விரிவுரை தற்போது ஆங்கிலத்தில் மட்டுமே கிடைக்கிறது. தமிழ் மொழிபெயர்ப்பு நடைபெறுகிறது.
Nahum 3 — Where Shall I Seek Comforters for Thee?
Woe to the bloody city, full of lies and robbery. The piles of slain, the harlot, the sorceress — all named. The Lord uncovers her shame before the nations. Compare her to No-Amon (Egyptian Thebes) — even that mighty city fell. Nineveh's wound is incurable. All who hear shall clap their hands at her fall.
“There is no healing of thy bruise; thy wound is grievous: all that hear the bruit of thee shall clap the hands over thee.”
— Nahum 3:19
- v.1-7 Woe to Nineveh; her shame uncovered
- v.8-11 Compare her to No-Amon, who also fell
- v.12-19 Final lament; her wound is incurable
Mistress of witchcrafts, that selleth nations. Nineveh seduced and trafficked. The image of the great harlot reappears in Revelation 17 for end-time Babylon. The pattern of imperial seduction-and-exploitation is permanent.
For the believer, the principle: every age has its great harlot — the cultural system that sells dignities for the sake of pleasure, that traffics in souls for the sake of power. Recognize her. Refuse her.
Who will bemoan her? When the bully falls, no one mourns. The empire that crushed others had no friends. Her fall would be greeted with rejoicing across the ancient world.
The lesson for the cruel: when your turn comes, your wealth and weapons will not produce mourners. The kindness you neglected to show would have been your only currency in the day of your fall.
No-Amon — Egyptian Thebes — had fallen to the Assyrians themselves in 663 BC, a generation before Nahum wrote. Are you better than the city you destroyed? The lesson is direct.
God uses historical examples to teach future judgment. The fall of one empire is a sermon to the next. Those who refuse to learn from the past are doomed to fulfill its patterns.
Thy shepherds slumber. The leadership has failed. When the shepherds sleep, the sheep scatter. A pointed indictment of negligent rulers.
The principle for any age: when leaders sleep at their posts — moral, spiritual, civic — the people they were meant to guard are scattered. God holds shepherds accountable for sleeping.
Upon whom hath not thy wickedness passed continually? Nineveh's cruelty had touched everyone. Her fall would be a relief to every nation she had oppressed.
The final word: there is no healing left for this wound. Some judgments do not come with the possibility of restoration. The grace that was offered through Jonah's preaching had been despised; the second chance had been used and forfeited.
Live so that when you fall, some will mourn. Nineveh had no mourners; the cruel never do. The kindness you sow in the years of strength is the only currency that buys true mourners in the day of your weakness. Spend kindness now while you still have time.
The Greater Shepherd does not slumber. Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep (Psalm 121:4). Where Nineveh's shepherds failed and her people scattered, Christ the Good Shepherd gathers His scattered sheep (John 10:11-16). The contrast between Nahum 3:18 and the Gospel is the contrast between every false shepherd and the True One.
The bloody city. Nineveh was famous in the ancient world for cruelty — flaying captives, mounding skulls, deporting whole populations. The Assyrian terror was unique even in a violent age.
Full of lies and robbery. Beyond the violence, the moral corruption. The empire of murder was also an empire of fraud. The violence and the lying went together — they always do.