Nahum 1:4 Commentary and Bible Study

‘He rebuketh the sea, and maketh it dry, and drieth up all the rivers.’ That is recalling the Red Sea and how the people crossed. At God's rebuke the waters were held back, ‘and maketh it dry, and drieth up all the rivers.’ Well Nineveh depends on water for her defence and God can dry it up in a moment. And then those fertile areas that depend upon water are brought down: ‘Bashan languisheth’ with her rich area of soil, so proud of her productivity, ‘and Carmel’, that wooded mountain area and the flower of Lebanon, the great cedars, all these beautiful things which the people were proud of languish and are brought low once God speaks. All the fertile places can fail and there can be famine. However rich, however strong, however famous, however wonderful the landscape, as it were, all people will be brought down in the judgment of God.