THE TRIAL OF NINEVEH In the second chapter God proclaims Himself as the Defender of the oppressed and the broken, and the opponent of the unjust and the haughty. But as this seemed to be impossible in the eyes of many, who assumed that no power on earth could ever stand before Nineveh, the queen sitting on her throne, and that no army could dare attack her strongholds, this third chapter came to confirm that no one is above the divine law. 1. Nineveh, the bloody city 1–3. 2. The seductive harlot 4–7. 3. She will be an example to others 8–11. 4. An utter devastation 12–19. 1. NINEVEH, THE BLOODY CITY: “Woe to the city of bloodshed. Utterly deceitful, full of booty – no end to the plunder” (Nahum 3:1). 1- The first charge in the trial of Nineveh was that she is “the city of bloodshed.” She shed the blood of many innocents; she enjoyed tormenting the captives and savagely cutting off their body parts. “You hate all workers of iniquity” (Psalm 5:5) whether they are slaves or free or even emperors. God counts His friends, not on the basis of their rank, but on that of their virtue1. St. John Chrysostom St Augustine commenting on the words of the psalmist: “You, O God, shall bring down to the pit of destruction, the bloodthirsty and the deceitful men” (Psalm 55:23) seeks from us to be aware of the murderers of souls more than those, who shed blood and says: [Those, who isolate themselves through solitude, would murder the souls through spiritual deceit more than through shedding blood2]. And commenting on the words of the psalmist: “They shed innocent blood, even the blood of their sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan; And the land was polluted with blood” (Psalm 106:38), St. Augustine believes that the Psalmist probably does not mean offering human sacrifices, although this custom was indeed existing among many nations, especially where ‘Baal’ was worshipped, where the family sometimes used to offer its children as human sacrifices to please the gods. But what the psalmist means here is that the Israelis have partaken of that pagan custom and its abominations and have given it to their children as an inheritance, by which they have murdered the souls of their sons and daughters through depriving them of the holy life and the fellowship with God. This crime is more horrible than killing the body, as it is a deprivation of the eternal life. 2- The second charge was her use of lies and deceit. She used to justify her continuous attacks that she keeps and protects justice; clothing her evil intentions with a deceitful garment. Through lies and deceit man often resorts to many evils; in not leading 1 On Ps. 5. 2 St. Augustine on Ps 55 954. 34 an open, pure, and a loving life towards God and men, but hiding his wickedness and corruption behind deceitful words. “You shall destroy those who speak falsehood” (Psalm 5:6). God utterly hates evil. Now, the psalmist calls those who live in evil as ‘speakers of falsehood’, who have vain goals, are greedy and love pleasure; as you see, he puts all these among the group of liars. He is disgusted of the bloodthirsty and the deceitful man (Psalm 55:23); referring here to the killer, the planner of evil and the deceitful, who utters something with his lips while harboring something else in his heart; the wolf clothed as a lamb. You cannot find a more evil man; you can probably confront an obvious enemy, whereas he, who hides his evil while practicing it, is not easy to discover. That is why the Lord Christ warns us against those, saying: “who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves” (Matthew 7:15) 1. St. John Chrysostom 3- The third charge: “taking plenty of booty” (rob) and “plunder”: Not being satisfied with robbing what belong to others, they tend to plunder them. The wise Solomon says: “He (the Son of God) will redeem their life from oppression and violence; and precious shall be their blood in His sight” (Psalm 72:14). Let us mourn together with the prophet Jeremiah and say: “Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness and his chambers with injustice” (Jeremiah 22:13; Nahum 3:1). Let us rather grieve for him as the Lord Christ did when He said: “Woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation” (see Luke 6:24). I wish we keep grieving for the slothfulness of our brethren! We should wail for the robber, the mean, and the greedy louder than we do over those who departed2. St. John Chrysostom “The noise of a whip, and the noise of rattling wheels, of galloping horses, of clattering chariots!” (Nahum 3:2) The prophet takes us to the battle to hear the noise of the whips, by which the riders of the military chariots drive the horses to go faster, the noise of the swift wheels of the galloping horses and of the clattering chariots. “Horsemen charge with bright swords and glittering spears. There is a multitude of slain, a great number of bodies; countless corpses – they stumble over the corpses” (Nahum 3:3). The prophet goes on to portray the battle: The horsemen charge with their swords, bright like flames of fire, and with their spears directed toward the people of Nineveh, many of whom are wounded, as to those killed, they are countless; no one cares to count them or to pick up their corpses. They stumble over the corpses on the ground slippery with the blood of those slain. 