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10.4 But yet this fearful thing, shown both by events and by the cowardice of those saints, is much lighter than despondency. For it was for the sake of this that I have spent these long courses of my speech, in order to teach you what kind of penalty you are paying, and that you await a recompense of good things to counterbalance it, or rather one much greater. And so that you may learn that these things are so, I will now have recourse to those who were captured, a point I was hurrying to come to before. For the people of the Hebrews, when Moses came and announced the good news of freedom and release from the evils of Egypt, did not even endure to listen; and the lawgiver, stating the reason, said: “And Moses spoke to the people, and the people did not listen to Moses, from faint-heartedness.” And when God threatens the Jews with great threats for their great lawlessness, after the captivity and the sojourn in a foreign land and the famines and the plagues and cannibalism, He also brings on this penalty, saying: “I will give them a despairing heart and failing eyes and a wasting soul.” But why must one speak of the Jews, a disorderly, ungrateful people, enslaved to the flesh and not knowing how to be wise, when it is possible to take the proof from those great and lofty men? For the company of the apostles, though they had been with Christ for their third year, and had been taught many things about immortality and the other mysteries, had performed wonderful and strange signs, had seen him working miracles for so long a time, had shared with him table and company and such discourses, and had been instructed in every way—when they heard words that produced despondency in them, they who would constantly hold Him fast and cling to Him like suckling children and continually ask Him, “Where are you going?” were so extinguished by the tyranny of this despondency, and became so completely possessed by grief, that they no longer asked Him these things. And Christ, reproaching them for this, said: “You have heard that I am going to the one who sent me and I am coming to you, and no one of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ But because I have spoken these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart.” Have you seen how the tyranny of despondency has overshadowed love, and how it has made them captives and caused them to be its own? And that Elijah again—for I will not leave him even now—after his flight and departure from Palestine, unable to bear the tyranny of despondency—for he was exceedingly despondent; at least, the one who wrote the history indicated this, saying that “He went according to his soul”—, hear what he says in prayer: “It is enough now, Lord. Take my soul from me, for I am no better than my fathers.” And that most terrible thing, the summit of punishment, the chief of evils, the penalty for every sin—this he asks for in the form of a prayer, and wishes to receive as a portion of grace. So much heavier than death is despondency. For in order to escape the one, he takes refuge in the other. 10.5 And here I wish also to resolve a certain problem for you. For I know your desire for the solutions of such questions, and I know very well how much I shall gratify you. What then is the problem? If he considered death to be lighter than despondency, why did he leave behind both his country and his people and flee, so that he might not fall victim to death? And how is it that, while fleeing it then, he now seeks it? It is so that you may know especially from this very point how much more grievous despondency is than death. For when that fear of death alone shook him, he naturally did everything so as to escape it. But when this thing, sitting enthroned within, displayed its proper nature—eating away, consuming, devouring him with its teeth, and becoming unbearable to him—then at last he considered that which is heaviest of all to be lighter than it. Thus also Jonah, fleeing that, took refuge in this, and he himself asks for death, saying:

