Nahum 3:5

5 "Look! I am against you!" {declares}Yahweh. "I will strip up your skirts over your face; I will let nations look [at] your nakedness and your shame.

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 Chariots charge! Swords flash! Spears glitter! {Many corpses are piled high}! There is no end to the slain! They stumble over their dead!

4 "Because of the many idolatries of [the] prostitute, the beautiful charm [of] a mistress of witchcraft, she who enslaves nations by her harlotries, and peoples by her sorceries,

5 "Look! I am against you!" {declares}Yahweh. "I will strip up your skirts over your face; I will let nations look [at] your nakedness and your shame.

6 "I will throw filth upon you, I will treat you with contempt, I will make you a spectacle.

7 "And it will be that everyone who sees you will flee from you, And {they} will say, 'Nineveh is destroyed!' Who will mourn for her? From whence shall I seek comforters for you?"

Footnotes

• [a] Literally "a declaration of"