Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Nahum 3:8
Art thou better than populous No, that was situate among the rivers, [that had] the waters round about it, whose rampart [was] the sea, [and] her wall [was] from the sea?
8 11. Should Nineveh expect a happier fate than No Amon?
8. Art thou better ] Most naturally: shall it be (go) better with thee? shalt thou have a better fate? The sense proposed by others, art thou better placed? is also suitable to the connexion, but the form of the verb is against it.
populous No ] No Amon, i.e. No of Amon (the god); in Egyptian Nu Amen. No is Thebes the capital of Upper Egypt, sacred to the god Amun. Jer 46:25 threatens No of Amon and her gods. Cf. Eze 30:14 seq.
among the rivers ] on the Nile streams. The city lay on both sides of the Nile, but was girt about with arms or canals of the river.
rampart was the sea ] i.e. the Nile. A large river or any mass of water is called “sea”; Isa 19:5; Job 14:11. So bar in Arab.
her wall was from the sea ] A slight change in pointing gives, and waters were her wall (Sept.).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Art thou better – More populous or more powerful, than the populous No? rather than No-Ammon, so called from the idol Ammon, worshiped there. No-Ammon, (or, as it is deciphered in the Cuneiform Inscriptions, Nia), meaning probably the portion of Ammon , was the sacred name of the capital of Upper Egypt, which, under its common name, Thebes, was far-famed, even in the time of Homer, for its continually accruing wealth, its military power, its 20,000 chariots, its vast dimensions attested by its 100 gates .
Existing earlier, as the capital of Upper Egypt, its grandeur began in the 18th dynasty, alter the expulsion of the Hyksos, or Semitic conquerors of Egypt. Its Pharaohs were conquerors, during the 18th to 20th dynasties, 1706-1110 b.c. – about six centuries. It was then the center of a world empire. Under a disguised name , its rulers were celebrated in Geek story also, for their worldwide conquests. The Greek statements have in some main points been verified by the decipherment of the hieroglyphics. The monuments relate their victories in far Asia, and mention Nineveh itself among the people who paid tribute to them. They warred and conquered from the Soudan to Mesopotamia. A monument of Tothmosis I (1066 b.c.) still exists at Kerman, between the 20th and 19th degrees latitude, boasting, in language like that of the Assyrian conquerors; All lands are subdued, and bring their tributes for the first time to the gracious god . The frontier of Egypt, they say , extends Southward to the mountain of Apta (in Abyssinia) and Northward to the furthest dwellings of the Asiatics. The hyperbolic statements are too undefined for history , but widely-conquering monarchs could alone have used them. : At all periods of history, the possession of the country which we call Soudan (the Black country) comprising Nubia, and which the ancients called by the collective name of Kous (Cush) or Aethiopia, has been an exhaustless source of wealth to Egypt. Whether by way of war or of commerce, barks laden with flocks, corn, hides, ivory, precious woods, stones and metals, and many other products of those regions, descended the Nile into Egypt, to fill the treasures of the temples and of the court of the Pharaohs: and of metals, especially gold, mines whereof were worked by captives and slaves, whose Egyptian name noub seems to have been the origin of the name Nubia, the first province S. of Egypt. The conquered country of Soudan, called Kous in the hieroglyphic inscriptions, was governed by Egyptian princes of the royal family, who bore the name of prince royal of Kous.
But the prophets appeal to Nineveh is the more striking, because No, in its situation, its commerce, the sources of its wealth, its relation to the country which lay between them, had been another and earlier Nineveh. Only, as No had formerly conquered and exacted tribute from all those nations, even to Nineveh itself, so now, under Sargon and Sennacherib, Nineveh had reversed all those successes, and displaced the Empire of Egypt by its own, and taken No itself. No had, under its Tothmoses, Amenophes, Sethos, the Ousertesens, sent its messengers Nah 2:13, the leviers of its tribute, had brought off from Asia that countless mass of human strength, the captives, who (as Israel, before its deliverance, accomplished its hard labors) completed those gigantic works, which, even after 2000 years of decay, are still the marvel of the civilized world. Tothmosis I, after subduing the Sasou, brought back countless captives from Naharina (Mesopotamia); Tothmosis III, in 19 years of conquests, (1603-1585 b.c.) raised the Egyptian empire to the height of its greatness. Tothmosis repeatedly attacked the most powerful people of Asia, as the Routen (Assyrians?) with a number of subordinate kingdoms, such as Asshur, Babel, Nineveh, Singar; such as the Remenen or Armenians, the Zahi or Phoenicians, the Cheta or Hittites, and manymore. We learn, by the description of the objects of the booty, sent to Egypt by land and sea, counted by number and weight, many curious details as to the industry of the conquered peoples of central Asia, which do honor to the civilization of that time, and verify the tradition that the Egyptian kings set up stelae in conquered countries, in memory of their victories. Tothmosis III. set up his stele in Mesopotamia, for having enlarged the frontiers of Egypt. Amenophis too is related to have taken the fortress of Nenii (Nineveh). : He returned from the country of the higher Routen, where he had beaten all his enemies to enlarge the frontiers of the land of Egypt : he took possession of the people of the South, and chastised the people of the North: at Abd-el-Kournah he was represented as having for his footstool the heads and backs of five peoples of the S. and four peoples of the North (Asiatics). : Among the names of the peoples, who submitted to Egypt, are the Nubians, the Asiatic shepherds, the inhabitants of Cyprus and Mesopotamia. : The world in its length and its breadth is promised by the sphinx to Tothmosis IV. He is represented as subduer of the negroes.
Under Amenophis III, the Memnon of the Greeks , the Egyptian empire extended Northward to Mesopotamia, Southward to the land of Karou. He enlarged and beautified No, which had from him the temple of Louksor, and his vocal statue , all people bringing their tributes, their children, their horses, a mass of silver, of iron and ivory from countries, the roads whereto we know not. The king Horus is saluted as the sun of the nine people; great is thy name to the country of Ethiopia ; the gracious god returns, having subdued the great of all people. Seti I (or Sethos) is exhibited , as reverenced by the Armenians, conquering the Sasou, the Hittites, Naharina (Mesopotamia), the Routen (Assyrians?) the Pount, or Arabs in the South of Arabia, the Amari or Amorites, and Kedes, perhaps Edessa. Rameses II, or the great (identified with the Pharaoh of the Exodus ), conquered the Hittites in the North; in the South it is recorded , the gracious god, who defeated the nine people, who massacred myriads in a moment, annihilated the people overthrown in their blood, yet was there no other with him.
The 20th Dynasty (1288-1110 b.c.) began again with conquests. : Rameses III. triumphed over great confederations of Libyans and Syrians and the Isles of the Mediterranean. He is the only king who, as the monuments shew, carried on war at once by land and sea. Beside many names unknown to us, the Hittites, Amorites, Circesium, Aratus, Philistines, Phoenicia, Sasou, Pount, are again recognized. North, South East and West are declared to be tributary to him, and of the North it is said , The people, who knew not Egypt, come to thee, bringing gold and silver, lapis-lazuli, all precious stones. He adorned Thebes with the great temple of Medinet-Abou and the Ramesseum . The brief notices of following Rameses speak of internal prosperity and wealth: a fuller account of Rameses XII speaks of his being in Mesopotamia to exact the annual tribute, how the kings of all countries prostrated themselves before him, and the king of the country of Bouchten (it has been conjectured, Bagistan, or Ecbatana) presented to him tribute and his daughter. : He is the last Pharaoh who goes to Mesopotamia, to collect the annual tributes of the petty kingdoms of that country.
On this side of the Euphrates, Egypt still retained some possessions to the time of Necho, for it is said, the king of Babylon had taken from the river of Egypt unto the river Euphrates all that pertained to the king of Egypt 2Ki 24:7. Thebes continued to be embellished alike by the high priests of Ammon, who displaced the ancient line , and kings of the Bubastite Dynasty, Sesonchis I or Sisak , Takelothis II , and Sesonchis III . The Ethiopian dynasty of Sabakos and Tearko or Tirhaka in another way illustrates the importance of No. The Ethiopian conquerors chose it as their royal city. There, in the time of Sabakos, Syria brought it tribute ; there Tirhaka set up the records of his victories ; and great must have been the conqueror, whom Strabo put on a line with Sesostris .
Its site marked it out for a great capital; and as such the Ethiopian conqueror seized it. The hills on either side retired, encircling the plain, through the center of which the Nile brought down its wealth, connecting it with the untold riches of the south. : They formed a vast circus, where the ancient metropolis expaneled itself On the West, the Lybian chain presents abrupt declivities which command this side of the plain, and which bend away above Bab-el-molouk, to end near Kournah at the very bank of the river. On the East, heights, softer and nearer, descend in long declivities toward Louksor and Karnak, and their crests do not approach the Nile until after Medamout, an hour or more below Karnak. The breadth of the valley, being about 10 miles , the city (of which, Strabo says , traces are now seen of its magnitude, 80 stadia in length) must have occupied the whole. : The city embraced the great space, which is now commonly called the plain of Thebes and which is divided by the Nile into two halves, an Eastern and a Western, the first bounded by the edge of the Arabian wilderness, the latter by the hills of the dead of the steep Libyan chain.
The capital of Egypt, which was identified of old with Egypt itself , thus lay under the natural guardianship of the encircling hills which expanded to receive it, divided into two by the river which was a wall to both. The chains of hills, on either side were themselves fenced in on East and West by the great sand-deserts unapproachable by an army. The long valley of the Nile was the only access to an enemy. It occupied apparently the victorious army of Asshurbanipal a month and ten days to march from Memphis to Thebes. : At Thebes itself there are still remains of walls and fortifications, strong, skillfully constructed, and in good preservation, as there are also in other Egyptian towns above and below it. The crescent-shaped ridge of hills approaches so close to the river at each end as to admit of troops defiling past, but not spreading out or maneuvering. At each of these ends is a small old fort of the purely Egyptian, i. e., the ante-Hellenic period. Both above and below there are several similar crescent sweeps in the same chain of hills, and at each angle a similar fort.
All successive monarchs, during more centuries than have passed since our Lord came, successively beautified it. Everything is gigantic, bearing witness to the enormous mass of human strength, which its victorious kings had gathered from all nations to toil for its and their glorification. Wonderful is it now in its decay, desolation, death; one great idol-temple of its gods and an apotheosis of its kings, as sons of its gods. : What spires are to a modern city, what the towers of a cathedral are to the nave and choir, that the statues of the Pharaohs were to the streets and temples of Thebes. The ground is strewn with their fragments; the avenues of them towered high above plain and houses. Three of gigantic size still remain. One was the granite statue of Rameses himself, who sat on the rightside of the entrance to his palace. – The only part of the temple or palace, at all in proportion to him, must have been the gateway, which rose in pyramidal towers, now broken down and rolling in a wild ruin down to the plain.
