Chú giải Kinh Thánh

The burden of Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite.

The burden of Nineveh — i.e. The burdenous prophecy, See Trapp on " Malachi 1:1 " It is a burden to wicked men to be told of their sins and foretold of their punishments, to whom we may not unfitly apply that of the civilian, Perquam durum est, sed ita lex scripta est (Ulpian). It is extremely hard, but so the law is written. If it be so tedious to hear of it, what will they do to bear it? Nineveh had fair warning before by Jonah; and for the present, the unclean spirit seemed to be cast out of her; but he returned soon after, with seven worse, as appears by this prophecy; and so their last state was worse than the former, Matthew 12:45 . Their boil, half healed, breaking out again, proved to be the plague of leprosy, Leviticus 13:18-20 , such as shut them out of heaven. God will do good to those that are good and continue so. But "as for those that turn aside unto their crooked ways" (as all apostates do), "the Lord shall lead them forth with the workers of iniquity" (as cattle are led to the slaughter, or malefactors to execution): "but peace shall be upon Israel," Psalms 125:5 .

The book of the vision — Or, the epistle of the vision. Hence some collect that Nahum went not to Nineveh, as Jonah had done; but sent this prophetic epistle thither, to let them know what should shortly befall them. So Jeremiah sent an epistle to Babylon, Jeremiah 29:1 ., and Elijah wrote a threatening letter to Jehoram, King of Judah, 2 Chronicles 21:12 , before his translation to heaven; and left it to be sent to him by Elisha, or the other prophets, who dared not show themselves in his presence, such was his insolent cruelty, as it is conceived.

Of Nahum the Elkoshite — Elkosh was a small town in Galilee beyond Bethabara, as say Jerome and Dorotheus. Here was our prophet born, and named Nahum, non sine numine, saith Gualther; for Nahum (as Noah) signifieth a comforter; and so he proved, by this book of his, both to the ten tribes now newly carried captive by the Assyrian monarch, and also to the other two tribes, who were shortly after besieged by the same Assyrian, in the reign of Hezekiah; under whom Nahum prophesied. See Trapp on " Exodus 3:1 "

return to '

God [is] jealous, and the LORD revengeth; the LORD revengeth, and [is] furious; the LORD will take vengeance on his adversaries, and he reserveth [wrath] for his enemies.

God is jealous — See Trapp on " Zechariah 1:14 "

And the Lord revengeth, the Lord revengeth — As he is Pater miserationum to his people, a father of mercies, and God of consolation; so to his and their enemies he is a most sure and severe revenger: Deus ultionum, as David calleth him, Psalms 94:1 . A God of recompenses, as Jeremiah, Jeremiah 51:56 . And when he comes against a people, he usually takes them to do when they are at the strongest and most confident; as Nineveh now was, in the days of proud Sennacherib.

And is furious — Heb. And is master of hot wrath; he is all on a light fire, as it were, with fierce indignation against the enemies of his Church; yet not so, but that he is master of his anger too; and doth nothing in it but what is just and equal. Here the vials of his wrath are said to be golden vials, Revelation 15:7 , his anger is holy, his fire is pure, and without smoke. And this is further declared in the following words.

The Lord will take vengeance on his adversaries — Such as seek to thrust him beside his throne, that oppose his worship, contemn his word, persecute his people, send proud messages after him, saying, "We will not have this man to reign over us," "Bring hither those mine enemies," saith he, "and slay them before me," Luke 19:27 . As for such as sin of infirmity and return to him by repentance, they shall not find him furious, but gracious.

And he reserveth wrath for his enemies — Their preservation for a time is but a reservation to that wrath to come. As he precipitateth not his anger, but defers the execution of it, giving men space to repent, as he did Jezebel, Revelation 2:20 , so they shall find that his forbearance is no quittance; and that

The penalty comes more heavily which comes with great slowness.

return to '

The LORD [is] slow to anger, and great in power, and will not at all acquit [the wicked]: the LORD hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds [are] the dust of his feet.

The Lord is slow to anger — "Slack he is not, as some men count slackness," saith St Peter, "but longsuffering to us-ward," 2 Peter 3:9 . The devil stirred up the heathen poets to persuade people that God either knew not or cared not what was done here below; that he was often from home, feasting with the Ethiopians, … The Epicureans also taught the like doctrine; and the Sadducees among the Jews, the Manichees among the primitive Christians, the Libertines among us. But they shall one day find that God is slow, but sure; that the higher he lifteth his hand the harder he will strike; the farther he draweth his bow the deeper will be the wound.

