YHWH Turns To His People And Promises That This Will Be An End Of Their Affliction By Assyria While At The Same Time Warning Assyria That He Will Make An End Of Them (Nahum 1:12-13)
“Though I have afflicted you, I will afflict you no more. And now I will break his yoke from off you, and will burst your bonds in sunder.”
Whatever the situation was YHWH now promises His people that He will not afflict them through Assyria (‘the rod of His anger'- Isaiah 10:5) any more. Rather He will destroy Assyria's power so that their yoke might be removed. Judah will no longer be like beast's of burden fastened to the plough. They will no longer be bound, enchained slaves. They would be free from their bonds.
‘And YHWH has given commandment concerning you, that no more of your name be sown. “I will cut off the graven image and the molten image out of your house of your gods. I will make your grave, for you are vile.” '
Nahum now speaks again to Nineveh. YHWH is about to destroy their name and reputation. They will no longer be able to spread it by their activities. No one will talk about them any more. They will be a thing of the past. And, most importantly, they would no more have children to carry on their name, something seen as the greatest of tragedies for anyone in those days. Their gods in whom they had boasted would be violently removed from their temples.
‘I will make your grave, for you are vile.' This may be said to Nineveh, or it may be said to the multitude of displaced gods. It is saying either that glorious Nineveh is in reality vile, or that their vaunted gods were vile. Both would in fact perish because of their vileness. They would be dead and forgotten.