Nahum 1

Nahum 1:1-15 . JEHOVAH'S ATTRIBUTES AS A JEALOUS JUDGE OF SIN, YET MERCIFUL TO HIS TRUSTING PEOPLE, SHOULD INSPIRE THEM WITH CONFIDENCE. HE WILL NOT ALLOW THE ASSYRIANS AGAIN TO ASSAIL THEM, BUT WILL DESTROY THE FOE.

1. burden of Nineveh--the prophetic doom of Nineveh. Nahum prophesied against that city a hundred fifty years after Jonah.

2. jealous--In this there is sternness, yet tender affection. We are jealous only of those we love: a husband, of a wife; a king, of his subjects' loyalty. God is jealous of men because He loves them. God will not bear a rival in His claims on them. His burning jealousy for His own wounded honor and their love, as much as His justice, accounts for all His fearful judgments: the flood, the destruction of Jerusalem, that of Nineveh. His jealousy will not admit of His friends being oppressed, and their enemies flourishing (compare Exodus 20:5 , 1 Corinthians 16:22 , 2 Corinthians 11:2 ). Burning zeal enters into the idea in "jealous" here (compare Numbers 25:11 Numbers 25:13 , 1 Kings 19:10 ).
the Lord revengeth . . . Lord revengeth--The repetition of the incommunicable name JEHOVAH, and of His revenging, gives an awful solemnity to the introduction.
furious--literally, "a master of fury." So a master of the tongue, that is, "eloquent." "One who, if He pleases, can most readily give effect to His fury" [GROTIUS]. Nahum has in view the provocation to fury given to God by the Assyrians, after having carried away the ten tribes, now proceeding to invade Judea under Hezekiah.
reserveth wrath for his enemies--reserves it against His own appointed time ( 2 Peter 2:9 ). After long waiting for their repentance in vain, at length punishing them. A wrong estimate of Jehovah is formed from His suspending punishment: it is not that He is insensible or dilatory, but He reserves wrath for His own fit time. In the case of the penitent, He does not reserve or retain His anger ( Psalms 103:9 , Jeremiah 3:5 Jeremiah 3:12 , Micah 7:18 ).

3. slow to anger, and great in power--that is, but great in power, so as to be able in a moment, if He pleases, to destroy the wicked. His long-suffering is not from want of power to punish ( Exodus 34:6 Exodus 34:7 ).
not at all acquit--literally, "will not acquitting acquit," or treat as innocent.
Lord hath his way in the whirlwind--From this to Nahum 1:5 , inclusive, is a description of His power exhibited in the phenomena of nature, especially when He is wroth. His vengeance shall sweep away the Assyrian foe like a whirlwind ( Proverbs 10:25 ).
clouds are the dust of his feet--Large as they are, He treads on them, as a man would on the small dust; He is Lord of the clouds, and uses them as He pleases.

4. rebuketh the sea--as Jesus did ( Matthew 8:26 ), proving Himself God (compare Isaiah 50:2 ).
Bashan languisheth--through drought; ordinarily it was a region famed for its rich pasturage (compare Joel 1:10 ).
flower of Lebanon--its bloom; all that blooms so luxuriantly on Lebanon ( Hosea 14:7 ). As Bashan was famed for its pastures, Carmel for its corn fields and vineyards, so Lebanon for its forests ( Isaiah 33:9 ). There is nothing in the world so blooming that God cannot change it when He is wroth.

5. earth is burned--so GROTIUS. Rather, "lifts itself," that is, "heaveth" [MAURER]: as the Hebrew is translated in Psalms 89:9 , Hosea 13:1 ; compare 2 Samuel 5:21 , Margin.