The shield of His mighty men is made red.
The downfall of Nineveh, as illustrative of the Divine and the human dements in revelation
There are two elements in the Bible, the Divine and the human. God speaks to us in every page, nor does He speak the less emphatically, but all the more so, in that He addresses us through men possessing throbbing hearts, and who were passing through experiences like our own. The account given in these verses of the predicted ruin of Nineveh must be taken as a whole, and in the graphic picture here presented to us we have strikingly illustrated this twofold character of the Scriptures of eternal truth.
I. The account contained here of the predicted overthrow of Nineveh serves to illustrate the Divine element in revelation. Nahum flourished in the feign of Hezekiah (b.c. 725-696), and Nineveh was destroyed between b.c. 609 and 606. He lived and prophesied thus say a hundred years before the occurrence of the events he so vividly described, and when the Assyrian power was in the zenith of its prosperity. His announcements were very distinct and definite, and by placing these and the records of secular historians given at a subsequent period side by side, we see how minutely the predictions of this seer have been fulfilled, and that hence, in making these, he must have been God’s messenger, uttering, not his own thoughts, but those which had been communicated to him by “visions and revelations of the Lord.” In Nahum 2:6 we read, “For while they be folden together as thorns, and while they are drunken as drunkards, they shall be devoured as stubble, fully dry.” The secular historian write: “While all the Assyrian army were feasting for their former victories, those about Arbuces, being informed by some deserters of the negligence and drunkennes in the camp of the enemies, assaulted them unexpectedly by night, and falling orderly on them disorderly, and prepared on them unprepared, became masters of the camp, and slew many of the soldiers and drove the rest into the city.” (Diodrus Siculus, bk. 2, p. 80.) In Nahum 2:6 we read, “The gates of the rivers shall be opened, and the place shall be dissolved.” The secular historian writes: “There was an oracle among the Assyrians that Nineveh should not be taken till the river became an enemy to the city; and in the third year of the siege the river, being swollen with continual rains, overflowed part of the city, and broke down the wall for twenty furlongs. Then the king, thinking that the oracle was fulfilled, and the river had become an enemy to the city, built a large funeral pile in the palace, and, collecting together all his wealth and his concubines and eunuchs, burnt himself and the palace with them all, and the enemy entered at the breach that the waters had made, and took the city” (Diodorus Siculus, bk. 2. p. 80). In Nahum 2:9 the prophet, as though addressing the adversaries of Nineveh, said, Take ye the spoil of silver, take the spoil of gold: for there is none end of the store and glory out of all the pleasant furniture”; and the same secular historian already quoted informs us that the conquerors carried many talents of gold and silver to Ecbatana, the royal city of the Medes. No language could be more explicit than that in which Nahum predicted the total destruction of the city (Nahum 2:10-13; Nahum 3:7; Nahum 3:15-17). The prophet Zephaniah used words equally plain (Nahum 2:13). Their utterances would have appeared very strange to the Ninevites at the time they were spoken; as strange, indeed, as similar utterances would appear if addressed at the present time to the inhabitants of our own metropolis; but they were true, nevertheless, and the facts of history furnish abundant confirmations. For upwards of two thousand years after its overthrow Nineveh lay buried in the earth.
II. The account contained here of the predicted overthrow of Nineveh serves to illustrate the human element in revelation. Holy Scripture is remarkable in its variety--not variety in purpose, for this is single throughout, but variety in expression. History, prophecy, poetry, parable, proverb, miracle, biography, vision, epistle, are all laid under tribute. As there is a Divine element in the Bible, so also there is a human element therein. Biblical critics,, are agreed in recognising “the classic” beauty and the finished elegance of the style of Nahum, and in assigning to this writer a place in the first rank of Hebrew literature. “The variety in his method of presenting ideas discovers much poetic talent in the prophet. The reader of taste and sensibility will be affected by the entire structure of the poem, by the agreeable manner in which the ideas are brought forward, by the flexibility of the expression’s, in the roundness of his turns, the delicate outlines of his figures, by the strength and delicacy, and the expression of sympathy and greatness, which diffuse themselves over the whole subject.” (De Wette’s Introduction.)
His description of the siege and fall of Ninevah, contained in this chapter (vers. 3-13), is wonderfully vivid. As we read the account, even at this distant date, the stirring scenes seem to live again, and to pass in review before us. We see the attacking warriors in their scarlet attire and with their chariots armed with sharp instruments of steel (ver. 3), and the defenders of the city, suddenly startled, hastening their preparations, their chariots in the hurry jostling against each other in the streets, and the gallants summoned by the king hastening to the ramparts, which the foe is seeking with battering-rams to cast down (vers. 4, 5). We behold the overflowing of the river, facilitating the advance of the enemy and paralysing the people by reason of the popular tradition now seemingly being fulfilled (ver. 6). We witness the inhabitants brought low in shame and dishonour, moaning like a captive woman (ver. 7), or fleeing for their very life in hopelessness and despair, conscious that resistance is vain (ver. 8). We view the spoiling of the city--the conqueror carrying away the gold and the silver to the Median capital, trophies of victory (ver. 9). Finally, we picture to ourselves the prophets of the Lord gazing, upon the waste and desolation, reflecting upon the proud being abased, their offspring cut off, their gains confiscated, their boastful messengers silenced, and ascribing all the terrible reverses thus experienced to the righteous retribution of the Lord of hosts (vers. 10-13); and we feel, as we linger upon the scene thus graphically portrayed, that whilst rejoicing in this volume of revelation as having been given by inspiration of God, and as containing Divine lessons abounding both in encouragement and warning, we may well prize it also even on the lower ground of its literary merit, and heartily rejoice in the infinite variety of human powers and endowments here consecrated to the presentation of the loftiest and grandest spiritual teaching. (De Wette’s Introduction.)