It was that self-deifying, against which Ezekiel is commanded to prophesy; Speak and say; thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I am against thee, Pharaoh king of Egypt, the great dragon that lieth in the midst of his rivers, which hath said, My river is mine own, and I have made it for myself Eze 29:3. : Everywhere the same colossal proportions are preserved. Everywhere the king is conquering, ruling, worshiping, worshiped. The palace is the temple. The king is priest. He and his horses are ten times the size of the rest of the army. Alike in battle and in worship, he is of the same stature as the gods themselves. Most striking is the familiar gentleness, with which, one on each side, they take him by each hand, as one of their own order, and then, in the next compartment, introduce him to Ammon, and the lion-headed goddess. Every distinction, except of degree, between divinity and royalty is entirely leveled.
Gigantic dimensions picture to the eye the ideal greatness, which is the key to the architecture of No. : Two other statues alone remain of an avenue of eighteen similar or nearly similar statues, some of whose remnants lie in the field behind them, which led to the palace of Amenophis III, every one of the statues being Amenophis himself, thus giving in multiplication what Rameses gained in solitary elevation. : Their statues were all of one piece. Science still cannot explain, how a mass of nearly 890 tons of granite was excavated at Syene, transported and set up at Thebes, or how destroyed .
Nozrani, In Egypt and Syria, p. 278: The temper of the tools, which cut adamantine stone as sharply and closely as an ordinary scoop cuts an ordinary cheese, is still a mystery. Everything is in proportion. The two sitting colossi, whose breadth across the shoulders is eighteen feet, their height forty-seven feet, fifty-three above the plain, or, with the half-buried pedestal, sixty feet, were once connected by an avenue of sphinxes of eleven hundred feet with what is now Kom-el-Hettan, or the mound of sand-stone, which marks the site of another palace and temple of Amenophis III.; and, to judge from the little that remains, it must have held a conspicuous rank among the finest monuments of Thebes. All that now exists of the interior are the bases of its columns, some broken statues, and Syenite sphinxes of the king, with several lionheaded figures of black granite .
The four villages, where are the chief remaining temples, Karnak, Luksor, Medinet-Abou, Kournah, form a great quadrilateral , each of whose sides is about one and a half mile, and the whole compass accordingly six miles. The avenue of six hundred sphinxes, which joined the temple of Luksor with Karnak must have been one and a half mile long : one of its obelisks is a remarkable ornament of Paris. Mostly massiveness is the characteristic, since strength and might were their ideal. Yet the massive columns still preserved, as in the temple of Rameses II , are even of piercing beauty . And for the temple of Karnak! Its enclosure, which was some two miles in circumference , bears the names of Monarchs removed from one another, according to the Chronology, by above two thousand years . : A stupendous colonnade, of which one pillar only remains erect, once extended across its great court, connecting the W. gate of entrance with that at its extremity. The towers of the Eastern gate are mere heaps of stones, poured down into the court on one side and the great hall on the other; giant columns have been swept away like reeds before the mighty avalanche, and one hardly misses them. And in that hall, of 170 feet by 329 feet, 134 columns of colossal proportions supported its roof; twelve of them, 62 feet high and about 35 in circumference, and on each side a forest of 66 columns, 42 feet 5 in. in height. Beyond the center avenue are seen obelisks, gateways and masses of masonry; every portion of these gigantic ruins is covered with sculpture most admirably executed, and every column has been richly painted.
Stanley, Sinai and Palestine, p. xli.: Imagine a long vista of courts and doorways and colonnades and halls; here and there an obelisk shooting up out of the ruins, and interrupting the opening view of the forest of columns. – This mass of ruins, some rolled down in avalanches of stone, others perfect and painted, as when they were first built, is approached on every side by avenues of gateways. East and West, North and South, these vast approaches are found. Some are shattered, but in every approach some remain; and in some can be traced, beside, the further avenues, still in parts remaining by hundreds together, avenues of ram-headed sphinxes. Every Egyptian temple has, or ought to have, one of those grand gateways, formed of two sloping towers, with the high perpendicular front between. Then, over and above, is their multiplied concentration. – Close before almost every gateway in this vast array were the colossal figures, usually in granite, of the great Rameses, sometimes in white and red marble, of Amenophis and of Thothmes. Close by them, were pairs of towering obelisks, which can generally be traced by pedestals on either side. – You have only to set up again the fallen obelisks which lie at your feet; to conceive the columns, as they are still seen in parts, overspreading the whole; to reproduce all the statues, like those which still remain in their august niches, to gaze on the painted wails and pillars of the immense ball, which even now can never be seen without a thrill of awe, and you have ancient Thebes before you.
And most of these paintings were records of their past might. : There remained on the massive buildings Egyptian letters, recording their former wealthiness; and one of the elder priests, bidden to interpret his native language, related that of old 700,000 of military age dwelt there; and with that army king Rhamses gained possession of Libya, Ethiopia, the Medes and Persians, the Bactrian and Scythian; and held in his empire the countries which the Syrians and Armenians and neighboring Cappadocians inhabit, the Bithynian also and Lycian to the sea. There were read tee the tributes imposed on the natives, the weight of silver amid gold; the number of arms and horses, and the gifts to the temples, ivory and frankincense, and what supplies of corn and utensils each nation should pay, not less magnificent than are now enjoined by Parthian violence or by Roman power.
That was situate among the rivers – Literally, the dweller, she that dwelleth. Perhaps the prophet wished to express the security and ease, in which she dwelt among the rivers. They encircled, folded round her, as it were, so that she was a little world in herself, secluded from all who would approach to hurt her. The prophets word, rivers , is especially used of the branches or canals of the Nile, which is also called the sea . The Nile passed through No, and doubtless its canals encircled it. Egypt is said by a pagan to be walled by the Nile as an everlasting wall, Whose rampart was (rampart is) the sea. Wall and rampart are, properly, the outer and inner wall of a city, the wall and forewall, so to speak. For all walls and all defenses, her enfolding walls of sea would suffice. Strong she was in herself; strong also in her helpers.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 8. Art thou better than populous No] No-Ammon, or Diospolis, in the Delta, on one branch of the Nile. This is supposed to be the city mentioned by Nahum; and which had been lately destroyed, probably by the Chaldeans.
The waters round about it] Being situated in the Delta, it had the fork of two branches of the Nile to defend it by land; and its barrier or wall was the sea, the Mediterranean, into which these branches emptied themselves: so that this city, and the place it stood on, were wholly surrounded by the waters.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Art thou, O Nineveh,
better than populous No? it is generally supposed that this was what we now call Alexandria, a city full of people, and as full of luxury and uncleanness, the sins whereof had brought it to ruin, though the history of it do not specify time, person, or means, &c. Art thou greater, stronger, and wiser, more able to resist, an enemy, and preserve thyself? Yet all her power was broken, her riches spoiled, and her glory buried in ruins. This, known in those days, was a fit example to be set before the Ninevites; and though some conjecture the prophet foretells what should befall populous No, to awaken the Ninevites, yet it seems incredible that the prophet should take an instance to terrify secure Ninevites from somewhat to come to pass in after-ages.
Situate among the rivers; in a place where the seven streams of Nilus very fairly might be accounted so many rivers, and near to one of these streams, toward the sea, was this mighty and rich city seated.
The waters round about it; though at some distance, yet at no great distance.
Whose rampart, or defence of its walls on one side,
was the sea; that part of the Midland Sea which was Mare Egyptiacum, and was northward from the city.
Her wall was from the sea; a mighty strong wall built from the sea, on the parts landward, where need was.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
8. populous Norather, asHebrew, “No-ammon,” the Egyptian name for Thebes inUpper Egypt; meaning the portion or possession of Ammon,the Egyptian Jupiter (whence the Greeks called the city Diospolis),who was especially worshipped there. The Egyptian inscriptions callthe god Amon-re, that is, Amon the Sun; he isrepresented as a human figure with a ram’s head, seated on a chair(Jer 46:25; Eze 30:14-16).The blow inflicted on No-ammon, described in Na3:10, was probably by the Assyrian Sargon (see on Isa18:1; Isa 20:1). As Thebes, withall her resources, was overcome by Assyria, so Assyrian Nineveh,notwithstanding all her might, in her turn, shall be overcome byBabylon. English Version, “populous,” if correct,implies that No’s large population did not save her from destruction.
situate among theriversprobably the channels into which the Nile heredivides (compare Isa19:6-8). Thebes lay on both sides of the river. It was famed inHOMER’S time for itshundred gates [Iliad, 9.381]. Its ruins still describe acircumference of twenty-seven miles. Of them the temples of Luxor andKarnak, east of the river, are most famous. The colonnade of theformer, and the grand hall of the latter, are of stupendousdimensions. One wall still represents the expedition of Shishakagainst Jerusalem under Rehoboam (1Ki 14:25;2Ch 12:2-9).
