Nah. 3 The miserable ruin of Nineveh.

Woe! a comprehensive threat of many and great calamities coming. To the bloody city; Nineveh, the chief city of the Assyrian kingdom: see Nah. 1:1. It is all; every part, officers and rulers, traders, both buyers and sellers, shops, houses, judicatories, all filled with falsehood and lies.

The French reads this verse with a negative distributive, and so links this and the next verse with the former negative, Nah. 3:1; thus, The prey departeth not, nor the noise of the whip, nor, &c., intimating the long continuance of the Chaldeans insulting over the Ninevites.

The horseman; the Chaldean and Mede, or their confederates in the war. Lifteth up; hath his sword not only drawn, but in a posture ever ready to smite, wound, or kill.

Because, & c.; God is just, Nineveh hath deserved all this. The multitude of the whoredoms; her crafts and her policies, in which she resembled those lewd women; as they by their wiles abuse and deceive men, so did Nineveh, or the Assyrian kingdom, deceive, impoverish, and enslave nations by state…

Behold, I am against thee, saith the Lord of hosts: see Nah. 2:13. I will discover: Nineveh as a harlot had been proud, and appeared beautiful and gay in the gifts of her lovers; but now God will deal with her according to her ways, and (as men provoked use to do with harlots) strip her naked, and…

I will cast, by the Chaldean and Medish army, which God will stir up against the Assyrian monarchy, abominable filth upon thee; as is done to lewd women. Make thee vile: Nineveh had made herself morally evil and vile by sinning; now she shall be made penally rite.

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.

Art thou, O Nineveh, better than populous No? it is generally supposed that this was what we now call Alexandria, a city full of people, and as full of luxury and uncleanness, the sins whereof had brought it to ruin, though the history of it do not specify time, person, or means, &c.

It is not very probable that this Ethiopia should be that remote country that lay south of Egypt, though in truth it is possible, and while Egypt was in friendship with No Amon, or Alexandria, the aids might in length of time come from Ethiopia, or Abyssinia.

She was carried away: it is probable this might be about thirty years before; for about A.M. 3207, as Calvisius, or 3277, as Archbishop Usher, Sabacon king of Ethiopia invaded Egypt, took Bocchoris, and burnt him, which was not likely to be done without slaughter of men and sacking of towns, among…

Thou, O Nineveh, shalt be drunken; not only taste, but drink deep, yea, be drunk with the bitter cup of God’s displeasure and thine enemies’ rage, Isa. 29:9, Obad. 16.

All thy strong holds, castles and fortified places, not one or two, but all of them, shall be like fig trees, easily shaken, with the first-ripe figs, whose weight and ripeness will bring them quickly to the ground. If they be shaken, if but very lightly touched.

Behold; this may seem strange, but attend diligently, thou shalt see how this will be. Thy people; those thou hirest, and are thine for pay; those that are born thine, all thy warriors.

Draw thee waters, fill all thy cisterns, and make more that thou want not for drink, yea, draw the waters into the ditches about every fort, for the siege, which thine enemies will lay against thee. Fortify; repair all decays, and strengthen all that is weak.

There; in the very fortresses. The fire; either literally, or figuratively, the wrath of the enemy hot as fire, or the pestilence, or all together. The sword of the Chaldeans, their wars, (after all that the Scythians have done against thee,) these shall utterly destroy thee.

Thou hast multiplied for number; and, as the word may import, thou hast greatened them, thou reliest on their purse and interest. Thy merchants; either literally, or figuratively, thy great men, princes, and rulers, which sold and bought, Nah.

Thy crowned; thy rich and wealthy citizens, or thy confederate kings and princes, or thy tributary princes; thy captains; hired, or homeborn, rather the former, commanders and officers; for number and briskness, are like locusts and great grasshoppers, but it is all for show, nothing for help to…

Thy shepherds, subordinate magistrates, rulers, and counsellors, or officers set over the kingdom, slumber; are remiss, or mistake, or are heartless or dead, they cannot or will not mind the public concerns.

There is no healing of thy bruise; in a word, thou, Nineveh, must die, thy bruise he will not heal. who gave it, and others cannot. God by the Chaldeans hath wounded thee, and thy friends cannot bind up the wound. Thy bruise; shivered and broken state.