TEXT [Commentary]

  2.   A concluding condemnation of Nineveh (3:14-19)

14 Get ready for the siege!

Store up water!

Strengthen the defenses!

Go into the pits to trample clay,

and pack it into molds,

making bricks to repair the walls.

15 But the fire will devour you;

the sword will cut you down.

The enemy will consume you like locusts,

devouring everything they see.

There will be no escape,

even if you multiply like swarming locusts.

16 Your merchants have multiplied

until they outnumber the stars.

But like a swarm of locusts,

they strip the land and fly away.

17 Your guards[*] and officials are also like swarming locusts

that crowd together in the hedges on a cold day.

But like locusts that fly away when the sun comes up,

all of them will fly away and disappear.

18 Your shepherds are asleep, O Assyrian king;

your princes lie dead in the dust.

Your people are scattered across the mountains

with no one to gather them together.

19 There is no healing for your wound;

your injury is fatal.

All who hear of your destruction

will clap their hands for joy.

Where can anyone be found

who has not suffered from your continual cruelty?

NOTES

3:14 defenses! This noun provides the literary hook with the previous section (3:8-13), the word being the same as that translated “fortresses” in 3:12.

molds. The Hebrew noun has been variously understood as “brick kiln” (KJV; Keil 1954), “brick mold” (NRSV; Cathcart 1979; Longman 1993; Maier 1959; Roberts 1991; Robertson 1990), or “brick work” (NIV; cf. Akkadian libittu). If this last alternative is chosen, it may refer to the 50–100 foot thick walls surrounding Nineveh. The NLT follows the second alternative.

3:15 fire will devour . . . sword. Again, the figure of consuming/eating is employed for dramatic emphasis. In addition, as Maier (1959:342-343) points out, the terms “fire” and “sword” often appear together as a pair in connection with catastrophes. The two are also often placed together in Ugaritic. (See Gordon 1965:168, text #49, 2.30-33; 197, text #137, line 32.)

3:16 merchants. The underlying noun comes from the root rakal [TH7402, ZH8217], which is known, for example, in Old South Arabian where it means “go about as a trader.”

3:17 guards. Cf. NLT mg, “princes.” The precise significance of the Hebrew noun (minnezar [TH4502, ZH4964]) is variously understood. Luther’s herren, as well as the French (princes) and Italian (principi), translate it as “crowned ones” (cf. KJV). Roberts decides for “officials,” preferring a derivation from Akkadian manzazu (courtier). (But note that the NLT’s “officials” comes from tapsar in the second line of the verse and is not part of its rendering of minnezar.) The Latin Vulgate reads custodes (“guards”; cf. NIV, NRSV, NASB, NLT). If the reading “guards” is followed, the Hebrew noun may be related to the Akkadian verb nasaru (guard), which has undergone regressive contiguous phonemic dissimilation. Alternation between z and s is common enough in Akkadian. Certainly nasaru is attested with z written for s and with dissimilation via n (nasalization), particularly in Babylonian. For details, see The Assyrian Dictionary (Chicago: The Oriental Institute, 1977, 1980), vol. 10, part 1, 333-334; vol. 11, part 2, 34-47.

fly away and disappear. Lit., “and the place where they are is not known.” The word where (’ayyam [TH335, ZH361]) is situated ambiguously between vv. 17 and 18 in some editions of the Hebrew Bible, allowing for two interpretations. Most translations take it with v. 17 (e.g., NIV, NRSV, NLT). If it is to be taken with v. 18, Nahum has once again closed a literary unit with a question: “Where are they [the princes/shepherds]?” (cf. 1:6; 2:11; 3:7).

3:18 princes. The Hebrew noun means “shepherds.” As such, it anticipates the subsequent figure of the people as scattered sheep.

are asleep . . . lie dead. The verbs here are namu [TH5123, ZH5670] (slumber) and shakan [TH7931, ZH8905] (dwell, lie down). In the second line, Nahum uses shakan instead of the more familiar yashen [TH3462, ZH3822] (be asleep) as double entendre (i.e., the final sleep, death; cf. Ps 94:7; Isa 26:19). The semantic range represented in the words of the MT may contain a picturesque progression. The king of Assyria’s trusted officials, far from being awake to the emergency, grow drowsy and take their rest—one that will prove to be final. As Bailey (1999:241) suggests, “‘Sleep’ may also be a metaphor for death, a poignant description of Assyria’s certain destruction.”

scattered. The picture is one of a totally dispersed populace, officials and citizens alike, scattered across the countryside like sheep on the mountains with no shepherd to gather them to safety (cf. 1 Kgs 22:17).

3:19 healing. The Hebrew word is a hapax legomenon. If it is taken from the root kahah [TH3543, ZH3908] (grow faint, grow dim), it may mean something like “relief.”

