Nahum 3:3-13

3 Horsemen charging, flashing sword and ¹glittering spear, ²hosts of slain, heaps of corpses, dead bodies without end-- they stumble over the bodies!

4 And all for the countless whorings of the ³prostitute, ⁴graceful and of deadly charms, who betrays nations with her whorings, and peoples with her charms.

5 ⁵Behold, I am against you, declares the LORD of hosts, and ⁶will lift up your skirts over your face; and I will make nations look at ⁷your nakedness and kingdoms at your shame.

6 I will throw filth at you and ⁸treat you with contempt and make you ⁹a spectacle.

7 And all who look at you ¹⁰will shrink from you and say, Wasted is ¹¹Nineveh; ¹²who will grieve for her? ¹³Where shall I seek comforters for you?

8 ¹⁴Are you better than ¹⁵Thebes^[a] that sat ¹⁶by the Nile, with water around her, her rampart a sea, and water her wall?

9 ¹⁷Cush was her strength; Egypt too, and that without limit; ¹⁸Put and the ¹⁹Libyans were her^[b] helpers.

10 ²⁰Yet she became an exile; she went into captivity; ²¹her infants were dashed in pieces at the head of every street; for her honored men ²²lots were cast, ²³and all her great men were bound in chains.

11 ²⁴You also will be drunken; you will go into hiding; ²⁵you will seek a refuge from the enemy.

12 All your fortresses are ²⁶like fig trees with first-ripe figs-- if shaken they fall into the mouth of the eater.

13 Behold, your troops ²⁷are women in your midst. The gates of your land are wide open to your enemies; fire has devoured your bars.

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Nahum 3:3-13 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO NAHUM 3

In this chapter is contained the prophecy of the destruction of Nineveh, and with it the whole Assyrian empire; the causes of which, besides those before mentioned, were the murders, lies, and robberies it was full of, Na 3:1 for which it should be swiftly and cruelly destroyed, Na 3:2,3 as also its whoredoms and witchcrafts, or idolatry, by which nations and families were seduced, Na 3:4 and hence she should be treated as a harlot, her nakedness exposed, and she cast out with contempt, and mocked at by all, Na 3:5-7 and all those things she placed her confidence in are shown to be of no avail; as her situation and fortresses, as she might learn from the case of No Amon, Na 3:8-12 nor the number of her inhabitants, which were weak as women; nor even her merchants, captains, nobles, and king himself, Na 3:13-18 nor the people she was in alliance with, who would now mock at her, her case being irrecoverable and incurable, Na 3:19.

Taken from John Gill's Exposition of the Bible

Cross References 27

1. Habakkuk 3:11
2. [2 Kings 19:35]
3. [Revelation 17:2; Revelation 18:3]
4. [Isaiah 47:9, 12]
5. [See Nahum 2:13 above]
6. Jeremiah 13:22, 26; [Isaiah 3:17; Isaiah 47:3]
7. Habakkuk 2:16
8. Malachi 2:9; [Nahum 1:14]
9. Hebrews 10:33; [1 Corinthians 4:9]
10. Jeremiah 51:9; Revelation 18:10
11. [Zephaniah 2:13]; See Nahum 1:1
12. Isaiah 51:19; Jeremiah 15:5
13. Lam. 1:2, 9, 16, 17, 21
14. [Amos 6:2]
15. Jeremiah 46:25
16. [Ezekiel 29:3]
17. See Daniel 11:43
18. Genesis 10:6
19. See 2 Chronicles 12:3
20. Isaiah 20:4
21. Isaiah 13:16
22. Joel 3:3; Obadiah 11
23. [Psalms 149:8]
24. Jeremiah 25:17, 27; [Psalms 75:8; Isaiah 51:17; Obadiah 16]
25. [Jeremiah 4:5, 6]
26. [Revelation 6:13]
27. Isaiah 19:16; Jeremiah 51:30

Footnotes 2

[a]. Hebrew No-amon
[b]. Hebrew your

The English Standard Version is published with the permission of Good News Publishers.