Woe to the bloody city! It is all full of lies and robbery. The prey doesn’t depart. The noise of the whip, the noise of the rattling of wheels, prancing horses, and bounding chariots, the horseman mounting, and the flashing sword, the glittering spear, and a multitude of slain, and a great heap of corpses, and there is no end of the bodies. They stumble on their bodies, because of the multitude of the prostitution of the alluring prostitute, the mistress of witchcraft, who sells nations through her prostitution, and families through her witchcraft. “Behold, I am against you,” says Yahweh of Armies, “and I will lift your skirts over your face. I will show the nations your nakedness, and the kingdoms your shame. I will throw abominable filth on you, and make you vile, and will set you a spectacle. It will happen that all those who look at you will flee from you, and say, ‘Nineveh is laid waste! Who will mourn for her?’ Where will I seek comforters for you?”
Are you better than No-Amon, who was situated among the rivers, who had the waters around her; whose rampart was the sea, and her wall was of the sea? Cush and Egypt were her boundless strength. Put and Libya were her 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. You also will be drunken. You will be hidden. You also will seek a stronghold because of the enemy. All your fortresses will be like fig trees with the first-ripe figs: if they are shaken, they fall into the mouth of the eater. Behold, your troops among you are women. The gates of your land are set wide open to your enemies. The fire has devoured your bars. Draw water for the siege. Strengthen your fortresses. Go into the clay, and tread the mortar. Make the brick kiln strong. There the fire will devour you. The sword will cut you off. It will devour you like the grasshopper. Multiply like grasshoppers. Multiply like the locust. You have increased your merchants more than the stars of the skies. The grasshopper strips, and flees away. Your guards are like the locusts, and your officials like the swarms of locusts, which settle on the walls on a cold day, but when the sun appears, they flee away, and their place is not known where they are. Your shepherds slumber, king of Assyria. Your nobles lie down. Your people are scattered on the mountains, and there is no one to gather them. There is no healing your wound, for your injury is fatal. All who hear the report of you clap their hands over you; for who hasn’t felt your endless cruelty?
John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19 The Prophet, as I have said, more clearly expresses…
The Prophet, as I have said, more clearly expresses here the reason why the vengeance of God would be so severe on the Ninevites, — because they had wholly given themselves up to barbarous cruelty; and hence he calls it the bloody city. Bloody city! he says. The exclamation is emphatical. Though הו, eu, sometimes means Woe; yet it is put here as though the Prophet would have constrained Nineveh to undergo its punishment, O sanguinary city, then, the whole of it is full of כחש cachesh: the word signifies leanness and the Prophet no doubt joins here together two words, which seem to differ widely, and yet they signify the same thing. For פרק, perek, means to lay by; and כחש, cachesh, is taken for a lie or vanity, when there is nothing solid in what is said: but the Prophet, I doubt not, means by both words the spoils of the city Nineveh. It was then full of leanness for it had consumed all others; it was also full of spoils, for it had filled itself. But the meaning of the Prophet is in no way dubious; for at length he adds, Depart shall not the prey; that is as some think, it shall not be withdrawn from the hands of conquerors; but others more correctly think that a continued liberty in plundering is intended, that the Assyrians were constantly employed in pillaging and kept within no bounds.
We hence see that the Prophet now shows why God says, that he would be an adversary to the Ninevites, because he could not endure its unjust cruelty. He bore with it indeed for a time; for he did not immediately execute his judgment; but yet he never forgot his own people.
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As, then, God has once declared by the mouth of his Prophet that he would be the avenger of the cruelty which the Assyrians had exercised, let us know that he retains still his own nature; and whatever liberty he may for a time grant to tyrants and savage wild beasts, he yet continues to be a just avenger. It is our duty calmly to bear injuries, and to groan to him; and as he promises to be at length our helper, it behaves us to flee to him, and to ask him to succor us, so that seeing his Church oppressed, and tyrants exercising licentiously their power, he may hasten the time to restrain them. If then we were at all times to continue thus resigned under God’s protection, there is no doubt but that he would be ready even at this day to execute a similar judgment to that which the city Nineveh and its people had to endure.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 4, 8, 9, 15, 18, 19 It never ceaseth to spoil and rob.
It never ceaseth to spoil and rob.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv1–19 Nah 3:1 Woe to the bloody city! it [is]…
Nah 3:1 Woe to the bloody city! it [is] all full of lies [and] robbery; the prey departeth not;
Ver. 1. Woe to the bloody city] Nineveh, that delighteth in war, which one well calleth the slaughter house of mankind and hell of this present world, Isa 9:5 : the Greek word πολεβμος, war, signifieth much blood (πολυ αιμα). besides that, many murders were committed in her, and connived at, if not countenanced, by a pretence of justice. Such a sanguinary city is Rome; not only drunk with the blood of saints, but also of her own children. Brazutus, set on by Hildebrand, was the death of six popes successively within the time of thirteen years. Pope John XXII (who sat A.D. 1316) flayed a bishop, who had some way offended him, and afterwards burned him. Pope Paul III poisoned two cardinals Fulgosus and Contarenus, a bishop also, and Johannes Baptists Vergerus, because he suspected them of Lutheranism. The Italians generally, as they blaspheme oftener than they swear, so they murder more than they revile or slander. Such another city of bloods is Paris, in France; witness that barbarous massacre, wherein they poisoned the Queen of Navarre, murdered the most part of the peerless nobility of France, with their wives and children, with a great sort of the common people, 100,000 in one year, in various parts of the realm, besides 6000 gentlemen, slain there in private quarrels, within the time of ten years, as it appears by the king’s pardons. Now if the blood of one Abel had so many tongues as drops {Gen 4:10, "the voice of thy brother’s blood’s crieth unto me,"} what shall we think will be the woe of such bloody cities and states? Luther rendereth this text, Woe to the murderous state! Austin interpreteth it of all heinous offences wherewith Nineveh was polluted. But surely if other sins have a woe hanging at their heels, according to that of Job 10:15, "If I be wicked, woe unto me," bloody men shall have a woe with a witness, as those that walk in the way of Cain, Jdg 1:11 : see Eze 24:6 Hab 3:12, and remember that it was the ruin of that great city Nineveh.
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It is all full of lies] Oλη ψευδης, so the Seventy render it ( universa mendacium), she is wholly made up of fraud and falsehood, mendaciorum loquacissima; no truth in her private contracts, no trust in her public transactions and capitulations with other nations; be they never so strongly concluded or never so solemnly confirmed, yet had they no longer force with them than stood with their own profit. This was fides Ninevetica, as it was afterwards Punica, and is now Turcica; which will at length prove their downfal; as it befell Nineveh and Carthage.
And robbery] Or ravage ( laceratio); such as lions exercise, Psa 7:2. Liars are commonly thieves; fraudulence is no better than robbery. If I have beguiled any man, saith Zaccheus, I restore him fourfold, Luk 19:8, as having wronged him no less than if I had robbed him. Hence they go here coupled. Violence is seldom sundered from cunning contrivance; in those especially that hunt after monarchy, as Nimrod, Julius Caesar, Lysander (whose counsel and practice was to eke out the lion’s hide with the fox’s skin, if need were, pellem vulpinam leoninae assuere), Jeroboam, Jehu, Herod, that fox, Julian, Caesar Borgia, whom Machiavel propounds for a pattern to princes; telling them that justice itself should not be sought after, but only the appearance; because the credit is a help, the use a cumber. That great elixir, called reason of state (though falsely so called, unless it be seasoned with justice and truth), hath so transmutative a faculty as to make copper seem gold, right wrong, and wrong right; yea, when all pleas fail, it will stand for good while there are forces to support it.
The prey departeth not] They fetch in booty continually, they spoil and prey upon others without end or measure. Once they seemed to repent of their luxury and cruelty at the preaching of Jonah; but now they are as bad again, or worse than ever. They tear in pieces (our English seems to be made of the Hebrew here), and greedily feed upon those murdering morsels of sin which they must digest in hell, without better repentance than they were ever yet acquainted with.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv1–19 Woe! a comprehensive threat of many and great calamities…
Woe! a comprehensive threat of many and great calamities coming.
To the bloody city; Nineveh, the chief city of the Assyrian kingdom: see Nah 1:1.
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It is all; every part, officers and rulers, traders, both buyers and sellers, shops, houses, judicatories, all filled with falsehood and lies.
Lies; cheating in their trades, and false witnesses before the judges.
Robbery; their gain, though they count it honest, is no better in God’s account than robbery or rapine, as is that the lion taketh, teareth, and devoureth, as the word in the Hebrew implies.
The prey; unjust acquists by fraud and force; extortions and violent taking away what was not theirs.
Departeth not; as they did so long since, they continue still so to do, no change from injustice to justice.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On vv1, 8 Here is, I. Nineveh arraigned and indicted. It is…
Here is, I. Nineveh arraigned and indicted. It is a high charge that is here drawn up against that great city, and neither her numbers nor her grandeur shall secure her from prosecution. 1. It is a city of blood, in which a great deal of innocent blood is shed by unrighteous war, or under colour and pretence of public justice, or by suffering barbarous murders to go unpunished; for this the righteous God will make inquisition. 2. It is all full of lies; truth is banished from among them; there is no such thing as honesty; one knows not whom to believe nor whom to trust. 3. It is all full of robbery and rapine; no man cares what mischief he does, nor to whom he does it: The prey departs not, that is, they never know when they have got enough by spoil and oppression. They shed blood, and told lies, in pursuit of the prey, that they might enrich themselves. 4. There is a multitude of whoredoms in it, that is, idolatries, spiritual whoredoms, by which she defiled herself, and to which she seduced the neighbouring nations, as a well-favoured harlot, and sold and ruined nations through her whoredoms. 5. She is a mistress of witchcrafts, and by them she sells families, Nah 3:4. That which Nineveh aimed at was a universal monarchy, to be the metropolis of the world, and to have all her neighbours under her feet; to compass this, she used not only arms, but arts, compelling some, deluding others, into subjection to her, and wheedling them as a harlot by her charms to lay their necks under her yoke, suggesting to them that it would be for their advantage. She courted them to join with her in her idolatrous rites, to tie them the faster to her interests, and made use of her wealth, power, and greatness, to draw people into alliances with her, by which she gained advantages over them, and made a hand of them. These were her whoredoms, like those of Tyre, Isa 23:15, Isa 23:17. These were her witchcrafts, with which she unaccountably gained dominion. And for this that God has a quarrel with her who, having made of one blood all nations of men, never designed one to be a nation of tyrants and another of slaves, and who claims it as his own prerogative to be universal Monarch.
II. Nineveh condemned to ruin upon this indictment. Woe to this bloody city! Nah 3:1. See what this woe is.
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1. Nineveh had with her cruelties been a terror and destruction to others, and therefore destruction and terror shall be brought upon her. Those that are for overthrowing all that come in their way will, sooner or later, meet with their match. (1.) Hear the alarm with which Nineveh shall be terrified, Nah 3:2. It is a formidable army that advances against it; you may hear them at a distance, the noise of the whip, driving the chariot-horses with fury; you may hear the noise of the rattling of the wheels, the prancing horses, and the jumping chariots; the very noise is frightful, but much more so when they know that all this force is coming with all this speed against them, and they are not able to make head against it. (2.) See the slaughter with which Nineveh shall be laid waste (Nah 3:3), the sword drawn with which execution shall be done, the bright sword lifted up and the glittering spear, the dazzling brightness of which is very terrible to those whom they are lifted up against. See what havoc these make when they are commissioned to slay: There is a great number of carcases, for the slain of the land shall be many; there is no end of their corpses; there is such a multitude of slain that it is in vain to go about to take the number of them; they lie so thick that passengers are ready to stumble upon their corpses at every step. The destruction of Sennacherib's army, which, in the morning, were all dead corpses, is perhaps looked upon here as a figure of the like destruction that should afterwards be in Nineveh; for those that will not take warning by judgments at a distance shall have them come nearer.
2. Nineveh had with her whoredoms and witchcrafts drawn others to shameful wickedness, and therefore God will load her with shame and contempt (Nah 3:5-7): The Lord of hosts is against her, and then she shall be exposed to the highest degree of disgrace and ignominy, shall not only lose all her charms, but shall be made to appear very odious. When it shall be seen that while she courted her neighbours it was with design to ruin their liberty and property, when all her wicked artifices shall be brought to light, then her shame is discovered to the nations. When her proud pretensions are baffled, and her vain towering hopes of an absolute and universal dominion brought to nought, and she appears not to have been so strong and considerable as she would have been thought to be, then to see the nakedness of the land do they come, and it appears ridiculous. Then do they cast abominable filth upon her, as upon a carted strumpet, and make her vile as the offscouring of all things; that great city, which all nations had made court to and coveted an alliance with, has become a gazing-stock, a laughing stock. Those that formerly looked upon her, and fled to her, in hopes of protection from her, now look upon her and flee from her, for fear of being ruined with her. Note, Those that abuse their honour and interest will justly be disgraced and abandoned, and, because miserable, will be made contemptible, and thereby be made more miserable. When Nineveh is laid waste who will bemoan her? Her trouble will be so great, and her sense of it so deep, as not to admit relief from sympathy, or any comforting considerations; or, if it would, none shall do any such good office: When shall I seek comforters for thee? Note, Those that showed no pity in the day of their power can expect to find no pity in the day of their fall. When those about Nineveh, that had been deceived by her wiles, come to be undeceived in her ruin, every one shall insult over her, and none bemoan her. This was Nineveh's fate, when she was made a spectacle, or gazing-stock. Note, The greater men's show was in the day of their abused prosperity the greater will their shame be in the day of their deserved destruction. I will make thee an example; so Drusus reads it. Note, When proud sinners are humbled and brought down it is designed that others should take example by them not to lift up themselves in security and insolence when they prosper in the world.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv1–19 Woe to the bloody city,.... Nineveh, in which many…
Woe to the bloody city,.... Nineveh, in which many murders were daily committed; innocent blood shed; the lives of men taken away, under the colour of justice, by false witnesses, and other unlawful methods; and which was continually making war with neighbouring nations, and shedding their blood, which it stuck not at, to enlarge its wealth and dominions; and therefore "woe" is denounced against it; and it is threatened with the righteous judgments of God, with all sorts of calamity and distress: or, "O bloody city", as the Septuagint; for the word used is vocative, and expressive of calling, as Aben Ezra and Kimchi observe:
it is all full of lies and robbery; the palace and court; the houses of noblemen and common persons were full of flattery and deceit; men of high degree were a lie, and men of low degree vanity; no man could trust another, or believe what he said; there were no truth, honesty, and faithfulness, in conversation or commerce; their warehouses were full of goods, got by rapine and violence; and their streets full of robbers and robberies:
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the prey departeth not; they go on in making a prey of their neighbours, in pillaging and plundering their substance; they repent not of such evil practices, nor desist from them; or because of the above sins they shall fall a prey to the enemy, who will not cease plundering them till he has utterly stripped them of all they have; and who is represented in the next verse Nah 3:2 as just at hand.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19 The sins of Nineveh, and judgments pursuing them, ver.…
The sins of Nineveh, and judgments pursuing them, ver. 1-7. Instances of like judgments for like sins, ver. 18-11. The overthrow of all wherein they trusted, ver. 12-19.
