V. 1. This is the burden over Nineveh, and the book of the prophecy of Nahum of Elkos.
I like the opinion of Jerome, because he says that Elkos is the name of a village, the fatherland of Nahum. And so, as Micah was of Maresa, so Nahum was of Elkos.
But he begins his prophecy with a glorious word of consolation, saying, "This is the burden upon Nineveh," as if to say, The burden with which you have been oppressed hitherto shall be lifted from you; you shall be delivered, and so much is lacking in it that you should perish, or, having been oppressed, fall, that the Ninevites, whom you feared before and still fear, shall be subdued. For it is a Hebrew way of speaking, since it is said [in the Vulgate], The burden of Nineveh, where in Latin we say thus, de onere super Nineveh [of the burden over Niuive]. But it was Nineveh, as we also noted in Jonah, that was the capital of the kingdom of the Assyrians. The Latins called it the Beautiful (speciosam).
V. 2. The Lord is a zealous God and an avenger.
With many words he emphasizes the anger of the divine majesty against the enemies of his people, and certainly, if we look at the matter thoroughly, the words are very heated. The people in the kingdom of Judah were small and feared the captivity that had befallen their brethren in Israel. The Assyrians were defiant, relying on their power and wealth, boasting and thinking that they could easily swallow up such a small and weak people, as the blasphemies of Rabshakeh Isa. 36:4 ff. well indicate [vv. 8 ff]: "Well, then, take it up with my lord the king of Assyria; I will give thee two thousand horses; let it be seen whether thou canst bring forth those that ride upon them. How wilt thou then abide before a captain, the least of the servants of one my lord?" etc. [V. 15. 18.] Let Hezekiah.
deceive you not, for he cannot save you. [V. 10: "Yea, the Lord said unto me, Send up into this land, and destroy it" etc. Against all this, however much the Assyrians may defy and seem certain of victory, Nahum fortifies the hearts of Judah, that they fear not, however mighty they may be: the Lord would take vengeance on the enemies of his people, but they should be preserved, as the Lord had promised to David and to the fathers. This sermon seemed to the Assyrians extremely foolish and quite inconsistent. And no doubt there were also people in the land of Judah who believed that nothing less would happen than what Nahum prophesied here. For since the danger was already imminent, since the Assyrian was already making havoc with a very powerful army, he called them safe and promised them salvation; the Lord would fight for them, he would be an avenger against his enemies. It took a very great faith to grasp these divine promises and to expect the future vengeance of the Lord against the Assyrians, not doubting that it would happen as if it were already there. All promises and words of God are such that they are much higher than all senses and all reason, so that the flesh cannot help but laugh at them and despise them. But only faith believes all this, which is also only in very few, just as at that time there were only the godly king Hezekiah and a few others who relied on such promises of God. This would also be understood by us if we were in the same situation as those who were promised these things at that time, if the furious princes and the pope came against us with a very powerful army to destroy us etc. Then we would understand the custom and the power of these consolations.
An avenger, yes an avenger is the Lord.
He repeats it twice, which is an indication of certainty and vehemence.
1338 D- xxvn, 66-^s. Interpretations on d-the prophets. W. vi, 3047-3050. 1Z3A
The Lord is an avenger against His adversaries, and He will not forget His enemies.
This is a very rich comfort for the godly, because they hear that the Lord calls those his enemies who oppose the godly, who persecute and kill the godly. Thus the Lord also promised in the second book of Moses [Cap. 23, 22.]: "I will be the enemy of thine enemies, and the adversary of thine adversaries." So here he calls the Assyrians his enemies, who were enemies of the people of Judah. What is it, therefore, that we should fear? All of them, even the most powerful ones, will not be able to do anything against us if we believe. For they fight against the Lord, not against us; they are the Lord's enemies, not ours. This fight will go very badly against them, since they choose to fight with God, the Most High and the Most Powerful. In the same way the prophet fortifies the hearts of Judah, as if he wanted to say: Be confident, they will not be able to hurt you in the least, all the hairs on your head are numbered, they are not dealing with you, but with the Lord; against Him they will fight very unhappily. Such very powerful promises all go against the ungodly blasphemies of the Assyrians, as I also mentioned above from Isaiah, and serve to uplift the hearts of the godly etc.
V. 3. The Lord is patient and of great strength.
This verse has been interpreted in many ways; we interpret it with the apostle Paul according to Rom. 2, 4. For the prophet meets their question and their objection and takes precaution against it, since they could confront him in this way: You promise us freedom and salvation, the Assyrian will not do anything against us, yes, the Lord will be avenger against our enemies. But in the meantime they are safe, defy, boast against us and threaten us with destruction. The prophet answers: This is God's way, he is patient, he does not punish immediately, as Paul also says [Rom. 2, 4]: "Do you despise the kingdom?
1) In the original: in deuteron.
thum of His goodness, patience and forbearance? Do you not know that God's goodness leads you to repentance?" Here the prophet speaks in the same spirit, as if he wanted to say: He has suffered that the Assyrian rages and defies Israel, and now the Lord allows him to threaten you with evil. Thus God delays the punishment and postpones it; He allows the power of the adversaries to grow and rise to the highest level, so that they rage extraordinarily. And then, when there is nothing less before your eyes than that you will be victorious, when everything stands in despair with you, when it is impossible that you can resist him with any human power, then he is there and resists and wins gloriously. For God is great and almighty and also executes great things; against everything that is exceedingly strong and mighty he proves his strength. Thus he makes the wicked ascend to the highest, so that they may fall all the more heavily. All this perfectly describes the nature of God and His works, so that we will not despair, no matter how great fear may seize us, but will have confidence that the Lord will help us all the more quickly when we completely despair of being able to escape the danger that threatens us. And we should believe that the Lord will finally be an avenger against our, even against his enemies, because that is what the Lord calls them. But this is our weakness, that we always want the Lord to avenge immediately, and if he does not avenge immediately, we think it is over for us etc.
Before which no one is innocent.
[Et mundans non faciet innocentem] is spoken according to the Hebrew way. We must translate differently, because the participium mundans must be omitted. But it is the same way of speaking in the Psalm [Ps. 49, 8.]: Frater redimens non redimet, which we express in Latin like this: Frater non redimet his brother cannot redeem]. So here: [Innocentans] from innocentabit 2) or he will not let anyone be innocent, as if to say: They are not innocent before the Lord, however much men shine, however much they boast
2) Thus set by us according to the Zwickau manuscript. In the Weimar and Erlangen: Ita the: 6t of uoeeutadit etc.
1340 L. XXVII, 68-71. interpretation of Nahum (1.), cap. 1, 3. 4. 7. W. VI, 3VSV-ZV52. 1341
because of their righteousness and holiness. Those who are most sure because of their righteousness, he immediately makes guilty and judges that they are the most guilty. Thus the Assyrians also boasted against the people of God, that they had come by command of the Lord to destroy Israel, not according to their own will, they had been forced, as Rabshakeh says Isa. 36:10: "The Lord said unto me, Send up into this land, and destroy it." There must be such a delusion among all who persecute the godly that they think they are doing God a service, as Christ also says [John 16:2]. The same opinion is held today by our senseless princes, since they persecute the Gospel, which gives glory to the great God, and the preachers of the Gospel. But God finally avenges and judges quite differently, which is also our consolation today against the nonsensical bishops and princes. For the time being, we must give them the title that they are just. But the Lord will finally avenge the disgrace of his word, he will set the matter straight. In the meantime, we are to believe God, and let our innocence be suppressed, so that it is known to no one but God alone etc.
He is the Lord whose ways are in weather and storm.
This is a glorious description of the vengeance of God against His enemies. For the vengeance is much greater than we can think or desire. As if he wanted to say: By no power, by no wisdom, by no counsel will they be able to resist the vengeance of the Lord, because the Lord comes like a weather and a storm. All this, as I said above, is spoken as a threat against the great and very powerful king of the Assyrians and for the comfort of the small and weak Judah.
