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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Nahum 2:11 - 2:11
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Thus will the mighty city be destroyed, with its men of war and booty. Nah 2:11. “Where is the dwelling of the lions and the feeding-place of the young lions, where the lion walked, the lioness, the lion's whelp, and no one frightened? Nah 2:12. The lion robbing for the need of his young ones, and strangling for his lionesses, and he filled his dens with prey, and his dwelling-places with spoil. Nah 2:13. Behold, O come to thee, is the saying of Jehovah of hosts, and I cause her chariots to turn in smoke, and thy young lions the sword devours; and I cut off thy prey from the earth, and the voice of thy messengers shall be heard no more.” The prophet, beholding the destruction in spirit as having already taken place, looks round for the site on which the mighty city once stood, and sees it no more. This is the meaning of the question in Nah 2:11. He describes it as the dwelling-place of lions. The point of comparison is the predatory lust of its rulers and their warriors, who crushed the nations like lions, plundering their treasures, and bringing them together in Nineveh. To fill up the picture, the epithets applied to the lions are grouped together according to the difference of sex and age. אַרְיֵה is the full-grown male lion; לָבִיא, the lioness; כְּפִיר, the young lion, though old enough to go in search of prey; גּוּר אַרְיֵה, catulus leonis, the lion's whelp, which cannot yet seek prey for itself. וּמִרְעֶה הוּא, lit., “and a feeding-place is it,” sc. the dwelling-place (הוּא pointing back to מְעוןֹ) in this sense: “Where is the dwelling-place which was also a feeding-place for the young lions?” By the apposition the thought is expressed, that the city of lions was not only a resting-place, but also afforded a comfortable living. אֲשֶׁר is to be taken in connection with the following שָׁם: in the very place where; and hâlakh signifies simply to walk, to walk about, not “to take exercise,” in which case the kal would stand for piel. The more precise definition follows in וְאֵין מַחֲרִיד, without any one terrifying, hence in perfect rest and security, and undisturbed might (cf. Mic 4:4; Lev 26:6; Deu 28:26, etc.). Under the same figure Nah 2:12 describes the tyranny and predatory lust of the Assyrians in their wars. This description is subordinate in sense to the leading thought, or to the question contained in the previous verse. Where is the city now, into which the Assyrians swept together the booty of the peoples and kingdoms which they had destroyed? In form, however, the verse is attached poetically in loose apposition to Nah 2:12. The lion, as king of the beasts, is a very fitting emblem of the kings or rulers of Assyria. The lionesses and young lions are the citizens of Nineveh and of the province of Assyria, the tribe-land of the imperial monarchy of Assyria, and not the queens and princes, as the Chaldee explains it. Gōrōth with the o-inflection for gūrōth, as in Jer 51:38. Chōrı̄m, holes for hiding-places, or caves, not only applies to the robbers, in which character the Assyrians are exhibited through the figure of the lion (Hitzig), but also to the lions, which carry their prey into caves (cf. Bochart, Hieroz. i. 737). This destruction of Nineveh will assuredly take place; for Jehovah the Almighty God has proclaimed it, and He will fulfil His word. The word of God in Nah 2:13 stamps the foregoing threat with the seal of confirmation. הִנְנִי אֵלַיִךְ, behold I (will) to thee (Nineveh). We have not to supply אָבוֹא here, but simply the verb. copul., which is always omitted in such sentences. The relation of the subject to the object is expressed by אֶל (cf. Nah 3:5; Jer 51:25). הִבְעַרְתִּי בֶעָשָׁן, I burn into smoke, i.e., so that it vanishes into smoke (cf. Psa 37:20). רִכְבָּהּ, her war-chariots, stands synecdochically for the whole of the apparatus of war (Calvin). The suffix in the third person must not be altered; it may easily be explained from the poetical variation of prophetic announcement and direct address. The young lions are the warriors; the echo of the figure in the previous verse still lingers in this figure, as well as in טַרְפֵּךְ. The last clause expresses the complete destruction of the imperial might of Assyria. The messengers of Nineveh are partly heralds, as the carriers of the king's commands; partly halberdiers, or delegates who fulfilled the ruler's commands (cf. 1Ki 19:2; 2Ki 19:23). The suffix in מַלְאָכֵכֵה is in a lengthened form, on account of the tone at the end of the section, analogous to אֹתָכָה in Exo 29:35, and is not to be regarded as an Aramaeism or a dialectical variation (Ewald, §258, a). The tsere of the last syllable is occasioned by the previous tsere. Jerome has summed up the meaning very well as follows: “Thou wilt never lay countries waste any more, nor exact tribute, nor will thy messengers be heard throughout thy provinces.” (On the last clause, see Eze 19:9.)