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10.4 Ἀλλ' ὅμως τὸ φοβερὸν τοῦτο καὶ διὰ τῶν πραγμάτων δεικνύμενον καὶ διὰ τῆς τῶν ἁγίων ἐκείνων δειλίας ἀθυμίας πολὺ κουφότερον. Ταύτης γὰρ ἕνεκεν τοὺς μακροὺς τούτους τῶν λόγων διαύλους ἀνήλωσα, ἵνα σε διδάξω οἵαν τίνεις δίκην καὶ ἀντίρροπον αὐτῆς μᾶλλον δὲ καὶ πολλῷ μείζονα τῶν ἀγαθῶν ἀναμένεις τὴν ἀμοιβήν. Καὶ ἵνα μάθῃς ὅτι ταῦτα τοῦτον ἔχει τὸν τρόπον, ἐπὶ τοὺς ἁλόντας λοιπὸν καταφεύξομαι εἰς ὃ ἔμπροσθεν ἠπειγόμην ἐλθεῖν. Ὁ γὰρ τῶν Ἑβραίων δῆμος, Μωϋσέως ἐλθόντος καὶ ἐλευθερίαν εὐαγγελιζομένου καὶ τῶν Αἰγυπτιακῶν κακῶν ἀπαλλαγήν, οὐδὲ ἀκοῦσαι ἠνέσχετο καὶ τὴν αἰτίαν τιθεὶς ὁ νομοθέτης ἔλεγεν· «Ἐλάλησε δὲ Μωϋσῆς τῷ λαῷ καὶ οὐκ ἤκουσεν ὁ λαὸς Μωϋσέως ἀπὸ τῆς ὀλιγοψυχίας.» Καὶ ὅταν μεγάλας ἀπειλῇ τοῖς Ἰουδαίοις ὁ Θεὸς ἀπειλὰς ὑπὲρ παρανομίας πολλῆς μετὰ τὴν αἰχμαλωσίαν καὶ τὴν ἐν ἀλλοτρίᾳ διατριβὴν καὶ τοὺς λιμοὺς καὶ τοὺς λοιμοὺς καὶ τὴν ἀνθρωποφαγίαν καὶ ταύτην ἐπάγει τὴν δίκην λέγων· «∆ώσω αὐτοῖς καρδίαν ἀθυμοῦσαν καὶ ἐκλείποντας ὀφθαλμοὺς καὶ τηκομένην ψυχήν.» Ἀλλὰ τί χρὴ λέγειν Ἰουδαίους, δῆμον ἄτακτον, ἀγνώμονα καὶ τῇ σαρκὶ δεδουλωμένον καὶ φιλοσοφεῖν οὐκ εἰδότα, παρὸν ἀπὸ τῶν μεγάλων ἐκείνων καὶ ὑψηλῶν ἀνδρῶν λαβεῖν τὴν ἀπόδειξιν; Ὁ γὰρ τῶν ἀποστόλων χορὸς τρίτον ἔτος συγγενόμενος τῷ Χριστῷ καὶ πολλὰ περὶ ἀθανασίας παιδευθεὶς καὶ τῶν ἄλλων ἀπορρήτων, σημεῖά τε ἐργασάμενοι θαυμαστὰ καὶ παράδοξα καὶ αὐτὸν ἐπὶ τοσοῦτον χρόνον θαυματουργοῦντα θεασάμενοι καὶ τραπέζης αὐτῷ καὶ ὁμιλίας καὶ λόγων τοιούτων κοινωνήσαντες καὶ πάντα παιδευθέντες τρόπον, ἐπειδὴ ῥημάτων ἤκουσαν ἀθυμίαν αὐτοῖς ἐμποιούντων, συνεχῶς αὐτὸν κατέχοντες καὶ ἐκκρεμάμενοι καθάπερ ὑπομάζια παιδία καὶ διηνεκῶς αὐτὸν ἐρωτῶντες· «Ποῦ ὑπάγεις;» οὕτω τῇ τυραννίδι τῆς ἀθυμίας ἐσβέσθησαν ταύτης καὶ ὅλοι τῆς λύπης ἐγένοντο ὡς μηκέτι αὐτοῦ ταῦτα πυνθάνεσθαι. Καὶ τοῦτο ὀνειδίζων αὐτοῖς ὁ Χριστὸς ἔλεγεν· «Ἠκούσατε ὅτι ὑπάγω πρὸς τὸν πέμψαντά με καὶ ἔρχομαι πρὸς ὑμᾶς καὶ οὐδεὶς ἐξ ὑμῶν ἐρωτᾷ με· Ποῦ ὑπάγεις; Ἀλλὰ ὅτι ταῦτα λελάληκα ὑμῖν, ἡ λύπη πεπλήρωκεν ὑμῶν τὴν καρδίαν.» Εἶδες ἔρωτα πῶς ἐπεσκότησεν ἀθυμίας τυραννὶς καὶ πῶς αἰχμαλώτους εἰργάσατο καὶ αὐτῆς εἶναι πεποίηκεν; Ὁ δὲ Ἠλίας πάλιν ἐκεῖνος-οὐ γὰρ ἀποστήσομαι αὐτοῦ οὐδὲ νῦν-μετὰ τὴν φυγὴν καὶ τὴν ἀναχώρησιν τὴν ἀπὸ Παλαιστίνης, οὐ φέρων τῆς ἀθυμίας τὴν τυραννίδα-καὶ γὰρ σφόδρα ἠθύμει· τοῦτο γοῦν ὁ τὴν ἰστορίαν γράψας ἐδήλου λέγων ὅτι «Ἀπῆλθε κατὰ τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ»-, ἄκουσον τί φησιν εὐχόμενος· «Ἱκανούσθω τὰ νῦν, Κύριε. Λάβε τὴν ψυχήν μου ἀπ' ἐμοῦ, ὅτι οὐ κρείττων ἐγώ εἰμι ὑπὲρ τοὺς πατέρας μου.» Καὶ τὸ φοβερώτατον ἐκεῖνο, τὸν κολοφῶνα τῆς τιμωρίας, τὸ κεφάλαιον τῶν κακῶν, τὸ πάσης ἁμαρτίας ἐπιτίμιον, τοῦτο ἐν εὐχῆς αἰτεῖ τάξει καὶ ἐν χάριτος μέρει βούλεται λαβεῖν. Οὕτω πολὺ θανάτου βαρύτερον ἀθυμία. Ἵνα γὰρ ἐκείνην διαφύγῃ, καταφεύγει ἐπὶ τοῦτον. 10.5 Ἐνταῦθα δέ σοι καὶ ζήτημά τι διαλῦσαι βούλομαι. Οἶδα γάρ σου τὴν περὶ τὰς λύσεις τῶν τοιούτων ἐπιθυμίαν καὶ σφόδρα ἐπίσταμαι ὅσον σοι χαριοῦμαι. Τί ποτ' οὖν ἐστι τὸ ζήτημα; Εἰ θάνατον κουφότερον ἀθυμίας εἶναι ἐνόμιζε, διὰ τί καὶ πατρίδα καὶ δῆμον, ἵνα μὴ θανάτῳ περιπέσῃ, καταλιπὼν ἀπέδρα; πῶς δὲ τότε αὐτὸν φεύγων νῦν αὐτὸν ἐπιζητεῖ; Ἵνα εἰδῇς καὶ ἐντεῦθεν μάλιστα πῶς χαλεπώτερον ἀθυμία θανάτου. Ὅτε μὲν γὰρ αὐτὸν ἐκεῖνος ὁ φόβος κατέσεισε μόνος, εἰκότως ἅπαντα ἔπραττεν ὥστε αὐτὸν ἐκφυγεῖν. Ἐπειδὴ δὲ ἐγκαθημένη αὕτη τὴν οἰκείαν ἐπεδείξατο φύσιν, κατεσθίουσα, δαπανῶσα, τοῖς ὀδοῦσιν αὐτὸν καταναλίσκουσα, ἀφόρητος αὐτῷ γενομένη, τότε δὴ λοιπὸν τὸ πάντων βαρύτερον κουφότερον αὐτῆς εἶναι ἐνόμισεν. Οὕτω καὶ Ἰωνᾶς ἐκείνην φεύγων ἐπὶ τοῦτον κατέφυγε καὶ αὐτὸς θάνατον αἰτεῖ λέγων·