The discourse concerning Nineveh persists. It is easy to see why your warriors, reminiscent of ripe figs, succumb so readily to the enemy when your people have grown weak and indulgent. The gates of your city will be flung open to adversaries, and the strongest barriers will be consumed by flames. Thus, gather water to ensure your survival during the imminent siege; prepare materials to mend the breaches in your walls, for the enemy approaches. After all your preparations, you shall be devoured by the sword, just as vegetation is consumed by the caterpillar. Yet when you increase in number like the caterpillar and accumulate riches like stars in the heavens, you will scatter and flee like swarms of locusts, resembling the small locust, known as the attelabi, which disappears when the sun rises, becoming nearly impossible to find. It is characteristic of locusts to remain still when it is cold but to take flight in the warmth. The attelabus, described by Aquila as the 'devourer,' is a diminutive locust, situated between locusts and caterpillars (bruchus); it has small wings and tends to crawl rather than fly, leaping in short bursts; thus, wherever it appears, it lays waste to everything, for until its wings grow, it cannot escape. To facilitate comprehension, I have explained this with reference to the original Hebrew, unpacking the scripture step by step.
I will now continue the allegorical interpretation relating to the LXX translation, first briefly and then expanding on specific points. The inhabitants of Nineveh—the men of the world known in truth as the citizens of this Assyrian city—have been so exhausted by desires and weakened by vices that they are akin to powerless women; they possess no strength or courage within their souls. Consequently, the enemies, having triumphed over them, open their senses, entering through the gates of the body. In this context, the gates of Nineveh refer to the senses of the body. Those who are ensnared by vices, created by God, have within them the ability to know Him, akin to strong locks that secure the gates of those senses. But even they will succumb to the fire from unrelenting arrows. Hence, to Nineveh it is commanded: ‘Draw water for yourselves,’ nourish yourselves with the word and understanding, and harness your God-given ability to know Him and commit to virtue in your struggle. Yet you have squandered your inherent strength through lazy inaction, thus turn back, repent, and reclaim your stronghold.
Having once descended into the mire and being encased in flesh—including blood, veins, nerves, and bones, akin to earth, straw, and water—endure the burdens and challenges of the body. Subject yourself to the trampling of your foes and embrace all that nurtures the flesh and leads to repentance. For once you embraced the dirt and straw, yielding yourself to worldly pursuits, you must willingly bear the injustices that come your way, but do not despair of salvation; instead, have hope and transform your body—your “brick” that has received wisdom like water—into a tool of service, gaining victory over your earthly form. Should you do otherwise, the unquenchable flame, either ignited in Gehenna as judgment or by the fiery arrows of your enemy, will consume you not only by fire but also by the sword, which shall devour you similarly to how locusts ravage the vegetation. You will face this fate if you do not rise above mere flesh but, encumbered by your weight and devoid of the will to elevate yourself, sink to the earth like a caterpillar that plummets to the ground, exhausted from its efforts to fly.
Let your strength multiply as extensively as that of the caterpillar so that you do not, due to your own heaviness, descend into despair. You have endured these trials because you have amassed within yourselves wealth and a plethora of doctrines, considering them more radiant than the stars of the heavens. As previously mentioned, I have briefly outlined these points for clarity; now I will return to the beginning of this discussion and elaborate on each element in detail. Who can deny that the splendid Nineveh represents a soul of inherent beauty that, indulged in the luxuries and pleasures of this world, forsakes its vigor and becomes fragile like a woman? For just as the soul of a righteous individual, upon reaching 'the perfect man' (Eph. 4:13), retains its strength and merges with God (1 Cor. 6:16), why then does a soul enamored with worldly pleasures become one with the world and lose its original strength through such indulgence?
I believe that in Exodus, Pharaoh’s decree to cast every Hebrew male child into the river while sparing female children reveals this truth. The ruler of Egypt, who claims, ‘My rivers are rivers, and I will make them’ (Ezekiel 29:3), sought to eliminate all that is strong and masculine among the Jews, allowing only the weak and feminine to thrive. It is telling that he could not slay the husbands of the Jews or those beyond childhood, but only the weak and tender among them, understanding that without the strong, the feminine could flourish without restraint. Regarding the subsequent words, ‘To your enemies the gates of your land shall be opened wide,’ you may reference the testimony of Jeremiah, where it is written, ‘Death shall come in through your windows’ (Jeremiah 9:21). What Jeremiah terms windows can be understood here as gates, signifying the senses. Indeed, the divine Word acknowledges that human feelings encompass two types, contrasting the lesser with the better, as suggested in Proverbs (chap. 2): ‘thou shalt find a feeling divine.’
Thus, the gates of Nineveh can be interpreted as the bodily senses, while the gates of the heavenly Jerusalem signify the divine insights descending from above. The inhabitants of Nineveh open their senses—the gates—to seek earthly pleasure, attempting to indulge their desires through sight, sound, and other sensations, which leads toward destruction, while the people of God, conversely, shut their gates, purging their eyes from evil, covering their ears against bloodshed, shielding their noses from base pleasures, and refraining from actions that might lead their souls into temptation. The faithful open the gates of their hearts to allow the Word of God to penetrate their souls.
