Nahum 2:10 Kommentar

We now come closer to Nineveh, that great city; she took, not warning by the destruction of her armies and the fall of her king, and therefore may expect, since she persists in her enmity to God, that he will proceed in his controversy with her. Here is foretold, I. The approach of the enemy that should destroy Nineveh, and the terror of his military preparations (Nah 2:1-5). II. The taking of the city (Nah 2:6). III. The captivity of the queen, the flight of the inhabitants, the seizing of all its wealth, and the great consternation it should be in (Nah 2:7-10). IV. All this is traced up to its true causes - their sinning against God and God's appearing against them (Nah 2:11-13). All this was fulfilled when Nebuchadnezzar, in the first year of his reign, in conjunction with Cyaxares, or Ahasuerus, king of the Medes, conquered Nineveh, and made himself master of the Assyrian monarchy.

INTRODUCTION TO NAHUM 2 This chapter gives an account of the destruction of the city of Nineveh; describes the instruments of it as very terrible and powerful, and not to be resisted, Nah 2:1. The manner of taking it, the flight of its inhabitants, and the spoil of its riches and treasures, Nah 2:5 and the king and the princes thereof, compared to a lion, and a lion's whelp, are insulted as being without a den or dwelling place, because of their cruelty and ravening, for which the Lord was against them, and threatened them with utter ruin, which he brought upon them, Nah 2:11.

She is empty, and void, and waste,.... The city of Nineveh, empty of inhabitants, being killed, or having fled; and stripped of all its treasures and riches by the enemies; its walls and houses demolished and pulled down, and laid in ruins, and become a heap of rubbish; See Gill on Nah 1:8. Various words are here used to ascertain and confirm the thing; and there is an elegant play on words or likeness of sounds, which our language will not express: and the heart melteth; the heart of every inhabitant of Nineveh melted with fear at the approach of their enemies, their entrance into the city, and plunder of it; flowed like water, or melted like wax; see Psa 22:14, and the knees smite together; like people in a fright, and when a panic has seized them; and as it was with Belshazzar, Dan 5:6, and much pain is in all loins; like that of women in travail; or of persons in a sudden fright, which gives them a pain in their backs at once: and the faces of them all gather blackness; like a pot, as the Targum adds; being in great distress and disconsolation, which make men appear in a dismal hue, and their countenances look very dark and gloomy; see Joe 2:6.

(Verse 10) She is scattered and torn and ripped apart, with a wasting heart, and knees loosened, and weakness in all the kidneys, and the faces of all like the darkness of a pot. LXX: Shaking, trembling, and bubbling, and the breaking of the heart, and knees loosened, and pains over every loin, and the faces of all like the burning of a pot. Under the metaphor of a captive woman, Nineveh is described as scattered, torn, and ripped apart: with a wasting heart, loosened knees, and broken kidneys, and the faces of all its inhabitants, due to the terror of the enemies and the magnitude of fear, appear burnt, wasted, and deformed with paleness. Furthermore, according to the Septuagint, a higher understanding is needed of what the terms 'excussio' and 'rediscussio' signify. As for the people of God, it is as if a person has sinned at some point and returns to their previous state, as Jerusalem is said to them: Shake off the dust from your feet and arise, Jerusalem (Isaiah 52:2). And for someone who is such, that after being shaken off, they may deserve to pass into the arrows of God and be aimed against the enemies by the Lord, it is sung about them: Like arrows in the hand of a mighty one, so are the children of those who are shaken off (Psalm 127:4). And when his footsteps, as though entering upon the earth, are sprinkled with dust, we hear from the Savior: Shake off the dust from your feet as a testimony to them (Mk. 6:11): doubtless he speaks of those who refuse to receive the preachers. But as for Nineveh, which was burdened with all the vessels of its desires, it is not merely shaken off once, but frequently. And after it has been shaken off again, and its surface has been cleaned (so that no impurity remains inside), there is even a boiling, which is more significantly called ἐκβρασμὸς in Greek: for properly speaking, ἐκβρασμὸς is used in such cases, when what was hidden inside erupts to the surface. And the pimples that also arise on the lips after an illness are called ἐκβράσματα, and it seems to indicate health, that the disease has erupted on the surface. But not only is this remedy applied in Nineveh, so that it is frequently shaken off and the hidden illness within its vital organs is forced to leave; but also the breaking and dissolution of the heart and knees ((or kidneys)) is proclaimed, just as the hard and stony heart of Pharaoh was broken, which as long as he had it, he did not let the people of God go (Exodus VII and thereafter): so too the broken heart of Nineveh is softened and transformed into flesh, and the stiff knees that were not previously bowed to God are dissolved, and bend to God: from which all fatherhood in heaven and on earth is named: and at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth (Philippians II, 10). So after they come to know their creator, let them hear: Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees (Isaiah 35:3). And he says, 'Pain upon every loin.' We have already said that intercourse is signified by the loin, and that all works related to mingling are designated by the term 'loins.' Therefore, in the consummation, there will be great pains in the loins, because all the power of the dragon is in the loins (Job 40:11). And for all these things, because of which there is shaking, shaking again, bubbling, and breaking of the heart, dissolving of the knees, pains of the loins, the faces of all will be like the scorching of a pot, so that it either becomes close to fire and heat, or loses the shine of oil and turns black like coal, and is covered with eternal confusion, from which the saint is far off, saying, 'The light of your face has shone upon us, Lord' (Psalm 4:7). For when the face of God is revealed, He is contemplated in His glory (2 Corinthians III). And I think, just as the glory of the sun is different from the glory of the moon and from the glory of the stars, and one star differs from another in brightness (1 Corinthians XV, 41), so in the resurrection of the dead, there will be a great distance between the glory of the saints and the darkness of sinners.