whose . . . wall was from theseathat is, rose up “from the sea.” MAURERtranslates, “whose wall consisted of the sea.” Butthis would be a mere repetition of the former clause. The Nile iscalled a sea, from its appearance in the annual flood (Isa19:5).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Art thou better than populous No,…. Or No Amon, a city in Egypt so called, not because the kings of Egypt were nursed and brought up there, as Jarchi and Abarbinel; see Pr 8:30 but from Ham the son of Noah, whose land Egypt was; or from Jupiter Ammon, worshipped there. No Amon signifies the mansion or palace of Ham, or Hamon; the Egyptians, as Herodotus says h, call Jupiter by the name of Ammon. The Targum interprets it of Alexandria the great, a city so called long after this, when it was rebuilt by Alexander the great; so Jarchi, Kimchi, and Ben Melech, understand it: others take Diospolis or Thebes to be meant, famous in Homer i for its hundred gates; though some think this was not the number of the gates of the city, but of the temples in it; and others are of opinion that these were so many palaces of princes k. The city was built by Osiris; or, according to others, by Busiris, and seems more likely to be the place here meant; since here was a temple dedicated to Jupiter, called by the Egyptians Ammon, as Diodorus Siculus l relates, and was a very large and populous city. Indeed, according to the above historian, it was in compass but a seventeen and a half miles m; which is to be understood of the city when first built, and before it was enlarged; for it must have been a great deal larger in later times, if we may judge of it by its ruins. Strabo n, who was an eyewitness of them quickly after its last destruction by Cornelius Gallus, says, the footsteps of its largeness were seen fourscore furlongs in length, or ten miles; and even this was but small, in comparison of what it was before it was destroyed by Cambyses, when it is said to reach four hundred and twenty furlongs, or fifty two miles and a half o. It was the metropolis of all Egypt; and formerly the whole country was called after its name, as Herodotus p observes. The accounts given of its inhabitants are incredible, and particularly of the soldiers it sent out; according to the epitaph of Rhampses, seven hundred thousand soldiers dwelt in it; which number Diodorus Siculus q gives to all the people in Egypt; but, though it may seem too large for Thebes, must be too little for all Egypt; especially if what Agrippa in Josephus r says is right, that Egypt, from Ethiopia and the borders of India to Alexandria, had no less than 7,500,000 inhabitants: however, if Pomponius Mela s may be credited, when it was necessary, the hundred palaces in Thebes could each of them send out ten thousand armed men, or, as some say, twenty thousand; and if what Diodorus Siculus t affirms is true, that twenty thousand chariots used to go out from thence to war, this shows it to have been a very populous city indeed, and might well be called “populous” No; but now it is utterly destroyed, first by the Assyrians and Babylonians, then by the Persians, and last of all by the Romans; the first destruction must be here referred to, if this city is designed. Strabo u says in his time it was only inhabited in villages; and Juvenal w speaks of it as wholly lying in ruins; and Pausanias x, making mention of it with other cities which abounded with riches, says they were reduced to the fortune of a middling private man, yea, were brought to nothing. It is now, or what is built on the spot, or near it, called Luxxor, or Lukorcen y. Some z think the city Memphis is meant, so Vitringa on Isa 19:5.
[See comments on Eze 30:14],
[See comments on Eze 30:15], this was for many ages the metropolis of all Egypt. Strabo a calls it a large and “populous” city, and full of men, and second to Alexandria in his time. The compass of it, when first built, was eighteen and three quarter miles b; but now there is no more remaining of it than if there had never been such a city; nay, it is not easy to say where it once stood: now Nineveh is asked, or its inhabitants, if it could be thought that their city was in a better and safer condition than this city; it might indeed, according to the account of it by historians, and as in the prophecy of Jonah, be larger, and its inhabitants more numerous; but not better fortified, which seems to be the thing chiefly respected, as follows:
that was situate among the rivers; the canals of the river Nile:
[that had] the waters round about it: a moat on every side, either naturally or artificially:
whose rampart [was] the sea, [and] her wall [was] from the sea? which agrees with Alexandria, according to the description of it by Strabo c, Solinus d, and Josephus e, which had two seas on each side of it; the Egyptian sea on the north, and the lake Mareotis on the south, as well as had the canals of the Nile running into it from various parts; and is represented as very difficult of access, through the sea, rivers, and marshy places about it; and, besides, might have a wall towards the sea, as by this account it should seem, as well as the sea itself was a wall and rampart to it: and this description may also agree with Diospolis or Thebes, which, though more inland, yet, as Bochart f observes, it had, as all Egypt had, the two seas, the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea, and the canals of the Nile, which might be said to be as a rampart to it. So Isocrates g says of all Egypt, that it is fortified with an immortal wall, the Nile, which not only affords a defence, but sufficient food, and is insuperable and inexpugnable; nor is it unusual, as to call rivers and lakes seas, so particularly the Nile, and its canals; see Isa 11:15, and in the Alcoran the Nile is often called a sea h. There is another Diospolis in Egypt, near Mendes, which, as Strabo i says, had lakes about it; but this, being a more obscure place, is not likely to be intended here; though Father Calmet k is of opinion that it is here meant; it being situated in the Delta, on one of the arms of the Nile, between Busiris to the south, and Mendes to the north. The description seems to agree better with Memphis, whose builder Uchoreus, as Diodorus Siculus l says, chose a very convenient place for it, where the Nile divided itself into many parts, and made the Delta, so called from its figure; and which he made wonderfully strong, after this manner: whereas the Nile flowed round the city, being built within the ancient bed of it, and at its increase would overflow it; he cast up a very great mound or rampart to the south, which was a defence against the swell of the river, and was of the use of a fortress against enemies by land; and on the other parts all about he dug a large and deep lake, which received a very great deal of the river, and filled every place about the city but where the mound (or rampart) was built, and so made it amazingly strong; whence the kings after him left Thebes, and had their palace and court here; and so Herodotus, who makes Menes to be the builder of it, says m, that without the city he caused lakes to be dug from the river to the north, and to the west, for to the east the Nile itself bounded it; and Josephus n, who also makes Minaeus, or Menes, the first Pharaoh, to be the builder of it, speaks of that and the sea together, as if not far off each other: now, if a city so populous, and so well fortified by art and nature, as each of these were, was taken, and its inhabitants carried captive, Nineveh could not depend on her numbers or situation for safety, which were not more or better than this.
h L. 2. sive Euterpe, c. 42. i Iliad. 9. ver. 381. k Vid. Mela de Situ Orbis, l. 1. c. 9. Diodor. Sicul. l. 1. p. 43. l Bibliothec. l. 1. p. 14, 42. Ed. Rhodoman. m Ibid. p. 42. n Geograph. l. 16. p. 561, Ed. Casaubon. o See the Universal History, vol. 1. p. 396. p Euterpe, sive l. 2. c. 15. q Ut supra, (Bibliothec. l. 1.) p. 27. r De Bello Jud. l. 2. c. 16. sect. 4. s De Situ Orbis, l. 1. c. 9. t Ut supra, (Bibliothec. l. 1.) p. 43. Vid. Homer, ut supra. (Iliad. 9. ver. 381.) u Ut supra. (Geograph. l. 16. p. 561, Ed. Casaubon.) w “Vetus Theba centum jacet obruta portis”, Satyr. 15. l. 6. x Arcadica, sive l. 8. p. 509. Ed. Hanau. y Norden’s Travels in Egypt and Nubia, vol. 2. p. 61, 62. z So Hillerus, Onomast. Sacr. p. 571, 572. & Burkius in loc. a Geograph. l. 17. p. 555. b Diodor. Sicul. Bibliothec. l. 1. p. 46. c Geograph. l. 17. p. 545. d Polyhistor. c. 45. e De Bello Jud. l. 2. c. 16. sect. 4. f Phaleg. l. 1. c. 1. col. 6, 7. g Busiris, p. 437. h Vid. Schultens in Job xiv. 11. i Geograph. l. 17. p. 551. k Dictionary, in the word “Diospolis”. l Ut supra. (Diodor. Sicul. Bibliothec. l. 1. p. 46.) m Euterpe, sive l. 2. c. 99. n Antiqu. l. 8. c. 6. sect. 2. & l. 2. c. 10. sect. 1.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Nineveh will share the fate of No-Ammon. – Nah 3:8. “Art thou better than No-amon, that sat by rivers, waters round about her, whose bulwark was the sea, her wall of sea? Nah 3:9. Ethiopians and Egyptians were (her) strong men, there is no end; Phut and Libyans were for thy help. Nah 3:10. She also has gone to transportation, into captivity; her children were also dashed in pieces at the corners of all roads; upon her nobles they cast the lot, and all her great men were bound in chains.” for , for the sake of euphony, the imperfect kal of , to be good, used to denote prosperity in Gen 12:13 and Gen 40:14, is applied here to the prosperous condition of the city, which was rendered strong both by its situation and its resources. , i.e., probably “dwelling ( contracted from , cf. ) of Amon,” the sacred name of the celebrated city of Thebes in Upper Egypt, called in Egyptian P – amen , i.e., house of the god Amun, who had a celebrated temple there (Herod. i. 182, ii. 42; see Brugsch, Geogr. Inschr. i. p. 177). The Greeks called it , generally with the predicate (Diod. Sic. i. 45), or from the profane name of the city, which was Apet according to Brugsch (possibly a throne, seat, or bank), and with the feminine article prefixed, Tapet, or Tape, or Tepe, , generally used in the plural . This strong royal city, which was described even by Homer ( Il. ix. 383) as , and in which the Pharaohs of the 18th to the 20th dynasties, from Amosis to the last Rameses, resided, and created those works of architecture which were admired by Greeks and Romans, and the remains of which still fill the visitor with astonishment, was situated on both banks of the river Nile, which was 1500 feet in breadth at that point, and was built upon a broad plain formed by the falling back of the Libyan and Arabian mountain wall, over which there are now scattered nine larger or smaller fellah-villages, including upon the eastern bank Karnak and Luxor, and upon the western Gurnah and Medinet Abu, with their plantations of date-palms, sugar-canes, corn, etc. , who sits there, i.e., dwells quietly and securely, on the streams of the Nile. The plural refers to the Nile with its canals, which surrounded the city, as we may see from what follows: “water round about her.” , not which is a fortress of the sea (Hitzig), but whose bulwark is sea. (for ) does not mean the fortified place (Hitzig), but the fortification, bulwark, applied primarily to the moats of a fortification, with the wall belonging to it; then, in the broader sense, the defence of a city in distinction from the actual wall (cf. Isa 26:1; Lam 2:8). , consisting of sea is its wall, i.e., its wall is formed of sea. Great rivers are frequently called yam , sea, in rhetorical and poetical diction: for example, the Euphrates in Isa 27:1; Jer 51:36; and the Nile in Isa 18:2; Isa 19:5; Job 41:23. The Nile is still called by the Beduins bahr, i.e., sea, and when it overflows it really resembles a sea.
