Translation & Sermon by Nate Wilson for Christ The Redeemer Church of Manhattan, KS, 23 Feb. 2025
Read
my translation of Nahum 2:1-10:
One who scatters has come
up against your front: guard the fort-wall! Monitor the road;
tighten belts; marshal extra strength, because Yahweh has turned the
arrogance of Jacob like the arrogance of Israel, for evacuators have
evacuated them and have destroyed their pruned-grapevines. The
shield of its mighty-men is red-colored; the infantry men are
crimson-clad. The cavalry [comes] with firey steel-plating since the
day it was outfitted, and the war-horses quiver. And, as for the
cavalry, they will flash through the streets; they will run to and
fro through the plazas. Their appearance is like torches –
speeding like lightening-bolts. He will keep in mind his noblemen;
they will be weakened on their way; they will hurry to her wall, and
the protective-cover will be set up. The rivers’ gates were
opened, and the palace dissolved. Then he will be confirmed-victor;
she will be exposed; she will be taken away, even her maids moaning
like the sound of doves, beating themselves over their heart. So, as
for Nineveh, her waters will be like a pool of waters when they are
running away. “Stop! Stop!” but there is not one who will
face-about. “Plunder the silver! Plunder the gold! For there is no
end to the opportunity; there is a load of every thing you could
want!” Vacuousness and evacuating and being evacuated! So the
heart melts, and the knees wobble, and everybody’s sides are in
agony, and the faces of all of them collect a blush.
Nahum chapters 2 and 3 are ostensibly about how the great civilization of Nineveh will be overthrown, but it is strikingly similar to the messages of other prophets throughout the Bible who warned ungodly cities that they, too, would be besieged and overthrown,
for instance, Jerusalem, in Isaiah 29:3, Babylon, in Jeremiah 51:12, and Rome in Rev. 18.
So, although Nahum’s prophecy is against the Assyrian empire and its capitol city of Nineveh, it is part of a bigger picture of God’s sovereignty over all nations throughout all time.
In Nahum 2:1, there is a disruptive person who has approached the wall of the fortified city. The Hebrew wording pictures him “facing off against” the outer wall the city.
He is called “one who scatters” literally in the Hebrew.
It might simply refer to the fact that this dude has a history of successful sieges which have caused people in city after city to flee in all directions when their defenses have been broken through.
Or it may refer specifically to the Assyrian policy of removing conquered peoples from their native land and resettling them somewhere else, effectively scattering the national strength of all vassals.
Or it may refer to the new leadership of the Medo-Persian empire which systematically destroyed the Assyrian empire.
So, which is it?
In v. 6, the city wall being attacked was flooded by river-water to dissolve the foundations and to cause the wall to collapse; that matches the history of how Nineveh was conquered.
Also, the third chapter of Nahum, has a lot of parallels to this second chapter, so it may be describing the same event. If it is, then the “you” is the king of Assyria (or its capitol city Nineveh), because in Nahum 3:18 it says, “O king of Assyria, your shepherds sleep in death...” (NKJV)
And Nineveh is named explicitly in v.8.
Now, cities back then were built on hills so that any enemy would have to fight uphill if they attacked it, thus the verb “he has come up” in most English versions.
The response of the people defending the city in the second half of v.1 is called out like a set of rapid-fire military orders:
Guard the fortifications!
Watch the road!
Tighten belts!
Marshal extra strength!
The men inside Nineveh needed to man their posts on top of the outer wall and protect the city from attackers by shooting at the enemy as it approached the city.
There also needed to be watchmen carefully monitoring the road coming up to the city to keep track of how many enemy troops were coming in, what kind of weapons they were bringing in, and whether any allies were coming to join in the defense.2
The ESV “dress for battle” is a very loose interpretation of the literal “strengthen loins” but it explains what is otherwise an odd-sounding command in English.
And they needed to be ready to engage in hand-to-hand combat,
perhaps they needed to organize backups to stand in the gap and fight if they get overwhelmed,
or perhaps they just needed to prepare mentally and screw up their courage against the fear of combat.
This phrase occurs only two other places in the Bible: Prov. 24:5 speaks in terms of intellectual strength while Amos 2:14 speaks of muscular strength, and both are useful in battle!
The vividness of Nahum’s vision some one hundred years before it happened is a testament to the omniscience of the God who gave Nahum this vision. And you, if you “stand alone on the word of God,” the world may scoff at you now, but time will tell that your God knows what He’s talking about, and He is worth listening to.
There are two ways to read v.2:
One is to follow the literal past tense of the Hebrew and interpret the gaon of Israel and Judah as a negative thing: prepare to defend your city from siege “because Yahweh has turned back the arrogance of Jacob like the arrogance of Israel, for evacuators have evacuated them and have destroyed their pruned-grapevines.” This is the way Christians have read it in Latin and Greek for almost two millennia, and that is the sense of the earliest English versions.
In the mid-19th century, English versions started changing it to future tense and interpreting the gaon of Israel and Judah as a positive thing: “For the LORD will return the splendor/excellency/majesty of Jacob Like the splendor/excellency/majesty of Israel, Even though devastators/destroyers/plunderers have laid them waste and have ruined their vine branches.”
The Hebrew word gaon means anything that is raised “high,” so it could mean the “excellence” of Jacob (as it does in Ps. 47:5), but more often it means the “haughty arrogance” of Jacob/Israel (as it does in Amos 6:8, Ezekiel 33:28, and Hosea 5:5)3.
The traditional interpretation appears to point this prophecy as a warning to Judea that God would discipline them for their pride by a foreign army destroying their farmland and then attacking the walled city of Jerusalem, just like what happened to the northern kingdom of Israel and its capitol city of Samaria. The fulfillment of this prophetic warning can be seen in the sieges of Jerusalem by the Assyrians around 700 BC and later by the Chaldeans around 600 BC.
