he loved is not the foundation of Jerusalem, but a river of Babylon," etc. "To be an advocate, he says, is a great thing, to have most powerful eloquence in all things undertaken, those depending on the tongue of the eloquent patron of his, and from his mouth hoping for either losses or gains, or death or life, or ruin or salvation. You know not where you are wretched. This too is another river, and we wept when we remembered Sion." Our mind, therefore, that it may be wise, that it may stand firm and happy, let it raise itself above these rivers, and fix itself in stable eternity, in Sion, I say, the heavenly one. Secondly, St. Bernard, serm. De B. Maria, pag. 395: "There is a threefold flood, he says: one of iniquities; another of adversities of this life; a third of calamities of hell. Concerning the first it is said through Nahum: In a flood passing through He shall make a consummation, as if it were said: If a flood of vices should begin to abound over these, do not despair of them; because over those whom I permit injustice to inundate, over them I shall make grace to abound. Hence that of Micah IV: Thou shalt come even to Babylon, there thou shalt be delivered. And that of Isaiah LIV: For a small moment have I forsaken thee, and in great mercies will I gather thee. God therefore shall make a consummation with the flood passing by; because from the deep of vices He vigorously raises up those whom He places on the summit of virtues," etc. 9. What do you think against the Lord? — Some think the discourse is to the Jews fearful on account of the coming and siege of Sennacherib, as if to say: What do you, O Jews of little faith, distrust God, as if He himself could not or would not deliver you from the hand of Sennacherib? and so you think Him either not sufficiently powerful, or not sufficiently provident and merciful, to protect His city, His-
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through the Assyrians seemed to be punished by the devastation of Samaria and the ten tribes, so that Jerusalem and the Jews should be spared; for the Jews, namely the two tribes, in the destruction of the ten tribes, as it were of their brethren, had given sufficient punishment to the Assyrian. Hence from the version of the Septuagint flowed the axiom of theologians: "God does not punish twice the same thing," namely when He has so punished that the penalty has equaled the guilt; for if it has not equaled it, but that be inferior and less, He can justly repeat and increase the plagues, until they equal the guilt. There shall not rise a double tribulation. — The Chaldean: There shall not rise to the house of Israel a double anguish; the Arabic: There shall not rise a second time in harm; the Syriac: There shall not stand (rise) tribulation twice, that is to say, Israel suffered one anguish in the destruction of Samaria and the ten tribes through Salmanasar: wherefore shall not the most merciful God suffer a second to be inflicted upon it by Sennacherib, so that he might destroy its two remaining tribes and Jerusalem. Thus the Hebrew which St. Jerome cites. Secondly, others, that is to say, God shall so mightily strike and destroy the camps of Sennacherib once through an angel, that it shall not be necessary to strike them a second time and repeat the blow: because He shall afflict them with extreme punishments, and shall destroy and consume them at the first stroke. Thus Vatablus. Thirdly, others, that is to say, God by a single irruption of the Chaldeans shall overthrow Nineveh, so that a second shall not be necessary. For in a similar phrase Abishai says of Saul: "Now therefore I will pierce him with the spear to the earth, once, and there shall be no need a second time," I Kings xxvi, 8. For he explains the consummation which preceded, that is to say, I shall complete the slaughter and destruction of Nineveh by one stroke, so that I ought not to strike it a second time. Thus a Castro. So Virgil says in Aeneid XI: He fell dying, and bit the ground once with his mouth. And Ovid, epistle v: Chastity once lost cannot be repaired by any art, it perishes once. All these senses are probable; the first, however, which St. Cyril and Theophylactus also deliver, seems more fitting and appropriate, and more answers to the common tropology, which I shall soon bring forward; and the Hebrew more favors it, which word for word has: There shall not rise tribulation twice. For tribulation pertains to the people of God; consummation to the unbelievers and impious Ninevites. Hence the Septuagint translates: He shall not vindicate twice the same thing in tribulation. The same thing, that is the same, or on account of the same, namely the crime or offense. Theodotion: There shall not rise a second tribulation; Symmachus: They shall not endure the assault of a second anguish; Pagninus: There shall not rise twice anguish. And thus Nahum seems to explain himself, verse 12, saying: "I have afflicted thee, and I will afflict thee no more. And now I will break his rod from off thy back." For Israel seemed sufficiently punished through the Assyrians by the devastation of Samaria and the ten tribes, so that Jerusalem and the Jews should be spared. Whence tropologically, St. Jerome and Remigius explain it thus, as if to say: Those whom God punishes in this life, He will not punish a second time in the future. Hear St. Jerome: "What do you think against the Lord? He himself who created the world will also bring its consummation to pass. But if it seems to you that He is cruel, rigid and bloodthirsty, because in the flood He destroyed the human race; because He rained fire and brimstone upon Sodom and Gomorrah; because He submerged the Egyptians in the waves; because He laid low the bodies of the Israelites in the desert: know that He therefore rendered punishments at present, lest He might punish them eternally. The Lord will not avenge twice the same thing in tribulation. Therefore those who were punished will not be punished afterwards. Therefore both those who perished in the flood, and the Sodomites, and the Egyptians, and the Israelites in the wilderness received their evil in their lifetime." Where it appears that St. Jerome thinks the Sodomites, Pharaoh and the Egyptians were punished here, lest they be punished in hell; but the contrary is more true; for they were slain by God in the very act of sin, namely the Sodomites in the invasion of Lot's house, that they might shamefully abuse the angels as guests: Pharaoh and the Egyptians in the tyrannical persecution of Moses and the Hebrews; therefore, dying in sin, they descended into hell, as I said on Genesis xxix and Exodus xiv. Then St. Jerome asks: "If a faithful person is found in adultery and is beheaded, what becomes of him afterwards? For either he will be punished, and it is false what is said: The Lord will not avenge twice the same thing in tribulation. Or he will not be punished, and it is to be wished that adulterers might in the present brief and swift punishment be defrauded of eternal torments." And he responds: "God, as He knows the measures of all things, so also of punishments, and is not forestalled by the sentence of the judge; nor can the power of inflicting punishment on the sinner be taken from Him thereafter: and a great sin is washed away by great and prolonged torments; but if anyone is punished (sufficiently and adequately to the measure of his guilt) as he in the law who had cursed the Israelites, and he who had gathered wood on the sabbath, such are not punished afterwards, because the light guilt was compensated by present punishment," as if to say: The adulterer is beheaded, because by his sin he has injured the commonwealth and given it scandal: by beheading therefore he pays the penalty to the commonwealth. Yet he has likewise offended God; whence it is necessary that he likewise pay this offense by contrition, confession and satisfaction, or at least by suffering (for example, by offering his beheading to God in satisfaction for adultery) to the measure adequate to the guilt: but if he dies impenitent, or this satisfaction is not adequate, God will make it adequate in hell, or in purgatory. Add that his adultery is punished by beheading, but not his obstinacy and impenitence: he must therefore pay for that in hell. Wherefore the heretics impiously abuse this passage against satisfaction, arguing thus: Christ paid for all our sins, and God abundantly punished them in Him; therefore He does not punish them in us, nor does He exact temporal penalties from us, by which we might satisfy divine justice; impiously, I say, both because Christ's satisfaction is of a higher order than ours. For it is general for the guilt of the whole human race; ours however is particular, for our own sins. Now just as a universal cause, for example the sun, does not take away the efficacy of particular causes, for example man in generating man, but rather works with them, and requires their cooperation, so that without them it would not work, so likewise Christ's general satisfaction requires our particular satisfaction, nor does it work without it. This axiom therefore: "God does not punish twice the same thing," understand it in the same order of things: for in a different order He often punishes twice. Hence for the sin of Adam, and the guilt of the human race, He does not exact any other satisfaction than Christ's; because that was general and adequate to the general guilt: but for particular sins, He exacts particular satisfactions of individuals. Then because Christ's satisfaction profits nothing unless we apply it to ourselves: but we ought to apply it through our cooperation and satisfaction. For this Christ willed and ordained, as the Scriptures and the Church teach. Tropologically, let us punish our voluntary sins here by penance; thus God will not punish them in the future. "For God does not judge twice concerning the same thing, but He Himself judges and condemns the impenitent; the penitent, however, because He receives them as judged by themselves, He absolves, nor does heavenly justice add anything to the judgment which the severity of human penance has produced," says St. Cyprian in his sermon On the Passion of Christ; for concerning the impenitent Jeremiah says in chapter XVII, 18: "Break them with double breaking, and this because their breaking begun here is perfected there (in hell), so that for the uncorrected one scourge which begins temporally is consummated in eternal punishments, so that for those who utterly refuse to be corrected, the striking of present scourges is already the beginning of future torments," says St. Gregory in book XVIII of the Morals, chapter XIII. Thus the Emperor Maurice prayed that his sins be punished in this life, so that he would not be punished in the future; he prayed and obtained it: hence he himself with his sons was slain by the Emperor Phoca. Hence St. Fulgentius prayed: "Lord, give patience here, and forgiveness there," as his Life has it. And St. Augustine: "Burn here, he says, cut here, so that you may spare in the future." Indeed, Habakkuk in chapter III, 16: "Let, he says, rottenness enter into my bones, and let it spring up beneath me, that I may rest in the day of tribulation, that I may go up to the people girt about us." The same thing was desired and obtained by the seven Maccabean brothers tortured by Antiochus, II Maccabees VII. For, as St. Paul says in I Corinthians XI, 32: "When we are judged," that is punished in this world, "by the Lord we are corrected, that we be not condemned with this world." Abbot Olympius understood this, who when asked how, dwelling continually in a cave, he could endure there great heats and the bites of gnats, answered: "I endure these things so that I may be freed from future torments: I suffer gnats so that I may escape the immortal worm; thus also I suffer the heat so that I may avoid eternal fire; for these things are temporal, those have no end," as Sophronius relates in the Spiritual Meadow, chapter CXLI. He also in chapter CXLII narrates that a certain brother overcome by acedia heard from Abbot Alexander: "If in your cell you were carefully to think of the kingdom of heaven and eternal torment, you would not feel acedia in your cell." 10. Because as thorns. — Pagninus translates clearly: Because they will come even to thorns interwoven, and when they shall have been made drunk drunk, they will be consumed as stubble full of dryness; and the Zurich Bible: For most plainly in the manner of brambles interwoven, when they shall have been filled by feasting, they will be consumed as straw fully parched. Indeed, as St. Jerome says, while the Assyrians with Sennacherib are in the land of Judah besieging Jerusalem, and like thorns embrace each other in dense ranks, drinking, rejoicing and making merry, they are struck down and consumed by an angel. Thus also Nineveh was captured, while its citizens, trusting in their walls and fortifications and despising the enemy besieging them, were occupied with banquets and drinking parties, as Diodorus Siculus relates in book III. Thus also Babylon was captured while King Belshazzar was feasting, Daniel V, 1. He compares the Assyrians to thorns; because they themselves like thorns pricked and afflicted the people of God, and therefore by the Medes and Chaldeans like thorns, in the same manner of pricking and afflicting, they were to be. Again, the banquets, that is the assembly of banqueters, or banqueters, namely the Assyrians banqueting and drinking together, he compares to thorns; because as thorn is interwoven with thorn, so banqueter sits beside banqueter, and they mutually join and intertwine hands, while back and forth they pass cups and dishes. Again, banquets with banquets, as thorns with thorns are interwoven, when the invited in turn invite the invitors: and thus banquets go round in a circle, and are continuous.
