Nahum 2 commentary

Nineveh shall not put aside this judgment; there is no counsel or strength against the Lord. God looks upon proud cities, and brings them down. Particular account is given of the terrors wherein the invading enemy shall appear against Nineveh. The empire of Assyria is represented as a queen, about to be led captive to Babylon. Guilt in the conscience fills men with terror in an evil day; and what will treasures or glory do for us in times of distress, or in the day of wrath? Yet for such things how many lose their souls!

The kings of Assyria had long been terrible and cruel to their neighbours, but the Lord would destroy their power. Many plead as an excuse for rapine and fraud, that they have families to provide for; but what is thus obtained will never do them any good. Those that fear the Lord, and get honestly what they have, shall not want for themselves and theirs. It is just with God to deprive those of children, or of comfort in them, who take sinful courses to enrich them. Those are not worthy to be heard again, that have spoken reproachfully of God. Let us then come to God upon his mercy-seat, that having peace with him through our Lord Jesus Christ, we may know that he is for us, and that all things shall work together for our everlasting good.

The waster spoken of here by the Prophet, some consider him to have been Sennacherib, and others, Nebuchodonosor. The verb עלה, ole, is also variously explained: it is often taken metaphorically in Hebrew for vanishing, as we say in French, Il s’en va en fumee; for smoke ascends, and this is the reason for the metaphor. They then elicit this meaning, — that a destroyer had ascended before the face of the chosen people, that is, openly; so that it was evidently the work of God, that the Assyrians vanished, who had come to lay waste the whole land: Vanished then has the destroyer; and then before thy face, that is, manifestly, and before thine eyes. מצורה נצור, nutsur metsure, guard the fortress; that is let every one return to his own city, and keep watch, as it is usually done; for the country shall be left without men; and watch the way, that is, look out which way Sennacherib took in coming to assail the holy city; that way shall be now free from enemies; and then, keep firm or strengthen the loins, for חזק, chesek, sometimes means to keep firm, — keep firm then or strengthen the loins, that thou mayest not relax as before, but stand courageously, for there is no one who can terrify thee; and, lastly, fortify strength greatly, that is, doubt not but thou shalt be hereafter strong enough to retain thy position; for cut off shall be that monarchy, which has been an oppression to thee. But others take a different view and say, — that the destroyer had ascended, that is, that Sennacherib had come; and what follows, they think, was intended to strike terror, as though the Prophet said “Now while ye are besieged keep watch, and be careful to preserve your fortresses and strengthen all your strongholds; but all this will avail nothing. — Why? Because God has taken away the pride of Jacob as he has the pride of Israel.” This is the second explanation. Others again think, that the Prophet addresses here the Assyrians, and that Nebuchodonosor is here called a waster, by whom the empire was removed, and Nineveh, as it has often been stated, was destroyed. According to these interpreters, the Prophet here denounces ruin on the Assyrians in this manner, — “The destroyer now ascends before thy face.” The Assyrians might indeed have regarded such threatening with disdain, when they were surrounded by many provinces and had cities well fortified: — “It will not be,” he says, “according to your expectation; the waster will yet come” before thy face; and how much soever thou mayest now guard thy fortresses, watch thy ways, and carefully look around to close up every avenue against thy enemies, thou wilt yet effect nothing; strengthen the loins as much as thou pleasest and increase thy power, yet this shall be useless and vain.” If this view be approved, it will be in confirmation of what has been previously said, — that God had now determined to destroy the city Nineveh and the empire possessed by the Assyrians. This meaning then is not unsuitable; but if we receive this view, something additional must also be stated, and that is, — that God now designed to destroy Nineveh and its monarchy, because it had humbled more than necessary his people, the kingdom of Judah, as well as the ten tribes. I cannot proceed farther now.

Prayer.

Grant Almighty God, that since we are daily chastised by thy scourges, we may know that we are justly punished by thee, and so examine our whole life, that with true and sincere confession we may humbly flee to thy mercy, which is offered to us by thy gospel in Christ our Lord; and since thou dost also show us so many favors, may we not be ungrateful, and may no forgetfulness of thy grace creep over us, but may we especially exercise ourselves through our whole life in the worship of thy name and in giving thanks to thee, and so offer to thee, with our tongues, the sacrifices of praise, that our whole life may be consistent, and thus glorify thy name on earth, that at length we may be gathered into thy celestial kingdom through the same Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.

Lecture One Hundred and Second

We said yesterday that some interpreters regard these words of the Prophet, Ascended has the destroyer before it face, guard the fortress, as having a reference to Sennacherib; that is, that God had taken him away and made him like mist to disappear. We also said, that some elicit this meaning, — that Sennacherib ascended into Judea and filled the whole country with terror, and that he had at length laid it wholly waste. But I am disposed to take their view, who think that this is said of Nebuchodonosor, the waster of Nineveh: as he had been raised up by God to overturn the tyranny of that city, the Prophet ridicules all the efforts and preparations made by the Ninevites (as it is usual when a country is invaded) to oppose him. He therefore says, guard the fortress, watch the way, confirm the loins, and strengthen thy courage greatly But these are ironical expressions; as though he said, Whatever the Ninevites may contrive to defend themselves against the assault of their enemies will be all in vain. That the Babylonian power is meant by “the destroyer,” or disperser, or scatterer, is the opinion if Jerome, Drusius, Grotius, Marckius, and Newcome. But Kimchi, Dathius, Henderson, and some others, regard the “destroyer” as the king of Assyria. What agrees best with the context is the former opinion. Having in the preceding verse announced the release of the people of Israel from the rule of Assyria, the Prophet now introduces its destroyer, and then proceeds with the main object of his prophecy, and describes the fall of Nineveh. Marckius considers the whole verse as addressed to the Babylonian power under the person of the king, while Calvin regards it, with the exception of the first line or clause, as addressed ironically to Nineveh. The verbs are either participles or preterites indicative; but they are construed by the former as gerunds; most of them imperatives. נצור is rendered as a passive participle by the Septuagint, and so it appears to be, and the three which follow, as imperatives. But in two copies it is without the ו; then all the verbs in the verse appear to be in the same form, and may be considered to be either preterites indicative or participles; and participles are often used in Hebrew to express the present tense: and the Prophet may be considered as seeing the Babylonian ascending and laying siege to Nineveh, for מצורה means a siege as well as a fortress: then the rendering would be as follows, —

Ascend does the waster before thee; He watches the siege, guards the way, Makes firm the loins, exerts strength mightily.

But if “fortress” be preferred to “siege,” it may be adopted consistently with the context. — Ed.

What is now subjoined has been added, in my view, in reference to what had already taken place, that is that God had taken away the pride of Jacob, as the pride of Israel Some give this rendering, “God has made to returns or to rest;” and they take גאון, gaun, in a good sense, as meaning courage or glory. The sense, according to these, would be, — that God, having routed the army of Sennacherib, or destroyed the Assyrians, would make the ancient glory of his people to return; for both kingdoms had fallen. They then understand this to have been said respecting the restoration of the whole people; and they who translate, “he will make to rest,” think that continual peace is here promised to the Israelites, as well as to the Jews. But, on the contrary, it appears to me, that the Prophet shows, that it was the ripened time for the destruction of the city Nineveh, for God had now humbled his people. He had then taken away the pride of Jacob, as the pride of Israel; that is, God, having first corrected the pride of Israel, had also applied the same remedy to Judah: thus the whole people were humbled, and had left off their extreme height; for גאון, gaun, for the most part, is taken in a bad sense, for haughtiness or pride. This then is the reason why God now declares, that the ruin of Nineveh was nigh at hand; it was so, because the Jews and the Israelites had been sufficiently brought down. This sense is the most suitable.

And then for the same purpose is the next clause, — that the emptiers had emptied, that is that robbers had pillaged them, and left nothing to remain for them. There is a passage in Isaiah which corresponds with this, where it is said, — that when the Lord had completed his work on mount Zion and in Jerusalem, he would then turn his vengeance against the Assyrians, (Isaiah 10:12:) but why were they not sooner destroyed? Because the Lord designed to employ them for the purpose of chastising the Jews. Until then the whole work of God was completed, that is, until he had so corrected their pride, as wholly to cast it down, it was not his purpose to destroy the Ninevites; but they were at length visited with destruction. The same thing does our Prophet now teach us here, — that Nebuchodonosor would come to demolish Nineveh, when the Lord had taken away the haughtiness of his people. Drusius confessed that he did not understand this verse. The view given of it by Calvin seems plain, and Marckius has taken the same view of it: but Newcome, as well as Henderson, differ widely, and give a rendering which seems not to comport with the context. It is like that of Drusius, which no doubt made him to say that he did not understand the passage.

For Jehovah restoreth the excellency of Jacob As the excellency of Israel.

In this connection, this can have no meaning. The version of Henderson is the same, only he puts the verb in the future tense. The verb שב has the meaning of turning away, as well as of restoring, and Marckius renders it avertit, he turned away. Then גאון, rising, swelling, elatio, is more commonly taken in a bad than in a good sense, as meaning pride, haughtiness. The latter part of the verse sets before us distinctly the means which had been adopted to take away this pride. The passage is evidently parenthetic. — Ed.

What follows, Ανδ τηεψ ηαςε δεστροψεδ τηειρ σηοοτσ, or their branches, I take metaphorically, because the Israelites, as to outward appearances had been pulled up by the roots; for before the eyes of their enemies they were reduced to nothing, and their very roots were torn ups so that they perceived nothing left. The Lord indeed always preserved a hidden remnant; but this was done beyond the perceptions of men. But what the Prophet says metaphorically of the ruined branches, is to be understood of what was apparent.

Nahum 2:3

3. The shield of his mighty men is made red, the valiant men are in scarlet: the chariots shall be with flaming torches in the day of his preparation, and the fir trees shall be terribly shaken.

3. Clypeus fortium ejus rubefactus est, viri potentiae ejus vermiculati (hoc est, rubro etiam colore;) in igne lampadum (vel, taedarum) currus in die expeditionis ejus, et abietes tremefactae sunt.

The Prophet describes here how dreadful the Chaldeans would be when prepared against the Assyrians. He says, The shield of his brave men גבוריהו, of his heroes, — “heroum.” — Dathius. is made red Some think that their shields were painted red, that blood might not appear; and that the soldiers had on red garments, that they might not be frightened in case they were wounded; and this is what history records of the Lacedemonians. But as the habits of these nations are not much known to us, it is enough for us to know, that their warlike appearance is here described; as though he had said, that the Chaldeans would come against Nineveh with violent and terrible power. Hence he says, that the men of his strength אנשי-חיל, men of war, — “warriors,” Henderson; “the valiant men.” — Newcome. would be clad in scarlet; he refers no doubt to the color of their dress. Some expound this of the Assyrians, and say that their shame is here designated; but this is too strained. The Prophet, I have no doubt, describes here the Chaldeans, and shows that they would be so armed that even their very appearance would put to flight their enemies, that is, the Assyrians.

For the same purpose he afterwards adds, With fire of torches, The most satisfactory explanation of this word is what is offered by Parkhurst, and adopted by Henderson. He says that פלד, in Arabic, is to cut, or cut in pieces, and that פלדות may have been the scythes or cutting instruments with which the chariots were armed. Then in eight or nine MSS. The ב, beth, before אש, is כ, caph. If this reading be adopted, and the poetical singular number be retained as to the word chariot, the clause may be thus translated: —

Like fire are the scythes of the chariot, In the day of his preparation.

To which shall be added the line which follows, —

And the fir-trees (spears) tremulously shake.

Fir-trees are rendered “cypresses” by Henderson; and Newcome, following the Septuagint, changes to the word into what signifies “horsemen.” The figure is bold, but it is no unusual thing in poetry to call an instrument by the name of the material of which it is made. — Ed. or lamps, is the chariot in the day of his expedition. The word פלדות, peladut, occurs nowhere else; and the Jews think that the letters are inverted, and that it should be לפידות, as this word is afterwards used by the Prophet in the next verse, and in the same sense. It is certainly evident from the context that either torches or lamps are meant by the Prophet. His chariot then is with the fire of lamps, that is, his chariots drive so impetuously that they appear as flames of fire, when wheels roll with such velocity.

And the fir-trees, he says, are terrible shaken Some translate, “are inebriated” or, “stunned;” and they apply this to the Assyrians, — that their great men (whom they think are here compared to fir-trees, or are metaphorically designated by them) were stunned through amazement. Astonished then shall be the principal men among the Assyrians; for the very sight of their enemies would render them, as it were, lifeless; for the verb רעל, rol, is taken by some in the sense of infecting with poison, or of stupefying. But their opinion is more correct who think that fir-trees are to be taken for lances, though they do not sufficiently express the meaning of the Prophet; for he means, I have no doubt, that such would be the concussion among the lances, that it would be like that of fir-trees, tossed here and there in the forest. For lances, we know, are made of fir-trees, because it is a light wood and flexible, as when any one says in our language, les lances branslent. The lances then trembled, or shook in the hands of the soldiers, as fir-trees shake. Thus we see that the Prophet here continues to describe the terrible appearance of the Chaldeans. Let us go on —

Nahum 2:4

4. The chariots shall rage in the streets, they shall justle one against another in the broad ways: they shall seem like torches, they shall run like the lightnings.

4. In compitis insanient per currus (est hic nomen singulare, currus, ideo quidam subaudiunt viros currus, sed possumus aliter intelligere, quod insaninient in suis curribus; diende) properabunt in plateis (alii vertunt, congregabuntur; potest deduci tam a שקק, quam in שוק, sed hic significat properare;) aspectus eorum quasi lampades (hoc est, lampadum,) quasi fulgura discurrent.

He still goes on with the same subject, — that they shall be furious in the streets that is, that they shall he so turbulent, as though they were out of their minds: as furious men are wont to be who are impetuously carried away beyond all reason and moderation, so shall they also become mad in their tumult. He then says, They shall hasten. The verb is derived from the hips; for he who hastens shakes the hips, and moves them with a quick motion; and if it be lawful to coin a word, it is, they shall hip; Ils remueront les hanches. This is what the Prophet meant. And then, Their appearance מראיהן, three MSS. Have the masculine suffix הם— Ed. shall be as lamps. He refers here to the chariots. They shall then be like lamps; that is they shall dazzle the eyes of beholders with their brightness. All these things are intended to set forth what is terrific. He says also, as lightning they shall run here and there.

In short, he intimates, that the impetuosity of the Chaldeans would be so violent as to surpass what is commonly witnessed among men, that it would be, as it were, a species of fury and madness sent down from above. Thus, then, they were to be like lightning and flames of fire, that they might exceed every thing human. But these forms of speech, though they are hyperbolical, were not yet used without reason; for we may easily conjecture how great was then the security of the city Nineveh, and how incredible was the event of its ruin. That monarchy was then preeminent over every other in the whole world, and no one could have thought that it could ever be assailed. Since then it was difficult to persuade the Jews that ruin was nigh the Assyrians, it was necessary for the Prophet to accumulate these various forms of expressions, by which he sets forth the power of God in the destruction of the Assyrians. It afterwards follows —

Nahum 2:5

5. He shall recount his worthies: they shall stumble in their walk; they shall make haste to the wall thereof, and the defence shall be prepared.

5. Recordabitur fortium suorum, impingent in itinere suo (vel, itineribus suis, si legamus plurali numero;) festinabunt ad murum ejus, parabitur integumentum.

Some interpreters explain this also of the Chaldeans: The king of Babylon then shall remember his mighty men; that is, shall recount his forces and whatever strength he will have under his power; all this he will collect to make war with Nineveh and the Assyrians. Others think that there is here a transposition in the words, (which is too strained,) “Mighty men shall remember,” as though it were a change of number. But I take the words of the Prophet simply as they are, — that he will remember mighty men: but this, as I think, refers to the Assyrians. He then, that is, either the king of Nineveh, or the people, will remember the mighty men; that is, he will gather from every quarter his forces and will omit nothing which may avail for defense; as it is usually done in great danger and in extremities: for they were noted then as warlike men; and every one who had any skill, every one who was endued with courage, every one who was trained up in arms, all these were mustered, that they might give help. So then the Prophet says, that such would be the dread in the land of Assyria, that they would collect together whatever force they had, to defend themselves against their enemies. The king then shall remember his mighty men, that is, he will muster all the subsidies within his reach.

Then he says, They shall stumble in their march; that is, the mighty men, when gathered, shall tremble and stumble like the blind: and this will be occasioned by fear; so that like men astounded, they will move to and fro, and have no certain footing. The Prophet then declares here two things, that the Assyrians would be diligent in gathering forces to repel the assault of their enemies, — but that yet they would effect nothing, for trembling would seize the minds of all, so that mighty men would stumble in their marches. They shall stumble, and then it is said, they shall hasten to its wall, that is, they shall ascend the wall; and it is added, Prepared shall be the covering, as it is usual in defending cities. Some apply this to the Chaldeans; prepared shall be the covering, that is, when they shall come to the wall. It was indeed usual, as it is well known from histories, for those who approached a wall to defend themselves either with turrets or hurdles. But the Prophet, I doubt not, intimates, that the Assyrians would come with great trembling to meet their enemies, but without any success. However then they might defend themselves, their enemies would yet prevail. This verse is applied by Grotius and Newcome to the Babylonian and not to the Assyrian king. The last clause seems to favor this opinion, but the second, the other. To render יכשלו as a Hiphil, “They cast down,” without an objective case, cannot be approved; but they may have been said to “stumble,” as the word means, from their great haste, afterwards mentioned. Piscator, Marckius, and Henderson, agree in the view given here. — Ed. He therefore subjoins —

Nahum 2:6

6. The gates of the rivers shall be opened, and the palace shall be dissolved.

6. Portae fluviorum apertae sunt, et palatium solutum est.

By the gates of the rivers the Prophet means that part of the city which was most fortified by the river Tigris; for the Tigris flowed close by the city. As then the Tigris was like the strongest defense, (for we know it to have been a most rapid river,) the Prophet ridicules the confidence of the Ninevites, who thought that the access of enemies could be wholly prevented in that part where the Tigris flowed. The gates then of the rivers are opened; that is, your river shall not prevent your enemies from breaking through and penetrating into your city.

