Nahum 1:8 - Exposition

With an overrunning flood. This may be merely a metaphor to express the utter devastation which should overwhelm Nineveh, as the invasion of a hostile army is often thus depicted (comp. Isaiah 8:7 ; Daniel 11:26 , Daniel 11:40 ); or it may be an allusion to the inundation which aided the capture of the city (see note on Nahum 2:6 ). Of the place thereof; i.e. of Nineveh, not named, but present to the prophet's mind, and understood from the heading ( Nahum 1:1 ). (For the utter destruction of Nineveh, comp. Zephaniah 2:13 , etc.) The LXX . has, τουνειρομένους ("those that rise up"). The Chaldee has a similar reading, with the meaning that God would exterminate those who rise up against him. Darkness shall pursue his enemies. So the Septuagint and Vulgate. But it is better rendered, He shall pursue his enemies into darkness, so that they disappear from the earth. If this is the meaning of the clause, it resembles the termination of many Assyrian inscriptions which record the defeat of a hostile chieftain: "and no one has seen any trace of him since."