Nahum 1:10

10 They will be entangled among thorns and drunk from their wine; they will be consumed like dry stubble.^[a]

Nahum 1:10 in Other Translations

10 For while they be folden together as thorns, and while they are drunken as drunkards, they shall be devoured as stubble fully dry.

ESV

10 For they are like entangled thorns, like drunkards as they drink; they are consumed like stubble fully dried.

NLT

10 His enemies, tangled like thornbushes and staggering like drunks, will be burned up like dry stubble in a field.

MSG

10 Like a pile of dry brush, Soaked in oil, they'll go up in flames. A Think Tank for Lies

CSB

10 For they will be consumed like entangled thorns, like a drunkard's drink, and like straw that is fully dry.

Nahum 1:10 Meaning and Commentary

Nahum 1:10

For while [they be] folden together [as] thorns
Like them, useless and unprofitable, harmful and pernicious, fit only for burning, and, being bundled together, are prepared for it; and which is not only expressive of the bad qualities of the Ninevites, and of the danger they were in, and what they deserved; but of the certainty of their ruin, no more being able to save themselves from it, than a bundle of thorns from the devouring fire: and while they are drunken [as] drunkards;
dead drunk, no more able to help themselves than a drunken man that is fallen; or who were as easily thrown down as a drunken man is with the least touch; though there is no need to have recourse to a figurative sense, since the Ninevites were actually drunk when they were attacked by their enemy, as the historian relates ^F9; that the king of Assyria being elated with his fortune, and thinking himself secure, feasted his army, and gave them large quantities of wine; and while the whole army were indulging themselves, the enemy, having notice of their negligence and drunkenness by deserters, fell upon them unawares in the night, when disordered and unprepared, and made a great slaughter among them, and forced the rest into the city, and in a little time took it: they shall be devoured as stubble fully dry;
as easily, and as inevitably and irrecoverably.

FOOTNOTES:

F9 Diodor. Sicul. l. 2. p. 112.

Taken from John Gill's Exposition of the Bible

Nahum 1:10 In-Context

8 but with an overwhelming flood he will make an end of Nineveh; he will pursue his foes into the realm of darkness.

9 Whatever they plot against the LORDhe will bring to an end; trouble will not come a second time.

10 They will be entangled among thorns and drunk from their wine; they will be consumed like dry stubble.

11 From you, Nineveh, has one come forth who plots evil against the LORDand devises wicked plans.

12 This is what the LORD says: “Although they have allies and are numerous, they will be destroyed and pass away. Although I have afflicted you, Judah, I will afflict you no more.

Cross References 3

1. S 2 Samuel 23:6
2. S Isaiah 49:26
3. S Isaiah 5:24; Malachi 4:1

Footnotes 1

[a]. The meaning of the Hebrew for this verse is uncertain.