1 2 Heb., the flame of the sword,and the spear. 16. 37. of Nineveh. upon thee shall flee from thee, and say, Nineveh is laid waste: who will bemoan her? whence shall I seek comforters for thee ? (8) Art thou better than 23 populous of the wheels, and of the pransing horses, and of the jumping chariots. (3) The horseman lifteth up both the bright sword and the glittering spear: and there is a multitude of slain, and a great number of carcases; and there is none a Isa. 47. 3; Ezek. No, that was situate among the rivers, end of their corpses; they stumble upon their corpses: because of the multitude of the whoredoms of the wellfavoured harlot, the mistress of witchcrafts, that selleth nations through her whoredoms, and families through her witchcrafts. (5) Behold, I am against thee, saith the LORD of hosts; and "I 3 Heb., No Amon. will discover thy skirts upon thy face, and I will shew the nations thy nakedness, and the kingdoms thy shame. (6) And I will cast abominable filth upon thee, and make thee vile, and will set thee as a gazingstock. (7) And it shall come to pass, that all they that look Jer. 25. 17. that had the waters round about it, whose rampart was the sea, and her wall was from the sea? (9) Ethiopia and Or, nourishing. Egypt were her strength, and it was infinite; Put and Lubim were 4thy helpers. (10) Yet was she carried away, she went into captivity: her young children also were dashed in pieces at the top of all the streets and they cast lots for her honourable men, and all her great men were bound in chains. 4 Heb., in thy help. horse galloping, and the chariot bounding. The entry of the victorious besiegers is here described. (3) The horseman lifteth up.-Better, There is the rearing horseman and the flaming sword, and the glittering lance, and a multitude of wounded, and a mass of corpses (4-6) Because of the multitude.-In the idolatry and superstition of Nineveh the prophet finds the cause of her destruction. Perversion of religious instinct is frequently denounced under the same figure in Scripture. Here, however, a more literal interpretation is possible, since there is reason to believe the religious rites of Assyria were characterised, like those of Babylon, by gross sensuality. According to Herod. i. 199, the Babylonian worship of Beltis or Mylitta was connected with a system of female prostitution, which was deemed "most shameful" even by the heathen historian. Compare also the Apocryphal Book of Baruch vi. 43. The same deity was worshipped in Assyria. Professor Rawlinson writes: "It would seem to follow almost as a matter of course that the worship of the same identical goddess in the adjoining country included a similar usage. It may be to this practice that the prophet Nahum alludes when he denounces Nineveh as a 'well-favoured harlot,' the multitude of whose harlotries was notorious" (Five Great Monarchies, ii. 41). (7) Shall flee from thee.-As in the case of the destruction of Korah, men flee from the stricken city lest they share her punishment. Nor is she an object of compassion whose cruelties have been as extensive as her empire. Hers is the fate of the fallen tyrant-left to -"vainly groan, With pangs unfelt before, unpitied and alone." (8) Populous No.-Better, No Amon. Thebes, the capital of Upper Egypt, was known to the Hebrews as "No Amon" (perhaps, "house of the god Amon;" similarly the Greeks called it ALOσTOλIS). Assyria herself had reduced the power of Thebes. (1) Sargon, the father of Sennacherib. had defeated Shebah, the Egyptian Tar-dan, at Rapikh, cir. B.C. 716. (2) Esar-haddon, Sennacherib's son, had routed the forces of Tirhakah, (11) Thou also shalt be 'drunken: thou shalt be hid, thou also shalt seek strength because of the enemy. (12) All thy strong holds shall be like fig trees subjugated the whole of the Nile valley, and taken the city where Tirhakah held his court, probably Thebes, cir. B.C. 670. (3) Asshur-bani-pal invaded Egypt in the year of his accession, B.C. 668, and reinstated certain rulers of his father's appointment, whom Tirhakah had driven out. In B.C. 665, another revolt brought this king again into Egypt. On this occasion Thebes was certainly sacked, and a large booty, inciuding "gold, silver, precious stones, dyed garments, captives (male and female), tame animals brought up in the palace, obelisks, &c., was carried off, and conveyed to Nineveh " (Five Great Monarchies, ii. 203). The present passage may refer either to this event or to Esar-haddon's previous capture of Thebes. The fall of the city was certainly a thing of the past when Nahum wrote. The allusion, therefore, helps us to assign the date of the composition (see Introduction). To mere human reasoning the downfall of Thebes testified to the power of Assyria, its conqueror. But to the inspired vision of Nahum, the ruin of the one world-power is an earnest of the ruin of the other. Both had been full of luxury and oppression, both were hated of mankind and opposed to God. If No-Amon has fallen, the city of the hundred gates, the metropolis of the Pharaohs, the conqueror whose countless captives reared the pyramids, why shall Nineveh stand? If Nineveh is protected by rivers— the Tigris and the Khausser-had not Thebes a rampart in the Nile, that "sea" of waters (comp. Isa. xix. 5), and its numerous canals? If Nineveh relies on subordinate or friendly states-Mesopotamia, Babylonia, Syria-had not Thebes all the resources of Africa-Ethiopia in the south, the Egypts in the north, her Libyan allies, Put and the Lubim, in the north-west? Yet what was the fate of No Amon? Her youth carried off in the slave-gangs of Assyria; her infants dashed to pieces at the street-corner (2 Kings viii. 12), as unprofitable to the captor; her senators reserved to grace a triumph, and assigned to the Assyrian generals by lot (Obad. 11). (11, 12) Thou also shalt be drunken. -Nineveh also shall be drunken with the cup of God's wrath (see Hab. ii. 16), yea, hid from recollection, so that men shall ask, "Where is Nineveh ?" (Comp. chap. ii. 11.) She, with the firstripe figs: if they be shaken, they shall even fall into the mouth of the eater. (13) Behold, thy people in the midst of thee are women: the gates of thy land shall be set wide open unto thine enemies the fire shall devour thy bars. (14) Draw thee waters for the siege, fortify thy strong holds: go into clay, and tread the morter, make strong the brickkiln. (15) There shall the fire devour thee; the sword shall cut thee off, it shall eat thee up like the cankerworm: make thyself many as the cankerworm, make thyself many as the locusts. (16) Thou hast multiplied thy himself. The End of her Greatness. 1 Or, spreadeth the cankerworm spoileth, and fleeth away. (17) Thy crowned are as the locusts, and thy captains as the great grasshoppers, which camp in the hedges in the cold day, but when the sun ariseth they flee away, and their place is not known where they are. (18) Thy shepherds slumber, O king of Assyria: thy 2 nobles shall dwell in the dust: thy people is scattered upon the mountains, and no man gathereth them. (19) There is no 'healing of thy bruise; thy wound is grievous: all that hear the bruit of thee shall clap the hands over thee: for upon whom hath not thy wickedness. 2 Or, valiant ones. merchants above the stars of heaven: 3 Heb., wrinkling. passed continually? too, shall vainly seek a fortress (Authorised Version, "strength") to give her shelter, all her own strongholds having fallen as easily as the ripe fruit from the fig-tree. (13) Thy people are women, not in their notoriously effeminate and luxurious habits (see Layard, p. 360), but with reference to their panic-stricken condition at the time of the catastrophe. They are fearful as women (comp. Jer. 1. 37, li. 30), because they find avenues laid open to the enemy, and the remaining defences consuming in the flames. (14) Draw thee waters.-In this desperate plight Nineveh is scoffingly advised to protract her resistance. The outer walls are broken down; let her hold out in the citadel. Nay, let her begin anew her preparations for defence. Let her lay in water and provision, and build new buttresses of brick. What shall it avail her? In the midst of her preparations, fire and sword shall again surprise her. The account of this last struggle for existence is minute. Nahum goes back to the repair of the brick-kiln, just as Isaiah, in his description of idol-worship, goes back to the smith working with the tongs, and the carpenter measuring with his rule (Isa. xliv. 12, seq.). In both cases the irony gains force by a minute and elaborate description of operations