Nahum 2:10 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Nahum 2:10
She is empty, and void, and waste: and the heart melteth, and the knees smite together, and much pain is in all loins, and the faces of them all gather blackness.
the heart · conjunction + noun, common masculine singular absolute
melteth
נָמֵ֜סna.Mes
H4549
to liquefy · verb, niphal perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
knees
בִּרְכַּ֗יִםbir.Ka.yim
H1290
a knee · noun, common feminine dual absolute
together
וּפִ֣קu.Fik
H6375
a tottering · conjunction + noun, common masculine singular absolute
pain
וְחַלְחָלָה֙ve.chal.cha.Lah
H2479
writhing (in childbirth) · conjunction + noun, common feminine singular absolute
loins
מָתְנַ֔יִםma.te.Na.yim
H4975
properly · noun, common masculine dual absolute
faces
וּפְנֵ֥יu.fe.Nei
H6440
the face (as the part that turns) · conjunction + noun, common masculine plural construct
gather
קִבְּצ֥וּki.be.Tzu
H6908
to grasp · verb, piel perfect, 3rd person common plural
blackness
פָארֽוּרfa.Rur
H6289
properly · noun, common masculine singular absolute
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 22:14 I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint: my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels.
Daniel 5:6 Then the king’s countenance was changed, and his thoughts troubled him, so that the joints of his loins were loosed, and his knees smote one…
Joel 2:6 Before their face the people shall be much pained: all faces shall gather blackness.
Isaiah 13:7-8 Therefore shall all hands be faint, and every man’s heart shall melt:
Jeremiah 30:6 Ask ye now, and see whether a man doth travail with child? wherefore do I see every man with his hands on his loins, as a woman in travail,…
Isaiah 21:3 Therefore are my loins filled with pain: pangs have taken hold upon me, as the pangs of a woman that travaileth: I was bowed down at the hea…
Isaiah 24:1 Behold, the LORD maketh the earth empty, and maketh it waste, and turneth it upside down, and scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof.
Zephaniah 2:13-15 And he will stretch out his hand against the north, and destroy Assyria; and will make Nineveh a desolation, and dry like a wilderness.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Nahum 2:1-10
Here is, I. An alarm of war sent to Nineveh, Nah 2:1. The prophet speaks of it as just at hand, for it is neither doubtful nor far distant: "Look about thee, and see, he that dashes in pieces has come up before thy face. Nebuchadnezzar, who is noted, and will be yet more so, for dashing nations in pieces, begins with thee, and will dissipate and disperse thee;" so some render the word. Babylon is called the hammer of the whole earth, Jer. 1:23. The attempt of Nebuchadnezzar upon Nineveh is public, bold, and daring: "He has come up before thy face, avowing his design to ruin thee; and therefore stand to thy arms, O Nineveh! keep the munition; secure thy towers and magazines: watch the way; se…
Literally, "emptiness, and emptiedness, and devastation." The accumulation of substantives without a verb (as in Nah 3:2), the two first of the three being derivatives of the same root, and like in sound, and the number of syllables in them increasing in a kind of climax, intensify the gloomy effectiveness of the expression. Hebrew, Bukah, Mebukah, Mebullakah (compare Isa 24:1, Isa 24:3-4; Zep 1:15).
faces of all gather blackness--(See on Joe 2:6). CALVIN translates, "withdraw (literally, 'gather up') their glow," or flush, that is grow pale. This is probably the better rendering. So MAURER.
Adam Clarke on Nahum 2:10
She is empty, and void, and waste - The original is strongly emphatic; the words are of the same sound; and increase in their length as they point out great, greater, and greatest desolation.
בוקה ומבוקה ומבלקה
Bukah, umebukah, umebullakah.
She is void, empty, and desolate.
The faces of them all gather blackness - This marks the diseased state into which the people had been brought by reason of famine, etc.; for, as Mr. Ward justly remarks, "sickness makes a great change in the countenance of the Hindoos; so that a person who was rather fair when in health, becomes nearly black by sickness." This was a general case with the Asiatics.
