Something of this kind is the meaning of the word oracle: in his wish to give the prophets an insight often productive of rapture, God caused a sudden transformation of their mind so that while in this condition they might receive the knowledge of the future with deeper fear. He calls it oracle, then, since the grace of the Spirit, as though suddenly taking hold of the prophet’s mind, transformed it with a view to the revelation of what was to be made clear. He is saying the same thing here too: an oracle of Nineveh, a book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite, as if to say, the prophet’s mind was suddenly seized by the grace of the Spirit and transformed so as to contemplate those things through which he learned of the fate of Nineveh and which he provided to his listeners as instruction in what was shown to him.

And again: I will reestablish my covenant with you, and you shall know that I am Lord, that you may remember and be confounded and may no more open your mouth because of your confusion, when I shall be pacified toward you for all that you have done, says the Lord God.^[1] Thus it is clearly indicated by these divine words what was meant in another place by the statement And though cleansing you he shall not make you innocent.^[2] Even the just, being restored to their former state after committing sin, do not dare open their mouth but say with the apostle, I am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.^[3]

The Lord is longsuffering, great is his power, and he will certainly not clear the guilty. He does not suddenly and all at once inflict punishment, but only after exercising extreme longsuffering. You Ninevites are witnesses to this, practicing repentance and finding salvation, and then guilty of extreme wickedness and for a time not paying the penalty for it. But after putting up with people’s wickedness for a long time, he is accustomed to inflict punishment on the unrepentant (the meaning of he will certainly not clear the guilty, that is, he will not exempt from retribution the person whose sins deserve punishment).

If it is [Marcion’s] Christ that is meant, he will not be stronger than the servants of the Creator.^[1] I would have been content with the examples I have shown you without adding anything further. But here a prediction of [Christ] walking on the water precedes his advent as well. The words of the psalm are, in fact, accomplished by Christ’s crossing over the lake. The Lord, says the psalmist, is upon many waters.^[2] When he scatters its waves, Habakkuk’s words are fulfilled where he says, scattering the waters as he walks.^[3] When at his rebuke the sea is calmed, Nahum is also verified: He rebukes the sea and makes it dry,^[4] referring to the winds that had disturbed the sea.

According to the law, for example, the adulterer and the adulteress were punished with an immediate death. Because of the fact that he bore the penalty for his sin and paid punishments which fitted the evil committed, what will be after this that threatens their souls with revenge, if they transgressed no more, if there is not another sin which condemns them, but they committed only this single fault when they were punished and bore for this the punishment of the law? The Lord will not punish twice for the same thing, for they took their sin and their penalty for the crime was taken away. And for this reason, this kind of precept is not found unmerciful, as the heretics assert, accusing the law of God and denying that there is human feeling contained in it. But it is full of mercy by virtue of the fact that through this more people would be cleansed from sins than would be condemned.

The prophet Nahum (or, better, God speaking through him) says, I will destroy the graven and molten thing; I will make it your grave. Behold upon the mountains the feet of him that brings peace. O Judah, keep your festivals and pay your vows, for it shall no longer be that they may pass into disuse. It is completed, it is consumed, it is taken away. He is come up that breathes into your face and rescues you from tribulation. Anyone who knows the Gospels will recognize who it was that came up from hell and breathed the Holy Spirit into the face of Judah, that is, into the face of his Jewish disciples. The words about the festivals are, of course, a reference to the New Testament, in which festivals are so spiritually renewed that they can never pass into disuse. The rest of the prophecy too we see realized in that the gospel brought about the destruction of graven and molten things, that is, the idols of the false gods, consigned now to the oblivion of the grave.

Once again, dear friends, God has brought us to the Easter season. By his lovingkindness we are once more about to assemble for it. The same God who brought Israel out of Egypt now calls us to the feast, saying through Moses, Take note of the month of new fruits, and keep the Passover to the Lord your God.^[1] And through the prophet he calls, Keep your feasts, O Judah; pay your vows to the Lord. So if God himself loves the feast and calls us to it, it is not right, brothers and sisters, to postpone it or to observe it carelessly. We should come to it eagerly and zealously, so that with a joyful beginning here we will experience a foretaste of the heavenly feast that is to come.