Nachum 3:5-19

5 Hineni, I am against thee, saith Hashem Tzva’os; and I will lift thy skirts over thy faces, and I will show the Goyim thy nakedness, and the mamlachot thy shame.

6 And I (Hashem) will cast abominable filth upon thee, and make thee contemptibly vile, and will make thee a spectacle.

7 And it shall come to pass, that all they that look upon thee shall flee from thee, and say, Nineveh is in ruins; who will bemoan her? From where shall I seek menachamim (comforters) for thee?

8 Art thou better than No Amon (Thebes), that was situated on the Nile, that had the mayim round about it, whose rampart was the yam, and her waters were her chomah?

9 Ethiopia and Mitzrayim were her strength, and it was boundless; Put and Luvim (Libya) were her allies.

10 Yet she went into golus, she went into captivity; her olalim also were dashed in pieces at the head of all the streets; and they cast goral (lots) for her honorable men, and all her gedolim were bound in chains.

11 Thou also shalt be drunken, thou shalt be hid, thou also shalt seek maoz from the enemy.

12 All thy strongholds shall be like te’enim (fig trees) with the first ripe figs; if they be shaken, they shall even fall into the peh (mouth) of the ochel (eater).

13 Hinei, thy troops in the midst of thee are nashim (women); the gates of thy land shall be set wide open unto thine enemies; the eish shall devour thy (gate) bars.

14 Draw thee water for the matzor (siege), fortify thy strongholds, go unto clay, and tread the mortar, repair the brickwork.

15 There shall the eish devour thee, the cherev shall consume thee, it shall eat thee up like the grasshopper. Make thyself many as the grasshopper, make thyself many as the arbeh (locust).

16 Thou hast multiplied thy merchants more than the kokhavim of HaShomayim; but, like the locust, they strip the land, then fly away.

17 Thy commanders are as the swarming locusts, and thy officials as the great grasshoppers, which camp in the hedges on a cold day, but when the shemesh ariseth they flee away, and their place is whereabouts unknown.

18 Thy ro’im (shepherds) slumber, O melech of Asshur (Assyria); thy nobles shall dwell in the dust; thy people are scattered upon the mountains, and no man gathereth them.

19 There is no healing of thy shever (fracture, injury); thy wound is grievous; all that hear the news of thee shall clap their hands over thy fall; for upon whom hath not thy wickedness passed tamid (continually)?

Nachum 3:5-19 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.