Nahum 3:1-19--Woe to Nineveh

Nahum 3
English Standard Version

Woe to Nineveh
3 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 Thebes
    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 her 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 scribes 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?

---

Again, judgment is proclaimed over Nineveh.  Though they were full of plunder, they were also full of lies.  Though they were strong, they used that strength to commit violence against everyone and strike fear into the hearts of their neighbors (not just their enemies).  Though they were numerous, they engaged in all kinds of sexual perversion including prostitution.  They were given over to idolatry.  For these and many more abominations, they will be judged.

The LORD will shame them in front of all the nations that they tried to terrorize and devour.  Those who survive will become filthy and contemptable vagabonds--a people without a home, without a place, and without any positive reputation or goodwill.  No one will pity them or try to offer them aid.

They did not learn from the other peoples that the LORD had done similar things to when they become proud and idolatrous peoples.  They should have learned from Thebes, the people of Cush and of Egypt, and Put and the Libyans.  They all were so rich and strong and powerful and feared that no one imagined they could be defeated, but the LORD had no trouble destroying them when their time came.  Did Nineveh think they were any better?  Apparently they did. 

They too would be counted among those who were the exiled nations--what we would call refugees today.  They will try to make themselves drunk to dull their senses, but their problems will persist.  They will go near and far looking for refuge from those that are their enemies and will find none.  They will look for shelter in their fortresses, but they will all be shaken to pieces like a fig tree that lets loose of its early fruit with the slightest shaking.  Their men will be killed so that they will have to depend on their women to fight for them.  They who devoured everyone else will now be devoured by their enemies.

They can try to stock up supplies and build up their fortifications, but it will do no good against the hand of the LORD.  They will be devoured by fire and cut off by the sword.  Though they multiply like a swarm of locusts or grasshoppers, that will not be enough to save them from the hand of the LORD.  They are but like locusts and grasshoppers in His sight.  They swarm and devour until the seasons change and then they disappear never to be seen again.  In the same way, these people will one day disappear never to be seen or thought of again (like I said, many imagined that the Bible had to be wrong about their existence because we could find no record of them until recently, but we have found them mentioned, and we have found their ancient city destroyed just as this book prophesied).

Even the other Assyrians will not be able to save them or come to their defense.  The Ninevites will be scattered to live in the desolate places on the tops of mountains.  No one will be able to ease their pain or heal their wound.  All who hear about what happened to the city and its people will rejoice.  They will reap what they have sown and everyone will see that that the time of reckoning is upon them.