An illustration of the open gate can be found in these words: ‘thou liftest me up from the gates of death’ (Ps. 9:14), while a commendable example appears here: ‘that I may declare all thy praises in the gates of the daughter of Zion’ (Ps. 9:15). When you observe a man who indulges in pleasure more than in God, devoted to sensuality, you can rightly conclude: He has opened his gates to his enemies. Such persons are friends only to their own self-indulgence while opening the gates of Nineveh to their foes. Should those in positions of authority do the same, you may rightly declare: ‘The elders of my people shall be cast out of the houses of their sweetness’ (Micah 2:9). If you notice those bound by foolish desires, demonstrating no compassion for the poor or concern for the people of God, recall the words: ‘They that sleep on beds of ivory, and are lascivious in their beds; that eat the lambs out of the flock, and drink the wine from the bowl’ (Am. 6:4, 6).
Furthermore, the phrase ‘the fire devoured thy constipation’ implies that any semblance of innate goodness within your soul, which might have held back and repelled the invading vices through your senses, has been annihilated by the flames of Babylon. In the subsequent phrase, ‘draw water for yourselves to become fortified,’ one should recognize the call to immerse in the Word of God, enabling Nineveh to encapsulate itself with the teachings and wisdom of scripture as a protective barrier against intrusion by its foes. 'Hold fast,' it is said, ‘to your fortresses.’ Retain that inherent goodness bestowed upon you by the Creator, beloved soul of Nineveh, for your defense, preserving it from being lost in your heart’s core.
In the following declaration, ‘enter into the filth and be trampled by the straw,’ some may interpret this as denoting the soul being mired in the filth of the body and engulfed in worldly vanities, oppressed by demons; however, I assert that it serves as an admonition to bear the trials and injustices which you merit due to past actions. If you choose to transcend the transient nature of this world, these challenges can act as a remedy, provided you subjugate the physical and assert dominion over the carnal body.
Lastly, the words ‘there shall the fire devour thee’ warn that if you do not rise above the earthly and the fleshly, but rather remain rooted in the physical, seeking only worldly satisfaction, then not only shall the flames of judgment consume you, but the sword will also annihilate you, much like locusts consuming the bounty of the earth. You will encounter this demise if you remain grounded, burdened by sin, and incapable of escape, resembling the caterpillar that falls when too fatigued to proceed. Therefore, to evade such tribulations, strive to multiply your virtues as countless as the caterpillar, compensating for the deficits of sin with an abundance of righteousness.
Having reached the point in the Hebrew text that states, ‘The sun rose, and she flew away, and you shall not know the place where she was,’ I feel it pertinent to reflect on the meaning it conveys in relation to the subsequent lines of the LXX. The caterpillar (bruchus) has overrun and taken flight; your caterpillar (sommixticius) leaps like the grasshopper (attelabus), which along the cold remains sedentary on the fence, only to leap and ascend with the rise of the sun, leaving no trace of its prior position. Woe to them! The inhabitants of Nineveh, a chaotic assembly sprawled from all walks of life, are succinctly likened to a caterpillar—small but numerous, scarcely rising above the soil.
The term grasshopper (attelabus) found in Greek as συμμιλτὸς, and termed sommixticius in Latin, can denote the mixed population of Nineveh, comprising not just citizens, but foreigners too. Just as the Israelites who departed from Egypt included a multitude of diverse tribes (Ex. 12), similarly, this patchwork Nineveh likens to a hopping grasshopper or locust that cannot rise from the ground in frigid conditions and only manages to take flight under the warmth of the sun, soon forgetting the place of its past.
This can also be understood suitably for those who live solely for worldly pleasures, for they are wholly grounded in their desires, darting haphazardly without ascension, akin to a caterpillar. Observe Rome and Constantinople, still mired in their previous impotency despite their grand titles, witnessing violence erupt from lack of sustenance or out of frustration with performers and entertainers, while the populace descends into debauchery, rushing chaotically. In these circumstances, one could truly exclaim, ‘the caterpillar swiftly departed and flew away.’
When deciphering the next phrase, ‘the grasshopper jumped down, or(et) thy mixer like locusts,’ the term ‘mixer’ suggests a distinction from ‘caterpillar’ in illustrating the confusion and diversity among the people. Just as city populations consist of citizens and transients, the residents of Nineveh, while striving after varying truths, reflect a collective better than mere caterpillars because unlike those bound to the ground, the grasshopper employs its diminutive wings, albeit only for limited elevation.
Alas, when locusts emerge from such transformation, their flight is transient, as they are often idled by the cold and tension; they land not on fruitful trees or verdant foliage, but on barren fences and brambles, or upon any sort of makeshift barricade. Let us scrutinize the philosophers of Greece, Egypt, and Persia, the mystics from India, the Samaritans weighed down by their contradictions, and the different sects within the Church—this resembles a grasshopper that can barely lift off the ground. Though ultimately fruitless, they seek wisdom but do so in a tangle of thorns.
THEOSIS