Nahum 3:5-15

5 "Behold, I am against you," says the LORD of Hosts, "and I will lift your skirts over your face. I will show the nations your nakedness, and the kingdoms your shame.

6 I will throw abominable filth on you, and make you vile, and will set you a spectacle.

7 It will happen that all those who look at you will flee from you, and say, 'Nineveh is laid waste Who will mourn for her?' Where will I seek comforters for you?"

8 Are you better than No-Amon, who was situated among the rivers, who had the waters around her; whose rampart was the sea, and her wall was of the sea?

9 Kush and Mitzrayim were her boundless strength. Put and Luvim were her helpers.

10 Yet was she carried away. She went into captivity. Her young children also were dashed in pieces at the head of all the streets, and they cast lots for her honorable men, and all her great men were bound in chains.

11 You also will be drunken. You will be hidden. You also will seek a stronghold because of the enemy.

12 All your fortresses will be like fig trees with the first-ripe figs: if they are shaken, they fall into the mouth of the eater.

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

14 Draw water for the siege. Strengthen your fortresses. Go into the clay, and tread the mortar. Make the brick kiln strong.

15 There the fire will devour you. The sword will cut you off. It will devour you like the khagav. Multiply like grasshoppers. Multiply like the arbeh.

Nahum 3:5-15 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.