Nahum 2:11 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Nahum 2:11
Where is the dwelling of the lions, and the feedingplace of the young lions, where the lion, even the old lion, walked, and the lion’s whelp, and none made them afraid?
an abode · noun, common masculine singular construct
lions
אֲרָי֔וֹת'a.ra.Yot
H738
a lion · noun, common feminine plural absolute
feedingplace
וּמִרְעֶ֥הu.mir.'Eh
H4829
pasture (the place or the act) · conjunction + noun, common masculine singular absolute
lions
לַכְּפִרִ֑יםla.ke.fi.Rim
H3715
a village (as covered in by walls) · preposition with the article + noun, common masculine plural absolute
lion
אַרְיֵ֨ה'ar.Yeh
H738
a lion · noun, common masculine singular absolute
lion
לָבִ֥יאla.Vi'
H3833
to roar · noun, common masculine singular absolute
walked
הָלַךְ֩ha.laKh
H1980
to walk (in a great variety of applications · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
lion’s
אַרְיֵ֖ה'ar.Yeh
H738
a lion · noun, common masculine singular absolute
whelp
גּ֥וּרgur
H1482
a cub (as still abiding in the lair) · noun, common masculine singular construct
afraid
מַחֲרִֽידma.cha.Rid
H2729
to shudder with terror · verb, hiphil active participle, 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
Isaiah 5:29 Their roaring shall be like a lion, they shall roar like young lions: yea, they shall roar, and lay hold of the prey, and shall carry it awa…
Jeremiah 2:15 The young lions roared upon him, and yelled, and they made his land waste: his cities are burned without inhabitant.
Genesis 49:9 Judah is a lion’s whelp: from the prey, my son, thou art gone up: he stooped down, he couched as a lion, and as an old lion; who shall rouse…
Job 4:10-11 The roaring of the lion, and the voice of the fierce lion, and the teeth of the young lions, are broken.
Isaiah 31:4 For thus hath the LORD spoken unto me, Like as the lion and the young lion roaring on his prey, when a multitude of shepherds is called fort…
Jeremiah 4:7 The lion is come up from his thicket, and the destroyer of the Gentiles is on his way; he is gone forth from his place to make thy land deso…
Jeremiah 50:17 Israel is a scattered sheep; the lions have driven him away: first the king of Assyria hath devoured him; and last this Nebuchadrezzar king…
Jeremiah 50:44 Behold, he shall come up like a lion from the swelling of Jordan unto the habitation of the strong: but I will make them suddenly run away f…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Nahum 2:11–end
Here we have Nineveh's ruin, 1. Triumphed in by its neighbours, who now remember against it all the oppressions and abuse of power it had been guilty of in its pomp and prosperity (Nah 2:11, Nah 2:12): Where is the dwelling of the lions? It is gone; there appear no remnants, no footsteps, of it. Where is the feeding place of the young lions, where they glutted themselves with prey? The princes of Nineveh had been as lions, as beasts of prey; cruel tyrants are no better, nay, in this respect much worse - that, being men, humanity is expected from them; nay, if they were indeed lions, they would not prey upon those of their own kind. Savis inter se convenit ursae - Fierce bears agree together.…
dwelling of . . . lions--Nineveh, the seat of empire of the rapacious and destructive warriors of various ranks, typified by the "lions," "young lions," "old lion" (or lioness [MAURER]), "the lion's whelp." The image is peculiarly appropriate, as lions of every form, winged, and sometimes with the head of a man, are frequent in the Assyrian sepulchres. It was as full of spoils of all nations as a lion's den is of remains of its prey. The question, "Where," &c., implies that Jehovah "would make an utter end of the place," so that its very site could not be found (Nah 1:8). It is a question expressing wonder, so incredible did it then seem.
Adam Clarke on Nahum 2:11
Where is the dwelling of the lions - Nineveh, the habitation of bold, strong, and ferocious men.
The feeding place of the young lions - Whither her victorious and rapacious generals frequently returned to consume the produce of their success. Here they walked at large, and none made them afraid. Wheresoever they turned their arms they were victors; and all nations were afraid of them.
