Nahum 3:19

3:8-19 Strong-holds, even the strongest, are no defence against the judgments of God. They shall be unable to do any thing for themselves. The Chaldeans and Medes would devour the land like canker-worms. The Assyrians also would be eaten up by their own numerous hired troops, which seem to be meant by the word rendered merchants. Those that have done evil to their neighbours, will find it come home to them. Nineveh, and many other cities, states, and empires, have been ruined, and should be a warning to us. Are we better, except as there are some true Christians amongst us, who are a greater security, and a stronger defence, than all the advantages of situation or strength? When the Lord shows himself against a people, every thing they trust in must fail, or prove a disadvantage; but he continues good to Israel. He is a strong-hold for every believer in time of trouble, that cannot be stormed or taken; and he knoweth those that trust in Him.

There is no healing of thy bruise,.... Made by the fatal blow given to the empire by the taking of Nineveh; the ruin of it was irreparable and irrecoverable; the city of Nineveh was no more, and the Assyrian empire sunk, and never rose again: or, "there is no contraction of thy bruise" (r); as when a wound is healed, or near it, the skin round about is wrinkled and contracted. The Targum is, "there is none that grieves at thy breach;'' so the Syriac version; so far from it, that they rejoiced at it, as in a following clause: thy wound is grievous; to be borne; the pain of it intolerable; an old obstinate one, inveterate and incurable: or, is "weak", or "sickly" (s); which had brought a sickness and weakness on the state, out of which it would never be recovered: all that hear the bruit of thee; the fame, the report of the destruction of Nineveh, and of the ruin of the Assyrian empire, and the king of it: shall clap the hands over thee; for joy; so far were they from lending a helping hand in the time of distress, that they clapped both hands together, to express the gladness of their hearts at hearing such news: for upon whom hath not thy wickedness passed continually? to which of thy neighbours hast thou not been troublesome and injurious? which of them hast thou not oppressed, and used with violence and cruelty? what province or city but have felt the weight of thine hand, have been harassed with wars, and distressed with tributes and exactions?

and therefore it is no wonder they rejoice at thy fall. The destruction of this city, and so of the whole empire, is placed by Dr. Prideaux in the twenty ninth year of Josiah's reign, and in the year 612 B.C.; and by what Josephus says (t) it appears to have been but a little while before Josiah was slain by Pharaohnecho, who came out with an army to Euphrates, to make war upon the Medes and Babylonians; who, he says, had overturned the Assyrian empire; being jealous, as it seems, of their growing power. Learned men justly regret the loss of the Assyriaca of Abydenus, and of the history of the Assyrians by Herodotus, who promised (u) it; but whether he finished it or no is not certain; however, it is not extant; and in one place, speaking of the Medes attacking Nineveh, and taking it, he says (w), but how they took it I shall show in another history; all which, had they come to light, and been continued, might have been of singular use in explaining this prophecy. (r) "nulla est contractio", Junius & Tremellius, Burkius. (s) "infirmata", Pagninus, Montanus; "aegritudine plena", Vatablus; "aegra", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Drusius, Burkius. (t) Antiqu. l. 10. c. 5. sect. 1.((u) L. 1. sive Clio, c. 184. (w) Ibid. c. 106.

(19) Clap the hands over thee. —All that hear the “bruit” or report of the fall of Nineveh clap their hands with joy ( Psalm 47:1 ), for where has not her oppressive rule been felt? The verse is addressed to the king (second person masculine) as the representative of the empire, perhaps also in view of his terrible end. The cruelty of the Ninevite régime is illustrated, as Kleinert remarks, in the sculptures, “by the rows of the impaled, the prisoners through whose lips rings were fastened, whose eyes were put out, who were flayed alive. Consequently it would be a joy to all nations to hear the voice of the messengers of the tyrant no more ( Nahum 2:13 ), but to hear that of the messengers of his destruction.”

There is no healing of thy bruise; in a word, thou, Nineveh, must die, thy bruise he will not heal. who gave it, and others cannot. God by the Chaldeans hath wounded thee, and thy friends cannot bind up the wound. Thy bruise; shivered and broken state. Thy wound is grievous; hath brought a weakness on thee, thou art sick with thy wound, and faintest, not able to bear a cure. All that hear the bruit of thee, of thy former carriage and present calamities, shall clap the hands; insulting and rejoicing over thee. Upon whom hath not; no kingdom, state, city, or family almost round about thee; not one can be named. Thy wickedness; thy sins, thy idolatry, luxury, &c.; thy tyranny, pride, oppression, and cruelty; thy illegal, unprecedented violence. Passed, without any bounds, and in most vehement and fierce manner. Continually; either always treading down and trampling upon those whom thou hadst subdued, or else having conquered and spoiled one state, didst forthwith fall upon some other. Thus all suffered by thee, and all rejoice at thy utter downfall; and as none have cause to befriend thee, so none will find hearts to pity thee, or hands to help thee, but every one is ready to wish, that all who are, as thou wert, enemy to mankind and justice, may, as thou, perish without help or pity.

