Reflections on Nahum 3

Nahum 03 (Contemporary English Version)


1. Doom to the crime capital! Nineveh, city of murder and treachery,
   
2. here is your fate-- cracking whips, churning wheels; galloping horses, roaring chariots;
   
3. cavalry attacking, swords and spears flashing; soldiers stumbling over piles of dead bodies.
   
4. You were nothing more than a prostitute using your magical charms and witchcraft to attract and trap nations.
   
5. But I, the LORD All-Powerful, am now your enemy. I will pull up your skirt and let nations and kingdoms stare at your nakedness.
   
6. I will cover you with garbage, treat you like trash, and rub you in the dirt.
   
7. Everyone who sees you will turn away and shout, "Nineveh is done for! Is anyone willing to mourn or to give her comfort?"
   
8. Nineveh, do you feel safer than the city of Thebes? The Nile River was its wall of defense.
   
9. Thebes trusted the mighty power of Ethiopia and Egypt; the nations of Put and Libya were her allies.
   
10. But she was captured and taken to a foreign country. Her children were murdered at every street corner. The members of her royal family were auctioned off, and her high officials were bound in chains.
    
11. Nineveh, now it's your turn! You will get drunk and try to hide from your enemy.
    
12. Your fortresses are fig trees with ripe figs. Merely shake the trees, and fruit will fall into every open mouth.
    
13. Your army is weak. Fire has destroyed the crossbars on your city gates; now they stand wide open to your enemy.
    
14. Your city is under attack. Haul in extra water! Strengthen your defenses! Start making bricks! Stir the mortar!
    
15. You will still go up in flames and be cut down by swords that will wipe you out like wheat attacked by grasshoppers. So, go ahead and increase like a swarm of locusts!
    
16. More merchants are in your city than there are stars in the sky-- but they are like locusts that eat everything, then fly away.
    
17. Your guards and your officials are swarms of locusts. On a chilly day they settle on a fence, but when the sun comes out, they take off to who-knows-where.
    
18. King of Assyria, your officials and leaders sleep the eternal sleep, while your people are scattered in the mountains. Yes, your people are sheep without a shepherd.
    
19. You're fatally wounded. There's no hope for you. But everyone claps when they hear this news, because your constant cruelty has caused them pain.
    

---

The previous two chapters declared Nineveh's fate, now chapter 3 describes it. Although this description is given before it happens, it is amazingly accurate as confirmed by history and archeology. It could have been told after the fact and been little different. Although this is a description of what will happen to Nineveh, it can also be understood as a description of atrocities committed by the Ninevites. God's judgment, as is often the case, mimics the sin. Nineveh suffered the same atrocities she herself had practiced.

Verse 1 begins with "Woe to the city of blood." Nineveh earned this title because of her practice of such atrocities as cutting off hands and feet and other body parts, gouging out eyes, and completely removing a person's skin while alive, among other things. Following the statement of woe is a description of the attacking forces: "The crack of the whip and rumble of the wheel, galloping horse and jolting chariot! Charging horseman, flashing sword, shining spear; heaps of slain, mounds of corpses, dead bodies without end--they stumble over their dead." Chapter 2 told of the flooding of the city that brought down the royal palace and decimated much of the city. Now the invading forces were free to swarm the city.

Besides the atrocities, another reason God was against Nineveh was her practice of sorcery and witchcraft. These practices, while contrary to God, are also a means of controlling people. By using incantations to supposedly foretell the future, people's lives can be influenced and they can be held in fear. God's response to these sins was to display Nineveh's shame before the world. "I will lift your skirts over your face and display your nakedness to nations, your shame to kingdoms. I will throw filth on you and treat you with contempt; I will make a spectacle of you." The filth that would be thrown on them was likely excrement.

"Are you better than Thebes," Nahum asks? And the answer is no, but Nineveh thought she was. Thebes was an Egyptian city Assyria had conquered, and what Nineveh had done to that city would be done to her. People would be taken into exile, children dashed to pieces in view of everyone, lots cast for dignitaries to have them as slaves, etc. The invasion would be so overwhelming and fearful that Nineveh's troops would become like women, afraid and defenseless. In fact, at this point the city was totally defenseless with her gates wide open to the enemy. Fire would devour them and the sword would cut them down. The devastation would be like that of locusts on crops. Again, archeology bears out that the city was so decimated that it was never rebuilt.

There was no remedy for Nineveh. Her wound would be too severe. And did her demise sadden the world? Not at all. At the news of her defeat people would clap their hands, "for who has not experienced your constant cruelty?" No people or nation are immune to such a judgment. God will not allow such evil indefinitely. It may appear to us that He does since we may not see His judgment in our lifetime, but in His own time He will take action against those who practice evil. And when He decides to act, those against whom He takes action will have no defense and will suffer as they have handed out suffering.