Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary
Nahum 1:2

Clarke's Commentary

Verse Nahum 1:2. God is jealous — For his own glory.

And - revengeth — His justice; by the destruction of his enemies.

And is furious — So powerful in the manifestations of his judgments, that nothing can stand before him.

He reserveth wrath — Though they seem to prosper for a time, and God appears to have passed by their crimes without notice, yet he reserveth - treasureth up - wrath for them, which shall burst forth in due time.

Bridgeway Bible Commentary

1:1-15 THE POWER OF GOD

God is the great judge, the all-powerful ruler of the universe. On the one hand he is patient with the rebellious, but on the other he is zealous for righteousness. His punishment of the guilty is severe, but it is also just (1:1-3a). Through storms, winds, droughts and earthquakes he sends judgments that bring total destruction. When his wrath is poured out on sinners, no one can escape (3b-6).
Being so mighty, God can protect those who trust in him, and destroy those who fight against him (7-8). Nahum warns all enemies that it is useless to plot against God, for he can destroy them with one blow. He will not need to strike twice (9-11).
Turning to address the people of God, Nahum promises that God will not punish them further. He will free them from the enemy’s power (12-13). Nahum tells the Assyrians that their gods will be destroyed (14), but tells the Judeans that their God will be victorious. Soon a messenger will bring them news of the overthrow of Assyria, whereupon they should worship God with thanks, sincerity and joy (15).

Coffman's Commentaries on the Bible

“Jehovah is a jealous God and avengeth and is full of wrath; Jehovah taketh vengeance on his adversaries, and he reserveth wrath for his enemies.”

For a generation of men who have largely rejected the idea that God is in any sense wrathful, these words seem to have a harsh and unwelcome sound. Even some commentators boldly criticize what they call “the religious inadequacy of his teachings.” Graham said, “Nahum provides an outstanding example of arrested religious development!”William C. Graham, Abingdon Bible Commentary (New York: Abingdon Press, 1929), p. 799.

THE WRATH OF GOD

A search of current sermonic literature reveals no single sermon devoted to “The Wrath of God”; and in sermon topics in preachers’ manuals and even the most extensive commentaries, it is mentioned, if at all, in the most casual and incidental manner. The usual run of titles that touch upon the question scale it down or minimize it, as in, “God’s Wrath Tempered by Mercy, God’s Wrath Averted, etc.” There is also a noticeable opinion to the effect that any preaching on such a subject derives from a mean and vicious spirit on the part of the preacher.

I.    However, the greatest and best men of both the Old Testament and the New Testament were the ones who most emphatically and sternly stressed God’s wrath. Isaiah, Paul, John, and our Lord Jesus Christ were among those who most clearly and vigorously emphasized it; and they were precisely the ones in whom love was most appealingly manifested. Therefore, preaching on the wrath of God is fully compatible with the most gentle and loving attributes of the Christian life.

A.    Isaiah, the great Messianic prophet, whose knowledge of God’s love equals that of any other in the Old Testament, said:

“Behold the day of the Lord cometh cruel, both with wrath and fierce anger to lay the land desolate. And he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it… Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall move out of her place in the wrath of the Lord of hosts and in the day of his fierce anger” (Isaiah 13:9; Isaiah 13:13).

B.    Hosea has been hailed as the greatest preacher of God’s love in the Old Testament, but read Hosea 9 for as terrible a denunciation as any to be found in the Bible.

C.    Paul’s love knew no boundaries or limits; and he could say, “I could wish myself anathema from Christ for my brethren according to the flesh” (Romans 9:3); but he, more than any other apostle, thundered the message of the wrath of God.

“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness” (Romans 1:18). “But after thy hardness and impenitent heart, thou treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God who will render to every man according to his deeds” (Romans 2:5-6). “Because of these things (the works of the flesh) the wrath of God cometh upon the children of disobedience” (Ephesians 5:6).

D.    John, whose writings abound with such admonitions as “love one another,” and who identified God Himself as love, also spoke most eloquently of God’s wrath:

“And the kings of the earth, and the great men and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; and said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth upon the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb; for the great day of his wrath has come; and who shall be able to stand?” (Revelation 6:16-17).

E.    When we come to the words of Jesus, we must remember that he made love perfect; he gave his life for all men; he loved us before we loved him. Yet he said:

“He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life; and he that obeyeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth upon him. To the hypocrites he said, O generation of vipers who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?” (Matthew 23:7).

Thus, from the lives and messages of the great disciples of love in both testaments, as well as from those of Life and Love incarnated, we have the solemn and eloquent assurance that God’s wrath will certainly and eventually break forth against the wicked.

II.    The object of God’s wrath is sin. All sin is against God. When Joseph was tempted to sin with the wife of Potiphar, he said, “How can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?” (Genesis 39:9). When the prodigal son came to himself, he said, “I will arise and go to my father and say, I have sinned against heaven and in thy sight” (Luke 15:18). This profound truth should temper the indignation of men against the wrath of God. The righteousness of the universe, the very justice that underlies creation and undergirds all things is the basic reason for the wrath of God. God’s holiness is utterly and eternally opposed to sin. God and sin are as irreconcilable as light and darkness, truth and falsehood, good and evil; and this is the basis of strong confidence on the part of men. All men of good will rejoice that the time will come when God shall rise in righteous wrath and cast evil out of his universe.

People become objects of God’s wrath only when they reject the benign and peaceful government of the Creator and choose to become servants of the Devil. That man is capable of making such a choice derives from the inherent gift of God, the freedom of the will; and it is in man’s highest self-interest that he should face up to the fact that, free as he is to choose, he cannot escape the ultimate consequences of whatever choice he makes.

People should read again, and again, Matthew 25 in which Christ divided all mankind into just two classes, those on the left who make the wrong choice, and those on the right who chose wisely. No more terrible words were ever written; and yet they were spoken by the loving Saviour himself.

III.    All people are, by nature, the children of wrath. Such an indictment was made by Paul when he said:

“We all had lived in times past in the lusts of the flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath even as others” (Ephesians 2:3).

This does not teach total hereditary depravity, but it surely fingers something that resembles it. A striking fact of man’s religious history reveals his invariable tendency to evil. Adam did not sin gradually, but all at once. Noah had scarcely left the ark until he was drunk and dishonored by a grandson. Israel had hardly escaped Egypt before they murmured against God and joined themselves to the Baalim at Baal-Peor. After God gave the Decalogue, the first recorded event thereafter was the breaking of the tablets of stone on which the Law was written. The redeemed of all ages have had sin very much with them. Only through constant love and adoration of the saving Christ is it possible for men to find the strength to overcome temptation.

Satan is the primary cause of sin; but he has strong allies in the pride, lusts, appetites and ambitions of men; and to the extent that men do not avail themselves of the redemption “in Christ” they become easy prey to the destructive influences of the evil one. When one thinks of all the sorrow, frustrations, defeats, violence, bloodshed, and savage wickedness engulfing mankind because of their service of “the god of this world” it should become understandable enough that God’s wrath should abide upon the Cause of all mankind’s wretched unhappiness and misery. It should always be remembered that God’s wrath is ever against sin, evil, and Satan, and not against men. Hell itself was not prepared for men, but for Satan and those who choose to serve the evil one (Matthew 25:41).

These solemn considerations show the disparity between practical and theoretical religion and the utter impossibility of any man’s ever deserving salvation. The great and indescribable mystery is the manner in which God through Christ has achieved salvation for fallen humanity; and despite all human failings and shortcomings, God is able to do so in full harmony with the principles of eternal justice. The Divine wrath is indeed tempered with mercy, enshrined as the central truth of the Word of God; but that is incapable of excusing any man who persists in the service of Satan and will most certainly share in the evil one’s ultimate destruction.

True righteousness is now available unto all men through “the faith of Christ”; but what shall be thought of that person who neglects or rejects heaven’s proffered mercy? Is there anything that should be expected except the fullness of Divine wrath? The answer is negative.

ILLUSTRATION: Today, all people are in the same position as that of queen Esther who went unbidden before the king, and who would have been summarily destroyed if the king had not extended to her his golden scepter. Who could describe such a folly as hers would have been if she had refused to touch? In a similar way, all men are sold under sins, condemned to eternal death, but God, through Christ, holds down to us the golden scepter of his love and righteousness; and men, through the gospel may touch and LIVE! And what of him who will not?

“For if we sin willfully, after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more a sacrifice for sins; but a fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation that shall devour the adversaries” (Hebrews 10:26-27).

IV.    The time of God’s wrath is “the day of the Lord,” the final Judgment of the great day when all men shall be judged simultaneously (Matthew 25). However, there are, throughout history, many tokens of that day evident in the summary judgments executed upon wicked men and nations, as recorded in the Bible. These are of two kinds: (1) great natural disasters such as the great Deluge, and many lesser things recurring at frequent intervals throughout time, and (2) overwhelming destruction executed upon wicked cities, nations, or cultures by divine commandment, such as Sodom, Gomorrah, Tyre, Sidon, Assyria, Nineveh, Babylon, Jerusalem, Rome, etc. Even the minor catastrophes such as floods, earthquakes, etc., are part of God’s plan, and are to be identified with God’s cursing the ground for Adam’s sake, having the benign purpose of making it easier for men to repent. The minor prophets frequently, and Nahum in this very chapter, make bold and unequivocal reference to such things.

This study of the wrath of God reveals that Nahum was not a case of “arrested” spiritual growth, as alleged by some, but that he was in line with the teachings of the most perfectly developed spiritual giants of the ages.

Another criticism of Nahum was written by Graham to the effect that, “He failed to apply to himself and to his people the standards by which he measured others!”Ibid. That of course, was based upon the fact that Nahum made no mention of Judah’s sins during the warning to Nineveh; and this is a classical example of the unfairness of Biblical critics. It will be remembered that in our studies of Amos, the occasional pointed and stern warnings addressed by Amos to Judah were edited out of the sacred text on the basis that “they did not fit.” Well, Nahum left them out of his prophecy; but they faulted him anyway! Such handling of the Sacred Scriptures is its own refutation.

Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible

God is jealous and the Lord revengeth - Rather (as the English margin) God “very jealous and avenging is the Lord.” The Name of God, יהוה (YHVH), “He who Is,” the Unchangeable, is thrice repeated, and thrice it is said of Him that He is an Avenger. It shows both the certainty and greatness of the vengeance, and that He who inflicts it, is the All-Holy Trinity, who have a care for the elect. God’s jealousy is twofold. It is an intense love, not bearing imperfections or unfaithfulness in that which It loves, and so chastening it; or not bearing the ill-dealings of those who would injure what It loves, and so destroying them. To Israel He had revealed Himself as “a Exodus 20:5-6 jealous God, visiting iniquity but shewing mercy;” here, as jealous for His people against those who were purely His enemies and the enemies of His people (see Zechariah 1:14), and so His jealousy burns to their destruction, in that there is in them no good to be refined, but only evil to be consumed.

