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Nahum 3 − Commentary

1 Trouble will come to you, city of blood! You are full of lies. You are full of things that your people stole! There were always people for them to rob.

2 Crack of whip and rattle of wheel! Horses gallop and chariots scream!

3 Horsemen rush. Swords flash and spears shine! People with injuries, heaps of them are dead! More dead bodies than anyone can count. People fall over dead bodies …

4 … all because you always behave like a harlot! You attract people. You are like a mistress of magic. You are like a harlot that does magic! So you make whole countries your slaves because of that.

5 I am against you, says the LORD of everything. I will lift the harlot’s skirts over her face. Every country will see her naked and every country will see her shame.

6 I will throw rubbish at you. I will look at you with scorn. And I will show (everyone how) wicked you are.

7 Everyone that sees you will run away from you. They will say, ‘Someone destroyed Nineveh. But nobody will cry for the people. I do not know where I could find anyone to comfort you.’

In these verses, Nahum curses (says that evil things will happen to) Assyria. He says that trouble will come because they killed people (blood). And because they said things that were not true (lies). And because they stole things.

In verses 2 and 3, he describes the battle that will happen. His words here do not make sentences. Instead, they make sounds like what happens.

  • the ‘crack’ (sharp sound) of a whip,
  • the ‘rattle’ (sound of wood when it hits wood) of chariot wheels,
  • the ‘gallop’ (sound of their feet on the ground) of horses,
  • the ‘scream’ (like someone who is crying) of the chariots.

There will be dead bodies everywhere.
In verse 4, Nahum gives the reason. Nineveh is like a harlot. A harlot is a woman that has sex with a man for money. Nahum means this as a picture. Because people pay taxes to Nineveh (Assyria), Nineveh does not hurt them. But he also says that Nineveh uses magic. God’s rules do not allow this. Today we do not use the word magic. We say ‘occult’ instead. This means to let evil spirits do things for and by means of us.
In verse 5, God says ‘I am against you’. He will make Nineveh like a naked woman. This again is a picture. It means this: People will see Nineveh’s people and Assyria’s people as they really are. They are very evil and wicked.

8 You are not better than Thebes, (a city) on the River Nile. Water was all round it. The river was its defence. The water was a wall (all round) it.

9 Cush and Egypt always made it (Thebes) strong. Put and Libya gave it help.

10 But its people became an exile. They took its people away (into another country). They cut its little children into small pieces at the end of every street. A competition decided where its honourable men would go. They bound its great men in chains.

11 You also (Nineveh) will become like a drunk. Nobody will find you. Even you (your people) will run away from an enemy in order to look for a safe place.

12 All your castles will be like fig trees. They will have the first ripe fruit on them. When anyone shakes (the tree), the figs will fall into the mouth of someone. That person will eat (them).

13 Look, your soldiers are (like) women in your army! Your enemies will find the gates of your country open. Fire will burn the bars (of your city gates).

14 Store enough water for when (the enemy) is all round you! Make your castles strong! Dig in the ground. Mix the cement and repair the (broken) walls!

15 There the fire will burn you completely. The sword will cut you up as if you were (an insect called) a grasshopper. Multiply like the grasshopper! Multiply like the (larger insect called the) locust!

16 You have more merchants than there are stars in the skies! Like the locusts, they steal everything and (then) they fly away.

17 Your guards are like locusts. Your officials are like thousands of locusts! They stay on the walls on a cold day. But they fly away when the sun appears. Nobody knows where (they go).

18 King of Assyria, your leaders are asleep. Your officials are resting. Your people are scattering to the mountains. Nobody gathers them together.

19 Nobody will cure you when (somebody has) hurt you. Your injury will kill you. Everybody that hears the news about you will clap their hands. Everyone suffered from your cruelty that never ends.

Verses 8-10 tell us about when soldiers destroyed Thebes. Thebes was a city in Egypt. Soldiers from Assyria destroyed it in 663 BC. It had the River Nile to defend it. Thebes had the people from Put and Libya to help it. But Assyria still destroyed Egypt.
Verses 11-19 tell Assyria that it will be like Egypt. Someone will destroy Assyria.
In verses 11-13, there are three pictures:
a) Nineveh will be like a drunk. It (its people) will run away and hide.
b) Nineveh will be like a ripe fig tree. Figs are fruits. When someone shook the tree, the ripe figs fell off.

Enemies will beat Assyria when someone shakes the tree. That means ‘when someone attacks it’.

c) Nineveh’s soldiers will be like women. This means that they will not be as strong as men. So, its enemies will destroy Nineveh.

Again, Nahum tells Nineveh to prepare itself for the attack.
In verse 14, God tells Nineveh to:

a) make sure that there is enough water in the city, b) make its castles strong. (They might have to get more cement from the ground in order to do this.)

In verses 15-17, there are grasshoppers and locusts. Grasshoppers are insects. Locusts are big grasshoppers. Millions of them flew into countries that we read about in the Bible. They ate everything green. They left nothing for the people to eat. God tells Assyria to multiply like these grasshoppers. Someone will still destroy it. It can have as many merchants as there are stars. Someone will still destroy it.
The officials of Assyria will give no help. When trouble comes, nobody will find them. They will fly away like locusts on a hot day!