CRITICAL NOTES.
Nahum 2:8. Old] From antiquity hath been like a pool of water; the confluence of people from all parts, like countless drops; an unbroken empire for 600 years. Stand] Stand is the cry, but all flee away.
Nahum 2:9. Take] God bids the conquerors to plunder. “This does not happen by chance, but because God determines to avenge the injuries inflicted upon his people” [Calvin].
Nahum 2:10. Empty] Lit. emptiness, and emptiedness and waste. The city is left, without its wealth and monuments, a complete ruin. The vanquished are horrified at the destruction, despond, can hardly keep on their feet, and turn pale. “The completeness of her judgment is declared first under that solemn number, Three, and the three words in Hebrew are nearly the same, with the same meaning, only each word fuller than the former, as picturing a growing desolation; and then under four heads (in all seven); also a growing fear” [Pusey].
HOMILETICS
THE FLIGHT OF THE INHABITANTS AND THE PLUNDER OF THE CITY.—Nahum 2:8-10
Nineveh was a wealthy and populous city. Like a pool of water in multitude of men, but nothing could defend it.
I. The disgraceful flight. “Yet they shall flee away.”
1. The people lost courage. Effeminacy and lust beget weakness. God can dishearten the strongest and most courageous. Patriotism and confidence flee apace, and men are helpless as the reed when he pursues.
2. The people fled away. Panic seized them. Deaf to the call of a few leaders, none looked back, took a stand, or stopped in the flight. At Waterloo, Napoleon, observing the recoil of his columns and the confusion of all around him, cried out, “All is lost, save who can.” In Nineveh the discomfiture and flight were complete. In the day of judgment none can save themselves by flight. “The flight shall perish from the swift.”
II. The extensive plunder. Enormous wealth was treasured up in the city. Its reputation as a commercial city rivalled Tyre (Ezekiel 27:23). Immense riches were acquired also by predatory war and taxes levied to the utmost degree.
1. Its gold and silver were taken. “Take ye the spoil of silver, take the spoil of gold.” Riches cannot deliver in the day of wrath. They rather tempt and entice the spoiler. Small articles of value have been found in the ruins of Nineveh, but no gold nor silver. “When thou shalt cease to spoil, thou shalt be spoiled.”
2. Its pleasant furniture was taken. “Glory out of all the pleasant furniture.” Everything considered costly, vessels of desire, treasures and utensils that yielded glory and reputation, were carried away. “The wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just.”
3. Its desolation was complete. “She is empty, and void, and waste.” (a) The city itself was destroyed. Worldly wealth is vain, emptiness and poverty are the end of worldly greatness. Those who heap up silver as dust, and prepare raiment as clay, only provide for another’s booty (Job 27:17). (b) The inhabitants were terror-struck. Their hearts melted like wax before the fire, and their knees trembled in weakness. Pain seized their loins, and paleness covered their faces. A guilty conscience turns the most hardy into cowards. Nineveh’s strength failed her in the day of need. The terror she had caused to Israel fell in just retribution upon herself, and this storehouse of plunder was utterly laid waste and destroyed.
HOMILETIC HINTS AND SUGGESTIONS
Nahum 2:8. Wealth may be treasured up for ages, and increase in value and abundance, yet not be secure. Of old, yet flee away. Because God spares a people, and permits them to prosper in wickedness for a long time, it is no proof of security from coming judgment. Punishment is often sure and decreed; she shall be laid bare; they shall flee away.
Nahum 2:9-10. Learn the folly of depending upon worldly resources.
1. Wealth may be taken away.
2. Numbers may fail and flee away.
3. The greatest defences may be levelled to the dust. “The greatest kingdoms finally come to nothing when the Lord inflicts upon them his penal judgments, and all their power is unable to quench and stop the fire of his wrath” [Lange].
Nahum 2:10. The horrors of a guilty conscience.
1. Desponding minds.
2. Extreme pain.
3. Visible tokens of approaching ruin. The state of mind manifested in the attitudes of the body. Natural men despair in adversity, sink in courage when robbed of their earthly goods. “It is certainly a great loss when one loses money and goods, but not so great as when the heart falls into despair [Lange]. First, the heart, the seat of courage, and resolve, and high purpose, melteth; then the knees smite together, tremble, shake under their frame; then much pain is in all loins, lit. “strong pains as of a woman in travail,” writhing and doubling the whole body, and making it wholly powerless and unable to stand upright, shall bow the very loins, the seat of strength (Proverbs 31:17); and lastly, the faces of them all gather blackness (cf. Joel 2:6), the fruit of extreme pain, and the token of approaching dissolution [Pusey]. Joy and sorrow will show themselves in the face as in a glass. Now if for a temporal mischief there is so great a consternation in wicked men, what shall we think there is in hell? [Trapp].