The Pulpit Commentary — Nahum — Section 31

in their hearts." Tabering; beating on a the suddon destruction that camo llpon te.bret. (For smiting the breast in token of Nineveh by fire a.nd sword .... It is evideni sorrow, comp. Luke xviii. 18; x:r.iii. 48; from the ruins that both Khorsabe.d and Homer, 'II.,' xviii. 31, x,pul Ii~ ,,....,..., ::S.-'16E1& Nimroud were se.oked and then set on fire. tr-fJ'yovro,) Neither Datta nor Le.yard found any of that Ver. 8.-The .prophet oompe.res the past store of silver and gold and • pleasant furni- and present condition of iNinevah. But ture' which the palaces contained ; scarcely l!l'ineveh is of old like a pool of ,n.ter ; and anything, even. of bronze, escaped the (or, I.hough) Niraet1eh hath been like a pool of spoiler" (' Nineveh and its Discoveries,' pp. fD(Jf,er all 1uir d.ay1. Others, altering the 83~ 836). 'l'here is none end of the store; point.s in e.ooordrtnoe with the Septuagint Vulgute, Non finis est divitiarum; Septua- e.nd Vulge.te, tmnsla.te, "Bnt as for Nineveh, gint, Ou1< ;\v 1r,pa.s -roii 1<&<rµov ab-rijs, "'!'here her "'Rters are like a pool of water." 'l'his was no end of her ornn.ment. 11 And glory is what she has come to, for "her "'e.ters 11 out of- all the pleasant furniture ; litemlly, represent herself. She is oompe.red to a vessels of desire. It is plainer ,to translate, pool or reservoir (Neh. ii 14; iii. 15) from There is abundance of all precious furniture. the multitude of her inhabit.ant.s ge.tbered Ver. 10.-She is empty, and void, and from all pa.rt.s of the world, and streaming waste. Bukahum' bukah, um' bulakah. The unto her, both e.s tributary and for com• three words are of. very similar me11,ning mercial purposes (comp. Jer. Ii. 13; Rev. and sound, and express most forcibly. the xdi 1, 15). Yet they Bhall fiee away. In utter ruin of the city. A Le.tin com- spite of their numbers, the multitudes repre- mentator has endeavoured to imito.te the sented by "the waters" fly before the Hebrew pe.ronome.sie. by rendering them, enemy. In vain the captains cry, Stand, " vacuita.s, evacue.tio, .eve.nide.tio "--a trans- stand. They pay no attention. lione shall lation more ingenious ·than classical. T.he look back. No one of the fugitives turns pe.ronome.sie. is better ren.dered by "vastitas, round or gives a thought to anything but his ve.stitia, vaouite.s," and. the German, "leei:- own safety. und ausgeleert und ve.rheert." "S\i.ok and sacking and rll,IlJ!e.cking" (Ge.ndell). An Vere. 9-13.-§ 2. The city is -pltmclerd., analogous combination of words is found in and 'hlmceforfli lies tDa.Bte, in terrible contraBt Isa.. :niv. 3, 4; xxix. 2, 3; Ezek. xx.x.iii tDith itsfurmer ezcellency. 29; Zeph. i 15. Septuagint, .~1<-riva:yµor, 1<a.l ci,,a.nva.,,µor, 1<a.l it<flpa.uµor, •" thrusting Ver. 9.-The prophet calls on the in- forth and spurning and tumult." The heart ,vo.ders to come and gather the spoil of the melteth. A common expression for fear and city, which God gives into their hands. despondency (Josh. vii. 5; Isa. xiii. 7; Take ye the spoil Fabnlous stories are told Ezek. xxi ..7). The knees sm,ite together of the amount of the precious mete.ls stored (Dan. v. 6). So in Homer continually, }l.u-ro in Nineveh and Babylon. "Se.rde.ne.palus -:yo6va.-ra.. Much pain is in &11 loins. .The is said to have placed a hundred and fifty anguish as · of childbirth. Septuagint, golden beds, and as many tables of the so.me cooives, "labour-pains," in contlaet with the metal, on his funeral pile, besides gold and injunction in ver. l (comp. Isa. xiii. 8; xxi. 3; silver vases and ornament.a in enormous Jer. xxx. 6). Gather ble.olmess (Joel ii. 6); quantities, and pnrple and many-coloured or, witJidraw thtir colQur; i./!, ,wax pale. raiment.a (A.then., lib. xii.). According to But tile Hebrew rather implies that the Diodorus, the value of the gold taken from faces assume e. livid hue, like that of coming the temple of BelllS alone by Xerxes death. Hence the LXX. renders, &is 1rp&<r- amounted to above 7350 Attic talents, or 1<a.11µa xrl.-prir, as the burning of an earthen £21,000,000 sterling money" (Le.yard, veBSel, which is blackened by the fire; and • Nineveh,' ii 416, etc.; comp. Dan. iii. 1, Jerome, 11icut nigredo ol/1B (comp. Jer. where the size of the golden image or pillar, xxx.6) . sixty cubit.s high and six cubit.a broad, shows . Ver. 11.-The prophet asks, as if in con- how plentiful was gold in these countries). steme.tion at the complete collapse of the Bonomi: " The riches of Nineveh are inex- great ·city-Where is the site of Nineveh? haUBtible, her vases and precious furniture Where is the dwelling (den) of the lions I &re infinite, copper constantly OOOW'B in their The lion is a natural symbol of Assyria, wee.pons, and it is most probable a mis:ture both from that 11,nimal's cruel, predatory, of it ww; used in the materials of their tools. re.venous he.bits, and from its use as .the They had acquired the art of making gl888. chi~f ne.tiona,l emblem. Nergal, the war- . . . The well-known cylinders a.re a suffi- g-0iI.,has a winged lion with a man's face as cient proof of their skil I in engraving gems. hie emblem. See the figure in Rawlinspn, Many beautiful specimens of car:ving in •Anc. Moll.,' i .178, who o.d<ls ,(p. 308) that ivory were also discovered . . . . The con- the lion is accepted a~ a true type of the dition of the ruins is highly corroborative of people, blood, ravin, an<l robbery being their (ill. II. 1-1:'I.] nm BOOK OF NAHUM. 29