NAHUM 3
A Bible Study -
Commentary by Jim Melough
Copyright 2002 James
Melough
3:1.
“Woe to the bloody city! it is all full of lies and robbery; the prey
departeth not;”
The prophet continues his
announcement of the city’s doom by detailing some of the reasons that had
impelled God to decree it. In their rapacious cruelty they had wantonly shed
the blood of their unoffending victims whose possessions they then carried
back to Nineveh to stuff still further their houses that already bulged with
plunder.
The lies may have been false
promises of peace and safety such as were given to Judah in the days of
Hezekiah, see 2 Ki 18:31-32
3:2.
“The noise of a whip, and the noise of the rattling of the wheels, and of the
prancing horses, and of the jumping (bouncing) chariots.”
In vivid language he describes
the coming invasion of Nineveh. One can almost hear the crack of the
charioteers’ whips urging on their horses, the responding thunder of their
galloping hoofs, and the rattle of the chariot wheels whirling through the
streets to bring death and destruction to a people who had so often rushed
with the same fierce eagerness against countless unoffending cities and
towns.
3:3.
“The horseman lifteth up both the bright sword and the glittering spear: and
there is a multitude of slain, and a great number of carcases; and there is
none end of their corpses; they stumble upon their corpses:”
The invaders, with sword and
spear, slaughter at will, so many carcases piling up in the streets that
slayers and victims alike stumble over them. How often had the Ninevites
occupied an opposite role, never dreaming that a day was coming in which their
part in the drama of life and death would be reversed!
3:4.
“Because of the multitude of the whoredoms of the well-favored harlot, the
mistress of witchcrafts, that selleth nations through her whoredoms, and
families through her witchcrafts.”
Whoredoms and harlotry are
terms used frequently in the OT to describe idolatry, i.e., the offering of
worship to anyone or anything other than God. Many varied forms of idolatry
are indicated in the word “multitude”; and the description “well-favored
harlot” suggests Nineveh’s attempts to present herself as being righteous, the
word “well-favored” meaning gracious: kind: beautiful: pleasant: cheerful:
joyful. Her position of unchallenged supremacy amongst the nations had
also deluded her into thinking that this was a further mark of the approval of
her many gods.
The reference therefore to her
selling nations by means of her idolatry, seems to be the declaration that she
was selling them into spiritual slavery and death by compelling them to also
worship her gods. Since, however, only Israel (the ten northern tribes), and
Judah (Judah and Benjamin, the two southern tribes) made even a pretense of
worshiping Jehovah, it seems that they were the people Assyria was “selling.”
But ultimately the attempt must have been to try to compel the believing
remnant to forsake the worship of Jehovah, for only that faithful remnant
refused to engage in the idolatry practiced by their unbelieving fellows.
“... witchcrafts” incidentally
is related to the activity of the priests who led the people in their
idolatrous worship, and refers to their use of magic, sorcery, incantations -
the whispering, muttering, or chanting of magical spells.
3:5.
“Behold, I am against thee, saith the Lord of hosts; and I will discover thy
skirts upon thy face, and I will shew the nations thy nakedness, and the
kingdoms thy shame.”
The powerless nations might
submit to her machinations, but unknown to her, she had an omnipotent Opponent
Who was about to expose her, so that the begrudged and feigned admiration of
the subject nations would give place to rejoicing at her downfall: her glory
being exchanged for shame.
The figure of that exposure is
of an imperious, well dressed woman, suddenly having her clothes pulled up
over her head exposing her nakedness to the mocking laughter of a ribald mob.
3:6.
“And I will cast abominable filth upon thee, and make thee vile, and will set
thee as a gazingstock.”
Other translations render
this, “pelt you with filth,” “treat you like excrement,” “cover you with filth
... show the world how really vile you are.” As Nineveh had paraded
prisoners, sometimes nude, through the streets where the people pelted them
with stones and garbage, so would God, metaphorically parade her before the
nations.
3:7.
“And it shall come to pass, that all they that look upon thee shall flee from
thee, and say, Nineveh is laid waste: who will bemoan her? whence shall I seek
comforters for thee?”
All who had formerly been
compelled to stand before her in awe and pretended admiration, will hurry away
from the loathsome spectacle of her stripped of the covering that had hidden
the inward corruption, the sickening stench of her filth repelling them, as
her outward glory had once attracted them.
It is impossible to read this
description of Assyria’s end without being struck by the similarity of the
language to that which describes also the end of the great harlot system that
rules the world religiously today: see Re 17 and 18.
3:8.
“Art thou better than popular No, that was situate among the rivers, that had
the waters round about it, whose rampart was the sea, and her wall was from
the sea?”
No, No-Amon, Thebes are all
names for the same place, the once famous capital of Egypt, situated on either
side of the Nile about 330 miles in a straight line from Cairo, on what are
better known as the sites of Karnak and Luxor. It was powerful and fabulously
wealthy, but in 663 BC it fell to the Assyrians who captured it and carried
away all its treasure.
Its being described as
“situate among the rivers,” stems from its having been built on both sides of
the Nile, its defenses being described as follows: “The Nile, Nahum’s
‘rivers’, was truly Thebes’ defense. The Late Period pharaohs made full use
of its E Delta branches and irrigation and drainage canals as Egypt’s first
line of defense, with sea-coast forts at the Nile mouths and across the road
from Palestine - perhaps alluded to in the phrase ‘wall(s) from the sea’
(-coast inwards?). To this protection was added Thebes’ great distance
upstream, which invaders had to traverse to reach her” - The New Bible
Dictionary.
Thebes and Nineveh had much in
common: wealth, power, etc., and an imagined impregnability founded on the
defense afforded by their rivers: Thebes having the Nile; and Nineveh, the
Tigris. Both were idolatrous, and both left Jehovah out of the reckoning, to
their destruction. Spiritually, in fact, they had much in common with our
twenty-first century world, which in its proud self-confidence mocks the
prophetic Scriptures which declare that its doom is just as certain -
and is now imminent!
3:9.
“Ethiopia and Egypt were her strength, and it was infinite; Put and Lubim were
thy helpers.”
Little of certainty is known
of Put and Lubim except this reference to their having unsuccessfully assisted
Thebes against Assyria.
The implication of what is
written here is that the combined forces of Ethiopia and Egypt were virtually
invincible, and when there was added to it the additional strength of Put and
Lubim the possibility of Thebes’ defeat was even more unlikely. But she
wasn’t invincible. She was overthrown. And now the time of seemingly
invincible Nineveh’s destruction had also come. She too was about to be
destroyed, because she, like Thebes and many another great city, had defied
the God Whose hand held their very breath.
3:10.
“Yet was she carried away, she went into captivity: her young children also
were dashed in pieces at the top of all the streets: and they cast lots for
her honorable men, and all her great men were bound in chains.”
As the surviving citizens of
Thebes had been carried away captive by the Assyrians, so now would the
surviving Assyrians also be carried captive by the Babylonians. And as the
young children of Thebes were dashed to death on the stones of the streets by
the Assyrians, so may we perhaps presume that the Assyrian children would
suffer a similar fate at the hand of the Babylonians.
The Assyrian captains had
contemptuously cast lots for the great men of Thebes whom they would make
their personal slaves, and perhaps the Babylonian captains did likewise with
the great men of Assyria. The chaining of the great men of Thebes in
preparation for their being carried away as slaves was also to be duplicated,
but this time with the Assyrians being led into captivity in chains by their
Babylonian masters.
3:11.
“Thou also shalt be drunken: thou shalt be hid, thou also shalt seek strength
because of the enemy.”
As noted already in our study
of 1:10, the prediction relative to their being drunken was fulfilled through
the attempt of the Assyrian king to boost morale by doling out extra food and
liquor, with the result that the soldiers did indeed become drunk.
“... thou shalt be hid” is
literally “you will be despised,” as they were when the invaders saw them too
drunk to fight.
Its being said that they would
seek strength because of the enemy, is literally that they would seek a strong
place, i.e., a refuge or hiding place where they would be safe from the
enemy. No such place, however, was to be found.
3:12.
“All thy strong holds shall be like fig trees with the firstripe figs: if they
be shaken, they shall even fall into the mouth of the eater.”
This declares the
worthlessness of all their fortifications in which they placed so much
confidence. Those walls, gates, towers, and moats would become the equivalent
of fig trees, and the inhabitants like firstripe figs. It would take as it
were no more than the equivalent of a shake on the part of the invaders to
have the inhabitants fall into their hands to be consumed as easily as a man
would eat a ripe fig. This too was accurately fulfilled.
3:13.
“Behold, thy people in the midst of thee are women: the gates of thy land
shall be set wide open unto thine enemies: the fire shall devour thy bars.”
With the washing away of the
palace foundation and a large section of the city wall, and the inundation of
the city by the rampaging flood waters, the fighting men would become as
helpless as women.
With the walls breached the
city might as well have had no gates, for the enemy was able to enter where he
pleased; and what the flood waters didn’t destroy, the flames consumed, it
being believed by many that it was the king himself, who in an act of final
despair, deliberately set the palace ablaze, he and many of the royal
household perishing in that fire.
3:14.
“Draw thee waters for the siege, fortify thy strong holds: go into clay, and
tread the mortar, make strong the brickkiln.”
