Nahum 1:14
in Nahum 1The LORD has issued a command concerning you, O Nineveh: “There will be no descendants to carry on your name. I will cut off the carved image and cast idol from the house of your gods; I will prepare your grave, for you are contemptible.”
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
And Jehovah hath given commandment concerning thee, that no more of thy name be sown: out of the house of thy gods will I cut off the graven image and the molten image; I will make thy grave; for thou art vile.
KJV
And the Lord hath given a commandment concerning thee, that no more of thy name be sown: out of the house of thy gods will I cut off the graven image and the molten image: I will make thy grave; for thou art vile.
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This verse in Nahum 1
Commentary
11 notes on this verseNo more of thy name be sown - No more of you shall be carried away into captivity. I will make thy grave; for thou art vile - I think this is an address to the Assyrians, and especially to Sennacherib. The text is no obscure intimation of the fact. The house of his gods is to be his grave: and we know that while he was worshipping in the house of his god Nisroch, his two sons, Adrammelech and Sharezer, smote him there that he died, 2Ki 19:37.
This site's exposition
no more of thy name be sown
The commandment concerning Nineveh reaches her royal line and her gods together, no more of thy name be sown ending the dynasty's continuance while the graven and molten images are cut out of the temple that housed them. I will make thy grave, for thou art vile denies the city even an honorable end, the disgrace the bench reads as complete rather than partial. Clarke and Barnes both note how literally this was kept, Nineveh's very site lost to memory for centuries until nineteenth century excavation uncovered it again.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers2 voices
(Verse 14) And the Lord will command against you, your name will no longer be sown: I will destroy the carved and cast images from the house of your God: I will make your grave, for you are dishonored. LXX: And the Lord will command against you, your name will no longer be sown: I will destroy the carved and cast images from the house of your God: I will make your grave, for you are swift; behold, on the mountains the feet of the messenger announcing peace. Therefore, I have placed more emphasis on the Septuagint interpreters, because the second περικοπὴ could not be separated from the first one. In what is said, 'because you have been dishonored,' the fifth edition puts 'because you have been insulted.' The Septuagint translates it as 'because you have been swift,' which is read as Chi Calloth in Hebrew. However, unless you refer it to the feet of the lower chapter, the meaning is ambiguous. Therefore, according to my custom, I will first explain the story and then discuss the meaning of the Vulgate edition. He will command, he says, against you, O Assyria, that what you are about to suffer comes not by chance and without any judge, but, with God proclaiming it, you will endure it. No harvest will be sown from your name any longer: for as soon as Sennacherib returned to Nineveh, he was killed by his own sons. Read Isaiah, and he was killed in the house of his own god which he had entered to worship. For this is what he says, I will destroy your god's house where you had entered to worship (Isa. XXXVII): you will be punished from where you hoped for help. Your tomb will be sculpted and crafted, so that wicked blood may be shed among the altars and cushions of idol worshipers. […]
The prophet Nahum (or, better, God speaking through him) says, "I will destroy the graven and molten thing; I will make it your grave. Behold upon the mountains the feet of him that brings peace. O Judah, keep your festivals and pay your vows, for it shall no longer be that they may pass into disuse. It is completed, it is consumed, it is taken away. He is come up that breathes into your face and rescues you from tribulation." Anyone who knows the Gospels will recognize who it was that came up from hell and breathed the Holy Spirit into the face of Judah, that is, into the face of his Jewish disciples. The words about the festivals are, of course, a reference to the New Testament, in which festivals are so spiritually renewed that they can never "pass into disuse." The rest of the prophecy too we see realized in that the gospel brought about the destruction of "graven and molten things," that is, the idols of the false gods, consigned now to the oblivion of the grave.
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
Thee - Thee, Sennacherib, and the whole kingdom of Assyria. Be sown - None shall bear thy name, and title; but thy kingdom shall be swallowed up.
And the Lord hath given a commandment concerning thee,....
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, making his wrath very terrible and his favour very desirable.
4 more voices on this verse
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
This was a figure of the great salvation, by which the Jerusalem that is above is made free, is made free indeed. The enemy shall be so weakened and dispirited that they shall never make any such attempt again, and the end of this trouble shall be so well gained by the grace of God that there shall be no more occasion for such a severe correction.
The Nineteenth Century3 voices
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
In the height of their pride and power, they shall be clean cut off. The same Hebrew stands for "likewise" and "yet thus." So many as they are, so many shall they perish. when he shall pass through--or, "and he shall pass away," namely, "the wicked counsellor" (Na 1:11), Sennacherib. The change of number to the singular distinguishes him from his host.
