To wag their high tops, and to make no noise When they are fretted w'tth the gusts of heaven; You may as well do anything most hard, As seek to soften that (than which what's harder?)- A oruel heart." 8. Imposture. The city is represented as "full of lies and robbery" (eh. iii. 1), or, ae Keil renders it, " full of deceit and murder." Falsehood and violence were rampant. 'l'he imposture or falsehood is expressed in the fourth verse, "Because of the multitude of the whoredoms of the well-favoured harlot, tbe mistress of witchcrafts, that selleth nations through her whoredoms, and families through her witchcrafts." "The idolatrous practices of the Ninevites, and the means which they employed to seduce others to worship their gods, are here represented as the principal cause of their destruction. At the same time, the commerce, lnxury, etc., which they carried to the greatest height, are not to be excluded; for in making contracts and treaties with the more powerful of their neighbours, they not only employed these as inducements, but did not scruple to deliver into their power nations and tribes that were unable to help themselves (comp. Joel iii. 8, 6, 8; Amos i. 6). The metaphor of an unchaste female, and the seductive arts which she employs, is not unfrequent in the prophets" (Henderson). The cunning and deceptive policy is here called whoring or love-making, because it was that selfishness which wraps itself up in the dress of love, but under the appearance of love seeks only the gratification of it~ own lust. It was a mistress of this art, and by it sold nations, deprived them of their independence and liberty. Such are some of the crimes here referred to, of which the Assyrians were pre-eminently guilty -rapacity, cruelty, imposture. These imply every species of more.I evil, and moral evil in its most inhuman and ungodly aspects. Where these are there is no rectitude, no benevolence, no moral order, no true religion. II. WHY WAS SUOH A NATION ALLOWED TO EXIST so LONG? It was wicked from the beginning: why did not righteous Heaven crush it at the outset? Why was such a monster of iniquity allowed to perpetrate such enormities in the world from age to age? The question is similar to that which Job asked, "Wherefore do the wicked live, become old, yea, are mighty in power?" (Job xxi. 7). Without presuming to penetrate the mind of God, or give the reason, we can see some important purposes which the continuation of the existence of wicked men in this world answers. It serves to show: 1. Thefreedom of the human soul. The natural tendency of all the blessings and beauty of life, the spirit of grandeur and beneficence that runs through all nature, are against wickedness and in favour of virtue and holiness. Notwithstanding this, men are wicked. 'rhey have a power to resist the Divine, to pervert the good, and outrage their own natures. Here is freedom of nature. Men are not bad b:v necessity; they are bad by their own free determination. 2. The wonderful forbearance of God. Though wickedness is to the last degree repugnant to his holy nature, and though by a volition he could annihilate a universe of sinners, through his infinite love he forbears. "The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness, but is long-suffering to us-ward, not willing that any Rhould perish, but that all should come to repentance" (2 Pet. iii. 9). 3. The existence of a future state of retribution. Under the righteous government of God such a state of things cannot go on for ever. There must come an end, a balancing of the world's accounts, and an administration of justice to every soul. Human society is in an abnormal state; like water in a flood, it is hurry- ing onward to a more settled destination. " The mills of God grind slowly,"-D. T.
Ver. 1--ch. iii. 19.- Wicked nations: 2. However long they exist, they will be utterly destroyed. " He that dasheth in pieces," etc. "The Scripture," says Sherlock, "takes notice of a certain measure of iniquity, which is filling up from one generation to another, till at last it makes a nation or family ripe for destruction. And although these persons on whom this vengeance falls suffer no more than their own personal sin deserved, yet, because the sins of former generations, which they equal or outdo, make it time for God utterly to destroy them, the punishment due to the ~ins of many generations is said to fall upon them" (Gen. xv. 16; 2 Kings xxiv. 3, 4; Matt. xxiii. 32-36). So thorough was the destruction of Nineveh, that its very site for ages was a matter of conjecture. The wonderful discoveries of Botta in 1842, followed up by 88 THE BOOK OF NAHUM. [OR, Ir, 1-13.