Deeper Commentary

Jonah and Nahum

Nahum also prophesied against Nineveh. When we read his words, it would appear that there was no chance for Nineveh. And yet presumably there was always a chance for them, just as there was at Jonah’s time some years previously. But it seems to me that the essential message of Nahum was that of Jonah. They could have repented, even then. Not surprisingly, we find many allusions by Nahum back to Jonah: 

It becomes apparent that the Ninevites of Nahum’s day are being directed back to the repentance of their city at the time of Jonah; but clearly they are also being invited to share in Jonah’s personal repentance.  

From this it becomes apparent that Jonah is seen by God as in essentially the same position as the Ninevites. This was why his appeal to them was so strong. For he had been in just their position, in essence, yet had repented. The fact Nahum makes all these allusions to Jonah’s personal repentance indicates that they well knew the story of Jonah; and his repentance had inspired that of the audience he preached to. In these we see a very real pattern for ourselves; it is our identity with our audience, as repentant sinners ourselves, which will elicit their response.  

Nahum’s message was not only a warning of judgment to come upon Nineveh. It was an appeal to Israel, that unless they repented, they would likewise perish. The appeal to Judah to “perform your vows” (Nah. 1:15) is couched in the very same words as Jonah used in Jonah 2:9: “I will pay [s.w. perform] that which I have vowed”. Judah were being asked to be like Jonah, and not despise Nineveh, but rather appeal to her to repent.

 

Nahum Chapter 1

Nahum 1:1 A divine word about Nineveh- Literally, "doom". The idea may be that the previous word against Nineveh through Jonah had not come about because of their repentance, but now, 150 years later, the word was to come true. For they had not maintained that peak of repentance.

The book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite- Layard, Nineveh and its Remains Vol. 1 p. 233, was certain that he had discovered the village of Elkosh near Nineveh. There is no definite evidence that it is the name of anywhere in Palestine. Jonah was buried in Mosul / Nineveh, implying he returned there after his repentance at the end of the book of Jonah and perhaps spent the rest of his days ministering to the converts there, some of whom we know from the Lord's words shall rise in judgment to eternal life. It may be that Nahum continued Jonah's work, despairing as the believing community there turned away over time. Or perhaps he was one of the captives taken there during one of the waves of Assyrian invasions. Nahum says little about Judah and when he rarely addresses them, he speaks as if from a distance. Aramaisms have been detected in his Hebrew at Nah. 2:4,8,13. And the term taphsar in Nah. 3:17 is an Assyrian word. Nahum writes as if he was familiar with Nineveh, as would his audience be. If indeed he was prophesying in Palestine, we would wonder at exactly why all the detail was given to his first hearers, about a distant city they didn't know. I note on Nah. 1:13 and often that Nahum may well have been prophesying at the time that the Assyrians attacked Judah and Jerusalem, having been taken into captivity himself by the Assyrians from the ten tribe kingdom some years before.

In this case, we can marvel at his bravery in uttering this prophecy. It would have been unpopular with the Ninevites and seen as blasphemous of their gods and culture. And the Jews with Nahum would not have been inclined to believe him; because they lived there, and the destruction of Nineveh and Assyria by invaders would mean the loss of all they had, and an end of their world. Our message likewise is going to be unpopular with secular society, as well as with worldly Christian believers. For our world is likewise about to collapse around us.

Nahum 1:2 Yahweh is a jealous God and avenges- God had promised vengeance on the Assyrians in Joel 2:18. Although they were the rod in His hand and used by Him (Is. 10), they had overstepped their commission, both in what they did to the ten tribes and to the land of Judah during Sennacherib's invasion.

Yahweh avenges and is full of wrath. Yahweh takes vengeance on His adversaries, and He maintains wrath against His enemies- This language is used of God's people as well as the Gentile invaders. He "maintains" or keeps His wrath if people  are impenitent (Jer. 3:5,12; Mic. 7:18). There may therefore be a hint that if Nineveh repented as they had at Jonah's time, even this detailed prophecy of judgment need not come about. There is a gap between His statement of judgment and His execution of it; in that gap, His wrath is kept, but it need not be executed if we repent. And that is the intensity of the moment both we and this world stand within.

Nahum 1:3 Yahweh is slow to anger, and great in power, and will by no means leave the guilty unpunished- This is an appeal to the basic characteristics of God which are part of His essential Name (Ex. 34:6,7). The slowness to anger refers to the gap commented upon on :2.

Yahweh has His way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of His feet- This is the language of theophany. As the cherubim would come upon His people in judgment, as Ezekiel's visions visualize, so they would upon Assyria. We see here what is to be a theme in Nahum; that the same Divine judgments upon His people were to come upon those who judged them. We see this in the structure of Revelation; the seals of judgment upon Israel are related to the bowls of wrath upon those who judge them. 

