Commentary on Joel Amos Obadiah Jonah Micah and Nahum John Calvin (continued)
JOHN CALVIN
By these words the Prophet means, that such would be the scattering of the whole kingdom, that there would be no hope of restoration; There will then be none to assemble them He had said before that the chiefs or mighty men would be still.
Though it would be needful to go forth to check the progress of their enemies; yet he says, They shall idly lie down: He refers here to their sloth. But the people who ought to be quiet at home, as being weak and feeble, shall be dispersed on the mountains, and no one will be there to gather them It follows ---
Nahum 3:19
19. There is no healing of thy bruise; thy wound is grievous: all that hear the bruit of thee shall clap the hands over thee: for upon whom hath not thy wickedness passed continually?
19. Non est contractio (vel, cicatrix) fracturae tuae; dolore est plena plaga tua; omnes qui audierint famam tuam (id est, de te) percutient manum super te; quia super quem non transiit malitia tua jugiter?
The Prophet shows here more clearly, that when the empire of Nineveh should be scattered, it would be an incurable evil, that every hope of a remedy would be taken away. Though the wicked cannot escape calamity, yet they harbor false expectations, and think that they can in a short time gather new strength. Hence, in order to take from them this hope, the Prophet says, that there would be no contraction of the fracture 327 And this is a striking similitude; for he compares the ruin of Nineveh to a wound which cannot be seamed and healed. There is then no contraction; some render it, a wrinkle, but improperly. There is then no contraction: and he adds, Thy stroke is full of pain; 328 that is, the pain of thy stroke cannot be allayed. This is one thing, --- that the ruin of Nineveh would be irreparable.
Then he says, Whosoever shall hear the report, shall strike the hand on thy account Many give this rendering, They shall clap the hand over thee, or with the hands; and they think that the singular is put for the plural number. But as in Hebrew to strike the hand is a token of consent, it would not be unsuitable to say, that the Prophet means, that wherever the report of this calamity would be heard, all would express their approbation, ``See, God has at length proved himself to be the just avenger of so much wickedness.'' To strike the hand is said to be done by those who make an agreements or when any one pledges himself for another. 329 As then in giving pledges, and in other compacts, men are said to strike the hand; so also all shall thus give their assent to God's judgment in this case, ``O how rightly is this done! O how justly has God punished these tyrants, these plunderers.'' They will then strike the hand on thy account; that is, ``This thy ruin will be approved;'' as though he said, ``Not only before God art thou, Nineveh, accursed, but also according to the consent of all nations.'' And thus he intimates, that Nineveh would perish
327{{}כהה-{}לשברך{ אין--- No stopping or restraining to thy breach. The word is applied to the restraint put on men's wickedness, 1 Samuel 3:13, and to the checking and restraining of the spread of leprosy, Leviticus 6:28. The breach or breaking was such that there was no stopping of it from becoming entire and complete. The Septuagint gives the meaning---''{ουκ} {εστιν}
{εασις} {τη} {συντριβη} {σου} --- there is no healing to thy breach.'' --- Ed.
328Rather, "grievous is thy stroke." The verb is {,{נחלהfrom ,{}חלהto be languid, and sometimes, to make languid, grievous or afÒictive, and then in Niphal, as here, to be grievous. See the same clause in Jeremiah 10:19. As a noun it is rendered ``grief'' in Isaiah 17:11. --- Ed.
329The phrase here used, {{}כף{, תקעis found in three other places, Psalm 47:1; Proverbs 17:18; 22:26. In the first it is a symptom of joy; and in the two other places, in the sense here mentioned. --- Ed.