The contemporary interpretation makes this a prophecy of hope to Israel and Judah after they have been devastated by foreign armies, which means it would be addressed to people who lived after the fall of Jerusalem, which would be after the fall of Nineveh too, making Nahum’s prophecy about Nineveh fraudulent, and the contemporary interpretation would also indicate that the northern kingdom of Israel will return to a glorious state before the southern kingdom of Judah does, which is not the way it happened, so it would also make Nahum’s prophecy fraudulent.
The only way to make the contemporary interpretation of v.2 work would be if you connect it with earlier foreign raids which partially devastated Judea (such as the Assyrian one around 700BC) and if you make the “excellence of Judah” mean the southern kingdom during, say, Hezekiah’s reign, but make “the excellence of Israel” mean the previously-undivided kingdom under David and Solomon.
In that case, God can be saying that “the Assyrians have been abusive to J[udah]... as well as to Israel... [so] God's quarrel with [Assyria] is [as Habakkuk put it later] ‘for the violence done to Jacob.’” ~M. Henry
Whichever it is, it is a reminder, in the middle of a prophecy against Nineveh, that God has not forgotten about His people back in Israel. He will deal justly with them and He will redeem them when they call on Him to save them, even while He deals justly with Israel’s chief enemy.
The invading army is described in vivid detail in verses 3-4 as they set up for a siege.
First come the “mighty men” – probably army officers, carrying shields wrapped with red-dyed leather, together with their infantrymen/valiant warriors/soldiers, clad in crimson/ scarlet. The red uniforms and shields look very striking on the bleak battlefield, a harbinger that much blood is about to be shed.
Next comes the cavalry, with ranks of horse-drawn chariots.
These chariots have newfangled steel plating that flashes like fire in the sun. That new technology from the research-and-development arm of their military complex will render their vehicles impervious to the threat of spears and arrows.
The last phrase, according to the Hebrew Masoretic text is “cypress/pine/fir spears are shaken/brandished,” and that is what all the English versions since the 17th century read.
The oldest-known Hebrew manuscript (that is legible enough to read) is dated to the 900’s AD (the older Dead Sea Scrolls are obliterated at the key points in this verse),
but if you look at the Greek, Latin, and Aramaic manuscripts made hundreds of years before the Masoretic Hebrew manuscript, they all read that it is “horses” rather than “cypresses” that are doing the quivering.
There is only one letter difference in Hebrew between “horses” and “cypress-trees,” and it doesn’t change the meaning much whether it’s the horses or the spears quivering; both could be part of the description of a chariot-based cavalry and both indicate an eagerness to rush into battle.
The description of the cavalry continues into v.4 – they are quite impressive, as the chariots
flash/rage/storm/race madly through the streets,
and jostle/rush wildly/back and forth through the broad ways/public squares/plazas,
looking like flashing torches in their shiny steel armor, speeding/darting/dashing/running like lightening-bolts4.
Some say the Medes were the first to mount steel blades on the hubs of their chariot wheels to weaponize them.5
By this point, the enemy has clearly entered the city and is trying to create shock and awe in the city streets to get the residents under their control as quickly as possible.
Later in chapter 3, Nahum writes: “The noise of a whip And the noise of rattling wheels, Of galloping horses, Of clattering chariots! Horsemen charge with bright sword and glittering spear. There is a multitude of slain, A great number of bodies, Countless corpses They stumble over the corpses” (Nahum 3:2-3, NKJV)
Of course, Nineveh isn’t the last place this happened.
The rest of the Bible contains strikingly-similar descriptions of the overthrow of Jerusalem (Joel 2:1-9, Jer. 4:13, & Ezek. 23:14-15), of Babylon (Isaiah 33:3-5), and of Tyre (Ezek. 26:10).
And it is also in descriptions of the second coming of Christ, such as Isaiah 66:15 “For look, Yahweh will come with fire, and like the whirlwind His chariots will be, to return in the fury of His anger, and His rebuke will be with flames of fire.” (NAW, cf. Ps. 18:14)
In v. 5, I think “the scatterer/attacker” from v. 1 comes back into view as the general who orchestrates the attack against Nineveh6.
He watches as his noble knights/officers lead the charge against the city wall.
Something “trips” them up as they “go on their way”
perhaps it is the “dead bodies” in the field that Nahum 3:3 mentions being a “tripping” hazard,
or perhaps it is just that they are getting hit by arrows from the defenders up on the wall7,
but the faster they can cover that ground, the fewer casualties they will take, so they “rush” in.
Once at the base of the wall, the attacking army erects a “protective covering” of some kind that will shield the next wave of attackers from the arrows and stones being rained down on them by the soldiers inside the city.
The ESV calls it a “siege tower,”
but the Hebrew word has more to to with “covering” than with scaling a wall, so I think the NASB “mantelet” is a better translation for it [see picture of a mantelet].
The next order of business for the invading army is to break through the city walls. This was usually done by hammering rocks out of the wall or digging under the foundation to make the wall collapse. But in v.6, a surprising technique is employed: the “river” is “opened up” against the city “wall” to erode it and make it fall!
Nowhere else does the Bible mention a “river” having “gates,” so I suspect that Nahum is describing a unique man-made diversion of the river.
And we know from history that this is how Nineveh’s mighty walls were brought down: “A 150-foot-wide moat surrounded Nineveh on three sides, with the Tigris River on the city’s west. The moat ran between two walls that protected Nineveh. In time of invasion, sluices were opened to fill the moat with water from the Khoser River, making the moat a barrier to protect the city. In the third year of the siege, heavy rains flooded the Khoser and Tigris Rivers. The invaders opened the sluices, causing floodwater from the reservoirs to break through the city walls and destroy the palace.8”
Verse 7 begins with three terse verbs, the first one masculine and the second two feminine. I think the masculine verb refers to the “scatterer” which opens chapter 2, and the feminine verbs refers to the feminine city of Nineveh and her inhabitants.
The first verb – the masculine one – in Hebrew, has to do with “being established,” and the second and third words have to do with “being stripped bare” and “being taken away.”
So I translate it: “Then he will be confirmed-victor; she will be exposed; she will be taken away...”
However, many translations ignore both the masculine and verbal form of the first word in the verse (and the disjunctive punctuation after it) to make it into a feminine noun, based on the belief that the Hebrew word, which is pronounced huzzab, was a reference to the matron-goddess of Nineveh and therefore stands for Nineveh itself.
Still other English translations agreed that the first word was a verb with a masculine subject, but it has been so many verses since the masculine “scatterer” in v.1 and the kingly supervisor-of-nobles in v.5, that they decided it was not related to the conqueror, so they rendered it, “It is fixed/decreed.” That still works and points to the sovereign word of God.
The latter half of v.7 is more straightforward, picturing the “maids/slave girls” being led off into captivity, captured by the invading soldiers to be wives or servants.
They are “lamenting/moaning like the sound of doves” [imitate a dove call]9,
and “beating” themselves, the Hebrew says literally, “over their heart.”
What a poignant portrayal of the grief of the conquered – of those who side with the kingdom of man against the kingdom of God and end up the worse.
Verse 8 portrays Nineveh as a has-been, combining the idea of the river flooding with the idea of the Assyrians fleeing from the city when it is conquered.
One of the Hebrew phrases in v.8 can be translated either “from her days” or it can be translated “her waters:”
The KJV and NASB followed the Targums in opting for “from her days” (or less-accurately “from the days of old”), the idea being that Nineveh used to be a life-giving water source, but now it’s all going away.
Alternately, the NIV & ESV followed the ancient Vulgate, Septuagint, and Peshitta by translating the phrase as “her waters,” in which case, the idea is that Nineveh is flooded, and the waters are running away and so are its people.
It always impresses me how variants in the Bible don’t end up making a difference in the overall gist of a verse, and this is no exception.
Any Assyrian captain stupid enough to try to regain control of the city by rallying his fellow-Ninevites as they flee out of the city is blowing into the wind.
Nobody in their right mind is going to “about-face” when commanded to “Halt.”
Nahum 3:17 mentions that even the military officers are going to flee away.10
Again, the city of human strength in opposition against God Almighty will end up losing everything. It will be a complete rout.
God has the power to give such a perfect vision to Nahum that it’s as though Nahum is standing right there in the city of Nineveh while all this is happening, despite the fact that it didn’t occur until about a century after Nahum!
In verses 7 and 8, he has heard the voices of the Assyrian officers inside Nineveh trying to rally a defense, and the voices of captured victims moaning as they are led out of the city,
but now in v.9 he hears another voice. It’s the voice of Cyaxeres (or his invading army officers) encouraging the Medo-Persian soldiers to grab all the loot they can, as they secure one building after another in their systematic takeover of the once-great city of Nineveh.
This is their take-home pay for serving in this war campaign, so they’re grabbing all the “gold” and “silver” they can find in the abandoned homes and businesses of Nineveh.
The Hebrew wording of v.9 implies that there is such a “store/treasure/supply” of loot in the city of Nineveh that, even if the officers were to evenly divide it up among all their soldiers, there would be more “valuable/pleasant/desirable/precious things” than the soldiers could even make use of, so the officers are just telling them to “go for it” and take anything they want. There was so much “wealth” in Nineveh that there would be more than plenty to go around amongst the conquerors.
So, all the work the Ninevites had done to acquire all that wealth was wasted and lost. (“The plunder becomes the plundered.” ~Michael P. V. Barrett) They realized only too late how foolish it was for them to prioritize making money and getting things instead of discovering and investing in the ways of Jonah’s God which bring happiness forever.
And so the wealth changed hands, and God gave the new Medo-Persian empire the chance to hear His word, learn of His mercy, be warned not to rebel, and then be punished and plundered (just like the Assyrians) when they chose ungodliness.
Then their wealth changed hands to the next world power, and so God continues to lead the march of history11, accomplishing redemption and justice all along the way while the empires of man rise and fall.
Verse 10 is a kind of recap, reviewing the status of being an Assyrian from Nineveh after God’s judgment fell on that city:
Nahum uses a series of three closely-related Hebrew words that all have to do with being “empty,” but since some of them are found nowhere else in the Bible, they are translated in a variety of ways: empty, void, waste, desolate, pillaged, plundered, stripped, ruin, torn.
All three words share a common Hebrew root12, and the first is spelled like a noun, the second like a participle, and the third like a passive verb, so I translated them “Vacuousness,” “evacuating,” and “being evacuated.”
It’s as though an Assyrian is watching the once-proud, once-wealthy residents of Nineveh voluntarily evacuating the city – fleeing for their lives, while also watching other Assyrians involuntarily being evacuated as the Medes lead them captive out of the city as slaves, and the lesson from Ecclesiastes is dawning on him: “Vanity of vanities… all is vanity13!”
God has located us at the turn of the 21st century in the United States of America – the wealthiest, most powerful nation in the world at our time. (You may not feel wealthy and powerful and priveleged, but if you travel to any of the countries in the majority world, it will dawn on you how much more wealth and status and privelege you have than most of the rest of the world!) In the 20th and 21st centuries A.D., the U.S.A. is like Assyria was in the 7th and 8th centuries B.C.: The world power who couldn’t be beat – the “top dog” who controlled the wealth and power of the world.
But being an Assyrian was emptied of all its status when God had His day of reckoning with it, and there will come a day when being an American will mean nothing if America continues to ignore and insult the God who blessed her in the first place.
In the end, all they are left with is their miserable self14:
their “heart melted” and completely unstable,
their “knees wobbling/knocking together/trembling and giving way,”
“everybody’s loins/sides/bodies in agony/pain/anguish,”
and their faces all the wrong color – some versions read “pale,” some read “black,” but all the standard Hebrew-English lexicons translate it as a blush, consistent with shame and embarassment.
Seeing Nahum’s prophecy in the context of the entirety of the Bible helps us see that Nahum is not merely an ethnocentric Jew ranting against a foreign nation; rather, Nahum is representing the Almighty God Who has been interacting with mankind throughout history (and throughout the world) to instruct in righteousness, offer mercy, warn of judgment, punish evil, and redeem His people.