The prey - Extortion and rapine.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19 The prophet denounces a wo against Nineveh for her…
CHAPTER III
The prophet denounces a wo against Nineveh for her perfidy and
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violence. He musters up before our eyes the number of her
chariots and cavalry; points to her burnished arms, and to the
great and unrelenting slaughter which she spreads around her,
1-3.
Because Nineveh is a city wholly given up to the grossest
superstition, and is an instructress of other nations in
her abominable rites, therefore she shall come to a most
ignominious and unpitied end, 3-7.
Her final ruin shall be similar to that of No, a famous city
of Egypt, 8-11.
The prophet then beautifully describes the great ease with
which the strong holds of Nineveh should be taken, 12,
and her judicial pusillanimity during the siege, 13;
declares that all her preparation, her numbers, opulence, and
chieftains, would be of no avail in the day of the Lord's
vengeance, 14-17;
and that her tributaries would desert her, 18.
The whole concludes with stating the incurableness of her
malady, and the dreadful destruction consequently awaiting her;
and with introducing the nations which she had oppressed as
exulting at her fall, 19.
NOTES ON CHAP. III
Verse 1. Wo to the bloody city!] Nineveh: the threatenings against which are continued in a strain of invective, astonishing for its richness, variety, and energy. One may hear and see the whip crack, the horses prancing, the wheels rumbling, the chariots bounding after the galloping steeds; the reflection from the drawn and highly polished swords; and the hurled spears, like flashes of lightning, dazzling the eyes; the slain lying in heaps, and horses and chariots stumbling over them! O what a picture, and a true representation of a battle, when one side is broken, and all the cavalry of the conqueror fall in upon them, hewing them down with their swords, and trampling them to pieces under the hoofs of their horses! O! infernal war! Yet sometimes thou art the scourge of the Lord.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 4, 5, 8, 11, 14, 16, 18 Nah 3:1. Wo to the bloody city — Here…
Nah 3:1. Wo to the bloody city — Here God shows the cause of his bringing destruction on Nineveh, and overthrowing the Assyrian empire. And first, it is declared, that Nineveh was a city in which acts of cruelty abounded, and innocent blood was frequently shed; that it was also full of deceit, falsehood, and rapine; unjustly and continually increasing its riches by the plunder of the neighbouring countries, which had done them no injury.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv1–19 Woe to the bloody city - Literally, “city of…
Woe to the bloody city - Literally, “city of bloods” , i. e., of manifold bloodshedding, built and founded in blood Hab 2:12; Jer 22:13, as the prosperity of the world ever is. Murder, oppression, wresting of judgment, war out of covetousness, grinding or neglect of the poor, make it “a city of bloods.” Nineveh, or the world, is a city of the devil, as opposed to the “city of God.” : “Two sorts of love have made two sorts of cities; the earthly, love of self even to contempt of God; the heavenly, love of God even to contempt of self. The one glorieth in itself, the other in the Lord.” : “Amid the manifold differences of the human race, in languages, habits, rites, arms, dress, there are but two kinds of human society, which, according to our Scriptures, we may call two cities. One is of such as wish to live according to the flesh; the other of such as will according to the Spirit.” “Of these, one is predestined to live forever with God; the other, to undergo everlasting torment with the devil.” Of this city, or evil world, Nineveh, the city of bloods, is the type.
It is all full of lies and robbery - Better, “it is all lie; it is full of robbery” (rapine). “Lie” includes all falsehood, in word or act, denial of God, hypocrisy; toward man, it speaks of treachery, treacherous dealing, in contrast with open violence or rapine . The whole being of the wicked is one lie, toward God and man; deceiving and deceived; leaving no place for God who is the Truth; seeking through falsehood things which fail. Man “loveth vanity and seeketh after leasing” Psa 4:2. All were gone out of the way. Alb.: “There were none in so great a multitude, for whose sake the mercy of God might spare so great a city.” It is full, not so much of booty as of rapine and violence. The sin remains, when the profit is gone. Yet it ceases not, but perseveres to the end; “the prey departs not;” they will neither leave the sin, nor the sin them; they neither repent, nor are weary of sinning. Avarice especially gains vigor in old age, and grows by being fed. “The prey departeth not,” but continues as a witness against it, as a lion’s lair is defiled by the fragments of his prey.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 4, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19 Blood. Nemrod established his power by shedding blood, Genesis…
Blood. Nemrod established his power by shedding blood, Genesis x. Ninus, who built Ninive, and his successors were also bloody. After 1200 years the empire decayed under Sardanapalus, as historians agree. Yet it continued longer, according to the Scriptures and Ribera, till the Chaldeans destroyed it, when it had subsisted about 1440 years. It was even possessed of great power after the return of the Jews from Babylon, as Eusebius, St. Augustine, Ven. Bede, &c., write. (Worthington) --- Depart. Septuagint, "be touched." (Haydock) --- He continues the metaphor of the lion seizing its prey. Here the last chapter should end.
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On v1 [The Prophet resumes the Description of the Siege of…
CHAPTER 3
[The Prophet resumes the Description of the Siege of Nineveh (Nah_3:1—3); traces it to her Idolatry as its cause (Nah_3:4); repeats the Divine Denunciations introduced Nah_2:13 (Nah_3:5-7); points her to the once celebrated, but now desolate Thebes (Nah_3:8-10), declaring that such should likewise be herFate; calls upon her ironically to make every Preparation for her Defense, assuring her that it would be of no avail (Nah_3:14-15); and concludes by contrasting her former prosperous with her latter remediless State.—C. E.]
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12 Where is the den of the lions?
And the feeding-place of the young lions?
Where the lion and the lioness walked,
The lion’s whelp, and no one frightened [them].
13 The lion tore for the supply of his whelps,
And strangled for his lionesses:
He filled his dens with prey,
And his dwelling-places with rapine.
14 Behold! I am against thee, saith Jehovah of hosts,
And I cause her chariots to burn in smoke;
And thy young lions the sword shall devour;
And I cut off thy prey from the earth;
And the voice of thy messengers shall be heard no more.
Nah_3:1 Woe, city of blood!
She is all full of deceit and violence:
The prey departs not.
2 The cracking of the whip;
And the noise of the rattling of the wheels;
And the horses prancing;
And the chariots bounding.
3 Horseman mounting;
And the gleaming of the sword;
And the lightning of the spear;
And the multitude of slain;
And the mass of corpses;
And there is no end of dead bodies:
They stumble over their carcasses.
4 Because of the multitude of the whoredoms of the harlot,
The very1 graceful one, the mistress of enchantments,
Who sells nations with her whoredoms,
And families with her witchcrafts.
5 Behold! I am against thee, saith Jehovah of hosts;
And uncover thy skirts over thy face;
And show the nations thy nakedness,
And kingdoms thy shame.
6 And I cast abominable things upon thee,
And disgrace thee,
And make thee a gazing-stock.
7 And it comes to pass, that every one that sees thee shall flee from thee,
And shall say, Nineveh is destroyed:
Who will pity her?
Whence shall I seek comforters for thee?
8 Art thou better than No2—Amon,
That dwelt by the rivers?
Waters were round about her;
Her bulwark was the sea:
Her wall was3 of the sea.
9 Ethiopia was her strength, and Egypt;
And there was no end:
Phut and Libyans were among thy help.
10 She also has gone into exile:
Into captivity [has she gone].
Her young children also were dashed in pieces,
At the corners4 of all the streets;
And for her nobles they cast the lot,
And all her great men were bound with chains.
11 Thou also shalt be drunken:
Thou shalt be hidden:
Thou also shalt seek a refuge from the enemy.
12 All thy fortresses are fig-trees with early figs:
If they are shaken, they fall into the mouth of the eater.
13 Behold! thy people are women in the midst of thee;
To thy enemies the gates of thy land are thrown wide open:
Fire consumes thy bolts.
14 Draw for thyself water for the siege:
Make thy fortifications strong:
Enter the clay and tread the mortar;
Make the brick-kiln strong.
15 There will the fire devour thee:
The sword will cut thee off:
It shall consume thee like the licking-locust:
Be thou numerous as the licking locust:
Be thou numerous as the swarming locust.
16 Thou hast multiplied thy merchants more than the stars of heaven:
The licking-locusts spread5 [themselves out] and fly away.
17 Thy princes are as the swarming-locust;
And thy satraps like the locust of locusts,
Which encamp in the hedges6 in a cold day:
The sun arises, and they flee:
And the place where they are is not known.
18 King of Assyria! thy shepherds slumber:
Thy nobles have lain down:
Thy people are dispersed upon the mountains.
And no one gathers [them].
19 There is no healing of thy bruise:
Thy wound is grievous:
All that hear report of thee clap the hand over thee;
For over whom has not thy wickedness passed continually?
EXEGETICAL
Without apparent pause [Einschnitt], a fuller exposition, which rises over the ruins, like a shout of triumph, and at the same time of wondering, almost of sympathizing astonishment, is connected with the description of the catastrophe. Henceforth the reality of the catastrophe does not appear so much on the foreground as its internal and external cause.
The strophe, Nah_2:12-13, is added, externally viewed, as a concluding strophe to chap. 2, just in the same way that Nah_1:12-14 is joined to chap. 1. However, it belongs to what follows, not merely by its rhetorical character and connection (comp. on Nah_3:1), but it is also united to it by certain external clasps: compare the refrain, Nahum 2:14 a and Nah_3:5 a; and the contrast, Nah_2:12 d and Nah_3:18 e; Nahum 2:14 f and Nah_3:19 c. It contains the ground idea of the following: Nineveh, the robber, has vanished before God and by his agency; and it is characterized at the close, Nah_3:14, as a divine judgment. Where is … the lion’s brood? Lions appear so frequently on the Assyrian monuments, that we see how the people were fond of comparing themselves and their great ones to this powerful animal, and how they considered it, in a certain manner, their escutcheon and ensign. This gives to the sarcasm of the divine power a beautiful point of connection. And no one alarmed them. They were safe from disturbance by means of their strength.
Nah_3:13. The lion tore in pieces as much as his young ones wanted (on בְּדֵי comp. Oba_1:5), he strangled for his lionesses (comp. Jdg_5:28 ff.), and he filled his dens with prey, and his lurking-holes with spoil. The Assurakbal cylinder, which Talbot has deciphered (Assyrian Texts Translated, p. 20 ff.), gives an idea of the manner in which the kings of Nineveh amassed [their treasures]: On the 22d of the month I set out from Calah. I passed over the river Tigris. From the right bank of the Tigris I received a rich tribute. I stopped in the city Tabiti. On the 6th day of the month I left the city Tabiti. I marched along the river Karmesch. I stopped in the city Magarisi … I stopped in the city Schadikanni. The tribute of this city was gold, silver, brass, oxen, sheep … I stopped in the city Katni. I received tribute from the Sunaeern … And so forth, two pages long. Compare the similar accounts of the black Obelisk of Salmanassar II. and of Sennacherib in Spiegel 20:222, 224.
Now all that passes away, for, Nah_3:14, behold, I come against thee (comp. Nah_3:5; Jer_51:25), says Jehovah of hosts, who is able to raise up against Assyria very different hosts from the Medes and Babylonians (comp. Doct. and Eth., below); and I burn in smoke, so that it passes into smoke (Tarn.) her, Nineveh’s, chariots. The prophet again and again turns himself, in spirit, from Nineveh to Judah (Nah_2:1), so that the suffixes are constantly changing.
And I destroy thy plunder from the earth, so that the insolent voice of thy messengers will no more be heard (comp. 2Ki_19:10 ff.). Hieron.: “Nequaquam terras ultra vastabis, nec tributa exiges, nec audientur per provincias emissarii tui.” For the form מַלְאָכֵכֵה (varr. כֵכֶה—and כֶכֶה) comp. Ols., sec. 94, 2.
[Keil: The prophet, beholding the destruction in spirit as having already taken place, looks round for the site on which the mighty city once stood, and sees it no more. This is the meaning of the question in Nah_3:11. He describes it as the dwelling-place of lions. The point of comparison is the predatory lust of its rulers and their warriors, who crushed the nations like lions, plundering their treasures, and bringing them together in Nineveh. To fill up the picture, the epithets applied to the lions are grouped together according to the difference of sex and age. אַרְיֵה, is the full-grown male lion; לָבִיא, the lioness; כְּפִיר, the young lion, though old enough to go in search of prey; אַרְיֵה גּוּרcatulus leonis, the lion’s whelp, which cannot yet seek prey for itself …
The last clause expresses the complete destruction of the imperial might of Assyria. The messengers of Nineveh are partly heralds, as the carriers of the king’s command; partly halberdiers, or delegates who fulfilled the ruler’s commands (cf. 1Ki_19:2; 2Ki_19:23). The suffix in מַלְאָכֵכֵה is in a lengthened form, on account of the tone at the end of the section, analogous to אֹתָכָה in Exo_29:35, and is not to be regarded as an Aramæism or a dialectical variation (Ewald, sec. 258, a). The tsere of the last syllable is occasioned by the previous tsere. Jerome has summed up the meaning very well as follows: “Thou wilt never lay countries waste any more, nor exact tribute, nor will thy messengers be heard throughout thy provinces.” (On the last clause, see Eze_19:9.)—C. E.]
A more extended statement of the Cause of the Destruction follows (Nah_3:1-7), whilst both the ground-ideas expressed in Nah_2:12 ff., are further carried out: (a) the rapine of Nineveh (Nah_3:1-4); (b) the “behold I come against thee” (Nah_3:5-7).
O city of blood! הוי, is originally a pure vocative interjection, yet the threatening signification (vae!) is so evidently required by the connection in passages like the present (Isa_10:1), and Hab_2:15 ff., that it cannot very well (with Hupfeld) be denied.
She is altogether deceit; filled with crime. To the blood-guiltiness (דּמים; comp. טרף Nah_2:12 f.) of Nineveh is added as a further cause of her fall, her universally acknowledged craftiness, which Ahaz once experienced. Abarb.: “Quia vanis pollicitationibus auæilü et protectionis gentes decipiebat” (comp. Hab_2:15). פרק denotes the violent breaking of an existing barrier (Gen_27:40).
She ceases not from plunder; טרף, nomen actionis pro inf., as in Nahum 2:14. [Keil and Delitzsch: “לאֹ יָמִישׁ, the prey does not depart, never fails. Mush, in the hiphil here, used intransitively, “to depart,” as in Exo_13:22; Psa_55:12, and not in a transitive sense, “to cause to depart,” to let go; for if ‘it (the city) were the subject, we should have tâmish. The rule, however, that verbs, adjectives, and pronouns agree in gender and number with the noun to which they relate, is subject to exceptions. See Nordheimer’s Heb. Gram., vol. i. sec. 755, 2; and Green’s, sec. 275, 1, a, b, c. Henderson renders לאֹ יָמִישׁ, “the prey is not removed,” and refers it to the fact that the Assyrians had not restored the ten tribes. Others translate it, with Kleinert, non desinit rapere. See Gesenius’ Thesaurus, s. v.—C. E.] Therefore judgment must certainly come upon her, and the prophet graphically presents it again, first to the ear, then distinctly to the eye; then he breaks out, in Nah_3:2, with the exclamation,—
Hark! קוֹל, as frequently in an absolute sentence expressing, at the same time, interjection, verb, and object (Isa_13:4). [קוֹל is here a noun in the construct state: it cannot very well be two or three things at once.—C. E.] The crack of the whip, and noise of the rattling of wheels, and the horse galloping, and chariots bounding.
