Глава III

Nahum.3:1–4. Woe to the city of blood! it is all full of deception (or lies), theft; the robbery will not cease in you: the sound of a whip and the sound of a quickly moving wheel, a neighing horse, a rushing chariot, a riding horseman, a sparkling sword, a shining spear, many killed and a heavy fall, and there is no end to the corpses; and they will fall on their bodies because of the many fornications of the beautiful harlot who uses enchantments, who sold nations with her fornications and families with her enchantments. LXX: Oh, city of blood, all deceitful, full of lawlessness! They won’t touch the catch. The sound of scourges and the sound of the moving wheels, the pursuing horse, the rushing chariot, the rider riding, the shining sword, the shining weapon, the multitude of the wounded and the heavy fall, and there will be no end to her nations, and their bodies will be weakened by the multitude of fornications. A beautiful and charming libertine, the mistress of sorcery, who sold nations with her fornication and tribes with her enchantments. Where we put “full of plunder” (Iaceratione), there in the Hebrew text there is pherec malea, which Aquila translated: ἐξαυκενισμοῦ πλήρης, that is, “full of perseverance,” and Symmachus ἀποτομίας πλήρης, which we can express through: “full of cruelty” or “severity.” In another edition of it I found μελοχοπίας πλήρης, which means “dissecting the body and crushing the members into pieces,” after which he added: “where theft does not stop.” The Jew translated the word "рherec" not through "perseverance", instead of which in the edition of Aquila we found ἐξαυκενσμον` (or αυχενισμὸν), but through "helm", that is, χυβερνισμον, to show that it was a royal the city and, as if on a ship, ruled the helm of all cities. The power of it, that is, Nineveh, is described, and cruelty is exposed under the image of crying. Woe to you, city of blood, in which there is no truth, but in which everything is false, full of robbery and theft. The sound of a cruel sword, merciless power and the sound of a rapidly rotating wheel are constantly heard. We must understand sound in the sense of noise; as with a wheel moving quickly and heading in different directions, so with a neighing horse and with a rushing chariot - in all this the word sound is implied. The Hebrew text is so beautiful in its depiction of an army preparing for war and so similar to a painting that my speech is much weaker. When it is said: “and there is a heavy fall, and there is no end to the corpses,” then we must understand this in relation to the opponents killed by them. “And they will fall on their bodies” or fall due to their large numbers, because they will mutually push each other, or “they will fall on the corpses of the slain,” because αὐτῶν means both, “theirs” and “theirs.” “Because of the multitude,” he says, “the fornications of the depraved, because she committed fornication with many nations and honored the idols of the whole world, which she subjugated to herself. The words: “beautiful and charming and using spells” indicate the Magi. “Who sold nations with her fornications and families with her enchantments,” that is, who had power over all nations. We said this about Nineveh in relation to a simple understanding. But if, due to the name meaning beauty, we speculatively understand the world by Nineveh, then is it right that the world, which lies in evil (1 John 5), is called the city of blood because of the multitude of shooters of arrows and those who kill people with their tongues, like swords? According to this, he is completely full of lies, which refers to perverse teachings and the absence of the word of God where one could lay his head, because perverted teachings reign everywhere; “there is understanding or seeking God; all evaded, together without the keys, was; do not do goodness, not even one” (Ps. 13:2-3). Although this is partly being accomplished now, it will be even more fulfilled at the end, when, “due to the increase of iniquity, the love of many will grow cold” (Matthew 24:12). No matter how numerous the captives of the giant Nimrod, the cruel fisher, who, arrogantly rebelling against God, entangled many in his oak grove with his nets, many will not touch the prey or the catch. For he has many henchmen who also engage in fishing with him, who rejoice when he catches and are with him like captives. Also, the sound of scourges is heard in the world, because “many are the sorrows of the righteous” (Psalm 33:20), and those exposed to them cry out and testify with lamentable sounds of their great sorrow; when some are attacked by a demon, others are subjected to anger similar to rage, others - lust, hatred, envy, pride, then the scourge of the king of Assyria is heard among them. Also in bodily illnesses we see the scourge of the devil, about which the righteous is told: “and the scourge will not come near your tabernacle” (Psalm 90). When we see one rotting from the royal illness and outliving his corpse; another wanders around with water sickness and a swollen body and, with an increase in members, loses the appearance of the former person, as we recently saw on the Hydra (in exceta) 13 the third spews out some kind of pus and spoiled particles of the affected lungs; another, due to the transformation of dried moisture into stones, feels the bitterness of urine and pain in the bladder; then we will not hesitate to say that this is the sound of the scourge of Nineveh, although some suggest that this is due to the spoiled air or due to one or another kind of food and physical organization (corporum). We, who read about the prohibition of fever (Luke 4) and about the Lord’s healing of a woman who was bound by the devil for eighteen years (ibid. ch. 13), should know that all these are the scourges of Nineveh. This is followed by: “and the sound of the wheels moving,” because the human race is carried away here and there and, with our aspirations in various indefinite directions, we do not know where is destruction and where is salvation. This wheel is discussed at the beginning of the book of Ezekiel, and in the seventy-sixth psalm we read: “the voice of your thunder in the wheel” (Psalm 76:19). Nineveh also has a pursuing horse, which, with its neighing hooves digging the ground and its ardent chest, constantly expresses its desire for war in accordance with what the Lord says against the devil: “from afar... the army smells, galloping and neighing” (Job 39:25) does not spare those who flee and does not allow those who turn back to escape, but pursues in order to overthrow, kill, trample, crush. There is also the sound of a rushing chariot in Nineveh, similar to those that, as I believe, Pharaoh had and which were sunk by the Lord (Ex. 14). This kind of chariot is harnessed to four horses, that is, four passions, about which philosophers talk, and Maro does not remain silent, saying: They pity passionately, they are afraid, they are sad, and they also rejoice 14. With these horses and this chariot, Nineveh is throwing everything into confusion. In it one can also hear the sound of a horseman riding, who, having prepared himself for war through some kind of art and exercise, does not appear without danger for those who fight against him. This horseman has the sword of the word, sharpened with the whetstone of dialectic and polished with the oil of rhetorical art; He has a shining weapon, because Satan takes the form of an angel of light (2 Cor. 11), which weapon is opposite to the apostolic armor (Eph. 6). And it is not surprising if Nineveh has many wounded when it has many arrows. And just as for struggle and defense we have four shields of virtues: prudence, justice, temperance and courage, there, on the contrary, there are four vices with which the enemy attacks us: unreason, untruth, intemperance, fear. Each of them has branches and various types of arrows that inflict wounds, to which, if the means of healing are not immediately applied, then a heavy fall occurs, and God grant that in Nineveh there were as many easily falling and lightly wounded as there were, due to the severity of the fall, cast into the underworld. There is no end to her nations (or groanings): her evil has no end, and as many types of sins as there are, there are so many nations in Nineveh who are weakened in their bodies by the multitude of fornications. Although this can also be understood in relation to those who, as a result of sensual pleasures, have lost their physical strength and, along with the destruction of the soul, also destroy the flesh they serve; however, those nations of which we spoke, according to the Hebrew text, fall only on their own bodies and stumble (as Symmachus translated) only over the corpses of the dead, overthrown due to the increase of fornication. Here we translated from the Hebrew text: “because of the many fornications of the harlot”; but the LXX translators recognized a different beginning of the sentence, so they say: “from the multitude of fornications,” and having completed this thought, they then begin a new sentence with the words: “a beautiful and charming harlot, the mistress of sorcery.” Instead of “chief of sorcery,” Aquila and Symmachus translated: “user of enchantment.” The fact that Nineveh already serves as the most charming of depraved women will not be surprising to anyone who knows that so many people committed fornication with her and that, as a result of her charms and some kind of spells, almost everyone was carried away by love in her. She sold the nations with her fornications, through which members are taken away from Christ and become members of the harlot (1 Cor. 6), and she sold the tribes with her enchantments. For it causes them to love what they should have hated, and to abhor what they should have loved, so that, having themselves been deceived, they, according to what is written: “good customs corrupt, evil conversations” (1 Cor. 15:33), they also seduce others with their destructive art. I read that in the Holy Scriptures, sorcerers are also viewed in a good way: “and a sorcerer who casts spells wisely (Psalm 57).” But a sorcerer of this kind uses spells in order to convert those who are carried away by love for the depraved Nineveh to a sound mind. Nahum.3:5–6. Behold, I am against you, says the Lord of hosts, and I will uncover your shameful parts before your face, and I will show your nakedness to the nations and your dishonor to kingdoms, and I will cast down abominations on you, and I will cover you with shame and make you an example. LXX: Behold, I am against you, says the Lord Almighty, and I will uncover your hind parts before your face, and I will show your shame to the nations and your dishonor to kingdoms, and I will cast down upon you abomination according to your uncleanness, and I will make you an example. Since you, Nineveh, sold nations through your fornications and families through your charms and, like a public lewd woman, spread your legs for everyone, then I myself will come to destroy you - I will not send an angel and will not entrust others with judgment over you. I will reveal your private parts before your face, so that you may see something before your eyes that you have never seen before. I will show your nakedness to the nations and your dishonor to kingdoms, so that those who committed fornication with you will despise you, mock you and disgrace you, and you will serve as an example to all who see you. All this is presented under the image (sub mataphora) of an adulterous woman who, having been caught, is taken out before the people and dishonored before the eyes of all. This prophetic speech in the book of Ezekiel is depicted in great detail in a figurative sense in relation to Jerusalem. But closer to the truth and with greater benefit, these words can be applied to the world, for the healing of which the true doctor came from heaven. “Here I am upon you, says the Lord,” the omnipotent: since I am omnipotent, I can heal all diseases, and what is impossible for others is possible for Me. I will reveal your hind parts before your face, that is, My virtues, commandments and words that you have thrown behind you. I'll let you see them, even though you don't deserve it. For I commanded you regarding my words, that they should always be before your eyes and that they should hang on you like a bandage (Deut. 6:8). But you, despising the will of the commander, left them behind you, so that you not only did not fulfill, but did not even want to see what I commanded. Or maybe I made you see and understand your errors, which you previously, during your blind passions, considered to be virtues. After this, I will also show the nations, whom you sold through your fornication, your nakedness, so that they will not be carried away by love for you, but, seeing the ugliness and dirt on the inside of the body, the appearance of which they were attracted to, they will stop committing fornication with you. Also, to kingdoms that are greater than nations, I will show your dishonor, of which you yourself were the author. And I will turn upon you an abomination according to your uncleanness, so that you will be considered as unclean as you are truly unclean, and you will not deceive very many who, having previously united with you, became one body with you (1 Cor. 6). And I will make you an example so that the fear of such punishment will keep you from imitating crimes. Nahum.3:7. And it will happen that everyone, seeing you, will run from you and say: Nineveh is ruined!” Who will shake their head for you? Where will I find a comforter for you? The Hebrew text does not contain the word “head”, but we added it to make the meaning clearer. Symmachus also translated this: And everyone who sees you will move away from you and say: “Nineveh is devastated!” Who will grieve with her? Further, LXX translated: And it will be that everyone who sees you will come down from you and say: “Wretched Nineveh! Who will sigh for you? Where will I look for consolation for her - tuning the string? Whoever sees that Nineveh is ruined and that she is turned into an example for everyone, he will be afraid, surprised and say: “Nineveh is ruined! Who will shake his head for you?” that is: who will grieve for you, who can be your comforter? While you were powerful, you, like a cruel ruler, did not spare the old man (or elders), did not pay attention to the baby (or infants) and did not prepare anyone as a friend for the time of your sadness, because you did not want to have anyone as an accomplice in your reign. But whoever despises earthly things, does not attach any importance to the charms of the destructive Nineveh and is not caught by its false beauty, he, seeing all its ugliness inside and beginning to hate what others love, will run away and jump away or, as the LXX translation says, “come down from it.” For while we honor earthly things and consider them lofty, we seem to be at the height of arrogance and admire the beauty of Nineveh. But when we delve into its essence and begin to despise all earthly blessings as low, submitting to the power of the hand of God, then we will feel sorry for the Ninevites (or Nineveh), we will consider all earthly blessings worthy of mourning and say: pitiful Nineveh! How many are entangled in your nets! How many prisoners do you hold in your chains! Who will run from you, come down from the height of your arrogance and consider you pitiful? We must understand the word “who” in the sense of not difficult, but rare, as we often said; for example: “who is shabby... a faithful builder and wise” Luke. 12, 42)? “Who is wise and understands this?” (Hos. 14:10) “Who will ascend to the mountain of the Lord” (Psalm 23:3)? Who, then, will sigh for Nineveh? Who can be found who, burdened by this church, would say with Paul: “I am wretched...: who will deliver me from this body of death” (Rom. 7:24)? We see every day that if someone is approaching death and notices that either a fever, or a wound, or some other kind of illness removes him from this world, then he becomes horrified, trembles and, trembling with his whole body, tries to stay in the arms of Nineveh and with difficulty tears himself away from the body of the beautiful harlot. The next thing: “Where will I look for consolation” or “a comforter for you who would tune the string,” is also said on behalf of the one who runs or moves away from Nineveh and says: “Wretched Nineveh! Who will sigh for her? speaking about the rebellious life of this world, in which no one can like anything all the time, but what was liked is not liked, and what was not liked is liked again. Where, therefore, can one find such a comforter and (so to speak) lyrical writer and citator 15 who could give harmony and harmony to its discordant strings and produce sonorous and harmonious singing to the glory of God? What we translated: “who would tune the strings” or “the one who tunes the string” and what in Greek is called ἁρμόσαι κορδήν we did not find either in the Hebrew text or in other translators, but instead another speech begins with the words: “Are you better than Amon who lives among the rivers?” Therefore, it seems to me that it would be better to connect this with the words that follow. Nahum 3:8–12. Are you better than...Amon (vulg. of the peoples of Alexandria), who lives among the rivers? The waters are around him, the sea is his wealth, the waters are his walls, Ethiopia and Egypt are his reinforcements, and there is no end; Africa and the Libyans provided assistance to you. But he too is resettled and taken captive; ... his babies will be broken (Vulg. were broken) at the beginning of all roads, lots will be cast (Vulg. cast) about his nobles, and all his nobles will be bound (Vulg. were bound) with chains. So you too will become drunk and despised, and you will seek help for yourself from the enemy. All your fortifications are like a fig tree with ripe fruit: if they are shaken, they will fall into the mouth of the eater. LXX: Tune the string, you, part of Ammon, living among the rivers; the waters are around it, the sea is its beginning, and the waters are its walls. Ethiopia and Egypt are her strength, and there is no end to your flight; The Futians and the Libyans were her helpers, and she would be displaced and taken captive, and her babies would be broken at the beginning of her roads, and lots would be cast for all her nobles, and all her nobles would be bound in chains. And you will become drunk and despised, and you will seek help for yourself from your enemies. All your fortifications are like fig trees that have ripe fruit: if you shake them, they fall into the mouth of the eater. The Jew who instructed me in the Scriptures argued that instead of the words: “tune the string, part of Ammon,” as read in LXX, and instead of the words: “Are you better than Amon,” as other translators translated, you can read: “Are you, Amon, better than No,” and says that in Hebrew “No” means “Alexandria,” and “Amon” means “multitude” or “nations,” and that the train of thought here next: are you better than the Alexandria of the peoples or the populous one, living among rivers and surrounded by water? This is not because at that time it was called Alexandria - it received this name long after that from Alexander the Great of Macedon - but because under the first name, that is, “But”, it has always been the capital of Egypt and, moreover, very populous. Therefore, those who described the actions of Alexander consider it the main city of Egypt. Also the prophet Jeremiah, meaning by “Amon” or “But” Alexandria in a vision against Egypt and saying in relation to the latter: “the young woman ... adorned Egypt”, the instigator “from midnight came upon her” (Jer. 46:20), he also adds with greater clarity the following: he will put to shame “to eat the daughter of Egypt, given in the hands of the people at midnight, says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel. Se Az will visit Ammon » Menno, that is, the rebellious population (tumultum) 16 of Alexandria, because “Amon”, as we said, means “peoples”, the preposition “men” is from, and “But” means Alexandria. “And I will visit,” he says, “against Pharaoh, and Egypt, and his gods, and his kings, and Pharaoh, and those who trust. And I will give them in the hand of those who seek their lives, and in the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and in the hand of his servants” (Jer.46:24-26). Thus it is said to Nineveh: Are you more populous or stronger than Alexandria? At the same time, the position of Alexandria is described, lying by the Nile and the sea and surrounded on all sides by waters and rivers. “The water is all around her; the sea is its wealth; waters are its walls,” because on one side it has the Nile River, on the other - Lake Mareota, and on the third - the sea. As for Ethiopia, Egypt, Africa, instead of which Phut stands in Hebrew, and the Libyans serving as reinforcements for it, this indicates the very situation of the countries and the city. Also, the one who, says the prophet, is described in my speech, will be taken by the king of Babylon, and one and the same will be both yours and her destroyer. Josephus, the author of Jewish history, also reports this in his books. “Her babies will be broken at the crossroads” (or “in chains”), her nobles will be divided among themselves by lot among the victors, and her princes, who were once very strong, will be taken captive in chains. Alexandria will experience this kind of fate; also you, Nineveh, will drink from the same cup, and you will become drunk, and, plunged into sleep, you will lie and serve as an object of contempt and you will reach such an extreme that you will ask for help from the Babylonians or against the Babylonians from your enemies. All your fortifications, and the high steppes, and the high towers, which you now consider insurmountable, and your brave people and warriors will be like early figs, which, if you lightly touch them and shake them, will fall into the mouth of the eater. What is read in LXX: “adjust” or “tune the string” is said back to Nineveh. The meaning of this is the following: what you have is a disorderly, discordant and discordant mood, Nineveh, like strings, because your beauty and greatness, to which you especially attach importance, will not help you at all if you do not tune yourself in to singing. Look how little the entire inheritance of the sons of Ammon and all those blessings, the possession of which they attribute to themselves, could protect them from being taken into captivity and their babies from being killed on the roads! Did the rivers near which the city of Ammon is located, and, in addition to the rivers, so many wells and springs, starting at the Dead Sea and surrounding their country, help them? What help did Ethiopia and Egypt, who were once their allies, give them? So, just as the help of their allies did not benefit them, so there will be no end to your flight, Nineveh, but you will be subject to ruin on all sides. What can be said about the Ethionites and Egyptians, who stood at the head of the sons of Ammon, although the Libyans were also their allies? In this way, she too will be taken into captivity, and her babies, as unable to walk, will be thrown and killed on the roads before the eyes of their parents, and all her wealth will be divided among the victors, and none of her princes will be saved, because they will be bound with iron chains. Therefore, you, Nineveh, will become intoxicated, and although you were once rich and beautiful and had many admirers, everyone will despise you, and, being pursued by enemies, you will seek peace, but you will not find it. All your waves and all your auxiliary troops will be the prey of the enemy, and will be taken without any labor, like the ripe fruits of a fig tree, which, if you shake them, fall not to the ground, but directly into the mouth of the one who wants to eat, so that there will be not the slightest labor for those who gather. We said this παραφραστιχῶς (in the form of a paraphrase) in relation to the translation of LXX, because we once and for all decided to follow the generally accepted (vulgatam) edition, so that it would not seem that we were giving Hydra and Sardanapalus 17 any reason for accusations. But it seems to me that the example of the destruction of Nineveh is not sufficiently consistent with the example of the sons of Lot, who are called (Gen. 19) Amman. For first of all it says Ammon, not Amman; then, Amman, which is now called Philadelphia, is not located near rivers and its wealth is not collected from the sea; because it is located among solid land, the waters do not serve as its walls and it does not have Ethiopia, Egypt, Africa and the Libyans as allies, and all this, as power, the very example, the description of the area and the country and friendly peoples, is most applicable to Alexandria, and never would the powerful city of Nineveh, when compared with its smaller Philadelphia, hear from the prophet: “Are you better?” But the one to whom it is said: “Are you better,” is given to know that she is less than the one with whom she is compared, and should not be indignant at her captivity, when the larger, more fortified and stronger, both in her natural location and in the courage of her people, was defeated by the same enemy. But since Nineveh, as we have explained, also signifies this world, she is commanded to tune and adjust her strings and prepare herself in lamentable singing; because part of the sons of Ammon, who were much better than Nineveh and lived by the rivers, suffered punishment for their crime, as if they had been caught in error. And first of all, according to the literal meaning (juxta historiam) of Alexandria, it should be said that "Ammon" means "peoples", and the allegorical meaning of this is this: look at the peoples of the church, which dwells by the rivers of the prophets, surrounded by teachers, from whose wombs flow rivers, and having as its beginning the sea. For through the reading of the law, which without the tree of Christ is bitter like Marah (Ex. 15:23), 18, they reach that mysterious city, whose strength is Ethiopia, - because “Ethiopia will go before her hand to God” (Psalm 67:32), Egypt, to which the Lord comes on a light cloud (Isa. 19:1), and the Libyans, who formerly lived among the sands and subsequently became his assistants. Therefore, if she, the Church, does not pay attention to herself and carefully guard her heart, she will be taken into captivity and will mourn her children. Also, her babies, who are still at the beginning of the roads and have not reached the middle of the path, will be defeated at the very beginning of their paths, and the cruelest enemies will hasten by lot to divide among themselves all that was best for her, and will take captive the nobles bound in chains and burdened with very heavy bonds, by which we can understand princes and leaders. Likewise, you, Nineveh, that is, unbelieving people, people completely devoted to the world, will suffer punishment and fall into sleep from My cup, because those who belonged to My inheritance also drank from it and fell through their own fault. I will despise you: among the vices and passions that depress you, you will seek an end, but you will not be able to find a break or an end to evils, and everything that constitutes the object of your desires, pleasures, worldly power and teachings, which you considered completely unshakable, will be swallowed up by the eater, about whom Samson speaks in the form of a parable: “From the one who eats the poisonous things come out, and from the strong one the sweet things come out” ( Court. 14, 14); because then all that strength that you had and which in the eyes of the spectators promised sweet fruits, will fall, at the first shaking of the tree, into the mouth of the devouring devil, who has always held Nineveh in his power. Further, the words we omitted: “and there is no end to your flight,” which were said regarding Nineveh, but among what is written about Ammon, and, apparently, in an unusual way placed out of place, we must, as it were, per ύπέρβατον (with rearrangement) attribute it to Nineveh, so the train of thought here is as follows: and you will become drunk, and there will be no end to your flight, and you will despised and other things said about Nineveh. We will explain this in the sense that there is no end to Nineveh’s flight from God, because she constantly continues to run and does not want to stop, in accordance with what we said above: “and those who run do not stand, and are not without one who looks” (Nahum. 