To the natural strength of Thebes there was also added the strength of the warlike nations at her command. Cush, i.e., Ethiopians in the stricter sense, and Mitsraim, Egyptians, the two tribes descended from Ham, according to Gen 10:6, who formed the Egyptian kingdom before the fall of Thebes, and under the 25th (Ethiopian) dynasty. , as in Isa 40:29; Isa 47:9, for , strength; it is written without any suffix, which may easily be supplied from the context. The corresponding words to in the parallel clause are (with Vav cop.): Egyptians, as for them there is no number; equivalent to an innumerable multitude. To these there were to be added the auxiliary tribes: Put, i.e., the Libyans in the broader sense, who had spread themselves out over the northern part of Africa as far as Mauritania (see at Gen 10:6); and Lubim = L e habhm , the Libyans in the narrower sense, probably the Libyaegyptii of the ancients (see at Gen 10:13). (cf. Psa 35:2) Nahum addresses No-amon itself, to give greater life to the description. Notwithstanding all this might, No-amon had to wander into captivity. Laggolah and basshebh are not tautological. Laggolah , for emigration, is strengthened by basshebh into captivity. The perfect is obviously not to be taken prophetically. The very antithesis of and (Nah 3:11) shows to itself that refers to the past, as does to the future; yea, the facts themselves require that Nahum should be understood as pointing to the fate which the powerful city of Thebes had already experienced. For it must be an event that has already occurred, and not something still in the future, which he holds up before Nineveh as a mirror of the fate that is awaiting it. The clauses which follow depict the cruelties that were generally associated with the taking of an enemy’s cities. For roF .se , see Hos 14:1; Isa 13:16, and 2Ki 8:12; and for , Joe 3:3 and Oba 1:11. Nikhbaddm , nobiles; cf. Isa 23:8-9. G e dolm , magnates; cf. Jon 3:7. It must be borne in mind, however, that the words only refer to cruelties connected with the conquest and carrying away of the inhabitants, and not to the destruction of No-amon.
We have no express historical account of this occurrence; but there is hardly any doubt that, after the conquest of Ashdod, Sargon the king of Assyria organized an expedition against Egypt and Ethiopia, conquered No-amon, the residence of the Pharaohs at that time, and, as Isaiah prophesied (Isa 20:3-4), carried the prisoners of Egypt and Ethiopia into exile. According to the Assyrian researches and their most recent results (vid., Spiegel’s Nineveh and Assyria in Herzog’s Cyclopaedia), the king Sargon mentioned in Isa 20:1 is not the same person as Shalmaneser, as I assumed in my commentary on 2Ki 17:3, but his successor, and the predecessor of Sennacherib, who ascended the throne during the siege of Samaria, and conquered that city in the first year of his reign, leading 27,280 persons into captivity, and appointing a vicegerent over the country of the ten tribes. In Assyrian Sargon is called Sar Kin, i.e., essentially a king. He was the builder of the palace at Khorsabad, which is so rich in monuments; and, according to the inscriptions, he carried on wars in Susiana, Babylon, the borders of Egypt, Melitene, Southern Armenia, Kurdistan, and Media; and in all his expeditions he resorted to the removal of the people in great numbers, as one means of securing the lasting subjugation of the lands (see Spiegel, l.c. p. 224). In the great inscription in the palace-halls of Khorsabad, Sargon boasts immediately after the conquest of Samaria of a victorious conflict with Pharaoh Sebech at Raphia, in consequence of which the latter became tributary, and also of the dethroning of the rebellious king of Ashdod; and still further, that after another king of Ashdod, who had been chosen by the people, had fled to Egypt, he besieged Ashdod with all his army, and took it. Then follows a difficult and mutilated passage, in which Rawlinson ( Five Great Monarchies, ii. 416) and Oppert ( Les Sargonides, pp. 22, 26, 27) find an account of the complete subjugation of Sebech (see Delitzsch on Isaiah, at Isa 20:5-6). There is apparently a confirmation of this in the monuments recording the deeds of Esarhaddon’s successor, whose name is read Assur-bani-pal, according to which that king carried on tedious wars in Egypt against Tirhaka, who had conquered Memphis, Thebes, and sundry other Egyptian cities during the illness of Esarhaddon, and according to his own account, succeeded at length in completely overcoming him, and returned home with rich booty, having first of all taken hostages for future good behaviour (see Spiegel, p. 225). If these inscriptions have been read correctly, it follows from them that from the reign of Sargon the Assyrians made attempts to subjugate Egypt, and were partially successful, though they could not maintain their conquests. The struggle between Assyria and Egypt for supremacy in Hither Asia may also be inferred from the brief notices in the Old Testament (2Ki 17:4) concerning the help which the Israelitish king Hosea expected from So the king of Egypt, and also concerning the advance of Tirhaka against Sennacherib.
(Note: From the modern researches concerning ancient Egypt, not the smallest light can be obtained as to any of these things. “The Egyptologists (as J. Bumller observes, p. 245) have hitherto failed to fill up the gaps in the history of Egypt, and have been still less successful in restoring the chronology; for hitherto we have not met with a single well-established date, which we have obtained from a monumental inscription; nor have the monuments enabled us to assign to a single Pharaoh, from the 1st to the 21st, his proper place in the years or centuries of the historical chronology.”)
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| The Judgment of Nineveh. | B. C. 710. |
8 Art thou better than populous No, that was situate among the rivers, that had the waters round about it, whose rampart was the sea, and her wall was from the sea? 9 Ethiopia and Egypt were her strength, and it was infinite; Put and Lubim were thy helpers. 10 Yet was she carried away, she went into captivity: her young children also were dashed in pieces at the top of all the streets: and they cast lots for her honourable men, and all her great men were bound in chains. 11 Thou also shalt be drunken: thou shalt be hid, thou also shalt seek strength because of the enemy. 12 All thy strong holds shall be like fig trees with the first-ripe figs: if they be shaken, they shall even fall into the mouth of the eater. 13 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. 14 Draw thee waters for the siege, fortify thy strong holds: go into clay, and tread the mortar, make strong the brick-kiln. 15 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 cankerworm, make thyself many as the locusts. 16 Thou hast multiplied thy merchants above the stars of heaven: the cankerworm spoileth, and flieth away. 17 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. 18 Thy shepherds slumber, O king of Assyria: thy nobles shall dwell in the dust: thy people is scattered upon the mountains, and no man gathereth them. 19 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?
Nineveh has been told that God is against her, and then none can be for her, to stand her in any stead; yet she sets God himself at defiance, and his power and justice, and says, I shall have peace. Threatened folks live long; therefore here the prophet largely shows how vain her confidences would prove and insufficient to ward off the judgment of God. To convince them of this,
I. He shows them that other places, which had been as strong and as secure as they, could not keep their ground against the judgments of God. Nineveh shall fall unpitied and uncomforted (for miserable comforters will those prove who speak peace to those on whom God will fasten trouble), and she shall not be able to help herself: Art thou better than populous No? v. 8. He takes them off from their vain confidences by quoting precedents. The city mentioned is No, a great city in the land of Egypt (Jer. xlvi. 25), No-Ammon, so some read it both there and here. We read of it, Ezek. xxx. 14-16. Some think it was Diospolis, others Alexandria. As God said to Jerusalem, Go, see what I did to Shiloh (Jer. vii. 12), so to Nineveh that great city, Go, see what I did to populous No. Note, It will help to keep us in a holy fear of the judgments of God to consider that we are not better than those that have fallen under those judgments before us. We deserve them as much, and are as little able to grapple with them. This also should help to reconcile us to afflictions. Are we better than such and such, who were in like manner exercised? Nay, were not they better than we, and less likely to be afflicted? Now, concerning No, observe, 1. How firm her standing seemed to be, v. 8. She was fortified both by nature and art, was situate among the rivers. Nile, in several branches, not only watered her fields, but guarded her wall. Her rampart was the sea, the lake of Mareotis, an Egyptian sea, like the sea of Tiberias. Her wall was from the sea; it was fenced with a wall which was thought to make the place impregnable. It was also supported by its interests and alliances abroad, v. 9. Ethiopia, or Arabia, was her strength, either by the wealth brought to her in a way of trade or by the auxiliary forces furnished for military service. The whole country of Egypt also contributed to the strength of this populous city; so that it was infinite, and there was no end of it (so it might be rendered); She set no bounds to her ambition and knew no end of her wealth and strength; people flocked to her endlessly, and she thought there never would be any end of it; but it is God’s prerogative to be infinite. Put and Lubim were thy helpers, two neighbouring countries of Africa, Mauritania and Libya, that is, Libya Cyrenica, a country that Egypt had much dependence upon. No, thus helped, seemed to sit as a queen, and was not likely to see any sorrow. But, 2. See how fatal her fall proved to be (v. 10): Yet was she carried away, and her strength failed her; even she that was so strong, so secure, yet went into captivity. This refers to some destruction of that city which was then well-known, and probably fresh in memory, though not recorded in history; for the destruction of it by Nebuchadnezzar (if we should understand this prophetically) could not be made an example to Nineveh; for the reducing of Nineveh was one of the first of his victories and that of Egypt one of the last. The strength and grandeur of that great city could not be its protection from military execution. (1.) Not from that which was most barbarous; for her young children had no compassion shown them, but were dashed in pieces at the top of all the streets by the merciless conquerors. (2.) Not from that which was most inglorious and disgraceful: They cast lots for her honourable men that were made prisoners of war, who should have them for their slaves. So many had they of them that they knew not what to do with them, but they made sport with throwing dice for them; all her great men, that used to be adorned on state-days with chains of gold, were now bound in chains of iron; they were pinioned or handcuffed (so the word properly signifies), not only as slaves, but as condemned malefactors. What a mortification was this to populous No, to have her honourable men and great men, that were her pride and confidence, thus abused! Now hence he infers against Nineveh (v. 11), “Thou also shalt be intoxicated, infatuated; thou also shalt reel and stagger, as drunk with the cup of the Lord’s fury, that shall be put into thy hand” (see Jer 25:17; Jer 25:27); “Thou shalt fall and rise no more. The cup shall go round, and come to thy turn, O Nineveh! to drink off at last, and shall be to thee as the waters of jealousy.”