19 . no healing of thy bruise ] Lit. thy breach , a favourite word of Jeremiah, e.g. Jeremiah 6:14 , Jeremiah 8:11 ; Jeremiah 8:21 , “ the hurt of the daughter of my people.” The hurt of Nineveh is incurable ( Jeremiah 30:12 ), her ruin shall be eternal. the bruit of thee ] i.e. the report of thy downfall. clap the hands ] A gesture of illwill and malevolent gladness. upon whom hath not thy wickedness passed ] Assyria has been the foe and the scourge of the human race.

19. bruit—the report. clap the hands—with joy at thy fall. The sole descendants of the ancient Assyrians and Babylonians in the whole country are the Nestorian Christians, who speak a Chaldean language [Layard]. upon whom hath not thy wickedness passed continually?—implying God's long forbearance, and the consequent enormity of Assyria's guilt, rendering her case one that admitted no hope of restoration.

Verse 19. - There is no healing of thy bruise; there is no assuaging of thy hurt (Revised Version; Jeremiah 10:19 ). The ruin is irretrievable; no one shall restore the destroyed kingdom (see Zephaniah 2:13, 14 ). Thy wound is grievous; Pessima est plaga tua (Vulgate); Ἐφλέγμανεν ἡ πληγή σου , "Thy wound is inflamed." The "wound" is the stroke or plague inflicted by God ( Leviticus 26:21 ). Shall clap the hands over thee. All who hear of thy destruction will rejoice over it ( Psalm 47:1 ; Lamentations 2:15 ). Thy wickedness. The cruelty and oppression of Nineveh have been universally felt. If Edom is the type of insidious foes of the Church's own household, Nineveh is the emblem of open, blaspheming infidelity, arrayed in powerful opposition against God's people. In the overthrow of this kingdom there is a prophecy of the destruction of all anti-Christian powers, which shall be utterly crushed in the latter days. Nahum 3:19

There is no healing - (literally, "dulling") of thy bruise It cannot be softened or mitigated; and so thy wound is grievous (literally, sick), incurable, for when the wound ever anew inflames, it cannot be healed. The word, bruise, is the more expressive, because it denotes alike the abiding wound in the body Leviticus 21:19 , and the shattering of a state, which God can heal Psalm 60:4 ; Isaiah 30:26 , or which may be great, incurable Jeremiah 30:12 . When the passions are ever anew aroused, they are at last without remedy; when the soul is ever swollen with pride, it cannot be healed; since only by submitting itself to Christ, "broken and contrite" by humility, can it be healed. Nineveh sank, and never rose; nothing soothed its fall. In the end there shall be nothing to mitigate the destruction of the world, or to soften the sufferings of the damned. The "rich man, being in torments," asked in vain that Lazarus might "dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue." All that hear the bruit of thee shall clap the hands over thee - For none can grieve at thy fall. Nineveh sinks out of sight amid one universal, exulting, exceeding joy of all who heard the report of her. "For upon whom hath not thy wickedness passed continually?" "In that he asketh, upon whom hath not thy wickedness passed continually?

He affirms most strongly that his evil did pass upon all continually." His wickedness, like one continual flood. which knew no ebb or bound, had passed upon the whole world and each one in it; now at length it had passed away, and "the whole earth is at rest, is quiet; they break forth into singing" Isaiah 14:7. It is not without meaning, that having throughout the prophecy addressed Nineveh (in the feminine), now, in the close Nahum 3:18-19, the prophet turns to him in whom all its wickedness is, as it were, gathered into one, the soul of all its evil, and the director of it, its king. As Nineveh is the image of the world, its pomps, wealth, luxury, vanity, wickedness, oppression, destruction, so its king is the image of a worse king, the Prince of this world. : "And this is the song of triumph of those, over whom 'his wickedness has passed,' not rested, but they have escaped out of his hands. Nahum, 'the comforter,' had 'rebuked the world of sin;' now he pronounces that 'the prince of this world is judged.' 'His shepherds' are they who serve him, who 'feed the flock of the slaughter,' who guide them to evil, not to good.