The burden of Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite.
The verse gives two things: a message aimed at Nineveh, and the man who saw it. ESV calls that message an "oracle"; older translations read "burden," and the writers quoted here work from that older word.
The word is not about Nahum's mood but about the content of his message. It is standard prophetic vocabulary for a verdict.
"The burden of Nineveh" means God's heavy sentence against that famous city. The prophets use the phrase often. In Isaiah we find the burden of Babylon, and of one place after another — a message of judgment, and so it was called a "burden."
The word also weighs on the man who has to carry it. And the sentence falls on a city, not simply on an empire — because God had once shown that city rare favour.
"Burden" means a heavy message, a message of judgement, a message that weighs down the soul of the man who has to deliver it. Nineveh was the capital of the Kingdom of Assyria. Nahum condemns the city rather than the Kingdom; Isaiah condemns the Kingdom, with no special mention of its capital. This distinction is important. In His wonderful ways God will restore and bless Assyria in the Kingdom age (Isa. 19:23-25), but its proud capital will never rise again. Why? Because God gave Nineveh special favour in its day. He sent Jonah there on a special mission, and the whole population trembled at the preaching and cried to God for mercy.
Almost nothing survives about the man himself. One writer traces his home to Galilee and dismisses the tomb long shown near the ruins of Nineveh:
Nahum's history is unknown. All we know of him is that he was an Elkoshite. His name means "comforter." Some have identified Elkosh with a village of similar name that still exists today. It stands near the site of ancient Nineveh, on the eastern bank of the Tigris, and it displays a tomb said to be Nahum's grave. But careful research has shown that claim has no foundation at all. No one knew anything about that grave until about the sixteenth century. It is the Elkosh that existed in Galilee and is still known as a little village. Nahum, like Jonah, was a Galilean.
Commentators differ. Another writer lists the possible sites and prefers a village in Judea, arguing from the book itself:
No one knows exactly where he came from. Some researchers think it was the village of Alkush by the river Tigris near Mossul. Others suggest a place in Galilee near Capernaum. Others think it was Capernaum itself (Kephar-Nahum = village of Nahum). Some believe it was a village in Judea. At Nahum's time the kingdom of the ten tribes, where Galilee lies, was already in Assyrian captivity, and Nahum speaks straight to the kingdom of Judah (chap. 1:15b). Both facts point to that last possibility.
If the Galilee view is right, the verse answers a later claim that no prophet ever came from Galilee.
The Jews in the time of our Lord made a strange reproach (John 7:52), for prophets had come out of Galilee. Jonah and Nahum were both Galileans. Men are blinder in reading the Bible than in anything else. Readers pass over the plain facts of Scripture more carelessly than the facts of any other book. People forget what it does not suit them to remember.
The name Nahum means consolation. That sits strangely over a book of judgment, until you ask who needed the comfort.
Nahum was the Barnabas of the Old Testament. His name means "consolation," and the great aim of his prophecy was to comfort the sad and downcast hearts of the people of God. But his ministry was very different from that of the "son of consolation" we read about in Acts. Barnabas rejoiced when he saw the grace of God reach the Gentiles… Nahum rejoiced over the opposite, the judgment of the Gentiles. He urged the men of Judah on the ground that their enemies were cut off.
The second half of the verse names the source. Nahum did not work this out; he saw it, and wrote it down.
The burden of Nineveh means that a weighty prophetic message about the great world city of Nineveh is to follow. Jonah gives us the size of that city, and excavations have confirmed his figures. The next sentence tells us plainly that what follows in the book is the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite.
Nineveh fell. But the vision reaches past that fall.
Nahum ("Comfort") is a vigorous prophecy of the judgment of Nineveh. Nineveh was the capital of Assyria, so the city stands for that empire — the King of the North in a coming day. Egypt pictures for us the world in its smug independence of God; Assyria shows the world in its vicious opposition to Him… The prophecy looks on to God's judgment of the King of the North in the latter days. Notice that the unbending firmness of God's judgment fully matches the determined greed of this enemy.
- Burden — the older word behind "oracle" means a sentence of judgment, and it weighs down the man who carries it.
- City — the sentence falls on the city, not the empire. Assyria is promised blessing later; Nineveh, which once heard Jonah and trembled, will never rise again.
- Comforter — his name means consolation. The comfort for God's people is the news that their enemy is finished.
- Vision — the book records what God showed Nahum, not a forecast he worked out.
- Reach — the burden fell on Nineveh in history, and looks on to God's judgment of the King of the North in the latter days.
A jealous and avenging God is Jehovah an avenger is Jehovah, and full of fury Jehovah taketh vengeance on his adversaries, and he reserveth [wrath] for his enemies.
Nahum's prophecy speaks to Nineveh, the capital of Assyria, yet it does not open by listing that city's crimes. It opens with God Himself, and twice calls Him an avenger — which raises the question every reader feels: how can jealousy and vengeance belong to the God of love?
Before any sentence falls on Nineveh, the prophet shows who is passing it. One writer sees a portrait of God, drawn against what He puts up with from human pride:
It begins with a display of the character of God, in view of what He has to bear from the pride of man. God is jealous, and the LORD avenges. It is a solemn thought that, however great His patience, a day is coming which will prove that He does not put up with evil. Yet it is also a comforting thought. The vengeance of God is the deliverance of the world from the oppression and misery of the enemy's yoke and of lust. Then the world may flourish under the peaceful eye of its Deliverer.
Where does this jealousy come from? One writer traces it to God's love for the people He chose, and His avenging flows straight out of it:
It is a sublime description. God is a jealous God. The jealousy of God has its source in the love of His elect people... "For you shall worship no other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God" (Exodus 34:14). He is jealous over His people, in case they serve other gods. And because He is a jealous God, a holy, sin-hating God, He must be an avenger of whatever is against His character. He will take vengeance on His adversaries and reserves wrath for His enemies... God is the God of Love as much as He is the God of Wrath. He must be that, or He would not be the God of Light and Holiness. He cannot afford to let evil go on forever.
The adversaries here are not vague. God used Assyria as a rod on His own people, but Assyria wanted plunder and glory for itself, and its pride brought this sentence down:
The Lord, in that action, had used him as a rod upon His disobedient, rebellious Israel; but "he did not mean it so." He planned "to take spoil and seize plunder." Pride gives him his only language: "Are not my commanders all kings?" he says (Isaiah 10). The Lord God was angry. He pronounces a burden upon him, and Nahum delivers it. "The LORD is a jealous and avenging God."
God's anger and God's patience look like opposites. One commentator says they belong together, and that anger itself belongs to moral perfection:
Are we not all apt to set these things against one another? But in truth it is not so. The stronger God's feeling against what destroys His own glory, the more worthy it is that He should be slow to act on His indignation... Usually, slowness to anger is the proof of moral greatness. In extreme cases, though, waiting would show a lack of right feeling.