Nah_3:3. Horsemen rearing, properly causing to rear, the riders making the horses rear on high with the bridle, and flaming of the sword, and flashing of the lance, and a multitude of wounded, and a wall of corpses. Many of the nouns are assonant by means of the vowel o.—There is no end of dead. Ctesias, in Diodor., says: The waves of the river flowed red a long distance, so great was the number of the slain. And they stumble over their dead. And why all this?
Nah_3:4. On account of the multitude (מִן, as in Oba_1:10) of the whoredoms (comp. on Mic_1:7) of the whore; on account of the charming sweetness (טוֹבַת is a subs.) of the sorceress. Idolatry and witchcraft are marks of the specifically heathen character, the ultimate cause of all God’s judgments upon the heathen and heathendom (comp. Nah_1:15; Mic_1:7; Mic_5:11). The restriction of her fornications to her commercial intercourse has a plausible support in Isa_23:5, but it has in the connection no real force, and must also be more distinctly marked. The idolatry of the heathen is called adultery, not in the special sense in which it is applied to Israel, but in the established prophetical usage (Rev_17:1). Compare Luther in the Horn, suggestions, בעלה comp. Gen_37:19.
She sold the nations … with her witchcrafts. She was successful in everything, therefore she always became more secure and obstinate in her confidence in her gods. The structure of the passage is an intercalary and connected parallelism: abba; Nah_3:1; Nah_3:4 and Nah_3:2-3 belong together. Just as we had already above, Nah_1:11-14 (11 and 14; 12 and 13); Nah_2:6-9; comp. also below the articulation of the sentence 15 b, ff.
But this must certainly have an end. Nah_3:5. Behold, I come against thee [אֵל, when the motion or direction is hostile, may be rendered against—C. E.], saith Jehovah of hosts, and uncover thy skirts, throw them so high that they reach over thy face, and cause the nations to see.… thy shame. Nineveh is represented as a virgin not on account of any virtue, but as one not yet subdued (comp. above Nah_2:8); and her subjection under the figure of that which is most disgraceful to a woman. Comp. Isa_47:3, and the similar connection [of ideas], Hab_2:10.
Nah_3:6. And I cast abominable things upon thee: idols, according to the usual mode of expression; also, I bury thee under thy idols (Nah_1:14) Mich. (Others: I pelt thee with filth. But the passage, 2Ki_19:27, cited by Hitzig in support of this, does not prove it.) And I make thee despised, yea, make thee a gazing-stock.
Nah_3:7. And every one who sees thee flees from thee and says: Nineveh is laid waste! שׁדדה, Pual with Kametz, like מְאָדָּם1:4, Ges. sec. 52, Rem. 4. Who will comfort her? (Jer_15:5). ינוּד is voluntative. She has injured all (comp. Nah_3:19). When all forsooth speak in this way, whence shall I then, says the prophet, seek a comforter for thee?Isa_51:19.
Nah_3:8-11. The Certainty of the Destruction. [Keil and Delitzsch: “Nineveh will not be able to protect herself from destruction even by her great power. The prophet wrests this vain hope away from her by pointing in Nah_3:8 ff. to the fall of the mighty Thebes in Egypt.”—C. E.]. Even the powerful Thebes was not able to withstand destruction. Art thou to me (dativus ethicus, compare on Jon_3:3) any better, standing nearer, more important, more worth (for the form תֵיטְבִי instead of תִּיטְבִי compare Olsh. sec. 242 a, Remark), than No Amon,i.e., Thebes, the renowned capital of Upper Egypt. Compare Jer_46:25, and Eze_30:14 ff. In the last passage it is merely called No; but here it is more exactly defined by the addition of Amon, which refers to the great temple of Amon there. Compare Herod 1:182; 2:42 (LXX. Ez. l. c. Διὸς πόλις comp. Diod. 1:45: Γπο μὲν Αἰγυπτίων καλουμένην Διὸς πόλιν τὴν μεγάλην ὑπὸ δὲ τῶν ΕλλήνωνΘήβας [It is necessary to compare the Hebrew text of Jer_46:25 and Eze_30:14 ff. in order to verify Kleinert’s statement that in the latter passage Thebes is merely called No; for in the English version the former passage reads only No, Amon being rendered by “multitude.”—C. E). Which [was destroyed—C. E.] notwithstanding, like thee she was situated by the water, namely, on the river Nile, on both banks of it (Strabo, xvii. p. 816), and also like thee, yea, more than thou, was protected by the water on every side of her, by canals (hence the plural יארים), so that one could justly say of her: her rampart was the sea—a rampart consisting of the sea, a rampart which is the sea; as it is similarly further said: her wall was of sea. (אשׁר יםחילה must mean, whose rampart the sea was). ים sometimes even denotes the Nile (Isa_19:5).
Nah_3:9. And how many allies she had! Cush, the strong, properly, that which is strong (3 fem. præt. from עצם) in an elliptical relative clause (Ges. sec. 123, 3). The metheg, with the first Kametz, is doubtless complemental (comp. the reverse, Mic_3:6); if one does not with the versions prefer to insert Mappik in the final ה. Cush was her (Thebes’) strength (from עֹצם). The reading in question, the simple feminine substantive ossmah (Cush is strength) is feeble and clumsy;) and Egypt and so forth, if I would enumerate further, without end, Phut and Lubin were for thy help. Nahum, in keeping with his vivacious style, now addresses the absent person, of whom he speaks. The closing predicate היו בעזרהך (the ב predicative, as in Job_23:13; Pro_3:26) refers to all that have been named. Cush and Mizraim; Ethiopia, Upper and Lower Egypt; Phut and Lubim; Libya and Nubia (comp. Hitzig on Isa_66:19). Both these appear also elsewhere as confederates of and of the same origin with the powers of the Upper Nile (Jer_46:9; Eze_30:5). And notwithstanding all this she could not preserve herself.
Nah_3:10 : She also was given up to exile (Ezr_6:21), she went into captivity (Deu_18:1); also her children were dashed to pieces in all street corners, as was customary in conquests (2Ki_8:12), and hence the final doom of the savage conquerors on the Euphrates and Tigris was announced from the talio point of view (Isa_13:16 : Psa_137:9); and over her nobles (Isa_23:8) they cast lots (comp. Oba_1:11); and her great men were bound in chains. That the event of which the prophet speaks is not a future one (Hier., Theod., Cocc., Strauss), is proved in the first place externally by the tenses employed: the absolutely perfect action of Nah_3:8-10 stands in manifestly designed antithesis to the concluding future, Nah_3:11; and in the second place it is proved by sound logic, inasmuch as the prophet would scarcely, for the purpose of confirming a future event by an argumentum ad hominem, borrow from the future another example still much more remote and much more improbable [auch mehr ausser der Berechnung stehendes]. We must, therefore, seek for the capture (not destruction, for of that the text says nothing) of No Ammon, to which allusion has been made, in a time which lay back of this prophecy; and if it cannot be found in that time, then we would certainly be compelled, with Hitzig, to cut the knot, and consider this verse a gloss from post-exile times, and—an expedient which has fallen into disuse—refer it to the capture of No by Nebuchadnezzar, which, even historically, is by no means fully and clearly established. But consider (1) that Isaiah 20 would not have been admitted into the collection of the writings of Isaiah (Deu_18:22), had not the fulfillment, i.e., the conquest of Egypt by Sargon, been known as a historical event in the time designated by Isaiah; (2) that Sargon, who, in the year of the conquest of Samaria, succeeded, on the Assyrian throne, Salmanassar IV., who died about that time, mentions expressly, according to his inscription in the palace founded by him at Khorsabad, the boundaries of Egypt as the scene of his deeds (Spiegel, xx. 224;) (3) that Rawlinson (Monarchies, ii. 416, f.) and Oppert (Sargonides, p. 22, 26 f.) have extracted, from a quite mutilated passage of an inscription found there, an account, in conformity with the statement above, of the overthrow of Sebek (=So, 2 Kings 17) king of Egypt. (Comp. also Journ. Asiat., xii. 462 ff., concerning the battle of Rabek, i.e. Heliopolis) [compare Smith’s Dictionary of the Bible, article “So”—C. E.]; that finally (4) the successors of Sargon ascribe to themselves the standing title “King of Cush and Mizraim” (Oppert, Chronological Table; Rodiger, viii. 673).In view of these facts we must accord to this passage [that portion of the text under consideration—C. E.] the significance of a joint testimony, which, with the others, furnishes a mutual [solidarische] warrant of their truth, and accept, as a historical fact, a capture of Thebes by Sargon, or by his commander-in-chief Tartan (Isa_20:3). This Delitzsch (Is., p. 238) and Keil do. Hitzig’s objection to this that the prophet could not very well remind the Assyrians of one of their own conquests, without in any way expressly indicating that it was even their act, since otherwise every one must think of the act of another people, has no force. Rather the reverse is the case; if that capture did not proceed from Assyria herself, it (1) asks too much from Nineveh to draw conclusions from an event which was far separated from her, and which occurred in the other end of the inhabited world; and how (2) should Hitzig’s subsequent glossarist come to remind the still existing Nineveh of the destruction of a city, which must have followed after that of Nineveh at least twenty-five years. The first of these two reasons is opposed to the reference by Ewald to a very apocryphal and isolated statement of Ammianus Marcellinus concerning a capture of Thebes by the Carthaginians. But Nahum himself intimates plainly enough why he expressly mentioned Thebes among the Assyrian conquests: by its situation on the river, defenses, and allies, it had a striking resemblance to Nineveh.
[I have been decided in referring it to a conquest by Sargon, because this can he confirmed by arguments from the Bible, and it is sufficient for the understanding [of the passage]. There is, however, to me another still more probable [ground for the] reference which I have made, in the agreement of the results of investigations among the monuments. Assarhaddon is called, on a lion dugout by the Turks at Nebi Yunus, not merely king, but conqueror of Cush and Mizraim (Röd., viii. 673. Comp. also Abyd. in Euseb. in the Chron. Arm.). On his Cylinder (in Talbot, Ass.C. t., p. 13), Egyptian deities are delineated and military expeditions against the countries on the Mediterranean; he appears even to have conquered Arabia (Spiegel, xx. 225). During his sickness the Egyptico-Ethiopian king Tirhaka (692–664; Lepsius, Köningsb. d. alt. Eg., i. 96), succeeded in reconquering Memphis, Thebes, and other cities, so that his [the Assyrian conqueror’s] son Assurbani-pal must have carried the war anew into those countries. If the decipherings pertaining to the point on hand have been settled with certainty, we must refer the passage [Nah_3:10] either to a conquest by Assarhaddon himself, or still rather to that by Tirhaka, which, it is easy to see, must have grieved the Assyrians, which as an admonitory example must have given them a double sting, and which, if we place the time of Nahum’s prophecy under Assarhaddon (Introd. 2), was still quite fresh in their memory. It would also furnish another effective argument for this date. But in any case there is not the least necessity of thinking of the capture by Nebuchadnezzar as the only one possible.]
[Thebes was long the capital of Upper Egypt and the seat of the Diospolitan dynasties, that ruled over all Egypt at the era of its highest splendor. Upon the monuments this city bears three distinct names—that of the Nome, a sacred name, and the name by which it is commonly known in profane history. Of the twenty Nomes or districts into which Upper Egypt was divided, the fourth in order, proceeding northward from Nubia, was designated in the hieroglyphics as Za’m—the Phathyrite of the Greeks—and Thebes appears as the “Za’m-city,” the principal city or metropolis of the Za’m Nome. In later times the name Za’m was applied in common speech to a particular locality on the western side of Thebes.
In Hebrew the name of Thebes is No-Amon (from כא, probably dwelling, and אמוֹן; but the Egyptian name is P-Amen, i.e., house of the god Amun, who had a celebrated temple there (Herod, 1:182; 2:42; see Brugsch, Geogr. Inschr., i. p. 177). The Greeks called it Διὸς πόλις generally with the predicate ἡ μεγάλη (Diod. Sic., i. 45) the Great, or Οήβη, from the profane name of the city, which was Apet. This name, with the feminine article prefixed, became Tapet, or Tape, or Tepe, Οήβη, generally used in the plural Οήβη, It was described by Homer (II., 9:383) as ἐκατόμπυλος; and the Pharaohs of the eighteenth to the twentieth dynasties, from Amosis to the last Rameses, resided in it, and constructed those works of architecture which were admired by Greeks and Romans, and the remains of which still fill the visitor with astonishment. It was situated on both banks of the 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.
Though we have no express historical account of the capture of Thebes by the Assyrians, yet a struggle between Assyria and Egypt for supremacy in Hither Asia may be inferred from brief notices in the Old Testament (2Ki_17:4). See Smith’s Dictionary of the Bible, article “Thebes”; Keil and Delitzsch on Nah_3:10.—C. E.]
Like No-Amon, Nineveh also shall have no protection in its rivers.
Nah_3:11. Thou also shalt be drunken (comp. Hab_2:16), receive the cup of God’s fury in judgment; Thou shalt perish in darkness, literally, shalt be hidden: “Abscondi Hebrœis sœpe est in nihilum redigi.” Calvin. Thou also shalt seek for help against the enemy, for protection against the advancing enemy, as No engaged the nations to help her: מן is used as in Isa_25:4. Keil. (One could also translate מן by from, from among: thou shalt desire help from the enemy, and think of the fact that the King of Assyria himself sent Nabopolassar to maintain Babylon against the Scythians. This, however, is more remote.
[“According to Abydenus, who probably drew his information from Berosus, Nabopolassar was appointed to the government of Babylon by the last Assyrian king, at the moment when the Medes were about to make their final attack; whereupon, betraying the trust reposed in him, he went over to the enemy, arranged a marriage between his son Nebuchadnezzar and the daughter of the Median leader, and joined in the last siege of the city.” Smith’s Dictionary of the Bible.—C. E.]
[“Thou wilt seek refuge flora the enemy,” i.e., in this connection, seek it in vain, or without finding it; not, “Thou wilt surely demand salvation from the enemy by surrender” (Strauss), for מֵאוֹיֵב does not belong to תְּבַקְשִׁי, but to מָעוֹז (cf. Isa_25:4.” Keil and Delitzsch.—C. E.]
Immediately subjoined to this [Nah_3:11] is the remedilessness of the destruction, Nah_3:12-13. All thy fortresses are fig-trees with early figs; if one shake them, they fall into the mouth of the eater, comp. Isa_28:4; as if they were already waiting for him. On the על Hitzig remarks: If the motion made downward to the object is at the same time an entering one, then the latter is tacitly supplied, and merely על is written.
[“The tertium compar. is the facility with which the castles will be taken and destroyed by the enemy assaulting them (cf. Isa_28:4).” Keil and Delitzsch.—C. E.]