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Morally, the guests are called thorns, because often when absent they wound and lacerate with their curses, insults and mockery. For the vice of scurrility and detraction is frequent at banquets: the tongue, swimming in wine, is loosened, and vomits forth and belches whatever it has in the heart, indeed whatever comes into the mouth. Wherefore M. Varro held that the number of guests ought to begin from the number of the Graces, and proceed to that of the Muses, that is to say, to begin from three and stop at nine; so that when there are very few guests, there should be no fewer than three; when there are very many, no more than nine: for if there be more, they will make a talkative and turbulent crowd. Others judged that only seven should be admitted to table. Hence the proverb: "Seven a banquet, nine a quarrel." Moreover, Cicero describes the nature of a banquet most excellently in the book On Old Age: "Well," he says, "our ancestors called the reclining at table of friends a banquet, because it had the joining together of life." But this is opposed by a crowd prone to discord and insults; banqueters, I say, or rather drinking companions. Against these, St. Augustine deliberately inscribed these verses on his table, which would continually strike the eyes of his guests and restrain their mouths from detraction: Whoever loves to gnaw the lives of the absent with words, Let him know this table is forbidden to him. Thus Possidius in the Life of St. Augustine. Moreover, in the Hebrew there is an elegant paronomasia between סכובים sebubim, that is, those who embrace; סבאם sobam, that is, banquet, or their drunkenness; and סוכאים sobeim, that is, the drunk, as if to say: Drunkenness binds and gathers the drunk together, just as thorns bind themselves together with their prickles, so that they embrace one another; hence God will likewise bind and gather them as in a bundle, and set fire beneath them, by which, like the driest straw, they will suddenly burn up with a crackling sound and be consumed. Thus the angel smiting the camp of Sennacherib sent a pestilential fire into it, as the Hebrews relate, concerning which I have spoken at Isaiah X, 16. Thus likewise the Medes and Chaldaeans laid waste Nineveh, feasting, with sword and flame. Finally, the Septuagint translates otherwise, namely: Because even to their foundation they shall be brought down to the pavement, and like a smilax plant entwined shall be eaten, and like straw shall be dried up. Thus the Royal edition has it; but the Roman thus: Because even to their foundation it shall be brought down into thorns, and like a bindweed surrounded shall be eaten, and like straw full of dryness. For smilax is called bindweed, because like ivy it winds itself around trees. For smilax is a thorny herb, with dense jointed stems, shrubby branches, ivy-like leaves, white flowers smelling of lilies. There are two species of it: the first is smilax aspera, or Cilician ivy; the other smilax laevis. See Dioscorides, book IV, chapters CXLIII and CXLIV; Theophrastus, book III of the History of Plants, final chapter. Smilax laevis is the greater bindweed; for the lesser is helxine cissampelos, says Dioscorides. Smilax denotes the garlands and crowns with which luxurious banqueters crowned themselves, as I have said at Amos VI, 6; for these were made from smilax and similar herbs and flowers. Hear Pliny, book XXIV, chapter X: "Smilax also, which is also called nicophoros, has the appearance of ivy with more delicate leaves; a crown made from it with an uneven number of leaves, they say, relieves headaches. Some have said there are two kinds of smilax: one approaching immortality in shaded valleys, climbing trees with leafy clusters of berries, most efficacious against all poisons, so much so that when the juice of the berries is often poured into infants, no poisons will afterwards harm them. The other kind loves cultivation, and is produced in these places, of no effect." The Assyrians therefore are compared to smilax, a plant climbing trees; because, always ascending to higher things, they were devoured by the Medes and Chaldaeans. Tropologically, smilaces are those who simulate charity and benevolence, and meanwhile plot destruction, says Theophylactus. 11. Out of thee shall come forth, — that is to say, The cause of thy ruin and destruction, O Nineveh, shall be Sennacherib thy king, who shall come forth from thee into battle against the Lord, that is, against the Lord's city Jerusalem and temple, that he may destroy it. He will therefore wish to wage war as it were with the Lord, like giants and Titans contending with Jupiter; but this gigantomachy shall turn out ill for him: for being smitten and confounded by God, he shall return a fugitive to his own land, and there shall be slain by his sons; thus Theodoret, Theophylactus, Clarius, Vatablus, Arias and the Chaldaean, who translates: Out of Nineveh came forth the king, who thought evil against the people of the Lord. See the blasphemy of Rabshakeh, whom Sennacherib sent to the Jews, by which he boasts that God cannot deliver them from his hand, Isaiah XXXVI, 20. Wherefore:
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12. Thus saith the Lord (punishing only the pride and blasphemy of the Assyrians): If they shall be perfected, etc. — that is to say, Although you excel in forces, strength, and riches, and are greater in number, indeed very many; nevertheless an angel passing through shall cut you down and strike you. "They shall be cut down" therefore, that is, they shall be cut down (for thus many verbs of the second conjugation are used and conjugated in the third, as for ferveo is said fervo, for fulgeo fulgo, for sedeo sido), that is, like hair most easily and entirely shall be cut off by the angel and cast to the ground; and "he shall pass through," namely their king Sennacherib, so that he may flee into his Assyria: or "he shall pass through," that is, the army shall vanish, and the strength of Sennacherib. Thus St. Jerome, Remigius, Albert, Hugh, Lyran and others. Otherwise Theodoret, Rupert, Arias and Vatablus; for they understand it of Nineveh, that is to say, Even if the Ninevites enjoy the greatest peace and abundance of things, nevertheless their abundance, empire and glory shall pass to the Medes and Chaldeans. Where note: For "perfected" in Hebrew it is שלמים schelemim, which can be translated first, peaceful; thus Vatablus; and from this, agreeing and unanimous in resisting the enemy. Second, whole. Thus the Zurich Bible. Third, perfect, thus Ours. Fourth, in peace, that is in prosperity and abundance of things. Thus the Chaldean and Pagninus. All these come to the same thing: for they signify that the Assyrians were whole and perfect in forces, riches and strength. Whence Pagninus translates: Thus saith the Lord: Shall they be in peace? And truly they are many, and truly they shall be cut down and shall pass away. And I have afflicted thee by them, I will not afflict thee any more.
