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Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Nahum 2:1

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He that dasheth in pieces is come up before thy face: keep the munition, watch the way, make [thy] loins strong, fortify [thy] power mightily.

1. Now begins the description of the attack upon Nineveh and its fall. Nah 2:2, however, returns to Israel and contains a reflection on the meaning of the downfall of Nineveh its purpose is the restoration of Israel. The following Nah 2:3 continues Nah 2:1, and the occurrence of Nah 2:2 between them is very unnatural. Possibly Nah 2:2 is the marginal reflection of a reader, which has fallen into the text, or it is to be placed before Nah 2:1.

He that dasheth in pieces ] Probably the word should be pointed so as to mean a maul or hammer, as Jer 51:20; cf. Pro 25:18. The foe and destroyer of Nineveh is referred to.

before thy face ] Or, against thy face. Probably “thy,” which is fem, in Heb. text, should be read as masc. Asshur is addressed.

Keep the munition ] i.e. the fortress or stronghold. Nineveh or Asshur is exhorted to be ready for the foe who has come up: the fort is to be kept, the way by which the enemy approaches watched and occupied, and resolute courage displayed. The phrase “fortify thy power,” or, make strong thy might, is parallel to “make thy loins strong,” referring to inward resolution and not to external things, such as fortifications or the army; Amo 2:14.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

He that dasheth in pieces – Rather, the Disperser, the instrument of God, whereby he should break her in pieces like a potters vessel, or should scatter her in all lands, is come up against thy face, O Nineveh, i. e., either, over against thee , confronting her as it were, face to face, or directed against thee . From the description of the peace of Judah, the prophet turns suddenly to her oppressor, to whom, not to Judah, the rest of the prophecy is directed. Jacob and Israel are spoken of, not to . The destroyer of Nineveh went up against the face of Nineveh, not in the presence of Judah and Jacob, who were far away and knew nothing of it. Keep the munition. While all in Judah is now peace, all in Nineveh is tumult. God whom they had defied, saying that Hezekiah could not turn away the face of one captain of the least of his servants Isa 36:9, now bids them prepare to meet him whom He would send against them. Gird up thy loins now, like a man Job 40:7. Thou who wouldest lay waste others, now, if theft canst, keep thyself. The strength of the words is the measure of the irony. They had challenged God; He in turn challenges them to put forth all their might.

Fence thy defenses – we might say. Their strong walls, high though they were, unassailable by any then known skill of besiegers, would not be secure.

The prophet uses a kindred and allusive word, that their protection needed to be itself protected; and this, by one continued watchfulness. Watch, he adds, the way: spy out (as far as thou canst), the coming of the enemy; strengthen the loins, the seat of strength. Elsewhere they are said to be girded up for any exertion. Fortify thy strength exceedingly. The expression is rare : commonly it is said of some part of the human frame, knees, arms, or mind, or of man by God.

The same words are strong mockery to those who resist God, good counsel to those who trust in God. Keep the munition, for He who keepeth thee will not sleep Psa 121:3; watch the way, by which the enemy may approach from afar, for Satan approacheth, sometimes suddenly, sometimes very stealthily and subtly, transforming himself into an angel of light. Jerome: Watch also the way by which thou art to go, as it is said, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein; Jer 6:16, so that, having stood in many ways, we may come to that Way which saith, I am the Way. Then , make thy loins strong, as the Saviour commands His disciples, Let your loins be girded about Luk 12:35, and the Apostle says, Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth Eph 6:14; for nothing so strengthens as the Truth. For Christ being the Truth, whose with his whole heart hath belived in Christ, is strong against himself, and hath power over the loins, the seat of the passions. Then, since this warfare is hard, he adds, be strong, fortify thy power mightily; resist not listlessly, but vehemently; and that, in His strength who hath strengthened our nature, taking it to Himself and uniting it with the Godhead. For without Him, strong though thou be, thou wilt avail nothing.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Nah 2:1-2

He that dasheth in pieces is come up before thy face

God the Vindicator of the oppressed

The oppression of the chosen people by the Assyrians.

1. This is expressed figuratively. The emptiers have emptied them out (ver. 2), had exhausted their resources, as the contents of a vessel poured out until every drain had been withdrawn, so had both Israel and Judah been impoverished by the Assyrians. And marred their vine branches. Ancient Israel was often described as Gods vineyard (Isa 5:1; Psa 80:9). This vineyard the foe had ruthlessly invaded, casting down and injuring its fruit-bearing trees.

2. These figurative representations are sustained by historical fact. The more familiar we become with Assyrian history the more do we trace in that vast heathen power the prevalence of the haughty, overbearing spirit. Its rulers and people vainly supposed that national greatness consisted in the possession of might to be used in oppressing other nations and peoples. To be able to depict upon the walls of the palaces of Ninus battle scenes indicative of military triumph, accompanied by great spoil and cruel chastisement inflicted upon their adversaries, seems to have been their highest ambition. Their whole relationship to Israel and Judah was based upon this principle. The favoured of heaven, having forsaken their God, and hence lost His protecting care, turned in their exigencies to Assyria for aid, but only to find, in this supposed helper against their foes, a more powerful enemy. In this way the kingdom of Israel was first made tributary to Assyria by Paul (2Ki 15:17-20), and, soon after, its tribes were carried away into captivity by Shalmaneser (2Ki 17:3-23), whilst the kingdom of Judah in like manner became compelled to acknowledge the lordship of Tilgath-Pilneser (2Ch 28:16-21). Hezekiah sought to cast off the Assyrian yoke, but this only resulted in the nation, in Nahums time, being brought into circumstances of extreme peril (2Ki 18:13-17), and from which eventually supernatural help alone was able to deliver it (Isa 37:36).

II. Divine interposition promised on behalf of the oppressed. (Ver. 2.) Such interposition had in a measure but recently taken place (Isa 37:36). The angel of death had breathed in the face of the foe, and had caused the might of the Gentile to melt like snow, and the oppressor to return humbled to his capital (Isa 37:37). The time, however, for the complete and final interposition of heaven had not yet arrived. Still, it should come. The seer in rapt vision beheld it as though it had been then in operation, and for the encouragement of the oppressed he declared that the Divine eye observed all that was being endured, that the Lord Almighty still regarded them with favour (ver. 2), and would yet make them an eternal excellency, a joy of many generations (Isa 60:15).

III. This Divine interposition eventually to be experienced viewed as carrying with it the entire overthrow of the oppressor. (Ver. 1.) Asshur should in due course be brought low, and the yoke of bondage should fall from off the necks of the captives In the day of visitation.

1. Agents should not be wanting to carry out the Divine behests. The defection of the Assyrian general, the forces of the King of Media, and the overflowing of the Tigris, should all combine to bring about the accomplishment of the Divine purpose; and these forces are here personified as the dasher in pieces (ver. 1).

2. Resistance should be in vain. They might keep the munition, watch the ways, etc. (ver. 1), but all to no purpose. The proud power must inevitably fall, and in its overthrow proclamation be made that it is not by means of tyranny and oppression and wrong-doing that any nation can become truly great and lastingly established, but by the prevalence in its midst of liberty, virtue, and righteousness, Nineveh in her downfall

. . . seems to cry aloud

To warn the mighty and instruct the proud
That of the great, neglecting to be just,

Heaven in a moment makes a heap of dust.

(S. D. Hillman, B. A.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

CHAPTER II

Nineveh is now called upon to prepare for the approach of her

enemies, the instruments of Jehovah’s vengeance, 1;

and the military array and muster, the very arms and dress, of

the Medes and Babylonians in the reigns of Cyaxares and

Nabopolassar; their rapid approach to the city; the process of

the siege, and the inundation of the river; the capture of the

place; the captivity, lamentation, and flight of the

inhabitants; the sacking of this immense, wealthy, and

exceedingly populous city; and the consequent desolation and

terror, are all described in the pathetic, vivid, and sublime

imagery of Hebrew poetry, 2-10.

This description is succeeded by a very beautiful and

expressive allegory, 11-12;

which is immediately explained, and applied to the city of

Nineveh, 13.

It is thought by some commentators that the metropolitan city

of the Assyrian empire is also intended by the tender and

beautiful simile, in the seventh verse, of a great princess

led captive, with her maids of honour attending her, bewailing

her and their own condition, by beating their breasts, and by

other expressions of sorrow.

NOTES ON CHAP. II

Verse 1. He that dasheth in pieces] Or scattereth. The Chaldeans and Medes.

Keep the munition] Guard the fenced places. From this to the end of the fifth verse, the preparations made at Nineveh to repel their enemies are described. The description is exceedingly picturesque.

Watch the way] By which the enemy is most likely to approach.

Make thy loins strong] Take courage.

Fortify thy power] Muster thy troops; call in all thy allies.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

He: some by mistake refer this to Sennacherib; it is more rightly referred to the Medes of Scythians or to the Chalthians, all which did somewhat against the Assyrians.

That dasheth in pieces; that as a heavy and strong hammer breaks into pieces. and then with his arm scattereth the broken pieces; so shall the destroyer of Nineveh do, as a maul, (so the word Pro 25:18) or as the wind scatters smoke, so the word Psa 68:2.

Is come up before thy face, against thee, and is within sight, from thy watch-towers on thy frontiers thou mayst descry his avant-guards.

Keep the munition: the prophet derides Nineveh, and foretells all will be to no purpose; she shall never be able to withstand, so as to conquer; re-enforce thy garrisons, yet they shall fall.

Watch the way; know which way he comes, that thou mayst barricade the way, or set ambushes.

Make thy loins strong; encourage thy soldiers, and make them valiant as thou canst, choose out the ablest and most undaunted. Fortify thy power mightily; gather up all thou canst for the war, increase thy armies, fill up thy companies, engage assistance from abroad; nothing shall avail thee.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

1. He that dasheth in piecesGod’s”battle axe,” wherewith He “breaks in pieces” Hisenemies. Jer 51:20 applies thesame Hebrew term to Nebuchadnezzar (compare Pro 25:18;Jer 50:23, “the hammer ofthe whole earth”). Here the Medo-Babylonian army under Cyaxaresand Nabopolassar, that destroyed Nineveh, is prophetically meant.

before thy facebeforeNineveh. Openly, so that the work of God may be manifest.

watch the wayby whichthe foe will attack, so as to be ready to meet him. Ironical advice;equivalent to a prophecy, Thou shalt have need to use all possiblemeans of defense; but use what thou wilt, all will be in vain.

make thy loins strongTheloins are the seat of strength; to gird them up is to prepare allone’s strength for conflict (Job40:7). Also gird on thy sword (2Sa 20:8;2Ki 4:29).

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

He that dasheth in pieces is come up before thy face,…. O Nineveh, or land of Assyria; for this is not to be understood of Sennacherib’s coming up against Jerusalem, as Kimchi; but of Nebuchadnezzar against Nineveh, as Aben Ezra; not Nebuchadnezzar the great, who, the Jewish chronologers say c, took Nineveh in the first year of his reign; but his father, Nebuchadnezzar the first, called Nabopolassar, who, with Cyaxares or Ahasuerus the Mede, joined their forces against Nineveh, and took it, see the Apocrypha:

“But before he died he heard of the destruction of Nineve, which was taken by Nabuchodonosor and Assuerus: and before his death he rejoiced over Nineve.” (Tobit 14:15)

and these together, the Chaldeans and Medes, are the “dasher in pieces”; or, “the hammer” d, as the word may be rendered; and so Babylon, over which one of these kings reigned, is called the hammer of the whole earth, Jer 50:23 these came up openly, boldly, to the face of the king of Assyria, attacked him in his metropolis, not fearing his strength and numbers:

keep the munition; this and what follow are spoken ironically to the Assyrian king, and inhabitants of Nineveh, to take care of their towers and garrisons, and fortify them, and fill them with soldiers: and

watch the way; in which the enemy came; secure the passes and avenues that lead to their city; stop his march, and prevent his access:

make [thy] loins strong; put on armour, gird on the sword, prepare for war:

fortify [thy] power mightily; increase thine army, exert all thy strength and courage, and do all that is in thy power to do, to oppose the enemy, and defend thyself; and when all is done, it will be in vain.

c Seder Olam Rabba, c. 24. p. 69. d “malleus”, Drusius, Tarnovius.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

With Nah 2:1 the prophecy turns to Nineveh. Nah 2:1. “A dasher in pieces comes against thee. Keep thy fortress! Look out upon the way, fortify the loins, exert thy strength greatly! Nah 2:2. For Jehovah returneth to the eminence of Jacob as to the eminence of Israel; for plunderers have plundered them, and their vines have they thrown to the ground.” cannot be addressed to Judah, as in Nah 1:15 (Chald., Rashi, etc.). It cannot indeed be objected that in Nah 1:15 the destruction of Asshur has already been announced, since the prophet might nevertheless have returned to the time when Asshur had made war upon Judah, in order to depict its ruin with greater precision. But such an assumption does not agree with the second clause of the verse as compared with Nah 2:2, and still less with the description of the approaching enemy which follows in Nah 2:3, since this is unquestionably, according to Nah 2:5, the power advancing against Nineveh, and destroying that city. We must therefore assume that we have here a sudden change in the person addressed, as in Nah 1:11 and Nah 1:12, Nah 1:13 and Nah 1:14. The enemy is called , “a dasher in pieces;” not a war-hammer (cf. Pro 25:18), because , the standing expression for the advance of a hostile army, does not agree with this. , against thy face, i.e., pitching his tent opposite to the city (there is no good reason for altering the suffix into , as Ewald and Hitzig propose). Against this enemy Nineveh is to bring all possible power of resistance. This is not irony, but simply a poetical turn given to the thought, that Nineveh will not be able to repulse this enemy any more. The inf. abs. natsor stands emphatically for the imperative, as is frequently the case, and is continued in the imperative. M e tsurah is the enclosure of a city, hence the wall or fortification. , looking watchfully upon the way by which the enemy comes, to repulse it or prevent it from entering the city. , make the loins strong, i.e., equip thyself with strength, the loins being the seat of strength. The last clause expresses the same thought, and is merely added to strengthen the meaning. The explanatory k in Nah 2:2 (3) does not follow upon Nah 2:1 in the sense of “summon up all thy strength, for it is God in whose strength the enemy fights” (Strauss), but to Nah 2:1 or Nah 1:15. The train of thought is the following: Asshur will be utterly destroyed by the enemy advancing against Nineveh, for Jehovah will re-establish the glory of Israel, which Asshur has destroyed. (perf. proph.) has not the force of the hiphil, reducere, restituere, either here or in Psa 85:5 and Isa 52:8, and other passages, where the modern lexicons give it, but means to turn round, or return to a person, and is construed with the accusative, as in Num 10:36; Exo 4:20, and Gen 50:14, although in actual fact the return of Jehovah to the eminence of Jacob involves its restoration. , that of which Jacob is proud, i.e., the eminence and greatness or glory accruing to Israel by virtue of its election to be the nation of God, which the enemy into whose power it had been given up on account of its rebellion against God had taken away (see at Amo 6:8). Jacob does not stand for Judah, nor Israel for the ten tribes, for Nahum never refers to the ten tribes in distinction from Judah; and Oba 1:18, where Jacob is distinguished from the house of Joseph, is of a totally different character. Both names stand here for the whole of Israel (of the twelve tribes), and, as Cyril has shown, the distinction is this: Jacob is the natural name which the people inherited from their forefather, and Israel the spiritual name which they had received from God. Strauss gives the meaning correctly thus: Jehovah will so return to the eminence of His people, who are named after Jacob, that this eminence shall become the eminence of Israel, i.e., of the people of God; in other words, He will exalt the nation once more to the lofty eminence of its divine calling ( used in the same manner as in 1Sa 25:36). This will He do, because plunderers have plundered ( baqaq , evacuare ) them (the Israelites), and destroyed their vines, cast them to the ground; that He may avenge the reproach cast upon His people. The plunderers are the heathen nations, especially the Assyrians. The vines are the Israelites; Israel as a people or kingdom is the vineyard (Isa 5:1; Jer 12:10; Psa 80:9.); the vines are the families, and the branches ( z e morm from z e morah ) the members.

Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament

The Judgment of Nineveh.

B. C. 710.

1 He that dasheth in pieces is come up before thy face: keep the munition, watch the way, make thy loins strong, fortify thy power mightily. 2 For the LORD hath turned away the excellency of Jacob, as the excellency of Israel: for the emptiers have emptied them out, and marred their vine branches. 3 The shield of his mighty men is made red, the valiant men are in scarlet: the chariots shall be with flaming torches in the day of his preparation, and the fir trees shall be terribly shaken. 4 The chariots shall rage in the streets, they shall justle one against another in the broad ways: they shall seem like torches, they shall run like the lightnings. 5 He shall recount his worthies: they shall stumble in their walk; they shall make haste to the wall thereof, and the defence shall be prepared. 6 The gates of the rivers shall be opened, and the palace shall be dissolved. 7 And Huzzab shall be led away captive, she shall be brought up, and her maids shall lead her as with the voice of doves, tabering upon their breasts. 8 But Nineveh is of old like a pool of water: yet they shall flee away. Stand, stand, shall they cry; but none shall look back. 9 Take ye the spoil of silver, take the spoil of gold: for there is none end of the store and glory out of all the pleasant furniture. 10 She is empty, and void, and waste: and the heart melteth, and the knees smite together, and much pain is in all loins, and the faces of them all gather blackness.

Here is, I. An alarm of war sent to Nineveh, v. 1. The prophet speaks of it as just at hand, for it is neither doubtful nor far distant: “Look about thee, and see, he that dashes in pieces has come up before thy face. Nebuchadnezzar, who is noted, and will be yet more so, for dashing nations in pieces, begins with thee, and will dissipate and disperse thee;” so some render the word. Babylon is called the hammer of the whole earth, Jer. l. 23. The attempt of Nebuchadnezzar upon Nineveh is public, bold, and daring: “He has come up before thy face, avowing his design to ruin thee; and therefore stand to thy arms, O Nineveh! keep the munition; secure thy towers and magazines: watch the way; set guards upon all the avenues to the city; make thy loins strong; encourage thy soldiers; animate thyself and them; fortify thy power mightily, as cities do when an enemy is advancing against them” (this is spoken ironically); “do the utmost thou canst, yet thou shalt not be able to put by the stroke of this judgment, for there is no counsel or strength against the Lord.“

II. A manifesto published, showing the causes of the war (v. 2): The Lord has turned away the excellency of Jacob, as the excellency of Israel, that is, 1. The Assyrians have been abusive to Jacob, the two tribes (have humbled and mortified them), as well as to Israel, the ten tribes, have emptied them, and marred their vine-branches. For this God will reckon with them; though done long since, it shall come into the account now against that kingdom, and Nineveh the head-city of it. God’s quarrel with them is for the violence done to Jacob. Or, (2.) God is now by Nebuchadnezzar about to turn away the pride of Jacob by the captivity of the two tribes, as he did the pride of Israel by their captivity; He has determined to do it, to bring emptiers upon them, and the enemy that is to do it must begin with Nineveh, and reduce that first, and humble the pride of that. God is looking upon proud cities, and abasing them, even those that are nearest to him. Samaria is humbled, and Jerusalem is to be humbled, and their pride brought low; and shall not Nineveh, that proud city, be brought down too? Emptiers have emptied the cities, and marred the vine-branches in the country of Jacob and Israel; and must not the excellency of Nineveh, that is so much her pride, be turned away too?

III. A particular account given in of the terrors wherein the invading enemy shall appear against Nineveh; every thing shall contribute to make him formidable. 1. The shields of his mighty men are made red, and probably their other arms and array, as if they were already tinctured with the blood they had shed, or intended hereby to signify they would put all to the sword; they hung out a red flag, in token that they would give no quarter. 2. The valiant men are in scarlet; not only red clothes, to intimate what bloody work they designed to make, but rich clothes, to intimate the wealth of the army, and that is the sinews of war. 3. The chariots shall be with flaming torches in the day of his preparation; when they are making their approaches, they shall fly as swiftly as lightning; the wheels shall strike fire upon the stones, and those that drive them shall drive furiously with a flaming indignation, as Jehu drove. Or they carried flaming torches with them in the open chariots, when they made their approach in the night, as Gideon’s soldiers carried lamps in their pitchers, to be both a guide to themselves and a terror to their enemies, and with them to set all on fire wherever they went. 4. The fir-trees shall be terribly shaken; the great men of Nineveh, that overtop their neighbours, as the stately firs do the shrubs; or the very standing trees shall be made to shake by the violent concussions of the earth, which that great army shall cause. 5. The chariots of war shall be very terrible (v. 4): They shall rage in the streets, that is, those that drive them shall rage; you would think the chariots themselves raged; they shall be so numerous, and drive with so much fury, that even in the broad ways, where, one would think, there should be room enough, they shall jostle one another; and these iron chariots shall be made so bright that in the beams of the sun they shall seem like torches in the night; they shall run like the lightnings, so swiftly, so furiously. Nebuchadnezzar’s commanders are here called his worthies, his gallants (so the margin reads it), his heroes; those he shall recount, and order them immediately and without fail to render themselves at their respective posts, for he is entering upon action, is resolved to take the field immediately, and to open the campaign with the siege of Nineveh. His worthies shall remember (so some read it); they shall be mindful of the duty of their place, and the charge they have received, and shall thereby be made so intent upon their business that they shall stumble in their walks, shall make more haste than good speed; they stumble, but shall not fall; for they shall make haste to the wall thereof, shall open the trenches; and the defence, or the covered way, shall be prepared (something to shelter them from the darts of the besieged), and they shall so closely carry on the siege, and with so much vigour, that at length the gates of the rivers shall be opened (v. 6); those gates of Nineveh which open upon the river Tigris (on which Nineveh was built) shall be first forced by, or betrayed to, the enemy, and by those gates they shall enter. And then the palace shall be dissolved, either the king’s house or the house of Nisroch his god; the same word signifies both a palace and a temple. When the God of heaven goes forth to contend with a people, neither the palaces nor their kings, neither the temples nor their gods, can protect and shelter them, but must all inevitably fall with them.

IV. A prediction of the consequences of this; and it is easy to guess how dismal those will be. 1. The queen shall fall into the hands of the enemy (v. 7): Huzzab shall be led away captive; she that was established (so some read it), thought herself safe because she was concealed and shut up in secret, shall be discovered (so the margin reads it) and shall be led away captive, in greater disgrace than that of common prisoners; she shall be brought up in a mock state, and her maids of honour shall lead her, because she is weak and faint, not able to bear such frights and hardships, which are doubly hard and frightful to those that have not been used to them; they shall attend her, not to speak cheerfully to her and to encourage her, but murmuring and moaning themselves, as with the voice of doves, the doves of the valleys (Ezek. vii. 16), noted for their mourning,Isa 38:14; Isa 59:11. They shall be tabering upon their breasts, beating their own breasts in grief and vexation, as if they were drumming upon them, for so the word signifies. 2. The inhabitants, though numerous, shall none of them be able to make head against the invaders, or stand their ground (v. 8): Nineveh is of old like a pool of water, replenished with people as a pool with water (and waters signify multitudes, Rev. xvii. 15), or as those waters with fish; it was long ago a populous city; in Jonah’s time there were 120,000 little children in it (Jonah iv. 11), and, ordinarily, cities and countries are increasing in their number every year; but, though they have so many hands to be employed in the public service, yet they shall not be able to inspire one another with courage, but they shall flee away like cowards. Their commanders shall do what they can to animate them; they shall cry, “Stand, stand, have a good heart on it, and we shall do well enough;” but none shall so much as look back; they shall not have the least spark of courage remaining, but every one shall think it is his wisest course to make his best of the opportunity to escape; they shall not so much as look back to see who calls for them. Note, God can dispirit the strongest and boldest, in the day of distress, so that they shall not be what one would expect from them, but like a pool of water, the water whereof is dried up and gone. 3. The wealth of the city shall become a prey, and all its rich furniture shall fall into the hands of the victorious enemy (v. 9); they shall thus animate and excite one another to plunder: Take the spoil of silver; take the spoil of gold; thus the officers shall stir up the soldiers to improve their opportunity; here are silver and gold enough for them, for there is no end of the store of money and plate. Nineveh, having been of old like a pool of water, has gathered a vast deal of mud; and abundance of glory it has out of all the pleasant furniture, all the vessels of desire, which they have gloried in and which shall now be a prey and a pride to the conquerors. Note, Those who prepare raiment as the clay, and heap up silver as the dust, know not who may put on the raiment and divide the silver, Job 27:16; Job 27:17. Thus this rich city is empty, and void, and waste, v. 10. See the vanity of worldly wealth; instead of defending its owners, it does but expose them, and enable their enemies to do them so much the more mischief. 4. The soldiers and people shall have no heart to appear for the defence of the city. Their spirits shall melt away like wax before the fire; their knees shall smite together (as Belshazzar’s did, in his agony, Dan. v. 6), so that they shall not be able to stand their ground, no, nor to make their escape; much pain shall be in all loins, as is the case in extreme frights, so that they shall not be able to hold up their backs. And the faces of them all shall gather blackness, like that of a pot that is every day over the fire; so the word signifies. Note, Guilt in the conscience will fill men with terror in an evil day, and those who place their happiness in the wealth of this world and set their hearts upon it think themselves undone when their silver, and their gold, and their pleasant furniture are taken from them.

Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary

NAHUM – CHAPTER 2

Verses 1-13:

Judgment Falls In The Streets Of Nineveh

Verse 1 sounds an herald that the one (Jehovah) who dasheth, as a disperser, has come upon Nineveh’s face, to confront her in judgment from her evil. Do all you can, Judah, all you will, all you may, as you watch for your enemy, prepare for the conflict, for I am ready to help you, as a remnant, after the many days of your captivity punishment in this foreign, heathen land; describes Nineveh as God’s “battle-ax.” Pro 25:18; Job 40:7; 2Sa 20:8; 2Ki 4:29.

Verse 2 explains that it was the Lord who had chastened backslidden and rebellious Israel and Judah, permitting their enemies to be restored. Though their Assyrian enemies had destroyed their vineyards and fruit trees, the Lord had cut down those Assyrian enemies now, Psa 80:8-19; See also Jer 25:29-30.
Verse 3 describes Nineveh in battle array with shields of red, either painted red or of copper, with regal-like robes of scarlet or crimson, fighting robes of the Medo-Babylonian heathen, chariot wheels rolled rapidly, as fire flew from rocks, like flaming torches, headed for battle, Isa 5:28; It was a day of battle preparation as described Jer 46:14; Eze 7:14; Shields and lances, made of fir trees, were in every man’s hand for destructive purposes in battle.

Verse 4 describes the excitement of last minute drills and demonstrations of Nineveh’s men and equipment in readiness for a battle to death, Jer 46:9. Chariot’s driven in fury, jostled and collided in the streets and broad ways, as they run like lightning, even in and through the market place of the city of Nineveh, Luk 10:18. The idea is that where lightning strikes it leaves ruin and destruction, a thing soon to strike this long wicked city of Nineveh, Pro 8:26; Mat 24:27.

Verse 5 prophesies that “he”, king of Nineveh and Assyria, shall recount his “worthies,” or muster, call up his troops, his heroes and brave men first, to motivate others to enter the battle carnage, Jdg 5:13; Neh 3:5; It is asserted that they shall be so hurried in preparation for the pending battle that they go forth in fear and haste, to do battle at the city wall, where they have a covering protection from which to do battle. For the besiegers against them shall be prepared, Eze 4:2.

Verse 6 further prophesies that the besiegers shall come through the flood gates of the river, where the stream has rapidly receded from a flood, and the Ninevites have not had forces or forethought to close up the passages. And the city Nineveh shall be dissolved, or utterly destroyed, as capital of the Assyrian Empire. The people were to melt in fear, as caught by a snare, 1Jn 4:18.

Verse 7 states that Huzzab, thought to be queen of Nineveh, shall be captured, led out by the enemy as a trophy or spoil of war, dethroned and dishonored, with her servant maids mourning dolefully like doves over her fate and theirs, tabering or beating their breasts, as an expression of unbearable grief so deep that one can hardly breathe, Luk 18:23.

Verse 8 states that Nineveh from ancient times, from antiquity, an unbroken empire for more than 600 years, had been the pool where people had come like drops of water in confluence, flowing into her from all parts of the world, Gen 10:11. Though they, the soldiers, cry “stand, stand,” in this hour of Divinely decreed doom, trying to encourage one another in battle, yet the supply lines will flee in fear, and not look back, like cowards, Isa 8:7; Jer 41:13: Rev 17:15.

Verse 9 describes the cry of heathen spoilers against the Ninevites, crying that each seize the silver and the gold that Nineveh had ill-gotten through exorbitant taxes and illicit business practices against Israel. Riches wickedly gotten are declared to be a curse to the taker, and that such gain will not long be held, or bring a good conscience to its holder; They only prepared for the booty of another, Job 27:17. This plunder of Nineveh was declared to be as a result of the persecution she had inflicted on Israel. It was an hour of Divine retribution vengeance, justly sent from God. They also took the finest of her furniture, belonging to the rich and the royal houses, See Eze 27:23-24.

Verse 10 pictures the deserted deity of rubble and ruin as empty, void. and a waste. The city is left without wealth, without monuments, and with a melted heart in the bosom of the few who escaped death. Their knees smote together, out of weakness and fear; Sharp pains shot through their loins, as they were sick, and grew pale, at stomach, at the sight and smell of the stench of their own destruction, as from the smoke, dust, and rubble of ruin, their faces gathered grime and blackness, Joe 2:6; Lam 4:8; Lam 5:10.

