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they have taken counsel against your saints. They said: Come, and let us destroy them from being a nation, and let the name of Israel be remembered no more. The Prophet in the Holy Spirit entreats God, by reminding Him that His people have suffered so many things. Then he also mentions the saints of God who shone forth long ago among the people, begging and beseeching that He remember not the impious and lawless among them, but only His saints, and for their sake to have mercy on the whole nation. And the enemies of God, acting in accordance with these things, war against His people, using craftiness and deceit, in order to cast him down and make him apostatize from the piety of God. Wherefore it has been said: Against your people they have craftily devised a plan, and have taken counsel against your saints. For carefully and thoughtfully they devise certain secret contrivances against the people of God, and prepare plots against His saints, for one purpose which they set before themselves, saying: Come, and let us destroy them from being a nation, and let the name of Israel be remembered no more. Therefore, those who fight against God do not wish for a nation of God to exist among men; but they are also eager to wipe out the name of Israel. But God, always establishing a nation for Himself upon the earth, after the fall of the former people established the 23.996 Church from the gentiles, and the new and young nation, which subsists throughout the whole world from the election of the gentiles. Wherefore the name of Israel is sung with greater praise, and the memory of all the God-loving men is celebrated, and the achievements of piety shine forth. For they have taken counsel together in harmony; against you they have made a covenant: the tents of the Idumeans, and the Ishmaelites, Moab and the Agarenes, Gebal and Ammon and Amalek, the foreigners with the inhabitants of Tyre. For Assur also has come with them; they have become a help to the sons of Lot. Diapsalma. As if arousing and provoking God, the Prophet in his supplication for the people says, against you. For it is not against the people, he says, but against you and against your covenant that the enemies of your people have dared. Then he recounts in order the things that were done in the attack of the Assyrians against the nation of the Jews. And he utters these things as an oracle, having first gone through the reasons for which they were delivered to their enemies. For in the psalm before this one he rebuked the rulers of the people, saying: How long will you judge unjustly? and again: They did not know, nor did they understand, they walk on in darkness. And in the one before that, he reproached the whole nation, saying: And my people did not hear my voice, and Israel did not attend to me. But also in the 77th he went through a long list of their transgressions. Consequently, therefore, he prophesies the things that happened to them long afterwards because of the aforementioned reasons. And there they were besieged at different times; first by the Babylonians, second by Antiochus the king of Syria, and last of all by the Romans after the outrage against our Savior. Fittingly, by the foreknowledge of the Spirit, this same prophet proclaims beforehand these three sieges: in the 73rd signifying the last one, as we have shown in the proper places; in the 78th the one under Antiochus of Syria, as has been demonstrated; and in the one at hand he mentions the first, I mean that of the Assyrians, which the 79th also prophesied, signifying the burning of the vineyard and its desolation. It is possible, then, to learn also from history how many nations came together at the same time against the people of the Jews in the first attack of the Assyrians, which the prophecy at hand also enumerates: naming first the Idumeans, then the Ishmaelites, and third the Moabites, and fourth the Agarenes, then the Gebalenes, and the Ammanites, and the Amalekites. And in addition to these, Foreigners, he says, with the inhabitants of Tyre. But instead of, foreigners,

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ἐβουλεύσαντο κατὰ τῶν ἁγίων σου. Εἶπαν· ∆εῦτε, καὶ ἐξολοθρεύσωμεν αὐτοὺς ἐξ ἔθνους, καὶ οὐ μὴ μνησθῇ τὸ ὄνομα Ἰσραὴλ ἔτι. ∆υσωπεῖ τὸν Θεὸν ὁ Προφήτης ἐν ἁγίῳ Πνεύματι, διὰ τοῦ ὑπομιμνήσκειν, ὡς ἄρα λαὸς αὐτοῦ γεγόνοιο τὰ τοσαῦτα πεπονθώς. Εἶτα καὶ τῶν ἐν τῷ λαῷ διαλαμψάντων πάλαι πρότερον ἁγίων τοῦ Θεοῦ μέμνηται, δεόμενος καὶ ἀντιβολῶν μὴ τῶν ἐν αὐτοῖς ἀσεβῶν καὶ παρανόμων, μόνων δὲ τῶν ἁγίων αὐτοῦ μνησθῆναι, καὶ δι' αὐτοὺς τὸ πᾶν κατελεῆσαι ἔθνος. Ἀκόλουθα δὲ αὐτοῖς ποιοῦντες οἱ ἐχθροὶ τοῦ Θεοῦ, τὸν λαὸν αὐτοῦ πολεμοῦσι, πανουργίᾳ χρώμενοι καὶ δόλῳ, πρὸς τὸ καταβαλεῖν αὐτὸν καὶ ἀποστῆσαι τῆς τοῦ Θεοῦ εὐσεβείας. ∆ιὸ λέλεκται· Ἐπὶ τὸν λαόν σου κατεπανουργεύσαντο γνώμην, καὶ ἐβουλεύσαντο κατὰ τῶν ἁγίων σου. Μεμελημένως γὰρ καὶ πεφροντισμένως μηχανάς τινας κρυφίους κατὰ τοῦ λαοῦ τοῦ Θεοῦ καττύουσι, κατά τε τῶν ἁγίων αὐτοῦ ἐπιβουλὰς κατασκευάζονται, δι' ἕνα σκοπὸν ὃν ἐν ἑαυτοῖς προθέμενοί φασι· ∆εῦτε, καὶ ἐξολοθρεύσωμεν αὐτοὺς ἐξ ἔθνους, καὶ οὐ μὴ μνησθῇ τὸ ὄνομα τοῦ Ἰσραὴλ ἔτι. Οἱ μὲν οὖν θεομάχοι οὐ βούλονται ἐν ἀνθρώποις ἔθνος Θεοῦ ὑφεστάναι· ἀλλὰ καὶ τὸ ὄνομα τοῦ Ἰσραὴλ ἐξαλειφθῆναι σπουδάζουσιν. Ὁ δὲ Θεὸς, ἀεὶ ἔθνος ἑαυτῷ ἐπὶ γῆς καταρτίζων, μετὰ τὴν τοῦ προτέρου λαοῦ πτῶσιν τὴν ἐξ ἐθνῶν συνεστήσατο 23.996 Ἐκκλησίαν, καὶ τὸ καινὸν καὶ νέον ἔθνος, τὸ καθ' ὅλης τῆς οἰκουμένης ἐκ τῆς τῶν ἐθνῶν ἐκλογῆς ὑποστάν. ∆ιὸ μειζόνως καὶ τὸ ὄνομα τοῦ Ἰσραὴλ, καὶ πάντων τῶν θεοφιλῶν ἀνδρῶν ἡ μνήμη ἀνυμνεῖται, τά τε τῆς θεοσεβείας κατορθώματα διαλάμπει. Ὅτι ἐβουλεύσαντο ἐν ὁμονοίᾳ ἐπὶ τὸ αὐτό· κατὰ σοῦ διαθήκην διέθεντο τὰ σκηνώματα τῶν Ἰδουμαίων, καὶ οἱ Ἰσμαηλῖται, Μωὰβ καὶ οἱ Ἀγαρηνοὶ, Γεβὰλ καὶ Ἀμμὼν καὶ Ἀμαλὴκ, ἀλλόφυλοι μετὰ τῶν κατοικούντων Τύρον. Καὶ γὰρ καὶ Ἀσσοὺρ συμπαρεγένετο μετ' αὐτῶν, ἐγενήθησαν εἰς ἀντίληψιν τοῖς υἱοῖς Λώτ. ∆ιάψαλμα. Ὥσπερ διεγείρων καὶ παροξύνων τὸν Θεὸν ὁ Προφήτης ἐν τῇ ἱκετηρίᾳ τῇ ὑπὲρ τοῦ λαοῦ φάσκει τὸ, κατὰ σοῦ. Οὐ γὰρ κατὰ τοῦ λαοῦ, φησὶν, ἀλλὰ κατὰ σοῦ καὶ κατὰ τῆς σῆς διαθήκης τετολμήκασιν οἱ τοῦ λαοῦ σου πολέμιοι. Εἶθ' ἑξῆς διεξέρχεται τὰ ἐν τῇ τῶν Ἀσσυρίων ἐπιθέσει κατὰ Ἰουδαίων ἔθνους πραχθέντα. Καὶ ταῦτα θεσπίζει προδιελθὼν τὰς αἰτίας, δι' ἃς τοῖς πολεμίοις παρεδόθησαν. Ἐν μὲν γὰρ τῷ πρὸ τούτου ψαλμῷ τοὺς ἄρχοντας ἀπήλεγχε τοῦ λαοῦ φήσας· Ἕως πότε κρίνετε ἀδικίαν; καὶ πάλιν· Οὐκ ἔγνωσαν, οὐδὲ συνῆκαν, ἐν σκότει διαπορεύονται. Ἐν δὲ τῷ ἀνωτέρω τὸ πᾶν διέβαλλεν ἔθνος εἰπών· Καὶ οὐκ ἤκουσεν ὁ λαός μου τῆς φωνῆς μου, καὶ Ἰσραὴλ οὐ προσέσχε μοι. Ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐν τῷ οζʹ μακρὸν κατάλογον τῶν παρανομημάτων αὐτῶν διεξῆλθεν. Ἀκολούθως οὖν τὰ συμβεβηκότα αὐτοῖς μακροῖς ὕστερον χρόνοις διὰ τὰς προλεχθείσας αἰτίας προφητεύει. Καὶ ἐκεῖ κατὰ διαφόρους χρόνους πεπολιόρκηνται· πρότερον μὲν ὑπὸ Βαβυλωνίων, δεύτερον δὲ ὑπ' Ἀντιόχου τοῦ τῆς Συρίας βασιλέως, καὶ τὸ πάντων ὕστατον ὑπὸ Ῥωμαίων μετὰ τὴν κατὰ τοῦ Σωτῆρος ἡμῶν τόλμαν. Εἰκότως τῇ προγνώσει τοῦ Πνεύματος τὰς τρεῖς ταύτας ὁ αὐτὸς προφήτης προαναφωνεῖ πολιορκίας· ἐν μὲν τῷ ογʹ τὴν ὑστάτην σημαίνων, ὡς κατὰ τοὺς οἰκείους τόπους παρεστήκαμεν· ἐν δὲ τῷ οηʹ τὴν ἐπὶ Ἀντιόχου τοῦ Σύρου, καθὼς ἀποδέδεικται· ἐν δὲ τῷ μετὰ χεῖρας τῆς πρώτης μέμνηται, λέγω δὲ τῆς Ἀσσυρίων, ἣν καὶ ὁ οθʹ ἐθέσπισε, τὸν ἐμπρησμὸν τοῦ ἀμπελῶνος καὶ τὴν ἐρημίαν αὐτοῦ σημήνας. Ἔστι δ' οὖν καὶ ἀπὸ τῆς ἱστορίας μαθεῖν, ὅσα κατὰ τὸ αὐτὸ συνῆλθον ἔθνη κατὰ τοῦ Ἰουδαίων λαοῦ ἐν τῇ πρώτῃ τῶν Ἀσσυρίων ἐπιθέσει, ἃ καὶ ἡ μετὰ χεῖρας καταριθμεῖται προφητεία· πρώτους Ἰδουμαίους ὀνομάζουσα, εἶτα Ἰσμαηλίτας, καὶ τρίτους Μωαβίτας, καὶ τετάρτους Ἀγαρηνοὺς, εἶτα Γεβαληνοὺς, καὶ Ἀμμανίτας, καὶ Ἀμαληκίτας. Καὶ ἐπὶ τούτοις, Ἀλλόφυλοι, φησὶ, μετὰ τῶν κατοικούντων Τύρον. Ἀντὶ δὲ τοῦ, ἀλλόφυλοι,