Nahum 3:5

5 I am against you^[a]- the declaration of the Lord of Hosts. I will lift your skirts over your face and display your nakedness to nations, your shame to kingdoms.^[b]

Nahum 3:5 Meaning and Commentary

Nahum 3:5

Behold, I [am] against thee, saith the Lord of hosts
Because her doings were against him; (See Gill on Nahum 2:13): and I will discover thy skirts upon thy face;
turn up the skirts of her garments over her head, and thereby discover what should be concealed, than which nothing is more disagreeable and abominable to modest persons; it is here threatened she should be used in character as a harlot, or as women oftentimes are by rude soldiers, when a city is taken by them: and I will show the nations thy nakedness, and the kingdoms thy
shame;
all her charms shall be taken away, and she become odious as a harlot to her former lovers; all her impostures, arts, and tricks, and shameful actions, will be discovered; and her aims and views at universal monarchy will be seen and her weakness to effect it made to appear; and, upon the whole, will become the object of the scorn and derision of kingdoms and nations.

Nahum 3:5 In-Context

3 Charging horseman, flashing sword, shining spear; heaps of slain, mounds of corpses, dead bodies without end- they stumble over their dead.

4 Because of the continual prostitution of the prostitute, the attractive mistress of sorcery, who betrays nations by her prostitution and clans by her witchcraft,

5 I am against you- the declaration of the Lord of Hosts. I will lift your skirts over your face and display your nakedness to nations, your shame to kingdoms.

6 I will throw filth on you and treat you with contempt; I will make a spectacle of you.

7 Then all who see you will recoil from you, saying: Nineveh is devastated; who will show sympathy to her? Where can I find anyone to comfort you?

Footnotes

• [a]. Nah 2:13
• [b]. Jr 13:22,26; Ezk 16:37