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another foretells the death of the king of Israel. This was done so that the people would not be distracted by a desire and lust for foreknowledge concerning the oracles and pronouncements of idolatrous error; for since their own God provided them sufficient knowledge of the future, not through lifeless images, but through His own prophets, they had no concern for those from the outside. Whence also in the matters at hand, King Hezekiah, as one beloved of God, 'went up to the house of God' and sent up the written supplication, and God answers him by sending his own prophet Isaiah to him, and He issues this second oracle to him, teaching that He had indeed heard the words of his prayer. Then, as to the Assyrian who boasted greatly and threatened the people and the place, He makes some such speech. You, sir, tyrannically threatened to do such things to the place dedicated to me, thinking to frighten with your threats the incorruptible city of God, which for this reason is compared to a virgin, and the people in it, called the daughter of Zion and the daughter of Jerusalem, and compared to a virgin because it is pure of all idolatry. But she, trusting in her own purity and in her helper, God, scorned and mocked your arrogant reasoning and those threats as worthless. Wherefore, according to Symmachus it is said: The daughter of Zion has despised you and scorned you, the daughter of Jerusalem has shaken her head behind you; for even if she made no reply to you when you uttered your blasphemous words, yet after you withdrew and went back, the aforesaid daughter of Jerusalem, who is the same as the virgin daughter of Zion, shook her head at you. And she did this, no longer keeping silent, but by giving a reason; wherefore she shook her head at you. And the reason was thus: Whom have you reproached and provoked? Instead of which the other interpreters have rendered 'you have blasphemed,' or 'against whom have you raised your voice?' You did not even look up to heaven, nor did you consider God the Most High, nor did you reckon that He is the Holy One of Israel, whom you reproached, reviling and mocking as one of the many gods who became subject to you. For you reckoned within yourself that with your own power and with the multitude of your chariots you had gone up to the heights of the mountains and to the farthest parts of Lebanon, so as to cut down its beauty, which is manifest in the multitude of its cedars and cypresses. And by these things he alluded to the exalted and flourishing kingdoms among the other nations; for the great multitude of Lebanon with its very high cedars and cypresses, or junipers according to Symmachus, or firs according to Aquila, he has taken as an image of the nations then flourishing. And instead of 'to the height of part of the forest,' Symmachus has translated 'to the height of its summit into the forest of its Carmel,' the word here also alluding to the forest as the fruitless matter of the nations that do not know God. Having brought these things under his hand, the Assyrian, thinking great things of himself, said: I have gone up to the height of the mountains and to the farthest parts of Lebanon, and I have cut down the height of its cedar and the beauty of the cypress, and I have entered into the height of a part of the forest. And he still spoke audaciously, saying: And I have laid a bridge and I have dried up waters and every gathering of waters, or according to Symmachus: he says, I have dug and drunk water, and with the sole of my foot I have dried up all the confined rivers. You see how in these things also the word mentions waters and rivers being made to disappear by the Assyrian, by which I think it signifies the multitudes among the nations and their discourses about the gods, by which they thought their souls were nourished. Indeed, he boasted that he had wrought desolation with the sole of his foot; boasting of nothing good, but of the desolation of the lands on which he trod and of the destruction of the aforementioned

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ἕτερος τοῦ βασιλέως Ἰσραὴλ θάνατον προαγορεύει. τοῦτο δὲ ἐγίνετο ὡς ἂν μὴ περισπῷτο ὁ λαὸς πόθῳ καὶ λιχνείᾳ προγνώσεων περὶ τὰ τῆς εἰδωλολάτρου πλάνης μαντεῖά τε καὶ χρηστήρια· τοῦ γὰρ αὐτῶν θεοῦ οὐ δι' ἀψύχων ξοάνων, διὰ δὲ τῶν αὐτοῦ προφητῶν τὸ ἱκανὸν αὐτοῖς τῆς τοῦ μέλλοντος γνώσεως παρέχοντος οὐδεὶς αὐτοῖς τῶν ἔξωθεν ἐγίνετο λόγος. ὅθεν καὶ ἐν τοῖς μετὰ χεῖρας ὁ μὲν βασιλεὺς Ἑζεκίας οἷα θεοφιλὴς «εἰς τὸν οἶκον ἀνῄει τοῦ θεοῦ» καὶ τὴν ἀνάγραπτον ἱκετηρίαν ἀνέπεμπε, θεὸς δὲ αὐτῷ ἀποκρίνεται τὸν ἑαυτοῦ προφήτην Ἠσαΐαν ὡς αὐτὸν πέμψας, δεύτερόν τε αὐτῷ τοῦτον ἐκδίδωσι τὸν χρησμόν, ὡς ἄρα εἴη ἀκηκοὼς τῶν τῆς προσευχῆς αὐτοῦ λόγων διδάσκων. Εἶθ' ὡς πρὸς τὸν Ἀσσύριον πολλὰ καταλαζονευόμενον καὶ ἐπαπειλήσαντα τῷ λαῷ καὶ τῷ τόπῳ τοιοῦτόν τινα λόγον ποιεῖται. σὺ μὲν ὦ οὗτος τυραννικῶς ἠπείλεις τοιαῦτα διαθήσειν τὸν ἐμοὶ καθηγησάμενον τόπον νομίζων φοβεῖν ταῖς ἀπειλαῖς τὴν ἀδιάφθορον καὶ διὰ τοῦτο παρθένῳ παραβαλλομένην τοῦ θεοῦ πόλιν, τόν τε ἐν αὐτῇ λαὸν θυγατέρα Σιὼν καὶ θυγατέρα Ἰερουσαλὴμ χρηματίζοντα καὶ παρθένῳ παραβαλλόμενον διὰ τὸ πάσης καθαρεύειν εἰδωλολατρίας. ἡ δὲ θαρσοῦσα τῇ ἑαυτῆς καθαρότητι καὶ τῷ ἑαυτῆς βοηθῷ θεῷ τὸν ὑπερήφανόν σου λογισμὸν καὶ τὰς ἀπειλὰς ἐκείνας ἐξεφαύλισε καὶ ἐμυκτήρισεν ὡς οὐδενὸς ἀξίας. διὸ κατὰ τὸν Σύμμαχον εἴρηται· ἐξουδένωσέ σε καὶ ἐξεφαύλισέ σε θυγάτηρ Σιών, ὄπισθέν σου κεφαλὴν ἐκίνησε θυγάτηρ Ἰερουσαλήμ· εἰ γὰρ καὶ μηδεμίαν ἀπόκρισιν ἐποιήσατο πρὸς σέ, ὅτε τὰς βλασφήμους προΐεσο φωνάς, ἀλλὰ μετὰ τὸ ἀναχωρῆσαι καὶ εἰς τοὐπίσω σε ἀπελθεῖν ἐπὶ σοὶ κεφαλὴν ἐκίνησεν ἡ προλεχθεῖσα τῆς Ἰερουσαλὴμ θυγάτηρ ἡ αὐτὴ οὖσα τῇ παρθένῳ θυγατρὶ Σιών. καὶ τοῦτ' ἔπραττεν οὐκέτι σιωπὴν ἄγουσα, μετὰ δὲ τοῦ λόγον ἀποδιδόναι· διὸ ἐπὶ σοὶ τὴν κεφαλὴν ἐκίνει. Ὁ δὲ λόγος οὕτως ἦν· τίνα ὠνείδισας καὶ παρώξυνας; ἀνθ' οὗ οἱ λοιποὶ ἑρμηνευταὶ βεβλασφήμηκας ἐκδεδώκασιν, ἢ πρὸς τίνα ὕψωσας τὴν φωνήν σου; οὐδὲ ἀνέβλεψας εἰς οὐρανὸν οὐδὲ διενοήθης τὸν θεὸν τὸν ὕψιστον οὐδὲ ἐλογίσω, ὡς ἄρα οὗτος εἴη ὁ ἅγιος τοῦ Ἰσραήλ, ὃν ὠνείδισας διασύρων καὶ χλευάζων ὡς ἕνα τῶν πολλῶν θεῶν τῶν ὑποχειρίων σοι γενομένων. ἐλογίσω γὰρ παρὰ σαυτῷ ὡς τῇ σαυτοῦ δυνάμει καὶ τῷ πλήθει τῶν σῶν ἁρμάτων ἀναβεβηκὼς εἴης εἰς τὰ ὑψηλὰ τῶν ὀρέων καὶ εἰς τὰ ἔσχατα τοῦ Λιβάνου, ὥστε ἀποκόψαι τὸ ἐν τῷ πλήθει τῶν ἐν αὐτῷ κέδρων τε καὶ κυπαρίσσων ἐμφαινόμενον αὐτοῦ κάλλος. ᾐνίττετο δὲ διὰ τούτων τὰς ἐν τοῖς λοιποῖς ἔθνεσιν ἐπηρτημένας καὶ εὐθηνουμένας βασιλείας· τὸ γὰρ πολὺ πλῆθος τοῦ Λιβάνου ἐν ὑψηλοτάτοις κέδροις τε καὶ κυπαρίσσοις ἢ ἀρκεύθοις κατὰ τὸν Σύμμαχον, ἢ ἐλάταις κατὰ τὸν Ἀκύλαν, εἰς εἰκόνα παρείληφε τῶν τότε εὐθηνουμένων ἐθνῶν. ἀντὶ δὲ τοῦ· εἰς ὕψος μέρους τοῦ δρυμοῦ, ὁ Σύμμαχος εἰς ὕψος τοῦ ἄκρου αὐτοῦ εἰς τὸν δρυμὸν τοῦ Καρμήλου αὐτοῦ ἡρμήνευσε, δρυμὸν κἀνταῦθα τὴν ἄκαρπον ὕλην τῶν τὸν θεὸν μὴ ἐπισταμένων ἐθνῶν αἰνιττομένου τοῦ λόγου. ἃ δὴ ὑπὸ χεῖρα πεποιημένος ὁ Ἀσσύριος μέγα φρονῶν ἐφ' ἑαυτῷ ἔλεγεν· ἐγὼ ἀνέβην εἰς ὕψος ὀρέων καὶ εἰς τὰ ἔσχατα τοῦ Λιβάνου καὶ ἔκοψα τὸ ὕψος τῆς κέδρου αὐτοῦ καὶ τὸ κάλλος τῆς κυπαρίσσου καὶ εἰσῆλθον εἰς ὕψος μέρους τοῦ δρυμοῦ. ἔτι δὲ ἀπηυθαδίζετο λέγων· καὶ ἔθηκα γέφυραν καὶ ἠρήμωσα ὕδατα καὶ πᾶσαν συναγωγὴν ὑδάτων, ἢ κατὰ τὸν Σύμμαχον· ἐγώ φησιν ὤρυξα καὶ ἔπιον ὕδωρ καὶ ἠρήμωσα ἐν ἴχνει ποδός μου πάντας ποταμοὺς συνεχομένους. ὁρᾷς ὅπως καὶ ἐν τούτοις ὑδάτων μέμνηται ὁ λόγος καὶ ποταμῶν ἀφανιζομένων ὑπὸ τοῦ Ἀσσυρίου, δι' ὧν οἶμαι σημαίνειν τὰ παρὰ τοῖς ἔθνεσι πλήθη καὶ τοὺς παρ' αὐτῶν περὶ θεῶν λόγους, οἳ τὰς ψυχὰς ἐνόμιζον τρέφεσθαι. τῷ γε μὴν ἴχνει τοῦ ἑαυτοῦ ποδὸς ἐρημίαν εἰργᾶσθαι ἐσεμνύνετο· ἐπ' οὐδενὶ μὲν ἀγαθῷ, ἐπ' ἐρημίᾳ δὲ ὧν ἐπέβη χωρῶν καυχώμενος καὶ ἐπὶ ἀφανισμῷ τοῦ δηλωθέντος τοῦ