For the LORD is restoring the majesty of Jacob as the majesty of Israel, for plunderers have plundered them and ruined their branches.
Nahum 2 turns from warning to war. Nineveh must man her walls, and this verse says why the blow is coming. Everything turns on one clause about Jacob. Is God stripping His people's glory away, or giving it back? Either way, Assyria is finished.
Why Nineveh Must Brace Herself
The verse begins with "for." It explains the call to arms in verse 1. Assyria was God's instrument against His people, but it went far past its errand.
William KellyNineveh must defend herself at once, as best she can, because the greatest danger stares her in the face… Here we see the side subject: the judgment of Israel by their enemies. But the Assyrians carried out that judgment in a way that insulted God Himself. They did not simply chasten His guilty people. So they must be ready for their own doom.
Turned Away, Or Brought Back?
Commentators differ on the first line. Older English versions read it as God taking Jacob's excellency away. Others read the Hebrew as God giving it back. The ESV follows that second reading: "the LORD is restoring the majesty of Jacob."
Arno Clemens GaebeleinIt was the Lord who had used the Assyrian to bring judgment on Israel and on Jacob. But now the time had come to restore their former excellency. The Authorised Version gives the wrong sense here. The right rendering is: "For the LORD brings again the excellency of Jacob, as the excellency of Israel."
Which reading is right decides how the rest of the chapter hangs together.
J. N. DarbyI would translate this: "The Lord has restored the glory of Israel," or "the supremacy," or "the exaltation."… So the sense is very easy. The judgment all through the chapter is on Nineveh, and why? "The Lord has restored the glory to Israel." … This verse would then read: "He has restored the excellency of Jacob according to the excellency of Israel." That is, a prince prevailing with God — matching what happened when Jacob received that name.
"Israel" was the name Jacob received as one who prevailed with God.
God Starts With His Own House
Either way, God's people suffered real damage. God allowed it. That permission is the hinge of the case against Nineveh.
J. N. DarbyIf God permitted the total devastation and ruin of Jacob, it was because the time of judgment had come — a judgment that would not stop there. He 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 now defend herself if she can. … Jacob was judged. The whole family, as well as Israel, was emptied and ruined. Now it was the turn of the world.
Emptied Out, Branches Ruined
The picture is of a vineyard stripped bare and its shoots broken. One summary of the chapter reads the two halves of the verse as two stages of one story.
Morrish Bible DictionaryNahum 2 concerns the city of Nineveh directly. God had allowed Jacob to be disciplined and "emptied out;" but now Nineveh must be dealt with. She is urged to make her defence good, yet the gates of the rivers would be opened, and the palace would be dissolved.
A Prophecy Larger Than Nineveh
Nineveh's fall did not finish this prophecy. Assyria stands for something that comes back at the end of the story.
Leslie M. GrantNahum means "Comfort." It is a vigorous prophecy of the judgment of Nineveh. Nineveh was the capital of Assyria, so it stands for that empire — the King of the North in a coming day. Egypt pictures for us the world in its self-satisfied independence of God. Assyria pictures the world's vicious opposition to Him. No doubt the cruelty of Assyria prompted this prophecy, when Sennacherib ("He that dashes in pieces," ch. 2:1) invaded Israel. The fall of Nineveh fulfilled part of it. But it looks on to God's judgment of the King of the North in the last days.
Judgment Is Not The Last Word
This verse speaks of Jacob's excellency, not only of Nineveh's fall. It points past the wreckage.
J. G. BellettBut does judgment close the story? That never has been, and could not be. It only makes way for the purpose of God. The judgment of this "present evil world" will bring in the millennium, or "the world to come." Israel will be received as the seal and pledge of that bright and happy age.
Summary
- Cause — Plunderers stripped Jacob bare and ruined the branches. Assyria's cruelty went beyond the errand God gave. So Nineveh must now defend herself.
- Order — God begins judgment at His own house. If He would not tolerate evil in His people, His people's oppressors have no hope of escaping.
- Reversal — Many read the line as God restoring Jacob's excellency, not removing it. On that reading, Nineveh falls because God is raising Israel up.
- Reach — The fall of the city fulfilled only part of the prophecy. The same judgment falls at last on the King of the North in the last days.
- Result — Judgment never ends the story. It clears the ground for the age to come, with a restored Israel as the pledge of it.