We hence see, that the Prophet removes all the hindrances which might have seemed available to keep off enemies; and he did so, not so much for the sake of Nineveh as for the sake of his chosen people, that the Israelites and Jews might know, that that city was no less in the power of God than any other; for God can no less easily pass through rivers than go along the plain, where there is no obstacle. We now see why the Prophet says, that the gates of the rivers were opened: and then he adds, The palace is dissolved; that is, there will be no impediment to prevent the approach of enemies; for all the fortresses will melt away, and that of themselves, as though they were walls of paper, and the stones, as though they were water. He afterwards adds —

Nahum 2:7

7. And Huzzab shall be led away captive, she shall be brought up, and her maids shall lead her as with the voice of doves, tabering upon their breasts.

7. Et quae stabat solida (vel, firma) ejecta est in exilium (vel, quae stabat occulta, patefacta est, jussa est ascendere;) et ancillae ejus ducentes tanquam in voce columbarum, plangentes super pectora sua.

There is some ambiguity in these words, and many interpreters think that הצב, estab, to be the name of the queen. The queen then they say, of the name of הצב, estab, is drawn away into exile; she is bidden to ascend, that she might migrate to a hostile land. But this view is too strained; nor was there any reason to suppose the word to be a proper name, except that there was a wish to say something, and that there was no other conjecture more probable. But I regard their opinion more correct, who refer this to the state of the kingdom; and there is here, I have no doubt, a personification, which is evident if we attend to the meaning. If any one prefers to regard the queen as intended, it would yet be better to take הצב, estab, in its proper and real meaning, — that the queen, previously hid in her palace, and hardly able, through being so delicate, to move a step, — that she was brought forth to the light; for גלה, gele, means to uncover, and also to cast out. If we render it, was made manifest, the Prophet alludes to hiding-places, and means that the queen did not go forth to the light, but was like delicate women who keep themselves within their chambers: but if we render it, Who is drawn forth into exile, it would be more suitable to one who was previously fixed in her dwelling. The word comes from יצב, itsab, to stand; but it is here in Hophal, הוצב, eustab,: it then signifies one who was before fixed and firmly settled, that is, in her concealment; she is drawn, he says, into exile. If then any one chooses to refer this to the person of the queen, the most suitable meaning would be, — that the queen, who before sat in the midst of her pleasures, shall be violently drawn into exile, and carried away to another country. And it is probable that the Prophet speaks of the queen, because it immediately follows, Her handmaids lead her as with the voice of doves, and smite on their breasts; that is, her maids, who before flattered her, shall laments and with sighing and tears, and mourning, shall lead away, as a captive, their own mistress. Thus the context would harmonize.

But, as I have said, their opinion seems right, who think that under the person of a woman the state of the kingdom is here described. She then, who before stood, or remained fixed, shall be drawn into captivity; or she, who before sat at leisure, shall be discovered; that is, she shall no more lie hid as hitherto in her retirement, but shall be forced to come abroad. And then, she shall ascend; that is, vanish away, for the verb is to be here taken metaphorically; she shall then vanish away, or be reduced to nothing. And as the Prophet sets a woman here before us, what follows agrees with this idea, — Her handmaids shall weep and imitate the doves in their moaning; that is, the whole people shall bewail the fate of the kingdom, when things shall be so changed, as when handmaids lead forth their own mistress, who had been before nourished in the greatest delicacies. Various have been the opinions respecting the construction of this verse. The Rabbins have generally considered the first word as the name of the queen of Nineveh: but this opinion has been adopted but by a few. Newcome joins the word with the last verse, and changes it into מצב, on no authority but that of conjecture, and renders it “fortress.” What Henderson has adopted seems the best: he also joins it to the last verse, but makes no change in it, only he gives the ו an adversative meaning, which it often has. The evident gender, as he rightly says, of הצב proves its connection with the former verse, it being masculine, while the verbs in this verse are feminines. His version of the two verses is the following, —

7. The floodgates are opened, And the palace is dissolved, Though firmly established.

8. She is made bare, she is carried up, While her handmaids moan like doves, And smite upon their hearts.

With the exception of the word הצב, this version is liable to several objections. The verb גלה is often used in Kal intransitively, “is removed;” and this meaning enables us better to understand that of the next verb, “she is made to ascend,” that is, into captivity, even into Babylon, the seat of empire, being ever considered as the highest place. מנהגות is a word which in some form or another often occurs in Hebrew, and has never the meaning here given to it. Here it is a participle in Hophal, and “carried away” is its evident meaning, and is rendered ηγοντο, led away, by the Septuagint. “Like,” or, as “the voice of doves,” are literally the words which follow this verb. However connected, they must be considered as elliptical — “as with the voice, or, with a voice as that of doves.” They might then be construed with the next line. The whole verse would then be this, —

She is removed, she is made to ascend; Yea, her handmaids are led away, Who with a voice as that of doves, tabor on their breasts.

They were accompanying the tabering with a voice like that of doves. “Tabor” is literally the original, and “on their breasts” is an English idiom, as “on their hearts” is a Hebrew idiom. — Ed.

Now this accumulation of words was by no means in vain; for it was necessary to confirm, by many words, the faith of the Israelites and of the Jews respecting the near approach of the destruction of the city Nineveh, which would have been otherwise incredible; and of this we can easily form a judgment by our own experience. If any one at this day were to speak of mighty kings, whose splendor amazes the whole world, — if any one were to announce the ruin of the kingdom of one of them, it would appear like a fable. This then is the reason why the Prophet, by so many figures, sets forth an event which might have been expressed in few words, and confirms it by so many forms of speech, and even by such as are hyperbolical. He at length subjoins —

Nahum 2:8

8. But Nineveh is of old like a pool of water: yet they shall flee away. Stand, stand, shall they cry; but none shall look back.

8. Atqui Nineveh quasi piscina aquarum a diebus (hoc est, a longo tempore) fuit; ipsi autem fugiunt; state, state; et nemo respicit.

The prophet here anticipates a doubt which might have weakened confidence in his words; for Nineveh not only flourished in power, but it had also confirmed its strength during a long course of time; and antiquity not only adds to the strength of kingdoms, but secures authority to them. As then the imperial power of the city Nineveh was ancient, it might seem to have been perpetual: “Why! Nineveh has ever ruled and possessed the sovereign power in all the east; can it be now shaken, or can its strength be now suddenly subverted? For where there is no beginning, we cannot believe that there will be any end.” And a beginning it had not, according to the common opinion; for we know how the Egyptians also fabled respecting their antiquity; they imagined that their kingdom was five thousand years before the world was made; that is, in numbering their ages they went back nearly five thousand years before the creation. The Ninevites, no doubt, boasted that they had ever been; and as they were fixed in this conceit respecting their antiquity, no one thought that they could ever fail. This is the reason why the Prophet expressly declares, that Nineveh had been like a pool of waters from ancient days; The original is in a singular form, מימי היא, “from the days of it,” or, of her. Henderson says, that “it is an antiquated mode of expressing the feminine pronominal affix — the absolute form of the pronoun being retained instead of the fragmental ה.” The verse may be thus rendered: —

Though Nineveh has been like a pool of water during her days, Yet they flee; — — “Stand, stand;” But none is looking back.

Newcome’s version of the first line is as follows, —

And the waters of Nineveh are as a pool of water:

And he says, that the pronoun sometimes is at the end of a clause: but it cannot be so considered here, because היא is in regimine with מימי It is to be noticed, that the Prophet throughout represents the whole transaction as an eye-witness, as it had been shown to him in a vision. — Ed. that is, Nineveh had been, as it were, separated from the rest of the world; for where there is a pool, it seems well fortified by its own banks, no one comes into it; when one walks on the land he does not enter into the waters. Thus, then, had Nineveh been in a quiet state not only for a short time, but for many ages. This circumstance shall not, however, prevent God from overturning now its dominion. How much soever, then, Nineveh took pride in the notion of its ancientness, it was yet God’s purpose to destroy it.

He says then, They flee: by fleeing, he means, that, though not beaten by their enemies, they would yet be overcome by their own fear. He then intimates, that Nineveh would not only be destroyed by slaughter, but that all the Assyrians would flee away, and despair would deliver them up to their enemies. Hence the Chaldeans would not only be victorious through their courage and the sword, but the Assyrians, distrusting their own forces, would flee away.

It afterwards follows, Stand ye, stand ye, and no one regards. Here the Prophet places, as it were, before our eyes, the effect of the dread of which he speaks. He might have given a single narrative, — that though one called them back they would not dare to look behind; and that, thinking that safety alone was in flight, they would pursue their course. The Prophet might have formed this sort of narrative: this he has not done; but he assumes the person of one calling back the fugitives, as though he saw them fleeing away, and tried to bring them back: No one, he says, regards We now see what the Prophet meant.

But from this passage we ought to learn that no trust is to be put in the number of men, nor in the defenses and strongholds of cities, nor in ancientness; for when men excel in power, God will hence take occasion to destroy them, inasmuch as pride is almost ever connected with strength. It can hardly be but that men arrogate too much to themselves when they think that they excel in any thing. Thus it happens, that on account of their strength they run headlong into ruin; not that God has any delight, as profane men imagine, when he turns upside down the face of the earth, but because men cannot bear their own success, nor keep themselves within moderate bounds, but many triumph against God: hence it is that human power recoils on the head of those who possess it. The same things must also be said of ancientness: for they who boast of their antiquity, know not for how long a time they have been provoking the wrath of God; for it cannot be otherwise but that abundance of itself generates licentiousness, or that it at least leads to excess; and further, they who are the most powerful are the most daring in corrupting others. Hence the increase at putridity; for men are like the dead when not ruled by the fear of God. A dead body becomes more and more fetid the longer it continues putrifying; and so it is with men. When they have been for a long time sinning, and still continue to sin, the fetidness of their sins increases, and the wrath of God is more and more provoked. There is then no reason why ancientness should deceive us. And if, at any time, we are tempted to think that men are sufficiently fortified by their own strength, or by numerous auxiliaries, or that they are, as it were sacred through their own ancientness, let what is said here come to our minds, — that Nineveh had been like a pool of waters from the ancient days; but that, when it was given up to destruction, it fled away; and that, when their enemies did not rout them, they yet, being driven by their own fear, ran away and would not stop, though one called them to return.

Prayer.

Grant, Almighty God, that as thou constantly remindest us, in thy word, and teachest us by so many examples, that there is nothing permanent in this world, but that the things which seem the firmest tend to ruin, and instantly fall and of themselves vanish away, when by thy breath thou shakest that strength in which men trust, — O grant, that we being really subdued and humbled, may not rely on earthly things, but raise up our hearts and our thoughts to heaven, and there fix the anchor of our hope; and may all our thoughts abide there, and at length, when thou hast led us through our course on earth we shall be gathered into that celestial kingdom, which has been obtained for us by the blood of thy only-begotten Son. Amen.

Lecture One Hundred and Third

Nahum 2:9

9. Take ye the spoil of silver, take the spoil of gold: for there is none end of the store and glory out of all the pleasant furniture.

9. Diripite argentum, diripite aurum; et non finis (quia non est, copula debet resolvi in causalem particulam; quia nullus finis) praeparationis ejus (sic vertunt, sed proprie תכונה significat locum;) gloria ex omni vase desiderabili.

Here the Prophet, as it were, by the command and authority of God, gives up Nineveh to the will of its enemies, that they might spoil and plunder it. Some think that this address is made in the name of a general encouraging his soldiers; but we know that the Prophets assume the person of God, when they thus command any thing with authority; and it is a very emphatical mode of speaking. It is adopted, that we may know that the Prophets pour not forth an empty sound when they speak, but really testify what God here determined to do, and what he in due time will execute. As then we know, that this manner of speaking is common to the Prophets there is no reason to apply this to the person of Nebuchadnezzar or of any other. God then shows here that Nineveh was given up to ruin; and therefore he delivered it into the hands of enemies.

It is indeed certain, that the Babylonians, in plundering the city, did not obey God’s command; but yet it is true, that they punished the Assyrians through the secret influence of God: for it was his purpose to visit the Ninevites for the cruelty and avarice for which they had been long notorious, and especially for having exercised unexampled barbarity toward the Jews. This is the reason why God now gives them up to the Babylonians and exposes them to plunder. But as I have spoken at large elsewhere of the secret judgments of God, I shall only briefly observe here, — that God does not command the Babylonians and Chaldeans in order to render them excusable, but shows by his Prophet, that Nineveh was to be destroyed by her enemies, not by chance, but that it was his will to avenge the wrongs done to his people. At the same time, we must bear in mind what we have said elsewhere, — that the Prophets thus speak when the execution is already prepared; for God does not in vain or without reason terrify men, but he afterwards makes it manifest by the effect: as he created the world from nothing by his word, so also by his word he executes and fulfill his judgments. It is then no wonder, that the Prophet does here, as though he ruled the Chaldeans according to his will, thus address them, Take ye away, take ye away But this must be viewed as having a reference to the faithful; for the Babylonians, in plundering the city Nineveh, did not think that they obeyed God, nor did they give to God the praise due for the victory; but the faithful were thus reminded, that all this was done through the secret providence of God, and that it was also a clear, and, as it were, a visible evidence of God’s paternal love towards his Church, when he thus deigned to undertake the cause of his distressed people.

It then follows, There is no end of preparations: Some render תכונה, techune, treasure, or hidden wealth, and derive it from כון, cun, which is to prepare; but תכונה, tacune, is almost always taken for a measure. תכנות, tacanut, from תכון, tacun means a sum, for תכש, tacan, is to number or to count; and this meaning suits the passage. Buxtorf derives the word from כון, to prepare, and Parkhurst from תכן, to regulate, to measure. It is rendered “store” by Newcome and Henderson. What is meant is evidently the vast treasure amassed by the Assyrians. The next words are more variously rendered. Newcome connects the word כבד with “store,” and renders the two lines thus, —

And there is no end of the glorious store, Because of all kinds of pleasant vessels.

But more consistent with the character of the language, and agreeably to what Dr. Wheeler suggests, is this, —

And there is no end to her store, It is more precious than all desirable vessels.

The preposition מ, after כבד, may be viewed as the comparative degree. — Ed. But there is no need of laboring much about this word; if we take it simply for place, the meaning would be, that there was no plot of ground in that city which was not as it were a gulf filled up; for it had amassed all the wealth of the nations: and this sense would harmonize well with the subject of the Prophet, — that the soldiers were to plunder until they were satiated; for the place was, as it were, a deep abyss.

He afterwards adds, There is glory from every desirable vessel. Those who think מ, mem, a particle of comparison in this place are much mistaken, and misapply the meaning of the Prophet; their rendering is, In comparison with every desirable vessel; but this, as all must see, is very frigid. The Prophet, I have no doubt, declares that the wealth of Nineveh consisted of every desirable vessel; for they had for a long time heaped together immense wealth, and that of every kind. The Hebrews call what is precious a desirable thing; and their vessels we include under the term furniture. We now then perceive what the Prophet means. Some take כבד, cabed, as a participle, and give this version, It is burdened, or adorned, (for it means both,) with every desirable vessel. But the simpler mode of speaking is what we have explained, — that its glory was from every desirable vessel.

And here the Prophet condemns what the Assyrians had done in heaping together so much wealth from all quarters; for they had committed indiscriminate plunder, and gathered for themselves all the riches of the nations. They had indeed plundered all their neighbors, yea, and wholly stripped them. The Prophet now shows, in order to expose them to ridicule, that other robbers would be made rich, whom the Lord would raise up against them. The same is said by Isaiah,

‘O thou plunderer, shalt not thou also be exposed to plunder?’ (Isaiah 33.)

So also the Prophet shows in this passage, that men foolishly burn with so much avidity for money, and with so much anxiety heap together great wealth; for God will find out some who in their turn will plunder those who have plundered. It follows—

Nahum 2:10

10. She is empty, and void, and waste: and the heart melteth, and the knees smite together, and much pain is in all loins, and the faces of them all gather blackness.

10. Exinanita etexinanita est, et nudata; et cor liquefactum, et collisio genuum, et terror in omnibus lumbis; et facies omnium contraxerunt nigredinem (vel, splendorem, ut alii vertunt.)

The Prophet here confirms what the last verse contains; for he shows why he had called the Chaldeans to take away the spoil, — because it was to be so. He did not indeed (as I have already said) command the Chaldeans in such a way as that their obedience to God was praiseworthy: but the Prophet speaks here only of His secret counsel. Though then the Chaldeans knew not that it was God’s decree, yet the Prophet reminds the faithful that the Ninevites, when made naked, suffered punishment for their cruelty, especially for having so hostilely conducted themselves towards the Jews: and hence he declares, that Nineveh is emptied, is emptied, and made naked. The three words in Hebrew form a very striking alliteration; and they present another peculiarity, — they increase in length or in syllables, somewhat similar to what follows, —

She is made void, and empty, and desolate:

or,

She is empty, and emptied, and desolated.

bwqh wmbwqh wmblqh

Buke, umebuke, umebelake.

Some consider the words as nouns, but they are evidently participles. — Ed. By repeating the same word, he intimates the certainty of the event: Emptied, emptied, he says, as when one says in our language, videe et revidee We hence see that by this repetition what the Prophet meant is more distinctly expressed that the faithful might not doubt respecting the event: and then for the same purpose he adds, she is made naked.

We now then perceive the Prophet’s design. As in the last verse he shows that he had power given him from above to send armies against Nineveh, and to give up the city to them to be spoiled and plundered; so he now shows that he had not so commanded the Chaldeans, as though they were the legitimate servants of God, and could pretend that they rendered service to Him. He therefore points out for what end he had commanded the Chaldeans to plunder Nineveh; and that was, because God had so decreed; and he had so decreed and commanded, because he would not bear the many wrongs done to his people whom he had taken under his protection. As then Nineveh had so cruelly treated God’s chosen people, it was necessary that the reward she deserved should be repaid to her. But the repetition, which I have noticed, ought to be especially observed; for it teaches us that God’s power is connected with his word, so that he declares nothing inconsiderately or in vain.

He then adds, that knees smite together; and every heart is dissolved, or melted, and also, that all loins tremble We hence learn, that there is in men no courage, except as far as God supplies them with vigor. As soon then as He withdraws his Spirit, those who were before the most valiant become faint-hearted, and those who breathed great ferocity are made soft and effeminate: for by the word heart is meant inward boldness or courage; and by the knees and loins the strength of body is to be understood. There is indeed no doubt but the Assyrians, while they ruled, were a very courageous people, as power ever generates boldness; and it is also probable that they were a warlike people, since all their neighbors had been brought under their power. But the Prophet now shows, that there would be no vigor in their hearts, and no strength in their loins, or in any part of their body. The heart, then, he says, is melted And hence we learn how foolishly men boast of their courage, while they seem to be like lions; for God can in a moment so melt their hearts, that they entirely lose all firmness. Then as to external vigor, we see that it is in God’s hand; there will be, he says, a confriction, or the knees will knock one against another, as they do when they tremble. And he says afterwards, And trembling shall be in all loins These three lines are literally as follows, —

And the heart is melted, And there is tottering of the knees, And anguish in all loins.

The word חלחלה is not trembling, but violent pain, pang, or anguish as that of a woman in travail. — Ed. He at last adds, And the faces of all shall gather blackness The word פארור, parur, some derive from פאר, par; and so the rendering would be, “all faces shall draw in or withdraw their beauty,” and so also they explain Joel 2:6, for the sentence there is the same. But they who disapprove of this meaning say, that קבף, kobets, cannot mean to draw in or to withdraw; and so they render the noun, blackness. But this is a strained explanation. פארור, parur, [they say,] does not mean a black color but a pot: when therefore a caldron or a kettle contracts blackness from smoke, it is then called פארור, parur: but in this place these interpreters are constrained to take it metaphorically for that color; which is, as I have said, strained and far-fetched. I am therefore inclined to adopt their opinion who render the sentence, all faces shall withdraw their beauty, or their brightness: but as to the import of the passage, there is little or no difference; let then every one have his free choice. Parkhurst and others agree with Calvin, as to the construction of this line. The idea adopted seems to have been first suggested by Aben-Ezra, as it appears from Marckius, but was strongly opposed by Kimchi, and on apparently a good ground — the meaning of the verb here used. קבף, as a verb and as a noun, in all its variations, has invariably the idea of collecting or gathering, and in no instance that of withdrawing, except as it is said, in this sentence, and in Joel. Dathius, Marckius, and Newcome, retain the idea contained in our version; and consistent with this is the paraphrase of the clause given by the Septuagint, “και το προσωπον (τα προσωπα, comp.) παντων ως προσκαυμα χυτρας — and the face (or, the faces) of all as the burning on the pot.” This idea is much more expressive and striking than the other. — Ed. With regard to the Prophet’s design, he evidently means, that the faces of all would be sad, for the Lord would fill their minds and thoughts with dread. The withdrawing then of beauty signifies an outward appearance of sorrow, or paleness, or whatever may appear in the countenance of men, when dejected with grief. In short, the Prophet means, that how much soever the Assyrians might have hitherto raised on high their crests, and breathed great swelling words, and conducted themselves insolently, they would now be dejected; for the Lord would prostrate their courage and melt their strength: he would, by casting down their high spirits, constrain them to undergo shame. This is the import of the whole. It now follows —

Nahum 2:11-12

11. Where is the dwelling of the lions, and the feeding-place of the young lions, where the lion, even the old lion, walked, and the lion’s whelp, and none made them afraid?

11. Ubi domicilium leonum, et locus pascui leonibus, quo veniebant leo, leo, catulus leonis, et nemo exterrens?

12. The lion did tear in pieces enough for his whelps, and strangled for his lionesses, and filled his holes with prey, and his dens with ravin.

12. Leo rapiebat quantum sufficeret catulis suis, et strangulabat leanis suis, et replebat repina speluncas suas et lustra sua praeda.

Here the Prophet triumphs over the Assyrians, because they thought that the city Nineveh was remote from every danger: as lions, who fear nothing, when they are in their dens, draw thither their prey in their claws or in their mouths: so also was the case with the Assyrians; thinking themselves safe, while Nineveh flourished, they took the greater liberty to commit plunders everywhere. For Nineveh was not only the receptacle of robbers but was also like a den of lions. And the Prophet more fully expresses the barbarous cruelty of the Assyrians by comparing them to lions, than if he had simply called them lions. We now then see what he means, when he says, Where is the place of lions? And he designedly speaks thus of the Assyrians: for no one ever thought that they could be touched by even the least injury; the fear of them had indeed so seized all men, that of themselves they submitted to the Assyrians. As then no one dared to oppose them, the Prophet says, Where? as though he had said that though all thought it incredible that Nineveh could be overthrown, it would yet thus happen. But he assumes the character of one expressing his astonishment, in order to intimate, that when the Lord should execute such a judgment, it would be a work of wonder, which would fill almost all with amazement. This question then proves that those are very foolish who form a judgment of God’s vengeance, of which the Prophet speaks, according to the appearance of things at the time; for the ruin of Nineveh and of that empire was to be the incomprehensible work of God, and which was to fill all minds with astonishment.

He says first, Where is the place of lions? The feminine gender is indeed here used; but all agree that the Prophet speaks of male lions. It is better to retain the gender as it is in Hebrew: and this makes the passage more consistent, and corresponds better with the “feeding-place” in the next line. The recesses of the lionesses and the whelps are here mentioned, and in the next verse is stated what the lions did for them: —

11. Where is the haunt of the lionesses, And the feeding-place, even that for the whelps, Where did go the lion, the lioness, the cub of the lion, And none made them afraid?

12. The lion ravined for the supply of his cubs, And strangled for his lionesses, And filled with ravin his dens, And his haunts by ravining.

“The allegory,” says Newcome, “is beyond measure beautiful. Where are the inhabitants of Nineveh, who were strong and rapacious like lions?” — Ed. He then adds, the place of feeding for lions? כפרים, caphrim, mean young lions as we shall hereafter see; and אריות, ariut, are old lions. He afterwards adds, Where אריה, arie came: and then comes לביא, labia, which some render, lioness; but לביא, labia, properly means an old lion; the Prophet, no doubt, uses it in the next verse in the feminine gender for lionesses. I therefore do not deny, but that we may fitly render the terms here, lion and lioness; afterwards, and the whelp of lions, and none terrifying. He then adds, Seize did the lion (the word is אריה, arie) for his whelps to satiety, that is, sufficiently; and strangle did he for his lionesses, ללבאתיו, lalabatiu. Here no doubt the Prophet means lionesses; there would otherwise be no consistency in the passage. He afterwards says,

And filled has he with prey his dens and his recesses with ravin; it is the same word with a different termination, טרף, thereph, and טרפה, therephe

Now the repetition, made here by the Prophet, of lion, young lion, and lioness, was not without its use; for he meant by this number of words to set forth the extreme ferocity of the Assyrians, while they were dominant. He no doubt compares their kings, their counselors, and their chief men, to lions: and he calls their wives lionesses, and their children he calls young lions or whelps of lions. The sum of the whole is, that Nineveh had so degenerated in its opulence, that all in power were like ferocious wild beasts, destitute of every kind feeling. And I wish that this could have only been said of one city and of one monarchy! But here, as in a mirror, the Prophet represents to us what we at this day observe, and what has always and in all ages been observed in great empires; for here great power exists, there great licentiousness prevails; and when kings and their counselors become once habituated to plunder, there is no end of it; nay, a kind of fury is kindled in their hearts, that they seek nothings else but to devour and to tear in pieces to rend and to strangle. The Prophet indeed wished here to console both the Israelites and the Jews by showing, that the injustice of their enemies would not go unpunished: but at the same time he intended to show how great, even to the end of the world, would be the cruelty of those who would rule tyrannically: and as I have said, experience proves, that there are too many like the Ninevites. It is indeed unquestionable, that the Prophet does not without reason speak so often here of lions and lionesses.

Hence he says, “Come thither did the lion, the lioness, and the whelp of the lion.” He means that when justice was sought in that city, it was found to be the den of cruel beasts; for the king had put off all humanity, as well as his counselors; their wives were also like lionesses, and their children and domestics were as young lions or the whelps of lions. And cruelty creeps in, somewhat in this manner: When a king takes to himself too much liberty, his counselors follow him; and then every one follows the common example, as though every thing received as a custom was lawful. This is the representation which the Prophet in these words sets before us; and we with our own eyes see the same things. Then he adds, ‘The lion did tear what sufficed his whelps, and strangled for his lionesses; he filled with prey his dens and his recesses with plunder. He goes on with the same subject, — that the Assyrians heaped for themselves great wealth by unjust spoils, because they had no regard for what was right. The lion, he says, did tear for his whelps: as lions accustom their whelps to plunder, and when they are not grown enough, so as to be able to attack innocent animals, they provide a prey for them, and also bring some to the lionesses; so also, as the Prophet informs us, was the case at Nineveh; the habits of all men were formed for cruelty by the chief men and the magistrates. By the word בדי, bedi, sufficiency, he means not that the Ninevites are satisfied with their prey, for they were insatiable; but it rather refers to the abundance which they had. And he says, that the lion strangled for his lionesses: I wish there were no lionesses to devour at this day; but we see that there are some who surpass their husbands in boldness and cruelty. But the Prophet says here what is natural, — that the lion strangles the prey and gives it afterwards to his lionesses. He then adds, that the Ninevites were not satisfied with daily rapines, as many robbers live for the day; but he says, that their plunder was laid up in store. Hence they filled their secret places and dens with their booty and spoils. Still further, though the Prophet speaks not here so plainly, as we shall see he does in what follows, it is yet certain, that the reason is here given, why God visited the Ninevites with so severe a vengeance, and that was, because they had ceased to be like men, and had degenerated into savage beasts. It follows —

Nahum 2:13

13. Behold, I am against thee, saith the Lord of hosts, and I will burn her chariots in the smoke, and the sword shall devour thy young lions: and I will cut off thy prey from the earth, and the voice of thy messengers shall no more be heard.

13. Ecce Ego ad te dicit Jehova exercituum, et comburam in fumo currum ejus, et leunculos tuos comedet gladius, et excidam e terra praedam tuam, et non audietur amplius vox nunciorum tuorum (aut, dentium molarium.)

To give more effect to what he says, the Prophet introduces God here as the speaker. Behold, he says, I am against thee He has been hitherto, as it were, the herald of God, and in this character gave an authoritative command to the Chaldeans to plunder Nineveh: but when God himself comes forward, and uses not the mouth of man, but declares himself his own decrees, it is much more impressive. This then is the reason why God now openly speaks: Behold, I am, he says, against thee. We understand the emphatical import of the demonstrative particle, Behold; for God, as if awakened from sleep, shows that it will be at length his work, to undertake the cause of his people, and also to punish the world for its wickedness, Behold, I am against thee, he says. We have elsewhere seen a similar mode of speaking; there is therefore no need of dwelling on it here.

I will burn, he says, with smoke her chariots Here by smoke some understand a smoky fire; but the Prophet, I think, meant another thing, — that at the first onset God would consume all the chariots of Nineveh; as though he had said, that as soon as the flame burst forth, it would be all over with all the forces of Nineveh; for by chariots he no doubt means all their warlike preparations; and we know that they fought then from chariots: as at this day there are employed in wars horsemen in armor, so there were then chariots. But the Prophet, by taking a part for the whole, includes all warlike forces: I will burn then the chariots Jerome renders the clause, “Succendam usque ad fumum — I will burn to smoke” the chariots: and the version of Henderson is the same. But the most natural supposition is, that smoke here is mentioned instead of fire. And so Dathius renders it — “igni — with fire.” — Ed. — How? By smoke alone, that is as soon as the first flame begins to emerge; for the smoke rises before the fire appears or gathers strength: in short, the Prophet shows that Nineveh would be, as it were, in a moment, reduced to nothing, as soon as it pleased God to avenge its wickedness.

He then adds in the third person, And thy young lions shall the sword devour He indeed changes the person here; but the discourse is more striking, when God manifests his wrath in abrupt sentences. He had said, Behold, I am against thee; then, I will burn her chariots, he now hardly deigns to direct his speech to Nineveh; but afterwards he returns to her, and thy young lions shall the sword devour Then God, by speaking thus in broken sentences, more fully expresses the dreadful vengeance which he had determined to execute on the Ninevites. He then says, And I will exterminate from the earth thy prey; that is, it will not now be allowed thee to go on as usual; for I will put a stop to thy inhuman cruelty. Thus prey may be taken for the act itself; or it may be fitly explained of the spoils taken from the nations, for the Ninevites, by their tyrannical ravening, had everywhere plundered; and thus it may be applied to the pillaging of the city. I will then exterminate from the land, that is from thy country, those riches which have been hitherto heaped together as though a lion had been everywhere gathering a prey.

And heard no more shall be the voice of thy messengers They who understand מלאכים, melakim, to be messengers, apply the word to the heralds, by whom the Assyrians were wont to proclaim wars on neighboring nations. As then they sent here and there their heralds to announce war, and as their terrible voice sounded everywhere, the words of the Prophet have this meaning given them, — that God would at length produce silence, so that they should not hereafter disturb all their neighboring countries with the clamor of war. But as this explanation is strained, I am inclined to adopt what others think, — that the grinding teeth are here intended. The word is not written, if it be taken for messengers, according to grammar; it is מלאככה, melakke; there ought not to have been the ה, he at the end, and י, jod, ought to have been inserted before the last letter but one: and if it be deemed as meaning the king, it ought then to have been written מלכך, melkak. All then confess, that the word is not written according to the rule of grammar; and as the Persians call the grinders מלאככה, melakke, we may give this version, which well suits the context, ‘No more shall be heard the sound of grinders.’ For since lions seize the prey with their teeth, The context undoubtedly favors this rendering. The Septuagint has “τα εργα σοι — thy works,” which cannot consist with the word, “voice,” which precedes, though Newcome, following the Septuagint, renders it, “the fame of thy deeds.” There is but one different reading, except as to points, and that is, מלאככם, “their messenger,” in two copies, and this comes nearest to the received text of any that has been conjectured: and to render “messenger” in the singular number comports better with the usual style of the Prophets, than in the plural. Perhaps the ה may be deemed redundant at the end of the sentence; and then it would be literally, “thy messenger,” taken in a collective sense. — Ed. and also break the bones, and thus make a great noise when they tear an animal or a man with their teeth, this rendering seems to be the most suitable, Heard no more shall be the sound of teeth, that is, heard shall not be the noise made by thy teeth; for when thou now tearest thy prey, thy teeth make a noise. No more heard then shall the noise from that breaking, or the clashing or the crashing of the teeth. But as to the chief point, this is no matter of importance.

The Prophet simply teaches us here that it could not be, but that God would at length restrain tyrants; for though he hides himself for a time, he yet never forgets the groans of those whom he sees to be unjustly afflicted: and particularly when tyrants molest the Church, it is proved here by the Prophet that God will at length be a defender; and hence we ought to consider well these words, Behold, I am against thee For though God addresses these words only to the Assyrians, yet as he points out the reasons why he rises up with so much displeasure against them, they ought to be extended to all tyrants, and to all who exercise cruelty towards distressed and innocent men. But this is more clearly expressed in the following verse.

Chapter 3

Nahum 3:1

1. Woe to the bloody city! it is all full of lies and robbery; the prey departeth not;

1. O urbs sanguinaria! Tota mendacio (vertunt) rapina plena est; non recedit praeda (vel, non recedet praeda.)

CHAPTER 2

Na 2:1-13. The Advance of the Destroying Forces against Nineveh, after It Was Used as God's Rod for a Time to Chastise His People: The Capture of That Lion's Dwelling, According to the Sure Word of Jehovah.

1. He that dasheth in pieces--God's "battle axe," wherewith He "breaks in pieces" His enemies. Jr 51:20 applies the same Hebrew term to Nebuchadnezzar (compare Pr 25:18; Jr 50:23, "the hammer of the whole earth"). Here the Medo-Babylonian army under Cyaxares and Nabopolassar, that destroyed Nineveh, is prophetically meant.

before thy face--before Nineveh. Openly, so that the work of God may be manifest.

watch the way--by which the foe will attack, so as to be ready to meet him. Ironical advice; equivalent to a prophecy, Thou shalt have need to use all possible means of defense; but use what thou wilt, all will be in vain.

make thy loins strong--The loins are the seat of strength; to gird them up is to prepare all one's strength for conflict (Job 40:7). Also gird on thy sword (2Sa 20:8; 2Ki 4:29).

2. For the Lord hath turned away the excellency of Jacob--that is, the time for Nineveh's overthrow is ripe, because Jacob (Judah) and Israel (the ten tribes) have been sufficiently chastised. The Assyrian rod of chastisement, having done its work, is to be thrown into the fire. If God chastised Jacob and Israel with all their "excellency" (Jerusalem and the temple, which was their pre-eminent excellency above all nations in God's eyes, Psa 47:4; 87:2; Eze 24:21; see on Am 6:8), how much more will He punish fatally Nineveh, an alien to Him, and idolatrous? Maurer, not so well, translates, "restores," or "will restore the excellency of Jacob."

emptiers--the Assyrian spoilers.

have emptied them out--have spoiled the Israelites and Jews (Ho 10:1). Compare Psa 80:8-16, on "vine branches," as applied to Israel.

3. his mighty men--the Medo-Babylonian general's mighty men attacking Nineveh.

made red--The ancients dyed their bull's-hide shields red, partly to strike terror into the enemy, chiefly lest the blood from wounds which they might receive should be perceived and give confidence to the foe [Calvin]. G. V. Smith conjectures that the reference is to the red reflection of the sun's rays from shields of bronze or copper, such as are found among the Assyrian remains.

in scarlet--or crimson military tunics (compare Mt 27:28). Xenophon mentions that the Medes were fond of this color. The Lydians and Tyrians extracted the dye from a particular worm.

chariots ... with flaming torches--that is, the chariots shall be like flaming torches, their wheels in lightning-like rapidity of rotation flashing light and striking sparks from the stones over which they pass (compare Is 5:28). English Version supposes a transposition of the Hebrew letters. It is better to translate the Hebrew as it is, "the chariots (shall be furnished) with fire-flashing scythes" (literally, "with the fire," or glitter, of iron weapons). Iron scythes were fixed at right angles to the axles and turned down, or parallel to it, inserted into the felly of the wheel. The Medes, perhaps, had such chariots, though no traces of them are found in Assyrian remains. On account of the latter fact, it may be better to translate, "the chariots (shall come) with the glitter of steel weapons" [Maurer and G. V. Smith].

in the day of his preparation--Jehovah's (Is 13:3). Or, "Medo-Babylonian commander's day of preparation for the attack" (Na 2:1). "He" confirms this, and "his" in this verse.

the fir trees--their fir-tree lances.

terribly shaken--branded so as to strike terror. Or, "shall be tremulous with being brandished" [Maurer].

4. rage--are driven in furious haste (Jr 46:9).

justle one against another--run to and fro [Maurer].

in the broad ways--(2Ch 32:6). Large open spaces in the suburbs of Nineveh.

they shall seem like torches--literally, "their (feminine in Hebrew) appearance (is)": namely, the appearance of the broad places is like that of torches, through the numbers of chariots in them flashing in the sun (Pr 8:26, Margin).

run like the lightnings--with rapid violence (Mt 24:27; Lu 10:18).

5. The Assyrian preparations for defense.

He--the Assyrian king.

shall recount his worthies--(Na 3:18). Review, or count over in his mind, his nobles, choosing out the bravest to hasten to the walls and repel the attack. But in vain; for

they shall stumble in their walk--"they shall stumble in their advance" through fear and hurry.

the defence shall be prepared--rather, the covering machine used by besiegers to protect themselves in advancing to the wall. Such sudden transitions, as here from the besieged to the besiegers, are frequent (compare Eze 4:2), [Maurer]. Or, used by the besieged Assyrians [Calvin].

6. The gates of the rivers ... opened--The river wall on the Tigris (the west defense of Nineveh) was 4,530 yards long. On the north, south, and east sides, there were large moats, capable of being easily filled with water from the Khosru. Traces of dams ("gates," or sluices) for regulating the supply are still visible, so that the whole city could be surrounded with a water barrier (Na 2:8). Besides, on the east, the weakest side, it was further protected by a lofty double rampart with a moat two hundred feet wide between its two parts, cut in the rocky ground. The moats or canals, flooded by the Ninevites before the siege to repel the foe, were made a dry bed to march into the city, by the foe turning the waters into a different channel: as Cyrus did in the siege of Babylon [Maurer]. In the earlier capture of Nineveh by Arbaces the Mede, and Belesis the Babylonian, Diodorus Siculus, [1.2.80], states that there was an old prophecy that it should not be taken till the river became its enemy; so in the third year of the siege, the river by a flood broke down the walls twenty furlongs, and the king thereupon burnt himself and his palace and all his concubines and wealth together, and the enemy entered by the breach in the wall. Fire and water were doubtless the means of the second destruction here foretold, as of the first.

dissolved--by the inundation [Henderson]. Or, those in the palace shall melt with fear, namely, the king and his nobles [Grotius].

7. Huzzab--the name of the queen of Nineveh, from a Hebrew root implying that she stood by the king (Psa 45:9), [Vatablus]. Rather, Nineveh personified as a queen. She who had long stood in the most supreme prosperity. Similarly Calvin. Maurer makes it not a proper name, and translates, "It is established," or "determined" (compare Ge 41:32). English Version is more supported by the parallelism.

led away captive--The Hebrew requires rather, "she is laid bare"; brought forth from the apartments where Eastern women remained secluded, and is stripped of her ornamental attire. Compare Is 47:2, 3, where the same image of a woman with face and legs exposed is used of a city captive and dismantled (compare Na 3:5), [Maurer].

brought up--Her people shall be made to go up to Babylon. Compare the use of "go up" for moving from a place in Jr 21:2.

her maids ... as ... doves--As Nineveh is compared to a queen dethroned and dishonored, so she has here assigned to her in the image handmaids attending her with dove-like plaints (Is 38:14; 59:11. The image implies helplessness and grief suppressed, but at times breaking out). The minor cities and dependencies of Nineveh may be meant, or her captive women [Jerome]. Grotius and Maurer translate, for "lead her," "moan," or "sigh."

tabering--beating on their breasts as on a tambourine.

8. But--rather, "Though" [G. V. Smith].

of old--rather, "from the days that she hath been"; from the earliest period of her existence. Alluding to Nineveh's antiquity (Ge 10:11). "Though Nineveh has been of old defended by water surrounding her, yet her inhabitants shall flee away." Grotius, less probably (compare Na 3:8-12), interprets, the "waters" of her numerous population (Is 8:7; Jr 51:13; Re 17:15).

Stand, stand, shall they cry--that is, the few patriotic citizens shall cry to their fleeing countrymen; "but none looketh back," much less stops in flight, so panic-stricken are they.

9. silver ... gold--The conquerors are summoned to plunder the city. Nineveh's riches arose from the annual tribute paid by so many subject states, as well as from its extensive merchandise (Na 3:16; Eze 27:23, 24).

store--accumulated by the plunder of subject nations. It is remarkable, that while small articles of value (bronze inlaid with gold, gems, seals, and alabaster vases) are found in the ruins of Nineveh, there are is none of gold and silver. These, as here foretold, were "taken for spoil" before the palaces were set on fire.

glory out of all the pleasant furniture--or, "there is abundance of precious vessels of every kind" [Maurer].

10. Literally, "emptiness, and emptiedness, and devastation." The accumulation of substantives without a verb (as in Na 3:2), the two first of the three being derivatives of the same root, and like in sound, and the number of syllables in them increasing in a kind of climax, intensify the gloomy effectiveness of the expression. Hebrew, Bukah, Mebukah, Mebullakah (compare Is 24:1, 3, 4; Zep 1:15).

faces of all gather blackness--(See on Joe 2:6). Calvin translates, "withdraw (literally, 'gather up') their glow," or flush, that is, grow pale. This is probably the better rendering. So Maurer.

11. dwelling of ... lions--Nineveh, the seat of empire of the rapacious and destructive warriors of various ranks, typified by the "lions," "young lions," "old lion" (or lioness [Maurer]), "the lion's whelp." The image is peculiarly appropriate, as lions of every form, winged, and sometimes with the head of a man, are frequent in the Assyrian sepulchres. It was as full of spoils of all nations as a lion's den is of remains of its prey. The question, "Where," &c., implies that Jehovah "would make an utter end of the place," so that its very site could not be found (Na 1:8). It is a question expressing wonder, so incredible did it then seem.

12. prey ... ravin--different kinds of prey. Compare Is 3:1, "the stay and the staff."

13. burn ... in the smoke--or (so as to pass) "into smoke," that is, "entirely" [Maurer], (Psa 37:20; 46:9). Calvin, like English Version, explains, As soon as the flame catches, and the fire smokes, by the mere smoke I will burn her chariots.

cut off thy prey from the earth--Thou shalt no more carry off prey from the nations of the earth.

the voice of thy messengers ... no more ... heard--No more shall thy emissaries be heard throughout thy provinces conveying thy king's commands, and exacting tribute of subject nations.

He that dasheth in pieces - Or scattereth. The Chaldeans and Medes.

Keep the munition - Guard the fenced places. From this to the end of the fifth verse, the preparations made at Nineveh to repel their enemies are described. The description is exceedingly picturesque.

Watch the way - By which the enemy is most likely to approach.

Make thy loins strong - Take courage.

Fortify thy power - Muster thy troops; call in all thy allies.

For the Lord hath turned away - Bishop Newcome reads, for the Lord restoreth, by a slight alteration in the text. I do not see that we gain much by this. The Lord has been opposed to Jacob, and the enemy has prevailed against him.

Emptied them out - Brought them from their own land into captivity. This was the emptying!

The shield of his mighty men is made red - These things may refer to the war-like preparations made by the Ninevites: they had red shields, and scarlet or purple clothing; their chariots were finely decorated, and proceeded with amazing rapidity.

The fir trees shall be terribly shaken - This may refer to the darts, arrows, and javelins, flung with destructive power.

The chariots shall rage - Those of the besiegers and the besieged, meeting in the streets, producing universal confusion and carnage.

He shall recount his worthies - Muster up his most renowned warriors and heroes.

Shall make haste to the wall - Where they see the enemies making their most powerful attacks, in order to get possession of the city.

The gates of the rivers shall be opened - I have already referred to this, see the note on Nah 1:8; but it will be necessary to be more particular. The account given by Diodorus Siculus, lib. ii., is very surprising. He begins thus: Ην δ' αυτῳ λογιον παραδεδομενον εκ προγονων, κ.τ.λ. - "There was a prophecy received from their forefathers, that Nineveh should not be taken till the river first became an enemy to the city. It happened in the third year of the siege, that the Euphrates [query, Tigris] being swollen with continued rains, overflowed part of the city, and threw down twenty stadia of the wall. The king then imagining that the oracle was accomplished, and that the river was now manifestly become an enemy to the city, casting aside all hope of safety, and lest he should fall into the hands of the enemy, built a large funeral pyre in the palace, (εν τοις βασιλειοις), and having collected all his gold and silver and royal vestments, together with his concubines and eunuchs, placed himself with them in a little apartment built in the pyre; burnt them, himself, and the palace together. When the death of the king (Sardanapalus) was announced by certain deserters, the enemy entered in by the breach which the waters had made, and took the city." Thus the prophecy of Nahum was literally fulfilled:" the gates of the river were opened, and the palace dissolved," i.e., burnt.

And Huzzab shall be led away captive - Perhaps Huzzab means the queen of Nineveh, who had escaped the burning mentioned above by Diodorus. As there is no account of the queen being burnt, but only of the king, the concubines, and the eunuchs, we may, therefore, naturally conclude that the queen escaped; and is represented here as brought up and delivered to the conqueror; her maids at the same time bewailing her lot. Some think Huzzab signifies Nineveh itself.

But Nineveh is of old like a pool of water - מימי mimey, from days. Bp. Newcome translates the line thus: "And the waters of Nineveh are a pool of waters." There may be reference here to the fact given in the preceding note, the overflowing of the river by which the city was primarily destroyed.

Stand, stand - Consternation shall be at its utmost height, the people shall flee in all directions; and though quarter is offered, and they are assured of safety it they remain, yet not one looketh back.

Take ye the spoil - Though the king burnt his treasures, vestments, etc., he could not totally destroy the silver and the gold. Nor did he burn the riches of the city; these fell a prey to the conquerors; and there was no end of the store of glorious garments, and the most costly vessels and furniture.

She is empty, and void, and waste - The original is strongly emphatic; the words are of the same sound; and increase in their length as they point out great, greater, and greatest desolation. בוקה ומבוקה ומבלקה

Bukah, umebukah, umebullakah.

She is void, empty, and desolate.

The faces of them all gather blackness - This marks the diseased state into which the people had been brought by reason of famine, etc.; for, as Mr. Ward justly remarks, "sickness makes a great change in the countenance of the Hindoos; so that a person who was rather fair when in health, becomes nearly black by sickness." This was a general case with the Asiatics.

Where is the dwelling of the lions - Nineveh, the habitation of bold, strong, and ferocious men.

The feeding place of the young lions - Whither her victorious and rapacious generals frequently returned to consume the produce of their success. Here they walked at large, and none made them afraid. Wheresoever they turned their arms they were victors; and all nations were afraid of them.

The lion did tear - This verse gives us a striking picture of the manner in which the Assyrian conquests and depredations were carried on. How many people were spoiled to enrich his whelps - his sons, princes, and nobles! How many women were stripped and slain, whose spoils went to decorate his lionesses - his queen, concubines, and mistresses. And they had even more than they could assume; their holes and dens - treasure-houses, palaces, and wardrobes - were filled with ravin, the riches which they got by the plunder of towns, families, and individuals. This is a very fine allegory, and admirably well supported.

Behold, I am against thee - Assyria, and Nineveh its capital. I will deal with you as you have dealt with others.

The voice of thy messengers - Announcing thy splendid victories, and the vast spoils taken - shall no more be heard - thou and thy riches, and ill-got spoils, shall perish together.

He - The Medes or Chaldeans, that dash Nineveh in pieces. The munition - The forts. Make thy loins strong - Strengthen thyself.

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

Some by mistake refer this to Sennacher[illegible: 1 letter]ib; 'tis more rightly refer'd to the Medes or Scythians, or to the Chaldeans all which did somewhat against the Assyrians.

That as a heavy and strong hammer breaks into pieces, and then with his arm scattereth the broken pieces, so shall the destroyer of Nineveh do, as a Maul (so the word Prov. 25.18.) or as the wind scatters smoke, so the word Psal. 68.2.

Against thee, and is within sight, from thy Watch-Towers on thy Frontiers thou mayest descry his Avant Guards.

The Prophet derides Nineveh, and foretels all will be to no purpose; she shall never be able to withstand, so as to conquer, re-enforce thy Garrisons, yet they shall fall.

Know which way he comes, that thou may'st barricado the way, or set Ambushes.

Encourage thy Souldiers, and make them valiant as thou canst, choose out the ablest and most undaunted.

Gather up all thou canst for the War, increase thy Armies, fill up thy Companies, engage assistance from abroad, nothing shall avail thee.

Marginal references: [illegible: 1 paragraph]

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 .

Laid low, or captivated, as no doubt Sennacherib did when he took so many fenced Cities, he did not slay all, he sent many into Captivity, and threatned Ierusalem, her Citizens with the like, I[illegible: 1 letter]a. 36.17.

[illegible: 1 paragraph]

The Wealth, the Valiant Men, the Wise Men, all that Iacob could (with any colour of reason,) and had (with sin more than enough) gloried in.

The two Tribes.

This confirms the Prophets Threat, either declaring that now, since God had sufficiently punisht Iacob and Israel ▪ he would next punish the proud Assyrian, as Isa. 10.12. or else, 'tis a confirmation by argument from the greater to the less; Israel and Iacob were more to God, yet he did punish them, much more will he punish Nineveh.

The ten Tribes spoiled, conquered, and captivated by Salmaniser.

Assyria[illegible: 2 letters] who invaded, plundred, and robbed them, both Israel, and Iacob.

Quite exhausted them:

Either corrupted them in Religion and manners, as 2 Kings. 17.24, &c. or destroy'd, and cut up, the race of Israel to destroy them utterly.

It may literally be meant that the Assyrians did cut up the Vines to impoverish the Vine-dressers, or else figuratively for the Nation which is often compared to a Vine, so the branches are Men and Women.

Marginal references: [illegible: 1 paragraph]; This confirms the Prophets Threat, either declaring that now, since God had sufficiently punisht Iacob and Israel ▪ he would next punish the proud Assyrian, as Isa. 10.12. or else, 'tis a confirmation by argument from the greater to the less; Israel and Iacob were more to God, yet he did punish them, much more will he punish Nineveh.; [illegible: 1 paragraph]

3 The shield of his mighty men is made red , the valiant men are in scarlet : the chariots shall be with flaming torches in the day of his preparation , and the [illegible: 1 word], sha[illegible: 2 letters] be terribly shaken .

One part [illegible: 1 letter]or the whole of the Armour, and Furniture, or Harness.

Medes or Chaldea[illegible: 1 letter]s.

Souldiers more particularly the brave, and stout ones, who were the choice men of the Army.

Either coloured red by the Dyer, or else dyed red with the blood of the slain.

This [illegible: 1 letter]x[illegible: 1 letter]lains the former, they used this colour much, either to terrific the Enemy, o[illegible: 1 letter] to conceal their own wounds when the Blood on other colour would have disclosed them.

Much used in the Wars of those Countreys, and the great men usually fought in them▪ [illegible: 1 letter]n those dayes.

Either because they did force fire out of the stones, by their swift motion over them, or rather because there were Torches alwayes carryed in them, to light them that rode in them by night, and to be in readiness to fire the houses of Cities, or Tents in the Camp they did break into.

When he shall muster his Armies, and bring together his Magazines, and prepare his Engines.

By Axes cutting them down for several uses in the War, for Torches, for Lances, for Building Forts, and many other uses. This parallel with Isa. 14.8. whole Forests sometimes destroyed by great Armies, which cut them down for their service.

Marginal references: Or, [illegible: 1 span]; [illegible: 1 paragraph]

4 The chariots shall rage in the streets , they shall justle one against another in the broad wayes , they shall seem like torches , they shall run like the lightnings .

Of the Chaldean Army, or the Riders in the Chariots by their fierceness, and carriage, by their cryes and calls heartning one another, and threatning the Assyrians.

Shall seem to be more like mad-men, than well order'd Souldiers, and act as if they were possessed with furies, do more than man can do.

Either of the Towns they pass through, or rather of Nineveh when taken.

By reason of their multitude, haste, and fury, they shall hit one against another.

Where is most room, shall be most of these Chariots, and yet scarce room for them to move in.

What with sparkling fire caused by their Horses and Chariots shod with Iron; and what with the glittering of the polish[illegible: 1 letter]d I[illegible: 2 letters]ns about the Chariots, and what with the light of flaming Torches carryed in them, the Chariots shall look like so many great Flambeaus, very dangerous, and terrible.

Both for speed, irresistibleness, and terrour against which no defence, from which no flight, or hiding.

Marginal references: [illegible: 1 paragraph]

5 He shall recount his worthies ; they shall stumble in their walk; they shall make haste to the wall thereof, and the defence shall be prepared.

This verse may indifferently refer either to Nineveh and its King making their defence, or to the Chaldeans and their King, maintaining the siege, both act with vigour and diligence.

Muster, and give orders.

Approved Officers and Commanders.

Shew such forwardness, make such haste, that they shall not stand to pick their way, and there shall be so many, that they shall stumble for want of room.

The Assyrians to defend, the Chaldeans to assault the Walls of Nineveh.

What might defend the besieged, and what might defend the be[illegible: 1 letter]iegers; all-shall be ready on both sides, and what men can do, both will do.

Marginal references: Or, gallants.

6 The gates of the rivers shall be opened , and the palace shall be dissolved .

Of the City toward the River.

For River, or because of the greatness of Tigris, upon which Nineveh stood.

It is reported by Diodorus Siculus Biblioth: l. 3. c. 7. that when the Chaldeans besieged Nineveh, a mighty Deluge of Waters overthrew the Walls of Niniveh, by the space of twenty Furlongs, or two miles and half, through which breach the besiegers made their entrance; so chap. 1. ver. 8. Vsher Anual ad An. M. 3257. the overrunning flood may be literally understood; here the Prophet expre[illegible: 1 letter]ly declares how Nineveh shall be ruin'd.

Either the Royal stately Palace of the Assyrian Monarch, or the more stately Temple of Nisroch, or Iupiter Belus, or some mighty Bulwark raised there for defence.

As if melted, it shall drop to pieces, and they that were in, whether Servants of the Court, or Votaries to the Idol, or Souldiers for defence of the Fort, shall in haste, with fear of the danger fly away.

Marginal references: Or, [illegible: 1 word].

7 And Huzzab shall be led away captive , she shall be brought up, and her maids shall lead her, as with the voice of doves , tabering upon their breasts .

This is variously taken, but the most probable guess is, that, it is meant of the Queen, who kept close in the Palace, or Temple, as where she might be most safe in the strength, and supposed sacredness of the place.

Without due respect to her Royal Dignity shall be hurried into a strange Land with other Captives, and (as they▪) be exposed to danger and insolence.

Ladies that waited on her in her Royal State, now shall be her Companions in Captivity.

Support their sorrowful, weary, and fainting Queen, spent with such travel as she had not been used unto.

Sighing out the complaints they durst not speak out.

These maids of honour should now in Captivity strike on their breasts, but with such caution and fear of being discovered in their lamenting their state; as should be but like the noise of a Taber lightly strucken, or else instead of Musical Instruments on which they were used to play, and to which they were used to sing, now they strike their own breasts, and sigh out their sorrows.

Marginal references: Or, that which was e[illegible: 1 letter]tabli[illegible: 1 letter]hed, [illegible: 1 word], there was a [illegible: 1 word] and made.; Or, discovered.

8 But Nineveh is of old like a pool of water, , yet they shall flee away, Stand, stand , shall they cry; but none shall look back h.

A very antient City, of great renown and strength,

Very populous, like a Pool of Water which hath been long breeding of fish, and is full of them.

Yet these multitudes shall not be a safety, or protection to Nineveh, they shall flee away discomfited and terrified;

As Officers call to flying Souldiers, and 'tis doubled to shew the earnestness of the Commanders desiring the Souldier to stand and fight.

The Chieftains, and most valiant among the Ninevites:

A Panick fear shall so possess them, that non[illegible: 1 letter] of them shall dare to turn again, nor to look back upon the Enemy.

Marginal references: Or, from the [illegible: 1 word] that she [illegible: 1 letter]ath been.; Or, caus[illegible: 1 letter] them [illegible: 1 span].

9 Take ye the spoil of silver, take the spoil of gold: for there is none end of the store , and glory out of all the pleasant furniture.

God speaks by his Prophet, commanding that it be done, and foretelling that it certainly shall be done, and Scythians, Medes and Chaldeans, or who ever else did associate in the War, and sacking of Nineveh, may be supposed to encourage one another in the plundering of the City,

conquering Souldiers, you that come together in hope of this booty.

Here's enough for you all, Nineveh hath been long gathering, and hath gathered much treasure, it is uncountable; therefore take all you can lay hands on, possibly it may be the foretelling of the chief Commander▪ his giving his Souldiers leave to take what they could, for so much as after all, they would leave enough, a great treasure for him.

Of all sorts, both for use and Luxury, both for necessity and superfluity.

Splendid and rich Furniture in their Temples, Palaces, publick Aedifices, and private Houses. Their rich Vessels, costly Hangings, and gaudy Apparel, in their Ward Robes, in their Closets, and in their Shops, all delightful to the eye, and rich in the real value.

Marginal references: Or, and their [illegible: 1 word] store.; Heb. vessels of [illegible: 1 word].

10 She is empty and void , and wast , and the heart melteth , and the knees smite together, and much pain is in all loins , and the faces of them all gather blackness .

Nineveh taken, and under the proud insultings of the barbarous Souldiers.

Though once full of all store, yet now she is empty enough, many hands have been employed to spoil her.

Citizens are either slipt away, or carried Captives,

desolate, and shall continue so. Here is a threefold expression to ascertain the thing, and to intimate the greatness of Nineveh's desolation.

This Devastation hath broken the hearts of the Ninevites,

Not able to go steddily, ready to fall through weakness, and faintness of Spirits.

Acute pains and griefes caused by their troubles, losses, dangers, and frights

Which in those that are well, are their strength, and which to diseased, and broken bodies are the seat of pains and griefs.

Which were wont to be haughty, and scornful, and as it were sparkle with briskness of Spirit.

Now are clouded, sorrowful, and dejected, every one may see their desperate state in this Symptom.

Marginal references: Isa. 13.7, [illegible: 1 letter].; Dan. 5.6.; Joel. 2.6.

11 Where is the dwelling of the lions , and the feeding place of the young lions ? where the lion, even the old lion walked , and the lions whelp, and none made them afraid.

It is the insulting, or deriding speech of all that see, and note it.

Nineveh compared to a Lions Den.

Tyrants and bloody Warriours, as P[illegible: 1 letter]l, Tiglath-Pileser, and Salmaneser.

Nineveh.

Princes the Children of those Tyrannical Kings.

The King of Assyria.

In his pride, in safety, and his Princes with his rapines about him, which none durst disturb.

12 The lion did tear in pieces enough for his whelps , and strangled for his lionesses , and filled his holes with prey, and his dens with ravine .

The Prophet continues the Metaphor, this Lion is the King of Assyria.

Formerly did fall upon his Neighbour Nations, broke their strength, and rob'd their Treasuries, and store-houses, and broke them in pieces.

The young brood of the Assyrian Royal Family.

Queens, Concubines, or Ladies in the Assyrian Court.

His Treasuries, Magazines, and Royal Seats, called Dens in a decorum to the speech he had used.

Ingeminating what was before spoken.

Spoils which his ravenous mind and hand could lay hold on; all was prey that he could take.

13 Behold I am against thee , saith the LORD of hosts , and I will burn her chariots in the smoke , and the sword shall devour thy young lions , and I will cut off thy prey from the earth, and the voice of thy messengers shall no more be heard .

This calls for our attention.

The God of Israel, whom thou hast despised and blasphemed.

Assyrian Kingdom, and Nineveh,

whose command all must obey▪

Nineveh.

In wrath, or suddenly, or what if when the City first plundered, then burnt these Chariots, were burnt in that smoke.

Of the conquering Enemy.

Young Princes that either are found in Arms, or else are cut off in the places of their retirements for safety.

Cause thee to cease from making a prey any more, or destroy all thou hast gotten by thy prey.

Either Embassadors sent forth, or Tribute Gatherers, or Muster-Masters to list Souldiers, or Heralds to proclaim Edicts.

None shall concern themselves with one or other of them. None obey or fear thee.

Nah 2:1-2

With Nah 2:1 the prophecy turns to Nineveh. Nah 2:1. “A dasher in pieces comes against thee. Keep thy fortress! Look out upon the way, fortify the loins, exert thy strength greatly! Nah 2:2. For Jehovah returneth to the eminence of Jacob as to the eminence of Israel; for plunderers have plundered them, and their vines have they thrown to the ground.” על־פּניך cannot be addressed to Judah, as in Nah 1:15 (Chald., Rashi, etc.). It cannot indeed be objected that in Nah 1:15 the destruction of Asshur has already been announced, since the prophet might nevertheless have returned to the time when Asshur had made war upon Judah, in order to depict its ruin with greater precision. But such an assumption does not agree with the second clause of the verse as compared with Nah 2:2, and still less with the description of the approaching enemy which follows in Nah 2:3, since this is unquestionably, according to Nah 2:5, the power advancing against Nineveh, and destroying that city. We must therefore assume that we have here a sudden change in the person addressed, as in Nah 1:11 and Nah 1:12, Nah 1:13 and Nah 1:14. The enemy is called מפיץ, “a dasher in pieces;” not a war-hammer (cf. Pro 25:18), because עלה, the standing expression for the advance of a hostile army, does not agree with this. על־פּניך, against thy face, i.e., pitching his tent opposite to the city (there is no good reason for altering the suffix into פּניך, as Ewald and Hitzig propose). Against this enemy Nineveh is to bring all possible power of resistance. This is not irony, but simply a poetical turn given to the thought, that Nineveh will not be able to repulse this enemy any more. The inf. abs. nâtsōr stands emphatically for the imperative, as is frequently the case, and is continued in the imperative. Metsūrâh is the enclosure of a city, hence the wall or fortification. צפּה־דרך, looking watchfully upon the way by which the enemy comes, to repulse it or prevent it from entering the city. הזּק מ, make the loins strong, i.e., equip thyself with strength, the loins being the seat of strength. The last clause expresses the same thought, and is merely added to strengthen the meaning. The explanatory kı̄ in Nah 2:2 (3) does not follow upon Nah 2:1 in the sense of “summon up all thy strength, for it is God in whose strength the enemy fights” (Strauss), but to Nah 2:1 or Nah 1:15. The train of thought is the following: Asshur will be utterly destroyed by the enemy advancing against Nineveh, for Jehovah will re-establish the glory of Israel, which Asshur has destroyed. שׁב (perf. proph.) has not the force of the hiphil, reducere, restituere, either here or in Psa 85:5 and Isa 52:8, and other passages, where the modern lexicons give it, but means to turn round, or return to a person, and is construed with the accusative, as in Num 10:36; Exo 4:20, and Gen 50:14, although in actual fact the return of Jehovah to the eminence of Jacob involves its restoration. גּאון יעקב, that of which Jacob is proud, i.e., the eminence and greatness or glory accruing to Israel by virtue of its election to be the nation of God, which the enemy into whose power it had been given up on account of its rebellion against God had taken away (see at Amo 6:8). Jacob does not stand for Judah, nor Israel for the ten tribes, for Nahum never refers to the ten tribes in distinction from Judah; and Oba 1:18, where Jacob is distinguished from the house of Joseph, is of a totally different character. Both names stand here for the whole of Israel (of the twelve tribes), and, as Cyril has shown, the distinction is this: Jacob is the natural name which the people inherited from their forefather, and Israel the spiritual name which they had received from God. Strauss gives the meaning correctly thus: Jehovah will so return to the eminence of His people, who are named after Jacob, that this eminence shall become the eminence of Israel, i.e., of the people of God; in other words, He will exalt the nation once more to the lofty eminence of its divine calling (כּ used in the same manner as in 1Sa 25:36). This will He do, because plunderers have plundered (bâqaq, evacuare) them (the Israelites), and destroyed their vines, cast them to the ground; that He may avenge the reproach cast upon His people. The plunderers are the heathen nations, especially the Assyrians. The vines are the Israelites; Israel as a people or kingdom is the vineyard (Isa 5:1; Jer 12:10; Psa 80:9.); the vines are the families, and the branches (zemōrı̄m from zemōrâh) the members.

Nah 2:3-4

After assigning this reason for the divine purpose concerning Asshur, the prophet proceeds in Nah 2:3. to depict the army advancing towards Nineveh, viz., in Nah 2:3 its appearance, and in Nah 2:4 the manner in which it sets itself in motion for battle. Nah 2:3. “The shield of His heroes is made red, the valiant men are clothed in crimson: in the fire of the steel-bosses are the chariots, on the day of His equipment; and the cypresses are swung about. Nah 2:4. The chariots rave in the streets, they run over one another on the roads; their appearance is like the torches, they run about like lightning.” The suffix attached to gibbōrēhū (His heroes) might be taken as referring to mēphı̄ts in Nah 2:1 (2); but it is more natural to refer it to Jehovah in Nah 2:2 (3), as having summoned the army against Nineveh (cf. Isa 13:3). The shields are reddened, i.e., not radiant (Ewald), but coloured with red, and that not with the blood of enemies who have been slain (Abarbanel and Grotius), but either with red colour with which they are painted, or what is still more probable, with the copper with which they are overlaid: see Josephus, Ant. xiii. 12, 5 (Hitzig). אנשׁי־חיל are not fighting men generally, i.e., soldiers, but brave men, heroes (cf. Jdg 3:29; 1Sa 31:12; 2Sa 11:16, equivalent to benē chayil in 1Sa 18:17, etc.). מתלּעים, ἁπ. λεγ., a denom. of תּולע, coccus: clothed in coccus or crimson. The fighting dress of the nations of antiquity was frequently blood-red (see Aeliani, Var. hist. vi. 6).Valerius observes on this: “They used Poenic tunics in battle, to disguise and hide the blood of their wounds, not lest the sight of it should fill them with alarm, but lest it should inspire the enemy with confidence.”

The ἁπ. λεγ. pelâdōth is certainly not used for lappı̄dı̄m, torches; but in both Arabic and Syriac paldâh signifies steel (see Ges. Lex.). But pelâdōth are not scythes, which would suggest the idea of scythe-chariots (Michaelis, Ewald, and others); for scythe-chariots were first introduced by Cyrus, and were unknown before his time to the Medes, the Syrians, the Arabians, and also to the ancient Egyptians (see at Jos 17:16). Pelâdōth probably denotes the steel covering of the chariots, as the Assyrian war-chariots were adorned according to the monuments with ornaments of metal.“The chariots of the Assyrians,” says Strauss, “as we see them on the monuments, glare with shining things, made either of iron or steel, battle-axes, bows, arrows, and shields, and all kinds of weapons; the horses are also ornamented with crowns and red fringes, and even the poles of the carriages are made resplendent with shining suns and moons: add to these the soldiers in armour riding in the chariots; and it could not but be the case, that when illumined by the rays of the sun above them, they would have all the appearance of flames as they flew hither and thither with great celerity.” Compare also the description of the Assyrian war-chariots given by Layard in his Nineveh and its Remains, vol. ii. p. 348.

The army of the enemy presents the appearance described בּיום הכינו, in the day of his equipment. הכין, to prepare, used of the equipping of an army for an attack or for battle, as in Jer 46:14; Eze 7:14; Eze 38:7. The suffix refers to Jehovah, like that in גּבּוריהוּ; compare Isa 13:4, where Jehovah raises an army for war with Babylon. Habberōshı̄m, the cypresses, are no doubt lances or javelins made of cypress-wood (Grotius and others), not magnates (Chald., Kimchi, and others), or viri hastati. הרעלוּ, to be swung, or brandished, in the hands of the warriors equipped for battle. The army advances to the assault (Nah 2:4), and presses into the suburbs. The chariots rave (go mad) in the streets. התהולל, to behave one’s self foolishly, to rave, used here as in Jer 46:9 for mad driving, or driving with insane rapidity (see 2Ki 9:20). השׁתּקשׁק, hithpalel of שׁקק, to run (Joe 2:9); in the intensive form, to run over one another, i.e., to run in such a way that they appear as though they would run over one another. חוּצות and רחבות are roads and open spaces, not outside the city, but inside (cf. Amo 5:16; Psa 144:13-14; Pro 1:20), and, indeed, as we may see from what follows, in the suburbs surrounding the inner city of citadel. Their appearance (viz., that of the chariots as they drive raving about) is like torches. The feminine suffix to מראיהן can only refer to הרכב, notwithstanding the fact that elsewhere רכב is always construed as a masculine, and that it is so here in the first clauses. For the suffix cannot refer to רחבות (Hoelem. and Strauss), because הרכב is the subject in the following clause as well as in the two previous ones. The best way probably is to take it as a neuter, so that it might refer not to the chariots only, but to everything in and upon the chariots. The appearance of the chariots, as they drove about with the speed of lightning, richly ornamented with bright metal (see on Nah 2:3), and occupied by warriors in splendid clothes and dazzling armour, might very well be compared to torches and flashing lightning. רצץ, pilel of רוּץ (not poel of רצץ, Jdg 10:8), cursitare, used of their driving with lightning-speed.

Nah 2:5-7

The Assyrian tries to repel this attack, but all in vain. Nah 2:5. “He remembers his glorious ones: they stumble in their paths; they hasten to the wall of it, and the tortoise is set up. Nah 2:6. The gates are opened in the rivers, and the palace is dissolved. Nah 2:7. It is determined: she is laid bare, carried off, and her maids groan like the cry of doves, smiting on their breasts.” On the approach of the war-chariots of the enemy to the attack, the Assyrian remembers his generals and warriors, who may possibly be able to defend the city and drive back the foe. That the subject changes with yizkōr, is evident from the change in the number, i.e., from the singular as compared with the plurals in Nah 2:3 and Nah 2:4, and is placed beyond the reach of doubt by the contents of Nah 2:5., which show that the reference is to the attempt to defend the city. The subject to yizkōr is the Assyrian (בּליּעל, Nah 2:1), or the king of Asshur (Nah 3:18). He remembers his glorious ones, i.e., remembers that he has 'addı̄rı̄m, i.e., not merely generals (μεγιστᾶνες, lxx), but good soldiers, including the generals (as in Nah 3:18; Jdg 5:13; Neh 3:5). He sends for them, but they stumble in their paths. From terror at the violent assault of the foe, their knees lose their tension (the plural hălı̄khōth is not to be corrected into the singular according to the keri, as the word always occurs in the plural). They hasten to the wall of it (Nineveh); there is הסּכך set up: i.e., literally the covering one, not the defender, praesidium militare (Hitzig), but the tortoise, testudo.Not, however, the tortoise formed by the shields of the soldiers, held close together above their heads (Liv. xxxiv. 9), since these are never found upon the Assyrian monuments (vid., Layard), but a kind of battering-ram, of which there are several different kinds, either a moveable tower, with a battering-ram, consisting of a light framework, covered with basket-work, or else a framework without any tower, either with an ornamented covering, or simply covered with skins, and moving upon four or six wheels. See the description, with illustrations, in Layard’s Nineveh, ii. pp. 366-370, and Strauss’s commentary on this passage.

