Chú giải Kinh Thánh

Ch. 1. The superscription

1. burden of Nineveh] Rather; oracle of, or, against. This part of the heading is probably due to the editor of the book, as the phrase is common in introducing prophecies, e.g. Isaiah 13:1 and often. The other part of the heading may very well have come from the hand of the prophet himself. The term “oracle” is from the verb “to lift up” viz. the voice, or “to take up” a parable or speech, Numbers 24:3; Jeremiah 7:16. On the name Nahum and the designation Elkoshite, see Introd., § 1.

2. God is jealous] The original order of words being retained:

A jealous God and vengeful is Jehovah,

Jehovah is vengeful and wrathful;

Jehovah is vengeful upon His adversaries,

And retaineth wrath against His enemies.

“Jealousy” is the reaction of injured self-consciousness, it is God’s resentful self-assertion when He Himself, or that which is His, as His people or land, is too nearly touched; Deuteronomy 4:23-24; Joshua 24:19; Exodus 20:5; Exodus 34:14. Here His “jealousy” is awakened by the long-continued injuries inflicted on His people. The form of spelling the Heb. word “jealous” occurs again Joshua 24:19; the more usual form, Exodus 20:5. “Wrathful” is lit. the possessor, cherisher, of wrath; the phrase again, Proverbs 29:22, cf. Proverbs 22:24. On the “vengeance” of God, comp. Isaiah 63:4 “the day of vengeance is in my heart, and the year of my redeemed is come”; Isaiah 34:8; Isaiah 61:2. After “retaineth” wrath is understood, Jeremiah 3:5; Psalm 103:9.

2–6. An introduction on the attributes of Jehovah, God of Israel

The introduction, Nahum 1:2-6, leads up to Jehovah’s interposition against Nineveh: (1) Nahum 1:2-3 a His moral attributes; (2) Nahum 1:3 b – Nahum 1:6 the activity of these attributes when He reveals Himself in the Theophany of the tempest.

3. Nahum 1:3 continues the description of the relation of Jehovah to His enemies: He is longsuffering, delays chastisement long, but eventually takes vengeance. The meaning of the phrase “great in power” is not clear. If employed in the usual objective sense as Job 9:4, the verse would read, The Lord is slow to anger, but great in strength and will by no means leave unpunished (Romans 9:22). If “great in power” had a sense parallel to Job 36:5, “Lo God is great and despises not, great in strength of heart” (mind), that is, if “strength” referred to attributes of the divine mind, magnanimity and longsuffering, the clause would be connected rather with the first, and the verse would read, “The Lord is slow to anger and great in strength, but he will &c.”; see Numbers 14:17-18, to which the verse has great resemblance. The phrase “will not acquit,” or leave unpunished, is used here absolutely, as Exodus 34:7, it being readily understood who it is that He will not let go unpunished; cf. Exodus 20:7; Joel 3:21; Jeremiah 25:29. For “great in power” some would read the usual “great in mercy.”

With Nahum 1:3 b the prophet passes to the manifestation of these attributes of Jehovah or of Jehovah in these attributes in the tempest. The passage does not seem to possess unity as a description of a single Theophany, but rather accumulates features from various manifestations of the Lord, all illustrating His power and its terrible effects in nature and on men.

hath his way in the whirlwind] i.e. He moves and passes in the whirlwind, which is not the mere wind but also all its accompaniments of cloud and darkness. (The Heb. word for “Storm” is spelled exceptionally here, as Job 9:17.) The meaning is not so much that Jehovah uses the whirlwind and storm as the vehicles of His movement as that these commotions and terrors in nature are created by His presence, of which to men they are the tokens. The splendid words “the clouds are the dust of his feet,” like the others “the earth is his footstool” need to be conceived, not explained.

4. He rebuketh the sea] with His voice of thunder; or perhaps the effect of the tempest on the sea in rolling it back and uncovering its bed may be taken as shewing His rebuke, Psalm 104:7-9. It is possible that the historical instances of His dividing the Red Sea and the Jordan (Psalm 114:3-5) may have led to His “rebuking” the sea and rivers being regarded as a general attribute. Comp. Habakkuk 3:8, “Was the Lord displeased against the rivers … or was thy wrath against the sea?”

and maketh it dry] Psalm 18:15, “Then the bed of the waters appeared, the foundations of the world were laid bare, at thy rebuke, O Lord, at the blast of the breath of thy nostrils.” The spelling of Heb. word, “maketh it dry,” has analogies, Lamentations 3:33; Lamentations 3:53. Cf. Psalm 106:9; Isaiah 50:2.

Bashan languisheth] Bashan, Lebanon and Carmel were the most splendidly wooded parts of Palestine and covered with the most luxuriant vegetation. Before the hot breath of Jehovah’s anger they languish and wither. The description is scarcely on a line with the former “rebuketh the sea,” though “drieth up the rivers” may form the transition. It was the furious tempest that rolled back the sea, it is the hot wind and drought of the desert under which Bashan languishes and withers up. Both are operations of Jehovah. Nature is alive but not with a life of her own, all her forces are but the personal energies of Jehovah. It is His rebuke, spoken though men may not hear it, before which the sea retreats and its bed is made bare; the hot wind which withers Carmel and Lebanon is His fiery breath. Isaiah 40:7; Isaiah 40:24; Amos 1:2.

