Nahum 3:2-12

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

3 Cavalry troops charge, swords flash, spears gleam! Corpses are piled high, dead bodies without number - men stumble over them!

4 Nineveh the whore is being punished. Attractive and full of deadly charms, she enchanted nations and enslaved them.

5 The Lord Almighty says, "I will punish you, Nineveh! I will strip you naked and let the nations see you, see you in all your shame.

6 I will treat you with contempt and cover you with filth. People will stare at you in horror.

7 All who see you will shrink back. They will say, "Nineveh lies in ruins! Who has any sympathy for her? Who will want to comfort her?' "

8 Nineveh, are you any better than Thebes, the capital of Egypt? She too had a river to protect her like a wall - the Nile was her defense.

9 She ruled Ethiopia and Egypt, there was no limit to her power; Libya was her ally.

10 Yet the people of Thebes were carried off into exile. At every street corner their children were beaten to death. Their leading men were carried off in chains and divided among their captors.

11 Nineveh, you too will fall into a drunken stupor! You too will try to escape from your enemies.

12 All your fortresses will be like fig trees with ripe figs: shake the trees, and the fruit falls right into your mouth!

Nahum 3:2-12 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.

Footnotes

• [a]. enslaved; [or] seduced.
• [b]. [Hebrew] Cush: [Cush is the ancient name of the extensive territory south of the First Cataract of the Nile River. This region was called Ethiopia in Graeco-Roman times, and included within its borders most of modern Sudan and some of present-day Ethiopia (Abyssinia).]