Nahum is reviewing one part of one specific example of God’s historic process. God had instructed Nineveh in righteousness and offered mercy and warned of judgment through the Prophet Jonah, and then God punished Nineveh and saved His people from being oppressed by the Ninevites, as outlined in Nahum.
Considered by themselves, the numerous warnings of judgment in the Bible can appear void of grace, depressing without hope, and of no practical use to us, but considered within the whole Biblical context as one act in a larger play about God’s justice and mercy and redemption, we can see that the entire play is about the Gospel, and the play in its entirety is performed over and over again throughout history,
pointing us to worship the God who cares about humans,
pointing us to respect Him by obeying His standards of right and wrong,
pointing us to deep gratitude that He extends mercy to us,
pointing us to repentance when we go off-track and hear the warning messages He sends,
pointing us to love and enjoy Him for rescuing us from evil.
DouayB (Vulgate) |
LXXC |
BrentonD (Vaticanus) |
KJVE |
NAW |
Masoretic HebrewF |
1
He is come up that shall destroy
before thy face, that
shall keep the
|
2
ἀνέβη |
1
... |
1
He that dasheth
in pieces is come up before thy
face: keep
the |
1 One who scatters has come up against your front: guard the fort-wall! Monitor the road; tighten belts; marshal extra strength, |
(ב) עָלָה מֵפִיץH עַל פָּנַיִךְ נָצוֹר מְצֻרָהI צַפֵּה דֶרֶךְ חַזֵּק מָתְנַיִם J אַמֵּץ כֹּחַ מְאֹד. |
2 For the Lord hath rendered the pride of Jacob, as the pride of Israel: because the spoilers have laid them waste, and have marred their vine branches. |
3 διότι ἀπέστρεψεν κύριος τὴν ὕβριν Ιακωβ καθὼς ὕβριν τοῦ Ισραηλ, διότι ἐκτινάσσοντες ἐξετίναξαν αὐτοὺς καὶ τὰ κλήματα αὐτῶν, διέφθειραν |
2 For the Lord has turned aside the pride of Jacob, as the pride of Israel: for they have utterly rejected them, and have destroyed their branches. |
2 For the LORD hath turned away the excellency of Jacob, as the excellency of Israel: for the emptiers have emptied them out, and marred their vine branches. |
2 because Yahweh has turned the arrogance of Jacob like the arrogance of Israel, for evacuators have evacuated them and have destroyed their pruned-grapevines. |
(ג) כִּי שָׁבK יְהוָה אֶת גְּאוֹן יַעֲקֹב כִּגְאוֹן יִשְׂרָאֵל כִּי בְקָקוּםL בֹּקְקִים וּזְמֹרֵיהֶםM שִׁחֵתוּ. |
3
The shield of his mighty men is |
4
ὅπλα δυναστείας αὐτῶν |
3
[They have
destroyed]
the arms
of their power
|
3 The shield of his mighty men is made red, the valiant men are in scarlet: the chariots shall be with flaming torches in the day of his preparation, and the fir trees shall be terribly shaken. |
3 The shield of its mighty-men is red-colored; the infantry men are crimson-clad. The cavalry [comes] with firey steel-plating since the day it was outfitted, and the /war-horses\ quiver. |
(ד) מָגֵן גִּבֹּרֵיהוּ מְאָדָּם אַנְשֵׁי חַיִל מְתֻלָּעִיםP בְּאֵשׁ פְּלָדוֹתQ הָרֶכֶב בְּיוֹם הֲכִינוֹ וְהַבְּרֹשִׁיםR הָרְעָלוּS. |
4 X They are in confusion in the ways, the chariot[s] jostle one against another in the streets: their looks are like torches, like lightningT running to and fro. |
5
ἐν ταῖς ὁδοῖς, καὶ συγχυθήσονται
τὰ ἅρματ |
4
in the ways, and the chariot[s]
shall clash
together,
and shall be
entangled
in each other in the broad ways:
their appearance is as lamps [of
fire, and] as
|
4 X The chariot[s] shall rage in the streets, they shall justle one against another in the broad ways: they shall seem like torches, they shall run like the lightnings. |
4 And, as for the cavalry, they will flash through the streets; they will run to and fro through the plazas. Their appearance is like torches – speeding like lightening-bolts. |
(ה) בַּחוּצוֹת יִתְהוֹלְלוּ Vהָרֶכֶב יִשְׁתַּקְשְׁקוּן W בָּרְחֹבוֹת מַרְאֵיהֶן כַּלַּפִּידִם כַּבְּרָקִים יְרוֹצֵצוּX. |
5 He will muster up his valiant men, they shall stumble in their march: they shall quickly get upon the walls thereof: and a covering shall be prepared. |
6
[καὶ]Y
μνησθήσ |
5
[And]
|
5 He shall recount his worthies: they shall stumble in their walk; they shall make haste to the wall thereof, and the defence shall be prepared. |
5 He will keep in mind his noblemen; they will be weakened on their way; they will hurry to her wall, and the protective-cover will be set up. |
(ו) יִזְכֹּרAH אַדִּירָיו יִכָּשְׁלוּ בַהֲלִכוֹתָם AI יְמַהֲרוּ חוֹמָתָהּAJ וְהֻכַן הַסֹּכֵךְ. |
6 The gates of the rivers are opened, and the temple is thrown down to the ground. |
7 πύλαι τῶν ποταμῶν AKδιηνοίχθησαν, καὶ τὰ βασίλεια διέπεσεν,AL, |
6
The gates of the |
6 The gates of the rivers shall be opened, and the palace shall be dissolved. |
6 The rivers’ gates were opened, and the palace dissolved. |
(ז) שַׁעֲרֵי הַנְּהָרוֹת נִפְתָּחוּ וְהַהֵיכָל נָמוֹגAN. |
7
And the |
8
καὶ ἡ
ὑπόστασιςAO
ἀπεκαλύφθη,
[καὶ αὕτη]
ἀνέβαινεν, καὶ αἱ
APδοῦλαι
αὐτῆς ἤγοντοAQ
καθὼς XAR
περιστεραὶAS
|
7
and the foundation
has been exposed;
and she has gone up, and her maid-servants
were led
away as X
doves X
|
7
And |
7 Then he will be confirmed-victor; she will be exposed; she will be taken away, even her maids moaning like the sound of doves, beating themselves over their heart. |
(ח) וְהֻצַּב AT גֻּלְּתָה הֹעֲלָתָהAU וְאַמְהֹתֶיהָ מְנַהֲגוֹתAV כְּקוֹל יוֹנִים מְתֹפְפֹתAW עַל לִבְבֵהֶן. |
8
And as for Ninive, her waters
are like a |
9
καὶ Νινευη,
ὡςAX
κολυμβήθρα ὕδατος
τὰ |
8
And as for Nineve, her waters
shall be as a pool of water: and they fled |
8
But Nineveh is
of
X
|
8 So, as for Nineveh, her waters will be like a pool of waters when they are running away. “Stop! Stop!” but there is not one who will face-about. |
(ט) וְנִינְוֵה כִבְרֵכַת מַיִם מִימֵיBA הִיא וְהֵמָּה נָסִים עִמְדוּ עֲמֹדוּ וְאֵין מַפְנֶה. |
9 Take ye the spoil of the silver, take the spoil of the gold: for there is no end of the riches of X X all the precious furniture. |
10
διήρπαζον τὸ
ἀργύριον, διήρπαζον τὸ
χρυσίον, καὶ οὐκ
ἦν πέρας τοῦ κόσμου
|
9
TheyBB
plundered the silver, they
plundered the gold, and there was no end of |
9 Take ye the spoil of silver, take the spoil of gold: for there is none end of the store and glory out of all the pleasant furniture. |
9 “Plunder the silver! Plunder the gold! For there is no end to the opportunity; there is a load of every thing you could want!” |
(י) בֹּזּוּ כֶסֶף בֹּזּוּ זָהָב וְאֵין קֵצֶהBC לַתְּכוּנָהBD כָּבֹדBE מִכֹּל כְּלִי חֶמְדָּהBF. |
10 She is destroyed, and rent, and torn: X the heart melteth, and the knees fail, and all the loins lose their strength: and the faces of them all are [as] the blackness of a kettle. |
11 ἐκτιναγμὸς καὶ ἀνατιναγμὸς καὶ ἐκβρασμὸς καὶ καρδίας θραυσμὸς καὶ ὑπόλυσις γονάτων καὶ ὠδῖνες ἐπὶ πᾶσαν ὀσφύν, καὶ τὸ πρόσωπον πάντων [ὡς] πρόσκαυμα χύτρας. |
10 There is thrusting forth, and shaking, and tumult, and heart-breaking, and loosing of knees, and pangs on all loins; and the faces of all are [as] the blackening of a pot. |
10
She is empty,
and void,
and waste:
and the heart melteth, and the knees smite
together,
and
much pain is
in all loins, and the faces of them all gather
|
10 Vacuousness and evacuating and being evacuated! So the heart melts and the knees wobble and everybody’s sides are in agony, and the faces of all of them collect a blush. |
(יא) בּוּקָה וּמְבוּקָהBG וּמְבֻלָּקָהBH וְלֵב נָמֵס BI וּפִק בִּרְכַּיִם וְחַלְחָלָהBJ בְּכָל מָתְנַיִם וּפְנֵי כֻלָּם קִבְּצוּ פָארוּרBK. |
1Although I usually survey the commentaries of Calvin, Pusey, and Keil, I did not have time to do so for this passage. The only commentaries consulted were those of Michael P. V. Barrett, S. M. Lehrman (Soncino), David M. Levy, and Matthew Henry.
2There are only two other passages in the Bible where this phrase shows up in Greek or Hebrew: 1 Samuel 4:13 & Jeremiah 48:19, and both portray someone who has postured themselves to be the first to get news when it comes. The next phrase, “strengthen loins,” is not found as a phrase anywhere else in the Bible.
3cf.
Zech. 10:11 “He shall pass through the sea with affliction, And
strike the waves of the sea: All the depths of the River shall dry
up. Then the pride of Assyria shall be brought down, And the
scepter of Egypt shall depart.” (NKJV)
Ezekiel 33:28 "For
I will make the land most desolate, her arrogant strength
shall cease, and the mountains of Israel shall be so desolate that
no one will pass through.” (NKJV)
Hosea 5:5 “The pride
of Israel testifies to his face; Therefore Israel and Ephraim
stumble in their iniquity; Judah also stumbles with
them... 7:10 And the pride of Israel testifies to his face,
But they do not return to the LORD their God, Nor seek Him for all
this.” (NKJV)
4Kimchi suggested that the “fire” was sparks from the steel wheels hitting rocks.
5David M. Levy’s commentary on Nahum 2 published in the Nov/Dec 2003 edition of Israel My Glory magazine, approvingly cites A. Tatford’s 1974 commentary on Nahum, Prophet of Assyria’s Fall, as the source of this information.
6M. Henry agreed with me, but the traditional Jewish commentators saw the main character of v.5 as the king of Nineveh taking defensive measures.
7Another possibility might be found in Jeremiah 46:12 “The nations have heard of your shame, And your cry has filled the land; For the mighty man has stumbled against the mighty; They both have fallen together.” (NKJV)
8David M. Levy https://israelmyglory.org/article/ninevehs-destruction/ (accessed 22 Feb 2024)
9Cf. Isaiah 38:14 Like a swallow or a crane I chirp; I moan like a dove. My eyes have become weary to the heights… 59:11 We growl like the bears – all of us; we mutter repeatedly like doves. We wait for the justice, but there is none – for the salvation – it is far from us.” (NAW) Isaiah uses the standard form for the Hebrew word for “moan” (הגה), whereas Nahum appears to have a non-standard form (נהג) found in no other author.
10cf. Jeremiah 46:5 “Why have I seen them dismayed and turned back? Their mighty ones are beaten down; They have speedily fled, And did not look back, For fear was all around… 47:3 At the noise of the stamping hooves of his strong horses, At the rushing of his chariots, At the rumbling of his wheels, The fathers will not look back for their children, Lacking courage…” (NKJV)
11cf.
Ezekiel 38:13 "Sheba, Dedan, the merchants of Tarshish, and all
their young lions will say to you,`Have you come to take
plunder? Have you gathered your army to take booty,
to carry away silver and gold, to take away livestock
and goods, to take great plunder?'"'
Revelation
18:16 “...Alas, alas, that great city that was clothed in fine
linen, purple, and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious
stones and pearls!” (NKJV)
12At least they share two strong letters “b” and “q” in all of their three-letter roots, and the third letters of their roots are “weak” letters which are prone to change or disappearance in Hebrew, so there is commonality below the root level.
13Eccl. 1:2. The word “vanity” there is הבל, a synonym for Nahum’s words בקה/בלק.
14cf.
Joshua
2:11
"And as soon as we heard these things, our hearts
melted;
neither did there remain any more courage in anyone because of you,
for the LORD your God, He is God in heaven above and on earth
beneath.”
(NKJV)
Joel
2:6
“Before them the people writhe in pain; All faces are drained
of color.”
(NKJV)
Ezekiel
21:7
"And it shall be when they say to you, `Why are you sighing?
that you shall answer, `Because of the news; when it comes, every
heart
will melt,
all hands will be feeble, every spirit will faint, and all knees
will be weak
as water. Behold, it is coming and shall be brought to pass, says
the Lord GOD.’ ...
30:4
“The sword shall come upon Egypt, And great anguish
shall be in Ethiopia, When the slain fall in Egypt, And they take
away her wealth, And her foundations are broken down.” (NKJV,
cf. v.9)
Isaiah
13:7-8
“Therefore all hands will be feeble, and every heart
of man will
be melted.
They will be dismayed: pangs and agony
will seize them; they will be in anguish like a woman birthing. They
will look aghast, each man to his friend; their faces
will be aflame...
21:3
Therefore my loins
filled with agony;
pangs seized me, like birth pangs...
24:1
“Look, Yahweh: empties
the land and desolates
her, and He will distort her face, and scatter
her inhabitants.” (NAW)
AMy
original chart includes the following copyrighted English versions:
NASB, NIV, ESV, Bauscher’s version of the Peshitta, and Cathcart’s
version of the Targums, but I remove these columns from my public,
non-copyrighted edition of this chart so as not to infringe on their
copyrights. NAW is my translation. When a translation adds words not
in the Hebrew text, but does not indicate it has done so by the use
of italics or greyed-out text, I put the added words in [square
brackets]. When one version chooses a wording which is different
from all the other translations, I underline it. When a
version chooses a translation which, in my opinion, either departs
too far from the root meaning of the Hebrew word or departs too far
from the grammar form of the original text, I use strikeout.
And when a version omits a word which is in the original text, I
insert an X. I also place an X at the end of a word if the original
word is plural but the English translation is singular. I
occasionally use colors to help the reader see correlations between
the various editions and versions when there are more than two
different translations of a given word. The only known Dead Sea
Scrolls containing Nahum 2 are 4Q82 (containing parts of verses 9-10
and dated between 30-1 BC), The Nahal Hever Greek scroll
(containing parts of vs. 4-9 & 12-13 and dated around 25BC), and
the Wadi Muraba’at Scroll (containing parts of verses 1-13 and
dated around 135 AD). Where the DSS is legible and in agreement with
the MT, the MT is colored purple. Where
the DSS supports the LXX/Vulgate/Peshitta with omissions or text not
in the MT, I have highlighted with
yellow the LXX and its translation into English, and where I
have accepted that into my NAW translation, I have marked it with
{pointed brackets}.
BDouay Old Testament first published by the English College at Douay, A.D. 1609, Revised and Diligently Compared with the Latin Vulgate by Bishop Richard Challoner, Published in 1582, 1609, 1752. As published on E-Sword.
C“Septuagint” Greek Old Testament, edited by Alfred Rahlfs. Published in 1935. As published on E-Sword.
DEnglish translation of the Septuagint by Sir Lancelot Charles Lee Brenton, 1851, “based upon the text of the Vaticanus” but not identical to the Vaticanus. As published electronically by E-Sword.
E1769 King James Version of the Holy Bible; public domain. As published electronically by E-Sword.
FFrom
the Wiki Hebrew Bible
https://he.wikisource.org/wiki/%D7%9E%D7%99%D7%9B%D7%94_%D7%90/%D7%A9%D7%95%D7%A8%D7%95%D7%AA.
DSS text comes from https://downloads.thewaytoyahuweh.com
GLXX translated as though the Hebrew word were פּוּח instead of פּוּץ.
HThe unanimity of the English versions over the idea of “destructive-scattering” belies the lack of agreement among the ancient versions as to how to translate this word. LXX translated it “breathing” (as though the root were פּוּח instead of פּוּץ), Peshitta rendered it “ruler” (from דבר), Targums render it with a word that means “scatter” (although Cathcart curiously rendered it “spread”), and Vulgate translated it “destroy.”
IThis word is found in only two other books of the HOT: 2 Chr. (11:10-11 & 23; 12:4; 14:5; 21:3) and Isa. (29:3). It consistently refers to the wall around a city which makes it a “fortified” city. (The KJV translation of an ammunition storehouse does not fit the use of the word.) But here, the Aramaic versions read as though this Hebrew word were not present, while the ancient Greek and Latin versions read according to the meaning of the stripped-down root of this Hebrew word, which is centered on “pressure/restriction/affliction.” The relationship of the root meaning to the meaning of this specialized form of the word is that the outer wall of a fort “confines/hems in” the inhabitants, but it is for their own defense. MT cantillation places the major punctuation of this verse after this word, separating “defend the fortification” from “watch the road, tighten belts...”
JThis same word “loins/waist/middle” is found in v.10. Here it is part of getting dressed for battle; there it is suffering in the loss of the battle.
KThis Hebrew word means “turn,” so some versions interpret it as “turn away,” and others have interpreted it as “will return.” The problem with “will return” is that the Hebrew verb is in the perfect tense referring to a past event instead of to the future reconstruction of Israel. The Vulgate, LXX, Geneva, KJV, and Targums all render it past tense, the AJV & ESV render it present tense, and the NAS, NIV, NET, and NLT render it future tense, as does the Peshitta. The sense of the Vulgate seems to be that God is rewarding (“returning”) Israel’s pride with punishment, but I would have expected a different Hebrew word like גּמל or נקם if that were the meaning.
LThis word is only found here and in Isa. 19:3; 24:1, 3; Jer. 19:7; 51:2; & Hos. 10:1. “Empty” is the standard meaning. A related form is in v.10.
MThis seems to be more specialized than the general meaning of “branch/vine;” it only occurs here and in Num. 13:23; Isa. 17:10, and Ezek. 8:17 & 15:2.
NSymmachus instead rendered this phrase “torches of fire” like the Peshitta did.
OThe Hebrew word for “red” has the same root as the Hebrew word for “man.”
PHapex Legomenon. The base meaning of this word is “fire,” which was the LXX’s and Peshitta’s interpretation, but an extended meaning can be the color of fire (as indeed there is a related word in Hebrew which, according to BDB, means “the [scarlet] dye made from the dried body of the female of the worm ‘coccus ilicis’”), which was the interpretation of the Latin and English versions and Targums.
QHapex legomenon. Vulgate and LXX interpreted as related to כּליה (“kidneys” – assuming the פ was a misprint for כ), KJV & Peshitta & Symmachus interpreted it as related to לפּיד (“torches” – assuming the three root letters got re-arranged. This word for “torch/lamp” does appear later in v.4.), Targum interpreted it as related to לוּח or פח (a “plate” of metal), and contemporary English versions as related to פּלדה (“iron/steel”). The latter makes the most sense to me. A major punctuation is also here in the cantillation of the MT.
RVulgate, LXX, Peshitta, and Targums all read as though this Hebrew word were פרשים (“horsemen”) instead of ברשים ("cypress-instruments"); it is only in the 17th century (when English translations starting being made from the 10th century Masoretic manuscripts) that we start seeing “cypress-instruments” show up here instead of “horsemen.” This raises the question of which was the original spelling, although both can be related to the martial context, thus supporting the same overall meaning. Unfortunately, the first letter of this word has not survived in any of the DSS manuscripts.
SHapex Legomenon. “Shaken” seems to fit either “horsemen” or “cypress-spears,” which leaves the Aramaic versions (Peshitta=encouraged, Targums=arrayed in dyed garments) as outliers.
TThe Latin Vulgate rendered this plural noun as a plural, even if Douay rendered it singular in English.
UBrenton mistranslated the LXX; it is not “gleaming” but “running,” and “running” is the Hebrew word too.
VAlthough the Vulgate and Peshitta associate “chariots” with the second phrase, the punctuation of the MT associates them with the first phrase (with being “mad/showing light” rather than with “rushing”). However, this is a singular subject and both verbs are plural. This verb only appears once in a plural spelling in the HOT (Canticles 1:9), so it may be a word which can portray either a singularity or a plurality (notably, the Vulgate, LXX, Peshitta, and Targums all used plural forms).
WRare word, used only here and in Ps. 107:9 (“longing”), Isa. 29:8 (“craving”), Prov. 28:15 (“charging”), Isa. 33:4 & Joel 2:9 (“army running to and fro”)
XAlthough a fairly common verb with over 100 instances in the HOT, this is the only occurrence of this verb in the Polel stem.
YThere is no “and” in the Nahal Hever DSS manuscript or in the Hebrew manuscripts.
Zcf. Nahal Hever δυναστων αυτου (“his mighty men”); this manuscript is 400 years older than the Vaticanus.
AAThese extra words in the LXX are not in the N.H.
ABNahal Hever pluralizes this word, but the LXX is singular, matching the MT.
ACNahal Hever translated with the synonym ταχυν- (“hasten”)
ADN.H. uses the same word but in the singular, matching the MT and Vulgate (and English versions). The Aramaic versions are plural like the LXX.
AEN.H. translated with a synonym επικαλυμμα (“cover-over”)
AFAramaic versions also render this plural “their,” but Nahal Hever Greek DSS renders this singular “his” – technically matching the MT and Vulgate.
AGThis pronoun is in the MT and in Vaticanus, but not in the LXX.
AHCuriously, the LXX, Peshitta, and Targums all render this verb as though it were plural. The Vulgate alone among the ancient versions reads singular, but it is singular in the DSS and MT.
AIQere = בַּהֲלִיכָתָם – no difference in meaning from the Kethib.
AJWithout Masoretic pointing, the reading of the Syriac versions “the wall” (followed by NIV and ESV) is a possibility, but the reading of the Vulgate (and Vaticanus) shows that the Masoretic pointing which makes the last letter a 3fs pronoun “her wall” is of antiquity.
AKN.H. rendered with the simple form of this verb (without the prepositional suffix δια- in the LXX), but the meaning is practically the same.
ALN.H. rendered nearly-synonymously with ναος εσαλευθη (“temple was shaken” – lacunae in grey) – supporting the ancient Aramaic versions over the Vulgate.
AM“Rivers” is the reading of the LXX, but it is “cities” (πολεων) in Vaticanus. In Greek, the two words are spelled very similarly.
ANThe oldest Greek manuscript, the Nahal Hever, supports the Aramaic Peshitta and Targums with “shook/trembled”
AON.H. = λημπηνη (“covered chariot”)
APN.H. employed the synonym αβραι (“maids”)
AQN.H. supports the LXX (and Targums and KJV) with “being led” but whereas the LXX is imperfect tense, N.H. is present tense αγομεναι (grey letters are lacunae)
ARAlthough this spot is illegible in the N.H., there is room for the word “voice” which is in the MT.