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I have afflicted thee (O Israel, O Jerusalem, by Sennacherib and the Assyrians), and I will not afflict thee any more, — namely by the Assyrians; for by the Chaldeans afterwards, on account of new crimes, Jerusalem was destroyed. See what is said Joel II, 38. For the pronoun thee refers to Jerusalem, not to Nineveh, as St. Jerome, Remigius, Haymo, Rupert, Lyran, Arias, Vatablus, Ribera and others teach. For it follows: 13. I will break his rod (namely of Sennacherib: for in Hebrew it is affixed or a masculine pronoun) from off thy back. — By rod he calls the force and tyranny, by which he afflicted the Jews, besieged them and held them as if bound. Whence the Chaldean translates: I will break the yoke of the nations from your neck, and I will cut your bonds; and Pagninus: I will break his yoke from thee, and thy bonds (by which he constrained thee) I will burst asunder. For the Hebrew מטוד matte, that is rod, if you read it with another pointing mota, signifies yoke, chains and bonds. Symbolically Theophylactus says the rod of Sennacherib is sins and temptations of the devil, which the grace of Christ breaks. These are the seed of the devil, which Christ suffocates. Whence from him it follows: "There shall not be sown of thy name any more." These are the tares, of which Christ speaks Matt. XIII, 27. 14. And the Lord shall command over thee: ("He shall command," that is, he shall decree and ordain what follows): There shall not be sown (that is, that it shall not be sown) of thy name any more, — that is, that no one henceforth shall be born of thee, who may propagate thy name and lineage, and be called thy son, and be king of the Assyrians. For shortly after, Sennacherib fleeing into Assyria, was slain in the temple of his god by his sons. Whence he could not beget a son afterwards. His son Esarhaddon, already born before, did indeed succeed him in the kingdom; but he also reigned for a few years, and left no offspring in the kingdom. In him therefore the royal line of Sennacherib failed. Thus St. Jerome, Remigius, Albert, Hugh, Lyran, Clarius, Vatablus, Ribera and others. Otherwise Theodoret and Theophylactus, that is to say, In the destruction of Nineveh that august name of Ninus and the Assyrians shall cease; for their monarchy shall be transferred to the Babylonians. Whence henceforth the Assyrians shall be called Babylonians, because they shall be subject to the Babylonians as masters of things: just as afterwards both were called Greeks and Romans, when they were subdued by Alexander and the Romans. Otherwise also Sanchez, that is to say, By the name of Sennacherib fields shall not be sown any more, whose fruits are carried into his royal storehouse; because he himself shall shortly be stripped of empire and life. For by the king's name it is said to be done, what is done by his empire, as much as by his advantage, not another's. Thus says Plautus in the Merchant: For thee thou ploughest, for thee thou sowest, for thee thou reapest. For thee finally shall this labor bring forth joy.
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Morally, learn here the just judgment of God, by which he repays talion to tyrants, for example to the Assyrians, so that they who had invaded others' lands, lose their own, indeed perish with their line and name. Whence the Chaldean translates: There shall be no more memory of thy name. This is what Jeremiah cap. XXII, 30, threatens to Joachin, or Jeconiah the tyrant: "Write," he says, "this man barren, a man who shall not prosper in his days: for there shall not be of his seed a man to sit upon the throne of David." For in Jeconiah the royal line of David failed, and thus the kingdom of Judah: although Jeconiah begat Salathiel, yet he was never king, but born and died in the Babylonian captivity, left a son Zorobabel, who brought the Jews from Babylon back into Judea; but he never attained the right and title of king. With a like punishment was punished the tyrant Nebuchadnezzar, or rather Belshazzar, of whom Isaiah cap. XIV, 20 says: "The seed of the wicked shall not be called for ever."
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From the house of thy God I will cut off the graven and molten thing. — These words are to be joined with the Hebrew, Chaldean, Septuagint and Romans, although the Royal Bible, St. Jerome, Remigius, Haymo, Lyra and Clarius punctuate otherwise, namely thus: From (that is, in) the house of thy God I will cut off, namely, O Sennacherib: the graven and molten thing I will place as thy sepulchre. But the Hebrew, Septuagint and Chaldean remove this punctuation, and connect all these things together. I will cut off therefore, that is, I will destroy, I will take away, I will scatter, I will exterminate thy graven things, that is, thy idols, thy gods. Whence the Septuagint translates: From the house of the Lord thy God I will scatter the graven and molten things; and the Chaldean: From the house of thy idols I will blot out the image and the molten thing; because, as follows, and as the Chaldean and Pagninus expressly have it, there I will place thy sepulchre, as if to say, The temple of thy god Nesroch will be profaned by thy slaughter, especially so cruel and parricide a slaughter, in which thou, king and monarch, wilt be slain by thy own sons in the very temple itself, and there wilt lie unburied, IV Kings XIX, 37; by which it will come to pass that the idols likewise will be reckoned as profaned, and as profane things either to be cast aside, or to be carried out and broken, as if to say, "Thou shalt be punished from that source whence thou didst hope for aid. The graven and molten thing shall be thy sepulchre, so that between the altars and the cushions of those adoring idols, impious blood shall be shed," says St. Jerome. The temple therefore will no longer be a temple of gods, but thy sepulchre, that is, of the king slain by his sons. Thus Lucan says in book VII: "He who has no urn is covered by heaven." Thus the sea is the sepulchre of the shipwrecked. "Because thou art dishonoured;" because namely on account of the heavenly destruction of thy army in Judaea, and thy shameful flight from it, thou wilt be slain, despised by thy citizens and sons in the temple; and there, like a broken and cast-down idol, flowing with blood and corruption, thou wilt be cast out unburied, and that as a just punishment and vengeance; because namely thou, O sacrilegious one, didst dishonour, despise and blaspheme the God of Israel. It could secondly be thus expounded, as if to say, Through the Medes and Chaldeans in the destruction of Nineveh I will cut off, plunder and scatter likewise thy graven things, thy idols, in which thou, O Sennacherib, didst vainly place thy hopes: moreover there I will place thy sepulchre, because thou, honouring them, didst dishonour me. St. Cyril less correctly refers these things to Josiah, who in Judaea overthrew the temples of idols, IV Kings XXIII. For here the matter concerns the temple of Nineveh, not of Judaea. Note: For "because thou art dishonoured," the Septuagint translates, "because thou art swift"; the Chaldean, "because this is very easy before me." For the Hebrew קלות signifies first, light; second, swift; third, easy; fourth, vile and dishonoured: for light men are vile and abject. Behold upon the mountains the feet of him that bringeth good tidings. (Thus also the Syriac translated, and the Arabic both, as if to say, Sennacherib being slain, immediately couriers and messengers will publish this everywhere. Whence Hezekiah and the chief men of Judaea will proclaim this gospel, that is, this joyful message, through their couriers and heralds, after the manner of their nation, upon the mountains, so that it may be heard by the peoples dwelling round about in the valleys, as far as possible when the trumpet signal is given. They will therefore cry out, saying): Keep festival, O Juda, keep thy holy days (previously interrupted on account of the siege), and pay thy vows, — which thou didst promise to God, when thou wast besieged in Jerusalem by Sennacherib, that he might free thee from him. Thus St. Jerome, Theodoret, Theophylactus, Haymo and Lyra. Where note that it seems less true what St. Jerome, Haymo and Hugh think, namely that by festivals is understood that solemn Passover instituted and restored by Hezekiah, II Paralipomenon XXX, 3 and 13. For Hezekiah instituted that long before the coming of Sennacherib, at the beginning of his reign, as is evident from II Paralipomenon XXIX, 3. The Septuagint, whom St. Cyril, Theophylactus and St. Augustine, book XVIII of the City of God, chapter XXXI, follow, thus punctuate and read: Because swift, behold upon the mountains the feet of him that bringeth good tidings and preacheth peace. And they refer the same thing allegorically to the Apostles evangelizing the peace and grace of Christ; so that Nahum alludes to Isaiah LII, 7: "How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings and preacheth peace!" Mystically St. Augustine says: "These things," he says, "pertain to the New Testament, whose festival days are so spiritually renewed that they cannot pass into antiquity. Moreover, through the Gospel, graven images and molten