HarperCollins Study Bible
Page 336
1.2 God. The Hebrew uses El and not the more common Elohim. Wrathful, lit. “a baal of wrath.” That the Hebrew uses terms such as baal and El, which were divine names in the Canaanite religion, suggests Canaanite mythic images, as do the terms sea and rivers (v. 4) and the images of storm and fire throughout the psalm (see Ps 29). Avenging and vengeance arise from a legal sense of justifiable vindication and not rancorous retaliation (see Ps 94). The repetition of the avenging terms in three of the four lines reinforces God’s intolerance for injustice.
1.3 Slow to anger (lit. “long of nostril”) is frequently found with the additional phrase “of great mercy” (Neh 9.17; Pss 86.15;103.8; Joel 2.13; Jon 4.2). The latter is not included here to reinforce the legal sense of justifiable vindication.
1.4 Bashan, Carmel, and Lebanon are especially noted for their fertility, so their drying up enforces the power of the theophanic images (cf. Isa 19.5–7; 33.9).
1.5 World and all who live in it reinforces the enormity of the impact: both inhabited and uninhabited lands are affected.
1.8 Flood may refer to the flood in Noah’s time (Gen 6–9).
1.9–15 The prophet’s promise and assurance of Judah’s deliverance. The addressee is ambiguous, not only because the English language does not distinguish gender and number in the second person, “you,” but also because the Hebrew text uses diverse second-person grammatical forms. Judah and Jerusalem seem to be addressed in vv. 9–10, 11–13 and are specifically cited in v. 15. The second masculine singular of v. 14 is best understood as an address to the king of Assyria.
1.10 A difficult Hebrew sentence. The NRSV presents the best solution: thorns are consumed as are the drunkards. Enemies are frequently referred to as thorns (2 Sam 23.6).
1.11 You, Nineveh, the place from which the evil comes.
1.12 They, the Assyrians. You, God’s people.
1.15 The import of this section is clear; namely, the one bringing good tidings and peace has arrived, and Judah may celebrate because the end of Nineveh has come. According to 2 Kings 23.21–25, the public celebration of Passover was possible after the Assyrian domination was concluded during the reign of Josiah (640–609 BCE).
NAHUM 2
The Destruction of the Wicked City
1A shatterera has come up against you.
Guard the ramparts;
watch the road;
gird your loins;
collect all your strength.
2(For the LORD is restoring the majesty of Jacob,
as well as the majesty of Israel,
though ravagers have ravaged them
and ruined their branches.)
3The shields of his warriors are red;
his soldiers are clothed in crimson.
The metal on the chariots flashes
on the day when he musters them;
the chargersb prance.
4The chariots race madly through the streets,
they rush to and fro through the squares;
their appearance is like torches,
they dart like lightning.
5He calls his officers; they stumble as
they come forward;
they hasten to the wall,
and the manteletc is set up.
6The river gates are opened,
the palace trembles.
7It is decreedd that the citye be exiled,
its slave women led away,
moaning like doves
and beating their breasts.
8Nineveh is like a pool
whose watersf run away.
“Halt! Halt!”—
but no one turns back.
9“Plunder the silver,
plunder the gold!
There is no end of treasure!
An abundance of every precious thing!”
10Devastation, desolation, and destruction!
Hearts faint and knees tremble,
all loins quake,
all faces grow pale!
11What became of the lions’ den,
the caveg of the young lions,
where the lion goes,
and the lion’s cubs, with no one to disturb them?
12The lion has torn enough for his whelps
and strangled prey for his lionesses;
he has filled his caves with prey
and his dens with torn flesh.
13See, I am against you, says the LORD of hosts, and I will burn yourh chariots in smoke, and the sword shall devour your young lions; I will cut off your prey from the earth, and the voice of your messengers shall be heard no more.
next chapter
* * *
a Cn: Heb scatterer
b Cn Compare Gk Syr: Heb cypresses
c Meaning of Heb uncertain
d Meaning of Heb uncertain
e Heb it
f Cn Compare Gk: Heb a pool, from the days that she has become, and they
g Cn: Heb pasture
h Heb her
2.1–3.19 Oracles concerning the king of Assyria and Nineveh, the capital of Assyria. The king of Assyria is specifically addressed in 3.18; and in 2.1 you seems to be the city Nineveh. Nineveh (2.8), city of bloodshed (3.1), is spoken of extensively between the addresses to the king at the beginning and end. These diverse oracles declare to Judah that the Assyrians will no longer be the oppressor. The tone of these oracles is ironic, expectantly exulting, and gloating in the potential victory.
2.1–13 A succession of diverse and powerful images depicting the fall of Nineveh.
2.1 Nahum urges Nineveh in an ironic way to prepare to do battle (guard, watch, gird, collect).
2.2 Parentheses indicate a later insertion. The verse draws on earlier prophetic motifs and connects this chapter with the assurance of deliverance in the previous chapter.
2.3–5 The images continue the description begun in v. 1 and are reminiscent of the warrior imagery in 1.2–8.
2.6–8 The water/flood images of 1.4, 8 are revisited with convincing power given the location of Nineveh near the Tigris River. Moaning like doves, an expression of sorrow (Isa 38.14; 59.11).
2.9 Nahum addresses those attacking the city, telling them to take everything in sight; the defenders are on the run and victory is anticipated.
2.10 The translation mimics the mocking alliteration (repeated d sound) of the Hebrew.
2.11–13 The taunting image of the lion concludes the section. The lion, associated with Assyria’s ferocious strength even in Assyrian reliefs, succumbs. The taunt is reinforced by virtue of the frequent identification of the Lord with the power of the lion (Hos 5.14; 13.8; Am 3.8).
2.13 The only prose verse in the book of Nahum connects chs. 2 and 3 (lions in 2.11–12 and the LORD of hosts in 3.5).
NAHUM 3
Ruin Imminent and Inevitable
1Ah! City of bloodshed,
utterly deceitful, full of booty—
no end to the plunder!
2The crack of whip and rumble of wheel,
galloping horse and bounding chariot!
3Horsemen charging,
flashing sword and glittering spear,
piles of dead,
heaps of corpses,
dead bodies without end—
they stumble over the bodies!
4Because of the countless debaucheries of the prostitute,
gracefully alluring, mistress of sorcery,
who enslavesa nations through her debaucheries,
and peoples through her sorcery,
5I am against you,
says the LORD of hosts,
and will lift up your skirts over your face;
and I will let nations look on your nakedness
and kingdoms on your shame.
6I will throw filth at you
and treat you with contempt,
and make you a spectacle.
7Then all who see you will shrink from you and say,
“Nineveh is devastated; who will bemoan her?”
Where shall I seek comforte
rs for you?
8Are you better than Thebesb
that sat by the Nile,
with water around her,
her rampart a sea,
water her wall?
9Ethiopiac was her strength,
Egypt too, and that without limit;
Put and the Libyans were herd helpers.
10Yet she became an exile,
she went into captivity;
even her infants were dashed in pieces
at the head of every street;
lots were cast for her nobles,
all her dignitaries were bound in fetters.
11You also will be drunken,
you will go into hiding;e
you will seek
a refuge from the enemy.
12All your fortresses are like fig trees
with first-ripe figs—
if shaken they fall
into the mouth of the eater.
13Look at your troops:
they are women in your midst.
The gates of your land
are wide open to your foes;
fire has devoured the bars of your gates.
14Draw water for the siege,
strengthen your forts;
trample the clay,
tread the mortar,
take hold of the brick mold!
15There the fire will devour you,
the sword will cut you off.
It will devour you like the locust.
Multiply yourselves like the locust,
multiply like the grasshopper!
16You increased your merchants
more than the stars of the heavens.
The locust sheds its skin and flies away.
17Your guards are like grasshoppers,
your scribes like swarmsbof locusts
settling on the fences
on a cold day—
when the sun rises, they fly away;
no one knows where they have gone.
18Your shepherds are asleep,
O king of Assyria;
your nobles slumber.
Your people are scattered on the mountains
with no one to gather them.
19There is no assuaging your hurt,
your wound is mortal.
All who hear the news about you
clap their hands over you.
For who has ever escaped
your endless cruelty?
* * *
a Heb sells
b Heb No-amon
c Or Nubia; Heb Cush
d Gk: Heb your
e Meaning of Heb uncertain
3.1–17 A woe oracle addressed to Nineveh.
3.1–3 The oracle commences with the war imagery begun in 2.3–5.
3.4–7 A new image of Nineveh as the prostitute, gracefully alluring (v. 4) all nations to her in order to plunder them. Her seduction will be no more. The Lord will lift up her skirts and expose her nakedness (v. 5; cf. Jer 13.22, 26), just as an enemy handles a conquered city (cf. Isa 47.1–3).
3.8–10 A rhetorical question (v. 8) and extended answer (vv. 9–10) compare Nineveh with the extensively fortified Thebes, capital of Upper Egypt captured by the Assyrians under Ashurbanipal in 663 BCE. Thebes is located on the Nile about 350 miles south of modern Cairo. Ethiopia’s twenty-fifth dynasty controlled Egypt during this period. The listing of Egypt, Put (precise location unknown), and the Libyans illustrates the indomitability of Thebes.
3.11–13 Even more than Thebes, Nineveh will fall like the first-ripe figs.
3.14–15a Each of the commands (v. 14) evokes irony, as the conclusion suggests (v. 15a).
3.14–17 The oracle concludes with a multileveled comparison of Nineveh and its leaders with the locust. First, the comparison concerns the way they both devour (v. 15a), then ironically suggests that Nineveh must multiply (vv. 15b–16a) as rapidly as the locust, and concludes with the notion of the ephemeral quality of Nineveh’s guards and scribes (v. 17), who, like the locust, will disappear.
3.18–19 The tone shifts to exultation at the defeat of Nineveh. From the leaders in the preceding verses the book turns to address the king of Assyria, who is so bewildered with the destruction that he must be told his leaders are asleep, most probably meaning they are dead (see Ps 13.3; Jer 51.39; 57). All who hear the news, presumably even those beyond Judah, will clap their hands. They will rejoice at knowing the Assyrian king finally will get what he has given to so many neighboring people, death and suffering. The book ends with a rhetorical question, just as does the book of Jonah, which also is concerned with Nineveh. The answer is that everyone will rejoice.
HABAKKUK
1 | 2 | 3 |
Traditional Interpretations
THE BOOK OF HABAKKUK gives little direct information about the prophet even though in later Jewish tradition Habakkuk is identified as a Levite. The lack of specific information has led to diverse understandings of the book and the prophet. In Jewish tradition the prayer of Habakkuk in ch. 3 is associated with the giving of the Torah at Sinai. An addition to Daniel entitled Bel and the Dragon from the second century BCE refers to the prophet Habakkuk, and some versions attribute the addition to Habakkuk. The members of the Qumran community related chs. 1–2 to their own time (first century BCE) in a commentary (the Pesher Habakkuk), which has been preserved among the Dead Sea Scrolls. The apostle Paul built his notion of “justification by faith” on Hab 2.4b (cf. Rom 1.17; Gal 3.11).
Historical Background and Message
THE ORACLES COME FROM DIFFERENT OCCASIONS during the last quarter of the seventh century and the first decade of the sixth century BCE. No dates are cited in the book. To a large extent dating hinges on the interpretation of ch. 1, that is, determining whether the evil people referred to in vv. 2–4 and vv. 12–17 are the people of Judah or foreign enemies. The most plausible interpretation is to understand the people spoken of in vv. 2–4 as those within Judah during the time of the Judean king Jehoiakim (609–598 BCE). Because vv. 6–10 clearly refer to the Chaldeans, a people who bring God’s judgment on Judah in 597 BCE, the wicked people spoken of in vv. 12–17 are thought to be the same as those identified in vv. 6–10, namely, the Chaldeans. Whatever its precise historical background, Habakkuk, unlike most prophetic books, confronts God rather than presents the deity confronting the people. The message centers on the question of how the violence and evil of the world can serve God’s purposes. In the concluding prayer the prophet sees God’s intervention portrayed in cosmic, theophanic terms. Habakkuk’s repeated complaints and questions find their answer in the affirmation “GOD, the LORD, is my strength”(3.19).
Literary Character
THE BOOK USES DIVERSE LITERARY DEVICES to convey its message. Dominant among these is the first-person, almost autobiographical dialogue between the prophet and God (1.2–2.5). Habakkuk raises two questions (1.2–4; 1.12–17) and the LORD responds (1.5–11; 2.2–5). This exchange is further elaborated in the prayer of ch. 3, which ends on the high note of confidence so frequently found in individual thanksgivings. Because of the numerous musical and liturgical elements, especially in the last chapter, and the dialogical shaping of the first two chapters, some interpreters have claimed that the book is shaped by liturgical concerns. Yet no single type of literature provides a key to the book, which is shaped by the powerful images of justice and injustice, confidence and doubt, salvation and judgment, God and humankind. [KENT HAROLD RICHARDS]
HABAKKUK 1
1The oracle that the prophet Habakkuk saw.
The Prophet’s Complaint
2O LORD, how long shall I cry for help,
and you will not listen?
Or cry to you “Violence!”
and you will not save?
3Why do you make me see wrongdoing
and look at trouble?
Destruction and violence are before me;
strife and contention arise.
4So the law becomes slack
and justice never prevails.
The wicked surround the righteous—
therefore judgment comes forth perverted.
5Look at the nations, and see!
Be astonished! Be astounded!
For a work is being done in your days
that you would not believe if you were told.
6For I am rousing the Chaldeans,
that fierce and impetuous nation,
who march through the breadth of the earth
to seize dwellings not their own.
7Dread and fearsome are they;
their justice and dignity proceed from themselves.
8Their horses are swifter than leopards,
more menacing than wolves at dusk;
their horses charge.
Their horsemen come from far away;
they fly like an eagle swift to devour.
9They all come for violence,
with faces pressinga forward;
they gather captives like sand.
10At kings they scoff,
and of rulers they make sport.
They laugh at every fortress,
and heap up earth to take it.
11Then they sweep by like the wind;
they transgress and become guilty;
their own might is their god!
12Are you not from of old,
O LORD my God, my Holy One?
Youb shall not die.
O LORD, you have marked them for judgment;
and you, O Rock, have established them for punishment.
13Your eyes are too pure to behold evil,
and you cannot look on wrongdoing;
why do you look on the treacherous,
and are silent when the wicked swallow
those more righteous than they?
14You have made people like the fish of the sea,
like crawling things that have no ruler.
15The enemyc brings all of them up with a hook;
he drags them out with his net,
he gathers them in his seine;
so he rejoices and exults.
16Therefore he sacrifices to his net
and makes offerings to his seine;