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Nahum.1:1. Prophecy of Nineveh: Book of the Vision of Nahum the Elkashite 1. First defines the purpose of the prophecy and helpfully explains what and where to pay attention to. Then it clearly states who the speaker is and where he is from? Prophecy, he says, that is, a prediction received, in hand, refers to no one but Nineveh, or: Nineveh should be considered the main subject of prophecy. It is inscribed: book, vision of Nahum, from Elkesa. This is without a doubt a village in the country of Judea; for the name “του Ελκεσαιου” should not come from the father, but rather from the locality. And we say this on the basis of tradition received from knowledgeable people. Nahum 1:2–3. God is jealous and the Lord takes vengeance, the Lord takes vengeance with fury: the Lord takes vengeance on his companions, and consumes his own enemies. The Lord is long-suffering, and his strength is great, and he who cleanses will not cleanse. This word is profound and not easy to understand, accessible only to those who want to delve very carefully into its content. If we assume that this applied to the Jews, then we will find that consolation is skillfully mixed in with the just censure. If we assume that this referred to and was said against Nineveh, then the meaning of these sayings will change somewhat and will give and strengthen to those who were subjected to captivity the hope of returning to their previous state. So let us assume that both of these thoughts constitute the undoubted goal (of prophecy). Having rejected love for God and placing reverence for Him at nothing, the Jews completely fell into polytheism, into a strange delusion and a lawless life, built altars, erected churches, celebrated festivals, made sacrifices to the works of their hands, Ashtoreth, Chemosh, Beelphegor, golden calves and, what is even more senseless than this, sang songs of thanksgiving in their honor; out of their madness, the unfortunate ones said: “These are your gods, Israel, who brought you out of the land of Egypt” (Ex. 32:4). But they forgot that with such terrible wicked deeds they arouse God, their patron and savior, against themselves; they became His enemies and turned out to be His enemies, devoting themselves to those who are not gods by nature, although in ancient times Moses proclaimed about God that He is “a jealous God, consuming fire” and will not tolerate those who decide to do what is carved (Deut. 4:24 et seq.); for he proclaimed that “they have provoked me not because of God, but have angered me in their idols: and I have provoked them not because of the heathen, but because of the foolish heathen I have angered them” (Deut. 32:21). So those who insulted Him in many ways justly perished. The prophet now says this, as if grieving over what happened to the Jewish people, and at the same time denouncing and consoling them. You, he says, are grieving, having suddenly been devastated and expelled from your homes and country and cities, although before you have always defeated your enemies. You have fallen under the feet of your enemies. But before the trials (these disasters), shouldn’t you have thought that “God is jealous, and takes revenge with fury, and takes revenge on his fellows and consumes his enemies”? Behold, he says, we too have been exterminated, expelled from our fatherland and delivered into the hands of our enemies. He has placed us among His enemies; for we have wickedly been at enmity against the Almighty and have bowed down to everything that is unpleasant to Him. But you will say that “the Lord is slow to anger” (Ps. 103:8). Yes, I myself agree with this, for He really is like that by nature. But the unpunished cannot be cleansed, that is, those who insult Him, and, moreover, constantly and excessively, He will by no means free them from accusations and punishment. And although He, out of His characteristic mercy, sometimes refrains from anger and tolerates some sinners, awaiting their repentance; but He finally punishes those who hesitate and evade him for a long time and punishes the bitter ones. This is how the spoken words of the prophet can be understood if we relate them to the Jews. If they were spoken against Nineveh; then we will understand them differently. The Assyrians took possession of the Judean country, since God deigned to give them victory due to the fact that the Israelites were burdened with very many sins. And they were merciless, arrogant and had a completely rude heart and never ceased to humiliate the very glory of God with rude and blasphemous words; for they thought that they had won a victory against His will, and at the same time had overcome the Hand that helped the Jews. That is why Rapsaks allowed himself to utter blasphemous words, telling those on the wall of Jerusalem what can only be found in the wicked speeches of people who do not know the real and true God. But he was soon punished for his pride. However, Shalmaneser and his troops, having taken the cities of Samaria and setting others on fire along with them, magnified themselves over the captives and boldly humiliated the divine glory (2 Kings 18:17). Therefore, the Prophet encourages the greatly embarrassed Jewish people and affirms that God will certainly subject everyone to righteous punishment to those who are at enmity against Him, saying: “God is jealous, and the Lord avenges with fury: the Lord avenges his fellows, and consumes his own enemies.” The Lord is long-suffering and great is his strength; for, possessing irresistible power, He will overcome and subdue those who offend Him. Although He is long-suffering and is still forgiving, He will not “cleanse” in the end; for He is jealous. And we will see that God Himself was greatly indignant at what the Israelites suffered from the cruelty of the Babylonians: “I breathed into your hand, but you gave them no mercy” (Is. 47:6), and through the mouth of Zechariah he says: “I am zealous for Jerusalem and Zion with great zeal, and I am angry with great wrath