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Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
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Matthew Henry |
N A H U M.
CHAP. I.
In this chapter we have,
I. The inscription of the book,
II. A magnificent display of the glory of God, in a mixture of wrath
and justice against the wicked, and mercy and grace towards his people,
and the discovery of his majesty and power in both,
III. A particular application of this (as most interpreters think) to
the destruction of Sennacherib and the Assyrian army, when they
besieged Jerusalem, which was a very memorable and illustrious instance
of the power both of God’s justice and of his mercy, and spoke
abundance of terror to his enemies and encouragement to his faithful
servants,
| Inscription of the Book. | B. C. 710. |
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1 The burden of Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum the
Elkoshite.
This title directs us to consider,
1. The great city against which the word of the Lord is here delivered;
it is the burden of Nineveh, not only a prophecy, and a weighty
one, but a burdensome prophecy, a dead weight to Nineveh, a mill-stone
hanged about its neck. Nineveh was the place concerned, and the
Assyrian monarchy, which that was the royal seat of. About 100 years
before this Jonah had, in God’s name, foretold the speedy overthrow of
this great city; but then the Ninevites repented and were spared, and
that decree did not bring forth. The Ninevites then saw clearly
how much it was to their advantage to turn from their evil way; it was
the saving of their city; and yet, soon after, they returned to it
again; it became worse than ever, a bloody city, and full of
lies and robbery. They repented of their repentance,
returned with the dog to his vomit, and at length grew worse than ever
they had been. Then God sent them not this prophet, as Jonah, but this
prophecy, to read them their doom, which was now irreversible. Note,
The reprieve will not be continued if the repentance be not continued
in. If men turn from the good they began to do, they can expect no
other than that God should turn from the favour he began to show,
2. The poor prophet by whom the word of the Lord is here delivered: It
is the book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite. The burden of
Nineveh was what the prophet plainly foresaw, for it was his vision,
and what he left upon record (it is the book of the vision),
that, when he was gone, the event might be compared with the prediction
and might confirm it. All the account we have of the prophet himself is
that he was an Elkoshite, of the town called Elkes, or
Elcos, which, Jerome says, was in Galilee. Some observe that the
scripture ordinarily says little of the prophets themselves, that our
faith might not stand upon their authority, but upon that of the
blessed Spirit by whom their prophecies were indited.
| The Judgment of Nineveh; The Awful Power of God. | B. C. 710. |
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2 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.
3 The LORD is slow to anger, and great in power, and will not
at all acquit the wicked: the LORD hath his way in the
whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his
feet.
4 He rebuketh the sea, and maketh it dry, and drieth up all the
rivers: Bashan languisheth, and Carmel, and the flower of Lebanon
languisheth.
5 The mountains quake at him, and the hills melt, and the earth
is burned at his presence, yea, the world, and all that dwell
therein.
6 Who can stand before his indignation? and who can abide in
the fierceness of his anger? his fury is poured out like fire,
and the rocks are thrown down by him.
7 The LORD is good, a strong hold in the day of trouble; and
he knoweth them that trust in him.
8 But with an overrunning flood he will make an utter end of
the place thereof, and darkness shall pursue his enemies.
Nineveh knows not God, that God that contends with her, and therefore
is here told what a God he is; and it is good for us all to mix faith
with that which is here said concerning him, which speaks a great deal
of terror to the wicked and comfort to good people; for this glorious
description of the Sovereign of the world, like the pillar of cloud and
fire, has a bright side towards Israel and a dark side towards the
Egyptians. Let each take his portion from it; let sinners read it and
tremble; let saints read it and triumph. The wrath of God is here
revealed from heaven against him enemies, his favour and mercy are here
assured to his faithful loyal subjects, and his almighty power in both,
making his wrath very terrible and his favour very desirable.
I. He is a God of inflexible justice, a jealous God, and will take
vengeance on his enemies; let Nineveh know this, and tremble before
him. Their idols are insignificant things; there is nothing formidable
in them. But the God of Israel is greatly to be feared; for,
1. He resents the affronts and indignities done him by those that deny
his being or any of his perfections, that set up other gods in
competition with him, that destroy his laws, arraign his proceedings,
ridicule his word, or are abusive to his people. Let such know that
Jehovah, the one only living and true God, is a jealous God, and a
revenger; he is jealous for the comfort of his worshippers,
jealous for his land
(Joel ii. 18),
and will not have that injured. He is a revenger, and he is
furious; he has fury (so the word is), not as man has it, in
whom it is an ungoverned passion (so he has said, Fury is not in
me,
Isa. xxvii. 4),
but he has it in such a way as becomes the righteous God, to put an
edge upon his justice, and to make it appear more terrible to those who
otherwise would stand in no awe of it. He is Lord of anger (so
the Hebrew phrase is for that which we read, he is furious); he
has anger, but he has it at command and under government. Our anger is
often lord over us, as theirs that have no rule over their own
spirits, but God is always Lord of his anger and weighs a
path to it,
Ps. lxxviii. 50.
2. He resolves to reckon with those that put those affronts upon him.
We are told here, not only that he is a revenger, but that he will
take vengeance; he has said he will, he has sworn it,
Whoever are his adversaries and enemies among men, he will make them
feel his resentments; and, though the sentence against his enemies is
not executed speedily, yet he reserves wrath for them and reserves them
for it in the day of wrath. Against his own people, who repent and
humble themselves before him, he keeps not his anger for ever,
but against his enemies he will for ever let out his anger. He will
not at all acquit the wicked that sin, and stand to it, and do not
repent,
v. 3.
Those wickedly depart from their God that depart, and never
return
and these he will not acquit. Humble supplicants will find him
gracious, but scornful beggars will not find him easy, or that the door
of mercy will be opened to a loud, but late, Lord, Lord. This
revelation of the wrath of God against his enemies is applied to
Nineveh
(v. 8),
and should be applied by all those to themselves who go on still in
their trespasses: With an over-running flood he will make an utter
end of the place thereof. The army of the Chaldeans shall overrun
the country of the Assyrians, and lay it all waste. God’s judgments,
when they come with commission, are like a deluge to any people, which
they cannot keep off nor make head against. Darkness shall pursue
his enemies; terror and trouble shall follow them, whithersoever
they go, shall pursue them to utter darkness; if they think to flee
from the darkness which pursues them they will but fall into that which
is before them.
II. He is a God of irresistible power, and is able to deal with his
enemies, be they ever so many, ever so mighty, ever so hardy. He is
great in power
(v. 3),
and therefore it is good having him our friend and bad having him our
enemy. Now here,
1. The power of God is asserted and proved by divers instances of it in
the kingdom of nature, where we always find its visible effects in the
ordinary course of nature, and sometimes in the surprising alterations
of that course.
(1.) If we look up into the regions of the air, there we shall find
proofs of his power, for he has his ways in the whirlwind and the
storm. Which way soever God goes he carries a whirlwind and a storm
along with him, for the terror of his enemies,
&c. And, wherever there is a whirlwind and a storm, God has the command
of it, the control of it, makes his way through it, goes on his way in
it, and serves his own purposes by it. He spoke to Job out of the
whirlwind, and even stormy winds fulfil his word. He has his
way in the whirlwind, that is, he goes on undiscerned, and the
methods of his providence are to us unaccountable; as it is said,
His way is in the sea. The clouds are the dust of his feet; he
treads on them, walks on them, raises them when he pleases, as a man
with his feet raises a cloud of dust. It is but by permission, or
usurpation rather, that the devil is the prince of the power of the
air, for that power is in God’s hand.
(2.) If we cast our eye upon the great deeps, there we find that the
sea is his, for he made it; for, when he pleases, he rebukes the sea
and makes it dry, by drying up all the rivers with which it is
continually supplied. He gave those proofs of his power when he divided
the Red Sea and Jordan, and can do the same again whenever he pleases.
(3.) If we look round us on this earth, we find proofs of his power,
when, either by the extreme heat and drought of summer or the cold and
frost of winter, Bashan languishes, and Carmel, and the flower of
Lebanon languishes, the choicest and strongest flower languishes.
His power is often seen in earthquakes, which shake the mountains
(v. 5),
melt the hills, and melt them down, and level them with the plains.
When he pleases the earth is burnt at his presence by the
scorching heat of the sun, and he could burn it with fire from heaven,
as he did Sodom, and at the end of time he will burn the world and
all that dwell therein. The earth, and all the works that are
therein, shall be burnt up. Thus great is the Lord and of
great power.
2. This is particularly applied to his anger. If God be an almighty
God, we may thence infer
(v. 6),
Who can stand before his indignation? The Ninevites had once
found God slow to anger (as he says
v. 3),
and perhaps presumed upon the mercy they had then had experience of,
and thought they might make bold with him; but they will find he is
just and jealous as well as merciful and gracious, and, having shown
the justice of his wrath, in the next he shows the power of it, and the
utter insufficiency of his enemies to contend with him. It is in vain
for the stoutest and strongest of sinners to think to make their part
good against the power of God’s anger.
(1.) See God here as a consuming fire, terrible and mighty. Here
is his indignation against sin, and the fierceness of his anger,
his fury poured out, not like water, but like fire, like
the fire and brimstone rained on Sodom,
Hell is the fierceness of God’s anger,
God’s anger is so fierce that it beats down all before it: The rocks
are thrown down by him, which seemed immovable. Rocks have
sometimes been rent by the eruption of subterraneous fires, which is a
faint resemblance of the fierceness of God’s anger against sinners
whose hearts are rocky, for none ever hardened their hearts against him
and prospered.
(2.) See sinners here are stubble before the fire, weak and impotent,
and a very unequal match for the wrath of God.
[1.] They are utterly unable to bear up against it, so as to resist it,
and put by the strokes of it: Who can stand before his
indignation? Not the proudest and most daring sinner; not the world
of the ungodly; no, not the angels that sinned.
[2.] They are utterly unable to bear up under it so as to keep up their
spirits, and preserve any enjoyment of themselves: Who can abide in
the fierceness of his anger? As it is irresistible, so it is
intolerable. Some of the effects of God’s displeasure in this world a
man may bear up under, but the fierceness of his anger, when it
fastens immediately upon the soul, who can bear? Let us therefore
fear before him; let us stand in awe, and not sin.
III. He is a God of infinite mercy; and in the midst of all this wrath
mercy is remembered. Let the sinners in Zion be afraid, that go
on still in their transgressions, but let not those that trust in God
tremble before him. For,
1. He is slow to anger
(v. 3),
not easily provoked, but ready to show mercy to those who have offended
him and to receive them into favour upon their repentance.
2. When the tokens of his rage against the wicked are abroad he takes
care for the safety and comfort of his own people
(v. 7):
The Lord is good to those that are good, and to them he
will be a stronghold in the day of trouble. Note, The same
almighty power that is exerted for the terror and destruction of the
wicked is engaged, and shall be employed, for the protection and
satisfaction of his own people; he is able both to save and to destroy.
In the day of public trouble, when God’s judgments are in the earth,
laying all waste, he will be a place of defence to those that by faith
put themselves under his protection, those that trust in him in the way
of their duty, that live a life of dependence upon him, and devotedness
to him; he knows them, he owns them for his, he takes cognizance of
their case, knows what is best for them, and what course to take most
effectually for their relief. They are perhaps obscure and little
regarded in the world, but the Lord knows them,
| Destruction of the Assyrian Army; Overthrow of Sennacherib. | B. C. 710. |
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9 What do ye imagine against the LORD? he will make an utter
end: affliction shall not rise up the second time.
10 For while they be folden together as thorns, and while
they are drunken as drunkards, they shall be devoured as
stubble fully dry.
11 There is one come out of thee, that imagineth evil against
the LORD, a wicked counsellor.
12 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.
13 For now will I break his yoke from off thee, and will burst
thy bonds in sunder.
14 And the LORD hath given a commandment concerning thee,
that no more of thy name be sown: out of the house of thy gods
will I cut off the graven image and the molten image: I will make
thy grave; for thou art vile.
15 Behold upon the mountains the feet of him that bringeth good
tidings, that publisheth peace! O Judah, keep thy solemn feasts,
perform thy vows: for the wicked shall no more pass through thee;
he is utterly cut off.
These verses seem to point at the destruction of the army of the
Assyrians under Sennacherib, which may well be reckoned a part of the
burden of Nineveh, the head city of the Assyrian empire, and a pledge
of the destruction of Nineveh itself about 100 years after; and this
was an event which Isaiah, with whom probably this prophet was
contemporary, spoke much of. Now observe here,
I. The great provocation which the Assyrians gave to God, the just and
jealous God, for which, though slow to anger, he would take
vengeance
(v. 11):
There is one come out of thee, that imagines evil against the
Lord–Sennacherib, and his spokesman Rabshakeh. They framed an evil
letter and an evil speech, not only against Hezekiah and his people,
but against God himself, reflecting upon him as level with the gods of
the heathen, and unable to protect his worshippers, dissuading his
people from putting confidence in him, and urging them rather to put
themselves under the protection of the great king, the king of
Assyria. They contrived to alter the property of Jerusalem, that it
should be no longer the city of the Lord, the holy city. This one, this
mighty one, so he thinks himself, that comes out of Nineveh,
imagining evil against the Lord, brings upon Nineveh this
burden. Never was the glorious Majesty of heaven and earth more
daringly, more blasphemously affronted than by Sennacherib at that
time. He was a wicked counsellor who counselled them to despair
of God’s protection, and surrender themselves to the king of Assyria,
and endeavour to put them out of conceit with Hezekiah’s reformation
with this wicked counsellor he here expostulates
(v. 9):
“What do you imagine against the Lord? What a foolish wicked
thing it is for you to plot against God, as if you could outwit divine
wisdom and overpower omnipotence itself!” Note, There is a great deal
imagined against the Lord by the gates of hell, and against the
interests of his kingdom in the world; but it will prove a vain
thing,
Ps. ii. 1, 2.
He that sits in heaven laughs at the imaginations of the
pretenders to politics against him, and will turn their counsels
headlong.
II. The great destruction which God would bring upon them for it, not
immediately upon the whole monarchy (the ruin of that was deferred till
the measure of their iniquity was full), but,
1. Upon the army; God will make an utter end of that; it shall
be totally cut off and ruined at one blow; one fatal stroke of the
destroying angel shall lay them dead upon the spot; affliction shall
not rise up the second time, for it shall not need. With some
sinners God makes a quick despatch, does their business at once. Divine
vengeance goes not by one certain rule, nor in one constant track, but
one way or other, by acute diseases or chronical ones, by slow deaths
or lingering ones, he will make an utter end of all his enemies,
who persist in their imaginations against him. We have reason to think
that the Assyrian army were mostly of the same spirit, and spoke the
same language, with their general, and now God would take them to task,
though they did but say as they were taught; and it shall appear that
they have laid themselves open to divine wrath by their own act and
deed,
(1.) They are as thorns that entangle one another, and are
folded together. They make one another worse, and more
inveterate against God and his Israel, harden one another’s hearts, and
strengthen one another’s hands, in their impiety; and therefore God
will do with them as the husbandman does with a bush of thorns when he
cannot part them: he puts them all into the fire together.
(2.) They are as drunken men, intoxicated with pride and rage;
and such as they shall be irrecoverably overthrown and destroyed. They
shall be as drunkards, besotted to their own ruin, and shall stumble
and fall, and make themselves a reproach, and be justly laughed at.
(3.) They shall be devoured as stubble fully dry, which is
irresistibly and irrecoverably consumed by the flame. The judgments of
God are as devouring fire to those that make themselves as stubble to
them. It is again threatened concerning this great army
(v. 12)
that though they be quiet and likewise many, very secure, not
fearing the sallies out of the besieged upon them, because they are
numerous, yet thus shall they be cut down, or certainly
shall they be cut down, as grass and corn are cut down, with as little
ado, when he shall pass through, even the destroying angel that
is commissioned to cut them down. Note, The security of sinners, and
their confidence in their own strength, are often presages of ruin
approaching.
2. Upon the king. He imagined evil against the Lord, and shall
he escape? No
(v. 14):
“The Lord has given a commandment concerning thee; the decree
has gone forth, that thy name be no more sown, that thy memory
perish, that thou be no more talked of as thou hast been, and that the
report of thy mighty actions be dispersed upon the wings of fame and
celebrated with her trumpet.” Because Sennacherib’s son reigned in his
stead, some make this to point at the overthrow of the Assyrian empire
not long after. Note, Those that imagine evil against the Lord
hasten evil upon themselves and their own families and interests, and
ruin their own names by dishonouring his name. It is further
threatened,
(1.) That the images he worshipped should be cut off from their temple,
the graven image and the molten image out of the house of his
gods, which, some think, was fulfilled when Sennacherib was slain
by his two sons, as he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his
god, by which barbarous parricide we may suppose the temple was
looked upon as defiled, and was therefore disused, and the images were
cut off from it, the worshippers of those images no longer attending
there. Or it may be taken more generally to denote the utter ruin of
Assyria; the army of the enemy shall lay all waste, and not spare even
the images of their gods, by which God would intimate to them that one
of the grounds of his controversy with them was their idolatry.
