Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
Jonah preaches: Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown. The Ninevites with their king do penance in fasting, sackcloth, and ashes. Hence God spares them.
Vulgate Text: Jonah 3:1-10
1. And the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time, saying: 2. Arise and go to Nineveh, the great city, and preach in it the preaching that I tell you. 3. And Jonah arose and went to Nineveh according to the word of the Lord: and Nineveh was a great city of three days' journey. 4. And Jonah began to enter the city one day's journey, and he cried out and said: Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown. 5. And the men of Nineveh believed in God: and they proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least. 6. And the word reached the king of Nineveh: and he rose from his throne and cast off his garment from himself, and was clothed in sackcloth, and sat in ashes. 7. And he cried out and said in Nineveh, by the decree of the king and his princes, saying: Let neither men, nor beasts, nor oxen, nor flocks taste anything: let them not feed, nor drink water. 8. And let men and beasts be covered with sackcloth, and let them cry out to the Lord with all their strength, and let each man turn from his evil way and from the iniquity that is in their hands. 9. Who knows if God will turn and forgive, and turn away from His fierce anger, and we shall not perish? 10. And God saw their works, that they had turned from their evil way: and God had mercy with regard to the evil which He had said He would do to them, and He did it not.
Verse 1
1. AND THE WORD OF THE LORD CAME TO JONAH A SECOND TIME. — It seems that Jonah, freed from the whale, immediately went to Jerusalem and the temple to pay his vows to God: at the same time he hoped that God would be content with this punishment and repentance of his, and would no longer press him to go on to Nineveh, when behold, God sends him a second time and says:
Verse 2
2. ARISE AND GO TO NINEVEH AND PREACH IN IT THE PREACHING (the threats of destruction) THAT I SPEAK TO YOU; — the Septuagint has: I spoke, chapter 1, verse 2.
Allegorically, just as Jonah, rising as it were from the whale, preached to the Ninevites, so Christ after His resurrection preached to the nations through the Apostles. So St. Augustine, whose words I quoted at chapter 2, verse 11.
Verse 3
3. And Nineveh was a great city. — The Hebrew and the Septuagint have: great to God; the Chaldean: great before the Lord, that is, truly great and exceedingly great, as Pagninus translates; for great is not what seems great to men who marvel at small things, but what seems great to God, the best and greatest; and therefore God so valued Nineveh and its salvation that for this reason He sent Jonah there and spared it when it repented, as He Himself says in chapter 4:11. So Theodoret. Suidas errs under the word "Semiramis," where he says Nineveh was the same city as Babylon: for Nineveh was the royal city of the Assyrians, situated on the Tigris; Babylon was the royal city of the Chaldeans, situated on the Euphrates. St. Jerome translates: Nineveh was a great city of God, that is, a very great one. For what belongs to God is the greatest: thus they are called cedars and mountains of God, that is, the tallest and highest. Otherwise a Castro explains: Of God, he says, means divine, that is, complete in every respect, just as God lacks nothing and is absolute and perfect in every way.
OF THREE DAYS' JOURNEY. — So also the Syriac and both Arabic versions. First, St. Jerome, Haymo, and Remigius understand this of the circumference of Nineveh. For it was, says St. Jerome, "of such great circuit that it could scarcely be traversed in a three-day journey." Second, meaning: A three-day journey was needed for someone to walk through all its streets and lanes. Hence from the Hebrew it can be translated: Nineveh was of three days' walking. So Theophylactus, Lyranus, Vatablus, and others. But this seems too slight a reason for Nineveh to be called a great city of God, since even now there are many cities not so great that have so many twists and turns, so many streets, lanes, marketplaces, temples, arenas, hills, etc., that if
of Freising, book III of the Chronicle, chapter XV, who however puts 33 instead of 40 days. Just as therefore Jonah, cast out from the whale, preached to the Ninevites for 40 days, so St. Maternus, rising again, preached repentance for 40 years to the people of Trier, and to other Germans and Gauls.
they raised him; and afterwards he himself survived for the same number of years, and was an apostle and bishop of the people of Trier and Cologne, as many years as the days he had lain in the tomb, namely forty. So says his Life and the Chronicle of the people of Liege, and Otto of Freising,
Jonah preaches: Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be destroyed. The Ninevites with their king do penance in fasting, sackcloth and ashes. Hence God spares them.
1. And the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time, saying: 2. Arise, and go to Nineveh, the great city, and preach in it the preaching that I speak to you. 3. And Jonah arose, and went to Nineveh according to the word of the Lord; and Nineveh was a great city of three days' journey. 4. And Jonah began to enter into the city one day's journey, and he cried out, and said: Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be destroyed. 5. And the men of Nineveh believed in God, and they proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth from the greatest to the least. 6. And the word came to the king of Nineveh, and he rose from his throne, and cast away his garment from him, and was clothed with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. 7. And he cried out, and said in Nineveh from the mouth of the king and his princes, saying: Let neither men, nor beasts, nor oxen, nor cattle taste anything: let them not feed, nor drink water. 8. And let men and beasts be covered with sackcloth, and let them cry to the Lord with strength, and let every man turn from his evil way, and from the iniquity that is in their hands. 9. Who knows if God will turn and forgive, and will turn away from His fierce anger, and we shall not perish? 10. And God saw their works, that they were turned from their evil way: and God had mercy with regard to the evil which He had said that He would do to them, and He did it not.
1. And the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time. — It seems that Jonah, freed from the whale, immediately went to Jerusalem and the temple, to pay his vows to God. At the same time he hoped that God would be satisfied with this punishment and repentance of his, and would not press him further to go to Nineveh, when behold, God sends him a second time, and says:
2. Arise, and go to Nineveh, and preach in it the preaching (threats of destruction) which I speak; — the Septuagint reads, I have spoken, chapter I, 2.
Allegorically, just as Jonah, rising as it were from the whale, preached to the Ninevites, so Christ after His resurrection preached to the Gentiles through the Apostles. So St. Augustine, whose words I have cited in chapter II, verse 11.
3. And Nineveh was a great city. — The Hebrew and Septuagint read, great to God; the Chaldean, great before the Lord, that is, truly great, and exceedingly great, as Pagninus translates; for what is great is not what seems great to men who admire small things, but what seems great to God Almighty; and therefore God so valued Nineveh and its salvation, that for this reason He sent Jonah there, and spared the penitent, as He Himself says in chapter IV, 11. So Theodoret. Suidas errs, under the word Semiramis, where he says Nineveh was the same city as Babylon: for Nineveh was the royal city of the Assyrians, adjacent to the Tigris; Babylon was that of the Chaldeans, adjacent to the Euphrates. St. Jerome translates: Nineveh was a great city of God, that is, very great. For what belongs to God is the greatest: so they are called cedars and mountains of God, that is, the greatest and highest. Differently, a Castro says: of God, he says, that is, divine, that is, perfect in every respect, just as God lacks nothing, and is absolute and perfect in every direction.
