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.