And now I will break his yoke from off you and will burst your bonds apart.”
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?
Whose Yoke, and Off Whose Neck
One commentator names both sides. He starts from the promise in the verse just before, and asks when "no more" comes true:
Arno Clemens GaebeleinThe 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."
Chastening That Has a Limit
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.
William KellyGod 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.
Broken Once and For All
The breaking here is not a pause before the next invasion.
J. N. DarbyGod 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.
Layers of Fulfilment
One commentator counts the blows in order, and notes that God addresses each side in turn:
William KellyThe 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:
Morrish Bible DictionaryWhat 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.
The Hand That Breaks the Yoke
God says, "I will break." One writer names the hand that does it:
BarkerThere 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:
J. G. BellettBut 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."
Summary
- 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.