at the tongues of the attackers: for now I was angry little, but they are in evil” (Zechariah 1:14–15). The words: “God is jealous” and those that follow can rightly be applied to those who do not want to walk in the right and God-loving path, but are more inclined to prefer the carnal life. And that He will take revenge on them, subjecting them to punishment and imposing punishment on them for their unbridledness and crime - can this be doubted, if it is true that “it is fitting for us all... to appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that everyone may receive what he has done with the body, either good or evil” (2 Cor. 5:10). Nevertheless, these words justly apply to the rulers of the Jews, to the scribes, I say, and to the Pharisees. Having rejected faith in Christ, they found themselves guilty of the destruction of both their own and others; for they had a hostile disposition of soul and were at enmity against the economy of salvation through the incarnation of the Only Begotten; they took the keys of knowledge, as He Himself said, but neither themselves entered nor allowed others to enter (Luke 11:52). So, although He is long-suffering, He will not leave without punishment those who are hostile to the true faith. Nahum.1:3. Lord: his way is in death and in cowardice, and the clouds are the dust of his feet 2 . Intending, as a consolation to the victims, to foretell the destruction of Nineveh and to announce to the oppressors that they will be overthrown by God, the Prophet expediently points to the omnipotence of divine Nature and to the fact that everything that She wants to do cannot fail to be fulfilled, on the contrary, everything readily obeys Her and what pleases Her is carried out: although some of the events taking place on earth seem to us and those like us difficult to accomplish. The Jews thought that the Babylonians had become invincible and had reached such a strength that they would not have been powerless against their enemies even if God had wished it. I think the Jews were brought to such a decline in spirit by the cruel and unbridled atrocities committed by them throughout their entire country. So, in order for them to know that they will be overthrown without the slightest difficulty if God raises His wrath against them, and will be very easily destroyed, he necessarily says: “Lord: his way is in death and cowardice.” Something inevitable and inevitable is “coward” (earthquake) and “end” and at the same time a cloud rising like dust and covering the sky. Apparently, here the Prophet brings to their memory the flood that destroyed the entire human race under Noah; for then, as if in “death and cowardice”, who was against everyone, God came, “raising up the clouds” (Ps. 134:7), as the Holy Scripture says, opening “the abysses of heaven” (Gen. 7:11) and flooding the earth with immeasurable rains. So, he says, He who easily overcame the entire earth and with a single word destroyed all those living on it, how can he be powerless against the Babylonian people alone? And quite in accordance with divine power, the cloud calls His dust; for just as it is very easy for a man to raise dust and dust, so it is very easy for God, who rules over everything, to cover the sky with bad weather and clouds. If one should understand the mysterious meaning of the words being spoken; then, I think, it is necessary to say that the coming or fulfillment of the dispensation in the flesh was accomplished by the Only Begotten Word of God, we say, “in death and cowardice”; for when He became like us, He ended and overthrew the dominion of the principalities and powers and rulers of this age, depriving them of dominion over us, taking away from them their ancient power and destroying death itself and, moreover, sin. And “the clouds were the dust of his feet”; for just as dust rises before a person while walking, so the incarnation of the Only Begotten was preceded by spiritual clouds, that is, blessed Prophets who spoke in a very dark and very unclear language, but with life-giving prophecies irrigating the minds of people capable of understanding them. Nahum.1:4. Restrict the sea, and dry it up, and empty all the rivers. The story begins about events that they themselves know about and which they themselves have experienced, leaving aside the most ancient ones. When the patron God brought Israel out of the land of the wicked Egyptians and delivered them from their intolerable dominion; then He led them across the middle of the sea and commanded them to walk as if on dry land, for “having thickened like a wall of water” (Ex. 15:8), the waters became like a wall, according to what is written. So He rebuked the sea and it became passable like some kind of dry land. But if someone wanted to connect the previous saying with the thoughts of these words, I mean: “The Lord: his way is in death and in cowardice,” then he will have the right to reason in this way. The Lord of all, having almost destroyed and crushed the land of Egypt, with the signs that were in it and the death of the firstborn (for they died in one night and everything was filled with crying and crying), translated, as I said, Israel into the middle of the sea, with the cloud of heaven showing him the way. Blessed David said something similar, singing like this: “O God, you never go out before your people, you never pass by in the desert: the earth is shaken, for the heavens are ruined” (Ps. 67:8-9). As I think, Egypt is called the shaken earth. And that the cloud covered the children of Israel, preceding them and invisible to anyone else, the divine Paul will certify this, saying that “the fathers ... of Israel were all baptized in the cloud and in the sea” (1 Cor. 10: 1-3). And the prophet added that the sea was drying up and the rivers were empty, bringing to mind another miracle; for when they entered the land of promise, with Jesus leading by them after Moses, then the Jordan stopped again in that country, since the Almighty God with incomprehensible bonds stops the flow of the