The same writer points to Jesus Himself:
Today quite a few Christians shut holy anger out of what is morally perfect. There is no greater mistake. Our Lord Jesus on one occasion looked around with anger... The Christian who does not share such feelings is completely lacking in what is of God... But for this very reason He too was slow — not, of course, to form a judgment, but to carry it out on man.
To "keep wrath" means God stores sin rather than overlooking it. The reason lies in what He is:
God never treats the guilty as innocent. It is contrary to His nature, and it would not be the truth. He may put the sin away and receive the sinner cleansed; but He cannot act as if it did not exist when it does, nor be indifferent to it while He remains Himself... But He cannot leave sin anywhere as though it did not exist or did not matter.
- Character first. The prophecy opens by showing who God is, not what Nineveh did — the Judge Himself explains the sentence.
- Jealousy is love. His jealousy has its source in love for His people; He is jealous in case they serve other gods.
- Love must avenge. Because He is jealous and hates sin, He must avenge whatever is against His character. He cannot let evil run forever.
- Delay is not weakness. He is slow to act on His indignation, and that slowness is the mark of moral greatness, not of indifference.
- Vengeance delivers. He stores sin; He never waives it. When His vengeance falls, it frees the world from the enemy's yoke.
Jehovah is slow to anger, and great in power, and doth not at all clear [the guilty] Jehovah, -- his way is in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet.
Nahum's opening vision sets God's patience beside God's vengeance. This verse is where the two meet. If God is slow to anger, why did Nineveh fall? And does His refusal to clear the guilty leave anyone any hope?
The verse before this one speaks of jealousy and vengeance. This one speaks of slowness. One writer says we misread God when we set the two against each other.
Are we not all inclined to set these things against one another? But that is not the truth. The stronger God's feeling against what destroys His own glory, the more fitting it is that He should be slow to act on His anger... Slowness to anger is usually the proof of moral greatness, though there are extreme cases where waiting would show a lack of right feeling.
God's patience is not a softer version of His anger. One writer finds it both solemn and comforting.
It is a solemn thought that, however great His patience, a day is coming which will prove that He does not put up with evil. Yet it is a comforting thought too. God's vengeance sets the world free from the oppression and misery of the enemy's yoke, and from lust... He is not impatient, as our poor hearts are. He is slow to wrath — a wrath all the more terrible because it is the justice of One who is never impatient. He is great in power, and will not at all acquit the guilty. Who can stand before His indignation?
Nineveh had already tasted that slowness. God sent Jonah to this same city long before, and the city repented.
God's earlier dealing with Nineveh through Jonah may witness to us, in this day of judgment announced by Nahum, that He is "slow to anger." He sent a preacher then to warn them and turn them to repentance. He accepted that repentance, and He spared them. But the One who is slow to anger does not "acquit the wicked."
Older translations read "will not at all acquit the wicked." That word acquit carries real weight. One writer draws a sharp line between acquitting a person and not counting his sin against him.
Not counting a person's iniquity against him is a very different thing from acquitting him. He never acquits the wicked as such. There is no stronger condemnation of wickedness than when He does not count iniquity. The reason He does not count iniquity against the believer is this: He has counted it, and He has dealt with it according to His own horror of evil and His just judgment of it all at the cross of Christ.
Another writer asks what an acquitted man actually receives, and what the sinner receives instead.
He forgives the sinner, but that is not acquitting him. He justifies the ungodly — that is, He counts him righteous who was not righteous... Acquittal is a word used of someone found not guilty... An acquitted person receives no favour. He only receives what, in righteousness, he could claim.
The second half of the verse puts the most frightening forces a person can imagine under God's feet. One writer contrasts the ground man walks on with the ground God walks on.
To the mind of man, what is more impressive than towering storm clouds? What is more terrifying than a rushing whirlwind that flattens the forest? Man is a creature of dust. He walks on the dust of the earth, and to that dust he returns in the hour of death. But the LORD has the clouds as the dust of His feet.
One writer applies the same words to Job, whom God answered out of a whirlwind:
The whirlwind itself was meant to impress on Job that every circumstance of swirling trouble and confusion stood under the controlling hand of the Creator.
One writer holds both halves of God's character together, without softening either.
He is good, and His people find Him a stronghold indeed in the day of trouble. His wrath is not easily stirred; He is "slow to anger." But when evil lifts its head in constant hostility to good, and will not be put down, God shows that He is not indifferent... His pity is infinite, but He "will not at all acquit the wicked."
- Slow — God's delay is not weakness. Slowness to act on righteous anger is a mark of moral greatness. Nineveh had tasted it once already, when God sent Jonah and spared the city.
- Sure — that same patience makes the judgment heavier when it comes. It is the justice of One who was never impatient.
- Not acquitted — God never declares a sinner "not guilty." Acquittal would be a right earned, not a favour received.
- But forgiven — He does not count the believer's sin against him, because He has counted it and judged it at the cross. That condemns evil more strongly, not less.
- Under His feet — the whirlwind and the storm are not chaos escaping God. The clouds are the dust He walks on. This is the God His people find to be a stronghold in the day of trouble.
He rebuketh the sea, and maketh it dry, and drieth up all the rivers Bashan languisheth, and Carmel, and the flower of Lebanon languisheth.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
The mountains quake before him, and the hills melt, and the earth is upheaved at his presence, and the world, and all that dwell therein.
Nahum opens with a portrait of God Himself, not with Nineveh's crimes. Here the ground itself shakes — so are these real mountains or a figure, and is such a God a terror or a comfort?
The whole passage sets out the qualities of God as the One who governs the earth. The name Jehovah carries that sense, and the mountains are a figure:
So here, in what concerns His government of man on earth, Jehovah shows Himself in certain qualities. This deserves attention. Jehovah is that special revelation of God meant for His people, as the One who governed them… "The mountains quake at Him" — of course a figure. The word "mountains" points to the great seats of power on earth.
(Kelly quotes an older translation: "quake at Him" and "the earth is burned at His presence." The ESV has "quake before him" and "the earth heaves before him.")
The verse just before says the clouds are the dust of His feet. That contrast shows what the shaking means for human pride:
What is more imposing to the mind of man than towering storm clouds? What is more terrifying than the rushing whirlwind that flattens the forest? Man, the creature of dust, walks on the dust of the earth, and to that dust he returns in the hour of death. But Jehovah has the clouds as the dust of His feet. If He rises in His righteous wrath, all will be swept before Him. The mountains stand for the kingdoms of the earth, and they will quake before Him. And He will bring the pride of man down into the dust.
