to go (causatively · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
imagineth
חֹשֵׁ֥בcho.Shev
H2803
properly · verb, qal active participle, masculine singular absolute
evil
רָעָ֑הra.'Ah
H7451
bad or (as noun) evil (natural or moral) · noun, common feminine singular absolute
LORD
יְהוָ֖הYah.weh
H3068
Jehovah · proper noun, a title
wicked
בְּלִיָּֽעַלbe.li.Ya.'al
H1100
without profit · noun, common masculine singular absolute
counsellor
יֹעֵ֖ץyo.'Etz
H3289
to advise · verb, qal active participle, masculine singular construct
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Nahum 1:9 What do ye imagine against the LORD? he will make an utter end: affliction shall not rise up the second time.
2 Chronicles 13:7 And there are gathered unto him vain men, the children of Belial, and have strengthened themselves against Rehoboam the son of Solomon, when…
1 Samuel 2:12 Now the sons of Eli were sons of Belial; they knew not the LORD.
2 Samuel 20:1 And there happened to be there a man of Belial, whose name was Sheba, the son of Bichri, a Benjamite: and he blew a trumpet, and said, We ha…
2 Kings 18:13-14 Now in the fourteenth year of king Hezekiah did Sennacherib king of Assyria come up against all the fenced cities of Judah, and took them.
2 Kings 18:30 Neither let Hezekiah make you trust in the LORD, saying, The LORD will surely deliver us, and this city shall not be delivered into the hand…
2 Kings 19:22-25 Whom hast thou reproached and blasphemed? and against whom hast thou exalted thy voice, and lifted up thine eyes on high? even against the H…
2 Chronicles 32:15-19 Now therefore let not Hezekiah deceive you, nor persuade you on this manner, neither yet believe him: for no god of any nation or kingdom wa…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Nahum 1:9–end
These verses seem to point at the destruction of the army of the Assyrians under Sennacherib, which may well be reckoned a part of the burden of Nineveh, the head city of the Assyrian empire, and a pledge of the destruction of Nineveh itself about 100 years after; and this was an event which Isaiah, with whom probably this prophet was contemporary, spoke much of. Now observe here,
I. The great provocation which the Assyrians gave to God, the just and jealous God, for which, though slow to anger, he would take vengeance (Nah 1:11): There is one come out of thee, that imagines evil against the Lord - Sennacherib, and his spokesman Rabshakeh. They framed an evil letter and an evil speech, not o…
The cause of Nineveh's overthrow: Sennacherib's plots against Judah.
come out of thee--O Nineveh. From thyself shall arise the source of thy own ruin. Thou shalt have only thyself to blame for it.
imagineth evil--Sennacherib carried out the imaginations of his countrymen (Nah 1:9) against the Lord and His people (Kg2 19:22-23).
a wicked counsellor--literally, "a counsellor of Belial." Belial means "without profit," worthless, and so bad (Sa1 25:25; Co2 6:15).
Adam Clarke on Nahum 1:11
Imagineth evil against the Lord - Such were Pul, Kg2 15:10, Tiglath-pileser, Kg2 15:29; Shalmaneser, Kg2 17:6; and Sennacherib, Kg2 18:17; Kg2 19:23.
A wicked counsellor - Sennacherib and Rabshakeh.
John Gill on Nahum 1:11
There is one come out of thee,.... That is, out of Nineveh, as the Targum explains it; meaning Sennacherib, who had his royal seat and palace there; or Rabshakeh that was sent from hence by him with a railing and blaspheming letter to the king of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. This is said to be at the present time of writing this prophecy, though it was after it, because of the certainty of it, as is usual in prophetic language; unless it can be thought that this prophecy was delivered out exactly at the time when Sennacherib had entered Judea, and was before the walls of Jerusalem; but not yet discomfited, as after predicted:
that imagineth evil against the Lord; against the peo…
The Church Fathers
(Verse 11) For from you will come forth a wicked thought, thinking against the Lord, pondering rebellion. LXX: From you will come forth the worst thought, thinking opposing thoughts against the Lord. Truly from heretics will come forth a hostile thought against the Lord. Do you not see the wickedness and rebellion against God, to say that Valentinus, like a miscarriage of erring wisdom, was the final creation of the Creator? Is not the thought of Basilides impurity against God, and the detestable name ἄβραξας, which is attributed to the Lord of creation? Furthermore, since we, the learned ones, want to follow the tradition of the Hebrews and also explain the history to our own, that is, the Christians, it must be said: There will not arise a double tribulation, that is, those who were not captured by the Assyrians will not be captured, just as the ten were captured. For while the Assyrians are still in the land of Judah and are embracing each other like thorns, rejoicing and delighting, they will be consumed by the angel, when one night 185,000 enemies were killed (2 Kings 19). Moreover, he gathered a large multitude of their army, comparing it to a drunken feast, and he said that the feast itself was not of roses, nor lilies, nor flowers, but rather resembled thorns entwined with one another, which are always handed over to the fire and are burned with gentle heat, like dry straw full of dryness. As for what follows: 'From you shall come out one who plots evil against the Lord' (Isaiah 36), they want it to be understood as referring to Rabshakeh, who, having come out from the Assyrians, blasphemed the Lord and tried to persuade the people to give themselves over to the Assyrians, not to God, but to serve idols.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Nahum 1:11
11. There is one come out of thee, that imagineth evil against the Lord, a wicked counsellor.
11. Ex te egressus est cogitans (vel, consultans) contra Jehovam malum, consultor Beliiaal (hoc est, impius, vel, perversus; alii vertunt, Nihili.)
The Prophet now shows why God was so exceedingly displeased with the Assyrians, and that was, because he would, as a protector of his Church, defend the distressed against those who unjustly oppressed them. The Prophet then designed here to give the Jews a firm hope, so that they might know that God had a care for their safety; for if he had only threatened the Assyrians without expressing the reason, of what avail could this have been to t…
The reason for all this is assigned in Nah 1:9. Nah 1:9. "What think ye of Jehovah? He makes an end; the affliction will not arise twice. Nah 1:10. For though they be twisted together like thorns, and as if intoxicated with their wine, they shall be devoured like dry stubble. Nah 1:11. From thee has one come out, who meditated evil against Jehovah, who advised worthlessness." The question in Nah 1:9 is not addressed to the enemy, viz., the Assyrians, as very many commentators suppose: "What do ye meditate against Jehovah?" For although châshabh 'el is used in Hos 7:15 for a hostile device with regard to Jehovah, the supposition that 'el is used here for ‛al, according to a later usage of th…
The wicked counselor is the Assyrian king. God had also dealt with the arrogant conceit of an Assyrian king in Hezekiah’s time (about 701 BC; see 2 Kgs 19:35-36). Assyria’s wicked counselor contrasts with the coming Messiah, the King who is a “Wonderful Counselor” (Isa 9:6).
Rashi on Nahum 1:11
From you—you, Nineveh.
emanated—Sennacherib, who plots evil, who thought to destroy the earthly abode and the heavenly abode. One passage reads (II Kings 19:23): “And I will come to its remotest lodge”; and one passage reads (Isa. 37:24): “Its remotest height.” “First I will destroy His earthly abode, and then I will destroy His heavenly abode” - as found in the chapter “Chelek“ (Sanh. 94b).