The titles of God rise in awe; first, “intensely jealous” and “an Avenger;” then, “an Avenger and a Lord of wrath;” One who hath it laid up with Him, at His Command, and the more terrible, because it is so; the Master of it, (not, as man, mastered by it; having it, to withhold or to discharge; yet so discharging it, at last, the more irrevocably on the finally impenitent. And this He says at the last, “an Avenger to His adversaries,” (literally, “those who hem and narrow Him in”). The word “avenged” is almost appropriated to God in the Old Testament, as to punishment which He inflicts, or at least causes to be inflicted , whether on individuals Genesis 4:15, Genesis 4:24; 1Sa 24:12; 2 Samuel 4:8; 2 Kings 9:7; Jeremiah 11:20; Jeremiah 15:15; Jeremiah 20:12, or upon a people, (His own Leviticus 26:25; Psalms 99:8; Ezekiel 24:8 or their enemies Deuteronomy 32:41, Deuteronomy 32:43; Psalms 18:48; Isaiah 34:8; Isaiah 35:4; Isaiah 47:3; Isaiah 59:17; Isaiah 61:2; Isaiah 63:4; Micah 5:14; Jeremiah 46:10; Jeremiah 50:15, Jeremiah 50:28; Jeremiah 51:6, Jeremiah 51:11, Jeremiah 51:36; Ezekiel 25:14, Ezekiel 25:17, for their misdeeds. In the main it is a defect . Personal vengeance is mentioned only in characters, directly or indirectly censured, as Samson Judges 15:7; Judges 16:20 or Saul . It is forbidden to man, punished in him, claimed by God as His own inalienable right. “Vengeance is Mine and requital” (Deuteronomy 32:35, compare Psalms 94:1). “Thou shalt not avenge nor keep up against the children of My people” Leviticus 19:18. Yet it is spoken of, not as a mere act of God, but as the expression of His Being. “Shall not My soul be avenged of such a nation as this?” Jeremiah 5:9, Jeremiah 5:29; Jeremiah 9:9.

And a Reserver of wrath for His enemies - The hardened and unbelieving who hate God, and at last, when they had finally rejected God and were rejected by Him, the object of His aversion. It is spoken after the manner of men, yet therefore is the more terrible. There is that in God, to which the passions of man correspond; they are a false imitation of something which in Him is good, a distortion of the true likeness of God, in which God created us and whisk man by sin defaced. : “Pride doth imitate exaltedness: whereas Thou Alone art God exalted over all. Ambition, what seeks it, but honors and glory? Whereas Thou alone art to be honored above all and glorious for evermore. The cruelty of the great would fain be feared; but who is to be feared but God alone, out of whose power what can be wrested or withdrawn, when, or where, or whither, or by whom? The tendernesses of the wanton would fain be counted love: yet is nothing more tender than Thy charity; nor is aught loved more healthfully than that Thy truth, bright and beautiful above all. Curiosity makes semblance of a desire of knowledge; whereas Thou supremely knowest all. Yea, ignorance and foolishness itself is cloaked under the name of simplicity and uninjuriousness: because nothing is found more single than Thee; and what less injurious, since they are his own works which injure the sinner?

Yea, sloth would fain be at rest; but what stable rest beside the Lord? Luxury affects to be called plenty and abundance; but Thou art the fullness and never-failing plenteousness of incorruptible pleasures. Prodigality presents a shadow of liberality: but Thou art the most overflowing Giver of all good. Covetousness would possess many things; and Thou possessest all things. Envy disputes for excellency: what more excellent than Thou? Anger seeks revenge: who revenges more justly than Thou? Fear startles at things unaccustomed or sudden, which endanger things beloved, and takes forethought for their safety; but to Thee what unaccustomed or sudden, or who separats from Thee what Thou lovest? Or where but with Thee is unshaken safety? Grief pines away for things lost, the delight of its desires; because it would have nothing taken from it, as nothing can from Thee. Thus doth the soul seek without Thee what she finds not pure and untainted, until she returns to Thee. Thus, all pervertedly imitate Thee, who remove far from Thee, and lift themselves up against Thee. But even by thus imitating Thee, they imply Thee to be the Creator of all nature; whence there is no place, whither altogether to retire from Thee.” And so, in man, the same qualities are good or bad, as they have God or self for their end. : “The joy of the world is a passion. Joy in the Holy Spirit or to joy in the Lord is a virtue. The sorrow of the world is a passion. The sorrow according to God which works salvation is a virtue. The fear of the world which hath torment, from which a man is called fearful, is a passion. The holy tear of the Lord, which abides forever, from which a man is called reverential, is a virtue. The hope of the world, when one’s hope is in the world or the princes of the world, is a passion. Hope in God is a virtue, as well as faith and charity. Though these four human passions are not in God, there are four virtues, having the same names, which no one can have, save from God, from the Spirit of God.” in man they are “passions,” because man is so far “passive” and suffers under them, and, through original sin, cannot hinder having them, though by God’s grace he may hold them in.

God, without passion and in perfect holiness, has qualities, which in man were jealousy, wrath, vengeance, unforgivingness, a “rigor of perfect justice toward the impenitent, which punishes so severely, as though God had fury;” only, in Him it is righteous to punish man’s unrighteousness. Elsewhere it is said, “God keepeth not for ever” Psalms 103:9, or it is asked, “will He keep forever?” Jeremiah 3:5, and He answers, “Return, and I will not cause Mine anger to fall upon you, for I am merciful, saith the Lord, I will not keep for ever” Jeremiah 3:12. Man’s misdeeds and God’s displeasure remain with God, to be effaced on man’s repentance, or “by his hardness and impenitent heart man treasureth up unto himself wrath in the day of wrath and of the revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who will reward each according to his works” Romans 2:5-6.

Calvin's Commentary on the Bible

Nahum begins with the nature of God, that what he afterwards subjoins respecting the destruction of Nineveh might be more weighty, and produce a greater impression on the hearers. The preface is general, but the Prophet afterwards applies it to a special purpose. If he had only spoken of what God is, it would have been frigid at least it would have been less efficacious; but when he connects both together, then his doctrine carries its own force and power. We now apprehend the design of the Prophet. He might indeed have spoken of the fall of the city Nineveh: but if he had referred to this abruptly, profane men might have regarded him with disdain; and even the Israelites would have been perhaps less affected. This is the reason why he shows, in a general way, what sort of Being God is. And he takes his words from Moses; and the Prophets are wont to borrow from him their doctrine: ⁽²⁰⁸⁾ and it is from that most memorable vision, when God appeared to Moses after the breaking of the tables. I have therefore no doubt but that Nahum had taken from Exodus 34:0 what we read here: he does not, indeed, give literally what is found there; but it is sufficiently evident that he paints, as it were, to the life, the image of God, by which his nature may be seen.

He says first, that God is jealous; (amulus — emulous); for the verb קנא, kona, means to irritate, and also to emulate, and to envy. When God is said to be קנוא, konua, the Greeks render it jealous, ζηλωτην, and the Latins, emulous, (amulatorem) But it properly signifies, that God cannot bear injuries or wrongs. Though God then for a time connives at the wickedness of men? he will yet be the defender of his own glory. He calls him afterwards the avenger, and he repeats this three times, Jehovah avengeth, Jehovah avengeth and possesseth wrath, he will avenge. When he says that God keeps for his enemies, he means that vengeance is reserved for the unbelieving and the despisers of God. There is the same mode of speaking in use among us, Je lui garde, et il la garde a ses ennemis. This phrase, in our language, shows what the Prophet means here by saying, that God keeps for his enemies. And this awful description of God is to be applied to the present case, for he says that he proclaims war against the Ninevites, because they had unjustly distressed the Church of God: it is for this reason that he says, that God is jealous, that God is an avenger; and he confirms this three times, that the Israelites might feel assured that this calamity was seriously announced; for had not this representation been set before them, they might have thus reasoned with themselves, — “We are indeed cruelly harassed by our enemies; but who can think that God cares any thing for our miseries, since he allows them so long to be unavenged?” It was therefore necessary that the Prophet should obviate such thoughts, as he does here. We now more fully understand why he begins in a language so vehement, and calls God a jealous God, and an avenger.

He afterwards adds, that God possesses wrath I do not take חמה, cheme, simply for wrath, but the passion or he it of wrath. We ought not indeed to suppose, as it has been often observed, that our passions belong to God; for he remains ever like himself. But yet God is said to be for a time angry, and for ever towards the reprobate, for he is our and their Judge. Here, then, when the Prophet says, that God is the Lord of wrath, or that he possesses wrath, he means that he is armed with vengeance and that, though he connives at the sins of men, he is not yet indifferent, nor even delays because he is without power, or because he is idle and careless, but that he retains wraths as he afterwards repeats the same thing, He keeps for his enemies ⁽²⁰⁹⁾ In short, by these forms of speaking the Prophet intimates that God is not to be rashly judged of on account of his delay, when he does not immediately execute His judgments; for he waits for the seasonable opportunity. But, in the meantime there is no reason for us to think that he forgets his office when he suspends punishment, or for a season spares the ungodly. When, therefore, God does not hasten so very quickly, there is no ground for us to think that he is indifferent, because he delays his wrath, or retains it, as we have already said; for it is the same thing to retain wrath, as to be the Lord of wrath, and to possess it. It follows —

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

(209) The following may be proposed as the literal rendering of this verse, —

A God jealous and an avenger is Jehovah;
Avenger is Jehovah, and one who has indignation:
Avenger is Jehovah on his adversaries,
And watch does he for his enemies.

God is said to be jealous in the second commandment, being one who will not allow his own honor to be given to another. Avenger, נקם, is a vindicator of his own rights; and he is said to have indignation, or hot wrath, or great displeasure; בעל חמה, possessor, holder, or keeper of indignation. His adversaries, צריו, rather, his oppressors; the oppressors of his people were his own oppressors. נוטר means to watch, rather than to keep. Its meaning here is to watch the opportunity to take than to keep. Its meaning here is to watch the opportunity to take vengeance on his enemies. The description here is remarkable, and exactly adapted to the oppressive state of the Jews. The dishonor done to God’s people was done to him. He is jealous, a defender of his own rights, full of indignation, and watches and waits for a suitable time to execute vengeance, to vindicate his own honor. — Ed.

Smith's Bible Commentary

Tonight, let's turn now to the book of Nahum. Again, just three chapters long and they're even short chapters. So, we should have a relatively short Bible study tonight in Nahum.

He introduces the subject of the prophecy in the first verse and that is:

The burden of Nineveh ( Nahum 1:1 ).

Nineveh was the capital of the Assyrian empire. For many years, the records of Assyria were so obliterated that the Bible critics used to say that those references to Assyria were only made up, and that Assyria did not exist except in the imagination of the writers. But, as the Bible critics so often have proved to be wrong, in this case it was also so. Those brilliant men who laughed and scoffed at the Bible and led many people into unbelief because of the dispersions that they cast upon the veracity of God's word were proved themselves to be wrong in more recent archeological discoveries in which they had discovered, actually, the great city of Nineveh. It is all that the Bible said it was, a huge city, perhaps one of the greatest of the ancient world. Sargon, one of the kings mentioned in the Bible, for so long a matter of scoffing by the Bible critics. The whole annals were found as they uncovered his palace and the records of Sargon. Again, the Bible comes out true, smelling like a rose, and the phony scholars come out as they are, just a bunch of phony eggheads. As Shakespeare said, "Man, poor man, so ignorant in that which he knows best!" So it is the burden of Nineveh.

The book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite ( Nahum 1:1 ).

Now, we are not helped with Nahum, as far as identity, any place else in the Bible. This is the only place he appears. However, as we read the book of Nahum, it is obvious that he was writing about the same time as did Micah and Isaiah, during the reign of Hezekiah. Because in chapter two he makes reference to the blasphemies of the Rabashak who came as the spokesmen for the Assyrian king Shalmaneser, or Sennacherib. He makes mention of these blasphemies of Rabashak which took place during the time that Hezekiah was king. So, we can place the prophecies of Nahum around 713 B.C., during the time that Hezekiah was reigning in Jerusalem.

Elkoshite is thought by most Bible scholars to be a reference to a little city of El Kosh which was around the Sea of Galilee. Most of the scholars conclude that Nahum came from the region of Galilee.

Now, there is a city where Jesus spent most of His ministry on the Sea of Galilee and it's called Capernaum or we say Capernaum. But Capernaum means the city of Nahum. So, it is thought by many that that is perhaps where Nahum came from, and the city Capernaum actually took its name from the fact that this is where the prophet had originated. Capernaum. Enough for the background.

The message is that of God's judgment that is going to come against Nineveh and against the Assyrian empire. A hundred years plus earlier, Jonah had been called to Nineveh. But the people of Nineveh repented at the preaching of Jonah, and Nineveh was spared for another hundred and fifty years or so. But now God is proclaiming the judgment that is gonna come against Nineveh and against Assyria. And it is to fall, not to rise again. He begins his message against Assyria by declaring,

God is jealous ( Nahum 1:2 ),

In Zechariah, again we read that God is jealous. The first commandment was, "Thou shalt have no other gods before Me."

Now, we, in trying to understand God, can only understand Him in human terms. And even at that we fail to understand completely. Jesus said to Nicodemus, a teacher of the Jews, "If I speak to you of earthly things and you cannot understand them, how could I ever speak to you of heavenly things?"

Now, there are things in heaven of which we don't even have words. We don't even have mental concepts. God, being infinite, could not be defined, described, or even brought into our minds except just in part and by human terminology. How can we describe the vastness of God, the character of God, the greatness of God? All we have are human words. But surely all of them come short of really describing God. So, we must use human terms to describe God. Thus, jealousy is a human term. But it is a term that is used to describe how that God does not want your affection to be going to any other idol, any other god, any other ideal.

Now, every man has a god, even the man who claims to be an atheist. For a person's god is the master passion that governs his life. And whatever is the master passion governing your life is your god. But God doesn't want any other master passion governing your life. He wants to be the master passion of your life. And if you allow anything else to be as a substitute for Him, He is displeased. His displeasure is described in our human term of jealousy.

However, with God there's a whole different motive than when we think of jealousy from the human term. For thinking of jealousy from the human term, I become jealous because my territory is being threatened. And jealousy in a human term usually has a selfishness behind it. It is listed as one of the works of the flesh in Galatians five. But because this is the term we have to use to describe God's displeasure, if you have any other master passion or love that is dominating your life, we have to use the term. But God, in the use of the term concerning God, is His displeasure is because of His tremendous love for you and He knows that you can't come into what is the best for you as long as you are following after some other ideal or God. And so in the use of it, we must not think of it in the purely human use of the term, which is a jealousy because my territory is being threatened. But God is jealous for you because God loves you so much. He wants nothing but the best for your life, and He knows that if you have any other love or passion above Him, you're gonna come in second. You're not going to achieve or attain that which is best for you. And God's desires towards us, as He declares, are always good. The purpose and the intent of God for your life is good. God is jealous and

the Lord revengeth ( Nahum 1:2 ),

Now, God does take vengeance. He declares, "'Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,' saith the Lord." There is a day of judgment coming. You cannot sin with impunity against God and think that you'll never have to answer for it. God does not always bring justice swiftly. For the Lord is very patient, very longsuffering, very kind. But many people have misunderstood or mistaken the longsuffering of God as weakness, and they feel that God will not judge. Not so. God will judge and He will bring vengeance and retribution upon those sinners who do not repent and do not turn to Him. Now he is describing God's attitude towards this wicked, horribly wicked city of Nineveh that is filled with occult practices, fierce, cruel, inhumane people.

and [the Lord] is furious; the Lord will take vengeance on his adversaries, and he reserveth wrath for his enemies ( Nahum 1:2 ).

As we read in Hebrews, "It is a fearful thing to fall in the hands of a living God." Now, there are those who object to thinking of God at all in the terms of judgment or vengeance, or wrath, or anger, and they like to think of God only in terms of love. It is true that God is love. That there is no other love in the universe that can compare with God's love. We cannot even understand God's love, it is so far deeper and richer and more complete than anything we experience on the human level.

In a sense, I have a loving nature. But because of my loving nature, I can get very stirred up if those that I love very deeply are threatened. If my children, if my wife are threatened, though I am by nature a loving person, yet I can change in a hurry when there is a threatening situation that would be threatening those that I love so much.

This morning my son-in-law and I, as we were coming out to church, and we were talking about this little girl who was kidnapped yesterday, a little nine year old girl. Of course, so fresh in our mind is this little six-year-old girl up in Pasadena who was so brutally murdered. And always it seems, you just sort of transfer that over to your own child, "What if that was my little girl?" God said vengeance is His, but I'll tell you, if I would ever catch someone molesting my girls or my granddaughters or whatever, I'm afraid I would not wait for God to take vengeance. As my son-in-law said, "They ought to be shot on the spot when they're caught." I said, "I'd be happy to be the trigger man." It's not because I'm not a loving person; it's because I do love that I'm upset that anyone would harm or threaten those that I do love. I love you very much, and some wolf come in and try and rip off the flock, I'll tell ya, they'd have a David as a shepherd to contend with. Love is not weak. God is not weak. Yes, God is love, but He is also a just and holy God who will bring judgment against sin. Though the judgment may it seem tarry, you can be sure that God will avenge the evil.

The Lord hath his way in the whirlwind [Now he goes into some very descriptive, picturesque kind of poetic speech, "He has his way in the whirlwind"] and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet ( Nahum 1:3 ).

What a picturesque phrase, you know, as you came to church tonight and saw those clouds and all, and the dust of God's feet.

He rebuketh the sea, and maketh it dry, and drieth up all the rivers: Bashan languisheth, and Carmel, and the flower of Lebanon languisheth ( Nahum 1:4 ).

He can create a drought if He so desires.

The mountains quake at him, and the hills melt, and the earth is burned at his presence, yea, the world, and all that dwell therein. Who can stand before his indignation? and who can abide the fierceness of his anger? his fury is poured out like fire, and the rocks are thrown down by him ( Nahum 1:5-6 ).

Describing the activities of God in a very picturesque way. But in the middle of this declaration of God's judgment, he then declares, and it stands out in such contrast, he's just talking about God throwing down the rocks and God being a fire and burning and hills melting, and "Who can stand before His indignation?" and suddenly he just declares,

The Lord is good ( Nahum 1:7 ),

That is a basic foundation of theology that we must, all of us, incorporate into our own understanding. God is good. If you don't know anything else, know that God is good. It's important that you know that, and that is something that I accept by faith. Believing the word of God, I accept by faith that God is good, because not always would my circumstances indicate that God was good. And Satan is constantly assailing the truth of the goodness of God. And so often, as I'm looking at adverse situations, I'm prone to say, "If God is so good, then why is this happening?" Don't you hear that so very often from people, "If God is good, why are there so many people starving in Cambodia? If God is good, why does He allow this to happen in the world? Why does He allow a little nine year old girl to get kidnapped if God is good?" There are always those challenges to the goodness of God that are thrown at us. Satan is always challenging that truth. And thus, I need to have that truth deeply, firmly ingrained within me. God is good, that I know.

There is a very interesting Psalm, it's about the seventy-third Psalm, where the psalmist begins by the declaration, "Truly the Lord is good unto Israel, and unto all those that fear Him." And he begins that psalm with that basic premise. But then he said, "As for me, man, when I tried to understand the world around me, I was almost wiped out, my foot almost slipped when I saw the prosperity of the wicked and I saw how well they got along. I looked at my own problems and everything else, and here I'm trying to serve God. I've tried to have a clean heart. I've tried to do the right things, and everybody's just pushing me down, and I'm in trouble. Here are these guys cheating, lying, stealing, blaspheming, and they seem to have no problems at all. Everything seems to fall in line for them. When I sought to know this," he said, "it was too painful for me; I almost was wiped out!" Satan can really play games with your mind. Especially in regards to the goodness of God. He challenges that continually. The psalmist said, "I was almost wiped out when I tried to understand it," he said, "until I went into the sanctuary of God. And, then," he said, "I saw their end. I was jealous of the wicked; I was jealous of the ungodly man. It seems he has everything, until I went into the sanctuary of God." And then what happened? His vision was corrected. In the sanctuary of God that nearsightedness was corrected, and he began to get the long view of things. You see, the goodness of God is that which is always challenged by our nearsightedness, when we are only looking at the immediate things that surround us. It is then that I'm prone to challenge the goodness of God. Things are going bad for me today, "If God's so good, how come things are going so bad today?" See, it's today, and it's my hurt right now, and it's the pain I feel right now. I don't look down the road; I'm only looking at that which is right in front of my face. "Until I went into the sanctuary of God, and then I began to get things in perspective, and then I began to get the eternal view, and the sight of eternity comes into view, and somehow in that eternal view things begin to balance out." That's our problem is that we don't have the long-term view, and we get confused. Satan can really upset us. But how many of those things as you look back in your own life that you thought were disasters, now as you look at them, you can see the hand of God and realize how important they were for your development, or how important they were even for your future. God put me in some places in the ministry that you just can't believe. I mean it was just plain tough. Preaching your heart out to twenty-five people and making half of them mad and they don't show up the next Sunday. People decide to get rid of the pastor by starving him out, withholding their tithes. And in those situations, down on my knees before God, the questions, the challenging of the goodness of God, "God, if You're so good, why do I have all these problems? Why did You put me here, God, in this place with these people?" And yet, now as I look back on it, oh the invaluable lessons that God was teaching me. How important those lessons that I learned. I could not have the ministry that God has given to me today had I not gone through those experiences. There were things that God had to work out of my own life before He could really use me effectively. And though I cried, and though I just went through torture mentally, yet as I look back, now I wouldn't trade those experiences for anything, for the lessons and the value that they've brought to me. As God was working though, I could not see it and I could not understand it. Now I look back and I say, "Oh, the Lord was so good to me!" But I sure didn't think so at the time. I thought He had forgotten me, forsaken me, and yet, God is good. I need to remember that. Don't forget that. "And all things work together for good to those who love God" ( Romans 8:28 ). Not only is God good, the prophet said,

[He is] a stronghold in the day of trouble ( Nahum 1:7 );

God doesn't promise that you're never gonna have trouble. In the book of Job it says, "As sparks fly upward, so man was born for trouble." Now, I don't know of anybody who hasn't had trouble some time in their life. Trouble is just a part of life itself. In Psalms we read, thirty-four, "Many are the afflictions of the righteous." Now, somehow we think because we're righteous we should never have any affliction, everything should go well, after all, I love God and I'm trying to do the right thing, everyone should love me and treat me nice. Nothing evil should ever happen to me because I love God and I'm willing to serve God and I'm wanting to please God, therefore everything should always be wonderful and beautiful around me. Well, it wasn't so with Jesus was it? Jesus said, "Hey, if I being your Lord, and they haven't received Me, they persecuted Me... Servant's not greater than... They're not gonna receive you. They're not gonna open up and accept you with open arms. The world's gonna hate you because you love Me!" You're gonna have trouble. But whenever the trouble comes, the Lord is a stronghold. I've got a place I can run, I've got a place where I can find strength, I've got a place where I can be protected. The Lord is a stronghold to those that are in trouble. The thing is, if you're not a child of God, when trouble comes, you have no place to go. But the child of God always has a refuge. "The name of the Lord is a strong tower, the righteous runneth into it, and is safe." Then he declares,

and he knoweth them that trust in him ( Nahum 1:7 ).

God knows those that are trusting. God knows you, isn't that great? God knows me. Not only does He know me, and of course, this is just boggling to my own mind, and it's just, again, that gap between the finite and the infinite, and the ability for... inability for us to really bridge it. But God not only knows me, He's thinking about me constantly. That just blows my mind. That God would be constantly thinking about me. David said, "And if I should number thy thoughts concerning me, they are more than the sands of the sea." How I love to go down to the beach and just take and pick up sand and let it run through my hands and watch the little grains make a little pile on the beach there. And as I do, I think, "Every one of those grains of sand there is a thought that God is thinking of me." Fabulous! Then I look up the beach and I see all those grains of sand. I think, "Oh, God, who can fathom Your love, and Your wisdom, and Your glory, that You should think of me?" How many grains of sand are there in the earth? Someone has estimated there's ten to the twenty-fifth power. That's an awful lot of thinking. It'd take an infinite God to have that many thoughts. God is thinking about you. God knows you. God knows the situations that you're in. God knows the trials that you have. God knows the problems that you face. Really that's all that I need to be reminded of when I'm in trouble and I start to despair. All someone has to say is, "Hey, don't worry, Chuck. God knows all about it." Oh, thank you. I needed that. God knows the way of the righteous. His ears are open to their cries.

