Consoling Nineveh

Er erit, omnis qui viderit te, resiliet a te, et dicet: Vastata et Ninive; quis commovebit super te caput? Unde quaeram consolatorem tibi? In Hebraeo non habetur caput sed nos apposuimus, ut sensus manifestior fieret. Denique Symmanchus ita interpretatus est: Et omnis qui viderit te, recedet a te, et dicet: dissipata est Ninive, quis lugebit cum ea? Porro Septuaginta: Et erit, omnis qui viderit te, descendet a te et dicet: Misera Ninive, quis gemet eam. Unde quaeram consolationem illi -apantem chordam. Qui ruinas viderunt Ninive, et positam eam omnibus in exemplum, expavescet atque mirabitur, et dicet: Dissipata est Ninive, quis commovebit super te caput? hoc est, quis dolebit super te, quis tuus poterit esse consolator? quae quamdiu potens fuisti, quasi crudelis domina, non miserebaris senis: nec parvulum respiciebas: nec praeparasti luctus tui socium, quae noluisti consortem habere regnandi. Qui autem haec terrena contemnit, et veneficae Ninive maleficia despexerit, nec falsa pulchritudine ejus fuerit irretitus, cum omnem illius turpitudinem intrinsecus viderit, et coeperit odisse quod caeteri diligunt, refugiet et resiliet ab ea, sive, ut a Septuaginta dicitur, descendet. Quamdiu enim terrena honoramus, et putamus esse sublimia, velut in quondam superbiae culmine sumus, et miramur pulchritudinem Ninive. Cum autem consideraverimus naturam ejus, et omnia corporalia bona, quasi humilia despexerimus, subjicientes nos potentiae manus Dei, tunc miserebimur Ninivitis et omnia terrena bona digna planctu judicabimus, dicemusque: Misera Ninive, quanti tuis laqueis irretiti sunt, quantos alligatos vinculis tuis tenes. Quis, putas, resilet a te et descendet de superbia tua, et te miseram judicibat? Quod autem ait, quis, non tam pro difficili, quam pro raro debemus accipere, ut saepe diximus: Quis, putas, fidelis et prudens dispensator? Et Quis sapiens et intelliget haec. Et Quis ascendet in montem Domini? Quis ergo gemet super Ninive? Quis poterit inveniri, qui hoc tabernaculo praegravatus cum Paulo dicat: Miser ego, quis me liberabit de corpore mortis hujus? Videmus quotidie si cui vicina mors venerit, et intellexerit se vel febre, vel vulnere, vel quolibet genere morborum, de hoc mundo subtrahi, pavere, trepidare, et toto corpore tremescentem in Ninive haerere complexibus, et a speciosae meretricis corpore vix avelli. Quod autem sequitur: Unde quaeram consolationem, vel consolatorem tibi, qui aptet chordam? adhuc ex persona ejus dicitur, qui resiliet vel descendet a Ninive, et dicet: Misera Ninive, quis gemet eam? de confusa saeculi hujus conversatione disputatis, in quo nihil cuiquam potest placere perpetuum: sed quod placuit displicet, et quod displicuerat, rursum placet. Quis itaque poterit talis inveniri consolator?  Sanctus Hieronymus, Commentariorum In Naum Prophetam Source: Migne PL 25.1258b-1259b

And it shall be that all who see you recoil from you and say, 'Laid waste is Nineveh. Who shall shake his head over you? Where shall I find one to console you?' 1 In the Hebrew we do not find 'head' but we add it that the sense may be more clear. And the translator Symmachus has: 'And all who shall see you shall withdraw from you and say: Ruined is Nineveh, who shall lament for her?' However the Septuagint reads: 'And it shall be that all who see you will fall back from you and say: 'Wretched Nineveh, who shall bewail you? Where shall I seek consolation for it with the touching of a chord?' They who see ruined Nineveh, placing it above all things as an example, shall be shocked and astonished and say, 'Laid waste is Nineveh; who shall shake his head over you?' That is, who shall grieve over you? Who shall able to be your consoler? She who while powerful, was as a cruel mistress, not being compassionate to the aged, nor looking after the young, nor attending to mourning for friends, she who was unwilling to have a consort while she ruled. But he who spurns this earth and scorns the wickedness of the witch Nineveh shall not be ensnared by her false beauty, when he shall see all the ugliness within her, and he shall begin to hate what others love, and he shall withdraw and recoil from her, or as the Septuagint says, 'fall away'. While indeed we honour worldly things and we think them to be sublime, we are as set on the height of pride and we admire the beauty of Nineveh. When, however, we consider its nature, and all its worldly goods, as if looking down on base things, the hand of the mighty God upon us, then we shall bewail Nineveh, and all its fine earthly goods we shall judge a grief, and we shall say, 'Wretched Nineveh, how greatly your snares entangled me, how greatly your chains held me. Who, do you think, recoils from and withdraws from your pride, and judges you wretched? The 'who' in this passage is not so difficult to understand, but is used to express rarity, as often we say, 'Who do you think is a faithful and prudent steward?' 2 And 'Who is wise and understands these things?' 3 And 'Who ascends the mount of the Lord?' 4 Who therefore will groan with Nineveh? Who shall be able to be found, who with this tabernacle burdened, will say with Paul, 'Wretched me, who shall liberate me from this body of death?' 5 Every day we see death approach a man, and marking that it is a fever, or wound or whatever type of disease, taking him from this world, he fears, shakes and the whole body trembles, as he clings to the embraces of Nineveh, and scarcely can he be torn away from the fair body of the whore. So indeed it follows: Where shall I find consolation, or a consoler for you, who shall touch a chord? Yet it is spoken as a person who recoils or falls away from Nineveh, when he says: 'Wretched Nineveh, who shall lament her?' Concerning the confused way of this world you dispute, in which nothing is able to please forever, but what once pleased displeases and what was displeasing pleases again. Who then can find a comforter in such things? Saint Jerome, Commentary on Nahum 1 Nahum 3.7 2 Mt 24.45 3 Hosea 14.10 4 Ps 23.3 5 Rom 7.14