Verse 6
No one can continue to exist if Yahweh is indignant with him or her. Nahum did not mean that the final destiny of God’s enemies is annihilation. He meant that no one can survive His unchecked wrath. The Hebrew word translated "indignant," za’am, means to be enraged, like boiling water. No one can endure Yahweh’s burning anger. Nahum made these points strongly by using two rhetorical questions.
"Unlike a regular question, which is soliciting information, a rhetorical question assumes the answer is already known by both the asker and the asked. Instead of the statement which could have been used in its place, the rhetorical question forces the hearer to get actively involved in the discussion. . . . The technique is used elsewhere in Nahum (Nahum 2:11; Nahum 3:7-8) and in other prophetic texts." [Note: Baker, p. 29.]
The Assyrians should have learned this truth when God destroyed their army, as it surrounded Jerusalem, in one night (2 Kings 18-19). Yahweh’s wrath pours out like fire, and then even solid rocks break up (cf. 1 Kings 19:11). How much less will human flesh and manmade walls stand against His anger!
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