(2.) That Sennacherib’s grave shall be made there, some think in the
house of his god; there he is slain, and there he shall be buried, for
he is vile; he lies under this perpetual mark of disgrace, that
he had so far lost his interest in the natural affection of his own
children that two of them murdered him. Or it may be meant of the
ignominious fall of the Assyrian monarchy itself, upon the ruins of
which that of Babylon was raised. What a noise was made about the grave
of that once formidable state, but now despicable, is largely
described,
Note, Those that make themselves vile by scandalous sins God will make
vile by shameful punishments.
III. The great deliverance which God would hereby work for his own
people and the city that was called by his name. The ruin of the
church’s enemies is the salvation of the church, and a very great
salvation it was that was wrought for Jerusalem by the overthrow of
Sennacherib’s army.
1. The siege shall hereby be raised: “Now will I break his yoke from
off thee, by which thou art kept in servitude, and will burst
thy bonds asunder, by which thou seemest bound over to the
Assyrian’s wrath.” That vast victorious army, when it forced free
quarters for itself throughout all the land of Judah, and lived at
discretion there, was as yokes and bonds upon them. Jerusalem, when it
was besieged, was, as it were, bound and fettered by it; but, when the
destroying angel had done his work, Jerusalem’s bonds were burst
asunder, and it was set at liberty again. This was a figure of the
great salvation, by which the Jerusalem that is above is made free, is
made free indeed.
2. The enemy shall be so weakened and dispirited that they shall never
make any such attempt again, and the end of this trouble shall be so
well gained by the grace of God that there shall be no more occasion
for such a severe correction.
(1.) God will not again afflict Jerusalem; his anger is turned
away, and he says, It is enough; for he has by this fright
accomplished his whole work upon Mount Zion
(Isa. x. 12),
and therefore “though I have afflicted thee, I will afflict thee no
more;” the bitter portion shall not be repeated unless there be
need and the patient’s case call for it; for God doth not afflict
willingly.
(2.) The enemy shall not dare again to attack Jerusalem
(v. 15):
The wicked shall no more pass through thee as they have done, to
lay all waste, for he is utterly cut off and disabled to do it.
His army is cut off, his spirit cut off, and at length he himself is
cut off.
3. The tidings of this great deliverance shall be published and
welcomed with abundance of joy throughout the kingdom,
While Sennacherib prevailed, and carried all before him, every day
brought bad news; but now, behold, upon the mountains, the feet of
him that bringeth good tidings, the feet of the evangelist;
he is seen coming at a distance upon the mountains, as fast as his feet
will carry him; and how pleasant a sight is it once more to see a
messenger of peace, after we have received so many of Job’s messengers!
We find these words made use of by another prophet to illustrate the
mercy of the deliverance of the people of God out of Babylon
(Isa. lii. 7),
not that the prophets stole the word one from another (as those did,
but speaking by the same Spirit, they often used the same expressions;
and it may be of good use for ministers to testify their consent to
wholesome truths
by concurring in the same forms of sound words,
These words are also quoted by the apostle, both from Isaiah and Nahum,
and applied to the great redemption wrought out for us by our Lord
Jesus, and the publishing of it to the world by the everlasting gospel,
Christ’s ministers are those messengers of good tidings, that preach
peace by Jesus Christ. How beautiful are the feet of those
messengers! How welcome their message to those that see their
misery and danger by reason of sin! And observe, He that brings these
good tidings brings with them a call to Judah to keep her solemn
feasts and perform her vows. During the trouble,
(1.) The ordinary feasts had been intermitted. Inter arma silent
leges–The voice of law cannot be heard amidst the shouts of
battle. While Jerusalem was encompassed with armies they
could not go thither to worship; but now that the embargo is taken off
they must return to the observance of their feasts; and the feasts of
the Lord will be doubly sweet to the people of God when they have been
for some time deprived of the benefit of them and God graciously
restores them their opportunities again, for we are taught the worth of
such mercies by the want of them.
(2.) They had made vows to God, that, if he would deliver them out of
this distress, they would do something extraordinary in his service, to
his honour; and now that the deliverance is wrought they are called
upon to perform their vows; the promise they had then made must now be
made good, for better it is not to vow than to vow and not to
pay. And those words, The wicked shall no more pass through
thee, may be taken as a promise of the perfecting of the good work
of reformation which Hezekiah had begun; the wicked shall not, as they
have done, walk on every side, but they shall be cut off, and the
baffling of the attempts from the wicked enemies abroad is a mercy
indeed to a nation when it is accompanied with the restraint and
reformation of the wicked at home, who are its more dangerous
enemies.
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