Nahum 1

(Chapter I—Verse 1.) God, zealous and avenging Lord. The voice of the prophet praising God for avenging the injury done to his people by the Assyrians. Or, in a deeper understanding, that he hears the groaning of his saints and will make his adversaries feel punishment at the end of the world. And that zeal is to be taken in a good way, as the Apostle Paul shows, saying: Be zealous for the greater gifts (I Cor. XII). Also in another place: For I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy (II Cor. XI). And the Lord Himself says in the psalm: The zeal of your house has consumed me (Ps. 69). And Elias says: With zeal I have been zealous for the Lord God of hosts of Israel (3 Kings 19). We also read of the zeal of Phinees and of Mathathias (Numbers 25; 1 Maccabees 2). And Simon the apostle, called the Zealot by the evangelist Mark, whom Mark calls Simon the Canaanite (Acts 1; Mark 3). And the Lord is zealous for the salvation of those for whom He is zealous, so that He might save by His jealousy those whom His mercy could not save. And so, to Jerusalem, which, because of its excessive sins, did not deserve a visitation of zeal and fury, God spoke in Ezekiel: My zeal has turned away from you, and I will no longer be angry with you (Ezek. 16:42). Therefore, as long as the world was repenting, its consummation did not happen; but after the multiplication of iniquity, the love of many grew cold to the point that even the chosen ones of God are tested. Then the zealous Lord comes for vengeance; not because He is an enemy and avenger, as is said of the devil, but because His vengeance is hostile (or friendly) to them, and it consumes like fire, wood, hay, and straw, so that only pure gold and silver remain (Matt. 24).

The Lord avenges and has wrath: The Lord avenges against his enemies, and he is angry with his adversaries. According to both understandings, because the Lord loves whom he corrects (Prov. III), and he chastises every son whom he receives, therefore he is angry, so that he may remove what is adverse and hostile to himself, and to the enemies, and with contrary thoughts shattered, and with words lifted up, they may return to their former state. Finally, in the following statements he says: The Lord is patient, and his longsuffering is enduring. But because we have also set out to explain the story, let us understand the Assyrians as the enemies and adversaries of God, against whom he will be patient for a long time, but later he will arise as an avenger with fury and wrath.

Commentary on Nahum

Something of this kind is the meaning of the word oracle: in his wish to give the prophets an insight often productive of rapture, God caused a sudden transformation of their mind so that while in this condition they might receive the knowledge of the future with deeper fear. He calls it “oracle,” then, since the grace of the Spirit, as though suddenly taking hold of the prophet’s mind, transformed it with a view to the revelation of what was to be made clear. He is saying the same thing here too: “an oracle of Nineveh, a book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite,” as if to say, the prophet’s mind was suddenly seized by the grace of the Spirit and transformed so as to contemplate those things through which he learned of the fate of Nineveh and which he provided to his listeners as instruction in what was shown to him.

Commentary on Nahum 1:1

The burden of Nineveh, the book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite. First, he defines the purpose of the prophecy, and usefully clarifies what and where it looks to; then he makes clear who is speaking and from where. For he says "burden," that is, the prophecy that has been received and set forth and is at hand would be understood not about any others, but against Nineveh, or in other words, let the burden of the prophecy be understood as Nineveh. And the book is inscribed "The Vision of Nahum of Elkosh." This is doubtless a village somewhere in the land of the Jews. For we shall take 'of Elkosh' not as from a father, but rather as from a place. And we say this, having the tradition from the readings.

