Nahum 3:11

Thou also shalt be drunken: thou shalt be hid, thou also shalt seek strength because of the enemy.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(11, 12) Thou also shalt be drunken.—Nineveh also shall be drunken with the cup of God’s wrath (see Habakkuk 2:16), yea, hid from recollection, so that men shall ask, “Where is Nineveh?” (Comp. Nahum 2:11.) She, too, shall vainly seek a fortress (Authorised Version, “strength”) to give her shelter, all her own strongholds having fallen as easily as the ripe fruit from the fig-tree.

Benson Commentary

Nahum 3:11-13. Thou also shalt be drunken — Thou shalt drink deep of the bitter cup of God’s displeasure. Thou shalt be hid, &c. — Thou shalt not dare to appear in the open field. Thou shalt seek strength because of the enemy — Thou shalt retire into thy strong holds, or fortified places, for fear of the enemy. All thy strong holds shall be like fig-trees — As figs when quite ripe drop off from the trees by the least shaking, so shall thy strong holds fall into the enemies’ hands upon the first assault. The gates of thy land shall be set wide open, &c. — The several passages, by which the enemy may invade thee, shall be open to them, either through fear or treachery, or shall be easily forced. The fire shall devour thy bars — With which the gates were shut and strengthened.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

3:8-19 Strong-holds, even the strongest, are no defence against the judgments of God. They shall be unable to do any thing for themselves. The Chaldeans and Medes would devour the land like canker-worms. The Assyrians also would be eaten up by their own numerous hired troops, which seem to be meant by the word rendered merchants. Those that have done evil to their neighbours, will find it come home to them. Nineveh, and many other cities, states, and empires, have been ruined, and should be a warning to us. Are we better, except as there are some true Christians amongst us, who are a greater security, and a stronger defence, than all the advantages of situation or strength? When the Lord shows himself against a people, every thing they trust in must fail, or prove a disadvantage; but he continues good to Israel. He is a strong-hold for every believer in time of trouble, that cannot be stormed or taken; and he knoweth those that trust in Him.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Thou also - As thou hast done, so shall it be done unto thee. The cruelties on No, in the cycle of God's judgments, draw on the like upon Nineveh who inflicted them. "Thou also shalt be drunken" with the same cup of God's anger, entering within thee as wine doth, bereaving thee of reason and of counsel through the greatness of thy anguish, and bringing shame on thee , and a stupefaction like death. "Thou shalt be hid, a thing hidden" from the eyes of men, "as though thou hadst never been." Nahum had foretold her complete desolation: he had asked, where is she? Here he describes an abiding condition; strangely fulfilled, as perhaps never to that extent besides; her palaces, her monuments, her records of her glorious triumphs existed still in their place, but hidden out of sight, as in a tomb, under the hill-like mounds along the Tigris. "Thou also shalt seek strength, or a stronghold from the enemy," out of thyself, since thine own shall be weakness. Yet in vain, since God, is not such to thee Nahum 1:7. "They shall seek, but not find." "For then shall it be too late to cry for mercy, when it is the time of justice." "He shall have judgment without mercy, that hath shewed no mercy" James 2:13.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

11. drunken—made to drink of the cup of Jehovah's wrath (Isa 51:17, 21; Jer 25:15).

hid—covered out of sight: a prediction remarkably verified in the state in which the ruins of Nineveh have been found [G. V. Smith]. But as "hid" precedes "seek strength," &c., it rather refers to Nineveh's state when attacked by her foe: "Thou who now so vauntest thyself, shalt be compelled to seek a hiding-place from the foe" [Calvin]; or, shalt be neglected and slighted by all [Maurer].

seek strength because of the enemy—Thou too, like Thebes (Na 3:9), shalt have recourse to other nations for help against thy Medo-Babylonian enemy.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Thou, O Nineveh,

shalt be drunken; not only taste, but drink deep, yea, be drunk with the bitter cup of God’s displeasure and thine enemies’ rage, Isaiah 29:9 Obadiah 1:16.

Thou shalt be hid; either hide thyself, or be so weakened and diminished, that thou shalt no more appear; or else be as contemptible, laid by in some obscure place; fear and shame shall cover thee.

Thou also, O Nineveh, as well as Alexandria,

shalt seek strength, shalt sue for and entreat assistance,

because of the enemy, or from the enemy; i.e. either thus, in thy distress thou shalt seek for strength from such as are really thine enemies, though they make a league with thee; or thus, thou shalt beg protection from thy enemy that hath captivated thee, and rely on the mercy of him against the rage of others.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Thou also shalt be drunken,.... This is said to Nineveh, whose turn would be next to drink of the cup of the wrath of God, and be inebriated with it, so that they should not know where they were, or what they did; and be as unable to guide and help themselves as a drunken man. So the Targum,

"thou also shalt be like to a drunken man;''

this was literally true of Nineveh when taken; see Nahum 1:10,

thou shalt be hid; or, "thou shall be", as if thou wast not; as Nineveh is at this day, "hid" from the sight of men, not to be seen any more. So the Targum,

"thou shall be swallowed up or destroyed.''

The Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, and Arabic versions, render it "despised"; or the meaning is, she should "hide herself" (w); or be lurking about through shame, as drunken, or through fear of her enemies:

thou also shall seek strength because of the enemy; seek to others to help them against the enemy, not being able with their own strength to face them: or, seek strength "of the enemy" (x); beg their lives of him, and their bread; pray for quarter, and desire to be taken under his protection; to so low and mean a state and condition should Nineveh and its inhabitants be reduced, who had given laws to all about them, and had been a terror to them.

