to chide · verb, qal active participle, masculine singular absolute
sea
בַּיָּם֙bai.Yam
H3220
a sea (as breaking in noisy surf) or large body of water · preposition with the article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
dry
הֶֽחֱרִ֑יבhe.che.Riv
H2717
to parch (through drought) i.e. (by analogy · verb, hiphil perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
up
וַֽיַּבְּשֵׁ֔הוּvai.ya.be.She.hu
H3001
to be ashamed · conjunction + verb, piel sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
rivers
הַנְּהָר֖וֹתha.ne.ha.Rot
H5104
a stream (including the sea · definite article + noun, common feminine plural absolute
Bashan
בָּשָׁן֙ba.Shan
H1316
Bashan (often with the article) · proper noun, a place name
languisheth
אֻמְלַ֤ל'um.Lal
H535
to droop · verb, pual perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
Carmel
וְכַרְמֶ֔לve.khar.Mel
H3760
Karmel · conjunction + proper noun, a place name
flower
וּפֶ֥רַחu.Fe.rach
H6525
a calyx (natural or artificial) · conjunction + noun, common masculine singular construct
Lebanon
לְבָנ֖וֹןle.va.Non
H3844
Lebanon · proper noun, a place name
languisheth
אֻמְלָֽל'um.Lal
H535
to droop · verb, pual perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
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
Psalms 106:9 He rebuked the Red sea also, and it was dried up: so he led them through the depths, as through the wilderness.
Isaiah 33:9 The earth mourneth and languisheth: Lebanon is ashamed and hewn down: Sharon is like a wilderness; and Bashan and Carmel shake off their fru…
Joshua 3:13-15 And it shall come to pass, as soon as the soles of the feet of the priests that bear the ark of the LORD, the Lord of all the earth, shall r…
Psalms 74:15 Thou didst cleave the fountain and the flood: thou driedst up mighty rivers.
Psalms 104:7 At thy rebuke they fled; at the voice of thy thunder they hasted away.
Psalms 114:3 The sea saw it, and fled: Jordan was driven back.
Psalms 114:5 What ailed thee, O thou sea, that thou fleddest? thou Jordan, that thou wast driven back?
Isaiah 19:5-10 And the waters shall fail from the sea, and the river shall be wasted and dried up.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Nahum 1:2-8
Nineveh knows not God, that God that contends with her, and therefore is here told what a God he is; and it is good for us all to mix faith with that which is here said concerning him, which speaks a great deal of terror to the wicked and comfort to good people; for this glorious description of the Sovereign of the world, like the pillar of cloud and fire, has a bright side towards Israel and a dark side towards the Egyptians. Let each take his portion from it; let sinners read it and tremble; let saints read it and triumph. The wrath of God is here revealed from heaven against him enemies, his favour and mercy are here assured to his faithful loyal subjects, and his almighty power in both,…
rebuketh the sea--as Jesus did (Mat 8:26), proving Himself God (compare Isa 50:2).
Bashan languisheth--through drought; ordinarily it was a region famed for its rich pasturage (compare Joe 1:10).
flower of Lebanon--its bloom; all that blooms so luxuriantly on Lebanon (Hos 14:7). As Bashan was famed for its pastures, Carmel for its corn fields and vineyards, so Lebanon for its forests (Isa 33:9). There is nothing in the world so blooming that God cannot change it when He is wroth.
Adam Clarke on Nahum 1:4
He rebuketh the sea - The Red Sea and the rivers: probably an allusion to the passage of the Red Sea and Jordan.
The description of the coming of Jehovah, from the third to the sixth verse, is dreadfully majestic. He is represented as controlling universal nature. The sea and the rivers are dried up, the mountains tremble, the hills melt, and the earth is burnt at his presence. Bashan, Carmel, and Lebanon are withered and languish: streams of fire are poured out, and the rocks are cast down to make him a passage. If then, the seas, the rivers, the mountains, the hills, the rocks, and the earth itself, fail before Jehovah, or flee from his presence, how shall Nineveh and the Assyrian empire s…
And the Prophet said, "He rebuketh the sea, and maketh it dry, and drieth up all the rivers;" and again, "He looketh on the earth and it trembleth; He rebuketh the mountains, and they smoke." And again the prophet Isaiah saith, "All the nations are accounted as nothing by Him." Now these things the Spirit of God spake concerning the power of God, that those things which were not He called to come into existence, and that what did exist He called and changed into nothing. To this power also He compareth faith.
If it is [Marcion's] Christ that is meant, he will not be stronger than the servants of the Creator. I would have been content with the examples I have shown you without adding anything further. But here a prediction of [Christ] walking on the water precedes his advent as well. The words of the psalm are, in fact, accomplished by Christ's crossing over the lake. "The Lord," says the psalmist, "is upon many waters." When he scatters its waves, Habakkuk's words are fulfilled where he says, "scattering the waters as he walks." When at his rebuke the sea is calmed, Nahum is also verified: "He rebukes the sea and makes it dry," referring to the winds that had disturbed the sea.