2:8). To this we add that the Holy Scriptures and especially the prophecies, which are full of mystery, so that deep thoughts are clothed in difficult forms of expression, are connected with these difficulties so that the holy for dogs, pearls for pigs and the holy of holies for the uninitiated are not easily accessible. But if we want to understand by Ammon the sons of Lot, then we must say that Lot had two sons from two daughters, Moab and Amm, of whom the eldest, Moab, means “from the father” or “the water of the father,” and the younger, “Ammon” - or “the son of my family” or “our people” (Gen. 19). I believe that as in relation to one who was born of Judah, it is said because of his sin: “the tribe of Canaan, and not of Judah” (Dan. 13:56), and in Ezekiel regarding sinful (or adulterous) Jerusalem: “your root and your origin are from the land of the Canaanites; your father is an Amorite (or Canaanite) and your mother is a Hittite” (Ezek. 16:3); so all those who descended from the oldest people, that is, from the Jews, and from the younger people, that is, from ours, are figuratively called Moabites and Ammonites. Since they turned away from their father, for “Lot” means “deviation,” they will be punished and experience everything that we have outlined above. But if the severity of God is revealed, beginning with those who were once saints, and if she who lived among the rivers is purified by the fire of Gehenna; then, much more, Nineveh, which previously had no law and, due to its arrogance, did not accept the yoke of God’s commandments, will finally fall into the mouth of the devouring one. Nahum.3:13–17. Behold, your people are like women among you; The gates of your land will be opened wide to your enemies, fire will devour your bars. Draw water for yourself for the sake of the siege; build your fortresses; go into the mud, trample the clay, prepare a brick. There the fire will devour you; you will perish by the sword; he will eat you like a caterpillar (bruchus) 19. Therefore, gather yourself together like the caterpillar, multiply like the locusts. Your trade has increased more than the stars of heaven; the caterpillar spread and flew away. Your guards are like locusts, and your little ones are like locusts, which alight on the fences in the cold. The sun rose and she flew away, and you don’t recognize the place where she was. LXX: These are your people, like your women; The gates of your land will be opened wide to your enemies; fire has devoured your locks. Draw yourself some water for the siege; hold your fortresses; enter into the mud, be trampled under foot with straw, possess the brick. There the fire will devour you, the sword will destroy you and eat you like locusts. Since you will become heavy like a caterpillar, gather yourself like a caterpillar. Your trade has increased more than the stars of heaven. The speech continues regarding Nineveh. It is not surprising that your brave men and warriors, like ripe fruits of a fig tree, fall straight into the mouth of the eater, when your people have become effeminate and cannot resist. Your gates will open, the city will open to enemies, and the strongest bars with which the gates were locked will be consumed by fire. Therefore, draw water and take care that there is no shortage of drink during the siege of the fortress; prepare bricks to mend the breaches in the walls, for the siege is approaching. When you have done all this, you will be devoured by the sword, like grass (humus) by the caterpillar. But when you are multiplied like the caterpillar, and gathered together like the locusts, and gather together your riches like the stars of heaven; then you will be scattered and run away like the locust and the caterpillar and that kind of small locust called attelabi, which flies away in the heat of the sun, so that it cannot be found. For locusts tend to remain motionless during cold weather, and to fly when hot. Further, attelabus, which Aquila more expressively translated through the word “devourer” (comessorem), is a small locust, something between a locust and a caterpillar (bruchus); having small wings, it crawls more than it flies, and constantly jumps; therefore, where she appears, there she destroys every last speck of dust, because until her wings grow, she cannot leave. This, to make it easier for the reader to understand, I have revealed and explained in relation to the Hebrew text, following step by step the very words of Scripture. Now I will continue the allegorical interpretation (τροπολογίαν) that I started in relation to the translation of LXX, first briefly, that is, as if in an abbreviated form (in epitone), and then revealing in detail each point in particular. Your inhabitants, Nineveh, that is, worldly people, who are actually called the people of the Assyrian city, have become so weak due to passions and so weakened due to vices that they are likened to powerless women; for they have nothing strong in their souls, nothing firm and courageous. Therefore, the enemies, having overcome them, opened all their senses and entered them through bodily doors. The bodily senses are clearly called the gates of the land of Nineveh. Also, those who are given over to vices, from the very time of creation by God, have the opportunity to know God, as if very strong locks that serve to lock and barricade the Gates of the senses. But they too will be consumed by fire, inspired by scorching arrows. Therefore, it is said to Nineveh: “draw water for yourself,” water yourself with word and reason, and use your innate ability to know God and perform virtues to fight. But you, with your weakened hands, that is, with the works of lust, destroyed all the power that was in you; therefore turn, repent, and take possession of your fortresses again. Since you have once entered the mud and are enclosed in a body (which is made up of flesh, blood, veins, nerves and bones, as if from earth, straw and water), then endure insults and bodily needs: be trampled upon by enemies and endure everything that serves to improve the flesh and that is worthy of repentance. For once you have accepted dirt and stubble and given yourself over to the affairs of this world, you must voluntarily be subjected to unjust trampling; and yet do not despair of salvation, but hope, and turn your brick, that is, the body that has received the word like water, into service and subjugate it to yourself in order to rule over your brick; otherwise, if you do not do this, the unquenchable flame, kindled either in Gehenna as a punishment, or by the flaming arrows of the enemy, will subsequently destroy you, and you will not only be destroyed by fire, but also the sword will devour you, as locusts devour the plants on the earth. You will experience this if you do not rise above the brick, but, being burdened by your own gravity and having lost all ability to fly, you completely sink to the ground, just as a caterpillar suddenly falls to the ground when, tired of flying, it can no longer move. Let your strength be as countless as a caterpillar, so that, due to your own gravity, you do not sink to the ground like a caterpillar. You experienced all this because you increased your wealth and trade in various teachings, considering them brighter than the luminaries and more brilliant than the stars of heaven. This, as I said, is stated by us briefly to understand the meaning; Now, returning to the beginning of the section, we will explain, to the best of our ability, each point in particular. Who will not say that the beautiful Nineveh is a soul beautiful by nature, which, having become pampered as a result of the luxury and pleasures of this world and turning to the pleasures characteristic of women, loses its masculinity and becomes weak like a woman? For if the soul of a righteous man, having come “to a perfect man” (Eph. 4:13), maintaining its characteristic strength and uniting with God, is one spirit with Him (1 Cor. 6:16); then why, on the contrary, does the soul that loves the world not form unity with the world and, having reached the point of feminine delicacy, does not lose the strength characteristic of men? I believe that for this reason in the book of Exodus (ch. 1) Pharaoh commanded that every male child that was