(w) "latitans", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator; "abscondes te", Vatablus; "eris abscondita", Burkius. (x) , Sept.; "ab hoste", Montanus, Calvin, Drusius, Grotius, Cocceius.

Geneva Study Bible

Thou also shalt be drunken: thou shalt be hid, thou also shalt seek strength because of the enemy.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

11. shalt be drunken] Drunkenness is a figure for the stupefaction caused by calamity. Isaiah 51:17-23, “Awake Jerusalem, which hast drunk at the hand of the Lord the cup of his fury, thou hast drunken of the bowl of the cup of staggering … Hear now this, thou afflicted, and drunken, but not with wine.” Similarly Habakkuk 2:15-16; Jeremiah 25:15 seq. Comp. Jeremiah 25:17-18; Jeremiah 25:27; Ezekiel 23:33; Obadiah 1:16.

thou shalt be hid] thou shalt faint, or, swoon, lit. be shrouded (in darkness), a usual oriental figure—“a covering came over him,” i.e. he swooned. Comp. the more usual word, Isaiah 51:20; Amos 8:13; Lamentations 2:19.

shalt seek strength] seek a place of refuge because of, or, from the enemy.

The destruction of Thebes here alluded to was effected by Assurbanipal about 664–662. The Egyptian king of the day was Urdamanî, who had succeeded Tirhaka. Details are given in the Inscriptions; see Schrader, ii. pp. 149–152; Winckler, Altorient. Untersuch. I. p. 105 (Essay on “The Sargonides and Egypt”). For the bearing of the reference on date of the prophecy, see Introd.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 11. - Thou also shalt be drunken. Nahum makes the application: The fate of Thebes shall be thine, O Nineveh. Thou shalt drink to the full the cup of God's wrath (see note on Obadiah 1:16; and comp. Jeremiah 25:15, 17, 27). The metaphor indicates the effect of some overwhelming calamity that makes men reel with terror or stupefies them with amazement. Thou shalt be hid; thou shalt be powerless, or reduced to nothing; Ασῃ ὑπερεωραμένη,"Thou shalt be despised" (Septuagint); Eris despecta (Vulgate). Nineveh, which was taken and destroyed between B.C. 626 and 608, was so effectually "hidden" that its very site was discovered only in late years, and its monuments have only been partially disinterred after immense labour. Thou also shalt seek strength because of the enemy; or, thou also shalt seek a stronghold from the enemy. As the Egyptians fled for refuge from one place to another (see note on ver. 10), so shall the Assyrians attempt in vain to escape the enemy. History records that they endeavoured to effect a retreat from Nineveh during the siege (see Introduction, § I.). Nahum 3:11

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The same, or rather a worse fate than No-amon suffered, is now awaiting Nineveh. Nahum 3:11. "Thou also wilt be drunken, shalt be hidden; thou also wilt seek for a refuge from the enemy. Nahum 3:12. All thy citadels are fig-trees with early figs; if they are shaken, they fall into the mouth of the eater. Nahum 3:13. Behold thy people, women in the midst of thee; the gates of thy land are thrown quite open to thine enemies; fire consumes thy bolts." גּם־אתּ corresponds to גּם־היא in Nahum 3:10 : as she, so also thou. "The fate of No-amon is a prophecy of thine own" (Hitzig). תּשׁכּרי, thou wilt be drunken, viz., from the goblet of divine wrath, as at Obadiah 1:16. תּהי נעלמה might mean, "thou wilt be hiding thyself;" but although this might suit what follows, it does not agree with תּשׁכּרי , since an intoxicated person is not in the habit of hiding himself. Moreover, נעלם always means "hidden," occultus; so that Calvin's interpretation is the correct one: "Thou wilt vanish away as if thou hadst never been; the Hebrews frequently using the expression being hidden for being reduced to nothing." This is favoured by a comparison both with Nahum 1:8 and Nahum 2:12, and also with the parallel passage in Obadiah 1:16, "They will drink, and be as if they had not been." This is carried out still further in what follows: "Thou wilt seek refuge from the enemy," i.e., in this connection, seek it in vain, or without finding it; not, "Thou wilt surely demand salvation from the enemy by surrender" (Strauss), for מאויב does not belong to תּבקשׁי, but to מעוז (cf. Isaiah 25:4). All the fortifications of Nineveh are like fig-trees with early figs (עם in the sense of subordination, as in Sol 4:13), which fall into the mouth of the eater when the trees are shaken. The tertium compar. is the facility with which the castles will be taken and destroyed by the enemy assaulting them (cf. Isaiah 28:4). We must not extend the comparison so far, however, as to take the figs as representing cowardly warriors, as Hitzig does. Even in Nahum 3:13, where the people are compared to women, the point of comparison is not the cowardliness of the warriors, but the weakness and inability to offer any successful resistance into which the nation of the Assyrians, which was at other times so warlike, would be reduced through the force of the divine judgment inflicted upon Nineveh (compare Isaiah 19:16; Jeremiah 50:37; Jeremiah 51:30). לאיביך belongs to what follows, and is placed first, and pointed with zakeph-katon for the sake of emphasis. The gates of the land are the approaches to it, the passes leading into it, which were no doubt provided with castles. Tuch (p. 35) refers to the mountains on the north, which Pliny calls impassable. The bolts of these gates are the castles, through which the approaches were closed. Jeremiah transfers to Babel what is here said of Nineveh (see Jeremiah 51:30).