Now he goes back to talk about the judgment of God that's coming upon the Ninevites. He gives this little word of encouragement to the people of God. "You know, you're gonna see some real problems, the Assyrian forces are gonna come and they're going to encircle the city, and you're gonna see God do a work of vengeance upon them. But don't worry, God is good; He knows those who trust in Him."

But with an overrunning flood he will make an utter end of the place thereof, and darkness shall pursue his enemies. What do ye imagine against the Lord? he will make an utter end: affliction shall not rise up the second time. [They won't come back again, they're gonna get wiped out.] For while they be folden together as thorns, and while they are drunken as drunkards, they shall be devoured as stubble fully dry ( Nahum 1:8-10 ).

Very interesting prophecy. For when we finally did uncover the history of Assyria, we found that Assyria, that great city, or Nineveh the great city, the capital of Assyria was destroyed by a confederacy of the Medes and the Babylonians. And they got together and they came against the great city of Nineveh. As they came against the city of Nineveh, the army of Nineveh came out against them, and on three occasions just really wiped them out, defeated them thoroughly. They retreated and regrouped and came back again. And after the third time that the army of Nineveh had defeated this invading confederacy of the Medes and the Babylonians, the soldiers, celebrating their great victory over this invading army, went out and went on a big drunken orgy, just celebrating their victory. And while they were drunk, the forces of the Medes and the Babylonians regrouped, attacked again, and caught them in that drunken state and wiped them out. "For while they be folden together as thorns, and while they are drunken as drunkards, they shall be devoured as stubble fully dry." And that portion of Nahum's prophecy was literally fulfilled as the forces of Nineveh were destroyed outside of the city of Nineveh. They still had to take the city of Nineveh, but this is a prophecy of the battle outside.

In verse eleven, he is making this reference to the Rabashak who came with his blasphemous letter from Sennacerib, blaspheming the God in whom the Israelites were trusting.

There is one [that is] come out of thee, that imagineth evil against the Lord, he is a wicked counselor. Thus saith the Lord; Though they be quiet, and likewise many, yet thus shall they be cut down, when he shall pass through. [The angel of the Lord passed through and a hundred and eighty five thousand of them were cut down.] For now will I break his yoke from off thee, and will burst thy bonds in sunder ( Nahum 1:11-13 ).

So, the siege that the Assyrians had against Jerusalem was broken when God passed through and destroyed their forces.

And the Lord hath given a commandment concerning thee, that no more of thy name be sown: out of the house of thy gods will I cut off the graven image and the molten image: I will make thy grave; for thou art vile ( Nahum 1:14 ).

Now he leaves the immediate scene, and his prophecy goes into the future, on even future from our present day, into the glorious day of the kingdom of God.

Behold upon the mountains the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace! ( Nahum 1:15 )

Now, the immediate prophecy was, "When Nineveh falls, oh how great will be the tidings of the messengers that come running with the news that Nineveh's been destroyed. The world will rejoice." But yet, it is, in its secondary sense, a prophecy of the future. And you remember Isaiah made a similar prophecy in the fifty-seventh chapter I believe it is, nope, fifty-second chapter, verse seven, "How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that brings good tidings, that publishes peace, that brings good tidings of good, that publishes salvation. That saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth!"

Now, Paul quoted from Isaiah, in Romans the tenth chapter, as he's talking about, "Whosoever shall," let's see... he's talking about how that, "How shall they believe except they hear, how shall they hear except someone preach? How shall they preach except they be sent, as the scripture says? How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those that bring their tidings of peace." So, Paul quotes that in Romans the twelfth chapter.

Now, Isaiah and Nahum lived about the same time, and these verses are quite similar as they... as Isaiah is talking of the future age, and Nahum of the destruction of Nineveh and the glorious news that will come.

O Judah, keep thy solemn feasts, [Israel of course is already perished, they've already been destroyed by Assyria.] perform thy vows: for the wicked shall no more pass through thee; he is utterly cut off ( Nahum 1:15 ).

The Assyrians aren't gonna come back again; they've been utterly cut off. Of course, later on the Babylonians came under Nebuchadnezzar and did destroy Jerusalem. But as far as the Assyrians, they're utterly cut off. Have any of you met an Assyrian lately? They've been cut off. "

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

Nahum drew a picture of Yahweh as a God who is jealous for His chosen people (cf. Exodus 20:5; Exodus 34:14; Deuteronomy 4:24; Deuteronomy 5:9). That is, He greatly desires their welfare (cf. Deuteronomy 6:15). He is also an avenging God who takes vengeance on all who violate His standards of righteousness (what is right), though not with human vindictiveness. Third, He is full of wrath against those who oppose Him and disregard His grace, those who set themselves up as His adversaries and enemies (cf. Deuteronomy 32:35; Deuteronomy 32:41). The repetition of avenging, vengeance, and wrathful in this verse creates a strong impression of an angry God. The word "wrath" (Heb. hemah) means "to be hot" and describes burning rage and intense fury. Why was God so angry? The rest of the oracle explains that it was the behavior of the Ninevites that had aroused His anger.

This is the first of several rhetorical allusions to uniquely Neo-Assyrian conquest metaphors in the book. The figure of a destroyer of mountains and seas continues through Nahum 1:6, and the figure of the self-predicating warrior extends through Nahum 1:8. Other metaphors are the raging storm and the overwhelming dust cloud in Nahum 1:3, the overwhelming flood and the uninhabitable ruin in Nahum 1:8, the sheep slaughterer in Nahum 1:12, and the Assyrian yoke in Nahum 1:12-13. The metaphor of the mighty weapon appears in Nahum 2:1 and that of the consuming locust swarm in Nahum 3:16-17. [Note: See Gordon H. Johnston, "Nahum’s Rhetorical Allusions to Neo-Assyrian Conquest Metaphors," Bibliotheca Sacra 159:633 (January-March 2002):21-45.]

"Verse 2 lays a foundation for the entire prophecy: all that follows is rooted in this revelation of the justice and burning zeal of the Lord exercised on behalf of his people." [Note: Chisholm, "A Theology . . .," p. 462.]

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

A. The anger and goodness of Yahweh 1:2-8

"The opening verses of Nahum form a prologue dominated by the revelation of God’s eternal power and divine nature in creation (cf. Romans 1:20). As in Romans 1:18-32, this revelation is characterized preeminently by God’s justice, expressed in retribution (Nahum 1:2) and wrath (Nahum 1:2-3; Nahum 1:6) that shake the entire creation (Nahum 1:3-6)." [Note: Carl E. Armerding, "Nahum," in Daniel-Malachi, vol. 7 of The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, p. 460.]

Armerding made much of the similarities between this section and the Exodus event, God’s self-revelation at Mt. Sinai, His appearance to Elijah at Mt. Horeb, and parallels in Isaiah.

"The seventh-century minor prophets focused on the justice of God as exhibited in powerful judgment on an international scale." [Note: Robert B. Chisholm Jr., "A Theology of the Minor Prophets," in A Biblical Theology of the Old Testament, p. 413.]

"In the Book of Psalms there are three types of Divine Warrior hymns: those sung before a battle, calling on God’s aid (Psalms 7); those sung during a battle, focusing on the Lord’s protection (Psalms 92); and those celebrating the victory God has won for his people (Psalms 98). Nahum 1:2-8 bears a remarkable similarity to the last type of psalm, the original function of which was to sing the praises of Israel’s Warrior God in the aftermath of a victory. What is significant, then, is the placement of Nahum’s Divine Warrior hymn. The victory is celebrated before the battle is actually waged. The victory of God against Nineveh is certain. So much so, that the prophet could utter the victory shout years before the battle [cf. Revelation 5:9]." [Note: Longman, p. 788.]

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

II. NINEVEH’S DESTRUCTION DECLARED 1:2-14

The rest of chapter 1 declares Nineveh’s destruction in rather hymnic style, and chapters 2 and 3 describe its destruction. Each of these major parts of the book opens with a revelation of Yahweh.

Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

God [is] jealous, and the Lord revengeth,.... He is jealous of his own honour and glory, and for his own worship and ordinances; and will not give his glory to another, nor his praise to graven images; and therefore will punish all idolaters, and particularly the idolatrous Assyrians: he is jealous for his people, and cannot bear to see them injured; and will avenge the affronts that are offered, and the indignities done unto them:

the Lord revengeth, and [is] furious; or, is "master of wrath" u; full of it, or has it at his command; can restrain it, and let it out as he pleases, which man cannot do; a furious and passionate man, who has no rule over his spirit. The Lord's revenging is repeated for the confirmation of it; yea, it is a third time observed, as follows; which some of the Jewish writers think has respect to the three times the king of Assyria carried the people of Israel captive, and for which the Lord would be revenged on him, and punish him:

the Lord will take vengeance on his adversaries; on all his adversaries; particularly the Assyrians are here meant, who were both the enemies of him and of his people. The Targum explains it,

"that hate his people:''

vengeance belongs to the Lord, and he will repay it sooner or later; if not immediately, he will hereafter; for it follows:

and he reserveth [wrath] for his enemies: and them for that; if not in this world, yet in the world to come; he lays it up among his treasures, and brings it forth at his pleasure. The word "wrath" is not in the text; it is not said what he reserves for the enemies of himself and church; it is inconceivable and inexpressible.

u בעל חמה "dominus irae", Calvin, Vatablus, Grotius; "dominus excandescentiae", Piscator, Tarnovius; "dominus irae aestuantis, [sive] fervoris", Burkius.

Henry's Complete Commentary on the Bible

      2 God is jealous, and the LORD revengeth; the LORD revengeth, and is furious; the LORD will take vengeance on his adversaries, and he reserveth wrath for his enemies.   3 The LORD is slow to anger, and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked: the LORD hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet.   4 He rebuketh the sea, and maketh it dry, and drieth up all the rivers: Bashan languisheth, and Carmel, and the flower of Lebanon languisheth.   5 The mountains quake at him, and the hills melt, and the earth is burned at his presence, yea, the world, and all that dwell therein.   6 Who can stand before his indignation? and who can abide in the fierceness of his anger? his fury is poured out like fire, and the rocks are thrown down by him.   7 The LORD is good, a strong hold in the day of trouble; and he knoweth them that trust in him.   8 But with an overrunning flood he will make an utter end of the place thereof, and darkness shall pursue his enemies.

      Nineveh knows not God, that God that contends with her, and therefore is here told what a God he is; and it is good for us all to mix faith with that which is here said concerning him, which speaks a great deal of terror to the wicked and comfort to good people; for this glorious description of the Sovereign of the world, like the pillar of cloud and fire, has a bright side towards Israel and a dark side towards the Egyptians. Let each take his portion from it; let sinners read it and tremble; let saints read it and triumph. The wrath of God is here revealed from heaven against him enemies, his favour and mercy are here assured to his faithful loyal subjects, and his almighty power in both, making his wrath very terrible and his favour very desirable.