images have been destroyed, that is, idols of false gods, and delivered to oblivion as to a tomb, we now see. And we know that this prophecy also has been fulfilled in this matter." And St. Jerome: "If ever," he says, "there should be a most grievous persecution, such as under Valerian and Decius and Maximian (for these are our Assyrians and Sennacheribs), and the vengeance of the Lord should appear against his adversaries (as it appeared in the slaughter of Valerian, Decius and Maximian), let us say to the Church: Celebrate, O Juda, thy festivals, and pay thy vows." Thus tropologically the faithful soul, a follower of the Gospel, celebrates its festivals quietly and holily, exulting and rejoicing to God in praise and thanksgiving, in psalms, hymns and spiritual canticles, as the Apostle admonishes in Ephesians V, 19. Whence you may aptly refer these things to the renewal of spirit and vows, which the Religious make, and especially those of our Society twice yearly. For this is a great solemnity, and proper to them: and in it vows are rendered, that is, renewed and restored, so that, if anything from the vow of obedience has been plucked away by one's own will, from the vow of poverty one's own convenience, from the vow of chastity incautious curiosity, all of that may be renounced, so that vows may be restored to their original integrity and holiness, nay rather become purer, more complete and more ardent. Whence it will come to pass that what follows: "He shall not add any more, that Belial may not pass through thee," namely so that the vice to which thou wast subject may no longer rule over thee, but thou mayest perfectly overcome and mortify it. For in these three things perfect renewal consists, namely first, so that Juda, that is, the religious man confessing and praising God, may celebrate his festivals, that is, being free and unoccupied from the earth and worldly things, may devote and consecrate himself more closely to God, according to that of Isaiah LVIII, 13: "If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy own will in my holy day, and call the sabbath delightful, and the holy of the Lord glorious, and glorify him, whilst thou dost not thy own ways, and thy own will is not to be done, and thou speak idle words: then shalt thou be delighted in the Lord, and I will lift thee up above the high places of the earth, and will feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father." Second, so that we render vows to God; render them, I say, first and whole, and such as they were when we first vowed them to God. Third, so that Belial may not pass through thee any longer: Belial, that is, without a yoke, or the old, is the innate defect in each one, and the principal vice, from which others arise; for example, in one the principal vice is ambition, in another gluttony, in a third sloth, in a fourth pusillanimity. Renewal consists in this, that each one so mortify this vice that it may no longer rule, but if it ever strike the mind, it may be immediately suppressed and cut off; so that the vice may be in his power and dominion, so that he may restrain and govern it at will. He who accomplishes these things becomes a new man, heavenly and divine; and, as the Nazianzene says, "he shines forth in his actions;" because despising earthly things, his mind is conversant in heaven, and he lives in continual praise, love and joy of God, and leads a holy, apostolic, angelic, seraphic life, and thus already has a prelude of the blessed life, and begins and initiates it, soon to complete it in heaven. Because he shall not add any more, that Belial may pass through thee. — Belial is said as it were בלי עול beli ol, that is, without a yoke; hence Belial signifies disobedience, impiety, apostasy; and secondly, the disobedient themselves, the impious, apostates, who shake off the yoke of law, or faith, or profession; and because the prince and head of these is the devil, hence thirdly, Belial signifies the devil. Whence for Belial the Zurich Bible translates, a lion and hostile to man. Hence in Scripture men very impious and wicked are called sons of Belial. See the sayings in II Corinthians VI, 15. Here therefore he calls the impious and God-fighting Sennacherib with his army Belial, as if to say, The impious Sennacherib will no longer—
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lius his forces you, O Judaea and Jerusalem, will besiege and afflict; because all has perished, slain by an angel. Thus St. Jerome, Hugo, Vatablus. Others understand by Belial the Assyrian, that is the Assyrians, so that the singular is put for the plural, as if to say: Nineveh and the empire of the Assyrians has perished: for it was transferred to the Chaldaeans. Thus Theodoret, Remigius and Albert. Moreover the Septuagint translates: They shall not add to pass over into old age. It is consumed, it is finished; he ascends breathing upon thy face, drawing thee out of tribulation; or, as St. Chrysostom reads in the book of Ten Homilies printed at Rome: They shall not add to come into old age. They are finished, they are taken away. For he ascends from the earth breathing upon thy face, and drawing thee out of tribulation. Which he thus interprets, as if to say: Old things are finished and taken away: all things are made new. The Septuagint appears to derive Belial from the root בלה balah, that is to grow old, to be consumed; so that belial, or beli ol, is the same as perpetual old age and servitude. This anagogically concerning the future renewal of the Church at the end of the world St. Jerome thus explains: "O Judah (O Church, O faithful one, O holy and elect), pay thy vows, because enemies shall by no means pass over again who would bring thee into old age, that is, who wish thee to bear the image of the old man. For what is old grows aged, and what grows aged is near to perdition. The world is completed, the adversary is consumed: Christ comes to thee, who had previously breathed upon thy face; when he fashioned thee from clay, and after the resurrection also breathing upon the face of the Apostles said: Receive the Holy Spirit, he it is who frees thee from tribulation. For Nineveh being laid waste and the world passing away, tribulation also shall pass away." Allegorically here Belial, namely Sennacherib the enemy of the people of God, is the devil, sin and death, says St. Cyril and Theophylact, whom Christ cast down and put to flight, whose wrath and fury against him is graphically described here in verses 2, 3 and 6. Wherefore with him routed and put to flight the Church acts in peace, and without fear and danger celebrates her festivals. He proceeds to prophesy the siege and destruction of Nineveh by the Medes and Chaldaeans, whose weapons, camps, and fierce soldiers, swift and terrible like lightning, he graphically describes. Then, in verse 8, he depicts the desolation, spoiling, fear and consternation of Nineveh; and adds and emphasizes the reason, that it was the den of lions, that is of tyrants and robbers. 1. He ascends who scatters before thee, who keeps the siege: behold the way, strengthen thy loins, fortify thy strength exceedingly. 2. For the Lord hath turned the pride of Jacob, as the pride of Israel: for the spoilers have spoiled them, and marred their vine branches. 3. The shield of his mighty men is like fire, the men of the army in scarlet: the fiery torches of the chariots in the day of his preparation, and the drivers are in confusion. 4. In the ways they are troubled: the chariots are dashed against one another in the streets, the appearance of them is like lamps, like lightning running. 5. He shall remember his strong ones, they shall stumble in their ways: they shall make haste to the wall thereof, and the covering shall be prepared. 6. The gates of the rivers are opened, and the temple is destroyed to the ground. 7. And the soldier captive is led away: and his handmaids shall moan like doves, mur- tuum, because thou honouring it, hast dishonoured me. Less correctly St. Cyril refers these things to Josiah, who in Judaea overthrew the temples of idols, IV Kings, XXIII. For here we are dealing with the temple of Nineveh, not of Judaea. Note: For because thou art dishonoured, the Septuagint translates, because thou art swift; the Chaldaean, because this is very easy before me. For the Hebrew ocal signifies first, light; secondly, swift; thirdly, easy; fourthly, vile and dishonoured: for light men are vile and abject. Verse 13. Behold upon the mountains the feet of him that evangelizeth. (Thus also the Syriac translates, and the Arabic both, as if to say: Sennacherib being slain, immediately couriers and messengers will everywhere publish this. Whence Hezekiah and the princes of the Jews will proclaim this gospel, that is this joyful news, through their couriers and heralds, after the manner of the nation, in the mountains, so that it may be heard by the peoples dwelling round about in the valleys, as far as possible when the trumpet signal is given. They shall therefore cry out, saying): CELEBRATE, JUDAH, THY FESTIVALS (previously interrupted on account of the siege), and pay thy vows, — which thou didst promise to God, when thou wast besieged in Jerusalem by Sennacherib, that he might free thee from