God is jealous, and the LORD revengeth; the LORD revengeth, and is furious; the LORD will take vengeance on his adversaries, and he reserveth wrath for his enemies.
Jealous. In this there is sternness, yet tender affection. We are jealous only of those we love: a husband of a wife; a king of his subjects' loyalty. God is jealous of men because he loves them. God will not bear a rival in His claims on them. His burning jealousy for His own wounded honour and for their love, as much as His justice, accounts for all His fearful judgments-the flood, the destruction of Jerusalem, and that of Nineveh. His jealousy will not admit of His friends being oppressed and their enemies flourishing (cf. Exodus 20:5; 1 Corinthians 16:22; 2 Corinthians 11:2). Burning zeal enters into the idea in "jealous" here (cf. Numbers 25:11; Numbers 25:13; 1 Kings 19:10). The promise of God, in Joel 2:18, was, that when His people should earnestly pray to Him, "Give not thine heritage to reproach, that the pagan should rule over them (and) say, Where is their God? ... then the Lord would be JEALOUS for His land." Hezekiah, upon Sennacherib's invasion, did so pray. He pleaded, "Hear the words of Sennacherib, which hath sent Him to reproach the living God." Then God was jealous for His land, saying, by Isaiah, concerning the Assyrian invader, "Whom hast thou reproached and blasphemed? ... the Holy One of Israel" (2 Kings 19:16; 2 Kings 19:22); and 185,000 Assyrian invaders perished by the stroke of the Lord's angel in one night; and Sennacherib's own death at the hands of his sons in his idol-temple followed. Nahum probably prophesies here God's jealousy in behalf of His loved people, to whom He was "married" (Jeremiah 3:14): Judah, against the pagan Sennacherib.
The Lord revengeth; the Lord revengeth. The repetitions of the incommunicable name Yahweh (H3068), and of His revenging, gives an awful solemnity to the introduction.
And is furious, х ba`al (H1167) cheemaah (H2534)] - literally, a master of fury. So a master of the tongue -
i.e., eloquent. 'One who, if He pleases, can most readily give effect to His fury' (Grotius). Nahum has in view the provocation to fury given to God by the Assyrians, who, after having carried away the ten tribes, were now proceeding to invade Judea under Hezekiah.
And he reserveth wrath for his enemies - reserves it against His own appointed time (2 Peter 2:9). After long waiting for their repentance in vain, at length punishing them. A wrong estimate of Yahweh is formed from His suspending punishment: it is not that He is insensible or dilatory, but He reserves wrath for His own fit time. In the case of the penitent He does not reserve or retain His anger (Psalms 103:9; Jeremiah 3:5; Jeremiah 3:12; Micah 7:18).