waters. And blessed David recognized this as the greatest miracle, saying: “turn the sea into dry land, they will pass through the river with their feet” (Ps. 65:6); and with their feet again they crossed the Jordan. God's thing can happen to everyone. But some people think that the meaning of the words being explained can be reached in some other way. If, he says, the Lord of all wants to attack Nineveh, then of course he will do it “in death and cowardice”; for he will destroy it, and it is vast and like a sea, flooding other nations with warriors, without difficulty he will shake it and immediately dry it up. And even though the peoples living in it, he says, emerge like mountain streams, it will certainly become empty. With all this, we call the sea and rivers that produce floods and deluges the evil and opposing forces, and above all Satan. But Christ dried up all their power and cast the anciently invincible power under the feet of His worshipers. Nahum.1:4–5. Basanitis and Carmel diminished, and prosperous Lebanon became impoverished. The mountains shook at him, and the hills were shaken: and the earth was terrified at his presence, the world, and all that dwell therein. The prophetic word immediately gives other proofs that the divine Nature has an omnipotent and irresistible power. Vasanitida is a flowering and fruitful country. Carmel and Lebanon are mountains, one Jewish, the other Phoenician; both are very rich in trees and famous for their shady forests. All these places, I say, Basanitis and the country located near these mountains were inhabited by strong and very warlike tribes, and the sons of giants, according to what is written (Deut. 1:28). However, they were dried up and, with the assistance of God, were defeated by the children of Israel, who inherited their land. This seems to say again: countries that once abounded in terrible and very powerful men and, as if proud of their forests with numerous warriors, have perished and, having suffered the extermination of their inhabitants, are in desolation. This, I think, means the expression that they have diminished. Therefore: how could the glorious Nineveh not be conquered by the wave of God? Besides Basanitis and Carmel, “prosperous Lebanon also became impoverished.” Lebanon, as I said, is a Phoenician mountain; her name also denotes the entire country located near her and around her. Lebanon calls the ancient kings of Damascus and Phenicia, who once fell under the rule of the children of Israel, prosperous; for they were defeated, although they had a very numerous army and boasted of strong and difficult allies. Reading the books of Kings, we will see that the kingdom of Damascus was once devastated by kings from the tribe of Judah. So, “the prosperous Lebanon became impoverished,” that is, the best thing in Lebanon, that is, the local rulers of state affairs, dried up and perished for the most part. And what can we say about this, he says, when, by the will of God, without the slightest labor, the mountains and hills themselves will be shaken, and the whole earth with its inhabitants will move back, that is, will return to nothing and will again seem to not exist? For He who created it in the beginning can easily destroy it completely, and everything great (for man) is for Him complete insignificance. It seems that blessed David also had thoughts similar to those explained when he said: “What is the sea, because you ran away, and you, Jordan, because you returned back? Are the mountains leaping like rams, and the hills like lambs of a sheep? The earth moved at the presence of the Lord” (Ps. 114:5–7). As I said before, the path of a coward is his. And that the whole universe will seem insignificant, and everything on it will not have any significance in the eyes of someone who would like to compare them with the divine and ineffable glory, the prophet Isaiah will attest to this, saying: “Even if all the nations are like a drop of kadi, and like the weight of weight is imputed, and like spitting they are imputed. But Oak Livanova is not happy with burning, and all four-footed animals are not content for a burnt offering, and all the nations are as nothing, and are counted as nothing. To whom will you liken the Lord, and to whose likeness will you liken him” (Is. 40:15-18) And some also think that it is convenient to assume that this was indirectly spoken of Nineveh itself. They want to compare it with Bashan. the most beautiful and glorious country, and then with Carmel and Lebanon, the glorious and famous mountains. And Nineveh was amazing and famous. He says about her: “they have diminished,” since she will soon be overthrown along with those who prosper in her, that is, with the chiefs and leaders and other more famous people. And since he mentioned mountains and a country rich in beautiful trees, I say Basan; then he kept the metaphor throughout his speech and called those who are very famous for their wealth, or distinguished by their bodily strength, or distinguished from others by some other advantages, as prosperous. Anyone who reflects on the arrogant actions of the Jews against Christ and the devastation they suffered and the complete destruction and destruction after His resurrection and ascension into heaven can rightly attribute the words in question to the Jews; by Bashan and Carmel and even Lebanon, Judea may justly be meant. She is similar to Bashan, since she is called the land flowing with honey and milk, the land of wheat and olives and vineyards. It was called Carmel and Lebanon because its glory rose high, it became famous and famous, and was called by its inhabitants as if it were endless forests; but “they have diminished,” she says; and delivered into the hands of terrible and very powerful woodcutters, they fell like trees. Zechariah also hints at something similar, as if speaking to Jerusalem: “Open thy doors, O Lebanon, and let thy cedars be filled with fire: let the cedar fall in mourning, for the nobles have become impoverished: weep ye, bruise Bashanites, for the planted oak grove is cut down” (Zechariah 11:1-2). And in another place he says even more clearly: and the weeping of Jerusalem will be like the weeping of a pomegranate garden in a field that is cut down 3 (Zechariah 12:11). Since he compares Jerusalem to Lebanon, he calls falling cedars and pithis and the oak of Bashan the people who occupy a high position in it: here the speech, as I said, is figurative (metaphorical). Nahum.1:6. Who can stand against his wrath? and who can resist his fury in anger? His rage will melt away from power, and the stone will be shaken off from him. In fact, by the former manifestations of the wrath of the divine, he confirms the truth of his words, saying that He is terrible and unbearable. Rushing, I think, like fire, He can easily melt earthly and spiritual principles and powers, and without difficulty can crush both stones or those hardened like stones, and the very leader of unclean spirits - Satan, about whom the Holy Scripture says: “His heart is hardened like a stone, but the anvil stands motionless” (Job 41:15). And that the leaders and rulers of the Jews, that is, the priests and the unclean hordes of wicked scribes and Pharisees, were cruel and stubborn, and suffered from very great insensibility - isn’t this obvious to everyone? And they were destroyed during the war waged by the Romans, and melted like wax from cruel sufferings and for their great hardness of heart they were crushed by disasters and suffered righteous punishment for their fury against Christ. But for our sake, our Lord Jesus Christ also in another way crushed the principles and powers and rulers of the darkness of this world, the spirits of evil, in order to deliver and save us. Knowing this, blessed David sings: “thou art fearful, and who will stand against thee?... Thou art heard from heaven to have created judgment, the earth feared and kept silent, never to rise up to judge God, to save all the meek of the earth” (Ps. 75:8-10); He gave us the power to “tread on the serpent and the scorpion, and on all the power of the enemy” (Luke 10:19). He melted the principles and crushed the pride of wicked spirits like stones, and those who acted unjustly had to yield to Him who was angry with them for our sake. Nahum 1:7–8. The Lord is good to those who endure him in the day of sorrow, and to those who fear him, knowing: and in the flood of the way he will bring about the end: those who rise up and his enemies will be wedded by darkness. With great benefit and very skillfully he admonishes them, on the one hand, without depriving them of hope for well-being by saying that “the Lord is good to those who endure him,” on the other hand, keeping them from a licentious and vain life, on the contrary, disposing them to good behavior and to the determination to live in accordance with the law, when he says again that if He directs a path against someone, as during the flood, He will create, as it were, some kind of earthquake and, as it were, the rush of many and unstoppable waters through the sloping country of Judea. This is something terrible and completely inevitable. So exactly, if the actions of the divine wrath are directed at anyone, they will completely destroy those on whom they are directed and fall. His enemies, he says, will be persecuted and enveloped in darkness, but not like the darkness of an ordinary night, but, I think, another night, spiritual, understood in the sense of suffering. Here the human mind can be darkened by severe misfortune and severe and unexpected suffering, which happened to the ancients when they were taken into captivity and their country was conquered. That is why God, comparing such misfortunes with wine and intoxication, very rightly said to the blessed Jeremiah: “Take a cup of undissolved wine from my hand, and water all the tongues, to them I will send you. And they will drink, and vomit, and wear the sword, which I will send among them” (Jer. 25:15-16). And through the mouth of Isaiah he spoke to Zion: “For thou hast drunken the cup of wrath, and thou hast drunken the vial of wrath” (Is. 51:17). So he says that those who are hostile to God will be overcome by intoxication and darkness, wonderfully encouraging them to philosophize, know and do the best. And the God of all went against the Jews in the “flood of the way” and destroyed them, subjecting them to punishment for Christ. They were also in darkness and, having been completely deprived of the divine light, continue to live miserable lives in foolishness and blindness: for they did not want to follow the call of Christ: “As long as you have light, walk in the light, but darkness has not you” (John 12:35). But since they were insensitive and unbridled, then finally, as the Prophet says, for those who thirsted for light, there was darkness for them, waiting for the dawn, they walked in darkness (Is. 59:9); for they became enemies of the divine light and wickedly rebelled against its glory. Nahum.1:9. What are your thoughts against the Lord? He will create the end himself; he will not take revenge twice in grief. I said already at the beginning that when Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, devastated Samaria and along with it destroyed other cities and villages that were under the rule of Judah, then, when the survivors of the war were in unbearable fear and fled to the countries of neighboring nations (for, in all likelihood, they thought that they would be subjected to the same disasters the second time when the Babylonians returned to them); then he gave the necessary consolation through the lips of the Prophet, giving the following two promises - that He would one day have mercy on those already struck by the disasters of war and those in unbearable suffering and free them from the bonds of captivity, and that He would give Nineveh over to devastation and destruction. So, so that those who fear that they will be subjected to the same disasters do not consider it timely to flee from Judea to foreigners, He, as it were, asks them, saying what they think and what concept they have formed for themselves about the Lord? Do you really think that God is cruel and vindictive to everyone, so that He subjects everyone to double punishment for the same sins? But you are straying far from what is proper. And if you do not add anything to what is contrary to the law and what provokes the wrath of the Lawgiver, then He will not strike a second blow. He has saddened you enough that because of your wickedness you were defeated. Stop your sins, and He will stop His anger. He has punished you enough, and will finally have mercy on those who have decided to lead a chaste life. So, the speech is of a mixed nature and contains a mixed admonition: here he encourages a true determination to do what is pleasing to God and gives those who decide to do so the confidence that He will be good to them and will not allow His anger to act against them without limitation, as they thought in themselves. Look how again the word preserved Israel, the remnant. That God would not destroy them in the end, He clearly foretold, saying in a questioning form: “What are you thinking against the Lord? he himself will create the end,” he says, he will not shake Israel to the very foundations and will not betray him to complete destruction; but for the sake of the fathers he will have mercy on them and will one day gather them, after the pagans, through faith for sanctification and communion with God through the Son in the Spirit. Nahum.1:10–11. It will freeze to its very core, and like the blue and entwined it will be eaten, and like a reed of dryness it will be full. An evil thought will come out of you against the Lord, deliberating and resisting. Having explained with many examples that the God of all people has the power to do everything without any difficulty and that there is nothing at all that He cannot do, he turns his speech to Nineveh itself and says that although it has reached such splendor that it appears like mountains abounding in trees, I say, Lebanon and Carmel, and was famous for the large number of inhabitants, although in no way inferior to the country of Bashan: but the time will come when it will be completely devastated. For, I think, this is what the expression means: “it will freeze to the ground,” because the speech has retained a figurative character, as if about mountains, and earth, and trees, and forest. He says that it will “be consumed” when the Persians and Medes graze on it in some way, for they captured Nineveh under the leadership of Cyrus. The Assyrian people liken it to ivy; for he lived in Nineveh. What is the point of this comparison? Ivy is a climbing plant; it always reaches up and sends out thin shoots and wraps itself around nearby plants, so that it often strangles very large trees. The Assyrians did the same; they always attacked countries and cities and seemed to strangle and crush them with military attacks and unbearable oppression. He said that it would be burned, “like a reed full of dryness,” and the property of straw is the ability to ignite very quickly from fire. Finally, the Prophet appeals to Nineveh, as if burned, having experienced the effects of divine wrath and devastated, and explains the reason for such words, saying: “from you will come an evil thought against the Lord, contemplating opposition.” You, he says, will be given over to devastation, you will be like uncultivated land (lidina), and you will be burned with fire, because you have thought terrible, arrogant and hostile things against God. By punishing sinning Israel, the God of all made him easily overcome and bowed him at your feet. But you yourself didn’t look at it that way; on the contrary, you imagined that you had taken possession of Judea against His will. For we will see that this was precisely the pompousness of Rapsaks when he reviled the glory of God, saying to those on the wall: “Let not Hezekiah deceive you” with words that cannot deliver you, and let not Hezekiah tell you that God will deliver Jerusalem out of my hand (Isa. 36:18, cf. 2 Kings 18:32). To these insane and truly wicked daring words, God answered again through the mouth of Isaiah, saying: “Will food be glorified by the ax without the one cutting it? or will the saw rise up without any one to draw” (Is. 10:15)? For like an axe, even if it were very sharp and made of the best copper, it cannot do anything when cutting down trees if no one with his own strength directs it against any of them; and just as the saw itself will remain completely ineffective if there is no one moving it to and fro: so the power of the Nineveh kingdom or army would not have conquered Samaria, if the divine wrath had not directed it against the cities and villages, like an instrument that is set in motion by someone else and is useful in doing some work, but cannot do it in itself. So, Nineveh is punished because she thinks evil things against God, or the opposite of the true state of affairs in reality; for the God of all handed over sinful Israel to her, but she herself would not have defeated him at all if God had protected and wanted to save the Son. Nahum.1:12. This is what the Lord says: “Thou shalt have many waters, and the waters will be divided, and no one will hear your ear.” So, this word is directed against Nineveh, who is arrogant and rebels against God. Here he calls by waters the innumerable crowds of peoples living in villages and cities, like rivers or the sea, easily moving when God wants it: for He is their ruler, as the Creator, as the Lord of all and God, as the ruler of all who have come from Him at His discretion and the heart movements of everyone towards what is pleasing to Him, so directing, arranging and disposing as He Himself wants. Therefore he says: O Nineveh! in the end you will cease to be terrible, powerful and glorious; “for your ear will not be heard by anyone,” that is, finally everyone will stop talking a lot about you. You were once famous, famous among everyone and the subject of many stories about you; but you no longer exist, and