Nahum 3:11 - Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible

Bible Comments

Even so Nineveh shall be made drunk with the cup of God's wrath, and faint and staggering shall seek refuge from the enemy. Her outer fortresses shall fall like first-ripe figs (Isaiah 28:4 *) into the mouth of the destroyer, the gateways that barred the approach to the capital shall fly open at the touch of fire, her defenders shall prove weak as women, and despite all efforts to repair the breaches the whole city shall sink beneath the flames. Her people may be numerous as the locust-swarms that encamp on the garden walls in the day of cold; but they shall vanish as completely as these same swarms when the sun shines out. And while the people are scattered over the mountains, the king and nobles shall sleep their last sleep, amid manifestations of triumphant joy from all who hear the tale of doom.

Nahum 3:11. be hid: rather faint away (with change of one letter).

Nahum 3:13. the gates of thy land: the mountain-passes where (like the Greeks at Thermopylæ) they might have made a heroic stand against the invading foe.

Nahum 3:14. go into: rather (reading bosi for bo-' i) tread, trample the clay (for bricks). lay hold of the briekmould (mg.): viz. to shape the bricks for their places in the wall.

Nahum 3:16 f. The text is both corrupt and filled out with glosses identifying the locust-swarms with the merchant-princes, nobles (?), and scribes (or marshals) of Nineveh; but the general sense is somewhat as above. On the camping and flight of locusts cf. Thomson, The Land and the Book, pp. 418f.

Nahum 3:18. Read, Ah! how do thy shepherds (leaders) slumber, thy nobles sleep (the sleep of death)! The omitted phrase, the king of Assyria, is an explanatory gloss to thy shepherds.

Nahum 3:11-19

11 Thou also shalt be drunken: thou shalt be hid, thou also shalt seek strength because of the enemy.

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.

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.

14 Draw thee waters for the siege, fortify thy strong holds: go into clay, and tread the morter, make strong the brickkiln.

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.

16 Thou hast multiplied thy merchants above the stars of heaven: the cankerworm spoileth,e and flieth away.

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.

18 Thy shepherds slumber, O king of Assyria: thy noblesf shall dwell in the dust: thy people is scattered upon the mountains, and no man gathereth them.

19 There is no healingg 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?