destined to be futile. (15, 16) The diversion of metaphor here is somewhat repugnant to modern taste. The sword, like the locust, shall devour Nineveh. Yet Nineveh is immediately afterwards compared in its numbers, destructive influence, and sudden disappearance to the locust. It is a transition like St. Paul's "going off at a word." The comparison of the locust suggests the thought that Nineveh herself has been a locust-pest to the world, and the direction of the metaphor is thereupon suddenly changed. A paraphrase will best bring out the meaning. (15) "Hostile swords devour thee, as a locust swarm devours. Vainly clusters together thy dense population, itself another locust-swarm. (16) Yea, as the stars of heaven for number have been thy mer chants, as a pest of locusts which plunders one day and is gone the next." (16) Spoileth.-Better, spreads itself out: swarms out to spoil. (17) Thy crowned.-The subordinate kings who represent the Assyrian empire in her tributary provinces. Captains.-Taphs'rim, an Assyrian term denoting some high military office. The sudden disappearance of the Assyrian locust-pest is here enlarged upon. A sudden outburst of sunshine will sometimes induce a swarm of locusts to take flight; cold, on the other hand, makes these insects settle, and soon deprives them of the power of flying. Dr. Pusey well observes, "The heathen conqueror rehearsed his victory, I came, I saw, conquered.' The prophet goes further, as the issue of all human conquest, I disappeared."" The insect designations, rendered in Authorised Version, "cankerworm," 'locust," great grasshopper," all represent varieties of the locust species. 66 86 (18) Shepherds-i.e., chief officers, as in Micah v. 2 and passim. Their sheep are "scattered upon the mountains and none attempts to gather them." So Micaiah announces to Ahab," I saw all Israel scattered upon the hills as sheep that have not a shepherd” (1 Kings xxii. 17). Thy nobles shall dwell.-Better, thy mighty men are lying still. (19) Clap the hands over thee.-All that hear the "bruit" or report of the fall of Nineveh clap their hands with joy (Ps. xlvii. 1), for where has not her oppressive rule been felt? The verse is addressed to the king (second person masculine) as the representative of the empire, perhaps also in view of his terrible end. The cruelty of the Ninevite régime is illustrated, as Kleinert remarks, in the sculptures, by the rows of the impaled, the prisoners through whose lips rings were fastened, whose eyes were put out, who were flayed alive. Consequently it would be a joy to all nations to hear the voice of the messengers of the tyrant no more (chap. ii. 14), but to hear that of the messengers of his destruction.” 66 INTRODUCTION ΤΟ HABAKKUK. I. The Author.-Habakkuk's own words lead to the inference that he prophesied shortly before the battle of Carchemish, B.C. 605, and therefore in the reign of Jehoiakim (v. infra). But we are told nothing concerning his tribe, birthplace, or personal history. The earliest legend bearing on these points is in the apocryphal book, "Bel and the Dragon." It is there recorded (verses 33 seq.), that the prophet Habakkuk was commissioned by an angel to feed Daniel in the den of lions, and that for this purpose he was miraculously transported from Judæa to Babylon. The story, worthless in itself, nevertheless indirectly confirms the theory of “date,” which we have accepted below. Its existence indicates that the Jewish tradition connected Habakkuk's ministry with the period of Babylonish captivity with the reign of Jehoiakim, rather than with those of Manasseh, Amon, or Josiah. Another point of interest in the legend is the superscription in Cod. Chisianus of the LXX. (from Origen's Tetraplar, and the Syro-Hexaplar), claiming Habakkuk himself as the author of "Bel and the Dragon." This superscription runs, "From the prophecy of Habakkuk, the son of Joshua, of the tribe of Levi." The reference to the prophet's tribe has attracted special attention, in view of the prescription in chap. iii. 19: "To the chief musician upon my stringed instruments." It has been inferred, from the use of the possessive pronoun, that Habakkuk was capacitated for taking a Levite's part in the Temple services. This inference, however, is devoid of substantial basis. It is possible that the term n'ginóthay is a dual form, not the plural with the possessive affix-a "double-stringed instrument," not "my stringed instruments." And whatever the meaning of the term, King Hezekiah prescribes the same liturgical use at the end of his psalm in Isa. xxxviii. (Heb. n'naggên n'ginôthay, Authorised Version, "We will sing my songs to the stringed instruments.") But Hezekiah was not a Levite. Why must Habakkuk have been one? In fact, the passage (chap. iii. 19) proves nothing whatever with regard to the prophet's tribe. The superscription to "Bel and the Dragon" must be judged on its own merits; and it merely shows that a Jewish tradition of early date made "Joshua" the name of Habakkuk's father, and Levi his tribe. Later and less respectable traditions appear in the Rabbinic writings. Such is the legend that Habakkuk was the watchman set by Isaiah to observe the destruction of Babylon, a legend based on a combination of Isa. xxi. 16 and chap. ii. 1. Such, too, is the tradition repeated by Abarbanel, that the prophet was that son of a Shunammite woman whom Elisha restored to life (2 Kings iv.). Etymology has here, as in other cases, become the parent of an absurd myth. The name Habakkuk is connected by derivation with the verb chabak, "to embrace." In 2 Kings iv. 16 occur the words "thou shalt embrace (chabak) a son." This is the sole foundation of the tradition. In this con 66 nection we remark that there is no reason to give the name Habakkuk" any symbolical meaning whatever. It was probably the name which the prophet bore from childhood, not an official or ministerial designation. II. Occasion of Writing.-Habakkuk is summoned to announce Jehovah's intention of punishing the iniquities which prevail among his compatriots. The instruments who are to effect this Divine chastisement are the armies of Chaldæa, or Babylonia (chap. i. 6). Their invasion shall effect a catastrophe of strange and incredible extent: men 66 shall not believe it, though it be told them" (chap. i. 5). The prophet warns his compatriots that this chastisement shall come "in your days"-i.e., ere the present generation has passed away (chap. i. 5). Most commentators have recognised that the denunciation is to be explained by the events which followed the great battle at Carchemish on the Euphrates, B.C. 605. This battle suddenly brought the chosen nation under the heel of the Babylonian conqueror, Nebuchadnezzar. Jewish sympathy had been on the losing side-that of the Egyptian PharaohNecho, for the Jewish king Jehoiakim was the nominee of Egypt, and Jeremiah had vainly tried to detach his countrymen from the cause of the southern empire. It was only natural that Nebuchadnezzar's victory was followed by an invasion of Judæa. Jehoiakim apparently came to terms with the conqueror, and was suffered to retain his throne as a tributary of Babylon. Three years later he was ill-advised enough to renounce this allegiance. Nebuchadnezzar punished his insubordinate dependent by the agency of other vassals, the Syrians, Moabites, and Ammonites. Judah was ravaged, and a period of great misery ensued. Jehoiakim fell, perhaps by the hands of his own subjects. His son and successor, Jehoiachin, seems to have continued his unwise policy of resistance. Within fourteen weeks of his accession, Nebuchadnezzar himself came up and besieged Jerusalem. The king surrendered himself and his family, and his deposition immediately followed. Nebuchadnezzar now sacked Jerusalem. "And he carried out thence all the treasures of the house of the Lord, and the treasures of the king's house . . . and he carried away all Jerusalem, and all the princes, and all the mighty men of valour, even ten thousand captives, and all the craftsmen and smiths: none remained save the poorest sort of the people of the land" (2 Kings xxiv. 13, 14). It is, we believe, to this crowning disaster that Habakkuk's sentence points-" Behold ye and wonder marvellously, for I will work a work in your days which ye will not believe, though it be told you" (chap. i. 5). .... We have now to consider how far the prophetic sentence is separated in point of time from its completion. Those commentators who repudiate or minimise the preternatural element in the prophetic Scriptures have insisted that Habakkuk's composition must. |