John Gill on Nahum 2:11
Where is the dwelling of the lions?.... Of the kings of Assyria, comparable to lions for their strength, courage, and cruelty, tyranny, and oppression; such as Pul, Tiglathpileser, Shalmaneser, and Sennacherib. So the Targum,
"where are the habitations of kings?''
these are the words, either of the prophet, or of the people that had seen this city in its glory, and now see it in its ruins; and so desolate and waste, as that it could scarcely be said where it once stood:
and the feedingplace of the young lions? the sons of the kings of Assyria, the princes of the blood, and who were of the same blood, temper, and disposition of their ancestors, and were born, brought up, and educated, in N…
The Church Fathers
(Verse 11) Where is the den of the lions, and the feeding ground of the lion cubs, to which the lion went to enter there with its lion cub, and there is no one to drive them away? The lion has taken enough for its cubs, and has killed for its lionesses; and it has filled its dens with prey and its lair with the spoils. Concerning dens and lionesses, seventy are carried off in translation, and the same meaning holds for the rest. However, it is still said about Nineveh: that it was the dwelling place of kings and the court of nobles; to which the Babylonian lion king, that is, Nebuchadnezzar, went, along with his lion cub, his sub-rulers, and there was no one to resist them. The lion captured its own cubs sufficiently, and killed its own lionesses. Likewise, Nabuchodonosor rightfully possessed all the spoils of victory, and he delivered the captured captives into slavery to his free cities or certainly to his wives, and he filled his caves with booty, or as it is said in Hebrew, his pits, and his den with plunder, fully enriching it with treasures, cities, gold, silver, clothes, and all kinds of ornaments, so that he would possess what he had in Nineveh, and conquered Babylon. But according to the ἀναγωγή (i.e., interpretation), both in Jonah and in this Prophet, we have interpreted the world as Nineveh; and according to John: The whole world is set in the evil one (1 John 5:18); after the world has passed through the dwelling place of beasts, and in which lions were fed, then amazed and rejoicing we will say: Where is the dwelling place of the lions that the devil went to, about which Peter speaks: Your adversary (or our adversary) the devil is like a roaring lion, prowling around, seeking whom he may devour (1 Peter 5:8). And the lion's cub, the Antichrist, and all perverse teachings, a contrary word. You have heard, says John, the Antichrist will come: but now there are many Antichrists (I John 2): for as many false doctrines as there are, there are as many Antichrists. And before the coming of Christ there was no one who expelled; but after our Lord came and entered Nineveh, he saw Satan falling from heaven like lightning (Luke 10): and Lucifer, who rose in the morning, fell from heaven (Isaiah 14). For the true Samson came to the Philistines; and while he was going to Thamna, which means his consummation, to take as his wife the poor girl from the…
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
Lions — The most powerful of all carnivorous animals. Although not now found in Palestine, they must have been in ancient times very numerous there. They had their lairs in the forests (Jer. 5:6; 12:8; Amos…
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…
Lion, The · Described as: Fearless even of man — Described as: Fearless even of man
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 2:11-12
11. Where is the dwelling of the lions, and the feeding-place of the young lions, where the lion, even the old lion, walked, and the lion's whelp, and none made them afraid?
11. Ubi domicilium leonum, et locus pascui leonibus, quo veniebant leo, leo, catulus leonis, et nemo exterrens?
12. The lion did tear in pieces enough for his whelps, and strangled for his lionesses, and filled his holes with prey, and his dens with ravin.
12. Leo rapiebat quantum sufficeret catulis suis, et strangulabat leanis suis, et replebat repina speluncas suas et lustra sua praeda.
Here the Prophet triumphs over the Assyrians, because they thought that the city Nineveh was remote from every dang…
Thus will the mighty city be destroyed, with its men of war and booty. Nah 2:11. "Where is the dwelling of the lions and the feeding-place of the young lions, where the lion walked, the lioness, the lion's whelp, and no one frightened? Nah 2:12. The lion robbing for the need of his young ones, and strangling for his lionesses, and he filled his dens with prey, and his dwelling-places with spoil. Nah 2:13. Behold, O come to thee, is the saying of Jehovah of hosts, and I cause her chariots to turn in smoke, and thy young lions the sword devours; and I cut off thy prey from the earth, and the voice of thy messengers shall be heard no more." The prophet, beholding the destruction in spirit as ha…
Following the description of Nineveh’s fall (2:1-10), Nahum inserts the first of three taunt songs (see also 3:8-13, 14-19; this was a common form in the ancient Near East). In biting satire, he compares Nineveh to a lion’s den. King Sennacherib and other Assyrian kings had compared themselves to lions, even decorating their palaces with artistic representations of lions and of themselves on lion hunts. However, with God as its enemy, Nineveh would no longer be the lair of an invincible predator.
Rashi on Nahum 2:11
Empty Heb. בּוּקָה.
yea, emptied out Heb. וּמְבוּקָה, and emptied out through emptiers.
and breached Heb. וּמְבֻלָּקָה, breached in its walls: espartide in O.F.
the knees stumble Heb. וּפִק, the stumbling of the knees, as, in (I Sam. 25:31) “As a stumbling block and a remorse.”
have gathered blackness Heb. פָארוּר, blackness like a pot.
