Nahum 2:10

She is empty, and void, and waste: and the heart melteth, and the knees smite together, and much pain is in all loins, and the faces of them all gather blackness.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(10) And the faces of them all gather blackness.—Better, perhaps, and all faces withdraw their brightness. (See Note on Joel 2:6, where the same expression occurs.)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

2:1-10 Nineveh shall not put aside this judgment; there is no counsel or strength against the Lord. God looks upon proud cities, and brings them down. Particular account is given of the terrors wherein the invading enemy shall appear against Nineveh. The empire of Assyria is represented as a queen, about to be led captive to Babylon. Guilt in the conscience fills men with terror in an evil day; and what will treasures or glory do for us in times of distress, or in the day of wrath? Yet for such things how many lose their souls!

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

She is empty and void and waste - The completeness of her judgment is declared first under that solemn number, Three, and the three words in Hebrew are nearly the same , with the same meaning, only each word fuller than the former, as picturing a growing desolation; and then under four heads (in all seven) also a growing fear. First the heart, the seat of courage and resolve and high purpose, melteth; then the knees smite together, tremble, shake, under the frame; then, much pain is in all loins, literally, "strong pains as of a woman in travail," writhing and doubling the whole body, and making it wholly powerless and unable to stand upright, shall bow the very loins, the seat of strength Proverbs 31:17, and, lastly, the faces of them all gather blackness (see the note at Joel 2:6), the fruit of extreme pain, and the token of approaching dissolution.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

10. Literally, "emptiness, and emptiedness, and devastation." The accumulation of substantives without a verb (as in Na 3:2), the two first of the three being derivatives of the same root, and like in sound, and the number of syllables in them increasing in a kind of climax, intensify the gloomy effectiveness of the expression. Hebrew, Bukah, Mebukah, Mebullakah (compare Isa 24:1, 3, 4; Zep 1:15).

faces of all gather blackness—(See on [1159]Joe 2:6). Calvin translates, "withdraw (literally, 'gather up') their glow," or flush, that is, grow pale. This is probably the better rendering. So Maurer.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

She, Nineveh, taken, and under the proud insultings of the barbarous soldiers,

is empty though once full of all store, yet now she is empty enough, many hands have been employed to spoil her, and void, citizens are either slipped away, or carried captives, and waste, desolate, and shall continue so. Here is a threefold expression, to ascertain the thing, and to intimate the greatness of Nineveh’s desolation.

The heart melteth; this devastation hath broken the hearts of the Ninevites.

The knees smite together; not able to go steadily, ready to fall through weakness and faintness of spirits.

Much pain, acute pains and griefs, caused by their troubles, losses, dangers, and frights,

is in all loins; which, in those that are well, are their strength, and which, to diseased and broken bodies, are the seat of pains and griefs.

The faces, which were wont to be haughty and scornful, and as it were sparkle with briskness of spirit,

all gather blackness; now are clouded, sorrowful, and dejected, every one may see their desperate state in this symptom.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

She is empty, and void, and waste,.... The city of Nineveh, empty of inhabitants, being killed, or having fled; and stripped of all its treasures and riches by the enemies; its walls and houses demolished and pulled down, and laid in ruins, and become a heap of rubbish; See Gill on Nahum 1:8. Various words are here used to ascertain and confirm the thing; and there is an elegant play on words or likeness of sounds, which our language will not express:

and the heart melteth; the heart of every inhabitant of Nineveh melted with fear at the approach of their enemies, their entrance into the city, and plunder of it; flowed like water, or melted like wax; see Psalm 22:14,

and the knees smite together; like people in a fright, and when a panic has seized them; and as it was with Belshazzar, Daniel 5:6,

and much pain is in all loins; like that of women in travail; or of persons in a sudden fright, which gives them a pain in their backs at once:

and the faces of them all gather blackness; like a pot, as the Targum adds; being in great distress and disconsolation, which make men appear in a dismal hue, and their countenances look very dark and gloomy; see Joel 2:6.

Geneva Study Bible

{i} She is empty, and void, and waste: and the heart melteth, and the knees smite together, and much pain is in all loins, and the faces {k} of them all gather blackness.

(i) That is, Nineveh, and the men of it will be after this manner.

(k) Read Geneva Joe 2:6

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

10. In a series of exclamations the prophet depicts the desolation of the city and the paralysis and helplessness of those remaining in it; Isaiah 13:7; Isaiah 21:3; Joshua 7:5. The paronomasia in the first words, emptiness and voidness and waste! cannot be reproduced. Isaiah 24:1; Isaiah 29:2; Ezekiel 33:29; Zephaniah 1:15.

faces … gather blackness] are waxed pale, lit. have withdrawn their colour; Joel 2:6. Comp. the phrase of Jeremiah 30:6, are turned to greenness (blanched).