born to the Jews should be thrown into the river, and every female child should be left alive. For the king of Egypt, who in another place says: “Mine are rivers, and I have made them” (Ezek. 29:3), could not command anything else except that everything that is strong and masculine among the Jews and among those who pass through this world should be thrown into the water and its current carried into the sea, and vice versa, that everything feminine and weak should be left alive, grow and multiply, and so on. what is considered beautiful in this world. At the same time, note that the Egyptian ruler cannot kill either Jewish husbands or those who have already emerged from childhood, but only those who are still at a tender age, have a weak body and are just beginning to develop. He knows that women can only grow if Men are killed; Therefore, he wants to strangle everything strong and courageous among the Jews in this abyss of his river, so that only the feminine will develop more freely among them. As for the following words: “The gates of your land will be opened wide to your enemies,” then you can understand them by taking from Jeremiah the testimony in which it is written: “Death will come through your windows” (Jer. 9:21). What is called windows in Jeremiah, you will say, is here called gates, and these latter will be attributed to the senses. For the word of God, knowing that feelings are of two kinds, says in Proverbs (chapter 2) in contrast to bad feelings: “you will find a divine feeling.” Sense here should be understood not in the sense of spirit and mind, which in Greek is called νοῦς, but as the ability of feeling (αἰσθήσει), which is why the five senses got their name: sight, smell, taste, touch, hearing. Thus, by the gates of Nineveh we should understand bodily feelings, and by the gates of heavenly Jerusalem - every divine feeling and that which descends from above. These gates of Nineveh are opened by its inhabitants, trying through sight and hearing and all other senses, as if through a wide and spacious path leading to death (Matt. 7), to receive bodily pleasures, for which the people of God close their gates, stopping their ears so as not to hear the judgment of blood, closing their eyes so as not to see iniquity, holding their nose so as not to smell the smell of the best incense that pampers the soul, blocking their lips from gluttony and holding back their hands from tender touch, so that the womb excited by lust does not lead the soul, inflamed by passion, to a woman’s embrace. But these people of God open their senses, that is, the gates of heavenly Jerusalem, so that the word of God can penetrate them. An example of a bad gate is the following: “lift me up from the gates of death” (Psalm 9:14); and here is an example of good ones: “for I will proclaim all Your praises in the gates of the daughter Zion” (Psalm 9:15). When you see a man who loves pleasure more than God, and is devoted to voluptuousness; then immediately say about him: he opened the gates of his land to his enemies, because such people open the gates of the land of Nineveh not for the friends of their souls, but for their enemies. If those who are considered princes among the people do the same; then do not be afraid to say about them: “The elders of My people will be cast out from the houses of their sweetness” (Mic. 2:9). If you see that they, being bound by the bonds of pleasure and luxury that surround them on all sides, have no compassion for the poor and do not care about the people of God; then apply the following words to them: “sleeping on the beds of ivory bones and being tender-hearted in their beds, eating goats from the pastures and feeding calves with milk from the midst of the flocks, drinking strained wine and being smeared with the first stench, and I did not suffer anything in Joseph’s contrition” (Amos. 6:4,6). Further, as for the words: “the fire devoured your locks,” their meaning is as follows: if in your soul there remained, apparently, the germ of natural goodness, which, like locks, could hold back and remove enemies who tried to invade through the gates of your feelings, then it was destroyed by the fire of Vavilov. Also in the words: “draw water for yourself to strengthen” it speaks of the word of God that Nineveh must surround itself, as with the strongest wall, with the teaching and understanding of the Scriptures, so that the enemy cannot invade inside it. “Hold,” he says, “your fortresses.” All that good that you have by nature and in which the origin of the all-good Creator is imprinted, hold, unfortunate soul of Nineveh, to protect yourself and do not allow it to disappear from the dominant point (ήγεμονιχῶ) of the heart. The following words: “enter into the mud, be trampled underfoot with straw,” some will relate, perhaps, to the soul in the sense that it, being connected with the mud of the body and completely rotating in the straw of this world, that is, among the vain and fleeting, is trampled underfoot by demons; but I believe that she is told the following: endure the trials, the insults to which you are betrayed, and the punishments to which you are deservedly exposed; because if you rise above the vanity and frailty of this world, then know that these trials will serve as a means of healing for you, if only you dominate the brick 20 and subordinate the flesh to the power of the soul. Finally it follows: “there fire will consume you.” If you do not rise above the brick and rule over the flesh, but being in the brick, you will love stubble and live in the flesh according to the flesh; then not only will the scorching arrows of the enemy devour you, but his sword will also destroy you, and, like a locust, will destroy you with its greedy teeth, or a caterpillar will devour and destroy) everything that seemed green and that spontaneously arose in you thanks to the beneficial action of nature, and, like a caterpillar that has lost the ability to fly and is burdened with its weight, you, being burdened burdened with sins, you will sink to the ground. So, in order not to experience all this, you must multiply like a caterpillar and have as many virtues as it is numerous. For, having multiplied your trade affairs and by all means, by hook or by crook, having collected for yourself perishable riches (as if desiring to possess heavenly blessings), you must equalize the multitude of sins through the multitude of virtues. Above, I reached the place in the Hebrew text where it says: “the sun rose, and she flew away, and you would not recognize the place where she was,” and I expressed what I considered necessary in connection with the text itself. But since the translation of LXX apparently begins with a special thought, I, having presented their evidence, will continue the explanation I started. LXX: A caterpillar (bruchus) invaded and flew away; your messenger 21 (commixticius) jumped down like a grasshopper (attelabus) 22 like a locust that landed on a fence during the cold: the sun rose, and she jumped off, and you did not recognize her place. Woe to them! It seems to me that the inhabitants of Nineveh, who make up a mixed crowd gathered from everywhere, without leader or order and quickly rushing in one direction or another, are compared here to a caterpillar, a small but numerous insect that barely rises from the ground. Also, by the grasshopper (attelabus), which in