The prophet’s description passes rapidly from the assault upon the city wall to the capture of the city itself (Nah 2:6). The opened or opening gates of the rivers are neither those approaches to the city which were situated on the bank of the Tigris, and were opened by the overflowing of the river, in support of which appeal has been made to the statement of Diodor. Sic. ii. 27, that the city wall was destroyed for the space of twenty stadia by the overflowing of the Tigris; for “gates of the rivers” cannot possibly stand for gates opened by rivers. Still less can it be those roads of the city which led to the gates, and which were flooded with people instead of water (Hitzig), or with enemies, who were pressing from the gates into the city like overflowing rivers (Ros.); nor even gates through which rivers flow, i.e., sluices, namely those of the concentric canals issuing from the Tigris, with which the palace could be laid under water (Vatabl., Burck, Hitzig, ed. 1); but as Luther renders it, “gates on the waters,” i.e., situated on the rivers, or gates in the city wall, which were protected by the rivers; “gates most strongly fortified, both by nature and art” (Tuch, de Nino urbe, p. 67, Strauss, and others), for nehârōth must be understood as signifying the Tigris and its tributaries and canals. At any rate, there were such gates in Nineveh, since the city, which stood at the junction of the Khosr with the Tigris, in the slope of the (by no means steep) rocky bank, was to some extent so built in the alluvium, that the natural course of the Khosr had to be dammed off from the plain chosen for the city by three stone dams, remnants of which are still to be seen; and a canal was cut above this point, which conducted the water to the plain of the city, where it was turned both right and left into the city moats, but had a waste channel through the city. To the south, however, another small collection of waters helped to fill the trenches. “The wall on the side towards the river consisted of a slightly curved line, which connected together the mouths of the trenches, but on the land side it was built at a short distance from the trenches. The wall on the river side now borders upon meadows, which are only flooded at high water; but the soil has probably been greatly elevated, and at the time when the city was built this was certainly river” (see M. v. Niebuhr, Geschichte Assurs u. Babels, p. 280; and the outlines of the plan of the ground oh which Nineveh stood, p. 284). The words of the prophet are not to be understood as referring to any particular gate, say the western, either alone, or par excellence, as Tuch supposes, but apply quite generally to the gates of the city, since the rivers are only mentioned for the purpose of indicating the strength of the gates. As Luther has correctly explained it, “the gates of the rivers, however firm in other respects, and with no easy access, will now be easily occupied, yea, have been already opened.” The palace melts away, not, however, from the floods of water which flow through the open gates. This literal rendering of the words is irreconcilable with the situation of the palaces in Nineveh, since they were built in the form of terraces upon the tops of hills, either natural or artificial, and could not be flooded with water. The words are figurative. mūg, to melt, dissolve, i.e., to vanish through anxiety and alarm; and היכל, the palace, for the inhabitants of the palace. “When the gates, protected by the rivers, are broken open by the enemy, the palace, i.e., the reigning Nineveh, vanishes in terror” (Hitzig). For her sway has now come to an end. הצּב: the hophal of נצב, in the hiphil, to establish, to determine (Deu 32:8; Psa 74:17; and Chald. Dan 2:45; Dan 6:13); hence it is established, i.e., is determined, sc. by God: she will be made bare; i.e., Nineveh, the queen, or mistress of the nations, will be covered with shame. גּלּתה is not to be taken as interchangeable with the hophal הגלה, to be carried away, but means to be uncovered, after the piel to uncover, sc. the shame or nakedness (Nah 3:5; cf. Isa 47:2-3; Hos 2:12). העלה, for העלה (see Ges. §63, Anm. 4), to be driven away, or led away, like the niph. in Jer 37:11; 2Sa 2:27.Of the different explanations that have been given of this hemistich, the supposition, which dates back as far as the Chaldee, that huzzab signifies the queen, or is the name of the queen (Ewald and Rückert), is destitute of any tenable foundation, and is no better than Hitzig’s fancy, that we should read והצּב, “and the lizard is discovered, fetched up,” and that this “reptile” is Nineveh. The objection offered to our explanation, viz., that it would only be admissible if it were immediately followed by the decretum divinum in its full extent, and not merely by one portion of it, rests upon a misinterpretation of the following words, which do not contain merely a portion of the purpose of God.

The laying bare and carrying away denote the complete destruction of Nineveh. אמהתיה, ancillae ejus, i.e., Nini. The “maids” of the city of Nineveh personified as a queen are not the states subject to her rule (Theodor., Cyr., Jerome, and others), - for throughout this chapter Nineveh is spoken of simply as the capital of the Assyrian empire, - but the inhabitants of Nineveh, who are represented as maids, mourning over the fate of their mistress. Nâhag, to pant, to sigh, for which hâgâh is used in other passages where the cooing of doves is referred to (cf. Isa 38:14; Isa 59:11). כּקול יונים instead of כּיּונים, probably to express the loudness of the moaning. Tophēph, to smite, used for the smiting of the timbrels in Psa 68:26; here, to smite upon the breast. Compare pectus pugnis caedere, or palmis infestis tundere (e.g., Juv. xiii. 167; Virg. Aen. i. 481, and other passages), as an expression of violent agony in deep mourning (cf. Luk 18:13; Luk 23:27). לבבהן for לבביהן is the plural, although this is generally written לבּות; and as the י is frequently omitted as a sign of the plural (cf. Ewald, §258, a), there is no good ground for reading לבבהן, as Hitzig proposes.

Nah 2:8-10

At the conquest of Nineveh the numerous inhabitants flee, and the rich city is plundered. Nah 2:8. “And Nineveh like a water-pond all her days. And they flee! Stand ye, O stand! and no one turns round. Nah 2:9. Take silver as booty, take ye gold! And no end to the furnishing with immense quantity of all kinds of ornamental vessels. Nah 2:10. Emptying and devastation! and the heart has melted, and trembling of the knees, and labour pain in all loins, and the countenance of every one withdraws its ruddiness.” Nineveh is compared to a pool, not merely with reference to the multitude of men who had gathered together there, but, as water is everywhere an element of life, also with reference to the wealth and prosperity which accrued to this imperial city out of the streaming together of so many men and so many different peoples. Compare Jer 51:13, where Babel is addressed as “Thou that dwellest on many waters, art rich in many treasures.” מימי היא, since the days that she exists. היא = אשׁר היא, the relation being indicated by the construct state; מן הוא in Isa 18:2 is different. But they flee. The subject to נסים is not the waters, although nūs is applied to water in Psa 104:7, but, as what follows shows, the masses of men who are represented as water. These flee away without being stopped by the cry “Stand ye” (i.e., remain), or even paying any attention to it. Hiphnâh, lit., “to turn the back” (‛ōreph, Jer 48:39), to flee, but when applied to a person already fleeing, to turn round (cf. Jer 46:5). In Nah 2:9 the conquerors are summoned to plunder, not by their generals, but by God, who speaks through the prophet. The fact is hereby indicated, “that this does not happen by chance, but because God determines to avenge the injuries inflicted upon His people” (Calvin). With ואין קצה the prophecy passes into a simple description. There is no end lattekhūnâh, to the furnishing with treasures. Tekhūnâh, from kūn, not from tâkhan, lit., the setting up, the erection of a building (Eze 43:11); here the furnishing of Nineveh as the dwelling-place of the rulers of the world, whilst in Job 23:3 it is applied to the place where the throne of God has been established. In כּבד the ל might be thought of as still continuing in force (Ewald, Hitzig), but it answers better to the liveliness of the description to take כּבד as beginning a fresh sentence. כּבד written defectively, as in Gen 31:1 : glory, equivalent to the great amount of the wealth, as in Genesis (l.c.). Kelē chendâh, gold and silver vessels and jewels, as in Hos 13:15. That there were immense treasures of the precious metals and of costly vessels treasured up in Nineveh, may be inferred with certainty from the accounts of ancient writers, which border on the fabulous.For proofs, see Layard’s Nineveh, ii. 415ff., and Movers, Phönizier (iii. 1, pp. 40, 41). After quoting the statements of Ctesias, the latter observes that “these numbers are indeed fabulous; but they have their historical side, inasmuch as in the time of Ctesias the riches of Nineveh were estimated at an infinitely greater amount than the enormous treasures accumulated in the treasuries of the Persian empire. That the latter is quite in accordance with truth, may be inferred from the fact that the conquerors of Nineveh, the Medes and Chaldaeans, of whose immense booty, in the shape of gold, silver, and other treasures, even the prophet Nahum speaks, furnished Ecbatana and Babylon with gold and silver from the booty of Nineveh to an extent unparalleled in all history.”

Of all these treasures nothing was left but desolate emptiness. This is expressed by the combination of three synonymous words. Būqâh and mebhūqâh are substantive formations from būq = bâqaq, to empty out, and are combined to strengthen the idea, like similar combinations in Zep 1:15; Eze 33:29, and Isa 29:2. Mebhullâqâh is a synonymous noun formed from the participle pual, and signifying devastation (cf. Isa 24:1, where even bâlaq is combined with bâqaq). In Nah 2:11 the horror of the vanquished at the total devastation of Nineveh is described, also in short substantive clauses: “melted heart” (nâmēs is a participle), i.e., perfect despondency (see Isa 13:7; Jos 7:5); trembling of the knees, so that from terror men can hardly keep upon their feet (pı̄q for pūq; it only occurs here). Chalchâlâh formed by reduplication from chı̄l: spasmodic pains in all loins, like the labour pains of women in childbirth (cf. Isa 21:3). Lastly, the faces of all turning pale (see at Joe 2:6).

Nah 2:11-13

Thus will the mighty city be destroyed, with its men of war and booty. Nah 2:11. “Where is the dwelling of the lions and the feeding-place of the young lions, where the lion walked, the lioness, the lion’s whelp, and no one frightened? Nah 2:12. The lion robbing for the need of his young ones, and strangling for his lionesses, and he filled his dens with prey, and his dwelling-places with spoil. Nah 2:13. Behold, O come to thee, is the saying of Jehovah of hosts, and I cause her chariots to turn in smoke, and thy young lions the sword devours; and I cut off thy prey from the earth, and the voice of thy messengers shall be heard no more.” The prophet, beholding the destruction in spirit as having already taken place, looks round for the site on which the mighty city once stood, and sees it no more. This is the meaning of the question in Nah 2:11. He describes it as the dwelling-place of lions. The point of comparison is the predatory lust of its rulers and their warriors, who crushed the nations like lions, plundering their treasures, and bringing them together in Nineveh. To fill up the picture, the epithets applied to the lions are grouped together according to the difference of sex and age. אריה is the full-grown male lion; לביא, the lioness; כּפיר, the young lion, though old enough to go in search of prey; גּוּר אריה, catulus leonis, the lion’s whelp, which cannot yet seek prey for itself. וּמרעה הוּא, lit., “and a feeding-place is it,” sc. the dwelling-place (הוּא pointing back to מעון) in this sense: “Where is the dwelling-place which was also a feeding-place for the young lions?” By the apposition the thought is expressed, that the city of lions was not only a resting-place, but also afforded a comfortable living. אשׁר is to be taken in connection with the following שׁם: in the very place where; and hâlakh signifies simply to walk, to walk about, not “to take exercise,” in which case the kal would stand for piel. The more precise definition follows in ואין מחריד, without any one terrifying, hence in perfect rest and security, and undisturbed might (cf. Mic 4:4; Lev 26:6; Deu 28:26, etc.). Under the same figure Nah 2:12 describes the tyranny and predatory lust of the Assyrians in their wars. This description is subordinate in sense to the leading thought, or to the question contained in the previous verse. Where is the city now, into which the Assyrians swept together the booty of the peoples and kingdoms which they had destroyed? In form, however, the verse is attached poetically in loose apposition to Nah 2:12. The lion, as king of the beasts, is a very fitting emblem of the kings or rulers of Assyria. The lionesses and young lions are the citizens of Nineveh and of the province of Assyria, the tribe-land of the imperial monarchy of Assyria, and not the queens and princes, as the Chaldee explains it. Gōrōth with the o-inflection for gūrōth, as in Jer 51:38. Chōrı̄m, holes for hiding-places, or caves, not only applies to the robbers, in which character the Assyrians are exhibited through the figure of the lion (Hitzig), but also to the lions, which carry their prey into caves (cf. Bochart, Hieroz. i. 737). This destruction of Nineveh will assuredly take place; for Jehovah the Almighty God has proclaimed it, and He will fulfil His word. The word of God in Nah 2:13 stamps the foregoing threat with the seal of confirmation. הנני אליך, behold I (will) to thee (Nineveh). We have not to supply אבוא here, but simply the verb. copul., which is always omitted in such sentences. The relation of the subject to the object is expressed by אל (cf. Nah 3:5; Jer 51:25). הבערתּי בעשׁן, I burn into smoke, i.e., so that it vanishes into smoke (cf. Psa 37:20). רכבּהּ, her war-chariots, stands synecdochically for the whole of the apparatus of war (Calvin). The suffix in the third person must not be altered; it may easily be explained from the poetical variation of prophetic announcement and direct address. The young lions are the warriors; the echo of the figure in the previous verse still lingers in this figure, as well as in טרפּך. The last clause expresses the complete destruction of the imperial might of Assyria. The messengers of Nineveh are partly heralds, as the carriers of the king’s commands; partly halberdiers, or delegates who fulfilled the ruler’s commands (cf. 1Ki 19:2; 2Ki 19:23). The suffix in מלאככה is in a lengthened form, on account of the tone at the end of the section, analogous to אתכה in Exo 29:35, and is not to be regarded as an Aramaeism or a dialectical variation (Ewald, §258, a). The tsere of the last syllable is occasioned by the previous tsere. Jerome has summed up the meaning very well as follows: “Thou wilt never lay countries waste any more, nor exact tribute, nor will thy messengers be heard throughout thy provinces.” (On the last clause, see Eze 19:9.) Nineveh’s Sins and Inevitable Destruction - Nahum 3

The announcement of the destruction awaiting Nineveh is confirmed by the proof, that this imperial city has brought this fate upon itself by its sins and crimes (Nah 3:1-7), and will no more be able to avert it than the Egyptian No-amon was (Nah 3:8-13), but that, in spite of all its resources, it will be brought to a terrible end (Nah 3:14-19).

The Judgment of Nineveh. (b. c. 710.)

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. 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. 3 The shield of his mighty men is made red, the valiant men are in scarlet: the chariots shall be with flaming torches in the day of his preparation, and the fir trees shall be terribly shaken. 4 The chariots shall rage in the streets, they shall justle one against another in the broad ways: they shall seem like torches, they shall run like the lightnings. 5 He shall recount his worthies: they shall stumble in their walk; they shall make haste to the wall thereof, and the defence shall be prepared. 6 The gates of the rivers shall be opened, and the palace shall be dissolved. 7 And Huzzab shall be led away captive, she shall be brought up, and her maids shall lead her as with the voice of doves, tabering upon their breasts. 8 But Nineveh is of old like a pool of water: yet they shall flee away. Stand, stand, shall they cry; but none shall look back. 9 Take ye the spoil of silver, take the spoil of gold: for there is none end of the store and glory out of all the pleasant furniture. 10 She is empty, and void, and waste: and the heart melteth, and the knees smite together, and much pain is in all loins, and the faces of them all gather blackness.

Here is, I. An alarm of war sent to Nineveh, v. 1. The prophet speaks of it as just at hand, for it is neither doubtful nor far distant: "Look about thee, and see, he that dashes in pieces has come up before thy face. Nebuchadnezzar, who is noted, and will be yet more so, for dashing nations in pieces, begins with thee, and will dissipate and disperse thee;" so some render the word. Babylon is called the hammer of the whole earth, Jer. l. 23. The attempt of Nebuchadnezzar upon Nineveh is public, bold, and daring: "He has come up before thy face, avowing his design to ruin thee; and therefore stand to thy arms, O Nineveh! keep the munition; secure thy towers and magazines: watch the way; set guards upon all the avenues to the city; make thy loins strong; encourage thy soldiers; animate thyself and them; fortify thy power mightily, as cities do when an enemy is advancing against them" (this is spoken ironically); "do the utmost thou canst, yet thou shalt not be able to put by the stroke of this judgment, for there is no counsel or strength against the Lord."

II. A manifesto published, showing the causes of the war (v. 2): The Lord has turned away the excellency of Jacob, as the excellency of Israel, that is, 1. The Assyrians have been abusive to Jacob, the two tribes (have humbled and mortified them), as well as to Israel, the ten tribes, have emptied them, and marred their vine-branches. For this God will reckon with them; though done long since, it shall come into the account now against that kingdom, and Nineveh the head-city of it. God's quarrel with them is for the violence done to Jacob. Or, (2.) God is now by Nebuchadnezzar about to turn away the pride of Jacob by the captivity of the two tribes, as he did the pride of Israel by their captivity; He has determined to do it, to bring emptiers upon them, and the enemy that is to do it must begin with Nineveh, and reduce that first, and humble the pride of that. God is looking upon proud cities, and abasing them, even those that are nearest to him. Samaria is humbled, and Jerusalem is to be humbled, and their pride brought low; and shall not Nineveh, that proud city, be brought down too? Emptiers have emptied the cities, and marred the vine-branches in the country of Jacob and Israel; and must not the excellency of Nineveh, that is so much her pride, be turned away too?