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
The Assyrian palaces partook of a sacred character [LAYARD]; so that "house of thy gods" may refer to the palace. At Khorsabad there is remaining a representation of a man cutting an idol to pieces. I will make thy grave--rather, "I will make it (namely, 'the house of thy gods,' that is, 'Nisroch') thy grave" (2Ki 19:37;
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
And the Lord hath given a commandment concerning thee, O Assyrian - In the word “I have afflicted thee,” the land of Israel is addressed, as usual in Hebrew, in the feminine; here, a change of gender in Hebrew shows the person addressed to be different. : “By His command alone, and the word of His power, He cut off the race of the Assyrian, as he says in Wisdom, of Egypt, “Thine Almighty word leaped down from heaven, out of Thy royal throne; as a fierce man of war into the midst of a land of destruction, and brought Thine unfeigned commandment as a sharp sword, and standing up filled all things with death,” (Wisd. 18:15, 16), or else it may be, He gave command to the Angels His Ministers. God commands beforehand, that, when it comes to pass, it may be known “that not by chance,” nor by the will of man, “nor without His judgment but by the sentence of God” the blow came. No move of thy name be sown - As Isaiah saith, “the seed of evildoers shall never be renowned” Isa 14:20. He prophesies, not the immediate but the absolute cessation of the Assyrian line. If the prophecy was uttered at the time of Sennacherib’s invasion, seventeen years before his death, not Esarhaddon only, but his son Asshurbanipal also, whose career of personal conquest, the last glory of the house of the Sargonides and of the empire, began immediately upon his father’s reign of thirteen years, was probably already born. Asshurbanipal in this case would only have been thirty-one, at the beginning of his energetic reign, and would have died in his fifty-second year. After him followed only an inglorious twenty-two years. The prophet says, “the Lord hath commanded.” The decree as to Ahab’s house was fulfilled in the person of his second son, as to Jeroboam and Baasha in their sons. […]
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
And the Lord shall command concerning you —Now the king of Assyria is being addressed.
1 more on this passage, in their own words ▾
And now I will break off his yoke from you —The Shechinah says this to the prophet, who is of Israel: I will break off the yoke of Assyria from you and from My people.
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 4 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.
The words behind it
16 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| וְצִוָּ֤ה | vetzivah | and he has commanded | H6680 → | |
| עָלֶ֙יךָ֙ | ʾaleikha | on you | H5921 → | 5755 times |
| יְהוָ֔ה | yahweh | Yahweh | H3068 → | 6520 times |
| לֹֽא־ | lo'- | not | H3808 → | 5168 times |
| יִזָּרַ֥ע | yizara' | it will be sown | H2232 → | |
| מִשִּׁמְךָ֖ | mishimkha | from name your | H8034 → | |
| ע֑וֹד | od | again | H5750 → | 490 times |
| מִבֵּ֨ית | mibeit | from [the] house of | H1004 → | |
| אֱלֹהֶ֜יךָ | ʾeloheikha | gods your | H430 → | |
| אַכְרִ֨ית | ʾakhrit | I will cut off | H3772 → | 288 times |
| פֶּ֧סֶל | pesel | idol | H6459 → | |
| וּמַסֵּכָ֛ה | umasekhah | and molten image | H4541 → | |
| אָשִׂ֥ים | ʾasim | I will make | H7760 → | |
| קִבְרֶ֖ךָ | kivrecha | grave your | H6913 → | |
| כִּ֥י | ki | for | H3588 → | 4482 times |
| קַלּֽוֹתָ׃ פ | kalota | you are insignificant | H7043 → |
וְצִוָּ֤הand he has commanded
vetzivahH6680 →
עָלֶ֙יךָ֙on you
ʾaleikhaH5921 →5755 times
יְהוָ֔הYahweh
yahwehH3068 →6520 times
לֹֽא־not
lo'-H3808 →5168 times
יִזָּרַ֥עit will be sown
yizara'H2232 →
מִשִּׁמְךָ֖from name your
mishimkhaH8034 →
ע֑וֹדagain
odH5750 →490 times
מִבֵּ֨יתfrom [the] house of
mibeitH1004 →
אֱלֹהֶ֜יךָgods your
ʾeloheikhaH430 →
אַכְרִ֨יתI will cut off
ʾakhritH3772 →288 times
פֶּ֧סֶלidol
peselH6459 →
וּמַסֵּכָ֛הand molten image
umasekhahH4541 →
אָשִׂ֥יםI will make
ʾasimH7760 →
קִבְרֶ֖ךָgrave your
kivrechaH6913 →
כִּ֥יfor
kiH3588 →4482 times
קַלּֽוֹתָ׃ פyou are insignificant
kalotaH7043 →
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Proverbs 10:7The memory of the righteous is a blessing, but the name of the wicked will rot.
it leads to
- Psalms 112:6
Surely he will never be shaken; the righteous man will be remembered forever.
- Luke 1:48
For He has looked with favor on the humble state of His servant. From now on all generations will call me blessed.
- Mark 14:9
And truly I tell you, wherever the gospel is preached in all the world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her.”
- Psalms 109:13
May his descendants be cut off; may their name be blotted out from the next generation.
- 2 Chronicles 24:16
And Jehoiada was buried with the kings in the City of David, because he had done what was good in Israel for God and His temple.
- Psalms 112:6
Through
Psalms 109:13May his descendants be cut off; may their name be blotted out from the next generation.
it leads to
- Proverbs 10:7
The memory of the righteous is a blessing, but the name of the wicked will rot.
- Psalms 37:28
For the LORD loves justice and will not forsake His saints. They are preserved forever, but the offspring of the wicked will be cut off.
- Job 18:19
He has no offspring or posterity among his people, no survivor where he once lived.
- Proverbs 10:7
Where this verse is studied
About Nahum
Who and where
1 name in this verse with a page on the site.
This page draws on 9 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Augustine of Hippo, City of God 18.31; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Commentary on Nahum; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.