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For example, the Ninevites, after much wickedness, repented according to the preaching of the prophet Jonah, and escaped the great threatened destruction of their city. The psalmist also agrees, saying somewhere: "When they troubled me," meaning the visible and invisible enemies, "I put on sackcloth and humbled my soul with fasting," and in another Psalm: "I made sackcloth my garment, and I became a byword to them." 4.306 From this gloomy state undertaken for the acquisition of good things, the one who obtains them, changing to cheerfulness, says: "You have turned my mourning into joy for me; you have torn off my sackcloth and girded me with gladness." 4.307 Zach. XIII, 7: O sword, awake against my shepherd, and against the man who is my fellow, says the Lord Almighty; strike the shepherd, and let the sheep be scattered, and I will turn my hand against the shepherds. 4.308 From this prophecy the evangelist Matthew took what was said in his Gospel, when, Jesus having been arrested, and the disciples having been scandalized and fled, he said: "That what was spoken by the prophet might be fulfilled: I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered," calling the death of the true shepherd "who laid down his life for the sheep," "given as a ransom for many," a striking and a blow on behalf of the rational flock. 4.309 Concerning the plot thus formed, the hands being wounded and the feet of the best shepherd being pierced, one can hear him saying to the Father: "Whom you have struck, they persecuted, and they added to the pain of my wounds." For the slayers of the Lord, having struck him whom God had delivered up for them, added to the pain of his wounds, increasing the plot by persecuting him. 4.310 ... the sacrilege dared by the wicked, he who gave his own shepherd up for the sheep commands a sword to be raised against his own shepherd and his fellow citizen - which is the people of the Hebrews. Nevertheless, the sword that was brought killed the citizen, but did not harm the chief shepherd who undertook death for the sake of the flock. 4.311 For how did he not remain beyond all harm who said to God: "Deliver my soul from the sword"? This voice is found in the twenty-first Psalm, spoken entirely from the person of the Savior. The soul of the one who offered the prayer having been delivered from the sword, his fellow citizen fell to the sword of punishment, according to what was said in Amos the prophet: "All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword." The same punishment is alluded to by God in Zephaniah the prophet: "You Ethiopians also, you shall be slain by my sword." 4.312 The Ethiopians who are struck by the sword of God are those who have partaken of the wickedness and sin of the devil, being named from his blackness. For in the Shepherd and in the Epistle of Barnabas, Satan is called black, having fallen from the splendor and the virtue and the spiritual whiteness, which only and everyone can have who is made white by God. 4.313 When the shepherd was struck in the manner described and 4.313 for this reason the sheep were scattered, he stretches out his hand against the shepherds, the chief priests and elders and the Jewish teachers of the law who conspired against the good shepherd who laid down his own soul for the sheep that they might have salvation. And a scattering happened to the shepherds and the flock under them when the hand of God was stretched out against them. 4.314 The fourth discourse having been sufficiently described up to "I will stretch out my hand against the shepherds," God having said this, we shall make the beginning of the fifth, the Great-Giver providing, from the following passage which runs thus. 5.t

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Νινευῖται γοῦν μετὰ κακίαν πολλὴν μετανοήσαντες κατὰ τὸ τοῦ προφήτου Ἰωνᾶ κήρυγμα, ἔξω γεγόνασιν ἀπειληθείσης μεγάλης κατασκαφῆς τῆς πόλεως αὐτῶν. Συνᾴδει καὶ ὁ ὑμνῳδὸς ὅπου μὲν λέγων· «Ἐν τῷ αὐτοὺς παρενοχλεῖν μοι», τοὺς ἐχθροὺς δηλονότι ὁρατούς τε καὶ ἀοράτους, «ἐνεδιδυσκόμην σάκκον καὶ ἐταπείνουν ἐν νηστείᾳ τὴν ψυχήν μου», καὶ ἐν ἑτέρῳ Ψαλμῷ· «Ἐθέμην τ̣ὸ ἔνδυμά μου σάκκον, καὶ ἐγενόμην αὐτοῖς εἰς παραβολήν.» 4.306 Ἐκ τῆς οὕτω γινομένης καταστάσεως σκυθρωποῦ ὑπὲρ κτήσεως ἀγαθῶν, ὁ τυχὼν αὐτῶν, εἰς τὸ ἱλαρὸν μεταβαλών, λέγει· «Ἔστρεψας τὸν κοπετόν μου εἰς χαρὰν ἐμοί, διέρρηξας τὸν σάκκον μου καὶ περιέζωσάς με εὐφροσύνην.» 4.307 Zach. XIIΙ, 7: Ῥομφαία, ἐξεγέρθητι ἐπὶ τὸν ποιμένα μου καὶ ἐπ' ἄνδρα πολίτην αὐτοῦ, λέγει Κύριος παντοκράτωρ· πάταξον τὸν ποιμένα καὶ διασκορπισθήτωσαν τὰ πρόβατα, καὶ ἐπάξω τὴν χεῖρά μου ἐπὶ τοὺς ποιμένας. 4.308 Ἐκ ταύτης τῆς προφητείας μετείληφεν ὁ εὐαγγελιστὴς Μαθθαῖος τὸ λεχθὲν ἐν τῷ κατ' αὐτὸν Εὐαγγελίῳ, ὅτε, συλληφθέντος τοῦ Ἰησοῦ, σκανδαλισθέντων τῶν μαθητῶν καὶ φευγόντων, εἶπεν· «Ὅπως πληρωθῇ τὸ ῥηθὲν διὰ τοῦ προφήτου· Πατάξω τὸν ποιμένα καὶ διασκορπισθήσεται τὰ πρόβατα», πάταξιν καὶ πληγὴν λέγων τὸν ὑπὲρ τῆς λογικῆς ἀγέλης θάνατον τοῦ ποιμένος τοῦ ἀληθινοῦ «τεθεικότος τὴν ψυχὴν ἑαυτοῦ ὑπὲρ τῶν προβάτων», «δοθεῖσαν λύτρον ἀντὶ πολλῶν.» 4.309 Περὶ τῆς οὕτως γεναμένης ἐπιβουλῆς τρωθεισῶν τῶν χειρῶν καὶ ὀρυχθέντων τῶν ποδῶν τοῦ ἀρίστου νομέως, αὐτοῦ ἔστιν ἀκοῦσαι τῷ Πατρὶ λέγοντος· «Ὃν σὺ ἐπάταξας, αὐτοὶ κατεδίωξαν, καὶ ἐπὶ τὸ ἄλγος τῶν τραυμάτων μου αὐτοὶ προσέθηκαν.» Πατάξαντες γὰρ οἱ κυριοκτόνοι ὃν ὁ Θεὸς ὑπὲρ αὐτῶν παραδέδωκεν ἐπὶ τὸ ἄλγος τῶν τραυμάτων αὐτοῦ προσέθηκαν, αὐξήσαντες τὴν ἐπιβουλὴν καταδιώκοντες αὐτόν. 4.310 Τὸ τολμηθὲν ἅγος ὑπὸ τῶν κακῶν ἐπ····α´̣μενος, ὁ τὸν ἑαυτοῦ ποιμένα ἔκδοτον ὑπὲρ τῶν προβάτων προέμενος προστάττει ἐξεγερθῆναι ῥομφαίαν κατὰ τοῦ ἰδίου ποιμένος καὶ τοῦ πολίτου αὐτοῦ, - ἐστὶν δὲ ὁ τῶν Ἑβραίων λαός. Ὁμῶς ἡ ἐπαχθεῖσα μάχαιρα ἀπέκτεινεν μὲν τὸν πολίτην, οὐ μὴν ἔβλ̣α̣ψεν τὸν ἀγελάρχην ὑπὲρ φειδοῦς τῆς ποίμνης θάνατον ἀναδεξάμενον. 4.311 Πῶς γὰρ οὐκ ἔξω πάσης βλάβης ἔμεινεν ὁ τῷ Θεῷ φάσκων· «Ῥῦσαι ἀπὸ ῥομφαίας τὴν ψυχήν μου»; Αὕτη ἡ φωνὴ ἐν εἰκοστῷ πρώτῳ Ψαλμῷ φέρεται, ἐκ προσώπου τοῦ Σωτῆρος ὅλου προφερομένου. Ῥυσθείσης τῆς ψυχῆς ἐκ τῆς ῥομφαίας τοῦ τὴν εὐχὴν ἀναπέμψαντος, ὁ πολίτης αὐτοῦ ὑπέπεσεν τῷ τῆς κολάσεως ξίφει, κατὰ τὸ λεχθὲν ἐν Ἀμὼς τῷ προφήτῃ· «Ἐν ῥομφαίᾳ τελευτήσωσιν πάντες ἁμαρτωλοὶ λαοῦ.» Τιμωρίαν τὴν αὐτὴν αἰνίττεται τὸ ὑπὸ Θεοῦ ἐν Σοφονίᾳ τῷ προφήτῃ· «Ὑμεῖς, Αἰθίοπες, τραυματίαι ῥομφαίας μού ἐστε.» 4.312 Ὑπάρχουσιν Αἰθίοπες οἱ τῇ ῥομφαίᾳ τοῦ Θεοῦ πληττόμενοι, ὅσοι μετέσχον τῆς κακίας καὶ ἁμα̣ρτίας τοῦ διαβόλου, παρονομαζόμενοι ἀπὸ τῆς μελανίας αὐτοῦ. Ἐν γὰρ τῷ Ποιμένι καὶ τῇ τοῦ Βαρναβᾶ ἐπιστολῇ μέλας ὁ Σατανᾶς προσαγορεύεται, ἐκπεσὼν ἀπὸ τῆς λαμπρότητος καὶ τῆς ἀρετῆς καὶ τῆς νοητῆς λευκότητος, ἣν μόνος καὶ πᾶς ἔχειν δύναται ὁ λευκαινόμενος ὑπὸ τοῦ Θεοῦ. 4.313 Παταχθέντος τοῦ ποιμένος τῷ εἰρημένῳ τρόπῳ καὶ 4.313 διὰ τοῦτο σκορπισθέντων τῶν προβάτων, ἐκτείνει τὴν χεῖρα ἑαυτοῦ ἐπὶ τοὺς ποιμένας, τοὺς ἀρχιερέας καὶ πρεσβυτέρους καὶ τοὺς ἰουδαϊκοὺς νομοδιδασκάλους συμφρονήσαντας κατὰ τοῦ ἀγαθοῦ ποιμένος ὑπὲρ τῶν προβάτων τεθεικότος ἵνα σωτηρίαν ἔχωσιν τὴν ἑαυτοῦ ψυχήν. Σκορπισμὸς δὲ τοῖς ποιμέσιν ὑπῆρκται καὶ τῇ ὑπ' αὐτοὺς ἀγέλῃ ἐκταθείσης ἐπ' αὐτοὺς τῆς τοῦ Θεοῦ χειρός. 4.314 Αὐτάρκως περιγραφέντος τοῦ τετάρτου λόγου εἰς τὸ «Ἐκτενῶ τὴν χεῖρά μου ἐπ̣ὶ τοὺς ποιμένας», τοῦ Θεοῦ τοῦτ' εἰρηκότος, ἀρχὴν τοῦ πέμπτου, παρέχοντος τοῦ μεγαλοδώρου, ποιησόμεθα ἀπὸ τοῦ ἑξῆς ῥητοῦ οὕτως ἔχοντος. 5.τ