      I. He is a God of inflexible justice, a jealous God, and will take vengeance on his enemies; let Nineveh know this, and tremble before him. Their idols are insignificant things; there is nothing formidable in them. But the God of Israel is greatly to be feared; for, 1. He resents the affronts and indignities done him by those that deny his being or any of his perfections, that set up other gods in competition with him, that destroy his laws, arraign his proceedings, ridicule his word, or are abusive to his people. Let such know that Jehovah, the one only living and true God, is a jealous God, and a revenger; he is jealous for the comfort of his worshippers, jealous for his land (Joel 2:18), and will not have that injured. He is a revenger, and he is furious; he has fury (so the word is), not as man has it, in whom it is an ungoverned passion (so he has said, Fury is not in me,Isaiah 27:4), but he has it in such a way as becomes the righteous God, to put an edge upon his justice, and to make it appear more terrible to those who otherwise would stand in no awe of it. He is Lord of anger (so the Hebrew phrase is for that which we read, he is furious); he has anger, but he has it at command and under government. Our anger is often lord over us, as theirs that have no rule over their own spirits, but God is always Lord of his anger and weighs a path to it,Psalms 78:50. 2. He resolves to reckon with those that put those affronts upon him. We are told here, not only that he is a revenger, but that he will take vengeance; he has said he will, he has sworn it, Deuteronomy 32:40; Deuteronomy 32:41. Whoever are his adversaries and enemies among men, he will make them feel his resentments; and, though the sentence against his enemies is not executed speedily, yet he reserves wrath for them and reserves them for it in the day of wrath. Against his own people, who repent and humble themselves before him, he keeps not his anger for ever, but against his enemies he will for ever let out his anger. He will not at all acquit the wicked that sin, and stand to it, and do not repent, Nahum 1:3; Nahum 1:3. Those wickedly depart from their God that depart, and never return (Psalms 18:21), and these he will not acquit. Humble supplicants will find him gracious, but scornful beggars will not find him easy, or that the door of mercy will be opened to a loud, but late, Lord, Lord. This revelation of the wrath of God against his enemies is applied to Nineveh (Nahum 1:8; Nahum 1:8), and should be applied by all those to themselves who go on still in their trespasses: With an over-running flood he will make an utter end of the place thereof. The army of the Chaldeans shall overrun the country of the Assyrians, and lay it all waste. God's judgments, when they come with commission, are like a deluge to any people, which they cannot keep off nor make head against. Darkness shall pursue his enemies; terror and trouble shall follow them, whithersoever they go, shall pursue them to utter darkness; if they think to flee from the darkness which pursues them they will but fall into that which is before them.

      II. He is a God of irresistible power, and is able to deal with his enemies, be they ever so many, ever so mighty, ever so hardy. He is great in power (Nahum 1:3; Nahum 1:3), and therefore it is good having him our friend and bad having him our enemy. Now here,

      1. The power of God is asserted and proved by divers instances of it in the kingdom of nature, where we always find its visible effects in the ordinary course of nature, and sometimes in the surprising alterations of that course. (1.) If we look up into the regions of the air, there we shall find proofs of his power, for he has his ways in the whirlwind and the storm. Which way soever God goes he carries a whirlwind and a storm along with him, for the terror of his enemies, Psalms 18:9, c. And, wherever there is a whirlwind and a storm, God has the command of it, the control of it, makes his way through it, goes on his way in it, and serves his own purposes by it. He spoke to Job out of the whirlwind, and even stormy winds fulfil his word. He has his way in the whirlwind, that is, he goes on undiscerned, and the methods of his providence are to us unaccountable as it is said, His way is in the sea. The clouds are the dust of his feet; he treads on them, walks on them, raises them when he pleases, as a man with his feet raises a cloud of dust. It is but by permission, or usurpation rather, that the devil is the prince of the power of the air, for that power is in God's hand. (2.) If we cast our eye upon the great deeps, there we find that the sea is his, for he made it; for, when he pleases, he rebukes the sea and makes it dry, by drying up all the rivers with which it is continually supplied. He gave those proofs of his power when he divided the Red Sea and Jordan, and can do the same again whenever he pleases. (3.) If we look round us on this earth, we find proofs of his power, when, either by the extreme heat and drought of summer or the cold and frost of winter, Bashan languishes, and Carmel, and the flower of Lebanon languishes, the choicest and strongest flower languishes. His power is often seen in earthquakes, which shake the mountains (Nahum 1:5; Nahum 1:5), melt the hills, and melt them down, and level them with the plains. When he pleases the earth is burnt at his presence by the scorching heat of the sun, and he could burn it with fire from heaven, as he did Sodom, and at the end of time he will burn the world and all that dwell therein. The earth, and all the works that are therein, shall be burnt up. Thus great is the Lord and of great power.

      2. This is particularly applied to his anger. If God be an almighty God, we may thence infer (Nahum 1:6; Nahum 1:6), Who can stand before his indignation? The Ninevites had once found God slow to anger (as he says Nahum 1:3; Nahum 1:3), and perhaps presumed upon the mercy they had then had experience of, and thought they might make bold with him; but they will find he is just and jealous as well as merciful and gracious, and, having shown the justice of his wrath, in the next he shows the power of it, and the utter insufficiency of his enemies to contend with him. It is in vain for the stoutest and strongest of sinners to think to make their part good against the power of God's anger. (1.) See God here as a consuming fire, terrible and mighty. Here is his indignation against sin, and the fierceness of his anger, his fury poured out, not like water, but like fire, like the fire and brimstone rained on Sodom, Psalms 11:6. Hell is the fierceness of God's anger, Revelation 16:19. God's anger is so fierce that it beats down all before it: The rocks are thrown down by him, which seemed immovable. Rocks have sometimes been rent by the eruption of subterraneous fires, which is a faint resemblance of the fierceness of God's anger against sinners whose hearts are rocky, for none ever hardened their hearts against him and prospered. (2.) See sinners here are stubble before the fire, weak and impotent, and a very unequal match for the wrath of God. [1.] They are utterly unable to bear up against it, so as to resist it, and put by the strokes of it: Who can stand before his indignation? Not the proudest and most daring sinner; not the world of the ungodly; no, not the angels that sinned. [2.] They are utterly unable to bear up under it so as to keep up their spirits, and preserve any enjoyment of themselves: Who can abide in the fierceness of his anger? As it is irresistible, so it is intolerable. Some of the effects of God's displeasure in this world a man may bear up under, but the fierceness of his anger, when it fastens immediately upon the soul, who can bear? Let us therefore fear before him; let us stand in awe, and not sin.

      III. He is a God of infinite mercy; and in the midst of all this wrath mercy is remembered. Let the sinners in Zion be afraid, that go on still in their transgressions, but let not those that trust in God tremble before him. For, 1. He is slow to anger (Nahum 1:3; Nahum 1:3), not easily provoked, but ready to show mercy to those who have offended him and to receive them into favour upon their repentance. 2. When the tokens of his rage against the wicked are abroad he takes care for the safety and comfort of his own people (Nahum 1:7; Nahum 1:7): The Lord is good to those that are good, and to them he will be a stronghold in the day of trouble. Note, The same almighty power that is exerted for the terror and destruction of the wicked is engaged, and shall be employed, for the protection and satisfaction of his own people; he is able both to save and to destroy. In the day of public trouble, when God's judgments are in the earth, laying all waste, he will be a place of defence to those that by faith put themselves under his protection, those that trust in him in the way of their duty, that live a life of dependence upon him, and devotedness to him; he knows them, he owns them for his, he takes cognizance of their case, knows what is best for them, and what course to take most effectually for their relief. They are perhaps obscure and little regarded in the world, but the Lord knows them, Psalms 1:6.

Kelly Commentary on Books of the Bible

Lectures on the Minor Prophets.

W. Kelly.

Singular was the reproach of the Jews in the time of our Lord (John 7:52); for there were prophets who had arisen out of Galilee. Jonah and Nahum were both Galileans. There is nothing in which men are apt to be so blind as in reading the Bible; and even the facts of scripture are too commonly passed over with greater carelessness than those of any other book. People readily forget what it does not suit them to remember.

"Segnius irritant animos demissa per aurem,

Quam quae sunt oculis subjecta fidelibus, et quae

Ipse sibi tradit spectator."

Affections too govern the judgment. Hence the tendency to forget the plainest facts, and to find some artificial means of exalting whatever to our minds takes the highest place in religious matters. As once by God's appointment Jerusalem had such a place, the Jews spite of their reversed sentence were striving hard to exaggerate whatever invested it with halo, and to deny what God had wrought elsewhere. But God loves to work in unexpected grace; and hence I do not doubt that there was a fitness in the call of these two prophets both of them having to do with Nineveh. Galilee was a district which both bordered on the Gentiles, and had not a few dwelling in its midst. Hence people there, though prejudiced as everywhere, could not but be open to thoughts and exercises of heart about the Gentiles. Nevertheless, as we have seen in Jonah, there might be a feeling as decidedly Jewish as in any prophet that God ever raised up even in Jerusalem itself.

First of all Nahum brings before us the character of God in remarkably vivid terms, and indeed with a majesty of utterance most suitable to the subject God entrusted to him. "The burden of Nineveh" means the heavy sentence of God against that famous city, a phrase customary in the prophets. In Isaiah we may remember the burden of Babylon, and of one place after another; that is, a strain of judgment which was therefore called a "burden." "The book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite. A God jealous and avenging is Jehovah; Jehovah revengeth, and is furious; Jehovah will take vengeance on his adversaries, and he reserveth wrath for his enemies. Jehovah is slow to anger." Are we not all of us apt to set these things against one another? But it is not so in truth; for the stronger the feeling of God against that which destroys His own glory, the more worthy is it that He should be slow to act on His indignation, as we should be for quite different reasons. Indeed slowness to anger is ordinarily the proof of moral greatness, though there are extreme cases where waiting would bespeak want of right feeling. Scripture shows us both the rule and the exceptions. Not that it is of God or even of man that there should be slowness to feel; but to act on feeling is another thing. I am persuaded that the more there is the sense of the presence of God, and of what becomes Him, and consequently of what becomes us who are His children to have the interest of His kingdom at heart, and also the sense of His honour dear to us, yea, dearer to us than any other consideration so much the more ought we to cultivate in presence of evil a patient spirit.

Yet is it certain that anger in the true and godly sense of abhorrence of evil formed part of the moral nature of our Lord Jesus. There is no greater fallacy of modern times among not a few Christians than the exclusion of, holy anger from that which is morally perfect. Our Lord Jesus on one occasion looked round about with anger; on another He used a scourge of small cords with indignation; so also He thundered from time to time at religious hypocrites who stood high in popular estimation. The Christian who does not share such feelings is altogether wanting in what is of God, and also in what becomes a man of God. I grant you that anger is too apt to take a personal shape, and consequently to slide into vindictive as well as wounded feeling. It is not necessary for me to say that there was an entire absence of this in our Lord Jesus. He came to do the will of God; He never did anything but that will not only what was consistent with it, but only that. But for this very reason He too was slow, not of course to form a judgment, but to execute it on man; indeed, as we know, He refused it absolutely when here below. He could await the due time. God was then displaying His grace, and, as part of His grace, His long-suffering in the midst of evil. And there is nothing finer, nothing more truly of God, than this display of grace in patience.

Here too it seems a remarkable feature that, even when the prophet proclaims the approaching judgment of God, he takes such particular pains to assert, not only the certainty of His avenging Himself on His adversaries, but His slowness to anger. "Jehovah is slow to anger, and great in power, and will not at all acquit [the wicked]: Jehovah hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet." It is clear that the expression "holding pure he will not hold pure" is not at all inconsistent with His justifying the believer in Jesus up to that time without God and ungodly. It was not yet the fit and destined occasion to reveal the grace of God in justifying; but even so there is no acquitting any one as wicked. And this it is important to hold clearly. His not imputing iniquity is a very different thing from acquitting. He never acquits the wicked as such. There is no stronger condemnation of wickedness than when He does not impute iniquity, because the ground of His not imputing iniquity to the believer is that He has not only imputed it, but dealt with it according to His own horror of evil and just judgment of all in the cross of Christ. More manifestly when it is a question, as here, not of His grace but of His righteous government on earth, it always remains true that God does not treat the wicked as innocent.

