Nahum
Chapter 3
Bloodthirsty City
Woe to the bloody city, city of lies and plunder,O city of endless loot!
But look! The crack of whips,the rumble of wheels, and the clatter of hooves!
See the frantic chargers,the flashing swords and shimmering spears,the heaps of wounded,the dead and dying—We trip over corpses!
The prostitute is paying for her immorality,her deadly charms, her magic.She traded nations with her prostitutionand caught people by her spells.
“I am against you,” the Lord Sabaoth says.“I will lift your skirts over your face.” I will expose the nations to your nakedness and the kingdoms to your shame.
I will throw filth at you, I will treat you with contempt, and turn you intoa shameful spectacle,
so that everyone who sees you will turn away in disgust and say: Nineveh—a city of lust—is in ruins. Who will mourn for her?Where can we find one to comfort her?
You Are Like Her
Are you any better than Thebes beside the Nile,surrounded by water, her rampart the river, and water her wall?
Ethiopia and Egypt supported her, Put and Libya were her allies,
yet she was taken away and held captive among the exiles. Her infants were crushed at every road’s entrance; lots were cast for her nobles, her great men bound in chains.
You, too, will drink from this; you will also hide from your enemies.
Your fortresses are like fig trees loaded with early fruits that fall when shakeninto the waiting mouths.
Look at your brave warriors—they are like women! Your gates are wide open, the bars burned by fire, and enemies freely enter.
There Is No Remedy
Brace yourselves for the siege: draw water, strengthen the wall, walk on the clay and mortar, and repair the brickwork.
There, the fire will consume you, and the sword will cut you down, even if you are as numerous as locusts, innumerable as grasshoppers.
You have multiplied your merchants more than the stars in the sky’
Like grasshoppers, your officials were like swarms of locusts, and your soldiers settled on the walls on a cold day. But the sun appears; they fly away and they are gone; no one knows where.
O king of Assyria, your shepherds are sleeping, your nobles lie down deeply asleep, while across the mountains your people scatter,and there is no one to gather them together.
Nothing can heal your wounds; your injury is deadly. Everyone claps their hands when they hear about your fall, for who has not suffered continually from the plague of your cruelty?
Commentaries
Bloodthirsty City.
Nineveh is described as a prostitute (4), and as such, she will face the punishment typical for prostitutes and adulterers among the peoples of the ancient Near East (5-7). Her crimes are the cause of her shame before all nations.
You Are Like Her.
We often refuse to learn from history, and in similar situations, we repeat the insensitivity and stubbornness we see in others. This is exactly what the prophet criticizes the Assyrians for: the city of Thebes in Egypt was proud and believed it was impregnable like Nineveh, but it fell after the siege by Assyrian troops in 663 B.C.
There Is No Remedy.
Walls and defenses made of adobe are useless against an enemy attack as destructive as a locust invasion (cf. Joel 2). The merchants, more numerous “than the stars of heaven” (16), are those who enriched themselves and supported the economic strength of the Assyrian empire at the expense of exploited and oppressed peoples under the military control of the Assyrian ‘captains’ and “troops” (17-18). No military strength or wall can hold back God’s punishment for those who immerse themselves in their “perpetual wickedness” (19).