God’s Word for You

Nahum 1:8 An utter end

by Pastor Timothy Smith on Wednesday, May 6, 2026

8 But with an overwhelming flood
he will make an utter end of the place,
and will drive his enemies into darkness.

What was this “overwhelming flood”? If we were ignorant and completely in the dark about Nineveh’s fall, we might speculate the way historians often do about prophetic words like this, by thinking:

1, Perhaps this would be a “flood” of armies, sweeping all around the city and breaching the walls after a long siege.

2, Or perhaps this could be a “flood” of disease, such as a plague, that would go through every street, every alley, and every house in Nineveh until the people had all died.

3, Or perhaps this might be a “flood” of smaller creatures, such as a locust plague, swarming into the city and causing destruction and famine that would lead to the deaths of many people.

Why would we say such things? We would probably do this because it would be unlikely for the city to actually be “flooded” by water. The ancient city was on the east back of the Tigris, and a smaller river, the Khoser, ran from the east through the city and out again (past the Quay Gate) and then into the Tigris, less than one mile, or twenty city blocks, to the west. All of that could hardly rise up to flood the city.

But there is something to upset all of this speculation. The city of Nineveh was in fact destroyed by an enemy using a flood of water from the Tigris to breach the walls and to kill many of the people who lived there. Beginning in June, 612 BC, an army of Medes and Babylonians laid siege to Nineveh, and by August they had diverted the Tigris so that it surrounded and then flooded the city. The king of Nineveh, Saracus (Sin-shar-ishkun) was killed in the fighting. So we see that human knowledge and speculation often fall down on their faces before the true facts, in this case a prophecy made beforehand, about how Nineveh, a city in a desert, was going to be destroyed by water.

So, as Nahum foresaw, “With an overwhelming flood, God will make an utter end of the place.” In Hebrew, the word maqom usually means a place or location: “Let the water be gathered to one place” (Genesis 1:9), “slaughter it at the place where the burnt offering is made” (Leviticus 4:24). In many cases, it stands as a synonym for an inhabited place such as a city or a town (Genesis 18:24) or even a campsite (Deuteronomy 1:33). And do not forget Mordecai’s prophecy: “relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place” (Esther 4:14). So here, the prophecy is about Nineveh as that “place” that was going to be destroyed, the very city that the Assyrians were so proud of, and held to be their impregnable fortress.

The prophet continues: “He will drive his enemies into darkness.” In the bright shining sun of the desert in modern Iraq (Nineveh is across the Tigris from modern-day Mosul, the capital of Iraq) what could the prophet mean by “darkness”? I agree with Luther here, who points out that in Scripture, “light” signifies good fortune, success, and the many blessings of God. The prophet says, “The light of the righteous rejoices, but the lamp of the wicked will be put out” (Proverbs 13:9). Now, sometimes the ancient Jews used to use “darkness” as a name for death or the grave: “A dead body cast out into darkness” (Epistle of Jeremiah 1:71), or as a synonym for ignorance: “the fool walks in darkness” (Ecclesiastes 2:14). None of these seem to fit our context here in Nahum very well. But another way of using “darkness” is when one man is saved, and “another went down into darkness” (Tobit 14:10). So the sense would be just like that of Psalm 1:6, “The Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.” Darkness, in other words, can be a term for more than physical death or ignorance, but a word for hell and punishment.

Now, speaking dogmatically, the form of hell, or the way that hell will be for the damned, is first of all internal (spiritual and mental anguish), second of all physical (to torment body as well as spirit), with the Bible using such words as (and note that none of these end anyone’s existence, but the punishments are eternal): “perishing” (Acts 8:20; Philippians 1:28), “death” (James 5:20), and “destruction” (Matthew 10:28). There will be “shame and everlasting contempt” (Daniel 12:2).

Let’s take the time to listen to one of the great preachers of the past. Cyril of Alexandria (died in 444 AD) said, “Alas! Alas! What sort of appearance that place has where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth, which they call hell and which terrifies the devil himself! Woe! Woe! Though it burns, it does not give light! …. An inaccessible chasm and immense chaos, limitless! One cannot withdraw by running away because one is locked up. He cannot prepare an exit because he is confined. The protecting wall is impregnable, an inhuman penitentiary, a dark prison, chains that cannot be loosed. No force can break the bonds…. Those lashes used for torture are heavy, the nails strong and unbreakable, the whips very hard, the pitch murky and gurgling, the brimstone stinking, the cells dark, the pyres always burning, the worm foul and smelly, the guard harsh.”

The chief punishment of hell is separation from God’s love and from Christ. “The wicked man will not dwell near you” (Psalm 5:5). Jesus said/will say, “Depart from me into the fire” (Matthew 25:41). And since “God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all” (1 John 1:5), it follows theologically and exegetically that hell will be primarily a place of darkness, sometimes a dimness where vision is just possible, “a place of shadow and disorder” (Job 10:22), and other times a place of deep darkness where nothing can be made out at all, “for all of them, deep darkness is their morning; they make friends with the terrors of darkness” (Job 24:17; Jeremiah 13:16). Therefore, “He will drive his enemies into darkness” is really a clear and direct way of saying “he will send his enemies to hell” without mincing any words. They will be separated first and foremost from God’s love and from Christ on account of their sins. Then, as an added punishment (or privation), they will also be separated from the holy angels, even those that watched over them in life. “Wherever the grace of God has no place, there is no place for the gracious presence of the angels” (Luther), and “Just as smoke drives away bees and a stench drives away doves, so the much-lamented and stinking sin drives away the angels” (Basil). And the condemned will be separated from the saved of mankind, even their closest family and those who loved them in life, for there will be no comfort for them at all.

But let’s think about our own place in eternity. “I have hope. Because of the LORD’s mercy we are not consumed. His compassions do not fail, they are new every morning” (Lamentations 3:21-22). We await the time when our flesh will be no more, we will be buried in the good earth and yet among all of the rottenness of the fallen world’s uncleanness, and then we will arise, coming out of our resting places gloriously, new, holy, pure, remade, and complete in a new and eternal life. It will be a life of light, of sweet smells, beautiful sights, delightful tastes, and not so much as a single thorn or hangnail, not ever. We will have, to paraphrase some of Paul’s words to Philemon, “all that good that is ours in Christ, with much joy and comfort… love, and the hearts of the saints will be refreshed” (Philemon 1:6-7). A place with Christ forever, just as he has promised (John 14:1-2)! This is what is in store for us. Put your trust in him.

In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith

 

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