Nahum 2:10
She is empty, and void, and waste: and the heart melteth, and the knees smite together, and much pain is in all loins, and the faces of them all gather blackness.
Original Language Analysis
Cross References
Historical Context
Assyrian warfare was notoriously brutal. Their own inscriptions boast of atrocities committed against conquered peoples—impalement, flaying, mass deportations, destruction of cities. The treatment of Thebes in 663 BC exemplified this cruelty. Ashurbanipal's annals describe carrying away enormous plunder and devastating the city. Now Nahum prophesies that Nineveh will experience the same horrors it inflicted. Historical accounts of Nineveh's fall in 612 BC describe similar devastation—the city sacked, burned, its inhabitants killed or enslaved. The precise fulfillment of Nahum's prophecy demonstrates God's justice: those who live by violence die by violence. It also warns all nations that cruelty and oppression will not go unpunished.
Questions for Reflection
- How does the principle of measure-for-measure judgment (experiencing what you inflicted on others) demonstrate God's justice?
- What does this passage teach about the terrible cost of sin and the reality of divine judgment against wickedness?
- How should the certainty of divine retribution affect Christian responses to evil—both confidence in ultimate justice and urgency in evangelism?
Analysis & Commentary
Nahum describes Thebes' horrific fate, which prefigures Nineveh's coming judgment: 'Yet was she carried away, she went into captivity: her young children also were dashed in pieces at the top of all the streets' (gam-hi lagolah halekah bashevi gam olaleyha yerattechu berosh kol-chutzoth). The brutal imagery—infants dashed against stones in public view—depicts the horror of ancient warfare. 'And they cast lots for her honourable men, and all her great men were bound in chains' (ve'al-nikhbadeyha yaddû goral vekhol-gedoleyha rattqu baziqim). Leading citizens divided as spoils, nobles enslaved and chained—this was Thebes' fate at Assyria's hands in 663 BC. Now Nahum prophesies Nineveh will suffer identically. This isn't vindictive schadenfreude but divine justice: measure for measure, those who brutalized others will themselves be brutalized. It demonstrates God's moral governance of history—evil doesn't go unpunished forever, and oppressors will face accountability. The passage is sobering, showing the terrible cost of sin and the reality of divine judgment.