The same chapter calls Him slow to anger, yet the world melts at His approach. That is no contradiction. The delay is what makes the day ahead so serious:
It is a solemn thought that, however great His patience, a day is coming which will prove that He does not put up with evil. Yet it is also a comforting thought. God's vengeance is the world's deliverance from the oppression and misery of the yoke of the enemy and of lust. Then it may flourish under the peaceful eye of its Deliverer. No doubt He has long allowed evil to go on. He is not impatient, as our poor hearts are. He is slow to wrath — a wrath all the more terrible because it is the justice of One who is never impatient.
This part of Nahum is an alphabet poem. Each line starts with the next letter of the Hebrew alphabet. But the pattern does not hold, and one writer sees the break as part of the message:
The prophet sets out to describe the glorious greatness of God. But the surpassing splendour of His majesty and might, and of His changeless character, seems so far beyond his grasp that he fails to put it into ordered words. So he breaks down in the alphabetical structure. It is as much as to say: His infinite and unchanging perfections tower up like immeasurable mountains to the skies, beyond my feeble sight, so words fail to describe them.
Two verses later Nahum calls the Lord a stronghold in the day of trouble. So the shaking is not blind:
But this is not all. When He gives His indignation free course, it is not vague, sweeping away everyone alike. He is good. He is a stronghold in the day of trouble. The evil and the judgment overflow. The evil is itself a judgment, and nothing the judgment reaches can stand before it. Even then He Himself is the sure refuge of all who trust in Him, and He Himself knows all who do.
Nineveh did fall. But the writers do not treat that ancient event as all Nahum saw. They read the blows in order, starting with the Assyrian Sennacherib and ending with one still ahead:
The first blow was, I suppose, Sennacherib. The second would not be the threat of the Assyrian rebuked, but the destruction of Nineveh. And the destruction of Nineveh is a picture of the final judgment of the great Assyrian in the last days, the king of the north.
- Pride — the mountains stand for the great seats of power on earth. What melts here is human greatness, not just rock.
- Patience — His slowness to anger is not softness. It is the restraint of One who is never impatient, and that makes the coming day more solemn.
- Power — the prophet's alphabet poem breaks apart. Language gives way where the world does.
- Protection — the same flood that nothing can stand before has a refuge inside it: He knows those who trust Him.
- Prospect — Nineveh's ruin was a preview. The shaking runs on to a final judgment, and beyond it to the world's deliverance.
Who shall stand before his indignation? and who shall abide in the fierceness of his anger? His fury is poured out like fire, and the rocks are broken asunder by him.
Nahum asks two questions about God's anger, and no one in Nineveh can answer them. The mountains have just been shaking at God's presence. Now the prophet asks who is left standing when that anger breaks out.
The question gets its force from God's patience. His long delay is not approval of evil. It makes the wrath, when it comes, more terrible, not less.
It is a solemn thought that, however great His patience, a day is coming which will prove that He does not bear with evil. Yet it is a comforting thought. God's vengeance is the deliverance of the world from the oppression and misery of the yoke of the enemy and of lust. Then the world can flourish under the peaceful eye of its Deliverer. No doubt He has long allowed evil to go on. He is not impatient, as our poor hearts are. He is slow to wrath — a wrath so much the more terrible because it is the justice of One who is never impatient.
The question is not left open. Creation itself gives the verdict.
Slow to anger, and great in power, with the clouds as dust beneath His feet, none can stop the great God. The sea and the rivers dry up at His rebuke! The mountains quake at Him, and the hills melt away! Like fire, His fury is poured out! The rocks are rolled down before Him! Who can stand when His indignation awakens? None, surely.
The word "stand" belongs to God's throne. Other Scriptures ask the same question. The point is not that a person's standing is weak. He has none at all.
"The wicked will not stand in the judgment" (Psalm 1:5). "If you, O LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?" (130:3). It is plain that these passages connect the thought of standing with the throne of God... Before that throne, then, the sinner in his sins cannot stand. It is not taught here that his standing has been a bad one, or that he must change it. On the contrary, the point is stated plainly: as a sinner, as a foolish person, he has no standing before a God of judgment. He has no standing before His throne.
Nineveh was a real capital, and it really fell. Commentators also read the city as a picture of something larger. God's judgment there is as unbending as the enemy's greed.
Nahum ("Comfort") is a vigorous prophecy of the judgment of Nineveh, which, being the capital of Assyria, stands for that empire... Egypt pictures for us the world in its comfortable independence of God. Assyria shows the world's vicious opposition to Him... the destruction of Nineveh fulfilled part of it, but it looks on to God's judgment of the King of the North in the latter days. Notice that the determined greed of this enemy is fully matched by the unbending firmness of the judgment of God.
The same God who pours out fury is also a shelter. His anger is not blind, and it does not sweep away everyone alike.
But this is not all: His indignation is not vague and destructive without distinction when He gives it free course. He is good; He is a stronghold in the day of trouble. The evil is itself a judgment. Nothing the judgment reaches can stand. When the evil and the judgment overflow, He is Himself the sure refuge of all who trust in Him. He Himself knows all who do so.
Ask the same question about the great day of God's wrath, and the answer rules out every human credential.
When the great day of His wrath has come, who will be able to stand? Who? The great, the mighty, the noble of the earth? Who? The well-disposed, the upright, the moral? Only those who are redeemed "with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish or spot."
- Patience — God's slowness to anger is not tolerance of evil; it makes the wrath, when it comes, the justice of One who was never rushed.
- Power — Sea, mountains, hills and rocks all give way before Him; the honest answer to "who can stand?" is: no one.
- Position — The sinner's standing before God's throne is not merely poor. He has no standing at all.
- Purpose — Nineveh really fell. Commentators also read the city as a picture of the world's open hostility to God. God's judgment matches that hostility in firmness.
- Protection — God is a stronghold in the day of trouble, and He knows those who trust Him. In the day of wrath, only those redeemed by the blood of Christ stand.
Jehovah is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; and he knoweth them that trust in him.
The book of Nahum opens with verse after verse about God's anger and judgment. Then verse 7 speaks of goodness, shelter, and being known — so how can the same God be both a terror to the wicked and a safe place for those who trust Him?
Note: the writers quoted here use older translations. Where the ESV says "He knows those who take refuge in Him," they say "He knows those who trust in Him."
The verse does not arrive after the judgment has passed. It arrives while the description of wrath is still going.
The first few verses of the book describe the indignation and fierceness of His anger. Then comes the wonderful comfort of verse 7: "The LORD is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; and He knows those who trust in Him." He is slow to anger, perfect in calm deliberation, for He does not desire to condemn. But He will judge evil, whether by whirlwind or storm.
