For word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from him, and covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.
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Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
A sovereign serves God one way as a man, another way as a king. He serves him as man by living according to faith. He serves him as king by exerting the necessary strength to sanction laws that command goodness and prohibit its opposite. It was thus that Ezekiel served him by destroying the groves and temples of idols and the high places that had been set up contrary to the commandments of God. Thus Josiah served him by performing similar acts. Thus the king of the Ninevites served him by compelling the whole city to appease the Lord. .
A king serves God one way as a man, another as a king. He serves him as a man by living according to faith. He serves Him as king by exerting the necessary strength to sanction laws that command goodness and prohibit its opposite. The king of the Ninevites served God by compelling the whole city to appease the Lord.
The king preferred to escape in a hair-shirt, rather than to perish in purple garments. We must understand, dearly beloved, that lowliness avails more than power.
King Sardanapalus, (Salien, Year of the world 3216) or rather his father, Phul, whom Strabo calls Anacyndaraxes, (Calmet.) and who died in the year of the world 3237, (Usher) four years after he had invaded Palestine, 4 Kings xv. 19.
LXX: 'the message reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, took off his robe and covered himself with sackcloth, and he sat down upon the earth. And by the order of the king and his nobles it was announced throughout Nineveh, saying, it is forbidden for any man or beast or oxen or sheep to eat anything, to drink any water. Men and beasts were covered in sackcloth and cried out to the Lord mightily. Let each one turn away from his wicked practises and from the unfairness that was in his hands, saying, who knows if God will turn and repent, if he will not abandon the fierceness of his wrath so that we might not die?'. I know certain men for whom the king of Nineveh, (who is the last to hear the proclamation and who descends from his throne, and forgoes the ornaments of his former vices and dressed in sackcloth sits on the ground, he is not content with his own conversion, preaches penitence to others with his leaders, saying, "let the men and beasts, big and small of si...
