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.

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The sins of the Assyrians came home to haunt them. Nineveh was known as the city of blood because of the atrocious practices they enacted against their captives of cutting off hands and feet, ears and noses, gouging out eyes, and cutting off heads, to name a few. Their city would be overtaken by an enemy who would come charging into it much as the they had done to their enemies. God intended to make a spectacle of the Assyrians.

The city of Thebes is used in verses 8-19 as a comparison to what will happen with Nineveh and why. Thebes was well fortified, surrounded by water, similar in nature to Nineveh. Plus Thebes had an "endless source of strength" (V. 9) through her allies which included Cush, Egypt, Put, and Libya. But the Assryians had broken through all her defenses, defeating them and taking the people into captivity. They killed the children rather than take them captive, doing so on public display to increase the fear and pain of the experience.

Nahum asked of Nineveh, "are you any better than Thebes?" (V. 9) The implied answer was "no." And this would be proven true when the Medes, Scythians, and Babylonians would join forces and invade Nineveh. Many of the atrocities the Assyrians did to those they defeated would be done to them. As strong as Assyria was, when the time came for God to punish the nation for her sins, her strength would not be enough. Wherever the news of Assyria's fall was heard, people would applaud it, "for who has not experienced your constant cruelty?" (V. 19)

Even godless people do God's bidding. That would include Assyria whom God used to judge the northern kingdom of Israel and also the Medes, Scythians, and Babylonians whom He used to punish Assyria. Some wonder why God would use a people for His purposes and then turn around and punish them for doing what He wanted done. But in the examples we are considering in this chapter, those God used were not serving Him nor was He blessing them in any way for accomplishing what He wanted. These nations were doing what they normally did and had no clue they were fulfilling God's purposes. God merely enabled them to do what they might not have been able to accomplish without His enabling.