they will sing a sad song for you, and you will have nothing great and worthy of attention. Nahum 1:13–14. And now I will break his rod from you and break your bonds, and the Lord will command you. The prophet’s speech again turned to Israel: He seems to say this: having left the memory of those ancient (sins), I will finally have mercy on you, as if you have already suffered a righteous punishment; Once you have been punished enough, I will free you from the cruel power of those. You will never be subject to the rod, that is, the scepter, or the kingdom of the Assyrians: for the scepter is the symbol of the kingdom. I will deliver you from fear and the bonds of slavery and return you again to the happy days of freedom. You can understand the expression: “the Lord commands you” this way. “Commandment” to whom, or to the holy spirits and armies of angels, who were appointed by God to guard Israel: or “commandment” to the one who will one day free them from captivity; and this was Cyrus, son of Cambyses; but he commands him not at all as he says to the saint and prophet, but puts his own desire into his soul and makes him a doer of what is pleasing to Him, although he is unclean and an idolater. As He commanded the whale to swallow Jonah, and He commanded the pumpkin to grow and spread a shadow over him, and the worm to undermine the pumpkin 4; so, he says, Cyrus was also commanded. This is the historical meaning (of these words). God and the Father could have exclaimed to Jerusalem or the country of Judea, which had become the murderer of the Lord: “It will be frozen to its very foundations, and like the entangled pestilence it will be eaten up, and like a reed of dryness will be full. An evil thought will come out of you against the Lord, contemplating opposition”; for she was scorched and turned into a desert, and burned like dry stubble because she dared to think evil against the Lord, and spoke unbridled speeches against Him: they called Him a Samaritan (John 8:48), then a wine drinker (Luke 7:34), then born of fornication: they said that he deceives the people (John 7:12), although He is for that purpose and was sent by God and the Father to deliver those who have gone astray from error and to bring to God those who have wandered away from Him, and to bring back those who have fallen into treason in various ways through faith to Him, to enlighten those who are in darkness and to unite those who are separated. But since He did not completely destroy Israel, then, as I have said more than once, the remains were preserved for him: for a considerable number of the Jews believed, and together with the pagans they glorify Christ. But let those who are circumcised in the flesh hear the words: “I will break his rod from before you, and break your bonds in pieces: and the Lord will command you.” And what rod and what bonds is He talking about, if not now? They were subordinated, as it were, to a certain scepter, being under the burden of the foolishness and self-will of the scribes and Pharisees, and as if bound by their commandments, they did not accept the faith. But the rod, that is, the power, was broken, the bonds were broken, and finally, in a free spirit, they rushed to Christ, as if constantly exclaiming to each other and saying what was said through the mouth of the Psalmist: “Let us break their bonds, and cast away their yoke from us” (Ps. 2:3). But besides those, let those who have converted from the pagans hear: “And now I will break his rod from you, and break your bonds: and the Lord will command you.” Once subject to the scepter of the devil and bound by the bonds of worldly pleasures, they worshiped the creature instead of the Creator and did not know the real and true God, and little different from dumb animals, they were enslaved by carnal pleasure and led a miserable and extremely unreasonable life. But they also received freedom after Christ crushed that ancient rod and dissolved the bonds, removed them from sin and led them from error to the knowledge of God, justified them by faith and finally commanded about them, obviously to the holy angels: for it is written: “he who lives in the help of the Most High will dwell in the blood of the God of heaven” (Ps. 91:1); for the “commandment” to the holy angels is to “keep us in all our ways” and take us in their arms, “lest we dash our foot against a stone” (Ps. 90:11-12). And there is no doubt that “the angel of the Lord will encamp around those who fear him and will deliver them” (Ps. 33:8). Nahum.1:14. No one will be scattered because of your name. Again, as if he is saying this: you will not be scattered among all nations, you will not be a prisoner of war and a wanderer, far from your native country, you will not endure cruel slavery, spend a miserable and miserable life, scattered and settled in different cities. But, it should be noted that after these words of the Prophet, Judah was subdued and taken into captivity, and is in slavery to the Assyrians. For when Hezekiah reigned in Jerusalem, Sennacherib took possession of Samaria and, having devastated the cities there and set others on fire, sent Rapsak from Lachish, who gave free rein to his insolent tongue against God. Then in the army of Assyria one hundred and eighty-five thousand fell by the hand of an angel. After the reign of Hezekiah, after a considerable time, when Zedekiah, the son of Josiah, reigned, Nebuchadnezzar besieged Jerusalem, having previously devastated all of Judah. Then, taking the holy city by storm and setting that famous church on fire, he evicted Judah (from his native country) and added them to the number of those taken into captivity from Samaria by Sennacherib. So, has the God of all not fulfilled His promise, which He gave through the Prophet to the descendants of Israel: “no one will be scattered in your name”? But wouldn’t it be madness, or rather a sign of all wickedness, to think that God tells a lie? For God cannot possibly speak a lie. This is how He fulfills His promise. Having first remembered the liberation