Yahweh has commanded concerning you: “No more descendants will bear your name. Out of the house of your gods, will I cut off the engraved image and the molten image. I will make your grave, for you are vile.”
Parallel translations
- 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.
- BSB The 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.”
- ESV The LORD has given commandment about you: “No more shall your name be perpetuated; from the house of your gods I will cut off the carved image and the metal image. I will make your grave, for you are vile.”
- NKJV The Lord has given a command concerning you: “Your name shall be perpetuated no longer. Out of the house of your gods I will cut off the carved image and the molded image. I will dig your grave, For you are vile.”
- NASB ¶The Lord has issued a command concerning you: “Your name will no longer be perpetuated. I will eliminate the carved image and the cast metal image From the house of your gods. I will prepare your grave, For you are contemptible.”
- NLT And this is what the Lord says concerning the Assyrians in Nineveh: “You will have no more children to carry on your name. I will destroy all the idols in the temples of your gods. I am preparing a grave for you because you are despicable!”
Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
God decrees that Nineveh will have no descendants, its idols will be cut off, and its grave prepared because it is vile. The empire and its false gods are doomed.
Overview
The end of one's name and line was a profound disgrace in the ancient world, signaling total extinction. Destroying the idols exposes the impotence of Assyria's gods before the living Lord. God's verdict that the city is 'vile' and bound for the grave underscores that all idolatry and wickedness end in judgment, while only the Lord endures.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 17
- Ps 109:13Let his posterity be cut off. In the generation following let their name be blotted out.
- Mic 5:13I will cut off your engraved images and your pillars out from among you; and you shall no more worship the work of your hands.
- Prov 10:7The memory of the righteous is blessed, but the name of the wicked will rot.
- Isa 46:1–2Bel bows down. Nebo stoops. Their idols are carried by animals, and on the livestock. The things that you carried around are heavy loads, a burden for the weary.
- Ezek 32:22–23Asshur is there and all her company; her graves are all around her; all of them slain, fallen by the sword;
- 2 Kgs 19:37As he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, Adrammelech and Sharezer struck him with the sword; and they escaped into the land of Ararat. Esar Haddon his son reigned in his place.
- Ps 71:3Be to me a rock of refuge to which I may always go. Give the command to save me, for you are my rock and my fortress.
- Isa 33:13Hear, you who are far off, what I have done; and, you who are near, acknowledge my might.”
- Nah 3:4–6because of the multitude of the prostitution of the alluring prostitute, the mistress of witchcraft, who sells nations through her prostitution, and families through her witchcraft.
- 2 Chr 32:21Yahweh sent an angel, who cut off all the mighty men of valor, and the leaders and captains, in the camp of the king of Assyria. So he returned with shame of face to his own land. When he had come into the house of his god, those who came out of his own bowels killed him there with the sword.
- Jer 50:2“Declare among the nations and publish, and set up a standard; publish, and don’t conceal: say, ‘Babylon has been taken, Bel is disappointed, Merodach is dismayed! Her images are disappointed. Her idols are dismayed.’
- Dan 11:21In his place shall stand up a contemptible person, to whom they had not given the honor of the kingdom: but he shall come in time of security, and shall obtain the kingdom by flatteries.
- Isa 19:1The burden of Egypt: “Behold, Yahweh rides on a swift cloud, and comes to Egypt. The idols of Egypt will tremble at his presence; and the heart of Egypt will melt within it.
- Isa 14:20–22You will not join them in burial, because you have destroyed your land. You have killed your people. The offspring of evildoers will not be named forever.
- Exod 12:12For I will go through the land of Egypt in that night, and will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and animal. Against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am Yahweh.
- Lev 26:30I will destroy your high places, and cut down your incense altars, and cast your dead bodies upon the bodies of your idols; and my soul will abhor you.
- 1 Sam 3:13For I have told him that I will judge his house forever, for the iniquity which he knew, because his sons brought a curse on themselves, and he didn’t restrain them.
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Christ at the center
The certain judgment on Nineveh and the comfort that 'the LORD is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble' point to Christ, who is both the refuge of his people and the judge of their enemies.
How Nahum 1:14 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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