God’s Word for You
Nahum 2:2 The Lord will restore
by Pastor Timothy Smith on Tuesday, May 12, 2026
2 The LORD will restore the majesty of Jacob
like the majesty of Israel,
though destroyers have destroyed them
and have ruined their vines.
Some translations like the King James mistake “restore” for “turn away” in the first clause. This is the verb shuv in the first conjugation (the qal), where it most often means to “turn, turn back.” “At Gilgal Ehud turned back…” (Judges 3:19), or “David’s men turned around and went back” (1 Samuel 25:12). Here, the Lord turns the majesty of Jacob and Israel back to what it once was; he restores what was lost.
In what way was the majesty of Jacob and Israel lost? First, we must notice that by “Jacob” and “Israel,” Nahum is talking about the entire nation of the Hebrews. He does not say “Judah” so as to include all of the people from the northern kingdom who were deported by the Assyrians: “The people of Israel were taken from their homeland into exile in Assyria, and they are still there” (2 Kings 17:23). God never gave up on those people from the north; they were always on his mind. Even as late in the Old Testament as the prophecy of Malachi, they were on the mind and lips of the Lord: “I, the Lord, do not change. So you, O descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed” (Malachi 3:6).
The “majesty” or glory of Israel and Jacob are “the pomp, splendor, and greatness or elegance of the kingdom. This is also shown in Exodus 15:1, where we have the same word in Hebrew, ‘For he has triumphed gloriously,’ or ‘He has done proudly.’ You see” (says Luther), “the prophet is mindful of the boast of the Assyrian with which they had taunted others as they triumphed over them. Now he directs that taunt against their own jugular veins and says, ‘Now finally you will cease taunting Judah.’”
In the second part of the verse, Nahum says, “destroyers have destroyed them and have ruined their vines.” This is a way of saying that the Assyrians have tried to ruin Judah’s resources so that they would have no way to recover. When Joel cried out to the Lord, he complained, “A nation has invaded my land, powerful and without number; it has the teeth of a lion, the fangs of a lioness. It has laid waste my vines and ruined my fig trees. It has stripped off their bark and thrown it away, leaving their branches white” (Joel 1:6-7). Joel’s complaint was this: to take some of the crops in the fields and some of the sheep and goats in the flocks was usual for an invading army, but the enemy they faced was taking everything. In ancient times, we would not be exaggerating if we said that this was something that everyone did when they were on the march. But to ruin vines and trees, to strip them so that they would never bear fruit again—this was unthinkable. It was an act of sheer hatred. An army that was truly conquering a place would need to leave the supply of local foods, scant as they might be, growing and intact. But the Assyrians were cruel, meaning to wipe out Israel completely. Therefore, the Lord says, this is what would happen to them.
But in truth, the Lord had compassion on the land of Assyria, because he cares about his creation, considering even the trees to be singing his praises (Isaiah 44:23), and telling Jonah that he was concerned about Nineveh’s animals (Jonah 4:11). So while the destruction coming would wipe out the Assyrians, it would not wipe out all of their resources and animals. What was once Assyria would become Babylon, and then Persia, and then (today) Iraq, nations famed for their wealth.
This verse proclaims the Law to God’s enemies by threatening the punishments of destruction and ruin on all who reject him, and this verse proclaims the Gospel with the marvelous word “restore.” God will restore, bring his people back, return his beloved people back to the status that mankind had before the Fall into Sin. In what way is this done? Through the righteousness which justifies us before God’s sight, the righteousness which is through faith and which trusts in Christ for all of his merits. For “no one can be justified before God by their own merits or works, but are freely justified for Christ’s sake through faith when they believe that they are received into favor and that their sins are forgiven on account of Christ, who by his death made satisfaction for our sins. This faith God imputes for righteousness in his sight” (Augsburg Confession, IV:1-3). For “when a man works, his wages are not credited to him as a gift, but as an obligation. However, to the man who does not work but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness” (Romans 4:4-5).
We believe that we are not preserved through our troubles nor rescued from our sins because of our own goodness, but on account of the holiness and the blood of Jesus Christ our Lord. We put our faith in him, and God the Father credits this faith to us as righteousness. God loves us, not because we are loveable, but because he loves. Therefore we trust in him, thank him, praise him, and give him glory.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in New Ulm, Minnesota. To receive God’s Word for You via e-mail, please visit the St. Paul’s Lutheran Church website.