Nahum 1 · The Lantern

The burden of Nineueh. The booke of the vision of Nahum the Elkeshite.

(Chapter I—Verse 1.) God, zealous and avenging Lord. The voice of the prophet praising God for avenging the injury done to his people by the Assyrians. Or, in a deeper understanding, that he hears the groaning of his saints and will make his adversaries feel punishment at the end of the world.

Something of this kind is the meaning of the word oracle: in his wish to give the prophets an insight often productive of rapture, God caused a sudden transformation of their mind so that while in this condition they might receive the knowledge of the future with deeper fear.

The burden of Nineveh, the book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite. First, he defines the purpose of the prophecy, and usefully clarifies what and where it looks to; then he makes clear who is speaking and from where.

God is ielous, and the Lord reuengeth: the Lord reuengeth: euen the Lord of anger, the Lord will take vengeance on his aduersaries, and he reserueth wrath for his enemies.

The Lord is slow to anger, but he is great in power, and will not surely cleare the wicked: the Lord hath his way in ye whirlewind, and in the storme, and the cloudes are the dust of his feete.

And again: "I will reestablish my covenant with you, and you shall know that I am Lord, that you may remember and be confounded and may no more open your mouth because of your confusion, when I shall be pacified toward you for all that you have done, says the Lord God." Thus it is clearly indicated by these divine words what was meant in another place by the statement "And thou…

The Lord's way is in destruction and in shaking, and clouds are the dust of his feet. As the Prophet is about to proclaim beforehand the capture of Nineveh for the comfort of those who have suffered, and to make clear to the wronged that it will be shaken down by God, he usefully recounts first the all-powerful nature of the divine, and that for it, when it chooses to accomplis…

"The Lord is longsuffering, great is his power, and he will certainly not clear the guilty." He does not suddenly and all at once inflict punishment, but only after exercising extreme longsuffering. You Ninevites are witnesses to this, practicing repentance and finding salvation, and then guilty of extreme wickedness and for a time not paying the penalty for it.

He rebuketh the sea, and dryeth it, and he dryeth vp all the riuers: Bashan is wasted and Carmel, and the floure of Lebanon is wasted.

If it is [Marcion's] Christ that is meant, he will not be stronger than the servants of the Creator. I would have been content with the examples I have shown you without adding anything further. But here a prediction of [Christ] walking on the water precedes his advent as well. The words of the psalm are, in fact, accomplished by Christ's crossing over the lake.

(Verse 4) Rebuking the sea, and drying it up, and leading all the rivers to the desert. It is described according to the power of God, who will avenge Israel's adversaries, showing that it is not difficult for Him to destroy the Assyrians, whose majesty even includes the ability to change the elements.

And the Prophet said, "He rebuketh the sea, and maketh it dry, and drieth up all the rivers;" and again, "He looketh on the earth and it trembleth; He rebuketh the mountains, and they smoke." And again the prophet Isaiah saith, "All the nations are accounted as nothing by Him." Now these things the Spirit of God spake concerning the power of God, that those things which were no…

The mountaines tremble for him, and the hilles melt, and the earth is burnt at his sight, yea, the worlde, and all that dwell therein.

Who can stande before his wrath? or who can abide in the fiercenesse of his wrath? his wrath is powred out like fire, and the rockes are broken by him.

The Lord is good and as a strong hold in the day of trouble, and he knoweth them that trust in him.

But passing ouer as with a flood, he will vtterly destroy the place thereof, and darknesse shall pursue his enemies.

What doe ye imagine against the Lord? he wil make an vtter destruction: affliction shall not rise vp the seconde time.

For he shall come as vnto thornes folden one in another, and as vnto drunkards in their drunkennesse: they shall be deuoured as stubble fully dryed.

There commeth one out of thee that imagineth euill against the Lord, euen a wicked counsellour.

Thus saith the Lord, Though they be quiet, and also many, yet thus shall they be cut off when he shall passe by: though I haue afflicted thee, I will afflict thee no more.

For nowe I will breake his yoke from thee, and will burst thy bonds in sunder.

And the Lord hath giuen a commandement concerning thee, that no more of thy name be sowen: out of the house of thy gods will I cut off the grauen, and the molten image: I will make it thy graue for thee, for thou art vile.

Beholde vpon the mountaines the feete of him that declareth, and publisheth peace: O Iudah, keepe thy solemne feastes, perfourme thy vowes: for the wicked shall no more passe thorowe thee: he is vtterly cut off.

Nahum1