The chapter runs through the Hebrew alphabet, letter by letter. One writer noticed that verse 7 breaks that order.
But in verse 7 the prophet adds the ninth Hebrew letter, "ט" — and it comes out of the regular alphabetical order. It seems as if he is hurrying to comfort the believing heart when he says, "The LORD is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; and He knows those who trust in Him."
The verse does not say God does good things. It says something about what He is, and one writer sets that apart from His power.
Every child of God is in circumstances of trial and pressure, because we are still on the journey through this world. Our comfort is, "The LORD is good." This is His nature. His power, His might, His knowledge of everything — these are His attributes; but He Himself is good. When we get the light of the New Testament shining on it, what do we find? He gave His Son — He gave His Spirit.
Those who have proved this in the hardest circumstances are the ones who say it most firmly.
It is one of God's greatest triumphs that He has given weak people the knowledge of His perfect goodness. The hardest circumstances, the deepest loss or sorrow or suffering, cannot shake their confidence. Even Job said, "Though He slay me, I will hope in Him" (older translations: "yet will I trust in Him").... Ask the dying believer who is racked with pain. Ask the one from whom death has taken the person they loved most. Each will answer, with brightening eye and rising voice, "The LORD is good."
The promise is a place to stand in the day of trouble, not an escape from it.
"He is a stronghold in the day of trouble." It does not say He will take us out of the trouble. It does not say He will make it lighter. It says what He Himself is — "a stronghold in the day of trouble." Have we learned what it means to have a resource, and not just relief? We are so often looking only for relief; we need a resource as well... A person who wants only relief is always impatient. He wants the weight lifted and the difficulty taken away.
The last clause moves the knowledge from our side to His.
"And He knows those who trust in Him." He knows — not we know... In trouble we may not dare to say out loud that we trust Him. How sweet it is then to be sure that He knows we trust Him — and He will never fail the simple trust of a dependent soul!
Notice also what is not said about these people — no résumé, no record of achievement.
Observe how those who count on God are described. He does not speak of what they have left, or what they have obtained; but they "trust in Him." They make everything of Him. Notice too: it is not their knowledge, and not that they are devoted, blessed as that is. It is that they trust in Him, and He knows it. It is a blessed thing to be satisfied with the knowledge God has about us.
This judgment does not fall on everyone alike. It leaves one place to run to.
When He lets His anger run its course, it is not vague, and it does not destroy everyone alike. He is good; He is a stronghold in the day of trouble. The evil that overflows is itself a judgment, and nothing that judgment reaches can stand. Even then He Himself is the sure refuge of all who trust in Him, and He Himself knows every one of them.
- Good — goodness is not one of God's attributes, like power. It is His nature, shown in the Son and the Spirit He gave.
- Stronghold — He offers a resource, not just relief. The promise is shelter in the day of trouble, not escape from it.
- Trust — one thing marks the people He shelters: they make everything of Him. Nothing else counts, not what they have done or what they know.
- Known — the comfort runs His way, not ours: we may be too shaken to claim we trust Him, but He knows that we do.
- Both — the same God whose anger no one can stand before is Himself the sure refuge of everyone who runs to Him.
But with an overrunning flood he will make a full end of the place thereof, and darkness shall pursue his enemies.
Verse 7 has just called the Lord a stronghold for everyone who takes refuge in Him. Verse 8 shows the same God as a flood sweeping over the city He judges. How can rescue and ruin come from one hand? And what does "a complete end" leave behind?
The verse begins with "but." Judgment and refuge belong to the same God at the same moment.
But that is not all. When God lets His anger run free, it is not vague, and it does not destroy everyone alike. He is good; He is a stronghold in the day of trouble. The evil overflows, and the judgment overflows with it — the evil is itself a judgment, and nothing the judgment reaches can stand. Yet He Himself is the sure refuge of all who trust in Him, and He Himself knows every one of them. As for the glory of the enemy, it will be destroyed, blotted out, brought to nothing.
The flood was not only a figure of speech. The river beside the city had a part in her fall, and Nahum returns to it later in the book. The writer quotes an older translation here: where the ESV has a complete end "of the adversaries," it reads "an utter end of the place" — the city itself.
Diodorus says there was an ancient prophecy that Nineveh would not fall until the river became an enemy to the city. That is what happened in the third year of the siege, when the river flooded part of the city. Nahum's prophecy says, "with an overrunning flood he will make an utter end of the place," and, "the gates of the rivers shall be opened, and the palace shall be dissolved" (Nahum 1:8; Nahum 2:6). The city was to be destroyed completely and never rise again.
The same city had heard a warning before, and it had survived it. "A complete end" is what marks this message off from that one.
Jonah came before Nahum by perhaps 120 years. Under Jonah's word Nineveh had repented. But the word that now comes through Nahum is a notice of judgment — final judgment, judgment that is to make an utter end. "Affliction," says the prophet, "will not rise up a second time."
The end reaches past the walls of one city to the whole nation behind it.
But as for His enemies, with an overflowing flood He will make a complete end of their place. Nahum foretells more than the destruction of Nineveh: the Assyrian nation too would come to a full end.
The verse ends with darkness chasing His enemies. Nineveh, in this reading, stands for more than one city.
Nineveh is the proud glory of the world, which recognises nothing but its own importance — the world as the open enemy of God's people, by its pride alone. She will be judged like all the rest, and will disappear for ever under the judgment of the Almighty. The Lord has given a command against her: none of her name will be sown again.
The city fell, and the ground where it stood is still there to check.
But where is Nineveh today? Opposite the town of Mosul lie miles of ruins, and diggers have taken many interesting objects out of them… The Medes captured the city and destroyed it in 625 B.C. No one has tried to rebuild it since, and God does not will that it should ever be rebuilt… Who told Nahum about the great disaster? Many dismiss that idea today; but if God is God, He can speak of the future as easily as of the present.
The flood also looks ahead. One city's fall is a sample of something larger.
As prophecy, this looks beyond Nahum's own day and beyond the judgment of Nineveh. The day of the Lord brings the final overthrow of the proud world powers. Then the remnant of His people will have their refuge in the Lord, while the floods of judgment sweep over the earth (see Psalm 46).
- Refuge first. One verse holds both: a judgment nothing can stand before, and a God who is Himself the refuge of all who trust Him — and who knows each of them.
- Flood. The flood was literal as well as a picture. The river rose against Nineveh in the third year of the siege, as Nahum 2:6 also says.
- End. Jonah's preaching brought repentance. Nahum announces a final judgment: no second blow, and no rebuilding.
- Darkness. Nineveh stands for the world's proud self-importance, which recognises nothing but itself. God blots that glory out for ever.
- Reach. The ruins opposite Mosul show one word already kept. The floods of the day of the Lord still lie ahead, and the same refuge stands open.
What do ye imagine against Jehovah? He will make a full end trouble shall not rise up the second time.
This verse confronts people who scheme against God. Its answer is short: whatever they plan, He will finish the matter once. Commentators ask two things of it. Who is the question aimed at? And why will the trouble never come back a second time?
One writer says the opening question is not aimed only at Nineveh. It also speaks to God's own people, who doubted that He would act.
Many interpreters have gone wrong on the ninth verse. It is also addressed to Israel. "What do you imagine against the LORD?" Do you imagine that the Lord is not going to do it? Will He go back on His purpose to judge? No! He who has spoken "will make an utter end," and to His people He says, "affliction shall not rise up the second time."
(Older translations read "imagine" where the ESV has "plot," "affliction" where it has "trouble," and "an utter end" where it has "a complete end.") Note the word "also": this writer says the question reaches God's people as well as their enemy. Commentators differ over who is in view.
Nineveh had heard God's warning before. Jonah preached there and the city repented. Nahum now brings a different message.
The ministry of Jonah, like that of Nahum, concerned Nineveh… Jonah came before Nahum, perhaps by about 120 years. Under Jonah's word, Nineveh had repented. But the word that now comes through Nahum is a notice of judgment — final judgment, judgment that is to make an utter end. "Affliction," says the prophet, "shall not rise up the second time."
A "second time" implies a first. One writer traces the blows: the first fell in the days of the Assyrian Sennacherib, and the next would settle the matter. For Israel it means their suffering under this enemy has an end.
So the first blow was, I suppose, Sennacherib. The second would not be another threat from the Assyrian who had been rebuked; it would be the destruction of Nineveh. And the destruction of Nineveh is a picture of the final judgment of the great Assyrian in the last days, the king of the north. Jehovah had broken Israel down by means of the enemy for their good. But there would be no such trouble again.
The same writer does not press the point:
There may perhaps be a reference here to a blow that had already fallen on the Assyrian. But we must remember that the Spirit of prophecy sees and declares things that do not yet exist as though they already do. That is why I said "perhaps" — either way, the believer need feel no difficulty.
"A complete end" sounds only severe. One writer shows the other side. The fall of an oppressor frees everyone it crushed, and God's slowness to act is not weakness.
It is a solemn thought that, however great His patience, a day is coming which will prove that He does not bear with evil. Yet it is a comforting thought. God's vengeance delivers the world from the oppression and misery of the enemy's yoke and of lust. Then the world can flourish under the peaceful eye of its Deliverer. No doubt, He has long allowed evil to go on. He is not impatient, as our poor hearts are. He is slow to wrath — a wrath so much the more terrible that it is the justice of One who is never impatient.
Nineveh is not only a city on a map. Each of Israel's great enemies stands for a kind of evil, and Nineveh's is pride.
Nineveh is the proud glory of the world, and it recognises nothing but its own importance. It is the world as the open enemy of God's people, made an enemy simply by its pride. God will judge her like all the rest, and she will disappear for ever under the judgment of the Almighty.
The fall of Nineveh in history does not exhaust the verse. One writer reads it as the first instalment of something larger.
I have no doubt that the invasion of Sennacherib was the occasion of this prophecy. But it clearly goes far beyond that event, and the judgment is final. We have often seen the same thing in the prophets. A partial judgment serves as a warning or an encouragement to the people of God. But it is only a forerunner of a future judgment, in which God will sum up and display all His dealings.
- Plot — The opening question exposes scheming against God. Commentators differ: does it confront Nineveh's pride, or Israel's doubt that He would act?
- Patience spent — Jonah's preaching won Nineveh about 120 years of mercy. Nahum announces that the delay is over: this judgment is "to make an utter end."
- Once — A "second time" implies a first. One blow had already fallen; the next closes the account, so God's people would face "no such trouble again."
- Mercy — The fall of the oppressor sets the world free. God's slowness to anger makes His justice more terrible, never less certain.
- Preview — Nineveh's fall is a forerunner. It is a partial judgment that warns and encourages, and it points to the final one.
Though they be tangled together [as] thorns, and be as drenched from their drink, they shall be devoured as dry stubble, completely.
Nahum has just said that the Lord will make a complete end of His enemy. Verse 10 shows why that end is certain. Three pictures — tangled thorns, drunken men, dry stubble — show how helpless Nineveh will be when the fire comes.
Each picture takes away a way out. One writer applies all three to the Assyrian when judgment arrives.
Verse 10 then describes the Assyrian. They are entangled like thorns, so they will find no escape when the judgment overtakes them. Meanwhile they are drunk with wine at their parties. They will be devoured like dry stubble.
Was the drunkenness only a picture, or real drinking? One writer answers: both.
Even the figure of drunkenness seems to have a literal side. In a figurative sense, the charge of drunkenness may well cover the false security Nineveh was lying in, as Babylon lay in it later. Yet it is also a known fact that Nineveh was caught by surprise during a religious festival of their gods. That may remind us of the shameful feast of Belshazzar on the very night Babylon was taken. So there was an unholy party, which gave godless honour to their false gods on one side, and godless dishonour to the true God on the other.
The same writer adds a difference. At Nineveh the surprise fell on the camp outside the walls, before the city itself fell. At Babylon the drunken feast came on the very night the city fell.
One writer sets the enemy's false calm next to God's care for those who trust Him.
He Himself is the sure refuge of all who trust in Him, and He knows every one of them. As for the glory of the enemy, it will be destroyed, wiped out, brought to nothing. They are reckless while they enjoy their pleasures, drunk and suspecting nothing. They will be devoured like stubble that is fully dry.
Verse 10 backs up the promise just before it: trouble will not rise up a second time. Writers differ over who is being addressed. One sees a hint that a first blow had already fallen on Assyria, but he does not press it.
There may perhaps be an allusion here to a blow which had already fallen on the Assyrian... 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.
Another writer hears the same words as comfort for God's own people, who doubted that God would act. He quotes verse 9 from an older translation.
On the ninth verse many expositors have erred in their interpretation. It is also addressed to Israel. "What do you imagine against the LORD?" Do you imagine that the Lord is not going to do it? Will He change His mind about His purpose of judgment? No! He who has spoken "will make an utter end," and to His people it is spoken "affliction shall not rise up the second time."
Why does Nineveh burn so fast? She had already heard God once. The prophet Jonah warned the city, it turned, and the next generations went back to their old life.
God gave Nineveh forty days of respite, and the results were good. But the people soon went back to their wicked ways... This was about 100 years after Jonah's visit, and even then God held back judgment for another century... The explanation is that God favoured Nineveh with a special message, and she submitted to it. But the generations that followed gained nothing from it. They went back to their old filth... Favour that God grants and people despise brings heavy judgment from Him.
One writer says Nahum's picture reaches past Nineveh's fall.
In the prophetic application we must look beyond the horizon of Nahum's time and the judgment of Nineveh. The day of the Lord brings the final overthrow of the proud world powers, and the remnant of His people will have in the Lord a refuge, while the judgment floods sweep over the earth.
- Cause — Nineveh was dry because she had light and despised it. She heard God's message, turned, then her descendants went back to the old ways.
- Condition — Thorns, drink, dry stubble. The three pictures leave the enemy no way out, no warning, and nothing that can resist fire.
- Confidence — The enemy is reckless and suspects nothing. The Lord is a sure refuge for all who trust Him.
- Completion — The end is total, so trouble will not rise up a second time. Writers differ over whether that word comforts Israel or looks back at an earlier blow on Assyria.
- Consequence — One proud city's fall shows the day when all proud world powers fall and God's people find their refuge in Him.
Out of thee is gone forth one that imagineth evil against Jehovah, a wicked counsellor.
Nahum's prophecy is aimed at Nineveh, the great city of Assyria — the power that had oppressed God's people. In verse 11 the prophet points to one man who came out of that city with a plan against God Himself.
One commentator points to this verse as the book's most telling passage, and names the man behind it.
The passage that gives us the most important information is chapter 1:11. Who was this wicked counsellor who plotted evil against the Lord? There can be but one answer. A wicked counsellor came out of Assyria, the mouthpiece of its ruling king, Sennacherib. His name was Rabshakeh. He blasphemed and defied the God of Israel.
The verse names the target: not Israel, but the LORD.
The one who had come out to oppress Israel was a wicked counsellor. He plotted evil not only against Judah, but against Jehovah. He would be cut off. Compare the insulting language of Rabshakeh, the general of the king of Assyria. At first he said that Jehovah had sent him. Then he treated the God of Israel as no better than the gods of the nations, who had not been able to protect their worshippers.
Where the ESV reads "a worthless counselor," other writers keep the Hebrew word itself: Belial.
One went out from Nineveh who plotted evil against Jehovah, a counsellor of Belial — and it was in vain. He will make a full end. Trouble will not rise a second time. Sennacherib proved it: God broke his yoke and burst His people's bonds.
One writer explains the word elsewhere. It carries far more weight than the English "worthless" suggests:
Belial is a Hebrew word, and it seems better to carry it over than to translate it. It clearly means "worthlessness"... But it says far more than the English word does. Its moral sense is very positive, not merely negative. In moral and spiritual things nothing is merely negative: plain indifference here is a crime. So the New Testament uses Belial for the direct opposite of Christ. And in the Old, the "sons of Belial" are always those lawless ones. Whenever the chance comes, they show themselves as law-breakers, hostile to God and man.
God used Assyria to discipline His own people. So does using an enemy mean God approves of him?
So it is plain that God has combined two things in these revelations. On one side He judges what was wrong in His own people. On the other He judges merciless enemies, who did not know His gracious purpose to chasten His people... So the chastening was measured, and its end matched the goodness of God. Meanwhile God lets the enemy pour out hatred on His people without limit or restraint. But He does not only use their hatred for the good of His own people and to punish their unfaithfulness. He would surely turn on that cruel enemy once He had accomplished His purpose.
Commentators see this verse reaching further than Assyria's day. One finds in it a figure the prophets return to again and again:
In Nahum 1:11 we find the one the prophets mention so often — the Assyrian, who plots evil against Jehovah... But this scourge completes the judgment of God. The deliverance of Israel, the prophet says, should now be complete and final. God should break the yoke of the Assyrian for ever, and destroy the proud and hostile power of the world... The good news of full deliverance should spread far and wide, and Judah should keep her solemn feasts in peace.
The same dictionary reads the whole chapter this way. What happened in King Hezekiah's day "was only a preview of the last-day fulfilment of this chapter... and in this way we see the scope of prophecy, not simply the immediate events that gave rise to it" (Morrish Bible Dictionary).
- Out of Nineveh. One man came out of Assyria with a plan. A commentator names him as Rabshakeh, the mouthpiece of King Sennacherib, who blasphemed and defied the God of Israel.
- Against the LORD. He plotted not only against Judah but against Jehovah, treating Him as no better than the gods of the nations Assyria had already crushed.
- Worthless, not harmless. The word behind "worthless counselor" is an active charge. It marks the lawless who are hostile to God and man, not people who are merely empty.
- Used, then judged. God measured the discipline of His own people by His goodness. Then He turned on the merciless enemy once He had finished that work.
- Broken for ever. Writers see the same figure through the prophets. In the end God breaks his yoke, and His people keep their feasts in peace.
Thus saith Jehovah Though they be complete in number, and many as they be, even so shall they be cut down, and he shall pass away; and though I have afflicted thee, I will afflict thee no more.
Nahum's book announces judgment on Nineveh, the city of Israel's great enemy. Right in the middle of that judgment, verse 12 turns and speaks comfort to God's own people. Two voices meet here. One is a verdict on an enemy whose huge numbers will not save him. The other is a promise: the suffering of God's people has a limit, and God sets it.
The first half of the verse counts the enemy's forces. One writer gives a plainer translation and names who passes away:
Verse 10 describes the Assyrian... The better translation of verse 12 is, "Though they be strong, and likewise many, even so shall they be cut down, and he (the Assyrian) shall pass away."
The verse pairs a strike against Israel with a strike against Israel's oppressor. One writer explains why God does both, and why the two are not the same:
God has plainly combined two things in these revelations. On one side is judgment on what was wrong in His own people. On the other side is judgment on merciless enemies. They did not know God's gracious purpose in chastening His people. He would not leave them unpunished; but could He allow a full end? So He measured that chastening, and He ended it in keeping with His own goodness. By contrast, God lets the enemy pour out hatred on His people without scruple or limit. Yet He does not only use their hatred against His people for their good and to punish their unfaithfulness. He would surely turn on the spiteful foe once He had accomplished His purpose.
The verse switches from "they" to "you". Two writers take that "you" to be Israel, though one calls the verse obscure:
In Nahum 1:11 we find the one the prophets mention so often — the Assyrian, who plans evil against Jehovah. Verse 12 is obscure, but I think it applies to Israel. Israel too, sad to say, boasts of its safety and strength in the spirit of the world. So Israel will also go through the invasion, the flood of great waters, the scourge of God. But when this passes through the land (that is, of Israel), they shall be cut down.
