John Calvin Commentary Nahum 2:13

"Behold, I am against thee, saith Jehovah of hosts, and I will burn her chariots in the smoke, and the sword shall devour thy young lions; and I will cut off thy prey from the earth, and the voice of thy messengers shall no more be heard." — Nahum 2:13 (ASV)

To give more effect to what he says, the Prophet introduces God here as the speaker. Behold, he says, I am against you. He has been until now, as it were, the herald of God, and in this character gave an authoritative command to the Chaldeans to plunder Nineveh.

But when God himself comes forward, and uses not the mouth of man, but declares his own decrees, it is much more impressive. This then is the reason why God now openly speaks: Behold, I am, he says, against you. We understand the emphatic import of the demonstrative particle, Behold; for God, as if awakened from sleep, shows that it will eventually be his work to undertake the cause of his people, and also to punish the world for its wickedness. Behold, I am against you, he says. We have seen a similar mode of speaking elsewhere; there is therefore no need to dwell on it here.

I will burn, he says, with smoke her chariots. Here by smoke some understand a smoky fire; but the Prophet, I think, meant another thing—that at the first onset God would consume all the chariots of Nineveh.

It is as if he had said that as soon as the flame burst forth, it would be all over with all the forces of Nineveh. For by chariots he no doubt means all their warlike preparations; and we know that they fought then from chariots, just as today horsemen in armor are employed in wars, so there were then chariots.

But the Prophet, by taking a part for the whole, includes all warlike forces: I will burn then the chariots—how? By smoke alone; that is, as soon as the first flame begins to emerge, for the smoke rises before the fire appears or gathers strength. In short, the Prophet shows that Nineveh would be, as it were, in a moment, reduced to nothing, as soon as it pleased God to avenge its wickedness.

He then adds in the third person, And your young lions shall the sword devour. He indeed changes the person here; but the discourse is more striking when God manifests his wrath in abrupt sentences. He had said, Behold, I am against you; then, I will burn her chariots. He now hardly deigns to direct his speech to Nineveh; but afterwards he returns to her, and your young lions shall the sword devour.

Then God, by speaking thus in broken sentences, more fully expresses the dreadful vengeance which he had determined to execute on the Ninevites. He then says, And I will exterminate from the earth your prey; that is, it will not now be allowed you to go on as usual, for I will put a stop to your inhuman cruelty.

Thus prey may be taken for the act itself; or it may be fitly explained of the spoils taken from the nations, for the Ninevites, by their tyrannical ravening, had plundered everywhere. And thus it may be applied to the pillaging of the city. I will then exterminate from the land, that is, from your country, those riches which have been until now heaped together as if a lion had been everywhere gathering prey.

And heard no more shall be the voice of your messengers. Those who understand מלאכים, melakim, to be messengers, apply the word to the heralds, by whom the Assyrians were accustomed to proclaim wars on neighboring nations. As then they sent here and there their heralds to announce war, and as their terrible voice sounded everywhere, the words of the Prophet have this meaning given them—that God would eventually produce silence, so that they should not in the future disturb all their neighboring countries with the clamor of war.

But as this explanation is strained, I am inclined to adopt what others think—that the grinding teeth are here intended. The word is not written according to grammar if it is taken for messengers; it is מלאככה, melakke; there ought not to have been the ה, he at the end, and י, jod, ought to have been inserted before the next to last letter. And if it is deemed as meaning the king, it ought then to have been written מלכך, melkak.

All then confess that the word is not written according to the rule of grammar. And as the Persians call the grinders מלאככה, melakke, we may give this version, which well suits the context, ‘No more shall be heard the sound of grinders.’ For since lions seize the prey with their teeth, and also break the bones, and thus make a great noise when they tear an animal or a man with their teeth, this rendering seems to be the most suitable.

Heard no more shall be the sound of teeth; that is, the noise made by your teeth shall not be heard, for when you now tear your prey, your teeth make a noise. No more then shall the noise from that breaking, or the clashing or the crashing of the teeth be heard. But as to the chief point, this is no matter of importance.

The Prophet simply teaches us here that God would inevitably, in the end, restrain tyrants; for though he hides himself for a time, he yet never forgets the groans of those whom he sees to be unjustly afflicted. And particularly when tyrants molest the Church, it is proved here by the Prophet that God will eventually be a defender. Hence we ought to consider well these words, Behold, I am against you. For though God addresses these words only to the Assyrians, yet as he points out the reasons why he rises up with so much displeasure against them, they ought to be extended to all tyrants, and to all who exercise cruelty towards distressed and innocent men. But this is more clearly expressed in the following verse.

Commentary on Nahum