Nah_3:13. Behold thy people, once invincibly stern (Isa_5:27 ff.), are women in the midst of thee; comp. Nah_2:11), by reason of anguish and terror. Possibly the prophet thinks, at the same time, of the effeminate manners, which finally crept into Nineveh (Layard, p. 360). [“The point of comparison here is not the cowardliness of the warriors, but the weakness and inability to offer any successful resistance into which the nation of the Assyrians, which was at other times so warlike, would be reduced through the force of the divine judgment inflicted upon Nineveh (compare Isa_19:16; Jer_1:3-7; Jer_6:30.”) Keil and Delitzsch.—C. E.]
The gates of thy land open spontaneously and without effort to thine enemies (Nah_3:12; comp. on Nah_2:7); fire consumes thy bars. The gates and bars of the land are probably the fortresses guarding the frontiers.
[Different views are possible concerning the reference of לאיביך. It can be connected with what precedes, and can be translated either: “thy people are women (through cowardice) in respect to the enemy” (J. D. Mich., Rück, Hölem.); or: “as touching thy people, the women, the lionesses (Nah_2:13), fall to the lot of the enemy (comp. Jdg_5:30). The latter translation, which I find in no interpreter, has some probability. The Masorites leave the matter undecided. Yet on rythmical grounds I have preferred the usual construction with what follows.]
[Keil: לְאֹיְבַיִךְ belongs to what follows, and is placed first, and pointed with Zakeph Katon for the sake of emphasis.—C. E.]
This remedilessness is further described by two peculiar apodoses, which are construed adversatively (though—yet), and whose protases are expressed in the imperative. On the use of the imperative in the protasis of conditional clauses, compare Ges., sec. 130, 2 b, 128, 2 c, and Rupert v. Deutz in Burck, p. 363.
First Antithesis, Nah_3:14-15 a, connecting with Nah_3:13. [Keil: Nah_3:14-19. In conclusion, the prophet takes away from the city so heavily laden with guilt the last prop to its hope,—namely, reliance upon its fortifications, and the numerical strength of its population.—C. E.]
Draw for thyself water of the (for the) siege water necessary for a long-continued siege—C. E.]: make strong thy bulwarks—prepare the brick-kiln, in order to burn bricks for the bulwarks: there, in the very midst of these preparations, shall the fire devour thee, the sword shall destroy thee as locusts [locusts is the nominative: as locusts destroy—C. E.] so resistless will be thy ruin.
The Second Antithesis, Nah_3:15 b–17, is connected with this last word by similarity of sound and association of ideas. Multiply thyself, if thou wilt; literally, make thyself a weight, a multitude, a swarm (comp. Nah_1:12), swarm abundantly. In the root כּבד, as in Nah_2:10, Nah_3:3, the signification of a multitude, and that of a burdensome multitude, is prominent (comp. Ecc_12:5). Multiply abundantly like the licking locusts, multiply thyself like the swarming locusts.ארבּה is a synonym of ילק (comp. Joel 1.), There follows, before the apodosis (Nah_3:17 c) is introduced, a parenthesis, with which it afterwards enters into construction: a parenthesis, in which the ironical summons just uttered is filled out, and its historical warrant exhibited.
Nah_3:16. Thou hast indeed multiplied thy merchants more than the stars of heaven. Taking into view the entire connection, it is not easy to understand this of merchants in the proper sense, as in Isa_23:3 f., Eze_27:3 f., but, according to Nah_3:4, of the despotic manner of trafficking in men as in merchandise, which is practiced by conquering hordes.
[Keil and Delitzsch: That Nineveh was a very rich commercial city may be inferred from its position, namely, just at the point where, according to oriental nations, the east and west meet together, and where the Tigris becomes navigable, so that it was very easy to sail from thence into the Persian Gulf; just as afterwards Mosul, which was situated opposite, became great and powerful through its widely-extended trade.—C. E.]
Besides Nah_3:17, the words which immediately follow show this: “The licking locusts enter to plunder (פשׁט used of hosts, Job_1:17; Jdg_9:33 f.), and fly away:i.e., thy armies were like swarms of locusts, which alighted on a country, laid it waste, and left it desolate,—a comparison without the particle of comparison, which is frequently the case (comp. on Hab_1:11)
[Keil and Delitzsch: “The meaning of this verse has been differently interpreted, according to explanation given to the verb pâshat. Many following the ὥρμησε and the expansus est of the LXX. and Jerome, give it the meaning, to spread out the wing; whilst Credner (on Joel, p. 295), Maurer, Ewald, and Hitzig take it in the sense of undressing one’s self, and understand it as relating to the shedding of the horny wing-sheaths of the young locusts. But neither the one nor the other of these explanations can be grammatically sustained. Pâshat never means anything else than to plunder, or to invade with plundering; not even in such passages as Hos_7:1; 1Ch_14:9; 1Ch_14:13, which Gesenius and Dietrich quote in support of the meaning, “to spread;” and the meaning forced upon it by Credner, of the shedding of the wing-sheaths of locusts, is perfectly visionary, and has merely been invented by him for the purpose of establishing his false interpretation of the different names given to the locusts in Joe_1:4. In the passage before us we cannot understand by the yelek, which “plunders and flies away” (pâshat vayyâ-ôph), the innumerable multitude of the merchants of Nineveh, because they were not able to fly away in crowds out of the besieged city. Moreover, the flying away of the merchants would be quite contrary to the meaning of the whole description, which does not promise deliverance from danger by flight, but threatens destruction. The yelek is rather the innumerable army of the enemy, which plunders everything, and hurries away with its booty.”
The statement of Keil that pâshat “never means anything else than to plunder,” is not sufficiently guarded. Compare Lev_6:4; Lev_16:23; Son_5:3; 1Sa_19:24; Ezekiel 26, 16; Eze_46:19, and Neh_4:17. A man does not plunder his clothes, when he takes them off.—C. E.]
Nah_3:17. Thy crowned heads, the vassal princes, with whose aid he undertook war, are like locusts, thy satraps (an Assyrian word; comp. Jer_51:27. Ges., Thes., and Strauss ad I.—Ols., sec. 198 c, considers also מִנְּזָרַיִךְ such; the dagesch forte euphonicum in the כ, though certainly unusual, is justified by the analogy of מִקּדשׁ (Exo_15:17), like swarms of locusts (the repetition indicates the numberless multitude, Ew. sec. 313; גובי is singular, Ols., sec. 216 d) which encamp in the walls in the time of cold, which deprives them of the power of flying, Hieron.: the sun arises, the encampment comes to an end, they fly away; and one knows not the place where they are. The catastrophe, although as an adversative apodosis it properly corresponds to Exo_15:10, is nevertheless described in immediate connection with the parenthetical filling up of the picture: the complete vanishing of the forces of the Assyrians, which could not take wing in the cold, in the calamity assailing their country, but which assembled in Nineveh, is compared to the vanishing of a swarm of locusts, which alight in the cool of the night, in order to continue their flight in the morning. They have vanished out of sight. Compare Zec_1:5; Psa_103:16. Where are they?
The Concluding Strophe, Nah_3:18 f., answers in elegiac strain: Thy shepherds, those who were appointed chief officers of the army (Mic_5:4 ff.) King of Assyria, have fallen asleep, the sleep of death (Psa_13:4 (3); Psa_76:6 (Psa_76:5): thy powerful ones are lying still (comp. Nah_2:6). Thy people (on the construction compare Ges. sec. 146, 1) are scattered (comp. Nah_3:17) upon the mountains, and no one gathers them. A beautiful contrast to Nah_2:12
Nah_3:19. There is no healing of thy fracture, thy ruin (comp. Pro_16:18), thy stroke is deadly (Jer_30:12). And no one grieves for it (comp. Nah_3:7): all who hear tidings of thee (comp. Isa_23:5; Hab_3:2) clap their hands, (comp. Zep_2:13 ff.) for over whom has not thy wickedness passed continually? Comp. Jon_1:2. The wickedness of which the Holy Scriptures, and now also the monuments testify: the audacious boast of cruelty and of the pitiless crushing of the nations exhibited in the inscriptions: in the sculptures, the rows of the impaled, the prisoners through whose lips rings were fastened, whose eyes were put out, who were flayed alive. Consequently it would be a joy to all nations to hear the voice of the messengers of the tyrant no more (Nahum 2:14), but to hear that of the messengers of his destruction.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL7
The prophecy of Nahum culminates in the words directly ascribed to God: Behold I come against thee. Both the contending powers, the plundering world-power and the just avenger, approach in mutual hostility. One must perish on the spot; and the place where Nineveh stood, has become void.
God is called in this contest Jehovah Sabaoth, the Lord of Hosts. This is not merely poetic diction. The name, which is not used in the Torah, is the usual one in the spiritual conflicts of Israel against heathenism, which were fought by the prophets. No doubt this points to the fact that Sabaoth is not to be interpreted in an external way as has been usual, so as to understand by it, with reference to Exo_7:4; Exo_12:41, the warriors of Israel, whom God led forth to battle.
The name enters more deeply into the nature of God. If that were the meaning, how does it come, that the name occurs, neither in the Pentateuch, which is acquainted with that signification of hosts, nor in the foreign battles in the time of the Judges immediately following that of the Pentateuch? The “hosts” are, according to the prevailing mode of speech, the host of heaven; the stars together with the celestial spirits gliding over them, by whom they are supposed to be in part inhabited. (Rödiger in Ges., Thes., 1140 a). [In Tomus Tertius of Ges. Thes., published in Leipzig, 1853, the reference is found in 1146 a.—C. E.].
To [the worship of] this heavenly host, the most perfect form of the Hither Asiatic, namely, of the Mesopotamian heathenism, was devoted (Deu_4:19; Deu_17:3). This highest form of the worship of Nature spread powerfully, and penetrated also into Israel, when it came in contact with the world-powers (2Ki_17:16; 2Ki_17:3). But even they [the hosts of heaven] are under the control of Jehovah (Jer_31:35), for He created them (Gen_2:1); the heavenly powers must at his command assist in fighting his holy battles (Jdg_5:20). It belonged to the function of the prophets to press this truth upon the conscience of the rebellious people (Jer_8:2) directly under the superior earthly power of the star-worshippers, which continued to loom up with increasing darkness. With this statement corresponds the prophetical name Jehovah Elohe Sabaoth, who is the only living One, and who is also Lord over the hosts of heaven. In harmony with this is the fact that the name seems to be preferred, where the subject treated of is the overthrow of the heathen powers. So in this passage.
God is a God of life, and grants to the nations their life. Therefore He kills him, who has made killing his business. He destroys the destroyer. The time is coming when He will destroy Anti-God, death himself, through whom the cut-throats of the earth have their power (Isa_25:8). God is a long-suffering God. He had also waited in Nineveh (Nah_1:3, compare the book of Jonah); but it did not cease from its robbery. This is what we might expect, for the root is poisoned: blood-guiltiness springs from idolatry. In the land, where the worship of God is observed, there is always a remnant, whose intercession delays judgment (Amos 7.); and who cannot perish with the wicked (Eze_14:14). But Nineveh, the world-power, is “all deceit”; it must, therefore, entirely Perish. Not on account of idolatry in itself would god have destroyed it, otherwise He would not have sent Jonah: his justice waited for the out break of murder. But after this has infected the whole city, after all its works have assumed the known heathen character, to put itself in the place of God, and to trample under foot the universal revelation of God, that deceit and murder are sins; after it had thus identified itself with the impious principle, its destruction must come.
For God’s judgment is revelation. In the fall the entire ignominy concealed by external glory, the rottenness of the powerful tree, the utterly forlorn condition, in which it for a long time already internally stood, whilst it was externally pressed, come to light. Then indeed the more unexpected the blow, the more certain: the nearer it advances, the more fearful and incurable.
Beck: The name Sabaoth represents God (Deu_10:17; 1Co_8:5; 1Ti_6:15), who goes as a man of war, against his and his people’s enemies (Exo_15:3), as the ruler with all fullness of power even within the highest sphere of life. This is the ruling thought, in the first place, in the prayer of Hannah, whose subsequent song of praise proves how her heart supported itself on the might and strength of God against the insolent power of the enemy; very frequently in the mouth of David, the soldier of God; also in Solomon’s, the prince of peace; in the warlike period of the kings, when the defenseless, enervated kingdom looked around for powerful allies, etc.
Compare also Oehler in Herzog’s Real-Encyc., xviii. 400 ff.
HOMILETICAL
Nah_2:12 to Nah_3:7. Hostility against God cannot be maintained. For—
1. It hinders God’s work. It is quarrelsome and lawless, but the world was made for peace, for order, and for life. (Nah_2:12-13 a, 14.)
2. It accumulates guilt, but God is a judge. (13 b, Nah_3:1 a.)
3. It does not rest until it has poisoned the whole man (and the entire community) and made him ripe for death. (Nah_3:1 b.)
4. It experiences no change for the better. (Nah_3:1 c.)
5. Its effort is to make itself equal to God, and God suffers no equal. (Nah_3:4-5.)
6. It estranges all from itself, and finds, therefore, neither consolation nor intercession. (Nah_3:7.)
Nah_3:18-19. There is no deliverance from the judgment of God. For—
1. Even the mightiest of the earth are as locusts before Him. (Nah_3:8-11; comp. Isa_40:22)
2. The more obstinately they resist, the more irresistible is the judgment. (Nah_3:12 ff.)
3. The larger and more numerous they are, the more utterly will they be destroyed. (15:100 ff.)
4. The time, after all, is coming, when God shall be all in all. (Nah_3:18 f.)
On Nah_2:12. God knows how to make an end of the greatest distress, in such a way as to astonish us.
Nah_3:13. As it comes so it goes. Unrighteous possessions cannot prosper.
Nah_3:14. Even fire and sword do not do their work without God. Where the voice of the evangelists (Nah_2:1) gains power, the voice of the messengers of sin becomes dumb.
Nah_3:1. Where there is still only a spark of faith, it furnishes us with hope against despair.
Nah_3:2 ff. Where a carcass is, there the eagles gather themselves together.
Nah_3:5. The greatest power does not long conceal secret shame. The more powerful an infamous man is for a long time, the profounder afterwards is his contempt.
Nah_3:6. God will make a gazing-stock, to be gazed at by all, of him who delights in vain pleasure.
Nah_3:7. It is a deplorable state of misery, when a heartless and haughty man falls into misfortune. He has not even a soul which laments it. Make to yourselves friends of the unrighteous Mammon.
Nah_3:8 ff. Men may not learn prudence by experience. Ninety-nine godless persons perish in their security, and the hundredth still thinks that his case is a special one, and relies on the same props, which, under others, have been irremediably broken.
Nah_3:11. The prudent man thinks that his prudence will help him through everywhere. But when God’s hand comes upon him, even the most prudent is bewildered, so that he acts like a drunken man. The more prudent derides him, and soon after fares the same way. To him, who has not learned to use everything, that he has, in the earnest service of God, nothing is of any advantage; in the hour of decision it forsakes him. When Christianity came, the bulwarks of heathen wisdom became subservient to it, and it employed them against the heathen. This is a hint for the Church in all times. It is always important to assault directly the strongholds of the ungodly: they cannot stand. He who ventures nothing wins nothing.