him. Thus St. Jerome, Theodoret, Theophylact, Haymo and Lyran. Here observe that what St. Jerome, Haymo and Hugo think seems less true, namely that by festivities is understood that solemn Passover instituted and restored by Hezekiah, II Paralipomenon xxx, 3 and 13. For Hezekiah instituted that long before the coming of Sennacherib, at the beginning of his reign, as is evident from II Paralipomenon xxix, 3. The Septuagint, whom St. Cyril, Theophylactus and St. Augustine follow, lib. XVIII De Civit. xxxi, thus punctuate and read: Behold, how swift upon the mountains are the feet of him that evangelizeth and announceth peace. And they refer the same thing allegorically to the Apostles evangelizing the peace and grace of Christ; so that Nahum alludes to Isaiah LII, 7: "How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that evangelizeth and preacheth peace!" Mystically St. Augustine: "These things," he says, "pertain to the New Testament, whose festival days are thus spiritually renewed that they cannot pass into antiquity. Moreover, through the Gospel, graven images and molten images have been destroyed, that is, idols of false gods, and committed to oblivion as to a sepulchre, we now see. And we know that this prophecy also has been fulfilled in this matter." And St. Jerome: "If ever," he says, "there shall be a most grievous persecution, such as under Valerian, and Decius, and Maximian (for these are our Assyrians and Sennacheribs), and the vengeance of the Lord shall appear upon his adversaries (as it appeared in the slaughter of Valerian, Decius and Maximian), let us say to the Church: Celebrate, O Juda, thy festivals, and pay thy vows." Thus tropologically the faithful soul, a follower of the Gospel, celebrates its feasts quietly and holily, exulting and rejoicing to God in praise and thanksgiving, in psalms, hymns and spiritual canticles, as the Apostle admonishes, Ephesians v, 19. Whence you may aptly refer these things to the renewal of spirit and vows, which the Religious make, and especially those of our Society twice yearly. For this is a great solemnity, and proper to them: and in it vows are paid, that is, renewed and restored, so that, if anything from the vow of obedience has been plucked away by one's own will, from the vow of poverty by one's own convenience, from the vow of chastity by incautious curiosity, all that may be renounced, so that vows may be restored to their original integrity and holiness, nay, may become purer, more complete and more ardent. Whence it will come to pass that what follows: "He shall not add any more, that Belial may not pass through thee," namely that the vice to which thou wast subject may no longer have dominion over thee, but thou mayest perfectly overcome and mortify it. For in these three things perfect renewal consists, namely first, that Juda, that is, the religious man confessing and praising God, celebrate his festivals, that is, being free and unoccupied from the earth and worldly things, he may devote and consecrate himself more closely to God, according to that of Isaiah LVIII, 13: "If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy own will in my holy day, and call the sabbath delightful, and the holy of the Lord glorious, etc.: then shalt thou be delighted in the Lord, and I will lift thee up above the high places of the earth, and will feed thee with the inheritance of Jacob thy father." Secondly, that we may pay our vows to God; pay them, I say, first and whole, and such as they were when we first vowed them to God. Thirdly, that Belial may not pass through us any more: Belial, that is, without a yoke, or the old, is the innate defect in each one, and the principal vice, from which others arise; for example, in one the principal vice is ambition, in another gluttony, in a third sloth, in a fourth pusillanimity. Renewal consists in this, that each one so mortify this vice, that it may no longer have dominion, but if it ever strike the mind, it may be immediately suppressed and cut off; so that the vice may be in his power and dominion, so that he may restrain and govern it at will. He who does these things becomes a new man, heavenly and divine; and, as the Nazianzene says, "he shines forth in his actions;" because despising earthly things, his mind is in heaven, and he lives in continual praise, love and joy of God, and leads a holy, apostolic, angelic, seraphic life, and thus already has a foretaste of the blessed life, and begins and initiates it, soon to complete it in heaven. BECAUSE HE SHALL NOT ADD ANY MORE, THAT BELIAL MAY NOT PASS THROUGH THEE. — Belial is said to be as בלי עול beli ol, that is, without a yoke; hence Belial signifies disobedience, impiety, apostasy; and secondly, the disobedient themselves, the impious, the apostates, who shake off the yoke of the law, or of faith, or of profession; and because the prince and head of these is the devil, hence thirdly, Belial signifies the devil. Whence for Belial the Zurich version translates, a lion and hostile to men. Hence in Scripture men very impious and wicked are called children of Belial. See the sayings II Corinthians vi, 15. Here therefore he calls the impious and God-fighting Sennacherib with his army Belial, as if to say, The impious Sennacherib shall not any more— lius his forces you, O Judæa and Jerusalem, will besiege and afflict; because all has perished, slain by an angel. Thus St. Jerome, Hugo, Vatablus. Others understand by Belial the Assyrian, that is the Assyrians, so that the singular is put for the plural, as if to say: Ninive has perished and the empire of the Assyrians: for it was transferred to the Chaldæans. Thus Theodoret, Remigius and Albert. Moreover the Septuagint translates: They shall not add to pass over into old age. It is consumed, it is finished; he ascends breathing upon thy face, drawing thee out of tribulation; or, as St. Chrysostom reads in the book of Ten Homilies printed at Rome: They shall not add to come into old age. They are finished, they are taken away. For he ascends from the earth breathing upon thy face, and drawing thee out of tribulation. Which he thus interprets, as if to say: Old things are finished and taken away: all things are made new. The Septuagint appears to derive Belial from the root בלה tala, that is to grow old, to be consumed; so that belial, or beli ol, is the same as the old age of perpetual servitude. This anagogically concerning the future renewal of the Church at the end of the world St. Jerome thus explains: "O Juda (O Church, O faithful one, O holy and elect), pay thy vows, because the enemies who would bring thee into old age, that is, who wish thee to bear the image of the old man, shall by no means pass over thee again. For what is old grows aged, and what grows aged is near to perdition. The world is finished, the adversary is consumed: Christ comes to thee, who had breathed upon thy face before; when he fashioned thee from clay, and after the resurrection also breathing upon the face of the Apostles said: Receive the Holy Spirit, he it is who frees thee from tribulation. For Ninive being laid waste and the world passing away, tribulation also shall pass away." Allegorically here Belial, namely Sennacherib the enemy of the people of God, is the devil, sin and death, says St. Cyril and Theophylact, whom Christ cast down and put to flight, whose wrath and fury against him is graphically described here in verses 2, 3 and 6. Wherefore with him routed and put to flight the Church acts in peace, and without fear and danger celebrates her festivals.
Machine translation from the Latin, not reviewed.
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v. 9 « Deus aemulator et ulciscens Dominus, ulciscens Dominus el habens f'urorem, ulciscens Dominus in hostes. suos et irascens ipse ini micis suis » ; — adverte ulciscens tertio repeti (Lap.), ut certissimc constet, Deum esse ultorem semper et ubique, quamdiu et ubicumque hostes Dei exsistant ; atque ad hanc ultionem efferendam inserviunt cetera : est scil. aemulator, LXX &oz5:, qui rem suam, gloriam, honorem magno studio tuetur ac prosequitur, qui laudem sui nominis idolis tribui nullo pacto patietur, qui demum populi sui ab Assyriis oppressi partes sedulo aget propter se et sui nominis gloriam et pignus. Quarc aemulator Deus, uti est impiis ex Iudaeis terrori et omini pessimo, ita piis atque oppressis maximo nominatur solatio! et spe certissima ; zelus enim vcl aemulatio « ab amore nascitur, qui in eos hostiliter et impotenter invehitur, qui rem amatam acceperunt male aut graviter offenderunt : (Sanct. Rib.). Hac appellatione vates illis in memoriam revocat, essc eundem Deum, qui eadem sub sanctione zeli sui iisdem utens nominibus 3d suam declarandam naturam leges suas promulgaverit, unde earur: quoque violationem acriter sit vindicaturus (cf. Ex. 20, 8; 34, 14. Deut. 4, 24; 5, 9. Ier. 24, 19). Zelum Deus manifestat, cum profiteatur : « gloriam mcam alteri non dabo » (Is. 42, 8 ; 48, 11), « propter me, prop- - ter me faciam, ut non blasphemcer » (Is. 48, 11. Ez. 36, 92), « zelus Domini exercituum faciet hoc» (Is. 9, 1; 31, 32. cf. 49, 13; 59, 41. Ez. 39, 25), «zelatus est Dominus terram suam » (Ioel 2, 18 ; cf. Zach. 4, 14; 8, 9). Pars eius zeli est ultio, unde ulciscens Dominus, dein iterum id inculcatur cum addito, quo ultionis magnitudo indicatur, habens furorem, vel ex hebr. dominus furoris i. e. qui maximam furoris copiam possidet de eaque prolubitu disponit neque unquam ea destitui potest ; demum tertio adiungitur, contra quos ultio et furor dirigatur ; est autem furoi ille non transiens, non abscedens, verum manens diu et in longinquum asservatus ; ita clarius in hebr. et servans (i. e. iram in animo reservans Rup. Rib. Lap. Mar.) inimicis suis! i. e. etsi ira non statim devolvatur, ne quis putet eam esse exstinctam ; ita quoque si ultio vaticinio expressa differatur, ne quis eam minus certam habeat vel Dominum ultionis oblitum esse credat (Ftib.). Utique oculis in Assyriorum fortunam coniectis — qui diu crudelitatc et insolentia in alios grassati sunt et post Ionae praedicationem brevem que poenitentiam mox denuo in praeceps ruebant (Theod. M.) — Doi .ultoris longanimitas cernitur;at cum Dei potentiam nemo possit eiu vere, Deus ita longanimiter agere potest, demum unicuique sceleri sua rependetur poena, cum Deus iudicis conditionem et habitum sit indutu rus. Haec vates proponit
