Commentary on Joel Amos Obadiah Jonah Micah and Nahum John Calvin
MINOR PROPHETS
many forms of speech, and even by such as are hyperbolical. He at length subjoins
Nahum 2:8
8. But Nineveh is of old like a pool of water: yet they shall flee away. Stand, stand, shall they cry; but none shall look back.
8. Atqui Nineveh quasi piscina aquarum a diebus (hoc est, a longo tempore) fuit; ipsi autem fugiunt; state, state; et nemo respicit.
The prophet here anticipates a doubt which might have weakened confidence in his words; for Nineveh not only flourished in power, but it had also confirmed its strength during a long course of time; and antiquity not only adds to the strength of kingdoms, but secures authority to them. As then the imperial power of the city
Nineveh was ancient, it might seem to have been perpetual: ``Why! Nineveh has ever ruled and possessed the sovereign power in all the east; can it be now shaken, or can its strength be now suddenly subverted? For where there is no beginning, we cannot believe that there will be any end.'' And a beginning it had not, according to the common opinion; for we know how the Egyptians also fabled respecting their antiquity; they imagined that their kingdom was five thousand years before the world was made; that is, in numbering their ages they went back nearly five thousand years before the creation. The Ninevites, no doubt, boasted that they had ever been; and as they were fixed in this conceit respecting their antiquity, no one thought that they could ever fail. This is the reason why the Prophet expressly declares, that Nineveh had been like a pool of waters from ancient days; 307 that is, Nineveh had been, as it were, separated from the rest of the world; for where there is a pool, it seems well fortified by its own banks, no one comes into it; when one walks on the land he does not enter into the waters. Thus, then, had Nineveh been in a quiet state not only for a short time, but for many ages. This circumstance shall not, however, prevent God from overturning now its dominion. How much soever, then, Nineveh took pride in the notion of its ancientness, it was yet God's purpose to destroy it.
He says then, They flee: by fleeing, he means, that, though not beaten by their enemies, they would yet be overcome by their own fear. He then intimates, that Nineveh would not only be destroyed by slaughter, but that all the Assyrians would flee away, and despair would deliver them up to their enemies. Hence the Chaldeans would not only be victorious through their courage and the sword, but the Assyrians, distrusting their own forces, would flee away.
It afterwards follows, Stand ye, stand ye, and no one regards. Here the Prophet places, as it were, before our eyes, the effect of the dread of which he speaks. He might have given a single narrative, --- that though one called them back they would not dare to look behind; and that, thinking that safety alone was in flight, they would pursue their course. The Prophet might have formed this sort of narrative: this he
307The original is in a singular form, {{`` }היא{, מימיfrom the days of it,'' or, of her. Henderson says, that ``it is an antiquated mode of expressing the feminine pronominal afÏx --- the absolute form of the pronoun being retained instead of the fragmental ''.{}הThe verse may be thus rendered: --- Though Nineveh has been like a pool of water during her days, Yet they flee; --- --- ``Stand, stand;'' But none is looking back. Newcome's version of the first line is as follows, --- And the waters of Nineveh are as a pool of water: And he says, that the pronoun sometimes is at the end of a clause: but it cannot be so considered here, because {}היאis in regimine with {}מימיIt is to be noticed, that the Prophet throughout represents the whole transaction as an eye-witness, as it had been shown to him in a vision. --- Ed.