Greek is called συμμιλτὸς and in the Latin translation commixticius (mixed or mixed), we can mean the mob and the people formed from tribes gathered from everywhere, that is, not citizens, but foreigners. Therefore, it is said about the people of Israel that came out of Egypt (Ex. 12) that among them there were πολὺν συμμιχτὸν (many people of different tribes), that is, Egyptians, Ethiopians and various tribes. Thus, this, so to speak, mixed (mixticius) Nineveh is compared to a jumping grasshopper and a locust, which during the cold, not being able to fly away, sits on the fence, but after the sun rises and warms it with its warmth, it jumps up and flies away to other countries, no longer remembering the fence on which it sat during the cold. We said this παραφρστιχῶς (in the form of a paraphrase) for easier understanding of the words of the prophet. However, without hesitation, one can call the multitude of people walking along the broad path and living the life of this world as caterpillars, when you see that they are completely devoted to the earth, out of their frivolity they rush in one direction or another and cannot ascend in thought to higher regions. Look at Rome and Constantinople, which has left behind its former poverty along with its former name, look at Alexandria, the capital of Egypt, and when you see that due to a lack of bread or (as a result of which one should be ashamed and blushing) because of horsemen, mimes and actors, an uprising occurs and the people, completely surrendered to vices, rush, due to their frivolity and inconstancy, like a caterpillar, here and there here, then you can truly say: “the caterpillar quickly moved away” and flew away. As for the following words: “the grasshopper or (et) your messenger has jumped down like a locust,” then the messenger, as I believe, differs from the caterpillar in that the caterpillar indicates the ignorance and large number of the people, and the messenger indicates its diverse composition from all sorts of tribes. And how the inhabitants of cities consist either of citizens or of strangers who prefer to live not in their own city; so by the grasshopper living in Nineveh, I mean those who consider themselves to follow some teachings of the truth and who are better than the caterpillar in this respect, that the caterpillar always remains only on the ground and, not having wings, cares only about food and belly, and the grasshopper uses at least small wings, and although it cannot fly high, it nevertheless tries to rise from the ground; however, when the locust is formed from it, although it flies, its flight does not continue constantly, because, in the absence of wings and shrunk from the cold, the locust also sits, and does not sit on a fruitful tree or on green leaves, but on a fence woven from thorns and brushwood, or on a fence made of any stones that come to hand. Let us look at the sages of the Greek, Egyptian and Persian, at the Indian gymnosophists, at the Samaritans with their various, mutually contradictory opinions, at the Jews with their Pharisees and Sadducees and at the various heresies of the church - and we will see a grasshopper barely rising from the ground, and a locust, although flying, but not with complete freedom, and since it is not warmed by the Sun truth, then, after the love for God has cooled, he sits on the thorny fences. For all their teachings, having cooled and not being able to soar, find a place and peace among the thorns of Aristotle and Chrysippus. Therefore Eunomius says: what was born did not exist before it was born. Therefore, Manichaeus, in order to save God from the creation of evil, invents another culprit of evil. Therefore, Novat denies the possibility of forgiveness in order to reject repentance. In a word, these are the sources that all teachings use in their conclusions, so that the very places from which evidence is borrowed are called τοπιχά. Thus, these locusts, now sitting on the fences, when the time of judgment comes and when the world is warmed by the rising of the sun, will leave the place of their stay in which they were during the cold, and, heading towards the better, will not remember the former place, What we said in general about the time of judgment. this can partly be understood in relation to the present time, in the sense that, thanks to learned and educated people, the light of the sun of righteousness is rising for locusts of this kind, and they, leaving the thorns, move into that pure region in which they can fly freely. Nahum.3:18–19. Thy shepherds have fallen asleep, O king of Assyria; Your princes will be buried; your people are scattered over the mountains (vulg. hid in the mountains), and there is no one to gather them; your contrition is not hidden; your plague is destructive. Everyone who heard the rumor about you clasped their hands because of you; for to whom did not your malice continually pass? LXX: Your shepherds have fallen asleep; The king of Assyria has put your mighty ones to sleep; Your people fled to the mountains, and there was no one to receive them; there is no medicine for your contrition; your ulcer is swollen. All who hear the news about you will applaud you; for on whom was not your anger incessantly directed? It is not surprising, king of Assyria, who ruled in Nineveh, that your shepherds have fallen asleep and that your princes are buried or wandering, that is, the kings and leaders of all those tribes that were formerly subject to you, because your people in the midst of your city were like women, its gates were open to enemies and the entire population sitting on the wall, like locusts flying away in the warmth of the sun, abandoned, during the invasion Nebuchadnezzar, the fortifications and fled from the enemies, so that you will not find the place where it was. Since you, Assur, angered God by devastating His people and rising with your nest to the sky (fn. Avd. 1, 4; Habak. 2, 9), as a result of which you are called arrogant; then your city was destroyed and, after the destruction of all the princes who could resist the enemies, the rest of your people, weak and despicable, scattered across the mountains, and not a single leader could be found who would gather them and form a new army from them. Your wound is not hidden and your ulcer is not such that a doctor could heal it. All those who will hear that Nineveh, the most powerful city, has been destroyed, and that the Assyrian king, who once ruled over the city (or over the world), is defeated, wounded, lying half-dead and drowning in his own blood, or will be amazed at such an important event and unexpected news and will clasp their hands, or, perhaps, due to great joy and jubilation, will applaud you and loudly and noisily express joy yours. For no one can grieve for you and cry over your defeat and wound, because there is no one to whom your anger does not constantly pass. And it is beautifully said: “I would not pass over,” because the anger of the king of Assyria towards his enemies cannot continue forever. Hitherto I have followed the method of historical interpretation. But before proceeding to an explanation of the translation of LXX (because it has a completely different meaning), we must also rise somewhat above the letter of the Hebrew text and show that in the last prophecy of Nahum there is an ἀποστρσφη (appeal) to the devil, as the arrogant king of