Commentary on Nahum

(Vers. 2.) The Lord is patient and of great strength, and cleansing, He will not make the innocent. The more significant translation in Greek is: καὶ ἀθωῶν οὐκ ἀθωώσει ((Al. καὶ ἀθοῶν οὐκ ἀθοώσει)). And the meaning is: Indeed, the Lord has been patient with the wickedness of the Assyrians and has endured their injustices with the strength of His magnanimity, calling them to repentance. But because they have despised the goodness of God and, according to their unrepentant heart, have stored up wrath for themselves on the day of wrath (Rom. II), the one who was patient before will by no means allow them to depart unpunished, as though pure and innocent. Certainly, it is patient to endure all who are falling, and to raise up those who have been knocked down (Psalm 144): to heal the brokenhearted, and to bind up their wounds; and His great virtue is to reconcile enmity in the flesh, and to not make the innocent guilty; even when someone who excessively praises themselves has been reproved, because they have been saved not by their own merit, but by the mercy of God. For it is permitted to say: Behold, I have served you for so many years, and I have never transgressed your command (Luke 15:29); yet because the Lord is good to all, and his mercy is over all his works (Psalm 145:9), and all have sinned, and lack the glory of God (Romans 3:23), those who are justified by him will hear it freely: Is your eye evil because I am good? (Matthew 20:15) And so it will happen that in the very act of accusing and forgiving, he will not allow any innocent to go unpunished.

Commentary on Nahum

God is jealous and the Lord avenges; the Lord avenges with wrath; the Lord avenges his adversaries, and he cuts off his enemies. The Lord is long-suffering and his strength is great, and he will by no means clear the guilty. The saying is profound, and not easy to grasp, except only for those who are willing to examine closely the things in it. And if it should be understood as having been directed to the Jews, we will find the exhortation suitably mixed with moderate rebuke. But if someone should think it was made and spoken against Nineveh, the mind will be turned to another of the interpretations, and to those who have suffered the devastation it gives and confirms the hopes of recovering again. We shall therefore make the purpose of the meaning for both as clear as possible. For the Jews, having spurned love for God, and holding the genuineness of piety toward Him in no account whatsoever, descended into polytheism and strange error and a life outside the law, and they built altars, they set up precincts to the works of their own hands, they brought rites and sacrifices to Astarte, to Chemosh, to Baal-peor, to the golden calves, and what is even more irrational than these, to them they dedicated songs of thanksgiving. For the wretched ones said out of their madness, "These are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt." But by such terrible impious acts they have forgotten themselves, sharpening against themselves the God who of old presided over and saved them, to whom they have become enemies, and have been placed in the portion of adversaries, assigning themselves to gods that are not so by nature, although Moses long ago cried out concerning God, that He is a jealous God, and a consuming fire, and that He would not endure those who chose to grieve Him.

Commentary on Nahum

And again: “I will reestablish my covenant with you, and you shall know that I am Lord, that you may remember and be confounded and may no more open your mouth because of your confusion, when I shall be pacified toward you for all that you have done, says the Lord God.” Thus it is clearly indicated by these divine words what was meant in another place by the statement “And though cleansing you he shall not make you innocent.” Even the just, being restored to their former state after committing sin, do not dare open their mouth but say with the apostle, “I am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.”

Against the Pelagians 2.25

(Verse 3) The Lord is in the storm and the whirlwind of his life, and the clouds are the dust of his feet. For the storm and the whirlwind, the Septuagint translated it as consummation and commotion: although in the place where we have positioned ourselves, it is written in Hebrew as Basupha (), which can also be understood as commotion. However, this signifies that at the end of the world everything will be moved, according to what is written in Haggai: 'Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.' (Haggai 2:7) And when all things are shaken (so that the ways of the Lord may be believed, as he says in the Gospel: 'I am the way, and the truth, and the life.' (John 14:6); and in Mark: 'When the Son of Man comes with the clouds, as it is commanded in Isaiah' (Chapter 5), so that the rain may not fall on the vineyard, and to which the truth of God has come, as the Psalmist says: 'Your truth reaches to the clouds.' (Psalm 36:6)), then even the clouds themselves, namely the prophets and the souls of the saints, who were previously burdened by the connection of the flesh, will be elevated to the heights, becoming of a more refined substance, and brought down as a footstool of God, and will minister to angelic duties in various places. Indeed, the previous and ancient things that pertain to the head cannot be known. On the other hand, another cloud will receive in the opposite direction, which always disturbs the clear and bright light of the sun and the stars with its darkness, and which afterwards reduces the subject to the power of the Lord to dust and nothingness, and dissolves the earth in those things which are rich.

Commentary on Nahum

The Lord's way is in destruction and in shaking, and clouds are the dust of his feet. As the Prophet is about to proclaim beforehand the capture of Nineveh for the comfort of those who have suffered, and to make clear to the wronged that it will be shaken down by God, he usefully recounts first the all-powerful nature of the divine, and that for it, when it chooses to accomplish anything whatsoever, there is nothing that resists, but rather everything follows easily, and what seems good to it will prevail, even if some earthly matter seems difficult for us and for those like us to accomplish. For the Jews thought that the Babylonians would be most difficult to capture, and possessed a hand so invincible, that not even if God wished it, could they be weak against their enemies. For I think the things dared by them cruelly and savagely throughout their whole country called them to this despair. Therefore, so that they might know that they will lie down without a struggle when the wrath of God rises up against them, and they will be captured, and very easily, he necessarily says, The Lord's way is in destruction and in shaking, and clouds are the dust of his feet. For if, he says, you should plan against some—for this is the way—it will surely run down upon them as in an earthquake. An earthquake and destruction are an invincible and altogether inescapable thing, and in addition to these, clouds flying like dust and covering the sky. And the Prophet seems to be bringing them to the remembrance of the flood that happened against the whole race of men in the time of Noah, for then God went forth, as it were, in destruction and in an earthquake against all, raising up clouds and, as the sacred scripture says, opening the floodgates of heaven, and inundating the world under heaven with irresistible rains.

Commentary on Nahum

“The Lord is longsuffering, great is his power, and he will certainly not clear the guilty.” He does not suddenly and all at once inflict punishment, but only after exercising extreme longsuffering. You Ninevites are witnesses to this, practicing repentance and finding salvation, and then guilty of extreme wickedness and for a time not paying the penalty for it. But after putting up with people’s wickedness for a long time, he is accustomed to inflict punishment on the unrepentant (the meaning of “he will certainly not clear the guilty,” that is, he will not exempt from retribution the person whose sins deserve punishment).

Commentary on Nahum 1:3

If it is [Marcion’s] Christ that is meant, he will not be stronger than the servants of the Creator. I would have been content with the examples I have shown you without adding anything further. But here a prediction of [Christ] walking on the water precedes his advent as well. The words of the psalm are, in fact, accomplished by Christ’s crossing over the lake. “The Lord,” says the psalmist, “is upon many waters.” When he scatters its waves, Habakkuk’s words are fulfilled where he says, “scattering the waters as he walks.” When at his rebuke the sea is calmed, Nahum is also verified: “He rebukes the sea and makes it dry,” referring to the winds that had disturbed the sea.

Against Marcion 4.20

(Verse 4) Rebuking the sea, and drying it up, and leading all the rivers to the desert. It is described according to the power of God, who will avenge Israel's adversaries, showing that it is not difficult for Him to destroy the Assyrians, whose majesty even includes the ability to change the elements. Or certainly because we have already said that this is a prophecy about the end of the world, and you can simply understand this: When the consummation of the world comes and the heaven and earth pass away, the sea and rivers will also dry up. But to me, reading this in the Psalms: The great and wide sea, in which are creeping things innumerable, both small and great beasts. There the ships pass through. This dragon which You have formed to play there (Psalm 104:25-26), seems worthy of the goodness and mercy of God to destroy all the bitterness and saltiness of the sea by its threat, and to humble the dragon reigning in the waters, and to dry up the abyss of malice in which small creepy things swim, innumerable whose worth is not to be numbered, for they are united with the dragon. Also leading rivers into the desert, it is draining all false knowledge of name, which, rising against God, it waters with the river of eloquence and the flow of words, and twisting whirlpools, it is carried with the amazement of spectators into the abyss. Look at Plato, behold Demosthenes, also Cicero, both philosopher and orator, and consider the leaders of the heretics, about whom there were Valentinus, Marcion, Bardesanes, Tatian, and you will not doubt about the rivers. But all of these things the Lord Jesus will consume with the breath of his mouth and destroy with the brightness of his coming, and he will lead to the deserts. And at the same time, observe that according to the title, which is inscribed: The Assumption of Nineveh: the book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite, rightly and in a figurative sense, the world is understood to represent Nineveh, and the rivers of its eloquence will dry up in its culmination.

Basan and Carmel are sick, and the flower of Lebanon is withered. Metaphorically, by Basan and Carmel and Lebanon, a fertile region and mountains adorned, the devastation of Assyria is shown, because once powerful and flourishing and ruling over many nations, it will be laid waste by the wrath of the Lord. We can also understand this as referring to the end of the world, where the powerful and noble, who abound in great riches, will suddenly perish and it will be said to them: Fool, tonight is the time when your soul will be taken from you, and what you have prepared, whose will it be? (Luke 12:20). Furthermore, according to the interpretation of names, because Basan signifies confusion and ignominy, we affirm that at the consummation of the world, all things worthy of shame and disgrace will be weakened when the Lord comes. Not only will sins be brought to nothing, but even Carmel, which signifies the knowledge of circumcision, as well as those who seem rich and flourishing in good works, will tremble and be filled when Christ comes. And that which is said in the Gospel will be fulfilled: 'When the Son of man comes, will he find faith upon the earth?' (Luke 18:8). Indeed, as wickedness increases, the love of many will grow cold, and because of this, the wrath of God will come.

Commentary on Nahum

(Version 5.) The mountains were moved by him, and the hills were made desolate, and the earth trembled before him, and the world, and all that dwell therein. LXX: The mountains were moved by him, and the hills were shaken, and the earth was contracted before his face, the whole universe and all who dwell in it. It can also be understood simply that at the end of the world, when the Savior comes in his majesty, the mountains, hills, world, and earth will be moved. For if in His passion the sun fled, the rocks were split, and the earth trembled (Matt. XXVII, and Luke XXIII): much more in His glory will all things be troubled. But also, figuratively, the mountains and hills, the lofty and powerful ones, are understood to be those who will be cast down to the ground at the advent of the Lord, and removed from their throne will adhere to the pavement. For the face of the Lord is against those who do evil, in order to destroy their memory from the earth (Psalm XXXIII, 17). Then the earth will shake, and the world and universe will fear the face of the Lord: this is the greatest torment and punishment, that they will not dare to look upon his countenance.

Commentary on Nahum

(Verse 6) Who can stand before the face of His anger, and who can endure the fury of His wrath? LXX translation: Who can withstand the face of His anger, and who can resist in the fury of His wrath? Symmachus has interpreted it more clearly: Who can endure the wrath of His fury? Therefore, it is rare or nonexistent to find anyone who is not worthy of being seized by anger. And there will be no soul that does not tremble at the judgment of God, since even the stars are not clean in His sight (Job. XXV, 5). Moreover, the Hebrew word Jaccum, which both Aquila and the Septuagint translated, resists the transfer to that understanding which is mentioned in the second book of Kings and in the first book of Chronicles, concerning the wrath of God, in the masculine gender. There is no doubt that in that passage the wrath of God is understood as the devil and the wicked angels who are sent to punish those who are worthy of wrath. So it will be difficult to find at the end of the world someone who is blameless and pure who dares to say, 'Behold, the ruler of this world is coming, and he finds nothing in me' (John 14:30) and stands boldly against him. However, we must think this way against the Assyrians: when the Lord comes in storm and whirlwind, drying up the empire of Babylon, which is interpreted as the sea, and overthrowing all its kingdoms, which are understood as rivers, and reducing its power and abundance to nothing, which figuratively are called Bashan, Carmel, and the flower of Lebanon, and the mountains and hills, and shaking the breadth of the empire, which is called the entire world: then no power will be able to resist the angry God, punishing his people.

His indignation was poured out like fire, and the rocks were dissolved by Him. LXX: His wrath consumes the principalities, and the rocks are crushed by Him. For because we have poured out, Aquila translated it as συνεχωνεύθη, which means it was mixed together: Symmachus and Theodotion translated it as ἔσταξεν, which means it dripped. Therefore, whether the indignation of God was mixed together like fire, or His wrath dripped in the likeness of a fire, in order to break and dissolve the hard hearts of men, which are called rocks, the indignation of God is useful. It sustains our sins for a long time through our patience, and only rarely does it mix together fully, and yet it does not burst forth completely for punishment, but it drips lightly upon us with a small flame. But if the drop of His indignation consumes the principalities against whom our fight is, what would happen if the whole wrath of God were poured out upon us? May Jesus grant that the stony heart be taken away, and that in us the fleshly heart be changed, with hardness softened, so that it may be able to receive the commandments of the Lord which are written: For a sacrifice to God is a contrite spirit, a heart that is broken and humbled God will not despise. (Psalm 50:19) And so that you may know that the words spoken indicate the mercy of God, not severity, learn from what follows.

Commentary on Nahum

(Verse 7) The Lord is good and strengthening in the day of tribulation, and He knows those who hope in Him. Septuagint: The Lord is sweet to those who wait for Him in the day of tribulation, and He knows those who fear Him. When He begins to be angry with the nations, and to destroy once powerful kingdoms, He will know those who are His, and He will not overwhelm those who sail with one storm. But the day of tribulation, according to interpretation (ἀναγωγὴν), let us understand as the day of judgment, about which Isaiah wrote: "Behold, the day of the Lord comes, inexorable, full of fury and rage, to make the world a desert, and to destroy sinners from it" (Isaiah 13:9). Let us hope in the Lord, and through his patience let us await his coming, so that when he comes, we may perceive him as good, not as a judge, and let him recognize those who hope in him or fear him (2 Timothy 2). For the Lord knows those who are his.

Commentary on Nahum

(Verse 8.) And in the passing flood, he will bring about its destruction, and darkness will pursue his enemies. LXX: And in the passing flood, he will bring about its destruction: those who rise up against him and his enemies will be pursued by darkness. The Lord is patient and full of mercy, and he will not be angry forever, nor will he be indignant for eternity; but when wickedness increases upon the earth, and all flesh has corrupted its way, he will bring a flood that will pass over, not one that will remain forever. But the consummation, or end, will be made by its place, that is, the flood, just as it is said of the wicked: 'And I passed by, and his place was not found' (Psalm 37:36); and: 'The way of the wicked shall perish' (Psalm 1:6); so let the way of the flood perish after the wrath of the Lord, with only His mercy appearing. This can indeed be understood according to history, because when it has devastated Israel, and has flooded the land of promise like a flood, it will bring an end to captivity by restoring them to their former dwellings. On the contrary, the Assyrians, who led the people into captivity, will be pursued by darkness. What we have said about Israel and the Assyrians can be understood in relation to the end of the world, and concerning the saints and the persecutors, or contrary virtues, it is possible that God will have mercy on the saints after his wrath; but the persecutors and their enemies, who have chosen darkness and not light, the very darkness they have chosen will overtake them. For they will be cast into outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matthew 8 and 22). The word 'Macoma', which we have interpreted, its parts of speech they divided into two parts, so that 'Ma' was translated as a preposition, that is, 'from'; 'Coma' was interpreted as 'rising'. Finally, Aquila said 'from those who rise'; Septuagint said 'rising'; Theodotus said 'rising to him'; the fifth edition said 'from those who rise to him'. Only Symmachus, agreeing with our interpretation, said: 'And when the flood passes, he will bring about the completion of his place.' Some of our people, rising up and enemies, interpret Marcion and all the ancient heretics, who argue against the Creator.

Commentary on Nahum

According to the law, for example, the adulterer and the adulteress were punished with an immediate death. Because of the fact that he bore the penalty for his sin and paid punishments which fitted the evil committed, what will be after this that threatens their souls with revenge, if they transgressed no more, if there is not another sin which condemns them, but they committed only this single fault when they were punished and bore for this the punishment of the law? “The Lord will not punish twice for the same thing,” for they took their sin and their penalty for the crime was taken away. And for this reason, this kind of precept is not found unmerciful, as the heretics assert, accusing the law of God and denying that there is human feeling contained in it. But it is full of mercy by virtue of the fact that through this more people would be cleansed from sins than would be condemned.

