And the LORD hath given a commandment concerning thee, that no more of thy name be sown: out of the house of thy gods will I cut off the graven image and the molten image: I will make thy grave; for thou art vile.

NAHUM 1:14KJV
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Nahum 1:14 (KJV)

What does Nahum 1:14 mean?

Nahum 1:14 declares that the LORD has issued a command that the name and legacy of Nineveh will come to an end, its idols will be destroyed, and its ruler will be brought to a dishonorable grave because of wickedness. This verse is a direct message of judgment against the Assyrian empire and its king.

The prophet Nahum is speaking God’s words to the king of Assyria, warning that his dynasty and false gods will be wiped out. The verse uses strong language to show that not only will the king’s reputation (“name”) end, but even the idols (“graven image” and “molten image”) in the temples will be cut off. The final line, “for thou art vile,” makes clear that this destruction is a result of deep moral corruption.

The Hebrew behind Nahum 1:14

  • “LORD” (יְהוָה, YHWH): This is the personal name of Israel’s God, emphasizing that the judgment comes from the one true God, not just a generic deity.
  • “Name” (שֵׁם, shem): In Hebrew thought, a person’s “name” often means their reputation or legacy. The verse promises that the king’s memory and influence will not continue.
  • “Sown” (זָרַע, zara): This word means to scatter seed. Here, it is used to say that the king’s name will not be “sown” or spread—meaning no descendants or lasting legacy.
  • “Cut off” (כָּרַת, karath): This verb is often used for something being completely removed or destroyed, stressing the total end of the idols and the king’s line.
  • “Graven image” (פֶּסֶל, pesel) and “molten image” (מַסֵּכָה, massekhah): These words refer to carved and cast idols. The verse singles out both types, showing that all forms of idol worship in Nineveh will be destroyed.
  • “Grave” (קֶבֶר, qeber): The word for grave here is personal—God says, “I will make your grave,” highlighting a direct and humiliating end.

Why Nahum 1:14 matters

  • Nahum 1:14 makes clear that God’s judgment is not just against a city, but against its ruler, its religion, and its reputation—showing a complete and final end.
  • The verse helps explain why Nineveh’s destruction was so thorough: it was not just military defeat, but a wiping out of its memory and religious system.
  • This verse connects to the wider message of Nahum, which is about God’s justice against proud and violent empires, and reassures readers that evil will not last forever.

Where else these words appear

“image” Hebrew H4541 · used in 28 verses

  • Exodus 32:4 And he received them at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, after he had made it a molten calf: and they said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.
  • Judges 17:4 Yet he restored the money unto his mother; and his mother took two hundred shekels of silver, and gave them to the founder, who made thereof a graven image and a molten image: and they were in the house of Micah.
  • Nehemiah 9:18 Yea, when they had made them a molten calf, and said, This is thy God that brought thee up out of Egypt, and had wrought great provocations;

“image” Hebrew H6459 · used in 31 verses

  • Exodus 20:4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:
  • Judges 18:17 And the five men that went to spy out the land went up, and came in thither, and took the graven image, and the ephod, and the teraphim, and the molten image: and the priest stood in the entering of the gate with the six hundred men that were appointed with weapons of war.
  • Isaiah 42:17 They shall be turned back, they shall be greatly ashamed, that trust in graven images, that say to the molten images, Ye are our gods.

“sown” Hebrew H2232 · used in 54 verses

  • Genesis 1:11 And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.
  • Deuteronomy 11:10 For the land, whither thou goest in to possess it, is not as the land of Egypt, from whence ye came out, where thou sowedst thy seed, and wateredst it with thy foot, as a garden of herbs:
  • Isaiah 30:23 Then shall he give the rain of thy seed, that thou shalt sow the ground withal; and bread of the increase of the earth, and it shall be fat and plenteous: in that day shall thy cattle feed in large pastures.

“grave” Hebrew H6913 · used in 62 verses

  • Genesis 23:4 I am a stranger and a sojourner with you: give me a possession of a buryingplace with you, that I may bury my dead out of my sight.
  • 1 Kings 13:31 And it came to pass, after he had buried him, that he spake to his sons, saying, When I am dead, then bury me in the sepulchre wherein the man of God is buried; lay my bones beside his bones:
  • Job 10:19 I should have been as though I had not been; I should have been carried from the womb to the grave.