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well-supplied with horsemen but in need of Egyptian assistance, and threatening you with destruction, he shook his head. Then he transfers the discourse to him: 23Whom have you reproached and provoked, or against whom have you raised your voice? And you have not lifted up your eyes on high to the Holy One of Israel. 24For through your messengers you have reproached the Lord. You thought me to be one of the other falsely named gods, he says, when you should have looked up to heaven and learned of my sovereignty; the things that had happened concerning Israel were sufficient to teach you my power, but trusting in your strength and might you were unwilling to perceive the difference. Then he brought forth his boastful |145 b| thoughts: For you said: With the multitude of my chariots I have gone up to the height of the mountains, and to the extremities of Lebanon, and I have cut down the height of its cedar and the beauty of its cypress, and I have entered into the height of a part of the forest of Carmel 25and I have set a bridge and laid waste waters and every gathering of water. He has said all these things figuratively, calling kings and toparchs cedars and cypresses, the nations Lebanon, and Israel Carmel; whence, concerning Lebanon he has set down 'its extremities', but concerning Carmel he said 'a part', showing that they prevailed over all those nations, but not over all of Israel; for the metropolis remained unconquered. He calls the multitudes 'waters', and the 'bridge' he calls both his strength and his devices and his methods of victory, and that he used what was previously taken as a kind of bridge against the rest. Thus, having laid bare his thoughts, he shows his own power: 26Have you not heard these things of old which I have done? From ancient days I ordained it, and now I have brought it to pass, to lay waste fortified nations and those dwelling in fortified cities. But Symmachus has put this thus: "Have you not heard? Of old I did it, from ancient days I also formed it, now I have brought it, and it has come to pass for uprooting." You should have understood, he says, that the maker of all things did not leave ungoverned what he made, for he provides for what he made, and that you would have done nothing against my will, for I ordained these things, which you are now doing, from ancient days, and seeing them from afar I so decreed that these things should happen, and that those dwelling in fortified cities and ignorant of the provider of good things should learn the weakness of idols. 27I let go my hands, and they were dried up and became like dry grass on the housetops and like couch-grass that withers before it comes to fruition. They flourished, he says, for as long as I wished, then I stripped them of my care and they lost their former flower. He calls them couch-grass and grass because of their fruitlessness. 28But now I know your rest and your going out and your coming in; 29and your rage with which you were enraged against me and your bitterness have come up to me, and I will put a muzzle in your nose and a bridle in your lips, and I will turn you back by the way in which you came. He treats him as an irrational being, the one who has corrupted his reason; "With bridle," he says, "and muzzle you shall constrain the jaws of those who do not draw near to you." He showed him also as having a servile nature; for since they themselves put leather muzzles on their household slaves, he fittingly threatened to put the muzzle on him as on a wicked household slave. Then he gives to Hezekiah a sign of salvation: 30And this will be a sign for you: you will eat this year what you have sown, and in the second year what is left over, but in the third year, having sown, you will reap, and you will plant vineyards and eat their fruit. The Three have interpreted this thus: "For a year eat what grows of itself, and in the second what grows wild, but in the third year sow and reap." For since they were not able to farm while being besieged, God gave them fruits that grew of themselves, and in the second year likewise, because of the scarcity, it seems, of seeds and oxen, then in the third year he promised them an abundance of all kinds of fruits. 31And those left in Judea shall be for an escape. For they will escape the hands of the enemies. And they will grow a root downwards and will make

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εὐποροῦσαν ἱππέων ἀλλὰ τῆς Αἰγυπτίων δεομένην ἐπικουρίας, καὶ ἀπειλῶν σοι τὸν ὄλεθρον ἐκίνει τὴν κεφαλήν. Εἶτα μεταφέρει πρὸς ἐκεῖνον τὸν λόγον· 23Τίνα ὠνείδι σας καὶ παρώξυνας ἢ πρὸς τὸν τίνα ὕψωσας τὴν φωνήν σου; Καὶ οὐκ ἦρας εἰς ὕψος τοὺς ὀφθαλμούς σου εἰς τὸν ἅγιον τοῦ Ἰσραήλ. 24Ὅτι δι' ἀγγέλων σου ὠνείδισας τὸν κύριον. Ἐνόμισάς μέ φησιν ἕνα τῶν ἄλλων εἶναι ψευδωνύμων θεῶν, δέον εἰς οὐρανὸν ἀναβλέψαι καὶ τὴν ἐμὴν δεσποτείαν μαθεῖν· ἱκανὰ δὲ ἦν καὶ τὰ περὶ τὸν Ἰσραὴλ γεγενημένα τὴν ἐμὴν δύναμιν διδάξαι, ἀλλὰ τῇ ῥώμῃ καὶ τῇ δυναστείᾳ θαρρῶν συνιδεῖν οὐκ ἠθέλησας τὸ διάφορον. Εἶτα αὐτοῦ εἰς μέσον ἤγαγε τοὺς ἀλαζονικοὺς |145 b| λογισμούς· Σὺ γὰρ εἶπας· Τῷ πλήθει τῶν ἁρμάτων μου ἀνέβην εἰς ὕψος ὀρέων καὶ εἰς τὰ ἔσχατα τοῦ Λιβάνου καὶ ἔκοψα τὸ ὕψος τῆς κέδρου αὐτοῦ καὶ τὸ κάλλος τῆς κυπαρίσσου αὐτοῦ καὶ εἰσῆλθον εἰς τὸ ὕψος μέρους τοῦ δρυμοῦ τοῦ Καρμήλου 25καὶ ἔθηκα γέφυραν καὶ ἠρήμωσα ὕδατα καὶ πᾶσαν συναγωγὴν ὕδατος. Τροπικῶς ἅπαντα εἴρηκε, κέδρους καὶ κυπαρίσσους τοὺς βασιλέας καὶ τοὺς τοπάρχας καλῶν, Λίβανον δὲ τὰ ἔθνη, Κάρμηλον δὲ τὸν Ἰσραήλ· ὅθεν ἐπὶ μὲν τοῦ Λιβάνου καὶ τὰ ἔσχατα τούτου τέθεικεν, ἐπὶ δὲ τοῦ Καρμήλου μέρος ἔφη δεικνὺς ὅτι τῶν μὲν ἐθνῶν ἐκείνων ἁπάντων ἐκράτησαν τοῦ δὲ Ἰσραὴλ οὐ παντός· ἀχείρωτος γὰρ ἔμεινεν ἡ μητρόπολις. Ὕδατα δὲ τὰ πλήθη καλεῖ, γέφυραν δὲ τήν τε ῥώμην καὶ τὰς ἐπινοίας καὶ τὰς τῆς νίκης μεθόδους καὶ ὅτι οἷόν τινι γεφύρᾳ τοῖς προκατειλημμένοις κατὰ τῶν ὑπολοίπων ἐκέχρ η το. Οὕτω τοὺς ἐκείνου λογισμοὺς γυμνώσας τὴν οἰκείαν δείκνυσι δύναμιν· 26Οὐ ταῦτα ἤκουσας πάλαι ἃ ἐγὼ ἐποίησα; Ἐξ ἡμερῶν ἀρχαίων συνέταξα, νῦν δὲ ἀπέδειξα ἐξερημῶσαι ἔθνη ἐν ὀχυροῖς καὶ ἐνοικοῦντας ἐν πόλεσιν ὀχυραῖς. Ὁ δὲ Σύμμαχος οὕτω τοῦτο τέθεικεν· «Μὴ ἤκουσας; Πάλαι αὐτὸ ἐποίησα ἀφ' ἡμερῶν ἀρχαίων καὶ ἔπλασα αὐτό, νῦν ἤγαγον αὐτό, καὶ ἐγένετο εἰς ἐκρίζωσιν.» Ἔδει σέ φησι συνιδεῖν ὡς τῶν ἁπάντων ὁ ποιητὴς οὐκ εἴασεν ἀκυβέρνητα ἃ ἐποίησε, προμηθεῖται γὰρ ὧν ἐποίησεν, καὶ ὅτι οὐ δὲν ἂν ἔδρασας παρὰ γνώμην ἐμήν, ἐγὼ γὰρ ταῦτα, ἃ σὺ νῦν ποιεῖς, ἐξ ἡμερῶν ἀρχαίων συνέταξα καὶ πόρρω θεν προορῶν οὕτως ὥρισα ταῦτα γενέσθαι καὶ τοὺς οἰκοῦντας ἐν πόλεσιν ὀχυραῖς καὶ τῶν ἀγαθῶν τὸν χορηγὸν ἀγνοοῦντας μαθεῖν τὴν τῶν εἰδώλων ἀσθένειαν. 27Ἀνῆκά μου τὰς χεῖρας, καὶ ἐξηράνθησαν καὶ ἐγένοντο ὡσεὶ χόρτος ξηρὸς ἐπὶ δωμάτων καὶ ὡς ἄγρωστις ἀφανιζομένη πρὸ τοῦ τελεσφορηθῆναι. Ἤνθησάν φησιν ὅσον ἠθέλησα χρόνον, εἶτα τῆς ἐμῆς αὐτοὺς κηδεμονίας ἐγύμνωσα καὶ τὸ πρότερον ἀπέβαλον ἄνθος. Ἄγρωστιν δὲ αὐτοὺς ὀνομάζει καὶ χόρτον διὰ τὴν ἀκαρπίαν. 28Νῦν δὲ τὴν ἀνάπαυσίν σου καὶ τὴν ἔξοδόν σου καὶ τὴν εἴσοδόν σου ἐγὼ ἐπίσταμαι· 29ὁ δὲ θυμός σου ὃν ἐθυμώθης πρός με καὶ ἡ πικρία σου ἀνέβη πρός με, καὶ ἐμβαλῶ κημὸν εἰς τὴν ῥῖνά σου καὶ χαλινὸν εἰς τὰ χείλη σου καὶ ἀποστρέψω σε τῇ ὁδῷ ᾗ ἦλθες ἐν αὐτῇ. Ὡς ἀλόγῳ κέχρηται τῷ τὸ λογικὸν διαφθεί ραντι· «Ἐν χαλινῷ» γάρ φησι «καὶ κημῷ τὰς σιαγόνας αὐτῶν ἄγξεις τῶν μὴ ἐγγιζόντων πρός σε.» Ἔδειξεν αὐτὸν καὶ δουλικὴν ἔχοντα φύσιν· ἐπειδὴ γὰρ αὐτοὶ τοῖς οἰκέταις περιτιθέασι τοὺς ἐκ δερμάτων κημούς, εἰκότως ὡς οἰκέτῃ πονηρῷ ἠπείλησεν αὐτῷ τὸν κημὸν περιθήσειν. Εἶτα δίδωσι τῷ Ἐζεκίᾳ τῆς σωτηρίας σημεῖο ν· 30Τοῦτο δέ σοι τὸ σημεῖον· φάγῃ τὸν ἐνιαυτὸν τοῦτον ἃ ἔσπαρκας, τῷ δὲ ἐνιαυτῷ τῷ δευτέρῳ τὸ κατάλειμμα, τῷ δὲ τρίτῳ ἔτει σπείραντες ἀμήσετε καὶ φυτεύσετε ἀμπελῶνας καὶ φάγεσθε τὸν καρπὸν αὐτῶν. Τοῦτο δὲ οἱ Τρεῖς οὕτως ἡρμήνευσαν· «Φάγετε ἐπ' ἔτος αὐτόματα καὶ τῷ δευτέρῳ αὐτοφυῆ, ἐν δὲ τῷ ἔτει τῷ τρίτῳ σπείρατε καὶ θερίσατε.» Ἐπειδὴ γὰρ πολιορκούμενοι γεωργεῖν οὐκ ἠδύναντο, αὐτο φυεῖς αὐτοῖς δέδωκε καρποὺς ὁ θεός, καὶ τῷ δευτέρῳ δὲ ἔτει ὡσαύτως διὰ τὴν σπάνιν ὡς ἔοικε τῶν σπερμάτων καὶ τῶν βοῶν, εἶτα τῷ τρίτῳ ἔτει παντοδαπῶν αὐτοῖς καρπῶν ἀφθονίαν ὑπέσχετο. 31Καὶ ἔσονται οἱ καταλελειμμένοι ἐν τῇ Ἰουδαίᾳ εἰς διάφευξιν. ∆ιαφεύξονται γὰρ τῶν πολεμίων τὰς χεῖρας. Καὶ φυήσουσι ῥίζαν κάτω καὶ ποιήσουσι