The Assyrian Boast and Jerusalem’s Deliverance

…that he ought to crown himself with the honors of the divine priesthood as well. For he attempted to push his way into the divine temple, to burn incense to God by his own hand, and to perform the customary rites as the Law prescribes. For this reason he was struck with leprosy at once and was held in the deepest dishonor; for under the Law one gripped by the disease of leprosy is unclean.

“Where is the god of Hamath?” and so on; “Have they delivered Samaria out of my hand?” (2 Kings 18:34). For the barbarian, whose tongue matched his pride, perhaps supposed that the Master of earth and heaven, the Maker and Lord of all things, was just like one of the falsely named gods. Indeed it is the habit of those who do not know God sometimes to mock the hope of the saints, and to dare to say that they would not be delivered by God. Yet he was not unaware that human hands had made the falsely named gods, while the One who is God by nature and in truth was made by no one, but rather himself brought into being things that once did not exist. Samaria, then, was captured because God withheld his help. And, as I said before, even if none of the gods spoken of among the Greeks saved its own land, that counts for nothing against God, who truly and by nature exists and is great. For those gods have received from human craft only this much, that they can at least be seen; but he rules over all things, being the Lord of hosts.

“He tore his garments” (2 Kings 19:1). Do you see how, disregarding his own affairs, he grieves for God’s sake and seeks vengeance? “He tore his garments,” it says, “and covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the house of the Lord” (2 Kings 19:1). And what was the reason for tearing his clothes? It was the custom of the Jews to do this at blasphemies against God; and the Gospels record that Caiaphas did the same (Matthew 26:65).

“I cut down the height of its cedar” (2 Kings 19:23). Its: whose? Lebanon’s, that is, Judea’s. By the height of the cedar he means their kingdom. For the glories of Hezekiah’s kingdom were about to be raised on high.

“And I will put my hooks in your nostrils,” he says, “and a bridle in your lips” (2 Kings 19:28). So that he would not dare to utter such things. Yet even if he did not share the fate of the multitude, for the reason already stated, the same reason for which Pharaoh too was kept as an onlooker while the rest of the Egyptians were punished, still he found his own sons to be his murderers when he had come back to his own land (2 Kings 19:37).

“And I will shield this city for my own sake” (2 Kings 19:34). For this befits the One who is God. Therefore: “I will do these things for my own sake,” and not because those who are helped are worthy.

“And the angel of the Lord went out and struck down in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred and eighty-five thousand” (2 Kings 19:35). So the war is ended, and the threats flee along with the dangers; and so from then on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, rejoicing greatly at the help that came from God, could say: “You have turned my mourning into joy for me” (Psalm 30:11). See how things are reversed; consider carefully what he says: “You have turned my mourning into joy for me.” Great was the mourning because of the multitude of those making war; great has the joy become because of the multitude of those who have fallen.