Nahum 1:5

5. Nah_1:5 returns to describe the Theophany in the tempest, and its effects.

mountains quake at him] lit., from Him, the effect comes from Him. It is not an earthquake that is described but the effect of the thunder and roar of the tempest. This shakes the mountains. It is not out of terror alone that the mountains tremble, it is the goings, the tread of the mighty God by which they are shaken, Mic_1:3-4. Hab_3:6, “He stood (stepped on earth) and the earth rocked”; Jdg_5:4.

the hills melt] What the physical phenomenon is which suggests this figure is not quite clear. Possibly Jdg_5:4-5 explains the meaning: “When thou wentest forth from Seir the earth trembled, the heavens also dropped, the clouds dropped water, the mountains flowed down”—the streams rushing down the mountains on all sides seemed as if the mountains themselves had become fluid. The rendering “flowed down” Jdg_5:5, is the most natural, though others derive the form used from another root which might mean “to quake.” In this case the melting of the mountains might refer to their motion, their undulating as if fluid. Mic_1:3-4, “Behold the Lord cometh forth out of his place, and will tread upon the heights of the earth (the storm cloud trailing over the mountains), and the mountains shall be molten under him, and the valleys shall be cleft, as wax before the fire, as waters that are poured down a steep place.” The figure of melting wax hardly means that the mountains melt under the fiery feet of Jehovah.

the earth is burnt] Rather: riseth up, reference being to the rising and sinking motion of the earth—not its oscillation; cf. R.V. Amo_9:5. R.V. is upheaved. Bickell from a different root, becomes waste. The last clause is a not unusual formula; Psa_24:1.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Nah 1:5 The mountains quake at him, and the hills melt, and the earth is burned at his presence, yea, the world, and all that dwell therein.

Ver. 5. The mountains quake at him, and the hills melt] Though valleys and low places are also liable to earthquakes, as Antioch often, Ferrara in Italy, A.D. 1516 and 1578, yet hill countries much more, because there are more holes and caverns: see Psa 29:6; Psa 144:4 Zec 14:4-5. In the year 1618, Aug. 25, Pleurs, a town in Rhoetia, was overwhelmed by a hill, which, with a most swift motion, buried 1500 men. So that village mentioned before, in the country of Bern, that was covered over by a hill in an earthquake, to the destruction of 50 families. All this and that which followeth is alleged here, to show how easily God can overturn the Assyrian greatness.

And the earth is burnt at his presence] Viz. by his fire from heaven, as Sodom, and by others of his land desolating judgments, such as Judea (that once fertile, now barren country), Greece, Asia (once so flourishing), Germany, Ireland, &c., do at this day groan under. God turneth "a fruitful land into barrenness, for the wickedness of them that dwell therein," Psa 107:34.

Yea, the world, and all that dwell therein] Quae quidem sunt mira, sed tamen vera divinae potentiae effecta (Turnov.). Wicked men, besides what they here suffer, shall one day give an account of what they have done in the body, with the world all on a light of fire about their ears: the trial of their works shall be by fire, 1Co 3:13, the tribunal of fire, Eze 1:27, the judge a consuming fire, Heb 12:29, his attendants seraphims, flaming creatures, Isa 6:2 his pleading with sinners in flames of fire, 2Th 1:7, the place of punishment a lake of fire fed with tormenting temper, Isa 30:33, Sodom’s fire and brimstone was but a toy to it. And shall the Ninevites think to mort up themselves against this formidable fire, which the most solid parts of the world cannot avoid or abide?

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1:5 Old Testament poetry often mentions the shaking of the earth to commemorate the Exodus period (e.g., Ps 18:7; Hab 3:6; see Exod 19:18).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

earth is burned--so GROTIUS. Rather, "lifts itself," that is, "heaveth" [MAURER]: as the Hebrew is translated in Psa 89:9; Hos 13:1; compare Sa2 5:21, Margin.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Nahum continues still on the same subject, — that when God ascended his tribunal and appeared as the Judge of the world, he would not only shake all the elements, but would also constrain them to change their nature. For what can be less consonant to nature than for mountains to tremble, and for hills to be dissolved or to melt? This is more strange than what we can comprehend. But the Prophet intimates that the mountains cannot continue in their own strength, but as far as they are sustained by the favor of God. As soon, then, as God is angry, the mountains melt like snow, and flow away like water. And all these things are to be applied to this purpose, and are designed for this end, — that the wicked might not daringly despise the threatening of God, nor think that they could, through his forbearance, escape the punishment which they deserved: for he will be their Judge, however he may spare them; and though God is ready to pardon, whenever men hate themselves on account of their sins, and seriously repent; he will be yet irreconcilable to all the reprobate and the perverse. The mountains, then, before him tremble, and the hills dissolve or melt.

This useful instruction may be gathered from these words, that the world cannot for a moment stand, except as it is sustained by the favor and goodness of God; for we see what would immediately be, as soon as God manifests the signals of his judgment. Since the very solidity of mountains would be as snow or wax, what would become of miserable men, who are like a shadow or an apparition? They would then vanish away as soon as God manifested his wrath against them, as it is so in Psalm 39, that men pass away like a shadow. This comparison ought ever to be remembered by us whenever a forgetfulness of God begins to creep over us, that we may not excite his wrath by self-complacencies, than which there is nothing more pernicious. Burned, then shall be the earth, and the world, and all who dwell on it

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(5) Is burned.—Better, heaves.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The mountains quake at him, and the hills melt,.... As Sinai of old did, when the Lord descended on it, Exo 19:18. Mountains figuratively signify kings and princes; and hills large countries, as Jarchi and Abarbinel observe, and the inhabitants of them; particularly the kingdoms and nations belonging to the Assyrian empire, which would tremble and quake, and their hearts melt with fear, when they should hear of the destruction of Nineveh their chief city; and of the devastation made by the enemy there and in other parts, under the direction of the Lord of hosts; his power and providence succeeding him:

and the earth is burnt at his presence; either when he withholds rain from it, and so it be comes parched and burnt up with the heat of the sun; or when he rains fire and brimstone on it, as he did on Sodom and Gomorrah; or consumes any part of it with thunder and lightning, as he sometimes does; nay, if he but touch the mountains, they smoke; see Psa 104:32;

yea, the world, and all that dwell therein; as in the last day, at the general conflagration, when the world, and all the wicked inhabitants of it, will be burnt up; see Pe2 3:10.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

The mountains quaked at Him, and the hills melted - As of their own accord. The words are a renewal of those of Amos Amo 9:13. Inanimate nature is pictured as endowed with the terror, which guilt feels at the presence of God. All power; whether greater or less, whatsoever lifteth itself up, shall give way in that Day, which shall be “upon all the cedars of Lebanon that are high and lifted up, and upon all the oaks of Bashan, and upon all the high mountains, and upon all the hills that are lifted up” Isa 2:13-14. “And the earth is burned” (rather lifteth itself up; as an an earthquake it seems, as it were, to rise and sink down, lifting itself as if to meet its God or to flee. What is strongest, shaketh; what is hardest, melteth; yea, the whole world trembles and is removed. : “If,” said even Jews of old, “when God made Himself known in mercy, to give the law to His people, the world was so moved at His presence, how much more, when He shall reveal Himself in wrath!” The words are so great that they bear the soul on to the time, when the heaven and earth shall flee away from the Face of Him “Who sitteth on the throne, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat” Rev 20:11; 2Pe 3:10. And since all judgments are images of the Last, and the awe at tokens of God’s presence is a shadow of the terror of that coming, he adds,

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Made. Septuagint, "shaken." --- Quaked. Hebrew and Septuagint, "risen." (Calmet)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

The mountains; the more known mountains of that country were mentioned Nah 1:4, now the prophet doth extend his speech to all mountains, how great soever, and how fast soever their foundations are laid.

Quake; tremble at his rebuke; not only are shaken by earthquakes from natural causes, disposed by God’s power and wisdom, but are shaken and tremble under the effects of his extraordinary presence, Jdg 5:4; Job 9:5; Psa 29:6; Jer 10:10.

At him; by his power, or at his displeasure, or indeed at his presence, Psa 68:8, and so the Chaldee paraphrast.

The hills; the lesser hills, distinguished from mountains, or else it is a confirming ingemination of what he had said.

Melt: God’s rebuke is as fire; mountains and hills, like wax, melt down before it, Psa 114:6-8.

The earth, which seems to be secure against the fury of the fire, yet proves combustible under the fire of God’s wrath.

Is burnt; or else, is taken away, withdraws itself, lifts up itself, as sometimes in earthquakes; or, as the Gallic version, mounteth up in fire; the Hebrew imports all these.

The world; the habitable world.

All that dwell therein; whether they be far off or near to Israel; both men, and all the rest of the creatures, whose abode is on earth, are wonderfully shaken, affrighted, and overwhelmed at the tokens of God’s rebuke.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

The mountains quake. The mountains, the very emblems of stability, tremble before him. (Amo_8:8) The hills melt; Oi bounoi esaleuyhsan , "The hills were shaken" (Septuagint). The hills dissolve like wax or anew at his presence. (see Amo_4:13 Mic_1:4) Burned; Septuagint, anestalh , "recoils," "is upheaved," as by an earthquake. This rendering has the greatest authority. The world; i.e. the habitable world, and all living creatures therein. (Joe_1:18-20) Nature animate and inanimate is represented as actuated by the terror of conscious guilt.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Mountains quaked because of Him—The kings and the princes (of the heathens) shall fear His decree.

raised up Heb. וַתִּשָׂא; i.e., raised up a pillar of smoke.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.