CRITICAL NOTES.]
Nahum 3:8.] She will share the fate of No-Amon, a royal city of Egypt, populous, sacred, and strong (Ezekiel 30:14-15; Jeremiah 46:25), like Nineveh well situated, protected by waters on every side.
Nahum 3:9.] Allies numerous and powerful, yet No (Thebes) could not preserve herself.
Nahum 3:10.] Its inhabitants subjected to all the cruelties and indignities generally inflicted upon conquered people.
THE DESTRUCTION OF SOME A WARNING TO OTHERS.—Nahum 3:8-10
There is no hope for Nineveh, for No-Amon was strong by nature and art, head of many confederate nations; yet was captured and destroyed. The city cannot protect herself. Destruction is sure. Notice how one support after another is taken away.
I. Natural defences will not avail. No was strongly fortified by nature and art. She “was situate among the rivers.” The Nile watered her fields and guarded her walls. Her rampart was the sea. She was considered impregnable. No was one of the grandest and most magnificent cities of antiquity. But no situation can shield from God’s anger. Nations may be secluded from others and encircled by walls and seas, but God can overturn them.
II. Large populations will not avail. “Populous No.” It was a great centre for corn and merchandise, and attracted many people. It supplied the country round about with necessaries. But it was no better or safer on account of its numerous inhabitants. “There is no king saved by the multitude of an host.”
III. Confederate nations will not avail. No’s allies were numerous and strong. Her military resources and Egyptian auxiliaries were immense. Ethiopia and Egypt were her strength. Put and Lubim were ready to help. But vast armies fail to maintain empires against the decree of God. “The strongest battalions melt like snow-flakes when God is against them.” The leagured might of earth is no match for the power of heaven. “The Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, saith; Behold, I will punish the multitude of No, and Pharaoh, and Egypt, with their gods and their kings,” &c. (Jeremiah 46:25-26).
HOMILETIC HINTS AND SUGGESTIONS
Nahum 3:8. The ruined cities of antiquity a warning to Christendom. Carthage, Nineveh, and Jerusalem (cf. Matthew 11:24; Luke 10:12-13). Warnings proportioned to sins and privileges.
“It will help to keep us in holy fear of the judgments of God,” says an old author, “to consider that we are not better than those that have fallen under those judgments before us.”
Nahum 3:9. The weakness of all human power before God. The fallacy of trusting in numbers contrasted with faith in God. “Lit. Egypt was strength, and Ethiopia, boundless. He sets forth first the imperial might of No: then her strength from foreign, subdued power. The capital is a sort of impersonation of the might of the State; No, of Egypt, as Nineveh, of Assyria. When the head was cut off, or the heart ceased to beat, all was lost. The might of Egypt and Ethiopia was the might of No, concentrated in her. They were strength, and that strength unmeasured by any human standard. Boundless was the strength which Nineveh had subdued: boundless the store (2–10) which she had accumulated for the spoiler; boundless the carcases of her slain” [Pusey].
1. How firm the standing of Nineveh. Surrounded by water, defended by inner and outer walls, endless in wealth, and powerful in confederacies.
2. How fatal the fall of Nineveh.
(1) Overcome notwithstanding might. “Yet was she carried away.” She became an exile, and her people carried into captivity with heathen barbarities.
(2) All hope of recovery destroyed. (a) Young children were dashed in pieces by a merciless conqueror. (b) Noble men were distributed by lot. “They cast lots for her honourable men,” &c. No pity was shown. (c) Officials, men of state, were treated like slaves. “All her great men were bound in chains” (cf. Ezekiel 13:14-16).
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 3
Nahum 3:8-10. No-Ammon. Thebes was renowned for its numerous gates and vast extent. Its remaining ruins describe a circuit of twenty-seven miles [Henderson]. There is no definite historical account of its capture by Assyrians. But from brief notices in Scripture, we have hints of a struggle for supremacy between Assyria and Egypt (cf. 2 Kings 17:4). See Smith’s Dict. of the Bible, article Thebes; and Keil on Nahum 3:8-10.