{"commentary":{"id":"jamieson-fausset-brown","name":"Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary","website":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamieson-Fausset-Brown_Bible_Commentary","licenseUrl":"https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/","licenseNotes":null,"licenseNotice":null,"englishName":"Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary","language":"eng","textDirection":"rtl","sha256":"db3d4c8b3c1f32ef9d1430a57392e02bda3a17aac1f9bbe398461de021a3cb13","availableFormats":["json"],"listOfBooksApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/books.json","listOfProfilesApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/profiles.json","numberOfBooks":66,"totalNumberOfChapters":1187,"totalNumberOfVerses":17056,"totalNumberOfProfiles":0,"languageName":"English","languageEnglishName":"English"},"book":{"id":"NAM","commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","name":"Nahum","commonName":"Nahum","introduction":"NAHUM means \"consolation\" and \"vengeance\"; symbolizing the \"consolation\" in the book for God's people, and the \"vengeance\" coming on their enemies. In the first chapter the two themes alternate; but as the prophet advances, vengeance on the capital of the Assyrian foe is the predominant topic. He is called \"the Elkoshite\" (Nah 1:1), from Elkosh, or Elkesi, a village of Galilee, pointed out to JEROME [Preface in Nahum] as a place of note among the Jews, having traces of ancient buildings. The name Capernaum, that is, \"village of Nahum,\" seems to take its name from Nahum having resided in it, though born in Elkosh in the neighborhood. There is another Elkosh east of the Tigris, and north of Mosul, believed by Jewish pilgrims to be the birthplace and burial place of the prophet. But the book of Nahum in its allusions shows a particularity of acquaintance with Palestine (Nah 1:4), and only a more general knowledge as to Nineveh (Nah 2:4-6; Nah 3:2-3).\n\nHis graphic description of Sennacherib and his army (Nah 1:9-12) makes it not unlikely that he was in or near Jerusalem at the time: hence the number of phrases corresponding to those of Isaiah (compare Nah 1:8-9, with Isa 8:8; Isa 10:23; Nah 2:10, with Isa 24:1; Isa 21:3; Nah 1:15, with Isa 52:7). The prophecy in Nah 1:14 probably refers to the murder of Sennacherib twenty years after his return from Palestine (Isa 37:38). The date of his prophecies, thus, seems to be about the former years of Hezekiah. So JEROME thinks. He plainly writes while the Assyrian power was yet unbroken (Nah 1:12; Nah 2:11-13 Nah 3:15-17). The correspondence between the sentiments of Nahum and those of Isaiah and Hezekiah, as recorded in Second Kings and Isaiah, proves the likelihood of Nahum's prophecies belonging to the time when Sennacherib was demanding the surrender of Jerusalem, and had not yet raised the siege (compare Nah 1:2, &c., with Kg2 19:14-15; Nah 1:7, with Kg2 18:22; Kg2 19:19, Kg2 19:31; Ch2 32:7-8; Nah 1:9, Nah 1:11, with Kg2 19:22, Kg2 19:27-28; Nah 1:14, with Kg2 19:6-7; Nah 1:15; Nah 2:1-2, with Kg2 19:32-33; Nah 2:13, with Kg2 19:22-23). The historical data in the book itself are the humiliation of Israel and Judah by Assyria (Nah 2:2); the invasion of Judah (Nah 1:9, Nah 1:11); and the conquest of No-ammon, or Thebes, in Upper Egypt (Nah 3:8-10). Tiglath-pileser and Shalmaneser had carried away Israel. The Jews were harassed by the Syrians, and impoverished by Ahaz' payments to Tiglath-pileser (2Ch. 28:1-27; Isa 7:9). Sargon, Shalmaneser's successor, after the reduction of Phœnicia by the latter, fearing lest Egypt should join Palestine against him, undertook an expedition to Africa (Isa 20:1-6), and took Thebes; the latter fact we know only from Nahum, but the success of the expedition in general is corroborated in Isa 20:1-6. Sennacherib, Sargon's successor, made the last Assyrian attempt against Judea, ending in the destruction of his army in the fourteenth year of Hezekiah (713-710 B.C.). As Nahum refers to this in part prophetically, in part as matter of history (Nah 1:9-13; Nah 2:13), he must have lived about 720-714 B.C., that is, almost a hundred years before the event foretold, namely, the overthrow of Nineveh by the joint forces of Cyaxares and Nabopolassar in the reign of Chyniladanus, 625 or 603 B.C.\n\nThe prophecy is remarkable for its unity of aim. Nahum's object was to inspire his countrymen, the Jews, with the assurance that, however alarming their position might seem, exposed to the attacks of the mighty Assyrian, who had already carried away the ten tribes, yet that not only should the Assyrian (Sennacherib) fail in his attack on Jerusalem, but Nineveh, his own capital, be taken and his empire overthrown; and this, not by an arbitrary exercise of Jehovah's power, but for the iniquities of the city and its people. His position in the canon is seventh of the minor prophets in both the Hebrew and Greek arrangement. He is seventh in point of date.