Of three days' journey. — So also the Syriac and both Arabic versions. First, St. Jerome, Haymo and Remigius understand this of the circuit of Nineveh. For, says St. Jerome, "it was of so great a circuit that it could scarcely be traversed in a three days' journey." Second, that is to say, a three-day journey was needed for someone to walk through all its lanes and streets. Hence from the Hebrew it can be translated: Nineveh was of three days' walking. So Theophylact, Lyranus, Vatablus and others. But this seems too slight a reason for Nineveh to be called a great city of God,
since even now there are many cities not so great that have so many turns and windings, so many streets, lanes, forums, temples, circuses, hills, etc., that if anyone wished to survey all these, he would easily spend three days.
Hence thirdly, Sanchez and others judge that Nineveh, namely the city with its suburbs, which on both sides tend to be very long in great cities, was so great that to traverse it from one end to the other in a straight line, a three-day journey was necessary. For this is plainly what these words signify: "Nineveh was a great city of three days' journey," namely going from one end through the middle to the other end. Hence also "Jonah began to enter the city one day's journey." Note the word "began to enter," namely in a straight line, not through the twists and turns of the streets, much less around the circuit of the walls; for Jonah was not preaching on the walls, but in the streets of the city. For Nineveh was greater than Babylon, and all other cities that were built before or after it, says Ptolemy and Strabo, and therefore it is called "the great city of God." Hence also Diodorus Siculus, book III, chapter I, says that when it was first founded by Ninus, it had a circuit of 480 stadia, that is 60 miles, which make 20 Gallic leagues; the walls were 100 feet high, and so wide that three chariots could pass along them simultaneously. If at the time of its first founding it had a perimeter of twenty leagues, how many did it have after one hundred, two hundred, three hundred years, during which it always grew with the monarchs of the world residing in it? Grant that it had about twenty leagues in a direct crossing, it would have had a three-day journey: for a day's pedestrian journey is seven leagues. Add that there have been some cities that were a three-day journey in length: therefore this should even more be attributed to Nineveh, which was the greatest. The premise is clear first from Rome, "whose walls Aurelian," says Vopiscus in his Life, "so enlarged that nearly fifty thousand paces of wall encompassed it." If the circumference of the walls of Rome was fifty miles (a mile being a thousand paces), then the diameter, which is roughly a third of the circumference, was about seventeen miles: therefore the length (for this is the diameter) of Rome, from gate to gate through the middle of the city, was seventeen miles, that is, about six leagues, which is roughly one day's journey. Now add the suburbs, which on both sides were equally great, indeed greater, and you will find that Rome with its suburbs encompassed a three-day journey and more. Certainly Pliny says of Rome that "its sprawling buildings had added many cities, Tibur (which is nearly eighteen miles from Rome, that is, six leagues), Ocriculum, Aricia." Again, "Nero," says Suetonius, "planned to extend the walls as far as Ostia, and from there to bring the sea to the old city by a canal," although he did not complete it: Ostia is fifteen miles from Rome. Moreover Dionysius writes of his own age that "all the places around the city were inhabited without walls, and anyone who looked at them wanting to ascertain the size of Rome would labor in vain, and would be at a loss where the city ended and where it began. So closely," he says, "do the suburbs adhere to and connect with the city itself, and present the appearance of immense length to the beholder." Take the suburbs along the Flaminian Way as far as Ocriculum, that is a full day's journey; take from the opposite side along the Appian Way toward Naples, just as much, indeed more (for that road, because of the delights of Campania, was very densely inhabited, as is evident from the Appian Way paved with great stone as far as Naples), and you will easily find a three-day journey in Rome and its suburbs.
Wherefore, from suburbs extending so widely, the Suburbicarian regions seem to derive their name; for so were called all that were near Rome, contained within a hundred miles of it, as our Sirmondus learnedly teaches in his book on this matter, part I, chapter V. Hence Lucan asserts Rome was "Crowded with conquered peoples and nations, and if the whole human race were gathered, capable of containing it." And further: "One house is a city, the city contains many towns."
Lampridius writes that Heliogabalus ordered his servants to collect all the spiders in the city, and they collected up to ten thousand pounds of them, and adds that Heliogabalus commented, "even from this one may understand how great Rome was." Again, Lipsius, book III On the Greatness of Rome, chapter III, clearly proves that there were easily four million people in Rome, so that Italy was gradually becoming deserted, since, as Varro complained, many preferred "to move their hands in the theater rather than at the plow." The same Lipsius, book II, chapter VII, from the stone of Ancyra, teaches that under Augustus there were counted "four million heads of Roman citizens," that is four million, and in addition "sixty thousand." Under Claudius, however, Tacitus and others count "six million, nine hundred and sixty-four thousand," that is nearly seven million. Consider how great a city must have been that contained so many inhabitants, when Milan, Naples, Venice, and other ample cities scarcely contain a third of a million, namely three hundred thousand citizens.
Europe, which our Jonah, that is Christ, by Himself and through the Apostles going about, converted to repentance and salvation.
Tropologically, see how great is the changeability and vanity of human affairs. Behold, Nineveh, once the greatest, richest, and proudest city, now lies so buried that it is questioned in what place it stood. Therefore you will scarcely find the ancient Nineveh, nothing but fields and ruins, "and plains where Troy once stood." The Reverend Father John Anthony Marieti, who five years ago went through Syria and Mesopotamia at the commission of the Supreme Pontiff, told me in Rome that he had been in a city adjacent to the Tigris, called Mosul, which the natives said was Nineveh, and not far from there they showed the tomb of Jonah (which they asserted was visited with great concourse and devotion by Christians flocking from everywhere) so long and wide that one might infer from it that Jonah was almost a giant. Moreover, great remains of walls could be seen there, indicators of its ancient grandeur. Furthermore, the city was inhabited by Christians, Turks, and Arabs; however, the Turks had so reduced the Armenians on account of their rebellion that the city now lacked walls, and of five houses scarcely two or three were inhabited. It is possible that after ancient Nineveh was destroyed, a new city was built next to it and called Mosul; as happened to Jerusalem, Tyre, Tusculum, and indeed partly to Rome as well, although we do not know whether that tradition of the Mosul natives is ancient and certain. Indeed, Epiphanius, Dorotheus, and Isidorus in the Life of Jonah teach that the tomb of Jonah is not in Nineveh, as they claim, but in Palestine, as I said in the Introduction; unless you say the Ninevites erected this tomb of Jonah, although he died and was buried elsewhere, as a sort of mausoleum, for a perpetual memorial of so great a man. But even if Mosul is the same city as ancient Nineveh, it has nothing of the ancient city's greatness and magnificence. The same is true of Babylon, of Tanis, of Ecbatana, and other once most powerful cities. So passes the glory of the world, so pass cities, so pass kings, so pass men.