Nineveh is now called upon to prepare for the approach of her enemies, the instruments of Jehovah's vengeance, Nah 2:1; and the military array and muster, the very arms and dress, of the Medes and Babylonians in the reigns of Cyaxares and Nabopolassar; their rapid approach to the city; the process of the siege, and the inundation of the river; the capture of the place; the captivity, lamentation, and flight of the inhabitants; the sacking of this immense, wealthy, and exceedingly populous city; and the consequent desolation and terror, are all described in the pathetic, vivid, and sublime imagery of Hebrew poetry, Nah 2:2-10. This description is succeeded by a very beautiful and expressive allegory, Nah 2:11-12; which is immediately explained, and applied to the city of Nineveh, Nah 2:13. It is thought by some commentators that the metropolitan city of the Assyrian empire is also intended by the tender and beautiful simile, in the seventh verse, of a great princess led captive, with her maids of honor attending her, bewailing her and their own condition, by beating their breasts, and by other expressions of sorrow.

She is empty, and void, and waste - The original is strongly emphatic; the words are of the same sound; and increase in their length as they point out great, greater, and greatest desolation. בוקה ומבוקה ומבלקה Bukah, umebukah, umebullakah. She is void, empty, and desolate. The faces of them all gather blackness - This marks the diseased state into which the people had been brought by reason of famine, etc.; for, as Mr. Ward justly remarks, "sickness makes a great change in the countenance of the Hindoos; so that a person who was rather fair when in health, becomes nearly black by sickness." This was a general case with the Asiatics.

THE ADVANCE OF THE DESTROYING FORCES AGAINST NINEVEH, AFTER IT WAS USED AS GOD'S ROD FOR A TIME TO CHASTISE HIS PEOPLE: THE CAPTURE OF THAT LION'S DWELLING, ACCORDING TO THE SURE WORD OF JEHOVAH. (Nah 2:1-13) He that dasheth in pieces--God's "battle axe," wherewith He "breaks in pieces" His enemies. Jer 51:20 applies the same Hebrew term to Nebuchadnezzar (compare Pro 25:18; Jer 50:23, "the hammer of the whole earth"). Here the Medo-Babylonian army under Cyaxares and Nabopolassar, that destroyed Nineveh, is prophetically meant. before thy face--before Nineveh. Openly, so that the work of God may be manifest. watch the way--by which the foe will attack, so as to be ready to meet him. Ironical advice; equivalent to a prophecy, Thou shalt have need to use all possible means of defense; but use what thou wilt, all will be in vain. make thy loins strong--The loins are the seat of strength; to gird them up is to prepare all one's strength for conflict (Job 40:7). Also gird on thy sword (Sa2 20:8; Kg2 4:29).

Literally, "emptiness, and emptiedness, and devastation." The accumulation of substantives without a verb (as in Nah 3:2), the two first of the three being derivatives of the same root, and like in sound, and the number of syllables in them increasing in a kind of climax, intensify the gloomy effectiveness of the expression. Hebrew, Bukah, Mebukah, Mebullakah (compare Isa 24:1, Isa 24:3-4; Zep 1:15). faces of all gather blackness--(See on Joe 2:6). CALVIN translates, "withdraw (literally, 'gather up') their glow," or flush, that is grow pale. This is probably the better rendering. So MAURER.