Verse 11 asks just where may the place the old lions walked, and they and the young lions and whelps were fed, now to be found? Is any able to locate this former place of their keeping? These lions were once a symbol of Nineveh and Assyria’s fearless ruling power, but where is it all now? Nah 1:8. If it is not absolutely destroyed by direct mandate of a God of justice, in vengeance and retribution, for her sins against His people, Israel, Job 4:10-11; Eze 19:2; Eze 19:7.

Verse 12 describes how the lion, king of beasts, once made the kill, stalked and slew enough prey to satisfy the hunger of his lioness and her whelps, by tearing and strangling, and mangling and dragging the food to his hole, his cave; This symbolized the Assyrian king’s forays of destruction and tyranny against, and enslaving weaker people, as slaves and vassals, to furnish a livelihood for Nineveh, her queen and maids, etc., a source of her “stay and staff,” Isa 3:1.

Verse 13 recalls the lamentation and final decreed judgment of God for the total destruction of Nineveh and termination of the Empire of Assyria. The Holy God states directly that He will: 1) burn her chariots in the smoke, Psa 37:20; Psa 46:9; Psa 46:2) cause the sword to devour, cut down, her young lions, soldiers of youth, 3) cut off her prey or sources of good and livelihood from the earth, and 4) cause the voice of her message bearers to be silenced, heard no more, 2Ki 19:23. Ichabod had been written and decreed upon this corpse of 600 years duration. She had fallen, was now being buried, to rise no more, Nah 3:5; Eze 19:9; Eze 29:3; Eze 38:3; Eze 39:1. They shall no more prey upon smaller nations, demanding tribute and gifts of silver and gold.

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

The waster spoken of here by the Prophet, some consider him to have been Sennacherib, and others, Nebuchodonosor. The verb עלה, ole, is also variously explained: it is often taken metaphorically in Hebrew for vanishing, as we say in French, Il s’en va en fumee ; for smoke ascends, and this is the reason for the metaphor. They then elicit this meaning, — that a destroyer had ascended before the face of the chosen people, that is, openly; so that it was evidently the work of God, that the Assyrians vanished, who had come to lay waste the whole land: Vanished then has the destroyer; and then before thy face, that is, manifestly, and before thine eyes. מצורה נצור, nutsur metsure, guard the fortress; that is let every one return to his own city, and keep watch, as it is usually done; for the country shall be left without men; and watch the way, that is, look out which way Sennacherib took in coming to assail the holy city; that way shall be now free from enemies; and then, keep firm or strengthen the loins, for חזק, chesek, sometimes means to keep firm, — keep firm then or strengthen the loins, that thou mayest not relax as before, but stand courageously, for there is no one who can terrify thee; and, lastly, fortify strength greatly, that is, doubt not but thou shalt be hereafter strong enough to retain thy position; for cut off shall be that monarchy, which has been an oppression to thee. But others take a different view and say, — that the destroyer had ascended, that is, that Sennacherib had come; and what follows, they think, was intended to strike terror, as though the Prophet said “Now while ye are besieged keep watch, and be careful to preserve your fortresses and strengthen all your strongholds; but all this will avail nothing. — Why? Because God has taken away the pride of Jacob as he has the pride of Israel.” This is the second explanation. Others again think, that the Prophet addresses here the Assyrians, and that Nebuchodonosor is here called a waster, by whom the empire was removed, and Nineveh, as it has often been stated, was destroyed. According to these interpreters, the Prophet here denounces ruin on the Assyrians in this manner, — “The destroyer now ascends before thy face.” The Assyrians might indeed have regarded such threatening with disdain, when they were surrounded by many provinces and had cities well fortified: — “It will not be,” he says, “according to your expectation; the waster will yet come” before thy face; and how much soever thou mayest now guard thy fortresses, watch thy ways, and carefully look around to close up every avenue against thy enemies, thou wilt yet effect nothing; strengthen the loins as much as thou pleasest and increase thy power, yet this shall be useless and vain.” If this view be approved, it will be in confirmation of what has been previously said, — that God had now determined to destroy the city Nineveh and the empire possessed by the Assyrians. This meaning then is not unsuitable; but if we receive this view, something additional must also be stated, and that is, — that God now designed to destroy Nineveh and its monarchy, because it had humbled more than necessary his people, the kingdom of Judah, as well as the ten tribes. I cannot proceed farther now.

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

NAHUM AND THE DOOM OF NINEVEH

Nah 1:1 to Nah 3:19

THE discussion of the Minor Prophets provides a great opportunity for such speakers as our great Humorist George Ade describes in his story on The Preacher Who Flew His Kite High. If one wants to quote from learned authorities, these Minor Prophets provide occasion. There is so much about them that is not known, and never can be known that they provide an almost unlimited field for the speculations of the uninspired. In consequence, a great array of names is associated with the discussion of every one of these Books. Like Ades minister, one may quote from learned authorities all the way from Iceland to Italy, and find himself especially provided with German names.

I should regard a review of these names, together with their opinions, as worth my while if there was anything like agreement in their conclusions; but since their discussions resolve themselves into debates which leave every man a dissenter from his fellows, I count the process folly, and propose instead that we frankly admit the difficulties of date, place of writing, possible interpolations, etc. and settle down upon the most probable conclusion as a proper introduction of the study of the Book.

It seems likely that Nahum was a native of Galilee, until the time of the invasion of his land, and the deportation of the Ten Tribes, when he was driven out, taking up his residence in Jerusalem. From this point he witnessed the siege of the city by Sennacherib, and was filled with joy at the destruction of the Assyrian hosts in the reign of Hezekiah; and was moved by the Spirit of God to see in this memorable event an earnest of the coming downfall of the enemy of his people, involving the complete overthrow of Nineveh and the Empire of which she was then the central city. The date of his prophecy was about 712 B. C. He was therefore a contemporary of Isaiah and Micah. This by way of introduction. Now we shall turn to the study of the Book. It is a convenient arrangement and fairly complete I think, to discuss this Book under three Suggestions.

THE FURY OF THE LORD

Immediately after giving the introduction The burden of Nineveh, The Book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite, we have his initial sentence of prophecy

God is jealous, and the Lord revengeth; * * the Lord will take vengeance on His adversaries, and He reserveth wrath for His enemies.

This terrible sentence was full of consolation to Gods oppressed people. It was evidently directed against the Assyrian at whose hands they had suffered every indignity and hardship. And yet the Prophet of God conserves Jehovahs character, and in the same sentence describes His method of procedure,

The Lord is slow to anger, and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked (Nah 1:3). There are many sermons in that single text. I want therefore that we should dwell upon it this morning. Here men behold God in the hour of His righteous wrath, and yet in that hour three things must ever be remembered.

He is slow to anger! This is not the first time that Nineveh has offended. In our study of the Book of Jonah we saw that great city filled with such wickedness as incited Gods purpose of judgment. He said, Their wickedness is come up before Me. Jonah was dispatched to declare judgment, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!

But at the preaching of Jonah they seemed to repentproclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth from the greatest of them even to the least of them

It is easier, however, to clothe oneself in sackcloth and cover oneself with ashes than to quit the sins to which one has long been accustomed. We are not surprised therefore to learn, that danger overpast, the Ninevites returned again to their iniquities as the sow returns to the wallow.

That it grieved God to witness this degeneracy, no one would question; but that He waits a hundred years before sending another prophet to declare their just doom, illustrates Nahums claim, The Lord is slow to anger.

He is a God of such grace that the fruitless tree will not be cut down until another years cultivation has failed to bring fruit from it; of such grace that the world will not be flooded until many prophets have pleaded with it, and Noah himself has warned it for more than a century; of such grace, that even Sodom receives angels visits, if not a visit from the Son Himself, and hears the declaration from Divine lips, ere the fire falls. It is sometimes said of a hasty man With him it is a word and a blow. But such a remark can never be made of God. He is slow to anger!

The Psalmist said,

I saw the prosperity of the wicked. * *

They are not in trouble as other men; neither are they plagued like other men.

Therefore pride compasseth them about as a chain; violence covereth them as a garment. * *

Behold, these are the ungodly, who prosper in the world; they increase in riches. * *

When I thought to know this, it was too painful for me; Until I went into the sanctuary of God.

I wonder if coming into the presence of God, if being permitted that high privilege, does not convince every saved sinner of this great truth, The Lord is slow to anger.

He is great in power! (Nah 1:3). There is a natural relation between the sentences The Lord is slow to anger and great in power. The small, the insignificant, are quick to anger. Gods very greatness is here shown in His self-control. No man need fear that he will be smitten by Divine petulance. Patience will have been exhausted when penalty is inflicted. But when all patience is gone, not because God has lost it, but because man has despised it, power will still be with Jehovah, for The Lord is * * great in power.

The Prophet continues

The Lord hath His way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of His feet.

The mountains quake at Him, and the hills melt, and the earth is burned at His presence, yea, the world, and all that dwell therein.

Who can stand before His indignation? and who can abide in the fierceness of His anger? His fury is poured out like fire, and the rocks are thrown down by Him (Nah 1:3; Nah 1:5-6).

Joseph Parker reminds the men and women who spell nature with a capital N and boast their worship of it that their worship is climatic and Barometric. They are great on sunny Sabbath mornings when the sky is bright and the birds throats are bursting with music. Then you will find them walking abroad and declaring that in Natures Temple they have worshiped Natures God. But when the same God sends rain, they hid themselves to cover, and they do not find it in church either. When the same God sends thunder and lightning, they are filled with alarm. When the earth quakes at their feet, they lose all confidence in Natures God and appeal to Jehovah to save them. And their fears are better than their profession; for it proves that after all their fine speeches they understand that Jehovah is great in power and whether the storm shall sweep them as with the besom of destruction, or they shall be saved out of it by a plain providence, depends upon the will of Him who hath His way in the whirlwind and in the storm. In an hour like that, evil men are made afraid. They reason that if the natural elements can exhibit such wrath, who shall be able to stand when God shall speak in judgment?

That same hour, however, is a source of consolation to the saint for he can say, It is my Fathers hand and be free from fear.

The God that reigns on high,

And thunders when He please,

That rides upon the stormy sky,

And manages the seas,

This awful God is ours,

Our Father and our love,

He shall send down His Heavenly powers

To carry us above.

He will not acquit the wicked! (Nah 1:3). The very same God who is slow to anger, sees to it that sinners are punished. Concerning this evil city the Prophet has said, With an overrunning flood He will make an utter end of the place thereof, and darkness shall pursue His enemies. * * He will make an utter end: affliction shall not rise up the second time (Nah 1:8-9).

Evidently He proposed when he did deal with Nineveh to wipe her from the face of the earth. The Lord hath given a commandment concerning thee, that no more of thy name he sown. * * I will make thy grave; for thou art vile (Nah 1:14).

Is this the God whose Name is Love? Certainly! I can imagine no more unscriptural, insane conception of God, than that which they hold who think that when they have said God is love they have preached a whole Gospel, and effectually disposed of all justice, brought an end to all judgment. I can conceive of the devil as acquitting the wicked without repentance on the part of the latter. I can conceive of him as winking at all kinds of transgressions, but I cannot conceive of God as doing the same. Our best illustrations of divinity are found in good men, and our best type of his satanic majesty is seen in sinful men. Elevate the evil man and the good man to places of power and what will be the result? Gods man will call the guilty to account. Satans man will be a mayor or governor in whom the worst element will delight. Jacob Riis speaks of Tweed as ruling in New York City, and tells how, drunk with power and plunder, he insolently defied the outraged community. In his day, the sinners of New York rejoiced. They seldom had to come to judgment and some saints were foolish enough to defend him by saying, He never squealed, and he was so good to the poor.

How naturally that sounds to a Minneapolitan! What else would you expect of a bad man?the man who is out for buying votes, than that he should let off the guilty with ease? What else would you expect from a good man than such a course as Attorney Folk of Missouri once took? If God acquitted the guilty, He could be impeached from office. Men would have a perfect right to set up another King in His stead. We grow tired of all this sickly sentimentality about the goodness of God as employed by some people. God is good! Infinitely too good to let guilt go on forever without calling it to judgment. Joseph Parker was right when he said, It is a poor ministry that has no perdition in it. It may be a popular ministry. There have been persons who would not go to church because they could not endure the minister who taught that God would execute wrath against evil doers.

But let all such understand that they are not protesting against the preacher, nor yet against the Prophet Nahum who said it, but against the very God whose character demands it, and who will by no means dear the guilty! God was no more acting in keeping with His character when He saved Noah and his household than when He smote the rest of the world with His flood; when He delivered Lot out of Sodom, than when He destroyed the city with fire and brimstone! The physician who comes and cuts the cancer from my flesh hurts me deeply and destroys a part of my body, but that is no sign that he is not my best friend. Removing a diseased part is for the interest of life itself. Ah, beloved, even the fury of Jehovah finds its expression always along the lines of love, life, and holiness.

But I call your attention to the second suggestion.

THE FALL OF NINEVEH

The Prophets sentence is

He that dasheth in pieces is come up before thy face * *.

The shield of His mighty men is made red, the valiant men are in scarlet etc. (Nah 2:1; Nah 2:3).

Then follows a description of sacking the city (Nah 2:13).

Behold, I am against thee, saith the Lord of Hosts, and I mil burn her chariots in the smoke, and the sword shall devour thy young lions: and I will cut off thy prey from the earth, and the voice of thy messengers shall no more be heard.

These words demand two remarks. Sentence was spoken when Nineveh seemed secure.

McClintock and Strong in their Encyclopedia say, That the prophecy was written before the final downfall of Nineveh and its capture by the Medes and Chaldeans (about B. C. 625) will be admitted. The allusions to the Assyrian power imply that this was still unbroken (Nah 1:12; Nah 2:13; Nah 3:15-17). The glory of the kingdom was at its brightest in the reign of EsarHaddon B. C. 680-660, who for thirteen years made Babylon the seat of the empire.

It is altogether likely that Ninevites gave little concern to what Micah had said. The average sinner pays little heed to Gods predicted judgments. The only judgment that appeals to him is the imminent one, or better still, the evident one.

We are told that in 1712, Mr. Whitson, having calculated the return of a comet for the 24th of October, at five minutes past five oclock in the morning, gave out his information to the public, and accompanied this by the statement that the world would burn up on the Friday following; and the untutored people believed him. Here was a danger at hand, and before Friday came around many Londoners had left on barges and boats for mid-ocean, thinking that would be a safer place if the elements should melt with fervent heat. A Dutch ship cast all its powder into the river. A hundred and thirty-five clergymen were called to Lamberth to offer special prayer, there being none in the service for such an occasion. A gentleman who had neglected family prayers for five years resumed the same, and, on Thursday evening, persuaded his wife to put off a ball until they saw whether the comet appeared or not. Three young society women were known to burn their novels and buy every one of them a Bible and a copy of Taylors Holy Living and Dying; while more than 7,000 men, living in illegal marriage relations, secured the necessary documents and had a ceremony said. All this because a man, by a scientific calculation, determined the time of the appearance of a comet and miscalculated the result of its coming. The same people who were terror stricken when they saw that comet put into the heavens, according to prediction, were unconcerned about the prophecies of God and His predicted judgments for the wicked, when it is as certain as the sun shining in heaven that not one jot or tittle of these latter shall fail.

The antediluvians reap the result of such indifference; the scoffing Sodomites share in the same; the sinners of today refuse to learn the lesson. Arthur Pierson tells how those German astronomers left the stone at Aiken, South Carolina on which their meridian circuit rested in observing the transit of Venus in 1884, to stand for the use of those who in June 2,004 shall need to watch another transit and then he remarksThink of itthe faith of science in the inflexible order of nature! One hundred and nineteen years hencethree times, at least, within that space a generation will have perished; thrones will have been emptied of occupant after occupant; empires will have passed away; changes, whose number and gravity are too great now to be conceived, will have taken place; nay, human history may have come to its great last crisis and the millennial march may have begun; but punctual to a second, without delay or failure, Venus will make her transit across the suns disc. So while scoffers sneer and doubters question, while empires vanish and nations perish, prophecy moves steadily onward, and nears its grand fulfillment. To a second of time and to the last minute jot or tittle of detail, the prophetic word shall be fulfilled.

Sentence was executed in accordance with the Prophets speech. There are self-styled scholars who play the parts of critics and pick the Minor Prophets to pieces as improbable. Prof. Ira Price, himself a noted Archaeologist, speaking of the work of such men said, My science is daily wrecking their conclusions and proving the truthfulness of the Word. These prophecies of Nahum are a case in point. Dr. Layard, whose researches of the ruins of Nineveh were extensive, speaks of the words of Nahum spoken 2500 years before he did his work, and declares that he finds every evidence of their fulfillment to the letter. He uncovered the pavement at the Gateway and found it marked with the ruts of the chariot wheels, as Nahum had said in Nah 3:2. The ivory ornaments, the metal bowls, vases and saucers, most beautifully embossed and engraved, which he discovered, are accepted as described by Nah 2:9 the spoil of silver, * * the spoil of gold: * * there is none end of the store and glory out of all the pleasant furniture. While the prophecy, I will * * set thee as a gazingstock is strangely fulfilled when we find the remains of this ancient city on exhibit in the museums of Europe. Beloved, the very literalness with which God fulfills His every word should be a consolation to saints and a warning to sinners. When God says to His own people, I am He that blotteth out thy transgressions for Mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins, they should shout for joy. God keepeth His Word. But when God says, The wicked shall not be unpunished, evil men have occasion for alarm for God is not slack concerning His promise.

Some years ago, at La Porte, Texas, a young man who had come to the assembly grounds expecting to dance in the pavilion, but found Dr. Dixon there delivering a sermon, listened long enough to be convicted and angered. He walked two or three rods to an eating house and, while taking some refreshments, swore at Dixon, and as Dixon had been preaching on the Holy Ghost, profaned also His Name. A few moments later he walked over to the bathhouse, attired himself in a bathing suit, and leaped from the pier into the water.

The tide was out and the bay more shallow than he had calculated. His head struck the sands; his neck broke. A few minutes later he was brought back to the rooms where he had blasphemed the Holy Ghost, dead. It was just as God had said, He that being often reproved hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy (Pro 29:1).

Whether we are concerned with the predictions of men makes little difference, but when God speaks, let all the people attend to His sentences at the peril of their souls. Nineveh went as He had said!

THE INFLICTION JUSTIFIED

The last chapter of this Book is given to the defense of the Divine character and judgments. The Prophet maintains that Nineveh has been treated with justice.

Her bloody character brought judgment!

Woe to the bloody city! it is all full of lies and robbery (Nah 3:1).

We have already heard a description of what it was in Jonahs days. It was worse in Nahums days; a hundred years worse. Cities seldom grow in virtue! Their custom is to grow in vice. In commenting upon this passage, both Joseph Parker and Charles Spurgeon felt led to describe the sins of London, and to say, It is the worst city in the world. If you read Jacob Riis Battle with the Slums you will find that he thinks New York City is the worst. If you talk with a Chicagoan who concerns himself with the morals of that great metropolis, he will tell you that she is unrivalled in iniquity. I could take almost any man sitting before me this morning down the street tonight and convince him by two-hours walk, that Minneapolis is modern Sodom.. Some years ago a man who was perfectly familiar with La Crosse, Wisconsin, affirmed to me that her immoralities could not be surpassed; another gave me a mere description of Cedar Rapids, la. and a few days ago I listened to a man who, with tears in his eyes, told me a tale of debauch, involving even the professed Christians and church-members of a little city nearer at hand, that made me wonder why God had not swept it with a cyclone already, or cracked the earth beneath it and swallowed it up. Beloved, it may not be a mere accident that Galveston was drowned, that Chicago burned, or San Francisco was buried, or even that New Richmond, Wisconsin, was destroyed.

The Lord [who] hath His way in the whirlwind and in the storm knows just where the bloody city is, just when its cup of iniquity is full, and Who can stand before His indignation? and who can abide in the fierceness of His anger? His fury is poured out like fire, and the rocks are thrown down by Him. If there is one obligation more incumbent than another upon Christian men at this time, it is that of seeing that our cities are not built in blood. When years ago the Federation of Churches made a canvass of the 15th Assembly District, New York City, they found that the churches, schools, and other educational agencies, marshalled a frontage of 756 feet, while the saloon fronts stretched themselves over nearly a mile so that the compiler of these pregnant facts, said Saloon social ideals are minting themselves on the minds of the people at the ratio of seven saloon thoughts to one educational thought. This is the institution that some men and most of congress want back. All our cities had such plague spots, and some of us were content if we could only keep the plague in spots. Legislate the saloon evil away from the door of the well-to-do resident and locate it over against the poor tenement where children, who have no home attractions, will be tempted more than they are able to bear; and all this defended on the cowardly basis that we can do nothing to change it, or by that worse speech It brings financial profit to the city or country, which is the insanity of mens greed for success.

I tell you that for every dollar which comes into the treasury of a city, blood-stained and tear-rusted, and every cent which citizens receive by lying, theft, robbery, and oppression, they will be called to account. God will be saying, Behold, I am against thee, * * and I will discover thy skirts upon thy face, and I will shew the nations thy nakedness, and the kingdoms thy shame (Nah 3:5).

Her judgment was approved, by all, as just. Nahum says of Nineveh,

It shall come to pass, that all they that look upon thee shall flee from thee, and say, Nineveh is laid waste: who will bemoan her? whence shall I seek comforters for thee? (Nah 3:7)

There is no healing of thy bruise; thy wound is grievous: all that hear the bruit of thee shall clap the hands over thee: for upon whom hath not thy wickedness passed continually? (Nah 3:19).

The Prophet foresees, here, that the former friends of this city will desert her and say her sentence is just, and it will be in vain to seek comforters for her; while those against whom she has behaved herself wickedly shall clap their hands for joy when they behold her judgment. Such also will be the fate of all sinners. There is no fellowship of sympathy for the man who has continued in sin against God until his doom is sealed. Dives did not find one friend in hell. Many of you have read Vathek by William Beckford, and it is commonly conceded that Beckford is here reciting his personal history, including even the torments of conscience on account of sin. Think of the description which he gives of the final state of the wicked! Almost the same instant the voice of judgment announced to the Caliph, Nouronihar, the five princes, and the princess, the awful and irrevocable decrees, their hearts immediately took fire, and they at once lost the most precious of the gifts of heaven-hope. These unhappy beings recoiled with looks of the most furious distraction; Vathek beheld in the eyes of Nouronihar nothing but rage and vengeance, nor could she discern aught in his but aversion and despair. The two princes who were friends, and until that moment had preserved their attachment, shrunk back, gnashing their teeth with mutual and unchangeable hatred. Kalailh and his sister made reciprocal gestures of imprecation, but the two other princes testified their horror for each other by the most ghastly convulsions, and screams that could not be smothered; all severally plunged themselves into the accursed multitude, there to wander in an eternity of unabating anguish.

Then Beckford adds, Such was, and such should be the punishment of unrestrained passions and atrocious actions! What a marvelous illustration Beckfords words are that the sinner will consent to the judgment of the sinful.

But the Prophet says, All that hear the bruit of thee shall clap their hands over thee: for upon whom hath not thy wickedness passed continually?

It is no wonder that Gods people rejoiced in the downfall of this enemy, nor can one make it appear irreligious. What Christian regretted the overthrow of the Turkish power, and end to all Turkish supremacy, even though it should have involved the destruction of what we call the unspeakable Turk? Have not his abominations invited the severest dealing and if God should be pleased to bring him to an utter end would not the world be vastly better off, and the civilized at least clap their hands for joy? So also of the bloody Soviet! And one can very easily carry this thought up to that greater judgment when Jesus Christ shall overthrow every enemy and bring to utter defeat the Adversary and all his hosts. In fact, is it not true that good men pray ardently for the coming of such a day and the sight of that very event? I once heard Dr. Justin Fulton say that when at last the prophecy in the Apocalyptic vision was realized and an angel came down out of Heaven and laid hold on the Dragon the old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him * * and cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him he would like to stand where he could see the whole proceedings and lift his voice in song, Halleluiah It Is Done. And where is the Christian who would not rejoice with him, and who does not pray with Dr. Lowell Mason,

Hasten, Lord, the glorious time,

When beneath Messiahs sway,

Every nation, every clime,

Shall the Gospel call obey.

Mightiest kings His power shall own,

Heathen tribes His Name adore;

Satan and his host overthrown,

Bound in chains, shall hurt no more.

Then shall wars and tumults cease,

Then be banished grief and pain;

Righteousness and joy and peace,

Undisturbed shall ever reign.

Bless we then our gracious Lord;

Ever praise His glorious Name;

All His mighty acts record,

All His wondrous love proclaim.

Fuente: The Bible of the Expositor and the Evangelist by Riley

CRITICAL NOTES. Dasheth] Lit. disperser. Keep] in Judah peace, in Nineveh tumult. Watch] for the enemy. Loins] Prepare for conflict (Job. 40:7). Every means of defence will be necessary.

HOMILETICS

THE CAUSE AND PREPARATIONS OF WAR.Nah. 2:1

Whether these words be applied to the Jews defending Jerusalem, or to the Ninevites defending their city against the Medo-Babylonian army, their meaning is the same. They begin a lively description of the siege.

I. The cause of the war. For the emptiers have emptied them out.

1. The Assyrians had oppressed Gods people. They had abused their power in the chastisement of Israel, plundered the people, and outrageously destroyed their vines. Now the emptiers must be emptied, and those who chastised others must be chastised themselves. Power abused brings a curse upon its possessors. Power gives temptation, which in turn sets aside honour, social duty, law, and right; creates abuse; and abuse, strife, confusion, retribution, bloodshed, sin [Bailey].

2. Gods purpose concerning his people was accomplished. The enemy falls, but God will restore his people. He will re-establish the glory of Israel which Asshur had destroyed. Its eminence, by virtue of its election, will no longer be tarnished. God sees an excellency in his people which the world does not, and eventually will make them an eternal excellency, a joy of many generations.

II. The approach of the enemy. He that dasheth in pieces is come up. Notice,

1. The nature of the enemy. The dasher in pieces, not a hammer of war, but one whom God employed to scatter other nations. The feeblest people, in Gods hands, may be a terror to others The mightiest nations, intoxicated with success, and abusive of their privileges, may be broken in pieces like a potters vessel.

2. The nearness of the enemy. Before thy face. Direct against her, face to face. Men are not sensible of their danger, put the evil day far off, when it is nigh at hand. Serious things to-morrow, said the ancient prince, who gave himself to revelry, and was ruined with his kingdom.

III. The defence of the city. Some take the words ironically, and equivalent to a prediction. Thou shalt defend thyself, but all in vain. The most powerful and courageous preparations are matters of derision before God.

1. Keep the fortress. Keep the munition. Strong walls, though unassailable by human skill, would not be secure.

2. Guard the avenues. Watch the way by which the foe may come and repel him. Prevent entrance into the city.

3. Encourage one another. Make thy loins strong. Gather up courage, and let nothing be unemployed. Stand, having your loins girt about like men (Eph. 6:14; Job. 40:7).

4. Resist mightily. Fortify thy power mightily. It is a desperate affair, no careless, timid defence will avail. Nor will the utmost the wicked can do prevail against God. Impotent are all efforts of defence when God has departed from a place. The Lord hath opened his armoury, and hath brought forth the weapons of his indignation: for this is the work of the Lord God of hosts in the land of the Chaldeans.

ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 2

Nah. 2:1-2. Dasher in pieces. Demetrius was surnamed Poliorcestes, the destroyer of cities; Attilas called himself Orbis flagellum, the scourge of the world. Julius Csar was Fulmen belli, the thunderbolt of war; he had taken in his time a thousand towns, conquered three hundred nations, took prisoners one million of men, and slain as many. These were dissipatores indeed, and dashers in pieces, rods of Gods wrath; and this they took to be a main piece of their glory [Trapp].

Nah. 2:3-4. Chariots were objects of great interest. Their charioteers had an air of perfect fearlessness; they dashed along as if caring for nothing, but resolved upon crushing everything. These declarations are perfectly accurate, and cannot be more evident than the sculptures and bas-reliefs of Nineveh have shown them to be. Their chariots are represented, covered with costly decorations and Sabean symbols; and their horses are exhibited in almost every variety of attituderearing, running and rushingexactly as we should have supposed them to be, after reading that which is said of them in the prophecies.

The siege was no easy task. History declares that the king, at the approach of the enemy, collected all his active forcesthat the besieging army was three times severely defeated, and that the Medes could only be held with great difficulty to the work. The Assyrians abandoned themselves to negligent rejoicing in the camps before the gates on account of victory, but were attacked in the night and driven back to the walls. Salmenes, brother-in-law to the king, who had resigned the command to him, was driven into the Tigris (cf. ch. Nah. 3:3); but the city was still uninjured, and the enemy encamped in vain before the gates. In the spring of the third year other powers interfered. The river became an enemy to the city (cf. Nah. 2:7; Nah. 1:8-10). The inundation occurred suddenly, and violently broke down in one night the walls on the river. The king despaired of his life, and having sent his family to the north, shut himself up with all his treasures, and burned himself in the royal citadel. Immense booty was carried away. The city was plundered, sacked, and set on fire [Lange, Introduction to Nahum].

Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell

CHAPTER XIII

DETAILS OF NINEVEHS DOWNFALL

WARNING OF WAR . . . Nah. 2:1-7

RV . . . He that dasheth in pieces is come up against thee; keep the fortress, watch the way, make thy loins strong, fortify thy power mightily. For Jehovah restored the excellency of Jacob as the excellency of Israel; for the emptiers have emptied them out, and destroyed their vine-branches. The shield of his mighty men is made red, the valiant men are in scarlet: the chariots flash with steel in the day of his preparation, and the cypress spears are brandished. The chariots rage in the streets; they rush to and fro in the broad ways: the appearance of them is like torches; they run like the lightnings. He remembereth his nobles: they stumble in their march; they make haste to the wall thereof, and the mantelet is prepared. The gates of the rivers are opened, and the palace is dissolved. And it is decreed: she is uncovered, she is carried away; and her handmaids moan as with the voice of doves, beating upon their breasts.
LXX . . . It is all over with him, he has been removed, one who has been delivered from affliction has come up panting into thy presence, watch the way, strengthen thy loins, be very valiant in thy strength. For the Lord has turned aside the pride of Jacob, as the pride of Israel: for they have utterly rejected them, and have destroyed their branches. They have destroyed the arms of their power from among men, their mighty men sporting with fire: the reins of their chariots shall be destroyed in the day of his preparation, and the horsemen shall be thrown into confusion in the ways, and the chariots shall clash together, and shall be entangled in each other in the broad ways: their appearance is as lamps of fire, and as gleaming lightnings. And their mighty men shall bethink themselves and flee by day; and they shall be weak as they go; and they shall hasten to her walls, and shall prepare their defences. The gates of the cities have been opened, and the palaces have fallen into ruin, and the foundation has been exposed; and she has gone up, and her maid-servants were led away as doves moaning in their hearts.

COMMENTS

HE THAT DASHETH IN PIECES . . . Nah. 2:1

Destruction is neither distant nor doubtful. Nebuchadnezzar well deserved his common title: he who dashes nations in pieces. Jer. 50:23 calls Babylon the hammer of the whole earth.

There is to be no subtlety. The smasher has come before thy face in a straight forward attack. Nineveh is therefore called upon to man the towers and magazines and guard the avenues of the city, to encourage her troops and animate herself. There is no way to forestall the stroke of Gods judgement. Just as Assyria was used of God to chastise His people, so the Medo-Babylonian alliance will now punish Nineveh.
Will Durant, in his epic Story of Civilization, says, . . . Assyrian history is largely a picture of cities sacked and villages or fields laid waste . . . the weakness of Oriental monarchies was bound up with this addiction to violence. Ninevehs conquerors were simply repaying her in kind.

(Verse two) This verse is something of an enigma. Assyria had been used of God to chasten His people Now that very activity is published as the manifesto showing the causes of her downfall We can only understand this by bearing the covenant in mind.
All God has done in human history He has done for the sake of His covenant purpose to ultimately bless all people. The Jews erred in considering national prosperity to be excellence before God. It was never so. God is concerned that His people be faithful. He restores their real excellence by punishing their unfaithfulness. Assyria, who had been used of God to so correct Israel, i.e. restore the excellency, is now being destroyed by those who will later punish Judah.

The Assyrian policy of scorched earth against her enemies had earned her the title the emptiers.

THE SHIELDS . . . MADE RED . . . Nah. 2:3

Here we begin the prophets poetic account of the terrors of the invading enemy. Their shields are red with Assyrian blood. The men themselves are drenched scarlet with the gore of battle.
As the chariots approached the city, their charge was swift as lightning and their wheels struck sparks upon the stones.
The spears of the Medes and Babylonians are like a shaking forest of fir trees. As a mighty tree overtops a shrub, so the attackers overwhelm the defenders of Nineveh.

CHARIOTS RAGE IN THE STREETS . . . Nah. 2:4

The walls are breached . . . the gates are opened and the vehicles of war charge through the defenseless city streets. They are so numerous and driven with such fury that the red tunics of their drivers seem to be the flames of torches and the burning of the city begins.
Much of Nahums poetic vividness borrows from the literal appearance of the attackers. The dashing in pieces previously alluded to no doubt figures the instruments used to break down the stone and brick walls of the besieged city. The hammer-headed battle-axes of the Medo Babylonian troops could crush a mans head with even a glancing blow.
The red and scarlet of the bloody attackers was partly due to their uniforms of the same color. This color also would add to the fiery appearance of the chariots.

HE REMEMBERETH HIS NOBLES . . . Nah. 2:5

Nebuchadnezzars commanders, here called nobles, are mustered and commanded to take the field immediately. So swiftly do they obey that they stumble over the bloody stone streets. They hasten to secure the walls that are now approached by their troops.
The mantelet was a portable shield under which the invader was protected from the besieged defenders on the walls above.

THE GATES OF THE RIVER ARE OPENED . . . Nah. 2:6-7

At length the gates of the rivers would be opened. The western defense of Nineveh was the wall along the Tigris river. It was 4,530 yards long and connected to moats on the east, north and south sides of the city.
The Medo-Babylonian army engineers re-routed the river channel and the moats became a dry bed of march into the city. Cyrus would later turn the same trick against its Babylonian originators and so defeat Belshazzar.
Finally the defense of the palace itself dissolves and the Assyrian capital is no more. There remains only the moans of the captives and the doves, like the larks bravely singing over Flanders Field, flap their wings over desolation and death.

Chapter XIIIQuestions

Details of Ninevehs Downfall

In a prophetic vision, Nahum saw Babylons __________ and the armies of the Median __________ at the very gates of Nineveh.

Nebuchadnezzars common title __________ was well-deserved.

What sort of attack did the Medo-Babylonian alliance launch against Nineveh?

We can only understand Gods punishing of Assyria for destroying Israel, the purpose for which He had raised up Assyria, by remembering __________.

In warfare Assyria had practiced a __________ policy.

How does Nahum describe the chariot charge against Nineveh?

Much of Nahums poetic vividness is borrowed from __________.

What is meant by The gates of the rivers are opened?

Compare the refugee situation of Nineveh with that of modern war.

10.

Discuss take the spoil. Is this practice still followed in modern warfare?

11.

What is implied in Nah. 2:13 by the statement I am against thee?

Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series

(1) Keep the munition.Better, guard the for. tress. These four sententious directions to Nineveh are, of course, ironical, like Elijahs instructions to the priests of Baal in 1Ki. 18:27. He that dasheth in pieces may perhaps be identified with Cyaxares.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

SIEGE AND DESTRUCTION OF NINEVEH; SACK OF THE CITY, Nah 2:1-10.

From the declaration that the doom of Nineveh is decreed the prophet passes to a description of the carrying out of the decree. The army that is ordained to execute the judgment is already approaching (1); in imagination the prophet beholds its terrible attacks against the city, the glittering weapons, the raging chariots (3, 4). Desperate efforts are made to save the city, but in vain, and it falls (5, 6); the queen and her attendants are captured (7); the inhabitants flee (8); the city is sacked and left a desolation (9, 10).

Nah 2:1 is addressed, like Nah 1:14, to Assyria Nineveh.

He that dasheth in pieces Literally, he that scatters. Translated in Pro 25:18, “maul”; a similar word, which some think should be read here, is translated in Jer 51:20, “battle-axe.” The city is exhorted to prepare for the struggle.

Keep the munition R.V., “fortress”; better, fortification, the wall around the city. This is to be guarded, lest it fall into the hands of the enemy. Some render simply “keep watch.”

Watch the way By which the enemy approaches, so as to guard against disastrous surprises.

Make thy loins strong Perhaps equivalent to gird thy loins, that is, prepare for vigorous action (compare Isa 5:27).

Fortify thy power mightily Collect all thy power and resources; equivalent to strain every nerve.

In Nah 2:2 the translation of R.V. is undoubtedly to be preferred: “For Jehovah restoreth the excellency of Jacob, as the excellency of Israel; for the emptiers have emptied them out, and destroyed their vine branches.” The verse is taken by some as the continuation of Nah 1:15, while Nah 2:3, is thought to be the continuation of Nah 2:1. This transposition would greatly improve the development of the thought; and the only serious objection to it is that Nah 2:2, would be a weak conclusion of the first section of the book. In either case the thought remains essentially the same. If left in its present position, Nah 2:2 explains why Nineveh must be destroyed: to clear the way for the exaltation of Judah; if it is placed after Nah 1:15, it explains why Judah is exhorted to rejoice: because the excellency of Judah is about to be restored. Instead of “as the excellency of Israel” we should read “and the excellency of Israel.”

Jacob, Israel Synonyms, both referring to the southern kingdom, which was the only one in existence in the days of Nahum.

Excellency The nation, at present oppressed and afflicted, will be restored to the position of glory and splendor enjoyed in the days of David. This restoration must be accomplished by Jehovah, for the nation is in a hopeless condition.

The emptiers The enemies who at various times plundered and desolated Judah; the chief among these were the Assyrians.

Marred [“destroyed”] their vine branches Judah is likened here to a vineyard, or, perhaps better, to a vine, whose branches have been ruthlessly destroyed (compare Isa 5:1-7; Jer 12:10).

In Nah 2:3 ff. (continuing Nah 2:1) the prophet describes the attack of the besieging army.

His mighty men The soldiers of the hostile army are preparing for attack.

The shield is made red Since this is still “in the day of his preparation,” that is, before the attack and battle, the red cannot be caused by the blood of the slain; it must be some color other than blood reflected by the shields. Some connect this passage with Josephus, Antiquities, 13: 12, 5, which mentions “shields of brass (copper)” and “shields covered with brass”; these shields are said in 1Ma 6:39 , to blaze in the sunlight “like torches of fire.” On the other hand, there may be an allusion to the custom of “anointing” shields (Isa 21:5), which in some cases may have taken the form of coloring them.

In scarlet Again, not a reference to blood, but to the scarlet color of the uniforms (Eze 23:14).

The chariots shall be with flaming torches R.V., “the chariots flash with steel”; literally, with fire of steel are the chariots. An obscure expression. The word peladhoth, rendered “steel” in R.V., is rendered “torches” in A.V. (compare Nah 2:4, where the Hebrew has lappidhim); in order to get such meaning here, a transposition of the consonants must be assumed. The translation “steel” is based upon the meaning of a similar Arabic word, but in the latter language the noun seems to be a loan word from the Persian; if so, we would hardly expect to find it in Hebrew in the time of Nahum. A third translation, based upon the similarity of the noun with an Arabic verb, “to cut,” is “scythes.” This translation is made improbable by the fact that chariots furnished with scythes appear to be a later invention. Tradition ascribes the invention to Cyrus, and they are referred to for the first time in connection with the battle of Cunaxa ( Anabasis, Nah 1:8 ; Nah 1:10); in Jewish literature they are first mentioned in 2Ma 13:2 . From the same root “cut” there is derived the meaning “divide”; here, “fire which divides itself,” that is, flashing fire. This meaning also is doubtful. Jeremias has suggested that the word may refer to the steel coverings of Assyrian chariots or of machines used in attacks upon the walls. Following this suggestion, Cheyne proposes to change the word into hallopheth, the Assyrian halluptu, meaning “covering.” Whether the alteration is made or not, it is quite likely that Jeremias’s suggestion is correct. The text becomes smoother if “with fire” is changed into “like fire,” so that the entire clause reads, “like fire are the steel coverings of the chariots.”

Day of his preparation The attack is not yet in progress.

Fir trees Better, R.V., “cypress spears.”

Terribly shaken The verb occurs only here in the Old Testament, but the cognate languages establish the meaning “to move tremblingly,” “to reel.” Here the reference is to the swinging of the spears by the excited warriors. LXX. and Peshitto read “horsemen” or “horses,” and in view of the peculiar expression “fir trees” in the sense of spears made of fir or cypress wood many consider that the original; if so, the verb refers to the restless movements of the cavalry.

Nah 2:4 describes the furious charge.

The chariots Of the attacking army.

Shall rage Better, R.V., “rage.” It is a description of something present to the mental vision of the prophet. The verb means “to behave foolishly,” “to rave”; here it is used of mad driving (Jer 46:9; compare 2Ki 9:20), parallel to and synonymous with “rush to and fro” in the next clause.

In the streets broad ways Or, places. Not the streets and open places within the city, but those outside the city walls, where the battle rages. The defenders try to prevent the besiegers from getting inside.

Torches As the steel-covered chariots race to and fro in the light of the sun they look like flaming torches.

Like the lightnings With lightning-like rapidity they speed from place to place, driving back or treading down the defenders.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Nahum Chapter 2

(Chapter 1:15-2:13. ).

The Conquest, Plundering, and Destruction of Nineveh.

The conquerors of Nineveh would be Jehovah’s instruments, who would effect the destruction of the city with all its vaunted glory.

v. 15. Behold upon the mountains the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, of the messenger of joy hastening forward to bring the good news, that publisheth peace, announcing to Judah the overthrow of the enemies. O Judah, keep thy solemn feasts, resuming their celebration especially at this time, when the deliverance of the Lord’s people from violence and oppression constituted a further incentive for joy and thanksgiving, perform thy vows, those made in anticipation of this deliverance; for the wicked shall no more pass through thee, he is utterly cut off. The use of Isa 52:7 in this connection is very clear, and Luther is undoubtedly right in finding “here a Messianic allusion, especially since Assyria, as the great world-power, was the type of the antichristian forces which try to overthrow the Church of God.

v. 1. He that dasheth in pieces, the Babylonian invader, is come up before thy face, appearing before the walls of Nineveh. Keep the munition, rather, “Guard the fortress!” in an effort to withstand the foe; watch the way, having spies out on all the roads leading to the city; make thy loins strong, as a warrior preparing for battle; fortify thy power mightily. All this detailed description is given to emphasize the futility of these preparations.

v. 2. For the Lord hath turned away the excellency of Jacob, Jehovah being on the side of the invading army, and He intends to restore the glory of His people, as the excellency of Israel, when the covenant nation was at the height of its glory; for the emptiers have emptied them out, or, “plunderers have plundered them,”. and marred their vine-branches, outrageously destroying the land and outraging its inhabitants, so that the Lord felt obliged to avenge this indignity.

v. 3. The shield of His mighty men, of the heroes commissioned by the Lord to execute His punishment, is made red, all shining for the battle, the valiant men are in scarlet, their war-clothes being made of this color; the chariots shall be with flaming torches in the day of his preparation, blazing with their iron equipments, and the fir-trees shall be terribly shaken, the spears made of cypresses are brandished.

v. 4. The chariots shall rage in the streets, as they are driven furiously in the attack, they shall jostle one against another in the broad ways, running to and fro in the market-places or squares of Nineveh, all confused by the attack of the enemy; they shall seem like torches, as the light struck the steel ornaments of the chariots, they shall run like the lightnings, namely, as lightning plays in blinding flashes.

v. 5. He shall recount his worthies, the Assyrian king remembering, and counting on, his heroes; they shall stumble in their walk, all confused and uncertain in their effort to reach the point where the attack is launched against the city; they shall make haste to the wall thereof, and the defense shall be prepared. The entire paragraph pictures the haste and confusion which takes hold upon the citizens and the soldiers of a city which has been too secure and now finds itself surrounded by a host of enemies.

v. 6. The gates of the rivers shall be opened, the reference being to some natural or artificial inundation of the city which helped in its destruction, and the palace shall be dissolved, its inmates being overcome with terror and losing all semblance of careful thinking and planning.

v. 7. And Huzzab shall be led away captive, literally, “It is determined,” by God; “she is made bare,” namely, Nineveh, “like a ravished woman, and carried away. ” She shall be brought up, and her maids shall lead her, the inhabitants of the city being so regarded, as with the voice of doves, with mournful cries, taboring upon their breasts, beating upon them as though they were tabrets.

v. 8. But Nineveh is of old like a pool of water, a term expressing her great population and prosperity; yet they shall flee away, her great population leaving her to her fate. Stand, stand! shall they cry, in an attempt to stop the heedless rush; but none shall look back, refusing to return to the ravished city.

v. 9. Take ye the spoil of silver, so the victors are admonished, take the spoil of gold! For there is none end of the store and glory out of all the pleasant furniture, of the various rich treasures with which the palaces of the city were filled.

v. 10. She is empty and void and waste, literally, “emptiness and being emptied out and desolation!”. and the heart melteth, in utter discouragement, and the knees smite together, in the terror which cannot control itself, and much pain is in all loins, Isa 21:3, and the faces of them all gather blackness, all of them pale with fear. Thus the mighty city would be destroyed with all its rich treasures.

v. 11. Where is the dwelling of the lions and the feeding-place of the young lions, for the Assyrians liked to compare themselves with the king of beasts, where the lion, even the old lion, walked and the lion’s whelp, and none made them afraid? none of the nations, in the early days, daring to disturb the Assyrians in their possession of the land.

v. 12. The lion did tear in pieces enough for his whelps, as much as his young ones desired, and strangled for his lionesses and filled his holes, the dens occupied by him, with prey and his dens with ravin, his lurking-places with spoil. Even so the kings of Assyria heaped up treasures taken from every part of the world for the use of the inhabitants of Nineveh.

v. 13. Behold, I am against thee, saith the Lord of hosts, the ruler of the heavenly armies, and I will burn her chariots in the smoke, so that all her war material goes up in smoke, and the sword shall devour thy young lions, the mighty men of the city; and I will cut off thy prey from the earth, and the voice of thy messengers shall no more be heard, as they boasted of the might and prowess of Assyria and Nineveh. God has ways of subduing even the mightiest enemies, no matter how mightily they rise up in their own conceit.

Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann

EXPOSITION

Nah 2:1-13

Part II. THE EXECUTION OF THE DECREE; THE DESTRUCTION OF NINEVEH DESCRIBED.

Nah 2:1-8

1. Nineveh shall be besieged, because God is about to exalt his people by taking vengeance on the enemy, whose defence, howsoever formidable, is of no avail.

Nah 2:1

Nahum addresses Nineveh, and forewarns her of the siege she was about to undergo (see Introduction, I.). He that dasheth in pieces; the disperser; qui dispergat (Vulgate); , “panting”. The mixed army that invested Nineveh is so called from its effect on the inhabitants of the neighbouring lands. Others translate it, “the maul,” or “hammer”an appellation of Cyaxares, which reminds one of Charles Martel and Judas Maccabaeus. Is come up before thy face. Placing his forces in thy sight, that thou mayest see his power and thine own danger. Keep the munition. The prophet urges the Ninevites to guard their fortress well. Some connect this clause with the preceding: “the disperser is come to maintain the siege;” as the Vulgate, qui custodiat obsidionem. But the other interpretation is more forcible, and suits the rest of the verse. The LXX; reading differently, gives, [+ , Alex.] , “one delivered from affliction.” Watch the way, by which the enemy approaches. Make thy loins strong. Gather up thy strength, the loins being regarded as the seat of strength (2Ch 10:10; Job 40:7; Eze 29:7; 1Pe 1:13). So weak, effeminate people were called in Latin elumbes, “loinless.“ Fortify thy power mightily; . Make yourselves as strong as possible (comp. Amo 2:14).

Nah 2:2

This ruin shall fall on Nineveh because God is mindful of his chosen people, whom Assyria has oppressed. Hath turned away. It should be rendered, returneth to, or restoreth, bringeth back; reddidit (Vulgate); Isa 52:8; Hos 6:11. The excellency of Jacob, as the excellency of Israel. The Lord restores the glory and honour of Jacob, the nation in its political aspect, and the high privileges of the spiritual Israel, the chosen people of God (comp. Oba 1:18). For. Asshur is visited because Judah has had its full measure of punishment. The emptiers have emptied them out. The plunderers (the enemy) have plundered the Jews. And marred their vine branches. The heathen have cut off the members of Israel, the Lord’s vineyard. (For the metaphor “vine,” comp. Psa 80:8, etc.; Isa 5:1-30.; Jer 41:10.) Not only from what is read in the Bible (e.g.. 2Ki 15:19; 2Ki 16:7, etc.; 2Ki 17:3; 2Ki 18:14), but from the details in the cuneiform inscriptions, we learn that the Assyrians were a constant danger and annoyance to Israel, and harassed continually both the southern and northern provinces.

Nah 2:3

The prophet describes, as though himself an eyewitness, the army advancing against Nineveh. The shield of his mighty men is made red. “His heroes” may be either God’s heroes, as sent by him to war against the evil city, or those of the “dasher in pieces” of Nah 2:1. The shields of the early Assyrians were usually circular or oval in shape, formed of wicker work, with a central boss of wood or metal. In the latest period they were made straight at bottom and rounded only at top (Rawlinson’s ‘Anc. Mon.,’ 1.440). Some bronze shields have been brought to England from Nineveh; these are circular, about two feet and a half in diameter, the rim bending inwards, and forming a deep groove round the edge. The handles are of iron, and fastened by six bosses or nails, the heads of which form an ornament on the outer face of the shield. There were used also in sieges tall oblong shields, sufficient to protect the entire body, constructed of wicker work or the hides of animals. The shields are said to be “made red,” either because they were really so coloured (though the monuments have not confirmed this opinion), or else because of the polished copper with which they were sometimes covered (Josephus, ‘Ant.,’ 13.12. 5). Septuagint, pointing differently, , “the arms of their power from among men.” Are in scarlet. The word rendered “scarlet” is found nowhere else. Septuagint, mistaking the word, , “sporting in fire:” Vulgate, in coccineis. It is derived from the term applied to the coccus, or worm which was used in dyeing to give to cloth a deep scarlet colour (Henderson). Some have seen in the colour of the soldiers’ garments an emblem of the Divine wrath of which they were the appointed ministers. This colour was much affected by combatants in old times as in modern days. Professor Edwards quotes Aelian, ‘Var. Hist.’ 6.6, “it was necessary to enter into battle clothed in purple, that the colour might denote a certain dignity, and if drops of blood from wounds were sprinkled on it, it became terrible to the enemy” (comp. Xen; ‘Cyrop.,’ 1.3, 2). Red or purple seems to have been the favourite colour of the Medea and Babylonians (Eze 23:14), blue or violet that of the Assyrians (Eze 23:6; Eze 28:23, etc.) (Orelli). The chariots shall be with flaming torches; literally, are with fire of steels; i.e. flash with steel, and so the clause should be translated, as in the Revised Version. Commentators generally refer the description to the steel bosses of the wheels; but the Assyrian chariots (and those of the Medes and Chaldeans were not dissimilar) were conspicuous for shining metal, hung round with gleaming weapons and figures of the heavenly bodies, carrying bright armed warriors, the homes covered with trappings, which flashed under the sunshine, and fastened to poles of glittering steel. There is no trace in the monuments of chariots armed with scythes, which seem to have been unknown before the time of Cyrus. They are first mentioned in 2 Macc. 13:2 (see Livy, 37.41). The word peladoth, translated “torches,” is an . The LXX. renders it, , “the reins,” whence Jerome obtained his version, igneae habenae curruum; but it means, “things made of iron or steel,”and by critics uninstructed in monumental discoveries was naturally referred to the scythes with which chariots were armed in later times, instead of to the gleaming metal with which they were adorned. In the day of his preparation. When the Lord marshals the host for battle, as Isa 13:4. The fir trees shall be terribly shaken, i.e. the spears with their fir or cypress shafts are brandished. So Homer often calls the spear “the ash,” from the material of which the handle was made (comp. ‘Il.,’ 16:143; 22:225, etc.). The Septuagint rendering is very far from the present text, , “The horsemen shall be thrown into confusion.” Nor is the Vulgate any better, Agitatores cosopiti sunt, which is explained to mean that the invaders are so carried away by their courage and fury, that they act as if intoxicated. “Sensus utique non spernedus,” says a Roman Catholic commentator, “at unum desidero, ut scil. ex verbo ipso fluat“which is certainly not the case. The text is possibly corrupt, and might be corrected from the Septuagint. Certainly there seems to be no other passage in the Hebrew Scriptures where the metaphor of “cypress” is used for “a spear.” After the mention of the chariots, it is not unnatural that the writer should proceed, “and the riders are in active motion,” urging their horses with hand and whip and gesture (see Knabenbauer, in loc.).

Nah 2:4

The chariots shall rage in the streets. The chariots rave, dash madly (Jer 46:9) about the open ways in the suburbs, or in the plains of the country. The description still appertains to the besiegers, who are so numerous that to the Ninevites, looking from their walls, their chariots seem to dash against one another. They shall seemtheir appearance islike torches. Thus is described the gleaming of the chariots and the armour (see on Nah 2:3; 1 Macc. 6:39, “Now when the sun shone upon the shields of gold and brass, the mountains glistered therewith, and shined like lamps of fire”).

Nah 2:5

The prophet turns to the Ninevites and their preparations for defence. He shall recount his worthies; he remembers his nobles. The King of Nineveh calls to mind the mighty captains who have often led his armies to victory, and sends them to defend the walls (comp. Nah 3:18). The LXX; anticipating the next clause, adds here, , “and they shall flee by day.” They shall stumble in their walk. In their fear and baste, or half drunken, they totter and stumble as they hasten to the walls of the city. The defence shall be prepared; literally, the covering is prepared. If this refers to the operations of the Ninevites, it means some kind of breastwork or fascine erected between the towers; but it most probably depicts the sight that meets their eyes from the wails. They see the besiegers bringing up their mantelets and towers. As used by the Assyrians, the machine called “the covering” is either a wooden tower or a wicker mantelet in which was suspended a battering ram. It stood on four or six wheels, and the larger sort had archers posted in the various stories, both to annoy the enemy and to defend the engine. The rams were provided with lance headed extremities, and must have rather picked at and loosened the courses of bricks of which the walls were composed than battered them down. The Septuagint rendering applies rather to the besieged, , “They shall prepare their defences.”

Nah 2:6

All defence is vain. The prophet describes the last scene. The gates of the rivers shall be (are) opened. The simplest explanation of this much disputed clause is, according to Strauss and others, the following: The gates intended are those adjacent to the streams which encircled the city, and which were therefore the best defended and the hardest to capture. When these were carried, there was no way of escape for the besieged. But, as Rosenmuller remarks, it would have been an act of folly in the enemy to attack just that part of the city which was most strongly defended by nature and art. We are, therefore, induced to take “the gates of the rivers,” not literally, but as a metaphorical expression (like “the windows of heaven,” Gen 7:1 l; Isa 24:18) for an overwhelming flood, and to see in this a reference to the fact mentioned by Diod. Sic. (2.27), that the capture of Nineveh was owing to a great and unprecedented inundation, which destroyed a large portion of the fortifications, and laid the city open to the enemy. “At the northwest angle of Nineveh,” says Professor Rawlinson, “there was a sluice or flood gate, intended mainly to keep the water of the Khosr-su, which ordinarily filled the city moat, from flowing off too rapidly into the Tigris, but probably intended also to keep back the water of the Tigris, when that stream rose above its common level. A sudden and great rise in the Tigris would necessarily endanger this gate, and if it gave way beneath the pressure, a vast torrent of water would rush up the moat along and against the northern wall, which may have been undermined by its force, and have fallen in”. The suggestion that the course of its rivers was diverted, and that the enemy entered the town through the dried channels, has no historical basis. Dr. Pusey explains the term to mean the gates by which the inhabitants had access to the rivers. But these would be well guarded, and the open. ing of them would not involve the capture of the city, which the expression in the text seems to imply. The LXX. gives, , “The gates of the cities were opened.” The palace shall be (is) dissolved; or, melteth away. Some take this to signify that the hearts of the in. habitants melt with fear, or the royal power vanishes in terror. That the clause is to be taken literally, to denote the destruction of the royal palace by the action of the waters, seems to be negatived by the fact that the Assyrian palaces were built on artificial mounds of some thirty or forty feet in elevation, composed of sun-dried bricks united into a solid mass, and were thus secured from the effects of an inundation. There is evidence, too, that fire played a great part in the destruction of the temples and palaces (see note on Nah 3:13).

Nah 2:7

And Huzzab. The Anglican rendering (which has the authority of the Jewish commentators, and is endorsed by Ewald and Ruckert) takes Huzzab as an appellative, either the name of the Queen of Nineveh, or a symbolical name for Nineveh itself, as Sheshach, Peked, and Merathaim were for Babylon (see Jer 25:26 : 1:21; Jer 51:41; Eze 23:23), which was formed or adopted by Nahum for the purpose of describing its character. Huzzab may mean “established,” “act firm” (Gen 28:12), and confident in its strength; pual from natsab,“ to set,” “to fix” (Wordsworth). We may dismiss the idea that Huzzab is the name of the queen. Such a personage is unknown to history; and there is no reason why she should be mentioned rather than the king; and persona are not introduced by name in prophecy except for some very special reason, as Cyrus (Isa 44:28). The alternative rendering, “it is decreed,” adopted by Keil, Pusey, and many modern commentators, is unexampled, and comes in baldly, and not at all according to the prophet’s manner. Henderson joins the clause with the proceiling, thus: “The palace is dissolved, though firmly established.” The Septuagint gives, , “The hidden treasures are revealed,” or, “The foundation is exposed;” Vulgate, Miles captivus abductus est. It seems best to take Huzzab as an appellative representing either Nineveh or Assyria, as the country between the Upper and Lower Zab (Rawlinson, in ‘Dictionary of the Bible’), or as meaning “firm,” “bold.” Thus Egypt is called Rahab, “arrogant” (Isa 30:7); the King of Assyria, Jareb, “contentious” (Hos 5:13); Jerusalem, Ariel, “God’s lion” (Isa 29:1). Shall be led away captive; better, is laid bare. She, the queen of nations, is stripped of her adornments and igno miniously treated. She shall be brought up. She is carried away into captivity. “Brought up” may mean brought up to judgment, as Nah 3:5; Isa 47:2, Isa 47:3 (Pusey). Her maids shall lead her; rather, her handmaids moan. The inhabitants of Nineveh, personified as a queen, or the lesser cities of her empire, follow their mistress mourning. As with the voice of doves (comp. Isa 38:14; Isa 59:11; Eze 7:16), They shall not only show the outward tokens of sorrow, but shall mourn inwardly in their hearts, as the LXX. renders the whole clause, “as down moaning in their hearts.” Tabering; beating on a tabret. (For smiting the breast in token of sorrow, setup. Luk 18:13; Luk 23:48; Homer, ‘Il.,’ 18.31, .)

Nah 2:8

The prophet compares the past and present condition of Nineveh. But Nineveh is of old like a pool of water; and (or, though) Nineveh hath been like a pool of water all her days. Others, altering the points in accordance with the Septuagint and Vulgate, translate, “But as for Nineveh, her waters are like a pool of water.” This is what she has come to, for “her waters” represent herself. She is compared to a pool or reservoir (Neh 2:15; Neh 3:15) from the multitude of her inhabitants gathered from all parts of the world, and streaming unto her, both as tributary and for commercial purposes (comp. Jer 51:13; Rev 17:1, Rev 17:15). Yet they shall flee away. In spite of their numbers, the multitudes represented by “the waters” fly before the enemy. In vain the captains cry, Stand, stand. They pay no attention. None shall look back. No one of the fugitives turns rounder gives a thought to anything but his own safety.

Nah 2:9-13

2. The city is plundered, and henceforth lies waste, in terrible contrast with its former excellency,

Nah 2:9

The prophet calls on the invaders to come and gather the spoil of the city, which God gives into their hands. Take ye the spoil. Fabulous stories are told of the amount of the precious metals stored in Nineveh and Babylon. “Sardanapalus is said to have placed a hundred and fifty golden beds, and as many tables of the same metal, on his funeral pile, besides gold and silver vases and ornaments in enormous quantities, and purple and many-coloured raiments (Athen; lib. 12.). According to Diodorus, the value of the gold taken from the temple of Bolus alone by Xerxes amounted to above 7350 Attic talents, of 21,000,000 sterling money” (Layard, ‘Nineveh,’ 2:416, etc.; comp. Dan 3:1, where the size of the golden image or pillar, sixty cubits high and six cubits broad, shows how plentiful was gold in these countries). Bonomi: “The riches of Nineveh are inexhaustible, her vases and precious furniture are infinite, copper constantly occurs in their weapons, and it is most probable a mixture of it was used in the materials of their tools. They had acquired the art of making glass. The well known cylinders are a sufficient proof of their skill in engraving gems. Many beautiful specimens of carving in ivory were also discovered …. The condition of the ruins is highly corroborative of the sudden destruction that came upon Nineveh by fire and sword …. It is evident from the ruins that both Khorsabad and Nimroud were sacked and then set on fire. Neither Botta nor Layard found any of that store of silver and gold and ‘pleasant furniture’ which the palaces contained; scarcely anything, even of bronze, escaped the spoiler”. There is none end of the store; Vulgate, Non finis est divitiarum; Septuagint, , “There was no end of her ornament.” And glory out of all the pleasant furniture; literally, vessels of desire. It is plainer to translate, There is abundance of all precious furniture.

Nah 2:10

She is empty, and void, and waste. Bukahum’ bukah, um’ bulakah. The three words are of very similar meaning and sound, and express most forcibly the utter ruin of the city. A Latin commentator has endeavoured to imitate the Hebrew paronomasia by rendering them, “vacuitas, evacuatio, evanidatio”a translation more ingenious than classical. The paronomasia is better rendered by “vastitas, vastitia, vacuitas,” and the German, “leer und ausgeleert und verheert.” “Sack and sacking and ransacking” (Gandell). An analogous combination of words is found in Isa 24:3, Isa 24:4; Isa 29:2, Isa 29:3; Eze 33:29; Zep 1:15. Septuagint, , , “thrusting forth and spurning and tumult.” The heart melteth. A common expression for fear and despondency (Jos 7:5; Isa 13:7; Eze 21:7). The knees smite together (Dan 5:6). So in Homer continually, . Much pain is in all loins. The anguish as of childbirth. Septuagint, , “labour pains,” in contrast with the injunction in Zep 1:1 (comp. Isa 13:8; Isa 21:3; Jer 30:6). Gather blackness (Joe 2:6); or, Withdraw their colour; i.e. wax pale. But the Hebrew rather implies that the faces assume a livid hue, like that of coming death. Hence the LXX. renders, , as the burning of an earthen vessel, which is blackened by the fire; and Jerome, sicut nigredo ollae (comp. Jer 30:6).

Nah 2:11

The prophet asks, as if in consternation at the complete collapse of the great cityWhere is the site of Nineveh? Where is the dwelling (den) of the lions? The lion is a natural symbol of Assyria, both from that animal’s cruel, predatory; ravenous habits, and from its use as the chief national emblem. Nergal, the war god, has a winged lion with a man’s face as his emblem. See the figure in Rawlinson, ‘Anc. Mon.,’ 1:173, who adds that the lion is accepted as a true type of the people, blood, ravin, and robbery being their characteristics in the mind of the prophet. The feeding place of the young lions may mean the subject lands whence they took their prey. And the old lion; rather, the lioness. The lion is designated by different names, which may, perhaps, refer to the various satraps and chieftains of the Assyrian kingdom. There are the full-grown male lion, the lioness, the young lion able to seek its own food, and the whelp too young to find its own living. Instead of” the lioness.” the LXX; Vulgate, and Syriac, reading differently, give, , ut ingrederetur, “that the lion’s whelp should enter there.” And none made them afraid. They lived in perfect security, without fear or care, irresistible in might (Le 26:6; Mic 4:4; Zep 3:13).

Nah 2:12

The figure of the lieu is continued, and this verse, in loose apposition to the preceding, may be best explained by continuing the interrogation in thoughtWhere is now the lion that used to tear in pieces, etc.? The lion did tear in pieces enough for his whelps. The Assyrian monarch provided for his children and dependents by plundering other nations. His lionesses may mean his wives and concubines. It was the custom both with the Persians and Assyrians to assign towns and provinces to their favourites. Xenophon (‘Anab.,’ 1.4. 10) mentions certain villages as set apart for the girdle of Queen Parysatis. A Lapide quotes Cicero, ‘Verr.,’ 2.3. 33, “They say that the barbarian kings of the Persians and Syrians [i.e. Assyrians] are wont to have many wives, to whom they assign cities in this fashionthis city is to provide a girdle for her waist, that a necklace, that again to dress her hair; and so they have whole nations, not only privy to their lusts, but also abettors of them”.

Nah 2:13

I am against thee. The destruction shall be surely accomplished, because God himself directs it. Literally, I to thee (Nah 3:5; Jer 51:25; Eze 38:3). The Lord of hosts (sabaoth), Lord of the forces of heaven and earth, and therefore omnipotent. : I will burn her chariots in the smoke. “Chariots” stand for the whole apparatus of war and military power. Sop-tuagint for “chariots” gives , “multitudes.” Thy young lions. Thy fighting men, the metaphor being continued. Cut off thy prey. Thou shalt no more be able to pillage other countries. Thy messengers. These are the heralds who carried the king’s commands to his lieutenants, or those, like the imperious Rabshakeh (2Ki 18:17, etc.; 2Ki 19:23), who summoned nations to surrender, and imposed tributes. “O Nineveh,” writes St. Jerome, “thou shalt suffer all that has been spoken. I the Lord will burn to ashes thy chariots, and will cause thy nobles and satraps to be devoured by the sword; never again shalt thou lay countries waste, nor exact tribute, nor will thy emissaries’ voice be heard throughout thy provinces.”

HOMILETICS

Nah 2:1-10

A predicted invasion.

I. THE ENEMY DESCRIBED.

1. His violence. Nahum calls him “a dasher in pieces” (verse 1), and represents his warriors as “mighty” and “valiant” (verse 3)epithets which apply with fitness and force to the Merdo-Babylonian army under Cyaxares and Nabopolassar.

2. His boldness. He comes up against Nineveh, not stealthily and under cover of darkness, but openly, pitching his tent opposite the city gates. His fearless attitude was a proof that God was secretly impelling him, using him against Assyria as formerly Assyria had been used against other nations.

3. His invincibility. Nineveh may “keep the munition, watch the way, make her loins strong, fortify her power mightily,”all will be in vails. The onset of this terrible assailant will be practically resistless. Whether irony (Fausset) or poetry (Keil), the meaning is the same, that Nineveh’s utmost exertions will not be able to ward off her ruin.

4. His fierceness. With crimson-coated soldiers, bearing red-coloured shields and shaking terribly tall spears of fir, and with chariots flashing with the gleam of steel plates, his appearance was fitted to inspire terror (verse 3). “The chariots of the Assyrians, as we see them on the monuments, elate with shining things made either of iron or steel, battle axes, bows, arrows, and shields, and all kinds of weapons” (Strauss).

5. His impetuosity. The swiftness and the fury of his attack are vividly described (verse 4). His chariots the prophet represents as raging, driving on madly, through the streets, as crowding the broad spaces in such a fashion as to jostle against and threaten to run down one another, as flashing to and fro like torches, as running hither and thither with the celerity of lightning.

II. THE ATTACK EXPLAINED.

1. The Assyrian oppression of Israel. “The emptiers;” i.e. the Assyrians, “have emptied out” the Israelites, and “marred their vine branches” They had done so by their devastation and depopulation of the northern kingdom (2Ki 17:6), and by their repeated invasions of the southern (Isa 10:5-11; 2Ch 32:1). Now the time was come when they themselves should be emptied (verse 10) and their branches marred (Eze 31:12). Jehovah had employed the Assyrian as the rod of his anger to punish Israel and Judah; but he had never concealed his purpose, when this was done, “to punish the fruit of the stout heart of the King of Assyria, and the glory of his high looks” (Isa 10:12).

2. The Divine remembrance of Israel. Having promised never to forget her or finally cast her off (Isa 44:21; Isa 49:16; Psa 89:33, Psa 89:34), he had returned to the excellency of Jacob as to the excellency of Israel (Keil), or had brought again the excellency of Jacob as the excellency of Israel (Revised Version). Both renderings are admissible, and both conduct to the same goal. The doom of Nineveh was certain because Jehovah was about to restore Judah to her ideal excellence as “Israel,” and this he was to do by himself, returning to her as if she were an ideal Israel.

III. THE RESISTANCE BEGUN.

1. Suddenly. Nineveh at length realizes her danger and bethinks herself of her warriors: “He remembereth his worthies” (verse 5). Assyria had good generals and valiant troops; to these she now turns.

2. Hastily. Not a moment is lost. Men and marshals hurry to the wall. No time to trifle when such enemies as Cyaxares and Nabopolassar thunder at the gates.

3. Vigorously. The defence (Authorized Version), mantelet (Revised Version), or movable parapet, literally, the covering one, the testudo or tortoise (Keil), is preparedprobably “either a movable tower with a battering ram, consisting of a light framework covered with basket work, or else a framework without any tower, either with an ornamented covering or simply covered with skins and moving upon four or six wheels” (Keil).

4. Blindly. Their energy and haste only lead to confusion: “They stumble in their march.” The more haste, the less speed.

IV. THE CONQUEST COMPLETED.

1. The capture of the city. This was effected by forcing the gates in the city wall: “The gates of the rivers are opened” (verse 6). These were the gates leading from the river into the city (Luther, Keil), rather than the dams or sluices through which the waters of the river were admitted into the canals which protected the palace.

2. The demolition of the palace. “The palace is dissolved,” not by the inundation of water from the river (Fausset), since the palaces were usually “built in the form of terraces upon the tops of hills, either natural or artificial, and could not be flooded with water” (Keil); but by the inrush of enemies against it. The prophet means that “there will be no impediment to hinder the approach of enemies, for all the fortresses will melt away, and that of themselves, as though they were walls of paper, and the stones as though they were water” (Calvin).

3. The deportation of the queen. “And Huzzab is uncovered,” etc. (verse 7). This may signify either that the consort of the king is seized, degraded, and borne off into inglorious exile (Ewald), or that Nineveh, personified as a queen, is now cheered with shame, and that she who had formerly been established is now swept off into captivity (Keil, Fausset, Calvin). In the former cage the handmaids who accompany her, mourning with the voice of doves and beating on their breasts (literally, “hearts”) are the ladies of her court; in the latter, they are most probably the inhabitants who bewail the fate of their once famous city and kingdom (Calvin, Keil).

4. The flight of the inhabitants. “They,” i.e. the masses of the people, “flee away” (verse 8).

(1) Most unexpectedly, since “Nineveh hath been of old like a pool of water,” so strong, impregnable, and inaccessible to any foe, as well as so prosperous and flourishing that the thing least to be anticipated was that its inhabitants should flee from it.

(2) Most determinedly, however, they do so giving no heed to the few patriotic men who call upon them to remain. “Stand, stand, they cry; but no one looketh back” (verse 8).

5. The spoliation of the treasure.

(1) The quality of the treasuresilver, gold, pleasant furniture. “The Assyrians were celebrated for their skill in working metals. Their mountains furnished a variety of mineralssilver, iron, copper, and lead, and perhaps even gold” (Layard’s ‘Nineveh,’ 2:415).

(2) The quantity of the treasure: “none end of the store.” That gold, silver, and precious vessels should have been abundant in Nineveh is sufficiently explained by remembering, in addition to the mines just mentioned, the enormous tribute received and rich spoils carried off from conquered nations (‘Records of the Past,’ vol. 1:37, etc; 59, etc.).

6. The desolation of the scene. “She is empty, and void, and waste” (verse 10)the effect of this description being heightened in Hebrew by the combination of throe synonymous and similarly sounding words, buqah umebhuqah umebullaqah. Emptied of her population and despoiled of her treasure, she became a total ruin. According to Strabo, when Cyaxares and his allies took the city, they utterly destroyed it.

7. The horror of the vanquished. “The heart melteth and the knees smite together, and anguish is in all loins, and the faces of them all are waxed pale” (verse 10). “Hence we may learn how foolishly men boast of their courage, while they seem to be like lions; for God can in a moment so melt their hearts that they lose all firmness” (Calvin).

LESSONS.

1. The retributions of Divine providence (verse 1). The destroyers of others may expect themselves to be destroyed (Isa 33:1).

2. The hopelessness of defending one’s self against the invasions of Heaven (verse 1). “Who would set the thorns and briars against me in battle?” (Isa 27:4; cf. ‘Herod.,’ Isa 9:16, “Whatever necessarily comes from God, it is impossible for man by any contrivance to turn aside”).

3. The true ideal of a nation’s greatness (verse 2)the dwelling of Jehovah in her midst (Psa 46:5).

4. The utter vanity of all earthly glory (verse 8). The world’s strength, riches, honours, are all destined to perish (1Jn 2:17).

5. The horrors of the wicked when the terrors of judgment come upon them (verse 10). “Then shall they say to the mountains and the rocks, Fall on us,” etc. (Rev 6:16).

Nah 2:11-13

The parable of the lion’s den.

I. THE DESCRIPTION OF THE SEN.

1. Its site. Nineveh, the capital of the Assyrian empire.

(1) Old, extending over centuries at least.

(2) Capacious, having caves in it for its prey, and room in it for the lion, lionesses, and lion’s whelps to walk about.

(3) Strong. surrounded on two sides by water and seemingly impregnablea secure retreat, in which its inhabiting wild beasts felt themselves safe.

2. Its occupants. The lions above referred to.

(1) The old lionthe King of Assyria,

(2) The lionessesthe queens and concubines of the reigning prince.

(3) The lion’s whelps, or young lionshis sons, princes, nobles, and warriors.

3. Its prey. The spoils of the nations Syria, Phoenicia, Philistia, Israel, Judah, and even Egypt had felt the might of Assyria and contributed to swell the ravin she had stored in her cities.

II. THE DESTRUCTION OF THE DEN.

1. Its certainty. According to Nahum, Jehovah was against Nineveh, and that was enough to secure its overthrow. “The face of the Lord is against them that do evil,” etc. (Psa 34:16). Besides, his uttered threatening, “I will burn her chariots [i.e. all her military armament] in the smoke,” rendered her doom inevitable. The word of Jehovah can as little fail in threatening as in promise.

2. Its celerity. So little difficult would be the task to Jehovah, that he would not need fire, but only smoke, to consume the power of Nineveh. “In short, the prophet shows that Nineveh would be, as it were in a moment, reduced to nothing, as soon as it pleased God to avenge its wickedness” (Calvin).

3. Its completeness.

(1) Her warriors should be destroyed: “The sword shall de, our thy young lions.

(2) Her spoliations should cease: “I will cut off thy prey from the earth.”

(3) Her emissaries should be silent: “The voice of thy messengers shall no more be heard,” exacting tribute from the nations thou hast conquered. Learn:

1. That Jehovah is against sin in nations no less than in individuals.

2. That national wickedness is the certain prelude to national ruin.

HOMILIES BY S.D. HILMAN

Nah 2:1, Nah 2:2

God the Vindicator of the oppressed.

I. THE OPPRESSION OF THE CHOSEN PEOPLE BY THE ASSYRIANS.

1. This is expressed figuratively. “The emptiers have emptied them out” (Nah 2:2), had exhausted their resources, as the contents of a vessel poured out until every drain had been withdrawn, so had both Israel and Judah been impoverished by the Assyrians, “And marred their vine branches.” Ancient Israel was often described as God’s vineyard (Isa 5:1; Psa 80:9). This vineyard the foe had ruthlessly invaded, casting down and injuring its fruit-bearing trees,

2. These figurative representations are sustained by historical fact. The more familiar we become with Assyrian history the more do we trace in that vast heathen power the prevalence of the haughty, overbearing spirit. Its rulers and people vainly supposed that national greatness consisted in the possession of might to be used in oppressing other nations and peoples. To be able to depict upon the walls of the palaces of Ninus battlescenes indicative of military triumph, accompanied by great spoil and cruel chastisement inflicted upon their adversaries, seems to have been their highest ambition. Their whole relationship to Israel and Judah was based upon this principle. The favoured of Heaven, having forsaken their God, and hence lost his protecting care, turned in their exigencies to Assyria for aid, bur only to find, in this supposed helper against their foes, a more powerful enemy. In this way the kingdom of Israel was first made tributary to Assyria by Pul (2Ki 15:17-20), and, soon after, its tribes were carried away into captivity by Shalmaneser (2Ki 17:3-23), whilst the kingdom of Judah in like manner became compelled to acknowledge the lordship of Tilgath-Pilneser (2Ch 28:16-21). Hezekiah sought to cast off the Assyrian yoke, but this only resulted in the nation, in Nahum’s time, being brought into circumstances of extreme peril (2Ki 18:13-17), and from which eventually supernatural help alone was able to deliver it (Isa 37:36).

II. DIVINE INTERPOSITION PROMISED ON BEHALF OF THE OPPRESSED. (Verse 2.) Such interposition had in a measure but recently taken place (Isa 37:36). “The angel of death” had “breathed in the face of the foe,” and had caused “the might of the Gentile” to “melt like snow,” and the oppressor to return humbled to his capital (Isa 37:37). The time, however, for the complete and final interposition of Heaven had not yet arrived. Still, it should come. The seer, in rapt vision beheld it as though it had been then in operation, and for the encouragement of the oppressed he declared that the Divine eye observed all that was being endured, that the Lord Almighty still regarded them with favour (verse 2), and would yet make them “an eternal excellency, a joy of many generations” (Isa 60:15).

III. THIS DIVINE INTERPOSITION EVENTUALLY TO BE EXPERIENCED VIEWED AS CARRYING WITH IT THE ENTIRE OVERTHROW OF THE OPPRESSOR. (Verse 1.) Asshur should in due course be brought low, and the yoke of bondage should fall from off the necks of the captives. In “the day of visitation:”

1. Agents should not be wanting to carry out the Divine behests. The defection of the Assyrian general, the forces of the King of Media, and the overflowing of the Tigris, should all combine to bring about the accomplishment of the Divine purpose; and these forces are here personified as “the dasher in pieces” (verse 1).

2. Resistance should be in vain. They might “keep the munition, watch the ways,” etc. (verse 1), but all to no purpose. The proud power must inevitably fall, and in its overthrow proclamation be made that it is not by means of tyranny and oppression and wrong doing that any nation can become truly great and lastingly established, but by the prevalence in its midst of liberty, virtue, and righteousness, Nineveh in her downfall

“… seems to cry aloud
To warn the mighty and instruct the proud;
That of the great, neglecting to be just,
Heaven in a moment makes a heap of dust.”

S.D.H.

Nah 2:3-13

The downfall of Nineveh, as illustrative of the Divine and the human dements in revelation.

There are two elements in the Bible, the Divine and the human. God speaks to us in every page, nor does he speak the less emphatically, but all the more so, in that he addresses us through men possessing throbbing hearts, and who were phasing through experiences like our own. We honour the volume as being in the highest sense God’s Word, nor do we honour it the less in this respect because we rejoice that he has been pleased to make holy men the medium of communicating his will. The account given in these verses of the predicted ruin of Nineveh must be taken as a whole, and in the graphic picture here presented to us we have strikingly illustrated this twofold character of the Scriptures of eternal truth.

I. THE ACCOUNT CONTAINED HERE OF THE PREDICTED OVERTHROW OF NINEVEH SERVES TO ILLUSTRATE THE DIVINE ELEMENT IN REVELATION. Nahum flourished in the reign of Hezekiah, and Nineveh was destroyed between B.C. 609 and 606). He lived and prophesied thus say a hundred years before the occurrence of the events he so vividly described, and when the Assyrian power was in the zenith of its prosperity. His announcements were very distinct and definite, and by placing these and the records of secular historians given at a subsequent period side by side, we sea how minutely the predictions of this seer have been fulfilled, and that hence, in making these, he must have been God’s messenger, uttering, not his own thoughts, but those which had been communicated to him by “visions and revelations of the Lord.” In Nah 1:10 we read, “For while they be folden together as thorns, and while they are drunken as drunkards, they shall be devoured as stubble fully dry.” The secular historian writes, “While all the Assyrian army were feasting for their former victories, those about Arbuces, being informed by some deserters of the negligence and drunkenness in the camp of the enemies, assaulted them unexpectedly by night, and failing orderly on them disorderly, and prepared on them unprepared, became masters of the camp, and slew many of the soldiers and drove the rest into the city”. In Nah 2:6 we read, “The gates of the rivers shall be opened, and the palace shall be dissolved.” The secular historian writes, “There was an oracle among the Assyrians that Nineveh should not be taken till the river became an enemy to the city; and in the third year of the siege, the river, being swollen with continual rains, overflowed part of the city, and broke down the wall for twenty furlongs. Then the king, thinking that the oracle was fulfilled, and the river had become an enemy to the city, built a large funeral pile in the palace, and collecting together all his wealth and his concubines and eunuchs, burnt himself and the palace with them all, and the enemy entered at the breach that the waters had made, and took the city”. In Nah 2:9 the prophet, as though addressing the adversaries of Nineveh, said, “Take ye the spoil of silver, take the spoil of gold: for there is none end of the store and glory out of all the pleasant furniture;” and the same secular historian already quoted informs us that the conquerors carried many talents of gold and silver to Ecbatana, the royal city of the Medea No language could be more explicit than that in which Nahum predicted the total destruction of the city (Nah 2:10-13; Nah 3:7, Nah 3:15-17). The Prophet Zephaniah used words equally plain (Zep 2:1-15 :18-15). Their utterances would have appeared very strange to the Ninevites at the time they were spoken; as strange, indeed, as similar utterances would appear if addressed at the present time to the inhabitants of our own metropolis; but they were true nevertheless, and the facts of history furnish abundant confirmations. For upwards of two thousand years after its overthrow, Nineveh lay buried in the earth. History and tradition indicated its probable site, and the mounds to be found in the supposed districts, and out of which the Turks obtained materials for building purposes, of evident antiquity, invited research; and within a very recent period such research has been carried on, the long buried palaces of the kings of Assyria have been discovered, huge sculptures have been carefully dug out of the mounds, and the national museums both of France and England are now enriched with these long lost works of art, testifying not only to the ancient splendour of the Assyrian empire and its capital, but also to the truthfulness of the prophetical records, and to the prophets as speaking and writing under the inspiration of the Almighty, and as being indeed the messengers of him who has said, “I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done” (Isa 46:9, Isa 46:10).

II. THE ACCOUNT CONTAINED HERE OF THE PREDICTED OVERTHROW OF NINEVEH SERVES TO ILLUSTRATE THE HUMAN ELEMENT IN REVELATION. Holy Scripture is remarkable in its varietynot variety in purpose, for this is single throughout, but variety in expression. History, prophecy, poetry, parable, proverb, miracle, biography, vision, epistle, are all laid under tribute. As there is a Divine element in the Bible, so also there is a human element therein. Whilst upon the writings of each of its contributors there is unmistakably the impress of the operation of the Spirit of God, there is likewise, throughout the whale, clear indications of the preservation of those natural gifts and endowments which the respective writers possessed. There was no suspension of the powers of the men who were honoured of God in communicating to their fellow men a knowledge of his will; but rather there was the retention of their own individual peculiarities and natural qualities, whilst the Divine Spirit operated through these and turned these to the most useful account. Biblical critics are agreed in recognizing “the classic beauty and the finished elegance” of the style of Nahum, and in assigning to this writer a place in the first rank of Hebrew literature. “The variety in his method of presenting ideas discovers much poetic talent in the prophet. The reader of taste and sensibility will be affected by the entire structure of the poem, by the agreeable manner in which the ideas are brought forward, by the flexibility of the expressions, the roundness of his turns, the delicate outlines of his figures, by the strength and delicacy, and the expression of sympathy and greatness, which diffuse themselves over the whole subject” (De Wette’s Introduction). “Nahum of all the prophets has the most impassioned style; and in none is found the change of numbers, of persons addressed, and of suffix relations, with such frequentness and immediateness as in him. At the same time, his language has wonder his energy and picturesque beauty. The painting does not embrace merely single rhythms and groups of words, but whole series; and in connecting his thoughts, he shows, with all his vehemence, great and varied skill” (Kleinert). His description of the siege and fall of Nineveh, contained in this chapter (verses 3-13), is wonderfully vivid. As we read the account, even at this distant date, the stirring scenes seem to live again, and to pass in review before us. We see the attacking warriors in their scarlet attire and with their chariots armed with sharp instruments of steel (verse 3), and the defenders of the city, suddenly startled, hastening their preparations, their chariots in the hurry jostling against each other in the streets, and the gallants summoned by the king hastening to the ramparts, which the foe is seeking with battering rams to cast down (verses 4, 5). We behold the overflowing of the river, facilitating the advance of the enemy, and paralyzing the people by reason of the popular tradition now seemingly being fulfilled (verse 6). We witness the inhabitants brought low in shame and dishonour, moaning like a captive woman (verse 7), or fleeing for their very life in hopelessness and despair, conscious that resistance is vain (verse 8). We view the spoiling of the citythe conqueror carrying away the gold and the silver to the Median capital, the trophies of victory (verse 9). Finally, we picture to ourselves the prophets of the Lord gazing upon the waste and desolation, reflecting upon the proud being abased, their offspring cut off, their gains confiscated, their boastful messengers silenced, and ascribing all the terrible reverses thus experienced to the righteous retribution of the Lord of hosts (verses 10-13); and we feel, as we linger upon the scene thus graphically portrayed, that whilst rejoicing in this volume of revelation as having been given by inspiration of God, and as containing Divine lessons abounding both in encouragement and warning, we may well prize it also even on the lower ground of its literary merit, and heartily rejoice in the infinite variety of human powers and endowments here consecrated to the presentation of the loftiest and grandest spiritual teaching.S.D.H.

Nah 2:13

Man incuring the Divine displeasure

“Behold, I am against thee, saith the Lord of hosts.” This attitude of God towards man

I. IMPLIES WRONG DOING ON MAN‘S PART. God is not thus adverse to man for naught. “His delights are with the sons of men” (Pro 8:31). Sin alienates man from God, and causes God to be righteously displeased with man.

II. INVOLVES MAN IN PRESENT DISTRESS. Man cannot be at ease whilst under the ban of Jehovah. “In his favour is life” (Psa 30:5). Separation from him through sin means disquietude and unrest. “The worst troubler in the world is a wilful heart.” “Conscience makes cowards of us all.” “The heart melteth, the knees smite together” (Nah 2:10).

III. RESULTING IN ULTIMATE RUIN TO SUCH AS WILFULLY PERSIST IN SIN. God is “the Lord of hosts.“ All power is his. “Who shall stand when he is angry?” (Psa 76:7). All have sinned, and hence have incurred the displeasure of him who “is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity;” but in Christ, whose day the seers saw afar off, God is reconciled to man; so that the distress and ruin indicated can alone result from man refusing to be reconciled unto God.S.D.H.

Nah 2:13 (with Nah 1:15)

The messengers of Nineveh and the messengers of Zion. a comparison.

“And the voice of thy messengers shall no more be heard. (Nah 2:13) “Behold upon the mountains the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace!” (Nah 1:15). Messengers, differing very materially in their character and mission, are referred to in these words. The messengers of Nineveh and the messengers of Zion are alluded to in these passages. A comparison of these respective messengers may prove suggestive and useful in its application to certain developments in these modern times. From the Second Book of Kings and the Second Book of Chronicles we learn that the heralds or messengers of Nineveh cherished the spirit of blasphemy with reference to the God of heaven. The faith of the pious Hebrews consisted in the recognition of the one living and true God, and of his providential care over all his creatures; and it was against this bulwark that the emissaries of Assyria constantly directed their assaults in words foul and filthy (see Rabshakeh’s appeal to the Jews, 2Ki 18:33-35; and his letter, 2Ch 32:17). The great and distinguishing characteristic of the messengers of Zion was loyalty to the God of heaven. Their feet stood upon the mountains, and their voice proclaimed to the people, “Behold your God!” (Isa 40:9); “Thy God reigneth!” (Isa 52:7). In the present age there are messengers who boldly declare their non-acceptance of the teaching that recognizes the Divine Being and his working, and who seek to disseminate their views, and in doing so are not particular if they blaspheme the God of heaven. And whilst there are such messengers in the world doing their injurious work, there are also those who are thoroughly loyal to the King of kings, who delight to show forth his praise, to tell the story of his love in the gift and work of Christ, and to seek to draw men in loving obedience to his authority and will. Note certain contrasts, then, suggested; thus

I. CAPTIVITY IN CONTRAST WITH FREEDOM. The messengers of Nineveh approached Jerusalem, to which Sennacherib was laying siege, but they bore no tidings of liberty. They claimed full submission, and declared that even this must be followed by captivity in a strange land (2Ki 18:31, 2Ki 18:32). The assurance of ultimata deliverance came from the messengers of the Lord (Nah 1:12, Nah 1:13). Sin is bondage. Evil passions, habits, desires, are fetters; a life of alienation from the true and the right is a life of hard bondage. Transgressors are slaves. And scepticism has nothing to offer such by way of helping them to escape. The messengers may expatiate to such a one upon the nobleness of virtue, may sound in his ears some wise sayings of sages and philosophers, may remind him of the injury he is inflicting upon himself, and bid him “be a man,” and “turn over a new leaf.” But he is down; he is conscious of moral inability; he lacks inward strength. Lo! the messengers of Zion come. They tell him of the great Father’s unwearying love, the Saviour’s obedience unto the death of the cross, the energizing and sanctifying Spirit ready to gird him with all-sufficient strength, the elder Brother who has proved his trials and his tears, and who is prepared to be near him in every season of need as his “strong siding Champion.” He feels the tidings to be “good;” is bowed low in penitence; his eye of faith turns to the hill called Calvary, and rises to the everlasting hills whence cometh help; the fettered soul is released, is free, for the messengers on the mountains have proclaimed deliverance to the captive, and the opening of the prison to the bound (Isa 61:1).

II. STRIFE IN CONTRAST TO PEACE. The messengers of Nineveh to Judah had nothing conciliatory to convey; they told only of contention and strife. The assurance that peace should ultimately be enjoyed came to the anxious King of Judah from God’s messengers, who published peace. The messengers of scepticism have no proclamation of peace to make; their work is altogether destructive; contumely is their delight; to seek to unsettle the minds of men and to shake their faith is their poor mission. It is the privilege, however, of the messengers of Zion to proclaim those spiritual and eternal verities in which the heart may securely and tranquilly repose, and to point to him who can quell every storm and give rest unto the soul.

III. GLOOM IN CONTRAST TO GLADNESS. Hezekiah and his people were in extremity; it was to them a time of “trouble;” but not a ray of hope came to them through the fears were confirmed; the foe was unrelenting. messengers of Nineveh. Their worst Their hope was in God, and in the words spoken by his holy prophets. So in the extremities of lifein sickness and sorrow, and specially at life’s close, hope springs not from unbelief, but from the words God has addressed to us through his servants. The gospel has no rival in such seasons. Scepticism has no voice then, or, if it speaks, it. but deepens the prevailing gloom; but the good tidings God has revealed dispels our sadness and fills the soul with immortal hopes. Happy messengers, who are thus enabled to “comfort all that mourn,” etc. (Isa 61:2)!

IV. SHAME IN CONTRAST TO HONOUR. The voice of all messengers who blaspheme the holy Name of God “shall be no more heard,” for God will put them to silence; but voices publishing his love and grace shall go sounding on through the agesthe bright succession of proclaimers shall not cease. Growing numbers shall be raised up who shall find their way to all nations and kindreds and tribes, until the glad tidings shall reach every shore, and the knowledge of the Lord shall fill the earth (Isa 11:9).S.D.H.

Verse 2:1-3:19

Wicked nations: 1. They are often allowed to exist on this earth until they reach a terrible degree of wickedness.

“He that dasheth in pieces is come up before thy face: keep the munition, watch the way, make thy loins strong, fortify thy power mightily,” etc. We take these two chapters together,

(1) because they treat of one subject, viz. the destruction of Nineveh;

(2) because scarcely any detached verse would supply suggestions for a practical discourse; and

(3) because our purpose in these sketches is not critical, but homiletic. The critical part has been admirably done by Henderson, Keil, and others, and is found in the Exposition. We shall therefore endeavour to gather up all that is practical in these two chapters under three general headings.

1. That nations are often allowed to exist on this earth until they reach a terrible degree of wickedness.

2. That it is the decree of Heaven that, however long they exist, the time must come when they shall be utterly destroyed.

3. That Providence often employs on, wicked nation to inflict ruin upon another. We shall devote a separate sketch to each of these propositions. Our subject now is that nations are often allowed to exist on this earth until they reach a terrible degree of wickedness. Assyria, the nation referred to here, was one of the oldest kingdoms in the world; it could count its age by centuries. Generation after generation came through centuries, played their part, and passed away, whilst Assyria stood. Its beginning is so far back that it is lost in obscurity. An early reference to it in Scripture will be found in Num 24:22. Reference to its capital, Nineveh, and its founder, Asshur, we have also in Gen 10:11. Our proposition suggests two questions

I. WHAT WERE ITS LEADING CRIMES? From these chapters we can infer a few.

1. Rapacity. The city is described as the dwelling place of lions. “Where is the dwelling of the lions?” etc. (Nah 2:11, Nah 2:12). “The point of comparison is,” says Keil, “the predatory lust of its rulers and warriors, who crushed the nations like lions, plundering their treasures and bringing them together in Nineveh.” As lions prowl about with ravenous instincts in search of their prey, and are utterly regardless of the sufferings and agonies they inflict, so long as they gain their object, so the King of Assyria and his minions went forth to rifle and to ruin distant countries, in order to augment their wealth and promote their aggrandizement. This rapacity seems to have been their habit; the city was a dwelling place of lions. What an enormity is this!man preying upon man like predatory beasts. The spirit of this rapacity lives too strongly in modern nations. It is seen, not only in aggressive wars, but in trade and commercethe strong everywhere preying on the weak for the sake of gain.

2. Cruelty. The lion instinct was so prevailing in the population, that the very city is called “the bloody city” (Nah 3:1). The golden rule, “Do unto others as you would have others do unto you,” was trampled in the dust. Instead of respect being paid to the rights of men, life itself was cheaply held; their feet were “swift to shed blood.” It lived by rapine. Its cruelty is handed down in its sculptures, where we have lions of every form, winged and unwinged. Cruelty is the worst stage of depravity. When all social love in the human breast gives way to malevolence, what have you but a devil? There are men in every age and country whose chief pleasure is to inflict torture. Atrocities are being perpetrated to a greater or less extent in all ages and lands. “Beasts,” says our great dramatist, “are not cruel save when urged by hunger;” but men are often so, and into a cruel nature it is impossible to work the humane and generous.

“You may as well use question with the wolf,
Why he hath made the ewe bleat for the lamb;
You may as well forbid the mountain pines
To wag their high tops, and to make no noise
When they are fretted with the gusts of heaven;
You may as well do anything most hard,
As seek to soften that (than which what’s harder?)
A cruel heart.”

3. Imposture. The city is represented as “full of lies and robbery” (Nah 3:1), or, as Keil renders it, “full of deceit and murder.” Falsehood and violence were rampant. The imposture or falsehood is expressed in the fourth verse, “Because of the multitude of the whoredoms of the well favoured harlot, the mistress of witchcrafts, that selleth nations through her whoredoms, and families through her witchcrafts.” “The idolatrous practices of the Ninevites, and the means which they employed to seduce others to worship their gods, are here represented as the principal cause of their destruction. At the same time, the commerce, luxury, etc; which they carried to the greatest height, are not to be excluded; for in making contracts and treaties with the more powerful of their neighbours, they not only employed these as inducements, but did not scruple to deliver into their power nations and tribes that were unable to help themselves (comp. Joe 3:3, Joe 3:6, Joe 3:8; Amo 1:6). The metaphor of an unchaste female, and the seductive arts which she employs, is not unfrequent in the prophets” (Henderson). The cunning and deceptive policy is here called whoring or love making, because it was that selfishness which wraps itself up in the dress of love, but under the appearance of love seeks only the gratification of its own lust. It was a mistress of this art, and by it sold nations, deprived them of their independence and liberty. Such are some of the crimes here referred to, of which the Assyrians were pre-eminently guiltyrapacity, cruelty, imposture. These imply every species of moral evil, and moral evil in its most inhuman and ungodly aspects. Where these are there is no rectitude, no benevolence, no moral order, no true religion.

II. WHY WAS SUCH A NATION ALLOWED TO EXIST SO LONG? It was wicked from the beginning: why did not righteous Heaven crush it at the outset? Why was such a monster of iniquity allowed to perpetrate such enormities in the world from age to age? The question is similar to that which Job asked, “Wherefore do the wicked live, Become old, yea, are mighty in power?” (Job 21:7). Without presuming to penetrate the mind of God, or give the reason, we can see some important purposes which the continuation of the existence of wicked men in this world answers. It serves to show:

1. The freedom of the human soul. The natural tendency of all the blessings and beauty of life, the spirit of grandeur and beneficence that runs through all nature, are against wickedness and in favour of virtue and holiness. Notwithstanding this, men are wicked. They have a power to resist the Divine, to pervert the good, and outrage their own natures. Here is freedom of nature. Men are not bad by necessity; they are bad by their own free determination.

2. The wonderful forbearance of God. Though wickedness is to the last degree repugnant to his holy nature, and though by a volition he could annihilate a universe of sinners, through his infinite love he forbears. “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness, but is long suffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2Pe 3:9).

3. The existence of a future state of retribution. Under the righteous government of God such a state of things cannot go on forever. There must come an end, a balancing of the world’s accounts, and an administration of justice to every soul. Human society is in an abnormal state; like water in a flood, it is hurrying onward to a more settled destination. “The mills of God grind slowly.”D.T.

Verse 2:1-3:19

Wicked nations: 2. However long they exist, they will be utterly destroyed.

“He that dasheth in pieces,” etc. “The Scripture,” says Sherlock,” takes notice of a certain measure of iniquity, which is filling up from one generation to another, till at last it makes a nation or family ripe for destruction. And although these persons on whom this vengeance falls suffer no more than their own personal sin deserved, yet, because the sins of former generations, which they equal or outdo, make it time for God utterly to destroy them, the punishment due to the sins of many generations is said to fall upon them” (Gen 15:16; 2Ki 24:3, 2Ki 24:4; Mat 23:32-36). So thorough was the destruction of Nineveh, that its very site for ages was a matter of conjecture. The wonderful discoveries of Botta in 1842, followed up by Layard in 1845, not only determined its site, but disclosed the dwellings, ornaments, history, manners, of the inhabitants of the old Assyrian metropolis. Now, in the prophecy which Nahum gives, we learn that its destruction reveals several things.

I. THE FRUITLESSNESS OF THE MOST STRENUOUS EFFORTS OF RESISTANCE. “Keep the munition, watch the way, make thy loins strong, fortify thy power mightily” (Nah 2:1). This is supposed by some to be ironical, and to meanDo your utmost to resist, concentrate all your forces, bring them into vigorous play, it will be utterly worthless. No doubt Nineveh, in her extremities, strove to the utmost to crush the invader and to preserve her own existence. But all efforts failed; its doom was sealed, its time had come, it had filled up the measure of its iniquity. There is no resisting God’s judgment when it comes. “There is no discharge in that warfare.” We learn from this prophecy that its destruction reveals

II. THAT THE SAME VIOLENCE WITH WHICH IT DESTROYED OTHERS WAS NOW EMPLOYED FOR ITS OWN DESTRUCTION. Nineveh was a city of blood, full of lies and violence, the dwelling place of ravenous lions, which had preyed upon other nations and ruined them. Now this violence is brought to bear upon them. “With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.” See the description given of its conquerors (Nah 2:3; Nah 3:2, Nah 3:3), “The shield of his mighty men is made red,” the emblem of slaughter. “The chariots shall be with flaming torches,” their wheels rolling with such velocity that they flash lightning from the stones. They “rage in the streets,” jostle against each other, and “run like the lightnings,” and there are the “noise of the whips,” the “rattling of the wheels,” the “prancing of the horses,” the flashing of the swords and the glittering spears. Crowds are struck down, “a great number of carcases,” there is “none end of their corpses; they stumble upon their corpses,” etc. The Bible is full of the doctrine of retributive justice; it abounds with examples of sinners receiving back in punishment the very same evils that they have inflicted on others. “Every man shall be rewarded according to his works.” How often it happens in the government of the world, that the deceiver is punished by deceit, the ambitious by ambition, the avaricious by avarice, the violent by violence “His mischief shall return upon his own head, and his violent dealing shall come down upon his own pate.”

III. THE WORTHLESSNESS OF ITS CHIEF METHOD OF DEFENCE. “The gates of the rivers shall be opened, and the palace shall be dissolved” (Nah 2:6). “The river wall on the Tigris (the west defence of Nineveh) was 4530 yards long. On the north, south, and east sides there were large moats, capable of being easily filled with water from the Khosru. Traces of dams, gates, or sluices, for regulating the supply, are still visible, so that the whole city could be surrounded with a water barrier. Besides, on the east, the weakest side, it was further protected by a lofty double rampart, with a moat two hundred feet wide between its two parts, cut in the rocky ground. The moats, or canals, flooded by the Ninevites before the siege to repel the foe, were made a dry bed to march into the city, by the foe turning the water into a different channel, as Cyrus did in the siege of Babylon” (Maurer). This, however, is not substantiated. “In the earlier capture of Nineveh by Arbaces the Mode and Belsis the Babylonian, Diodorus Siculus states that there was an old prophecy, that it should not be taken till the river became its enemy; so, in the third year of the siege, the river, by a flood, broke down the walls twenty furlongs, and the king thereupon burnt himself and his palace and all his concubines and wealth together; and the enemy entered by the breach in the wall” (Fausset). It is often thus with the sinner, that the very things on which he relies contribute to his ruin. It may be wealth, physical strength, genius, morality, etc.; but when judgment comes, these, like the Tigris, “flee away.”

IV. THE INEVITABLENESS OF ITS UTTER RUIN. The reason of it was, “I am against thee, saith the Lord of hosts” (Nah 3:5). “Art thou better than populous No?” (Nah 3:8-10)the Egyptian name for Thebes, the possession of Ammon. The populousness of Thebes and its wonderful natural productions did not save it from ruin. Her “strength” was “infinite,” yet she was “carried away into captivity;” if she could not resist, neither canst thou. “How vain,” says a modern expositor, “are all the defences of sinners when the Lord is against them! No-Ammon, or Thebes, was one of the grandest and most magnificent cities of the earliest ages. Yet her rampart and seawall, with her seemingly infinite strength, were of no avail to save her young children from being dashed in pieces and all her great men from being bound in chains. Such was to be the doom of Nineveh likewise. God acts on the same unchanging principle in all ages, and in the case of all nations. Unrighteousness towards man and impiety and idolatry towards God bear the same bitter fruits everywhere, however for a time transgressors may seem to prosper. Let us as a nation remember that our safety consists, not in our fleets and armies, nor even in the ‘multiplication of our merchants above the stars of heaven’ (Nah 3:16). Riches, like the cankerworm or the grasshopper (verse 17), certainly make themselves wings, they fly away (Pro 23:5). The strongholds (verse 12) on which we rely would fall before the invader as easily as the ripe fruit into the mouth of the eater, if God were against us. The nobles and captains who are the glory of England would soon be abased in the dust (verses 17, 18). Our security therefore depends on our godliness. Wickedness persevered in continually (verse 19) would bring on us a grievous wound, not to be healed, and the very nations now in alliance with us would clap their hands over us, exulting in the tidings of our fall Let us therefore repent of our sins as a nation, as families, and as individuals, and ‘bring forth worthy fruits of repentance.'”D.T.

Verse 2:1-3:19

Wicked nations: 3. Providence often employs one wicked nation to inflict ruin upon another.

“He that dasheth,” etc. “He that dasheth in pieces is come up before thy face.” “The disperser hath come up before thee” (Henderson); “A dasher in pieces comes against thee” (Keil). Who is “he that dasheth in pieces “? The Medo-Babylonish army. This mighty army, under the command of Cyaxares and Nabopolassar, composed of Modes and Babylonians, wrought the terrible destruction so graphically predicted in these chapters. And beneath its triumphant power Nineveh fell, between B.C. 626 and 608fell to rise no more. Both these powersthe Medes and the Babylonianswere pre-eminently wicked, as bad in every respect, if not worse, than the Assyrians. These were the battle axe with which God broke in pieces the Assyrian power. As a rule, in the government of the world, God employs one wicked nation to destroy another. Who destroyed Edom and Egypt, and Persia and Moab, and Greece and Rome? These were all destroyed by the hands of wicked men. Why this? Why does not the Almighty punish wicked nations by some other way? Why does he not destroy them without any instrumentality whatever, by a mere volition; or, if he employs instrumentality, why not the blind forces of nature, or wild beasts, or poisonous reptiles? Why should he employ wicked men as his instruments? The method clearly answers certain purposes.

I. IT MAKES THE PUNISHMENT APPEAR MORE TERRIBLE. Who would not sooner die by a flash of lightning, or a pestilential blast, or a predatory beast, than in deadly conflict with a man with whom he has measured his strength? In such a death passions are roused that burn in the centre of the soul, and a terrible humiliation is felt. A wicked man can have no greater tormentor than a wicked man. The greatest tormentors of fiends are fiends. In punishing wicked men in this way the Almighty declares to their consciences that they are so wicked that the wicked shall destroy them. Those of their own flesh and blood and character shall wreak vengeance on their head.

II. IT REVEALS THE ENORMITY OF SIN. Man was made to love his brother. His social instincts, his physical relationships, and the law of interdependence, as well as the laws of God, demonstrate this. But when you see him flaming with malign emotions towards his fellows, and wrestling in a deadly conflict, what a revelation of the enormity of sin! The battlefield is at once the product and the type of hell. Such a manifestation of sin is surely hideous enough to make us stand aghast with horror and hate.

III. IT SHOWS GOD‘S MASTERY OVER HUMAN ACTIONS. The wicked engage in bloody wars, and thus become the instruments in administering the just penalties of sin; not to obey the Divine will, but to gratify their own avarice, ambition, malice, and greed. They do not serve Providence by their will, but against it. God is such a Master of human souls that he “maketh the wrath of man to praise him”. It is not optional with man whether he shall serve God or not; serve him he must; the option is whether he shall serve him willingly or unwillingly, as an agent or as an instrument. God links the devil himself to that providential chariot which is bearing on his great purposes to their fulfilment.

CONCLUSION. Two things should be remembered in connection with this subject.

1. That the wickedness of nations does not necessarily imply wickedness in all their members. There are good men in every nation under heaven, even in the worst. There are Noahs, Lots, Daniels, Jobs, amongst the corruptest people.

2. That the ruin of nations does not necessarily imply the ruin of all their members. Nations are but assemblages of individualsabstractions, nothing more. They have no future existence; there is no Egypt, Persia, Assyria, Babylon, Greece, Rome, Germany, Italy, England, etc; in eternity. Nor are there any Churches there, Papal or Protestant, Conformist or Nonconformist. “Public bodies and communities of men, as such, can only be rewarded and punished in this world. This world is the only season for national punishments.”

“The individual culprit may sometimes

Unpunished to his after reckoning go.

Not thus collective man; for public crimes

Draw on their proper punishment below

When nations go astray, from age to age
The effects remain, a fatal heritage.”

(R. Southey.)

Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary

Nah 2:1. Before thy face There can be no doubt that this should be read before his face; namely, of that Belial spoken of in the last verse, and whose mighty men are mentioned in the third verse. It is plain from Nah 2:2 that the desolator was come up, not against Judah, but against the Assyrians. Houbigant renders it, for the Lord hath restored the glory of Jacob, as the glory of Israel, after the desolaters have exhausted them, &c. Dr. Warburton reads the latter part of the first and the second verse thus, Strengthen the garrison, guard the passes, invigorate the loins, exert your force mightily. Nah 2:2. For the Lord hath returned the pride against Jacob, and the pride against Israel: for the emptiers have exhausted them, &c.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

CHAPTER 2
THE DESCRIPTION

Conquest, Plundering, and Destruction of Nineveh. Nahum 1:152:14 (Heb. Bib., Nahum . 2)

1Behold! upon the mountains

The feet of him, who brings1 glad tidings;

That proclaims peace:
Celebrate thy feats, O Judah!
Perform thy vows;
For the worthless2 one shall no more pass through thee;

He is utterly cut off.

2The disperser has come up against thee [thy face];

Keep the fortress, look out upon the way;
Make strong the loins;
Strengthen thee with power mightily.

3For Jehovah restoreth the excellency of Jacob

As the excellency of Israel;
For plunderers have plundered them
And their branches have they destroyed.

4The shield of his heroes is made red:

The men of his host are clothed in scarlet:
With the flashing of steel the chariots [glitter]
In the day of his preparation;
And the cypresses are brandished.

5The chariots rave in the streets:

They run to and fro in the broad ways:
Their appearance is like the torches;
Like the lightning they rush.

6He remembers his nobles;

They stumble in their march:
They hasten to her wall,
And the defence3 is prepared.

7The gates of the rivers are opened;

And the palace is dissolved.

8It is determined:4

She is made bare and carried away;
And her maids moan like doves,
Smiting upon their breasts.

9And Nineveh is like a pool of water from the time5 she has existed;

And they are fleeing!
Stand! stand!
And no one looks back.

10Take plunder of silver, take plunder of gold;

There is no end to the store:6

[There is] abundance of all desirable vessels.

11Emptying, and emptiedness, and wasteness:

And the heart melts;
And [there is] tottering of knees:
[There is] intense pain in all loins;
And all faces withdraw their brightness.7

EXEGETICAL

As the announcement Nah 1:7 if. closes the delineation of the catastrophe, by immediately introducing the Divine sentence Nah 1:12 ff., so the description itself [Nah 2:1-11] begins with a consolatory address, a ray of light for the people of God, in the midst of the approaching night of judgment against Nineveh. Behold on the mountains which separate Nineveh from Jerusalem, and to which the dejected look of the despairing should raise itself (Psa 121:1), the feetand not simply these; but they are mentioned as that, which is specially valued in a messenger: he hastens, because he brings good tidingsof the messenger of joy. is not a definite individual, but every one collectively, who brings the tidings. Who announces peace. is the accusative, denoting the thing proclaimed, as in Hab 1:2. The messenger of joy (comp. Isa 52:7) begins his address with the salutation of peace, , and continues: Keep thy feasts, O Judah, for no more will the battle-cry of the disturber sound in thee (Isa 16:9); pay thy vows, which thou didst promise in anguish, when thou desiredst to be delivered from the oppressor (Gen 28:20 ff.). For the worthless shall no more pass through thee; for he is wholly destroyed. (Nah 1:11), according to the etymon of the thing, designates the author [the concreteC. E.] as in 2Sa 23:6. , he taken collectively, i. e. his whole people (Nah 1:12); the orthography ( for ) as in Hab 1:9. The concluding sentence shows the same abbreviation as that in Nah 1:14, a form of energetic expression frequent in prophecy. In a genuine prophetic manner, the result, the joy of Judah, is mentioned first; after which, in. the address directed against Nineveh, Nah 2:2 ff., follows the real prophecy, the description of the catastrophe, assigning the reason [of the judgment.C. E.]

Comp. Isa 2:10 ff. This is intimately and plainly connected with the course of the work of destruction. The dasher in pieces comes up against thee (Nineveh was situated on the upper course of the Tigris), whom God employed for dispersing the world-power rallied against Him (comp. Jer 51:20), as He had done on a former occasion (Gen 11:8). The prophet fixes ( and the sing. ) his eye especially upon the King of Babylon (comp. above Introd. 4). He comes up against thee,literally against thy face,before whom the earth was once dumb with fear (Isa 5:25). Nineveh arms itself against him, forsooth in vain: Guard the fortress! infinitive absolute for the imperative (Ges., sec. 131, 4 b); the imperative form has, as it often does in the prophetical style, the meaning of sarcastic description (comp. Nah 3:15 b). Look to the way, on which the enemies approach, in order to barricade it against them. Strengthen the loins! comp. Isa 5:27. Exert thy strength greatly.

[Keil and Delitzsch: cannot be addressed to Judah, as in Nah 1:15 (Chald., Rashi, etc.). It cannot indeed be objected that in Nah 1:15, the destruction of Asshur has already been announced, since the prophet might nevertheless have returned to the time when Asshur had made war upon Judah, in order to depict its ruin with greater precision. But such an assumption does not agree with the second clause of the verse as compared with Nah 2:2, and still less with the description of the approaching enemy which follows in Nah 2:3, since this is unquestionably, according to Nah 2:5, the power advancing against Nineveh, and destroying that city. We must therefore assume that we have here a sudden change in the person addressed, as in Nah 1:11-14. Henderson thinks that the words are addressed to Hezekiah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.C. E.]

Nah 2:3. For He who is with this enemy, is none less than Jehovah. He restores (comp. Isa 4:2) the glory of Jacob, at present humbled, yet on the way to grace, so that it becomes again as the glory of Israel, the favored [people], once in a glorious condition, called forever to grace (comp. Gen 32:28). The does not indicate comparison; but designates the standard [or rule], according to which the restoration is to result. Also elsewhere, though not regularly, the prophets observe this mode of speech conformed to the Torah, of designating by the name Jacob, given at his birth, the people standing in need of grace; and by the name Israel, bestowed by God, the people that have become partakers of grace. (Compare the expressions, worm Jacob and Holy One of Israel, in Isaiah 40. ff.). Cyril: , ,, The distinction of the Southern kingdom and of the Northern kingdom by these two names, is scarcely to be thought of, and it would in nowise assist in obtaining a meaning for the passage. That has the causative signification to restore, which following. Hengstenberg (Contributions, 2:104, on Deu 30:3), Keil and Strauss deny also in this passage, is not to be doubted in the constant mode of expression (and no where ), in which to take as acc. loc, is a mere artifice. [Comp. on Mic 4:10. Of the parallels cited by Keil, Exo 4:20 and Gen 50:14 have local; and Num 10:36 is poetic] In this passage the signification, to turn himself back to, is not possible, not merely on account of the , but also on account of the following ; moreover, Jacob at present has no glory, to which God could return, and the expression, God will turn again to the glory of Jacob, would be too insipid in the mouth of Nahum for that which he evidently intended to say.

[Keil and Delitzsch: (perf. proph.) has not the force of the hiphil, reducere, restituere, either here or in Psa 85:5 and Isa 52:8, and other passages, where the modern lexicons give it, but means to turn round, or return to a person, and is construed with the accusative, as in Num 10:36; Exo 4:20, and Gen 1:14, although in actual fact the return of Jehovah to the eminence of Jacob involves its restoration. , that of which Jacob is proud, i. e. the eminence and greatness or glory accruing to Israel by virtue of its election to be the nation of God, which the enemy into whose power it had been given up on account of its rebellion against God had taken away (see at Amo 6:8). Jacob does not stand for Judah, nor Israel for the ten tribes, for Nahum never refers to the ten tribes, in distinction from Judah; and Oba 1:18, where Jacob is distinguished from the house of Joseph, is of a totally different character Both names stand here for the whole of Israel.C. E.]

The expression is used by the oldest prophets in a bad sense (pride, haughtiness of Israel, Amo 6:8; Hos 5:5; Hos 7:10); but in Isa 4:2 in a good one. The glory is restored, for plunderers (Isa 24:1), chastisers who abused their power, have plundered themthe Israelites; and their vines (comp. Psa 80:9 ff.) they have outrageously destroyed. Hence it is that the approaching distress, (Nah 2:4,) comes in His power: the shield of His [It is the opinion of Keil and Kleinert that the suffix refers to Jehovah (Nah 2:3), and not to , Henderson refers it to the latter, viz., Cyaxares.C. E.] heroes, the executors of the punitive sentence, commissioned by Him (comp. Isa 13:3; Oba 1:2), is red, the valiant men are clothed in brilliant scarlet; the chariots blaze with their iron equipments in the day of his preparation. In the closing words the subject is the disposition of the troops in battle array before the fight; hence the shields could not be made red with blood (Abarb, Grot.). But their redness, together with that of their uniform and of the metal ornaments of their chariots, is the color, first, of the joyous splendor of the host of divine warriors (comp. 2Ki 6:17); then it is the color of [those who executeC. E.] the judgment (Zec 1:8; Rev 6:4). That this red light from the shields could proceed from their copper covering (Hitz. according to Jos., Ant., 13:12, 5), is possible, without being necessary to the interpretation. Gosse [Ass., p. 279) says (comp. 1Ki 10:16 f.): From the eagerness with which these shields (on a wall sculpture in Khorsabad) were snatched away, we may suppose that they were made of gold; and this suits just as well and perhaps still better the association of ideas of the prophet, who had no intention of giving us a dissertation upon arms, but a description of the flashing and glittering army. The bright red (, part, denom. von , purple worm), on the men of power, the select heroes of the army, is most correctly understood with Strauss and others, of their dress. Red was not the favorite color of the Medes only (Xenophon states that the Persians obtained from them ; comp. Pollux i. 13; , , ), but on account of Nah 2:2, we must not, with Strauss, think only of them; it was also the favorite color of the Babylonians (Eze 23:14; comp. Layards Nineveh and its Remains, p. 347): the favorite color of the Assyrians was blue (Eze 23:6; Eze 27:23 f.). is a hapax legomenon in Hebrew in Arabic and Syriac the corresponding words signify steal. Therefore are certainly not scythes on scythe chariots (Hitz.), for these do not occur on the Assyrian monuments, since they were first introduced by Cyrus; but the glittering steel equipment of the chariots generally: Nam Assyriorum currus, quales in monumentis conspicimus horrent fulgentibus rebus, seu e ferro seu e chalybe factis, securibus, arcubus, sagittis clypeisque et quibusvis instrumentis; equi rubris cirris ornati, temones denique fulgentibus solibus lunisque apparent distincti. Strauss. Raschi conjectures the same thing. Comp. also Jos 17:16; Jdg 1:19. God is to be considered the subject of ; so above the suffix in refers to Him. And the cypresses, the spears made of cypresses, are brandished, literally, made to reel; here also the brandishing of the lances for throwing does not seem to be meant; but the glittering of the forest of approaching lances over the scarlet sheen of the army.

In contrast with this there is indeed, Nah 2:5 f., a very different scene in Nineveh. Without, God arranges his hosts: within is the disorder of wild terror: without, a steady approach against the city, within, a frantic rushing hither and thither: without, a joyful splendor: within, a deadly paleness, like torch-light. Through the streets the chariots rave [are driven furiously.C. E.], they run to and fro in the market-places, of which in Nineveh there were many, for an entire inclosed part of the great circuit [ein ganzer geschlossener stadtkr per des grossen Complexes] bore this name [the name rendered market-places aboveC. E.]. Rehoboth [i. e., streets, or wide placesC. E.] (Gen 10:11). Like torches, so pallid, not red like purple, is their appearance, that of the Assyrians: like lightning, so pale and unsteady, they shoot hither and thither. The intensive form , indicates the manifoldness of the direction, the zigzag of the lightning. Hitzig. The torches and lightning give a gloomy and not a joyful light; hence (Isa 13:8) anxious faces, which have withdrawn their ruddiness (comp. Joe 2:6; Nah 2:11, with Isa 29:22; Joel 4:15), are compared to them.

Hitz., Hlemann, Strauss, Keil refer, however, Nah 2:5, to the approaching army of conquerors: which would make it a continuation of Nah 2:4. But it is evident at a glance, that it stands in contrast with Nah 2:4. For in a city of the immense circumference and extensive circumvallation of Nineveh (comp. Jonah 3), when streets and places are spoken of, the pastures and commons before the city cannot well be meant, but only those within. Moreover, in referring it to the Assyrians, which Theodoret has already done (among the moderns Ewald, Umbreit), the transition to what follows, which the interpreters mentioned before cannot adjust, becomes plain of itself.

Nah 2:6. He, the King of Assyria, under whose eyes this frantic tumult fills the city, thinks of his brave men. are not the rich and noble (Marck, Strauss), but the heroes, as in Jdg 5:13 (parallel ), for these are the persons who alone come into account in the exigencies of war. But they also lose their footing, in the panic terror caused by God (comp. Jdg 5:11; Oba 1:9; Isa 19:14); they stumble in their paths, in their different routes of march, which they, in their hurry, took through the wide city, in order to maintain the hard-pressed point. They hasten to her, Ninevehs, walls, and arrive just in time to see the last work of the besiegers: there the testudo [see note on Nah 2:6C. E.] has already been erected. It is erected, for the Babylonians did not construct it as the Romans did (Liv. 34:9) by standing close to each other and holding their shields over their heads; but (besides the movable battering-rams, which went on wheels) towers, which were occupied by warriors, were built on a place and in a position before the walls: the whole formed a temporary building, whose top is represented in the sculptures as on a level with the walls, and even sometimes with the turrets, of the besieged city. Layard, p. 377. Comp. Deu 20:19 f.

Ver 79 b introduces a new turn: the elements interfere. The gates of the rivers are opened. These words have vexed interpreters. One understands by the gates of the rivers those which were situated down by the water, which the enemy broke open by storm: Luther, Tuch (who thinks that the east gate is meant, where the If Khosr enters and flows rapidly through the city into the Tigris), Ewald, Strauss, Keil. But Rosenm. justly replies: how foolish would it be in the enemy to make an attack just at the most difficult point, where nature assists the fortifications. The different explanations indicated by Rosenm., De Wette (rivers: rushing masses of the enemy); Hieron. (rivers: swarming population, comp. LXX. ), Hitzig (rivers: the streets of Nineveh); Umbreit (rivers, an image of calamity risen to its highest pitch) are make-shifts, which introduce obscure bombast into the pregnant expression. And if it is now certain that is not used in the Hebrew before the captivity for an opening effected by breaching the walls, but always for a voluntary opening, loosening ones self, opening itself; if it is never used at all for the breaking open of gates by enemies, but rather for the opening of that which has been kept locked up, of the fountain (Zec 13:1), of the sluices of heaven (Gen 7:11; Isa 24:18; comp. Eze 1:1); if finally, notwithstanding the consideration of Hitzig drawn from the locality, there is no reason to doubt the statements of the ancients, that in the third year the river became an enemy to the city, that by violent rains an unprecedented inundation took place and broke down the walls of Nineveh to a great extent (comp. Introd. 4; Diod. Sic., ii. 27; and the tradition of the surrounding inhabitants mentioned by Xenophon, Anab., III. iv. 812), why should the prophet make no announcement of it, since from the time of Deborah it was rather the manner of the Prophet to mention prominently such interference on the part of God? Jdg 5:20-21. He has at least even already plainly enough referred to something similar, Nah 1:8; Nah 1:10. (Comp. Duncker, l. c. i. p. 806 f). The objection of Strauss and Keil, that gates of the rivers cannot stand for gates opened by the rivers, has no pertinency, since the thing spoken of is the gates from which the formerly restrained, checked floods burst forth, the sluices of the inundations, and not this or that city-gate. The excellent natural fortification of the city effected by the rivers flowing around, which had, in no small degree, contributed to form just here the magnificent centre of the Mesopotamian despotism (Spiegel, x. 363), turns now to the destruction of Nineveh, since the rivers break its gates and overflow. Our opinion is the more recommended, because first, from it Nah 1:8, receives a much clearer light; secondly, the mention of the water very naturally follows that of the battering-rams, Nah 2:6; thirdly, Nah 2:10 a affords only, from this view, a plain meaning, and finally also the immediately following context fits in with it admirably: the Kings palace,, 1Ki 21:1, is dissolved. The derivatives of are used commonly for the melting of what is solid by destructive floods (comp. Nah 1:5 and Com. on Mic 1:4 f.). Thus the floods flowing around undermine the kings palace, so that it falls together of itself. The kings of Nineveh understood how to build (comp. Introd. 4, p. 101). They first erected a colossal, pyramidal, quadrate substructure, surrounded by walls with towers, gates, and outside stairs. On a plateau rose a second peribolus. Thus the structure towered through several stories and ramparts to the residence proper of the dynasty, to the two significant gates guarded by the mystic colossal animals. From the court of justice it mounted upwards, in the form of a terrace, to the private pavilions of the princes, which stood in isolated masses in shady garden-plots. And over all this arose as the crowning work, the high pyramid, with the terraces planted with trees, and outside stairs winding up to it. Above was found the sepulchre of the ancestral prince, who was forced upon the subjugated people as a god. Helfferich, Aphorismen ber den Kunststil, in the Morgenblaff,8 for 1852, p. 900 fF. [For a description of an Assyrian palace, see Layards Nineveh and its Remains, vol. ii. p. 207.c. e.]

The palace, indeed, of the last king (whom Nahum has not named), the so-called southeast palace, was less magnificent (Spiegel, x, 372; 1 c.). With propriety could the difficult word which follows, in Nah 2:8, be connected with the words, the kings palace dissolves, if, with Gesenius, we were to translate it, und zerfliesst, and it flows down. But the word [of which is the Hophal formC. E.] would occur only in this single passage: it, therefore, seems precarious to give up the old division of verses on account of an uncertain translation. The correction of Hitzig, , and the lizard is heaved up, is too far-fetched; and the shift of Ewald interpreting Hussab [Hebrew , the word in questionC. E.], as designating the Assyrian queen (which is found moreover in Nic. 5 Lyra, Luther, Burck, and others), is supported by neither the original text, nor by fact.

The king had caused the queen to be removed from the distressed city (Introd. 4). Just as little probable is it, that Hussab (the stronghold: the audacious) was intended to be a symbolical name for Nineveh itself (Schegg, Breiteneicher). We must, therefore, retain, with Strauss, the old solution of De Dieu and Seb. Schmid, which considers [C. E.] as an independent neuter sentence (comp. , Psa 49:12), and , as the Hophal of , statuere (Gen 28:11; Psa 74:17); and it is established, fixed; it is plain, and there the matter rests, namely, in the decree, which now to 10 b completes the description of the inundation. [Henderson connects with the preceding verse, and translates , etc., And the place (palace?) is dissolved, though firmly established. This rendering takes instead of as the root, but, with Gesenius, removes the word to the end of the preceding verse. Gesenius does not speak very positively: he says, under the Hophal of : Sed vix dubito, quin, ad prcedens comma referendum et a rad., repetendum sit, ubi vide. Thesaurus, p. 903. Keil follows De Dieu. The English Version reads. Huzzab, making it a proper name.C. E.], She is made bare, the not yet vanquished maid abandoned to the shame of capture (comp. Nah 3:5; Isa 47:3), removed away,, like the Latin tollere. The verb does not have the meaning of deportare, of leading into captivity: in all the six passages specified by Strauss in favor of that meaning, the Niphal is used, and that with the signification of getting ones self away. And her maids, the associated dependent states and cities (Theod. Cyril., Hieron.; comp. Isa 23:6 f.): not her inhabitants (Hitz., Strauss, Keil), for these in the inundating deluge have something else to do, they flee, or are already drowned: because the prophet sees the waves rolling over her, she is herself considered as removedmoan like the cry of doves (comp. Isa 38:14; Isa 59:11; Eze 7:16). The meaning of is rendered certain by the parallelism, by the versions, and by the dialects. Hitzig, Hieronymus: Tantus terror erit, ut ne in singultus quidem et ululatum erumpat dolor, sed intra se tacite gemant et obscuro murmure devorent lacrimas, in morem mussitantium columbarum, smiting on their breasts, a mournful gesture (Luk 18:23; Luk 23:27). It is noted in the Kri that the is wanting in (comp. a similar case in Ewald, sec. 258 a).

Nah 2:9. But Nineveh, like a pool of water are her waters. The rivers, on which it is situated, formerly flowing so rapidly into their beds, form by their inundation a large expanse of water; compare Nah 2:7. In accordance with the LXX., we read the consonants , Vulgate: . The Masoretic reading , since her days, does not give any correct sense, though we compare, with Hitzig, Isa 18:2. [Henderson and Keil follow the Masoretic reading. The latter says in Isa 18:2 is different.C. E.]

Nah 2:9 b11. After that the fury of the devastating element has made an end, all resistance is given up, and the abandoned city stands open to plunder. [The inundation could, on account of the elevated situation of the city (30150 above the bed of the Tigris), and the rapid descent of that river, be only very transient. And they, not the maids (Strauss), that would require , but the Assyrian warriors, whom the king, Nah 2:6, had summoned, flee (comp. Exo 14:27), because they could not contend with the united power of God and men. Stand, stand! he calls after them, which the prophet sarcastically rechoes (comp. Nah 2:2)but no one turns back. So then nothing stands any longer in the way of pillage: plunder silver, plunder gold!

Nah 2:10. Compare, on the immense quantity of the booty, the Introd. Jos., Ant., x. 11, 1. And endless are the dwellings to be plundered (Job 23:3). [The meaning of furniture (Strauss), of garments (Hitzig, comp. LXX. ) given to is not very probable: at the most, according to the etymology, the magnificent pedestals of the images of the gods could be thought of; but the tense of our translation guaranteed by the passage in Job is sufficient.] An immense quantity (Psa 49:13) of all kinds of ornamental vessels. And thus comes the illustrious city, Nah 2:12, to an end in misery: desolation, devastation, and destruction. For this pictorial accumulation of similar sounds compare Isa 24:1; Gen 1:2; Zep 1:15; Isa 29:1 ff. The place is laid waste by fire, etc. And the heart (sing. coll.) melts (for the form, comp. Olsh., p. 592) in complete humiliation and sorrow (Isa 13:7); and tottering knees and pain in all loins, a tragical contrast with Nah 2:2. And all countenances lose their color [literally, the countenances of all of them withdraw ruddiness.C. E.] (comp. Com. on Nah 2:5; Joe 2:6.)

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL9

The violent shaking, relatively the destruction of the heathen, is a requisite for the restoration of peace and prosperity in Israel, and consequently a condition of accomplishing their salvation. Compare Zechariah 1; Haggai 2. The destruction of the heathen is not an independent end, but a means to the end [the salvation of Gods peopleC. E.]; for God is a God of life and of glory. But Israel, upon whom He bestows in love such great blessings, has now no excuse, if he withholds from Him the honor due. The destruction of Nineveh is another item in the account-book which is held before those who withhold from God his feasts and their vows. Comp. Micah 6.

The overthrow of the enemy of God is not the work of men, but His work. A disperser comes up; men would be satisfied with the capture (comp. Obadiah). His heroes are Gods heroes; the terror which is in the city is a bewilderment of mind caused by God: stumbling in the level streets, trembling of the knees of heroes: irremediable and ceaseless flight of those accustomed to victory; and as a last sign that God approaches, He causes the powers of nature, which are subject to Him alone, to take part in the scene: He conquers: to the human conquerors he leaves the [task of] plundering; for as Nineveh had amassed gain, so must it be scattered. The fundamental thought of the patriarchal promise, the election of Israel, and the fundamental thought of the Law, the talio, meet very closely with each other on this point of the prophetic announcement.

HOMILETICAL

The passage, if one does not do violence to it, is to be treated only as a picture of the judgment, thus in a manner purely expository, or rather periphrastic, with interspersed observations. The homiletical part of the treatment can be limited only to the placing, on the one hand, of the whole under the three points of view given in the beginning (Nah 2:2-4), and to the rendering prominent, on the other, of the typical reference to the end. The judgment takes place, (1) because it is necessary to the peace of the kingdom of God (Nah 2:1; Nah 2:3 a); (2) because an evil accumulation of [the means of] human pride, [Hhen] (riches, power, worthlessness), must be destroyed (Nah 2:2); (3) because it is richly deserved. So will it also be at the last judgment.

On Nah 2:1. Even in the most gloomy night there is a ray of light for the pious. (On Nah 2:2 compare Kaulbachs mural painting of the Christians leaving Jerusalem.) Darkness is not dark to him who is near to God. Will it not be peace, when the great restoration comes, which no rude hand of the world, smothering and chilling, can snatch away! (Psalms 126).

Nah 2:2 f. The saying, hitherto shalt thou come, and no further, is applicable also to him accustomed to power and victory. For awhile God goes with him and strengthens his steps; then He turns to the side of the down-trodden.

Nah 2:4 f. So will the conflict of the kingdom of God against the powers of darkness always be: a joyful contest for order, which proceeds from God. But if those who would be his heroes, should tear one another, what will be the result? If they would keep still before Him, planless confusion would soon break forth in the ranks of the enemy, which would show that they are fighting against God. Then must the strong stumble in their paths. Julian and Libanius were strong. And the testudo is projected over their walls: Origen has outflanked the heathen philosophers. Neither equipment, nor the appearance of assembled power (Nah 2:2), nor capacity of hasty movement and vehement and varied activity (Nah 2:5), achieves victory in the battles of the kingdom of God: where God stands, there victory comes.

Nah 2:7 ff. Where human power is not sufficient to accomplish his saving work of destruction against his scourges, there He knows how to interfere himself (1812). That on which a powerful man most firmly relies, may become the severest instrument of punishment to him.

Nah 2:10 f. The greater the accumulated treasures, the more fearful the devastation. Whose will that be, which thou hast prepared, when thy knees tremble in the last agony?

Starke: Nah 2:1. Those who receive the Gospel with true faith possess in their hearts and consciences, as it were, a continual feast of joy. The Lord comforts and quickens: He leads into hell and out again. The Jewish people have still hope of being delivered from their miserable condition.

Nah 2:4 f. To those who, in times of peace, give themselves up to pleasure, and who, like irrational persons, rage and cry in the streets, the same evil will be requited.

Nah 2:6. If kings rely more upon their heroes and armies than upon God, they must become discouraged and flee before their enemies.

Nah 2:8. God can find us, wherever we are, when He intends to punish us.

Nah 2:9. God is not obliged to bestow his favors upon us continually. He can withdraw them on account of our ingratitude.

Nah 2:10. War is terrible; Lord, grant us peace!

Nah 2:11. Natural men, in adversity, allow all their courage to sink, and despair, when their goods, on which their hearts are set, are taken from them. It is certainly a great loss, when one loses money and goods, but not so great as when the heart falls into despair.

Ursinus: On Nah 2:1. Partly a congratulation, that the congregation [die Gemeinde] shall no more be destroyed; partly an exhortation to give God the thanks that are his due (2Ch 32:23).

Cocceius: God has given many swords to serve the Church, which have cut off the persecutors.

Rieger: The chief design in the judgment of Nineveh was that faith in the God of Israel should thereby be powerfully quickened, and the hearts [of Gods peopleC. E.] strengthened in waiting for the promise (Isa 37:31). It is probable that very good news was brought into the land of Judah concerning the fall of the Assyrian kingdom; and the prophet hereby shows how they should take advantage of the state of rest acquired for them by it, by means of good regulations in the Church and commonwealth, yea that they should entertain the hope, that the Lord would restore the glory or excellency of Jacob, and also bring the whole nation to its formerly flourishing state.

Schmieder: The peace newly granted by the grace of God was to be celebrated by a new consecration of the people (2Ch 30:1 ff.). The knave, i. e. Belial, who has evil in his mind against the Lord and his people (comp. Nah 1:11). This has special reference to the King of Nineveh and Assyria; and the promise in this reference must have been very precious to his contemporaries oppressed by Assyria. But to us the fundamental truth is far more important, that to the people of God a perfect deliverance is near at hand, and has already appeared in Christ, by which the Belial, from whom every wicked spirit (Belialsgeist) proceeds, is forever cast out.

Luther: On Nah 2:2. With this language he utters defiance, and speaks as if that were already present, which was still future.

Pfaff: Nah 2:11. So even the greatest kingdoms come finally to nothing, when the Lord in flicts upon them his penal judgments; and all their power is unable to quench and stop the fire of his wrath.

Footnotes:

[1][Nah 2:1. is collective, every one that brings the glad tidings of the overthrow of the enemy.

[2][, abstract for concrete. Compare Nah 1:11, , wicked counselor.

[3][Nah 2:6. , da ist das sturmdach errichtet (Kleinert), the vinea is erected. The vinea was a portable shed, or mantelet of boards, covered with wicker-work or hides, and served to protect from the weapons of the enemy the soldiers while undermining the walls.

[4][Nah 2:8. has puzzled interpreters, and has received various interpretations. Some suppose that it is intended to designate the Queen of Nineveh, here called Huzzab; but this opinion cannot be maintained, Gesenius, instead of deriving it from the hophal of , to set. to put, to place, has recourse to the root , which he borrows from the Arabic , to flow, trickle, of water, to pour; and, then connecting the word to the end of the preceding verse, reads thus: , the palace is dissolved and made to flow down, Keil makes it the hophal of , which, in the hiphil, signifies to establish, to determine (Deu 32:8; Psa 74:17; and Chald. Dan 2:45; Dan 6:13), and translates it, it is established, i. e., determined, sc. by God. Kleinert renders it: Und fest ists. The LXX. read .

[5][Nah 2:9. , an example of a noun in the construct before the full form of the pronoun. See Greens Heb. Gram., sec. 220, 1. a, p. 249. Since the days of her, i. e. since the time that she has existed. (See Keil and Henderson.) Kleinert renders it: Nineveh aber, wie ein Wasserteich sind ihre Wasser. The LXX. read: . The Vulgate has: Et Ninive quasi piscina aquarum aqu ejus. It is evidently the plural of , day, with the abbreviated preposition prefixed. Calvin: Atqui Nineveh quasi piscina aquarum a diebus (hoc est, a longo tempore) fuit.

[6][Nah 2:10.Kleinert renders , wohnungen, dwellings. Comp. Job 23:3 and Eze 43:11.

[7][Nah 2:11. , withdraw their ruddiness, or brightness, of countenance, i. e., becomes pale with terror.C. E.]

[8][A periodical published in Stuttgart.]

[9]Reichsgedanken. See note Com. on Jonah, p. 20.C. E.

Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange

CONTENTS

We have in this Chapter a very awful account of the Lord’s judgments. The excellency of Jacob and Israel is said to be turned away; and the Chapter is one continued account of solemn dispensations.

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

Most commentators have agreed, that as the burden of Nahum’s prophecy is concerning Nineveh, they confine the observations the Prophet hath made to the destruction of that great city. But, I confess, with me the subject appears to have a much higher and more spiritual meaning. And what is said in the last of those two verses concerning Jacob and Israel, confirm me in my opinion. For if the Lord hath turned away Jacob’s excellency, and if the emptiers have emptied them out, surely then Nineveh, as well as Babylon, may be considered as mystical. And in this sense we may discover the Church, here brought under affliction by the enemies of her salvation, and the exercises of Israel rendered subservient to the promotion of the Redeemer’s glory, and the final happiness of his redeemed. If we read this prophecy in this point of view, we shall find much of gospel in it; and the Lord here as in all other instances, correcting Israel in love and mercy.

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

XXX

THE BOOK OF NAHUM

The title of the book of Nahum is simply this: “The Burden of Nineveh.” It is committed largely to the prophecy of the destruction of the capital of the Assyrian Empire. The writer is Nahum. We know nothing about him. He mentions not even his father’s name. He simply mentions the fact that he was an Elkoshite. Where Elkosh was is disputed. There is a place in Assyria today called Alkush which the Arabians in the region say contains the tomb of Nahum, but the tradition regarding that only goes back as far as the sixteenth century and it is exceedingly questionable. There is a place mentioned by Jerome in Galilee called Elkesi, and Jerome and a great many other scholars believe that that was the home of Nahum, a little village in Galilee. This is doubted by others, and it has been found that there was a little village down in Judah called Elkesi also and some scholars maintain that Nahum had that as his home and that he lived in Judah. He evidently speaks from the standpoint of a Judean. Other scholars maintain that Nahum was one of the exiles transported from Judah and wrote his prophecy while in exile in Assyria. The reason for that is that Nahum seems to know exactly the fortifications and as we shall see the layout of the city of Nineveh, the siege of which he predicts. This theory is not to be credited at all.

The style of Nahum is the most vivid, perhaps, of all the Old Testament writers. In majesty it almost equals Isaiah. In the rapidity of its motion, its energy, its movement, in the imagination displayed he even surpassed Isaiah. This is one of the finest pieces of literature in all the world. The date of this prophecy is somewhere between 663B.C. & 607 BC.; 663 B.C. being the date upon which Ashurbanipal, king of Assyria destroyed Noamon, or Thebes, the great city in Southern Egypt. To the destruction of that city Nahum refers in Nah 3:8 ; so his prophecy took place after that event, possibly sometime after. It was such an important event as would be remembered for a long time. The destruction of a great city like Noamon would be impressed upon the world. The prophecy must have been written previous to 607 B.C., for that is the date of the fall of Nineveh, and this year marks one of the most important events in the political history of that age. Probably his prophecy comes somewhere between 630 B.C., and 610 B.C., not far from the destruction of Nineveh.

The occasion for the writing of this prophecy is the downfall of the Assyrian nation, with the sack and destruction of the great city of Nineveh. The history of Assyria and Nineveh is a history of conquests, a history of oppression, a history of remorseless warfare of indescribable cruelties, siege upon siege of every city that came in contact with any of Assyria’s possessions. No nation in all the world for two hundred years had rolled its resistless tide of savage warriors across the face of the earth as did Assyria. Not a nation in all the known world but what suffered from her attacks. Eastern Palestine, Northern Israel, and Southern Israel were overrun and deported, and the inhabitants of Damascus and Syria were deported also and scores of other nations and tribes were ruthlessly torn away from home and country and carried into exile. The blood, the agony, the tears, the sufferings, the sorrow which Assyria and Nineveh caused, only God himself could describe.

Not a nation during those two hundred years but that hated, but that dreaded her; not a nation but that cringed and trembled as she approached. And those two hundred years engendered in every nation a hatred that was intense, and almost ceaseless. Israel had felt her terrible hand; so had Babylon and all other Semitic nations. And now at last the Medes north and east of Assyria, gather together their nation, with Cyaxares at their head, and march against her. Nabopolassar, king of Babylon, also comes against her. PharaohNecho in the days of Josiah, king of Judah, marched up to the Euphrates to take Nineveh and secure her boundless treasures. Thus it became a contest, as to whether Cyaxares the king of the Modes; Nabopolassar, king of Babylon; or PharaohNecho, king of Egypt, should conquer this city with its incalculable riches. About 625 B.C. Nineveh withstood a great siege and buried back the Medes. But the country was much depopulated. Her allies were gone; a weak king sat upon the throne. The Medes grew more powerful, and at last about 609 B.C. or 608 B.C. Nabopolassar and Cyaxares came to an agreement. Nabopolassar apparently sent Nebuchadnezzar to meet Pharaoh-Necho and drive him back. He himself held the advances to Nineveh and prevented the allies of Assyria from coming to her relief. The king of the Medes came upon her from the North and the East, and after a siege of two years Nineveh fell, and there was not a nation upon the earth that did not feel a relief and there went up from every people and every heart this one cry, “At last! At last! At last! the old savage lion is dead and we are free.” Nahum voices that sentiment. At last the old lion has gone, as all Europe and, perhaps, America, when Napoleon was defeated at Waterloo, said, “At last the scourge of the nation is gone.”

The following is an outline of the book:

Title: The theme and author (Nah 1:1 )

I. A verdict of vengeance (Nah 1:2-15 )

1. The character, majesty, and method of Jehovah (Nah 1:2-8 )

2. His verdict concerning Nineveh (Nah 1:9-14 )

3. His verdict of vengeance on Nineveh, an Evangel to Judah (Nah 1:15 )

II. A vision of vengeance (Nah 2 ) 1. A description of the attack upon the city (Nah 2:1-7 )

2. An inside view during and after the attack (Nah 2:8-13 )

III. A vindication of vengeance (Nah 3 ) 1. The wreck of the city and its causes (Nah 3:1-7 )

2. An example and its lessons (Nah 3:8-19 )

Nahum had a strong and deep conviction that Jehovah is the God who will punish iniquity, and therefore he breaks forth (Nah 1:2-8 ) : “Jehovah is a jealous God and avengeth; Jehovah avengeth and is full of wrath; Jehovah taketh vengeance on his adversaries, and he reserveth wrath for his enemies.” See the accumulated effect of his repetition here. He goes on: “Jehovah is slow to anger and great in power and will by no means clear the guilty. Jehovah hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet. He rebuketh the sea, and maketh it dry, and drieth up all the rivers; Bashan languisheth, and Carmel; and the flower of Lebanon languisheth.” This is the effect of Jehovah coming down: “The mountains quake at him, and the hills melt, and the earth is burned at his presence, yea, the world, and all that dwell therein. Who can stand before his indignation? and who can abide in the fierceness of his anger? his fury is poured out like fire and the rocks are broken asunder by him.”

Now in Nah 1:7 he gives another view of Jehovah, and here is a beautiful text: “The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; and he knoweth them that trust in him.” How different that is from the other, and how different God’s attitude toward his enemies, and toward those that trust him! “But with an overflowing flood will he make an utter end of the place thereof, and darkness shall pursue his enemies.” As to his character, he is a God of vengeance, and yet the central fact of his nature is that he is slow to anger. Under the figure of a storm the prophet sets forth the overwhelming majesty of Jehovah. The method of God he describes as “good, a stronghold,” toward his friends, but toward his foes, “He will make a full end.”

Now he speaks against Nineveh (Nah 1:9-14 ) thus: “What do ye imagine against the Lord? He will make an utter end: affliction shall not rise up the second time.” Imagine what you like, he will make a complete end. The affliction shall not rise up the second time, and it didn’t. “For though they be tangled in thorns, and while they are drunken as with their drink, they shall be devoured as stubble fully dry.” It matters not what your condition, what your defense or how impossible it would seem that you should be destroyed. “There is one gone out of thee, that imagineth evil against the Lord, a wicked counsellor.” We don’t know who that was. Perhaps it refers to the blasphemous boasts of Sennacherib. “Thus saith Jehovah, though they be quiet, and likewise many, yet thus shall they be cut down, when he shall pass through. Though I have afflicted thee, and will burst thy bonds asunder.” Then he describes how he shall destroy the gods of Assyria, the graven images, and molten images shall be utterly broken to pieces and buried.

Here (Nah 1:15 ) he pictures a runner hurrying with news to Judah and Jerusalem: “Behold, upon the mountains the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace!” The cry, “Nineveh is fallen,” was the best news that came to the whole world at that time. And Nahum thus voices the feelings and sentiments of ail these nations. “O Judah, keep thy solemn feasts, perform thy vows: for the wicked shall no more pass through thee; he is utterly cut off.”

The attack of the enemy upon Nineveh is described in Nah 2:1-7 . First, he describes the attack upon the fortifications: “He that dasheth in pieces is come up before thy face: keep the fortress, watch the way, make thy loins strong, fortify thy power mightily.” Thus he ironically advised the city to defend themselves against the enemy’s approach. Nah 2:3 : “The shield of his mighty men is made red, the valiant men are in scarlet, the chariots shall be as flaming torches in the day of his preparation, and the cypress spears shall be brandished. The chariots shall rage in the streets, they shall Jostle one against another in the broad ways: their appearance is like torches, they run like the lightnings. He remembereth his worthies: they stumble in their walk; they shall make haste to the wall thereof and the mantelet shall be prepared.” We can almost see and hear them; the appearance of their chariots is like torches, they run like lightning, as they approach the walls. The enemy now opens the sluice gates of the river which flows into the city and floods it. It is a fact found from excavation that Nineveh was partly destroyed from the water being turned in through the watergates. It is interesting to remember that Diodorus Seculus mentions an old prophecy, that the city would never be taken until the river became its enemy. He moreover declared that during an enemy’s attack the river burst its banks and washed away the wall for twenty stadia. Continuing, Nahum describes the city under the figure of a woman and her attendants. They flee and the enemy captures the spoil.

The inside view of the city during and after the attack is described in Nah 2:8-13 . Here the prophet describes the inhabitants of Nineveh as the besiegers are attacking the walls: “But Nineveh is from of old like a pool of water; yet they shall flee away. Stand, stand, shall they cry, but none shall look back.” Thus Nineveh is described as water which has been gathered in a pool but she scattered in every direction. When the cry is made, Stand! Stand! they flee away and look not back. Now the enemy has entered the city and this is the cry: “Take ye the spoil of silver, take ye the spoil of gold, for there is no end of the store and glory of all the pleasant furniture.” And they did take all the spoil, after which he thus describes her: “She is empty, and waste, and the heart melteth and the knees smite together, and much pain is in all loins, and the faces of them all are waxed pale.” They are about to be sacked.

Then the prophet speaks sarcastically, looking at it from the distance, and seeing the old lion in his den thus besieged: “Where is the den of the lions and the feasting places of the young lions, where the lion and the lioness walked, the lion’s whelp and none made them afraid? The lion (that is, old Nineveh), did tread in pieces enough for his whelps and strangled for his lioness and filled his caves with prey, and his dens with ravens.” He is representing Nineveh as a lion in his den, and it was all too true, for thousands and tens of thousands of the hapless inhabitants of other nations were literally strangled, and nation upon nation was seized in order that he might fill his den and his coffers with their wealth. Is it any wonder that the world felt relieved and Jehovah himself gave the prophet a message voicing the sentiment? Then in Nah 2:13 he says, “I am against thee, saith Jehovah, and I will burn her chariots in the smoke, and the sword shall devour thy young lions; and I will cut off thy prey from the earth, and the voice of thy messengers shall no more be heard.”

Then the wreck of the city is described in Nah 3:1-7 . The fall of the city of Nineveh and the causes thereof, are stated in Nah 3 . In the first three verses we have a description of the sack of the city, thus: “Woe to the bloody city I It is all full of lies and rapine; the prey departeth not; the noise of a whip and the noise of the rattling of the wheels, and of the prancing horses, and of the jumping chariots. The horseman mounting and the flashing sword and the glittering spears and there is a multitude of slain, and a great number of carcasses; and there is no end of their corpses; they stumble upon their corpses.” The cruelty and savagery of those two hundred years impressed itself upon all those nations, and these soldiers broke into that city, and as Nineveh had never shown any mercy they showed Nineveh no mercy. Now he goes on with the description of her as a harlot: “Because of the multitude of the whoredoms of the well-favored harlot, the mistress of witchcrafts, that selleth nations through her whoredom, and families through her witchcrafts. Behold I am against thee, and I will show the nations thy nakedness, and the kingdoms thy shame.” All the nations were interested in her destruction. “And I will cast abominable filth upon thee, and make thee vile, and will set thee as a gazing stock. And it shall come to pass, that all they that look upon thee shall flee from thee, and say, Nineveh is laid waste: who will bemoan her? whence shall I seek comforters for thee?” They bemoaned when Tyre fell, they bemoaned Thebes, they bemoaned Egypt, and John pictures how they bemoaned the downfall of Rome, but they never bemoaned Nineveh.

The prophet cites an example in Nah 3:8-15 . He compares the fall of Thebes, or Noamon, with the fall of Assyria, and says, “Art thou better than Noamon, that was situated among the rivers, that had the waters round about her, whose rampart was the sea?” She had mighty allies, too, Ethiopia and Egypt, and had no end of strength. Now he says, “You are no better than she; she suffered; she was carried away into captivity.” Then he gives a further description of how the country is infatuated and all the outlying fortresses were taken: “Thou shalt be drunken, thou shalt be hid; thou also shall seek strength because of the enemy.” Then he pictures the inhabitants (Nah 3:13 ) : “All thy strongholds shall be like fig trees with the first ripe figs; if they be shaken, they shall even fall into the mouth of the eater. Behold, thy people in the midst of thee are women: the gates of thy land shall be set wide open unto thine enemies; the fire shall devour thy bars.” Then in sarcastic and grim irony he tells the people of Nineveh to go to work and try to defend themselves: “Draw water for the siege, fortify thy strongholds: go into clay, and tread the mortar, make strong the brick kiln. There shall the fire devour thee; the sword shall cut thee off; it shall eat thee up like the cankerworm ; make thyself many as the locust.”

Nineveh was the greatest commercial center of the age (Nah 3:16-17 ). He describes her great commercial prestige thus: “Thou hast multiplied thy merchants above the stars of heaven: the canker-worm spoileth, and fleeth away. Thy crowned are as the locusts, and thy captains as the great grasshoppers, which camp in the hedges in the cold day, but when the sun ariseth, they flee away, and their place is not known where they are.” And that is how they all dispersed when the enemy entered the city.

The last two verses close with a grim humor, containing a very significant statement regarding her: “Thy shepherds slumber, O Assyria,” are slumbering yet and will continue to slumber. “Thy nobles shall dwell in the dust; thy people are scattered upon the mountains, and no man gathereth them,” and they have never been gathered since, and never will be. “There is no assuaging of thy bruise; thy wound is grievous; all that hear the report of thee shall clap their hands over thee.” Everybody rejoiced when she went down. “For upon whom hath not thy wickedness passed continually?”

It must have been sometime before this, perhaps, two hundred years before this, that Jonah was sent to Nineveh to preach her destruction in forty days, and Nineveh repented and was saved, but there was no Jonah to preach to her now. Her time had come, her wickedness was too great, she was past redemption, and in 607 B.C. the city of Nineveh ceased to be forever. Excavators have been digging there, and they have found the remains of this great city, the walls and the whole plan of it.

QUESTIONS

1. What is the title of this book, who the author, what of his family, and what the traditions and theories about him and his book?

2. What can you say of the style of Nahum?

3. What is the date of this prophecy?

4. What is the occasion of this prophecy, and what the relation of Nineveh to other nations?

5. Give an account of the capture and downfall of Nineveh.

6. Give an outline of the book of Nahum.

7. What t is he character, majesty, and method of Jehovah as revealed in this prophecy (Nah 1:2-8 )?

8. What is his verdict concerning Nineveh (Nah 1:9-14 )?

9. How is the announcement of Nineveh’s fall to Judah described (Nah 1:15 )?

10. Describe the attack of the enemy upon Nineveh (Nah 2:1-7 ).

11. Describe the inside view of the city during and after the attack (Nah 2:8-13 ).

12. Describe the wreck of the city and cite the cause (Nah 3:1-7 ).

13. What example does the prophet cite and what the lesson (Nah 3:8-15 )?

14. What says the prophet here of the commerce of Nineveh and her merchants (Nah 3:16-17 )?

15. What is the permanent condition of this great city as described in the last two verses?

Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible

Nah 2:1 He that dasheth in pieces is come up before thy face: keep the munition, watch the way, make [thy] loins strong, fortify [thy] power mightily.

Ver. 1. He that dasheth in pieces is come up before thy face ] Nebuchadnessar the elder, that maul a of the whole earth, Jer 50:23 , that brake, and dispersed the nations, as a maul or great hammer doth the hardest stones. See how like a right Pyrgopolynices he vaunteth of his valour and victories, Isa 10:8-12 . So Demetrius was surnamed Poliorcetes, the destroyer of cities; Attilas called himself Orbis flagellum, the scourge of the world. Julius Caesar was Fulmen belli, the thunderbolt of war; he had taken in his time a thousand towns, conquered three hundred nations, took prisoner one million of men, and slain as many. These were dissipatores indeed, and dashers in pieces, rods of God’s wrath; and this they took to be a main piece of their silly glory. How much more honour was it to Augustine to be styled Haereticorum malleus, the hammer of heretics! and to Mr Hildersam, to be Schismaticorum malleus, the maul of schismatics! and lastly, to Luther, that he could thus say of himself:

“ Pestis eram virus, moriens ero mors tua papa! ”

“I living, stopped Rome’s breath, and dead, will

be Rome’s death!”

Is come up before thy face ] Nineveh lay high, and those that went thither were said to go up, Hos 8:9 . Nebuchadnezzar is said here to be come up, to it long before he did (which set forth God’s omniscience: “Known to him are all his works from the beginning of the world,” Act 15:18 Psa 139:2 ; and present to him are all things, both past and future), and to come up before Nineveh’s face; who thought none dared have been so bold as to look her in the face. But though she had been a terror, yet now she is a scorn; as was likewise Ephraim, when he offended in Baal, Hos 13:1 . See Trapp on “ Hos 13:1 “

Keep the munition, watch the way, &c. ] Ironice omma, q.d. Do all this if you think it will do any good. But it is all to no purpose; you are an undone people, your enemies are above fear and you below hope: you have hitherto delighted in war, you shall now have enough of it; you have troubled the world with your arms and armies, now you shall meet with your match, a people terrible from the beginning. Up, therefore, and do your utmost; neglect nothing that may serve for your necessary defence; but it will not be: for “except the Lord keep the city the watchman waketh but in vain,” Psa 127:1 .

a trans. and fig. after L. malleus. (Often, like hammer, scourge, applied to a person as the irresistible foe or the terrible oppressor of some person, class, or institution.) Obs. D

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

He that dasheth, &c.: i.e. Cyaxares and Nabopolassar (Herod, i. 106). A reference or type of the future destruction of Antichrist.

dasheth, &c.: or, the breaker (Hebrew. mephiz = battle-axe, or hammer (Pro 25:18)). Compare Jer 23:29; Jer 51:20. Eze 9:2, margin Mic 2:13.

keep the munition. Figure of speech Homoeopropheron (App-6), in the Hebrew In English, keep the keeps, or fortify the fortress, or fence the defences.

make thy loins strong: i.e. be courageous. Compare Job 40:7. Jer 1:17.

fortify, &c. = strengthen [thee] with power mightily. Compare Pro 24:5.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

Chapter 2

Now he is describing the siege of Assyria by the Babylonian and Mede confederacy, referring to these men as those that dash in pieces.

He that dasheth in pieces is come up before thy face: keep the munition [your fortress], watch the way, make thy loins strong, fortify thy power mightily. For the Lord hath turned away the excellency of Jacob, as the excellency of Israel: for the emptiers have emptied them out, and marred their vine branches. The shield of his mighty men is made red, the valiant men are in scarlet ( Nah 2:1-3 ):

This is describing, now, the Babylonian Mede army, and there are some people who say that the Bible predicts the automobile age, and they use these scriptures as such. But that’s sort of a far-flung, you know, I don’t go along with that, but it’s interesting. He says,

the chariots shall be with flaming torches [The headlights of the cars] in the day of his preparation, and the fir trees shall be terribly shaken. The chariots shall rage in the streets, [That is the modern freeways] they shall justle one against another in the broad ways: they shall seem like torches, they shall run like the lightnings ( Nah 1:3-4 ).

Now, you have to admit that it’s a pretty good description of the automobile, but surely that was not the intention of the prophet. But he was talking about the chariots of the Babylonians and of the Medes that would be going through the streets of Nineveh and bringing destruction to Nineveh.

He shall recount his worthies: they shall stumble in their walk; they shall make haste to the wall thereof, and the defense shall be prepared. The gates of the rivers shall be opened, and the palace shall be dissolved ( Nah 2:5-6 ).

Now another fascinating prophecy, for as you read the historic account, though they were besieging the walls of Nineveh, yet they were unable to penetrate. But there came a tremendous storm, several inches of rain fell in a short period of time. The Tigress River that flowed through the city of Nineveh came into flood stage, and the flooding of the Tigress River undermined the foundations of the walls, and a great portion of the walls of Nineveh were destroyed by the flooded Tigress River. And before they could rebuild the walls, of course, the flood receded; the armies came through the breach made in the walls made by the floods. There again, “The gates of the rivers shall be opened, and the palace shall be dissolved.”

The foundations were dissolved. Of course, the king went into his treasuries with all of the wealth and all of his kingdom, and he torched himself and his treasury. But of course, they just took the melted gold and silver then from it.

And Huzzab [means “and that which is determined,” or “that which is destined”] shall be led away captive, she shall be brought up, and her maids shall lead her as with the voice of doves, tabering upon [as they are smiting on] their breasts. But Nineveh is of old like a pool of water: yet they shall flee away. Stand, stand, they shall cry; but none shall look back ( Nah 2:7-8 ).

A panic will take hold; the people will begin to run, and the others will call, “Come on stand, stand!” But panic will have overtaken them, and they will flee. And of course, you read the historic record and you find that’s what happened.

Take ye the spoil of silver, take the spoil of gold: for there is none end of the store [Tremendous wealth was gained by the Babylonians and the Medes in the conquest of Nineveh] and glory out of all of the pleasant furniture. She is empty, and void, and waste: and the heart melteth, and the knees smite together, and [there is] much pain is in all loins, and the faces of them all gather blackness. Where is the dwelling of the lions, and the feeding place of the young lions, where the lion, even the old lion, walked, and the lion’s whelp, and none made them afraid? [“Where is that city of Nineveh that was like a lion conquering all?”] The lion did tear in pieces enough for his whelps, and strangled for his lionesses, and filled his holes with prey, and his dens with ravin. Behold, I am against thee, saith the Lord of hosts, and I will burn her chariots in the smoke, and the sword shall devour thy young lions: and I will cut off thy prey from the earth, and the voice of thy messengers shall no more be heard ( Nah 2:9-13 ).

Rabakshak and those other messengers cut off forever. “

Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary

Nah 2:1-7

DETAILS OF NINEVEHS DOWNFALL

WARNING OF WAR . . . Nah 2:1-7

HE THAT DASHETH IN PIECES . . . Nah 2:1

The destroyer is at the gates! In his prophetic vision, Nahum shouts the alarm to Nineveh as he sees the soldiers of Babylons Nebuchadnezzar, allied with those of the Median Cyaxares (or Ahasuerus) approach the very gates of the city. Destruction is neither distant nor doubtful. Nebuchadnezzar well deserved his common title: he who dashes nations in pieces. Jer 50:23 calls Babylon the hammer of the whole earth. There is to be no subtlety. The smasher has come before thy face in a straight forward attack. Nineveh is therefore called upon to man the towers and magazines and guard the avenues of the city, to encourage her troops and animate herself. There is no way to forestall the stroke of Gods judgement. Just as Assyria was used of God to chastise His people, so the Medo-Babylonian alliance will now punish Nineveh. Will Durant, in his epic Story of Civilization, says, . . . Assyrian history is largely a picture of cities sacked and villages or fields laid waste . . . the weakness of Oriental monarchies was bound up with this addiction to violence. Ninevehs conquerors were simply repaying her in kind.

Zerr: The prophet is still making predictions against Nineveh, the capital of the Assyrian Empire. He that dasheth in pieces (Nah 2:1) means the military force that was to come against the city and country. Before thy face denotes that the hostile army was to come into the immediate presence of the city. Keep the munition (military equipment) and the other phrases of the verse are said by way of warning that the city would need all of its reserves in the conflict coming upon it.

(Nah 2:2) This verse is something of an enigma. Assyria had been used of God to chasten His people Now that very activity is published as the manifesto showing the causes of her downfall We can only understand this by bearing the covenant in mind. All God has done in human history He has done for the sake of His covenant purpose to ultimately bless all people. The Jews erred in considering national prosperity to be excellence before God. It was never so. God is concerned that His people be faithful. He restores their real excellence by punishing their unfaithfulness. Assyria, who had been used of God to so correct Israel, i.e. restore the excellency, is now being destroyed by those who will later punish Judah. The Assyrian policy of scorched earth against her enemies had earned her the title the emptiers.

Zerr: A natural question would be, why did the Lord have such a severe lot in store for the city ? The answer is that it was to be in return tor her cruelty against His people (Nah 2:2). It is true that God decreed the downfall of the nation of Israel, which is meant by the statement the Lord hath turned away the excellency of Jacob, and it was to be done through the agency of Assyria. But He never did approve of the motives of these heathen servants nor of the unnecessary cruelties which they used. The last clause is still a statement of the harsh treatment the Assyrians imposed upon Israel. This verse (Nah 2:2) is inserted by the prophet to explain why the Lord is predicting such a complete overthrow of the capital city of Nineveh.

THE SHIELDS . . . MADE RED . . . Nah 2:3

Here we begin the prophets poetic account of the terrors of the invading enemy. Their shields are red with Assyrian blood. The men themselves are drenched scarlet with the gore of battle. As the chariots approached the city, their charge was swift as lightning and their wheels struck sparks upon the stones. The spears of the Medes and Babylonians are like a shaking forest of fir trees. As a mighty tree overtops a shrub, so the attackers overwhelm the defenders of Nineveh.

Zerr: His mighty men (Nah 2:3) refers to the great men in the Babylonian army that will be invading Assyria. The red and scarlet (Nah 2:3) has reference to the appearance of the equipment, caused either by the artificial coloring or by the reflection of the sun. It would make it Imposing in the sight of the intended victims and thus would tend to weaken their morale. Chariots with flaming torches has about the same meaning as the coloring appearance of the red above. The rapidity with which the wheels would revolve would cause them to reflect a glittering appearance as they sparkled in the sun. Fir trees comes from BEROWSH and Strong defines it, “A cypress (?) tree; hence a lance or a musical instrument (as made of that wood).” Terribly shaken are both from the one word RAAL and defined, “To reel, i.e. (figuratively) to brandish.” The whole clause means that in the operation against Nineveh the lances of the Babylonians will be brandished in a threatening manner.

CHARIOTS RAGE IN THE STREETS . . . Nah 2:4

The walls are breached . . . the gates are opened and the vehicles of war charge through the defenseless city streets. They are so numerous and driven with such fury that the red tunics of their drivers seem to be the flames of torches and the burning of the city begins. Much of Nahums poetic vividness borrows from the literal appearance of the attackers. The dashing in pieces previously alluded to no doubt figures the instruments used to break down the stone and brick walls of the besieged city. The hammer-headed battle-axes of the Medo Babylonian troops could crush a mans head with even a glancing blow. The red and scarlet of the bloody attackers was partly due to their uniforms of the same color. This color also would add to the fiery appearance of the chariots.

Zerr: The chariots in ancient times were used either tor purposes of transportation or as a war implement, more generally the latter. Nah 2:4 is a prediction of the great numbers of the vehicles to be used in the attack upon Nineveh’s streets and the broad ways or open country. They were to be so numerous they would justle (jostle) one against another. Seem like torches and run like the lightnings is to be understood in about the same sense as the conditions for the sake of appearance in the preceding verse. Most of the war chariots had swords or large scythes attached to them in order to mow down the men of the enemy. These were made of bright metal and would give off the appearance of torches as they revolved on the wheels in the sunlight.

HE REMEMBERETH HIS NOBLES . . . Nah 2:5

Nebuchadnezzars commanders, here called nobles, are mustered and commanded to take the field immediately. So swiftly do they obey that they stumble over the bloody stone streets. They hasten to secure the walls that are now approached by their troops. The mantelet was a portable shield under which the invader was protected from the besieged defenders on the walls above.

Zerr: When the watchmen of Nineveh see the enemy approaching they will announce it to the king (or queen as the case may be). then he shall make preparations to defend the city. Recount his worthies (Nah 2:5). The king at Nineveh will investigate the conditions of his forces and will count up to learn the milttary strength he has in the way of good soldiers. But they will stumble (or falter) in the excitement at the hour as they prepare to defend the wall of the city. Defence (Nah 2:5) is rendered “covering” or “coverer” in the margin, and the definition in the lexicon agrees with it. The context also justifies the rendering, for the inside attempts at defence are already dealt with in the beginning of the verse and the defenders have had their failure. After this is when they find that the defence shall be prepared. It means that after the citizens of Nineveh have made their excited attempt to protect the city and march out to the wall, they will find that the invadIng forces maintaining the Siege will have provided themselves with this protecting “covering.”

THE GATES OF THE RIVER ARE OPENED . . . Nah 2:6-7

At length the gates of the rivers would be opened. The western defense of Nineveh was the wall along the Tigris river. It was 4,530 yards long and connected to moats on the east, north and south sides of the city. The Medo-Babylonian army engineers re-routed the river channel and the moats became a dry bed of march into the city. Cyrus would later turn the same trick against its Babylonian originators and so defeat Belshazzar. Finally the defense of the palace itself dissolves and the Assyrian capital is no more. There remains only the moans of the captives and the doves, like the larks bravely singing over Flanders Field, flap their wings over desolation and death.

Zerr: As a result of the conditions described in the preceding paragraph, the gates of the city (Nah 2:6) were forced open by the besiegers and the soldiers entered the place. With a reversal of the expectations or the citizens, we are not surprIsed that the palace was dissolved. Huzzah (Nah 2:7) is capitallzed as if it were a proper name, but Strong says it is not. His definition of the original is, “A primitive root; to station, In various applications (literal or figurative).” It means that the station or spot where the palace stood will be taken and the chief inhabitant of it will be led away captive. Also, the attendants of the palace will accompany said person in a procession of mourning, tabering or drumming, beating upon their breasts in their despair.

Questions

Details of Ninevehs Downfall

1. In a prophetic vision, Nahum saw Babylons __________ and the armies of the Median __________ at the very gates of Nineveh.

2. Nebuchadnezzars common title __________ was well-deserved.

3. What sort of attack did the Medo-Babylonian alliance launch against Nineveh?

4. We can only understand Gods punishing of Assyria for destroying Israel, the purpose for which He had raised up Assyria, by remembering __________.

5. In warfare Assyria had practiced a __________ policy.

6. How does Nahum describe the chariot charge against Nineveh?

7. Much of Nahums poetic vividness is borrowed from __________.

8. What is meant by The gates of the rivers are opened?

9. Compare the refugee situation of Nineveh with that of modern war.

10. Discuss take the spoil. Is this practice still followed in modern warfare?

11. What is implied in Nah 2:13 by the statement I am against thee?

Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary

Having thus announced the verdict, the prophet described the process of vengeance. He declared that the “hammer” had come up against Nineveh, and ironically advised her to prepare. He then detailed the process of Nineveh’s destruction.

The interpretations of this description greatly differ. I suggest that it falls into three clearly defined parts. First, the conflict (verses Nah 2:3-5); second, the conquest (verses Nah 2:6-9); finally, the consummation (verse Nah 2:10).

The picture of the conflict is graphic. We first see the attacking army outside the walls, then the defending host inside the city.

Next, the battle itself is described. The conquest of the city is secured by the act of God, “The gates of the rivers are opened.” Continuing, Nahum described the city under the figure of a woman and her attendants. They flee, and the enemy captures the spoil.

Finally, the consummation of judgment is announced. Nineveh “is empty, and void, and waste.” The utter collapse of the people was set forth in figurative language. The prophet then immediately broke forth into exultation. The den of the lions was gone, all the cruelty of Nineveh was at an end. Moreover, the prophet recognized this as the righteous act of God. It was His act of vengeance. He was against Nineveh, therefore the overthrow was complete.

Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible

a Cruel City to be Overthrown

Nah 2:1-13

This is a prophetic foreview of the overthrow of Nineveh by the Medo-Babylonians. God had used her for the chastisement of His people; now, in turn, she must be cast away for her sins. The attacking soldiers wore crimson tunics, and the chariot wheels were armed with scythes, that flashed as they revolved. The streets might be filled with chariots mustering for defence, but all must be in vain since the scaling-ladders were already against the walls, and the gates of the rivers would soon be opened. Huzzab was Ninevehs queen, and represents the condition of the city, going into captivity as a slave, with bare face and legs. Note the comparison of Nineveh to a den of lions filled with bones. Fire and sword completed her ruin. This is the lot of the enemies of Gods people. See Isa 54:16-17. But if God is true to His threatenings, how much more is He true to His promises!

Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary

Chapter 2

The Destruction Of Nineveh

It is important, in reading the Prophets, to distinguish between those parts which relate primarily to events long since fulfilled, and those which have to do entirely with what is still future. Fulfilled prophecy is a clinching proof of the divine inspiration of the Scriptures. That which tells of what is yet to come is a light shining in a dark place, enabling the devout reader to put a proper value on all he sees around him.

On the other hand, all prophecy is one connected whole and must be read in view of that to which it all points-the coming day of the Lord. But for many peoples and nations that day has already come. Their course has been run. Their manifold iniquities have been judged; and their civilizations have passed out of existence.

The glory of Nineveh has been for over two and a half millenniums but a memory. That it should be so was predicted by Nahum a century at least ere his words had their awful fulfilment in the Babylonian conquest. This is given in detail in chaps. 2 and 3, a portion of Scripture (and of literature in general) unsurpassed for graphic delineation and poetic fervor.

He that dasheth in pieces, the leader of the Chaldean hosts, is seen, in vision, coming up against Nineveh, proudly resting in her glory on the banks of the Tigris. Founded by Nimrod, as was also the rival Euphratean city Babylon, the one sets forth the world in its grandeur and independence of God; the other, the religious world, the home of superstition and traditionary ritual. Necessarily the former must fall before the rising power of the latter, even as, centuries later, paganism had to succumb to an unholy, pseudo-Christianity, which seemed more fully to meet the need of man in his hopeless depravity. Yet it often becomes a question to the thoughtful student, Which was worse, the world without God, or the world with a perverted idea of God, wrapped in the darkness of medieval superstition and ignorance of the Scriptures of truth?

Let Nineveh attempt to defend herself as she may, no power can avail to avert the richly-deserved judgment (ver. 1). She had herself been the instrument used to punish the excellency of Jacob; but now, since they had been punished, the heathen should not escape. It is the principle enunciated in 1Pe 4:17, 18 – judgment begins at the house of God. What then of those who know Him not? If He will pass over nothing because committed by His own, how solemn the day when the wicked have to answer for all their lawlessness! If the powers of evil are permitted to mar the branches of the vine of Jehovahs planting, who shall prevent the destruction of the wild trees of the wood? (ver. 2).

The terrific character of the final assault on Nineveh is vividly described in vers. 3 to 5. As this passage has often been applied most fancifully, I quote it in full, in order that it may stand out clearly in its true connection. The shield of his mighty men is made red, the valiant men are in scarlet; the chariots shall be with flaming torches in the day of his preparation, and the fir trees shall be terribly shaken. The chariots shall rage in the streets, they shall jostle one against another in the broad ways; they shall seem like torches, they shall run like the lightnings.

It is a striking portrayal of the wild disorder that necessarily prevailed when the Babylonian hordes and their Median allies poured into the doomed city. What is there here to suggest the strange and forced interpretation often put upon so plain a passage? Were it not so common a view, who could believe that sober men would attempt to see in words like these references to railroads, electric cars, and automobiles! Yet sermons have been preached and books written in which such mechanical devices are declared td be the fulfilment of this portion of Nahums prophecy.24 It is an instance of the careless way in which men read Scripture; for, clearly, the day of his preparation was the day of Ninevehs destruction; and the chariots with flaming torches, running like the lightnings, were the war-carriages of the victorious Babylonians.

