John Calvin Commentary Nahum 3:14-15

"Draw thee water for the siege; strengthen thy fortresses; go into the clay, and tread the mortar; make strong the brickkiln. There shall the fire devour thee; the sword shall cut thee off; it shall devour thee like the canker-worm: make thyself many as the canker-worm; make thyself many as the locust." — Nahum 3:14-15 (ASV)

The Prophet continues with the same subject: that the Ninevites would work in vain, while striving anxiously and with every effort to defend themselves against their enemies.

The meaning then is, “Though you show no lack of diligence, yet you will lose all your labor; for you will not be able to resist the vengeance of God. You deceive yourself if you think that by the usual means you can help yourself, for it is God who attacks you by the Babylonians. However much then you may accumulate of those things which are usually employed to fortify cities, all this will be useless.”

Draw for yourself, he says, waters for the siege; that is, lay up provisions for yourself, as is usually done, and have water laid up in cisterns. Strengthen your fortresses, that is, renew them. Enter into the clay for the sake of treading the mortar.

Fortify, or cement, or join together the brick-kiln (for what some think that חזק, chezek, means here—to hold, or to lay hold—is wholly foreign to the Prophet’s meaning). To fortify then the brick-kiln—that is, the bricks which come forth from the kiln—means nothing else than to construct and join them together, so that there might be a solid building.

For we know that buildings often fall or are overturned because they are not well joined together. He refers to the mode of building which historians say was in use among the Assyrians, for as that country had no abundance of stones, they supplied this lack with bricks. We now then understand the Prophet's intention.

But he adds, There shall the fire consume you. There is much importance in the adverb of place, there, which he uses. There also, he says, shall the fire eat you up. For he expresses more than before, when he said that the Assyrians would weary themselves in vain in fortifying their city and their empire. For he says now that the Lord would turn to their destruction those things in which they trusted as their defenses. There then shall the fire consume you. We now then see what the Prophet means.

We must at the same time observe that he mentions water. It is as though he said, “However sparingly and frugally your soldiers may live, being content with water as their drink (for it is necessary, when we would firmly resist enemies, to forgo all indulgences, and if need be, to endure want—at least the want of delicate meat and drink); though your soldiers are content with water, and do not seek water fresh from the spring or the river, but drink it from cisterns; and though your fortresses are repaired, and your walls carefully joined together in a solid structure, with bricks well fitted and fastened—yet there shall the fire consume you.”

That is, your frugality, exertion, and care not only will avail you nothing, but will also turn out to your ruin. For the Lord pronounces accursed the arrogance of men when they trust in their own resources.

He afterwards adds, Exterminate you shall the sword. That is, the Lord will find out various means by which He will consume you. By the fire, then, and by the sword, He will waste and destroy you. He then says, He will consume you as the chafer. We may read the last word in the nominative as well as in the objective case: He as a chafer will consume you.

If we approve of this rendering, then the meaning would be: “As chafers in a short time devour a meadow or standing corn, so your enemies shall soon devour you as with one mouthful.” We indeed know that these little animals are so hurtful that they will very soon eat up and consume all the fruit, and there is in these insects an astonishing voracity.

But as the Prophet afterwards compares the Assyrians to chafers and locusts, another sense would be more suitable, and that is: that God’s judgment would consume the Assyrians, as when rain, or a storm, or a change of season consumes the chafers. For as these insects are very hurtful, so the Lord also exterminates them whenever He pleases.

He afterwards adds, to be multiplied. This is, as I have said, a verb in the infinitive mood. But the Prophet's sentence is this: by multiplying as the chafer, to multiply as the locusts. But why he speaks thus may be better understood from the context; the two following verses must therefore be added.