Nah_3:14. God does not need to wait for the unguarded moment of his enemy. He can crush him in the midst of his preparation. We have no occasion for anxiety, if Rome appears to be externally powerful.
Nah_3:15 ff. Should all men come en masse to thwart the work of God, they would still be like locusts before the Lord of Sabaoth.
Nah_3:18 f. All flesh perishes, but the Word of God endures forever. Alexander and Epicurus sleep, but Na-hum and Paul are living. When Jesus was in agony and his disciples slept and fled, then He bore the punishment, which was laid upon the world. But by his wounds we are made whole; the wounds of the world are incurable. A wicked man hurts no one so much as himself.
Luther: On Nah_3:1 f. God is very long-suffering and exercises great patience with our sins, whilst they are concealed. But if we are so utterly infatuated that such sins become notorious, and we continue in them without reserve, just as if we were acting well by such a course, then He cannot look upon them, but He punishes them.
Nah_3:4. I hold that the prophet uses here, in accordance with the usage of Scripture elsewhere, whoredom for idolatry, godless conduct, and contempt. As if he would say: Thy godless conduct is so great, and thou hast gone so far in it, that thou hast also associated many nations with thee. For this purpose also the King of Assyria had many godless teachers, whom he kept and supported, that they might increase such an ungodly way of life. He uses the word vendidit [sold] as Paul does in Rom_7:14. Nineveh enticed the nations to herself and was the cause of other heathen falling into such wicked practices and perishing.
Nah_3:8 f. The God, who delivered Judah, is even the same, who has said: not a hair shall fall from our head without his will.
Starke: Nah_2:12 f. The powerful should prove themselves like lions in good, but not in evil. It is a vain care, when parents are anxious only to be able to leave behind them great estates for their children.
Nah_3:14. As one treats the children of other people, in the same way must he generally expect his own to be treated.—Chap. 3 Nah_3:1. Where one does not cease from sinning, there God also cannot cease from punishing. Unpunished blood-guilt accelerates the destruction of a country.
Nah_3:5. Because the godless very soon and easily forget the divine threatenings, they mast be often repeated. The children of the world know how to conceal artfully their knavish tricks for a long time, but God uncovers them to their very great disgrace.
Nah_3:7. A true friend is known in trouble. Great rivers, good fields, safe harbors, gold and possessions do not insure the prosperity of a city. Legitimate alliances are allowable and useful (Gen_14:13; Gen_21:27; 1Ki_5:12), but unrighteous alliances are destructive.
Nah_3:10. When God punishes crimes He does not regard the person. Servitude and captivity are often more bitter than death. The sins of parents are often visited upon their children.
Nah_3:11. If a calamity is preached, one should not take refuge in fortresses, but in God, and exercise true repentance. The pious receive from the hand of God the cup of salvation and of joy (Psa_23:5), the ungodly the cap of wrath.
Nah_3:12. When the best fortifications are taken with little trouble, then we ought much more, in that case, to acknowledge the finger of God.
Nah_3:13. That which is built by the hand of man, the hand of man can also destroy. To be of good courage in trouble is also a gift of God, and no man can give it to himself.
Pfaff: On Nah_3:4. To sin ourselves certainly works damnation; but to lead others into it increases incomparably more the punishment.
Nah_3:7. The godless find consolation nowhere; for God, whom they have forsaken, is the only source of all true and abiding consolation.
Nah_3:12. When God’s judgments come, they come with power, and they cannot be prevented by any human foresight.
Rieger: On Nah_2:12 ff. God laughs at the wicked, whilst they are still powerful. Nineveh was still in its bloom, when He asked: Where is now the dwelling-place of the lions? Now be wise, therefore, ye kings, and be instructed, ye judges of the earth.—Chap. 3 Nah_3:1 ff. Before, the eye was never satisfied with objects, which, in a luxurious city, were arranged so as to prove allurements to all kinds of pleasure. But after a little while what an entirely different spectacle does it exhibit, when everything that fills the ear with terror, and the heart with the feeling of the wrath of God, displays itself.
Nah_3:5 ff. It is here, as if king, city, and kingdom stood themselves before the judgment-seat of the Lord of hosts and were obliged to listen to the decree of wrath proceeding from it, with all the appertaining records. What artifices does one often need in civil government, in a community, in a family, to conceal the real condition, to cover internal losses, in order to maintain external show? What will it be, when the Lord shall uncover all this low dealing and exhibit everything in its nakedness? When the hand of God comes upon one, then men begin to judge and to speak in a quite different way. On the part of men there may indeed be much unauthorized, joy at the misfortunes of another, but God, in the mean time however, uses it for his punishment
Nah_3:13 ff. How much ado is made when commerce and trade thrive, and when rich people, with great wealth, go to live in a city or country. But when the guiding principle of the fear of God is wanting, many strange sins are introduced along with them, and when those rich men should advise and help, they flee away. Also under the pretext of the common good they look out for themselves, and they are careful always to flee away with that which they aimed to procure.
Nah_3:18 ff. How many severe means has the Lord been obliged to employ to prevail upon men to rely no longer upon earth. Who then would stiffen his neck against Him, who has in such a signal manner broken others before us!
Hieronymus: On Nahum 2:14. O Nineveh, everything which is predicted thou wilt suffer from no other than me.
Schlier: Nah_3:4. By whoredom unfaithfulness toward Jehovah, from the nature of the case, is not intended; but the treacherous friendship of the great metropolis, by which, like a prostitute, she allured others to her and ensnared them by her witchcrafts, for the purpose of binding them with land and people to herself, and of deriving advantage from them. It is the treacherous friendship of the great metropolis, which makes herself the centre of the nations, on which all the world is dependent.
Schmieder: This characteristic recurs (Rev_18:3) in the description of the spiritual Babylon, which, by the fullness of the lust of the eye and the lust of the flesh and of all earthly possessions, produces the most excessive voluptuousness, and by every worldly charm and allurement turns away the hearts of men from God.
Hieronymus: Thou hast entangled all nations in thy net, I must then certainly come to destroy thee.
Footnotes:
[1][Nah_3:4.—ט֥וָבַת ח֖נ בַּֽעֲל֣ת כְּשָׁפִ֑יםִ, beautiful with grace, mistress of witchcrafts, i. e., devoted to them.
[2][Nah_3:8.—הֲתֵֽיטְבִי מִנּ֣אֹ אָמֹוֹן, Art thou better than No Amon? This was the Egyptian Thebes or Diospolis, the ancient and splendid metropolis of Upper Egypt, called by Homer ἑκατόμπυλος, Il., ix. 383. No according to Gesenius, signifies a measuring line, then part, portion measured: No Amon, therefore, signifies the portion of Amon, i. e. the possession of the god Amon, as the chief seat of his worship. Amon was the supreme god of the Egyptians, and worshipped at Thebes with great pomp. He is usually depicted, on Egyptian monuments, with a human body and the head of a ram; and the name is there written Amn, more fully Amn-Re, i. e., Amon-Sun. See Ges., Heb. Lex., s. v.
[3][—מִיַּם חֽוֹמָתַֽהּ, her wall was of the sea, i. e., consisting of the sea, formed by the sea.
[4][Nah_3:10, etc.—בְּר֣אֹשׁ, at the head, literally, head of the streets. Gesenius renders it head of the streets, corner. Lam_2:19.
[5][Nah_3:16.—פָּשַׁט, to invade for the purpose of plundering. Keil renders it: “The licker enters to plunder, and flies away.” The LXX.: βροῦχος ὥρμησεν καὶ ἐξεπετάσθη. The Vulgate: bruchus expansus est et avolavit. Luther: aber nun werden sie sich ausbreiten wie Kafer und davon fliegen. Kleinert: die Heuschrecken brachen ein und flogen davon.
[6][Nah_3:17.—בַּגְּדֵרוֹת, in the walls, or hedges. It is used to designate the wall of a city; also that of a vineyard. It signifies also an inclosure, a. fold for flocks. See Ges., גְּדֵרָה.—C. E.]
[7][Reichsgedanken, see note, Com. on Jonah, p. 20.—C. E.]
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv2–19 The reader is transported into the midst of the…
The reader is transported into the midst of the fight (compare Jer 47:3). The "noise of the whips" urging on the horses (in the chariots) is heard, and of "the rattling of the wheels" of war chariots, and the "horses" are seen "prancing," and the "chariots jumping," &c.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv1, 15, 18 A woe is pronounced upon the bloody city (Nah_3:1).…
NINEVEH’S VICES AND INEVITABLE DOOM, 1-19.
A woe is pronounced upon the bloody city (Nah_3:1). Her doom is inevitable and imminent (Nah_3:2-3), but it is well deserved and no one will bemoan her (Nah_3:4-7). Natural strength and resources will avail no more in her case than in the case of the Egyptian No Amon (Nah_3:8-11). In spite of her resources she will come to a terrible end, and the whole earth will rejoice because her power is departed from her (Nah_3:12-19).
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Nah_3:1
Nah_3:1 contains a woe upon the bloody city.
Bloody city — Literally, city of blood, that is, of bloodshed, of violence. Nineveh represents the whole nation, which was founded and held together by the sword. King after king glories in the cruelties committed against conquered nations. The words of Ashur-nasir-pal may serve as an illustration: “With combat and slaughter I attacked the city, I captured it; three thousand of their fighting men I slew with the sword. Their spoil, their goods, their oxen, their sheep I carried away. Their numerous captives I burned with fire. I captured many of the soldiers alive with the hand; I cut off the hands and feet of some; I cut off the noses, the fingers, and ears of others; the eyes of numerous soldiers I put out. I built up a pyramid of the living and a pyramid of heads.… Their young men and their maidens I burned.” A kingdom thus founded and maintained lacks the elements of permanency and sooner or later must go to pieces. The epithet “bloody” is explained in the rest of Nah_3:1.
Full of lies — Since the prophet is concerned primarily with external politics, the lies and deceit condemned here are such as were practiced against other nations, though it is not improbable that they flourished also in the intercourse of Assyrians with Assyrians.
Robbery — R.V., “rapine”; literally, tearing in pieces. A figure taken from the practice of the lion (Nah_2:11-12), that tears to pieces whatever falls into his power (Psa_7:2).
The prey departeth not — Not the prey taken, in the sense that it is always plentiful, but the prey-taking, that is, robbery and oppression, never ceases. It is the one policy Assyria carried out consistently from beginning to end.
Nah_3:2-3
Nah_3:2-3 picture the fulfillment of the woe. The hostile army attacks and takes Nineveh, a great slaughter ensues, and the city is filled with corpses. Nah_3:2 describes the noise of the onslaught: the cracking of the whips as the charioteers urge on the horses, the rattling of the wheels as they speed along, the prancing of the horses as they rage to and fro, and the bumping of the chariots as they rush wildly over the rugged roads, made less passable through obstacles placed in the way by the defenders. Instead of “the noise of a whip, and the noise of the rattling of the wheels,” we might translate, “Hark! the whip! and hark! the rattling of wheels!” (G.-K., 146b.) Nah_3:3 depicts the sights that meet the eye. The charge is progressing; nearer and nearer the enemy approaches; one can see distinctly his various movements. In 3a, R.V. is to be preferred; and the whole description becomes more vivid if “there is” is omitted whenever, as indicated by the italics, it is not in the original.
Mounting — Better, with R.V. margin, “charging”; literally, causing to ascend, that is, the horse; to urge it to greater speed. Seen are also the flashing swords and the glittering spears. Scenes representing charges of this sort are depicted on numerous reliefs in the palaces of Nineveh. The prophet describes the sequel with equal vividness. The defenders are slain; corpses are piled up in heaps; the victorious assailants stumble over them as they rush into the city.
Nah_3:4-7
The retribution is just; no one pities her, Nah_3:4-7.
Nah_3:4 contains a new denunciation, justifying the judgment announced in Nah_3:5-7. Nineveh is personified as a harlot.
Multitude of the whoredoms — The figure of faithlessness to the marriage relation, when applied to Israel, is used (1) of idolatry, (2) of alliances with other nations, both being evidences of faithlessness to and lack of confidence in Jehovah. Applied to other nations it denotes improper political or commercial intercourse (Isa_23:17). Nahum, in this passage, refers not to idolatry or falling away from the true God, nor to protective alliances or commercial intercourse, but, as Hitzig has so well said, to “the treacherous friendship and statecraft with which the coquette in her search for conquests ensnared the smaller states.”
The well-favored harlot — Not, the one receiving special favors, but “beautiful,” “good-looking.” “Beauty and charm is a point in the harlot.” With her splendor and brilliancy Nineveh dazzled and ensnared the nations.
Mistress of witchcrafts — In this connection the expression does not denote black arts, but “the secret wiles which, like magical arts, do not come to the light in themselves, but only in their effects” (compare 2Ki_9:22). By means of these crafty and treacherous dealings Assyria made easy victims of the other nations.
Nations… families — Synonymous expressions denoting the nations conquered by Assyria (Amo_3:1).
Selleth — Is used here not of selling into bondage or slavery to other nations, but in the general sense of robbing of liberty, making tributary, or in the sense of consigning to ruin (Deu_32:30; Est_7:4). A similar verb in Arabic means “ensnare,” “beguile,” and this meaning is given by several commentators to the verb in this passage.
5-7. Jehovah cannot overlook this treacherous conduct.
I am against thee — See Nah_2:13. The punishment will be according to the lex talionis. The part of a harlot she has acted, the fate of a harlot she must endure.
Discover — R.V., “uncover.”
Thy skirts — I will remove the skirts which form the covering of the body, and which by their gaudiness have added much to her attractiveness.
Upon thy face — Or, over; so that the skirts are drawn over the face. Margin renders, “before thy face.” She must look on as she is exposed naked to the curious gaze of the bystanders. The same picture is found several times in the Old Testament (Jer_13:26; Isa_47:3; Hos_2:10); it may be borrowed from an ancient custom of exposing a harlot or adulteress in public (Eze_16:37-40).
As she stands exposed she will be subjected to indignities of every sort.
Abominable filth — Literally, abhorrence, or objects of abhorrence, applied quite frequently to idols; hence Kleinert interprets the threat as equivalent to “I will bury thee underneath thy idols” (compare Nah_1:14); but it should be understood here in a more general sense of things that one views with abhorrence and disgust, dirt and filth. To throw these upon a person is a sign of greatest contempt.
Make thee vile — The same verb is translated in Mic_7:6, “dishonor”; it means to accord contemptuous treatment, to insult (Jer_14:21). Hitzig, deriving it from a different root, translates “cast carcass upon.”
Set thee as a gazingstock — Literally, a sight. The treatment accorded by Jehovah will be so startling that the eyes of all who see it will be fixed upon her in malicious joy (Eze_28:17-18; compare Mat_1:19; 1Co_4:9). The picture will be so awful that the on-lookers will be horror-struck and flee in terror. In 7b the figure of the harlot is interpreted as applying to Nineveh. Without pity and sympathy she must go to her ruin.