God's own hand lay behind Israel's trouble, and that trouble ends. He then speaks to each side in turn:
Though Jehovah had broken Israel down by the enemy for their good, there would be no such trouble again... I think that "you" in verse 12 means Israel, and in verse 13 means the Assyrian. So Jehovah is represented as addressing each personally in turn.
Israel kept on suffering long after Nineveh fell. So one writer reads "no more" as a promise still ahead:
The second half of the twelfth verse concerns His people. "Though I have afflicted you, I will afflict you no more." One can see at once that the "no more" demands a future fulfilment. It is true that the Assyrian no longer afflicted Israel. Yet affliction after affliction has been their lot. But there comes the day when all afflictions will cease. "For now I will break his yoke (the yoke of the Assyrian) from off you (Israel), and I will burst your bonds apart."
The comfort here is not a small aside; it is where the whole line of prophecy is heading:
But does judgment close the story? That never has been, nor could it be. It only makes way for the purpose of God. The judgment of this "present evil world" will bring in the millennium, or "the world to come." And God will receive Israel as the seal and pledge of that bright and happy age — as our prophet says, "Though I have afflicted you, I will afflict you no more."
The book aims God's fury at the enemy. It also has words for the afflicted:
Nahum looks only at this enemy of God's people. It is striking that he never mentions the sins of Israel and Judah. Yes — God announces His holy and just fury to the enemies, while His people receive comforting words (chapter 1:12-15).
- Strength — numbers do not save the enemy. Strong and many, they are still cut down and pass away.
- Measure — God measures His chastening of His own people and aims it at their good. He sets no such measure for a merciless oppressor.
- Address — "you" in verse 12 is Israel, "you" in verse 13 the Assyrian; God speaks to the afflicted and to the oppressor in turn.
- End — "no more" reaches past Nahum's century to a day when affliction stops for good, the yoke breaks, and the bonds snap.
- Comfort — a book of judgment on Nineveh still comforts God's people. Judgment clears the way for His purpose.
And now will I break his yoke from off thee, and will burst thy bonds asunder.
Nahum announces judgment on Nineveh, the capital of Assyria, the empire that had crushed God's people. Here the message turns from the oppressor to the oppressed. Whose yoke does God break, off whose neck, and when?
One commentator names both sides. He starts from the promise in the verse just before, and asks when "no more" comes true:
The second half of the twelfth verse concerns His people. "Though I have afflicted you, I will afflict you no more." One can see at once that the "no more" demands a future fulfilment. It is true that the Assyrian afflicted Israel no longer. Yet affliction upon affliction has still been their lot. But there comes the day when all afflictions will cease. "And now I will break his yoke (the yoke of the Assyrian) from off you (Israel) and will burst your bonds apart."
Two things run side by side here. God disciplines His own people. He also judges the nation He used to do it — and He does not deal with the two alike.
God has combined two things in these revelations. On one side He judges what was wrong in His own people. On the other He judges merciless enemies, who did not know His gracious purpose to chasten His people. He would not leave His people unpunished; but could He let them be destroyed completely? So on one side He kept the chastening measured, and ended it in keeping with His goodness. On the other side, God lets the enemy pour out hatred on His people without limit or scruple. Yet He does not merely use their hatred against them, for the good of His own people and for the punishment of their unfaithfulness. He would surely turn on the cruel enemy when He had accomplished His purpose.
The breaking here is not a pause before the next invasion.
God would break the yoke of the Assyrian for ever. He would destroy the proud and hostile power of the world, just as He had already judged the corruption and rebellion that set itself against Christ. The good news of full deliverance would spread far and wide, and Judah would keep her solemn feasts in peace.
One commentator counts the blows in order, and notes that God addresses each side in turn:
The first blow was, I suppose, Sennacherib. The second would not be the Assyrian merely rebuked with a threat, but the destruction of Nineveh. And the destruction of Nineveh is a picture of the final judgment of the great Assyrian in the last days, the king of the north. The Lord had broken down Israel by the enemy for their good, but there would be no such trouble any more. […] Now He turns to the Assyrian, and addresses him. […] The Lord is represented as addressing each personally in turn.
Another writer says the same about Hezekiah's day, and adds what this way of reading gives us:
What happened in Hezekiah's day was only a picture of how this chapter will be fulfilled in the last days […] and in this way we see the scope of prophecy, and not simply the immediate events that gave rise to it.
God says, "I will break." One writer names the hand that does it:
There will be no peace and no blessing apart from Christ. It is He who will break the oppressor's yoke, and burst His people's bonds apart.
And judgment is not the end of the story. It clears the ground:
But does judgment close the story? That never has been, nor could it be. It only makes way for the purpose of God. The judgment of this "present evil world" will bring in the millennium, "the world to come." And God will receive Israel as the seal and pledge of that bright and happy age. […] Or, as one of God's saints in our own day has put it, "the vengeance of God is the deliverance of the world from the oppression and misery of the yoke of the enemy and of lust, that it may flourish under the peaceful eye of its Deliverer."
- Named — the yoke is the Assyrian's, the neck is Israel's, and the hand that breaks it is God's own: "I will break."
- Measured — the affliction was God's own chastening. He kept it within limits and ended it in keeping with His goodness.
- Final — the "now" points past every partial rescue. The yoke is broken for ever, and all affliction ceases.
- Layered — Sennacherib's defeat and Nineveh's fall set the pattern. The last-days enemy is the full picture, and reading it this way shows how far prophecy reaches.
- Christ — there is no peace and no blessing apart from Him. He breaks the oppressor's yoke, and that clears the ground for God's purpose.
And Jehovah hath given commandment concerning thee, that no more of thy name be sown out of the house of thy god will I cut off the graven image, and the molten image I will prepare thy grave; for thou art vile.
God has just comforted His people. Now He turns and passes sentence on Assyria: the name ends, the idols fall, and God digs the grave. Older translations read "no more of your name be sown," and several writers below use that older wording.
The word "you" in these verses points to two different hearers. One writer sorts out which is which.
The destruction of Nineveh is a picture of the final judgment of the great Assyrian in the last days, the king of the north... Now He turns to the Assyrian, and addresses him: "The LORD has given a command concerning you, that no more of your name be sown"... I think that "you" in verse 12 means Israel, and in verse 13 means the Assyrian. So the LORD is represented as addressing each one in turn.
God let Assyria punish His own people first. One writer follows that thought to its end, and sets God's two messengers to Nineveh side by side.
He permits the world, as the one who carries out His judgments, to lay waste His people for their good. Judgment begins at the house of God. But if the worldliness and sin of His people have been corrected by the stronger worldliness and sin of the world, what will the end of that world be? We have, then, two prophets whose witness concerns Nineveh only. One is Jonah, the last witness given to the world in the mercy of God — a witness that there was the greatest and quickest mercy for the world itself before God. The other is Nahum, a witness of the final judgment... Here there was nothing but pride against the LORD: and who shall stand in the day of His wrath?
The sentence falls on the city, not on the whole nation. One writer marks that difference, and asks why Nineveh's ruin is final when Sodom's is not.
Nineveh will never rise again, but in contrast with this, Sodom and her neighbouring cities are to be restored by God for blessing in the Millennium (Ezek. 16:55). The explanation is that Nineveh was favoured with a special message from God and submitted to it. But the generations that followed gained nothing by it, and returned to their old ways... Favour granted by God but despised brings heavy judgement from God... Assyria — the nation — is to be blessed. But to the once favoured city of Nineveh God has said: "The LORD has given commandment that no more of your seed be sown." Deeply solemn words! Truly "it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God" (Heb. 10:31).
The verse ends by giving the reason. One writer ties that reason back to God's character, declared at the start of this message.
The fourteenth verse gives the judgment commandment as to Assyria and Nineveh. They are vile, and the God who declared His character at the beginning of this message is going to act accordingly.
God says He will make a grave. One writer separates the Hebrew word used here, qeber, from another Hebrew word, sheol.
Qeber can be dug or made. "In my grave which I have dug for me" (Gen. 50:5); "I will make your grave" (Nah. 1:14). Sheol is never said to be dug or made.
God said it, and the ruins of the city show the result. One writer points to what excavation has uncovered.
Modern excavations prove the magnificence of the past and fallen greatness of Nineveh. For all her worldly and royal splendour, the LORD said, "I will make your grave, for you are vile." He also said, "Nineveh is laid waste, who will grieve for her… they cast lots for her honourable men, and all her great men were bound in chains." (Nahum 1 and 3.)
Writers differ on how far the verse reaches. Some see it fulfilled in the ruined city. Kelly sees in it a picture of a judgment still to come.
- Commandment — God issues a formal order against a named enemy. The sentence rests on His own declared character: He "is going to act accordingly."
- Name — The first stroke ends the future: no more of his name sown, no line, no revival of the city.
- Gods — The second stroke reaches into the temple. God cuts off the carved and cast images kept there.
- Grave — The third stroke is a grave God Himself prepares. The word means a grave that is dug or made, not sheol.
- Why — The reason is moral, not political: "for you are vile." Jonah brought the city mercy; it went back to its old ways. So the next prophet came with the final verdict.
Behold upon the mountains the feet of him that bringeth glad tidings, that publisheth peace! Celebrate thy feasts, Judah, perform thy vows for the wicked one shall no more pass through thee; he is utterly cut off.
Nahum's book announces doom on Nineveh, the Assyrian capital. Yet the chapter ends with a runner on the hills shouting good news. Whose feet are these? And what makes news of peace possible at all?
The good news is not spoken into an untouched world. It arrives only once the oppressor has been dealt with, and the chapter's order is deliberate.
Some prefer to read this last verse as the beginning of chapter 2. Either way, the chapter closes with the beautiful words, "Behold, upon the mountains, the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace!" The judgment of the Assyrian will be the settled peace of Israel. That peace will be proclaimed everywhere when the LORD has completed His full work in Jerusalem.
Judgment is not an end in itself.
But does judgment close the story? It never has, and it never could. It only makes way for the purpose of God… "God's vengeance is the deliverance of the world from the oppression and misery of the yoke of the enemy and of lust. Then the world may flourish under the peaceful eye of its Deliverer."
Nahum says him, singular. Elsewhere Scripture picks up the same picture and turns it plural.
Romans 10:15 speaks of "the feet of THOSE" who preach the good news. But Isaiah 52:7, which it quotes, speaks of "the feet of HIM… who brings good news, who publishes peace, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, 'Your God reigns.'" Nahum says the same: the feet of HIM (Nahum 1:15).
If the herald is one Person, no political settlement can take His place. Commentators identify these feet with Christ Himself.
We know that the only one who can bring peace to the earth is the Lord Himself. Peace will not come from the destruction of dictatorships by the vengeful sword of the democracies. It will come by the personal appearance of the Son of Man. His nail-pierced feet will appear on the mountains of Judea, and He will judge the nations for the glory of God and for the peace of Israel.
Nineveh really was destroyed, roughly six centuries before Christ. Yet the writers insist that the scale of what Nahum describes was never reached in that event.
Isaiah 52:7 was spoken in connection with Babylon's overthrow, but its wider application and meaning is future. The overthrow of Babylon and Nineveh did not bring the glorious things Isaiah and Nahum spoke of. The ends of the earth did not then see the salvation of God. Jerusalem was not redeemed. God was not enthroned as King in Zion. It is all yet to come. When that day comes, messengers will go out from Jerusalem and declare the good news to the nations of the world. The wicked, opposing powers of the world will then be no more.
Prophecy here works by pattern. The Assyrian invasion under Sennacherib is only the starting point.
I have no doubt that the invasion of Sennacherib was the occasion of this prophecy. But it clearly goes far beyond that event, and the judgment is final. This is another instance of what we have so often seen in the prophets. A partial judgment serves as a warning or an encouragement to the people of God, while it is only a forerunner of a future judgment.
The verse asks Judah for worship. With the invader gone, Judah can hold her feasts again and pay what she promised.
The yoke of the Assyrian would be broken for ever, and the proud, hostile power of the world destroyed… The good news of full deliverance would be spread everywhere, and Judah would keep her solemn feasts in peace.
The vows are a different matter.
The Israelites were not told to make vows. But if they made them freely, God said they must keep them faithfully. Man is always ready to boast of his strength, without being conscious of his own weakness.
The picture is not locked in the future. Writers see it repeat wherever people announce peace now.
In Romans 3, the feet of those who did not know the way of peace were marked by violence. Now, through the precious "gospel of peace," those feet have such moral worth and dignity that God can use them to crush the one who brought violence and murder into this world. The perfection of beauty is seen in Christ publishing peace (Isaiah 52:7; Nahum 1:15). The same beauty is seen, in measure, in believers who delight to preach the gospel of peace, as sent by the Lord, in a world disturbed by sin.
- Judgment first. The tyrant's fall clears the ground. Peace comes on the far side of judgment, never instead of it.
- Peace is a Person. Nahum's herald is singular — the feet on the mountains are Christ's, and no human victory can replace His appearing.
- Not yet fulfilled. Nineveh fell, but the world never saw God's salvation to its ends; the prophecy runs past history to its final scene.
- Feet multiplied. The one Herald sends many; those whose feet once ran to violence now carry the same beautiful news.
- Freedom is for worship. Delivered people keep the feast and pay what they promised — good news answered by a kept vow.