V. 1. Woe to the murderous city.
The prophet still stands by his prophecy that Nineveh will be destroyed and the Assyrian kingdom laid waste. For though he has said these things abundantly in the second chapter above, yet he delights and is rich in spirit with many words and images; as is the way of the prophets, he repeats the same things. But the opinion of this chapter is also easy, only the word sense (ratio grammatica) will cause us difficulty.
According to Hebrew he said: "city of blood" instead of: murderous, cruel city, which is inclined to shed blood.
Which is full of lies and robbery.
Instead of universa mendacii, it should more correctly read: which is entirely lying. - Dilaceratione plena, that is: violence reigns in you, there is no end to your robbery; the one is after the other's goods when and how he can. He punishes three vices, as if to say: The hour of your disturbance has come, you have been too cruel and mendacious, there is no more faithfulness, no more constancy in you, finally everything is full of robbery. It cannot but be so in all the kingdoms of the world when they have come to the highest, when they have begun to blossom most etc.
And will not let go of their robbery.
You are, as it were, a maw of all goods, for you consume all possessions as wild animals do to each other.
V. 2 For there shall be heard the scourges clattering, and the wheels rattling.
The long-suffering of God is great, as all Scripture everywhere indicates; with great patience He bears our sins as long as they are hidden, but when we are blinded to such an extent that they also become generally known, that the shameful deeds seem to have grown on us, as it were, and we have, as it were, a Ge
If they make a habit of it, then he can no longer tolerate it, but he punishes them. We see the same thing here. He threatens the Ninivites with destruction and the wrath of the Lord, because they did not know how to keep a measure in their ungodliness. But I read according to the Hebrew everything [which in the Vulgate is in the genitive] in the nominative, namely thus: the rattling of the wheels, and the wild horses, and the rolling chariots, and the riders on the horses, and the shining of the swords, and the flashing of the spears etc. But he paints by all these things, as it were as a painter on a tablet, the hostile army of the Chaldeans against the Assyrians, and the lamentation of the Assyrians, and sets it before his eyes, as he also did above in the second chapter [v. 4. f.], as if he wanted to say: with great vehemence, with great zeal, the charioteers drive the horses and the chariots forward, with great impetuosity and rattling, they go almost over neck and head, they crash with great violence, and the riders sit quickly on the horses, the spears shine like lightning etc. But he speaks of the war chariots in which fighters sat, as also the histories of the pagans report.
V. 3. 1) There lie many slain and great heaps of corpses (et gravis ruinae).
This is the other part of the painting, as I said, namely the lamentable misfortune of the Assyrians, which he presents as it were as present, as he saw it in the spirit as future. By the way, the Hebrew word which our interpreter here translates by aravis is frequent in Scripture, and has always been so translated, as, in the first book of Moses [Cap. 13, 2.]: "Abram was very rich (gravis) in silver and gold." Likewise [Cap. 12, 1O.]: "The theurung was great (gravis) in the land," that is, great, much. So it is here, (vravis ruina, that is, the quantity and size of the dead bodies.
1) This verse number is missing in Weimar's.
1364 xxvii, 98-ioi. Interpretation of Nahum (1.), Cap. 3, 3-5. w. vi, ei-e. 1365
For what we read here: ruinae, is badly translated, as also in the Psalm [Ps. 110, 6.]: Judicabit in nationibus, implebit ruinas, where so should have been translated: implebit cadaveribus [he will make it full of corpses]. So also here must be translated.
V. 4. All this for the sake of great fornication.
He gives the cause of this lamentable defeat, which he describes as already present, as it were. I translate after the Hebrew thus: Propter fornicationes fornicariae gratiosae, maritae maleficiorum [the wife of sorceries]. This he has spoken entirely after the Hebrew manner, as when they say, Beelzebub, that is, the man of the fly, and the man of the wind, the man of the blood etc., instead of: a void, a cruel man. So here: the woman of sorceries, that is, the sorceress.
Who with her fornication has acquired the heathen and with her sorcery the land and the people.
I believe that the prophet speaks in figures and images, so that he names idolatry, godlessness and contempt of God with the word fornication according to the way of the Scriptures. And because no nation is so crude and savage that it should not also boast of the name of God and the service of God, which we see in the Turk and in all other sects, also in the Pabst, the Assyrians also used the name and the service of God for their godless nature, for their idolatry. Therefore they dragged many Gentiles with them into the same godlessness, as the prophet says here, as if he wanted to say: So great is your godlessness, so far you have brought it, that you have also joined many Gentiles to you in your godlessness. 1) Moreover it [the city of Nineveh] had many ungodly teachers, whom it kept to increase their ungodliness etc. It is a Hebrew idiom, as he says, Vendidit [gentes], that occurs frequently in Scripture. Also
1) Our template offers: ut multas etiam Mutes in suarn irnpietatein sibi soeiavit. Instead, we have adopted: ut rnultas etiam Mntes in tua impietate tibi sooiaveris. The Wittenberg has also retained the second person and reads: ut rnultas etiarn Mntes tidi oonsooiaveris.
Paul made use of the same in the Epistle to the Romans [Cap. 7, 14.], "Sold under sin." So here: It sold the Gentiles, that is, it lured them to itself, and caused them to fall into the same ungodly nature, so that in such a way they also perished. He punishes [by the word "sell"] the avarice of false teachers, who lure people, and by their misfortune acquire goods etc.
V. 5.2) I will uncover your brooding under your face.
Here the prophet seems to me to speak again poetically after his manner. For he alludes to the unchaste inclination of the heart when it is inclined to fornication, and so he indicates spiritual fornication, as if to say: Just as a public whore is ready and gives herself up to commit fornication with everyone, so also you have made yourself common to everyone by your idolatry. Therefore I will expose your evil, your abominations, I will make your sins manifest to you, and I will put you to shame so that you will be a spectacle to all the nations. This is God's way, that when He wants to destroy the wicked, He first reveals their wickedness to them. We see this today in the case of the priest, whose fornication is revealed through the gospel, and therefore all those things which before were extraordinarily pleasing and approved are now quite stinking and an abomination. For what is now considered a greater abomination than the ungodliness of the masses? whereas before the gospel was revealed, everything seemed to be exceedingly holy and conformed to the word of God etc.
And will show your shame to the kingdoms.
He now contrasts "the shame" with what he had said above [v. 4]: "the beautiful dear whore", as if he wanted to say: Now you are pleasing, now you are pleasant, but the heathen and the kingdoms will have a disgust for you. I will make you completely stink, so that it will be obvious to them how disgraceful you are. And I will see to it that this happens, as he also adds here:
2) This verse number is missing in Weimar's.
V. 6. I will make you completely abominable (Projiciam super te nauseam).
Our Latin interpreter translated here quite badly by the word abominationes. The same [Hebrew] word is also in the Psalm [Ps. 107, 40.]: He pours out contempt on the princes, that is, he will make them contemptible, and that by the light of the word. This is how it must be understood here: I will make you an abomination to all, stinking to all.
And ravish you.
In Hebrew this is a well-chosen word, as if to say: I will make you a fool. This Hebrew way of speaking is also followed by the Germans when they say against someone whom they severely rebuke: "You are a fool." Therefore, he calls the recognized and rebuked and fully announced foolishness a disgrace.
V. 7. 1) Who will have compassion on you?
That is, who will have mercy on you? as if to say, All will rejoice at your downfall; there will be no one to comfort you etc.
V. 8. Do you think you are better than the city of No of the Regents?
This is one of the most difficult passages in the Prophets. The Latin interpreter has changed whimsically. Jer. 46, 25. he translated like this: Ecce ego visitabo super tumultum Alexandriae; here he translates: Alexandria populorum, and the same word Alexandria is also in Ezekiel [Cap. 30, 14. 15.]. Now the question arises, of which city the prophet is speaking, for there has been much dispute about this matter. It is certain that the prophet makes the city of Nineveh a lesser one than that of which the prophet speaks here. For he makes an inference from the greater to the lesser, which is quite clear from the text. Therefore he spoke of an old and glorious and very noble and mighty city, be it of the old Thebes, of which it is said that it had a hundred gates.
1) This verse number is missing in Weimar's.
or of a very fortified city of the land of the Moors, which is said to have been extraordinarily strong and splendid, situated in a lake of the Nile. Otherwise, of course, we can determine nothing from this passage of the prophet. What our interpreter translates: populorum, is also badly translated. I translate this passage thus: Are you better than No (Minno == XXX) the artist? Because the Hebrew word [sw] means a pupil, an artist or work master.
V. 9. 2) Mohrenland and Egypt was their countless power.
This moves me, why I hold that this city was the capital of the kingdom of Ethiopia. Because this description agrees in all pieces to the firm city, which Josephus describes. 3)
V. 11. So you also must get drunk and hide yourself.
As if he wanted to say: So no counsel and no wisdom is against the Lord, so no power is sufficient when the Lord is angry. Therefore, if this city, so exceedingly strong, so very mighty and rich, could not escape the judgment and vengeance of the Lord, you will escape much less. You must also become drunk with the cup of the Lord's wrath and anger. For this is how the prophets often speak of the cup that must be drunk, as Jer. 25, 27: "Drink that you may be drunk, drank 4) and fall down etc. Likewise Ps. 75, 9: "The Lord has a cup in his hand, and poured out full of strong wine" etc. See Isa. 51, 17.
And seek a stronghold from the enemy.