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 10. - She is empty, and void, and waste. Bukahum bukah, um bulakah. The three words are of very similar meaning and sound, and express most forcibly the utter ruin of the city. A Latin commentator has endeavoured to imitate the Hebrew paronomasia by rendering them, "vacuitas, evacuatio, evanidatio" - a translation more ingenious than classical. The paronomasia is better rendered by "vastitas, vastitia, vacuitas," and the German, "leer und ausgeleert und verheert." "Sack and sacking and ransacking" (Gandell). An analogous combination of words is found in Isaiah 24:3, 4; Isaiah 29:2, 3; Ezekiel 33:29; Zephaniah 1:15. Septuagint, ἐκτιναγμὸς, καὶ ἀνατιναγμὸς καὶ ἐκβρασμός, "thrusting forth and spurning and tumult." The heart melteth. A common expression for fear and despondency (Joshua 7:5; Isaiah 13:7; Ezekiel 21:7). The knees smite together (Daniel 5:6). So in Homer continually, λύτο γούνατα. Much pain is in all loins. The anguish as of childbirth. Septuagint, ὠδῖνες, "labour pains," in contrast with the injunction in ver. 1 (comp. Isaiah 13:8; Isaiah 21:3; Jeremiah 30:6). Gather blackness (Joel 2:6); or, Withdraw their colour; i.e. wax pale. But the Hebrew rather implies that the faces assume a livid hue, like that of coming death. Hence the LXX. renders, ὡς πρόσκαυμα χύτρας, as the burning of an earthen vessel, which is blackened by the fire; and Jerome, sicut nigredo ollae (comp. Jeremiah 30:6). Nahum 2:10

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

At the conquest of Nineveh the numerous inhabitants flee, and the rich city is plundered. Nahum 2:8. "And Nineveh like a water-pond all her days. And they flee! Stand ye, O stand! and no one turns round. Nahum 2:9. Take silver as booty, take ye gold! And no end to the furnishing with immense quantity of all kinds of ornamental vessels. Nahum 2:10. Emptying and devastation! and the heart has melted, and trembling of the knees, and labour pain in all loins, and the countenance of every one withdraws its ruddiness." Nineveh is compared to a pool, not merely with reference to the multitude of men who had gathered together there, but, as water is everywhere an element of life, also with reference to the wealth and prosperity which accrued to this imperial city out of the streaming together of so many men and so many different peoples. Compare Jeremiah 51:13, where Babel is addressed as "Thou that dwellest on many waters, art rich in many treasures." מימי היא, since the days that she exists. היא equals אשׁר היא, the relation being indicated by the construct state; מן הוא in Isaiah 18:2 is different. But they flee. The subject to נסים is not the waters, although nūs is applied to water in Psalm 104:7, but, as what follows shows, the masses of men who are represented as water. These flee away without being stopped by the cry "Stand ye" (i.e., remain), or even paying any attention to it. Hiphnâh, lit., "to turn the back" (‛ōreph, Jeremiah 48:39), to flee, but when applied to a person already fleeing, to turn round (cf. Jeremiah 46:5). In Nahum 2:9 the conquerors are summoned to plunder, not by their generals, but by God, who speaks through the prophet. The fact is hereby indicated, "that this does not happen by chance, but because God determines to avenge the injuries inflicted upon His people" (Calvin). With ואין קצה the prophecy passes into a simple description. There is no end lattekhūnâh, to the furnishing with treasures. Tekhūnâh, from kūn, not from tâkhan, lit., the setting up, the erection of a building (Ezekiel 43:11); here the furnishing of Nineveh as the dwelling-place of the rulers of the world, whilst in Job 23:3 it is applied to the place where the throne of God has been established. In כּבד the ל might be thought of as still continuing in force (Ewald, Hitzig), but it answers better to the liveliness of the description to take כּבד as beginning a fresh sentence. כּבד written defectively, as in Genesis 31:1 : glory, equivalent to the great amount of the wealth, as in Genesis (l.c.). Kelē chendâh, gold and silver vessels and jewels, as in Hosea 13:15. That there were immense treasures of the precious metals and of costly vessels treasured up in Nineveh, may be inferred with certainty from the accounts of ancient writers, which border on the fabulous.

(Note: For proofs, see Layard's Nineveh, ii. 415ff., and Movers, Phnizier (iii. 1, pp. 40, 41). After quoting the statements of Ctesias, the latter observes that "these numbers are indeed fabulous; but they have their historical side, inasmuch as in the time of Ctesias the riches of Nineveh were estimated at an infinitely greater amount than the enormous treasures accumulated in the treasuries of the Persian empire. That the latter is quite in accordance with truth, may be inferred from the fact that the conquerors of Nineveh, the Medes and Chaldaeans, of whose immense booty, in the shape of gold, silver, and other treasures, even the prophet Nahum speaks, furnished Ecbatana and Babylon with gold and silver from the booty of Nineveh to an extent unparalleled in all history.")

Of all these treasures nothing was left but desolate emptiness. This is expressed by the combination of three synonymous words. Būqâh and mebhūqâh are substantive formations from būq equals bâqaq, to empty out, and are combined to strengthen the idea, like similar combinations in Zephaniah 1:15; Ezekiel 33:29, and Isaiah 29:2. Mebhullâqâh is a synonymous noun formed from the participle pual, and signifying devastation (cf. Isaiah 24:1, where even bâlaq is combined with bâqaq). In Nahum 2:11 the horror of the vanquished at the total devastation of Nineveh is described, also in short substantive clauses: "melted heart" (nâmēs is a participle), i.e., perfect despondency (see Isaiah 13:7; Joshua 7:5); trembling of the knees, so that from terror men can hardly keep upon their feet (pı̄q for pūq; it only occurs here). Chalchâlâh formed by reduplication from chı̄l: spasmodic pains in all loins, like the labour pains of women in childbirth (cf. Isaiah 21:3). Lastly, the faces of all turning pale (see at Joel 2:6).