NahumChapter 3

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Woe to the city of blood, full of lies, stuffed with plunder—the prey never ends!

The crack of the whip, the rumble of wheels, galloping horses and jolting chariots!

Charging horsemen, flashing swords, glittering spears—hosts of slain, heaps of corpses, bodies without end; they stumble over the dead.

All because of the endless harlotries of the harlot, so graceful and charming, that mistress of sorcery, who sold nations with her harlotries and peoples with her spells.

I am against you, declares the LORD of hosts. I will lift your skirts over your face; I will show the nations your nakedness and the kingdoms your shame.

I will pelt you with filth, treat you with contempt, and make you a spectacle.

All who see you will recoil from you and say, "Nineveh is ruined! Who will mourn for her?" Where shall I find anyone to comfort you?

Are you better than Thebes, seated by the Nile with waters all around her, whose rampart was the sea, whose wall was the water?

Cush was her strength, and Egypt beyond measure; Put and the Libyans were your helpers.

Yet she too went into exile, into captivity. Her infants were dashed to pieces at the head of every street; lots were cast for her nobles, and all her great men were bound in chains.

You too will drink deep and stagger; you too will go into hiding, searching for refuge from the enemy.

All your fortresses are fig trees heavy with first-ripe fruit: when they are shaken, the fruit falls into the mouth of the eater.

Look at your troops—they are women in your midst! The gates of your land stand wide open to your enemies; fire has devoured your bars.

Draw water for the siege, strengthen your fortresses! Go down into the clay, tread the mortar, take hold of the brick mold!

There the fire will devour you, the sword will cut you down; it will consume you like the young locust. Multiply like the young locust, multiply like the swarming locust!

You made your merchants more numerous than the stars of heaven—but the locust strips the land and flies away.

Your guards are like locusts, your officers like swarms of grasshoppers settling on the walls on a cold day; when the sun rises they take flight, and no one knows where they have gone.

Your shepherds slumber, O king of Assyria; your nobles lie down to sleep. Your people are scattered on the mountains, and no one gathers them.

There is no relief for your injury; your wound is mortal. All who hear the news of you clap their hands over your fall—for who has not felt your endless cruelty?

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Summary2

Chapter 3

Main Theme: God’s final judgment on Nineveh for its bloodguilt, deceit, and spiritual seduction.

Content: The prophet pronounces woe upon the "city of blood," Nineveh, because of its lies, violence, prostitution, and sorcery. God Himself will disgrace the city and make her a terrifying example to the nations. Nineveh is compared with No-Amon (Thebes), which, despite its strength, was conquered. The city’s fortifications are like fig trees with ripe fruit—they fall at the slightest shake—and its leaders are like locusts that vanish when the sun rises.

Key Words/Images:

City of Blood (עִיר דָּמִים): Nineveh is characterized by violence, oppression, and military brutality.
Prostitution and Sorcery: Images representing Nineveh’s seductive power over other nations through trade and idolatry.
No-Amon (Thebes): A great Egyptian city that was destroyed—a warning example that no city is invincible.
Locusts: Symbolizing Nineveh’s leaders and merchants who disappear without a trace when destruction comes.

Historical context

Historical and Cultural Context for Nahum 3

Places

No-Amon (Thebes)

Verse 8 mentions "No-Amon" (נֹא אָמוֹן), the great Egyptian city of Thebes, as a historical example of a powerful city that fell. Thebes was Egypt’s religious capital and the seat of the god Amun. The city lay on the Nile in Upper Egypt and was famous for its massive temple complexes at Karnak and Luxor. In 663 B.C., Thebes was plundered by the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal—a trauma still fresh in memory when Nahum wrote. The prophet uses the fall of Thebes as a rhetorical argument: If even mighty No-Amon could not withstand Assyria, how can Nineveh expect to escape judgment?

Cush, Egypt, Put, and Libya

Verse 9 lists Thebes’s powerful allies: Cush (Nubia/northern Sudan), Egypt, Put (likely the region of Libya or Eritrea), and the Lubim (Libyans). This reflects the 25th Egyptian dynasty, when Kushite pharaohs ruled Egypt and could mobilize resources from large parts of Northeast Africa. Despite this enormous alliance, Thebes fell—a point Nahum strongly emphasizes.

Events and Customs

Public Humiliation of a Conquered City

Verses 5–6 describe a punishment method in which the city’s "skirts" are uncovered and she becomes "a spectacle" (כְּרֹאִי). This reflects ancient practices of publicly shaming a conquered city personified as a woman. Assyrian reliefs and texts document rituals where conquered peoples were stripped and paraded. The image of casting "abominations" (שִׁקֻּצִים) upon someone alludes to the treatment of prostitutes and adulterers, who were publicly disgraced.

Locust Imagery

Verses 15–17 use detailed images of locusts (יֶלֶק, אַרְבֶּה, גּוֹב גֹּבָי) to describe both the army’s destruction and Nineveh’s merchants and officials. Locust swarms were a well-known disaster in the Middle East, and Assyrian texts document their devastating power. The point is twofold: Nineveh will be devoured as by locusts, and its many merchants and officials will vanish as quickly as locusts fly away when the sun warms them.

Key Terms

"City of Blood" (עִיר דָּמִים)

The opening phrase in verse 1 is a technical term also used for Jerusalem in Ezekiel 22:2 and 24:6. It denotes a city guilty of systematic bloodshed and violence. For Nineveh, this refers to Assyrian warfare known for massacres, deportations, and terror.

"Sorcery" and "Fornication" (כְּשָׁפִים, זְנוּנִים)

Verse 4 describes Nineveh as a "harlot" with "sorceries." This is prophetic imagery for political and economic seduction—vassal treaties, trade agreements, and diplomatic alliances that bound nations to Assyria. "Sorcery" may also allude to the actual prevalence of magic and divination in Assyrian religion and statecraft.

Chapter-Specific Findings

Assyrian palace reliefs from Nineveh, especially from the palaces of Sennacherib and Ashurbanipal (now in the British Museum), show graphic scenes of exactly the kind of warfare Nahum describes: sieges, massacres, captive transports in chains, and severed heads. These reliefs confirm the "city of blood" characterization. Reliefs depicting the conquest of Lachish in Judah (701 B.C.) illustrate the systematic brutality of the Assyrians that the prophet condemns.

People2

Put1 Cush (son of Ham, father of Nimrod)1

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Key words

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Timeline1