English · ASV

Nahum 3

Listen to this chapter
0:00 0:00

Woe to the Bloody City 1–4

1
Woe to the bloody city! it is all full of lies and rapine; the prey departeth not. ​
2
The noise of the whip, and the noise of the rattling of wheels, and prancing horses, and bounding chariots, ​
3
the horseman mounting, and the flashing sword, and the glittering spear, and a multitude of slain, and a great heap of corpses, and there is no end of the bodies; they stumble upon their bodies;—
4
because of the multitude of the whoredoms of the well-favored harlot, the mistress of witchcrafts, that selleth nations through her whoredoms, and families through her witchcrafts. ​

The Lord Will Judge Nineveh 5–7

5
Behold, I am against thee, saith Jehovah of hosts, and I will uncover thy skirts upon thy face; and I will show the nations thy nakedness, and the kingdoms thy shame. ​
6
And I will cast abominable filth upon thee, and make thee vile, and will set thee as a gazing-stock.
7
And it shall come to pass, that all they that look upon thee shall flee from thee, and say, Nineveh is laid waste: who will bemoan her? whence shall I seek comforters for thee? ​

Comparison to the Fall of Thebes 8–10

8
Art thou better than No-amon, that was situate among the rivers, that had the waters round about her; whose rampart was the sea, and her wall was of the sea? ​
9
Ethiopia and Egypt were her strength, and it was infinite; Put and Lubim were thy 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. ​

The Futility of Nineveh's Defenses 11–17

11
Thou also shalt be drunken; thou shalt be hid; thou also shalt seek a stronghold because of the enemy. ​
12
All thy fortresses shall be like fig-trees with the first-ripe figs: if they be shaken, they fall into the mouth of the eater. ​
13
Behold, thy people in the midst of thee are women; the gates of thy land are set wide open unto thine enemies: the fire hath devoured thy bars.
14
Draw thee water for the siege; strengthen thy fortresses; go into the clay, and tread the mortar; make strong the brickkiln. ​
15
There shall the fire devour thee; the sword shall cut thee off; it shall devour thee like the canker-worm: make thyself many as the canker-worm; make thyself many as the locust. ​
16
Thou hast multiplied thy merchants above the stars of heaven: the canker-worm ravageth, and fleeth away. ​
17
Thy princes are as the locusts, and thy marshals as the swarms of grasshoppers, which encamp in the hedges in the cold day, but when the sun ariseth they flee away, and their place is not known where they are.

Final Lament and Irreversible Doom 18–19

18
Thy shepherds slumber, O king of Assyria; thy nobles are at rest; thy people are scattered upon the mountains, and there is none to gather them. ​
19
There is no assuaging of thy hurt; thy wound is grievous: all that hear the report of thee clap their hands over thee; for upon whom hath not thy wickedness passed continually? ​

Bible text: American Standard Version (1901) · Public domain

Study Notes for Nahum 3

Verse 1

the bloody city — Hoy is 'woe', and 'bloody city' is literally 'city of bloods'. Ezekiel pronounces the same cry over Jerusalem, 'Woe to the bloody city!' (Ezek 24:9), and Habakkuk over the one 'that buildeth a town with blood' (Hab 2:12). 'Prey' (tereph) is the word of the lion's den in 2:12.

Verse 2

the noise of the rattling of the wheels — The verse is made of sounds: the whip (shot), the rattle (ra'ash) of wheels, horses 'pransing' (dahar, to gallop) and chariots 'jumping' (raqad, to skip), the verb of 'The mountains skipped like rams' (Ps 114:4). Jeremiah has a like list, 'the noise of the stamping of the hoofs of his strong horses… the rushing of his chariots' (Jer 47:3).

Verse 4

the mistress of witchcrafts — Baalah is the word for the 'woman that hath a familiar spirit' at Endor (1 Sam 28:7), literally a mistress or owner. Whoredoms and witchcrafts are joined in Jehu's reply, 'the whoredoms of thy mother Jezebel and her witchcrafts' (2 Kgs 9:22), and witchcrafts are charged to Babylon in Isa 47:9, 12. The harlot 'selleth' (makar) nations.

Verse 5

I will discover thy skirts upon thy face — The same threat is made to Jerusalem in Jer 13:26, 'Therefore will I discover thy skirts upon thy face, that thy shame may appear'. 'Skirts' (shul) is the hem of a robe, the word for the Lord's train in Isa 6:1. The nations and kingdoms are made to see what had been covered.

Verse 7

whence shall I seek comforters for thee? — 'Comforters' comes from nacham, the root of Nahum's own name (1:1). The prophet whose name is 'comfort' announces that none will be found for Nineveh. 'Bemoan' is nud, to nod the head in sorrow; Jeremiah asks of Jerusalem in the same words, 'who shall bemoan thee?' (Jer 15:5).

Verse 8

populous No — The Hebrew is No Amon, 'No of the multitude', a city of Egypt; Jeremiah names 'the multitude of No' for punishment (Jer 46:25) and Ezekiel 'No' (Ezek 30:14–16). The 'rivers' (ye'or) are the Nile's channels, as in Ex 7:19, and 'the sea' is the Nile, as in Isa 19:5, 'the waters shall fail from the sea'. A city ringed by water was carried away; Nineveh is asked if it is better.

Verse 10

her young children also were dashed in pieces — Ratash, to dash down, is the verb of Hos 13:16, 'their infants shall be dashed in pieces', and of Isa 13:16 against Babylon. Lots were cast for the 'honourable men', as for God's people in Joel 3:3. Isaiah had foretold the king of Assyria leading away the Egyptians as prisoners and captives (Isa 20:4).

Verse 11

Thou also shalt be drunken — The cup is the LORD's, 'in the hand of the LORD there is a cup' (Ps 75:8). 'Seek strength' uses ma'oz, the word for the 'strong hold' that the LORD is to those who trust him (1:7). Nineveh seeks a ma'oz because of the enemy, as men in Isa 2:10 are told to 'hide thee in the dust, for fear of the LORD'.

Verse 12

fig trees with the firstripe figs — The mibtsar, the fortified places, drop at a shake like the first figs, 'into the mouth of the eater'. Revelation has the same figure in the heavens: 'as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind' (Rev 6:13). Habakkuk says of the Chaldean army, 'they shall deride every strong hold' (Hab 1:10).

Verse 14

tread the morter — The orders are given to the besieged: draw water, strengthen the strong holds, make brick. 'Morter' is chomer, the clay of Israel's bondage 'in morter, and in brick' (Ex 1:14). 'Fortify' is chazaq, the verb of 'make thy loins strong' in 2:1, and the call to prepare is a second time given in mockery.

Verse 15

like the cankerworm — Yeleq, the cankerworm, and arbeh, the locust, are two of the four insects named in Joel 1:4: 'That which the palmerworm hath left hath the locust eaten; and that which the locust hath left hath the cankerworm eaten'. The sword 'shall eat thee up like the cankerworm', and the city is told in irony to 'make thyself many' (kabad, to be heavy or numerous) like them.

Verse 16

above the stars of heaven — 'Multiplied' is rabah, the verb of the promise to Abraham, 'in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven' (Gen 22:17). Here the merchants (rakal, travelling traders) are multiplied past it, 'above the stars of heaven'. The cankerworm of v.15 is again the figure: it 'spoileth, and flieth away'.

Verse 18

Thy shepherds slumber — A king is a shepherd, and when he sleeps, the people 'scattered upon the mountains' are as Israel in Micaiah's vision, 'scattered upon the hills, as sheep that have not a shepherd' (1 Kgs 22:17; cf. Matt 9:36). The sleep of these shepherds is the opposite of the one who 'keepeth Israel' and 'shall neither slumber nor sleep' (Ps 121:4).

Verse 19

There is no healing of thy bruise — The words are those the LORD uses of his own people in Jer 30:12, 'Thy bruise is incurable, and thy wound is grievous', and Micah says of Samaria 'her wound is incurable' (Mic 1:9). The book's last verb is abar, to pass over, the verb of the flood in 1:8: wickedness has 'passed continually' over everyone.