Nahum 3:12-19

12 All your fortresses are ¹like fig trees with first-ripe figs—if shaken they fall into the mouth of the eater.

13 Behold, your troops ²are women in your midst. The gates of your land are wide open to your enemies; fire has devoured your bars.

14 ³Draw water for the siege; ⁴strengthen your forts; go into the clay; tread the mortar; take hold of the brick mold!

15 There will the fire devour you; the sword will cut you off. It will ⁵devour you ⁶like the locust. Multiply yourselves ⁷like the locust; multiply ⁸like the grasshopper!

16 You increased ⁹your merchants more than the stars of the heavens. ¹⁰The locust spreads its wings and flies away.

17 Your ¹¹princes are ¹²like grasshoppers, ¹³your scribes^[a] like clouds of locusts settling on the fences in a day of cold—when the sun rises, they fly away; no one knows where they are.

18 Your shepherds ¹⁴are asleep, O king of Assyria; ¹⁵your nobles slumber. Your people ¹⁶are scattered on the mountains with none to gather them.

19 There is no easing your hurt; ¹⁷your wound is grievous. All who hear the news about you ¹⁸clap their hands over you. For ¹⁹upon whom has not come your unceasing evil?

Nahum 3:12-19 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.

Cross References

• 1. 3:12 [Rev. 6:13]
• 2. 3:13 Isa. 19:16; Jer. 51:30
• 3. 3:14 [Isa. 22:11]
• 4. 3:14 [See ver. 11 above]
• 5. 3:15 [Joel 2:3]
• 6. 3:15 [Joel 1:4, 6]
• 7. 3:15 [Joel 1:4, 6]
• 8. 3:15 [Joel 1:4, 6]
• 9. 3:16 [Ezek. 27:23, 24]
• 10. 3:16 [See ver. 15 above]
• 11. 3:17 [Isa. 10:8]
• 12. 3:17 [See ver. 15 above]
• 13. 3:17 Jer. 51:27
• 14. 3:18 [Ps. 76:5]
• 15. 3:18 ch. 2:5
• 16. 3:18 [1 Kgs. 22:17]
• 17. 3:19 Jer. 10:19; Mic. 1:9
• 18. 3:19 Lam. 2:15; [Zeph. 2:15]
• 19. 3:19 [Isa. 37:18]

Footnotes

• [a] 3:17 Or 'marshals'