Albert Barnes Commentary Nahum 1

The burden - Jerome: “The word משׂא mas's'â' — ‘burden’ — is never placed in the title, except when the vision is heavy and full of burden and toil.”

Of Nineveh - The prophecy of Nahum is again very stern and awful. Nineveh, after having “repented at the preaching of Jonah,” again fell back into the sins of which it had repented. It also added this: being employed by God to chasten Israel, it set itself not to inflict the measure of God’s displeasure, but to uproot the chosen people, in whom the birth of Christ was promised. It was then an antichrist, and a type of him yet to come. Jonah’s mission was a call to repentance, a type and forerunner of all God’s messages to the world, while the day of grace and the world’s probation lasts.

Nahum, “the full of exceeding comfort,” as his name means, or “the comforter,” is sent (compare John 16:6, John 16:8) to reprove the world of judgment. He is sent, prominently, to pronounce on Nineveh its doom when its day of grace should be over, and, in that, on the world, when it and all the works therein shall be burned up (2 Peter 3:10).

With few words he directly comforts the people of God (Nahum 1:15); elsewhere the comfort even to Judah is indirect, through the destruction of her oppressor. Besides this, there is nothing of mercy or call to repentance, or sorrow for their desolation (Jeremiah 8:18, Jeremiah 8:21), but rather the pouring out of the vials of the wrath of God upon Nineveh and on the evil world, which resists to the end all God’s calls and persecutes His people.

The Book of Jonah proclaims God as a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and of great kindness, who repents Him of the evil. Nahum speaks of the same attributes, yet closes with, and will not at all acquit the wicked. Indeed, “The Merciful Himself, who is by Nature Merciful, the Holy Spirit, seems, speaking in the prophet, to laugh at their calamity.” All is desolation, and death.

The aggression against God is turned back upon the aggressor; a reeling strife for life or death, then the silence of the graveyard. And so, in its further meaning, “the prophecy belongs to the close of the world and the comfort of the saints in it, so that whatever they see in the world, they may esteem lightly, as passing away and perishing, and prepare themselves for the Day of Judgment, when the Lord shall be the Avenger of the true Assyrian.”

So our Lord sets forth the end of the world as the comfort of the elect. “When these things begin to come to pass, then look up and lift up your heads, for your redemption draweth nigh” (Luke 21:28). This is the highest fulfillment of the prophecy, for “then the wrath of God against the wicked will be fully seen, who now patiently waits for them for mercy.”

The book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite - “He first defines the object of the prophecy, to which it looks; then states who spoke it and from where it was;” — the human instrument that God employed. The fuller title, “The book of the vision of Nahum” (which stands alone), probably expresses that it was not, like most prophecies, first delivered orally and then collected by the prophet, but was always (as it is so remarkably) one whole. “The weight and pressure of this ‘burden’ may be felt from the very commencement of the book.”

God is jealous and the Lord avenges - Rather (as the English margin notes) God “very jealous and avenging is the Lord.” The Name of God, יהוה (YHVH), “He who Is,” the Unchangeable, is repeated three times, and three times it is said of Him that He is an Avenger. This shows both the certainty and greatness of the vengeance, and that He who inflicts it is the All-Holy Trinity, who care for the elect. God’s jealousy is twofold. It is an intense love, not tolerating imperfections or unfaithfulness in that which He loves, and so chastening it; or not tolerating the evil actions of those who would injure what He loves, and so destroying them.

To Israel He had revealed Himself as “a jealous God, visiting iniquity but showing mercy” (Exodus 20:5–6); here, as jealous for His people against those who were purely His enemies and the enemies of His people , and so His jealousy burns for their destruction, in that there is in them no good to be refined, but only evil to be consumed.

The titles of God rise in awe: first, “intensely jealous” and “an Avenger;” then, “an Avenger and a Lord of wrath.” He is One who has this wrath laid up with Him, at His command, and it is all the more terrible because it is so. He is the Master of it (not, like humans, mastered by it), possessing it to withhold or to discharge; yet He discharges it at last all the more irrevocably on the finally impenitent. And this He says at the last, “an Avenger to His adversaries” (literally, “those who hem Him in and confine Him”).

The word “avenged” is almost exclusively applied to God in the Old Testament, referring to punishment which He inflicts, or at least causes to be inflicted. This applies whether on individuals (Genesis 4:15, Genesis 4:24; 1 Samuel 24:12; 2 Samuel 4:8; 2 Kings 9:7; Jeremiah 11:20, Jeremiah 15:15, Jeremiah 20:12), or upon a people—either His own (Leviticus 26:25; Psalms 99:8; Ezekiel 24:8) or their enemies (Deuteronomy 32:41, Deuteronomy 32:43; Psalms 18:48; Isaiah 34:8, Isaiah 35:4, Isaiah 47:3, Isaiah 59:17, Isaiah 61:2, Isaiah 63:4; Micah 5:14; Jeremiah 46:10, Jeremiah 50:15, Jeremiah 50:28, Jeremiah 51:6, Jeremiah 51:11, Jeremiah 51:36; Ezekiel 25:14, Ezekiel 25:17)—for their misdeeds.