III. A particular account given in of the terrors wherein the invading enemy shall appear against Nineveh; every thing shall contribute to make him formidable. 1. The shields of his mighty men are made red, and probably their other arms and array, as if they were already tinctured with the blood they had shed, or intended hereby to signify they would put all to the sword; they hung out a red flag, in token that they would give no quarter. 2. The valiant men are in scarlet; not only red clothes, to intimate what bloody work they designed to make, but rich clothes, to intimate the wealth of the army, and that is the sinews of war. 3. The chariots shall be with flaming torches in the day of his preparation; when they are making their approaches, they shall fly as swiftly as lightning; the wheels shall strike fire upon the stones, and those that drive them shall drive furiously with a flaming indignation, as Jehu drove. Or they carried flaming torches with them in the open chariots, when they made their approach in the night, as Gideon's soldiers carried lamps in their pitchers, to be both a guide to themselves and a terror to their enemies, and with them to set all on fire wherever they went. 4. The fir-trees shall be terribly shaken; the great men of Nineveh, that overtop their neighbours, as the stately firs do the shrubs; or the very standing trees shall be made to shake by the violent concussions of the earth, which that great army shall cause. 5. The chariots of war shall be very terrible (v. 4): They shall rage in the streets, that is, those that drive them shall rage; you would think the chariots themselves raged; they shall be so numerous, and drive with so much fury, that even in the broad ways, where, one would think, there should be room enough, they shall jostle one another; and these iron chariots shall be made so bright that in the beams of the sun they shall seem like torches in the night; they shall run like the lightnings, so swiftly, so furiously. Nebuchadnezzar's commanders are here called his worthies, his gallants (so the margin reads it), his heroes; those he shall recount, and order them immediately and without fail to render themselves at their respective posts, for he is entering upon action, is resolved to take the field immediately, and to open the campaign with the siege of Nineveh. His worthies shall remember (so some read it); they shall be mindful of the duty of their place, and the charge they have received, and shall thereby be made so intent upon their business that they shall stumble in their walks, shall make more haste than good speed; they stumble, but shall not fall; for they shall make haste to the wall thereof, shall open the trenches; and the defence, or the covered way, shall be prepared (something to shelter them from the darts of the besieged), and they shall so closely carry on the siege, and with so much vigour, that at length the gates of the rivers shall be opened (v. 6); those gates of Nineveh which open upon the river Tigris (on which Nineveh was built) shall be first forced by, or betrayed to, the enemy, and by those gates they shall enter. And then the palace shall be dissolved, either the king's house or the house of Nisroch his god; the same word signifies both a palace and a temple. When the God of heaven goes forth to contend with a people, neither the palaces nor their kings, neither the temples nor their gods, can protect and shelter them, but must all inevitably fall with them.

IV. A prediction of the consequences of this; and it is easy to guess how dismal those will be. 1. The queen shall fall into the hands of the enemy (v. 7): Huzzab shall be led away captive; she that was established (so some read it), thought herself safe because she was concealed and shut up in secret, shall be discovered (so the margin reads it) and shall be led away captive, in greater disgrace than that of common prisoners; she shall be brought up in a mock state, and her maids of honour shall lead her, because she is weak and faint, not able to bear such frights and hardships, which are doubly hard and frightful to those that have not been used to them; they shall attend her, not to speak cheerfully to her and to encourage her, but murmuring and moaning themselves, as with the voice of doves, the doves of the valleys (Ezek. vii. 16), noted for their mourning, Isa. xxxviii. 14; lix. 11. They shall be tabering upon their breasts, beating their own breasts in grief and vexation, as if they were drumming upon them, for so the word signifies. 2. The inhabitants, though numerous, shall none of them be able to make head against the invaders, or stand their ground (v. 8): Nineveh is of old like a pool of water, replenished with people as a pool with water (and waters signify multitudes, Rev. xvii. 15), or as those waters with fish; it was long ago a populous city; in Jonah's time there were 120,000 little children in it (Jonah iv. 11), and, ordinarily, cities and countries are increasing in their number every year; but, though they have so many hands to be employed in the public service, yet they shall not be able to inspire one another with courage, but they shall flee away like cowards. Their commanders shall do what they can to animate them; they shall cry, "Stand, stand, have a good heart on it, and we shall do well enough;" but none shall so much as look back; they shall not have the least spark of courage remaining, but every one shall think it is his wisest course to make his best of the opportunity to escape; they shall not so much as look back to see who calls for them. Note, God can dispirit the strongest and boldest, in the day of distress, so that they shall not be what one would expect from them, but like a pool of water, the water whereof is dried up and gone. 3. The wealth of the city shall become a prey, and all its rich furniture shall fall into the hands of the victorious enemy (v. 9); they shall thus animate and excite one another to plunder: Take the spoil of silver; take the spoil of gold; thus the officers shall stir up the soldiers to improve their opportunity; here are silver and gold enough for them, for there is no end of the store of money and plate. Nineveh, having been of old like a pool of water, has gathered a vast deal of mud; and abundance of glory it has out of all the pleasant furniture, all the vessels of desire, which they have gloried in and which shall now be a prey and a pride to the conquerors. Note, Those who prepare raiment as the clay, and heap up silver as the dust, know not who may put on the raiment and divide the silver, Job xxvii. 16, 17. Thus this rich city is empty, and void, and waste, v. 10. See the vanity of worldly wealth; instead of defending its owners, it does but expose them, and enable their enemies to do them so much the more mischief. 4. The soldiers and people shall have no heart to appear for the defence of the city. Their spirits shall melt away like wax before the fire; their knees shall smite together (as Belshazzar's did, in his agony, Dan. v. 6), so that they shall not be able to stand their ground, no, nor to make their escape; much pain shall be in all loins, as is the case in extreme frights, so that they shall not be able to hold up their backs. And the faces of them all shall gather blackness, like that of a pot that is every day over the fire; so the word signifies. Note, Guilt in the conscience will fill men with terror in an evil day, and those who place their happiness in the wealth of this world and set their hearts upon it think themselves undone when their silver, and their gold, and their pleasant furniture are taken from them.

The Judgment of Nineveh. (b. c. 710.)

11 Where is the dwelling of the lions, and the feeding-place of the young lions, where the lion, even the old lion, walked, and the lion's whelp, and none made them afraid? 12 The lion did tear in pieces enough for his whelps, and strangled for his lionesses, and filled his holes with prey, and his dens with ravin. 13 Behold, I am against thee, saith the Lord of hosts, and I will burn her chariots in the smoke, and the sword shall devour thy young lions: and I will cut off thy prey from the earth, and the voice of thy messengers shall no more be heard.

Here we have Nineveh's ruin, 1. Triumphed in by its neighbours, who now remember against it all the oppressions and abuse of power it had been guilty of in its pomp and prosperity (v. 11, 12): Where is the dwelling of the lions? It is gone; there appear no remnants, no footsteps, of it. Where is the feeding place of the young lions, where they glutted themselves with prey? The princes of Nineveh had been as lions, as beasts of prey; cruel tyrants are no better, nay, in this respect much worse—that, being men, humanity is expected from them; nay, if they were indeed lions, they would not prey upon those of their own kind. Savis inter se convenit ursæ—Fierce bears agree together. But in the shape of men they had the cruelty of lions: they walked in Nineveh as a lion in the woods, and none made them afraid; every one stood in awe of them, and they were under no apprehensions of danger from any; though nobody loved them, every body feared them, and that was all they desired. Oderint, dum metuant—Let them hate, so that they do but fear. The king himself, as well as every prince, made it his business, by all the arts of violence and extortion, to enrich himself and raise his family; he did tear in pieces enough for his whelps (and no little would be enough for them) and he strangled for his lioness, killed all that came near him, and seized what they had for his children, for his wives and concubines, and filled his holes with prey and his dens with ravin, as lions are wont to do. Note, Many make it an excuse for their rapine and injustice that they have wives and children to provide for, whereas what is so got will never do them any good; those that fear the Lord, and get what they have honestly, shall not want a competency for themselves and theirs; verily they shall be fed, when the young lions, though dens and holes were filled with prey and ravin for them, shall lack, and suffer hunger, Ps. xxxiv. 10. 2. It is avowed by the righteous Judge of heaven and earth; it is his doing, and let all the world take notice that it is so (v. 13): Behold, I am against thee, saith the Lord of hosts. And what good can hosts do for her in her defence, when the Lord of hosts is against her for her destruction? The oppressors in Nineveh thought they only set their neighbours against them, who were not a match for them, and whom they could easily overpower; but it proved they set God against them, who is, and will be, the asserter of right and the avenger of wrong. God is against the princes of Nineveh, and then, (1.) These military preparations will stand them in no stead: I will burn their chariots in the smoke; he does not say in the fire, but, in contempt of them, the very smoke of God's indignation shall serve to burn their chariots; they shall be consumed as soon as the fire of his indignation is kindled, while as yet it does but smoke, and not flame out. Or, The drivers of the chariots shall be smothered and stifled with the smoke; then the chariots of their glory shall be the shame of their families, Isa. xxii. 18. (2.) Their children, the hopes of their families, shall be cut off: The sword shall devour the young lions, whom they were so solicitous to provide for by oppression and extortion. Note, It is just with God to deprive those of their children, or (which is all one) of comfort in them, that take sinful courses to enrich them, and (as has been said of some) damn their souls to make their sons gentlemen. (3.) The wealth they have heaped up by fraud and violence shall neither be enjoyed by them nor employed for them: I will cut off thy prey from the earth; not only thou shalt not be the better for it, but no one else shall. Some understand it of the disabling of them for the future to prey upon their neighbours. (4.) Their agents abroad shall not have that respect from their neighbours and that influence upon them which sometimes they had had: The voice of thy messengers shall no more be heard, no more be heeded, which some think refers to Rabshakeh, one of Nineveh's messengers, that had blasphemed the living God, an iniquity which was remembered against Nineveh long after. Those are not worthy to be heard again that have once spoken reproachfully of God.

CHAP. II.

Verſe 1. HE that daſheth in pieces is come up before thy face] Nebuchadnezzar the elder, that maul of the whole earth, Jer. 50.23. that brake and diſperſed the Nations, as a Maul or great Hammer doth the hardeſt ſtones. See how like a right Pyrgopolynicis he vaunteth of his valour, and victories, Eſay 10.8, 9, 10, 11, &c. So Demetrius was ſirnamed Poliorcletes, the Deſtroyer of cities; Attilas called himſelf Orbis flagellum, the ſcourge of the World. Julius Caeſar was Fulmen belli, The thunderbolt of warre: he had taken in his time a thouſand Towns., conquered three hundred Nations, took priſoner one million of men, and ſlain as many. Theſe were Dtſſipatores indeed, and daſhers in pieces, rods of Gods wrath; and this they took to be a main piece of theit ſilly glory. How much more honour was it to Auguſtine, M. Cottons pref to Hilder. on Joh. 4. to be ſtiled Haereticorum malleus, the hammer of Heretikes? and to Mr. Hilderſam, to bee Schiſmaticorum malleus, the maul of Schiſmatikes? and laſtly, to Luther, that he could thus ſay of himſelf: Peſtis eram vivus, moriens ero mors tua Papa? I living, ſtopt Romes breath, And dead, will be Romes death?

Is come up before thy face] Nineveh lay high; and thoſe that went thither, were ſaid to go up, Hoſ. 8.9. Nebuchadnezzar is ſaid here, to be come up to it, long before he did, (which ſets forth Gods omniſcience: Known to him are all his works from the beginning of the world: Act. 15.18. Pſal. 139.2. and preſent to him are all things, both paſt and future) and to come up before Nineveh's face; who thought none durſt have been ſo bold as to look her in the face. But though ſhe had been a terrour, yet now ſhee is a ſcorn: as was likewiſe Ephraim, when he offended in Baal, Hoſ. 13.1. See the Note there.

Keep the munition, watch the way, &c.] Ironicè omnia, q.d. Do all this, if you think it will do any good. But 'tis all to no purpoſe; you are an undone people, your enemies are above fear, and you below hope; you have hitherto delighted in warre, you ſhall now have enough of it; you have troubled the world with your armes, and Armies; now you ſhall meet with your match, a people terrible from the beginning. Up therefore, and do your utmoſt: Neglect nothing that may ſerve for your neceſſary defence; but it will not be: for except the Lord keep the city, the watch-man waketh but in vain, Pſal. 127.1.

Verſe 2. For the Lord hath turned away the excellency of Jacob, as the excellency of Iſrael] Both the ten tribes (carried captive already) and the other two (vexed by Sennacheribs invaſion) have taken their turnes, and have had their part of bitter affliction: and ſhalt thou O Niniveh altogether eſcape unpuniſhed? Never think it. Eſpecially ſith thou haſt exceeded thy commiſſion, and exerciſed an unheard of cruelty upon Gods people: for he was but a little diſpleaſed, but ye have helped forward the affliction Zach. 1.15. See the Note there.

for the emptiers have emptied them out] The Aſſyrians have ſpoyled and pillaged till they have left neither men nor meanes behind them; ſuch clean work they have made, ſweeping all before them, like a ſweeping raine that leaveth no ſood Prov. 28.3. Omnia corradunt & converrunt.

and marred their vine-branches] that is their ſons and their daughters ſaith Lyra: their cities and villages, ſay others: like a malicious vinedreſſer, that not only cuts off the luxurious or barren branches, but pulls up the yong ſprouts by the rootes, and ſo marrs the vineyard. The Aſſyrians endeavoured utterly to deſtroy the whole ſeed of Abraham without any mercy or compaſſion: and this undid them. The jealous and juſt God cannot beare with ſuch boares out of the wood, that waſt his vines Pſal. 80.13.

Ver. 3. The ſhield of his mighty men is made red] Panoplia terrorens auget. All was red a colour much affected by the Medes, Perſians and Caldees) to ſhew that they were a ſanguinary nation, and not more gold-thirſty, Eſai. 13.Herodot: Diod. Sic. Xenophon Curtius then blood-thirſty.

the valiant men are in ſcarlet] A colour affected by martiall men, that would ſeem to feare no colours. The Lacedemonians uſed it much, when they went to fight: that, if they ſhould be wounded, their blood might not appeare upon their apparrell, for the diſcouragement of themſelves, and encouragement of the enemy by ſuch a ſight. The Romiſh Cardinals are clothed in ſcarlet, and are created by a red hat which the Pope giveth them, in a token that they ſhould be ready to ſhed their blood for the Catholike faith: which if they ſhould do (as never any of them yet did) they would be no better then the Devils Martyrs: ſith it is the cauſe, and not the puniſhment, that maketh a true martyr. A Tiburn-tippet, (as plain Mr. Latimer was wont to ſpeake) would well become thoſe ſcarlet-Fathers: who, like bels will be never well tuned, till well hanged; for their blood-guiltineſſe, and ſoule-murther eſpecially. In the kingdome of Naples there were two notable theeves (the one named Pater-noſter, Reinold. de idol Rom. prafet. the other Ave-Maria) who at ſeverall times had murthered one hundred and ſixteen men, and were therefore deſervedly put to a cruel death. But nothing ſo cruel as the Pope and his Conclave deſerve, for their ſending of ſo many ſoules daily to that great red dragon; red with the blood of ſoules which he hath ſwallowed, as St. Peter hath it, 1 Pet. 5.8. Rev. 12.3.

the charrets ſhall be with flaming torches] Thoſe currus falcati charrets armed with ſithes and hookes, with, and in which, they were wont to fight: theſe ſhall be with flaming torches carried along in them, either to light them fighting by night, or elſe to fire the enemies houſes, and to terrify their hearts.

and the firr trees ſhall be terribly ſhaken] with the rattling of the charrets, and clattering of the armour. In a bloody fight between Amurath the third king of Turks and Lazarus Deſpot of Servia, the noiſe of warlike weapons, the neighing of horſes and outcries of men were ſo terrible, and great, that the wild beaſts in the woods ſtood aſtonied therewith, the trees ſeemed to be ſhaken, and the Turkiſh hiſtories to expreſſe the terrour of the day, vainely ſay,Turk. Hiſt. that the Angels in heaven, amazed with that hideous noiſe, for that time forgat the heavenly hymnes &c. The word here rendred terribly ſhaken is rather Chaldee, then Hebrew: as ſpoken of the Chaldees, comming againſt Niniveh.

Verſe 4. The charrets ſhall rage in the ſtreets] ſhall run ſo faſt, as if they were mad that drove them.

they ſhall juſtle one againſt another] Coxabunt they ſhall ſmite ſide to ſide, through haſt and heate of fighting.

they ſhall ſeem like torches] Heb: their aſpect is as of torches: fire ſparkleth out of their eyes that are in them: they look upon the Aſſyrians, as if they would look through them.

they ſhall run like the lightenings] Heb. they ſhall break through as the lightenings; that is, with incredible ſwiſtneſſe: as lightening in an inſtant commeth out of the Eaſt, and ſhineth even to the Weſt Mat. 24.27. Luc. 10.18.

Verſe 5. He ſhall recount his worthies Or Gallants, Magnificoes. Theſe, Aſarhaddon the king of Niniveh ſeeing himſelf ſtraighted, ſhall muſter up, and mind of their duties: bidding them now or never play the men, ſith the empire was at ſtake.

they ſhall ſtumble in their walk] thorough fearefulneſſe and faint-heartedneſſe: according to that of the Pſalmiſt, The ſtout-hearted are ſpoyled, they have ſlept their ſleep: and none of the men of might have found their hands. At thy rebuke, O God of Jacob, both the chariot and horſe are caſt into a dead ſleep Pſal. 76.5, 6. God ſtruck a terrour into the Ninivites upon the firſt comming of the Chaldees. See Deut. 11.25. Therefore there is no great credit to be given to Diodorus Siculus, who ſaith,Cap. 7. Lib. 3. that the Chaldees were thrice overcome in fight by the Aſſyrians, when as they came in armes to beſiege Niniveh.

they ſhall make haſt to the wall thereof] The Chaldees ſhall: taking advantage of the Ninivites feare, that cowardly paſſion, that diſarmeth and diſableth a man for his own defence, Or, the Aſſyrians ſhall haſten to the wall as faſt as their fainting and failing legs will carry them; to try what they can do, to keep out the enemy. So the Emperour of Conſtantinople, certainly advertiſed of the Turks purpoſe for the generall aſſault ſhortly to be given,Turk. Hiſt. fol. 345. after that he had many times with teares requeſted to have borrowed mony of his covetous ſubjects, to have been employed for defence of their city; he firſt commended himſelf and them to the Almighty by generall faſting and prayer: and afterwards appointed every captaine and commander to ſome certaine place of the wall, for defence thereof &c. but all in vaine, as here at Niniveh.

and the defence ſhall be prepared] Heb. the covering or coverer, Teſtudo militaris. Some military engine, or moveable defence.

