The document provides a comprehensive commentary on the Book of Nahum, focusing on the prophet's background, the context of his prophecy concerning the destruction of Nineveh, and its implications for both the Assyrian Empire and God's judgment on sin. It outlines the structure of Nahum's prophecy, its powerful imagery, and the historical events leading to Assyria's downfall, emphasizing the inevitability of divine justice against oppression. The commentary highlights the relevance of Nahum's message as a warning to all nations about God's ultimate judgment and the fleeting nature of human pride and strength.

1. NAHUM 1 COMMENTARY
EDITED BY GLENN PEASE
INTRODUCTION
JOSEPH BENSON, THE BOOK OF NAHUM. ARGUMENT.
NAHUM was a native of Elkoshai, or Elkosh, a little village of Galilee, the ruins of
which remained in the time of St. Jerome. It appears, from Nahum 2:2, that he
prophesied after the captivity of the ten tribes, which took place in the ninth year of
Hezekiah, and after the war of Sennacherib in Egypt, because he speaks of the
taking of No-ammon in that country as of an event past, Nahum 3:8. But it is
probable that the first chapter at least of this prophecy was delivered before the
invasion of Judah by Sennacherib, as in the latter part of it, namely, from Micah
7:8-15, he seems to predict that attempt, and the defeat thereof. “And probably,”
says Henry, “it was delivered a little before it, for the encouragement of God’s
people in that time of treading down and perplexity.” The other two chapters are
thought by some to have been delivered some years after, perhaps in the reign of
Manasseh; in which reign the Jewish chronologers generally place this prophet,
somewhat nearer the time when Nineveh was conquered. He must have prophesied,
however, before the captivity of the two tribes, as he supposes them to be still in
their own country, and there celebrating their festivals as usual.
The subject of this prophecy is, the destruction of Nineveh, and the overthrow of the
Assyrian empire, which Nahum describes in a manner so pathetic and picturesque,
and yet so plain, as is not to be exceeded by the greatest masters of oratory. And all
his predictions were exactly verified in the siege and taking of that city, by
Nabopolassar and Astyages, in the year of the world 3378, about 100 years after
they were uttered. “The conduct and imagery of this prophetical poem,” says
Archbishop Newcome, “are truly admirable. The exordium grandly sets forth the
justice and power of God, tempered by lenity and goodness, Nahum 1:2-8. A sudden
address to the Assyrians follows; and a prediction of their perplexity and overthrow,
as devisers of evil against the true God, Micah 7:9-11. Jehovah himself then
proclaims freedom to his people from the Assyrian yoke, and the destruction of the
Assyrian idols; upon which the prophet, in a most lively manner, turns the attention
of Judah to the approach of the messenger who brings such glad tidings; and bids
her celebrate her festivals, and offer her thank-offerings, without fear of so
powerful an adversary, Micah 7:12-15. In the next place, Nineveh is called on to
prepare for the approach of her enemies, as instruments in the hand of Jehovah;
and the military array and muster of the Medes and Babylonians, their rapid
1

2. approach to the city, the process of the siege, the capture of the place, the captivity,
lamentation, and flight of the inhabitants, the sacking of the wealthy city, and the
consequent desolation and terror, are described in the true spirit of eastern poetry,
and with many pathetic, vivid, and sublime images, Nahum 2:1-10. A grand and
animated allegory succeeds this description, and is explained and applied to the city
of Nineveh, Micah 7:11-13. The prophet then denounces a wo against Nineveh for
her perfidy and violence; and strongly places before our eyes the number of her
chariots and cavalry, her burnished arms, and the great and unrelenting slaughter
which she spread around her, assigning her idolatries as one cause of her
ignominious and unpitied fall, Nahum 3:1-7.” To overthrow her false confidence in
her forces and alliances, he reminds her of the destruction of No-ammon, her rival
in populousness, confederacies, and situation, which had shared a fate like that
which awaited her; beautifully illustrating the ease with which her strong holds
should be taken, and her pusillanimity during the siege, Micah 7:8-13. “He
pronounces that all her preparations, her numbers, her opulence, her multitude of
chief men, would be of no avail, and that her tributaries would all desert her, Micah
7:14-18. He concludes with a proper epiphonema; the topics of which are, the
greatness and incurableness of her wound, and the just triumph of others over her,
on account of her extensive oppressions, Micah 7:19.” To sum up all with the
decisive judgment of an eminent critic: “None of the minor prophets seem to equal
Nahum, in boldness, ardour, and sublimity. His prophecy too forms a regular and
perfect poem; the exordium is not merely magnificent, it is truly majestic; the
preparation for the destruction of Nineveh, and the description of its downfall and
desolation, are expressed in the most glowing colours, and are bold and luminous in
the highest degree.” Præl. Hebr. 21. p. 282.
PETER PETT, "A Commentary On Nahum the Prophet.
By Dr Peter Pett BA BD (Hons-London) DD
Nahum came from Elkosh which was possibly, but not certainly, in Judah. His
prophecy may be dated between 664 BC and 612 BC.
The reason that we can date it so accurately is because it mentions the capture of
No-amon (i.e. Thebes) (Nahum 3:8-10), as an indication that no city is too great to
declare itself invincible. But was clearly written before the destruction of Nineveh
itself in 612 BC.
The historical events behind the prophecy were the death of Ashurbanipal, the great
king of Assyria (c. 627 BC), who ruled a vast empire held together by force and
cruelty. This produced a situation where, within a year or so, Babylon, under
Nabopolassar, felt able to assert her independence. About ten years later Babylon
made an alliance with the Medes and attacked Assyria with a view to destroying all
its military might, systematically reducing all its major strongholds.
Assyria’s capital city, Ashur, fell in 614 BC, followed two years later, after bitter
fighting, by Nineveh itself.
2

3. The world sighed with relief. Assyria’s cruelty was a byword among the nations who
had experienced it at first hand, and no one regretted their passing. The prophecy is
a timely warning that no matter how great and impregnable someone may seem, one
day their actions will catch up with them.
But why should we be interested in a book about the fate of Assyria? The answer is
because it is a book about us all, especially the nations that are at ease. We see in
this book a warning and foretaste of God’s judgment on all. It is delayed but it is
inevitable. Elsewhere the mercy of God is emphasised, although never overlooking
His moral attitude towards sin, but here it is His judgment that is emphasised.
This book is a reminder that however dark things may appear, however powerful
the enemies of God might seem, they are not so powerful that they will last for ever.
One day, sooner than any might think, they will crumble and collapse. But God will
go on for ever.
And this judgment comes on one who has offered false pleasures to a sinful world. It
has multiplied businessmen and accountants. It has offered sexual perversion and
sinful pleasures. It has grown great in trade, and accumulated power. But it has
forgotten God. And in that is its downfall.
This was one of the times when God’s judgment was revealed in its full
awesomeness on a nation which believed itself invulnerable, and the prophet spells it
out clearly and in some detail so that we might truly absorb it. God is love, but He is
also light, and where His love does not prevail only the consequences of His sin-
revealing light remains. And that, unless we repent, leads only to judgment.
The prophecy can be split into three sections.
· Chapter 1. Declaration of judgment on the great city, (on Nineveh).
· Chapter 2. The sack of the great city, (of Nineveh).
· Chapter 3. Why the great city (Nineveh) deserves its fate.
As we consider the prophecy, and consider Nahum’s feelings, we must remember
that Assyria had cruelly downtrodden Judah and Israel for long periods, and had
equally cruelly destroyed Samaria, the capital city of Israel (the Northern kingdom)
carrying away into captivity, with great harshness, the cream of the nation, as well
as crushing many other nations.
And the people shared with their king in his guilt. For they exulted in his conquests
and benefited from his spoils. Judah had been impoverished by the burden of its
demands, and the worship of YHWH had suffered because of the requirement to
honour Assyria’s gods. Neither had any cause to pity Assyria the Arrogant. Now the
Lord had determined an end to its cruel activities. It had run its course. Only
judgment remained.
3

4. The prophecy is a warning to all despots and men of violence and great cities that
affect the world, that they will reap what they sow.
1 A prophecy concerning Nineveh. The book of
the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite.
BARNES, "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 sins whereof it had
repented, and added this, that, being employed by God to chasten Israel, it set itself, not
to inflict the measure of God’s displeasure, but to uproot the chosen people, in whom
was promised the birth of Christ . It was then an antichrist, and a type of him yet to
come. Jonah’s mission was a call to repentance, a type and forerunner of all God’s
messages to the world, while the day of grace and the world’s probation lasts. Nahum,
“the full of exceeding comfort,” as his name means, or “the comforter” is sent to Joh_
16:6, Joh_16:8. “reprove the world of judgment.” He is sent, prominently, to pronounce
on Nineveh its doom when its day of grace should be over, and in it, on the world, when
it and “all the works therein shall be burned up” 2Pe_3:10.
With few words he directly comforts the people of God Nah_1:15; elsewhere the
comfort even to her is indirect, in the destruction of her oppressor. Besides this, there is
nothing of mercy or call to repentance, or sorrow for their desolation (as in Jer_3:12;
Jer_8:18, Jer_8:21), but rather the pouring out of the vials of the wrath of God upon her
and on the evil world, which resists to the end all God’s calls and persecutes His people.
The Book of Jonah proclaims God, “a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and of
great kindness, who repents Him of the evil.” Nahum speaks of the same attributes, yet
closes with, “and will not at all acquit the wicked.” : “The Merciful Himself, who is by
Nature Merciful, the Holy Spirit, seemeth, speaking in the prophet, to laugh at their
calamity.” All is desolation, and death. The aggression against God is retorted upon the
aggressor; one reeling strife for life or death; then the silence of the graveyard. And so, in
its further meaning , “the prophecy belongs to the close of the world and the comfort of
the saints therein, so that whatsoever they see in the world, they may hold cheap, as
passing away and perishing and prepare themselves for the Day of Judgment, when the
Lord shall he the Avenger of the true Assyrian.”
So our Lord sets forth the end of the world as the comfort of the elect. “When these
things begin to come to pass, then look up and lift up your heads, for your redemption
draweth nigh” Luk_21:28. This is the highest fulfillment of the prophecy, for “then will
the wrath of God against the wicked be fully seen, who now patiently waiteth for them
for mercy.”
4

5. The book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite - o “He first defines the object of
the prophecy, whereto it looks; then states who spake it and whence it was;” the human
instrument which God employed. The fuller title, “The book of the vision of Nahum”
(which stands alone) probably expresses that it was not, like most prophecies, first
delivered orally, and then collected by the prophet, but was always (as it is so
remarkably) one whole. “The weight and pressure of this ‘burden.’ may be felt from the
very commencement of the book.”
CLARKE, "The burden of Nineveh - ‫משא‬ massa not only signifies a burden, but
also a thing lifted up, pronounced, or proclaimed; also a message. It is used by the
prophets to signify the revelation which they have received from God to deliver to any
particular people: the oracle - the prophecy. Here it signifies the declaration from God
relative to the overthrow of Nineveh, and the commission of the prophet to deliver it.
As the Assyrians under Pul, Tiglath-pileser, and Shalmaneser, three of their kinds, had
been employed by a just God for the chastisement of his disobedient people; the end
being now accomplished by them, God is about to burn the rod wherewith he corrected
Israel; and Nineveh, the capital of the Assyrian empire, is to be destroyed. This
prediction appears to have been accomplished a short time after this by Nebuchadnezzar
and Cyaxares, the Ahasuerus of Scripture.
Nahum, ‫נחום‬ Nachum, signifies comforter. The name was very suitable, as he was sent
to comfort the people, by showing them that God was about to destroy their adversaries.
GILL, "The burden of Nineveh,.... Of the city of Nineveh, and the greatness of it; see
Gill on Jon_1:2; See Gill on Jon_3:3; Jonah was sent to this city to threaten it with ruin
for its sins; at that time the king and all his people humbled themselves and repented,
and the threatened destruction was averted; but they relapsing to their former iniquities,
this prophet foretells what would be their certain fate; very rightly therefore the Targum,
and some other Jewish writings (m), observe, that Jonah prophesied against this city of
old; and that Nahum prophesied after him a considerable time, perhaps at a hundred
years distance. This prophecy is called a burden; it was taken up by the prophet at the
command of the Lord, and was carried or sent by him to Nineveh; and was a hard,
heavy, grievous, and burdensome prophecy to that city, predicting its utter ruin and
desolation; and which, as Josephus (n) says, came to pass hundred fifteen years after
this prophecy; and which event is placed by the learned Usher (o) in the year of the
world 3378 A.M., and which was 626 B.C.; and by others (p) in the year of the world
3403 A.M., of the flood 1747, in 601 B.C.; but by Dean Prideaux (q) and Mr. Whiston (r),
in 612 B.C.;
the book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite; no other prophecy is called, a
book but this, as Abarbinel observes; and gives this reason for it, because the other
prophets immediately declared their prophecies, as Jonah; but Nahum never went to the
Ninevites, but wrote his prophecy in a book, and sent it to them. It is called "the book of
the vision"; what it contains being made known to him by the Lord in a vision, as was
common; hence the prophets are called seers; and the prophet is described by the place
of his birth, an Elkoshite; though some think he is so called from his father, whose name
5

6. was Helkesi, and said to be a prophet too, as Jerom relates; and with this agrees the
Targum, which calls him Nahum of the house or family of Koshi; but Jarchi says that
Elkosh was the name of his city; Aben Ezra and Kimchi are in doubt which to refer it to,
whether to his city, or to his ancestors; but there seems no reason to doubt but that he is
so called from his native place; since Jerom (s) says, that there was a village in Galilee
called Helkesi in his days, and which he had seen; though scarce any traces of the old
buildings could be discerned, it was so fallen to ruin, yet known, to the Jews; and was
shown him by one that went about with him; and which is, by Hesychius (t) the
presbyter, placed in the tribe of Simeon. This is another instance, besides that of Jonah,
disproving the assertion of the Jews, that no prophet rose out of Galilee, Joh_7:52.
HENRY, "This title directs us to consider, 1. The great city against which the word of
the Lord is here delivered; it is the burden of Nineveh, not only a prophecy, and a
weighty one, but a burdensome prophecy, a dead weight to Nineveh, a mill-stone hanged
about its neck. Nineveh was the place concerned, and the Assyrian monarchy, which that
was the royal seat of. About 100 years before this Jonah had, in God's name, foretold the
speedy overthrow of this great city; but then the Ninevites repented and were spared,
and that decree did not bring forth. The Ninevites then saw clearly how much it was to
their advantage to turn from their evil way; it was the saving of their city; and yet, soon
after, they returned to it again; it became worse than ever, a bloody city, and full of lies
and robbery. They repented of their repentance, returned with the dog to his vomit, and
at length grew worse than ever they had been. Then God sent them not this prophet, as
Jonah, but this prophecy, to read them their doom, which was now irreversible. Note,
The reprieve will not be continued if the repentance be not continued in. If men turn
from the good they began to do, they can expect no other than that God should turn
from the favour he began to show, Jer_18:10. 2. The poor prophet by whom the word of
the Lord is here delivered: It is the book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite. The
burden of Nineveh was what the prophet plainly foresaw, for it was his vision, and what
he left upon record (it is the book of the vision), that, when he was gone, the event might
be compared with the prediction and might confirm it. All the account we have of the
prophet himself is that he was an Elkoshite, of the town called Elkes, or Elcos, which,
Jerome says, was in Galilee. Some observe that the scripture ordinarily says little of the
prophets themselves, that our faith might not stand upon their authority, but upon that
of the blessed Spirit by whom their prophecies were indited.
JAMISON, "Nah_1:1-15. Jehovah’s attributes as a jealous judge of sin, yet merciful
to his trusting people, should inspire them with confidence. He will not allow the
Assyrians again to assail them, but will destroy the foe.
burden of Nineveh — the prophetic doom of Nineveh. Nahum prophesied against
that city a hundred fifty years after Jonah.
K&D, "The heading runs thus: “Burden concerning Nineveh; book of the prophecy of
Nahum of Elkosh.” The first sentence gives the substance and object, the second the
form and author, of the proclamation which follows. ‫א‬ ָ‫שּׂ‬ ַ‫מ‬ signifies a burden, from ‫א‬ ָ‫שׂ‬ָ‫,נ‬ to
lift up, to carry, to heave. This meaning has very properly been retained by Jonathan,
6

7. Aquila, Jerome, Luther, and others, in the headings to the prophetic oracle. Jerome
observes on Hab_1:1 : “Massa never occurs in the title, except when it is evidently grave
and full of weight and labour.” On the other hand, the lxx have generally rendered it
λῆμμα in the headings to the oracles, or even ὅρασις, ὅραμα, ῥῆμα (Isaiah 13ff., Isa_30:6);
and most of the modern commentators since Cocceius and Vitringa, following this
example, have attributed to the word the meaning of “utterance,” and derived it from
‫א‬ ָ‫שׂ‬ָ‫,נ‬ effari. But ‫נשׂא‬ has no more this meaning than ‫קוֹל‬ ‫א‬ ָ‫שׂ‬ָ‫נ‬ can mean to utter the voice,
either in Exo_20:7 and Exo_23:1, to which Hupfeld appeals in support of it, or in 2Ki_
9:25, to which others appeal. The same may be said of ‫א‬ ָ‫שּׂ‬ ַ‫,מ‬ which never means effatum,
utterance, and is never placed before simple announcements of salvation, but only
before oracles of a threatening nature. Zec_9:1 and Zec_12:1 form no exception to this
rule. Delitzsch (on Isa_13:1) observes, with regard to the latter passage, that the promise
has at least a dark foil, and in Nahum 9:1ff. the heathen nations of the Persian and
Macedonian world-monarchy are threatened with a divine judgment which will break in
pieces their imperial glory, and through which they are to be brought to conversion to
Jehovah; “and it is just in this that the burden consists, which the word of God lays upon
these nations, that they may be brought to conversion through such a judgment from
God” (Kliefoth). Even in Pro_30:1 and Pro_31:1 Massâ' does not mean utterance. The
words of Agur in Pro_30:1 are a heavy burden, which is rolled upon the natural and
conceited reason; they are punitive in their character, reproving human forwardness in
the strongest terms; and in Pro_31:1 Massâ' is the discourse with which king Lemuel
reproved his mother. For the thorough vindication of this meaning of Massâ', by an
exposition of all the passages which have been adduced in support of the rendering
“utterance,” see Hengstenberg, Christology, on Zec_9:1, and O. Strauss on this passage.
For Nineveh, see the comm. on Jon_1:2. The burden, i.e., the threatening words,
concerning Nineveh are defined in the second clause as sēpher châzōn, book of the seeing
(or of the seen) of Nahum, i.e., of that which Nahum saw in spirit and prophesied
concerning Nineveh. The unusual combination of sēpher and châzōn, which only occurs
here, is probably intended to show that Nahum simply committed his prophecy
concerning Nineveh to writing, and did not first of all announce it orally before the
people. On hâ'elqōshı̄ (the Elkoshite), see the Introduction.
CALVIN, "Though a part of what is here delivered belongs to the Israelites and to
the Jews, he yet calls his Book by what it principally contains; he calls its the burden
of Nineveh Of this word ‫,משא‬ mesha, we have spoken elsewhere. Thus the Prophets
call their prediction, whenever they denounce any grievous and dreadful vengeance
of God: and as they often threatened the Jews, it hence happened, that they called,
by way of ridicule, all prophecies by this name ‫,משא‬ mesha, a burden. (206) But yet
the import of the word is suitable. It is the same thing as though Nahum had said
that he was sent by God as a herald, to proclaim war on the Ninevites for the sake of
the chosen people. The Israelites may have hence learnt how true and unchangeable
God was in his covenant; for he still manifested his care for them, though they had
by their vices alienated themselves from him.
7

8. He afterwards adds, ‫חזון‬ ‫,ספר‬ sapher chezun, the book of the vision This clause
signifies, that he did not in vain denounce destruction on the Ninevites, because he
faithfully delivered what he had received from God. For if he had simply prefaced,
that he threatened ruin to the Assyrian,, some doubt might have been entertained as
to the event. But here he seeks to gain to himself authority by referring to God’s
name; for he openly affirms that he brought nothing of his own, but that this
burden had been made known to him by a celestial oracle: for ‫,חזה‬ cheze, means
properly to see, and hence in Hebrew a vision is called ‫,חזון‬ chezun,. But the
Prophets, when they speak of a vision, do not mean any fantasy or imagination, but
that kind of revelation which is mentioned in Numbers 14:0, where God says, that
he speaks to his Prophets either by vision or by dream. We hence see why this was
added — that the burden of Nineveh was a vision; it was, that the Israelites might
know that this testimony respecting God’s vengeance on their enemies was not
brought by a mortal man, and that there might be no doubt but that God was the
author of this prophecy.
Nahum calls himself an Elkoshite. Some think that it was the name of his family.
The Jews, after their manner, say, that it was the name of his father; and then they
add this their common gloss, that Elkos himself was a Prophet: for when the name
of a Prophet’s father is mentioned, they hold that he whose name is given was also a
Prophet. But these are mere trifles: and we have often seen how great is their
readiness to invent fables. Then the termination of the word leads us to think that it
was, on the contrary, the proper name of a place; and Jerome tells us that there was
in his time a small village of this name in the tribe of Simon. We must therefore
understand, that Nahum arose from that town, and was therefore called “the
Elkoshite.” (207) Let us now proceed —
COFFMAN, "The announcement of God as the executioner of his wrath upon
Assyria is made in Nahum 1:1-6. His wrath will not fall upon his own people, but
upon their enemies (Nahum 1:7-11). He will break the yoke of Asshur from off the
neck of his people, and destroy the Assyrians (Nahum 1:12-14). This prophecy is so
certain of fulfillment that a proleptic announcement of the good news, with
Messianic overtones, concludes the chapter (Nahum 1:15).
Nahum 1:1
"The burden of Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite."
"The burden of Nineveh ..." As used in the Holy Scriptures, this expression means
"the prophecy of the doom of Nineveh." The word "burden" carries with it the idea
of a heavy load; and the imagery is that Nineveh's sins have at last become such a
heavy load that God will no longer permit the city to stand. Their destruction had
long before been prophesied by Jonah; but the repentance of the people led to the
delay of the penalty. In the meanwhile, the sins of the people have returned
8

9. overwhelmingly, plunging the whole nation into the utmost savagery of greed,
violence, and treachery. This time, there ,would be no repentance and no
commutation of the sentence of death upon them.
"Nineveh ..." (For a discussion of the nature, size, and fortifications of Nineveh see
in my commentary on the minor prophets, Vol. 1, pp. 280-282.) One of the greatest
cities of antiquity, it was situated upon the Tigris River at its junction with two
lesser streams, and for an extended period was the most powerful city on earth. Any
prophecy of the doom of such a city must have appeared to be sheer madness at the
time of Nahum's prophecy.
"The book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite ..." By the book's designation here
as "the vision of Nahum," the origin of his message is indicated as being God
Himself. Nahum did not write merely his political and social judgments; and it must
be thought that his message appeared just as impossible of fulfillment in Nahum's
eyes as it must have appeared to others. (For notes on Elkosh, see the Introduction
to the Book of Nahum.)
This first verse has the utility of identifying the object of God's wrath so forcefully
mentioned. Without the expression, "the burden of Nineveh," we should not have
known until Nahum 2:8 the identity of the object of God's wrath.
CONSTABLE, "Verse 1
I. HEADING1:1
The writer introduced this book as an oracle concerning Nineveh. An oracle is a
message from Yahweh that usually announces judgment. It is sometimes called a
"burden" because it frequently contains a message that lay heavy on the prophet"s
heart and came across as a "heavy" message. In this case it is a "war-oracle." [Note:
Longman, pp771 , 786.] This book records the vision that Nahum the Elkoshite
received from the Lord.
"Having been founded by Nimrod ( Genesis 10:8-12), Nineveh had a long history. It
was located on the east bank of the Tigris River, which formed the western and
southern boundaries of the city. A wall extended for eight miles around the
northern and eastern boundaries. The section of the city within the walls was nearly
three miles in diameter at its greatest width, and it held a population that has been
estimated to have been as high as150 ,000. The three days" walk required to
traverse Nineveh (... Jonah 3:3) is no exaggeration." [Note: Charles H. Dyer, in The
Old Testament Explorer, p796.]
As noted above, the location of Elkosh is presently uncertain. The two most likely
general locations are Mesopotamia or Canaan. I tend to think that Elkosh was in
Judah since all the other Old Testament prophets were from Canaan, and Nahum
prophesied during the history of the surviving kingdom of Judah (ca650 B.C.).
9

10. Nahum evidently used "Nineveh," the capital of the Assyrian Empire, to stand for
the whole empire in some places as well as for the city in others. In some texts the
city is definitely in view, as is obvious from the fulfillment of the prophecy, but in
others all of Assyria seems to be in view. It is common, especially in prophetical and
poetical parts of the Old Testament, for the writers to use the names of prominent
cities to represent their countries. The most frequent example is the use of
Jerusalem in place of Judah or even all Israel. This is an example of the common
figure of speech called metonymy in which a writer uses the name of one thing for
that of another associated with or suggested by it.
BENSON, "Nahum 1:1. The burden of Nineveh — Of Nineveh, see note on Jonah
3:3. When the prophets were sent to denounce judgments against a nation, or city,
their message, or prophecy, was usually called the burden of that people, or place:
see note on Isaiah 13:1. The book of the vision — As prophets were of old called
seers, so their prophecies were called visions: of Nahum — Nahum, according to St.
Jerome, signifies a comforter: for the ten tribes being carried away by the king of
Assyria, this vision was to comfort them in their captivity: nor was it less a
consolation to the other two tribes, who remained in the land, and had been
besieged by the same enemies, to hear that these conquerors would in time be
conquered themselves, their city taken, and their empire overthrown. — Bishop
Newton.
COKE, "Nahum 1:1. The burden of Nineveh— The sentence upon Nineveh. See the
Argument, and Isaiah 13:1. Bishop Newton observes, that if there be some difficulty
in discovering the persons by whom Nineveh was taken, there is more in
ascertaining the king of Assyria in whose name it was taken; and more still in fixing
the time when it was taken; scarcely any two chronologies agreeing in the same date.
But as these things are hardly possible to be known, so neither are they necessary to
be known with precision and exactness; and we may safely leave them among the
uncertainties of ancient history and chronology. It is sufficient for our purpose, that
Nineveh was taken and destroyed according to the predictions, and that Nahum
foretold not only the thing but also the manner of it.
EXPOSITOR'S BIBLE COMMENTARY, "Verses 1-15
THE VENGEANCE OF THE LORD
Nahum 1:1-15
THE prophet Nahum, as we have seen, arose probably in Judah, if not about the
same time as Zephaniah and Jeremiah, then a few years later. Whether he
prophesied before or after the great Reform of 621 we have no means of deciding.
His book does not reflect the inner history, character, or merits of his generation.
His sole interest is the fate of Nineveh. Zephaniah had also doomed the Assyrian
capital, yet he was much more concerned with Israel’s unworthiness of the
opportunity presented to them. The yoke of Asshur, he saw, was to be broken, but
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11. the same cloud which was bursting from the north upon Nineveh must overwhelm
the incorrigible people of Jehovah. For this Nahum has no thought. His heart, for all
its bigness, holds room only for the bitter memories, the baffled hopes, the
unappeased hatreds of a hundred years. And that is why we need not be anxious to
fix his date upon one or other of the shifting phases of Israel’s history during that
last quarter of the seventh century. For he represents no single movement of his
fickle people’s progress, but the passion of the whole epoch then drawing to a close.
Nahum’s book is one great At Last!
And, therefore, while Nahum is a worse prophet than Zephaniah, with less
conscience and less insight, he is a greater poet, pouring forth the exultation of a
people long enslaved, who see their tyrant ready for destruction. His language is
strong and brilliant; his rhythm rumbles and rolls, leaps and flashes, like the
horsemen and chariots he describes. It is a great pity the text is so corrupt. If the
original lay before us, and that full knowledge of the times which the excavation of
ancient Assyria may still yield to us, we might judge Nahum to be an even greater
poet than we do.
We have seen that there are some reasons for doubting whether he wrote the first
chapter of the book, but no one questions its fitness as an introduction to the
exultation over Nineveh’s fall in chapters 2 and 3. The chapter is theological,
affirming those general principles of Divine Providence, by which the overthrow of
the tyrant is certain and God’s own people are assured of deliverance. Let us place
ourselves among the people, who for so long a time had been thwarted, crushed, and
demoralized by the most brutal empire which was ever suffered to roll its force
across the world, and we shall sympathize with the author, who for the moment will
feel nothing about his God, save that He is a God of vengeance. Like the grief of a
bereaved man, the vengeance of an enslaved people has hours sacred to itself. And
this people had such a God! Jehovah must punish the tyrant, else were He untrue.
He had been patient, and patient, as a verse seems to hint, just because He was
omnipotent, but in the end He must rise to judgment. He was God of heaven and
earth, and it is the old physical proofs of His power, so often appealed to by the
peoples of the East, for they feel them as we cannot, which this hymn calls up as
Jehovah sweeps to the overthrow of the oppressor. "Before such power of wrath
who may stand? What think ye of Jehovah?" The God who works with such
ruthless, absolute force in nature will not relax in the fate He is preparing for
Nineveh. "He is one who maketh utter destruction," not needing to raise up His
forces a second time, and as stubble before fire so His foes go down before Him. No
half-measures are His, Whose are the storm, the drought, and the earthquake.
Such is the sheer religion of the Proem to the Book of Nahum-thoroughly Oriental
in its sense of God’s method and resources of destruction; very Jewish, and very
natural to that age of Jewish history, in the bursting of its long-pent hopes of
revenge. We of the West might express these hopes differently. We should not
attribute so much personal passion to the Avenger. With our keener sense of law, we
should emphasize the slowness of the process, and select for its illustration the forces
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12. of decay rather than those of sudden ruin. But we must remember the crashing
times in which the Jews lived. The world was breaking up. The elements were loose,
and all that God’s own people could hope for was the bursting of their yoke, with a
little shelter in the day of trouble. The elements were loose, but amidst the blind
crash the little people knew that Jehovah knew them.
"A God jealous and avenging is Jehovah; Jehovah is avenger and lord of wrath;
Vengeful is Jehovah towards His enemies, And implacable He to His foes."
"Jehovah is long-suffering and great in might, Yet He will not absolve. Jehovah! His
way is in storm and in hurricane, And clouds are the dust of His feet. He curbeth the
sea, and drieth it up; All the streams hath He parched. Withered be Bashan and
Carmel";
"The bloom of Lebanon is withered. Mountains have quaked before Him, And the
hills have rolled down. Earth heaved at His presence, The world and all its
inhabitants. Before His rage who may stand, Or who abide in the glow of His anger?
His wrath pours forth like fire, And rocks are rent before Him."
"Good is Jehovah to them that wait upon Him in the day of trouble, And He
knoweth them that trust Him. With an overwhelming flood He makes an end of His
rebels, And His foes He comes down on with darkness".
"What think ye of Jehovah? He is one that makes utter destruction; Not twice need
trouble arise. For though they be like plaited thorns, And sodden as They shall be
consumed like dry stubble".
"Came there not out of thee one to plan evil against Jehovah, A counselor of
mischief?"
"Thus saith Jehovah many waters, yet shall they be cut off and pass away, and I will
so humble thee that I need humble thee no more; and Jehovah hath ordered
concerning thee, that no more of thy seed be sown: from the house of thy God, I will
cut off graven and molten images. I will make thy sepulchre"
Disentangled from the above verses are three which plainly refer not to Assyria but
to Judah. How they came to be woven among the others we cannot tell. Some of
them appear applicable to the days of Josiah after the great Reform.
"And now will I break his yoke from upon thee, And burst thy bonds asunder."
"Lo, upon the mountains the feet of Him that bringeth good tidings, That
publisheth peace! Keep thy feasts, O Judah, fulfill thy vows:"
"For no more shall the wicked attempt to pass through thee; Cut off is the whole of
him. For Jehovah hath turned the pride of Jacob, Like to the pride of Israel For the
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13. plunderers plundered them, And destroyed their vine branches."
PARKER, "Verses 1-15
The Burden of Nineveh
Nahum 1
There is a sense in which every prophet must make a burden of his work. If he
himself had to do it all it would be nothing but burden. Instead of idealising the
word, making it poetical, bringing up before the eye of the mind some stalwart
pilgrim carrying his easy load upon his shoulder, think of it as a man whose heart is
sore because of the wickedness of the people, whose sleep is taken away from him
because night is turned into a day of wickedness and wrath. Think of a man who has
more to say than he can utter, whose tongue cannot keep pace with his heart
because his heart is full of the thunder and lightning of judgment, and full of the
music and pathos of gospel, and would utter itself incoherently, paradoxically, so
that men not versed in this species of eloquence would say, What doth this babbler
exclaim? for now he thunders, and now he whispers, and now he storms like a
whirlwind, and now he cries like a brokenhearted mother. What would he be at?
Yet through all this whirl and tumult and conflict must men come before they can
understand what the old prophets had to do in the name and strength of God.
Nahum writes a book. It was a curious thing to do in those days. It was a book of a
vision, and therefore likely to be quite misunderstood; for who has eyes that can see
visions of the shadowy aerial kind? Who but Moses could have seen the cloud,
histrionically treated, shaped into tabernacle and sanctuary and coming temple, as
the Lord took handfuls of cloud and scattered them about in apocalyptic vision, so
that the meek heart could see the new architecture? Only a visionist can read
visions. There are some men who ought never to attempt to read poetry, because
they kill it. They do not know that they are killing it, but their slaughter is none the
less complete. There are persons who ought not to read the lighter kinds of
literature, say even comedy itself, because they were born to live at the graveside,
and never have caught a laugh on the wing. Only those who have the inspired heart
can read the prophets, either major or minor, and understand what they are
about,—not understand what they are merely saying, but understand what they are
meaning. There is a common drift in all the prophecies, a set, a tendency in this
great biblical movement. Unless you comprehend that tendency or movement you
will be lost in the details of the dislocated parts. The Bible reveals God: now let all
the rest fall into proper adjustment under the influence of that dominant and
ennobling thought. How will Nahum talk about God? He will talk about God in his
own way. If every man would do that we should have a new and grand theology,
because we should have as many theologies as there are human beings reverently
engaged in the profound study of God. Every man sees his own aspect of the divine
Being; every man catches his own particular view of the Cross: hence a good deal of
the obstinacy that is found in theological controversy and religious disputation. A
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14. man cannot depersonalise himself, nor need he; what he wants to do is to
understand that every other man is also a student of the same mystery, and is also
blessed with some portion of the Spirit without whom there is no life, without whom
there can be no music in the soul. Hear Nahum:—
"God is jealous, and the Lord revengeth; the Lord revengeth, and is furious; the
Lord will take vengeance on his adversaries, and he reserveth wrath for his
enemies" ( Nahum 1:2).
That was true for the day. The prophecies of Nahum , however, do not consist of one
verse. The prophet will see another aspect presently, but he was true to the
revelation as it passed before him. It is poor preaching that harps upon the words,
"God is love"; because it does not take in the whole aspect of a manifold revelation.
Yet it does take in every aspect if we understood the meaning of the word "God,"
and the meaning of the word "love." Love is not softness, moral indifference,
spiritual turpitude, a sentiment that buys itself off from service by offering copious
tears; love is law, love is righteousness, love is anger. Love can be hot as
unquenchable fire. Our God is a consuming fire: God is love. Here is a man who
says, "God is jealous"; so he was at that moment. "The Lord revengeth"; so he was
doing when Nahum wrote. We want the real experience of men: What do you see of
God? How does the vision appear to you? Put it all down, day by day, for the bread
of the soul, as well as the bread of the body, is a daily donation of God. You need not
struggle to reconcile yesterday with to-day: the harmony of things does not lie under
your fingers; it is no trick wrought out by the cunning of man"s hand: the
solidarity, the unity, the music of the whole must be left to the sovereignty of the
sovereign God. You will not be out of harmony with your age if you write in your
book: God burns; God is an unquenchable fire; God scorches men. Put it down;
tomorrow you shall write otherwise.
Nahum did; said he: "The Lord is slow to anger." What, the same God that in the
second verse was jealous, furious, revenging, reserving wrath for his enemies? Yes.
Herein is the mystery of the total personality. "The Lord is slow to anger, and great
in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked." He does not drop into mere
sentiment. Nahum carries his law with him. Even when he says God is slow to anger
he admits the anger, and the slowness to it may be its assurance and its completeness
in the latter end. There are those who speak much of the God of nature. There are
now persons who are nature worshippers. They generally confine their services to a
particular condition of the atmosphere. Their worship is climatic and barometric.
They are great on sunny Sabbath mornings. When the churchgoer meets them and
says, "Where have you been this morning?" they say, "In the temple of nature,
hearing the lark or the thrush; watching the bees or the butterflies; inhaling the soft
health-laden breeze. A beautiful church is nature." All that is mere sound, not
worth the name of fury, yet joining the poet again when he says, "Like an idiot"s
tale." There is no such God of nature. The God of nature—he is described by the
prophet Nahum just as he is:—
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15. "The Lord hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the
dust of his feet. He rebuketh the sea, and maketh it dry, and drieth up all the rivers:
Bashan languisheth, and Carmel, and the flower of Lebanon languisheth. The
mountains quake at him, and the hills melt, and the earth is burned at his presence,
yea, the world, and all that dwell therein" ( Nahum 1:3-5).
That is the God of nature. Where are his worshippers now? Do you find them
standing on the mountain-top, drenched with rain, worshipping in the beautiful
temple of Nature? Never. By arrangement and of set purpose they may have been
caught in a tempest, but they never braved it in order to worship the God of nature.
They love to hear morning worship the lark; evening worship the nightingale;
delightful service the south-blowing breeze, the fragrant air. Away with such
mockery if you call that the God of nature! He is God of nature also when he
thunders and lightens, and shakes the mountains and melts the rocks. Where are
you, then, you lovers of the lark, and devotees of the nightingale, where are you
then? You speak of the God of nature as if he were the leading florist of the
universe, as if he were the chief gardener who had laid out all his walls and terraces
and parterres for your benefit. The God of nature can be as furious as the God of
the Church, or the God of the inner and spiritual temple. The Lord writes his whole
signature upon the volume of nature. On that volume he has written: "It is a fearful
thing to fall into the hands of the living God." Our God is a consuming fire: the
volcano is the inkhorn in which he dips his pen that he may write his fury, his
grandeur, and his sensitive majesty. We hold that the God of nature is the God of
the Bible, and that the God of nature properly and fully interpreted is just as many-
sided as is the God of revelation; and we protest against the squashy, useless,
pithless sentimentality that goes out on Sunday morning because the lark is singing,
and because the wind is in the south. That is the God of one side of nature; but the
God of nature is as complex as is the God of Nahum , set forth in the second and
third and following verses of his prophecy.
"Who can stand before his indignation?" One might imagine that all this is found
only in the Church; this is the ideal or poetic view of God; this is theology in blank
verse; this is the dream of a village mind; the high uplifting of one who has been
caught suddenly in a divine afflatus, and who speaks that which he does not
understand. Yet all that is in the Bible is written in nature, in germ, in hint, in
outline, in dim symbol, if we had the eye that could read such typology. And do
those who attend what is specifically called the Church care nothing for nature?
Contrariwise, they love it; it is the Christian poet that has made the flower blush
with subtlest, and just flattery; it is the Christian astronomer that has made night
blush by praising her reverently to her face. The Christian will find flowers where
atheism cannot find them. Christian prophecy has the faculty of causing stones to
rise up as children unto Abraham; Christian interpretation does not read things
into divine providence, but reads them out of it, saying always, We have not got the
whole secret of this root, there is more beauty in it, and with more sunshine we shall
get it all. History is the root out of which God grows flowers and wheat, great trees
and flowerets that little children may gather with their tiny hands. We protest
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16. against the division of the God of nature and the God of grace, the God of nature
and the God of Revelation , as if only atheists or agnostics had to do with the God of
nature, whilst Christians were worshipping some totally distinct being. Christians
claim both. Nature and revelation are God in two volumes. Is he a wise reader who,
having been entranced in the first volume of the drama, simply declines to read the
second? What shall we say of his entrancement when he flushes with the purple of
wonder, and expands under the enthusiasm of delighted gratitude, because he has
read the first volume, but says he will have nothing to do with the volume that
succeeds it? Such indifference to the succeeding volume throws suspicion upon the
reality of his admiration when he offers that mockery to volume one. In Nahum you
find the God of the book and the God of nature, the God of moral attributes and the
God of majestic Revelation , in the forms, the palpitations, and the changing colours
of this dissolving scene.
Nahum is strong in contrasts. Hear him: "The Lord is good"—what! the Lord who
is jealous?—"a stronghold in the day of trouble"—what! the God who is
"furious"?—Yes. Now the contrast: "But with an overrunning flood he will make
an utter end of the place thereof, and darkness shall pursue his enemies." Then it is
a division of character. "He knoweth them that trust in him"; that is character:
"and darkness shall pursue his enemies"; that is character. It is character that is
elected, predestinated; it is character that is doomed from all eternity. It is one of
two things: a savour of life unto life, or a savour of death unto death; a trusting soul,
or a hostile spirit. In the one case the Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of
trouble when nobody else wants you; in the other it is night sevenfold, following like
an infinite beast of prey, the enemy of righteousness and light, truth and love. We
have advanced nothing beyond this position taken up by the prophet The God of the
New Testament is as jealous as the God of the Old Testament, and the God revealed
by our blessed and only Saviour Christ Jesus is as loving in the Old Testament as in
the New. Hebrew seems better made for expressing tenderness than Greek; Hebrew
can fondle the reader, embrace him; Hebrew can whisper better than Greek can.
Greek has its own music, but not that rich, round, deep, mellow music that follows
the soul through the darkness, yea, through the valley of the shadow of
death:—"Like as a father pitieth"; "The Lord is my shepherd"; "The Lord is very
pitiful": these are Hebrew whispers, and there is nothing in New Testament music
other than in quality. The New Testament has its own accent and individualism, but
the New Testament represents the same God as the Old Testament; Nahum and
Paul discourse concerning the same attributes. If any man therefore shall be in the
seventh verse of Nahum he will be saying, The Lord is good; I know it; he has dried
my tears, he has directed my steps, he has held me up in all my goings; though I
have fallen I have not been utterly cast down. He is a stronghold in the day of
trouble; when my nearest, dearest friend did not know me the Lord received me,
and when my father and my mother forsook me, then the Lord took me up, and I
have had a habitation in his pavilion all my life. If another man should be in the
eighth verse he will discourse of the same God in other terms, calling him an
overrunning flood, calling him an infinite aggregation of darkness. The explanation
will not be found in the variety of poetic conception, but in the consistence of
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17. spiritual character. God is to us what we are to God; to the froward he will show
himself froward; to the humble he will come with that sweeping condescension as
graceful as it is noiseless, an insinuation not a patronage.
Then Nahum will not let the enemy alone. He says: "For while they be folden
together as thorns... they shall be devoured as stubble fully dry." Here he is
referring to the intricacies of sin,—"folden together as thorns," so interwrapped
and intervolved that it is simply impossible to perform the task of unravelment. Will
the Lord pick with patient fingers all the intertwinings of these intricate
perplexities? No. What will he do with them? Burn them! We had not thought of
that: we had looked at the intricacy, the difficulty, the manifold perplexity, and said,
Surely God"s own patience cannot overtake this task; we wondered how God would
come out of a difficulty so obvious and so complete: we had forgotten the fire. There
could be no universe without fire; there could be no life without fire. Blood is fire;
life is fire—controlled, inspired, set to work by a sovereign agency. We had
forgotten hell. It is a poor ministry that has no perdition in it. It may be a popular
ministry. There have been persons who would not go to church because they would
not hear the minister pronouncing the punishment or wrath of God against
evildoing. They would go to hear the lark. That lark will ruin them. They have got
hold of the wrong meaning of that bird"s note. There is not a lark in the whole cage
of the firmament that is not praising God. But some persons can only take one view
of the singing bird. If that bird could break the harmonies of the universe, the
universe would soon find a grave for it Nothing that mars the music can live long;
only that which swells the infinite cadence is permitted to enjoy immortality. You
have laid cunning schemes; you have made the nights overlap one another; you have
doubled back on your own journey so that the detective shall not pursue you; you
have laid your plan so skilfully and subtly as to defy detection; you have made a
mark here and left a signature there, and you have overturned all natural
sequences, and so gone back upon yourself as to roll your life together into a
perplexity. Now, say you, what will God do with me? Burn you! You had better
know it. But there is one thing you can do which will prevent the burning; you can
turn and live—"Turn ye, turn ye! Why will ye die?" It is not God burning as an act
of vengeance; it is the universe taking up God"s purpose and applying it, and that
purpose is that all evil shall be burned. No house can do without its fire, and God"s
own voice cannot do without its flame—searching, penetrating, disinfecting,
everlasting. This is right, this is loving. It is not love that permits the pestilence to
wreak under the child"s throat; it is not love that says, The miasma is rising thickly,
and the dear child is in its chamber sleeping; open the window, let the miasma have
full play. I love my child, and therefore I cannot interfere with the play and scope of
this miasmatic vapour. Love says, Burn it, or the child may be killed.
Nahum represents what we have often forgotten, namely, that God controls and
directs all history.
"And the Lord hath given a commandment concerning thee, that no more of thy
name be sown: out of the house of thy gods will I cut off the graven image and the
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18. molten image: I will make thy grave; for thou art vile" ( Nahum 1:14).
That is how history is made. We wonder how certain houses have run to nothing.
God did it We have said, Where are the great and the mighty who ruled the
civilisation of gone ages? The Lord said, "No more of thy name shall be sown": that
seed is done, the crop must be changed. It is thus that God keeps the fields of life
going; it is thus that God intermixes the growths of civilisation and progress, so that
we belong to one another. The great man has a club foot. He did not want it. No: but
that connects him with a certain part of his ancestry that he ought not to forget. The
poor man is disabled and humiliated and racked with pain; true: but in intervals he
writes for immortality; his thoughts are birds that sing for evermore. He did not
want to have that ailing, aching, rheumatic, staggering frame; but God reminds him
that he is aristocratically descended by the mind. How often that lineage is
forgotten! Is a man descended from some duke who murdered men? Then his
remotest scion is supposed to be a gentleman. But is there no lineage coming down
from Isaiah and Ezekiel , from the poets, the thinkers, the leaders of the world"s
highest thought? On one side of your nature you are as plebeian as the clods you
plough; on the other, by your power of prayer you are taken into the masonry of the
angels, by your gift of thought you have a chief seat in the assembly of the
immortals, by a tender soothing sympathy you are invited to sit with Christ on his
throne. There are two lineages: the lineage of the bones, which may come to much or
nothing as the case may be; and the lineage of the soul, aristocratic as God. We
cannot be engrafted into the lower lineage, but, blessed be that Cross that makes
Calvary the pivot of the universe, blessed be that Cross that makes heaven possible
to the worst, each of us may be taken into the household of God, may be
enfranchised in the Jerusalem that is above, may be set among the stars that shall go
out no more for ever. To declare this is to preach the everlasting gospel.
NISBET, "NAHUM: A STUDY
‘The vision of Nahum the Elkoshite.’
Nahum 1:1
It may be affirmed, without fear of contradiction, that the Book of the prophet
Nahum is amongst the least known and studied of all the prophetical books of the
Old Testament. Why this should be the case it is not so easy to say, for as a poet
Nahum occupies a very high place in Hebrew literature. His style is clear, forcible,
and picturesque, his diction sonorous, rhythmical, and majestic; and the entire
prophecy, which is one connected whole, is thoroughly original, intensely
interesting, and indicative of great poetic talent.
Nothing is known of Nahum save what he himself tells us. His name means ‘rich in
mercy,’ or ‘rich in courtesy.’ He appears to have been a man of some distinction, as
the town of Capernaum is generally considered to have received its name from him.
The time when the prophecy was written is also matter of dispute. Internal evidence
points to the latter years of Hezekiah’s reign. The condition of Assyria in the time of
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19. Sennacherib corresponds with the state of things so graphically described in the
prophecy, and it is probable that this description was written by Nahum in or near
Jerusalem, where he might have seen with his own eyes the ‘valiant men in scarlet,’
the chariots flashing with steel,’ and the ‘spears shaken terribly.’
I. The picture which he presents to us is in striking accord with the Assyrian
sculptures and inscriptions.—The luxury and magnificence of the inhabitants of
Nineveh are noted, but also he exhibits the Assyrian as a nation delighting in war,
constantly engaged in a series of aggressions upon his neighbours. He shows us the
army divided into distinct corps, the most important of which are the chariots and
the horsemen. He speaks of the flashing sword and glittering spear as the chief
weapons, and mentions the movable forts, which we see depicted frequently on the
sculptured monuments by those artists who love to represent the favourite habits
and practices of the Assyrians.
II. The whole Book contains but one prophecy.—There is a unity of aim
throughout; and a beautiful sequence of thought is apparent from beginning to end,
with only three resting-places, well indicated by the division of chapters.
The prophet introduces his subject to us as a vision vouchsafed to him by the
Almighty, and he records what he has seen in the Spirit, for the comforting and
strengthening of his people in the midst of their heavy sorrow and deep distress.
What folly, what madness, to fight against the Lord! What plans canst thou, O
Assyrian, think out against Him? True, thou hast conquered many nations,
ruthlessly demolishing their chief cities, and the gods of these nations delivered them
not out of thine hand (Isaiah 37:12). But these were false gods. Now thou hast to
deal with the God of Israel, the very and true God, the only God. He ‘will make a
full end’ of thee. So utter will be the destruction that it will not be necessary to strike
a ‘second time.’ Thine armies shall be consumed like thorn-bushes gathered together
for burning. Even though they be ‘drenched, as it were, in their drink,’ they shall be
as stubble fully dry.
Hitherto the prophet had spoken in his own name; now he confirms his statement
by declaring that God Himself has so spoken: ‘Thus saith the Lord.’ The same
truths which the prophet declared are now repeated. Though Nineveh be in her full
strength, in the height of her power, boasting in her security from harm, trusting in
her vast resources and the countless multitudes of her inhabitants, yet she ‘shall
pass away,’ and this passing away shall be through the great affliction with which
Nineveh should be afflicted, so great that there should be no need for its repetition.
III. In the midst of judgment the Lord remembers mercy, and therefore turns away
for a brief moment from the Assyrian to address words of comfort and consolation
to Judah, to strengthen and encourage His oppressed people when the ruin now
threatened should become an accomplished fact.—He would make all things work
together for their good, if they would but put their trust in Him. Nineveh’s yoke had
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20. been a burden almost too heavy for Judah to bear.
IV. When he had spoken this word of encouragement to Israel, the prophet turns
again to Nineveh.—He gives the reason why she, who is addressed as ‘the wicked
one,’ shall no more ‘pass through’ Israel to disturb. She must look to her own
defences, she must prepare herself against the invader, for ‘he that dasheth in
pieces’ is even now at hand, his army drawn up in battle-array before her very face.
The prophet calls on Nineveh to ‘watch the way,’ ‘to fortify her power,’ but he
speaks ironically, knowing well that all her preparations should be in vain, because
the time for her destruction was at hand. How graphically does the prophet describe
the whole scene! All passes in vision before the eyes of his mind. He speaks as
though he were an eye-witness of the battle, the siege, and the final assault in which
Nineveh became the prey of all those horrors which usually befell in those days a
conquered city given over to plunder. He sees in vision the burnished bronze shields
reflecting the sun’s rays, the chariots flashing with steel, the spears shaken and
deftly hurled. In vain the Assyrian chariots rush to the rescue; in vain does the great
king rely on his ‘worthies’; in vain do the best of his warriors man the walls. They
can make no stand against the battering-rams of the enemy. The gates yield; the
Medes pour in through them; the palace is in the hands of the foe, the queen a
prisoner, the people fugitives. A few make a last desperate effort to retrieve the day
by throwing themselves in the way of those who had taken to flight. ‘Stand,’ say
they; ‘close up your ranks, citizens, soldiers of a country that has never been
conquered. Why yield now? why turn your backs?’ In vain. They cannot induce
them to return. The flight becomes general; the city is taken; the maidens are
carried away ‘mourning as with the voice of doves,’ beating their breasts in anguish.
As the prophet contemplates the ruins, he exclaims, ‘Where is the den of the lions,
and the feeding place of the young lions?’ The questions were asked in amazement,
so incredible did it seem that this great Assyrian capital, now in the full tide of her
glory and grandeur, the oppressor and corrupter of nations, should so soon become
a charred and blackened ruin. Nay, so complete should be the overthrow that the
very site would not be known. But Jehovah was against Nineveh. Her iniquities were
filled up. The time of her punishment was at hand.
V. The third chapter introduces the reader again into the very midst of the fight.—
The prophet repeats what he had said in the closing verses of the preceding chapter.
He states the cause of Nineveh’s downfall, and adds that her fall will be unpitied
and unlamented. Again we hear the solemn words, ‘Behold, I am against thee.’ But
there are new features added. As we read we seem to hear the sound of the whips
and the rattling of the wheels; we see the horses rushing on to battle, men mounting,
swords flashing, spears glittering, and the last decisive stand marked by the number
of the slain, the heaps of carcases, and the piled-up corpses. Oh, how vast was the
overthrow, and in her distress there were none to bemoan her, none to comfort her.
Nay, all that hear should ‘clap their hands,’ and all who look on her should say,
‘Nineveh is laid waste; who will bemoan her?’
20

