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he, being hard to meet with, was put to death by his two sons. For when he expected to escape that utterly destructive and divinely-sent death, and to arrive in his own land, and for the affairs of peace to be secure for him, then Adrammelech and Sharezer, his two sons, slay him, and flee to the mountains of Ararat. Do you see, beloved, how much confession helped Hezekiah? and how much evil continuing in sins worked for Sennacherib? Do you want me to show you also another way of repentance, and a door of confession?

Imitate the repentance of those barbarians, I mean, of the Ninevites. For they, having become hearers of a prophet, not having received gospel words, not having heard a prophet of God, not having received the good news of the kingdom of heaven, see how they approach God, how they supplicate God, how they reconcile the Lord who was angry with them; how they dissolved a decree of God; how they pushed away the wrath of God, and called upon His loving-kindness; how their city, being a pit and a ruin, they made it stronger than a wall, and firmer than any adamant. The dignity of the purple did not supplicate God, but sackcloth; nor a royal diadem, and power, but ashes with sackcloth; not a throne studded with gold 55.618 composed of stones, but confession. O power of sackcloth, surpassing and conquering the royal purple; O power of ashes, stronger than a diadem and a royal throne. For while the king was in his diadem, and in the purple and on the throne that held for him the power, that is the royal sceptre, with his armies standing around him in a circle, and surrounded by a large bodyguard, the prophet enters into their midst, naked, with dust-covered feet, with sweat on his face, and says: Yet three days, and Nineveh will be overthrown. What are you doing, O prophet? If the Spirit of God is in you at all, why do you not know the will of God, that not wishing to kill, but to call them back to repentance, for this reason He gave the decree? God told me, he says, nothing else, but only said this, that 'Yet three days, and Nineveh will be overthrown.'

What are you doing, O Jonah? Why do you not also add other teaching? For what else did Isaiah hear from God to say to Israel? Nothing other than a single saying. And what was this? Say, He says, to this people: 'With hearing you will hear, and you will not understand, and seeing you will see, and you will not perceive.' And do you see how much other teaching and instruction he sounded into them? how much exhortation and comfort and rebuke? Rebuke indeed, in his saying: 'The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master's crib. But Israel did not know me, and my people did not understand me.' These things were of one rebuking. But hear him also exhorting: 'Wash yourselves, become clean, take away wickedness from your souls.' And how again he comforts: 'If you are willing,' he says, 'and listen to me, you will eat the good things of the land.' And he discusses with them other things more numerous than these, having written a whole book for the sake of testimony. And he did not stop at this, but also brings forward witnesses at the beginning of his teaching, saying: 'Hear, O heaven, and give ear, O earth, for the Lord has spoken.' What has He spoken? Speak clearly, O Isaiah. 'Sons,' he says, 'I have begotten and raised up, but they have rejected me.' But you did none of these things, O Jonah, but you preached the overthrow, saying: 'Yet three days, and Nineveh will be overthrown.' But concerning God you said nothing to them, nor did you say, 'For the Lord has spoken,' like Isaiah; but you pronounce a savage and inhuman decree.

But nevertheless the Ninevites, even if they did not receive the instruction of teaching, even if they did not become hearers of prophets, did not receive the promises of gospel grace, nor love for the kingdom, nor fear of punishment, but having a beastly and barbarous manner

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δυσέντευ κτον ὄντα, ὑπὸ τῶν δύο υἱῶν αὐτοῦ τοῦτον ἐθανάτωσεν. Ὅταν γὰρ προσεδόκησε τὸν πανώλεθρον καὶ θεήλατον ἐκφυγεῖν θάνατον, καὶ εἰς τὴν αὐτοῦ τυγχάνειν γῆν, καὶ τὰ τῆς εἰρήνης αὐτῷ ἐν ἀσφαλεῖ γενέσθαι, τότε Ἀδραμέλεχ καὶ Σαρασὰρ οἱ δύο υἱοὶ αὐτοῦ σφάζουσιν αὐτὸν, καὶ φεύγουσιν ἐπὶ τὰ ὄρη Ἀραράτ. Θεωρεῖς, ἀγαπητὲ, πόσον τῷ Ἐζεκίᾳ συνεβάλετο ἡ ἐξομολόγη σις; πόσον δὲ τὸν Σεναχηρεὶβ εἰργάσατο κακὸν τὸ ἐπι μένειν ταῖς ἁμαρτίαις; Θέλεις σοι καὶ ἄλλην ὑποδείξω μετανοίας ὁδὸν, καὶ θύραν ἐξομολογήσεως;