The drawing of waters refers
to the storing of drinking water for use in the foretold coming siege; and the
fortifying of the strong holds relates to the reinforcement of existing
fortifications. The mention of clay, mortar, and brickkilns has to do with
mixing clay, bitumen, or mortar, and the making of bricks, for building - all
of these being activities connected with the strengthening and repairing of
the city fortifications.
All of this continues the
prophet’s mocking advice to busy themselves with defense preparations which he
knew would be a waste of time, for when it came God’s time to destroy the
wicked city, all that man might do couldn’t stay God’s hand.
3:15.
“There shall the fire devour thee; the sword shall cut thee off, it shall eat
thee up like the cankerworm: make thyself many as the cankerworm, make thyself
many as the locusts.”
This is the assurance that
every attempt to avert the coming judgment will be futile. Fire and sword
will destroy them. As the cankerworm (locust) devours everything in its path,
so will the Babylonians, as God’s instruments, destroy the Assyrians. No
matter how numerous the defenders of the city, they will simply be fodder for
the all consuming fire of Divine fury.
3:16.
“Thou hast multiplied thy merchants above the stars of heaven: the cankerworm
spoileth, and fleeth away.”
This verse and the next have
been variously interpreted, but it seems that the truth being declared is that
even though they are as numerous as locusts which suddenly descend upon the
countryside wreaking havoc, and then just as suddenly disappear, so would it
be with them. They too had been like a plague of locusts to the surrounding
nations, but now God was about to take them away, just as He does the literal
locusts.
With reference to the numerous
Assyrian merchants, they were like locusts in that whereas an ordinary
merchant must bargain whether in buying or selling, there was no bargaining
with the Assyrians. With them might was right. Like the locusts, they took
what they wanted, and sold at their price. Like the cankerworm they had
spoiled the nations, but God was about to take them away.
3:17.
“Thy crowned are as the locusts, and thy captains as the great grasshoppers ,
which camp in the hedges in the cold day, but when the sun ariseth they flee
away, and their place is not known where they are.”
Their princes and captains,
i.e., their great men were as numerous as locusts (grasshoppers are larval
stage locusts); but their camping in the hedges speaks of the brevity of their
existence, for the word “camp” is synonymous with a brief stay, and is defined
in Strong’s Concordance as “declining as the slanting rays of evening
... grow to an end.” The emphasis therefore continues to be upon the fact
that their days were numbered. God was about to destroy them.
3:18.
“Thy shepherds slumber, O king of Assyria: thy nobles shall dwell in the dust:
thy people is scattered upon the mountains, and no man gathereth them.”
Their leaders were like
sleeping shepherds: they were indifferent to the true needs of the people,
neither knowing nor caring that their evil ways must eventually bring down the
judgment of God; but those same nobles were soon to lie in the dust of death,
while those of the people who managed to escape from the stricken city would
be like scattered sheep with no one to lead them.
Some understand the slumber of
the shepherds to be a euphemism for their being dead.
3:19.
“There is no healing of thy bruise; thy wound is grievous: all that hear the
bruit of thee shall clap the hands over thee: for upon whom hath not thy
wickedness passed continually?”
There was no hope for
Assyria. Her doom was irrevocable. In the days of Jonah she had had
opportunity to repent and abandon her evil ways, and it seemed at first as
though she had, but the change was fleeting, affecting only Nineveh, not the
whole empire. Now, with her day of grace squandered in evil, she must
perish.
“Bruit” means “announcement,
report, news, etc.,” so that what is being said is that all who hear the news
of Assyria’s destruction would rejoice, they having been for so long the
victims of her tyranny.
The record has been preserved,
however, not just to inform us of the history of a past great evil empire, but
to warn us against repeating her folly. The nations, unfortunately, have
ignored the lesson, and like Assyria, are blind and deaf to the warning in
Scripture of the imminence of a still more terrible judgment that will bring
this twenty-first century world to ruins in the quickly approaching seven year
Tribulation. And it is interesting to note that relative to that coming day,
the name Assyria is used metaphorically of one of the evil powers that will
then also be aligned with Christ’s foes.
But the warning is personal as
well as national and global. Assyria’s history is simply the mirror in which
God bids every man see his own reflection, that nation’s wickedness being the
counterpart of the sin in every man’s life, and the lesson God would have us
learn is of the need to confess that sin, repent (forsake it), and be born
again by simply believing that when the Lord Jesus Christ died it was in my
place, for my sins, and by believing that in response to that confession and
faith God pardons every sin, bestows His priceless gift of eternal life, and
will receive me into heaven.
Without that confession of
sinfulness, without repentance and faith in Christ as Savior, each man must
suffer the judgment of God, Assyria’s destruction being but the foreshadowing
of the torment to be endured eternally in the lake of fire by everyone who
dies without having been born again through faith in Christ as Savior.
[Lord willing, next week, Habakkuk
1]