Nahum 3:19
[There is] no healing of thy bruise
Made by the fatal blow given to the empire by the taking of
Nineveh; the ruin of it was irreparable and irrecoverable; the
city of Nineveh was no more, and the Assyrian empire sunk, and
never rose again: or, "there is no contraction of thy bruise"
F18; as when a wound is healed, or near
it, the skin round about is wrinkled and contracted. The Targum
is,
``there is none that grieves at thy breach;''
so the Syriac version; so far from it, that they rejoiced at it, as
in a following clause:
thy wound is grievous;
to be borne; the pain of it intolerable; an old obstinate one,
inveterate and incurable: or, is "weak", or "sickly" {s}; which had
brought a sickness and weakness on the state, out of which it would
never be recovered:
all that hear the bruit of
thee;
the fame, the report of the destruction of Nineveh, and of the ruin
of the Assyrian empire, and the king of it:
shall clap the
hands over thee;
for joy; so far were they from lending a helping hand in the time
of distress, that they clapped both hands together, to express the
gladness of their hearts at hearing such news:
for upon whom
hath not thy wickedness passed continually?
to which of thy neighbours hast thou not been troublesome and
injurious? which of them hast thou not oppressed, and used with
violence and cruelty? what province or city but have felt the
weight of thine hand, have been harassed with wars, and distressed
with tributes and exactions? and therefore it is no wonder they
rejoice at thy fall. The destruction of this city, and so of the
whole empire, is placed by Dr. Prideaux in the twenty ninth year of
Josiah's reign, and in the year 612 B.C.; and by what Josephus says
F20 it appears to have been but a little
while before Josiah was slain by Pharaohnecho, who came out with an
army to Euphrates, to make war upon the Medes and Babylonians; who,
he says, had overturned the Assyrian empire; being jealous, as it
seems, of their growing power. Learned men justly regret the loss
of the Assyriaca of Abydenus, and of the history of the Assyrians
by Herodotus, who promised