Nahum 3:1-11

1 Woe to the city of blood, steeped in lies, full of prey, with no end to the plunder!

2 The crack of the whip! The rattle of wheels! Galloping horses, jolting chariots,

3 cavalry charging, swords flashing, spears glittering - and hosts of slain, heaps of bodies; there is no end to the corpses; they stumble over their corpses.

4 "Because of the continual whoring of this whore, this alluring mistress of sorcery, who sells nations with her whoring and families with her sorcery;

5 I am against you," says ADONAI-Tzva'ot. "I will uncover your skirts on your face; I will show the nations your private parts and the kingdoms your shame.

6 I will pelt you with disgusting filth, disgrace you and make a spectacle of you.

7 Then all who see you will recoil from you; they will say, 'Ninveh is destroyed!' Who will mourn for her? Where can I find people to comfort you?"

8 Are you any better than No-Amon, located among the streams of the Nile, with water all around her, the flood her wall of defense?

9 Ethiopia and Egypt gave her boundless strength, Put and Luvim were there to help you.

10 Still she went captive into exile, her infants torn to pieces at every streetcorner. Lots were drawn for her nobles, and all her great men were bound in chains.

11 You too, [Ninveh,] will be drunk; your senses completely overcome. You too will seek a refuge from the enemy.

Nahum 3:1-11 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.