Nahum 3:11

11 People of Nineveh, you too will get drunk. You will try to hide from your enemies. You will look for a place of safety.

Nahum 3:11 Meaning and Commentary

Nahum 3:11

Thou also shalt be drunken
This is said to Nineveh, whose turn would be next to drink of the cup of the wrath of God, and be inebriated with it, so that they should not know where they were, or what they did; and be as unable to guide and help themselves as a drunken man. So the Targum,

``thou also shalt be like to a drunken man;''

this was literally true of Nineveh when taken; see ( Nahum 1:10 ) : thou shalt be hid;
or, "thou shall be", as if thou wast not; as Nineveh is at this day, "hid" from the sight of men, not to be seen any more. So the Targum,

``thou shall be swallowed up or destroyed.''

The Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, and Arabic versions, render it "despised"; or the meaning is, she should "hide herself" ^F23; or be lurking about through shame, as drunken, or through fear of her enemies: thou also shall seek strength because of the enemy;
seek to others to help them against the enemy, not being able with their own strength to face them: or, seek strength "of the enemy" ^F24; beg their lives of him, and their bread; pray for quarter, and desire to be taken under his protection; to so low and mean a state and condition should Nineveh and its inhabitants be reduced, who had given laws to all about them, and had been a terror to them.

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FOOTNOTES:

F23 (hmlen) "latitans", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator; "abscondes te", Vatablus; "eris abscondita", Burkius.
F24 (bywam) (ex ecyrwn) , Sept.; "ab hoste", Montanus, Calvin, Drusius, Grotius, Cocceius.

Nahum 3:11 In-Context

9 Cush and Egypt gave it all of the strength it needed. Put and Libya also helped it.

10 But Thebes was captured anyway. Its people were taken away as prisoners. Its babies were smashed to pieces at every street corner. The Assyrian soldiers cast lots for all of its great leaders. They put them in chains and made slaves out of them.

11 People of Nineveh, you too will get drunk. You will try to hide from your enemies. You will look for a place of safety.

12 All of your forts are like fig trees that have their first ripe fruit on them. When the trees are shaken, the figs fall into the mouths of those who eat them.

13 Look at your troops. All of them are weak. The gates of your forts are wide open to your enemies. Fire has destroyed their heavy metal bars.