Albert Barnes Commentary Nahum 1:8

"But with an over-running flood he will make a full end of her place, and will pursue his enemies into darkness." — Nahum 1:8 (ASV)

But with an overrunning flood He will make an utter end of the place thereof – that is, of Nineveh. Although not yet named, except in the title of the prophecy, Nineveh was nevertheless present to the prophet’s mind and his hearers. This was all the more solemn because it was the object of God’s wrath, so that, although unnamed, it would be recognized as such.

Image and reality, the first destruction and the last that it pictures, meet in the same words. Nineveh itself was overthrown through the swelling of the rivers that flowed around it and seemed to be its defense (see the note at Nahum 2:6).

Then too, the flood represents the tide of the armies gathered from all quarters—Babylonians, Medes, Persians, Arabians, Bactrians—which, like a flood, would sweep over Nineveh and leave nothing standing.

It is also the flood of God’s wrath, in whose hands they were and who, by them, would “make a full end of it”—literally, “make its place a thing consumed,” a thing that has ceased to be. For a while, some ruins existed, whose name and history ceased to be known; soon after, the ruins themselves were effaced and buried. Such was the end of a city, almost contemporary with the flood, which had then stood for almost as many years as have passed since Christ came, but which then defied God.

Marvelous image of the evil world itself, which will flee away from the face of Him who sat on the throne, and there was found no place for it (Revelation 20:11).

And darkness shall pursue His enemies – Better, “He shall pursue His enemies into darkness.” Darkness, in the Old Testament, is the condition or state in which a person is or lives; it is not an agent that pursues. Isaiah speaks of the inhabitants of darkness (Isaiah 42:7), of entering into darkness (Isaiah 47:5), and of those who are in darkness (Isaiah 49:9). It is said, The grave is all darkness (Psalms 88:12; Job 17:13), and it is a land of darkness, and the shadow of death (Job 10:21). Hence, even Jewish commentators rendered it, “He shall deliver them to hell.”

Into this darkness, it is said, God will pursue them, just as other prophets speak of people being “driven forth into darkness.” The darkness, the motionless, dreary abode to which they are driven, anticipates being cast into the outer darkness, where shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Rup.: “The vengeance of God on these who remain His enemies to the last does not end with the death of the body; but evil spirits, who are darkness and not light, pursue their souls and seize them.”

They would not hear Christ calling to them, Walk, while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you (John 12:35). They are of those that rebel against the light; they know not the ways thereof, nor abide in the paths thereof (Job 24:13). They loved darkness rather than light (John 3:19). And so they were driven into the darkness that they chose and loved.