COMMENTARY [Text]

At verse 14, Nahum approaches the end of his prophecy. The verses that follow form the second portion of an extended taunt song that again functions as satire. Although the closing verses constitute one literary unit, several movements are discernible. This short pericope contains two short, ironic commands (3:14-15a, 15b-17) and a final gibe that forms both a concluding denunciation and a doleful dirge (3:18-19).

The first movement emphasizes the futility of physical preparations in view of the coming siege. Nahum’s sarcasm is evident throughout. He told the Ninevites first of all to lay in a good water supply (3:14). Similarly Nahum urged the citizens of Nineveh to strengthen the strategic points of the city’s defenses. The force of the irony becomes immediately apparent. In those matters where the most extensive preparations were urged to be taken—water and walls—the city was to meet its demise.

Nahum prophesied that Nineveh would know the besieger’s fiery torch and sword, as the enemy swept through the city like a horde of devouring locusts. The mention of the fearsome locusts occasions Nahum’s shift in the use of irony. Nahum called upon Nineveh to be like locusts, multiplying their defensive forces to locust-like proportions (3:15). Should that not be easy for Nineveh? Indeed, it could be truly said of the city that she had acted before like a locust. As a result of her far-flung conquests, Nineveh had become filled with booty and with the famed Assyrian merchant who, plying his trade, had filled the city with every conceivable commodity. But with the coming of the threat of invasion, Nineveh’s merchants would take their wares and flee, leaving the city deprived of its provisions, many of which would be desperately needed in the ensuing struggle. As locusts that come only to satisfy their insatiable appetites and then fly off, so her merchants would take their goods and go, leaving a needy populace behind.

Likewise, Nineveh’s trusted officials could be likened to locusts that come out of the ground in great swarms, lodge during the cooler part of the day on walls, and then, with the rising of the sun, fly away. Ancient sources record the flight of the Assyrian nobility at the advance of the combined enemy force against Nineveh.[92]

As Nahum came to the end of his prophecy, he changed the figure one last time. He compared Nineveh’s leaders to shepherds (cf. Jer 23:1-2) who had nodded off to sleep and allowed the sheep (the Ninevites) to be scattered (in flight or in exile) and subjected to harm. Even worse, no one came to regather them. The choice of this motif as the final one for the book may suggest, as many commentators have observed, that the “sleep” of the shepherds or officials is the sleep of death (cf. Jer 51:57). With its officials dead in battle, Nineveh’s citizens fled or were captured. With all leadership lost, there was none left to gather them. The “scatterer” (2:1; see note) had come and done his work.

Nahum’s last words once again underscore the hopelessness of human arrogance before the judging hand of God. Regardless of any and all preparations, defense is useless in the face of certain judgment. Moreover, Nineveh would learn what all tyrannical kingdoms have learned: When faced with the threat of extinction and death, even a vaunted leadership will desert the cause (Prov 25:19).

It was Nineveh’s final hour. The once mighty city had fallen and would soon become a ghost town; it would become a ruins, haunted only by wild animals moving through the rubble (cf. Zeph 2:13-15). Nahum’s final denunciation of the city tolls out like a bell for a state funeral: Gone! Gone! Both city and citizenry, gone! Nineveh’s last wound had been the coup mortel. But there would be no lamentation over the deceased city, only universal relief and rejoicing. She who had so cruelly treated mankind would reap the reward of her evil deeds (cf. Prov 11:16-19; Hos 8:7).

The specter of Assyria’s disappearance haunts every great empire. Nahum’s opening words concerning divine justice are general, so that wherever a godless lifestyle so pervades a nation as to be characteristic of its people, it stands in danger of judgment. The words of warning by P. C. Craigie (1976:76) are apropos: “If we have grasped Nahum’s message, we will not volunteer to join the ranks of Nineveh’s attacker; rather, we shall seek to transform the evil within the nation to which we belong.”

Nahum’s closing motif of the slumbering shepherds (officials) and the scattered sheep (people) stands in stark contrast to the picture of Israel’s hope. Unlike Assyria’s shepherds, Israel’s eternal Shepherd “slumbers not, nor sleeps” (Ps 121:4, Mendelssohn’s Elijah); he will yet regather its lost sheep (Jer 23:3) so that Israel’s redeemed cities can “be filled with flocks of people” (Ezek 36:38, NIV). Moreover, the divine Shepherd himself (Ps 23:1) will be with them: “I will be their God, and they will be my people” (Ezek 37:27). May Nahum’s words, as well as those of all God’s prophets, teach all God’s people to trust him who is the Shepherd and Guardian of their souls (1 Pet 2:25).