Nahum 1:3 - Exposition

Slow to anger ( Exodus 34:6 , Exodus 34:7 ). Nahum seems to take up the words of Jonah ( Jonah 4:2 ) or Joel ( Joel 2:13 ). God is long suffering, not from weakness, but because he is great in power, and can punish when he will. Will not at all acquit the wicked; literally, holding pure will not hold pure; i.e. he will not treat the guilty as innocent. ἀθωῶν [Alex; ἀθῶον ] οὐκ ἀθωώσει ; Mundans non faciet innocentem (comp. Exodus 20:7 ; Exodus 34:7 ). The Lord hath his way, etc. The prophet grounds his description of the majesty and might of God upon the revelation at the Exodus and at Sinai. (see Exodus 19:16-18 ; Psalms 18:1-50 .; 97.). The clouds are the dust of his feet, Large and grand as the clouds look to us, they are to God but as the dust raised by the feet in walking. As an illustration of this statement (though, of course, the fact was utterly unknown to Nahum), it has been remarked that recent scientific discovery asserts that clouds owe their beauty, and even their very existence, to the presence of dust particles in the atmosphere. The aqueous vapour, it is said, condenses on these particles, and thus becomes visible.