Μίμησαι τὴν τῶν βαρβάρων ἐκείνων μετάνοιαν, τῶν Νινευιτῶν λέγω δή. Ἐκεῖνοι γὰρ προφήτου κατήκοοι γεγονότες, οὐκ εὐαγγελικὰ δεξάμενοι ῥήματα, οὐ προφήτην Θεοῦ ἀκούσαντες, οὐ βασιλείας οὐρανῶν εὐαγγελισμὸν δεξά μενοι, βλέπε πως προσέρχονται Θεῷ, πῶς δυσωποῦσι Θεὸν, πῶς ὀργιζόμενον αὐτοῖς ἀντικαταλλάσσουσιν τὸν Κύριον· πῶς ἀπόφασιν Θεοῦ ἔλυσαν· πῶς ὀργὴν Θεοῦ ἀπώσαντο, καὶ φιλανθρωπίαν ἐπεκαλέσαντο· πῶς βά ραθρον καὶ κατάπτωμα τὴν πόλιν αὐτῶν τυγχάνουσαν, τείχους αὐτὴν ἰσχυροτέραν ἐποίησαν, καὶ παντὸς ἀδά μαντος στεῤῥοτέραν. Οὐκ ἐδυσώπησε Θεῷ πορφύρας ἀξίωμα, ἀλλὰ σάκκος· οὐδὲ διάδημα βασιλικὸν, καὶ κράτος, ἀλλὰ σποδὸς μετὰ σάκκου· οὐ χρυσοκόλλητος 55.618 θρόνος ἐκ λίθων συγκείμενος, ἀλλ' ἐξομολόγησις. Ὦ σάκκου δύναμις παρευδοκιμοῦσα καὶ νικῶσα πορφύραν βασιλικήν· ὦ σποδοῦ δύναμις διαδήματος καὶ θρόνου βασιλικοῦ ἰσχυροτέρα. Ἐν γὰρ τῷ διαδήματι τυγχά νοντος τοῦ βασιλέως, καὶ ἐν τῇ πορφύρᾳ καὶ τῷ θρόνῳ τῷ κατέχοντι αὐτῷ τὸ κράτος, τουτέστι τὴν ῥάβδον τὴν βασιλικὴν, κύκλῳ τῶν στρατοπέδων αὐτῷ περιεστώ των, καὶ δορυφορίας πολλῆς περιστοιχειουμένης, εἰσέρ χεται εἰς τὸ μέσον ὁ προφήτης γυμνὸς, κεκονιαμένος ποσὶν, ἱδρῶν τῷ προσώπῳ, καί φησιν· Ἔτι τρεῖς ἡμέ ραι, καὶ Νινευὶ καταστραφήσεται. Τί ποιεῖς, ὦ προ φῆτα; Εἰ ὅλως Πνεῦμα Θεοῦ ἐν σοὶ, διὰ τί οὐ γινώ σκεις τὸ βούλημα τοῦ Θεοῦ, ὅτι οὐκ ἀποκτεῖναι βουλό μενος, ἀλλ' εἰς μετάνοιαν ἐπανακαλέσασθαι, διὰ τοῦτο ἔδωκε τὴν ἀπόφασιν; Οὐδέν μοι, φησὶν, εἶπεν ὁ Θεὸς ἕτερον, ἀλλ' ἢ τοῦτο μόνον εἶπεν, ὅτι Ἔτι τρεῖς ἡμέ ραι, καὶ Νινευὶ καταστραφήσεται.

Τί ποιεῖς, ὦ Ἰωνᾶ; διὰ τί καὶ διδασκαλίαν ἑτέραν οὐ προστιθεῖς; Τί γὰρ ἄλλο ἤκουσεν Ἡσαΐας παρὰ τοῦ Θεοῦ εἰπεῖν πρὸς τὸν Ἰσραήλ; Οὐδὲν ἕτερον ἢ λόγον ἕνα. Ποῖον δὲ τοῦτον; Εἰπὸν, φησὶ, τῷ λαῷ τούτῳ· Ἀκοῇ ἀκούσετε, καὶ οὐ μὴ συνῆτε, καὶ βλέποντες βλέψετε, καὶ οὐ μὴ ἴδητε. Καὶ βλέπεις πόσην ἄλλην διδασκαλίαν καὶ κατήχησιν εἰς αὐτοὺς ἐνήχησεν; πόσην προτροπὴν καὶ παράκλησιν καὶ ἔλεγχον; Ἔλεγχον μὲν ἐν τῷ λέγειν αὐτόν· Ἔγνω βοῦς τὸν κτησάμενον, καὶ ὄνος τὴν φάτνην τοῦ κυρίου αὐτοῦ. Ἰσραὴλ δέ με οὐκ ἔγνω, καὶ ὁ λαός με οὐ συνῆκεν. Ταῦτα ἐλέγχοντος ἦν. Ἄκου σον δὲ καὶ προτρεπομένου αὐτοῦ· Λούσασθε, καθαροὶ γένεσθε, ἀφέλετε τὰς πονηρίας ἀπὸ τῶν ψυχῶν ὑμῶν. Πῶς δὲ πάλιν παρακαλεῖ· Ἐὰν θέλητε, φησὶν, καὶ εἰσακούσητέ μου, τὰ ἀγαθὰ τῆς γῆς φάγεσθε. Καὶ ἕτερα δὲ τούτων πλείονα προσδιαλέγεται αὐτοῖς, βιβλίον ὁλόκληρον γράψας μαρτυρίας χάριν. Καὶ οὐκ ἔστη μέχρι τούτου, ἀλλὰ καὶ μάρτυρας ἐν ἀρχῇ τῆς διδασκαλίας ἐπάγει λέγων· Ἄκουε, οὐρανὲ, καὶ ἐν ωτίζου, γῆ, ὅτι Κύριος ἐλάλησεν. Τί ἐλάλησεν; εἰπὲ τρανῶς, ὦ Ἡσαΐα. Υἱοὺς, φησὶν, ἐγέννησα καὶ ὕψωσα, αὐτοὶ δέ με ἠθέτησαν. Σὺ δὲ οὐδὲν τούτων ἐποίησας, ὦ Ἰωνᾶ, ἀλλὰ τὴν μὲν καταστροφὴν ἐκήρυξας εἰπών· Ἔτι τρεῖς ἡμέραι, καὶ Νινευὶ καταστραφήσεται. Περὶ δὲ Θεοῦ οὐδὲν πρὸς αὐτοὺς εἶπες, οὐδὲ εἶπες, Ὅτι Κύριος ἐλάλησεν, κατὰ τὸν Ἡσαΐαν· ἀλλ' ἀνήμερον καὶ ἀπάνθρωπον ἐκφέρεις τὴν ἀπόφασιν.

Ἀλλ' ὅμως οἱ Νινευῖται, εἰ καὶ διδασκαλίας κατήχησιν οὐκ ἐδέξαντο, εἰ καὶ προφητῶν κατήκοοι οὐκ ἐγένοντο, οὐκ εὐαγγε λικῆς χάριτος ἐπαγγελίας ἔλαβον, οὐ βασιλείας ἔρωτα, οὐ κολάσεως φόβον, ἀλλὰ κτηνώδη τρόπον ἔχοντες, καὶ βάρβαρον