Now the believer has to imitate the character of God; for we must remember that it is our point as Christians. Anything else becomes self-righteousness. But there is nothing more important than being true to the character of God, who is our Father, whose nature we have now, who has revealed Himself perfectly in Christ. And we find this most beautifully in His servant Paul, who puts patience above all the other signs of an apostle. It is as eminently Christ-like as any quality manward. There is nothing that more thoroughly shows superiority to all that Satan can do. It had of course also a more trying character in the midst of those who should have known better, as, for instance, among the Corinthians. For they were souls which took the place of serving the Lord and bore His name; but it is exactly to them he says that truly the signs of an apostle were shown by him in all patience. He brings in afterwards in their place miracles and extraordinary revelations; but patience takes precedence, and justly so, because it supposes evil and this in power, and nevertheless proves superior to it. How can you deal with a man whom nothing can overthrow, and who, no matter what you do or he may suffer, cannot be driven from the line of Christ? Now this, I think, is exactly what shone in Paul so very conspicuously. No doubt there were qualities from the Spirit's operation most blessed and refreshing in Peter, John, Barnabas, and in others, whether apostles or not; but I do not think anyone approached Paul in the draught made upon his patience in circumstances calculated to try to the uttermost, and provoke to the quick. Although Paul had like passions with the rest, still there was such a sense of Christ as made him thus practically more than conqueror.

So here, in respect of His government of man on earth, Jehovah is revealed in certain qualities; and this is to be heeded, because Jehovah is that special revelation of God which was meant for His people as one who governed them. Even so He was "slow to anger and great in power, and would not at all hold as guiltless. Jehovah hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet. He rebuketh the sea, and maketh it dry, and crieth up all the rivers: Bashan languisheth, and Carmel, and the flower of Lebanon languisheth. The mountains quake at him:" of course a figure, the word "mountains" being used to indicate the great seats of power on earth. "The mountains quake at him, and the hills melt, and the earth is burned at his presence, yea, the world, and all that dwell therein. Who can stand before his indignation? and who can abide in the fierceness of his anger? his fury is poured out like fire, and the rocks are thrown down by him."

But this is not all. "Jehovah is good, a strong hold in the day of trouble." Now we come to that which is in relation to the righteous. He is patient even as respects the wicked, whom He will finally judge, but He has given a strong hold. "He knoweth them that trust in him. But with an overrunning flood he will make an utter end of the place thereof, and darkness shall pursue his enemies." Then comes a challenge "What do ye imagine against Jehovah? he will make an utter end: affliction shall not rise up the second time." There may be perhaps an allusion here to a blow which had already fallen on the Assyrian. "Affliction shall not rise up the second time; for while they be folden together as thorns, and while they are drunken as drunkards, they shall be devoured as stubble fully dry." But we must bear in mind that the Spirit of prophecy sees and declares things that are not as though they were. I have therefore said "perhaps;" for either way the believer need feel no difficulty. The destruction of Nineveh by Cyaxares and Nabopolassar is generally put B.C. 625; as Nahum is by most considered to have flourished near a century before.

After this comes a direct allusion to the enemy, which draws out this magnificent description. "There is one come out of thee that imagineth evil against Jehovah, a wicked counsellor. Thus saith Jehovah; Though they be complete, and ever so many, yet thus shall they be cut down, when he shall pass away." It is thus plain that there are two elements God has combined in these revelations the judgment on the one hand of what was wrong in His own people, and on the other of merciless adversaries, who knew not the gracious purpose of God to chasten His people. He would not leave them unpunished; but could He permit a full end? Thus on the one hand the chastening was measured, and its end was according to the goodness of God. On the other hand, God lets the adversary pour out without scruple or bound hatred on His people; but He does not merely use their animosity against them for the good of His own people, and for the punishment of their unfaithfulness, but would surely turn on the malignant foe when His purpose was accomplished. For does God sanction implacable hatred of Israel? utter indifference not to pity only but righteousness, nay, contempt and pride against Himself? turning the fact that God permitted them so to ravage the land and people of Israel into a delusion that there was no God at all, or that they had gained an advantage against the true God? Jehovah accordingly would righteously turn round on the adversaries and destroy them, as surely as He had used them in the first instance to deal with what was faulty in Israel. This we may find everywhere in the prophets, and in none more conspicuously than in the use made of the Assyrian. Nahum also looks like the rest to the end.

Thus the first blow was, I suppose, Sennacherib; the second would be not from the threatening of the Assyrian rebuked but the destruction of Nineveh; and the destruction of Nineveh is the type of the final judgment of the great Assyrian in the last days, the king of the north. Though Jehovah had broken down Israel by the enemy for their good, there would be no such trouble more. The passage looking onward to the end: "Though I have afflicted thee, I will afflict thee no more. For now will I break his yoke from off thee, and will burst thy bonds in sunder. And Jehovah hath given a commandment concerning thee," now He turns to the Assyrian, and addresses him, "Jehovah hath given a command concerning thee, that no more of thy name be sown. Out of the house of thy gods will I cut off the graven image and the molten image: I will make [it] thy grave; for thou art vile." I think that "thee" in verse 12 means Israel, and in verse 13 means the Assyrian. Hence Jehovah is represented as addressing each personally in turn.

Then in the last verse, or, as some prefer, forming the beginning of the second chapter, the chapter is wound up by the beautiful words, "Behold upon the mountains the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace!" for the judgment of the Assyrian will be the established peace of Israel, and the proclamation of it everywhere when Jehovah shall have completed His full work in Jerusalem. That is, when the moral work is complete there, He will do His last deed of judgment in principle on the Assyrian, and then will come the reign of peace, of which there is the announcement here.

It would appear that Israelites will go out to the nations with the testimony of the kingdom after the destruction of the Assyrian and their settlement in the land. Thus the word of Jehovah will spread far and wide, backed by the power which has interfered on behalf of His people so conspicuously. For the knowledge of Jehovah and of His glory is to cover the earth, as the waters cover the sea; and Israel will be the messengers of it among the nations. There will be, I think, a Jewish testimony both before and after they are settled in the land. It appears clear that there will be an active preaching during the period between the rapture of the saints and their appearing with Christ from heaven in glory; but there is ground to believe this will not be given up though its form may change, after the Lord will have come.

For be it observed that there are two great transitions in prophecy, which are apt to be confounded in many minds, and yet must be distinguished in order to have anything like a grasp of the subject. There is a transition after Christ takes saints to meet Him above, before He displays Himself and destroys antichrist; that is between the translation of those destined to heavenly glory, and the manifestation of the Lord and His own before the world. During this time when providential judgments fall on guilty Christendom, the Lord is mainly occupied, as far as the earth is concerned, with preparing a remnant of the Jews, some of whom will be put to death, afterwards by grace to be raised up in the first resurrection. Having suffered with Christ, they shall reign together. This is the invariable principle of God. But others who will not suffer thus will be delivered, and have a distinguished place of honour in the kingdom on earth. But when the Lord shall have appeared and destroyed the beast with the false prophet, and their adherents Jewish or Gentile, there will be another transition in which Jehovah will have set the ten tribes in due order, as He had done for the two tribes in the first transition, when in fact He will reunite and re-establish the people as a whole. Thus the two transitions have mainly for their object the setting right, first the Jews as such, and next Ephraim, making finally the two sticks one in His hand (Ezekiel 37:1-28), and the destruction of the Assyrian holds a similar relation to the ten tribes that the destruction of antichrist does to the two. The one is before He shall have appeared; the other is the interval that takes place after He has appeared, but before He establishes the millennial reign of peace, properly so called. There will be the public message given and heard. It will be still a time of proclamation before all is fully accomplished.

But further, in the millennium, I think the Jews specially will go out to the nations with the word of Jehovah. (Isaiah 2:1-22; Micah 4:1-13) No doubt glory will be manifest in the land of Israel, but still there will be a certain testimony, I suppose, for the conversion of the nations. (Isaiah 66:1-24) Of this there would seem to be little doubt. There will be, particularly during the period of the second transition, as well as during the first. The first will have "the gospel of the kingdom" going out; but there seems to be a further message. "Behold upon the mountains the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace! O Judah, keep thy solemn feasts, perform thy vows" Israel may not be fully gathered; "for the wicked shall no more pass through thee; he is utterly cut off." Thus if all be not yet established in peace as far as the whole people are concerned, the fall of the last Assyrian is the sign of stable peace ensuing. (Compare Micah 5:5.)

There is another passage which refers to something like the ministry of the heavenly saints. The nations shall walk in the light. "The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations." I have not the slightest doubt that the glorified saints will exercise a beneficent action or ministry of grace over the world in general, although the light of the heavenly state may be more general, perhaps, than this. The leaves of the tree seem to represent special means that the Lord will use for the healthful condition of men on the earth during the millennium; the fruit is, so to speak figuratively, for lips of heavenly taste.

In Nahum 2:1-13 and Nahum 3:1-19 we have very distinctly and fully the prime object of the prophecy of Nahum, to which the first chapter is a preface, though in the latter part of it quite without reference to the direct subject matter, namely, the Assyrian. But now the great city comes most prominently before us. "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." The challenge is forthwith given to Nineveh to defend herself as best she may; for there is the utmost danger staring her in the face. "For Jehovah hath turned away the excellency of Jacob, as the excellency of Israel: for the emptiers have emptied them out, and marred their vine branches." Thus we see the collateral subject, namely, the judgment of Israel by their enemies; but inasmuch as the Assyrians executed that judgment in such a way as to insult God Himself, and not only to chasten His guilty people, they must be prepared for their own doom. Thus we see the combined truth brought before us the destruction of Nineveh, but not apart from the discipline of Israel. Jehovah does judge Israel, and if He judges His own people who had at any rate the knowledge and after a larger measure the responsibility of righteousness, how must the ungodly and the sinner appear? Nineveh had been a godless city which had no thought nor care, still less formal profession, of doing the will of God. But the people of Israel had, and they suffered the consequence.

Here follows the most animated description of the preparations of the Ninevites to defend themselves against their enemies. Historically the foes that destroyed Nineveh were, as is known, the Medes; and though there is little information in human history about the circumstances, it appears certain that Babylon helped. Though a city as old if not older than Nineveh, it was not until God had overthrown Assyria and Egypt that Babylon was permitted to leave the background. It was hundreds of years, like an animal in training, kept in the leash till the right moment arrived, when it shot forth beyond all competitors. Other cities or races might show a speedier maturity; but Babylon in due time, after having been thus held in check from remote antiquity, was brought out into the first place of imperial supremacy in this world. Nineveh was the capital of Assyria, which was quite a distinct power.

