Albert Barnes Commentary Nahum 1:9

"What do ye devise against Jehovah? he will make a full end; affliction shall not rise up the second time." — Nahum 1:9 (ASV)

The prophet had in few words summed up the end of Nineveh; he now upbraids them with the sin, which would bring it upon them, and foretells the destruction of Sennacherib. Nineveh had, before this, been the instrument of chastising Israel and Judah. Now, the capture of Samaria, which had cast off God, deceived and emboldened it. Its king thought that this was the might of his own arm, and likened the Lord of heaven and earth to the idols of the pagans, and said, “Who are they among all the gods of the countries, that have delivered their country out of my hand, that the Lord should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?” (2 Kings 18:35). He sent “to reproach the living God” (2 Kings 19:16) and “defied the Holy One of Israel” (see 2 Kings 19:15–34).

His blasphemy was his destruction. It was a war, not simply of ambition, or covetousness, but directly against the power and worship of God.

“What will you so mightily devise,” “imagine against the Lord?” He Himself, by Himself, is already “making an utter end.” It is in store; the Angel is ready to smite. Idle are human devices when the Lord does. “Take counsel together, and it shall come to nought; speak the word, and it shall not stand: for God is with us” (Isaiah 8:10). While the rich man was speaking comfort to his soul about future years, God was making an utter end. “You fool, this night your soul will be required of you.”

Affliction shall not rise up the second time — Others have understood this, “affliction shall not rise up the second time,” as meaning it will destroy at once, utterly and finally (Compare to 1 Samuel 26:8; 2 Samuel 20:10); but:

1. The idiom there, “he did not repeat to him,” as we say, “he did not repeat the blow,” is quite different.

2. It is said “affliction shall not rise up,” itself, as if it could not. The causative of the idiom occurs in 2 Samuel 12:11, “Look, I will cause evil to rise up against you;” as he says afterward, “Though I have afflicted you, I will afflict you no more” (Nahum 1:12). “God,” He had said, “is good for a refuge in the day of affliction;” now, personifying that affliction, he says that it would be so utterly broken, that it would rise up no more to vex them, as when a serpent’s head is not only wounded but crushed and trampled underfoot, so that it cannot lift itself up again.

The promises of God are conditioned by our not falling back into sin. He says to Nineveh, “God will not deliver Judah to you, as He delivered the ten tribes and Samaria.” Judah repented under Hezekiah, and He not only delivered it from Sennacherib but never afflicted them again through Assyria. Renewal of sin brings renewal or deepening of punishment. The new and more grievous sins under Manasseh were punished, not through Assyria but through the Chaldeans.

The words have passed into a maxim, “God will not punish the same thing twice,” not in this world and the world to come, that is, not if repented of. For of the impenitent it is said, “destroy them with a double destruction” (Jeremiah 17:18). Chastisement here is a sign of God’s mercy; its absence, or prosperous sin, is a sign of perdition. But if any refuse to be corrected, the chastisement of this life is only the beginning of unending torments.