Commentary on Joel Amos Obadiah Jonah Micah and Nahum John Calvin
Nahum 1
Nahum 1:1
1.. The burden of Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite.
1. Onus Nineveh: Liber visionis Nahum Helkosi: Though a part of what is here delivered belongs to the Israelites and to the Jews, he yet calls his Book by what it principally contains; he calls its the burden of Nineveh
Of this word {,}משאmesha, we have spoken elsewhere. Thus the Prophets call their prediction, whenever they denounce any grievous and dreadful vengeance of God: and as they often threatened the Jews, it hence happened, that they called, by way of ridicule, all prophecies by this name {,}משאmesha, a burden. 282 But yet the import of the word is suitable. It is the same thing as though Nahum had said that he was sent by God as a herald, to proclaim war on the Ninevites for the sake of the chosen people. The Israelites may have hence learnt how true and unchangeable
God was in his covenant; for he still manifested his care for them, though they had by their vices alienated themselves from him.
He afterwards adds, {,}ספר{ }חזוןsapher chezun, the book of the vision This clause signifies, that he did not in vain denounce destruction on the Ninevites, because he faithfully delivered what he had received from God. For if he had simply prefaced, that he threatened ruin to the Assyrian,, some doubt might have been entertained as to the event. But here he seeks to gain to himself authority by referring to God's name; for he openly afÏrms that he brought nothing of his own, but that this burden had been made known to him by a celestial oracle: for {,}חזהcheze, means properly to see, and hence in Hebrew a vision is called {,}חזוןchezun,. But the Prophets, when they speak of a vision, do not mean any fantasy or imagination, but that kind of revelation which is mentioned in Numbers 14, where God says, 282The word comes from {,{נשאto bear, to carry. Some regard it as the message carried or borne by the Prophets from God to the people, and hence the same as Prophecy. Others consider it to be the judgment to be borne by the people respecting whom it was announced. The latter seems to be its meaning here, where it is said, ``the burden of Nineveh.'' It was the judgment laid on them, and which that city was to bear, endure, and undergo. --- Ed.