As to all this it will be found, I think, that the heathen authors are a mass of confusion; and there cannot be a greater contrast in early history than the precision of scripture and the blundering of the best lights of Pagan antiquity as to these powers. The ignorance even of the Greeks is something astonishing. The celebrated Xenophon passed within a few miles of the city of Nineveh, but does not seem to have known anything about it. He shows the greatest want of acquaintance with such facts before his day. Possibly he stumbled on some of the outworks of Nineveh without knowing it. He calls it merely a Median city, erected in later times no doubt out of some remains of ancient Nineveh. I merely mention this to show what a wonderful book the Bible is, even as a book, and how deeply we are indebted to God. The man who uses the Bible with simplicity will have the certainty of knowledge not merely of divine things, but even of the nations of the world, with which not all the books that ever were written outside the Bible could supply him. In fact, one of the worst historians in point of trustworthiness was a man who ought to have known best, if knowledge depended on long residence in the east (as physician to Artaxerxes Mnemon); but he is almost a fabulist, and his intermingling of what was intended to hide the dishonour of. the Assyrians and to exalt the greatness of his Persian master led him, if not to falsify, certainly to propagate the Persian view of their policy, habits, etc. This naturally misled others, as for instance historians of note who wrote on this subject at a later day adopted some extravagant errors of this man. Ctesias was the name of the physician; and Diodorus Siculus followed suite. He consequently has given us a statement of alleged facts which can be disproved by other writers of antiquity. The consequence is that the Greeks who were the nearest, and the Romans who usually followed the Greeks, are in the greatest confusion on this head; and hence those who are trained in subjection to the classics, and taught to look up to these historians as authorities on the subject, are led astray. Who are more confused in these matters than men of letters? The reason is because they look up to such as were themselves in the dark. Hence all these authors are apt to confound Assyria with Babylon. Never will any distinct light be enjoyed, as far as we may speak of others, in any ancient human historian on this subject; but the divine light, when used firmly, enables us to sift out remarkable confirmations.

Were there an adequate examination of Genesis 10:1-32 we might gain not a little historically from its copious early details, and be shown the different lines that penetrated through the earth, tracing them forward to their ultimate developments. It would be of considerable interest, but would require a goodly volume to itself. It is certain that there is unerring light in scripture and nothing else; but it may be doubted much whether a continuous history could be made of a genealogical line. This would be just the difficulty. Completeness men would like, if it could be; but I do not think it is according to what may be called the moral system of the word of God to give that kind of unbroken continuity. Thus, even in the life of our Lord Jesus, it would be an exceedingly precarious task to form out of the four Gospels a continuous history of the ministry of Christ. I have not the slightest doubt that everything stated there is exactly and divinely true; that is, it is not merely true according to man's observation, but according to God's perfect knowledge of all the facts; yet for this very reason it is much above man, as also it is on a different principle from man's; for there is no thought of continuity in the Gospels, but only of facts selected for a moral purpose. I suppose it is the same thing in the glimpses of the Old Testament history: first, the beginning, the sources; next, perhaps after hundreds of years, another glance at their collision with Israel, and then finally the judgment, which concludes all.

I conceive that the great object of scripture is to show us the sources in order to compare them with the final scene and not with the continuous line between, this being the proper work of history. Hence would be just the difficulty of the matter; but it is a difficulty in the main due to the want of historic materials found outside the Bible. Undoubtedly Damascus is mentioned in an early part of Genesis, and is frequently referred to in the time of David, and at various other epochs of scripture. Thus it is one of the oldest cities in the world, and on the other hand it is a city flourishing now in a certain way. Again, several of the primeval cities in Genesis 10:1-32 have been identified within the last few years; and of course it would have its interest, more or less, to point this out clearly with the proofs of each. At the same time it would be a task of considerable delicacy, and of enormous labour, even supposing it possible, to do it well.

"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. The chariots shall rage in the streets, they shall jostle one against another in the broad ways: they shall seem like torches, they shall run like the lightnings. 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. The gates of the rivers shall be opened, and the palace shall be dissolved." This is certainly a striking picture of the last scenes; for it is not only that we have minutely enough that which recent discoveries have shown as to the abundance of scarlet and of chariots, and all the preparation of war which was characteristic of Nineveh, but the manner in which Nineveh was to fall is most vividly and exactly foreshown; and the more so because of its contrast with, as well as resemblance to, Babylon; for the city in the plain of Shinar was a capital not inferior in extent, and even superior in magnificence, to Nineveh; both being built upon famous rivers rivers of Paradise. Nevertheless, although both were typical, and the fall of the one like that of the other has in either case a most important character (Babylon even more than Nineveh), and the river in each played a very important element in the capture of the two cities, yet there is a contrast quite as much as a resemblance. For the special means of the destruction of Babylon was by laying the bed of the river dry by turning the river off; whereas the crisis which led directly towards the destruction of Nineveh was the irruption of the river in not turning it out. This was surely remarkable; at the same time it convicts of singular dulness those who failed to see the differences clearly. The whole is a good lesson for human nature, and no unimportant hint for us to read the word of God a little more closely. He who wrote scripture had no difficulty. It was all as plain as possible to Him. The real obstacle does not arise in general from its language, save in very exceptional cases, but from our own slowness of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken.

"The gates of the rivers shall be opened" not merely the gates of the city. A gate of the city was opened in the case of Babylon; and we know the splendid description of it in Isaiah, with its doors of brass and bars of iron, which must yield to righteousness from the east; for God called Cyrus to his foot, and gave kings as the dust of his sword, as driven stubble to his bow. When the moment came, the difficulty vanished, and the Persians entered the imperial city through the dried bed of the Euphrates, which was turned into another channel. Thus the doors were opened for the rest, when the drunken guards were despatched. But in the case of Nineveh it was the waters of the river which dissolved the palatial dwellings and defences. It was not the place taken by an army which stealthily crept up the emptied bed of the river, and then let in the main body through the gates. The converse of this happened to Nineveh. The Euphrates was turned off from Babylon but the Tigris burst its bounds and swamped and otherwise destroyed a vast portion of Nineveh; so that the very foundations, and not the walls only, were swept away. In vain then does the king summon his nobles: they stumble in their march; they hasten to the wall; and the defence is prepared. The flood-gates are opened and the palace is dissolved. "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. 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. 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. 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." That is, all the vast store of what contributes to the pride of life, all that ministered to selfish enjoyment and vanity, was now shown to be so much laid up for the conquerors so much gathered together for utter destruction, if not carried away by the captors. Such indeed is the history of man generally.

*This word has led to great discussion. On the one hand Gesenius takes it as "and made to flow away;" on the other hand Dr. Henderson prefers, "though firmly established;" both construe it with the preceding phrase. Mr. Leeser translates "And the queen." Ewald among recent Hebraists adheres to Huzzab as the name literal or symbolical of the queen.

Then comes the prophet's exultation over the city that had been the terror of Israel, the old enemy that had triumphed over them so haughtily and persistently; for Assyria was the principal enemy which God had used in the days of the kings to check or crush the pride of His people by their own pride. "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?" This is a most animated picture of the lordly place among the nations which Assyria had long possessed up to the moment of its ruin. "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. Behold, I am against thee, saith Jehovah 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."

At the same time we must carefully remember that, whatever might be the greatness of Nineveh, and what ever the terror the city inspired among the nations, imperial power never had belonged to it. Those who say so mistake the facts, and confound the position of Assyria with Babylon. It will be found on examination of scripture that Assyria was only the greatest among confederate or independent powers. But this is not the true meaning of an empire, which really means a power that is not only greater than any other, but that keeps the kings and nations as vassals, not simply towering above a crowd of compeers, but rather a lord and master of all others. Such was the position to which Babylon subsequently rose by divine appointment, to which Assyria, like Egypt, had long aspired in vain. The desire was in no way new; the accomplishment was. The old taskmistress of Israel, Egypt, would have liked well to have it, and so would the Assyrian, as we find in the prophet Ezekiel. These both strove hard and long for the mastery. They no doubt thought it morally certain that supreme dominion must fall to one or other of the two; and so they fought to the death, Egypt succumbing first, and then Assyria. A power which neither suspected or feared was held in reserve: for it the God of heaven kept the highest place from the beginning. Nebuchadnezzar became the "head of gold." Babel was the cradle of the Babylonish empire.

In Nahum 3:1-19 says the prophet, "Woe to the bloody city." Such had Nineveh been to Israel above all. "It is all full of lies and robbery" rather violence, the usual twofold form of iniquity. "The prey departeth not." The allusion is no doubt to the people carried off and not restored.

Then is given (verses 2, 3) a most animated sketch of the enemies' advance to assail and slay. "The noise of a whip, and the noise of the rattling of the wheels, and of the prancing horses, and of the jumping chariots. The horsemen lifteth up both the bright sword and the glittering spear: and there is a multitude of slain, and a great number of carcases; and there is none end of their corpses; they stumble upon their corpses." And this carnage and ruin are attributed to the idolatry of Nineveh, and their efforts, too successful, to entice others. "Because of the multitudes of the whoredoms of the well-favoured harlot, the mistress of witchcrafts, that selleth nations through her whoredoms, and families through her witchcrafts."

Next follows the stern condemnation of Jehovah, who once spared but now would have Nineveh know that it was no mere jealousy of others, but His own resolve to disgrace her who had so enjoyed herself and misled others. "Behold, I am against thee, saith the Lord of hosts; and I will discover thy skirts upon thy face, and I will show the nations thy nakedness, and the kingdoms thy shame. And I will cast abominable filth upon thee, and will make thee vile, and will set thee as a gazing-stock. And it shall come to pass, that all they that shall look upon thee shall flee from thee, and say, Nineveh is laid waste: who will bemoan her? whence shall I seek comforters for thee?"

Verses 8-10 set forth as a warning to Nineveh the awful desolation of the famous No-Amon. This was neither Alexandria nor Egypt, but Thebes with its hundred gates; which was the more pointed because the Assyrians themselves ravaged it both before the prophet's days and later, till Cambyses caused it to drink the cup of Persian insolence to the dregs. "Art thou better than populous No, that was situate among the rivers, that had the waters round about it, whose rampart was the sea, and her wall was from the sea? Ethiopia and Egypt were her strength, and it was infinite; Put and Lubim were thy helpers. Yet she was carried away, she went into captivity: her young children also were dashed in pieces at the top of all the streets: and they cast lots for her honourable men, and all her great men were bound in chains."

Then from verse 11 the prophet addresses Nineveh once more, and declares that she must fare no better. "Thou also shalt be drunken: thou shalt be hid, thou shalt seek strength because of the enemy." Indeed Nineveh should fall more easily still as they are told in verses 12, 13. "All thy strong holds shall be like fig trees with the firstripe figs: if they be shaken, they shall even fall into the mouth of the eater. Behold, thy people in the midst of thee are women: the gates of thy land shall be set wide open unto thine enemies: the fire shall devour thy bars." Prepare as they might (and the crisis called for it), fire and sword should take their course over the devoted city. "Draw the waters for the siege, fortify thy strong holds: go into clay, and tread the mortar, make strong the brick-kiln." Merchants, princes, satraps, viceroys, nobles, people, all should vanish, save those who should remain only to sink irreparably.

Like Babylon afterwards, Nineveh is never to reappear as a capital city; but the kind of power which prevailed in the Assyrian and Babylonish monarchies will each have its representative in the last days. At that time the order will be just the converse, as prophecy shows, of what it was in history. And this is a very important means of demonstrating that they are altogether mistaken who think that we have only to do with Babylon and Nineveh in the past. For the fact historically is that Nineveh fell first. Indeed the overthrow of the Assyrian capital was no unimportant step in God's providence for the remarkable position, unique at that time, into which Babylon was allowed to rise, as Nebuchadnezzar saw in vision and Daniel recalled and expounded according to the sovereign will of the God of heaven. Consequently the order of old was Nineveh towering up into its own place as the chief among a number of distinct powers; then, according to the prophetic warning, it fell utterly as Egypt had done before. Next Babylon was raised by God to be the head of gold, the first great representative of imperial power in the earth. The fall of Babylon, the first which attained such a character, typifies the fall of the last of these imperial powers. The final holder of the system which began with Babylon will be the beast, or Roman empire revived, and in its final apostate state at the end of this age. The beast then answers to the Chaldean monarchy, or Babylon viewed as an imperial power.