Homilies on Leviticus 11:5

(Verse 9) What are you planning against the Lord? He himself will bring about the consummation: there will not arise a double tribulation. LXX: What are you planning against the Lord? He himself will bring about the consummation: he did not avenge twice on the same in tribulation. Symmachus more openly: They will not withstand the attack of a second distress: Theodotion, A second tribulation will not arise. However, he speaks according to the tropology against Marcion, about whom we have spoken above, and all the ancient heretics, who, inventing some unknown good God, say that he himself will bring about the consummation of the world, and they accuse the God of the Law as if he were cruel, because he punishes many and inflicts tortures for sins. What then, he says, do you propose against the Lord? He who created the world will also bring about its consummation. But if it seems cruel, strict, and bloody to you that he destroyed the human race in the flood, rained fire and sulfur upon Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen. 7), submerged the Egyptians in the waves (Exod. 14), and cast down the bodies of the Israelites in the desert (Num. 32), know that he has inflicted these punishments in the present so as not to punish eternally. Certainly, what the prophets say is either true or false. If what they seem to say about his severity is true, they themselves said: 'The Lord will not take vengeance twice on the same in tribulation.' But if what they say is false, and this statement is false: 'There will not be a double tribulation,' then his cruelty, which is described in the Law, is also false. And if it is true, as they cannot deny, with the prophet saying: 'The Lord will not take vengeance twice on the same in tribulation,' then those who have been punished will not be punished afterwards. But if they are punished afterwards, Scripture lies, which is unthinkable to say. Therefore, those who perished in the flood, the Sodomites, the Egyptians, and the Israelites in the wilderness received the punishment they deserved in their lives. Someone may ask here, if a faithful person caught in adultery is beheaded, what will happen to them afterwards? Either they will be punished, and this statement is false: 'The Lord will not punish twice for the same thing in affliction.' Or they will not be punished, and it is to be wished that adulterers, in the brief and quick pain of the present, frustrate their eternal torments. To this we will respond that God knows the measures of all things, as well as those of punishments, and that the judgment of the judge cannot be anticipated, nor can the power to exercise punishment on the sinner be taken away from him thereafter, and that great sin can be cleansed by great and lasting torments. If someone is unpunished, like the one in the Law who cursed the Israelites and gathered wood on the Sabbath (Leviticus 24): such people are not punished afterwards because their light fault has been compensated by immediate punishment. The Hebrews explained this passage as follows: What do you think, O Assyrians, plotting wickedness against the Lord, that he himself would destroy the people of Israel, that is, the twelve tribes, completely? There will not be a double trouble, that is, he will not deliver Judah and Israel to you, as he delivered the ten tribes and Samaria.

Commentary on Nahum

(Verse 10.) Because just as thorns embrace each other, so their feast will be consumed by those who drink together, like straw full of dryness. Septuagint: Because they will be reduced to thorns down to their foundations, and will be eaten like a rolling wheel surrounded, and like straw full of dryness. The three different types that the Lord placed in the parable of the sower (Matt. 13), except for the good soil, which produces a thirtieth, sixtieth, and a hundredth, seem to me the prophet to be replying, one which falls beside the road, and another that is among the rocks, and a third that is among the thorns: which indeed the Apostle also points out about those who do not build well on the foundation of Christ (1 Cor. 3), showing that some build with wood, hay, and straw. Therefore let us carry the wood to that which is now called: Because they will be reduced to thorns even to their foundations. But the hay refers to that which follows: And it will be consumed like the wrapping around a piece of meat. Moreover, the chaff is clearly referred to the chaff, of which it is now said: And it will be like chaff full of dryness. Therefore the Lord will not twice take vengeance on the same thing, because the malice that had arisen in the authors of heresy will be consumed even to its foundation and roots. But even if someone among them seemed to have a display of words, that is, empty leaves that only please the eye, like the volvola, which is called σμίλαξ in Greek, it will be devoured and consumed into nothingness. Volvola (also called Vulvula) is a plant similar to ivy, which is usually surrounded by vines and branches, and it creeps along. Whatever also seems to have the pomp of a harvest in them, but does not have ears and grains of wheat, like straw filled with dryness, will be handed over to the fire. This is according to the Septuagint. However, according to the Hebrew, the covenants and relationships of the heretics are like thorns embracing each other, and their feast and mysteries, because they also claim to have the Lord's table, are a covenant of thorns, a feast and drink of those who eat and drink together. For when the drunkards of the vineyard of Sodom blaspheme against the creator with their ravenous mouths, is it not a feast of the senses? Yet it will be consumed by its own authors, like straw full of dryness.

