Commentary on Joel Amos Obadiah Jonah Micah and Nahum John Calvin
JOHN CALVIN
thing.
Now in the second clause he adds, that he will make a complete end, Rise up again shall not distress; that is, God is able to reduce you to nothing, so that there will be no need to assail you the second time. This passage, we know, has been turned to this meaning, --- that God does not punish men twice nor exceed moderation in his wrath: but this is wholly foreign to the mind of the Prophet. I have also said already that I do not approve of what others have said, who apply this passage to the Church and especially to the kingdom of Judah. For I thus simply interpret the words of the Prophet, --- that God can with one onset, when it seems good to him, so destroy his enemies, that there will be no need of striving with them the second time: Il n'y faudra plus retourner, as we say in our language. God then will make a full end; that is, he will be able in one moment to demolish his enemies and the ruin will be complete, that is, the wasting will be entire. There will be no distress again or the second time; for it will be all over with the enemies of God; not that God observes always the same rule when he punishes his enemies, nor does Nahum here prescribe any general rule; but he simply means, that God, whenever it pleases him, instantly destroys his enemies. He afterwards adds ---
Nahum 1:10
10. For while they be folden together as thorns, and while they are drunken as drunkards, they shall be devoured as stubble fully dry.
10. Qui ad spinas perplexas et tanquam potatione sua ebrios (vel, et ebrios ubi inebriati fuerint; potest enim duplex sensus; postea) devorabuntur tanquam stipulae ariditatis planae (vel, quasi stipula ariditatis in plenitudine, vel, arida in plenitudine.)
He goes on with this same subject, --- that Gods when he pleases to exercise his power, can, with no difÏculty, consume his enemies: for the similitude, which is here added, means this, --- that nothing is safe from God's vengeance; for by perplexed thorns he understands things difÏcult to be handled. When thorns are entangled, we dare not, with the ends of our fingers, to touch their extreme parts; for wherever we put our hands, thorns meet and prick us. As then pricking from entangled thorns make us afraid, so none of us dare to come nigh them. Hence the Prophet says, they who are as entangled thorns; that is ``However thorny ye may be, however full of poison, full of fury, full of wickedness, full of frauds, full of cruelty, ye may be, still the Lord can with one fire consume you, and consume you without any difÏculty.''
They were then as entangled thorns.
And then, as drunken by their own drinking. If we read so, the meaning is, --- God or God's wrath will come upon you as on drunker men; who, though they exult in their own intemperance, are yet enervated, and are not fit for fighting, for they have weakened their strength by extreme drinking. There seems indeed to be much vigor in a drunken man, for he swaggers immoderately and foams out much rage; but yet he may be cast down by a finger; and even a child can easily overcome a drunken person. It is therefore an apt similitude, --- that God would manage the Assyrians as the drunken are wont to be managed; for the more audacity there is in drunken men, the easier they are brought under; for as they perceive no danger, and are, as it were, stupefied, so they run headlong with greater impetuosity. ``In like manners''