In humans, however, vengeance is generally a defect.

Personal vengeance is mentioned only in connection with characters who are directly or indirectly censured, such as Samson (Judges 15:7, Judges 16:20) or Saul. It is forbidden to humans and punished in them; God claims it as His own inalienable right. “Vengeance is Mine and requital” (Deuteronomy 32:35, compare to Psalms 94:1). “You shall not avenge nor keep up against the children of My people” (Leviticus 19:18). Yet God’s vengeance is spoken of, not as a mere act of God, but as the expression of His Being: “Shall not My soul be avenged of such a nation as this?” (Jeremiah 5:9, Jeremiah 5:29; Jeremiah 9:9).

And One who reserves wrath for His enemies - This refers to the hardened and unbelieving who hate God and, at last, when they have finally rejected God and are rejected by Him, become the object of His aversion. It is spoken in human terms, yet is therefore all the more terrible. There is that in God to which human passions correspond; they are a false imitation of something which in Him is good, a distortion of the true likeness of God in which He created us and which humanity by sin defaced:

“Pride imitates exaltedness, whereas You alone are God exalted over all. Ambition, what does it seek but honors and glory? Whereas You alone are to be honored above all and glorious forevermore. The cruelty of the great desires to be feared; but who is to be feared but God alone, from whose power what can be taken by force or withdrawn, when, or where, or to what place, or by whom? The tendernesses of the promiscuous desire to be counted as love; yet nothing is more tender than Your charity, nor is anything loved more healthfully than Your truth, bright and beautiful above all. Curiosity simulates a desire for knowledge, whereas You supremely know all. Indeed, ignorance and foolishness itself is cloaked under the name of simplicity and harmlessness, because nothing is found more simple than You; and what is less injurious, since it is their own works which injure the sinner?

Indeed, sloth desires to be at rest; but what stable rest is there apart from the Lord? Luxury tries to be called plenty and abundance; but You are the fullness and never-failing abundance of incorruptible pleasures. Prodigality presents a shadow of liberality; but You are the most overflowing Giver of all good. Covetousness would possess many things; and You possess all things. Envy disputes for excellence: what is more excellent than You? Anger seeks revenge: who avenges more justly than You? Fear startles at unaccustomed or sudden things which endanger beloved things, and takes forethought for their safety; but to You what is unaccustomed or sudden, or who separates from You what You love? Or where but with You is unshaken safety? Grief pines away for things lost, the delight of its desires, because it would have nothing taken from it, as nothing can be from You. Thus the soul seeks outside You what it does not find pure and untainted, until it returns to You. Thus, all pervertedly imitate You—those who distance themselves far from You and lift themselves up against You.

But even by imitating You in this way, they imply that You are the Creator of all nature, from which there is no place where one can altogether retire from You.”

And so, in humans, the same qualities are good or bad depending on whether they have God or self as their end:

“The joy of the world is a passion. Joy in the Holy Spirit, or to rejoice in the Lord, is a virtue. The sorrow of the world is a passion. The sorrow according to God which produces salvation is a virtue. The fear of the world which has torment, from which a person is called fearful, is a passion. The holy fear of the Lord, which endures forever, from which a person is called reverential, is a virtue. The hope of the world, when one’s hope is in the world or in the princes of the world, is a passion. Hope in God is a virtue, as are faith and charity. Though these four human passions are not in God, there are four virtues, having the same names, which no one can have except from God, from the Spirit of God.”

In humans, these are “passions” because humans are to that extent “passive” and suffer under them; and, through original sin, cannot prevent having them, though by God’s grace they may control them.

God, without passion and in perfect holiness, has qualities that in humans would be jealousy, wrath, vengeance, unforgiveness—a “rigor of perfect justice toward the impenitent, which punishes so severely, as though God had fury.” Only, in Him it is righteous to punish human unrighteousness. Elsewhere it is said, “God does not keep forever” (Psalms 103:9), or it is asked, “Will He keep forever?” (Jeremiah 3:5). And He answers, “Return, and I will not cause My anger to fall upon you, for I am merciful, says the Lord, I will not keep forever” (Jeremiah 3:12).

A person’s misdeeds and God’s displeasure remain with God, to be erased upon that person’s repentance, or, as Scripture says, “by his hardness and impenitent heart a person treasures up for himself wrath for the day of wrath and of the revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who will reward each according to his works” (Romans 2:5–6).

The Lord is slow to anger - Nahum takes up the words of Jonah (Jonah 4:2) as he spoke of God’s attributes toward Nineveh, but only to show the opposite side of them. Jonah declares how God is “slow to anger,” giving people time for repentance, and if they repent, “also repenting Himself of the evil.” Nahum, however, emphasizes that the long-suffering of God is not “slackness,” and that He is long-suffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

And strong in power - Divine long-suffering goes along with Divine power. God can be long-suffering because He can, whenever He sees fit, punish. His long-suffering is a sign, not of weakness, but of power. He can allow people the full extent of trial because, when they are past cure, He can end it at once. God is a righteous judge, strong and patient, and God is angry every day (Psalms 7:11). The wrath comes only at the end, but it is ever present with God.

