Nahum 3 - Introduction
III. The catastrophe enlarged upon in respect to its provoking cause, and its fearful results.... [ Continue Reading ]
III. The catastrophe enlarged upon in respect to its provoking cause, and its fearful results.... [ Continue Reading ]
WOE TO THE BLOODY CITY! — Better, _O bloody city! She is altogether deceit, filled with crime: she ceases not from plunder. _... [ Continue Reading ]
THE NOISE OF... — Better, _Hark to the whip, and hark to the rattling of the wheel, and the horse galloping, and the chariot bounding._ The entry of the victorious besiegers is here described.... [ Continue Reading ]
THE HORSEMAN LIFTETH UP. — Better, _There is the rearing horseman and the flaming sword, and the glittering lance, and a multitude of wounded, and a mass of corpses_...... [ Continue Reading ]
(4-6) Because of the multitude. — In the idolatry and superstition of Nineveh the prophet finds the cause of her destruction. Perversion of religious instinct is frequently denounced under the same figure in Scripture. Here, however, a more literal interpretation is possible, since there is reason t... [ Continue Reading ]
SHALL FLEE from thee. — As in the case of the destruction of Korah, men flee from the stricken city lest they share her punishment. Nor is she an object of compassion whose cruelties have been as extensive as her empire. Hers is the fate of the fallen tyrant — left to .......... “vainly groan. Wit... [ Continue Reading ]
POPULOUS NO. — Better, _No Amon._ Thebes, the capital of Upper Egypt, was known to the Hebrews as “No Amon” (perhaps, “house of the god Amon;” similarly the Greeks called it Διόσπολις). Assyria herself had reduced the power of Thebes. (1) Sargon, the father of Sennacherib, had defeated Shebah, the E... [ Continue Reading ]
THOU ALSO SHALT BE DRUNKEN. — Nineveh also shall be _drunken_ with the cup of God’s wrath (see Habakkuk 2:16), yea, _hid_ from recollection, so that men shall ask, “Where is Nineveh?” (Comp. Nahum 2:11.) She, too, shall vainly _seek a fortress_ (Authorised Version, “strength”) to give her shelter, a... [ Continue Reading ]
THY PEOPLE... ARE WOMEN, not in their notoriously effeminate and luxurious habits (see Layard, p. 360), but with reference to their panic-stricken condition at the time of the catastrophe. They are fearful as women (comp. Jeremiah 50:37; Jeremiah 51:30), because they find avenues laid open to the en... [ Continue Reading ]
DRAW THEE WATERS. — In this desperate plight Nineveh is scoffingly advised to protract her resistance. The outer walls are broken down; let her hold out in the citadel. Nay, let her begin anew her preparations for defence. Let her lay in water and provision, and build new buttresses of brick. What s... [ Continue Reading ]
The diversion of metaphor here is somewhat repugnant to modern taste. The sword, like the locust, shall devour Nineveh. Yet Nineveh is immediately afterwards compared in its numbers, destructive influence, and sudden disappearance to the locust. It is a transition like St. Paul’s “going off at a wor... [ Continue Reading ]
SPOILETH. — Better, _spreads itself out:_ swarms out to spoil.... [ Continue Reading ]
THY CROWNED. — The subordinate kings who represent the Assyrian empire in her tributary provinces. CAPTAINS. — _Taphs_’_rîm,_ an Assyrian term denoting some high military office. The sudden disappearance of the Assyrian locust-pest is here enlarged upon. A sudden outburst of sunshine will sometimes... [ Continue Reading ]
SHEPHERDS — _i.e._, chief officers, as in Micah 5:2 and _passim._ Their sheep are “scattered upon the mountains and none attempts to gather them.” So Micaiah announces to Ahab, “I saw all Israel scattered upon the hills as sheep that have not a shepherd” (1 Kings 22:17). THY NOBLES SHALL DWELL. — B... [ Continue Reading ]
CLAP THE HANDS OVER THEE. — All that hear the “bruit” or report of the fall of Nineveh clap their hands with joy (Psalms 47:1), for where has not her oppressive rule been felt? The verse is addressed to the king (second person masculine) as the representative of the empire, perhaps also in view of h... [ Continue Reading ]