Commentary on Nahum

(Verse 11) For from you will come forth a wicked thought, thinking against the Lord, pondering rebellion. LXX: From you will come forth the worst thought, thinking opposing thoughts against the Lord. Truly from heretics will come forth a hostile thought against the Lord. Do you not see the wickedness and rebellion against God, to say that Valentinus, like a miscarriage of erring wisdom, was the final creation of the Creator? Is not the thought of Basilides impurity against God, and the detestable name ἄβραξας, which is attributed to the Lord of creation? Furthermore, since we, the learned ones, want to follow the tradition of the Hebrews and also explain the history to our own, that is, the Christians, it must be said: There will not arise a double tribulation, that is, those who were not captured by the Assyrians will not be captured, just as the ten were captured. For while the Assyrians are still in the land of Judah and are embracing each other like thorns, rejoicing and delighting, they will be consumed by the angel, when one night 185,000 enemies were killed (2 Kings 19). Moreover, he gathered a large multitude of their army, comparing it to a drunken feast, and he said that the feast itself was not of roses, nor lilies, nor flowers, but rather resembled thorns entwined with one another, which are always handed over to the fire and are burned with gentle heat, like dry straw full of dryness. As for what follows: 'From you shall come out one who plots evil against the Lord' (Isaiah 36), they want it to be understood as referring to Rabshakeh, who, having come out from the Assyrians, blasphemed the Lord and tried to persuade the people to give themselves over to the Assyrians, not to God, but to serve idols.

Commentary on Nahum

(Verse 12) Thus says the Lord, if they are perfect, and so they will be many: thus also they will be trimmed and will pass through: I will affix you, and I will not afflict you anymore. LXX: Thus says the Lord who rules over many waters, and thus they will be divided, and your hearing will not be heard anymore. The sense is clear according to the letter: Even though, he says, the Assyrians are strong, and their strength increases with the number of all the nations: thus they will also be trimmed by the devastating angel. For just as the number of hairs on our head does not resist being cut by a pair of scissors, so too the number of God's adversaries will be easily cut off and Assyria will pass through, or it will cease to exist, or, with its army destroyed, it will return to its homeland, leaving you unharmed. And again, the speech is directed towards Judah and Jerusalem: I have afflicted you, and I will not afflict you any longer, not because it promises perpetual security, but only for that time and from those enemies by whom you were then being besieged. Moreover, according to the Septuagint, the meaning is very different. For it still seems to speak against those to whom he had said above: What do you intend against the Lord? And: From you will come the most wicked thoughts against the Lord, thinking contrary things. Thus says the Lord who reigns over many waters, or virtues, which are called waters above the heavens: and it is commanded to them to praise the Lord: or indeed to the intelligences and wisdom and teachings of God. For as rivers flow from the belly of the just, and abundant fountains for eternal life, through various and manifold sentiments, by which the word of the Lord commands (John VII): so the heresiarchs also have their waters, which they command, and which flowed forth from their first source. But what follows: And so they are divided, can be understood either of the celestial beings that serve God's virtues in the heavens, each of which has its own function and ministry, or of the manifold variety of wisdom. Not because he had said that God rules over many waters, he should be considered confused and disordered in the number of his senses, but because each idea has its own distinct meaning and separate subjects and suppositions. For what is said: Your hearing will no longer be heard, is an accusation against those who had planned things contrary to God, because with the false arguments and deceits by which the people of God were snared, their speech will no longer continue and will not be accepted by the people.

Commentary on Nahum

(Verse 13) And now I will break his rod from your back, and I will break your chains. LXX: And now I will break his rod from you: and I will break his chains. Finally, He says: And now I will break his rod, that is, the Assyrian's, from your back, and I will snap your chains: either by metaphor, signifying his power, or certainly, the rod with which he was trying to strike, and the chains which he was preparing for captives: although it can also be understood as the siege of a closed multitude in place of chains. But also this which is brought forth: And now I will break his rod from you, and I will tear apart your chains, is said against those to whom the threat is made, so that they may not be harmed by the devil and be subjected to him, by whose authority they had devised and fabricated such great things. Therefore, his authority will be crushed against them, and the chains by which the souls of sinners were bound will be broken by the word of God, with him saying to those who are in chains, 'Go out!'

