The mountains quake before him; the hills melt; the earth heaves before him, the world and all who dwell in it.
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?
Mountains as thrones
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:
William KellySo 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:
Arno Clemens GaebeleinWhat 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.
Slow anger, not weak anger
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:
J. N. DarbyIt 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.
A description that outruns language
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:
H J VineThe 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.
Refuge inside the tremor
Two verses later Nahum calls the Lord a stronghold in the day of trouble. So the shaking is not blind:
J. N. DarbyBut 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's fall as a preview
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:
William KellyThe 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.
Summary
- 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.