Platina in his account of Pope Felix II reports that Constantius, son of the Emperor Constantine the Great, when after assuming the empire he entered Rome in triumph in a golden chariot, venerated the citizens who came to meet him, and kept saying that what Cineas, the ambassador of Pyrrhus, had said was true: "That he saw as many kings in the city of Rome as citizens." Then, seeing the palaces, the Pantheon, the temples, columns, aqueducts, triumphal arches—
is paid to the Great Khan, amounts, with the exception of salt, to fifteen million gold pieces and six hundred thousand, which is an immense and unheard-of sum.
Smaller is Khanbaliq, that is the royal city, or the seat of the Khan, that is, the prince (for so the Tartars call their prince and emperor), which, as Marco Polo writes in book II On Eastern Affairs, chapter X, has 24 Italian miles in circuit. Others give it 28, others 32. Our Nicolas Trigault, book IV On Chinese Affairs, chapter III, and book V, chapter XII, contends with strong conjectures that Khanbaliq is Beijing, which is the royal city of the king of China, and that Cathay is the kingdom of China.
Third, Babylon, says Diodorus in book II of the Library, chapter IV, had a circuit of 360 stadia, that is 45 Italian miles, fifteen Gallic leagues. The other Babylon in Egypt, or Memphis, which is now called Cairo, surpasses Paris five times in size, says Ortelius, and spreads out very widely along the banks of the Nile, so much so that Selim, the emperor of the Turks, although his forces had taken it by storm in the year 1516, did not dare to enter it. Aristotle writes of the same in the Politics, book III, chapter II, that when it had been captured and the enemy held the first part of the city, those who lived in another part of the city did not know on the third day that the city had been taken.
Thebes in Egypt, according to Homer, Pliny, Strabo, Pomponius and others, had a hundred gates, or as others would have it, a hundred halls: as many princely houses of old, and each was accustomed, when need arose, to pour forth ten thousand armed men. Moscow is celebrated for the size and number of its houses. Sigismund Liber writes their number was 41,500. Paris is also celebrated, where the present-day ruins of the suburbs exceed a circuit of eight leagues. In America the cities of Tenochtitlan and Panama excel in size.
But if a three-day journey seems too much for the diameter of one city, Nineveh, in its length, let him add another diameter of width, which intersects the first and makes with it as it were a cross. For the size of the city of Rome, for example, ought to be measured from two diametrical lines intersecting each other; one would be drawn from the Vatican and end at the Porta Pia, by which one goes to St. Agnes; the other would be drawn from the Porta del Popolo and end at the Porta Capena, by which one goes to St. Sebastian. This would be said more fittingly of Nineveh, because it was not round but rectangular, and therefore from two diameters intersecting each other at right angles, whose ends terminate at the four corners of the rectangle, its size, that is its length and width, ought to be measured.
Indeed Aristotle, Politics III, chapter II, indicates that some cities are so great that they should be called not so much cities as regions surrounded by walls.
Mystically, Nineveh containing a three-day journey represents the three parts of the world: Asia, Africa,
Second, a city of Tartary called Hangzhou encompasses a three-day journey, and much more. For Marco Polo, an eyewitness, asserts this, book II On Eastern Affairs, chapter LXIV, and from him Ortelius in the Theater of the World, under Tartary: "Marco Polo writes," he says, "who is known to have lived there around the year 1260, that Hangzhou encompasses a hundred miles in circuit. Oderic asserts the same. It has twelve thousand stone bridges, and these so high that large ships with their masts erect can pass under them. The Great Khan has a standing garrison of thirty thousand there: the city is very magnificent and pleasant: hence it has also gained its name, since Quinzai is interpreted as 'the heavenly city.'" The same author, and from him Lipsius at the cited passage, writes that the famous Hangzhou contains six hundred thousand families. The same Marco Polo, in the following chapter, says that the tribute which is paid annually from the kingdom of Hangzhou
the Septuagint version, which Origen, Chrysostom and other Greeks follow, along with the Arabic Alexandrian, is corrupted. For it reads: Yet three days. Perhaps the copyists wrote tessarakonta, that is forty, in abbreviated form; hence other transcribers read and wrote treis, that is three. Or by ciphers, that is by letters, they wrote mu, which stands for forty, and when the other tip of it was worn away or less visible, they read gamma instead of mu, which stands for three: especially because mention of three days had preceded (for this was the journey of Nineveh), which by confusion of appearances, or wandering of the eyes, the copyists thought were the same as these days of Jonah's preaching. For great is the ignorance of some scribes, great the carelessness of others, great the fatigue of others in copying such vast volumes, so that they easily substitute and write one thing for another, as I myself experience daily. Some think that Jonah diminished the number each day; namely that on the first day of his preaching he said: Yet forty days; on the second, Yet thirty-nine days; on the third, Yet thirty-eight days, and so on, until he arrived at the last three, and then said: "Yet three days," etc., that is: "I will wait for you to see whether you will do penance, says Isidore of Pelusium, book IV, letter 149, and that the Septuagint knew this from tradition and wished to express it here. But this conjecture is at odds with the text, which consistently reads: "Yet forty days;" and it is uncertain and not very probable. For the Ninevites do not seem to have delayed their repentance until the last three days. Wherefore Theodoret wisely says: "It is credible," he says, "that even the Septuagint placed the same number as the others (forty), but those who first wrote it erred in this, and afterwards the error spread into all copies."
