Nahum 3:19

There is no healing of thy bruise; thy wound is grievous: all that hear the bruit of thee shall clap the hands over thee: for upon whom hath not thy There is no healing of thy bruise. According to Herodotus, the Median attack on Nineveh took place in 633 BC The final siege was about 625 BC Saracus, probably grandson of Esar-haddon, was its last king. Finding resistance vain, he collected his wives and treasures in his palace, and with his own hand fire to it, and perished in the flames (Abydenus, whom George Rawlinson follows). In strict fulfillment, Assyria never after rose to a national existence. In the troubles that followed the accession of Darius Hystaspes, Assyria, with Armenia and Media, attempted a revolt against Persia, but utterly failed.

All that hear the bruit of thee - the report.

Shall clap the hands over thee - with joy at thy fall. The sole descendants of the ancient Assyrians and Babylonians in the whole country are the Nestorian Christians, who speak a Chaldean language (Layard).

For upon whom hath not thy wickedness passed continually? - implying God's long forbearance, and the consequent enormity of Assyria's guilt, rendering her case one that admitted no hope of restoration.

Remarks:

(1) God visits transgressors with judgment in kind. Nineveh, the "city of blood," was doomed to be given bloodshed to satiety. The blood of her choicest citizens was to flow in torrents: and there was to be "none end of their corpses" (). She who never ceased to make a prey of the weak was in her turn to become a prey to the stronger. All whosoever acquire wealth by fraud are preparing enemies for themselves, and laying in store an awful retribution.

(2) The love of gain acts on multitudes as it were with the fascination of "witchcraft" (), luring them to spiritual "whoredom" against God. This was the spell wherewith Nineveh enticed the "nations" to partake in her idolatries, and ultimately to become her slaves. And this was the chief reason why "the Lord of hosts" declared, "Behold, I am against thee (); and I will show the nations thy nakedness, and the kingdoms thy shame." How we, who are called after the holy name of Christ, should be on our guard continually against the enticements and pollutions of the world and Antichrist, which are the spiritual antitypes to Nineveh and Bablylon!

(3) Nineveh, once the admiration of the world, was doomed for her sin to become its "gazingstock" (). Unwept and unlamented, she perished without a "comforter" (). Such is the final portion of all who live for self, and not for the glory of God and the good of their fellow-men. They who might have the Holy Spirit as their Comforter now, and the Lord as their eternal portion, shall be stripped of all the meretricious adornments () in which once they gloried, and for which they were admired, and shall have wailing and gnashing of teeth, without any to comfort them forever.

(4) How vain are all the defenses of sinners when the Lord is against them! No-amon or Thebes was one of the grandest and most magnificent cities of the earliest ages. Yet her rampart and sea wall, with her seemingly "infinite strength," were of no avail to save her "young children" from being "dashed in pieces," and "all her great men" from being "bound in chains" (Nahum 3:8). Such was to be the doom of Nineveh likewise. God acts on the same unchanging principle in all ages, and in the case of all nations. Unrighteousness toward man, and impiety and idolatry toward God, bear the same bitter fruits everywhere, however for a time transgressors may seem to prosper. Let us as a nation remember that our safety consists not in our fleets and armies, nor even in the "multiplication of our merchants above the stars of heaven" (), "Riches," like the "canker-worm" (), or the "great grasshoppers" (), "certainly make themselves wings; they fly away" (). The "strong-holds" () on which we rely would fall before the invader as easily as the ripe fruit "into the mouth of the eater," if God were against us (). The "nobles" and "captains," who are the glory of England, would soon be abased in the dust (Nahum 3:17). Our security, therefore, depends upon our godliness. "Wickedness" persevered in "continually" () would bring on us a "grievous wound," not to be "healed:" and the very nations now in alliance with us would "clap the hands over" us, exulting in the tidings of our fall. Let us therefore repent of our sins as a nation, as families, and as individuals, and bring forth worthy fruits of repentance.