Israel received during the time of Cyrus, who destroyed the dominion (of the Babylonians), He then says that after this there will be no other captivity and removal of Israel from their native country; for having been called to their country and returning to Judea, they lived there in safety. And although wars were raised against them by Antiochus, called Epiphanes, and some others after him, they were no longer taken captive, but, as I said, lived in safety in their homeland. In this way, in relation to Israel according to the flesh, the saying can be understood: “no one will be scattered in your name.” But the words: “No one will be scattered in your name,” should be listened to with all justice by spiritual Israel, that is, those who see God with spiritual eyes and are struck with amazement at the sight of the glory of the Only Begotten; for even before turning to faith they were under the dominion of enemies, they bowed their spiritual neck to Satan, and with him the evil forces, and were tied to the most shameful carnality. But finally the dominion of those who ruled of old was destroyed, and with them sin was destroyed and fell and the power of the passions was crushed: for Christ freed us and through faith brought us into sanctification, although we were in a manifold dispersion according to various and vain passions and according to countless gods. But we will no longer be in dispersion, but will abide entirely in Christ, having one faith, one baptism, one Lord Savior and Deliverer, and through him united with God and the Father by spiritual unity. Nahum.1:14. From the house of your God I will consume the carvings and put them in your tomb. Israel offended the Lord a lot by betraying Him and wickedly withdrawing from the God who saved him and abandoning himself to the service of idols; Therefore, having become a captive, he was taken to the enemies and thus was resettled to Nineveh. But those who remained in Jerusalem, despite this, were little disposed to love God, fickle in piety, and did not care about doing what was pleasing to God and threw off the yoke of serving Him; but they still made sacrifices to Baal, Ashtoreth, and the host of heaven. When, through the holy prophets, God made a threat, clearly saying that Jerusalem would be destroyed, and its inhabitants, along with others, would certainly go into captivity in a foreign country: then from time to time some of its kings became sober, and destroyed the churches, and overturned the altars, and committed the sculptures to fire. Josiah was glorified above all others in this regard, about whom the man of God had already spoken at the time when Jeroboam, the son of Nabat, sacrificed to idols, who led Israel into sin, for he established wicked sacrifices to golden calves. And he turned to the altar with the words of the Lord: “To the altar, the Lord says: Behold, a son is born to the house of David, whose name is Josiah, and the priests who are on high will devour on you, and the bones of men will burn on you” (1 Kings 13:2). And what he foretold came to fulfillment, the Holy Scripture testified to this. In the fourth book of Kings, it is written about Josiah: “And the king of Hilkiah commanded the great priest, and the second priest, and the keeper of the gates, that from the church of the Lord all the vessels that had been made should be carried out to Baal, and to the oak grove, and to all the power of heaven, and I burned outside Jerusalem in Sadimoth cedar, and cast out their ashes into Bethel. And they burned the homarim, who were the kings of Judah, and the censers in the high places, and in the cities of Judah, and in those around Jerusalem, and those who burnt incense for Baal, and the sun, and the moon, and the planets, and all the power of heaven. And they brought the image from the church of the Lord outside Jerusalem to the brook of cedar, and burned it in the pot of cedar, and crushed it into dust, and cast their ashes into the graves of the sons of men" (2 Kings 23:4-6). So, you see how the “merged” one was placed as a tomb for some and the graven image was consumed from the house of the Lord. Another scripture will confirm this; in the second book of Chronicles this is what he says: “in the eighth year of his kingdom,” apparently to Josiah, “and that same youth began to seek the Lord God of his father David: and in the second tenth year of his kingdom he began to cleanse Judah and Jerusalem from the high places, and from the forests, and from the high places, and from the graven images. And you destroyed in front of him the altars of Baalimli, and the high ones that were on them: and you cut down the oak groves and the idols, and crushed the merged one, and crushed it, and laid it down before the face of the tombs of those devouring them. And you burnt the bones of the priests on their altars, and cleansed Judah and Jerusalem” (2 Chronicles 34:3-5). So they perished, as I said, in the very churches, and were, as it were, buried together with the altars and the merged ones, according to the word of the prophecy. You need to know that Nahum prophesied throughout the times of Hezekiah. Then Hezekiah's son Manasseh was king, who reigned fifty-five years. Manasseh's son Amon reigned for about two years, and after him Josiah was king, under whom the words of the prophecy were fulfilled, as the word of Scripture has just shown us. Nahum 1:14–15. For behold, the feet of him who brings good news and proclaims peace are swift on the mountains. Having become captives, the sons of Israel lived in Babylon, but they cherished the hope that one day they would return to their homeland and in a short time achieve the ancient nobility characteristic of their ancestors, since the holy prophets announced this to them on behalf of God. And the very time for the fulfillment of this hope was the time of the reign of Cyrus, who was about to conquer Nineveh, because Isaiah again foreshadowed this to them: he says: “The Lord God says to my anointed Cyrus, whose right hand I hold, I will subdue the tongues