Devotional Commentary on Nahum 2

 

On the mountains a herald was announcing peace (verse 1). Judah was to keep their feasts and vows for the wicked one shall no longer continue to pass through you, he has been completely cut off (verse 1).

The scatterer who came up before Judah is besieged by a siege. Assyria came up but now Nahum sees the fall of Assyria (verse 2).

For the Lord has restored the pride of Jacob as the pride of Israel, for the emptiers have emptied them out and destroyed their branches (2:3)

The Arabic translation of Yaphet is problematic here: "For the Lord brings back the power of Jacob, as the power of Israel, now they have overthrown them and destroyed their cities". Branches as cities? He sees the scatterer as Israel who is restored firstly, and secondly he said that if the scatterer is the enemy that marches "against Babel (Bagdad)" then it means that God will bring salvation by the Messiah Who is the might of Jacob.

Because of the many harlotries of the harlot, charming and enchanting, who delivers nations with her harlotries, and families with her enchantments (3:4)

The punishment in this chapter used the same words that we find for the punishment predicted against Satan and his proxies in Isaiah 14:12-4, Daniel 8:11 and Ezechiel 28, namely the word hishlak = to scatter to the ground. See the word used in Nahum 3:6. Yaphet made the comment about the above verse, "this is explained in the direction of Babel [= Mohammed's descendants in his thinking] the verse describes the alluring ways of the Little Horn and its armed strength, by means of which the king holds power as alluded to in Daniel 9." It is interesting that someone as early as 980 could operate with a Little Horn identification for the year post 680. Of course the true identification lies not with Islam but with the Roman elements of the religion so that the Vatican is a better choice. It also connects better with the year day principle applied to the time zones mentioned in Daniel.

Nahum saw in verse 5 that there is no good outcome for the Assyrians.

The Assyrians shall remember their mighty men but they shall stagger (verse 6).

The terrible view for them is that the gates have opened and the palace has dissolved (verse 7). Their queen and maidens were taken away in great distress (verse 8).

Niniveh is like a pool of water (verse 9).

They plunder silver and gold and there is no end in the treasures to sweep out of all precious vessels (verse 10).

All of them are in a state of shock and terrified (verse 11).

It has become a hideout place for lions and their offspring, a lion habitat (verse 12-13).

Are you better than No-Amon which is situated among the rivers?

Yaphet translated in 980 "Are you better than the city of Alexandria which sits by the canals, water surrounds her". The concept that No-Amon is Alexandria was also suggested later by Rashi, Redak, Kara and Targum Jonathan to the prophets. Ibn Ezra felt that it was an Egyptian city that was conquered by Nebuchadnezzar on his way to Niniveh. It is definitely not Alexandria since this city was created by Alexander the Great and Nahum lived in the 7th century BCE. My professor Charles Fensham suggested that it refers to Memphis. Nahum saw that the Lord will bring fire over the chariots and that He will cut off their prey from the land (verse 14).

About the fall of Niniveh Ellen White said: "The pride of Assyria and its fall are to serve as an object lesson to the end of time. Ellen White, Prophets and Kings, page 366.

In the 1963 Sabbath School Quarterly on the Minor Prophets by A. V. Wallenkampf, Nineveh's destruction was made complete. All that remains today of the ancient city are two great mounds. . . . So complete, indeed, were Nineveh's ruins that Zenophon scarcely recognized the site; Alexander the Great marched by, not knowing that a world-empire was buried under his feet. Lucian wrote, Nineveh is perished, and there is no trace left where once it was. Gibbon records that as early as A.D. 62, the city and even the ruins of the city, had long disappeared. The traveler Niebuhr in 1766 passed over the site without knowing it. Only since Layard and Botta identified the site in 1842 has the city begun to be recognized by the modern world.”—George L. Robinson, The Twelve Minor Prophets, page 111.

 

Dear Lord

Prophecy is true because the messages are coming from You. Keep us in the hollow of Your hand and guide us step by step. In Jesus Name, Amen.