BLOG

Nahum, Prophet of Comfort and Justice, final, Nineveh's incurable wound

Nahum 3:16 says,

¹⁶ You [Nineveh] have increased your traders more than the stars of heaven—the creeping locust [yeleq] strips and flies away. ¹⁷ Your guardsmen [minnezawr, “princes”] are like the swarming locust [arbeh], your marshals [tifsar, “military governor, captain”] are like hordes of grasshoppers [hagav] settling in the stone walls on a cold day. The sun rises and they flee. And the place where they are is not known.

Nineveh was famed for its wealth and commerce. Its merchants (“traders”) were numerous, “more than the stars of heaven.” Perhaps the prophet intended to compare them in a negative way to the seed of Abraham (Genesis 22:17; 26:4), as if to say that Nineveh’s rulers were ungodly counterfeits, enriching themselves instead of blessing all nations (Genesis 12:3). Like grasshoppers (hagav), they consume the land. They settle in swarms but quickly flee at heat or disturbance—that is, when judgment comes.

This is the irony: what was supposed to be Nineveh’s glory (her economic power and countless merchants) is fleeting, destructive, and soon gone.

Prince Cockroach

In Nahum 3:17 the prophet refers to the princes and military leaders who are charged with defending the city. Both are likened to locusts (cockroaches?) that swarm, clinging to walls in cold weather, but flee when the sun rises. The Bible has no Hebrew word for cockroaches, even though they were present in Canaan. Perhaps they were included generally in the category of locusts or grasshoppers. Yet because they do not leap, they were unclean (Leviticus 11:41, 42).

This describes disloyalty and cowardice: Nineveh’s officials will vanish when danger comes, abandoning their posts. The “sun rising” may symbolize the moment of God’s judgment — when light exposes them, they scatter. It is a vision of hollow strength: apparent multitudes, but no staying power.

Shepherds Held Accountable

Nahum 3:18 says,

¹⁸ Your shepherds are sleeping, O king of Assyria; your nobles are lying down. Your people are scattered on the mountains and there is no one to regather them.

Shepherds are rulers or leaders, both civil and religious. The “sleep” here likely means death — the leaders are cut down, not merely resting. Alternatively, it can mean negligence or helplessness. Either way, the leadership is gone.

Scattered survivors are seen fleeing into the hills — a sign of complete defeat. The image evokes a flock abandoned by its shepherd, vulnerable to predators. There is “no one to regather them,” in contrast to God’s promise to regather His scattered people. Jeremiah 23:2, 3 says,

² Therefore thus says the Lord God of Israel concerning the shepherds who are tending My people: “You have scattered My flock and driven them away and have not attended to them; behold, I am about to attend to you for the evil of your deeds,” declares the Lord. ³ “Then I Myself will gather the remnant of My flock out of all the countries where I have driven them and bring them back to their pasture, and they will be fruitful and multiply.”

God holds the shepherds accountable for the wellbeing of the sheep. Israelite rulers were responsible for upholding God’s laws and for leading the people in the paths of righteousness. The same held true for the leaders of Assyria, for even though they lacked the revelation of the law of God, they were yet held accountable for it.

Why? Because when Assyria took authority over Israel, they also were given authority over the birthright and its Abrahamic calling. The mantle of responsibility shifted from Israel to Assyria, giving Israel a reprieve but burdening the Assyrians. When the Assyrians failed to bring forth the fruit of the Kingdom, God then judged them and scattered them, as Nahum says. I wrote about this in greater detail in my pocket-size booklet, The Debt Note in Prophecy.

https://godskingdom.org/studies/books/the-debt-note-in-prophecy/

Nahum 3:19 concludes,

¹⁹ There is no relief for your breakdown, your wound is incurable. All who hear about you will clap their hands over you, for on whom has not your evil passed continually?

In prophetic language, “incurable wound” is an irreversible judgment. Referring to Judah, Jeremiah 30:12, 13 says,

¹² For thus says the Lord, “Your wound is incurable and your injury is serious. ¹³ There is no one to plead your cause; no healing for your sore, no recovery for you.”

Judah’s incurable situation had arrived in Jeremiah 7:9-16, when they turned the temple into “a den of robbers” (vs. 11), that is, a haven where thieves think they are safe from the law. Verse 16 then shows us the incurable condition of the nation:

¹⁶ “As for you [Jeremiah], do not pray for this people, and do not lift up cry or prayer for them, and do not intercede with Me, for I do not hear you.”

Such is the case when a nation’s cup of iniquity is full. Centuries later, Judah’s cup of iniquity again reached its fulness when Jesus drove the moneychangers (bankers) out of the temple. Luke 19:45, 46 says,

⁴⁵ Jesus entered the temple and began to drive out those who were selling, ⁴⁶ saying to them, “It is written [in Isaiah 56:7], ‘And My house shall be a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a robbers’ den.”

Jesus was implying that Judah’s sickness was incurable, and for this reason He prophesied the destruction of Jerusalem and its temple in Matthew 24:2 and in Luke 21:20, 24. This occurred, of course, in 70-73 A.D., after Judah’s 40-year grace period ended (Ezekiel 4:6).

In recent centuries, as the end of the age drew near, God consolidated Nineveh and Babylon, as well as Egypt, Sodom, and Jerusalem (Revelation 11:8) into a single end-time enemy in preparation for a final judgment on all of the beast empires (Daniel 7). Hence, Mystery Babylon is afflicted with an incurable disease, and divine judgment is inevitable.

These beast empires have afflicted and oppressed all nations for a very long time. So when judgment strikes, the nations will rejoice and “clap their hands… for on whom has not your evil passed continually?” It is important to note that the nations themselves are not slated for destruction. They have less liability, because their hidden masters have paid them and even forced them to perpetuate their “evil.” The world’s response is universal applause, because Assyria’s fall is seen as justice served.

Haggai 2:7 KJV says,

⁷ And I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come: and I will fill this house with glory, saith the LORD of hosts.

Paul echoes this in Romans 8:19-21,

¹⁹ For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. ²⁰ For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope ²¹ that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God.

The rulers who remain largely hidden are the ones that God will judge. This is why Babylon is now Mystery Babylon. The Greek word musterion means “hidden, secret.” It is a government hidden from public view, ruling through proxies that are supposedly elected by a “democratic” process. In fact, the secret government controls all the major parties and even the entire election process, so that they can present the people with a choice as to which proxy they prefer. That is why it seems that the more we elect candidates of “change,” the more things remain the same.

Conclusion

The book of Nahum is a prophetic oracle of judgment against Nineveh, capital of Assyria. It declares that the God who is slow to anger but great in power will destroy the cruel empire that once terrorized the nations. Through powerful poetry, Nahum portrays Nineveh’s fall as total, irreversible, and even celebrated by the nations she oppressed. For believers, it is a word of comfort: God’s justice will prevail, and the mighty empire that crushed others will itself be crushed by the “stone” kingdom (Daniel 2:34, 35).