Nah_3:8-11
The fate of No Amon is to be the fate of Nineveh, Nah_3:8-11.
Nineveh may boast in her strong defenses, but they will not save her. No Amon in Egypt was the equal of Nineveh in this respect, yet she suffered inglorious defeat. Nineveh can expect no better fate.
Art thou better — Better protected or fortified; or, “shalt thou be better?”
that is, shalt thou have a better fate?
Populous No — Better, R.V., “No-amon,” that is, No of the god Amon. No is the Old Testament name of Thebes, the capital of Upper Egypt (Jer_46:25; Eze_30:14), whose chief deity was Amon. It was a prominent city from very early times, and for many centuries it was the center of Egyptian civilization and power, until, in the seventh century, it fell before the Assyrian invaders. Its final capture by Ashurbanapal is in the mind of the prophet (see p. 429). The rest of Nah_3:8 describes the location of the city.
Among the rivers — The city proper lay on the eastern banks of the Nile, here about fifteen hundred feet wide. The noun is used ordinarily of the Nile; the plural might be explained as a plural of majesty, “the great river”; but it seems better to take it as including the canals receiving the water from the Nile (Exo_7:19).
Waters round about — The Nile and the canals surrounded the city, thus forming a natural defense. Perhaps moats formed a part of the fortifications, as in the case of Nineveh.
Whose rampart was the sea — This translation presupposes a slight change in the original. The “sea” is the Nile which, during its overflow, resembles a sea (compare Isa_18:2; Isa_19:5; Jer_51:36).
Her wall was from the sea — R.V., “of the sea,” that is, consisted of the sea, which would have to be understood again of the Nile but the construction is peculiar. LXX., with a very slight change, reads, “and waters were her wall,” which is to be preferred. Some consider, though on insufficient ground, the description unsuitable for Thebes; hence No Amon has been identified with Memphis and several cities in the Delta.
Nah_3:8 describes the natural strength of the city; Nah_3:9 points to her military resources.
Ethiopia — See on Zep_2:12.
Egypt — At the time No Amon was threatened, Ethiopia and Egypt were one under an Ethiopian dynasty, so that the military strength of both might be summoned to the defense of Egypt.
Infinite — Literally, without end (Nah_2:9; Nah_3:3; Isa_2:7).
Put and Lubim — The latter are the Libyans, the people settled west of Lower Egypt, who had succeeded in securing a strong foothold in the Delta itself. Put is mentioned several times in the Old Testament (Gen_10:6; Eze_27:10; Eze_38:5), but opinions differ as to its location. It has been identified with the Egyptian Punt, corresponding to the modern Abyssinian and Somali coast in Eastern Africa, a country to which Egyptian kings undertook expeditions (see on Zep_3:10). Against this identification it has been urged that this district never supplied Egypt with soldiers, which assertion can neither be proved nor disproved. LXX. sometimes translates “Libyans”; for this reason, and because sometimes the two are named together, some hold that they are closely connected. Put has been thought to denote all the peoples west of Lower Egypt, while the Libyans, in the narrower sense, were the tribes immediately west of the Delta; others make Put a distinct tribe west of Libya. Other identifications, which have found some support in an inscription of Nebuchadnezzar, make Put an island of the Mediterranean or the coast of Asia Minor, whence later Egyptian kings secured mercenaries.
Thy helpers — Whatever the exact location of Put, it, with Libya, furnished soldiers for the defense of Thebes. LXX. and other ancient versions read “her helpers,” which, in parallelism with “her strength,” is preferable.
10. In spite of her natural strength and her limitless resources No Amon fell (p. 429), and her treasures were carried to Assyria.
Her young children also were dashed in pieces — A barbarous custom, not uncommon in ancient warfare (Hos_13:16; Isa_13:16); another cruel practice was to rip up pregnant women (Amo_1:13; Hos_13:16), in order to exterminate all male children, and thus prevent future revolts. The “top” or “head” of the streets (Isa_51:20) is probably the place where several streets meet, the public square, where many might see the execution.
Cast lots for her honorable men — The captured nobles were distributed as slaves (see on Joe_3:3; Oba_1:11).
Her great men were bound in chains — The inscription of Ashurbanapal states that his commanders in Egypt “captured the rebellious kings and laid their hands and feet in iron chains and iron bonds.”
11. As Thebes with all her magnificence and splendor became a heap of ruin, so Nineveh must fall under the angry blows of Jehovah.
Be drunken — From the deep draught she must take from the cup of Jehovah’s wrath (Hab_2:16; Oba_1:16). A figure of stupefaction caused by calamity (Isa_51:17 ff.).
Shalt be hid — So that no one can see a trace of her. Nineveh will be reduced to nothing, will vanish completely (Nah_1:8; Nah_2:11; Oba_1:16). Some render, “thou shalt be shrouded in darkness,” that is, shalt swoon or faint, as a result of the powerful draught (Isa_51:20). Either interpretation gives acceptable sense.
Shalt seek strength — R.V., “a stronghold.” As the enemy presses nearer she will seek protection and shelter, but in vain; she, like No Amon, will be utterly ruined? Nah_3:12-19
Vain struggles of Nineveh, Nah_3:12-19.
The description of the hopeless struggle begins with Nah_3:11; but it seems better to regard that verse as the concluding portion of the preceding section, threatening Nineveh with a fate similar to that of No Amon. Desperate efforts are made to save the city, but all in vain. Rapidly the enemy advances, and the city goes down before him; all the earth rejoices over her downfall. 12. The fortresses throughout the land fall almost without a blow. Strongholds [“fortresses”] — Not the fortifications of Nineveh, but the strongholds scattered throughout the land to protect the capital.
Like fig trees — The tertium comparationis is the ease with which they are taken. It requires only a feeble shaking, and down come the figs (Isa_28:4); so it requires only a feeble assault and the fortresses capitulate, and the cowardly defenders become an easy prey.
First-ripe figs — See on Hos_9:10.
13. The news of the resistless advance of the invader causes consternation everywhere, even in the capital.
In the midst of thee — In Nineveh.
Thy people… are women — The people, including the soldiers, are so terrified by the approach of the enemy that strength and courage fail them; they become feeble like women. The Assyrians were considered the most warlike nation of the time; the transformation is therefore the more startling. The figure is not uncommon in the Old Testament (compare Isa_19:16; Jer_50:37; Jer_51:30), and it is found also in the inscriptions. In Nah_3:13 b the prophet reiterates the cause of the terror. The tenses of R.V. are to be preferred.
The gates of thy land shall be set [“are”] wide open — The entrance into the land and the roads to the capital. These were barred by strongholds and fortresses (Nah_3:12), but since the latter have fallen the gates are wide open and the enemy can advance unhindered.
Fire shall devour [“hath devoured”] thy bars — Bars prevent the entrance into fortified towns (see on Amo_1:5); here the term seems to be used metaphorically of the fortresses themselves (Jer_51:30), which are intended to bar the way to the capital.
With these burned, so that the enemy can advance unhindered, a siege is inevitable; the prophet urges the people in Nah_3:14 to make preparations for it. One cannot fail to see the irony of the appeal, for the prophet immediately proceeds to make plain that all efforts will be futile.
Draw thee waters for the siege — In a prolonged siege the ordinary water supply may prove insufficient; for this emergency they are to prepare themselves by storing up water. Billerbeck, on the basis of Assyrian representations (compare, for example, Layard, Nineveh and Its Remains, 2:32), thinks that the water was to be used in the defense, to be poured, perhaps boiling, upon the heads of the assaulters. That this was one means of defense is quite probable; that the illustration in Layard or the expression in Nahum refers to it is more than doubtful.
Fortify thy strongholds — R.V., “strengthen thy fortresses.” Improve the fortifications, the towers, walls, etc. How this is to be done is stated in the rest of the verse.
Clay,… mortar — Since it was exceedingly difficult to secure stone for building purposes, brick, sometimes burned, more often only sun-dried, was used as a common building material in Assyria, even in the construction of fortifications; and the excavations have shown that brick was used very extensively in the fortifications of Nineveh. The people are urged to make bricks, for the strengthening of the defenses already existing, for the erection of new ones, and for the repairing of possible breaches. The two exhortations are practically identical in meaning (Isa_41:25); they are to tread the clay of which the bricks are to be made, so as to prepare it for the brickmaker.
Make strong the brickkiln — Should be translated with margin R.V., “lay hold of the brick mold” (2Sa_12:31); having prepared the clay, they are to make the bricks.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv1–19 1. bloody city] Eze_24:9. In ancient states the capital…
1. bloody city] Eze_24:9. In ancient states the capital was virtually the kingdom, and to Nineveh are here ascribed all the characteristics of the Assyrian monarchy. The cruelties perpetrated by the Assyrians were shocking. Captive princes who had offered resistance in defence of their country were shut up in cages and exposed to the gaze of the populace; the heads of those already executed were hung round the necks of those still living; and others were flayed alive. The Assyrians appear to have been the most ruthless people of antiquity. See cut representing impaled captives, Layard, Nineveh, II. 369, and Tiele’s chap. on the revolt of Shamas-sum-ukin; comp. also Sayce, Assyria; its princes &c. p. 127 ff. On the other hand they were not incapable of acts of magnanimity, an example of which was Assurbanipal’s pardon of the rebellious Egyptian princes whom his father Esarhaddon had raised to the throne. See his own words, Winckler, Altorient. Untersuch., I. pp. 104, 105.
full of lies and robbery] Robbery means “rending” or tearing in pieces (Psa_7:2), the figure of the lion (ch. Nah_2:11) being perhaps still retained, while “lies” rather deserts the figure, and refers to the false and overreaching state-craft of Nineveh (ch. Nah_3:4), though possibly the subtlety of the wild beast might be alluded to.
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The prey departeth not] “Prey” may be less the thing caught than the act or habit of catching—this prey taking is unceasing; cf. Jer_17:8 last clause.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 8, 11, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19 (1) Woe to the bloody city!—Better, O bloody city!…
(1) Woe to the bloody city!—Better, O bloody city! She is altogether deceit, filled with crime: she ceases not from plunder.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv1–19 Vers. 1-19. Part III THE CAUSE OF THE JUDGMENT…
Vers. 1-19. Part III THE CAUSE OF THE JUDGMENT SINS OF THE CITY, WHICH BRING INEVITABLE PUNISHMENT.
Vers. 1-7. The prophet specifies the crimes which have brought this ruin upon Nineveh.
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The bloody city; literally, city of bloods, where Mood is shed without scruple. (comp. Eze_24:6, 9 Hab_2:12) The cruelty of the Assyrians is attested by the monuments, in which we see or read how prisoners were impaled alive, flayed, beheaded, dragged to death with ropes passed through rings in their lips, blinded by the king"s own hand, hung up by hands or feet to die in slow torture (see Bonomi, pp. 168, etc., 190, etc., 225). Others have their brains beaten out, or their tongues torn out by the roots, while the bleeding heads of the slain are tied round the necks of the living, who are reserved for further torture (Layard, "Nineveh and Babylon," p. 456; Rawlinson, "Ancient Monarchies," 2:503, etc., edit. 1864). The royal inscriptions recount with exultation the number of the enemies slain and of captives carried away, cities levelled with the ground, plundered, and burnt, lands devastated, fruit trees destroyed, etc. It is all full of lies; olh qeudhv , "all lie" (Septuagint). The Assyrians used treachery in furthering their conquests, made promises which they never kept, to induce nations to submit to their yoke. Such, doubtless, were those of Rabshakeh. (Isa_36:16) Rawlinson, "Falsehood and treachery... are often employed by the strong, as furnishing short cuts to success, and even, where the moral standard is low, as being in themselves creditable (see Thucyd., 3:83). It certainly was not necessity which made the Assyrians covenant breakers; it seems to have been in part the wantonness of power because they "despised the cities, and regarded no man"; (Isa_33:8) perhaps it was in part also their imperfect moral perception, which may have failed to draw the proper distinction between craft and cleverness" ("Ancient Monarchies," 1:305). Robbery; rather, rapine, or rending in pieces. The figure applies to the way in which a wild beast kills its prey by tearing it to pieces. So the three crimes of Nineveh here enumerated are bloodshed, deceit, and violence. In the uncertainty concerning the word (pereq). rendered "robbery," which only occurs m Oba_1:14, where it means "crossway," the LXX translates, adikiav plhrhv , "full of unrighteousness." The Vulgate is correct, dilaceratione plena. The prey departeth not. They go on in the same way, gathering spoil into the city, never ceasing from this crime. The monuments continually record the booty that was brought to Nineveh. (see, for instance, the "Annals of Assurbanipal," passim; "Records of the Past," vol. 9.; Schrader, "Keilinschr.," 195, etc., 216, 233, etc.; comp. Isa_33:1) Septuagint, Ou qhlafhyhsetai yhra , which gives a sense contradictory to the text, "Prey shall not be handled.
Vers. 1-7. Woe to Nineveh.
I THREATENED. (Ver. 1)
1. By the prophet. Jonah (Jon_3:4) had once before announced the destruction of the Assyrian capital, which threatening, however, was averted by the repentance of its inhabitants; Nahum"s prediction was literally fulfilled, because Nineveh in due time filled up the measure of its iniquities.
2. In the name of God. Had Nineveh"s doom been pronounced only by Nahum"s lips, it had been harmless; but Nahum was the mouthpiece of Jehovah, who already had declared himself against the great and wicked, (Nah_2:13) and a second time repeats the fact, "Behold, I am against thee, saith the Lord of hosts" (ver. 5). There is a wide difference between God"s threatenings and man"s.
II DEPICTED. (Vers. 2, 3)
1. The advance of a hostile force. "The noise of the whip of charioteers urging on their steeds, and the noise of the rattling of wheels of war chariots in motion, and prancing horses i.e. horses leaping up and starting forward as they feel the spurs dug into their sides, and jumping chariots i.e. springing up as they dash along the rugged ground.
2. The attack upon the city. "The horseman mounting or, "charging," i.e. causing his steed to leap up and advance against the city; and the flashing sword and the glittering spear; "rather than" the horseman lifteth up the bright sword and the glittering spear" (Authorized Version).
3. The appearance after battle. "A multitude of slain, and a great heap of carcases." So numerous, indeed, are the fallen, that "there is none end of the corpses, and they," the Medo-Babylonian invaders, "stumble upon their corpses," i.e. the dead bodies of the Assyrians.
III JUSTIFIED. (Vers. 1, 4) By the character of Nineveh.
1. A city of blood; literally," of bloods," i.e. of bloodshed or murder, alluding to the barbarous and inhuman character of her warfare.
2. A city of deceit. Referring to the vain promises of protection with which she beguiled the nations to put their trust in her promises which she never kept any more than did Egypt.
3. A city of oppression. "The prey departeth not." She is never done rending in pieces and tearing some nation or people.
4. A city of seductions. A city of witchcrafts, the prophet comparing her brilliance and prosperity by which she fascinated surrounding powers and secretly drew them to seek her favour, to the grace and beauty with which a harlot attracts and bewitches passers by.