Against such a terrific onslaught the king of Nineveh tried in vain to rally his worthies. Drunken, as a result of their unholy feasts, they stumbled in their walk as they hastened to the wall, only to find it was too late now to attempt a defence (ver. 5). The rise of the river opened the already weakened sluice-gates; the floods crumbled the foundations of the palace, and made hope of resistance vain (ver. 6).

Diodorus Siculus describes the end of the siege in the following language: There was an old prophecy that Nineveh should not be taken till the river became an enemy to the city. And in the third year of the siege, the river being swollen with continual rains, overflowed every part of the city, and broke down the wall for twenty furlongs; then the king, thinking that the oracle was fulfilled, and the river become an enemy to the city, built a large funeral pile in the palace, and collecting together all his wealth and his concubines and eunuchs, burnt himself and the palace with them all; and the enemy entered at the breach that the waters had made and took the city.

Thus with violence was Ninevehs pride abased and Huzzab (the established) led away captive. She had proudly thought herself established to abide forever, but her end had come because she exalted herself against the Lord (ver. 7).

Vers. 8 to 13 are too plain to require comment. In language unmistakable they describe the desolation following the complete overthrow of what had been the worlds most glorious city. So exactly were the words fulnlled, that for ages the very site of Nineveh was lost, till, in the last century, Layard and Rawlinson made excavations and discoveries that brought to light the ruins of a metropolis so vast that none could longer doubt the declarations of Jonah and Nahum in regard to its splendor and magnificence, and its destruction when in the very zenith of its glory.

It may be well to remark that the lion of vers. 11, 12 is the king; and the lions and lionesses his household who perished with him amid the flames of his palace.

Fuente: Commentaries on the New Testament and Prophets

CHAPTER 2

The Overthrow, Plundering and Destruction Of Nineveh

1. The capture of Nineveh announced and described (Nah 2:1-10)

2. The completeness of the judgment (Nah 2:11-13)

Nah 2:1-10. This great prophecy was literally fulfilled some ninety years after Nahum had spoken. When these words were spoken Nineveh was in the zenith of her glory. Who told Nahum the Elkoshite that the proud world city would undergo such a sack and be completely wiped out? Who moved his pen to give such a vivid description of what would take place? There is but one answer–the Spirit of God. How was the prophecy fulfilled? Cyaxares of the Medes had surrounded Nineveh in the north. Nabopolassar of Babylon entered into an alliance with Cyaxares against the Assyrians, which was sealed by the marriage of the daughter of Cyaxares, Amunia, with the son of Nabopolassar, that is, Nebuchadnezzar, who appeared then as the colleague of his father, till the Lord called him as the instrument of judgment upon Jerusalem and he became the head of the Babylonian monarchy Dan 1:11). They made an assault upon Nineveh. The Assyrian king, a son of Asshurbanipal, collected all his forces into the lower part of the immense city. Three times the forces of the Assyrian sallied forth from the city and inflicted severe punishment upon the besieging armies, and Nabopolassar had great difficulty in keeping the Median forces from flight. The Assyrians after these successes abandoned themselves to great carousings, as stated inNahum 1:100. But during that night they were attacked by the besiegers and driven back behind the walls. Then the troops which were under the command of the brother-in-law of the Assyrian king were routed and driven into the river Tigris. The main part of Nineveh was still safe. In the third year of the siege the river which surrounded the city became its enemy. Great rains had fallen and suddenly there was a tremendous flood which broke down the walls surrounding the city. This was predicted by Nahum in this chapter in the sixth verse. The king despaired of saving his life. He had sent his family north, and when all hope was gone he shut himself up with all his treasures in the royal citadel and burned himself with them. Then the victors entered into the city, and, after securing an immense booty, which was carried to Babylon and Ecbatana, the Babylonians set fire to the sacked city, and destroyed it completely by fire.

The prophet in the beginning of this chapter addresses Nineveh; he urges that she make ready to defend herself, for he that dasheth into pieces has appeared before her walls. It was the Lord who had used the Assyrian to bring judgment upon Israel and upon Jacob, but now the time had come for the restoration of their former excellency. The Authorized Version gives the wrong sense, and the second verse is correctly rendered: For the LORD bringeth again the excellency of Jacob, as the excellency of Israel; for the emptiers have emptied them out, and marred their vine branches. Then the besieging army is described. Here we read of their glittering arms, their fast racing chariots, which dash along like lightning.

We have heard even reputable Bible teachers make the statement that Nahum predicted the automobiles racing along our streets. Such fanciful, far-fetched and arbitrary applications of the Word of God do immense harm. Nahum does not anticipate the automobile, but gives a picture of the besiegers of Nineveh with their chariots, drawn by swift horses.

In Nah 2:5 the Assyrian king is seen turning to his army, as he sees the chariots dashing along the highways and broadways which lead to the city; he counts his worthies, his generals and captains. And the army suddenly called, in making haste stumbled along in disorder and made haste to reach the walls. As stated above, the sixth verse (Nah 2:6) was fulfilled when the river became a flood and undermined the foundations of the walls, so that the besiegers could enter in. And when Babylon fell, under the grandson of Nebuchadnezzar, the river also was the means of defeat, for the enemy had diverted the river Euphrates and through the dry river-bed entered the city.

The word Huzzab in the seventh verse (Nah 2:7) has led to a great deal of discussion. Some claim that it is the name of the queen of Nineveh; others that it is a symbolical name of the city; archaeology throws no light upon its meaning. We believe the word Huzzab should be translated, it is determined. Then the sentence reads, It is determined; she is made bare and led away captive; and her maids moan like the doves, smiting upon their breasts.

The flight of the population of Nineveh is pictured in the eighth verse. Like as a pool of water empties when the sluices are opened, so they flee. The soldiers cry Stand! Stand! but there is a panic. They rush away and none looks back.

In the next two verses the plundering of the city is predicted. Silver and gold is taken away. There seems to be no end of all the glorious things which were heaped together in Nineveh. The city is emptied; hearts melt, courage is gone; there are tottering knees and pale faces.

Nah 2:11-13. Is it a sarcastic question which is asked, Where is the den of lions? What has become of her proud boastings of being the Queen-City of the nations?

Then Jehovah speaks of the completeness of her judgment and overthrow. Behold, I am against thee, saith the LORD of hosts, and I will burn her chariots in the smoke, and I will cut off thy prey from the earth, and the voice of thy messengers shall no more be heard.

Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)

He that dasheth in pieces: or, The disperser, or, hammer, Isa 14:6, Jer 25:9, Jer 50:23, Jer 51:20-23

keep: Nah 3:14, Nah 3:15, 2Ch 25:8, Jer 46:3-10, Jer 51:11, Jer 51:12, Joe 3:9-11

Reciprocal: Isa 13:18 – shall dash Jon 1:2 – Nineveh Mic 7:10 – she that Nah 3:11 – thou also Zep 3:6 – cut

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

Nah 2:1. The prophet is still making predictions against Nineveh, the capital of the Assyrian Empire. He that dasheth in pieces means the military force that was to come against the city and country. Before thy face denotes that the hostile army was to come into the immediate presence of the city. Keep the munition (military equipment) and the other phrases of the verse are said by way of warning that the city would need all of its reserves in the conflict coming upon it.

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

Nah 2:1. He that dasheth in pieces is come up before thy face This is addressed to the city of Nineveh, and explains more fully how the change, described in the foregoing chapter, should be brought about. It begins with telling Nineveh, that he who should break down her walls, and discomfit her inhabitants, was coming against her, and was, as it were, already in sight. Keep the munition, watch the way Use thy utmost industry to defend thyself, by strengthening thy garrisons, and guarding the passes. Make thy loins strong Stir up all thy strength and courage. Fortify thy power mightily Increase thy forces as much as thou canst. The meaning of this is, that let the Ninevites take all the precautions they could, and strengthen themselves to the utmost, yet it would be all in vain.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Nah 2:2. The excellency of Jacob. The Vulgate reads as the Hebrew, the pride of Jacob, and the pride of Israel, which the Lord punished by the Assyrians. Now the same just God comes to punish the pride of Assyria. This reading agrees with the next verse.

Nah 2:9. Take ye the spoil. The arsenals of Hezekiah, the riches of Crsus, the gold of Nineveh, were strong temptations to invasion. Let other splendid cities think of this.

REFLECTIONS.

The approach of the enemy, and the storming of Nineveh are described in this chapter, in all the severity of satire, and all the glow of oriental language. He dashes in pieces, and puts to the sword all he finds in his way. His shield is painted: he is clothed in scarlet, his chariots are illuminated, and the weapons glitter. He enters first by the gates, or mouth of the river, as Cyrus afterwards entered Babylon. Isa 13:14. He carries fear and terror to the palace, he storms Huzzab, a fortress deemed impregnable, and the queen of all their strength. He leads her, with her daughters, the minor cities into captivity. The women beat their breasts with cries and anguish, as they had once beat their tabrets with joy. The emptiers of other nations treasuries are emptied themselves. All these impressive occurrences follow in order, and are finely painted. But the invader, so terrible in himself, had nevertheless no terror compared with a yet greater who spake with vengeance from above. Behold, I am against thee, saith the Lord of hosts. I will burn thy chariots in the smoke of mine anger; and the sword shall devour thy young lions or princes, ere they disturb the nations.

From the severity of language here used against Nineveh, let us learn to avoid her sins. She bewitched, intimidated and enticed other nations to her idolatries, abominations, and sin. Now other nations conspired, for God gave them a heart to do his will, and made her the eager object of their revenge. She had plundered nations from the Ganges to the Nile, and from the Nile to the Don. Now they assembled to fetch back their treasures. Let those who corrupt the morals of youth, and those who amass great fortunes by a constant trade of extortion, remember that the God who fought against Nineveh, is about to turn his sword to fight against them.

Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Nah 1:11; Nah 1:14, Nah 2:1, Nah 2:3-13. The Fall of Nineveh.

Nah 1:11-14. In days gone by there went out of Nineveh one that planned villainous devices against Yahweh and His people. Now Yahweh has given commandment that his name shall be blotted out, his grave dishonoured, and the temple of his gods robbed of its images.

Nah 1:11. The reference is clearly to Sennacherib.Belial (mg.): i.e. malicious destruction (Nah 1:15*).

Nah 1:14. that no more of thy name be sown: in other words, that Sennacheribs family and nation may be brought to a common end.

Nah 2:1, Nah 2:3-10. In a passage of amazing power the prophet describes the irresistible march of the destroying army against Nineveh, despite his ironical commands to mount guard on the rampart, watch well the road, strengthen the loins, and brace might to the utmost. With blood-red shields and scarlet tunics the assailants dash through the streets and broadways approaching the capital, their war-chariots flashing like torches and darting as lightning, while their nobles speed on to the wall, set up the mantlet, throw open the river-gates, and plunder the once proud city amid universal panic, anguish, and despairing flight.

Nah 1:1. He that dasheth in pieces: lit. the smasher or hammer (Cyaxares and his Medes. p. 60).

Nah 1:3. made red: probably painted (a widespread custom among primitive peoples).in scarlet: the characteristic colour of soldiers tunics, in the ancient East (e.g. Babylonia, Persia, and Sparta) as well as among ourselves.

Nah 1:4. The closing words are highly doubtful. Read per haps, the chargers quiver, in mad excitement (LXX).The streets and broadways (rehoboth) are, of course, those of the suburbs of Nineveh (cf. the Rehoboth-Ir associated with Nineveh in Gen 10:11).

Nah 1:5. The reading is again evidently at fault. By a clever emendation Duhm secures the following text: Straightforward their nobles gallop along their courses.mantelet: lit. covering, probably a movable penthouse to cover the approach of the siege-parties.

Nah 1:6. The gates of the rivers: where the mountain stream Choser and its canals entered the city.is dissolved: melts away (in terror).

Nah 1:7. Huzzab: an obscure word, on which no light has yet been shed. The reference, however, is to the Queen, who is led out of the city dishonoured, her maidens passing with her into captivity, mourning like doves (cf. Isa 38:14, Eze 7:16, etc.), and beating upon their breasts.

Nah 1:8. From of old: a clear result of dittography (p. 42). Render simply, And Nineveh (is become) like a pool (reservoir) of waters fleeing (fast ebbing) awaya fine simile for a city quickly emptied of its inhabitants.

Nah 1:9. A dramatic address to the conquerors.

Nah 1:10. The desolation of the ruined city is depicted in a series of startled exclamations, Emptiness, void, and waste!

Nah 2:11-13. Where now is the den of lions, whither the old lion used to retreat with his lionesses and cubs, filling it with the plunder of the nations? Behold, Yahweh is against that haunt of cruelty, and will burn it with fire, and destroy the lionesses and their cubs together by the sword.

Nah 1:11. For mireh, feeding-place, read probably mearah, cave. The den of lions is Nineveh, to whose ruthless ferocity the records of Assyrian kings bear witness on every column.

Nah 1:13. For rikbah, her chariotry, read probably ribtsek, thy lair, and for malakhek, of thy messengers, millebhothayik, from thy lionesses.

Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible

2:1 {a} He that dasheth in pieces is come up before thy face: keep the munition, watch the way, make [thy] loins strong, fortify [thy] power mightily.

(a) That is, Nebuchadnezzar is in readiness to destroy the Assyrians: and the Prophet derides the undertakings of the Assyrians who prepared to resist him.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

Nahum turned from addressing the people of Judah to the people of Nineveh. He used the Hebrew prophetic perfect tense, which predicts future events as though they were past, to heighten belief in their certainty. One who would scatter would come up against Nineveh. "Scatterer" is a common figure for a victorious king (cf. Psa 68:1; Isa 24:1; Jer 52:8). Consequently the Ninevites should man their fortress, watch the road for the coming invader, and strengthen themselves. These measures would prove futile because the Lord would destroy the city. Nahum was speaking ironically. This section has been called "a taunt song." [Note: Longman, "Nahum," p. 801.]

"Sennacherib had spent no less than six years building his armory, which occupied a terraced area of forty acres. It was enlarged further by Esarhaddon and contained all the weaponry required for the extension and maintenance of the Assyrian empire: bows, arrows, quivers, chariots, wagons, armor, horses, mules, and equipment (cf. Eze 23:24; Eze 39:9). The royal ’road’ had been enlarged by Sennacherib to a breadth of seventy-eight feet, facilitating the movement of troops." [Note: Armerding, p. 472.]

Even though the Ninevites did all these things they could not escape overthrow. The invader proved to be Cyaxeres the Mede and Nabopolassar the Babylonian. [Note: For an ancient account of the battles that resulted in Nineveh’s fall, see D. Winton Thomas, ed., Documents from Old Testament Times, p. 76; or James B. Pritchard, ed., Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament, pp. 303-5.] However, the "scatterer" behind them was Yahweh.

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

THE SIEGE AND FALL OF NINEVEH

Nah 2:1-13; Nah 3:1-19

THE scene now changes from the presence and awful arsenal of the Almighty to the historical consummation of His vengeance. Nahum foresees the siege of Nineveh. Probably the Medes have already overrun Assyria. The “Old Lion” has withdrawn to his inner den, and is making his last stand. The suburbs are full of the enemy, and the great walls which made the inner city one vast fortress are invested. Nahum describes the details of the assault. Let us try, before we follow him through them, to form some picture of Assyria and her capital at this time.

As we have seen, the Assyrian Empire began about 625 to shrink to the limits of Assyria proper, or Upper Mesopotamia, within the Euphrates on the southwest, the mountain-range of Kurdistan on the northeast, the river Chabor on the northwest, and the Lesser Zab on the southeast. This is a territory of nearly a hundred and fifty miles from north to south, and rather more than two hundred and fifty from east to west. To the south of it the Viceroy of Babylon, Nabopolassar, held practically independent sway over Lower Mesopotamia, if he did not command as well a large part of the Upper Euphrates Valley. On the north the Medes were urgent, holding at least the farther ends of the passes through the Kurdish mountains, if they had not already penetrated these to their southern issues.

The kernel of the Assyrian territory was the triangle, two of whose sides are represented by the Tigris and the Greater Zab, the third by the foot of the Kurdistan mountains. It is a fertile plain, with some low hills. Today the level parts of it are covered by a large number of villages and well-cultivated fields. The more frequent mounds of ruin attest in ancient times a still greater population. At the period of which we are treating, the plains must have been covered by an almost continuous series of towns. At either end lay a group of fortresses. The southern was the ancient capital of Assyria, Kalchu, now Nimrud, about six miles to the north of the confluence of the Greater Zab and the Tigris. The northern, close by the present town of Khorsabad, was the great fortress and palace of Sargon, Dur-Sargina: it covered the roads upon Nineveh from the north, and standing upon the upper reaches of the Choser protected Ninevehs water supply. But besides these there were scattered upon all the main roads and round the frontiers of the territory a number of other forts, towers, and posts, the ruins of many of which are still considerable, but others have perished without leaving any visible traces. The roads thus protected drew in upon Nineveh from all directions. The chief of those, along which the Medes and their allies would advance from the east and north, crossed the Greater Zam, or came down through the Kurdistan mountains upon the citadel of Sargon. Two of them were distant enough from the latter to relieve the invaders from the necessity of taking it, and Kalchu lay far to the south of all of them. The brunt of the first defense of the land would therefore fall upon the smaller fortresses.

Nineveh itself lay upon the Tigris between Kalchu and Sargons city, just where the Tigris is met by the Choser. Low hills descend from the north upon the very site of the fortress, and then curve east and south, bow-shaped, to draw west again upon the Tigris at the south end of the city. To the east of the latter they leave a level plain, some two and a half miles by one and a half. These hills appear to have been covered by several forts. The city itself was four-sided, lying lengthwise to the Tigris and cut across its breadth by the Choser. The circumference was about seven and a half miles, enclosing the largest fortified space in Western Asia, and capable of holding a population of three hundred thousand. The western wall, rather over two and a half miles long, touched the Tigris at the other end, but between there lay a broad, bow-shaped stretch of land, probably in ancient times, as now, free of buildings. The northwestern wall ran up from the Tigris for a mile and a quarter to the low ridge which entered the city at its northern corner. From this the eastern wall, with a curve upon it, ran down in face of the eastern plain for a little more than three miles, and was joined to the western by the short southern wall of not quite half a mile. The ruins of the western wall stand from ten to twenty, those of the others from twenty-five to sixty, feet above the natural surface, with here and there the still higher remains of towers. There were several gates, of which the chief were one in the northern and two in the eastern wall. Round all the walls except the western ran moats about a hundred and fifty feet broad-not close up to the foot of the walls, but at a distance of some sixty feet. Water was supplied by the Choser to all the moats south of it; those to the north were fed from a canal which entered the city near its northern corner. At these and other points one can still trace the remains of huge dams, batardeaux, and sluices; and the moats might be emptied by opening at either end of the western wall other dams, which kept back the waters from the bed of the Tigris. Beyond its moat, the eastern wall was protected north of the Choser by a large outwork covering its gate, and south of the Choser by another outwork, in shape the segment of a circle, and consisting of a double line of fortification more than five hundred yards long, of which the inner wall was almost as high as the great wall itself, but the outer considerably lower. Again, in front of this and in face of the eastern plain was a third line of fortification, consisting of a low inner wall and a colossal outer wall still rising to a height of fifty feet, with a moat one hundred and fifty feet broad between them. On the south this third line was closed by a large fortress.

Upon the trebly fortified city the Medes drew from east and. north, far away from Kalchu and able to avoid even Dur-Sargma. The other fortresses on the frontier and the approaches fell into their hands, says Nahum, like “ripe fruit.” {Nah 3:12} He cries to Nineveh to prepare for the siege. {Nah 3:14} Military authorities suppose that the Medes directed their main attack upon the northern corner of the city. Here they would be upon a level with its highest point, and would command the waterworks by which most of the moats were fed. Their flank, too, would be protected by the ravines of the Choser. Nahum describes fighting in the suburbs before the assault of the walls, and it was just here, according to some authorities, that the famous suburbs of Nineveh lay, out upon the canal and the road to Khorsabad. All the open fighting which Nahum foresees would take place in these “out-places” and “broad streets” the mustering of the “red” ranks, the “prancing horses” and “rattling chariots” {Nah 3:2} and “cavalry at the charge.” {Nah 3:3} Beaten there the Assyrians would retire to the great walls, and the waterworks would fall into the hands of the besiegers. They would not immediately destroy these, but in order to bring their engines and battering-rams against the walls they would have to lay strong dams across the moats; the eastern moat has actually been found filled with rubbish in face of a great breach at the north end of its wall. This breach may have been effected not only by the rams but by directing upon the wall the waters of the canal; or farther south the Choser itself, in its spring floods, may have been confined by the besiegers and swept in upon the sluices which regulate its passage through the eastern wall into the city. To this means tradition has assigned the capture of Nineveh, and Nahum perhaps foresees the possibility of it: “the gates of the rivers are opened, the palace is dissolved.”

Now of all this probable progress of the siege Nahum, of course, does not give us a narrative, for he is writing upon the eve of it, and probably, as we have seen, in Judah, with only such knowledge of the position and strength of Nineveh as her fame had scattered across the world. The military details, the muster, the fighting in the open, the investment, the assault, he did not need to go to Assyria or to wait for the fall of Nineveh to describe as he has done. Assyria herself (and herein lies much of the pathos of the poem) had made all Western Asia familiar with their horrors for the last two centuries. As we learn from the prophets and now still more from herself, Assyria was the great Besieger of Men. It is siege, siege, siege, which Amos, Hosea, and Isaiah tell their people they shall feel: “siege and blockade, and that right round the land!” It is siege, irresistible and full of cruelty, which Assyria records as her own glory. Miles of sculpture are covered with masses of troops marching upon some Syrian or Median fortress. Scaling ladders and enormous engines are pushed forward to the walls under cover of a shower of arrows. There are assaults and breaches, panic-stricken and suppliant defenders. Streets and places are strewn with corpses, men are impaled, women led away weeping, children dashed against the stones. The Jews had seen, had felt these horrors for a hundred years, and it is out of their experience of them that Nahum weaves his exultant predictions. The Besieger of the world is at last besieged; every cruelty he has inflicted upon men is now to be turned upon himself. Again and again does Nahum return to the vivid details, he hears the very whips crack beneath the walls, and the rattle of the leaping chariots; the end is slaughter, dispersion, and a dead waste.

Two other points remain to be emphasized. There is a striking absence from both chapters of any reference to Israel. Jehovah of Hosts is mentioned twice in the same formula, {Nah 2:13; Nah 3:5} but otherwise the author does not obtrude his nationality. It is not in Judahs name he exults, but in that of all the peoples of Western Asia. Nineveh has sold “peoples” by her harlotries and “races” by her witchcraft; it is “peoples” that shall gaze upon her nakedness and “kingdoms” upon her shame. Nahum gives voice to no national passions, but to the outraged conscience of mankind. We see here another proof, not only of the large, human heart of prophecy, but of that which in the introduction to these Twelve Prophets we ventured to assign as one of its causes. By crushing all peoples to a common level of despair, by the universal pity which her cruelties excited, Assyria contributed to the development in Israel of the idea of a common humanity.

The other thing to be noticed is Nahums feeling of the incoherence and mercenariness of the vast population of Nineveh. Ninevehs command of the world had turned her into a great trading power. Under Assurbanipal the lines of ancient commerce had been diverted so as to pass through her. The immediate result was an enormous increase of population, such as the world had never before seen within the limits of one city. But this had come out of all races and was held together only by the greed of gain. What had once been a firm and vigorous nation of warriors, irresistible in their united impact upon the world, was now a loose aggregate of many peoples, without patriotism, discipline, or sense of honor. Nahum likens it to a reservoir of waters {Nah 2:8} which as soon as it is breached must scatter, and leave the city bare. The Second Isaiah said the same of Babylon, to which the bulk of Ninevehs mercenary populace must: have fled:-

“Thus are they grown to thee, they who did weary thee, Traders of thine from thy youth up Each as he could escape have they fled None is thy helper.”

The prophets saw the truth about both cities. Their vastness and their splendor were artificial Neither of them, and Nineveh still less than Babylon, was a natural center for the worlds commerce. When their political power fell, the great lines of trade, which had been twisted to their feet, drew back to more natural courses, and Nineveh in especial became deserted. This is the explanation of the absolute collapse of that mighty city. Nahums foresight, and the very metaphor in which he expressed it, were thoroughly sound. The population vanished like water. The site bears little trace of any disturbance since the ruin by the Medes, except such as has been inflicted by the weather and the wandering tribes around. Mosul, Ninevehs representative today, is not built upon it, and is but a provincial town. The district was never meant for anything else.

The swift decay of these ancient empires from the climax of their commercial glory is often employed as a warning to ourselves. But the parallel, as the previous paragraphs suggest, is very far from exact. If we can lay aside for the moment the greatest difference of all, in religion and morals, there remain others almost of cardinal importance. Assyria and Babylonia were not filled, like Great Britain, with reproductive races, able to colonize distant lands, and carry everywhere the spirit which had made them strong at home. Still more, they did not continue at home to be homogeneous. Their native forces were exhausted by long and unceasing wars. Their populations, especially in their capitals, were very largely alien and distraught, with nothing to hold them together save their commercial interests. They were bound to break up at the first disaster. It is true that we are not without some risks of their peril. No patriot among us can observe without misgiving the large and growing proportion of foreigners in that department of our life from which the strength of our defense is largely drawn-our merchant navy. But such a fact is very far from bringing our empire and its chief cities into the fatal condition of Nineveh and Babylon. Our capitals, our commerce, our life as a whole are still British to the core. If we only be true to our ideals of righteousness and religion, if our patriotism continue moral and sincere, we shall have the power to absorb the foreign elements that throng to us in commerce, and stamp them with our own spirit.

We are now ready to follow Nahums two great poems delivered on the eve of the Fall of Nineveh. Probably, as we have said, the first of them has lost its original opening. It wants some notice at the outset of the object to which it is addressed: this is indicated only by the second personal pronoun. Other needful comments will be given in footnotes.

1. “The Hammer is come up to thy face! Hold the rampart! Keep watch on the way! Brace the loins! Pull thyself firmly together! The shields of his heroes are red, The warriors are in scarlet; Like fire are the of the chariots in the day of his muster, And the horsemen are prancing. Through the markets rage chariots, They tear across the squares; The look of them is like torches, Like lightnings they dart to and fro. He musters his nobles. They rush to the wall and the mantlet is fixed! The river-gates burst open, the palace dissolves. And Hussab is Stripped, is brought forth, With her maids sobbing like doves, Beating their breasts. And Nineveh! she was like a reservoir of waters, Her waters. And now they flee. “Stand, stand!” but there is none to rally. Plunder silver, plunder gold! Infinite treasures, mass of all precious things! Void and devoid and desolate is she. Melting hearts and shaking knees,”

“And anguish in all loins, And nothing but faces full of black fear.”

“Where is the Lions den, And the young lions feeding ground? Whither the Lion retreated, The whelps of the Lion, with none to affray: The Lion, who tore enough for his whelps, And strangled for his lionesses. And he filled his pits with prey, And his dens with rapine.”

“Lo, I am at thee (oracle of Jehovah of Hosts): I will put up thy in flames. The sword shall devour thy young lions: I will cut off from the earth thy rapine, And the noise of thine envoys shall no more be heard.”

2. “Woe to the City of Blood, All of her guile, robbery-full, ceaseless rapine!”

“Hark the whip, And the rumbling of the wheel, And horses galloping, And the rattling dance of the chariot! Cavalry at the charge, and flash of sabres, And lightning of lances, Mass of slain and weight of corpses, Endless dead bodies-They stumble on their dead For the manifold harlotries of the Harlot, The well-favored mistress of charms She who sold nations with her harlotries And races by her witchcrafts!”

“Lo, I am at thee (oracle of Jehovah of Hosts): I will uncover thy skirts to thy face; Give nations to look on thy nakedness, And kingdoms upon thy shame; Will have thee pelted with filth, and disgrace thee, And set thee for a gazing-stock; So that everyone seeing thee shall shrink from thee and say,”

Shattered is Nineveh-who will pity her? Whence shall I seek for comforters to thee?

“Shalt thou be better than No-Amon, Which sat upon the Nile streams-waters were round her-Whose rampart was the sea, and waters her wall? Kush was her strength and Misraim without end; Phut and the Lybians were there to assist her. Even she was for exile, she went to captivity: Even her children were dashed on every street corner; For her nobles they cast lots. And all her great men were fastened with fetters.”

“Thou too shalt stagger shalt grow faint; Thou too shalt seek help from the foe All thy fortresses are fig-trees with figs early-ripe: Be they shaken they fall on the mouth of the eater.”

“Lo, thy folk are but women in thy midst: {Jer 50:37; Jer 51:30} To thy foes the gates of thy land fly open; Fire has devoured thy bars.”

“Draw thee water for siege, strengthen thy forts! Get thee down to the mud, and tramp in the clay! Grip fast the brick-mould! There fire consumes thee, the sword cuts thee off. Make thyself many as a locust swarm, Many as grasshoppers Multiply thy traders more than heavens stars, -The locusts break off and fly away, They are as locusts and thy as grasshoppers, That hive in the hedges in the cold of the day”:

“The sun is risen, they are fled, And one knows not the place where they be. Asleep are thy shepherds, O king of Assyria, Thy nobles do slumber; Thy people are strewn on the mountains, Without any to gather. There is no healing of thy wreck, Fatal thy wound! All who hear the brunt of thee shall clap the hand at thee. For upon whom hath not thy cruelty passed without ceasing?”

Fuente: Expositors Bible Commentary

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