Nahum 3: Rejoicing over Nineveh’s downfall

[Preliminary Comments: Even more descriptions of the extent, cause and nature of the downfall of the city.]

v.1-3 The defeat will be of catastrophic magnitude

v.1 Woe to the city of blood, full of lies, full of plunder, never without victims! 

v.2 The crack of whips, the clatter of wheels, galloping horses and jolting chariots! 

v.3 Charging cavalry, flashing swords and glittering spears! Many casualties, piles of dead, bodies without number, people stumbling over the corpses— 

[Note: The enemy coming into the breached city is graphic and horrific.]

v.4-5 The Reason for this will be exposed – their powerless idolatry

v.4 all because of the wanton lust of a prostitute, alluring, the mistress of sorceries, who enslaved nations by her prostitution and peoples by her witchcraft. 

v.5 “I am against you,” declares the LORD Almighty. “I will lift your skirts over your face. I will show the nations your nakedness and the kingdoms your shame. 

[Note: The cause of all of this is the idolatry and occult following that exists in this great city. One might suggest that it has reached such a degree as to possibly spread across and contaminate the whole empire so as to require the Lord’s restraining intervention before that can happen.]

v.6,7 Their power and greatness will be turned to contempt & mockery

v.6 I will pelt you with filth, I will treat you with contempt and make you a spectacle. 

v.7 All who see you will flee from you and say, ‘Nineveh is in ruins—who will mourn for her?’ Where can I find anyone to comfort you?” 

[Note: A city once proud and haughty in its might, will be so broken down that it becomes a spectacle to passersby. Historical records suggest that within a few years of its downfall all that was left was an almost unidentifiable mound of ruins.]

v.8-11 The will be shown no better than Egypt

v.8 Are you better than Thebes, situated on the Nile, with water around her? The river was her defense, the waters her wall. 

v.9 Cush and Egypt were her boundless strength; Put and Libya were among her allies. 

v.10 Yet she was taken captive and went into exile. Her infants were dashed to pieces at every street corner. Lots were cast for her nobles, and all her great men were put in chains. 

v.11 You too will become drunk; you will go into hiding and seek refuge from the enemy. 

[Note: Thebes in Egypt had water as their defence, they had alliances with other nations and had felt secure; look at what happed to them! Thebes had fallen in 664/663. The same thing is going to happen to you!]

v.12,13 All your fighting resources are inadequate for what is coming

v.12 All your fortresses are like fig trees with their first ripe fruit; when they are shaken, the figs fall into the mouth of the eater. 

v.13 Look at your troops— they are all weaklings. The gates of your land are wide open to your enemies; fire has consumed the bars of your gates. 

v.14,15 Your siege provisions will be inadequate

v.14 Draw water for the siege, strengthen your defenses! Work the clay, tread the mortar, repair the brickwork! 

v.15 There the fire will consume you; the sword will cut you down— they will devour you like a swarm of locusts. Multiply like grasshoppers, multiply like locusts! 

v.16,17 Your merchants & warriors will all be stripped away

v.16 You have increased the number of your merchants till they are more numerous than the stars in the sky, but like locusts they strip the land and then fly away. 

v.17 Your guards are like locusts, your officials like swarms of locusts that settle in the walls on a cold day— but when the sun appears they fly away, and no one knows where. 

v.18,19 Your economy & people will go

v.18 King of Assyria, your shepherds slumber; your nobles lie down to rest. Your people are scattered on the mountains with no one to gather them. 

v.19 Nothing can heal you; your wound is fatal. All who hear the news about you clap their hands at your fall, for who has not felt your endless cruelty?

[Note: Nothing they have – none of their various resources – will be sufficient to ward off the destruction and downfall of the empire that is coming.

Additional Comments: This chapter almost mocks and derides Assyria as the prophecy heaps one negative after another on the previous pictures and warnings of the coming destruction. The enemy will get into the city [v.1-3], their idolatry has raised God’s anger against them [v.4,5], He will make Nineveh a ruin and a source of mockery [v.6,7], and just as Egypt was brought down, so will they [v.8-11]. Their defenses and troops will prove inadequate [v.12,13], as will their ability to withstand a siege [v.14,15] and the backbone of their empire, their economy, their merchants, and their warriors, will all melt away [v.16,17], so the king should take heed of this warning, for his people will be scattered and nothing can heal the weak state of morale of the nation which WILL fall. [v.18,19]

Concluding Notes: As we observed in the Introduction, Ashurbanipal (669-627) was the last great ruler of the Assyrian empire. [There were lesser kings]. After his death in 627, Assyria’s influence and power waned rapidly until 612, when Nineveh was overthrown.  If our dating is correct Nahum probably prophesied about 630BC and the king still had three years to live and so the warning comes to him. The city fell and was destroyed in 612BC, just eighteen years after Nahum prophesied.

Nineveh was under siege from invaders for three months before she fell but fall she did, exactly as Nahum prophesied in 1:8, 2:6 and then 3:8, three little indicators of how this mighty city, the capital of this declining but still proud nation, is going to fall because of the river flooding and breaching the walls which the surrounding army had not managed to penetrate. The Lord spoke it, and it happened exactly as He indicated. A challenging book, as short and as limited as it is!]

For those who may wish to make a study of this chapter, to perhaps think some more about what you have been reading, use the link below: