Commentary on the Twelve Prophets

Commentary on the Prophet Nahum

COMMENTARY ON THE PROPHET NAHUM ineveh was a large city, priding itself on its vast population, as the divine Scripture informs us, and was the most famous of all those in Assyria. In it was in fact the palace, and the king of the Assyrians made it his residence for a long period.1 These people, however—I mean the inhabitants of Nineveh—when God wanted to give a demonstration of his characteristic grace, as we said more clearly in commenting on the prophecy of blessed Jonah, were seized with such dread at a simple threat made by an unknown man as to be converted with extreme promptitude and set their eyes on a better course.2 But when God allowed them to show their true colors, they adopted such a depraved attitude and such ferocity and vicious behavior as to attack all the people of the ten tribes and take them captive; they laid waste their cities, robbed them of all their possessions and advanced even on Jerusalem, which they were anxious to take, showing no respect for the Temple, or the worship of God conducted there. Something similar happened to those in Egypt at one time when Pharaoh their king and all the Egyptians showed enthusiasm for Jacob and Joseph and all those connected to them by birth as long as God caused them to maintain this attitude. But when the people’s numbers increased greatly, and the time for departure became urgent, he allowed Pharaoh and the Egyptians to betray their malice towards them so as even to display complete eagerness to do away with them all on the spot; capi1 . Ashur and Calah preceded Nineveh as Assyria’s capital, Sennacherib, of course, choosing it for his capital only at the end of the eighth century; but for Theodore interest in to; iJstorikovn does not involve researching such details. 2. One of the “novel and extraordinary things” that puzzled Theodore in the book of Jonah was the city’s response to “an unknown foreigner,” a phrase Theodoret borrows from him. 245 talizing on this opportunity, God thus led them out of Egypt.3 This, at least, is the account given by blessed David, “The king sent and released him, the leader of the people let him go; he appointed him master of his house and ruler of all his possessions for the purpose of instructing all his rulers to be like him, and his elders to be wise.” He is referring to the respect and enthusiasm for Joseph shown by the Pharaoh; he goes on, “Israel went into Egypt, and Jacob sojourned in the land of Ham. He made his people’s numbers increase greatly, and gave them power over their foes.” And, since he mentioned also Jacob’s arrival and the vast numbers to which all of the people had grown, he went on, “He changed his heart to feel hatred for his people, to act with guile towards [400] his servants.”4 It is clear that with God’s permission all the Egyptians, along with their king, changed, with the result that they felt hatred for the Israelites and wanted to annihilate them completely. After this blessed David then goes on with the events of the exodus. In the same way in our text, too, God gave a demonstration of his peculiar grace in making a sudden change for the better occur in the king of the Assyrians and all in Nineveh. Not long after, however, he allowed them to display their natural malice and permitted such awful things to happen to the Israelites at their hands in that they devastated the ten tribes and attacked Jerusalem, advancing on it with considerable folly in that they were effectively warring against God. In fact, God immediately inflicted a severe blow on them by means of the angel, putting the rest to flight and investing them with troubles of many kinds; finally, while in his own country, Sennacherib, king of the Assyrians at the time, fell to the sword of his own sons.5 246 THEODORE OF MOPSUESTIA 3. The “something similar” illustrated by the stories of Joseph and the people generally in Egypt is what was also one feature of the Jonah story that Theodore with his literalism had difficulty accepting—apparent contradictions in the narrative. 4. Ps 105.20–25. We have seen before Theodore’s tendency to make a point twice—the tautology of which Photius found him guilty. He will now...