The scatterer has come up against you. Man the ramparts; watch the road; dress for battle; collect all your strength.
Nahum's first chapter is a preface. This verse turns to Nineveh itself — the proud capital of Assyria — and raises three questions: who is the attacker, why tell a doomed city to prepare, and how far does the prophecy reach?
The challenge to defend
The opening words speak straight to the city. They are not advice. They are a dare:
William KellyBut now the great city comes most prominently before us... The challenge goes out at once: let Nineveh defend herself as best she can, for the utmost danger stares her in the face.
Who "the scatterer" is
The attacker gets a title, not a name. Older translations render it "He that dashes in pieces," and that is how the writers below quote it. Commentators tie the title to the Assyrian king whose cruelty against Israel prompted the prophecy. They also see the words reaching past his own day:
Leslie M. GrantNo doubt the cruelty of Assyria prompted this prophecy, when Sennacherib ("He who dashes in pieces," ch. 2:1) invaded Israel. It came partly true when Nineveh was destroyed. But it 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.
Why the summons is ironic
The order to prepare comes when the case is already closed. One writer traces the logic: judgment began at God's own house, so it could not stop there:
J. N. DarbyHe began, no doubt, at His own house, but would He stop there? No. What, then, should be the end of the enemies of God's people, if He no longer put up with evil in His own people? Let Nineveh, then, now defend herself if she could. But no, that den of lions should be invaded, and the young lions destroyed and unable to defend themselves.
Kelly points to a further reason for Nineveh's doom. God used Assyria to chasten His own people:
William KellyThe Assyrians carried out that judgment in a way that insulted God Himself, and did not merely chasten His guilty people. So they must be prepared for their own doom.
What Nineveh stands for
Nineveh is not simply one ancient city among many. Set beside Egypt and Babylon, it carries its own moral shape:
J. N. DarbyEgypt is the world in its natural condition, out of which the people have come. Babylon is corruption working through power, which enslaves the people. Nineveh is the proud glory of the world, which recognises nothing but its own importance. It is the world as the open enemy of God's people, simply through its pride.
Mercy already offered and spent
Nineveh had already repented once, in Jonah's day. One writer weighs what that repentance was finally worth:
J. G. BellettThe repentance in the day of Jonah... secured nothing. It did not prepare Nineveh for glory, or for a place in the kingdom of God. As a city or kingdom, Nineveh had gone back to wallowing in the mud, like a pig that had been washed. She had ripened herself for the cutting off of the land.
Spoken before it happened
None of this had happened when Nahum spoke. That gap between the word and the event raises a question:
Arno Clemens GaebeleinThis great prophecy came true, word for word, about ninety years after Nahum spoke. When he spoke these words, Nineveh stood at the height of her glory. Who told Nahum of Elkosh that the proud world city would be sacked and completely wiped out? Who moved his pen to give such a vivid description of what would take place? There is but one answer — the Spirit of God.
Summary
- The summons. God dares Nineveh to hold her walls. She may defend herself as best she can, but the danger already stares her in the face.
- The attacker. "He who dashes in pieces" points first to Assyria's cruelty against Israel. Nineveh's fall answered it in part. The judgment of the king of the North in the latter days answers it fully.
- The order. God started with His own house. If He would not put up with evil in His own people, the world's turn had to follow. Assyria had gone further still and insulted God Himself, so its own doom was sure.
- The character judged. Nineveh stands for the world's proud glory, which recognises nothing but its own importance. Pride alone makes it an open enemy of God's people.
- The verdict. Mercy came once, in Jonah's day, and Nineveh threw it away. She went back to the mud and ripened herself for cutting off. Ninety years later the words came true.