CRITICAL NOTES.]
Nahum 3:19. Healing] Softening, or anointing, no cure. Bruise] Fracture or ruin (Proverbs 16:18; Lamentations 2:11).
IRRETRIEVABLE RUIN.—Nahum 3:19
Deliverance is utterly hopeless. The prophet declares the end of a nation which ruled with a rod of iron, and oppressed with unmitigated cruelty.
I. Nineveh cruel will be repaid for her cruelty. “For upon whom hath not thy wickedness passed continually?” Monuments and inscriptions prove the pitiless cruelty of Assyria. In sculptures are rows of impaled prisoners, whose eyes were put out, and whose lips were fastened by rings. God had long borne this oppression, but now guilt must be punished. Judgment must fall, and there is not the least hope of recovery. Cruelty and oppression will be rewarded in their own coin.
II. Nineveh ruined will be a joy to others. “All that hear the bruit of thee shall clap their hands over thee.”
1. This joy is great. It is exultation, clapping of hands.
2. This joy is universal. All, for cruelty was extensive, and none can grieve at its termination. The fall of the oppressor is the triumph of the oppressed.
III. Nineveh destroyed will never be restored. There is neither comfort in the affliction nor recovery from it. The wound is incurable. “There is no healing of thy bruise.” There is none to help. She had made no friends in her policy, displayed no signs of repentance in her guilt. Now she must perish without pity and without help. The ruin is total and irretrievable. “How hath the oppressor ceased! the golden city ceased! The Lord hath broken the staff of the wicked, and the sceptre of the rulers,” &c. (Isaiah 14:4-7).