He cannot help but be displeased with sin; and so the Psalmist describes in human terms the gradual approach of its execution. If he (the sinner) will not return (from evil or to God), He will sharpen His sword; He has bent His bow and aimed it: He has prepared for him instruments of death; He has made His arrows burning (Psalms 7:12–13). We see the arrow with unquenchable fire, ready to be discharged, waiting for the final decision of the wicked, whether he will repent or not, but still the Day of the Lord will come (2 Peter 3:9–10). He will not at all acquit.

These words, He will not at all acquit, originally occur in the great declaration by Moses of God’s attributes of mercy, as a necessary limitation of them. They are carried forward to God’s people, yet with the side of mercy predominant (Jeremiah 30:11; Jeremiah 46:28). They are pleaded to God Himself (Numbers 14:18). They are the sanction of the third commandment (Exodus 20:7; Deuteronomy 5:11).

God will not acquit of His own will, apart from His justice. So He says, I can of My own self do nothing (John 5:30); that is (in part), not like unjust judges, who call good evil and evil good, following their own will rather than the merits of the case, but, as I hear, I judge, and My judgment is just. He cannot even have mercy and spare unjustly, nor without the humility of penitence.

Even if it is Jerusalem, over which He wept, or His “companion, His own familiar friend” (Psalms 55:14), He, who is no accepter of persons, cannot of mere favor forgive the impenitent.

The Lord has His way in the whirlwind and in the storm - The vengeance of God comes at the end swiftly, vehemently, fearfully, irresistibly. When they say, Peace and safety, then sudden destruction comes upon them (1 Thessalonians 5:3), and all creation stands at the command of the Creator against His enemies. He shall take to Himself His jealousy for complete armor, and make the creature His weapon, for the revenge of His enemies .

And the clouds are the dust of His feet - Perhaps the imagery is from the light dust raised by an earthly army, for which Nahum’s word (dust) is used (Ezekiel 26:10). The powers of heaven are arrayed against the might of earth. On earth, a little dust, soon to subside; in heaven, the whirlwind and the storm, which sweep away whatever does not bow before them. The vapors, slight in outward appearance, though formed of countless multitudes of mist-drops, are yet dark and lowering as they burst, and irresistible.

“The Feet of God are that power by which He tramples upon the ungodly.” So it is said to the Son, Sit at My right hand until I make Your enemies Your footstool. Tempests have also, not merely figuratively, been used to overthrow God’s enemies (Exodus 14:27; Joshua 10:11; Judges 5:20; 1 Samuel 2:10; 1 Samuel 7:10; 2 Samuel 22:15).

He rebukes the sea and makes it dry—delivering His people, as He did from Pharaoh (Psalms 106:9), the type of all later oppressors and of antichrist. His word is with power, able to destroy them at once with one rough word . The restlessness of the barren and troubled sea is an image of the wicked.

He dries up all the rivers (Isaiah 57:20), as He did with the Jordan. His coming will be far more terrible than when all the hearts of the inhabitants of the land melted. Bashan languishes and Carmel; and the flower of Lebanon languishes (Joshua 2:11).

Bashan was richest in pastures; Carmel, true to its name, was rich in gardens and vineyards; Lebanon was known for vines and fragrant flowers (Hosea 14:7; Song of Solomon 4:11), but chiefly for its cedar and cypress. Lebanon also derived its name from the whiteness of the snow that rests on its summit.

These mountains, then, together are emblems of richness, lasting beauty, fruitfulness, and loftiness. Yet all of it—even that which by nature is not accustomed to fade with the changing seasons—dries up and withers before the rebuke of God.

But if these things are done in a green tree, what shall be done in the dry? All freshness, beauty, comeliness, and outward display of nature will fade like grass. All adornment of men’s outward graces or gifts, all mere show of goodness, will fall off like a leaf and perish.

If the glory of nature perishes before God, how much more the pride of man! Bashan also was the dwelling-place of the race of giants, and near Lebanon was Damascus; yet their inhabitants became like dead men, and their power shrank to nothing at the word of God.

The mountains quaked at Him, and the hills melted - As of their own accord. The words are a renewal of those of Amos (Amos 9:13). Inanimate nature is pictured as endowed with the terror, which guilt feels at the presence of God.

All power, whether greater or less, whatever lifts itself up, will give way in that Day, which will be upon all the cedars of Lebanon that are high and lifted up, and upon all the oaks of Bashan, and upon all the high mountains, and upon all the hills that are lifted up (Isaiah 2:13–14).

And the earth is burned (rather lifts itself up; as in an earthquake it seems, as it were, to rise and sink down, lifting itself as if to meet its God or to flee). What is strongest, shakes; what is hardest, melts; indeed, the whole world trembles and is removed:

“If,” said even Jews of old, “when God made Himself known in mercy, to give the law to His people, the world was so moved at His presence, how much more, when He will reveal Himself in wrath!”

The words are so great that they bear the soul on to the time when heaven and earth will flee away from the Face of Him Who sitteth on the throne, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat (Revelation 20:11; 2 Peter 3:10).

And since all judgments are images of the Last, and the awe at tokens of God’s presence is a shadow of the terror of that coming, he adds,