Moreover St. Augustine, book XVIII of the City of God, chapter XLIV, judges that the genuine reading is: "Yet forty days;" but that the Septuagint translated: "Yet three days," in order to signify the mystery about Christ hidden here: "Whether," he says, "by forty days or by three, the same Christ is signified: by forty, namely because He spent that many days with His disciples after His resurrection and ascended into heaven; by three, because He rose on the third day, as if to say: In the forty days seek Him, in which you will also be able to find the three: the former you will find in the Ascension, the latter in His resurrection: of which one was spoken through the prophet Jonah, the other through the prophecy of the Seventy interpreters, yet one and the same Spirit spoke both." Perhaps for this reason St. Justin, Against Trypho, joined and combined both readings. For he reads: "Yet forty-three days," etc.
Allegorically, Jonah is Christ, the Ninevites are the Jews. Nineveh is Jerusalem, which in the fortieth year after Christ's preaching was destroyed by Titus and the Romans; so Eusebius in the Chronicle.
triumphal arches, etc., was astonished, and finally said that "nature had poured all her powers into this city." Then he asked Hormisdas, his architect, what he thought of Rome, who replied that only this pleased him, "that he had learned that men die in Rome just as elsewhere," as befitted a philosopher. Truly Seneca says: "Ashes make all equal; we are born unequal, we die equal." Wherefore St. Chrysostom wisely admonishes, in homily 32 on the Epistle to the Hebrews, in the moral portion, that we should build dwellings not on earth where they will soon fall, but in heaven where they will last forever: "No one," he says, "of sound mind builds in a city that is going to fall. Let us not build in this world; for shortly it will fall, and all things will go to ruin. And why do I say that the world will fall? We ourselves will perish before its ruin, and will suffer cruel torments," etc.
Verse 4
4. Jonah began to enter the city one day's journey. — "Jonah," says St. Jerome, "mindful of the command and of the previous shipwreck, completed the three-day journey with the haste of one day." This saying of St. Jerome can be understood in two ways. First, that Jonah, being a three-day journey distant from Nineveh, in order to obey God as quickly as possible, completed this whole journey in one day, and on the same day that he departed from the place where the whale vomited him out, he arrived at and reached Nineveh. Second, that Jonah so hastily went about preaching through all of Nineveh, that he traversed it in one day, when others would require three days for this. But neither sense fits this passage. Not the first, because the Phoenician coast, where Jonah was cast out by the whale, is three hundred leagues from Nineveh, which is a journey of at least thirty days. If with Josephus you say he was cast out in the Black Sea, I reply: this sea is one hundred and thirty leagues from Nineveh, and through steep mountains at that; therefore it is a journey of at least thirteen days from it. Not the latter, both because it says: "He began to enter the city;" therefore he did not then complete or traverse its streets, but began to traverse them; and because according to that exposition it would have had to say: Jonah traversed the city in one day. But this is not what is said, but rather the opposite, namely: "Jonah began to enter the city one day's journey." Therefore St. Jerome offers another better interpretation saying: "Although there are some who understand it simply as meaning that he preached in only a third part of the city, and the word of his preaching quickly reached the rest." The meaning therefore is that Jonah entered the first part of the city, which could be traversed in one day: Jonah preaching traversed a third of the city, and surveyed its lanes and streets by preaching. So Remigius, Albert, Hugh, Lyranus. Theodoret, Vatablus, Arias and a Castro agree. But these latter think that Jonah did not proceed in a straight line, but wound through the curves of the streets, and preached going around and about through the oblique lanes.
Yet forty days. — So the Hebrew, Chaldean, Aquila, Symmachus and Theodotion. Therefore
Mystically, the number forty is a symbol of penance, on which St. Augustine philosophizes subtly in book II of On Christian Doctrine, chapter XVI. Hence St. Gregory, during the plague of the groin and the Roman pestilence, by which Pope Pelagius had perished and Gregory succeeded him in the pontificate, exhorted the people to repentance by the example of Jonah and the Ninevites, and proclaimed public litanies, sevenfold ones, by which God, appeased, stopped the plague. For an angel standing on the Mole of Hadrian (where his place and image are still seen to this day, and hence this mole is called the Castle of the Holy Angel) was seen to sheathe the drawn sword with which he had been striking the citizens; and wherever the image of the Blessed Virgin was carried in the procession, the thick, pestilential, and fiery air seemed to be dispersed, purified, and cleared. John the Deacon reports his exhortation word for word in his Life, book I, chapter XL, where among many things he says: "For the longstanding sins of the Ninevites were wiped away by a three-day penance. Let us therefore change our hearts; the judge is more quickly moved to prayer if the petitioner corrects himself from his wickedness. Therefore with contrition and corrected works let us come tomorrow to the sevenfold litany with devout minds and tears; since we have all sinned together, let us all together bewail the evils we have done, so that the strict judge, when he sees that we have punished our own sins, may himself pardon us from the sentence of the proposed condemnation."
Again, St. Peter, of the Order of St. Dominic, an eminent preacher and martyr, in the year of the Lord 1252, on the twenty-ninth day of April, on which the Church celebrates his feast in the divine Office, in his sermons constantly proposed this theme: "Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be destroyed," and with such ardor and spirit did he set the people on fire, that all everywhere did penance, and public penance at that. For he would say: You, O Milan, you, O Parma, you, O Cremona, are another Nineveh; if you do not do penance for your sins, you will immediately see your ruin: the scourge of God hangs over you: turn to God and do penance. Therefore Jonah teaches here, and from him St. Gregory and St. Peter Martyr, that preachers ought to set before the people the threats and terrors of God's wrath, death, judgment, hell, and with these sharply press sinners to repentance and hatred of sin, so that they may escape these and win God over to themselves. For these are the hammers that crush rocks. Other orators are like musicians, because they only soothe and tickle the ears.
And Nineveh shall be destroyed — along with the kingdom and monarchy of the Assyrians, which would be transferred to Nebuchadnezzar and Ahasuerus, as the Septuagint has it, Tobit XIV, 6, that is to the Babylonians and Medes, as will be clear from Nahum II, 8; hence Josephus, book IX of the Antiquities, XI: "Jonah," he says, "preached in the middle of the city, that after a very short time they would lose the primacy of Asia." Note: This prophecy of Jonah was threatening and conditional, that is: Nineveh shall be destroyed, unless it does penance, unless it changes its ways, and thus obtains from God that this sentence of destruction be removed or suspended; just as in fact it obtained not its removal but its suspension, as I said in the Introduction. So Origen, homily 1 On Penance, St. Jerome here, St. Gregory, XIX Morals XVIII; St. Thomas, I part, Question XIX, article 7, and others.
Differently St. Gaudentius responds, treatise 3 to the Neophytes: "Yet three days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown." He truly foretold, he says: "for its iniquity was overthrown, because it repented. As heaven is distant from earth, God says to men, so are my thoughts distant from your thoughts, and my plans from your plans," Isaiah LV. The meaning therefore is: Nineveh, not the city, but its iniquity shall be overthrown, so that it might be a different and pious Nineveh. But this is tropological, not literal.
So in the year of the Lord 396, under the Emperor Arcadius, St. Augustine says in On the Destruction of the City, chapter VI: "At Constantinople, God wishing to terrify the city, and by terrifying to amend it, by terrifying to convert it, by terrifying to cleanse it, by terrifying to change it, came in a revelation to a certain faithful servant of His, a military man, and told him that the city would perish by fire coming from heaven, and admonished him to tell the Bishop; the message was delivered, the Bishop did not disdain it, and he addressed the people. The city was turned to the mourning of repentance, just as once that ancient Nineveh," etc. He then narrates how through penance they escaped these threats.
Verse 5
5. And the men of Nineveh believed in God — that is, they believed God. Note: For Hebrews, to believe in God, or to believe in God, is the same as to believe God, as Ribera rightly observed. Hence the Hebrew ya'aminu belohim can be translated in three ways, all meaning the same thing, namely: first, they believed in God; second, they believed in God; third, they believed God. For it is the beth of contact, which the Hebrews use, so as to say to touch in the hand, that is, to touch the hand: to believe in God, or God, that is, to believe God. For the Latins, however, to believe in God is more powerful and signifies more than to believe God; namely, not only faith, but also to place all hope and trust joined with love in God; to commit oneself and one's affairs to the care of God, to resign all one's things to the faithfulness of God, to entrust one's salvation to God. So here the Ninevites, believing the preaching of Jonah, believed by faith that the God of the Hebrews, whom Jonah preached, was the true God, and therefore that these oracles of Jonah were true, and that Nineveh would truly be destroyed unless they did penance. Consequently they hoped in God, that He would admit them to repentance, and would spare the penitent, and receive them into grace; for unless they had this hope, they would never have undertaken so arduous a penance.
You will ask, by what argument the Ninevites were moved to believe Jonah? For he is imprudent and rash who without reason and foundation believes someone to be a Prophet, or that this or that is an oracle of God, especially in a matter so grave and unheard-of as the destruction of the city and monarchy of Nineveh; hence the Apostles performed miracles and other signs,
without which the Gentiles were not bound, indeed could not prudently believe them. I reply: The Ninevites were moved to believe Jonah by the miracle of his being devoured and released from the belly of the whale, which Jonah set before them, and which had already been spread by the sailors throughout the whole East. This is what Christ says in Luke XI, 30: "As Jonah was a sign to the Ninevites, so shall the Son of Man be to this generation." For this sign clearly demonstrated to them that Jonah was sent to them by God, and at the same time warned and terrified them lest, if they did not believe Jonah, they would be punished equally, indeed more, than Jonah, and would be swallowed up by water or earth. There was added the internal illumination and inspiration of God, which stirred their hearts to believe. The gravity, prudence, piety, abstinence and holiness of Jonah also helped, which clearly showed that Jonah was not a fool, not fickle, not a liar, but a serious, prudent, pious man worthy of trust.
And they proclaimed (decreed) a fast — through the magistrate, indeed through the king, as it seems; for the king decreed this fast at Nineveh, verse 7, nor could anyone else decree it for all of Nineveh except the king. There is therefore a hysteron proteron here. For the oracle of Jonah reached the king first, as follows in verse 6, before the fast was decreed, as verse 5 says here; but Scripture wished to append to Jonah's preaching the obedience and the whole work of the Ninevites, namely that they believed and did penance in fasting and sackcloth; and then to proceed to the king, and narrate his feelings and actions, of which it adds:
Verse 6
Verse 6. 6. And the word came — that is, because it had come: for it gives the cause of the public fasting and penance of the Ninevites, namely that the king, hearing the threatening oracle of Jonah, proposed and promulgated an edict of fasting and penance throughout the whole city.
You will ask, who was this king? I reply: It is probable that it was Sardanapalus, whom Diodorus, Justin and other pagan historians place as the last monarch of the Assyrians, from whom the monarchy was transferred to the Medes through Arbaces, prefect of Media. So a Castro and Torniellus in the Annals, year of the world 3213, and others. St. Jerome favors this view, in his commentary on Amos chapter I, verse 1, where explaining the title of Amos, by which he says he prophesied in the days of Uzziah king of Judah and Jeroboam king of Israel, "when," he says, "among the Assyrians" and the cities of Cilicia Sardanapalus reigned, of whom a distinguished orator says: "More disgraceful in his vices than in his name; and among the Latins Procas Silvius, whom Amulius succeeded in the kingdom after expelling Numitor; and when he was killed, gathering a band of shepherds, Romulus founded a city with his own name." Therefore Amos, and consequently Jonah (for they were contemporaries) prophesied in the time of Uzziah, Jeroboam and Sardanapalus (for these were likewise contemporaries). Again, that Jonah prophesied in the time of Jeroboam, and consequently of Sardanapalus, is clearly stated in IV Kings chapter XIV, 25. St. Augustine also favors this, book XVIII of the City of God, XXVII, where he teaches that Jonah, Amos and Hosea prophesied toward the end of the Assyrian empire—
namely as it was falling, when Rome was beginning to be founded, because their prophecies about Christ suffering and rising again were written for the Romans and Gentiles to be converted to Christ. Eusebius also favors this view in his Chronicle, who assigns Jonah to the time of Sardanapalus. You will object: Eusebius says Sardanapalus reigned 20 years; and he assigns his twentieth and last year to the sixth year of Uzziah king of Judah, which was the eighteenth year of Jeroboam king of Israel; but afterwards in the seventeenth year of Uzziah, which was the twenty-ninth of Jeroboam, and the eleventh of Arbaces reigning in Media, he writes thus: "Among the Hebrews, the prophets Hosea, Amos, Isaiah and Jonah were prophesying." Therefore Jonah prophesied eleven years after the death of Sardanapalus; therefore he did not prophesy during the reign of Sardanapalus. I reply: I deny the consequence. For the word "prophesied" does not signify the beginning of the prophecy (for these four did not all begin to prophesy in the same year, namely the seventeenth of Uzziah), but vaguely the time when these prophets were flourishing, that is: Around this time, namely before and after the seventeenth year of Uzziah, Hosea, Amos, Isaiah and Jonah prophesied. For since it is certain they prophesied for many years, and it is not certain in what year each one began, Eusebius rightly says in general and vague terms that they prophesied at this time, that is, they flourished. For when in chronology the time is recorded at which a prophet, doctor or bishop flourished, what is recorded is not the first year he began, or the last in which he ended, but rather the middle: for in the middle of the age of their prophecy and teaching, men tend to flourish, both in grace, and in wisdom, and in authority.
