Nahum 3:6

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

Nahum 3:6 Meaning and Commentary

Nahum 3:6

And I will cast abominable filth upon thee
As dirt and dung, or any or everything that is abominable and filthy; and which is thrown at harlots publicly disgraced, and as used to be at persons when carted. The meaning is, that this city and its inhabitants should be stripped of everything that was great and glorious in them, and should be reduced to the utmost shame and ignominy: and make thee vile:
mean, abject, contemptible, the offscouring of all things; rejected and disesteemed of all; had in no manner of repute or account, but in the utmost abhorrence: and I will set thee as a gazingstock;
to be looked and laughed at: or, "for an example" F5; to others, that they may shun the evils and abominations Nineveh had been guilty of, or expect the same disgrace and punishment. Kimchi interprets it "as dung" F6; to be no more reckoned of than that, or to be made a dunghill of; and so many others interpret it; or, "for a looking glass" F7; that others may look into, and take warning, and avoid the sins that have brought on such calamities.


FOOTNOTES:

F5 (yawrk) (eiv paradeigma) , Sept.; "in exemplum", Drusius, Tarnovius; "sicut spectacalum", Burkius.
F6 "Tanquam stercus", Munster, Montanus, Vatablus, Calvin, Cocceius.
F7 "Ut speculum", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Quistorpius.

Nahum 3:6 In-Context

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.
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.