V. 4. who chides the sea and makes it dry.
These are descriptions of the power of the Lord. He includes some examples that were known to the people, such as the passage through the Red Sea, through the Jordan, and others. And from these examples he makes certain general descriptions. As if he wanted to say: Once the Lord had crossed the Red Sea.
He can do the same now, and he can do much more. Fear not, little host; if he has been able to dry up the sea, he will also be able to provide another sea 1) through which he will destroy the whole army of the Assyrians. How should we therefore fear, since the Lord is on our side, who can make the sea dry? The prophets have respected this history very highly, which can be seen everywhere; in the Psalm, where the prophet [Ps. 77, 12.] says that he will remember the miracles of the Lord forever.
And all the water dried up.
Once he made the Jordan dry, therefore there is no river that he cannot dry up. So great is the power of the Lord who will fight for us that all your adversaries will not be able to resist him.
Bashan and Carmel languish, and what flourishes on Mount Lebanon languishes.
Bashan has a very fertile and productive soil, as it got its name from its fatness. Likewise, Carmel was extraordinarily fat and productive. Lebanon is a forest that is very full of trees. But it is our God who makes all this to perish, that is, he can make all power, all wealth, all abundance, all that is exceedingly mighty and strong, come to nothing. Therefore, let our enemies refrain from boasting because our God is mighty to destroy all power and even the mightiest troops etc.
V. 7.2) The Lord is gracious, and a steadfast in time of trouble.
As above he frightened the adversaries, the enemies, with very great threats, so here he strengthens the godly of Judah, the small and little people, with a quite obvious promise and consolation, as if he wanted to say: To your godless adversaries the Lord is strong and terrifying and an avenger, but he is lovely and kind, to comfort in the time of tribulation. It is an extraordinarily glorious and comforting saying, which does not only apply to that challenge of Judah, but also to all the other troubles.
Erlanger and also the Wittenberger reads.
2) This verse number is missing in Weimar's.
The Lord must be referred to and applied in our times of affliction and adversity, so that we learn to take refuge in this goodness of the Lord as a sacred anchor in every challenge. Many psalms are full of such sayings, such as Ps. 9, 10: "The Lord is a refuge in trouble" etc. But then the Lord is kind, then a helper, when we are greatly afflicted, when we hunger, when we suffer adversity, when our conscience is in anguish, as it is also said elsewhere in a Psalm [Ps. 50, 15.]: "Call upon me in trouble, and I will deliver thee." He tells us to flee to him, to call upon him; otherwise the weakness of the human heart is so great that, although it is commanded to ask, and to take refuge in this goodness, it nevertheless trembles and mistrusts in the challenge. Namely, this is how the Lord comforts us in tribulation, that is, even though we are afflicted by temptation, he does not let us succumb. Paul says the same thing [1 Cor. 10:13]: "God is faithful, who will not let you be tempted above your ability, but will make the temptation come to an end so that you can bear it.
And know them that trust in him.
This is also an extremely comforting word, that the Lord knows His own, looks upon them, protects them and takes care of them, that He takes care of them, as David says in the Psalm [Ps. 121, 4.]: "Behold, the guardian of Israel neither sleeps nor slumbers." What greater comfort can there be in all adversity, in all temptation, both bodily and spiritual, than that the conscience knows for certain that the Lord looks upon it and that God takes care of it? Such a conviction overcomes sin, death, hell and all temptations. For such must be the conviction in every temptation, however great, that we may be persuaded that we shall have glory in the greatest shame, that we may be persuaded that we shall be satisfied in the midst of famine, that we shall have life when all is in despair etc. And this is what is said in the first Psalm, v. 6: "The Lord knoweth the way of the righteous." But of the wicked it is added here:
V. 8. 1) When the flood overflows.
It is a Hebrew peculiarity, since he says, "When the flood overflows." Similarly, Isa. 28:18: "When a flood comes, it will tread you down." 2) And in the 32nd Psalm, v. 6: "Therefore, when great floods of water come, they will not reach them." That is, the flood is indeed there, threatening calamity, the godly will be overwhelmed with many ills, but all this passes immediately, as weather passes, it will soon cease, as we also say in German, "Es ist nur ein Uebergang." No matter how much your enemies rage, no matter how confident they are that they will swallow you up whole, they will be of no avail. They themselves will perish, you will escape unharmed. This is what Solomon says in Proverbs [Cap. 10, 25.], "The wicked is like weather that passeth over, and is no more." We have experienced all of this so far, and will continue to experience it in our godless princes, who have raged against the gospel of God together with the pope, as they have done nothing, as he says here:
So he puts an end to the same.
Some interpret this from the place where the army of Sanherib, king of the Assyrians, was killed, as the sacred histories report. But I think that this is a general statement, so that the opinion would be: "Wherever there may be a further or a flnt in any place, the Lord will let them pass by; the wicked will not do anything against the faithful. For in the very place where they intend to easily devour the godly, they themselves will perish and perish, while the godly will remain unharmed. Thus we, or those who will be after us, will see the miserable downfall of our princes,
1) This verse number is missing in Weimar's.
2) In our original, certainly wrong: -ro-r revealed super uos. In the Wittenberg me instead of uos, but also: non. In the Vulgate: errtis ei irr eoneuteationern. The old translator has it right.
3) Vulgate: LorrsumruÄtionerri jpgs kämet loei ejus.
who praise so senselessly against the glorious gospel of the great God. Christ will show how mighty a Lord he is, he will avenge the shame on the wicked, he will destroy them in the very place where they are now defying, boasting and raging against the godly, as he says here:
But he pursues his enemies with darkness.
Light in Scripture means happiness and prosperity, as I have reminded you several times above in the other prophets, as is evident from Proverbs Cap. 13,1) 9. "The light of the wicked shall be put out." On the other hand, darkness means adversity, misfortune, bad success in all things. Hence the opinion: the wicked will perpetually perish, misfortune will not depart from them, while in the meantime the godly will remain unharmed, whom they wanted to be destroyed etc. And so the prophet interpreted the verse of the first Psalm [v. 6]: "The Lord. knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked perishes."
V. 9: What do you think against the Lord?
In great certainty of the promise which he gives to the godly to strengthen them, and of the threat by which the godless are terrified, he directs his speech against the godless, as if to say: "What is it that you wretched people presume to fight against the Lord? Why do you so brave your strength and power? You set yourselves against the Lord, against whom you will fight quite unhappily. The battle you think of against the Lord will not go well for you. But the wicked believe nothing less than that they set themselves against the Lord. They think that they are doing God a service, which I have also shown above from the 36th chapter of Isaiah, where Rabshakeh says [v. 10.], "The Lord said unto me, Go up into this land, and destroy it."
1) In our original Uroverd. 28, but according to the Zwickau manuscript, the passage given by us is to be read. The saying, which is incorrectly quoted here in the original and reproduced by the editions, is Sprüchw. 31, 18.
2) Instead of eonarninatioE in our original, we have assumed eommivatioiUs according to the marginal gloss in the Zwickau manuscript, depending on eertituckins.
Misfortune will not come twice.
Instead of non consurget duplex tribulatio I translate after the Hebrew thus: Misfortune will not come again. All sophists have treated this passage; it has also tormented them extraordinarily, because it was a cause for innumerable questions to them. Also the magister sententiarum [Petrus Lombardus] has treated it. But with all these things we do not want to hold out. In short, I hold that this is the right opinion, as if to say, Thou, king of Assyria, hast done enough: thou hast laid waste the kingdom of Israel; thou hast now ruled enough. Now no other calamity will be added. I will not let you go on and destroy Judah also, for the Lord will deliver it from the calamity that now threatens, but another will not come upon it. But this the prophet speaks of his time, not of the whole time of the kingdom of Judah, because after that also the kingdom of Judah perished, as did that of Israel. A similar passage is in the book of Kings [2 Kings 6:23]: "Since that time the men of war of the Syrians came not again into the land of Israel," etc., that is, at the time when the war was waged between the king of Syria and Samaria, they did not return. This is also a general saying, which we can refer to all our misfortunes and adversities: our enemy will not always prevail against us; it will finally happen that he will succumb. It is an extraordinarily beautiful prophecy in Isaiah [Cap. 37, 29.], where the spirit taunts the king of Assyria that he will return to his land in disgrace. Nowadays, our princes, the enemies of the Word of God, should also read these things, and learn here that they will not accomplish what they have undertaken to accomplish against the Word of God; they will perish in the midst of their nobility. Then they will fear nothing less than that they will perish. We have already experienced the same judgment in the false prophets of our times, who, while they were in the middle of their course, hoped to achieve what they had long since thought,
have perished by the miraculous counsel of God and have been deceived in their ungodly hope, because they always have the judgment of God against them, which is written in the Psalm [Ps. 55, 24]: "The bloodthirsty and the false will not bring their lives to the half." Likewise [Ps. 21, 12.]: "They made plots which they could not carry out" etc. All these judgments are also in store for the godless princes who are fighting against the Lord today, and they have nothing better to expect for themselves. If they do not desist from their ungodly nature and the practice of their cruelty, they will perish in the midst of their nobility.
V.10. For as if the thorns, while they still grow in one another and are in the best sap, were burned as dry straw.
I translate after the Hebrew thus: For while yet the thorns are tangled one in another, and they drink in their revelry, they shall be swallowed up as all dry straw. The prophet has used extraordinarily contemptuous words with which he belittles the immense power and the auxiliary troops of the king of Assyria, so that he compares them to dry straw. As if he wanted to say: Just as straw, which is completely dry, can easily be consumed by fire, so they will also easily perish, no matter how great their power and quantity may be. The most powerful troops are nothing against the Lord. For the Assyrian king had in his camp one hundred and eighty-five thousand armed men. The prophet compares this immense number to straw, which is what happened. For in one night the angel of the Lord smote this whole army, as the sacred histories and Isaiah, Cap. 37, 36. For this is the end of the wicked, as we have seen in our false prophets. But he calls them tangled thorns, that is, they have joined their forces with one another, they have made friends with one another, they think that they will have the upper hand. And so, having joined their forces with each other, they are very presumptuous. But they are thorns, and will perish at the same time, like
they have joined their forces. And when they shall drink in their carousals, and revel in royal splendor, they shall be sure of victory: then shall they perish. Like the preceding passages, this one also is to be used generally for any comfort, that we may have confidence in any persecution, when princes conspire against us, that they shall not avail, but shall perish, and be consumed like dry straw by fire.
V. 11. 1) So the Schalksrath, which comes from you (Ex te enim exibit), gave way.
This is a Hebrew expression, the like of which is found in Isaiah Cap. 49, 17: "Your builders 2) will hasten, but your breakers and destroyers will depart" (a te exibunt), that is, they will go away, they will leave you, "they troll away". It is quite the same idiom here, as if to say, "When these thorns are thus consumed, then from thee shall depart the Schalksrath (consiliarius Belial), who hath thought against the Lord; then shall he no more proceed to mock thee. Belial in Hebrew means the one whom we call a useless man, "a useless knave".
V. 12 Thus saith the Lord; They come armed and mighty as they will.
Shortly before [v. 9.] the prophet addressed his speech to the Assyrian to frighten him; he threatened him with destruction. Here he addresses the word to the distressed Judah, that he may comfort and deliver it. For the prophet prophesied in Jerusalem in the kingdom of Judah, not in Nineveh. Therefore the opinion is: Fear not. Let your adversaries, however well armed, however well armed, however rich, however wise, so that they may lack nothing of what belongs to a well-armed army. Then let there also be many armies, all of which threaten you with destruction, so take care of them.
1) This verse number is missing in Weimar's.
