Nahum 3

“Woe to the bloody city!” (vs. 1-4)—“Full of lies and robbery” (v. 1), and harlotries and sorceries (v. 4). In verses 2 and 3, Nahum again vividly pictures the warfare that would be waged in destroying Nineveh—horses, chariots, swords and spears…and “countless corpses” (v. 3). A tragic, but just, end to this wicked city.

It is Jehovah Who does this (vs. 5-7)—"’Behold, I am against you,’ says the LORD of hosts” (v. 5). He will expose Nineveh’s shame to all the nations (v. 5), “cast abominable filth upon you, make you vile” (v. 5). None will bemoan her or attempt to comfort her (v. 7).

Why should Nineveh escape justice? (vs. 8-11)—Others haven’t. Nahum uses the city of No Amon in Egypt as an example. This is the Hebrew name for the city of Thebes, which existed in the delta region of the Nile, as described in verse 8. Thebes had once been overcome by Assyria, so the idea here is, just as that city had been destroyed by Assyria, even so Assyria would be destroyed by another power (Babylon). Regardless of any protection Thebes had been give by “Ethiopia and Egypt,” and “Put and Lubim” (v. 9), Thebes didn’t escape judgment: “she was carried away, she went into captivity; her young children also were dashed to pieces at the head of every street; they cast lots for her honorable men, and all her great men were bound in chains” (v. 10). Assyria did that. “Put” were a mercenary peoples that the Egyptians sometimes used for assistance; “Lubim” were Libyans. But in the same vein, Assyria “also will be drunk” (with the wrath of God), “hidden” (no longer found), and seeking “refuge from the enemy” (v. 11).

For Nineveh was ripe for justice…

The ripened fig (vs. 12-19)—Nineveh, like the ripened fig, was ready to fall (v. 12). They were weak (like women, v. 13, sorry feminists), and wide open for destruction (v. 13). Prepare for the siege! (v. 14). But it won’t do any good—fire and the sword would devour and cut them off (v. 15). Regardless of how numerous they were (“like the locust,” v. 15). no matter the wealth (“you have multiplied your merchants,” v. 16), despite the abundance of “commanders” and “generals,” (v. 17), “when the sun rises they will flee away” (v. 17). Nothing can save Nineveh. The leaders of the city (“shepherds” and “nobles”) were of no use, and thus “your people are scattered on the mountains, and no one gathers them” (v. 18). Their wound was incurable, and everyone who hears the news “will clap their hands over you,” because “upon whom has not your wickedness passed continually?” (v. 19). Assyria was the largest, most expansive empire in the Near East, up to that point. It had conquered, brutally, many peoples. No one was sad to see her destruction.

Nahum’s book ends here. There is no word of hope, not even for the people of God, though certainly the children of Israel were happy to know of Assyria’s coming doom. It was too late, however, for Samaria and the northern kingdom, who were taken into Assyrian captivity in 722/21. Some of them returned to Israel after the Babylonian captivity (Ezekiel 37), but the damage was done.