The Pulpit Commentary — Nahum — Section 36

reign of Hezekiah (e.o. 725-696), and Nineveh waA destroyed between e.o. 609 and 606). He lived and prophesied thus say a hundred years before the occurrence of the events he so vividly described, and when the Assyrian power was in the zenith of its prosperity. His announcements were very distinct and definite, and by placing these and the records of secular historians given at a subsequent period side by side, we see how minutely the predictions of this seer have been fulfilled, and that hence, in maldng these, he must have been God's messenger, uttering, not his own thoughts, but those which had been communicated to him by "visions and revelations of the Lord." In eh. i. 10 we read, "For while they be fold~n together as thorns, and while they are drunken as drunkards, they shall be devoured as stubble fully dry." The secular historian writes, "While all the Assyrian army were feasting for their former victories, those about Arbuces, being informed by some deserters of the negligence and drunkenness in the camp of the enemies, assaulted them unexpectedly by night, and falling orderly on them disorderly, and prepared on them unpreparecl, became masters of the camp, and slew many of the soldiers and drove the rest into the city" (Dio- dorus Siculus, bk. ii. p. 80). In eh. ii. 6 we read, "The gates of the rivers shall be opened, and the palace shall be dissolved." The secular historian writes, "There was an oracle among the Assyrians that Nineveh should not be taken till the river became an enemy to the city; and in the third year of the siege, the river, being swollen with continual rains, overflowed part of the city, and broke down the wall for twenty furlongs. Then the king, thinking that the oracle was fulfilled, and the river had become a.n enemy to the city, built a. la.rge funeral pile in the pala.ce, and collect- ing together all his wealth and his concubines and eunuchs, burnt himself and the palace with them all, and the enemy entered at the breach that the waters ha.d made, and took the city" (Diodorus Siculus, bk. ii. p. 80). In eh. ii. 9 the prophet, a.s though addressing the adversaries of Nineveh, said, "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; " and the same secular historia.n already quoted informs us that the conquerors carried many talents of gold and silver to Ecba.tana, the royal city of the Medes. No la.nguage could be more explicit than that in which Nahum predicted the total destruction of the city (eh. ii. 10-13; iii. 7, 15-17). The Prophet Zepha.niah used words equally plain (ii. 13-15). Their utterances would have appeared very strange to the Ninevites at the time they were spoken ; as strange, indeed, as similar utterances would appear if addressed at the present time to the inhabitants of our own metropolis; but they were true nevertheless, and the facts of history furnish abundant confirmations. For upwards of two thousand years after its o'l'erthrow, Nineveh lay buried in the earth. History and tradition indicated its probable site, and the mounds to be found in the supposed districts, and out of which the Turks obtained materials for building purposes, of evident antiquity, invited research; and within a. very recent period such research has been carried on, the long-buried palaces of the kings of Assyria have been discovered, huge sculptures have been carefully dug out of the mounds, and the national museums both of France and England are now enriched with these long-lost works of art, testifying not only to the ancient splendour of the Assyrian empire and its ea.pita!, but also to the truthfolne~s of the prophetical records, and to the prophets as speaking and writing under the inspiration of the Almighty, and as being indeed the messengers of him who has said, '' I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient timei; the things that are not yet done" (Isa. xlvi. 9, 10). Il. THE ACCOUNT CONTAINED HERE OF THE PREDICTED OVERTHROW OF NINEVEH SERVES TO ILLUSTRATE THE HUMAN ELEMENT IN REVELATION. Holy Scripture is remarkable in its variety-not variety in purpose, for this is single throughout, but variety in expression. History, prophecy, poetry, parable, proverb, miracle, biography, vision, epistle, are all laid under tribute. As there is a Divine element in the Bible, so also there is a human element therein. Whilst upon the writings of each of its contributors there is unmista.kably the impress of the operation of the Spirit of God, there is likewise, throughout the whole, clear indications of the preservation of those natural gifts and endowments which the respective writers possessed. There was no suspension of the powers of the men who were honoured of God in communicating to their fellow-men a knowledge of his will; but rather there was the retention of their NAHUM, D  34: