Nahum 3:8-19

8 Are you better than Thebes, situated on the Nile, with water around her? The river was her defense, the waters her wall.

9 Cush^[a] and Egypt were her boundless strength; Put and Libya were among her allies.

10 Yet she was taken captive and went into exile. Her infants were dashed to pieces at every street corner. Lots were cast for her nobles, and all her great men were put in chains.

11 You too will become drunk; you will go into hiding and seek refuge from the enemy.

12 All your fortresses are like fig trees with their first ripe fruit; when they are shaken, the figs fall into the mouth of the eater.

13 Look at your troops— they are all weaklings. The gates of your land are wide open to your enemies; fire has consumed the bars of your gates.

14 Draw water for the siege, strengthen your defenses! Work the clay, tread the mortar, repair the brickwork!

15 There the fire will consume you; the sword will cut you down— they will devour you like a swarm of locusts. Multiply like grasshoppers, multiply like locusts!

16 You have increased the number of your merchants till they are more numerous than the stars in the sky, but like locusts they strip the land and then fly away.

17 Your guards are like locusts, your officials like swarms of locusts that settle in the walls on a cold day— but when the sun appears they fly away, and no one knows where.

18 King of Assyria, your shepherds^[b] slumber; your nobles lie down to rest. Your people are scattered on the mountains with no one to gather them.

19 Nothing can heal you; your wound is fatal. All who hear the news about you clap their hands at your fall, for who has not felt your endless cruelty?

Nahum 3:8-19 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.

Cross References

• 1. Amos 6:2
• 2. S Jeremiah 46:25
• 3. Isaiah 19:6-9
• 4. S Genesis 10:6; S 2 Chronicles 12:3
• 5. S Ezekiel 27:10
• 6. Ezekiel 30:5
• 7. S Isaiah 20:4
• 8. S 2 Kings 8:12; S Isaiah 13:16; Hosea 13:16
• 9. S Job 6:27; S Ezekiel 24:6
• 10. S Jeremiah 40:1
• 11. S Isaiah 49:26
• 12. S Isaiah 2:10
• 13. S Song of Songs 2:13
• 14. S Isaiah 28:4
• 15. S Isaiah 19:16; Jeremiah 50:37
• 16. S Nahum 2:6
• 17. S Isaiah 45:2
• 18. S 2 Chronicles 32:4
• 19. Nahum 2:1
• 20. S Isaiah 27:1
• 21. S 2 Samuel 2:26
• 22. S Jeremiah 51:14; S Joel 1:4
• 23. S Exodus 10:13
• 24. Jeremiah 51:27
• 25. Psalms 76:5-6; S Jeremiah 25:27
• 26. Isaiah 56:10
• 27. S 1 Kings 22:17
• 28. S Jeremiah 30:13; S Micah 1:9
• 29. S Job 27:23; S Lamentations 2:15; Zephaniah 2:15
• 30. Isaiah 37:18

Footnotes

• [a]. That is, the upper Nile region
• [b]. That is, rulers