Commentary on Joel Amos Obadiah Jonah Micah and Nahum John Calvin
MINOR PROPHETS
the Prophet speaks, according to the appearance of things at the time; for the ruin of Nineveh and of that empire was to be the incomprehensible work of God, and which was to fill all minds with astonishment.
He says first, Where is the place of lions? The feminine gender is indeed here used; but all agree that the Prophet speaks of male lions. 312 He then adds, the place of feeding for lions? {,}כפריםcaphrim, mean young lions as we shall hereafter see; and {,}אריותariut, are old lions. He afterwards adds, Where {,}אריהarie came: and then comes {,}לביאlabia, which some render, lioness; but {,}לביאlabia, properly means an old lion; the Prophet, no doubt, uses it in the next verse in the feminine gender for lionesses. I therefore do not deny, but that we may fitly render the terms here, lion and lioness; afterwards, and the whelp of lions, and none terrifying. He then adds, Seize did the lion (the word is {,}אריהarie) for his whelps to satiety, that is, sufÏciently; and strangle did he for his lionesses, {,}ללבאתיוlalabatiu. Here no doubt the Prophet means lionesses; there would otherwise be no consistency in the passage. He afterwards says, And filled has he with prey his dens and his recesses with ravin; it is the same word with a different termination, {,}טרףthereph, and {,}טרפהtherephe
Now the repetition, made here by the Prophet, of lion, young lion, and lioness, was not without its use; for he meant by this number of words to set forth the extreme ferocity of the Assyrians, while they were dominant. He no doubt compares their kings, their counselors, and their chief men, to lions: and he calls their wives lionesses, and their children he calls young lions or whelps of lions. The sum of the whole is, that Nineveh had so degenerated in its opulence, that all in power were like ferocious wild beasts, destitute of every kind feeling. And I wish that this could have only been said of one city and of one monarchy! But here, as in a mirror, the Prophet represents to us what we at this day observe, and what has always and in all ages been observed in great empires; for here great power exists, there great licentiousness prevails; and when kings and their counselors become once habituated to plunder, there is no end of it; nay, a kind of fury is kindled in their hearts, that they seek nothings else but to devour and to tear in pieces to rend and to strangle. The Prophet indeed wished here to console both the Israelites and the Jews by showing, that the injustice of their enemies would not go unpunished: but at the same time he intended to show how great, even to the end of the world, would be the cruelty of those who would rule tyrannically: and as I have said, experience proves, that there are too many like the Ninevites. It is indeed unquestionable, that the Prophet does not without reason speak so often here of lions and lionesses.
Hence he says, ``Come thither did the lion, the lioness, and the whelp of the lion.'' He means that when justice was sought in that city, it was found to be the 312It is better to retain the gender as it is in Hebrew: and this makes the passage more consistent, and corresponds better with the "feeding-place" in the next line. The recesses of the lionesses and the whelps are here mentioned, and in the next verse is stated what the lions did for them: — 11. Where is the haunt of the lionesses, And the feeding-place, even that for the whelps, Where did go the lion, the lioness, the cub of the lion, And none made them afraid? 12. The lion ravined for the supply of his cubs, And strangled for his lionesses, And filled with ravin his dens, And his haunts by ravining. "The allegory," says Newcome, "is beyond measure beautiful. Where are the inhabitants of Nineveh, who were strong and rapacious like lions?" — Ed.