With Nah 2:1 the prophecy turns to Nineveh. Nah 2:1. "A dasher in pieces comes against thee. Keep thy fortress! Look out upon the way, fortify the loins, exert thy strength greatly! Nah 2:2. For Jehovah returneth to the eminence of Jacob as to the eminence of Israel; for plunderers have plundered them, and their vines have they thrown to the ground." על־פּניך cannot be addressed to Judah, as in Nah 1:15 (Chald., Rashi, etc.). It cannot indeed be objected that in Nah 1:15 the destruction of Asshur has already been announced, since the prophet might nevertheless have returned to the time when Asshur had made war upon Judah, in order to depict its ruin with greater precision. But such an assumption does not agree with the second clause of the verse as compared with Nah 2:2, and still less with the description of the approaching enemy which follows in Nah 2:3, since this is unquestionably, according to Nah 2:5, the power advancing against Nineveh, and destroying that city. We must therefore assume that we have here a sudden change in the person addressed, as in Nah 1:11 and Nah 1:12, Nah 1:13 and Nah 1:14. The enemy is called מפיץ, "a dasher in pieces;" not a war-hammer (cf. Pro 25:18), because עלה, the standing expression for the advance of a hostile army, does not agree with this. על־פּניך, against thy face, i.e., pitching his tent opposite to the city (there is no good reason for altering the suffix into פּניך, as Ewald and Hitzig propose). Against this enemy Nineveh is to bring all possible power of resistance. This is not irony, but simply a poetical turn given to the thought, that Nineveh will not be able to repulse this enemy any more. The inf. abs. nâtsōr stands emphatically for the imperative, as is frequently the case, and is continued in the imperative. Metsūrâh is the enclosure of a city, hence the wall or fortification. צפּה־דרך, looking watchfully upon the way by which the enemy comes, to repulse it or prevent it from entering the city. הזּק מ, make the loins strong, i.e., equip thyself with strength, the loins being the seat of strength. The last clause expresses the same thought, and is merely added to strengthen the meaning. The explanatory kı̄ in Nah 2:2 (3) does not follow upon Nah 2:1 in the sense of "summon up all thy strength, for it is God in whose strength the enemy fights" (Strauss), but to Nah 2:1 or Nah 1:15. The train of thought is the following: Asshur will be utterly destroyed by the enemy advancing against Nineveh, for Jehovah will re-establish the glory of Israel, which Asshur has destroyed. שׁב (perf. proph.) has not the force of the hiphil, reducere, restituere, either here or in Psa 85:5 and Isa 52:8, and other passages, where the modern lexicons give it, but means to turn round, or return to a person, and is construed with the accusative, as in Num 10:36; Exo 4:20, and Gen 50:14, although in actual fact the return of Jehovah to the eminence of Jacob involves its restoration. גּאון יעקב, that of which Jacob is proud, i.e., the eminence and greatness or glory accruing to Israel by virtue of its election to be the nation of God, which the enemy into whose power it had been given up on account of its rebellion against God had taken away (see at Amo 6:8). Jacob does not stand for Judah, nor Israel for the ten tribes, for Nahum never refers to the ten tribes in distinction from Judah; and Oba 1:18, where Jacob is distinguished from the house of Joseph, is of a totally different character. Both names stand here for the whole of Israel (of the twelve tribes), and, as Cyril has shown, the distinction is this: Jacob is the natural name which the people inherited from their forefather, and Israel the spiritual name which they had received from God. Strauss gives the meaning correctly thus: Jehovah will so return to the eminence of His people, who are named after Jacob, that this eminence shall become the eminence of Israel, i.e., of the people of God; in other words, He will exalt the nation once more to the lofty eminence of its divine calling (כּ used in the same manner as in Sa1 25:36). This will He do, because plunderers have plundered (bâqaq, evacuare) them (the Israelites), and destroyed their vines, cast them to the ground; that He may avenge the reproach cast upon His people. The plunderers are the heathen nations, especially the Assyrians. The vines are the Israelites; Israel as a people or kingdom is the vineyard (Isa 5:1; Jer 12:10; Psa 80:9.); the vines are the families, and the branches (zemōrı̄m from zemōrâh) the members.