Nahum 3 - ESV - Bible Reading / Study Notes

Nahum 3

Woe to Nineveh

3:1   Woe to the bloody city,
    all full of lies and plunder—
    no end to the prey!
2   The crack of the whip, and rumble of the wheel,
    galloping horse and bounding chariot!
3   Horsemen charging,
    flashing sword and glittering spear,
  hosts of slain,
    heaps of corpses,
  dead bodies without end—
    they stumble over the bodies!
4   And all for the countless whorings of the prostitute,
    graceful and of deadly charms,
  who betrays nations with her whorings,
    and peoples with her charms.
5   Behold, I am against you,
    declares the LORD of hosts,
    and will lift up your skirts over your face;
  and I will make nations look at your nakedness
    and kingdoms at your shame.
6   I will throw filth at you
    and treat you with contempt
    and make you a spectacle.
7   And all who look at you will shrink from you and say,
  “Wasted is Nineveh; who will grieve for her?”
    Where shall I seek comforters for you?
8   Are you better than Thebes¹
    that sat by the Nile,
  with water around her,
    her rampart a sea,
    and water her wall?
9   Cush was her strength;
    Egypt too, and that without limit;
    Put and the Libyans were her² helpers.
10   Yet she became an exile;
    she went into captivity;
  her infants were dashed in pieces
    at the head of every street;
  for her honored men lots were cast,
    and all her great men were bound in chains.
11   You also will be drunken;
    you will go into hiding;
  you will seek a refuge from the enemy.
12   All your fortresses are like fig trees
    with first-ripe figs—
  if shaken they fall
    into the mouth of the eater.
13   Behold, your troops
    are women in your midst.
  The gates of your land
    are wide open to your enemies;
    fire has devoured your bars.
14   Draw water for the siege;
    strengthen your forts;
  go into the clay;
    tread the mortar;
    take hold of the brick mold!
15   There will the fire devour you;
    the sword will cut you off.
    It will devour you like the locust.
  Multiply yourselves like the locust;
    multiply like the grasshopper!
16   You increased your merchants
    more than the stars of the heavens.
    The locust spreads its wings and flies away.
17   Your princes are like grasshoppers,
    your scribes³ like clouds of locusts
  settling on the fences
    in a day of cold—
  when the sun rises, they fly away;
    no one knows where they are.
18   Your shepherds are asleep,
    O king of Assyria;
    your nobles slumber.
  Your people are scattered on the mountains
    with none to gather them.
19   There is no easing your hurt;
    your wound is grievous.
  All who hear the news about you
    clap their hands over you.
  For upon whom has not come
    your unceasing evil?

Footnotes

[1] 3:8 Hebrew No-amon
[2] 3:9 Hebrew your
[3] 3:17 Or marshals

Commentary

v1-4: Nineveh is wholly given over to sin;

woe to the city of blood;
full of lies and plunder;
never without victims;
many casualties, piles of dead, bodies without number;
her prostitution and witchcraft, by which she allured others into her lair.

v5: "I am against you," declares the Lord. This book shows that Nineveh and, by implication, Assyria, is guilty of great wrong, and therefore worthy of judgment.

v6-7: Nineveh is made a spectacle, an example to others; others will see her as God sees her.

v8-10: The earlier destruction of Thebes in Egypt; God judged cities and nations before, 'Will He not do it again?' Her "boundless" strength proves useless against the omnipotence of God.

v11: Nineveh will be filled with fear as destruction approaches.

v12-17: Describing Nineveh, ripe for judgment; wealthy and weighty, ready for judgment. Like ripened figs, her defences are easily dislodged; like women, her troops are weak; her gates are effectively wide open, in spite of her numerous defensive precautions.

Nineveh seems to have expected an attack, and prepared her defences; she brought water inside the city, strengthened the walls; yet the merchants and soldiers fly away like locusts.

v18-19: Decisive judgment, there is no healing, the Assyrian people are not gathered.

Many rejoice at the news of Assyria's fall, for many endured her "endless cruelty."