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He was certainly deceived in his request; but the God-fighter perceived by the event his own madness, and departed unsuccessful with his threats, when some invisible power suddenly fell upon him, and having lost the greater part of his army, and departing on account of bitter news, which unexpectedly broke both the siege and his hopes. This was Hezekiah, he who was invested with great power, the king of great Jerusalem, who perhaps might have repulsed the enemy even by himself. But as for us, for whom our only weapon, and wall, and every other defense, was the hope in God that was left to us, being completely deprived and cut off from all human aid, whom else were we likely to have either as a hearer of our prayer, or a preventer of the things threatened, than God, who swears against the pride of Jacob? Oh, the unbelievable tales! Oh, the audacity of our hopes! 35.697 We were promised as a sacrifice to demons in place of some other victim; and the great inheritance of God, the holy nation, the royal priesthood, became the prize of a single hope, and the trophy of a single war.

27. Is this the wicked reward from you to the Christians for having been saved by them? Is this what you have rendered to the Lord your God? Formerly, therefore, when God still held back and deferred His wrath on our behalf, and had not yet kindled all His zeal, but still held His hand high against the impious, and bent His bow and made it ready, but held it back with force, and, like some insidious and malignant disease, waited for all his wickedness to break out first, as is indeed the law of God's judgment, that He might either save through repentance or punish more justly; at that time, being vexed at what was happening, and wearying of the future (for we could not bear His goodness being hidden from His own), we uttered those cries to God, in part calling upon Him as Master, in part beseeching Him as a good Father, and in part, as it were, reproaching and reasoning with Him, as is the way of those in pain: Why, O God, have You cast us off forever? Has Your anger smoked against the sheep of Your pasture? And remember Your congregation, which You have possessed from the beginning, which You purchased with the sufferings of Your only-begotten Word, which You deemed worthy of Your great covenant, which you also drew up to heaven by the new mystery, and by the pledge of the Spirit; and, Lift up Your hands against their pride forever, reminding Him how much evil the enemies have done against Your saints, and how they have boasted against Your feasts; and we called for the sword, and the plagues of Egypt, and we demanded that He plead His own cause, and we commanded Him to arise at last against the impious; saying, How long, O Lord, shall the sinners, how long shall the sinners boast, and humble Your people, and afflict Your inheritance, and likewise speak and do iniquity? And indeed those mournful and more familiar cries: You have made us a strife and a reproach to our neighbors, 35.700 a byword to the nations, and a laughingstock to all men; and we spoke of a certain vine, transplanted from the dark atheism of Egypt, and grown to beauty and greatness of faith, then having its hedge taken away, the oversight of God which had guarded us for a time, and exposed to all the wicked rulers passing by, and ravaged by a wild boar, by the wicked one who makes wickedness his own, and is full of the mire of evil.

28. These things, therefore, I formerly both thought and cried out to God; but now what different cries I utter instead! I now lament the destruction of the impious, and I have become a friend to those who hate me, and I utter such things as these: How they are brought to desolation! Suddenly they have vanished, they have perished because of their iniquity, like the dust which the whirlwind has taken away, as chaff scattered by the wind, as the morning dew, as the whizzing of a flying arrow, as the striking of thunder, as a flash of lightning

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ἐψεύσθη γε τῆς αἰτήσεως· ἀλλ' ᾔσθετο ἔργῳ τῆς ἑαυτοῦ μανίας ὁ θεομάχος, καὶ ἀπῆλθεν ἄπρακτος μετὰ τῶν ἀπειλῶν ὑπό τινος ἀοράτου δυ νάμεως ἐπιπεσούσης ἄφνω, καὶ τὸ πολὺ τῆς στρατιᾶς ἀποβαλὼν, καὶ ἀγγελίᾳ πικρᾷ μεταναστὰς, ἀδοκή τως λυούσῃ καὶ τὴν πολιορκίαν, καὶ τὰς ἐλπίδας. Ταῦτα Ἐζεκίας, ὁ τὴν πολλὴν περιβεβλημένος δύναμιν, ὁ τῆς μεγάλης βασιλεὺς Ἱερουσαλὴμ, ὁ τάχα ἂν ἀποκρουσόμενος καὶ δι' ἑαυτοῦ τὸν πολέμιον. Ἡμεῖς δὲ, οἷς μόνον καὶ ὅπλον, καὶ τεῖχος, καὶ ἄλλο πᾶν ἀμυντήριον, ἡ πρὸς τὸν Θεὸν ἐλπὶς ὑπ ελείπετο, πᾶσαν ἀνθρωπίνην περιῃρημένοις καὶ πε ρικεκομμένοις ἐπικουρίαν παντάπασι, τίνα ἄρα ἕτερον ἢ τῆς εὐχῆς ἀκροατὴν, ἢ κωλυτὴν τῶν ἀπειλουμένων ἕξειν ἐμέλλομεν, ἢ τὸν ὀμνύοντα κατὰ τῆς ὑπερηφανίας Ἰακὼβ Θεόν; Ὢ τῶν ἀπίστων διηγημάτων! Ὢ τῆς τῶν ἐλπιζομέ 35.697 νων θρασύτητος! Ἐπηγγέλθημεν ἀντ' ἄλλου τινὸς ἱερείου τοῖς δαίμοσι· καὶ ἡ μεγάλη τοῦ Θεοῦ κληρονο μία, τὸ ἅγιον ἔθνος, τὸ βασίλειον ἱεράτευμα, μιᾶς ἆθλον ἐλπίδος, καὶ ἑνὸς πολέμου νικητήριον ἐγενόμεθα.

