He who scatters has come; Jacob is emptied 1
The defense; river gates; captives 5
Nineveh was great but no more; empty void 8
Where are the lions 11
The Lord is against her; her prey cut off 13
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| .1 ¶ He that dasheth in pieces is come up before thy face: keep the munition, watch the way, make thy loins strong, fortify thy power mightily. | 1 -
He
that dasheth Warning Assyria again. See
on na0114.
This chapter will tell of the fall of Nineveh.
1 - Loins "The hips and the lower abdomen regarded as a part of the body to be clothed or as the region of strength and procreative power." 3rd definition, Webster's New World College Dictionary, Fourth Edition, 1999. Nineveh is to be attacked. Also v10. 1 - Keep the munition That is, "guard the fortified place." The city is to be destroyed. The meaning may be that the people should expect it. |
| 2 For the LORD hath
turned away the excellency of Jacob, as the excellency of Israel: for the
emptiers have emptied them out, and marred their vine branches.
2 - For the LORD is restoring the majesty of Jacob as the majesty of Israel, for plunderers have stripped them and ruined their branches. (RSV). 3 The shield of his mighty men is made red, the valiant men are in scarlet: the chariots shall be with flaming torches in the day of his preparation, and the fir trees shall be terribly shaken. 4 The chariots shall rage in the streets, they shall justle one against another in the broad ways: they shall seem like torches, they shall run like the lightnings. |
2 -
Turned
away From shub. The word may indicate "bring again" or
"turn again." Both the KJV and the RSV are acceptable translations.
2 - Emptiers The opposite of restorers. "the time for Nineveh's overthrow is ripe, because Jacob (Judah) and Israel (the ten tribes) have been sufficiently chastised. The Assyrian rod of chastisement, having done its work, is to be thrown into the fire. If God chastised Jacob and Israel with all their "excellency" (Jerusalem and the temple, which was their pre-eminent excellency above all nations in God's eyes, Ps 47:4; 87:2; Eze 24:21; see on ... Am 6:8), how much more will He punish fatally Nineveh, an alien to Him, and idolatrous? ..." (JFB) 3 - Torches From p@ladah Unknown meaning. 4 - Broad ways Nineveh was a large place 2ch3206. |
| .5
He shall recount his worthies: they shall stumble in their walk; they shall
make haste to the wall thereof, and the defense shall be prepared.
6 The gates of the rivers shall be opened, and the palace shall be dissolved. 7 And Huzzab shall be led away captive, she shall be brought up, and her maids shall lead her as with the voice of doves, tabering upon their breasts. |
6 -
Gates
... opened See note below:
7 -Huzzab Significance is unknown. The word means "molten." This may have been the name of the queen from the Hebrew root "stand by" which imply standing by the king ps04509. Some say the word personifies the city. 7 - Led away captive Or "she is laid bare. " Compare is4702,3. 7 - Shall lead From nahag. Also translated "to moan" or "to lament." |
| Note on verse 6 The river wall on the Tigris (the west defense of Nineveh) was 4,530 yards long. On the north, south, and east sides, there were large moats, capable of being easily filled with water from the Khosru. Traces of dams ("gates," or sluices) for regulating the supply are still visible, so that the whole city could be surrounded with a water barrier (Na 2:8). Besides, on the east, the weakest side, it was further protected by a lofty double rampart with a moat two hundred feet wide between its two parts, cut in the rocky ground. The moats or canals, flooded by the Ninevites before the siege to repel the foe, were made a dry bed to march into the city, by the foe turning the waters into a different channel: as Cyrus did in the siege of Babylon [MAURER]. In the earlier capture of Nineveh by Arbaces the Mede, and Belesis the Babylonian, DIODORUS SICULUS, [1.2.80], states that there was an old prophecy that it should not be taken till the river became its enemy; so in the third year of the siege, the river by a flood broke down the walls twenty furlongs, and the king thereupon burnt himself and his palace and all his concubines and wealth together, and the enemy entered by the breach in the wall. Fire and water were doubtless the means of the second destruction here foretold, as of the first." (JFB Comnentary). | |
| .8
But Nineveh is of old like a pool of water: yet they shall flee away. Stand
[Stop], stand, shall they cry; but none shall look back.
9 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. .10 She is empty, and void, and waste: and the heart melteth, and the knees smite together, and much pain is in all loins, and the faces of them all gather blackness. |
10
- Empty, void, and waste Utter desolation. The three words
rhyme in Hebrew.
10 - Knees - da0506. 10 - Blackness - See jl0206. |
| .11
¶ Where is the dwelling of the lions, and the feedingplace of the
young lions, where the lion, even the old lion, walked, and the lion's
whelp, and none made them afraid?
12 The lion did tear in pieces enough for his whelps, and strangled for his lionesses, and filled his holes with prey, and his dens with ravin. |
Here the picture represents the nature of Assyria je5017 which is now weak. |
| .13 Behold, I am against thee, saith the LORD of hosts, and I will burn her chariots in the smoke, and the sword shall devour thy young lions: and I will cut off thy prey from the earth, and the voice of thy messengers shall no more be heard. | - |
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