Nachum 3:1

1 Hoy (woe) to the ir damim (bloody city)! It is all full of lies and booty; no end to the plunder;

Nachum 3:1 Meaning and Commentary

Nahum 3:1

Woe to the bloody city
Nineveh, in which many murders were daily committed; innocent blood shed; the lives of men taken away, under the colour of justice, by false witnesses, and other unlawful methods; and which was continually making war with neighbouring nations, and shedding their blood, which it stuck not at, to enlarge its wealth and dominions; and therefore "woe" is denounced against it; and it is threatened with the righteous judgments of God, with all sorts of calamity and distress: or, "O bloody city", as the Septuagint; for the word used is vocative, and expressive of calling, as Aben Ezra and Kimchi observe: it [is] all full of lies [and] robbery;
the palace and court; the houses of noblemen and common persons were full of flattery and deceit; men of high degree were a lie, and men of low degree vanity; no man could trust another, or believe what he said; there were no truth, honesty, and faithfulness, in conversation or commerce; their warehouses were full of goods, got by rapine and violence; and their streets full of robbers and robberies: the prey departeth not;
they go on in making a prey of their neighbours, in pillaging and plundering their substance; they repent not of such evil practices, nor desist from them; or because of the above sins they shall fall a prey to the enemy, who will not cease plundering them till he has utterly stripped them of all they have; and who is represented in the next verse ( Nahum 3:2 ) as just at hand.

Nachum 3:1 In-Context

1 Hoy (woe) to the ir damim (bloody city)! It is all full of lies and booty; no end to the plunder;

2 The crack of the shot (whip), and the noise of the rattling of the wheels, and of the prancing susim, and of the jolting merkavah (chariot);

3 The parash (horsemen, cavalry) charging, the flash of the cherev and the glittering spear; and there is a multitude of slain, and a great number of dead bodies; and there is no end of their geviyot (corpses); they stumble over their geviyot;

4 Because of the multitude of the harlotries of the alluring zonah, the ba’alat keshafim (the mistress of sorceries), that enslaveth Goyim through her prostitutions, and mishpochot through her keshafim;

5 Hineni, I am against thee, saith Hashem Tzva’os; and I will lift thy skirts over thy faces, and I will show the Goyim thy nakedness, and the mamlachot thy shame.