This opinion is confirmed first, because chronologists generally say that Sardanapalus was a contemporary of Jeroboam, under whom Jonah prophesied. I except Genebrard alone, who thinks that Sardanapalus was the one who in Scripture is called Esarhaddon, and was the son of Sennacherib, after whom no king of the Assyrians is named in Scripture. For Esarhaddon reigned long after Uzziah and Jeroboam, under Hezekiah and Manasseh. But this opinion of Genebrard is generally rejected by other chronologists. Second, because the same authorities agree that under Sardanapalus the monarchy of Nineveh and the Assyrians perished, and after it they place the kingdom of Arbaces and the Medes; but Jonah was sent to Nineveh when it was flourishing in wealth and power: therefore not after Sardanapalus, but during his reign. Third, because Sardanapalus was most luxurious and overflowed with luxury and vices, and Nineveh followed its king: these therefore are the vices on account of which Jonah threatens the city with destruction. Fourth, because although shortly after Sardanapalus it is clear from Scripture that the kingdom was restored at Nineveh, and that Phul, Tiglath-Pileser, Shalmaneser, Sennacherib and Esarhaddon reigned there, yet these did not reign with Uzziah and Jeroboam, under whom Jonah prophesied, but after them. Again, in the disaster of Sardanapalus and the transfer of the monarchy, Nineveh seems to have been sufficiently punished, so that there was no need to send Jonah there after that. Moreover, that Jonah was sent before that disaster is clear, because he was sent
to threaten and foretell it as future. From what has been said it is concluded that Sardanapalus, hearing the oracles and threats of Jonah, was converted and did penance with his Ninevites, but when he shortly after returned to his customary pleasures and vices, the Ninevites also returned to the same, as those addicted to concubinage and other vices are wont to do. Hence God then raised up Arbaces, who would invade Sardanapalus and Nineveh, and compel him to set fire to his palace and himself, and transfer the monarchy to the Medes; of which I spoke in the Introduction.
And he rose (the king, namely Sardanapalus) from his throne, and cast away his garment from himself (the Zurich Bible reads: his royal cloak, namely his imperial vestment, diadem, scepter and other royal insignia), and was clothed with sackcloth (haircloth), and sat in ashes. — Note here that the habit and works of penance are not bare repentance, as Calvin would have it, but groaning, sackcloth, ashes, fasting. So Tertullian, Cyprian, Chrysostom, St. Augustine, Pacian in his treatise On Penance.
St. Ambrose brilliantly narrates this history of Jonah at the end of volume II: "The king of Nineveh," he says, "overcame enemies by valor, but conquered God by humility. Wise, I say, was the king who for the salvation of his citizens confesses himself to be a sinner more than a king. For he forgets that he is king where he fears God the King of all; nor does he remember his own power where he acknowledges the power of the Divinity. A marvelous thing: while he does not remember that he is king of men, he begins to be king of justice. The devout prince therefore did not lose his empire but changed it. For formerly he held the primacy of military discipline, now he holds the primacy of heavenly disciplines." And further:
"That the whole city might fast, the king first imposed hunger on himself; and alone, for the sake of all, he began to hunger before the soldier. For it was necessary that he who had been more powerful than all should become more devout than all."
Verse 7
7. And he cried out and said (supply: the herald, so Vatablus; or "he cried out and said," that is, he caused it to be proclaimed and declared) from the mouth of the king — that is, his own. It is a Hebraism. Hence the Chaldean translates: And he ordered it to be proclaimed by a herald, and to be said throughout Nineveh by decree of the king and his princes. So also Pagninus.
Let neither men, nor beasts, nor oxen, nor cattle taste anything. — St. Chrysostom gives the reason, homily 3 to the People: "Even the brute animals fast, and horses and mules are clothed with sackcloth. Indeed, he says: for just as when some rich man has died, they order not only the male and female servants, but also the horses of the household to be clothed in sackcloth and handed to grooms to follow the funeral procession, displaying the magnitude of the calamity and drawing all to compassion; so also in that city (Nineveh) as it was in danger of death, they wrapped even the brute animals with sackcloth and subjected them to the yoke of fasting. Since brute animals cannot learn of God's wrath by speech, let them learn by the plague of hunger which God inflicts; for if the city were destroyed, he says, the burial would be not only of the inhabitants but of these animals together. Since they were to have a share in the punishment, they should also have a share in the fasting." Then he gives another reason: Since, he says, they were full of confusion and had no excuse, "they take refuge in the brute animals, and bewailing their death, from these they make a pitiable and mournful supplication, setting forth their own perdition." And St. Ambrose, toward the end of volume II: "For," he says, "the satisfaction of the sinners was not sufficient to appease God, unless the innocence of little children also bewailed the sins of the elders, and youth washed away its offenses with others' tears."
Note: It is likely that this rigorous fast of the Ninevites lasted for some days, for example three, as St. Chrysostom thinks in homily 1 On Penance, so that for three days neither man nor beast tasted any food or drink; then they continued this
fast for forty days, but in such a way that at the proper time, for example in the evening, they took some bread and water to sustain nature; for otherwise they could not naturally have prolonged life without food and drink for forty days; but the sackcloth, the crying and their prayers continued for forty days.
In a similar manner in the year of the Lord 1124, Christians in the Holy Land, besieged by Saracens, following the example of the Ninevites, decreed a solemn fast even for infant children and cattle, and thus obtained from God a miraculous victory over them. For when three thousand Christians, with the Patriarch bearing the cross and the Abbot of Cluny bearing the lance with which Christ's side was pierced, marched into battle against forty thousand Saracens, a splendor falling from heaven upon the Saracens so weakened them that they were cut down as they fled on all sides, not only by men but also by boys and women. Seven thousand perished in the battle, five thousand were drowned in the waters; and all the Christians, having returned safe and sound, sang a victory hymn to God. So from Robert of Sigebert, Cardinal Baronius at the year 1124.