John Gill on Nahum 2:10
The Church Fathers
(Verse 10) She is scattered and torn and ripped apart, with a wasting heart, and knees loosened, and weakness in all the kidneys, and the faces of all like the darkness of a pot. LXX: Shaking, trembling, and bubbling, and the breaking of the heart, and knees loosened, and pains over every loin, and the faces of all like the burning of a pot. Under the metaphor of a captive woman, Nineveh is described as scattered, torn, and ripped apart: with a wasting heart, loosened knees, and broken kidneys, and the faces of all its inhabitants, due to the terror of the enemies and the magnitude of fear, appear burnt, wasted, and deformed with paleness. Furthermore, according to the Septuagint, a higher understanding is needed of what the terms 'excussio' and 'rediscussio' signify. As for the people of God, it is as if a person has sinned at some point and returns to their previous state, as Jerusalem is said to them: Shake off the dust from your feet and arise, Jerusalem (Isaiah 52:2). And for someone who is such, that after being shaken off, they may deserve to pass into the arrows of God and be aimed against the enemies by the Lord, it is sung about them: Like arrows in the hand of a mighty one, so are the children of those who are shaken off (Psalm 127:4). And when his footsteps, as though entering upon the earth, are sprinkled with dust, we hear from the Savior: Shake off the dust from your feet as a testimony to them (Mk. 6:11): doubtless he speaks of those who refuse to receive the preachers. But as for Nineveh, which was burdened with all the vessels of its desires, it is not merely shaken off once, but frequently. And after it has been shaken off again, and its surface has been cleaned (so that no impurity remains inside), there is even a boiling, which is more significantly called ἐκβρασμὸς in Greek: for properly speaking, ἐκβρασμὸς is used in such cases, when what was hidden inside erupts to the surface. And the pimples that also arise on the lips after an illness are called ἐκβράσματα, and it seems to indicate health, that the disease has erupted on the surface. But not only is this remedy applied in Nineveh, so that it is frequently shaken off and the hidden illness within its vital organs is forced to leave; but also the breaking and dissolution of the heart and knees ((or kidneys)) is proclaimed, just as the hard and stony heart of Pharaoh was broken,…
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
Nineveh — First mentioned in Gen. 10:11, which is rendered in the Revised Version, “He [i.e., Nimrod] went forth into Assyria and builded Nineveh.” It is not again noticed till the days of Jonah, when it is…
Prophecy — Or prediction, was one of the functions of the prophet. It has been defined as a “miracle of knowledge, a declaration or description or representation of something future, beyond the power of human…
Colors · BLACK: A SYMBOL OF AFFLICTION AND — BLACK: A SYMBOL OF AFFLICTION AND
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).
She is empty, and void, and waste,.... The city of Nineveh, empty of inhabitants, being killed, or having fled; and stripped of all its treasures and riches by the enemies; its walls and houses demolished and pulled down, and laid in ruins, and become a heap of rubbish; See Gill on Nahum 1:8. Various words are here used to ascertain and confirm the thing; and there is an elegant play on words or likeness of sounds, which our language will not express:
and the heart melteth; the heart of every inhabitant of Nineveh melted with fear at the approach of their enemies, their entrance into the city, and plunder of it; flowed like water, or melted like wax; see Psalm 22:14,
and the knees smite to…
Nahum 2:10
10. She is empty, and void, and waste: and the heart melteth, and the knees smite together, and much pain is in all loins, and the faces of them all gather blackness.
10. Exinanita etexinanita est, et nudata; et cor liquefactum, et collisio genuum, et terror in omnibus lumbis; et facies omnium contraxerunt nigredinem (vel, splendorem, ut alii vertunt.)
The Prophet here confirms what the last verse contains; for he shows why he had called the Chaldeans to take away the spoil, -- because it was to be so. He did not indeed (as I have already said) command the Chaldeans in such a way as that their obedience to God was praiseworthy: but the Prophet speaks here only of His secret cou…
At the conquest of Nineveh the numerous inhabitants flee, and the rich city is plundered. Nah 2:8. "And Nineveh like a water-pond all her days. And they flee! Stand ye, O stand! and no one turns round. Nah 2:9. Take silver as booty, take ye gold! And no end to the furnishing with immense quantity of all kinds of ornamental vessels. Nah 2:10. Emptying and devastation! and the heart has melted, and trembling of the knees, and labour pain in all loins, and the countenance of every one withdraws its ruddiness." Nineveh is compared to a pool, not merely with reference to the multitude of men who had gathered together there, but, as water is everywhere an element of life, also with reference to th…
plundered, empty, and ruined: The Hebrew here is alliterated for effect: buqah umbuqah umbullaqah. The effect might be translated into English as “devastated, despoiled, and destroyed.”
Rashi on Nahum 2:10
Plunder silver! Plunder gold!—You who come upon Nineveh.
And there is no end—There is no count.
to the treasures Heb. לְתְּכוּנָה, to their treasures. [It is called תְּכוּנָה] because the silver and gold placed in the treasury is placed there with a count, as you say (II Kings 12:12): “The counted (הַמְתֻכּן) money.” [following Jonathan]
to sweep out [Nineveh] of all precious vessels Heb. כָּבֹד, an expression of sweeping, as in (below, 3:15) “You shall be swept out (הִתְכַּבְדִי) like the nibbling locust,” an expression of sweeping the house; escovant, to sweep them out of all their precious vessels. And so did Jonathan render it: All precious vessels have ended. כָּבֹד is like זָכוֹר, t…