ΚΖʹ. Ταῦτα Χριστιανοῖς παρὰ σοῦ ἀνθ' ὧν ἐσώθης δι' αὐτῶν κακῶς τὰ ἐπίχειρα; Ταῦτα Κυρίῳ τῷ Θεῷ σου ἀνταπέδωκας; Πρότερον μὲν οὖν, ἡνίκα ἔτι ἀνεῖχε καὶ ἀνεβάλλετο τὴν ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν ὀργὴν ὁ Θεὸς, καὶ οὔπω πάντα τὸν ἑαυτοῦ ζῆλον ἐξέκαυ σεν, ἀλλ' ὑψηλὴν ἔτι κατὰ τῶν ἀσεβῶν εἶχε τὴν χεῖρα, καὶ τὸ τόξον ἐνέτεινε μὲν καὶ ἡτοίμασε, κατεῖχε δὲ βίᾳ, καὶ ὥσπερ τι νόσημα ὕπουλον καὶ κακόηθες ἐκραγῆναι πρότερον ὅλην αὐτοῦ τὴν πονηρίαν ἀνέμενεν, ὥσπερ δὴ Θεοῦ κρίσεως νό μος, ἵν' ἢ σώσῃ τῇ μετανοίᾳ ἢ κολάσηται δικαιότε ρον· τότε μὲν, δυσανασχετοῦντες τοῖς γινομένοις, καὶ πρὸς τὸ μέλλον κάμνοντες (οὐ γὰρ ἐφέρομεν τὴν ἀποκρυπτομένην αὐτοῦ τοῖς οἰκείοις χρηστότητα), ἐκείνας ἠφίεμεν πρὸς τὸν Θεὸν τὰς φωνὰς, τὰ μὲν ὡς δεσπότην ἐπικαλούμενοι, τὰ δὲ ὡς πρὸς πατέρα χρηστὸν ποτνιώμενοι, τὰ δὲ οἷον ὀνειδίζοντες καὶ δικαιολογούμενοι πρὸς αὐτὸν, οἷα τὰ τῶν ἀλ γούντων· Ἵνα τί ἀπώσω, ὁ Θεὸς, εἰς τέλος; ὠρ γίσθη ὁ θυμός σου ἐπὶ πρόβατα νομῆς σου; Καὶ μνήσθητι τῆς συναγωγῆς σου, ἧς ἐκτήσω ἀπ' ἀρχῆς, ἣν περιεποιήσω τοῖς τοῦ μονογενοῦς Λόγου σου πάθεσιν, ἣν τῆς μεγάλης σου διαθήκης ἠξίωσας, ἣν καὶ εἵλκυσας εἰς οὐρανοὺς τῷ καινῷ μυστη ρίῳ, καὶ τῷ ἀῤῥαβῶνι τοῦ Πνεύματος· καὶ, Ἔπ αρον τὰς χεῖράς σου ἐπὶ τὰς ὑπερηφανίας αὐτῶν εἰς τέλος, ὑπομιμνήσκοντες ὅσα ἐπονηρεύ σαντο κατὰ τῶν ἁγίων σου οἱ ἐχθροὶ, καὶ κατὰ τῶν ἑορτῶν σου ἐκαυχήσαντο· τὴν ῥομφαίαν τε προεκαλούμεθα, καὶ τὰς Αἰγυπτιακὰς μάστιγας, καὶ δικάσαι τὴν ἑαυτοῦ δίκην ἠξιοῦμεν, καὶ διανα στῆναί ποτε διεκελευόμεθα κατὰ τῶν ἀσεβῶν· Ἕως πότε ἁμαρτωλοὶ, Κύριε, λέγοντες, ἕως πότε ἁμαρτωλοὶ καυχήσονται, τόν τε λαόν σου τα πεινώσουσι, καὶ τὴν κληρονομίαν σου κακώ σουσι, φθέγξονταί τε ὁμοίως ἀνομίαν καὶ δρά σουσι; καὶ μὴν κἀκείνας ἔτι τὰς γοερὰς καὶ τούτων οἰκειοτέρας φωνάς· Ἔθου ἡμᾶς εἰς ἀντιλο 35.700 γίαν καὶ ὕβριν τοῖς γείτοσιν ἡμῶν, παραβολήν τε τοῖς ἔθνεσι, καὶ γέλωτα πᾶσιν ἀνθρώποις· ἄμπελόν τέ τινα ἐλέγομεν, καὶ ἐξ Αἰγύπτου μετ ενηνεγμένην τῆς σκοτεινῆς ἀθεΐας, καὶ εἰς κάλλος πίστεως αὐξηθεῖσαν καὶ μέγεθος, εἶτα τὸν φραγμὸν περιῃρημένην, τὴν φρουροῦσαν ἡμᾶς τέως ἐπισκο πὴν τοῦ Θεοῦ, καὶ πᾶσι τοῖς διοδεύουσιν ἐκκειμένην πονηροῖς δυνάσταις, καὶ λελυμασμένην ἀγρίῳ συῒ τῷ τὴν κακίαν ἰδιάζοντι πονηρῷ, καὶ κακίας βορ βόρου γέμοντι.

ΚΗʹ. Ταῦτα μὲν οὖν πρότερον καὶ διενοούμην καὶ ἀνεβόων πρὸς τὸν Θεόν· νυνὶ δὲ οἵας ἀνθ' οἵων με ταλαμβάνω φωνάς! θρηνῶ λοιπὸν τῶν ἀσεβῶν τὴν ἀπώλειαν, καὶ γίνομαι φιλάνθρωπος τοῖς μισοῦσι, καὶ τοιαῦτα φθέγγομαι· Πῶς ἐγένοντο εἰς ἐρήμω σιν; ἐξάπινα ἐξέλιπον, ἀπώλοντο διὰ τὴν ἀνο μίαν αὐτῶν, ὡς κονιορτὸς ὃν ὑφείλετο λαί λαψ, ὡς χνοῦς ὑπ' ἀνέμου διαῤῥιπτούμενος, ὡς ἑωθινὴ δρόσος, ὡς ῥοῖζος πεμφθέντος βέλους, ὡς προσβολὴ βροντῆς, ὡς ἀστραπὴ