Verse 8
8. And let them cry with strength — loudly, with a raised voice: Mercy, mercy, have mercy on us, O God, according to Your great mercy. So the people cried out. But the cattle bellowed, lowed, and resounded each with its own voice toward heaven. This common lamentation of men and beasts stayed the wrath of God and bent it toward mercy. St. Basil graphically depicts it, homily 8 against the avaricious, which is titled: On Famine and Squalor; and homily 4 On Penance. So Virgil, in Eclogue V, says that at the death of Julius Caesar, whom he calls Daphnis, the sheep, oxen and other animals fasted, and with mournful wailing mourned his death. Indeed he adds: "Daphnis, even the Carthaginian lions moaned at your death, and the wild mountains and woods proclaim it."
In similar fashion, Plutarch reports in his Life that Alexander mourned the death of Hephaestion, and the Thebans mourned the death of Pelopidas.
And let every man turn from his evil way. — St. Chrysostom, homily 3 to the People: "Let us see," he says, "what dissolved that inevitable wrath; was it fasting alone and sackcloth? By no means, but a change of the whole life; because each one turned from his evil ways, the Lord repented of the evil which He had said He would do to them. For the honor of fasting is not abstinence from foods, but the flight from sins. Do you fast? Show me by your very works. What works, you ask? If you see a poor man, have mercy; if you see an enemy, be reconciled; if you see a friend acting commendably, do not envy; if you see a beautiful woman, pass by. For not only the mouth should fast, but also the eye, and the hearing, and the feet, and the hands, and all the members of our body. Let the hands fast, clean from robbery and avarice; let the feet fast, restraining their course to illicit spectacles; let the eyes fast, learning never to leap at beautiful faces, nor curiously gaze at others' beauty; for the food of the eyes is gazing. Let the ear also fast, and the fasting of the ears is not to receive detractions and calumnies; let the mouth too fast from foul words and insult. For what is the use, if we abstain from birds and fish, but bite and devour our brothers? The slanderer eats his brother's flesh," etc.
From this passage it appears that the Ninevites (at least many of them) were truly contrite, and therefore by this penance were justified and saved, as many as persevered in justice to the end of life. For they believed in the true God, they elicited acts of hope, fear, and sorrow; they performed an austere and unheard-of, and public penance; indeed the king himself was the first, putting aside his royal garment, to put on sackcloth and sprinkle himself with ashes; which were certainly signs of enormous internal sorrow and contrition, and, which is the greatest sign of penance and the noblest act, they turned from their former licentious and wicked life to one that was chaste and holy. Hence God approved and accepted these works of their penance, and pardoned both the punishment and, as it seems, the guilt as well. So St. Chrysostom, homily That No One is Harmed Except By Himself: "The Ninevites," he says, "turned to the fear of God, and casting aside the evils of their former life at its border, they applied themselves to virtue and justice through penance, with so faithful a satisfaction that they revoked the sentence already divinely promulgated." And in book I On Praying to God: "First," he says, "the Ninevites will come forward, who clearly received through the help of prayer the remission of very many sins by which they had provoked the divine wrath against themselves. For as soon as the zeal for prayer seized them, it made them righteous; and it immediately corrected the city which had already grown accustomed to wantonness, malice, in short, to living a lawless and impious life; indeed, more powerful than the long habit of sinning, when it had filled that city with heavenly laws, it likewise drew along with it temperance, meekness, humanity and care for the poor. Indeed if anyone had then entered the city of the Ninevites who had previously known it well, he would by no means have recognized it; so suddenly had it sprung back from a most shameful life to piety." Therefore although some think the Ninevites were only attrite, yet the truer view is that they were also contrite; and that they underwent this penance not only from fear of punishment but also from love of justice. The same is confirmed from the fact that Scripture and the Fathers, especially St. Chrysostom, everywhere propose to sinners the example of the Ninevites as the most illustrious mirror of penance. Hence Christ, Matthew XII, 41: "The men of Nineveh," He says, "shall rise in the judgment with this generation and shall condemn it, because they did penance at the preaching of Jonah. And behold a greater than Jonah here." Hence St. Gregory, on Penitential Psalm VII: "Penance," he says, "is one of the perfect gifts descending from the Father of lights." And Tertullian, in the book Against the Psychics, chapter XVI, celebrates "the Ninevite justice," although the truer reading of Pammelius has: "the Ninevite cessation," that is, the abstention from every kind of food and drink among the pagans who, as he said before, "at an annual rite are covered with sackcloth and sprinkled with ashes." The same teaches St. Ambrose, sermon 28, which was delivered on the first Sunday of Lent, and St. Ephrem, sermon On Jonah. The same is expressly taught by Andreas Vega, book XIII On Justification, chapter V: "Nineveh," he says, "as is likely, had many who had at some time fallen from the grace they had received, and yet suddenly at the preaching of Jonah it acknowledged God, and through penance not only escaped the danger of threatened death; but also, as Chrysostom asserts, received the crown of an unknown life, and it is easier, as Augustine says (book On Penance, middle V), that the threatening of the Prophet was emptied, than the humiliation of penance." The same is taught by others, and St. Thomas intimates it, III part, Question LXXXIV, article 7, reply to 1. The Council of Trent, session XIV, favors this view.
The same, sermon 30 on the Song of Songs: "The tears of penitents are the wine of angels." If you desire more, see what I annotated on II Corinthians VII, 11.
Verse 9
9. Who knows if He will turn? — The word "if" is not in the Hebrew, but is understood; hence, omitting it, the Chaldean and Arias translate thus: He who knows that there are faults in his hands, let him turn from them, and there will be mercy upon him from the face of the Lord; as if here a certain hope of pardon is given to the penitent, indeed a certainty of obtaining mercy. But better our Vulgate, the Septuagint, Pagninus, Vatablus and others understand "if," as if the Ninevites were uncertain of pardon, and doubted it, and hung suspended between hope and fear; for it is plainer and more customary in Hebrew to understand and supply to that phrase "Who knows" one little word "if," than those many words: "That there are faults in his hands." Add that the Hebrew mi is interrogative and means "who," not "he who"; for "he who" is signified by he the demonstrative.
The Ninevites doubt about the remission not of guilt but of punishment, that is: Who knows if through our penance God will be appeased and will revoke the sentence about destroying Nineveh? In a similar manner God pardoned David's adultery, but punished him with the death of the son born from it, II Kings XII, 19. Hence Francisco Suarez, volume IV On Penance, disputation XXXVII, section IX, from these words of Jonah, and similar ones in Joel II, 14, teaches that no one, however just he may be, can make condign satisfaction for accidental or extraordinary punishment, such as was the destruction of Nineveh here; indeed, that he cannot do anything by which he will infallibly obtain the remission of such a punishment. Hence St. Augustine on Psalm L: "From uncertainty," he says, "they did penance, and they merited certain mercy." And St. Jerome: "Therefore," he says, "ambiguity is placed there, so that while men are doubtful about their salvation, they may do penance more strongly, and more greatly provoke the Lord to mercy."