before him, and I will destroy the fortress of kings, I will open the gates before him, and the cities will not be shut. I will go before you, and I will level the mountains, I will break in pieces the gates of copper, and I will break the chains of iron.” And a little later again: “This will build my city, and bring back the captivity of my people, neither by reward nor by gift, says the Lord of hosts” (Is. 45:1-2, 13). So, he says, a messenger of peace will come to the Israelites, announcing the campaign of Cyrus, when they overthrew the yoke of captivity, crushed the rod of their rulers and broke the bonds of extraordinary slavery, and returned again to their homeland and began to enjoy bliss. But if someone wanted and began to attribute the meaning of the words being explained to the preaching of the holy Baptist, then he would have acted correctly: for he (the Baptist) was in the desert and, as if crying out in the mountains, preached the gospel of peace, that is, Christ. And so beautiful and swift are the feet of the one who says: “Prepare the way of the Lord, make His paths right” (Is. 40:3). Nahum.1:15. Celebrate, Judas, your holidays, repay your vows, before anyone will pass through you as a promise. Since the law commanded - not to offer sacrifices outside the sacred and divine court, but only in that place, “if the Lord your God chooses... call on his name” (Deut. 12:26); then the Israelites, being in a foreign land and living in the country of the Persians and Medes, spent their lives completely unable to fulfill what was prescribed for them by the law, they could not celebrate the usual holidays, offer sacrifices, firstfruits, thanksgiving sacrifices, according to the law, nor slaughter a lamb in the new moon; perhaps they did not even dare to glorify God itself. And we say this on the basis that the divine David, on behalf of the people who lived in Babylon, says: “on the rivers of Babylon, there, weeping and weeping, Zion will always be remembered for us; And to this he adds: “how shall we sing the song of the Lord in foreign lands” (Ps. 137:4)? Being, as I said, very far from their land, from the church and tabernacles and not having a sacred place, they were of necessity unable to do what was required by the law. When liberation from captivity finally came, someone, either the messenger of the world, whose “feet are quick,” or the prophet himself rightly announced to them that they could celebrate holidays, sing songs of thanks and freely fulfill what was promised. In addition, he promises that in a short time the destruction of the enemies will be accomplished: they will not, he says, “pass into the promise,” that is, they will not remain for a long time, they will not have ageless or endless well-being; for Babylon (or the kingdom of the Assyrians) will cease to exist and, humiliated, it will disappear. May the spiritual Jew most likely heed these words. “For he is not a man who is clearly a Jew, nor is he a man who is seen in the flesh; but he is a Jew in a secret, and the circumcision of the heart is in the Spirit, and not in the Scripture; whose praise is not from man, but from God” (Rom. 2:28-29). Therefore, such a one will brightly celebrate the holidays, having firm faith, obviously in Christ, having received sanctification in the spirit, shining with the grace of sonhood, offering himself in the stench of fragrance, practicing every kind of virtue, chastity, self-control, courage, patience, love, trust, love of poverty, kindness, long-suffering: with such sacrifices God is pleased (Heb. 13:16). Moreover, let the spiritual Judas know about every enemy and those who ruled over him that “they will not put anyone under promise”, that is, they will be eliminated, obviously sent to eternal punishment, which is what Christ did, commanding the unclean spirits to go into the abyss and giving those who love Him the power to resist enemies, courageously fight against passions and destroy sin and “tread on the serpent and against the scorpion and against all the strength of the enemy” (Luke 10:19). In glory "son of Elkeseev". In Slavic, the word “Lord” is related to the previous sentence, as in authorit. LXX editions; but in St. Cyril as in Heb., Khald., Sirsk. and Arab. (at Wilt.). Slav.: the lamentation will be magnified in Jerusalem, like “the lamentation of Hadadrimmon on poly Mageddon” - Russian: “the great lamentation of Hadadrimmon will rise in the valley of Megiddon.” So does the Vulgate: “planetus Adadremmon in campo Mageddon.” Hadad-Rimmon is the name of the city in the valley of Megiddo, where the Judah king Josiah was killed in a battle with the Egyptian king Necho. This was the last pious king who ruled the Jewish people for 30 years, being under the favor of God. After him, the final enslavement of Judea began. The people solemnly mourned the king in Jerusalem and Jeremiah mourned him in a lamentable song (Jer. 22:10); all the singers and singers spoke about Josiah in their songs of lamentation and they are written in the book of lamentations (2 Chron. 35:20-27; 2 Kings 23:29; 2 Ezra 1:30). The prophet spoke about what happened under Hadad-Rimmon in the valley of Megiddo. Jerome names Adadremmon, who later received the name Maxianopolis (17 Roman miles from Caesarea and 10 from Esdrelon, Migne t. XXV. col. 1515). The name Hadad (in honor of the Syrian sun god) was borne by the kings of Damascus (Am. 1:4; Jer. 49:29; 2 Kings 8:3, etc.), and Rimmon is called in 2 Kings 5 ​​the Syrian king who had a church in Damascus (Rimmon may be a shortening of Hadad-Rimmon). Jewish scholars Kimhi and Aben Ezra refuse to explain this passage. The Targum (in Walton) refers to the lament for Ahab, the son of Omri, who was killed by Hadad-Rimmon, the son of Tabrimon (1 Kings 22:54; and 2 Chronicles 18:33), and the lament for Josiah, the son of Amun, whom Pharaoh the Lame killed on the field of Megiddo (2 Chronicles 35:20–27 and others, see above). See pp. 32, 52, 53 for interpretations of St. Cyril on the prophet Jonah. You might be interested in: