Nahum 3:7

And it shall come to pass, that all they that look upon thee shall flee from thee, and say, Nineveh is laid waste: who will bemoan her? whence shall I seek comforters for thee?

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(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.”

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

3:1-7 When proud sinners are brought down, others should learn not to lift themselves up. The fall of this great city should be a lesson to private persons, who increase wealth by fraud and oppression. They are preparing enemies for themselves; and if the Lord sees good to punish them in this world, they will have none to pity them. Every man who seeks his own prosperity, safety, and peace, should not only act in an upright, honourable manner, but with kindness to all.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

All they that look upon thee shall flee from thee - through terror, lest they should share her plagues, as Israel did, when the earth swallowed up Korah, Dathan and Abiram; and they who "had been made rich by Babylon, stand ajar off, for the fear of her torment. All they who look on thee" Revelation 18:15. She was set as a thing to be "gazed at." He tells the effect on the gazers. "Each one who so gazed" at her should flee; one by one, they should gaze, be scared, flee (compare Psalm 31:11; Psalm 64:8). Not one should remain. "Who will bemoan her?" Not one should pay her the passing tribute of sympathy at human calamity, the shaking of the head at her woe (compare Job 16:4-5). Whoever had no compassion shall find none.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

7. all … that look upon thee—when thou hast been made "a gazing stock" (Na 3:6).

shall flee from thee—as a thing horrible to look upon. Compare "standing afar off," Re 18:10.

whence shall I seek comforters for thee?—Compare Isa 51:19, which Nahum had before his mind.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

It shall come to pass; it will most certainly be. All they that look upon thee, so soon as ever thou art seen and discovered, O Nineveh, in thy vileness,

shall flee from thee, with hatred, loathing, and abhorrence for thy former pride and wickedness. and for thy present miseries.

And say, with wonder, scorn, rejoicing, and spreading the news,

Nineveh is laid waste; taken, sacked, emptied of inhabitant, yea, utterly subverted, that it may be no more a rival with Babylon: it is certain that it is not now where it once stood.

Who will bemoan her? whose bowels will be moved for her that had no bowels for any one; who will move foot or, hand toward her relief?

Whence? from what place? She hath wronged all her neighbours, and ruined, some of them; from amidst these surely not one may be fetched to speak comfortably to her; these do with reason upbraid her former cruelty and pride, and rejoice in her present calamity and ruin, and strangers will not be concerned for her.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And it shall come to pass, that all they that look upon thee shall flee from thee,.... As something loathsome and abominable, not fit to be come near unto, or touched; and as astonished and amazed at an object so forlorn and miserable, and lest they should partake of the same punishment:

and say, Nineveh is laid waste; utterly destroyed; its walls broke down, its houses demolished, its substance plundered, and its inhabitants killed, or carried captive; who could have thought it, when it was once so stately, rich, and powerful? but so it is indeed!

who will bemoan her? there are none left in her to do it; and as for others, her neighbours, whom she has oppressed and cruelly used, these will laugh and rejoice, instead of lamenting her case:

whence shall I seek comforters for thee? none from among her inhabitants, being destroyed, or carried into a foreign land; and none from among the nations round about, who will rather deride and insult than pity and comfort; so wretched and miserable would her case be!

Geneva Study Bible

And it shall come to pass, that all they that look upon thee shall flee from thee, and say, Nineveh is laid waste: who will bemoan her? whence shall I seek comforters for thee?

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

7. flee from thee] In terror at her judgment.

Whence shall I seek comforters] The words imply that none will be found to pity her, as Jeremiah 15:5; Isaiah 51:19.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 7. - Shall flee from thee. As an object of disgust, or fearing to be involved in thy ruin (Revelation 18:10, 15). Who will bemoan her? No one will pity her for her well deserved chastisement (Jeremiah 15:5). Whence shall I seek, etc.? Truly, nowhere in all the world (comp. Isaiah 51:19). Nahum 3:7

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The Lord will plunge Nineveh into shameful misery in consequence. Nahum 3:5. "Behold, I come to thee, is the saying of Jehovah of hosts; and uncover thy skirts over thy face, and let nations see they nakedness, and kingdoms thy shame. Nahum 3:6. And cast horrible things upon thee, and shame thee, and make thee a gazing-stock. Nahum 3:7. And it comes to pass, every one who sees thee will flee before thee, and say, Is Nineveh laid waste? Who will bewail her? whence do I seek comforters for thee?" Nahum 3:5.a as in Nahum 2:13. The punishment of Nineveh will correspond to her conduct. Her coquetry shall be repaid to her by the uncovering of her nakedness before the nations (cf. Jeremiah 13:26; Isaiah 47:3; Hosea 2:5). Gillâh, to uncover. Shūlı̄m, fimbriae, the skirts, borders, or lower end of the long sweeping dress (cf. Exodus 28:33-34; Isaiah 6:1). על פּניך, over thy countenance, so that the train when lifted up is drawn over the face. מער, a contraction of מערה, from ערה, signifies in 1 Kings 7:36 an empty space, here nakedness or shame equivalent to ערוה. This thought is carried out still further in literal terms in Nahum 3:6, Nahum 3:7. Shiqqutsı̄m, objects of abhorrence, is used most frequently of idols; but here it is used in a more general sense for unclean or repulsive things, dirt and filth. Throwing dirt upon any one is a figurative expression for the most ignominious treatment or greatest contempt. Nibbēl, to treat contemptuously, not with words, as in Micah 7:6, but with deeds, equivalent to insult or abuse (cf. Jeremiah 14:21). To make it כּראי, the object of sight, i.e., to give up to open shame, παραδειγματίζειν (Matthew 1:19). ראי, a pausal form of ראי, the seeing, here the spectacle, like θέατρον in 1 Corinthians 4:9. This is evident from Nahum 3:7, where ראיך contains a play upon ראי. Every one who looks at her will flee from her as an object of disgust. שׁדּדה, a rare form of the pual for שׁדּדה (for the fact, compare Jeremiah 48:20). The last two clauses express the thought that no one will take pity upon the devastated city, because its fate is so well deserved; compare Isaiah 51:19, where the same words are used of Jerusalem. Nineveh will not be able to protect herself from destruction even by her great power. The prophet wrests this vain hope away from her by pointing in Isaiah 51:8. to the fall of the mighty Thebes in Egypt.