Cum Ninive ex longo iam tempore opibus, divitiis, imperio floreat multosque populos impune suppresserit, immo regno israelitico destructo partem populi Dei longe maximam abduxerit in captivitatem, initium minarum vates inde repetit, quod Deus etsi diu ac patienter ferat inimicos, tamen aliquando necessario animadvertit in contumaces. Quare magna cum emphasi effert ultionem illam et iram et vindictam in inimicos Dei, quae a Dei sanctitate summa separari nequit, verum eiusden: sanctitatis ostensio est necessaria. Unde mirantibus continuum Ninive. splendorem, prosperos successus, fortunas longe maximas esse advertendum animum docet ad Deum natura sanctum, indeque ultorem neceseario
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v. 3 « Dominus patiens et magnus fortitudine ct mundans non faciet. innocentem ; Dominus in tempestate et turbine viae eius, et nebulae pulvis pedum eius » ; — bene Theoph. : « Dominus longanimis et patiens super iniquitates peccantium, ob imbecillitatem hoc non facit, ingens enim robur eius», sim. 7heod., qui pergit : « novit etiam non poenitentibus supplicia irrogare ; hoc enim est quod ait aà6oov cóx a0uus:r 1. e. eum qui suppliciis digna commiserit, non impunitum Dominus relinquet ». Is est sensus mundans etc.? Iluic sententiae vates statim eam iudicis manifestationem adiungit, quam in psalmis quoque descriptam habemus, quam Deus in Sinai de scendens ad maiestatis suae terrorem incutiendum exhibuit, quam in mundi consummatione exstaturam esse a Christo edocemur (cf. Ps. 177, 8 seq. 96, 2 seq. Luc. 91, 26 — vide quae notata sunt ad Mich. 4, 2; et ad Hab. 3, 6 seq.). In tempestate scil. et turbine Deus de coelo desccendit (cf. Ex. 19, 16-18), tempestate et turbine Aegyptios disiecit, vel quod alii monent, iudicium per diluvium factum induxit (cf. Cyr.) ; « congruenter nubium agmen pulverem pedum eius nominat ; ut enim facile est homini pulverem pedibus excitare, eodem modo, ut existimo, omnium rerum habenti potestatem Deo procella et nubibus coelum condensare facile est » (Cyr.) ; vel simplicius : dum Deus nubibus involutus descendere fingitur, eo ipso nubes sunt pulvis pedum eius, super quem incedit, quem gradiendo excitat. Symboli vim Rib. ita explanat : « si Dominus ad hostes suos puniendos venire voluerit, veniet cum tempestate et turbine i. e. cum magno impetu et fragore, qualis solet esse exercitus magni, et pulvere pedum suorum, quem gradiens commovebit, nehulas excitabit et coelum obscurabit, ut facere solet magnus exercitus » (sim. Pint.). Ad locutionem hebr. i122! N5 np3 notat S. llier.: « significantius in graeco dicitur àücóv ox dÜwwbcet et cst sensus: diu quidem sceleris Assyriorum patiens fuit et magnanimitatis suae fortitudine iniquitates eorum sustinuit, provocans eos ad poenitentiam, sed quia contempta bonitate Dei secundum cor impoenitens thesaurizaverunt sibi iram in die irae, qui ante patiens fuit, nequaquam eos tamquam mundos et innocentes inultos abire patietur ». Ceterum eam locutionem hebr. S. Hier. varie reddit: Ex. 34, "7 nullus apud te per se innocens est ; Num. 144, 18 nullum innoxium derelinquens ; ler. 30, 44 ut non videaris tibi innozius; ler 46, 28 nec quasi innocenti parcam tibi. Propria significatio est: aliquem impunitum non derelinquere (cf. Pint. Calm.). Vide Iob 9, 98; 10, 44. Uti descensus iudicis est ad terrorem factus, ita potentiae exhibitio non minorem prae se fert horrorem ;
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v. 4 « increpans mare et exsiccanz tllud et omnia flumina ad. desertum deducens. Infirmatus est Basan ct Carmclus et flos Libani clanguit » ; — hebr. et omnia flumina exsiccat, languescit Basan etc. ;in. mare, in flumina et in regiones fertilissimas potentiam suam exserit ita, ut quasi halitu Dei spirante tamquam ab igne vehementissimo omnia arefiant ; ad quod una Dei vox minans et increpans, unus voluntatis nutus sufficit. Exempla haec ad potentiam Dei delineandam depromi iure censent ex clade aegyptiaca, ex transitu Iordanis ; cf. Ps. 1083, 9: «et increpuit mare rubrum et exsiccatum est, et deduxit eos in abyssis sicut in deserto » ; cf. Cyr. Theoph. Alb. Pint. Rib. Sanct. Neque desunt, qui languorem quoque Basan, Carmeli.. historice accipiant, ex tempore scil. quo Israelitae deletis vel eiectis priscis incolis regiones illas occuparunt ; « cum enim poenas repetere statuissem ab iis, qui Basanitidem et Carmelum et Libanum incolunt, vobis eos tra- - didi. Vos autem eorum agros depopulantes et urbes expugnantes civesque in captivitatem ducentes ad summam vastitatem eos redegistis » (Theod. sim. Cyr. Theod. M. Alb.) ; verum praestat, ea proverbiali specie usurpari pro rebus uberrimis et speciosissimis, quas Deus uno ictu prosternere et fere in nihilum redigere valeat (cf. Rib. Sanct. Sa, Mar. Men. Tir.). Eodem modo coram terrifica Dei maiestate montes, firma fundamenta et columnae orbis, contremiscere dicuntur et terra simul cum omnibus, quae ifi ea sint, sustolli v. $ « montes commoti sunt ab eo et colles desolati sunt et contremwit terra a facie eius et orbis et omnes habitantes in co » ; — diligens haec partium enumeratio Dei maiestatem longe lateque in omnia patentem quasi ob oculos expandit ; hebr. montes contremiscunt ez eo et colles colliquescunt, sustollitur terra! etc. i. e. veluti refugienz attollitur (cf. Is. 24, 19. 20) aspectum divinum non ferens, sese proripit ex eius conspectu (cf. Lap.). Post descriptionem talem necessario ac sua sponte (cf. Ps. i5, 8. Mal. 3, 29) infertur
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v. 6 «ante faciem indignationis eius quis. stabit? et qui; resiste in ira. furoris eius? [Incignatio eius effusa est ut ignis et p-- trae dissolutae sunt ab eov; — «sicut ignis si in aridam materiat.i inciderit, facile illam apprehendit et solvit in cineres, sic ira ubi di: compressa est, si se tandem elffundat, omnia late populatur et perdit » (Sanct.) ; « ubi Dei furor instar ignis exarserit, rupes durissimae corar: illius flammis veluti cera liquescent » (Calin.). Quid jam Assyriorum potestas valebit ? quanta cum facilitate eam Deus evertet et destruet funditus (cf. Pint.)? Uti Deus in hostes est terribilis, ita in suos cultores benignus ac clemens. Zclum enim suum hostibus ostendit ultione, bonitate amicis. Quare amici Dei non habent, cur tremenda illa iudicia expavescant ; in hostium punitione apparet Dci in suos benignitas, eiusque iudicia solum mali: sunt horrenda, bencfica bonis. Unde hanc eorum indolem vates describit v. 1« bonus Dominus et confortans in. die tribulationis et scien; sperantes in 52 » ; — hebr. in refugium (est Deus) tn die tribu'ationis ; sciens vel cognoscens i. c. dilisit et in suum ius ac curam accipit cos, qui in ipsum confidunt (cf. Theoph.). Hanc vero curam ostendit, dum eos ab oppressione vindicans in hostes animadvertat. Quare iudicium ir. hostes explanans vates ruinam Ninives addit
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v. 8 « et in diluvio praetereunte consummationem faciet loci eius ct inimicos cius perscequentur tenebrae » ; — verte hebr. et pcr inundationem supereffluentem consummalionem faciet loci eius et inimicos suos persequetur tencbris ; loci eius? scil. Ninives, quae urbs in titulo posita hic necessario (cf. hebr. 17) subintelligitur. Exhibet eius ruinam per imaginem maximae inundationis *, qua omnia vel arripiuntur vel sepcliuntur et dum urbs interitu: obiicitur, Assyrios rerum angustia variisque miseriis continuo affliget ; frustra iram Dei cffugere tentabunt; tencbris i. e. calamitatibus eos involvet omni luce melioris fortunae subtracta. Sunt enim tenebra», nox etc. metaphorae usitatae rerum adversorum et horroris (cf. Is. 5, 30. Lament. 3, 9. Pint.).
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v. 9 « Quid cogitatis contra Dominum ? Consum inationem ipse faciet ; non consurget duplez tribulatio » ; — hebr. ma eis generaliter quid cogitatis de Dco, quasi versus Deum, et quae est inentis vestrae habitudo ad. Deum (5x). lta enim sententia apta est ad utrosque et Assyrios et Iudaeos. Illi qui tot idolorum regna per gloriam et potentiam « Assur domini mei » (uti in inscriptionibus reges Assyriorum loquuntur) deiecerunt et olim superbe minati erant : « quis est ex omnibus diis terrarum istarum, qui eruerit terram suam de manu mea, ut eruat Dominus Ierusalem de manu mea » (Is. 36, 20. cf. 10, 9 10), illi, inquam, vaticinium tale cum plausu et risu accipere censendi erant; hi vero propter rei magnitudinem et eximiam quae humanitus . aderat difficultatem animis haerere poterant dubii, num res vere habi tura esset talem exitum ab omnium exspectatione alienum et portento si inilimum. Quare et illorum superbiam et horum timiditatem prophete impugnat interrogatione sua, provocans utrosque, ut rectam de Domine sententiam capiant, quam scil. ex rerum gestarum recordatione ct ex eius potentia modo descripta (1, 3 - 8) hauriant. Talis enim Domini firmum consilium effectu carere non poterit; esse autem firmam animi eius sententiam, repetitione docet consummationem 1pse facit, idque altero membro adiecto confirmat, ut sententia positive et negative prolata omne dubium omnemque ambiguitatem excludat: mon consurget bis tribulatio (hebr.) i. e. iam non altera vice Assyrii alias nationes oppressione et angustia coarctabunt; sufficit id semel accidisse, bis non (jet ; id quod idem est ac: finis erit imperii et tyrannidis illatae, ac si diceres : semel vicisti, bis non vinces, q. d. adest victoriae et gloriae finis. Mana est in hcc versu iuterpretationum varietas. Volunt alii sermonem fieIam ipsa consummatio describitur et comparationibus adhibitis illustratur (unde v. 10 quia)
Excidium fore Deus per vatem annuntiavit v. 8. Cum Ninive longe lateque dominaretur et Assyrii belli gloria et innumeris victoriis in dissitis quoque regionibus reportatis essent insignes, eiusmodi vaticinium nimia proferri audacia videri poterat. Quare né Assyrii suis viribus freti illud spernerent, neve Iudaei propter maximam illorum potentiam duhios gererent animos, propheta in universum monuit, homines ni] valere contra Dei consilium, idque ut firmum esse ratumque omnibus persua ceat, denuo repetit :
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v. 10 « quia sicut spinae se invicem complecluntur, sic convivium eorum pariter potantium, consumentur quasi stipula ariditate plena » ; — spinae igni sunt destinatae, sic etiam Assyrii, quorum luxuries, tripudium, arrogantia convivio potantium comparatur ; « in spinis duo consideramus : et stimulos qui compungunt et lacerant, et materiam ad incendium idoneam. In altero Assyriorum exprimitur vis inimica et noxia, qua nationes alias contrivere sibique reddidere vectizales et subditas; in altero exhaustam iam esse spinarum viriditatem et succum et concipiendae flammae iam esse dispositas » (Sanct.). Spinae in fasciculum collectae facile comburuntur, ita tota Assyriorum potestas facile funditus evertitur a Domino (cf. Pint.). Tota illorum gloria, pompa, maiestas coram Deo censetur adeo fragilis, misera, nullius prorsus momenti, sicut spinae et stipula arida. Quam facile praeda Domini fiant, etiam textus hebr. exprimit : quia sicuti spinae complexi etl sicut vino suo ebrii, devorantur sicut stipula arida plane ; ebrii enim facile vincuntur et prosternuntur ; quo magis arida est stipula, eo celerius ignem concipit. In illa complexione merito quoque cernes expressum, nullam partem vitaturam esse discrimen, omnia simul ruitura, una iri consumptum (cf. CalUm.). — Non a'"p sed B2 exprimunt Syrus et Chald. ; ille : nam ipsiprincipes eorum rebelles sunt ct in ebrietate sua ebrii ; Chald. vero generaüm in hoc propheta a simplici paraphrasi solito longius abest ; exemplum accipe huius loci: quoniam principes gentium qui depraedati sunt domum Israel, sicut erraverunt in vino, ita seduxe runt ac consumpserunt eos, ut consunit ignis süpulam aridam multum. Ratio autem, cur pernicies Assyriis immineat, est, quia contra Dominum mala consilia animis pertractaverunt et Dei voluntati se opposuerunt; ita
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v. 14 « ez te exibit cogitans contra Dominum malitiam, mente pertractans praevaricationem » ; — clarius in hebr. ex te exiit... consulens ! impietatem i1. e. qui Dominum sprevit, eum in reliquorum deorum censu habuit, quare eius populum et urbem exscindere et ita cum imperio spoliare desideravit et similem pravitatem etiam aliis inspirare studuit. Pugnam igitur contra Deum et iniquitatum propazcatiopem declarat vates iis demum fore exitialem. Plerique vel de Sennacherib (Theoph. Rib. ? Sanct. Pint. Lap. Sa, Mar. Men. Tir. Calm.) vel de Rabsace (Hier. Cyr. Theod. Alb. Calm.) haec dici opinantur secuncum ea, quae Is. cp. 36. 37. narrantur. lis utique sermonibus quasi in cxemplo superba Assyriorum indoles atque arrogantia impia depingitur ; verum illa particularia solum sunt, hic vero propheta in universum reddit rationem, cur Ninive interire debeat, quare sententia etiam in universum intelligi dcbet de impietate et arrogantia omnibus Assyriorum regibus quasi iure hereditatis communi ; quare nostro sensu adoptare possumus verba /iup. (qui versum de regibus Iuda explicat) : « exile videtur hoc sentire de uno, cum nota sit malitia vel praevaricatio regum vel principum fere cunctorum ». strophis quae quaternis versibus constent describi l. c. proponit. In qua re certe &liqua sunt quae attentionem moveant. Ab Aleph usque ad Mem literarum ordo satis facile detegi potest. Habes enim N v. 2 et denuo in initio v. 3, si cum Bickell vocem Iahve versui antecedenti adscripseris ; habes 3 in altera versus parte, 3 in inilio versus quarüi, '* coniectura debet restitui; sed literae sequentes salis commode sequuntur ; 5 in v. 5 priore parte, * in altera; * facili transposiuone in initio. v. 6 ponitur ; n in altera versus parte rite suo loco consistit; item v. 7:2 et *; v. 8 pot est. inchoari a n3 ut 5 suo loco appareat, aliqua opus est transpositione ; altcra enim v. 9 pars NO non consurget duplex tribulatio collocari debet ante priorem iv quid cogitatis. Rcliqua alphabeti pars ita in istis versibus distributa videtur, ut post 7 stalim in eadem voce sequantur D et 5 (scil. v. 3 b nED2 sine scripüone plena); y post à in v. & ^yz (sine scripione plena); X et P eadem coniectura restituuntur qua 5 ; lcgit enim Bickell v. & pro priore 5312N quae vox in fine versus denuo roperitur, aliam vocem scil. daguq. Post à v. & rite occurrit ? Q'qy35 sed 9 et n sola coniectura restituuntur ; legit enim Bickell in v. & b veschet, quaevox sine Aloph scribitur, ut Num. 24, 17, el vertit : et fit commotio (vcl interitus) terrae. Sed quamquam hacc magna sagacitate sunt excogitata, tamen dubitare licebit un cum cadem vcrisimilitudine proponantur. Nam modus quo altera alphabeti pars distribuitur, cst qiujs obscurus, obvolutus, singularis; ludum potius sapit quam artificium poeta dignum : aenigma lectoribus proponit, non, utifit in psalmis alphabeticis, artem et aie) Tum? »ciicni elare exhibet. Omitto coniecturas quibus opus est. Sed illud interrogo * quare artificialis haec structura subito v. 10 cessat, cum tamen v. 11 et etiam sequentes versus arcte cum antecedentibus coliaereant et cum cis unum aliquod eff ciant ? — les tamen digna videtur, quae lectori curioso commendetur. Rei veritatem, uti in eventibus maximis et humanam vim vel exspectationem longe superantibus fieri assolet, Deus iterato affirmat conditionibus etiam adiectis, ut appareat rem omnino esse ad exitum perducendam nequeesse vaticinium ab ulla dependens conditione, ad quod fortasse applicare liceat normam illam apud Ieremiam 18, 1. 8 propositam ; ita
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V. 2 «haec dicit Dominus : si perfecti fucrint et tta plures, sic quoque attondentur et pertransibit. Afflizi te et non afftigam te ultra » ; — «licet, inquit, robusti sint Assyrii et fortitudo eorum numero auzeatur cunctarum gentium ; sic quoque. . tondentur ; quomodo enim numerus capillorum acutae forcipi non repugnat, ita et numerus adversariorum Dei facili succisione tolletur et pertransibit Assur et esse desistet » (S. Ilier.). Perfect, in hebr. integri, incolumes ; etsi optime sint instructi «arte pugnandi, viribus corporis, armis, numero militum, et ordinatione sive instructione acierum, et ita plures fuerint, quam modo sunt » (Aib.), tamen iis omnibus non obstantibus « quam facile crines forcipe. succiduntur » (Atup.), vel quam facile oves tondentur sive foena secantur, tam facile illi delebuntur (— ad metaphoram tondendi ! cf. Is. 1, 90. Pint). Sed cum ruina inimicorum et iudicio in eos devoluto arcte coniungitur, uti iam v. '] indicatur, populi Dei prosperitas et salus ; quare additur afflixi te... i. e. iam non permittam, ut ab Assyriis tribulationes inferantur similes illis sub Achaz, Ezechia, Manasse (cf. 4 Reg. 16. 18; 2 Par. 28. 32. 33, 11); Assur enim pertransibit i. e. evanescet, peribit, exsistere quasi cessabit (cf. Ps. 90, 6 hebr. Iob 34, 20). Illud non afftigam te ultra clarius determinatur
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v. 13 « et nunc. conteràm virgam eius de dorso tuo ct vincula tua. disrumpam » ; — virga Assur dure incumbebat (cf. Is. 9, 4; 10, 5. 21); « vel per metaphoram potestatem eius significat, vel certe viream, qua percutere conabatur et vincula quae captivis parabat » (S. IIier.). Hebr. et nunc conteram ugum ! eius a te, illud scil. auferens desuper te (hebr.), « non quod perpetuam securitatem polliceatur, sed illius tantum temporis et ab illis hostibus » (S. Hier.). Usus erat Deus virga Assur ad puniendum populum suum rebellem vel contumacem ; iam virgam istam frangit et prolicit. Id annuntiatur versu sequenti, qui eadem ratione ad antecedentem adiungitur, qua supra v. 8 us ad v. '| um;
