Letter 230: Victory over temptation brings relief — but relief can breed complacency, and complacency invites the next attack...

To Isaiah. On Sennacherib. Since Sennacherib [Assyrian king who invaded Judah] threatened Hezekiah [king of Judah] with things greater than human nature and human power, for this very reason he came to know the nothingness of his own weakness. For the man who expected to take Jerusalem at the first assault and on the spot, having lost almost his whole army without war and without battle, counted it a thing to be cherished merely to escape with his life. And having fled home, he was slain by his own kin, so that at one and the same time he might both recognize his own weakness and not escape justice.

Περὶ τοῦ Σεναχειρείμ. Ἐπειδὴ ὁ Σεναχειρεὶμ ἀνθρωπίνης φύσεως καὶ δυνάμεως μείζονα ἠπείλησε τῷ Ἐζεκίᾳ, διὰ τοῦτο ἔγνω τῆς οἰκείας ἀσθενείας τὴν οὐδένειαν. Ὁ γὰρ ἐξ ἐπιδρομῆς καὶ αὐτοθεὶ προσδοκήσας ἑλεῖν τὴν Ἰερουσαλήμ, πᾶσαν σχεδὸν τὴν στρατιὰν ἄνευ πολέμου καὶ μάχης ἀποβαλών, ἀγαπητὸν ἡγήσατο τὸ διασωθῆναι μόνον. Διαφυγὼν δ᾽ οἴκαδε, ὑπὸ τῶν οἰκείων ἀνῃρέθη (24), ἵγ᾽ ὁμοῦ καὶ τὴν οἰκείαν ἀσθένειαν γνοίη, καὶ μὴ διαφύγῃ τὴν δίκην.