II. He shows them that all those things which they reposed a confidence in should fail them. 1. Did the men of Nineveh trust to their own magnanimity and bravery? Their hearts should sink and fail them. They shall be hid, shall abscond for shame, being in disgrace, abscond for fear, being in distress and danger, and not able to face the enemies, because of whose strength and terror, having no strength of their own, they shall seek strength, shall come sneaking to their neighbours to beg their assistance in a time of need. Thus God can cut off the spirit of princes, and take away their heart. 2. Did they depend upon their barrier, the garrisons and strongholds they had, which were regularly fortified and bravely manned? Those shall prove but paper-walls, and like the first-ripe figs, which, if you give the tree but a little shake, will fall into the mouth of the eater that gapes for them; so easily will all their strongholds be made to surrender to the advancing enemy, upon the first summons, v. 12. Note, Strongholds, even the strongest, are no fence against the judgments of God, when they come with commission. The rich man’s wealth is his strong city, and a high wall, but only in his own conceit, Prov. xviii. 10. They are supposed to make their strongholds as strong as possible, and are challenged to do their utmost to make them tenable, and serviceable to them against the invader (v. 14): Draw thee water for the siege; lay in great quantities of water, that that which is so necessary to the support of human life may not be wanting; it is put here for all manner of provision, with which Nineveh is ironically told to furnish herself, in expectation of a siege. “Take ever so much care that thou mayest not be starved out, and forced by famine to surrender, yet that shall not avail. Fortify the strongholds, by adding out-works to them, or putting men and arms into them,” as with us by planting cannon upon them. “Go into clay, and tread the mortar, and make strong the brick-kiln; take all the pains thou canst in erecting new fortifications; but it shall be all in vain, for (v. 15) there shall even the fire devour thee if it be taken by storm.” It is by fire and sword that in time of war the great devastations are made. 3. Did they put confidence in the multitude of their inhabitants? Were they, from their number and valour, reckoned their strongest walls and fortifications? Alas! these shall stand them in no stead; they shall but sink the sooner under the weight of their own numbers (v. 13): Thy people in the midst of thee are women; they have no wisdom, no courage; they shall be fickle, feeble, and faint-hearted, as women commonly are in such times of danger and distress; they shall be at their wits’ end, adding to their griefs and fears by the power of their own imagination, and utterly unable to do any thing for themselves; the valiant men shall become cowards. O ver Phrygi, neque enim Phryges—Phrygian dames, not Phrygian men. Though they make themselves many (v. 15), as the canker-worm and as the locust, that come in vast swarms, though thou hast multiplied thy merchants above the stars of heaven, though thy exchange be thronged with wealthy traders, who, having so much money to stand up in defence of and so much to lay out in the means of their defence, should, one would think, give the enemy a warm reception, yet their hearts shall fail them too; though they be numerous as caterpillars, yet the fire and sword shall eat them up easily and irresistibly as the canker-worm, v. 15. They are as numerous as those wasting insects, but their enemies shall be mischievous like them. He adds (v. 16), The canker-worm spoils, or spreads herself, and flies away. Both the merchants and the enemies were compared to canker-worms. The enemies shall spoil Nineveh, and carry away the spoil, without opposition, or any hope of recovering it. Or the rich merchants, who have come from abroad to settle in Nineveh, and have raised vast estates there, out of which it was hoped they would contribute largely for the defence of the city, when they see the country invaded and the city likely to be besieged, will send away their effects, and remove to some other place, will spread their wings and fly away where they may be safe, and Nineveh shall be never the better for them. Note, It is rare to find even those that have shared with us in our joys willing to share with us in our griefs too. The canker-worms will continue upon the field while there is any thing to be had, but they are gone when all is gone. Those that men have got by they do not care to lose by. Nineveh’s merchants bid her farewell in her distress. Riches themselves are as the canker-worms, which on a sudden fly away as the eagle towards heaven, Prov. xxiii. 5. 4. Did they put a confidence in the strength of their gates and bars? What fence will those be against the force of the judgments of God? v. 13. The gates of thy land shall be set wide open unto thy enemies, the gates of thy rivers (ch. ii. 6), the flood-gates, or the passes and avenues, by which the enemy would make his entrance into the country, or the gates of the cities; these, though ever so strong and well-guarded, shall not answer their end: The fire shall devour thy bars, the bars of thy gates, and then they shall fly open. 5. Did they put a confidence in their king and princes? They should do them no service (v. 17): Thy crowned heads are as the locusts; those that had pomp and power, as crowned heads, were enfeebled, and had no power to make resistance, when the enemy came in like a flood. “Thy captains, that should lead thy forces into the field, are great indeed, and look great, but they are as the great grasshoppers, the maximum quod sic–the largest specimens of that species; still they are but grasshoppers, worthless things, that can do no service. They encamp in the hedges, in the cold day, the cold weather, but, when the sun arises, they flee away, and are gone, nobody knows whither. So these mercenary soldiers that lay slumbering about Nineveh, when any trouble arises, flee away, and shift for their own safety. The hireling flees, because he is a hireling.” The king of Assyria is told, and it is a shame he needs to be told it (who might observe it himself), that his shepherds slumber; they have no life or spirit to appear for the flock, and are very remiss in the discharge of the duty of their place and the trust reposed in them: Thy nobles shall dwell in the dust, and be buried in silence. 6. Did they hope that they should yet recover themselves and rally again? In this also they should be disappointed; for, when the shepherds are smitten, the sheep are scattered; the people are dispersed upon the mountains and no man gathers them, nor will they ever come together of themselves, but will wander endlessly, as scattered sheep do. The judgment they are under is as a wound, and it is incurable; there is no relief for it, “no healing of thy bruise, no possibility that the wound, which is so grievous and painful to thee, should be so much as skinned over; thy case is desperate (v. 19) and thy neighbours, instead of lending a hand to help thee, shall clap their hands over thee, and triumph in thy fall; and the reason is, because thou hast been one way or other injurious to them all: Upon whom has not thy wickedness passed continually? Thou hast been always doing mischief to those about thee; there is none of them but what thou hast abused and insulted; and therefore they shall be so far from pitying thee that they shall be glad to see thee reckoned with.” Note, Those that have been abusive to their neighbours will, one time or another, find it come home to them; they are but preparing enemies to themselves against their day comes to fall: and those that dare not lay hands on them themselves will clap their hands over them, and upbraid them with their former wickedness, for which they are now well enough served and paid in their own coin. The troublers shall be troubled will be the burden of many, as it is here the burden of Nineveh.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
The Prophet, in order to gain credit to his prophecy, produces here the ensample of Alexandria. It is indeed certain, from many testimonies of Scripture, that Alexandria is called No, which was a very ancient city, situated on the confines of Africa, and yet in Egypt. It might, at the same time, be, that the Alexandrians formerly had their own government, at least their own kings: and this is probable; for the Prophet says here, that Egypt and Ethiopia, as well as Africa and the Libyan nations, were the confederates of this city. It may hence then be concluded, that Alexandria was not then a part of Egypt, but had its own government, and was in alliance with the Egyptians, as with the other nations. But as Egypt, after the death of our Prophet, was in part overthrown by the Assyrians, and in part by the Chaldeans, some interpreters think, that the Prophet speaks of a ruin which had not yet taken place. (243) But this would not harmonize with his design; for the Prophet shows here, as in a mirror, that the chief empires fall according to the will of God, and that cities, the richest and the best fortified, come to nothing, whenever it pleases God. Unless, then, the destruction of Alexandria was notorious and everywhere known, the Prophet could not have suitably adduced this example: I therefore doubt not but that Alexandria had been then demolished. It is no matter of wonder that it afterwards returned to its former state and became rich; for the situation of the city was most commodious, not so much on account of the fertility of the land, as on account of its traffic; for ships from the Mediterranean sailed up near to it. It had, indeed, on one side, the lake Marcotis, which is not very healthy; and then the sea fortified it; and Pharos was a neighboring island: but yet the city was inhabited by many, and adorned with splendid buildings; for the advantage of traffic drew together inhabitants from all quarters. It was afterwards built again by Alexander of Macedon. But it is evident enough that it had been already an opulent city: for Alexander did not build a new city but enlarged it. (244) Let us now come to the words of the Prophet.
Shall it be better to thee than to Alexandria? The word אמון, amun, some render populous; and I am inclined to adopt this meaning, which has been received nearly by the consent of all. Others have supposed it to be the name of a king; but as proof fails them, I leave to themselves their own conjecture. Shall it then be better to thee than to Alexandria? For it stood, he says, between the rivers Alexandria had the Nile, as it were, under its own power; for it was then divided into many parts, so that it intersected the city in various places. So then he says, that Alexandria dwelt between the rivers; for it divided the Nile, as it suited its convenience, into several streams.
Then he says, The sea was around her: for it was surrounded on one side by the sea, and protected by the island Pharos, which had a tower, not only for the sake of defense, but that ships coming in from the Mediterranean, might have a signal, by which they might direct their course straight to the harbor. The sea then was around her; for the sea encircled more than half of the city; and then the lake Mareotis was on the other side to the south. He afterwards adds, And its wall or moat was the sea The word is written with י, iod, חיל, chil; but it means a wall or a moat, though Latins render antemurale — a front-work: for they were wont formerly to fortify their cities with a double wall, as old buildings still show. According to these interpreters חיל, chil, is the inner wall, and so they render its front-work: and there was also an outer wall towards the sea. But we may take חיל, chil, for a moat or a trench; and it is easy to find from other passages that it was a trench rather than a front-work. It is said that the body of Jezebel was torn by dogs in the trench, and the word there is חיל, chil. As to the object of the Prophet, he evidently intended to show, that Alexandria was so well fortified, that Nineveh had no reason to think herself to be in a safer state; for its fortress was from the sea, and also from Ethiopia, on account of the munitions which he has mentioned. Then he speaks of Africa and Egypt, and the Libyan nations, (245) and says in short, that there was no end of her strength; that is, that she could seek the help of many friends and confederates: many were ready to bring aid, even Africa, Ethiopia, and the Lybians.
(243) So does Newcome, but with no countenance from the passage. The verb in the 10 th verse which refers to the captivity of No, is in the past tense. Most commentators regard the event as having passed. — Ed.
(244) Opinions differ as to No. Bochart supposed it to be Diospolis, near Mendes, in Lower Egypt. Henderson says, that later commentators are in favor of Thebes, the ancient capital of Upper Egypt. It is of no consequence to the present purpose which it was. It was some celebrated city in Egypt, whose ruin was well known in the Prophet’s time. Both the Rabbins and early Fathers thought that it was what was afterwards called Alexandria. But most probably it was a city which had lost its name and existence from the catastrophe that is here mentioned. — Ed.
(245) The original names in this verse are כוש, supposed to be Ethiopia, — מצרים, Egypt, here, either Upper or Lower, — פוט, Put, a country to the west of Lower Egypt, its inhabitants the descendants of Ham, Gen 10:6, — לובים, Lybians, who occupied the region between Put and Numidia. — Ed.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
CRITICAL NOTES.]
Nah. 3:8.] She will share the fate of No-Amon, a royal city of Egypt, populous, sacred, and strong (Eze. 30:14-15; Jer. 46:25), like Nineveh well situated, protected by waters on every side.
Nah. 3:9.] Allies numerous and powerful, yet No (Thebes) could not preserve herself.
Nah. 3:10.] Its inhabitants subjected to all the cruelties and indignities generally inflicted upon conquered people.
THE DESTRUCTION OF SOME A WARNING TO OTHERS.Nah. 3:8-10
There is no hope for Nineveh, for No-Amon was strong by nature and art, head of many confederate nations; yet was captured and destroyed. The city cannot protect herself. Destruction is sure. Notice how one support after another is taken away.