Nahum 1:4 He rebukes the sea- The language of the Red Sea. The implication may be that the judgment of Assyria, the drying up of her waters, which represent Gentiles, was to issue forth in the return of the Israelites exiled in Assyria- people like Nahum. This was always the Divine intention- that both the ten tribes and Judah would return from captivity and re-establish His Kingdom upon earth in the form of Israel. But this didn't happen; the exiles for the most part preferred to remain amongst the Gentiles, and didn't repent. The same term is used in Mt. 8:26 for the Lord's rebuking of the sea. This doesn't make Him "God" in a Trinitarian sense, it means that He manifested God, just as Moses likewise rebuked the Red Sea, on God's behalf, without being God Himself in person.

And makes it dry, and dries up all the rivers. Bashan languishes, and Carmel; and the flower of Lebanon languishes- "The sea" would refer to Assyria, and "the rivers" to the peoples and mercenary armies which were part of the Assyrian empire. The idea may be that this was to happen because they had made Bashan and Carmel to languish; or the picture could be of Bashan and Carmel in time of drought, and this is applied to Assyria. Such a reference to a situation in the land of Israel could imply that although Nahum's message was given in Assyria (see on :1), it was also published in Israel and Judah. They were to know that the Assyrian empire was going to dry up, just like Carmel in time of drought.

Nahum 1:5 The mountains quake before Him, and the hills melt away. The earth trembles at His presence, yes, the world, and all who dwell in it- This is the language of the exodus from Egypt. God works according to the same hallmark, stamped upon all His actions and judgments over history. The nations ["mountains"] of the eretz promised to Abraham had trembled before the cruel Assyrians; but now they were to quake before God. The Assyrians were a fake Kingdom of God, offering their kingdom as if it were the actual Kingdom of God (Is. 36:16 cp. Mic. 4:4). And so God was to establish His Kingdom at the time of Assyria's judgment. This was the intended path for the development of God's purpose at that time; then, the repentant exiles of Israel and Judah would return to re-establish God's Kingdom. But they didn't repent, and so this scenario didn't come true. But it will ultimately, in the judgment of the latter day Assyria, repentance of the Jewish remnant, and the return of the Lord Jesus to establish God's Kingdom on earth. Then God's "presence" will literally be on earth. The very same language is used of the quaking of the mountains after Gog is destroyed at the Lord's second coming (Ez. 38:20).

Nahum 1:6 Who can stand before His indignation?- The words of Ps. 130:3 about the inability of sinners to stand before God's wrath. God counted the Assyrians as sinners and responsible to His judgment. And yet the average Assyrian didn't have a detailed knowledge of Him. The knowledge which makes responsible to judgment is therefore very basic. There are those who will respond to that same basic knowledge in humility and repentance, as Nineveh did at the time of Jonah. And this will be their eternal salvation, as the Lord Himself said of the men of Nineveh. The amount of theological knowledge required for responsibility to God is therefore apparently very low.

Who can endure the fierceness of His anger?- Although Nahum was prophesying to the Assyria of his day, not every detail came true in his time. Yet his words will have their ultimate fulfilment in the destruction of the latter day Assyria, and so these words in this verse are used in other latter day prophecies (Joel 2:11; Mal. 3:2; Rev. 6:17).

 

His wrath is poured out like fire, and the rocks are broken apart by Him- This is the language of Jer. 7:20 about God's wrath with Judah. What Assyria had done to God's people was to be done to them; see on :3.

Nahum 1:7 Yahweh is good- All this talk of judgment to come must be  understood beneath the simple principle that Yahweh is good; He is not unjust, and He goes on now to say that all His true people will be saved out of judgment.

A stronghold in the day of trouble; and He knows those who take refuge in Him- This was perhaps comfort to the Jews in Nineveh, or the faithful remnant of those who had responded to Jonah previously, who were hearing Nahum's message; see on :1. God knew them and is promising to preserve them from the judgment to come upon Nineveh. Assyria would seek for a stronghold in the time of their condemnation and not find one (s.w. Nah. 3:11); because Yahweh alone was the stronghold in the day of judgment.

Nahum 1:8 But with an overflowing flood- Floods or waters refer to invading armies, but the allusion is also to how Assyria would be destroyed as the world of Noah's day was. And that implied the survival of a remnant. In these judgments there is always the hint of hope for those who wanted to go God's way. "There is perhaps a special allusion to the mode of Nineveh's capture by the Medo-Babylonian army-namely, through a flood in the river, which broke down the wall twenty furlongs". But the language of "flood" is surely figurative, for Zeph. 2:13 says that Nineveh would be made as dry as the wilderness

He will make a full end of His adversaries, and will pursue His enemies into darkness- The Hebrew implies "make an utter end of the place thereof" (AV). But Nineveh still 'stands' in the form of the city of Mosul. This may be an example of where Nahum's prophecy didn't have exact fulfilment; but it will have in the total destruction of the latter day Assyrian.