21. Then the author himself, giving expression to his own pitiless thoughts, says, ‘Did
not No-Amon perish without mercy and without one to comfort her?’ She, like
Nineveh, was built on the river’s bank, surrounded by water, protected by her very
position, the sea forming a rampart, and Ethiopia and Egypt, her allies, close at
hand to aid and assist, Put and Lubim likewise ready to help, but all in vain. Art
thou then better than No-Amon, which, notwithstanding her strength and the
apparently impregnable character of her position, miserably perished? No-Amon’s
fate is an illustration, a prophecy, of thine. Thy shepherds,—i.e. the princes and
captains of the people—slumber. They sleep at their posts. The sheep are scattered.
There is no hope. So deadly is the wound, there is ‘no assuaging of thy hurt.’ Instead
of this great overthrow exciting pity or causing sorrow, all rejoice. All had suffered,
all had been oppressed, for ‘upon whom hath not thy wickedness passed
continually?’ Therefore, all who hear the report of the catastrophe will ‘clap their
hands’ in joy, seeing in thy fall a just retribution of Heaven.
—Rev. J. J. Dillon.
Illustration
‘This is the doom of a city which was proud and overbearing and oppressive. It was
not merely with the Nineveh of Old Testament times, it is with cities and
communities to-day, that the God of righteousness takes to do. There is much in my
native land to fill me with satisfaction and joy. I am glad to be a citizen of Britain,
this royal throne of kings, this sceptred isle, this happy breed of men, this little
world, this precious stone set in the silver sea. Surely, mine is the queen of
commonwealths and empires. But there is much, too, in my country to awaken in me
concern and penitence and misgiving, if I am a Christian man. The greed of gain,
the overweening self-reliance, the national sins which inflict so dark a stain, the
irreligiousness, the failure to ask in public affairs for the will and commandment of
Christ, the forgetfulness of all God’s benefits in the past and in the present: these
things should make me blush, and should send me to my knees in confession and
prayer. The Lord preserve Britain from the destruction which swept Nineveh away.
The Lord sanctify the social and political and commercial life of Britain, that she
may be free from Nineveh’s unbelief and evil.’
PETT, "Verse 1
Chapter 1. Declaration of Judgment on Assyria and Deliverance for God’s People.
‘The burden of Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite.’
‘The burden of Nineveh’ - prophecy was not easy, it came as a burden on the
prophets as they had to speak of dreadful events. They carried the weight of God’s
wrath and men’s misdeeds on their shoulder. That is ever the lot of the true people
of God. The burden came by way of vision. In this case it concerned the destruction
of Nineveh, that great capital city of Assyria, which since the time of Sennacherib
had ruled the world. It had been extended and beautified through the suffering and
deaths of many thousands of slaves at work on its buildings. It was the consequence
of the ruination and devastation of many countries. It was based on a policy of
21

22. transferring of large numbers of peoples from their homelands to exist in foreign
countries which were strange to them, so as to keep them pacified. And it was a
result of draining the wealth of the nations.
The prophecy is said to have been specifically written in book form, and to consist of
a vision given by God to Nahum the Elkoshite. The name Nahum was fairly
common, and is born witness to extensively in North-Western Semitic languages and
probably means ‘full of comfort’. The message he brought was one of comfort to the
world in the light of what Assyria had been. We do not really know where Elkosh
was, but it was probably in Judah.
PULPIT, "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. λῆμμα here, and elsewhere ὄρασις, and ῥῆμα. Some prefer
to render it "utterance," or "oracle." The word is capable of either meaning. It
almost always (except, perhaps, in Zechariah 12:1) introduces a threat of judgment.
Of Nineveh. The denunciation of this city is the object of the prophecy. The effect of
Jonah's preaching had been only temporary; the reformation was partial and
superficial; and now God's long suffering was wearied out, and the time of
punishment was to come. (For an account of Nineveh, see note on Jonah 1:2.) Some
critics have deemed one part of the title an interpolation; but the connection of the
two portions is obvious, and without the former we should not know the object of
the prophet's denunciation till Nahum 2:8. The book of the vision. This is the second
title, in apposition with the former, and defining it more closely as the Book in
which was written the prophecy of Nahum. It is called a "vision," because what the
prophet foretold was presented to his mental sight, and stood plainly before him
(comp. Isaiah 1:1). The Elkoshite; i.e. native of Elkosh, for which, see Introduction,
§ II.
BI, "The book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite.
Nahum’s book
Nahum writes a book. It was a curious thing to do in those days. It was a book of a
vision, and therefore likely to be quite misunderstood; for who has eyes that can see
visions of the shadowy, aerial kind? Only a visionist can read visions. There are some
men who ought never to attempt to read poetry, because they kill it. They do not know
that they are killing it, but their slaughter is none the less complete. There are persons
who ought not to read the lighter kinds of literature, say even comedy itself, because they
were born to live at the graveside, and never have caught a laugh on the wing. Only those
who have the inspired heart can read the prophets, either major or minor, and
understand what they are about,—not understand what they are merely saying, but
understand what they are meaning. There is a common drift in all the prophecies, a set, a
tendency in this great biblical movement. Unless you comprehend that tendency or
22

23. movement you will be lost in the details of the dislocated parts. The Bible reveals God;
now let all the rest fall into proper adjustment under the influence of that dominant and
ennobling thought. How will Nahum talk about God? He will talk about God in his own
way. If every man would do that we should have a new and grand theology, because we
should have as many theologies as there are human beings reverently engaged in the
profound study of God. Every man sees his own aspect of the Divine Being; every man
catches his own particular view of the Cross; hence a good deal of the obstinacy that is
found in theological controversy and religious disputation. (Joseph Parker, D. D.)
The Lord’s Anger Against Nineveh
2 The Lord is a jealous and avenging God;
the Lord takes vengeance and is filled with
wrath.
The Lord takes vengeance on his foes
and vents his wrath against his enemies.
BARNES, "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 vengeance, and that He who
inflicts it, is the All-Holy Trinity, who have a care for the elect. God’s jealousy is twofold.
It is an intense love, not bearing imperfections or unfaithfulness in that which It loves,
and so chastening it; or not bearing the ill-dealings of those who would injure what It
loves, and so destroying them. To Israel He had revealed Himself as “a Exo_20:5-6
jealous God, visiting iniquity but shewing mercy;” here, as jealous for His people against
those who were purely His enemies and the enemies of His people (see Zec_1:14), and so
His jealousy burns to their destruction, in that there is in them no good to be refined,
but only evil to be consumed.
The titles of God rise in awe; first, “intensely jealous” and “an Avenger;” then, “an
Avenger and a Lord of wrath;” One who hath it laid up with Him, at His Command, and
the more terrible, because it is so; the Master of it, (not, as man, mastered by it; having
it, to withhold or to discharge; yet so discharging it, at last, the more irrevocably on the
23

24. finally impenitent. And this He says at the last, “an Avenger to His adversaries,”
(literally, “those who hem and narrow Him in”). The word “avenged” is almost
appropriated to God in the Old Testament, as to punishment which He inflicts, or at
least causes to be inflicted , whether on individuals Gen_4:15, Gen_4:24; 1Sa_24:12;
2Sa_4:8; 2Ki_9:7; Jer_11:20; Jer_15:15; Jer_20:12, or upon a people, (His own Lev_
26:25; Psa_99:8; Eze_24:8 or their enemies Deu_32:41, Deu_32:43; Psa_18:48; Isa_
34:8; Isa_35:4; Isa_47:3; Isa_59:17; Isa_61:2; Isa_63:4; Mic_5:14; Jer_46:10; Jer_
50:15, Jer_50:28; Jer_51:6, Jer_51:11, Jer_51:36; Eze_25:14, Eze_25:17, for their
misdeeds. In the main it is a defect . Personal vengeance is mentioned only in characters,
directly or indirectly censured, as Samson Jdg_15:7; Jdg_16:20 or Saul . It is forbidden
to man, punished in him, claimed by God as His own inalienable right. “Vengeance is
Mine and requital” (Deu_32:35, compare Psa_94:1). “Thou shalt not avenge nor keep up
against the children of My people” Lev_19:18. Yet it is spoken of, not as a mere act of
God, but as the expression of His Being. “Shall not My soul be avenged of such a nation
as this?” Jer_5:9, Jer_5:29; Jer_9:9.
And a Reserver of wrath for His enemies - The hardened and unbelieving who
hate God, and at last, when they had finally rejected God and were rejected by Him, the
object of His aversion. It is spoken after the manner of men, yet therefore is the more
terrible. There is that in God, to which the passions of man correspond; they are a false
imitation of something which in Him is good, a distortion of the true likeness of God, in
which God created us and whisk man by sin defaced. : “Pride doth imitate exaltedness:
whereas Thou Alone art God exalted over all. Ambition, what seeks it, but honors and
glory? Whereas Thou alone art to be honored above all and glorious for evermore. The
cruelty of the great would fain be feared; but who is to be feared but God alone, out of
whose power what can be wrested or withdrawn, when, or where, or whither, or by
whom? The tendernesses of the wanton would fain be counted love: yet is nothing more
tender than Thy charity; nor is aught loved more healthfully than that Thy truth, bright
and beautiful above all. Curiosity makes semblance of a desire of knowledge; whereas
Thou supremely knowest all. Yea, ignorance and foolishness itself is cloaked under the
name of simplicity and uninjuriousness: because nothing is found more single than
Thee; and what less injurious, since they are his own works which injure the sinner?
Yea, sloth would fain be at rest; but what stable rest beside the Lord? Luxury affects to
be called plenty and abundance; but Thou art the fullness and never-failing
plenteousness of incorruptible pleasures. Prodigality presents a shadow of liberality: but
Thou art the most overflowing Giver of all good. Covetousness would possess many
things; and Thou possessest all things. Envy disputes for excellency: what more excellent
than Thou? Anger seeks revenge: who revenges more justly than Thou? Fear startles at
things unaccustomed or sudden, which endanger things beloved, and takes forethought
for their safety; but to Thee what unaccustomed or sudden, or who separats from Thee
what Thou lovest? Or where but with Thee is unshaken safety? Grief pines away for
things lost, the delight of its desires; because it would have nothing taken from it, as
nothing can from Thee. Thus doth the soul seek without Thee what she finds not pure
and untainted, until she returns to Thee. Thus, all pervertedly imitate Thee, who remove
far from Thee, and lift themselves up against Thee. But even by thus imitating Thee, they
imply Thee to be the Creator of all nature; whence there is no place, whither altogether
to retire from Thee.” And so, in man, the same qualities are good or bad, as they have
God or self for their end. : “The joy of the world is a passion. Joy in the Holy Spirit or to
joy in the Lord is a virtue. The sorrow of the world is a passion. The sorrow according to
God which works salvation is a virtue. The fear of the world which hath torment, from
24

25. which a man is called fearful, is a passion. The holy tear of the Lord, which abides
forever, from which a man is called reverential, is a virtue. The hope of the world, when
one’s hope is in the world or the princes of the world, is a passion. Hope in God is a
virtue, as well as faith and charity. Though these four human passions are not in God,
there are four virtues, having the same names, which no one can have, save from God,
from the Spirit of God.” in man they are “passions,” because man is so far “passive” and
suffers under them, and, through original sin, cannot hinder having them, though by
God’s grace he may hold them in.
God, without passion and in perfect holiness, has qualities, which in man were
jealousy, wrath, vengeance, unforgivingness, a “rigor of perfect justice toward the
impenitent, which punishes so severely, as though God had fury;” only, in Him it is
righteous to punish man’s unrighteousness. Elsewhere it is said, “God keepeth not for
ever” Psa_103:9, or it is asked, “will He keep forever?” Jer_3:5, and He answers,
“Return, and I will not cause Mine anger to fall upon you, for I am merciful, saith the
Lord, I will not keep for ever” Jer_3:12. Man’s misdeeds and God’s displeasure remain
with God, to be effaced on man’s repentance, or “by his hardness and impenitent heart
man treasureth up unto himself wrath in the day of wrath and of the revelation of the
righteous judgment of God, who will reward each according to his works” Rom_2:5-6.
CLARKE, "God is jealous - For his own glory.
And - revengeth - His justice; by the destruction of his enemies.
And is furious - So powerful in the manifestations of his judgments, that nothing
can stand before him.
He reserveth wrath - Though they seem to prosper for a time, and God appears to
have passed by their crimes without notice, yet he reserveth - treasureth up - wrath for
them, which shall burst forth in due time.
GILL, "God is jealous, and the Lord revengeth,.... He is jealous of his own honour
and glory, and for his own worship and ordinances; and will not give his glory to
another, nor his praise to graven images; and therefore will punish all idolaters, and
particularly the idolatrous Assyrians: he is jealous for his people, and cannot bear to see
them injured; and will avenge the affronts that are offered, and the indignities done unto
them:
the Lord revengeth, and is furious; or, is "master of wrath" (u); full of it, or has it at
his command; can restrain it, and let it out as he pleases, which man cannot do; a furious
and passionate man, who has no rule over his spirit. The Lord's revenging is repeated for
the confirmation of it; yea, it is a third time observed, as follows; which some of the
Jewish writers think has respect to the three times the king of Assyria carried the people
of Israel captive, and for which the Lord would be revenged on him, and punish him:
the Lord will take vengeance on his adversaries; on all his adversaries;
particularly the Assyrians are here meant, who were both the enemies of him and of his
people. The Targum explains it,
"that hate his people:''
25

26. vengeance belongs to the Lord, and he will repay it sooner or later; if not immediately,
he will hereafter; for it follows:
and he reserveth wrath for his enemies: and them for that; if not in this world, yet
in the world to come; he lays it up among his treasures, and brings it forth at his
pleasure. The word "wrath" is not in the text; it is not said what he reserves for the
enemies of himself and church; it is inconceivable and inexpressible.
HENRY, "Nineveh knows not God, that God that contends with her, and therefore is
here told what a God he is; and it is good for us all to mix faith with that which is here
said concerning him, which speaks a great deal of terror to the wicked and comfort to
good people; for this glorious description of the Sovereign of the world, like the pillar of
cloud and fire, has a bright side towards Israel and a dark side towards the Egyptians.
Let each take his portion from it; let sinners read it and tremble; let saints read it and
triumph. The wrath of God is here revealed from heaven against him enemies, his favour
and mercy are here assured to his faithful loyal subjects, and his almighty power in both,
making his wrath very terrible and his favour very desirable.
I. He is a God of inflexible justice, a jealous God, and will take vengeance on his
enemies; let Nineveh know this, and tremble before him. Their idols are insignificant
things; there is nothing formidable in them. But the God of Israel is greatly to be feared;
for, 1. He resents the affronts and indignities done him by those that deny his being or
any of his perfections, that set up other gods in competition with him, that destroy his
laws, arraign his proceedings, ridicule his word, or are abusive to his people. Let such
know that Jehovah, the one only living and true God, is a jealous God, and a revenger;
he is jealous for the comfort of his worshippers, jealous for his land (Joe_2:18), and will
not have that injured. He is a revenger, and he is furious; he has fury (so the word is),
not as man has it, in whom it is an ungoverned passion (so he has said, Fury is not in
me, Isa_27:4), but he has it in such a way as becomes the righteous God, to put an edge
upon his justice, and to make it appear more terrible to those who otherwise would
stand in no awe of it. He is Lord of anger (so the Hebrew phrase is for that which we
read, he is furious); he has anger, but he has it at command and under government. Our
anger is often lord over us, as theirs that have no rule over their own spirits, but God is
always Lord of his anger and weighs a path to it, Psa_78:50. 2. He resolves to reckon
with those that put those affronts upon him. We are told here, not only that he is a
revenger, but that he will take vengeance; he has said he will, he has sworn it, Deu_
32:40, Deu_32:41. Whoever are his adversaries and enemies among men, he will make
them feel his resentments; and, though the sentence against his enemies is not executed
speedily, yet he reserves wrath for them and reserves them for it in the day of wrath.
Against his own people, who repent and humble themselves before him, he keeps not his
anger for ever, but against his enemies he will for ever let out his anger. He will not at
all acquit the wicked that sin, and stand to it, and do not repent, Nah_1:3. Those
wickedly depart from their God that depart, and never return (Psa_18:21), and these he
will not acquit. Humble supplicants will find him gracious, but scornful beggars will not
find him easy, or that the door of mercy will be opened to a loud, but late, Lord, Lord.
This revelation of the wrath of God against his enemies is applied to Nineveh (Nah_1:8),
and should be applied by all those to themselves who go on still in their trespasses: With
an over-running flood he will make an utter end of the place thereof. The army of the
Chaldeans shall overrun the country of the Assyrians, and lay it all waste. God's
26

27. judgments, when they come with commission, are like a deluge to any people, which
they cannot keep off nor make head against. Darkness shall pursue his enemies; terror
and trouble shall follow them, whitersoever they go, shall pursue them to utter darkness;
if they think to flee from the darkness which pursues them they will but fall into that
which is before them.
JAMISON, "jealous — In this there is sternness, yet tender affection. We are jealous
only of those we love: a husband, of a wife; a king, of his subjects’ loyalty. God is jealous
of men because He loves them. God will not bear a rival in His claims on them. His
burning jealousy for His own wounded honor and their love, as much as His justice,
accounts for all His fearful judgments: the flood, the destruction of Jerusalem, that of
Nineveh. His jealousy will not admit of His friends being oppressed, and their enemies
flourishing (compare Exo_20:5; 1Co_16:22; 2Co_11:2). Burning zeal enters into the
idea in “jealous” here (compare Num_25:11, Num_25:13; 1Ki_19:10).
the Lord revengeth ... Lord revengeth — The repetition of the incommunicable
name Jehovah, and of His revenging, gives an awful solemnity to the introduction.
furious — literally, “a master of fury.” So a master of the tongue, that is, “eloquent.”
“One who, if He pleases, can most readily give effect to His fury” [Grotius]. Nahum has
in view the provocation to fury given to God by the Assyrians, after having carried away
the ten tribes, now proceeding to invade Judea under Hezekiah.
reserveth wrath for his enemies — reserves it against His own appointed time
(2Pe_2:9). After long waiting for their repentance in vain, at length punishing them. A
wrong estimate of Jehovah is formed from His suspending punishment: it is not that He
is insensible or dilatory, but He reserves wrath for His own fit time. In the case of the
penitent, He does not reserve or retain His anger (Psa_103:9; Jer_3:5, Jer_3:12; Mic_
7:18).
K&D, "The description of the divine justice, and its judicial manifestation on the earth,
with which Nahum introduces his prophecy concerning Nineveh, has this double object:
first of all, to indicate the connection between the destruction of the capital of the
Assyrian empire, which is about to be predicted, and the divine purpose of salvation; and
secondly, to cut off at the very outset all doubt as to the realization of this judgment.
Nah_1:2. “A God jealous and taking vengeance is Jehovah; an avenger is Jehovah, and
Lord of wrathful fury; an avenger is Jehovah to His adversaries, and He is One
keeping wrath to His enemies. Nah_1:3. Jehovah is long-suffering and of great
strength, and He does not acquit of guilt. Jehovah, His way is in the storm and in the
tempest, and clouds are the dust of His feet.” The prophecy commences with the words
with which God expresses the energetic character of His holiness in the decalogue (Exo_
20:5, cf. Exo_34:14; Deu_4:24; Deu_5:9; and Jos_24:19), where we find the form ‫נּוֹא‬ ַ‫ק‬
for ‫א‬ָ‫נּ‬ ַ‫.ק‬ Jehovah is a jealous God, who turns the burning zeal of His wrath against them
that hate Him (Deu_6:15). His side of the energy of the divine zeal predominates here,
as the following predicate, the three-times repeated ‫ם‬ ֵ‫ֹק‬‫נ‬, clearly shows. The
strengthening of the idea of nōqēm involved in the repetition of it three times (cf. Jer_
7:4; Jer_22:29), is increased still further by the apposition ba'al chēmâh, possessor of the
wrathful heat, equivalent to the wrathful God (cf. Pro_29:22; Pro_22:24). The
27

28. vengeance applies to His adversaries, towards whom He bears ill-will. Nâtar, when
predicated of God, as in Lev_19:18 and Psa_103:9, signifies to keep or bear wrath. God
does not indeed punish immediately; He is long-suffering (‫ם‬ִ‫י‬ ַ‫אַפּ‬ ְ‫ך‬ ֶ‫ר‬ ֶ‫,א‬ Exo_34:6; Num_
14:18, etc.). His long-suffering is not weak indulgence, however, but an emanation from
His love and mercy; for He is ge
dōl-kōăch, great in strength (Num_14:17), and does not
leave unpunished (‫וגו‬ ‫ה‬ ֵ‫קּ‬ַ‫נ‬ after Exo_34:7 and Num_14:18; see at Exo_20:7). His great
might to punish sinners, He has preserved from of old; His way is in the storm and
tempest. With these words Nahum passes over to a description of the manifestations of
divine wrath upon sinners in great national judgments which shake the world (‫ה‬ ָ‫ר‬ ָ‫ע‬ ְ‫שׂ‬ as in
Job_9:17 = ‫ה‬ ָ‫ר‬ ָ‫ע‬ ְ‫,ס‬ which is connected with ‫ה‬ ָ‫סוּפ‬ in Isa_29:6 and Psa_83:16). These and
similar descriptions are founded upon the revelations of God, when bringing Israel out
of Egypt, and at the conclusion of the covenant at Sinai, when the Lord came down upon
the mountain in clouds, fire, and vapour of smoke (Exo_19:16-18). Clouds are the dust
of His feet. The Lord comes down from heaven in the clouds. As man goes upon the dust,
so Jehovah goes upon the clouds.
CALVIN, "Nahum begins with the nature of God, that what he afterwards subjoins
respecting the destruction of Nineveh might be more weighty, and produce a greater
impression on the hearers. The preface is general, but the Prophet afterwards
applies it to a special purpose. If he had only spoken of what God is, it would have
been frigid at least it would have been less efficacious; but when he connects both
together, then his doctrine carries its own force and power. We now apprehend the
design of the Prophet. He might indeed have spoken of the fall of the city Nineveh:
but if he had referred to this abruptly, profane men might have regarded him with
disdain; and even the Israelites would have been perhaps less affected. This is the
reason why he shows, in a general way, what sort of Being God is. And he takes his
words from Moses; and the Prophets are wont to borrow from him their doctrine:
(208) and it is from that most memorable vision, when God appeared to Moses after
the breaking of the tables. I have therefore no doubt but that Nahum had taken
from Exodus 34:0 what we read here: he does not, indeed, give literally what is
found there; but it is sufficiently evident that he paints, as it were, to the life, the
image of God, by which his nature may be seen.
He says first, that God is jealous; (amulus — emulous); for the verb ‫,קנא‬ kona,
means to irritate, and also to emulate, and to envy. When God is said to be ‫,קנוא‬
konua, the Greeks render it jealous, ‫,זחכשפחם‬ and the Latins, emulous,
(amulatorem) But it properly signifies, that God cannot bear injuries or wrongs.
Though God then for a time connives at the wickedness of men? he will yet be the
defender of his own glory. He calls him afterwards the avenger, and he repeats this
three times, Jehovah avengeth, Jehovah avengeth and possesseth wrath, he will
avenge. When he says that God keeps for his enemies, he means that vengeance is
28

29. reserved for the unbelieving and the despisers of God. There is the same mode of
speaking in use among us, Je lui garde, et il la garde a ses ennemis. This phrase, in
our language, shows what the Prophet means here by saying, that God keeps for his
enemies. And this awful description of God is to be applied to the present case, for
he says that he proclaims war against the Ninevites, because they had unjustly
distressed the Church of God: it is for this reason that he says, that God is jealous,
that God is an avenger; and he confirms this three times, that the Israelites might
feel assured that this calamity was seriously announced; for had not this
representation been set before them, they might have thus reasoned with
themselves, — “We are indeed cruelly harassed by our enemies; but who can think
that God cares any thing for our miseries, since he allows them so long to be
unavenged?” It was therefore necessary that the Prophet should obviate such
thoughts, as he does here. We now more fully understand why he begins in a
language so vehement, and calls God a jealous God, and an avenger.
He afterwards adds, that God possesses wrath I do not take ‫,חמה‬ cheme, simply for
wrath, but the passion or he it of wrath. We ought not indeed to suppose, as it has
been often observed, that our passions belong to God; for he remains ever like
himself. But yet God is said to be for a time angry, and for ever towards the
reprobate, for he is our and their Judge. Here, then, when the Prophet says, that
God is the Lord of wrath, or that he possesses wrath, he means that he is armed
with vengeance and that, though he connives at the sins of men, he is not yet
indifferent, nor even delays because he is without power, or because he is idle and
careless, but that he retains wraths as he afterwards repeats the same thing, He
keeps for his enemies (209) In short, by these forms of speaking the Prophet
intimates that God is not to be rashly judged of on account of his delay, when he
does not immediately execute His judgments; for he waits for the seasonable
opportunity. But, in the meantime there is no reason for us to think that he forgets
his office when he suspends punishment, or for a season spares the ungodly. When,
therefore, God does not hasten so very quickly, there is no ground for us to think
that he is indifferent, because he delays his wrath, or retains it, as we have already
said; for it is the same thing to retain wrath, as to be the Lord of wrath, and to
possess it. It follows —
A God jealous and an avenger is Jehovah;
Avenger is Jehovah, and one who has indignation:
Avenger is Jehovah on his adversaries,
And watch does he for his enemies.
God is said to be jealous in the second commandment, being one who will not allow
his own honor to be given to another. Avenger, ‫,נקם‬ is a vindicator of his own rights;
and he is said to have indignation, or hot wrath, or great displeasure; ‫חמה‬ ‫,בעל‬
possessor, holder, or keeper of indignation. His adversaries, ‫,צריו‬ rather, his
oppressors; the oppressors of his people were his own oppressors. ‫נוטר‬ means to
watch, rather than to keep. Its meaning here is to watch the opportunity to take
than to keep. Its meaning here is to watch the opportunity to take vengeance on his
29

30. enemies. The description here is remarkable, and exactly adapted to the oppressive
state of the Jews. The dishonor done to God’s people was done to him. He is jealous,
a defender of his own rights, full of indignation, and watches and waits for a
suitable time to execute vengeance, to vindicate his own honor. — Ed.
COFFMAN, "Verse 2
"Jehovah is a jealous God and avengeth and is full of wrath; Jehovah taketh
vengeance on his adversaries, and he reserveth wrath for his enemies."
For a generation of men who have largely rejected the idea that God is in any sense
wrathful, these words seem to have a harsh and unwelcome sound. Even some
commentators boldly criticize what they call "the religious inadequacy of his
teachings." Graham said, "Nahum provides an outstanding example of arrested
religious development!"[1]
THE WRATH OF GOD
A search of current sermonic literature reveals no single sermon devoted to "The
Wrath of God"; and in sermon topics in preachers' manuals and even the most
extensive commentaries, it is mentioned, if at all, in the most casual and incidental
manner. The usual run of titles that touch upon the question scale it down or
minimize it, as in, "God's Wrath Tempered by Mercy, God's Wrath Averted, etc."
There is also a noticeable opinion to the effect that any preaching on such a subject
derives from a mean and vicious spirit on the part of the preacher.
I. However, the greatest and best men of both the Old Testament and the New
Testament were the ones who most emphatically and sternly stressed God's wrath.
Isaiah, Paul, John, and our Lord Jesus Christ were among those who most clearly
and vigorously emphasized it; and they were precisely the ones in whom love was
most appealingly manifested. Therefore, preaching on the wrath of God is fully
compatible with the most gentle and loving attributes of the Christian life.
A. Isaiah, the great Messianic prophet, whose knowledge of God's love equals that
of any other in the Old Testament, said:
"Behold the day of the Lord cometh cruel, both with wrath and fierce anger to lay
the land desolate. And he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it ... Therefore I
will shake the heavens, and the earth shall move out of her place in the wrath of the
Lord of hosts and in the day of his fierce anger" (Isaiah 13:9,13).
B. Hosea has been hailed as the greatest preacher of God's love in the Old
Testament, but read Hosea 9 for as terrible a denunciation as any to be found in the
Bible.
C. Paul's love knew no boundaries or limits; and he could say, "I could wish myself
anathema from Christ for my brethren according to the flesh" (Romans 9:3); but
30

31. he, more than any other apostle, thundered the message of the wrath of God.
"For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and
unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness" (Romans 1:18).
"But after thy hardness and impenitent heart, thou treasurest up unto thyself wrath
against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God who will
render to every man according to his deeds" (Romans 2:5,6). "Because of these
things (the works of the flesh) the wrath of God cometh upon the children of
disobedience" (Ephesians 5:6).
D. John, whose writings abound with such admonitions as "love one another," and
who identified God Himself as love, also spoke most eloquently of God's wrath:
"And the kings of the earth, and the great men and the rich men, and the chief
captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid
themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; and said to the mountains
and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth upon the throne,
and from the wrath of the Lamb; for the great day of his wrath has come; and who
shall be able to stand?" (Revelation 6:16,17).
E. When we come to the words of Jesus, we must remember that he made love
perfect; he gave his life for all men; he loved us before we loved him. Yet he said:
"He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life; and he that obeyeth not the Son
shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth upon him. To the hypocrites he said,
O generation of vipers who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?"
(Matthew 23:7).
Thus, from the lives and messages of the great disciples of love in both testaments,
as well as from those of Life and Love incarnated, we have the solemn and eloquent
assurance that God's wrath will certainly and eventually break forth against the
wicked.
II. The object of God's wrath is sin. All sin is against God. When Joseph was
tempted to sin with the wife of Potiphar, he said, "How can I do this great
wickedness and sin against God?" (Genesis 39:9). When the prodigal son came to
himself, he said, "I will arise and go to my father and say, I have sinned against
heaven and in thy sight" (Luke 15:18). This profound truth should temper the
indignation of men against the wrath of God. The righteousness of the universe, the
very justice that underlies creation and undergirds all things is the basic reason for
the wrath of God. God's holiness is utterly and eternally opposed to sin. God and sin
are as irreconcilable as light and darkness, truth and falsehood, good and evil; and
this is the basis of strong confidence on the part of men. All men of good will rejoice
that the time will come when God shall rise in righteous wrath and cast evil out of
his universe.
People become objects of God's wrath only when they reject the benign and peaceful
government of the Creator and choose to become servants of the Devil. That man is
capable of making such a choice derives from the inherent gift of God, the freedom
31

32. of the will; and it is in man's highest self-interest that he should face up to the fact
that, free as he is to choose, he cannot escape the ultimate consequences of whatever
choice he makes.
People should read again, and again, Matthew 25 in which Christ divided all
mankind into just two classes, those on the left who make the wrong choice, and
those on the right who chose wisely. No more terrible words were ever written; and
yet they were spoken by the loving Saviour himself.
III. All people are, by nature, the children of wrath. Such an indictment was made
by Paul when he said:
"We all had lived in times past in the lusts of the flesh, fulfilling the desires of the
flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath even as others"
(Ephesians 2:3).
This does not teach total hereditary depravity, but it surely fingers something that
resembles it. A striking fact of man's religious history reveals his invariable
tendency to evil. Adam did not sin gradually, but all at once. Noah had scarcely left
the ark until he was drunk and dishonored by a grandson. Israel had hardly
escaped Egypt before they murmured against God and joined themselves to the
Baalim at Baal-Peor. After God gave the Decalogue, the first recorded event
thereafter was the breaking of the tablets of stone on which the Law was written.
The redeemed of all ages have had sin very much with them. Only through constant
love and adoration of the saving Christ is it possible for men to find the strength to
overcome temptation.
Satan is the primary cause of sin; but he has strong allies in the pride, lusts,
appetites and ambitions of men; and to the extent that men do not avail themselves
of the redemption "in Christ" they become easy prey to the destructive influences of
the evil one. When one thinks of all the sorrow, frustrations, defeats, violence,
bloodshed, and savage wickedness engulfing mankind because of their service of
"the god of this world" it should become understandable enough that God's wrath
should abide upon the Cause of all mankind's wretched unhappiness and misery. It
should always be remembered that God's wrath is ever against sin, evil, and Satan,
and not against men. Hell itself was not prepared for men, but for Satan and those
who choose to serve the evil one (Matthew 25:41).
These solemn considerations show the disparity between practical and theoretical
religion and the utter impossibility of any man's ever deserving salvation. The great
and indescribable mystery is the manner in which God through Christ has achieved
salvation for fallen humanity; and despite all human failings and shortcomings, God
is able to do so in full harmony with the principles of eternal justice. The Divine
wrath is indeed tempered with mercy, enshrined as the central truth of the Word of
God; but that is incapable of excusing any man who persists in the service of Satan
and will most certainly share in the evil one's ultimate destruction.
32

33. True righteousness is now available unto all men through "the faith of Christ"; but
what shall be thought of that person who neglects or rejects heaven's proffered
mercy? Is there anything that should be expected except the fullness of Divine
wrath? The answer is negative.
ILLUSTRATION: Today, all people are in the same position as that of queen
Esther who went unbidden before the king, and who would have been summarily
destroyed if the king had not extended to her his golden scepter. Who could describe
such a folly as hers would have been if she had refused to touch? In a similar way,
all men are sold under sins, condemned to eternal death, but God, through Christ,
holds down to us the golden scepter of his love and righteousness; and men, through
the gospel may touch and LIVE! And what of him who will not?
"For if we sin willfully, after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there
remaineth no more a sacrifice for sins; but a fearful looking for of judgment and
fiery indignation that shall devour the adversaries" (Hebrews 10:26,27).
IV. The time of God's wrath is "the day of the Lord," the final Judgment of the
great day when all men shall be judged simultaneously (Matthew 25). However,
there are, throughout history, many tokens of that day evident in the summary
judgments executed upon wicked men and nations, as recorded in the Bible. These
are of two kinds: (1) great natural disasters such as the great Deluge, and many
lesser things recurring at frequent intervals throughout time, and (2) overwhelming
destruction executed upon wicked cities, nations, or cultures by divine
commandment, such as Sodom, Gomorrah, Tyre, Sidon, Assyria, Nineveh, Babylon,
Jerusalem, Rome, etc. Even the minor catastrophes such as floods, earthquakes, etc.,
are part of God's plan, and are to be identified with God's cursing the ground for
Adam's sake, having the benign purpose of making it easier for men to repent. The
minor prophets frequently, and Nahum in this very chapter, make bold and
unequivocal reference to such things.
This study of the wrath of God reveals that Nahum was not a case of "arrested"
spiritual growth, as alleged by some, but that he was in line with the teachings of the
most perfectly developed spiritual giants of the ages.
Another criticism of Nahum was written by Graham to the effect that, "He failed to
apply to himself and to his people the standards by which he measured others!"[2]
That of course, was based upon the fact that Nahum made no mention of Judah's
sins during the warning to Nineveh; and this is a classical example of the unfairness
of Biblical critics. It will be remembered that in our studies of Amos, the occasional
pointed and stern warnings addressed by Amos to Judah were edited out of the
sacred text on the basis that "they did not fit." Well, Nahum left them out of his
prophecy; but they faulted him anyway! Such handling of the Sacred Scriptures is
its own refutation.
CONSTABLE, "Verse 2
33

34. Nahum drew a picture of Yahweh as a God who is jealous for His chosen people (cf.
Exodus 20:5; Exodus 34:14; Deuteronomy 4:24; Deuteronomy 5:9). That Isaiah , He
greatly desires their welfare (cf. Deuteronomy 6:15). He is also an avenging God
who takes vengeance on all who violate His standards of righteousness (what is
right), though not with human vindictiveness. Third, He is full of wrath against
those who oppose Him and disregard His grace, those who set themselves up as His
adversaries and enemies (cf. Deuteronomy 32:35; Deuteronomy 32:41). The
repetition of avenging, vengeance, and wrathful in this verse creates a strong
impression of an angry God. The word "wrath" (Heb. hemah) means "to be hot"
and describes burning rage and intense fury. Why was God so angry? The rest of
the oracle explains that it was the behavior of the Ninevites that had aroused His
anger.
This is the first of several rhetorical allusions to uniquely Neo-Assyrian conquest
metaphors in the book. The figure of a destroyer of mountains and seas continues
through Nahum 1:6, and the figure of the self-predicating warrior extends through
Nahum 1:8. Other metaphors are the raging storm and the overwhelming dust cloud
in Nahum 1:3, the overwhelming flood and the uninhabitable ruin in Nahum 1:8,
the sheep slaughterer in Nahum 1:12, and the Assyrian yoke in Nahum 1:12-13. The
metaphor of the mighty weapon appears in Nahum 2:1 and that of the consuming
locust swarm in Nahum 3:16-17. [Note: See Gordon H. Johnston, "Nahum"s
Rhetorical Allusions to Neo-Assyrian Conquest Metaphors," Bibliotheca
Sacra159:633 (January-March2002):21-45.]
"Verse2lays a foundation for the entire prophecy: all that follows is rooted in this
revelation of the justice and burning zeal of the Lord exercised on behalf of his
people." [Note: Chisholm, "A Theology . . .," p462.]
Verses 2-8
A. The anger and goodness of Yahweh1:2-8
"The opening verses of Nahum form a prologue dominated by the revelation of
God"s eternal power and divine nature in creation (cf. Romans 1:20). As in Romans
1:18-32, this revelation is characterized preeminently by God"s justice, expressed in
retribution ( Nahum 1:2) and wrath ( Nahum 1:2-3; Nahum 1:6) that shake the
entire creation ( Nahum 1:3-6)." [Note: Carl E. Armerding, " Nahum ," in Daniel -,
Malachi , vol7 of The Expositor"s Bible Commentary, p460.]
Armerding made much of the similarities between this section and the Exodus event,
God"s self-revelation at Mt. Sinai, His appearance to Elijah at Mt. Horeb, and
parallels in Isaiah.
"The seventh-century minor prophets focused on the justice of God as exhibited in
powerful judgment on an international scale." [Note: Robert B. Chisholm
Jeremiah , "A Theology of the Minor Prophets," in A Biblical Theology of the Old
Testament, p413.]
34

35. "In the Book of Psalm there are three types of Divine Warrior hymns: those sung
before a battle, calling on God"s aid ( Psalm 7); those sung during a battle, focusing
on the Lord"s protection ( Psalm 92); and those celebrating the victory God has won
for his people ( Psalm 98). Nahum 1:2-8 bears a remarkable similarity to the last
type of Psalm , the original function of which was to sing the praises of Israel"s
Warrior God in the aftermath of a victory. What is significant, then, is the
placement of Nahum"s Divine Warrior hymn. The victory is celebrated before the
battle is actually waged. The victory of God against Nineveh is certain. So much
Song of Solomon , that the prophet could utter the victory shout years before the
battle [cf. Revelation 5:9]." [Note: Longman, p788.]
Verses 2-14
II. NINEVEH"S DESTRUCTION DECLARED1:2-14
The rest of chapter1declares Nineveh"s destruction in rather hymnic style, and
chapters2,3describe its destruction. Each of these major parts of the book opens
with a revelation of Yahweh.
BENSON, "Verse 2-3
Nahum 1:2-3. God is jealous — For his own glory; and the Lord revengeth — Or
rather, avengeth, namely, the cause, or ill treatment, of his people, as being the
Supreme Governor, who, by office, is bound to deliver the oppressed, and punish
the oppressor: he also vindicates his own insulted honour. And is furious — Or
rather, is angry. In the Hebrew it is literally, And is the Lord of anger, or wrath;
that is, can easily give effect to his anger, or execute what it prompts him to. It
would be well if the epithet furious were for ever banished from the sacred writings;
and, indeed, from all others, when speaking of God. He reserveth wrath for his
enemies — There is nothing in the Hebrew to answer the word wrath; it is only, He
reserveth for his enemies. Some supply the word punishment; He has punishment in
store to execute upon his enemies, when he pleaseth. The Lord is slow to anger, and
great [rather, although he be great] in power, and [or, but] will not at all acquit the
wicked — The sense of the clause seems to be, that although God defers punishment,
yet he has it in his power to inflict it at all times; and though it be long delayed, yet it
will, in the end, overtake the wicked, unless the long-suffering of God lead them to
repentance. The Lord hath his way — The method of his providence; in the
whirlwind — Which often riseth suddenly, and beareth before it all things that
stand in its way. Thus God’s judgments often come unexpectedly, and are
irresistible, and most terribly destructive. And the clouds are the dust of his feet —
He makes the clouds his chariot, and employs them to whatever purpose he pleases.
This and the two following verses are a very noble and majestic description of the
power of the Almighty.
COKE, "Nahum 1:2. God is jealous, &c.— This and the following verses, to the
eighth, are a preamble, like that of many others in the Prophets, to prepare the mind
of the reader, and to impress upon him sentiments of respect and fear. As God is
35

36. very jealous of his honour, so will he not fail to execute his judgments on those who
affront and dishonour him; and though he does not always punish impenitent
sinners immediately, yet he will not fail in due time to execute his severity upon
them. The repetition of the word revengeth denotes not only the greatness of the
divine anger, but the certainty of the punishment. The reader will observe, that
many of the ideas in the following verses are taken from the description of the
Almighty's descent on mount Sinai.
ELLICOTT, "(2) God . . . furious.—Better, A jealous and vengeful God is Jehovah,
an avenger is Jehovah, aye, wrathful. This verse lays the groundwork for the
declaration of God’s sentence against the offending city. There are, of course,
several passages in the Law which attribute the same character to Jehovah, e.g.,
Exodus 20:5; Deuteronomy 4:24. Nahum’s model, however, is a passage of opposite
purport, the well-known proclamation of Jehovah’s attribute of mercy (Exodus
34:6-7). To that passage the present is a kind of counterpoise, Êl kannô v’nôkêm
here being the pendant to Êl rachoom v’channoon there.
PETT, "Verses 2-8
The Might and Character of God (Nahum 1:2-8).
The prophecy begins with an awesome and magnificent picture of the might and
character of God.
Nahum 1:2
‘YHWH is a jealous God and avenges. YHWH avenges and is full of wrath. YHWH
takes vengeance on his adversaries and reserves wrath for his enemies.’
Before John the Apostle in 1 John 4:8 tells us that God is love, he first reminds us of
the fact that God is light, and that in Him there is no darkness at all (1 John 1:5). By
this he was indicating that God hates all sin, whether in individuals or in nations.
His light shines on it and reveals it for what it is, and reacts to it, for His light is the
essence of what He is, wholly moral and pure.
Nor can He bear sin or allow it to go on indefinitely. At some point He must step in,
in judgment on it. Those who will not have a change of heart and mind, and will not
repent, seeking His mercy, will eventually have to face His anger against
wrongdoing and evil.
Nineveh had been given such an opportunity of repentance by Jonah (see the book
of Jonah) and had for a time been spared. But their repentance had been mainly on
the surface and they had in the end simply multiplied their sins, (although no doubt
some few individuals did continue in the way of God), and they now faced the
inevitable consequences.
‘YHWH is a jealous God and avenges.’ The jealousy of God reflects His overall
concern for His people. He watches over them with a careful and concerned eye. He
36