2) Instead of ätzstruetortzs in the Erlanger and in the Weimarschen, the Vulgate reads 8truetor68.
you about all this nothing, let it not frighten you, however well-equipped and numerous they may be. This is what John says in his epistle [1 Ep. 4, 4.], "He that is in you is greater than he that is in the world."
Let them be knocked out (Attondentur).
This word of the prophet is also spoken in the Hebrew way. Also Isaiah used this word ["to shear off"], because he says [Cap. 7, 20.]: "The Lord will shear off the hair with a hired 1) shearing knife" etc. This is the shearing of the head, which occurs frequently in Moses and in other prophets, as in Isaiah [Cap. 3, 17.]: "The Lord will make the crown of the daughters of Zion bald." Hence the being shorn off (attondi), of which the prophet here says, is nothing else than that the people who are with the king shall be put to death. For the hair of the head and the beard signify the princes or the great men of the king, but the hair of the feet is the king's subjects, the great multitude, the lowest yeast of the people. And so the prophet exhausts everything with this one word and takes away everything that gave the Assyrian courage. Thus Ovid says: Now the seed stands where Troy was, and must be cut with the sickle etc.
And go there.
This is fulfilled in the night when the angel of the Lord cut off all the hair of Sanherib, that is, when he killed in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred and eighty-five thousand men, so that Sanherib, when he awoke, had to flee away with shame, Isa. 37:37.
I have humbled you, but I will not humble you again.
That is, until now I have allowed you to be plagued. Now the time is coming when I will free you, so that your enemies will no longer have the right to rage against you. I will not allow them to mock you any longer, but will turn all evil on their heads.
1) Instead of aeuta, the Vulgate reads eonäueta.
V. 13 Then I will break his yoke that you bear, and I will burst your bands.
Quite the same words are in the second Psalm, v. 3. "Let us break their bands, and cast from us their cords." "Yoke" he calls the dominion with which he has hitherto ruled over Judah. "Bands" he calls the yoke with which the Assyrian had hitherto oppressed and held Judah captive etc.
V. 14. 2) But against you the Lord has commanded.
Now it passes again from Judah to Sanherib, the king of Assyria. This change of persons must be taken into account when reading the prophets. But he again uses a prophetic word when he says: "The Lord has commanded against you", since everything that happens is done by the word of God. "For when he speaks, it is done; when he gives, it stands," as it is said in the Psalm [Ps. 33:9]. Therefore, the opinion here is: The Lord will do something against you, he will command something against you etc.
That none of your name's seed should remain (non seminabitur de nomine tuo ultra).
It is a Hebrew expression in the verbum [non] seminabitur [it will not be sown]. Some have referred this passage to the descendants of Sanherib, namely that the Lord had threatened that it would happen that he would not get any more descendants. But I rather refer it to the reign of Sanherib, so that this is the opinion: You have oppressed the lands of all nations, and all the labor of all peoples you have harvested; to you all taxes have been paid, because you have ruled over all. But now this will no longer take place, your kingdom will cease, your tyranny, which you have used until now, oppressing the nations and making them pay tribute; furthermore you will no longer be king, no more seed will be sown for you etc.
From the house of your God I will cut you off.
That is, not only shall you no longer be lord in Judea, but not even in
2) This verse number is missing in Weimar's.
your Assyrians, even in the house of your god you will be nothing. The prophet certainly saw this prophecy in his spirit, which was fulfilled afterwards, when Sanherib, after his army was destroyed, fled to the temple of his god, and was killed in the temple among the idols by his sons, 2 Kings 19:37.
For you have come to nothing.
That is, you will not be considered worthy to be buried in the place of kings, so you will be buried under your idols. The same threat is pronounced by the Lord in Moses [Deut. 2T, 30] against the Jews, when he says: "I will throw your dead bodies on your idols", so that one idol will fall on top of the other etc. No doubt this contempt came upon king Sanherib, as some would have it, because he returned to his country as a fugitive without having accomplished anything and had lost the whole army. And so he had attracted the displeasure of his sons, by whom, no doubt, he was not killed so ignominiously among the idols in the temple of his god without the consent of the people.
Cap. 2, 1. Behold, upon the mountains come the feet of a good messenger preaching peace.
We are all convinced that there is not a single one among the prophets who did not include something in his prophecy about the future Christ and about the grace that was to be revealed through Christ. In this prophet I would like to draw this passage to Christ, because otherwise there is no other passage in this prophet that could be understood by Christ than this one. For these are also the same words in Isaiah [Cap. 52, 7.], which Paul cites in the Epistle to the Romans [Cap. 10, 15.] of the preachers of the Gospel, namely, that no one can preach the Gospel unless he is sent. But the name "gospel" is used not only for spiritual promises and consolations of the conscience, but also for any cheerful and good messages, by which also temporal good things are promised. And I am not quite sure yet whether the apostle Paul used this passage of Isaiah in his own words.
to the gospel of grace (that is, which promises forgiveness of sins and salvation in Christ), which is what the prophet Isaiah said. So I think that this passage in our prophet Nahum is not only to be understood from the gospel of grace, which is promised and proven to us through Christ, by which the believers become children of God and joint heirs of Christ, but also from temporal promises, as, from the victory over the enemy and his destruction, from the gathering of the spoils, from the conclusion of peace etc. Therefore, I think that it is said in a general expression of the temporal victory, to which, however, the grace of Christ and the gospel are inserted in general.
See.
This is the word of him who rejoices in victory. But he speaks after the manner of the prophets, as if it were present, while it was yet future.
On the mountains.
The land of the Jews was mountainous, therefore he speaks in a Hebrew way. We would say in German: "Now and then on the mountains", here and there in different parts of the country, as if he wanted to say: Everywhere a new rumor is spread, but the rumor of a glad messenger (evangelistae). Thus Lucas Cap. 1, 39. spoke after the same Hebrew manner: "But Mary arose and went up into the mountains." Likewise [v. 65]: "This story was all over the mountains of Judea" etc.
Feet.
For a rumor runs fast, and becomes all the stronger the farther it goes (viresque acquirit eundo), and the glad messengers (evangelistae) also run.
The one who preaches peace.
This is a Hebrew way of speaking, because the Hebrews say: You are at peace, where we say: It is well with your affairs. It is peace (that is, "it is well").
1352 L. XXVII, 83-86. interpretation of Nahum (1.), cap. 2, 1. 2. W. VI, 3064-3067. 1353
Keep your holidays, Judah.
That is, be safe; now that the enemy king has been killed and the army destroyed, you can safely keep your holidays, which you could not do before because you were hindered by the war. Now those who belong to Judah will again go to the temple of the Lord, as the Law of Moses prescribes.
Pay your vows.
What "paying vows" is, we have dealt with above in abundance in the other prophets. But it means: to sacrifice to the Lord, and not only cattle, but to give thanks to God, to praise God, etc., which are "the farrows of the lips", which God alone wants, 1) Hosea 14, 3.
1) In the Altenburg manuscript reliMit; in the Wittenberg: reMirit. We hold that the latter reading deserves preference, despite the Weimar's remark: "Dies reliquit verstand die Wittenberger nicht und liest rshuirit."
This whole passage, as I have said, can be applied to Christ and, more generally, to the gospel preached on the mountains, that is, in all lands, as the Psalm [Ps. 19:5] says. But he preaches peace, that is, forgiveness of sins, and promises eternal righteousness in Christ, through whom we are to become lords over all creatures etc. And he exhorts the Jews to accept this gospel, saying, "Keep your feasts, Judah," etc. that is, now offer your sacrifices, now pay GOtte your vows which you have made. Until now you have not sacrificed properly, you have not kept your holidays properly; now praise your God, now offer the farrows of your lips for the revealed grace, for now the mischief (Belial) will no longer come upon you, the enemies will henceforth no longer exercise tyranny against you, whether they be enemies in the flesh or in the spirit etc.