What do you plot against the LORD? He will make a complete end; trouble will not rise up a 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?
The Target of the Question
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.
Arno Clemens GaebeleinMany 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.
The End of a Reprieve
Nineveh had heard God's warning before. Jonah preached there and the city repented. Nahum now brings a different message.
J. G. BellettThe 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."
Why "A 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.
William KellySo 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:
William KellyThere 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.
The Kindness Inside the Verdict
"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.
J. N. DarbyIt 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.
What Nineveh Stands For
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.
J. N. DarbyNineveh 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.
One Fall Pointing to Another
The fall of Nineveh in history does not exhaust the verse. One writer reads it as the first instalment of something larger.
J. N. DarbyI 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.
Summary
- 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.