Second, others extend this doubt to the remission of guilt; for although the promises of God, by which He promised pardon to the penitent, are most certain, yet it is uncertain whether man fulfills the condition which the promise requires; namely, that he be sufficiently disposed for grace; that is, that he be truly contrite from love of God, not merely attrite from fear of punishments. So Gregory of Valencia, II-II, treatise On Grace, disputation VIII, Question IV, and Cardinal Bellarmine, book III On Justification, chapter VI.
And God will forgive. — In Hebrew, and God will repent, or be led by remorse. So the Septuagint, Pagninus and Vatablus. Hence the ancient heretics, such as Marcion, Manes and others, judged that the God of the Old Testament was not the true nor perfect God, inasmuch as sorrow and repentance could fall upon Him. Marcion therefore objected: "God is to be blamed, who felt repentance for a justice that surely ought not to be repented of." Tertullian replies, book II Against Marcion, chapter XXIV, that the repentance of men is one thing and that of God another: "For in God nothing else is understood than
chapter IV, for when speaking of attrition he had said: "And although without the sacrament it cannot by itself lead the sinner to justification, yet it disposes him to obtain God's grace in the sacrament of penance;" he immediately proves this by the example of the Ninevites, and says: "For being usefully shaken by this fear, the Ninevites at the preaching of Jonah, full of terrors, did penance, and obtained mercy from God;" namely God's grace through penance, or contrition; for the sacrament of penance was not yet instituted then, which Christ later instituted in the new law, that is: Just as the Ninevites through fear disposed themselves for the virtue of penance and contrition, by which they obtained God's mercy and grace; so Christian sinners through fear and attrition dispose themselves for the sacrament of penance, by which they will obtain the forgiveness of sins and God's grace.
From what has been said, note how great is the power of penance, which wiped away so many and so great sins of so great a city, appeased God's wrath, wrested His scourge away, indeed obtained His grace and justice, and made the Ninevites from children of hell into children of heaven; from slaves of the devil into friends of God; from the unjust, impious, faithless, and wicked, into the just, pious, faithful, and holy. So St. Chrysostom, Tertullian, Ambrose, Augustine and others, treatise On Penance. Hear St. Ambrose, book On Penance, chapter VI: "The Ninevites decreed for themselves a fast necessary for those about to perish; in their very bodies they chastised their souls with the scourge of humility; they put on sackcloth instead of clothing, and sprinkled themselves with ashes instead of ointments; and prostrate on the ground they licked the dust. They mourned their own death with tears, and pursued life with lamentations; they published their guilt with groans, and laid bare the secret crimes of their deeds. Every age and sex without distinction adapted themselves to mournful duties; all elegance was set aside, all adornment cast down; food was even denied to nursing infants; and the age not yet infected by its own sins bore the burdens of others; the mute beast hungered for its food. One wailing of diverse natures was heard throughout the walls of the city, and through every roof the pitiful laments of mourners resounded, and, to say it once, the earth bore the bellowings of those confessing, and even the very stars resounded with the voice of penance. What is written in Ecclesiasticus XXXV, 21 was fulfilled: The prayer of him who humbles himself shall pierce the clouds. And so he appeased the offended God, so he made the stern one mild, so he soothed the wrathful one," etc.
St. Bernard brilliantly calls penance, in his sermon On St. Andrew, "the avenger of vices, the nurturer of virtues." The same, sermon 71 on the Song of Songs: "His (Christ's) food is my penance, and His food is my salvation; the food is I myself. I am chewed when I am reproved, I am swallowed when I am instructed, I am cooked when I am changed, I am digested when I am transformed, I am united when I am conformed." The same, sermon 2 on the Vigil of the Nativity: "We made the angels exult when we turned to penance. Run, brothers, run; not only the angels, but the Creator of angels Himself awaits you."
a reversal of a prior decision, which even in man can be admitted without blame, much more in God, whose every decision is free from fault, and which we have shown happens as things change and present themselves."
St. Chrysostom beautifully teaches, homily 1 On Penance, that in God there is truly no repentance, because He does not wish or desire evil for us; but only threatens, lest He be compelled to inflict it: "For what reason," he says, "do You foretell the evils You are going to do? So that I may not do what I foretell. For this reason He also threatened hell, so that He would not bring hell upon us. Let the words terrify you, so that the deeds may not disturb you." In the same place he shows how great was the power of the fervor of the Ninevites' penance: "Who," he says, "in three days were able to dissolve such great wrath against their sins;" and how great was God's clemency, "content with three days' penance for so many sins. For who, with an aroused purpose, burns with fervor, and with great skill shows penance, will be able to erase the sins of a long time in a brief moment of time?" Where note that Chrysostom supposes that the Ninevites did penance immediately at the preaching of Jonah. Since therefore Jonah preached: "Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be destroyed," it follows that they did penance for 40 days. But because Chrysostom reads: "Yet three days, and Nineveh shall be destroyed," hence he thinks they repented only for three days. The same, homily on Psalm VII: Men, he says, namely enemies, threaten punishment and actually inflict it: "But God does not act so; rather entirely the contrary — He both foretells and defers, and terrifies with words, and does everything so that what He threatens He may not bring about. He did this also with the Ninevites. For He too stretched the bow and brandished the sword,
and prepared javelins, and did not inflict the blow. Do not the words of the Prophet seem to you to be a bow, and a dart, and a sharp sword, when he says: Yet three days, and Nineveh shall be destroyed? But He did not launch the dart; for it was not prepared to be launched, but to be put away."
Verse 10
10. And God had mercy with regard to the evil. — "Evil," that is, affliction. The Hebrew reads: He repented of the evil which He had decreed to inflict upon them, that is, He revoked the sentence of punishment and destruction pronounced against them; because seeing their repentance, He had mercy on them. Tropologically, Abbot Joseph in Cassian, Conference XVII, chapter XXV, says that by this example of God, "we are taught that we ought not to persist obstinately in our decisions, but to soften with clement compassion the threat proposed out of necessity." So that when our subjects sin, if they acknowledge their fault and ask pardon, we may spare them; just as God spared the Ninevites.