That is, the enemies oppress you, therefore, because they are so strong, you will seek help everywhere, but you will not find it. It is done for you, you are gone etc.
2) This verse number is missing in Weimar's.
3s Josephus XMi^uitutes, lib. II, oap. X, § 2 names the city of Saba, and says it is the same which Cambyses afterwards called Meroe. - In the manuscript and in the Wittenberg: 4osn6 instead of Fosspdus.
4) Weimarsche and Erlanger: venits instead of: voinits.
V. 12. All your strong cities.
Thus I translate according to the Hebrew: All your fortifications are like fig trees with their first fruits; if someone shakes them, they fall into the mouth of the one who wants to eat them. The prophet ridicules the presumption of those who are left in the city, who think that they cannot be conquered so soon, since they are surrounded with walls, but he says that they are quite easy to overcome, namely, just as ripe figs are shaken with little effort. For if the tree is only moved, they fall easily. So also the Chaldeans would conquer without effort. As if he wanted to say: The king of the Chaldeans will beat you with a small team and overcome. With very little effort all your fortifications will be taken because your heart is despondent, as he is about to add. In short, he indicates that the might of the Assyrians is in despair, and attributes to them despairing hearts, but to the Chaldeans a very easy victory, an excellent and confident courage.
V. 13. Behold, your people shall become women in you.
He interprets the parable of the traveling cowards, and this is the summary of the passage: "There is no courage left in you, no confidence, no hope of future victory, even everything on your side is in despair, since the men who should be courageous, whose service and strength you should now use to hold off the enemy, are as fearful as women; their courage has been taken away by God's judgment. For the fact that women have weak courage is indicated not only by the writings of the pagans, but also by the holy Scriptures.
And the gates of your land shall be opened to your enemies (aperiendo aperientur portae).
He spoke according to the Hebrew way. For this is how the Hebrew language is used to speak: rejoicing I will rejoice, exulting I will exult. So here: by opening the gates will be opened, that is, wherever your country has been closed, the enemies will enter, they will break through, you will not be able to resist them etc.
V. 14. Draw water for yourself, for you will be besieged.
According to the Hebrew I read thus: Draw for yourself the waters of the siege, strengthen your fortifications, go into the glue and tread the clay or mortar. What now follows to the end of the chapter is full of the bitterest scorn and mocking speeches, by which the enemies are wont to mock those defeated by them, as if he wanted to say: Yes indeed, draw water, mix the glue, with which you may mend the cracks in the walls. "Yes, yes, mend and glue again." You are of course excellent warriors, who keep yourselves constantly hidden within the walls. You undertake everything in a feminine way, so that you do not even dare. To go out of the city once to hold off the enemy. Meanwhile, you fetch water, bricks and fortifications with which you think you can hold off the onslaught of the enemy. Thus he alludes to the custom in war. But he says water of siege, as if to say, the water you need, since you are already besieged.
Kick the clay (calca bitumen).
It is the same word in the first book of Moses, Cap. 14, 10: "The valley of Siddim had many clay pits." Furthermore, what we read [in the Vulgate]: tene laterem, is to be read according to the Hebrew: fortifica lateres, as if he wanted to say: Come on, prepare yourself bricks with which you can repair what is torn and broken by the warlike onslaught. You will do nothing. In vain you undertake everything; as he adds:
V. 15 But the fire shall devour thee, and the sword shall kill thee; it shall devour thee as the beetle.
That is, all your efforts are in vain; in vain you build fortifications by which you hope to be safe. For the army of the Chaldeans will set fire to the whole city, including the brickyard, and will kill you all. The Chaldeans, the slayers, will fall upon you as beetles fall in heaps. These parables of the beetles, the locusts and I don't know what other animals of this kind
are common in the Scriptures, but we, who do not know these animals, are not comfortable with these similes. Solomon describes the kind of locusts, Proverbs 30:27: "Locusts have no king, yet they go forth in multitudes." But there are many kinds of these animals, and the Hebrew language has a special name for each of these kinds. Jerome says that the species the prophet is talking about here, the beetles, crawl on the earth more than they fly, and eat everything down to the root, and are an exceedingly harmful enemy of all crops. Without doubt Jerome has concluded this from the circumstances given in the text. For this is approximately how the prophet describes them, and yet they are counted in Moses among the clean animals, that is, among those that the Jews were allowed to eat [Mos. 11, 22].
It will attack you like beetles (Congregare eygo ut bruchus).
It is here the same word in Hebrew, which stands above [P. 3.] soon after the beginning of this chapter: gravis ruinae, that is, a great, numerous heap of corpses of the slain, as I have interpreted it above, following the example of Scripture in the first book of Moses. Therefore, it should have been translated here thus: Gravescere sicut bruchus, gravescere sicut locusta. But that the Latin interpreter has translated by two [different] verba [congregare and multiplicare] is an ill-applied verbosity, for in the Hebrew there is only one and the same verbum [in both places]. They are now words of a scoffer and quite full of derision, as I have said. Therefore the opinion is: Come on, gather yourselves together, make yourselves much, take on a large crew, strengthen yourselves, so that you may strike down the enemy, so that you may do harm, as the beetles and the locusts are wont to do harm and fall in droves on the seeds or trees. But you will try in vain, you will not be able to gather together, since you are scattered as the flying beetles and locusts are scattered. You have no power; all your mightiest have lost their courage, all have become
like women, they are without counsel and strength of mind etc. as he said above.
V. 16. You have more merchants than there are stars in the sky.
That is, you, Nineveh, are now strong; now act defiantly, hold off the enemy. For now you are humiliated; even though you had such great riches, such great power, even though you have increased and become rich through great commerce, and even though all the cities that engage in maritime trade used to come together at your place, now you are unable to do anything. The roads are deserted and there is much space in the streets because of the small number of inhabitants, whereas before you used to be very populous. It is an exaggerated speech (hyperbole), since he says: "as stars in the sky". This image is often used in Scripture to indicate the quantity and abundance and power of something. In the same way the Lord spoke to Abraham in the first book of Moses, Cap. 13, 16, of the dust of the earth and the stars of heaven, saying that the seed of Abraham would not be less, that is, there would be a great and innumerable descendant from Abraham.
But now they will spread out, like beetles, and fly away.
That is, you are beetles, which fly away, only ready to flee, which scatter. But the Chaldeans are the right beetles, because they gather together; but you scatter, as he lays out:
V.17. Your masters are as many as locusts, and your captains as beetles, which lie down by the fences in the cold days.
He explains what he wants to indicate with the flying beetles, as if he wanted to say: I do not compare you to the flying beetles but to the flying beetles. You do not fly away in heaps with great confidence and do harm, as the Chaldeans do, for you are crawling locusts that fear for themselves that they will perish from the cold; they hide themselves wherever they can, they
do not seek so much to harm as to be preserved by some warmth, that they may live, as he adds here:
But when the sun goes out, they move away.
Jerome says that this is the species which hides itself entirely in fences in cold weather, but when the sun shines warmly, it flies away, and one cannot find its place etc. Finally, there is a great and exceedingly harsh mockery in the word "encamp" (castrametantur) (for this is how I translate it according to the Hebrew instead of what our Latin interpreter translates: consident), as if he wanted to say: It is certainly an excellent setting up of a camp, since you do not camp against the enemies, but in fences. In this way you will certainly beat off the enemy! Shall this be done by flight or by team? You make your fear your fortress, as follows:
V. 18. Your shepherds will sleep, O king of Assyria, your mighty ones will lie down; and your people will be scattered on the mountains, and no one will gather them.
He gives the reason that he compared them to the locusts flying away, and it is the opinion: Your princes, who should be in the first line, sleep for fear and do not even dare to go out; they hide in nooks and crannies, "they creep", like the locusts in the fences. Everywhere they look for hiding places where they could be safe. Therefore, you will fight unhappily, since there is fear everywhere, the princes take counsel by flight, the people are scattered and wander about without a leader etc.
V. 19. No one will mourn for your loss (Non est obscura contritio tua).
The judgment of God against you is evident. You have become a spectacle to all, since you
yes, while the whole world watched, you were trampled, and you will not be able to heal this your evil in any way. Your misfortune is evil, so that even the hand of a Chiron 1) cannot lift it; it is done for you. For so much is lacking that some should bear sorrow over this your lamentable misfortune, that "all who hear such from you will clap their hands over you. They will rejoice that thou art stormed. For thou Assur, and thou Nineveh, and all the kingdom of the Assyrians, didst before inspire terror in all, all didst ye attack. Now that you will be disturbed again, they will rejoice and grant you this disturbance and the judgment of God that has come upon you.
Here we see how everything in this prophet is full of consolation, through which the dear God comforts His blessed ones against the power and the will of the enemy. These consolations should also encourage all of us in every adversity, so that we may have confidence and believe that the Lord will certainly not allow the adversaries of the Word of God to prevail against us. For as he had promised Judah salvation, and that the kingdom should be preserved, out of which Christ should be born, and fulfilled his promises, so he made them conquerors of all their enemies, which he here quite evidently showed in the kingdom of the Assyrians, so exceedingly powerful and rich. So we should also not doubt that he will also help us in all distress, whether it be physical or spiritual. For it is still the same God who redeemed Judah, who said that not a hair of our head should fall from his will [Matth. 10, 29].
Wittenberg, July 4, 1525.
1) Instead of Oüironia manus, the Wittenberg reads: eüirurZi manus.