37. is deeply interested in their welfare.
It also reflects His concern that all men recognise His glory, that they recognise Him
for what He is (Exodus 20:5). He knew the debasing result of their religions, and
that it was only when they saw His glory that they could be released from them. So
He was concerned that they worship Him as the only God. This was the reason for
His ‘jealousy’. He was concerned for those whom He had created, and wanted
nothing to spoil their lives.
But His people, whom He watched over as a father over his children, had been badly
ill-treated by Assyria, and now God will reward those who have done it. His
vengeance and wrath will come on those who have earned it. The same will
eventually happen to all who mistreat His people. It had been delayed on Assyria.
But at last the time had to come. The mills of God grind slowly, but they grind
exceeding small.
‘YHWH avenges and is full of wrath.’ We like to stress God’s love and compassion.
And that is gloriously true. But here we have the other side of the picture. He also
takes vengeance on those who sin, and that includes those who treat His people
badly. And at that point He is full of wrath.
Biblically ‘wrath’ is not strictly anger. It is not that God is filled with feelings of
uncontrollable anger. It is that His attitude towards sin is such that, because He is
truly pure and holy, He has an aversion to sin, He cannot therefore overlook it.
Unless it is dealt with by atonement, He is roused to action against it. His wrath is
the moral sensitivity and reaction against sin that results in the determination to
remove it.
‘YHWH takes vengeance on his adversaries and reserves wrath for his enemies.’ We
are not left in doubt of the seriousness of God’s reaction to sin. It is in the end
inevitable because of what He is. However, it is not blind vengeance. It simply
results in men reaping what they sow. When men’s hearts are totally set against God
no plea will be effective. They are set in their ways. All that is left is for them to
receive what is their due.
SIMEON, "Verse 2
DISCOURSE: 1218
GOD A REVENGER OF SIN
Nahum 1:2; Nahum 1:6. God is jealous, and the Lord revengeth; the Lord
revengeth, and is furious; the Lord will take vengeance on his adversaries, and he
reserveth wrath for his enemies.. …Who can stand before his indignation? and who
can abide in the fierceness of his anger?
MEN have such ideas of God’s mercy, that they cannot persuade themselves he will
37

38. ever execute judgment on impenitent transgressors. In fact, it is the hope of this
which encourages men to go on in their sins: for, if once they could believe that they
shall soon become monuments of God’s righteous indignation, they would consider
their ways, and labour by all possible means to avert his displeasure.
About one hundred and forty years before this was written, the Prophet Jonah had
been sent to warn the Ninevites of their impending destruction. But they had
repented of their wickedness; and God, in his mercy, had withheld his threatened
judgments. But now he warns them, that since they had filled up the measure of
their iniquities, his wrath should come upon them to the uttermost. Now, I would
ask, supposing God to be determined to convince men that he would execute
vengeance on the impenitent, what could he add to what is here spoken? Methinks
there is here such an accumulation of words, as must defy incredulity itself to
question the truth contained in them. It is not a pleasing subject that we are now
called to insist upon: but it is necessary; and the more necessary, because of men’s
backwardness to give it the consideration it deserves. Let us, then, consider,
I. The description here given of the Deity—
God is “a jealous God”—
[He has a claim to our undivided allegiance, and to all the affections of our souls.
And when he sees how prone we are to set our affections on the creature rather than
on him, it becomes him to be jealous. A man like ourselves would not do well to
connive at the unfaithfulness of his wife, who was giving to others the affections
which were his unalienable right: how much less, then, can God admit such an
alienation of our hearts from him!. He cannot: indeed “his very name is Jealous
[Note: Exodus 34:14.]:” and he must divest himself of his every perfection, before he
can connive at the dishonour which our unfaithfulness reflects upon him.]
He will “take vengeance” on obstinate transgressors—
[“The Lord revengeth; yea, he revengeth, and is furious.” We are not indeed to
conceive of him as feeling in his own bosom such emotions as constitute “fury” in
man: in that sense “fury is not in him [Note: Isaiah 27:4.];” but, so far as the effects
of his displeasure are felt, it will be the same to us, as if he were filled with the
utmost rage. At present, indeed, he bears with sinners with all imaginable patience
and long-suffering: but “he reserves them unto the day of judgment to be punished
[Note: 2 Peter 2:9.].” In my text, the word “wrath” is in italics, to shew that it is not
in the original. In truth, there is no word in any language that can express what God
“reserveth for his enemies;” no, nor can any imagination conceive it. The Psalmist
well says, “Who knoweth the power of thine anger? Even according to thy fear, so is
thy wrath [Note: Psalms 90:11.]”]
And “who can stand before his indignation?”
38

39. [“Who indeed can abide the fierceness of his anger?” These pointed interrogations
convey the most tremendous thoughts to our minds. Now we can “puff at God’s
judgments,” as if they were scarcely worthy of a thought [Note: Psalms 10:5.]: but it
will not be so when the time for the infliction of them is fully come. Then “the kings
of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the
mighty men, no less than the poor bond-man, will hide themselves in the dens, and
in the rocks of the mountains; and will cry to the mountains and rocks to fall upon
them, and to hide them from the face of Him that sitteth on the throne, and from the
wrath of the Lamb. “The great day of his wrath being come, who shall be able to
stand [Note: Revelation 6:15-17.]?” The wrath of man has been sustained, even
when it raged to the utmost extent of human ingenuity to inflict pain: but who can
sustain the wrath of God? The soul, aided by divine grace, has upheld the body: but
who, or what, can uphold the soul, when it is God’s arm, too, that inflicts the
punishment? Some will console themselves with the thought that they shall do as
well as others. But if they could for one moment descend to hell, and see the agonies,
and hear the cries, of a damned soul, methinks it would be little consolation to think
that they shall do as well as others. If they were only to be racked upon a wheel, and
to endure its agonies but for an hour, their prospect, methinks, would be but little
cheered by this thought: how much less then, when the wrath of an offended God
must be endured to all eternity!]
But, that we sink not into despondency, let us attend to,
II. The advice, which one moment’s reflection on this subject must suggest—
The doom of Nineveh was fixed: but not so the doom of any amongst us. No,
Brethren, there is yet hope concerning you; yes, concerning every one of you. Only,
1. Abide not in impenitence—
[When Nineveh was warned by Jonah, though no encouragement was given them to
repent, they humbled themselves, on a mere peradventure that God might possibly
have mercy on them: and the mercy which they sought was accorded to them [Note:
Jonah 3:5-10.]. But to you I am authorized to proclaim mercy: for God’s gracious
message to you is, “Repent, and turn yourselves from all your transgressions; so
iniquity shall not be your ruin [Note: Ezekiel 18:30.].” Hear what God says to you
by the Prophet Jeremiah: “Thus saith the Lord, Break up your fallow ground, and
sow not among thorns. Circumcise yourselves to the Lord, and take away the
foreskins of your heart, ye men of Judah, and inhabitants of Jerusalem; lest my fury
come forth like fire, and burn that none can quench it [Note: Jeremiah 4:3-4.].” Yes
indeed, by timely humiliation, you may yet avert the wrath of your incensed God;
who, “if you forsake your evil ways, and turn unto him, will have mercy upon you,
and abundantly pardon,” to the full extent of your multiplied transgressions [Note:
Isaiah 55:7.].]
2. Abide not in unbelief—
39

40. [God has provided a Saviour for you, even his only dear Son; who has, by his own
obedience unto death, effected a reconciliation for you; and “has committed unto us
the ministry of reconciliation;” so that we are not only authorized, but commanded,
to say to all of you, without exception, “Be ye reconciled to God [Note: 2 Corinthians
5:18-20.].” He has illustrated this to you in his word, by the appointment of cities of
refuge for those who by any accident should slay a man. The very instant he should
get within the gates of any one of these cities, he was safe; and the pursuer of blood,
however enraged, could not get at him to hurt him [Note: Numbers 35:9-25.]. And
who shall sustain any hurt, that flees to Christ for refuge? No: in him you will be
safe. Once found in him, you have nothing to fear. You are as safe in him as you
would be in heaven itself [Note: Hebrews 6:17-18. Romans 8:1.]. To every one of
you, then, I give this counsel from the Lord: “Come, my people, enter thou into thy
chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself, as it were, for a little
moment, until the indignation be overpast [Note: Isaiah 26:20.].”]
3. Abide not in a proud defiance of your God—
[There were, in the days of old, some who, in answer to God’s threatenings, said,
“Let him make speed, and hasten his work, that we may see it; and let the counsel of
the Holy One of Israel draw nigh and come, that we may know it [Note: Isaiah
5:19.].” And such there are amongst ourselves, who, in reply to all that we say,
exclaim, “Ah, Lord God, doth he not speak parables [Note: Ezekiel 20:49.]?” But
indeed, my dear brethren, God’s patience will have an end; and the very exercise of
it will only aggravate our condemnation, if it do not “prevail to lead us to
repentance [Note: Romans 2:4-6.].” Be persuaded that God’s description of himself,
in the words of our text, will be found true at the last. He is indeed “a consuming
fire [Note: Hebrews 12:29.]:” and “can your heart endure, or your hands be strong,
in the day that he shall deal with you [Note: Ezekiel 22:14.]?” “Have you an arm
like God? and can you thunder with a voice like him [Note: Job 40:9.]?” No: it is in
vain to contend with God: for “who shall set briers and thorns against him in
battle? He will go through them, and burn them up together [Note: Isaiah 27:4.].”
Verily, “it will be a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God [Note:
Hebrews 10:31.]” Be convinced of this; and “to-day, while it is called to-day,”
implore mercy at his hands: so shall you find, that “he will pardon your iniquity,
and pass by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage; for he retaineth not
anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy [Note: Micah 7:18.].” And if the
description of him in my text be true, you shall find that true also which is added in
the seventh verse, “The Lord is good, a strong-hold in the day of trouble; and he
knoweth them that trust in him.”]
PULPIT, "Nahum 1:2
God is jealous, and the Lord revengeth; better, Jehovah is a jealous and avenging
God, as Exodus 20:5; Deuteronomy 4:24; Joshua 24:19. The threefold repetition of
the name of Jehovah and the attribute "avenging" gives a wonderful force to this
40

41. sublime description of the Divine character. God is here called jealous
anthropopothically, as ready to defend his honour against all who oppose him, as
One who loves his people and punishes their oppressors. Is furious; literally, master
of fury, as Genesis 37:19, "master of dreams." The Lord is full of wrath (comp.
Proverbs 10:12 :24; Proverbs 29:22). The word used implies a permanent feeling,
Hire the Greek ‫ל‬͂‫ח‬‫םיע‬ . He reserveth wrath. The Hebrew is simply "watching,"
"observing" for punishment. Septuagint, ̓‫ו‬‫מב‬́‫י‬‫ב‬ ‫סשם‬̓‫ץ‬‫פ‬̀‫ן‬‫פן‬ ‫ע‬̀‫ץ‬‫ע‬̓‫ו‬‫קטסן‬̀‫ץ‬‫ב‬ ‫ע‬̓‫ץ‬‫פן‬͂‫ץ‬ , "himself
cutting off his enemies;" Vulgate, irascens ipse inimicis ejus. God withholds his
hand for a time, but does not forget. All this description of God's attributes is
intended to show that the destruction of Assyria is his doing, and that its
accomplishment is certain.
BI, "God is jealous, and the Lord revengeth.
The jealous God
There is in man a selfishness that is Divine. It is a singular fact, in our moral
constitution, that often the tenderest feelings of our nature should also be the most
selfish. Love, even apparently in its highest moods, is sometimes also most exacting and
difficult of satisfaction. I have known a mother most jealous of the departure of a
daughter’s heart to its natural home and rest. When I have seen this, I have thought of
the selfishness of God. God is infinitely selfish, for we may appropriately use that term.
For selfishness may be celestial, and an attribute of benevolence. We do not, indeed,
think much of love that cannot, in circumstances, be jealous; such is but a cold,
indifferent, impoverished affection. How can it be other than that the best natures of the
universe must he most selfish? Jealousy is not necessarily an infirmity. It may be a
Divine emotion. The apostle speaks of a “godly jealousy.” No doubt all our love is
|infirmity. The best, what we call the most purely unselfish, has its infirmity: I call that
rove of the highest which most intensely desires the well-being of its objects! this is me
selfishness of love. Jealousy is a passion that depends for its character upon the fuel that
gives its flame. It is the sorrowing and pitying passion which would save, if it could, from
the perdition and the doom, and unable to do so, or even seeking to do so, moves all its
powers, takes all the minor emotions, faculties, and casts them into the flames of its love,
bidding all blue. This is the apostle’s “godly jealousy.” And God is jealous. Do not think
of Him as beneath the influence of that passion which sometimes, as envy, spite, and
malice, disturbs our rest; still think of Him as, in a lofty sense, the jealous God. There are
many terms applied to Him in Scripture which seem to anthropomorphise His
character. “Angry,” “repenting,” “foreseeing.” Whenever such terms are used, think of
them as steps of Divine descent. We may be sure they do represent some qualities of the
Divine nature on which it is important that we should reflect, and of which we should
stand in awe. The meaning of words assists to the conception of things. Jealous is the
same word as zealous, and both are derived from the Greek word zeal, fire; zeal is
enthusiasm—moral fire; and jealousy,—what is jealousy but love on fire? Is not this the
representation we constantly have of God? I do believe in the mercy, and gentleness, and
goodness of God. I do believe that He who “knows our frame” does save His children
from the alienation of eternity, even when the heart has so vehemently loved in time the
children of time. But then you must take the consequences here of that too vehement
love. God is jealous of sin, of all aberrations from Himself. He is jealous of love, of
power, of knowledge. See how He is constantly reminding man of his weakness as He
41

42. incarnates his strength; and God is constantly absorbing man’s knowledge, power, and
love to Himself. Divine love on fire, God is jealous! There is no love where there is no
fire, but let it burn with the white, not with the red heat. Imagine no evil against God
from this declaration of His Book. God is jealous, His love is on fire, the Holy Spirit is
love on fire,—hell is love on fire. The one by gentle persuasion entreats; the other, by
forcible compulsion, guards His holy ones. Thus His fire folds inward and outward;
inward to bless, outward to punish—so a calm breath of holy life, a stormy fire of doom.
(Paxton Hood.)
The Lord will take vengeance on His adversaries.
Great sins bringing great ruin
I. That the great sins of a people must ever bring upon them great ruin. The population
of Nineveh was pre-eminently wicked. It is represented in the Scriptures as a “bloody
city,” a “city full of lies and robberies”; the Hebrew prophets dwell upon its impious
haughtiness and ruthless fierceness (Isa_10:7-8). Great sins bring great ruin. It was so
with the antediluvians, with the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah. The principle of
moral causation and the Eternal Justice of the universe demand that wherever there is
sin there shall be suffering, and in proportion to the amount of sin shall be the amount
of suffering.
II. The great ruin that comes presents God to the “vision” of man as terribly indignant.
The passions of man are here ascribed to God. It is only when terrible anguish comes
upon the sinner that God appears to the observer as indignant. (Homilist.)
National punishments part of God’s moral government
I. The certainty that sin will not remain unpunished.
1. The inevitable working of natural laws secures this. Physical, social, and spiritual
evils follow sin.
2. The declared character of God secures it. He is a jealous God.
II. There is no resisting the judgments of God. His power is seen in nature. The rolling
whirlwind, the dark tempest, the desolating storm are symbols of His wrath and of His
might.
III. Yet in wrath God remembers mercy.
1. There is a refuge for those who turn and repent.
2. No sins preclude hope.
3. Salvation is full and certain to the truly penitent.
4. Though the godly suffer trouble, they will be delivered from it. Their trials are only
a discipline, if used aright. (C. Cunningham Geikie, D. D.)
God’s judgments will be fulfilled
42

43. As you stood some stormy day upon a sea cliff and marked the giant billow rise from the
deep to rush on with foaming crest, and throw itself thundering on the trembling shore,
did you ever fancy that you could stay its course and hurl it back to the depths of the
ocean? Did you ever stand beneath the leaden, lowering cloud, and mark the lightning’s
leap as it shot and flashed, and think that you could grasp the bole and change its path?
Still more foolish and vain his thought who fancies that he can arrest and turn aside the
purpose of God. (T. Guthrie, D. D.)
3 The Lord is slow to anger but great in power;
the Lord will not leave the guilty unpunished.
His way is in the whirlwind and the storm,
and clouds are the dust of his feet.
BARNES, "The Lord is slow to anger - Nahum takes up the words of Jonah Jon_
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, that the long-suffering of God
is not “slackness,” that “He is long-suffering to usward, not willing that any should
perish, but that all should come to repentance.”
And strong in power - Divine long-suffering gees along with Divine power. God can
be long-suffering, because He can, whenever He sees good, punish. His long-suffering is
a token, not of weakness, but of power. He can allow persons the whole extent of trial,
because, when they are past cure, He can end it at once. “God is a righteous judge, strong
and patient, and God wraths every day” Psa_7:11. The wrath comes only at the last, but it
is ever present with God. He cannot but be displeased with the sin; and so the Psalmist
describes in the manner of men the gradual approximation to its discharge. “If he (the
sinner) will not return (from evil or to God), He will whet His sword; He hath trodden
His bow and directed it: He hath prepared for him instruments of death; He hath made
his arrows burning” Psa_7:12-13. We see the arrow with unextinguishable fire, ready to
be discharged, waiting for the final decision of the wicked, whether he will repent or not,
but that still “the Day of the Lord will come” 2Pe_3:9-10. “He will not at all acquit.”
The words occur originally in the great declaration of God’s attributes of mercy by
Moses, as a necessary limitation of them ; they are continued to God’s people, yet with
the side of mercy predominant Jer_30:11; Jer_46:28; they are pleaded to Himself
43

44. Num_14:18; they are the sanction of the third commandment Exo_20:7; Deu_5:11. He
“will not acquit” of His own will, apart from His justice. So He saith, “I can of Mine own
self do nothing” Joh_5:30, i. e., (in part), not as unjust judges, who “call good evil and
evil good,” following their own will, not the merits of the case; but, “as I hear, I judge,
and My judgment is just.” He cannot even have mercy and spare unjustly, nor without
the lowliness of penitence. Even if it is Jerusalem, over which He wept, or His
“companion, His own familiar friend” Psa_55:14, He, who is no “accepter of persons,”
cannot of mere favor forgive the impenitent.
The Lord hath His way in the whirlwind and in the storm - The vengeance of
God comes at last swiftly, vehemently, fearfully, irresistibly. “When they say, Peace and
safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them” 1Th_5:3, and all creation stands at
the command of the Creator against His enemies. “He shall take to Him His jealousy for
complete armor, and make the creature His weapon, for the revenge of His enemies”
(Wisd. 5:17).
And the clouds are the dust of His feet - Perhaps the imagery is from the light
dust raised by an earthly army, of which Nahum’s word is used Eze_26:10. The powers
of heaven are arrayed against the might of earth. On earth a little dust, soon to subside;
in heaven, the whirlwind and the storm, which sweep away what does not bow before
them. The vapors, slight on outward seeming, but formed of countless multitudes of
mist-drops, are yet dark and lowering, as they burst, and resistless. “The Feet of God are
that power whereby He trampleth upon the ungodly.” So it is said to the Son, “Sit Thou
on My Right Hand until I make Thine enemies Thy footstool.” Tempests have also,
without figure, been used to overthrow God’s enemies (Exo_14:27; Jos_10:11; Jdg_5:20;
1Sa_2:10; and 1Sa_7:10; 2Sa_22:15).
CLARKE, "The Lord is slow to anger - He exercises much longsuffering towards
his enemies, that this may lead them to repentance. And it is because of this
longsuffering that vengeance is not speedily executed on every evil work.
Great in power - Able at all times to save or to destroy.
The Lord hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm - These are the
effects of his power; and when they appear unusual, they may be considered as the
immediate effects of his power: and although he be in them to punish and destroy, he is
in them to direct their course, to determine their operations, and to defend his followers
from being injured by their violence. The pestilential wind which slew one hundred and
eighty-five thousand of the Assyrians did not injure one Israelite. See 2Ki_19:35.
The clouds are the dust of his feet - This is spoken in allusion to a chariot and
horses going on with extreme rapidity: they are all enveloped in a cloud of dust. So
Jehovah is represented as coming through the circuit of the heavens as rapidly as
lightning; the clouds surrounding him as the dust does the chariot and horses.
GILL, "The Lord is slow to anger,.... He is not in haste to execute it; he takes time
for it, and gives men space for repentance. Nineveh had had a proof of this when it
repented at the preaching of Jonah, upon which the Lord deferred the execution of his
wrath; but lest they should presume upon this, and conclude the Lord would always bear
with them, though they had returned to their former impieties; they are let to know, that
44

45. this his forbearance was not owing to want of power or will in him to punish: since he is
great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked; he is able to execute the
wrath he threatens, and will by no means clear the guilty, or let them go free and
unpunished; though he moves slowly, as he may seem in the execution of his judgments,
yet they shall surely be brought on his enemies, and be fully accomplished:
the Lord hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are
the dust of his feet; he spoke to Job out of the whirlwind; he descended on Mount
Sinai in a storm and tempest; and the clouds are his chariots; in which he rides swiftly;
and which, for their appearance and number, are like the dust raised by a multitude of
horsemen riding full speed, The wrath of God may be compared to a whirlwind, and a
storm, which is sometimes hastily and suddenly executed upon men: respect seems to be
had to the armies of the Medes and Chaldeans against the Assyrians; who, as the
Babylonians against the Jews, came up as clouds, and their chariots as the whirlwind,
Jer_4:13; and the figures beautifully describe the numbers of them, the force with which
they came; and in an elegant manner represent the vast quantity of dust raised by an
army in full march; at the head of which was the Lord himself, ordering, directing, and
succeeding, before whom none can stand.
HENRY 3-5, " He is a God of irresistible power, and is able to deal with his enemies,
be they ever so many, ever so mighty, ever so hardy. He is great in power (Nah_1:3),
and therefore it is good having him our friend and bad having him our enemy. Now here,
1. The power of God is asserted and proved by divers instances of it in the kingdom of
nature, where we always find its visible effects in the ordinary course of nature, and
sometimes in the surprising alterations of that course. (1.) If we look up into the regions
of the air, there we shall find proofs of his power, for he has his ways in the whirlwind
and the storm. Which way soever God goes he carries a whirlwind and a storm along
with him, for the terror of his enemies, Psa_18:9, etc. And, wherever there is a
whirlwind and a storm, God has the command of it, the control of it, makes his way
through it, goes on his way in it, and serves his own purposes by it. He spoke to Job out
of the whirlwind, and even stormy winds fulfil his word. He has his way in the
whirlwind, that is, he goes on undiscerned, and the methods of his providence are to us
unaccountable; as it is said, His way is in the sea. The clouds are the dust of his feet; he
treads on them, walks on them, raises them when he pleases, as a man with his feet
raises a cloud of dust. It is but by permission, or usurpation rather, that the devil is the
prince of the power of the air, for that power is in God's hand. (2.) If we cast our eye
upon the great deeps, there we find that the sea is his, for he made it; for, when he
pleases, he rebukes the sea and makes it dry, by drying up all the rivers with which it is
continually supplied. He gave those proofs of his power when he divided the Red Sea
and Jordan, and can do the same again whenever he pleases. (3.) If we look round us on
this earth, we find proofs of his power, when, either by the extreme heat and drought of
summer or the cold and frost of winter, Bashan languishes, and Carmel, and the flower
of Lebanon languishes, the choicest and strongest flower languishes. His power is often
seen in earthquakes, which shake the mountains (Nah_1:5), melt the hills, and melt
them down, and level them with the plains. When he pleases the earth is burnt at his
presence by the scorching heat of the sun, and he could burn it with fire from heaven, as
he did Sodom, and at the end of time he will burn the world and all that dwell therein.
The earth, and all the works that are therein, shall be burnt up. Thus great is the Lord
45

46. and of great power.
JAMISON, "slow to anger, and great in power — that is, but great in power, so
as to be able in a moment, if He pleases, to destroy the wicked. His long-suffering is not
from want of power to punish (Exo_34:6, Exo_34:7).
not at all acquit — literally, “will not acquitting acquit,” or treat as innocent.
Lord hath his way in the whirlwind — From this to Nah_1:5, inclusive, is a
description of His power exhibited in the phenomena of nature, especially when He is
wroth. His vengeance shall sweep away the Assyrian foe like a whirlwind (Pro_10:25).
clouds are the dust of his feet — Large as they are, He treads on them, as a man
would on the small dust; He is Lord of the clouds, and uses them as He pleases.
CALVIN, "The Prophet goes on with the same subject; and still longer is the
preface respecting the nature of God, which however is to be applied, as I have said,
to the special objects which hereafter he will state. He says here that God is slow to
wrath Though this saying is taken also from Moses yet the Prophet speaks here for
the purpose of anticipating an objection; for he obviates the audacity of the ungodly
who daringly derided God, when any evil was denounced on them, — Where is the
mercy of God? Can God divest himself of his kindness? He cannot deny himself.
Thus profane men, under the pretense of honoring God, cast on him the most
atrocious slander, for they deprive him of his own power and office: and there is no
doubt but that this was commonly done by many of the ungodly in the age of our
Prophet. Hence he anticipates this objection, and concedes that God is slow to
wrath. There is then a concession here; but at the same time he says that God is
great in strength, and this he says, that the ungodly may not flatter and deceive
themselves, when they hear these high attributes given to God, that he is patient,
slow to wrath, merciful, full of kindness. “Let them,” he says, “at the same time
remember the greatness of God’s power, that they may not think that they have to
do with a child.”
We now then see the design of the Prophet: for this declaration — that God hastens
not suddenly to wrath, but patiently defers and suspends the punishment which the
ungodly deserve. This declaration would not have harmonized with the present
argument, had not the Prophet introduced it by way of concession; as though he
said, — “I see that the world everywhere trifle with God, and that the ungodly
delude themselves with such Sophistries, that they reject all threatening. I indeed
allow that God is ready to pardon, and that he descends not to wrath, except when
he is constrained by extreme necessity: all this is indeed true; but yet know, that
God is armed with his own power: escape then shall none of those who allow
themselves the liberty of abusing his patience, notwithstanding the insolence they
manifest towards him.”
He now adds, By clearing he will not clear. Some translate, “The innocent, he will
not render innocent.” But the real meaning of this sentence is the same with that in
46

47. Exodus 34:0; and what Moses meant was, that God is irreconcilable to the
impenitent. It has another meaning at the end of Joel 3:0, where it is said, ‘I will
cleanse the blood which I have not cleansed.’ On that text interpreters differ;
because they regard not the change in the tense of the verb; for God means, that he
would cleanse the filth and defilements of his Church, which he had not previously
cleansed. But Moses means, that God deals strictly with sinners, so as to remit no
punishment. By clearing then I will not clear; that is, God will rigidly demand an
account of all the actions of men; and as there is nothing hid from him, so
everything done wickedly by men must come forth, when God ascends his tribunal;
he will not clear by clearing, but will rigidly execute his judgment.
There seems to be some inconsistency in saying, — that God is reconcilable and
ready to pardon, — and yet that by clearing he will not clear. But the aspect of
things is different. We have already stated what the Prophet had in view: for
inasmuch as the ungodly ever promise impunity to themselves, and in this
confidence petulantly deride God himself, the Prophet answers them, and declares,
that there was no reason why they thus abused God’s forbearance, for he says, By
clearing he will not clear, that is, the reprobate: for our salvation consists in a free
remission of sins; and whence comes our righteousness, but from the imputation of
God, and from this — that our sins are buried in oblivion? yea, our whole clearing
depends on the mercy of God. But God then exercises also his judgment, and by
clearing he clears, when he remits to the faithful their sins; for the faithful by
repentance anticipate his judgment; and he searches their hearts, that he may clear
them. For what is repentance but condemnation, which yet turns out to be the
means of salvation? As then God absolves none except the condemned, our Prophet
here rightly declares, that by clearing he will not clears that is, he will not remit
their sins, except he tries them and discharges the office of a judge; in short, that no
sin is remitted by God which he does not first condemn. But with regard to the
reprobate, who are wholly obstinate in their wickedness, the Prophet justly declares
this to them, — that they have no hope of pardon, as they perversely adhere to their
own devices, and think that they can escape the hand of God: the Prophet tells them
that they are deceived, for God passes by nothing, and will not blot out one sin, until
all be brought to mind.
He afterwards says, that the way of God is in the whirlwind and the tempest; that is,
that God, as soon as he shows himself, disturbs the whole atmosphere, and excites
storms and tempests: and this must be applied to the subject in hand; for the
appearance of God is in other places described as lovely and gracious: nay, what
else but the sight of God exhilarated the faithful? As soon as God turns away his
face, they must necessarily be immersed in dreadful darkness, and be surrounded
with horrible terrors. Why then does the Prophet say here, that the way of God is in
the whirlwind and storms? Even because his discourse is addressed to the ungodly,
or to the despisers of God himself, as in Psalms 18:0; where we see him described as
being very terrible, — that clouds and darkness are around him, that he moves the
whole earth, that he thunders on every side, that he emits smoke frown his nostrils,
and that he fills the whole world with fire and burning. For what purpose was this
47

48. done? Because David’s object was to set forth the judgments of God, which he had
executed on the ungodly. So it is in this place; for Nahum speaks of the future
vengeance, which was then nigh the Assyrians; hence he says, The way of God is in
the whirlwind and tempest; that is, when God goes forth, whirlwinds and tempests
are excited by his presence, and the whole world is put in confusion.
He adds, that the clouds are the dust of his feet When any one with his feet only
moves the dust within a small space, some dread is produced: but God moves the
dust, not only in one place, — what then? he obscures, and thus covers the whole
heaven, The clouds then are the dust of his feet (210) We now apprehend the whole
meaning of the Prophet, and the purpose for which this description is given. Of the
same import is what follows —
vah is slow to wrath, though great in power;
Absolving, Jehovah will not absolve:
In the whirlwind and in the storm ishis way;
And the cloud is the dust of his feet.
The second line presents some difficulty. It is evidently an imperfect sentence; most
supply the word, guilty; but rather the “enemies” mentioned before are to be
understood. The meaning appears to be this, — Jehovah is slow to wrath, that is, to
execute his vengeance, though he is great in power, capable of doing so; but though
he delays, he will not eventually clear or absolve his enemies. With the Septuagint I
connect “Jehovah” with the second and not with the third line, and agreeably with
the idiom of the Hebrew; the verb generally precedes its nominative. The order of
the words in Welsh would be exactly the same, —
(lang. cy) Gan ddieuogi ni ddiuoga Jehova.
— Ed.
COFFMAN, "Verse 3
"Jehovah is slow to anger, and great in power, and will by no means clear the
guilty: Jehovah hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are
the dust of his feet."
No matter how strong men may feel, nor how abundant their power and resources,
God is able to put down the mighty from their seats.
"He who divides the storm-darkened skies with spears of lightning and cracks the
rocks is an awful adversary. No matter how strong men may be or how many
helpers they have, God will inflict upon them a death-blow."[3]
The purpose of this and following verses is to identify God as the real adversary of
Nineveh, and thus the Lord used the most superlative terminology that men knew in
order to demonstrate the impossibility of escape by the enemy.
48

49. "He will by no means clear the guilty ..." It was not an indiscriminate judgment that
God pronounced against Nineveh, This prophecy cites exactly the instances and
dimensions of Nineveh's guilt:
"The guilty" (Nahum 1:3) are the ones God knows to be guilty.
"God's enemies" (Nahum 1:8) are those who have revolted from him.
"Plotters of evil" (Nahum 1:9,11) are those who plan and execute evil.
"The vile" (Nahum 1:14) are they who have sunken into bestiality.
"The wicked" (Nahum 1:15) are the vicious and reprobate.
"The plunderers" (Nahum 2:2) are the cruel, heartless spoilers.
"The dishonest" (Nahum 3:1) are the covenant breakers and thieves.
"The rapacious" (Nahum 3:1) are destroyers and exploiters of the innocent.
"The insatiable seekers of gain" (Nahum 3:1) are grabbers and graspers.
"The harlots" (Nahum 3:4) are the pagans, the sensualists, those who will prostitute
anything for wicked purposes.
"The betrayers of weaker nations" (Nahum 3:4) are the traitors, double-crossers,
and deceitful liars.
"The despicable" (Nahum 3:5ff) are all of those mentioned above, plus any others of
similar character.
"The presumptuous" (Nahum 3:8) are they who revel in the conceit that God will
not punish them.
"The disseminators of evil" (Nahum 3:19) are all of those who form a part of the
cancer of wickedness eating at the vitals of the human race.
God's justice required that such evil be punished; and it still does! The above list of
"the double sevens" of Nineveh's reprobacy indicates forcefully the fullness of their
sins, They had indeed filled up the full measure of their iniquity.
"Slow to anger ..." Dreadful and overwhelming as the removal of Nineveh from the
earth was here revealed to be it was not a hasty decision on God's part. Jonah had
preached to them; and, for awhile, the king himself led the people in repentance; but
they had returned without restraint to their pursuit of shame.
49

50. CONSTABLE, "Verse 3
However, Yahweh was not out of control in His anger. His anger was slow in coming
to the boiling point (cf. Exodus 34:6; Numbers 14:18). He waited as long as possible
to pour out His judgment (cf. 2 Peter 3:9). About a century before Nahum
prophesied, God sent Jonah to warn the Ninevites. This is an evidence of His being
slow to anger. God"s patience accounts for His allowing the Assyrians to abuse the
Israelites for so long. Patience is sometimes a sign of weakness, but not so with the
Lord. He is also great in power, which makes the prospect of His releasing His anger
terrifying (cf. Deuteronomy 8:17-18). He will not pass over any guilty person and
leave him or her unpunished but will bring them to judgment eventually.
Whirlwinds and storms manifest this angry aspect of God"s character and His
power (cf. Job 9:17). He is so great that the clouds are for Him what the dust on the
ground is for humans (cf. 2 Samuel 22:10; Psalm 18:9). The great clouds overhead
are like dust to the great God who resides in the heavens.
Nahum 1:2-3 repeat "Yahweh" five times. This literary device has the effect of
underlining the identity of Israel"s covenant God. There should be no mistake
whom Nahum was describing even though he drew attention to characteristics of the
Lord that were not the ones that His people liked to think about. Nahum frequently
used Yahweh"s name throughout the book.
ELLICOTT, "(3) And great in power.—Better, but great in power. Jehovah’s
forbearance is not attributable to weakness. To vindicate His power, Nahum, after
the manner of other Hebrew poets and prophets, reverts to the wonders of the
Exodus (Nahum 1:4-5). The pillars of cloud and fire in the desert march; the
quaking cliffs of Sinai; the Red Sea and Jordan divided at His word; Canaan
succumbing at every point, upwards to mighty Lebanon in the north, and across
from Eastern Bashan to Western Carmel—these are the testimonies to Jehovah’s
might. (Comp. Habakkuk 3:6-10.)
PETT, "Nahum 1:3
‘YHWH is slow to anger, and great in power, and will by no means clear the guilty.
YHWH has his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust
of his feet.’
‘YHWH is slow to anger and great in power”. The converse to Nahum 1:2 is that He
does not act hastily. He does not lose His temper. He is ‘slow to anger’ (Exodus
34:6). His wrath is revealed only when it is fully and finally deserved. Assyria
should have remembered how great and powerful He was by the way that He had
delivered Jerusalem (Isaiah 36-38). But rather they had thought that they could
mock at YHWH. While they had been chosen to be His rod for chastening Israel,
they had one too far (Isaiah 10:5 ff).
But He is also great in power. His slowness to respond to sin is not because of
weakness but because of strength. He is powerful enough to be able to delay
judgment until He Himself determines that it is necessary. However, when He does
50

51. decide to judge, nothing will prevent Him.
Nahum is not a hard hearted prophet. He wants us to be fully aware that what he is
about to declare is the consequence of long years of sin and arrogance. God is slow
to anger. What He does here is not the norm, except as a consequence of long years
of sin.
‘And will by no means clear (clearing He will not clear).’ ‘Guilty’ is put in to make
sense. He will by no means clear men unless they are ‘worthy’, that is, unless they
make use of the means of mercy and forgiveness and abide by the covenant, which
involves obedience to His will. He calls them to account. See Exodus 34:7; Numbers
14:18. This means that if men are unwilling to receive His offer of mercy then they
must face the consequences of their guilt. God will not just overlook it or bypass it.
He will not count it as nothing or sweep it under the carpet. In the end He will face
them up to it. His very morality demands that sin is punished in one way or another.
‘YHWH has his way in the whirlwind and the storm, and the clouds are the dust of
His feet’ This is a vivid picture of God, striding, as it were, on the pathway of a great
storm, surrounded by whirlwinds, causing dust to rise up in the form of swirling
clouds. He is seen as Lord over the elements and of disaster. He controls all the most
violent elements that affect man’s world.
Notice the mention of YHWH five times. Five is the number of covenant; the
number of fingers on the hand that confirms the covenant, the number of statements
on each tablet of the covenant, the number whose multiples were constantly used in
the tabernacle and the temple and the heavenly temple of Ezekiel. Thus the
covenant is in mind. It is as though the hand of God is made bare.
PULPIT, "Slow to anger (Exodus 34:6, Exodus 34:7). Nahum seems to take up the
words of Jonah (Jonah 4:2) or Joel (Joel 2:13). God is long suffering, not from
weakness, but because he is great in power, and can punish when he will. Will not at
all acquit the wicked; literally, holding pure will not hold pure; i.e. he will not treat
the guilty as innocent. ̓‫ב‬‫טש‬͂‫ש‬‫ם‬ [Alex; ̓‫ב‬‫ט‬͂‫ש‬‫ןם‬ ] ‫ן‬̓‫ץ‬‫ך‬̓‫ב‬‫טש‬́‫ש‬‫ףוי‬ ; Mundans non faciet
innocentem (comp. Exodus 20:7; Exodus 34:7). The Lord hath his way, etc. The
prophet grounds his description of the majesty and might of God upon the
revelation at the Exodus and at Sinai. (see Exodus 19:16-18; Psalms 18:1-50.; 97.).
The clouds are the dust of his feet, Large and grand as the clouds look to us, they
are to God but as the dust raised by the feet in walking. As an illustration of this
statement (though, of course, the fact was utterly unknown to Nahum), it has been
remarked that recent scientific discovery asserts that clouds owe their beauty, and
even their very existence, to the presence of dust particles in the atmosphere. The
aqueous vapour, it is said, condenses on these particles, and thus becomes visible.
BI, "The Lord is slow to anger, and great in power, and win not at all acquit the
wicked.
51

52. Mercy, omnipotence, and justice
Works of art require some education in the beholder before they can be thoroughly
appreciated. There must be something in the man himself before he can understand the
wonders either of nature or of art. Certainly this is true of character. By reason of failures
in our character, and faults in our life, we are not capable of understanding all the
separate beauties and the united perfection of the character of Christ, or of God His
Father. Men, through the alienation of their natures, are constantly misrepresenting
God, because they cannot appreciate His perfection. This is especially true with regard to
certain lights and shadows in the character of God, which He has so marvellously
blended in the perfection of His nature, that, although we cannot see the exact point of
meeting, yet we are struck with wonder at the sacred harmony. How can God be “slow to
anger,” and yet unwilling to “acquit the wicked? Our character is so imperfect that we
cannot see the congruity of these two attributes. It is because His character is perfect
that we do not see where these two things melt into each other.
I. The first characteristic of God. “Slow to anger.”
1. Because He never smites without first threatening.
2. But He is very slow to threaten. God’s lips move swiftly when He promises, but
slowly when He threatens.
3. When He threatens, how slow He is to sentence the criminal.
4. Even when the sentence against a sinner is signed and sealed, how slow God is to
carry it out. Illustrate from case of Sodom. Trace this attribute of God to its source.
He is “slow to anger” because He is infinitely good. And because He is great.
II. The link between the first sentence of the text and the last. He is “great in power.” He
that is great in power has power over Himself. When God’s power doth restrain Himself,
then it is power indeed.
III. The last attribute is this—“He will not at all acquit the wicked.” Never once has God
pardoned an unpunished sin. Trace this attribute to its source, and you find it in this,
because He is good.” (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The patience of God
I. Implies great power. Note—
1. This exquisite sensitiveness. He is sensibility itself.
2. His abhorrence of sin. It is the “abominable thing,” which He emphatically hates.
His whole nature revolts from it. He feels that it is antagonism to His will, and to the
order and well-being of the universe.
3. His provocation by the world.
4. His right to do whatever He pleases. He could show His anger, if He pleased, any
when, anywhere, or anyhow.
II. His patience precludes not the punishment of the impenitent. “And will not at all
acquit the wicked.”
1. To “acquit” the impenitent, would be an infraction of His law. He has bound
52

53. suffering to sin by a law as strong and as inviolable as that which binds the planets to
the sun. “The wages of sin is death.”
2. To “acquit” the impenitent, would be a violation of His Word.
3. To “acquit” the impenitent, would be to break the harmony of His universe. If
inveterate rebels were acquitted, what an impulse there would be given in God’s
moral empire to anarchy. Abuse not the patience of God; nay, avail yourselves of it.
(Homilist.)
A discourse upon God’s patience
Slowness to anger, or admirable patience, is the property of the Divine nature. This
patience is seen in His providential works in the world. Consider—
I. The nature of this patience.
1. It is a part of the Divine goodness and mercy, yet differs from both. It differs from
mercy in the formal consideration of the object. Mercy respects the creature as
miserable, patience respects the creature as criminal. Mercy is one end of patience. It
differs in regard of the object. The object of goodness is every creature. The object of
patience is primarily man.
2. Since it is a part of goodness and mercy, it is not an insensible patience.
3. It is not a constrained or half-hearted patience.
4. Since it is not for want of power over the creature, it is from a fulness of power
over Himself.
5. The exercise of this patience is founded in the death of Christ. The natural ness of
God’s veracity and holiness, and the strictness of His justice, are no bars to the
exercise of His patience.
II. How this patience, or slowness to anger, is manifested.
1. To our first parents.
2. To the Gentiles.
3. To the Israelites. In particular, this patience is manifest—
(1) In His giving warning of judgments before He orders them to go forth. He
speaks before He strikes, and speaks that He may not strike.
(2)In long delaying His threatened judgments, though He finds no repentance in
the rebels.
(3) In His unwillingness to execute His judgments, when He can delay no longer.
(4) In moderating His judgments, even when He sends them.
(5) In giving great mercies after provocations.
(6) All this is more manifest if we consider the provocations He hath.
III. Why doth God exercise so much patience?
1. To show Himself appeasable.
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54. 2. To wait for men’s repentance.
3. For the propagation of mankind.
4. For the continuance of the Church.
5. To manifest the equity of His future justice on righteous and wicked.
For instruction—
1. How do men abuse this patience?
2. The second use is for comfort.
3. For exhortation. Meditate often on the patience of God, (C. Charnocke.)
The God of providence a forbearing God
I. The admirable patience of the divine being. The prophet adds a reference to the power
of God, and His punishment of the wicked, in order to guard men against presuming on
His forbearance. We need not stay to prove that slowness to anger is a property of God.
Divine patience could not be displayed unless there were sin. There was abundant
evidence of the Divine goodness before man transgressed; but none of the Divine
patience. When our race rebelled, Divine patience displayed itself. There could be no
forbearance, no long-suffering, in the sense in which we now use the word, unless there
were the possibility of ultimate pardon. When the Almighty spares a sinner, He is even
more wonderful than when He builds a universe. But the Divine patience is in no degree
opposed to the justice and faithfulness of God. It leaves room for the exercise of every
other attribute.
II. The mysterious and awful character of divine providential operations. God has
everything at His disposal; and He accomplishes His purposes, and works out the
counsel of His own will, through a varied instrumentality. Our text, with its sublime and
magnificent imagery, is full of consolation to the afflicted as well as terror to the
impenitent. (H. Melvill, B. D.)
And will not at all acquit the wicked.—
God both forgiving and unforgiving
Calvin’s translation is, “Jehovah is slow to wrath, and great in power, and by clearing He
will not clear.” God is irreconcilable to the impenitent. He deals strictly with sinners, so
as to remit no punishment. He will not clear by clearing, but will rigidly execute His
judgment. There seems to be some inconsistency in saying that God is reconcilable and
ready to pardon, and yet that by clearing He will not clear. But the aspect of things is
different. The ungodly ever promise impunity to themselves, and in this confidence
petulantly deride God Himself. The prophet answers them, and declares that there was
no reason why they thus abused God’s forbearance, for he says, By clearing He will not
clear, that is, the reprobate: for our salvation consists in a free remission of sins; and
whence comes our righteousness but from the imputation of God, and from this—that
our sins are buried in oblivion? Yea, our whole clearing depends on the mercy of God.
But God then exercises also His judgment, and by clearing He clears, when He remits to
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55. the faithful their sins; for the faithful, by repentance, anticipate His judgment; and He
searches their hearts, that He may clear them. As then God absolves none but the
condemned, our prophet here rightly declares, that “by clearing He will not clear,” that
is, He will not remit their sins, except He tries them, and discharges the office of a judge;
in short, that no sin is remitted by God which He does not first condemn. But with
regard to the reprobate, who are wholly obstinate in their wickedness, the prophet justly
declares this to them,—that they have no hope of pardon, as they perversely adhere to
their own devices, and think that they can escape the hand of God: the prophet tells
them that they are deceived, for God passes by nothing, and will not blot out one sin,
until all be brought to mind. (John Calvin.)
The Lord hath His way in the whirlwind, and in the storm, and the clouds
are the dust of His feet.—
The way of the Lord in the whirlwind and in the storm
Philosophers contemplate hurricanes as natural evils, and investigate the material
causes of these elementary commotions. But Scripture raises us up to a higher sphere of
contemplation, and presents to our minds the terrible operations of nature, under
consideration of the works and judgments of the God of nature. He commands the
storm, whirls the wind, rules the sea, and superintends the destructions of death. The
literal sense of the text appears to have a foundation in fact, and may be traced to the
terrible hurricane in which the God of Israel came down, and by a mighty angel
destroyed the Assyrian camp before Jerusalem.
1. The way of the Lord in these elementary and violent commotions which have been
described.
(1) They are awaked and roused by the Word of the Lord.
(2) They are directed by the will of God.
(3) They are ruled by the providence of God.
(4) They are restrained and moderated by the power of God.
(5) They are calmed by the goodness and mercy of God.
Application—
1. The way of the Lord in whirlwinds and storms, and the illustrations of it, are
proofs and demonstrations to the world of His existence and providence.
2. Exhibitions to our senses of the glory and terror of His majesty.
3. Declarations to the world that it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living
God.
4. Admonitions to the nations, to consider the miseries of war, and to settle among
themselves those differences for which they have taken up arms against one another.
5. Calls to the inhabitants of the world, to turn from ungodliness and
unrighteousness, and to serve the Lord with reverence and godly fear. Knowing the
terrors, and knowing that they are coming upon all who know not God, and obey not
the end unbelief, to foresee the great day of His wrath, to believe your guilt and
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56. danger, and to hide yourselves under His righteousness. (A. Shanks.)
The clouds are the dust of His feet.—
What are the clouds
I. The way of God is generally a hidden one. When God works His wonders, He always
conceals Himself. Even the motion of His feet causes clouds to arise.
II. Great things with us are little things with God. What great things clouds are to us!
Great things are they? Nay, they are only the dust of God’s feet.
III. The most terrible things in nature have no terror to the child of God. Sometimes
clouds are fearful things to mariners. But them is nothing terrible now, because it is only
the dust of my Father’s feet.
IV. All things in nature are calculated to terrify the ungodly man. Sinner, hast thou ever
seen the clouds as they roll along the sky! Those clouds are the dust of the feet of
Jehovah. If these clouds are but the dust, what is He Himself? (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Nahum 1:3-6
He rebuketh the sea.
God’s power
Here is a description of God’s power unrivalled in its sublimity and soul-stirring force.
Power belongeth unto God. It is absolute, inexhaustible, ever and everywhere operative.
“He fainteth not, neither is weary.” His power is here presented in two aspects.
I. As operating irresistibly in nature.
1. It works in the air. “The Lord hath His way in the whirlwind and the storm, and
the clouds are the dust of His feet.”
2. It works in the sea. “He rebuketh the sea and maketh it dry, and drieth up all the
rivers.” There is undoubtedly an allusion here to the Red Sea and the Jordan. “He
holdeth the winds in His fists, and the waters in the hollow of His hands.” “His way is
in the sea,” and “His path in the great waters.”
3. It works on the earth. “Bashan languisheth, and Carmel and the flower of Lebanon
languisheth.” No spots in Palestine were more fruitful than these three. But their life
and their growth depended on the results of God’s power. Nor is His power less
active in the inorganic parts of the world. “The mountains quake at Him, and the
hills melt, and the earth is burned at His presence, yea, the world and all that dwell
therein.” God’s power is seen in all the phenomena of the material world. How
graphically and beautifully is this presented in Psa_104:1-35. The fact that God’s
power is ever acting in the material universe is—
(1) The most philosophic explanation of all its phenomena. The men who ascribe
all the operations of nature to what they call laws, fail to satisfy my intellect. For
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57. what are those laws! The fact that God’s power is ever acting is
(2) The most hallowing aspect of the world we live in. God is in all. Then walk
the earth in reverence.
II. As irresistibly opposed to the wicked. “Who can stand before His indignation!”
(Homilist.)
God’s control over nature, and deliverance of His people
In these words them is a striking display of the power, the severity, and the long-
suffering and mercy of God.
I. God’s control over the powers of nature. With the terrible effects of His wrath. He
ruleth in the heavens above, and in the earth beneath, and in the waters under the earth.
II. The essential goodness of God’s character, and the all-sufficiency of His protection.
Both the scenes of external nature, and the general condition of nations and individuals
will, on the slightest reflection, convince you of the prevailing goodness of God. If them
is any doubt on the subject, turn to the book of inspiration.
III. The means whereby man may avert God’s anger, and secure His favour (ver. 7). “He
knoweth them that are His.” Trust in Him is the grand means to be employed. The faith
that is wrought in your hearts by the Holy Spirit of God. This faith will work submission
to Him will, and repentance towards Him. This faith will lay hold of the stronghold that
can defend in the day of trouble. This faith worketh by love. (Hugh Hughes, B. D.)
4 He rebukes the sea and dries it up;
he makes all the rivers run dry.
Bashan and Carmel wither
and the blossoms of Lebanon fade.
BARNES, "He rebuketh the sea and maketh it dry - Delivering His people, as
He did from Pharaoh Psa_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 the wicked. “And drieth up all
the rivers” Isa_57:20, as He did Jordan. His coming shall be far more terrible than when
57

