THE BURDEN - Jerome: “The word משׂא _mas's'â'_, ‘burden’ is never placed in the title, except when the vision is heavy and full of burden and toil.” OF NINEVEH - The prophecy of Nahum again is very stern and awful. Nineveh, after having “repented at the preaching of Jonah,” again fell back into the... [ Continue Reading ]
GOD IS JEALOUS AND THE LORD REVENGETH - Rather (as the English margin) God “very jealous and avenging is the Lord.” The Name of God, יהוה (_YHVH_), “He who Is,” the Unchangeable, is thrice repeated, and thrice it is said of Him that He is an Avenger. It shows both the certainty and greatness of the... [ Continue Reading ]
THE LORD IS SLOW TO ANGER - Nahum takes up the words of Jonah Jonah 4:2 as he spoke of God’s attributes toward Nineveh, but only to show the opposite side of them. Jonah declares how God is “slow to anger,” giving men time of repentance, and if they do repent, “repenting Him also of the evil;” Nahum... [ Continue Reading ]
HE REBUKETH THE SEA AND MAKETH IT DRY - Delivering His people, as He did from Pharaoh Psalms 106:9, the type of all later oppressors, and of antichrist. “His word is with power; to destroy them at once with one rough word (Wisd. 12:9). The restlessness of the barren and troubled sea is an image of t... [ Continue Reading ]
THE MOUNTAINS QUAKED AT HIM, AND THE HILLS MELTED - As of their own accord. The words are a renewal of those of Amos Amos 9:13. Inanimate nature is pictured as endowed with the terror, which guilt feels at the presence of God. All power; whether greater or less, whatsoever lifteth itself up, shall g... [ Continue Reading ]
WHO CAN STAND BEFORE HIS INDIGNATION? - This question appeals to our own consciences, that we cannot . It anticipates the self-conviction at every day of God’s visitation, the forerunners of the lust. The word rendered “indignation” is reserved almost exclusively to denote the wrath of God. : “Who c... [ Continue Reading ]
THE LORD IS GOOD: A STRONGHOLD IN THE DAY OF TROUBLE - “Good and doing good,” and full of sweetness; alike good and mighty; good in giving Himself and imparting His goodness to His own; yea “none is good, save God” Luke 18:19; Himself the stronghold wherein His own amy take refuge; both in the troub... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT WITH AN OVERRUNNING FLOOD HE WILL MAKE AN UTTER END OF THE PLACE THEREOF - that is, of Nineveh, although not as yet named, except in the title of the prophecy, yet present to the prophet’s mind and his hearers, and that the more solemnly, as being the object of the wrath of God, so that, althoug... [ Continue Reading ]
The prophet had in few words summed up the close of Nineveh; he now upbraids them with the sin, which should bring it upon them, and foretells the destruction of Sennacherib. Nineveh had, before this, been the instrument of chastising Israel and Judah. Now, the capture of Samaria, which had cast off... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR WHILE THEY BE LEIDEN TOGETHER AS THORNS - that is, as confused, intertwined, sharp, piercing, hard to be touched, rending and tearing whosoever would interfere with its tangled ways, and seemingly compact together and strong; “and while they are drunken as their drink” , not “drinkers” only but... [ Continue Reading ]
THERE IS ONE COME OUT OF THEE - that is, Nineveh, “that imagineth” deviseth, , “evil, Lord, Sennacherib, against the the rod of God’s anger” Isaiah 10:5, yet who “meant not so,” as God meant. “And this was his counsel,” as is every counsel of Satan, “that they could not resist him, and so should wit... [ Continue Reading ]
THOUGH THEY BE QUIET AND LIKEWISE MANY, YET THUS SHALL THEY BE CUT DOWN - Literally, “If they be entire,” i. e., sound unharmed, unimpaired in their numbers, unbroken in their strength, undiminished, perfect in all which belongs to war; “and thus many even thus shall they be mown down (or shorn), an... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR NOW WILL I BREAK HIS YOKE FROM OFF THEE - God, lest His own should despair, does not put them off altogether to a distant day, but saith, now. Historically, the beginning of the fall is the earnest of the end. By the destruction of Sennacherib, God declared His displeasure against Assyria; the r... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THE LORD HATH GIVEN A COMMANDMENT CONCERNING THEE, O ASSYRIAN - In the word “I have afflicted thee,” the land of Israel is addressed, as usual in Hebrew, in the feminine; here, a change of gender in Hebrew shows the person addressed to be different. : “By His command alone, and the word of His p... [ Continue Reading ]
BEHOLD UPON THE MOUNTAINS, THE FEET OF HIM THAT BRINGETH GOOD TIDINGS, THAT PUBLISHETH PEACE - From mountain-top to mountain-top by beacon-fires they spread the glad tidings. Suddenly the deliverance comes, sudden its announcement. “Behold!” Judah, before hindered by armies from going up to Jerusale... [ Continue Reading ]