Minor Prophets · Chapter 3 of 3

Nahum 3

Nahum pronounces a final woe on Nineveh, the bloody city full of lies and plunder. He piles up images of slaughtered corpses, then exposes the city's shame like a harlot. He recalls the fall of mighty Thebes as a warning that Nineveh is no stronger. Her defenses are like ripe figs falling at a shake, her merchants and captains flee like locusts, and her wound is incurable, so that all who hear applaud her end.

What happens in Nahum 3

Nahum cries woe on the bloody city, full of lies and robbery, and describes the horror of her defeat: cracking whips, rattling wheels, charging horsemen, and heaps of corpses over which soldiers stumble. He accuses Nineveh of seducing and enslaving nations through her harlotries and witchcrafts, so God will expose her nakedness and shame before the nations, casting filth on her and making her a spectacle from which all flee. Nahum asks whether she is better than populous Thebes, which had rivers and mighty allies yet was carried into captivity, her children dashed in pieces.

Nineveh too will stagger drunk and seek refuge. Her fortresses are ripe figs falling into the eater's mouth, her people are like women, her gates thrown open, her fire-consumed bars. Her merchants and crowned officials multiply like locusts that fly away when the sun rises. Her shepherds slumber, her wound has no healing, and all who hear clap their hands at her ruin.

Nahum 3 in context

This concluding chapter of Nahum drives home the certainty of Nineveh's fall through vivid taunts and a historical precedent. Thebes, called No in the text, was a great Egyptian city that Assyria itself had sacked in 663 before Christ, so Nahum turns Assyria's own conquest into a warning of its coming fate.

The metaphors of harlotry and drunkenness are prophetic conventions for a nation's seductive corruption and its coming humiliation. The universal applause at the end reflects how widely Assyria was hated.

Main themes of Nahum 3

Nahum 3 (KJV)

1Woe to the bloody city! it is all full of lies and robbery; the prey departeth not; 2The noise of a whip, and the noise of the rattling of the wheels, and of the pransing horses, and of the jumping chariots. 3The horseman lifteth up both the bright sword and the glittering spear: and there is a multitude of slain, and a great number of carcases; and there is none end of their corpses; they stumble upon their corpses: 4Because of the multitude of the whoredoms of the wellfavoured harlot, the mistress of witchcrafts, that selleth nations through her whoredoms, and families through her witchcrafts. 5Behold, I am against thee, saith the LORD of hosts; and I will discover thy skirts upon thy face, and I will shew the nations thy nakedness, and the kingdoms thy shame. 6And I will cast abominable filth upon thee, and make thee vile, and will set thee as a gazingstock. 7And 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? 8Art thou better than populous No, that was situate among the rivers, that had the waters round about it, whose rampart was the sea, and her wall was from the sea? 9Ethiopia and Egypt were her strength, and it was infinite; Put and Lubim were thy helpers. 10Yet was she carried away, she went into captivity: her young children also were dashed in pieces at the top of all the streets: and they cast lots for her honourable men, and all her great men were bound in chains. 11Thou also shalt be drunken: thou shalt be hid, thou also shalt seek strength because of the enemy. 12All thy strong holds shall be like fig trees with the firstripe figs: if they be shaken, they shall even fall into the mouth of the eater. 13Behold, thy people in the midst of thee are women: the gates of thy land shall be set wide open unto thine enemies: the fire shall devour thy bars. 14Draw thee waters for the siege, fortify thy strong holds: go into clay, and tread the morter, make strong the brickkiln. 15There shall the fire devour thee; the sword shall cut thee off, it shall eat thee up like the cankerworm: make thyself many as the cankerworm, make thyself many as the locusts. 16Thou hast multiplied thy merchants above the stars of heaven: the cankerworm spoileth, and fleeth away. 17Thy crowned are as the locusts, and thy captains as the great grasshoppers, which camp in the hedges in the cold day, but when the sun ariseth they flee away, and their place is not known where they are. 18Thy shepherds slumber, O king of Assyria: thy nobles shall dwell in the dust: thy people is scattered upon the mountains, and no man gathereth them. 19There is no healing of thy bruise; thy wound is grievous: all that hear the bruit of thee shall clap the hands over thee: for upon whom hath not thy wickedness passed continually?

Verses to carry from Nahum 3

“Woe to the bloody city! it is all full of lies and robbery; the prey departeth not;”Nahum 3:1

“Art thou better than populous No, that was situate among the rivers, that had the waters round about it, whose rampart was the sea, and her wall was from the sea?”Nahum 3:8

“There is no healing of thy bruise; thy wound is grievous: all that hear the bruit of thee shall clap the hands over thee: for upon whom hath not thy wickedness passed continually?”Nahum 3:19

Reflection

Nineveh's story ends with a wound no one can heal, because she showed no mercy and would not repent. Let this sober you toward any hardening in your own heart. The mercy she refused is still open to you in Christ, whose wounds bring the very healing this chapter says Nineveh could not find.

A prayer from Nahum 3