58. all the hearts of the inhabitants of the land did melt. “Bashan languisheth and Carmel;
and the flower of Lebanon languisheth” Jos_2:11. Bashan was richest in pastures;
Carmel, according to its name, in gardens and vineyards; Lebanon, in vines also and
fragrant flowers Hos_14:7; Son_4:11, but chiefly in the cedar and cypress; it had its
name from the whiteness of the snow, which rests on its summit. These mountains then
together are emblems of richness, lasting beauty, fruitfulness, loftiness; yet all, even that
which by nature is not, in the variety of seasons, wont to fade, dries up and withers
before the rebuke of God. But if these thing are “done in a green tree, what shall be done
in the dry?” All freshness, beauty, comeliness, show of outward nature, shall fade as
grass; all ornament of men’s outward graces or gifts, all mere show of goodness, shall fall
off like a leaf and perish. If the glory of nature perishes before God, how much more the
pride of man! Bashan also was the dwelling-place of the race of giants, and near Libanus
was Damascus; yet their inhabitants became as dead men and their power shrank to
nothing at the word of God.
CLARKE, "He rebuketh the sea - The Red Sea and the rivers: probably an
allusion to the passage of the Red Sea and Jordan.
The description of the coming of Jehovah, from the third to the sixth verse, is
dreadfully majestic. He is represented as controlling universal nature. The sea and the
rivers are dried up, the mountains tremble, the hills melt, and the earth is burnt at his
presence. Bashan, Carmel, and Lebanon are withered and languish: streams of fire are
poured out, and the rocks are cast down to make him a passage. If then, the seas, the
rivers, the mountains, the hills, the rocks, and the earth itself, fail before Jehovah, or flee
from his presence, how shall Nineveh and the Assyrian empire stand before him?
GILL, "He rebuketh the sea, and maketh it dry,.... As he did the Red sea, when
the children of Israel passed through it as on dry land; which shows his power and
sovereignty over it; that it is at his command, as a servant at his master's; and since the
wind and sea obey him, what is it he cannot do? see Isa_50:2;
and drieth up all the rivers; that is, he can do it if he will; he divided the waters of
Jordan, through the midst of which the Israelites passed on dry ground; and will dry up
the river Euphrates, to make way for the kings of the east; and as for Tigris, on the banks
of which the city of Nineveh stood, of which the inhabitants boasted, and in which they
trusted for their security, he could dry up, and make way for the enemy to enter in; or
make that their enemy, and overflow them with it, as he did; see Nah_1:8. By the "sea"
and "rivers" may be meant the whole Assyrian empire, and many nations and people, as
Jarchi and Abarbinel interpret it, of whom it consisted; see Jer_51:36;
Bashan languisheth, and Carmel, and the flower of Lebanon languisheth;
when the Lord restrains the heavens from giving rain, then Bashan, famous for its fat
pastures and fruitful meadows, and Carmel for its rich grain fields, and Lebanon for its
tall shadowy cedars, these, and the glory of all, wither and fade away, being parched and
dried up for want of moisture. These were places in the land of Israel, but may be put for
like flourishing and fruitful hills and countries in the land of Assyria, which should
become desolate; see Psa_107:33.
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59. JAMISON, "rebuketh the sea — as Jesus did (Mat_8:26), proving Himself God
(compare Isa_50:2).
Bashan languisheth — through drought; ordinarily it was a region famed for its
rich pasturage (compare Joe_1:10).
flower of Lebanon — its bloom; all that blooms so luxuriantly on Lebanon (Hos_
14:7). As Bashan was famed for its pastures, Carmel for its corn fields and vineyards, so
Lebanon for its forests (Isa_33:9). There is nothing in the world so blooming that God
cannot change it when He is wroth.
CALVIN, "Nahum continues his discourse, — that God, in giving proof of his
displeasure, would disturb the sea or make it dry. There may be here an allusion to
the history, described by Moses; for the Prophets, in promising God’s assistance to
his people, often remind them how God in a miraculous manner brought up their
fathers from Egypt. As then the passage through the Red Sea was in high repute
among the Jews, it may be that the Prophet alluded to that event, (Exodus 14:22.)
But another view seems to me more probable. We indeed know how impetuous an
element is that of the sea; and hence in Jeremiah 5:22, God, intending to set forth
his own power, says, that it is in his power to calm the raging of the sea, than which
nothing is more impetuous or more violent. In the same manner also is the majesty
of God described in Job 28:0. The meaning of this place, I think, is the same, — that
God by his chiding makes the sea dry, (211) and that he can dry up the rivers That
the prophet connects rivers with the sea, confirms what I have just said, — that the
passage through the Red Sea is not here referred to; but that the object is to show in
general how great is God’s power in governing the whole world.
To the same purpose is what he adds, Bashan shall be weakened, and Carmel, and
the branch of Lebanon shall be weakened, or destroyed. By these words he
intimates, that there is nothing so magnificent in the world, which God changes not,
when he gives proofs of his displeasure; as it is said in Psalms 104:0,
‘Send forth thy Spirit, and they shall be renewed;’
and again, ‘Take away thy Spirit,’ or remove it, ‘and all things will return to the
dust;’ yea, into nothing. So also Nahum says in this place, “As soon as God shows his
wrath, the rivers will dry up, the sea itself will become dry, and then the flowers will
fade and the grass will wither;” that is, though the earth be wonderfully
ornamented and replenished, yet all things will be reduced to solitude and
desolation whenever God is angry. And he afterwards adds —
Chiding the sea, he even made it dry;
And all the rivers he dried up:
Wither did Bashan and Carmel,
And the bud of Lebanon withered.
59

60. The verbs in this, and in the following verse, are in the past tense; reference is made
to the past works of God, and in some instances to those performed in the
wilderness. — Ed.
COFFMAN, "Verse 4
"He rebuketh the sea, and maketh it dry, and drieth up all the rivers: Bashan
languisheth, and Carmel; and the flower of Lebanon languisheth."
"He rebuketh the sea ... maketh it dry ..." Many great cities of the earth are today
built where once the waters of the ocean rolled; and this is especially true of
Houston, Texas, where a few miles farther inland, near Hempstead, one may still
discern "The Old Ocean Shore Line." God who did such things in the past still has
the power to do such things now. Valleys that are now arid deserts once supported
civilizations; and in Arizona one may see the "Petrified Forest!" Who but God could
have been responsible for such changes?
"Bashan ... Carmel ... Lebanon ..." These names are associated with the richest and
most-favored dwelling places of antiquity; and they were mentioned here to show
that no place on earth is beyond the judgment of God when the sins of its
inhabitants require their punishment. The Tigris valley, where Nineveh lay, was
another of the garden spots of the earth; but there is nothing there now!
Barnes pointed out that God's making the sea dry "was exactly what he had done in
delivering his people from Pharaoh, a type of all subsequent oppressors";[4] and
that fact was well known to all the nations of antiquity. The harlot on the walls of
Jericho stated forty years after the event that, "The fear of God had fallen upon all
of them" because of it.
CONSTABLE, "Verse 4
A simple word from Yahweh can cause the humanly uncontrollable sea and the
rivers to dry up. The Lord had demonstrated this power when He parted the Red
Sea and stopped the Jordan River from flowing ( Exodus 14:21; Joshua 3:16). It can
make Bashan, Carmel, and Lebanon, which were normally lush, productive regions,
wither away. The Lord had likewise sent many droughts on various parts of Canaan
to encourage His people to return to Him (cf1Kings17-18). It is heat that causes
bodies of water to dry up and bodies of land to wither away, but it is the heat of
God"s wrath in judgment that is sometimes behind this physical heat.
BENSON, "Verses 4-6
Nahum 1:4-6. He rebuketh the sea, and maketh it dry — The rivers and the sea
itself are dried up at his rebuke, as the Red sea and Jordan were of old; and the
most pleasant and fruitful countries, such as Bashan, Carmel, and Lebanon, are
parched up with drought when he is displeased. The mountains quake at him — See
notes on Psalms 114:3-8. And the earth is burned at his presence, yea, the world —
The brightness of his presence is sufficient to set the whole world on fire, with all
60

61. that is in it. This is, indeed, a most magnificent description of the omnipotence of
God. He walketh, or rideth, amidst the whirlwind, or in the storm; the clouds are
but the dust of his feet; the sea is dried up at his word, the mountains are moved,
and tremble at his presence; and the whole earth is consumed with the brightness
that is before him. Who can stand before his indignation? — Who, or what people,
however strong they may think themselves, can withstand the effects of his power
when he is angry with them, and is determined to execute his wrath upon them? His
fury — Rather, his indignation, or the ardour of his anger; is poured out like fire,
&c. — Is as consuming in its effects as fire. And the rocks are thrown down by
him — That is, as fire is of sufficient force to dissolve the hardest rocks, so God’s
power overthrows all opposition, however strong; and his vengeance, with infinite
ease, can humble the most obdurate sinners.
PETT, "Nahum 1:4
‘He rebukes the sea and makes it dry, and dries up all the rivers. Bashan languishes,
and Carmel, and the flower of Lebanon languishes.’
‘He rebukes the sea and makes it dry, He dries up all the rivers.’ He is Lord over the
sea which obeys His commands (Psalms 77:16; Psalms 89:9; Psalms 104:7; Job
38:11). When He rebukes it, it becomes dry (Psalms 106:9). Contrary to what many
say God is never revealed as struggling with the seas. They always obey His
command. To Israel, who were always afraid of the sea, that was a wonder indeed.
But the point being made here is that no forces can resist Him. Even the mighty sea
does His bidding. It was Jesus’ command of the sea and its fury that made His
disciples first say, ‘Of a truth You are the Son of God’ (Matthew 14:33).
All the rivers are subject to His word. The world’s prosperity and fruitfulness,
which mainly depends on the rivers, is dependent on His beneficence. Even the
fertile places are dependent on His provision, and when it is withdrawn they wither.
The drying up of the Jordan for Joshua may be partly in mind here, but only as an
example. The point is that man may boast of his success and plenty, but God can dry
it up in an instant.
‘Bashan languishes, and Carmel, and the flower of Lebanon languishes.’ Nahum
selects the most fruitful areas that he knows of to illustrate his point. They are all
dependent on His benefits. And when they are withdrawn, they wither. Bashan was
in Transjordan, famous for its oaks, and its abundant sheep and herds (Psalms
22:12; Isaiah 2:13; Jeremiah 50:19; Ezekiel 27:5-6; Ezekiel 39:18; Amos 4:1; Micah
7:14). Carmel means ‘fruitful land’. See Jeremiah 50:19; Amos 1:2; Amos 9:3;
Micah 7:14. For ‘the flower of Lebanon’ see Psalms 72:16; Song of Solomon 4:11;
Hosea 14:5-7. It is admired in the inscriptions of Tuthmosis III of Egypt.
PULPIT, "Nahum 1:4
The great physical changes and convulsions in the world are tokens of God's wrath
on sinful nations. He rebuketh the sea, as at the passage of the Red Sea (Exodus
61

62. 14:21; Psalms 106:9). This is a sign of omnipotence (comp. Luke 8:24). All the
rivers. A generalization from the miracle at the Jordan (Joshua 3:1-17.; comp.
Psalms 107:33; Isaiah 1:2). Septuagint, ‫נןפבלן‬̀‫ץ‬‫ע‬̓‫ו‬‫מוסחל‬͂‫ש‬‫ם‬ , "making rivers desolate;"
Vulgate, flumina ad desertum deducens. Bashan (see note on Amos 4:1). Carmel (see
on Amos 1:2). Flower of Lebanon. This district was famous, not only for its cedars,
but also for its vines and flowers (comp. Hosea 14:7; So Hosea 4:11). These three
regions are mentioned as remarkable for their fertility, and they occur most
naturally to the mind of a native of Galilee, as was Nahum. They also geographically
are the eastern, western, and northern boundaries of the land. They are used here
proverbially to express the truth that God can cause the most luxuriant regions to
wither at his word.
5 The mountains quake before him
and the hills melt away.
The earth trembles at his presence,
the world and all who live in it.
BARNES, "The mountains quaked at Him, and the hills melted - As of their
own accord. The words are a renewal of those of Amos Amo_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 give way in that Day, which
shall be “upon all the cedars of Lebanon that are high and lifted up, and upon all the
oaks of Bashan, and upon all the high mountains, and upon all the hills that are lifted
up” Isa_2:13-14. “And the earth is burned” (rather lifteth itself up; as an an earthquake it
seems, as it were, to rise and sink down, lifting itself as if to meet its God or to flee. What
is strongest, shaketh; what is hardest, melteth; yea, the whole world trembles and is
removed. : “If,” said even Jews of old, “when God made Himself known in mercy, to give
the law to His people, the world was so moved at His presence, how much more, when
He shall reveal Himself in wrath!” The words are so great that they bear the soul on to
the time, when the heaven and earth shall flee away from the Face of Him “Who sitteth
on the throne, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat” Rev_20:11; 2Pe_3:10. And
since all judgments are images of the Last, and the awe at tokens of God’s presence is a
shadow of the terror of that coming, he adds,
62

63. GILL, "The mountains quake at him, and the hills melt,.... As Sinai of old did,
when the Lord descended on it, Exo_19:18. Mountains figuratively signify kings and
princes; and hills large countries, as Jarchi and Abarbinel observe, and the inhabitants
of them; particularly the kingdoms and nations belonging to the Assyrian empire, which
would tremble and quake, and their hearts melt with fear, when they should hear of the
destruction of Nineveh their chief city; and of the devastation made by the enemy there
and in other parts, under the direction of the Lord of hosts; his power and providence
succeeding him:
and the earth is burnt at his presence; either when he withholds rain from it, and
so it be comes parched and burnt up with the heat of the sun; or when he rains fire and
brimstone on it, as he did on Sodom and Gomorrah; or consumes any part of it with
thunder and lightning, as he sometimes does; nay, if he but touch the mountains, they
smoke; see Psa_104:32;
yea, the world, and all that dwell therein; as in the last day, at the general
conflagration, when the world, and all the wicked inhabitants of it, will be burnt up; see
2Pe
JAMISON, "earth is burned — so Grotius. Rather, “lifts itself,” that is, “heaveth”
[Maurer]: as the Hebrew is translated in Psa_89:9; Hos_13:1; compare 2Sa_5:21,
Margin.
CALVIN, "Nahum continues still on the same subject, — that when God ascended
his tribunal and appeared as the Judge of the world, he would not only shake all the
elements, but would also constrain them to change their nature. For what can be less
consonant to nature than for mountains to tremble, and for hills to be dissolved or
to melt? This is more strange than what we can comprehend. But the Prophet
intimates that the mountains cannot continue in their own strength, but as far as
they are sustained by the favor of God. As soon, then, as God is angry, the
mountains melt like snow, and flow away like water. And all these things are to be
applied to this purpose, and are designed for this end, — that the wicked might not
daringly despise the threatening of God, nor think that they could, through his
forbearance, escape the punishment which they deserved: for he will be their Judge,
however he may spare them; and though God is ready to pardon, whenever men
hate themselves on account of their sins, and seriously repent; he will be yet
irreconcilable to all the reprobate and the perverse. The mountains, then, before
him tremble, and the hills dissolve or melt.
This useful instruction may be gathered from these words, that the world cannot for
a moment stand, except as it is sustained by the favor and goodness of God; for we
see what would immediately be, as soon as God manifests the signals of his
judgment. Since the very solidity of mountains would be as snow or wax, what
would become of miserable men, who are like a shadow or an apparition? They
63

64. would then vanish away as soon as God manifested his wrath against them, as it is
so in Psalms 39:0, that men pass away like a shadow. This comparison ought ever to
be remembered by us whenever a forgetfulness of God begins to creep over us, that
we may not excite his wrath by self-complacencies, than which there is nothing more
pernicious. Burned, (212) then shall be the earth, and the world, and all who dwell
on it
Mountains have shaken through him,
And hills have melted away;
And confounded has been the earth at his presence,
Yea, the world and all its inhabitantsL
COFFMAN, "Verse 5
"The mountains quake at him, and the hills melt; and the earth is upheaved at his
presence, yea, the world, and all that dwell therein."
This is a continued reference to the physical disturbances of the earth's
environment. "The great physical changes and convulsions in the world are tokens
of God's wrath on sinful nations."[5] Deane is undoubtedly correct in this, for so all
the prophets of God understood them. (See more of this in my commentary on the
minor prophets, vol. 1, pp. 10,11.) Some have difficulty in appreciating this, because
of the obvious fact that many physical disturbances are predictable, and all of them
apparently derive from the operation of definite and orderly laws of physics; but it
must be remembered that God is the author of such laws, and that upon the
occasion of the primeval sin of Adam and Eve, "he cursed the ground for Adam's
sake" (Genesis 3:17), that being exactly the occasion when the great Lawgiver
structured the laws of man's physical dwelling place in such a manner as to produce
throughout the current dispensation the very type of disasters indicated in this
paragraph. It should also be remembered that God's purpose in all of this was
benign. "He cursed the ground for Adam's sake," therein providing endless
reminders of human sin and promptings for men to repent and turn to God. The
subject is one of very great interest, making up the principal theme of the trumpet
judgments of Revelation 8ff. (See my commentary on the Book of Revelation, p.
184ff.) The very environment of the sin-cursed earth is inhospitable and
antagonistic to rebellious and sinful humanity. Earthquakes and volcanoes are
prominent in this verse.
CONSTABLE, "Verse 5
Yahweh produces earthquakes and landslides, other evidences of His awesome
power. Mountains are the most stable physical features on this planet, yet God can
move them. Mt. Sinai quaked when God revealed Himself there ( Exodus 19:18). His
very presence can cause the entire earth and all its inhabitants to convulse and
upheave. The vast Assyrian Empire, therefore, was not too much for Him to
overthrow.
PETT, "Nahum 1:5
64

65. ‘The mountains quake at him, and the hills melt. And the earth is upheaved at his
presence, yes the world and all who dwell in it.’
So even the mighty mountains quake at His presence, and the hills melt, and the
earth is upheaved before Him. This was the kind of language sometimes used by
great kings as they advanced to conquer. They claimed that even the mighty
mountains recognised their coming. Ashur-nasir-pal II claimed that at his approach
“all lands convulse, writhe, and melt as though in a furnace”. For them it was
simply arrogance and pride. But for YHWH it is true. He really does make the
mountains quake and the hills melt. The language is expanded to take into account
that YHWH is unique in power. Possibly partly in mind are the earthquakes
familiar in the area. Everything, whether mountain, hill, plain or valley is affected.
They all quake before YHWH and the earthquakes are all seen as being the result of
His activity.
‘Yes, the world and all who dwell in it.’ No part of the world is outside His sphere of
activity, all peoples are under His control. Their destinies are in His hand. They too
are upheaved before Him and quake at His presence.
There are clear indications in the narrative that God’s power revealed in the
Exodus is in mind, but not as a controlling feature. His ‘jealousy’, His slowness to
anger, the storm and the clouds, the rebuking of the sea and the drying up of the
river, the quaking of the mountains and the melting of the hills, all remind us of the
Exodus narrative (Exodus 19:16-18; Exodus 20:5; Exodus 34:6-7; Psalms 106:9).
But if so the ideas are greatly expanded on and universalised.
PULPIT, "Nahum 1:5
The mountains quake. The mountains, the very emblems of stability, tremble before
him (Adios 8:8). The hills melt; ‫ן‬̔‫י‬‫גןץםן‬̀‫י‬̓‫ו‬‫ףבכו‬́‫ץ‬‫טחףבם‬ , "The hills were shaken". The
hills dissolve like wax or anew at his presence (see Amos 4:13; Micah 1:4). Burned;
Septuagint, ̓‫ב‬‫םוףפ‬́‫ב‬‫כח‬ , "recoils," "is upheaved," as by an earthquake. This rendering
has the greatest authority. The world; i.e. the habitable world, and all living
creatures therein (Joel 1:18-20). Nature animate and inanimate is represented as
actuated by the terror of conscious guilt.
6 Who can withstand his indignation?
Who can endure his fierce anger?
65

66. His wrath is poured out like fire;
the rocks are shattered before him.
BARNES, "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 can trust in his own
righteousness, and, for the abundance of his works or consciousness of his virtues, not
be in need of mercy? ‘Enter not into judgment with Thy servant, O Lord, for in Thy sight
shall no man living be justified;’ and in Job it is said truly, ‘Behold He put no trust in His
servants, and His Angels He charged with folly. How much less in them that dwell in
houses of’ clay, whose foundation is in the dust, which ewe crushed before the moth?’
Job_4:18-19. It were needless now to prove, that man’s own deserts suffice to no one,
and that we are not saved but by the grace of God, ‘for all have sinned and come short of
the glory of God’ Rom_3:23. Wherefore he saith, ‘before His indignation,’ standing face
to Face before Him in wrath.”
Literally, “in the Face of:” guilt cannot look in the face of man, how much less, of God.
The bliss of the righteous is the punishment of the wicked, to behold God face to Face.
For “whoever trusts in his own works deserves His indignation. and thinking he stands,
righteously does he fall.”
His fury is poured out - ‫נתך‬ is used of the pouring out of God’s wrath, Jer_7:20;
Jer_42:18; 2Ch_12:7 (as more commonly ‫שׁפך‬ here its native meaning is brought out the
more, by adding ‫.כאש‬
Like fire - , sweeping away, like a torrent of molten fire, him who presumes that be
can stand before His Face, as He did the cities of the plain Gen. 19, the image of the
everlasting fire, which shall burn up His enemies on every side. “And rocks are thrown
down” Psa_97:3; Psa_50:3; Psa_68:3; Psa_18:8. The rocks are like so many towers of
nature, broken down and crushed “by Him” literally, “from Him.” It needs not any act of
God’s. He wills and it is done. Those who harden themselves, are crushed and broken to
pieces, the whole fabric they had built for themselves and their defenses, crumbling and
shivered. If then they, whose hearts are hard as rocks, and bold against all peril, and
even Satan himself, whose “heart is as firm as a stone, yea, as hard as a piece of the
nether millstone” Job_41:24, shall be crushed then, who shall abide?
GILL, "Who can stand before his indignation?.... No creature whatever; no man
nor body of men; not Nineveh, and the inhabitants of it; nor the whole Assyrian empire:
and who can abide in the fierceness of his anger? not the great men of the earth;
66

67. not kings or generals of armies; not kingdoms and nations, ever so numerous and
powerful; but all must be consumed by him, who is a consuming fire; see Jer_10:10;
his fury is poured out like fire; or like metal that is melted by fire, and poured out
by the force of it; or like fire of lightning poured out of the heavens, which is quick,
powerful, and penetrating, and there is no resisting it:
and the rocks are thrown down by him; by the Lord, by his wrath and fury;
kingdoms that seemed as strong and immovable as rocks and mountains are thrown
down; as such have been by the force of fire bursting from the midst of them, as Etna,
Vesuvius, and others.
HENRY, "This is particularly applied to his anger. If God be an almighty God, we
may thence infer (Nah_1:6), Who can stand before his indignation? The Ninevites had
once found God slow to anger (as he says Nah_1:3), and perhaps presumed upon the
mercy they had then had experience of, and thought they might make bold with him; but
they will find he is just and jealous as well as merciful and gracious, and, having shown
the justice of his wrath, in the next he shows the power of it, and the utter insufficiency
of his enemies to contend with him. It is in vain for the stoutest and strongest of sinners
to think to make their part good against the power of God's anger. (1.) See God here as a
consuming fire, terrible and mighty. Here is his indignation against sin, and the
fierceness of his anger, his fury poured out, not like water, but like fire, like the fire and
brimstone rained on Sodom, Psa_11:6. Hell is the fierceness of God's anger, Rev_16:19.
God's anger is so fierce that it beats down all before it: The rocks are thrown down by
him, which seemed immovable. Rocks have sometimes been rent by the eruption of
subterraneous fires, which is a faint resemblance of the fierceness of God's anger against
sinners whose hearts are rocky, for none ever hardened their hearts against him and
prospered. (2.) See sinners here are stubble before the fire, weak and impotent, and a
very unequal match for the wrath of God. [1.] They are utterly unable to bear up against
it, so as to resist it, and put by the strokes of it: Who can stand before his indignation?
Not the proudest and most daring sinner; not the world of the ungodly; no, not the
angels that sinned. [2.] They are utterly unable to bear up under it so as to keep up their
spirits, and preserve any enjoyment of themselves: Who can abide in the fierceness of
his anger? As it is irresistible, so it is intolerable. Some of the effects of God's
displeasure in this world a man may bear up under, but the fierceness of his anger, when
it fastens immediately upon the soul, who can bear? Let us therefore fear before him; let
us stand in awe, and not sin.
JAMISON, "fury is poured out like fire — like the liquid fire poured out of
volcanoes in all directions (see Jer_7:20).
rocks are thrown down — or, “are burnt asunder”; the usual effect of volcanic fire
(Jer_51:25, Jer_51:56). As Hannibal burst asunder the Alpine rocks by fire to make a
passage for his army [Grotius].
CALVIN, "The Prophet shows here why he gave in the part noticed in the last
lecture, such an awful description of God; it was that men might know, that when
they shall come before his tribunal, no one will be able to stand unless supported by
67

68. his favor. Of the Prophet’s main object we have sufficiently spoken, nor is it
necessary to repeat here what has been stated. It is enough to bear this in mind, —
that as the enemies of the Church relied on their power; and daringly and
immoderately raged against it, the judgment of God is here set before them, that
they might understand that an account was to be rendered to him whose presence
they were not able to bear. But the question has more force than if the Prophet had
simply said, that the whole world could not stand before God: for he assumes the
character of one adjuring. After having shown how terrible God is, he exclaims,
Who shall stand before his indignation? and who shall be able to bear his wrath?
(213) for his indignation, he says, is poured forth as fire. The Hebrew interpreters
have here toiled in vain: as the verb ‫,נתך‬ nutae, means to pour forth it seems to them
an inconsistent expression, that the wrath of God should be poured forth as fire; for
this would be more suitably said of some metal than of fire. But to be poured forth
here is nothing else than to be scattered far and wide. Poured forth then is thy wrath
as fire; that is, it advances every moment, as when a fire seizes a whole forest; and
when it grows strong, we know how great is its violence, and how suddenly it
spreads here and there. But if a different meaning be preferred, I do not much
object to it, “His wrath, which is like fire, is poured out.”
Some think that the Prophet alludes to lightnings, which, as it were, melt through
the air, at least as they appear to us. But as the meaning of the Prophet is
sufficiently evident, there is no need of anxiously inquiring how fire is poured out:
for I have already mentioned, that the Prophet means no other thing than the wrath
of God spreads itself, so that it immediately takes hold, not only of one city but also
of the widest regions and of the whole world, and is therefore like fire, for it passes
through here and there, and that suddenly.
He then says, that rocks are also broken or dissolved before him We must be aware
how great our brittleness is. Since there is no hardness which melts not before God,
how can men, who flow away of themselves like water, be so daring as to set
themselves up against him? We hence see that the madness of men is here rebuked,
who, trusting in their own strength, dare to contend even with God, because they
forget their own frailty. This is the import of the whole. It now follows —
And who shall rise up against his hot anger? — Newcome.
And who can subsist in the heat of his anger? — Henderson.
Neither of these versions convey the meaning. The verb ‫,קום‬ with a ‫ב‬ after it,
signifies to rise up against or resist. ‫בםפיףפחףופבי‬ ‫װיע‬ — Who shall resist? — Sept. So
the line should be thus rendered, —
And who can resist the burning of his wrath?
This line conveys the same idea as the former, only in stronger terms. For
displeasure or anger we have here the burning of his wrath, and for standing we
have resisting. Can is better than will; the Hebrew future ought often to be thus
68

69. rendered. With the view of giving the words here used their distinctive character, I
offer the following version of the whole verse, —
Before his anger who can stand?
And who can resist the burning of his wrath?
His indignation has been poured forth like fire;
And rocks have been broken in pieces by him.
The two last verbs are in the past tense, and are more expressive when so
rendered. — Ed.
COFFMAN, "Verse 6
"Who can stand before his indignation? and who can abide in the fierceness of his
anger? his wrath is poured out like fire, and the rocks are broken asunder by him."
"Storm, tempest, cloud, drought, earthquake, and fire are the word-colors which
Nahum uses to paint his picture of the day of God's wrath (against Nineveh) ... the
nature of the calamity is to be, not political, but cosmical, due to miraculous, divine
intervention, and not by armed forces."[6]
While only partly correct, Graham's comment is interesting, because the implication
of Nahum's prophecy certainly does indicate that a great natural disturbance would
be the ruin of Nineveh, but still did not rule out the element of military defeat. In the
fulfillment, the calamity indeed was primarily the physical disturbance of the
environment. Without the great and totally unexpected flood that demolished the
city wall and opened it up to the invader, it was exceedingly unlikely that the siege
of Nineveh would have been successful. Melting snows sent the Tigris and its
tributaries into an extraordinarily high flood stage; that was the real ruin of
Nineveh, and it was totally of God.
CONSTABLE, "Verse 6
No one can continue to exist if Yahweh is indignant with him or her. Nahum did not
mean that the final destiny of God"s enemies is annihilation. He meant that no one
can survive His unchecked wrath. The Hebrew word translated "indignant,"
za"am, means to be enraged, like boiling water. No one can endure Yahweh"s
burning anger. Nahum made these points strongly by using two rhetorical
questions.
"Unlike a regular question, which is soliciting information, a rhetorical question
assumes the answer is already known by both the asker and the asked. Instead of
the statement which could have been used in its place, the rhetorical question forces
the hearer to get actively involved in the discussion.... The technique is used
elsewhere in Nahum ( Nahum 2:11; Nahum 3:7-8) and in other prophetic texts."
[Note: Baker, p29.]
The Assyrians should have learned this truth when God destroyed their army, as it
69

70. surrounded Jerusalem, in one night ( 2 Kings 18-19). Yahweh"s wrath pours out
like fire, and then even solid rocks break up (cf. 1 Kings 19:11). How much less will
human flesh and manmade walls stand against His anger!
PETT, "Nahum 1:6
‘Who can stand before His indignation, and who can abide in the fierceness of his
anger? His fury is poured out like fire, and the rocks are broken asunder by him.’
‘Who can stand before His indignation?’ The answer is, no one, not even mighty
Assyria. When God finally determines to deal with sin no one can stop Him. And
one day all men will have to face Him. But for now, watch out Assyria! His anger is
pictured as being like the lightning that strikes the earth and breaks rocks asunder.
Alternately there may be in mind the powerful activity of a volcano, pouring its
fiery lava on the earth, and cracking the rocks with its heat.
SIMEON, "Verse 6
DISCOURSE: 1218
GOD A REVENGER OF SIN
Nahum 1:2; Nahum 1:6. God is jealous, and the Lord revengeth; the Lord
revengeth, and is furious; the Lord will take vengeance on his adversaries, and he
reserveth wrath for his enemies.. …Who can stand before his indignation? and who
can abide in the fierceness of his anger?
MEN have such ideas of God’s mercy, that they cannot persuade themselves he will
ever execute judgment on impenitent transgressors. In fact, it is the hope of this
which encourages men to go on in their sins: for, if once they could believe that they
shall soon become monuments of God’s righteous indignation, they would consider
their ways, and labour by all possible means to avert his displeasure.
About one hundred and forty years before this was written, the Prophet Jonah had
been sent to warn the Ninevites of their impending destruction. But they had
repented of their wickedness; and God, in his mercy, had withheld his threatened
judgments. But now he warns them, that since they had filled up the measure of
their iniquities, his wrath should come upon them to the uttermost. Now, I would
ask, supposing God to be determined to convince men that he would execute
vengeance on the impenitent, what could he add to what is here spoken? Methinks
there is here such an accumulation of words, as must defy incredulity itself to
question the truth contained in them. It is not a pleasing subject that we are now
called to insist upon: but it is necessary; and the more necessary, because of men’s
backwardness to give it the consideration it deserves. Let us, then, consider,
I. The description here given of the Deity—
70

71. God is “a jealous God”—
[He has a claim to our undivided allegiance, and to all the affections of our souls.
And when he sees how prone we are to set our affections on the creature rather than
on him, it becomes him to be jealous. A man like ourselves would not do well to
connive at the unfaithfulness of his wife, who was giving to others the affections
which were his unalienable right: how much less, then, can God admit such an
alienation of our hearts from him!. He cannot: indeed “his very name is Jealous
[Note: Exodus 34:14.]:” and he must divest himself of his every perfection, before he
can connive at the dishonour which our unfaithfulness reflects upon him.]
He will “take vengeance” on obstinate transgressors—
[“The Lord revengeth; yea, he revengeth, and is furious.” We are not indeed to
conceive of him as feeling in his own bosom such emotions as constitute “fury” in
man: in that sense “fury is not in him [Note: Isaiah 27:4.];” but, so far as the effects
of his displeasure are felt, it will be the same to us, as if he were filled with the
utmost rage. At present, indeed, he bears with sinners with all imaginable patience
and long-suffering: but “he reserves them unto the day of judgment to be punished
[Note: 2 Peter 2:9.].” In my text, the word “wrath” is in italics, to shew that it is not
in the original. In truth, there is no word in any language that can express what God
“reserveth for his enemies;” no, nor can any imagination conceive it. The Psalmist
well says, “Who knoweth the power of thine anger? Even according to thy fear, so is
thy wrath [Note: Psalms 90:11.]”]
And “who can stand before his indignation?”
[“Who indeed can abide the fierceness of his anger?” These pointed interrogations
convey the most tremendous thoughts to our minds. Now we can “puff at God’s
judgments,” as if they were scarcely worthy of a thought [Note: Psalms 10:5.]: but it
will not be so when the time for the infliction of them is fully come. Then “the kings
of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the
mighty men, no less than the poor bond-man, will hide themselves in the dens, and
in the rocks of the mountains; and will cry to the mountains and rocks to fall upon
them, and to hide them from the face of Him that sitteth on the throne, and from the
wrath of the Lamb. “The great day of his wrath being come, who shall be able to
stand [Note: Revelation 6:15-17.]?” The wrath of man has been sustained, even
when it raged to the utmost extent of human ingenuity to inflict pain: but who can
sustain the wrath of God? The soul, aided by divine grace, has upheld the body: but
who, or what, can uphold the soul, when it is God’s arm, too, that inflicts the
punishment? Some will console themselves with the thought that they shall do as
well as others. But if they could for one moment descend to hell, and see the agonies,
and hear the cries, of a damned soul, methinks it would be little consolation to think
that they shall do as well as others. If they were only to be racked upon a wheel, and
to endure its agonies but for an hour, their prospect, methinks, would be but little
cheered by this thought: how much less then, when the wrath of an offended God
71

72. must be endured to all eternity!]
But, that we sink not into despondency, let us attend to,
II. The advice, which one moment’s reflection on this subject must suggest—
The doom of Nineveh was fixed: but not so the doom of any amongst us. No,
Brethren, there is yet hope concerning you; yes, concerning every one of you. Only,
1. Abide not in impenitence—
[When Nineveh was warned by Jonah, though no encouragement was given them to
repent, they humbled themselves, on a mere peradventure that God might possibly
have mercy on them: and the mercy which they sought was accorded to them [Note:
Jonah 3:5-10.]. But to you I am authorized to proclaim mercy: for God’s gracious
message to you is, “Repent, and turn yourselves from all your transgressions; so
iniquity shall not be your ruin [Note: Ezekiel 18:30.].” Hear what God says to you
by the Prophet Jeremiah: “Thus saith the Lord, Break up your fallow ground, and
sow not among thorns. Circumcise yourselves to the Lord, and take away the
foreskins of your heart, ye men of Judah, and inhabitants of Jerusalem; lest my fury
come forth like fire, and burn that none can quench it [Note: Jeremiah 4:3-4.].” Yes
indeed, by timely humiliation, you may yet avert the wrath of your incensed God;
who, “if you forsake your evil ways, and turn unto him, will have mercy upon you,
and abundantly pardon,” to the full extent of your multiplied transgressions [Note:
Isaiah 55:7.].]
2. Abide not in unbelief—
[God has provided a Saviour for you, even his only dear Son; who has, by his own
obedience unto death, effected a reconciliation for you; and “has committed unto us
the ministry of reconciliation;” so that we are not only authorized, but commanded,
to say to all of you, without exception, “Be ye reconciled to God [Note: 2 Corinthians
5:18-20.].” He has illustrated this to you in his word, by the appointment of cities of
refuge for those who by any accident should slay a man. The very instant he should
get within the gates of any one of these cities, he was safe; and the pursuer of blood,
however enraged, could not get at him to hurt him [Note: Numbers 35:9-25.]. And
who shall sustain any hurt, that flees to Christ for refuge? No: in him you will be
safe. Once found in him, you have nothing to fear. You are as safe in him as you
would be in heaven itself [Note: Hebrews 6:17-18. Romans 8:1.]. To every one of
you, then, I give this counsel from the Lord: “Come, my people, enter thou into thy
chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself, as it were, for a little
moment, until the indignation be overpast [Note: Isaiah 26:20.].”]
3. Abide not in a proud defiance of your God—
[There were, in the days of old, some who, in answer to God’s threatenings, said,
72

73. “Let him make speed, and hasten his work, that we may see it; and let the counsel of
the Holy One of Israel draw nigh and come, that we may know it [Note: Isaiah
5:19.].” And such there are amongst ourselves, who, in reply to all that we say,
exclaim, “Ah, Lord God, doth he not speak parables [Note: Ezekiel 20:49.]?” But
indeed, my dear brethren, God’s patience will have an end; and the very exercise of
it will only aggravate our condemnation, if it do not “prevail to lead us to
repentance [Note: Romans 2:4-6.].” Be persuaded that God’s description of himself,
in the words of our text, will be found true at the last. He is indeed “a consuming
fire [Note: Hebrews 12:29.]:” and “can your heart endure, or your hands be strong,
in the day that he shall deal with you [Note: Ezekiel 22:14.]?” “Have you an arm
like God? and can you thunder with a voice like him [Note: Job 40:9.]?” No: it is in
vain to contend with God: for “who shall set briers and thorns against him in
battle? He will go through them, and burn them up together [Note: Isaiah 27:4.].”
Verily, “it will be a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God [Note:
Hebrews 10:31.]” Be convinced of this; and “to-day, while it is called to-day,”
implore mercy at his hands: so shall you find, that “he will pardon your iniquity,
and pass by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage; for he retaineth not
anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy [Note: Micah 7:18.].” And if the
description of him in my text be true, you shall find that true also which is added in
the seventh verse, “The Lord is good, a strong-hold in the day of trouble; and he
knoweth them that trust in him.”]
PULPIT, "Nahum 1:6
Who can stand? (Psalms 76:7; Joel 2:11; Malachi 3:2; comp. Revelation 6:17). His
fury is poured out like fire (Deuteronomy 4:24); like the brimstone and fire that
destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 19:24), or like the molten lava that issues
from a volcano (Jeremiah 7:20). Septuagint (reading differently), ̔‫ן‬‫טץל‬̀‫ן‬‫ב‬ ‫ע‬̓‫ץ‬‫פן‬͂‫ץ‬
‫פ‬́‫ח‬‫ךוי‬̓‫ב‬‫סק‬́‫ב‬‫ע‬ : consumit principatus (Jerome). Are thrown down; rather, are rent
asunder. If such is tile power of God, how shall Assyria resist it?
7 The Lord is good,
a refuge in times of trouble.
He cares for those who trust in him,
73

74. BARNES, "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” Luk_18:19; Himself
the stronghold wherein His own amy take refuge; both in the troubles of this life, in
which “He will not suffer us to be tempted above that we are able” 1Co_10:13, and in that
Day, which shall hem them in on every side, and leave no place of escape except Himself.
And He knoweth them that tuust in Him - So as to save them; as Rahab was
saved when Jericho perished, and Lot out of the midst of the overthrow and Hezekiah
from the host of Sennacherib. He knows them with an individual, ever-present,
knowledge. He says not only, “He shall own them,” but He ever “knoweth them.” So it is
said; “The Lord knoweth the way of the righteous” Psa_1:6; “The Lord knoweth the, days
of the upright” Psa_37:18; and our Lord says, “I know My sheep” Joh_10:14, Joh_10:27;
and Paul, “The Lord knoweth them that are His” 2Ti_2:19. God speaks of this knowledge
also in the past, of His knowledge, when things as yet were not, “I have known thee by
name;” or of loving kindness in the past, “I knew thee in the wilderness” Hos_13:5, “you
alone have I known of all the families of the earth” Amo_3:2, its contrariwise our Lord
says, that He shall say to the wicked in the Great Day, “I never knew you” Mat_7:23.
That God, being what He is, should take knowledge of us, being what we are, is such
wondrous condescension, that it involves a purpose of love, yea, His love toward us, as
the Psalmist says admiringly, “Lord, what is man that Thou takest knowledge of him?”
Psa_144:3.
Them that trust in Him - It is a habit, which has this reward; “the trusters in Him,”
“the takers of refuge in Him.” It is a continued unvarying trust, to which is shown this
everpresent love and knowledge.
Yet this gleam of comfort only discloses the darkness of the wicked. Since those who
trust God are they whom God knows, it follows that the rest He knows not. On this
opening, which sets forth the attributes of God toward those who defy Him and those
who trust in Him, follows the special application to Nineveh.
CLARKE, "The Lord is good - In the midst of judgment he remembers mercy; and
among the most dreadful denunciations of wrath he mingles promises of mercy. None
that trust in him need be alarmed at these dreadful threatenings; they shall be
discriminated in the day of wrath, for the Lord knoweth them that trust in him.
GILL, "The Lord is good,.... To Israel, as the Targum adds; to Hezekiah and his,
people, that betook themselves to him, and put their trust in him; whom he defended
and preserved from the king of Assyria, to whom he was dreadful and terrible,
destroying his army in one night by an angel; and so delivered the king of Judah and the
inhabitants of Jerusalem from that terror that had seized them, and that danger they
were exposed unto; and so the Lord is good in himself, in the perfections of his nature, in
the works of his hands, in all his persons to his people, that fear him, trust in him, and
seek him, and wait for him, and on him:
a strong hold in the day of trouble; or, he is "good for a strong hold" (w), &c. it was
74

75. a day of trouble, rebuke, and blasphemy, with Hezekiah and his people, when they were
besieged by the army of Sennacherib king of Assyria, and had received from Rabshakeh
by his orders a railing and reproaching letter; and then the Lord was a strong hold to
them, to whom they betook themselves, and he protected and defended them. The whole
time of this life is a time of trouble to the saints, though it is but a day, a short time; in
which they meet with much from their own corrupt hearts, and the sin that dwells in
them; from Satan and his temptations; from carnal professors, their principles and
practices; and from a profane and persecuting world; and from the Lord himself, who
sometimes lays his afflicting hand upon them, and hides his face from them; and yet he
is their rock and their refuge, their strong tower and place of defence; where they find
safety and plenty in all their times of distress and want:
and he knoweth them that trust in him; in his word, as the Targum; and they are
such that know him, and are sensible of the vanity of all other objects of trust; who
betake themselves to him for shelter and protection; lean and stay themselves upon him,
and commit all unto him, and expect all from him: these he knows, loves, and has the
strongest affection for; he approves of them, and commends their faith and confidence;
he takes notice of them, visits them, and makes himself known unto them, even in their
adversity; he owns and acknowledges them as his own, claims his right in them now, and
will confess them hereafter; and he takes care of them that they perish not, whoever else
do; see Psa_1:6; he knows the necessities of those that trust in him, as Jarchi; he knows
them for their good, takes care of them, provides for, them, and watches over them, as
Kimchi. The ancients formerly had their γνωστηρας and μυνητας, "notores" (x), such as
knew them, and were their patrons and defenders; as when a Roman citizen was
condemned to be whipped or crucified in a province where he was not known, and
claimed the Roman privileges, such persons were his witnesses and advocates; and thus
the Lord is represented as one that knows his people, and is their patron and advocate.
The goodness of God expressed in this text is set off with a foil by the terribleness of his
wrath and vengeance against his enemies.
HENRY, " He is a God of infinite mercy; and in the midst of all this wrath mercy is
remembered. Let the sinners in Zion be afraid, that go on still in their transgressions,
but let not those that trust in God tremble before him. For, 1. He is slow to anger (Nah_
1:3), not easily provoked, but ready to show mercy to those who have offended him and
to receive them into favour upon their repentance. 2. When the tokens of his rage against
the wicked are abroad he takes care for the safety and comfort of his own people (Nah_
1:7): The Lord is good to those that are good, and to them he will be a stronghold in the
day of trouble. Note, The same almighty power that is exerted for the terror and
destruction of the wicked is engaged, and shall be employed, for the protection and
satisfaction of his own people; he is able both to save and to destroy. In the day of public
trouble, when God's judgments are in the earth, laying all waste, he will be a place of
defence to those that by faith put themselves under his protection, those that trust in
him in the way of their duty, that live a life of dependence upon him, and devotedness to
him; he knows them, he owns them for his, he takes cognizance of their case, knows
what is best for them, and what course to take most effectually for their relief. They are
perhaps obscure and little regarded in the world, but the Lord knows them, Psa_1:6.
75

76. JAMISON, "Here Nahum enters on his special subject, for which the previous verses
have prepared the way, namely, to assure his people of safety in Jehovah under the
impending attack of Sennacherib (Nah_1:7), and to announce the doom of Nineveh, the
capital of the Assyrian foe (Nah_1:8). The contrast of Nah_1:7, Nah_1:8 heightens the
force.
he knoweth — recognizes as His own (Hos_13:5; Amo_3:2); and so, cares for and
guards (Psa_1:6; 2Ti_2:19).
K&D 7-8,"But the wrath of God does not fall upon those who trust in the Lord; it only
falls upon His enemies. With this turn Nahum prepares the way in Nah_1:7. for
proclaiming the judgment of wrath upon Nineveh. Nah_1:7. “Good is Jehovah, a refuge
in the day of trouble; and He knoweth those who trust in Him. Nah_1:8. And with an
overwhelming flood will He make an end of her place, and pursue His enemies into
darkness.” Even in the manifestation of His wrath God proves His goodness; for the
judgment, by exterminating the wicked, brings deliverance to the righteous who trust in
the Lord, out of the affliction prepared for them by the wickedness of the world. The
predicate ‫טוֹב‬ is more precisely defined by the apposition ‫וגו‬ ‫עוֹז‬ ָ‫מ‬ ְ‫,ל‬ for a refuge = a refuge
in time of trouble. The goodness of the Lord is seen in the fact that He is a refuge in
distress. The last clause says to whom: viz., to those who trust in Him. They are known
by Him. “To know is just the same as not to neglect; or, expressed in a positive form, the
care or providence of God in the preservation of the faithful” (Calvin). For the fact,
compare Psa_34:9; Psa_46:2; Jer_16:19. And because the Lord is a refuge to His people,
He will put an end to the oppressor of His people, viz., Nineveh, the capital of the
Assyrian empire, and that with an overwhelming flood. Sheteph, overwhelming, is a
figure denoting the judgment sweeping over a land or kingdom, through the invasion of
hostile armies (cf. Isa_8:7; Dan_11:26, Dan_11:40). ‫ר‬ ֵ‫ֹב‬‫ע‬, overflowed by a river (cf. Isa_
8:8; Hab_3:10; Dan_11:40). ‫ה‬ ָ‫ל‬ ָ‫כ‬ ‫ה‬ ָ‫שׂ‬ ָ‫,ע‬ to put an end to anything, as in Isa_10:23. ‫הּ‬ ָ‫קוֹמ‬ ְ‫מ‬ is
the accusative of the object: make her place a vanishing one. ‫ה‬ ָ‫ל‬ ָ‫,כּ‬ the fem. of ‫ה‬ ֶ‫ל‬ ָ‫,כּ‬ an
adjective in a neuter sense, that which is vanishing away. The suffix in ‫הּ‬ ָ‫קוֹמ‬ ְ‫מ‬ refers to
Nineveh in the heading (Nah_1:1): either Nineveh personified as a queen (Nah_2:7;
Nah_3:4), is distinguished from her seat (Hitzig); or what is much more simple, the city
itself is meant, and “her place” is to be understood in this sense, that with the
destruction of the city even the place where it stood would cease to be the site of a city,
with which March aptly compares the phrase, “its place knoweth man no more” (Job_
7:10; Job_8:18; Job_20:9). ‫יו‬ ָ‫ב‬ְ‫ֹי‬‫א‬ are the inhabitants of Nineveh, or the Assyrians
generally, as the enemies of Israel. ְ‫ך‬ ֶ‫ֹשׁ‬‫ח‬‫ף־‬ ֶ‫דּ‬ ַ‫ר‬ְ‫,י‬ not darkness will pursue its enemies; for
this view is irreconcilable with the makkeph: but to pursue with darkness, chōshekh being
an accusative either of place or of more precise definition, used in an instrumental sense.
The former is the simpler view, and answers better to the parallelism of the clauses. As
the city is to vanish and leave no trace behind, so shall its inhabitants perish in darkness.
CALVIN, "The Prophet expresses more clearly here what we referred to in our last
76

77. lecture, — that God is hard and severe toward refractory men, and that he is
merciful and kind to the teachable and the obedient, — not that God changes his
nature, or that like Proteus he puts on various forms; but because he treats men
according to their disposition. (214) As then the Prophet has hitherto taught us, that
God’s wrath cannot be sustained by mortals; so now, that no one might complain of
extreme rigor, he, on the other hand, shows that God favors what is right and just,
that he is gentle and mild to the meek, and therefore ready to bring help to the
faithful, and that he leaves none of those who trust in him destitute of his aid.
First, by saying that God is good, he turns aside whatever might be objected on the
ground of extreme severity. There is indeed nothing more peculiar to God than
goodness. Now when he is so severe, that the very mention of his name terrifies the
whole world, he seems to be in a manner different from himself. Hence the Prophet
now shows that whatever he had hitherto said of the dreadful judgment of God, is
not inconsistent with his goodness. Though God then is armed with vengeance
against his enemies he yet ceases not to be like himself, nor does he forget his
goodness. But the Prophet does here also more fully confirm the Israelites and the
Jews in the belief, that God is not only terrible to the ungodly, but that, as he has
promised to be the guardian of his Church, he would also succor the faithful, and in
time alleviate their miseries. Good then is Jehovah; and it is added for help The
intention of the Prophet may be hence more clearly understood, when he says that
he is for strength in the day of distress; as though he said, — “God is ever ready to
bring help to his people:” (215) And he adds, in the day of distress, that the faithful
may not think that they are rejected, when God tries their patience by adversities.
How much soever then God may subject his people to the cross and to troubles, he
still succors them in their distress.
He lastly adds, He knows them who hope in him. This to know, is no other thing
than not to neglect them. Hence God is said to know them who hope in him, because
he always watches over them, and takes care of their safety: in short, this knowledge
is nothing else but the care of God, or his providence in preserving the faithful. The
Prophet, at the same time, distinguishes the godly and sincere worshipers of God
from hypocrites: when God leaves many destitute who profess to believe in him, he
justly withholds from them his favor, for they do not from the heart call on him or
seek him.
We now then understand the Prophet’s meaning. He shows, on the one hand, that
God is armed with power to avenge his enemies; And, on the other, he shows that
God, as he has promised, is a faithful guardian of his Church. How is this proved?
He sets before us what God is, that he is good; and then adds, that he is prepared to
bring help. But he does not in vain mention this particular, — that he takes care of
the faithful, who truly, and from the heart, hope in him; it is done, that they may
understand that they are not neglected by God, and also that hypocrites may know
that they are not assisted, because their profession is nothing else but dissimulation,
for they hope not sincerely in God, however they may falsely boast of his name. It
now follows —
77

78. Good isJehovah for protection in the day of distress;
And he knoweth them who trust in him.
The word ‫מעיז‬ is from ‫,עז‬ strength, and having the formative ‫,מ‬ it attains a causative
sense, and means that which affords or gives strength, — a fortress, a stronghold, or
protection. — Ed.
COFFMAN, "Verse 7
"Jehovah is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; and he knoweth them that take
refuge in him."
It is a characteristic of all God's prophets that, in the very midst of the most terrible
announcements of doom and punishment, there always appears the word of hope,
encouragement, solace, or reassurance for God's true people. He never forgets them.
Whatever disasters may overwhelm humanity, God will look after those who love
him and see to it that they will be spared from any type of disaster that could
remove them from the earth; but that appears to be a policy regarding particularly
the whole body of the redeemed, and not necessarily applicable to each instance of
righteousness and service to God. When Herod Agrippa II threatened to
exterminate the infant church, God struck him to death at Caesarea; when
Jerusalem fell to the Romans, not a Christian lost his life. Forewarned by Christ
himself, they fled to Pella. Christ promised to be with his church "always, even unto
the end of the world" (Matthew 28:20), echoing exactly the same sentiment
expressed here.
Three profound affirmations of the character of God appear in this single verse:
"First, he is inately and inherently good, and can never be associated with the
opposite attributes. Secondly, he is the incomparable refuge for his own in times of
their distress, "A Bulwark Never Failing," as Luther put it; and third, he knows, in
the sense of loving, covenant care, all who have reposed their faith in him."[7]
CONSTABLE, "Verse 7
In contrast, Yahweh is also good, not just angry and vengeful (cf. Romans 11:22).
He Himself is a more secure hiding place than any mountain, hill, or great city, like
Nineveh, when people face trouble (cf. Psalm 27:1; Psalm 37:39; Psalm 43:2; Psalm
52:7). Furthermore He knows those who take refuge in Him by drawing near to Him
and resting their confidence in Him. He takes note of those who trust in Him as well
as those who incur His wrath. Whereas the previous revelations of God reflect His
imminent dealings with the Assyrians, this aspect of His character (name) should
have encouraged the Israelites to trust and obey Him.
BENSON, "Nahum 1:7. The Lord is good — But though God is thus terrible in his
power, yet he is merciful, gracious, and beneficent in his nature, and is a sure refuge
78

79. and protection to those who worship and serve him sincerely, and put their trust in
him; and he knows and pays a particular regard to all such, so that they are never
overlooked or neglected by him; he approves, owns, and preserves them.
PETT, "Nahum 1:7
‘YHWH is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble, and he knows those who put
their trust in him.’
‘YHWH is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble.’ But while YHWH is fearsome
to those who incur His anger by their constant sinfulness, and by their attacks on
His people, He is good to those who trust in Him, those who are in covenant
relationship with Him and seek honestly to fulfil their part in the covenant. Indeed
when the day of trouble comes He is their stronghold, as Hezekiah and the people of
Jerusalem had discovered when Jerusalem was besieged by Sennacherib (2 Kings
18-19).
The idea here is that YHWH is essentially good, and His purposes are good. Indeed
He only acts as He does because He is good. He acts on behalf of the weak and
helpless against their oppressors.
‘He knows those who put their trust in him.’ This means more than knowing in our
sense of the word. It means that He has entered into a relationship with them, and
therefore acts towards them as protector (Psalms 1:6; John 10:14; John 10:27; 1
Corinthians 8:3. It can have a reverse effect - Amos 3:2).
SIMEON, "Verse 7
DISCOURSE: 1219
GOD A REFUGE IN TIME OF TROUBLE
Nahum 1:7. The Lord is good, a strong hold in the day of trouble; and he knoweth
them that trust in him.
WHEN God interposed in a cloud between the camp of Israel and the camp of the
Egyptians, the cloud was to those a pillar of fire, to give them light; but to these a
cloud of darkness, to obstruct their way. And such is the varied aspect of Jehovah to
his friends and enemies in all ages. Towards the Ninevites, who had now nearly
filled up the measure of their iniquities, and forced, as it were, from Jehovah a
decree of utter and everlasting excision, he is represented in terms the most awful
that language could afford: “God is jealous, and the Lord revengeth, and is furious:
the Lord will take vengeance on his adversaries, and he reserveth wrath for his
enemies.. …Who can stand before his indignation? and who can abide in the
fierceness of his anger? His fury is poured out like fire; and the rocks are thrown
down by him [Note: ver. 2, 6.]”. But, lest the Lord’s people should apply this
description of Jehovah indiscriminately to all persons of whatever character, the
79

80. prophet stops abruptly, and declares, that towards his own believing people
Jehovah is of a very different character; for that “he is good, and a strong hold in
the day of trouble, and knoweth them that trust in him.”
Let us for our comfort consider Jehovah as he is here depicted to us;
I. In the perfections of his nature—
[“He is good;” every way “good;” and appears to be so in all that he has ever done.
His works of creation were all, after an attentive survey of them by the Divine
Artificer, pronounced to be “very good.” In the course of so many thousands of
years there never has been found one single instance in which any work of his could
be improved; so perfect has been the adaptation of every part to its respective use,
and so complete the subservience of each to the good of the whole. His works of
providence come less within the sphere of human observation, because we know not
all the ends that are to be accomplished by them: but of those which have been the
most dark or most calamitous we have had the unanimous testimony of the best
judges, that “he has done all things well;” and that, however “clouds and darkness
may have been round about him, justice and judgment have been the basis of his
throne.” Of his works of redemption what shall we say? In what terms can we
convey any just notion of them? Verily the tongue of an archangel is incapable of
expressing the goodness of God in giving his only dear Son to die for us [Note: 1
John 4:8-10.]: this mystery far exceeds the comprehension of any finite intelligence:
its “height and depth and length and breadth can never be explored:” suffice it to
say, that the incarnation and death of the Son of God is the one subject of adoration
amongst all the hosts of heaven, and will continue to be so through the countless
ages of eternity [Note: Revelation 5:12-14.].
But, whilst the goodness of God is readily acknowledged in reference to those who
are the objects of mercy, it may be doubted in reference to those who shall be the
objects of his everlasting displeasure. It may be asked, How can his punitive justice
be good? I answer, If he did not maintain the rights of justice he could not be
“good.” Whatever ungodly men may imagine, justice is necessary in every
government: and, if an earthly monarch would be thought essentially defective if he
suffered all the laws of the realm to be outraged and set at nought with impunity, so
would Jehovah, with reverence be it spoken, act unworthily as the Moral Governor
of the universe, if he made no difference between the observers of his laws, and
those who violated them without remorse. His law is a transcript of his holy will;
and the honour of it must be maintained, either by the observance of its precepts, or
by the execution of its penalties. Besides, if the justice of God were not displayed in
the punishment of sin, he would neither be revered in heaven, nor feared on earth.
In heaven, his justice and holiness and truth would be altogether darkened, and the
radiance of all his other perfections obscured: and on earth, Satan would retain an
undisputed sway over the hearts of men.
In every view therefore we must say, not only that God is good, but that his
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81. goodness, no less than “his greatness, is unsearchable.”]
We have a further insight given us into the character of God,
II. In the provisions of his covenant—
[Sin has brought misery along with it: and since the first introduction of sin into the
world, “man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward.” But God has entered into
covenant with his only dear Son as our head and representative; and has made over
to us himself as our God, at the same time that he takes us to himself as his people.
In the day of trouble we feel, that none but God can afford us any effectual help:
and he engages at that season to be a very present help unto us. Whatever our
affliction be, we may go to him with it, and find him “a strength to the poor, a
strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the
heat, when the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall [Note: Isaiah
25:4.].” What a strong-hold he is we see in the instance of Hezekiah, when
surrounded by the Assyrian army, whom, according to all human appearance, it
was impossible for him to withstand: one assurance of protection from Jehovah
enabled that holy prince to despise all the menaces of his blaspheming adversary,
and to rest as secure and as composed as if there had been no danger at hand [Note:
Isaiah 37:21-33.].
But if in temporal troubles God is such a refuge, much more is he when the soul is
oppressed with a sense of sin. Hear what he speaks to us by his beloved Son: “Come
unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Yes: our
adorable Saviour was fitly represented to us by the cities of refuge, which were open
day and night to the manslayer, and which afforded him perfect security from the
pursuer of blood, the very instant he entered within their gates. Such a city is the
Lord Jesus, “whose name is a strong tower, to which the fighteous runneth and is
safe.” Has he not himself said, “Him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out?”
Let the afflicted sinner go to him, and he shall find that this “man,” this God-man,
“will be to him as an hiding-place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest; as
rivers of water in a dry place; as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land [Note:
Isaiah 32:2.].” Verily “He will save to the uttermost all that come unto God by
Him.”]
We shall have a yet deeper insight into his character, if we view him,
III. In the dispensations of his grace—
[“He knoweth those who trust in him;” not merely as distinguishing them from
others, but as feeling towards them the most affectionate regard: (in this sense the
word “knoweth” is frequently used [Note: Psalms 1:6.].) He views them with the
tenderest sympathy and compassion, being “touched with a feeling of all their
infirmities [Note: Hebrews 4:15.],” and being “afflicted in all their afflictions [Note:
Isaiah 63:9.].” Of his people, when suffering under their Egyptian task-masters, he
81

82. said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have
heard their cry by reason of their task-masters; for I know their sorrows [Note:
Exodus 3:7.].” And the same tender regard is shown by him to a solitary individual
as to a whole nation: for David says, “When my spirit was overwhelmed, thou
knewest my path [Note: Psalms 142:3.];” and again, “Thou hast known my soul in
adversities [Note: Psalms 31:7.].” The act of trusting in God is itself so pleasing and
acceptable in his sight, that there is not any thing which he will not do for one who
looks to him in such a frame [Note: Psalms 31:19.]. So abundantly will he
communicate to such an one the riches of his grace, that he will make his soul like a
well-watered garden, filled with the richest fruits, suited to every season of the year
[Note: Jeremiah 17:7-8.]. Whatever enemies may assault him, God will “keep his
soul in perfect peace [Note: Isaiah 26:3.],” and make him even as Mount Zion,
which cannot be removed, but abideth for ever [Note: Psalms 125:1.].’]
What improvement shall we make of this subject?
I answer,
1. “Acquaint yourselves with God”—
[Study the character of God as drawn in the Holy Scriptures. Some think of him as
a God of all mercy; and others, as clothed only in the terrors of inexorable justice.
But the true character of God is, that he is “a just God and a Saviour.” In the Lord
Jesus Christ this union of justice and mercy is fully displayed. Once view him as
dying, rising, reigning for sinful man, and then all the description given of God in
our text will be seen in its true light, and all the brightness of the Godhead irradiate
your souls.]
2. Glorify him as God—
[As far as we know God, even though it be only in the notices which he has given us
of himself in the works of creation, we ought to “glorify him as God [Note: Romans
1:21.].” How much more then ought we to do so, when all his glory is made to shine
before us in the face of Jesus Christ! How should we love him, serve him, trust in
him, and delight ourselves in him! O, beloved, let your hearts ascend to him, and
your souls be devoted to him, as the occasion demands. Is he “good?” praise him for
his goodness. Is he “a strong-hold?” flee to him, and dwell continually in him. Does
he “know those who trust in him?” let him have joy over you as monuments of his
grace, and delight in you as heirs of his glory [Note: Zephaniah 3:17.]. In a word,
live but for him; and as he has “bought you with a price, see that ye glorify him with
your bodies and your spirits, which are his [Note: 1 Corinthians 6:20.].”]
BI, "The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble.
Goodness a stronghold
The great design of religion is to bring us to God and true blessedness. In order to this,
82

83. there must be full and practical confidence in God,—submission to His providence and
law,—unquestioning repose in Himself. The text, though not possessing the form of a
promise, is a declaration concerning God Himself, which includes the whole system of
promise. Such is God. If such is God, then happy the people that is in such a case; yea,
blessed they whose God is the Lord.
I. “The Lord is Good.”
1. The expression reminds us of the absolute goodness of the Divine nature, and
especially of the Divine benevolence. Whatever goodness there is in the creature is
derived—God is its source; it is limited—in God it is unbounded; dependent—in God
it is essential and independent; mutable—in God it is changeless.
2. The active character of the Divine goodness. He “doeth” good. In inanimate
creation are displayed His perfections. All living beings look up to God. He
universally provides. But we are of more value than many sparrows. And He cares for
us.
3. God’s goodness in its suitableness to man’s present condition. He is a sinner.
Providential blessings continued. Evil tendencies of sin checked. A wisely ordered
scheme of redemption; and hence, forbearance, salvation.
II. “A stronghold in the day of trouble.” Figure forcible in the East, where predatory
expeditions are usual. God a “stronghold for defence of His people. Recollect what He is
in Himself. All His attributes are employed for the benefit of His people. In the day of
trouble they are shut up with God.
III. “He knoweth them that trust in him.” To trust in God implies satisfied persuasion
He will be and do as He has said. Two results—we shall seek all good in Him. We shall
abide with Him. Trust in God and doing good are ever conjoined—in nature as well as
duty. (G. Cubitt.)
The goodness of God in seasons of calamity
This book is “The Burden of Nineveh.” Nahum was contemporary with Hezekiah. The
immediate design of the prophecy was to minister comfort to the afflicted and alarmed
Jews; for the defeat of the enemies of the Church involves its deliverance. The name of
the prophet indicates this design;—it signifies comfort or comforter. The text teaches
that the Lord is good, even in seasons of calamity.
1. Such seasons are not only not inconsistent with the Divine goodness, but m
various ways manifest it. There is always much affliction in the world. When we
suffer under calamities, unworthy thoughts of God are apt to rise within us, and
especially suspicions of His goodness. If we indulge these suspicions, they will
alienate our hearts from God and His service, and prompt us to impatience,
murmuring, and impiety. But they are not inconsistent with God’s goodness. The
punishment of transgression is not in consistent with goodness. Days of judgment on
us may be merciful warnings, to others. They are often means of delivering and
purifying the Church. They are instructors and monitors to future ages.
2. In seasons of calamity the Lord is good, for He reveals Himself to us as a
stronghold, and invites us to flee to Him for safety and comfort.
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84. 3. In days of trouble the Lord is good, for He affectionately watches over all who
honour Him with their trust. (James Stark, D. D.)
The Divine goodness a refuge in trouble
These words have been well compared to a burst of sunshine on a cloudy tempestuous
day. The prophet opens his commission with setting forth the terrors of the Lord. But on
a sudden this appalling strain ceases. As though impelled by an inward feeling which had
obliged him to look around for something to uphold him amid these terrors, he thinks
and speaks of the goodness of the Lord.
I. What this goodness is. We are not to understand here the Divine purity, or holiness,
but the benevolence, the kindness, the graciousness of the Lord. The goodness of God,
taken in this sense, is that perfection of His nature which inclines Him to deal graciously
with His creatures; rich and happy in Himself, to give out of His riches and happiness,
and make His creatures partakers of them, as far as their different capacities will admit.
This goodness of God is, like every other perfection of His nature, infinite. By this I
mean, it cannot be added to, it could not be greater. And His is holy goodness. It always
moves and acts in conformity with His just and holy nature. Here it is that we make such
mistakes in thinking of God. We take one of His attributes, and we look on it alone, as
though God had no other attribute but that; and then a mystery comes over His nature
and doings. This goodness is also self-moved, spontaneous, free. It requires nothing in
us to call it into exercise towards us; it requires nothing whatever out of God to bring it
into operation. It is not the Cross and work of the Lord Jesus that makes God good and
gracious to us sinners. He was good and gracious to us before. It was God’s love to us
that found for us a Saviour. The Cross and mediation of Christ is the way the Divine
goodness has opened for itself into our world. It is the channel through which it flows to
us, not the fountain whence it takes its rise.
II. What this God of goodness is to His people in the day of their trouble. “A
stronghold.” This language conveys the idea of protection and defence. The countries in
which the Old Scriptures were written were scenes of almost incessant warfare. Men
were continually exposed to hostile inroads and invasions, and were obliged to have
fortresses or holds to flee to for security. God is this refuge to the troubled soul in
various ways. Sometimes keeping impending trouble off. At other times removing His
people out of reach of trouble. More frequently giving them strength to bear their
trouble. The prophet here intimates that the Lord’s goodness shall be the stronghold, the
strength and the support. The mere thought of His goodness is to be a consolation and a
stay.
III. What assurance they who trust Him have that He will be this to them. “He knoweth
them that trust in Him. This brings the infinite knowledge of God to bear upon their
case. When I make a living Being my refuge, when I fly to Him to protect me, it is clear
that He must know I am come to Him for protection, and know too what my dangers are
that He may shield me against them. He knows both us and our troubles. It is impossible
for words to exaggerate the attention God pays to His suffering people. The mere act of
trusting in God seems to be something spoken of here as something like a claim on His
attention and care. Then if you are in affliction, encourage yourselves in the Lord your
God. He is all-sufficient in Himself. Make Him the centre of your affections, desires, and
consolations. Flee to Him to hide you. (C. Bradley.)
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85. God a refuge
At Holyhead there is a splendid breakwater which cost a million and a half of money.
Rising thirty feet above the waves it defies their utmost fury. We are not surprised that it
should be built on so massive a scale, for in a great storm each wave strikes with the
sledge hammer force of three tons to the square foot. Though a hurricane blow, and the
sea be mountains high, shipping sheltered behind it ride in perfect safety. This is a type
of the security God is to those Who trust Him.
God is our refuge
A heathen could say, when a bird, scared by a hawk, flew into his bosom for refuge, “I
will not kill thee, nor betray thee to thine enemy, seeing thou fliest to me for sanctuary”:
much less will God either slay or give up the soul that takes sanctuary in His name. (W.
Gurnall.)
Secure in God
Readers of Darwin will recall the description he gives of a marine plant which rises from
a depth of one hundred and fifty to two hundred feet, and floats on the great breakers of
the western ocean. The stem of this plant is less than an inch through; yet it grows and
thrives and holds its own against the fierce smitings and pressures of breakers which no
masses of rock, however hard, could long withstand. What is the secret of this
marvellous resistance and endurance? How can this slender plant face the fury of the
elements so successfully, and, in spite of storm and tempests, keep its hold, and
perpetuate itself from century to century? The answer has leaped to every lip: It reaches
down into the still depths, where it fixes its grasp after the fashion of the instinct that
has been put into it, to the naked rocks; and no commotion of the waters can shake it
from its fastenings. When a man has deep and inner clingings to God, when the roots of
his life go down and take hold on God, mere surface agitation and pressures will not
overcome him. He may be floated here and there within a given sweep like a plant
bosomed on the sea, and there may be times when it is very rough arid the strain is
great, but he will survive it all and preserve his integrity. (F. A. Noble.)
God’s shielding love
Astronomers tell us that every year millions of meteoric bodies make their way towards
our earth with a speed many times greater than that of the swiftest cannon-ball. These,
beyond doubt, would strike the earth and destroy its inhabitants but for the air which
surrounds it, That air, soft and yielding as it seems, offers so powerful a resistance to the
swift motion of the falling meteors that they become vaporised through increased heat,
and if they reach the earth at all, it is only in the form of minute meteoric dust. This
physical fact has its counterpart in the spiritual realm. The influences Of evil which
assail the Christian as he goes through the world are often enough to crush and kill in
him all spiritual life and joy and beauty, but round about him there is the atmosphere of
the Divine love, and that love resists all evil, being as a consuming fire, keeping back
from contact with the trusting soul everything that would destroy its purity and blast its
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86. blessedness. The love of God is a perfect protection to every Christian believer; with it
around us we can walk with untrembling tread, knowing that no “weapon formed
against us can prosper,” (Great Thoughts.)
God a refuge
I once heard of a lonely traveller who sought to cross one of the western prairies. The
only thing he had to guide him was a path that had been made by other travellers in the
rank grass. But he had not gone very far before the snow began to fall, at first in
scattered flakes, like large white feathers, but by and by with thick and blinding
fierceness. He soon lost every trace of the path along which he travelled. He was lost,
bewildered, and as the darkness began to gather around him he was greatly alarmed. He
cried out for help, but the wild winds only laughed at him as hey swept by. He was
almost in despair when he saw through the blinding flakes a flickering light. Toward it
he bent his exhausted energies. Stumbling and falling, over the drifts that had
accumulated here and there, he at length came to a settler’s cottage. Can you imagine his
thankfulness and joy when-he found the storm behind him, in that friendly hut? He was
safe. He was happy. In the moment of greatest peril he had found a refuge. Now that is
just what God is to every traveller caught in the storm of life. If you but see the light that
streams out from the windows of His palace, of His heart, and follow it, you will be safe
from harm. The door of mercy is always open; the fires of His love and forgiveness are
always glowing; the welcome which He gives is always abundant.
God’s ways with friends and enemies
The sentiment of the passage is, that the same power which the Almighty displays for the
destruction of His enemies, He employs for the protection of His friends.
I. The benignity of the ever-blessed God. “The Lord is good.” Goodness is associated
with every idea it is possible to form of the Most High. Goodness is the perfection of His
nature, the foundation of His actions, and comprehends all His other attributes, When
His goodness supplies the needy, it is bounty; when it visits the miserable, it is pity;
when it pardons the guilty, it is mercy; when it performs His promises, it is faithfulness;
when it protects our persons, it is His power; when it orders events to our advantage, it
is His wisdom; and when it converts and saves the soul, it is His grace. But where shall
we look for its especial display? Not in providence but in redemption. His goodness here
is love. This love is,—
1. Comprehensive in its objects.
2. Satisfying in its nature.
3. Exalting in its influence.
4. Perpetual in its existence.
II. THE REFUGE HE AFFORDS HIS AFFLICTED PEOPLE. “He is a stronghold.”
1. The distressing period to which the text refers. Such as national calamities; family
trouble; soul trouble.
2. The refuge unfolded to our view. A stronghold, i.e., a fortification, a place of
strength and defence.
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87. III. The approbation he expresses in their confidence. “He knoweth them that trust in
Him.” It is supposed that we betake ourselves to the shelter which Divine goodness
provides foe our safety. A refuge, unless it be embraced, is no refuge at all.
1. What is the trust of which the text speaks? It is the fruit of faith.
2. What is the import of the term, “He knoweth them”? It is designed to express a
distinguishing and an approving knowledge. He regards their confidence in Him
with peculiar favour. (J. B. Good.)
How good God is
Two kinds of persons are spoken of here.
I. Those who are in trouble.
1. Trouble may be the result of our own imprudence. Or perhaps worse, of our
sinfulness.
2. It may arise from family or business perplexities. Sometimes trouble is allowed to
come and go unheeded. The rod is felt, but not the hand that brought it down.
Sometimes trouble is received angrily or peevishly. It is very hard to contend against
these feelings.
II. The characters that calmly wait for God; expecting some further development of His
mind, and not venturing to judge according to present appearances.
I. Trusting in God supposes there is some occasion for trust. The work of faith is to trust
in God when all outward things go wrong, and there is nothing but the Word of God to
rely on.
2. Trusting in God is the highest manifestation of real principle.
3. Trusting in God is not an adventure. His revealed will puts a peradventure out of
the question. (W. G. Barrett.)
The Lord’s favour to those who trust in Him
The Bible abounds with the most sublime descriptions of God, and represents, in a
variety of passages, His awful character and glorious perfections. On reading the
description in the passage connected with the text It may appear to contain a
contradiction. It may seem to represent the Almighty under two different characters. We
may be ready to think that He cannot be at once “a jealous God” and “good, slow to
anger.” There is no real difficulty. God is in Himself the same, infinitely glorious in all
perfections. The seeming differences in His character arise from the different characters
of those with whom He has to deal. In this respect His character, like the cloud which
accompanied Israel, has a dark side and a bright side. To His adversaries He is a “jealous
God.” To His people He is “rich in mercy.” The description here given—
I. Of the people of God. “They that trust in Him.” Trust is often used for the whole of
religion. It signifies a confidence in His power and faithfulness for protection and
support, and for a supply of all things necessary to life and godliness. Things which
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88. characterise this confidence are—
1. It is habitual.
2. It is practical.
3. It is a patient and persevering trust.
4. It is a solid and well- grounded confidence.
Trust in God must be founded on His promise.
II. Of the favour of God to his people.
1. “The Lord is good.” God is goodness. Even His severity against sin is the effect of
His goodness.
2. He is “a stronghold in the day of trouble.” The Lord s people are not exempt from
trouble. But if they have peculiar trials they have peculiar support under them.
3. The Lord “knoweth them that are His.” He sees, distinguishes, approves.
Especially has He respect to them as putting their trust in Him. He sees the humble
confidence with which they repose in His truth and faithfulness. Surely blessed arc
the people who make the Lord their trust. (E. Cooper.)
Nahum 1:7-8
He knoweth them that trust in Him; but with an overrunning flood He will make an
utter end of the place thereof.
Opposite types of human character, and opposite lines of Divine procedure
I. Opposite types of character.
1. The friends of God.
(1) They trust in Him. This is the universal character of the good in all ages. They
trust His love ever to provide for them; His wisdom as their infallible guide; and
His power as their strength and shield.
(2) He acknowledges them. “And He knoweth.” This means, that He recognises
them as His loyal subjects and loving children, His people. In Hos_13:5 He saith,
“I did know thee in the wilderness,” which means, “I did acknowledge thee and
took care of thee”! The words imply the cognisance of special sympathy with the
just. Here we have the enemies of God. “Darkness shall pursue His enemies.”
Those who pursue a course of life directly opposed to the moral laws of heaven,
whatever they may say, are His enemies. How numerous are God’s enemies!
II. Two opposite lines of Divine procedure. God’s procedure is very different towards
these two opposite classes of men.
1. He affords protection to the one. When the hosts of Sennacherib were
approaching Jerusalem, Hezekiah, the king, under Divine inspiration, said to the
people, “Be strong and courageous, be not afraid nor dismayed for the king of
Assyria, nor for all the multitude that is with him: for there be more with us than
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89. with him. With him is an arm of flesh, but with us is the Lord our God to help us, and
to fight our battles. And the people rested themselves upon the words of Hezekiah,
king of Judah.” Thus it is ever; God is always the refuge and strength of His people in
times of tribulation. As a refuge He is—
(1) Ever accessible. However suddenly the storm may come, the refuge is at your
side, the door is open. “I will never leave thee,” etc. He is—
(2) Ever secure. Once entered, and no injury can follow. He sends destruction to
the other. “But with an overrunning flood He will make an utter end of the place
thereof, and darkness shall pursue His enemies.” The primary allusion here, no
doubt, is to the way which Nineveh was captured by the means of the
Babylonians. Conclusion—The grand question for every man to ask is, How do I
stand in relation to God? (Homilist.)
The varied destinies of men
How various are the destinies of men! One goes to honour and life, another to disgrace
and death. There are two lakes high up in the Alps, which lie so near that the bystander
may throw a stone from the one to the other. Lago Blanco the one is named, or the White
Loch, because it is of a light green colour; while its neighbour is Lago Nero, or the Black
Loch, because it is dark and gloomy looking. But though they are so close, they are on
different inclines of the watershed. Lago Blanco sends its overflow down to the Adriatic,
but Lago Nero is connected with the Black Sea. I look at the one, and I think about
Venice and sunny Italy; I look at the other, and I think about Sebastopol and the wintry
Crimea. So I may be side by side in one home, in one business, in one Christian
congregation, with a man who is yet on the different slope of the watershed. We receive
the same messages of warning and of salvation. We enjoy much the same opportunities.
But one of us believes God, and the other does not. One of us passes into glorious liberty,
and the other into darkness and despair. Ah, let me watch in which direction I turn. (A.
Smellie, M. A.)
8 but with an overwhelming flood
he will make an end of Nineveh;
he will pursue his foes into the realm of
darkness.
89

90. BARNES, "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, although unnamed, it would
be known so to be. Image and reality, the first destruction and the last which it pictures,
meet in the same words. Nineveh itself was overthrown through the swelling of the
rivers which flowed around it and seemed to be its defense (see the note at Nah_2:6).
Then also, the flood is the tide of the armies, gathered from all quarters, Babylonians ,
Medes, Persians, Arabians, Bactrians, which like a flood should sweep over Nineveh and
leave nothing standing. It is also the flood of the wrath of God, in whose Hands they
were and who, by them, should “make a full end of it,” literally, “make the place thereof a
thing consumed,” a thing which has ceased to be. For a while, some ruins existed, whose
name and history ceased to be known; soon after, the ruins themselves were effaced and
buried . Such was the close of a city, almost coeval with the flood, which had now stood
almost as many years as have passed since Christ came, but which now defied God.
Marvelous image of the evil world itself, which shall flee away from the face of Him who
sat on the throne, “and there was found no place for it” Rev_20:11.
And darkness shall pursue His enemies - Better, “He shall pursue His enemies
into darkness” Darkness is, in the Old Testament, the condition, or state in which a
person is, or lives; it is not an agent, which pursues. Isaiah speaks of the “inhabitants of
darkness” Isa_42:7, “entering unto darkness” Isa_47:5; “those who are in darkness”
Isa_49:9. “The grave is all darkness” Psa_88:12; Job_17:13, “darkness, and the shadow
of death” Job_10:21. Hence, even Jews rendered , “He shall deliver them to hell.” Into
this darkness it is said, God shall pursue them, as other prophets speak of being “driven
forth into darkness” . The darkness, the motionless drear abode, to which they are
driven, anticipates the being cast into “the outer darkness, where shall be weeping and
gnashing of teeth.” Rup.: “The vengeance of God on” these who remain “His enemies” to
the last, “ends not with the death of the body; but evil spirits, who are darkness and not
light, pursue their souls, and seize them.” They would not hear Christ calling to them,
“Walk, while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you” Joh_12:35. “They are of
those that rebel against the light; they know not the ways thereof, nor abide in the paths
thereof” Job_24:13. “They loved darkness rather than light” Joh_3:19. And so they were
driven into the darkness which they chose and loved.
CLARKE, "But with an overrunning flood - Bishop Newcome thinks this may
refer to the manner in which Nineveh was taken. The Euphrates overflowed its banks,
deluged a part of the city, and overturned twenty stadia of the wall; in consequence of
which the desponding king burnt himself, and his palace, with his treasures. - Diodor.
Sic., Edit. Wessel., p. 140, lib. ii., s. 27.
Darkness shall pursue - Calamity. All kinds of calamity shall pursue them till they
are destroyed.
90

91. GILL, "But with an overrunning flood he will make an utter end of the place
thereof,.... Of Nineveh, against whom this prophecy was, and upon whom it lay as a
burden, Nah_1:1; and now though the Lord was good to them that trust in him, and a
strong hold to them in a time of trouble; yet he was determined to destroy their enemies
the Assyrians, and Nineveh their chief city; and that by the means of a powerful army,
which, like a flood or inundation of water breaking in, overruns and carries all before it;
and very fitly may the Medes and Babylonians, who joined together in an expedition
against Nineveh, be compared to such a flood for their number and force; since, as the
historian tells (y) us, they were no less than four hundred thousand men: though this
may be literally understood; for as the same writer (z) observes,
"there was an oracle received by the Ninevites from their ancestors, that Nineveh could
never be taken by any, unless the river (on which it stood) first became an enemy to it;
and so it was, that, in the third year of the siege, the river, being swelled with continual
rains, overflowed part of the city, and broke down the wall for the space of two and half
miles; hence the king concluded the oracle was fulfilled, and gave up all hopes of safety;
and through the breach of the wall the enemy entered, and took the city;''
and an "utter end" was made of it, and of the place of it, insomuch that historians and
geographers disagree about it; some say it was situated upon the river Euphrates, others
upon the river Tigris, which is the most correct; some say on the east of that river, others
on the west; some will have it to be above the river Lycus, and others below it; so true is
that of Lucian (a), that Nineveh is now entirely lost, and no traces of it remain; nor can
one easily say where it once was; and travellers in general, both ancient and modern,
agree that it lies wholly in ruins, and is a heap of rubbish. Benjamin Tudelensis (b), who
travelled into these parts in the twelfth century, relates, that between Almozal or Mosul,
and Nineveh, is only a bridge, and it (Nineveh) is a waste; but there are villages, and
many towers. Haitho, an Armenian (c), who wrote more than a hundred years after the
former, says,
"this city (Nineveh) at present is wholly destroyed; but, by what yet appears in it, it may
be firmly believed that it was one of the greatest cities in the world.''
Monsieur Thevenot (d), who was upon the spot in the last century, observes,
"on the other side of the river (Tigris from that on which Mosul stands) at the end of the
bridge begins the place, where, in ancient times, stood the famous city of Nineveh. --
There is nothing of it, (adds he) now to be seen, but some hillocks, which (they say) are
its foundations, the houses being underneath; and these reach a good way below the city
of Mosul:''
and darkness shall pursue his enemies; the enemies of God and his people, who
would make such a devastation of Nineveh; even he would cause all manner of
calamities, often signified in Scripture by darkness, to follow and overtake them; so that
they should be brought into the most uncomfortable and distressed condition
imaginable.
JAMISON, "with an overrunning flood — that is, with irresistible might which
91

92. overruns every barrier like a flood. This image is often applied to overwhelming armies
of invaders. Also of calamity in general (Psa_32:6; Psa_42:7; Psa_90:5). There is,
perhaps, a special allusion to the mode of Nineveh’s capture by the Medo-Babylonian
army; namely, through a flood in the river which broke down the wall twenty furlongs
(see on Nah_2:6; Isa_8:8; Dan_9:26; Dan_11:10, Dan_11:22, Dan_11:40).
end of the place thereof — Nineveh is personified as a queen; and “her place” of
residence (the Hebrew for “thereof” is feminine) is the city itself (Nah_2:8), [Maurer].
Or, He shall so utterly destroy Nineveh that its place cannot be found; Nah_3:17
confirms this (compare Psa_37:36; Dan_2:35; Rev_12:8; Rev_20:11).
darkness — the severest calamities.
CALVIN, "The Prophet goes on with the same subject, — that God can easily
preserve his people, for he is armed with power sufficient to overcome the whole
world. But the Prophet now includes the two things which have been mentioned:
Having spoken in general of God’s wrath, and of his goodness towards the faithful,
he now applies his doctrine to the consolation of his chosen people. It is then a
special application of his doctrine, when he says, By inundation, he, passing
through, will make a consummation in her place There is a twofold interpretation of
this verse.
Some make this distinction, — that God, as it were, in passing through, would
consume the land of Israel and Judah, but that perpetual darkness would rest on his
enemies. Hence they think, that the distress of the chosen people is distinguished
from the overthrow of the kingdom of Asshur, for God would only for a time punish
his own people, while he would give up profane and reprobate men to endless
destruction. Then, by passing through, must be understood, according to these
interpreters, a temporary distress or punishment; and by darkness, eternal ruin, or,
so to speak, irreparable calamities. But the Prophet, I doubt not, in one connected
sentence, denounces ultimate ruin on the Assyrians. By inundation, then, he, in
passing, will make a consummation in her place; that is, God will suddenly
overwhelm the Assyrian, as though a deluge should rise to cover the whole earth. He
intimates, that God would not punish the Assyrians by degrees, as men sometimes
do, who proceed step by step to avenge themselves, but suddenly. God, he says, will
of a sudden thunder against the Assyrians, as when a deluge comes over a land.
Hence this passing of God is opposed to long or slow progress; as though he said —
“As soon as God’s wrath shall break forth or come upon the Assyrians, it will be all
over, for a consummation will immediately follow: by inundation, he, passing
through, will make a consummation in her place.” (216) By place he means the
ground; as though he had said that God would not only destroy the face of the land,
but would also destroy the very grounds and utterly demolish it. A feminine
pronoun is here added, because he speaks of the kingdom or nation, as it is usual in
Hebrew. But it ought especially to be noticed that the Prophet threatens the
Assyrians, that God would entirely subvert them, that he would not only demolish
the surface, as, when fire or waters destroy houses, but that the Lord would reduce
to nothing the land itself, even the very ground.
92

93. He adds, And pursue his enemies shall darkness He has designated the Assyrians
only by a pronoun, as the Hebrews are wont to do; for they set down a pronoun
relative or demonstrative, and it is uncertain of whom they speak; but they
afterwards explain themselves. So does the Prophet in this place; for he directs his
discourse to the Israelites and the Jews, and he begins by announcing God’s
vengeance on Nineveh and its monarchy; but now he speaks as of a thing sufficiently
known and adds, Pursue shall darkness the enemies of God By this second clause he
intimates that the ruin of that kingdom would be perpetual. As then he had said that
its destruction would be sudden, as God would, as it were, in a moment destroy the
whole land; so now he cuts off from them every hope, that they might not think that
they could within a while gather strength and rise again as it is the case with the
wicked, who ever contend against God. The Prophet then shows that evil which God
would bring on them would be without remedy. Some render the verb ‫,יררף‬ iredaph,
transitively in this form, “He will pursue his enemies by darkness:” but as to the
meaning of the Prophet there is but little or no difference; I therefore leave the point
undecided. On the subject itself there is nothing ambiguous; the import of what is
said is, — that God would, by a sudden inundation, destroy his enemies, — and that
he would destroy them without affording any hope of restoration, for perpetual
darkness would follow that sudden deluge. He afterwards adds —
And with inundation overflowing
A full end he will make her place;
And darkness shall his enemies pursue.
How completely has this prophecy been fulfilled! Lucian, a Greek heathen author of
the second century, has these remarkable words, — ‫חהח‬ ‫בנןכשכום‬ ‫לום‬ ‫ֽיםןע‬,‫ןץהום‬ ‫ךבי‬
‫בץפחע‬ ‫כןינןם‬ ‫ופי‬ ‫יקםןע‬,‫חם‬ ‫נןפ‬ ‫ןנןץ‬ ‫וינחע‬ ‫בם‬ ‫ןץה‬ — “Nineveh has already been destroyed,
and there is no vestige of it remaining, nor can you say where formerly it was.”
Bochart enumerates different conjectures which various authors have made as to its
situation, most of them differing from one another. — Ed.
COFFMAN, "Verse 8
"But with an over-running flood he will make a full end of her place, and will
pursue his enemies into darkness."
"With an over-running flood ..." It is not necessary at all to designate this as "a
metaphor" for military conquest. The background for Nineveh's destruction by
some providential interference over and beyond the ordinary course of nature had
already been abundantly provided by the paragraph immediately preceding, where,
as already indicated, Graham accurately discerned the prophet's expectation, not of
a mere military defeat, but of a providential overthrow. Therefore, the scholars who
move quickly to dismiss this as a mere metaphor are wrong. It was literally by an
overrunning flood that Nineveh fell.
THE FALL OF NINEVEH
93

94. "The Assyrian and Babylonian records are silent with regard to the fall of the
city,"[8] a very instructive fact in its own right. Why should their records have
stressed the God-ordered ruin of the great pagan city that, at the time, had been
standing nearly as many centuries as have now elapsed since the birth of Christ? In
a similar way, those records also omitted any reference to the repentance of Nineveh
under the preaching of Jonah.
Despite the reluctance of those chiefly concerned in it to give any account whatever
of it, others have supplied many of the most impressive details of the final end of
Nineveh. "Alexander Polyhistor, Abydenus, and Syncellus all speak of it."[9]
Diodorus Sicullus is credited with the best account. The siege had been in progress
for over two years, the third assault against the city having been repulsed with great
jubilation by the king of Assyria who supposed that victory belonged to him. He
ordered a great feast which became a drunken orgy. That night, the Kohsr (a Tigris
tributary), swollen by phenomenal rains and melting snows "carried away a huge
section of the great rampart surrounding the city,"[11] The best that evil men can
do is to dismiss such historical references as "mere tradition"; but such are the only
records of it that pagan history affords! Furthermore, if those very same
"traditions," as they are called, contradicted in any manner the prophetic
announcement of Nineveh's doom as given through Nahum, they would be
trumpeted as gospel truth! Nahum's prophecy proves that the "traditions" in this
case are indeed true.
"A full end of her place ..." It is unusual that God's enemy here should be addressed
as "her." Watts thought that the feminine was used to indicate not only Nineveh;
"But it may also point to her patron goddess, Ishtar."[12] There will be other uses
of the feminine in this manner, as in Nahum 2:5-7.
"Pursue his enemies into darkness ..." Watts thought the "darkness" here to be,
"the darkness of the underworld, the world of death and demons where they
belong."[13] We believe it stands for the removal of Nineveh from any historical
continuity upon the earth, the darkness of the grave, and of oblivion.
CONSTABLE, "Verse 8
Nahum returned to the wrathful aspect of God"s character because that was the
focus of his oracle. Without identifying Nineveh, the prophet described Yahweh
destroying it totally and permanently, as with a tidal wave. Johnston showed that
Nahum"s maledictions are unique among the prophets and probably key off the
Neo-Assyrian treaty curses, which were unusually brutal in the ancient Near East.
[Note: Gordon H. Johnston, "Nahum"s Rhetorical Allusions to Neo-Assyrian
Treaty Curses," Bibliotheca Sacra158:632 (October-December2001):415-36.]
Nahum probably described an unrestrained army invasion (cf. Isaiah 8:7-8;
Jeremiah 47:2; Daniel 9:26; Daniel 11:40). However, when her enemies overthrew
Nineveh, its rivers overflowed and washed away part of Nineveh"s walls. [Note: The
94

95. New Bible Dictionary, 1962ed, s.v. "Nineveh," by D. J. Wiseman.]
Using another figure, Yahweh said He would pursue His enemies until He caught up
with them and killed them, even if it took all night. Normally battles ceased at
nightfall and resumed at daybreak because fighting became so difficult at night. But
the Lord would not let night stop Him from pursuing and slaying His enemies. They
would not escape from Him simply because time passed. Darkness also has the
metaphorical connotation of evil, spiritual lostness, and eternal judgment (e.g, Job
17:13; Psalm 82:5; Psalm 88:12; Proverbs 4:19; Proverbs 20:20; Isaiah 8:22; Isaiah
42:7; Jeremiah 23:12; Matthew 4:16; Matthew 8:12; John 3:19; Colossians 1:13; 1
Peter 2:9; Jude 1:6; Revelation 16:10).
The Lord is angry with those who abuse others, especially those who abuse His
people, and He will punish them. This section stresses the justice, power, and
goodness of Yahweh.
"We must keep in mind that the message of Nahum is not concretely applied to
Assyria and Judah until later in the book. The psalm that occurs at the beginning of
the book [ Nahum 1:2-8] presents a picture of God applicable for all times-he is the
Warrior who judges evil." [Note: Longman, p776. See idem, "The Divine Warrior:
The New Testament Use of an Old Testament Motif," Westminster Theological
Journal44 (1982):290-307; and Kevin J. Cathcart, "The Divine Warrior and the
War of Yahweh in Nahum ," in Biblical Studies in Contemporary Thought: The
Tenth Anniversary Commemorative Volume of the Trinity College Biblical
Institute1966-1975 , pp68-76.]
The first eight verses of Nahum are a partial acrostic.
"If an entire acrostic conveys completeness, half an acrostic may well be a prophetic
way of indicating completeness with still more to come. Assyria faces imminent
judgment, but only half of what is eventually in store for her." [Note: Duane L.
Christensen, "The Acrostic of Nahum Reconsidered," Zeitschrift fr die
alttestamentliche Wissenschaft87 (1975):25.]
BENSON, "Nahum 1:8. With an overrunning flood he will make an utter end —
This seems to be spoken of Nineveh, and Bishop Newton is of opinion that the words
allude to the manner in which it was taken. “Diodorus informs us,” says he, “that
there was an old prophecy, that Nineveh should not be taken till the river became an
enemy to the city; and in the third year of the siege, the river, being swollen with
continual rains, overflowed part of the city, and broke down the wall for twenty
furlongs; then the king, thinking that the oracle was fulfilled, and the river become
an enemy to the city, built a large funeral pile in the palace, and, collecting together
all his wealth, and his concubines and eunuchs, burned himself and the palace with
them all; and the enemy entered the breach that the waters had made, and took the
city.” Or, as a great destruction, or an army overrunning a country, is often
95

96. compared to an inundation, the meaning of the passage may only be, that God’s
judgments, like a mighty flood, which overflows all banks, should overwhelm and
swallow up both Nineveh and the whole Assyrian empire. And darkness shall
pursue his enemies — That is, troubles and destructive calamities.
PETT, "Nahum 1:8
‘But with an overrunning flood he will make a full end of its place, and will pursue
his enemies into darkness.’
Yet although He is essentially good and compassionate He must also deal fully with
sin. By its nature it is unavoidable. Let sin totally gain control and the world will be
in torment. The overrunning flood almost certainly meant to Nahum a flood of
soldiers (Daniel 9:26; Daniel 11:2; Isaiah 8:7-8; Jeremiah 46:7-9), swarming down
on Nineveh and making a full end of it, following that up by pursuing the defeated
enemy as they fled into the darkness. Babylon and the Medes, along with the
Scythians, were in fact determined to make a full end of Assyria once and for all.
They had suffered too much at their hands.
But ‘into darkness’ may also have a deeper significance. Men feared darkness
(Isaiah 8:22; Joel 2:2; Amos 5:20; Zephaniah 1:15). It spoke of the unknown. In it
they would be swallowed up by they knew not what, even possibly the darkness of
death (Jeremiah 13:16). Their worst nightmares will be realised. Jesus said that
ultimately all those who set themselves against God will go into the outer darkness
(Matthew 22:13). And the same darkness awaits those who reject God today, as for
those Assyrians long ago.
But as often happens in prophecy his words were truer than he knew, for the city
finally fell because of breaches made in the defences by the flooding of the river that
passed through Nineveh.
‘He will make a full end of its place.’ The huge city was plundered and then burned
and left to fall into a desolate heap. Two hundred years later, when Xenophon saw
it, it was an unrecognisable mass of debris. And eventually its whereabouts became
totally forgotten.
PULPIT, "Nahum 1:8
With an overrunning flood. This may be merely a metaphor to express the utter
devastation which should overwhelm Nineveh, as the invasion of a hostile army is
often thus depicted (comp. Isaiah 8:7; Daniel 11:26, Daniel 11:40); or it may be an
allusion to the inundation which aided the capture of the city (see note on Nahum
2:6). Of the place thereof; i.e. of Nineveh, not named, but present to the prophet's
mind, and understood from the heading (Nahum 1:1). (For the utter destruction of
Nineveh, comp. Zephaniah 2:13, etc.) The LXX. has, ‫פןץםויסןל‬́‫ו‬‫םןץע‬ ("those that rise
up"). The Chaldee has a similar reading, with the meaning that God would
exterminate those who rise up against him. Darkness shall pursue his enemies. So
96

97. the Septuagint and Vulgate. But it is better rendered, He shall pursue his enemies
into darkness, so that they disappear from the earth. If this is the meaning of the
clause, it resembles the termination of many Assyrian inscriptions which record the
defeat of a hostile chieftain: "and no one has seen any trace of him since."
9 Whatever they plot against the Lord
he will bring[a] to an end;
trouble will not come a second time.
BARNES, "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?” 2Ki_18:35. He sent “to reproach the
living God” 2Ki_19:16 and “defied the Holy One of Israel” (see 2 Kings 19:15-34). His
blasphemy was his destruction. It was a war, not simply of ambition, or covetousness,
but directly against the power and worship of God.
“What will ye so mightily devise” , “imagine against the Lord?” He Himself, by
Himself, is already “making an utter end.” It is in store; the Angel is ready to smite. Idle
are man’s devices, when the Lord doeth. “Take counsel together, and it shall come to
nought; speak the word, and it shall not stand: for God is with us” Isa_8:10. While the
rich man was speaking comfort to his soul as to future years, God was making an utter
end. “Thou fool, this night shall thy soul be required of thee.”
Affliction shall not rise up the second time - Others have understood this,
“affliction shall not rise up the second time,” but shall destroy at once, utterly and finally
(compare 1Sa_26:8; 2Sa_20:10): but:
(1) the idiom there, “he did not repeat to him,” as we say, “he did not repeat the blow”
is quite different;
(2) it is said “affliction shall not rise up,” itself, as if it could not. The causative of the
idiom occurs in 2Sa_12:11, “lo, I will cause evil to rise up against thee;” as he says
afterward, “Though I have afflicted thee, I will afflict thee no more” Nah_1:12. “God,” He
had said, “is good for a refuge in the day of affliction;” now, personifying that affliction,
he says, that it should be so utterly broken, that it should rise up no more to vex them, as
97

98. when a serpent’s head is, not wounded only but, crushed and trampled underfoot, so
that it cannot again lift itself up. The promises of God are conditioned by our not falling
back into sin. He saith to Nineveh, “God will not deliver Judah to thee, as He delivered
the ten tribes and Samaria.” Judah repented under Hezekiah, and He not only delivered
it from Sennacherib, but never afflicted them again through Assyria. Renewal of sin
brings renewal or deepening of punishment. The new and more grievous sins under
Manasseh were punished, not through Assyria but through the Chaldeans.
The words have passed into a maxim, “God will not punish the same thing twice,” not
in this world and the world to come, i. e., not if repented of. For of the impenitent it is
said, “destroy them with a double destruction” Jer_17:18. Chastisement here is a token
of God’s mercy; the absence of it, or prosperous sin, of perdition; but if any refuse to be
corrected, the chastisement of this life is but the beginning of unending torments.
CLARKE, "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.
GILL, "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 repeat the stroke, or give another blow; the business
would be done at once. This seems to contradict a notion of some historians and
chronologers, who suppose that Nineveh was destroyed at two different times, and by
different persons of the same nations; and so the whole Assyrian empire was twice
ruined, which is not likely in itself, and seems contrary to this passage; for though some
ascribe it to Arbaces the Mede, and Belesis the Babylonian as Diodorus Siculus (e); and
others to Cyaxares the Mede as Herodotus (f), and to Nebuchadnezzar the first, or
Nabopolassar the Babylonian in a later period; so Tobit (g) says it was taken by
Nebuchadnezzar and Ahasuerus, the same with the Cyaxares of Herodotus; yet all seem
to agree that it was taken by the conjunct forces of the Medes and Babylonians; and
there are some things similar (h) in all these accounts, which show that there was but
one destruction of Nineveh, and of the Assyrian empire.
HENRY, "These verses seem to point at the destruction of the army of the Assyrians
under Sennacherib, which may well be reckoned a part of the burden of Nineveh, the
head city of the Assyrian empire, and a pledge of the destruction of Nineveh itself about
100 years after; and this was an event which Isaiah, with whom probably this prophet
98

99. was contemporary, spoke much of. Now observe here,
I. The great provocation which the Assyrians gave to God, the just and jealous God, for
which, though slow to anger, he would take vengeance (Nah_1:11): There is one come
out of thee, that imagines evil against the Lord - Sennacherib, and his spokesman
Rabshakeh. They framed an evil letter and an evil speech, not only against Hezekiah and
his people, but against God himself, reflecting upon him as level with the gods of the
heathen, and unable to protect his worshippers, dissuading his people from putting
confidence in him, and urging them rather to put themselves under the protection of the
great king, the king of Assyria. They contrived to alter the property of Jerusalem, that it
should be no longer the city of the Lord, the holy city. This one, this mighty one, so he
thinks himself, that comes out of Nineveh, imagining evil against the Lord, brings upon
Nineveh this burden. Never was the glorious Majesty of heaven and earth more daringly,
more blasphemously affronted than by Sennacherib at that time. He was a wicked
counsellor who counselled them to despair of God's protection, and surrender
themselves to the king of Assyria, and endeavour to put them out of conceit with
Hezekiah's reformation (Isa_36:7); with this wicked counsellor he here expostulates
(Nah_1:9): “What do you imagine against the Lord? What a foolish wicked thing it is
for you to plot against God, as if you could outwit divine wisdom and overpower
omnipotence itself!” Note, There is a great deal imagined against the Lord by the gates of
hell, and against the interests of his kingdom in the world; but it will prove a vain thing,
Psa_2:1, Psa_2:2. He that sits in heaven laughs at the imaginations of the pretenders to
politics against him, and will turn their counsels headlong.
JAMISON, "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 Isa_37:23-29; compare Psa_1:1.
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 — Judah’s “affliction” caused by the
invasion shall never rise again. So Nah_1:12. But Calvin takes the “affliction” to be that
of Assyria: “There will be no need of His inflicting on you a second blow: He will make
an utter end of you once for all” (1Sa_3:12; 1Sa_26:8; 2Sa_20:10). If so, this verse, in
contrast to Nah_1:12, will express, Affliction shall visit the Assyrian no more, in a sense
very different from that in which God will afflict Judah no more. In the Assyrian’s case,
because the blow will be fatally final; the latter, because God will make lasting
blessedness in Judah’s case succeed temporary chastisement. But it seems simpler to
refer “affliction” here, as in Nah_1:12, to Judah; indeed destruction, rather than
affliction, applies to the Assyrian.
K&D 9-11, "The reason for all this is assigned in Nah_1:9. Nah_1:9. “What think ye
of Jehovah? He makes an end; the affliction will not arise twice. Nah_1:10. For though
they be twisted together like thorns, and as if intoxicated with their wine, they shall be
devoured like dry stubble. Nah_1:11. From thee has one come out, who meditated evil
against Jehovah, who advised worthlessness.” The question in Nah_1:9 is not
addressed to the enemy, viz., the Assyrians, as very many commentators suppose: “What
99

100. do ye meditate against Jehovah?” For although châshabh 'el is used in Hos_7:15 for a
hostile device with regard to Jehovah, the supposition that 'el is used here for ‛al,
according to a later usage of the language, is precluded by the fact that ‫ל‬ ַ‫ע‬ ‫ב‬ ַ‫שׁ‬ ָ‫ח‬ is actually
used in this sense in Nah_1:11. Moreover, the last clause does not suit this view of the
question. The word, “the affliction will not stand up, or not rise up a second time,”
cannot refer to the Assyrians, or mean that the infliction of a second judgment upon
Nineveh will be unnecessary, because the city will utterly fall to the ground in the first
judgment, and completely vanish from the earth (Hitzig). For ‫ה‬ ָ‫ר‬ ָ‫צ‬ points back to ‫ה‬ ָ‫ר‬ ָ‫צ‬ ‫יוֹם‬ ְ‫,בּ‬
and therefore must be the calamity which has fallen upon Judah, or upon those who
trust in the Lord, on the part of Nineveh or Asshur (Marck, Maurer, and Strauss). This is
confirmed by Nah_1:11 and Nah_1:15, where this thought is definitely expressed.
Consequently the question, “What think ye with regard to Jehovah?” can only be
addressed to the Judaeans, and must mean, “Do ye think that Jehovah cannot or will not
fulfil His threat upon Nineveh?” (Cyr., Marck, Strauss). The prophet addresses these
words to the anxious minds, which were afraid of fresh invasions on the part of the
Assyrians. To strengthen their confidence, he answers the question proposed, by
repeating the thought expressed in Nah_1:8. He (Jehovah) is making an end, sc. of the
enemy of His people; and he gives a further reason for this in Nah_1:10. The participial
clauses ‫ים‬ ִ‫יר‬ ִ‫ס‬ ‫ד‬ ַ‫ע‬ to ‫ים‬ ִ‫בוּא‬ ְ‫ס‬ are to be taken conditionally: are (or were) they even twisted
like thorns. ‫ים‬ ִ‫יר‬ ִ‫ס‬ ‫ד‬ ַ‫,ע‬ to thorns = as thorns (‫ד‬ ַ‫ע‬ is given correctly by J. H. Michaelis: eo
usque ut spinas perplexitate aequent; compare Ewald, §219). The comparison of the
enemy to thorns expresses “firmatum callidumque nocendi studium” (Marck), and has
been well explained by Ewald thus: “crisp, crafty, and cunning; so that one would rather
not go near them, or have anything to do with them” (cf. 2Sa_23:6 and Mic_7:4). ‫אָם‬ ְ‫ב‬ ָ‫ס‬ ְ‫כּ‬
‫ים‬ ִ‫בוּא‬ ְ‫,ס‬ not “wetted like their wet” (Hitzig), nor “as it were drowned in wine, so that fire
can do no more harm to them than to anything else that is wet” (Ewald); for ‫א‬ ָ‫ב‬ ָ‫ס‬ neither
means to wet nor to drown, but to drink, to carouse; and ‫בוּא‬ ָ‫ס‬ means drunken,
intoxicated. ‫א‬ ֶ‫ֹב‬‫ס‬ is strong unmixed wine (see Delitzsch on Isa_1:22). “Their wine” is the
wine which they are accustomed to drink. The simile expresses the audacity and
hardiness with which the Assyrians regarded themselves as invincible, and applies very
well to the gluttony and revelry which prevailed at the Assyrian court; even if the account
given by Diod. Sic. (ii. 26), that when Sardanapalus had three times defeated the enemy
besieging Nineveh, in his great confidence in his own good fortune, he ordered a
drinking carousal, in the midst of which the enemy, who had been made acquainted with
the fact, made a fresh attack, and conquered Nineveh, rests upon a legendary dressing
up of the facts. ‫לוּ‬ ְ‫כּ‬ ֻ‫,א‬ devoured by fire, is a figure signifying utter destruction; and the
perfect is prophetic, denoting what will certainly take place. Like dry stubble: cf. Isa_
5:24; Isa_47:14, and Joe_2:5. ‫א‬ ֵ‫ל‬ ָ‫מ‬ is not to be taken, as Ewald supposes (§279, a), as
strengthening ‫שׁ‬ ֵ‫ב‬ָ‫,י‬ “fully dry,” but is to be connected with the verb adverbially, and is
simply placed at the end of the sentence for the sake of emphasis (Ges., Maurer, and
Strauss). This will be the end of the Assyrians, because he who meditates evil against
Jehovah has come forth out of Nineveh. In ְ‫ך‬ ֵ‫מּ‬ ִ‫מ‬ Nineveh is addressed, the representative
100

101. of the imperial power of Assyria, which set itself to destroy the Israelitish kingdom of
God. It might indeed be objected to this explanation of the verse, that the words in Nah_
1:12 and Nah_1:13 are addressed to Zion or Judah, whereas Nineveh or Asshur is spoken
of both in what precedes (Nah_1:8 and Nah_1:10) and in what follows (Nah_1:12) in the
third person. On this ground Hoelem. and Strauss refer ְ‫ך‬ ֵ‫מּ‬ ִ‫מ‬ also to Judah, and adopt
this explanation: “from thee (Judah) will the enemy who has hitherto oppressed thee
have gone away” (taking ‫א‬ ָ‫צ‬ָ‫י‬ as fut. exact., and ‫ן‬ ִ‫מ‬ ‫א‬ ָ‫צ‬ ָ‫י‬ as in Isa_49:17). But this view does
not suit the context. After the utter destruction of the enemy has been predicted in Nah_
1:10, we do not expect to find the statement that it will have gone away from Judah,
especially as there is nothing said in what precedes about any invasion of Judah. The
meditation of evil against Jehovah refers to the design of the Assyrian conquerors to
destroy the kingdom of God in Israel, as the Assyrian himself declares in the
blasphemous words which Isaiah puts into the mouth of Rabshakeh (Isa_36:14-20), to
show the wicked pride of the enemy. This address merely expresses the feeling cherished
at all times by the power of the world towards the kingdom of God. It is in the plans
devised for carrying this feeling into action that the ‫ל‬ ַ‫ע‬ַ‫יּ‬ ִ‫ל‬ ְ‫בּ‬ ‫ץ‬ ַ‫ע‬ָ‫,י‬ the advising of
worthlessness, consists. This is the only meaning that ‫ל‬ ַ‫ע‬ַ‫יּ‬ ִ‫ל‬ ְ‫בּ‬ has, not that of destruction.
CALVIN, "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 another by Tiglathpilezar, they suppose that there is here an
implied comparison, as though the Prophet said, “God will spare the kingdom of
Judah, and will not repeat his vengeance, as it happened to the kingdom of Israel.”
But this meaning is forced and too far-fetched. The Prophet then, I doubt not,
continues here his discourse, and denounces perpetual ruin on the enemies of the
Church. He says first, What imagine ye against Jehovah? He exults over the
Assyrians, because they thought that they had to do only with mortals, and also with
a mean people, and now worn out by many misfortunes. For we know that the
kingdom of Judah had been weakened by many wars before the Assyrians made an
irruption into the land: they had suffered two severe and grievous attacks from
their neighbors, the king of Israel and the king of Syria; for then it was that they
made the Assyrians their confederates. When therefore the Assyrians came against
Judea, they thought that they would have no trouble in obtaining victory, as they
engaged in war with an insignificant people, and as we have said, worn out by evils.
But the Prophet shows here that the war was with the living God, and not with men,
101

102. as they falsely thought. What then imagine ye against Jehovah? as though he said,
“Know ye not that this people are under the care and protection of God? Ye cannot
then attack the kingdom of Judah without having God as your opponent. As it is
certain that this people are defended by a divine power, there is no reason for you to
think that you will be victorious.” At the same time, I know not why the Prophet’s
words should be confined to the tribe of Judah, since the purpose was to comfort the
Israelites as well as the Jews.
Now this is a very useful doctrine; for the Prophet teaches us in general, that the
ungodly, whenever they harass the Church, not only do wrong to men, but also fight
with God himself; for he so connects us with himself, that all who hurt us touch the
apple of his eye, as he declares in another place, (Zechariah 2:8.) We may then
gather invaluable comfort from these words; for we can fully and boldly set up this
shield against our enemies, — that they devise their counsels, and make efforts
against God, and assail him; for he takes us under his protection for this end, that
whenever we are injured, he may stand in the middle as our defender. This is one
thing.
Now in the second clause he adds, that he will make a complete end, Rise up again
shall not distress; that is, God is able to reduce you to nothing, so that there will be
no need to assail you the second time. This passage, we know, has been turned to
this meaning, — that God does not punish men twice nor exceed moderation in his
wrath: but this is wholly foreign to the mind of the Prophet. I have also said already
that I do not approve of what others have said, who apply this passage to the
Church and especially to the kingdom of Judah. For I thus simply interpret the
words of the Prophet, — that God can with one onset, when it seems good to him, so
destroy his enemies, that there will be no need of striving with them the second time:
Il n’y faudra plus retourner, as we say in our language. God then will make a full
end; that is, he will be able in one moment to demolish his enemies and the ruin will
be complete, that is, the wasting will be entire. There will be no distress again or the
second time; for it will be all over with the enemies of God; not that God observes
always the same rule when he punishes his enemies, nor does Nahum here prescribe
any general rule; but he simply means, that God, whenever it pleases him, instantly
destroys his enemies. He afterwards adds —
COFFMAN, "Verse 9
"What do ye devise against Jehovah? he will make a full end; affliction shall not rise
up the second time."
"Shall not rise up the second time ..." It will not be necessary for God to destroy his
enemies twice; once will be far more than sufficient! Assyria, and all of the great
military powers, were engaged in nothing else except strengthening themselves; and,
in all such preparations, the essential hostility of those powers against God and
against God's people upon earth was abundantly evident. The word here, is that no
preparation, of a physical and military nature, against the execution of the wrath of
102

103. God could be effective. The only adequate response to that eventuality must ever be
a penitent and contrite heart, turning to God for forgiveness. Nineveh had done that
once before, in the days of Jonah; but they had, in Nahum's time, decided to "do it
their way." "There is a close connection between these verses and those that
precede."[14] Indeed, this entire first chapter, and all of the prophecy, is a skillfully
written treatise remarkable for unity, logic, and dramatic clarity of the meaning.
The warning of this passage should not be restricted to Assyria, nor should it be
denied to them on the basis of its being addressed to Judah. As Hailey said, "In all
probability it is addressed to both."[15] As a matter of fact, it is addressed to all
humanity intent upon forgetting God and building their civilizations without regard
to his divine will. "God's great war on cosmic and supernatural evil,"[16] is the
conflict in view.
CONSTABLE,"Verse 9
Yahweh will frustrate and destroy all attempts to thwart His will. Even though they
may appear to succeed at first, they will not endure. Sennacherib, the king of
Assyria, had besieged Jerusalem once ( 1 Kings 18), but the Assyrians never did so a
second time. Their plan to oppose God"s people was really opposition to Him, and
He did not permit it to succeed. Once Nineveh fell, it was never rebuilt. [Note: The
New Bible ..., s.v. "Nineveh."]
Verses 9-11
1. The consumption of Nineveh1:9-11
Verses 9-14
B. Yahweh"s plans for Nineveh and Judah1:9-14
Whereas the previous section assured Nineveh"s doom, the primary focus of
attention in it was the character of Yahweh and His ability to destroy His enemies.
Now the focus shifts more directly to Nineveh. Three sections reveal Yahweh"s
plans for Nineveh ( Nahum 1:1-11; Nahum 1:14) and Judah ( Nahum 1:12-13) in
chiastic form.
BENSON, "Verse 9-10
Nahum 1:9-10. What do ye imagine against the Lord? — Having declared the
dreadfulness of God’s power and anger against the wicked, his goodness toward his
people, and denounced future destruction against the Ninevites; he now expostulates
with them, inquiring what it is they design against God, and on what ground they
flatter themselves into such an attempt: as if he had said, What a foolish and wicked
thing it is for you to plot against Jehovah, as if you could outwit infinite wisdom,
and overcome almighty power. He will make an utter end — He will cause your
utter desolation to be the issue of your projects, and the punishment of your sins.
Affliction shall not rise up the second time — God will at once, and for ever, destroy
your city and empire. He will lay you low at one stroke, so that there will be no
occasion to repeat it. For while they be folden together as thorns — Or, For as
103

104. thorns golden or entangled together are thrown into the fire all at once, and easily
burned, yea, help to destroy each other; so shall the Ninevites be easily and surely
destroyed. And while they are drunken as drunkards — As men drunken and
unable to help themselves; who, when any sudden danger arises, are all involved in
the same fate. They shall be devoured as stubble fully dry — Which soon catches
fire, and breaks out into a flame. The meaning of the whole verse is, that on a
sudden they should be involved in a general destruction. Diodorus relates, it was
while all the Assyrian army were feasting for their former victories, that their
enemies, being informed by some deserters of the negligence and drunkenness in
their camp, “assaulted them unexpectedly by night, and falling orderly on them
disorderly, and prepared on them unprepared, became masters of the camp, slew
many of the soldiers, and drove the rest into the city.”
ELLICOTT, "(9) Affliction—i.e., Nineveh’s affliction of Israel, the same Hebrew
word being used in Nahum 1:7 to denote Israel’s “trouble” or “affliction”
proceeding from Nineveh. (See also Nahum 1:12.) Nineveh shall not afflict Israel a
second time. Applying the whole passage to the destruction of Sennacherib’s host,
we necessarily prefer this to the other possible interpretation—God will not have
occasion to send affliction on Nineveh a second time, i.e., this visitation will be so
exhaustive that there will be no need to repeat it. For the judgment on Sennacherib
was not God’s final visitation.
PETT, "Verses 9-13
God’s Purpose Towards Nineveh (Nahum 1:9-13 a).
God purposes to destroy Nineveh once and for all.
Nahum 1:9
‘What do you imagine against YHWH? He will make a full end. Affliction will not
rise up the second time.’
‘What do you imagine against YHWH?’ The question may mean, what chance did
they think they had to prevent YHWH carrying out His purpose? What sort of
defence did they think that they could put up? Alternately it may be asking what
plans they had against God’s people, followed by the assurance that they would not
be able to afflict Judah a second time. Either way their efforts would be futile.
‘Affliction will not rise up the second time.’ This was because there would be no
second chance. Their destruction would be once for all. For Nineveh it was a final
judgment.
PULPIT, "Nahum 1:9
The prophet suddenly addresses both Jews and Assyrians, encouraging the former
by the thought that God can perform what he promises, and warning the latter that
their boasting (comp. Isaiah 10:9, etc.; Isaiah 36:20) was vain. What do ye imagine
104

105. against the Lord? Quid cogitatis contra Dominum? (Vulgate). This rendering
regards the question as addressed to the Assyrians, demanding of them what it is
that they dare to plot against God; do they presume to fight against him, or to fancy
that his threats will not be accomplished? But the sentence is best translated, What
think ye of the Lord? ‫פ‬́‫י‬‫כןד‬́‫י‬‫זוףטו‬̓‫ו‬‫נ‬̀‫י‬‫פ‬̀‫ן‬‫ך‬ ‫ם‬́‫ץ‬‫סיןם‬ ; "What devise ye against the Lord?".
This is addressed not only to the Jews in the sense, "Do ye think that he will not
accomplish his threat against Nineveh?" but to the Assyrians also. He will make an
utter end. This denunciation is repeated from Nahum 1:8 to denote the absolute
certainty of the doom. Affliction shall not rise up the second time. The Assyrians
shall never again have the power of oppressing Judah as they have ruined Israel
there shall be no repetition of Sennacherib's invasion. Septuagint, ‫ן‬̓‫ץ‬‫ך‬̓‫ו‬‫ךהיך‬́‫ח‬‫ה‬ ‫ףוי‬̀‫י‬‫ע‬
̓‫ו‬‫ניפןבץפ‬̀‫ן‬̓‫ו‬‫טכ‬ ‫ם‬́‫י‬‫רוי‬ : Non vindicabit bis in idipsura (Jerome). From this text the
Fathers take occasion to discuss the question how it is that God does not punish
twice for the same sin.
10 They will be entangled among thorns
and drunk from their wine;
they will be consumed like dry stubble.[b]
BARNES, "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 literally, “drunken,” swallowed
up, as it were, by their drink which they had swallowed, mastered, overcome, powerless,
“they shall be derogated as stubble fully dry” , rapidly, in an instant, with an empty
crackling sound, unresisting, as having nothing in them which can resist. Historically,
the great defeat of the Assyrians, before the capture of Nineveh, took place while its king,
flushed with success, was giving himself to listlessness; and having distributed to his
soldiers victims, and abundance of wine, and other necessaries for banqueting, the
whole army was negligent and drunken.”
In like way Babylon was taken amid the feasting of Belshazzar Dan. 5:1-30; Benhadad
was smitten, while “drinking himself drunk in the pavilions, he and the kings, the thirty
and two kings that helped him” 1Ki_20:16. And so it may well be meant here too, that
105

106. Sennacherib’s army, secure of their prey, were sunk in revelry, already swallowed up by
wine, before they were swallowed up by the pestilence, on the night when the Angel of
the Lord went out to smite them, and, from the sleep of revelry, they slept the sleep from
which they shall not awake until the Judgment Day. God chooses the last moment of the
triumph of the wicked, when he is flushed by his success, the last of the helplessness of
the righteous, when his hope can be in the Lord alone, to exchange their lots. “The
righteous is delivered out of trouble, and the wicked comes in his stead” Pro_11:8.
Spiritually , “the false fullness of the rich of this world, is real leanness; the greenness of
such grass (for all flesh is grass) is real dryness. Marvelous words, “fully dry.” For what is
dryness but emptiness?” They are perfected, but in dryness, and so perfectly prepared to
be burned up. “The thorns had, as far as in them lay, choked the good seed, and hated
the Seed-corn, and now are found, like stubble, void of all seed, fitted only to be burned
with fire. For those who feast themselves “without fear is reserved the blackness of
darkness forever” Jud_1:12-13.
CLARKE, "While they be folden together - However united their counsels may
be, they shall be as drunken men - perplexed and unsteady in all their resolutions; and
before God’s judgments they shall be as dry thorns before a devouring fire.
GILL, "For while they be folden together as thorns,.... Like them, useless and
unprofitable, harmful and pernicious, fit only for burning, and, being bundled together,
are prepared for it; and which is not only expressive of the bad qualities of the Ninevites,
and of the danger they were in, and what they deserved; but of the certainty of their ruin,
no more being able to save themselves from it, than a bundle of thorns from the
devouring fire:
and while they are drunken as drunkards; dead drunk, no more able to help
themselves than a drunken man that is fallen; or who were as easily thrown down as a
drunken man is with the least touch; though there is no need to have recourse to a
figurative sense, since the Ninevites were actually drunk when they were attacked by
their enemy, as the historian relates (i); that the king of Assyria being elated with his
fortune, and thinking himself secure, feasted his army, and gave them large quantities of
wine; and while the whole army were indulging themselves, the enemy, having notice of
their negligence and drunkenness by deserters, fell upon them unawares in the night,
when disordered and unprepared, and made a great slaughter among them, and forced
the rest into the city, and in a little time took it:
they shall be devoured as stubble fully dry; as easily, and as inevitably and
irrecoverably.
HENRY 10-12, "The great destruction which God would bring upon them for it, not
immediately upon the whole monarchy (the ruin of that was deferred till the measure of
their iniquity was full), but,
1. Upon the army; God will make an utter end of that; it shall be totally cut off and
ruined at one blow; one fatal stroke of the destroying angel shall lay them dead upon the
106

107. spot; affliction shall not rise up the second time, for it shall not need. With some sinners
God makes a quick despatch, does their business at once. Divine vengeance goes not by
one certain rule, nor in one constant track, but one way or other, by acute diseases or
chronical ones, by slow deaths or lingering ones, he will make an utter end of all his
enemies, who persist in their imaginations against him. We have reason to think that the
Assyrian army were mostly of the same spirit, and spoke the same language, with their
general, and now God would take them to task, though they did but say as they were
taught; and it shall appear that they have laid themselves open to divine wrath by their
own act and deed, Nah_1:10. (1.) They are as thorns that entangle one another, and are
folded together. They make one another worse, and more inveterate against God and his
Israel, harden one another's hearts, and strengthen one another's hands, in their
impiety; and therefore God will do with them as the husbandman does with a bush of
thorns when he cannot part them: he puts them all into the fire together. (2.) They are as
drunken men, intoxicated with pride and rage; and such as they shall be irrecoverably
overthrown and destroyed. They shall be as drunkards, besotted to their own ruin, and
shall stumble and fall, and make themselves a reproach, and be justly laughed at. (3.)
They shall be devoured as stubble fully dry, which is irresistibly and irrecoverably
consumed by the flame. The judgments of God are as devouring fire to those that make
themselves as stubble to them. It is again threatened concerning this great army (Nah_
1:12) that though they be quiet and likewise many, very secure, not fearing the sallies
out of the besieged upon them, because they are numerous, yet thus shall they be cut
down, or certainly shall they be cut down, as grass and corn are cut down, with as little
ado, when he shall pass through, even the destroying angel that is commissioned to cut
them down. Note, The security of sinners, and their confidence in their own strength, are
often presages of ruin approaching.
JAMISON, "while they are folden together as thorns — literally, “to the same
degree as thorns” (compare 1Ch_4:27, Margin). As thorns, so folded together and
entangled that they cannot be loosed asunder without trouble, are thrown by the
husbandmen all in a mass into the fire, so the Assyrians shall all be given together to
destruction. Compare 2Sa_23:6, 2Sa_23:7, where also “thorns” are the image of the
wicked. As this image represents the speediness of their destruction in a mass, so that of
“drunkards,” their rushing as it were of their own accord into it; for drunkards fall down
without any one pushing them [Kimchi]. Calvin explains, Although ye be dangerous to
touch as thorns (that is, full of rage and violence), yet the Lord can easily consume you.
But “although” will hardly apply to the next clause. English Version and Kimchi,
therefore, are to be preferred. The comparison to drunkards is appropriate. For
drunkards, though exulting and bold, are weak and easily thrown down by even a finger
touching them. So the insolent self-confidence of the Assyrians shall precipitate their
overthrow by God. The Hebrew is “soaked,” or “drunken as with their own wine.” Their
drunken revelries are perhaps alluded to, during which the foe (according to Diodorus
Siculus [2]) broke into their city, and Sardanapalus burned his palace; though the main
and ultimate destruction of Nineveh referred to by Nahum was long subsequent to that
under Sardanapalus.
CALVIN, "He goes on with this same subject, — that Gods when he pleases to
exercise his power, can, with no difficulty, consume his enemies: for the similitude,
107

108. which is here added, means this, — that nothing is safe from God’s vengeance; for
by perplexed thorns he understands things difficult to be handled. When thorns are
entangled, we dare not, with the ends of our fingers, to touch their extreme parts;
for wherever we put our hands, thorns meet and prick us. As then pricking from
entangled thorns make us afraid, so none of us dare to come nigh them. Hence the
Prophet says, they who are as entangled thorns; that is “However thorny ye may be,
however full of poison, full of fury, full of wickedness, full of frauds, full of cruelty,
ye may be, still the Lord can with one fire consume you, and consume you without
any difficulty.” They were then as entangled thorns.
And then, as drunken by their own drinking. If we read so, the meaning is, — God
or God’s wrath will come upon you as on drunker men; who, though they exult in
their own intemperance, are yet enervated, and are not fit for fighting, for they have
weakened their strength by extreme drinking. There seems indeed to be much vigor
in a drunken man, for he swaggers immoderately and foams out much rage; but yet
he may be cast down by a finger; and even a child can easily overcome a drunken
person. It is therefore an apt similitude, — that God would manage the Assyrians as
the drunken are wont to be managed; for the more audacity there is in drunken
men, the easier they are brought under; for as they perceive no danger, and are, as
it were, stupefied, so they run headlong with greater impetuosity. “In like manners”
he says, “extreme satiety will be the cause of your ruin, when I shall attack you. Ye
are indeed very violent; but all this your fury is altogether drunkenness: Come, he
says, to you shall the vengeance of God as to those drunken with their own drinking
(217)
Some render the last words, “To the drunken according to their drinking;” and this
sense also is admissible; but as the Prophet’s meaning is still the same, I do not
contend about words. Others indeed give to the Prophet’s words a different sense:
but I doubt not but that he derides here that haughtiness by which the Assyrians
were swollen, and compares it to drunkenness; as though he said, “Ye are indeed
more than enough inflated and hence all tremble at your strength; but this your
excess rather debilitates and weakens your powers. When God then shall undertake
to destroy you as drunken men, your insolence will avail you nothing; but, on the
contrary, it will be the cause of your ruin as ye offer yourselves of your own accord;
and the Lord will easily cast you down, as when one, by pushing a drunken man,
immediately throws him on the ground.”
And these comparisons ought to be carefully observed by us: for when there seems
to be no probability of our enemies being destroyed, God can with one spark easily
consume them. How so? for as fire consumes thorns entangled together, which no
man dares to touch, so God can with one spark destroy all the wicked, however
united together they may be. And the other comparison affords us also no small
consolation; for when our enemies are insolent, and throw out high swelling words,
and seem to frighten and to shake the whole world with their threatening, their
excess is like drunkenness; there is no strength within; they are frantic but not
strong, as is the case with all drunken men.
108

109. And he says, They shall be devoured as stubble of full dryness ‫,מלא‬mela, means not
only to be full, but also to be perfect or complete. Others render the words, “As
stubble full of dryness,” but the sense is the same. He therefore intimates, that there
would be nothing to prevent God from consuming the enemies of his Church; for he
would make dry their whole vigor, so that they would differ nothing from stubble,
and that very dry, which is in such a state, that it will easily take fire. It follows —
Though like thorns, entwined,
And as with their drinking drunken,
They shall be consumed as stubble fully dry.
The particle ‫,עד‬ before “thorns,” is to be here taken as in 1 Chronicles 4:27, as
designating likeness. — Ed.
COFFMAN, "Verse 10
"For entangled like thorns, and drunken as with their drink, they are consumed
utterly as dry stubble."
"Entangled like thorns ..." Formidable as a hedge of thorns might appear, when the
Lord is ready to remove it, it shall prove to be no obstacle, but itself shall provide
the fuel of its own consuming fire.
"Drunken as with their drink ..." most commentators understand this as a
metaphor of nations being drunk upon their own power and intoxicated with their
own boasting. Certainly the expression is so used by Jeremiah (Jeremiah 13:9,13-14)
and by Habakkuk (Habakkuk 2:5, margin ASV); but it ought not to be overlooked
that both literal drunkenness and literal fire entered into the fall of Nineveh. The
king had ordered a celebration of what was supposed to be the victory; and it
became a drunken orgy. In the midst of it, the flood came; the enemies repulsed
previously, entered to destroy, to loot, and to burn the city. The king, recognizing
that all was lost and that Nahum's prophecy was indeed fulfilled before his eyes,
burned the palaces and his wives, and servants, and concubines, along with himself.
Truly God spoke his own words by the mouth of Nahum.
CONSTABLE, "Verse 10
Tangled (Heb. sebukim) thorns are tough to penetrate, but they are no match for
fire. Likewise the Ninevites, as confused as they would be when their city was under
attack, would be no match for the consuming fire of Yahweh"s wrath (cf. Nahum
1:6). Many of the Ninevites were confused because they were drunk (Heb. sebu"im).
Yahweh would destroy them as easily and quickly as fire burned up the dead stalks
left in fields after harvest.
ELLICOTT, "(10) For while.—Better, For they shall be even as bundles of thorn
fagots, and even while steeped in their drink they shall be burnt up like stubble fully
dry. Dry thorn cuttings were commonly used as fuel. (See Psalms 58:9; Psalms
109

110. 118:12; Ecclesiastes 7:6.) The verse compares the victims of Jehovah’s wrath, first,
to a compact bundle of thorn fagots; secondly, to a material equally combustible, the
dry straw and stubble of the threshing-floor. With regard to the words “while
steeped in their drink,” it may be remarked that in the final siege of Nineveh a great
defeat of its forces was effected by a surprise while the king and his captains were
sunk in revelry (Diod. Sic. ii. 26). Benhadad, king of Syria, and Belshazzar, king of
Babylon, were overcome under similar circumstances (1 Kings 1:16; Daniel 5:1-30).
Feasting and revelry may have gone on in Sennacherib’s camp at the moment when
the sudden visitation of the “angel of the Lord” was impending; but on this point we
have no information. The introduction of this detail adds to the metaphor a certain
grim humour. Soaked in wine though the enemy be, he shall surely burn like driest
fuel in the day of Jehovah’s fiery wrath. The opening clause of the verse is beset
with difficulties, both grammatical and lexical. Kleinert renders “For in thorns they
shall be entangled,” &c.; Ewald and Hitzig, “For even though they be compact as a
wickerwork of thorns,” &c.
PETT, "Nahum 1:10
‘For though they are like tangled thorns, and are drenched as it were in their drink,
they will be devoured utterly as stubble.’
As tangled thorns are tough to penetrate, so Assyria no doubt thought that their city
too would be difficult to penetrate, because of the strong defences of the city and
their own fighting capabilities. But they had forgotten YHWH. ‘And are drenched
as it were in their drink.’ This may be a reminder that when men had to face battle
they prepared themselves by heavy drinking, or it may be a sarcastic reference to
the fact that they were drinking heavily, especially in the face of such troubles,
raising the vivid picture of them as tangled thorns well doused to make them
difficult to burn. But it would not save them. They will burn well in the flames
lighted by the victorious enemy, (but really to be seen as the work of YHWH), just
as stubble was totally burned up in the fields.
PULPIT, "Nahum 1:10
While they be folden together as thorns. The clause is conditional: "Though they be
interwined as thorns." Though the Assyrians present an impenetrable front, which
seems to defy attack. (For the comparison of a hostile army to briers and thorns, see
Isaiah 10:17; Isaiah 27:4; Henderson.) And while they are drunken as drunkards;
and though they be drunken with their drink, regarding themselves as invincible,
and drenched with wine, and given up to luxury and excess. There may be an
allusion to the legend current concerning the destruction of Nineveh. Diodorus
(2.26) relates that, after the enemy had been thrice repulsed, the King of Nineveh
was so elated that he gave himself up to festivity, and allowed all his army to indulge
in the utmost licence, and that it was while they were occupied in drunkenness and
feasting they were surprised by the Medes under Cyaxares, and their city taken. An
account of such a feast, accompanied with sketehes from the monuments, is given in
Bonomi, 'Nineveh and its Discoveries,' p. 187, etc. We may compare the fate of
110

111. Belshazzar (Daniel 5:1, etc.). They shall be devoured as stubble fully dry; like
worthless refuse, fit only for burning (Exodus 15:7; Isaiah 5:24; Joel 2:5; Obadiah
1:18). The LXX. renders this verse differently, "Because to its foundation it shall be
dried up ( ‫קוסףשט‬́‫ח‬‫ףופבי‬ : redigentur in vepres, Jerome), and as bind weed ( ‫ףל‬͂‫י‬‫כבמ‬ )
intertwined it shall be devoured, and as stubble fully dry."
11 From you, Nineveh, has one come forth
who plots evil against the Lord
and devises wicked plans.
BARNES, "There is one come out of thee - that is, Nineveh, “that imagineth”
deviseth, , “evil, Lord, Sennacherib, against the the rod of God’s anger” Isa_10:5-7, 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 withdraw themselves from the land
of God, “into a land like their own” Isa_36:16-17, but whose joy and sweetness, its vines
and its fig-trees, should not be from God, but from the Assyrian, i. e., from Satan.
CLARKE, "Imagineth evil against the Lord - Such were Pul, 2Ki_15:10, Tiglath-
pileser, 2Ki_15:29; Shalmaneser, 2Ki_17:6; and Sennacherib, 2Ki_18:17; 2Ki_19:23.
A wicked counsellor - Sennacherib and Rabshakeh.
GILL, "There is one come out of thee,.... That is, out of Nineveh, as the Targum
explains it; meaning Sennacherib, who had his royal seat and palace there; or Rabshakeh
that was sent from hence by him with a railing and blaspheming letter to the king of
Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. This is said to be at the present time of writing
this prophecy, though it was after it, because of the certainty of it, as is usual in
prophetic language; unless it can be thought that this prophecy was delivered out exactly
at the time when Sennacherib had entered Judea, and was before the walls of Jerusalem;
but not yet discomfited, as after predicted:
that imagineth evil against the Lord; against the people of the Lord, as the
Targum; formed a scheme to invade the land of Judea, take the fenced cities thereof, and
seize upon Jerusalem the metropolis of the nation, and carry the king, princes, and all
the people captive as Shalmaneser his father had carried away the ten tribes:
111

112. a wicked counsellor; or "a counsellor of Belial" (k); who, by Rabshakeh, advised
Israel not to regard their king, nor trust in their God but surrender themselves up to
him, 2Ki_18:29.
JAMISON, "The cause of Nineveh’s overthrow: Sennacherib’s plots against Judah.
come out of thee — O Nineveh. From thyself shall arise the source of thy own ruin.
Thou shalt have only thyself to blame for it.
imagineth evil — Sennacherib carried out the imaginations of his countrymen
(Nah_1:9) against the Lord and His people (2Ki_19:22, 2Ki_19:23).
a wicked counsellor — literally, “a counsellor of Belial.” Belial means “without
profit,” worthless, and so bad (1Sa_25:25; 2Co_6:15).
CALVIN, "The Prophet now shows why God was so exceedingly displeased with the
Assyrians, and that was, because he would, as a protector of his Church, defend the
distressed against those who unjustly oppressed them. The Prophet then designed
here to give the Jews a firm hope, so that they might know that God had a care for
their safety; for if he had only threatened the Assyrians without expressing the
reason, of what avail could this have been to the Jews? It is indeed gratifying and
pleasing when we see our enemies destroyed; but this would be a cold and barren
comfort, except we were persuaded that it is done by God’s judgment, because he
loves us, because he would defend us, having embraced us with paternal love; but
when we know this, we then triumph even when in extreme evils. We are indeed
certain of our salvation, when God testifies, and really proves also, that he is not
only propitious to us, but that our salvation is an object of his care. This is the
Prophet’s design when he thus addresses Nineveh.
From thee has gone forth a devisor of evil against Jehovah, an impious adviser The
manner of speaking is much more emphatical, when he says, that the Assyrians
consulted against God, than if he had said, that they had consulted against the Jews,
or consulted against the chosen people of God.
But though this was said of the Jews, let us yet remember that it belongs also to us.
The Prophet confirms the doctrine which I lately alluded to, that whenever the
ungodly cause trouble to us, they carry on war with God himself, that whenever
they devise any evil against us, they run headlong against him. For God sets up
himself as a shield, and declares, that he will protect under the shadow of his wings
all those who commit themselves to his protection. If we then lie hid under the
guardianship of God, and flee to him in all our adversities, and while patiently
enduring all wrongs, implore his protection and help, whosoever then will rise up
against us will have God as his enemy. Why so? because he consults against him.
And this reason shows, that whatever the Prophet has hitherto said against the
Assyrians ought to be extended indiscriminately to all the enemies of the Church.
For why did God threaten the Assyrians with a sudden inundation and with
perpetual darkness? The reason is here subjoined, — because they consulted against
112

113. him and his Church. The same thing then will also happen to our enemies, provided
we remain quiet, as it has been said, under the protection of God.
But when he says that he had gone forth from that city who contrived evil against
Jehovah, — this ought not to be confined to Sennacherib, but must rather be viewed
as common to all the Assyrians; as though he said, “Thou produces the fruit which
thou shalt eat; for from thee will arise the cause of thy ruin. There is no reason for
thee to expostulate with God, as though he cruelly raged against thee; for from thee
has gone forth he who devised evil against Jehovah: thou reapest now the reward
worthy of thy bringing forth; for where have originated counsels against the Church
of God, except in thine own bosom, and in thine own bowels? The evil then which
has proceeded from thee shall return on thine own head.”
He then adds, An impious consulter, or counselor, ‫יועף‬ ‫,בליעל‬ ivots beliol. Respecting
the word ‫,בליעל‬ beliol, the Hebrews themselves are not agreed. There are those who
suppose it to be a compound word, ‫יעל‬ ‫,בל‬ It profits not; and they think that it is
applied to designate things of nought as well as men of nought. (218) There are
others who, like Jerome, render it, Without a yoke, but without reason. Then Beliol,
is properly a vain thing, which is wholly unsubstantial; and so it designates a man in
whom there is no integrity. It is also applied to all the wicked, and to their crimes:
hence a thing or work of Belial is said to be any heinous sin or a detestable crime;
and the man who acts perversely and wickedly is called Belial. And Paul takes Belial
simply for the very gravity of Satan, and of all the wicked; for he opposes Belial to
Christ, (2 Corinthians 6:15.) We now then understand the meaning of the Prophet
to be this, — that God denounces war on the Assyrians, because they made war
unjustly on his people, and consulted not only against the Jews, but also against
God, who had taken them, as it has been stated, under his own keeping and
protection. It follows —
COFFMAN, "Verse 11
"There is one gone forth out of thee, that deviseth evil against Jehovah, that
counselleth wickedness."
Some would apply this to Sennacherib, whom it fits well enough; but it is better to
understand this as a personification of the whole spirit of Nineveh:
"Nineveh is addressed; and we need not refer the words entirely to Sennacherib and
his impious threats, but may take them generally as expressing the arrogant impiety
of the Assyrians and their attitude toward Jehovah."[17]
"That counselleth wickedness ...." often rendered, "a wicked counsellor," is
literally, "A counsellor of Belial."[18] Belial was sometimes used by the sacred
writers as a synonym for "Satan"; and this shows that Satan was completely in
charge of the affairs of the city of Nineveh. These verses state the reasons for God's
execution of his wrath upon them.
113

114. CONSTABLE, "Verse 11
Since the Lord will destroy any plot against Him and His people ( Nahum 1:9), the
Assyrians were in trouble. One of the Assyrians had gone forth who plotted evil
against Him. This is probably a reference to Sennacherib. He was wicked and
worthless because He had opposed Yahweh (cf2Kings18).
BENSON, "Verses 11-13
Nahum 1:11-13. There is one come out of thee — Or, one hath gone forth of thee.
This is probably meant of Sennacherib, who uttered so many reproaches and
blasphemies against the true God, one of whose royal seats was Nineveh, and who
probably went forth from thence to invade Judea. But the term, a wicked
counsellor, seems to be intended of Rabshakeh, whom Sennacherib sent against
Jerusalem, while he himself warred against Lachish, and who uttered those
blasphemous speeches against God, of which we have an account 2 Kings 18:19.
Though they be quiet — Though the Assyrians be secure, and fear no danger. And
likewise many — An immense host; yet shall they be cut down — Irresistibly,
suddenly, and universally; when he shall pass through — When the angel of the
Lord shall pass through their camp, in which he slew in one night 185,000 men: see
Isaiah 37:36. Though I have afflicted thee — O Israel, I will afflict thee no more — I
will no more chastise thee by the Assyrian, the rod of mine anger, by Sennacherib or
his forces. For now I will break his yoke from off thee — Hezekiah and his people
shall no longer be tributaries to the king of Assyria, as they have been for a
considerable time: see 2 Kings 18:14. The words may also be considered as
promising relief to the Israelites of the ten tribes, who were in a state of actual
captivity among them at this time.
ELLICOTT, "(11) Come out of thee.—Another possible rendering is, He has retired
from thee [i.e., Jerusalem], who imagineth . . . We prefer the rendering of the
Authorised Version, and regard the verse as addressed to Nineveh. The reference in
the verses following is sufficiently plain for us to identify this enemy of God with
Sennacherib. (Comp. the language used by his envoy Rabsbakeh in 2 Kings 18, 19)
PETT, "Nahum 1:11-13
‘There is one gone forth from you who imagines evil against YHWH, who counsels
wickedness. Thus says YHWH, “Though they are in full strength, and likewise
many, even so will they be cut down, and he will pass away.” ’
These words seem to be addressed to Judah. This would suggest that a plotter had
gone to see the Assyrians in order to betray Judah, (and thus YHWH), advising
wickedness, that is an attack on Judah, not realising that Assyria’s condition would
soon be untenable.
But he would be unsuccessful. As indeed Assyria had once before come against
Jerusalem in full strength and had been struck down, so it would happen again, but
this time even before they came. And the plotter himself would also be slain or have
to disappear.
114

115. Some, however, see this as referring to Sennacherib, speaking of the past as though
it were in the present. He came out thinking evil against Judah, and even
challenging Yahweh direct (2 Kings 18:22; 2 Kings 18:33-35), and he advised his
generals to evil deeds.
Then God turns to Judah and reminds them that although those evil men came in
full strength and indeed were many (2 Kings 18:17), they were struck down (2 Kings
19:35). And in the end Sennacherib passed away (2 Kings 10:37).
Either way the final point is that all men’s plans will finally come to nothing. The
story is told of a great man who planned great things. He brought great turmoil on
the world, and when challenged by God, cried, ‘And who are you?’ And when his
world collapsed and he lay in his coffin, God quietly bent down and asked, ‘and who
are you?’ And closed the lid.
PULPIT, "Nahum 1:11
The reason of the destruction and of the punishment is told. There is one come out
of thee. Nineveh is addressed; and we need not refer the words entirely to
Sennacherib and his impious threats, but may take them generally as expressing the
arrogant impiety of the Assyrians and their attitude towards Jehovah. A wicked
counseller; literally, a councilor of Belial; i.e. of worthlessness. The expression,
perhaps primarily applied to Sennacherib, also regards the plans prepared by the
Assyrians for destroying the people of God, a type of the world arrayed against
piety.
BI 11-14, "There is one come out of thee, that imagineth evil against the Lord, a wicked
counsellor.
Corrupt kings
These words suggest a few thoughts concerning human kings and kingdoms.
I. Human kings are sometimes terribly corrupt. “There is one come out of thee, that
imagineth evil against the Lord, a wicked counsellor.” This evidently means
Sennacherib, the king of Nineveh.
II. Corrupt kings often ruin their kingdoms. “Though they be quiet, and likewise many,
yet thus shall they be cut down, when he shall pass through. Though I have afflicted
thee, I will afflict thee no more.” These words seemed to be addressed to Judah
concerning the utter destruction that will befall their enemies, and their consequent
deliverance from all fear from that quarter. It was here said they should be destroyed—
1. Notwithstanding their military completeness. “Though they be quiet.” The word
“quiet” means complete. No doubt the military organisation, discipline, and
equipment of Sennacherib’s mighty army, as he led them up to attack Jerusalem,
were as complete as the intelligence, the art, and the circumstances of the age could
make them. Notwithstanding this, ruin befell them.
115

116. 2. Notwithstanding their numerical force. “Likewise many.”
III. The ruin of corrupt kingdoms is a blessing to the oppressed. “Yoke” here refers to
the tribute imposed upon Hezekiah by Sennacherib. And so it ever is, when despotism
has fallen, the oppressed rise to liberty. Conclusion—
1. Realise the truth of prophecy.
2. Realise the importance of promoting education among the people. (Homilist.)
12 This is what the Lord says:
“Although they have allies and are numerous,
they will be destroyed and pass away.
Although I have afflicted you, Judah,
I will afflict you no more.
BARNES, "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), and he passeth away” .
With might outwardly unscathed, “without hand” Dan_2:34, and “thus many,” i. e.,
many, accordingly, as being unweakened; as many as they shall be, “so shall they be
mown down, and he,” their head and king, “shall pass away and perish” (compare Psa_
48:4). Their numbers shall be, as their condition before, perfect; their destruction as
their numbers, complete. It is wonderful how much God says in few words; and how it is
here foretold that, with no previous loss, a mighty host secure and at ease, in
consequence of their prosperity, all are at one blow mown down, like the dry grass before
the scythe, are cut off and perish; and one, their king, “passeth away,” first by flight, and
then by destruction. As they had shorn the glory of others Isa_7:20, so should they be
shorn and cut down themselves.
Though I have afflicted thee, I will afflict thee no more - o. Unless by new guilt
thou compel Me. God always relieves us from trouble, as it were with the words, “sin no
more, lest a worse thing come unto thee” Joh_5:14. In the end, afflictions shall be turned
into joy, and “God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more
death, nor sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be anymore paid” Rev_21:4.
116

117. CLARKE, "Though they be - many - Sennacherib invaded Judea with an army of
nearly two hundred thousand men.
Thus shall they be cut down - The angel of the Lord (a suffocating wind) slew of
them in one night one hundred and eighty-five thousand 2Ki_19:35.
GILL, "Thus saith the Lord, though they be quiet, and likewise many,.... The
Assyrian army under Sennacherib before Jerusalem, though they were quiet and secure
and thought themselves out of all danger; not at all fearing that the besieged would sally
out against them they being so numerous, and therefore betook themselves to sleep and
rest:
yet thus shall they be cut down; or "shorn" (l); as the wool is shorn off the back of a
sheep with sheers; or grass or corn is mowed with a scythe; or else as the hair of a man's
head and beard are shaved with a razor; which sometimes was done, not only in a way of
ignominy and contempt, as David's servants were served by Hanun, 2Sa_10:4; but as a
token of servitude; hence those words of the poet (m),
"after thou art a servant, dost thou let thy hair grow?''
upon which it is observed (n), that it belongs to freemen to let the hair grow; and so the
philosopher says (o), to let the hair grow, or to nourish it, is commendable with a
Lacedemonian, for it is a sign of liberty; for it is not for him who lets his hair grow to do
any servile work; and it was usual with conquerors to shave the conquered, and such as
were carried captives (p), which some think is referred to in Deu_32:42; and render the
latter clause of that verse,
"and there shall be captivity, by reason of the head of nakedness of the enemy;''
that is, there should be captives whose heads should be made bare, or shaved by the
enemy the conqueror (q); hence the king of Assyria, when a conqueror, is compared to a
sharp razor, that should shave the head, and feet, and beard, even all sorts of people,
Isa_7:20; but now he and his army should be shaved themselves; that is, conquered,
slain, or taken captives, and become slaves, and treated with contempt; all which may be
taken into the sense of this phrase, and serve to illustrate it:
when he shall pass through; when the angel should pass through the camp of the
Assyrians, then were they cut down by him in great numbers, a hundred and fourscore
and five thousand slain at once, 2Ki_19:35;
though I have afflicted thee, I will afflict thee no more: or "any longer" (r);
though the Lord had afflicted the people of the Jews by the Assyrian king, the rod of his
anger, again and again, yet after this he would afflict them no more by him; for otherwise
they were afflicted afterwards, yet not by the Assyrians, but by the Babylonians, Syrians,
and Romans, Some understand this, as before, of the Ninevites and Assyrians, that
should be utterly destroyed at once, and their affliction should not be a second time; see
117

118. Nah_1:9; so Abarbinel: or, "I will not hear thee any more" (s); as he did formerly, when
they repented at the preaching of Jonah.
JAMISON 12-14, "The same truths repeated as in Nah_1:9-11, Jehovah here being
the speaker. He addresses Judah, prophesying good to it, and evil to the Assyrian.
Though they be quiet — that is, without fear, and tranquilly secure. So Chaldee and
Calvin. Or, “entire,” “complete”; “Though their power be unbroken [Maurer], and
though they be so many, yet even so they shall be cut down” (literally, “shorn”; as hair
shaved off closely by a razor, Isa_7:20). As the Assyrian was a razor shaving others, so
shall he be shaven himself. Retribution in kind. In the height of their pride and power,
they shall be clean cut off. The same Hebrew stands for “likewise” and “yet thus.” So
many as they are, so many shall they perish.
when he shall pass through — or, “and he shall pass away,” namely, “the wicked
counsellor” (Nah_1:11), Sennacherib. The change of number to the singular
distinguishes him from his host. They shall be cut down, he shall pass away home (2Ki_
19:35, 2Ki_19:36) [Henderson]. English Version is better, “they shall be cut down,
“when” He (Jehovah) shall pass through,” destroying by one stroke the Assyrian host.
This gives the reason why they with all their numbers and power are to be so utterly cut
off. Compare “pass through,” that is, in destroying power (Eze_12:12, Eze_12:23; Isa_
8:8; Dan_11:10).
Though I have afflicted thee — Judah, “I will afflict thee no more” (Isa_40:1, Isa_
40:2; Isa_52:1, Isa_52:2). The contrast is between “they,” the Assyrians, and “thee,”
Judah. Their punishment is fatal and final. Judah’s was temporary and corrective.
K&D 12-14, "The power of Nineveh will be destroyed, to break the yoke laid upon
Judah. Nah_1:12. “Thus saith Jehovah, Though they be unconsumed, and therefore
numerous, yet are they thus mowed down, and have passed away. I have bowed thee
down, I will bow thee down no more. Nah_1:13. And now shall I break his yoke from off
thee, and break thy fetters in pieces. Nah_1:14. And Jehovah hath given commandment
concerning thee, no more of thy name will be sown: from the house of thy God I cut off
graven image and molten work: I prepare thy grave; for thou art found light.” To
confirm the threat expressed in Nah_1:8-11, Nahum explains the divine purpose more
fully. Jehovah hath spoken: the completeness and strength of her army will be of no help
to Nineveh. It is mowed down, because Judah is to be delivered from its oppressor. The
words ‫ים‬ ִ‫מ‬ ֵ‫ל‬ ְ‫שׁ‬ to ‫ר‬ ָ‫ב‬ ָ‫ע‬ְ‫ו‬ refer to the enemy, the warlike hosts of Nineveh, which are to be
destroyed notwithstanding their great and full number. Shâlēm, integer, with strength
undiminished, both outwardly and inwardly, i.e., both numerous and strong. ‫ים‬ ִ‫בּ‬ ַ‫ר‬ ‫ן‬ ֵ‫כ‬ְ‫,ו‬
and so, i.e., of such a nature, just because they are of full number, or numerous. ‫גוֹזּוּ‬ָ‫נ‬ ‫ן‬ ֵ‫כ‬ְ‫,ו‬
and so, i.e., although of such a nature, they will nevertheless be mowed down. ‫ז‬ַ‫ז‬ָ‫,גּ‬ taken
from the mowing of the meadows, is a figure denoting complete destruction. ‫ר‬ ַ‫ב‬ ָ‫ע‬ְ‫ו‬ is not
impersonal, actum est, sc. de iis, but signifies it is away, or has vanished. The singular is
used with special emphasis, the numerous army being all embraced in the unity of one
man: “he paints the whole people as vanishing away, just as if one little man were carried
off” (Strauss). With ְ‫ך‬ ִ‫ת‬ִ‫נּ‬ ִ‫ע‬ְ‫ו‬ the address turns to Judah. The words are not applicable to the
118

119. Assyrians, to whom Abarbanel, Grotius, Ewald, and Hitzig refer this clause; for Asshur is
not only bowed down or chastened, but utterly destroyed. ְ‫ך‬ ִ‫ת‬ִ‫נּ‬ ִ‫ע‬ refers to the oppression
which Judah had suffered from the Assyrians in the time of Ahaz and Hezekiah. This
shall not be repeated, as has already been promised in Nah_1:9. For now will the Lord
break the yoke which this enemy has laid upon Judah. ‫ה‬ ָ‫תּ‬ ַ‫ע‬ְ‫,ו‬ but now, is attached
adversatively to ְ‫ך‬ ִ‫ת‬ִ‫נּ‬ ִ‫.ע‬ The suffix to ‫הוּ‬ ֵ‫ֹט‬‫מ‬ refers to the enemy, which has its seat in
Nineveh. For the figure of the yoke, cf. Lev_26:13; Jer_27:2; Jer_28:10; Eze_34:27, etc.;
and for the fact itself, Isa_10:27. The words do not refer to the people of the ten tribes,
who were pining like slaves in exile (Hitzig); for Nahum makes no allusion to them at all,
but to Judah (cf. Nah_1:15), upon whom the Assyrians had laid the yoke of tribute from
the time of Ahaz. This was first of all shaken off in the reign of Hezekiah, through the
overthrow of Sennacherib; but it was not yet completely broken, so long as there was a
possibility that Assyria might rise again with new power, as in fact it did in the reign of
Manasseh, when Assyrian generals invaded Judah and carried off this king to Babylon
(2Ch_33:11). It was only broken when the Assyrian power was overthrown through the
conquest and destruction of Nineveh. This view, which is required by the futures 'eshbōr
and 'ănattēq, is confirmed by Nah_1:14, for there the utter extermination of Assyria is
clearly expressed. Ve
tsivvâh is not a perfect with Vav rel.; but the Vav is a simple copula:
“and (= for) Jehovah has commanded.” The perfect refers to the divine purpose, which
has already been formed, even though its execution is still in the future. This purpose
runs thus: “Of thy seed shall no more be sown, i.e., thou wilt have no more descendants”
(“the people and name are to become extinct,” Strauss; cf. Isa_14:20). It is not the king
of Assyria who is here addressed, but the Assyrian power personified as a single man, as
we may see from what follows, according to which the idols are to be rooted out along
with the seed from the house of God, i.e., out of the idol temples (cf. Isa_37:38; Isa_
44:13). Pesel and massēkhâh are combined, as in Deu_27:15, to denote every kind of
idolatrous image. For the idolatry of Assyria, see Layard's Nineveh and its Remains, ii.
p. 439ff. ָ‫ך‬ ֶ‫ר‬ ְ‫ב‬ ִ‫ק‬ ‫ים‬ ִ‫אָשׂ‬ cannot mean, “I make the temple of thy god into a grave,” although
this meaning has already been expressed in the Chaldee and Syriac; and the Masoretic
accentuation, which connects the words with what precedes, is also founded upon this
view. If an object had to be supplied to ‫ים‬ ִ‫אָשׂ‬ from the context, it must be pesel
ūmassēkhâh; but there would be no sense in “I make thine idol into a grave.” There is no
other course left, therefore, than to take ָ‫ך‬ ֶ‫ר‬ ְ‫ב‬ ִ‫ק‬ as the nearest and only object to ‫ים‬ ִ‫,אָשׂ‬ “I
lay, i.e., prepare thy grave,” ָ‫לּוֹת‬ ַ‫ק‬ ‫י‬ ִ‫,כּ‬ because, when weighed according to thy moral worth
(Job_31:6), thou hast been found light (cf. Dan_5:27). Hence the widespread opinion,
that the murder of Sennacherib (Isa_37:38; 2Ki_19:37) is predicted here, must be
rejected as erroneous and irreconcilable with the words, and not even so far correct as
that Nahum makes any allusion to that event. He simply announces the utter destruction
of the Assyrian power, together with its idolatry, upon which that power rested. Jehovah
has prepared a grave for the people and their idols, because they have been found light
when weighed in the balances of righteousness.
119

120. CALVIN, "The Prophet pursues here the same subject; but expresses more clearly
what might have been doubtful, — that whatever strength there might be in the
Assyrians, it could not resist the coming of God’s vengeance. For thus saith Jehovah,
Though they be quiet and also strong, etc. I cannot now finish this subject, but will
only say this, — The Prophet intimates that though Nineveh promised to itself a
tranquil state, because it was well fortified, and had a wide and large extent of
empire, yet this thy peace, he says, or this thy confidence and security, shall not be
an impediment, that the hand of God should not be extended to thee. Though, then,
they be many or strong etc.; for we can render ‫,רבים‬ rebim, strong as well as many;
but either would suit this place; for we understand the Prophet’s meaning to be,
that all God’s enemies would be cut off, however secure they might be, while
depending on their own strength and fortresses. The rest to-morrow.
COFFMAN, "Verse 12
"Thus saith Jehovah: Though they be in full strength, and likewise many, even so
shall they be cut down, and he shall pass away. Though I have afflicted thee, I will
afflict thee no more."
"They" and "he" are used here to include the population of the city as well as the
personification of the Devil that guides them, in this case, their arrogant and
confident king. Note that the fall of Nineveh was not to be at the end of their
strength, but in the midst of it. How often has the judgment of God fallen upon
wicked cities and nations, not after their "decline," but at the zenith of their power
and wickedness. So it was with Nineveh.
"Though I have afflicted thee ..." Hailey pointed out that the same thought of
Nahum 1:9, "affliction shall not rise up the second time," is repeated here. "I will
afflict thee no more," carries the meaning that, "Judah will never again experience
affliction from that source."[19]
CONSTABLE, "Verse 12
Yahweh declared that even though the Assyrians were powerful and numerous, He
would cut them off and they would pass off the stage of history. This must have been
hard for many Israelites to believe since the Assyrians had been their dreaded
enemy for centuries. Even though the Lord had afflicted the Israelites, He would
afflict them no longer. Evidently He meant that He would not afflict them with the
Assyrians any longer since other nations did afflict them after Assyria passed off the
scene. This is the only place in the prophecy where, "Thus says the LORD," occurs,
guaranteeing that what He said would definitely happen. This verse is the clearest
indication that Nahum ministered before the decline of Assyria as a military and
political state. [Note: Longman, " Nahum ," p798.]
"In the context the expression "quiet, and likewise many," [AV "at full strength,
and likewise many" NASB "unscathed and numerous" NIV] although a literal
translation of the Hebrew, does not seem to make much sense. Actually the Hebrew
here represents a transliteration of a long-forgotten Assyrian legal formula.
120

121. Excavation in the ruins of ancient Nineveh, buried since612 B.C, has brought to
light thousands of ancient Assyrian tablets, dozens of which contain this Assyrian
legal formula. It proves, on investigation, to indicate joint and several responsibility
for carrying out an obligation. Nahum quotes the LORD as using this Assyrian
formula in speaking to the Assyrians, saying in effect, "Even though your entire
nation joins as one person to resist me, nevertheless I shall overcome you." As the
words would have been equally incomprehensible to the later Hebrew copyists, their
retention is striking evidence of the care of the scribes in copying exactly what they
found in the manuscripts, and testifies to God"s providential preservation of the
Biblical text." [Note: The New Scofield Reference Bible, pp950-51.]
Verse 12-13
2. The liberation of Judah1:12-13
Emphasis now shifts from Assyria to Judah.
"In the form of an oracle ( Nahum 1:12, This is what the Lord says) to two parties in
a legal dispute, God pronounces his verdicts alternately to Judah, for her acquittal
and hope ( Nahum 1:12-13; Nahum 1:15; Nahum 2:2), and to Assyria, for her
destruction ( Nahum 1:14; Nahum 2:1)." [Note: Baker, p32.]
ELLICOTT, "(12) Thus saith the Lord.—Better, Thus saith Jehovah, Though they
be of unimpaired strength and ever so numerous, yet just in that state shall they be
cut down, and he [viz., the evil counsellor of Nahum 1:11] shall pass away. Though I
have afflicted thee [Jerusalem], I will afflict thee no more. Destruction comes upon
the Assyrian army in the very hour of prosperity, while unscathed and complete in
numbers (2 Kings 19:32-33). Pass away: so in Psalms 48 (a composition generally
thought to refer to this very catastrophe), “For lo, the kings were assembled: they
passed away together.”
PETT, "Verse 12-13
YHWH Turns To His People And Promises That This Will Be An End Of Their
Affliction By Assyria While At The Same Time Warning Assyria That He Will
Make An End Of Them (Nahum 1:12-13)
Nahum 1:12-13
“Though I have afflicted you, I will afflict you no more. And now I will break his
yoke from off you, and will burst your bonds in sunder.”
Whatever the situation was YHWH now promises His people that He will not afflict
them through Assyria (‘the rod of His anger’- Isaiah 10:5) any more. Rather He will
destroy Assyria’s power so that their yoke might be removed. Judah will no longer
be like beast’s of burden fastened to the plough. They will no longer be bound,
enchained slaves. They would be free from their bonds.
Nahum 1:14
121

122. ‘And YHWH has given commandment concerning you, that no more of your name
be sown. “I will cut off the graven image and the molten image out of your house of
your gods. I will make your grave, for you are vile.” ’
Nahum now speaks again to Nineveh. YHWH is about to destroy their name and
reputation. They will no longer be able to spread it by their activities. No one will
talk about them any more. They will be a thing of the past. And, most importantly,
they would no more have children to carry on their name, something seen as the
greatest of tragedies for anyone in those days. Their gods in whom they had boasted
would be violently removed from their temples.
‘I will make your grave, for you are vile.’ This may be said to Nineveh, or it may be
said to the multitude of displaced gods. It is saying either that glorious Nineveh is in
reality vile, or that their vaunted gods were vile. Both would in fact perish because
of their vileness. They would be dead and forgotten.
PULPIT, "Nahum 1:12
Thus saith the lord. An expression used to introduce a solemn declaration. Though
they (the Assyrians) be quiet. Shalem has this meaning elsewhere, as Genesis 34:21;
but this is unsuitable here, where it must be translated, "in full strength,"
"unimpaired," "complete," like the thorn hedge in Genesis 34:10. Vulgate, Si
perfecti fuerint. Though they be unbroken in strength, and likewise (on that
account) many in number. Septuagint, ‫פ‬́‫ב‬‫כ‬ ‫הו‬́‫ו‬‫ך‬ ‫דוי‬́‫ץ‬‫ךבפ‬ ‫סיןע‬́‫ב‬‫סקשם‬̔‫ץ‬‫ה‬́‫ב‬‫נןככ‬ ‫פשם‬͂‫ש‬‫ם‬ ,
"Thus saith the Lord, ruling over many waters." So the Syriac and Arabic. Jerome
interprets "the waters" to mean the heavenly powers (Psalms 148:4). Yet thus
(though such is their state) shall they be cut down. The verb is used of the mowing of
a fold or the shearing of sheep, and implies complete destruction. When he shall
pass through; better, and he shall pass away. The number is changed, but the same
persons are meant, spoken of as one to show their insignificance and complete
annihilation. Septuagint "Thus shall they be dispersed [ ‫היבףפבכ‬́‫ח‬‫ףןץפבי‬ : dividentur,
Jerome], and the report of thee shall no more be heard therein." The following
clause is not translated. Though I have afflicted thee. The Lord addresses Judah,
referring to the oppression of Judaea by the Assyriaus in the times of Ahaz and
Hezekiah (2 Kings 16:18; 2 Chronicles 28:20, etc.; 32.). I will afflict thee no more;
according to the promise in Genesis 34:9. This is further confirmed in what follows.
13 Now I will break their yoke from your neck
and tear your shackles away.”
122

123. BARNES, "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 rest was matter of time
only. Thus, Haman’s wise men say to him, “If Mordecai be of the seed of the Jews, before
whom thou hast begun to fall, thou shalt not prevail against him, but shalt surely fall
before him” Est_6:13; as He saith in Isaiah, “I will break the Assyrian in My land, and
upon My mountains tread him underfoot; then shall his yoke depart from off them, and
his burden depart from off their shoulders” Isa_14:25. : “In that He saith, not ‘I will
loose,’ ‘will undo,’ but ‘I will break,’ ‘will burst,’ He sheweth that He will in such wise free
Jerusalem, as to pour out displeasure on the enemy. The very mode of speaking shows
the greatness of His displeasure against those who, when for the secret purpose of His
judgments they have power given them against the servants of God, feed themselves on
their punishments, and moreover dare to boast against God, as did the Assyrian, ‘By the
strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom’ Isa_10:13.”
CLARKE, "Now will I break his yoke from off thee - This refers to the tribute
which the Jews were obliged to pay to the Assyrians, 2Ki_17:14.
GILL, "For now will I break his yoke from off thee,.... The Assyrian yoke from off
the Jews, who had been obliged to pay tribute, or send presents to the king of Assyria,
from the times of Ahaz; and were in bondage, while shut up and besieged by his army,
and the country all around laid under contribution; from all which they were delivered
when his army was in that dreadful manner destroyed:
and will burst thy bonds in sunder; and set thee entirely free from the bondage of
the enemy, and all fear of it; a type of that freedom from the yoke of sin, Satan, and the
law, which the people of God have by Jesus Christ.
JAMISON, "will I break his yoke — the Assyrian’s yoke, namely, the tribute
imposed by Sennacherib on Hezekiah (2Ki_18:14).
from off thee — O Judah (Isa_10:27).
CALVIN, "He confirms what the former verse contains, — that God would now
cease from his rigor; for he says, that the deliverance of this chosen people was nigh,
when God would break down and reduce to nothing the tyranny of that empire.
This verse clearly shows, that a clause in the preceding verse ought not to be so
restricted as it is by some interpreters, who regard it as having been said of the
slaughter of the army of Sennacherib. But the Prophet addresses here in common
both the Israelites and the Jews, as it is evident from the context; and this verse also
sufficiently proves, the Prophet does not speak of the Jews only; for they had not
123

124. been so subdued by the Assyrians as the Israelites had been. I indeed allow that they
became tributaries; for when they had broken their covenant, the Assyrian, after
having conquered the kingdom of Israel and the kingdom of Syria, extended his
arms at length to Judea. It is then certain, that they had been in some measure
under the yoke; but it was not so hard a servitude that the words of the Prophet
could be applied to it. I therefore take the expression generally, that God would free
from the tyranny of Nineveh his own people, both the Israelites and the Jews. If any
one objects and says, that the Israelites were never delivered. This indeed is true;
but as to Nineveh, they were delivered when the empire was transferred to the
Chaldeans, and Babylon became the seat of the empire.
We now then see, that the meaning of our Prophet is simply this, — that though God
by the Assyrians chastised his people, he yet did not forget his covenant, for the
Assyrians were punished. It was then sufficient for his purpose to say that the Jews
as well as the Israelites were no longer under the yoke of Nineveh, how much soever
they might have afterwards suffered under other tyrants. And what is said about
the yoke being broken, belongs also in some measure to the Jews; for when we
extend this to both, the Israelites and also the Jews, it would not be unsuitable to
say, that they were both under the yoke and bound with chains. For though the
servitude of Israel was hard, yet the Jews had also been deprived of their liberty. It
is then right that this which is said should be taken generally, I will now break his
yoke from thee, and thy bonds will I burst
Now this verse teaches us, that the people were not so subdued by the tyranny of
their enemies, but that their deliverance was always in the hand and power of God.
For how came it, that the Assyrians prevailed against the Israelites, and then
subjugated the Jews, except that they were as a rod in the hand of God? So Isaiah
teaches us in the tenth chapter. Though they armed themselves, they were yet but as
the weapons and arms of God, for they could not have made any movement, except
the Lord had turned their course, wherever he pleased, as when one throws a
javelin or a dart with his hand. It follows —
COFFMAN, "Verse 13
"And now will I break his yoke from off thee, and will burst thy bonds in sunder."
This is a continuation of the promise of deliverance to Judah promised in Nahum
1:9, and again in Nahum 1:12. Graham's criticism that Nahum possessed an inferior
attitude in all this is groundless.
"Nationalistic prejudice has led him to assume in Jehovah a special, unmoral
interest in his own people. Sympathy with his people had led him to conclude that
Assyria's downfall meant Judah's happiness."[20]
Apparently Graham failed to appreciate the fierce denunciation of specific acts of
wickedness which were enumerated under Nahum 1:3, above, and which recur
continually throughout the prophecy, nor is there any indication whatever that
Nahum did not apply those denunciations to similar sins of Israel and Judah. That
124

125. he did not specifically state that fact in Nahum is no proof of the contrary. Nahum
had announced his subject in the first line of the prophecy, "The Burden of
Nineveh"; and it was altogether proper and appropriate that he should have stayed
with his subject throughout.
CONSTABLE, "Verse 13
The Lord promised to break Assyria"s oppression of the Israelites as when someone
removed a yoke from the neck of an ox or the chains that bound a prisoner. For
years the Israelites had to endure Assyrian oppression including invasion,
occupation, and taxation (cf. 2 Kings 19:20-37; 2 Chronicles 32:1-23; Isaiah
37:27-38).
ELLICOTT, "(13) Now will I break.—Similarly Isaiah, “I will break the Assyrian
in my land, and upon my mountain tread him under foot: then shall his yoke depart
from off them, and his burden depart from off their shoulders” (Isaiah 14:25; comp.
Jeremiah 30:8).
PULPIT, "Nahum 1:13
His yoke. The yoke of Assyria, probably referring to the vassalage of Judah (2 Kings
18:14; 2 Chronicles 33:11). (For the metaphor of "yoke" denoting subjugation,
setup. Le 26:13; Jeremiah 27:2; Ezekiel 34:27.) Jeremiah (Jeremiah 30:8) seems to
use these words of Nahum to announce the deliverance of Israel from captivity.
Burst thy bonds in sunder; by the final overthrow of the Assyrian power (Psalms
2:3; Jeremiah 2:20).
14 The Lord has given a command concerning
you, Nineveh:
“You will have no descendants to bear your
name.
I will destroy the images and idols
that are in the temple of your gods.
I will prepare your grave,
for you are vile.”
125

126. BARNES, "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 power, He cut
off the race of the Assyrian, as he says in Wisdom, of Egypt, “Thine Almighty word
leaped down from heaven, out of Thy royal throne; as a fierce man of war into the midst
of a land of destruction, and brought Thine unfeigned commandment as a sharp sword,
and standing up filled all things with death,” (Wisd. 18:15, 16), or else it may be, He gave
command to the Angels His Ministers. God commands beforehand, that, when it comes
to pass, it may be known “that not by chance,” nor by the will of man, “nor without His
judgment but by the sentence of God” the blow came.
No move of thy name be sown - As Isaiah saith, “the seed of evildoers shall never
be renowned” Isa_14:20. He prophesies, not the immediate but the absolute cessation of
the Assyrian line. If the prophecy was uttered at the time of Sennacherib’s invasion,
seventeen years before his death, not Esarhaddon only, but his son Asshurbanipal also,
whose career of personal conquest, the last glory of the house of the Sargonides and of
the empire, began immediately upon his father’s reign of thirteen years, was probably
already born. Asshurbanipal in this case would only have been thirty-one, at the
beginning of his energetic reign, and would have died in his fifty-second year. After him
followed only an inglorious twenty-two years. The prophet says, “the Lord hath
commanded.” The decree as to Ahab’s house was fulfilled in the person of his second
son, as to Jeroboam and Baasha in their sons. It waited its appointed time, but was
fulfilled in the complete excision of the doomed race.
Out of the house of thy gods will I cut off graven image and molten image -
As thou hast done to others Isa_37:19, it shall be done to thee. : “And when even the
common objects of worship of the Assyrian and Chaldean were not spared, what would
be the ruin of the whole city!” So little shall thy gods help thee, that “there shalt thou be
punished, where thou hopest for aid. ‘Graven and molten image’ shall be thy grave; amid
altar and oblations, as thou worshipest idols,” thanking them for thy deliverance, “shall
thy unholy blood be shed,” as it was by his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer. Isa_37:38.
“I will make it thy grave” ; , what God makes remains immovable, cannot be changed.
But He “maketh thy grave” in hell, where not only that rich man in the Gospel hath his
grave; but all who are or have been like him, and especially thou, O Asshur, of whom it is
written, “Asshur is there and all her company; his graves are about him: all of them
slain, fallen by the sword. Whose graves are set in the sides of the pit and her company is
round about her grave: all of them slain, fallen by the sword, which caused terror in the
land of the living” Eze_32:22-23. “Graven and molten image,” the idols which men
adore, the images of their vanity, the created things which they worship instead of the
true God (as they whose god is their belly), in which they busy themselves in this life,
shall be their destruction in the Day of Judgment.
For thou art vile - Thou honoredst thyself and dishonoredst God, so shalt thou be
126

127. dishonored , as He saith, “Them that honor Me I will honor, and they that despise Me
shall be lightly esteemed” 1Sa_2:30. So when he had said to Edom, “thou art greatly
despised” Oba_1:2, he adds the ground of it, “The pride of thine heart hath deceived
thee. For thou art vile” Oba_1:3. Great, honored, glorious as Assyria or its ruler were in
the eyes of men, the prophet tells him, what he was in himself, being such in the eyes of
God, light, empty, as Daniel said to Belshazzar, “Thou art weighed in the balances, and
found wanting” Dan_5:27, of no account, vile .
CLARKE, "No more of thy name be sown - No more of you shall be carried away
into captivity.
I will make thy grave; for thou art vile - I think this is an address to the
Assyrians, and especially to Sennacherib. The text is no obscure intimation of the fact.
The house of his gods is to be his grave: and we know that while he was worshipping in
the house of his god Nisroch, his two sons, Adrammelech and Sharezer, smote him there
that he died, 2Ki_19:37.
GILL, "And the Lord hath given a commandment concerning thee,.... This is
directed to Sennacherib king of Assyria, as the Targum expresses it; and so Jarchi and
Kimchi; and signifies the decree of God concerning him, what he had determined to do
with him, and how things would be ordered in Providence towards him, agreeably to his
design and resolution:
that no more of thy name be sown; which is not to be understood that he should
have no son and heir to succeed him; for Esarhaddon his son reigned in his stead, 2Ki_
19:37; and after him, according to Ptolemy's canon, Saosduchinus and Chyniladanus but
the memory of his name should no be spread in the earth; or the fame of it, with any
marks of honour and glory, but of shame and disgrace. So the Targum,
"neither shall be any memory of thy name any more:''
out of the house of thy gods will I cut of the graven image and the molten
image; called "the house of Nisroch his god", 2Ki_19:37; where he was slain; and some
say that after that it ceased to be a place of worship, being polluted with his blood.
Josephus (t) calls it his own temple, where he usually worshipped, for which he had a
peculiar regard, and for his god Nisroch; but who this deity was is not certain. Selden
says (u), he knew nothing, nor had read anything of him, but what is mentioned in the
Scripture. Some of the Jewish writers (w) take it to be a plank of Noah's ark; and Mr.
Basnage (x) is of opinion that it is Janus represented by Noah's ark, who had two faces,
before and behind; a fit emblem of Noah, who saw two worlds, one before, and another
after the flood. Some say Dagon the god of the Philistines is meant, which is not likely;
See Gill on Isa_37:38; but, be he who he will, there were other idols besides him, both
graven and molten, in this temple, as is here expressed; very probably here stood an
image of Belus or Pul, the first Assyrian monarch, and who; was deified; and perhaps
Adrammelech the god of the Sepharvites was another, since one of Sennacherib's sons
bore this name; and it was usual with the Assyrians, Chaldeans, and Babylonians, to give
the names of their gods to their princes, or insert them in theirs: here also might be the
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128. Assyrian Venus, Derceto, Semiramis, and others: fishes also were worshipped by the
Assyrians, in honour of Derceto; and doves in remembrance of Semiramis, said to be
nourished by one in her infancy, and turned into one at her death; hence those creatures
became sacred in Assyria, and were not suffered to be touched and killed, as Philo
observed at Askelon; See Gill on Hos_11:11; and Lucian (y) at Hieropolis in Syria; where,
he says, of all birds, they think the dove most holy; so that they count it very unlawful to
touch them; and if by chance they do, they reckon themselves unclean that whole day;
hence you may see them frequently in their houses conversing familiarly with them,
generally feeding on the ground, without any fear; and he also says (z) the Assyrians
sacrifice to a dove, and which he must have known, since he himself was an Assyrian, as
he tells us; but, whatever these graven and molten images were, it is here predicted they
should be utterly demolished. The sense is, that whereas Sennacherib's empire should be
destroyed, and his capital taken, the temple where he worshipped would be defaced, and
all his gods he gloried of, all his images, both graven and molten, would be cut to pieces,
falling into the conqueror's hands, as was usual in such cases; these would not be able to
defend him or his, or secure them from the vengeance of God, whom he had
blasphemed:
I will make thy grave, for thou art vile: the Targum is,
"there will I put thy grave;''
that is, in the house of thy god, as Aben Ezra, Jarchi, Kimchi, and Ben Melech, interpret
it; where he was slain by two of his sons, as before observed; and this judgment came
upon him by the will of God, because he was a loose vile creature; because he had vilified
the true God, and reproached him, as unable to deliver Hezekiah and his people out of
his hands. The Targum paraphrases it,
"because this is easy before me;''
what the Lord could easily do, make his idol temple his grave; or, however, take away his
life, and lay his honour in the dust: or it may be rendered, "I will put upon thy grave
that thou art vile" (a); he, who thought to have a superb monument over his grave, and
an epitaph inscribed on it to his immortal honour, as kings used to have; this shall be the
sepulchral inscription,
"here lies a vile, wicked, and contemptible man;''
so Abarbinel. There was a statue of this king in an Egyptian temple, as Herodotus (b)
relates, according, as many think, with this inscription on it,
"whosoever looks on me, let him be religious;''
though I rather think it was a statue of Sethon the priest of Vulcan, and last king of
Egypt. Here ends the first chapter in some Hebrew copies, and in the Syriac and Arabic
versions, and in Aben Ezra.
HENRY, "Upon the king. He imagined evil against the Lord, and shall he escape? No
(Nah_1:14): “The Lord has given a commandment concerning thee; the decree has gone
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129. forth, that thy name be no more sown, that thy memory perish, that thou be no more
talked of as thou hast been, and that the report of thy mighty actions be dispersed upon
the wings of fame and celebrated with her trumpet.” Because Sennacherib's son reigned
in his stead, some make this to point at the overthrow of the Assyrian empire not long
after. Note, Those that imagine evil against the Lord hasten evil upon themselves and
their own families and interests, and ruin their own names by dishonouring his name. It
is further threatened, (1.) That the images he worshipped should be cut off from their
temple, the graven image and the molten image out of the house of his gods, which,
some think, was fulfilled when Sennacherib was slain by his two sons, as he was
worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god, by which barbarous parricide we may
suppose the temple was looked upon as defiled, and was therefore disused, and the
images were cut off from it, the worshippers of those images no longer attending there.
Or it may be taken more generally to denote the utter ruin of Assyria; the army of the
enemy shall lay all waste, and not spare even the images of their gods, by which God
would intimate to them that one of the grounds of his controversy with them was their
idolatry. (2.) That Sennacherib's grave shall be made there, some think in the house of
his god; there he is slain, and there he shall be buried, for he is vile; he lies under this
perpetual mark of disgrace, that he had so far lost his interest in the natural affection of
his own children that two of them murdered him. Or it may be meant of the ignominious
fall of the Assyrian monarchy itself, upon the ruins of which that of Babylon was raised.
What a noise was made about the grave of that once formidable state, but now
despicable, is largely described, Eze_31:3, Eze_31:11, Eze_31:15, Eze_31:16. Note, Those
that make themselves vile by scandalous sins God will make vile by shameful
punishments.
III. The great deliverance which God would hereby work for his own people and the
city that was called by his name. The ruin of the church's enemies is the salvation of the
church, and a very great salvation it was that was wrought for Jerusalem by the
overthrow of Sennacherib's army.
1. The siege shall hereby be raised: “Now will I break his yoke from off thee, by which
thou art kept in servitude, and will burst thy bonds asunder, by which thou seemest
bound over to the Assyrian's wrath.” That vast victorious army, when it forced free
quarters for itself throughout all the land of Judah, and lived at discretion there, was as
yokes and bonds upon them. Jerusalem, when it was besieged, was, as it were, bound
and fettered by it; but, when the destroying angel had done his work, Jerusalem's bonds
were burst asunder, and it was set at liberty again. This was a figure of the great
salvation, by which the Jerusalem that is above is made free, is made free indeed.
JAMISON, "that no more of thy name be sown — that no more of thy seed,
bearing thy name, as kings of Nineveh, be propagated; that thy dynasty become extinct,
namely, on the destruction of Nineveh here foretold; “thee” means the king of Assyria.
will I cut off ... graven image — The Medes under Cyaxares, the joint destroyers of
Nineveh with the Babylonians, hated idolatry, and would delight in destroying its idols.
As the Assyrians had treated the gods of other nations, so their own should be treated
(2Ki_19:18). The Assyrian palaces partook of a sacred character [Layard]; so that “house
of thy gods” may refer to the palace. At Khorsabad there is remaining a representation
of a man cutting an idol to pieces.
I will make thy grave — rather, “I will make it (namely, ‘the house of thy gods,’ that
is, ‘Nisroch’) thy grave” (2Ki_19:37; Isa_37:38). Thus, by Sennacherib’s being slain in it,
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130. Nisroch’s house should be defiled. Neither thy gods, nor thy temple, shall save thee; but
the latter shall be thy sepulchre.
thou art vile — or, thou art lighter than due weight (Dan_5:27; compare Job_31:6)
[Maurer].
CALVIN, "Nahum explains more clearly, and without a figure, what he had
previously said of darkness, — that the kingdom of Nineveh would be so
overturned, that it could never recruit its strength and return again to its pristine
state. He indeed addresses the king himself, but under his person he includes no
doubt the whole kingdom.
Commanded then has Jehovah, he says, respecting thee, let there not be sown of thy
name; that is, God has so decreed, that the memory of thy name shall not survive:
for to sow from the name of one, is to extend his fame. When, therefore, God
entirely exterminates a race from the world, or when he obliterates a nation, he is
said to command that there should not be sown of such a name; that is, that there
should be no propagation of that name. In short, our Prophet denounces on the
Assyrians a ruin, from which they were never to rise again. And when such a
command is ascribed to God, it means, that by the sole bidding of God both nations
and kingdoms are propagated, and are also abolished and destroyed: for what is
said of individuals ought to be extended to all nations, ‘Seed, or the fruit of the
womb,’ as it is said in the Psalms, ‘is the peculiar gift of God,’ (Psalms 127:0.) For
how comes it, that many are without children, while others have a large and a
numerous family, except that God blesses some, and makes others barren? The
same is to be thought of nations; the Lord propagates them and preserves their
memory; but when it seems good to him, he reduces them to nothing, so that no seed
remains. And when the Prophet testifies, that this is the command of Jehovah, he
confirms the faith of the Israelites and of the Jews, that they might not doubt, but
that the Assyrians would perish without any hope of restoration; for it was so
decreed by Heaven.
He afterwards adds, From the house, or from the temple, of thy gods will I cut off
graven images. It is probable, and it is the commonly received opinion, that the
Prophet alludes here to Sennacherib, who was slain in the temple of his idol by his
own sons, shortly after his return from Judea, when the siege of the holy city was
miraculously raised through the instrumentality of an angel. As then he was slain in
the temple, and it was by his murder profaned, I am inclined to receive what almost
all others maintain, that there is here a reference to his person: but, at the same
time, the Prophet no doubt describes, under the person of one king, the destruction
and ruin of the whole kingdom. Gods indeed, did at that time make known what he
had determined respecting the empire of Nineveh and all the Assyrians; for from
this event followed also the change, that Nebuchodonosor transferred the empire to
Babylon, and that the whole race, and every one who assumed power, became
detestable. When, therefore, the Assyrians were torn by intestine discords, it was an
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131. easy matter for the Chaldeans to conquer them. Hence the Prophet does not here
predict respecting one king only; but as his murder was, as it were, a prelude of the
common ruin, the Prophet relates this history as being worthy of being
remembered, — that the temple would be profaned by the murder of Sennacherib,
and that then the monarchy would be soon transferred to the Chaldeans.
When he says, I will appoint thy sepulcher, he connects this clause with the former;
for how was it that idols were cut off from that temple, except that that tragic deed
rendered the place detestable? For there is no one who feels not a horror at such a
base crime as that of children killing their father with their own hands. We know
when a proud woman at Rome ordered her chariot to be drawn over the dead body
of her father, the road was counted polluted. So also the temple was no doubt
viewed as polluted by the murder of the king. Then these two clauses ought to be
read together, that God would cut off idols and graven images from the temple, —
and then, that the sepulcher of Sennacherib would be there.
He adds, For thou art execrable (220) I have rendered ‫,קלות‬ kolut, a thing to be
abominated. It may indeed be referred to that history; but I take it by itself as
meaning, that Sennacherib was to be abominable, and not he alone, but also the
whole royal family, and the monarchy of Nineveh. For it is not consistent, as we
have said already, to say, that all these things refer to the person of Sennacherib; for
the Prophet speaks of the destruction of the city and nation, and that generally; at
the same time, this does not prevent him from referring, as it were, in passing, to the
person of Sennacherib.
It must, at the same time, be noticed, that the vain confidence, which the Assyrian
kings placed in their idols and graven images, is here indirectly reproved; for we
know that idolaters not only confide in their own strength, but that a part of their
hope is also founded on their superstitions. Hence the Prophet says, that their
temple was to be profaned by God, so that no aid would remain to the Assyrians, to
the kings themselves any more than to the whole people. Let us proceed —
For thou art become vile. — Newcome.
Because thou art worthless. — Henderson.
Execrable, or accursed, which the word sometimes means, seems more suitable to
the context. — Ed.
COFFMAN, "Verse 14
"And Jehovah hath given commandment concerning thee, that no more of thy name
be sown: out of the house of thy 'gods will I cut off the graven image and the molten
image; I will make thy grave; for thou art vile."
"I will cut off the graven image and the molten image ..." Assyria had repeatedly
robbed the gods of other nations from temples and carried them as booty to
Nineveh; but the promise here was that Assyria's gods would suffer a like fate.
131

132. Hailey listed the gods of Assyria as: "Ashur, Nabu, Anu, Adad, the goddess, Ishtar,
and others."[21] 'Jamieson added Nisroch to the list, translating the passage here as,
"I will make the house of thy gods thy grave!"[22] Sennacherib was slain in the
house of his god; and when the whole city fell, the pagan temples became the
hecatomb of the people, literally fulfilling the prophecy.
"For thou art vile ..." See under Nahum 1:3, above for summary of similar
teachings in Nahum.
CONSTABLE, "Verse 14
3. The termination of Nineveh1:14
The subject reverts to Nineveh.
Yahweh had commanded His heavenly host to manage the world"s affairs so
Nineveh"s name (or perhaps the king of Nineveh"s name) would not continue
forever. This does not mean that succeeding generations would be completely
ignorant of Nineveh and its rulers. More is known about Assyrian literature than
that of any other ancient Semitic people except the Hebrews. [Note: See Longman, "
Nahum ," p798.] But the residents, particularly the king, would have no surviving
descendants (heirs). [Note: For a chart of the historical fulfillments of Nahum"s
prophecies, see The Bible Knowledge Commentary: Old Testament, p1495.
Patterson, pp105-7 , also catalogued some fulfillments.]
The Lord also promised to destroy Nineveh"s idols and remove them from their
temples. The Assyrians often carried off the idols of the nations they conquered to
demonstrate the superiority of their gods over those of the conquered, as did other
ancient Near Eastern nations (cf1Samuel5). The conquering Medes, however,
despised idolatry and did away with multitudes of images that existed in Nineveh.
[Note: Charles Lee Feinberg, Jonah Micah and Nahum , p132.] Yahweh would
prepare Nineveh"s grave since He would bury the contemptible city. It was a great
curse in the ancient Near East to have no descendants, and it was a great
humiliation to have no gods, but both fates would befall Nineveh.
BENSON, "Nahum 1:14. And the Lord hath given a commandment — God hath
determined, concerning thee, that no more of thy name be sown — The meaning of
this seems to be, God had decreed that Sennacherib’s family should not long
preserve their royal dignity. His son and successor, Esar- haddon, was now
probably at man’s estate, for he succeeded his father in a little time after his defeat,
(2 Kings 19:37,) and reigned with great prosperity for many years. But his next
successor, or the next but one, was dispossessed of his kingdom by Nabopolassar,
father to Nebuchadnezzar, whose family enjoyed the empire of Assyria, or Babylon,
as it came then to be called, till the conquest of it by Cyrus. Out of the house of thy
gods will I cut off the graven image, &c. — All the images which thou worshippest
will I destroy. The army of the enemy shall lay all waste, and not spare even the
images of thy gods. I will make thy grave, &c. — The sense must be supplied from
132

133. the former sentence: as if he had said, The house of thine idol shall become thy
grave. There Sennacherib was dishonourably slain by his own sons, and there, some
suppose, he was buried. For thou art vile — Held in no esteem, not even by thine
own offspring, but disgracefully murdered by them, as having lost all interest even
in their natural affection. Or the words may be interpreted of the ignominious fall of
the Assyrian monarchy itself, upon the ruins of which that of Babylon was raised.
Observe, reader, those that make themselves vile by scandalous sins, God will make
vile by shameful punishments.
COKE, "Nahum 1:14. And the Lord hath given, &c.— And this is the decree of the
Lord concerning thee: there shall hereafter be no seed of thy name. I will take away
the graven image from the house of thy god, and I will make a little cottage thy
sepulchre, because thou art vile. Nahum denounces against king Sennacherib, who
was to be slain, that he should not be buried in the royal sepulchre of his fathers,
but in some paltry and obscure cottage by his murderers. Houbigant; who closes the
chapter with this verse, and begins the second with the 15th, which refers to the
entire destruction of the Assyrian army, and the joy of Judah in consequence.
Instead of the wicked, Houbigant reads Belial; referring, as above, to Sennacherib.
REFLECTIONS.—1st, At the preaching of Jonah the Ninevites repented, and were
spared; but, returning as the dog to their vomit again, Nahum is sent about a
hundred years after to pronounce their doom, and bind the heavy burden of God's
wrath upon them.
His prophesy is called The book of the vision of Nahum: it was what God revealed to
him, and he wrote in a book, and sent probably to Nineveh. The prophet is called
the Elkoshite, from the name of the place of his birth.
2nd, Like the pillar of the cloud and fire, the description of the divine perfections
and glory, in the second and following verses, speaks terror to the church's foes, and
comfort to her friends: wrath most fearful and mercy most adorable are here
revealed. To Nineveh God makes himself known:
1. As the jealous God, who avengeth the indignities put upon him. The Lord is
jealous of his own honour, and will not suffer his glory to be given to idols, nor
tamely see his people insulted: he revengeth; thrice it is repeated, to shew the
certainty and fearfulness of his vengeance: he is furious, or master of wrath, hath it
under command, can restrain or let it loose at his pleasure, and this without that
perturbation which ever accompanies it in our minds: he reserveth wrath for his
enemies; though spared long by his patience, there is wrath in store for the
impenitent; and, though slow to anger, he will not at all acquit the wicked, who, in
opposition to all his warnings, persist in their rebellion against him: they will at last
be condemned and executed.
2. His power is great, yea, irresistible: if he be angry, yea, but a little, who may abide
it? All the elements wait his orders; the wind and storm fulfil his word, and the
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134. clouds are the dust of his feet; on these he cometh forth to judgment, and desolation
marks his way. At his rebuke the sea, the rivers, are dried, as when of old he opened
a way through them for his people to pass over; and the most fruitful spots, as
Bashan and Carmel, languish when he is pleased to restrain the dew of heaven. His
earthquakes shake the tottering mountains and trembling hills; or the mightiest
nations, such as the Assyrian, compared to these for strength, are cast down before
his indignation. At his presence the earth is burnt, with the parching sun-beams, or
forked lightnings, yea, the world, and all that dwell therein, as it will be at last in the
universal conflagration, 2 Peter 3:10. Before such indignation, such devouring fire,
who can stand, when even the massy rocks are thrown down as stubble before him:
so weak, so easily ruined, are the greatest kingdoms, and the most hardened and
daring sinners. We may well say of such an omnipotent God, that it is good to have
him for our friend, but terrible to meet him as an enemy.
3. His mercy to his faithful people is as great as his wrath towards his enemies. The
Lord is good in himself, and in all the dispensations of his providence and grace; a
strong-hold in the day of trouble, as Hezekiah found when he was invaded by
Sennacherib, and as the faithful will ever prove him to be amid all the trials and
temptations with which they are exercised: he knoweth them that trust in him,
renouncing every other confidence, and staying themselves on him alone; these he
knows, approves, delights in, and will protect and preserve them from the power of
evil. But with an over-running flood he will make an utter end of the place thereof,
of Nineveh; his judgments, like a deluge, shall overwhelm the city and destroy it;
and darkness shall pursue his enemies, the darkness of affliction and trouble here
below; and hereafter they shall be driven into eternal darkness, where there is
weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth.
3rdly, We have a continuation of the dreadful judgments which Jehovah will inflict
upon the Ninevites.
1. The Lord mocks at their impotent designs. What do ye imagine against the Lord?
how vain the counsel, how fruitless the attempt! There is one come out of thee,
Sennacherib, that imagineth evil against the Lord, to plunder his temple, and make
captive his people; a wicked counsellor, who by Rabshakeh advised the people to
despair of God's help, abandon their king, and submit to his yoke, 2 Kings 18:29-31
but their policy was as unavailing as their power. See the Annotations.
2. He threatens them with utter ruin. He will make an end of them at once, and
there will be no need to repeat the blow; so complete shall be their destruction.
Unprofitable as thorns, and like them bound up ready for the burning, and drunken
as drunkards, incapable of making resistance, they shall be devoured as stubble
fully dry, in which the fire rages, and quickly and irrecoverably it is consumed.
Thus saith the Lord, whose word is faithful, though they be quiet, secure of success,
and likewise many, and therefore fearing no opposition, yet thus shall they be cut
down, when he shall pass through. So often do we see sinners cut off in the midst of
their carnal security. Nor shall the king escape: the Lord hath given a
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135. commandment concerning thee, that no more of thy name be sown; his fame and
glory should be spread no farther. Out of the house of thy gods will I cut off the
graven image and the molten image; this should be the case when the capital should
fall into the enemies' hand: I will make thy grave, for thou art vile; which perhaps
may refer to king Sennacherib, brought ignominiously to the dust, because of his
vileness and wickedness; or to Nineveh, whose inhabitants should be buried in the
ruins of the city, because of their iniquities. Note; They who make themselves in
God's sight vile by their sins, shall shortly be made an abhorring unto all flesh.
3. God will save his faithful people out of all their troubles. Though I have afflicted
thee, I will afflict thee no more; that is to say, no more by Sennacherib, or his
successors in Nineveh, to whom they had been tributary: from their bondage God's
people shall be set free, the figure of that more glorious liberty into which Jesus, our
Redeemer, has brought the sons of God. Then shall the glad tidings be diffused
through the land of Nineveh destroyed; and peace shall return after the ravages of
war. Judah must perform her vows made in the day of distress, and now piously
and thankfully to be paid to God for her complete deliverance from so dreadful an
enemy. Nor is this only a present mercy; but it is farther promised, that the wicked
shall no more pass through thee, he is utterly cut off; no more should they be
invaded by them, but the race of Sennacherib, and Nineveh, the seat of empire,
should be utterly cut off and destroyed. Note; (1.) The gospel proclaims the glad
tidings of pardon and peace by Jesus Christ, and of victory over all our spiritual
foes; and beautiful upon the mountains are their feet who publish these tidings of
joy (2.) Every mercy that we receive from God should be an engagement to our
fidelity, and quicken us in his worship and service.
ELLICOTT, "(14) And the Lord hath given.—Sudden changes of person are a
common feature in Hebrew poetry. The denunciation of the Assyrian here passes
from the third to the second person. Sennacherib is told that the royal line of
Nineveh is to be suddenly exterminated—a prediction accomplished when his great-
grandson Saracus, the last king of Nineveh, destroyed himself in despair. He is also
told that the Assyrian idols are destined to destruction, and that their very temple is
to witness his own death; the prophet’s expression being, I will make it thy grave:
for thou art found worthless (lit. “light in the balance “—comp. Daniel 5:27). “And
it came to pass as he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god that
Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons smote him with the sword” (Isaiah 37:33). The
allusion to Sennacherib’s death in the temple of Nisroch appears to us unassailable.
That it was admitted in the earliest times is shown by the accentuation and the
translation given by the Targum. Keil’s explanation that the “Assyrian power
personified “is addressed, and that “I am preparing thy grave” is the true
rendering, simply emasculates this vigorous passage. If, as is probable,
Sennacherib’s death had already occurred, it would be strange indeed that Nahum
should make no mention of this memorable instance of Divine retribution, while at
the same time using words so capable of bearing the allusion.
PULPIT, "Nahum 1:14
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136. Concerning thee. The prophet addresses the Assyrian, and announces God's
purpose concerning him. That no more of thy name be sown. There is no special
reference to Sennacherib in this or the next clause, but the prophet means that the
Assyrian people and name shall become extinct. Out of the house of thy gods (Isaiah
37:38, whore the murder of Sennacherib in the temple of Nisroch is mentioned). An
account of the religion of the Assyrians will be found in Layard, 'Nineveh and its
Remains,' vol. 2 ch. 7. Graven image; carved out of wood or stone. Molten; cast in
metal. The two terms comprise every kind of idol, as in Deuteronomy 27:15; 17:3.
The Assyrians used to destroy the images of the gods worshipped by conquered
nations (2 Kings 19:18). Bonomi gives a picture of soldiers cutting up the image of
some foreign deity, and carrying away the pieces. So should it now be done unto
their gods. I will make thy grave. I will consign thee, O Assyrian, and thy idols to
oblivion (Ezekiel 32:22, etc.). It is not, "I will make it, the temple, thy grave," as
those who see a reference to the death of Sennacherib (2 Kings 19:37) render it; but,
"I prepare thy grave"—I doom thee to destruction. The reason is given: For thou
art vile; quia inhonoratus es (Vulgate): ́̔‫ן‬‫פבקו‬ ‫פי‬͂‫י‬‫ע‬ , "for they are swift". The word is
also translated "light," weighed in the balances, and found wanting, as Daniel 5:27.
15 Look, there on the mountains,
the feet of one who brings good news,
who proclaims peace!
Celebrate your festivals, Judah,
and fulfill your vows.
No more will the wicked invade you;
they will be completely destroyed.[c]
BARNES, "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
136

137. Jerusalem, its cities taken 2Ki_18:13, may now again “keep the feasts” there, and “pay
the vows,” which “in trouble she promised;” “for the wicked one,” the ungodly
Sennacherib, “is utterly cut off, he shall no more pass through thee;” “the army and king
and empire of the Assyrians have perished.” But the words of prophecy cannot be bound
down to this. These large promises, which, as to this world, were forfeited in the next
reign, when Manasseh was taken captive to Babylon, and still more in the seventy years’
captivity, and more yet in that until now, look for a fulfillment, as they stand.
They sound so absolute. “I will afflict thee no more,” “the wicked shall no more pass
through thee,” “he is utterly (literally, the whole of him) cut off.” Nahum joins on this
signal complete deliverance from a temporal enemy, to the final deliverance of the
people of God. The invasion of Sennacherib was an avowed conflict with God Himself. It
was a defiance of God. He would make God’s people, his; he would “cut it off that it be
no more a people, and that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance” Psa_
83:4. There was a more “evil counselor” behind, whose agent was Sennacherib. He, as he
is the author of all murders and strife, so has he a special hatred for the Church, whether
before or since Christ’s Coming. Before, that he right cut off that Line from whom “the
Seed of the woman” should be born, which should destroy his empire and crush himself,
and that he might devour the Child who was to be born Rev_12:4.
Since, because her members are his freed captives, and she makes inroads on his
kingdom, and he hates them because he hates God and Christ who dwells in them. As
the time of the birth of our Lord neared, his hate became more concentrated. God
overruled the hatred of Edom or Moab, or the pride of Assyria, to His own ends, to
preserve Israel by chastising it. Their hatred was from the evil one, because it was God’s
people, the seed of Abraham, the tribe of Judah, the line of David. If they could be cut
off, they of whom Christ was to be born according to the flesh, and so, in all seeming, the
hope of the world, were gone. Sennacherib then was not a picture only, he was the agent
of Satan, who used his hands, feet, tongue, to blaspheme God and war against His
people. As then we have respect not to the mere agent, but to the principal, and should
address him through those he employed (as Elisha said of the messenger who came to
slay him, “is not the sound of his master’s feet behind him?” 2Ki_6:32), so the prophet’s
words chiefly and most fully go to the instigator of Sennacherib, whose very name he
names, Belial. It is the deliverance of the Church and the people of God which he
foretells, and thanks God for.
To the Church he says in the Same of God, “Though I have afflicted thee, I will afflict
thee no more” Nah_1:12. The yoke which He will burst is the yoke of the oppressor, of
which Isaiah speaks, and which the Son, to be born of a Virgin, “the Mighty God, the
Prince of Peace,” was to break Isa_9:4, Isa_9:6; the yoke of sin and the bands of fleshly
pleasure and evil habits, wherewith we were held captive, so that henceforth we should
walk upright, unbowed, look up to heaven our home, and “run the way of Thy
commandments when Thou hast set my heart at liberty.” Behold, then, “upon the
mountains,” i. e., above all the height of this world, “the feet of him that bringeth good
tidings,” i. e., of remission of sins and sanctification by the Spirit and the freedom and
adoption as sons, and the casting out of the Prince of this world, “that publisheth peace.”
“O Judah,” thou, the true people of God, “keep thy solemn feasts,” the substance of the
figures of the law. : “He who is ever engaged on the words, deeds and thoughts of Him,
who is by nature Lord, the Word of God, ever lives in His days, ever keeps Lord’s days.
Yea he who ever prepares himself for the true life and abstains from the sweets of this
life which deceive the many, and who cherishes not the mind of the flesh but chastens
the body and enslaves it, is ever keeping the days of preparation. He too who thinks that
137

138. Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us, and that we must keep festival, eating the flesh
of the Word, there is no time when he keeps not the Passover, ever passing over in
thought and every word and deed from the affairs of this life to God, and hasting to His
city. Moreover whoso can say truthfully, we have risen together with Christ, yea and also,
He hath together raised us and together seated us in the heavenly places in Christ, ever
lives in the days of Pentecost; and chiefly, when, going up into the upper room as the
Apostles of Jesus, he gives himself to supplication and prayer, that he may become meet
for the rushing mighty wind from heaven, which mightily effaces the evil in men and its
fruits, meet too for some portion of the fiery tongue froth God.” : “Such an one will keep
the feast excellently, having the faith in Christ fixed, hallowed by the Spirit, glorious with
the grace of adoption. And he will offer to God spiritual sacrifice, consecrating himself
for an odor of sweetness, cultivating also every kind of virtue, temperance, continence,
fortitude, endurance, charity, hope, love of the poor, goodness, longsuffering: for with
such sacrifices God is well pleased. Every power of the enemy, which before had
dominion over him, shall pass through no more, since Christ commanded the unclean
spirits to depart into the abyss and giveth to those who love Him power to resist the
enemy, and subdue the passions, and destroy sin and tread on serpents and scorpions
and every power of the enemy.”
And these feasts were to he kept “in the spirit not in the letter. For what avails it to
keep any feast wilhout, unless there be the feast of contmplation in the soul?” .
Wherefore he adds, “and pay thy vows,” i. e., thyself, whom in Baptism thou hast vowed:
for the Wicked One shall no more pass through thee. : “For from what time, O Judah,
Christ, by dying and rising again, hallowed thy feasts, he can no longer pass through
thee. Thenceforth he perished wholly. Not that he has, in substance, ceased to be, but
that the death of the human race, which through his envy came into this world, the two-
fold death of body trod soul, wholly perisheth. Where and when did this Belial perish?
When died the death which he brought in, whence himself also is called Death? When
Christ died, then died the death of our souls; and when Christ rose again, then perished
the death of our bodies. When then, O Judah thou keepest thy feast, remember that thy
very feast is He, of whom thou savest that by dying He conquered death and by rising He
restored life. Hence it is said, Belial shall no more pass through thee.
For if thou look to that alone, that Sennacherib departed, to return no more, and
perished, it would not be true to say, Belial hath wholly perished! For after him many a
Belial, such as he was, passed through time, and hurt thee far more. Perchance thou
sayest, ‘so long as Nineveh standest, how savest thou, that Belial has wholly perisited? So
long as the world standeth, how shall I be comforted, that death hath perished? For lo!
persecutors tamed with death have stormed, and besides them, many sons of Belial, of
whom antichrist will be the worst. How then sayest thou, that Belial has wholly
perished?’ It follows, “the Scatterer hath gone up before thee.” To Judah in the flesh,
Nebuchadnezzar who went up against Nineveh, was worse than Sennacherib. Who then
is He who went up before thee, and dispersed the world, that great Nineveh, that thou
shouldest have full consolation? Christ who descended, Himself ascended; and as He
ascended, so shall He come to disperse Nineveh, i. e., to judge the world. What any
persecutor doth meanwhile, yea or the Devil himself or antichrist, takes nothing from
the truth, that Belial hath “wholly perished.” “The prince of this world is cast out.” For
nothing which they do, or can do, hinders, that both deaths of body and soul are
swallowed up in His victory, who hath ascended to heaven? Belial cannot in the
members kill the soul, which hath been made alive by the death of the Head, i. e., Christ;
and as to the death of the body, so certain is it that it will perish, that thou mayest say
138

139. fearlessly that it hath perished, since Christ the Head hath risen.”
Each fall of an enemy of the Church, each recovery of a sinful soul being a part of this
victory, the words may be applied to each. The Church or the soul are bidden to keep the
feast and pay their vows, whatever in their trouble they promised to God. Jerome: “It is
said to souls, which confess the Lord, that the devil who, before, wasted thee and bowed
thee with that most heavy yoke hath, in and with the idols which thou madest for thyself,
perished; keep thy feasts and pay to God thy vows, singing with the angels continually,
for no more shall Belial pass through thee, of whom the apostle too saith, What concord
hath Christ with Belial? The words too, Behold upon the mountains the feet of him that
brings good tidings, that publishes peace” belong, in a degree, to all preachers of the
Gospel. : “No one can preach peace, who is himself below and cleaves to earthly things.
For warn are for the good things of earth. If thou wouldest preach peace to thyself and
thy neighbor, be raised above the earth and its goods, riches and glory. Ascend to the
heavenly mountains, whence David also, lifting up his eyes, hoped that his help would
come.”
CLARKE, "Behold upon the mountains - Borrowed probably from Isa_52:7, but
applied here to the messengers who brought the good tidings of the destruction of
Nineveh. Judah might then keep her solemn feasts, for the wicked Assyrian should pass
through the land no more; being entirely cut off, and the imperial city razed to its
foundations.
GILL, "Behold upon the mountains,.... Of the land of Israel, as the Targum; or
those about Jerusalem:
the feet of him that bringeth good tidings; see how they come one after another
with the news of the havoc and slaughter made in the army of Sennacherib by an angel in
one night; of his flight, and of the dealt, of him by the hands of his two sons; and, after
that, of the destruction of Nineveh, and of the whole Assyrian empire; all which were
good tidings to the Jews, to whom the Assyrians were implacable enemies, and whose
power the Jews dreaded; and therefore it must be good news to them to hear of their
defeat and ruin, and the messengers that brought it must be welcome to them:
that publisheth peace; to the Jewish nation, who might from hence hope for
peaceable and prosperous times: like expressions with these are used in Isa_52:7 on
account of the return of the Jews from the Babylonish captivity; and are applied by the
apostle to Gospel times and Gospel preachers, Rom_10:15 as these may also, and
express the good tidings of victory obtained by Christ over sin, Satan, the world, hell and
death; and of salvation wrought out, and peace made by him; it being usual for the
prophets abruptly and at once to rise from temporal to spiritual and eternal things,
particularly to what concern the Messiah, and the Gospel dispensation; See Gill on Isa_
52:7,
O Judah, keep thy solemn feasts; of the passover, pentecost, and tabernacles; which
had been interrupted or omitted through the invasion of the land, and the siege of
Jerusalem, by the enemy; but now, he being gone and slain, they had full liberty, and
were at leisure to attend these solemnities:
139

140. perform thy vows; which they had made when in distress, when the enemy was in
their land, and before their city; promising what they would do, if it pleased God to
deliver them out of his hands, and now they were delivered; and therefore it was
incumbent on them to make good their promises, and especially to offer up their
thanksgivings to God for such a mercy; see Psa_50:14,
for the wicked shall no more pass through thee; he is utterly cut off; or Belial,
the counsellor of Belial, as in Nah_1:11 the king of Assyria; who, though he had passed
through their land, had invaded it, and made devastation in it, should do so no more;
being dead, cut off in a judicial way, through the just judgment of God, suffering his sons
to take away his life while in the midst of his idolatrous worship; and this may reach, not
only to him, and his seed after him, being wholly cut off, but to the whole Assyrian
empire, who should none of them ever give any further trouble to Judah.
HENRY, "The enemy shall be so weakened and dispirited that they shall never make
any such attempt again, and the end of this trouble shall be so well gained by the grace of
God that there shall be no more occasion for such a severe correction. (1.) God will not
again afflict Jerusalem; his anger is turned away, and he says, It is enough; for he has
by this fright accomplished his whole work upon Mount Zion (Isa_10:12), and therefore
“though I have afflicted thee, I will afflict thee no more;” the bitter portion shall not be
repeated unless there be need and the patient's case call for it; for God doth not afflict
willingly. (2.) The enemy shall not dare again to attack Jerusalem (Nah_1:15): The
wicked shall no more pass through thee as they have done, to lay all waste, for he is
utterly cut off and disabled to do it. His army is cut off, his spirit cut off, and at length he
himself is cut off.
3. The tidings of this great deliverance shall be published and welcomed with
abundance of joy throughout the kingdom, Nah_1:15. While Sennacherib prevailed, and
carried all before him, every day brought bad news; but now, behold, upon the
mountains, the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, the feet of the evangelist; he is
seen coming at a distance upon the mountains, as fast as his feet will carry him; and how
pleasant a sight is it once more to see a messenger of peace, after we have received so
many of Job's messengers! We find these words made use of by another prophet to
illustrate the mercy of the deliverance of the people of God out of Babylon (Isa_52:7),
not that the prophets stole the word one from another (as those did, Jer_23:30), but
speaking by the same Spirit, they often used the same expressions; and it may be of good
use for ministers to testify their consent to wholesome truths (1Ti_6:3) by concurring in
the same forms of sound words, 2Ti_1:13. These words are also quoted by the apostle,
both from Isaiah and Nahum, and applied to the great redemption wrought out for us by
our Lord Jesus, and the publishing of it to the world by the everlasting gospel, Rom_
10:15. Christ's ministers are those messengers of good tidings, that preach peace by
Jesus Christ. How beautiful are the feet of those messengers! How welcome their
message to those that see their misery and danger by reason of sin! And observe, He that
brings these good tidings brings with them a call to Judah to keep her solemn feasts and
perform her vows. During the trouble, (1.) The ordinary feasts had been intermitted.
Inter arma silent leges - The voice of law cannot be heard amidst the shouts of battle.
While Jerusalem was encompassed with armies they could not go thither to worship;
but now that the embargo is taken off they must return to the observance of their feasts;
and the feasts of the Lord will be doubly sweet to the people of God when they have been
140

141. for some time deprived of the benefit of them and God graciously restores them their
opportunities again, for we are taught the worth of such mercies by the want of them.
(2.) They had made vows to God, that, if he would deliver them out of this distress, they
would do something extraordinary in his service, to his honour; and now that the
deliverance is wrought they are called upon to perform their vows; the promise they had
then made must now be made good, for better it is not to vow than to vow and not to
pay. And those words, The wicked shall no more pass through thee, may be taken as a
promise of the perfecting of the good work of reformation which Hezekiah had begun;
the wicked shall not, as they have done, walk on every side, but they shall be cut off, and
the baffling of the attempts from the wicked enemies abroad is a mercy indeed to a
nation when it is accompanied with the restraint and reformation of the wicked at home,
who are its more dangerous enemies.
JAMISON, "This verse is joined in the Hebrew text to the second chapter. It is nearly
the same as Isa_52:7, referring to the similar deliverance from Babylon.
him that bringeth good tidings — announcing the overthrow of Sennacherib and
deliverance of Jerusalem. The “mountains” are those round Jerusalem, on which
Sennacherib’s host had so lately encamped, preventing Judah from keeping her “feasts,”
but on which messengers now speed to Jerusalem, publishing his overthrow with a loud
voice where lately they durst not have opened their mouths. A type of the far more
glorious spiritual deliverance of God’s people from Satan by Messiah, heralded by
ministers of the Gospel (Rom_10:15).
perform thy vows — which thou didst promise if God would deliver thee from the
Assyrian.
the wicked — literally, “Belial”; the same as the “counsellor of Belial” (Nah_1:11,
Margin); namely, Sennacherib.
K&D, "Judah hears the glad tidings, that its oppressor is utterly destroyed. A warlike
army marches against Nineveh, which that city cannot resist, because the Lord will put
an end to the oppression of His people. Nah_1:15. “Behold, upon the mountains the feet
of the messengers of joy, proclaiming salvation! Keep thy feasts, O Judah; pay thy
vows: for the worthless one will no more go through thee; he is utterly cut off.” The
destruction of the Assyrian, announced in Nah_1:14, is so certain, that Nahum
commences the description of its realization with an appeal to Judah, to keep joyful
feasts, as the miscreant is utterly cut off. The form in which he utters this appeal is to
point to messengers upon the mountains, who are bringing the tidings of peace to the
kingdom of Judah. The first clause is applied in Isa_52:7 to the description of the
Messianic salvation. The messengers of joy appear upon the mountains, because their
voice can be heard far and wide from thence. The mountains are those of the kingdom of
Judah, and the allusion to the feet of the messengers paints as it were for the eye the
manner in which they hasten on the mountains with the joyful news. ‫ר‬ ֵ‫שּׂ‬ ַ‫ב‬ ְ‫מ‬ is collective,
every one who brings the glad tidings. Shâlōm, peace and salvation: here both in one. The
summons, to keep feasts, etc., proceeds from the prophet himself, and is, as Ursinus
says, “partim gratulatoria, partim exhortatoria.” The former, because the feasts could
not be properly kept during the oppression by the enemy, or at any rate could not be
141

142. visited by those who lived at a distance from the temple; the latter, because the chaggı̄m,
i.e., the great yearly feasts, were feasts of thanksgiving for the blessings of salvation,
which Israel owed to the Lord, so that the summons to celebrate these feasts involved
the admonition to thank the Lord for His mercy in destroying the hostile power of the
world. This is expressed still more clearly in the summons to pay their vows. ‫ל‬ ַ‫ע‬ַ‫יּ‬ ִ‫ל‬ ְ‫,בּ‬
abstract for concrete = ‫בל‬ ‫ישׁ‬ ִ‫,א‬ as in 2Sa_23:6 and Job_34:18. ‫ת‬ ָ‫ר‬ ְ‫כ‬ִ‫נ‬ is not a participle, but
a perfect in pause.
CALVIN, "The Prophet again teaches us, that whatever he prophesied respecting
the destruction of the city Nineveh, was for this end, — that God, by this
remarkable evidence, might show that he had a care for his people, and that he was
not unmindful of the covenant he had made with the children of Abraham. This
prophecy would have otherwise produced no salutary effect on the Israelites; they
might have thought that it was by chance, or by some fatal revolution, or through
some other cause, that Nineveh had been overthrown. Hence the Prophet shows,
that the ruin of the city, and of the monarchy of Nineveh, would be a proof of the
paternal love of God towards his chosen people, and that such a change was to be
made for the sake of one people, because God, though he had for a time punished
the Israelites, yet purposed that some seed should remain, for it would have been
inconsistent, that the covenant, which was to be inviolate, should be entirely
abolished. We now then understand the Prophet’s object, and how this verse is to be
connected with the rest of the context.
Behold, he says, on the mountains the feet of him who announces peace (222) Some
think that the Prophet alludes to the situation of Jerusalem. We indeed know that
mountains were around it: but the Prophet speaks more generally, — that heralds
of peace shall ascend to the tops of mountains, that their voice might be more
extensively heard: Behold, he says, on the mountains the feet of him who announces
peace; for all the roads had been before closed up, and hardly any one dared to
whisper. If any one inquired either respecting peace or war, there was immediate
danger lest he should fall under suspicion. As then the Assyrians, by their tyrannical
rule, had deprived the Israelites of the freedom of speech, the Prophet says now,
that the feet of those who should announce peace would be on the mountains; that
is, that there would be now free liberty to proclaim peace on the highest places. By
feet, he means, as we have explained, coming; and Isaiah speaks a similar language,
‘How beautiful are the feet of those who announce peace,
who announce good things!’ (Isaiah 52:7.)
Arise, then, he says, shall heralds of peace everywhere: and the repetition in other
words seems to express this still more clearly; for he says, of him who announces
and causes to hear He might have simply said ‫,מבשר‬ mebesher, but he adds ‫,משמיע‬
meshemio; not only, he says, he will announce peace, but also with a clear and loud
142

143. voice, so that his preaching may be heard from the remotest places. We now
perceive what the Prophet had in view, and what his words import.
Now he adds, Celebrate, Judah, thy festal days. It is indeed a repetition of the same
word, as if we were to say in Latin, Festiva festivitates, feast festivities; but this has
nothing to do with the meaning of the passage. I am disposed to subscribe to the
opinion of those who think, that there is here an intimation of the interruption of
festal days; for so disordered were all things at Jerusalem and in the country
around, that sacrifices had ceased, and festal days were also intermitted; for sacred
history tells us, that the Passover was celebrated anew under Hezekiah, and also
under Josiah. This omission no doubt happened, owing to the wars by which the
country had been laid waste. Hence the Prophet now intimates, that there would be
quietness and peace for the chosen people, so that they might all without any fear
ascend to Jerusalem, and celebrate their festal days, and give thanks to the Lord,
and rejoice before him, according to the language often used by Moses. At the same
time, the Prophet no doubt reminds the Jews for what end the Lord would break off
the enemy’s yoke, and exempt them from servile fear, and that was, that they might
sacrifice to God and worship him, while enjoying their quiet condition. And that he
addresses Judah is not done without reason; for though the kingdom of Israel was
not as yet so rejected, that God did not regard them as his people, yet there were no
legitimate sacrifices among them, and no festal days which God approved: we
indeed know that the worship which prevailed there was corrupt and degenerated.
Inasmuch then as God repudiated the sacrifices which were offered in Israel,
Nahum addresses here his discourse to Judah only; but yet he intimates, that God
had been thus bountiful to the Israelites, that they, remembering their deliverance,
might give him thanks.
Let us then know, that when the Lord grants us tranquillity and preserves us in a
quiet state, this end ought ever to be kept in view, — that it is his will, that we
should truly serve him. But if we abuse the public peace given us, and if pleasures
occasion a forgetfulness of God, this ingratitude will by no means be endured. We
ought, indeed, in extreme necessities to sacrifice to God, as we have need then
especially of fleeing to his mercy; but as we cannot so composedly worship him in a
disturbed state of mind, he is pleased to allow us peaceable times. Now, if we
misapply this leisure, and indulge in sloth, yea, if we become so heedless as to
neglect God, this as I have said will be an intolerable evil. Let us then take notice of
the Prophet’s words in setting forth the design of God, — that he would free his
people from the power of the Assyrians, that they might celebrate their festal days.
He adds, Pay thy vows He not only speaks here of the ordinary sacrifices and of the
worship which had been prescribed; but he also requires a special proof of gratitude
for having been then delivered by the hand of God; for we know what paying of
vows meant among the Hebrews: they were wont to offer peace-offerings, when they
returned victorious from war, or when they were delivered from any danger, or
when they were relieved from some calamity. The Prophet therefore now shows,
that it was right to pay vows to God, inasmuch as he had dealt so bountifully with
143

144. his people; as it is said in Psalms 116:0, ‘What shall I return to the Lord for all his
benefits which he has bestowed on me? The cup of salvation will I take, and on the
name of the Lord will I call.’ We also find it thus written in Hosea,
‘The calves of thy lips to me shalt thou render,’
(Hosea 14:2.)
We now perceive what Nahum substantially meant, — that when peace was
restored, the people were not to bury so great and so remarkable a kindness of God,
but to pay their vows; that is, that the people were to testify that God was the author
of their deliverance, and that the redemption which they had obtained was the
peculiar work of God.
It follows, “Add no more to pass through thee shall Belial, for utterly is he cut off.”
This passage must not be explained in a general sense; for we know that the
Chaldeans became more grievous to the Jews than the Assyrians had been; but the
Prophet here refers especially to the Ninevites, that is, to the Assyrians, whose
metropolis, as it has been said, was Nineveh. That wicked one then shall not add any
more to pass through thee. —Why? for he is entirely cut off. This reason given by
the Prophet clearly proves, that he speaks not of the wicked generally, but that he
especially points out the Assyrians. Now follows —
How beautiful on the mountains
Are the feet of him who announceth,
Who proclaimeth peace, —
Of him who announceth good, ( ‫רשבמ‬ ‫)בוט‬
Who proclaimeth salvation!
Saying to Zion, Reign doth thy God.
— Ed.
COFFMAN, "Verse 15
"Behold, upon the mountains the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that
publisheth peace! Keep thy feasts, O Judah, perform thy vows; for the wicked one
shall no more pass through thee; he is utterly cut off."
This verse is similar to Isaiah 52:7 and is definitely Messianic, as indicated by "The
wicked one shall no more pass through thee." "This is a reference to the "holy
Jerusalem" of Joel 3:17 (See in my commentary on the minor prophets, Vol. 1, p.
64). The whole passage looks forward to the "spiritual Israel" yet in the future, in
which the good tidings of peace should be proclaimed to all men.
Any good news of the fall of Nineveh would have been loudly proclaimed by those
coming over the mountains and approaching Jerusalem; and it is probable that the
immediate fulfillment of this prophecy occurred in just such a manner. However,
the passage has overtones of something far more wonderful.
144

145. "It would serve as a type of the far more glorious spiritual deliverance of God's
people from Satan by the Messiah, heralded by ministers of the gospel, Paul himself
applying these words thus, "How beautiful are the feet of them that bring glad
tidings of the good things!" (Romans 10:15)."[23]
"Keep thy feasts, perform thy vows ..." The cultivation of God's holy and righteous
religion was indicated by these commandments. If Israel would really participate in
the ultimate deliverance that God will give to his people, let them not seek to do so
apart from the sacred commandments God has given. It is the utmost blindness not
to see these commandments given here as a form of a synecdoche for "ALL" that
God had commanded his people to perform, both of ceremonial and ethical and
moral qualities. To receive these words as an intimation that Nahum had no regard
for anything other than the outward ceremonies of the law of Moses is no more than
blindness to what is said. Fidelity to the law of God in its most comprehensive and
detailed particulars is the thing Nahum commanded. The holy prophets referred to
that Law sometimes as "doing righteously," and at other times as "keeping the
feasts and performing the vows"; but it is the whole law that is meant in all such
abbreviated references to it. One must therefore constantly guard against being
misled by critical destroyers of the Word who, in the instance of Amos' stressing
moral values, affirm that he repudiated the idea of sacrifice, and, in the instance of
Nahum's mentioning the ceremonial requirements, accuse of him of caring nothing
for the moral values. Such views are in no sense "exegesis" of the sacred text, but
they are an amazing blindness to what it says and what it clearly means.
CONSTABLE, "Verse 15
A. The sovereign justice of Yahweh1:15-2:2
Verse 15
This is the first verse of chapter2in the Hebrew Bible. It is a janus, a transition that
looks back to what precedes and forward to what follows.
Nahum called his audience to give attention. Someone was coming over the
mountains with a message of peace. Consequently the people of Judah could
celebrate their feasts; they had a future. They should pay their vows to the Lord
because He had answered their prayers. The wicked Assyrians would never again
pass through their land, as they had done in the past. The message was that they
had been cut off, like a piece of a garment, and so would be no threat in the future.
The prophet spoke as if Nineveh had already fallen and a messenger had just
arrived with the news. The same statement appears in Isaiah 52:7, where the
messenger announces the defeat of Babylon.
"So complete was its [Nineveh"s] destruction that when Xenophon passed by the
site about200 years later, he thought the mounds were the ruins of some other city.
And Alexander the Great, fighting in a battle nearby, did not realize that he was
near the ruins of Nineveh." [Note: Elliott E. Johnson, " Nahum ," in The Bible
Knowledge Commentary: Old Testament, p1499.]
145

146. The Apostle Paul quoted the first part of this verse in Romans 10:15 in reference to
those messengers who bring similar good news, namely, the gospel.
"The message is one of peace, a peace from external oppression and a new kind of
peace with the God who is the giver of all life." [Note: Peter C. Craigie, Twelve
Prophets, 2:67.]
Verses 15-19
III. NINEVEH"S DESTRUCTION DESCRIBED1:15-3:19
This second major part of Nahum contains another introduction and four
descriptions of Nineveh"s destruction. Having revealed general statements about
Yahweh"s judgment, Nahum next communicated more specific descriptions of
Nineveh"s demise. As in the previous section, he also gave promises of Israel"s
restoration.
"Nahum portrays [the] siege, reproduces its horrors and its savagery, its cruelties
and mercilessness, in language so realistic that one is able to see it and feel it. First
comes the fighting in the suburbs. Then the assault upon the walls. Then the capture
of the city and its destruction." [Note: Raymond Calkins, The Modern Message of
the Minor Prophets, p82.]
The section begins, as the first major one did (cf. Nahum 1:2-8), with an emphasis
on Yahweh who contrasts with the human destroyer of Nineveh. Humans can
destroy, but it takes Yahweh to deliver. This section is also chiastic, as was Nahum
1:9-14.
BENSON, "Nahum 1:15. Behold upon the mountains — Which surrounded
Jerusalem; the feet of him — Of the messenger; that bringeth good tidings —
Tidings that Nineveh is destroyed; that publisheth peace — Deliverance from the
tyranny and oppression of the Assyrians, through the destruction of their capital
city, and the overthrow of their empire; or safety and prosperity to the Jews, which
the word peace often signifies. Compare Isaiah 52:7, where the same expressions are
used with relation to the destruction of Babylon, the overthrow of the Chaldean
empire, and the release of the Jews, and their restoration to their own land. These
deliverances being typical of the great redemption wrought out for us by the
Messiah, the words are applied by the apostle (Romans 10:15) to the gospel, which
brings us glad tidings of that redemption, and of all the spiritual and eternal
blessings consequent upon it. O Judah, keep thy solemn feasts — As thou now hast
liberty to do, and mayest do with joy and gladness, being freed from thy fears; and
to do which thou art now under peculiar obligations, having been so wonderfully
delivered from the oppressive power of thy enemies; and having solemnly vowed to
God, when thou wast in distress, that thou wouldest worship and serve him
according to the precepts of his law, if thou shouldest be delivered from any further
fear of thy oppressors. For the wicked shall no more pass through thee — The
146

147. impious Assyrians, who set at naught and blasphemed Jehovah, thy God, shall no
more come against thee. He is utterly cut off — The oppressor is taken away, and
the Assyrian empire utterly and for ever ruined.
ELLICOTT, "(15) Behold upon the mountains.—It is not plain why this verse has
been made the first of Nahum 3 in the Hebrew. It is evidently the finale of the
proclamation against the Assyrian invader, and rightly stands in the LXX. as the
last verse of Nahum 2. It portrays the announcement of Sennacherib’s fate to the
towns and villages of Judah. “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
Jerusalem, its cities taken, may now again keep the feasts there, and pay the vows
which in trouble she promised; for the wicked one, the ungodly Sennacherib, is
utterly cut off; he shall no more pass through thee” (Pusey). The opening clause
necessarily reminds one of the description of deliverance in Isaiah 52:7. The one
author probably borrows the language of the other; but which passage we regard as
the original must depend on the view taken of the Book of Isaiah.
PETT, "Verse 15
The Glad News Is Brought To God’s People (Nahum 1:15)
In words similar to Isaiah 52:7, Nahum declares the end of Nineveh. A messenger is
on the way with the good news of peace. Judah can now worship freely because
Assyria will trouble her no more. (Perhaps had Josiah not tried to interfere in things
and thereby lost his life (2 Kings 23:29) such conditions might have continued a
good while longer. The prophets rarely approved of interfering in things which were
not strictly Judah’s concern).
Nahum 1:15
‘Behold on the mountains the feet of him who brings good tidings, who proclaims
peace. Keep your feasts, O Judah, perform your vows. For the worthless will no
more pass through you. He is utterly cut off.’
A messenger is seen as on his way. He will soon be there with the good news,
promising peace from the activities of Assyria, because Nineveh is destroyed. Judah
will now be able to worship in the purity of their religion, not being forced to have
the gods of Assyria in their temple, nor to make Assyrian religion central to their
worship. These words are a direct reference to Isaiah 52:7.
“Keep your feasts, O Judah. Perform your vows”. The one who stood in the way of
the keeping of their feasts and the fulfilling of their vows to YHWH is about to be
removed totally. They can now return to the unadulterated worship of YHWH.
‘For the worthless will no more pass through you. He is utterly cut off.’ Literally
‘the thing of worthlessness (or Belial)’. He who took them away from God. But now
he is utterly cut off. There is therefore now no restraint on true worship.
147

148. So Nahum’s exultancy is based on the fact that wickedness has been dealt with, and
that God’s people are now free to worship in purity. He announces it as though it
had already happened.
The importance to us of this chapter is that it first reminds us of the greatness of
God, and the reality of His judgment, and yet of His mercy to those who call on
Him. All is under His control and we respond or fail to respond to Him for good or
ill. It reminds us that He is the protector of His people and will in the end punish
those who use them ill, or behave ill, however great they may think they are. Before
Him all are minute. The point that come out is that although at times things may be
difficult, we can always be sure that in the end we will see on the mountains the feet
of those who bring the good news of deliverance.
SIMEON, "Verse 15
DISCOURSE: 1220
THE PROPER IMPROVEMENT OF GOD’S MERCIES [Note: Thanksgiving
Sermon for peace, in May 1802.]
Nahum 1:15. Behold upon the mountains the feet of him that bringeth good tidings,
that publisheth peace! O Judah, keep thy solemn feasts, perform thy rows.
IN the writings of the prophets there is an abruptness of style, which often renders
them intricate, and almost unintelligible. The rapidity of their transitions from one
person to another, from one period to another, and from one subject to another,
tends to bewilder the mind, and operates as a discouragement to us, when we
endeavour to investigate and comprehend their meaning. But when we are on our
guard respecting this, we shall often discover beauties that will amply repay the
labour of investigation, and shall be led to admire those passages, which at first
sight appeared to be involved in impenetrable obscurity.
The subject of the prophecy before us is the destruction of Sennacherib’s army, as a
prelude to the overthrow of the Assyrian empire, of which Nineveh was the capital.
The prophet begins this chapter with expatiating in general terms on the power and
vindictive justice of Jehovah [Note: ver. 2–7.]. He then speaks of these perfections
with a more express reference to his main point [Note: ver. 8–10.]. After that, he
proceeds to address himself to Nineveh, from whence that “wicked counsellor,”
Sennacherib, should come [Note: ver. 11.]. Then, in Jehovah’s name, he addresses
himself to the Jewish nation, to certify them, that, however greatly this formidable
enemy should harass and distress them, they should be freed from his yoke [Note:
ver. 12, 13.]. Then he addresses more immediately Sennacherib himself, and
declares that he, his family, and his idols, should be signally and entirely cut off
[Note: ver. 14.]. Lastly, beholding, as it were, his prophecy already accomplished, he
points to the Messenger hastening over the mountains to announce the glad tidings:
and he calls upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem to resume their wonted occupations,
148

149. and especially their religious ordinances, in humble acknowledgment of the Divine
goodness, and with a faithful regard to those vows which they had made in the day
of their calamity [Note: ver. 15.].
The affinity between this subject, and that which calls for our attention this day,
will more fully appear, while we consider,
I. The tidings which are announced to us this day—
These certainly relate, in the first instance, to Hezekiah’s deliverance by the
destruction of Sennacherib’s army—
[This was a great deliverance, wrought by God himself through the ministry of an
angel [Note: Isaiah 37:36.]. And it may well serve to illustrate the blessings we this
day commemorate [Note: If it be the Restoration of Peace, the parallel must be
drawn between the dangers to which Jerusalem, and our nation, had been exposed.
And, if there have been any signal interpositions of the Deity in favour of our land,
the mention of them will mark the parallel more strongly. If it be the Restoration of
King Charles the Second, the blessings of Hezekiah’s government, and the renewal
of the established ordinances of religion, must rather be adverted to as the ground
of the parallel.] — — —]
But they relate also to the deliverance of mankind from sin and death through the
intervention of the Lord Jesus—
[The deliverances vouchsafed to the Jews, are constantly represented in Scripture as
typical of the great work of redemption: and the very expressions in the text are
used by Isaiah with a more direct reference to that event [Note: Isaiah 52:7.]. Nor is
this idea founded in conjecture; for St. Paul, quoting the words of both the
prophets, applies them directly to the proclaiming of salvation to the Gentile world
[Note: Romans 10:13-15.]. If then the prophet mingled these two events, well may
we do so too; and from contemplating the mercies vouchsafed to us in a temporal
view, take occasion to reflect on the infinitely richer mercies which we obtain
through Christ [Note: Here the destruction of our spiritual enemies by Christ, “the
Angel of the Covenant,” may be announced, as joyful tidings to those who are “shut
up under the Law,” the wretched expectants of death and judgment.] — — —]
We are at no loss how to improve these tidings, since the prophet himself suggests,
II. The duties resulting from them—
In an encouraging yet monitory strain, he exhorts us to,
1. A devout acknowledgment of the mercies received—
[The way to Jerusalem having been blocked up by the besieging army, the prophet
149

150. tells the people, that now they may have free access to the temple, and come up at
the appointed seasons to their solemn feasts. And should not we also now avail
ourselves of the opportunities which are afforded us, and wait upon God without
distraction [Note: Here, if the King’s Restoration be the subject of thanksgiving,
reference may be made to the interruption of the established worship during the
usurpation, and the danger of its entire abolition afterwards, during the time of the
Revolution.]? We should at least spend this day, not in mere carnal mirth, but in
solemn feasting before God, even in spiritual, and more appropriate joy.
The remembrance of the work of redemption more especially should kindle in our
hearts a sacred flame of gratitude and thanksgiving, and should stimulate us to a
more strict observance of the Sabbath, which, in commemoration of it, was made to
supersede the original Sabbath, and was designated by that honourable appellation,
The Lord’s Day.]
2. A conscientious performance of the vows we have made—
[It is most probable, that many, during the siege of Jerusalem, would make vows to
God, as the Jews from the beginning had been in the habit of doing under their
calamities. Nor can we doubt but that many of ourselves, in seasons of sickness or
trouble, have purposed, and perhaps vowed, to change the course of our lives, if we
were delivered from the distresses which we either felt or feared. At this time in
particular we have been making vows, which we are bound to perform [Note: Such
vows are constantly offered to God, in the forms of prayer for the 29th of May, and
the fast-days; and they may here be quoted from the one or other of those forms, as
the occasion requires; and may be pressed on the conscience as obligatory at this
time.]. But, alas! if we compare our petitions in the midst of trouble, with our lives
when delivered from trouble, what an awful contrast does there appear! Let it not,
however, be so on this occasion; but let us remember the vows that are upon us; for
“better were it never to vow at all, than to vow and not pay [Note: Ecclesiastes
5:4-5.].”]
We conclude then with an address, both inspired and uttered by God himself;
“Hear, O my people, and I will speak; O Israel, and I will testify against thee! Offer
unto God thanksgiving, and pay thy vows unto the Most High [Note: Psalms 50:7;
Psalms 50:14.].”
PULPIT, "Nahum 1:15
The second chapter commences here in the Hebrew and Syriac; the Anglican follows
the Septuagint, Vulgate, and Chaldee Versions. This seems most agreeable to the
method of the prophecy, wherein threat is succeeded by promise, denunciation of
the enemy by declaration of comfort to Judah (comp. Nahum 1:6, Nahum 1:7,
Nahum 1:12, and Nahum 1:13; so here Nahum 1:14 and Nahum 1:15). The prophet
announces the joy with which Judah receives the news of the overthrow of Nineveh.
Behold upon the mountains, etc. Isaiah (Isaiah 52:7) uses these words to proclaim
150

151. the coming of Messiah (comp. Isaiah 40:9; Romans 10:15). The messengers come
from the East across the mountains of Palestine, announcing the fall of Nineveh and
the consequent peace and security of Judah—a type of the overthrow of God's
enemies and the safety of his Church. There may be an allusion to the custom of
spreading tidings by beacon fires. Keep thy solemn feasts. Judah is exhorted to
resume the observation of her solemnities, which were interrupted during the
enemy's occupation of the country, or which could not be properly attended by the
distant inhabitants. Judah must offer her praises and thanksgivings for deliverance,
and perform the vows which she made unto the Lord in the time of peril. The
wicked (Hebrew, Belial) shall no more pass through thee. Belial is here the
adversary, the opposing army (see verse 11).
151