ASN.H. spells “doves” in the genitive (-ων) rather than the LXX’s nominative case (-αι), and adds the preposition απο- to the next word (“mourning away”), but there is no significant difference in meaning.
ATThe minor disjunctive punctuation in the MT here (as well as the switch from masculine subject to feminine subject) mitigates against connecting the second word of this verse with the first as the Vulgate, LXX, KJV, and ESV did.
AUIn the MT, the major disjunctive punctuation in this verse lies here.
AVBHS footnotes support the LXX, Vulgate, and Targums with changing the MT pointing so that it means “led away,” although the MT pointing supports “mourning.” Actually the consonants of the MT support “led away,” as that is the only meaning of the root נהג in all its other occurrences throughout the HOT. But that is so close to the Hebrew root נהה (found in 1 Sam. 7:2; Ezek. 32:18; Mic. 2:4, meaning “mourn/moan/lament”) and the ensuing phrase “like a dove” suggest that this verb be rendered “moan” rather than “lead.”
AWPsalm 68:26 is the only other occurrence of this word in the Hebrew O.T., where it is an instrument played by women. LXX & Peshitta interpreted this a a wind instrument, whereas Targums and English versions interpreted it as a percussion instrument. In Psalm 68, the LXX translated it as percussion (τυμπανιστριῶν) as did the Vulgate (tympanistriarum) and Peshitta ( פלגא).
AXN.H. drops this comparative, turning the simile into a metaphor, but it is present in the MT and all the other ancient versions.
AYThis is an error in the LXX. The N.H. is mostly illegible here, but it clearly does not support the word “not” and it appears to support the MT, Vulgate, and Syriac versions with a repetition of the verb “stand.”
AZWhat is legible of this word in the N.H. is -τρεφω-, which suggests “turned” rather than the LXX “looked,” but the Hebrew is literally “faced,” so either of those translations is accurate.
BADSS 4Q82 adds ה- which isn’t proper spelling, but Wadi Murabaat supports the MT spelling. The unpointed Hebrew could mean “her waters” or “from her days” The Geneva Bible, KJV, NASB, and NET Bible followed the Targums (and Westminster Morphology, OSHB Morphology, Owens’ Analytical Key) in opting for “days,” while the NIV & ESV followed the Vulgate, LXX, and Peshitta with “waters.” Nowhere else in the HOT is the word “from the days of” in construct with a pronoun. It is always either in construct with a proper noun referring to the time after a particular point in history (2 Ki. 23:22; 2 Chr. 30:26; 35:18; Ezr. 4:2; 9:7; Neh. 8:17; 9:32; Ps. 94:13; Jer. 36:2; Hos. 10:9), or in construct with עולם or קֶדֶם referring to time out-of-mind (Isa. 23:7; 37:26; Lam. 1:7; 2:17; Mic. 5:1, 7:20). Contra the NASB, it never describes past time during or throughout a past event. Alternately, in the unpointed text, it occurs in construct with bodies of water: “the waters of the Jordan” (Josh 4:7), “the waters of Israel” (2 Ki. 5:12), “the waters of the springs” (2 Chr. 32:3), “the waters of Gihon” (2 Chr. 32:30), and “the waters of snow” (Job 24:19).
BBN.H. from the 1st century BC supports this 3p indicative spelling “they plunder,” and that is a possible reading from the Hebrew text which was unpointed at that time, but the Masoretic pointing makes it a 2p imperative (“Plunder”), and with that the Latin and Syriac versions agree.
BCThis word, found in Nah. 2:10; 3:3 & 3:9 is only found in this form one place outside of Nahum, and that is Isa. 2:7 in a description of apostate Judah. (There are some 90 other occurrences of other forms of this word, however.)
BDThis word only appears here and in Job 23:3 (where it is translated “seat/dwelling” – and it is disputed whether this passage actually contains this word) and Ezek. 43:11 (where it is translated “fashion/arrangement/structure”). It is based on the root תכן (“to measure out equally”). The idea is that there is so much loot in this city that even if the officers were evenly divide it up among all their soldiers, there would be more valuables than they could even make use of.
BEThis Hebrew word has a root meaning of “heaviness,” thus the LXX (“laden”) and Peshitta (“abundant”), but it also has a figurative meaning of “glory/wealth,” which the Latin and English versions used. The Targum stretched it too far with “finished.” The MT cantillation makes this word the first word of the second half of the verse.
BFLXX and Peshitta interpreted the final he as a 3fs possessive pronoun suffix, but Vulgate and Targum and MT did not.
BGThe first two words of this verse are hapex legomena, BDB says they are from an unused root meaning “empty.” But it is obviously related to the בקק root in verse 3 for “empty.”
BHThis word is very similar in meaning to the previous two. It is a rare word found only here and in Isaiah 24:1 “Look, Yahweh: empties the land and desolates her, and He will distort her face, and scatter her inhabitants.” (NAW) The major disjunctive punctuation for this verse is here in the MT. It should also be noted that there is alliteration of the “b” sound in the first three words of this verse.
BI“piq” Hapex Legomenon, although related forms are in 1 Sam. 25:31 “heart faltering”; Isa. 28:7 “waver in judgment” and Jer. 10:4 “fasten so as not to wobble.”
BJThis word is found only here and in Isa. 21:3 and Ezek. 30:4 & 9.
BKRare word only here and in Joel 2:6 also speaking of faces. All the ancient Latin, Greek, and Aramaic versions interpret this as the same as פּרוּר (“cooking pot” – found in Num. 11:8; Judg. 6:19; and 1 Sam. 2:14). The gloss in BDB and Holladay is “glow,” and in Strong is “flushed,” which suggested “paleness” to the NASB, NIV, and ESV editors, but suggests a blushing “red” color to me.