Nah 1:14 | KingComments | STEP | After the word about breaking the yoke bar for Judah, Nahum addresses the king of Assyria again. The LORD has not only spoken to him, but “issued a command”. By His command the name of the king of Assyria will not be perpetuated. That means that his dynasty will come to an end. He will have no descendants, no successors (cf. ). His religion will also be destroyed. Assyrian kings claim to rule by the favor and authority of their gods. Because their authority is based on that, God will put an end to all this false homage. He will wipe out the idols completely. He will do so in “the house of your god” which proves once again the utter worthlessness of an idol. A god who allows himself to be exterminated from his own house is a worthless god. God even prepares the grave of the king of Assyria because he is despicable, completely contrary to what he thinks of himself (cf. ). Here the LORD predicts the national extermination of Assyria. The temple of his idols where he bowed down to his idols becomes the place of his death. There he is murdered by his sons ( ; ). “You are contemptible” can also be represented with: “You are too light. In God’s scales he has been found too light (cf. ). This is the end of Nineveh. It looks forward to the end of the world, above which God also writes: ‘Found too light.’ We should be well aware of that. Thus we have the prophetic word like a lamp. If we ‘eat’ this word so that it runs through our whole lives, we will go through the world like pilgrims and strangers.

‏ Nahum 1:14

The End of Nineveh

After the word about breaking the yoke bar for Judah, Nahum addresses the king of Assyria again. The LORD has not only spoken to him, but “issued a command”. By His command the name of the king of Assyria will not be perpetuated. That means that his dynasty will come to an end. He will have no descendants, no successors (cf. Isa 14:4 ; 20-23).

His religion will also be destroyed. Assyrian kings claim to rule by the favor and authority of their gods. Because their authority is based on that, God will put an end to all this false homage. He will wipe out the idols completely. He will do so in “the house of your god” which proves once again the utter worthlessness of an idol. A god who allows himself to be exterminated from his own house is a worthless god.

God even prepares the grave of the king of Assyria because he is despicable, completely contrary to what he thinks of himself (cf. 1Sam 2:30b). Here the LORD predicts the national extermination of Assyria. The temple of his idols where he bowed down to his idols becomes the place of his death. There he is murdered by his sons (2Kgs 19:37; Isa 37:38).

“You are contemptible” can also be represented with: “You are too light. In God’s scales he has been found too light (cf. Dan 5:27). This is the end of Nineveh. It looks forward to the end of the world, above which God also writes: ‘Found too light.’ We should be well aware of that. Thus we have the prophetic word like a lamp. If we ‘eat’ this word so that it runs through our whole lives, we will go through the world like pilgrims and strangers.