I. Natural defences will not avail. No was strongly fortified by nature and art. She was situate among the rivers. The Nile watered her fields and guarded her walls. Her rampart was the sea. She was considered impregnable. No was one of the grandest and most magnificent cities of antiquity. But no situation can shield from Gods anger. Nations may be secluded from others and encircled by walls and seas, but God can overturn them.
II. Large populations will not avail. Populous No. It was a great centre for corn and merchandise, and attracted many people. It supplied the country round about with necessaries. But it was no better or safer on account of its numerous inhabitants. There is no king saved by the multitude of an host.
III. Confederate nations will not avail. Nos allies were numerous and strong. Her military resources and Egyptian auxiliaries were immense. Ethiopia and Egypt were her strength. Put and Lubim were ready to help. But vast armies fail to maintain empires against the decree of God. The strongest battalions melt like snow-flakes when God is against them. The leagured might of earth is no match for the power of heaven. The Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, saith; Behold, I will punish the multitude of No, and Pharaoh, and Egypt, with their gods and their kings, &c. (Jer. 46:25-26).
HOMILETIC HINTS AND SUGGESTIONS
Nah. 3:8. The ruined cities of antiquity a warning to Christendom. Carthage, Nineveh, and Jerusalem (cf. Mat. 11:24; Luk. 10:12-13). Warnings proportioned to sins and privileges.
It will help to keep us in holy fear of the judgments of God, says an old author, to consider that we are not better than those that have fallen under those judgments before us.
Nah. 3:9. The weakness of all human power before God. The fallacy of trusting in numbers contrasted with faith in God. Lit. Egypt was strength, and Ethiopia, boundless. He sets forth first the imperial might of No: then her strength from foreign, subdued power. The capital is a sort of impersonation of the might of the State; No, of Egypt, as Nineveh, of Assyria. When the head was cut off, or the heart ceased to beat, all was lost. The might of Egypt and Ethiopia was the might of No, concentrated in her. They were strength, and that strength unmeasured by any human standard. Boundless was the strength which Nineveh had subdued: boundless the store (210) which she had accumulated for the spoiler; boundless the carcases of her slain [Pusey].
Nah. 3:8-10.
1. How firm the standing of Nineveh. Surrounded by water, defended by inner and outer walls, endless in wealth, and powerful in confederacies.
2. How fatal the fall of Nineveh.
(1) Overcome notwithstanding might. Yet was she carried away. She became an exile, and her people carried into captivity with heathen barbarities.
(2) All hope of recovery destroyed. (a) Young children were dashed in pieces by a merciless conqueror. (b) Noble men were distributed by lot. They cast lots for her honourable men, &c. No pity was shown. (c) Officials, men of state, were treated like slaves. All her great men were bound in chains (cf. Eze. 13:14-16).
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 3
Nah. 3:8-10. No-Ammon. Thebes was renowned for its numerous gates and vast extent. Its remaining ruins describe a circuit of twenty-seven miles [Henderson]. There is no definite historical account of its capture by Assyrians. But from brief notices in Scripture, we have hints of a struggle for supremacy between Assyria and Egypt (cf. 2Ki. 17:4). See Smiths Dict. of the Bible, article Thebes; and Keil on Nah. 3:8-10.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
NINEVEH IS NO BETTER . . . Nah. 3:8-19
RV . . . Art thou better than No-amon, that was situated among the rivers, that had the waters round about her; whose rampart was the sea, and her wall was of the sea? Ethiopia and Egypt were her strength, and it was infinite; Put and Lubim were thy helpers. Yet was she carried away, she went into captivity; her young children also were dashed in pieces at the head of all the streets; and they cast lots for her honorable men, and all her great men were bound in chains. Thou also shalt be drunken; thou shalt be hid; thou also shalt seek a stronghold because of the enemy. All thy fortresses shall be like fig-trees with the first ripe figs: if they be shaken, they fall into the mouth of the eater. Behold, thy people in the midst of thee are women; the gates of thy land are set wide open unto thine enemies: the fire hath devoured thy bars. Draw thee water for the siege; strengthen thy fortresses; go into the clay, and tread the mortar; make strong the brickkiln. There shall the fire devour thee; the sword shall cut thee off; it shall devour thee like the cankerworm; make thyself many as the canker-worm; make thyself many as the locust. Thou has multiplied thy merchants above the stars of heaven; the canker-worm ravageth, and fleeth away. Thy princes are as the locusts, and thy marshals as the swarms of grasshoppers, which encamp in the hedges in the cold day, but when the sun ariseth they flee away, and their place is not known they are. Thy shepherds slumber, O king of Assyria; thy nobles are at rest; thy people are scattered upon the mountains, and there is none to gather them. There is no assuaging of thy hurt; thy wound is grievous: all that hear the report of thee clap their hands over thee; for upon whom hath not thy wickedness passed continually?
LXX . . . Prepare thee a portion, tune the chord, prepare a portion for Ammon: she that dwells among the rivers, water is round about her, whose dominion is the sea, and whose walls are water. And Ethiopia is her strength, and Egypt; and there was no limit of the flight of her enemies; and the Libyans became her helpers. Yet she shall go as a prisoner into captivity, and they shall dash her infants against the ground at the top of all her ways: and they shall cast lots upon all her glorious possessions, and all her nobles shall be bound in chains. And thou shalt be drunken, and shalt be overlooked; and thou shalt seek for thyself strength because of thine enemies. All thy strong-holds are as fig-trees, having watchers: if they be shaken, they shall fall into the mouth of the eater. Behold, thy people within thee are as women: the gates of thy land shall surely be opened to thine enemies: the fire shall devour thy bars. Draw thee water for a siege, and well secure thy strongholds: enter into the clay, and be thou trodden in the chaff, make the fortifications stronger than brick. There the fire shall devour thee; the sword shall utterly destroy thee, it shall devour thee as the locust, and thou shalt be pressed down as a palmerworm. Thou hast multiplied thy merchandise beyond the stars of heaven: the palmerworm has attacked it, and has flown away. Thy mixed multitude has suddenly departed as the grasshopper, as the locust perched on a hedge in a frosty day; the sun arises, and it flies off, and knows not its place: woe to them! Thy shepherds have slumbered, the Assyrian king has laid low thy mighty men: thy people departed to the mountains, and there was none to receive them, There is no healing for thy bruise; thy wound has rankled: all that hear the report of thee shall clap their hands against thee; for upon whom has not thy wickedness passed continually?
COMMENTS
ART THOU BETTER? . . . Nah. 3:8-10
No-Amon, Karnak, Thebes . . . all names of one of the proudest cities ever built by man. Capital of the middle kingdom of Egypt, she stood majestically on the Nile and guarded the largest temple complex ever built . . . anywhere. Every Pharaoh, from the 12th to the 19th dynasty except the heretic, Ikhnaton, added to her glory. Her civilization, in some instances, advanced beyond that of our own day. Even today the visitor stands in silent awe before her columns and oblisks. One cannot but marvel at the sacred lake at Karnak, where the sprinkling of exorcism and the immersion of Christian baptism first became confused in the fourth century A.D.
But No-Amon, Karnak fell! And it was the Assyrians themselves who in 674 B.C. swept down from the north and subjected the proud Egyptians to tribute . . . and the taunt of the prophet to Nineveh who herself is now to be destroyed is Art thou better than No-Amon?
Art thou better? It is a question that sends chills along the spine of any thinking American who is fortunate enough to stand amidst the ruins of fallen civilizations. Are we better than they, that our international harlotries, our internal immoralities, our worship of false gods should not one day bring down upon our heads the wrath of Jehovah? Is it a strange idea, reserved for crackpots and prophets of doom, that God may one day use a heathen nation to fill the streets of Washington, D.C. and New York and Chicago and our other proud cities with corpses even as He used the Medes and Babylonians to lay Nineveh in the dust for her sins?
THOU ALSO . . . Nah. 3:11
The words fall like the knell of doom on the proud capital of Assyria. The leaders literally were drunken when the Medes and Babylonians came, but they had been in a stupor of a different kind long before. They were made drunken with the wine of Ninevehs fornication. (Cp. Rev. 17:1-2 and Jer. 25:17-27)
ALL THY FORTRESSES . . . Nah. 3:12-15
All those things in which Nineveh trusted would fail her. Did they trust in bravery and daring? Their hearts would sink and fail them, so that they should abscound for shame, being in disgrace. For fear they will not be able to face invaders because of whose strength they shall sneak to their neighbors to beg assistance.
Did they depend on the garrisons and strongholds? These shall prove to be paper walls. Like the first-ripe figs, if you give the tree a little shake, they will fall in your mouth.
Having seen the vanity of the efforts to defend the doomed city, Nahum nevertheless taunts them to make ready to stand off the invader, They are admonished to lay in quantities of water against a siege. New bricks are to be made to strengthen the fortifications.
THEN SHALL A FIRE DEVOUR THEE . . . Nah. 3:15
By fire set to buildings and death sown by hand weapons are cities conquered. It is still the same . . . from Nineveh to My Lai.
Though the defenders of Nineveh are as numerous as canker-worms and as locusts . . . yet they shall be over-run.
There is a scathing irony in Nahums choice of vermin to illustrate the multitudes of Ninevehs defenders, Both the cankerworm and the locust leave devastation wherever they go. So had Assyria spread destruction throughout the world. Nowto use a cliche the worm has turned.
The Assyrian merchanrs who once fleeced the populace of surrounding nations will be seen no more, they are like the canker-worm who ravageth and fleeth away.
The princes also, and the marshalls, those who enforced the Assyrian sway over conquered peoples will be seen no more. Like Swarms of grasshoppers which destroy while they are present, but fly away to be seen no more, the Assyrian authorities will, like the merchants, not be seen anymore in lands once ruled as defeated people.
THY WOUND IS GREVIOUS . . . Nah. 3:18-19
The destruction of Nineveh will prove the mortal wound of the entire empire. It is all in Nahums future, but he has seen it in a present vision. History has verified his prophetic pronouncement.
In 612 B.C. the alliance between the Medes and Babylonians did indeed march into the city and that which Nahum foresaw became reality. The alliance was short lived and the victors shortly began to war among themselves. But the fatal blow had been struck.
Never again would Nineveh, or Assyria, play an important role in world affairs. Today the location of the city itself is scarcely discernable, rising as two tels on the valley of the Tigris.
