Dusk over the long ruin mounds of Nineveh by the Tigris: grass and thistles on tumbled mud brick, a broken gateway half buried, four sheep grazing on the slope, the river beyond.

Woe to the city of blood

Nahum 3

Cruelty can look unstoppable. It isn’t.

19 verses≈ 3 minBSB

Images are artistic interpretations.

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Where we are

1The LORD avengesAssyria’s last years, between 663 and 612 BC
2Nineveh fallsThe river gates open; the lions’ den is empty
3Woe to the city of bloodNo better than Thebes, and no healingChapter 3

Judgment on Nineveh

Nahum

Woe to the city of blood,

full of lies,

full of plunder,

never without prey.

Tap to go deeper: meaning, history and related Scripture

Nahum

Charging horseman,

flashing sword,

shining spear;

heaps of slain,

mounds of corpses,

dead bodies without end—

they stumble over their dead—

Nahum

because of the many harlotries of the harlot,

the seductive mistress of sorcery,

who betrays nations by her prostitution

and clans by her witchcraft.

God

“Behold, I am against you,”

declares the LORD of Hosts.

“I will lift your skirts over your face.

I will show your nakedness to the nations

and your shame to the kingdoms.

God

I will pelt you with filth

and treat you with contempt;

I will make a spectacle of you.

God

God

Then all who see you

will recoil from you and say,

‘Nineveh is devastated;

who will grieve for her?’

Where can I find

comforters for you?”

Stylised map · locations approximate

On the map

Thebes and Nineveh

Assyria’s armies marched all the way to Thebes on the Nile and sacked it in 663 BC. Now Nahum asks Nineveh whether its own rivers will save it.

Nahum

Nahum

Are you better than Thebes,

stationed by the Nile with water around her,

whose rampart was the sea,

whose wall was the water?

Nahum

Cush and Egypt were her boundless strength;

Put and Libya were her allies.

Nahum

Yet she became an exile;

she went into captivity.

Her infants were dashed to pieces

at the head of every street.

They cast lots for her dignitaries,

and all her nobles were bound in chains.

Nahum

You too will become drunk;

you will go into hiding

and seek refuge from the enemy.

Question

Quick question

Nahum stops the taunt to point south, all the way to the Nile.

Why does Nahum bring up Thebes?

Nahum

Nahum

All your fortresses are fig trees

with the first ripe figs;

when shaken, they fall

into the mouth of the eater!

Nahum

Gray morning at a hill-town gateway: heavy wooden doors scorched and hanging open, the great crossbar split and lying in the dust of the empty passage.

Look at your troops—

they are like your women!

The gates of your land

are wide open to your enemies;

fire consumes their bars.

Nahum

Nahum

Draw your water for the siege;

strengthen your fortresses.

Work the clay and tread the mortar;

repair the brick kiln!

Nahum

There the fire will devour you;

the sword will cut you down

and consume you like a young locust.

Make yourself many like the young locust;

make yourself many like the swarming locust!

Nahum

You have multiplied your merchants

more than the stars of the sky.

The young locust strips the land

and flies away.

Nahum

Your guards are like the swarming locust,

and your scribes like clouds of locusts

that settle on the walls on a cold day.

When the sun rises, they fly away,

and no one knows where.

Nahum

Nahum

O king of Assyria, your shepherds slumber;

your officers sleep.

Your people are scattered on the mountains

with no one to gather them.

Nahum

Gray morning at Nineveh’s ruined gate: a great carved stone winged bull of the gateway lies on its side, half sunk in mud and grass, its face worn away, the Tigris plain beyond.

There is no healing for your injury;

your wound is severe.

All who hear the news of you

applaud your downfall,

for who has not experienced

your constant cruelty?

0:12

Narrated by Bob Souer · BSB audio, public domain

Pray

LORD, You saw every cruelty Nineveh did, and none went unanswered. Keep me from trusting anything that will fall, and make me a healer and not a wounder. Amen.

You’ve experienced

Nahum 3

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A verse to carry with you

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

Nahum 3:8

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