But to die with no trace is a figure for judgment and need not be taken literally (Ps. 37:36; Dan. 2:35). It resembles the termination of many Assyrian inscriptions which record the defeat of a hostile chieftain: "And no one has seen any trace of him since". Again, what Assyria had done to God's people was to be done to them; see on :3.

Nahum 1:9 What do you plot against Yahweh? He will make a full end- To plot against Yahweh is evidently futile. Jer. 49:30 cp. 50:45 develop the point, that Babylon had plotted against God's people to destroy them, but God plotted / planned Babylon's total destruction. Attitudes to God's people are attitudes to Him; how we treat them is how God will treat us. This is a theme enshrined in the New Testament, and should majorly control our whole attitude to all within covenant relationship with them. They are in our lives and we in theirs, in order to have an arena in which to work out the principles of love, tolerance and correct judgment.

Affliction won’t rise up the second time- Assyria in its then present form would not again afflict Judah. But Judah did suffer "affliction" many times again. Here we have another example of where the planned destruction of Nineveh could have been the ending of all Judah's suffering, leading to the return of the repentant exiles and the establishment of God's Kingdom in Israel. But this didn't happen as the exiles didn't repent. And Judah suffered affliction many more times. The fulfilment of these words has therefore been reapplied and rescheduled to the last days, when indeed Judah will never be afflicted again. "Affliction" is the word used of Jacob's final and never to be repeated time of trouble in the last days (Gen. 35:3; Dan. 12:1). But the word is also used of the affliction caused by the Assyrian invasion of Judah in Hezekiah's time (Is. 37:3 and often in Isaiah). This could have been the final affliction which was never to be repeated. But Hezekiah let the baton drop, the repentance of the people was but symbolic, and they lost the kingdom vision. And so these words can only have their total fulfilment in the last days.

Nahum 1:10 For while they are entangled in thorns- The idea may be that they would be burnt like thorns, the curse of sin (2 Sam. 23:6,7).

And intoxicated with their drink, they will be consumed utterly like dry stubble- "Their drunken revelries are perhaps alluded to, during which the foe (according to Diodorus Siculus, 2) broke into their city, and Sardanapalus burned his palace; though the main and ultimate destruction of Nineveh referred to by Nahum was long subsequent to that under Sardanapalus". The LXX offers: "Because to its foundation it shall be dried up", alluding to the way Nineveh was captured as explained on :8.

Nahum 1:11 There is one gone forth out of you, who devises evil against Yahweh, who counsels wickedness- This seems very relevant to the wicked devices of Sennacherib and Rabshakeh against Yahweh, counselling the Jerusalem Jews to accept the Assyrian offer of a kingdom like that promised by Yahweh, each man sitting under his own fig tree. Their campaign was specifically "against Yahweh" in that they compared Him with the other deities whose supposed power they had overcome; hence "What do you imagine against the Lord?" (2 Kings 19:22,23). The latter day fulfilment will be in Gog, the leader of latter day Assyria, whose invasion of the land is described in the same language as that of Assyria. He too will "devise evil" against God's people; the very same Hebrew phrase is translated "think an evil thought" in Ez. 38:10. And yet the same phrase is several times used of how God devises evil against Israel's enemies as well as against His people (Jer. 18:11; 26:3). The devising of evil by Assyria was in a sense God's devising of evil; He works out His purpose through the thoughts and intents of human hearts. His activity on human hearts is thus intertwined with the thoughts which human beings themselves have; confirming them but never forcing them to act as robots programmed by Him against their will.

Nahum 1:12 Thus says Yahweh: Though they be in full strength- Heb. 'at peace'. These words can apply to both Assyria and Judah in their self confidence. Assyria invaded Judah at the pinnacle of their power and confidence.

And likewise many- We recall Hezekiah's words to the people as the Assyrians approached in 2 Chron. 32:7: "Be not afraid... for all the multitude that is with him".

Even so they will be cut down- Heb. 'shaved', as Assyria did to God's people (Is. 7:20), so it was to be done to them; see on :3.

And he shall pass away- "They shall be cut down, when He (Yahweh) shall pass through," destroying by one Angelic stroke the Assyrian host, just as the Angel had passed through Egypt and done likewise.

Though I have afflicted you, I will afflict you no more- Elsewhere spoken to Judah if they were repentant (Is. 40:1,2; 52:1,2). It's difficult to tell whether Assyria or Judah are being addressed; the point being that both were threatened with the same Divine judgment, and both could have repented and averted it. Nineveh had earlier done this at Jonah's time, and the implication of all these details of judgment is that they could do so again.