Gods prophetic word once more is vindicated by history.
Chapter XIVQuestions
The Epitaph of Nineveh
1.
Why does Nahum say Nineveh is full of lies?
2.
In Nahums vision of fallen Nineveh, the silence is broken only by __________.
3.
Discuss Nah. 3:4-7 in light of the modern question, If there is a God, why does He not halt or prevent war?
4.
What are the sins of Nineveh as listed in this paragraph?
5.
What is indicated by Nahums term witchcrafts?
6.
How does God intend to make Nineveh a gazing stock?
7.
Who are No-Amon, Karnak, Thebes?
8.
Where did the sprinkling of exorcism first become confused with the immersion of Christian baptism? When did this occur?
9.
Compare the fate of No-Amon with that of Nineveh.
10.
Who defeated No-Amon in 674 B.C.?
11.
Discuss Nahums question art thou better? as applied to modern America.
12.
In what physical condition were the leaders of Nineveh when the Medes and Babylonians fell upon them?
13.
What were all thy fortresses in Nah. 3:12-15?
14.
What is the irony of Nahums choice of vermin to illustrate the multitudes of Ninevehs defenders?
15.
The destruction of the city of Nineveh was the mortal wound of __________.
16.
How is Gods word in Nahum vindicated by history in the destruction of the Assyrian Empire?
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(8) Populous No.Better, No Amon. Thebes, the capital of Upper Egypt, was known to the Hebrews as No Amon (perhaps, house of the god Amon; similarly the Greeks called it ). Assyria herself had reduced the power of Thebes. (1) Sargon, the father of Sennacherib, had defeated Shebah, the Egyptian Tar-dan, at Rapikh, cir. B.C. 716. (2) Esar-haddon, Sennacheribs son, had routed the forces of Tirhakah, subjugated the whole of the Nile valley, and taken the city where Tirhakah held his court, probably Thebes, cir. B.C. 670. (3) Asshur-bani-pal invaded Egypt in the year of his accession, B.C. 668, and reinstated certain rulers of his fathers appointment, whom Tirhakah had driven out. In B.C. 665, another revolt brought this king again into Egypt. On this occasion Thebes was certainly sacked, and a large booty, including gold, silver, precious stones, dyed garments, captives (male and female), tame animals brought up in the palace, obelisks, &c., was carried off, and conveyed to Nineveh {Five Great Monarchies, ii. 203). The present passage may refer either to this event or to Esar-haddons previous capture of Thebes. The fall of the city was certainly a thing of the past when Nahum wrote. The allusion, therefore, helps us to assign the date of the composition (see Introduction). To mere human reasoning the downfall of Thebes testified to the power of Assyria, its conqueror. But to the inspired vision of Nahum, the ruin of the one world-power is an earnest of the ruin of the other. Both had been full of luxury and oppression, both were hated of mankind and opposed to God. If No-Amon has fallen, the city of the hundred gates, the metropolis of the Pharaohs, the conqueror whose countless captives reared the pyramids, why shall Nineveh stand? If Nineveh is protected by riversthe Tigris and the Khausserhad not Thebes a rampart in the Nile, that sea of waters (comp. Isa. 19:5), and its numerous canals? If Nineveh relies on subordinate or friendly statesMesopotamia, Babylonia, Syriahad not Thebes all the resources of AfricaEthiopia in the south, the Egypts in the north, her Libyan allies, Put and the Lubim, in the north-west? Yet what was the fate of No Amon? Her youth carried off in the slave-gangs of Assyria; her infants dashed to pieces at the street-corner (2Ki. 8:12), as unprofitable to the captor; her senators reserved to grace a triumph, and assigned to the Assyrian generals by lot (Oba. 1:11).
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Nah 3:8. Art thou better than populous No? No-ammon. Houbigant. The destruction of No-ammon, or Diospolis in Egypt, which Nahum mentions as a late transaction, would greatly assist in fixing the time of his prophesy, if we could know certainly when that destruction happened, or by whom it was effected. It is commonly attributed to Nebuchadnezzar; but that time is too late, and the destruction of No-ammon would fall out after the destruction of Nineveh, instead of before it. Dr. Prideaux, with more reason, believes, that it was effected by Sennacherib, before he marched against Jerusalem; and then Nahum’s prophesying would coincide exactly with the reign of Hezekiah, which is the time assigned for it by St. Jerome. See Bishop Newton, and the introductory note. Instead of, Whose rampart, &c. we may read, Whose rampart was the river [Nile], and her wall from the river.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Nah 3:8 Art thou better than populous No, that was situate among the rivers, [that had] the waters round about it, whose rampart [was] the sea, [and] her wall [was] from the sea?
Ver. 8. Art thou better than populous No ] Heb. No Amon, a great grain country, and therefore populous; for where victual and good trading is to be had thither people will repair apace. No (that is Alexandria) was the nursing mother of Egypt (Amon, i.e. Nutritia Alma mater ), and Egypt was called the world’s barn or storehouse, horreum unde hauriatur, Gen 42:1 . It is called, Jer 46:25 , Amon de No; Eze 30:13 , Hamon No; and Eze 30:14 ; Eze 30:16 , No, without any addition. This was the old name of this city before it was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar, to whom God had given Egypt as his pay for his pains in taking Tyre. It was rebuilt by Alexander the Great, and he called it, after his own name, Alexandria. Amon it was called for the reasons above given. Though there be those who fetch that name of it from Ham, the son of Noah, Theodoret will have it so called from Jupiter Hammon, whose son Alexander desired to be held, and from whom the Egyptian husbandmen were called Ammonii, and their arable Ammonia, as Herodotus writes. Plutarch also telleth us that the Africans worship an unknown God by the name of Amon, that is (in their language) Heus, tu quis es? This city, therefore, is called No Amon, probably to distinguish it from other cities of the same name, as Alexandria of Egypt, Caesarea of Philippi, Augusta Vindclicorum, &c. Josephus saith that it abounded in people and wealth; being little less than Jerusalem in size (Lib. 2, de Bell. Jud., cap. 16). Thinkest thou now, O Nineveh (saith God here), that thou art in a better or safer condition than this city once was? but
“ Iam magnum infelix nil nisi nomen habet. ”
Let Nineveh go to Jerusalem, to Shiloh, Jer 7:12 , and do as Scipio did when, beholding the downfall of Carthage, he foresaw and bewailed the like future destiny of Rome, his own country, Succurrat illud, mutato nomine de to fabula narratur.
That was situate among the rivers
That had the waters round about it
Whose rampart was the sea, and her wall was from the sea?
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
better = situated better.
populous No = N’o-‘Amon. ‘Amon is not a Hebrew word meaning “multitude”, but an Egyptian word meaning the Egyptian god “Amon”. No = the Egyptian net, meaning the city; now known as “Thebes”. (Compare Jer 46:25. Eze 30:14, Eze 30:15, Eze 30:16).
the rivers = the Nile streams, Hebrew. yeorm, the regular word for the Nile and its canals, &c. First occurrence Gen 41:1; rendered “flood” (Jer 46:7, Jer 46:8. Amo 8:8; Amo 9:5); “brooks” (Isa 19:6, Isa 19:7, Isa 19:8); “streams” (Isa 33:21).
the sea. The Nile so called in Job 41:31. Isa 18:2; Isa 19:5.
from = of: i.e. consisted of.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Nah 3:8-19
NINEVEH IS NO BETTER . . . Nah 3:8-19
ART THOU BETTER? . . . Nah 3:8-10
No-Amon, Karnak, Thebes . . . all names of one of the proudest cities ever built by man. Capital of the middle kingdom of Egypt, she stood majestically on the Nile and guarded the largest temple complex ever built . . . anywhere. Every Pharaoh, from the 12th to the 19th dynasty except the heretic, Ikhnaton, added to her glory. Her civilization, in some instances, advanced beyond that of our own day. Even today the visitor stands in silent awe before her columns and oblisks. One cannot but marvel at the sacred lake at Karnak, where the sprinkling of exorcism and the immersion of Christian baptism first became confused in the fourth century A.D. But No-Amon, Karnak fell! And it was the Assyrians themselves who in 674 B.C. swept down from the north and subjected the proud Egyptians to tribute . . . and the taunt of the prophet to Nineveh who herself is now to be destroyed is Art thou better than No-Amon?
Art thou better? It is a question that sends chills along the spine of any thinking American who is fortunate enough to stand amidst the ruins of fallen civilizations. Are we better than they, that our international harlotries, our internal immoralities, our worship of false gods should not one day bring down upon our heads the wrath of Jehovah? Is it a strange idea, reserved for crackpots and prophets of doom, that God may one day use a heathen nation to fill the streets of Washington, D.C. and New York and Chicago and our other proud cities with corpses even as He used the Medes and Babylonians to lay Nineveh in the dust for her sins?
Zerr: No-Amon is another name for Thebes, an important city in Egypt. In connection with the description of the city given here, I shall quote from Smith’s Bible Dictionary which will verify it: “The description of No as situate among the rivers, the waters round ahout it’ (Nah 3:8), remarkably characterizes Thebes. It lay on both sides of the Nile, and was celebrated for its hundred gates, for its temples, obelisks, statues, etc. It was emphatically the city of temples, in the ruins of whtch many monuments ot ancient Egypt are preserved. The plan of the city was a parallelogram, two miles from north to south and four from east to west, but none suppose that in its glory it really extended 33 miles along both sides ot the Nile. Thebes was destroyed by Ptolemy, B. C. 81, and since then its population has dwelt in villages only.” The argument of the prophet in this verse is that if such a stronghold as Thebes could be overthrown, then Nineveh should not feel so confident of resisting the invader. The fall of No-Amon (Nah 3:9) Thebes. cannot be explained on the ground that the city had insufficient support. She had the backing of two countries, Egypt and Ethiopia. and of the groups known as Put and Lubim. In spite of the greatness of this Egyptian city, her inhabitants were carried away (Nah 3:10), the captivity meaning the humiliation that they suffered at the hands of other forces among the nations. Cast lots for the honorable men means the various nations that came against No divided these important men among themselves by casting lots.
THOU ALSO . . . Nah 3:11
The words fall like the knell of doom on the proud capital of Assyria. The leaders literally were drunken when the Medes and Babylonians came, but they had been in a stupor of a different kind long before. They were made drunken with the wine of Ninevehs fornication. (Cp. Rev 17:1-2 and Jer 25:17-27)
Zerr: Thou (Nah 3:11) means Nineveh and she is herehy warned that as surely as the city of No-Amon was overthrown so she will be ruined also. Shalt be drunken means she will be dealt such a blow that she will be stunned and caused to stagger. Shalt be hid denotes that the city would become obscure and seek strength or help (but in vain).