Verſe 6. The gates of the rivers ſhall be opened] Notwithſtanding all fore-mentioned indeavours to ſave the city, the water-gates or thoſe that ſtood neare the river Tigris, flew open either by meanes of that inundation above-mentioned, or by the enemies irruption; or the trechery of ſome that were within.

and the pallace ſhall be diſſolved] Or melted, haply by that inundation: howſoever, by hoſtile impreſſion: whether we underſtand it of the Palace Royall, or the Idol-temple or both(the word will beare either) for it was not unuſual for Princes to have their houſes neare to the temples, as the kings of Judah had Ier. 22.14. The Trojans had their Palladium in the Tower: the Romans their Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus in the Capitoll: Conſtantine the great, built the Lateran Church in his Laterane palace; William Rufus, his Weſtminſter-hall, neare the Minſter.

Verſe 7: And Huzza ſhall be led away captive] The Queen; ſo called, becauſe the ſtood firm, and was beſt underlaid of any other, as was thought, Some render it, quae firma ſtabat, ducta eſt in exilium. She that was wont to ſtand at the kings right hand (as Pſal. 45.) which is a place both of dignity and of ſafety. As Chriſt is at Gods right hand Pſal. 110.1. ſo the Church is at his, Pſal. 45.10. and he hath led captivity captive Eph. 4.8. ſpoiled Principalities and powers, made an open ſhew of them, triumphing over them in himſelf, Col. 2.15. This is the ſaints happineſſe: they are out of gun-ſhot, more then Conquerours, even Triumphers, 2 Cor. 2.14.

ſhe ſhall be brought up] whither ſhe would not, to take horſe or coach to go into captivity, as Q. Zenobia was brought in triumph to Rome in golden fetters, by Aurelianus the Emperour.

and her maides ſhall lead her] Her maides of honour; The Gynecium or Seraglio ſhall fall into the hands of rude ſouldiers; and by them be hurried away into a far country. Neither is it without deſert: for omne malum ferè ex Gynaecio; Women are many times meanes of much miſchief: and for their miſcarriages, men fall by the ſword, and the mighty in the warr: the gates alſo of the city lamene and mourn, Eſay. 3.11.25, 26. even for the Ladyes gallantry, whereof we have here an inventory. What a deale of trouble bred Jezabel in Iſrael, Athaliah in Judah, thoſe 2. late turbulent Queen-Mothers in Scotland and France? of which later and her Cardinall Lorraine, One made this ſtinging diſtich, Non audet Stygius Pluto tentare quod audet Effraenis Monachus, plenaque fraud[illegible: 1 letter] anus.

as with the voice of doves] Mourning ſecretly to themſelves, and groaning inwardly;In more in columbarum muſſitantium. Eſay 38.14. & 59.11. as not ſuffered to bark at thoſe that carry them captive, (as Hecuba Queen of Troy did, and is therefore fabled to be turned into a bitch) or to fill the air with complaints of their hard fortunes, as they call it, or to eaſe their grief by loud lamentations; but forced to ſmother it, and take it all to themſelves, which is no ſmall aggravation of it: For Expletur lachrymis egeriturque dolor.Ovid. Their tongues and their tears are womens beſt weapons. Et hic ferè laſciviae, luxus, & libidinis ſinis eſt, ſaith Gualther here. Lo, ſuch, for moſt part, is the end of laſciviouſneſſe, luxury, and luſt. Let women be warned.

tabring upon their breaſts] Not ſinging and playing on inſtruments after their Ladies, as once: but moaning, and groaning, and knocking their breaſts, for the greatneſſe of their grief, and heavineſſe; whereof this is an excellent, and eloquent deſcription.

Verſe 8. But Nineveh is of old like a pool of water] Like a fiſh-pool of water, [non-Latin text not transcribed] and therefore happy: The word here uſed for a pool, or pond, ſignifieth alſo a bleſſing. The Pope was wont to ſay of England, that it was puteus inexhauſtus, his pit that could not be drawn dry. Such a pit, or pool was Nineveh. Populous, wealthy, potent, &c. Eſay 8.7. the Magazine of the whole Eaſt, a rich Cargazon, Turk. hiſt. 843. and not unlike the Iſland Cyprus, anciently called, Macaria, that is, bleſſed, for the plenty, proſperity, and pleaſure there abounding. This invited the Romans to ſubdue it: as the pearls uſually caſt out at the flood, and gathered at the ebbe,Sext. Ruf. Sueton. in vit. Caeſa. cap. 47. drew Caeſars affection for the conqueſt of Britain: and as Nineveh's fiſh-pool did the Chaldean fiſhermen. The greater wealth, the greater ſpoil awaiteth a people, or perſon, Prov. 1.19. As if a tree hath thick and large boughes, every man deſires to be lopping of it. Nineveh's antiquity is here alſo noted. Of old, or, of a long time ſhe hath been Empreſſe of the Eaſt; She was the ſeat of the firſt Monarchy, which ſhe alſo held longeſt of any, even above thirteen hundred yeers. Howbeit this ſhall be now no protection to her, but an article, or an argument againſt her, that ſhe is an old ſinner, and hath been long time heaping up, and hoarding the mammon of unrighteouſneſſe.

yet they ſhall flee away] as waters do when the banks of a pond are broken down: and as fiſh do, when the water is drawn out, or dried up: then they friggle any way. So ſhall the Ninevites flee away, when their city is once broken: pugnae obliti, priſtinaeque virtutis.

Stand, ſtand, ſhall they cry] Their own Commanders, deſirous to rally them: or their enemies, deſirous to ranſack them, and make prize of them: Sed ſurdo fabulam.

but none ſhall look back] Or, cauſe them to turn. Nemo poteſt eos reſupinare: their hearts are fallen into their heels, and they have much more mind to ſave themſelves by flight, then by fight.

Verſ. 9. Take ye the ſpoil of ſilver, take ye the ſpoil of gold] This is the voice of God to the Caldeans; incouraging them to fall on, ſith they are ſure of good booty, plenty of plunder, which he here freely beſtoweth upon them. In like ſort Mahomet the great Turk, the better to encourage his ſouldiers to ſtorm Conſtantinople, cauſed proclamation to be made thorow his Camp the day before, that hee would freely give all the ſpoil of the city for three dayes unto them,Turk hiſt. 345. if they could win it. And for confirmation thereof, he ſolemnly ſwore the Turks great oath, &c. Now the love of money is [non-Latin text not transcribed], ſaith a Father, daring and deſperate.

For there is none end of the ſtore] Fat plunder, as was at Conſtantinople: the wealth whereof, the Turks themſelves wondered at; and were therewith ſo enriched, that 'tis a proverb amongſt them at this day, if any grow ſuddenly rich,Ibid. 347. to ſay, He hath been at the ſacking of Conſtantinople. Neither did they more wonder at their wealth, then derided their folly: for that poſſeſſing ſo much, they would part with ſo little to their Emperour,Ibid. 345. for the defence of themſelves and their Countrey. And the like is reported of Heidelberg.

and glory out of all the pleaſant furniture] Heb. veſſels, or utenſils of deſire: which are ſaid to yeeld glory, becauſe with men one hath ſo much glory and reſpect, as he hath wealth, and rich houſhold-ſtuff. See Gen. 31.1. with the Note. 1 King. 10.23. 2 Chron. 32.27. See here alſo the juſt judgement of God upon ſuch, as ſet their affections upon that coſtly vanity, rich furniture. (Hezechiah ſmarted for it, Eſay 39.2, 6. 2 Chron. 32.27.) or rich attire, which is ſuperbiae nidus, the neſt of pride, ſaith One. The worſt apparell is natures garment; the beſt, but follies garniſh, ſaith Another.

Verſe 10. She is empty, and void, and waſte] An elegant Agnomination in the Originall,Bukab, umebukah, umbylla. kah. beyond Engliſhing: whereby the utter deſtruction, and conſternation of the City and Monarchy is graphically depainted, and ſet forth to the life. See a like elegancy, Jer. 16.15. The laſt word rendred waſte, ſignifieth burſt up, or, void of all verdure; a place where nothing green groweth. Such an horrible devaſtation followeth upon Gods word of command to the Caldees, verſe 9. like as when Chriſt curſed the barren fig-tree,Matth. 21.20. it withered away immediately, though it be the moſt ſucculent of any tree, and beareth the brunt of winter-blaſts unwithered. Gods words, however ſlighted, are not wind, but fire, Jer. 5.13, 14.

and the heart melteth] The heart (in quo fortitudo ſtabulum habet, the ſeat of courage) fell aſunder in their boſomes like drops of water:Crocius. they were cowed out. See Joſ. 2.11. & 5.1. & 7.5. Eſay 13.7. Ezek. 21.12.

and the knees ſmite together] Genua labant, as is uſuall in extreme fear: the blood retreating to the heart,Virg. to releeve it. See Dan. 5.6. Job. 4.4. Eſay 35.3.

and much pain is in all loins] Such pain as befalleth women in travell, Eſay 21.3. and 13.8. Joel 2.6. Mic. 4.9, 10. the doubled form of the Hebrew word implieth the extremity of it. The loins are the ſeat of ſtrength: whence the Latines call weak men,Elumbes. Loinleſſe men.

and the faces of them all gather blackneſſe] Heb. [illegible: 1 letter] pot, i.e. ſuch blackneſſe as is on the ſides of a pot.Olla, lebes, cacabus. See Joel 2.6. Ioy and ſorrow will ſhew themſelves in the face, as in a glaſſe. Now if for a temporall miſchief, there is ſo great a conſternation in wicked men, what ſhall we think there is in hell?

Verſe 11. Where is the dwelling of the Lious, &c.] Where is Nineveh, once ſo terrible, now ſo deſpicable? Leoni mortuo vel mus inſultat. Once none durſt look at it, or mute againſt it, now each paſſenger can inſult over it, enquire where it ſtood, and not be afraid to take this Lion by the beard. God powreth contempt upon princes, and weakeneth the ſtrength of the mighty, Job 12.21. when once they turn tyrants, and exerciſe regiment without righteouſneſſe, as Mic. 3.2, 3. Such a mighty hunter, or devourer of men and nations was Nimrod (the firſt founder of this Aſſyrian Monarchy) and became a proverb againſt all tyrants, and perſecutours, Gen. 10.9. Such a Lion was Nero, 2 Tim. 4.17. Such a Tiger Tiberius, (of whom One ſaith, that he laid hold with his teeth on all the excellent ſpirits of his time) Domitian, (who not content with the blood of Chriſtians, commanded all Jews that were of the ſtock of David, to be ſought out, and put to death) Diocleſian, and the reſt of the Primitive perſecutours: As alſo that man of ſinne, the whole pack of Popes, ſucceſſours to Boniface the eighth (who came in like a fox, reigned like a lion, died like a dog) and to Benedict the twelfth, who when he died, had this Epitaph made of him: Hic ſitus eſt Nero, laicis leo, vipera clero: Devius à vero, turba repleta mero. [illegible: 2 letters]ei Medulla hiſt. E[illegible: 1 letter]cleſ. 321.

and the feeding place of the young lions] Where the old ones provided prey fro them, till they could skill to do it for themſelves; that which they would ſoon learn and practiſe, when once grown up. The Aſſyrian young-princes were accuſtomed to rapine, and cruelty from the firſt: being no better then young Tiberims, whom his Tutour Theodorus Gadareus rightly characterized, [non-Latin text not transcribed]. when he ſaid, he was Dirt kned with blood: Or, then Nero the lion; of whom his father Domitius prophecied, that of himſelf and his wife Agrippina (both notoriouſly naught) no good man could be born. Mali corvi, malum ovum. Dio in Nerone Of an ill breed, ne catulus [illegible: 1 letter]idem relinquendus, ſaid the Romans, when they ſlew one of their tyrants together with his young ſonne. It was Maximinus, if I miſtake not.

where the lion, even the old lion walked] The couragious, or hearty lion (named of Leo an heart) walked and ſtalked with his whelps, and none made them afraid.Labi. but now, his heart melteth, his knees knock together for fear, and faintneſſe, as verſe 10. his city Nineveh (that was not onely ſpoliarium latronum, Calv. but ſpelunca leonum) is now no where: it ſhall live by fame onely, time ſhall triumph over it. God will ſtain the pride of all glory, and bring into contempt all the honourable of the earth, Eſay 23.9. So Clara fuit-Sparte, magnae viguêre Mycenae,Ovid. Metant. lib. 15. Vile ſolum Sparte eſt, altae cecidere Mycenae. Oedipodioniae quid ſunt niſi nomina Thebae? &c.

Verſe 12. The lion did tear in pieces enough for his whelps] i. e. that which might have been enough and ſpare, but that they were unſatiable. So covetous they were and ravenous, that their Poſie might have been, Totus non ſufficit orbis: their deſire of more, was enlarged as hell; greedy lions they were, that could never have enough, Eſay 56.11. As a ſhip may be over-laden with gold and ſilver, even unto ſinking, and yet have compaſſe and ſides enough to hold ten times more: ſo the cormorants and covetous caitives of this world, though they have enough to ſink them; yet never have they enough to ſatisfie them.

and ſtrangled for his lioneſſes] i. e. for his wives and concubines, by whom they were commanded, being captivarum ſuarum captivi, as Plutarch ſaith of the Perſian kings; ſlaves to their ſhe-ſlaves, whom they enriched and adorned with the ſpoils of the ſubdued nations. Cicero in his fifth Action againſt Verres, ſaith, that the kings of Perſia and Syria, (think the ſame of Aſſyria) as they had many wives, ſo they would beſtow upon them whole cities for their maintenance. Antiochus king of Syria, gave two fair cities to his Concubine, 2 Maccab. 4.30. Antony gave all Egypt to Cleopatra. Henry 2. of France, gave to Diana Valentina all the confiſcation of goods made in the kingdom for cauſe of Hereſie, Anno 1554. which cauſed the burning of many good people. Ʋtinam hodie non eſſent leanae, ſaith Calvin here. It were to be wiſhed there were not now adayes lioneſſes,Hiſt. of Councel of Trent. 387. that can of themſelves ſtrangle and devour: but we ſee that there are ſome women that exceed all men in impudency and cruelty. The Queen-mother he meant, in all likelyhood, as Beza did her cruell ſonne Charles 9. Authour of the Maſſacre, in that Verſe of his, made upon the that new ſtarre in Caſſiopeia, 1572.

Tu verò Herodes ſanguinolente time.Camd. Elizab.

and filled his holes with prey, and his denne with ravine] His palaces with treaſure, his coffers with caſh, raked together by evil arts, and oppreſſive practiſes. What elſe was the whole Aſſyrian Empire, but a great theevery? Alexander the Great was told to his teeth, that he was the greateſt thief in the world. And was not Jul[illegible: 3 letters] Caeſar ſuch another? who ſaid, that for a kingdomes ſake right might be vio[illegible: 4 letters]? and who robbed his countrey of her liberty, for the ſatisfying of his unlawfull deſire of ruledome? But for whom all this? ſurely for thoſe that never thanked them for any thing, but fought for their ſpoil.

Verſe 13. Behold I am againſt thee] Ecce me contra[illegible: 1 letter]te: Behold I, Hoc ecce non excitat modo ſed perterrefacit. who am of my ſelf a whole Army of men, Van and Rcare both, Eſay 52.12. I am againſt thee, ſaith the Lord of Hoſtss, who have all creatures at command if need were, as Auxiliaries: and can arm your own forces againſt you, ſheath your own ſwords in your own bowels. Wo be to rhoſe that have God againſt them. The Tigurine rendreth it, En me tibi hoſtem, &c. Deus ſerierum.

and I will burn her charets in the ſmoke,] That is, ſaith Danaeus, I will burn all their munition, and furniture for warre, with a moſt bitter and ſoft fire, that they may be the more grieved, and the more tormented thereby. Others, by ſmoke underſtand the ſuddenneſſe of the judgement q. d. No ſooner ſhall my wrath begin to kindle,Calvin. but I will conſume them: prime impetu, ſo ſoon as ever the flame beginneth to break forth, or rather, before. By charets may be alſo meant, thoſe that were carried in them. The Hebrew gloſſe here is, By ſmoke, that is, by a fire whoſe ſmoke is ſeen afarre off. See Judg. 20.40. Such ſhall be the fire of the laſt day, as A Lapide here noteth out of Hierom: when all the lions, and lions whelps, that is, all tyrants and oppreſſours ſhall be burnt, together with all their charrets, pompes, and meſſengers, ac imprimis corum dux & princeps Antichriſtus, and eſpecially Antichriſt their Captain, and Chieftain. He and his Jeſuites ſhall doubtleſſe then be caſt alive into a lake of fire, burning with brimſtone, Revel, 19.20. Let A Lapide note that.

and the ſword ſhall devour thy young lions! Thou ſhalt bring forth children to the murtherer: and thoſe that have taken the ſword (though never ſo young) ſhall periſh by the ſword, Mat. 26.52. As a Nettle ſtings betime, an Urchin is rough whiles young, and a Crab ſoon goes backward: ſo ſanguinary diſpoſitions will ſoon diſcover themſelves.

And I will cut off thy prey from the earth] Thou ſhalt be no further terrible, and troubleſome to the nations, whom thou haſt vexed and ſpoiled. Of Baldwin that Apoſtate, One ſaith, that when he died, deſiit ſimul maledicere & vivere, he ceaſed at once to live and to rail. And of our Henry 2. the Chronicler writeth, that in a great diſtemperature againſt his rebellious ſonnes, he departed the world, which ſo often himſelf had diſtempered. Nineveh the great huntreſſe was now under that wo, Eſa. 33.1.

and the voice of thy meſſengers] thy Heralds, by whom thou haſt proclaimed war, or made unreaſonable demands, or laid hard lawes upon other nations, or exacted grievous tributes, or publiſhed thy new victories, to keep people in awe, or laſtly, blaſphemed my great Name, as Rabſhakeh one of thy meſſengers will do, 2 King. 18.19. Theſe ſhall all be ſilenced, an end ſhall be put to them and thee.