5. Nahum 1:5 returns to describe the Theophany in the tempest, and its effects.

mountains quake at him] lit., from Him, the effect comes from Him. It is not an earthquake that is described but the effect of the thunder and roar of the tempest. This shakes the mountains. It is not out of terror alone that the mountains tremble, it is the goings, the tread of the mighty God by which they are shaken, Micah 1:3-4. Habakkuk 3:6, “He stood (stepped on earth) and the earth rocked”; Jdg 5:4.

the hills melt] What the physical phenomenon is which suggests this figure is not quite clear. Possibly Jdg 5:4-5 explains the meaning: “When thou wentest forth from Seir the earth trembled, the heavens also dropped, the clouds dropped water, the mountains flowed down”—the streams rushing down the mountains on all sides seemed as if the mountains themselves had become fluid. The rendering “flowed down” Jdg 5:5, is the most natural, though others derive the form used from another root which might mean “to quake.” In this case the melting of the mountains might refer to their motion, their undulating as if fluid. Micah 1:3-4, “Behold the Lord cometh forth out of his place, and will tread upon the heights of the earth (the storm cloud trailing over the mountains), and the mountains shall be molten under him, and the valleys shall be cleft, as wax before the fire, as waters that are poured down a steep place.” The figure of melting wax hardly means that the mountains melt under the fiery feet of Jehovah.

the earth is burnt] Rather: riseth up, reference being to the rising and sinking motion of the earth—not its oscillation; cf. R.V. Amos 9:5. R.V. is upheaved. Bickell from a different root, becomes waste. The last clause is a not unusual formula; Psalm 24:1.

6. Nahum 1:6 draws the general conclusion from the preceding. The description, Nahum 1:2-5, is one of the manifestation of the Lord on the more terrible side of His being. For though His revelation of Himself at the Exodus and later (Jdg 5:4-5) had for its purpose the delivery of His people, this implied wrath and vengeance upon their enemies (Habakkuk 3:12-13). Hence the exclamation, Who can stand before his indignation! cf. Malachi 3:2.

His fury is poured out] A common figure, particularly in Jer., e.g. Jeremiah 7:20, Jeremiah 42:18, Jeremiah 44:6; cf. 2 Chronicles 12:7; 2 Chronicles 34:21; 2 Chronicles 34:25; and Daniel 9:11; Daniel 9:27. The expression “poured out like” may mean, is poured out and acts like fire, or the idea may be that of a fiery stream; Isaiah 30:33, “the breath of the Lord, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it.”

rocks are thrown down] or, rent in pieces. The word is used of throwing down an altar, Jdg 6:30, beating down a tower, Jdg 8:17, high places, city walls and cities themselves, 2 Kings 23:8; 2 Kings 25:10; Jeremiah 39:8; Jeremiah 4:26. The rending of the rocks is not ascribed to the fire but to Jehovah Himself (by Him, lit. from Him, because of Him); but several writers have suggested by it. The second half of Nahum 1:6 continues the idea of the first half, the impossibility of standing before His anger: it is a flood of fire.

7. is good, a strong hold] More naturally: is good for (as) a stronghold, construction as Genesis 3:6. Sept. renders: is good to those who wait on him, which gives a better parallelism to the next clause. Cf. Psalm 37:39, “He is their strength in the time of trouble,” virtually the same words as Heb. here.

knoweth them that trust] Psalm 1:6, “The Lord knoweth the way of the righteous.” Genesis 18:19; Amos 3:2.

7–15. Jehovah will make an utter end of the enemies of his people

The preceding verses have been general, speaking of the attributes of Jehovah and their manifestation, and conclude with the inference that none can stand before His wrath. Now the prophet approaches his more immediate theme, the pouring of Jehovah’s anger on Nineveh. Nahum 1:7 forms an antithesis to Nahum 1:8 : Jehovah is the friend of His friends, Nahum 1:7, and the foe of His enemies, Nahum 1:8, of whom He will make an utter end.

8. an overrunning flood] Isaiah 8:8; Isaiah 28:15.

an utter end of the place thereof] lit. make her place (Nineveh’s) an utter end, i.e. completely destroy it. It must be confessed that the “her” referring to Nineveh is unprepared for by any previous mention of the city. Again Sept. has read differently, giving for “her place” those that rise up against him, a reading which affords an exact parallel to “his enemies” in the next clause. Such a form as occurs Micah 2:8 would resemble “her place,” or less closely such forms as appear Psalm 17:7; Psalm 59:1. There is no objection to the Heb. text on the score of construction: Nehemiah 9:31 has two accus. for certain, and so apparently Jeremiah 30:11; Ezekiel 20:17; compare a similar construction Isaiah 5:6. The remark of Buhl (Zeitschr. für Alttest. Wiss. 1885, p. 181, followed, by Kautzsch) that a second ace. is not used after “make an end” is groundless.

darkness shall pursue] So ancient Versions as Sept., making “darkness” the subject. Less naturally R.V.: and shall pursue his enemies into darkness. Isaiah 8:22 is too obscure to be cited as a parallel; and in Jeremiah 23:12, even if “darkness” be connected with the verb the sense is rather: in the darkness shall they be thrust down (or, thrust at, Psalm 118:13; Psalm 37:5) and fall therein. Job 18:18 has the idea: “they thrust him out of light into darkness,” where the construction, however, is easier.