Nahum 1:8
in Nahum 1But with an overwhelming flood He will make an end of Nineveh and pursue His enemies into darkness.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
But with an over-running flood he will make a full end of her place, and will pursue his enemies into darkness.
KJV
But with an overrunning flood he will make an utter end of the place thereof, and darkness shall pursue his enemies.
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This verse in Nahum 1
Commentary
9 notes on this verse(Verse 8.) And in the passing flood, he will bring about its destruction, and darkness will pursue his enemies. LXX: And in the passing flood, he will bring about its destruction: those who rise up against him and his enemies will be pursued by darkness.
This site's exposition
The Lord is good
on Nahum 1:7-8
The couplet turns the same storm two directions at once, a strong hold for them that trust him and an overrunning flood for everyone else, the one Lord acting as shelter and as judgment in consecutive verses. The bench notes the flood language as an early hint of how Nineveh actually fell, since the historical accounts behind chapter 2 record the river itself breaching the city's defenses. He knoweth them that trust in him is the verse Judah is meant to hold onto through everything the chapter says next about her enemy.
The record, by era
The Puritans and the Awakening4 voices
A particular application of this (as most interpreters think) to the destruction of Sennacherib and the Assyrian army, when they besieged Jerusalem, which was a very memorable and illustrious instance of the power both of God's justice and of his mercy, and spoke abundance of terror to his enemies and encouragement to his faithful servants,
An over-running flood - His judgments like a mighty flood that overflows all banks, shall swallow up Assyria. Thereof - Of Nineveh, that is Nineveh itself.
But with an overrunning flood he will make an utter end of the place thereof,....
God's judgments, when they come with commission, are like a deluge to any people, which they cannot keep off nor make head against. Darkness shall pursue his enemies; terror and trouble shall follow them, whithersoever they go, shall pursue them to utter darkness; if they think to flee from the darkness which pursues them they will but fall into that which is before them.
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
But with an overrunning flood - Bishop Newcome thinks this may refer to the manner in which Nineveh was taken. The Euphrates overflowed its banks, deluged a part of the city, and overturned twenty stadia of the wall; in consequence of which the desponding king burnt himself, and his palace, with his treasures. - Diodor. Sic., Edit. Wessel., p. 140, lib. ii., s. 27. Darkness shall pursue - Calamity. All kinds of calamity shall pursue them till they are destroyed.
2 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
11:10, 22, 40). end of the place thereof--Nineveh is personified as a queen; and "her place" of residence (the Hebrew for "thereof" is feminine) is the city itself (Na 2:8), [MAURER].
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
But with an overrunning flood He will make an utter end of the place thereof - that is, of Nineveh, although not as yet named, except in the title of the prophecy, yet present to the prophet’s mind and his hearers, and that the more solemnly, as being the object of the wrath of God, so that, although unnamed, it would be known so to be. Image and reality, the first destruction and the last which it pictures, meet in the same words. Nineveh itself was overthrown through the swelling of the rivers which flowed around it and seemed to be its defense (see the note at Nah 2:6). Then also, the flood is the tide of the armies, gathered from all quarters, Babylonians , Medes, Persians, Arabians, Bactrians, which like a flood should sweep over Nineveh and leave nothing standing. It is also the flood of the wrath of God, in whose Hands they were and who, by them, should “make a full end of it,” literally, “make the place thereof a thing consumed,” a thing which has ceased to be. For a while, some ruins existed, whose name and history ceased to be known; soon after, the ruins themselves were effaced and buried . Such was the close of a city, almost coeval with the flood, which had now stood almost as many years as have passed since Christ came, but which now defied God. Marvelous image of the evil world itself, which shall flee away from the face of Him who sat on the throne, “and there was found no place for it” Rev 20:11. And darkness shall pursue His enemies - Better, “He shall pursue His enemies into darkness” Darkness is, in the Old Testament, the condition, or state in which a person is, or lives; it is not an agent, which pursues. Isaiah speaks of the “inhabitants of darkness” Isa 42:7, “entering unto darkness” Isa 47:5; “those who are in darkness” Isa 49:9. “The grave is all darkness” Psa 88:12; Job 17:13, “darkness, and the shadow of death” Job 10:21. […]
The words behind it
8 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| וּבְשֶׁ֣טֶף | uveshetef | and with a flood | H7858 → | |
| עֹבֵ֔ר | ʾover | [which] passes over | H5674 → | 556 times |
| כָּלָ֖ה | kalah | complete destruction | H3617 → | |
| יַעֲשֶׂ֣ה | yaaseh | he will make | H6213 → | |
| מְקוֹמָ֑הּ | mekomah | place its | H4725 → | |
| וְאֹיְבָ֖יו | veoyevav | and enemies his | H341 → | 282 times |
| יְרַדֶּף־ | yeradef- | he will pursue | H7291 → | |
| חֹֽשֶׁךְ׃ | choshekh | darkness | H2822 → |
וּבְשֶׁ֣טֶףand with a flood
uveshetefH7858 →
עֹבֵ֔ר[which] passes over
ʾoverH5674 →556 times
כָּלָ֖הcomplete destruction
kalahH3617 →
יַעֲשֶׂ֣הhe will make
yaasehH6213 →
מְקוֹמָ֑הּplace its
mekomahH4725 →
וְאֹיְבָ֖יוand enemies his
veoyevavH341 →282 times
יְרַדֶּף־he will pursue
yeradef-H7291 →
חֹֽשֶׁךְ׃darkness
choshekhH2822 →
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
Ezekiel 13:13Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: In My wrath I will release a windstorm, and in My anger torrents of rain and hail will fall with destructive fury.
it leads to
- Revelation 16:21
And great hailstones weighing almost a hundred pounds each rained down on them from above. And men cursed God for the plague of hail, because it was so horrendous.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Revelation 11:19
Then the temple of God in heaven was opened, and the ark of His covenant appeared in His temple. And there were flashes of lightning, and rumblings, and peals of thunder, and an earthquake,…
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Isaiah 30:30
And the LORD will cause His majestic voice to be heard and His mighty arm to be revealed, striking in angry wrath with a flame of consuming fire, and with cloudburst, storm, and hailstones.
- Psalms 148:8
lightning and hail, snow and clouds, powerful wind fulfilling His word,
- Revelation 16:21
Through
Isaiah 8:22Then they will look to the earth and see only distress and darkness and the gloom of anguish. And they will be driven into utter darkness.
it leads to
- Isaiah 5:30
In that day they will roar over it, like the roaring of the sea. If one looks over the land, he will see darkness and distress; even the light will be obscured by clouds.
- Matthew 8:12
But the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
- Isaiah 5:30
Through
Isaiah 28:17I will make justice the measuring line and righteousness the level. Hail will sweep away your refuge of lies, and water will flood your hiding place.
it leads to
- 2 Kings 21:13
I will stretch out over Jerusalem the measuring line used against Samaria and the plumb line used against the house of Ahab, and I will wipe out Jerusalem as one wipes out a bowl—wiping…
- 2 Kings 21:13
Through
Job 30:15Terrors are turned loose against me; they drive away my dignity as by the wind, and my prosperity has passed like a cloud.
it leads to
- Hosea 13:3
Therefore they will be like the morning mist, like the early dew that vanishes, like chaff blown from a threshing floor, like smoke through an open window.
- Hosea 13:3
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); Edward Bouverie Pusey, The Minor Prophets: A Commentary; 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.