Nahum 1:6 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Nahum 1:6
Who can stand before his indignation? and who can abide in the fierceness of his anger? his fury is poured out like fire, and the rocks are thrown down by him.
to tear down · verb, niphal perfect, 3rd person common plural
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
Jeremiah 10:10 But the LORD is the true God, he is the living God, and an everlasting king: at his wrath the earth shall tremble, and the nations shall not…
Malachi 3:2 But who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? for he is like a refiner’s fire, and like fullers’ soap:
Deuteronomy 32:22-23 For a fire is kindled in mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest hell, and shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the…
Psalms 76:7 Thou, even thou, art to be feared: and who may stand in thy sight when once thou art angry?
Nahum 1:2 God is jealous, and the LORD revengeth; the LORD revengeth, and is furious; the LORD will take vengeance on his adversaries, and he reservet…
1 Kings 19:11 And he said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the LORD. And, behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mount…
Psalms 2:12 Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trus…
Psalms 90:11 Who knoweth the power of thine anger? even according to thy fear, so is thy wrath.
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,…
fury is poured out like fire--like the liquid fire poured out of volcanoes in all directions (see Jer 7:20).
rocks are thrown down--or, "are burnt asunder"; the usual effect of volcanic fire (Jer 51:25, Jer 51:56). As Hannibal burst asunder the Alpine rocks by fire to make a passage for his army [GROTIUS].
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…
Who can stand before his indignation?.... No creature whatever; no man nor body of men; not Nineveh, and the inhabitants of it; nor the whole Assyrian empire:
and who can abide in the fierceness of his anger? not the great men of the earth; not kings or generals of armies; not kingdoms and nations, ever so numerous and powerful; but all must be consumed by him, who is a consuming fire; see Jeremiah 10:10;
his fury is poured out like fire; or like metal that is melted by fire, and poured out by the force of it; or like fire of lightning poured out of the heavens, which is quick, powerful, and penetrating, and there is no resisting it:
and the rocks are thrown down by him; by the Lord, by h…
The Church Fathers
(Verse 6) Who can stand before the face of His anger, and who can endure the fury of His wrath? LXX translation: Who can withstand the face of His anger, and who can resist in the fury of His wrath? Symmachus has interpreted it more clearly: Who can endure the wrath of His fury? Therefore, it is rare or nonexistent to find anyone who is not worthy of being seized by anger. And there will be no soul that does not tremble at the judgment of God, since even the stars are not clean in His sight (Job. XXV, 5). Moreover, the Hebrew word Jaccum, which both Aquila and the Septuagint translated, resists the transfer to that understanding which is mentioned in the second book of Kings and in the first book of Chronicles, concerning the wrath of God, in the masculine gender. There is no doubt that in that passage the wrath of God is understood as the devil and the wicked angels who are sent to punish those who are worthy of wrath. So it will be difficult to find at the end of the world someone who is blameless and pure who dares to say, 'Behold, the ruler of this world is coming, and he finds nothing in me' (John 14:30) and stands boldly against him. However, we must think this way against the Assyrians: when the Lord comes in storm and whirlwind, drying up the empire of Babylon, which is interpreted as the sea, and overthrowing all its kingdoms, which are understood as rivers, and reducing its power and abundance to nothing, which figuratively are called Bashan, Carmel, and the flower of Lebanon, and the mountains and hills, and shaking the breadth of the empire, which is called the entire world: then no power will be able to resist the angry God, punishing his people. His indignation was poured out like fire, and the rocks were dissolved by Him. LXX: His wrath consumes the principalities, and the rocks are crushed by Him. For because we have poured out, Aquila translated it as συνεχωνεύθη, which means it was mixed together: Symmachus and Theodotion translated it as ἔσταξεν, which means it dripped. Therefore, whether the indignation of God was mixed together like fire, or His wrath dripped in the likeness of a fire, in order to break and dissolve the hard hearts of men, which are called rocks, the indignation of God is useful. It sustains our sins for a long time through our patience, and only rarely does it mix together fully, and yet it does not burst forth…
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Atonement — This word does not occur in the Authorized Version of the New Testament except in Rom. 5:11, where in the Revised Version the word “reconciliation” is used. In the Old Testament it is of frequent…
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…
Anger Of God, The · Cannot be resisted — Cannot be resisted
Mountains · Volcanic fires of, alluded to — Volcanic fires of, alluded to
Rocks · God’s power exhibited in removing — God’s power exhibited in removing
Volcanoes · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
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).
Nahum 1:6
6. Who can stand before his indignation? and who can abide in the fierceness of his anger? his fury is poured out like fire, and the rocks are thrown down by him.
6. Coram indignatione ejus quis stabit? Et quis consistet in furore irae ejus? Furor ejus effunditur tanquam ignis, et rupes solvuntur ab eo.
The Prophet shows here why he gave in the part noticed in the last lecture, such an awful description of God; it was that men might know, that when they shall come before his tribunal, no one will be able to stand unless supported by his favor. Of the Prophet's main object we have sufficiently spoken, nor is it necessary to repeat here what has been stated. It is enough to bear…
"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…
The Hebrew word translated rage is repeated from 1:2. Its repetition brackets 1:2-6 as a single poetic unit.
Rashi on Nahum 1:6
has reached Heb. נִתְּכָה, has reached the earth, as in (Exod. 9:33) “And rain did not reach (נְתַּךְ) the earth.”
have been broken up by Him—by His fear.
