But Nineveh [is] of old like a pool of water: yet they shall flee away. Stand, stand, [shall they cry]; but none shall look back.
Ver. 8. But Nineveh is of old like a pool of water] Like a fish pool of water, and therefore happy. The word (ברכה) here used for a pool, or pond, signifieth also a blessing. The Pope was wont to say of England, that it was puteus inexhaustus, his pit that could not be drawn dry. Such a pit or pool was Nineveh. Populous, wealthy, potent, &c., Isaiah 8:7, the magazine of the whole east, a rich Cargazon, and not unlike the island Cyprus, anciently called Macaria, that is, blessed for the plenty, prosperity, and pleasure there abounding. This invited the Romans to subdue it; as the pearls usually cast out at the flood, and gathered at the ebb, drew Caesar's affection for the conquest of Britain; and as Nineveh's fish pool did the Chaldean fishermen. The greater wealth the greater spoil awaiteth a people or person, Proverbs 1:19. As if a tree hath thick and large boughs, every man desires to be lopping at it. Nineveh's antiquity is here also noted. Of old, or of a long time, she hath been Empress of the East; she was the seat of the first monarchy, which she also held longest of any, even over 1300 years. Howbeit this shall be now no protection to her, but an article or an argument against her, that she is an old sinner, and hath been long time heaping up and hoarding the mammon of unrighteousness.
Yet they shall flee away] As waters do when the banks of a pond are broken down; and as fish do when the water is drawn out or dried up; then they friggle any way. So shall the Ninevites flee away, when their city is once broken: pugnae obliti, pristinaeque virtutis.
Stand, stand, shall they cry] Their own commanders, desirous to rally them; or their enemies, desirous to ransack them, and make prize of them: Sed surdo fabulam.
But none shall look back] Or, cause them to turn. Nemo potest eos resupinare; their hearts are fallen into their heels, and they have much more mind to save themselves by flight than by fight.