And great in power — Heb. Great of power, able to knock down sinners in the very act of their rebellion, and to send them packing to their place in hell. So that it is not for want of power that he is so patient. "For the Lord our God is God of gods, and Lord of lords, a great God, a mighty, and a terrible," Deuteronomy 10:17 . But what need we go farther than the text, where he is called the strong God, great in power, and

that will not at all acquit the wicked — This is the last letter in his name (that nomen maiestativum, as Tertullian calleth it), Exodus 34:7 , which he will in nowise forget; as neither must we. He will not take the wicked by the hand, saith Job, Job 8:20 , nor wink at the workers of iniquity, saith David, Psalms 50:21 , but will render a just recompense to every transgression and disobedience, saith Paul, Hebrews 2:2 . "A God of truth, and without iniquity, just and right is he," Deuteronomy 32:4 .

The Lord hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm — The word Suphah, here rendered whirlwind, begins with a small Samech, ad minuendum timorem piis, ne propterea terreantur, to take off the saints from their inordinate fears, and to assure the wicked, that when the Lord cometh, imminet inde Soph finis et exitium, there shall be an end of them, and an utter destruction. "As the whirlwind passeth, so is the wicked no more; but the righteous is an everlasting foundation," Proverbs 10:25 . Or, as some read it, The righteous is the foundation of the world, as firm as the world’s foundation, sc. the earth, which is immovable.

And the clouds are the dust of his feet — He walketh upon them as men do upon the dust of the earth; he maketh the clouds his chariot, and rideth upon the wings of the wind, Psalms 104:3: see Isaiah 60:8 ; Isaiah 19:1 . The wicked’s happiness shall take its end surely and swiftly, as Ezekiel tells them in his seventh chapter, "An end is come, is come, is come."

return to '

He rebuketh the sea, and maketh it dry, and drieth up all the rivers: Bashan languisheth, and Carmel, and the flower of Lebanon languisheth.

He rebuketh the sea, and maketh it dry — He had showed what wonders God can do in the air; now he telleth what he doeth in the water and in the earth. And it is well observed by an interpreter (Tarnov.), that when the prophets speak of God, they do for the most part imitate the expressions of Moses, that most severe lawgiver, and allude to his history; to show that by the law is the knowledge of sin, Romans 3:20 , without which the stony hearts of men melt not, that the promise of the gospel may relish sweetly with them, Psalms 19:10-11 . The word here rendered he rebuketh, importeth that God rateth and rattleth the sea, verborum pedumque strepitu, with such a voice and other noise, as causeth fright and flight. "The sea saw it, and fled: Jordan was driven back. What ailed thee, O thou sea, that thou fleddest?" Psalms 114:3 ; Psalms 114:5 . "The waters saw thee, O God, the waters saw thee; they were afraid: the depths also were troubled," Psalms 77:16: see Exodus 14:21 Psalms 78:14 ; Psalms 66:6 ; Psalms 136:16 ; Psalms 106:9 . This is not in the power of any man to do; though Xerxes vainly attempted something, when he wasted two million men over the Hellespont, and, for battering his bridge of boats, caused it to be beaten with three hundred stripes, and cast a pair of fetters into it, to make it his prisoner. But to how small purpose all this, together with his digging through Isthmus, his drinking up rivers with his army, and the like, it well appeared, when he was forced to flee back out of Greece in a poor fisher’s boat, which being over loaded, had sunk all if the Persians, by the casting away themselves, had not saved the life of their king. The story of Canute the Dane, sometime king of England, is well known. He was told by a court parasite that all things in his dominions were at his beck and command. Canute, to confute him, caused a chair to be set on the seashore; wherein being set, he said to the sea flowing fast toward him, Thou belongest to me, and the land upon which I now sit is mine own, neither is there any whosoever that obeys me not shall escape unpunished. I command thee, therefore, thou sea, that thou come up no higher into my land; nor presumest once to wet thy master’s legs or garments. But the sea, keeping his ordinary course, without duty or reverence, washed both his legs and gown. He then leaping back said, Let all the inhabitants of the world know, that the power of kings is frivolous and vain; neither is there any mortal man worthy the name of a king, but he to whose beck heaven, earth, and sea, by his laws eternally are obedient. Neither did Canute after this time wear a crown; but set it upon the crucifix, according to the superstition of those times; thereby acknowledging it to be a royalty proper to Christ alone to rebuke the surges of the sea, and to say unto them, Peace, and be still, Luke 8:24 Mark 4:39 .

