“ All of your fortifications are like fig trees with ripe firstfruits— if they are shaken, they will fall into the mouth of the eater. Look! Your troops are like women in your midst. The gates of your land are wide open to your enemies;  fire will consume the bars of your gates.  Draw water for a siege! Strengthen your fortifications! Go to the mud pit! Trample the clay!  Grasp the brick mold! There fire will consume you;  the sword will cut you off.  It will consume you like the locust. 

Multiply yourself like the locust!  Multiply yourself like the grasshopper!  You have increased your merchants more than the stars of heaven; like the locust they will shed their skin and fly away. Your officials are like locusts; your commanders are like a swarm of locusts. They encamp on the walls on a cold day; when the sun rises, they fly away— no one knows where they have gone. 

Your shepherds are sleeping, O king of Assyria! Your nobles slumber. Your people are scattered on the mountains; no one can gather them. There is no healing for your wound; your injury is fatal. All who hear the report of you will clap their hands for joy concerning you, For who has not suffered at the hands of your endless cruelty? “ — Nahum 3:12-19

Nahum VII

………………..

We bring our study of Nahum to a close, grouping the final verses of the book, into 3 blocks ( above ) , consistent with the overall message for each….

1. Nineveh’s defenses will fail.

2. Nineveh’s defenders will flee 

3. Nineveh will be completely destroyed.

What a contrast from the concern we see expressed in the book of Jonah for man and beast…. “And should I not be concerned about Nineveh, the great city, ⌊in which there are⌋ more ⌊than one hundred and twenty thousand⌋ people who do not know right from left, plus many animals?” - Jonah 4:11 ( LEB ). The sins of that city were what prompted Jonah’s visit, and now judgment is finally catching up with them,

The imagery of figs falling from fig trees is one we see repeated in the book of Revelation … “and the stars of heaven fell to the earth like a fig tree throws down its unripe figs when shaken by a great wind.” ( Rev 6:13 ). In this prophecy the expression is related to the fortifications of Nineveh, but it is very interesting to see this metaphor straddling old & new Testaments!!

There is one last interesting nugget…”You have increased your merchants more than the stars of heaven”. 

We have previously alluded to the fact that the king of Assyria ruled as a first among equals as part of a board that oversaw the affairs of Nineveh, a board composed of prominent —merchants and wealthy men—, who financed the kings expeditions, and were enriched in turn by the conquests. 

Commerce continues to be an overriding concern for all nations in todays system, and throughout the ages…. The East India Company was —the— colonizing and commercial arm of the British Raj, running the military for commercial gain and it created an empire that spanned the globe!

It is really difficult to account for the misery that empires have inflicted on people in their pursuit of money!! And this misery has been universal .. “All who hear the report of you will clap their hands for joy concerning you, For who has not suffered at the hands of your endless cruelty? “ 

Nineveh, Sodom & Gomorrah, Jericho, Tyre, Babylon … these are cities and systems that were made examples of, for our benefit. They serve as a warning… God is merciful and gracious, but He is not mocked, and there will be a reckoning, from Kingdoms and Kings to each individual.

“ But I tell you that every worthless word that they speak, people will give an account for it on the day of judgment! “ — Matthew 12:36

How much more those that have willfully trampled the people of God and His words underfoot for centuries??

Hallelujah!!