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In Psalmum 75 [Sp.]

A DISCOURSE OF THE SAME ON "Pray, and pay vows to the Lord our God."

55.593 The teachers of this world lead children to the knowledge of letters; but the teachers of the Church instruct their pupils toward the perfection of right actions. And it is possible, 55.594 beloved, to learn precisely from what was just read to us in the psalm the most exact truth of what has been said.

For what did the prophet of the Spirit, the great writer David, now say? Pray, and pay 55.595 vows to the Lord our God. For example, the blessed Judith, when Holofernes the Babylonian had once surrounded Jerusalem with his own army, and cut off all the water-bearing springs that led into the city, and the Hebrews were perishing from thirst—so that they were ready to surrender both themselves and the city to the one imposing necessity upon them; that blessed woman came forward with a courageous spirit and a faithful resolve, and prevented the surrender of the city from happening; rousing herself to fight and make war against so great an army, and wishing to avenge her own people and to save the city, having trusted in God, giving herself with the strength of her body to the war against the adversaries, she said to the priests and all the faithful people: Pray, and pay vows to the Lord our God. And she, having gone out of the city, when evening had already come, with one handmaiden, having taken provisions measured by faith (for she did not wish, being a Jewess and forbidden by the law, to partake of Greek foods), and having come to Holofernes as a fugitive, in clean attire and seemly womanly adornment, she enslaved the foreigner by his desire for a woman, but kept herself undefiled; for she was not stained in her chastity.

For at night, while the army was sleeping, and Holofernes was stupefied with much wine, she boldly took his two-edged sword and beheaded him; it is clear that God was strengthening the right hand of the young woman. And on that very night, in which she performed this heroic deed, she ran back to the city victorious, and letting down his head over the wall, she displayed him as a trophy to all the foreigners, so that on the next day, the foreigners, seeing their own commander killed by a single woman, overcome by great cowardice and great fear, would flee from the face of the Hebrews, and what was written would be fulfilled: How shall one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight? For the most courageous Samson is found to have chased a thousand alone, and the most courageous Judith with her handmaiden put to flight the myriads of foreigners.

You see how good it is to pray, and to pay vows to the Lord our God. And King Hezekiah, being a faithful man, and relying more on faith and prayer than on weapons [who] and military might, wrought victories over the enemies beyond expectation. Indeed, when Sennacherib came with a great multitude of barbarians, and shook Jerusalem, and reproached God and the men who believed in him, and sent written insults to Hezekiah against God, Hezekiah received the scroll, and having read it before God, prayed and paid vows to the Lord our God; whence immediately he was freed from the danger surrounding him; thus suddenly and wonderfully did he receive help from God.

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In Psalmum 75 [Sp.]

ΤΟΥ ΑΥΤΟΥ ΛΟΓΟΣ ΕΙΣ ΤΟ Εὔξασθε, καὶ ἀποδῶτε Κυρίῳ τῷ Θεῷ ἡμῶν.

55.593 Οἱ μὲν τοῦ κόσμου τούτου διδάσκαλοι πρὸς τὴν τῶν γραμμάτων γνῶσιν τοὺς

παῖδας ἀνάγουσιν· οἱ δὲ τῆς Ἐκκλησίας διδάσκαλοι πρὸς τὴν τῶν κατορθωμάτων τελείωσιν τοὺς μαθητὰς ἐκδιδάσκουσι. Καὶ ἔστιν, ἀγα 55.594 πητοὶ, καταμαθεῖν ἀκριβῶς ἐκ τῶν ἀρτίως ἡμῖν ἐπανα γνωσθέντων ἐν τῷ ψαλμῷ τὴν τῶν εἰρημένων ἀκρι βεστάτην ἀλήθειαν.

Τί γὰρ νῦν ἔλεγεν ὁ τοῦ Πνεύματος προφήτης, ὁ μεγαλογράφος ∆αυΐδ; Εὔξασθε, καὶ ἀπο 55.595 δῶτε Κυρίῳ τῷ Θεῷ ἡμῶν. Οἷον ὡς ἡ μακαρία Ἰουδὶθ, τοῦ Βαβυλωνίου ποτὲ Ὀλοφέρνου μετὰ τοῦ ἰδίου στρα τοπέδου τὴν Ἱερουσαλὴμ περικυκλώσαντος, καὶ πάσας τὰς ἐν τῇ πόλει εἰσαγούσας ὑδροτόκους πηγὰς διατεμόν τος, λιμῷ δὲ ὕδατος ὀλλυμένους τοὺς Ἑβραίουςf.ὥστε ἑτοίμους εἶναι ἑαυτούς τε καὶ τὴν πόλιν παραδιδόναι τῷ τὴν ἀνάγκην αὐτοῖς ἐπιτιθέντι· παρελθοῦσα δὲ ἡ μακα ρία ἐκείνη ἀνδρείῳ φρονήματι καὶ πιστῷ βουλήματι, διεκώλυε τῆς πόλεως τὴν παράδοσιν γίνεσθαι· ἑαυτὴν δὲ διαναστήσασα πρὸς τὸ τηλικοῦτον στρατόπεδον μά χεσθαι καὶ πολεμῆσαι, καὶ ἐκδικῆσαι τὸ ἴδιον γένος, καὶ τὴν πόλιν περισώσασθαι βουλομένη, Θεῷ πιστεύ σασα, τῇ τοῦ σώματος ῥώμῃ ἑαυτὴν πρὸς τὸν τῶν ὑπεν αντίων πόλεμον ἐπιδοῦσα, ἔλεγε τοῖς ἱερεῦσι καὶ πᾶσι τοῖς πιστοῖς ἀνθρώποις· Εὔξασθε, καὶ ἀποδῶτε Κυρίῳ τῷ Θεῷ ἡμῶν. Ἣ καὶ ἐξελθοῦσα τῆς πόλεως, ἑσπέρας ἤδη καταλαβούσης, μετὰ μιᾶς θεραπαινίδος, ἐπισίτιά τε λαβοῦσα μεμετρημένα τῇ πίστει (οὐ γὰρ ἐβούλετο τοῖς Ἑλληνικοῖς ἀποχρᾶσθαι βρώμασιν Ἰουδαία τυγχάνουσα, καὶ ὑπὸ τοῦ νόμου κωλυομένη), γενομένη δὲ παρὰ τῷ Ὀλοφέρνῃ, ὡς πρόσφυξ, ἐν στολῇ καθαρᾷ καὶ κόσμῳ γυναικείῳ εὐπρεπεῖ, ἐξανδραποδίσασα τὸν ἀλλόφυλον τῇ ἐπιθυμίᾳ τῇ πρὸς γυναῖκα, ἑαυτὴν μὲν διεφύλαττεν ἄχραντον· τῇ γὰρ σωφροσύνῃ οὐκ ἐμιαίνετο.

Νυκτὸς γὰρ τοῦ στρατοπέδου καθεύδοντος, καὶ τοῦ Ὀλο φέρνου οἴνῳ πολλῷ κεκαρωμένου, λαβοῦσα εὐθαρσῶς τὴν δίστομον αὐτοῦ μάχαιραν, ἀπεκεφάλισεν αὐτόν· δῆλον Θεοῦ ἐνδυναμοῦντος τὴν δεξιὰν τῆς νεανίδος. Ἐν αὐτῇ δὲ τῇ νυκτὶ, ἐν ᾗ ἠνδραγάθησε, νικηφόρος ἐπὶ τὴν πόλιν ἀναδραμοῦσα, καὶ τὴν κεφαλὴν αὐτοῦ διὰ τοῦ τείχους χαλάσασα, θρίαμβον αὐτὸν πᾶσι τοῖς ἀλλοφύλοις ἐδείκνυεν, ὡς τῇ ἐπαύριον θεωρήσαντας τοὺς ἀλλοφύλους τὸν ἑαυτῶν στρατοπεδάρχην ὑπὸ μιᾶς γυναικὸς ἀναι ρεθέντα, δειλίᾳ πολλῇ καὶ φόβῳ πολλῷ πιεσθέντας φεύ γειν ἀπὸ προσώπου τῶν Ἑβραίων, καὶ πληροῦσθαι τὸ γεγραμμένον· Πῶς διώξεται εἷς χιλίους, καὶ δύο μετακινήσουσι μυριάδας; Εὑρίσκεται γὰρ ὁ μὲν ἀν δρειότατος Σαμψὼν μόνος χιλίους διώξας, ἡ δὲ ἀνδρειο τάτη Ἰουδὶθ μετὰ τῆς ἰδίας θεραπαινίδος τὰς μυριάδας τῶν ἀλλοφύλων μετακινήσασα.

Ὁρᾷς πόσον ἐστὶν ἀγαθὸν τὸ εὔξασθαι, καὶ ἀποδοῦναι Κυρίῳ τῷ Θεῷ ἡμῶν· Ἐζεκίας δὲ ὁ βασιλεὺς πιστὸς ἀνὴρ ὑπάρχων, καὶ πίστει μᾶλλον καὶ εὐχῇ, ἢ ὅπλοις [ὃς] καὶ στρατιωτικῇ δυνάμει ὑπερειδόμενος, παρ' ἐλπίδα ἐποίει τὰ τῶν πολεμίων νικήματα. Ἀμέλει γοῦν τοῦ Σεναχειρὶμ μετὰ πολλοῦ ὄγκου βαρβάρων ἐπελθόντος, καὶ τὴν Ἱερουσαλὴμ πε ριδονήσαντος, καὶ ὀνειδίζοντος Θεὸν καὶ τοὺς πιστεύοντας εἰς αὐτὸν ἀνθρώπους, ὕβρεις δὲ ἐγγράφους πέμψαντος τῷ Ἐζεκίᾳ κατὰ Θεοῦ, καὶ αὐτοῦ δεξάμενος τὸ βιβλίον ὁ Ἐζεκίας, καὶ ἀναγνοὺς ἐνώπιον τοῦ Θεοῦ, ηὔξατο καὶ ἀπέδωκε Κυρίῳ τῷ Θεῷ ἡμῶν· ὅθεν παραχρῆμα τοῦ περιέχοντος αὐτὸν κινδύνου ἠλευθεροῦτο· οὕτως ἀθρόως καὶ θαυμαστῶς τὴν παρὰ Θεοῦ βοήθειαν ἐλάμβανεν.