Assyria, who once boasted, saying: “With strength... I will do, and with wisdom reason... I will take away the boundaries of the tongues, and the power of their captivity, and I will shake the inhabited cities" (Is. 10: 13-14). But he is told: “How did the morning star fall from heaven, rising in the morning, crushed..., sending out your lights to everyone with your tongue” (Is. 14:12)? Nineveh, your beautiful and powerful city, in which you arrogated so much power to yourself that you even dared to say to the Son of God: “all this has been given to me; if you fall and worship me, I will give it to you” (Matthew 4:9; Luke 4:6-7). The shepherds and kings under your control fell asleep, who did not shepherd people to save them, but fed them to be slaughtered to you, so that you could devour fatter sacrifices. All your people and that mass of nations that once served you have left you and your city, fled to the mountains and took refuge in the refuges of the apostles and teachers of Christ, and yet there is not a single one of your leaders who could again call to himself this crowd that was once yours. Your plague and your wound are known to the whole world; all those who were once deceived through your wiles rejoice over your fall; because either there are none at all, or there are very few of those whom you would not deceive and onto whom your malice would not pass. It should also be noted that in whom the malice of the devil remains, he cannot rejoice over his fall and wound, because he belongs to the number of the shepherds and to the people of the king of Assyria; but in whom it has already passed, he rejoices over his fall and, as it were, applauds his good and righteous deeds. Although the Jewish text has hitherto spoken of the destruction of the world, in the end the defeat and fall of the devil himself, who was the prince of peace, is also predicted, because “the world... lies in evil” (1 John 5:19). In the translation of LXX, the speech continues to συμμιχτὁν, that is, to the mixticium of the world, that its shepherds fell asleep and that the king of Assyria put them to sleep so that they could sleep. Thus, the LXX translation describes the actions of the Assyrian in relation to others, and not what he himself experiences, and is silent about the defeat, wound and ulcer of the devil. So, woe to those who serve as teachers of perverse teachings in Nineveh! In accordance with this, it is said about them: “Your shepherds fell asleep,” for they gave sleep to their eyes and slumber to their eyelids, and therefore they did not find a place for the Lord and a dwelling for the God of Jacob and did not hear about Ephrath, that is, about the fruitful church, and did not find it in the oak groves (Psalm 131: 4-6). And not only did the shepherds of this mess and the locusts, sitting on the fences during the cold, sleep, but they were also put to sleep by the king of Assyria. For the king of Assyria knows that he cannot deceive the sheep unless he first puts the shepherds to sleep. The devil always tries to put waking souls to sleep. Therefore, during the Passion of the Lord, he casts a deep sleep on the apostles, whom the Savior awakens, telling them: “Watch and pray, so that you do not fall into misfortune” (Mark 14:38), and: “What I say to you, I say to everyone: watch” (Mark 13:37). Since he does not cease to incessantly put those who are awake to sleep, the word of God awakens all those whom he has deceived and, as if through the pleasant but destructive singing of the sirens, lured to sleep, and says: “Arise, sleep and rise, and Christ will illuminate you” (Eph. 5:14). Thus, when Christ comes and the word of God and the teaching of the Church reign, and when Nineveh, which was once a very beautiful harlot, perishes, then the people who were previously put to sleep by the teachers quickly rise up and go to the mountains of the Scriptures, and find there the mountains - Moses and Jesus, the son of Nun, the mountains - the prophets, the mountains of the New Testament - the apostles and evangelists, and when they flee to these mountains and begin to read this kind of mountains, then if he does not find one to teach him, for “the harvest... is many laborers, but few” (Matt. 9:37), - in this case, the zeal with which he fled to the mountains will be approved, and the negligence of the teachers will be exposed, for it is added: “and there was no one to receive him.” It follows: “there is no medicine for your contrition; your sore is swollen.” The messenger of Nineveh cannot be healed because he does not give up his arrogance, and the wound constantly remains fresh due to the blows inflicted daily by the devil. After all this, there can be no cure for his contrition, and although he considers himself healthy, his soul is broken and crushed by the blows of the hammer of the whole earth and is not healed, because it always remains arrogant. But if she humbles herself and submits to Christ, then “God will not despise a broken and humble heart,” and “a sacrifice to God is a broken spirit” (Psalm 50:19). Finally it says: “All who hear the news about you will applaud you. For on whom was your anger not incessantly directed?” When you, the mixer (ῶ´ σύμμιχτε), are subjected to punishment, then all those who hear the news will express joy and rejoicing about you with a common knock, and the sounds of the Voice and, so to speak, the harmony of deeds; because either there is no one at all, or there are very few of those who are not directed or attacked by your malice incessantly. For if the city of Nineveh has messengers (συμμίχτους) as shepherds and guards (fortes) and if every false teaching and all false hypotheses of knowledge come from the mocker (a symmicto); then one should be afraid that there is no one to whom the anger of the mixer (συμμιχτου) would not pass on. At the same time, notice that it is said; “whom your malice has not penetrated, mocker” (σύμμιλτε), but; “but didn’t attack anyone.” For often the arrows of false teachings rain down on us and strive to penetrate, as it were, into the secret chamber of the soul; but when we close the gate, even though the messenger attacks us, rushing with all his strength, and does this incessantly, attacking alone, he, with the help of Christ the Lord and while guarding our hearts with all caution (Prov. 4) cannot penetrate. The word excetra, meaning actually snake or hydra and used by bliss. Jerome in relation to Rufinus (for example, below when explaining vv. 8-12, and at the beginning of the second book of interpretations on the prophet Habakkuk), in this case, apparently indicates water sickness. In some publications it says, in terra nostra, i.e. in our land. Vergil. Aeneid. IV, 733. Citharaedus – singing to the sound of a zither. Instead of tumultum in some lists there is tumulum (hill). Under the name of Hydra and Sardanapalus here we mean Rufinus. See countries above. 292, note. 1. This kind of comparison is used by the blessed one. Jerome also in letters to Algazia and to Rustik the monk (Works of Blessed Jerome, part III. Kyiv, 1880, pp. 171 and 277). In manuscripts and in previous editions, Merrhae is replaced by myrrhae. Actually a genus of locust without wings. According to the Church Slavonic translation. Actually a genus of small locusts, as can be seen from the previous explanation of the blessing. Jerome. You might be interested in: