Nahum 1 commentary

About a hundred years before, at Jonah's preaching, the Ninevites repented, and were spared, yet, soon after, they became worse than ever. Nineveh knows not that God who contends with her, but is told what a God he is. It is good for all to mix faith with what is here said concerning Him, which speaks great terror to the wicked, and comfort to believers. Let each take his portion from it: let sinners read it and tremble; and let saints read it and triumph. The anger of the Lord is contrasted with his goodness to his people. Perhaps they are obscure and little regarded in the world, but the Lord knows them. The Scripture character of Jehovah agrees not with the views of proud reasoners. The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is slow to wrath and ready to forgive, but he will by no means acquit the wicked; and there is tribulation and anguish for every soul that doeth evil: but who duly regards the power of his wrath?

There is a great deal plotted against the Lord by the gates of hell, and against his kingdom in the world; but it will prove in vain. With some sinners God makes quick despatch; and one way or other, he will make an utter end of all his enemies. Though they are quiet, and many very secure, and not in fear, they shall be cut down as grass and corn, when the destroying angel passes through. God would hereby work great deliverance for his own people. But those who make themselves vile by scandalous sins, God will make vile by shameful punishments. The tidings of this great deliverance shall be welcomed with abundant joy. These words are applied to the great redemption wrought out by our Lord Jesus and the everlasting gospel, Ro 10:15. Christ's ministers are messengers of good tidings, that preach peace by Jesus Christ. How welcome to those who see their misery and danger by sin! And the promise they made in the day of trouble must be made good. Let us be thankful for God's ordinances, and gladly attend them. Let us look forward with cheerful hope to a world where the wicked never can enter, and sin and temptation will no more be known.

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. The word comes from נשא, to bear, to carry. Some regard it as the message carried or borne by the Prophets from God to the people, and hence the same as Prophecy. Others consider it to be the judgment to be borne by the people respecting whom it was announced. The latter seems to be its meaning here, where it is said, “the burden of Nineveh.” It was the judgment laid on them, and which that city was to bear, endure, and undergo. — Ed. 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.

He afterwards adds, ספר חזון, 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, 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.” “It has been thought, and not without reason, by some, that Capernaum, Heb. כפד נחום, most properly rendered, the village of Nahum, derived its name from our Prophet having resided in it.” — Henderson. Let us now proceed —

Nahum 1:2

2. 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.

2. Deus aemulator (sic vertunt,) et ulciscens Jehova; ulciscens Jehova, et Dominus irae (vel, possidens iram;) ulciscens Jehova hostes suos, et servans (vel, responens) idem (vel, ipse) inimicis suis.

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: How far this language is right, may be questioned. The Prophets, under the immediate direction of the Divine Spirit, can hardly be said to borrow from a previous writer. They have no doubt announced the same sentiments, and in some instances, used the same words, as those found in the writings of Moses; but they derived them not from those writings, but from Divine inspiration: and, as Calvin has often observed, they adduced nothing but what they received from God. But this language is not peculiar to Calvin: he adopted it from the fathers. — Ed. 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 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, ζηλωτην, 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 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 The following may be proposed as the literal rendering of this verse, —

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; בעל חמה, 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 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. 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 —

Nahum 1:3

3. The Lord is slow to anger, and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked: the Lord hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet.

3. Jehova tardus iris (ad verbum, sed, tardus ad iram) et magnus robore; et purgando non purgabit; Jehova in turbine et tempestate via ejus, et nubes pulvis pedum ejus.

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 Exodus 34; and what Moses meant was, that God is irreconcilable to the impenitent. It has another meaning at the end of Joel 3, 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 Psalm 18; 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 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 I offer the following translation of this verse, —

Jehovah is slow to wrath, though great in power; Absolving, Jehovah will not absolve: In the whirlwind and in the storm is his 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, —

Gan ddieuogi ni ddiuoga Jehova.

— Ed. 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 —

Nahum 1:4

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.

4. Increpat mare et arefaciet illud (hoc est, simulac mare increpuerit, arefaciet;) et omnia flumina exiccat, infirmatur (vel aboletur) Basan et Carmelus, et germen Libani aboletur (vel, infirmatur, est idem verbum.)

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, 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. The meaning of this place, I think, is the same, — that God by his chiding makes the sea dry, Literally, “chiding the sea, he even made it dry.” The ו here, though conversive, must be rendered, “even,” for the first verb is a participle. By taking the words in their poetical order, the whole verse may be thus rendered, —

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.

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. 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 Psalm 104,

‘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 —

Nahum 1:5

5. 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.

5. Montes concutientur ab eo (vel, contremiscent, quanquam notat continuum actum; sensus est igitur, montes contremiscere ad nutum ejus,) et colles dissolvent se (hoc est, solvuntur, vel, liquefiunt,) et ardet terra a facie ejus, et orbis et omnes qui habitant in eo.

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 would then vanish away as soon as God manifested his wrath against them, as it is so in Psalm 39, 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, This sense has been given to the verb by the Rabbins, which is inconsistent with it as found here without any variations, and with the Greek versions. תשא is either from נשא, to lift up, or from שאה, to be laid waste, or to be confounded, the final ה being dropped; and this is what Newcome adopts. Marckius and Henderson take the former meaning in the sense of being raised up or heaving. “Ανεσταλη, was removed,” Sept.; “Εκινηθη, was moved,” Symmachus; “Εφριξεν, trembled,” Aquila. The idea of being confounded or laid waste harmonizes best with all parts of the sentence; for the idea of having does not apply well to the inhabitants. We see here that all the Greek versions have the verb in the past tense; and so are the previous verbs in the verse as given in the Septuagint, and agreeably with the Hebrew.

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 inhabitants. then shall be the earth, and the world, and all who dwell on it

Prayer.

Grant, Almighty God, that as thou settest before us here as in a mirror how dreadful thy wrath is, we may be humbled before thee, and of our ownselves cast ourselves down, that we may not be laid prostrate by thy awful power, — O grant, that we may by this instruction be really prepared for repentance, and so suppliantly deprecate that punishment which we daily deserve through our transgressions, that in the meantime we may be also transformed into the image of thy Son, and put off all our depraved lusts, and be cleansed from our vices, until we shall at length appear in confidence before thee, and be gathered among thy children, that we may enjoy the eternal inheritance of thy heavenly kingdom, which has been obtained for us by the blood of thy Son. Amen.

Lecture One Hundredth

Nahum 1:6

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 thrown down by him.

6. Coram indignatione ejus quis stabit? Et quis consistet in furore irae ejus? Furor ejus effunditur tanquam ignis, et rupes solvuntur ab eo.

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 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?

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. Τις αντιστησεται — 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 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. 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 —

Nahum 1:7

7. The Lord is good, a strong hold in the day of trouble; and he knoweth them that trust in him.

7. Bonus Jehova ad fortitudinem in die angustiae, et cognoscens sperantes in se.

The Prophet expresses more clearly here what we referred to in our last 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. “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.” — Henry. 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:” This is no doubt the right view. The object here is not to assert generally that God is good, but that he is good for aid and help in the day of distress. The versions then both of Newcome and Henderson are faulty; for they divide into two clauses what is one in the original, —

Good is Jehovah 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. 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 —

Nahum 1:8

8. But with an overrunning flood he will make an utter end of the place thereof, and darkness shall pursue his enemies.

8. Et cum inundatione (vel, per inundationem) transiens consumptionem faciet locoejus; et inimicos ejus persequentur tenebrae (vel, persequi faciet inimicos suos a tenebris.)

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.” The first words in this line are better rendered in our version, “With an overrunning flood,” or, as by Newcome, “With an overflowing torrent,” or as by Henderson, “With an overflowing inundation.” The remaining part has occasioned a variety. The text as it is, and there are no different readings, is this, “A full end he will make of her place;” or, as Henderson renders it, “He will effect a consummation of her place.” The only difficulty is, that “her” has no near antecedent; but it is not unusual with the Prophets to allow the general context to supply this. As the vision is the “burden of Nineveh,” that city is no doubt referred to. Newcome, following the Greek versions, excepting that of Symmachus, translates thus, — “He will make a full end of those who rise up against him.” But it is better to follow the Hebrew text; for the many evident instances of mistake which are to be found in those versions forbid us to put any great confidence in them. The following may be viewed as a literal version: —

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, — Νινος μεν απολωλεν ηδη, και ουδεν ιχνος ετι λοιπον αυτης, ουδ αν ειπης οπου ποτ ην — “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. 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.

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 —

Nahum 1:9

9. What do ye imagine against the Lord? he will make an utter end: affliction shall not rise up the second time.

9. Quid cogitatis contra Jehovam? Consumptionem ipse facit; non consurget iterum afflictio.

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, 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 —

Nahum 1:10

10. For while they be folden together as thorns, and while they are drunken as drunkards, they shall be devoured as stubble fully dry.

10. Qui ad spinas perplexas et tanquam potatione sua ebrios (vel, et ebrios ubi inebriati fuerint; potest enim duplex sensus; postea) devorabuntur tanquam stipulae ariditatis planae (vel, quasi stipula ariditatis in plenitudine, vel, arida in plenitudine.)

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, 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 Newcome, on the sole authority of the Syriac and the Targum, changes “thorns” into “princes,” and thus wholly destroys the propriety of the simile of dry stubble at the end of the verse. Henderson says justly, that this change is on no account to be adopted.

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.

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.

And he says, They shall be devoured as stubble of full dryness מלא, mela, 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 —

Nahum 1:11

11. There is one come out of thee, that imagineth evil against the Lord, a wicked counsellor.

11. Ex te egressus est cogitans (vel, consultans) contra Jehovam malum, consultor Beliiaal (hoc est, impius, vel, perversus; alii vertunt, Nihili.)

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 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, בליעל יועף, ivots beliol. Respecting the word בליעל, beliol, the Hebrews themselves are not agreed. There are those who suppose it to be a compound word, בל יעל, It profits not; and they think that it is applied to designate things of nought as well as men of nought. “From בל, not, and יעל, profit: — As an abstract noun, unprofitableness, worthlessness, wickedness: — As an adjective, worthless, wicked, good for nothing.” — Parkhurst. “It alludes to Baal, the common idol of the natives bordering upon the Jews, whom the penmen of Scripture changing some letters by way of scorn called Belial: to express a further hatred to this idol, they applied this name to the devil, 2 Corinthians 6:15; which word is derived either from a root that signifieth not to profit, or not to mount upward, because he seeks the fall of mankind, and to keep those that are fallen into his snares, 2 Timothy 2:26 Jerome fetcheth it from a root, which, with another word, signifieth without a yoke, or, lawless; therefore the Septuagint commonly translate it, παρανομος.” — Leigh. 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 —

Nahum 1:12

12. Thus saith the Lord; 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.

12. Sic dixit Jehovah, Si tranquilli fuerint, utcunque fuerint multi (vel, potentes;) sic etiam tollentur et transibit: et si afflixerim te, non affligam te amplius.

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.

Prayer.

Grant, Almighty God, that inasmuch as thou sees thy enemies at this day raging with cruel, yea, with diabolic fury against thy Church, we may find thee to be the same as the faithful in all former ages had found thee, even a defender of the safety of those who truly, and with a sincere heart, called on thee, and sought thee in extreme necessity; and do thou, at this day, stretch forth thine hand, and so restrain the fury which thou sees is against all thy servants and thy children, that the wicked may at length really find, even to their ruin, that they fight not with miserable mortals, disheartened and without defense, but with thine ineffable power, that they may be confounded, though not ashamed, and that, however they may glamour against thee and thine invincible hand, they may yet become an example and a manifest evidence, that thou art not only faithful in thy promises, but also armed with power, by which thou canst execute whatsoever thou hast promised respecting the preservation of thy Church, until thou at length gatherest us into that blessed rest, which has been provided for us by the blood of thy Son. Amen.

Lecture One Hundred and First

We stated yesterday what the Prophet meant by these words, that though the Assyrians were quiet and many, they would yet be suddenly cut off by the Lord. He clearly intimates, that the wicked are never so fortified by their own forces or by the help of others, but that the Lord can, without any difficulty, destroy them.

As to the words, some connect the particle כן, can with what he had said, “Though they be quiet,” and give this version, “Though they be quiet and in like manner many, that is, though they be secure, thinking themselves safe from all danger, and so also trust in their own number, yet they shall be removed.” But the repetition of כן in Hebrew is common; and the sentence may be thus explained, Though they be quiet, and how many soever they may be, yet thus shall they be removed. וכן וכן, ucan ucan, that is, “As they are many, so also the many shall be destroyed.” With regard to the verb גוזguz, (but some, though not correctly, derive it from גזז, gezaz,) I take it in the sense of removing from the middle, of destroying: it properly means in Hebrew to remove to a distance, though almost all interpreters render it, “They are shorn,” which ought rather to be, “They shall be shorn:” and both the verbs, גוז, guz as well as גזז, gizaz, mean to clip or shear: but as the other sense suits the form of the Prophet’s discourse better, I hesitate not thus to render it, “They shall be taken away,” or destroyed. What the Prophet next adds, ועבר, uober, and he shall pass, is applied by some to the angel, by whom the army of Sennacherib was destroyed. Others think that a temporary pestilence is meant; as though he had said, that it would only pass through. But the Prophet seems to refer to a former clause, where he said, that God would suddenly destroy the Assyrians as it were with a sudden and unexpected deluge. This, then, is the most suitable meaning, that however much the Assyrians excelled in number of men and in strength, they would yet be suddenly destroyed; for the Lord would pass through, that is, the Lord would by one onset reduce them to nothing. The best and the most literal version of these two lines, with the exception of the last word, is that of Dr. Wheeler, as given by Newcome, —

Though they are at peace, and also mighty, Still shall they be cut off and pass away.

The last verb is in the singular number, ועבד, “and he shall pass through” or away, that is, the wicked counselor mentioned in the preceding verse. Newcome’s own version is that of new text, which he has himself formed, from a mere hint derived from the Septuagint. Henderson’s version is the following, —

Though they are complete and so very numerous, Yet in this state they shall be cut off, And he shall pass away.

The word שלמים means, no doubt, entire, complete, perfect, as well as to be at peace, secure, quiet; and may be referred, as the author says, to the complete condition of the Assyrian army: but what seems to be intended is the character of the nation. — Ed.

Then it follows, Though (and, literally) I have afflicted thee, yet afflict thee will I no more. But this sentence must be thus rendered, ‘Though thee have I afflicted, I will not afflict thee any more.’ The Prophet meets a doubt, which might have laid hold on the perplexed minds of the faithful; for they saw that God had been hitherto angry with them. They might then have succumbed under their griefs had it not been added, that they had indeed been afflicted for a time, but that God would now put an end to his severity, for he would no longer afflict them. It is indeed certain, that they were often afflicted afterwards; but this ought to be confined to what the Assyrians had done; for we know that our Prophet directed his predictions chiefly against that monarchy: and then the monarchy of Babylon succeeded; but it was necessary that Nineveh should be first subverted, and that the government should be transferred to the Chaldeans, that the Israelites as well as the Jews might know, that that monarchy had been overthrown, because it rebelled against God himself by distressing his own people.

We now then perceive the intention of the Prophet: after having threatened the Assyrians, he now turns his discourse to the Israelites, Though I have afflicted thee, I will no more afflict thee; that is, There is no reason for the faithful to despond, because they have been hitherto severely treated by God; let them on the contrary remembers that these scourges are temporary, and that God’s displeasure with his elect people and his Church is such that he observes moderation; for this must ever be fulfilled, —

‘In the moment of mine indignation I smote thee; but I will show thee perpetual mercies,’ (Isaiah 54:8.)

This promise has been once given to the Church; and it is now in force, and will be in force to the end of the world. Thus we see that the Prophet obviated a doubt, lest the faithful should think that there was no hope for them, because they had found God so severe towards them; for he says that God was satisfied with the punishment which he had inflicted and that he would no longer afflict his people. It follows —

Nahum 1:13

13. For now will I break his yoke from off thee, and will burst thy bonds in sunder.

13. Et nunc conteram (vel, confringam) jugum ejus ab te, et vincula tua disrumpam.

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 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 —

Nahum 1:14

14. 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 molten image: I will make thy grave; for thou art vile.

14. Et mandavit super te Jehova, Ne seminetur ex nomine tuo posthac; e domo (vel, e templo) deorum tuorum excidam sculptile et conflatile; ponam sepulchrum tuum, quia execrabilis es (aut, vilis factus es.)

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,’ (Psalm 127.) 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 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

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. 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 —

Nahum 1:15

15. This forms the first verse of the second chapter in Hebrew. Most versions have followed the division of the Septuagint. — Ed. Behold upon the mountains the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace! O Judah, keep thy solemn feasts, perform thy vows: for the wicked shall no more pass through thee; he is utterly cut off.

15. Ecce super montes pedes annunciantis, promulgantis pacem: celebra Jehudah solennitates tuas, redde vota tua; quia non adjiciet posthac ad transeundum in te, impius (Beliiaal) in totum excisus est.

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 Calvin gives to מבשר only the sense of announcing or declaring. To spread or to bring news or tidings is its meaning; for it is used to designate bad as well as good tidings. See 1 Samuel 4:17; 2 Samuel 1:20; and 2 Samuel 4:10; Isaiah 3:7. It is commonly rendered ευαγγελιζεσθαι by the Septuagint. It may be regarded here as a participle in the same predicament with the participle which follows. The same mode of construction we find in Isaiah 52:7; where it evidently appears that the word means strictly to bring or to declare tidings, for good is added to it. That passage is as follows: —

How beautiful on the mountains Are the feet of him who announceth, Who proclaimeth peace, — Of him who announceth good, (בוט רשבמ) Who proclaimeth salvation! Saying to Zion, Reign doth thy God.

— Ed. 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 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 his people; as it is said in Psalm 116, ‘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 —

Chapter 2

Nahum 2:1-2

1. He that dasheth in pieces is come up before thy face: keep the munition, watch the way, make thy loins strong, fortify thy power mightily

1. Ascendit destructor coram facie tua; custodi munitionem, respice viam, robora lumbos, fortifica vires valde:

2. For the LORD hath turned away the excellency of Jacob, as the excellency of Israel: for the emptiers have emptied them out, and marred their vine branches.

2. Quia abstulit (alii vertunt, recedere fecit; alii, quiescere fecit) Jehova fortitudinem (alii, superbiam) Jacob, sicuti fortitudinem (vel, superbiam, est idem nomen) Israel; quia evacuarunt avacuantes, et palmites eorum succiderunt.

INTRODUCTION

Nahum means "consolation" and "vengeance"; symbolizing the "consolation" in the book for God's people, and the "vengeance" coming on their enemies. In the first chapter the two themes alternate; but as the prophet advances, vengeance on the capital of the Assyrian foe is the predominant topic. He is called "the Elkoshite" (Na 1:1), from Elkosh, or Elkesi, a village of Galilee, pointed out to Jerome [Preface in Nahum] as a place of note among the Jews, having traces of ancient buildings. The name Capernaum, that is, "village of Nahum," seems to take its name from Nahum having resided in it, though born in Elkosh in the neighborhood. There is another Elkosh east of the Tigris, and north of Mosul, believed by Jewish pilgrims to be the birthplace and burial place of the prophet. But the book of Nahum in its allusions shows a particularity of acquaintance with Palestine (Na 1:4), and only a more general knowledge as to Nineveh (Na 2:4-6; 3:2, 3).

His graphic description of Sennacherib and his army (Na 1:9-12) makes it not unlikely that he was in or near Jerusalem at the time: hence the number of phrases corresponding to those of Isaiah (compare Na 1:8, 9, with Is 8:8; 10:23; Na 2:10, with Is 24:1; 21:3; Na 1:15, with Is 52:7). The prophecy in Na 1:14 probably refers to the murder of Sennacherib twenty years after his return from Palestine (Is 37:38). The date of his prophecies, thus, seems to be about the former years of Hezekiah. So Jerome thinks. He plainly writes while the Assyrian power was yet unbroken (Na 1:12; 2:11-13 Na 3:15-17). The correspondence between the sentiments of Nahum and those of Isaiah and Hezekiah, as recorded in Second Kings and Isaiah, proves the likelihood of Nahum's prophecies belonging to the time when Sennacherib was demanding the surrender of Jerusalem, and had not yet raised the siege (compare Na 1:2, &c., with 2Ki 19:14, 15; Na 1:7, with 2Ki 18:22; 19:19, 31; 2Ch 32:7, 8; Na 1:9, 11, with 2Ki 19:22, 27, 28; Na 1:14, with 2Ki 19:6, 7; Na 1:15; 2:1, 2, with 2Ki 19:32, 33; Na 2:13, with 2Ki 19:22, 23). The historical data in the book itself are the humiliation of Israel and Judah by Assyria (Na 2:2); the invasion of Judah (Na 1:9, 11); and the conquest of No-ammon, or Thebes, in Upper Egypt (Na 3:8-10). Tiglath-pileser and Shalmaneser had carried away Israel. The Jews were harassed by the Syrians, and impoverished by Ahaz' payments to Tiglath-pileser (2Ch 28:1-27; Is 7:9). Sargon, Shalmaneser's successor, after the reduction of Phoenicia by the latter, fearing lest Egypt should join Palestine against him, undertook an expedition to Africa (Is 20:1-6), and took Thebes; the latter fact we know only from Nahum, but the success of the expedition in general is corroborated in Is 20:1-6. Sennacherib, Sargon's successor, made the last Assyrian attempt against Judea, ending in the destruction of his army in the fourteenth year of Hezekiah (713-710 B.C.). As Nahum refers to this in part prophetically, in part as matter of history (Na 1:9-13; 2:13), he must have lived about 720-714 B.C., that is, almost a hundred years before the event foretold, namely, the overthrow of Nineveh by the joint forces of Cyaxares and Nabopolassar in the reign of Chyniladanus, 625 or 603 B.C.

The prophecy is remarkable for its unity of aim. Nahum's object was to inspire his countrymen, the Jews, with the assurance that, however alarming their position might seem, exposed to the attacks of the mighty Assyrian, who had already carried away the ten tribes, yet that not only should the Assyrian (Sennacherib) fail in his attack on Jerusalem, but Nineveh, his own capital, be taken and his empire overthrown; and this, not by an arbitrary exercise of Jehovah's power, but for the iniquities of the city and its people.

His position in the canon is seventh of the minor prophets in both the Hebrew and Greek arrangement. He is seventh in point of date.

His style is clear, elegant, and forcible. Its most striking characteristic is the power of representing several phases of an idea in the briefest sentences, as in the majestic description of God in the commencement, the conquest of Nineveh, and the destruction of No-ammon [Eichorn]. De Wette calls attention to his variety of manner in presenting ideas, as marking great poetic talent. "Here there is something sonorous in his language there something murmuring; with both these alternates something that is soft, delicate, and melting, as the subject demands." Excepting two alleged Assyrian words (Na 3:17), English Version, "crowned," or princes, and English Version, "captains," or satraps (used by Jr 51:27), the language is pure. These two, doubtless, came to be known in Judea from the intercourse with Assyria in the eighth and seventh centuries B.C.

CHAPTER 1

Na 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.

1. burden of Nineveh--the prophetic doom of Nineveh. Nahum prophesied against that city a hundred fifty years after Jonah.

2. 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 Ex 20:5; 1Co 16:22; 2Co 11:2). Burning zeal enters into the idea in "jealous" here (compare Nu 25:11, 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; Jr 3:5, 12; Mi 7:18).

3. 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 (Ex 34:6, 7).

not at all acquit--literally, "will not acquitting acquit," or treat as innocent.

Lord hath his way in the whirlwind--From this to Na 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 (Pr 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.

4. rebuketh the sea--as Jesus did (Mt 8:26), proving Himself God (compare Is 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 (Ho 14:7). As Bashan was famed for its pastures, Carmel for its corn fields and vineyards, so Lebanon for its forests (Is 33:9). There is nothing in the world so blooming that God cannot change it when He is wroth.

5. earth is burned--so Grotius. Rather, "lifts itself," that is, "heaveth" [Maurer]: as the Hebrew is translated in Psa 89:9; Ho 13:1; compare 2Sa 5:21, Margin.

6. fury is poured out like fire--like the liquid fire poured out of volcanoes in all directions (see Jr 7:20).

rocks are thrown down--or, "are burnt asunder"; the usual effect of volcanic fire (Jr 51:25, 56). As Hannibal burst asunder the Alpine rocks by fire to make a passage for his army [Grotius].

7. 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 (Na 1:7), and to announce the doom of Nineveh, the capital of the Assyrian foe (Na 1:8). The contrast of Na 1:7, 8 heightens the force.

he knoweth--recognizes as His own (Ho 13:5; Am 3:2); and so, cares for and guards (Psa 1:6; 2Ti 2:19).

8. with an overrunning flood--that is, with irresistible might which overruns every barrier like a flood. This image is often applied to overwhelming armies of invaders. Also of calamity in general (Psa 32:6; 42:7; 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 Na 2:6; Is 8:8; Da 9:26; 11:10, 22, 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 (Na 2:8), [Maurer]. Or, He shall so utterly destroy Nineveh that its place cannot be found; Na 3:17 confirms this (compare Psa 37:36; Da 2:35; Re 12:8; 20:11).

darkness--the severest calamities.

9. 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 Is 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 Na 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; 26:8; 2Sa 20:10). If so, this verse, in contrast to Na 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 Na 1:12, to Judah; indeed destruction, rather than affliction, applies to the Assyrian.

10. 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, 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.

11. 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 (Na 1:9) against the Lord and His people (2Ki 19:22, 23).

a wicked counsellor--literally, "a counsellor of Belial." Belial means "without profit," worthless, and so bad (1Sa 25:25; 2Co 6:15).

12-14. The same truths repeated as in Na 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, Is 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" (Na 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, 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, 23; Is 8:8; Da 11:10).

Though I have afflicted thee--Judah, "I will afflict thee no more" (Is 40:1, 2; 52:1, 2). The contrast is between "they," the Assyrians, and "thee," Judah. Their punishment is fatal and final. Judah's was temporary and corrective.

15. This verse is joined in the Hebrew text to the second chapter. It is nearly the same as Is 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 (Ro 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" (Na 1:11, Margin); namely, Sennacherib.

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.

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.

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 2Kgs 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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

Imagineth evil against the Lord - Such were Pul, 2Kgs 15:10, Tiglath-pileser, 2Kgs 15:29; Shalmaneser, 2Kgs 17:6; and Sennacherib, 2Kgs 18:17; 2Kgs 19:23.

A wicked counsellor - Sennacherib and Rabshakeh.

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 2Kgs 19:35.

Now will I break his yoke from off thee - This refers to the tribute which the Jews were obliged to pay to the Assyrians, 2Kgs 17:14.

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, 2Kgs 19:37.

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.

The burden - When the prophets were sent to denounce judgments against a nation or city, the word was usually called the burden of that nation or city. The vision - As prophets were of old called seers, 1Sam 9:9, so their prophesies were called visions. Nahum - His name speaks a comforter, but it is God's people to whom he gives notice of the destruction of their oppressors.

Jealous - For his own glory. Revengeth - As supreme governor, who by office is bound to right the oppressed, and to punish the oppressor.

Hath his way - The methods of his providence. The whirlwind - Which beareth before it all things that stand in its way. The dust of his feet - Though he be surrounded with darkness, yet as an army afar off is discovered by the dust that their feet raise, so wilt God appear with great power marching against his enemies.

The flower - Whatever flourished thereon; the blossoms, and flowers which were wont to be the glory of it.

Knoweth - He approves, owns, and preserves them.

An over - running flood - His judgments like a mighty flood that overflows all banks, shall swallow up Assyria. Thereof - Of Nineveh, that is Nineveh itself. Darkness - Troubles, and desolating afflictions.

Against the Lord - What you imagine or design against his people, ye design against him? Make an utter end - He will bring you to utter desolation.

As thorns - They shall be like thorns easily burnt, and like thorns folded together which burn together, and help to destroy each other. As drunkards - As men drunken, and unable to help themselves, so the Assyrians drunk with pleasure and pride, shall be surprised, and easily overthrown.

Come - Sennacherib, or Rabshekah. Thee - From Nineveh. Against the Lord - Against the people of the Lord, 2Chron 32:1.

They - The Assyrians. Quiet - Be secure, and fear no dangers. Yet thus - Irresistible, suddenly, and universally. He - The angel of the Lord. Thee - O Israel, I will no more use that rod.

Thee - Thee, Sennacherib, and the whole kingdom of Assyria. Be sown - None shall bear thy name, and title; but thy kingdom shall be swallowed up.

Keep - Be careful to serve God. Thy vows - Made in thy distress. The wicked - That wicked oppressor, Sennacherib.

1 THE burthen of Nineveh , The book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite .

When the Prophets were sent to denounce future Judgments against a Nation or City, the word was usually called the burthen of that Nation or City; as the burthen of Moab, Isa. 15.1. of Egypt, Isa. 19.1. of Babylon, Isa. 13.1. of Damascus, Isa. 17.1. So here the calamities foretold are called the burthen of Nineveh.

It was the Mother City of the Assyrian Kingdom, and so by a Synechdoche, is here to be interpreted, as including the whole Kingdom, which is threatned with destruction, in the destruction of Nineveh, a City very antient, built by Assar, Son of Nimr[illegible: 1 letter]d, repaired and enlarged by Ninus, giving name to the City he repaired Nineveh, Anno Mundi 1905, or 1908.

Either because written, and sent to Nineveh, or else because written, and left to be read by Posterity.

Or Prophesie, for Prophets were of old called seers, 1 Sam. 9.9. and their Prophesies were called Visions, or it may include the manner in which Nahum was informed what was coming upon Nineveh, God revealed, and the Prophet foresaw the things.

His name speaks a comforter, but 'tis to Gods people, to whom he gives notice of the destruction of their oppressours, his Family, place of Birth, and time of Prophesying, are somewhat uncertain, perhaps he might Prophesie in the time of Hez[illegible: 1 letter]kiah, when the ten Tribes were carried captive by Salmaneser.

Whether this speaks Nahum's Family, or Town where born, or his Country in general, is not certain, but probably 'tis the Village Elcosh in Galilee, by which he is here called.

Marginal references: Zeph. 2.13.

2 God is jealous , and the LORD revengeth , the LORD revengeth , and is furious , the LORD will take vengeance on his adversaries, and hereserveth wrath for his enemies.

The mighty God, so the Fr. Version, and the Heb. [non-Latin text not transcribed] implyeth it.

His Love is fervent for his people, his displeasure hot against his, and their Enemies, whose Idolatries he will not long bear against himself, nor their cruelties and rage against his people, but as jealous for his peoples good, and for his own Glory he will appear and act, so Isa. 42.13. Ezek. 39.25. and Zech. 1.14. and 8.2.

Iehovah, the Everlasting and Unchangeable God, the same alwayes towards his people▪

As Supream Governour, who by Office is, and accounts himself bound, to right the oppressed, and to punish the oppressour, so vengeance is the Lords, and he will repay.

'Tis repeated for confirming the truth, and to affect the wicked with terrour, and to awaken them to a timely Repentance, to affect Gods own people with joy and hope that they may wait on him till they see the vengeance from God mighty, judge, zealous, unchangeable, and eternal.

Heb. is Lord, or Master of Fury, not like furious men, who cannot Command or govern their anger, but grow suddenly furious, and as suddenly pour it forth whether seasonably, or unseasonably they regard not; but God who here threatens Enemies, and comforts his friends, is as much Lord of his Anger, as he is Lord of Power and Wisdom to execute his displeasure in fittest time.

When it is most seasonable he should do it, he most certainly will do it.

This explains the former phrase, Lord of fury, God restrains and keeps in his own anger which grows greater by the sufferings of his people, and sins of his Enemies.

Marginal references: Or, the Lord is a jealous God, and a revenger; Exod. 20.5.; Heb. that hath fury.

3 The LORD is slow to anger , and great in power , and will not at all acquit the wicked : the LORD hath his way▪ in the whirlwind , and in the storm , and the clouds are the dust of his feet .

Not slack, as some count slackness, 2 Pet. 3.9. either in performing promise, or executing threats; but very wisely patient, and long suffering which is ever temper'd with great mercy, and both are joyned together in his Providence, and in his word; see Exod. 34.6. Numb. 14.18. Neh. 9.17. Psal. 103.8. and 145.8. Ioel 2.13. Ion. 4.2.

Just displeasure conceive[illegible: 1 letter] and expressed; the Lord doth not presently entertain resentments of displeasure, nor make sinners feel them, He doth now, as he long hath forborn, you oh sinful Ninevites! Oh cruel Assyrians, but consider it, his slow anger will be the heavier when it falls on you.

Most mighty in Power, which restrains the rage of Enemies, defends and supports his oppressed ones, and in a moment can destroy those that have deserved, yet fear not his Anger; that the Assyrians are not yet destroyed is the effect of Patience, not of impotence, in the God of Israel.

This is spoken to awaken the secure Kingdom, in which many, 'tis like, were as the Scoffers, 2 Pet. 3.4. ready to say all things do continue as they were, there will be no change, no judgment against the wicked. But our Prophet assures such, that as there is great Power with God, he can, so there is exact justice, and stedfast resolution, he will judge.

Neither pronounce them innocent by sentence of judgment, nor let them escape as if innocent by a perpetuated forbearance in the course of his Providence; but sooner, or later, in due season the wickedness, or righteousness of men shall be upon them.

The incorrigible, hardned, and persisting sinner.

Either the methods of his Providence, his usual path; or else his way intimating the unerring steddiness of Providence, the straight, and known path; however to us it may seem, yet certainly God knows and keeps the right way.

Which riseth suddenly, and with violence beareth before it all things that stand in its way, which none can prevent, which no man can calm, which is attended with terrour and amazement, Iob 27.20. Isaiah 17.13. and 29.6. A[illegible: 1 letter]os 1.14. so will destruction from the mighty and just displeasure of God come upon his Adversaries, and on you Ninevit[illegible: 1 letter]s and Assyrians when you shall fall before this Whirlwind, and Tempest, so all impenitent sinners perish, Prov. 1.27.

Heb. Speaks a dr[illegible: 1 letter]adful Tempest which makes men full of horrour; 'tis an elegant ingemination of the same thing to affect hearers the more.

Though he be surounded with darkness, yet as an Army afar of is discovered by the dust that their feet raise, so will God at last appear as an Enemy with great Power marching against his Enemies.

And from above, as well as from the darkness of clouds destroy them, this is spoken after the manner of man, and must be applyed as beseems God.

Marginal references: Psal. 13.7. Hab. 3.5.11.12.

4 He rebuketh the sea , and maketh it dry , and dryeth up all the rivers : Bashan languisheth , and Carmel , and the flower of Lebanon languisheth .

He once did rebuke, as Exod. 14.22. he still can, as a Lord rebuketh his Servant, or a General rebukes his Souldier, by word, or look, Isa. 50.2.

Literally understood, or figuratively, it imports still that he can deliver his people, and destroy his adversaries, as of old he did.

His word or will doth as speedily do this thing, as it doth proceed from God; he commands, and 'tis done.

So Iordan saw, or heard the rebuke of our God, and fled, or was driven back; Ioh. 3.15, 16. and Psal. 114.3. And what he once did upon Iordan, that he can do on all other Rivers, and so are we to understand the words.

It lay Eastward of Iordan, was the Kingdom of Og, it was famous for Oakes, Ezek. 27.6. for Cattle also, as Bulls, Psal. 22.12. and Rams, Deut. 32.14. and was given to the half Tribe of Manasseh.

Grows barren, as if under a Consumptive languishing, is not longer sufficient to feed the Cattle that were wont to feed, and grow fa[illegible: 1 letter] upon it.

A very fruitful Mountain, either in the confines of Zabulon and A[illegible: 1 letter]h[illegible: 1 letter]r Northward, Iosh, 12.22. where Elijah by fire from Heaven contended, and convicted the Baa[illegible: 1 letter]ites, or else, this [illegible: 1 word], might be that where Nabal dwelt, 1 Sam. 25.2. famous for its rich Pastures; this was more Southward then the other, and not far from Hebro[illegible: 1 letter].

Whatever flourished, and was beautiful, Trees; their Blossoms, and the Flowers which were wont to be the glory of it.

A mountain that runs from the Coast of the Phenician Sea Westward, for 125 Miles more or less Eastward, and verging toward Arabia, it is the North boundary of Iudea, and divides it from Syria, famous for its fruitfulness, as for its height.

Loseth its strength and vertue; both the Product; and the very Soil that produceth too, soon fall into a Consumption.

5 The mountains quake at him , and the hills melt , and the earth is burnt at his presence, yea the world , and all that dwell therein.

The more known Mountains of that Country were mentioned verse 4. now the Prophet doth extend his Speech to all Mountains, how great soever, and how fast soever their Foundations are laid.

Tremble at his rebuke, not only are shaken by Earthquakes from natural causes, disposed by Gods power and wisdom, but are shaken and tremble under the effects of his extraordinary presence, Iudg. 5.4. Iob 9.5. Psal. 29.6. Ier. 10.10.

By his power, or at his displeasure, or indeed at his presence, Psal. 68.8. and so the Chald. Paraphrast.

The lesser Hills distinguisht from Mountains, or else 'tis a confirming ingemination of what he had said.

Gods Rebuke is as fire, Mountains and Hills like wax melt down before it, Psal. 114.6, 7, 8.

Which seems to be secure against the fury of the fire, yet proves combustible under the fire of Gods wrath.

Or else is taken away, withdraws its self, lifts up it self, as sometimes in Earthquakes, or as the Gallick Version, mounteth up in fire; the Heb. imports all these.

The Habitable world.

Whether they be far off, or near to Israel, both men, and all the rest of the Creatures, whose abode is on Earth, are wonderfully shaken, affrighted and overwhelmed at the tokens of God's rebuke.

Marginal references: Psal. 97.5.

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 thrown down by him.

Since God can do all this who among the Assyrians? who among the Ninevites? What Kingdom, or Monarchy is mighty enough to resist, or defeat the Counsel and Power of this God, who will e're long rebuke, and pour out his indignation upon them?

Be able to endure, or continue in flourishing, peaceful, safe, or joyful state? 'Tis much the same with standing before mentioned.

This explains the former, the heat of his anger, is his indignation, and no Creature can bear it.

Fury in man speaks somewhat culpable, and blame-worthy, but in God it cannot be so, it is the intenseness of his just, and wise displeasure,

with most righteous and wise direction by God himself, who is as ver. 2. let. m. which see.

Not in the unsteddiness and unruliness, but in the vehemency, spreading Nature, and irresistible force of it, as in Sodoms overthrow.

Though Foundations do support other things, yet cannot support themselves against their God when once angry.

Marginal references: [illegible: 1 letter]eb. stand up.

7 The LORD is good , a strong hold in the day of trouble , and he knoweth them that trust in him .

Though so terrible to his Enemies, to obstinate sinners, yet he is as gentle, kind, and good to his people, to Israel; so the Ch. Paraphr.

In his just severity he continueth to be good, None of that consuming anger comes from any want of goodness in God: Yea, 'tis as much an effect of his goodness, as just punishments on incorrigible Malefactors are the effects of goodness in a Judge, or Magistrate. But here the Prophet intends rather the kindness and grace of God towards his people to whom he doth good, and will do more, Psal. 73.1. and 119.68.

It might have been rendred good to be a strong hold, as the Hebr. affix imports, and is sometimes rendred. Though Israel seems to be exposed to the violence of Enemies, and to be without any munition or fortress, yet verily the Lord their God is for a defence and fortress to them, Psal. 31.3. and 61.3. Prov. 18.10. and is their strength also in that fortress.

At all times of affliction and danger, when outward pressures fill us with anguish and fears.

Discerneth, approveth, owneth, and will make it appear that he doth preserve, that he may deliver his peculiar ones. He knows the wicked, and will restrain, rebuke, and destroy them; he knows the good, and will protect, rescue, and save them.

Whether you consider them in a Body and Community, or by themselves, a part, or singly.

Believe, depend, and wait on God, they that depend by Faith, and wait with hope.

On God, or on Christ, or on the word and promise of God. So God was to those that trusted in his word of promise in Hezekiah's time.

Marginal references: [illegible: 1 word] strength.; [illegible: 1 word] 1.6.

8 But with an overrunning flood he will make an utter end of the place thereof , and darkness shall pursue his enemies .

Or Ard, or therefore, since God is so good to Israel opprest by Assyria, and so terrible, just, and mighty to punish oppressors.

His judgments like a mighty flood that overfloweth all banks, and scorns all that might check it, shall swallow up Assyria and Nineveh, which was in part effected by Phraortis about the 3312 An. of the World, and in part by his Son Cyaxares who broke the Assyrian Kingdom, and took Nineveh.

The Lord by the Medes,

will destroy, so that it shall never recover, or be rebuilt.

Of Nineveh, that is. Nineveh it self▪ so in Scripture sometime the place is said to perish when the thing it self doth; as Dan. 2.35. Revel. 12 8. and 20.11.

Not a single calamity which is soon at an end, but indeed a succession of calamities, continued course of them shall pursue; so Phraortes began, Cyaxares continued, Scythians helpt on▪ and Astyages finally with Four Hundred Thousand Men finisht the pursuit in the Sack and Ruin of Nineveh after Two years siege.

The Ninevites, and Assyrians.

Marginal references: Troubles, desolating afflictions, extream evils; in Scripture stile are called darkness, Iob 15.22. and 17.12. Psal. 35.6. and 55.6. Eccles. 5.17. Isa. 42.7. and 59.9, &c. Iosh 2.2.

9 What do ye imagine against the LORD ? he will make an utter end : affliction shall not rise up the second time .

Having declared the dreadfulness of God's Power and Anger against the wicked; his goodness towards his people, and denounced future destruction against the Ninevites, and Assyrians: He doth now expostulate with them, would know what 'tis they think of God, what 'tis they design against him, and on what ground they flatter themselves into such an attempt?

The God of Israel, for however you O Ninevites, and Assyrians! will look only upon a poor, afflicted people, (weakned by many Wars,) and design to swallow them up, yet they are the people of the Lord, and you design against him what you design against them.

He will make your utter desolation to be the issue of your projects, and the punishment of your sins, vid. ver. 8. let. p.

When that storm which shall overthrow you is past, no other shall arise, because you shall be no more; as if the Prophet had said, God will at once, and for ever destroy your Empire and City.

10 For while they be folden together as thorns, and while they are drunken as drunkards, they shall be devoured as stubble fully dry .

This gives us account how this desolation shall be effected;

They should be like thorns easily burnt, and like thorns folden together, which burn together, and help to destroy each other, or are altogether cast into the fire.

As men drunken, and unable to help themselves, are easily destroyed, so shall the Assyrians be, or drunk with pleasures, and pride, they shall be surprised, and ruined, and easily overthrown.

This fully expresseth the speedy, irresistible, and total destruction, that the anger of God will bring upon them, as the fire burns up all the dryed stubble, so shall the wrath of God destroy the Enemies of Israel, and of Israel's God.

11 There is one come out of thee that imagineth evil against the LORD : a wicked counsellour .

This is a very usual Dialect to express an uncertain number; several are contain'd in such, One, though if you will determine it to one single person, it is very like it may be Senacherib, or Rabshekah.

From Nineveh he set forth on that Expedition against Iudea in the dayes of Hezekiah.

Nineveh.

Consulteth, hath formed, and resolved upon it.

So 'tis evident by his Blasphemies against the Lord, Isa. 36.7, 18, 20. and 37.10, 24, 29. 2 Chron. 32.14, 15, 17, 19. And he imagin'd evil against the people of the Lord, 2 Chron. 32.1.

One whose councels, and projects are without any regard to right and equity, who by injustice and oppressions, who by frauds and deceits, by bloud and slaughter designs his own greatness, and the ruin of his neighbours.

Marginal references: Heb. a counsellor of Belial.

12 Thus saith the LORD , 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 .

This addeth weight to his prediction, it comes under the great Seal of Heaven.

Or if they would have been quiet and peaceable towards my people Israel, they, i. e. the Assy[illegible: 1 letter]ians, should have been many, &c. but I think 'tis nearer to the intent of the place to retain our Version. Though

Citizens of Nineveh, and people of Assyria

Be secure, and fear no danger, because of their strength and Victories.

As appears by the mighty Army with which they besieged Ierusalem in which 185000 were cut off in one night.

Irresistibly, suddenly, and universally as is foretold, ver. 10.

The Prophet varieth his phrase, for ver. 10. he speaks of it as done by fire, here he speaks of cutting down, intimating that 'twas the Sword, which should cut them off.

Either God, the mighty and terrible one, passing over as a floud, as 'tis, ver. 8. Or else the Angel of the Lord, as 2 King. 19.35.

The Lord who am good to my people.

O Israel,

chastised by the Assyrian, the Rod of mine Anger, hast thou been, O my people! but I will no more use that Rod.

For they should soon cease to be a Nation that ruleth, and be conquer'd, and opprest by others.

Marginal references: Or, if they would have been at peace, so should they have been many, and so should they have been shorn, and he should have passed away.; Zeph. 2.13, 14, 15.; Heb. shorn.

13 For now will I break his yoke from off thee , and will burst thy bonds in sunder.

The Lord confirms the Prediction, by declaring how it should be done.

Er'e long, and in few years after this was done, though we cannot precisely determine how soon it was.

As that which is broken into pieces.

Sennacheribs, or [illegible: 2 letters]ther the Tyranny and Oppression of the Assyrian Kingdom.

O Israel, and Ierusalem.

Those unjust impositions, and edicts, which as strong bonds fastned his heavy yoke upon thy neck. They are the bonds of Assyria, as laid upon Israel, they are Israels bonds as born by Israel.

14 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 molten image : I will make thy grave , for thou art vile .

God of Israel, against whom thou imaginest evil,

Determin'd with himself, and given charge to the Medes, which in due season they will observe, and with assistance of the Chaldeans, will fully execute.

Or against thee Sennacherib, thy Royal Family, and the whole Kingdom of Assyria.

Tho' Esar-haddon son to this Sennacherib did succeed his Father, yet may it be rather said he was never sown, he never took root, but like seed that falling on the surface of the Earth, there withers and dies, or else none shall bear thy Name, and Title; but hereafter thy Kingdom shall be swallowed up by the Power, and silenced in the Name of Babylonian or Chaldean Monarchy.

Temples built for their Heathenish Worship.

Idols intimating the number of them, and the chiefest of them.

Destroy, and abolish, so Idolatrous Conquerours were Gods Servants to cut off Idolatrous Worship, and Idols of the Conquered Nations; so did this Sennacherib, 2 Kings 18.33, 34. Isa. 37.19. destroy the Idols of the Conquered, so should they do against the Assyrian Idols who were appointed of God to wast Nineveh.

Either it respecteth the universal destruction of the Idols all cut off, not one left: or rather some one more noted, depended on, worshipt, called Isa. 37.38. Nisroch, by some thought to be the Sun, but nothing in particular is elsewhere recorded of this Ido[illegible: 1 letter], or its Worship.

Added either to intimate that all Idols should fall in the future ruine of the Kingdom, or to let us know that the worth of the Mettal of which the Image was made, and the curiosity of the work, nor yet the pretext of Sacred as a God, should be any safeguard to it.

Thou shalt not have a Royal Magnificent Tomb made by thy Successor, or, such as honour thee, but thou shalt be either buried in obscurity, or else thy Tomb shall relate thy vileness, as 'tis reported it did by this Inscription under Sennacherib's Statue in an Aegyptian Temple, [non-Latin text not transcribed]. Learn to fear God who lookst on me.

Despised [illegible: 2 letters]nce thy defeat before Ierusalem, or rather hast been a vile prophane despiser of God, whom thou hast blasphemed, and reproacht, and an oppressour of men whom thou hast slain, or enslaved, unworthy of Life, and unworthy of a Grave when dead.

15 Behold upon the mountains the feet of him that bringeth good tydings , that publisheth peace : O Judah, keep thy solemn feasts , perform thy vows : for the wicked shall no more pass through thee, he is utterly cut off e.

As this speaks some unexpected thing, so it calls for our heeding and minding of it,

Over which he must needs come that either came from the Assyrian Camp where the miraculous slaughter was made, or from Nineveh, where the Fugitive defeated Tyrant was slain, many Mountains invironing Ierusalem, and lying dispersed in Iudea, over which the Messengers came, who brought news of Sennacherib's Death, or downfal of the Assyrian Kingdom.

Good news indeed to an oppressed, and weakned people, at which they might well rejoice indeed if it be considered what this Tyrant intended, vid. Isa. 10. from ver. 5. to theend of the chap. Now he is dead, who designed the mischief.

Proclaimeth, and tells to every one he meets.

Not by league or friendship with the Assyrian, but as the consequent of his Death, and overthrow of his Kingdom.

Be careful to serve God, and Worship him ye that are his people.

Made in thy deep distress when all seemed lost and forlorn.

That wicked Counsellor, ver. 11. the violent oppressour, proud Sennacherib, who shall fall by the Sword, or rather is fallen by it, in his own Land, when this Messenger of glad Tydings came, Isa. 37.7. with 37, and 38 verses.

Neither as a conquerour who beareth all down before him, nor as a Triumpher glorying in his acquists which in progress he takes view of.

Murther'd by his Sons, his Kingdom shaken by intestine troubles arising on the slaughter of his Army, and an Anarchie, or interregnum whilest the two Brethren Parricides war'd with the third for the Crown, and all three were in that juncture as in an opportune season, invaded, subdued, and destroyed by Merodach Baladan King of Babylon, vid▪ Isa. 10. tot.

Marginal references: Isa. 52.7. Rom. 10.15.; Heb. feast.; Heb. Belial.

Nahum

Introduction

Person of the Prophet. - All that we know of Nahum (Nachūm, i.e., consolation or comforter, consolator, Gr. Ναούμ) is, that he sprang from the place called Elkosh; since the epithet hâ'elqōshı̄, in the heading to his book, is not a patronymic, but the place of his birth. Elkosh is not to be sought for in Assyria, however, viz., in the Christian village of Alkush, which is situated on the eastern side of the Tigris, to the north-west of Khorsabad, two days’ journey from Mosul, where the tomb of the prophet Nahum is shown in the form of a simple plaster box of modern style, and which is held in great reverence, as a holy place, by the Christians and Mohammedans of that neighbourhood (see Layard, Nineveh and its Remains, i. 233), as Michaelis, Eichhorn, Ewald, and others suppose. For this village, with its pretended tomb of the prophet, has not the smallest trace of antiquity about it, and is mentioned for the first time by a monk of the sixteenth century, in a letter to Assemani (Biblioth. or. i. 525, iii. 1, p. 352). Now, as a tomb of the prophet Jonah is also shown in the neighbourhood of Nineveh, the assumption is a very natural one, that the name Elkush did not come from the village into the book, but passed from the book to the village (Hitzig). The statement of Jerome is older, and much more credible, - namely, that “Elkosh was situated in Galilee, since there is to the present day a village in Galilee called Helcesaei (others Helcesei, Elcesi), a very small one indeed, and containing in its ruins hardly any traces of ancient buildings, but one which is well known to the Jews, and was also pointed out to me by my guide,” - inasmuch as he does not simply base his statement upon the word of his guide, but describes the place as well known to the Jews. This Jewish tradition of the birth of Nahum in the Galilaean Elkosh, or Ἐλκεσέ, is also supported by Cyril of Alex., Ps. Epiphanius, and Ps. Dorotheus, although the more precise accounts of the situation of the place are confused and erroneous in the two last named. We have indeed no further evidence that Nahum sprang out of Galilee. The name of the Elkesaites furnishes just as little proof of the existence of a place called Elkosh, as the name Capernaum, i.e., village of Nahum, of the fact that our prophet lived there. Whether the sect of the Elkesaites really derived their name from a founder named Elxai or Elkesai, is just as questionable as the connection between this Elxai and the place called Elkosh; and the conjecture that Capernaum received its name from our prophet is altogether visionary. But Jerome’s statement is quite sufficient, since it is confirmed by the contents of Nahum’s prophecy. Ewald indeed imagines that he can see very clearly, from the general colouring of the little book, that Nahum did not live in Palestine, by in Assyria, and must have seen with his own eyes the danger which threatened Nineveh, from an invasion by powerful foes, as being one of the descendants of the Israelites who had formerly been transported to Assyria. “It moves,” he says, “for example, round about Nineveh only, and that with a fulness such as we do not find in any other prophecy relating to a foreign nation; and it is quite in a casual manner that it glances at Judah in Nahum 1:13-2:3. There is not a single trace of its having been written by Nahum in Judah; on the contrary, it follows most decidedly, from the form given to the words in Nah 2:1 (Nah 1:15), compared with Isa 52:7, that he was prophesying at a great distance from Jerusalem and Judah.” But why should not an earlier prophet, who lived in the kingdom of Israel or that of Judah, have been able to utter a special prophecy concerning Nineveh, in consequence of a special commission from God? Moreover, it is not merely in a casual manner that Nahum glances at Judah; on the contrary, his whole prophecy is meant for Judah; and his glance at Judah, notwithstanding its brevity, assumes, as Umbreit has correctly observed, a very important and central position. And the assertion, that there is not a single trace in the whole prophecy of Nahum’s having been in Judah, has been contested with good reason by Maurer, Hitzig, and others, who appeal to Nah 1:4 and 1:13-2:3, where such traces are to be found.

On the other hand, if the book had been written by a prophet living in exile, there would surely be some allusions to the situation and circumstances of the exiles; whereas we look in vain for any such allusions in Nahum. Again, the acquaintance with Assyrian affairs, to which Ewald still further appeals, is not greater than that which might have been possessed by any prophet, or even by any inhabitant of Judah in the time of Hezekiah, after the repeated invasions of Israel and Judah by the Assyrians. “The liveliness of the description runs through the whole book. Ch. Nah 1:2-14 is not less lively than Nah 2:1-13; and yet no one would infer from the former that Nahum must have seen with his own eyes all that he sets before our eyes in so magnificent a picture in Nah 1:2.” (Nägelsbach; Herzog’s Cycl.) It is not more a fact that “Nah 2:6 contains such special acquaintance with the locality of Nineveh, as could only be derived from actual inspection,” than that “Nah 2:7 contains the name of the Assyrian queen (Huzzab).” Moreover, of the words that are peculiar to our prophet, taphsar (Nah 3:17) is the only one that is even probably Assyrian; and this is a military term, which the Judaeans in Palestine may have heard from Assyrians living there. The rest of the supposed Aramaeisms, such as the suffixes in גּבּוריהוּ (Nah 2:4) and מלאככה (Nah 2:13), and the words גהג, to sigh = הגה (Nah 2:8), דּהר (Nah 3:2), and פּלדות (Nah 2:4), may be accounted for from the Galilaean origin of the prophet. Consequently there is no tenable ground whatever for the assumption that Nahum lived in exile, and uttered his prophecy in the neighbourhood of Nineveh. There is much greater reason for inferring, from the many points of coincidence between Nahum and Isaiah, that he was born in Galilee during the Assyrian invasions, and that he emigrated to Judaea, where he lived and prophesied. Nothing whatever is known of the circumstances of his life. The notices in Ps. Epiphan. concerning his miracles and his death (see O. Strauss, Nahumi de Nino vaticin. expl. p. xii.f.) can lay no claim to truth. Even the period of his life is so much a matter of dispute, that some suppose him to have prophesied under Jehu and Jehoahaz, whilst others believe that he did not prophesy till the time of Zedekiah; at the same time it is possible to decide this with tolerable certainty from the contents of the book. 2. The Book of Nahum contains one extended prophecy concerning Nineveh, in which the ruin of that city and of the Assyrian world-power is predicted in three strophes, answering to the division into chapters; viz., in Nah 1:1-15 the divine purpose to inflict judgment upon this oppressor of Israel; in Nah 2:1-13 the joyful news of the conquest, plundering, and destruction of Nineveh; and in ch. 3 its guilt and its inevitable ruin. These are all depicted with pictorial liveliness and perspicuity. Now, although this prophecy neither closes with a Messianic prospect, nor enters more minutely into the circumstances of the Israelitish kingdom of God in general, it is rounded off within itself, and stands in such close relation to Judah, that it may be called a prophecy of consolation for that kingdom. The fall of the mighty capital of the Assyrian empire, that representative of the godless and God-opposing power of the world, which sought to destroy the Israelitish kingdom of God, was not only closely connected with the continuance and development of the kingdom of God in Judah, but the connection is very obvious in Nahum’s prophecy. Even in the introduction (Nah 1:2.) the destruction of Nineveh is announced as a judgment, which Jehovah, the zealous God and avenger of evil, executes, and in which He proves Himself a refuge to those who trust in Him (Nah 1:7). But “those who trust in Him” are not godly Gentiles here; they are rather the citizens of His kingdom, viz., the Judaeans, upon whom Asshur had laid the yoke of bondage, which Jehovah would break (Nah 1:13), so that Judah could keep feasts and pay its vows to Him (Nah 1:15). On the destruction of Nineveh the Lord returns to the eminence of Israel, which the Assyrians have overthrown (Nah 2:2). Consequently Nineveh is to fall, and an end is to be put to the rule and tyranny of Asshur, that the glory of Israel may be restored.

The unity and integrity of the prophecy are not open to any well-founded objection. It is true that Eichhorn, Ewald, and De Wette, have questioned the genuineness of the first part of the heading (the Massâ' of Nineveh), but without sufficient reason, as even Hitzig observes. For there is nothing that can possibly astonish us in the fact that the object of the prophecy is mentioned first, and then the author. Moreover, the words משּׂא נינוה cannot possibly have been added at a later period, because the whole of the first half of the prophecy would be unintelligible without them; since Nineveh is not mentioned by name till Nah 2:8, and yet the suffix attached to מקומהּ in Nah 1:8 refers to Nineveh, and requires the introduction of the name of that city in the heading. There is just as little force in the arguments with which Hitzig seeks to prove that the allusion to the conquest of No-amon in Nah 3:8-10 is a later addition. For the assertion that, if an Assyrian army had penetrated to Upper Egypt and taken that city, Nahum, when addressing Nineveh, could not have related to the Assyrians what had emanated from themselves, without at least intimating this, would obviously be well founded only on the supposition that the words “Art thou better than No-amon,” etc., could be taken quite prosaically as news told to the city of Nineveh, and loses all its force, when we see that this address is simply a practical turn, with which Nahum describes the fate of No-amon not to the Ninevites, but to the Judaeans, as a practical proof that even the mightiest and most strongly fortified city could be conquered and fall, when God had decreed its ruin. From the lively description of this occurrence, we may also explain the change from the third person to the second in Nah 3:9, at which Hitzig still takes offence. His other arguments are so subjective and unimportant, that they require no special refutation.

With regard to the date of the composition of our prophecy, it is evident from the contents that it was not written before, but after, the defeat of Sennacherib in front of Jerusalem in the reign of Hezekiah, since that event is not only clearly assumed, but no doubt furnished the occasion for the prophecy. Asshur had overrun Judah (Nah 1:15), and had severely afflicted it (Nah 1:9, Nah 1:12), yea plundered and almost destroyed it (Nah 2:2). Now, even if neither the words in Nah 1:11, “There is one come out of thee, who imagined evil against Jehovah,” etc., nor those of Nah 1:12, according to the correct interpretation, contain any special allusion to Sennacherib and his defeat, and if it is still less likely that Nah 1:14 contains an allusion to his death or murder (Isa 37:38), yet the affliction (tsârâh) which Assyria had brought upon Judah (Nah 1:9), and the invasion of Judah mentioned in Nah 1:15 and Nah 2:2, can only refer to Sennacherib’s expedition, since he was the only one of all the kings of Assyria who so severely oppressed Judah as to bring it to the very verge of ruin. Moreover, Nah 2:13, “The voice of thy messengers shall no more be heard,” is peculiarly applicable to the messengers whom Sennacherib sent to Hezekiah, according to Isa 36:13. and Isa 37:9., to compel the surrender of Jerusalem and get Judah completely into his power. But if this is established, it cannot have been a long time after the defeat of Sennacherib before Jerusalem, when Nahum prophesied; not only because that event was thoroughly adapted to furnish the occasion for such a prophecy as the one contained in our prophet’s book, and because it was an omen of the future and final judgment upon Asshur, but still more, because the allusions to the affliction brought upon Judah by Sennacherib are of such a kind that it must have still continued in the most vivid recollection of the prophet and the men of his time. We cannot do anything else, therefore, than subscribe to the view expressed by Vitringa, viz., that “the date of Nahum must be fixed a very short time after Isaiah and Micah, and therefore in the reign of Hezekiah, not only after the carrying away of the ten tribes, but also after the overthrow of Sennacherib (Nah 1:11, Nah 1:13), from which the argument of the prophecy is taken, and the occasion for preaching the complete destruction of Nineveh and the kingdom of Assyria” (Typ. doctr. prophet. p. 37). The date of the composition of our book cannot be more exactly determined. The assumption that it was composed before the murder of Sennacherib, in the temple of his god Nisroch (Isa 37:38; 2Ki 19:37), has no support in Nah 1:14. And it is equally impossible to infer from Nah 1:13 and Nah 1:15 that our prophecy was uttered in the reign of Manasseh, and occasioned by the carrying away of the king to Babylon (2Ch 33:11).

The relation which exists between this prophecy and those of Isaiah is in the most perfect harmony with the composition of the former in the second half of the reign of Hezekiah. The resemblances which we find between Nah 3:5 and Isa 47:2-3; Isa 3:7, Isa 3:10 and Isa 51:19-20, Nah 1:15 and Isa 52:1 and Isa 52:7, are of such a nature that Isaiah could just as well have alluded to Nahum as Nahum to Isaiah. If Nahum composed his prophecy not long after the overthrow of Sennacherib, we must assume that the former was the case. The fact that in Nah 1:8, Nah 1:13 and Nah 3:10 there are resemblances to Isa 10:23, Isa 10:27 and Isa 13:16, where our prophet is evidently the borrower, furnishes no decisive proof to the contrary. For the relation in which prophets who lived and laboured at the same time stood to one another was one of mutual giving and receiving; so that it cannot be immediately inferred from the fact that our prophet made use of a prophecy of his predecessor for his own purposes, that he must have been dependent upon him in all his kindred utterances. When, on the other hand, Ewald and Hitzig remove our prophecy to a much later period, and place it in the time of the later Median wars with Assyria, either the time of Phraortes (Herod. i. 102), or that of Cyaxares and his first siege of Nineveh (Herod. i. 103), they found this opinion upon the unscriptural assumption that it was nothing more than a production of human sagacity and political conjecture, which could only have been uttered “when a threatening expedition against Nineveh was already in full operation” (Ewald), and when the danger which threatened Nineveh was before his eyes-a view which has its roots in the denial of the supernatural character of the prophecy, and is altogether destitute of any solid foundation.

The style of our prophet is not inferior to the classical style of Isaiah and Micah, either in power and originality of thought, or in clearness and purity of form; so that, as R. Lowth (De sacr. poësi Hebr. 281) has aptly observed, ex omnibus minoribus prophetis nemo videtur aequare sublimitatem, ardorem et audaces spiritus Nahumi; whereas Ewald, according to his preconceived opinion as to the prophet’s age, “no longer finds in this prophet, who already formed one of the later prophets, so much inward strength, or purity and fulness of thought.” For the exegetical writings on the book of Nahum, see my Lehrbuch der Einleitung, 299, 300.

Judgment upon Nineveh Decreed by God - Nah 1:1-15

Jehovah, the jealous God and avenger of evil, before whose manifestation of wrath the globe trembles (Nah 1:2-6), will prove Himself a strong tower to His own people by destroying Nineveh (Nah 1:7-11), since He has determined to break the yoke which Asshur has laid upon Judah, and to destroy this enemy of His people (Nah 1:12-14).

Nah 1:1

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. משּׂא signifies a burden, from נשׂא, to lift up, to carry, to heave. This meaning has very properly been retained by Jonathan, 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 נשׂא, effari. But נשׂא has no more this meaning than נשׂא קול 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 משּׂא, 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.

Nah 1:2-3

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 קנּוא for קנּא. 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 נקם, 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 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 (ארך אפּים, 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 gedōl-kōăch, great in strength (Num 14:17), and does not leave unpunished (נקּה וגו 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 (שׂערה as in Job 9:17 = סערה, which is connected with סוּפה 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.

Nah 1:4-6 “He threateneth the sea, and drieth it up, and maketh all the rivers dry up. Bashan and Carmel fade, and the blossom of Lebanon fadeth. Nah 1:5. Mountains shake before Him, and the hills melt away; the earth heaveth before Him, and the globe, and all the inhabitants thereon. Nah 1:6. Before His fury who may stand? and who rise up at the burning of His wrath? His burning heat poureth itself out like fire, and the rocks are rent in pieces by Him.” In the rebuking of the sea there is an allusion to the drying up of the Red Sea for the Israelites to pass through (cf. Psa 106:9); but it is generalized here, and extended to every sea and river, which the Almighty can smite in His wrath, and cause to dry up. ויּבּשׁהוּ for וייבּשׁהוּ, the vowelless י of the third pers. being fused into one with the first radical sound, as in ויּדּוּ in Lam 3:53 (cf. Ges. §69, Anm. 6, and Ewald §232-3). Bashan, Carmel, and Lebanon are mentioned as very fruitful districts, abounding in a vigorous growth of vegetation and large forests, the productions of which God could suddenly cause to fade and wither in His wrath. Yea more: the mountains tremble and the hills melt away (compare the similar description in Mic 1:4, and the explanation given there). The earth lifts itself, i.e., starts up from its place (cf. Isa 13:13), with everything that dwells upon the surface of the globe. תּשּׂא from נשׂא, used intransitively, “to rise,” as in Psa 89:10 and Hos 13:1; not conclamat s. tollit vocem (J. H. Michaelis, Burk, Strauss). תּבל, lit., the fertile globe, always signifies the whole of the habitable earth, ἡ οἰκουμένη; and יושׁבי בהּ, not merely the men (Ewald), but all living creatures (cf. Joe 1:18, Joe 1:20). No one can stand before such divine wrath, which pours out like consuming fire (Deu 4:24), and rends rocks in pieces (1Ki 19:11; Jer 23:29; cf. Jer 10:10; Mal 3:2).

Nah 1:7-8

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 טוב is more precisely defined by the apposition למעוז וגו, 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). עבר, overflowed by a river (cf. Isa 8:8; Hab 3:10; Dan 11:40). עשׂה כלה, to put an end to anything, as in Isa 10:23. מקומהּ is the accusative of the object: make her place a vanishing one. כּלה, the fem. of כּלה, an adjective in a neuter sense, that which is vanishing away. The suffix in מקומהּ 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). איביו are the inhabitants of Nineveh, or the Assyrians generally, as the enemies of Israel. ירדּף־חשׁך, 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.

Nah 1:9-11

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 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 חשׁב על 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 צרה points back to בּיום צרה, 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 עד סירים to סבוּאים are to be taken conditionally: are (or were) they even twisted like thorns. עד סירים, to thorns = as thorns (עד 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). כּסבאם סבוּאים, 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 סבא neither means to wet nor to drown, but to drink, to carouse; and סבוּא means drunken, intoxicated. סבא 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. אכּלוּ, 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. מלא is not to be taken, as Ewald supposes (§279, a), as strengthening יבשׁ, “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 ממּך Nineveh is addressed, the representative 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 ממּך also to Judah, and adopt this explanation: “from thee (Judah) will the enemy who has hitherto oppressed thee have gone away” (taking יצא as fut. exact., and יצא מן 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 יעץ בּליּעל, the advising of worthlessness, consists. This is the only meaning that בּליּעל has, not that of destruction.

Nah 1:12-14

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 שׁלמים to ועבר 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. וכן רבּים, and so, i.e., of such a nature, just because they are of full number, or numerous. וכן נגוזּוּ, and so, i.e., although of such a nature, they will nevertheless be mowed down. גּזז, taken from the mowing of the meadows, is a figure denoting complete destruction. ועבר 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 וענּתך the address turns to Judah. The words are not applicable to the Assyrians, to whom Abarbanel, Grotius, Ewald, and Hitzig refer this clause; for Asshur is not only bowed down or chastened, but utterly destroyed. ענּתך 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. ועתּה, but now, is attached adversatively to ענּתך. The suffix to מטהוּ 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. Vetsivvâh 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. אשׂים קברך 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 אשׂים 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 קברך as the nearest and only object to אשׂים, “I lay, i.e., prepare thy grave,” כּי קלּות, 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.

Nah 1:15

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. מבשּׂר 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 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. בּליּעל, abstract for concrete = אישׁ בל, as in 2Sa 23:6 and Job 34:18. נכרת is not a participle, but a perfect in pause.

Nahum

The name of this prophet signifies a comforter; for it was a charge given to all the prophets, Comfort you, comfort you, my people: and even this prophet, though wholly taken up in foretelling the destruction of Nineveh, which speaks terror to the Assyrians, is, even in that, comforter to the ten tribes of Israel, who, it is probable, were now lately carried captives into Assyria. It is very uncertain at what time he lived and prophesied, but it is most probable that he lived in the time of Hezekiah, and prophesied against Nineveh, after the captivity of Israel by the king of Assyria, which was in the ninth year of Hezekiah, and before Sennacherib's invading Judah, which was in the fourteenth year of Hezekiah, for to that attempt, and the defeat of it, it is supposed, the first chapter has reference; and it is probable that it was delivered a little before it, for the encouragement of God's people in that day of treading down and perplexity. It is the conjecture of the learned Huetius that the two other chapters of this book were delivered by Nahum some years after, perhaps in the reign of Manasseh, and in that reign the Jewish chronologies generally place him, somewhat nearer to the time when Nineveh was conquered, and the Assyrian monarchy reduced, by Cyaxares and Nebuchadnezzar, some time before the first captivity of Judah. It is probable that Nahum did by word of mouth prophesy many things concerning Israel and Judah, as it is certain that Jonah did (2 Kings xiv. 25), though we have nothing of either of them in writing, but what related to Nineveh, of which though a great and ancient city, yet probably we should never have heard in sacred writ if the Israel of God had not had some concern in it.

In this chapter we have, I. The inscription of the book, ver. 1. II. A magnificent display of the glory of God, in a mixture of wrath and justice against the wicked, and mercy and grace towards his people, and the discovery of his majesty and power in both, ver. 2-8. III. A particular application of this (as most interpreters think) to the destruction of Sennacherib and the Assyrian army, when they besieged Jerusalem, which was a very memorable and illustrious instance of the power both of God's justice and of his mercy, and spoke abundance of terror to his enemies and encouragement to his faithful servants, ver. 9-16.

Inscription of the Book. (b. c. 710.)

1 The burden of Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite.

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. xviii. 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.

The Judgment of Nineveh; The Awful Power of God. (b. c. 710.)

2 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. 3 The Lord is slow to anger, and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked: the Lord hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet. 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. 5 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. 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 thrown down by him. 7 The Lord is good, a strong hold in the day of trouble; and he knoweth them that trust in him. 8 But with an overrunning flood he will make an utter end of the place thereof, and darkness shall pursue his enemies.

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 (Joel ii. 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. xxvii. 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, Ps. lxxviii. 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, Deut. xxxii. 40, 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, v. 3. Those wickedly depart from their God that depart, and never return (Ps. xviii. 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 (v. 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 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, whithersoever 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.

II. 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 (v. 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, Ps. xviii. 9, &c. 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 (v. 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 and of great power.

2. This is particularly applied to his anger. If God be an almighty God, we may thence infer (v. 6), Who can stand before his indignation? The Ninevites had once found God slow to anger (as he says v. 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, Ps. xi. 6. Hell is the fierceness of God's anger, Rev. xvi. 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.

III. 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 (v. 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 (v. 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, Ps. i. 6.

Destruction of the Assyrian Army; Overthrow of Sennacherib. (b. c. 710.)

9 What do ye imagine against the Lord ? he will make an utter end: affliction shall not rise up the second time. 10 For while they be folden together as thorns, and while they are drunken as drunkards, they shall be devoured as stubble fully dry. 11 There is one come out of thee, that imagineth evil against the Lord , a wicked counsellor. 12 Thus saith the Lord ; 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. 13 For now will I break his yoke from off thee, and will burst thy bonds in sunder. 14 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 molten image: I will make thy grave; for thou art vile. 15 Behold upon the mountains the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace! O Judah, keep thy solemn feasts, perform thy vows: for the wicked shall no more pass through thee; he is utterly cut off.

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 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 (v. 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. xxxvi. 7); with this wicked counsellor he here expostulates (v. 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, Ps. ii. 1, 2. He that sits in heaven laughs at the imaginations of the pretenders to politics against him, and will turn their counsels headlong.

II. 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 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, v. 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 (v. 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.

2. Upon the king. He imagined evil against the Lord, and shall he escape? No (v. 14): "The Lord has given a commandment concerning thee; the decree has gone 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, Ezek. xxxi. 3, 11, 15,, 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.

2. 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. x. 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 (v. 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, v. 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. lii. 7), not that the prophets stole the word one from another (as those did, Jer. xxiii. 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 (1 Tim. vi. 3) by concurring in the same forms of sound words, 2 Tim. i. 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. x. 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 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.

CHAP. I.

Verſe 1. THE burden of Nineveh] i. e. The burdenous propheſie. See the Note on Malac. 1.1. It is a burden to wicked men to be told of their ſinnes, and foretold of their puniſhments. To whom we may not unfitly apply that of the Civilian, Perquàm durum eſt, Ʋlpian. ſed ita lex ſcripta eſt. If it be ſo tedious to hear of it, what will they do to bear it? Nineveh had fair warning before by Jonah; and for preſent, the unclean ſpirit ſeemed to be caſt out of her: but he returned ſoon after, with ſeven worſe, as appears by this Propheſie; and ſo their laſt ſtate was worſe then the former, Mat. 12.45. Their bile half-healed, breaking out again, proved to be the plague of leproſie, Lev. 13.18, 19, 20. ſuch as ſhut them out of heaven. God will do good to thoſe that are good, and continue ſo. But as for thoſe that turn aſide unto their crooked wayes, (as all Apoſtates do) the Lord ſhall lead them forth with the workers of iniquity, (as cattle are led to the ſlaughter, or malefactours to execution) but peace ſhall be upon Iſrael, Pſal. 125.5.

The book of the Viſion] Or the Epiſtle of the Viſion. Hence ſome collect, that Nahum went not to Nineveh as Jonah had done; but ſent this propheticall Epiſtle thither, to let them know what ſhould ſhortly befall them. So Jeremy ſent an Epiſtle to Babylon, chap. 29. and Eliah wrote a threatning letter to Iehoram king of Judah, 2 Chron. 21.12. before his tranſlation to heaven; and leſt it to be ſent to him by Eliſha, or the other Prophets, who durſt not ſhew themſelves in his preſence; ſuch was his inſolent cruelty, as 'tis conceived.

of Nahum the Elkoſhite] Elkoſh was a ſmall town in Gali[illegible: 1 letter]ee beyond Bethabara, as ſay Hierom and Dorotheus. Here was our Prophet born, and named N[illegible: 1 letter]hum, non ſine numine, ſaith Gualther; for Nahum (as Noah) ſignifieth a Comforter: and ſo he proved, by this Book of his, both to the ten Tribes now newly carried captive by the Aſſyrian Monarch; and alſo to the other two Tribes,Epiphanius. who were ſhortly after beſieged by the ſame Aſſyrian, in the reign of Hezekiah; under whom Nahum prophecied. See the Note on Exod. 3.1.

Verſ. 2. God is jealous] See the Note on Zech. 1.14.

and the Lord revengeth, the Lord revengeth] As he is Pater miſerationum, to his people, a father of mercies, and God of conſolation: ſo to his and their enemies he is a moſt ſure and ſevere revenger, Deus ultionum, as David calleth him, Pſal. 94.1. A God of recompenſes, as Jeremy, chap. 51.56. And when He comes againſt a people, he uſually takes them to do, when they are at the ſtrongeſt, and moſt confident: as Nineveh now was, in the dayes of proud Sennacherib.

and is furious] Heb. and is Maſter of hot wrath: he is all on a light fire, as it were, with fierce indignation againſt the enemies of his Church: Yet not ſo, but that he is Maſter of his anger too; and doth nothing in it, but what is juſt and equall. Hence the vials of his wrath are ſaid to be golden vials, Rev. 15.7. his anger is holy, his fire is pure, and without ſmoak. And this is further declared in the following words.

The Lord will take vengeance on his adverſaries] Such as ſeek to thruſt him beſide his throne, that oppoſe his worſhip, contemn his word, perſecute his people, ſend proud meſſages after him, ſaying. We will not have this man to reigne over us: Bring hither thoſe mine enemies, ſaith He, and ſlay them before me, Luk. 19.27. As for ſuch as ſin of infirmity, and return to him by repentance, they ſhall not find him furious, but gracious.

and he reſerveth wrath for his enemies] Their preſervation for a time, is but a reſervation to that wrath to come. As hee precipitateth not his anger, but defers the execution of it, giving men ſpace to repent, as he did Jezabel, Rev. 2. ſo they ſhall find that his forbearance is no quittance; and that Poena venit gravior, quò magè tarda venit.

Verſe 3. The Lord is ſlow to anger] Slack he is not, as ſome men count ſlackneſſe, ſaith St. Peter, but long-ſufferring to us-ward, &c. 2 Epiſt. 3.9, The devil ſtirred up the Heathen Poets, to perſwade people, that God either knew not, or cared not what was done here below: that he was oft from home, feaſting with the Ethiopians, &c. The Epicures alſo taught the like doctrine:Homer. and the Sadduces among the Jews, the Manichees among the primitive Chriſtians, the Libertines amongſt us. But they ſhall one day find that God is ſlow, but ſure; that the higher he lifteth his hand, the harder he will ſtrike; the further he draweth his bowe, the deeper will bee the wound.

and great in power] Heb. Great of power, able to knock down ſinners in the very act of their rebellion, and to ſend them packing to their place in hell. So that it is not for want of power that he is ſo patient. For the Lord our God is God of gods, and Lord of Lords, a great God, a mighty and a terrible, Deut. 10.17. But what need we go further then the Text, where he is called, the ſtrong God, great in power, And that will not at all acquit the wicked.] This is the laſt letter in his name (that nomen majeſtativum, as Tertullian calleth it,) Exod. 34.7. which he will in no wiſe forget: as neither muſt we. He will not take the wicked by the hand, ſaith Job, Job 8.20. nor wink at the workers of iniquity, ſaith David, Pſal. 50.21. but will render a juſt recompence to every tranſgreſſion and diſobedience, ſaith Paul, Heb. 2.2. A God of truth, and without iniquity, juſt and right is he, Deut. 32.4.

the Lord hath his way in the whirlwind, and in the ſtorm] The word Suphab here tendred whirlwind, begins with a ſmall Samech, ad minuendum timorem piis, Buxtorf. Tiberias. 167. ne propterea terreantur, to take off the Saints from their inordinate fears, and to aſſure the wicked, that when the Lord cometh, imminet inde Soph finis & exitium: there ſhall be an end of them, and an utter deſtruction. As the whirlwind paſſeth, ſo is the wicked no more: but the righteous is an everlaſting foundation, Prov. 10.25. Or, as ſome read it, The righteous is the foundation of the world, as firm as the worlds foundation, ſc. the earth, which is unmoveable.

and the clouds are the duſt of his feet] He walketh upon them as men do upon the duſt of the earth: he maketh the clouds his charet, and rideth upon the wings of the wind Pſal. 104.3. See Iſa. 60.8. and 19.1. The wickeds happineſſe ſhall take its end ſurely and ſwiftly, as Ezekiel tells them in his ſeventh chapter, An end is come, is come, is come.

Ver. 4. He rebuketh the ſea and maketh it dry] He had ſhewed what wonders God can do in the ayre. Now he telleth, what he doeth in the water, and in the earth. And it is well obſerved by an Interpreter, that when the Prophets ſpeak of God, Tarnon. they do for moſt part imitate the expreſſions of Moſes that moſt ſevere law-giver, and allude to his hiſtory; to ſhew, that by the law is the knowledge of ſin, Rom. 3.20. without which the ſtony hearts of men melt not, that the promiſe of the goſpell may reliſh ſweetly with them Pſal. 19.10, 11. The word here rendreth He rebuketh importeth, that God rateth and rattleth the Sea verborum pedumque ſtrepitu with ſuch a voice and other noiſe, as cauſeth fright and flight. The Sea ſaw it and fled, Iordan was driven back, what ailed thee, O thou Sea that thou fleddeſt &c. Pſal. 114.3, 5. The waters ſaw thee, O God, the waters ſaw thee, they were afraid; the depths alſo were troubled Pſal. 77.16. See Exod. 14.21. Pſal. 78.14. and 66.6. and 136.16. and 106.9. This is not in the power of any man to do; though Xerxes vainely attempted ſomthing, when he wafted two millions of men over the Helleſpont, and, for battering his bridge of boates, cauſed it to be beaten with 300. ſtripes, and caſt a pair of fetters into it, to make it his priſoner. But to how ſmall purpoſe all this, together with his digging through Iſthmus, his drinking up rivers with his army and the like, it well appeared, when he was forced to fly back out of Greece in a poor fiſhers boat, which being overburdened had ſunk all, if the Perſians by the caſting away themſelves, had not ſaved the life of their king, The ſtory of Canutus the Dane, (ſomtimes king of England) is well known. He was told by a Court-Paraſite that all things in his dominions were at his beck and command. Canutus (to confute him) cauſed a chair to be ſet on the ſea-ſhore; wherein being ſet, he ſaid to the ſea flowing faſt toward him. Thou belongeſt to me, and the land upon which I now ſit is mine own, neither is there any whoſoever that obeyes me not ſhall eſcape unpuniſhed. I command thee therefore thou ſea, that thou come up no higher into my land; nor preſumeſt once to wet thy maſters legs or garments. But the Sea, keeping his ordinary courſe, without duty or reverence waſhed both his legs and gown. He then leaping back ſaid, Let al[illegible: 1 letter] the inhabitants of the world know, [illegible: 1 letter]en: Huntington. that the power of kings is frivolous and vaine; neither is there any mortall man worthy the name of a king, but he to whoſe beck heaven, earth and ſea by his lawes, eternally are obedient. Neither did Canutus after this time weare a crown; but ſet it upon the Crucifix according to the ſuperſtition of thoſe times; thereby acknowledging it to be a royalty proper to Chriſt alone to rebuke the ſurges of the ſea, and to ſay unto them Peace, and be ſtill, Luk. 4.24. Mar. 4.39.

and drieth up all the rivers] As he did Jordan Ioſ. 4 2 King. 2. Chereth 1 King. 17.7. the great river Euphrates Rev. 16.12. See the Note there. See alſo Plin. nat. hiſt. l. 2. cap. 85. and 103.

Baſhan languiſheth and Carmel, and the flower of Lebanon languiſheth] all the beauty of thoſe fertile and pleaſant places fadeth. When the earth beareth fruit and flowers, ſhe is ſaid to yeeld her ſtrength, to bring forth her increaſe: as when through drought or otherwiſe ſhe doth not, ſhe is ſaid to languiſh and hang the head. See Ioe. 1.10.12. If the Eclipſe of the Sun cauſe a drooping in the whole frame of nature, how much more the wrath and vengeance of God?

Ver. 5. The mountaines quake at him, and the hills melt] Though vallies and low places are alſo liable to earthquakes: as Antioch often, Ferrara in Italy An. Dom. 1514. and 1573. yet hill-countreys much more; becauſe there are more holes and cavernes,Alſ[illegible: 1 letter]ed. Chronol. See Pſal. 29.6. and 144.4. Zach. 14.4, 5. In the yeere 1618. Aug. 25. Pleurs a town in Rhetia was overwhelmed by a hill, which, with a moſt ſwift motion oppreſt 1500. men. So that village aforementioned in the country of Bern, that was over-covered by a hill in an earthquake: to the deſtruction of 50.Polan: ſynt. families. All this and that which followeth is alledged here, to ſhew how eaſily God can overturn the Aſſyrian greatneſſe.

and the earth is burnt at his preſence] Viz. by his fire from heaven, as Sodom, and by other his land-deſolating judgments, ſuch as Judea (that once fertile, now barren country) Greece, Aſia (once ſo flouriſhing) Germany, Ireland &c. do at this day grone under. God turneth a fruitful land into barrenneſſe, for the wickedneſſe of them that dwell therein. Pſal. 107.34.

yea the world and all that dwell therein] Quae quidem ſunt mira, ſed tamen vera divinae potentiae effecta. Wicked men, beſides what they here ſuffer,Tarnou. ſhall one day give an account of what they have done in the body, with the world all on a light fire about their eares: The triall of their workes ſhall be by fire 1 Cor. 3.13. the tribunall of fire Ezek. 1.27. the Judge a conſuming fire Heb. 12.29. His attendants Seraphins flaming creatures Iſai. 6.2. his pleading with ſinners in flames of fire 2 Theſſ. 1.7. the place of puniſhment, a lake of fire fed with tormenting temper Iſai. 30.33. Sodoms fire and brimſtone was but a toy to it. And ſhall the Ninivites think to mott up themſelves againſt this formidable fire: which the moſt ſolid parts of the world cannot avoid or abide?

Ver. 6. What can ſtand before his indignation?] A glaſſe bottle may as well ſtand before a cannon-ſhot. Theres no ſtanding before a lion, much leſſe before a devouring fire, leaſt of all before an angry God. When our Saviour did but put forth a beame of his Deity, and ſaid I am he, the ſtout ſouldiers fell to the ground Ioh. 18.6. and there they had lame, if he had not licenſed them to riſe againe.Auguſtin. Quid autem judicaturus faciet, qui judicandus hoc fecit? The wicked ſhall not ſtand in judgment, ſaith David Pſal. 1.7.

who can abide in the fierceneſſe of his anger?] Heb:Collectumque premeus volvi[illegible: 1 letter] ſub naribus ignem. in the inflammation of his noſtrils. Thus the Prophet deſcribeth Gods terrible executions of juſtice on the Churches enemies, pulcherrimis metaphoris, hypotypôſi evidentiſſima, & diſtributionis artiſicio inſigniſſimo by moſt elegant Metaphors, evident demonſtrations, and artificiall diſtributions.Crocius in loc.

his fury is powred out like fire] A metaphor either from metalls melted, or from ſhow[illegible: 1 letter]es of raine, ſuch as God powred down upon Sodom (whereunto probably the Prophet here alludeth, as verſe 8. to Noahs flood) flaming ſhowers Jer. 7.20. and 44.6.

and the rocks are thrown down by him] that is, by his fierce wrath, when it is at the full height: as the fire which at firſt burns a little within, upon a few boards and raſters; but when it prevaileth, burſteth out in a moſt terrible flame: as thunder which we heare at firſt, a little roa[illegible: 1 letter]ing noiſe afarr off: but ſtay awhile, and it is a dreadfull crack, cleaving the very rocks. See Ier. 4.23, 24. Mat. 27.51.

Verſe 7. The Lord is good] To Iſrael (though terrible to the Aſſyrians as hath been plainly and plentifully ſet forth) to the pure in heart Pſal. 73.1. and he doth good Pſal, 119.68. to thoſe that are good, that are upright in their hearts Pſal. 125.4. Theſe ſhall taſt and ſee that the Lord is good: theſe ſhall feelingly fay,' Oh bleſſed is the man that truſteth in him, Pſal. 34.8. Oh praiſe the Lord for he is good &c.

a ſtrong hold in the day of trouble] Praeſidium, aut fortalitium, A ſtrong fort or fortification, better then a[illegible: 2 letters]wer of braſſe, or town of warr: the righteous run thereunto and are ſafe. Prov. 18.10. Hezekiah (for whoſe ſake this is ſpoken) had the experience of it. He had a day of trouble and of rebuke, and of blaſphemy: the children were come to the birth, and there was not ſtrength to bring forth Eſai. 37.3. To God therefore he runs in this dolefull day of his, and had preſent help. And what though the Gods of the nations had not delivered them: yet Hezekiah's God in whom he truſted did not deceive him as Senacherib ſaid he would ver. 10.12. He is the champion of his church, and will be the ſtrong hold of his people, when the heathens Tutelur Gods, and the Papiſts Patrone-ſaints will leave them in the lurch. England was ſometime ſaid to have a war-like George, but the Papiſts being offended with us (to do us, as they ſuppoſe, a miſchief) have robbed us of out George, and left us God alone to be our Champion: for which honour and favour all true Engliſh hearts are bound to thank them, and can merrily ſing as He did once, Contemno minutulos iſtos deos, modò Jovem propitium habeam, We care not for their He-ſaints, or ſhe-ſaints to ſhelter us: ſo that the great God will be good to us, a ſtreng-hold in the day of trouble.

and he knoweth them that truſt in him] that hover and cover under his wings, as the chickens do under the hens: for that's the force of the Hebrew word here uſed. Such as theſe God knoweth for his 2 Tim. 2.19. he knoweth their ſoule in adverſity Pſal, 119. he knoweth how to deliver them, as he did the righteous Lot 2 Pet. 2.9. then, when they knew not what to do, as Jehoſaphat 2 Chron. 20.12. yet if their eyes be toward him, their affiance in him, he will extricate and deliver them. So well pleaſed is he with thoſe that truſt in him, (for that's meant here by his knowing of them Pſal. 1.6. confer Iob 9.29. 1 Theſ. 5.12.) he taketh ſuch complacency and delight in them Pſal. 147.11. and 33.18. and ſuch continuall care of them, (as hath been proved by an univerſall experience, nor one inſtance can be given to the contrary) that they ſhall be ſure to have whatſoever heart can wiſh, or need require 2 Sam. 22.2, 3. even miraculous loving kindneſſe from God in a ſtrong city Pſal. 17.7. and 31.21. ſo great as cannot be uttered Pſal. 31.19. This is for the comfort of Gods Iſrael. But leſt the wicked (as they are apt) ſhould meddle with childrens meat, which was never meant for them: leſt Niniveh ſhould pleaſe her ſelf in a fond conceit of Gods goodneſſe to her alſo, and ſo turn it into wantonneſſe, the Prophet brings in a ſtinging But in the next words.

Ver. 8. But with an over-running flood he will make an end of the place thereof] i. e. of Niniveh that great but bloody city chap. 3.1. Her ſtate ſhall be utterly ruinated as the old world, by the generall deluge. But becauſe the word here rendred flood is uſed of rivers that overflow the bankes 2 Chron. 32.4. and the adjunct over-running alſo implies as much (See Eſai 8.8. Dan. 11.10, 40.) I ſuppoſe the Holy Ghoſt here forethreateneth that ruine of this city by the river Tigris, which at an inundation broke out upon the wall, and threw down twenty furlongs thereof. This was a ſad foretoken to them of their enſuing deſolation by the enemy (as that raine was that fell in Egypt) where it uſed not to raine (a little before Cambyſes with his Perſians ſubdued it) for it fell out in the time of the Siege, as Diodorus teſtifieth, according to an oracle that the Ninivites had received by tradition from their progenitours, ſc. that their city ſhould then be taken by the enemy,Diod. Sic. when the river took part againſt them: and it fell out accordingly.

and darkneſſe ſhall purſue his enemies] i. e. terrible and inextricable calamities ſhall overtake them: their ruine ſhall be irreparable. And indeed it may now be ſaid of Niniveh, which once was of a great city in Strabo, Magna civitas, magna ſolitudo See Zeph. 2.13, 14, 15. Druſius rendreth it thus, Hoſtes ſuos perſequi faciet tenebras, He ſhall cauſe darkneſſe to purſue his enemies, Or, He ſhall make his enemies to purſue darkneſſe, according to that noted ſaying of the Ancients, Deus quem deſtruit, dementat, whom God intends to deſtroy, him He firſt infatuateth. But the former ſence is the better.

Ver. 9. What do ye imagine againſt the Lord?] becauſe againſt his people. So Pſal. 62.3. How long will ye imagine miſchief againſt a man? ye ſhall be ſlaine all of you: as a bowing wall ſhall ye be, and as a tottering fence. The blind and bloody Ninivites looked no further then the Jewes whom they invaded: they conſidered not that God was ingaged in the quarrel of his people. This made the Virgin daughter of Zion, confident of Gods help, ſhake her head in ſcorn and pitty at them, ſaying, Whom haſt thou reproached and blaſphemed? and againſt whom haſt thou exalted thy voice, and lifted up thine eyes on high? even againſt the holy One of Iſrael. Iſai. 37.22, 23. She knew well (though her enemies knew not) that as an unskilfull archer in ſhooting at a beaſt hitteth a man ſometimes: ſo the Churches adverſaries, in troubling of her, trouble Almighty God, who will not faile to be even with them: for he that toucheth Gods people, toucheth the apple of his eye Zach. 2.8. Saul, Saul. why perſecuteſt thou me [illegible: 1 letter] Act. 9.4. It was a ſimple queſtion of Satan to our Saviour, [non-Latin text not transcribed]. what have I to do with thee? whileſt he vexed a ſervant of his. Hath he his name from knowledge, and yet could he ſo miſtake himwhom he confeſſed to be the ſon of the living God? It is an idle miſpriſion to-ſever the ſenſe of an injury done to any of the members, from the head. Druſius reades the text thus, Quid cogitatis de Domino? what think ye of the Lord? what conceit or opinion have ye of him? Doe ye imagine that he cannot performe what he threateneth by his Prophets? or that he cannot, when he pleaſeth, deliver his people out of your hand?

he will make an utter end] Not a conſumption only, but a conſummation: This he is even doing, as the Hebrew hath it: he is buſy about it, and will not faile to ſiniſh it: for he uſeth not to do his work to the halves. Surely a ſhort work will the Lord make in your land, now that he taketh you to do, certo, cito, penitus.

aſſliction ſhall not riſe up the ſecond time] God will diſpatch you at one blow. See a like expreſſion 1 Sam. 26.8. Niniveh had many bruſhes before, by Phraortes king of Medes and his ſon Ciaxares, and afterwards by the Scythians, whereof See Ier. 49.34. and by Aſtyages &c. Now N[illegible: 1 letter]buchadnezzar was appointed by God to make an utter end of it &c. The wicked ſhall totally and finally be conſumed at once. Not ſo the Saints: theſe he corrects with a rod, thoſe with a grounded ſtaffe Eſa. 32.32. Theſe in mercy and in meaſure. in the bunches only, he ſtayeth his rough wind in the day of the Eaſt-wind Eſa. 27.8. he ſtayeth ſuch afflictions as would ſhake his plants too much, or quite blow them down. But to the wicked he hath no ſuch tender reſpect: he ſmites them at the root, and, after many blowes, he reſolves to have them down. For inſtance: compare Gods different dealing with Noah and the old world, with Lot and the Sodomites, Iſrael and the Canaanites, Moſes and Pharaoh, David and Saul &c. Fret not therefore thy ſelf becauſe of evill-doers Pſal. 37.1. when the wicked ſpring as the graſſe, and when all the workers of iniquity do ſlouriſh: it is that they ſhall be deſtroyed for ever. Pſal. 92.7. Pharaoh bad faire way made him till he came to the midſt of the ſea: not one wave may riſe up againſt him to wet ſo much as the hoof of his horſe. It was a faire Sun-ſhine-day when Lot went out of Sodome: but ere night there f[illegible: 1 letter]ll out a diſmall change. It was in the Spring that the flood came, then when every thing was in its prime and pride: beſides that, the world never more flouriſhed in wealth, peace, arts, and all magnificence: yet ſudden deſtruction came upon them, they were all at once buried in one univerſall grave of waters.

Ver. 10. For while they be folden together as thornes] And ſo can hardly be handled without hurt: God will burn them together in the ſame place 2 Sam. 23.7. as a man puts thorns folden, and that cannot eaſily be ſundred all together into the fire, where they make a ſudden blaze and are extinct. So will God deale with the Ninivites, not withſtanding their carnall combinations and confederacies.Junius Crocius.

and while they are drunken as drunkard[illegible: 1 letter] ] who are very quarrelſome, bragging and braving: but may be eaſily dealt with, and puſht down with one finger.

as ſtubble ſully dry] that hath long laine a ſunning, and ſo is very combuſtible. The wicked are oft compared to ſtubble, becauſe good for nothing but the fire: and when fully dry, when ripe for ruine, they ſhall be fully devoured, as ſome read the words. Ecq[illegible: 1 letter]em vero mihi dabis Rhetorem &c. as One ſaith of another text. But what gallant Rhetorick is here? well might God ſay Hoſ. 12.10. I have ſpoken alſo by the Prophets and uſed ſimilitudes &c. (See the Note there) here we have three in a breath; and all little enough to work on the hearts of the wicked, who are loth to beleeve the truth and certainty of Gods threats: but rather bleſſe themſelves when God curſeth Deut. 29.19.

Ver. 11. There is one come out of thee that imagineth evill againſt the Lord] Many there are, but one among and above the reſT: ſc. Sennacherib, that bold Briareus, that lifteth up his hundred hands at once againſt heaven; and threateneth to cut off at a blow Gods people, as if they had all but one neck. See verſe 9. He is come up over all his chanels, and gone over all his banks, Iſa. 8.7. but God ſhall ſoon put a ſtop to him: and with an over-running ſlood (that he may be even with him) make an utter [illegible: 1 letter]nd of his place, as it is here ver. 8.

a wicked Counſellour] Heb. a counſellour of Belial, or of the devill, who lendeth him his ſeven heades to plot, and his ten horns to puſh Gods people. What pernicious counſel he gave them ſee 2 King. 18. 2 Chron. 32. Eſal. 36. ſc. to caſt off God as not able to deliver them out of his hands: and to make an agreement with him by a preſent &c. the peſtilent counſell he gave them by Rabſhakeh, who was, ſay the Rabbines, a Renegado-Jew. Every Viſier and Baſha of State among the Turks uſeth to keep ſtill a Jew of his private counſell: whoſe malice, wit, and experience of Chriſtendome, with their continuall intelligence, is thought to adviſe moſt of that miſchief,Voyage into the Levant. p. 114. which the Turk at this day puts in execution againſt us (ſaith mine Authour) the Jews being found the moſt nimble and Mercuriall wits in the world, but counſellours of Belial. In all the ſhop of hell there is no anvile ſo well ſet, whereon to forge, no engine ſo apt, whereby to execute any choice piece of miſchief, as that man, who is ingenuose nequam, & publico ma[illegible: 1 letter]o facundus (as it is ſaid of C. Curio the Roman) Wittily wicked, and peſtilently eloquent. Such were Cardinall Pool to England, Cardinall Sadeletus to Geneva, and the I[illegible: 1 letter]ſuite[illegible: 1 letter] generaily, great Politicians and factours for Rome: They ſay, Satan ſent Luther, and God ſent them to withſtand him. They deſtroy many ſouls, as the Dragon doth the Elephant; by biting his ear, and ſucking his blood; becauſe he knows that to be the onely place which the Elephant cannot reach with his trunk to deſend. They take crafty counſel againſt the Church. Pſal. 8.33.

Verſe 12. Thus ſaith the Lord] To thee, O Jeruſalem, and for thy comfort. The Lord will ſpeak peace to his people: and Miniſters are charged to ſpeak to their hearts, Eſay 40 1.

though they be quiet] Or, ſtill, well diſciplined (as the Turkiſh Army is, to the wonder of all that paſſe thorow it:)Turcae perpepetuum ſilentium tenent ut muti. Cuſpin. de Caeſar. p. 475. there was no falling out, nor complaining in the Aſſyrian hoſts: therefore, and by this means, did their king march on, p[illegible: 1 letter]ſſe throw.

and likewiſe many] How great an Army they were, may bee gathered from the many thouſands of them that were ſlain by the Angel, Eſay 37.36. It is all, one with God, whether it be done againſt a nation, or againſt a man onely, Job 34.29. he ſtands not upon multitudes, who taketh up the Iſles, as a very little thing, Eſay 40.15.

yet thus ſhall. [illegible: 2 letters]ey be cut down] Heb. ſhorn; with as little ado as one would ſhear a ſheep, mow down a meddow, or ſhave off hair with a ſharp raſor. The Prophet ſeemeth to allude to that Text in Eſay (with whom, as his contemporary, he hath many things common) chap. 7.20. and to threaten the Aſſyrian, that he ſhall bee payd home in his own coyn: and that as he had done to Iſrael, ſo ſhould it bee done again to him. God loveth to retaliate.

when he ſhall paſſe thorow] Heb. and he paſſeth, or away he goeth, ſe, to his own countrey, after the loſſe of his Army, ſlain by the Angel, ſo Hierom. Others, they ſhall be cut down, ſc. by the hand of a mighty One, as Eſay 10.34. or of an Angel, when he, that is Sennacherib, and every one of his Army hath paſſed thorow, ſc. the land without reſtraint, or controul, and now maketh account that hee is maſter of all.

Though I have afflicted thee, yet I will afflict thee no more] ſc. by theſe Nineviten no, nor by any other enemies, unleſſe there be very great need, 1 Pet. 1.6. The Church hath ever had her Halcyous, her interchanges of proſperity and adverſity. God will not alwayes chide, Pſal. 103.9. he delighteth in the proſperity of his ſervants, Pſal. 35.27. and wiſheth, Oh that this people were wiſe, &c. O that my people had hearkened, &c Pſal. 81.13, 14, 15. There is another reading of the words, as may be ſeen in the margent. This is Iunius. the Chaldee paraphraſ[illegible: 3 letters]. thus; Although the Ninevites enjoy great peace, and by peace are ſo m[illegible: 3 letters]plied, that they are very numerous, yet ſhall they be ſhorn and cut down.

Verſe 13. For now will I break his yoke from off thee] Leſt the promiſed deliverance ſhould be any whit doubted of; the time when, and the miſery whence they ſhould be delivered is here laid open. God hath ſet the time of his peoples ſufferings, which ſhall be neither ſo little a while as they would; [illegible: 1 letter]or ſo long as the enemy would. Hold out faith and patience; deliverance is at next doore by.

and will burſt thy bonds in ſunder] By yoke and bonds here, underſtund thoſe Tributes which the Aſſyrians, called out by Ahaz, impoſed upon the kingdome of Judah, 2 King. 18. God promiſeth them here their ancient liberty; which was, ſoon after this, recovered under Hez[illegible: 1 letter]kiah, who truſting in God, and reforming religion, rebelled againſt the king of Aſſyria, and ſerved him no longer. Shortly after alſo, the Perſians deſtroyed Nineveh, dealt more gently with the captive Jews, and gave them good leave to return home again, as many as had a mind to it, Ezr. 1.4. 2 Chron. 36. Verſe 14 And the Lord hath given a commandement.] ſc. to his upper and lower forces (for he is Lord of Hoſts, Commander in Chief of all creatures.)

againſt thee] O Sennacherib devoted to deſtruction, for thine intolerable pride and cruelty. God reſiſteth the proud, Iam. 4.6. he ſetteth himſelf in battellarray againſt him, as the word ſignifieth, commanding all his creatures to fall on: [non-Latin text not transcribed]. and no wonder. For whereas all other vices flee from God, pride alone fleeth in his face: caſteth down the gauntlet of defiance, and maketh head againſt him. Hence his hatred of a proud perſon.

that no more of thy name be ſown] i. e. that no more children be born to thee; ſo Lyra expounds it: that thy poſterity periſh, ſo Gualther. This muſt needs bee grievous to proud and ambitious perſons, who promiſe themſelves a kind of immortality here in their poſterity: and that there ſhall be a perpetuall ſucceſſion of their name in this world. Their inward thought is, that their houſes ſhall continue for ever, they call their lands after their own names, Pſal. 49.11. But their lamp ſhall be put out in obſcure darkneſſe, Prov. 20.20. there ſhall be—Nullus, cui lampada tradant. Others ſenſe the Text thus. Thou ſhalt no more be talked of; but the memory of thy name ſhall bee utterly extinct. The face of the Lord is againſt them that do evil, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth, Pſal. 34.16. See Eſay 10.12, 13, &c. Ier. 49.34. Sennacherib had done great exploits, till he lifted up his hand againſt heaven, he had been very victorious and famous; but now lies wrapt up in the ſheet of ſhame, and is made an inſtance of divine vengeance, even among the Heathen: For ſo Herodotus telleth us, that in Egypt there was Sennacheribs ſtatue erected, with his inſcription; Let whoſoever looketh upon me, [non-Latin text not transcribed]. Hero. l 2. learn to fear God. He lifted up himſelf againſt his Creatour and Father: hee is therefore ſlain by his own children. He thought to overturn the true ſervice of God; he is therefore ſlain at his idoll-worſhip. He went about to deſtroy the houſe of God; he is therefore deſtroyed in the houſe of his god, Eſay 37.38.

Out of the houſe of thy gods will I cut off the graven image] This, thoſe ſuperſtitious Heathens held a great loſſe, a ſore affliction. It is reported of the people of the Eaſt-Indies, in the Iſle Zeylon, that having an Apes tooth got from them, which was a conſecrated thing by them, they offered an incredible maſſe of treaſure to recover it. What a noiſe made Micah after his Ephod and images, Judg. 18.24? and Laban after his Teraphim? Gen. 31. and the men of Ophrah, for their altar and grove? And what a price ſet Papifts on their pictures and trinkets.Judg. 6.30.

I will make thy grave] ſc. Of thine idoll-temple, polluted by thy ſlaughter therein, and ſo converted into a ſepulchre for thee. There is a ſtory (but of no great authority) that Sennacherib, after his ſhamefull return out of Judea, demanding of ſome about him, what might bee the reaſon that the unreſiſtable God of heaven ſo favoured the Jewiſh nation, as he had found by ſad experience? Anſwer was given him, that Abraham from whom they deſcended, ſacrificed unto him his onely ſonne, which purchaſed this protection to his progeny. If that will win him, ſaith he, I will ſpare him two of my ſonnes, to procure him to be on my ſide. Which Sharezzer and Adrammelech his ſonnes hearing of, prevented their own deaths by ſlaying him. It is more likely that they laid wicked hands upon their father,Caſtal. Annot. either out of ambition, or diſcontent for the loſſe of the Army. Howſoever, God made uſe of their cruelty, for the juſt puniſhment of Sennacherib: and is here therefore ſaid to have commanded it. After this, cruell warre aroſe among Sennacheribs ſonnes, which were the utter overthrow of that nation,In Cyropad. and laid them open as a prey to the kings of Babylou, as Xenophon writeth.

for thou art vile] Worthleſſe, and weightleſſe. All wicked men are ſo, be they never ſo great, Pſal. 15.4. Dan. 11.21. In his eſtate ſhall ſtand up a vile perſon, that is, Antiochus Epiphanes, the great king of Syria, whom the Samaritans in flattery ſtiled, The mighty god. 'Tis vertue onely that enobles. Them that honour God, he will honour: but they that deſpiſe him, ſhall be lightly eſteemed, 1 Sam. 2.30. Contempt ſhall be their portion, and with ignominy, repreach, Prov. 18.3. Here then the Prophet threateneth the ſame that Joel had done, chap. 2.20. His ſtink ſhall come up, and the ill ſavour ſhall come up, becaue be hath done great things, i.e, he hath attempted to do them, but was hindered from heaven. God put a hook in his noſe, and a bridle in his lips, and turned him back to Nineveh: where, within leſſe then fifty dayes after, he was ſlain by his two ſonnes, Tob. 1.23. and although his third ſonne Aſar-haddon reigned in his ſtead,: yet hee ſoon after loſt both his life and his kingdome, which was devolved to the Babylonians, and all the royall race of Aſſyria was rooted out.

Verſe 15. Behold upon the mountains the feet of him, &c.] This Behold is as the ſound of a trumpet before ſome Proclamation, to beſpeak attention. Jeruſalem is ſurrounded with mountains, Pſal. 125.2. and on the mountains a voice may bee heard afarre off.Pedes Evangelizantis. Vulg. The feet of him that bringeth good tidings,] Or, Of an Evangeliſt, that brings news of Sennacheribs ruine: but-eſpecially of Satan ſubdued by Chriſt, which is the ſumme of all the good news in theworld, Luke 2.10.

that publiſheth peace] Pacem omnimodam; externall, internall, eternall, peace of countrey, and of conſcience, by Chriſt who is our peace: It is uſuall with the Prophets to riſe from earthly things to heavenly, from corporalls to ſpiritualls. See Rom. 10.15. Eſay 52.7.

O Iudah keep thy ſolemn feaſts, &c.] which hitherto hindered by the enemy, thou haſt intermitted. Perform thy vows, (made in the day of thy diſtreſſe) bring preſents to him that ought to be feared. Pſal. 76.11. 2 Chro. 32.23

for the wicked] Heb. Belial, that ſtigmaticall Belialiſt Sennacherib, that lawleſſe, yokeleſſe, maſterleſſe monſter, that merum ſcelus, that is ſo portentouſly, ſo peerleſly vitious.

He is utterly cut off] His Army by the Angel, himſelf by his ſonnes, his Monarchy by the Babylonians. See Eſay 27.1, 2.