IV EMPHASIZED. (Vers. 5, 6) By Jehovah, who declares that her doom will be:
1. Certain; since he, Jehovah, is against her: "Behold, I am against thee, saith the Lord of hosts.
2. Shameful; since he will treat her, not as a chaste matron, but as a polluted harlot, whose skirts are thrown above her head, that her person may be exposed. (Isa_47:3 Jer_13:22 Eze_16:37-41 Hos_2:3)
3. Visible; since he will cause the nations to see her nakedness, and the kingdoms to behold her shame.
V ATTESTED. (Ver. 7) By two things.
1. The horror of the nations. "It shall come to pass that all they that look upon thee shall flee from thee." Not so much in disgust (KeiI) as in terror; (Eze_31:16) of. the effect produced by the fall of Tyre, (Eze_26:21 Eze_27:35) and of the mystical Babylon. (Rev_18:10)
2. The absence of helpers. Her fate was so richly deserved that no one interposed to ward off the stroke. In her hour of sorrow no one bewailed her; in her moment of weakness no one assisted her. (Isa_51:19)
Learn:
1. That greater woes have been pronounced against sinners in general than were uttered against Nineveh read the woes of Christ in the Gospels. (Mat_23:13, Mat_23:14, 15 26:24 Luk_6:24, Luk_6:25, 26 11:42, 46)
2. That these woes will no more fail in their fulfilment than did those directed against Nineveh. God"s word never returns to him void. (Isa_55:11)
3. That God"s judgments upon the wicked will eventually vindicate themselves in all men"s eyes as just. "Salvation and honour and power,". (Rev_19:1, Rev_19:2)
HOMILIES BY S.D. HILMAN Vers. 1-7. The guilt and ruin of Nineveh.
We have here
I A MOURNFUL REVELATION OF NATIONAL GUILT AND DEPRAVITY. (Vers. 1, 4) The Assyrians are here charged with:
1. Unrighteous war. (Ver. 1) There may be times in a nation"s history when war becomes a dire necessity; but all war prompted, not by the desire to defend against unworthy aggression, but by unholy ambition, aggrandizement, lust of conquest and glory, deserves the severest reprobation. And such were the wars of the Assyrians, and which secured to their capital the unenviable appellation here used, "the bloody city," i.e. "city of bloods," founded and built up by strife and bloodshed.
2. Cunning craftiness. "It is all full of lies" (ver. 1). It gained its unrighteous ends by deceit. Like "the strange woman" (ver. 4), who bedecks herself in showy attire, puts on winsome manners, and resorts to bewitching arts, in order to attract, and then conducts her victim to the very "chambers of death," so Assyria, under show of friendship, brought other powers under her yoke, and effected their overthrow. With cunning craftiness she lay in wait to deceive, so as to enrich herself at the expense of others.
3. Continuous spoliation. "It is full of robbery" (ver. 1); "The prey departeth not" (ver. 1). Nineveh was great in barbaric splendour, and abounded in costly treasures; but this was secured by spoils taken in war and by tribute extorted from feebler nations unable to resist her encroachments; by robbery she thus continually made additions to her stores. This iniquity was perpetrated despite professed penitence and reformation resulting from the ministry of Jonah; and now the cup was full. Hence we have
II A SOLEMN DECLARATION OF IMPENDING DIVINE JUDGMENT RESULTING IN NATIONAL RUIN AND SHAME. Observe:
1. The intimate connection, between the sin and the shame. "Because of," etc. (ver. 4). The war so graphically described (vers. 2, 3) was declared by the prophet as the outcome of the national guilt.
2. The marked retributive nature of the Divine judgment.
(1) Assyria had delighted in war: by war she should fall (vers. 2, 3).
(2) She had practised deceit: her real character should be exposed to her confusion and disgrace (ver. 5).
(3) She had triumphed over other nations, and in her victory had shown no consideration towards the vanquished: she should herself now be humiliated, and be made a gazing stock (ver. 6).
(4) She had blasphemed the God of Israel: now he would be against her, and would bring all this ruin upon her (vers. 5, 6).
3. The entire absence of sympathy towards her in her reverses. (Ver. 7) No regret should be felt at her fall. No sympathy should be expressed. From her shades men should flee (ver. 7). She should be thought of only as a beacon and a warning point a moral!" She should be utterly, "desolate off" and "laid waste" (ver. 7). This is the end of evil. S.D.H. (Job_18:17 Job_27:23 Pro_10:7 Ecc_8:10 Jer_17:13)
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv10, 17 Yet was she carried away, she went into captivity.
Nah_3:10
Yet was she carried away, she went into captivity.
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Environments
These were certainly close environments; but whence had they come? From still closer ones, like those of pride and enervating habits among a luxurious people; from neglect of the higher demands of the spiritual life; from living too much on the lower plane, which prophets in all ages have warned against. It did not require miraculous power then to discern what causes would be sure to produce disintegration of a city or nation. It does not require any superhuman gift to-day. Every clear seeing mind knows that dissipation will make nations and individuals weak and easily overcome. Certain courses will tend to strengthen and fortify; opposite courses will produce final disaster. There is no power enduring and sufficient but the power of the Spirit; and if this be neglected there remains, of course, nothing with which to repel invasions. This is true of a single individual, or of many united. Not the force from without, but the weakness within, should cause apprehension. We have often seen good work done in overcoming environments. Hard, crushing, discouraging environments do not hinder brave spirits. There have been crises in the worlds history when the massed power of dauntless spirit has finally swept away seemingly immovable environment. It is not in the nature of our surroundings to hold us caged for ever, or even for this life. There are no chains for the free spirit. Let us beware of the chains of pride, resentment, envy, of criticism and complaint, and break those that we can break. (Mrs. E. M. Hickok.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On v8 We turn now to the date of the Book,…
3. THE DATE OF CHAPTERS 2 AND 3
We turn now to the date of the Book, apart from this prologue. It was written after a great overthrow of the Egyptian Thebes {Nah_3:8-10} and when the overthrow of Nineveh was imminent. Now Thebes had been devastated by Assurbanipal about 664 (we know of no later overthrow), and Nineveh fell finally about 607. Nahum flourished, then, somewhere between 664 and 607. Some critics, feeling in his description of the fall of Thebes the force of a recent impression, have placed his prophesying immediately after that, or about 660. But this is too far away from the fall of Nineveh. In 660 the power of Assyria was unthreatened. Nor is 652, the year of the revolt of Babylon, Egypt, and the princes of Palestine, a more likely date. For although in that year Assyrian supremacy ebbed from Egypt never to return, Assurbanipal quickly reduced Elam, Babylon, and all Syria. Nahum, on the other hand, represents the very center of the empire as threatened. The land of Assyria is apparently already invaded. {Nah_3:13, etc.} Nineveh, if not invested, must immediately be so, and that by forces too great for resistance. Her mixed populace already show signs of breaking up. Within, as without, her doom is sealed. All this implies not only the advance of an enormous force upon Nineveh, but the reduction of her people to the last stage of hopelessness. Now, as we have seen, Assyria proper was thrice overrun. The Scythians poured across her about 626, but there is no proof that they threatened Nineveh. A little after Assur-banipals death in 625, the Medes under King Phraortes invaded Assyria, but Phraortes was slain and his son Kyaxares called away by an invasion of his own country. Herodotus says that this was after he had defeated the Assyrians in a battle and had begun the siege of Nineveh (1:103) but before he had succeeded in reducing the city. After a time he subdued or assimilated the Scythians, and then investing Nineveh once more, about 607, in two years he took and destroyed her.
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To which of these two sieges by Kyaxares are we to assign the Book of Nahum? Hitzig, Kuenen, Cornill, and others incline to the first on the ground that Nahum speaks of the yoke of Assyria as still heavy on Judah, though about to be lifted. They argue that by 608, when King Josiah had already felt himself free enough to extend his reforms into Northern Israel, and dared to dispute Nechos passage across Esdraelon, the Jews must have been conscious that they had nothing more to fear from Assyria, and Nahum could hardly have written as he does in Nah_1:13, "I will break his yoke from off thee and burst thy bonds in sunder." But this is not conclusive, for first, as we have seen, it is not certain that Nah_1:13 is from Nahum himself, and second, if it be from himself, he might as well have written it about 608 as about 625, for he speaks not from the feelings of any single year, but with the impression upon him of the whole epoch of Assyrian servitude then drawing to a close. The eve of the later siege as a date from the book is, as Davidson remarks, "well within the verge of possibility," and some critics prefer it because in their opinion Nahums descriptions thereby acquire greater reality and naturalness. But this is not convincing, for if Kyaxares actually began the siege of Nineveh about 625, Nahums sense of the amminence of her fall is perfectly natural. Wellhausen indeed denies that earlier siege. "Apart from Herodotus," he says, "it would never have occurred to anybody to doubt that Nahums prophecy coincided with the fall of Nineveh." This is true, for it is to Herodotus alone that we owe the tradition of the earlier siege. But what if we believe Herodotus? In that case, it is impossible to come to a decision as between the two sieges. With our present scanty knowledge of both, the prophecy of Nahum suits either equally well.
Fortunately it is not necessary to come to a decision. Nahum, we cannot too often insist, expresses the feelings neither of this nor of that decade in the reign of Josiah, but the whole volume of hope, wrath, and just passion of vengeance which had been gathering for more than a century and which at last broke into exultation when it became certain that Nineveh was falling. That suits the eve of either siege by Kyaxares. Till we learn a little more about the first siege and how far it proceeded towards a successful result, perhaps we ought to prefer the second. And of course those who feel that Nahum writes not in the future but the present tense of the details of Ninevehs overthrow, must prefer the second.
That the form as well as the spirit of the Book of Nahum is poetical is proved by the familiar marks of poetic measure-the unusual syntax, the frequent absence of the article and particles, the presence of elliptic forms and archaic and sonorous ones. In the two chapters on the siege of Nineveh the lines are short and quick, in harmony with the dashing action they echo.
As we have seen, the text of chapter 1 is very uncertain. The subject of the other two chapters involves the use of a number of technical and some foreign terms, of the meaning of most of which we are ignorant. There are apparently some glosses; here and there the text is obviously disordered. We get the usual help, and find the usual faults, in the Septuagint; they will be noticed in the course of the translation.
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On vv1, 5, 8, 10, 14, 19 CRITICAL NOTES.] The prophet resumes his description of the…
CRITICAL NOTES.] The prophet resumes his description of the siege. Blood] Drops of blood shed in murder [Keil]. Lies] Vain promises of help. Depart.] Ceases not to plunder.
Nah_3:2. Noise] In the charges of war-cars. “This passage is unrivalled by any other, either in sacred or profane literature” [Hend.]. Riders dash along, the flame of the sword, the flash of the lance, and the multitude of the slain, depict the attack and its consequences.
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Nah_3:4. Whoredoms] The reason of the punishment; not idolatry but selfishness, which under the guise of love sought the gratification of lust: the crafty policy to ensnare other States. Selleth] i.e. rob nations of liberty, bring them into bondage or make them tributary (Deu_32:30; Jdg_2:14).
HOMILETICS
GREAT WICKEDNESS.—Nah_3:1
The prophet in this chapter repeats and confirms the total ruin of Nineveh, because of cruel oppression and blood. The wickedness of the city is set forth in terrible aspects.
1. Cruel murder. “The bloody city.” Its prosperity was tainted with blood. Unrighteous war, oppression of the poor, and manifold bloodshedding are the indictment. “Woe to him that buildeth a town with blood, and stablisheth a city by iniquity!”
II. Treacherous dealing. “It is all full of lies and robbery.” Lies in word and act. Deceit with man, and hyprocrisy before God. Robbery linked with lies, secret treachery and open violence. Full of wickedness. Integrity and truth banished from them, and none upright for whose sake God might spare the city.
III. Constant rapine. “The prey departeth not.” She never ceased, but continued to make a prey upon others. They neither repented nor grew weary of iniquity. Avarice grew more intense, lusts were daily fed, and like a beast they tore in pieces and greedily fed upon their prey. God specially marks and denounces woe upon those who persevere in wicked courses. “Arise, go to Nineveh that great city, and cry against it: for their wickedness is come up before me.”—
“Who, stung by glory, rave and bound away,
The world their field and humankind their prey” [Young].
GREAT JUDGMENTS AND GREAT SINS.—Nah_3:2-4
The sentence is enlarged, and the woe explained. Terrible are the preparations of the enemy, and the noise of chariots and horsemen sounds already in the ears. The city is filled with the dead, and the judgments of God are severe.
I. Great sins. “Because of the multitude of the whoredoms,” &c.
1. Bewitching other nations. “The mistress of witchcraft.” As harlots try to dement and ensnare by incantations, so Nineveh sought to draw others to her by subtle machinations. The love of gain acts on multitudes like “witchcraft.” They seduce others, hunt after men in excessive lust, and lead them into idolatry and estrangement from God.
2. Enslaving other nations. “That selleth nations.” They have no scruples in the use of unlawful means to get power and subdue others beneath their feet. Art and politics, religion and wealth, were used to make the city great and universal.
3. Selfish aggrandizement. All her skill and artifice in ill-doing were employed to gratify the desire of supremacy. Selfishness is often dressed in love to accomplish its own ends. Religion is made subservient to worldly aims; devilish arts enslave man and offend God. Domestic sanctities are violated, the rights of men are trampled down, and justice is outraged. “Such ambition,” says Sir Walter Scott, “breaks the ties of blood, forgets the obligations of manhood.”
II. Great judgments. Men may glory in skill, increase in power, and pursue wickedness, but God will have a reckoning with them. “Because of the multitude,” &c.
1. Judgments are prepared. “The noise of a whip, and the noise of the rattling of the wheels, and of the prancing horses,” &c. Military preparations are great: a formidable army is advancing against the city with irresistible speed and power. The judgments of God are (a) numerous, (b) ready for execution, and (c) will come with overwhelming speed. When sins are small, God is often patient and long-suffering; but when they become notorious and we continue in them, then God will punish them.
2. Judgments experienced. Before, all was beautiful and arranged to allure in the city, but now how different the scene! Everything fills the ear with terror, and the heart with sadness.
(1) The dead innumerable. Death follows death in rapid succession, “and there is a multitude of slain, and a great number of carcases.”
(2) The dead in every form. They are slain, and the bodies are carcases, corpses, an oppressive number, without end.
(3) The dead causing the living to stumble. So great the multitude of those who perish, that they lie, a hindrance in every street. “They stumble upon their corpses”—sad scene! an awful warning to others. “To fill them with the dead bodies of men, whom I have slain in mine anger and in my fury, and for all whose wickedness I have hid my face from this city” (Jer_33:5).
HOMILETIC HINTS AND SUGGESTIONS
Nah_3:1. Filled with deceit. Great cities often great centres of wickedness. Notice,
1. The wickedness, (a) deceit, (b) violence, and (c) blood. God would not have destroyed it on account of idolatry or he would not have sent Jonah: his justice waited for the outbreak of greater violence and impious deeds.
2. The degree of this wickedness. “It is all full of lies.” “She is wholly made up of fraud and falsehood, mendaciorum loquacissima; no truth in her private contracts, no trust in her public transactions and capitulations with other nations; be they never so solemnly confirmed, yet had they no longer force with them than stood with their own profit” [Trapp].
