The New John Gill Exposition of the Entire Bible Nahum 1:14
And the Lord hath given a commandment concerning thee…
This is directed to Sennacherib king of Assyria, as the Targum
expresses it; and so Jarchi and Kimchi; and signifies the decree of God
concerning him, what he had determined to do with him, and how things
would be ordered in Providence towards him, agreeably to his design and
resolution:
[that] no more of thy name be sown;
which is not to be understood that
he should have no son and heir to succeed him; for Esarhaddon his son
reigned in his stead, (2 Kings 19:37) ; and after him, according to
Ptolemy's canon, Saosduchinus and Chyniladanus but the memory of his
name should no be spread in the earth; or the fame of it, with any
marks of honour and glory, but of shame and disgrace. So the Targum,
``neither shall be any memory of thy name any more:''
out of the house of thy gods will I cut of the graven image and the
molten image;
called "the house of Nisroch his god", (2 Kings 19:37) ;
where he was slain; and some say that after that it ceased to be a
place of worship, being polluted with his blood. Josephus F20 calls it
his own temple, where he usually worshipped, for which he had a
peculiar regard, and for his god Nisroch; but who this deity was is not
certain. Selden says F21, he knew nothing, nor had read anything of
him, but what is mentioned in the Scripture. Some of the Jewish writers
FOOTNOTES:
F23 take it to be a plank of Noah's ark; and Mr. Basnage F24 is of
opinion that it is Janus represented by Noah's ark, who had two faces,
before and behind; a fit emblem of Noah, who saw two worlds, one
before, and another after the flood. Some say Dagon the god of the
Philistines is meant, which is not likely; (See Gill on 37:38);
but, be he who he will, there were other idols besides him, both graven
and molten, in this temple, as is here expressed; very probably here
stood an image of Belus or Pul, the first Assyrian monarch, and who;
was deified; and perhaps Adrammelech the god of the Sepharvites was
another, since one of Sennacherib's sons bore this name; and it was
usual with the Assyrians, Chaldeans, and Babylonians, to give the names
of their gods to their princes, or insert them in theirs: here also
might be the Assyrian Venus, Derceto, Semiramis, and others: fishes
also were worshipped by the Assyrians, in honour of Derceto; and doves
in remembrance of Semiramis, said to be nourished by one in her
infancy, and turned into one at her death; hence those creatures became
sacred in Assyria, and were not suffered to be touched and killed, as
Philo observed at Askelon; (See Gill on 11:11); and Lucian F25
at Hieropolis in Syria; where, he says, of all birds, they think the
dove most holy; so that they count it very unlawful to touch them; and
if by chance they do, they reckon themselves unclean that whole day;
hence you may see them frequently in their houses conversing familiarly
with them, generally feeding on the ground, without any fear; and he
also says F26 the Assyrians sacrifice to a dove, and which he must have
known, since he himself was an Assyrian, as he tells us; but, whatever
these graven and molten images were, it is here predicted they should
be utterly demolished. The sense is, that whereas Sennacherib's empire
should be destroyed, and his capital taken, the temple where he
worshipped would be defaced, and all his gods he gloried of, all his
images, both graven and molten, would be cut to pieces, falling into
the conqueror's hands, as was usual in such cases; these would not be
able to defend him or his, or secure them from the vengeance of God,
whom he had blasphemed:
I will make thy grave, for thou art vile:
the Targum is,
``there will I put thy grave;''
that is, in the house of thy god, as Aben Ezra, Jarchi, Kimchi, and Ben
Melech, interpret it; where he was slain by two of his sons, as before
observed; and this judgment came upon him by the will of God, because
he was a loose vile creature; because he had vilified the true God, and
reproached him, as unable to deliver Hezekiah and his people out of his
hands. The Targum paraphrases it,
``because this is easy before me;''
what the Lord could easily do, make his idol temple his grave; or,
however, take away his life, and lay his honour in the dust: or it may
be rendered, "I will put [upon] thy grave that thou art vile" F1; he,
who thought to have a superb monument over his grave, and an epitaph
inscribed on it to his immortal honour, as kings used to have; this
shall be the sepulchral inscription,
``here lies a vile, wicked, and contemptible man;''
so Abarbinel. There was a statue of this king in an Egyptian temple, as
Herodotus F2 relates, according, as many think, with this inscription
on it,
``whosoever looks on me, let him be religious;''
though I rather think it was a statue of Sethon the priest of Vulcan,
and last king of Egypt. Here ends the first chapter in some Hebrew
copies, and in the Syriac and Arabic versions, and in Aben Ezra.
F20 Antiqu. l. 10. c. 1. sect. 5.
F21 De Dis Syris, Syntagm. 2. c. 10. p. 329.
F23 Vid. Jarchi in Isaiam, c. 37, 38.
F24 In Calmet's Dictionary, in the word "Samaritans".
F25 De Dea Syria.
F26 In Jupiter Tragoedus.
F1 (twlq yk Krbq Myva) .
F2 (est' eme tiv orewn, eusebhs estw) . Euterpe, sive l. 2. c. 141.
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Copyright Statement
The New John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible Modernised and adapted for the computer by Larry Pierce of Online Bible. All Rightes Reserved, Larry Pierce, Winterbourne, Ontario.
A printed copy of this work can be ordered from: The Baptist Standard Bearer, 1 Iron Oaks Dr, Paris, AR, 72855
Bibliography Information
Gill, John. "Commentary on Nahum 1:14". "The New John Gill Exposition of the Entire Bible". <http://www.studylight.org/com/geb/view.cgi?book=na&chapter=001&verse=014>. 1999.
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