And drieth up all the rivers — As he did Jordan, Joshua 3:15-17 2 Kings 2:7-8 ; 2 Kings 2:13-14 Chereth, 1 Kings 17:7 ; the great river Euphrates, Revelation 16:12 . See Trapp on " Revelation 16:12 " See also Plin. Nat. Hist. 1. 2, cap. 85, 103.

Bashan languisheth, and Carmel, and the flower of Lebanon languisheth — All the beauty of those fertile and pleasant places fadeth. When the earth beareth fruit and flowers, she is said to yield her strength, and to bring forth her increase; as when through drought or otherwise she doth not, she is said to languish and hang the head, see Joel 1:10 ; Joel 1:12 . If the eclipse of the sun cause a drooping in the whole frame of nature, how much more the wrath and vengeance of God!

return to '

The mountains quake at him, and the hills melt, and the earth is burned at his presence, yea, the world, and all that dwell therein.

The mountains quake at him, and the hills melt — Though valleys and low places are also liable to earthquakes, as Antioch often, Ferrara in Italy, A.D. 1516 and 1578, yet hill countries much more, because there are more holes and caverns: see Psalms 29:6 ; Psalms 144:4 Zechariah 14:4-5 . In the year 1618, Aug. 25, Pleurs, a town in Rhoetia, was overwhelmed by a hill, which, with a most swift motion, buried 1500 men. So that village mentioned before, in the country of Bern, that was covered over by a hill in an earthquake, to the destruction of 50 families. All this and that which followeth is alleged here, to show how easily God can overturn the Assyrian greatness.

And the earth is burnt at his presence — Viz. by his fire from heaven, as Sodom, and by others of his land desolating judgments, such as Judea (that once fertile, now barren country), Greece, Asia (once so flourishing), Germany, Ireland, …, do at this day groan under. God turneth "a fruitful land into barrenness, for the wickedness of them that dwell therein," Psalms 107:34 .

Yea, the world, and all that dwell therein — Quae quidem sunt mira, sed tamen vera divinae potentiae effecta (Turnov.). Wicked men, besides what they here suffer, shall one day give an account of what they have done in the body, with the world all on a light of fire about their ears: the trial of their works shall be by fire, 1 Corinthians 3:13 , the tribunal of fire, Ezekiel 1:27 , the judge a consuming fire, Hebrews 12:29 , his attendants seraphims, flaming creatures, Isaiah 6:2 his pleading with sinners in flames of fire, 2 Thessalonians 1:7 , the place of punishment a lake of fire fed with tormenting temper, Isaiah 30:33 , Sodom’s fire and brimstone was but a toy to it. And shall the Ninevites think to mort up themselves against this formidable fire, which the most solid parts of the world cannot avoid or abide?

return to '

Who can stand before his indignation? and who can abide in the fierceness of his anger? his fury is poured out like fire, and the rocks are thrown down by him.

Who can stand before his indignation? — A glass bottle may as well stand before a cannon shot. There is no standing before a lion, much less before a devouring fire, least of all before an angry God. When our Saviour did but put forth a beam of his Deity, and said, "I am he," the stout soldiers fell to the ground, John 18:6 , and there they had lain if he had not licensed them to rise again. Quid autem iudicaturus faciet, qui iudicandus hoc fecit? (Augustin.) The wicked shall not stand in judgment, saith David, Psalms 1:5 .

Who can abide in the fierceness of his anger? — Heb. in the inflammation of his nostrils, Collectumque premens volvit sub naribus ignem. Thus the prophet describeth God’s terrible executions of justice on the Church’s enemies, pulcherrimis metaphoris, hypotyposi evidentissima, et distributionis artificio insignissimo, by most elegant metaphors, evident demonstrations, and artificial distributions (Crocius in loc.).

His fury is poured out like fire — A metaphor either from metals melted or from showers of rain, such as God poured down upon Sodom (whereunto probably the prophet here alludeth, as Nahum 1:8 , to Noah’s flood), flaming showers, Jeremiah 7:20 ; Jeremiah 44:6 .

And the rocks are thrown down by him — That is, by his fierce wrath, when it is at the full height; as the fire which at first burns a little within, upon a few boards and rafters, but when it prevaileth, bursteth out in a most terrible flame, as thunder; which we hear at first, a little roaring noise afar off, but stay awhile, and it is a dreadful crack, cleaving the very rocks. See Jeremiah 4:28 ; Jeremiah 4:24 Matthew 27:51 .

return to '

The LORD [is] good, a strong hold in the day of trouble; and he knoweth them that trust in him.

The Lord is good — To Israel (though terrible to the Assyrians, as hath been plainly and plentifully set forth), to the pure in heart, Psalms 73:1 , and he doth good, Psalms 119:68 , to those that are good, that are upright in their hearts, Psalms 125:4 . These shall taste and see that the Lord is good: these shall feelingly say, "Oh, blessed is the man that trusteth in him," Psalms 34:8 , "Oh, praise the Lord, for he is good," …

A strong hold in the day of trouble — Praesidium, aut fortalitium, A strong fort or fortification, better than a tower of brass or town of war: "the righteous run thereinto and are safe," Proverbs 18:10 . Hezekiah (for whose sake this is spoken) had the experience of it. He had a day of trouble, and of rebuke, and of blasphemy: the children were come to the birth, and there was not strength to bring forth, Isaiah 37:3 . To God, therefore, he runs in this doleful day of his, and had present help. And what though the gods of the nations had not delivered them; yet Hezekiah’s God, in whom he trusted, did not deceive him, as Sennacherib said he would, Nahum 1:10 ; Nahum 1:12 . He is the champion of his Church, and will be the strong hold of his people, when the heathen’s tutelar gods and the Papists’ patron saints will leave them in the lurch. England was sometime said to have a warlike George, but the Papists being offended with us (to do us, as they suppose, a mischief), have robbed us of our George, and left us God alone to be our champion: for which honour and favour all true English hearts are bound to thank them, and can merrily sing, as he did once, Contemno minutulos istos deos, mode Iovem propitium habeam, We care not for their he-saints or she-saints to shelter us, so that the great God will be good to us, a stronghold in the day of trouble.

And he knoweth them that trust in him — That hover and cover under his wings, as the chickens do under the hen’s: for that is the force of the Hebrew word here used. Such as these God knoweth for his, 2 Timothy 2:19 ; he knoweth their soul in adversity, Psalms 31:7 ; he knoweth how to deliver them, as he did the righteous Lot, 2 Peter 2:9 ; then, when they know not what to do, as Jehoshaphat, 2 Chronicles 20:12 , yet if their eyes be toward him, their affiance in him, he will extricate and deliver them. So well pleased is he with those that trust in him (for that is meant here by his knowing of them, Psalms 1:6 cf. Job 9:29 1 Thessalonians 5:12 ), he taketh such complacence and delight in them Psalms 147:11 ; Psalms 33:18 , and such continual care of them (as hath been proved by a universal experience, not one instance can be given to the contrary), that they shall be sure to have whatsoever heart can wish or need require, 2 Samuel 22:2-3 , even miraculous lovingkindness from God in a strong city, Psalms 17:7 ; Psalms 31:21 , so great as cannot be uttered, Psalms 31:19 . This is for the comfort of God’s Israel. But lest the wicked (as they are apt) should meddle with children’s meat, which was never meant for them; lest Nineveh should please herself in a fond conceit of God’s goodness to her also, and so turn it into wantonness, the prophet brings in a stinging "but" in the next words.

return to '

But with an overrunning flood he will make an utter end of the place thereof, and darkness shall pursue his enemies.

But with an overrunning flood he will make an utter end of the place thereof — i.e. Of Nineveh, that great but bloody city, Nahum 3:1 . Her state shall be utterly ruined, as the old world by the general deluge. But because the word here rendered flood is used for rivers that overflow the banks, 2 Chronicles 32:4 , and the adjunct, overrunning, also implies as much, see Isaiah 8:8 Daniel 11:10 ; Daniel 11:40 I suppose the Holy Ghost here forethreateneth that ruin of this city by the river Tigris, which at an inundation broke out upon the wall, and threw down two and a half miles of it. This was a sad foretoken to them of their ensuing desolation by the enemy (as that rain was that fell in Egypt, where it used not to rain, a little before Cambyses with his Persians subdued it), for it occured in the time of the siege, as Diodorus testifieth, according to an oracle that the Ninevites had received by tradition from their progenitors, sc. that their city should then be taken by the enemy, when the river took part against them: and it happened accordingly.

And darkness shall pursue his enemies — i.e. Terrible and inextricable calamities shall overtake them: their ruin shall be irreparable. And indeed it may now be said of Nineveh, which once was of a great city in Strabo, Magna civitas, magna solitude Great city, great wilderness. See Zephaniah 2:13-15 . Drusius rendereth it thus, Hostes suos persequi faciet tenebras, He shall cause darkness to pursue his enemies, or, He shall make his enemies to pursue darkness, according to that noted saying of the ancients, Deus quem destruit dementat, whom God intends to destroy him he first infatuateth. But the former sense is the better.

return to '