Commentary on Nahum

14–15

Once again, dear friends, God has brought us to the Easter season. By his lovingkindness we are once more about to assemble for it. The same God who brought Israel out of Egypt now calls us to the feast, saying through Moses, “Take note of the month of new fruits, and keep the Passover to the Lord your God.” And through the prophet he calls, “Keep your feasts, O Judah; pay your vows to the Lord.” So if God himself loves the feast and calls us to it, it is not right, brothers and sisters, to postpone it or to observe it carelessly. We should come to it eagerly and zealously, so that with a joyful beginning here we will experience a foretaste of the heavenly feast that is to come.

Festal Letters 6

(Verse 14) And the Lord will command against you, your name will no longer be sown: I will destroy the carved and cast images from the house of your God: I will make your grave, for you are dishonored. LXX: And the Lord will command against you, your name will no longer be sown: I will destroy the carved and cast images from the house of your God: I will make your grave, for you are swift; behold, on the mountains the feet of the messenger announcing peace. Therefore, I have placed more emphasis on the Septuagint interpreters, because the second περικοπὴ could not be separated from the first one. In what is said, 'because you have been dishonored,' the fifth edition puts 'because you have been insulted.' The Septuagint translates it as 'because you have been swift,' which is read as Chi Calloth in Hebrew. However, unless you refer it to the feet of the lower chapter, the meaning is ambiguous. Therefore, according to my custom, I will first explain the story and then discuss the meaning of the Vulgate edition. He will command, he says, against you, O Assyria, that what you are about to suffer comes not by chance and without any judge, but, with God proclaiming it, you will endure it. No harvest will be sown from your name any longer: for as soon as Sennacherib returned to Nineveh, he was killed by his own sons. Read Isaiah, and he was killed in the house of his own god which he had entered to worship. For this is what he says, I will destroy your god's house where you had entered to worship (Isa. XXXVII): you will be punished from where you hoped for help. Your tomb will be sculpted and crafted, so that wicked blood may be shed among the altars and cushions of idol worshipers. But join what follows with the Septuagint and earlier interpreters: 'It will not be sown, he says, from your name anymore.' By no means, O heretics, will the souls of the deceived accept the names from your teachings, which they had previously invoked upon their lands, as it is figuratively sung in the forty-eighth psalm. And this very cessation of planting, which used to kill the soul of the planter and then the one in whom he was planting, will be beneficial to you. So the doctrines of errors will die for you. But you, who previously seemed to live for yourself, will die to error, and having died to your own good, you will possess the idols which you worshipped as a tomb. And thus it will happen that from your heart, which was previously the temple of your pretended God, all errors will be removed. But these things will come to you, who once thought contrary to the Lord, when the word of God, which always ascends to the mountains, namely to exalted and lofty souls, comes quickly to you, and the waves of previous errors having been trampled upon, and having been brought into tranquility, it restores peace to you, the sense of faith and understanding. Forgive the lengthiness, for I am not able to summarize both the history and the tropology following either in a brief manner: especially since I am both tortured by the variety of interpretation and compelled to sometimes weave together the coherence of the Vulgate edition against my conscience.

Commentary on Nahum

14–15

The prophet Nahum (or, better, God speaking through him) says, “I will destroy the graven and molten thing; I will make it your grave. Behold upon the mountains the feet of him that brings peace. O Judah, keep your festivals and pay your vows, for it shall no longer be that they may pass into disuse. It is completed, it is consumed, it is taken away. He is come up that breathes into your face and rescues you from tribulation.” Anyone who knows the Gospels will recognize who it was that came up from hell and breathed the Holy Spirit into the face of Judah, that is, into the face of his Jewish disciples. The words about the festivals are, of course, a reference to the New Testament, in which festivals are so spiritually renewed that they can never “pass into disuse.” The rest of the prophecy too we see realized in that the gospel brought about the destruction of “graven and molten things,” that is, the idols of the false gods, consigned now to the oblivion of the grave.

City of God 18.31