\n\nHis style is clear, elegant, and forcible. Its most striking characteristic is the power of representing several phases of an idea in the briefest sentences, as in the majestic description of God in the commencement, the conquest of Nineveh, and the destruction of No-ammon [EICHORN]. DE WETTE calls attention to his variety of manner in presenting ideas, as marking great poetic talent. \"Here there is something sonorous in his language there something murmuring; with both these alternates something that is soft, delicate, and melting, as the subject demands.\" Excepting two alleged Assyrian words (Nah 3:17), English Version, \"crowned,\" or princes, and English Version, \"captains,\" or satraps (used by Jer 51:27), the language is pure. These two, doubtless, came to be known in Judea from the intercourse with Assyria in the eighth and seventh centuries B.C. \n\n\n\nNext: Nahum Chapter 1\n\n","order":34,"numberOfChapters":3,"sha256":"2d2a5242673e140611e927f514853b31db889e7aee88582d24647e72095ba625","firstChapterNumber":1,"firstChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/NAM/1.json","firstChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"NAM","chapter":1},"lastChapterNumber":3,"lastChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/NAM/3.json","lastChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"NAM","chapter":3},"totalNumberOfVerses":44},"chapter":{"number":1,"content":[{"type":"verse","number":2,"content":["jealous--In this there is sternness, yet tender affection. We are jealous only of those we love: a husband, of a wife; a king, of his subjects' loyalty. God is jealous of men because He loves them. God will not bear a rival in His claims on them. His burning jealousy for His own wounded honor and their love, as much as His justice, accounts for all His fearful judgments: the flood, the destruction of Jerusalem, that of Nineveh. His jealousy will not admit of His friends being oppressed, and their enemies flourishing (compare Exo 20:5; Co1 16:22; Co2 11:2). Burning zeal enters into the idea in \"jealous\" here (compare Num 25:11, Num 25:13; Kg1 19:10). \n\nthe Lord revengeth . . . Lord revengeth--The repetition of the incommunicable name JEHOVAH, and of His revenging, gives an awful solemnity to the introduction. \n\nfurious--literally, \"a master of fury.\" So a master of the tongue, that is, \"eloquent.\" \"One who, if He pleases, can most readily give effect to His fury\" [GROTIUS]. Nahum has in view the provocation to fury given to God by the Assyrians, after having carried away the ten tribes, now proceeding to invade Judea under Hezekiah. \n\nreserveth wrath for his enemies--reserves it against His own appointed time (Pe2 2:9). After long waiting for their repentance in vain, at length punishing them. A wrong estimate of Jehovah is formed from His suspending punishment: it is not that He is insensible or dilatory, but He reserves wrath for His own fit time. In the case of the penitent, He does not reserve or retain His anger (Psa 103:9; Jer 3:5, Jer 3:12; Mic 7:18).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":3,"content":["slow to anger, and great in power--that is, but great in power, so as to be able in a moment, if He pleases, to destroy the wicked. His long-suffering is not from want of power to punish (Exo 34:6-7). \n\nnot at all acquit--literally, \"will not acquitting acquit,\" or treat as innocent. \n\nLord hath his way in the whirlwind--From this to Nah 1:5, inclusive, is a description of His power exhibited in the phenomena of nature, especially when He is wroth. His vengeance shall sweep away the Assyrian foe like a whirlwind (Pro 10:25). \n\nclouds are the dust of his feet--Large as they are, He treads on them, as a man would on the small dust; He is Lord of the clouds, and uses them as He pleases.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":4,"content":["rebuketh the sea--as Jesus did (Mat 8:26), proving Himself God (compare Isa 50:2). \n\nBashan languisheth--through drought; ordinarily it was a region famed for its rich pasturage (compare Joe 1:10). \n\nflower of Lebanon--its bloom; all that blooms so luxuriantly on Lebanon (Hos 14:7). As Bashan was famed for its pastures, Carmel for its corn fields and vineyards, so Lebanon for its forests (Isa 33:9). There is nothing in the world so blooming that God cannot change it when He is wroth.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":5,"content":["earth is burned--so GROTIUS. Rather, \"lifts itself,\" that is, \"heaveth\" [MAURER]: as the Hebrew is translated in Psa 89:9; Hos 13:1; compare Sa2 5:21, Margin.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":6,"content":["fury is poured out like fire--like the liquid fire poured out of volcanoes in all directions (see Jer 7:20). \n\nrocks are thrown down--or, \"are burnt asunder\"; the usual effect of volcanic fire (Jer 51:25, Jer 51:56). As Hannibal burst asunder the Alpine rocks by fire to make a passage for his army [GROTIUS].\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":7,"content":["Here Nahum enters on his special subject, for which the previous verses have prepared the way, namely, to assure his people of safety in Jehovah under the impending attack of Sennacherib (Nah 1:7), and to announce the doom of Nineveh, the capital of the Assyrian foe (Nah 1:8). The contrast of Nah 1:7-8 heightens the force. \n\nhe knoweth--recognizes as His own (Hos 13:5; Amo 3:2); and so, cares for and guards (Psa 1:6; Ti2 2:19).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":8,"content":["with an overrunning flood--that is, with irresistible might which overruns every barrier like a flood. This image is often applied to overwhelming armies of invaders. Also of calamity in general (Psa 32:6; Psa 42:7; Psa 90:5). 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 (see on Nah 2:6; Isa 8:8; Dan 9:26; Dan 11:10, Dan 11:22, Dan 11:40). \n\nend of the place thereof--Nineveh is personified as a queen; and \"her place\" of residence (the Hebrew for \"thereof\" is feminine) is the city itself (Nah 2:8), [MAURER]. Or, He shall so utterly destroy Nineveh that its place cannot be found; Nah 3:17 confirms this (compare Psa 37:36; Dan 2:35; Rev 12:8; Rev 20:11). \n\ndarkness--the severest calamities.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":9,"content":["What do ye imagine against the Lord?--abrupt address to the Assyrians. How mad is your attempt, O Assyrians, to resist so powerful a God! What can ye do against such an adversary, successful though ye have been against all other adversaries? Ye imagine ye have to do merely with mortals and with a weak people, and that so you will gain an easy victory; but you have to encounter God, the protector of His people. Parallel to Isa 37:23-29; compare Psa 1:1. \n\nhe will make an utter end--The utter overthrow of Sennacherib's host, soon about to take place, is an earnest of the \"utter end\" of Nineveh itself. \n\naffliction shall not rise up the second time--Judah's \"affliction\" caused by the invasion shall never rise again. So Nah 1:12. But CALVIN takes the \"affliction\" to be that of Assyria: \"There will be no need of His inflicting on you a second blow: He will make an utter end of you once for all\" (Sa1 3:12; Sa1 26:8; Sa2 20:10). If so, this verse, in contrast to Nah 1:12, will express, Affliction shall visit the Assyrian no more, in a sense very different from that in which God will afflict Judah no more. In the Assyrian's case, because the blow will be fatally final; the latter, because God will make lasting blessedness in Judah's case succeed temporary chastisement. But it seems simpler to refer \"affliction\" here, as in Nah 1:12, to Judah; indeed destruction, rather than affliction, applies to the Assyrian.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":10,"content":["while they are folden together as thorns--literally, \"to the same degree as thorns\" (compare Ch1 4:27, Margin). As thorns, so folded together and entangled that they cannot be loosed asunder without trouble, are thrown by the husbandmen all in a mass into the fire, so the Assyrians shall all be given together to destruction. Compare Sa2 23:6-7, where also \"thorns\" are the image of the wicked. As this image represents the speediness of their destruction in a mass, so that of \"drunkards,\" their rushing as it were of their own accord into it; for drunkards fall down without any one pushing them [KIMCHI]. CALVIN explains, Although ye be dangerous to touch as thorns (that is, full of rage and violence), yet the Lord can easily consume you. But \"although\" will hardly apply to the next clause. English Version and KIMCHI, therefore, are to be preferred. The comparison to drunkards is appropriate. For drunkards, though exulting and bold, are weak and easily thrown down by even a finger touching them. So the insolent self-confidence of the Assyrians shall precipitate their overthrow by God. The Hebrew is \"soaked,\" or \"drunken as with their own wine.\" 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.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":11,"content":["The cause of Nineveh's overthrow: Sennacherib's plots against Judah. \n\ncome out of thee--O Nineveh. From thyself shall arise the source of thy own ruin. Thou shalt have only thyself to blame for it. \n\nimagineth evil--Sennacherib carried out the imaginations of his countrymen (Nah 1:9) against the Lord and His people (Kg2 19:22-23). \n\na wicked counsellor--literally, \"a counsellor of Belial.\" Belial means \"without profit,\" worthless, and so bad (Sa1 25:25; Co2 6:15).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":12,"content":["The same truths repeated as in Nah 1:9-11, Jehovah here being the speaker. He addresses Judah, prophesying good to it, and evil to the Assyrian. \n\nThough they be quiet--that is, without fear, and tranquilly secure. So Chaldee and CALVIN. Or, \"entire,\" \"complete\"; \"Though their power be unbroken [MAURER], and though they be so many, yet even so they shall be cut down\" (literally, \"shorn\"; as hair shaved off closely by a razor, Isa 7:20). As the Assyrian was a razor shaving others, so shall he be shaven himself. Retribution in kind. In the height of their pride and power, they shall be clean cut off. The same Hebrew stands for \"likewise\" and \"yet thus.\" So many as they are, so many shall they perish. \n\nwhen he shall pass through--or, \"and he shall pass away,\" namely, \"the wicked counsellor\" (Nah 1:11), Sennacherib. The change of number to the singular distinguishes him from his host. They shall be cut down, he shall pass away home (Kg2 19:35-36) [HENDERSON]. English Version is better, \"they shall be cut down, \"when\" He (Jehovah) shall pass through,\" destroying by one stroke the Assyrian host. This gives the reason why they with all their numbers and power are to be so utterly cut off. Compare \"pass through,\" that is, in destroying power (Eze 12:12, Eze 12:23; Isa 8:8; Dan 11:10). \n\nThough I have afflicted thee--Judah, \"I will afflict thee no more\" (Isa 40:1-2; Isa 52:1-2). The contrast is between \"they,\" the Assyrians, and \"thee,\" Judah. Their punishment is fatal and final. Judah's was temporary and corrective.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":13,"content":["will I break his yoke--the Assyrian's yoke, namely, the tribute imposed by Sennacherib on Hezekiah (Kg2 18:14). \n\nfrom off thee--O Judah (Isa 10:27).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":14,"content":["that no more of thy name be sown--that no more of thy seed, bearing thy name, as kings of Nineveh, be propagated; that thy dynasty become extinct, namely, on the destruction of Nineveh here foretold; \"thee\" means the king of Assyria. \n\nwill I cut off . . . graven image--The Medes under Cyaxares, the joint destroyers of Nineveh with the Babylonians, hated idolatry, and would delight in destroying its idols. As the Assyrians had treated the gods of other nations, so their own should be treated (Kg2 19:18). The Assyrian palaces partook of a sacred character [LAYARD]; so that \"house of thy gods\" may refer to the palace. At Khorsabad there is remaining a representation of a man cutting an idol to pieces. \n\nI will make thy grave--rather, \"I will make it (namely, 'the house of thy gods,' that is, 'Nisroch') thy grave\" (Kg2 19:37; Isa 37:38). Thus, by Sennacherib's being slain in it, Nisroch's house should be defiled. Neither thy gods, nor thy temple, shall save thee; but the latter shall be thy sepulchre. \n\nthou art vile--or, thou art lighter than due weight (Dan 5:27; compare Job 31:6) [MAURER].\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":15,"content":["This verse is joined in the Hebrew text to the second chapter. It is nearly the same as Isa 52:7, referring to the similar deliverance from Babylon. \n\nhim that bringeth good tidings--announcing the overthrow of Sennacherib and deliverance of Jerusalem. The \"mountains\" are those round Jerusalem, on which Sennacherib's host had so lately encamped, preventing Judah from keeping her \"feasts,\" but on which messengers now speed to Jerusalem, publishing his overthrow with a loud voice where lately they durst not have opened their mouths. A type of the far more glorious spiritual deliverance of God's people from Satan by Messiah, heralded by ministers of the Gospel (Rom 10:15). \n\nperform thy vows--which thou didst promise if God would deliver thee from the Assyrian. \n\nthe wicked--literally, \"Belial\"; the same as the \"counsellor of Belial\" (Nah 1:11, Margin); namely, Sennacherib.\n\n\n\n\nNext: Nahum Chapter 2\n\n"]}],"introduction":"\n\nJEHOVAH'S ATTRIBUTES AS A JEALOUS JUDGE OF SIN, YET MERCIFUL TO HIS TRUSTING PEOPLE, SHOULD INSPIRE THEM WITH CONFIDENCE. HE WILL NOT ALLOW THE ASSYRIANS AGAIN TO ASSAIL THEM, BUT WILL DESTROY THE FOE. (Nah 1:1-15)\n\nburden of Nineveh--the prophetic doom of Nineveh. Nahum prophesied against that city a hundred fifty years after Jonah.\n\n"},"thisChapterLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/NAM/1.json","thisChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"NAM","chapter":1},"nextChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/NAM/2.json","nextChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"NAM","chapter":2},"previousChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/MIC/7.json","previousChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"MIC","chapter":7},"numberOfVerses":14}