ALL THY FORTRESSES . . . Nah 3:12-15
All those things in which Nineveh trusted would fail her. Did they trust in bravery and daring? Their hearts would sink and fail them, so that they should abscound for shame, being in disgrace. For fear they will not be able to face invaders because of whose strength they shall sneak to their neighbors to beg assistance. Did they depend on the garrisons and strongholds? These shall prove to be paper walls. Like the first-ripe figs, if you give the tree a little shake, they will fall in your mouth. Having seen the vanity of the efforts to defend the doomed city, Nahum nevertheless taunts them to make ready to stand off the invader, They are admonished to lay in quantities of water against a siege. New bricks are to be made to strengthen the fortifications.
Zerr: The firstripe fruit of the fig tree (Nah 3:12) would be very desirable and the Strong holds or fortified places in the city would be the spots most to be desired by an enemy. If the mere shaking ot a tree would place the fruit into the mouth of the eater, it would Illustrate the ease and surety with which the invading army will obtain these coveted spots in Nineveh. People (Nah 3:13) is from AM and a part of Strong’s definition is, “Collectively troops or attendants. ” The thought of the prediction is that the military forces in the city will be no stronger than if they were women, and they are not considered qualified for military service. As a consequence, the gates will be early thrown open as was illustrated by the mere shaking of the tree in the preceding verse. Bars is defined “a bolt” in the lexicon and it denotes that the fasteners on the gates will be easily destroyed by the fire of the enemy. The actions detailed in Nah 3:14 are those of a city preparing to resist a siege, and Nah 3:14 is a prediction that Nineveh will need all the preparation she can make. Notwithstanding all the preparations suggested in the preceding verse, the fire of the besiegers will devour the fortifications (Nah 3:15). The cankerworn and locust were destructive insects and consumed that which they attacked. Though the people of Nineveh should make themselves as numerous as these insects were, yet they were to be attacked and destroyed by the invading forces which will be still more numerous.
THEN SHALL A FIRE DEVOUR THEE . . . Nah 3:15
By fire set to buildings and death sown by hand weapons are cities conquered. It is still the same . . . from Nineveh to My Lai. Though the defenders of Nineveh are as numerous as canker-worms and as locusts . . . yet they shall be over-run. There is a scathing irony in Nahums choice of vermin to illustrate the multitudes of Ninevehs defenders, Both the cankerworm and the locust leave devastation wherever they go. So had Assyria spread destruction throughout the world. Now-to use a cliche the worm has turned. The Assyrian merchanrs who once fleeced the populace of surrounding nations will be seen no more, they are like the canker-worm who ravageth and fleeth away. The princes also, and the marshalls, those who enforced the Assyrian sway over conquered peoples will be seen no more. Like Swarms of grasshoppers which destroy while they are present, but fly away to be seen no more, the Assyrian authorities will, like the merchants, not be seen anymore in lands once ruled as defeated people.
Zerr: Nah 3:16. Nineveh had grown in her business and political interests until it was compared with the stars of the heaven. But in spite of all this apparent strength, the Cankerworm (invading enemy) will present great numbers to attack the city and flee away or make a success in the operation. Nah 3:17-19. There is nothing new in these verses that has not been set forth in other verses of the book. The subject is the utter defeat of Nineveh, the capital of Assyria, with not a possibility of a “comeback.” (See the historical quotation at Nah 2:10.)
THY WOUND IS GREVIOUS . . . Nah 3:18-19
The destruction of Nineveh will prove the mortal wound of the entire empire. It is all in Nahums future, but he has seen it in a present vision. History has verified his prophetic pronouncement. In 612 B.C. the alliance between the Medes and Babylonians did indeed march into the city and that which Nahum foresaw became reality. The alliance was short lived and the victors shortly began to war among themselves. But the fatal blow had been struck. Never again would Nineveh, or Assyria, play an important role in world affairs. Today the location of the city itself is scarcely discernable, rising as two tels on the valley of the Tigris. Gods prophetic word once more is vindicated by history.
Questions
The Epitaph of Nineveh
1. Why does Nahum say Nineveh is full of lies?
2. In Nahums vision of fallen Nineveh, the silence is broken only by __________.
3. Discuss Nah 3:4-7 in light of the modern question, If there is a God, why does He not halt or prevent war?
4. What are the sins of Nineveh as listed in this paragraph?
5. What is indicated by Nahums term witchcrafts?
6. How does God intend to make Nineveh a gazing stock?
7. Who are No-Amon, Karnak, Thebes?
8. Where did the sprinkling of exorcism first become confused with the immersion of Christian baptism? When did this occur?
9. Compare the fate of No-Amon with that of Nineveh.
10. Who defeated No-Amon in 674 B.C.?
11. Discuss Nahums question art thou better? as applied to modern America.
12. In what physical condition were the leaders of Nineveh when the Medes and Babylonians fell upon them?
13. What were all thy fortresses in Nah 3:12-15?
14. What is the irony of Nahums choice of vermin to illustrate the multitudes of Ninevehs defenders?
15. The destruction of the city of Nineveh was the mortal wound of __________.
16. How is Gods word in Nahum vindicated by history in the destruction of the Assyrian Empire?
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
No,
Or, No-Amon. Jer 46:25; Eze 30:15; Eze 30:16
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
thou: Eze 31:2, Eze 31:3, Amo 6:2
populous No: or, nourishing No, Heb. No-amon, Jer 46:25, Jer 46:26, Eze 30:14-16
that had: Isa 19:5-10
Reciprocal: 1Ki 19:4 – better Jer 25:19 – Pharaoh Jer 46:12 – heard Eze 29:15 – rule Eze 30:5 – Ethiopia Zec 11:2 – Howl
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Nah 3:8. No is another name for Thebes, an important city in Egypt. In connection with the description of the city given here, I shall quote from Smith’s Bible Dictionary which will verify it: “The description of No as situate among the rivers, the waters round ahout it’ (Nah 3:8), remarkably characterizes Thebes. It lay on both sides of the Nile, and was celebrated for its hundred gates, for its temples, obelisks, statues, etc. It was emphatically the city of temples, in the ruins of whtch many monuments ot ancient Egypt are preserved. The plan of the city was a parallelogram, two miles from north to south and four from east to west, but none suppose that in its glory it really extended 33 miles along both sides ot the Nile. Thebes was destroyed by Ptolemy, B. C. 81, and since then its population has dwelt in villages only.” The argument of the prophet in this verse is that if such a stronghold as Thebes could be overthrown, then Nineveh should not feel so confident of resisting the invader.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Nah 3:8-10. Art thou better than populous No Art thou in a better or safer condition; or hast thou more merit than the famous populous city of No? The Hebrew reads, No-ammon, the same city which is spoken of Jer 46:25; and Eze 30:15; where see the notes; and where our version reads, the multitude of No, as here, populous No. It is thought by some, that the place took its rise from Ham, by whose posterity Egypt was peopled, (thence called the land of Ham, Psa 106:22,) and who was worshipped under the name of Jupiter-ammon. Accordingly the LXX. render it Diospolis, that is, the city of Jupiter. That was situate among the rivers Which was defended by the river Nile on the one side, and the Red sea on the other, as by so many walls and ramparts. Ethiopia and Egypt were her strength Their forces defended this city. And it was infinite Houbigant renders the verse, The Ethiopians and Egyptians, who are innumerable, were her strength; the Africans and Libyans were her helpers. Yet was she carried away It is evident that Nahum does not here foretel the destruction of No-ammon as an event yet to come, but speaks of it as a transaction past, although but lately. It therefore cannot be attributed to Nebuchadnezzar, for that would suppose it to have happened after the destruction of Nineveh, instead of before it. Dr. Prideaux, with more reason, believes that it was effected by Sennacherib, about three years before he besieged Jerusalem, in the time of Hezekiah. At that time Sevechus, the son of Sabaccon, or So, mentioned 2Ki 17:4, was king both of Egypt and Ethiopia; so they are mentioned here as confederates, and Isaiah foretels that they should be vanquished by Sargon, or Sennacherib. They cast lots for her honourable men Conquerors used to cast lots what captives should come to each mans share: see note on Oba 1:11.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Nah 3:8-10. Nineveh boasted of her strength, but she was no better placed than No-Amon, with the Nile around her for rampart, the whole strength of Egypt and Ethiopia her defence, and Put and the Libyans as allies, who yet passed into captivity, amid all the horrors of siege and storm.
Nah 3:8. No-Amon: Homers hundred-gated Thebes, the capital of Upper Egypt, captured by Ashurbanipal in 663 B.C. (cf. Intro.). The original magnificence of the city is borne witness to by the splendid ruins of Karnac and Luxor.Removing a slight redundancy, read That sat (in stately pride and confidence) on the Nile-streams, her rampart the sea (i.e. the broad Nile) and the waters her wall.
Nah 3:9. Put and Lubim: Hamite nations near Ethiopia (Gen 10:6; Gen 10:13), that served as Egyptian mercenaries (Jer 46:9).
Nah 3:10. Description of the usual fate of a captured city (cf. Lamentations 4).
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
3:8 Art thou better than populous {d} No, that was situate among the rivers, [that had] the waters round about it, whose rampart [was] the sea, [and] her wall [was] from the sea?
(d) Meaning Alexandria, which had a compact of peace with so many nations, and yet was now destroyed.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
4. The fourth description of Nineveh’s fall 3:8-19
This section, evidently another message that Nahum delivered concerning Nineveh’s fall, begins by comparing it to the fall of another great city. Nahum proceeded to use many figures of speech to describe how various segments of Ninevite society would respond to the coming invasion. The literary form of the section is that of a taunt song. [Note: See Patterson, pp. 93-94.]
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Nineveh was similar to the Egyptian capital, No-amon ("city of the god Amon," Gr. Thebes). Thebes had been the capital of Upper (southern) Egypt and had stood at the site of modern Karnak and Luxor, 400 miles south of Cairo. Water from rivers, tributaries, canals, and moats surrounded this city, as it did Nineveh, and both were capitals of mighty kingdoms. However, Thebes had fallen to Sargon the Assyrian in 663 B.C. Jeremiah and Ezekiel predicted its fall (Jer 46:25; Eze 30:14; Eze 30:16). Its solid and liquid defenses did not protect it, and Nineveh’s would not protect it either.