2. THE SEDUCTIVE HARLOT: “Because of the countless debaucheries of the seductive harlot, the mistress of sorceries, who enslaves nations through her harlotries and families through her sorceries” (Nahum 3:4). 1 On Ps. 5. 2 Commentary on Nahum 2:1. 35 Because she did not learn the lesson that she witnessed, when the angel of the Lord killed 185 thousands of her men in a single night, the same happens again in Nineveh on the day of her utter devastation. 4- The fourth charge: “The harlotry”: He already likened Nineveh to a lion torn apart, and its cubs hungered and scattered, now he likens her to a seductive harlot, who provokes nations to idolatry and its abominations. By her beauty and ability to seduce she brings nations to destruction through her harlotry. Rebuking is a kind of chastisement used by the divine Teacher in Jeremiah, saying: “You have the forehead of a whore; you refuse to be ashamed. Have you not just now called to Me: ‘My father you are the friend of my youth?’” (Jeremiah 3:3-4). After calling the virgin ‘a harlot’, that shameful and disgraceful name, He calls on her, through filling her by feelings of shame, to return to an honorable life1. St. Clement of Alexandria 5- The fifth charge: Being a “Mistress of sorceries”: Being only preoccupied with its desire to submit the nations of the whole world under its feet, the kingdom of Assyria, besides war, robbery and plunder, also resorted to sorceries; the same way a harlot uses her beauty and charm to seduce and enslave young men. “’Behold, I am against you,’ says the lord of hosts,’ I will lift your skirts over your face, I will show the nations your nakedness, and the kingdoms your shame’” (Nahum 3:5). Nineveh assumed that she is the mistress of the world, and seduced the nations by her sorcery and harlotry to worship her gods and to commit abominations with her. But, because God hates evil, He deals with her as a harlot, uncovers her corruption, and bears her naked of her clothes of harlotry. The same was likewise prophesied by the prophet Isaiah about Babylon, who later followed on the same way of Nineveh, saying: “You shall no longer be called ‘tender and delicate’… ‘Remove your veil, take off your skirt, uncover the thigh, and pass through the rivers. Your nakedness shall be uncovered; Yes, your shame will be seen’” (Isaiah 47:1-3). She will not only lose her false beauty and deceitful charm, but her evil plans will be exposed before the nations and her weakness and corruption will be revealed; “I will show the nations your nakedness, and the kingdoms your shame” (5) for everyone to realize that she is no longer mighty nor the mistress of the world as she claims to be. “I will throw filth on you and treat you with contempt, and make you a spectacle” (Nahum 3:6) The city, with which other nations wished to ally, became a mockery and a jest to all. “It shall come to pass that all who look upon you, will flee from you, and say, ‘Nineveh is devastated! Who will bemoan her? Where shall I seek comforters for you?’” (Nahum 3:7) Instead of resorting to her for fear of her authority, when they see what happened to her, they flee from her, as she is no longer fit even to live in. Because of her utter devastation, and that there is no hope of reforming her, there will be no comforters, but 1 Paedagogus 1:9. 36 gloaters! Everyone looking upon her will become so terrified of what happened to her that his tongue will not be able to utter a word of comfort! 3. SHEWILL BE AN EXAMPLE TO OTHERS: “Are you better than ‘No Amon,’ that sat by the Nile, and water around her, her rampart a sea, and water her wall?” (Nahum 3:8) So that Nineveh nor anyone else who hears this prophecy will think that it is impossible to be realized, the prophet presents an example of another city that was once strong and living in peace, but having walked in evil and persisted on opposing God, the divine wrath dwelt on her. That city was ‘No Amon.’ ‘No Amon’: Thought by some to be ‘Thebes’ in Upper Egypt; her name means "the portion of Amon" –an Egyptian god, counter part of Jupiter, the senior Roman god. It seems that the Assyrian King ‘Sergon’ was the one who struck ‘No Amon’; and as Assyria conquered Thebes despite her might and possibilities, now is the turn of Nineveh, the capital of Assyria, to lose her might and to be destroyed by the Babylonians. Thebes, having been located on the two banks east and west of the River Nile and surrounded by huge water channels, was as secure as Nineveh that was also surrounded by waters, assumed to protect her against the attacks of foreign enemies. In Homer’s time Thebes was famous for her one hundred1 gates, but whose ruins now stretch over 27 miles long, between the two world famous temples ‘Luxor’ and ‘Karnak’. The River Nile here is called ‘the Sea,’ as it is still called in Upper Egypt. “Ethiopia and Egypt were her strength; without limits. Put and the Libyans were her helpers” (Nahum 3:9) Ethiopia (or Cush) might be either the region of ‘Yemen’ or that of ‘Nubia’ south of Egypt. Drawing her strength and wealth from trade and military aids, it supported ‘No Amon’. Put and Lubim were neighboring North African kingdoms, west of Egypt –Cyrene and Lybia, that helped ‘No Amon’ to live like a queen sitting on her throne. “Yet she was carried away, she went into captivity; her young children were also dashed to pieces at the head of every street. They cast lots for her nobles, and all her great men were bound in chains” (Nahum 3:10) Having been securely sitting on her throne, proud of her strength and power, supported by several nations north and south and surrounded by water that protected her against attacks, it did not expect to fall, yet she was led captive to exile. She was deceived by her haughtiness and strength that her children got destroyed and a lot was cast on her honorable men. It was the custom for the victorious in those days to seize the honorable men of the great city they conquered then cast a lot to distribute them as slaves among the leaders of the army. Thus, instead of their golden chains and magnificent garments, they were shackled by iron chains and were led naked as slaves to a foreign country in shame and disgrace. “You also will be drunk; you will go into hiding; you will seek refuge from the enemy” (Nahum 3:11) 1 Homer: Ill: 9: 381. 37 What dwelt upon ‘No Amon’ will also dwell upon Nineveh; her inhabitants will become mad and drunk of the cup of God’s wrath. And as it was said to Jerusalem: “You have drunk at the hand of the Lord, the cup of His wrath; you have drunk to the dregs, the bowl of staggering, and drained it out … Therefore please hear this, you afflicted, who are drunk but not with wine” (Isaiah 51:17, 21); and as it came in Jeremiah: “For thus says God of Israel to me: ‘Take this wine cup of wrath from my hand, and cause all the nations, to whom I send you, to drink it. And they will drink and stagger and go mad because of the sword that I will send among them.’ Then I took the cup from the Lord’s hand, and made all the nations drunk, to whom the Lord had sent me” (Jeremiah 25:15-17). The scholar Origen has a beautiful commentary on the phrase: “Every wine-jar should be filled with wine” (Jeremiah 13:12), in which he says: [Every man is like a wine-jar filled with wine. Yet, there are two kinds of wine: A good kind, which is the wine of God’s love that causes the souls to melt with the love for God and to live meditating in Him, as though drunk with His love; this kind of wine is made by wisdom: “Wisdom … has mixed her wine… Come eat of my bread, and drink of the wine which I have mixed” (Proverb 9:1, 5); and there is the bad kind of wine, which fills the wicked, like the wine of Sodom and Gomorrah: “Their wine comes from the vine stock of Sodom, from the vineyards of Gomorrah; their grapes are grapes of poison; their clusters are bitter; their wine is the poison of serpents, the cruel venom of asps” (Deuteronomy 32:32-33). Origen also believes that God holds, in His right hand, the cup of our good works to grant us His blessings and in His left hand the cup of our iniquities to chasten us to return to Him1]. St Augustine, talking to us about the wine of God’s love, says: [Are those, whose hearts have changed, not drunk? He says: “Surely its dreg (of the Lord’s wine), all the wicked of the earth shall drain and drink down” (Psalm 75:8); they drink so as not to remain as such; to be justified and not punished2]. “You will be hidden” (Nahum 3:11), namely Nineveh will hide itself out of shame and fear, because she is no more capable of confronting the enemy, and in vain she will seek the support and the protection of a refuge. 4- AN UTTER DEVASTATION: “All your strongholds are fig trees with ripened figs; If they are shaken, they fall into the mouth of the eater” (Nahum 3:12) The prophet likens Nineveh, when it is no more able to confront the enemy and when her children helplessly fall into the mouths of her enemy, to the fig trees with firstripe figs that, if shaken by the wind, will lose all its figs. “Surely, your people in your midst are women! The gates of your land are wide open for your enemies. Fire shall devour the bars of your gates” (Nahum 3:13) Her army will become like women, helpless to defend themselves; and the gates of the city will be wide open, nonresistant to the enemy, because their bars will be devoured by fire. 1 Cf. Homilies on Jeremiah, homily 12: 1-4. 2 On Ps 75 (74). 38 “Draw water for the siege! Strengthen your strongholds! Go into the clay and tread the mortar! Take hold of the brick mold!” (Nahum 3:14) He mockingly asks Nineveh to store water and provisions, so as not to die of thirst and hunger during the siege. Although the city is built on the River Tigris and surrounded by water channels on all sides, yet its inhabitants would not dare to go out to drink of it. It goes into clay and mud treading the mortar to mend or rebuild her strongholds, but all would be in vain. “There the fire will devour you, the sword will cut you off, it will devour you like the locust. Multiply yourselves like the locust, multiply like the grasshopper!” (Nahum 3:15) He calls on her not to depend upon the great number of her inhabitants or of her army men, who will be cut off by the sword and become as helpless as the locusts and grasshoppers before the raging fire. “You increased your merchants more than the stars of the heavens. The locust sheds its skin and flies away. Your commanders are like grasshoppers, your scribes like swarms of locusts settling on the fences on a cold day – when the sun rises, they fly away; no one knows where they have gone” (Nahum 3:16-17) Because of her geographic location on the River Tigris, surrounded by water channels all around, she became a great commercial center. But when God’s wrath dwelt upon her, she turned from a city packed with honorable merchants into a field devoured by innumerable locusts and grasshoppers that, when the sun rises, they flew away and no one knows where they have gone. He probably means that once the foreign merchants, who came to Nineveh for business and acquired great wealth, saw the enemy coming they took their earnings and fled. Those, whom Nineveh thought to become her support at the time of affliction, have soon flown away like locusts to seek a more secure place. Others believe that by the flying locusts he means the foreign mercenaries, hired to guard the city walls from outside, who flew away when they saw the enemy coming and did not know where to go. And as the Lord Christ says: “The hireling flees because he is a hireling and does not care about the sheep” (John 10:31). “Your shepherds slumber, O King of Assyria; your nobles are asleep in the dust; your people are scattered on the mountains with no one to gather them” (Nahum 3:18) The king of Assyria assumed that he is well protected by mighty warriors and commanders, but he was awakened by the prophet saying: “Your shepherds slumber, O king of Assyria” (18). His nobles were killed and fell on the streets in the dust, whereas his people fled to the mountains with terror and no one will gather them. “Your injury has no healing; your wound is severe. All who hear the news about you will clap their hands over you; for who has ever escaped your endless cruelty?” (Nahum 2:19) The prophet ends his book portraying Nineveh as broken with no hope for repair, as wounded with no healing. There will never be a rebuilding of Nineveh or a resetting of the nation of Assyria. Having been so violent with all the nations whom she defeated, they are now gloating and clapping their hands over her. 39 AN INSPIRATION FROM THE BOOK OF NAHUM 3 DESTROY NINEVEH IN ME AND SET THE NEW JERUSALEM The enemy has infiltrated into my heart, and has set a kingdom for himself. Drive away the king of Assyria, and make a spectacle of him by Your cross. Take away his authority, and set Your kingdom in me. Uproot from me what the enemy has planted. All what is foreign of my nature that You have granted me. Uproot from me every love of oppression. And every lie and deceit. Uproot from me every evil lust. And every vain glory. Expose me before my soul. To return to You, O Whole Love and Mercy. I confess to You my weakness. And my inability to resist. Yet, You are my Stronghold! You are the heavenly Physician, who heals my wounds. And repair in me every broken bone. Instead of the wine of wickedness that makes me lose my balance, Grant me the wine of Your heavenly wisdom. Make me drunk with Your love, and let me praise Your mercies. Let me forget the world and all its seductions. And enjoy the advance payments of Your heavens.
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