Nah_3:2. Here we have,
1. The attack. Eager and furious. Noise of whip, rattling of wheels, &c.
2. The results of the attack. Tremendous slaughter, dead bodies everywhere. “Let those,” says an old writer, “that refuse to hear God’s sweet words fear lest they be forced to hear the noise of the whip, the rattling of the wheels, &c. (Psa_7:12-13; Luk_19:42-44; Pro_1:24). The enemy is sent to revenge the quarrel of God’s covenant; the red horse is at the heels of the white” (Rev_6:4).
Nah_3:4. The mistress of witchcrafts. The Hebrew not only indicates the subtlety, but the ease by which the great metropolis made itself the centre of nations.
1. The dominion. “Mistress,” meaning power, control, and dominion.
2. The method of gaining the dominion. “Witchcraft.” Treacherous friendships, and allurements, to ensnare and bind to herself other nations. She decked herself like a prostitute to entice from God into sin. But she will lose empire and inhabitants, and become like a widow destitute of children. “These two things shall come to thee in a moment, in one day—the loss of children and widowhood: they shall come upon thee in their perfection for the multitude of thy sorceries,” &c. (Isa_47:9-12).
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain On v1 The Doom of Nineveh
The Doom of Nineveh
1-7. Another threat against Nineveh, showing that disaster has come upon her on account of her sins. The keynote of the whole chapter is the fierce cry, Woe to the bloody city! it is all full of lies, etc. In ancient states the capital was virtually the kingdom, and to Nineveh are here ascribed all the characteristics of the Assyrian monarchy. The cruelties perpetrated by the Assyrians were shocking. Captive princes who had offered resistance in defence of their country were shut up in cages and exposed to the gaze of the populace; the heads of those already executed were hung round the necks of those still living, and others were flayed alive. The Assyrians appear to have been the most ruthless people of antiquity (see Camb. Bible).
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2, 3. Picture of the attack made by the enemy's cavalry and chariots, these instruments of the divine vengeance.
4-7. The reason for this doom, the evil influence which this great empire has exerted among the nations. Jehovah assumes responsibility for the execution of this judgment; He will carry it out to the last extremity.
8-10. Nations and cities quite as proud and strong have fallen when the hour of divine judgment has sounded.
Populous No] RV 'No-Amon,' i.e. Thebes. See Intro. Rivers] RM 'canals.' The sea] i.e. the Nile. Her wall, etc.] The Nile was her protection. All the provinces of Egypt helped her (Nah_3:9).
11. Strength] RV 'a stronghold.'
12-15. The outer defences have fallen; it is the beginning of the end.
14. Go into clay, etc.] make bricks to strengthen the walls.
15-17. Cankerworm.. grasshopper] species of locusts.
16-19. Prosperity and pride have been 'the cankerworm that spoileth,' so that in the great crisis there is no power of resistance; it is a mortal wound.
18. Thy shepherds slumber] Thy great rulers have passed away. Thy nobles, etc.] RV 'thy worthies are at rest.'
19. No healing of thy bruise] RV 'No assuaging of thy hurt.' Bruit of thee] i.e. the report of thy downfall.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On vv7–8 (See Scofield "Nah 1:1")
Nineveh
(See Scofield "Nah 1:1")
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain On v1 Nineveh’s Guilt and Well-Deserved Judgment
CHAPTER 3
Nineveh’s Guilt and Well-Deserved Judgment
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1. The great wickedness of Nineveh (Nah 3:1-7)
2. Her fate to be like the fate of No-Amon (Nah 3:8-13)
3. Her well-deserved and complete judgment (Nah 3:14-19)
Nah 3:1-7. Nineveh was a bloody city, for her kings never knew peace, but were constantly at war. The Hebrew Ir-Damim means “city of blood drops.” They boasted of making the blood of their enemies run like rivers. It was a city full of lies and rapine. Her word could not be trusted; she broke truces and covenants and deceived nations with lying promises of help and protection. As stated in the second chapter, she was ferocious as a lion and the prey never departed.
But she received as she had sown. The next two verses give again the scenes of carnage during her judgment hour.
The cracking of the whip; And the noise of the rattling wheels; The prancing of the horses, And the dashing chariots.
The horseman mounting, And the flashing sword, And the glittering of the spear And the multitude of the Slain; And the heaps of the corpses. There is no end of dead bodies; They stumble over their corpses.
And why? “Because of the multitudes of the whoredoms of the well-favored harlot, the mistress of witchcrafts, that selleth nations through her whoredoms, and families through her witchcrafts.” She made herself attractive as a harlot does, to ensnare and beguile weaker nations. Like all these ancient cities she was filled with witchcrafts, that is, sorceries. The power of darkness manifested itself in the dominion of evil spirits, which Nineveh courted. Spiritism, as advocated today by men of research and culture, of the type of Oliver Lodge and Conan Doyle, and a multitude of others, is not a new thing. Egypt, Babylon, and Nineveh and other centers of paganism were filled with occultism, the practice of which hastened their doom; as the doom of our age will be consummated through the influence of the same evil powers.
Then Jehovah speaks again, as the God of retribution and judgment. These are solemn words.
Behold! I am against thee, saith the Lord of hosts; And uncover thy skirts over thy face, And display to the nations thy nakedness, And to kingdoms thy shame! And I will cast vileness upon thee, And disgrace thee And make thee a gazing-stock. And it shall come to pass, That all that look upon thee Shall flee from thee, And say, Nineveh is laid waste; Who will lament over her? Whence shall I seek comforters for her?
She had acted the harlot and now she receives the punishment of a harlot, which consisted in exposing her in public. She would be a gazing-stock for nations and kingdoms, as the righteous God stripped her of all and exposed her shame. There would be no one to lament over the vile mistress of witchcrafts.
Nah 3:8-13. “Art thou better than No-Amon that dwelt by the rivers? Waters were round about her; her bulwark was the sea and her wall was of the sea. Ethiopia and Egypt were her strength, and there was no limit; Put and Lubim were thy helpers.” No-Amon was an Egyptian city, known to the Greeks by the name of Thebes. The judgment of No-Amon, or, as it is also called, “No,” was announced by the prophet Jeremiah. “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, even Pharaoh and them that trust in him” Jer 46:25. Ezekiel likewise had spoken of this great Egyptian city Eze 30:14-26. There existed an immense temple there in honor of the god of No, the building had great facades and columns and covered a large space; the ruins which are left are still most wonderful to look upon. It was situated on the upper Nile some four hundred miles from Cairo, and was built along the river front. On the other side of the river was the city of the dead, the Necropolis, with a long line of temples, devoted to the worship of former Pharaohs, and behind these temples were thousands of tombs, many of which have been uncovered by the spade of the explorer. The cuneiform monuments tell of the fate of Thebes. Though she was defended by the strong men of Ethiopia and of Egypt and Phut, and the Libyans, nothing could avert her doom. She was carried into captivity, her young children were dashed in pieces, and her great men were bound in chains. Could then Nineveh hope to escape? The fate of No-Amon was a prophecy of Nineveh’s fate. She was even more wicked than the Egyptian city. Her fate is described in Nah 3:11-13.
Nah 3:14-19. Dramatically the prophet calls upon Nineveh to draw water for the siege, to secure clay for brick to repair the breaches in the wall. But all would be useless, for the Almighty had decreed her downfall. The fire would devour the proud city, the sword do its havoc in cutting them off. Let them be as numerous as the cankerworm (see annotations of Joe 1:1-20, make thyself as many as the locusts, which come in immense swarms, and it will be all to no avail. Her great commerce, her merchant-princes, were a vast host, like the stars of heaven, but all would soon be devastated, as the cankerworm spoileth and then flies away. Their crowned ones, the chiefs in authority, would all be scattered just as the sun-rise scatters the locusts and swarms of grasshoppers to a place unknown. Their shepherds, the leaders and rulers, under the King of Assyria, would sleep in death, while the population wandered homeless over the mountains, with none to gather them.
Nineveh’s ruin is complete and irreparable. All who hear of her fall rejoice and clap their hands.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v1 The Miserable Ruin of Nineveh.
The Miserable Ruin of Nineveh.
Jehovah now shows that the cause of Nineveh’s destruction is its wickedness, and that for this reason the city is bound to submit to the sentence which has been pronounced upon her.
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v. 1. Woe to the bloody city, or, "O city of blood, of blood-guiltiness!". It is all full of lies and robbery, so that deceit, violence, and extortion were the order of the day; the prey departeth not, robbery goes on without ceasing;
v. 2. the noise of a whip, its sharp crack heard as the horses are urged forward in battle, and the noise of the rattling of the wheels and of the prancing horses and of the jumping chariots, bounding along over the ground, as the horses broke into a gallop.
v. 3. The horseman lifteth up, rather, "horsemen rearing," as they directed their mounts to charge, both the bright sword and the glittering spear, or, "the name of the sword and the lightning of the lance"; and there is a multitude of slain, or of wounded, and a great number of carcasses, a wall of corpses heaped up; and there is none end of their corpses; they, the invading enemies, stumble upon their corpses, unable to pick their way forward because the entire battlefield is strewn with dead;
v. 4. because of the multitude of the whoredoms, the acts of idolatry and wickedness, of the well-favored harlot, the mistress of witchcrafts, idolatry and witchcraft being the special marks of the heathen character, that selleth nations through her whoredoms, with her hypocritical friendship and feigned interest, and families, smaller tribes, through her witchcrafts, namely, by her political schemes and intrigues. For this reason the Lord will plunge Nineveh into a shameful destruction.
v. 5. Behold, I am against thee, saith the Lord of hosts, and I will discover thy skirts upon thy face, uncover them and throw them up so high that they would reach over her face, and I will show the nations thy nakedness, as that of a lewd woman, and the kingdoms thy shame, in bringing the utmost disgrace upon Nineveh.
v. 6. And I will cast abominable filth upon thee, as an expression of the utmost disgust and loathing, and make thee vile, an object of disgrace, and will set thee as a gazing-stock, upon which men would look with contempt and derision.
v. 7. And it shall come to pass that all they that look upon thee shall flee from thee, with a feeling of deepest revulsion, and say, Nineveh is laid waste; who will bemoan her? Whence shall I seek comforters for thee? so the prophet interjects his question. No one would have the slightest sympathy with the stricken city, because she had so thoroughly deserved her punishment.
v. 8. Art thou better than populous No, that is, No-Amon, Thebes, the capital of Upper Egypt, that was situate among the rivers, that had the waters round about it, namely, in the great irrigation canals, whose rampart was the sea, and her wall was from the sea? the great expanse of the Nile.
v. 9. Ethiopia and Egypt, the countries along the Nile, were her strength, and it was infinite; Put and Lubim, the countries to the west, along the Mediterranean Sea, were thy helpers, Thebes itself being addressed in the excitement of the orator.
v. 10. Yet, in spite of all her own power and the strength of her allies, was she carried away, she went into captivity, after a conquest by Sargon, Esar-haddon, or Tir-haqua; her young children also were dashed in pieces at the top, that is, at the corners, of all the streets; and they cast lots for her honorable men, the conquerors dividing them among themselves by lot, as slaves, and all her great men were bound in chains.
v. 11. Thou also, namely, Nineveh, shalt be drunken, upon receiving the cup of God’s fury in judgment; thou shall be hid, covered over, as though she had never existed; thou also shalt seek strength because of the enemy, protection or refuge before the advancing enemy, without being able to find it.
v. 12. All thy strongholds, the fortresses and castles of the Assyrian country, shall be like fig-trees with the first-ripe figs, considered a special delicacy; if they be shaken, they shall even fall into the mouth of the eater, they would readily be taken by the invading enemy.
v. 13. Behold, thy people in the midst of thee are women, without strength and courage for the battle; the gates of thy land shall be set wide open, the Lord making the land easy of access to the invaders, unto thine enemies; the fire shall devour thy bars, those which held the great gates of the city shut.
v. 14. Draw thee waters for the siege, that needed for a long period of siege of the enemies; fortify thy strongholds, strengthening the forts; go into clay, for making bricks, and tread the mortar, in order to fashion bricks for the bulwarks; make strong the brick-kiln, in order to burn the bricks.
v. 15. There shall the fire devour thee, in the very midst of these preparations; the sword shall cut thee off, it shall eat thee up like the canker-worm, as locusts destroy; make thyself many as the canker-worm, like devouring insects; make thyself many as the locusts. The thought is this: The fire and the sword, like locusts devouring everything before them, would consume Nineveh, even though the city with its masses of houses and inhabitants would resemble a swarm of locusts.
v. 16. Thou hast multiplied thy merchants above the stars of heaven, the number of its people engaged in commercial pursuits of every kind being very great; the canker-worm spoileth, literally, "the licking locusts enter to plunder,". and fleeth away, the military might of Assyria being powerless before the armies of the invaders.
v. 17. Thy crowned, the vassal princes, are as the locusts, and thy captains, the commanders of her armies, as the great grasshoppers, which camp in the hedges in the cold day, too chilled to use their wings; but when the sun ariseth, they flee away, and their place is not known where they are. In a similar way the Assyrian army would vanish from sight; it would not be in evidence to withstand the invaders.
v. 18. Thy shepherds slumber, O king of Assyria, that is, the mighty ones, the leaders of the people, were resting in a false security; thy nobles shall dwell in the dust, rather, "thy powerful ones are lying still," not making a move to defend their country; thy people is scattered upon the mountains, and no man gathereth them, no one assumes the leadership over them, and so their identity as an Assyrian nation is lost.
v. 19. There is no healing of thy bruise, of the fracture which the Lord had inflicted; thy wound is grievous, the stroke or ruin being deadly; all that hear the bruit, the report, of thee shall clap the hands over thee, in a gesture of joy over the downfall of the oppressor; for upon whom hath not thy wickedness passed continually? The Lord indeed used Assyria as His scourge, but He, at the same time, wanted Assyria to acknowledge His sovereignty. When Nineveh and the entire country, therefore, persisted in its wickedness, His punishment came upon the land with crushing force.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 3, 5, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18 General Information:
General Information:
Nahum often wrote prophecy in the form of poetry. Hebrew poetry uses different kinds of parallelism. Here he continues to describe the destruction of Nineveh. (See: Poetry and Parallelism)
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the city full of blood
Here the word "blood" represents bloodshed and refers to the people who have committed murder. AT: "the city full of murderers" (See: Metonymy)
It is all full of lies
Here the word "lies" is a metonym for those who tell lies. AT: "It is full of liars" (See: Metonymy)
the noise of whips and the sound of rattling wheels, prancing horses, and bounding chariots
These phrases describe the sound of chariots rushing through the streets as their drivers use their whips on the horses.
translationWords
woe
blood
horse
chariot
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 2, 4, 5, 8, 9, 12, 14, 15, 16, 18, 19 3:1 city of murder: The Assyrians’ graphic cruelty is…
3:1 city of murder: The Assyrians’ graphic cruelty is well documented. Their practices included cutting off external body parts—such as noses, ears, hands, and feet—and execution by impalement on stakes. They heaped up severed heads before the gates of besieged cities. The eyes of victims might also be put out and their skin stripped from their bodies while they were still alive.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.