Nahum 1:5

5 ¹The mountains quake before him; ²the hills melt; the earth heaves before him, ³the world and all who dwell in it.

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Nahum 1:5 Meaning and Commentary

Nahum 1:5

The mountains quake at him, and the hills melt
As Sinai of old did, when the Lord descended on it, ( Exodus 19:18 ) ( Judges 5:5 ) . 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 ( Psalms 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 ( 2 Peter 3:10 ) .

Taken from John Gill's Exposition of the Bible

Nahum 1:5 In-Context

3 The LORD is slow to anger and great in power, and the LORD will by no means clear the guilty. His way is in whirlwind and storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet.

4 He rebukes the sea and makes it dry; he dries up all the rivers; Bashan and Carmel wither; the bloom of Lebanon withers.

5 The mountains quake before him; the hills melt; the earth heaves before him, the world and all who dwell in it.

6 Who can stand before his indignation? Who can endure the heat of his anger? His wrath is poured out like fire, and the rocks are broken into pieces by him.

7 The LORD is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; he knows those who take refuge in him.