John Calvin Commentary Nahum 3:7

"And it shall come to pass, that all they that look upon thee shall flee from thee, and say, Nineveh is laid waste: who will bemoan her? whence shall I seek comforters for thee?" — Nahum 3:7 (ASV)

When he says, כל-ראיך, cal-raik, ‘whoever sees you,’ we therefore learn again that רואי, ruai, at the end of the last verse, is to be understood as example or spectacle. For the Prophet proceeds with the same subject: I will make you, he says, an example, or a spectacle. For what purpose?

That whoever sees you may depart from you. This was an evidence of horror—though some think it was a reward for her cruelty—that no one came to Nineveh, but she was forsaken by all friends in her desolation.

And they understand what follows in the same way: Who will condole with her? And from where shall I seek comforters for you?

For they think that the Ninevites are here reproached for their cruelty, because they made themselves so hated by everyone that they were unworthy of sympathy. They spared no one; they allowed themselves full liberty in injuring others; they had gained the hatred of all the world.

Therefore, some think that what is intimated here is that the Ninevites were justly detested, and so no one condoled with them in so great a calamity, since they had been injurious to all: It shall then happen, that whoever sees you shall go far away from you and shall say, Wasted is Nineveh; who will condole with her? From where shall I call comforters to her?

But I do not know whether this refined meaning occurred to the Prophet. We may explain the words more simply: that all would flee far away as a proof of their horror, and that the calamity would be such that no lamentation could match it.

Who will be able to console her? That is, if the greatness of her calamity were duly weighed, even though all were to weep and utter their moanings, it would still not be sufficient; all lamentations would be far unequal to so great a calamity.

The Prophet seems rather to mean this: Who then shall condole with her? And from where shall I seek comforters, as if he said, “The ruin of so splendid a city will not be of an ordinary kind, but one that cannot be equaled by any lamentations.”