Total destruction (v 14-17)

We have come to the final section of the book of Nahum. In this passage, the complete collapse of Nineveh is prophesied. (1) The soldiers of Assyria will become weak like women and will be unable to resist the enemy. As a result, the gates will be opened wide, and the enemy will freely enter and burn the city to the ground. (2) Words of irony are spoken against Assyria: “Draw for yourself water for a siege! Strengthen your fortifications! Go into the clay and tread the mortar! Take hold of the brick mold!” No matter how much they prepare, it will be a losing battle, yet they are told to prepare anyway. (3) The fall of Nineveh will be total. As it says, “There fire will consume you, the sword will cut you down.” (4) The population of Nineveh is as numerous as locusts and grasshoppers, but they are of no help in saving the city. On the contrary, they attack the wealth that the merchants have gathered and plunder it. (5) The multitude like locusts, from the leaders to the common people, will flee.

A hopeless nation (v 18-19)

(1) Because of the collapse of Nineveh, its inhabitants become a people without hope. It says, “Your shepherds are sleeping, O king of Assyria; your officers are lying down. Your people are scattered on the mountains and there is no one to gather them.” “Your shepherds are sleeping… your officers are lying down,” means that the leaders have died. The inhabitants of Nineveh are not given a leader who will gather the people again in the future. Therefore, this is a hopeless situation. (2) They are also given no comfort. As it says, “There is no relief for your collapse, your wound is incurable. All who hear about you will clap their hands over you, for upon whom has your evil not come continually?” Not only are they not comforted, but the nations who hear the report about them greatly rejoice. This is because, to varying degrees, every nation had been afflicted by Assyria. In Psalm 39, David sings of the vanity of life as follows: “Certainly every person walks around as a fleeting shadow; they certainly make an uproar for nothing; he amasses riches and does not know who will gather them.  And now, Lord, for what do I wait? My hope is in You. Save me from all my wrongdoings; do not make me an object of reproach for the foolish” (v 6-8). Does not the content of this psalm express our hearts as they are? If we do not wait for God, life is empty. God Himself is our hope and our comfort. Let us pray to Him, “Save me from all my wrongdoings.”