Thus saith the LORD; Though they be quiet, and likewise many, yet thus shall they be cut down, when he shall pass through. Though I have afflicted thee, I will afflict thee no more.
Thus saith the Lord. The same truths repeated as in Nahum 1:9-11, Yahweh here being the speaker. He addresses Judah, prophesying good to it and evil to the Assyrian.
Though they be quiet, х shªleemiym (H8003)] - i:e., without fear, and tranquilly secure. So Chaldee and Calvin. Or, entire, complete; 'though their power be unbroken' (Maurer).
And likewise many - (cf. 2 Chronicles 32:7, Hezekiah's words to the people, "Be not afraid ... for all the multitude that is with him") and though they be so many.
Yet thus shall they be cut down - yet even so "they shall be cut down" х naagozuw (H1494)] - (literally, shorn; as hair shaved off closely by a razor, Isaiah 7:20. As the Assyrian was a razor shaving others, so shall he be shaven himself. Retribution in kind). In the height of their pride and power, they shall be clean cut off. The same Hebrew х wªkeen (H3651)] stands for "and likewise" and "yet thus." So many as they are, so many shall they perish.
When he shall pass through - or, 'and he shall pass away'-namely, "the wicked counselor" (Nahum 1:11), Sennacherib. The change of number to the singular distinguishes him from his host. They shall be cut down, he shall pass away home (2 Kings 19:35-36). (Henderson.) The English version is better, "They shall be cut down, when He (Yahweh) shall pass through," destroying by one stroke the Assyrian host. This gives the reason why they, with all their numbers and power, are to be so utterly cut off. Compare "pass through" - i:e., in destroying power (Exodus 12:12; Exodus 12:23; Isaiah 8:8; Daniel 11:10).
Though I have afflicted thee - Judah.
I will afflict thee no more - (Isaiah 40:1-2; Isaiah 52:1-2). The contrast is between "they," the Assyrians, and "thee," Judah. Their punishment is fatal and final; Judah's was temporary and corrective.
Verse 13. For now will I break his yoke - the Assyrian's yoke-namely, the tribute imposed by Sennacherib on Hezekiah (2 Kings 18:14).
From off thee - O Judah (Isaiah 10:27, "In that day ... his burden shall be taken away from off thy shoulder, and his yoke from off thy neck, and the yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing").
Verse 14. The Lord hath given a commandment concerning thee, that no more of thy name be sown - that no more of thy seed, bearing thy name, as kings of Nineveh, be propagated; that thy dynasty become extinct-namely, on the destruction of Nineveh here foretold. "Thee" means the King of Assyria.
Out of the house of thy gods will I cut off the graven image. The Medes under Cyaxares, the joint destroyers of Nineveh with the Babylonians, hated idolatry, and would delight in destroying its idols. As the Assyrians had treated the gods of other nations, so their own should be treated (2 Kings 19:18). The Assyrian palaces partook of sacred character (Layard); so that "the house of thy gods" may refer to the palace. At Khorsabad there is remaining a representation of a man cutting an idol to pieces.
I will make thy grave - rather, 'I will make it (namely, "the house of thy gods" - i:e., Nisroch) thy grave' (2 Kings 19:37, "As he (Sennacherib) was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god ... Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons smote him with the sword;" Isaiah 37:38). Thus, by Sennacherib's being slain in it, Nisroch's house should be defiled. Neither thy gods nor thy temple shall save thee; but the latter shall be thy grave.
For thou art vile - or, thou art lighter than due weight (Daniel 5:27: cf. Job 31:6) (Maurer).
15. This verse is joined in the Hebrew text to Nahum 2:1-13. It is nearly the same as Isaiah 52:7. But Micah refers to the deliverance from Assyria, Isaiah refers to the similar deliverance from Babylon. Isaiah, moreover, seems to me to express the same prophecy in a more developed stage than Micah, bringing out, at the later period when he wrote Isaiah 52:7, the Gospel ulterior references of the prophecy more clearly, which in Micah were less unfolded: "How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth!"
Him that bringeth good tidings - announcing the overthrow of Sennacherib and deliverance of Jerusalem.
O Judah, keep thy solemn feasts. The "mountains" are those round Jerusalem, on which Sennacherib's host had so lately encamped preventing Judah from keeping her "feasts," but on which messengers now speed to Jerusalem, publishing his overthrow with a loud voice where lately they durst not have opened their mouths. A type of the far more glorious spiritual deliverance of God's people from Satan by Messiah, heralded by ministers of the Gospel (Romans 10:15).
Perform thy vows - which thou didst promise, if God would deliver thee from the Assyrian.
For the wicked - literally, Belial; the same as the 'counselor of Belial' (margin, Nahum 1:11) - namely, Sennacherib.
Remarks:
(1) The repentance of Nineveh which ensued upon the preaching of Jonah was the means of averting its destruction at that time. But soon, as in the case of most sinners, because judgment was not executed speedily, the people of Nineveh returned to their former sins. And now, after 150 years, they proceeded so far in iniquity as to presume to threaten an invasion of the Lord's own land-the same land from which had come the prophet whose ministry had been of old blessed to their repentance and consequent deliverance from judgment. Therefore, justly, God was now "jealous" for His people, and jealous against their adversaries. The jealousy of God in behalf of His elect implies the exceeding intensity of His love. It is at once the consideration which may well strike terror into the adversaries of God and of His people, and inspire with confidence and assurance His trusting and praying children.
(2) Though God be "slow to anger" (Nahum 1:3), "He will not at all acquit the wicked." Men vainly and perversely turn God's very long-suffering into an occasion for wickedly misrepresenting His character, as though He were insensible to violations of His own holy law, or dilatory and indifferent as to vindicating His own justice and majesty. But Micah, with awful emphasis, repeats, "The Lord revengeth; the Lord revengeth ... the Lord will take vengeance on his adversaries" (Nahum 1:2). He has given to the transgressor a respite in love, not a reprieve in weakness."He reserveth wrath for his enemies" against His own fit time. When that time shall come, "Who can stand before his indignation? and who" - of the ungodly - "can abide in the fierceness of His anger?"
(3) How delightful it is to pass from the terrible aspect of God toward the ungodly to the gracious aspect of God in relation to His people! "The Lord is good, a strong hold in the day of trouble; and he knoweth them that trust in him" (Nahum 1:7). As they know Him as their reconciled God and Father, so He knoweth them with approval. He recognizes them as His own children. His name is a strong tower to them in the time of danger, such as that which threatened Hezekiah from Sennacherib: they run into it, and are safe (Proverbs 18:10).
(4) Whereas God suffers His people to be afflicted but for a time, He "makes an utter end" of their enemies (Nahum 1:8-9), so that "the place" that knew them shall know them no more. So overwhelming is the "flood" wherewith God "overruns" them, in just retribution for their overrunning His land, that "affliction shall not rise up the second time" from them to the people of God (Nahum 1:9): the flood of God's wrath shall do its work completely at the first tide. (5) The ungodly "imagine" (Nahum 1:9) that they can gain an easy victory over the people of God. As the Assyrians imagined that, because they had conquered other nations, and carried away their false gods, they could similarly conquer Judah, in spite of the guardianship of Yahweh, the true God. "A counselor of Belial" (Nahum 1:11) is never wanting to suggest evil imaginations to haughty sinners. Thus it was "out of" Nineveh itself there "came" the "wicked counselor," Sennacherib, whose plot "against the Lord" brought ruin from the Lord upon thousands of his countrymen, and ultimately upon himself. Like prickly "thorns" entangled "together," and therefore thrown in one mass into the fire-like drunkards bereft by drink of reason and power to stand-and like "stubble fully dry" (Nahum 1:10), so all the plotters against the Lord's people, and all who join with Antichrist, the antitype to Sennacherib, shall perish in one indiscriminate mass together, powerless and helpless, and fit fuel for the flame that never is quenched.
(6) However seemingly tranquil and "quiet," however "many" in numbers, the transgressors be, yet, "when Yahweh shall pass through, they shall be cut down." The razor wherewith Judah was 'shorn' (margin, Nahum 1:12) shall be turned against Judah's foes. Her affliction shall be "no more;" "Yahweh will break the enemy's yoke from off her, and "burst her bonds asunder" (Nahum 1:13). While the affliction of the elect nation is temporary, the destruction of her enemies is to be final.
(7) How remarkable the prescience of the prophet, by the Spirit, wherewith he foresaw the doom which awaited Sennacherib's "graven images," as well as Sennacherib himself! The Medes hated idolatry, and were destined to destroy Nineveh's idols. But who except God could have foreseen that Assyria, then in the height of its transcendent might and glory, would so soon be prostrate? The very scene of Sennacherib's assassination is plainly hinted at. The "house of his gods," Nisroch and other idols, in which he so vainly trusted, was to be his sepulchre (Nahum 1:14).
(8) If the "good tidings" of Sennacherib's overthrow, announced by messengers "upon the mountains," which had been so lately occupied by his hosts encamped against Israel, gave such Joy to her inhabitants, how much more cause have we to rejoice who live in Gospel times! It is our privilege to "behold" by faith the Divine Messenger of the covenant, who "publisheth peace" through Himself to all who were once without hope, and threatened by the hosts of Satan, the great enemy. Well may we keep our spiritual "feast" with gladness of heart (Nahum 1:15; 1 Corinthians 5:8). The day is before long coming when, in the city of our God, "the wicked," who now harass the saints, "shall no more pass through;" when "the unclean shall not pass over" the highway to it; and when "the ransomed of the Lord shall come to Zion with songs, and everlasting joy upon their heads; they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away" (Isaiah 35:8; Isaiah 35:10).