(Verse 4) Rebuking the sea, and drying it up, and leading all the rivers to the desert. It is described according to the power of God, who will avenge Israel's adversaries, showing that it is not difficult for Him to destroy the Assyrians, whose majesty even includes the ability to change the elements. Or certainly because we have already said that this is a prophecy about the end of the world, and you can simply understand this: When the consummation of the world comes and the heaven and earth pass away, the sea and rivers will also dry up. But to me, reading this in the Psalms: The great and wide sea, in which are creeping things innumerable, both small and great beasts. There the ships pass through. This dragon which You have formed to play there (Psalm 104:25-26), seems worthy of the goodness and mercy of God to destroy all the bitterness and saltiness of the sea by its threat, and to humble the dragon reigning in the waters, and to dry up the abyss of malice in which small creepy things swim, innumerable whose worth is not to be numbered, for they are united with the dragon. Also leading rivers into the desert, it is draining all false knowledge of name, which, rising against God, it waters with the river of eloquence and the flow of words, and twisting whirlpools, it is carried with the amazement of spectators into the abyss. Look at Plato, behold Demosthenes, also Cicero, both philosopher and orator, and consider the leaders of the heretics, about whom there were Valentinus, Marcion, Bardesanes, Tatian, and you will not doubt about the rivers. But all of these things the Lord Jesus will consume with the breath of his mouth and destroy with the brightness of his coming, and he will lead to the deserts. And at the same time, observe that according to the title, which is inscribed: The Assumption of Nineveh: the book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite, rightly and in a figurative sense, the world is understood to represent Nineveh, and the rivers of its eloquence will dry up in its culmination. Basan and Carmel are sick, and the flower of Lebanon is withered. Metaphorically, by Basan and Carmel and Lebanon, a fertile region and mountains adorned, the devastation of Assyria is shown, because once powerful and flourishing and ruling over many nations, it will be laid waste by the wrath of the Lord. We can also understand this as referring to the end of…
Dictionary and topics
Lightning — Frequently referred to by the sacred writers (Nah. 1:3-6). Thunder and lightning are spoken of as tokens of God’s wrath (2 Sam. 22:15; Job 28:26; 37:4; Ps. 135:7; 144:6; Zech. 9:14). They represent…
Nahum — Consolation, the seventh of the so-called minor prophets, an Elkoshite. All we know of him is recorded in the book of his prophecies. He was probably a native of Galilee, and after the deportation of…
Bashan · Fertility and productiveness of — Fertility and productiveness of
Lebanon · Flower of — Flower of
Providence Of God, The · Is exercised in: Ruling the elements — Is exercised in: Ruling the elements
Rivers · God’s power over, unlimited — God’s power over, unlimited
Sea, The · God: Dries up, by his rebuke — God: Dries up, by his rebuke
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
on Nahum 1:4
He rebuketh the sea, and maketh it dry,.... As he did the Red sea, when the children of Israel passed through it as on dry land; which shows his power and sovereignty over it; that it is at his command, as a servant at his master's; and since the wind and sea obey him, what is it he cannot do? see Isaiah 50:2;
and drieth up all the rivers; that is, he can do it if he will; he divided the waters of Jordan, through the midst of which the Israelites passed on dry ground; and will dry up the river Euphrates, to make way for the kings of the east; and as for Tigris, on the banks of which the city of Nineveh stood, of which the inhabitants boasted, and in which they trusted for their security, he…
Nahum 1:4
4. He rebuketh the sea, and maketh it dry, and drieth up all the rivers: Bashan languisheth, and Carmel, and the flower of Lebanon languisheth.
4. Increpat mare et arefaciet illud (hoc est, simulac mare increpuerit, arefaciet;) et omnia flumina exiccat, infirmatur (vel aboletur) Basan et Carmelus, et germen Libani aboletur (vel, infirmatur, est idem verbum.)
Nahum continues his discourse, -- that God, in giving proof of his displeasure, would disturb the sea or make it dry. There may be here an allusion to the history, described by Moses; for the Prophets, in promising God's assistance to his people, often remind them how God in a miraculous manner brought up their fathers from…
"He threateneth the sea, and drieth it up, and maketh all the rivers dry up. Bashan and Carmel fade, and the blossom of Lebanon fadeth. Nah 1:5. Mountains shake before Him, and the hills melt away; the earth heaveth before Him, and the globe, and all the inhabitants thereon. Nah 1:6. Before His fury who may stand? and who rise up at the burning of His wrath? His burning heat poureth itself out like fire, and the rocks are rent in pieces by Him." In the rebuking of the sea there is an allusion to the drying up of the Red Sea for the Israelites to pass through (cf. Psa 106:9); but it is generalized here, and extended to every sea and river, which the Almighty can smite in His wrath, and cause…
Like clouds (1:3) and mountains (1:5), oceans and rivers are under God’s sovereign control. The Old Testament prophets often recall God’s actions against the seas and rivers during the Exodus (Exod 15:8-10; 2 Sam 22:16; Pss 66:6; 77:16; Hab 3:15). God’s power over the waters repudiated the mythology of the ancient Canaanites, who believed that the oceans and the rivers were under the control of the sea-god, Yam. • Bashan, situated east of the Sea of Galilee, was known for its rich pastureland, ideal for raising cattle (cp. Mic 7:14). • Carmel, on the Mediterranean coast in central Canaan, was noted for its beauty and fruitfulness (Song 7:5; Jer 50:19). • Lebanon was famed for its great cedar…
He rebukes the sea—To be understood [both] according to its apparent meaning, and as a figure describing the nations, who are compared to water, as the matter is stated (Isa. 17:12): “Like the rushing of mighty waters they rush.”
and He has dried up all the rivers—Here he prophesies that the Holy One, blessed be He, is destined to crown Nebuchadnezzar in the days of Jehoiakim, and He will deliver Assyria and all the lands to the sword.
Bashan and Carmel—The good dwelling places.
and the blossoms of the Lebanon are cut off—The Sages of Israel explained this as an allusion to the various types of sweet fruit that Solomon planted in the Temple, which were gold; and as soon as the gentiles en…