Nahum 1:9

What do ye imagine against the LORD? he will make an utter end: affliction shall not rise up the second time. WHAT DO YE IMAGINE AGAINST THE LORD? Abrupt address to the Assyrians. How mad is your attempt, O Assyrians, to resist so powerful a God! What can ye do against such an adversary, successful though ye have been against all other adversaries? Ye imagine ye have to do merely with mortals, and with a weak people, and that so you will gain an easy victory; but you have to encounter God, the protector of His people. Parallel to : cf. . HE WILL MAKE AN UTTER END - the utter overthrow of Sennacherib's host, soon about to take place, is an earnest of the "utter end" of Nineveh itself. AFFLICTION SHALL NOT RISE UP THE SECOND TIME - Ju...

Some interpreters so consider this verse also, as though the Prophet had said, that the calamity of the chosen people would not be a destruction, as God would observe some moderation and keep within certain limits. The unbelieving, we know, immediately exult, whenever the children of God are oppressed by adverse things, as though it were all over with the Church. Hence the Prophet here, according to these interpreters, meets and checks this sort of petulance, What imagine ye against God? He will indeed afflict his Church, but he will not repeat her troubles, for he will be satisfied with one affliction. They also think that the kingdom of Judah is here compared with the kingdom of Israel: for the kingdom of Israel had been twice afflicted: for, first, four tribes had been led away, and then the whole kingdom had been overturned. As then one calamity had been inflicted by Shalmanezar, and...

9-15 There is a great deal plotted against the Lord by the gates of hell, and against his kingdom in the world; but it will prove in vain. With some sinners God makes quick despatch; and one way or other, he will make an utter end of all his enemies. Though they are quiet, and many very secure, and not in fear, they shall be cut down as grass and corn, when the destroying angel passes through. God would hereby work great deliverance for his own people. But those who make themselves vile by scandalous sins, God will make vile by shameful punishments. The tidings of this great deliverance shall be welcomed with abundant joy. These words are applied to the great redemption wrought out by our Lord Jesus and the everlasting gospel, Romans 10:15. Christ's ministers are messengers of good tidings, that preach peace by Jesus Christ. How welcome to those who see their misery and danger by sin! A...

Verse 9. _AFFLICTION SHALL NOT RISE UP THE SECOND TIME._] There shall be no need to _repeat the judgment_; with _one blow_ God will make a full end of the business....

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 God, deceived and emboldened it. Its king thought that this was the might of his own arm; and likened the Lord of heaven and earth to the idols of the pagan, and said, “Who are they among all the gods of the countries, that have delivered their country out of mine hand, that the Lord should deliver Jerusalem out of mine hand?” 2 Kings 18:35. He sent “to reproach the living God” 2 Kings 19:16 and “defied the Holy One of Israel” (see...

EXPOSITION NAHUM 1:1 Part I. THE JUDGMENT UPON NINEVEH DECREED BY GOD. NAHUM 1:1 § 1. _The heading of the book. _The book has a double title, the first giving the object of the prophecy, which otherwise would not be evident; the second, its author, added to give confidence in its contents. THE BURDEN; _massa _(Habakkuk 1:1)—a term generally used of a weighty, threatening prophecy (Isaiah 13:1), though translated by the LXX. λ

WHAT DO YE IMAGINE AGAINST THE LORD?.... O ye Ninevites or Assyrians; do you think you can frustrate the designs of the Lord, resist his power, and hinder him from executing what he has threatened and has determined to do? or what mischief is it you devise against his people, which is the same as against himself? can you believe that you shall prosper and succeed, and your schemes be carried into execution, when he, the all wise and all powerful Being, opposes you? HE WILL MAKE AN UTTER END; of you, as before declared, and will save his people; which may be depended on will certainly be the case: AFFLICTION SHALL NOT RISE UP THE SECOND TIME; either this should be the last effort the Assyrians would make upon the Jews, which they made under Sennacherib, and this the last time they would afflict them; or rather their own destruction should be so complete that there would be no need to re...

ANALYSIS AND ANNOTATIONS CHAPTER 1 The Purpose of God in Dealing with the Assyrian Oppressor _ 1. The superscription (Nahum 1:1) _ 2. Jehovah's majesty in judgment (Nahum 1:2) 3. His people comforted and assured (Nahum 1:7) 4. The judgment of Assyria and the result (Nahum 1:14) Nahum 1:1. The burden of Nineveh; it means that there is to follow a weighty prophetic oracle concerning the great world city of Nineveh whose dimensions are given by Jonah, which have been confirmed by excavations. The next sentence gives us the definite i

THE AVENGING WRATH OF YAHWEH. Yahweh is a jealous and vengeful God sensitive to the honour of Himself and His people who marcheth through whirlwind and storm to save them from the enemy. Before His presence sea and rivers dry up, Bashan, Carmel, and Lebanon wither, the mountains quake and the earth itself is upheaved. How then can mortal man face the glow of His anger? To such as trust in Him He is a stronghold in the day of trouble; but His adversaries He thrusteth into darkness, taking not vengeance twice, but making a full end of them and all their devices. Though for a time He may remain silent, He is storing up wrath against them; and all of them shall be mown down like thorns, or burnt in the fire as stubble. NAHUM 1:2 B (the N stanza) ought clearly to follow Nahum 1:9_ a_, while...

IMAGINE. devise. Compare Psalms 2:1. AFFLICTION. distress, or trouble; Hebrew. _zarar_, as in Nahum 1:7, i.e. the trouble that now threatens Nineveh. THE SECOND TIME. Referring to the rising up after Jonah's proclamation. Compare "rise", Jeremiah 51:64. Same word as "abide", Nahum 1:6, above....