I do not mean by it of course Babylon in the Revelation; because this is clearly corrupt ecclesiastical power. But, the last holder of imperial power being typified to a certain extent by the first holder of it, the judgment of the Babylonish empire shadows to no insignificant extent the judgment of the fourth empire in its resuscitated form when it goes to destruction. But it is plain as it is important to observe in the prophetic account of the future, that what answers to Assyria will be after Babylon's destruction, not before it. In history the fall of Assyria was before Babylon. In the future, according to prophecy, the fall of Assyria will be after the power that represents the imperial system of Babylon. Therefore the distinction between the two excludes controversy for such as read prophecy believingly; and those who contend that all is done with Babylon and Assyria are really without excuse.

The same conclusion results from the very plain words of Isaiah. "O Assyrian, the rod of mine anger, and the staff in their hand is mine indignation. I will send him against a hypocritical nation, and against the people of my wrath will I give him a charge, to take the spoil, and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets." That is, the Lord employed him as a means of beating down the pride of Israel. "Howbeit he meaneth not so." He only seeks to gratify his own pride. O that Israel had stood for their true boast, even Jehovah, and humbly looked to Him to plead their cause. But no, they sought what the Gentiles sought; and their God gave them up to the haughty and cruel foe. But assuredly if the Lord chastise the faults of His people, He will not fail to punish the overbearing iniquity of His enemies. "But it is in his heart to cut off and destroy nations not a few. For he saith, Are not my princes altogether kings?" This he valued, and would have liked yet more, but God did not allow the Assyrian to have all he wished. Supreme dominion was his ambition; but Babylon was given it by the sovereign will of God. "Is not Calno as Carchemish? Is not Hamath as Arpad? Is not Samaria as Damascus? As my hand hath found the kingdoms of the idols, and whose graven images did excel them of Jerusalem and of Samaria: shall I not as I have done unto Samaria and her idols, so do to Jerusalem and her idols? Wherefore it shall come to pass that when the Lord hath performed his whole work upon mount Zion and on Jerusalem, I will punish the fruit of the stout heart of the king of Assyria, and the glory of his high looks. For he saith, By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom."

This is all recalled for the purpose of clearing as much as possible the final character of the judgment to be executed on the Assyrian. It is when the Lord shall have performed His whole work. Consequently we gather here an important item of divine truth, namely, that the Assyrian (speaking now in a general manner) is the last. It is the closing operation before the millennium in the full sense of the reign of peace, which accordingly is given just after in Isaiah 11:1-16. But in the description there given we have the introduction by the way of the Antichrist. He is destroyed, as it is said, by the breath of Jehovah's lips, but the time is not defined like the Assyrian. When we advance a little after we have more. InIsaiah 14:1-32; Isaiah 14:1-32 for instance it is said, "Jehovah will have mercy on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, and set them in their own land." It is now evidently, therefore, a question of settling the people in the land of Palestine, not merely a part of them, but the whole. Then follow the standing types of the final enemies of the people. "It shall come to pass in the day that Jehovah shall give thee rest from thy sorrow, and from thy fear, and from the hard bondage wherein thou hast been made to serve, that thou shalt take up this proverb against the king of Babylon, and say, How hath the oppressor ceased! the golden city ceased! Jehovah hath broken the staff of the wicked, and the sceptre of the rulers. He who smote the people in wrath with a continual stroke, he that ruleth the nations in anger, is persecuted, and none hindereth."

Then we find the earth at rest, and even Hades full of congratulation over the fall of the king of Babylon, a highly figurative picture, of course, but as exact as sublime. The empire of Babylon or first beast so far shadows the fourth beast, which was, is not, and shall be present. The beast, as we know, has extremely intimate associations with the Antichrist of St. John; so that it is very difficult indeed to distinguish between these two allies in lawlessness at the end. Prophetic students differ immensely as to this; and I do not wonder at it, because the two are so closely combined in their policy. The main features are these: they both claim to be objects of divine worship, and both play a great and combined part in the great apostacy of the future. The beast is of course the empire of the West, but he is also closely connected with Jerusalem, where the man of sin sits in the temple of God. They are seen as the two beasts in Revelation 13:1-18. But the false prophet will be in Jerusalem, whereas the beast's central seat of power is Rome. Whether he lives there or not, it is not for any man to say; but it is plain enough, no matter where he resides, that he will possess the old capital of imperial Rome, as Jerusalem will be that of apostate religious power. They are therefore so leagued and similar in policy and objects that one must not be surprised if many confound them, though it is not meant that each has not his own distinctive place and dignity in the future crisis.

But the connection of the beasts is so close that the difficulty of drawing the line is often great. Thus many think that the description of Lucifer in Isaiah 14:1-32 points to Antichrist, whereas it appears really to be the king of Babylon as he is energized by Satan. Nevertheless the most subtle power of Satan will be shown in the false prophet, and not in the beast; but inasmuch as they both work into one another's hands, it is sometimes a delicate task to discriminate between them. In point of fact they are both judged at the very same instant, both cast alive into the lake of fire together. Therefore, even if somewhat confounded, such a mistake does not matter as to their doom; it is of more consequence when it is a question of their character, work, and usual sphere. But it would seem that the true distinction between them is that the beast is greater politically, and that the false prophet is higher religiously, and that they divide the spoil between them, in this way accommodating each other in their bad eminence and little dreaming of the common doom that awaits them. The beast exalts the false prophet, and the false prophet exalts the beast; and thus they consequently are as friendly as wicked powers can be to each other, Satan being the head of both and employing them variously and together in his efforts against God and His Christ.

In the end of the same Isaiah 14:1-32, when the prophet has done with the subtle king of Babylon as the type of the haughty imperial power, we read what it is well particularly to observe: "Jehovah of hosts hath sworn, saying, Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass; and as I have purposed, so shall it stand: that I will break the Assyrian in my land, and upon my mountains tread him under foot: then shall his yoke depart from off them, and his burden depart from off their shoulders." It is what was promised inNahum 1:1-15; Nahum 1:1-15: "This is the purpose that is purposed upon the whole earth: and this is the hand that is stretched out upon all nations. For Jehovah of hosts hath purposed, and who shall disannul it? and his hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back?" I consider therefore that it is plain, both from Isaiah 10:1-34 and fromIsaiah 14:1-32; Isaiah 14:1-32, that the future fall of the Assyrian is distinct from, and subsequent to, that of the king of Babylon. But beyond doubt in history this was not the case. For in the past the destruction of Nineveh took place before Nebuchadnezzar became the head of the golden image. The general impression among chronologists is that the fall of Nineveh took place more than six hundred years before Christ. Indeed, if I mistake not, Sir Henry Rawlinson and others are of opinion that it took place nearly twenty years before the commonly assigned date. Even this, however, suffices; and we shall leave the archaeologists to sift the question more fully among themselves. It is a matter of no great moment to my object now. We know that it took place at any rate before Babylon's supremacy, which was consequently subsequent to either of those dates, and that is the main point, and the only one essential a point confessed on all sides. If so, it is surely evident that, if there must be the fall of the king of Babylon, and then the destruction of the Assyrian, it is quite impossible to refer to the past as the complete accomplishment of prophecy.

God has taken particular pains to cast us on the future for the exact fulfilment; and nothing can be more admirable than the perfectness of the word of God in this. It was essential that prophecy should have an accomplishment in the days in which it was written. This was needful for the comfort of the people of God. In order to mark that this was not the whole exhaustive scope of the prophecy, the very order is changed, and yet there is no dwelling on the fact nor an explanation. Thus, we see, God has pity upon His people, and would guard us against the miserable principle of regarding prophecy as little better than an old almanac as that which has been accomplished, and is of no direct use longer. The reverse is true. Prophecy has been accomplished; but the most important bearing of its predictions is yet to be in the future.

There is no need of dwelling particularly on the various forms of Nineveh's wickedness here brought before the mind of the prophetic Spirit. "Thou also shalt be drunken: thou shalt be hid, thou also shalt seek strength because of the enemy. All thy strongholds shall be like fig trees with the first-ripe figs: if they be shaken, they shall even fall into the mouth of the eater. Behold, thy people in the midst of them are women: the gates of thy land shall be set wide open unto thine enemies: the fire shall devour thy bars." So great should be Nineveh's weakness when the hour struck for her doom.

It seems that even the figure of drunkenness is not without a literal import; for although one may conceive that the charge of drunkenness does in a figurative sense take in that false security in which Nineveh lay, like Babylon afterwards in a later day, yet as a fact it is notorious that there was a surprise at Nineveh during a religious festival of their gods, which may remind us of the infamous feast of Belshazzar the very night that Babylon was taken. Thus there was an unholy revelry, not without either impious honour to their false gods on the one hand, or impious dishonour to the true God on the other hand. In short, a feast with the drunkenness that attended them was bound up with the siege of Nineveh, just as with Babylon's. But the way so far differed, as the camp of Nineveh seems to have been surprised before the city was taken. Consequently we hear inNahum 1:1-15; Nahum 1:1-15 how they were caught as thorns folded in drunkenness. All this is described before the account of taking the bloody city. But if such was the case with Nineveh, not so with Babylon: notoriously the drunken feast of King Belshazzar took place on the night when it was taken. At Nineveh the surprise of the camp was without the city before its fall. Thus each has its own peculiar features; and both show the admirable perfectness of the word of God.

Again the interval between the fall of Babylon and that of Nineveh may be set down at less than ninety years in round numbers. The captivity of Israel measures the supremacy of Babylon. This was seventy years; and we may allow a margin of some few years in consequence of the inability of chronologists to settle the exact time when Nineveh fell. It was certainly taken before Nebuchadnezzar acquired his imperial power, and therefore more than six centuries before Christ.

Do what they might, the prophetic sentence is, "There shall the fire devour thee." Just so it is a matter of common history that, when the king found he could not defend himself, he set fire to the place himself. It was not the enemies that did it, as in the case of the Chaldean capital. In Babylon the enemy secured the victory in this way, but it was otherwise with Nineveh. Again only a partial fire consumed Babylon, which therefore remained an humbled but proud city long after the days of Alexander the Great, who in fact died there. But the Assyrian city perished then. Nineveh fell, not only never to rise again, but not even to survive in any measure. The hand that chiefly effected its conflagration was that of the unhappy prince who saw the hopelessness of escape, and therefore, surrounding himself with his wives and concubines, his jewels, gold and silver, and every other valuable, set fire in desperation to the whole.

Hence we have this described as regards Nineveh in a way not found in the description of Babylon's fall. "Draw the waters for the siege, fortify thy strongholds: go into clay, and tread the mortar, make strong the brick-kiln." Alas! no care should avail. "There shall the fire devour thee; the sword shall cut thee off, it shall eat thee up like the cankerworm: make thyself many as the cankerworm,* make thyself many as the locusts.* Thou hast multiplied thy merchants above the stars of heaven: the cankerworm spoileth, and fleeth away. Thy crowned are as the locusts, and thy captains as the great grasshoppers,* which camp in the hedges in the cold day, but when the sun ariseth they flee away, and their place is not known where they are. Thy shepherds slumber, O king of Assyria; thy nobles shall lie down." It is a completeness of ruin for its grandeur unexampled in history. "Thy people is scattered upon the mountains, and no man gathereth them. There is no healing of thy bruise; thy wound is fatal: all that hear the bruit of thee shall clap the hands over thee: for upon whom hath not thy wickedness passed continually? "

*Some as Dr. Henderson take these as "the licking locust," "the swarming locust," and "the largest locust" [literally "locust of locust''] respectively.

Nevertheless there is this difference to be seen, that Assyria will certainly have a place in the millennium and a distinguished place not Nineveh indeed but Assyria. (Isaiah 19:1-25) As for Babylon or Chaldea, we never hear of either when the kingdom comes. Jehovah in the midst of His judgment will remember mercy; and Egypt and Assyria are particularly mentioned as having a leading place along with Israel in that day.