ng of the Syriac reading in the ZDPV i. 122 ff. A translation of his communication appeared in the PEF'St, 1879, p. 136 ff.
* In y.84 in place of the obscure and irrelevant ΠΡ (MT) the parallelism requires us to read with most of the VSS 1273 (Buhl, ZATW ν. 181; cf. Davidson, in loc.).
1 Adopting the reading of the LXX τοῖς ὑπομένουσιν =V1P> (La 825; cf. Ps 253 697).
{The references in the sequel to ch. 2 follow the verse- numeration of the EV, which is one less throughout than in the Hebrew.
ὃ The words, ‘Thus saith 75," now found at the head of 112, are probably part of the original introduction to the oracle.
|| A conjectural rendering (cf. RV), the meaning of the original n7?5 being unknown. The AV rendering ‘torches’ rests on a mistaken etymology.
“| The proposal of Billerbeck and Jeremias to insert ch, 312-15 between 24 and 25 is quite unnecessary. e
** Heb. 3207, lit. ‘the coverer,’ RV ‘mantelet,’ apparently a military terminus technicus. An elaborate and+technical
account of the Assyrian ‘siege artillery,’ both for attack and defence, with numerous illustrations, is given in Billerbeck and Jeremias’ monograph already cited.
NAHUM
NAHUM 478
stormed, and the queen (?)* captured and carried
off amid the lamentations of her maids (v.7). In vain is every effort to rally the panic-stricken defenders (v.°) ; the city is given over to be looted by the victors (y.°). The final tableau shows ie climax of the catastrophe. Nineveh has dis- appeared! Where stood the queen of cities there is now a ‘wild and weary waste’ (if thus we ma) imitate the alliteration (ὁπ κα], imébikah imébul- lakah) of the original, v."); to the prophet’s unfeigned delight, the Assyrian, once brave as a lion and as cruel, has passed away for ever (v.!™),
(Ὁ) In ch. 3 the SAAN enamoured of his theme, returns to fill in certain details of the overthrow of this ‘ city of blood’ (v.!), and furnishes us with a graphic word-picture of the final attack (vv. *)—
‘Hark! the whip! Hark! the rattle of the wheels;
And (see ἢ) the prancing steeds and the bounding chariots,
The horsemen charging (?),
And the flash of the swords and the glint of the spears, And the masses of the slain and the heaps of the dead.’
And why has this fate overtaken Nineveh? Because of her unprincipled diplomacy, her har- lotries, and her witchcrafts (v.*). As punishment, she will be exposed like a vulgar adulteress to the gibes and insults of the nations she has so long oppressed (vv.°°), The prophet further dwells complacently on the thought that, in Nineveh’s hour of doom and shame, there will be none to comfort her or to bewail her (v.7). Let her not think she will fare better than No-amon, the mistress of Upper Eayetiy.=). With the measure wherewith she me out cruelties unspeakable to the Egyptian capital, it shall be measured to Nineveh in her turn (v.!°). For her fortified out- poe with their effeminate defenders, already fall
fore the invader as readily as ripe figs fall into the mouth of one who but shakes the laden fig- tree (v.!*).. Now is the time to prepare for the siege. ‘To the mortar-tub and the brick-mould’ is the prophet’s sarcastic call (v.!4)!_ The countless merchants of the city, a heterogeneous and un- patriotic throng, vanish as locusts vanish with the morning sun. And thus, to the accompaniment of a universal song of joy on the part of all that have suffered at her hands, the city of blood makes her final exit from the stage of history (v.").
iv. INTEGRITY AND AUTHENTICITY OF THE Book. — Until a very few years ago the authen- ticity of all three chapters of the Book of Nahum was regarded as beyond suspicion, even by scholars so ‘advanced’ as Kuenen (Onderzoek, ii. §75), Well- hausen (Skizzen u. Vorarbeiten® [1893], p. 155), and Cornill (Hindeit.? 1892, p. 188). Since 1880, how- ever, in various publications (7ZDMG xxxiv. 5591f., Carmina Vet. Test. metrice, 212, ete.) Bickell— in this following out indications given by Irohn- meyer and Franz Delitzsch—had maintained that Nah 1* was in reality an alphabetic com whose original structure was easily recoverable by means of various slight alterations and transpositions (see esp. ZDMG, ut supra). In 1893 a more suc- cessful attempt was made on the same lines by H. Gunkel in Stade’s ZATW (xiii. 2934). In this essay Gunkel succeeded, in the present writer’s peep not only in proving more conclusively than Bickell had done the existence in vv.?" of a clearly designed acrostic arrangement for the
* The word of the original, 27, is still unexplained (AV, RV as a proper name, Huzzab, but see margins), The Targum has already XN27D ‘queen.’ Seeart. Huzzas, The following ΠΡ ΡΠ should perhaps be read abnyn and understood as ἃ loan-word from Assyrian, like 1050 817 and prob. Οὐ ἰδ, = magsaru, ‘watcher’ (see Jensen's review of Billerb. and Jerem. in 7’heol. Ltztg. 1895, p. 507). It would then correspond to the Assyr. etellitu, ‘a lady (of rank).’ See P. Ruben, Academy, 1896,
. 202, and more in de PSBA xx. (May 1898) p. 178 ff. ‘An
racle of Nahum’; cf. Bxpos. Times, vii. (1896) p. 568, viii. p. 48.
first half of the Hebrew alphabet (x to ), but in establishing a strong probability that the same arrangement for the second half (Ὁ to n) originally appeared in the verses following (155-23 of the