An End Of Troubles

Haec dicit Dominus, si perfecti fuerint, et ita plures: sic quoque attondentur et pertransibit: afflixi te, et non affligam te ultra: et nunc conteram virgam ejus de dorso tuo, et vincula tua disrumpam LXX: Haec dicit Dominus regnans acquis multis, et sic dividentur, et auditus tuus non audientur amplius, et nunc conteram virgam ejus a te: et vincula ejus disrumpam.   Juxta litteram manifestus est sensus: Licet, inquit, robusti sint Assyrii, et fortitudo eorum numero augeatur cunctarum gentium: sic quoque angelo vastante, tondentur. Quomodo enim numerus capillorum acutae forcipi non repugnat: ita et numerus adversariorum Dei, facili succisione tolletur, et pertransibit Assur, vel esse desistet, sive, vastato exercitu suo, revertetur ad patriam, te sospitem dereliquens. Rursumque ad Judam et Jerusalem sermo dirigetur: Afflixi, te, et non affligam te ultra: non quod perpetuam securitatem polliceatur, sed illius tantum temporis, et ab illis hostibus a quibus tunc obsidebatur. Denique infert: Et nunc conteram virgam ejus, id est, Assyrii, de dorso tuo, et vincula tua disrumpam: vel per metaphoram potestatem ejus significans: vel certe, virgam qua percutere conabatur, et vincula quae captivis parabat: quanquam possit et obsidio clausae multitudinis pro vinculis accipi. Porro juxta LXX multo aliter est senus. Adhuc enim videtur adversus eos loqui, quibus supra dixerat: Quid cogitatis contra Dominum? Et: Ex te exibit cogitatio contra Domnium pessima, cogitans contraria. Haec ergo dicit Dominus regnans aquis multis, sive virtutibus, quae dicuntur aquae super caelos: et praecipitur eis, ut laudent Dominum: vel certe intellectibus et sapientiae et doctrinis Dei. Sicut enim flumina de ventre justi fluent, et fontes uberes in vitam aeternam, per varias multiplicesque sententias, quibus imperat sermo Domini: ita habent et haeresiarchae aquas sua, quibus imperant, et quae ex eorum primum fonte manarunt. Quod autem sequitur: Et sic dividentur, vel de coelestibus quae in supernis Deo serviunt virtutibus intelligi potest; quod unaquaeque in suo officio sit et ministerio, vel de multiplici varietate spaientiae. Ne quia dixerat, regnans aquis multis, confusus et indiscretus sensuum numerus putaretur: sed quod unaquaeque sententia divisos habeat inter se sensus et separatas materias propriasque ὑποθέσεις. Nam quod dicitur: Auditus tuus non audietur amplius, increpatio est in eos, qui adversus Deum contraria cogitaverant, quod ostensis sophismatibus et decipulis, quibus Dei populus irretiebatur, sermo eorum ultra non currat, nec suscipiatur a populis. Sed et hoc quod infert: Et nunc conteram virgam ejus a te, et vincula tua disrumpam, pro ipsis dicitur quibus fit comminatio, ut nequaquam caedantur a diabolo, et ei subjecti sint, quo auctore tanta excogitaverant atque confixerant. Conteretur ergo imperium ejus in eos: et vincula quibus peccantium animae ligabantur, disrumpentur a sermone Dei, dicente his qui in vinculis sunt, exite. Sanctus Hieronymus, Commentariorum In Naum Prophetam

'These things the Lord says, 'Though they were great, even though so many, even so they will be cut off and pass. I afflicted you but I shall afflict you no more, and now I shall shatter his stick from your back and your chains I shall break.' The Septuagint has: 'These things the Lord says ruling with the many waters, and so they shall be divided, and your ears shall not hear any more, and now I shall shatter his stick from you and his chains I shall break.' 1 According to the letter the meaning is plain: It was allowed, it says, that the Assyrians became strong, and that their might exceed that of all the other nations, even so by the devastating angel they were cut off. As even the great number of hairs may not avoid the sharp pincers, so even the number of the enemies of God are easily cut off and taken away, and Assur he shall pass on, or, he shall desist, or, with his wasted army he shall return to his homeland, and you will be left unscathed. And again the speech is directed to Judah and Jerusalem: 'I afflicted you but I will afflict you no more.' It is not that perpetual safety is promised here, but only for a time and from those enemies by which they were besieged. Next comes: 'And now I shall shatter his stick,' that is, Assyria's, 'from your back, and your chains I shall break.' Either this is a metaphor for his power, or the stick with which he has tried to strike and the chains which he has prepared for captives; but whatever he may have tried to do, I give the end of the siege for a multitude of chains. However, according to the Septuagint the meaning is quite different. For it seems that against them it is spoken about whom it was said before this passage, 'Why do you think against the Lord?  And: 'From you will go out a most wretched thought against the Lord, plotting harm.' 2 These things thus says the Lord who rules with many waters, or powers, which they say are the waters above the heavens, and He commands them, that they praise the Lord, 3 certainly with understanding of the wisdom and the teaching of God. For as flow waters from the bosom of the righteous, 4 even abundant founts into eternal life, through various and many meanings the word of the Lord rules, and thus the heresiarchs have their own waters, by which they command, and which from the fount of them first flowed forth. And it follows, 'And so they shall be divided,' which is can be understood either as the high powers in the heavens serving God, each one in his office and ministry, or on account of the manifold variety of wisdom. Because he did not say, 'ruling with the many waters,' that this be thought to be a confused and indistinguishable mass of things, but that each among them has his different purpose and separate are his substance and hypothesis. Then it is said, 'Your hearing shall not hear any more,' which is a cry against those who have set their thoughts against God, that with its sophisms and deceptions, by which the people of God are entangled, their word will not go forth any more, nor will it be taken up by the people. But even this which is said: 'And now I shall shatter his stick from you, and your chains I shall break,'  about the same is said as a warning, that they shall not be slain by the devil and be subject to him, with which author such things they have plotted to do and struck. For He shall crush down his power upon them, and the chains by which they were binding the souls of sinners will be broken by the speech of God, saying to those who are in chains, come out! Saint Jerome, Commentary on Nahum  1 Nahum 1 12-13 2 Nahum 1. 11  3 Ps 148.4  4 Jn 7.38