Nahum 1:13 Now will I break his yoke from off you, and will burst your bonds apart- Surely a reference to the Assyrian's yoke upon Judah (2 Kings 18:14; Is. 10:27). The implication of "Now..." is that Nahum may have been contemporary with the Sennacherib invasion of Judah at Hezekiah's time, having himself been one of those taken captive to Assyria from the ten tribes some years before. Some kind of Messianic kingdom could have been established then, but Hezekiah didn't follow through on his potential, and the exiles didn't repent. The intended scenario was that Nineveh would be destroyed and the exiles return in repentance; but that didn't quite happen as it potentially could have done, although the prophetic word will ultimately come true in the last days.

Nahum 1:14 Yahweh has commanded concerning you: No more descendants will bear your name- The idea is that his  dynasty would become extinct, which is what happened when Sennacherib was slain by his sons at Hezekiah's time, and they fled away from Assyria (Is. 37:38).

Out of the house of your gods will I cut off the engraved image and the molten image- The Medes are recorded as delighting in destroying the idols of Nineveh. As the Assyrians had "cut off" the idols of other nations, so theirs were treated (2 Kings 19:18). An engraving at Khorsabad shows a man cutting an idol to pieces. The Assyrian palaces of the kings were thought to be sacred, and thus the king's house was also the house of their gods; Layard mentions this repeatedly. "Cut off" is then used about the Assyrians' fate (:15). Those who worship idols are like unto them. The idols were to be cut off when the Assyrians were cut off; they were one and the same. And that is true for all forms of idolatry and idolators today. See on Nah. 2:6.

I will make your grave- The Hebrew implies "'I will make it ["the house of your gods", Nisroch] your grave". And this truly happened: "As he (Sennacherib) was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god... Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons smote him with the sword" (Is. 37:38). 

For you are vile- The word is also translated "light"; as if weighed in the balances and found wanting (Dan. 5:27).

Nahum 1:15 Behold, on the mountains the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace!- The picture is of a herald speeding towards Judah with good news. It could be that Nahum had himself in mind, in that I suggested on :1 that his prophecy of Assyria's destruction was given to him in Assyria, but the scroll or message was sent back to Judah. The good news was the destruction of the seemingly invincible Assyrians, and by implication, the re-establishment of God's Kingdom in Israel under a Messianic figure. These words are quoted in Rom. 10:15 about the Lord Jesus. A Messiah figure, the prophetic word made flesh, could then have come to Judah. But the exiles didn't repent and Hezekiah turned away from the things of God's Kingdom. And so the prophecy was reapplied and rescheduled to the Lord Jesus as Messiah.

Keep your feasts, Judah! Perform your vows, for the wicked one will no more pass through you. He is utterly cut off- This could be an appeal to Judah to return to relationship with God because of the great spiritual potentials which would be enabled by the destruction of the Assyrians. Or the reference may simply be to the way that now Judah [which had been mostly occupied by the Assyrian army] could now keep the feasts again because they had free access to the Jerusalem temple. "Pass through you" is the very term used of the Assyrian invasion in Hezekiah's time (Is. 8:8; 26:20; 28:15,18,19). "Cut off" is the terms used for the destruction of the Assyrians at that time (Is. 11:13); But although the Assyrian army was destroyed in Hezekiah's time, it was not true that the wicked would never again pass through Judah. This prophecy therefore has its final fulfilment in the last days. Nineveh did not fall when the Assyrian army was destroyed at Jerusalem; and yet that is the implication of Nahum. Hezekiah instead wanted to consort with the Babylonians and there was no repentance amongst the exiles; and so the prophecy must be fulfilled in the last days.

These words are similar to Is. 52:7, referring to a similar deliverance from Babylon. The exiles in Assyria didn't want to return, and yet the appeal is made some years later to those in Babylon. And again, the same potential was possible- the re-establishment of God's Kingdom on earth in the form of Israel. But all these potentials came to nothing, and so the words are quoted in Rom. 10:15 with a subtle change of pronoun: “How beautiful are the feet of him that preaches the Gospel” becomes “How beautiful are the feet of them that preach”. We are the Lord Jesus to this world, because we are brethren in Him. The theme of Romans is the Gospel, and in this context Paul makes the point that because both Jew and Gentile are saved by the Gospel, therefore we should preach to both Jew and Gentile (Rom. 10:9-18). In this context, Paul quotes from Is. 52:7 and Nah. 1:15, both concerning preaching to Israel: "How shall they hear without a preacher? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them (cp. 'he' in the originals- our preaching is a manifestation of the Lord) that preach the Gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings". The Nahum passage is in the context of preaching to Israel the good news of their ultimate freedom from the Assyrian invasion which was then imminent. We are in a strikingly parallel situation in these last days. Rom. 10:16 then goes on to quote Is. 53:1, which again refers to the preaching of the Gospel to Israel, and applies it to our preaching.