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v. 14 « et praecipiet super te Dominus : non seminabitur ez nomine tuo amplius. De domo dei tui inter[iciam sculptile et conflatile ponam sepulcrum tuum, quia inhonoratus es » ; — i. e. non propagabitur in posterum ex nomine tuo, id quod dicit : imperium Assyriorum et natio interibit, ex serie regnorum et populorum delebitur ; vel, ut Theod. explicat : « non amplius nomen tuum subditis imponetur; subditi enim a suis regibus nomen accipere soliti sunt; sic a Babylone Babylonii...» (sim. TAeod. M. ThAeoph.). Simul cum natione eiusque regno et gloria exscindam (hebr.), inquit Dominus, de domo dei tui, Assur scil. qui in inscriptionibus tamquam regum Assyriorum dux, dominus, consiliarius celebratur, idola varii generis ; quod dicit : simul cum regno Assyriorum idololatria assyriaca concidet, quia populi numinisque gloriae et interitus mutua adesse credebatur habitudo (cf. Is. 46, 1. Ier. 48, 7. Am. 1, 15), quare iam Ex. 19, 12 : « et in cunctis diis Aegypti faciam iudicia ». Sculptile simulacrum est ex ligno vel lapide confectum ; con/latile statua est fusilis, idolum ex aere confectum ; saepius utrumque iungitur cf. Deut. 91, 19. Iud. 17, 3. Is. 48, 8. Et postquam populi gloria concidit et una cum ea idola quofilgo, pro sedeo sido» ; cf. Kaulen, Handbuch zur Vulgata p. 103. — Verbum 373 frequenlegerunt siy0v3, dum Syrus ct Chald. cum texta. mas. iugum explicant. que, ponam sepulerum (uwm, haec omnia sepulcro econdentur, u: oblivio perpetua et mors perennis et abolitio illa nunquam revocand: designetur. Talem autem sortem subibit Assur, quia levior inventus es (hebr.) vel inventus es minus habens, cf. Dan. 5, 91; i. e. appensus in Dei statera inventus est Assur inutilis, vilis; iam non ad Dei consilia promovenda valet vel quae divina providentia ab eo expetiit, non praestitit, quare cum contemptu abiicitur et deletur (cf. Ez. 32, 29). Veterum multi hunc quoque versum de Sennacherib explicant. Audiatur S. Hier. : « non seminabitur ez nomine tuo amplius, statim quippe Niniven reversus Sennacherib a filiis suis occisus est (lege [saiam) et occisus in domo dei sui quam adoraturus intraverat. Hoc est enim quod ait : de domo dei ti inlerficiam : inde punieris, unde sperabas auxilium. Erit sculptile et conflatile sepulerum tuum, ut inter aras et pulvinaria adorantis idola sanguis nefarius effundatur » ; sim. Alb. : « templum sculptilis et conflatilis ponam sepulcrur: tuum » ; Rib. : « potuit cadaver trahi et a festinantibus aut contemnentibus su» altari aliquo idolorum abscondi » ; Mar. : « inter idola sepelieris » sim. Pint. Men. At certe iungi oportet : interficiam sculplile et conflatile; uti iam iungunt Rup. Pint. Sanct. Lap., qui v. g. ita dehac re disserit : « haec iungenda sunt cum Hebr. Chald. Septuag. ' et Romanis, licet Biblia Regia, S. Hier. Remigius, Haimo, Lyranus et Clarius aliter disiungant, nimirum sic : de (i. e. in) domo dei tui interficiam scilicet te, o Sennacherib ; sculptile, et conflatile ponam sepulerum tuum » ; Tir. De Sennacherib etiam Cali. explicat. Praedici volunt ab eo iam non generatum iri filios Jtio. Lap. Sa, Pint. Mar. Tir., eius nomen interiturum Men. ; aliter Alb. : « semina tyrannidis tuae et oppressionis ulterius non colliges » ; valde singulariter Sanct. : « neque ex subditorum labore in regium horreum inferentur frumenta ». S. Cyr. verba illa ad [sraelitas refert : « non eris dispersus in omnes gentes, captivus et erro ». Uti v. 1. 12. 13, ita nunc quoque additur, cum quanta pro Icrusalem laetitia et salute iudicium ih. Niniven sit coniunctum ; sunt enim De; iudicia, sicut nubes illa in exitu ex Aegypto tenebrosa inimicis Dei, amicis autem illuminans noctem (Ex. 14, 90). Unde
1:15
v. 18 « ecce, super montes pedes evangcelizantis et annuntiantis pacem ! Celebra, [uda, fc- ' stivitates tuas et redde vota tua, quia non aditciet ultra ut pertranseat in te Belial; universus interiit » ; — cf. Is. 52, 71. 4; adveniunt scil. nuntii a septemtrione per regiones montanas ad Iudaeam promulgante: casum et castigationem Ninives et inde consequentem pacem ac securit3tem pro luda ; cf. Is. 14, 4 : « cessavit exactor, quievit tributum ». « Ad veterem Ilebraeorum morem alludere videtur propheta, ponen: scil. in montibus exploratores, cum vel provincia tumultibus aestuaret vel de gravissimis rebus ageretur, ut ignibus aliisve signis, de quibus conventum fuerat, hostium invasiones aut ea quorum causa missi fuerant, quam citissime nuntiarent » (Calm.). Nuntius ille de iudicio Dei et pace pro bonis consequente merito dicitur evangelium, laetus, prosper, faustus, utpote qui plurima in se continet bona. Quare Iuda admo netur, ut festis in gratiarum actionem celebratis et sacrificiis oblatis et votis, quae tempore angustiarum voverint, redditis ac rite persolutis diem illum agant sollemniter ; iste enim Belial i. e. homo nequam, praevaricator (ita vocem vertit S. IIier. 2 Reg. 23, 6), apostata (cf. Iob 34, 18), vastator, parans exitium, cum (ofus perierit, Iudaeos iam non molestia afficiet. | Textus hebr. et syriacus ita dividi solet, ut hic versus sequentem sermonem incipiat, dum in LXX et apud Chald. ad antecedentia adnectitur, uti in vulg. Hoc omnino praeferendum esse videtur. Nam uti v. " iam docemur, iudicium Dei in hostes terrificum saluti est piis ; ergo hic quoque id enuntiari post ruinam Assyriorum, prorsus est ad indolem sermonis efformatum. Accedit quod v. 19. 13 ruinae Assyriorum salutaria promissa pro luda adiunguntur; cum igitur v. 14 denuo sermo regrediatur ad ruinam ulterius delincandam, haec descriptio oppositione salutis et exsultationis Iudaeorum eodem modo concinne absolvitur. — Minus apte in initio sermonis secundi de ruina ponitur. — Apud dsaiam 52, "| haec verba de salute messianica usurpantur. Ea adhibet Nahum de quadam huius salutis praeparatione. Quotiescumque enim Iuda e periculo eripitur, ideo eripitur, quia consilia Dei i. e. opus messianicum impleri debent; et si potentia Deo adversa conteritur, ideo conteritur, quia in populo iudaico adesse debet Emmanuel. Hanc normam divinam praeclare docet Isaias : « congregamini, populi, et vincimini, confortamini et vincimini, accingite vos et vincimini ; inite con- . silium et dissipabitur; loquimini verbum et non fiet, quia nobiscum Deus » (quia Emmanuel hebr. 8, 9. 10). Ànc. — Cum in eo sit, ut urbs ab hoste impugnetur, monet propheta, ut se parent ad bellum. Ea autem calamitas urbi imminet, quia Dominus gloriam populi sui instauraturus ultionem capit de inimicis. Huius autem ultionis ministros virtute bellica et plurimo apparatu instructos propheta ex una parte accuratius describit, ex altera parte, quid contra eos Ninivitae moliantur. At Ninive ruit; omnes fuga dilabuntur (9, 4 - 8). Hostes immensam capiunt praedam et ad vastjtatem et ruinam omnem Ninives superbiam adducunt, ita, ut magna cum admiratione regni et potestatis splendor et terror, qui olim fuerit, cum praesenti ruina comparetur. Talem vero vastitatem, tale exterminium adducet Dominus (2, 9 - 13). |
1:1
Nahum (Hebrew: Naḥûm «Comforter»)
He was from 'Elqōš (Nah. 1:1), which St. Jerome (PL 25, 1232) places in Galilee (Driver, Cornely, Crampon); but St. Epiphanius (PG 43, 409), St. Cyril of Alexandria (ibid. 71, 780) and all moderns place it in …
1:4
… It is a vast plain of volcanic nature, surrounded by mountains, sung by the prophets for its fertility, like Galaad and Sharon (Is. 33, 9; Jer. 50, 19; Mic. 7, 14; v. Ps. 67, 16 f.; Nah. 1, 4), famous for its pastures populated with bulls (a symbol of ferocity and pride; Ps. 21, 13; Ez. 39, 18), once covered with forests of admired oaks (Is. 2, 13; Zech. 11, 2) and exported …
1:11
… 34, 18) or "destroyer" (Nah. 2, 1), taking on a concrete sense, as a noun or adjective. B. expresses moral evil, and is applied to everything (things, thoughts, actions) that tends toward it or proceeds from it (Deut. 15, 9; Ps. 40, 9; 100, 3; Nah. 1, 11; I Sam. 20, 10 Septuagint; perhaps II Sam. 22, 5 [Vulgate Belial] and Ps. 17[18], 5 Vulgate: torrentes iniquitatis, where many see in b. the šē'ōl. …
1:12
… God wills (Deut. 18, 15-22; Jer. 23, 16; 20, 7-9, 15, 19; 14, 14; Ezek. 13, 3-17; Mic. 3, 5-8; Zech. 7, 12; cf. II Sam. 7, 1 ff.), declares divine (Hos. 4, 1; Joel 1, 1; Am. 1, 6, 9, 11, 13; 2, 1 etc.; Obad. 1; Jon. 1, 1; 3, 1; Mic. 1, 1; 3, 5; 6, 1; Nah. 1, 12; Zeph. 1, 1; Hag. 1, 1; 2, 1, 11, 21; Zech. 1, 1; 7, 1 ff.) what he has written; reports visions, revelations or supernatural dreams (Num. 12, 6 ff.; Is. 6, 20; Jer. 1, 11-16; Ezek. …
1:15
… The elliptical and absolute use of b. to designate a malevolent force (Nah. 1, 15; Vulg. Belial) contributes to this personification in the Old Testament. …
Douay-Rheims (Challoner) · Vulgata Clementina · original Douay-Rheims (Douay 1609-10), transcription by EEBO-TCP (CC0) · La Sacra Bibbia, tradotta dalla Volgata da Antonio Martini (1769-1781) (LaParola (laparola.net), Martini OSIS text, Public domain (LaParola's electronic edition marks it 'Dominio pubblico')). Public domain.