Page:An Exposition of the Old and New Testament (1828) vol 4.djvu/1055



The name of this prophet signifies a comforter; for it was a charge given to all the prophets, Comfort ye, comfort ye my people; and even this prophet, though wholly taken up in foretelling the destruction of Nineveh, which speaks terror to the Assyrians, is, even in that, comforter to the ten tribes of Israel, who, it is probable, were now lately carried captives into Assyria. It is very uncertain at what time he lived and prophesied, but it is most probable that he lived in the time of Hezekiah, and prophesied against Nineveh, after the captivity of Israel by the king of Assyria, which was in the ninth year of Hezekiah, and before Sennacherib's invading Judah, which was in the fourteenth year of Hezekiah, for to that attempt, and the defeat of it, it is supposed, the first chapter has reference; and it is probable that it was delivered a little before it, for the encouragement of God's people in that day of treading down and perplexity. It is the conjecture of the learned Huetius, that the two other chapters of this book were delivered by Nahum some years after, perhaps in the reign of Manasseh, and m that reign the Jewish chronologies generally place him; somewhat nearer to the time when Nineveh was conquered, and the Assyrian monarchy reduced, by Cyaxares and Nebuchadnezzar, some time before the first captivity of Judah. It is probable that Nahum did by word of mouth prophesy many things concerning Israel and Judah, as it is certain that Jonah did, (2 Kings xiv. 25.) though we have nothing of either of them in writing, but what related to Nineveh, of which, though a great and ancient city, yet, probably, we should never have heard in sacred writ, if the Israel of God had not had some concern in it.

In this chapter we have, I. The inscription of the book, v. 1. II. A magnificent display of the glory of God, in a mixture of wrath and justice against the wicked, and mercy and grace toward his people, and the discovery of his majesty and power in both, v. 2..8. III. A particular application of this (as most interpreters think) to the destruction of Sennacherib and the Assyrian army, when they besieged Jerusalem, which was a very memorable and illustrious instance of the power both of God's justice and of his mercy, and spake abundance of terror to his enemies, and encouragement to his faithful servants, v. 9..16.

HE burden of Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite.

This title directs us to consider, 1. The great city against which the word of the Lord is here delivered; it is the burthen of Nineveh; not only a prophecy, and a weighty one, but a burthensome prophecy, a dead weight to Nineveh, a mill-stone hanged about its neck. Nineveh was the place concerned, and the Assyrian monarchy, which that was the royal seat of. About a hundred years before this, Jonah had, in God's name, foretold the speedy overthrow of this great city; but then the Ninevites repented, and were spared, and that decree did not bring forth; the Ninevites then saw clearly how much it was to their advantage, to turn from their evil way, it was the saving of their city; and yet, soon after, they returned to it again; it became worse than ever, a bloody city, and full of lies and robbery; they repented of their repentance, returned with the dog to his vomit, and at length grew worse than ever they had been; then God sent them not this prophet, as Jonah, but this prophecy, to read them their doom, which was now irreversible. Note, The reprieve will not be continued, if the repentance be not continued in. If men turn from the good they began to do, they can Vol. IV.— 6 R