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Commentary on Nahum, Chapter One
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COMMENTARY ON NAHUM, CHAPTER ONE An oracle for Nineveh. A book of a vision of Nahum of Elkosh (v.1). E BEGINS by specifying the purpose of the prophecy, and helpfully makes precise the focus of his attention. He then makes clear who is speaking and from where he comes, saying it is an oracle; that is to say, the prophecy “taken up” and set in our hands has to do with nothing else than Nineveh—in other words, let the oracle of the prophecy be taken as Nineveh.1 The book bears the inscription, an oracle of Nahum of Elkosh, which is definitely a town somewhere in the country of the Jews; (4) we shall take the phrase of Elkosh to refer not to his father but to a place, making this claim on the basis of the tradition of what has been conveyed to us.2 A jealous and avenging God is the Lord; the Lord is vengeful in his anger; the Lord takes vengeance on his adversaries and personally disposes of his foes. The Lord is long-suffering; great is his power, and he will certainly not absolve the guilty (vv.2–3). The statement is profound and not easy to grasp except by those willing to give its contents careful study. If, on the one hand, it were taken as directed against the Jews, we would find consolation gently combined with considerable reproof. If, on the other hand, you were to think it was spoken and directed at Nineveh, the sense 283 1. Cyril will meet this term λῆμμα (translated here as “oracle”) also at Hab 1.1; Zec 9.1; 12.1; and Mal 1.1, and had read Theodore’s unusually lengthy discussion of its suggestion of ecstatic possession (relating the term to λαμβάνειν), which had already appeared in Didymus in opening comment on Zechariah. But like Jerome, who associated such a notion with the Montanists, he skirts such a discussion of modes of prophetic inspiration. 2. Whereas modern scholarship has not located Elkosh, Jerome had been shown such a town in Galilee, but adduced a “Hebrew tradition” that the word is indeed the name of Nahum’s father, himself a prophet. Cyril opts for a different tradition. 284 CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA of the interpretation would take a different direction, allowing those in captivity to recover and confirming their hope. As far as possible we shall bring out the drift of the meaning in both cases. The Jews abandoned the love for God, remember; set no store at all by sincerity of reverence for him; betook themselves to polytheism, outrageous error, and a life in defiance of the Law; erected altars; set up shrines to the works of their own hands; performed rites and sacrifices to Astarte, Chemosh, Baal of Peor, and the golden heifers; and, what was even more irrational than this, they offered to them thanksgiving songs. In their folly, remember, the wretches said, “These are your gods, O Israel , who led you out of the land of Egypt.”3 (5) Yet they were oblivious of the fact that by such terribly unholy actions they were provoking against themselves the God who of old had led and saved them, proving hostile to him and acting the part of enemies, devoting themselves to what were by nature no gods, despite Moses formerly proclaiming of God that he is jealous, like a consuming fire, intolerant of those who choose to offend him. He announced, in fact, “They made me jealous with what is no god, provoking me with their idols; I shall make them jealous with what is no nation, provoking them with a foolish nation .”4 After offending in various ways, therefore, it was right that they also perished. This is what the prophet says here, too, as if at the same time censuring and consoling the mass of the Jews, who were lamenting what had happened. Yes, he says, in fact, you deplore the desolation that you are unexpectedly suffering and your loss of homes and town and cities and your falling under the feet of the foe, despite having always conquered your adversaries. How then were you not obliged to understand before experiencing it that he is a jealous and avenging God, the Lord is vengeful in his anger, taking vengeance on his adversaries and personally disposing of his foes? Even if we were ruined, uprooted, and subject to adversaries, however, he says, we still acted as enemies, waged an unholy war on...