God’s Word for You

Nahum 2:8-10 Empty even of emptiness

by Pastor Timothy Smith on Friday, May 15, 2026

8 Nineveh is like a pool of water from those days, draining away.
“Wait, wait!” they cry, but no one turns back.

Nahum continues as a kind of prophetic spectator of Nineveh’s downfall. Here the name Nineveh occurs for only the second time in the book. Translators often place it in various other passages for clarity.

Having foreseen the use of the Tigris River to breach the city walls (verse 6), it’s no surprise to hear that the city will also be “like a pool of water.” But what does the prophet mean by “from those days”? The words mime hi’ (מִימֵי הִיא) are literally “from the day of her.” This must be a reference to an important day—the day that Nineveh fell—and those waters are “draining” or even “fleeing” from her.

The imagery of verse 8 combines the sight of floodwaters receding amidst all of the ruins of the city to the sight of people, refugees, leaving the city in straggling groups, wending their way up- or downstream or off to the eastern hills. Then someone calls out, “Wait, wait!” or “Stop, stop!” but nobody listens. The people do not return just as assuredly as draining water will not turn back. The damage and the destruction have been done.

9 Plunder the silver! Plunder the gold!
There is no end to the treasure,
the wealth from all its precious things!

The usual shouts of the victors rise up above the receding puddles and rivulets in the streets. Plunder, plunder! Enormous amounts of wealth is accounted for in the Assyrian chronicles of kings such as Ashurbanipal, Sennacherib, Shalmaneser, Tiglath-Pileser, Sargon, and others. Much of it was in the form of gold and silver objects such as dishes, chairs, tables, footstools, ivory beds, ivory couches inlaid with silver (cp. Amos 6:4), talents and talents of silver and even of gold (a talent was a measurement of weight, about 75 pounds). Kings received tribute “on the hoof” as well, cattle, sheep, goats, camels, and other creatures, some of them exotic (such as Solomon received, 1 Kings 10:22). Asaph the Psalmist describes beautiful cities full of treasure “more majestic than mountains rich with game.”

In all, the chroniclers of the Assyrians were all in agreement: there was too much treasure to count. Nahum agrees: “There is no end to the treasure!” But as Pastor Meier reports: “The wealth of Babylon, Thebes and Susa were brought into the capital, but significantly, little gold or silver has been discovered in the Kouyunjik mounds. The city was completely sacked.”

10 Empty even of emptiness, and desolate!
Hearts melt, knees give way,
bodies tremble, every face grows dark.

Three very similar words begin this verse: buqah, umabuqah, umabulaqah. The first two both mean “empty, but with a min of separation prefixing the send term, which I have translated “empty even of emptiness.” All three words are thought to mean “desolate,” but the first two are unique and don’t occur anywhere else. The lexicons suggest both “desolate” and “void,” and I have taken the terms in conjunction with the emptiness after plundering from the previous verse. All the bags and pots and chests are empty; the gold and silver are all gone,

This complete loss has spread of course to the people, the few who might be left behind—the captives, the very old, the invalids. Their knees buckle; I am reminded of King Belshazzar when he saw the hand writing on the wall, “he was so frightened that his knees knocked together” (Daniel 5:6), but here the knees are giving out altogether. The bodies of the people shake.

In the final phrase, “every face grows dark.” While many translations have “grow pale” here, the word is associated with dark or scorched iron pots and blackness. Virtually the same phrase occurs in Joel 2:6, and the ancient versions and translations like the Greek and the Latin Vulgate have “like a burned pot” (ὡς  πρόσκαυμα  χύτρας, sicut nigredo ollae). Having burned many a dinner, I can attest better than many that this does not leave a kettle “pale” (there is lingering smoke in my kitchen this very night). Perhaps these are faces growing dark with grief and loss.

The loss and destruction of these verses turn our minds to consider the terror of Judgment Day. Who will face Christ on that day? More to the point, who could possibly escape? The persons who will be judged on the Last Day are (1) the evil angels, (2) then human beings in general, (3) and especially the godless (4) and the Antichrist above all. Now, even believers must face Christ before his judgment seat (2 Corinthians 5:10). But the Bible makes it clear that especially the godless—the fallen and wicked angels (including the devil), the unbelievers, and most especially the Antichrist will be judged and damned forever. As for believers, Christ will surprise us by bringing out our good works (Matthew 25:35-40) but not our sins, even though we commit these in abundance. This is how we must understand those passages that also say that we (believers) will not be judged (John 3:18; John 5:24, 29), since we will be there before Christ’s seat in the court of his judgment, but we will not be condemned, nor will our sins be brought forward for judgment since they have all been forgiven, trampled underfoot, and hurled into the depths of the sea (Micah 7:19).

This is not just a bullet point in a theological outline. This is where ministry, the compassionate work of the pastor, does what I believe to be one its greatest works: the comfort of the dying. “Who could actually die in the true blessedness of salvation and in peace if they would have to be prepared to have, say, their many sinful thoughts, which are known only to God and have been graciously covered by forgiveness, brought forth in the last judgment and come up for examination and investigation?”

But instead we are able to console one another: Your sins are forgiven, you are at peace with God. And as Jesus says at the end of Mark: “Whoever believes will be saved” (Mark 16:16). The believer can close his or her eyes in peace and allow the soft sleep of death to embrace them for a while, until Christ calls them home forever.

In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith

 

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